I do not know that I ever remember seeing a sight more pathetic in its way than that of this beautiful and high-spirited young woman weeping in the presence of her Council over the utter degeneracy of the race she was called upon to rule.  Being old and accustomed to these Eastern expressions of emotion, I remained silent, however; but Oliver was so deeply affected that I feared lest he should do something foolish.  He went red, he went white, and was rising from his seat to go to her, had I not caught him by the arm and pulled him back.  As for Quick, he turned his eyes to the ceiling, as though engaged in prayer, and I heard him muttering: 

“The Lord help the poor thing, the Lord help her; the one pearl in the snout of all these gilded swine!  Well, I understand I am a bit of a general now, and if I don’t make ’em sit up for her sake my name ain’t Samuel Quick.”

Meanwhile there was much consternation and indignant murmuring amongst the Court, which felt that reflections had been thrown upon it collectively and individually.  At such a crisis, as usual, Prince Joshua took the lead.  Rising from his seat, he knelt, not without difficulty, before the throne, and said: 

“O Child of Kings, why do you distress us with such words?  Have you not the God of Solomon to protect you?”

“God protects those who protect themselves,” sobbed Maqueda.

“And have you not many brave officers?”

“What are officers without an army?”

“And have you not me, your uncle, your affianced, your lover?” and he laid his hand where he conceived his heart to be, and stared up at her with his rolling, fish-like eyes.  “Had it not been for the interference of these Gentiles, in whom you seem to put such trust,” he went on, “should I not have taken Barung captive the other day, and left the Fung without a head?”

“And the Abati without such shreds of honour as still belong to them, my uncle.”

“Let us be wed, O Bud of the Rose, O Flower of Mur, and soon I will free you from the Fung.  We are helpless because we are separate, but together we shall triumph.  Say, O Maqueda, when shall we be wed?”

“When the idol Harmac is utterly destroyed, and the Fung have departed for ever, my uncle,” she answered impatiently.  “But is this a time to talk of marriage?  I declare the Council closed.  Let the priests bring the rolls that these strangers from the West may take the oath, and then pardon me if I leave you.”

Now from behind the throne there appeared a gorgeous gentleman arrayed in a head-dress that reminded me faintly of a bishop’s mitre, and wearing over his robes a breastplate of precious stones roughly polished, which was half hidden by a very long white beard.