eyhound in the coverlet, took it in her arms like a child, and ran
into the sitting-room with her light burden; the shutters were still
open of the window through which Hermas had fled into the open. With the
help of a stool she took the same way, let herself slip down from the
sill into the street, and hastened on without aim or goal--inspired only
by the wish to escape durance in the dark room, and to burst every bond
that tied her to her hated mate--up the church-hill and along the road
which lead over the mountain to the sea.

Phoebicius gave her a long start, for after having arranged her prison
he remained some time in the little room behind the kitchen, not in
order to give her time, collect his thoughts or to reflect on his future
action, but simply because he felt utterly exhausted.

The centurion was nearly sixty years of age, and his frame, originally a
powerful one, was now broken by every sort of dissipation, and could no
longer resist the effects of the strain and excitement of this night.

The lean, wiry, and very active man did not usually fall into these
fits of total enervation excepting in the daytime, for after sundown
a wonderful change would come over the gray-headed veteran, who
nevertheless still displayed much youthful energy in the exercise of his
official duties. At night his drooping eyelids, that almost veiled his
eyes, opened more wildly, his flaccid hanging under-lip closed firmly,
his long neck and narrow elongated head were held erect, and when, at a
later hour, he went out to drinking-bouts or to the service in honor
of Mithras, he might often still be taken for a fine, indomitable young
man.

But when he was drunk he was no longer gay, but wild, braggart, and
noisy. It frequently happened that before he left the carouse, while he
was still in the midst of his boon-companions, the syncope would come
upon him which had so often alarmed Sirona, and from which he could
never feel perfectly safe even when he was on duty at the head of his
soldiers.

The vehement big man in such moments offered a terrible image of
helpless impotence; the paleness of death would overspread his features,
his back was as if it were broken, and he lost his control over every
limb. His eyes only continued to move, and now and then a shudder shook
his frame. His people said that when he was in this condition, the
centurion's ghastly demon had entered into him, and he himself believed
in this evil spirit, and