So they had him with them into the tower, and set him before them, and Juss said, “Fear not, but tell forth unto us thy name and lineage, and what brings thee lurking in the night about our lodging. We mean thee no hurt, so thou practise not against us and our safety. Art thou a dweller in this Impland, or a wanderer, like as we be, from countries beyond the seas? hast thou companions, and if so, where be they, and what, and how many?” And the stranger gnashed upon them with his teeth, and said, “O devils transmarine, mock not but slay.” Juss entreated him kindly, giving him meat and drink, and in a while made question of him once more, “What is thy name?” Whereto he replied, “O devil transmarine, pity of thine ignorance sith thou know’st not Mivarsh Faz.” And he fell into a great passion of weeping, crying aloud, “Woe worth the woe that is fallen upon all the land of Impland!” “What’s the matter?” said Juss. But Mivarsh ceased not to wail and to lament, saying, “Out harrow and alas for Fax Fay Faz and Illarosh Faz and Lurmesh Faz and Gandassa Faz and all the great ones in the land!” And when they would have questioned him he cried again, “Curse ye bitterly Philpritz Faz, which betrayed us into the hand of the devil ultramontane in the castle of Orpish.” “What devil is this thou speakest of?” asked Juss. “He hath come,” he answered, “over the mountains out of the north country, that alone was able to answer Fax Fay Faz. And the voice of his speech is like unto the roaring of a bull.” “Out of the north?” said Juss, giving him more wine, and exchanging glances with Spitfire and Brandoch Daha. “I would hear more of this.” Mivarsh drank, and said, “O devils transmarine, ye give me strong waters which comfort my soul, and ye speak me soft words. But shall I not fear soft words? Soft words were spoke by this devil ultramontane, when he and cursed Philpritz spake soft words unto us in Orpish: unto me, and unto Fax Fay Faz, and Gandassa, and Illarosh, and unto all of us, after our overthrow in battle against him by the banks of Arlan.” Juss asked, “Of what fashion is he to look on?” “He hath a great yellow beard beflecked with gray,” said Mivarsh, “and a bald shiny pate, and standeth big as a neat.” Juss spake apart to Brandoch Daha, “There’s matter in it if this be true.” And Brandoch Daha poured forth unto Mivarsh and bade him drink again, saying, “O Mivarsh Faz, we be strangers and guests in wide-flung Impland. Be it known to thee that our power is beyond ken, and our wealth transcendeth the imagination of man. Yet is our benevolence of like measure with our power and riches, overflowing as honey from our hearts unto such as receive us openly and tell us that which is. Only be warned, that if any lie to us or assay craftily to delude us, not the mantichores that lodge beyond the Moruna were more dreadful to that man than we.”