"
A born raconteur, he paused.
"Go right ahead, doctor," came a voice from the lower end of the table.
"Well, the story runs that Princess Ursula fled from Britain to Rome to
escape marriage with a pagan--"
"How odd!" interrupted Isobel, and Elsie alone understood the drift of
her comment.
"Not at all odd if she didn't happen to like him," said Christobal.
"She reached Cologne, and was martyred there by the Huns. Long
afterwards a stone was found with the inscription _Ursula et
Undecimilla Virgines_, which was incorrectly translated into 'Ursula
and her Eleven Thousand Virgins.' Some later critic pointed out that a
missing comma after Undecimilla, the name of a handmaid, made all the
difference, assuming that two young ladies were a more reasonable and
probable number than eleven thousand. But what legend ever cared for a
comma, or reached a full stop? If you go to Cologne, the verger of the
Church of St. Ursula will show you the bones of the whole party in
glass cases, and, equally amazing, the town of Baoza in Spain claims to
be the birthplace of the lot. Clearly, Magellan had a man from Baoza
on board his ship.
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