Nor, indeed, did she ever attain to a clear memory of those events, while the time between them and the recovery of her reason by the seashore in the garden at Tyre always remained a blank.

That troubled fragment of her life was sunk in a black sea of oblivion.
At length the old woman came to summon Miriam to her midday meal, and led her, not to her own tent, but to that which was pitched to serve as an eating-place for the captain, Gallus.

As she went she saw knots of soldiers gathered across her path as though to intercept her, and turned to fly, for the sight of them brought back the terrors of the siege.
"Have no fear of them," said the old woman, smiling.

"Ill would it go here with him who dared to lift a finger against their Pearl-Maiden." "Pearl-Maiden! Why ?" asked Miriam.
"That is what they call you, because of the necklace that was upon your breast when you were captured, which you wear still.

As for why--well, I suppose because they love you, the poor sick thing they nursed.