the scheme in movement. Already I had sent men to the storehouses

amongst the Priests' dwellings to fetch me rams, and crows, and
acids, and hammers, and such other material as was needed, and

these stood handy behind one of the upper gates. I put on
every pair of hands that could be spared to the work, no matter

what was their age and feebleness; yes, if Nais could have walked
so far I would have pressed her for the labour; and presently

carved balustrade, and waysidestatue, together with the lettered
wall-stones and the foot-worn cobbles, roared down into the gulf

below, and added their din to the shrieks and yells and crashes of
the fighting. Gods! But it was a hateful task, smashing down that

splendid handiwork of the men of the past. But it was better that
it should crash down to ruin in the abyss below, than that

Phorenice should profane it with her impious sandals.
At first I had feared that it would be needful to sacrifice

the knot of brave men who were so valiantly defending the gate then
being attacked. It is disgusting to be forced into a measure of

this kind, but in hard warfare it is often needful to the carrying
out of his schemes for a general to leave a part of his troops to

fight to a finish, and without hope of rescue, as valiantly as they
may; and all he can do for their reward is to recommend them

earnestly to the care of the Gods. But when the work of destroying
the pathway was nearly completed, I saw a chance of retrieving

them.
We had not been content merely with breaking arches, and throwing

down the piers. We had got our rams and levers under the living
rock itself on which all the whole fabric stood; and fire stood

ready to heat the rams for their work; and when the word was
given, the whole could be sent crashing down the face of the cliffs

beyond chance of repair.
All was, I say, finally prepared in this fashion, and then I

gave the word to hold. A narrow ledge still remained undestroyed,
and offered footway, and over this I crossed. The cut we had made

was immediately below the uppermost gate of all, and below it there
were three more massive gates still unviolated, besides the one

then being so vehemently attacked. Already, the garrisons had been
retired from these, and I passed through them all in turn,

unchallenged and unchecked, and came to that busy rampart where the
twelve Priests left alive worked, stripped to the waist, at heaving

down the murderous rocks.
For awhile I busied myself at their side, stopping an occasional

fire-tube dart or arrow on my shield and passing them the tidings.
The attack was growing fiercer every minute now. The enemy had

packed the pass below well-nigh full of their dead, and our
battering stones had less distance to fall and so could do less

execution. They pressed forward more eagerly than ever with their
scaling ladders, and it was plain that soon they would inevitably

put the place to the storm. Even during the short time I was
there, their sling-stones and missiles took life from three more of

the twelve who stood with me on the defence.
So I gave the word for one more furiousavalanche of rock to

be pelted down, and whilst the few living were crawling out from
those killed by the discharge, and whilst the next band of

reinforcements came scrambling up over the bodies, I sent my nine
remaining men away at a run up the steep stairway of the path, and

then followed them myself. Each of the gates in turn we passed,
shutting them after us, and breaking the bars and levers with which

they were moved, and not till we were through the last did the roar
of shouts from below tell that the besiegers had found the gate

they bit against was deserted.
One by one we balanced our way across the narrow ledge which

was left where the path had been destroyed, and one poor Priest
that carried a wound grew giddy, and lost his balance here, and

toppled down to his death in the abyss below before a hand could be
stretched out to steady him. And then, when we were all over, heat

was put to the rams, and they expanded with their resistless force,
and tore the remaining ledges from their hold in the rock. I think

a pang went through us all then when we saw for ourselves the last
connecting link cut away from between the poor remaining handful of

our Sacred Clan on the Mountain, and the rest of our great nation,
who had grown so bitterly estranged to us, below.

But here at any rate was a break in the fighting. There were
no further preparations we could make for our defence, and high

though I knew Phorenice's genius to be, I did not see how she could
very well do other than accept the check and retire. So I set a

guard on the ramparts of the uppermost gate to watch all possible
movements, and gave the word to the others to go and find the rest

which so much they needed.
For myself, dutifully I tried to find Zaemon first, going on

the errand my proper self, for there was little enough of kingly
state observed on the Sacred Mountain, although the name and title

had been given me. But Zaemon was not to be come at. He was
engaged inside the Ark of the Mysteries with another of the Three,

and being myself only one of the Seven, I had not rank enough in
the priesthood to break in upon their workings. And so I was free

to turn where my likings would have led me first, and that was to
the house which sheltered Nais.

She waked as I came in over the threshold, and her eyes filled
with a welcome for me. I went across and knelt where she lay,

putting my face on the pillow beside her. She was full of tender
talk and sweet endearments. Gods! What an infinity of delight I

had missed by not knowing my Nais earlier! But she had a will of
her own through it all, and some quaint conceits which made her all

the more adorable. She rallied me on the new cleanness of my chin,
and on the robe which I had taken as a covering. She professed a

pretty awe for my kingship, and vowed that had she known of my
coming dignities she would never have dared to discover a love for

me. But about my marriage with Phorenice she spoke with less
lightness. She put out her thin white hand, and drew my face to

her lips.
"It is weak of me to have a jealousy," she murmured, "knowing

how completely my lord is mine alone; but I cannot help it. You
have said you were her husband for awhile. It gives me a pang to

think that I shall not be the first to lie in your arms,
Deucalion."

"Then you may gaily throw your pang away," I whispered back.
"I was husband to Phorenice in mere word for how long I do not

precisely know. But in anything beyond, I was never her husband at
all. She married me by a form she prescribed herself, ignoring all

the old rites and ceremonies, and whether it would hold as legal or
not, we need not trouble to inquire. She herself has most nicely

and completely annulled that marriage as I have told you. Tatho is
her husband now, and father to her children, and he seems to have

a fondness for her which does him credit."
We said other things too in that chamber, those small repetitions

of endearments which are so precious to lovers, and so beyond the
comprehension of other folk, but they are not to be set down on

these sheets. They are a mere private matter which can have no
concern to any one beyond our two selves, and more weighty

subjects are piling themselves up in deep index for the historian.
Phorenice, it seemed, had more rage against the Priests' Clan

on the Mountain and more bright genius to help her to a vengeance
than I had credited. Her troops stormed easily the gates we had

left to them, and swarmed up till they stood where the pathway was