It was night—dead night—and the silence lay on the Frowning City like a cloud.  
Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the great Throne . Once we were met by the fierce challenge of the . I gave the , and the man grounded his spear and let us pass. Also we were officers of the Queens’ , and in that capacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
 
We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that even when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that once they trod.
 
It was an spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threw great pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the marble floor, like white flowers on a . One of these silver arrows fell upon the statue of the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form over him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear light, reminding me of that with which Catholics illumine the altars of their cathedrals.
 
Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I close together, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I could only just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an .
 
So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the cold marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick breath. Then from far away there came a little sound as though the statues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some message of the ages.
 
It was the faint sweep of a lady’s dress. Nearer it grew, and nearer yet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I saw the black of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute , and Nyleptha was before us.
 
Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the circle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her white heaved beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf was loosely thrown, shadowing the perfect face, and thus it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extent upon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid. There she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet so sweet. It was but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with her myself, and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like an angel out of heaven than a loving, , mortal woman. Low we bowed before her, and then she .
 
‘I have come,’ she whispered, ‘but it was at great risk. Ye know not how I am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those great eyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me too. Oh, let him be careful!’ and she stamped her foot. ‘Let him be careful; I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too, and can still . Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of giving him my hand I take his head,’ and she ended the outburst with a little , and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
 
‘Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu’ (Curtis had taught her to call him so). ‘Doubtless it is about business of the State, for I know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare and my people’s. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I greatly fear the dark alone,’ and again she laughed and gave him a glance from her grey eyes.
 
At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets ‘of the State’ should not be made public property; but she would not let me go far, stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she feared surprise. So it came to pass that, however , I heard all that passed.
 
‘Thou knowest, Nyleptha,’ said Sir Henry, ‘that it was for none of these things that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. Nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for—I love thee.’
 
As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change. The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light of love which seemed to it, and make it like that of the marble angel overhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas , in the features of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a of his own descendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struck by the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha’s face, he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back again at his beloved.
 
‘Thou sayest thou dost love me,’ she said in a low voice, ‘and thy voice rings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the truth?’
 
‘Though,’ she went on with proud , and in the stately third person which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, ‘I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,’ and she curtseyed towards him, ‘who comes from among a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am I a queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundred thousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars down the path of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my lord,’ and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed again, ‘yet here among my own people am I held right fair, and ever since I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel concerning me, as though forsooth,’ she added with a flash of passion, ‘I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to be sold to the highest . Let my lord pardon me if I weary my lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say that though my love and my hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.’
 
‘Oh!’ she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and modifying her mode of address. ‘Oh, how can I know that thou lovest but me? How can I know that thou not weary of me and seek thine own place again, leaving me ? Who is there to tell me but that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but who yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight? Tell me how am I to know?’ And she clasped her hands and stretched them out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
 
‘Nyleptha,’ answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of speech; ‘I have told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how much I love thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that I have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say that I love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love thee now and shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believe beyond my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is music to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art there the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as though the light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and now for thy dear sake I will forget my people and my father’s house, yea, I them all. By thy side will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy side will I die.’
 
He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily, and said never a word.
 
‘Look!’ he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight played so brightly. ‘Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soul flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch of the fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast my soul and called it , and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine, but thine and thine only. There is no more for me to say; in thy hands is my life.’ And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue, looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a god.
 
Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and her wonderful eyes, all alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though to read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly as a silver bell.
 
‘Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be the day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I have believed a lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here from far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand upon thy hand thus, and thus I, whose lips have never kissed before, do kiss thee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss, ay, by my people’s weal and by my throne that like enough I shall lose for thee—by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by the eternal of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live and die. And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till death, ay, and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will shall be my will, and thy ways my ways.
 
‘Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how is she who loves; I, who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;’ and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on the cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know, for I could st............