But why should he press his suit in this rough and secret fashion instead of openly as a king might do ?" "He may have pressed it openly and been repulsed," she replied in a low voice.

"But if he could have carried me to some far fortress, how should I flout him there, that is, if I still lived?
There, with no price to pay in gold or lands or power, he would have been my master, and I should have been his slave till such time as he wearied of me.

That is the fate from which you have saved me, Prince, or rather from death, for I am not one who could bear such shame at the hands of a man I hate." "Lady," he said bowing, "I think that perhaps for the first time in my life I am glad to-night that I was born." "And I," she answered, "who am but a Phoenician maiden, am glad that I should have lived to hear one who is as royal in thought and soul as he is in rank speak thus to me.

Oh! Prince," she added, clasping her hands, "if your words are not those of empty courtesy alone, hear me, for you are great, a Lord of the Earth whom none refuse, and it may be in your power to give me aid.

Prince, I am in a sore strait, for that danger from which I prayed to be delivered this night presses me hard.