ase, Madam," I said. "I have decided. Jodd, bid the messenger summon
hither Heliodore and Martina, my wife and yours."

"Oh!" exclaimed Irene, "if these women are to be called in counsel on
my case all is finished, seeing that both of them love you and are my
enemies. Moreover, I have some pride left. To you I could plead, but not
to them, though they blind me with their bodkins after they have stabbed
me with their tongues. Excellency, a last boon! Call in your guard and
kill me."

"Madam, I said that I had decided, and all the women in the world will
not change my mind in this way or in that. Jodd, do my bidding."

Jodd struck a bell, once only, which was the signal for the messenger.
He came and received his orders. Then followed a pause, since Heliodore
and Martina were in a place close by and must be sent for. During this
time Irene began to talk to me of sundry general matters. She compared
the view that might be seen from this house in Lesbos to that from the
terrace of her palace on the Bosphorus, and described its differences to
me. She asked me as to the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, whom she understood
I had seen, inquiring as to the estimate I had formed of his character.
Lastly, with a laugh, she dwelt upon the strange vicissitudes of life.

"Look at me," she said. "I began my days as the daughter of a Greek
gentleman, with no dower save my wit and beauty. Then I rose to be a
ruler of the world, and knew all that it has to give of pomp and power.
Nations trembled at my nod; at my smile men grew great; at my frown they
faded into nothingness. Save you, Olaf, none ever really conquered me,
until I fell in the appointed hour. And now! Of this splendour there is
left but a nun's robe; of this countless wealth but one silver crucifix;
of this power--naught."

So she spoke on, still not knowing to what decision I had come; whether
she were to be blinded or to live or die. To myself I thought it was a
proof of her greatness that she could thus turn her mind to such things
while Fate hovered over her, its hand upon a sword. But it may be that
she thought thus to impress me and to enmesh me in memories which would
tie my hands, or even from the character of my answers to draw some
augury of her doom.

The women came at length. Heliodore entered first, and to her Irene
bowed.

"Greeting, Lady of Egypt," she said. "Ah! had you taken my counsel in
the past, that title might have been yours in very truth, and there you