rabs must
necessarily hear. Orion was indeed furious when he heard of the seizure
and occupation of the governor's residence; still, he believed that Amru
would insist on restitution; but on hearing of his mother's death he
broke down completely. Even the Arabs, seeing the strong man shaken with
sobs and learning the cause of his grief, respectfully withdrew; for
the anguish of a son at the loss of his mother was sacred in their eyes.
They regard the man who mourns for one he loves as stricken by the
hand of the Almighty and hallowed by his touch and treat him with the
reverence of pious awe.

Orion had not observed their absence, but Philippus at once took
advantage of it to tell him, as briefly as possible, all that related
to the escape of the nuns. He himself knew not yet of the burning of the
palace, or of Paula's imprisonment; but he could tell the senator where
he would find his wife and niece. So by the time he was bidden to mount
and start once more Orion was informed of all that had happened.

It was with a drooping head, and sunk in melancholy thought that he rode
on his way.

As for the residence!--whether the Arabs gave it back to him or not,
what did he care?--but his mother, his mother! All she had been to him
from his earliest years rose before his mind; in the deep woe of this
parting he forgot the imminent danger and the dungeon that awaited him,
and the intolerable insult to his rights; nay, even the image of the
woman he loved paled by the side of that of the beloved dead. Perhaps he
might not even gain permission to bury her!

The way lay through a parched tract of rocky desert, and the further
they went the more intense was that wonderful flush in the west, till
day broke behind the travellers and the glory of the sunrise quenched
the vividness of its glow.

Another scorching day! The rocks by the wayside still threw long shadows
on the sandy desert-road, when a party of Arab horsemen came from Fostat
to meet the travellers, shouting the latest news to the prisoner's
escort. It was evidently important; but Orion did not understand a word
of what they said. Evil tidings fly fast, however; while the men were
talking together, the dragoman rode up to him and told him that his
home was burnt to the ground and half Memphis still in flames. Then
came other newsbearers, on horseback and on dromedaries; and they met
chariots and files of camels loaded with corn and Egyptian merchandise;
and each and