Syracuse. Farewell."
He turned away and walked towards the chapel.

Shouldering his sword, the old man tramped down the mountain towards the
city.

IV

THE HUNTER

When he was well on his way the King came quietly out of the wood and
approached his favorite.

"Was there ever a greater king than I, Hildebrand?" he asked.

"Never since sun-birth," Hildebrand responded, with glib emphasis. "The
glory of Solomon, the sword of Caesar, the beauty of Adonis, the lyre of
Orpheus, the strength of Hercules, the grace of Apollo, the sum of all
possibilities--God-man, or man-God, what shall our poor lips call you?"
He made the monarch a profound obeisance, too profound to permit Robert
to see the mockery shining in his eyes.

The monarch drank the delicious draught with more than royal gravity as
he answered:

"You are a wise man. But if I have immortal merits, I have very mortal
desires. This is not the first time that I have climbed to these
summits."

Hildebrand had raised his head, and mockery had given ground to
surprise.

"Indeed, sire?" he asked. The King was silent for a moment, musing on
sweet memories, and when he spoke it was with smiling lips.

"My honest father, worthy man, forbade hunting in these happy hills,
which gave me an itch to beat their coverts. Last week, while you were
away at Naples, I rode in these hills till I could ride no longer, left
my horse, lost my way, till in the very heart of the forest I met a
girl--indeed, at first my joy mistook her for a goddess."

"Was she so fair?" Hildebrand asked, questioning rather the delight on
Robert's face than the weight of Robert's words.

And Robert answered him eagerly, hotly:

"I tell you, Hildebrand, the loveliest I ever saw. No wonder that the
antique world called Venus Erycina, if in the island where Eryx rears
its crest such wonderful women still tread the earth with goddess feet."

Hildebrand repeated his question. "Was she so fair?"

There was a rapture on Robert's face as he answered:

"Naples is a very rose-garden of radiant women, but this wild rose of
the woods was as far above them as I am above other men. She gave me
drink from a fountain, lifting it to me in a cool, green leaf, and the
clear water was sweeter than wine of Cyprus and headier than wine of
Hungary, and I drank delicious madness."

A smile puckered Hildebrand's lips.

"Did you pluck this wild rose of the woods?" he asked.

Robert shook his head, but t