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172 sweet I would fain see my country and fellows again. And in some remote corner of the earth we might escape with a few companions from the general doom, by thy wisdom."

She looked at Thoth in a beseeching manner, and his heart became hot with love. He seemed lost in thought for a long time, and then said—

"If we fail, I shall be, as thou sayest, an outcast; and the little delay that thou prayest for may be granted.

"Listen to my plan.

"I have discovered recently a most curious and powerful substance. I can, by breaking a small vessel, fill the council-chamber with a vapour which shall at once send into a heavy sleep all present, unless they are prepared by an antidote. The drug is the most powerful of all our agents of destruction yet discovered. In a few hours the sleep will end in irrevocable death