Lives of Alcyone

hear him preach and tried to catch his eye, but without success.
Then she came to consult him privately and to seek for advice, for
which however he referred her to older monks, not seeming to
observe the various obvious hints which she threw out.
Finding this ineffectual, she invited him to her house to recite
the texts of blessing for a sick person—a call which he could not
refuse to obey; and while there she tried in various ways to entrap
him, contriving to expose herself before him as a temptation to break
his vows. The young man, however was filled with disgust, and
made his escape at the earliest convenient opportunity, so that
Scorpio’ s lust was turned to hate, and she vowed to compass his
disgrace and overthrow. Many men were in her toils, and were quite
ready to help her in her schemes, so she worked out an exceedingly
ingenious plot, inducing a certain girl to accuse him, and herself
(with every appearance of reluctance) bearing false witness against
him, and bringing several men to support the charge from different
sides.
Alcyone of course indignantly denied the whole thing, but the
case was pressed, and brought before the chief abbot. He however,
being an astute man, and somewhat shrewd questions, which
exposed contradictions in the story of the accusers. He soon
discovered sufficient to warrant him in laying the matter before King
Harsha, who promptly enquired into it, laid bare the whole nefarious
plot, and banished the woman and her fellow-conspirators,
confiscating all their wealth and transferring it to Alcyone’ s temple.
The chief abbot, though thus entirely convinced of Alcyone’ s
innocence, still thought it desirable to remove so handsome a young
monk for a time from the place where such plots were so easily
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