be suddenly mingled, and
which left behind it a perfect and intense sense of joy.

"There, that is my gift," he said, "and you shall have an old man's
loving blessing too, for it is that, after all, that I live for." He
drew me to him and kissed me on the brow, and in a moment he was gone.

We walked away in silence, and for my part with an elation of spirit
which I could hardly control, a desire to love and suffer, and do and be
all that the mind of man could conceive. But my heart was too full to
speak.

"Come," said Amroth presently, "you are not as grateful as I had
hoped--you are outgrowing me! Come down to my poor level for an instant,
and beware of spiritual pride!" Then altering his tone he said, "Ah,
yes, dear friend, I understand. There is nothing in the world like it,
and you were most graciously and tenderly received--but the end is not
yet."

"Amroth," I said, "I am like one intoxicated with joy. I feel that I
could endure anything and never make question of anything again. How
infinitely good he was to me--like a dear father!"

"Yes," said Amroth, "he is very like the Father "--and he smiled at me a
mysterious smile.

"Amroth," I said, bewildered, "you cannot mean--?"

"No, I mean nothing," said Amroth, "but you have to-day looked very far
into the truth, farther than is given to many so soon; but you are a
child of fortune, and seem to please every one. I declare that a little
more would make me jealous."

Presently, catching sight of one of the enclosures hard by, I said to
Amroth, "But there are some questions I must ask. What has just
happened had put it mostly out of my head. Those poor suffering souls
that we saw just now--it is well, with them, I am sure, so near the
Master of the Tower--he does not forget them, I am sure--but who are
they, and what have they done to suffer so?"

"I will tell you," said Amroth, "for it is a dark business. Those two
that you have seen--well, you will know one of them by name and fame,
and of the other you may have heard. The first, that old shaggy-haired
man, who lay upon the stones, that was ----"

He mentioned a name that was notorious in Europe at the time of my life
on earth, though he was then long dead; a ruthless and ambitious
conqueror, who poured a cataract of life away, in wars, for his own
aggrandisement. Then he mentioned another name, a statesman who pursued
a policy of terrorism and oppression, enriched himself by barbarous
cruelty exercis