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Butterfly Garden Minibeasts Up Close 1st Edition John
Woodward Digital Instant Download
Author(s): John Woodward
ISBN(s): 9781604138993, 1604138998
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 5.86 MB
Year: 2010
Language: english
BUTTERFLY

John Woodward
 Butterfly

© 2010 by Infobase Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Woodward, John, 1954-
Butterfly / John Woodward.
p. cm. -- (Garden minibeasts up close)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60413-899-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4381-3443-7 (e-book)
1. Butterflies--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series: Woodward, John, 1954- Garden minibeasts up close.
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 Contents
Finding butterflies 4
A butterfly’s body 6
Wings and colors 8
Senses 10
Feeding 12
Females and males 14
Laying eggs 16
Hungry caterpillars 18
Metamorphosis 20
Enemies 22
Defenses 24
Migration 26
Butterflies and people 28
Glossary 30
Further resources 31
Index 32
Finding butterflies

Butterflies love to be out in the sunshine, just like

people! You can look for them on warm, bright sunny
days. They feed on the sweet nectar of flowers,
so the best place to find them is a garden.

Some plants attract more butterflies than others.

One of the best ways to see butterflies is to plant
the flowers they like!

Butterflies like to live in

warm places. On sunny days,
you will often see them
feeding on flowers.

4
 Look out for butterflies
when you are walking
in the woods. They are
sometimes difficult to
spot among the trees.

Some butterflies rarely

Did You Know? visit gardens. They need
Some butterflies sleep
to lay their eggs on
through the winter in cool
buildings. If you find one, you special plants that grow
must leave it alone. If the in other places, such
butterfly wakes it may
as woodlands. So when
use up all its energy
flying around and die you go for a walk in the
before spring. woods, look for different
types of butterflies.

5
A butterfly’s body

Let’s take a closer look at the body of a butterfly. Like

all adult insects its body is split into three parts. It has
a head with big eyes and two antennae, or feelers. The
middle part of the body is the thorax. The tail area is
called the abdomen.
Eye
Butterflies
have six
legs. Some
butterflies Thorax Antennae

only use
four of their
legs for
walking. The
other two
are very
small.
Abdomen Leg

6
 This Tiger moth has beautiful
patterns on its wings. They
are a warning to enemies
that the moth is poisonous. Did You Know?
Moths are very similar to
butterflies, but there are
differences. Butterflies
Butterflies are famous
rest with their wings folded
for their brightly together. Moths fold their wings
colored wings. They flat when they perch. Most
have four of them. moths fly at night and are not
as colorful as butterflies—but
When butterflies are some are beautiful.
young they are wingless,
crawling caterpillars.

7
Wings and colors

The first thing

you notice about
butterflies is their
amazing, colorful
wings. As they
flutter from flower
to flower, the
colors seem
to glitter.

The wings are

covered in tiny,
colored scales, like
This close-up photograph
tiles on a roof. There are
shows the scales on a
butterfly’s wings. You should more than 100,000 scales on
never touch a butterfly’s each wing. The scales make
wings. The scales are very the striking patterns that you
delicate and fall off easily.
can see on a butterfly’s wing.

8
 Did You Know?
The female Queen Alexandra
Birdwing butterfly is the largest
in the world. It has a wingspan
The colors on a of up to 12 and a half inches.
butterfly’s wings can The smallest is the Western
help keep it warm. When Pygmy Blue with a wingspan of
just over half an inch.
a butterfly is cold, it
warms itself in the sun.
Dark-colored scales
are especially good at
soaking up the heat. Butterflies, such as this
Swallowtail, love to soak up the
sun. Moths only come out at
night. They warm themselves up
by moving their wings very fast
for a while before taking off.

9
Senses

Do you think butterflies are pretty just for our

benefit? Of course not! They look like that to show
off to each other.

Butterflies have very good eyesight. But they see

some colors better than others. They cannot see dark
red, so the “reds” on butterfly wings are normally
bright and almost orange. Butterflies
are very attracted to
blue, purple, and
violet colors.

This Tortoiseshell
butterfly shows
off its beautiful,
orangey-red colors.

10
 Butterflies use their
antennae to smell the world
around them. They use them
to find flower nectar to eat,
and even to find a mate.

Did You Know?

As well as good eyesight, Many flowers reflect a sort
butterflies use their of light called ultraviolet to
attract butterflies and other
antennae to pick up
insects. The reflections form
scent and taste. They can patterns that we cannot
also taste with their feet. see—but the insects can!

11
Feeding

Butterflies curl up their long

tongues when they are not
feeding. Some butterflies
have tongues almost as
long as their bodies.

If you have a sweet tooth, you would probably enjoy

being a butterfly. Most butterflies feed on the sugary
nectar that bees use to make honey. They sip the nectar
from flowers using their long tongues. When they are not
feeding, they roll up their tongue in a coil.

12
 Did You Know?
Some butterflies don’t feed at
all. This is because they don’t
Butterflies also eat ripe live long as flying adults. They
survive on energy that they
or rotting fruit—and
stored up when they
even animal dung! They were caterpillars.
sometimes drink from
muddy puddles, too.

A butterfly uses its

tongue like a straw,
sucking up the sugary
nectar from flowers.

Tongue

13
Females and males
Did You Know?
Male Black Swallowtail
butterflies join forces to claim
Male and female joint territories. They hang
butterflies can be around trees or hilltops
attracted to each other and perform beautiful
group displays to
in lots of different ways. attract females.
The colors on their wings
can attract a mate. Some
butterflies show off
by making pretty
patterns in the air
as they fly.

Two Little Yellow

butterflies hang
from a leaf as they
mate. Butterflies
usually mate in a
back-to-back position.

14
 A male butterfly flutters his wings above a female. He hopes
to attract her with the scent that blows toward her.

However, most butterflies

choose their mate because
of his or her smell. Males Did You Know?
have special scales on their Some male butterflies hold
the female’s antennae
wings that produce scent. between their wings.
They flutter around a female This makes sure that her
blowing the scent toward her. antennae are covered
with his scent.
If she is impressed she will
mate with him.

15
Laying eggs
Did You Know?
A female butterfly
checks that she is
laying her eggs on
the correct plant
by tasting its leaves
with her feet.

Caterpillars are very

fussy eaters. Most
will only eat a few
types of plant. Some
will only eat one. This
means that their mothers
This Pierid butterfly lays lots
must be very careful to
of small, yellow eggs with care.
She has carefully chosen this lay the eggs on the right
plant. She knows the young plants. This can be difficult
caterpillars will be happy
because the plants may be
to eat its leaves.
quite rare.

16
 Baby caterpillars have
begun to hatch out of
these tiny butterfly eggs.
Some types of butterfly lay
up to 350 eggs at a time.

When a female butterfly finds the plant she is looking

for, she attaches her eggs to the stems or leaves. The
eggs are tiny, but they are very tough. This means they
can survive bad weather.

17
Hungry caterpillars

You’ve probably watched caterpillars chomping through

leaves, or seen the holes they make. Caterpillars use
their strong jaws to chew plants. They do not have long
tongues like butterflies.

Did You Know?

A caterpillar’s first meal is
usually its eggshell. Some
caterpillars eat other
insects such as aphids.
A few are even
cannibals that may
eat each other!

This newly-hatched
caterpillar enjoys its first
meal—its own eggshell!

18
 You may think
that caterpillars
are greedy,
but they are
very fussy.
This Swallowtail
caterpillar will
only eat leaves
from a small
group of plants.

They eat constantly, growing bigger all the time. As a

caterpillar grows it must shed its old skin many times.
Although the skin is quite flexible, it cannot stretch very
far. Luckily a caterpillar’s sausage shape makes shedding
its skin quite easy—almost like taking off socks!

19
Other documents randomly have
different content
walk in this pale light, and until the Sun of Justice shall rise upon our
country in His beauty, and enrich it with His splendor. Sebastian, tell me,
whence do you best like to see the sun rise?”
“The most lovely sunrise I have ever seen,” replied the soldier, as if
humoring his companion’s fanciful question, “was from the top of the Latial
mountain,[44] by the temple of Jupiter. The sun rose behind the mountain,
and projected its huge shadow like a pyramid over the plain, and far upon
the sea; then, as it rose higher, this lessened and withdrew; and every
moment some new object caught the light, first the galleys and skiffs upon
the water, then the shore with its dancing waves; and by degrees one white
edifice after the other sparkled in the fresh beams, till at last majestic Rome
itself, with its towering pinnacles, basked in the effulgence of day. It was a
glorious sight, indeed; such as could not have been witnessed or imagined
by those below.”
“Just what I should have expected, Sebastian,” observed Pancratius;
“and so it will be when that more brilliant sun rises fully upon this
benighted country. How beautiful will it then be to behold the shades
retiring, and each moment one and another of the charms, as yet concealed,
of our holy faith and worship starting into light, till the imperial city itself
shines forth a holy type of the city of God. Will they who live in those times
see these beauties, and worthily value them? Or, will they look only at the
narrow space around them, and hold their hands before their eyes, to shade
them from the sudden glare? I know not, dear Sebastian, but I hope that you
and I will look down upon that grand spectacle, from where alone it can be
duly appreciated, from a mountain higher than Jupiter’s, be he Alban or be
he Olympian,—dwelling on that holy mount, whereon stands the Lamb,
from whose feet flow the streams of life.”[45]
They continued their walk in silence through the brilliantly-lighted
streets;[46] and when they had reached Lucina’s house, and had
affectionately bid one another good-night, Pancratius seemed to hesitate a
moment, and then said:
“Sebastian, you said something this evening, which I should much like
to have explained.”
“What was it?”
“When you were contending with Polycarp, about going into Campania,
or remaining in Rome, you promised that if you stayed you would be most
cautious, and not expose yourself to unnecessary risks; then you added, that
there was one purpose in your mind which would effectually restrain you;
but that when that was accomplished, you would find it difficult to check
your longing ardor to give your life for Christ.”
“And why, Pancratius, do you desire so much to know this foolish
thought of mine?”
“Because I own I am really curious to learn what can be the object high
enough to check in you the aspiration, after what I know you consider to be
the very highest of a Christian’s aim.”
“I am sorry, my dear boy, that it is not in my power to tell you now. But
you shall know it sometime.”
“Do you promise me?”
“Yes, most solemnly. God bless you!”

A Lamb with a Milk-

can, found in the
Catacomb of SS.
Peter and Marcellin.

CHAPTER XI.

A TALK WITH THE READER.

E will take advantage of the holiday which Rome is
enjoying, sending out its inhabitants to the neighboring
hills, or to the whole line of sea-coast from Genoa to
Pæstum, for amusement on land and water: and, in a
merely didactic way, endeavor to communicate to our
reader some information, which may throw light on what
we have already written, and prepare him for what will
follow.
From the very compressed form in which the early history of the Church
is generally studied, and from the unchronological arrangement of the
saints’ biographies, as we usually read them, we may easily be led to an
erroneous idea of the state of our first Christian ancestors. This may happen
in two different ways.
We may come to imagine, that during the first three centuries the Church
was suffering unrespited, under active persecution; that the faithful
worshipped in fear and trembling, and almost lived in the catacombs; that
bare existence, with scarcely an opportunity for outward development or
inward organization, none for splendor, was all that religion could enjoy;
that, in fine, it was a period of conflict and of tribulation, without an
interval of peace or consolation. On the other hand, we may suppose, that
those three centuries were divided into epochs by ten distinct persecutions,
some of longer and some of shorter duration, but definitely separated from
one another by breathing times of complete rest.
Either of these views is erroneous; and we desire to state more
accurately the real condition of the Christian Church, under the various
circumstances of that most pregnant portion of her history.
When once persecution had broken loose upon the Church, it may be
said never entirely to have relaxed its hold, till her final pacification under
Constantine. An edict of persecution once issued by an emperor was seldom
recalled; and though the rigor of its enforcement might gradually relax or
cease, through the accession of a milder ruler, still it never became
completely a dead letter, but was a dangerous weapon in the hands of a
cruel or bigoted governor of a city or province. Hence, in the intervals
between the greater general persecutions, ordered by a new decree, we find
many martyrs, who owed their crowns either to popular fury, or to the
hatred of Christianity in local rulers. Hence also we read of a bitter
persecution being carried on in one part of the empire, while other portions
enjoyed complete peace.
Perhaps a few examples of the various phases of persecution will
illustrate the real relations of the primitive Church with the State, better
than mere description; and the more learned reader can pass over this
digression, or must have the patience to hear repeated, what he is so
familiar with, that it will seem commonplace.
Trajan was by no means one of the cruel emperors; on the contrary, he
was habitually just and merciful. Yet, though he published no new edicts
against the Christians, many noble martyrs—amongst them St. Ignatius,
bishop of Antioch, at Rome, and St. Simeon at Jerusalem—glorified their
Lord in his reign. Indeed, when Pliny the younger consulted him on the
manner in which he should deal with

St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch.

Christians, who might be brought before him as governor of Bithynia, the

emperor gave him a rule which exhibits the lowest standard of justice: that
they were not to be sought out; but if accused, they were to be punished.
Adrian, who issued no decree of persecution, gave a similar reply to a
similar question from Serenius Granianus, pro-consul of Asia. And under
him, too, and even by his own orders, cruel martyrdom was suffered by the
intrepid Symphorosa and her seven sons at Tibur, or Tivoli. A beautiful
inscription found in the catacombs mentions Marius, a young officer, who
shed his blood for Christ under this emperor.[47] Indeed, St. Justin Martyr,
the great apologist of Christianity, informs us that he owed his conversion
to the constancy of the martyrs under this emperor.
In like manner, before the Emperor Septimus Severus had published his
persecuting edicts, many Christians had suffered torments and death. Such
were the celebrated martyrs of Scillita in Africa, and SS. Perpetua and
Felicitas, with their companions; the Acts of whose martyrdom, containing
the diary of the first noble lady, twenty years of age, brought down by
herself to the eve of her death, form one of the most touching, and
exquisitely beautiful, documents preserved to us from the ancient Church.
 From these historical facts it will be evident, that while there was from
time to time a more active, severe, and general persecution of the Christian
name all through the empire, there were partial and local cessations, and
sometimes even a general suspension, of its rigor. An occurrence of this sort
has secured for us most interesting information, connected with our subject.
When the persecution of Severus had relaxed in other parts, it happened that
Scapula, pro-consul of Africa, prolonged it in his province with unrelenting
cruelty. He had condemned, among others, Mavilus of Adrumetum to be
devoured by beasts, when he was seized with a severe illness. Tertullian, the
oldest Christian Latin writer, addressed a letter to him, in which he bids him
take warning from this visitation, and repent of his crimes; reminding him
of many judgments which had befallen cruel judges of the Christians, in
various parts of the world. Yet such was the charity of those holy men, that
he tells him they were offering up earnest prayers for their enemy’s
recovery!
He then goes on to inform him, that he may very well fulfil his duties
without practising cruelty, by acting as other magistrates had done. For
instance, Cincius Severus suggested to the accused the answers they should
make, to be acquitted. Vespronius Candidus dismissed a Christian, on the
ground that his condemnation would encourage tumults. Asper, seeing one
ready to yield upon the application of slight torments, would not press him
further; and expressed regret that such a case should have been brought
before him. Pudens, on reading an act of accusation, declared the title
informal, because calumnious, and tore it up.
We thus see how much might depend upon the temper, and perhaps the
tendencies, of governors and judges, in the enforcing even of imperial
edicts of persecution. And St. Ambrose tells us that some governors boasted
that they had brought back from their provinces their swords unstained with
blood (incruentos enses).
We can also easily understand how, at any particular time, a savage
persecution might rage in Gaul, or Africa, or Asia, while the main part of
the Church was enjoying peace. But Rome was undoubtedly the place most
subject to frequent outbreaks of the hostile spirit; so that it might be
considered as the privilege of its pontiffs, during the first three centuries, to
bear the witness of blood to the faith which they taught. To be elected Pope
was equivalent to being promoted to martyrdom.
 At the period of our narrative, the Church was in one of those longer
intervals of comparative peace, which gave opportunity for great
development. From the death of Valerian, in 268, there had been no new
formal persecution, though the interval is glorified by many noble
martyrdoms. During such periods, the Christians were able to carry out their
religious system with completeness, and even with splendor. The city was
divided into districts or parishes, each having its title, or church, served by
priests, deacons, and inferior ministers. The poor were supported, the sick
visited, catechumens instructed; the Sacraments were administered, daily
worship was practised, and the penitential canons were enforced by the
clergy of each title; and collections were made for these purposes, and
others connected with religious charity, and its consequence, hospitality. It
is recorded, that in 250, during the pontificate of Cornelius, there were in
Rome forty-six priests, a hundred and fifty-four inferior ministers, who
were supported by the alms of the faithful, together with fifteen hundred
poor.[48] This number of the priests pretty nearly corresponds to that of the
titles, which St. Optatus tells us there were in Rome.
Although the tombs of the martyrs in the catacombs continued to be
objects of devotion during these more peaceful intervals, and these asylums
of the persecuted were kept in order and repair, they did not then serve for
the ordinary places of worship. The churches to which we have already
alluded were often public, large, and even splendid; and heathens used to be
present at the sermons delivered in them, and such portions of the liturgy as
were open to catechumens. But generally they were in private houses,
probably made out of the large halls, or triclinia, which the nobler mansions
contained. Thus we know that many of the titles in Rome were originally of
that character. Tertullian mentions Christian cemeteries under a name, and
with circumstances, which show that they were above ground, for he
compares them to “threshing-floors,” which were necessarily exposed to the
air.
A custom of ancient Roman life will remove an objection which may
arise, as to how considerable multitudes could assemble in these places
without attracting attention, and consequently persecution. It was usual for
what may be called a levée to be held every morning by the rich, attended
by dependents, or clients, and messengers from their friends, either slaves
or freedmen, some of whom were admitted into
 The Sacrament of Penance, in the Early
Ages of the Church.

the inner court, to the master’s presence, while others only presented
themselves, and were dismissed. Hundreds might thus go in and out of a
great house, in addition to the crowd of domestic slaves, tradespeople and
others who had access to it, through the principal or the back entrance, and
little or no notice would be taken of the circumstance.
There is another important phenomenon in the social life of the early
Christians, which one would hardly know how to believe, were not
evidence of it brought before us in the most authentic Acts of the martyrs,
and in ecclesiastical history. It is, the concealment which they contrived to
practise. No doubt can be entertained, that persons were moving in the
highest society, were occupying conspicuous public situations, were near
the persons of the emperors, who were Christians; and yet were not
suspected to be such by their most intimate heathen friends. Nay, cases
occurred where the nearest relations were kept in total ignorance on this
subject. No lie, no dissembling, no action especially, inconsistent with
Christian morality or Christian truth, was ever permitted to ensure such
secrecy. But every precaution compatible with complete uprightness was
taken to conceal Christianity from the public eye.[49]
However necessary this prudential course might be, to prevent any
wanton persecution, its consequences fell often heavily upon those who
held it. The heathen world, the world of power, of influence, and of state,
the world which made laws as best suited it, and executed them, the world
that loved earthly prosperity and hated faith, felt itself surrounded, filled,
compenetrated by a mysterious system, which spread, no one could see
how, and exercised an influence derived no one knew whence. Families
were startled at finding a son or daughter to have embraced this new law,
with which they were not aware that they had been in contact, and which, in
their heated fancies and popular views, they considered stupid, grovelling,
and anti-social. Hence the hatred of Christianity was political as well as
religious; the system was considered as un-Roman, as having an interest
opposed to the extension and prosperity of the empire, and as obeying an
unseen and spiritual power. The Christians were pronounced irreligiosi in
Cæsares, “disloyal to the emperors,” and that was enough. Hence their
security and peace depended much upon the state of popular feeling; when
any demagogue or fanatic could succeed in rousing this, neither their denial
of the charges brought against them, nor their peaceful demeanor, nor the
claims of civilized life, could suffice to screen them from such measure of
persecution as could be safely urged against them.
After these digressive remarks, we will resume, and unite again the
broken thread of our narrative.

A
Monogra
m of
Christ.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WOLF AND THE FOX.

 HE hints of the African slave had not been thrown away upon
the sordid mind of Corvinus. Her own hatred of Christianity
arose from the circumstance, that a former mistress of hers had
become a Christian and had manumitted all her other slaves;
but, feeling it wrong to turn so dangerous a character as Afra,
or rather Jubala (her proper name), upon the world, had
transferred her to another proprietor.
Corvinus had often seen Fulvius at the baths and other places of public
resort, had admired and envied him, for his appearance, his dress, his
conversation. But with his untoward shyness, or moroseness, he could never
have found courage to address him, had he not now discovered, that though
a more refined, he was not a less profound, villain than himself. Fulvius’s
wit and cleverness might supply the want of these qualities in his own
sottish composition, while his own brute force, and unfeeling recklessness,
might be valuable auxiliaries to those higher gifts. He had the young
stranger in his power, by the discovery which he had made of his real
character. He determined, therefore, to make an effort, and enter into
alliance with one who otherwise might prove a dangerous rival.
It was about ten days after the meeting last described, that Corvinus went
to stroll in Pompey’s gardens. These covered the space round his theatre, in
the neighborhood of the present Piazza Farnese. A conflagration in the reign
of Carinus had lately destroyed the scene, as it was called, of the edifice,
and Dioclesian had repaired it with great magnificence. The gardens were
distinguished from others by rows of plane-trees, which formed a delicious
shade. Statues of wild beasts, fountains, and artificial brooks, profusely
adorned them. While sauntering about, Corvinus caught a sight of Fulvius,
and made up to him.

Roman Gardens, from an old painting.

“What do you want with me?” asked the foreigner, with a look of
surprise and scorn at the slovenly dress of Corvinus.
 “To have a talk with you, which may turn out to your advantage—and
mine.”
“What can you propose to me, with the first of these recommendations?
No doubt at all as to the second.”
“Fulvius, I am a plain-spoken man, and have no pretensions to your
cleverness and elegance; but we are both of one trade, and both
consequently of one mind.”
Fulvius started, and deeply colored; then said, with a contemptuous air,
“What do you mean, sirrah?”
“If you double your fist,” rejoined Corvinus, “to show me the fine rings
on your delicate fingers, it is very well. But if you mean to threaten by it,
you may as well put your hand again into the folds of your toga. It is more
graceful.”
“Cut this matter short, sir. Again I ask, what do you mean?”
“This, Fulvius,” and he whispered into his ear, “that you are a spy and an
informer.”
Fulvius was staggered; then rallying, said, “What right have you to make
such an odious charge against me?”
“You discovered” (with a strong emphasis) “a conspiracy in the East, and
Dioclesian—”
Fulvius stopped him, and asked, “What is your name, and who are you?”
“I am Corvinus, the son of Tertullus, prefect of the city.”
This seemed to account for all; and Fulvius said, in subdued tones, “No
more here; I see friends coming. Meet me disguised at daybreak to-morrow
in the Patrician Street,[50] under the portico of the Baths of Novatus. We
will talk more at leisure.”
Corvinus returned home, not ill-satisfied with his first attempt at
diplomacy; he procured a garment shabbier than his own from one of his
father’s slaves, and was at the appointed spot by the first dawn of day. He
had to wait a long time, and had almost lost patience, when he saw his new
friend approach.
Fulvius was well wrapped up in a large overcoat, and wore its hood over
his face. He thus saluted Corvinus:
“Good morning, comrade; I fear I have kept you waiting in the cold
morning air, especially as you are thinly clad.”
 “I own,” replied Corvinus, “that I should have been tired, had I not been
immensely amused and yet puzzled, by what I have been observing.”
“What is that?”
“Why, from an early hour, long, I suspect, before my coming, there have
been arriving here from every side, and entering into that house, by the back
door in the narrow street, the rarest collection of miserable objects that you
ever saw; the blind, the lame, the maimed, the decrepit, the deformed of
every possible shape; while by the front door several persons have entered,
evidently of a different class.”
“Whose dwelling is it, do you know? It looks a large old house, but
rather out of condition.”
“It belongs to a very rich, and, it is said, very miserly old patrician. But
look! there come some more.”
At that moment a very feeble man, bent down by age, was approaching,
supported by a young and cheerful girl, who chatted most kindly to him as
she supported him.
“We are just there,” she said to him; “a few more steps, and you shall sit
down and rest.”
“Thank you, my child,” replied the poor old man, “how kind of you to
come for me so early!”
“I knew,” she said, “you would want help; and as I am the most useless
person about, I thought I would go and fetch you.”
“I have always heard that blind people are selfish, and it seems but
natural; but you, Cæcilia, are certainly an exception.”
“Not at all; this is only my way of showing selfishness.”
“How do you mean?”
“Why, first, I get the advantage of your eyes, and then I get the
satisfaction of supporting you. ‘I was an eye to the blind,’ that is you; and ‘a
foot to the lame,’ that is myself.”[51]
They reached the door as she spoke these words.
“That girl is blind,” said Fulvius to Corvinus. “Do you not see how
straight she walks, without looking right or left?”
“So she is,” answered the other. “Surely this is not the place so often
spoken of, where beggars meet, and the blind see, and the lame walk, and
all feast together? But yet I observed these people were so different from
the mendicants on the Arician bridge.[52] They appeared respectable and
even cheerful; and not one asked me for alms as he passed.”
“It is very strange; and I should like to discover the mystery. A good job
might, perhaps, be got out of it. The old patrician, you say, is very rich?”
“Immensely!”
“Humph! How could one manage to get in?”
“I have it! I will take off my shoes, screw up one leg like a cripple, and
join the next group of queer ones that come, and go boldly in, doing as they
do.”
“That will hardly succeed; depend upon it every one of these people is
known at the house.”
“I am sure not, for several of them asked me if this was the house of the
Lady Agnes.”
“Of whom?” asked Fulvius, with a start.
“Why do you look so?” said Corvinus. “It is the house of her parents: but
she is better known than they, as being a young heiress, nearly as rich as her
cousin Fabiola.”
Fulvius paused for a moment; a strong suspicion, too subtle and
important to be communicated to his rude companion, flashed through his
mind. He said, therefore, to Corvinus:
“If you are sure that these people are not familiar at the house, try your
plan. I have met the lady before, and will venture by the front door. Thus we
shall have a double chance.”
“Do you know what I am thinking, Fulvius?”
“Something very bright, no doubt.”
“That when you and I join in any enterprise, we shall always have two
chances.”
“What are they?”
“The fox’s and the wolf’s, when they conspire to rob a fold.”
Fulvius cast on him a look of disdain, which Corvinus returned by a
hideous leer; and they separated for their respective posts.
 A Lamp, with the Monogram of
Christ.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHARITY.
S we do not choose to enter the house of Agnes, either
with the wolf or with the fox, we will take a more
spiritual mode of doing so, and find ourselves at once
inside.
The parents of Agnes represented noble lines of
ancestry, and her family was not one of recent conversion,
but had for several generations professed the faith. As in
heathen families was cherished the memory of ancestors
who had won a triumph, or held high offices in the state,
so in this, and other Christian houses, was preserved with
pious reverence and affectionate pride, the remembrance
of those relations who had, in the last hundred and fifty years or more,
borne the palm of martyrdom, or occupied the sublimer dignities of the
Church. But, though ennobled thus, and with a constant stream of blood
poured forth for Christ, accompanying the waving branches of the family-
tree, the stem had never been hewn down, but had survived repeated storms.
This may appear surprising; but when we reflect how many a soldier goes
through a whole campaign of frequent actions and does not receive a
wound; or how many a family remains untainted through a plague, we
cannot be surprised if Providence watched over the well-being of the
Church, by preserving in it, through old family successions, long unbroken
chains of tradition, and so enabling the faithful to say: “Unless the Lord of
Hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been
like to Gomorrha.”[53]
All the honors and the hopes of this family centred now in one, whose
name is already known to our readers, Agnes, the only child of that ancient
house. Given to her parents as they had reached the very verge of hope that
their line could be continued, she had been from infancy blest with such a
sweetness of disposition, such a docility and intelligence of mind, and such
simplicity and innocence of character, that she had grown up the common
object of love, and almost of reverence, to the entire house, from her
parents down to the lowest servant. Yet nothing seemed to spoil, or warp,
the compact virtuousness of her nature; but her good qualities expanded,
with a well-balanced adjustment, which at the early age in which we find
her, had ripened into combined grace and wisdom. She shared all her
parents’ virtuous thoughts, and cared as little for the world as they. She
lived with them in a small portion of the mansion, which was fitted up with
elegance, though not with luxury; and their establishment was adequate to
all their wants. Here they received the few friends with whom they
preserved familiar relations; though, as they did not entertain, nor go out,
these were few. Fabiola was an occasional visitor, though Agnes preferred
going to see her at her house; and she often expressed to her young friend
her longing for the day, when, meeting with a suitable match, she would re-
embellish and open all the splendid dwelling. For, notwithstanding the
Voconian law “on the inheritance of women,”[54] now quite obsolete, Agnes
had received, from collateral sources, large personal additions to the family
property.
In general, of course, the heathen world, who visited, attributed
appearances to avarice, and calculated what immense accumulations of
wealth the miserly parents must be putting by; and concluded that all
beyond the solid screen which shut up the second court, was left to fall into
decay and ruin.
It was not so, however. The inner part of the house, consisting of a large
court, and the garden, with a detached dining-hall, or triclinium, turned into
a church, and the upper portion of the house, accessible from those parts,
were devoted to the administration of that copious charity, which the
Church carried on as a business of its life. It was under the care and
direction of the deacon Reparatus, and his exorcist Secundus, officially
appointed by the supreme Pontiff to take care of the sick, poor, and
strangers, in one of the seven regions into which Pope Cajus, about five
years before, had divided the city for this purpose; committing each region
to one of the seven deacons of the Roman Church.
Rooms were set apart for lodging strangers who came from a
distance, recommended by other churches; and a frugal table
was provided for them. Upstairs were apartments for an hospital
for the bed-ridden, the decrepit, and the sick, under the care of
the deaconesses, and such of the faithful as loved to assist in this
work of charity. It was here that the blind girl had her cell,
though she refused to take her food, as we have seen, in the
house. The tablinum, or muniment-room, which generally stood
detached in the middle of the passage between the inner courts,
served as the office and archives for transacting the business of
this charitable establishment, and preserving all local documents, A deacon,
from De
such as the acts of martyrs, procured or compiled by the one of Rossi’s
the seven notaries kept for that purpose, by institution of St. “Roma
Clement I., who was attached to that region. Sotteranea.
”
A door of communication allowed the household to assist in
these works of charity; and Agnes had been accustomed from
childhood to run in and out, many times a day, and to pass hours there;
always beaming, like an angel of light, consolation and joy on the suffering
and distressed. This house, then, might be called the almonry of the region,
or district, of charity and hospitality in which it was situated, and it was
accessible for these purposes through the posticum or back door, situated in
a narrow lane little frequented. No wonder that with such an establishment,
the fortune of the inmates should find an easy application.
We heard Pancratius request Sebastian, to arrange for the distribution of
his plate and jewels among the poor, without its being known to whom they
belonged. He had not lost sight of the commission, and had fixed on the
house of Agnes as the fittest for this purpose. On the morning which we
have described the distribution had to take place; other regions had sent
their poor, accompanied by their deacons; while Sebastian, Pancratius, and
other persons of higher rank had come in through the front door, to assist in
the division. Some of these had been seen to enter by Corvinus.
 A Fish
carrying
Bread and
Wine, from
the Cemetery
of St. Lucina.

C H A P T E R X I V.

EXTREMES MEET.
GROUP of poor coming opportunely towards the door,
enabled Corvinus to tack himself to them,—an admirable
counterfeit, in all but the modesty of their deportment. He
kept sufficiently close to them to hear that each of them, as he
entered in, pronounced the words, “Deo gratias,” “Thanks be
to God.” This was not merely a Christian, but a Catholic pass-
word; for St. Augustine tells us that heretics ridiculed
Catholics for using it, on the ground that it was not a
salutation but rather a reply; but that Catholics employed it,
because consecrated by pious usage. It is yet heard in Italy on similar
occasions.
Corvinus pronounced the mystic words, and was allowed to pass.
Following the others closely, and copying their manners and gestures, he
found himself in the inner court of the house, which was already filled with
the poor and infirm. The men were ranged on one side, the women on the
other. Under the portico at the end were tables piled with costly plate, and
near them was another covered with brilliant jewelry. Two silver and
goldsmiths were weighing and valuing most conscientiously this property;
and beside them was the money which they would give, to be distributed
amongst the poor, in just proportion.
Corvinus eyed all this with a gluttonous heart. He would have given
anything to get it all, and almost thought of making a dash at something,
and running out. But he saw at once the folly or madness of such a course,
and resolved to wait for a share, and in the meantime take note for Fulvius
of all he saw. He soon, however, became aware of the awkwardness of his
present position. While the poor were all mixed up together and moving
about, he remained unnoticed. But he soon saw several young men of
peculiarly gentle manners, but active, and evidently in authority, dressed in
the garment known to him by the name of Dalmatic, from its Dalmatian
origin; that is, having over the tunic, instead of the toga, a close-fitting
shorter tunicle, with ample, but not over long or wide sleeves; the dress
adopted and worn by the deacons, not only at their more solemn
ministrations in church, but also when engaged in the discharge of their
secondary duties about the sick and poor.
These officers went on marshalling the attendants, each evidently
knowing those of his own district, and conducting them to a peculiar spot
within the porticoes. But as no one recognized or claimed Corvinus for one
of his poor, he was at length left alone in the middle of the court. Even his
dull mind could feel the anomalous situation into which he had thrust
himself. Here he was, the son of the prefect of the city, whose duty it was to
punish such violators of domestic rights, an intruder into the innermost
parts of a nobleman’s house, having entered by a cheat, dressed like a
beggar, and associating himself with such people, of course for some
sinister, or at least unlawful, purpose. He looked towards the door,
meditating an escape; but he saw it guarded by an old man named Diogenes
and his two stout sons, who could hardly restrain their hot blood at this
insolence, though they only showed it by scowling looks, and repressive
biting of their lips. He saw that he was a subject of consultation among the
young deacons, who cast occasional glances towards him; he imagined that
even the blind were staring at him, and the decrepit ready to wield their
crutches like battle-axes against him. He had only one consolation; it was
evident he was not known, and he hoped to frame some excuse for getting
out of the scrape.
At length the Deacon Reparatus came up to him, and thus courteously
accosted him:
“Friend, you probably do not belong to one of the regions invited here
to-day. Where do you live?”
“In the region of the Alta Semita.”[55]
This answer gave the civil, not the ecclesiastical, division of Rome; still
Reparatus went on: “The Alta Semita is in my region, yet I do not
remember to have seen you.”
While he spoke these words, he was astonished to see the stranger turn
deadly pale, and totter as if about to fall, while his eyes were fixed upon the
door of communication with the dwelling-house. Reparatus looked in the
same direction, and saw Pancratius, just entered, and gathering some hasty
information from Secundus. Corvinus’s last hope was gone. He stood the
next moment confronted with the youth (who asked Reparatus to retire),
much in the same position as they had last met in, only that, instead of a
circle round him of applauders and backers, he was here hemmed in on all
sides by a multitude who evidently looked with preference upon his rival.
Nor could Corvinus help observing the graceful development and manly
bearing, which a few weeks had given his late school-mate. He expected a
volley of keen reproach, and, perhaps, such chastisement as he would
himself have inflicted in similar circumstances. What was his amazement
when Pancratius thus addressed him in the mildest tone:
“Corvinus, are you really reduced to distress and lamed by some
accident? Or how have you left your father’s house?”
“Not quite come to that yet, I hope,” replied the bully, encouraged to
insolence by the gentle address, “though, no doubt, you would be heartily
glad to see it.”
“By no means, I assure you; I hold you no grudge. If, therefore, you
require relief, tell me; and though it is not right that you should be here, I
can take you into a private chamber where you can receive it unknown.”
“Then I will tell you the truth: I came in here merely for a freak; and I
should be glad if you could get me quietly out.”
“Corvinus,” said the youth, with some sternness, “this is a serious
offence. What would your father say, if I desired these young men, who
would instantly obey, to take you as you are, barefoot, clothed as a slave,
counterfeiting a cripple, into the Forum before his tribunal, and publicly
charge you with what every Roman would resent, forcing your way into the
heart of a patrician’s house?”
“For the gods’ sakes, good Pancratius, do not inflict such frightful
punishment.”
“You know, Corvinus, that your own father would be obliged to act
towards you the part of Junius Brutus, or forfeit his office.”
 “I entreat you by all that you love, by all that you hold sacred, not to
dishonor me and mine so cruelly. My father and his house, not I, would be
crushed and ruined for ever. I will go on my knees and beg your pardon for
my former injuries, if you will only be merciful.”
“Hold, hold, Corvinus, I have told you that was long forgotten. But hear
me now. Every one but the blind around you is a witness to this outrage.
There will be a hundred evidences to prove it. If ever, then, you speak of
this assembly, still more if you attempt to molest any one for it, we shall
have it in our power to bring you to trial at your own father’s judgment-
seat. Do you understand me, Corvinus?”
“I do, indeed,” replied the captive in a whining tone. “Never, as long as I
live, will I breathe to mortal soul that I came into this dreadful place. I
swear it by the—”
“Hush, hush! we want no such oaths here. Take my arm, and walk with
me.” Then turning to the others, he continued: “I know this person; his
coming here is quite a mistake.”
The spectators, who had taken the wretch’s supplicating gestures and
tone for accompaniments to a tale of woe, and strong application for relief,
joined in crying out, “Pancratius, you will not send him away fasting and
unsuccored?”
“Leave that to me,” was the reply. The self-appointed porters gave way
before Pancratius, who led Corvinus, still pretending to limp, into the street,
and dismissed him, saying: “Corvinus, we are now quits; only, take care of
your promise.”
Fulvius, as we have seen, went to try his fortune by the front door. He
found it, according to Roman custom, unlocked; and, indeed, no one could
have suspected the possibility of a stranger entering at such an hour. Instead
of a porter, he found, guarding the door, only a simple-looking girl about
twelve or thirteen years of age, clad in a peasant’s garment. No one else was
near; and he thought it an excellent opportunity to verify the strong
suspicion which had crossed his mind. Accordingly, he thus addressed the
little portress:
“What is your name, child, and who are you?”
“I am,” she replied, “Emerentiana, the Lady Agnes’s foster-sister.”
“Are you a Christian?” he asked her sharply.
 The poor little peasant opened her eyes in the amazement of ignorance,
and replied: “No, sir.” It was impossible to resist the evidence of her
simplicity; and Fulvius was satisfied that he was mistaken. The fact was,
that she was the daughter of a peasant who had been Agnes’s nurse. The
mother had just died, and her kind sister had sent for the orphan daughter,
intending to have her instructed and baptized. She had only arrived a day or
two before, and was yet totally ignorant of Christianity.
Fulvius stood embarrassed what to do next. Solitude made him feel as
awkwardly situated, as a crowd was making Corvinus. He thought of
retreating, but this would have destroyed all his hopes; he was going to
advance, when he reflected that he might commit himself unpleasantly. At
this critical juncture, whom should he see coming lightly across the court,
but the youthful mistress of the house, all joy, all spring, all brightness and
sunshine. As soon as she saw him, she stood, as if to receive his errand, and
he approached with his blandest smile and most courtly gesture, and thus
addressed her:
“I have anticipated the usual hour at which visitors come, and, I fear,
must appear an intruder, Lady Agnes; but I was impatient to inscribe myself
as an humble client of your noble house.”
“Our house,” she replied, smiling, “boasts of no clients, nor do we seek
them; for we have no pretensions to influence or power.”
“Pardon me; with such a ruler, it possesses the highest of influences and
the mightiest of powers, those which reign, without effort, over the heart as
a most willing subject.”
Incapable of imagining that such words could allude to herself, she
replied, with artless simplicity:
“Oh, how true are your words! the Lord of this house is indeed the
sovereign over the affections of all within it.”
“But I,” interposed Fulvius, “allude to that softer and benigner dominion,
which graceful charms alone can exercise on those who from near behold
them.”
Agnes looked as one entranced; her eyes beheld a very different image
before them from that of her wretched flatterer; and with an impassioned
glance towards heaven, she exclaimed:
 “Yes, He whose beauty sun and moon in their lofty firmament gaze on
and admire, to Him is pledged my service and my love.”[56]
Fulvius was confounded and perplexed. The inspired look, the rapturous
attitude, the music of the thrilling tones in which she uttered these words,
their mysterious import, the strangeness of the whole scene, fastened him to
the spot, and sealed his lips; till, feeling that he was losing the most
favorable opportunity he could ever expect of opening his mind (affection it
could not be called) to her, he boldly said, “It is of you I am speaking; and I
entreat you to believe my expression of sincerest admiration of you, and of
unbounded attachment to you.” As he uttered these words, he dropt on his
knee, and attempted to take her hand; but the maiden bounded back with a
shudder, and turned away her burning countenance.
Fulvius started in an instant to his feet; for he saw Sebastian, who was
come to summon Agnes to the poor, impatient of her absence, striding
forward towards him, with an air of indignation.
“Sebastian,” said Agnes to him, as he approached, “be not angry; this
gentleman has probably entered here by some unintentional mistake, and no
doubt will quietly retire.” Saying this, she withdrew.
Sebastian, with his calm but energetic manner, now addressed the
intruder, who quailed beneath his look, “Fulvius, what do you here? what
business has brought you?”
“I suppose,” answered he, regaining courage, “that having met the lady
of the house at the same place with you, her noble cousin’s table, I have a
right to wait upon her, in common with other voluntary clients.”
“But not at so unreasonable an hour as this, I presume?”
“The hour that is not unreasonable for a young officer,” retorted Fulvius
insolently, “is not, I trust, so for a civilian.”
Sebastian had to use all his power of self-control to check his
indignation, as he replied:
“Fulvius, be not rash in what you say; but remember that two persons
may be on a very different footing in a house. Yet not even the longest
familiarity, still less a one dinner’s acquaintance, can authorize or justify the
audacity of your bearing towards the young mistress of this house, a few
moments ago.”
 “Oh, you are jealous, I suppose, brave captain!” replied Fulvius, with his
most refined sarcastic tone. “Report says that you are the acceptable, if not
accepted, candidate for Fabiola’s hand. She is now in the country; and, no
doubt, you wish to make sure for yourself of the fortune of one or the other
of Rome’s richest heiresses. There is nothing like having two strings to
one’s bow.”
This coarse and bitter sarcasm wounded the noble officer’s best feelings
to the quick; and had he not long before disciplined himself to Christian
meekness, his blood would have proved too powerful for his reason.
“It is not good for either of us, Fulvius, that you remain longer here. The
courteous dismissal of the noble lady whom you have insulted has not
sufficed; I must be the ruder executor of her command.” Saying this, he
took the unbidden guest’s arm in his powerful grasp, and conducted him to
the door. When he had put him outside, still holding him fast, he added:
“Go now, Fulvius, in peace; and remember that you have this day made
yourself amenable to the laws of the state by this unworthy conduct. I will
spare you, if you know how to keep your own counsel; but it is well that
you should know, that I am acquainted with your occupation in Rome; and
that I hold this morning’s insolence over your head, as a security that you
will follow it discreetly. Now, again I say, go in peace.”
But he had no sooner let go his grasp, than he felt himself seized from
behind by an unseen, but evidently an athletic, assailant. It was Eurotas,
from whom Fulvius durst conceal nothing, and to whom he had confided
the intended interview with Corvinus, that had followed and watched him.
From the black slave he had before learnt the mean and coarse character of
this client of her magical arts; and he feared some trap. When he saw the
seeming struggle at the door, he ran stealthily behind Sebastian, who, he
fancied, must be his pupil’s new ally, and pounced upon him with a bear’s
rude assault. But he had no common rival to deal with. He attempted in
vain, though now helped by Fulvius, to throw the soldier heavily down; till,
despairing of success in this way, he detached from his girdle a small but
deadly weapon, a steel mace of finished Syrian make, and was raising it
over the back of Sebastian’s head, when he felt it wrenched in a trice from
his hand, and himself twirled two or three times round, in an iron gripe, and
flung flat in the middle of the street.
 “I am afraid you have hurt the poor fellow, Quadratus,” said Sebastian to
his centurion, who was coming up at that moment to join his fellow-
Christians, and was of most Herculean make and strength.
“He well deserves it, tribune, for his cowardly assault,” replied the other,
as they re-entered the house.
The two foreigners, crest-fallen, slunk away from the scene of their
defeat; and as they turned the corner, caught a glimpse of Corvinus, no
longer limping, but running as fast as his legs would carry him, from his
discomfiture at the back-door. However often they may have met
afterwards, neither ever alluded to their feats of that morning. Each knew
that the other had incurred only failure and shame; and they came both to
the conclusion, that there was one fold at least in Rome, which either fox or
wolf would assail in vain.

A wall painting from the Cemetery of St. Priscilla.

C H A P T E R X V.

CHARITY RETURNS.
HEN calm had been restored, after this twofold disturbance, the work of the
day went quietly on. Besides the distribution of greater alms, such as was
made by St. Laurence, from the Church, it was by no means so uncommon
in early ages, for fortunes to be given away at once, by those who wished to
retire from the world.[57] Indeed we should naturally expect to find that the
noble charity of the Apostolic Church at Jerusalem would not be a barren
example to that of Rome. But this extraordinary charity would be most
naturally suggested at periods when the Church was threatened with
persecution; and when Christians, who from position and circumstances
 might look forward to martyrdom, would, to use a
homely phrase, clear their hearts and houses for action,
by removing from both whatever could attach themselves
to earth, and become the spoil of the impious soldier,
instead of having been made the inheritance of the poor.
[58]
Nor would the great principles be forgotten, of making
the light of good works to shine before men, while the
hand which filled the lamp, poured in its oil in the secret,
which only He who seeth in secret can penetrate. The
plate and jewels of a noble family publicly valued, sold, and, in their price,
distributed to the poor, must have been a bright example of charity, which
consoled the Church, animated the generous, shamed the avaricious,
touched the heart of the catechumen, and drew blessings and prayers from
the lips of the poor. And yet the individual right hand that gave them
remained closely shrouded from the scrutiny or consciousness of the left;
and the humility and modesty of the noble giver remained concealed in His
bosom, into which these earthly treasures were laid up, to be returned with
boundless and eternal usury.
And such was the case in the instance before us. When all was prepared,
Dionysius the priest, who at the same time was the physician to whom the
care of the sick was committed, and who had succeeded Polycarp in the title
of St. Pastor, made his appearance, and seated in a chair at one end of the
court, thus addressed the assembly:
“Dear brethren, our merciful God has touched the heart of some
charitable brother, to have compassion on his poorer brethren, and strip
himself of much worldly possession, for Christ’s sake. Who he is I know
not; nor would I seek to know. He is some one who loves not to have his
treasures where rust consumes, and thieves break in and steal, but prefers,
like the blessed Laurence, that they should be borne up, by the hands of
Christ’s poor, into the heavenly treasury.
“Accept then, as a gift from God, who has inspired this charity, the
distribution which is about to be made, and which may be a useful help, in
the days of tribulation which are preparing for us. And as the only return
which is desired from you, join all in that familiar prayer which we daily
recite for those who give, or do us good.”
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