cross.

Constantine the Great to the sanctuary of Saint Sophia, and saved in the flight of the Greeks by a nun allied to the family of the last emperor. They placed it upon a shelf of the rock which seemed to have been artificially hewn for some other purpose. The leavened bread of the sacrifice had, according to custom, been kneaded by a virgin, who imprinted upon it some sacred words which promised the victory of the The Bishop, clothed with the long white robe of the Greek pontiffs, and with a crown upon his head, having inclined thrice towards the east, began the holy ceremony with the same religious care and the same solemnity which he would have observed in Ephesus or Byzantium. The Greeks were ranged around him, standing, and, with covered heads, repeated, in the most harmonious accents of the human voice, Holy God, Mighty God, Immortal God, have pity upon us! When Theodorus had arrived at that point of the service when, by the ritual of the Eastern Church, it is the duty of the priest to address the assembled people, he exclaimed,

"Great God! Christian Greece is not destroyed, since, in this desert place, beneath this wild shelter, we still offer our prayers to Thee. Mahomet has polluted Thy temple; he has broken the images of Thy saints; but our faith, all spiritual and pure, does not perish with these perishable signs. Vouchsafe, great God, to sustain the faith of our brethren amid the trials of captivity and the temptations of misfortune! Save our holy religion from the cruelties and the protection of Mahomet. Pardon our priests who have received their commission at the hands of that impious master; and deprive them not, all unworthy as they are, of the power of sanctifying the people by the divine word! Grant that I may return to the East, to die for the faith which I have guarded! My brethren, in the chances of exile, in whatever land your lot may be cast, preserve the religion of your fathers. In vain has Greece been subjugated, and her people reduced to slavery, or driven from their homes; you will be a people so long as you preserve your worship. Religion-the sharing at the same altars, and faith in the same hopes-this is the

first and most holy of all father-lands; with it we shall recover, nay, we shall never entirely lose, our glorious land of Greece. The altars of our God will, one day, return to us the sepulchres of our fathers. Are we not the elders of Europe in religion as well as art? Did we not give the gospel to the Roman empire? Athens and Corinth listened to the voice of St. Paul. Ephesus is one of the seven faithful cities mentioned by the apostle. The pontifical chair in which the great Chrysostom once sat is still preserved at Byzantium. Alas! what a flood of light shone forth from the Greek church during the early ages and glorious advent of Christianity! But now she is obscured-covered with mourning-repudiated by the Latins, and outraged by the Barbarians. Yet may she live, preserved in the midst of servitude and anathemas, by the sacred fire of hope! My brethren, we are accused of resisting union with the Latins; we are reproached with our inflexible hostility. I have shared this holy opposition with those bishops who have been justified by martyrdom; and must I, at this day, retract? It belongs to the vanquished and fugitive to hold fast to their faith, and to guard the truth as their last and only treasure. Besides, who can foresee the counsels of God? Who knows but that the people of the North, bound to us by a common faith, and whose sovereigns were once allied to the race of our princes-who knows but that they are the instrument which Heaven reserves for our deliverance? Their example will reawaken the zeal of the Latins, who will blush for our misfortunes while they respect our fidelity. However it may be, it is in free Byzantium alone, in Greece victorious and regenerated, that the divisions between the two churches, reconciled by so great a pledge of affection, can ever cease. Until then, let us guard our faith uncorrupted and unshaken; let us pray without ceasing for our brethren in bondage; let us suffer and hope. The life of a nation is long, and Christianity is eternal.”

After this discourse, the pious Bishop repeated with a loud voice the service of the Byzantium Church, dwelling,

with emphasis, on the peculiar sacramental term which distinguishes the two communions. Then, having bowed three times toward the earth, he was about to consummate the awful mystery, when suddenly, the devotion of the assembly was interrupted by the most frightful cries and clamorous threatenings of a swarthy and furious multitude, who, pushed on by a superstitious terror, came pouring in among them from all directions. They were shepherds and labourers of a neighbouring village, who, struck with the strange costume and unknown language of the Greeks, thought that the tree of St. Agatha was about to be profaned by some sacrilege, and that the fires of Etna would overwhelm their fields henceforth without defence. Ignorant and ferocious, the more fearful by their very fright, they rushed upon the Bishop. Lascaris first sprang between him and the furious crowd; and, sword in hand, beat back the boldest of the assailants, a mountain brigand, a superstitious avenger of St. Agatha, who had already raised his hand to cleave down the master of the ceremony. The intrepidity of Lascaris and his friends, who gathered round him, arrested for a moment the blind rage of the Sicilian peasants. But their number increased. The people of the hamlet of Giari, situated on the seaside at the foot of the mountain, sounded the alarm; signal-fires were kindled from height to height, and the air reëchoed with the shouts of the terrified population. At this crisis, Lascaris, placing the Bishop of Ephesus, with the sacred utensils, in the midst, took the lead of his compatriots, dispersed the crowd, and opened the way to Catania, in spite of the fury of the savage populace. But while the intrepid and holy procession moved slowly along the skirts of the wood, and over the field of cultivated lava which extends from the canton of Montagnuol to the city, new assailants poured in every where along the route. On the vague rumour that the heretics had profaned the tree of St. Agatha, the citizens of Catania even, without, however, partaking in the blind ferocity of the mountaineers, had been seized with indignation and dismay. The continual fear in which these men live, with the fire always suspended over their heads,

and the earth trembling beneath their feet, gives superstitious vivacity to the already lively imagination which characterizes the people of the south of Europe. While the Greeks were thus threatened from behind, another crowd of men and women, terrified like the first, came rushing headlong from the city. Ghastly looks, cries of indignation, terrible stories, heard and repeated with inexpressible alacrity :-all betokened a most horrible popular sedition.

Meanwhile the Spanish captain who commanded the city in the name of Alphonso of Arragon, sovereign of the two Sicilies, had sent a body of cavalry to quell the disorder. Medici and his friends, prompted by a generous sentiment, hastened to interpose their efforts in behalf of the Greeks. The violence of the tumult had begun to subside from the length of time which it had continued. Nevertheless a thousand voices were vociferous for the blood of the Greeks, as a punishment for their impiety. Lascaris, who had despised the menaces, and repulsed the violence of the crowd, betook himself to the palace of the Governor, followed by his accusers. This officer was an old soldier who had served in the revolutions of Arragon and Naples, was faithful to the conquest of Alphonso, and looked with contempt upon the vanquished Sicilians. Very indifferent himself to the recollections and traditions of Greece, he knew, nevertheless, that Alphonso was fond of these strangers, and curious in their arts. He had, on a former occasion, received a magnificent sword, as a reward for a Greek manuscript which, in the sack of a city, he had picked out from among the ruins and presented to his Prince. He therefore received the Greeks without any signs of indignation, not even mentioning the peasants who had been wounded in the attack on Lascaris.

"But wherefore," said he "have you, heretics as you are, approached the tree which protects the city, and exposed us to the danger of being buried under the lava, as was the ancient city which lies near us. The whole people are mad

Anthony of Palermo, in a book, De Gustis Alphonzi, gives these details with many others, concerning Alphonso's passion for letters.

with fear, and were I not a Spaniard I should be alarmed myself. But I cannot release you here. The populace would revolt as they did at Palermo. Fortunately, our great King, Alphonso, is just arrived at Syracuse, and to his high decision I shall commit you."

The Greeks were committed for the night to the citadel of Catania, while the fright and fury of the people exhaled in a thousand stories. The next day every thing was prepared to conduct them to Syracuse. The Governor informed them, at the same time, that by order of the Archbishop of Palermo, he was going to send the Greek nuns who were at the convent of St. Benedict, to Rome, where they would be converted to the Catholic faith. The bishop of Ephesus was very solicitous to see them before their departure. The ruin of his country and the uncertain fortune of his brethren were almost forgotten in his anxiety lest their feeble and unaided minds should be won over to the Roman communion. His prayer was granted. He entered alone, the convent of Catania, and was conducted to the place which had been set apart to the Byzantine nuns. It was a building of Arabic construction, which had formerly served the conquerors of Sicily as a mosque, and which, afterwards, had been consecrated to the holiest purposes. The young Greeks were seated in a spacious hall, in the centre of which, according to a custom introduced from the East into Sicily, played a beautiful fountain. That they might not give offence to the Sisters of St. Benedict, they had covered their flowing tresses with a white veil; but they resolutely refused to take part in the public prayers of the monastery. Alone, by themselves, they observed a rigorous fast; they chanted sacred hymns in their own language, and now and then one of them among her companions in tears, as if suddenly inspired, would break forth in some verses upon the loss of her parents, who had perished in the siege of Constantinople. Attracted by their voices, the nuns of St. Benedict would gather round to hear them, and though unable to comprehend them, they could not but admire the beauty, sweetness, and harmony of their songs. Educated in