Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/323

Rh "Do you not crave now to partake of food and wine?" inquired the Emperor, with tender solicitude. "A feast has long been prepared of the choicest dishes in your honour. Consider well the fatigue through which you have passed."

"It has faded," replied Ten-teh, in a voice scarcely above a whisper, "the earthly body has ceased to sway the mind. A little longer, restored one; a very brief span of time."

"Your words are my breath, my father," said the Emperor deferentially. "Yet there is one matter which we had reserved for affectionate censure. It would have spared the feet of one who is foremost in our concern if you had been content to send the warning by one of the slaves whose acceptance we craved last year, while you followed more leisurely by the chariot and the eight white horses which we deemed suited to your use."

Ten-teh was no longer able to express himself in words, but at this indication of the Emperor's unceasing thought a great happiness shone in his face. "What remains?" must reasonably have been his reflection; "or who shall leave the shade of the fruitful palm-tree to search for raisins?" Therefore having reached so supreme an eminence that there was nothing human above, he relaxed the effort by which he had so long sustained himself, and suffering his spirit to pass unchecked he at once fell back lifeless among the cushions of the throne.

That all who should come after might learn by his example the history of Ten-teh was inscribed upon eighteen tablets of jade, carved patiently and with graceful skill by the most expert stone-cutters of the age. A triumphal arch of seven heights was also