ELL met, excellent Eutropius," cried a Tribune of the Fourth Legion, as he spurred his horse at nightfall through Glemona, one of the mountain villages of the Julian Alps. "Well met, indeed! the emperor commands your presence instantly."

"I will ride with you, worthy Volero," replied Eutropius, the famous minister of the great Emperor Theodosius. "Has he shifted his quarters ?"

"Ay, about two hours agone, to a farmhouse rather nearer to the mountains. I know not what your excellency deems of it; but, on

my honour, I think that many of us have seen our last sunset."

"GOD send better things!" cried the chamberlain. 66 But fresh news?"

any

"The enemy knows what he is about," replied Volero. "He is occupying the passes behind us, and cutting off our retreat; and by what I heard as I rode hitherward, the Goths have bad success."

I must stop to remind you that the fate of the Roman world hung on the battle about to be fought between Theodosius, Emperor of the East, and Eugenius, the Usurper of the West. Eugenius, indeed, was little more than a tool in the hands of his general, the Frank Arbogastes. This man had murdered Valentinian, the gentle-hearted Emperor of the West, and the brother-in-law of Theodosius. But, as a barbarian, he felt that he could not be safe as Emperor of Rome; and he therefore bestowed the purple on Eugenius, who had taught the art of rhetoric.

In the narrow plain which lies between the eastern Alps and the Adriatic, the two armies were now concentrated. But you must not

imagine that this was a mere war between a just man and a murderer, nor between even a rightful king and an usurper. It was indeed a conflict between heathenism, arrayed for the last time against the Church, and the armies of the LORD of Hosts.

For two years both chiefs had been preparing for the war. Theodosius, the greatest of the emperors, (notwithstanding the one bloody stain on his character,) had made his preparations by prayer, and fasting, and almsgiving; by building Churches; by letting the oppressed go free; by lightening taxes; by making himself, in very truth, the champion of the Church, according to that saying,

Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." Eugenius, on the other hand, though professing himself a Christian, had sought to win the favour of the Pagans, who abounded in Italy, by restoring their sacrifices, by returning the revenue to their temples, by again setting up the Altar of Victory at Rome, and by carrying the image of Hercules, instead of the, on his banner. Both emperors had not neglected every effort

in their power to provide troops. But those of Theodosius were the fewer in number,were less acquainted with the country,—were wearied with the heat and with long marches, and were principally the troops of the East, in no respect to be compared with those of the West. A large body of Goths, with the brave. Bacurius, Prince of Iberia, had been pushed forward, however, on the enemy; and it was of those that we heard Volero even now speaking.

"It may all be very true," continued Eutropius, presently; "I am no military man to judge. The fortunes of the emperor, according to the laws of war, may be doubtful; but we have a surer promise than the laws of war can afford."

"You mean that Egyptian prophecy, excellent sir. If you would tell me the matter as we go, I should be much beholden to you; for, serving, as I have done, in Noricum and Dalmatia, it has reached me somewhat brokenly, and, may be, somewhat untruly."

66

Willingly," replied the chamberlain. “All the world, I suppose, has heard of the famous Egyptian hermit, John of Lycopolis. He has

the gift of miracles, in large measure, but chiefly that of prophecy. Him would Theodosius have at Constantinople, desiring to know the issue of this war."

"And he sent your excellency to beseech his presence, if I have heard the tale rightly," said Volero.

"He did so, sir. I sailed for Alexandria last autumn, and then went up the river to Lycopolis. The cell where the holy man dwells is at the very top of a bleak mountain, —a cavern in a rock. Here they say he has lived-"

Stand, sir! the word!" cried a sentinel, stepping from the road side, and presenting his javelin.

"Rebellio fracta," (rebellion crushed,) replied Eutropius.

"I beg your excellency's pardon; I did not know your excellency," said the man.

"You only did your duty," replied the chamberlain. "Hold! there is half an aureus you. Good night!

for

'Well, sir," he continued, "this hermit, they say, has never left that cell for fifty years,