“Thy servant greets thee, Augusta.”

“Nay, use not that title, Martina, to one who has done with the world and its vanities.  Call me ‘Mother’ if you will, for that is the only name of honour by which those of my religious order may be known.  In truth, as your mother in God, I welcome you and bless you, from my heart forgiving you those ills which you have worked against me, being, as I know well, driven by a love that is greater than any woman bears to woman.  But that eating fire of passion scorned is the heritage of both of us, and of it we will talk afterwards.  I must not waste the time of the General Olaf, whom destiny, in return for many griefs, has appointed to be my jailer.  Oh!  Olaf,” she added with a little laugh, “some foresight of the future must have taught me to train you for the post.  Let us then be silent, ladies, and listen to the judgment which this jailer of mine is about to pass upon me.  Do you know it is no less than whether these eyes of mine, which you were wont to praise, Martina, which in his lighter moments even this stern Olaf was wont to praise, should be torn from beneath my brow, and if so, whether it should be done in such a fashion that I die of the deed?  That and no less is the matter which his lips must settle.  Now speak, Excellency.”

“Madam,” I said slowly, “to the best of my wit I have considered the letter sent to me under the seal and sign of the Emperor Nicephorus.  Although it might be so interpreted by some, I cannot find in that letter any direct command that I should cause you to be blinded, but only one that I should keep you under strict guard, giving you such things as are necessary to your sustenance.  This then I shall do, and by the first ship make report of my action to the Emperor at Byzantium.”

Now, when she heard these words, at length the proud spirit of Irene broke.

“God reward you, for I cannot, Olaf,” she cried.  “God reward you, saint among men, who can pay back cruel injuries with the gentlest mercy.”

So saying, she burst into tears and fell senseless to the ground.

Martina ran to aid her, but Heliodore turned to me and said in her tender voice,

“This is worthy of you, Olaf, and I would not have you do otherwise.  Yet, husband, I fear that this pity of yours has signed the death-warrant of us all.”

So it proved to be, though, as it chanced, that warrant was never executed.  I made my report to Byzantium, and in course of time the answer came in a letter from the Emperor.  This letter coldly approved of my act in set and formal phrases.  It added that the truth had been conveyed publicly to those slanderers of the Emperor who announced that he had caused Irene to be first blinded and then put to death in Lesbos, whereby their evil tongues had been silenced.

Then came this pregnant sentence: 

“We command you, with your wife and children and your lieutenant, the Captain Jodd, with his wife and children, to lay down your offices and report yourselves with all speed to Us at our Court of Byzantium, that we may confer with you on certain matters.  If it is not convenient to you, or you can find no fitting ship in which to sail at once, know that within a month of your receipt of this letter our fleet will call at Lesbos and bring you and the others herein mentioned to our Presence.”