in a far country, and my wife Macropha and my sister Baleka, who still

lived, so said the soldiers, though how it came about that the king

had not killed her I did not know then. Also another thought was born

in my heart. While life remained to me, I might be revenged upon him

who had wrought me this woe; but can the dead strike? Alas! the dead

are strengthless, and if they still have hearts to suffer, they have

no hands to give back blow for blow. Nay, I would live on. Time to die

when death could no more be put away. Time to die when the voice of