as for thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another
fashion that I will not tell thee now.'

She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like
a storm, and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration,
ran through the hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with
dignity:

'Ill would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak
as thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened.
Yet if thou wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against
thee, for if my hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron
when it grips thine armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee
not. I weep for that which thou wilt bring upon our people and
on thyself, but for myself I say -- I fear thee not. Yet thou,
who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover and my lord from
me, whom today thou dost call a "foreign wolf", to be _thy_ lover
and _thy_ lord' (here there was an immense sensation in the hall),
'thou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst
enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-place --
ay, even by a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me,
thy sister, as I lay asleep --'

'It is false, it is false!' rang out Agon's and a score of other voices.

'It is _not_ false,' said I, producing the broken point of the
dagger and holding it up. 'Where is the haft from which
this flew, oh Sorais?'

'It is not false,' cried Good, determined at last to act like
a loyal man. 'I took the Lady of the Night by the White Queen's
bed, and on my breast the dagger broke.'

'Who is on my side?' cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear,
for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. 'What,
Bougwan, thou comest not?' she said, addressing Good, who was
standing close to her, in a low, concentrated voice. 'Thou pale-souled
fool, for a reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of
me and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husband
and a king! At least I hold _thee_ in chains that cannot be
broken.

'_War! War! War!_' she cried. 'Here, with my hand upon the
sacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the
Zu-Vendi set their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war
to the end. Who follows Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?'

Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable
confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with
the 'Lady of the Night', but some came from her following to
us