is very fortunate for you, since, although he looks on you with doubt
and jealousy, to blind or murder his own god-son would cause too much
scandal even in Constantinople. As a special mark of grace, also, the
Bishop Barnabas, of Egypt, will be allowed to assist in the ceremony,
because it was he who snatched your soul from the burning. Moreover,
since the Sacrament is to be administered afterwards, he has been
commanded to attend here to receive your confession in the chapel of the
palace, and within an hour. You know that this day being the Feast of
St. Michael and All Angels, you will be received in the name of Michael,
a high one well fitted to a warlike saint, though I think that I shall
still call you Olaf. So farewell, my god-son to be, until we meet at
the cathedral, where I shall shine in the reflected light of all your
virtues."

Then she sighed, laughed a little, and glided away.

In due course a priest of the chapel came to summon me there, saying
that the Bishop Barnabas awaited me. I went and made my confession,
though in truth I had little to tell him that he did not already know.
Afterwards the good old man, who by now was quite recovered from his
hurts and imprisonment, accompanied me to my quarters, where we ate
together. He told me that before he attended in the chapel he had been
received by the Empress, who had spoken to him very kindly, making
light of their difference of opinion as to images and with her own mouth
confirmed him in his bishopric, even hinting at his possible promotion.

"This, my son," he added, "I am well aware I owe to your good offices."

I asked him if he would return at once to Upper Egypt, where he had his
bishopric.

"No, my son," he answered, "not yet awhile. The truth is that there
have arrived here the chief man in my diocese, and his daughter. He is
a descendant of the old Pharaohs of the Egyptians who lives near the
second cataract of the Nile, almost on the borders of Ethiopia, whither
the accursed children of Mahomet have not yet forced their way. He is
still a great man among the Egyptians, who look upon him as their lawful
prince. His mission here is to try to plan a new war upon the followers
of the Prophet, who, he holds, might be assailed by the Empire at the
mouths of the Nile, while he attacked them with his Egyptians from the
south."

Now I grew interested, who had always grieved over the loss of Egypt to
the Empire, and asked what was this prince's na