hand, but under circumstances that rendered detection by ordinary means hopeless for the moment), of her brother and Esmo’s son, Kevima; and invited us to a funeral ceremony peculiar to the Zinta.  I need not speak of the painful minutes that followed, during which Eveena strove to suppress for my sake at once her tears for her loss and her renewed and intensified terror on my own account.  It was suddenly announced by the usual signs of the mute messenger that a visitor awaited me in the hall.  Ergimo brought a message from the Campta, which ran as follows:—­

“Aware that their treachery is suspected, the enemy now seek your secret first, and then your life.  Guard both for a very short time.  Your fate, your friends’, and my own are staked on the issue.  The same Council that sends the traitors to the rack will see the law repealed.”

I questioned Ergimo as to his knowledge of the situation.

“The enemy,” he said, “must have changed their plan.  One among them, at least, is probably aware that his treason is suspected both by his Sovereign and by the Order.  This will drive him desperate; and if he can capture you and extort your secret, he will think he can use it to effect his purpose, or at least to ensure his escape.  He may think open rebellion, desperate as it is, safer than waiting for the first blow to come from the Zinta or from the Palace.”

My resolve was speedily taken.  At the same moment came the necessity for escape, and the opportunity and excuse.  I sought out the writer of the first message, who entirely concurred with me in the propriety of the step I was about to take; only recommending me to apply personally for a passport from the Campta, such as would override any attempt to detain me even by legal warrant.  He undertook to care for those I left behind; to release and provide for Eive, and to see, in case I should not return, that full justice was done to the interests of the others, as well as to their claim to release from contracts which my departure from their world ought, like death itself, to cancel.  The royal passport came ere I was ready to depart, expressed in the fullest, clearest language, and such as none, but an officer prepared instantly to rebel against the authority which gave it, dared defy.  During the last preparations, Velna and Eveena were closeted together in the chamber of the former; nor did I care to interrupt a parting the most painful, save one, of those that had this day to be undergone.  I went myself to Eive.

“I leave you,” I said, “a prisoner, not, I hope, for long.  If I return in safety, I will then consider in what manner the termination of your confinement can be reconciled with what is due to myself and others.  If not, you will be yet more certainly and more speedily released.  And now, child whom I once loved, to whom I thought I had been especially gentle and indulgent, was the miserable reward offered you the sole motive that raised your hand against my life?  Poison, I have