"You meant then to leave me in that horrible sepulchre!Do you not yet understand that where I please to be,there I am?Take my hand:
I am alive as you!"
I was on the point of saying,"Give me your left hand,"but bethought myself,held my peace,and steadily advanced.
"Give me my hand,"she suddenly shrieked,"or I will tear you in pieces:you are mine!"She flung herself upon me.I shuddered,but did not falter.Nothing touched me,and I saw her no more.
With measured tread along the path,filling it for some distance,came a body of armed men.I walked through them--nor know whether they gave way to me,or were bodiless things.But they turned and followed me;I heard and felt their march at my very heels;but Icast no look behind,and the sound of their steps and the clash of their armour died away.
A little farther on,the moon being now close to the horizon and the way in deep shadow,I descried,seated where the path was so narrow that I could not pass her,a woman with muffled face.
"Ah,"she said,"you are come at last!I have waited here for you an hour or more!You have done well!Your trial is over.My father sent me to meet you that you might have a little rest on the way.
Give me your charge,and lay your head in my lap;I will take good care of both until the sun is well risen.I am not bitterness always,neither to all men!"Her words were terrible with temptation,for I was very weary.And what more likely to be true!If I were,through slavish obedience to the letter of the command and lack of pure insight,to trample under my feet the very person of the Lady of Sorrow!My heart grew faint at the thought,then beat as if it would burst my bosom.
Nevertheless my will hardened itself against my heart,and my step did not falter.I took my tongue between my teeth lest I should unawares answer,and kept on my way.If Adam had sent her,he could not complain that I would not heed her!Nor would the Lady of Sorrow love me the less that even she had not been able to turn me aside!
Just ere I reached the phantom,she pulled the covering from her face:great indeed was her loveliness,but those were not Mara's eyes!no lie could truly or for long imitate them!I advanced as if the thing were not there,and my foot found empty room.
I had almost reached the other side when a Shadow--I think it was The Shadow,barred my way.He seemed to have a helmet upon his head,but as I drew closer I perceived it was the head itself I saw--so distorted as to bear but a doubtful resemblance to the human.Acold wind smote me,dank and sickening--repulsive as the air of a charnel-house;firmness forsook my joints,and my limbs trembled as if they would drop in a helpless heap.I seemed to pass through him,but I think now that he passed through me:for a moment I was as one of the damned.Then a soft wind like the first breath of a new-born spring greeted me,and before me arose the dawn.
My way now led me past the door of Mara's cottage.It stood wide open,and upon the table I saw a loaf of bread and a pitcher of water.In or around the cottage was neither howl nor wail.
I came to the precipice that testified to the vanished river.Iclimbed its worn face,and went on into the desert.There at last,after much listening to and fro,I determined the spot where the hidden water was loudest,hung Lilith's hand about my neck,and began to dig.It was a long labour,for I had to make a large hole because of the looseness of the sand;but at length I threw up a damp spadeful.I flung the sexton-tool on the verge,and laid down the hand.A little water was already oozing from under its fingers.Isprang out,and made haste to fill the grave.Then,utterly fatigued,I dropped beside it,and fell asleep.
