e would not seek."

Then Aziel knelt down and kissed the brow of the dead Elissa, and went
his way, saying no word.

*****

That night, when the darkness fell, the sky behind these travellers grew
red with fire.

"Behold the end of the golden city!" said Metem. "Zimboe is food for
flames and its children for the sword. Issachar was a prophet indeed,
who foretold that it should be so."

Aziel bowed his head, remembering that Issachar had foretold also that
for Elissa and for him there was hope beyond the grave. As he thought
it, a wind beat upon his brow and through it a soft voice seemed to
murmur to his heart:--

"Be of good courage: Beloved, _there is hope_."

*****

So, turning from the death behind him, this far away forgotten lover
set his face to the sea of Life and passed it, and long ago, at his
appointed hour, gained its further shore, to be welcomed there by her
who watched for him.

And thus, because of the fateful and predestined loves of Aziel the
prince, and Elissa the priestess and daughter of Sakon, three thousands
years and more ago, the ancient city of Zimboe fell at the hand of king
Ithobal and his Tribes, so that to-day there remain of it nothing but a
desolate grey tower of stone, and beneath, the crumbling bones of men.

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