“These, O Prefect,” replied Helena, “If but thou wilt remove thy cohorts to Londinium, I pledge my father’s faith and mine, that he will, within five days, deliver to thee as hostage for his fealty, myself and twenty children of his councillors and captains. And further, I, Helena the princess, will bind myself to deliver up to thee, with the hostages, the chief rebel in this revolt, and the one to whose counselling this strife with Rome is due.” Both the matter and the manner of the offered terms still further pleased the prefect, and he said: “Be it so, Princess.” Then summoning his lieutenant, he said: “Conduct the envoy of Coel of Britain with all courtesy to the gates of the the city,” and with a herald’s escort the girl returned to her father. Again the old king rebelled at the terms his daughter had made. “I know the ways of Rome,” he said. “I know what their mercy meaneth. Thou shalt never go as hostage for my faith, O daughter, nor carry out this hazardous plan.” “I have pledged my word and thine, O King,” said Helena. “Surely a Briton’s pledge should be as binding as a Roman’s.” So she carried her point, and, in five days’ time, she, with twenty of the boys and girls of Camalodunum, went as hostages to the Roman camp in London. “Here be thy hostages, fair Princess,” said Constantius the prefect as he received the children; “and this is well. But remember the rest of thy compact. Deliver to me now, according to thy promise, the chief rebel against Rome.” “She is here, O Prefect,” said the intrepid girl. “I am that rebel--Helena of Britain!” The smile upon the prefect’s face changed to sudden sternness. “Trifle not with Roman justice, girl,” he said, “I demand the keeping of thy word.” “It is kept,” replied the princess. “Helena of Britain is the cause and motive of this revolt against Rome. If it be rebellion for a free prince to claim his own, if it be rebellion for a prince to withstand for the sake of his people the unjust demands of the conqueror, if it be rebellion for one who loveth her father to urge that father to valiant deeds in defence of the liberties of the land over which he ruleth as king, then am I a rebel, for I have done all these, and only because of my words did the king, my father, take up arms against the might and power of Rome. I am the chief rebel. Do with me as thou wilt.” And now the prefect saw that the girl spoke the truth, and that she had indeed kept her pledge. “Thy father and his city are pardoned,” he announced after a few moments of deliberation. “Remain thou here, thou and thy companions, as hostages for Britain, until such time as I shall determine upon the punishment due to one who is so fierce a rebel against the power of Rome.”