up, your majesty. The Thither men are outside, killing and burning!"
"I know it."
"And the palace is on fire. You can smell the reek even here."
"Yes."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"Nothing."
"My word, that is a fine proposition for a prince! If you care nothing for town or palace perhaps you will bestir yourself for Princess Heru."
A faint glimmer of interest rose upon the alabaster calm of his face at that name, but it faded instantly, and he said quietly—
"The slaves will save her. She will live: I looked into the book of her fate yesterday. She will escape, and forget, and sit at another marriage feast, and be a mother, and give the people yet one more prince to keep the faint glimmer of our ancestry alive. I am content."
"But, d——— it, man, I am not! I take a deal more interest in the young lady than you seem to, and have scoured half this precious planet of yours on her account, and will be hanged if I sit idly twiddling my thumbs while her pretty skin is in danger." But Hath was lost in contemplation of his shoe-strings.
"Come, sir," I said, shaking his majesty by the shoulder, "don't be down on your luck; there
