“You would sacrifice me?” his face whitening from horror.  “You would give me to the knife and fire? Mon Dieu! is this the end of all your vows?”

She smiled, a cold, cruel smile, her eyes burning.

“I did not say you,” tauntingly.  “There is another here.”

He drew away from her grasp, lips ashen, eyes unbelieving.

“Eloise! Mon Dieu! not Eloise?”

“And if not Eloise, what then, Monsieur?” The low voice hardened, becoming oddly metallic.  “The wolves cry for blood—­French blood.  Is it your wish to die together? Pardi! if it be between you two, am I to have no choice which one I deliver?  Why should you shrink back like a baby at first sight of blood?  I thought you a soldier, a man.  Did you not tell me you loved her no longer? did you not swear it with your lips to mine?”

He made no response, staring at her with eyes full of unbelief, the hideous uproar clanging about them in ceaseless volume.  Naladi’s face flushed with rising anger.

“Yet you do! Mon Dieu, you do!” she panted, the tiger within breaking loose.  “Your words were a lie!  Here, look at me,” extending her arms, the white flesh of her bosom clearly revealed in the parting of her drapery.  “Am I such as she? will I shrink like a coward, mumbling prayer and fingering rosary?  Am I afraid to work my will?  Am I not worth being loved?  Am I the kind you think to play with?  God’s mercy!  I am minded to throw you both to the beasts.  No, no, not that; you dare not front me!  I make my own choice of who shall die and who live.”  She laughed mockingly.  “Bah!  I know your sort, Monsieur—­’tis as the wind blows; you love to-day, and forget to-morrow.  Yet I keep you for a plaything—­I have no use for her.  I care no longer how the wolves tear her dainty limbs.  Before this I have tasted vengeance and found it sweet.”

He shrank before her fury, all conceit and audacity fled, and words failed him.  Not even yet could he believe it true, but she permitted no recovery.

“You think I lie.  You think I threaten, but dare not act.  You think me a soft-hearted fool because I listened to your words of love.  By the gods! you shall learn better.  I have heard love words before; none ever spoke them to my ears without paying the price of deceit. Mon Dieu! and shall you escape?  I can hate as well as love; strike as well as caress.  So you played with me, Monsieur? used me to pass a dull hour in the wilderness? Sacre! ’t is now my chance to sport with you.  You forget who I am—­I, Naladi, Daughter of the Sun, Queen of the Natchez.  Look down! there are hands waiting to rend at my word.  I will give them the girl-face for their blood-lust.  Seek to stop me if you dare!”