hen the Gaul, howling under the blows, was silenced, Hermon asked, "So
your mad thirst for vengeance also caused this suicidal attack?"

"No," she answered simply; "but when they determined upon the assault,
and had killed their leader, Belgius, yonder monster stole to their
head. So it happened--I myself do not know how--that they also obeyed
me, and I took advantage of it and induced them to begin with your house
and Archias's. When they had captured the royal palaces, they intended
to assail the Temple of Demeter also."

"Then you thought that even the terrible affliction of blindness would
not suffice to punish the man you hated?" asked Hermon.

"No," she answered firmly; "for you could buy with your gold everything
life offers except sight, while in me--yes, in me--gloom darker than the
blackest night shrouded my soul. Through your fault I was robbed of
all, all that is clear to woman's heart: my father's house, his love,
my sister. Even the pleasure in myself which had been awakened by your
sweet flatteries was transformed by you into loathing."

"By me?" cried Hermon, amazed by the injustice of this severe reproach;
but Ledscha answered his question with the resolute assertion, "By you
and you alone!" and then impatiently added: "You, who, by your art,
could transform mortal women into goddesses, wished to make me a
humiliated creature, with the rope which was to strangle her about her
neck, and at the same time the most repulsive of creeping insects.
'The hideous, gray, eight-legged spider!' I exclaimed to myself, when I
raised my arms and saw my shadow on the sunlit ground. 'The spider!'
I thought, when I shook the distaff to draw threads from the flax in
leisure hours. 'Your image!' I said, when I saw spiders hanging in dusty
corners, and catching flies and gnats. All these things made me a horror
to myself. And at the same time to know that the Demeter, on whom you
bestowed the features of the daughter of Archias, was kindling the
whole great city of Alexandria with enthusiasm, and drawing countless
worshippers to her sanctuary! She, an object of adoration to thousands,
I--the much-praised beauty--a horror to myself! This is what fed my
desire for vengeance with fresh food by day and night; this urged me
to remain with yonder wretch; for he had promised, after pillaging the
royal palaces, to shatter your Demeter, the image of the daughter of
Archias, which they lauded and which brought you fame and honour--