"Take my Armenians; they are discreet, obedient, and they ask no questions--with strong hammers they will soon crush the clay.

Stay! I will come with you." Then looking at me scrutinizingly, he added kindly: "You have eaten nothing, my child?
You cannot?
But your strength will give way--here, take this." And lie held out a small glass of a fluid whose revivifying properties I well knew to be greater than any sustenance provided by an ordinary meal.

I swallowed it obediently, and as I returned the empty glass to him he said: "I also have a commission in charge from Zara.

You know, I suppose, that she was prepared for her death ?" "I did not know; but I think she must have been," I answered.
"She was.

We both were.