"You were, several months ago, were you not, found guilty of certain alleged commercial irregularities in the city of Corcyrus, and banished for a time from the city?"

"Yes," said Speusippus.

"As the reports have it," said Miles, "you were marched naked from the city, before the spears of guards, a sign about your neck, proclaiming you a fraud." "Yes," said Speusippus, angrily.

"Who found you guilty, and pronounced this sentence?"

"Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Speusippus.

"Is she who was the Tatrix of Corcyrus in this room?" asked Miles of Argentum. "Yes," said Speusippus.

"Would you point her out for us?" asked Miles.

Speusippus, unerringly, came to my side. He pointed to me. "This is she," he said.

"Thank you," said Miles. "You may now go."

"I had her in my grasp," cried Speusippus, "but she escaped. The reward should have been mine!" This reward had originally been one thousand pieces of gold. It had later been increased to fifteen hundred pieces of gold.

"It is not my fault if you could not hold a slave," said Miles.

"She was not then a slave," said Speusippus. Then he turned to me, with hatred. "But I got something from you, you slut," he said. "I took your virginity away!" "Am I to understand," asked Miles of Argentum, "that you are confessing to the rape of a free woman, one who was even a Tatrix?"

Speusippus turned white.

"May I speak, Masters?" I asked.

"Yes," said Claudius.

"After he had captured me," I said, "I presented myself to Speusippus of Tuna naked and as a slave, and begged for his use. As a true man he could not do otherwise than to have me."

Speusippus looked wildly at me.

"Very well, Speusippus of Tuna," said Miles of Argentum, "you may go." "Forgive me, Master," I said to Speusippus of Turia. "I muchly wronged you. I was stupid and cruel. I showed you too little respect. I now beg your forgiveness, as a woman, now a slave."

"You seem much different now from before," he said.

"I have now learned that I am a female," I said. Then I put my head down and did obeisance to his maleness, kissing his feet.

He crouched down and lifted my head. He looked into my eyes. "Fortunate is the man who has you under his whip," he said.

"Thank you, Master," I whispered. He then kissed me, rose to his feet and hurried away.

"Slave!" snarled Drusus Rencius, looking angrily at me.

"Yes, Master," I said. "I am a slave."

"Let it be noted," said Miles of Argentum, "that the witness unhesitantly identified her as Sheila, the former Tatrix of Corcyrus."

"It is noted," said Claudius.

"He, too," said Drusus Rencius, "could have been mistaken In this matter!" There was some laughter from some of the members of the high council, and from some of the others about the tables.

"I call now my fourth witness," said Miles of Argentum, "Ligurious, former first minister of Corcynis. He, if no one else, should know the true Tatrix of Corcyrus. I now ask him to make an official identification in the course of our inquiry. Ligurious."

Ligurious unhesitantly pointed to me. "I know her well," he said. "That is Sheila, who was the true Tatrix of Corcyrus.

"Have you further witnesses, General?" asked Claudius of Miles.

"Yes, noble Claudius," smiled Miles, "one more."

"Call him," said Claudius.

"Drusus Rencius," said Miles.

"I?" cried Drusus Rencius.

Men looked at one another, startled.

"Yes," said Miles. "You are Drusus Rencius, a captain from Ar, are you not?" "Yes," said Drustis Rencius, angrily.

"The same who was on detached service to Argentum, and was engaged in espionage within the walls of Corcyrus?" asked Miles.

"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.

"I believe that while you were in Corcyrus," said Miles, "one of your duties was to act as the personal bodyguard of Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus."

"I was assigned the post of guarding one whom I at that time thought was Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Drusus Rencius. "I no longer believe that she was the true Tatrix. I think that I, and many others, including yourself, were eon fused and misled by the brilliance of Ligurious, Corcyrus's first minister. She was used as a decoy to protect the true Tatrix. In effecting this stratagem she was educated in the identity and role of the Tatrix, in which role, part-time at least, she performed. The success of this plan became strikingly clear after the fall of the city. She fell into our hands and, as the supposed Tatrix, was stripped, chained and caged. The true Tatrix, meanwhile, eluded us, escaping in the company of Ligurious and others."

"Ligurious?" asked Miles.

"Preposterous," said Ligurious.

"Is the woman whom you believed to be the Tatrix of Corcyrus, and whom you testified in Corcyrus was the Tatrix, before the very throne itself, in this room?"

Drusus Rencius was silent.

"As you may have noted," said Miles, "Publius, the liou master of the house of Klioiiieiies, of Corcyrus, is in the room. I think that he, with the practiced eye of his profession, skilled in the close scrutiny and assessment of female can render a judicious opinion as to whether or not she whom you brought to the house of Kliomenes, she whom you were guarding, is or is not in the room." "How did you know of this?" asked Drusus Rencius.

"In the search for the Tatrix," said Miles, "the records hundreds of slave houses were checked, to see if a woman her description might have been processed. In this search, the records of the house of Kliomenes, we found entries taming to your visit there with a free woman, purportedly Lady Lita. Descriptions of this "Lady, Lita' were furnished to several members of the staff. There was no difficulty wi these descriptions. They were splendidly clear, and useful and intimately detailed, even to conjectured shackle sii.es, ji as one would expect of descriptions of a female in a slave garment. The descriptions tallied, of course, with those available of the Tatrix of Corcyrus."

"I did not know," said Publius, rising to his feet, "that was for such a purpose I was invited to Argentum. As Miles of Argentum knows, I am the friend of Drusus Rencius will not testify in this matter."

"You can deny, of course," said Miles of Argentum Drusus Rencius, "that she whom you took to the house Kliomenes was the same woman you were guarding as I putative Tatrix. In that fashion, even if Publius can be encouraged to testify, his testimony could do no more than confirm that she here chained is the same as she whom you th brought to the house of Kliomenes. You can still deny ti she who is here chained is she whom you then took to I Tatrix of Corcyrus.

Drusus Rencius was silent.

"We have, of course, independent identifications."

"We do not require the testimony of Drusus Rencius in this matter," said Claudius.

"I do not refuse to testify," said Drusus Rencius.

Men looked at one another.

"Let me then repeat my question," said Miles of Argentum. "Is she whom you believed to be the Tatrix of Corcyrus, she whom you identified as the Tatrix in Corcyrus itself, before the very throne of Corcyrus, in this room?"

"Yes," said Drustis Rencius.

"Would you please point her out?" asked Miles.

Drusus Rencius pointed to me. "That is she," he said.

"Thank you," said Miles.

"The matter is done," said a man.

"In making this identification," said Drusus Rencius, "I do no more than acknowledge that I was once the dupe of Ligurious. Can you not see? He is making fools of us all!"

Ligurious looked down, as though grieved by some irresponsible and absurd outburst.

"By the love I bear you, and by the love you bear me," said Drusus Rencius to Miles, "hear me out. That woman is not the Tatrix! She sat upon the throne! She appeared in public as the Tatrix! She sat in court as the Tatrix! She conducted business as the Tatrix! She was known as the Tatrix! But she was not the Tatrix!"