re incited it, I was almost sad at the ruthlessness with which
it had been carried out. The royal pyramid might go, houses and palaces
might be levelled, and for these I cared little enough; but when I saw
those stately ramparts also filched away, there the soldier in me woke,
and I grieved at this humbling of the mighty city that once had been my
only mistress.

But this was only a passing regret, a mere touch of the fighting-man's
pride. I had a different love now, that had wrapped herself round me far
deeper and more tightly, and my duty was towards her first and foremost.
The night would soon be past, and then dangers would increase. None had
interfered with us so far, though many had jostled us as I clambered
over the ruins; but this forbearance could not be reckoned upon for
long. The earth tremors had almost died away, and after the panic and
the storm, then comes the time for the spoiling.

All men who were poor would try to seize what lay nearest to their
hands, and those of higher station, and any soldiers who could be
collected and still remained true to command, would ruthlessly stop and
strip any man they saw making off with plunder. I had no mind to clash
with these guardians of law and property, and so I fled on swiftly
through the night with my burden, using the unfrequented ways; and
crying to the few folk who did meet me that the woman had the plague,
and would they lend me the shelter of their house as ours had fallen.
And so in time we came to the place where the rope dangled from the
precipice, and after Nais had been drawn up to the safety of the Sacred
Mountain, I put my leg in the loop of the rope and followed her.

Now came what was the keenest anxiety of all. We took the girl and laid
her on a bed in one of the houses, and there in the lit room for the
first time I saw her clearly. Her beauty was drawn and pale. Her eyes
were closed, but so thin and transparent had grown the lids that one
could almost see the brown of the pupil beneath them. Her hair had grown
to inordinate thickness and length, and lay as a cushion behind and
beside her head.

There was no flicker of breath; there was none of that pulsing of
the body which denotes life; but still she had not the appearance of
ordinary death. The Nais I had placed nine long years before to rest in
the hollow of the stone, was a fine grown woman, full bosomed, and well
boned. The Nais that remained for me was half her weight. The old Nais
it