"Ay, Prince, it was your hand that struck the blow which killed the
thief, but Baaltis, and no other, led you to the place to rescue me."

"I understand, lady. To save you, Baaltis, laying aside her own power,
led a mortal man to the grove, which it is death that mortal man should
violate."

"Who can fathom the way of the gods?" she replied with passion, then
added, as though reasoning with a new-born doubt, "Did not the goddess
hear my prayer and answer it?"

"In truth, lady, I cannot say. Let me think. If I understood you
rightly, you prayed for heavenly wisdom, but whether or not you have
gained it within this last hour, I do not know. And then you prayed for
love, an immortal love. O, maiden, has it come to you since yonder moon
appeared upon the sky? And you prayed----"

"Peace!" she broke in, "peace and mock me not, or, prince that you are,
I will publish your crime of spying upon the prayer of a priestess
of Baaltis. I tell you that I prayed for a symbol and a sign, and the
prayer was answered.

"Did not the black giant spring upon me to bear me away to be his
slave--his, or another's? And is he not a symbol of the evil and the
ignorance which are on the earth and that seek to drag down the beauty
and the wisdom of the earth to their own level? Then the Phoenician
ran to rescue me and was defeated, since the spirit of Mammon cannot
overcome the black powers of ill. Next you came and fought hard and
long, till in the end you slew the mighty foe, you a Prince born of the