leave her nothing to cavil at. After all that had been gone through and
endured, I did not intend a great scheme to be shattered by letting my
agony and pain show themselves, in either a shaking hand or a twitching
cheek. When it came to the point, I told myself, I would lay the living
body of my love in the hollow beneath the stone as calmly, and with as
little outward emotion, as though I had been a mere priest carrying out
the burial of some dead stranger. And she, on her part, would not,
I knew, betray our secret. With her, too, it was truly "Before all
Atlantis."

I think it spared a pang to find that there was to be no mockery or
flippancy in what went forward. All was solemn and impressive; and,
though a certain grandeur and sombreness which bit deep into my breast
was lost to the vulgar crowd, I fancy that the outward shape of the
double sacrifice they witnessed that day would not be forgotten by any
of them, although the inner meaning of it all was completely hidden from
their minds. When it suited her fancy, none could be more strict on the
ritual of a ceremony than this many-mooded Empress, and it appeared
that on this occasion she had given command that all things were to be
carried out with the rigid exactness and pomp of the older manner.

So she was borne up by her Europeans to the scarlet awning, and I handed
her to the ground. She seated herself on the cushions, and beckoned
me to her side, entwining her fingers with mine as has always been the
custom with rulers of Atlantis and their consorts. And there before us
as we sat, a body of soldiery marched up, and opening out showed Nais
in their midst. She had a collar of metal round her neck, with chains
depending from it firmly held by a brace of guards, so that she should
not run in upon the spears of the escort, and thus get a quick and
easy death, which is often the custom of those condemned to the more
lingering punishments.

But it was pleasant to see that she still wore her clothing. Raiment,
whether of fabric or skin, has its value, and custom has always given
the garments of the condemned to the soldiers guarding them. So as Nais
was not stripped, I could not but see that some one had given moneys
to the guards as a recompense, and in this I thought I saw the hand of
Ylga, and felt a gratitude towards her.

The soldiers brought her forward to the edge of the pavilion's shade,
and she was bidden prostrate herself before the Empress, and this she