cks; and, speedily, a jerky voice makes
itself heard from the mountains in the distance.

"Are those the barkings of a hyena, or the lamentations of some lost
traveller?"

Antony listens. The flame draws nearer.

* * * * *

And he sees approaching a woman who is weeping, resting on the shoulder
of a man with a white beard. She is covered with a purple garment all in
rags. He, like her, is bare-headed, with a tunic of the same colour, and
carries a bronze vase, whence arises a small blue flame.

Antony is filled with fear,--and yet he would fain know who this woman
is.

_The stranger_ (_Simon_)--"This is a young girl, a poor child, whom I
take everywhere with me."

He raises the bronze vase. Antony inspects her by the light of this
flickering flame. She has on her face marks of bites, and traces of
blows along her arms. Her scattered hair is entangled in the rents of
her rags; her eyes appear insensible to the light.

_Simon_--"Sometimes she remains thus a long time without speaking or
eating, and utters marvellous things."

_Antony_--"Really?"

_Simon_--"Eunoia! Eunoia! relate what you have to say!"

She turns around her eyeballs, as if awakening from a dream, passes her
fingers slowly across her two lids, and in a mournful voice:

_Helena_ (_Eunoia_)--"I have a recollection of a distant region, of the
colour of emerald. There is only a single tree there."

Antony gives a start.

"At each step of its huge branches a pair of spirits stand. The branches
around them cross each other, like the veins of a body, and they watch
the eternal life circulating from the roots, where it is lost in shadow
up to the summit, which reaches beyond the sun. I, on the second branch,
illumined with my face the summer nights."

_Antony_, touching his forehead--"Ah! ah! I understand! the head!"

_Simon_, with his finger on his lips--"Hush! Hush!"

_Helena_--"The vessel remained convex: her keel clave the foam. He said
to me, 'What does it matter if I disturb my country, if I lose my
kingdom! You will be mine, in my own house!'

"How pleasant was the upper chamber of his palace! He would lie down
upon the ivory bed, and, smoothing my hair, would sing in an amorous
strain. At the end of the day, I could see the two camps and the
lanterns which they were lighting; Ulysses at the edge of his tent;
Achilles, armed from head to foot, driving a chariot along the
seashore."

_Antony_--"Why, she