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.