Page:The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre.djvu/89

Rh [26] When they were brought, then said he before all the assembly: "Ye citizens of Tharsus, say ye that I, Apollonius, ever did you any injury?" They all with one voice said: "We said always that thou wert our king and father, and for thee we would gladly die, because thou redeemedst us from famine." Apollonius then said: "I entrusted my daughter to Stranguilio and Dionysias, and they would not restore her to me." That wicked woman said: "Did you, my lord, not really read the letters over her sepulchre?" Then Apollonius called very loud, and said: "Dear daughter Tharsia, if there be any understanding in hell, leave thou that house of torment, and hear thou thy father's voice." The maiden then came forth, clad in a royal robe, and uncovered her head, and said aloud to the wicked woman: "Dionysias, hail to thee! I now greet thee, called from hell." The guilty woman trembled then in all her limbs when she looked on her, and the townsfolk wondered and rejoiced. Then Tharsia commanded Theophilus, the steward of Dionysias, to be led before her, and said to him: "Theophilus, in order to save thyself, say, with loud voice, who commanded thee to slay me." The steward said: "Dionysias, my lady." Whereupon the townspeople seized Stranguilio and his wife, and led them out into the city, and stoned them to death, and would also slay Theophilus; but Tharsia interceded for him, and said: "But that this man