The fruit hung high in air, that only beaks, not hands, might pluck.
Here, the peach tree showed her thousand cheeks of down, kissed often by the wooing winds; here, in swarms; the yellow apples hived, like golden bees upon the boughs; here, from the kneeling, fainting trees, thick fell the cherries, in great drops of blood; and here, the pomegranate, with cold rind and sere, deep pierced by bills of birds revealed the mellow of its ruddy core. So, oft the heart, that cold and withered seems, within yet hides its juices.
This orchard passed, the vale became a lengthening plain, that seemed the Straits of Ormus bared so thick it lay with flowery gems: torquoise-hyacinths, ruby-roses, lily-pearls. Here roved the vagrant vines; their flaxen ringlets curling over arbors, which laughed and shook their golden locks. From bower to bower, flew the wee bird, that ever hovering, seldom lights; and flights of gay canaries passed, like jonquils, winged.
But now, from out half-hidden bowers of clematis, there issued swarms of wasps, which flying wide, settled on all the buds.
And, fifty nymphs preceding, who now follows from those bowers, with gliding, artful steps:-the very snares of love! — Hautia. A gorgeous amaryllis in her hand; Circe-flowers in her ears; her girdle tied with vervain.
She came by privet hedges, drooping; downcast honey-suckles; she trod on pinks and pansies, blue-bells, heath, and lilies. She glided on: her crescent brow calm as the moon, when most it works its evil influences.
Her eye was fathomless.
But the same mysterious, evil-boding gaze was there, which long before had haunted me in Odo, ere Yillah fled.-Queen Hautia the incognito!
Then two wild currents met, and dashed me into foam.
"Yillah! Yillah! — tell me, queen!" But she stood motionless; radiant, and scentless: a dahlia on its stalk. "Where? Where?"
"Is not thy voyage now ended? — Take flowers! Damsels, give him wine to drink. After his weary hunt, be the wanderer happy."
I dashed aside their cups, and flowers; still rang the vale with Yillah!
"Taji! did I know her fate, naught would I now disclose; my heralds pledged their queen to naught. Thou but comest here to supplant thy mourner's night-shade, with marriage roses. Damsels! give him wreaths; crowd round him; press him with your cups!"
Once more I spilled their wine, and tore their garlands. Is not that, the evil eye that long ago did haunt me? and thou, the Hautia who hast followed me, and wooed, and mocked, and tempted me, through all this long, long voyage? I swear! thou knowest all."
"I am Hautia. Thou hast come at last. Crown him with your flowers!
Drown him in your wine! To all questions, Taji! I am mute.-Away! — damsels dance; reel round him; round and round!"
Then, their feet made music on the rippling grass, like thousand leaves of lilies on a lake. And, gliding nearer, Hautia welcomed Media; and said, "Your comrade here is sad:-be ye gay. Ho, wine! — I pledge ye, guests!"
Then, marking all, I thought to seem what I was not, that I might learn at last the thing I sought.
So, three cups in hand I held; drank wine, and laughed; and half-way met Queen Hautia's blandishments.
CHAPTER LXXXIX
They Enter The Bower Of Hautia
Conducted to the arbor, from which the queen had emerged, we came to a sweet-brier bower within; and reclined upon odorous mats.
Then, in citron cups, sherbet of tamarinds was offered to Media, Mohi, Yoomy; to me, a nautilus shell, brimmed with a light-like fluid, that welled, and welled like a fount.
"Quaff, Taji, quaff! every drop drowns a thought!"
Like a blood-freshet, it ran through my veins.
A philter? — How Hautia burned before me! Glorious queen! with all the radiance, lighting up the equatorial night.
"Thou art most magical, oh queen! about thee a thousand constellations cluster."
"They blaze to burn," whispered Mohi.
"I see ten million Hautias! — all space reflects her, as a mirror."
Then, in reels, the damsels once more mazed, the blossoms shaking from their brows; till Hautia, glided near; arms lustrous as rainbows: chanting some wild invocation.
My soul ebbed out; Yillah there was none! but as I turned round openarmed, Hautia vanished.
"She is deeper than the sea," said Media.
"Her bow is bent," said Yoomy.
"I could tell wonders of Hautia and her damsels," said Mohi.
"What wonders?"
"Listen; and in his own words will I recount the adventure of the youth Ozonna. It will show thee, Taji, that the maidens of Hautia are all Yillahs, held captive, unknown to themselves; and that Hautia, their enchantress, is the most treacherous of queens.
"'Camel-like, laden with woe,' said Ozonna, 'after many wild rovings in quest of a maiden long lost-beautiful Ady! and after being repelled in Maramma; and in vain hailed to land at Serenia, represented as naught but another Maramma;-with vague promises of discovering Ady, three sirens, who long had pursued, at last inveigled me to Flozella; where Hautia made me her thrall. But ere long, in Rea, one of her maidens, I thought I discovered my Ady transformed. My arms opened wide to embrace; but the damsel knew not Ozonna. And even, when after hard wooing, I won her again, she seemed not lost Ady, but Rea.
Yet all the while, from deep in her strange, black orbs, Ady's blue eyes seemed pensively looking:-blue eye within black: sad, silent soul within merry. Long I strove, by fixed ardent gazing, to break the spell, and restore in Rea my lost one's Past. But in vain. It was only Rea, not Ady, who at stolen intervals looked on me now. One morning Hautia started as she greeted me; her quick eye rested on my bosom; and glancing there, affrighted, I beheld a distinct, fresh mark, the impress of Rea's necklace drop. Fleeing, I revealed what had passed to the maiden, who broke from my side; as I, from Hautia's. The queen summoned her damsels, but for many hours the call was unheeded; and when at last they came, upon each bosom lay a necklace-drop like Rea's. On the morrow, lo! my arbor was strown over with bruised Linden-leaves, exuding a vernal juice. Full of forbodings, again I sought Rea: who, casting down her eyes, beheld her feet stained green.
Again she fled; and again Hautia summoned her damsels: malicious triumph in her eye; but dismay succeeded: each maid had spotted feet.
That night Rea was torn from my side by three masks; who, stifling her cries, rapidly bore her away; and as I pursued, disappeared in a cave.
Next morning, Hautia was surrounded by her nymphs, but Rea was absent.
Then, gliding near, she snatched from my hair, a jet-black tress, loose-hanging. 'Ozonna is the murderer! See! Rea's torn hair entangled with his!' Aghast, I swore that I knew not her fate. 'Then let the witch Larfee be called!' The maidens darted from the bower; and soon after, there rolled into it a green cocoa-nut, followed by the witch, and all the damsels, flinging anemones upon it. Bowling this way and that, the nut at last rolled to my feet.-'It is he!' cried all.-Then they bound me with osiers; and at midnight, unseen and irresistible hands placed me in a shallop; which sped far out into the lagoon, where they tossed me to the waves; but so violent the shock, the osiers burst; and as the shallop fled one way, swimming another, ere long I gained land.
"'Thus in Flozella, I found but the phantom of Ady, and slew the last hope of Ady the true.'"
This recital sank deep into my soul. In some wild way, Hautia had made a captive of Yillah; in some one of her black-eyed maids, the blueeyed One was transformed. From side to side, in frenzy, I turned; but in all those cold, mystical eyes, saw not the warm ray that I sought.
"Hast taken root within this treacherous soil?" cried Media. "Away! thy Yillah is behind thee, not before. Deep she dwells in blue Serenia's groves; which thou would'st not search. Hautia mocks thee; away! The reef is rounded; but a strait flows between this isle and Odo, and thither its ruler must return. Every hour I tarry here, some wretched serf is dying there, for whom, from blest Serenia, _I carry life and joy. Away!_"
"Art still bent on finding evil for thy good?" cr
ied Mohi. — "How can Yillah harbor here? — Beware! — Let not Hautia so enthrall thee."
"Come away, come away," cried Yoomy. "Far hence is Yillah! and he who tarries among these flowers, must needs burn juniper."
"Look on me, Media, Mohi, Yoomy. Here I stand, my own monument, till Hautia breaks the spell."
In grief they left me.
Vee-Vee's conch I heard no more.
CHAPTER XC
Taji With Hautia
As their last echoes died away down the valley, Hautia glided near;-zone unbound, the amaryllis in her hand. Her bosom ebbed and flowed; the motes danced in the beams that darted from her eyes.
"Come! let us sin, and be merry. Ho! wine, wine, wine! and lapfuls of flowers! let all the cane-brakes pipe their flutes. Damsels! dance; reel, swim, around me:-I, the vortex that draws all in. Taji! Taji! — as a berry, that name is juicy in my mouth! — Taji, Taji!" and in choruses, she warbled forth the sound, till it seemed issuing from her syren eyes.
My heart flew forth from out its bars, and soared in air; but as my hand touched Hautia's, down dropped a dead bird from the clouds.
"Ha! how he sinks! — but did'st ever dive in deep waters, Taji? Did'st ever see where pearls grow? — To the cave! — damsels, lead on!"
Then wending through constellations of flowers, we entered deep groves. And thus, thrice from sun-light to shade, it seemed three brief nights and days, ere we paused before the mouth of the cavern.
A bow-shot from the sea, it pierced the hill-side like a vaulted way; and glancing in, we saw far gleams of water; crossed, here and there, by long-flung distant shadows of domes and columns. All Venice seemed within.
From a stack of golden palm-stalks, the damsels now made torches; then stood grouped; a sheaf of sirens in a sheaf of frame.
Illuminated, the cavern shone like a Queen of Kandy's casket: full of dawns and sunsets.
From rocky roof to bubbling floor, it was columned with stalactites; and galleried all round, in spiral tiers, with sparkling, coral ledges.
And now, their torches held aloft, into the water the maidens softly glided; and each a lotus floated; while, from far above, into the air Hautia flung her flambeau; then bounding after, in the lake, two meteors were quenched.
Where she dived, the flambeaux clustered; and up among them, Hautia rose; hands, full of pearls.
"Lo! Taji; all these may be had for the diving; and Beauty, Health, Wealth, Long Life, and the Last Lost Hope of man. But through me alone, may these be had. Dive thou, and bring up one pearl if thou canst."
Down, down! down, down, in the clear, sparkling water, till I seemed crystalized in the flashing heart of a diamond; but from those bottomless depths, I uprose empty handed.
"Pearls, pearls! thy pearls! thou art fresh from the mines. Ah, Taji! for thee, bootless deep diving. Yet to Hautia, one shallow plunge reveals many Golcondas. But come; dive with me:-join hands-let me show thee strange things."
"Show me that which I seek, and I will dive with thee, straight through the world, till we come up in oceans unknown."
"Nay, nay; but join hands, and I will take thee, where thy Past shall be forgotten; where thou wilt soon learn to love the living, not the dead."
"Better to me, oh Hautia! all the bitterness of my buried dead, than all the sweets of the life thou canst bestow; even, were it eternal."
CHAPTER XCI
Mardi Behind: An Ocean Before
Returned from the cave, Hautia reclined in her clematis bower, invisible hands flinging fennel around her. And nearer, and nearer, stole dulcet sounds dissolving my woes, as warm beams, snow. Strange languors made me droop; once more within my inmost vault, side by side, the Past and Yillah lay:-two bodies tranced;-while like a rounding sun, before me Hautia magnified magnificence; and through her fixed eyes, slowly drank up my soul.
Thus we stood:-snake and victim: life ebbing out from me, to her.
But from that spell, I burst again, as all the Past smote all the Present in me.
"Oh Hautia! thou knowest the mystery I die to fathom. I see it crouching in thine eye:-Reveal!"
"Weal or woe?"
"Life or death!"
"See, see!" and Yillah's rose-pearl danced before me.
I snatched it from her hand:-"Yillah! Yillah!"
"Rave on: she lies too deep to answer; stranger voices than thine she hears:-bubbles are bursting round her."
"Drowned! drowned then, even as she dreamed:-I come, I come! — Ha, what form is this? — hast mosses? sea-thyme? pearls? — Help, help! I sink! — Back, shining monster! — What, Hautia, — is it thou? — Oh vipress, I could slay thee!"
"Go, go, — and slay thyself: I may not make thee mine;-go, — dead to dead! — There is another cavern in the hill." Swift I fled along the valley-side; passed Hautia's cave of pearls; and gained a twilight arch; within, a lake transparent shone. Conflicting currents met, and wrestled; and one dark arch led to channels, seaward tending.
Round and round, a gleaming form slow circled in the deepest eddies:-white, and vaguely Yillah.
Straight I plunged; but the currents were as fierce headwinds off capes, that beat back ships.
Then, as I frenzied gazed; gaining the one dark arch, the revolving shade darted out of sight, and the eddies whirled as before.
"Stay, stay! let me go with thee, though thou glidest to gulfs of blackness;-naught can exceed the hell of this despair! — Why beat longer in this corpse oh, my heart!"
As somnambulists fast-frozen in some horrid dream, ghost-like glide abroad, and fright the wakeful world; so that night, with death-glazed eyes, to and fro I flitted on the damp and weedy beach.
"Is this specter, Taji?" — and Mohi and the minstrel stood before me.
"Taji lives no more. So dead, he has no ghost. I am his spirit's phantom's phantom."
"Nay, then, phantom! the time has come to flee."
They dragged me to the water's brink, where a prow was beached. Soon-Mohi at the helm-we shot beneath the far-flung shadow of a cliff; when, as in a dream, I hearkened to a voice.
Arrived at Odo, Media had been met with yells. Sedition was in arms, and to his beard defied him. Vain all concessions then. Foremost stood the three pale sons of him, whom I had slain, to gain the maiden lost.
Avengers, from the first hour we had parted on the sea, they had drifted on my track survived starvation; and lived to hunt me round all Mardi's reef; and now at Odo, that last threshold, waited to destroy; or there, missing the revenge they sought, still swore to hunt me round Eternity.
Behind the avengers, raged a stormy mob, invoking Media to renounce his rule. But one hand waving like a pennant above the smoke of some sea-fight, straight through that tumult Media sailed serene: the rioters parting from before him, as wild waves before a prow inflexible.
A haven gained, he turned to Mohi and the minstrel:-"Oh, friends! after our long companionship, hard to part! But henceforth, for many moons, Odo will prove no home for old age, or youth. In Serenia only, will ye find the peace ye seek; and thither ye must carry Taji, who else must soon be slain, or lost. Go: release him from the thrall of Hautia. Outfly the avengers, and gain Serenia. Reek not of me. The state is tossed in storms; and where I stand, the combing billows must break over. But among all noble souls, in tempest-time, the headmost man last flies the wreck. So, here in Odo will I abide, though every plank breaks up beneath me. And then, — great Oro! let the king die clinging to the keel! Farewell!"
Such Mohi's tale.
In trumpet-blasts, the hoarse night-winds now blew; the Lagoon, black with the still shadows of the mountains, and the driving shadows of the clouds. Of all the stars, only red Arcturus shone. But through the gloom, and on the circumvallating reef, the breakers dashed ghost-white.
An outlet in that outer barrier was nigh.
"Ah! Yillah! Yillah! — the currents sweep thee ocean-ward; nor will I tarry behind.-Mardi, farewell! — Give me the helm, old man!"
"Nay, madman! Serenia is our haven. Th
rough yonder strait, for thee, perdition lies. And from the deep beyond, no voyager e'er puts back."
"And why put back? is a life of dying worth living o'er again? — Let me, then, be the unreturning wanderer. The helm! By Oro, I will steer my own fate, old man.-Mardi, farewell!"
"Nay, Taji: commit not the last, last crime!" cried Yoomy.
"He's seized the helm! eternity is in his eye! Yoomy: for our lives we must now swim."
And plunging, they struck out for land: Yoomy buoying Mohi up, and the salt waves dashing the tears from his pallid face, as through the scud, he turned it on me mournfully.
"Now, I am my own soul's emperor; and my first act is abdication!
Hail! realm of shades!" — and turning my prow into the racing tide, which seized me like a hand omnipotent, I darted through.
Churned in foam, that outer ocean lashed the clouds; and straight in my white wake, headlong dashed a shallop, three fixed specters leaning o'er its prow: three arrows poising.
And thus, pursuers and pursued flew on, over an endless sea.
THE END.
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Mardi and a Voyage Thither Page 62