I pray that Fate be not too strong
for me and you."
*****
For two days from this night Elissa lay almost senseless, and by many
it was thought that she would die. But when Metem saw her on the morning
after she had been wounded, and noted that her arm was but little
swollen, and had not turned black, he announced that she would certainly
live, whatever the doctors of the city might declare. Thereon Sakon, her
father, and Aziel blessed him, but Issachar said nothing.
As the Phoenician was walking through the market-place early on the next
day an aged black woman, whom he did not know, accosted him, saying
that she had a message for his ear from the king Ithobal who was camped
without the city and who desired to see the merchandise that he had
brought with him from the coasts of Tyre. Now Metem had already sold
all his wares at a great advantage; still, as he would not neglect this
opportunity of trade, he purchased others from his fellow merchants, and
loading two camels with them, set out for the camp of Ithobal, riding on
a mule. By midday he had reached it. The camp was pitched near water in
a pleasant grove of trees, and on one of these not far from the tent of
Ithobal Metem noted that there hung the body of a black dwarf.
"Behold the fate of him who shoots at the buck and hits the doe. Well, I
have always said that murder is a dangerous game, since blood calls out
for blood," thought Metem as he rode towards the tent.
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