Angels and Women (1924)

104 ANGELS AND WOMEN
burned, the army slaughtered, and my
father, his generals and priests, were tortured.
Semaris, my betrothed, was slain;
my mother died of a broken heart; but I was
taken to the court of Zaradis, and spared on
account of my beauty.
"Accursed possession, it is leaving me
now !
"I should have been the queen of Zaradis
but for the arrival of a still fairer captive;
in that fortune favored me. I was married to
the Deva Uronion, and soon after our union,
when the counselor of Lord Satanas came to
the court of Zaradis upon an embassy,
Uronion entered his service and removed to
Balonia, for the queen had been strangled,
and he feared from certain tokens that Zaradis’
fancy for me might return. Here have I
lived, unhappy certainly, though with one of
the most constant of the gods;1 for Uronion
is encouraged by his master to continence, as
he condemns the universal license.
1 See Appendix, Note 14.