XX
TRIUMPH
Then followed a moment of the most painful silence that I ever endured.It was broken by Ayesha, who addressed herself to Leo.
"Nay, now, my lord and guest," she said in her softest tones, which yethad the ring of steel about them, "look not so bashful. Surely the sightwas a pretty one--the leopard and the lion!"
"Oh, hang it all!" said Leo in English.
"And thou, Ustane," she went on, "surely I should have passed thee by,had not the light fallen on the white across thy hair," and she pointedto the bright edge of the rising moon which was now appearing abovethe horizon. "Well! well! the dance is done--see, the tapers have burntdown, and all things end in silence and in ashes. So thou thoughtestit a fit time for love, Ustane, my servant--and I, dreaming not that Icould be disobeyed, thought thee already far away."
"Play not with me," moaned the wretched woman; "slay me, and let therebe an end."
"Nay, why? It is not well to go so swift from the hot lips of love downto the cold mouth of the grave," and she made a motion to the mutes, whoinstantly stepped up and caught the girl by either arm. With an oath Leosprang upon the nearest, and hurled him to the ground, and then stoodover him with his face set, and his fist ready.
Again Ayesha laughed. "It was well thrown, my guest; thou hast a strongarm for one who so late was sick. But now out of thy courtesy I praythee let that man live and do my bidding. He shall not harm the girl;the night air grows chill, and I would welcome her in mine own place.Surely she whom thou dost favour shall be favoured of me also."
I took Leo by the arm, and pulled him from the prostrate mute, and he,half bewildered, obeyed the pressure. Then we all set out for the caveacross the plateau, where a pile of white human ashes was all thatremained of the fire that had lit the dancing, for the dancers hadvanished.
In due course we gained Ayesha's boudoir--all too soon, it seemed to me,having a sad presage of what was to come lying heavy on my heart.
Ayesha seated herself upon her cushions, and, having dismissed Job andBillali, by signs bade the mutes tend the lamps and retire--all saveone girl, who was her favourite personal attendant. We three remainedstanding, the unfortunate Ustane a little to the left of the rest of us.
"Now, oh Holly," Ayesha began, "how came it that thou who didst hearmy words bidding this evil-doer"--and she pointed to Ustane--"to gohence--thou at whose prayer I did weakly spare her life--how came it,I say, that thou wast a sharer in what I saw to-night? Answer, and forthine own sake, I say, speak all the truth, for I am not minded to hearlies upon this matter!"
"It was by accident, oh Queen," I answered. "I knew naught of it."
"I do believe thee, oh Holly," she answered coldly, "and well it is forthee that I do--then does the whole guilt rest upon her."
"I do not find any guilt therein," broke in Leo. "She is not anotherman's wife, and it appears that she has married me according to thecustom of this awful place, so who is the worse? Any way, madam," hewent on, "whatever she has done I have done too, so if she is to bepunished let me be punished also; and I tell thee," he went on, workinghimself up into a fury, "that if thou biddest one of those dead and dumbvillains to touch her again I will tear him to pieces!" And he looked asthough he meant it.
Ayesha listened in icy silence, and made no remark. When he hadfinished, however, she addressed Ustane.
"Hast thou aught to say, woman? Thou silly straw, thou feather, whodidst think to float towards thy passion's petty ends, even against thegreat wind of my will! Tell me, for I fain would understand. Why didstthou this thing?"
And then I think I saw the most tremendous exhibition of moral courageand intrepidity that it is possible to conceive. For the poor doomedgirl, knowing what she had to expect at the hands of her terrible Queen,knowing, too, from bitter experience, how great was her adversary'spower, yet gathered herself together, and out of the very depths of herdespair drew materials to defy her.
"I did it, oh _She_," she answered, drawing herself up to the full ofher stately height, and throwing back the panther skin from her head,"because my love is stronger than the grave. I did it because my lifewithout this man whom my heart chose would be but a living death.Therefore did I risk my life, and, now that I know that it is forfeitto thine anger, yet am I glad that I did risk it, and pay it away in therisking, ay, because he embraced me once, and told me that he loved meyet."
Here Ayesha half rose from her couch, and then sank down again.
"I have no magic," went on Ustane, her rich voice ringing strong andfull, "and I am not a Queen, nor do I live for ever, but a woman's heartis heavy to sink through waters, however deep, oh Queen! and a woman'seyes are quick to see--even through thy veil, oh Queen!
"Listen: I know it, thou dost love this man thyself, and thereforewouldst thou destroy me who stand across thy path. Ay, I die--I die, andgo into the darkness, nor know I whither I go. But this I know. There isa light shining in my breast, and by that light, as by a lamp, I seethe truth, and the future that I shall not share unroll itself beforeme like a scroll. When first I knew my lord," and she pointed to Leo, "Iknew also that death would be the bridal gift he gave me--it rushed uponme of a sudden, but I turned not back, being ready to pay the price,and, behold, death is here! And now, even as I knew that, so do I,standing on the steps of doom, know that thou shalt not reap the profitof thy crime. Mine he is, and, though thy beauty shine like a sun amongthe stars, mine shall he remain for thee. Never here in this life shallhe look thee in the eyes and call thee spouse. Thou too art doomed, Isee"--and her voice rang like the cry of an inspired prophetess; "ah, Isee----"
Then came an answering cry of mingled rage and terror. I turned my head.Ayesha had risen, and was standing with her outstretched hand pointingat Ustane, who had suddenly stopped speaking. I gazed at the poorwoman, and as I gazed there came upon her face that same woeful, fixedexpression of terror that I had seen once before when she had broken outinto her wild chant. Her eyes grew large, her nostrils dilated, and herlips blanched.
Ayesha said nothing, she made no sound, she only drew herself up,stretched out her arm, and, her tall veiled frame quivering like anaspen leaf, appeared to look fixedly at her victim. Even as she did soUstane put her hands to her head, uttered one piercing scream, turnedround twice, and then fell backwards with a thud--prone upon the floor.Both Leo and myself rushed to her--she was stone dead--blasted intodeath by some mysterious electric agency or overwhelming will-forcewhereof the dread _She_ had command.
For a moment Leo did not quite realise what had happened. But, when hedid, his face was awful to see. With a savage oath he rose from besidethe corpse, and, turning, literally sprang at Ayesha. But she waswatching, and, seeing him come, stretched out her hand again, and hewent staggering back towards me, and would have fallen, had I notcaught him. Afterwards he told me that he felt as though he had suddenlyreceived a violent blow in the chest, and, what is more, utterly cowed,as if all the manhood had been taken out of him.
Then Ayesha spoke. "Forgive me, my guest," she said softly, addressinghim, "if I have shocked thee with my justice."
"Forgive thee, thou fiend," roared poor Leo, wringing his hands in hisrage and grief. "Forgive thee, thou murderess! By Heaven, I will killthee if I can!"
"Nay, nay," she answered in the same soft voice, "thou dost notunderstand--the time has come for thee to learn. _Thou_ art my love,my Kallikrates, my Beautiful, my Strong! For two thousand years,Kallikrates, have I waited for _thee_, and now at length thou hast comeback to me; and as for this woman," pointing to the corpse, "shestood between me and thee, and therefore have I laid her in the dust,Kallikrates."
"It is an accursed lie!" said Leo. "My name is not Kallikrates! I am LeoVincey; my ancestor was Kallikrates--at least, I believe he was."
"Ah, thou sayest it--thine ancestor was Kallikrates, and thou, eventhou, art Kallikrates reborn, come back--and mine own dear lord!"
"I am not Kallikrates, and, as for being thy lord, or having aught to dowith t
hee, I had sooner be the lord of a fiend from hell, for she wouldbe better than thou."
"Sayest thou so--sayest thou so, Kallikrates? Nay, but thou hast notseen me for so long a time that no memory remains. Yet am I very fair,Kallikrates!"
"I hate thee, murderess, and I have no wish to see thee. What is it tome how fair thou art? I hate thee, I say."
"Yet within a very little space shalt thou creep to my knee, and swearthat thou dost love me," answered Ayesha, with a sweet, mocking laugh."Come, there is no time like the present time, here before this deadgirl who loved thee, let us put it to the proof.
"Look now on me, Kallikrates!" and with a sudden motion she shook hergauzy covering from her, and stood forth in her low kirtle and her snakyzone, in her glorious radiant beauty and her imperial grace, rising fromher wrappings, as it were, like Venus from the wave, or Galatea from hermarble, or a beatified spirit from the tomb. She stood forth, and fixedher deep and glowing eyes upon Leo's eyes, and I saw his clenched fistsunclasp, and his set and quivering features relax beneath her gaze.I saw his wonder and astonishment grow into admiration, and then intofascination, and the more he struggled the more I saw the power of herdread beauty fasten on him and take possession of his senses, druggingthem, and drawing the heart out of him. Did I not know the process? Hadnot I, who was twice his age, gone through it myself? Was I not goingthrough it afresh even then, although her sweet and passionate gaze wasnot for me? Yes, alas, I was! Alas, that I should have to confess thatat that very moment I was rent by mad and furious jealousy. I couldhave flown at him, shame upon me! The woman had confounded and almostdestroyed my moral sense, as she was bound to confound all who lookedupon her superhuman loveliness. But--I do not quite know how--I got thebetter of myself, and once more turned to see the climax of the tragedy.
"Oh, great Heaven!" gasped Leo, "art thou a woman?"
"A woman in truth--in very truth--and thine own spouse, Kallikrates!"she answered, stretching out her rounded ivory arms towards him, andsmiling, ah, so sweetly!
He looked and looked, and slowly I perceived that he was drawing nearerto her. Suddenly his eye fell upon the corpse of poor Ustane, and heshuddered and stopped.
"How can I?" he said hoarsely. "Thou art a murderess; she loved me."
Observe, he was already forgetting that he had loved her.
"It is naught," she murmured, and her voice sounded sweet as thenight-wind passing through the trees. "It is naught at all. If I havesinned, let my beauty answer for my sin. If I have sinned, it is forlove of thee: let my sin, therefore, be put away and forgotten;" andonce more she stretched out her arms and whispered "_Come_," and then inanother few seconds it was all over.
I saw him struggle--I saw him even turn to fly; but her eyes drewhim more strongly than iron bonds, and the magic of her beauty andconcentrated will and passion entered into him and overpowered him--ay,even there, in the presence of the body of the woman who had loved himwell enough to die for him. It sounds horrible and wicked enough, but heshould not be too greatly blamed, and be sure his sin will find him out.The temptress who drew him into evil was more than human, and her beautywas greater than the loveliness of the daughters of men.
I looked up again and now her perfect form lay in his arms, and her lipswere pressed against his own; and thus, with the corpse of his deadlove for an altar, did Leo Vincey plight his troth to her red-handedmurderess--plight it for ever and a day. For those who sell themselvesinto a like dominion, paying down the price of their own honour, andthrowing their soul into the balance to sink the scale to the level oftheir lusts, can hope for no deliverance here or hereafter. As theyhave sown, so shall they reap and reap, even when the poppy flowers ofpassion have withered in their hands, and their harvest is but bittertares, garnered in satiety.
Suddenly, with a snake-like motion, she seemed to slip from his embrace,and then again broke out into her low laugh of triumphant mockery.
"Did I not tell thee that within a little space thou wouldst creep to myknee, oh Kallikrates? And surely the space has not been a great one!"
Leo groaned in shame and misery; for though he was overcome andstricken down, he was not so lost as to be unaware of the depth of thedegradation to which he had sunk. On the contrary, his better naturerose up in arms against his fallen self, as I saw clearly enough lateron.
Ayesha laughed again, and then quickly veiled herself, and made a signto the girl mute, who had been watching the whole scene with curiousstartled eyes. The girl left, and presently returned, followed by twomale mutes, to whom the Queen made another sign. Thereon they all threeseized the body of poor Ustane by the arms, and dragged it heavily downthe cavern and away through the curtains at the end. Leo watched it fora little while, and then covered his eyes with his hand, and it too, tomy excited fancy, seemed to watch us as it went.
"There passes the dead past," said Ayesha, solemnly, as the curtainsshook and fell back into their places, when the ghastly processionhad vanished behind them. And then, with one of those extraordinarytransitions of which I have already spoken, she again threw off herveil, and broke out, after the ancient and poetic fashion of thedwellers in Arabia,[*] into a pæan of triumph or epithalamium, which,wild and beautiful as it was, is exceedingly difficult to render intoEnglish, and ought by rights to be sung to the music of a cantata,rather than written and read. It was divided into two parts--onedescriptive or definitive, and the other personal; and, as nearly as Ican remember, ran as follows:--
Love is like a flower in the desert.
It is like the aloe of Arabia that blooms but once and dies; it bloomsin the salt emptiness of Life, and the brightness of its beauty is setupon the waste as a star is set upon a storm.
It hath the sun above that is the Spirit, and above it blows the air ofits divinity.
At the echoing of a step, Love blooms, I say; I say Love blooms, andbends her beauty down to him who passeth by.
He plucketh it, yea, he plucketh the red cup that is full of honey,and beareth it away; away across the desert, away till the flower bewithered, away till the desert be done.
There is only one perfect flower in the wilderness of Life.
That flower is Love!
There is only one fixed star in the midsts of our wandering.
That star is Love!
There is only one hope in our despairing night.
That hope is Love!
All else is false. All else is shadow moving upon water. All else iswind and vanity.
Who shall say what is the weight or the measure of Love?
It is born of the flesh, it dwelleth in the spirit. From each doth itdraw its comfort.
For beauty it is as a star.
Many are its shapes, but all are beautiful, and none know where the starrose, or the horizon where it shall set.
[*] Among the ancient Arabians the power of poetic declamation, either in verse or prose, was held in the highest honour and esteem, and he who excelled in it was known as "Khâteb," or Orator. Every year a general assembly was held at which the rival poets repeated their compositions, when those poems which were judged to be the best were, so soon as the knowledge and the art of writing became general, inscribed on silk in letters of gold, and publicly exhibited, being known as "Al Modhahabât," or golden verses. In the poem given above by Mr. Holly, Ayesha evidently followed the traditional poetic manner of her people, which was to embody their thoughts in a series of somewhat disconnected sentences, each remarkable for its beauty and the grace of its expression. --Editor.
Then, turning to Leo, and laying her hand upon his shoulder, she wenton in a fuller and more triumphant tone, speaking in balanced sentencesthat gradually grew and swelled from idealised prose into pure andmajestic verse:--
Long have I loved thee, oh, my love; yet has my love not lessened.
Long have I waited for thee, and behold my reward is at hand--is here!
Far away I saw thee once, and thou wast taken from me.
I have waited and my reward is with me.
I have overcome Death, and Death brought back to me him that was dead.
Therefore do I rejoice, for fair is the future.
Green are the paths that we shall tread across the everlasting meadows.
The hour is at hand. Night hath fled away into the valleys.
The dawn kisseth the mountain tops.
Soft shall we live, my love, and easy shall we go.
Crowned shall we be with the diadem of Kings.
Worshipping and wonder struck all peoples of the world, Blinded shallfall before our beauty and might.
From time unto times shall our greatness thunder on, Rolling like achariot through the dust of endless days.
Laughing shall we speed in our victory and pomp, Laughing like theDaylight as he leaps along the hills.
Onward, still triumphant to a triumph ever new!
Onward, in our power to a power unattained!
Onward, never weary, clad with splendour for a robe!
Till accomplished be our fate, and the night is rushing down.
She paused in her strange and most thrilling allegorical chant, ofwhich I am, unfortunately, only able to give the burden, and that feeblyenough, and then said--
"Perchance thou dost not believe my word, Kallikrates--perchance thouthinkest that I do delude thee, and that I have not lived these manyyears, and that thou hast not been born again to me. Nay, look notso--put away that pale cast of doubt, for oh be sure herein can errorfind no foothold! Sooner shall the suns forget their course and theswallow miss her nest, than my soul shall swear a lie and be led astrayfrom thee, Kallikrates. Blind me, take away mine eyes, and let thedarkness utterly fence me in, and still mine ears would catch the toneof thy unforgotten voice, striking more loud against the portals ofmy sense than can the call of brazen-throated clarions:--stop up minehearing also, and let a thousand touch me on the brow, and I would namethee out of all:--yea, rob me of every sense, and see me stand deaf andblind, and dumb, and with nerves that cannot weigh the value of a touch,yet would my spirit leap within me like a quickening child and cry untomy heart, behold Kallikrates! behold, thou watcher, the watches ofthy night are ended! behold thou who seekest in the night season, thymorning Star ariseth."
She paused awhile and then continued, "But stay, if thy heart is yethardened against the mighty truth and thou dost require a further pledgeof that which thou dost find too deep to understand, even now shall itbe given to thee, and to thee also, oh my Holly. Bear each one of you alamp, and follow after me whither I shall lead you."
Without stopping to think--indeed, speaking for myself, I had almostabandoned the function in circumstances under which to think seemedto be absolutely useless, since thought fell hourly helpless against ablack wall of wonder--we took the lamps and followed her. Going to theend of her "boudoir," she raised a curtain and revealed a little stairof the sort that is so common in these dim caves of Kôr. As we hurrieddown the stair I observed that the steps were worn in the centre tosuch an extent that some of them had been reduced from seven and a halfinches, at which I guessed their original height, to about three anda half. Now, all the other steps that I had seen in the caves werepractically unworn, as was to be expected, seeing that the only trafficwhich ever passed upon them was that of those who bore a fresh burden tothe tomb. Therefore this fact struck my notice with that curious forcewith which little things do strike us when our minds are absolutelyoverwhelmed by a sudden rush of powerful sensations; beaten flat, as itwere, like a sea beneath the first burst of a hurricane, so that everylittle object on the surface starts into an unnatural prominence.
At the bottom of the staircase I stood and stared at the worn steps, andAyesha, turning, saw me.
"Wonderest thou whose are the feet that have worn away the rock, myHolly?" she asked. "They are mine--even mine own light feet! I canremember when those stairs were fresh and level, but for two thousandyears and more have I gone down hither day by day, and see, my sandalshave worn out the solid rock!"
I made no answer, but I do not think that anything that I had heard orseen brought home to my limited understanding so clear a sense of thisbeing's overwhelming antiquity as that hard rock hollowed out by hersoft white feet. How many hundreds of thousands of times must she havepassed up and down that stair to bring about such a result?
The stair led to a tunnel, and a few paces down the tunnel was one ofthe usual curtain-hung doorways, a glance at which told me that itwas the same where I had been a witness of that terrible scene by theleaping flame. I recognised the pattern of the curtain, and the sight ofit brought the whole event vividly before my eyes, and made me trembleeven at its memory. Ayesha entered the tomb (for it was a tomb), and wefollowed her--I, for one, rejoicing that the mystery of the place wasabout to be cleared up, and yet afraid to face its solution.
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