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But the blood of his race flowed in the veins of the "new Antinous" who could sing Greek songs so well and with so pure an accent; every insult to his people was stamped deep in his heart, every sneer at his faith revived his memory of the day when the Melchites had slain his two brothers.
"And you," Orion went on, "after the Greeks had driven you into exile, prophesied from the desert that they would come and overthrow the Melchites, the Greek enemies of our faith, drive them out of the country." "It was revealed to me by the Lord!" replied the old man, bowing his head reverently.
But the blood of his race flowed in the veins of the "new Antinous" who could sing Greek songs so well and with so pure an accent; every insult to his people was stamped deep in his heart, every sneer at his faith revived his memory of the day when the Melchites had slain his two brothers.
The basilica, which had once been richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in a fight between them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city had not been in a position to restore the venerable church to anything approaching its original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could see nothing calculated to raise his devotion.
They did not certainly injure his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against our party it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus had a finger in that pie they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid men killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely." "Poor man!" sighed the Arab. "And has he no child left?" "Oh, yes.
"Your prophecy," replied Orion, "had, no doubt, a marked effect on my father; and when the cause of the emperor and the Greeks was lost, your opinion that the Melchites were unbelievers as much as the sons of Islam, was of infinite comfort to him. For he, if any one as you know had good reason to hate the sectarians who killed his two sons in their prime.
The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, and his mild features assumed a determined nay a stern expression as he exclaimed: "You know the, decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus the words which should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marble and brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ and this is what the Melchites do be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burnt alive! No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at the Moslems who adore the One God!"
The successor of Anastasius replanted the orthodox standard in the East; Severus fled into Egypt; and his friend, the eloquent Xenaias, who had escaped from the Nestorians of Persia, was suffocated in his exile by the Melchites of Paphlagonia.
The basilica, which had once been richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in a fight between them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city had not been in a position to restore the venerable church to anything approaching its original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could see nothing calculated to raise his devotion.
The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, and his mild features assumed a determined nay a stern expression as he exclaimed: "You know the, decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus the words which should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marble and brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ and this is what the Melchites do be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burnt alive! No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at the Moslems who adore the One God!"
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