Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/287

Rh and venomous serpent." Lifting up his eyes to heaven, he continued. "Oh God, thou knowest that I am free from the blood of this girl—require her of Dionysias." Then fixing a stern look upon his wife, "Enemy of God, and disgrace of man, thou hast destroyed the daughter of a king."

Dionysias made much apparent lamentation: she put her household into mourning, and wept bitterly before the citizens. "My good friends," said she, "the hope of our eyes, the beloved Tharsia is gone—she is dead. Our tears shall bedew the marble which we have raised to her memory." The people then hastened to the place where her form, moulded in brass, had been erected, in gratitude for the, benefits conferred upon that city by her father (75).

The pirates transported the maid to Machilenta, where she was placed among other slaves for sale. Leno, a most wretched and debauched fellow, hearing of her perfections, endeavoured to buy her. But Athanagoras,