street without hat, staff, belt or gown, for the best mode of coming off victor in such combats is flight. She immediately opened the window and began calling out loudly to the people in the street, crying, "Seize that robber who, entering my house under a peaceful guise, has stolen from me a precious treasure worth a whole city." There happened to be two of the pope's guards in the street, who thinking they had taken him in the very act, hearing the cry of "robbers," seized Periander and tore the cross from his breast,--a treatment which justice uses with new offenders, although the crime may not be proved. Periander, on finding himself _thus crossed_,[T] spoke to the Germans in their own language, and said, he was no thief but a person of consequence, and that the cross was his own; that they might see by its richness it could not be Hippolyta's, and he asked to be taken before the Governor; where he hoped shortly to prove the truth of the matter. He offered them money, and with that, and with having spoken in their own tongue, which will always gain the heart even of those who know you not, the Germans paid no attention to Hippolyta, and so carried Periander before the Governor. On seeing this she left the window, and, almost ready to scratch her own eyes out, she said to her servants, "Ah! what folly is this that I have done! I have vexed him I meant to honour; I have offended where I wished to serve. He is taken as a thief; he who has stolen my heart. What kind of caresses are these? what kindness? to attack his liberty, and to defame his honour." And then she told them how he had been carried off by two of the pope's guards, and ordered her coach to be got ready directly, that she might follow and exculpate him, for her heart could not bear to wound one who was the very apple of her eye; and she preferred appearing as one who had accused falsely, rather than be cruel, for there was no excuse for cruelty, though for the false accusation there might be pleaded the force of love, which so often causes a thousand follies, and offends even those it loves best. When she arrived at the governor's house, she found him with the cross in his hands, examining Periander on the matter, who, seeing Hippolyta, said to the governor, "This lady who is just come in, has said that the cross now in your lordship's hands is hers, and was stolen from her by me: I will acknowledge this is the fact when she has declared of what the cross is made, what is its value, and how many diamonds compose it; for unless the angels or some spirit has revealed it to her, she cannot know, for she never saw it but in my bosom, and once only." "What says the lady Hippolyta to this?" said the governor, so covering the cross that she could not see it.