The Lost Continent | Page 8

"We have grown so polished in these latter
days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for the
memory of those early years, when we expended as much law and
thought over the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the
fate of a rebellious city, I will try and speak plain to you even now,
Deucalion. Tell me, old friend, what is it?"
"What of this new Empress?"

He frowned. "I might have guessed your subject," he said.
"Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have been made.
What has this Phorenice done to make her throne unstable in Atlantis?"
Tatho frowned still. "If I did not know you to be as honest as our Lord
the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has
a short way with those who are daring enough to discuss her policies
for other purpose than politely to praise them."
"You can leave me ignorant if you wish," I said with a touch of chill.
This Tatho seemed to be different from the Tatho I had known at home,
Tatho my workmate, Tatho who had read with me in the College of
Priests, who had run with me in many a furious charge, who had
laboured with me so heavily that the peoples under us might prosper.
But he was quick enough to see my change of tone.
"You force me back to my old self," he said with a half smile, "though
it is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned during the last
twenty years, even when speaking with you. Still, whatever may have
happened to the rest of us, it is clear to see that you at least have not
changed, and, old friend, I am ready to trust you with my life if you ask
it. In fact, you do ask me that very thing when you tell me to speak all I
know of Phorenice."
I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was full
confidence between us. "The Gods will it now that I return to Atlantis,"
I said, "and what happens after that the Gods alone know. But it would
be of service to me if I could land on her shores with some knowledge
of this Phorenice, for at present I am as ignorant concerning her as
some savage from Europe or mid-Africa."
"What would you have me tell?"
"Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the ancient
law of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of the Priestly
Clan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn; and that, from
what you say, she has caused the throne to totter. The throne was as

firm as the everlasting hills in the old King's day, Tatho."
"History has moved with pace since then, and Phorenice has spurred it.
You know her origin?"
"I know only the exact little I have told you."
"She was a swineherd's daughter from the mountains, though this is
never even whispered now, as she has declared herself to be a daughter
of the Gods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As she has
decreed it a sacrilege to question this parentage, and has ordered to be
burnt all those that seem to recollect her more earthly origin, the fable
passes current for truth. You see the faith I put in you, Deucalion, by
telling you what you wish to learn."
"There has always been trust between us."
"I know; but this habit of suspicion is hard to cast off, even with you.
However, let me put your good faith between me and the torture further.
Zaemon, you remember, was governor of the swineherd's province, and
Zaemon's wife saw Phorenice and took her away to adopt and bring up
as her own. It is said that the swineherd and his woman objected;
perhaps they did; anyway, I know they died; and Phorenice was taught
the arts and graces, and brought up as a daughter of the Priestly Clan."
"But still she was an adopted daughter only," I objected.
"The omission of the 'adopted' was her will at an early age," said Tatho
dryly, "and she learnt early to have her wishes carried into fact. It was
notorious that before she had grown to fifteen years she ruled not only
the women of the household, but Zaemon also, and the province that
was beyond Zaemon."
"Zaemon was learned," I said, "and a devout follower of the Gods, and
searcher into the higher mysteries; but, as a ruler, he was always a
flabby fellow."
"I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in Phorenice's

way, but she has genius as well. For her to have raised herself