406 Paragraphs from a Portfolio. £Oct. 



however, did him the last honour, that of attending the ceremony. All 

 Rome was on foot : there never had been any thing so melancholy since 

 the death of the Emperor Titus the beloved, and the interest made by 

 the Roman matrons of the first rank, to get conspicuous places in the 

 Coliseum, was unequalled. How the high-priest would be clothed, 

 whether he would be hanged or decapitated, and in the latter case have 

 his beard, or his head cut off first, were the whole conversation of the 

 highest circles for a week, and the ladies of the senators, and the royal 

 family, wept and laid wagers on their own opinions of the matter, from 

 morning till night. During the entire day before, nothing was done, 

 but driving from place to place, to make bets on the length of time the 

 holy criminal would take in dying, to hurry the robe-makers for new 

 dresses for the ceremony, and to join their tears in weeping for the hand- 

 somest wearer of the handsomest beard, ever seen since the arrival of the 

 ambassador from the Parthian king. 



The day came, and the Coliseum was crowded to the highest bench, 

 with all the youth and beauty of the metropolis of the world ; the 

 costumes magnificent, the gold and jewels incalculable, the loveliness 

 divine, and the tears, only awaiting the beginning of the sacrificial song 

 to fall in showers. 



The ceremony at length commenced, and the high-priest, looking 

 more venerably handsome than ever, advanced to be hanged. Virgins 

 and matrons rose on tiptoe, that they might not lose a single feature of 

 a ceremonial, against which even the presence of Trajan himself could 

 not prevent them from more than murmuring, as the most barbarous 

 act of his reign, though they acknowledged that the general ceremony 

 was worthy of imperial magnificence. In short, all were terribly in- 

 terested, all miserable, and all delighted. 



Trajan now approached, and the high-priest supplicated that he 

 might be allowed to finish his career as he had begun it, by sacrificing 

 to Jupiter. The last request of so high a servant of the state could not 

 be refused. The altar was loaded with fire, the victim was laid on it in 

 the accustomed pieces, and the ceremony was performed in the most 

 perfect style. At its close the high-priest presented a fragment of the 

 offering to the emperor, humbly entreating that he would but put it to 

 his lips, as an evidence that he bore no personal resentment against the 

 sufferer. Trajan complied, tasted it, and the slice, to the universal 

 wonder, instantly disappeared. Another, and another followed. The 

 ministers of the scaffold were still delayed. The matrons and virgins 

 began to be impatient for the conclusion of the ceremony. At length, 

 the whole vast assembly rose, and with loud outcries demanded, how 

 long they were to be disappointed. The emperor returned from the 

 altar, and with a look that expressed all the offended dignity of the 

 master of the world, resumed his seat upon his thi'one. Then with the 

 high-priest at his right hand, said, " Romans, clamourers against my 

 imperial will, rebels against him who is a god on earth, bow your heads 

 to the dust and be silent. Know the temptation before you adjudge the 

 crime. The high-priest has given away only to an irresistible pleasure. 

 Now you, in your ignorance, call him an offender against the laws of 

 the empire ; if he had not so done, he would have been an offender 

 against the laws of nature. I invite him to dine witli me to-day. To- 

 morrow, there shall be a public banquet, at which every dweller in 



