"The girl-widow rose, and spoke. 'I did not know, O king, that he whom
thou madest a slave slew my husband, the prince of our people, and thy
son. That was not told me. But had I known it, still would I have set him
free, for thy son was killed in fair battle, and this man deserves not
slavery or torture. I did seek the tent of the Great Slave, and it was to
set him free--no more. For that did I go, and, for the rest, my soul is
open to the Spirit Who Sees. I have done naught, and never did, nor ever
will, that might shame a king, or the daughter of a king, or the wife of
a king, or a woman. If to set a great captive free is death for me, then
am I ready. I will answer all pure women in the far Camp of the Great
Fires without fear. There is no more, O king, that I may say, but this:
she who dies by fire, being of noble blood, may choose who shall light
the faggots--is it not so?'

"Then the king replied: 'It is so. Such is our law.'

"There was counselling between the king and his oldest men, and so long
were they handling the matter backwards and forwards that it seemed she
might go free. But the king's wife, seeing, came and spoke to the king
and the others, crying out for the honour of her dead son; so that in a
moment of anger they all cried out for death.

"When the king said again to the girl that she must die by fire, she
answered: 'It is as the gods will. But it is so, as I said, that I may
choose who shall light the fires?'

"The king answered yes, and asked her whom she chose. She pointed towards
the Great Slave. And all, even the king and his councillors, wondered,
for they knew little of the heart of women. What is a man with a matter
like that? Nothing--nothing at all. They would have set this for