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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Bride of the Nile, by Georg Ebers, v11
+#88 in our series by Georg Ebers
+
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+Title: The Bride of the Nile, Volume 11.
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Release Date: April, 2004  [EBook #5527]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, V11 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BRIDE OF THE NILE
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+Volume 11.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Paula passed a fearful night in the small, frightfully hot prison-cell in
+which she and Betta were shut up.  She could not sleep, and when once she
+succeeded in closing her eyes she was roused by the yells and clanking
+chains of the captives in the common prison and the heavy step of another
+sufferer who paced the room overhead, even more restless than herself.
+
+Poor fellow-victim!  Was it a tortured conscience that drove him hither
+and thither, or was he as innocent as she was, and was it longing, love,
+and anxiety that bereft him of sleep?
+
+He was no vulgar criminal.  There was no room for those in this part of
+the building; and at midnight, when the noise in the large hall was
+suddenly silenced, soft sounds of the lute came down to her from his
+cell, and only a master could strike the strings with such skill.
+
+She cared nothing for the stranger; but she was grateful for his gift of
+music, for it diverted her thoughts from herself, and she listened with
+growing interest.  Glad of an excuse for rising from her hard, hot bed,
+she sprang up and placed herself close to the one window, an opening
+barred with iron.  But then the music ceased and a conversation began
+between the warder and her fellow-prisoner.
+
+What voice was that?  Did she deceive herself, or hear rightly?
+
+Her heart stood still while she listened; and now every doubt was
+silenced: It was Orion, and none other, whom she heard speaking in the
+room above.  Then the warder spoke his name; they were talking of her
+deceased uncle; and now, as if in obedience to some sign, they lowered
+their voices.  She heard whispering but could not distinguish what was
+said.  At length parting words were uttered in louder tones, the door of
+the cell was locked and the prisoner approached his window.
+
+At this she pressed her face close to the heated iron bars, looked
+upwards, listened a moment and, as nothing was stirring, she said, first
+softly, and then rather louder: "Orion, Orion!"
+
+And, from above, her name was spoken in reply.  She greeted him and asked
+how and when he had come hither; but he interrupted her at the first
+words with a decisive: "Silence!"  adding in a moment, "Look out!"
+
+She listened in expectancy; the minutes crept on at a snail's pace to a
+full half hour before he at last said: "Now!"  And, in a few moments, she
+held in her hand a written scroll that he let down to her by a lutestring
+weighted with a scrap of wood.
+
+She had neither light nor fire, and the night was moonless.  So she
+called up "Dark!"  and immediately added, as he had done: "Look out."
+
+She then tied to the string the two best roses of those Pulcheria had
+brought her, and at her glad "Now!" they floated up.
+
+He expressed his thanks in a few low chords overflowing with yearning and
+passion; then all was still, for the warder had forbidden him to sing or
+play at night and he dared not risk losing the man's favor.
+
+Paula laid down again with Orion's letter in her hand, and when she felt
+slumber stealing upon her, she pushed it under her pillow and ere long
+was sleeping on it.  When they both woke, soon after sunrise, they had
+been dreaming of each other and gladly hailed the return of day.
+
+How furious Orion had felt when the prison door closed upon him!  He
+longed to wrench the iron bars from the window and kick down or force the
+door; and there is no more humiliating and enraging feeling for a man
+than that of finding himself shut up like a wild beast, cut off from the
+world to which he belongs and which he needs, both to give him all that
+makes life worth having, and to receive such good as he can do and give.
+
+Yesterday their dungeon had seemed a foretaste of hell, they had each
+been on the verge of despair; to-day what different feelings animated
+them!  Orion had been the victim of blow on blow from Fate--Paula had
+looked forward to his return with an anxious and aching heart; to-day how
+calm were their souls, though both stood in peril of death.
+
+The legend tells us that St. Cecilia, who was led away to the rack from
+her marriage feast, even in the midst of the torments of martyrdom,
+listened in ecstasy to heavenly music and sweet echoes of the organ; and
+how many have had the same experience!  In the extremity of anguish and
+danger they find greater joys than in the midst of splendor, ease and the
+intoxicating pleasures of life; for what we call happiness is the
+constant guest of those who have within reach that for which their souls
+most ardently long, irrespective of place and outward circumstances.
+
+So these two in their prison were what they had not been for a long time:
+full of heartfelt bliss; Paula with his letter, which he had begun at the
+Kadi's house, and in which he poured out his whole soul to her; Orion in
+the possession of her roses, on which he feasted his eyes and heart, and
+which lay before him while he wrote the following lines, which the
+kindhearted warder willingly transmitted to her:
+
+     Lo!  As night in its gloom and horror fell on my prison,
+     Methought the sun sank black, dark forever in death.
+
+     I drew thy roses up, and behold!  from their crimson petals
+     Beamed a glory of light, a glow as of sunshine and day!
+
+     Love!  Love is the star that rose with those fragrant flowers;
+     Rose, as Phoebus' car comes up from the tossing waves.
+
+     Is not the ardent flame of a heart that burns with passion
+     Like the sparkling glow-worm hid in the heart of the rose?
+
+     While it yet was day, and we breathed in freedom and gladness,
+     While the sun still shone, that light seemed small and dim;
+
+     But now, when night has fallen, sinister, dark, portentous,
+     Its kindly ray beams forth to raise our drooping souls.
+
+     As seeds in the womb of earth break from the brooding darkness,
+     Or as the soul soars free, heaven-seeking from the grave,
+
+     So the hopeless soil of a dungeon blossoms to rapture,
+     Blooms with roses of Love, more sweet than the wildling rose!
+
+And when had Paula ever felt happier than at the moment when this
+offering from her lover, this humble prison-flower, first reached her.
+
+Old Betta could not hear the verses too often, and cried with joy, not at
+the poem, but at the wonderful change it had produced in her darling.
+Paula was now the radiant being that she had been at home on the Lebanon;
+and when she appeared before the assembled judges in the hall of justice
+they gazed at her in amazement, for never had a woman on her trial for
+life or death stood in their presence with eyes so full of happiness.
+And yet she was in evil straits.  The just and clement Kadi, himself
+the loving father of daughters, felt a pang at his heart as be noted
+the delusive confidence which so evidently filled the soul of this noble
+maiden.
+
+Yes, she was in evil straits: a crushing piece of evidence was in their
+hands, and the constitution of the court--which was in strict conformity
+with the law must in itself be unfavorable to her.  Her case was to be
+tried by an equal number of Egyptians and of Arabs.  The Moslems were
+included because by her co-operation, Arabs had been slain; while Paula,
+as a Christian and a resident in Memphis, came under the jurisdiction of
+the Egyptians.
+
+The Kadi presided, and experience had taught him that the Jacobite
+members of the bench of judges kept the sentence of death in their
+sleeves when the accused was of the Melchite confession.  What had
+especially prejudiced them against this beautiful creature he knew not;
+but he easily discovered that they were hostile to the accused, and if
+they should utter the verdict "guilty", and only two Arabs should echo
+it, the girl's fate was sealed.
+
+And what was the declaration which that whiterobed old man among the
+witnesses desired to make--the venerable and learned Horapollo?  The
+glances he cast at Paula augured her no good.
+
+It was so oppressively, so insufferably hot in the hall!  Each one felt
+the crushing influence, and in spite of the importance of the occasion,
+the proceedings every now and then came to a stand-still and then were
+hurried on again with unseemly haste.
+
+The prisoner herself seemed happily to be quite fresh and not affected by
+the sultriness of the day.  It had cost her small effort to adhere to her
+statement that she had had no share in the escape of the sisters, when
+catechised by the ruffianly negro; but she found it hard to defy Othman's
+benevolent questioning.  However, there was no choice, and she succeeded
+in proving that she had never quitted Memphis nor the house of Rufinus at
+the time when the Arab warriors met their death between Athribis and
+Doomiat.  The Kadi endeavored to turn this to account for her advantage
+and Obada, who had found much to whisper over with his grey-headed
+neighbor on the bench reserved for witnesses, let him talk; but no sooner
+had he ended than the Vekeel rose and laid before the judges the note he
+had found in Orion's room.
+
+It was undoubtedly in the young man's handwriting and addressed to Paula,
+and the final words: "But do not misunderstand me.  Your noble, and only
+too well-founded desire to lend succor to your fellow-believers would
+have sufficed...."  could not fail to make a deep impression.  When the
+Kadi questioned Paula, however, she replied with perfect truth that this
+document was absolutely unknown to her; at the same time she did not deny
+that the sisters of St.  Cecilia, who were of her own confession, had
+always had her warmest wishes, and that she had hoped they might succeed
+in asserting their rights in opposition to the patriarch.
+
+The deceased Mukaukas, and the Jacobite members of the town-council even,
+had shared these feelings and the Arabs had never interfered with the
+pious sicknurses.
+
+The calm conciseness with which she made these statements had a favorable
+effect, on her Moslem judges especially, and the Kadi began to have some
+hopes for her; he desired that Orion should be called as being best able
+to account for the meaning of the letter he had written but never sent.
+
+On this the young man appeared, and though he and Paula did their utmost
+to preserve a suitable demeanor, every one could see the violent
+agitation they felt at meeting each other in such a situation.  Horapollo
+never took his eyes off Orion, whom he now saw for the first time, and
+his features put on a darkening and menacing expression.
+
+The young man acknowledged that he had written the letter in question,
+but he and Paula alike referred it to the danger with which the
+sisterhood had long been threatened from the patriarch's hostility.  The
+assistance which, in that document, he had refused he would have afforded
+readily and zealously at a later and fit season, and he could have
+counted on the aid of the Arab governor Amru, who, as he would himself
+confirm, shared the views of the Mukaukas George as to the nuns' rights.
+
+At this the old sage murmured loud enough to be heard: "Clever, very
+clever!"  and the Vekeel laughed aloud, exclaiming:
+
+"I call that a cunning way of lengthening your days!  Be on your guard,
+my lords.  These two are partners in the game and are intimately allied.
+I have proof of that in my own hands.  That youngster takes as good care
+of the damsel's fortune as though it were his own already, and what is
+more.  .  .  ."
+
+Here Paula broke in.  She did not know what the malicious man was going
+to say, but it was something insulting beyond a doubt.  And there stood
+Orion, just as she had pictured him in moments of tender remembrance; she
+felt his eye resting on her in ecstasy.  To go up to him, to tell him all
+she was feeling in this critical struggle for life or death, seemed
+impossible; but as the Vekeel began to disclose to their judges matters
+which concerned only herself and her lover, every impulse prompted her to
+interpose and, in this fateful hour, to do her friend such service as she
+once, like a coward, had shrank from.  So with eager emotion, her eyes
+flashing, she interrupted the negro "Stop!"  she cried, "you are wasting
+words and trouble.  What you are trying to prove by subtlety I am proud
+and glad to declare.  Hear it, all of you.  The son of the Mukaukas is my
+betrothed!"
+
+At the same time her eye sought to meet Orion's.  And thus, in the very
+extremity of danger, they enjoyed a solemn moment of the purest, deepest
+happiness.  Paula's eyes were moist with grateful tenderness, when Orion
+exclaimed:
+
+"You have heard from her own lips what makes the greatest bliss of my
+life.  The noble daughter of Thomas is my promised bride!"
+
+There was a murmur among the Jacobite judges.  'Till this moment several
+of them, oppressed by the heat, had sat dreaming with their heads sunk on
+their breasts, but now they were suddenly as wide-awake and alert as
+though a jet of cold water had been turned on to them, and one cried out:
+"And your father, young man?  You have forgotten him in a hurry!  What
+would he have said to such a disgrace to his blood as your marriage to a
+Melchite, the daughter of those who caused your two brothers to be
+murdered?  Oh!  if the dead could.  .  .  ."
+
+"He blessed our union on his death-bed," Orion put in.
+
+"Did he, indeed?"  asked another Jacobite with sarcastic scorn.  "Then
+the patriarch was in the right when he refused to let the priests follow
+his corpse.  That I should live to be witness to such crimes!"
+
+But such words fell on the ears of the enraptured pair like the chirping
+of crickets.  They felt, they cared for nothing but what this blissful
+moment had brought them, and never suspected that Paula's glad avowal had
+sealed her death-warrant.
+
+The wrath of the Jacobite faction now hastened the end.  The prosecutor,
+an Arab, now represented how many Moslems had lost their lives in the
+affair of the nuns, and once more read Orion's letter.  His Christian
+colleagues tried to prove that this document could only refer to the
+flight, so ingeniously plotted, of the sisters; and now something quite
+new and unlooked-for occurred, which gave a fresh turn to the
+proceedings: the old man interrupted the Kadi to make a statement.
+At this Paula's confidence rose again for the last speaker had somewhat
+shaken it.  She felt sure that the tried friend and adoptive father of
+her faithful Philippus would take her part.
+
+But what was this?
+
+The old man seemed to measure her height in a glance which struck to her
+heart with its fierce enmity, and then he said deliberately:
+
+"On the morning of the nuns' flight the accused, Paula, went to the
+convent and there tolled the bell.  Contradict me if you can, proud
+prefect's daughter; but I warn you beforehand, that in that case, I shall
+be compelled to bring forward fresh charges."
+
+At this the horror-stricken girl pictured to herself the widow and
+daughter of Rufinus at her side on the condemned bench before the judges,
+and felt that denial would drag her friends to destruction with her; with
+quivering lips she confirmed the old man's statement.
+
+"And why did you toll the  bell?"  asked the Kadi.
+
+"To help them," replied Paula.  "They are my fellow-believers, and I love
+them."
+
+"She was the originator of the treasonable and bloody scheme," cried the
+Vekeel, "and did it for no other purpose than to cheat us, the rulers of
+this country."
+
+The Kadi however signed to him to be silent and bid the Jacobite counsel
+for the accused speak next.  He had seen her early in the day, and came
+forward in the Egyptian manner with a written defence in his hand; but it
+was a dull formal performance and produced no effect; though the Kadi did
+his utmost to give prominence to every point that might help to justify
+her, she was pronounced guilty.
+
+Still, could her crime be held worthy of death?  It was amply proved that
+she had had a hand in the rescue of the nuns; but it was no less clear
+that she had been far enough away from the sisters and their defenders
+when the struggle with the Arabs took place.  And she was a woman, and
+how pardonable it seemed in a pious maiden that she should help the
+fellow-believers whom she loved to evade persecution.
+
+All this Othman pointed out in eloquent words, repeatedly and sternly
+silencing the Vekeel when he sought to argue in favor of the sentence of
+death; and the humane persuasiveness of the lenient judge won the hearts
+of most of the Moslems.
+
+Paula's appearance had a powerful effect, too, and not less the
+circumstance that their noblest and bravest foe had been the father of
+the accused.
+
+When at length it was put to the vote the extraordinary result was that
+all her fellow Christians--the Jacobites--without exception demanded her
+death, while of the infidels on the judges' bench only one supported this
+severe meed of punishment.
+
+Sentence was pronounced, and as the Vekeel Obada passed close to Orion--
+who was led back to his cell pale and hardly master of himself--he said,
+mocking him in broken Greek: "It will be your turn to-morrow, Son of the
+Mukaukas!"
+
+Orion's lips framed the retort:  "And yours, too, some day, Son of a
+Slave!"--but Paula was standing opposite, and to avoid infuriating her
+foe he was able to do what he never could have done else: to let the
+Vekeel and Horapollo pass on without a word in reply.
+
+As soon as the door was closed on this couple, Othman nodded approvingly
+at Orion and said:
+
+"Rightly and wisely done, my friend!  The eagle should never forget that
+he must not use his pinions in a cage as he does between the desert and
+the sky."
+
+He signed to the guards to lead him away, and stood apart while the young
+man looked and waived an adieu to his betrothed.
+
+Finally the Kadi went up to Paula, whose heroic composure as she heard
+the sentence of death had filled him with admiration.
+
+"The court has decided against you, noble maiden," he said.  "But its
+verdict can he overruled by the clemency of our Sovereign Lord the
+Khaliff and the mercy of God the compassionate.  Do you pray to Him--
+I and a few friends will appeal to the Khaliff."
+
+He disclaimed her gratitude, and when she, too, had been led away he
+added, in the figurative language of his nation, to the friends who were
+waiting for him:
+
+"My heart aches!  To have to pronounce such a verdict oppressed me like a
+load; but to have an Obada for a fellow Moslem and be bound to obey him--
+there is no heavier lot on earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The mysterious old sage had no sooner left the judgment-hall with the
+Vekeel than he begged for a private interview.  Obada did not hesitate to
+turn the keeper of the prison, with his wife and infant, out of his room,
+and there he listened while Horapollo informed him of the fate to which
+he destined the condemned girl.  The old man's scheme certainly found
+favor with the Negro; still, it seemed to him in many respects so daring
+that, but for an equivalent service which Horapollo was in a position to
+offer Obada, he would scarcely have succeeded in obtaining his consent.
+
+All the Vekeel aimed at was to make it very certain that Orion had had a
+hand in the flight of the nuns, and chance had placed a document in the
+old man's hands which seemed to set this beyond a doubt.
+
+He had effected his removal to the widow's dwelling in the cool hours of
+early morning.  He had taken with him, in the first instance, only the
+most valuable and important of his manuscripts, and as he was placing
+these in a small desk--the very same which Rufinus had left for Paula's
+use--Horapollo found in it the note which the youth had hastily written
+when, after waiting in vain for Paula as she sat with little Mary, he had
+at last been obliged to depart and take leave of Amru.  This wax-tablet,
+on which the writing was much defaced and partly illegible, could not
+fail to convince the judges of Orion's guilt, and the production of this
+piece of evidence enabled the old man to extort Obada's consent to his
+proposal as to the mode of Paula's death.  When they finally left the
+warder's room, the Negro once more turned to the keeper of the prison and
+told him with a snort, as he pointed to his pretty wife and the child at
+her breast, that they should all three die if he allowed Orion to quit
+his cell for so much as an instant.
+
+He then swung himself on to his horse, while Horapollo rode off to the
+Curia to desire the president of the council to call a meeting for that
+evening; then he betook himself to his new quarters.
+
+There he found his room carefully shaded, and as cool as was possible in
+such heat.  The floor had been sprinkled with water, flowers stood
+wherever there was room for them, and all his properties in scrolls and
+other matters had found places in chests or on shelves.  There was not a
+speck of dust to be seen, and a sweet pervading perfume greeted his
+sensitive nostrils.
+
+What a good exchange he had made!  He rubbed his withered hands with
+satisfaction as he seated himself in his accustomed chair, and when Mary
+came to call him to dinner, it was a pleasure to him to jest with her.
+
+Pulcheria must lead him through the viridarium into the dining-room; he
+enjoyed his meal, and his cross, wrinkled old face lighted up amazingly
+as he glanced round at his feminine associates; only Eudoxia was absent,
+confined to her room by some slight ailment.  He had something pleasant
+to say to each; he frankly compared his former circumstances with his
+present position, without disguising his heartfelt thankfulness; then,
+with a merry glance at Pulcheria, he described how delightful it would be
+when Philippus should come home to make the party complete--a true and
+perfect star: for every Egyptian star must have five rays.  The ancients
+had never painted one otherwise nor graven it in stone; nay, they had
+used it as the symbol for the number five.
+
+At this Mary exclaimed: "But then I hope--I hope we shall make a six-
+rayed star; for by that time poor Paula may be with us again!"
+
+"God grant it!"  sighed Dame Joanna.  Pulcheria, however, asked the old
+man what was wrong with him, for his face had suddenly clouded.  His
+cheerfulness had vanished, his tufted eyebrows were raised, and his
+pinched lips seemed unwilling to part, when at length he reluctantly
+said:
+
+"Nothing--nothing is wrong...  At the same time; once for all--I loathe
+that name."
+
+"Paula?"  cried the child in astonishment.  "Oh! but if you knew. . ."
+
+"I know more than enough," interrupted the old man.  "I love you all--
+all; my old heart expands as I sit in your midst; I am comfortable here,
+I feel kindly towards you, I am grateful to you; every little attention
+you show me does me good; for it comes from your hearts: if I could repay
+you soon and abundantly--I should grow young again with joy.  You may
+believe me, as I can see indeed that you do.  And yet," and again his
+brows went up, "and yet, when I hear that name, and when you try to win
+me over to that woman, or if you should even go so far as to assail my
+ears with her praises--then, much as it would grieve me, I would go back
+again to the place where I came from."
+
+"Why, Horapollo, what are you saying?"  cried Joanna, much distressed.
+
+"I say," the old man went on, "I say that in her everything is
+concentrated which I most hate and contemn in her class.  I say that she
+bears in her bosom a cold and treacherous heart; that she blights my days
+and my nights; in short, that I would rather be condemned to live under
+the same roof with clammy reptiles and cold-blooded snakes than.  .  ."
+
+"Than with her, with Paula?"  Mary broke in.  The eager little thing
+sprang to her feet, her eyes flashed lightnings and her voice quivered
+with rage, as she exclaimed: "And you not only say it but mean it?  Is it
+possible?"
+
+"Not only possible, but positive, sweetheart," replied the old man,
+putting out his hand to take hers, but she shrank back, exclaiming
+vehemently:
+
+"I will not be your sweetheart, if you speak so of her!  A man as old as
+you are ought to be just.  You do not know her at all, and what you say
+about her heart.  .  ."
+
+"Gently, gently, child," the widow put in; and Horapollo answered with
+peculiar emphasis.
+
+"That heart, my little whirlwind!--it would be well for us all if we
+could forget it, forget it for good or for evil.  She has been tried
+to-day, and that heart is sentenced to cease beating."
+
+"Sentenced!  Merciful Heaven!"  shrieked Pulcheria, and as she started up
+her mother cried out:
+
+"For God's sake do not jest about such things, it is a sin.--Is it true?
+--Is it possible?  Those wretches, those...  I see in your face it is
+true; they have condemned Paula."
+
+"As you say," replied Horapollo calmly.  "The girl is to be executed."
+
+"And you only tell us now?"  wept Pulcheria, while Mary broke out:
+
+"And yet you have been able to jest and laugh, and you--I hate you!  And
+if you were not such a helpless, old, old man.  .  ."  But here Joanna
+again silenced the child, and she asked between her sobs:
+
+"Executed?--Will they cut off her head?  And is there no mercy for her
+who was as far away from that luckless fight as we were--for her, a girl,
+and the daughter of Thomas?"
+
+To which the old man replied:
+
+"Wait a while, only wait!  Heaven has perhaps chosen her for great ends.
+She may be destined to save a whole country and nation from destruction
+by her death.  It is even possible.  .  ."
+
+"Speak out plainly; you make me shudder with your oracular hints," cried
+the widow; but he only shrugged his shoulders and said coolly:
+
+"What we foresee is not yet known.  Heaven alone can decide in such a
+case.  It will be well for us all--for me, for her, for Pulcheria, and
+even our absent Philip, if the divinity selects her as its instrument.
+But who can see into darkness?  If it is any comfort to you, Joanna,
+I can inform you that the soft-hearted Kadi and his Arab colleagues,
+out of sheer hatred of the Vekeel, who is immeasurably their superior
+in talent and strength of will, will do everything in their power..."
+"To save her?"  exclaimed the widow.
+
+"To-morrow they will hold council and decide whether to send a messenger
+to Medina to implore pardon for her," Horapollo went on with a horrible
+smile.  "The day after they will discuss who the messenger is to be, and
+before he can reach Arabia fate will have overtaken the prisoner.  The
+Vekeel Obada moves faster than they do, and the power lies in his hands
+so long as Amru is absent from Egypt.  He, they say, perfectly dotes on
+the Mukaukas' son, and for his sake--who knows?  Paula as his betrothed."
+
+"His betrothed?"
+
+"He called her by that name before the judges, and congratulated himself
+on his promised bride."
+
+"Paula and Orion!"  cried Pulcheria, jubilant in the midst of her tears,
+and clapping her hands for joy.
+
+"A pair indeed!"  said the old man.  "You may well rejoice, my girl!
+Feeble hearts as you all are, respect the experience of the aged, and
+bless Fate if it should lame the horse of the Kadi's messenger!--However,
+you will not listen to anything oracular, so it will be better to talk of
+something else."
+
+"No, no," cried Joanna.  "What can we think of but her and her fate?
+Oh, Horapollo, I do not know you in this mood.  What has that poor soul
+done to you, persecuted as she is by the hardest fate--that noble
+creature who is so dear to us all?  And do you forget that the judges who
+have sentenced her will now proceed to enquire what Rufinus, and we all
+of us.  .  ."
+
+"What you had to do with that mad scheme of rescue?"  interrupted
+Horapollo.  "I will make it my business to prevent that.  So long as this
+old brain is able to think, and this mouth to speak, not a hair of your
+heads shall be hurt."
+
+"We are grateful to you," said Joanna.  "But, if you have such power,
+set to work--you know how dear Paula is to us all, how highly your friend
+Philip esteems her--use your power to save her."
+
+"I have no power, and refuse to have any," retorted the old man harshly."
+
+"But Horapollo, Horapollo!--Come here, children!--We were to find in you
+a second father--so you promised.  Then prove that those were no empty
+words, and be entreated by us."
+
+The old man drew a deep breath; he rose to his feet with such vigor as he
+could command, a bright, sharply-defined patch of color tinged each pale
+cheek, and he exclaimed in husky tones:
+
+"Not another word!  No attempt to move me, not a cry of lamentation!
+Enough, and a thousand times too much, of that already.  You have heard
+me, and I now say again--me or Paula, Paula or me.  Come what may in the
+future, if you cannot so far control yourselves as never to mention her
+in my presence, I--no, I do not swear, but when I have said a thing I
+keep to it--I will go back to my old den and drag out life the richer
+by a disappointment--or die, as my ruling goddess shall please."
+
+With this he left the room, and little Mary raised her clenched right
+fist and shook it after him, exclaiming: "Then let him go, hard-hearted,
+unjust, old scarecrow!  Oh, if only I were a man!"  And she burst out
+crying aloud.  Heedless of the widow's reproof, she went on quite beside
+herself:  "Oh, there is no one more wicked than he is, Dame Joanna!  He
+wants to see her die, he wishes her to be dead; I know it, he even wishes
+it!  Did you hear him, Pul, he would be glad if the messenger's horse
+went lame before he could save her?  And now she is my Orion's betrothed
+--I always meant them for each other--and they want to kill him, too, but
+they shall not, if there is still a God of justice in heaven!  Oh if I--
+if I.  .  ."  Her voice failed her, choked with sobs.  When she had
+somewhat recovered she implored Pulcheria and her mother to take her to
+see Paula, and as they shared her wish they prepared to start for the
+prison before it should grow dark.
+
+The nearer they went to the market-place, which they must cross, the more
+crowded were the streets.  Every one was going the same way; the throng
+almost carried the women with it; yet, from the market came, as it were,
+a contrary torrent of shouts and shrieks from a myriad of human throats.
+Dame Joanna was terrified in the press by the uproarious doings in the
+market, and she would gladly have turned back with the girls, or have
+made her way through by-streets, but the tide bore her on, and it would
+have been easier to swim against a swollen mountain stream than to return
+home.  Thus they soon reached the square, but there they were brought to
+a standstill in the crush.
+
+The widow's terrors now increased.  It was dreadful to be kept fast with
+the young people in such a mob.  Pulcheria clung closely to her, and when
+she bid Mary take her hand the child, who thoroughly enjoyed the
+adventure, exclaimed: "Only look, Mother Joanna, there is our Rustem.  He
+is taller than any one."
+
+"If only he were by our side!"  sighed the widow.  At this the little
+girl snatched away her hand, made her way with the nimbleness of a
+squirrel through the mass of men, and soon had reached the Masdakite.
+Rustem had not yet quitted Memphis, for the first caravan, which he and
+his little wife were to join, was not to start for a few days.  The
+worthy Persian and Mary were very good friends; as soon as he heard that
+his benefactress was alarmed he pushed his way to her, with the child,
+and the widow breathed more freely when he offered to remain near her and
+protect her.
+
+Meanwhile the yelling and shouting were louder than ever.  Every face,
+every eye was turned to the Curia, in the evident expectation of
+something great and strange taking place there.
+
+"What is it?"  asked Mary, pulling at Rustem's coat.  The giant said
+nothing, but he stooped, and to her delight, a moment later she had her
+feet on his arms, which he folded across his chest, and was settling
+herself on his broad shoulder whence she could survey men and things as
+from a tower.  Joanna laid her hand in some tremor on the child's little
+feet, but Mary called down to her: "Mother--Pulcheria--I am quite sure
+our old Horapollo's white ass is standing in front of the Curia, and they
+are putting a garland round the beast's neck--a garland of olive."
+
+At this moment the blare of a tuba rang out from the Senate-house
+across the square, through the suffocatingly hot, quivering air; a sudden
+silence fell and spread till, when a man opened his mouth to shout or to
+speak, a neighbor gave him a shove and bid him hold his tongue.  At this
+the widow held Mary's ankles more tightly, asking, while she wiped the
+drops from her brow:
+
+"What is going on?"  and the child answered quickly, never taking her
+eyes off the scene:
+
+"Look, look up at the balcony of the Curia; there stands the chief of the
+Senate--Alexander the dyer of purple--he often used to come to see my
+grandfather, and grandmother could not bear his wife.  And by his side--
+do you not see who the man is close by him?
+
+"It is old Horapollo.  He is taking the laurel-crown off his wig!--
+Alexander is going to speak."
+
+She was interrupted by another trumpet call, and immediately after a
+loud, manly voice was heard from the Curia, while the silence was so
+profound that even the widow and her daughter lost very little of the
+speech which followed:
+
+"Fellow-citizens, Memphites, and comrades in misfortune," the president
+began in slow, ringing tones, "you know what the sufferings are which we
+all share.  There is not a woe that has not befallen us, and even worse
+loom before us."
+
+The crowd expressed their agreement by a fearful outcry, but they were
+reduced to silence by the sound of the tuba, and the speaker went on:
+
+"We, the Senate, the fathers of the city, whom you have entrusted with
+the care of your persons and your welfare.  .  ."
+
+At this point he was interrupted by wild yells, and cries could be
+distinguished of: "Then take care of us--do your duty!"
+
+"Money bags!"
+
+"Keep your pledge!"
+
+"Save us from destruction!"
+
+The trumpet call, however, again silenced them, and the speaker went on,
+almost beside himself with vehement excitement.
+
+"Hearken!  Do not interrupt me!  The dearth and misery fall on our heads
+as much as on yours.  My own wife and son died of the plague last night!"
+
+At this only a low murmur ran through the crowd, and it died away of its
+own accord as the dignified old man on the balcony wiped his eyes and
+went on:
+
+"If there is a single man among you who can prove us guilty of neglect--a
+man, woman, or child--let him accuse us before God, before our new ruler
+the Khaliff, and yourselves, the citizens of Memphis; but not now,
+my fellow-sufferers, not now!  At this time cease your cries and
+lamentations; now when rescue is in sight.  Listen to me, and let us know
+what you feel with regard to the last and uttermost means of deliverance
+which I now come to propose to you."
+
+"Silence!  Hear him!  Down with the  noisy ones!"  was heard on all
+sides, and the orator went on:
+
+"We, as Christians, in the first instance addressed ourselves to our
+Father in Heaven, to our one and only divine Redeemer, and to His Holy
+Church to aid us; and I ask you:  Has there been any lack of prayers,
+processions, pilgrimages, and pious gifts?  No, no, my beloved fellow-
+citizens!  Each one be my witness--certainly not!  But Heaven has
+remained blind and deaf and dumb in sight of our need, yea as though
+paralyzed.  And yet no; not indeed paralyzed, for it has been powerful
+and swift to move only to heap new woes upon us.  Not a thing that human
+foresight and prudence could devise or execute has remained untried.
+
+"The time-honored arts of the magicians, sorcerers, and diviners, which
+aforetime have often availed to break the powers of evil spirits, have
+proved no less delusive and ineffectual.  So then we remembered our
+glorious forefathers and ancestors, and we recollected that a man lives
+in our midst who knew many things which we others have lost sight of in
+the lapse of years.  He has made the wisdom of our forefathers his own in
+the course of a long life of laborious days and nights.  He has the key
+to the writing and the secrets of the ancients, and he has communicated
+to us the means of deliverance to which they resorted, when they suffered
+from such afflictions as have befallen us in these dreadful days; and
+this venerable man at my side, the wise and truthful Horapollo, will
+acquaint us with it.  You see the antique scrolls in his hand:  They
+teach us the wonders it wrought in times past."
+
+"Here the speaker was interrupted by a cry of: "Hail Horapollo, the
+Deliverer!"  and thousands took it up and expressed their satisfaction
+and gratitude by loud shouting.
+
+The old man bowed modestly, pointed to his narrow chest and toothless
+mouth and then to the head of the Council as the man who had undertaken
+to transmit his opinion to the populace; so Alexander went on:
+
+"Great favors, my friends and fellow-citizens, must be purchased by great
+gifts.  The ancients knew this, and when the river--on which, as we know
+only too well, the weal or woe of this land solely depends--refused to
+rise, and its low ebb brought evils of many kinds upon its banks, they
+offered in sacrifice the thing they deemed most noble of all the earth
+has to show a pure and beautiful maiden.
+
+"It is just as we expected: you are horrified!  I hear your murmur, I see
+your horror-stricken faces; how can a Christian fail to be shocked at the
+thought of such a victim?  But is it indeed so extraordinary?  Have we
+ever wholly given up everything of the kind?  Which of us does not
+entreat Saint Orion, either at home or under the guidance of the priests
+in church, whenever he craves a gift from our splendid river; and this
+very year as usual, on the Night of Dropping, did we not cast into the
+waters a little box containing a human finger.
+
+     [So late as in the XIV. century after Christ the Egyptian Christians
+     still threw a small casket containing a human finger into the Nile
+     to induce it to rise.  This is confirmed by the trustworthy
+     Makrizi.]
+
+"This lesser offering takes the place of the greater and more precious
+sacrifice of the heathen; it has been offered, and its necessity has
+never at any time been questioned; even the severest and holiest
+luminaries of the Church--Antonius and Athanasius, Theophilus and
+Cyrillus had nothing to say against it, and year after year it has been
+thrown into the waters under their very eyes.
+
+"A finger in a box!  What a miserable exchange for the fairest and purest
+that God has allowed to move on earth among men.  Can we wonder if the
+Almighty has at last disdained and rejected the wretched substitute, and
+claims once more for His Nile that which was formerly given?  But where
+is the mother, where is the father, you will ask, who, in our selfish
+days, is so penetrated with love for his country, his province, his
+native town, that he will dedicate his virgin daughter to perish in the
+waters for the common good?  What daughter of our nation is ready of her
+own free will to die for the salvation of others?
+
+"But be not afraid.  Have no fears for the growing maiden, the very apple
+of your eye, in your women's rooms.  Fear not for your granddaughters,
+sisters, playfellows and betrothed:  From the earliest ages a stringent
+law forbade the sacrifice of Egyptian blood; strangers were to perish, or
+those who worshipped other gods than those in Egypt.
+
+"The same law, citizens and fellow-believers, is incumbent on us.  And
+mark me well, all of you!  Would it not seem as though Fate desired to
+help us to bring to our blessed Nile the offering which for so many
+centuries has been withheld?  The river claims it; and, as if by a
+miracle, it has been brought to our hand.  For a crime which does not
+taint her purity our judges have to-day condemned to death a beautiful
+and spotless maiden--a stranger, and at the same time a Greek and a
+heretic Melchite.
+
+"This  stirs you, this fills your souls with joyful thankfulness; I see
+it!  Then make ready for thy bridal, noble stream, Benefactor of our land
+and nation!  The virgin, the bride that thou hast longed for, we deck for
+thee, we lead to thine embrace--she shall be Thine!
+
+"And  you, Memphites, citizens  and  fellow-sufferers," and the orator
+leaned far over the parapet towards the crowd, "when I ask you for your
+suffrages, when I appeal to you in the name of the senate, and of this
+venerable sage...."
+
+But here he was interrupted by the triumphant shout of the assembled
+multitude; a thousand voices went up in a mighty, heaven-rending cry:
+
+"To the Nile with her--the maiden to the Nile!"
+
+"Marry the Melchite to the river!  Bring wreaths for the bride of the
+Nile, bring flowers for her marriage."
+
+"Let us abide by the teaching of our fathers!"
+
+"Hail to the councillor!  Hail to the sage, Horapollo!  Hail to our chief
+Senator!"
+
+These were the glad and enthusiastic shouts that rose in loud confusion;
+and it was only on the north side, where the money-changers' tables now
+stood deserted-for gold and silver had long since been placed in safety--
+that a sinister murmur of dissent was heard.  The little girl in the
+Persian's arms had long since been breathing hard and deep.  She thought
+she knew whom that fiend up there had his eye upon for his cursed heathen
+sacrifice; and as Mary bent down to Dame Joanna to see whether she shared
+her hideous suspicion, she perceived that her eyes and Pulcheria's were
+full of tears.--That was enough; she asked no questions, for a new act in
+the drama claimed her attention.
+
+Close to the money-changer's stalls a hand was lifted on high, holding a
+crucifix, and the child could see it steadily progressing through the
+crowd towards the Curia.  Every one made way for the sacred symbol and
+the bearer of it; and to Mary's fancy the throng parted on each side of
+the advancing image of the Redeemer, as the waters of the Red Sea had
+parted at the approach of the people of God.  The murmurs in that part of
+the square grew louder; the acclamations of the populace waxed fainter;
+every voice seemed to fail, and presently a frail figure in bishop's
+robes, small but rigidly dignified, was seen to mount the steps and
+finally disappear within the portals of the Curia.
+
+The turmoil sank like an ebbing wave to a low, enquiring mutter, and even
+this died away when the diminutive personage, who looked the taller,
+however, for the crucifix which he still held, came out on the balcony,
+approached the parapet, and stretched forth the arm that held the image
+above the heads of the foremost rows of the people.
+
+At this Horapollo stepped up to Alexander, his eyes flashing with rage,
+and demanded that the intruder should be forbidden to speak; but the
+commanding eye of the new-comer rested on the dyer, who bowed his head
+and allowed him to proceed.  Nor did one of the senators dare to hinder
+him, for every one recognized him as the zealous, learned, and determined
+priest who had, since yesterday, filled the place of the deceased bishop.
+
+Their new pastor began, addressing his flock in as loud a voice as he
+could command:
+
+"Look on this Cross and hearken to its minister!  You languish for the
+blessing of Christ, and you follow after heathen abominations.  The
+superstitious triumph, through which I have struggled to reach you, will
+be turned to howls of anguish if you stop your ears and are deaf to the
+words of salvation.
+
+"Yea, you may murmur!  You will not reduce me to silence, for Truth
+speaks in me and can never be dumb.  I say to each of you that knows it
+not:  The staff of the departed Plotinus has been placed in my hands.
+I would fain bear it with gentleness and mercy; but, if I must, I will
+wield it as a sword and a scourge till your wounds bleed and your bruises
+ache.
+
+"Behold in my right hand the image of your Redeemer!  I hold it up as a
+wall between you and the heathen abomination which you hail with joy in
+your blindness.
+
+"Ye are accursed and apostate.  Lift up your hearts, and look at Him who
+died on the cross to save you.  Verily He will not let him perish who
+believeth in Him; but you!  where is your faith?  Because it is
+night ye lament and cry:  The Light is dead!'  Because ye are sick ye
+say: 'The physician cannot heal!'
+
+"What are these blasphemies that I hear: 'The Lord and His Church are
+powerless!  Magic, enchantments, and heathen abominations may save us.'
+--But, inasmuch as ye trust not in the true Saviour and Redeemer, but in
+heathen wickedness, magic, and enchantments, punishment shall be heaped
+on punishment; and so it will be,--I see it coming--till ye are choked
+in the mud and seek with groans the only Hand that is able to save.
+
+"That whereby the blinded sons of men hope to escape from the evil, that,
+and that only, is the source of their sufferings and I stand here to stay
+that spring and dig a channel for its overflow.
+
+"Children of Moloch ye try to be and I hope to make you Christians again.
+But the maiden whom your fury would cast into the abyss of the river is
+under the merciful protection of the supreme Church, for the death of her
+body will bring death to your souls.  Saint Orion turns from you with
+horror!  Away from the hapless victim!  Away, I say, with your accursed
+desires and sacrilegious hands!"
+
+"And sit with them in our laps and wring them in prayer till they ache,
+while want and the plague snatch away those that are left!"  interrupted
+the old man's voice, thin and feeble, but audible at a considerable
+distance, and from the market-place thousands proclaimed their approval
+by loud shouts.
+
+The president of the senate had listened with a penitent mien and bowed
+head, but now he recovered his presence of mind and exclaimed
+indignantly:
+
+"The people die, the town and country are going to ruin, plague and
+horrors rise up from the river.  Show us some other way of escape,
+or let us trust to our forefathers and try this last means."
+
+But the litttle man drew himself up more stiffly, pointed with his left
+hand to the crucifix, and cried with unmoved composure:
+
+"Believe, hope, and pray!"
+
+"Perhaps you think that no evil is come upon us!"  cried Alexander.
+"You, to be sure, have seen no wife with glazing eyes, no child
+struggling for breath.  .  .  ."  And a fresh tumult came up from below,
+wilder and louder than ever.  Each one whose home or beasts had been
+blighted by death, whose gardens and fields had perished of drought,
+whose dates had dropped one by one from the trees, lifted up his voice
+and shrieked:
+
+"The victim, the victim!"
+
+"To the river with the maiden!"
+
+"All hail to our deliverer, the wise Horapollo!"  But others shouted
+against them:
+
+"Let us remain Christians!  Hail to Bishop John!"
+
+"Think of our souls!"
+
+The prelate made an effort once more to rivet the attention of the
+populace, and failing in this he turned to the senators and the
+trumpeters, whom at length he succeeded in persuading to blow again and
+again, and more loudly through their brazen tuba.  But the call produced
+no effect, for in the market square groups had formed on opposite sides,
+and blows and wrestling threatened to end in a sanguinary street-riot.
+
+The women succeeded in getting away from the scene of action under the
+protection of the Masdakite, before the Arab cavalry rode across to
+separate the combatants; but in the Curia Bishop John explained to the
+Fathers that he would make every effort to prevent this inhuman and
+unchristian sacrifice of a young girl, even though she was a Melchite
+and under sentence of death.  This very day a carrier pigeon should be
+dispatched to the patriarch in Upper Egypt, and bring back his decision.
+
+When, on this, Horapollo replied that the Khaliff's representative here
+had signified his consent to the proceedings, and that even against the
+will of the clergy the misery of the people must be put an end to, the
+Bishop broke out vehemently and threatened all who had first suggested
+this hideous scheme with the anathema of the Church.  But Horapollo
+retorted again with flaming eloquence, the desperate Senators took his
+part, and the Bishop left the Curia in the highest wrath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Few things could be more intolerable to the gentle and retiring widow
+than such a riot of the people.  The unchained passion, the tumult, and
+all the vulgar accessories that surrounded her there grieved her tender
+nature; all through the old man's speech she had felt nothing but the
+desire to escape, but as soon as she had acquired the certainty that
+Paula was the hapless being whom her terrible house-mate was preparing to
+hand over to the superstition of the mob, she thought no more of getting
+home, but waited in the crush till at length she and the two children
+could be conducted by Rustem to the prison, though the way thither was
+through the most crowded streets.
+
+Had the nameless horrors that hung over Paula already found their way to
+her ears through the prisonwalls, or might it yet be her privilege to be
+able to prepare the girl for the worst, and to comfort the victim who
+must already have been driven to the verge of desperation by the sentence
+of death?
+
+On the previous day the chief warder had acceded without demur to her
+wish to see Paula, for the Kadi had enjoined him to show her and Orion
+all possible courtesy, but the Vekeel's threats made him now refuse to
+admit Dame Joanna.  However, while he was talking with her, his infant
+son stretched out his arms to Pulcheria, who had played with him the day
+before in her sweet way, and she now took him up and kissed him, thus
+bringing a kindly feeling to three hearts at once; and most of all to
+that of the child's mother who immediately interested herself for them,
+and persuaded her husband to oblige them once more.
+
+Pretty Emau had always waited on the mirthful Orion, under the palms by
+her father's inn, more gladly than on most other guests; and her husband
+who, after the manner of the Egyptians, was docile to his better half
+though till now he had not been quite free from jealousy, was even more
+ready to serve his benefactor's son since hearing that he was betrothed
+to the fair Paula.
+
+There was a great uproar in the large common prison to-day, as usual when
+the judges had passed sentence of death on any criminal, and the women
+shuddered as the miserable wretches hallooed and bellowed.  Many a shriek
+came up, of which it was hard to say whether it was the expression of
+wild defiance or of bitter jesting, and no more suitable accompaniment
+could be conceived to this terrific riot than the clank of chains.
+
+When the women reached Paula's cell their hearts throbbed painfully, for
+within the door which the warder unlocked anguish and despair must dwell.
+
+The prisoner was standing at the window, pressing her brow against the
+iron bars and listening to the lute played by her lover, which sounded,
+amid the turmoil of the other prisoners, like a bell above the roar of
+thunder and the storm.  By the bed sat Betta on a low stool, asleep with
+the distaff in her lap; and neither she nor her mistress heeded the
+entrance of the visitors.  A miserable lamp lighted the squalid room.
+
+Mary would have flown to her friend, but Joanna held her back and called
+Paula tenderly by name in a low voice.  But Paula did not hear; her soul
+was no doubt absorbed in anguish and the terror of death.  The widow now
+raised her voice, and the ill-fated girl turned round; then, with a
+little cry of joy, she hastened to meet the faithful creatures who could
+find her even in prison, and clasped first the widow, then Pulcheria,
+then the child in a tender embrace.  Joanna put her hands fondly round
+her face to kiss it, and to see how far fear and affliction had altered
+her lovely features, and a faint cry of astonishment escaped her, for she
+was looking, not at a grief and terror-stricken face, but a glad and calm
+one, and a pair of large eyes looked brightly and gratefully into hers.
+
+Had she not been told then what was hanging over her?  Nay--for she at
+once asked whether they had heard that she was condemned to die.  And she
+went on to tell them how things had gone with her at her trial, and how
+her good Philip's friend and foster-father had suddenly and inexplicably
+become her bitterest foe.
+
+At this the others could not check their tears; it was Paula who had to
+comfort and soothe them, by telling them that she had found a paternal
+friend in the Kadi who had promised to intercede for her with the
+Khaliff.
+
+Dame Joanna could scarcely take it all in.  This girl and her heroic
+demeanor, in the face of such disaster, seemed to her miraculous.  Her
+trust was beautiful; but how easily might it be deceived!  how insecure
+was the ground in which she had cast the anchor of hope.
+
+Even little Mary seemed more troubled than her friend, and threw herself
+sobbing on her bosom.  And Paula returned her fondness, and tried to
+mollify Pulcheria as to the disgraceful conduct of their old housemate,
+and smiled kindly at the widow when she asked where she had found such
+composure in the face of so much misfortune, saying that it was from her
+example that she had learnt resignation to the worst that could befall
+her.  Even in this dark hour she found more to be thankful for than to
+lament over; indeed, it had brought her a glorious joy.  And this for the
+first time reminded Joanna and the girls that she was now betrothed, and
+again she was clasped in their loving arms.
+
+Just then the warder rapped; Paula rose thoughtfully, and exclaimed in a
+low voice: "I have something to send to Orion that I dare not entrust to
+a stranger: but now, now I have you, my Mary, and you shall take it to
+him."
+
+As she spoke she took out the emerald, gave it to the little girl, and
+charged her to deliver it to her uncle as soon as they should be alone
+together.  In the little note which she had wrapped around it she
+implored her lover to regard it as his own property, and to use it to
+satisfy the claims of the Church.
+
+The man was easily induced to take Mary to her uncle; and how happily she
+ran on before him up to Orion's cell, how great was his joy at seeing her
+again, how gratefully he pressed the emerald to his lips!  But when she
+exclaimed that her prophecy had been fulfilled, and that Paula, was now
+his, his brow was knit as he replied, with gloomy regret, that though he
+had won the woman he loved, it was only to lose her again.
+
+"But the Kadi is your friend and will gain pardon from the Khaliff!"
+cried the child.
+
+"But then another enemy suddenly starts up: Horapollo !"
+
+"Oh, our old man!"  and the child ground her teeth.  "If you did but
+know, Orion!--And to think that I must live under the same roof with
+him!"
+
+"You!"  asked the young man.
+
+"Yes, I.  And Pulcheria, and Mother Joanna," and Mary went on to tell him
+how the old man had come to live with them and Orion could guess from
+various indications that she was concealing some important fact; so he
+pressed her to keep nothing from him, till the child could not at last
+evade telling him all she had seen and heard.
+
+At this he lost all caution and self-control.  Quite beside himself he
+called aloud the name of his beloved, invoking in passionate tones the
+return of the Governor Amru, the only man who could help them in this
+crisis.  His sole hope was in him.  He had shown himself a real father to
+him, and had set him a difficult but a noble task.
+
+"Into which you have plunged over head and ears!"  cried the child.
+
+"I thought it all out while on my journey," replied Orion.  "I tried
+yesterday to write out a first sketch of it, but I lacked what I most
+wanted: maps and lists.  Nilus had put them all up together; I was to
+have taken them with me on the voyage with the nuns, and I ordered that
+they should be carried to the house of Rufinus.  .  .  ."
+
+"That they should come to us?"  interrupted the child with sparkling
+eyes.  "Oh, they are all there!  I saw the documents myself, when the
+chest was cleared out for old Horapollo, and to-morrow, quite early to-
+morrow, you shall have them."  Orion kissed her brow with glad haste;
+then, striking the wall of his cell with his fist, he waited till
+something had been withdrawn with a grating sound on the other side, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"Good  news, Nilus!  The plans and lists  are found: I shall have them
+to-morrow!"
+
+"That is well!"  replied the treasurer's thin voice from the adjoining
+room.  "We shall need something to comfort us!  A prisoner has just been
+brought in for having attacked an Arab horseman in a riot in the market
+square.  He tells me some dreadful news."
+
+"Concerning my betrothed?"
+
+"Alas!  yes, my lord."
+
+"Then I know it already," replied the young man; and after exchanging a
+few words with his master with reference to the old man's atrocious
+proposal, Nilus went on:
+
+"My prison-mate tells me, too, that while he was in custody in the guard-
+house the Arabs were speaking of a messenger from the governor announcing
+his arrival at Medina, and also that he intended making only a short stay
+there.  So we may expect his return before long."
+
+"Then he will have started long before the Kadi's messenger can have
+arrived and laid the petition for pardon before the Khaliff!--We have no
+hope but in Amru; if only we could send information to him on his way..."
+
+"He would certainly not tarry in Upper Egypt, but hasten his journey, or
+send on a plenipotentiary," said the voice on the other side of the wall.
+"If we had but a trusty man to despatch!  Our people are scattered to the
+four winds, and to hunt them up now.  .  .  ."
+
+At this Mary's childish tones broke in with: "I can find a messenger."
+
+"You?  What are you thinking of, child?"  said Orion.  She did not heed
+his remonstrance, but went on eagerly, quite sure of her own meaning:
+
+"He shall be told everything, everything!  Ought he to know what I heard
+about your share in the flight of the sisters?"
+
+"No, no; on no account!"  cried Nilus and his master both at once; and
+Mary understood that her proposition was accepted.  She clapped her
+hands, and exclaimed full of enterprise and with glowing cheeks:
+
+"The messenger shall start to-morrow; rely on me.  I can do it as well as
+the greatest.  And now tell me exactly the road he is to take.  To make
+sure, write the names of the stages on my little tablet.--But wait, I
+must rub it smooth."
+
+"What is  this on the wax?"  asked Orion.  "A large  heart with squares
+all over it.--And  that means?"
+
+"Oh! mere nonsense," said the child somewhat abashed.  "It was only to
+show how my heart was divided among the persons I love.  A whole half of
+it belongs to Paula, this quarter is yours; but there, there, there," and
+at each word she prodded the wax with the stylus, "that is where I had
+kept a little corner for old Horapollo.  He had better not come in my way
+again!"
+
+Her nimble fingers smoothed the wax, and over the effaced heart--
+a child's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human
+beings depended.  He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's
+adroitness and fidelity.  Early next morning she was to receive a letter
+to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers.
+
+"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by the
+mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer.  "If we put together our
+last gold pieces they will hardly suffice."
+
+"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl.  "And yet--
+there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the same
+time.  .  .  ."
+
+"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!"  cried
+Orion.
+
+"Oh yes, yes!  What do I want with them?  But Dame Joanna has my mother's
+things in her keeping."
+
+"And you are afraid to ask her for them?"  asked the young man.  He
+appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion
+took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her to
+hand it to Joanna.  Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she
+would require on this gem.  Mary joyfully took possession of the ring;
+but presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction
+suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion as
+if they were parting for ever.
+
+In the passage leading to Paula's cell the man suddenly stood still: some
+one was approaching up the stairs.--If it should be the black Vekeel, and
+he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour!
+
+But no.  Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their
+light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had
+often been here before now to console prisoners.
+
+He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned
+Melchite.  Mary's dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not
+belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt who
+she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always
+accompanied him when he visited a female prisoner: "We find her here!"
+And when he had ascertained with whom the child had come hither at so
+late an hour, he turned again to his colleague and added in a low voice:
+
+"The wife and daughter of Rufinus!  Just so: I have long had my eye on
+these Greeks.  In church once or twice every year!--Melchites in
+disguise!  Allied with this Melchite!  And this is the school in which
+the Mukaukas' granddaughter is growing up!  An abominable trick!
+Benjamin judged rightly, as he always did!"  Then, in a subdued voice, he
+asked:
+
+"Shall we take her away with us at once?"  But, as the deacon made
+objections, he hastily replied: "You are right; for the present it is
+enough that we know where she is to be found."
+
+The warder meanwhile had opened Paula's cell; before the bishop went in
+he spoke a few kind words to the child, asking her whether she did not
+long to see her mother; and when Mary replied: "Very often!"  he stroked
+her hair with his bony hand and said:
+
+"So I thought.--You have a pretty name, child, and you, like your mother,
+will perhaps ere long dedicate your life to the Blessed among women,
+whose name you bear."  And, holding the little girl by the hand, he
+entered the cell.  While Paula looked in amazement at the prelate who
+came so late a visitor, Joanna and Pulcheria recognized him as the brave
+ecclesiastic who had so valiantly opposed the old sage and the misled
+populace, and they bowed with deep reverence.  This the bishop observed,
+and came to the conclusion that these Greeks perhaps after all belonged
+to his Church.  At any rate, the child might safely be left in their care
+a few days longer.
+
+After he had exchanged a few cordial words with them the widow prepared
+to withdraw, and was about to take leave when he went up to her and
+announced that he would pay her a visit the next day or the day after;
+that he wished to speak with her of matters involving the happiness of
+one who was dear to them both, and Dame Joanna, believing that he
+referred to Paula, whispered:
+
+"She has no idea as yet of the terrible fate the people have in store for
+her.  If possible, spare her the fearful truth before she sleeps this
+night."
+
+"If possible," repeated the prelate.  Then, as Mary kissed his hand
+before leaving, he drew her to him and said: "Like the Infant Christ,
+every Christian child is the Mother's.  You, Mary, are chosen before
+thousands!  The Lord took your father to himself as a martyr; your mother
+has dedicated herself to Heaven.  Your road is marked out for you, child,
+reflect on this.  To-morrow-no, the day after, I will see you and guide
+you in the new path."
+
+At these words Joanna turned pale.  She now understood what the bishop's
+purpose was in calling on her.  At the bottom of the stairs, she threw
+her arms round the child and asked her in--a low voice: "Do you pine for
+the cloister--do you wish to go away from us like your mother, to think
+of nothing but saving your soul, to live a nun in the holy seclusion
+which Pulcheria has described to you so often?"
+
+But this the child positively denied; and as Joanna's head drooped
+anxiously and sadly, Mary looked up brightly and exclaimed: "Never fear,
+Mother dear!  Things will have altered greatly by the day after tomorrow.
+Let the bishop come!  I shall be a match for him!--Oh! you do not know me
+yet.  I have been like a lamb among you through all this misfortune and
+serious trouble; but there is something more in me than that.  You will
+be quite astonished!"
+
+"Nay, nay.  Remain what you are," the widow said.
+
+"Always and ever full of love for you and Pul.  But I am a grand and
+trusted person now!  I have something very important to do for Orion
+to-morrow.  Something--Rustem will go with me.--Important, very
+important, Mother Joanna.  But what it is I must not tell--not even you!"
+
+Here she was interrupted, for the heavy prison door opened for their
+exit.
+
+It was many hours before it was again unlocked to let out the bishop, so
+long was he detained talking to Paula in her cell.
+
+To his enquiry as to whether she was an orthodox Greek, or as the common
+people called it, a Melchite, she replied that she was the latter; adding
+that, if he had come with a view to perverting her from the confession
+of her forefathers, his visit was thrown away; at the same time she
+reverenced him as a Christian and a priest; as a learned man, and the
+friend whom her deceased uncle had esteemed above every other minister of
+his confession; she was gladly ready to disclose to him all that lay on
+her soul in the face of death.  He looked into the pure, calm face; and
+though, at her first declaration, he had felt prompted to threaten her
+with the hideous end which he had but just done his utmost to avert, he
+now remembered the Greek widow's request and bound himself to keep
+silence.
+
+He allowed her to talk till midnight, giving him the whole history of all
+she had known of joy and sorrow in the course of her young life; his keen
+insight searched her soul, his pious heart rose to meet the strength and
+courage of hers; and when he quitted her, as he walked home with the
+deacon, the first words with which he broke a long silence were:
+
+"While you were asleep, God vouchsafed me an edifying hour through that
+heretic child of earth."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+When the door in the tall prison-wall was closed behind the women, Joanna
+made her way through streets still sultry under the silence of the night,
+Rustem following with the child.
+
+The giant's good heart was devoted to Mary, and he often passed his huge
+hand over his eyes while she told him all that the scene they had
+witnessed meant, and the fearful end that threatened Paula.  He broke
+in now and again, giving utterance to his grief and wrath in strange,
+natural sounds; for he looked up to his beautiful sick nurse as to a
+superior being, and Mandane, too, had often remarked that they could
+never forget all that the noble maiden had done for them.
+
+"If only," Rustem cried at length, clenching his powerful fist, "If only
+I could--they should see.  .  .  ."  and the child looked up with shrewd,
+imploring eyes, exclaiming eagerly:
+
+"But you could, Rustem, you could!"
+
+"I?"  asked Rustem in surprise, and he shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, you, Rustem; you of all men.  We were talking over something in the
+prison, and if only you were ready and willing to help us in the matter."
+
+"Willing!"  laughed the worthy fellow striking his heart; and he went on
+in his strangely-broken Greek, which was, however, quite intelligible:
+"I would give hair and skin for the noble lady.  You have only to speak
+out."
+
+The child clung to the big man with both hands and drew him to her
+saying: "We knew you had a grate ful heart.  But you see.  .  ."  and she
+interrupted herself to ask in an altered voice:
+
+"Do you believe in a God?  or stay--do you know what a sacred oath is?
+Can you swear solemnly?  Yes, yes.  .  ."  and drawing herself up as tall
+as possible she went on very seriously: "Swear by your bride Mandane--as
+truly as you believe that she loves you.  .  ."
+
+"But, sweet soul...."
+
+"Swear that you will never betray to a living soul what I am going to
+say--not even to Mother Joanna and Pulcheria; no, nor even to your
+Mandane, unless you find you cannot help it and she gives her sacred
+word...."
+
+"What is it?  You quite frighten me!  What am I to swear?"
+
+"Not to reveal what I am now going to tell you."
+
+"Yes, yes, little Mistress; I can promise you that."  Mary sighed, a
+long-drawn "Ah ...!"  and told him that a trustworthy messenger must be
+found to go forth to meet Amru, so as to be in time to save Paula.  Then
+came the question whether he knew the road over the hills from Babylon to
+the ancient town of Berenice; and when he replied that he had lately
+travelled that way, and that it was the shortest road to the sea for
+Djidda and Medina, she repeated her satisfied "Ah!"  took his hand, and
+went on with coaxing but emphatic entreaty while she played with his big
+fingers: "And now, best and kindest Rustem, in all Memphis there is but
+one really trusty messenger; but he, you see, is betrothed, and so he
+would rather get married and go home with his bride than help us to save
+the life of poor Paula."
+
+"The cur!"  growled the Persian.
+
+At this Mary laughed out: "Yes, the cur!"  and went on gaily: "But you
+are abusing yourself, you stupid Rustem.  You, you are the messenger I
+mean, the only faithful and trustworthy one far or near.  You, you must
+meet the governor...."
+
+"I!"  said the man, and he stood still with amazement; but Mary pulled
+him onward, saying: "But come on, or the others will notice something.--
+Yes, you, you must...."
+
+"But child, child," interrupted Rustem lamentably,
+
+"I must go back to my master; and you see, common right and justice...."
+
+"You do not choose to leave your sweetheart; not even if the kind
+creature who watched over you day and night should die for it--die the
+most cruel and horrible death!  You were ready enough to call that other,
+as you supposed, a cur--that other whom no one nursed till he was well
+again; but as for yourself.  .  .  ."
+
+"Have patience then!  Hear me, little Mistress!"  Rustem broke in again,
+and pulled away his hand.  "I am quite willing to wait and Mandane must
+just submit.  But one man is not good for all tasks.  To ride, or guide a
+train of merchandise, to keep the cameldrivers in order, to pitch a camp-
+--all that I can do; but to parley with grand folks, to go straight up to
+such a man as the great chief Amru with prayers and supplications--all
+that, you see, sweetheart--even if it were to save my own father, that
+would be...."
+
+"But who asks you to do all that?"  said the child.  "You may stand as
+mute as a fish: it will be your companion's business to do the talking."
+
+"There is to be another one then?  But, great Masdak!  I hope that will
+be enough at any rate!"
+
+"Why will you constantly interrupt me?"  the little girl put in.  "Listen
+first and raise objections after wards.  The second messenger--now open
+your ears wide--it is I, I myself;--but if you stand still again, you
+will really betray me.  The long and short of it is, that as surely as I
+mean to save Paula, I mean to go forth to meet Amru, and if you refuse to
+go with me I will set out alone and try whether Gibbus the hunchback...."
+
+Rustem had needed some time to collect his senses after this stupendous
+surprise, but now he exclaimed: "You--you--to Berenice, and  over the
+mountains.  .  .  ."
+
+"Yes, over the mountains," she repeated, "and if need be, through the
+clouds."
+
+"But such a thing was never heard of, never heard of on this earth!"  the
+Persian remonstrated.  "A girl, a little lady like you--a messenger, and
+all alone with a clumsy fellow like me.  No, no, no!"
+
+"And again no, and a hundred times over no!"  cried the child merrily.
+"The little lady will stop at home and you will take a boy with you--a
+boy called Marius, not Mary."
+
+"A boy!  But I thought.--It is enough to puzzle one...."
+
+"A boy who is a girl and a boy in one," laughed Mary.  "But if you must
+have it in plain words: I shall dress up as a boy to go with you;
+to-morrow when we set out you will see, you will take me for my own
+brother."
+
+"Your own brother!  With a little face like yours!  Then the most
+impossible things will become possible," cried Rustem laughing, and he
+looked down good humoredly at the little girl.  But suddenly the
+preposterousness of her scheme rose again before his mind, and he
+exclaimed half-frantically: "But then my master!--It will not do--It will
+never do!"
+
+"It is for his sake that you will do us this service," said Mary
+confidently.  "He is Paula's friend and protector; and when he hears what
+you have done for her he will praise you, while if you leave us in the
+lurch I am quite sure.  .  .  "
+
+"Well?"
+
+"That he will say: 'I  thought  Rustem was a shrewder man and had a
+better heart.'"
+
+"You really think he will say that?"
+
+"As surely as our house stands before us!--Well, we have no time for any
+more discussion, so it is settled: we start together.  Let me find you in
+the garden early to-morrow morning.  You must tell your Mandane that you
+are called away by important business."
+
+"And Dame Joanna?"  asked the Persian, and his voice was grave and
+anxious as he went on: "The thing I like least, child, is that you should
+not ask her, and take her into your confidence."
+
+"But she will hear all about it, only not immediately," replied Mary.
+"And the day after to-morrow, when she knows what I have gone off for and
+that you are with me, she will praise us and bless us; yes, she will, as
+surely as I hope that the Almighty will succor us in our journey!"
+
+At these words, which evidently came from the very depths of her heart,
+the Masdakite's resistance altogether gave way--just in time, for their
+walk was at an end, and they both felt as though the long distance had
+been covered by quite a few steps.  They had passed close to several
+groups of noisy and quarrelsome citizens, and many a funeral train had
+borne the plague-stricken dead to the grave by torchlight under their
+very eyes, but they had heeded none of these things.
+
+It was not till they reached the garden-gate that they observed what was
+going on around them.  There they found the gardener and all the
+household, anxiously watching for the return of their belated mistress.
+Eudoxia too was waiting for them with some alarm.  In the house they were
+met by Horapollo, but Joanna and Pulcheria returned his greeting with a
+cold bow, while Mary purposely turned her back on him.  The old man
+shrugged his shoulders with regretful annoyance, and in the solitude of
+his own room he muttered to himself:
+
+"Oh, that woman!  She will be the ruin even of the peaceful days I hoped
+to enjoy during the short remainder of my life!"
+
+The widow and her daughter for some time sat talking of Mary.  She had
+bid them good-night as devotedly and tenderly as though they were parting
+for life.  Poor child!  She had forebodings of the terrible fate to which
+the bishop, and perhaps her own mother had predestined her.
+
+But Mary did not look as if she were going to meet misfortune; Eudoxia,
+who slept by her side, was rejoiced on the contrary at seeing her so gay;
+only she was surprised to see the child, who usually fell asleep as soon
+as her little head was on the pillow, lying awake so long this evening.
+The elderly Greek, who suffered from a variety of little ailments and
+always went to sleep late, could not help watching the little girl's
+movements.
+
+What was that?  Between midnight and dawn Mary sprang from her bed, threw
+on her clothes, and stole into the next room with the night-lamp in her
+hand.  Presently a brighter light shone through the door-way.  She must
+have lighted a lamp,-and presently, hearing the door of the sitting-room
+opened, Eudoxia rose and noiselessly watched her.  Mary immediately
+returned, carrying a boy's clothes--a suit, in point of fact, which
+Pulcheria and Eudoxia had lately been making as a Sunday garb--for the
+lame gardener's boy.  The child smilingly tried on the little blue tunic;
+then, after tossing the clothes into a chest, she sat down at the table
+to write.  But she seemed to have set herself some hard task; for now she
+looked down at the papyrus and rubbed her forehead, and now she gazed
+thoughtfully into vacancy.  She had written a few sentences when she
+started up, called Eudoxia by name, and went towards the sleeping-room.
+
+Eudoxia went forward to meet her; Mary threw herself into her arms, and
+before her governess could ask any questions she told her that she had
+been chosen to accomplish a great and important action.  She had been
+intending to wake her, to make her her confidant and to ask her advice.
+
+How sweet and genuine it all sounded, and how charmingly confused she
+seemed in spite of the ardent zeal that inspired her!
+
+Eudoxia's heart went forth to her; the words of reproof died on her lips,
+and for the first time she felt as though the orphaned child were her
+own; as though their joy and grief were one; as though she, who all her
+life long had thought only of herself and her own advantage, and who had
+regarded her care of Mary as a mere return in kind for a salary and home,
+were ready and willing to sacrifice herself and her last coin for this
+child.  So, when the little girl now threw her arms round Eudoxia's neck,
+imploring her not to betray her, but, on the contrary, to help her in the
+good work which aimed at nothing less than the rescue of Paula and Orion-
+the imperilled victims of Fate, her dry eyes sparkled through tears; she
+kissed Mary's burning cheeks once more and called her her own dear, dear
+little daughter.  This gave the child courage; with tragical dignity,
+which brought a smile to the governess' lips, she took Eudoxia's bible
+from the desk, and said, fixing her beseeching gaze on the Greek's face:
+
+"Swear!--nay, you must be quite  grave,  for nothing can be more solemn--
+swear not to tell a soul, not even Mother Joanna, what I want to confess
+to you."
+
+Eudoxia promised, but she would take no oath.  "Yea, yea, and nay, nay,"
+was the oath of the Christian by the law of the Lord; but Mary clung to
+her, stroked her thin cheeks, and at last declared she could not say a
+word unless Eudoxia yielded.  In such an hour the Greek could not resist
+this tender coaxing; she allowed Mary to take possession of her hand and
+lay it on the Bible; and when once this was done Eudoxia gave way, and
+with much head shaking repeated the oath that her pupil dictated, though
+much against her will.
+
+After this the governess threw herself on the divan, as if exhausted and
+shocked at her own weakness; and the little girl took advantage of her
+victory, seating herself at her feet, and telling her all she knew about
+Paula and the perils that threatened her and Orion; and she was artful
+enough to give special prominence to Orion's danger, having long since
+observed how high he stood in Eudoxia's good graces.  So far Eudoxia had
+not ceased stroking her hair, while she assented to everything that was
+said; but when she heard that Mary proposed to undertake the embassy to
+Amru herself, she started to her feet in horror, and declared most
+positively that she would never, never consent to such rashness,
+to such fatal folly.
+
+Mary now brought to bear her utmost resources of persuasion and flattery.
+There was no other fit messenger to be found, and the lives of Orion and
+Paula were at stake.  Was a ride across the mountains such a tremendous
+matter after all?  How well she knew how to manage a beast, and how
+little she suffered from the heat!  Had she not ridden more than once
+from Memphis to their estates by the seaboard?  And faithful Rustem would
+be always with her, and the road over the mountains was the safest in all
+the country, with frequent stations for the accommodation of travellers.
+Then, if they found Amru, she could give a more complete report than any
+other living soul.
+
+But Eudoxia was not to be shaken; though she admitted that Mary's project
+was not so entirely crazy as it had at first appeared.
+
+At this the little girl began again; after reminding Eudoxia once more of
+her oath, she went on to tell her of the doom she herself hoped to escape
+by setting out on her errand.  She told Eudoxia of her meeting with the
+bishop, and that even Joanna was uneasy as to her future fate.  Ah!  that
+life within walls under lock and key seemed to her so frightful--and she
+pictured her terrors, her love of freedom and of a busy, useful, active
+life among men and her friends, and her hope that the great general,
+Amru, would defend her against every one if once she could place herself
+under his protection--painting it all so vividly, so passionately, and so
+pathetically, that the governess was softened.
+
+She clasped her hands over her eyes, which were streaming with tears, and
+exclaimed: "It is horrible, unheard-of--still, perhaps it is the best
+thing to do.  Well, go to meet the governor,--ride off, ride off!"
+
+And when the sweet, warm-hearted, joyous creature clang round her neck
+she was glad of her own weakness: this fair, fresh, and blooming bud of
+humanity should not pine in confinement and seclusion; she should find
+and give happiness, to her own joy and that of all good souls, and unfold
+to a full and perfect flower.  And Eudoxia knew the widow well; she knew
+that Joanna would by-and-bye understand why she helped the child to
+escape the greatest peril that can hang over a human soul: that of living
+in perpetual conflict with itself in the effort to become something
+totally different from what, by natural gifts and inclinations, it is
+intended to be.
+
+With a sigh of anguish Eudoxia reflected what she herself, forced by
+cruel fate and lacking freedom and pleasurable ease, had become, from an
+ardent and generous young creature; and she, the narrow-hearted teacher,
+could make allowances for the strange, adventurous yearning of a child,
+where a larger souled woman might have derided, and blamed and repressed
+it.
+
+When it was daylight Eudoxia fulfilled the offices she commonly left
+to the maid: she arranged Mary's hair, talking to her and listening the
+while, as though in this night the child had developed into a woman.
+Then she went into the garden with her, and hardly let her out of her
+sight.
+
+At breakfast Joanna and Pulcheria wondered at her singular behavior, but
+it did not displease them, and Marv was radiant with contentment.
+
+The widow made no objection to allowing the child to go into the city to
+execute her uncle's mysterious commission.  Rustem was with her; and
+whatever it was that made the child so happy must certainly be right and
+unobjectionable.  Orion's maps and lists were sent to the prison early in
+the day, and before the child set out with her stalwart escort Gibbus had
+returned with the prisoner's letter to the Arab governor.
+
+On their way it was agreed that Mary should join Rustem at dusk at the
+riverside inn of Nesptah.  In these clays of famine and death beasts of
+burthen of every description were easily procurable, as well as
+attendants and guides; and the Masdakite, who was experienced in such
+matters, thought it best to purchase none but swift dromedaries and to
+carry only a light tent for the "little mistress!"
+
+At the door of Gamaliel's shop Mary bid him wait; the jovial goldsmith
+welcomed her with genuine pleasure....
+
+What had befallen the house of the Mukaukas!  Fire had destroyed the
+dwelling-place of justice, like the Egyptian cities to whom the prophet
+had announced a similar fate a thousand years since.
+
+Gamaliel knew in what peril Orion stood, and the fate that hung over the
+noble maiden who had once given him the costliest of gems, and afterwards
+entrusted to him a portion of her fortune.
+
+To see any member of his patron's family alive and well rejoiced his
+heart.  He asked Mary one sympathizing question after another, and his
+wife wanted to give her some of her good apricot tarts; but the little
+girl begged Gamaliel to grant her at once a private interview, so the
+jeweller led her into his little work-shop, bidding her trust him
+entirely, for whatever a grandchild of Mukaukas George might ask
+of him it was granted beforehand.
+
+Blushing with confusion she took Orion's ring out of its wrapper, offered
+it to the Jew, and desired him to give her whatever was right.
+
+She looked enquiringly into his face with her bright eyes, in full
+confidence that the kind-hearted man would at once pay her down gold
+coins and to spare; but he did not even take the ring out of her hand.
+He merely glanced at it, and said gravely:
+
+"Nay, my little maid, we do not do business with children."
+
+"But I want the money, Gamaliel," she urged.  "I must have it."
+
+"Must?"  he repeated with a smile.  "Well, must is a nail that drives
+through wood, no doubt; but if it hits iron it is apt to bend.  Not that
+I am so hard as that; but money, money, money!  And whose money do you
+mean, little maid?  If you want money of mine to spend in bread, or in
+cakes, which is more likely, I will shut my eyes and put my hand boldly
+into my wallet; but, if I am not mistaken, you are well provided for by
+Rufinus the Greek, in whose house there is no lack of anything; and I
+have a nice round sum in my own keeping which your grandfather placed in
+my hands at interest two years since, with a remark that it was a legacy
+to you from your godmother, and the papers stand in your name; so your
+necessity looks very like what other folks would call ease."
+
+"Necessity!  I am in no necessity," Mary broke in.  "But I want the money
+all the same; and if I have some of my own, and you perhaps have it there
+in your box, give me as much of it as I want."
+
+"As much as you want?"  laughed the jeweller.  "Not so fast, little maid.
+Before such matters can be settled here in Egypt we must have plenty of
+time, and papyrus and ink, a grand law court, sixteen witnesses, a
+Kyrios.  .  ."
+
+"Well then, buy the ring!  You are such a good, kind man Gamaliel.  Just
+to please me.  Why, you yourself do not really think that I want to buy
+cakes!"
+
+"No.  But in these hard times, when so many are starving, a soft heart
+may be moved to other follies."
+
+"No indeed!  Do buy the ring; and if you will do me this favor.  .  ."
+
+"Old Gamaliel will be both a rogue and a simpleton!--Have you forgotten
+the emerald?  I bought that, and a pretty piece of business that was!
+I can have nothing to say to the ring, my little maid."  Mary withdrew
+her hand, and the grief and disappointment expressed by her large,
+tearful eyes were so bitter and touching, that the Jew paused, and then
+went on seriously and heartily:
+
+"I would sooner give my own old head to be an anvil than distress you,
+sweet child; and Adonai!  I do not mean to say--why should I--that you
+should ever leave old Gamaliel without money.  He has plenty, and though
+he is always ready to take, he is ready to give, too, when it is meet and
+fitting.  I cannot buy the ring, to be sure, but do not be down-hearted
+and look me well in the face, little maid.  It is much to ask, and I have
+handsomer things in my stores, but if you see anything in it that gives
+you confidence, speak out and whisper to the man of whom even your
+grandfather had some good opinion: 'I want so much, and what is more--how
+did you put it?--what is more, I must have it.'"
+
+Mary did see something in the Jew's merry round face that inspired her
+with trust, and in her childlike belief in the sanctity of an oath she
+made a third person--a believer too, in a third form of religion--swear
+not to betray her secret, only marvelling that the administering of the
+oath, in which she had now had some practice, should be so easy.  Even
+grown-up people will sometimes buy another's dearest secret for a light
+asseveration.  And when she had thus ensured the Israelite's silence, she
+confided to him that she was charged by Orion to send out a messenger to
+meet Amru, that he and Paula might be reprieved in time.  The goldsmith
+listened attentively, and even before she had ended he was busying
+himself with an iron chest built into the wall, and interrupted her to
+ask!  "How much?"
+
+She named the sum that Nilus had suggested, and hardly had she finished
+her story when the Jew, who kept the trick by which he opened the chest a
+secret even from his wife, exclaimed:
+
+"Now, go and look out of the window, you wonder among envoys and money-
+borrowers, and if you see nothing in the courtyard, then fancy to
+yourself that a man is standing there who looks like old Gamaliel, and
+who puts his hand on your head and gives you a good kiss.  And you may
+fancy him, too, as saying to himself: 'God in Heaven! if only my little
+daughter, my Ruth may be such another as little Mary, grandchild of the
+just Mukaukas!'"
+
+And as he spoke, the vivacious but stout man, who had dropped on his
+knees, rose panting, left the lid of his strong box open, hurried up to
+the child, who had been standing at the window all the while, and bending
+over her from behind pressed a kiss on her curly head, saying with a
+laugh: "There, little pickpocket, that is my interest.  But look out
+still, till I call you again."  He nimbly trotted back on his short
+little legs, wiping his eyes; took from the strong box a little bag of
+gold, which contained rather more than the desired sum, locked the chest
+again, looking at Mary with a mixture of suspicion and hearty
+approbation; then at last he called her to him.  He emptied the money-bag
+before her, counted out the sum she needed, put the remainder of the
+coins into his girdle, and handed the bag to the little girl requesting
+her to count his "advance", back into it, while he, with a cunning smile,
+quitted the room.
+
+He presently returned and she had finished her task, but she timidly
+observed: "One gold piece is wanting."  At this he clasped his hands over
+his breast and raised his eyes to Heaven exclaiming: "My God! what a
+child.  There is the solidus, child; and you may take my word for it as a
+man of experience: whatever you undertake will prosper.  You know what
+you are about; and when you are grown up and a suitor comes he will go to
+a good market.  And now sign your name here.  You are not of age, to be
+sure, and the receipt is worth no more than any other note scribbled with
+ink--however, it is according to rule."
+
+Mary took the pen, but she first hastily glanced through what Gamaliel
+had written; the Jew broke out in fresh enthusiasm:
+
+"A girl--a mere child!  And she reads, and considers, and makes all sure
+before she will sign!  God bless thee, Child!--And here come the tarts,
+and you can taste them before...  Just Heaven! a mere child, and such
+important business!"
+
+
+
+
+
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