rd much talk of miracles, but this is the only one I
have ever seen. Either Olaf is a liar, or he is a great man and a saint.
He says, I am told, that the monkey which ate one of those figs died.
Well, I never thought of it before, but there are more monkeys in the
palace. Indeed, one lives on the terrace near by, for I fed it this
afternoon. We'll put the matter to the proof and learn of what stuff
this Olaf is really made."

On the table stood a silver bell, and as he spoke he struck it. A
chamberlain entered and was ordered to bring in the monkey. He departed,
and with incredible swiftness the beast and its keeper arrived. It was
a large animal of the baboon tribe, famous throughout the palace for its
tricks. Indeed, on entering, at a word from the man who led it, it bowed
to all of us.

"Give your beast these," said the Emperor, handing the keeper several of
the figs.

The baboon took the fruits and, having sniffed at them, put them
aside. Then the keeper fed it with some sweetmeats, which it caught and
devoured, and presently, when its fears were allayed, threw it one
of the figs, which it swallowed, doubtless thinking it a sweetmeat.
A minute or two later it began to show signs of distress and shortly
afterwards died in convulsions.

"Now," said Irene, "now do you believe, my son?"

"Yes," he answered, "I believe that there is a saint in Constantinople.
Sir Saint, I salute you. You have saved my life and if it should come
my way, by your brother saints! I'll save yours, although you are my
mother's servant."

So speaking, he drank off yet another cup of wine and reeled from the
room.

The keeper, at a sign from Irene, lifted up the body of the dead ape and
also left the chamber, weeping as he went, for he had loved this beast.

CHAPTER IV

OLAF OFFERS HIS SWORD

The Emperor had gone, drunk; the ape had gone, dead; and its keeper had
gone, weeping. Irene and I alone were left in that beautiful place with
the wine-stained table on which stood the jar of poisoned figs and the
bent golden cup lying on the marble floor.

She sat upon the couch, looking at me with a kind of amazement in her
eyes, and I stood before her at attention, as does a soldier on duty.

"I wonder why he did not send for one of my servants to eat those
figs--Stauracius, for instance," she mused, adding with a little laugh,
"Well, if he had, there are some whom I could have spared better than
that poor ape, which at times I used