should hear, so that you shall hold me quit of blame in aught that it may be my duty to inflict upon you. Read them, Captain Jodd. Nay, I forgot, you cannot. Give the copy of the letter to the Lady Irene; the original she can see afterwards if she wills."
So the paper was given to her by Jodd, and she read it aloud, weighing each word carefully.
"Oh, what a dog is this!" she said when it was finished. "Know, Olaf, that of my free will I surrendered the throne to him, yes, and all my private treasure, he swearing upon the Gospels that I should live in peace and honour till my life's end. And now he sends me to you to be blinded and then done to death, for that is what he means. Oh! may God avenge me upon him! May he become a byword and a scorn, and may his own end be even worse than that which he has prepared for me. May shame wrap his memory as in a garment, may his bones be dishonoured and his burying-place forgotten. Aye, and so it shall be."[1]
She paused in her fearful curse, then said in a new voice, that voice in which she was wont to plead,
"You will not blind me, Olaf. You'll not take from me my last blessing, the light of day. Think what it means"
"The General Olaf should know well enough," interrupted Jodd, but I waved him to be silent, and answered,
"Tell me, Madam, how can I do otherwise? It seems to me that my life and that of my wife and children hang upon this deed. Moreover, why should
- ↑ The skull of this Nicephorus is said to have been used as a drinking cup by his victorious enemy, the King Krum.—Editor.
