llo informed him of the fate
to which he destined the condemned girl. The old man's scheme certainly
found favor with the Negro; still, it seemed to him in many respects
so daring that, but for an equivalent service which Horapollo was in a
position to offer Obada, he would scarcely have succeeded in obtaining
his consent.

All the Vekeel aimed at was to make it very certain that Orion had had a
hand in the flight of the nuns, and chance had placed a document in the
old man's hands which seemed to set this beyond a doubt.

He had effected his removal to the widow's dwelling in the cool hours
of early morning. He had taken with him, in the first instance, only the
most valuable and important of his manuscripts, and as he was placing
these in a small desk--the very same which Rufinus had left for Paula's
use--Horapollo found in it the note which the youth had hastily written
when, after waiting in vain for Paula as she sat with little Mary,
he had at last been obliged to depart and take leave of Amru. This
wax-tablet, on which the writing was much defaced and partly illegible,
could not fail to convince the judges of Orion's guilt, and the
production of this piece of evidence enabled the old man to extort
Obada's consent to his proposal as to the mode of Paula's death. When
they finally left the warder's room, the Negro once more turned to the
keeper of the prison and told him with a snort, as he pointed to his
pretty wife and the child at her breast, that they should all three die
if he allowed Orion to quit his cell for so much as an instant.

He then swung himself on to his horse, while Horapollo rode off to the
Curia to desire the president of the council to call a meeting for that
evening; then he betook himself to his new quarters.

There he found his room carefully shaded, and as cool as was possible
in such heat. The floor had been sprinkled with water, flowers stood
wherever there was room for them, and all his properties in scrolls and
other matters had found places in chests or on shelves. There was not
a speck of dust to be seen, and a sweet pervading perfume greeted his
sensitive nostrils.

What a good exchange he had made! He rubbed his withered hands with
satisfaction as he seated himself in his accustomed chair, and when Mary
came to call him to dinner, it was a pleasure to him to jest with her.

Pulcheria must lead him through the viridarium into the dining-room; he
enjoyed his meal, and his cross,