I am minded to slay you where you stand? Hearken! Were I less
merciful I would leave you to the clutching hands of Rezu, who would
drag you one by one to the stone of sacrifice and there offer up your
hearts to his god of fire and devour your bodies with his heat. But I
bethink me of your wives and children and of your forefathers whom I
knew in the dead days, and therefore, if I may, I still would save you
from yourselves and your heads from the glowing pot.

"Take counsel together now and say--Will you fight against Rezu, or will
you yield? If that is your desire, speak it, and by to-morrow's sun I
will begone, taking these with me," and she pointed to us, "whom I have
summoned to help us in the war. Aye, I will begone, and when you are
stretched upon the stone of sacrifice, and your women and children are
the slaves of the men of Rezu, then shall you cry,

"'Oh, where is Hiya whom our fathers knew? Oh, will she not return and
save us from this hell?'

"Yes, so shall you cry but there shall come no answer, since then she
will have departed to her own habitations in the moon and thence appear
no more. Now consult together and answer swiftly, since I weary of you
and your ways."

The captains drew apart and began to talk in low voices, while Ayesha
stood still, apparently quite unconcerned, and I considered the
situation.

It was obvious to me that these people were almost in rebellion against
their strange ruler, whose power over them was of a purely moral nature,
one that emanated from her personality alone. What I wondered was, being
what she seemed to be, why she thought it worth while to exercise it at
all. Then I remembered her statement that here and nowhere else she must
abide for some secret reason, until a certain mystical gentleman with
a Greek name came to fetch her away from this appointed _rendezvous_.
Therefore I supposed she had no choice, or rather, suffering as she did
from hallucinations, believed herself to have no choice and was obliged
to put up with a crowd of disagreeable savages in quarters which were
sadly out of repair.

Presently the spokesman returned, saluted with his spear, and asked,

"If we go up to fight against Rezu, who will lead us in the battle, O
Hiya?"

"My wisdom shall be your guide," she answered, "this white man shall be
your General and there stands the warrior who shall meet Rezu face to
face and bring him to the dust," and she pointed to Umslopogaas leaning
upon hi