Nehushta stayed to help Anna to her feet.  When she judged her mistress to be out of hearing she leaned down and whispered: 

“Mother, you have the gift; it is known throughout the Church.  Tell me, will the child be born?”

The old woman fixed her eyes upon the heavens, then answered, slowly: 

“The child will be born and live out its life, and I think that none of us are doomed to die this day by the jaws of lions, though some of us may die in another fashion.  But I think also that your mistress goes very shortly to join her husband.  Therefore it was that I showed her nothing of what came into my mind.”

“Then it is best that I should die also, and die I will.”

“Wherefore?”

“Because I go to wait upon my mistress?”

“Nay, Nehushta,” answered Anna, sternly, “you stay to guard her child, whereof when all these earthly things are done you must give account to her.”

CHAPTER II

THE VOICE OF A GOD

Of all the civilisations whose records lie open to the student, that of Rome is surely one of the most wonderful.  Nowhere, not even in old Mexico, was high culture so completely wedded to the lowest barbarism.  Intellect Rome had in plenty; the noblest efforts of her genius are scarcely to be surpassed; her law is the foundation of the best of our codes of jurisprudence; art she borrowed but appreciated; her military system is still the wonder of the world; her great men remain great among a multitude of subsequent competitors.  And yet how pitiless she was!  What a tigress!  Amid all the ruins of her cities we find none of a hospital, none, I believe, of an orphan school in an age that made many orphans.  The pious aspirations and efforts of individuals seem never to have touched the conscience of the people.  Rome incarnate had no conscience; she was a lustful, devouring beast, made more bestial by her intelligence and splendour.

King Agrippa in practice was a Roman.  Rome was his model, her ideals were his ideals.  Therefore he built amphitheatres in which men were butchered, to the exquisite delight of vast audiences.  Therefore, also, without the excuse of any conscientious motive, however insufficient or unsatisfactory, he persecuted the weak because they were weak and their sufferings would give pleasure to the strong or to those who chanced to be the majority of the moment.

The season being hot it was arranged that the great games in honour of the safety of Caesar, should open each day at dawn and come to an end an hour before noon.  Therefore from midnight onwards crowds of spectators poured into the amphitheatre, which, although it would seat over twenty thousand, was not large enough to contain them all.  An hour before the dawn the place was full, and already late comers were turned back from its gates.  The only empty spaces were those reserved for the king, his royal guests, the rulers of the city, with other distinguished personages, and for the Christian company of old men, women and children destined to the lions, who, it was arranged, were to sit in full view of the audience until the time came for them to take their share in the spectacle.