ten held such discourse as this with the child since
she had entered his tent at Berenice, there to lay before him the case of
the couple she loved, and for whom she had taken on herself great risk
and hardship; she had pleaded so eloquently, so kindly, and with such
fervent and pathetic words, that Amru had at once made up his mind to
grant her everything that lay in his power. Mary had done him a service,
too, by bringing him the information she could give him, for it enabled
him to avert perils which threatened the interests of the Crescent, and
also to save the children of two men he honored--the son of the Mukaukas,
and the daughter of Thomas--from imminent danger.

He found, on his return home, that the Vekeel's crimes far exceeded his
worst fears. Obada's proceedings had begun to undermine that respect for
Arab rule and Moslem justice which Amru had done his utmost to secure. It
was only by a miracle that Orion had escaped his plots, for he had three
times sent assassins to the prison, and it was entirely owing to the
watchful care of pretty Emau's husband that the youth had been able to
save himself in the fire. Obada had done all this to clear out of his
path the hated man whose statements and impeachments might ruin him. The
wretch had met a less ignominious death than his judges would have
granted him. The wealth found hoarded in his dwelling was sent to Medina;
and even Orion was forced to see the vast sums of which the Negro had
plundered his treasury, appropriated by the Arabs. The Arab governor
thought it only right to inflict this penalty for the share he had taken
in the rescue of the nuns; and the young man submitted willingly to a
punishment which restored him and his bride to freedom, and enabled Amru
to apply a larger proportion of the revenues of his native land for its
own benefit.

The Khaliff Omar, however, never received these moneys, which constituted
far more than half of Orion's patrimony. The Prophet's truest friend, the
wise and powerful ruler, fell by the assassin's hand, and the world now
learnt that the Vekeel had been one of the chief conspirators and had
been spurred on to the rashest extremes by his confidence of success.

Amru received the son of the Mukaukas as a father might; after examining
the result of his labors he found it far superior to his own efforts in
the same direction, and he charged Orion to carry out the new division of
the country, which he confirmed excepting in