“Is it so?” answered Aziel.  “Well, Issachar foretold as much.  On their own heads be the doom of these devil-worshippers and cowards.  Have you any tidings of the lady Elissa?”

“Yes, Prince.  She still sits yonder in the tomb, resolute in her purpose, and giving no answer to those who come to reason with her.”

As he spoke the guard let fall the front of the tent so that the sunlight flowed into it, revealing Aziel and his twelve companions, each fast in his narrow and shameful prison.  “See,” said Metem, “do you know the place?”

The prince struggled to his knees, and saw that they were set upon the top of a hill, built up of granite boulders, which rose eighty feet or more from the surface of the plain.  Opposite to them at a distance of under a hundred paces was a precipice in the face of which could be seen a cave closed with barred gates of bronze, while between the rocky hill and the precipice ran a road.

“I know it, Metem; there runs the path by which we travelled from the coast, and there is the tomb of Baaltis.  Why have we been brought here?”

“The lady Elissa sits behind the bars of yonder tomb whence her view of all that happens upon this mount must be very good indeed,” answered Metem with meaning.  “Now, can you guess why you were brought here, prince Aziel.”

“Is it that she may witness our sufferings under torment?” he asked.

Metem nodded.

“How will they deal with us, Metem?”

“Wait and see,” he answered sadly.

As he spoke Ithobal himself appeared followed by certain evil-looking savages.  Having greeted Metem courteously he turned to the Hebrew soldiers in the cages and asked them which of their number was most prepared to die.

“I, Ithobal, who am their leader,” said Aziel.

“No, Prince,” replied Ithobal with a cruel smile, “your time is not yet.  Look, there is a man who has been wounded; to put him out of his pain will be a kindness.  Slaves, bear that Jew to the edge of the rock, and—­as the prince will wish to study a new mode of death—­bring his cage also.”

The order was obeyed, Aziel being set down upon the very verge of the cliff.  Close to him a spur of granite jutted out twenty feet or so from the edge.  At the end of the spur a groove was cut and over this groove, suspended by a thin chain from a pole, hung a wedge of pure crystal carefully shaped and polished.  While Aziel wondered what evil purpose this stone might serve, the slaves had fastened a fine rope to the cage containing the wounded Hebrew soldier and secured its end.  Then they set the rope in the groove of the granite spur, and pushed the cage over the edge of the cliff, so that it dangled in mid-air.