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LET HIM THAT STANDETH

CHAPTER VIII.

Alppius is caught with a Passion for the Gladiatorial Games, which before he abhorred.

NOT, however, forsaking the course of life which

had been depicted to him by his parents in glowing colours, he had gone before me to Rome to study law, and there he was incredibly smitten with an incredible passion for the shows of the gladiators. At a time when he preserved a hatred and detestation for such scenes, certain friends and comrades met him as they came from dinner, and with a familiar violence forced him, vehemently refusing and much against his will, into the Amphitheatre, whilst those cruel and deadly sports were going on. "If you drag," said he, "my body into this place, and there place me, can you force my soul and my eyes to look at these spectacles? I shall therefore be absent though present, and so overcome both you and them." They, however, nothing daunted, led him on, and were desirous of giving him the opportunity of putting to the test what he said. When they had arrived, and had taken their places where they could, the whole place boiled with excitement at those most savage sports. There he sat with his eyes shut, determined that through those doorways his mind should not roam forth into the midst of such evils; and would that he had shut his ears also! For when one of the combatants fell, a great shout which arose from the whole assemblage powerfully arrested his attention, and overcame him by curiosity, and as if ready to

despise and set aside at once whatever it was, he opened his eyes, and thereupon his soul received a deeper wound than that which had been inflicted on the body of him whom he desired to behold; and he fell more miserably than the prostrate gladiator, on whose account that shout was raised which had penetrated his ears and unsealed his eyes; that thereby the soul which was rash rather than courageous might be stricken and laid low, and be the weaker for presuming on itself, when its trust should have been in Thee. For when he saw that blood, he at once imbibed a savage spirit, and did not turn away his head, but remained with fixed eyes, drinking in unconsciously violent passions, and charmed with the wicked conflict, became intoxicated with the bloody spectacle. And he was no longer the man who had joined the assembly, but one of those he had joined, and a true companion of those who had brought him to the place. What more shall I say? He gazed, he shouted, he grew hot, he carried away with him such an infatuation as should goad him to return, not only with the same companions, but even before they arrived, yes, and to entice others also. And yet from this condition didst Thou with Thy Hand, most powerful and most merciful, rescue him, and didst teach him not to trust in himself but in Thee; but this was long afterwards.

CHAPTER IX.

Alppius is apprehended as a Thief.

BUT the remembrance of all this would remain, and

serve for a medicine hereafter. And another

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incident would do the same, which occurred at the time when he was a student of mine at Carthage, for whilst he was thinking over (as was the custom of scholars) what he had to recite, in the market-place and at noonday, Thou permittest him to be taken in charge by the officers of the market as a thief. I believe that Thou didst permit this, O my God, for no other cause than that this man, who was to become so great, should begin to learn what caution was necessary in judging causes, lest man should be with rash credulity condemned by man. For he was strolling up and down alone before the Tribunal, with tablets and a pen in his hand, when, lo, one of the students, a young man, the real thief, secretly brought a hatchet, and got in, unobserved by him, to the leaden railings which are over the silversmiths' row, and began to hack away the lead. But the sound of the blows being heard, the silversmiths who were underneath began to make a stir, and sent to apprehend whomsoever they should find. But the thief hearing their voices threw down the axe, and made off, fearing lest he should be caught with it. Alypius, who did not see him come, saw him go, and that too as fast as he could; and desiring to know the matter, he entered the place, where finding the hatchet, he stood regarding it and wondering,-when, lo, those who were sent found him with the axe, which had caused the noises which had startled them, in his hand they laid hold of him; they dragged him before a concourse of the inhabitants of the market-place; they boasted that they had taken a manifest thief, and accordingly led him away to be brought before the judge.

But up to this point Alypius was being taught a

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lesson. For Thou, O Lord, Who alone knew what had really happened, now camest to vindicate his innocency. For, when he was on his way either to prison or to punishment, they were met by a certain architect, who had the chief care of the public buildings. They were rejoiced to meet him, as he had often suspected them of stealing goods which had been missed from the market-place, and now they thought they could show him at last who was the real offender. But this man had often met Alypius at the house of one of the senators, whom he used to visit; and immediately recognising him, took him aside from the crowd, and asking how he came to be in such a lamentable position, heard the whole matter, and desired all present, amid much confusion and vociferous threatenings, to go with him. So they came to the house of the young man who had done the deed. Now there was a boy before the door, so small that, without suspecting any harm to his master, whom he had attended in the market-place, he would at once disclose the whole story. Alypius, as soon as he recognised him, told the architect; and showing the axe to the boy, he asked him whose it was, and he immediately replied, "Ours," and on being further questioned he disclosed everything. Thus the crime devolved upon another, and the rabble, which had begun to triumph over Alypius, was confounded; and the future dispenser of Thy Word, and examiner of frequent causes in Thy Church, departed, having acquired from this incident more experience and knowledge.

K

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CHAPTER X.

Concerning the Integrity of Alypius, and the Arrival of Nebridius.

ALYPIUS, then, I found at Rome, and he stuck to

me with a most strong attachment, and rather than leave me he accompanied me to Milan, having in view also the commencement of his legal practice, more because it was his parents' wish than his own. He had now thrice filled the office of Assessor there, with an integrity which surprised others, whilst he himself was the more surprised that they should prefer gold to integrity. His character also was tested, not only by the enticement of covetousness, but also by the goad of fear. At Rome he sat as Assessor to the Count of the Italian Exchequer. There was at that time a certain powerful senator, to whose favours many were indebted, by whose terrors many were restrained; he would, according to his custom, have a thing granted him, by I know not what stretch of power, though it was against the laws. This Alypius withstood; a bribe was offered, and he scorned it courageously, threats were then resorted to, and he trampled them under his feet: all were amazed at so unwonted a spirit, which neither courted the friendship, nor feared the enmity, of one so celebrated and renowned for the varied means which were in his power of benefiting or injuring another. For even the judge, whose councillor Alypius was, although he also was against it, yet did not venture openly to refuse, but putting it all on the shoulders of Alypius, alleged that he was