If only they could find Polykarp! And yet I honestly say--not merely to comfort you--it is most probable that he has not met with any accident in the mountain gorges, but has gone to Alexandria to escape the memories that follow him here at every step--Was not that the gate ?" She rose quickly and looked into the court, while Petrus, who had followed her, did the same, saying with a deep sigh, as he turned to Marthana--who, while she offered meat and bread to Hermas was watching her parents--"It was only the slave Anubis." For some time a painful silence reigned round the large table, to-day so sparely furnished with guests.
At last Petrus turned to his guest and said, "You were to tell me how the shepherdess Miriam lost her life in the struggle.

She had run away from our house--" "Up the mountain," added Hermas.

"She supplied my poor father with water like a daughter." "You see, mother," interrupted Marthana, "she was not bad-hearted--I always said so." "This morning," continued Hermas, nodding in sad assent to the maiden, "she followed my father to the castle, and immediately after his fall, Paulus told me, she rushed away from it, but only to seek me and to bring me the sad news.

We had known each other a long time, for years she had watered her goats at our well, and while I was still quite a boy and she a little girl, she would listen for hours when I played on my willow pipe the songs which Paulus had taught me.

As long as I played she was perfectly quiet, and when I ceased she wanted to hear more and still more, until I had too much of it and went away.