you will forget that many a thousand of the common
people will have to pay for them."

"And this is all your accusation?"

"It seems to be black enough. I am one that has a compassion for my
fellow-men, my lord, and because of that compassion you see me what I am
to-day. There was a time, not long passed, when I slept as soft and ate
as dainty as any in Atlantis."

I smiled. "Your speech told me that much from the first."

"Then I would I had cast the speech off, too, if that is also a livery
of the tyrant's class. But I tell you I saw all the oppression myself
from the oppressor's side. I was high in Phorenice's favour then."

"That, too, is easy of credence. Ylga is the fan-girl to the Empress
now, and second lady in the kingdom, and those who have seen Ylga could
make an easy guess at the parentage of Nais."

"We were the daughters of one birth; but I do not count with either
Zaemon or Ylga now. Ylga is the creature of Phorenice, and Phorenice
would have all the people of Atlantis slaves and in chains, so that
she might crush them the easier. And as for Zaemon, he is no friend of
Phorenice's; he fights with brain and soul to drag the old authority
to those on the Sacred Mountain; and that, if it come down on us again,
would only be the exchange of one form of slavery for another."

"It seems to me you bite at all authority."

"In fact," she said simply, "I do. I have seen too much of it."

"And so you think a rule of no-rule would be best for the country?"

"You have put it plainly in words for me. That is my creed to-day. That
is the creed of all those yonder, who sit in the camp and besiege this
city. And we number on our side, now, all in Atlantis save those in the
city and a handful on the priests' Mountain."

I shook my head. "A creed of desperation, if you like, Nais, but,
believe me, a silly creed. Since man was born out of the quakings and
the fevers of this earth, and picked his way amongst the cooler-places,
he has been dependent always on his fellow-men. And where two are
congregated together, one must be chief, and order how matters are to be
governed--at least, I speak of men who have a wish to be higher than the
beasts. Have you ever set foot in Europe?"

"No."

"I have. Years back I sailed there, gathering slaves. What did I see? A
country without rule or order. Tyrants they were, to be sure, but they
were the beasts. The men and the women were the rudest savages, knowing
nothing of the