You tell me that my dead kinsman was a thief of women, which, in Phoenician eyes, must be a crime indeed.

So be it; but thief or no thief, I say that there is a blood feud between me and the man who slew him, and were he great Solomon himself, instead of one of fifty princelets of his line, he should pay bitterly for the dead.

To-morrow, Sakon, I will meet you before I leave for my own land, for I have words to speak to you.

Till then, farewell!"-- and rising, he strode down the hall, followed by his officers and guard.
***** The sudden departure of king Ithobal in anger was the signal for the breaking up of the feast.
"Why is that half-bred chief so wrath with me ?" asked Aziel in a low voice of Elissa as they followed Sakon to another chamber.
"Because--if you would know the truth--he set his dead cousin to kidnap me, and you thwarted him," she answered, looking straight before her.
Aziel made no reply, for at that moment Sakon turned to speak with him, and his face was anxious.
"I crave your pardon, Prince," he said, drawing him aside, "that you should have met with such insults at my board.

Had it been any other man who spoke thus to you, by now he had rued his words, but this Ithobal is the terror of our city, for if he chooses he can bring a hundred thousand savages upon us, shutting us within our walls to starve, and cutting us off from the working of the mines whence we win gold.
Therefore, in this way or that, he must be humoured, as indeed we have humoured him and his father for years, though now," he added, his brow darkening, "he demands a price that I am loth to pay," and he glanced towards his daughter, who stood watching them at a little distance, looking most beautiful in her white robes and ornaments of gold.
"Can you not make war upon him, and break his power ?" asked Aziel, with a strange anxiety, guessing that this price demanded by Ithobal was none other than Elissa, the woman whom he had rescued, and whose wisdom and beauty had stirred his heart.
"It might be done, Prince, but the risk would be great, and we are here to work the mines and grow rich in trade--not to make war.