Time and the Gods

by Lord Dunsany

  THE VENGEANCE OF MEN

  Ere the Beginning the gods divided earth into waste and pasture.Pleasant pastures They made to be green over the face of earth,orchards They made in valleys and heather upon hills, but Harza Theydoomed, predestined and foreordained to be a waste for ever.

  When the world prayed at evening to the gods and the gods answeredprayers They forgot the prayers of all the Tribes of Arim. Thereforethe men of Arim were assailed with wars and driven from land to landand yet would not be crushed. And the men of Arim made them gods forthemselves, appointing men as gods until the gods of Pegana shouldremember them again. And their leaders, Yoth and Haneth, played thepart of gods and led their people on though every tribe assailed them.At last they came to Harza, where no tribes were, and at last had restfrom war, and Yoth and Haneth said: "The work is done, and surely nowPegana's gods will remember." And they built a city in Harza and tilledthe soil, and the green came over the waste as the wind comes over thesea, and there were fruit and cattle in Harza and the sounds of amillion sheep. There they rested from their flight from all the tribes,and builded fables out of all their sorrows till all men smiled inHarza and children laughed.

  Then said the gods, "Earth is no place for laughter." Thereat Theystrode to Pegana's outer gate, to where the Pestilence lay curledasleep, and waking him up They pointed toward Harza, and the Pestilenceleapt forward howling across the sky.

  That night he came to the fields near Harza, and stalking through thegrass sat down and glared at the lights, and licked his paws and glaredat the lights again.

  But the next night, unseen, through laughing crowds, the Pestilencecrept into the city, and stealing into the houses one by one, peeredinto the people's eyes, looking even through their eyelids, so thatwhen morning came men stared before them crying out that they saw thePestilence whom others saw not, and thereafter died, because the greeneyes of the Pestilence had looked into their souls. Chill and damp washe, yet there came heat from his eyes that parched the souls of men.Then came the physicians and the men learned in magic, and made thesign of the physicians and the sign of the men of magic and cast bluewater upon herbs and chanted spells; but still the Pestilence creptfrom house to house and still he looked into the souls of men. And thelives of the people streamed away from Harza, and whither they went isset in many books. But the Pestilence fed on the light that shines inthe eyes of men, which never appeased his hunger; chiller and damper hegrew, and the heat from his eyes increased when night by night hegalloped through the city, going by stealth no more.

  Then did men pray in Harza to the gods, saying:

  "High gods! Show clemency to Harza."

  And the gods listened to their prayers, but as They listened Theypointed with their fingers and cheered the Pestilence on. And thePestilence grew bolder at his masters' voices and thrust his face closeup before the eyes of men.

  He could be seen by none saving those he smote. At first he slept byday, lying in misty hollows, but as his hunger increased he sprang upeven in sunlight and clung to the chests of men and looked down throughtheir eyes into their souls that shrivelled, until almost he could bedimly seen even by those he smote not.

  Adro, the physician, sat in his chamber with one light burning, makinga mixing in a bowl that should drive the Pestilence away, when throughhis door there blew a draught that set the light a-flickering.

  Then because the draught was cold the physician shivered and went andclosed the door, but as he turned again he saw the Pestilence lappingat his mixing, who sprang and set one paw upon Adro's shoulder andanother upon his cloak, while with two he clung to his waist, andlooked him in the eyes.

  Two men were walking in the street; one said to the other: "Upon themorrow I will sup with thee."

  And the Pestilence grinned a grin that none beheld, baring his drippingteeth, and crept away to see whether upon the morrow those men shouldsup together.

  A traveller coming in said: "This is Harza. Here will I rest."

  But his life went further than Harza upon that day's journey.

  All feared the Pestilence, and those that he smote beheld him, but nonesaw the great shapes of the gods by starlight as They urged TheirPestilence on.

  Then all men fled from Harza, and the Pestilence chased dogs and ratsand sprang upward at the bats as they sailed above him, who died andlay in the streets. But soon he returned and pursued the men of Harzawhere they fled, and sat by rivers where they came to drink, away belowthe city. Then back to Harza went the people of Harza pursued by thePestilence still, and gathered in the Temple of All the gods save One,and said to the High Prophet: "What may now be done?" who answered:

  "All the gods have mocked at prayer. This sin must now be punished bythe vengeance of men."

  And the people stood in awe.

  The High Prophet went up to the Tower beneath the sky whereupon beatthe eyes of all the gods by starlight. There in the sight of the godshe spake in the ear of the gods, saying: "High gods! Ye have made mockof men. Know therefore that it is writ in ancient lore and found byprophecy that there is an _End_ that waiteth for the gods, who shall godown from Pegana in galleons of gold all down the Silent River and intothe Silent Sea, and there Their galleons shall go up in mist and Theyshall be gods no more. And men shall gain harbour from the mocking ofthe gods at last in the warm moist earth, but to the gods shall noceasing ever come from being the Things that were the gods. When Timeand worlds and death are gone away nought shall then remain but wornregrets and Things that were once gods.

  "In the sight of the gods.

  "In the ear of the gods."

  Then the gods shouted all together and pointed with Their hands at theHigh Prophet's throat, and the Pestilence sprang.

  Long since the High Prophet is dead and his words are forgotten by men,but the gods know not yet whether it be true that _The End_ is waitingfor the gods, and him who might have told Them They have slain. And thegods of Pegana are fearing the fear that hath fallen upon the godsbecause of the vengeance of men, for They know not when _The End_ shallbe, or whether it shall come.