me. They threatened us on one flank, they harassed us on the
other. It was not war as we had been accustomed to. It was a
newer and more deadly game, and I had to watch my splendid army
eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did I get a chance
of forcing close action. These new tactics that had come from
Phorenice's invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand.
We were eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us
so much the more easy for slaughter. A panic came, and those who
could fled. Myself, I had no wish to go back and earn the axe that
waits for the unsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting
where I stood. But death would not come. It was a fine melee,
Deucalion, that last one."

"And so she took you?"

"I stood with three others back to back, with a ring of dead round
us, and a ring of the enemy hemming us in. We taunted them to
come on. But at hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold
our own, and so they were calling for fire-tubes with which they
could strike us down in safety from a distance. Then up came
Phorenice. 'What is this to-do?' says she. 'We seek to kill Lord
Tatho, who led against you,' say they. 'So that is Tatho?' says
she. 'A fine figure of a man indeed, and a pretty fighter
seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is one who would
acquire the newer method. See now Tatho,' says she, 'it is my
custom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe
me, was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my
banner. Will you make a choice?'

"'Woman,' I said, 'fairest that ever I saw, finest general the