THE RIVAL QUEENS. 101 



The spectators have hitherto been looking on, inactive, 

 though not mute, having kept up a ceaseless hum; but now 

 that the royal combatants give way and separate, that hum 

 increases to a perfect uproar, and a few individuals, darting 

 from the crowd, dare to seize upon the retreating queens and 

 stay their flight, to hang, even, on their "recreant limbs," 

 and hold them back from further retreat, as well as from ad- 

 vance. But, see ! as if their failing spirits were chafed into 

 new fury by the indignity thus offered, they burst from their 

 subjects' hold, and rush back to the encounter. Again the 

 issue hangs suspended, but not for long ; for now, one of the 

 queenly combatants, more powerful or more skilful than her 

 rival, rises above her, seizes one of her scanty wings, and 

 inflicts on her undefended body a mortal sting. She with- 

 draws her barbed weapon, while her wounded competitor 

 falls down drags her huge length along then struggles and 

 expires. 



The conqueror's victory is complete ; and now surely she will 

 rest proudly satisfied with her success in fair and equal combat. 

 But what does she next? What means she by approaching 

 rapidly to the nearest of the royal chambers, where still sleeps, 

 unconscious, one of the four remaining nymphs of royal 

 breeding? With vindictive fury she tears from its entrance 

 the silken tapestry by w r hich it is partially defended, and now 

 she thrusts into the aperture her poisoned dart, and inflicts on 

 the helpless occupant a fatal wound. Her thirst for rival 

 blood still rages unabated : another hapless nymph, and yet 

 another dies for its assuagement; and she ceases not from 

 the work of murder until her victims and her strength fail 

 together. 



While the ferocious queen is thus employed, what is the 

 behaviour of her surrounding subjects? Do they submit 

 tamely to the extinction of the royal race? Yes, and they 

 do more; for though they themselves lay not a sting on the 

 sacred persons of the young princesses, they aid the cruel 



