d retire from
the Emperor's side.

"Didst thou not say that if thou couldst discover her who had wronged thee,
thou wouldst wreak thy vengeance on her, and molest Basil no further?"

"I did, and I meant it."

"See that thou keepest thy word. I am she!" And snatching the cup from the
table, she quaffed it to the last drop, and instantly expired in
convulsions.

We pass over the dismay of the banqueters, the arrest and confession of
Helladia, the general amazement at the revelation of her sex, the frantic
grief of the Emperor.

Basil's sorrow was sincere and durable. On an early occasion he thus
addressed his courtiers:

"I cannot determine which of these two women loved me best: she who gave
her life for me, or she who would have taken mine. The first made the
greater sacrifice; the second did most violence to her feelings. What say
ye?"

The courtiers hesitated, feeling themselves incompetent judges in problems
of this nature. At length the youngest exclaimed:

"O Emperor, how can we tell thee, unless we know what thou thinkest
thyself?"

"What!" exclaimed Basil, "an honest man in the Court of Byzantium! Let his
mouth be filled with gold immediately!"

This operation having been performed, and the precious metal distributed in
fees among the proper officers, Basil thus addressed the object of his
favour:

"Manuel, thy name shall henceforth be Chrysostomus, in memory of what has
just taken place. In further token of my approbation of thy honesty, I will
confer upon thee the hand of the only other respectable person about the
Court, namely, of Helladia. Take her, my son, and raise up a race of
heroes! She shall be amply dowered out of what remains of the property of
Photinius."

"Gennadius," whispered a cynical courtier to his neighbour, "I hope thou
admirest the magnanimity of our sovereign, who deems he is performing a
most generous action in presenting Manuel with his cast-off mistress, who
has tried to poison him, and with whom he has been at his wits' end what to
do, and in dowering her at the expense of another."

The snarl was just; but it is just also to acknowledge that Basil, as a
prince born in the purple, had not the least idea that he was laying
himself open to any such criticism. He actually did feel the manly glow of
self-approbation which accompanies the performance of a good action: an
emotion which no one else present, except Chrysostomus, was so much as able
to conceive. It is furthe