the Khan, carried by eight priests. Behind it was Atene, draped in a black veil from head to foot, and after her marched another company of priests. In front of the altar the bier was set down and the priests fell back, leaving Atene and her uncle standing alone before the corpse.
What seeks my vassal, the Khania of Kaloon?
asked the Hesea in a cold voice.
Now Atene advanced and bent the knee, but with little graciousness.
Ancient Mother, Mother from of old, I do reverence to thy holy Office; as my forefathers have done for many a generation,
and again she curtseyed. Mother, this dead man asks of thee that right of sepulchre in the fires of the holy Mountain which from the beginning has been accorded to the royal departed who went before him.
It has been accorded as thou sayest,
answered the Hesea, by those priestesses who filled my place before me, nor shall it be refused to thy dead lord,—or to thee Atene—when thy time comes.
I thank thee, O Hes, and I pray that this decree may be written down, for the snows of age have gathered on thy venerable head and soon thou must leave us for awhile. Therefore bid thy scribes that it be written down, so that the Hesea who rules after thee may fulfil it in its season.
Cease,
said the Hesea, cease to pour out thy bitterness at that which should command thy reverence, oh! thou foolish child, who dost not know but that to-morrow the fire shall claim the frail youth and beauty which are thy boast. I bid thee cease, and tell me how did death find this lord of thine?
Ask those wanderers yonder, that were his guests, for his blood is on their heads and cries for vengeance at thy hands.
I killed him,
said Leo, to save my own life. He tried to, hunt us down with his dogs, and there are the
