Lives of Alcyone

enjoyed his life and work, and as his home life was also happy one,
this incarnation may be considered a propitious one in its earlier
years, although it closed with disaster and undeserved disgrace.
In 2150, when he was only thirty years of age and had still
quite young children, his country was invaded by some neighbouring
king. Alcyone did not at all like fighting, and he regarded the whole
affair as a ridiculous waste of time; nevertheless, he took his place
in the ranks, and bore his part bravely in what had to be done. The
Wardha army, however, was defeated, and Alcyone was compelled
to take his young family and fly from his home to escape massacre.
They wandered in exile for three years, sometimes suffering greatly
from privations; but at the end of that time the invader was himself
attacked from another direction, and a successful revolution restored
the previous ruling line of Wardha, so that Alcyone was able to
return to his beloved school.
The ravages of war had been followed by famine; his old
pupils were all scattered, and only a moiety could be gathered
together again. He had now another spell of quiet life, during which
he gradually built up his school until it exceeded its former strength,
and he was much delighted to find that his eldest son Libra had
inherited his power of teaching and his love for that profession, and
so made an able assistant.
The shadow that was to darken his life began to loom over
him in 2127; his youngest daughter Mizar, whom he loved tenderly,
was then fifteen, and an undesirable suitor appeared for her hand in
the person of our old historian Scorpio—a man of more than twice
her age, already noted for a life of debauchery, and credited with the
possession of a most violent and vindictive temper. The man,