"I will wait here for my mistress," she said. "A strange thing is love, for it may be lighted like this lamp. It may go out and it may burn again if one willeth. I think I must put out this love of mine for Lysias lest it should burn me. Alas for him or for any who may be made the bearer of secret messages! And I? O Lysias! Well for thee that thou knowest not this change which is in store for me. And thou, O beautiful Aphrodite, be not angry with me that I am to become also a Jewish proselyte and offer sacrifices to the God of the Jews. My mistress hath bidden me to become free and to wed Ananias. It is better so than to be a slave, or to throw myself away upon a Greek youth who must shortly disappear. I love not ruin. I am to be rich and I shall be the favorite of more gods than one."
She spoke with a triumph upon her face and with exultation in her voice. Then she reclined upon a couch, with the light of the lamp shining brilliantly upon her goodly raiment and her beauty, and so she awaited the coming of the wife of the procurator.
Through the Damascus gate passed Lysias, and not long afterward an ass halted near the amphitheater, further down the valley. A slave came out to attend to the ass, and was followed by the master of the games.
"Who art thou?" he demanded, surlily.
"See that thou hinder me not," said Lysias. "Look well upon this signet."
"I obey the procurator," said the master of the games. "Do thou his bidding. But I will see nothing that thou hast in thy hand by any commandment from him. Hold thou thy peace, O messenger. I meddle not."
Lysias had dismounted and, without more words, he passed on into the quarters of the Saxons. Excepting themselves, no others were present to observe or to hear, but he did not find men who were taking rest. Some were making up packages for carrying, some were examining carefully their arms and armor as if about to go into battle, but they greeted the Greek heartily. He looked around him for a moment, not without an understanding of this which they were doing.
"I am in season, O Tostig the Red," he said altogether as if he had been expected to come. "But put ye on Roman helmets, every man. Ye are to ride fast to Joppa this night. Right glad am I to be your guide, for the roads might prove misleading."
"Hael to thee, O Greek!" exclaimed Tostig. "Even now are the horses nearly prepared. We will mount at thy bidding. But hast thou at all seen the jarl?"