"The sea has vanished!" cried Thrasabad. "Let the desert and its monsters, warring with each other, appear in its place!"
And at the height of the former flooring, far above the level of the sea, the two halves of the arena, covered with white sand, were again pushed together from the right and left. Slaves, clad only with aprons--fair-skinned ones, yellow-complexioned Moors, and negroes--appeared in countless numbers and drew back the curtains which covered the gratings of the cages containing the wild animals.
"We will present to you--" Thrasabad cried amid the breathless silence.
But his voice died away; the terrible roar, which had either ceased or been drowned during the tumult of the naval battle, again echoed through the Amphitheatre, and a huge tiger leaped with such force and fury from the back of its tolerably long cage against the grating in front that its bars bent outward, splinters of the wood in which they were imbedded were hurled into the arena.
"Brother," said Thrasaric, in a low tone, "that cage is too long. Take care! The animal has too much space to run. And the wooden floor is rotten. Are you afraid, Eugenia?"
"I am with you," the young bride answered quietly. "But I want to know no more about men fighting--dying. I did not look at them."
"Only at the end, little sister-in-law, a captive Moor."
"Where did you get him?" asked Modigisel.
"Hired, like most of the others, from a slave-dealer. But this one is sentenced to death."
"Why?"