e, in a
key, not loud, but shrill and slow and prolonged, half cry and half
chant, like the nighthawk's. Through the air--so limpid and still,
bringing near far objects, far sounds--the voice pierced its way,
artfully pausing, till wave after wave of the atmosphere bore and
transmitted it on.

In a few minutes the call seemed re-echoed, so exactly, so cheerily,
that for the moment I thought that the note was the mimicry of the shy
mocking Lyre-Bird, which mimics so merrily all that it hears in its
coverts, from the whir of the locust to the howl of the wild dog.

"What king," said the mystical charmer, and as he spoke he carelessly
rested his hand on my shoulder, so that I trembled to feel that this
dread son of Nature, Godless and soulless, who had been--and, my heart
whispered, who still could be--my bane and mind-darkener, leaned upon
me for support, as the spoilt younger-born on his brother,--"what king,"
said this cynical mocker, with his beautiful boyish face,--"what king in
your civilized Europe has the sway of a chief of the East? What link is
so strong between mortal and mortal, as that between lord and slave?
I transport yon poor fools from the land of their birth; they preserve
here their old habits,--obedience and awe. They would wait till they
starved in the solitude,--wait to hearken and answer my call. And I, who
thus rule them, or charm them--I use and despise them. They know that,
and yet serve me! Between you and me, my philosopher, there is but one
thing worth living for,--life for oneself."

Is it age, is it youth, that thus shocks all my sense, in my solemn
completeness of man? Perhaps, in great capitals, young men of pleasure
will answer, "It is youth; and we think what he says!" Young friends, I
do not believe you.

CHAPTER LXXX.

Along the grass-track I saw now, under the moon, just risen, a strange
procession, never seen before in Australian pastures. It moved on,
noiselessly but quickly. We descended the hillock, and met it on the
way,--a sable litter, borne by four men, in unfamiliar Eastern
garments; two other servitors, more bravely dressed, with yataghans and
silver-hilted pistols in their belts, preceded this sombre equipage.
Perhaps Margrave divined the disdainful thought that passed through my
mind, vaguely and half-unconsciously; for he said, with a hollow, bitter
laugh that had replaced the lively peal of his once melodious mirth,--

"A little leisure and a little gold, an