one now, Deucalion, past all possible dissolving?"
I could not lie to her any more just then. The Gods know how

honestly I had striven to play the part commanded me for Atlantis'
good, but there is a limit to human endurance, and mine was

reached. I was not all anger towards her. I had some pity for
this passion of hers, which had grown of itself certainly, but

which I had done nothing to check; and the indecent frankness with
which it was displayed was only part of the livery of potentates

who flaunt what meaner folk would coyly hide. But always before my
eyes was a picture of the girl on whom her jealousy had taken such

a bitter vengeance, and to invent spurious lover's talk then was a
thing my tongue refused to do.

"Words are poor things," I said, "and I am a man unused to
women, and have but a small stock of any phrases except the dryest.

Remember, Phorenice, a week agone, I did not know what love was,
and now that I have learned the lesson, somewhat of the suddenest,

the language remains still to come to me. My inwards speak; indeed
they are full of speech; but I cannot translate into bald cold

words what they say."
And here, surely the High Gods took pity on my tied tongue and

my misery, and made an opportunity for bringing the ceremony to an
end. A man ran into the square shouting, and showing a wound that

dripped, and presently all that vast crowd which stood on the
pavements, and the sides of the pyramids, and the roofs of the

temples, took up the cry, and began to feel for their weapons.
"The rebels are in!" "They have burrowed a path into the

city!" "They have killed the cave-tigers and taken a gate!" "They
are putting the whole place to the storm!" "They will presently

leave no poor soul of us here alive!"
There then was a termination of our marriage cooings. With

rebels merely biting at the walls, it was fine to put strong trust
in the defences, and easy to affectcontempt for the besiegers'

powers, and to keep the business of pageants and state craft and
marryings turning on easy wheels. But with rebel soldiers already

inside the city (and hordes of others doubtless pressing on their
heels), the affairs took a different light. It was no moment for

further delay, and Phorenice was the first to admit it. The glow
that had been in her eyes changed to the glare of the fighter, as

the fellow who had run up squalled out his tidings.
I stood and stretched my chest. I seemed in need of air.

"Here," I said, "is work that I can understand more clearly. I
will go and sweep this rabble back to their burrows, Phorenice."

"But not alone, sir. I come too. It is my city still. Nay,
sir, we are too newly wed to be parted yet."

"Have your will," I said, and together we went down the steps
of the throne to the pavement below. Under my breath I said a

farewell to Nais.
Our armour-bearers met us with weapons, and we stepped into

litters, and the slaves took us off hot foot. The wounded man who
had first brought the news had fallen in a faint, and no more

tidings was to be got from him, but the growing din of the fight
gave us the general direction, and presently we began to meet knots

of people who dwelt near the place of irruption, running away in
wild panic, loaded down with their household goods.

It was useless to stop these, as fight they could not, and if
they had stayed they would merely have been slaughtered like flies,

and would in all likelihood have impeded our own soldiery. And so
we let them run screaming on their blind way, but forced the

litters through them with but very little regard for their coward
convenience.

Now the advantage of the rebels, when it came to be looked
upon by a soldier's eye, was a thing of little enough importance.

They had driven a tunnel from behind a covering mound, beneath the
walls, and had opened it cleverly enough through the floor of a

middle-class house. They had come through into this, collecting
their numbers under its shelter, and doubtless hoping that the

marriage of the Empress (of which spies had given them information)
would sap the watchfulness of the city guards. But it seems they

were discovered and attacked before they were thoroughly ready to
emerge, and, as a fine body of troops were barracked near the spot,

their extermination would have been merely a matter of time, even
if we had not come up.

It did not take a trained eye long to decide on this, and
Phorenice, with a laugh, lay back on the cushions of the litter,

and returned her weapons to the armour-bearer who came panting up
to receive them. "We grow nervous with our married life, my

Deucalion," she said. "We are fearful lest this new-found
happiness be taken from us too suddenly."

But I was not to be robbed of my breathing-space in this wise.
"Let me crave a wedding gift of you," I said.

"It is yours before you name it."
"Then give me troops, and set me wide a city gate a mile away

from here."
"You can gather five hundred as you go from here to the gate,

taking two hundred of those that are here. If you want more, they
must be fetched from other barracks along the walls. But where is

your plan?"
"Why, my poor strategy teaches me this: these foolish rebels

have set all their hopes on this mine, and all their excitement on
its present success. If they are kept occupied here by a

Phorenice, who will give them some dainty fighting without checking
them unduly, they will press on to the attack and forget all else,

and never so much as dream of a sortie. And meanwhile, a Deucalion
with his troop will march out of the city well away from here,

without tuck of drum or blare of trumpet, and fall most
unpleasantly upon their rear. After which, a Phorenice will burn

the house here at the mine's head, which is of wood, and straw
thatched, to discourage further egress, and either go to the walls

to watch the fight from there, or sally out also and spur on the
rout as her fancy dictates."

"Your scheme is so pretty, I would I could rob you of it for
my own credit's sake, and as it is, I must kiss you for your

cleverness. But you got my word first, you naughty fellow, and you
shall have the men and do as you ask. Eh, sir, this is a sad

beginning of our wedded life, if you begin to rob your little wife
of all the sweets of conquest from the outset."

She took back the weapons and target she had given to the
armour-bearer, and stepped over the side of the litter to the

ground. "But at least," she said, "if you are going to fight, you
shall have troops that will do credit to my drill," and thereupon

proceeded to tell off the companies of men-at-arms who were to
accompany me. She left herself few enough to stem the influx of

rebels who poured ceaselessly in through the tunnel; but as I had
seen, with Phorenice, heavy odds added only to her enjoyment.

But for the Empress, I will own at the time to have given
little enough of thought. My own proper griefs were raw within me,

and I thirsted for that forgetfulness of all else which battle
gives, so that for awhile I might have a rest from their gnawings.

It made my blood run freer to hear once more the tramp of
practised troops behind me, and when all had been collected, we

marched out through a gate of the city, and presently were charging
through and through the straggling rear of the enemy. By the Gods!

for the moment even Nais was blotted from my wearied mind. Never
had I loved more to let my fierceness run madly riot. Never have

I gloated more abundantly over the terrible joy of battle.
Nais must forgive my weakness in seeking to forget her even

for a breathing-space. Had that opportunity been denied me, I
believe the agony of remembering would have snapped my

brain-strings for always.
14. AGAIN THE GODS MAKE CHANGE