"I have saved her alive but for this.

Stay, she shall choose," and calling to a messenger he ordered Gagool to be brought before him.
In a few minutes she came, hurried along by two guards, whom she was cursing as she walked.
"Leave her," said the king to the guards.
So soon as their support was withdrawn, the withered old bundle--for she looked more like a bundle than anything else, out of which her two bright and wicked eyes gleamed like those of a snake--sank in a heap on to the floor.
"What will ye with me, Ignosi ?" she piped.

"Ye dare not touch me.

If ye touch me I will slay you as ye sit.

Beware of my magic." "Thy magic could not save Twala, old she-wolf, and it cannot hurt me," was the answer.