Page:The American Magazine volume LXIV.djvu/542

 ARETHUSA, A PRINCESS IN SLAVERY

A LOVE STORY OF OLD CONSTANTINOPLE

BY F. MARION CRAWFORD

AUTHOR OF "VIA CRUCIS," "A ROMAN SINGER," ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES SARKA

PART IX— Conclusion

N she had stumbled, her shoe had turned a le, and the folded letter, w useless, had fallen t. As it was white, the ards had seen it in- stantly on the dark pave- ment, and one of them had picked it up while the other had caught her. ZoS instinctively struggled with all her might for a few seconds, but the dumb man twisted one of her arms behind her till it was agony to move, and she was powerless. Her captor now banded her over to his com- panion, who had sheathed his scimitar and had placed the letter inside his steel cap. She could not look round, but she felt that the grip on her twisted wrist changed, and she was pushed out into the courtyard and made to walk in the direction of the Palace. She could not help limping much more than before, and in the grasp of the big Ethiopian she felt what a sniall, weak thing she would be in the tormentors' bands if Gorlias did not come in time.

And be pushed and dragged Zog along. She looked straight before her now, at the Palace door, and as she went, she was in a kind of dream, and she wondered what the room to which she was being taken would be Uke, the place where she was presently to be torturwl ; she wondered whether it would be light or dark, and what the color of the walls would be.

The African hurt her very much as he forced her along, though she made no re- astance; but she did not think of the pain she felt, nor of the pain she would surely be made to feel presently. It was as if she were detached from her own personality, and could speculate about what was going to happen to her, and about the men who would ask her questions, and about the queer-looking instruments of torture that would be brought, and even the color of the executioner's hair. She fancied him a red- haired man with ugly, yellow eyes and bad teeth that he showed. She did not know whether it was fear or courage that so took her out of herself.

But all the time she was listening for a distant sound that nught come, or that might not; and her hearing grew so sharp that she could have heard it a mile away, and the distance between her and the Pfj- ace door grew shorter very quickly, and the ruthless mute urged her along faster and faster, though she limped so badly.

Then her heart leapt and stood still a moment, and the Ethiopian's grasp relaxed a little, and he slackened his pace. Not that he heard what she heard, for he was stone deaf; but the guards who stood about the door had begun to range themselves in even ranks on either ^de, and a tall officer made ^gns to the African to stand out of the way. l^e air rang with the mu^c of distant silver trumpets, there was a subdued hum of many voices and the tramping of many horses' hoofs on the hard earth out^de the court.

"The Emperor comes!" cried the officer, again motioning the route and his prisoner away.

The man understood well enough, and dragged her aside quickly and roughly out of the straight way, but not out of sight; and the sounds grew louder, and the trum- pet-notes clearer, as the imperial cavalcade passed in under the great gate. First there