The boy’s heart went out in loving tenderness towards Hyacintha, and he longed for one hour of free intercourse, such as they used to have in the villa of Severus, in Verulam.
The footpath between the gardens was very narrow, and wound in and out, till the summit of the Cælian Hill was reached. Here Casca paused again, and was soon conscious that a figure clothed in a long dark stole and hood was seated on a fragment of stone waiting for him. It was, indeed, Ebba, the Christian Anna, who advanced to him, saying—
“Dear master, the son of my lord the noble Severus, I greet you with humble affection. I have been yearning to see you, for I knew that you were in Rome, and I have watched and waited, and now you are here!”
“Good Ebba,” exclaimed Casca, “I am right glad to find you here. But tell me how it has come about.”
“I was delivered from death by Claudius, your noble-hearted friend, who bade me see my dear young mistress, and tell her that he had fulfilled his vow. But I have never dared to present myself at the temple, or the house of the vestals, for I might perchance bring trouble upon my dear young mistress, for I am a baptised Christian.”
Casca started back—
“A Christian!” he exclaimed. “There is greater peril here than in Verulam. There is a fresh outbreak of persecution, and a number are to be thrown to the beasts this very day.”
“I know it,” Anna said, in a firm voice. “The life that my Lord has given back to me I will guard, nor rashly deliver myself up. But, oh! my young master, why will you not accept the cross and bear it after Jesus?
“He is rising over the world,” Anna continued, “like yonder light, which proclaims the near approach of the sun. He is coming to flood this sinful world with righteousness, even as the golden flood of sunrise is bathing the Alban Hills.” As she spoke, she pointed with her hand to the scene stretched out before them, as they stood under the shadow of the ilex trees, and looked down upon the prospect, which lay like a vision of beauty, rather than a reality of this lower world, in all its loveliness. For one by one the peaks of the Alban Hills rose from the plain, and a rosy flush touched the highest of all, where the old temple of Jupiter once stood, the common meeting-place and shrine of the early Latin race. Soon the Campagna smiled in the early level rays of the sun, and everything became imbued with life!
Casca was strangely moved as Anna said—