CHAPTER XIII
OF THE REPROACH OF HARMACHIS; OF THE STRUGGLE OF HARMACHIS WITH THEGUARDS; OF THE BLOW OF BRENNUS; AND OF THE SECRET SPEECH OF CLEOPATRA
And at length, all being gone, I, too, turned to go, when a eunuchstruck me on the shoulder and roughly bade me wait on the presence ofthe Queen. An hour past this fellow would have crawled to me on hisknees; but he had heard, and now he treated me--so brutish is the natureof such slaves--as the world treats the fallen, with scorn. For to comelow after being great is to learn all shame. Unhappy, therefore, are theGreat, for they may fall!
I turned upon the slave with so fierce a word that, cur-like, he sprangbehind me; then I passed on to the Alabaster Hall, and was admitted bythe guards. In the centre of the hall, near the fountain, sat Cleopatra,and with her were Charmion and the Greek girl Iras, and Merira and otherof her waiting-ladies. "Go," she said to these, "I would speak with myastrologer." So they went, and left us face to face.
"Stand thou there," she said, lifting her eyes for the first time. "Comenot nigh me, Harmachis: I trust thee not. Perchance thou hast foundanother dagger. Now, what hast thou to say? By what right didst thoudare to break in upon my talk with the Roman?"
I felt the blood rush through me like a storm; bitterness and burninganger took hold of my heart. "What hast _thou_ to say, Cleopatra?"I answered boldly. "Where is thy vow, sworn on the dead heart ofMenkau-ra, the ever-living? Where now thy challenge to this RomanAntony? Where thy oath that thou wouldest call me 'husband' in the faceof Egypt?" and I choked and ceased.
"Well doth it become Harmachis, who never was forsworn, to speak to meof oaths!" she said in bitter mockery. "And yet, O thou most pure Priestof Isis; and yet, O thou most faithful friend, who never didst betraythy friends; and yet, O thou most steadfast, honourable, and uprightman, who never bartered thy birthright, thy country, and thy cause forthe price of a woman's passing love--by what token knowest thou that myword is void?"
"I will not answer thy taunts, Cleopatra," I said, holding back my heartas best I might, "for I have earned them all, though not from thee. Bythis token, then, I know it. Thou goest to visit Antony; thou goest, assaid that Roman knave, 'tricked in thy best attire,' to feast with himwhom thou shouldst give to vultures for their feast. Perhaps, foraught I know, thou art about to squander those treasures that thou hastfilched from the body of Menkau-ra, those treasures stored against theneed of Egypt, upon wanton revels which shall complete the shame ofEgypt. By these things, then, I know that thou art forsworn, and I, who,loving thee, believed thee, tricked; and by this, also, that thou whodidst but yesternight swear to wed me, dost to-day cover me with taunts,and even before that Roman put me to an open shame!"
"To wed thee? and I did swear to wed thee? Well, and what is marriage?Is it the union of the heart, that bond beautiful as gossamer and thangossamer more light, which binds soul to soul, as they float through thedreamy night of passion, a bond to be, perchance, melted in the dews ofdawn? Or is it the iron link of enforced, unchanging union whereby ifsinks the one the other must be dragged beneath the sea of circumstance,there, like a punished slave, to perish of unavoidable corruption?[*]Marriage! _I_ to marry! _I_ to forget freedom and court the worstslavery of our sex, which, by the selfish will of man, the stronger,still binds us to a bed grown hateful, and enforces a service that lovemayhap no longer hallows! Of what use, then, to be a Queen, if thereby Imay not escape the evil of the meanly born? Mark thou, Harmachis: Womanbeing grown hath two ills to fear--Death and Marriage; and of thesetwain is Marriage the more vile; for in Death we may find rest, but inMarriage, should it fail us, we must find hell. Nay, being above thebreath of common slander that enviously would blast those who oftrue virtue will not consent to stretch affection's links, I _love_,Harmachis; but I _marry_ not!"
[*] Referring to the Roman custom of chaining a living felon to the body of one already dead.--Editor.
"And yesternight, Cleopatra, thou didst swear that thou wouldst wed me,and call me to thy side before the face of Egypt!"
"And yesternight, Harmachis, the red ring round the moon marked thecoming of the storm, and yet the day is fair! But who knows that thetempest may not break to-morrow? Who knows that I have not chosen theeasier path to save Egypt from the Roman? Who knows, Harmachis, thatthou shalt not still call me wife?"
Then I no longer could bear her falsehood, for I saw that she but playedwith me. And so I spoke that which was in my heart:
"Cleopatra!" I cried, "thou didst swear to protect Egypt, and thouart about to betray Egypt to the Roman! Thou didst swear to use thetreasures that I revealed to thee for the service of Egypt, and thou artabout to use them to be her means of shame--to fashion them as fettersfor her wrists! Thou didst swear to wed me, who loved thee, and for theegave all, and thou dost mock me and reject me! Therefore I say--with thevoice of the dread Gods I say it!--that on _thee_ shall fall the curseof Menkau-ra, whom thou hast robbed indeed! Let me go hence and workout my fate! Let me go, O thou fair Shame! thou living Lie! whom I haveloved to my doom, and who hast brought upon me the last curse of doom!Let me hide myself and see thy face no more!"
She rose in her wrath, and she was terrible to see.
"Let thee go to stir up evil against me! Nay, Harmachis, thou shalt notgo to build new plots against my throne! I say to thee that thou, too,shalt come to visit Antony in Cilicia, and there, perchance, I will letthee go!" And ere I could answer, she had struck upon the silver gongthat hung near her.
Before its rich echo had died away, Charmion and the waiting-womenentered from one door, and from the other, a file of soldiers--four ofthem of the Queen's bodyguard, mighty men, with winged helmets and longfair hair.
"Seize that traitor!" cried Cleopatra, pointing to me. The captain ofthe guard--it was Brennus--saluted and came towards me with drawn sword.
But I, being mad and desperate, and caring little if they slew me, flewstraight at his throat, and dealt him such a heavy blow that the greatman fell headlong, and his armour clashed upon the marble floor. As hefell I seized his sword and targe, and, meeting the next, who rushed onme with a shout, caught his blow upon the shield, and in answer smotewith all my strength. The sword fell where the neck is set into theshoulder, and, shearing through the joints of his harness, slew him, sothat his knees were loosened and he sank down dead. And the third, as hecame, I caught upon the point of my sword before he could strike, andit pierced him and he died. Then the last rushed on me with a cry of"Taranis!" and I, too, rushed on him, for my blood was aflame. Now thewomen shrieked--only Cleopatra said nothing, but stood and watched theunequal fray. We met, and I struck with all my strength, and it was amighty blow, for the sword shore through the iron shell and shatteredthere, leaving me weaponless. With a shout of triumph the guard swungup his sword and smote down upon my head, but I caught the blow withmy shield. Again he smote, and again I parried; but when he raised hissword a third time I saw this might not endure, so with a cry I hurledmy buckler at his face. Glancing from his shield it struck him on thebreast and staggered him. Then, before he could gain his balance, Irushed in beneath his guard and gripped him round the middle.
For a full minute the tall man and I struggled furiously, and then, sogreat was my strength in those days, I lifted him like a toy and dashedhim down upon the marble floor in such fashion that his bones wereshattered so that he spoke no more. But I could not save myself and fellupon him, and as I fell the Captain Brennus, whom I had smitten to earthwith my fist, having once more found his sense, came up behind me andsmote me upon the head and shoulders with the sword of one of those whomI had slain. But I being on the ground, the blow did not fall with allits weight, also my thick hair and broidered cap broke its force; andthus it came to pass that, though sorely wounded, the life was yet wholein me. But I could struggle no more.
Then the cowardly eunuchs, who had gathered at the sound of blows andstood huddled together like a herd of cattle, seeing that I was spent,threw themselves upon me, and would have butchered me wi
th their knives.But Brennus, now that I was down, would strike no more, but stoodwaiting. And the eunuchs had surely slain me, for Cleopatra watched likeone who watches in a dream and made no sign. Already my head was draggedback, and their knife-points were at my throat, when Charmion, rushingforward, threw herself upon me and, calling them "Dogs!" desperatelythrust her body before them in such fashion that they could not smite.Now Brennus with an oath seized first one and then another and cast themfrom me.
"Spare his life, Queen!" he cried in his barbarous Latin. "By Jupiter,he is a brave man! Myself felled like an ox in the shambles, and threeof my boys finished by a man without armour and taken unawares! I grudgethem not to such a man! A boon, Queen! spare his life, and give him tome!"
"Ay, spare him! spare him!" cried Charmion, white and trembling.
Cleopatra drew near and looked upon the dead and him who lay dying asI had dashed him to the ground, and on me, her lover of two days gone,whose wounded head rested now on Charmion's white robes.
I met the Queen's glance. "Spare not!" I gasped; "_vae victis!_" Then aflush gathered on her brow--methinks it was a flush of shame!
"Dost after all love this man at heart, Charmion," she said with alittle laugh, "that thou didst thrust thy tender body between him andthe knives of these sexless hounds?" and she cast a look of scorn uponthe eunuchs.
"Nay!" the girl answered fiercely; "but I cannot stand by to see a braveman murdered by such as these."
"Ay!" said Cleopatra, "he is a brave man, and he fought gallantly; Ihave never seen so fierce a fight even in the games at Rome! Well, Ispare his life, though he is weak of me--womanish weak. Take him to hisown chamber and guard him there till he is healed or--dead."
Then my brain reeled, a great sickness seized upon me, and I sank intothe nothingness of a swoon.
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