What of Cassia and the household of Almon, his comrades of the Urim, the Rabban, and the Sanhedrin?
Here was the Lyceum, where he had hotly contended for the hard dogmas of the Jewish law; here the many places where he had scourged men, women, and children; and here the prison whose cruel doors, at his command, had closed upon Serenus, Amabel, and the rest of the [pg 407]congregation of the Upper Chamber. He felt like a stranger from some far country, and the past flitted before him as a dark and terrible dream from which he had newly awakened.
Somewhat changed in appearance and costume, he passed through several streets unrecognized, finally turning into the courtyard of a dwelling where he had been told in Damascus he would find Peter and Barnabas. Amoz, after an affectionate farewell, left him to seek some of his own kinsfolk who dwelt in another part of the city.
In response to a knock at the door of the house of Peter, it was opened by a maid, who when she saw his face uttered a loud cry, and shrank back affrighted into the house. Then Peter’s wife came quickly to see what had happened. She too looked upon the well-remembered features, exclaiming with great fear and agitation,—
“Thou art Saulus! Hast thou returned to take us to prison?”
“Nay, I bring peace to this house! I am no more a persecutor, but of the New Faith! I pray thee, is Peter within?”
Peter’s wife suspected craftiness, and did not believe him, but stood trembling, not knowing how to make reply.
“Peter is not within!” said she after some hesitation.
“I might have expected that all would flee from me!” said Saulus, half to himself. “A righteous retribution!” Then, continuing in an earnest and friendly tone, he said,—
“Of a surety I am now a follower of the Nazarene!”