Endora spoke a few words—dying words—and her head fell back into the arms of Saronia, and all was over—Endora was dead.
They were about to proceed and leave the body, but the queenly form of Saronia asserted itself as she stood with eyes dilated and form erect, crying:
'Soldiers of Rome, bear carefully with you this dead body!'
'No, no!' they replied. 'Hasten away to safety. The dead suffer not.'
But still she stood transfixed, and, raising her voice, she said:
'Do as I bid you, or I refuse to move; and if I remain, it is at your peril.'
They saw in her no common person, and reluctantly obeyed, one taking his cloak and wrapping it round the corpse, whilst others took their scarves and bound their spears together, and placed her on them as a bier, the torches, reeking with flame, casting over her a lurid glow. And thus they hurriedly passed away, with a circle of shields and glittering spears protecting the living and the dead.
The road became clearer, so that when the soldiers arrived at the garden of Chios no Ephesian eye witnessed them pass up the marble steps into the lonely sanctuary.
As they entered, and laid the dead burden on the floor, Chios saw Saronia.
'Great God, what is this? What does it mean?'