ot--to-morrow will be worse! I will give you guard, but thou must be
careful, nevertheless, that Saronia be not known, or the people will
kill her. No harm shall come from my soldiers. They shall be faithful. I
also will be faithful, for Chios's sake, as long as the grass grows and
the rivers flow to the ocean. If any injury come, it will be from the
hands of the furious mob. I give her into thy charge, and will send
guard for both. I can do no more. Again, I say, be careful!'

Out they went into the darkness--out into the storm of blood.

For a while all went well as they passed between the lines of the
watchful Romans. They had traversed most of the way and were close to
the studio of Chios, where the troops were thinnest. There the people
gathered together in angry crowds.

Suddenly the ruffians saw the women, and cried out:

'Here are two Ephesians in the pay of the Romans! Spies, traitors,
guides to the Temple plunderers! Kill them!' And they fell on them with
mad fury.

Instantly they were surrounded by the soldiers and encircled as in a
net.

Exasperated and maddened by the day's proceedings, they would die in the
attempt to kill the women. Roughly handled as they were, one of them had
time to draw a dagger from his belt and aimed to plunge it into the
bosom of Saronia. The glistening blade was falling towards her, but
quicker than its descent was Endora, who threw herself between them and
received the blow. She fell, crying:

'She is young; take me!'

And, as she lay dying, the murderer also fell, pierced by a dozen
spears.

The people fell back, shouting:

'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!' Whilst the savage troops replied
gruffly: 'But Nero of Rome is greater!'

Endora spoke a few words--dying words--and her head fell back into the
arms of Saronia, and all was over--Endora was dead.

They were about to proceed and leave the body, but the queenly form of
Saronia asserted itself as she stood with eyes dilated and form erect,
crying:

'Soldiers of Rome, bear carefully with you this dead body!'

'No, no!' they replied. 'Hasten away to safety. The dead suffer not.'

But still she stood transfixed, and, raising her voice, she said:

'Do as I bid you, or I refuse to move; and if I remain, it is at your
peril.'

They saw in her no common person, and reluctantly obeyed, one taking his
cloak and wrapping it round the corpse, whilst others took their scarves
and bound their spears together, and plac