e at set hours past
the House at Lebanon, to glimpse, even though afar and unnoticed, through
the heavy stuffs of her litter, the proud, unforgettably splendid visage
of Solomon, in the midst of the throng of courtiers. And long since her
flaming love had grown so closely joined to searing hatred that Astis
herself was unable to tell them apart.

In former days Solomon also had visited the temple of Isis on great
festal days, had brought the goddess offerings, and had even accepted
the title of her hierophant,--second after that of the Pharaoh of AEgypt.
But the horrible mysteries of "The Sanguine Sacrifice of Fecundation"
had turned his mind and heart from the service of the Mother of Gods.

"He that is castrated through ignorance or by force, or through accident
or disease, is not abased before God," the king hath said. "But woe be
unto him that doth maim himself with his own hand."

And now for a whole year his couch in the temple had remained vacant.
And in vain did the flaming eyes of the queen now gaze feverishly at the
unstirred hangings.

In the meanwhile, the wine, hippocras, and the stupefying burnt perfumes
were already having a perceptible effect upon those gathered within the
temple. Cries, and laughter, and the ring of silver vessels falling upon
the stone floor came with greater frequency. The grand, mysterious
moment of the sanguinary sacrifice was approaching. Ecstasy was overcoming
the faithful.

With an abstracted gaze the queen surveyed the temple and the believers.
Many honoured and illustrious men of Solomon's retinue and many of his
generals were here: Ben-Geber, ruler over the region of Argob; and
Ahimaaz, who had Basmath, the daughter of the king, to wife; and the
witty Ben-Dekar; and Zabud, who bore, in accordance with eastern
customs, the high title of the King's Friend; and the brother of Solomon
by the first marriage of David,--Dalaiah, a debilitated, half-dead man,
who had prematurely fallen into idiocy through excesses and drinking.
They were all--some through faith, some through ulterior designs, others
out of adulation, and still others for lecherous purposes,--the adorants
of Isis.

And now the eyes of the queen rested, long and attentively, intent in
thought, on the comely, youthful face of Eliab, one of the officers of
the king's bodyguards.

The queen knew why his swarthy face was aflame with such a vivid colour,
why his eyes were directed with such passionate yearning hither