“Lady, because it was not convenient to the Caliph to receive you, since as it chances at present he is moving from place to place upon the business of the State.  Therefore, as you will find in the writing, he has appointed me to deal with your matter.  Now, Lady, the Caliph and I his servant know all your story from lips which even you would trust.  You are betrothed to a certain enemy of his, a Northman named Olaf Red-Sword or Michael, who was blinded by the Empress Irene for some offence against her, but was afterwards appointed by her son Constantine to be governor of the Isle of Lesbos.  This Olaf, by the will of God, inflicted a heavy defeat upon the forces of the Caliph which he had sent to take Lesbos.  Then, by the goodness of God, he wandered to Egypt in search of you, with the result that both of you were taken prisoner.  Lady, it will be clear to you that, having this wild hawk Olaf in his hands, the Caliph would scarcely let him go again to prey upon the Moslems, though whether he will kill him or make of him a slave as yet I do not know.  Nay, hear me out before you speak.  The Caliph has been told of your wondrous beauty, and as I see even less than the truth.  Also he has heard of the high spirit which you showed in the Coptic rising, when your father, the Prince Magas, was slain, and of how you escaped out of the hand of the Emir Musa the Fat, and were not afraid to dwell for months alone in the tombs of the ancient dead.  Now the Caliph, being moved in his heart by your sad plight and all that he has heard concerning you, commands me to make you an offer.

“The offer is that you should come to his Court, and there be instructed for a while by his learned men in the truths of religion.  Then, if it pleases you to adopt Islam, he will take you as one of his wives, and if it does not please you, will add you to his harem, since it is not lawful for him to marry a woman who remains a Christian.  In either case he will make on you a settlement of property to the value of that which belonged to your father, the Prince Magas.  Reflect well before you answer.  Your choice lies between the memory of a blind man, whom I think you will never see again, and the high place of one of the wives of the greatest sovereign of the earth.”

“Sir, before I answer I would put a question to you.  Why do you say ’the memory of a blind man’?”

“Because, Lady, a rumour has reached me which I desired to hold back from you, but which now you force me to repeat.  It is that this General Olaf has in truth already passed the gate of death.”

“Then, sir,” she answered, with a little sob, “it behoves me to follow him through that gate.”

“That will happen when it pleases God.  Meanwhile, what is your answer?”

“Sir, my answer is that I, a poor Christian prisoner, a victim of war and fate, thank the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid for the honours and the benefits he would shower on me, and with humility decline them.”