them!"

When the tumult had died down Maqueda spoke again saying:

"O noble and generous Abati, you approve of this deed of mercy; you who
would not be held merciless in far lands, O Abati, where, although you
may not have heard of them, there are, I believe, other peoples who
think themselves as great as you. You would not have it whispered, I
say, that we who are the best of the world, we, the children of Solomon,
have dealt harshly even with stray dogs that have wandered to our gates?
Moreover, we called these dogs to hunt a certain beast for us, the
lion-headed beast called Fung, and, to be just to them, they hunted
well. Therefore spare them the noose, though they may have deserved it,
and let them run hence with their bone, say you, the bone which they
think that they have earned. What does a bone more or less matter to the
rich Abati, if only their holy ground is not defiled with the blood of
Gentile dogs?"

"Nothing at all! Nothing at all!" they shouted. "Tie it to their tails
and let them go!"

"It shall be done, O my people! And now that we have finished with these
dogs, I have another word to say to you. You may have thought or heard
that I was too fond of them, and especially of one of them," and she
glanced toward Oliver. "Well, there are certain dogs who will not work
unless you pat them on the head. Therefore I patted this one on the
head, since, after all, he is a clever dog who knows things that we do
not know; for instance, how to destroy the idol of the Fung. O great
Abati, can any of you really have believed that I, of the ancient race
of Solomon and Sheba, I, the Child of Kings, purposed to give my noble
hand to a vagrant Gentile come hither for hire? Can you really have
believed that I, the solemnly betrothed to yonder Prince of Princes,
Joshua, my uncle, would for a moment even in my heart have preferred to
him such a man as that?" And once again she looked at Oliver, who made
a wild motion, as though he were about to speak. But before he could so
much as open his lips Maqueda went on:

"Well, if you believed, not guessing all the while I was working for the
safety of my people, soon shall you be undeceived, since to-morrow night
I invite you to the great ceremony of my nuptials, when, according to
the ancient custom, I break the glass with him whom on the following
night I take to be my husband," and rising, she bowed thrice to the
audience, then stretched out her hand to Joshua.

He, too,