"Now, were it not because of thy strange shrinking from bloodshed,
however politic and needful--for my Leo, as yet thou art no true
philosopher--this were quickly done, since I can command a weapon which
would crush their armouries and whelm their navies in the deep; yes, I,
whom even the lightnings and Nature's elemental powers must obey. But
thou shrinkest from the sight of death, and thou believest that Heaven
would be displeased because I make myself--or am chosen--the instrument
of Heaven. Well, so let it be, for thy will is mine, and therefore we
will tread a gentler path."
"And how wilt thou persuade the kings of the earth to place their crowns
upon thy head?" I asked, astonished.
"By causing their peoples to offer them to us," she answered suavely.
"Oh! Holly, Holly, how narrow is thy mind, how strained the quality of
thine imagination! Set its poor gates ajar, I pray, and bethink thee.
When we appear among men, scattering gold to satisfy their want, clad
in terrifying power, in dazzling beauty and in immortality of days, will
they not cry, 'Be ye our monarchs and rule over us!'"
"Perhaps," I answered dubiously, "but where wilt thou appear?"
She took a map of the eastern hemisphere which I had drawn and, placing
her finger upon Pekin, said--"There is the place that shall be our home
for some few centuries, say three, or five, or seven, should it take so
long to shape this people to my liking and our purposes.
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