be stayed?"

God spoke and said: "Fill his mouth with dust."

Then the Angel took a handful of dust and said to Talisso: "Open thy
mouth and eat."

Talisso cried aloud, "I will not eat."

"Open thy mouth," said the Angel sternly.

"My mouth I will not open," replied Talisso.

Thereupon the Angel caught him by the hair, and plucked his head
backward till his throat made a knotted white ridge above the neck, and
as Talisso opened his mouth, shrieking blasphemies and laughing with
frantic rage, the Angel filled it with dust.

Talisso fell backwards, thrusting with his feet and thrashing the
ground with his hands; his crown fell from his head and rolled away;
his face grew set and white; and then he lay straight and rigid.

"Hast thou filled his mouth?"

"His mouth, Lord, is filled," the Angel answered.

This was the dream of Desiderius.

When citizens came running to the palace, and the Archbishop learned
how the gates had been surprised and the castle taken, he lost no time
in casting about what he should do. He sent messengers to summon the
Council of the Elders, and bade his men-at-arms fall into array. Then
he hastened to the High Church, and, after a brief prayer before the
altar, girt on the great sword of St. Victor, threw over his purple
cassock the white mantle of the Saint, and putting on his head a winged
helm of iron, made his way to the castle where Talisso awaited his
capture.

"Stay you here," he said to his men-at-arms when they reached the
portals, "and if by God's blessing work fall to your hands to do, do it
doughtily and with right good will."

Up the high hall of the castle, through the groups of lounging Avars he
went, with great strides and eyes burning, to the dais where Talisso
sat apart in the royal chair.

"Ha! well met, Lord Archbishop," cried the dethroned King, springing to
his feet at the sight of him.

"Well met, Talisso," replied Desiderius in a loud voice. "With no more
ado I now tell thee that for thee there is but one end. Thy mouth must
be filled with dust."

As he spoke, Desiderius flung back his mantle and drew the holy sword.
Heaving it aloft he struck mightily at Talisso. From the King's helmet
glanced the keen brand, and descending to the shoulder shore away the
plates of iron, and bit the flesh.

Once more the great sword was swung up, for Desiderius neither heard
nor heeded the cry and rush of the Avars; but or ever the stroke could
fall Desiderius s