such a hideous clamor of contradictory tongues! ... all striving
to explain what defies explanation, namely, Khosrul's flight, for
which, after all, no one is to blame so much as Zephoranim
himself,--but 'tis the privilege of monarchs to shift their own
mistakes and follies on to the shoulders of their subjects! Come!
Lysia awaits us, and will not easily pardon our tardy obedience to
her summons,--let us hence ere the gates of the palace close."

Lysia! ... The "unvirgined Virgin"--the "Queen Courtesan"! So had
said Khosrul. Nevertheless her name, like a silver clarion, made
the heart of Theos bound with indescribable gladness and feverish
expectation, and without an instant's pause he readily yielded to
Sah-luma's guidance through the gorgeously colored confusion of
the swaying crowd. Arm-in-arm, the twain,--one a POET RENOWNED,
the other a POET FORGOTTEN,--threaded their rapid way between the
ranks of nobles, officers, slaves, and court-lacqueys, who were
all excitedly discussing the recent scare, the Prophet's escape,
and the dread wrath of the King,--and hurrying along the vast Hall
of the Two Thousand Columns, they passed together out into the
night.




CHAPTER XVII.

A VIRGIN UNSHRINED.


Under the cloudless, star-patterned sky, in the soft, warm air