"Prepare, we beseech you, to hear glad
tidings, and to receive those who are sent to tell them."
"Glad tidings?" said Elissa. "Has Ithobal then withdrawn his suit?"
"Nay, lady; it is not of Ithobal that the messengers come to speak."
"Then I cannot receive them," she said, sinking back in apprehension. "I
am still ill and weak, and I pray to be excused."
"Nay, lady," answered the herald, "that which they have to tell will
cure your sickness."
Again Elissa protested. Before the words had left her lips there
appeared in the doorway he who had been husband of the dead Baaltis,
followed by priests and priestesses, by Sakon her father, with whom was
Metem, and many other nobles and dignitaries.
"All hail, lady!" they cried, prostrating themselves before her. "All
hail, lady, chosen of the gods!"
Elissa looked at them bewildered.
"Your pardon," she said, "I do not understand."
Then, rising from his knees, he who was still the Shadid until his
successor was appointed, addressed her as spokesman.
"Listen," he said, "and learn, lady, the great thing that has befallen
you. Know, O divine One, that by the inspiration of El and Baaltis,
rulers of the heavens, the colleges of the priests and priestesses of
the city, following the voice of the oracles and the pointing of the
omens, have set you in that high place which death has emptied. Greeting
to you, holder of the spirit of the goddess! Greeting to the Baaltis!"
"I did not seek this honour," she murmured in the silence that followed,
"and I refuse it.
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