other eyes followed it. The heaven
was clear as the deep sea, a gorgeous blue. But as the words came from
her, so a small mist was born in the sky, wheeling and circling like a
ball, although the day was windless, and rapidly growing darker and more
compact. So dense had it become, that presently it threw a shadow on
part of the sacred circle and soothed it into twilight, though all
without where the people stood was still garish day. And in the ball of
mist were little quick stabs and splashes of noiseless flame.

She spoke, not in the priests' sacred tongue--though such was her wicked
cleverness, that she may very well have learned it--but in the common
speech of the people, so that all who heard might understand; and she
told of her wondrous birth (as she chose to name it), and of the
direct aid of the most High Gods, which had enabled her to work so many
marvels. And in the end she lifted both of her fair white arms towards
the blackness above, and with her lovely face set with the strain of
will, she uttered her final cry:

"O my high Father, the Sun, I pray You now to acknowledge me as Your
very daughter. Give this people a sign that I am indeed a child of the
Gods and no frail mortal. Here is sacrifice unlit, where mortal priests
with their puny fires had weekly, since the foundation of this land,
sent savoury smoke towards the sky. I pray You send down the heavenly
fire to burn this beast here offered, in token that though You still
rule on high, You have given me Atlantis to be my kingdom, and the
people of the Earth to be my worshippers."

She broke off and strained towards the sky. Her face was contorted. Her
limbs shook. "O mighty Father," she cried, "who hast made me a God and
an equal, hear me! Hear me!"

Out of the black cloud overhead there came a blinding flash of light,
which spat downwards on to the altar. The cloven-hoofed horse gave one
shrill neigh, and one convulsion, and fell back dead. Flames crackled
out from the wood pile, and the air became rich with the smell of
burning flesh. And lo! in another moment the cloud above had melted into
nothingness, and the flames burnt pale, and the smoke went up in a thin
blue spiral towards the deeper blueness of the sky.

Phorenice, the Empress, stood there before the great stone, and before
the snake and the outstretched hand of life which were inscribed upon
it, flushed, exultant, and once more radiantly lovely; and the knot of
priests within the cir