give to the
Children of the Star that natural heir to the Signet we had hoped from
your own household. But the Order cannot remain headless."

Here Zulve, approaching, gave into my hand the Signet unclasped from
her husband's arm ere the coffer was closed upon his form. I understood
her meaning; and, as for the time the sole male representative of the
house, I clasped it on the arm of the Chief who succeeded to Esmo's
rank, and to whom I felt the care of Esmo's house might be safely
left. The due honour paid to his new office, I turned to depart. Then
for the first time my eyes fell on the unveiled countenance and
drooping form of one unlike, yet so like Eveena--her favourite and
nearest sister, Zevle. I held out my hand; but, emotion overcoming the
habits of reserve, she threw herself into my arms, and her tears fell
on my bosom, hardly faster than my own as I stooped and kissed her
brow. I had no voice to speak my farewell. But as the Astronaut rose
for the last time from the ground, the voices of my brethren chanted
in adieu the last few lines of the familiar formula--

"Peace be yours no force can break,
Peace not Death hath power to shake;"

* * * * *

"Peace from peril, fear, and pain;
Peace--until we meet again!
Not before the sculptured stone,
But the All-Commander's Throne."

[Footnote 1: Qy. [GREEK: apo], from, [GREEK: ergos], work--as
en-ergy?]

[Footnote 2: The chemical notation of the MS. is unfortunately
different from any known to any chemist of my acquaintance, and
utterly undecipherable.]

[Footnote 3: Last figures illegible: the year is probably 183.]

[Footnote 4: These distances are given in Roman measures and round
numbers not easy of exact rendering.]

[Footnote 5: In 1830 or thereabouts.--ED.]

[Footnote 6: The Martial year is 687 of our days, and eight Martial
years are nearly equivalent to fifteen Terrestrial. Roughly, and in
round numbers, the time figures given may be multiplied by two to
reduce them to Terrestrial periods.--ED.]

[Footnote 7: Say fifty-sixth; in effect, fiftieth.--Narrator.]

[Footnote 8: Equivalent in time to ninety-three and forty-seven with
us; in effect corresponding to eighty and forty.]

[Footnote 9: About ninety; in time, one hundred and six.]

[Footnote 10: Seventy; in time, eighty-three.--_Narrator_.]

[Footnote 11: The centuries, hundreds, thousands, etc., appear to
represent multiples of twelv