reverence, your creed,
your country, and perchance your friend, let your great genius, like
some solemn angel, haste to the rescue of the sweet Iduna, and save her,
save her!"

"Some thoughts like these were rising in my mind when first I spoke,"
replied Iskander. "This is a better cue, far more beseeming princes than
boyish tears, and all the outward misery of woe, a tattered garment
and dishevelled locks. Come, Nicaeus, we have to struggle with a mighty
fortune. Let us be firm as Fate itself."

CHAPTER 8

Immediately after his interview with Nicaeus, Iskander summoned some of
the chief citizens of Croia to the citadel, and submitting to them his
arrangements for the administration of Epirus, announced the necessity
of his instant departure for a short interval; and the same evening, ere
the moon had risen, himself and the Prince of Athens quitted the city,
and proceeded in the direction of Adrianople. They travelled with great
rapidity until they reached a small town upon the frontiers, where they
halted for one day. Here, in the Bazaar, Iskander purchased for himself
the dress of an Armenian physician. In his long dark robes, and large
round cap of black wool, his face and hands stained, and his beard and
mustachios shaven, it seemed impossible that he could be recognised.
Nicaeus was habited as his page, in a dress of coarse red cloth, setting
tight to his form, with a red cap, with a long blue tassel. He carried a
large bag containing drugs, some surgical instruments, and a few books.
In this guise, as soon as the gates were open on the morrow, Iskander,
mounted on a very small mule, and Nicaeus on a very large donkey, the
two princes commenced the pass of the mountainous range, an arm of the
Balkan which divided Epirus from Roumelia.

"I broke the wind of the finest charger in all Asia when I last ascended
these mountains," said Iskander; "I hope this day's journey way be
accepted as a sort of atonement."

"Faith! there is little doubt I am the best mounted of the two," said
Nicaeus. "However, I hope we shall return at a sharper pace."

"How came it, my Nicaeus," said Iskander, "that you never mentioned to me
the name of Iduna when we were at Athens? I little supposed when I made
my sudden visit to Hunniades, that I was about to appeal to so fair a
host. She is a rarely gifted lady."

"I knew of her being at the camp as little as yourself," replied the
Prince of Athens, "and for the rest, the truth i