Category: Historical Novels
There was silence in the city of Verulam on a bright summer day now nearly sixteen hundred years ago. It was a strange silence which reigned in the deserted streets of the old Roman city, which, with its baths and public buildings, was reckoned one of the finest in that sea-gi...
They brought with them as they came many changes, they bore away with them many hopes, and left behind the memory of many sorrows, and the soft radiance of many vanished joys!
6. CHAPTER V.Claudius was no more inclined to the Christian faith than he had been when we last saw him in the room of Casca, the son of Severus. But he felt himself pledged to perform his v...
9. CHAPTER VIII.Hyacintha slept soundly after her bath, and a supper of fruit and delicately-baked bread, crisp and fresh, after the fashion of our modern biscuits. A draught of the pure water...
10. CHAPTER IX.“It was but likely that your noble father should desire to place you amongst the nobles, but you depart to scenes of license, I fear, and to see the hunt after pleasure put befo...
17. CHAPTER XVI.Casca and little Cynthia were his guests, with the faithful Anna; and when Casca spoke of returning to Alexandria, Claudius begged him to delay. It seemed to Claudius like a sec...
3. CHAPTER II.Casca was almost entirely at the schools, where he was preparing for active service, and receiving such training as was deemed needful for a young Roman. His father was disappoi...
5. CHAPTER IV.The warm summer weather was in favour of the little band of Christians who had concealed themselves in the cave at Radburn. But the long days and short nights made their marches...
8. CHAPTER VII.The “eternal city” of their dreams vanishes for the moment into thin air, and in place of it there is only a modern town, where the voices of the great past are lost in the nois...
4. CHAPTER III.His lady had just had her morning bath, and was crying in a very undignified way for Ebba, declaring that the attendant, who was doing her best to supply her place, scorched her...
14. CHAPTER XIII.Again many years have passed away, and Casca, the son of Severus, is leaning back in his old languid fashion on a couch placed near a window commanding one of the loveliest view...
11. CHAPTER X.The sun which had been shining with cloudless brilliancy throughout the day shed the rich glow of its level beams across the Via Sacra or Appian way. In the clear transparent at...
15. CHAPTER XIV.The atrium of the Vestals was full of life, and even merriment, one bright morning of late summer, in this same year of 333. The want of sunshine which was so much felt in the w...
18. CHAPTER XVII.Hermione did not live long after the reception of this letter. She kissed it many times, and kept it safe in the breast of her robe, never allowing any eye to read it, never tel...
13. CHAPTER XII.Throughout that day of preparation for the festival, the new priestess was continually thinking of her interview with Claudius on the Cælian Hill. Not even the new dignities whi...
7. CHAPTER VI.The party under the convoy of Burrhus had embarked from Lyme, in Dorsetshire, very soon after Alban’s martyrdom. The remains of the old harbour, although at a distance from the...
2. CHAPTER I.There was silence in the city of Verulam on a bright summer day now nearly sixteen hundred years ago. It was a strange silence which reigned in the deserted streets of the old R...
16. CHAPTER XV.“I thought I had been in the temple, and I saw there my brother and Ebba, and myself a little child again. There was a sudden great light, and it shone on them--and Claudius, go...
1. CHAPTER I. A silent City 9