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But all hope of deliverance was taken away when the pian of assault, baffled at every point, was changed into the surer process of blockade. A line of circumvallation was drawn round the unhappy city, and hunger and thirst were left to do the work which violence had failed to accomplish.

This alarming conjuncture had arrived, when the Queen of Palmyra, resolved (as the historian of the Fall of the Roman Empire has expressed it,) that the last hour of her reign and of her life should be the same, conceived the daring project of applying in person to the court of Persia for succour, in addition to the subsidies which had already encountered the Roman force, and suffered a total rout. The enterprise was skilfully arranged, and had nearly achieved its object. The matchless woman, with her scanty retinue, escaped by a subterraneous passage, which led them in safety beyond the outposts of the hostile camp; the bank of the Euphrates had been reached without any indication of danger; each heart of that little band beat high with unwonted hope and rekindled courage; when, just at the critical moment, they were overtaken and captured by a body of cavalry despatched to intercept their detected route. Zenobia was conveyed a prisoner to the tent of Aurelian, and reserved to grace his triumph. The gates of Palmyra, so soon as the citizens had been apprised of their misfortune, were thrown open at once to the conqueror, and the city was surrendered to his mercy.

It was evening; the clash of arms was hushed, and carnage for a time forgot to pour its purple tide. Aurelian was sitting in his tent alone, pondering on the unexampled prosperity of his career, and making preparations for the gorgeous triumph he intended to celebrate on his return. He had been for hours engaged in weighing, over and over again, each scheme of imperial greatness which his bold and grasping mind was never weary of framing, when the rough veteran who stood on guard at the entrance of the tent signified to him that a stranger, advanced in years, craved admission into his presence. The Emperor turned somewhat abruptly, apparently displeased by this interruption of his meditations, and with a quick and impatient inclination of the head intimated his pleasure that the visitor should be introduced. In a few minutes Domnus stood before the stern and haughty warrior.

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"Mighty Emperor of Rome!" said the old man, addressing the proud conqueror, you see before you the Bishop of Antioch. The Lord of Hosts hath given thee victory in battle; may the power which He has been pleased to place in thine hands be exercised with lenity and justice! The Christians of Antioch, through me, implore you to confirm the decision pronounced by the legitimate authority on the conduct of their former bishop, Paul of Samosata, who, once a favoured inmate of Zenobia's court, is now in the camp of her vanquisher, Aurelian.”

"Your petition, Father, has been anticipated. When Antioch yielded to my arms, the same request was submitted to me by a deputation of the Christian citizens; and my reply was, that he, in whose favour the Western Churches shall decide, is to be reputed the lawful bishop. It will, therefore, be necessary to discover the opinions they may entertain, and to determine, by these, the ultimate adjustment of the dispute."

"Your proposition, great Emperor, could scarcely be more prudent or

satisfactory. There can be now but little doubt that the issue of this dissension will be consistent with justice and truth. But ere I leave your presence, I have one more boon to solicit; you have prisoners sentenced to death in your possession-"

"It is as you say, Christian," was the reply of Aurelian, “Palmyra has had her day of proud defiance; and Rome will exact her due of retri bution !"

"Retribution! Aurelian! it ill becomes thee to use so harsh a word. Zenobia's loyal subjects did but demean themselves as thou wouldst have Romans do when they draw the sword for thee."

"Enough, Christian; your pleading is all in vain. Their lives are de voted to the manes of my soldiers who have fallen in this murderous strife. I cannot reverse the decree if I would. Not all the hoarded wealth of yon glittering city, were it already at my disposal, should save them from the death they are sentenced to undergo."

"Hear me yet once more, most gracious Emperor! If my feeble voice may not save all, spare me, at least, one who is more precious to me than life itself. Amongst the number of your prisoners, there is a youth called Callias; Aurelian! if the blessed attribute of mercy, the most amiable we can ascribe to a kind and compassionate God, have ever evoked within thy breast the milder emotions of our common humanity, let it in this hour assert its sway; and inflict not the agony of this startling bereavement on an old man whom a few brief years will mingle with his kindred dust."

But Aurelian swerved not from his cruel purpose; "He was taken," said the Emperor, "on the banks of the Euphrates, in the company whose mission it was to call down on my head the vengeance of Persia. Idiots that they were, to suppose that even Persia could save them; and that he, before whose iron strength the Goth did flee in dismay, is such an one as was the timid, soulless Valerian! On the morrow not a soul of that band escapes; the wrath of Rome's tutelary Gods has visited on themselves the ruin they designed for others."

"His youth, great Aurelian, deserves some consideration. The impetuous transports of youth merit not an equal censure with the deliberate misdeeds of riper years. He engaged in this rash expedition without his father's knowledge; had he consulted me I would have dissuaded him from the attempt. But his gratitude to the Queen-"

"Christian, you are importunate; I hear no more. You know but. little of Aurelian's character, or you would at once abandon these expostu lations." "Guard!" exclaimed the Emperor, calling to the soldier at the entrance of the tent, see that the Christian Priest be conducted securely through our camp to whatever destination he may desire."

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With trembling step and tearful eye the unfortunate father submitted to the inexorable command. The sorrows of former years, and they were many as we have seen, were concentrated in that moment of unmingled bitterness and anguish. One wandering, flickering ray of sunshine had beamed upon his wounded heart; but not long did it linger there; and when its transient smile was darkened, the gloom which gathered over him seemed more dense and more destitute of hope than ever. Yet relief was nigh which he dreamed not of. As he left the tent he was met by Lentulus. One glance exchanged between them explained all.

"Father!" said the kind centurion in a cheering tone, "Aurelian is stern,

but he may relent. I go to seek his presence, and there to plead in your behalf, to the incensed warrior, the services of former days, when we shared together the toils of war and the danger of the tented field."

*

*

-The morrow came, and with it approached the consummation of Aurelian's sanguinary resolve. In an open space that lay without the camp, and was visible from the city wall, stood the grim executioner with naked blade, undimmed as yet with the stains of slaughter, but soon to be bathed in the blood of Palmyra's noblest citizens. Strong detatchments of armed men were posted round the scene of butchery; and in the midst stood their mighty leader, to gaze on the massacre he had decreed.

He raised his hand to enforce silence, and the murmur of that host subsided at once into unbroken repose.

"Let the ringleaders of this conspiracy against the majesty of Rome be brought forth to suffer the punishment which our insulted dignity demands; and let fit offering be made to the ghosts of those Roman heroes whom Palmyrenian steel hath dismissed to the dark regions of the dead."

The proclamation was issued, and obedient to the summons the martial trump pleaded forth its knell of death. Six lictors then appeared, leading between them one of the unhappy victims, whose grave demeanour and tranquil countenance betokened a placid heart. It was the celebrated Longinus: even him, the elegant and peaceful scholar, because he had been the Queen's secretary, Aurelian refused to spare. The aged philosopher approached his executioner with unshrinking firmness. Intellect had maintained its superiority over natural fear, and the man of letters, in meeting his cruel fate, evinced a heroism which even the military adventurer envied while he despaired to imitate. Calmly did he bend his knees upon the fatal block; with his own hand did he apply the bandage to his eyes soon to be closed for ever; the sword of the executioner fell,-and the blood of him whose worth the triumphs of ten Aurelians might not compensate, was poured like water on the earth.

But what young man approaches, to sink, next in succession, like the tender flower beneath the mower's scythe, by this untimely and violent death? Can it be that the unfeeling Emperor, in sacrificing Callias, has determined, by a wholesale destruction, to take the life of the son and to break the father's heart? Has the grateful Lentulus failed in his benevolent mediation? And who is that dark and frowning man attired (but how inconsistently!) in the garb of a christian priest,-who, if the malicious smile which curl his lip be faithful evidence of the passions which rage within his breast, is exulting in the coming tragedy? We know him well; it is Paul of Samosata, the desperate usurper, the unrepentant traitor,—who has now attended this scene of horror to revel in the miseries of the wretched father.

Some disorder is visible in the nearest ranks: it attracts the notice of the Emperor. The soldiers, as by preconcerted arrangement, give way, and Domnus, his head uncovered, hurries across the intervening space, and falls down before the Emperor.

"In the name of the God of heaven," is the distressing appeal which bursts from his quivering lips, "that God, who is now gazing on this inhuman massacre, and will assuredly lay bare his right arm to avenge him of the man who dares to perpetrate these monstrous deeds of blood,—in his awful name, Aurelian, I implore thee, once for all, to show mercy on my be

loved child. His blood will haunt you to the grave, and in the proudest hours of your future life, will fill your heart with a thousand terrors, surpassing, in the remorse and madness they will conjure up, even the scourge of your imaginary Furies."

The distracted father thus presses his prayer: and, strange to say! Aurelian hesitates. But not long does he pause. With tenderness most novel to him he raises Domnus from the earth, and thus addresses him :—

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Bishop of Antioch! your son has endured a trial quite commensurate with the fault I find he has committed. Imprudence, as I have discovered, has been his only crime, and from the consequence of this I now release him. To Lentulus, my friend and fellow-soldier, you owe his preservation. He it was who explained to me all the circumstances of the transaction in which your son was concerned, and satisfied my mind, by the representations he was enabled to make, that your son was rather the victim than the contriver of stratagem and fraud. And you, Paul of Samosata!" added he, turning to the spiritual demagogue, "you were the man who, by specious pretences, persuaded his youth to engage in the rash undertaking which our vigilance and promptitude have defeated. And when the enterprise was worsted, you were the first to aggravate his error and to provoke my displeasure against him, in order to gratify the malice you harbour against his parent. Aurelian knows how to appreciate faithful and honest services; but for treachery and baseness he has no reward. If you value your own safety you will leave this place without delay, lest the punishment which your deceitful practices deserve, and which I can now with difficulty withhold, descend at once upon your head."

Thus was the wicked man disappointed in his artifice, and the son again restored to the arms of his father.

Years rolled by, and many changes did they witness on their onward flight. The disputes in Antioch had all been happily composed; and the Church, as if its divine Head were preparing it for the persecution of Dioclesian, flourished in uninterrupted security, and in the preservation of sound and Catholic doctrine. The Palmyrenians, during this interval, had revolted from the government of Aurelian, massacred the garrison placed over them, and were revisited, in consequence of this atrocious perfidy, by the enraged Emperor, who pillaged their city and, after every valuable had been removed, laid nearly the whole of it in ruins. On the defaced monuments of exquisite art and rare invention which he left behind him to mark his path of desolation, Aurelian inscribed at once the record of his prowess and the evidence of his eternal disgrace.

At the close of a sultry day, when the heat which still continued in the air was rapidly yielding to the coolness of the descending dews of evening, a roving Arab, returning to his rude mud cottage erected in one of the Portocoes which surrounded what was once the temple of the Sun, paused to regard a man who was seated on a block of marble, and with pensive countenance was gazing on the dismal architectural skeleton before him. The robber of the desert, surprised at the presence of a stranger, addressed him in the Syriac tongue,-"Who art thou who hast thus approached, in thoughtful mood, the dwelling of the wild son of Ishmael?"

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Friend," replied the old man, (for age had furrowed his brows with many a wrinkle,) "I have come to mourn over departed greatness. When

we contemplate the ruins of genius whose lustre no longer shines, and of magnificence which has ceased to charm the eye, we learn this wholesome lesson, that earth is mean and worthless, that heaven alone is great, and that godliness, which survives the wreck of nature and lives with the life of the soul, is the only real and substantial gain. I saw these buildings ere the destroyer had crushed their stateliness with his iron hand; 1 frequented these halls when they echoed with the voice of song, and ministered the delights of luxury. And I did bear my part in the giddy round of folly and vice. But God be praised for his grace, which has reclaimed me from the broad road of destruction! I am now a sober man. Men call me PAUL OF SAMOSATA; in bygone days they greeted me with a title I never merited :-Bishop of Antioch; but now I esteem it my highest honour to assume the name, which until the grave closes over me I will never relinquish, of Paul, the chastened but pardoned sinner!" M.

THE END.

ON CHURCH MUSIC.

(For the Church Magazine.)

WITHOUT any pretension to treat the subject of Church Music scientifically, I love it so fervently that I cannot but express to you a few thoughts, to which I trust you will not, on that account, refuse a place in the most candid and moderate of all the periodicals which bear the venerable name of "Church."

I was lately present at the re-opening of a church, where the music was good and the selection very suitable to the occasion; but as it entirely consisted of chants, services, and pieces with which the congregation was not familiar, the effect was dead; or at least void of that full spirit of devotion, which is wont to be kindled by familiar words and tunes. In fact, I longed for a hearty psalm or hymn, or plain chant, in which I, and the most part of the people, could join.

No doubt, to a more musical ear the performance was more grateful than the somewhat discordant swell of a whole congregation; but to the Christian, looking on the service, not as a scientific performance, or mere enjoyment of the faculties, but as the expression of a people's faith, and prayer, and praise-it must fall infinitely short of that which our old psalms and hymns communicate, when, with one lip and one voice," the whole assembly worship God."

The scriptural hymns contained in our liturgy, (the Magnificat, Jubilate, Nunc dimittis, &c.) partake indeed of the latter character where they are simply said or sung; and in those parts of the country (particularly mountainous districts) where music is much cultivated by the lower orders, the chanting of the TE DEUM is almost as congregational as the singing of the Old Hundredth Psalm. It breathes the most sublime piety and the very spirit of the Gospel; and were there a larger number of such rhythmical hymns taken from the New Testament, or embodying the New Testament facts and doctrines, we might have less occasion for metrical hymns.

But since that is not the case, neither the wants of the Church nor the

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