I have perhaps said enough to clear myself from the charge, never very hardly pressed, of conscious or unconscious imitation; but as it may interest some of my readers, I print in an appendix the last chapter as it originally stood. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. ---------- CHAP. PAGE PROLOGUE, 1 I. THE PLAGUE AND THE MERCHANTS, 5 II. DAPHNE, 21 III. NEPENTHE, 34 IV. THE MIGHT OF SKILL, 39 V. THE MIGHT OF CHANCE, 47 VI. A STRANGE WELCOME, 56 VII. THE WONDERS OF THE CITY, 65 VIII. THE DISHONOURED STATUE, 73 IX. THE WOMEN OF ROYAL RACE, 86 X. THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMEN RESOLVED, 100 XI. THOTH FORSWEARS HIS OATH, 116 XII. A WEARY INTERVAL, 127 XIII. TRANSFORMATION, 137 XIV. GREEK AND BARBARIAN, 148 XV. THE DOOM OF THE FIRST THOTH, 153 XVI. THE REVOLT OF NATURE, 161 XVII. GRECIAN GUILE, 167 XVIII. THE ASSEMBLY OF ANCESTORS, 178 XIX. THE VICTORY OF LOVE, 193 XX. THE RETURN TO ATHENS, 199 EPILOGUE, 209 APPENDIX, 211 THOTH. -----●----- PROLOGUE. BY THE CELEBRATED PHILOSOPHER AND PHYSICIAN XENOPHILOS. Nothing is more difficult than to separate the true from the false in a narrative in which it is necessary for the most part to rely on the testimony of one person only, and that person a woman whose mind had been shaken by extraordinary perils and vicissitudes. A task so laborious I shall not attempt, but shall simply set forth in order what Daphne, the daughter of Philetos, told me in fragments at various times, although I confess that some things seem in their nature impossible.