ound devouring a man. She
put her girdle round his neck and led him easily into the town.

"These two examples lead me to think that we should have recourse to the
power of some virgin so as to conquer the dragon who scatters terror and
death through the island of Alca.

"For this reason, Samuel thy son, gird up thy loins and go, I pray thee,
with two of thy companions, into all the villages of this island, and
proclaim everywhere that a virgin alone shall be able to deliver the
island from the monster that devastates it.

"Thou shalt sing psalms and canticles and thou shalt say:

"'O sons of the Penguins, if there be among you a pure virgin, let her
arise and go, armed with the sign of the cross, to combat the dragon!'"

Thus the old man spake, and Samuel promised to obey him. The next day he
girded up his loins and set out with two of his companions to proclaim
to the inhabitants of Alca that a virgin alone would be able to deliver
the Penguins from the rage of the dragon.

IX. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)

Orberosia loved her husband, but she did not love him alone. At the
hour when Venus lightens in the pale sky, whilst Kraken scattered terror
through the villages, she used to visit in his moving hut, a young
shepherd of Dalles called Marcel, whose pleasing form was invested with
inexhaustible vigour. The fair Orberosia shared the shepherd's aromatic
couch with delight, but far from making herself known to him, she took
the name of Bridget, and said that she was the daughter of a gardener in
the Bay of Divers. When regretfully she left his arms she walked across
the smoking fields towards the Coast of Shadows, and if she happened to
meet some belated peasant she immediately spread out her garments like
great wings and cried:

"Passer by, lower your eyes, that you may not have to say, 'Alas! alas!
woe is me, for I have seen the angel of the Lord.'"

The villagers tremblingly knelt with their faces to the round. And
several of them used to say that angels, whom it would be death to see,
passed along the roads of the island in the night time.

Kraken did not know of the loves of Orberosia and Marcel, for he was a
hero, and heroes never discover the secrets of their wives. But though
he did not know of these loves, he reaped the benefit of them. Every
night he found his companion more good-humoured and more beautiful,
exhaling pleasure and perfuming the nuptial bed with a delicious odour
of fennel