Charka, the lord of art, Yermoul, and
the other friends of Lyone, informing them of the step she had taken,
and asking their support in case any violence were offered her.

I advised Lyone to have her agents collect and transmit to Kioram all
munitions of war. Some of the royal wayleals were armed with spears,
and others with swords and shields. All battles were fought in the
air, by reason of the wayleals being able to fly, as their movement on
wings was more rapid than movement on foot.

As already stated, the ordinary spear of the king's wayleals was very
effective, by reason of its discharging a magnetic current into the
body, causing instant death. With a view of arming the army of the
goddess with a more potent weapon than magnic spears, I quietly had
agents purchase for immediate transmission to Kioram vast quantities
of iron, and the material for making gunpowder, which happily existed
in great abundance in Atvatabar. My idea was to start a manufactory
for firearms, which were unknown to the interior world, and arm every
man with a magazine rifle--a portable mitrailleuse, in fact.

While engaged in discussing the plan of defence with Lyone the crisis
was precipitated by the press of the country finding out the _coup
d'etat_ of the goddess. With a view of placing the government in the
most favorable light before the people, the chief organ of the king,
_The Calnogor Jossidi_, published a fierce editorial condemning the
action of the goddess, and reviling what it was pleased to call "the
contumacious invader and despoiler of Atvatabar." The article ran
thus:

"IMPIOUS SACRILEGE!
"ASTOUNDING APOSTASY!
"THE SUPREME GODDESS REFUSES FURTHER WORSHIP, AND HAS
DEGRADED HERSELF BY SEEKING MARRIAGE WITH AN
ALIEN LOVER!
"WHAT IS FAITH, IF DECEIT BE OUR DEITY?

"The sweet, the noble, the pure, the exalted worship of holy
love, and of its hitherto most perfect symbol, the Goddess
Lyone, is threatened with extinction, if it be not entirely
destroyed. That sweet and perishable affection that fills
the breasts of lovers, which has been for ages conserved,
expanded, and wrought into an enduring fabric of religion in
the sacred temple of Egyplosis, is about to utterly perish
by a mad act of apostasy on the part of the deity herself.
Whither now will tender and faithful hearts turn to find a
refuge for a