Well, this being so, daughter, I may answer Ithobal that you will wed him." "I!" she said; "I wed that black-hearted savage?
My father, you may answer what you will, but of this be sure, that I will go to my grave before I pass as wife to the board of Ithobal." "Oh! my daughter," pleaded Sakon, "think before you say it.

As his wife at least you, who are not of royal blood, will be a queen, and the mother of kings.

But if you refuse, then either I must force you, which is hateful to me, or there will be such a war as the city has not known for generations, for Ithobal and his tribes have many grievances against us.

By the gift of yourself, for a while, at any rate, you can, as it chances, make peace between us, but if that is withheld, then blood will run in rivers, and perhaps this city, with all who live in it, will be destroyed, or at the least its trade must be ruined and its wealth stolen away." "If it is decreed that all these things are to be, they will be," answered Elissa calmly, "seeing that this war has threatened us for many years, and that a woman must think of herself first, and of the fate of cities afterwards.

Of my own free will I shall never take Ithobal for husband.