“She wept at the lady’s singing,” interrupted Herse eagerly, “and, silent as she generally is, on her way home she said:  ’To sing like that!  She is a happy girl!’”

Karnis looked up with renewed confidence.

“Ah!” he exclaimed, “that is my Agne.  Yes, yes, she truly loves her divine art.  She can sing, she will sing!  We will venture it, if you, I, all of us die for it!

“Herse, Orpheus, what have we to lose?  Our gods, too, shall have their martyrs.  It is a poor life that has no excitement.  Our art—­why, all I have ever had has been devoted to it.  I make no boast of having sacrificed everything, and if gold and lands were again to be mine I would become a beggar once more for the sake of art:  We have always held the divine Muse sacred, but who can keep up a brave heart when he sees her persecuted!  She may only be worshipped in darkness in these days, and the Queen of Gods and men shuns the light like a moth, a bat, an owl.  If we must die let it be with and for Her!  Once more let pure and perfect song rejoice this old heart, and if afterwards . . .  My children, we have no place in this dim, colorless world.  While the Arts lived there was Spring on the earth.  Now they are condemned to death and it is Winter.  The leaves fall from all the trees, and we piping birds need groves to sing in.  How often already has Death laid his hand on our shoulder, every breath we draw is a boon of mercy—­the extra length given in by the weaver, the hour of grace granted by the hangman to his victim!  Our lives are no longer our own, a borrowed purse with damaged copper coins.  The hard-hearted creditor has already bent his knuckles, and when he knocks the time is up.  Once more let us have one hour of pure and perfect enjoyment, and then we will pay up capital and interest when we must.”

“It cannot and will not be yet,” said Herse resolutely, but she wiped her eyes with her band.  “If Agne sings even, so long as she does it without coercion and of her own free-will no Bishop can punish us.”

“He cannot, he dare not!” cried the old man.  There are still laws and judges.”

“And Gorgo’s family is influential as well as rich.  Porphyrius has power to protect us, and you do not yet know what a fancy he has taken to us.  Ask mother.”

“It is like a story,” Herse put in.  “Before we left, the old lady—­she must be eighty or more—­took me aside and asked me where we were lodging.  I told her at the Widow Mary’s and when she heard it she struck her crutch on the floor.  ‘Do you like the place?’ she asked.  I told her not at all, and said we could not possibly stop here.”

“Quite right!” cried Karnis.  “The monks in the court-yard will kill us as dead as rats if they hear us learning heathen hymns.”

“That is what I told her; but the old lady did not allow me to finish; she drew me close to her and whispered, ’only do as my granddaughter wishes and you shall be safely housed and take this for the present’—­and she put her hand into the purse at her girdle, gave the gold into my hand, and added loud enough for the others to hear:  ’Fifty gold pieces out of my own pocket if Gorgo tells me that she is satisfied with your performance.’”