lf, though indeed I could not even see its outline through the
darkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and cracking bars of
metal which told that even its superb majestic strength had a breaking
strain. There came to my mind the threat that old Zaemon had thundered
forth in that painted, perfumed banqueting-hall: "You shall see," he had
cried to the Empress, "this royal pyramid which you have polluted
with your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, and
scattered as feathers spread before a wind!"

Still heavier grew the surging of the earth, and the pavement of the
great square gaped and upheaved, and the people who thronged it screamed
still more shrilly as their feet were crushed by the grinding blocks.
And now too the great pyramid itself was commencing to split, and
gape, and topple. The roofs of its splendid chambers gave way, and the
ponderous masonry above shuttered down and filled them. In part, too,
one could see the destruction now, and not guess at it merely from the
fearful hearings of the darkness. Thunders had begun to roar through
the black night above, and add their bellowings to this devil's
orchestration of uproar, and vivid lightning splashes lit the flying
dust-clouds.

It was perhaps natural that she should be there, but it came as a
shock when a flare of the lightning showed me Phorenice safe out in the
square, and indeed standing not far from myself.

She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone, and stood
there swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face was calm, and its
loveliness was untouched by the years. From time to time she brushed
away the dust as it settled on the short red hair which curled about her
neck. There was no trace of fear written upon her face. There was some
weariness, some contempt, and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it took
more than the crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice with
the infinite powers of those she warred against.

Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me then. I had
it in me to have strangled her with my hands if she had come within
my reach. But as it was, she stood in her place, swaying easily to the
earth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship's deck, and beside her, crouched
on the same great flagstone, and overcome with nausea was Ylga, who
again was raised to be her fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga was
twin sister to Nais, and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but