But ye are all evil--evil
to the core--the wickedness bubbles up in you like a fountain in the
spring-time. Were it not for me, generations since had ye ceased to be,
for of your own evil way had ye destroyed each other. And now, because
ye have done this thing, because ye have striven to put these men, my
guests, to death, and yet more because ye have dared to disobey my word,
this is the doom that I doom you to. That ye be taken to the cave of
torture,[*] and given over to the tormentors, and that on the going down
of to-morrow's sun those of you who yet remain alive be slain, even as
ye would have slain the servant of this my guest."
[*] "The cave of torture." I afterwards saw this dreadful
place, also a legacy from the prehistoric people who lived
in Kor. The only objects in the cave itself were slabs of
rock arranged in various positions to facilitate the
operations of the torturers. Many of these slabs, which were
of a porous stone, were stained quite dark with the blood of
ancient victims that had soaked into them.
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