he knife in her bosom and came close to Robert. "Will you
truly help me? Let me see your eyes. Yes, I believe you. How may we
escape?"

Robert drew his withered body proudly up. "I will command them to set
you free."

"Alas! poor soul, they will not obey you," Perpetua said, sadly.

Robert fell from his high estate in a second. "Oh, God, I had
forgotten," he groaned. He clasped his hands; his lips murmured a prayer
for strength to bear his cross, for strength to serve this woman. For
the second time in his sinful life he was thinking of another than
himself, and that other was Perpetua. He turned to her with what he
meant to be a smile. "Then we are weak things, you and I, a fool and a
woman, and we must fight force with craft. Do you trust me?"

"I trust you," Perpetua said, simply.

Robert came close to her and whispered in her ear. "Seem to consent to
this cruel jest of theirs. I will say I have cast a spell upon you, and
that you can refuse me nothing. When I command you to follow me, say
that you obey. Once you are outside these gates, you will be safe. Do
you understand?"

Perpetua looked at him with shining eyes. "I understand that I have
found a friend."

The words seemed to burn Robert's heart with purifying fire. "A slave
who will serve you faithfully," he whispered. "Hush, some one is
coming."

XI

GLAMOUR

The hangings behind the image of Venus parted, and Lycabetta surveyed
the strange pair. She had grown weary of the garden, grown curious to
know how the fool had progressed with his wooing.

"Well," she asked, "are the lovers happy?"

Perpetua folded her arms in silence as Lycabetta descended the steps,
but Robert danced up to the Neapolitan antically.

"A marvel, a marvel," he carolled; "I have won the mad maid's heart."

Lycabetta stared at him. "Does Andromeda dote on the monster? Does
Beauty love the Beast?"

Robert jigged and skipped in front of her, almost singing his words. If
he had the fool's shape, he would play the fool's part to save Perpetua.
"Bah, the husk belies the kernel. I am skilled in philtres--I can cast
love spells as well as the straightest and the smoothest."

"Love-making has mended your wits," said Lycabetta. "So you no longer
think yourself the King."

Robert laughed wildly. "King or no king," he gibbered, "I sway a maid's
heart." He was playing his part bravely, for the air seemed full of
voices calling, "Save Perpetua!"

"Does the girl accept yo