amour. A throng of
people burst into my bedroom, and two lictors arrested me, and dragged
me to the forum. But as they took me through the streets and squares,
everybody turned out to see me, and the crowd grew so great that the
forum was not large enough to hold the people, and I was led to the
theatre.

There the lictors pushed me down through the proscenium, as though I
were a victim for sacrifice, and put me in the centre of the orchestra.

"Citizens," said the prefect of the watch, "as I was going on my rounds
late last night, I saw this ferocious young foreigner, sword in hand,
slashing and stabbing three inoffensive creatures. When I arrived they
were lying dead upon the ground. Their murderer, overwhelmed by his
terrible crime, fled into a house, and hid there, hoping, no doubt, to
escape in the morning. Men of Hypata, you do not allow your own
fellow-townsmen to commit murder with impunity. Shall, then, this
savage, brutal alien avoid the consequences of his fearful crime?"

For some time I could not reply. The suddenness of the whole thing
terrified me, and it was with a voice broken with sobs that I at last
managed to make my defence.

"They were robbers," I cried, "robbers of the most desperate and vilest
character! I caught them breaking into the house of my friend Milo, your
esteemed fellowtownsman, oh, citizens of Hypata! There were three of
them--three great, rough, burly rascals, each more than a match for a
mere boy like myself. Yet I managed to kill them; and I think I deserve
praise at your hands, and not censure, for my public-spirited action."

Here I stopped, for I saw that all the vast multitude of people was
laughing at me. And what grieved me most was to see my kinswoman
Byrrhena and my host Milo among my mockers. The senior magistrate
ordered the wheel and other instruments of torture to be brought forth.

"I cannot believe a mere boy like this could have slain three great
strong men single-handed," he said. "He must have had accomplices, and
we must torture him until he reveals the names of his partners in this
most dastardly crime. But, first of all, let him look upon the bodies of
the men he has foully murdered. Perhaps that will melt his hard, savage
nature."

The lictors then led me to the bier, and forced me to uncover the
bodies. Ye gods! The corpses were merely three inflated wine-skins, and
I observed that they were cut in the very spots in which I thought I had
wounded the ro