was a
walled-in area about twenty feet square, looked down upon the soldiers
struggling with and slaughtering the half-armed, starving, shivering
populace.

For sport, not caring whether they killed soldiers or subjects, I had
some of our guard bring a quantity of unused granite blocks about two
feet square and slide them down the ice-smooth surface into the seething
mass below.

After watching for some time, though clothed in a heavy woolen gown, I
grew cold and tired of the sport and went below to the feast, the music
and the dance. There I sat with Nefert and two other queens, not less
beautiful.

One of the guards from the pinnacle came down and reported that the
soldiers had ceased fighting the populace and, joining cause with them,
were attempting to scale the pyramid by cutting steps in the icy
surface. So again I went above and Nefert went with me.

Our guards collected small stone blocks and with them bowled off our
desperate, slowly-climbing assailants. The boulders slid over the glazed
surface with the speed of a swift-winged water fowl and when they found
a victim precipitated him, a death-dealing catapultic charge upon the
heads of his comrades. The effort to reach us was utterly futile.

For several days we found it great sport to shoot loaves of bread and a
few tempting morsels of food down to the starving mass and watch them
fight and struggle for possession.

At my suggestion, to make the game of greater interest, we took the
bread from the crusts and stuffed the loaves with stones. Occasionally,
one snatching for the bread lost his life from the stone loaf. So the
days passed, not wholly without amusement.

The whole land was now white with snow and ice. Great white bears came
out of the mountains of the north and feasted on the dead at the base of
the pyramid. Nowhere in the land could we see a living man.

In our company was a beautiful young maid; and, thinking she might
furnish amusement for a dull afternoon, I gave orders that she be
brought to my quarters.

She was carried thence, struggling and in tears. With her came one of
our captains, who said she was to be his wife, and asked me to spare her
discourtesy for his sake. He had many times been of service, but no more
so than a subject should be. I directed that he be thrown from the top
platform, and took the girl with me, so she might see the spectacle.

The guards lifted him over the wall and gave a shove. He started slowly,
bra