battle, can tell how deep this lust is embroidered into the very
foundations of his being.

But for the time Zaemon did not see me, being too much wrapped
in his outcry, and so I was free to listen to the burning words
which he spread around him, and to determine their effect on the
hearers.

The theme he preached was no new one. He told that ever since
the beginning of history, the Gods had set apart one Clan of the
people to rule over the rest and be their Priests, and until the
coming of Phorenice these had done their duties with exactitude and
justice. They had fought invaders, carried war against the beasts,
and studied earth-movements so that they were able to foretell
earthquakes and eruptions, and could spread warnings that the
people might be able to escape their devastations. They are no
self-seekers; their aim was always to further the interest of
Atlantis, and so do honour to the kingdom on which the High Gods
had set their special favour. Under the Priestly Clan, Atlantis
had reached the pinnacle of human prosperity and happiness.

"But," cried the old man, waving the Symbol till his wet body
glistened in a halo of light, "the people grew fat and careless
with their easy life. They began to have a conceit that their good
fortune was earned by their own puny brains and thews, and was no
gift from the Gods above; and presently the cult of these Gods
became neglected, and Their temples were barren of gifts and
worshippers. Followed a punishment. The Gods in Their inscrutable
way decreed that a wife of one of the Priests (that was a governor
of no inconsiderable province) should see a woman child by the