that the sight of it was
more torturing to my eyes than the iron with which they put out the eyes
of criminals. Even now, when I think of it--But what do you men, you
lords of rank and wealth, know of a breaking heart? When two or three of
you happen to meet, and if thou should'st tell the story, the most
respectable will say in a pompous voice: 'The man acted nobly indeed; he
was married, and his wife would have complained with justice if he had
gone to see the singer.' Am I right or wrong? I know; not one will
remember that the other was a woman, a feeling human being; it will occur
to no one that his deed on the one hand saved an hour of discomfort, and
on the other wrought half a century of despair. Assa escaped his wife's
scolding, but a thousand curses have fallen on him and on his house. How
virtuous he felt himself when he had crushed and poisoned a passionate
heart that had never ceased to love him! Ay, and he would have come if he
had not still felt some love for me, if he had not misdoubted himself,
and feared that the dying woman might once more light up the fire he had
so carefully smothered and crushed out. I would have grieved for him--but
that he should send me money, money!--that I have never forgiven; that he
shall atone for in his grandchild." The old woman spoke the last words as
if in a dream, and without seeming to remember her hearer. Ani shuddered,
as if he were in the presence of a mad woman, and he involuntarily drew
his chair back a little way.

The witch observed this; she took breath and went on: "You lords, who
walk in high places, do not know how things go on in the depths beneath
you; you do not choose to know.

"But I will shorten my story. I got well, but I got out of my bed thin
and voiceless. I had plenty of money, and I spent it in buying of
everyone who professed magic in Thebes, potions to recover Assa's love
for me, or in paying for spells to be cast on him, or for magic drinks to
destroy him. I tried too to recover my voice, but the medicines I took
for it made it rougher not sweeter. Then an excommunicated priest, who
was famous among the magicians, took me into his house, and there I
learned many things; his old companions afterwards turned upon him, he
came over here into the Necropolis, and I came with him. When at last he
was taken and hanged, I remained in his cave, and myself took to
witchcraft. Children point their fingers at me, honest men and women
avoid me, I am an ab