Thou, Portumna, touched at last.”
At once the brown girl skipped to the basin, cast in her garland, and the high priestess, raising her hand, stepped forward, pointed to Perpetua, and cried, “Est.”
CHAPTER II
ÆMILIUS
When the lot had fallen, then a cry rang from among the spectators, and a woman, wearing the white cloak of widowhood, would have fallen, had she not been caught and sustained by a man in a brown tunic and lacerna (short cloak).
“Be not overcome, lady,” said this man in a low tone. “What thou losest is lent to the Lord.”
“Baudillas,” sobbed the woman, “she is my only child, and is to be sacrificed to devils.”
“The devil hath no part in her. She is the Lord’s, and the Lord will preserve His own.”
“Will He give her back to me? Will He deliver her from the hands of His enemies?”