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 CHAPTER XIX

THE HEART OF THE RULER

In the more southerly of the two stone buildings which, on the western side, half fill the central courtyard of Angkor Wat, Chun was seated, just after the night had fallen, engaged in the transaction of public business.

Formerly, these solid and elaborately sculp- tured structures had served as guard-rooms, in which the wardens of the sacred places had been wont to keep unending vigil; but Chun had made of them respectively his council- chamber and his audience-hall—the little power- houses whence was transmitted the energy that ruled, and made belief to revivify the Khmer nation.

In Chun, the Liberator of the Sudras, the chosen Servant of the Snake, the past few weeks had wrought many changes. His figure was as erect and as alert as ever; but the feverish rapidity of his movements, and the slight trembling of his hands, told their own tale of wire-drawn nerves. He had lost much flesh, and there were dark, bruise-like shadows