or that evidently filled their savage
hearts. They were ranged in front of the dais, and would have cast
themselves down on the floor of the cave like the spectators, but _She_
stopped them.

"Nay," she said in her softest voice, "stand; I pray you stand.
Perchance the time will soon be when ye shall grow weary of being
stretched out," and she laughed melodiously.

I saw a cringe of terror run along the rank of the doomed wretches,
and, wicked villains as they were, I felt sorry for them. Some minutes,
perhaps two or three, passed before anything fresh occurred, during
which _She_ appeared from the movement of her head--for, of course,
we could not see her eyes--to be slowly and carefully examining each
delinquent. At last she spoke, addressing herself to me in a quiet and
deliberate tone.

"Dost thou, oh my guest, recognise these men?"

"Ay, oh Queen, nearly all of them," I said, and I saw them glower at me
as I said it.

"Then tell to me, and this great company, the tale whereof I have
heard."

Thus adjured, I, in as few words as I could, related the history of the
cannibal feast, and of the attempted torture of our poor servant. The
narrative was received in perfect silence, both by the accused and by
the audience, and also by _She_ herself. When I had done, Ayesha called
upon Billali by name, and, lifting his head from the ground, but without
rising, the old man confirmed my story. No further evidence was taken.

"Ye have heard," said _She_ at length, in a cold, clear voice,
very different from her usual tones--indeed, it was one of the most
remarkable things about this extraordinary creature that her voice had
the power of suiting itself in a wonderful manner to the mood of the
moment. "What have ye to say, ye rebellious children, why vengeance
should not be done upon you?"

For some time there was no answer, but at last one of the men, a fine,
broad-chested fellow, well on in middle-life, with deep-graven features
and an eye like a hawk's, spoke, and said that the orders that they had
received were not to harm the white men; nothing was said of their
black servant, so, egged on thereto by a woman who was now dead, they
proceeded to try to hot-pot him after the ancient and honourable custom
of their country, with a view of eating him in due course. As for their
sudden attack upon ourselves, it was made in an access of sudden fury,
and they deeply regretted it. He ended by humbly praying that they might
b