e great riddle would be theirs."

Wondering what this riddle might be, Aziel bent towards her to reply,
when suddenly round a bend in the path but a few paces from them came
a body of soldiers and attendants, headed by a man clad in a white robe
and walking with a staff. This man was grey-headed and keen-eyed, thin
in face and ascetic in appearance, with a brow of power and a bearing
of dignity. At the sight of the pair he halted, looking at them in
question, and with disapproval.

"Our search is ended," he said in Hebrew, "for here is he whom we
seek, and alone with him a heathen woman, robed like a priestess of the
Groves."

"Whom do you seek, Issachar?" asked Aziel hurriedly, for the sudden
appearance of the Levite disturbed him.

"Yourself, Prince. Surely you can guess that your absence has been
noted. We feared lest harm should have come to you, or that you had lost
your path, but it seems that you have found a guide," and he stared at
his companion sternly.

"That guide, Issachar," answered Aziel, "being none other than the lady
Elissa, daughter of Sakon, governor of this city, and our host, whom it
has been my good fortune to rescue from a woman-stealer yonder in the
grove of the goddess Baaltis."

"And whom it was my bad fortune to try to rescue in the said grove,
as my broken head bears witness," added Metem, who by now had come up,
dragging the two mules after him.

"In the grove of the goddess Baaltis!" broke in the Levite with a
kindling eye, and striking the ground with his staff to emphasise his
words. "You, a Prince of Israel, alone in the high place of abomination
with the priestess of a fiend? Fie upon you, fie upon you! Would you
also walk in the sin of your forefathers, Aziel, and so soon?"

"Peace!" said Aziel in a voice of command; "I was not in the grove
alone or by my own will, and this is no time or place for insults and
wrangling."

"Between me and those who seek after false gods, or the women who
worship them, there is no peace," replied the old priest fiercely.

Then, followed by all the company, he turned and strode towards the
gates of the city.

CHAPTER III

ITHOBAL THE KING

Two hours had gone by, and the prince Aziel, together with his retinue,
the officers of the caravan, and many other guests, were seated at a
great feast made in their honour, by Sakon, the governor of the city.
This feast was held in the large pillared hall of Sakon's house, built
beneath the nort