and hear her. Did you
not, O my daughter, while within the dragon's bowels arm yourself with
the sign of the cross and come uninjured out of his throat? That is what
seems to me the most credible explanation."

"You are not deceived, father," answered Orberosia. "That is precisely
what happened to me. Immediately I came out of the creature's bowels
I took refuge in a hermitage on the Coast of Shadows. I lived there
in solitude, giving myself up to prayer and meditation, and performing
unheard of austerities, until I learnt by a revelation from heaven that
a maid alone could overcome the dragon, and that I was that maid."

"Show me a sign of your mission," said the old man.

"I myself am the sign," answered Orberosia.

"I am not ignorant of the power of those who have placed a seal upon
their flesh," replied the apostle of the Penguins. "But are you indeed
such as you say?"

"You will see by the result," answered Orberosia.

The monk Regimental drew near:

"That will," said he, "be the best proof. King Solomon has said: 'Three
things are hard to understand and a fourth is impossible: they are the
way of a serpent on the earth, the way of a bird in the air, the way
of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid!' I regard
such matrons as nothing less than presumptuous who claim to compare
themselves in these matters with the wisest of kings. Father, if you are
led by me you will not consult them in regard to the pious Orberosia.
When they have given their opinion you will not be a bit farther on than
before. Virginity is not less difficult to prove than to keep. Pliny
tells us in his history that its signs are either imaginary or very
uncertain.* One who bears upon her the fourteen signs of corruption may
yet be pure in the eyes of the angels, and, on the contrary, another who
has been pronounced pure by the matrons who inspected her may know that
her good appearance is due to the artifices of a cunning perversity. As
for the purity of this holy girl here, I would put my hand in the fire
in witness of it."

* We have vainly sought for this phrase in Pliny's "Natural
History."--Editor.

He spoke thus because he was the Devil. But old Mael did not know it. He
asked the pious Orberosia:

"My daughter, how, would you proceed to conquer so fierce an animal as
he who devoured you?"

The virgin answered:

"To-morrow at sunrise, O Mael, you will summon the people together on
the hill in front of