Lilith
Lilith
Lilith
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I turned and followed the spotted leopardess, catching but one glimpse of her as she tore up the brow of the<br />
hill to the gate of the palace. When I reached the entrance−hall, the princess was just throwing the robe<br />
around her which she had left on the floor. The blood had ceased to flow from her wounds, and had dried in<br />
the wind of her flight.<br />
When she saw me, a flash of anger crossed her face, and she turned her head aside. Then, with an attempted<br />
smile, she looked at me, and said,<br />
"I have met with a small accident! Happening to hear that the cat−woman was again in the city, I went down<br />
to send her away. But she had one of her horrid creatures with her: it sprang upon me, and had its claws in my<br />
neck before I could strike it!"<br />
She gave a shiver, and I could not help pitying her, although I knew she lied, for her wounds were real, and<br />
her face reminded me of how she looked in the cave. My heart began to reproach me that I had let her fight<br />
unaided, and I suppose I looked the compassion I felt.<br />
"Child of folly!" she said, with another attempted smile, "−−not crying, surely!−−Wait for me here; I am<br />
going into the black hall for a moment. I want you to get me something for my scratches."<br />
But I followed her close. Out of my sight I feared her.<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong><br />
The instant the princess entered, I heard a buzzing sound as of many low voices, and, one portion after<br />
another, the assembly began to be shiftingly illuminated, as by a ray that went travelling from spot to spot.<br />
Group after group would shine out for a space, then sink back into the general vagueness, while another part<br />
of the vast company would grow momently bright.<br />
Some of the actions going on when thus illuminated, were not unknown to me; I had been in them, or had<br />
looked on them, and so had the princess: present with every one of them I now saw her. The skull−headed<br />
dancers footed the grass in the forest−hall: there was the princess looking in at the door! The fight went on in<br />
the Evil Wood: there was the princess urging it! Yet I was close behind her all the time, she standing<br />
motionless, her head sunk on her bosom. The confused murmur continued, the confused commotion of<br />
colours and shapes; and still the ray went shifting and showing. It settled at last on the hollow in the heath,<br />
and there was the princess, walking up and down, and trying in vain to wrap the vapour around her! Then<br />
first I was startled at what I saw: the old librarian walked up to her, and stood for a moment regarding her;<br />
she fell; her limbs forsook her and fled; her body vanished.<br />
A wild shriek rang through the echoing place, and with the fall of her eidolon, the princess herself, till then<br />
standing like a statue in front of me, fell heavily, and lay still. I turned at once and went out: not again would<br />
I seek to restore her! As I stood trembling beside the cage, I knew that in the black ellipsoid I had been in the<br />
brain of the princess!−−I saw the tail of the leopardess quiver once.<br />
While still endeavouring to compose myself, I heard the voice of the princess beside me.<br />
"Come now," she said; "I will show you what I want you to do for me."<br />
She led the way into the court. I followed in dazed compliance.<br />
The moon was near the zenith, and her present silver seemed brighter than the gold of the absent sun. She<br />
brought me through the trees to the tallest of them, the one in the centre. It was not quite like the rest, for its<br />
branches, drawing their ends together at the top, made a clump that looked from beneath like a fir−cone. The<br />
princess stood close under it, gazing up, and said, as if talking to herself,<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong> 87