"'Yea! He was with me at my house until the third day past, but he hath disappeared, and I am anxious concerning him.'
"'Is there anything peculiar about the boy?'
"'He hath a peculiar and terrible malady called epilepsy!'
"And then attentively regarding me with his hard and searching eyes, he said, 'Doth the boy prophesy?'
"'When he hath a paroxysm of his disease he customarily chanteth strange things which some esteem to be prophecies; but whether his sayings be truly prophetic or not I can not inform thee.'
"'Perhaps thou dost remember the words of some of his pretended prophecies?'
"'Yea, verily! For since he hath been with me he hath hardly ever chanted anything but a certain song which I have heard him repeat very often when the disease taketh him.'
"'Repeat thou those words!'
"Then with a certain show of exultation I chanted the same words that Gaius had uttered, and, when I had finished, Licinius cried out fiercely, 'Thou dost believe, indeed, that the words of Gaius are a sure prophecy, and thou dost rejoice at my threatened overthrow!'
"I looked smilingly upon the emperor, but made no answer; and thereupon he fell into a great rage and said unto me, grimly enough: 'Thou art a tall man, bishop! Verily, I think thou art fully a head too tall, and this day I will reduce thee to a more proper stature by cutting off thy head'; and when he saw that I was unterrified by this threat, he added, 'And the boy's head also!'