he cause of it. Thus it came about that in attempting
to show off we had committed sacrilege of a most aggravated nature.

When our guide had finished his tale, the old man with the long
beard and round cap, whose appearance I have already described,
and who was, as I have said, the High Priest of the country,
and known by the name of Agon, rose and commenced an impassioned
harangue. I did not like the look of his cold grey eye as he
fixed it on us. I should have liked it still less had I known
that in the name of the outraged majesty of his god he was demanding
that the whole lot of us should be offered up as a sacrifice
by means of being burnt alive.

After he had finished speaking the Queen Sorais addressed him
in a soft and musical voice, and appeared, to judge from his
gestures of dissent, to be putting the other side of the question
before him. Then Nyleptha spoke in liquid accents. Little did
we know that she was pleading for our lives. Finally, she turned
and addressed a tall, soldierlike man of middle age with a black
beard and a long plain sword, whose name, as we afterwards learnt,
was Nasta, and who was the greatest lord in the country; apparently
appealing to him for support. Now when Sir Henry had caught
her eye and she had blushed so rosy red, I had seen that the
incident had not escaped this man's notice, and, what is more,
that it was eminently disagreeable to him, for he bit his lip
and his hand tightened on his sword-hilt. Afterwards we learnt
that he was an aspirant for the hand of this Queen in marriage,
which accounted for it. This being so, Nyleptha could not have
appealed to a worse person, for, speaking in slow, heavy tones,
he appeared to confirm all that the High Priest Agon had said.
As he spoke, Sorais put her elbow on her knee, and, resting
her chin on her hand, looked at him with a suppressed smile upon
her lips, as though she saw through the man, and was determined
to be his match; but Nyleptha grew very angry, her cheek flushed,
her eyes flashed, and she did indeed look lovely. Finally she
turned to Agon and seemed to give some sort of qualified assent,
for he bowed at her words; and as she spoke she moved her hands
as though to emphasize what she said; while all the time Sorais
kept her chin on her hand and smiled. Then suddenly Nyleptha
made a sign, the trumpets blew again, and everybody rose to leave
the hall save ourselves and the guards, whom she motioned to stay.

W