“But if so, how can it help you, Elissa, for they will break in the gates of the place, and drag you away?”

“Then, Aziel, they will drag away a corpse, and that they will scarcely care to present to Ithobal.  See, I have hidden poison in my breast, and here at my girdle hangs a dagger; are not the two of them enough to make an end of one frail life?  Should they dare to touch me, I shall tell them through the bars that most certainly I shall drink the bane, or use the knife; and when they know it, they will leave me unharmed, hoping to starve me out, or trusting to chance to snare me living.”

“You are bold,” murmured Aziel in admiration, “but self-murder is a sin.”

“It is a sin that I will dare, beloved, as in past days I would have dared it for less cause, rather than be given alive into the hands of Ithobal; for to whoever else I may be false, to you through life and death I will be true.”

Now Aziel groaned in his doubt and bitterness of heart; then turning to Metem, he asked:—­

“Have you anything to say, Metem?”

“Yes, Prince, two things,” answered the Phoenician.  “First, that the lady Elissa is rash, indeed, to speak so openly before me who might carry her words to the council or the priests.”

“Nay, Metem, I am not rash, for I know that, although you love money, you will not betray me.”

“You are right, lady, I shall not, for money would be of little service to me in a city that is about to be taken by storm.  Also I hate Ithobal, who threatened my life—­as you did also, by the way—­and will do my best to keep you from his clutches.  Now for my second point:  it is that I can see little use in all this because Ithobal, being defrauded of you, will attack, and then——­”

“And then he may be beaten, Metem, for the citizens will at any rate fight for their lives, and the Prince Aziel here, who is a general skilled in war, will fight also if he has recovered strength——­”

“Do not fear, Elissa; give me two days, and I will fight to the death,” said Aziel.

“At the least,” she went on, “this scheme gives us breathing time, and who knows but that fortune will turn.  Or if it does not, since it is impossible for me to escape from the city, I have no better.”

“No more have I,” said Metem, “for at length the oldest fox comes to his last double.  I could escape from this city, or the prince might escape, or the lady Elissa even might possibly escape disguised, but I am sure that all three of us could not escape, seeing that within the walls we are watched and without them the armies of Ithobal await us.  Oh! prince Aziel, I should have done well to go, as I might have gone when you and Issachar were taken after that mad meeting in the temple, from which I never looked for anything but ill; but I grow foolish in my old age, and thought that I should like to see the last of you.  Well, so far we are all alive, except Issachar, who, although bigoted, was still the most worthy of us, but how long we shall remain alive I cannot say.