the rest, he had gone forth to see the world--and this was one of
the ways of it. So he made up his mind to see it, and be filled
with the fruit of his own devices.

And he would have been certainly filled with the same in five
minutes more, in some shape too ugly to be mentioned: but, as even
sinful women have hearts in them, Pelagia shrieked out--

'Amalric! Amalric! do not let them! I cannot bear it!'

'The warriors are free men, my darling, and know what is proper.
And what can the life of such a brute be to you?'

Before he could stop her, Pelagia had sprung from her cushions, and
thrown herself into the midst of the laughing ring of wild beasts.

'Spare him! spare him for my sake!' shrieked she.

'Oh, my pretty lady! you mustn't interrupt warriors' sport!'

In an instant she had torn off her shawl, and thrown it over
Philammon; and as she stood, with all the outlines of her beautiful
limbs revealed through the thin robe of spangled gauze--

'Let the man who dares, touch him beneath that shawl!--though it be
a saffron one!'

The Goths drew back. For Pelagia herself they had as little respect
as the rest of the world had. But for a moment she was not the
Messalina of Alexandria, but a woman; and true to the old woman-