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Send also the head officer of the guard." Three days went by. The Imperial ship had sailed, taking with her my formal acknowledgment of the Emperor's letter, and the time had come when once more I must meet Irene face to face. I sat in the audience chamber of my Great House, and there was present with me only Jodd, my lieutenant in office.
Where is our General Olaf? Where is Red-Sword?" "Here, comrades!" roared Jodd, and up they came those fierce, bearded men, glad with the lust of battle, and ranged themselves by companies before us. Again the great voice of Jodd was heard, calling, "Empress, do you give us Olaf and his girl and swear by your Christ that no harm shall come to them? Or must we take them for ourselves?"
"The Augusta is my mistress," I said, "and although I attacked some of her troops but now, and she has wronged me much, still I defend her to the last." "Little use in that, Olaf, seeing that you are but one and we are many," answered Jodd. "Come, will you be Caesar, or will you not?" Now Irene crept up behind me and whispered in my ear. "Accept," she said. "It pleases me well.
"Well, then, cruel and unjust judges, who could gather to mock at the murder of a blinded man that you had trapped to his doom " "Sir," broke in one of them, "it was not we who tried to trap him; it was those jailers who stand there. They told the general that he might exercise himself by walking up and down the hall." "Is that true, Olaf?" asked Jodd.
Your brain is not blinded, Olaf; you can still rule. I swear, I swear, I swear upon the Holy Blood! Ah! now drag me away if you will. I have spoken." "Then perchance, Lady, you will allow Olaf to speak, since we, who have much to do, must finish this business quickly, before the Emperor comes with the Armenians," said Jodd.
"Husband," she said, "foreseeing this issue, Martina, Jodd, and most of the Northmen and I have made a plan which we now submit to you, praying that for our sakes, if not for yours, you will not thrust it aside. We have bought two good ships, armed them and furnished them with all things needful. Moreover, during the past two months we have sold much of our property, turning it into gold.
First will we die." "Good!" said Jodd. "I looked for such words from you." Then he marched out, with his companions, and again met Stauracius and the two generals of the Greeks. After they had talked a little while he returned and said, "Those two officers, being men, would have agreed, but Stauracius, the eunuch, who seems in command, will not agree.
"Well, friends, that is my case," I went on; "let the Augusta deny it if she can." "Speak, Lady. Do you deny it?" said Jodd. "I do not deny that this man was blinded by my order in payment of crimes for which he might well have suffered death," answered Irene. "But I do deny that I commanded him to be trapped in yonder pit. If those dead men said so, then they lied."
"Captain Jodd and his comrades," I said, "the Empress Irene has been pleased to make certain solemn vows to me which perchance some of you may have overheard. At least, God heard them, and whether she keeps them or no is a matter between her and the God in Whom we both believe. Therefore I set these vows aside; they draw me neither one way nor the other.
Before that week was done, as the Moslem force was marching down the Nile, she stabbed the eunuch who was in charge of her and escaped." "I thank God," I said. "But, Jodd, how is the man sure that she was Heliodore?" "Thus: All knew her to be the daughter of Magas, one whom the Egyptians held in honour.
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