ft.
Like other men they need food which is hard to come by, since the foe
holds the upper earth and that which their doctors can make here in the
Shades does not satisfy them, even though they drink the Life-water.
They die and die. There comes an embassy from the High King of the
confederated Nations to talk of terms of peace. See, it enters."

As she spoke, up the hall advanced the embassy. At the head of it walked
a young man, tall, dark, handsome and commanding, whose aspect seemed in
some way to be familiar to me. He was richly clothed in a purple cloak
and wore upon his head a golden circlet that suggested royal rank.
Those who followed him were mostly old men who had the astute faces
of diplomatists, but a few seemed to be generals. Yva continued in her
monotonous voice:

"Comes the son of the King of the confederated Nations, the Prince who
will be king. He bows before the Lord Oro. He says 'Great and Ancient
Monarch of the divine blood, Heaven-born One, your strait, and that of
those who remain to you, is sore. Yet on behalf of the Nations I am sent
to offer terms of peace, but this I may only do in the presence of your
child who is your heiress and the Queen-to-be of the Sons of Wisdom.'"

Here, in the picture, Oro waved his hand and from behind the marble
shell appeared Yva herself, gloriously apparelled, wearing royal
ornaments and with her train held by waiting ladies. She bowed to the
Prince and his company and they bowed back to her. More, we saw a glance
of recognition pass between her and the Prince.

Now the real Yva by our side pointed to the shadow Yva of the vision or
the picture, whichever it might be called, a strange thing to see her
do, and went on:

"The daughter of the Lord Oro comes. The Prince of the Nations salutes
her. He says that the great war has endured for hundreds of years
between the Children of Wisdom fighting for absolute rule and the common
people of the earth fighting for liberty. In that war many millions of
the Sons of the Nations had perished, brought to their death by fearful
arts, by wizardries and by plagues sown among them by the Sons of
Wisdom. Yet they were winning, for the glorious cities of the Sons of
Wisdom were destroyed and those who remained of them were driven to
dwell in the caves of the earth where with all their strength and magic
they could not increase, but faded like flowers in the dark.

"The Lord Oro asks what are the terms of peace proposed by the