this world, I was the most vile. Yet I did so, and
he cannot deny it, for often we have talked of this thing till he will
hear of it no more.

Well, they went with all that I could give them, though I knew well that
my lord cared nothing, for what I could give, nor the doctor, Child of
Adam, either, who cared only for his son that God had restored to him.
Only Black Windows cared, not because he loves wealth, but because he
worships all that is old and ugly, for of such things he fashions up his
god.

They went, for their going was reported to me, and I, I entered into
hell because I knew that my lord thought me false, and that he would
never learn the truth, namely, that what I did I did to save his life,
until at length he came to his own country, if ever he came there, and
opened the chests of treasure, if ever he opened them, which perhaps he
would not care to do. And all that while he would believe me the wife
of Joshua, and--oh! I cannot write of it. And I, I should be dead; I, I
could not tell him the truth until he joined me in that land of death,
if there men and women can talk together any more.

For this and no other was the road that I had planned to walk. When he
and his companions had gone so far that they could not be followed,
then I would tell Joshua and the Abati all the truth in such language as
should never be forgotten for generations, and kill myself before their
eyes, so that Joshua might lack a wife and the Abati a Child of Kings.

I sat through the Feast of Preparation and smiled and smiled. It passed
and the next day passed, and came the night of the Feast of Marriage.
The glass was broken, the ceremony was fulfilled. Joshua rose up to
pledge me before all the priests, lords, and headmen. He devoured me
with his hateful eyes, me, who was already his. But I, I handled the
knife in my robe, wishing, such was the rage in my heart, that I could
kill him also.

Then God spoke, and the dream that I had dreamed came true. Far away
there rose a single cry, and after it other cries, and the sounds of
shouting and of marching feet. Far away tongues of fire leapt into the
air, and each man asked his neighbour, "What is this?" Then from all the
thousands of the feasting people rose one giant scream, and that scream
said, "Fung! Fung! The Fung are on us! Fly, fly, fly!"

"Come," shouted Joshua, seizing me by the arm, but I drew my dagger on
him and he let go. Then he fled with the other lords, and I r