“Greeting, General,” he said presently.  “I bring you good news.  The messengers to the Sultan Harun have returned with the ransom.  Also this Caliph sends a writing signed by himself and his ministers, in which he swears by God and His Prophet that in consideration of our giving up our prisoners, among whom, it seems, are some great men, neither he nor his successors will attempt any new attack upon Lesbos for thirty years.  The interpreter will read it to you to-morrow, and you can send your answering letters with the prisoners.”

“Seeing that these heathen are so many and we are so few, we could scarcely look for better terms,” I said, “as I hope they will think at Constantinople.  At least the prisoners shall sail when all is in order.  Now for another matter.  Have you inquired as to the Bishop Barnabas and the Egyptian Prince Magas and his daughter?”

“Aye, General, this very day.  I found that among the prisoners were three of the commoner sort who have served in Egypt and left that land not three months ago.  Of these men two have never heard of the bishop or the others.  The third, however, who was wounded in the fight, had some tidings.”

“What tidings, Jodd?”

“None that are good, General.  The bishop, he says, was killed by Moslems a while ago, or so he had been told.”

“God rest him.  But the others, Jodd, what of the others?”

“This.  It seems that the Copt, as he called him, Magas, returned from a long journey, as we know he did, and raised an insurrection somewhere in the south of Egypt, far up the Nile.  An expedition was sent against him, under one Musa, the Governor of Egypt, and there was much fighting, in which this prisoner took part.  The end of it was that the Copts who fought with Magas were conquered with slaughter, Magas himself was slain, for he would not fly, and his daughter, the lady Heliodore, was taken prisoner with some other Coptic women.”

“And then?” I gasped.

“Then, General, she was brought before the Emir Musa, who, noting her beauty, proposed to make her his slave.  At her prayer, however, being, as the prisoner said, a merciful man, he gave her a week to mourn her father before she entered his harem.  Still, the worst,” he went on hurriedly, “did not happen.  Before that week was done, as the Moslem force was marching down the Nile, she stabbed the eunuch who was in charge of her and escaped.”

“I thank God,” I said.  “But, Jodd, how is the man sure that she was Heliodore?”

“Thus:  All knew her to be the daughter of Magas, one whom the Egyptians held in honour.  Moreover, among the Moslem soldiers she was named ’the Lady of the Shells,’ because of a certain necklace she wore, which you will remember.”

“What more?” I asked.

“Only that the Emir Musa was very angry at her loss and because of it caused certain soldiers to be beaten on the feet.  Moreover, he halted his army and offered a reward for her.  For two days they hunted, even searching some tombs where it was thought she might have hidden, but there found nothing but the dead.  Then the Emir returned down the Nile, and that is the end of the story.”