Deucalion, my lord, and though till to-day I knew you only from
pictures drawn with tongues, I have seen you now, and have judged
for myself. And so I make this decree: Deucalion is above all
other men in Atlantis, and if there is one who does not render him
obedience, that man is enemy also of Phorenice, and shall feel her
anger."

She made a sign, and a stair was brought, and then she called
to me, and I mounted and sat beside her in the golden half-castle
under the canopy of royal snakes. The girl who stood behind in
attendance fanned us both with perfumed feathers, and at a word
from Phorenice the mammoth was turned, bearing us back towards the
royal pyramid by the way through which it had come. At the same
time also all the other machinery of splendour was put in motion.
The soldiers and the gaudily bedecked civil traders fell into
procession before and behind, and I noted that a body of troops,
heavily armed, marched on each of the mammoth's flanks.

Phorenice turned to me with a smile. "You piqued me," she
said, "at first."

"Your Majesty overwhelms me with so much notice."

"You looked at my steed before you looked at me. A woman finds
it hard to forgive a slight like that."

"I envied you the greatest of your conquests, and do still.
I have fought mammoths myself, and at times have killed, but I
never dared even to think of taking one alive and bringing it into
tameness."