“I think the legend of Andromeda, said to have been chained to Joppa’s sea-crags for a season, to be persecuted by a serpent, then freed, prophetic. Joppa may have a future.”
“How?”
“Oh, the chained maiden was boasted by her fond mother as more beautiful than Neptune’s Nereids, hence the persecution. Crescent faiths have been the persecutors of Joppa and all the other beautiful Andromedas of this land.”
“And the chains are riveted?”
“No, not certainly. There was, in the myth, a Perseus of winged feet, having a helmet that made invisible and a sickle from Minerva, goddess of wisdom; he slew the serpent, then wed the victim.”
“Now the key, further.”
“When wrongs overwhelm all, women suffer most; but time brings their deliverance.”
“The myths are as full of women as the women full of myths!” exclaimed Sir Charleroy.
“But Andromeda, the woman, was blameless!”
“Yet it’s strange that in all men’s fightings, as in their religions, constantly the woman appears,” replies Sir Charleroy.