Daphne shuddered, but she was determined to understand the affair, and she replied, “Lead the way.”
Thoth conducted her to a part of the city to which they had never before been, and they stopped at a narrow gate in a lofty wall. Thoth unlocked the gate, and they entered a spacious garden, in the midst of which was placed a huge building.
Scarcely had they passed through the gate when Daphne heard cries of alarm, apparently from women, and saw some figures vanish through the trees in a hurried, fearful manner. For the first time since she had come to the city she noticed signs of distrust and fear. Here, at any rate, Thoth’s rule seemed to rest not on love but on tyranny.
Such was Daphne’s first impression, for the women, if women they were, were plainly terror-stricken.
They passed into the building, at the gate of which a huge giantess of hideous aspect presented Thoth with a scroll, which seemed to be a carefully kept record.
They entered a large hall, and again Daphne saw the same horrible designs as before.
Thoth said to her, “These, too, shall be destroyed, but first we must look to the living.”
At intervals along the hall Daphne observed curtains, and stopping before one of them, Thoth drew it aside and revealed a small cell.
Crouching at the back, like a terrified animal, lay a woman, scantily clad in a tattered garment made of coarse hair.