the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe,
till in a few seconds the man's fate overtook him and he fell

with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
This was the first blood spilt in the war.

'Shut the gates,' I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch
Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing

sacrilege. But the order came too late, her guards were already
passing through them, and in another minute the streets echoed

with the furious galloping of horses and the rolling of her chariots.
So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing

like a whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her
headquarters at M'Arstuna, a fortresssituated a hundred and

thirty miles to the north of Milosis.
And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments

and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once
more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening

Inkosi-kaas's razor edge.
CHAPTER XIX

A STRANGE WEDDING
One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before

the gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who,
as we had every reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, and

the heart and soul of her party. This cunning and ferocious
old man had not forgiven us for those hippopotami, or rather

that was what he said. What he meant was that he would never
brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and foreign

learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping
us out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system of

religion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting
to introduce it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had

any religion in our country, and I told him that so far as I
could remember we had ninety-five different ones. You might

have knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficult
not to pity a high priest of a well-established cult who is haunted

by the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.
When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I

discussed what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating
him, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce

a disastrous effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added,
with a stamp of her foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen,

I will break the power of those priests, with their rites and
revels and dark secret ways.' I only wished that old Agon could

have heard her, it would have frightened him.
'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I suppose

that we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.'
Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in

a dry little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'
'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.'

She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that
was as shy as it was sweet.

Then at last he understood.
'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously. 'Dost thou

mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?'
'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid answer; 'but

if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'
-- pointing to the entrance to a private chapel -- 'and am I

not ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my lord! In
eight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for

thou shalt lead my armies, and in war -- men sometimes fall,
and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if

only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely
eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the

red heart of a rose.
'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and with

my crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very
bitter, and if she prevails she will not spare. Who can read

the future? Happiness is the world's White Bird, that alights
seldom, and flies fast and far till one day he is lost in the

clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by any chance he
rests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to neglect

the present for the future, for who knows what the future will
be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them,

for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others
bloom that we shall never see.' And she lifted her sweet face

to him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a curious
pang of jealousy" target="_blank" title="n.妒忌；猜忌">jealousy and turned and went away. They never took much

notice of whether I was there or not, thinking, I suppose, that
I was an old fool, and that it did not matter one way or the

other, and really I believe that they were right.
So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things in general,

and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window
as a vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox.

And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over, looking
very radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and

even Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at
a real wedding. Of course we said yes, and off we went to the

chapel, where we found Agon looking as sulky as any High Priest
possibly could, and no wonder. It appeared that he and Nyleptha

had a slight difference of opinion about the coming ceremony.
He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of his

priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry and told
him that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to

be obeyed. Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the
Eighth to perfection, and insisted that, if she wanted to be

married, she would be married, and that he should marry her.
{Endnote 18}

He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she clinched
her argument thus --

'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is an absurd
prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his

subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars
down on Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I can leave him to contemplate

the altar of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is
his natural vocation, and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon!

thou shalt be placed before the altar yonder with nought but
a little water till such time as thou hast reconsidered the matter.'

Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that morning
without his breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so

he presently modified his views and consented to marry them,
saying at the same time that he washed his hands of all responsibility

in the matter.
So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of her favourite

maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face and
downcast eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any

sort, as seems to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries
of the world. She did not wear a single ornament, even her gold

circlets were removed, and I thought that if possible she looked
more lovely than ever without them, as really superbly beautiful

women do.
She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his hand

and led him up before the altar, and after a little pause, in
a slow, clear voice uttered the following words, which are customary

in Zu-Vendis if the bride desires and the man consents: --
'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other woman