as possible; I, on the
contrary, felt very strongly that to do so would be to fail wilfully
where success was possible; and, far worse, to weaken the hearts of
the Little Ones, and so bring them into much greater danger. If we
retreated, it was certain the princess would not leave us unassailed!
if we encountered her, the hope of the prophecy went with us! Mother
and daughter must meet: it might be that Lona's loveliness would take
Lilith's heart by storm! if she threatened violence, I should be there
between them! If I found that I had no other power over her, I was
ready, for the sake of my Lona, to strike her pitilessly on the closed
hand! I knew she was doomed: most likely it was decreed that her doom
should now be brought to pass through us!

Still without hint of the relation in which she stood to the princess,
I stated the case to Lona as it appeared to me. At once she agreed to
accompany me to the palace.

From the top of one of its great towers, the princess had, in the early
morning, while the city yet slept, descried the approach of the army of
the Little Ones. The sight awoke in her an over-mastering terror: she
had failed in her endeavour to destroy them, and they were upon her! The
prophecy was about to be fulfilled!

When she came to herself, she descended to the black hall, and seated
herself in the north focus of the ellipse, under the opening in the
roof.

For she must think! Now what she called THINKING required a clear
consciousness of herself, not as she was, but as she chose to believe
herself; and to aid her in the realisation of this consciousness, she
had suspended, a little way from and above her, itself invisible in the
darkness of the hall, a mirror to receive the full sunlight reflected
from her person. For the resulting vision of herself in the splendour of
her beauty, she sat waiting the meridional sun.

Many a shadow moved about her in the darkness, but as often as, with a
certain inner eye which she had, she caught sight of one, she refused
to regard it. Close under the mirror stood the Shadow which attended her
walks, but, self-occupied, him she did not see.

The city was taken; the inhabitants were cowering in terror; the Little
Ones and their strange cavalry were encamped in the square; the sun
shone upon the princess, and for a few minutes she saw herself glorious.
The vision passed, but she sat on. The night was now come, and darkness
clothed and filled the glass, yet she did