in him). "He warns, he threatens.
He says that hitherto out of gentle love and pity he has held his
hand; that he has strength at his command which will slay them, not by
millions in slow war, but by tens of millions at one blow; that will
blot them and their peoples from the face of earth and that will cause
the deep seas to roll where now their pleasant lands are fruitful in the
sun. They shrink before his fury; behold, their knees tremble because
they know that he has this power. He mocks them, does the Lord Oro.
He asks for their submission here and now, and that in the name of
the Nations they should take the great oath which may not be broken,
swearing to cease from war upon the Sons of Wisdom and to obey them
in all things to the ends of the earth. Some of the ambassadors would
yield. They look about them like wild things that are trapped. But
madness takes the Prince. He cries that the oath of an ape is of no
account, but that he will tear up the Children of Wisdom as an ape tears
leaves, and afterwards take the divine Lady to be his wife.

"Look on the Lord Oro!" continued the living Yva, "his wrath leaves him.
He grows cold and smiles. His daughter throws herself upon her knees and
pleads with him. He thrusts her away. She would spring to the side of
the Prince; he commands his councillors to hold her. She cries to the
Prince that she loves him and him only, and that in a day to come him
she will wed and no other. He thanks her, saying that as it is with her,
so it is with him, and that because of his love he fears nothing. She
swoons. The Lord Oro motions with his hand to the guard. They lift their
death-rods. Fire leaps from them. The Prince and his companions, all
save those who were afraid and would have sworn the oath, twist and
writhe. They turn black; they die. The Lord Oro commands those who are
left to enter their flying ships and bear to the Nations of the Earth
tidings of what befalls those who dare to defy and insult him; to warn
them also to eat and drink and be merry while they may, since for their
wickedness they are about to perish."

The scene faded and there followed another which really I cannot
describe. It represented some vast underground place and what appeared
to be a huge mountain of iron clothed in light, literally a thing
like an alp, rocking and spinning down a declivity, which farther on
separated into two branches because of a huge razor-edge precipice that
rose between. There