Page:The venture; an annual of art and literature.djvu/207

 Then the King rose, and drawing forth his sword, cried, "Now out of thine own mouth hast thou released me, and given me back my royal word, to do to thee as thou deservest." And so saying he struck off her head.

On the morrow when the King sat in state, and the Queen's death was noised in whispers through the palace, there came to him a slave that had been in the Queen's service, bearing a small coffer and weeping. "Oh, my lord," said the slave, "yesterday while you were yet absent, the Queen gave me this, and bade me lay it before the King's feet on his return, telling him how great was her sorrow that she had not herself power now to be its bearer."

Wondering, the King took the casket. In it lay his own written word sealed and signed, and beside it another scroll, which, opening, he read: "O Lord, to kill and to make alive, when thou receivest this thou art without honour on earth and without soul in Heaven, for I shall be dead by thy hand, not having been found by thee in any act of unfaithfulness soever. For neither in body or in spirit was there deceit in me, seeing that I beheld thee through thy disguise. As for that which I told thee, truly thou hast returned to me forty-nine times disguised as a King; only this fiftieth time have I known thee certainly for the dust thou art. And since my beauty, through thy jealousy brought death to many, it is better that I only should die, who have become over-weary of my bondage to such an one as thee. So now I beg thee, who art without honour or soul, for the little time that is left thee, have pity