Paulinus, the Roman chaplain, tall, thin and stooping, with black hair falling round his dark, eager face, spoke to the stout, ruddy English, and told them about his religion.
The wise men listened very thoughtfully; and they asked Paulinus many questions.
After a while an old man rose up.
'So seems the life of man, O king,' he said, 'as a sparrow's flight through the hall when one is sitting at meat in the winter-tide. The warm fire is lighted on the hearth; the torches are blazing; and the hall is bright and warm.
'But without the snow is falling, and the winds are howling.
'Then comes a sparrow and flies into the hall, and passes out by the other door. She comes in at one door and goes out by the other; and passes from winter to winter. For a moment she has rest; for a moment she is in the light and warmth, she feels not the storm nor the cheerless winter weather.
'But the moment is brief.
'The short time of rest and warmth is soon over, and she is out in the storm again and has passed from our sight.
'So it is with the life of man; it, too, is but for a moment, what has gone before, and what will come after it, we do not know, and no man has yet told us.
'If, then, these strangers can tell us aught of what is beyond the grave—if they can tell us whence man comes and whither he goes, let us give ear to them and think over what they say.'