"Poor children, how sweetly they are sleeping!"
Thus spoke Ali.
In a corner of the red tower, sleeping side by side, were the two Suliote kinsfolk, Artemis and Kleon. They slept in each other's embrace, and not even the gaze of Ali awoke them.
"Don't arouse them," said Ali to his dumb eunuchs; "let them sleep on!"
And again he regarded them with a smile—they slept so soundly. And yet they knew not when they fell asleep whether they would ever awake again.
Ali did not arouse the slumberers. Thrice he sent to see if they had awakened, but he would not have them disturbed. At last the hand of the youth made his chain clank, and both of them opened their eyes at the sound.
"I was on my way to Akro-Corinth," said he, rubbing his large dreamy eyes with his hands, "and I saw them rebuilding the Parthenon."
"I stood at Thermopylæ," said the girl, "and the enemy fell before me by thousands."
"And now we shall go to the block," sighed Kleon, listening as the iron doors of his dungeon slowly opened.
"Be strong!" whispered the girl, pressing the hand of her brother which was enlaced in hers.