r a man of the latest period of
middle life. Their raiment was scanty and soiled; their frames and
countenances alike bespoke fatigue and hardship; but while the elder one
moved with moderate alacrity, the other shuffled painfully along by the
help of a staff, shrinking every time that he placed either of his feet on
the ground.

They exchanged looks and greetings as they encountered, and the more active
of the two, whose face was set in an easterly direction, ventured a
compassionate allusion to the other's apparent distress.

'I but suffer from the usual effects of crucifixion,' returned the other;
and removing his sandals, displayed two wounds, completely penetrating each
foot.

The Cross had not yet announced victory to Constantine, and was as yet no
passport to respectable society. The first traveller drew back hastily, and
regarded his companion with surprise and suspicion.

"I see what is passing in thy mind," resumed the latter, with a smile; "but
be under no apprehension. I have not undergone the censure of any judicial
tribunal. My crucifixion was merely a painful but necessary incident in my
laudable enterprise of obtaining the marvellous purple dye, to which end I
was despatched unto these regions by the Emperor Aurelian."

"The purple dye!" exclaimed the Persian, for it was he. "Thou hast obtained
it?"

"I have. It is the product of insects found only in a certain valley
eastward from hence, to obtain access to which it is before all things
needful to elude the vigilance of seven dragons."

"Thou didst elude them? and afterwards?" inquired Marcobad, with eagerness.

"Afterwards," repeated Sorianus, "I made my way into the valley, where I
descried the remains of my immediate predecessor prefixed to a cross."

"Thy predecessor?"

"He who had last made the attempt before me. Upon any one's penetrating the
Valley of Purple, as it is termed, with the design I have indicated, the
inhabitants, observant of the precepts of their ancestors, append him to a
cross by the feet only, confining his arms by ropes at the shoulders, and
setting vessels of cooling drink within his grasp. If, overcome with
thirst, he partakes of the beverage, they leave him to expire at leisure;
if he endures for three days, he is permitted to depart with the object of
his quest. My predecessor, belonging, as I conjecture, to the Epicurean
persuasion, and consequently unable to resist the allurements of sense, had
perished in the