ace at last!' and see, the first arrows of
the dawn are striking on the Temple's golden dome. {Endnote 21}
But shall I get in here, or is the deed done and the way barred?

Once more I give the password and shout '_Open! open!_'

No answer, and my heart grows very faint.

Again I call, and this time a single voice replies, and to my
joy I recognize it as belonging to Kara, a fellow-officer of
Nyleptha's guards, a man I know to be as honest as the light
-- indeed, the same whom Nyleptha had sent to arrest Sorais on
the day she fled to the temple.

'Is it thou, Kara?' I cry; 'I am Macumazahn. Bid the guard let
down the bridge and throw wide the gate. Quick, quick!'

Then followed a space that seemed to me endless, but at length
the bridge fell and one half of the gate opened and we got into
the courtyard, where at last poor Daylight fell down beneath
me, as I thought, dead. Except Kara, there was nobody to be
seen, and his look was wild, and his garments were all torn.
He had opened the gate and let down the bridge alone, and was
now getting them up and shut again (as, owing to a very ingenious
arrangement of cranks and levers, one man could easily do, and
indeed generally did do).

'Where are the guard?' I gasped, fearing his answer as I never
feared anything before.

'I know not,' he answered; 'two hours ago, as I slept, was I
seized and bound by the watch under me, and but now, this very
moment, have I freed myself with my teeth. I fear, I greatly
fear, that we are betrayed.'

His words gave me fresh energy. Catching him by the arm, I staggered,
followed by Umslopogaas, who reeled after us like a drunken man,
through the courtyards, up the great hall, which was silent as
the grave, towards the Queen's sleeping-place.

We reached the first ante-room -- no guards; the second, still
no guards. Oh, surely the thing was done! we were too late after
all, too late! The silence and solitude of those great chambers
was dreadful, and weighed me down like an evil dream. On, right
into Nyleptha's chamber we rushed and staggered, sick at heart,
fearing the very worst; we saw there was a light in it, ay, and
a figure bearing the light. Oh, thank God, it is the White Queen
herself, the Queen unharmed! There she stands in her night gear,
roused, by the clatter of our coming, from her bed, the heaviness
of sleep yet in her eyes, and a red blush of fear and shame mantling
her lovely breast and cheek.

'Who is it