With a blasphemous oath, the false Prophet, spat in the forehead of the fulminating Priest, and hissed: "Silence, fool, idiot, driveller!" As the foul spittle touched the face of the Priest, he fell prone upon his back on the pavement of the Temple. A dead hush fell upon everyone present, for as they gazed upon the face of the dead Priest they saw that the whole forehead became filled with the "Mark of the Beast." The silence of this awesome hush was suddenly, startlingly broken by a peal of mocking laughter. It came from Lucien Apleon's deputy, the false Prophet. Then, more startling still, the lips of the golden image parted, and in deep, solemn tones the idol cried: "So perish all who shall dare to oppose the Emperor Lucien's will." This was no trick. It was not a mechanical device within the image. It was not a clever piece of ventriloquism. Of this we are assured--the image actually spoke. God's word cannot lie, and John, under the command of God, wrote it down: "_It was given the false Prophet to give spirit to the image of the Beast, that the image of the Beast should even speak_." "_To give SPIRIT to the image_!" What does that mean? Does it mean that life was given to it, temporarily? Who shall say? Certainly it _spoke_! Unseen, unnoticed, at the very moment that the High-Priest fell, slain by the false Prophet, there had entered the Temple, Cohen, who had been High-Priest for the _first_ year of this new Temple's history. He slipped away as the image uttered its speech. He met many of the priests of other of the Courses, as they were approaching the Temple, also numbers of the devout Jews of the city and its suburbs, and many from other parts of the world, who had been specially drawn hither by the news that had been flashed world-wide, as to some great event about to happen in Jerusalem. "Stay!" he cried. His looks told of something serious, and in an instant he was the centre of an eager, anxious, enquiring crowd of Jews. "Jehovah help us!" he went on. "For those who would be true to Him now, must be prepared for flight or for death. Apleon, is a traitor! '_He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he hath broken his covenant._' Psalm lv. 20. '_He confirmed a covenant with us for seven years_.' Daniel ix. 27. '_The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were drawn swords_.' Psalm lv. 21." Cohen, even while he had been speaking had led the crowding Jews away from that main road, and now, in a _cul-de-sac_, he was continuing his words. "Blind! Blind! that we were, all of us, I, especially, for my Gentile friend, the editor of 'The Courier'--London daily paper--warned me. He told me of the meaning of our own prophet Daniel's words, '_In the midst of the week_ (the seven years of the covenant we made with that apostate) _he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease_.'