Lives of Alcyone

long worshipped the small Alcyone, without daring to aspire to the
hand of the daughter of the King.
When Alcyone found herself in the battle she was distinctly
nervous, but she kept as close to her brother as she could, and had
the good fortune to be able to save his life, for while he was fighting
with one man, another rushed at him from behind. Alcyone saw this,
flung herself between them with a shout, and contrived in doing so
to throw the assailant off his feet, though she too fell, entangled with
him. In a moment he was on his feet again, with spear uplifted to kill
her, but Sirius had recognised her voice as he was in the act of
killing his previous antagonist. He swept round like lightning, and
with the same swing of his sword cut off the arm which held the
spear, but only just in time. Then he appointed some of his men to
guard his sister, finished the battle ( which he won) and rode home
in triumph with her beside him.
He could not chide her for her presence, because after all she
had saved his life, as he had saved hers, but he made her promise
not to do it again by describing in her what a terrible shock it was to
him when he heard her voice again and realised that she was in
danger, and how it took the strength from his arm and from his
heart—though, as she instantly remarked, “ enough of it seems to
have remained to cut off a man’ s arm” . However, she kept her
promise, and after this she never went into battle with him again.
Though all such times were occasions of much greater agony for her
than if she had actually been with him, for she seemed to sense
whenever danger approached him, and she felt acutely that this time
she was not there physically to ward it off.
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