she leaped on the dais, and flung
her arms around the princess.

An instant more and I should have reached them!--in that instant I saw
Lona lifted high, and dashed on the marble floor. Oh, the horrible sound
of her fall! At my feet she fell, and lay still. The princess sat down
with the smile of a demoness.

I dropped on my knees beside Lona, raised her from the stones, and
pressed her to my bosom. With indignant hate I glanced at the princess;
she answered me with her sweetest smile. I would have sprung upon her,
taken her by the throat, and strangled her, but love of the child was
stronger than hate of the mother, and I clasped closer my precious
burden. Her arms hung helpless; her blood trickled over my hands, and
fell on the floor with soft, slow little plashes.

The horses scented it--mine first, then the small ones. Mine reared,
shivering and wild-eyed, went about, and thundered blindly down the dark
hall, with the little horses after him. Lona's stood gazing down at his
mistress, and trembling all over. The boys flung themselves from their
horses' backs, and they, not seeing the black wall before them, dashed
themselves, with mine, to pieces against it. The elephants came on to
the foot of the dais, and stopped, wildly trumpeting; the Little Ones
sprang upon it, and stood horrified; the princess lay back in her seat,
her face that of a corpse, her eyes alone alive, wickedly flaming. She
was again withered and wasted to what I found in the wood, and her side
was as if a great branding hand had been laid upon it. But Lona saw
nothing, and I saw but Lona.

"Mother! mother!" she sighed, and her breathing ceased.

I carried her into the court: the sun shone upon a white face, and the
pitiful shadow of a ghostly smile. Her head hung back. She was "dead as
earth."

I forgot the Little Ones, forgot the murdering princess, forgot the
body in my arms, and wandered away, looking for my Lona. The doors and
windows were crowded with brute-faces jeering at me, but not daring to
speak, for they saw the white leopardess behind me, hanging her head
close at my heel. I spurned her with my foot. She held back a moment,
and followed me again.

I reached the square: the little army was gone! Its emptiness roused me.
Where were the Little Ones, HER Little Ones? I had lost her children!
I stared helpless about me, staggered to the pillar, and sank upon its
base.

But as I sat gazing on the still countenance, it seemed to sm