"
"What of it, Issachar? He might travel far to find a lovelier woman."
"What of it, do you ask, remembering who he is? What of it, when you
know his faith, and that this fair idolater will sap it, and cause him
to cast away his soul? What of it, when with your own ears you heard him
swear to love her through all the deeps of life and death? Man, are you
mad?"
"No, but some might say that you are, holy father, who forget that I
am also of this religion which you revile. But for good or ill, so the
matter stands; and now what is it that you wish of me?"
"I wish that you should make it impossible that the prince Aziel should
take this woman to wife. Not by murder, indeed, for 'thou shalt not
kill,' saith the law, but by bringing it about that she should marry the
king Ithobal, or if that fail, in any other fashion which seems good to
you."
"'Thou shalt not kill,' saith your law; tell me then, Issachar, does it
say also that thou shalt hand over a woman to a fate that she chances
to hold to be worse than death? Doubtless it is foolish of her, and we
should not heed such woman's folly. Yet this one has a certain strength
of will, and I question if all the elders of the city will bring her
living to the arms of Ithobal."
"It is nought to me, Metem, if she weds Ithobal, or weds him not, save
that I do not love this heathen man, and surely her temper and her
witcheries would bring ruin on him.
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