"The offer is that you should come to his Court, and there be instructed for a while by his learned men in the truths of religion. Then, if it pleases you to adopt Islam, he will take you as one of his wives, and if it does not please you, will add you to his harem, since it is not lawful for him to marry a woman who remains a Christian. In either case he will make on you a settlement of property to the value of that which belonged to your father, the Prince Magas. Reflect well before you answer. Your choice lies between the memory of a blind man, whom I think you will never see again, and the high place of one of the wives of the greatest sovereign of the earth."
"Sir, before I answer I would put a question to you. Why do you say 'the memory of a blind man'?"
"Because, Lady, a rumour has reached me which I desired to hold back from you, but which now you force me to repeat. It is that this General Olaf has in truth already passed the gate of death."
"Then, sir," she answered, with a little sob, "it behoves me to follow him through that gate."
"That will happen when it pleases God. Meanwhile, what is your answer?"
"Sir, my answer is that I, a poor Christian prisoner, a victim of war and fate, thank the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid for the honours and the benefits he would shower on me, and with humility decline them."
"So be it, Lady. The Caliph is not a man who would wish to force your inclination. Still, this being so, I am charged to say he bids you remember that you were taken prisoner in war by the Emir Musa. He holds that, subject to his own prior right, which he waives, you are the property of the Emir Musa under a just interpretation of the law. Yet he would be merciful as God is merciful, and therefore he gives you the choice of three things. The first of these is that you adopt Islam with a faithful heart and go free."
"That I refuse, as I have refused it before," said Heliodore.
"The second is," he continued, "that you enter the harem of the Emir Musa."
"That I refuse also."
"And the third and last is that, having thrust aside his mercy, you suffer the common fate of a captured Christian who persists in error, and die."