ault of
my own. I was in the way of greatness. I was a soldier whom you trusted
and liked well, one of unstained honour and of unstained name. Also I
loved a woman, by whom I was beloved and whom I hoped to make my wife.
And now what am I? My trade is gone, for how can a maimed man lead in
war, or even do the meanest service of the camp? The rest of my days,
should any be granted to me, must be spent in darkness blacker than that
of midnight. I must live on charity. When the little store I have is
spent, for I have taken no bribe and heaped up no riches, how can I
earn a living? The woman whom I love has been carried away, after this
Empress tried thrice to murder her. Whether I shall ever find her again
in this world I know not, for she has gone to a far country that is full
of enemies to Christian men. Nor do I know whether she would be willing
to take one who is blind and beggared for a husband, though I think this
may be so."

"Shame on her if she does not," muttered Martina as I paused.

"Well, friends, that is my case," I went on; "let the Augusta deny it if
she can."

"Speak, Lady. Do you deny it?" said Jodd.

"I do not deny that this man was blinded by my order in payment of
crimes for which he might well have suffered death," answered Irene.
"But I do deny that I commanded him to be trapped in yonder pit. If
those dead men said so, then they lied."

"And if the lady Martina says so, what then?" asked Jodd.

"Then she lies also," answered the Empress sullenly.

"Be it so," replied Jodd. "Yet it is strange that, acting on this lie
of the lady Martina's, we found the General Olaf upon the very edge of
yonder hole; yes, with not the breadth of a barleycorn between him and
death. Now, General, both parties have been heard and you shall pass
sentence. If you say that yonder woman is to be blinded, this moment
she looks her last upon the light. If you say that she is to die, this
moment she bids farewell to life."

Again I thought a while. It came into my mind that Irene, who had fallen
from power, might rise once more and bring fresh evil upon Heliodore.
Now she was in my hand, but if I opened that hand and let her free----!

Someone moved towards me, and I heard Irene's voice whispering in my
ear.

"Olaf," she said, "if I sinned against you it was because I loved you.
Would you be avenged upon one who has burned her soul with so much
evil because she loved too well? Oh! if so, you are no longer Olaf. For