aken.

"My friend," answered Orberosia, "do not interrupt a serious subject
by frivolous questions. . . . 'If, then,' added the monks, 'there be in
Alca a pure virgin, let her arise!' Now, Kraken, I have determined to
answer their call. I will go and find the holy Mael and I will say to
him: 'I am the virgin destined by Heaven to overthrow the dragon.'"

At these words Kraken exclaimed: "How can you be that pure virgin? And
why do you want to overthrow me, Orberosia? Have you lost your reason?
Be sure that I will not allow myself to be conquered by you!"

"Can you not try and understand me before you get angry?" sighed the
fair Orberosia with deep though gentle contempt.

And she explained the cunning designs that she had formed.

As he listened, the hero remained pensive. And when she ceased speaking:

"Orberosia, your cunning, is deep," said he, "And if your plans are
carried out according to your intentions I shall derive great advantages
from them. But how can you be the virgin destined by heaven?"

"Don't bother about that," she replied, "and come to bed."

The next day in the grease-laden atmosphere of the cavern, Kraken
plaited a deformed skeleton out of osier rods and covered it with
bristling, scaly, and filthy skins. To one extremity of the skeleton
Orberosia sewed the fierce crest and the hideous mask that Kraken used
to wear in his plundering expeditions, and to the other end she fastened
the tail with twisted folds which the hero was wont to trail behind him.
And when the work was finished they showed little Elo and the other five
children who waited on them how to get inside this machine, how to make
it walk, how to blow horns and burn tow in it so as to send forth smoke
and flames through the dragon's mouth.

XII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)

Orberosia, having clothed herself in a robe made of coarse stuff and
girt herself with a thick cord, went to the monastery and asked to
speak to the blessed Mael. And because women were forbidden to enter
the enclosure of the monastery the old man advanced outside the gates,
holding his pastoral cross in his right hand and resting his left on the
shoulder of Brother Samuel, the youngest of his disciples.

He asked:

"Woman, who art thou?"

"I am the maiden Orberosia."

At this reply Mael raised his trembling arms to heaven.

"Do you speak truth, woman? It is a certain fact that Orberosia was
devoured by the dragon. And yet I see Orberosia