"I have no vail to give you," I said abruptly. "Get on with
your duty. Open me that other door."

"With respect, my lord, it would be better that I should first
announce my lord's presence. There is a baiting going forward in
the circus, and the tigers are as yet mere savages, and no
respecters of persons."

"The what?"

"The tigers, if my lord will permit them the name. They are
baiting a batch of prisoners with the two great beasts which the
Empress (whose name be adored) has sent here to aid us keep the
gate. But if my lord will, there are the ward rooms leading off
this passage, and the galleries which run out from them commanding
the circus, and from there my lord can see the sport undisturbed."

Now, the mere lust for killing excites only disgust in me, but
I suspected the orders of the Empress in this matter, and had a
curiosity to see her scheme. So I stepped into the warder's lodge,
and on into the galleries which commanded the circus with their
arrow-slits. The old builders of the place had intended these for
a second line of defence, for, supposing the outer doors all
forced, an enemy could be speedily shot down in the circus, without
being able to give a blow in return, and so would only march into
a death-trap. But as a gazing-place on a spectacle they were no
less useful.

The circus was bright lit by the moonlight, and the air which