When, once more, there was silence, Galaima dropped upon one knee and begged for clemency for himself and friends. "Lay down your arms, each one of you, and go!" the answer came. "Let me not look upon your faces again yet awhile." Then Monella, turning to Coryon's soldiers, commanded them also to lay down their arms and surrender themselves prisoners. Here Coryon showed the first signs of resistance he had yet exhibited, and his officers, who had stood watching for a sign from him, withdrew in a body into the entrance to the covered-way, seeing in it the best opportunities for a last desperate fight. "My lord forgetteth," said Coryon, "that he hath given no assurance that the lives of my people and servants will be spared." "I can make no terms with thee or with thy minions. I came here to punish the evil-doers, as well as to save my friends," returned Monella with grave meaning. "Thou hast been warned again and again since I came into the land; I sent thee word that, if I came to thee, I would bring retribution in my hand." "But surely," urged Coryon, in the smooth, oily manner he could put on at will, "if we submit, my lord will require no more? Thy friends are safe; no harm hath been done to them. May it not be that I remain here with mine own people, within mine own domain--the domain that hath been mine for centuries--in friendly alliance----" "What!" exclaimed Monella, turning wrathfully upon the crafty hypocrite with a blaze of anger in his eyes, as might a lion turn upon a snapping cur. "Thou darest to speak to me of _alliance_! Alliance with _thee_! With a thing so foul, so loathsome, so detestable as thou! Shall the eagle ally himself with the carrion crow? Enough!" He broke off, in indignation at the insult, and, turning to the officers of his own party who stood near, cried, "Seize them and bind them! Every one! Let not one escape! But take them alive, if possible." A large number of the red-coated soldiers, led by their officers, now advanced upon the crowd of Coryon's people gathered at the entrance to the covered-way. Many of the latter came forward at once and threw down their arms; while others stood irresolute. Coryon, himself, made no effort to escape, and was seized by a couple of men, who quickly bound his hands behind him. But Dakla and all Coryon's priests and some half-dozen of his lieutenants and a few soldiers--perhaps those who felt themselves most guilty--stood defiantly some little distance within the gallery, determined to resist capture to the last. CHAPTER XXX. A TERRIBLE VENGEANCE!