f the sheepskin, which he had now
given to Hermas. In his hand he held the key of the church, which he had
promised the door-keeper to deliver to Petrus; but all was so still in
the senator's house, that he shrank from rousing the sleepers.

"What a strange night this has been!" he muttered to himself, as he drew
his short and tattered tunic closer together. "Even if it were warmer,
and if, instead of this threadbare rag, I had a sack of feathers to wrap
myself in, still I should feel a cold shiver if the spirits of hell that
wander about here were to meet me again. Now I have actually seen one
with my own eyes. Demons in women's form rush up the mountain out of the
oasis to tempt and torture us in our sleep. What could it have been that
the goblin in a white robe and with flowing hair held in its arms? Very
likely the stone with which the incubus loads our breast when he torments
us. The other one seemed to fly, but I did not see its wings. That
side-building must be where the Gaul lives with his ungodly wife, who has
ensnared my poor Hermas. I wonder whether she is really so beautiful! But
what can a youth who has grown up among rocks and caves know of the
charms of women. He would, of course, think the first who looked kindly
at him the most enchanting of her sex. Besides she is fair, and therefore
a rare bird among the sunburnt bipeds of the desert. The centurion surely
cannot have found the sheepskin or all would not be so still here; once
since I have been here an ass has brayed, once a camel has groaned, and
now already the first cock is crowing; but not a sound have I heard from
human lips, not even a snore from the stout senator or his buxom wife
Dorothea, and it would be strange indeed if they did not both snore."

He rose, went up to the window of Phoebicius dwelling, and listened at
the half open shutters, but all was still.

An hour ago Miriam had been listening under Sirona's room; after
betraying her to Phoebicius she had followed him at a distance, and had
slipped back into the court-yard through the stables; she felt that she
must learn what was happening within, and what fate had befallen Hermas
and Sirona at the hands of the infuriated Gaul. She was prepared for
anything, and the thought that the centurion might have killed them both
with the sword filled her with bitter-sweet satisfaction. Then, seeing
the light through the crack between the partly open wooden shutters, she
softly pushed them farthe