XVI
THE CALL OF THE BELL
Out of the darkest shadows a woman crept towards the altar. She bent over Perpetua where she knelt, and said, mockingly:
“You would do better to pray to forget the fool’s face, for the fool has led you into folly.”
Perpetua sprang to her feet and saw Lycabetta. Making the sign of the cross she confronted her. “Why are you here? This place is holy.”
Lycabetta laughed. “I loved you so well that I could not part from you. You have no plague mark on your beauty. That was a rare trick, and your fool hid you cunningly—but we have found you, bird, at last.”
“I am in sanctuary,” Perpetua said, steadily.
Lycabetta sneered, “Our king-hawk will not be scared by a sacred name.”