“Aizif!—­Aizif!” called Lysia imperiously.

The animal looked round with an angry snarl, and seemed for once disposed to disobey the summons of its mistress.  She therefore rose from her throne, and stepping forward with a swift, agile grace, caught the savage beast by the neck, and dragged it from its desired prey.  Then, with the point of her little, silver-sandaled foot, she turned the fallen face of the dead man slightly round, so that she might observe it more attentively, and noting its livid disfigurement, smiled.

“So much for the beauty and dignity of manhood!” she said with a contemptuous shrug of her snowy shoulders,—­“All perished in the space of a few brief moments!  Look you, ye fair sirs that take pride in your strength and muscular attainments! ...  Ye shall not find in all Al-Kyris a fairer face or more nobly knit frame than was possessed by this dead fool, Nir-jalis, and yet, lo!—­how the Silver Nectar doth make havoc on the sinews of adamant, the nerves of steel, the stalwart limbs!  Tried by the touchstone of Death, ye are, with all your vaunted intelligence, your domineering audacity and self-love, no better than the slain dogs that serve vultures for carrion! ...—­moreover, ye are less than dogs in honesty, and vastly shamed by them in fidelity!”

She laughed scornfully as she spoke, still grasping the tigress by the neck in one slight hand,—­and her glorious eyes flashed a mocking defiance on all the men assembled.  Their countenances exhibited various expressions of uneasiness amounting to fear, . . some few smiled forcedly, others feigned a careless indifference, . .  Sah-luma flushed an angry red, and Theos, though he knew not why, felt a sudden pricking sense of shame.  She marked all these signs of disquietude with apparently increasing amusement, for her lovely face grew warm and radiant with suppressed, malicious mirth.  She made a slight imperative gesture of command to Gazra, who at once approached, and, bending over the dead Nir-jalis, proceeded to strip off all the gold clasps and valuable jewels that had so lavishly adorned the ill-fated young man’s attire,—­then beckoning another slave nearly as tall and muscular as himself, they attached to the neck and feet of the corpse round, leaden, bullet-shaped weights, fastened by means of heavy iron chains.  This done, they raised the body from the floor and carried it between them to the central and largest casement of all that stood open to the midnight air, and with a dexterous movement flung it out into the waters of the lake beneath.  It fell with a sullen splash, the pale lilies on the surface rocking stormily to and fro as though blown by a gust of wind, while great circling ripples shone softly in the yellow gleam of the moonlight, as the dead man sank down, down, down like a stone into his crystal-quiet grave.