Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/284

272 was commended, turned away in a madness of fury. She retired to solitary communication with herself, "For fourteen years," muttered she, "the father has neglected his daughter; he has sent no letters, and certainly he is dead. The nurse is also dead, and there is no one to oppose me. I will kill her, and deck my own girl with her ornaments." As she thus thought, her steward, named Theophilus, entered. She called him, and promising a vast reward, desired him to put Tharsia to death. "What hath the maid done?" asked he. "She hath done the very worst things; you ought not therefore to deny me. Do what I command you; if you do it not, you will bring evil on yourself."

"Tell me, lady, how it is to be done?"

"Her custom is," replied Dionysias, "on coming from the schools not to take food until she has entered her nurse's monument; arm yourself with a dagger, seize her by the hair of the head, and there stab her. Then throw her body into the sea, and come to me; I will