Pearl-Maiden (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, FB2, TEXT)

ngry friends, eat before you are eaten and enter into Heaven or--the stomach of the lions." An old woman, the last of the party, for she could not walk fast, turned round and pointed at the buffoon with her staff. "Blaspheme not, you heathen dog!" she said, "or rather, blaspheme on and go to your reward! I, Anna, who have the gift of prophecy, tell you, renegade who were a Christian, and therefore are doubly guilty, that /you/ have eaten your last meal--on earth." The man, a half-bred Syrian who had abandoned his faith for profit and now tormented those who were once his brethren, uttered a furious curse and snatched a knife from his girdle. "You draw the knife? So be it, perish by the knife!" said Anna. Then without heeding him further the old woman hobbled on after her companions, leaving the man to slink away white to the lips with terror. He had been a Christian and knew something of Anna and of this "gift of prophecy." The path of these strangers led them past the fount