a thing. For mark thou, when first I beheld this fair Queen of thine I
thought she looked upon me strangely, as one who knew my face. And now,
Rei, if thou speakest truth, _she_ deems that she has met me in the
ways of night and magic. Say, then, who was the man of the vision of the
Queen, the man with dark and curling locks, clad in golden armour after
the fashion of the Achæans whom ye name the Aquaiusha, wearing on his
head a golden helm, wherein was fixed a broken spear?"

"Before me sits such a man," said Rei, "or perchance it is a God that my
eyes behold."

"No God am I," quoth the Wanderer, smiling, "though the Sidonians deemed
me nothing less when the black bow twanged and the swift shafts flew.
Read me the riddle, thou that art instructed."

Now the aged Priest looked upon the ground, then turned his eyes upward,
and with muttering lips prayed to Thoth, the God of Wisdom. And when he
had made an end of prayer he spoke.

"_Thou_ art the man," he said. "Out of the sea thou hast come to bring
the doom of love on the Lady Meriamun and on thyself the doom of death.
This I knew, but of the rest I know nothing. Now, I pray thee, oh thou
who comest in the armour of the North, thou whose face is clothed in
beauty, and who art of all men the mightiest and hast of all men the
sweetest and most guileful tongue, go back, go back into the sea whence
thou camest, and the lands whence thou hast wandered."

"Not thus easily may men escape their doom," quoth the Wanderer. "My
death may come, as come it must; but know this, Rei, I do not seek the
love of Meriamun."