And thus her song ended:
"Will ye bring flame to burn my Shrine
Who am myself a flame,
Bring death to tame this charm of mine
That death can never tame?
Will ye bring fire to harm my head
Who am myself a fire,
Bring vengeance for your Lovers dead
Upon the World's Desire?
Nay, women while the earth endures,
Your loves are not your own.
They love you not, these loves of yours,
_Helen_ they love alone!
My face they seek in every face,
Mine eyes in yours they see,
They do but kneel to you a space,
And rise and follow _me!_"
Then, still singing, she stepped forward from the Shrine, and as she
went the walls fell in, and the roof crashed down upon the ruin and the
flames shot up into the very sky. Helen heeded it not. She looked
not back, but out to the gates beyond. She glanced not at the fierce
blackened faces of the women, nor on the face of Meriamun, who stood
before her, but slowly passed towards the gates. Nor did she go alone,
for with her came a canopy of fire, hedging her round with flame that
burned from nothing. The women saw the wonder and fell down in their
fear, covering their eyes. Meriamun alone fell not, but she too must
cover her eyes because of the glory of Helen and the fierceness of the
flame that wrapped her round.
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