Lilith

With measured tread along the path, filling it for some distance, came a body of armed men. I walked through
them−−nor know whether they gave way to me, or were bodiless things. But they turned and followed me; I
heard and felt their march at my very heels; but I cast no look behind, and the sound of their steps and the
clash of their armour died away.
A little farther on, the moon being now close to the horizon and the way in deep shadow, I descried, seated
where the path was so narrow that I could not pass her, a woman with muffled face.
"Ah," she said, "you are come at last! I have waited here for you an hour or more! You have done well! Your
trial is over. My father sent me to meet you that you might have a little rest on the way. Give me your charge,
and lay your head in my lap; I will take good care of both until the sun is well risen. I am not bitterness
always, neither to all men!"
Her words were terrible with temptation, for I was very weary. And what more likely to be true! If I were,
through slavish obedience to the letter of the command and lack of pure insight, to trample under my feet the
very person of the Lady of Sorrow! My heart grew faint at the thought, then beat as if it would burst my
bosom.
Nevertheless my will hardened itself against my heart, and my step did not falter. I took my tongue between
my teeth lest I should unawares answer, and kept on my way. If Adam had sent her, he could not complain
that I would not heed her! Nor would the Lady of Sorrow love me the less that even she had not been able to
turn me aside!
Just ere I reached the phantom, she pulled the covering from her face: great indeed was her loveliness, but
those were not Mara's eyes! no lie could truly or for long imitate them! I advanced as if the thing were not
there, and my foot found empty room.
I had almost reached the other side when a Shadow−−I think it was The Shadow, barred my way. He seemed
to have a helmet upon his head, but as I drew closer I perceived it was the head itself I saw−−so distorted as
to bear but a doubtful resemblance to the human. A cold wind smote me, dank and sickening−−repulsive as
the air of a charnel−house; firmness forsook my joints, and my limbs trembled as if they would drop in a
helpless heap. I seemed to pass through him, but I think now that he passed through me: for a moment I was
as one of the damned. Then a soft wind like the first breath of a new−born spring greeted me, and before me
arose the dawn.
My way now led me past the door of Mara's cottage. It stood wide open, and upon the table I saw a loaf of
bread and a pitcher of water. In or around the cottage was neither howl nor wail.
Lilith
I came to the precipice that testified to the vanished river. I climbed its worn face, and went on into the
desert. There at last, after much listening to and fro, I determined the spot where the hidden water was
loudest, hung Lilith's hand about my neck, and began to dig. It was a long labour, for I had to make a large
hole because of the looseness of the sand; but at length I threw up a damp spadeful. I flung the sexton−tool on
the verge, and laid down the hand. A little water was already oozing from under its fingers. I sprang out, and
made haste to fill the grave. Then, utterly fatigued, I dropped beside it, and fell asleep.
CHAPTER XLII. I SLEEP THE SLEEP
When I woke, the ground was moist about me, and my track to the grave was growing a quicksand. In its
ancient course the river was swelling, and had begun to shove at its burden. Soon it would be roaring down
the precipice, and, divided in its fall, rushing with one branch to resubmerge the orchard valley, with the
other to drown perhaps the monster horde, and between them to isle the Evil Wood. I set out at once on my
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