showed to them his sword, saying, 'This is Sacnoth,'
and both of them said to the man nearest: 'It is Sacnoth;' then
screamed and fled away.

And two by two, all up the double line, footman to footman repeated,
'It is Sacnoth,' then screamed and fled, till the last two gave the
message to the table, and all the rest had gone. Hurriedly then
arose the Queens and Princes, and fled out of the chamber. And the
goodly table, when they were all gone, looked small and disorderly
and awry. And to Leothric, pondering in the desolate chamber by what
door he should pass onwards, there came from far away the sounds of
music, and he knew that it was the magical musicians playing to
Gaznak while he slept.

Then Leothric, walking towards the distant music, passed out by the
door opposite to the one through which he had cloven his entrance,
and so passed into a chamber vast as the other, in which were many
women, weirdly beautiful. And they all asked him of his quest, and
when they heard that it was to slay Gaznak, they all besought him to
tarry among them, saying that Gaznak was immortal, save for Sacnoth,
and also that they had need of a knight to protect them from the
wolves that rushed round and round the wainscot all the night and
sometimes broke in upon them through the mouldering oak. Perhaps
Leothric had been tempted to tarry had they been human women, for
theirs was a strange beauty, but he perceived that instead of eyes
they had little flames that flickered in their sockets, and knew
them to be the fevered dreams of Gaznak. Therefore he said:

'I have a business with Gaznak and with Sacnoth,' and passed on
through the chamber.

And at the name of Sacnoth those women screamed, and the flames of
their eyes sank low and dwindled to sparks.

And Leothric left them, and, hewing with Sacnoth, passed through the
farther door.

Outside he felt the night air on his face, and found that he stood
upon a narrow way between two abysses. To left and right of him, as
far as he could see, the walls of the fortress ended in a profound
precipice, though the roof still stretched above him; and before him
lay the two abysses full of stars, for they cut their way through
the whole Earth and revealed the under sky; and threading its course
between them went the way, and it sloped upward and its sides were
sheer. And beyond the abysses, where the way led up to the farther
chambers of the fortress, Leothric heard the musicians playi