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His questions were answered by a general cry, in which the words election,
sin, and red right arm of God, could alone be heard.
Adrian looked expressly at their leader, saying, "Can you not silence your
followers? Mine, you perceive, obey me."
The fellow answered by a scowl; and then, perhaps fearful that his people
should become auditors of the debate he expected to ensue, he commanded
them to fall back, and advanced by himself. "What, I again ask," said
Adrian, "do you require of us?"
"
Repentance," replied the man, whose sinister brow gathered clouds as he
spoke. "Obedience to the will of the Most High, made manifest to these his
Elected People. Do we not all die through your sins, O generation of
unbelief, and have we not a right to demand of you repentance and
obedience?"
"And if we refuse them, what then?" his opponent inquired mildly.
"Beware," cried the man, "God hears you, and will smite your stony heart in
his wrath; his poisoned arrows fly, his dogs of death are unleashed! We
will not perish unrevenged--and mighty will our avenger be, when he
descends in visible majesty, and scatters destruction among you."
"My good fellow," said Adrian, with quiet scorn, "I wish that you were
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