forest as a young king fronts his rebels. And as there, where the
bush-fires had ravaged, all was a desert, so there, where their fury had
not spread, all was a garden. Afar, at the foot of the mountains, the
fugitive herds were grazing; the cranes, flocking back to the pools,
renewed the strange grace of their gambols; and the great kingfisher,
whose laugh, half in mirth, half in mockery, leads the choir that welcome
the morn,--which in Europe is night,--alighted bold on the roof of the
cavern, whose floors were still white with the bones of races, extinct
before--so helpless through instincts, so royal through Soul--rose Man!

But there, on the ground where the dazzling elixir had wasted its
virtues,--there the herbage already had a freshness of verdure which, amid
the duller sward round it, was like an oasis of green in a desert. And
there wild-flowers, whose chill hues the eye would have scarcely
distinguished the day before, now glittered forth in blooms of unfamiliar
beauty. Towards that spot were attracted myriads of happy insects, whose
hum of intense joy was musically loud. But the form of the life-seeking
sorcerer lay rigid and stark; blind to the bloom of the wild-flowers, deaf
to the glee of the insects,--one hand still resting heavily on the rim of
the emptied caldron, and the face still hid behind the Black Veil. What!
the wondrous elixir, sought with such hope and well-nigh achieved through
such dread, fleeting back to the earth from which its material was drawn,
to give bloom, indeed,--but to herbs: joy indeed,--but to insects!

And now, in the flash of the sun, slowly wound up the slopes that led to
the circle the same barbaric procession which had sunk into the valley
under the ray of the moon. The armed men came first, stalwart and tall,
their vests brave with crimson and golden lace, their weapons gayly
gleaming with holiday silver. After them, the Black Litter. As they came
to the place, Ayesha, not raising her head, spoke to them in her own