It was night--dead night--and the silence lay on the Frowning City likea cloud.
Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myselfthreaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the greatThrone Chamber. Once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge of thesentry. I gave the countersign, and the man grounded his spear and letus pass. Also we were officers of the Queens' bodyguard, and in thatcapacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
We gained the hall in safety. So empty and so still was it, that evenwhen we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the loftywalls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof,like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that oncethey trod.
It was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. The moon was full, and threwgreat pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openingsin the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of themarble floor, like white flowers on a coffin. One of these silver arrowsfell upon the statue of the sleeping Rademas, and of the angel form bentover him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clearlight, reminding me of that with which Catholics illumine the altars oftheir cathedrals.
Here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. Sir Henry and I closetogether, Umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that I couldonly just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of anaxe.
So long did we wait that I almost fell asleep resting against the coldmarble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing Curtis give a quick catchingbreath. Then from far away there came a little sound as though thestatues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some messageof the ages.
It was the faint sweep of a lady's dress. Nearer it grew, and neareryet. We could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, andeven hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. Another second and I sawthe black silhouette of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, andNyleptha was before us.
Oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within thecircle of the moonlight! Her hand was pressed upon her heart, and herwhite bosom heaved beneath it. Round her head a broidered scarf wasloosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus renderingit even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extentupon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid.There she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet so sweet. Itwas but a moment, but I then and there fell in love with her myself,and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more likean angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman. Low webowed before her, and then she spoke.
'I have come,' she whispered, 'but it was at great risk. Ye know not howI am watched. The priests watch me. Sorais watches me with those greateyes of hers. My very guards are spies upon me. Nasta watches me too.Oh, let him be careful!' and she stamped her foot. 'Let him be careful;I am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. Ay, and I am a Queen, too,and can still avenge. Let him be careful, I say, lest in place of givinghim my hand I take his head,' and she ended the outburst with a littlesob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
'Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu' (Curtis had taught herto call him so). 'Doubtless it is about business of the State, for Iknow that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfareand my people's. So even as a Queen should I have come, though I greatlyfear the dark alone,' and again she laughed and gave him a glance fromher grey eyes.
At this point I thought it wise to move a little, since secrets 'of theState' should not be made public property; but she would not let me gofar, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that shefeared surprise. So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heardall that passed.
'Thou knowest, Nyleptha,' said Sir Henry, 'that it was for none of thesethings that I asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. Nyleptha,waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for--I love thee.'
As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change.The coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great lightof love which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marbleangel overhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a touchof prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas limn, in thefeatures of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness ofhis own descendant. Sir Henry, also, must have observed and been struckby the likeness, for, catching the look upon Nyleptha's face, he glancedquickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back again at hisbeloved.
'Thou sayest thou dost love me,' she said in a low voice, 'and thy voicerings true, but how am I to know that thou dost speak the truth?'
'Though,' she went on with proud humility, and in the stately thirdperson which is so largely used by the Zu-Vendi, 'I be as nothing in theeyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him, 'who comes from amonga wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am Ia queen and a leader of men, and if I would go to battle a hundredthousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down thepath of the bent moon. And although my beauty be a little thing inthe eyes of my lord,' and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyedagain, 'yet here among my own people am I held right fair, and eversince I was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrelconcerning me, as though forsooth,' she added with a flash of passion,'I were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse tobe sold to the highest bidder. Let my lord pardon me if I weary my lord,but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, Nyleptha, a Queenof the Zu-Vendi, and therefore would I say that though my love and myhand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.'
'Oh!' she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, andmodifying her dignified mode of address. 'Oh, how can I know that thoulovest but me? How can I know that thou wilt not weary of me and seekthine own place again, leaving me desolate? Who is there to tell me butthat thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, butwho yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight?Tell me _how_ am I to know?' And she clasped her hands and stretchedthem out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
'Nyleptha,' answered Sir Henry, adopting the Zu-Vendi way of speech; 'Ihave told thee that I love thee; how am I to tell thee how much I lovethee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that Ihave never looked upon another woman with favour, but this I say thatI love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that I love theenow and shall love thee till I grow cold in death, ay, and as I believebeyond my death, and on and on for ever: I say that thy voice is musicto my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou artthere the world is beautiful, and when I see thee not it is as thoughthe light was dead. Oh, Nyleptha, I will never leave thee; here and nowfor thy dear sake I will forget my people and my father's house, yea,I renounce them all. By thy side will I live, Nyleptha, and at thy sidewill I die.'
He paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily,and said never a word.
'Look!' he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight playedso brightly. 'Thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon theforehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soulflames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touchof the fire, so is it with me and thee, Nyleptha. Thou hast awakened mysoul and called it forth, and now, Nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine,but _thine_ and thine only. There is no more for me to say; in thy handsis my life.' And he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue,looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as agod.
Slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, allalight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as thoughto read his very soul. Then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearlyas a silver bell.
'Of a truth, weak woman that I am, I do believe thee. Ill will be theday for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that I havebelieved a
lie. And now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered herefrom far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. I put my hand uponthy hand thus, and thus I, whose lips have never kissed before, do kissthee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss,ay, by my people's weal and by my throne that like enough I shall losefor thee--by the name of my high House, by the sacred Stone and by theeternal majesty of the Sun, I swear that for thee will I live and die.And I swear that I will love thee and thee only till death, ay, andbeyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will shall bemy will, and thy ways my ways.
'Oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; I,who am a Queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;'and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees onthe cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know, forI could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with alittle of old Umslopogaas' society, leaving them to settle it their ownway, and a very long time they were about it.
I found the old warrior leaning on Inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveyingthe scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
'Ah, Macumazahn,' he said, 'I suppose it is because I am getting old,but I don't think that I shall ever learn to understand the ways of youwhite people. Look there now, I pray thee, they are a pretty pair ofdoves, but what is all the fuss about, Macumazahn? He wants a wife, andshe wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down {Endnote 17}like a man and have done with it? It would save a deal of trouble, andwe should have had our night's sleep. But there they go, talk, talk,talk, and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. Eugh!'
Some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 'pair of doves' camestrolling towards us, Curtis looking slightly silly, and Nyleptharemarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on themarble. Then, for she was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand andsaid that I was 'her Lord's' dear friend, and therefore most dear toher--not a word for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas'axe, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so thathe might soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance ather lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
When we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, Curtisasked me jocularly what I was thinking about.
'I am wondering,' I answered, 'on what principle it is arranged thatsome people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with them,while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and I am alsowondering how many brave men's lives this night's work will cost.' Itwas rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings do notevaporate with age, and I could not help being a little jealous of myold friend's luck. Vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
On the following morning, Good was informed of the happy occurrence,and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about themouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond, tillthey flowed over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet smilesgo. The fact of the matter, however, was that not only was Good rejoicedabout the thing on its own merits but also for personal reasons. Headored Sorais quite as earnestly as Sir Henry adored Nyleptha, and hisadoration had not altogether prospered. Indeed, it had seemed to him andto me also that the dark Cleopatra-like queen favoured Curtis in her owncurious inscrutable way much more than Good. Therefore it was arelief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was permanently andsatisfactorily attached in another direction. His face fell a little,however, when he was told that the whole thing was to be kept as secretas the dead, above all from Sorais for the present, inasmuch as thepolitical convulsion which would follow such an announcement at themoment would be altogether too great to face and would very possibly, ifprematurely made, shake Nyleptha from her throne.
That morning we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could not helpsmiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflectingthat, if walls could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
What actresses women are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped inher blazoned 'kaf' or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha, and when SirHenry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an officerof her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely acknowledgedhis salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly aside. It wasa very large Court, for not only did the signing of the laws attractmany outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumourthat Nasta was going to publicly ask the hand of Nyleptha in marriagehad gone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowded to itsutmost capacity. There were our friends the priests in force, headed byAgon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye; and a most imposing bandthey were, with their long white embroidered robes girt with a goldenchain from which hung the fish-like scales. There, too, were a numberof the lords, each with a band of brilliantly attired attendants, andprominent among them was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditativelyand looking unusually pleasant. It was a splendid and impressive sight,especially when the officer after having read out each law handed themto the Queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the Queens'guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. This reading andsigning of the laws took a long time, but at length it came to an end,the last one reciting that 'whereas distinguished strangers, etc.', andproceeding to confer on the three of us the rank of 'lords', togetherwith certain military commands and large estates bestowed by the Queen.When it was read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down asusual, but I saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, whileNasta ground his teeth. They did not like the favour that was shown tous, which under all the circumstances was not perhaps unnatural.
Then there came a pause, and Nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly,though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of theQueen Nyleptha.
Nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the'well-beloved lord' to speak on, whereon in a few straightforwardsoldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
Then, before she could find words to answer, the High Priest Agon tookup the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out themany advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate thekingdom, for Nasta's dominions, of which he was virtually king, were toZu-Vendis much what Scotland used to be to England; how it would gratifythe wild mountaineers and be popular among the soldiery, for Nasta wasa famous general; how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, andwould gain the blessing and approval of the 'Sun', i.e. of the officeof the High Priest, and so on. Many of his arguments were undoubtedlyvalid, and there was, looking at it from a political point of view,everything to be said for the marriage. But unfortunately it isdifficult to play the game of politics with the persons of young andlovely queens as though they were ivory effigies of themselves on achessboard. Nyleptha's face, while Agon spouted away, was a perfectstudy; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it set like a stone, andher eyes began to flash ominously.
At last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. Before she didso, however, Sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficientlyloud for me to catch what she said, 'Bethink thee well, my sister, erethou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy words.'
Nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile Sorais leant backagain and listened.
'Of a truth a great honour has been done to me,' she said, 'that my poorhand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that Agon hereshould be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the Sun upon my union.Methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere the bridehad said her say. Nasta, I thank thee, and I will bethink me of thywords, but now as yet I have no mind for marriage, that is a cup ofwhich none know the taste until they begin to drink it. Again I thankthee, Nasta,' and she made as though she would rise.
The great lord's face turned almost as black as his beard w
ith fury, forhe knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
'Thanks be to the Queen for her gracious words,' he said, restraininghimself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, 'my heartshall surely treasure them. And now I crave another boon, namely, theroyal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north tillsuch time as the Queen shall say my suit nay or yea. Mayhap,' he added,with a sneer, 'the Queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to bringwith her these stranger lords,' and he scowled darkly towards us. 'It isbut a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers,and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout a welcometo her.'
This speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was receivedin complete silence, but Nyleptha flushed up and answered it withspirit.
'Oh, surely, Nasta, I will come, and the strange lords in my train, andfor every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee Prince, will I bringtwo from the lowlands who call me Queen, and we will see which is thestaunchest breed. Till then farewell.'
The trumpets blared out, the Queens rose, and the great assembly brokeup in murmuring confusion, and for myself I went home with a heavy heartforeseeing civil war.
After this there was quiet for a few weeks. Curtis and the Queen didnot often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the truerelation in which they stood to each other to leak out; but do what theywould, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room, and yetquite as audible, began to hum round and round, and at last to settle onher throne.
CHAPTER XVII THE STORM BREAKS
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