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diff --git a/39397-h/39397-h.htm b/39397-h/39397-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b90a1bf --- /dev/null +++ b/39397-h/39397-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7562 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances, by Théophile Gautier</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of One of Cleopatra’s Nights and Other Fantastic Romances, by Théophile Gautier</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: One of Cleopatra’s Nights and Other Fantastic Romances</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Théophile Gautier</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 7, 2012 [eBook #39397]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 27, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Marc D’Hooghe</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF CLEOPATRA’S NIGHTS AND OTHER FANTASTIC ROMANCES ***</div> + +<h1>ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHTS</h1> + +<h3>AND</h3> + +<h3>OTHER FANTASTIC ROMANCES</h3> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>THEOPHILE GAUTIER</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h5>PUBLISHED BY BRENTANO'S</h5> + +<h5>AT UNION SQUARE. NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>1900</h5> +<p> </p> + +<h4>TRANSLATED BY LAFCADIO HEARN</h4> +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p><a href="#Contents">Contents</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>The love that caught strange light from death's own eyes,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>And filled death's lips with fiery words and sighs,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>And, half asleep, let feed from veins of his</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Her close, red, warm snake's-mouth, Egyptian-wise:</i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>And that great night of love more strange than this,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>When she that made the whole world's bale and bliss</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;"><i>Made king of the whole world's desire a slave</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>And killed him in mid-kingdom with a kiss.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;">SWINBURNE.</span><br /> +<br /> +"<i>Memorial verses on the death of Théophile Gautier</i>."<br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="TO_THE_READER" id="TO_THE_READER"></a>TO THE READER</h2> + +<p>The stories composing this volume have been selected for translation +from the two volumes of romances and tales by Théophile Gautier +respectively entitled <i>Nouvelles</i> and <i>Romans et Contes</i>. They afford in +the original many excellent examples of that peculiar beauty of fancy +and power of painting with words which made Gautier the most brilliant +literary artist of his time. No doubt their warmth of coloring has been +impoverished and their fantastic enchantment weakened by the process of +transformation into a less voluptuous tongue; yet enough of the original +charm remains, we trust, to convey a just idea of the French author's +rich imaginative power and ornate luxuriance of style.</p> + +<p>The verses of Swinburne referring to the witchery of the novelette which +opens the volume, and to the peculiarly sweet and strange romance which +follows, sufficiently indicate the extraordinary art of these tales. At +least three of the stories we have attempted to translate rank among the +most remarkable literary productions of the century.</p> + +<p>These little romances are characterized, however, by merits other than +those of mere literary workmanship; they are further remarkable for a +wealth of erudition—picturesque learning, we might say—which often +lends them an actual archæologic value, like the paintings of some +scholarly artist, some Alma Tadema, who with fair magic of +color-blending evokes for us eidolons of ages vanished and civilizations +passed away.</p> + +<p>Thus one finds in the delightful fantasy of <i>Arria Marcella</i> not only a +dream of "Pompeiian Days," pictured with an idealistic brilliancy beyond +the art of Coomans, but a rich knowledge, likewise, of all that +fascinating lore gleaned by antiquarian research amid the ashes of the +sepultured city—a knowledge enriched in no small degree by local study, +and presented with a descriptive power finely strengthened by personal +observation. It is something more than the charming imagination of a +poetic dreamer which paints for us the blue sea "unrolling its long +volutes of foam" upon a beach as black and smooth as sifted charcoal; +the fissured summit of Vesuvius, out-pouring white threads of smoke from +its crannies "as from the orifices of a perfuming pan;" and the +far-purple hills "with outlines voluptuously undulating, like the hips +of a woman."</p> + +<p>And throughout these romances one finds the same evidences of +archæologic study, of artistic observation, of imagination fostered by +picturesque fact. The glory of the Greek kings of Lydia glows goldenly +again in the pages of <i>Le Roi Candaule</i>; the massive gloom and +melancholy weirdness of ancient Egypt is reflected as in a necromancer's +mirror throughout <i>Une Nuit de Cléopâtre</i>. It is in the Egyptian +fantasies, perhaps, that the author's peculiar descriptive skill appears +to most advantage; the still fresh hues of the hierophantic paintings, +the pictured sarcophagi, and the mummy-gilding seem to meet the reader's +eye with the gratification of their bright contrasts; a faint perfume +of unknown balm seems to hover over the open pages; and mysterious +sphinxes appear to look on "with that undefinable rose-granite smile +that mocks our modern wisdom."</p> + +<p>Excepting <i>Omphale</i> and <i>La Morte Amoureuse,</i> the stories selected for +translation are mostly antique in composition and coloring; the former +being Louis-Quinze, the latter mediæval rather than aught else. But all +alike frame some exquisite delineation of young love-fancies; some +admirable picture of what Gautier in the <i>Histoire du Romantisme</i> has +prettily termed "the graceful <i>succubi</i> that haunt the happy slumbers of +youth."</p> + +<p>And what dreamful student of the Beautiful has not been once enamoured +of an Arria Marcella, and worshipped on the altar of his heart those +ancient gods "who loved life and youth and beauty and pleasure"? How +many a lover of mediæval legend has in fancy gladly bartered the blood +of his veins for some phantom Clarimonde? What true artist has not at +some time been haunted by the image of a Nyssia, fairer than all +daughters of men, lovelier than all fantasies realized in stone—a +Pygmalion-wrought marble transmuted by divine alchemy to a being of +opalescent flesh and ichor-throbbing veins?</p> + +<p>Gautier was an artist in the common acceptation of the term, as well as +a poet and a writer of romance; and in those pleasant fragments of +autobiography scattered through the <i>Histoire du Romantisme</i> we find his +averment that at the commencement of the Romantic movement of 1830 he +was yet undecided whether to adopt literature or art as a profession; +but, finding it "easier to paint with words than with colors," he +finally decided upon the pen as his weapon in the new warfare against +"the hydra of classicism with its hundred peruked heads." As a writer, +however, he remained the artist still. His pages were pictures, his +sentences touches of color; he learned, indeed, to "paint with words" as +no other writer of the century has done; and created a powerful +impression, not only upon the literature of his day, but even, it may be +said, upon the language of his nation.</p> + +<p>Possessed of an almost matchless imaginative power, and a sense of +beauty as refined as that of an antique sculptor, Gautier so perfects +his work as to leave nothing for the imagination of his readers to +desire. He insists that they should behold the author's fancy precisely +as the author himself fancied it with all its details; the position of +objects, the effects of light, the disposition of shadow, the material +of garments, the texture of stuffs, the interstices of stonework, the +gleam of a lamp upon sharp angles of furniture, the whispering sound of +trailing silk, the tone of a voice, the expression of a face—all is +visible, audible, tangible. You can find nothing in one of his +picturesque scenes which has not been treated with a studied accuracy of +minute detail that leaves no vacancy for the eye to light upon, no +hiatus for the imagination to supply. This is the art of painting +carried to the highest perfection in literature. It is not wonderful +that such a man should at times sacrifice style to description; and he +has himself acknowledged an occasional abuse of violent coloring.</p> + +<p>Naturally, a writer of this kind pays small regard to the demands of +prudery. His work being that of the artist, he claims the privilege of +the sculptor and the painter in delineations of the beautiful. A perfect +human body is to him the most beautiful of objects. He does not seek to +veil its loveliness with cumbrous drapery; he delights to behold it and +depict it in its "divine nudity;" he views it with the eyes of the +Corinthian statuary or the Pompeiian fresco-painter; he idealizes even +the ideal of beauty: under his treatment flesh becomes diaphanous, eyes +are transformed to orbs of prismatic light, features take tints of +celestial loveliness. Like the Hellenic sculptor, he is not satisfied +with beauty of form alone, but must add a vital glow of delicate +coloring to the white limbs and snowy bosom of marble.</p> + +<p>It is the artist, therefore, who must judge of Gautier's creations. To +the lovers of the loveliness of the antique world, the lovers of +physical beauty and artistic truth, of the charm of youthful dreams and +young passion in its blossoming, of poetic ambitions and the sweet +pantheism that finds all Nature vitalized by the Spirit of the +Beautiful—to such the first English version of these graceful fantasies +is offered in the hope that it may not be found wholly unworthy of the +original.</p> + +<p>L.H.</p> + +<p>NEW ORLEANS, 1882.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="ONE_OF_CLEOPATRAS_NIGHTS" id="ONE_OF_CLEOPATRAS_NIGHTS"></a>ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHTS</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Ia" id="CHAPTER_Ia"></a>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<p>Nineteen hundred years ago from the date of this writing, a +magnificently gilded and painted cangia was descending the Nile as +rapidly as fifty long, flat oars, which seemed to crawl over the +furrowed water like the legs of a gigantic scarabæus, could impel it.</p> + +<p>This cangia was narrow, long, elevated at both ends in the form of a new +moon, elegantly proportioned, and admirably built for speed; the figure +of a ram's head, surmounted by a golden globe, armed the point of the +prow, showing that the vessel belonged to some personage of royal +blood.</p> + +<p>In the centre of the vessel arose a flat-roofed cabin—a sort of <i>naos</i>, +or tent of honor—colored and gilded, ornamented with palm-leaf +mouldings, and lighted by four little square windows.</p> + +<p>Two chambers, both decorated with hieroglyphic paintings, occupied the +horns of the crescent. One of them, the larger, had a second story of +lesser height built upon it, like the <i>châteaux gaillards</i> of those +fantastic galleys of the sixteenth century drawn by Della-Bella; the +other and smaller chamber, which also served as a pilot-house, was +surmounted with a triangular pediment.</p> + +<p>In lieu of a rudder, two immense oars, adjusted upon stakes decorated +with stripes of paint, which served in place of our modern row-locks, +extended into the water in rear of the vessel like the webbed feet of a +swan; heads crowned with <i>pshents</i>, and bearing the allegorical horn +upon their chins, were sculptured upon the handles of these huge oars, +which were manœuvred by the pilot as he stood upon the deck of the +cabin above.</p> + +<p>He was a swarthy man, tawny as new bronze, with bluish surface gleams +playing over his dark skin; long oblique eyes, hair deeply black and +all plaited into little cords, full lips, high cheek-bones, ears +standing out from the skull—the Egyptian type in all its purity. A +narrow strip of cotton about his loins, together with five or six +strings of glass beads and a few amulets, comprised his whole costume.</p> + +<p>He appeared to be the only one on board the cangia; for the rowers +bending over their oars, and concealed from view by the gunwales, made +their presence known only through the symmetrical movements of the oars +themselves, which spread open alternately on either side of the vessel, +like the ribs of a fan, and fell regularly back into the water after a +short pause.</p> + +<p>Not a breath of air was stirring; and the great triangular sail of the +cangia, tied up and bound to the lowered mast with a silken cord, +testified that all hope of the wind rising had been abandoned.</p> + +<p>The noonday sun shot his arrows perpendicularly from above; the +ashen-hued slime of the river banks reflected the fiery glow; a raw +light, glaring and blinding in its intensity, poured down in torrents +of flame; the azure of the sky whitened in the heat as a metal whitens +in the furnace; an ardent and lurid fog smoked in the horizon. Not a +cloud appeared in the sky—a sky mournful and changeless as Eternity.</p> + +<p>The water of the Nile, sluggish and wan, seemed to slumber in its +course, and slowly extend itself in sheets of molten tin. No breath of +air wrinkled its surface, or bowed down upon their stalks the cups of +the lotus-flowers, as rigidly motionless as though sculptured; at long +intervals the leap of a bechir or fabaka expanding its belly scarcely +caused a silvery gleam upon the current; and the oars of the cangia +seemed with difficulty to tear their way through the fuliginous film of +that curdled water. The banks were desolate, a solemn and mighty sadness +weighed upon this land, which was never aught else than a vast tomb, and +in which the living appeared to be solely occupied in the work of +burying the dead. It was an arid sadness, dry as pumice stone, without +melancholy, without reverie, without one pearly gray cloud to follow +toward the horizon, one secret spring wherein to lave one's dusty feet; +the sadness of a sphinx weary of eternally gazing upon the desert, and +unable to detach herself from the granite socle upon which she has +sharpened her claws for twenty centuries.</p> + +<p>So profound was the silence that it seemed as though the world had +become dumb, or that the air had lost all power of conveying sound. The +only noises which could be heard at intervals were the whisperings and +stifled "chuckling" of the crocodiles, which, enfeebled by the heat, +were wallowing among the bullrushes by the river banks; or the sound +made by some ibis, which, tired of standing with one leg doubled up +against its stomach, and its head sunk between its shoulders, suddenly +abandoned its motionless attitude, and, brusquely whipping the blue air +with its white wings, flew off to perch upon an obelisk or a palm-tree. +The cangia flew like, an arrow over the smooth river-water, leaving +behind it a silvery wake which soon disappeared; and only a few +foam-bubbles rising to break at the surface of the stream bore testimony +to the passage of the vessel, then already out of sight.</p> + +<p>The ochre-hued or salmon-colored banks unrolled themselves rapidly, like +scrolls of papyrus, between the double azure of water and sky so similar +in tint that the slender tongue of earth which separated them seemed +like a causeway stretching over an immense lake, and that it would have +been difficult to determine whether the Nile reflected the sky, or +whether the sky reflected the Nile.</p> + +<p>The scene continually changed. At one moment were visible gigantic +propylæa, whose sloping walls, painted with large panels of fantastic +figures, were mirrored in the river; pylons with broad-bulging capitals; +stairways guarded by huge crouching sphinxes, wearing caps with lappets +of many folds, and crossing their paws of black basalt below their +sharply projecting breasts; palaces, immeasurably vast, projecting +against the horizon the severe horizontal lines of their entablatures, +where the emblematic globe unfolded its mysterious wings like an eagle's +vast-extending pinions; temples with enormous columns thick as towers, +on which were limned processions of hieroglyphic figures against a +background of brilliant white—all the monstrosities of that Titanic +architecture. Again the eye beheld only land-scapes of desolate +aridity—hills formed of stony fragments from excavations and building +works, crumbs of that gigantic debauch of granite which lasted for more +than thirty centuries; mountains exfoliated by heat, and mangled and +striped with black lines which seemed like the cauterizations of a +conflagration; hillocks humped and deformed, squatting like the +criocephalus of the tombs, and projecting the outlines of their +misshapen attitude against the sky-line; expanses of greenish clay, +reddle, flour-white tufa; and from time to time some steep cliff of dry, +rose-colored granite, where yawned the black mouths of the stone +quarries.</p> + +<p>This aridity was wholly unrelieved; no oasis of foliage refreshed the +eye; green seemed to be a color unknown to that nature; only some meagre +palm-tree, like a vegetable crab, appeared from time to time in the +horizon; or a thorny fig-tree brandished its tempered leaves like sword +blades of bronze; or a carthamus-plant, which had found a little +moisture to live upon in the shadow of some fragment of a broken column, +relieved the general uniformity with a speck of crimson.</p> + +<p>After this rapid glance at the aspect of the landscape, let us return to +the cangia with its fifty rowers, and, without announcing ourselves, +enter boldly into the <i>naos</i> of honor.</p> + +<p>The interior was painted white with green arabesques, bands of +vermilion, and gilt flowers fantastically shaped; an exceedingly fine +rush matting covered the floor; at the further end stood a little bed, +supported upon griffin's feet, having a back resembling that of a modern +lounge or sofa; a stool with four steps to enable one to climb into bed; +and (rather an odd luxury according to our ideas of comfort) a sort of +hemicycle of cedar wood, supported upon a single leg, and designed to +fit the nape of the neck so as to support the head of the person +reclining.</p> + +<p>Upon this strange pillow reposed a most charming head, one look of +which once caused the loss of half a world; an adorable, a divine head; +the head of the most perfect woman that ever lived; the most womanly and +most queenly of all women; an admirable type of beauty which the +imagination of poets could never invest with any new grace, and which +dreamers will find forever in the depths of their dreams—it is not +necessary to name Cleopatra.</p> + +<p>Beside her stood her favorite slave Charmion, waving a large fan of ibis +feathers; and a young girl was moistening with scented water the little +reed blinds attached to the windows of the <i>naos</i>, so that the air might +only enter impregnated with fresh odors.</p> + +<p>Near the bed of repose, in a striped vase of alabaster with a slender +neck and a peculiarly elegant, tapering shape, vaguely recalling the +form of a heron, was placed a bouquet of lotus-flowers, some of a +celestial blue, others of a tender rose-color, like the finger-tips of +Isis the great goddess.</p> + +<p>Either from caprice or policy, Cleopatra did not wear the Greek dress +that day. She had just attended a panegyris,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and was returning to +her summer palace still clad in the Egyptian costume she had worn at the +festival.</p> + +<p>Perhaps our fair readers will feel curious to know how Queen Cleopatra +was attired on her return from the Mammisi of Hermonthis whereat were +worshipped the holy triad of the god Mandou, the goddess Ritho, and +their son, Harphra; luckily we are able to satisfy them in this regard.</p> + +<p>For headdress Queen Cleopatra wore a kind of very light helmet of beaten +gold, fashioned in the form of the body and wings of the sacred +partridge. The wings, opening downward like fans, covered the temples, +and extending below, almost to the neck, left exposed on either side, +through a small aperture, an ear rosier and more delicately curled than +the shell whence arose that Venus whom the Egyptians named Athor; the +tail of the bird occupied that place where our women wear their +chignons; its body, covered with imbricated feathers, and painted in +variegated enamel, concealed the upper part of the head; and its neck, +gracefully curving forward over the forehead of the wearer, formed +together with its little head a kind of horn-shaped ornament, all +sparkling with precious stones; a symbolic crest, designed like a tower, +completed this odd but elegant headdress. Hair dark as a starless night +flowed from beneath this helmet, and streamed in long tresses over the +fair shoulders whereof the commencement only, alas! was left exposed by +a collarette, or gorget, adorned with many rows of serpentine stones, +azodrachs, and chrysoberyls; a linen robe diagonally cut—a mist of +material, of woven air, <i>ventus textilis</i> as Petronius says, undulated +in vapory whiteness about a lovely body whose outlines it scarcely +shaded with the softest shading. This robe had half-sleeves, tight at +the shoulder, but widening toward the elbows like our <i>manches-à-sabot</i>, +and permitting a glimpse of an adorable arm and a perfect hand, the arm +being clasped by six golden bracelets, and the hand adorned with a ring +representing the sacred scarabæus. A girdle, whose knotted ends hung +down in front, confined this free-floating tunic at the waist; a short +cloak adorned with fringing completed the costume; and, if a few +barbarous words will not frighten Parisian ears, we might add that the +robe was called <i>schenti,</i> and the short cloak, <i>calisiris</i>.</p> + +<p>Finally, we may observe that Queen Cleopatra wore very thin, light +sandals, turned up at the toes, and fastened over the instep, like the +<i>Souliers-à-la-poulaine</i> of the mediæval <i>chatelaines</i>.</p> + +<p>But Queen Cleopatra did not wear that air of satisfaction which becomes +a woman conscious of being perfectly beautiful and perfectly well +dressed. She tossed and turned in her little bed, and her sudden +movements momentarily disarranged the folds of her gauzy <i>conopeum</i>, +which Charmion as often rearranged with inexhaustible patience, and +without ceasing to wave her fan.</p> + +<p>"This room is stifling," said Cleopatra; "even if Pthah the God of Fire +established his forges in here, he could not make it hotter; the air is +like the breath of a furnace!" And she moistened her lips with the tip +of her little tongue, and stretched out her hand like a feverish patient +seeking an absent cup.</p> + +<p>Charmion, ever attentive, at once clapped her hands. A black slave +clothed in a short tunic hanging in folds like an Albanian petticoat, +and a panther-skin thrown over his shoulders, entered with the +suddenness of an apparition; with his left hand balancing a tray laden +with cups, and slices of watermelon, and carrying in his right a long +vase with a spout like a modern teapot.</p> + +<p>The slave filled one of these cups, pouring the liquor into it from a +considerable height with marvellous dexterity, and placed it before the +queen. Cleopatra merely touched the beverage with her lips, laid the cup +down beside her, and turning upon Charmion her beautiful liquid black +eyes, lustrous with living light, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"O Charmion, I am weary unto death!"</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Panegyris</i>; pl., <i>panegyreis</i>,—from the Greek [], +—signifies the meeting of a whole people to worship at a common +sanctuary or participate in a national religious festival. The +assemblies at the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, or Isthmian games were in +this sense <i>panegyreis</i>. See Smith's Dict. Antiq.—(Trans.)</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIa" id="CHAPTER_IIa"></a>CHAPTER II</h3> + + +<p>Charmion, at once anticipating a confidence, assumed a look of pained +sympathy, and drew nearer to her mistress.</p> + +<p>"I am horribly weary!" continued Cleopatra, letting her arms fall like +one utterly discouraged. "This Egypt crushes, annihilates me; this sky +with its implacable azure is sadder than the deep night of Erebus; never +a cloud, never a shadow, and always that red, sanguine sun, which glares +down upon you like the eye of a Cyclops. Ah, Charmion, I would give a +pearl for one drop of rain! From the inflamed pupil of that sky of +bronze no tear has ever yet fallen upon the desolation of this land; it +is only a vast covering for a tomb—the dome of a necropolis; a sky dead +and dried up like the mummies it hangs over; it weighs upon my shoulders +like an over-heavy mantle; it constrains and terrifies me; it seems to +me that I could not stand up erect without striking my forehead against +it. And, moreover, this land is truly an awful land; all things in it +are gloomy, enigmatic, incomprehensible. Imagination has produced in it +only monstrous chimeras and monuments immeasurable; this architecture +and this art fill me with fear; those colossi, whose stone-entangled +limbs compel them to remain eternally sitting with their hands upon +their knees, weary me with their stupid immobility; they trouble my eyes +and my horizon. When, indeed, shall the giant come who is to take them +by the hand and relieve them from their long watch of twenty centuries? +For even granite itself must grow weary at last! Of what master, then, +do they await the coming, to leave their mountain-seats and rise in +token of respect? Of what invisible flock are those huge sphinxes the +guardians, crouching like dogs on the watch, that they never close their +eyelids, and forever extend their claws in readiness to seize? Why are +their stony eyes so obstinately fixed upon eternity and infinity? What +weird secret do their firmly locked lips retain within their breasts? On +the right hand, on the left, whithersoever one turns, only frightful +monsters are visible—dogs with the heads of men; men with the heads of +dogs; chimeras begotten of hideous couplings in the shadowy depths of +the labyrinths; figures of Anubis, Typhon, Osiris; partridges with great +yellow eyes that seem to pierce through you with their inquisitorial +gaze, and see beyond and behind you things which one dare not speak +of—a family of animals and horrible gods with scaly wings, hooked +beaks, trenchant claws, ever ready to seize and devour you should you +venture to cross the threshold of the temple, or lift a corner of the +veil.</p> + +<p>"Upon the walls, upon the columns, on the ceilings, on the floors, upon +palaces and temples, in the long passages and the deepest pits of the +necropoli, even within the bowels of the earth where light never comes, +and where the flames of the torches die for want of air, forever and +everywhere are sculptured and painted interminable hieroglyphics, +telling in language unintelligible of things which are no longer known, +and which belong, doubtless, to the vanished creations of the +past—prodigious buried works wherein a whole nation was sacrificed to +write the epitaph of one king! Mystery and granite—this is Egypt! Truly +a fair land for a young woman, and a young queen.</p> + +<p>"Menacing and funereal symbols alone meet the eye—the emblems of the +<i>pedum,</i> the <i>tau</i>, allegorical globes, coiling serpents, and the scales +in which souls are weighed—the Unknown, death, nothingness. In the +place of any vegetation only <i>stelæ</i> limned with weird characters; +instead of avenues of trees, avenues of granite obelisks; in lieu of +soil, vast pavements of granite for which whole mountains could each +furnish but one slab; in place of a sky, ceilings of granite—eternity +made palpable, a bitter and everlasting sarcasm upon the frailty and +brevity of life—stairways built only for the limbs of Titans, which the +human foot cannot ascend save by the aid of ladders; columns that a +hundred arms cannot encircle; labyrinths in which one might travel for +years without discovering the termination—the vertigo of enormity, the +drunkenness of the gigantic, the reckless efforts of that pride which +would at any cost engrave its name deeply upon the face of the world.</p> + +<p>"And, moreover, Charmion, I tell you a thought haunts me which terrifies +me. In other lands of the earth, corpses are burned, and their ashes +soon mingle with the soil. Here, it is said that the living have no +other occupation than that of preserving the dead. Potent balms save +them from destruction; the remains endure after the soul has evaporated. +Beneath this people lie twenty peoples; each city stands upon twenty +layers of necropoli; each generation which passes away leaves a +population of mummies to a shadowy city. Beneath the father you find the +grandfather and the great-grandfather in their gilded and painted boxes, +even as they were during life; and should you dig down forever, forever +you would still find the underlying dead.</p> + +<p>"When I think upon those bandage-swathed myriads—those multitudes of +parched spectres who fill the sepulchral pits, and who have been there +for two thousand years face to face in their own silence, which nothing +ever breaks, not even the noise which the graveworms make in crawling, +and who will be found intact after yet another two thousand years, with +their crocodiles, their cats, their ibises, and all things that lived in +their lifetime—then terrors seize me, and I feel my flesh creep. What +do they mutter to each other? For they still have lips, and every ghost +would find its body in the same state as when it quitted it, if they +should all take the fancy to return.</p> + +<p>"Ah, truly is Egypt a sinister kingdom and little suited to me, the +laughter-loving and merry one. Everything in it encloses a mummy; that +is the heart and the kernel of all things. After a thousand turns you +must always end there; the Pyramids themselves hide sarcophagi. What +nothingness and madness is this! Disembowel the sky with gigantic +triangles of stone—you cannot thereby lengthen your corpse an inch. How +can one rejoice and live in a land like this, where the only perfume you +can respire is the acrid odor of the naphtha and bitumen which boil in +the caldrons of the embalmers, where the very flooring of your chamber +sounds hollow because the corridors of the hypogea and the mortuary pits +extend even under your alcove? To be the queen of mummies, to have none +to converse with but statues in constrained and rigid attitudes—this +is, in truth, a cheerful lot. Again, if I only had some heartfelt +passion to relieve this melancholy, some interest in life; if I could +but love somebody or something; if I were even loved; but I am not.</p> + +<p>"This is why I am weary, Charmion. With love, this grim and arid Egypt +would seem to me fairer than even Greece with her ivory gods, her +temples of snowy marble, her groves of laurel, and fountains of living +water. There I should never dream of the weird face of Anubis and the +ghastly terrors of the cities underground."</p> + +<p>Charmion smiled incredulously. "That ought not, surely, to be a source +of much grief to you, O queen; for every glance of your eyes +transpierces hearts, like the golden arrows of Eros himself."</p> + +<p>"Can a queen," answered Cleopatra, "ever know whether it is her face or +her diadem that is loved? The rays of her starry crown dazzle the eyes +and the heart. Were I to descend from the height of my throne, would I +even have the celebrity or the popularity of Bacchis or Archianassa, of +the first courtesan from Athens or Miletus? A queen is something so far +removed from men, so elevated, so widely separated from them, so +impossible for them to reach! What presumption dare flatter itself in +such an enterprise? It is not simply a woman, it is an august and sacred +being that has no sex, and that is worshipped kneeling without being +loved. Who was ever really enamoured of Hera the snowy-armed or Pallas +of the sea-green eyes? Who ever sought to kiss the silver feet of Thetis +or the rosy fingers of Aurora? What lover of the divine beauties ever +took unto himself wings that he might soar to the golden palaces of +heaven? Respect and fear chill hearts in our presence, and in order to +obtain the love of our equals, one must descend into those necropoli of +which I have just been speaking."</p> + +<p>Although she offered no further objection to the arguments of her +mistress, a vague smile which played about the lips of the handsome +Greek slave showed that she had little faith in the inviolability of the +royal person.</p> + +<p>"Ah," continued Cleopatra, "I wish that something would happen to me, +some strange, unexpected adventure. The songs of the poets; the dances +of the Syrian slaves; the banquets, rose garlanded, and prolonged into +the dawn; the nocturnal races; the Laconian dogs; the tame lions; the +hump-backed dwarfs; the brotherhood of the Inimitables; the combats of +the arena; the new dresses; the byssus robes; the clusters of pearls; +the perfumes from Asia; the most exquisite of luxuries; the wildest of +splendors—nothing any longer gives me pleasure. Everything has become +indifferent to me, everything is insupportable to me."</p> + +<p>"It is easily to be seen," muttered Charmion to herself, "that the queen +has not had a lover nor had anyone killed for a whole month."</p> + +<p>Fatigued with so lengthy a tirade, Cleopatra once more took the cup +placed beside her, moistened her lips with it, and putting her head +beneath her arm, like a dove putting its head under its wing, composed +herself for slumber as best she could. Charmion unfastened her sandals +and commenced to gently tickle the soles of her feet with a peacock's +feather, and Sleep soon sprinkled his golden dust upon the beautiful +eyes of Ptolemy's sister.</p> + +<p>While Cleopatra sleeps, let us ascend upon deck and enjoy the glorious sunset +view. A broad band of violet color, warmed deeply with ruddy tints toward the +west, occupies all the lower portion of the sky; encountering the zone of azure +above, the violet shade melts into a clear lilac, and fades off through +half-rosy tints into the blue beyond; afar, where the sun, red as a buckler +fallen from the furnace of Vulcan, casts his burning reflection, the deeper +shades turn to pale citron hues, and glow with turquoise tints. The water, +rippling under an oblique beam of light, shines with the dull gleam of the +quicksilvered side of a mirror, or like a damascened blade. The sinuosities of +the bank, the reeds, and all objects along the shore are brought out in sharp +black relief against the bright glow. By the aid of this crepuscular light you +may perceive afar off, like a grain of dust floating upon quicksilver, a little +brown speck trembling in the network of luminous ripples. Is it a teal diving, +a tortoise lazily drifting with the current, a crocodile raising the tip of his +scaly snout above the water to breathe the cooler air of evening, the belly of +a hippopotamus gleaming amidstream, or perhaps a rock left bare by the falling +of the river? For the ancient Opi-Mou, Father of Waters, sadly needs to +replenish his dry urn from the solstitial rains of the Mountains of the Moon.</p> + +<p>It is none of these. By the atoms of Osiris so deftly resewn together, +it is a man, who seems to walk, to skate, upon the water! Now the frail +bark which sustains him becomes visible, a very nutshell of a boat, a +hollow fish; three strips of bark fitted together (one for the bottom +and two for the sides), and strongly fastened at either end by cord well +smeared with bitumen. The man stands erect, with one foot on either side +of this fragile vessel, which he impels with a single oar that also +serves the purpose of a rudder; and although the royal cangia moves +rapidly under the efforts of the fifty rowers, the little black bark +visibly gains upon it.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra desired some strange adventure, something wholly unexpected. +This little bark which moves so mysteriously seems to us to be conveying +an adventure, or, at least, an adventurer. Perhaps it contains the hero +of our story; the thing is not impossible.</p> + +<p>At any rate he was a handsome youth of twenty, with hair so black that +it seemed to own a tinge of blue, a skin blonde as gold, and a form so +perfectly proportioned that he might have been taken for a bronze statue +by Lysippus. Although he had been rowing for a very long time he +betrayed no sign of fatigue, and not a single drop of sweat bedewed his +forehead.</p> + +<p>The sun half sank below the horizon, and against his broken disk figured +the dark silhouette of a far distant city, which the eye could not have +distinguished but for this accidental effect of light. His radiance soon +faded altogether away, and the stars, fair night-flowers of heaven, +opened their chalices of gold in the azure of the firmament. The royal +cangia, closely followed by the little bark, stopped before a huge +marble stairway, whereof each step supported one of those sphinxes that +Cleopatra so much detested. This was the landing-place of the summer +palace.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra, leaning upon Charmion, passed swiftly, like a gleaming +vision, between a double line of lantern-bearing slaves.</p> + +<p>The youth took from the bottom of his little boat a great lion-skin, +threw it across his shoulders, drew the tiny shell upon the beach, and +wended his way toward the palace.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIIa" id="CHAPTER_IIIa"></a>CHAPTER III</h3> + + +<p>Who is this young man, balancing himself upon a fragment of bark, who +dares follow the royal cangia, and is able to contend in a race of speed +against fifty strong rowers from the land of Kush, all naked to to the +waist, and anointed with palm-oil? What secret motive urges him to this +swift pursuit? That, indeed, is one of the many things we are obliged to +know in our character of the intuition-gifted poet, for whose benefit +all men, and even all women (a much more difficult matter), must have +in their breasts that little window which Momus of old demanded.</p> + +<p>It is not a very easy thing to find out precisely what a young man from +the land of Kemi, who followed the barge of Cleopatra, queen and goddess +Evergetes, on her return from the Mammisi of Hermonthis two thousand +years ago, was then thinking of. But we shall make the effort +notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>Meïamoun, son of Mandouschopsh, was a youth of strange character; +nothing by which ordinary minds are affected made any impression upon +him. He seemed to belong to some loftier race, and might well have been +regarded as the offspring of some divine adultery. His glance had the +steady brilliancy of a falcon's gaze, and a serene majesty sat on his +brow as upon a pedestal of marble; a noble pride curled his upper lip, +and expanded his nostrils like those of a fiery horse. Although owning a +grace of form almost maidenly in its delicacy, and though the bosom of +the fair and effeminate god Dionysos was not more softly rounded or +smoother than his, yet beneath this soft exterior were hidden sinews of +steel and the strength of Hercules—a strange privilege of certain +antique natures to unite in themselves the beauty of woman with the +strength of man.</p> + +<p>As for his complexion, we must acknowledge that it was of a tawny orange +color, a hue little in accordance with our white-and-rose ideas of +beauty; but which did not prevent him from being a very charming young +man, much sought after by all kinds of women—yellow, red, +copper-colored, sooty-black, or golden skinned, and even by one fair, +white Greek.</p> + +<p>Do not suppose from this that Meïamoun's lot was altogether enviable. +The ashes of aged Priam, the very snows of Hippolytus, were not more +insensible or more frigid; the young white-robed neophyte preparing for +the initiation into the mysteries of Isis led no chaster life; the young +maiden benumbed by the icy shadow of her mother was not more shyly pure.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, for so coy a youth, the pleasures of Meïamoun were +certainly of a singular nature. He would go forth quietly some morning +with his little buckler of hippopotamus hide, his <i>harpe</i> or curved +sword, a triangular bow, and a snake-skin quiver filled with barbed +arrows; then he would ride at a gallop far into the desert, upon his +slender-limbed, small-headed, wild-maned mare, until he could find some +lion-tracks. He especially delighted in taking the little lion-cubs from +underneath the belly of their mother. In all things he loved the +perilous or the unachievable. He preferred to walk where it seemed +impossible for any human being to obtain a foothold, or to swim in a +raging torrent, and he had accordingly chosen the neighborhood of the +cataracts for his bathing place in the Nile. The Abyss called him!</p> + +<p>Such was Meïamoun, son of Mandouschopsh.</p> + +<p>For some time his humors had been growing more savage than ever. During +whole months he buried himself in the Ocean of Sands, returning only at +long intervals. Vainly would his uneasy mother lean from her terrace and +gaze anxiously down the long road with tireless eyes. At last, after +weary waiting, a little whirling cloud of dust would become visible in +the horizon, and finally the cloud would open to allow a full view of +Meïamoun, all covered with dust, riding upon a mare gaunt as a wolf, +with red and bloodshot eyes, nostrils trembling, and huge scars along +her flanks—scars which certainly were not made by spurs.</p> + +<p>After having hung up in his room some hyena or lion skin, he would start +off again.</p> + +<p>And yet no one might have been happier than Meïamoun. He was beloved by +Nephthe, daughter of the priest Afomouthis, and the loveliest woman of +the Nome Arsinoïtes. Only such a being as Meïamoun could have failed to +see that Nephthe had the most charmingly oblique and indescribably +voluptuous eyes, a mouth sweetly illuminated by ruddy smiles, little +teeth of wondrous whiteness and transparency, arms exquisitely round, +and feet more perfect than the jasper feet of the statue of Isis. +Assuredly there was not a smaller hand nor longer hair than hers in all +Egypt. The charms of Nephthe could have been eclipsed only by those of +Cleopatra. But who could dare to dream of loving Cleopatra? Ixion, +enamoured of Juno, strained only a cloud to his bosom, and must forever +roll the wheel of his punishment in hell.</p> + +<p>It was Cleopatra whom Meïamoun loved.</p> + +<p>He had at first striven to tame this wild passion; he had wrestled +fiercely with it; but love cannot be strangled even as a lion is +strangled, and the strong skill of the mightiest athlete avails nothing +in such a contest. The arrow had remained in the wound, and he carried +it with him everywhere. The radiant and splendid image of Cleopatra, +with her golden-pointed diadem and her imperial purple, standing above a +nation on their knees, illumined his nightly dreams and his waking +thoughts. Like some imprudent man who has dared to look at the sun and +forever thereafter beholds an impalpable blot floating before his eyes, +so Meïamoun ever beheld Cleopatra. Eagles may gaze undazzled at the sun, +but what diamond eye can with impunity fix itself upon a beautiful +woman, a beautiful queen?</p> + +<p>He commenced at last to spend his life in wandering about the +neighborhood of the royal dwelling, that he might at least breathe the +same air as Cleopatra, that he might sometimes kiss the almost +imperceptible print of her foot upon the sand (a happiness, alas! rare +indeed). He attended the sacred festivals and <i>panegyreis</i>, striving to +obtain one beaming glance of her eyes, to catch in passing one stealthy +glimpse of her loveliness in some of its thousand varied aspects. At +other moments, filled with sudden shame of this mad life, he gave +himself up to the chase with redoubled ardor, and sought by fatigue to +tame the ardor of his blood and the impetuosity of his desires.</p> + +<p>He had gone to the panegyris of Hermonthis, and, in the vague hope of +beholding the queen again for an instant as she disembarked at the +summer palace, had followed her cangia in his boat—little heeding the +sharp stings of the sun—through a heat intense enough to make the +panting sphinxes melt in lava-sweat upon their reddened pedestals.</p> + +<p>And then he felt that the supreme moment was nigh, that the decisive +instant of his life was at hand, and that he could not die with his +secret in his breast.</p> + +<p>It is a strange situation truly to find one-self enamoured of a queen. +It is as though one loved a star; yet she, the star, comes forth nightly +to sparkle in her place in heaven. It is a kind of mysterious +rendezvous. You may find her again, you may see her; she is not offended +at your gaze. Oh, misery! to be poor, unknown, obscure, seated at the +very foot of the ladder, and to feel one's heart breaking with love for +something glittering, solemn, and magnificent—for a woman whose meanest +female attendant would scorn you!—to gaze fixedly and fatefully upon +one who never sees you, who never will see you; one to whom you are no +more than a ripple on the sea of humanity, in nowise differing from the +other ripples, and who might a hundred times encounter you without once +recognizing you; to have no reason to offer should an opportunity for +addressing her present itself in excuse for such mad audacity—neither +poetical talent, nor great genius, nor any superhuman +qualification—nothing but love; and to be able to offer in exchange +for beauty, nobility, power, and all imaginable splendor only one's +passion and one's youth—rare offerings, forsooth!</p> + +<p>Such were the thoughts which overwhelmed Meïamoun. Lying upon the sand, +supporting his chin on his palms, he permitted himself to be lifted and +borne away by the inexhaustible current of reverie; he sketched out a +thousand projects, each madder than the last. He felt convinced that he +was seeking after the unattainable, but he lacked the courage to frankly +renounce his undertaking, and a perfidious hope came to whisper some +lying promises in his ear.</p> + +<p>"Athor, mighty goddess," he murmured in a deep voice, "what evil have I +done against thee that I should be made thus miserable? Art thou +avenging thyself for my disdain of Nephthe, daughter of the priest +Afomouthis? Hast thou afflicted me thus for having rejected the love of +Lamia, the Athenian hetaira, or of Flora, the Roman courtesan? Is it my +fault that my heart should be sensible only to the matchless beauty of +thy rival, Cleopatra? Why hast thou wounded my soul with the envenomed +arrow of unattainable love? What sacrifice, what offerings dost thou +desire? Must I erect to thee a chapel of the rosy marble of Syene with +columns crowned by gilded capitals, a ceiling all of one block, and +hieroglyphics deeply sculptured by the best workmen of Memphis and of +Thebes? Answer me."</p> + +<p>Like all gods or goddesses thus invoked, Athor answered not a word, and +Meïamoun resolved upon a desperate expedient.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra, on her part, likewise invoked the goddess Athor. She prayed +for a new pleasure, for some fresh sensation. As she languidly reclined +upon her couch she thought to herself that the number of the senses was +sadly limited, that the most exquisite refinements of delight soon +yielded to satiety, and that it was really no small task for a queen to +find means of occupying her time. To test new poisons upon slaves; to +make men fight with tigers, or gladiators with each other; to drink +pearls dissolved; to swallow the wealth of a whole province all these +things had become commonplace! and insipid.</p> + +<p>Charmion was fairly at her wit's end, and knew not what to do for her +mistress.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a whistling sound was heard, and an arrow buried itself, +quivering, in the cedar wainscoting of the wall.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra well-nigh fainted with terror. Charmion ran to the window, +leaned out, and beheld only a flake of foam on the surface of the river. +A scroll of papyrus encircled the wood of the arrow. It bore only these +words, written in Phœnician characters, "I love you!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IVa" id="CHAPTER_IVa"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3> + + +<p>"I love you," repeated Cleopatra, making the serpent-coiling strip of +papyrus writhe between her delicate white fingers. "Those, are the words +I longed for. What intelligent spirit, what invisible genius has thus so +fully comprehended my desire?"</p> + +<p>And thoroughly aroused from her languid torpor, she sprang out of bed +with the agility of a cat which has scented a mouse, placed her little +ivory feet in her embroidered <i>tatbebs</i>, threw a byssus tunic over her +shoulders, and ran to the window from which Charmion was still gazing.</p> + +<p>The night was clear and calm. The risen moon outlined with huge angles +of light and shadow the architectural masses of the palace, which stood +out in strong relief against a background of bluish transparency; and +the waters of the river, wherein her reflection lengthened into a +shining column, were frosted with silvery ripples. A gentle breeze, such +as might have been mistaken for the respiration of the slumbering +sphinxes, quivered among the reeds and shook the azure bells of the +lotus flowers; the cables of the vessels moored to the Nile's banks +groaned feebly, and the rippling tide moaned upon the shore like a dove +lamenting for its mate. A vague perfume of vegetation, sweeter than that +of the aromatics burned in the <i>anschir</i> of the priests of Anubis, +floated into the chamber. It was one of those enchanted nights of the +Orient, which are more splendid than our fairest days; for our sun can +ill compare with that Oriental moon.</p> + +<p>"Do you not see far over there, almost in the middle of the river, the +head of a man swimming? See, he crosses that track of light, and passes +into the shadow beyond! He is already out of sight!" And, supporting +herself upon Charmion's shoulder, she leaned out, with half of her fair +body beyond the sill of the window, in the effort to catch another +glimpse of the mysterious swimmer; but a grove of Nile acacias, +dhoum-palms, and sayals flung its deep shadow upon the river in that +direction, and protected the flight of the daring fugitive. If Meïamoun +had but had the courtesy to look back, he might have beheld Cleopatra, +the sidereal queen, eagerly seeking him through the night gloom—he, the +poor obscure Egyptian, the miserable lion-hunter.</p> + +<p>"Charmion, Charmion, send hither Phrehipephbour, the chief of the +rowers, and have two boats despatched in pursuit of that man!" cried +Cleopatra, whose curiosity was excited to the highest pitch.</p> + +<p>Phrehipephbour appeared, a man of the race of Nahasi, with large hands +and muscular arms, wearing a red cap not unlike a Phrygian helmet in +form, and clad only in a pair of narrow drawers diagonally striped with +white and blue. His huge torso, entirely nude, black and polished like a +globe of jet, shone under the lamplight. He received the commands of the +queen and instantly retired to execute them.</p> + +<p>Two long, narrow boats, so light that the least inattention to +equilibrium would capsize them, were soon cleaving the waters of the +Nile with hissing rapidity under the efforts of the twenty vigorous +rowers, but the pursuit was all in vain. After searching the river banks +in every direction, and carefully exploring every patch of reeds, +Phrehipephbour returned to the palace, having only succeeded in putting +to flight some solitary heron which had been sleeping on one leg, or in +troubling the digestion of some terrified crocodile.</p> + +<p>So intense was the vexation of Cleopatra at being thus foiled, that she +felt a strong inclination to condemn Phrehipephbour either to the wild +beasts or to the hardest labor at the grindstone. Happily, Charmion +interceded for the trembling unfortunate, who turned pale with fear, +despite his black skin. It was the first time in Cleopatra's life that +one of her desires had not been gratified as soon as expressed, and she +experienced, in consequence, a kind of uneasy surprise; a first doubt, +as it were, of her own omnipotence.</p> + +<p>She, Cleopatra, wife and sister of Ptolemy—she who had been proclaimed +goddess Evergetes, living queen of the regions Above and Below, Eye of +Light, Chosen of the Sun (as may still be read within the cartouches +sculptured on the walls of the temples)—she to find an obstacle in her +path, to have wished aught that failed of accomplishment, to have spoken +and not been obeyed! As well be the wife of some wretched Paraschistes, +some corpse-cutter, and melt natron in a caldron! It was monstrous, +preposterous! and none but the most gentle and clement of queens could +have refrained from crucifying that miserable Phrehipephbour.</p> + +<p>You wished for some adventure, something strange and unexpected. Your +wish has been gratified. You find that your kingdom is not so dead as +you deemed it. It was not the stony arm of a statue which shot that +arrow; it was not from a mummy's heart that came those three words which +have moved even you—you who smilingly watched your poisoned slaves +dashing their heads and beating their feet upon your beautiful mosaic +and porphyry pavements in the convulsions of death-agony; you who even +applauded the tiger which boldly buried its muzzle in the flank of some +vanquished gladiator.</p> + +<p>You could obtain all else you might wish for—chariots of silver, +starred with emeralds; griffin-quadrigeræ; tunics of purple +thrice-dyed; mirrors of molten steel, so clear that you might find the +charms of your loveliness faithfully copied in them; robes from the land +of Serica, so fine and subtly light that they could be drawn through the +ring worn upon your little finger; Orient pearls of wondrous color; cups +wrought by Myron or Lysippus; Indian paroquets that speak like +poets—all things else you could obtain, even should you ask for the +Cestus of Venus or the <i>pshent</i> of Isis, but most certainly you cannot +this night capture the man who shot the arrow which still quivers in +the cedar wood of your couch.</p> + +<p>The task of the slaves who must dress you to-morrow will not be a +grateful one. They will hardly escape with blows. The bosom of the +unskilful waiting-maid will be apt to prove a cushion for the golden +pins of the toilette, and the poor hairdresser will run great risk of +being suspended by her feet from the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"Who could have had the audacity to send me this avowal upon the shaft +of an arrow? Could it have been the Nomarch Amoun-Ra who fancies himself +handsomer than the Apollo of the Greeks? What think you, Charmion? Or +perhaps Cheâpsiro, commander of Hermothybia, who is so boastful of his +conquests in the land of Kush? Or is it not more likely to have been +young Sextus, that Roman debauchee who paints his face, lisps in +speaking, and wears sleeves in the fashion of the Persians?"</p> + +<p>"Queen, it was none of those. Though you are indeed the fairest of +women, those men only natter you; they do not love you. The Nomarch +Amoun-Ra has chosen himself an idol to which he will be forever +faithful, and that is his own person. The warrior Cheâpsiro thinks of +nothing save the pleasure of recounting his victories. As for Sextus, he +is so seriously occupied with the preparation of a new cosmetic that he +cannot dream of anything else. Besides, he had just purchased some +Laconian dresses, a number of yellow tunics embroidered with gold, and +some Asiatic children which absorb all his time. Not one of those fine +lords would risk his head in so daring and dangerous an undertaking; +they do not love you well enough for that.</p> + +<p>"Yesterday, in your cangia, you said that men dared not fix their +dazzled eyes upon you; that they knew only how to turn pale in your +presence, to fall at your feet and supplicate your mercy; and that your +sole remaining resource would be to awake some ancient, bitumen-perfumed +Pharaoh from his gilded coffin. Now here is an ardent and youthful heart +that loves you. What will you do with it?"</p> + +<p>Cleopatra that night sought slumber in vain. She tossed feverishly upon +her couch, and long and vainly invoked Morpheus, the brother of Death. +She incessantly repeated that she was the most unhappy of queens, that +every one sought to persecute her, and that her life had become +insupportable; woeful lamentations which had little effect upon +Charmion, although she pretended to sympathize with them.</p> + +<p>Let us for a while leave Cleopatra to seek fugitive sleep, and direct +her suspicions successively upon each noble of the court. Let us return +to Meïamoun, and as we are much more sagacious than Phrehipephbour, +chief of the rowers, we shall have no difficulty in finding him.</p> + +<p>Terrified at his own hardihood, Meïamoun had thrown himself into the +Nile, and had succeeded in swimming the current and gaining the little +grove of dhoum-palms before Phrehipephbour had even launched the two +boats in pursuit of him.</p> + +<p>When he had recovered breath, and brushed back his long black locks, all +damp with river foam, behind his ears, he began to feel more at ease, +more inwardly calm. Cleopatra possessed something which had come from +him; some sort of communication was now established between them. +Cleopatra was thinking of him, Meïamoun. Perhaps that thought might be +one of wrath; but then he had at least been able to awake some feeling +within her, whether of fear, anger, or pity. He had forced her to the +consciousness of his existence. It was true that he had forgotten to +inscribe his name upon the papyrus scroll, but what more of him could +the queen have learned from the inscription, <i>Meïamoun, Son of +Mandouschopsh</i>? In her eyes the slave and the monarch were equal. A +goddess in choosing a peasant for her lover stoops no lower than in +choosing a patrician or a king. The Immortals from a height so lofty can +behold only love in the man of their choice.</p> + +<p>The thought which had weighed upon his breast like the knee of a +colossus of brass had at last departed. It had traversed the air; it had +even reached the queen herself, the apex of the triangle, the +inaccessible summit. It had aroused curiosity in that impassive heart; a +prodigious advance, truly, toward success.</p> + +<p>Meïamoun, indeed, never suspected that he had so thoroughly succeeded in +this wise, but he felt more tranquil; for he had sworn unto himself by +that mystic Bari who guides the souls of the dead to Amenthi, by the +sacred birds Bermou and Ghenghen, by Typhon and by Osiris, and by all +things awful in Egyptian mythology, that he should be the accepted lover +of Cleopatra, though it were but for a single night, though for only a +single hour, though it should cost him his life and even his very soul.</p> + +<p>If we must explain how he had fallen so deeply in love with a woman whom +he had beheld only from afar off, and to whom he had hardly dared to +raise his eyes—even he who was wont to gaze fearlessly into the yellow +eyes of the lion—or how the tiny seed of love, chance-fallen upon his +heart, had grown there so rapidly and extended its roots so deeply, we +can answer only that it is a mystery which we are unable to explain. We +have already said of Meïamoun,—The Abyss called him.</p> + +<p>Once assured that Phrehipephbour had returned with his rowers, he again +threw himself into the current and once more swam toward the palace of +Cleopatra, whose lamp still shone through the window curtains like a +painted star. Never did Leander swim with more courage and vigor toward +the tower of Sestos; yet for Meïamoun no Hero was waiting, ready to pour +vials of perfume upon his head to dissipate the briny odors of the sea +and banish the sharp kisses of the storm.</p> + +<p>A strong blow from some keen lance or <i>harpe</i> was certainly the worst he +had to fear, and in truth he had but little fear of such things.</p> + +<p>He swam close under the walls of the palace, which bathed its marble +feet in the river's depths, and paused an instant before a submerged +archway into which the water rushed downward in eddying whirls. Twice, +thrice he plunged into the vortex unsuccessfully. At last, with better +luck, he found the opening and disappeared.</p> + +<p>This archway was the opening to a vaulted canal which conducted the +waters of the Nile into the baths of Cleopatra.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Va" id="CHAPTER_Va"></a>CHAPTER V</h3> + + +<p>Cleopatra found no rest until morning, at the hour when wandering dreams +reenter the Ivory Gate. Amid the illusions of sleep she beheld all kinds +of lovers swimming rivers and scaling walls in order to come to her, +and, through the vague souvenirs of the night before, her dreams +appeared fairly riddled with arrows bearing declarations of love. +Starting nervously from time to time in her troubled slumbers, she +struck her little feet unconsciously against the bosom of Charmion, who +lay across the foot of the bed to serve her as a cushion.</p> + +<p>When she awoke, a merry sunbeam was playing through the window curtain, +whose woof it penetrated with a thousand tiny points of light, and +thence came familiarly to the bed, flitting like a golden butterfly over +her lovely shoulders, which it lightly touched in passing by with a +luminous kiss. Happy sunbeam, which the gods might well have envied.</p> + +<p>In a faint voice, like that of a sick child, Cleopatra asked to be +lifted out of bed. Two of her women raised her in their arms and gently +laid her on a tiger-skin stretched upon the floor, of which the eyes +were formed of carbuncles and the claws of gold. Charmion wrapped her in +<i>calasiris</i> of linen whiter than milk, confined her hair in a net of +woven silver threads, tied to her little feet cork <i>tatbebs</i> upon the +soles of which were painted, in token of contempt, two grotesque +figures, representing two men of the races of Nahasi and Nahmou, bound +hand and foot, so that Cleopatra literally deserved the epithet, +"Conculcatrix of Nations,"<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> which the royal cartouche inscriptions +bestow upon her.</p> + +<p>It was the hour for the bath. Cleopatra went to bathe, accompanied by +her women.</p> + +<p>The baths of Cleopatra were built in the midst of immense gardens filled +with mimosas, aloes, carob-trees, citron-trees, and Persian apple-trees, +whose luxuriant freshness afforded a delicious contrast to the arid +appearance of the neighboring vegetation. There, too, vast terraces +uplifted masses of verdant foliage, and enabled flowers to climb almost +to the very sky upon gigantic stairways of rose-colored granite; vases +of Pentelic marble bloomed at the end of each step like huge +lily-flowers, and the plants they contained seemed only their pistils; +chimeras caressed into form by the chisels of the most skilful Greek +sculptors, and less stern of aspect than the Egyptian sphinxes, with +their grim mien and moody attitudes, softly extended their limbs upon +the flower-strewn turf, like shapely white leverettes upon a +drawing-room carpet. These were charming feminine figures, with finely +chiselled nostrils, smooth brows, small mouths, delicately dimpled arms, +breasts fair-rounded and daintily formed; wearing earrings, necklaces, +and all the trinkets suggested by adorable caprice; whose bodies +terminated in bifurcated fishes' tails, like the women described by +Horace, or extended into birds' wings, or rounded into lions' haunches, +or blended into volutes of foliage, according to the fancies of the +artist or in conformity to the architectural position chosen. A double +row of these delightful monsters lined the alley which led from the +palace to the bathing halls.</p> + +<p>At the end of this alley was a huge fountain-basin, approached by four +porphyry stairways. Through the transparent depths of the diamond-clear +water the steps could be seen descending to the bottom of the basin, +which was strewn with gold-dust in lieu of sand. Here figures of women +terminating in pedestals like Caryatides<a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> spurted from their breasts +slender jets of perfumed water, which fell into the basin in silvery +dew, pitting the clear watery mirror with wrinkle-creating drops. In +addition to this task these Caryatides had likewise that of supporting +upon their heads an entablature decorated with Nereids and Tritons in +bas-relief, and furnished with rings of bronze to which the silken cords +of a velarium might be attached. From the portico was visible an +extending expanse of freshly humid, bluish-green verdure and cool shade, +a fragment of the Vale of Tempe transported to Egypt. The famous gardens +of Semiramis would not have borne comparison with these.</p> + +<p>We will not pause to describe the seven or eight other halls of various +temperature, with their hot and cold vapors, perfume boxes, cosmetics, +oils, pumice stone, gloves of woven horsehair, and all the refinements +of the antique balneatory art brought to the highest pitch of voluptuous +perfection.</p> + +<p>Hither came Cleopatra, leaning with one hand upon the shoulder of +Charmion. She had taken at least thirty steps all by herself. Mighty +effort, enormous fatigue! A tender tint of rose commenced to suffuse the +transparent skin of her cheeks, refreshing their passionate pallor; a +blue network of veins relieved the amber blondness of her temples; her +marble forehead, low like the antique foreheads, but full and perfect in +form, united by one faultless line with a straight nose, finely +chiselled as a cameo, with rosy nostrils which the least emotion made +palpitate like the nostrils of an amorous tigress; the lips of her +small, rounded mouth, slightly separated from the nose, wore a +disdainful curve; but an unbridled voluptuousness, an indescribable +vital warmth, glowed in the brilliant crimson and humid lustre of the +under lip. Her eyes were shaded by level eyelids, and eyebrows slightly +arched and delicately outlined. We cannot attempt by description to +convey an idea of their brilliancy. It was a fire, a languor, a +sparkling limpidity which might have made even the dog-headed Anubis +giddy. Every glance of her eyes was in itself a poem richer than aught +of Homer or Mimnermus. An imperial chin, replete with force and power to +command, worthily completed this charming profile.</p> + +<p>She stood erect upon the upper step of the basin, in an attitude full of +proud grace; her figure slightly thrown back, and one foot in suspense, +like a goddess about to leave her pedestal, whose eyes still linger on +heaven. Her robe fell in two superb folds from the peaks of her bosom to +her feet in unbroken lines. Had Cleomenes been her contemporary and +enjoyed the happiness of beholding her thus, he would have broken his +Venus in despair.</p> + +<p>Before entering the water she bade Charmion, for a new caprice, to +change her silver hair-net; she preferred to be crowned with reeds and +lotos-flowers, like a water divinity. Charmion obeyed, and her liberated +hair fell in black cascades over her shoulders, and shadowed her +beautiful cheeks in rich bunches, like ripening grapes.</p> + +<p>Then the linen tunic, which had been confined only by one golden clasp, +glided down over her marble body, and fell in a white cloud at her feet, +like the swan at the feet of Leda....</p> + +<p>And Meïamoun, where was he?</p> + +<p>Oh cruel lot, that so many insensible objects should enjoy the favors +which would ravish a lover with delight! The wind which toys with a +wealth of perfumed hair, or kisses beautiful lips with kisses which it +is unable to appreciate; the water which envelops an adorably beautiful +body in one universal kiss, and is yet, notwithstanding, indifferent to +that exquisite pleasure; the mirror which reflects so many charming +images; the buskin or <i>tatbeb</i> which clasps a divine little foot—oh, +what happiness lost!</p> + +<p>Cleopatra dipped her pink heel in the water and descended a few steps. +The quivering flood made a silver belt about her waist, and silver +bracelets about her arms, and rolled in pearls like a broken necklace +over her bosom and shoulders; her wealth of hair, lifted by the water, +extended behind her like a royal mantle; even in the bath she was a +queen. She swam to and fro, dived, and brought up handfuls of gold-dust +with which she laughingly pelted some of her women. Again, she clung +suspended to the balustrade of the basin, concealing or exposing her +treasures of loveliness—now permitting only her lustrous and polished +back to be seen, now showing her whole figure, like Venus Anadyomene, +and incessantly varying the aspects of her beauty.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she uttered a cry as shrill as that of Diana surprised by +Actæon. She had seen gleaming through the neighboring foliage a burning +eye, yellow and phosphoric as the eye of a crocodile or lion.</p> + +<p>It was Meïamoun, who, crouching behind a tuft of leaves, and trembling +like a fawn in a field of wheat, was intoxicating himself with the +dangerous pleasure of beholding the queen in her bath. Though brave even +to temerity, the cry of Cleopatra passed through his heart, coldly +piercing as the blade of a sword. A death-like sweat covered his whole +body; his arteries hissed through his temples with a sharp sound; the +iron hand of anxious fear had seized him by the throat and was +strangling him.</p> + +<p>The eunuchs rushed forward, lance in hand. Cleopatra pointed out to them +the group of trees, where they found Meïamoun crouching in concealment. +Defence was out of the question. He attempted none, and suffered himself +to be captured. They prepared to kill him with that cruel and stupid +impassibility characteristic of eunuchs; but Cleopatra, who, in the +interim, had covered herself with her <i>calasiris</i>, made signs to them to +stop, and bring the prisoner before her.</p> + +<p>Meïamoun could only fall upon his knees and stretch forth suppliant +hands to her, as to the altars of the gods.</p> + +<p>"Are you some assassin bribed by Rome, or for what purpose have you +entered these sacred precincts from which all men are excluded?" +demanded Cleopatra with an imperious gesture of interrogation.</p> + +<p>"May my soul be found light in the balance of Amenti, and may Tmeï, +daughter of the Sun and goddess of Truth, punish me if I have ever +entertained a thought of evil against you, O queen!" answered Meïamoun, +still upon his knees.</p> + +<p>Sincerity and loyalty were written upon his countenance in characters so +transparent that Cleopatra immediately banished her suspicions, and +looked upon the young Egyptian with a look less stern and wrathful. She +saw that he was beautiful.</p> + +<p>"Then what motive could have prompted you to enter a place where you +could only expect to meet death?"</p> + +<p>"I love you!" murmured Meïamoun in a low, but distinct voice; for his +courage had returned, as in every desperate situation when the odds +against him could be no worse.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Cleopatra, bending toward him, and seizing his arm with a +sudden brusque movement, "so, then, it was you who shot that arrow with +the papyrus scroll! By Oms, the Dog of Hell, you are a very foolhardy +wretch!... I now recognize you. I long observed you wandering like a +complaining Shade about the places where I dwell.... You were at the +Procession of Isis, at the Panegyris of Hermonthis. You followed the +royal cangia. Ah! you must have a queen?... You have no mean ambitions. +You expect, without doubt, to be well paid in return.... Assuredly I am +going to love you.... Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Queen," returned Meïamoun with a look of deep melancholy, "do not rail. +I am mad, it is true. I have deserved death; that is also true. Be +humane; bid them kill me."</p> + +<p>"No; I have taken the whim to be clement to-day. I will give you your +life."</p> + +<p>"What would you that I should do with life? I love you!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you shall be satisfied; you shall die," answered Cleopatra. +"You have indulged yourself in wild and extravagant dreams; in fancy +your desires have crossed an impassable threshold. You imagined yourself +to be Cæsar or Mark Antony. You loved the queen. In some moment of +delirium you have been able to believe that, under some condition of +things which takes place but once in a thousand years, Cleopatra might +some day love you. Well, what you thought impossible is actually about +to happen. I will transform your dream into a reality. It pleases me, +for once, to secure the accomplishment of a mad hope. I am willing to +inundate you with glories and splendors and lightnings. I intend that +your good fortune shall be dazzling in its brilliancy. You were at the +bottom of the ladder. I am about to lift you to the summit, abruptly, +suddenly, without a transition. I take you out of nothingness, I make +you the equal of a god, and I plunge you back again into nothingness; +that is all. But do not presume to call me cruel or to invoke my pity; +do not weaken when the hour comes. I am good to you. I lend myself to +your folly. I have the right to order you to be killed at once; but +since you tell me that you love me, I will have you killed to-morrow +instead. Your life belongs to me for one night. I am generous. I will +buy it from you; I could take it from you. But what are you doing on +your knees at my feet? Rise, and give me your arm, that we may return to +the palace."</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Conculcatrice des peuples</i>. From the Latin <i>conculcare,</i> +to trample under foot: therefore, the epithet literally signifies the +"Trampler of nations." (Trans.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Greeks and Romans usually termed such figures Hermæ or +Termini. Caryatides were, strictly, entire figures of women.—(Trans.)</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIa" id="CHAPTER_VIa"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3> + + +<p>Our world of to-day is puny indeed beside the antique world. Our +banquets are mean, niggardly, compared with the appalling sumptuousness +of the Roman patricians and the princes of ancient Asia. Their ordinary +repasts would in these days be regarded as frenzied orgies, and a whole +modern city could subsist for eight days upon the leavings of one supper +given by Lucullus to a few intimate friends. With our miserable habits +we find it difficult to conceive of those enormous existences, realizing +everything vast, strange, and most monstrously impossible that +imagination could devise. Our palaces are mere stables, in which +Caligula would not quarter his horse. The retinue of our wealthiest +constitutional king is as nothing compared with that of a petty satrap +or a Roman proconsul. The radiant suns which once shone upon the earth +are forever extinguished in the nothingness of uniformity. Above the +dark swarm of men no longer tower those Titanic colossi who bestrode the +world in three paces, like the steeds of Homer; no more towers of +Lylacq; no giant Babel scaling the sky with its infinity of spirals; no +temples immeasurable, builded with the fragments of quarried mountains; +no kingly terraces for which successive ages and generations could each +erect but one step, and from whence some dreamfully reclining prince +might gaze on the face of the world as upon a map unfolded; no more of +those extravagantly vast cities of cyclopæan edifices, inextricably +piled upon one another, with their mighty circumvallations, their +circuses roaring night and day, their reservoirs filled with ocean brine +and peopled with whales and leviathans, their colossal stairways, their +super-imposition of terraces, their tower-summits bathed in clouds, +their giant palaces, their aqueducts, their multitude-vomiting gates, +their shadowy necropoli. Alas! henceforth only plaster hives upon +chessboard pavements.</p> + +<p>One marvels that men did not revolt against such confiscation of all +riches and all living forces for the benefit of a few privileged ones, +and that such exorbitant fantasies should not have encountered any +opposition on their bloody way. It was because those prodigious lives +were the realizations by day of the dreams which haunted each man by +night, the personifications of the common ideal which the nations beheld +living symbolized under one of those meteoric names that flame +inextinguishably through the night of ages. To-day, deprived of such +dazzling spectacles of omnipotent will, of the lofty contemplation of +some human mind whose least wish makes itself visible in actions +unparalleled, in enormities of granite and brass, the world becomes +irredeemably and hopelessly dull. Man is no longer represented in the +realization of his imperial fancy.</p> + +<p>The story which we are writing, and the great name of Cleopatra which +appears in it, have prompted us to these reflections, so ill-sounding, +doubtless, to modern ears. But the spectacle of the antique world is +something so crushingly discouraging, even to those imaginations which +deem themselves exhaustless, and those minds which fancy themselves to +have conceived the utmost limits of fairy magnificence, that we cannot +here forbear recording our regret and lamentation that we were not +cotemporaries of Sardanapalus; of Teglathphalazar; of Cleopatra, queen +of Egypt; or even of Elagabalus, emperor of Rome and priest of the Sun.</p> + +<p>It is our task to describe a supreme orgie—a banquet compared with +which the splendors of Belshazzar's feast must pale—one of Cleopatra's +nights. How can we picture forth in this French tongue, so chaste, so +icily prudish, that unbounded transport of passions, that huge and +mighty debauch which feared not to mingle the double purple of wine and +blood, those furious outbursts of insatiate pleasure, madly leaping +toward the Impossible with all the wild ardor of senses as yet untamed +by the long fast of Christianity?</p> + +<p>The promised night should well have been a splendid one, for all the +joys and pleasures possible in a human lifetime were to be concentrated +into the space of a few hours. It was necessary that the life of +Meïamoun should be converted into a powerful elixir which he could +imbibe at a single draught. Cleopatra desired to dazzle her voluntary +victim, and plunge him into a whirlpool of dizzy pleasures; to +intoxicate and madden him with the wine of orgie, so that death, though +freely accepted, might come invisibly and unawares.</p> + +<p>Let us transport our readers to the banquet-hall.</p> + +<p>Our existing architecture offers few points for comparison with those +vast edifices whose very ruins resemble the crumblings of mountains +rather than the remains of buildings. It needed all the exaggeration of +the antique life to animate and fill those prodigious palaces, whose +halls were too lofty and vast to allow of any ceiling save the sky +itself—a magnificent ceiling, and well worthy of such mighty +architecture.</p> + +<p>The banquet-hall was of enormous and Babylonian dimensions; the eye +could not penetrate its immeasurable depth. Monstrous columns—short, +thick, and solid enough to sustain the pole itself—heavily expanded +their broad-swelling shafts upon socles variegated with hieroglyphics, +and sustained upon their bulging capitals gigantic arcades of granite +rising by successive tiers, like vast stairways reversed. Between each +two pillars a colossal sphinx of basalt, crowned with the <i>pshent</i>, bent +forward her oblique-eyed face and horned chin, and gazed into the hall +with a fixed and mysterious look. The columns of the second tier, +receding from the first, were more elegantly formed, and crowned in lieu +of capitals with four female heads addorsed, wearing caps of many folds +and all the intricacies of the Egyptian headdress. Instead of sphinxes, +bull-headed idols—impassive spectators of nocturnal frenzy and the +furies of orgie—were seated upon thrones of stone, like patient hosts +awaiting the opening of the banquet.</p> + +<p>A third story, constructed in a yet different style of architecture, +with elephants of bronze spouting perfume from their trunks, crowned the +edifice; above, the sky yawned like a blue gulf, and the curious stars +leaned over the frieze.<a name="FNanchor_1_4" id="FNanchor_1_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_4" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>Prodigious stairways of porphyry, so highly polished that they reflected +the human body like a mirror, ascended and descended on every hand, and +bound together these huge masses of architecture.</p> + +<p>We can only make a very rapid sketch here, in order to convey some idea +of this awful structure, proportioned out of all human measurements. It +would require the pencil of Martin,<a name="FNanchor_2_5" id="FNanchor_2_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_5" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> the great painter of enormities +passed away, and we can present only a weak pen-picture in lieu of the +Apocalyptic depth of his gloomy style; but imagination may supply our +deficiencies. Less fortunate than the painter and the musician, we can +only present objects and ideas separately in slow succession. We have as +yet spoken of the banquet-hall only, without referring to the guests, +and yet we have but barely indicated its character. Cleopatra and +Meïamoun are waiting for us. We see them drawing near....</p> + +<p>Meïamoun was clad in a linen tunic constellated with stars, and a purple +mantle, and wore a fillet about his locks, like an Oriental king. +Cleopatra was apparelled in a robe of pale green, open at either side, +and clasped with golden bees. Two bracelets of immense pearls gleamed +around her naked arms; upon her head glimmered the golden-pointed +diadem. Despite the smile on her lips, a slight cloud of preoccupation +shadowed her fair forehead, and from time to time her brows became +knitted in a feverish manner. What thoughts could trouble the great +queen? As for Meïamoun, his face wore the ardent and luminous look of +one in ecstasy or vision; light beamed and radiated from his brow and +temples, surrounding his head with a golden nimbus, like one of the +twelve great gods of Olympus.</p> + +<p>A deep, heartfelt joy illumined his every feature. He had embraced his +restless-winged chimera, and it had not flown from him; he had reached +the goal of his life. Though he were to live to the age of Nestor or +Priam, though he should behold his veined temples hoary with locks +whiter than those of the high priest of Ammon, he could never know +another new experience, never feel another new pleasure. His maddest +hopes had been so much more than realized that there was nothing in the +world left for him to desire.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra seated him beside her upon a throne with golden griffins on +either side, and clapped her little hands together. Instantly lines of +fire, bands of sparkling light, outlined all the projections of the +architecture—the eyes of the sphinxes flamed with phosphoric +lightnings; the bull-headed idols breathed flame; the elephants, in lieu +of perfumed water, spouted aloft bright columns of crimson fire; arms of +bronze, each bearing a torch, started from the walls, and blazing +aigrettes bloomed in the sculptured hearts of the lotos flowers.</p> + +<p>Huge blue flames palpitated in tripods of brass; giant candelabras shook +their dishevelled light in the midst of ardent vapors; everything +sparkled, glittered, beamed. Prismatic irises crossed and shattered each +other in the air. The facets of the cups, the angles of the marbles and +jaspers, the chiselling of the vases—all caught a sparkle, a gleam, or +a flash as of lightning. Radiance streamed in torrents and leaped from +step to step like a cascade, over the porphyry-stairways. It seemed the +reflection of a conflagration on some broad river. Had the Queen of +Sheba ascended thither she would have caught up the folds of her robe, +and believed herself walking in water, as when she stepped upon the +crystal pavements of Solomon. Viewed through that burning haze, the +monstrous figures of the colossi, the animals, the hieroglyphics, seemed +to become animated and to live with a factitious life; the black marble +rams bleated ironically, and clashed their gilded horns; the idols +breathed harshly through their panting nostrils.</p> + +<p>The orgie was at its height: the dishes of phenicopters' tongues, and +the livers of scarus fish; the eels fattened upon human flesh, and +cooked in brine; the dishes of peacock's brains; the boars stuffed with +living birds; and all the marvels of the antique banquets were heaped +upon the three table-surfaces of the gigantic triclinium. The wines of +Crete, of Massicus, and of Falernus foamed up in cratera wreathed with +roses, and filled by Asiatic pages whose beautiful flowing hair served +the guests to wipe their hands upon. Musicians playing upon the sistrum, +the tympanum, the sambuke, and the harp with one-and-twenty strings +filled all the upper galleries, and mingled their harmonies with the +tempest of sound that hovered over the feast. Even the deep-voiced +thunder could not have made itself heard there.</p> + +<p>Meïamoun, whose head was lying on Cleopatra's shoulder, felt as though +his reason were leaving him. The banquet-hall whirled around him like a +vast architectural nightmare; through the dizzy glare he beheld +perspectives and colonnades without end; new zones of porticoes seemed +to uprear themselves upon the real fabric, and bury their summits in +heights of sky to which Babel never rose. Had he not felt within his +hand the soft, cool hand of Cleopatra, he would have believed himself +transported into an enchanted world by some witch of Thessaly or Magian +of Persia.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of the repast hump-backed dwarfs and mummers engaged +in grotesque dances and combats; then young Egyptian and Greek maidens, +representing the black and white Hours, danced with inimitable grace a +voluptuous dance after the Ionian manner.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra herself arose from her throne, threw aside her royal mantle, +replaced her starry diadem with a garland of flowers, attached golden +<i>crotali</i><a name="FNanchor_3_6" id="FNanchor_3_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_6" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> to her alabaster hands, and began to dance before Meïamoun, +who was ravished with delight. Her beautiful arms, rounded like the +handles of an alabaster vase, shook out bunches of sparkling notes, and +her <i>crotali</i> prattled with ever-increasing volubility. Poised on the +pink tips of her little feet, she approached swiftly to graze the +forehead of Meïamoun with a kiss; then she recommenced her wondrous art, +and flitted around him, now backward-leaning, with head reversed, eyes +half closed, arms lifelessly relaxed, locks uncurled and loose-hanging +like a Bacchante of Mount Mænalus; now again, active, animated, +laughing, fluttering, more tireless and capricious in her movements than +the pilfering bee. Heart-consuming love, sensual pleasure, burning +passion, youth inexhaustible and ever-fresh, the promise of bliss to +come—she expressed all....</p> + +<p>The modest stars had ceased to contemplate the scene; their golden eyes +could not endure such a spectacle; the heaven itself was blotted out, +and a dome of flaming vapor covered the hall.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra seated herself once more by Meïamoun. Night advanced; the last +of the black Hours was about to take flight; a faint blue glow entered +with bewildered aspect into the tumult of ruddy light as a moonbeam +falls into a furnace; the upper arcades became suffused with pale azure +tints—day was breaking.</p> + +<p>Meïamoun took the horn vase which an Ethiopian slave of sinister +countenance presented to him, and which contained a poison so violent +that it would have caused any other vase to burst asunder. Flinging his +whole life to his mistress in one last look, he lifted to his lips the +fatal cup in which the envenomed liquor boiled up, hissing.</p> + +<p>Cleopatra turned pale, and laid her hand on Meïamoun's arm to stay the +act. His courage touched her. She was about to say, "Live to love me +yet, I desire it!..." when the sound of a clarion was heard. Four +heralds-at-arms entered the banquet-hall on horseback; they were +officers of Mark Antony, and rode but a short distance in advance of +their master. Cleopatra silently loosened the arm of Meïamoun. A long +ray of sunlight suddenly played upon her forehead, as though trying to +replace her absent diadem.</p> + +<p>"You see the moment has come; it is daybreak, it is the hour when happy +dreams take flight," said Meïamoun. Then he emptied the fatal vessel at +a draught, and fell as though struck by lightning. Cleopatra bent her +head, and one burning tear—the only one she had ever shed—fell into +her cup to mingle with the molten pearl.</p> + +<p>"By Hercules, my fair queen! I made all speed in vain. I see I have come +too late," cried Mark Antony, entering the banquet-hall, "the supper is +over. But what signifies this corpse upon the pavement?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing!" returned Cleopatra, with a smile; "only a poison I was +testing with the idea of using it upon myself should Augustus take me +prisoner. My dear Lord, will you not please to take a seat beside me, +and watch those Greek buffoons dance?"</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_4" id="Footnote_1_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_4"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Does not this suggest the lines which DeQuincey so much +admired?— +</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">"A wilderness of building, sinking far,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Far sinking into splendor, without end.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Fabric it seemed of diamond, and of gold,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With alabaster domes and silver spires,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And blazing terrace upon terrace, high</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Uplifted. Here serene pavilions bright,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In avenues disposed; their towers begirt</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With <i>battlements that on their restless fronts</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;"><i>Bore stars</i>."</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_5" id="Footnote_2_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_5"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> John Martin, the English painter, whose creations were +unparalleled in breadth and depth of composition. His pictures seem to +have made a powerful impression upon the highly imaginative author of +these Romances. There is something in these descriptions of antique +architecture that suggests the influence of such pictured fantasies as +Martin's "Seventh Plague;" "The Heavenly City;" and perhaps, especially, +the famous "Pandemonium," with its infernal splendor, in Martin's +illustrations to "Paradise Lost."—(Trans.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_6" id="Footnote_3_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_6"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Antique castanets.—(Trans.)</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="CLARIMONDE" id="CLARIMONDE"></a>CLARIMONDE<a name="FNanchor_1_7" id="FNanchor_1_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_7" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<p>Brother, you ask me if I have ever loved. Yes. My story is a strange and +terrible one; and though I am sixty-six years of age, I scarcely dare +even now to disturb the ashes of that memory. To you I can refuse +nothing; but I should not relate such a tale to any less experienced +mind. So strange were the circumstances of my story, that I can scarcely +believe myself to have ever actually been a party to them. For more than +three years I remained the victim of a most singular and diabolical +illusion. Poor country priest though I was, I led every night in a +dream—would to God it had been all a dream!—a most worldly life, a +damning life, a life of Sardanapalus. One single look too freely cast +upon a woman well-nigh caused me to lose my soul; but finally by the +grace of God and the assistance of my patron saint, I succeeded in +casting out the evil spirit that possessed me. My daily life was long +interwoven with a nocturnal life of a totally different character. By +day I was a priest of the Lord, occupied with prayer and sacred things; +by night, from the instant that I closed my eyes I became a young +nobleman, a fine connoisseur in women, dogs, and horses; gambling, +drinking, and blaspheming, and when I awoke at early daybreak, it seemed +to me, on the other hand, that I had been sleeping, and had only dreamed +that I was a priest. Of this somnambulistic life there now remains to me +only the recollection of certain scenes and words which I cannot banish +from my memory; but although I never actually left the walls of my +presbytery, one would think to hear me speak that I were a man who, +weary of all worldly pleasures, had become a religious, seeking to end a +tempestuous life in the service of God, rather than an humble seminarist +who has grown old in this obscure curacy, situated in the depths of the +woods and even isolated from the life of the century.</p> + +<p>Yes, I have loved as none in the world ever loved—with an insensate and +furious passion—so violent that I am astonished it did not cause my +heart to burst asunder. Ah, what nights—what nights!</p> + +<p>From my earliest childhood I had felt a vocation to the priesthood, so +that all my studies were directed with that idea in view. Up to the age +of twenty-four my life had been only a prolonged novitiate. Having +completed my course of theology I successively received all the minor +orders, and my superiors judged me worthy, despite my youth, to pass the +last awful degree. My ordination was fixed for Easter week.</p> + +<p>I had never gone into the world. My world was confined by the walls of +the college and the seminary. I knew in a vague sort of a way that there +was something called Woman, but I never permitted my thoughts to dwell +on such a subject, and I lived in a state of perfect innocence. Twice a +year only I saw my infirm and aged mother, and in those visits were +comprised my sole relations with the outer world.</p> + +<p>I regretted nothing; I felt not the least hesitation at taking the last +irrevocable step; I was filled with joy and impatience. Never did a +betrothed lover count the slow hours with more feverish ardor; I slept +only to dream that I was saying mass; I believed there could be nothing +in the world more delightful than to be a priest; I would have refused +to be a king or a poet in preference. My ambition could conceive of no +loftier aim.</p> + +<p>I tell you this in order to show you that what happened to me could not +have happened in the natural order of things, and to enable you to +understand that I was the victim of an inexplicable fascination.</p> + +<p>At last the great day came. I walked to the church with a step so light +that I fancied myself sustained in air, or that I had wings upon my +shoulders. I believed myself an angel, and wondered at the sombre and +thoughtful faces of my companions, for there were several of us. I had +passed all the night in prayer, and was in a condition well-nigh +bordering on ecstasy. The bishop, a venerable old man, seemed to me God +the Father leaning over his Eternity, and I beheld Heaven through the +vault of the temple.</p> + +<p>You well know the details of that ceremony—the benediction, the +communion under both forms, the anointing of the palms of the hands with +the Oil of Catechumens, and then the holy sacrifice offered in concert +with the bishop.</p> + +<p>Ah, truly spake Job when he declared that the imprudent man is one who +hath not made a covenant with his eyes! I accidentally lifted my head, +which until then I had kept down, and beheld before me, so close that it +seemed that I could have touched her—although she was actually a +considerable distance from me and on the further side of the sanctuary +railing—a young woman of extraordinary beauty, and attired with royal +magnificence. It seemed as though scales had suddenly fallen from my +eyes. I felt like a blind man who unexpectedly recovers his sight. The +bishop, so radiantly glorious but an instant before, suddenly vanished +away, the tapers paled upon their golden candlesticks like stars in the +dawn, and a vast darkness seemed to fill the whole church. The charming +creature appeared in bright relief against the background of that +darkness, like some angelic revelation. She seemed herself radiant, and +radiating light rather than receiving it.</p> + +<p>I lowered my eyelids, firmly resolved not to again open them, that I +might not be influenced by external objects, for distraction had +gradually taken possession of me until I hardly knew what I was doing.</p> + +<p>In another minute, nevertheless, I reopened my eyes, for through my +eyelashes I still beheld her, all sparkling with prismatic colors, and +surrounded with such a purple penumbra as one beholds in gazing at the +sun.</p> + +<p>Oh, how beautiful she was! The greatest painters, who followed ideal +beauty into heaven itself, and thence brought back to earth the true +portrait of the Madonna, never in their delineations even approached +that wildly beautiful reality which I saw before me. Neither the verses +of the poet nor the palette of the artist could convey any conception +of her. She was rather tall, with a form and bearing of a goddess. Her +hair, of a soft blonde hue, was parted in the midst and flowed back over +her temples in two rivers of rippling gold; she seemed a diademed queen. +Her forehead, bluish-white in its transparency, extended its calm +breadth above the arches of her eyebrows, which by a strange singularity +were almost black, and admirably relieved the effect of sea-green eyes +of unsustainable vivacity and brilliancy. What eyes! With a single flash +they could have decided a man's destiny. They had a life, a limpidity, +an ardor, a humid light which I have never seen in human eyes; they shot +forth rays like arrows, which I could distinctly <i>see</i> enter my heart. I +know not if the fire which illumined them came from heaven or from hell, +but assuredly it came from one or the other. That woman was either an +angel or a demon, perhaps both. Assuredly she never sprang from the +flank of Eve, our common mother. Teeth of the most lustrous pearl +gleamed in her ruddy smile, and at every inflection of her lips little +dimples appeared in the satiny rose of her adorable cheeks. There was a +delicacy and pride in the regal outline of her nostrils bespeaking noble +blood. Agate gleams played over the smooth lustrous skin of her +half-bare shoulders, and strings of great blonde pearls—almost equal to +her neck in beauty of color—descended upon her bosom. From time to time +she elevated her head with the undulating grace of a startled serpent or +peacock, thereby imparting a quivering motion to the high lace ruff +which surrounded it like a silver trellis-work.</p> + +<p>She wore a robe of orange-red velvet, and from her wide ermine-lined +sleeves there peeped forth patrician hands of infinite delicacy, and so +ideally transparent that, like the fingers of Aurora, they permitted the +light to shine through them.</p> + +<p>All these details I can recollect at this moment as plainly as though +they were of yesterday, for notwithstanding I was greatly troubled at +the time, nothing escaped me; the faintest touch of shading, the little +dark speck at the point of the chin, the imperceptible down at the +corners of the lips, the velvety floss upon the brow, the quivering +shadows of the eyelashes upon the cheeks, I could notice everything with +astonishing lucidity of perception.</p> + +<p>And gazing I felt opening within me gates that had until then remained +closed; vents long obstructed became all clear, permitting glimpses of +unfamiliar perspectives within; life suddenly made itself visible to me +under a totally novel aspect. I felt as though I had just been born into +a new world and a new order of things. A frightful anguish commenced to +torture my heart as with red-hot pincers. Every successive minute seemed +to me at once but a second and yet a century. Meanwhile the ceremony was +proceeding, and I shortly found myself transported far from that world +of which my newly-born desires were furiously besieging the entrance. +Nevertheless I answered "Yes" when I wished to say "No," though all +within me protested against the violence done to my soul by my tongue. +Some occult power seemed to force the words from my throat against my +will. Thus it is, perhaps, that so many young girls walk to the altar +firmly resolved to refuse in a startling manner the husband imposed +upon them, and that yet not one ever fulfils her intention. Thus it is, +doubtless, that so many poor novices take the veil, though they have +resolved to tear it into shreds at the moment when called upon to utter +the vows. One dares not thus cause so great a scandal to all present, +nor deceive the expectation of so many people. All those eyes, all those +wills seem to weigh down upon you like a cope of lead; and, moreover, +measures have been so well taken, everything has been so thoroughly +arranged beforehand and after a fashion so evidently irrevocable, that +the will yields to the weight of circumstances and utterly breaks down.</p> + +<p>As the ceremony proceeded the features of the fair unknown changed their +expression. Her look had at first been one of caressing tenderness; it +changed to an air of disdain and of mortification, as though at not +having been able to make itself understood.</p> + +<p>With an effort of will sufficient to have uprooted a mountain, I strove +to cry out that I would not be a priest, but I could not speak; my +tongue seemed nailed to my palate, and I found it impossible to express +my will by the least syllable of negation. Though fully awake, I felt +like one under the influence of a nightmare, who vainly strives to +shriek out the one word upon which life depends.</p> + +<p>She seemed conscious of the martyrdom I was undergoing, and, as though +to encourage me, she gave me a look replete with divinest promise. Her +eyes were a poem; their every glance was a song.</p> + +<p>She said to me:</p> + +<p>"If thou wilt be mine, I shall make thee happier than God Himself in His +paradise. The angels themselves will be jealous of thee. Tear off that +funeral shroud in which thou art about to wrap thyself. I am Beauty, I +am Youth, I am Life. Come to me! Together we shall be Love. Can Jehovah +offer thee aught in exchange? Our lives will flow on like a dream, in +one eternal kiss.</p> + +<p>"Fling forth the wine of that chalice, and thou art free. I will conduct +thee to the Unknown Isles. Thou shalt sleep in my bosom upon a bed of +massy gold under a silver pavilion, for I love thee and would take thee +away from thy God, before whom so many noble hearts pour forth floods of +love which never reach even the steps of His throne!"</p> + +<p>These words seemed to float to my ears in a rhythm of infinite +sweetness, for her look was actually sonorous, and the utterances of her +eyes were reechoed in the depths of my heart as though living lips had +breathed them into my life. I felt myself willing to renounce God, and +yet my tongue mechanically fulfilled all the formalities of the +ceremony. The fair one gave me another look, so beseeching, so +despairing that keen blades seemed to pierce my heart, and I felt my +bosom transfixed by more swords than those of Our Lady of Sorrows.</p> + +<p>All was consummated; I had become a priest.</p> + +<p>Never was deeper anguish painted on human face than upon hers. The +maiden who beholds her affianced lover suddenly fall dead at her side, +the mother bending over the empty cradle of her child, Eve seated at +the threshold of the gate of Paradise, the miser who finds a stone +substituted for his stolen treasure, the poet who accidentally permits +the only manuscript of his finest work to fall into the fire, could not +wear a look so despairing, so inconsolable. All the blood had abandoned +her charming face, leaving it whiter than marble; her beautiful arms +hung lifelessly on either side of her body as though their muscles had +suddenly relaxed, and she sought the support of a pillar, for her +yielding limbs almost betrayed her. As for myself, I staggered toward +the door of the church, livid as death, my forehead bathed with a sweat +bloodier than that of Calvary; I felt as though I were being strangled; +the vault seemed to have flattened down upon my shoulders, and it seemed +to me that my head alone sustained the whole weight of the dome.</p> + +<p>As I was about to cross the threshold a hand suddenly caught mine—a +woman's hand! I had never till then touched the hand of any woman. It +was cold as a serpent's skin, and yet its impress remained upon my +wrist, burnt there as though branded by a glowing iron. It was she. +"Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done?" she exclaimed in a low +voice, and immediately disappeared in the crowd.</p> + +<p>The aged bishop passed by. He cast a severe and scrutinizing look upon +me. My face presented the wildest aspect imaginable; I blushed and +turned pale alternately; dazzling lights flashed before my eyes. A +companion took pity on me. He seized my arm and led me out. I could not +possibly have found my way back to the seminary unassisted. At the +corner of a street, while the young priest's attention was momentarily +turned in another direction, a negro page, fantastically garbed, +approached me, and without pausing on his way slipped into my hand a +little pocket-book with gold-embroidered corners, at the same time +giving me a sign to hide it. I concealed it in my sleeve, and there kept +it until I found myself alone in my cell. Then I opened the clasp. There +were only two leaves within, bearing the words, "Clarimonde. At the +Concini Palace." So little acquainted was I at that time with the +things of this world that I had never heard of Clarimonde, celebrated as +she was, and I had no idea as to where the Concini Palace was situated. +I hazarded a thousand conjectures, each more extravagant than the last; +but, in truth, I cared little whether she were a great lady or a +courtesan, so that I could but see her once more.</p> + +<p>My love, although the growth of a single hour, had taken imperishable +root. I did not even dream of attempting to tear it up, so fully was I +convinced such a thing would be impossible. That woman had completely +taken possession of me. One look from her had sufficed to change my very +nature. She had breathed her will into my life, and I no longer lived in +myself, but in her and for her. I gave myself up to a thousand +extravagancies. I kissed the place upon my hand which she had touched, +and I repeated her name over and over again for hours in succession. I +only needed to close my eyes in order to see her distinctly as though +she were actually present; and I reiterated to myself the words she had +uttered in my ear at the church porch: "Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What +hast thou done?" I comprehended at last the full horror of my situation, +and the funereal and awful restraints of the state into which I had just +entered became clearly revealed to me. To be a priest!—that is, to be +chaste, to never love, to observe no distinction of sex or age, to turn +from the sight of all beauty, to put out one's own eyes, to hide forever +crouching in the chill shadows of some church or cloister, to visit none +but the dying, to watch by unknown corpses, and ever bear about with one +the black soutane as a garb of mourning for one's self, so that your +very dress might serve as a pall for your coffin.</p> + +<p>And I felt life rising within me like a subterranean lake, expanding and +overflowing; my blood leaped fiercely through my arteries; my +long-restrained youth suddenly burst into active being, like the aloe +which blooms but once in a hundred years, and then bursts into blossom +with a clap of thunder.</p> + +<p>What could I do in order to see Clarimonde once more? I had no pretext +to offer for desiring to leave the seminary, not knowing any person in +the city. I would not even be able to remain there but a short time, and +was only waiting my assignment to the curacy which I must thereafter +occupy. I tried to remove the bars of the window; but it was at a +fearful height from the ground, and I found that as I had no ladder it +would be useless to think of escaping thus. And, furthermore, I could +descend thence only by night in any event, and afterward how should I be +able to find my way through the inextricable labyrinth of streets? All +these difficulties, which to many would have appeared altogether +insignificant, were gigantic to me, a poor seminarist who had fallen in +love only the day before for the first time, without experience, without +money, without attire.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried I to myself in my blindness, "were I not a priest I could +have seen her every day; I might have been her lover, her spouse. +Instead of being wrapped in this dismal shroud of mine I would have had +garments of silk and velvet, golden chains, a sword, and fair plumes +like other handsome young cavaliers. My hair, instead of being +dishonored by the tonsure, would flow down upon my neck in waving curls; +I would have a fine waxed mustache; I would be a gallant." But one hour +passed before an altar, a few hastily articulated words, had forever cut +me off from the number of the living, and I had myself sealed down the +stone of my own tomb; I had with my own hand bolted the gate of my +prison! I went to the window. The sky was beautifully blue; the trees +had donned their spring robes; nature seemed to be making parade of an +ironical joy. The <i>Place</i> was filled with people, some going, others +coming; young beaux and young beauties were sauntering in couples toward +the groves and gardens; merry youths passed by, cheerily trolling +refrains of drinking songs—it was all a picture of vivacity, life, +animation, gayety, which formed a bitter contrast with my mourning and +my solitude. On the steps of the gate sat a young mother playing with +her child. She kissed its little rosy mouth still impearled with drops +of milk, and performed, in order to amuse it, a thousand divine little +puerilities such as only mothers know how to invent. The father standing +at a little distance smiled gently upon the charming group, and with +folded arms seemed to hug his joy to his heart. I could not endure that +spectacle. I closed the window with violence, and flung myself on my +bed, my heart filled with frightful hate and jealousy, and gnawed my +fingers and my bedcovers like a tiger that has passed ten days without +food.</p> + +<p>I know not how long I remained in this condition, but at last, while +writhing on the bed in a fit of spasmodic fury, I suddenly perceived the +Abbé Sérapion, who was standing erect in the centre of the room, +watching me attentively. Filled with shame of myself, I let my head fall +upon my breast and covered my face with my hands.</p> + +<p>"Romuald, my friend, something very extraordinary is transpiring within +you," observed Sérapion, after a few moments' silence; "your conduct is +altogether inexplicable. You—always so quiet, so pious, so gentle—you +to rage in your cell like a wild beast! Take heed, brother—do not +listen to the suggestions of the devil. The Evil Spirit, furious that +you have consecrated yourself forever to the Lord, is prowling around +you like a ravening wolf and making a last effort to obtain possession +of you. Instead of allowing yourself to be conquered, my dear Romuald, +make to yourself a cuirass of prayers, a buckler of mortifications, and +combat the enemy like a valiant man; you will then assuredly overcome +him. Virtue must be proved by temptation, and gold comes forth purer +from the hands of the assayer. Fear not. Never allow yourself to become +discouraged. The most watchful and steadfast souls are at moments liable +to such temptation. Pray, fast, meditate, and the Evil Spirit will +depart from you."</p> + +<p>The words of the Abbé Sérapion restored me to myself, and I became a +little more calm. "I came," he continued, "to tell you that you have +been appointed to the curacy of C——. The priest who had charge of it +has just died, and Monseigneur the Bishop has ordered me to have you +installed there at once. Be ready, therefore, to start to-morrow." I +responded with an inclination of the head, and the Abbé retired. I +opened my missal and commenced reading some prayers, but the letters +became confused and blurred under my eyes, the thread of the ideas +entangled itself hopelessly in my brain, and the volume at last fell +from my hands without my being aware of it.</p> + +<p>To leave to-morrow without having been able to see her again, to add yet +another barrier to the many already interposed between us, to lose +forever all hope of being able to meet her, except, indeed, through a +miracle! Even to write her, alas! would be impossible, for by whom could +I despatch my letter? With my sacred character of priest, to whom could +I dare unbosom myself, in whom could I confide? I became a prey to the +bitterest anxiety.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly recurred to me the words of the Abbé Sérapion regarding +the artifices of the devil; and the strange character of the adventure, +the supernatural beauty of Clarimonde, the phosphoric light of her eyes, +the burning imprint of her hand, the agony into which she had thrown me, +the sudden change wrought within me when all my piety vanished in a +single instant—these and other things clearly testified to the work of +the Evil One, and perhaps that satiny hand was but the glove which +concealed his claws. Filled with terror at these fancies, I again picked +up the missal which had slipped from my knees and fallen upon the floor, +and once more gave myself up to prayer. Next morning Sérapion came to +take me away. Two mules freighted with our miserable valises awaited us +at the gate. He mounted one, and I the other as well as I knew how.</p> + +<p>As we passed along the streets of the city, I gazed attentively at all +the windows and balconies in the hope of seeing Clarimonde, but it was +yet early in the morning, and the city had hardly opened its eyes. Mine +sought to penetrate the blinds and window-curtains of all the palaces +before which we were passing. Sérapion doubtless attributed this +curiosity to my admiration of the architecture, for he slackened the +pace of his animal in order to give me time to look around me. At last +we passed the city gates and commenced to mount the hill beyond. When +we arrived at its summit I turned to take a last look at the place where +Clarimonde dwelt. The shadow of a great cloud hung over all the city; +the contrasting colors of its blue and red roofs were lost in the +uniform half-tint, through which here and there floated upward, like +white flakes of foam, the smoke of freshly kindled fires. By a singular +optical effect one edifice, which surpassed in height all the +neighboring buildings that were still dimly veiled by the vapors, +towered up, fair and lustrous with the gilding of a solitary beam of +sunlight—although actually more than a league away it seemed quite +near. The smallest details of its architecture were plainly +distinguishable—the turrets, the platforms, the window-casements, and +even the swallow-tailed weather vanes.</p> + +<p>"What is that palace I see over there, all lighted up by the sun?" I +asked Sérapion. He shaded his eyes with his hand, and having looked in +the direction indicated, replied: "It is the ancient palace which the +Prince Concini has given to the courtesan Clarimonde. Awful things are +done there!"</p> + +<p>At that instant, I know not yet whether it was a reality or an illusion, +I fancied I saw gliding along the terrace a shapely white figure, which +gleamed for a moment in passing and as quickly vanished. It was +Clarimonde.</p> + +<p>Oh, did she know that at that very hour, all feverish and restless—from +the height of the rugged road which separated me from her and which, +alas! I could never more descend—I was directing my eyes upon the +palace where she dwelt, and which a mocking beam of sunlight seemed to +bring nigh to me, as though inviting me to enter therein as its lord? +Undoubtedly she must have known it, for her soul was too sympathetically +united with mine not to have felt its least emotional thrill, and that +subtle sympathy it must have been which prompted her to climb—although +clad only in her night-dress—to the summit of the terrace, amid the icy +dews of the morning.</p> + +<p>The shadow gained the palace, and the scene became to the eye only a +motionless ocean of roofs and gables, amid which one mountainous +undulation was distinctly visible. Sérapion urged his mule forward, my +own at once followed at the same gait, and a sharp angle in the road at +last hid the city of S—— forever from my eyes, as I was destined never +to return thither. At the close of a weary three-days' journey through +dismal country fields, we caught sight of the cock upon the steeple of +the church which I was to take charge of, peeping above the trees, and +after having followed some winding roads fringed with thatched cottages +and little gardens, we found ourselves in front of the façade, which +certainly possessed few features of magnificence. A porch ornamented +with some mouldings, and two or three pillars rudely hewn from +sandstone; a tiled roof with counterforts of the same sandstone as the +pillars, that was all. To the left lay the cemetery, overgrown with high +weeds, and having a great iron cross rising up in its centre; to the +right stood the presbytery, under the shadow of the church. It was a +house of the most extreme simplicity and frigid cleanliness. We entered +the enclosure. A few chickens were picking up some oats scattered upon +the ground; accustomed, seemingly, to the black habit of ecclesiastics, +they showed no fear of our presence and scarcely troubled themselves to +get out of our way. A hoarse, wheezy barking fell upon our ears, and we +saw an aged dog running toward us.</p> + +<p>It was my predecessor's dog. He had dull bleared eyes, grizzled hair, +and every mark of the greatest age to which a dog can possibly attain. I +patted him gently, and he proceeded at once to march along beside me +with an air of satisfaction unspeakable. A very old woman, who had been +the housekeeper of the former curé, also came to meet us, and after +having invited me into a little back parlor, asked whether I intended to +retain her. I replied that I would take care of her, and the dog, and +the chickens, and all the furniture her master had bequeathed her at his +death. At this she became fairly transported with joy, and the Abbé +Sérapion at once paid her the price which she asked for her little +property.</p> + +<p>As soon as my installation was over, the Abbé Sérapion returned to the +seminary. I was, therefore, left alone, with no one but myself to look +to for aid or counsel. The thought of Clarimonde again began to haunt +me, and in spite of all my endeavors to banish it, I always found it +present in my meditations. One evening, while promenading in my little +garden along the walks bordered with box-plants, I fancied that I saw +through the elm-trees the figure of a woman, who followed my every +movement, and that I beheld two sea-green eyes gleaming through the +foliage; but it was only an illusion, and on going round to the other +side of the garden, I could find nothing except a footprint on the +sanded walk—a footprint so small that it seemed to have been made by +the foot of a child. The garden was enclosed by very high walls. I +searched every nook and corner of it, but could discover no one there. I +have never succeeded in fully accounting for this circumstance, which, +after all, was nothing compared with the strange things which happened +to me afterward.</p> + +<p>For a whole year I lived thus, filling all the duties of my calling with +the most scrupulous exactitude, praying and fasting, exhorting and +lending ghostly aid to the sick, and bestowing alms even to the extent +of frequently depriving myself of the very necessaries of life. But I +felt a great aridness within me, and the sources of grace seemed closed +against me. I never found that happiness which should spring from the +fulfilment of a holy mission; my thoughts were far away, and the words +of Clarimonde were ever upon my lips like an involuntary refrain. Oh, +brother, meditate well on this! Through having but once lifted my eyes +to look upon a woman, through one fault apparently so venial, I have for +years remained a victim to the most miserable agonies, and the happiness +of my life has been destroyed forever.</p> + +<p>I will not longer dwell upon those defeats, or on those inward victories +invariably followed by yet more terrible falls, but will at once proceed +to the facts of my story. One night my door-bell was long and violently +rung. The aged housekeeper arose and opened to the stranger, and the +figure of a man, whose complexion was deeply bronzed, and who was +richly clad in a foreign costume, with a poniard at his girdle, appeared +under the rays of Barbara's lantern. Her first impulse was one of +terror, but the stranger reassured her, and stated that he desired to +see me at once on matters relating to my holy calling. Barbara invited +him upstairs, where I was on the point of retiring. The stranger told me +that his mistress, a very noble lady, was lying at the point of death, +and desired to see a priest. I replied that I was prepared to follow +him, took with me the sacred articles necessary for extreme unction, and +descended in all haste. Two horses black as the night itself stood +without the gate, pawing the ground with impatience, and veiling their +chests with long streams of smoky vapor exhaled from their nostrils. He +held the stirrup and aided me to mount upon one; then, merely laying his +hand upon the pummel of the saddle, he vaulted on the other, pressed the +animal's sides with his knees, and loosened rein. The horse bounded +forward with the velocity of an arrow. Mine, of which the stranger held +the bridle, also started off at a swift gallop, keeping up with his +companion. We devoured the road. The ground flowed backward beneath us +in a long streaked line of pale gray, and the black silhouettes of the +trees seemed fleeing by us on either side like an army in rout. We +passed through a forest so profoundly gloomy that I felt my flesh creep +in the chill darkness with superstitious fear. The showers of bright +sparks which flew from the stony road under the ironshod feet of our +horses, remained glowing in our wake like a fiery trail; and had anyone +at that hour of the night beheld us both—my guide and myself—he must +have taken us for two spectres riding upon nightmares. Witch-fires ever +and anon flitted across the road before us, and the night-birds shrieked +fearsomely in the depth of the woods beyond, where we beheld at +intervals glow the phosphorescent eyes of wildcats. The manes of the +horses became more and more dishevelled, the sweat streamed over their +flanks, and their breath came through their nostrils hard and fast. But +when he found them slacking pace, the guide reanimated them by uttering +a strange, guttural, unearthly cry, and the gallop recommenced with +fury. At last the whirlwind race ceased; a huge black mass pierced +through with many bright points of light suddenly rose before us, the +hoofs of our horses echoed louder upon a strong wooden draw-bridge, and +we rode under a great vaulted archway which darkly yawned between two +enormous towers. Some great excitement evidently reigned in the castle. +Servants with torches were crossing the courtyard in every direction, +and above lights were ascending and descending from landing to landing. +I obtained a confused glimpse of vast masses of architecture—columns, +arcades, flights of steps, stairways—a royal voluptuousness and elfin +magnificence of construction worthy of fairyland. A negro page—the same +who had before brought me the tablet from Clarimonde, and whom I +instantly recognized—approached to aid me in dismounting, and the +major-domo, attired in black velvet with a gold chain about his neck, +advanced to meet me, supporting himself upon an ivory cane. Large tears +were falling from his eyes and streaming over his cheeks and white +beard. "Too late!" he cried, sorrowfully shaking his venerable head. +"Too late, sir priest! But if you have not been able to save the soul, +come at least to watch by the poor body."</p> + +<p>He took my arm and conducted me to the death chamber. I wept not less +bitterly than he, for I had learned that the dead one was none other +than that Clarimonde whom I had so deeply and so wildly loved. A +<i>prie-dieu</i> stood at the foot of the bed; a bluish flame flickering in a +bronze patera filled all the room with a wan, deceptive light, here and +there bringing out in the darkness at intervals some projection of +furniture or cornice. In a chiselled urn upon the table there was a +faded white rose, whose leaves—excepting one that still held—had all +fallen, like odorous tears, to the foot of the vase. A broken black +mask, a fan, and disguises of every variety, which were lying on the +arm-chairs, bore witness that death had entered suddenly and unannounced +into that sumptuous dwelling. Without daring to cast my eyes upon the +bed, I knelt down and commenced to repeat the Psalms for the Dead, with +exceeding fervor, thanking God that he had placed the tomb between me +and the memory of this woman, so that I might thereafter be able to +utter her name in my prayers as a name forever sanctified by death. But +my fervor gradually weakened, and I fell insensibly into a reverie. That +chamber bore no semblance to a chamber of death. In lieu of the fœtid +and cadaverous odors which I had been accustomed to breathe during such +funereal vigils, a languorous vapor of Oriental perfume—I know not what +amorous odor of woman—softly floated through the tepid air. That pale +light seemed rather a twilight gloom contrived for voluptuous pleasure, +than a substitute for the yellow-flickering watch-tapers which shine by +the side of corpses. I thought upon the strange destiny which enabled me +to meet Clarimonde again at the very moment when she was lost to me +forever, and a sigh of regretful anguish escaped from my breast. Then it +seemed to me that some one behind me had also sighed, and I turned round +to look. It was only an echo. But in that moment my eyes fell upon the +bed of death which they had till then avoided. The red damask curtains, +decorated with large flowers worked in embroidery, and looped up with +gold bullion, permitted me to behold the fair dead, lying at full +length, with hands joined upon her bosom. She was covered with a linen +wrapping of dazzling whiteness, which formed a strong contrast with the +gloomy purple of the hangings, and was of so fine a texture that it +concealed nothing of her body's charming form, and allowed the eye to +follow those beautiful outlines—undulating like the neck of a +swan—which even death had not robbed of their supple grace. She seemed +an alabaster statue executed by some skilful sculptor to place upon the +tomb of a queen, or rather, perhaps, like a slumbering maiden over whom +the silent snow had woven a spotless veil.</p> + +<p>I could no longer maintain my constrained attitude of prayer. The air of +the alcove intoxicated me, that febrile perfume of half-faded roses +penetrated my very brain, and I commenced to pace restlessly up and +down the chamber, pausing at each turn before the bier to contemplate +the graceful corpse lying beneath the transparency of its shroud. Wild +fancies came thronging to my brain. I thought to myself that she might +not, perhaps, be really dead; that she might only have feigned death for +the purpose of bringing me to her castle, and then declaring her love. +At one time I even thought I saw her foot move under the whiteness of +the coverings, and slightly disarrange the long, straight folds of the +winding sheet.</p> + +<p>And then I asked myself: "Is this indeed Clarimonde? What proof have I +that it is she? Might not that black page have passed into the service +of some other lady? Surely, I must be going mad to torture and afflict +myself thus!" But my heart answered with a fierce throbbing: "It is she; +it is she indeed!" I approached the bed again, and fixed my eyes with +redoubled attention upon the object of my incertitude. Ah, must I +confess it? That exquisite perfection of bodily form, although purified +and made sacred by the shadow of death, affected me more voluptuously +than it should have done, and that repose so closely resembled slumber +that one might well have mistaken it for such. I forgot that I had come +there to perform a funeral ceremony; I fancied myself a young bridegroom +entering the chamber of the bride, who all modestly hides her fair face, +and through coyness seeks to keep herself wholly veiled. Heartbroken +with grief, yet wild with hope, shuddering at once with fear and +pleasure, I bent over her and grasped the corner of the sheet. I lifted +it back, holding my breath all the while through fear of waking her. My +arteries throbbed with such violence that I felt them hiss through my +temples, and the sweat poured from my forehead in streams, as though I +had lifted a mighty slab of marble. There, indeed, lay Clarimonde, even +as I had seen her at the church on the day of my ordination. She was not +less charming than then. With her, death seemed but a last coquetry. The +pallor of her cheeks, the less brilliant carnation of her lips, her long +eyelashes lowered and relieving their dark fringe against that white +skin, lent her an unspeakably seductive aspect of melancholy chastity +and mental suffering; her long loose hair, still intertwined with some +little blue flowers, made a shining pillow for her head, and veiled the +nudity of her shoulders with its thick ringlets; her beautiful hands, +purer, more diaphanous than the Host, were crossed on her bosom in an +attitude of pious rest and silent prayer, which served to counteract all +that might have proven otherwise too alluring—even after death—in the +exquisite roundness and ivory polish of her bare arms from which the +pearl bracelets had not yet been removed. I remained long in mute +contemplation, and the more I gazed, the less could I persuade myself +that life had really abandoned that beautiful body forever. I do not +know whether it was an illusion or a reflection of the lamplight, but it +seemed to me that the blood was again commencing to circulate under that +lifeless pallor, although she remained all motionless. I laid my hand +lightly on her arm; it was cold, but not colder than her hand on the day +when it touched mine at the portals of the church. I resumed my +position, bending my face above her, and bathing her cheeks with the +warm dew of my tears. Ah, what bitter feelings of despair and +helplessness, what agonies unutterable did I endure in that long watch! +Vainly did I wish that I could have gathered all my life into one mass +that I might give it all to her, and breathe into her chill remains the +flame which devoured me. The night advanced, and feeling the moment of +eternal separation approach, I could not deny myself the last sad sweet +pleasure of imprinting a kiss upon the dead lips of her who had been my +only love.... Oh, miracle! A faint breath mingled itself with my breath, +and the mouth of Clarimonde responded to the passionate pressure of +mine. Her eyes unclosed, and lighted up with something of their former +brilliancy; she uttered a long sigh, and uncrossing her arms, passed +them around my neck with a look of ineffable delight. "Ah, it is thou, +Romuald!" she murmured in a voice languishingly sweet as the last +vibrations of a harp. "What ailed thee, dearest? I waited so long for +thee that I am dead; but we are now betrothed; I can see thee and visit +thee. Adieu, Romuald, adieu! I love thee. That is all I wished to tell +thee, and I give thee back the life which thy kiss for a moment +recalled. We shall soon meet again."</p> + +<p>Her head fell back, but her arms yet encircled me, as though to retain +me still. A furious whirlwind suddenly burst in the window, and entered +the chamber. The last remaining leaf of the white rose for a moment +palpitated at the extremity of the stalk like a butterfly's wing, then +it detached itself and flew forth through the open casement, bearing +with it the soul of Clarimonde. The lamp was extinguished, and I fell +insensible upon the bosom of the beautiful dead.</p> + +<p>When I came to myself again I was lying on the bed in my little room at +the presbytery, and the old dog of the former curé was licking my hand +which had been hanging down outside of the covers. Barbara, all +trembling with age and anxiety, was busying herself about the room, +opening and shutting drawers, and emptying powders into glasses. On +seeing me open my eyes, the old woman uttered a cry of joy, the dog +yelped and wagged his tail, but I was still so weak that I could not +speak a single word or make the slightest motion. Afterward I learned +that I had lain thus for three days, giving no evidence of life beyond +the faintest respiration. Those three days do not reckon in my life, nor +could I ever imagine whither my spirit had departed during those three +days; I have no recollection of aught relating to them. Barbara told me +that the same coppery-complexioned man who came to seek me on the night +of my departure from the presbytery, had brought me back the next +morning in a close litter, and departed immediately afterward. When I +became able to collect my scattered thoughts, I reviewed within my mind +all the circumstances of that fateful night. At first I thought I had +been the victim of some magical illusion, but ere long the recollection +of other circumstances, real and palpable in themselves, came to forbid +that supposition. I could not believe that I had been dreaming, since +Barbara as well as myself had seen the strange man with his two black +horses, and described with exactness every detail of his figure and +apparel. Nevertheless it appeared that none knew of any castle in the +neighborhood answering to the description of that in which I had again +found Clarimonde.</p> + +<p>One morning I found the Abbé Sérapion in my room. Barbara had advised +him that I was ill, and he had come with all speed to see me. Although +this haste on his part testified to an affectionate interest in me, yet +his visit did not cause me the pleasure which it should have done. The +Abbé Sérapion had something penetrating and inquisitorial in his gaze +which made me feel very ill at ease. His presence filled me with +embarrassment and a sense of guilt. At the first glance he divined my +interior trouble, and I hated him for his clairvoyance.</p> + +<p>While he inquired after my health in hypocritically honeyed accents, he +constantly kept his two great <i>yellow</i> lion-eyes fixed upon me, and +plunged his look into my soul like a sounding lead. Then he asked me how +I directed my parish, if I was happy in it, how I passed the leisure +hours allowed me in the intervals of pastoral duty, whether I had become +acquainted with many of the inhabitants of the place, what was my +favorite reading, and a thousand other such questions. I answered these +inquiries as briefly as possible, and he, without ever waiting for my +answers, passed rapidly from one subject of query to another. That +conversation had evidently no connection with what he actually wished to +say. At last, without any premonition, but as though repeating a piece +of news which he had recalled on the instant, and feared might otherwise +be forgotten subsequently, he suddenly said, in a clear vibrant voice, +which rang in my ears like the trumpets of the Last Judgment:</p> + +<p>"The great courtesan Clarimonde died a few days ago, at the close of an +orgie which lasted eight days and eight nights. It was something +infernally splendid. The abominations of the banquets of Belshazzar and +Cleopatra were reënacted there. Good God, what age are we living in? The +guests were served by swarthy slaves who spoke an unknown tongue, and +who seemed to me to be veritable demons. The livery of the very least +among them would have served for the gala-dress of an emperor. There +have always been very strange stories told of this Clarimonde, and all +her lovers came to a violent or miserable end. They used to say that she +was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe she was none other than +Beelzebub himself."</p> + +<p>He ceased to speak and commenced to regard me more attentively than +ever, as though to observe the effect of his words on me. I could not +refrain from starting when I heard him utter the name of Clarimonde, and +this news of her death, in addition to the pain it caused me by reason +of its coincidence with the nocturnal scenes I had witnessed, filled me +with an agony and terror which my face betrayed, despite my utmost +endeavors to appear composed. Sérapion fixed an anxious and severe look +upon me, and then observed: "My son, I must warn you that you are +standing with foot raised upon the brink of an abyss; take heed lest you +fall therein. Satan's claws are long, and tombs are not always true to +their trust. The tombstone of Clarimonde should be sealed down with a +triple seal, for, if report be true, it is not the first time she has +died. May God watch over you, Romuald!"</p> + +<p>And with these words the Abbé walked slowly to the door. I did not see +him again at that time, for he left for S—— almost immediately.</p> + +<p>I became completely restored to health and resumed my accustomed duties. +The memory of Clarimonde and the words of the old Abbé were constantly +in my mind; nevertheless no extraordinary event had occurred to verify +the funereal predictions of Sérapion, and I had commenced to believe +that his fears and my own terrors were over-exaggerated, when one night +I had a strange dream. I had hardly fallen asleep when I heard my +bed-curtains drawn apart, as their rings slided back upon the curtain +rod with a sharp sound. I rose up quickly upon my elbow, and beheld the +shadow of a woman standing erect before me. I recognized Clarimonde +immediately. She bore in her hand a little lamp, shaped like those which +are placed in tombs, and its light lent her fingers a rosy transparency, +which extended itself by lessening degrees even to the opaque and milky +whiteness of her bare arm. Her only garment was the linen winding-sheet +which had shrouded her when lying upon the bed of death. She sought to +gather its folds over her bosom as though ashamed of being so scantily +clad, but her little hand was not equal to the task. She was so white +that the color of the drapery blended with that of her flesh under the +pallid rays of the lamp. Enveloped with this subtle tissue which +betrayed all the contour of her body, she seemed rather the marble +statue of some fair antique bather than a woman endowed with life. But +dead or living, statue or woman, shadow or body, her beauty was still +the same, only that the green light of her eyes was less brilliant, and +her mouth, once so warmly crimson, was only tinted with a faint tender +rosiness, like that of her cheeks. The little blue flowers which I had +noticed entwined in her hair were withered and dry, and had lost nearly +all their leaves, but this did not prevent her from being charming—so +charming that notwithstanding the strange character of the adventure, +and the unexplainable manner in which she had entered my room, I felt +not even for a moment the least fear.</p> + +<p>She placed the lamp on the table and seated herself at the foot of my +bed; then bending toward me, she said, in that voice at once silvery +clear and yet velvety in its sweet softness, such as I never heard from +any lips save hers:</p> + +<p>"I have kept thee long in waiting, dear Romuald, and it must have seemed +to thee that I had forgotten thee. But I come from afar off, very far +off, and from a land whence no other has ever yet returned. There is +neither sun nor moon in that land whence I come: all is but space and +shadow; there is neither road nor pathway: no earth for the foot, no air +for the wing; and nevertheless behold me here, for Love is stronger than +Death and must conquer him in the end. Oh what sad faces and fearful +things I have seen on my way hither! What difficulty my soul, returned +to earth through the power of will alone, has had in finding its body +and reinstating itself therein! What terrible efforts I had to make ere +I could lift the ponderous slab with which they had covered me! See, +the palms of my poor hands are all bruised! Kiss them, sweet love, that +they may be healed!" She laid the cold palms of her hands upon my mouth, +one after the other. I kissed them, indeed, many times, and she the +while watched me with a smile of ineffable affection.</p> + +<p>I confess to my shame that I had entirely forgotten the advice of the +Abbé Sérapion and the sacred office wherewith I had been invested. I had +fallen without resistance, and at the first assault. I had not even made +the least effort to repel the tempter. The fresh coolness of +Clarimonde's skin penetrated my own, and I felt voluptuous tremors pass +over my whole body. Poor child! in spite of all I saw afterward, I can +hardly yet believe she was a demon; at least she had no appearance of +being such, and never did Satan so skilfully conceal his claws and +horns. She had drawn her feet up beneath her, and squatted down on the +edge of the couch in an attitude full of negligent coquetry. From time +to time she passed her little hand through my hair and twisted it into +curls, as though trying how a new style of wearing it would become my +face. <i>I</i> abandoned myself to her hands with the most guilty pleasure, +while she accompanied her gentle play with the prettiest prattle. The +most remarkable fact was that I felt no astonishment whatever at so +extraordinary an adventure, and as in dreams one finds no difficulty in +accepting the most fantastic events as simple facts, so all these +circumstances seemed to me perfectly natural in themselves.</p> + +<p>"I loved thee long ere I saw thee, dear Romuald, and sought thee +everywhere. Thou wast my dream, and I first saw thee in the church at +the fatal moment. I said at once, 'It is he!' I gave thee a look into +which I threw all the love I ever had, all the love I now have, all the +love I shall ever have for thee—a look that would have damned a +cardinal or brought a king to his knees at my feet in view of all his +court. Thou remainedst unmoved, preferring thy God to me!</p> + +<p>"Ah, how jealous I am of that God whom thou didst love and still lovest +more than me!</p> + +<p>"Woe is me, unhappy one that I am! I can never have thy heart all to +myself, I whom thou didst recall to life with a kiss—dead Clarimonde, +who for thy sake bursts asunder the gates of the tomb, and comes to +consecrate to thee a life which she has resumed only to make thee +happy!"</p> + +<p>All her words were accompanied with the most impassioned caresses, which +bewildered my sense and my reason to such an extent, that I did not fear +to utter a frightful blasphemy for the sake of consoling her, and to +declare that I loved her as much as God.</p> + +<p>Her eyes rekindled and shone like chrysoprases. "In truth?—in very +truth?—as much as God!" she cried, flinging her beautiful arms around +me. "Since it is so, thou wilt come with me; thou wilt follow me +whithersoever I desire. Thou wilt cast away thy ugly black habit. Thou +shalt be the proudest and most envied of cavaliers; thou shalt be my +lover! To be the acknowledged lover of Clarimonde, who has refused even +a Pope, that will be something to feel proud of! Ah, the fair, +unspeakably happy existence, the beautiful golden life we shall live +together! And when shall we depart, my fair sir?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow! To-morrow!" I cried in my delirium.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, then, so let it be!" she answered. "In the meanwhile I shall +have opportunity to change my toilet, for this is a little too light and +in nowise suited for a voyage. I must also forthwith notify all my +friends who believe me dead, and mourn for me as deeply as they are +capable of doing. The money, the dresses, the carriages—all will be +ready. I shall call for thee at this same hour. Adieu, dear heart!" And +she lightly touched my forehead with her lips. The lamp went out, the +curtains closed again, and all became dark; a leaden, dreamless sleep +fell on me and held me unconscious until the morning following.</p> + +<p>I awoke later than usual, and the recollection of this singular +adventure troubled me during the whole day. I finally persuaded myself +that it was a mere vapor of my heated imagination. Nevertheless its +sensations had been so vivid that it was difficult to persuade myself +that they were not real, and it was not without some presentiment of +what was going to happen that I got into bed at last, after having +prayed God to drive far from me all thoughts of evil, and to protect the +chastity of my slumber.</p> + +<p>I soon fell into a deep sleep, and my dream was continued. The curtains +again parted, and I beheld Clarimonde, not as on the former occasion, +pale in her pale winding-sheet, with the violets of death upon her +cheeks, but gay, sprightly, jaunty, in a superb travelling dress of +green velvet, trimmed with gold lace, and looped up on either side to +allow a glimpse of satin petticoat. Her blond hair escaped in thick +ringlets from beneath a broad black felt hat, decorated with white +feathers whimsically twisted into various shapes. In one hand she held a +little riding whip terminated by a golden whistle. She tapped me lightly +with it, and exclaimed: "Well, my fine sleeper, is this the way you make +your preparations? I thought I would find you up and dressed. Arise +quickly, we have no time to lose."</p> + +<p>I leaped out of bed at once.</p> + +<p>"Come, dress yourself, and let us go," she continued, pointing to a +little package she had brought with her. "The horses are becoming +impatient of delay and champing their bits at the door. We ought to have +been by this time at least ten leagues distant from here."</p> + +<p>I dressed myself hurriedly, and she handed me the articles of apparel +herself one by one, bursting into laughter from time to time at my +awkwardness, as she explained to me the use of a garment when I had made +a mistake. She hurriedly arranged my hair, and this done, held up before +me a little pocket mirror of Venetian crystal, rimmed with silver +filigree-work, and playfully asked: "How dost find thyself now? Wilt +engage me for thy valet de chambre?"</p> + +<p>I was no longer the same person, and I could not even recognize myself. +I resembled my former self no more than a finished statue resembles a +block of stone. My old face seemed but a coarse daub of the one +reflected in the mirror. I was handsome, and my vanity was sensibly +tickled by the metamorphosis. That elegant apparel, that richly +embroidered vest had made of me a totally different personage, and I +marvelled at the power of transformation owned by a few yards of cloth +cut after a certain pattern. The spirit of my costume penetrated my very +skin, and within ten minutes more I had become something of a coxcomb.</p> + +<p>In order to feel more at ease in my new attire, I took several turns up +and down the room. Clarimonde watched me with an air of maternal +pleasure, and appeared well satisfied with her work. "Come, enough of +this child's-play! Let us start, Romuald, dear. We have far to go, and +we may not get there in time." She took my hand and led me forth. All +the doors opened before her at a touch, and we passed by the dog without +awaking him.</p> + +<p>At the gate we found Margheritone waiting, the same swarthy groom who +had once before been my escort. He held the bridles of three horses, all +black like those which bore us to the castle—one for me, one for him, +one for Clarimonde. Those horses must have been Spanish genets born of +mares fecundated by a zephyr, for they were fleet as the wind itself, +and the moon, which had just risen at our departure to light us on the +way, rolled over the sky like a wheel detached from her own chariot. We +beheld her on the right leaping from tree to tree, and putting herself +out of breath in the effort to keep up with us. Soon we came upon a +level plain where, hard by a clump of trees, a carriage with four +vigorous horses awaited us. We entered it, and the postilions urged +their animals into a mad gallop. I had one arm around Clarimonde's +waist, and one of her hands clasped in mine; her head leaned upon my +shoulder, and I felt her bosom, half bare, lightly pressing against my +arm. I had never known such intense happiness. In that hour I had +forgotten everything, and I no more remembered having ever been a priest +than I remembered what I had been doing in my mother's womb, so great +was the fascination which the evil spirit exerted upon me. From that +night my nature seemed in some sort to have become halved, and there +were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I +believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman, +at another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could +no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I discover +where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite young +lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the +dissolute habits of the young lord. Two spirals entangled and confounded +the one with the other, yet never touching, would afford a fair +representation of this bicephalic life which I lived. Despite the +strange character of my condition, I do not believe that I ever +inclined, even for a moment, to madness. I always retained with extreme +vividness all the perceptions of my two lives. Only there was one absurd +fact which I could not explain to myself—namely, that the consciousness +of the same individuality existed in two men so opposite in character. +It was an anomaly for which I could not account—whether I believed +myself to be the curé of the little village of C——, or <i>Il Signor +Romualdo</i>, the titled lover of Clarimonde.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, I lived, at least I believed that I lived, in Venice. +I have never been able to discover rightly how much of illusion and how +much of reality there was in this fantastic adventure. We dwelt in a +great palace on the Canaleio, filled with frescoes and statues, and +containing two Titians in the noblest style of the great master, which +were hung in Clarimonde's chamber. It was a palace well worthy of a +king. We had each our gondola, our <i>barcarolli</i> in family livery, our +music hall, and our special poet. Clarimonde always lived upon a +magnificent scale; there was something of Cleopatra in her nature. As +for me, I had the retinue of a prince's son, and I was regarded with as +much reverential respect as though I had been of the family of one of +the twelve Apostles or the four Evangelists of the Most Serene Republic. +I would not have turned aside to allow even the Doge to pass, and I do +not believe that since Satan fell from heaven, any creature was ever +prouder or more insolent than I. I went to the Ridotto, and played with +a luck which seemed absolutely infernal. I received the best of all +society—the sons of ruined families, women of the theatre, shrewd +knaves, parasites, hectoring swashbucklers. But notwithstanding the +dissipation of such a life, I always remained faithful to Clarimonde. I +loved her wildly. She would have excited satiety itself, and chained +inconstancy. To have Clarimonde was to have twenty mistresses; aye, to +possess all women: so mobile, so varied of aspect, so fresh in new +charms was she all in herself—a very chameleon of a woman, in sooth. +She made you commit with her the infidelity you would have committed +with another, by donning to perfection the character, the attraction, +the style of beauty of the woman who appeared to please you. She +returned my love a hundred-fold, and it was in vain that the young +patricians and even the Ancients of the Council of Ten made her the most +magnificent proposals. A Foscari even went so far as to offer to espouse +her. She rejected all his overtures. Of gold she had enough. She wished +no longer for anything but love—a love youthful, pure, evoked by +herself, and which should be a first and last passion. I would have been +perfectly happy but for a cursed nightmare which recurred every night, +and in which I believed myself to be a poor village curé, practising +mortification and penance for my excesses during the day. Reassured by +my constant association with her, I never thought further of the strange +manner in which I had become acquainted with Clarimonde. But the words +of the Abbé Sérapion concerning her recurred often to my memory, and +never ceased to cause me uneasiness.</p> + +<p>For some time the health of Clarimonde had not been so good as usual; +her complexion grew paler day by day. The physicians who were summoned +could not comprehend the nature of her malady and knew not how to treat +it. They all prescribed some insignificant remedies, and never called a +second time. Her paleness, nevertheless, visibly increased, and she +became colder and colder, until she seemed almost as white and dead as +upon that memorable night in the unknown castle. I grieved with anguish +unspeakable to behold her thus slowly perishing; and she, touched by my +agony, smiled upon me sweetly and sadly with the fateful smile of those +who feel that they must die.</p> + +<p>One morning I was seated at her bedside, and breakfasting from a little +table placed close at hand, so that I might not be obliged to leave her +for a single instant. In the act of cutting some fruit I accidentally +inflicted rather a deep gash on my finger. The blood immediately gushed +forth in a little purple jet, and a few drops spurted upon Clarimonde. +Her eyes flashed, her face suddenly assumed an expression of savage and +ferocious joy such as I had never before observed in her. She leaped out +of her bed with animal agility—the agility, as it were, of an ape or a +cat—and sprang upon my wound, which she commenced to suck with an air +of unutterable pleasure. She swallowed the blood in little mouthfuls, +slowly and carefully, like a connoisseur tasting a wine from Xeres or +Syracuse. Gradually her eyelids half closed, and the pupils of her green +eyes became oblong instead of round. From time to time she paused in +order to kiss my hand, then she would recommence to press her lips to +the lips of the wound in order to coax forth a few more ruddy drops. +When she found that the blood would no longer come, she arose with eyes +liquid and brilliant, rosier than a May dawn; her face full and fresh, +her hand warm and moist—in fine, more beautiful than ever, and in the +most perfect health.</p> + +<p>"I shall not die! I shall not die!" she cried, clinging to my neck, half +mad with joy. "I can love thee yet for a long time. My life is thine, +and all that is of me comes from thee. A few drops of thy rich and noble +blood, more precious and more potent than all the elixirs of the earth, +have given me back life."</p> + +<p>This scene long haunted my memory, and inspired me with strange doubts +in regard to Clarimonde; and the same evening, when slumber had +transported me to my presbytery, I beheld the Abbé Sérapion, graver and +more anxious of aspect than ever. He gazed attentively at me, and +sorrowfully exclaimed: "Not content with losing your soul, you now +desire also to lose your body. Wretched young man, into how terrible a +plight have you fallen!" The tone in which he uttered these words +powerfully affected me, but in spite of its vividness even that +impression was soon dissipated, and a thousand other cares erased it +from my mind. At last one evening, while looking into a mirror whose +traitorous position she had not taken into account, I saw Clarimonde in +the act of emptying a powder into the cup of spiced wine which she had +long been in the habit of preparing after our repasts. I took the cup, +feigned to carry it to my lips, and then placed it on the nearest +article of furniture as though intending to finish it at my leisure. +Taking advantage of a moment when the fair one's back was turned, I +threw the contents under the table, after which I retired to my chamber +and went to bed, fully resolved not to sleep, but to watch and discover +what should come of all this mystery. I did not have to wait long. +Clarimonde entered in her night-dress, and having removed her apparel, +crept into bed and lay down beside me. When she felt assured that I was +asleep, she bared my arm, and drawing a gold pin from her hair, +commenced to murmur in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"One drop, only one drop! One ruby at the end of my needle.... Since +thou lovest me yet, I must not die!... Ah, poor love! His beautiful +blood, so brightly purple, I must drink it. Sleep, my only treasure! +Sleep, my god, my child! I will do thee no harm; I will only take of thy +life what I must to keep my own from being forever extinguished. But +that I love thee so much, I could well resolve to have other lovers +whose veins I could drain; but since I have known thee all other men +have become hateful to me.... Ah, the beautiful arm! How round it is! +How white it is! How shall I ever dare to prick this pretty blue vein!" +And while thus murmuring to herself she wept, and I felt her tears +raining on my arm as she clasped it with her hands. At last she took the +resolve, slightly punctured me with her pin, and commenced to suck up +the blood which oozed from the place. Although she swallowed only a few +drops, the fear of weakening me soon seized her, and she carefully tied +a little band around my arm, afterward rubbing the wound with an unguent +which immediately cicatrized it.</p> + +<p>Further doubts were impossible. The Abbé Sérapion was right. +Notwithstanding this positive knowledge, however, I could not cease to +love Clarimonde, and I would gladly of my own accord have given her all +the blood she required to sustain her factitious life. Moreover, I felt +but little fear of her. The woman seemed to plead with me for the +vampire, and what I had already heard and seen sufficed to reassure me +completely. In those days I had plenteous veins, which would not have +been so easily exhausted as at present; and I would not have thought of +bargaining for my blood, drop by drop. I would rather have opened myself +the veins of my arm and said to her: "Drink, and may my love infiltrate +itself throughout thy body together with my blood!" I carefully avoided +ever making the least reference to the narcotic drink she had prepared +for me, or to the incident of the pin, and we lived in the most perfect +harmony.</p> + +<p>Yet my priestly scruples commenced to torment me more than ever, and I +was at a loss to imagine what new penance I could invent in order to +mortify and subdue my flesh. Although these visions were involuntary, +and though I did not actually participate in anything relating to them, +I could not dare to touch the body of Christ with hands so impure and a +mind defiled by such debauches whether real or imaginary. In the effort +to avoid falling under the influence of these wearisome hallucinations, +I strove to prevent myself from being overcome by sleep. I held my +eyelids open with my fingers, and stood for hours together leaning +upright against the wall, fighting sleep with all my might; but the dust +of drowsiness invariably gathered upon my eyes at last, and finding all +resistance useless, I would have to let my arms fall in the extremity of +despairing weariness, and the current of slumber would again bear me +away to the perfidious shores. Sérapion addressed me with the most +vehement exhortations, severely reproaching me for my softness and want +of fervor. Finally, one day when I was more wretched than usual, he said +to me: "There is but one way by which you can obtain relief from this +continual torment, and though it is an extreme measure it must be made +use of; violent diseases require violent remedies. I know where +Clarimonde is buried. It is necessary that we shall disinter her +remains, and that you shall behold in how pitiable a state the object of +your love is. Then you will no longer be tempted to lose your soul for +the sake of an unclean corpse devoured by worms, and ready to crumble +into dust. That will assuredly restore you to yourself." For my part, I +was so tired of this double life that I at once consented, desiring to +ascertain beyond a doubt whether a priest or a gentleman had been the +victim of delusion. I had become fully resolved either to kill one of +the two men within me for the benefit of the other, or else to kill +both, for so terrible an existence could not last long and be endured. +The Abbé Sérapion provided himself with a mattock, a lever, and a +lantern, and at midnight we wended our way to the cemetery of ——, the +location and place of which were perfectly familiar to him. After having +directed the rays of the dark lantern upon the inscriptions of several +tombs, we came at last upon a great slab, half concealed by huge weeds +and devoured by mosses and parasitic plants, whereupon we deciphered the +opening lines of the epitaph:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Here lies Clarimonde</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Who was famed in her life-time</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">As the fairest of women.<a name="FNanchor_2_8" id="FNanchor_2_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_8" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"It is here without a doubt," muttered Sérapion, and placing his lantern +on the ground, he forced the point of the lever under the edge of the +stone and commenced to raise it. The stone yielded, and he proceeded to +work with the mattock. Darker and more silent than the night itself, I +stood by and watched him do it, while he, bending over his dismal toil, +streamed with sweat, panted, and his hard-coming breath seemed to have +the harsh tone of a death rattle. It was a weird scene, and had any +persons from without beheld us, they would assuredly have taken us +rather for profane wretches and shroud-stealers than for priests of God. +There was something grim and fierce in Sérapion's zeal which lent him +the air of a demon rather than of an apostle or an angel, and his great +aquiline face, with all its stern features brought out in strong relief +by the lantern-light, had something fearsome in it which enhanced the +unpleasant fancy. I felt an icy sweat come out upon my forehead in huge +beads, and my hair stood up with a hideous fear. Within the depths of my +own heart I felt that the act of the austere Sérapion was an abominable +sacrilege; and I could have prayed that a triangle of fire would issue +from the entrails of the dark clouds, heavily rolling above us, to +reduce him to cinders. The owls which had been nestling in the +cypress-trees, startled by the gleam of the lantern, flew against it +from time to time, striking their dusty wings against its panes, and +uttering plaintive cries of lamentation; wild foxes yelped in the far +darkness, and a thousand sinister noises detached themselves from the +silence. At last Sérapion's mattock struck the coffin itself, making +its planks reëcho with a deep sonorous sound, with that terrible sound +nothingness utters when stricken. He wrenched apart and tore up the lid, +and I beheld Clarimonde, pallid as a figure of marble, with hands +joined; her white winding-sheet made but one fold from her head to her +feet. A little crimson drop sparkled like a speck of dew at one corner +of her colorless mouth. Sérapion, at this spectacle, burst into fury: +"Ah, thou art here, demon! Impure courtesan! Drinker of blood and gold!" +And he flung holy water upon the corpse and the coffin, over which he +traced the sign of the cross with his sprinkler. Poor Clarimonde had no +sooner been touched by the blessed spray than her beautiful body +crumbled into dust, and became only a shapeless and frightful mass of +cinders and half-calcined bones.</p> + +<p>"Behold your mistress, my Lord Romuald!" cried the inexorable priest, as +he pointed to these sad remains. "Will you be easily tempted after this +to promenade on the Lido or at Fusina with your beauty?"</p> + +<p>I covered my face with my hands, a vast ruin had taken place within me. +I returned to my presbytery, and the noble Lord Romuald, the lover of +Clarimonde, separated himself from the poor priest with whom he had kept +such strange company so long. But once only, the following night, I saw +Clarimonde. She said to me, as she had said the first time at the +portals of the church: "Unhappy man! Unhappy man! What hast thou done? +Wherefore have hearkened to that imbecile priest? Wert thou not happy? +And what harm had I ever done thee that thou shouldst violate my poor +tomb, and lay bare the miseries of my nothingness? All communication +between our souls and our bodies is henceforth forever broken. Adieu! +Thou wilt yet regret me!" She vanished in air as smoke, and I never saw +her more.</p> + +<p>Alas! she spoke truly indeed. I have regretted her more than once, and I +regret her still. My soul's peace has been very dearly bought. The love +of God was not too much to replace such a love as hers. And this, +brother, is the story of my youth. Never gaze upon a woman, and walk +abroad only with eyes ever fixed upon the ground; for however chaste and +watchful one may be, the error of a single moment is enough to make one +lose eternity.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_7" id="Footnote_1_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_7"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "<i>La Morte Amoureuse.</i>"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_8" id="Footnote_2_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_8"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +</p><p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ici gît Clarimonde</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Qui fut de son vivant</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">La plus belle du monde.</span><br /> +</p><p> +The broken beauty of the lines is unavoidably lost in the translation.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="ARRIA_MARCELLA" id="ARRIA_MARCELLA"></a>ARRIA MARCELLA</h2> + +<h4>A SOUVENIR OF POMPEII</h4> + +<p>Three young friends, who had under-taken an Italian tour together last +year, visited the Studii Museum at Naples, where the various antique +objects exhumed from the ashes of Pompeii and Herculaneum have been +collected.</p> + +<p>They scattered through the halls, inspecting the mosaics, the bronzes, +the frescoes detached from the walls of the dead city, each following +the promptings of his own particular taste in such matters; and whenever +one of the party encountered something especially curious, he summoned +his comrades with cries of delight, much to the scandal of the taciturn +English visitors, and the staid <i>bourgeois</i> who studiously thumbed +their catalogues.</p> + +<p>But the youngest of the three, who had paused before a glass case, +appeared wholly deaf to the exclamations of his comrades, so deeply had +he become absorbed in contemplation. The object that he seemed to be +examining with so much interest was a black mass of coagulated cinders, +bearing a hollow imprint. One might easily have mistaken it for the +fragment of some statue-mould, broken in the casting. The trained eye of +an artist would have readily therein recognized the impression of a +perfect bosom and a flank as faultless in its outlines as a Greek +statue. It is well known, indeed the commonest traveller's guide will +tell you, that this lava, in cooling about the body of a woman, +preserved its charming contours. Thanks to the caprice of the eruption +that destroyed four cities, that noble form, though crumbled to dust +nearly two thousand years ago, has come down to us; the rounded +loveliness of a throat has lived through the centuries in which so many +empires perished without even leaving the traces of their existence; +chance-imprinted upon the volcanic scoriæ, that seal of beauty remains +unobliterated.</p> + +<p>Finding that he still remained absorbed in contemplation, Octavian's +friends returned to where he stood; and Max, touching his shoulder, +caused him to start like one surprised in a secret. Evidently Octavian +had not been aware of the approach of Max or Fabio.</p> + +<p>"Come, Octavian," exclaimed Max, "do not stay lingering whole hours +before every cabinet, else we shall get late for the train and miss +seeing Pompeii to-day."</p> + +<p>"What is our comrade looking at?" asked Fabio, drawing near. "Ah, the +imprint found in the house of Arrius Diomedes!" And he turned a +peculiar, quick glance upon Octavian.</p> + +<p>Octavian slightly blushed, took Max's arm, and the visit terminated +without further incident. On leaving the Studii Museum, the three +friends entered a <i>corricolo,</i> and were driven to the railway station. +The <i>corricolo</i>, with its great red wheels, its tracket seat studded +with brass nails, and its thin, spirited horse harnessed like a Spanish +mule, and galloping at full speed over the great slabs of lava pavement, +is too familiar to need description here, especially as we are not +recording impressions of a trip to Naples, but the simple narrative of +an adventure which, although true, may seem both fantastic and +incredible in the extreme.</p> + +<p>The railroad by which Pompeii is reached runs for almost its entire +length by the sea, whose long volutes of foam advance to unroll +themselves upon a beach of blackish sand resembling sifted charcoal. +This beach has actually been formed by lava-streams and volcanic +cinders, and its deep tone forms a strong contrast with the blue of the +sky and the blue of the waters. The earth alone, in that sunny +brightness, seems able to retain a shadow.</p> + +<p>The villages bordered or traversed by the railway—Portici, celebrated +in one of Auber's operas; Resina, Torre del Græco, Torre dell' +Annunziata, whose dwellings with their arcades and terraced roofs +attract the traveller's gaze—have, notwithstanding the intensity of the +sunlight and the southern love for whitewashing, something of a +Plutonian and ferruginous character like Birmingham or Manchester. The +very dust is black there. An impalpable soot clings to everything. One +feels that the mighty forge of Vesuvius is panting and smoking only a +few paces off.</p> + +<p>The three friends left the station at Pompeii, laughing among themselves +at the odd commingling of antique and modern ideas suggested by the +sign, "Pompeii Station"—a Græco-Roman city and a railway depot!</p> + +<p>They crossed the cotton-field, with its fluttering white bolls, between +the railway and the disinterred city, and at the inn which has been +built just without the ancient rampart they took a guide, or, more +correctly speaking, the guide took them, a calamity which is not easily +avoided in Italy.</p> + +<p>It was one of those delightful days so common in Naples, when the +brilliancy of the sunlight and the transparency of the air cause objects +to take such hues as in the North would be deemed fabulous, and appear +indeed to belong to the world of dreams rather than to that of +realities. The Northern visitor who has once looked upon that glow of +azure and gold is apt to carry back with him into the depths of his +native fogs an incurable nostalgia.</p> + +<p>Having shaken off a corner of her cinder shroud, the resurrected city +again rose with her thousand details under a dazzling day. The cone of +Vesuvius, furrowed with striæ of blue, rosy, and violet-hued lavas, +ruddily bronzed by the sun, towered sharply defined in the background. A +thin haze, almost imperceptible in the sunlight, hooded the blunt crest +of the mountain. At first sight it might have been taken for one of +those clouds which shadow the brows of lofty peaks on the fairest days. +Upon a nearer view, slender threads of white vapor could be perceived +rising from the mountain-summit, as from the orifices of a perfuming +pan, to reunite above in a light cloud. The volcano, being that day in a +good humor, smoked his pipe very peacefully; and but for the example of +Pompeii, buried at his feet, no one would ever have suspected him of +being by nature any more ferocious than Montmartre. On the other side +fair hills, with outlines voluptuously undulating like the hips of a +woman, barred the horizon; and, further yet, the sea, that in other days +bore biremes and triremes under the ramparts of the city, extended its +azure boundary.</p> + +<p>Of all spectacles, the sight of Pompeii is one of the most surprising. +This sudden backward leap of nineteen centuries astonishes even the +least comprehensive and most prosaic natures. Two paces lead you from +the antique life to the life of to-day, and from Christianity to +paganism. Thus, when the three friends beheld those streets wherein the +forms of a vanished past are preserved yet intact, they were strangely +and profoundly affected, however well prepared by the study of books and +drawings they might have been. Octavian, above all, seemed stricken with +stupefaction, and like a man walking in his sleep, mechanically followed +the guide, without hearing the monotonous nomenclature that the varlet +had learned by heart and recited like a lesson.</p> + +<p>He gazed wildly on those ruts hollowed out in the cyclopean pavements of +the streets by the chariot wheels, and which seem to be of yesterday, +so fresh do they appear; those inscriptions in red letters skilfully +traced upon the surfaces of the walls by rapid strokes of the brush +(theatrical advertisements, notices of houses to let, votive formulas, +signs, announcements of all descriptions, not less curious than a +freshly discovered fragment of the walls of Paris, with advertising +bills and placards attached, would prove a thousand years hence for the +unknown people of the future); those houses, whose shattered roofs +permit one to penetrate at a glance into all those interior mysteries, +all those domestic details which historians invariably neglect, and +whereof the secrets die with dying civilizations; those fountains that +even now seem scarcely dried up; that forum whose restoration was +interrupted by the great catastrophe, and whose architraves and columns, +all ready cut and sculptured, still seem waiting in their purity of +angle to be lifted into place; those temples, consecrated, in that +mythologic age when atheists were yet unknown, to gods that have long +ceased to be; those shops wherein the merchant only is missing; that +public tavern where may still be seen the circular stain of the drinking +cups upon the marble; that barracks with its ochre and minium-painted +columns, on which the soldiers scratched grotesque caricatures of +battle, and those juxtaposed double theatres of song and drama which +might even now resume their entertainments, were not the companies who +performed in them turned long since to clay, and at present occupied +perchance in closing the bunghole of a cask or stopping a crevice in the +wall, after the fashion of Alexander's ashes or Cæsar's dust, according +to the melancholy reflections of Hamlet!</p> + +<p>Fabio mounted upon the thymele of the tragic theatre while Max and +Octavian climbed to the upper benches; and there, with extravagant +gestures, he commenced to recite whatever poetical fragments came to his +memory, much to the terror of the lizards, who fled, vibrating their +tails, and hid themselves in the joints of the ruined stonework. +Although the brazen or earthen vessels formerly used to reverberate +sounds no longer existed, Fabio's voice sounded none the less full and +vibrant.</p> + +<p>The guide then conducted them across the open fields which overlie those +portions of Pompeii still buried, to the amphitheatre situated at the +other end of the city. They passed under those trees whose roots plunge +down through the roofs of the edifices interred, displacing tiles, +cleaving ceilings asunder, and disjointing columns; and they traversed +the farms where vulgar vegetables sprout above wonders of art—material +images of that oblivion wherewith time covers all things.</p> + +<p>The amphitheatre caused them little surprise. They had seen that of +Verona, vaster and equally well preserved; besides, the arrangement of +such antique arenas was as familiar to them as that of those in which +bull-fights are held in Spain, and which they much resemble save in +solidity of construction and beauty of material.</p> + +<p>Accordingly they soon retraced their footsteps and gained the Street of +Fortune by a cross-path, listening half-distractedly to the <i>cicerone</i>, +who named each house they passed by the name which had been given it +immediately upon its discovery, owing to some characteristic +peculiarity—the House of the Brazen Bull, the House of the Faun, the +House of the Ship, the Temple of Fortune, the House of Meleager, the +Tavern of Fortune, at the angle of the Consular Road (Via Consularia), +the Academy of Music, the Public Market, the Pharmacy, the Surgeon's +Shop, the Custom House, the House of the Vestals, the Inn of Albinus, +the Thermopolium, and so on—until they came to that gate which leads to +the Street of the Tombs.</p> + +<p>Within the interior arch of this brick-built gate, once adorned with +statues which have long since disappeared, may be noticed two deep +grooves designed to receive a sliding portcullis, after the style of a +mediæval donjon, to which era, indeed, one might have supposed such a +defence peculiar.</p> + +<p>"Who," exclaimed Max to his friends, "could have dreamed of finding in +Pompeii, the Græco-Latin city, a gate so romantically Gothic? Fancy +some belated Roman knight blowing his horn before this entrance, +summoning them to raise the portcullis, like a page of the fifteenth +century!"</p> + +<p>"There is nothing new under the sun," replied Fabio; "and the aphorism +itself is not new, inasmuch as it was formulated by Solomon."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there may be something new under the moon," observed Octavian, +with a smile of melancholy irony.</p> + +<p>"My dear Octavian," cried Max, who during this little conversation had +paused before an inscription traced in rubric upon the outer wall, "wilt +behold the combats of the gladiators? See the advertisement! Combat and +chase on the 5th day of the nones of April; the masts of the velarium +will be rigged; twenty pairs of gladiators will fight during the nones; +if you fear for the delicacy of your complexion, be assured that the +awnings will be spread; and as you might in any case prefer to visit the +amphitheatre early, these men will cut each other's throats in the +morning—<i>matutini erunt.</i> Nothing could be more considerate."</p> + +<p>Thus chatting, the three friends followed that sepulchre-fringed road +which, according to our modern ideas, would be a lugubrious avenue for +any city, but which had no sad significations for the ancients, whose +tombs contained in lieu of hideous corpses only a pinch of +dust—abstract idea of death! Art beautified these last resting-places, +and, as Goethe says, the pagan decorated sarcophagi and funeral urns +with the images of life.</p> + +<p>It was therefore, doubtless, that Fabio and Max could visit, with a +lively curiosity and a joyous sense of being, such as they could not +have felt in any Christian cemetery, those funeral monuments, all gayly +gilded by the sun, which, as they stood by the wayside, seemed still +trying to cling to life, and inspired none of those chill feelings of +repulsion, none of those fantastic terrors evoked by our modern dismal +places of sepulture. They paused before the tomb of Mammia, the public +priestess, near which a tree (either a cypress or a willow) is growing; +they seated themselves in the hemicycle of the triclinium, where the +funeral feasts were held, laughing like fortunate heirs; they read with +mock solemnity the epitaphs of Navoleia, Labeon, and the Arria family, +silently followed by Octavian, who seemed more deeply touched than his +careless companions by the fate of those dead of two thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>Thus they came to the villa of Arrius Diomedes, one of the finest +residences in Pompeii. It is approached by a flight of brick steps, and +after entering the door-way, which is flanked by two small lateral +columns, one finds himself in a court resembling the <i>patio</i> which +occupies the centre of Spanish and Moorish dwellings, and which the +ancients termed <i>impluvium</i> or <i>cavædium.</i> Fourteen columns of brick, +overlaid with stucco, once supported on four sides a portico or covered +peristyle, not unlike a convent cloister, and beneath which one could +walk secure from the rain. This courtyard is paved in mosaic with brick +and white marble, which presents a subdued and pleasing effect of color. +In its centre a quadrilateral marble basin, which still exists, formerly +caught the rain-water that dripped from the roof of the portico. It was +a strange experience, entering thus into the life of the antique world, +and treading with well-blacked boots upon the marbles worn smooth by the +sandals and buskins of the contemporaries of Augustus and Tiberius.</p> + +<p>The cicerone led them through the <i>exedra</i> or summer parlor, which +opened to the sea, to receive its cooling breezes. It was there that the +family received company, and took their siesta during those burning +hours when prevailed the mighty zephyr of Africa, laden with languors +and storms. He brought them into the basilica, a long open gallery which +lighted the various apartments, and in which clients and visitors erst +awaited the call of the Nomenclator. Then he conducted them to the white +marble terrace, whence extended a broad view of verdant gardens and blue +sea. Then he showed them the <i>Nymphæum</i>, or Hall of Baths, with its +yellow-painted walls, its stucco columns, its mosaic pavement, and its +marble bathing-basin which had contained so many of the lovely bodies +that have long since passed away like shadows; the <i>cubiculum</i>, where +flitted so many dreams from the Ivory Gate, and whose alcoves contrived +in the wall were once closed by a <i>conopeum</i> or curtain, of which the +bronze rings still lie upon the floor; the <i>tetrastyle</i>, or Hall of +Recreation; the Chapel of the Lares; the Cabinet of Archives; the +Library; the Museum of Paintings; the <i>gynæceum</i> or women's apartment, +comprising a suite of small chambers, now half fallen into ruin, but +whose walls yet bear traces of paintings and arabesques, like fair +cheeks from which the rouge has been but half wiped off.</p> + +<p>Having fully inspected all these, they descended to the lower floor, for +the ground is much lower on the garden side than it is on the side of +the Street of the Tombs. They traversed eight halls painted in antique +red, whereof one has its walls hollowed with architectural niches, after +that style of which we have to-day a good example in the vestibule of +the Hall of the Ambassadors at the Alhambra, and finally they came to a +sort of cave or cellar, whose purpose was clearly indicated by eight +earthen amphoræ propped up against the wall, and once perfumed, +doubtless, like the odes of Horace with the wines of Crete, Falernia, or +Massica.</p> + +<p>One solitary bright ray of sunshine streamed through a narrow aperture +above, half choked by nettles, whose light-traversed leaves it +transformed into emeralds and topazes, and this gay natural detail +seemed to smile opportunely through the sadness of the place.</p> + +<p>"It was here," observed the cicerone, in his customary indifferent tone, +"that among seventeen others was found the skeleton of the lady whose +mould is exhibited at the Naples Museum. She wore gold rings, and the +shreds of her fine tunic still clung to the mass of cinders which have +preserved her shape."</p> + +<p>The guide's commonplace phrases deeply affected Octavian. He made the +man point out to him the exact spot where the precious remains had been +discovered, and had it not been for the restraining presence of his +friends, he would have abandoned himself to some extravagant lyrism. His +chest heaved, his eyes glistened with a furtive moisture. Though blotted +out by twenty centuries of oblivion, that catastrophe touched him like a +recent misfortune. Not even the death of a mistress or a friend could +have affected him more profoundly; and while Max and Fabio had their +backs turned, a tear, two thousand years late, fell upon the spot where +that woman, with whom he felt he had fallen retrospectively in love, had +perished, suffocated by the hot cinders of the volcano.</p> + +<p>"Enough of this archæology," cried Fabio. "We do not propose to write +dissertations upon an ancient jug or a tile of the age of Julius Cæsar +in order to obtain memberships in some provincial academy. These classic +souvenirs give me the stomachache. Let us go to dinner—if such a thing +be possible—in that picturesque hostelry, where I fear we shall be +served with fossil beefsteaks and fresh eggs laid prior to the death of +Pliny."</p> + +<p>"I will not exclaim with Boileau:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Un sot, quelquefois, ouvre un avis important,'"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>exclaimed Max, with a laugh. "That would be ill-mannered, but your idea +is a good one. Still, I think it would have been pleasant to banquet +here, on some triclinium, reclining after the antique fashion, and +waited upon by slaves according to the style of Lucullus or Trimalchio. +It is true that I see no oysters from Lake Lucrinus, the turbots and +mullets from the Adriatic are wanting, the Apuleian boar cannot be had +in market, and the loaves and honey-cakes on exhibition in the Naples +Museum lie, hard as stones, beside their green-gray moulds. Even raw +macaroni sprinkled with <i>cacciacavallo,</i> detestable as it may be, is +certainly better than nothing. What does friend Octavian think about +it?"</p> + +<p>Octavian, who was deeply regretting that he had not happened to be in +Pompeii on the day of the eruption, so that he might have saved the lady +of the gold rings, and thereby merited her love, had not heard a +syllable of this gastronomic conversation. Only the last two words +uttered by Max had fallen upon his ears, and feeling no desire to broach +a discussion, he gave a random nod of assent, upon which the amicable +party retraced the road along the ramparts to the inn.</p> + +<p>The table was placed under a sort of open porch which served as a +vestibule to the hostelry, whose rough cast walls were decorated with +various daubs that the host entitled "Salvator Rosa," "Espagnolet," +"Cavalier Massimo," and other celebrated names of the Neapolitan School, +which he deemed himself bound to extol.</p> + +<p>"Venerable host," cried Fabio, "do not waste your eloquence to no +purpose. We are not Englishmen, and we prefer young women to old +canvases. Better send us your wine-list by that handsome brunette with +the velvety eyes whom I just now perceived on the stairway."</p> + +<p>Finding that his guests did not belong to the mystifiable class of +Philistines and <i>bourgeois</i>, the <i>palforio</i> ceased to vaunt his gallery +in order to glorify his cellar. To begin with, he had all the best +vintages: Château Margaux, Grand Lafitte which had been twice to the +Indies, Sillery de Moët, Hochmeyer, scarlet wine, port and porter, ale +and ginger beer, white and red Lachryma-Christi, Caprian, and Falernian.</p> + +<p>"What, you have Falernian wine, <i>animal!</i> And put it at the end of your +list! And you dare to subject us to an unendurable œnological litany!" +cried Max, leaping at the inn-keeper's throat with burlesque fury. "Why, +you have no sentiment of local color. You are unworthy to live in this +antique neighborhood. Is it even good, this Falernian wine of yours? Was +it put in amphoræ under the Consul Plancus—<i>Consule Planco?</i>"</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about the Consul Plancus, and my wine is not put in +amphoræ, but it is good, and worth ten carlins a bottle," answered the +inn-keeper.</p> + +<p>Day had faded away and the night came, a serene, transparent night, +clearer, assuredly, than full midday in London. The earth had tints of +azure, and the sky silvery reflections of inconceivable sweetness. The +air was so still that the flames of the candles on the table did not +oscillate.</p> + +<p>A young boy, playing a flute, approached the table, and standing there, +with his eyes fixed upon the three guests, performed upon his sweet and +melodious instrument, one of those popular airs in a minor key which +have a penetrating charm.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that lad was a direct descendant of the flute-player who marched +before Duilius.</p> + +<p>"Our repast is assuming quite an antique aspect. We only need some +Gaditanian dancing women and ivy garlands," exclaimed Max, as he helped +himself to a great bumper of Falernian wine.</p> + +<p>"I feel myself in the humor for making Latin quotations like a +<i>feuilleton</i> in the <i>Débats</i>. Stanzas of odes come back to my memory," +added Max.</p> + +<p>"Keep them to yourself!" cried Fabio and Octavian, justly alarmed. +"Nothing is so indigestible as Latin at dinner."</p> + +<p>Among young men with cigars in their mouths and elbows on the table, who +find themselves contemplating a certain number of empty flagons, +especially when the wine has been capitally good, conversation never +fails to turn upon women. Each explained his own system, whereof the +following is a fair summary:</p> + +<p>Fabio cared only for youth and beauty. Voluptuous and positive, he found +no pleasure in illusions, and had no preferences in love. A peasant +girl would have pleased his fancy as well as a princess, provided she +were beautiful. The body rather than its apparel attracted him. He +laughed much at certain of his friends who were enamored of so many +yards of lace and silk, and he declared it were more rational to fall in +love with the stock of a fashionable <i>marchand des nouveautés</i>. These +opinions, which were rational enough in the main, and which he made no +attempt to conceal, caused him to pass for an eccentric.</p> + +<p>Max, less of an artist than Fabio, cared only for difficult +undertakings, complicated intrigues. He sought resistances to vanquish, +virtues to seduce, and played at love as at a game of chess, with +long-premeditated moves, reserved ambuscades, and stratagems worthy of +Polybius. In a drawing-room he would always choose the woman who seemed +least in sympathy with him for the object of attack. To make her pass by +skilful transition from aversion to love afforded him delicious +pleasure. To impose himself upon characters which strove to repel him, +and master wills that rebelled against his influence, seemed to him the +sweetest of all triumphs. Like those hunters who, through rain, +sunshine, or snow, through fields and woods, and over plains, pursue +with excessive fatigue and unconquerable ardor some miserable quarry +which in three cases out of four they would not deign to eat, so Max, +having once captured his prey, troubled himself no further about it, and +at once started off on another chase.</p> + +<p>As for Octavian, he confessed that reality itself had little charm for +him, not because he indulged in student-dreams, all moulded of lilies +and roses like one of Demoustier's madrigals, but because there were too +many prosaic and repulsive details surrounding all beauty, too many +doting and decorated fathers, coquettish mothers who wore natural +flowers in false hair, ruddy-faced cousins meditating proposals, +ridiculous aunts in love with little dogs. An acquatinta engraving after +Horace Vernet or Delaroche, hung up in a woman's room, would have been +sufficient to check a growing passion within him. More poetical even +than amorous, he wanted a terrace on Isola-Bella, in Lake Maggiore, +under the light of a full moon to frame a rendezvous. He would have +wished to elevate his love above the midst of common life, and transport +its scenes to the stars. Thus he had by turns fallen fruitlessly and +madly in love with all the grand feminine types preserved by history or +art. Like Faust, he had loved Helen, and would have wished that the +undulations of the ages might bear to him one of those sublime +personifications of human desires and dreams, whose forms, to mortal +eyes invisible, live immortally beyond Space and Time. He had created +for himself an ideal seraglio, with Semiramis, Aspasia, Cleopatra, Diana +of Poitiers, Jane of Arragon. At times also he had fallen in love with +statues, and one day, passing before the Venus of Milo in the Museum, he +cried out passionately: "Oh, who will restore thy arms that thou may'st +crush me upon thy marble bosom!" At Rome, the sight of a matted mass of +long thick human hair, exhumed from an antique tomb, had thrown him into +a fantastic delirium. He had attempted, through the medium of a few of +those hairs, obtained by a golden bribe from the custodian, and placed +in the hands of a clairvoyant of great power, to evoke the shade and +form of the dead; but the conducting fluid—the subtle odyle—had +evaporated during the lapse of so many years, and the apparition could +no more come forth out of the eternal night.</p> + +<p>As Fabio had divined before the glass cabinet in the Studii Museum, the +imprint discovered in the cellar at the villa of Arrius Diomedes had +excited in Octavian wild impulses toward a retrospective ideal. He +longed to soar beyond Life and Time and transport himself in spirit to +the age of Titus.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Max and Fabio retired to their room, and being somewhat heavy-headed +from the classic fumes of the Falernian, were soon sound asleep. +Octavian, who had more than once suffered the full glass to remain +before him untasted, not wishing to disturb by a grosser intoxication +the poetic drunkenness which boiled in his brain, felt from the +agitation of his nerves that sleep would not come to him, and left the +hostelry on tiptoe that he might cool his brow and calm his thoughts in +the night air.</p> + +<p>His feet bore him unawares to the entrance which leads into the dead +city. He removed the wooden bar that closed it, and wandered into the +ruins beyond.</p> + +<p>The moon illuminated the pale houses with her white beams, dividing the +streets into double-edged lines of silvery white and bluish shadow. This +nocturnal day, with its subdued tints, disguised the degradation of the +buildings. The mutilated columns, the façades streaked with fugitive +lizards, the roofs crumbled in by the eruption, were less noticeable +than when beheld under the clear, raw light of the sun. The lost parts +were completed by the half-tint of shadow, and here and there one +brusque beam of light, like a touch of sentiment in a picture-sketch, +marked where a whole edifice had crumbled away. The silent genii of the +night seemed to have repaired the fossil city for some representation of +fantastic life.</p> + +<p>At times Octavian fancied that he saw vague human forms in the shadow, +but they vanished the moment they approached the edge of the lighted +portion of the street. A low whispering, an indefinite hum, floated +through the silence. Our promenader at first attributed them to a +fluttering in his eyes, to a buzzing in his ears; it might even, he +thought, be merely an optical delusion, coupled with the sighing of the +sea-breezes, or the flight of some snake or lizard through the nettles, +for in nature all things live, even death; all things make themselves +heard, even silence. Nevertheless he felt a kind of involuntary terror, +a slight trembling, that might have been caused by the cold night air, +but which made his flesh creep. Could it be that his comrades, actuated +by the same impulses as himself, were seeking him among the ruins? Those +dimly seen forms and those indistinct sounds of footsteps! Might it not +have been only Max and Fabio walking and chatting together, who had just +disappeared round the corner of a cross-road? But Octavian felt to his +dismay that this very natural explanation could not be true, and the +arguments which he made to himself in favor of it were the reverse of +convincing. The solitude and the shadow were peopled with invisible +beings whom he was disturbing. He had fallen into the midst of a +mystery, and it seemed that they were awaiting his departure in order to +commence again. Such were the extravagant ideas that floated through his +brain, and obtained no little verisimilitude from the hour, the place, +and the thousand alarming details which those can well understand who +have ever found themselves alone by night in the midst of some vast +ruin.</p> + +<p>Passing before a house which he had attentively observed during the day, +and which the moon shone fully upon, he beheld in perfect integrity a +certain portico whereof he had vainly attempted to restore the design in +fancy. Four Ionic columns—fluted for half their height and their shafts +purple-robed with minium tints—sustained a cymatium adorned with +polychromatic ornaments that the artist seemed only to have completed +the day before. Upon one side wall of the entrance a Laconian molossus, +painted in encaustic, and accompanied by the warning inscription "<i>Cave +canem</i>" barked at the moon and the visitor with pictured fury. On the +mosaic threshold the word HAVE, in Oscan and Latin characters, saluted +the guest with its friendly syllables. The outer surfaces of the walls, +tinted with ochre and rubric, were unmarred by a single crack. The house +had grown a story higher; and the tiled roof, now surmounted by a bronze +acroterium, projected an intact outline against the light blue of the +sky, where a few stars were growing pale.</p> + +<p>This strange restoration effected between afternoon and evening by some +unknown architect greatly puzzled Octavian, who felt certain of having +the same day seen that very house in a lamentable state of ruin. The +mysterious reconstructor had labored with great despatch, for all the +neighboring dwellings had the same fresh, new look; all the pillars were +coiffed with their capitals; not a single stone, a brick, a pellicle of +stucco or a scale of paint was wanting upon the shining surfaces of the +façades; and through the intervals of the peristyles surrounding the +marble basin of the cavædium one could catch glimpses of white laurels +and bayroses, myrtles and pomegranates. Surely all the historians were +mistaken; the eruption had never taken place, or else the needle of Time +had moved backward twenty secular hours upon the dial of Eternity!</p> + +<p>In the climax of his astonishment, Octavian commenced to wonder whether +he might not actually be sleeping upon his feet, and walking in a dream. +He even seriously asked himself whether madness might not be parading +its hallucinations before his eyes; but he soon felt himself compelled +to admit that he was neither asleep nor mad.</p> + +<p>A singular change had taken place in the atmosphere. Vague rose-tints +were blending through brightening shades of violet with the faintly +azure tints of moonlight; the sky commenced to glow brightly along its +borders; daylight seemed about to dawn. Octavian took out his watch: it +marked the hour of midnight. Fearing that it might have stopped, he +pressed the spring of the repeating mechanism. It struck twelve times. +It was midnight beyond a doubt, and yet the brightness ever increased. +The moon sank through the azure which became momentarily more and more +luminous. The sun rose!</p> + +<p>Then Octavian, to whom all ideas of time had become hopelessly confused, +was able to convince himself that he was walking, not through a dead +Pompeii, the chill corpse of a city half-shrouded, but through a living, +youthful, intact Pompeii over which the torrents of burning mud from +Vesuvius had never flowed.</p> + +<p>An inconceivable prodigy had transported him, a Frenchman of the +nineteenth century, back to the age of Titus, not in spirit only, but in +reality; or else had called up before him from the depths of the past a +desolated city with its vanished inhabitants, for a man clothed in the +antique fashion had just passed out of a neighboring house.</p> + +<p>This man wore his hair short, and his face was closely shaven; he was +dressed in a brown tunic and a grayish mantle, the ends of which were +well tucked up so as not to impede his movements. He walked at a rapid +gait, bordering upon a run, and passed by Octavian without perceiving +him. He carried on his arm a basket made of Spanish broom, and +proceeded toward the Forum Nundinarium. He was evidently a slave, some +Davus, going to market beyond a doubt.</p> + +<p>The noise of wheels became audible, and an antique wagon, drawn by white +oxen and loaded with vegetables, came along the street. Beside the team +walked a peasant—with legs bare and sunburnt, and feet +sandal-shod—who was clad in a sort of canvas shirt puffed out about the +waist; a conical straw hat hanging at his shoulders, and depending from +his neck by the chin-band, left his face exposed to view—a type of face +unknown in these days—a forehead low and traversed by salient, knotty +lines, hair black and curly, eyes tranquil as those of his oxen, and a +neck like that of the rustic Hercules. As he gravely pricked his animals +with the goad, his statuesque attitudes would have thrown Ingres into +ecstasy.</p> + +<p>The peasant perceived Octavian and appeared surprised, but he proceeded +on his way without being able, doubtless, to find any explanation for +the appearance of this strange-looking personage, and in his rustic +simplicity willingly leaving the solution of the enigma to those wiser +than himself.</p> + +<p>Campanian peasants also appeared on the scene, driving before them asses +laden with skins of wine, and ringing their brazen bells. Their +physiognomies differed from those of the modern peasants as a medallion +differs from a son.</p> + +<p>Gradually the city became peopled, like one of those panoramic pictures +at first desolate, but which by a sudden change of light become animated +with personages previously invisible.</p> + +<p>Octavian's feelings had undergone a change. Only a short time before, +amid the deceitful shadows of the night, he had fallen a prey to that +uneasiness from which the bravest are not exempt amid such disquieting +and fantastic surroundings as reason cannot explain. His vague terror +had ultimately yielded to a profound stupefaction. The distinctness of +his perceptions forbade him to doubt the testimony of his senses, yet +what he beheld seemed altogether contrary to reason. Feeling still but +half convinced, he sought by the authentication of minor actual details +to assure himself that he was not the victim of hallucination. Those +figures which passed before his eyes could not be phantoms, for the +living sun shone upon them with unmistakable reality, and their shadows, +elongated in the morning light, fell upon the pavement and the walls.</p> + +<p>Without the faintest understanding of what had befallen him, Octavian, +ravished with delight to find one of his most cherished dreams realized, +no longer attempted to resist the fate of his adventure. He abandoned +himself to the mystery of these marvels without any further attempt to +explain them; he averred to himself that since he had been permitted, by +virtue of some mysterious power, to live for a few hours in a vanished +age, he would not waste time in efforts to solve an incomprehensible +problem, and he proceeded fearlessly gazing to right and left upon this +scene at once so old and yet so new to him. But to what epoch of +Pompeiian life had he been transported? An ædile inscription engraved +upon a wall showed him by the names of public personages there recorded, +that it was about the commencement of the reign of Titus, or in the +year 79 of our own era. A sudden thought flashed across Octavian's mind. +The woman whose mould he had seen in the museum at Naples must be +living, inasmuch as the eruption of Vesuvius by which she had perished +took place on the 24th of August in this very year: he might therefore +discover her, behold her, speak to her!... The mad longing which had +seized him at the sight of that mass of cinders moulded upon a divinely +perfect form, was perhaps about to be fully satisfied, for surely naught +could be impossible to a love which had had the strength to make Time +itself recoil, and the same hour to pass twice through the sand-glass of +Eternity!</p> + +<p>While Octavian was abandoning himself to these reflections, beautiful +young girls were passing by on their way to the fountains, all balancing +urns upon their heads with their white finger-tips, and patricians clad +in white togas bordered with purple bands were proceeding toward the +Forum, each followed by an escort of clients. The buyers commenced to +throng about the booths, which were all designated by sculptured or +pictured signs, and recalled by reason of their shape and small +dimensions the moresque booths of Algiers. Over most of them a glorious +phallus of baked and painted clay, together with the inscription, <i>Hic +habitat Felicitas</i>, testified to superstitious precautions against the +evil eye. Octavian also noticed an amulet shop, whose shelves were +stocked with horns, bifurcated branches of coral, and little figures of +Priapus in gold, like those worn in Naples even at this day as a +safeguard against the <i>jettatura</i>, and he thought to himself that a +superstition often outlives a religion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Following the sidewalk which borders each street in Pompeii (and +deprives the English of all claim to this invention), Octavian suddenly +found himself face to face with a beautiful young man of about his own +age, clad in a saffron-colored tunic, and a mantle of snowy linen as +supple as cashmere. The sight of Octavian in his frightful modern hat, +girthed about with a scanty black frock-coat, his legs confined in +pantaloons, and his feet cramped in well-polished boots, seemed to +surprise the young Pompeiian in much the same way as one of us would +feel astonished to meet on the Boulevard de Gand some Iowa Indian or +native of Butocudo, bedecked with his feathers, necklace of +bear's-claws, or whimsical tattooing. Nevertheless, being a well-bred +young man, he did not burst out laughing in Octavian's face, and pitying +the poor barbarian who had lost his way, no doubt, in that Græco-Roman +city, he said to him in a soft, clear voice: "<i>Advena, salve!</i>"</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more natural than that an inhabitant of Pompeii, in the +reign of the divine, most powerful, and most august Emperor Titus, +should speak Latin, yet Octavian started at hearing this dead tongue in +a living mouth. It was then, indeed, that he congratulated himself on +having been proficient in his college studies, and taken the honors at +the annual examinations. The Latin taught him by the University served +him in good stead on that unique occasion, and calling back to mind some +souvenirs of his college course, he returned the salutation of the +Pompeiian after the style of <i>De viris illustribus</i> and <i>Selectæ e +profanis</i>, in a tolerably intelligible manner, but with a Parisian +accent which forced the young man to smile despite himself.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it will be easier for you to converse in Greek," said the +Pompeiian. "I am also acquainted with that language, for I studied at +Athens."</p> + +<p>"I am even less familiar with Greek than with Latin," replied Octavian. +"I am from the land of Gaul—from Paris—from Lutetia."</p> + +<p>"I know that country. My grandfather served under the great Julius +Cæsar in the Gallic wars. But what a strange dress you wear! The Gauls +whom I saw at Rome were not thus attired."</p> + +<p>Octavian attempted to explain to the young Pompeiian that twenty +centuries had rolled by since the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cæsar, and +that the fashions had changed; but he forgot his Latin, and indeed, to +tell the truth, he had but little to forget.</p> + +<p>"My name is Rufus Holconius, and my house is at your service," said the +young man, "unless, indeed, you prefer the freedom of the tavern. It is +hard by the public-house of Albinus, near the gate of the suburb of +Augustus Felix and the Inn of Sarinus, son of Publius, just at the +second turn; but if you wish, I will be your guide through this city, in +which you do not seem to be acquainted. Young barbarian, I like you, +although you endeavored to impose upon my credulity by pretending that +the Emperor Titus, who now reigns, died two thousand years ago, and that +the Nazarean (whose infamous followers were plastered with pitch and +burned to illuminate Nero's gardens) rules sole master of the deserted +heavens whence the great gods have fallen! By Pollux!" he continued as +his eyes fell upon a rubric inscription at a street-corner, "you have +just come in good time. The <i>Casina</i> of Plautus, which has quite +recently been put upon the stage, will be played to-day. It is a curious +and laughable comedy which will amuse you, even if you only comprehend +the pantomime of it. Come with me. It is nearly time for the play +already. I will find you a place in the seat set apart for guests and +strangers." And Rufus Holconius led the way toward the little comic +theatre which the three friends had visited during the day.</p> + +<p>The Frenchman and the citizen of Pompeii proceeded along the Street of +the Fountains of Abundance and the Street of the Theatres, passing by +the College, the Temple of Isis, and the Studio of the Sculptor, and +entered the Odeon or Comic Theatre by a lateral vomitory. Through the +recommendations of Holconius, Octavian obtained a seat near the +proscenium in a part of the theatre corresponding to our private boxes +which front upon the stage. All eyes were immediately turned upon him +with good-natured curiosity, and a low whispering arose all through the +amphitheatre.</p> + +<p>The play had not yet commenced, and Octavian profited by the interval to +examine the building. The semicircular seats, terminated at either end +by a magnificent lion's paw sculptured in Vesuvian lava, receded, +broadening as they rose, from an empty space corresponding to our +<i>parterre</i>, but much narrower and paved in mosaic with Greek marble. +The rows of seats widened above one another in regular gradation +according to distance, and four stairways, corresponding with the +vomitories, and sloping from the base to the summit of the amphitheatre, +divided it into five <i>cunei</i> or wedge-shaped compartments, with the +broad end uppermost. The spectators, all furnished with tickets +consisting of little slips of ivory, upon which were indicated in +numerical order the row, division, and seat, together with the name of +the play and its author, took their places without confusion. The +magistrates, nobility, married men, young folks, and the soldiers—who +attracted attention by the gleaming of their bronze helmets—all +occupied different rows of seats.</p> + +<p>It was an admirable spectacle. Those beautiful togas and great white +mantles displayed in the first row of seats, contrasting with the +vari-colored garments of the women seated in the circle above, and the +gray capes of the populace who were assigned to the upper benches near +the columns which supported the roof, and between which were visible +glimpses of a sky intensely blue as the azure background of the +Panathenæa.</p> + +<p>A fine spray aromatized with saffron fell from the friezes above in +imperceptible mist, at once cooling and purifying the air. Octavian +thought of the fetid emanations which vitiate the atmosphere of our +modern theatres—theatres so uncomfortable that they may justly be +considered places of torture rather than places of amusement, and he +found that modern civilization had not, after all, made much progress.</p> + +<p>The curtain, sustained by a transverse beam, sank into the depths of the +orchestra; the musicians took their seats, and the Prologue appeared in +grotesque attire, his face concealed by a frightful mask which fitted +the head like a helmet.</p> + +<p>Having saluted the audience and demanded applause, the Prologue +commenced a merry argumentation. Old plays, he said, were like old wine +which improves with age; and <i>Casina</i>, so dear to the old, should not be +less so to the young: all could take pleasure in it, some because they +were familiar with it, others because they were not. Moreover, the play +had been carefully remounted, and should be heard with a cheerful mind, +without thinking about one's debts or one's creditors, for people were +not liable to be arrested at the theatre. It was a happy day, the +weather was fair, and the halcyons hovered over the Forum.</p> + +<p>Then he gave an analysis of the comedy about to be performed by the +actors, with that minuteness of detail which shows how little the +element of surprise entered into the theatrical pleasures of the +ancient. He told how the aged Stalino, being enamored of his beautiful +slave Casina, desired to marry her to his farmer Olympio, a complaisant +spouse whose place he himself would fill on the nuptial night; and how +Lycostrata, wife of Stalino, in order to thwart the luxury of her +vicious husband, sought to unite Casina in marriage to the groom +Chalinus with the further idea of favoring the amours of her son—in +fine, how the deceived Stalino mistook a young slave in disguise for +Casina, who, being discovered to be free, and of free birth, espouses +the young master whom she loves and by whom she is beloved.</p> + +<p>As in a reverie, the young Frenchman watched the actors with their +bronze-mouthed masks, exerting themselves upon the stage; the slaves ran +hither and thither, feigning great haste; the old man wagged his head +and extended his trembling hand; the matron with high words and scornful +mien strutted in her importance and quarrelled with her husband, to the +great delight of the audience. All these personages made their entrances +and exits through three doors contrived in the foundation-wall and +communicating with the green-room of the actors. The house of Stalino +occupied one corner of the stage, and that of his old friend Alcesimus +faced it on the opposite side. These decorations, although very well +painted, represented the idea of a place rather than the place itself, +like most of the vague scenery of the classic theatres.</p> + +<p>When the nuptial procession, pompously escorting the false Casina, +entered upon the stage, a mighty burst of laughter, such as Homer +attributes to the gods, rang through all the amphitheatre, and thunders +of applause evoked the vibrating echoes of the enclosure, but Octavian +heard no more and saw no more of the play.</p> + +<p>In the circle of seats occupied by the women, he had just beheld a +creature of marvellous beauty. From that moment all the other charming +faces which had attracted his attention became eclipsed as the stars +before the face of Phœbus—all vanished, all disappeared as in a dream; +a mist clouded the circles of seats with their swarming multitudes, and +the high-pitched voices of the actors seemed lost in infinite distance.</p> + +<p>His heart received a sudden shock as of electricity, and it seemed to +him that sparks flew from his breast when the eyes of that woman turned +upon him.</p> + +<p>She was dark and pale. Her locks, crisp-flowing and black as the tresses +of Night, streamed backward over her temples after the fashion of the +Greeks, and in her pallid face beamed soft, melancholy eyes, heavy with +an indefinable expression of voluptuous sadness and passionate <i>ennui</i>. +Her mouth, with its disdainful curves, protested by the living warmth of +its burning crimson against the tranquil pallor of her cheeks, and the +curves of her neck presented those pure and beautiful outlines now to be +found only in statues. Her arms were naked to the shoulder, and from the +peaks of her splendid bosom, which betrayed its superb curves beneath a +mauve-rose tunic, fell two graceful folds of drapery that seemed to have +been sculptured in marble by Phidias or Cleomenes.</p> + +<p>The sight of that bosom, so faultless in contour, so pure in its +outlines, magnetically affected Octavian. It seemed to him that those +rich curves corresponded perfectly to that hollow mould in the museum at +Naples which had thrown him into so ardent a reverie, and from the +depths of his heart a voice cried out to him that this woman was indeed +the same who had been suffocated in the villa of Arrius Diomedes by the +cinders of Vesuvius. What prodigy, then, enabled him to behold her +living, and witnessing the performance of the <i>Casina</i> of Plautus? But +he forbore to seek an explanation of the problem. For that matter, how +did he himself happen to be there? He accepted the fact of his presence +as in dreams we never question the intervention of persons actually +long dead, but who seem to act nevertheless like living people; besides, +his emotion forbade him to reason. For him the Wheel of Time had left +its track, and his all-conquering love had chosen its place among the +ages passed away. He found himself face to face with his chimera, one of +the most unattainable of all, a retrospective chimera. The cup of his +whole life had in a single instant been filled to overflowing.</p> + +<p>While gazing upon that face, at once so calm and passionate, so cold and +yet so replete with warmth, so dead, yet so radiant with life, he felt +that he beheld before him his first and last love, his cup of supreme +intoxication; he felt all the memories of all the women whom he ever +believed that he had loved, vanish like impalpable shadows, and his +heart became once more virginally pure of all anterior passion. The past +was dead within him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the fair Pompeiian, resting her chin upon the palm of her +hand, turned upon Octavian, though feigning the while to be absorbed in +the performance, the velvet gaze of her nocturnal eyes, and that look +fell upon him heavy and burning as a jet of molten lead. Then she turned +to whisper some words in the ear of a maid seated at her side.</p> + +<p>The performance closed. The crowd poured out of the theatre through the +vomitories, and Octavian, disdaining the kindly offices of his friend +Holconius, rushed to the nearest door-way. He had scarcely reached the +entrance when a hand was lightly laid upon his arm, and a feminine voice +exclaimed in tones at once low yet so distinct that not a syllable +escaped him:</p> + +<p>"I am Tyche Novaleia, entrusted with the pleasures of Arria Marcella, +daughter of Arrius Diomedes. My mistress loves you. Follow me."</p> + +<p>Arria Marcella had just entered her litter, borne by four strong Syrian +slaves, naked to the waist, whose bronze torsos shone under the +sunlight. The curtain of the litter was drawn aside, and a pale hand, +starred with brilliant rings, waved a friendly signal to Octavian, as +though in confirmation of the attendant's words. Then the purple folds +of the curtain fell again, and the litter was borne away to the +rhythmical sound of the footsteps of the slaves.</p> + +<p>Tyche conducted Octavian along winding byways, tripping lightly across +the streets over the stepping-stones which connected the foot-paths, and +between which the wheels of the chariots rolled, wending her way through +the labyrinth with that certainty which bears witness to thorough +familiarity with a city. Octavian noticed that he was traversing +portions of Pompeii which had never been excavated, and which were in +consequence totally unknown to him. Among so many other equally strange +circumstances, this caused him no astonishment. He had made up his mind +to be astonished at nothing. Amid all this archaic phantasmagory, which +would have driven an antiquarian mad with joy, he no longer saw anything +save the dark, deep eyes of Arria Marcella, and that superb bosom which +had vanquished even Time, and which Destruction itself had sought to +preserve.</p> + +<p>They arrived at last before a private gate which opened to admit them, +and closed again as soon as they had entered, and Octavian found +himself in a court surrounded by Ionic columns of Greek marble, painted +bright yellow for half their height and crowned with capitals relieved +with blue and red ornaments. A wreath of aristolochia suspended its +great green heart-shaped leaves from the projections of the architecture +like a natural arabesque, and near a marble basin framed in plants one +flaming rose towered on a single stalk—a plume-flower in the midst of +natural flowers. The walls were adorned with panelled fresco-work, +representing fanciful architecture or imaginary landscape views.</p> + +<p>Octavian obtained only a hurried glance at all these details, for Tyche +immediately placed him in the hands of the slaves who had charge of the +bath, and who subjected him, notwithstanding his impatience, to all the +refinements of the antique <i>thermæ.</i> After having submitted to the +several necessary degrees of vapor-heat, endured the scraper of the +<i>strigillarius</i>, and felt cosmetics and perfumed oils poured over him in +streams, he was reclothed with a white tunic, and again met Tyche at the +opposite door, who took him by the hand and conducted him into another +apartment gorgeously decorated.</p> + +<p>Upon the ceiling were painted, with a purity of design, brilliancy of +color, and freedom of touch which bespoke the hand of a great master +rather than of the mere ordinary decorator, Mars, Venus, and Love. A +frieze composed of deer, hares, and birds, disporting themselves amid +rich foliage, ran around the apartment above a wainscoting of cipollino +marble; the mosaic pavement, a marvellous work from the hand, perhaps, +of Sosimus of Pergamos, represented banquet-scenes in relief, with a +perfection of art which deluded the eye.</p> + +<p>At the further end of the hall, upon a biclinium, or double couch, +reclined Arria Marcella in an attitude which recalled the reclining +woman of Phidias, upon the pediment of the Parthenon. Her +pearl-embroidered shoes lay at the foot of the couch, and her beautiful +bare foot, purer and whiter than marble, extended from beneath the light +covering of byssus which had been thrown over her.</p> + +<p>Two earrings, fashioned in the form of balance-scales, and bearing +pearls in either scale, trembled in the light against her pale cheeks. A +necklace of golden balls, with pear-shaped pendants attached, hung down +upon her bosom, which the negligent folds of a straw-colored peplum, +with a Greek border in black lines, had left half uncovered; a gold and +black fillet passed and glittered here and there through her ebon +tresses, for she had changed her dress upon returning from the theatre, +and around her arm, like the asp about the arm of Cleopatra, a golden +serpent with jewelled eyes entwined itself in many folds and sought to +bite its own tail.</p> + +<p>Close by the double couch had been placed a little table, supported upon +griffins' paws, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and freighted with +different viands served upon dishes of silver and gold, or of +earthenware enamelled with costly paintings. A Phasian bird, cooked in +its plumage, was visible, and also various fruits which are seldom seen +together in any one season.</p> + +<p>Everything seemed to indicate that a guest was expected. The floor had +been strewn with fresh flowers, and the amphoræ of wine were plunged +into urns filled with snow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Arria Marcella made a sign to Octavian to lie down upon the biclinium +beside her and share her repast. Half-maddened with astonishment and +love, the young man took at random a few mouthfuls from the plates +extended to him by little curly-haired Asiatic slaves, who wore short +tunics. Arria did not eat, but she frequently raised to her lips an +opal-tinted myrrhine vase filled with a wine darkly purple like +thickened blood. As she drank an imperceptible rosy vapor mounted to her +cheeks from her heart, the heart that had never throbbed for so many +centuries; nevertheless, her bare arm, which Octavian lightly touched in +the act of raising his cup, was cold as the skin of a serpent or the +marble of a tomb.</p> + +<p>"Ah, when you paused in the Studii Museum to contemplate the mass of +hardened clay which still preserves my form," exclaimed Arria Marcella, +turning her long, liquid eyes upon Octavian, "and your thoughts were +ardently directed to me, my spirit felt it in that world where I float, +invisible to vulgar eyes. Faith makes God, and love makes woman. One is +truly dead only when one is no longer loved. Your desire has restored +life to me. The mighty invocation of your heart overcame the dim +distances that separated us."</p> + +<p>The idea of amorous invocation which the young woman spoke of entered +into the philosophic beliefs of Octavian, beliefs which we ourselves are +not far from sharing.</p> + +<p>In effect, nothing dies; all things are eternal. No power can annihilate +that which once had being. Every action, every word, every thought which +has fallen into the universal ocean of being, therein creates circles +which travel, and increase in travelling, even to the confines of +eternity. To vulgar eyes only do natural forms disappear, and the +spectres which have thence detached themselves people Infinity. Paris, +in some unknown region of space, continues to carry off Helen. The +galley of Cleopatra still floats down with swelling sails of silk upon +the azure current of an ideal Cydnus. A few passionate and powerful +minds have been able to recall before them ages apparently long passed +away, and to restore to life personages dead to all the world beside. +Faust has had for his mistress the daughter of Tyndarus, and conducted +her to his Gothic castle in the depths of the mysterious abysses of +Hades. Octavian had been able to live a day under the reign of Titus, +and to make himself beloved of Arria Marcella, daughter of Arrius +Diomedes, she who was at that moment lying upon an antique couch beside +him in a city destroyed for all the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>"From my disgust with other women," replied Octavian, "from the +unconquerable reverie which attracted me toward its radiant shapes as to +stars that lure on, I knew that I could never love save beyond the +confines of Time and Space. It was you that I awaited; and that frail +vestige of your being, preserved by the curiosity of men, has by its +secret magnetism placed me in communication with your spirit. I know not +if you be a dream or a reality, a phantom or a woman; if, like Ixion, I +press but a cloud to my cheated breast; if I am only the victim of some +vile spell of sorcery—but what I do truly know is that you will be my +first and my last love."</p> + +<p>"May Eros, son of Aphrodite, hear your promise," returned Arria +Marcella, dropping her head upon the shoulder of her lover, who lifted +her in a passionate embrace. "Oh, press me to your young breast! Envelop +me with your warm breath. I am cold through having remained so long +without love." And against his heart Octavian felt that beautiful bosom +rise and fall, whose mould he had that very morning admired through the +glass of a cabinet in the museum. The coolness of that beautiful flesh +penetrated him through his tunic and made him burn. The gold and black +fillet had become detached from Arria's head, passionately thrown back, +and her hair streamed like a black river over the purple pillow.</p> + +<p>The slaves had removed the table. A confused sound of sighs and kisses +was alone audible. The pet quails, indifferent to this amorous scene, +plundered the crumbs of the banquet upon the mosaic pavement, uttering +sharp little cries.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the brazen rings of the curtain which closed the entrance to +the apartment slided back upon the curtain-rod, and an aged man of stern +demeanor and wrapped in a great brown mantle appeared upon the +threshold. His gray beard was divided into two points after the manner +of the Nazareans. His face seemed furrowed by the suffering of ascetic +mortifications, and a little cross of black wood was suspended from his +neck, leaving no doubt as to his faith. He belonged to the sect, then +new, of the Disciples of Christ.</p> + +<p>On perceiving him, Arria Marcella, overwhelmed with confusion, hid her +face in the folds of her mantle, like a bird which puts its head under +its wing at the approach of an enemy from whom it cannot escape, to save +itself at least from the horror of seeing him, while Octavian, rising on +his elbow, stared fixedly at the provoking being who had thus abruptly +interrupted his happiness.</p> + +<p>"Arria, Arria!" exclaimed the austere personage in a voice of reproach, +"did not your lifetime suffice for your misconduct, and must your +infamous amours encroach upon centuries to which they do not belong? Can +you not leave the living in their sphere? Have not your ashes cooled +since the day when you perished unrepentant beneath the rain of volcanic +fire? So, then, even two thousand years have not sufficed to calm your +passion, and your voracious arms still draw to your heartless breast of +marble the poor mad-men whom your philters have intoxicated!"</p> + +<p>"Arrius, father, mercy! Do not crush me in the name of that morose +religion which was never mine! I believed in our ancient gods, who loved +life and youth and beauty and pleasure. Do not hurl me back into pale +nothingness! Let me enjoy this life that love has given back to me!"</p> + +<p>"Silence, impious woman! Speak not to me of your gods, which are demons. +Let this man, whom you have fettered with your impure seductions, depart +hence. Draw him no more beyond the circle of that life which God +measured out for him. Return to the Limbo of paganism with your Asiatic, +Roman, or Greek lovers. Young Christian, forsake that larva, who would +seem to you more hideous than Empousa or Phorkyas, could you but see her +as she is!"</p> + +<p>Pale and frozen with horror, Octavian tried to speak, but his voice +clung to his throat, according to the expression of Virgil.</p> + +<p>"Will you obey me, Arria?" imperiously cried the tall old man.</p> + +<p>"No, never!" responded Arria, with flashing eyes, dilated nostrils, and +passion-trembling lips, as she suddenly encircled the body of Octavian +with her beautiful statuesque arms, cold, hard, and rigid as marble. Her +furious beauty, enhanced by the struggle, shone forth at that supreme +moment with supernatural brightness, as though to leave its imperishable +souvenir with her young lover.</p> + +<p>"Then, unhappy woman," exclaimed the old man, "I must needs employ +extreme measures, and render your nothingness palpable and visible to +this fascinated child." And in a voice of command he pronounced a +formula of exorcism that banished from Arria's cheeks the purple tints +with which the black wine from the myrrhine vase had suffused them.</p> + +<p>At the same moment the distant bell of one of those hamlets which border +the sea-coast, or lie hidden in the mountain hollows, rang out the first +peal of the angelus.</p> + +<p>A sob of agony burst from the broken heart of the young woman at that +sound. Octavian felt her encircling arms untwine, the draperies which +covered her sank fold on fold, as though the contours which sustained +them had suddenly given way, and the wretched night-walker beheld on the +banquet-couch beside him only a handful of cinders mingled with a few +fragments of calcined bones, among which gold bracelets and jewelry +glittered, together with such other shapeless remains as were found in +excavating the villa of Arrius Diomedes.</p> + +<p>He uttered one fearful cry and became insensible.</p> + +<p>The old man had disappeared, the sun rose, and the hall, so brilliantly +decorated but a short time before, became only a dismantled ruin.</p> + +<p>After a heavy slumber, inspired by the libations of the previous +evening, Max and Fabio started from their sleep, and at once called +their comrade, whose room adjoined their own, with one of those +burlesque rallying cries which are so commonly made use of by +travellers. Octavian, for the best of reasons, returned no answer. Fabio +and Max, hearing no response, entered their friend's chamber and +perceived that the bed had not been disturbed.</p> + +<p>"He must have fallen asleep in some chair," said Fabio, "without being +able to get to bed, for our good Octavian cannot bear much liquor; and +most likely he is taking an early walk to dissipate the fumes of the +wine in the fresh morning air."</p> + +<p>"But he did not drink much," returned Max, in a thoughtful manner. "All +this seems very strange to me. Let us go and find him!"</p> + +<p>Accompanied by the cicerone, the two friends searched all the streets, +squares, cross-roads, and alleys of Pompeii, entering every curious +building where they thought Octavian might be occupied in copying a +painting or taking down an inscription, and finally discovered him lying +insensible upon the disjointed mosaic pavement of a small ruined +chamber. They had much difficulty in restoring him to consciousness, and +on reviving, his only explanation of the circumstance was that he had +taken a fancy to see Pompeii by moonlight, and had been seized with a +sudden faintness, which would doubtless result in nothing serious.</p> + +<p>The little party returned by rail to Naples, as they had come, and the +same evening, from their private box at the San Carlo, Max and Fabio +watched through their opera glasses a troupe of nymphs dancing in a +ballet, under the leadership of Amalia Ferraris, the <i>danseuse</i> then in +vogue, all wearing under their gauzy skirts frightful green drawers, +which made them look like so many frogs stung by a tarantula. Pale, with +woful eyes, and the general air of one crushed by suffering, Octavian +seemed to doubt the reality of what transpired upon the stage, so +difficult did he find it to resume the sentiments of real life after the +marvellous adventures of the night.</p> + +<p>From the time of that visit to Pompeii Octavian fell into a dismal +melancholy, which the good-humored pleasantry of his companions rather +aggravated than soothed. The image of Arria Marcella haunted him +incessantly, and the sad termination of his fantastic good fortune had +never destroyed its charm.</p> + +<p>Unable to contain his misery, he returned secretly to Pompeii, and once +again wandered among the ruins by moonlight as before, his heart +palpitating with maddening hope; but the hallucination never returned. +He saw only the lizards fleeing over the stones, he heard only the +screams of the startled night-birds. He met his friend Rufus Holconius +no more, Tyche came not to lay her supple hand upon his arm, Arria +Marcella obstinately slumbered in her dust.</p> + +<p>Abandoning all hope, Octavian finally married a charming young English +girl, who is madly in love with him. He is perfectly well behaved to his +wife, yet Ellen, with that subtle instinct of the heart which nothing +can deceive, feels that her husband is enamored of another. But of whom? +That is a mystery which the most unflagging watchfulness cannot enable +her to unravel. Octavian never entertains actresses. In society he +addresses to women only the most commonplace gallantries. He even +returned with the greatest coldness the marked advances of a certain +Russian princess celebrated for her beauty and her coquetry. A secret +drawer, opened during her husband's absence, afforded no confirmation of +infidelity to Ellen's suspicions. But how could she permit herself to be +jealous of Arria Marcella, daughter of Arrius Diomedes, the freedman of +Tiberius?</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="THE_MUMMYS_FOOT" id="THE_MUMMYS_FOOT"></a>THE MUMMY'S FOOT</h2> + +<p>I had entered, in an idle mood, the shop of one of those curiosity +venders who are called <i>marchands de bric-à-brac</i> in that Parisian +<i>argot</i> which is so perfectly unintelligible elsewhere in France.</p> + +<p>You have doubtless glanced occasionally through the windows of some of +these shops, which have become so numerous now that it is fashionable to +buy antiquated furniture, and that every petty stockbroker thinks he +must have his <i>chambre au moyen âge</i>.</p> + +<p>There is one thing there which clings alike to the shop of the dealer in +old iron, the ware-room of the tapestry maker, the laboratory of the +chemist, and the studio of the painter: in all those gloomy dens where a +furtive daylight filters in through the window-shutters the most +manifestly ancient thing is dust. The cobwebs are more authentic than +the guimp laces, and the old pear-tree furniture on exhibition is +actually younger than the mahogany which arrived but yesterday from +America.</p> + +<p>The warehouse of my bric-à-brac dealer was a veritable Capharnaum. All +ages and all nations seemed to have made their rendezvous there. An +Etruscan lamp of red clay stood upon a Boule cabinet, with ebony panels, +brightly striped by lines of inlaid brass; a duchess of the court of +Louis XV. nonchalantly extended her fawn-like feet under a massive table +of the time of Louis XIII., with heavy spiral supports of oak, and +carven designs of chimeras and foliage intermingled.</p> + +<p>Upon the denticulated shelves of several sideboards glittered immense +Japanese dishes with red and blue designs relieved by gilded hatching, +side by side with enamelled works by Bernard Palissy, representing +serpents, frogs, and lizards in relief.</p> + +<p>From disembowelled cabinets escaped cascades of silver-lustrous Chinese +silks and waves of tinsel, which an oblique sunbeam shot through with +luminous beads, while portraits of every era, in frames more or less +tarnished, smiled through their yellow varnish.</p> + +<p>The striped breastplate of a damascened suit of Milanese armor glittered +in one corner; loves and nymphs of porcelain, Chinese grotesques, vases +of <i>céladon</i> and crackle-ware, Saxon and old Sèvres cups encumbered the +shelves and nooks of the apartment.</p> + +<p>The dealer followed me closely through the tortuous way contrived +between the piles of furniture, warding off with his hand the hazardous +sweep of my coat-skirts, watching my elbows with the uneasy attention of +an antiquarian and a usurer.</p> + +<p>It was a singular face, that of the merchant; an immense skull, polished +like a knee, and surrounded by a thin aureole of white hair, which +brought out the clear salmon tint of his complexion all the more +strikingly, lent him a false aspect of patriarchal <i>bonhomie</i>, +counteracted, however, by the scintillation of two little yellow eyes +which trembled in their orbits like two louis-d'or upon quicksilver. The +curve of his nose presented an aquiline silhouette, which suggested the +Oriental or Jewish type. His hands—thin, slender, full of nerves which +projected like strings upon the finger-board of a violin, and armed with +claws like those on the terminations of bats' wings—shook with senile +trembling; but those convulsively agitated hands became firmer than +steel pincers or lobsters' claws when they lifted any precious +article—an onyx cup, a Venetian glass, or a dish of Bohemian crystal. +This strange old man had an aspect so thoroughly rabbinical and +cabalistic that he would have been burnt on the mere testimony of his +face three centuries ago.</p> + +<p>"Will you not buy something from me to-day, sir? Here is a Malay kreese +with a blade undulating like flame. Look at those grooves contrived for +the blood to run along, those teeth set backward so as to tear out the +entrails in withdrawing the weapon. It is a fine character of ferocious +arm, and will look well in your collection. This two-handed sword is +very beautiful. It is the work of Josepe de la Hera; and this +<i>colichemarde,</i> with its fenestrated guard—what a superb specimen of +handicraft!"</p> + +<p>"No; I have quite enough weapons and instruments of carnage. I want a +small figure, something which will suit me as a paper-weight, for I +cannot endure those trumpery bronzes which the stationers sell, and +which may be found on everybody's desk."</p> + +<p>The old gnome foraged among his ancient wares, and finally arranged +before me some antique bronzes, so-called at least; fragments of +malachite, little Hindoo or Chinese idols, a kind of poussah-toys in +jade-stone, representing the incarnations of Brahma or Vishnoo, and +wonderfully appropriate to the very undivine office of holding papers +and letters in place.</p> + +<p>I was hesitating between a porcelain dragon, all constellated with +warts, its mouth formidable with bristling tusks and ranges of teeth, +and an abominable little Mexican fetich, representing the god +Vitziliputzili <i>au naturel</i>, when I caught sight of a charming foot, +which I at first took for a fragment of some antique Venus.</p> + +<p>It had those beautiful ruddy and tawny tints that lend to Florentine +bronze that warm living look so much preferable to the gray-green +aspect of common bronzes, which might easily be mistaken for statues in +a state of putrefaction. Satiny gleams played over its rounded forms, +doubtless polished by the amorous kisses of twenty centuries, for it +seemed a Corinthian bronze, a work of the best era of art, perhaps +moulded by Lysippus himself.</p> + +<p>"That foot will be my choice," I said to the merchant, who regarded me +with an ironical and saturnine air, and held out the object desired that +I might examine it more fully.</p> + +<p>I was surprised at its lightness. It was not a foot of metal, but in +sooth a foot of flesh, an embalmed foot, a mummy's foot. On examining it +still more closely the very grain of the skin, and the almost +imperceptible lines impressed upon it by the texture of the bandages, +became perceptible. The toes were slender and delicate, and terminated +by perfectly formed nails, pure and transparent as agates. The great +toe, slightly separated from the rest, afforded a happy contrast, in the +antique style, to the position of the other toes, and lent it an ærial +lightness—the grace of a bird's foot. The sole, scarcely streaked by a +few almost imperceptible cross lines, afforded evidence that it had +never touched the bare ground, and had only come in contact with the +finest matting of Nile rushes and the softest carpets of panther skin.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, you want the foot of the Princess Hermonthis!" exclaimed the +merchant, with a strange giggle, fixing his owlish eyes upon me. "Ha, +ha, ha! For a paper-weight! An original idea!—artistic idea! Old +Pharaoh would certainly have been surprised had some one told him that +the foot of his adored daughter would be used for a paper-weight after +he had had a mountain of granite hollowed out as a receptacle for the +triple coffin, painted and gilded, covered with hieroglyphics and +beautiful paintings of the Judgment of Souls," continued the queer +little merchant, half audibly, as though talking to himself.</p> + +<p>"How much will you charge me for this mummy fragment?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, the highest price I can get, for it is a superb piece. If I had +the match of it you could not have it for less than five hundred francs. +The daughter of a Pharaoh! Nothing is more rare."</p> + +<p>"Assuredly that is not a common article, but still, how much do you +want? In the first place let me warn you that all my wealth consists of +just five louis. I can buy anything that costs five louis, but nothing +dearer. You might search my vest pockets and most secret drawers without +even finding one poor five-franc piece more."</p> + +<p>"Five louis for the foot of the Princess Hermonthis! That is very +little, very little, indeed. 'Tis an authentic foot," muttered the +merchant, shaking his head, and imparting a peculiar rotary motion to +his eyes. "Well, take it, and I will give you the bandages into the +bargain," he added, wrapping the foot in an ancient damask rag. "Very +fine! Real damask—Indian damask which has never been redyed. It is +strong, and yet it is soft," he mumbled, stroking the frayed tissue with +his fingers, through the trade-acquired habit which moved him to praise +even an object of such little value that he himself deemed it only +worth the giving away.</p> + +<p>He poured the gold coins into a sort of mediæval alms-purse hanging at +his belt, repeating:</p> + +<p>"The foot of the Princess Hermonthis to be used for a paper-weight!"</p> + +<p>Then turning his phosphorescent eyes upon me, he exclaimed in a voice +strident as the crying of a cat which has swallowed a fish-bone:</p> + +<p>"Old Pharaoh will not be well pleased. He loved his daughter, the dear +man!"</p> + +<p>"You speak as if you were a contemporary of his. You are old enough, +goodness knows! but you do not date back to the Pyramids of Egypt," I +answered, laughingly, from the threshold.</p> + +<p>I went home, delighted with my acquisition.</p> + +<p>With the idea of putting it to profitable use as soon as possible, I +placed the foot of the divine Princess Hermonthis upon a heap of papers +scribbled over with verses, in themselves an undecipherable mosaic work +of erasures; articles freshly begun; letters forgotten, and posted in +the table drawer instead of the letter-box, an error to which +absent-minded people are peculiarly liable. The effect was charming, +<i>bizarre</i>, and romantic.</p> + +<p>Well satisfied with this embellishment, I went out with the gravity and +pride becoming one who feels that he has the ineffable advantage over +all the passers-by whom he elbows, of possessing a piece of the Princess +Hermonthis, daughter of Pharaoh.</p> + +<p>I looked upon all who did not possess, like myself, a paper-weight so +authentically Egyptian as very ridiculous people, and it seemed to me +that the proper occupation of every sensible man should consist in the +mere fact of having a mummy's foot upon his desk.</p> + +<p>Happily I met some friends, whose presence distracted me in my +infatuation with this new acquisition. I went to dinner with them, for I +could not very well have dined with myself.</p> + +<p>When I came back that evening, with my brain slightly confused by a few +glasses of wine, a vague whiff of Oriental perfume delicately +titillated my olfactory nerves. The heat of the room had warmed the +natron, bitumen, and myrrh in which the <i>paraschistes,</i> who cut open the +bodies of the dead, had bathed the corpse of the princess. It was a +perfume at once sweet and penetrating, a perfume that four thousand +years had not been able to dissipate.</p> + +<p>The Dream of Egypt was Eternity. Her odors have the solidity of granite +and endure as long.</p> + +<p>I soon drank deeply from the black cup of sleep. For a few hours all +remained opaque to me. Oblivion and nothingness inundated me with their +sombre waves.</p> + +<p>Yet light gradually dawned upon the darkness of my mind. Dreams +commenced to touch me softly in their silent flight.</p> + +<p>The eyes of my soul were opened, and I beheld my chamber as it actually +was. I might have believed myself awake but for a vague consciousness +which assured me that I slept, and that something fantastic was about to +take place.</p> + +<p>The odor of the myrrh had augmented in intensity, and I felt a slight +headache, which I very naturally attributed to several glasses of +champagne that we had drunk to the unknown gods and our future fortunes.</p> + +<p>I peered through my room with a feeling of expectation which I saw +nothing to justify. Every article of furniture was in its proper place. +The lamp, softly shaded by its globe of ground crystal, burned upon its +bracket; the water-color sketches shone under their Bohemian glass; the +curtains hung down languidly; everything wore an aspect of tranquil +slumber.</p> + +<p>After a few moments, however, all this calm interior appeared to become +disturbed. The woodwork cracked stealthily, the ash-covered log suddenly +emitted a jet of blue flame, and the disks of the pateras seemed like +great metallic eyes, watching, like myself, for the things which were +about to happen.</p> + +<p>My eyes accidentally fell upon the desk where I had placed the foot of +the Princess Hermonthis.</p> + +<p>Instead of remaining quiet, as behooved a foot which had been embalmed +for four thousand years, it commenced to act in a nervous manner, +contracted itself, and leaped over the papers like a startled frog. One +would have imagined that it had suddenly been brought into contact with +a galvanic battery. I could distinctly hear the dry sound made by its +little heel, hard as the hoof of a gazelle.</p> + +<p>I became rather discontented with my acquisition, inasmuch as I wished +my paper-weights to be of a sedentary disposition, and thought it very +unnatural that feet should walk about without legs, and I commenced to +experience a feeling closely akin to fear.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I saw the folds of my bed-curtain stir, and heard a bumping +sound, like that caused by some person hopping on one foot across the +floor. I must confess I became alternately hot and cold, that I felt a +strange wind chill my back, and that my suddenly rising hair caused my +night-cap to execute a leap of several yards.</p> + +<p>The bed-curtains opened and I beheld the strangest figure imaginable +before me.</p> + +<p>It was a young girl of a very deep coffee-brown complexion, like the +bayadere Amani, and possessing the purest Egyptian type of perfect +beauty. Her eyes were almond-shaped and oblique, with eyebrows so black +that they seemed blue; her nose was exquisitely chiselled, almost Greek +in its delicacy of outline; and she might indeed have been taken for a +Corinthian statue of bronze but for the prominence of her cheek-bones +and the slightly African fulness of her lips, which compelled one to +recognize her as belonging beyond all doubt to the hieroglyphic race +which dwelt upon the banks of the Nile.</p> + +<p>Her arms, slender and spindle-shaped like those of very young girls, +were encircled by a peculiar kind of metal bands and bracelets of glass +beads; her hair was all twisted into little cords, and she wore upon her +bosom a little idol-figure of green paste, bearing a whip with seven +lashes, which proved it to be an image of Isis; her brow was adorned +with a shining plate of gold, and a few traces of paint relieved the +coppery tint of her cheeks.</p> + +<p>As for her costume, it was very odd indeed.</p> + +<p>Fancy a <i>pagne</i>, or skirt, all formed of little strips of material +bedizened with red and black hieroglyphics, stiffened with bitumen, and +apparently belonging to a freshly unbandaged mummy.</p> + +<p>In one of those sudden flights of thought so common in dreams I heard +the hoarse falsetto of the bric-à-brac dealer, repeating like a +monotonous refrain the phrase he had uttered in his shop with so +enigmatical an intonation:</p> + +<p>"Old Pharaoh will not be well pleased. He loved his daughter, the dear +man!"</p> + +<p>One strange circumstance, which was not at all calculated to restore my +equanimity, was that the apparition had but one foot; the other was +broken off at the ankle!</p> + +<p>She approached the table where the foot was starting and fidgetting +about more than ever, and there supported herself upon the edge of the +desk. I saw her eyes fill with pearly gleaming tears.</p> + +<p>Although she had not as yet spoken, I fully comprehended the thoughts +which agitated her. She looked at her foot—for it was indeed her +own—with an exquisitely graceful expression of coquettish sadness, but +the foot leaped and ran hither and thither, as though impelled on steel +springs.</p> + +<p>Twice or thrice she extended her hand to seize it, but could not +succeed.</p> + +<p>Then commenced between the Princess Hermonthis and her foot—which +appeared to be endowed with a special life of its own—a very fantastic +dialogue in a most ancient Coptic tongue, such as might have been spoken +thirty centuries ago in the syrinxes of the land of Ser. Luckily I +understood Coptic perfectly well that night.</p> + +<p>The Princess Hermonthis cried, in a voice sweet and vibrant as the tones +of a crystal bell:</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear little foot, you always flee from me, yet I always took +good care of you. I bathed you with perfumed water in a bowl of +alabaster; I smoothed your heel with pumice-stone mixed with palm oil; +your nails were cut with golden scissors and polished with a +hippopotamus tooth; I was careful to select <i>tatbebs</i> for you, painted +and embroidered and turned up at the toes, which were the envy of all +the young girls in Egypt. You wore on your great toe rings bearing the +device of the sacred Scarabæus, and you supported one of the lightest +bodies that a lazy foot could sustain."</p> + +<p>The foot replied in a pouting and chagrined tone:</p> + +<p>"You know well that I do not belong to myself any longer. I have been +bought and paid for. The old merchant knew what he was about. He bore +you a grudge for having refused to espouse him. This is an ill turn +which he has done you. The Arab who violated your royal coffin in the +subterranean pits of the necropolis of Thebes was sent thither by him. +He desired to prevent you from being present at the reunion of the +shadowy nations in the cities below. Have you five pieces of gold for my +ransom?"</p> + +<p>"Alas, no! My jewels, my rings, my purses of gold and silver were all +stolen from me," answered the Princess Hermonthis, with a sob.</p> + +<p>"Princess," I then exclaimed, "I never retained anybody's foot unjustly. +Even though you have not got the five louis which it cost me, I present +it to you gladly. I should feel unutterably wretched to think that I +were the cause of so amiable a person as the Princess Hermonthis being +lame."</p> + +<p>I delivered this discourse in a royally gallant, troubadour tone which +must have astonished the beautiful Egyptian girl.</p> + +<p>She turned a look of deepest gratitude upon me, and her eyes shone with +bluish gleams of light.</p> + +<p>She took her foot, which surrendered itself willingly this time, like a +woman about to put on her little shoe, and adjusted it to her leg with +much skill.</p> + +<p>This operation over, she took a few steps about the room, as though to +assure herself that she was really no longer lame.</p> + +<p>"Ah, how pleased my father will be! He who was so unhappy because of my +mutilation, and who from the moment of my birth set a whole nation at +work to hollow me out a tomb so deep that he might preserve me intact +until that last day, when souls must be weighed in the balance of +Amenthi! Come with me to my father. He will receive you kindly, for you +have given me back my foot."</p> + +<p>I thought this proposition natural enough. I arrayed myself in a +dressing-gown of large-flowered pattern, which lent me a very Pharaonic +aspect, hurriedly put on a pair of Turkish slippers, and informed the +Princess Hermonthis that I was ready to follow her.</p> + +<p>Before starting, Hermonthis took from her neck the little idol of green +paste, and laid it on the scattered sheets of paper which covered the +table.</p> + +<p>"It is only fair," she observed, smilingly, "that I should replace your +paper-weight."</p> + +<p>She gave me her hand, which felt soft and cold, like the skin of a +serpent, and we departed.</p> + +<p>We passed for some time with the velocity of an arrow through a fluid +and grayish expanse, in which half-formed silhouettes flitted swiftly by +us, to right and left.</p> + +<p>For an instant we saw only sky and sea.</p> + +<p>A few moments later obelisks commenced to tower in the distance; pylons +and vast flights of steps guarded by sphinxes became clearly outlined +against the horizon.</p> + +<p>We had reached our destination.</p> + +<p>The princess conducted me to a mountain of rose-colored granite, in the +face of which appeared an opening so narrow and low that it would have +been difficult to distinguish it from the fissures in the rock, had not +its location been marked by two stelæ wrought with sculptures.</p> + +<p>Hermonthis kindled a torch and led the way before me.</p> + +<p>We traversed corridors hewn through the living rock. Their walls, +covered with hieroglyphics and paintings of allegorical processions, +might well have occupied thousands of arms for thousands of years in +their formation. These corridors of interminable length opened into +square chambers, in the midst of which pits had been contrived, through +which we descended by cramp-irons or spiral stairways. These pits again +conducted us into other chambers, opening into other corridors, likewise +decorated with painted sparrow-hawks, serpents coiled in circles, the +symbols of the <i>tau</i> and <i>pedum</i>—prodigious works of art which no +living eye can ever examine—interminable legends of granite which only +the dead have time to read through all eternity.</p> + +<p>At last we found ourselves in a hall so vast, so enormous, so +immeasurable, that the eye could not reach its limits. Files of +monstrous columns stretched far out of sight on every side, between +which twinkled livid stars of yellowish flame; points of light which +revealed further depths incalculable in the darkness beyond.</p> + +<p>The Princess Hermonthis still held my hand, and graciously saluted the +mummies of her acquaintance.</p> + +<p>My eyes became accustomed to the dim twilight, and objects became +discernible.</p> + +<p>I beheld the kings of the subterranean races seated upon thrones—grand +old men, though dry, withered, wrinkled like parchment, and blackened +with naphtha and bitumen—all wearing <i>pshents</i> of gold, and +breast-plates and gorgets glittering with precious stones, their eyes +immovably fixed like the eyes of spinxes, and their long beards whitened +by the snow of centuries. Behind them stood their peoples, in the stiff +and constrained posture enjoined by Egyptian art, all eternally +preserving the attitude prescribed by the hieratic code. Behind these +nations, the cats, ibixes, and crocodiles contemporary with +them—rendered monstrous of aspect by their swathing bands—mewed, +flapped their wings, or extended their jaws in a saurian giggle.</p> + +<p>All the Pharaohs were there—Cheops, Chephrenes, Psammetichus, +Sesostris, Amenotaph—all the dark rulers of the pyramids and syrinxes. +On yet higher thrones sat Chronos and Xixouthros, who was contemporary +with the deluge, and Tubal Cain, who reigned before it.</p> + +<p>The beard of King Xixouthros had grown seven times around the granite +table, upon which he leaned, lost in deep reverie, and buried in dreams.</p> + +<p>Farther back, through a dusty cloud, I beheld dimly the seventy-two +preadamite kings, with their seventy-two peoples, forever passed away.</p> + +<p>After permitting me to gaze upon this bewildering spectacle a few +moments, the Princess Hermonthis presented me to her father Pharaoh, who +favored me with a most gracious nod.</p> + +<p>"I have found my foot again! I have found my foot!" cried the princess, +clapping her little hands together with every sign of frantic joy. "It +was this gentleman who restored it to me."</p> + +<p>The races of Kemi, the races of Nahasi—all the black, bronzed, and +copper-colored nations repeated in chorus:</p> + +<p>"The Princess Hermonthis has found her foot again!"</p> + +<p>Even Xixouthros himself was visibly affected.</p> + +<p>He raised his heavy eyelids, stroked his mustache with his fingers, and +turned upon me a glance weighty with centuries.</p> + +<p>"By Oms, the dog of Hell, and Tmeï, daughter of the Sun and of Truth, +this is a brave and worthy lad!" exclaimed Pharaoh, pointing to me with +his sceptre, which was terminated with a lotus-flower.</p> + +<p>"What recompense do you desire?"</p> + +<p>Filled with that daring inspired by dreams in which nothing seems +impossible, I asked him for the hand of the Princess Hermonthis. The +hand seemed to me a very proper antithetic recompense for the foot.</p> + +<p>Pharaoh opened wide his great eyes of glass in astonishment at my witty +request.</p> + +<p>"What country do you come from, and what is your age?"</p> + +<p>"I am a Frenchman, and I am twenty-seven years old, venerable Pharaoh."</p> + +<p>"Twenty-seven years old, and he wishes to espouse the Princess +Hermonthis who is thirty centuries old!" cried out at once all the +Thrones and all the Circles of Nations.</p> + +<p>Only Hermonthis herself did not seem to think my request unreasonable.</p> + +<p>"If you were even only two thousand years old," replied the ancient +king, "I would willingly give you the princess, but the disproportion is +too great; and, besides, we must give our daughters husbands who will +last well. You do not know how to preserve yourselves any longer. Even +those who died only fifteen centuries ago are already no more than a +handful of dust. Behold, my flesh is solid as basalt, my bones are bars +of steel!</p> + +<p>"I will be present on the last day of the world with the same body and +the same features which I had during my lifetime. My daughter +Hermonthis will last longer than a statue of bronze.</p> + +<p>"Then the last particles of your dust will have been scattered abroad by +the winds, and even Isis herself, who was able to find the atoms of +Osiris, would scarce be able to recompose your being.</p> + +<p>"See how vigorous I yet remain, and how mighty is my grasp," he added, +shaking my hand in the English fashion with a strength that buried my +rings in the flesh of my fingers.</p> + +<p>He squeezed me so hard that I awoke, and found my friend Alfred shaking +me by the arm to make me get up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you everlasting sleeper! Must I have you carried out into the +middle of the street, and fireworks exploded in your ears? It is +afternoon. Don't you recollect your promise to take me with you to see +M. Aguado's Spanish pictures?"</p> + +<p>"God! I forgot all, all about it," I answered, dressing myself +hurriedly. "We will go there at once. I have the permit lying there on +my desk."</p> + +<p>I started to find it, but fancy my astonishment when I beheld, instead +of the mummy's foot I had purchased the evening before, the little green +paste idol left in its place by the Princess Hermonthis!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="OMPHALE_A_ROCOCO_STORY" id="OMPHALE_A_ROCOCO_STORY"></a>OMPHALE: A ROCOCO STORY</h2> + +<p>My uncle, the Chevalier de ——, resided in a small mansion which looked +out upon the dismal Rue de Tournelles on one side, and the equally +dismal Boulevard St. Antoine upon the other. Between the Boulevard and +the house itself a few ancient elm-trees, eaten alive by mosses and +insects, piteously extended their skeleton arms from the depth of a +species of sink surrounded by high black walls. Some emaciated flowers +hung their heads languidly, like young girls in consumption, waiting for +a ray of sunshine to dry their half-rotten leaves. Weeds had invaded the +walks, which were almost undistinguishable, owing to the length of time +that had elapsed since they were last raked. One or two goldfish +floated rather than swam in a basin covered with duck-weed and +half-choked by water plants.</p> + +<p>My uncle called that his garden!</p> + +<p>Besides all the fine things above described in my uncle's garden, there +was also a rather unpleasant pavilion, which he had entitled the +<i>Délices</i>, doubtless by antiphrasis. It was in a state of extreme +dilapidation. The walls were bulging outwardly. Great masses of detached +plaster still lay among the nettles and wild oats where they had fallen. +The lower portions of the wall surfaces were green with putrid mould. +The woodwork of the window-shutters and doors had been badly sprung, and +they closed only partially or not at all. A species of decoration, +strongly suggestive of an immense kitchen-pot with various effluvia +radiating from it, ornamented the main entrance, for in the time of +Louis XV., when it was the custom to build <i>Délices</i>, there were always +two entrances to such pleasure houses for precaution's sake. The +cornice, overburdened with ovulos, foliated arabesques, and volutes, had +been badly dismantled by the infiltration of rain-water. In short, the +<i>Délices</i> of my uncle, the Chevalier de ——, presented a rather +lamentable aspect.</p> + +<p>This poor ruin, dating only from yesterday, although wearing the +dilapidated look of a thousand years' decay—a ruin of plaster, not of +stone, all cracked and warped, covered with a leprosy of lichen growth, +moss-eaten and mouldy—seemed to resemble one of those precociously old +men worn out by filthy debauches. It inspired no feeling of respect, for +there is nothing in the world so ugly and so wretched as either an old +gauze robe or an old plaster wall, two things which ought not to endure, +yet which do.</p> + +<p>It was in this pavilion that my uncle had lodged me.</p> + +<p>The interior was not less rococo than the exterior, although remaining +in a somewhat better state of preservation. The bed was hung with yellow +lampas, spotted over with large white flowers. An ornamental shell-work +clock ticked away upon a pedestal inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. +A wreath of ornamental roses coquettishly twined around a Venetian +glass. Above the door the Four Seasons were painted in cameo. A fair +lady with thickly powdered hair, a sky-blue corset, and an array of +ribbons of the same hue, who had a bow in her right hand, a partridge in +her left, a crescent upon her forehead, and a leverette at her feet, +strutted and smiled with ineffable graciousness from within a large oval +frame. This was one of my uncle's mistresses of old, whom he had had +painted as Diana. It will scarcely be necessary to observe that the +furniture itself was not of the most modern style. There was, in fact, +nothing to prevent one from fancying himself living at the time of the +Regency, and the mythological tapestry with which the Avails were hung +rendered the illusion complete.</p> + +<p>The tapestry represented Hercules spinning at the feet of Omphale. The +design was tormented after the fashion of Vanloo, and in the most +Pompadour style possible to imagine. Hercules had a spindle decorated +with rose-colored favors. He elevated his little finger with a peculiar +and special grace, like a marquis in the act of taking a pinch of +snuff, while turning a white flake of flax between his thumb and index +finger. His muscular neck was burdened with bows of ribbons, rosettes, +strings of pearls, and a thousand other feminine gew-gaws, and a large +<i>gorge-de-pigeon</i> colored petticoat, with two very large panniers, lent +quite a gallant air to the monster-conquering hero.</p> + +<p>Omphale's white shoulders were half covered by the skin of the Nemean +lion. Her slender hand leaned upon her lover's knotty club. Her lovely +blonde hair, powdered to ash-color, fell loosely over her neck—a neck +as supple and undulating in its outlines as the neck of a dove. Her +little feet, true realizations of the typical Andalusian or Chinese +foot, and which would have been lost in Cinderella's glass slippers, +were shod with half-antique buskins of a tender lilac color, sprinkled +with pearls. In truth, she was a charming creature. Her head was thrown +back with an adorable little mock swagger, her dimpled mouth wore a +delicious little pout, her nostrils were slightly expanded, her cheeks +had a delicate glow—an <i>assassin</i><a name="FNanchor_1_9" id="FNanchor_1_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_9" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_9" id="Footnote_1_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_9"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Beauty-spot.</p></div> + +<p>cunningly placed there relieved their beauty in a wonderful way; she +only needed a little mustache to make her a first-class mousquetaire.</p> + +<p>There were many other personages also represented in the tapestry—the +kindly female attendant, the indispensable little Cupid—but they did +not leave a sufficiently distinct outline in my memory to enable me to +describe them.</p> + +<p>In those days I was quite young—not that I wish to be understood as +saying that I am now very old; but I was fresh from college, and was to +remain in my uncle's care until I could choose a profession. If the good +man had been able to foresee that I should embrace that of a fantastic +story-writer, he would certainly have turned me out of doors forthwith +and irrevocably disinherited me, for he always entertained the most +aristocratic contempt for literature in general and authors in +particular. Like the fine gentleman that he was, it would have pleased +him to have had all those petty scribblers who busy themselves in +disfiguring paper, and speaking irreverentially about people of +quality, hung or beaten to death by his attendants. Lord have mercy on +my poor uncle! He really esteemed nothing in the world except the +epistle to Zetulba.</p> + +<p>Well, then, I had only just left college. I was full of dreams and +illusions. I was as naive as a <i>rosière</i> of Salency, perhaps more so. +Delighted at having no more pensums to make, everything seemed to me for +the best in the best of all possible worlds. I believed in an infinity +of things. I believed in M. de Florian's shepherdess with her combed and +powdered sheep. I never for a moment doubted the reality of Madame +Deshoulière's flock. I believed that there were actually nine muses, as +stated in Father Jouvency's <i>Appendix de Diis et Heroïbus.</i> My +recollections of Berquin and of Gessner had created a little world for +me in which everything was rose-colored, sky-blue, and apple-green. Oh, +holy innocence!—<i>sancta simplicitas</i>! as Mephistopheles says.</p> + +<p>When I found myself alone in this fine room—my own room, all to +myself!—I felt superlatively overjoyed. I made a careful inventory of +everything, even the smallest article of furniture. I rummaged every +corner, and explored the chamber in the fullest sense of the word. I was +in the fourth heaven, as happy as a king, or rather as two kings. After +supper (for we used to sup at my uncle's—a charming custom, now +obsolete, together with many other equally charming customs which I +mourn for with all the heart I have left), I took my candle and retired +forthwith, so impatient did I feel to enjoy my new dwelling-place.</p> + +<p>While I was undressing I fancied that Omphale's eyes had moved. I looked +more attentively in that direction, not without a slight sensation of +fear, for the room was very large, and the feeble luminous penumbra +which floated about the candle only served to render the darkness still +more visible. I thought I saw her turning her head toward me. I became +frightened in earnest, and blew out the light. I turned my face to the +wall, pulled the bed-clothes over my head, drew my night-cap down to my +chin, and finally went to sleep.</p> + +<p>I did not dare to look at the accursed tapestry again for several days.</p> + +<p>It may be well here, for the sake of imparting something of +verisimilitude to the very unlikely story I am about to relate, to +inform my fair readers that in those days I was really a very pretty +boy. I had the handsomest eyes in the world, at least they used to tell +me so; a much fairer complexion than I have now, a true carnation tint; +curly brown hair, which I still have, and seventeen years, which I have +no longer. I needed only a pretty stepmother to be a very tolerable +cherub. Unfortunately mine was fifty-seven years of age, and had only +three teeth, which was too much of one thing and too little of the +other.</p> + +<p>One evening, however, I finally plucked up courage enough to take a peep +at the fair mistress of Hercules. She was looking at me with the saddest +and most languishing expression possible. This time I pulled my night-cap +down to my very shoulders, and buried my head in the coverlets.</p> + +<p>I had a strange dream that night, if indeed it was a dream.</p> + +<p>I heard the rings of my bed-curtains sliding with a sharp squeak upon +their curtain-rods, as if the curtains had been suddenly pulled back. I +awoke, at least in my dream it seemed to me that I awoke. I saw no one.</p> + +<p>The moon shone full upon the window-panes, and projected her wan bluish +light into the room. Vast shadows, fantastic forms, were defined upon +the floor and the walls. The clock chimed a quarter, and the vibration +of the sound took a long time to die away. It seemed like a sigh. The +plainly audible strokes of the pendulum seemed like the pulsations of a +young heart, throbbing with passion.</p> + +<p>I felt anything but comfortable, and a very bewilderment of fear took +possession of me.</p> + +<p>A furious gust of wind banged the shutters and made the window-sashes +tremble. The woodwork cracked, the tapestry undulated. I ventured to +glance in the direction of Omphale, with a vague suspicion that she was +instrumental in all this unpleasantness, for some secret purpose of her +own. I was not mistaken.</p> + +<p>The tapestry became violently agitated. Omphale detached herself from +the wall and leaped lightly to the carpet. She came straight toward my +bed, after having first turned herself carefully in my direction. I +fancy it will hardly be necessary to describe my stupefaction. The most +intrepid old soldier would not have felt very comfortable under similar +circumstances, and I was neither old nor a soldier. I awaited the end of +the adventure in terrified silence.</p> + +<p>A flute-toned, pearly little voice sounded softly in my ears, with that +pretty lisp affected during the Regency by marchionesses and people of +high degree:</p> + +<p>"Do I really frighten you, my child? It is true that you are only a +child, but it is not nice to be afraid of ladies, especially when they +are young ladies and only wish you well. It is uncivil and unworthy of a +French gentleman. You must be cured of such silly fears. Come, little +savage, leave off these foolish airs, and cease hiding your head under +the bed-clothes. Your education is by no means complete yet, my pretty +page, and you have not learned so very much. In my time cherubs were +more courageous."</p> + +<p>"But, lady, it is because—"</p> + +<p>"Because it seems strange to you to find me here instead of there," she +said, biting her ruddy lip with her white teeth, and pointing toward the +wall with her long taper finger. "Well, in fact, the thing does not look +very natural, but were I to explain it all to you, you would be none the +wiser. Let it be sufficient for you to know that you are not in any +danger."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you may be the—the—"</p> + +<p>"The devil—out with the word!—is it not? That is what you wanted to +say. Well, at least you will grant that I am not black enough for a +devil, and that if hell were peopled with devils shaped as I am, one +might have quite as pleasant a time there as in Paradise."</p> + +<p>And to prove that she was not flattering herself, Omphale threw back her +lion's skin and allowed me to behold her exquisitely moulded shoulders +and bosom, dazzling in their white beauty.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you think of me?" she exclaimed, with a pretty little air +of satisfied coquetry.</p> + +<p>"I think that even were you the devil himself I should not feel afraid +of you any more, Madame Omphale."</p> + +<p>"Ah, now you talk sensibly, but do not call me madame, or Omphale. I do +not wish you to look upon me as a madame, and I am no more Omphale than +I am the devil."</p> + +<p>"Then who are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am the Marchioness de T——. A short time after I was married the +marquis had this tapestry made for my apartments, and had me represented +on it in the character of Omphale. He himself figures there as Hercules. +That was a queer notion he took, for God knows there never was anybody +in the world who bore less resemblance to Hercules than the poor +marquis! It has been a long time since this chamber was occupied. I +naturally love company, and I almost died of <i>ennui</i> in consequence. It +gave me the headache. To be only with one's husband is the same thing as +being alone. When you came I was overjoyed. This dead room became +reanimated. I had found some one to feel interested in. I watched you +come in and go out, I heard you murmuring in your sleep, I watched you +reading, and my eyes followed the pages. I found you were nicely +behaved, and had a fresh, innocent way about you that pleased me. In +short, I fell in love with you. I tried to make you understand. I +sighed. You thought it was only the sighing of the wind. I made signs to +you. I looked at you with languishing eyes, and only succeeded in +frightening you terribly. So at last in despair I resolved upon this +rather improper course which I have taken, to tell you frankly what you +could not take a hint about. Now that you know I love you, I hope +that—"</p> + +<p>The conversation was interrupted at this juncture by the grating of a +key in the lock of the chamber door.</p> + +<p>Omphale started and blushed to the very whites of her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Adieu," she whispered, "till to-morrow." And she returned to her place +on the wall, walking backward, for fear that I should see her reverse +side, doubtless.</p> + +<p>It was Baptiste, who came to brush my clothes.</p> + +<p>"You ought not to sleep with your bed-curtains open, sir," he remarked. +"You might catch a bad cold. This room is so chilly."</p> + +<p>The curtains were actually open, and as I had been under the impression +that I was only dreaming, I felt very much astonished, for I was certain +that they had been closed when I went to bed.</p> + +<p>As soon as Baptiste left the room, I ran to the tapestry. I felt it all +over. It was indeed a real woollen tapestry, rough to the touch like any +other tapestry. Omphale resembled the charming phantom of the night only +as a dead body resembles a living one. I lifted the hangings. The wall +was solid throughout. There were no masked panels or secret doors. I +only noticed that a few threads were broken in the groundwork of the +tapestry where the feet of Omphale rested. This afforded me food for +reflection.</p> + +<p>All that day I remained buried in the deepest brown study imaginable. I +longed for evening with a mingled feeling of anxiety and impatience. I +retired early, resolved on learning how this mystery was going to end. +I got into bed. The marchioness did not keep me waiting long. She leaped +down from the tapestry in front of the pier-glass, and dropped right by +my bed. She seated herself by my pillow, and the conversation commenced.</p> + +<p>I asked her questions as I had done the evening before, and demanded +explanations. She eluded the former, and replied in an evasive manner to +the latter, yet always after so witty a fashion that within a quarter of +an hour I felt no scruples whatever in regard to my liaison with her.</p> + +<p>While conversing she passed her fingers through my hair, tapped me +gently on the cheeks, and softly kissed my forehead.</p> + +<p>She chatted and chatted in a pretty mocking way, in a style at once +elegantly polished and yet familiar and altogether like a great lady, +such as I have never since heard from the lips of any human being.</p> + +<p>She was then seated upon the easy-chair beside the bed. In a little +while she slipped one of her arms around my neck, and I felt her heart +beating passionately against me. It was indeed a charming and handsome +real woman, a veritable marchioness whom I found beside me, poor student +of seventeen! There was more than enough to make one lose his head, so I +lost mine. I did not know very well what was going to happen, but I felt +a vague presentiment that it would displease the marquis.</p> + +<p>"And Monsieur le Marquis, on the wall up there—what will he say?"</p> + +<p>The lion's skin had fallen to the floor, and the soft lilac-colored +buskins, filigreed with silver, were lying beside my shoes.</p> + +<p>"He will not say anything," replied the marchioness, laughing heartily. +"Do you suppose he ever sees anything? Besides, even should he see, he +is the most philosophical and inoffensive husband in the world. He is +used to such things. Do you love me, little one?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do, ever so much!—ever so much!"</p> + +<p>Morning dawned. My mistress stole away.</p> + +<p>The day seemed to me frightfully long. At last evening came. The same +things happened as on the evening before, and the second night left no +regrets for the first. The marchioness became more and more adorable, +and this state of affairs continued for a long time. As I never slept at +night, I wore a somnolent expression in the day-time which did not augur +well for me with my uncle. He suspected something. He probably listened +at the door and heard everything, for one fine morning he entered my +room so brusquely that Antoinette had scarcely time to get back to her +place on the tapestry.</p> + +<p>He was followed by a tapestry-hanger with pincers and a ladder.</p> + +<p>He looked at me with a shrewd and severe expression which convinced me +that he knew all.</p> + +<p>"This Marchioness de T—— is certainly crazy. What the devil could have +put it into her head to fall in love with a brat like that?" muttered my +uncle between his teeth. "She promised to behave herself.</p> + +<p>"Jean, take that tapestry down, roll it up, and put it in the garret."</p> + +<p>Every word my uncle spoke went through my heart like a poniard-thrust.</p> + +<p>Jean rolled up my sweetheart Omphale, otherwise the Marchioness +Antoinette de T——, together with Hercules, or the Marquis de T——, +and carried the whole thing off to the garret. I could not restrain my +tears.</p> + +<p>Next day my uncle sent me back in the B—— diligence to my respectable +parents, to whom, you may feel assured, I never breathed a word of my +adventure.</p> + +<p>My uncle died; his house and furniture were sold; probably the tapestry +was sold with the rest.</p> + +<p>But a long time afterward, while foraging the shop of a bric-à-brac +merchant in search of oddities, I stumbled over a great dusty roll of +something covered with cobwebs.</p> + +<p>"What is that?" I said to the Auvergnat.</p> + +<p>"That is a rococo tapestry representing the amours of Madame Omphale and +Monsieur Hercule. It is genuine Beauvais, worked in silk, and in an +excellent state of preservation. Buy this from me for your study. I will +not charge you dear for it, since it is you."</p> + +<p>At the name of Omphale all my blood rushed to my heart.</p> + +<p>"Unroll that tapestry," I said to the merchant in a hurried, gasping +voice, like one in a fever.</p> + +<p>It was indeed she! I fancied that her mouth smiled graciously at me, and +that her eye lighted up on meeting mine.</p> + +<p>"How much do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I could not possibly let you have it for any less than five +hundred francs."</p> + +<p>"I have not that much with me now. I will get it and be back in an +hour."</p> + +<p>I returned with the money, but the tapestry was no longer there. An +Englishman had bargained for it during my absence, offered six hundred +francs for it, and taken it away with him.</p> + +<p>After all, perhaps it was best that it should have been thus, and that I +should preserve this delicious souvenir intact. They say one should +never return to a first love, or look at the rose which one admired the +evening before.</p> + +<p>And then I am no longer so young or so pretty that tapestries should +come down from their walls to honor me.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="KING_CANDAULES" id="KING_CANDAULES"></a>KING CANDAULES</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<p>Five hundred years before the Trojan war, and seventeen hundred and +fifteen years before our own era, there was a grand festival at Sardes. +King Candaules was going to marry. The people were affected with that +sort of pleasurable interest and aimless emotion wherewith any royal +event inspires the masses, even though it in no wise concerns them, and +transpires in superior spheres of life which they can never hope to +reach.</p> + +<p>As soon as Phœbus-Apollo, standing in his quadriga, had gilded to +saffron the summits of fertile Mount Tmolus with his rays, the good +people of Sardes were all astir, going and coming, mounting or +descending the marble stairways leading from the city to the waters of +the Pactolus, that opulent river whose sands Midas filled with tiny +sparks of gold when he bathed in its stream. One would have supposed +that each one of these good citizens was himself about to marry, so +solemn and important was the demeanor of all.</p> + +<p>Men were gathering in groups in the Agora, upon the steps of the temples +and along the porticoes. At every street corner one might have +encountered women leading by the hand little children, whose uneven walk +ill suited the maternal anxiety and impatience. Maidens were hastening +to the fountains, all with urns gracefully balanced upon their heads, or +sustained by their white arms as with natural handles, so as to procure +early the necessary water provision for the household, and thus obtain +leisure at the hour when the nuptial procession should pass. Washerwomen +hastily folded the still damp tunics and chlamidæ, and piled them upon +mule-wagons. Slaves turned the mill without any need of the overseer's +whip to tickle their naked and scar-seamed shoulders. Sardes was +hurrying itself to finish with those necessary every-day cares which no +festival can wholly disregard.</p> + +<p>The road along which the procession was to pass had been strewn with +fine yellow sand. Brazen tripods, disposed along the way at regular +intervals, sent up to heaven the odorous smoke of cinnamon and +spikenard. These vapors, moreover, alone clouded the purity of the azure +above. The clouds of a hymeneal day ought, indeed, to be formed only by +the burning of perfumes. Myrtle and rose-laurel branches were strewn +upon the ground, and from the walls of the palaces were suspended by +little rings of bronze rich tapestries, whereon the needles of +industrious captives—intermingling wool, silver, and gold—had +represented various scenes in the history of the gods and heroes: Ixion +embracing the cloud; Diana surprised in the bath by Actæon; the +shepherd Paris as judge in the contest of beauty held upon Mount Ida +between Hera, the snowy-armed, Athena of the sea-green eyes, and +Aphrodite, girded with her magic cestus; the old men of Troy rising to +honor Helena as she passed through the Skaian gate, a subject taken from +one of the poems of the blind man of Meles. Others exhibited in +preference scenes taken from the life of Heracles the Theban, through +flattery to Candaules, himself a Heracleid, being descended from the +hero through Alcæus. Others contented themselves by decorating the +entrances of their dwellings with garlands and wreaths in token of +rejoicing.</p> + +<p>Among the multitudes marshalled along the way from the royal house even +as far as the gates of the city, through which the young queen would +pass on her arrival, conversation naturally turned upon the beauty of +the bride, whereof the renown had spread throughout all Asia; and upon +the character of the bridegroom, who, although not altogether an +eccentric, seemed nevertheless one not readily appreciated from the +common standpoint of observation.</p> + +<p>Nyssia, daughter of the Satrap Megabazus, was gifted with marvellous +purity of feature and perfection of form; at least such was the rumor +spread abroad by the female slaves who attended her, and a few female +friends who had accompanied her to the bath; for no man could boast of +knowing aught of Nyssia save the color of her veil and the elegant folds +that she involuntarily impressed upon the soft materials which robed her +statuesque body.</p> + +<p>The barbarians did not share the ideas of the Greeks in regard to +modesty. While the youths of Achaia made no scruple of allowing their +oil-anointed torsos to shine under the sun in the stadium, and while the +Spartan virgins danced ungarmented before the altar of Diana, those of +Persepolis, Ebactana, and Bactria, attaching more importance to chastity +of the body than to chastity of mind, considered those liberties allowed +to the pleasure of the eyes by Greek manner as impure and highly +reprehensible, and held no woman virtuous who permitted men to obtain a +glimpse of more than the tip of her foot in walking, as it slightly +deranged the discreet folds of a long tunic.</p> + +<p>Despite all this mystery, or rather, perhaps, by very reason of this +mystery, the fame of Nyssia had not been slow to spread throughout all +Lydia, and become popular there to such a degree that it had reached +even Candaules, although kings are ordinarily the most illy informed +people in their kingdoms, and live like the gods in a kind of cloud +which conceals from them the knowledge of terrestrial things.</p> + +<p>The Eupatridæ of Sardes, who hoped that the young king might, +perchance, choose a wife from their family, the hetairæ of Athens, of +Samos, of Miletus and of Cyprus, the beautiful slaves from the banks of +the Indus, the blonde girls brought at a vast expense from the depths of +the Cimmerian fogs, were heedful never to utter in the presence of +Candaules, whether within hearing or beyond hearing, a single word which +bore any relation to Nyssia. The bravest, in a question of beauty, +recoil before the prospect of a contest in which they can anticipate +being outrivalled.</p> + +<p>And nevertheless no person in Sardes, or even in Lydia, had beheld this +redoubtable adversary, no person save one solitary being, who from the +time of that encounter had kept his lips as firmly closed upon the +subject as though Harpocrates, the god of silence, had sealed them with +his finger, and that was Gyges, chief of the guards of Candaules. One +day Gyges, his mind filled with various projects and vague ambitions, +had been wandering among the Bactrian hills, whither his master had sent +him upon an important and secret mission. He was dreaming of the +intoxication of omnipotence, of treading upon purple with sandals of +gold, of placing the diadem upon the brows of the fairest of women. +These thoughts made his blood boil in his veins, and, as though to +pursue the flight of his dreams, he smote his sinewy heel upon the +foam-whitened flanks of his Numidian horse.</p> + +<p>The weather, at first calm, had changed and waxed tempestuous like the +warrior's soul; and Boreas, his locks bristling with Thracian frosts, +his cheeks puffed out, his arms folded upon his breast, smote the +rain-freighted clouds with the mighty beatings of his wings.</p> + +<p>A bevy of young girls who had been gathering flowers in the meadow, +fearing the coming storm, were returning to the city in all haste, each +carrying her perfumed harvest in the lap of her tunic. Seeing a stranger +on horseback approaching in the distance, they had hidden their faces in +their mantles, after the custom of the barbarians; but at the very +moment that Gyges was passing by the one whose proud carriage and richer +habiliments seemed to designate her the mistress of the little band, an +unusually violent gust of wind carried away the veil of the fair +unknown, and, whirling it through the air like a feather, chased it to +such a distance that it could not be recovered. It was Nyssia, daughter +of Megabazus, who found herself thus with face unveiled in the presence +of Gyges, an humble captain of King Candaules' guard. Was it only the +breath of Boreas which had brought about this accident, or had Eros, who +delights to vex the hearts of men, amused himself by severing the string +which had fastened the protecting tissue? However that may have been, +Gyges was stricken motionless at the sight of that Medusa of beauty, and +not till long after the folds of Nyssia's robe had disappeared beyond +the gates of the city could he think of proceeding on his way. Although +there was nothing to justify such a conjecture, he cherished the belief +that he had seen the satrap's daughter; and that meeting, which affected +him almost like an apparition, accorded so fully with the thoughts which +were occupying him at the moment of its occurrence, that he could not +help perceiving therein something fateful and ordained of the gods. In +truth it was upon that brow that he would have wished to place the +diadem. What other could be more worthy of it? But what probability was +there that Gyges would ever have a throne to share? He had not sought to +follow up this adventure, and assure himself whether it was indeed the +daughter of Megabazus whose mysterious face had been revealed to him by +Chance, the great filcher. Nyssia had fled so swiftly that it would have +been impossible for him then to overtake her; and, moreover, he had been +dazzled, fascinated, thunder-stricken, as it were, rather than charmed +by that superhuman apparition, by that monster of beauty! Nevertheless +that image, although seen only in the glimpse of a moment, had engraved +itself upon his heart in lines deep as those which the sculptors trace +on ivory with tools reddened in the fire. He had endeavored, although +vainly, to efface it, for the love which he felt for Nyssia inspired him +with a secret terror. Perfection in such a degree is ever awe-inspiring, +and women so like unto goddesses could only work evil to feeble mortals; +they are formed for divine adulteries, and even the most courageous men +never risk themselves in such amours without trembling. Therefore no +hope had blossomed in the soul of Gyges, overwhelmed and discouraged in +advance by the sentiment of the impossible. Ere opening his lips to +Nyssia he would have wished to despoil the heaven of its robe of stars, +to take from Phœbus his crown of rays, forgetting that women only give +themselves to those unworthy of them, and that to win their love one +must act as though he desired to earn their hate.</p> + +<p>From that day the roses of joy no longer bloomed upon his cheeks. By day +he was sad and mournful, and seemed to wander abroad in solitary +dreaming, like a mortal who has beheld a divinity. At night he was +haunted by dreams in which he beheld Nyssia seated by his side upon +cushions of purple between the golden griffins of the royal throne.</p> + +<p>Therefore Gyges, the only one who could speak of his own knowledge +concerning Nyssia, having never spoken of her, the Sardians were left to +their own conjectures in her regard; and their conjectures, it must be +confessed, were fantastic and altogether fabulous. The beauty of Nyssia, +thanks to the veils which shrouded her, became a sort of myth, a canvas, +a poem to which each one added ornamentation as the fancy took him.</p> + +<p>"If report be not false," lisped a young debauchee from Athens, who +stood with one hand upon the shoulder of an Asiatic boy, "neither +Plangon, nor Archianassa, nor Thais can be compared with this marvellous +barbarian; yet I can scarce believe that she equals Theano of Colophon, +from whom I once bought a single night at the price of as much gold as +she could bear away, after having plunged both her white arms up to the +shoulder in my cedar-wood coffer."</p> + +<p>"Beside her," added a Eupatrid, who pretended to be better informed than +any other person upon all manner of subjects, "beside her the daughter +of Cœlus and the Sea would seem but a mere Ethiopian servant."</p> + +<p>"Your words are blasphemy, and although Aphrodite be a kind and +indulgent goddess, beware of drawing down her anger upon you."</p> + +<p>"By Hercules!—and that ought to be an oath of some weight in a city +ruled by one of his descendants—I cannot retract a word of it."</p> + +<p>"You have seen her, then?"</p> + +<p>"No; but I have a slave in my service who once belonged to Nyssia, and +who has told me a hundred stories about her."</p> + +<p>"Is it true," demanded in infantile tones an equivocal-looking woman +whose pale-rose tunic, painted cheeks, and locks shining with essences +betrayed wretched pretensions to a youth long passed away—" is it true +that Nyssia has two pupils in each eye? It seems to me that must be very +ugly, and I cannot understand how Candaules could fall in love with +such a monstrosity, while there is no lack, at Sardes and in Lydia, of +women whose eyes are irreproachable."</p> + +<p>And uttering these words with all sorts of affected airs and simperings, +Lamia took a little significant peep in a small mirror of cast metal +which she drew from her bosom, and which enabled her to lead back to +duty certain wandering curls disarranged by the impertinence of the +wind.</p> + +<p>"As to the double pupil, that seems to me nothing more than an old +nurse's tale," observed the well-informed patrician; "but it is a fact +that Nyssia's eyes are so piercing that she can see through walls. +Lynxes are myopic compared with her."</p> + +<p>"How can a sensible man coolly argue about such an absurdity?" +interrupted a citizen, whose bald skull, and the flood of snowy beard +into which he plunged his fingers while speaking, lent him an air of +preponderance and philosophical sagacity. "The truth is that the +daughter of Megabazus cannot naturally see through a wall any better +than you or I, but the Egyptian priest Thoutmosis, who knows so +many-wondrous secrets, has given her the mysterious stone which is found +in the heads of dragons, and whose property, as every one knows, renders +all shadows and the most opaque bodies transparent to the eyes of those +who possess it. Nyssia always carries this stone in her girdle, or else +set into her bracelet, and in that may be found the secret of her +clairvoyance."</p> + +<p>The citizen's explanation seemed the most natural one to those of the +group whose conversation we are endeavoring to reproduce, and the +opinions of Lamia and the patrician were abandoned as improbable.</p> + +<p>"At all events," returned the lover of Theano, "we are going to have an +opportunity of judging for ourselves, for it seems to me that I hear the +clarions sounding in the distance, and though Nyssia is still invisible, +I can see the herald yonder approaching with palm-branches in his hands, +to announce the arrival of the nuptial <i>cortège</i>, and make the crowd +fall back."</p> + +<p>At this news, which spread rapidly through the crowd, the strong men +elbowed their way toward the front ranks; the agile boys, embracing the +shafts of the columns, sought to climb up to the capitals and there seat +themselves; others, not without having skinned their knees against the +bark, succeeded in perching themselves comfortably enough in the Y of +some tree-branch. The women lifted their little children upon their +shoulders, warning them to hold tightly to their necks. Those who had +the good fortune to dwell on the street along which Candaules and Nyssia +were about to pass, leaned over from the summit of their roofs, or, +rising on their elbows, abandoned for a time the cushions upon which +they had been reclining.</p> + +<p>A murmur of satisfaction and gratified expectation ran through the +crowd, which had already been waiting many long hours, for the arrows of +the midday sun were commencing to sting.</p> + +<p>The heavy-armed warriors, with cuirasses of bull's-hide covered with +overlapping plates of metal, helmets adorned with plumes of horse-hair +dyed red, <i>knemides</i> or greaves faced with tin, baldrics studded with +nails, emblazoned bucklers, and swords of brass, rode behind a line of +trumpeters who blew with might and main upon their long tubes, which +gleamed under the sunlight. The horses of these warriors were all white +as the feet of Thetis, and might have served, by reason of their noble +paces and purity of breeds, as models for those which Phidias at a later +day sculptured upon the metopes of the Parthenon.</p> + +<p>At the head of this troop rode Gyges, the well-named, for his name in +the Lydian tongue signifies beautiful. His features, of the most +exquisite regularity, seemed chiselled in marble, owing to his intense +pallor, for he had just discovered in Nyssia, although she was veiled +with the veil of a young bride, the same woman whose face had been +betrayed to his gaze by the treachery of Boreas under the walls of +Bactria.</p> + +<p>"Handsome Gyges looks very sad," said the young maidens. "What proud +beauty could have secured his love, or what forsaken one has caused some +Thessalian witch to cast a spell on him? Has that cabalistic ring (which +he is said to have found hidden within the flanks of a brazen horse in +the midst of some forest) lost its virtue, and suddenly ceasing to +render its owner invisible, have betrayed him to the astonished eyes of +some innocent husband, who had deemed himself alone in his conjugal +chamber?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he has been wasting his talents and his drachmas at the game of +Palamedes, or else it may be that he is disappointed at not having won +the prize at the Olympian games. He had great faith in his horse +Hyperion."</p> + +<p>No one of these conjectures was true. A fact is never guessed.</p> + +<p>After the battalion commanded by Gyges, there came young boys crowned +with myrtle-wreaths, and singing epithalamic hymns after the Lydian +manner, accompanying themselves upon lyres of ivory, which they played +with bows. All were clad in rose-colored tunics ornamented with a silver +Greek border, and their long hair flowed down over their shoulders in +thick curls.</p> + +<p>They preceded the gift-bearers, strong slaves whose half-nude bodies +exposed to view such interlacements of muscle as the stoutest athletes +might have envied.</p> + +<p>Upon brancards, supported by two or four men or more, according to the +weight of the objects borne, were placed enormous brazen cratera, +chiselled by the most famous artists: vases of gold and silver whose +sides were adorned with bas-reliefs and whose hands were elegantly +worked into chimeras, foliage, and nude women; magnificent ewers to be +used in washing the feet of illustrious guests; flagons incrusted with +precious stones and containing the rarest perfumes; myrrh from Arabia, +cinnamon from the Indies, spikenard from Persia, essence of roses from +Smyrna; klamklins or perfuming pans, with perforated covers; cedar-wood +or ivory coffers of marvellous workmanship, which opened with a secret +spring that none save the inventor could find, and which contained +bracelets wrought from the gold of Ophir, necklaces of the most lustrous +pearls, mantle-brooches constellated with rubies and carbuncles; toilet +boxes containing blonde sponges, curling-irons, sea-wolves' teeth to +polish the nails, the green rouge of Egypt, which turns to a most +beautiful pink on touching the skin, powders to darken the eyelashes +and eyebrows, and all the refinements that feminine coquetry could +invent. Other litters were freighted with purple robes of the finest +linen and of all possible shades from the incarnadine hue of the rose to +the deep crimson of the blood of the grape; <i>calasires</i> of the linen of +Canopus, which is thrown all white into the vat of the dyer, and comes +forth again, owing to the various astringents in which it had been +steeped, diapered with the most brilliant colors; tunics brought from +the fabulous land of Seres, made from the spun slime of a worm which +feeds upon leaves, and so fine that they might be drawn through a +finger-ring.</p> + +<p>Ethiopians, whose bodies shone like jet, and whose temples were tightly +bound with cords, lest they should burst the veins of their foreheads in +the effort to uphold their burden, carried in great pomp a statue of +Hercules, the ancestor of Candaules, of colossal size, wrought of ivory +and gold, with the club, the skin of the Nemean lion, the three apples +from the garden of the Hesperides, and all the traditional attributes of +the hero.</p> + +<p>Statues of Venus Urania, and of Venus Genitrix, sculptured by the best +pupils of the Sicyon School in that marble of Paros whose gleaming +transparency seemed expressly created for the representation of the +ever-youthful flesh of the immortals, were borne after the statue of +Hercules, which admirably relieved the harmony and elegance of their +proportions by contrast with its massive outlines and rugged forms.</p> + +<p>A painting by Bularchus, which Candaules had purchased for its weight in +gold, executed upon the wood of the female larch-tree, and representing +the defeat of the Magnesians, evoked universal admiration by the beauty +of its design, the truthfulness of the attitude of its figures, and the +harmony of its coloring, although the artist had only employed in its +production the four primitive colors: Attic ochre, white, Pontic +<i>sinopis,</i> and <i>atramentum</i>. The young king loved painting and sculpture +even more, perhaps, than well became a monarch, and he had not +unfrequently bought a picture at a price equal to the annual revenue of +a whole city.</p> + +<p>Camels and dromedaries, splendidly caparisoned, with musicians seated on +their necks performing upon drums and cymbals, carried the gilded +stakes, the cords, and the material of the tent designed for the use of +the queen during voyages and hunting parties.</p> + +<p>These spectacles of magnificence would upon any other occasion have +ravished the people of Sardes with delight, but their curiosity had been +enlisted in another direction, and it was not without a certain feeling +of impatience that they watched this portion of the procession file by. +The young maidens and the handsome boys, bearing flaming torches, and +strewing handfuls of crocus flowers along the way, hardly attracted any +attention. The idea of beholding Nyssia had preoccupied all minds.</p> + +<p>At last Candaules appeared, riding in a chariot drawn by four horses, as +beautiful and spirited as those of the sun, all rolling their golden +bits in foam, shaking their purple-decked manes, and restrained with +great difficulty by the driver, who stood erect at the side of +Candaules, and was leaning back to gain more power on the reins.</p> + +<p>Candaules was a young man full of vigor, and well worthy of his +Herculean origin. His head was joined to his shoulders by a neck +massive as a bull's, and almost without a curve; his hair, black and +lustrous, twisted itself into rebellious little curls, here and there +concealing the circlet of his diadem; his ears, small and upright, were +of a ruddy hue; his forehead was broad and full, though a little low, +like all antique foreheads; his eyes full of gentle melancholy, his oval +cheeks, his chin with its gentle and regular curves, his mouth with its +slightly parted lips—all bespoke the nature of the poet rather than +that of the warrior. In fact, although he was brave, skilled in all +bodily exercises, could subdue a wild horse as well as any of the +Lapithæ, or swim across the current of rivers when they descended, +swollen with melted snow, from the mountains, although he might have +bent the bow of Odysseus or borne the shield of Achilles, he seemed +little occupied with dreams of conquest; and war, usually so fascinating +to young kings, had little attraction for him. He contented himself with +repelling the attacks of his ambitious neighbors, and sought not to +extend his own dominions. He preferred building palaces, after plans +suggested by himself to the architects, who always found the king's +hints of no small value, or to form collections of statues and paintings +by artists of the elder and later schools. He had the works of +Telephanes of Sicyon, Cleanthes, Ardices of Corinth, Hygiemon, Deinias, +Charmides, Eumarus, and Cimon, some being simple drawings, and other +paintings in various colors or monochromes. It was even said that +Candaules had not disdained to wield with his own royal hands-a thing +hardly becoming a prince—the chisel of the sculptor and the sponge of +the encaustic painter.</p> + +<p>But why should we dwell upon Candaules? The reader undoubtedly feels +like the people of Sardes: and it is of Nyssia that he desires to hear.</p> + +<p>The daughter of Megabazus was mounted upon an elephant, with wrinkled +skin and immense ears which seemed like flags, who advanced with a heavy +but rapid gait, like a vessel in the midst of the waves. His tusks and +his trunk were encircled with silver rings, and around the pillars of +his limbs were entwined necklaces of enormous pearls. Upon his back, +which was covered with a magnificent Persian carpet of striped pattern, +stood a sort of estrade overlaid with gold finely chased, and +constellated with onyx stones, carnelians, chrysolites, lapis-lazuli, +and girasols; upon this estrade sat the young queen, so covered with +precious stones as to dazzle the eyes of the beholders. A mitre, shaped +like a helmet, on which pearls formed flower designs and letters after +the Oriental manner, was placed upon her head; her ears, both the lobes +and rims of which had been pierced, were adorned with ornaments in the +form of little cups, crescents, and balls; necklaces of gold and silver +beads, which had been hollowed out and carved, thrice encircled her neck +and descended with a metallic tinkling upon her bosom; emerald serpents +with topaz or ruby eyes coiled themselves in many folds about her arms, +and clasped themselves by biting their own tails. These bracelets were +connected by chains of precious stones, and so great was their weight +that two attendants were required to kneel beside Nyssia and support her +elbows. She was clad in a robe embroidered by Syrian workmen with +shining designs of golden foliage and diamond fruits, and over this she +wore the short tunic of Persepolis, which hardly descended to the knee, +and of which the sleeves were slit and fastened by sapphire clasps. Her +waist was encircled from hip to loins by a girdle wrought of narrow +material, variegated with stripes and flowered designs, which formed +themselves into symmetrical patterns as they were brought together by a +certain arrangement of the folds which Indian girls alone know how to +make. Her trousers of byssus, which the Phœnicians called <i>syndon</i>, +were confined at the ankles by anklets adorned with gold and silver +bells, and completed this toilet, so fantastically rich and wholly +opposed to Greek taste. But, alas! a saffron-colored <i>flammeum</i> +pitilessly masked the face of Nyssia, who seemed embarrassed, veiled +though she was, at finding so many eyes fixed upon her, and frequently +signed to a slave behind her to lower the parasol of ostrich plumes, and +thus conceal her yet more from the curious gaze of the crowd.</p> + +<p>Candaules had vainly begged of her to lay aside her veil, even for that +solemn occasion. The young barbarian had refused to pay the welcome of +her beauty to his people. Great was the disappointment. Lamia declared +that Nyssia dared not uncover her face for fear of showing her double +pupil. The young libertine remained convinced that Theano of Colophon +was more beautiful than the queen of Sardes; and Gyges sighed when he +beheld Nyssia, after having made her elephant kneel down, descend upon +the inclined heads of Damascus slaves as upon a living ladder, to the +threshold of the royal dwelling, where the elegance of Greek +architecture was blended with the fantasies and enormities of Asiatic +taste.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3> + + +<p>In our character of poet we have the right to lift the saffron-colored +<i>flammeum</i> which concealed the young bride, being more fortunate in this +wise than the Sardians, who after a whole day's waiting were obliged to +return to their houses and were left, as before, to their own +conjectures.</p> + +<p>Nyssia was really far superior to her reputation, great as it was. It +seemed as though Nature in creating her had resolved to exhaust her +utmost powers, and thus make atonement for all former experimental +attempts and fruitless essays. One would have said that, moved by +jealousy of the future marvels of the Greek sculptors, she also had +resolved to model a statue herself, and to prove that she was still +sovereign mistress in the plastic art.</p> + +<p>The grain of snow, the micaceous brilliancy of Parian marble, the +sparkling pulp of balsamine flowers, would render but a feeble idea of +the ideal substance whereof Nyssia had been formed. That flesh, so fine, +so delicate, permitted daylight to penetrate it, and modelled itself in +transparent contours, in lines as sweetly harmonious as music itself. +According to different surroundings, it took the color of the sunlight +or of purple, like the aromal body of a divinity, and seemed to radiate +light and life. The world of perfections inclosed within the +nobly-lengthened oval of her chaste face could have been rendered by no +earthly art—neither by the chisel of the sculptor, nor the brush of +the painter, nor the style of any poet—though it were Praxiteles, +Apelles, or Mimnermus; and on her smooth brow, bathed by waves of hair +amber-bright as molten electrum and sprinkled with gold filings, +according to the Babylonian custom, sat as upon a jasper throne the +unalterable serenity of perfect loveliness.</p> + +<p>As for her eyes, though they did not justify what popular credulity said +of them, they were at least wonderfully strange eyes; brown eyebrows, +with extremities ending in points elegant as those of the arrows of +Eros, and which were joined to each other by a streak of henna after the +Asiatic fashion, and long fringes of silkily-shadowed eyelashes +contrasted strikingly with the twin sapphire stars rolling in the heaven +of dark silver which formed those eyes. The irises of those eyes, whose +pupils were blacker than atrament, varied singularly in shades of +shifting color. From sapphire they changed to turquoise, from turquoise +to beryl, from beryl to yellow amber, and sometimes, like a limpid lake +whose bottom is strewn with jewels, they offered, through their +incalculable depths, glimpses of golden and diamond sands upon which +green fibrils vibrated and twisted themselves into emerald serpents. In +those orbs of phosphoric lightning the rays of suns extinguished, the +splendors of vanished worlds, the glories of Olympus eclipsed—all +seemed to have concentrated their reflections. When contemplating them +one thought of eternity, and felt himself seized with a mighty +giddiness, as though he were leaning over the verge of the Infinite.</p> + +<p>The expression of those extraordinary eyes was not less variable than +their tint. At times their lids opened like the portals of celestial +dwellings; they invited you into elysiums of light, of azure, of +ineffable felicity; they promised you the realization, tenfold, a +hundredfold, of all your dreams of happiness, as though they had divined +your soul's most secret thoughts; again, impenetrable as sevenfold +plated shields of the hardest metals, they flung back your gaze like +blunted and broken arrows. With a simple inflexion of the brow, a mere +flash of the pupil, more terrible than the thunder of Zeus, they +precipitated you from the heights of your most ambitious escalades into +depths of nothingness so profound that it was impossible to rise again. +Typhon himself, who writhes under Ætna, could not have lifted the +mountains of disdain with which they overwhelmed you. One felt that +though he should live for a thousand Olympiads endowed with the beauty +of the fair son of Latona, the genius of Orpheus, the unbounded might of +Assyrian kings, the treasures of the Cabeirei, the Telchines, and the +Dactyli, gods of subterranean wealth, he could never change their +expression to mildness.</p> + +<p>At other times their languishment was so liquidly persuasive, their +brilliancy and irradiation so penetrating, that the icy coldness of +Nestor and Priam would have melted under their gaze, like the wax of the +wings of Icarus when he approached the flaming zones. For one such +glance a man would have gladly steeped his hands in the blood of his +host, scattered the ashes of his father to the four winds, overthrown +the holy images of the gods, and stolen the fire of heaven itself, like +the sublime thief, Prometheus.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, their most ordinary expression, it must be confessed, was +of a chastity to make one desperate—a sublime coldness—an ignorance of +all possibilities of human passion, such as would have made the +moon-bright eyes of Phœbe or the sea-green eyes of Athena appear by +comparison more liquidly tempting than those of a young girl of Babylon +sacrificing to the goddess Mylitta within the cord-circled enclosure of +Succoth-Benohl. Their invincible virginity seemed to bid love defiance.</p> + +<p>The cheeks of Nyssia, which no human gaze had ever profaned, save that +of Gyges on the day when the veil was blown away, possessed a youthful +bloom, a tender pallor, a delicacy of grain, and a downiness whereof the +faces of our women, perpetually exposed to sunlight and air, cannot +convey the most distant idea. Modesty created fleeting rosy clouds upon +them like those which a drop of crimson essence would form in a cup of +milk, and when uncolored by any emotion they took a silvery sheen, a +warm light, like an alabaster vessel illumined by a lamp within. That +lamp was her charming soul, which exposed to view the transparency of +her flesh.</p> + +<p>A bee would have been deceived by her mouth, whose form was so perfect, +whose corners were so purely dimpled, whose crimson was so rich and warm +that the gods would have descended from their Olympian dwellings in +order to touch it with lips humid with immortality, but that the +jealousy of the goddesses restrained their impetuosity. Happy the wind +which passed through that purple and pearl, which dilated those pretty +nostrils, so finely cut and shaded with rosy tints like the +mother-of-pearl of the shells thrown by the sea on the shore of Cyprus +at the feet of Venus Anadyomene! But are there not a multitude of favors +thus granted to things which cannot understand them? What lover would +not wish to be the tunic of his well-beloved or the water of her bath?</p> + +<p>Such was Nyssia, if we dare make use of the expression after so vague a +description of her face. If our foggy Northern idioms had the warm +liberty, the burning enthusiasm of the Sir Hasirim, we might, perhaps, +by comparisons—awakening in the mind of the reader memories of flowers +and perfumes, of music and sunlight, evoking, by the magic of words, all +the graceful and charming images that the universe can contain—have +been able to give some idea of Nyssia's features; but it is permitted to +Solomon alone to compare the nose of a beautiful woman to the tower of +Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. And yet what is there in the +world of more importance than the nose of a beautiful woman? Had Helen, +the white Tyndarid, been flat-nosed, would the Trojan War have taken +place? And if the profile of Semiramis had not been perfectly regular, +would she have bewitched the old monarch of Nineveh and encircled her +brow with the mitre of pearls, the symbol of supreme power?</p> + +<p>Although Candaules had brought to his palace the most beautiful slaves +from the people of the Soræ, of Askalon, of Sogdiana, of the Sacæ, of +Rhapta, the most celebrated courtesans from Ephesus, from Pergamus, from +Smyrna, and from Cyprus, he was completely fascinated by the charms of +Nyssia. Up to that time he had not even suspected the existence of such +perfection.</p> + +<p>Privileged as a husband to enjoy fully the contemplation of this beauty, +he found himself dazzled, giddy, like one who leans over the edge of an +abyss, or fixes his eyes upon the sun; he felt himself seized, as it +were, with the delirium of possession, like a priest drunk with the god +who fills and moves him. All other thoughts disappeared from his soul, +and the universe seemed to him only as a vague mist in the midst of +which beamed the shining phantom of Nyssia. His happiness transformed +itself into ecstasy, and his love into madness. At times his very +felicity terrified him. To be only a wretched king, only a remote +descendant of a hero who had become a god by mighty labors, only a +common man formed of flesh and bone, and without having in aught +rendered himself worthy of it—without having even, like his ancestor, +strangled some hydra, or torn some lion asunder—to enjoy a happiness +whereof Zeus of the ambrosial hair would scarce be worthy, though lord +of all Olympus! He felt, as it were, a shame to thus hoard up for +himself alone so rich a treasure, to steal this marvel from the world, +to be the dragon with scales and claws who guarded the living type of +the ideal of lovers, sculptors, and poets. All they had ever dreamed of +in their hope, their melancholy, and their despair, he possessed—he, +Candaules, poor tyrant of Sardes, who had only a few wretched coffers +filled with pearls, a few cisterns filled with gold pieces, and thirty +or forty thousand slaves, purchased or taken in war.</p> + +<p>Candaules's felicity was too great for him, and the strength which he +would doubtless have found at his command in time of misfortune was +wanting to him in time of happiness. His joy overflowed from his soul +like water from a vase placed upon the fire, and in the exasperation of +his enthusiasm for Nyssia he had reached the point of desiring that she +were less timid and less modest, for it cost him no little effort to +retain in his own breast the secret of such wondrous beauty.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he would murmur to himself during the deep reveries which absorbed +him at all hours that he did not spend at the queen's side, "how strange +a lot is mine! I am wretched because of that which would make any other +husband happy. Nyssia will not leave the shadow of the gynæceum, and +refuses, with barbarian modesty, to lift her veil in the presence of any +other than myself. Yet with what an intoxication of pride would my love +behold her, radiantly sublime, gaze down upon my kneeling people from +the summit of the royal steps, and, like the rising dawn, extinguish all +those pale stars who during the night thought themselves suns! Proud +Lydian women, who believe yourselves beautiful, but for Nyssia's reserve +you would appear, even to your lovers, as ugly as the oblique-eyed and +thick-lipped slaves of Nahasi and Kush. Were she but once to pass along +the streets of Sardes with face unveiled, you might in vain pull your +adorers by the lappet of their tunic, for none of them would turn his +head, or, if he did, it would be to demand your name, so utterly would +he have forgotten you! They would rush to precipitate themselves beneath +the silver wheels of her chariot, that they might have even the pleasure +of being crushed by her, like those devotees of the Indus who pave the +pathway of their idol with their bodies.</p> + +<p>"And you, oh goddesses, whom Paris-Alexander judged, had Nyssia appeared +among you, not one of you would have borne away the golden apple, not +even Aphrodite, despite her cestus and her promise to the +shepherd-arbiter that she would make him beloved by the most beautiful +woman in the world!...</p> + +<p>"Alas! to think that such beauty is not immortal, and that years will +alter those divine outlines, that admirable hymn of forms, that poem +whose strophes are contours, and which no one in the world has ever read +or may ever read save myself; to be the sole depositary of so splendid a +treasure! If I knew even, by imitating the play of light and shadow with +the aid of lines and colors, how to fix upon wood a reflection of that +celestial face; if marble were not rebellious to my chisel, how well +would I fashion in the purest vein of Paros or Pentelicus an image of +that charming body, which would make the proud effigies of the goddesses +fall from their altars! And long after, when deep below the slime of +deluges, and beneath the dust of ruined cities, the men of future ages +should find a fragment of that petrified shadow of Nyssia, they would +cry: 'Behold, how the women of this vanished world were formed!' And +they would erect a temple wherein to enshrine the divine fragment. But I +have naught save a senseless admiration and a love that is madness! Sole +adorer of an unknown divinity, I possess no power to spread her worship +through the world."</p> + +<p>Thus in Candaules had the enthusiasm of the artist extinguished the +jealousy of the lover. Admiration was mightier than love. If in place of +Nyssia, daughter of the Satrap Megabazus, all imbued with Oriental +ideas, he had espoused some Greek girl from Athens or Corinth, he would +certainly have invited to his court the most skilful painters and +sculptors, and have given them the queen for their model, as did +afterward Alexander his favorite Campaspe, who posed naked before +Apelles. Such a whim would have encountered no opposition from a woman +of the land where even the most chaste made a boast of having +contributed—some for the back, some for the bosom—to the perfection +of a famous statue. But hardly would the bashful Nyssia consent to +unveil herself in the discreet shadow of the thalamus, and the earnest +prayers of the king really shocked her rather than gave her pleasure. +The sentiment of duty and obedience alone induced her to yield at times +to what she styled the whims of Candaules.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he besought her to allow the flood of her hair to flow over +her shoulders in a river of gold richer than the Pactolus, to encircle +her brow with a crown of ivy and linden leaves like a Bacchante of Mount +Mænalus, to lie, hardly veiled by a cloud of tissue finer than woven +wind, upon a tiger-skin with silver claws and ruby eyes, or to stand +erect in a great shell of mother-of-pearl, with a dew of pearls falling +from her tresses in lieu of drops of sea-water.</p> + +<p>When he had placed himself in the best position for observation, he +became absorbed in silent contemplation. His hand, tracing vague +contours in the air, seemed to be sketching the outlines for some +picture, and he would have remained thus for whole hours if Nyssia, soon +becoming weary of her rôle of model, had not reminded him in chill and +disdainful tones that such amusements were unworthy of royal majesty and +contrary to the holy laws of matrimony. "It is thus," she would exclaim, +as she withdrew, draped to her very eyes, into the most mysterious +recesses of her apartment, "that one treats a mistress, not a virtuous +woman of noble blood!"</p> + +<p>These wise remonstrances did not cure Candaules, whose passion augmented +in inverse ratio to the coldness shown him by the queen. And it had at +last brought him to that point that he could no longer keep the secrets +of the nuptial couch. A confidant became as necessary to him as to the +prince of a modern tragedy. He did not proceed, you may feel assured, to +fix his choice upon some crabbed philosopher of frowning mien, with a +flood of gray-and-white beard rolling down over a mantle in proud +tatters; nor a warrior who could talk of nothing save ballista, +catapults, and scythed chariots; nor a sententious Eupatrid full of +counsels and politic maxims; but Gyges, whose reputation for gallantry +caused him to be regarded as a connoisseur in regard to women.</p> + +<p>One evening he laid his hand upon his shoulder in a more than ordinarily +familiar and cordial manner, and after giving him a look of peculiar +significance, he suddenly strode away from the group of courtiers, +saying in a loud voice:</p> + +<p>"Gyges, come and give me your opinion in regard to my effigy, which the +Sicyon sculptors have just finished chiselling on the genealogical +bas-relief where the deeds of my ancestors are celebrated."</p> + +<p>"O king, your knowledge is greater than that of your humble subject, and +I know not how to express my gratitude for the honor you do me in +deigning to consult me," replied Gyges, with a sign of assent.</p> + +<p>Candaules and his favorite traversed several halls ornamented in the +Hellenic style, where the Corinthian acanthus and the Ionic volute +bloomed or curled in the capitals of the columns, where the friezes were +peopled with little figures in polychromatic plastique representing +processions and sacrifices, and they finally arrived at a remote portion +of the ancient palace whose walls were built with stones of irregular +form, put together without cement in the Cyclopean manner. This ancient +architecture was colossally proportioned and weirdly grim. The +immeasurable genius of the elder civilizations of the Orient was there +legibly written, and recalled the granite and brick debauches of Egypt +and Assyria. Something of the spirit of the ancient architects of the +tower of Lylax survived in those thick-set pillars with their +deep-fluted trunks, whose capitals were formed by four heads of bulls, +placed forehead to forehead, and bound together by knots of serpents +that seemed striving to devour them, an obscure cosmogonic symbol +whereof the meaning was no longer intelligible, and had descended into +the tomb with the hierophants of preceding ages. The gates were neither +of a square nor rounded form. They described a sort of ogive much +resembling the mitre of the Magi, and by their fantastic character gave +still more intensity to the character of the building.</p> + +<p>This portion of the palace formed a sort of court surrounded by a +portico whose architecture was ornamented with the genealogical +bas-relief to which Candaules had alluded.</p> + +<p>In the midst thereof sat Heracles upon a throne, with the upper part of +his body uncovered, and his feet resting upon a stool, according to the +rite for the representation of divine personages. His colossal +proportions would otherwise have left no doubt as to his apotheosis, and +the archaic rudeness and hugeness of the work, wrought by the chisel of +some primitive artist, imparted to his figure an air of barbaric +majesty, a savage grandeur more appropriate, perhaps, to the character +of this monster-slaying hero than would have been the work of a sculptor +consummate in his art.</p> + +<p>On the right of the throne were Alcæus, son of the hero and of Omphale; +Ninus, Belus, Argon, the earlier kings of the dynasty of the +Heracleidæ, then all the line of intermediate kings, terminating with +Ardys, Alyattes, Meles or Myrsus, father of Candaules, and finally +Candaules himself.</p> + +<p>All these personages, with their hair braided into little strings, their +beards spirally twisted, their oblique eyes, angular attitudes, cramped +and stiff gestures, seemed to own a sort of factitious life, due to the +rays of the setting sun, and the ruddy hue which time lends to marble in +warm climates. The inscriptions in antique characters, graven beside +them after the manner of legends, enhanced still more the mysterious +weirdness of the long procession of figures in strange barbarian garb.</p> + +<p>By a singular chance, which Gyges could not help observing, the statue +of Candaules occupied the last available place at the right hand of +Heracles; the dynastic cycle was closed, and in order to find a place +for the descendants of Candaules it would be absolutely necessary to +build a new portico and commence the formation of a new bas-relief.</p> + +<p>Candaules, whose arm still rested on the shoulder of Gyges, walked +slowly round the portico in silence. He seemed to hesitate to enter into +the subject, and had altogether forgotten the pretext under which he had +led the captain of his guards into that solitary place.</p> + +<p>"What would you do, Gyges," said Candaules, at last breaking the silence +which had been growing painful to both, "if you were a diver, and should +bring up from the green bosom of the ocean a pearl of incomparable +purity and lustre, and of worth so vast as to exhaust the richest +treasures of the earth?"</p> + +<p>"I would inclose it," answered Gyges, a little surprised at this brusque +question, "in a cedar box overlaid with plates of brass, and I would +bury it under a detached rock in some desert place; and from time to +time, when I should feel assured that none could see me, I would go +thither to contemplate my precious jewel and admire the colors of the +sky mingling with its nacreous tints."</p> + +<p>"And I," replied Candaules, his eye illuminated with enthusiasm, "if I +possessed so rich a gem, I would enshrine it in my diadem, that I might +exhibit it freely to the eyes of all men, in the pure light of the sun, +that I might adorn myself with its splendor and smile with pride when I +should hear it said: 'Never did king of Assyria or Babylon, never did +Greek or Trinacrian tyrant possess so lustrous a pearl as Candaules, son +of Myrsus and descendant of Heracles, King of Sardes and of Lydia! +Compared with Candaules, Midas, who changed all things to gold, were +only a mendicant as poor as Irus.'"</p> + +<p>Gyges listened with astonishment to this discourse of Candaules, and +sought to penetrate the hidden sense of these lyric divagations. The +king appeared to be in a state of extraordinary excitement: his eyes +sparkled with enthusiasm; a feverish rosiness tinted his cheeks; his +dilated nostrils inhaled the air with unusual effort.</p> + +<p>"Well, Gyges," continued Candaules, without appearing to notice the +uneasiness of his favorite, "I am that diver. Amid this dark ocean of +humanity, wherein confusedly move so many defective or misshapen beings, +so many forms incomplete or degraded, so many types of bestial +ugliness, wretched outlines of nature's experimental essays, I have +found beauty, pure, radiant, without spot, without flaw, the ideal made +real, the dream accomplished, a form which no painter or sculptor has +ever been able to translate upon canvas or into marble—I have found +Nyssia!"</p> + +<p>"Although the queen has the timid modesty of the women of the Orient, +and that no man save her husband has ever beheld her features, Fame, +hundred-tongued and hundred-eared, has celebrated her praise throughout +the world," answered Gyges, respectfully inclining his head as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Mere vague, insignificant rumors. They say of her, as of all women not +actually ugly, that she is more beautiful than Aphrodite or Helen; but +no person could form even the most remote idea of such perfection. In +vain have I besought Nyssia to appear unveiled at some public festival, +some solemn sacrifice, or to show herself for an instant leaning over +the royal terrace, bestowing upon her people the immense favor of one +look, the prodigality of one profile view, more generous than the +goddesses who permit their worshippers to behold only pale simulacra of +ivory or alabaster. She would never consent to that. Now there is one +strange thing which I blush to acknowledge even to you, dear Gyges. +Formerly I was jealous; I wished to conceal my amours from all eyes, no +shadow was thick enough, no mystery sufficiently impenetrable. Now I can +no longer recognize myself. I have the feelings neither of a lover nor a +husband; my love has melted in adoration like thin wax in a fiery +brazier. All petty feelings of jealousy or possession have vanished. No, +the most finished work that heaven has ever given to earth, since the +day that Prometheus held the flame under the right breast of the statue +of clay, cannot thus be kept hidden in the chill shadow of the +gynæceum. Were I to die, then the secret of this beauty would forever +remain shrouded beneath the sombre draperies of widowhood! I feel myself +culpable in its concealment, as though I had the sun in my house, and +prevented it from illuminating the world. And when I think of those +harmonious lines, those divine contours which I dare scarcely touch +with a timid kiss, I feel my heart ready to burst; I wish that some +friendly eye could share my happiness and, like a severe judge to whom a +picture is shown, recognize after careful examination that it is +irreproachable, and that the possessor has not been deceived by his +enthusiasm. Yes, often do I feel myself tempted to tear off with rash +hand those odious tissues, but Nyssia, in her fierce chastity, would +never forgive me. And still I cannot alone endure such felicity. I must +have a confidant for my ecstasies, an echo which will answer my cries of +admiration, and it shall be none other than you."</p> + +<p>Having uttered these words, Candaules brusquely turned and disappeared +through a secret passage. Gyges, left thus alone, could not avoid +noticing the peculiar concourse of events which seemed to place him +always in Nyssia's path. A chance had enabled him to behold her beauty, +though walled up from all other eyes. Among many princes and satraps she +had chosen to espouse Candaules, the very king he served; and through +some strange caprice, which he could only regard as fateful, this king +had just made him, Gyges, his confidant in regard to the mysterious +creature whom none else had approached, and absolutely sought to +complete the work of Boreas on the plain of Bactria! Was not the hand of +the gods visible in all these circumstances? That spectre of beauty, +whose veil seemed to be lifted slowly, a little at a time, as though to +enkindle a flame within him, was it not leading him, without his having +suspected it, toward the accomplishment of some mighty destiny? Such +were the questions which Gyges asked himself, but being unable to +penetrate the obscurity of the future, he resolved to await the course +of events, and left the Court of Images, where the twilight darkness was +commencing to pile itself up in all the angles, and to render the +effigies of the ancestors of Candaules yet more and more weirdly +menacing.</p> + +<p>Was it a mere effort of light, or was it rather an illusion produced by +that vague uneasiness with which the boldest hearts are filled by the +approach of night amid ancient monuments? As he stepped across the +threshold Gyges fancied that he heard deep groans issue from the stone +lips of the bas-reliefs, and it seemed to him that Heracles was making +enormous efforts to loosen his granite club.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3> + + +<p>On the following day Candaules again took Gyges aside and continued the +conversation begun under the portico of the Heracleidæ. Having freed +himself from the embarrassment of broaching the subject, he freely +unbosomed himself to his confidant; and had Nyssia been able to overhear +him she might perhaps have been willing to pardon his conjugal +indiscretions for the sake of his passionate eulogies of her charms.</p> + +<p>Gyges listened to all these bursts of praise with the slightly +constrained air of one who is yet uncertain whether his interlocutor is +not feigning an enthusiasm more ardent than he actually feels, in order +to provoke a confidence naturally cautious to utter itself. Candaules at +last said to him in a tone of disappointment: "I see, Gyges, that you +do not believe me. You think I am boasting, or have allowed myself to be +fascinated like some clumsy laborer by a robust country girl on whose +cheeks Hygeia has crushed the gross hues of health. No, by all the gods! +I have collected within my home, like a living bouquet, the fairest +flowers of Asia and of Greece. I know all that the art of sculptors and +painters has produced since the time of Dædalus, whose statues walked +and spoke. Linus, Orpheus, Homer, have taught me harmony and rhythm. I +do not look about me with Love's bandage blind-folding my eyes. I judge +of all things coolly. The passions of youth never influence my +admiration, and when I am as withered, decrepit, wrinkled, as Tithonus +in his swaddling bands, my opinion will be still the same. But I forgive +your incredulity and want of sympathy. In order to understand me fully, +it is necessary that you should see Nyssia in the radiant brilliancy of +her shining whiteness, free from jealous drapery, even as nature with +her own hands moulded her in a lost moment of inspiration which never +can return. This evening I will hide you in a corner of the bridal +chamber ... you shall see her!"</p> + +<p>"Sire, what do you ask of me?" returned the young warrior with +respectful firmness. "How shall I, from the depths of my dust, from the +abyss of my nothingness, dare to raise my eyes to this sun of +perfections, at the risk of remaining blind for the rest of my life, or +being able to see naught but a dazzling spectre in the midst of +darkness? Have pity on your humble slave, and do not compel him to an +action so contrary to the maxims of virtue. No man should look upon what +does not belong to him. We know that the immortals always punish those +who through imprudence or audacity surprise them in their divine nudity. +Nyssia is the loveliest of all women; you are the happiest of lovers and +husbands. Heracles, your ancestor, never found in the course of his many +conquests aught to compare with your queen. If you, the prince of whom +even the most skilful artists seek judgment and counsel—if you find her +incomparable, of what consequence can the opinion of an obscure soldier +like me be to you? Abandon, therefore, this fantasy, which I presume to +say is unworthy of your royal majesty, and of which you would repent so +soon as it had been satisfied."</p> + +<p>"Listen, Gyges," returned Candaules; "I perceive that you suspect me; +you think that I seek to put you to some proof, but by the ashes of that +funeral pyre whence my ancestor arose a god, I swear to you that I speak +frankly and without any after-purpose."</p> + +<p>"O Candaules, I doubt not of your good faith; your passion is sincere, +but perchance, after I should have obeyed you, you would conceive a deep +aversion to me, and learn to hate me for not having more firmly resisted +your will. You would seek to take back from these eyes, indiscreet +through compulsion, the image which you allowed them to glance upon in a +moment of delirium; and who knows but that you would condemn them to the +eternal night of the tomb to punish them for remaining open at a moment +when they ought to have been closed."</p> + +<p>"Fear nothing; I pledge my royal word that no evil shall befall you."</p> + +<p>"Pardon your slave if he still dares to offer some objection, even after +such a promise. Have you reflected that what you propose to me is a +violation of the sanctity of marriage, a species of visual adultery? A +woman often lays aside her modesty with her garments; and once violated +by a look, without having actually ceased to be virtuous, she might deem +that she had lost her flower of purity. You promise, indeed, to feel no +resentment against me; but who can insure me against the wrath of +Nyssia, she who is so reserved and chaste, so apprehensive, fierce, and +virginal in her modesty that she might be deemed still ignorant of the +laws of Hymen? Should she ever learn of the sacrilege which I am about +to render myself guilty of in deferring to my master's wishes, what +punishment would she condemn me to suffer in expiation of such a crime? +Who could place me beyond the reach of her avenging anger?"</p> + +<p>"I did not know you were so wise and prudent," said Candaules, with a +slightly ironical smile; "but such dangers are all imaginary, and I +shall hide you in such a way that Nyssia will never know she has been +seen by any one except her royal husband."</p> + +<p>Being unable to offer any further defence, Gyges made a sign of assent +in token of complete submission to the king's will. He had made all the +resistance in his power, and thenceforward his conscience could feel at +ease in regard to whatever might happen; besides, by any further +opposition to the will of Candaules, he would have feared to oppose +destiny itself, which seemed striving to bring him still nearer to +Nyssia for some grim ulterior purpose into which it was not given to him +to see further.</p> + +<p>Without actually being able to foresee any result, he beheld a thousand +vague and shadowy images passing before his eyes. That subterranean +love, so long crouched at the foot of his soul's stairway, had climbed a +few steps higher, guided by some fitful glimmer of hope. The weight of +the impossible no longer pressed so heavily upon his breast, now that he +believed himself aided by the gods. In truth, who would have dreamed +that the much-boasted charms of the daughter of Megabazus would ere +long cease to own any mystery for Gyges?</p> + +<p>"Come, Gyges," said Candaules, taking him by the hand, "let us make +profit of the time. Nyssia is walking in the garden with her women; let +us look at the place, and plan our stratagems for this evening."</p> + +<p>The king took his confidant by the hand and led him along the winding +ways which conducted to the nuptial apartment. The doors of the +sleeping-room were made of cedar planks so perfectly put together that +it was impossible to discover the joints. By dint of rubbing them with +wool steeped in oil, the slaves had rendered the wood as polished as +marble. The brazen nails, with heads cut in facets, which studded them, +had all the brilliancy of the purest gold. A complicated system of +straps and metallic rings, whereof Candaules and his wife alone knew the +combination, served to secure them, for in those heroic ages the +lock-smith's art was yet in its infancy.</p> + +<p>Candaules unloosed the knots, made the rings slide back upon the thongs, +raised with a handle which fitted into a mortise the bar that fastened +the door from within, and bidding Gyges place himself against the wall, +turned back one of the folding doors upon him in such a way as to hide +him completely; yet the door did not fit so perfectly to its frame of +oaken beams, all carefully polished and put up according to line by a +skilful workman, that the young warrior could not obtain a distinct view +of the chamber interior through the interstices contrived to give room +for the free play of the hinges.</p> + +<p>Facing the entrance, the royal bed stood upon an estrade of several +steps, covered with purple drapery. Columns of chased silver supported +the entablature, all ornamented with foliage wrought in relief, amid +which Loves were sporting with dolphins, and heavy curtains embroidered +with gold surrounded it like the folds of a tent.</p> + +<p>Upon the altar of the household gods were placed vases of precious +metal, pateræ enamelled with flowers, double-handled cups, and all +things needful for libations.</p> + +<p>Along the walls, which were faced with planks of cedar-wood, +marvellously worked, at regular intervals stood tall statues of black +basalt in the constrained attitudes of Egyptian art, each sustaining in +its hand a bronze torch into which a splinter of resinous wood had been +fitted.</p> + +<p>An onyx lamp, suspended by a chain of silver, hung from that beam of the +ceiling which is called the black beam, because more exposed than the +others to the embrowning smoke. Every evening a slave carefully filled +this lamp with odoriferous oil.</p> + +<p>Near the head of the bed, on a little column, hung a trophy of arms, +consisting of a visored helmet, a twofold buckler made of four bull's +hides and covered with plates of brass and tin, a two-edged sword, and +several ashen javelins with brazen heads.</p> + +<p>The tunics and mantles of Candaules were hung upon wooden pegs. They +comprised garments both simple and double; that is, capable of going +twice around the body. A mantle of thrice-dyed purple, ornamented with +embroidery representing a hunting scene wherein Laconian hounds were +pursuing and tearing deer, and a tunic whereof the material, fine and +delicate as the skin which envelops an onion, had all the sheen of +woven sunbeams, were especially noticeable. Opposite to the trophy stood +an arm-chair inlaid with silver and ivory upon which Nyssia hung her +garments. Its seat was covered with a leopard skin more eye-spotted than +the body of Argus, and its foot-support was richly adorned with +open-work carving.</p> + +<p>"I am generally the first to retire," observed Candaules to Gyges, "and +I always leave this door open as it is now. Nyssia, who has invariably +some tapestry flower to finish, or some order to give her women, usually +delays a little in joining me; but at last she comes, and slowly takes +off, one by one, as though the effort cost her dearly, and lays upon +that ivory chair all those draperies and tunics which by day envelop her +like mummy bandages. From your hiding-place you will be able to follow +all her graceful movements, admire her unrivalled charms, and judge for +yourself whether Candaules be a young fool prone to vain boasting, or +whether he does not really possess the richest pearl of beauty that ever +adorned a diadem."</p> + +<p>"O King, I can well believe your words without such a proof as this," +replied Gyges, stepping forth from his hiding-place.</p> + +<p>"When she has laid aside her garments," continued Candaules, without +heeding the exclamation of his confidant, "she will come to lie down +with me. You must take advantage of the moment to steal away, for in +passing from the chair to the bed she turns her back to the door. Step +lightly as though you were treading upon ears of ripe wheat; take heed +that no grain of sand squeaks under your sandals; hold your breath, and +retire as stealthily as possible. The vestibule is all in darkness, and +the feeble rays of the only lamp which remains burning do not penetrate +beyond the threshold of the chamber. It is therefore certain that Nyssia +cannot possibly see you; and to-morrow there will be some one in the +world who can comprehend my ecstasies, and will feel no longer +astonished at my bursts of admiration. But see, the day is almost spent; +the Sun will soon water his steeds in the Hesperian waves at the further +end of the world, and beyond the Pillars erected by my ancestors. Return +to your hiding-place, Gyges, and though the hours of waiting may seem +long, I can swear by Eros of the Golden Arrows that you will not regret +having waited."</p> + +<p>After this assurance Candaules left Gyges again hidden behind the door. +The compulsory quiet which the king's young confidant found himself +obliged to maintain left him ample leisure for thought. His situation +was certainly a most extraordinary one. He had loved Nyssia as one loves +a star. Convinced of the hopelessness of the undertaking, he had made no +effort to approach her. And nevertheless, by a succession of +extraordinary events he was about to obtain a knowledge of treasures +reserved for lovers and husbands only. Not a word, not a glance had been +exchanged between himself and Nyssia, who probably ignored the very +existence of the one being for whom her beauty would so soon cease to be +a mystery. Unknown to her whose modesty would have naught to sacrifice +for you, how strange a situation! To love a woman in secret and find +one's self led by her husband to the threshold of the nuptial chamber, +to have for guide to that treasure the very dragon who should defend +all approach to it, was there not in all this ample food for +astonishment and wonder at the combination of events wrought by destiny?</p> + +<p>In the midst of these reflections, he suddenly heard the sound of +footsteps on the pavement. It was only the slaves coming to replenish +the oil in the lamp, throw fresh perfumes upon the coals of the +<i>klamklins,</i> and arrange the purple and saffron-tinted sheepskins which +formed the royal bed.</p> + +<p>The hour approached, and Gyges felt his heart beat faster, and the +pulsation of his arteries quicken. He even felt a strong impulse to +steal away before the arrival of the queen, and, after averring +subsequently to Candaules that he had remained, abandon himself +confidently to the most extravagant eulogiums. He felt a strong +repugnance (for, despite his somewhat free life, Gyges was not without +delicacy) to take by stealth a favor for the free granting of which he +would gladly have paid with his life. The husband's complicity rendered +this theft more odious in a certain sense, and he would have preferred +to owe to any other circumstance the happiness of beholding the marvel +of Asia in her nocturnal toilet. Perhaps, indeed, the approach of +danger, let us acknowledge as veracious historians, had no little to do +with his virtuous scruples. Undoubtedly Gyges did not lack courage. +Mounted upon his war-chariot, with quiver rattling upon his shoulder, +and bow in hand, he would have defied the most valiant warriors; in the +chase he would have attacked without fear the Calydon boar or the Nemean +lion; but—explain the enigma as you will—he trembled at the idea of +looking at a beautiful woman through a chink in a door. No one possesses +every kind of courage. He felt likewise that he could not behold Nyssia +with impunity. It would be a decisive epoch in his life. Through having +obtained but a momentary glimpse of her he had lost all peace of mind; +what, then, would be the result of that which was about to take place? +Could life itself continue for him when to that divine head which fired +his dreams should be added a charming body formed for the kisses of the +immortals? What would become of him should he find himself unable +thereafter to contain his passion in darkness and silence as he had done +till that time? Would he exhibit to the court of Lydia the ridiculous +spectacle of an insane love, or would he strive by some extravagant +action to bring down upon himself the disdainful pity of the queen? Such +a result was strongly probable, since the reason of Candaules himself, +the legitimate possessor of Nyssia, had been unable to resist the +vertigo caused by that superhuman beauty—he, the thoughtless young king +who till then had laughed at love, and preferred pictures and statues +before all things. These arguments were very rational but wholly +useless, for at the same moment Candaules entered the chamber, and +exclaimed in a low but distinct voice as he passed the door:</p> + +<p>"Patience, my poor Gyges, Nyssia will soon come."</p> + +<p>When he saw that he could no longer retreat, Gyges, who was but a young +man after all, forgot every other consideration, and no longer thought +of aught save the happiness of feasting his eyes upon the charming +spectacle which Candaules was about to offer him. One cannot demand +from a captain of twenty-five the austerity of a hoary philosopher.</p> + +<p>At last a low whispering of raiment sweeping and trailing over marble, +distinctly audible in the deep silence of the night, announced the +approach of the queen. In effect it was she. With a step as cadenced and +rhythmic as an ode, she crossed the threshold of the thalamus, and the +wind of her veil with its floating folds almost touched the burning +cheek of Gyges, who felt well-nigh on the point of fainting, and found +himself compelled to seek the support of the wall; but soon recovering +from the violence of his emotions, he approached the chink of the door, +and took the most favorable position for enabling him to lose nothing of +the scene whereof he was about to be an invisible witness.</p> + +<p>Nyssia advanced to the ivory chair and commenced to detach the pins, +terminated by hollow balls of gold, which fastened her veil upon her +head; and Gyges from the depths of the shadow-filled angle where he +stood concealed could examine at his ease the proud and charming face +of which he had before obtained only a hurried glimpse; that rounded +neck, at once delicate and powerful, whereon Aphrodite had traced with +the nail of her little finger those three faint lines which are still at +this very day known as the "necklace of Venus;" that white nape on whose +alabaster surface little wild, rebellious curls were disporting and +entwining themselves; those silver shoulders, half rising from the +opening of the chlamys, like the moon's disk emerging from an opaque +cloud. Candaules, half reclining upon his cushions, gazed with fondness +upon his wife, and thought to himself: "Now Gyges, who is so cold, so +difficult to please, and so skeptical, must be already half convinced."</p> + +<p>Opening a little coffer which stood on a table supported by one leg +terminating in carven lion's paws, the queen freed her beautiful arms +from the weight of the bracelets and jewelry wherewith they had been +overburdened during the day—arms whose form and whiteness might well +have enabled them to compare with those of Hera, sister and wife of +Zeus, the lord of Olympus. Precious as were her jewels, they were +assuredly not worth the spots which they concealed, and had Nyssia been +a coquette, one might have well supposed that she only donned them in +order that she should be entreated to take them off. The rings and +chased work had left upon her skin, fine and tender as the interior pulp +of a lily, light rosy imprints, which she soon dissipated by rubbing +them with her little taper-fingered hand, all rounded and slender at its +extremities.</p> + +<p>Then with the movement of a dove trembling in the snow of its feathers, +she shook her hair, which being no longer held by the golden pins, +rolled down in languid spirals like hyacinth flowers over her back and +bosom. Thus she remained for a few moments ere reassembling the +scattered curls and finally reuniting them into one mass. It was +marvellous to watch the blond ringlets streaming like jets of liquid +gold between the silver of her fingers; and her arms undulating like +swans' necks as they were arched above her head in the act of twisting +and confining the natural bullion. If you have ever by chance examined +one of those beautiful Etruscan vases with red figures on a black +ground, and decorated with one of those subjects which are designated +under the title of "Greek Toilette," then you will have some idea of the +grace of Nyssia in that attitude which, from the age of antiquity to our +own era, has furnished such a multitude of happy designs for painters +and statuaries.</p> + +<p>Having thus arranged her coiffure, she seated herself upon the edge of +the ivory footstool and commenced to untie the little bands which +fastened her buskins. We moderns, owing to our horrible system of +footgear, which is hardly less absurd than the Chinese shoe, no longer +know what a foot is. That of Nyssia was of a perfection rare even in +Greece and antique Asia. The great toe, a little apart like the thumb of +a bird, the other toes, slightly long, and all ranged in charming +symmetry, the nails well shaped and brilliant as agates, the ankles well +rounded and supple, the heel slightly tinted with a rosy hue—nothing +was wanting to the perfection of the little member. The leg attached to +this foot, and which gleamed like polished marble under the lamp-light, +was irreproachable in the purity of its outlines and the grace of its +curves.</p> + +<p>Gyges, lost in contemplation, though all the while fully comprehending +the madness of Candaules, said to himself that had the gods bestowed +such a treasure upon him he would have known how to keep it to himself.</p> + +<p>"Well, Nyssia, are you not coming to sleep with me?" exclaimed +Candaules, seeing that the queen was not hurrying herself in the least, +and feeling desirous to abridge the watch of Gyges.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear lord, I will soon be ready," answered Nyssia.</p> + +<p>And she detached the cameo which fastened the peplum upon her shoulder. +There remained only the tunic to let fall. Gyges, behind the door, felt +his veins hiss through his temples; his heart beat so violently that he +feared it must make itself heard in the chamber, and to repress its +fierce pulsations he pressed his hand upon his bosom; and when Nyssia, +with a movement of careless grace, unfastened the girdle of her tunic, +he thought his knees would give way beneath him.</p> + +<p>Nyssia—was it an instinctive presentiment, or was her skin, virginally +pure from profane looks, so delicately magnetic in its susceptibility +that it could feel the rays of a passionate eye though that eye was +invisible—Nyssia hesitated to strip herself of that tunic, the last +rampart of her modesty. Twice or thrice her shoulders, her bosom, and +bare arms shuddered with a nervous chill, as though they had been +suddenly grazed by the wings of a nocturnal butterfly, or as though an +insolent lip had dared to touch them in the darkness.</p> + +<p>At last, seeming to nerve herself for a sudden resolve, she doffed the +tunic in its turn; and the white poem of her divine body suddenly +appeared in all its splendor, like the statue of a goddess unveiled on +the day of a temple's inauguration. Shuddering with pleasure the light +glided and gloated over those exquisite forms, and covered them with +timid kisses, profiting by an occasion, alas, rare indeed! The rays +scattered through the chamber, disdaining to illuminate golden arms, +jewelled clasps, or brazen tripods, all concentrated themselves upon +Nyssia, and left all other objects in obscurity. Were we Greeks of the +age of Pericles we might at our ease eulogize those beautiful serpentine +lines, those polished flanks, those elegant curves, those breasts which +might have served as moukis for the cup of Hebe; but modern prudery +forbids such descriptions, for the pen cannot find pardon for what is +permitted to the chisel; and besides, there are some things which can be +written of only in marble.</p> + +<p>Candaules smiled in proud satisfaction. With a rapid step, as though +ashamed of being so beautiful, for she was only the daughter of a man +and a woman, Nyssia approached the bed, her arms folded upon her bosom; +but with a sudden movement she turned round ere taking her place upon +the couch beside her royal spouse, and beheld through the aperture of +the door a gleaming eye flaming like the carbuncle of Oriental legend; +for if it were false that she had a double pupil, and that she possessed +the stone which is found in the heads of dragons, it was at least true +that her green glance penetrated darkness like the glaucous eye of the +cat and tiger.</p> + +<p>A cry, like that of a fawn who receives an arrow in her flank while +tranquilly dreaming among the leafy shadows, was on the point of +bursting from her lips, yet she found strength to control herself, and +lay down beside Candaules, cold as a serpent, with the violets of death +upon her cheeks and lips. Not a muscle of her limbs quivered, not a +fibre of her body palpitated, and soon her slow, regular breathing +seemed to indicate that Morpheus had distilled his poppy juice upon her +eyelids.</p> + +<p>She had divined and comprehended all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3> + + +<p>Gyges, trembling and distracted with passion, had retired, following +exactly the instructions of Candaules; and if Nyssia, through some +unfortunate chance, had not turned her head ere taking her place upon +the couch, and perceived him in the act of taking flight, doubtless she +would have remained forever unconscious of the outrage done to her +charms by a husband more passionate than scrupulous.</p> + +<p>Accustomed to the winding corridors of the palace, the young warrior had +no difficulty in finding his way out. He passed through the city at a +reckless pace like a madman escaped from Anticyra, and by making himself +known to the sentinels who guarded the ramparts, he had the gates opened +for him and gained the fields beyond. His brain burned, his cheeks +flamed as with the fires of fever; his breath came hotly panting through +his lips; he flung himself down upon the meadow-sod humid with the tears +of the night; and at last hearing in the darkness, through the thick +grass and water-plants, the silvery respiration of a Naiad, he dragged +himself to the spring, plunged his hands and arms into the crystal +flood, bathed his face, and drank several mouthfuls of the water in the +hope to cool the ardor which was devouring him. Any one who could have +seen him thus hopelessly bending over the spring in the feeble +starlight would have taken him for Narcissus pursuing his own shadow; +but it was not of himself assuredly that Gyges was enamoured.</p> + +<p>The rapid apparition of Nyssia had dazzled his eyes like the keen zigzag +of a lightning-flash. He beheld her floating before him in a luminous +whirlwind, and felt that never through all his life could he banish that +image from his vision. His love had grown to vastness; its flower had +suddenly burst, like those plants which open their blossoms with a clap +of thunder. To master his passion were henceforth a thing impossible: as +well counsel the empurpled waves which Poseidon lifts with his trident +to lie tranquilly in their bed of sand and cease to foam upon the rocks +of the shore. Gyges was no longer master of himself, and he felt a +miserable despair, as of a man riding in a chariot, who finds his +terrified and uncontrollable horses rushing with all the speed of a +furious gallop toward some rock-bristling precipice. A hundred thousand +projects, each wilder than the last, whirled confusedly through his +brain. He blasphemed Destiny, he cursed his mother for having given him +life, and the gods that they had not caused him to be born to a throne, +for then he might have been able to espouse the daughter of the satrap.</p> + +<p>A frightful agony gnawed at his heart; he was jealous of the king. From +the moment of the tunic's fall at the feet of Nyssia, like the flight of +a white dove alighting upon a meadow, it had seemed to him that she +belonged to him; he deemed himself despoiled of his wealth by Candaules. +In all his amorous reveries he had never until then thought of the +husband; he had thought of the queen only as of a pure abstraction, +without representing to himself in fancy all those intimate details of +conjugal familiarity, so poignant, so bitter for those who love a woman +in the power of another. Now he had beheld Nyssia's blonde head bending +like a blossom beside the dark head of Candaules. The very thought of it +had inflamed his anger to the highest degree, although a moment's +reflection should have convinced him that things could not have come to +pass otherwise, and he felt growing within him a most unjust hatred +against his master. The act of having compelled his presence at the +queen's dishabille seemed to him a barbarous irony, an odious refinement +of cruelty, for he did not remember that his love for her could not have +been known by the king, who had sought in him only a confidant of easy +morals and a connoisseur in beauty. That which he ought to have regarded +as a great favor affected him like a mortal injury for which he was +meditating vengeance. While thinking that to-morrow the same scene of +which he had been a mute and invisible witness would infallibly renew +itself, his tongue clove to his palate, his forehead became imbeaded +with drops of cold sweat, and his hand convulsively grasped the hilt of +his great double-edged sword.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, thanks to the freshness of the night, that excellent +counsellor, he became a little calmer, and returned to Sardes before the +morning light had become bright enough to enable a few early rising +citizens and slaves to notice the pallor of his brow and the disorder of +his apparel. He betook himself to his regular post at the palace, well +suspecting that Candaules would shortly send for him; and, however +violent the agitation of his feelings, he felt he was not powerful +enough to brave the anger of the king, and could in no way escape +submitting again to this <i>rôle</i> of confidant, which could thenceforth +only inspire him with horror. Having arrived at the palace, he seated +himself upon the steps of the cypress-panelled vestibule, leaned his +back against a column, and, under the pretext of being fatigued by the +long vigil under arms, he covered his head with his mantle and feigned +sleep to avoid answering the questions of the other guards.</p> + +<p>If the night had been terrible to Gyges, it had not been less so to +Nyssia, as she never for an instant doubted that he had been purposely +hidden there by Candaules. The king's persistency in begging her not to +veil so austerely a face which the gods had made for the admiration of +men, his evident vexation upon her refusal to appear in Greek costume at +the sacrifices and public solemnities, his unsparing raillery at what he +termed her barbarian shyness, all tended to convince her that the young +Heracleid had sought to admit some one into those mysteries which +should remain secret to all, for without his encouragement no man could +have dared to risk himself in an undertaking the discovery of which +would have resulted in the punishment of a speedy death.</p> + +<p>How slowly did the black hours seem to her to pass! How anxiously did +she await the coming of dawn to mingle its bluish tints with the yellow +gleams of the almost exhausted lamp! It seemed to her that Apollo would +never mount his chariot again, and that some invisible hand was +sustaining the sand of the hour-glass in air. Though brief as any other, +that night seemed to her like the Cimmerian nights, six long months of +darkness.</p> + +<p>While it lasted she lay motionless and rigid at full length on the very +edge of her couch in dread of being touched by Candaules. If she had not +up to that night felt a very strong love for the son of Myrsus, she had, +at least, ever exhibited toward him that grave and serene tenderness +which every virtuous woman entertains for her husband, although the +altogether Greek freedom of his morals frequently displeased her, and +though he entertained ideas at variance with her own in regard to +modesty; but after such an affront she could only feel the chilliest +hatred and most icy contempt for him; she would have preferred even +death to one of his caresses. Such an outrage it was impossible to +forgive, for among the barbarians, and above all among the Persians and +Bactrians, it was held a great disgrace, not for women only, but even +for men, to be seen without their garments.</p> + +<p>At length Candaules arose, and Nyssia, awaking from her simulated sleep, +hurried from that chamber now profaned in her eyes as though it had +served for the nocturnal orgies of Bacchantes and courtesans. It was +agony for her to breathe that impure air any longer, and that she might +freely give herself up to her grief she took refuge in the upper +apartments reserved for the women, summoned her slaves by clapping her +hands, and poured ewers of water over her shoulders, her bosom, and her +whole body, as, though hoping by this species of lustral ablution to +efface the soil imprinted by the eyes of Gyges. She would have +voluntarily torn, as it were, from her body that skin upon which the +rays shot from a burning pupil seemed to have left their traces. Taking +from the hands of her waiting women the thick downy materials which +served to drink up the last pearls of the bath, she wiped herself with +such violence that a slight purple cloud rose to the spots she had +rubbed.</p> + +<p>"In vain," she exclaimed, letting the damp tissues fall, and dismissing +her attendants—"in vain would I pour over myself all the waters of all +the springs and the rivers; the ocean with all its bitter gulfs could +not purify me. Such a stain may be washed out only with blood. Oh, that +look, that look! It has incrusted itself upon me; it clasps me, covers +me, burns me like the tunic dipped in the blood of Nessus; I feel it +beneath my draperies, like an envenomed tissue which nothing can detach +from my body! Now, indeed, would I vainly pile garments upon garments, +select materials the least transparent, and the thickest of mantles. I +would none the less bear upon my naked flesh this infamous robe woven by +one adulterous and lascivious glance. Vainly, since the hour when I +issued from the chaste womb of my mother, have I been brought up in +private, enveloped like Isis, the Egyptian goddess, with a veil of which +none might have lifted the hem without paying for his audacity with his +life. In vain have I remained guarded from all evil desires, from all +profane imaginings, unknown of men, virgin as the snow on which the +eagle himself could not imprint the seal of his talons, so loftily does +the mountain which it covers lift its head in the pure and icy air. The +depraved caprice of a Lydian Greek has sufficed to make me lose in a +single instant, without any guilt of mine, all the fruit of long years +of precaution and reserve. Innocent and dishonored, hidden from all yet +made public to all ... this is the lot to which Candaules has condemned +me. Who can assure me that, at this very moment, Gyges is not in the act +of discoursing upon my charms with some soldiers at the very threshold +of the palace? Oh shame! Oh infamy! Two men have beheld me naked and yet +at this instant enjoy the sweet light of the sun! In what does Nyssia +now differ from the most shameless hetaira, from the vilest of +courtesans? This body which I have striven to render worthy of being the +habitation of a pure and noble soul, serves for a theme of conversation; +it is talked of like some lascivious idol brought from Sicyon or from +Corinth; it is commended or found fault with. The shoulder is perfect, +the arm is charming, perhaps a little thin—what know I? All the blood +of my heart leaps to my cheeks at such a thought. Oh beauty, fatal gift +of the gods! why am I not the wife of some poor mountain goatherd of +innocent and simple habits? He would not have suborned a goatherd like +himself at the threshold of his cabin to profane his humble happiness! +My lean figure, my unkempt hair, my complexion faded by the burning sun, +would then have saved me from so gross an insult, and my honest +homeliness would not have been compelled to blush. How shall I dare, +after the scene of this night, to pass before those men, proudly erect +under the folds of a tunic which has no longer aught to hide from either +of them. I should drop dead with shame upon the pavement. Candaules, +Candaules, I was at least entitled to more respect from you, and there +was nothing in my conduct which could have provoked such an outrage. Was +I one of those ones whose arms forever cling like ivy to their husbands' +necks, and who seem more like slaves bought with money for a master's +pleasure than free-born women of noble blood? Have I ever after a repast +sung amorous hymns accompanying myself upon the lyre, with wine-moist +lips, naked shoulders, and a wreath of roses about my hair, or given you +cause, by any immodest action, to treat me like a mistress whom one +shows after a banquet to his companions in debauch?"</p> + +<p>While Nyssia was thus buried in her grief, great tears overflowed from +her eyes like rain-drops from the azure chalice of a lotus-flower after +some storm, and rolling down her pale cheeks fell upon her fair forlorn +hands, languishingly open, like roses whose leaves are half-shed, for no +order came from the brain to give them activity. The attitude of Niobe, +beholding her fourteenth child succumb beneath the arrows of Apollo and +Diana, was not more sadly despairing, but soon starting from this state +of prostration, she rolled herself upon the floor, rent her garments, +covered her beautiful dishevelled hair with ashes, tore her bosom and +cheeks with her nails amid convulsive sobs, and abandoned herself to all +the excesses of Oriental grief, the more violently that she had been +forced so long to contain her indignation, shame, pangs of wounded +dignity, and all the agony that convulsed her soul, for the pride of her +whole life had been broken, and the idea that she had nothing wherewith +to reproach herself afforded her no consolation. As a poet has said, +only the innocent know remorse. She was repenting of the crime which +another had committed.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless she made an effort to recover herself, ordered the baskets +filled with wools of different colors, and the spindles wrapped with +flax to be brought to her, and distributed the work to her women as she +had been accustomed to do; but she thought she noticed that the slaves +looked at her in a very peculiar way, and had ceased to entertain the +same timid respect for her as before. Her voice no longer rang with the +same assurance; there was something humble and furtive in her demeanor; +she felt herself interiorly fallen.</p> + +<p>Doubtless her scruples were exaggerated, and her virtue had received no +stain from the folly of Candaules; but ideas imbibed with a mother's +milk obtain irresistible sway, and the modesty of the body is carried by +Oriental nations to an extent almost incomprehensible to Occidental +races. When a man desired to speak to Nyssia in the palace of Megabazus +at Bactria, he was obliged to do so keeping his eyes fixed upon the +ground, and two eunuchs stood beside him, poniard in hand, ready to +plunge their keen blades through his heart should he dare lift his head +to look at the princess, notwithstanding that her face was veiled. You +may readily conceive, therefore, how deadly an injury the action of +Candaules would seem to a woman thus brought up, while any other would +doubtless have considered it only a culpable frivolity. Thus the idea of +vengeance had instantly presented itself to Nyssia, and had given her +sufficient self-control to strangle the cry of her offended modesty ere +it reached her lips, at the moment when, turning her head, she beheld +the burning eyes of Gyges flaming through the darkness. She must have +possessed the courage of the warrior in ambush, who, wounded by a random +dart, utters no syllable of pain through fear of betraying himself +behind his shelter of foliage or river-reeds, and in silence permits his +blood to stripe his flesh with long red lines. Had she not withheld that +first impulse to cry aloud, Candaules, alarmed and forewarned, would +have kept upon his guard, which must have rendered it more difficult, if +not impossible, to carry out her purpose.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, as yet she had conceived no definite plan, but she had +resolved that the insult done to her honor should be fully expiated. At +first she had thought of killing Candaules herself while he slept, with +the sword hung at the bedside. But she recoiled from the thought of +dipping her beautiful hands in blood; she feared lest she might miss her +blow; and, with all her bitter anger, she hesitated at so violent and +unwomanly an act.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she appeared to have decided upon some project. She summoned +Statira, one of the waiting women who had come with her from Bactria, +and in whom she placed much confidence, and whispered a few words close +to her ear in a very low voice, although there were no other persons in +the room, as if she feared that even the walls might hear her.</p> + +<p>Statira bowed low, and immediately left the apartment.</p> + +<p>Like all persons who are actually menaced by some great peril, Candaules +presumed himself perfectly secure. He was certain that Gyges had stolen +away unperceived, and he thought only upon the delight of conversing +with him about the unrivalled attractions of his wife.</p> + +<p>So he caused him to be summoned, and conducted him to the Court of the +Heracleidæ.</p> + +<p>"Well, Gyges," he said to him with laughing mien, "I did not deceive you +when I assured you that you would not regret having passed a few hours +behind that blessed door. Am I right? Do you know of any living woman +more beautiful than the queen? If you know of any superior to her, tell +me so frankly, and go bear her in my name this string of pearls, the +symbol of power."</p> + +<p>"Sire," replied Gyges in a voice trembling with emotion, "no human +creature is worthy to compare with Nyssia. It is not the pearl fillet of +queens which should adorn her brows, but only the starry crown of the +immortals."</p> + +<p>"I well knew that your ice must melt at last in the fires of that sun. +Now can you comprehend my passion, my delirium, my mad desires? Is it +not true, Gyges, that the heart of a man is not great enough to contain +such a love? It must overflow and diffuse itself."</p> + +<p>A hot blush overspread the cheeks of Gyges, who now but too well +comprehended the admiration of Candaules.</p> + +<p>The king noticed it, and said, with a manner half smiling, half serious:</p> + +<p>"My poor friend, do not commit the folly of becoming enamoured of +Nyssia; you would lose your pains. It is a statue which I have enabled +you to see, not a woman. I have allowed you to read some stanzas of a +beautiful poem, whereof I alone possess the manuscript, merely for the +purpose of having your opinion; that is all."</p> + +<p>"You have no need, sire, to remind me of my nothingness. Sometimes the +humblest slave is visited in his slumbers by some radiant and lovely +vision, with ideal forms, nacreous flesh, ambrosial hair. I—I have +dreamed with open eyes; you are the god who sent me that dream."</p> + +<p>"Now," continued the king, "it will scarcely be necessary for me to +enjoin silence upon you. If you do not keep a seal upon your lips you +might learn to your cost that Nyssia is not as good as she is +beautiful."</p> + +<p>The king waved his hand in token of fare-well to his confidant, and +retired for the purpose of inspecting an antique bed sculptured by +Ikmalius, a celebrated artisan, which had been offered him for purchase.</p> + +<p>Candaules had scarcely disappeared when a woman, wrapped in a long +mantle so as to leave but one of her eyes exposed, after the fashion of +the barbarians, came forth from the shadow of a column behind which she +had kept herself hidden during the conversation of the king and his +favorite, walked straight to Gyges, placed her finger upon his shoulder, +and made a sign to him to follow her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3> + + +<p>Statira, followed by Gyges, paused before a little door, of which she +raised the latch by pulling a silver ring attached to a leathern strap, +and commenced to ascend a stairway with rather high steps contrived in +the thickness of the wall. At the head of the stairway was a second +door, which she opened with a key wrought of ivory and brass. As soon as +Gyges entered she disappeared without any further explanation in regard +to what was expected of him.</p> + +<p>The curiosity of Gyges was mingled with uneasiness. He could form no +idea as to the significance of this mysterious message. He had a vague +fancy that he could recognize in the silent Iris one of Nyssia's women; +and the way by which she had made him follow low her led to the queen's +apartments. He asked himself in terror whether he had been perceived in +his hiding-place or betrayed by Candaules, for both suppositions seemed +probable.</p> + +<p>At the idea that Nyssia knew all, he felt his face bedewed with a sweat +alternately burning and icy. He sought to fly, but the door had been +fastened upon him by Statira, and all escape was cut off; then he +advanced into the chamber, which was shadowed by heavy purple hangings, +and found himself face to face with Nyssia. He thought he beheld a +statue rise before him, such was her pallor. The hues of life had +abandoned her face; a feeble rose tint alone animated her lips; on her +tender temples a few almost imperceptible veins intercrossed their azure +network; tears had swollen her eyelids, and left shining furrows upon +the down of her cheeks; the chrysoprase tints of her eyes had lost their +intensity. She was even more beautiful and touching thus. Sorrow had +given soul to her marmorean beauty.</p> + +<p>Her disordered robe, scarcely fastened to her shoulders, left visible +her beautiful bare arms, her throat, and the commencement of her +death-white bosom. Like a warrior vanquished in his first conflict, her +beauty had laid down its arms. Of what use to her would have been the +draperies which conceal form, the tunics with their carefully fastened +folds? Did not Gyges know her? Wherefore defend what has been lost in +advance?</p> + +<p>She walked straight to Gyges, and fixing upon him an imperial look, +clear and commanding, said to him, in a quick, abrupt voice:</p> + +<p>"Do not lie; seek no vain subterfuges; have at least the dignity and +courage of your crime. I know all; I saw you! Not a word of excuse. I +would not listen to it. Candaules himself concealed you behind the door. +Is it not so the thing happened? And you fancy, doubtless, that it is +all over? Unhappily I am not a Greek woman, pliant to the whims of +artists and voluptuaries. Nyssia will not serve for any one's toy. There +are now two men, one of whom is a man too much upon the earth. He must +disappear from it! Unless he dies, I cannot live. It will be either you +or Candaules. I leave you master of the choice. Kill him, avenge me, +and win by that murder both my hand and the throne of Lydia, or else +shall a prompt death henceforth prevent you from beholding, through a +cowardly complaisance, what you have not the right to look upon. He who +commanded is more culpable than he who has only obeyed; and, moreover, +should you become my husband, no one will have ever seen me without +having the right to do so. But make your decision at once, for two of +those four eyes in which my nudity has reflected itself must before this +very evening be forever extinguished."</p> + +<p>This strange alternative, proposed with a terrible coolness, with an +immutable resolution, so utterly surprised Gyges, who was expecting +reproaches, menaces, and a violent scene, that he remained for several +minutes without color and without voice, livid as a shade on the shores +of the black rivers of hell.</p> + +<p>"I! to dip my hands in the blood of my master! Is it indeed you, O +Queen, who demand of me so great a penalty? I comprehend all your +anger, I feel it to be just, and it was not my fault that this outrage +took place; but you know that kings are mighty, they descend from a +divine race. Our destinies repose on their august knees; and it is not +we, feeble mortals, who may hesitate at their commands. Their will +overthrows our refusal, as a dyke is swept away by a torrent. By your +feet that I kiss, by the hem of your robe which I touch as a suppliant, +be clement! Forget this injury, which is known to none, and which shall +remain eternally buried in darkness and silence! Candaules worships you, +admires you, and his fault springs only from an excess of love.</p> + +<p>"Were you addressing a sphinx of granite in the arid sands of Egypt, you +would have more chance of melting her. The winged words might fly +uninterruptedly from your lips for a whole olympiad; you could not move +my resolution in the slightest. A heart of brass dwells in this marble +breast of mine. Die or kill! When the sunbeam which has passed through +the curtains shall touch the foot of this table let your choice have +been made. I wait."</p> + +<p>And Nyssia crossed her arms upon her breast in an attitude replete with +sombre majesty.</p> + +<p>To behold her standing erect, motionless and pale, her eyes fixed, her +brows contracted, her hair in disorder, her foot firmly placed upon the +pavement, one would have taken her for Nemesis descended from her +griffin, and awaiting the hour to smite a guilty one.</p> + +<p>"The shadowy depths of Hades are visited by none with pleasure," +answered Gyges. "It is sweet to enjoy the pure light of day; and the +heroes themselves who dwell in the Fortunate Isles would gladly return +to their native land. Each man has the instinct of self-preservation, +and since blood must flow, let it be rather from the veins of another +than from mine."</p> + +<p>To these sentiments, avowed by Gyges with antique frankness, were added +others more noble whereof he did not speak. He was desperately in love +with Nyssia and jealous of Candaules. It was not, therefore, the fear of +death alone that had induced him to undertake this bloody task. The +thought of leaving Candaules in free possession of Nyssia was +insupportable to him; and, moreover, the vertigo of fatality had seized +him. By a succession of irregular and terrible events he beheld himself +hurried toward the realization of his dreams; a mighty wave had lifted +him and borne him on in despite of his efforts; Nyssia herself was +extending her hand to him, to help him to ascend the steps of the royal +throne. All this had caused him to forget that Candaules was his master +and his benefactor; for none can flee from Fate, and Necessity walks on +with nails in one hand and whip in the other, to stop your advance or to +urge you forward.</p> + +<p>"It is well," replied Nyssia; "here is the means of execution." And she +drew from her bosom a Bactrian poniard, with a jade handle enriched with +inlaid circles of white gold. "This blade is not made of brass, but with +iron difficult to work, tempered in flame and water, so that Hephaistos +himself could not forge one more keenly pointed or finely edged. It +would pierce, like thin papyrus, metal cuirasses and bucklers of +dragon's skin.</p> + +<p>"The time," she continued with the same icy coolness, "shall be while he +slumbers. Let him sleep and wake no more!"</p> + +<p>Her accomplice, Gyges, hearkened to her words with stupefaction, for he +had never thought he could find such resolution in a woman who could not +bring herself to lift her veil.</p> + +<p>"The ambuscade shall be laid in the very same place where the infamous +one concealed you in order to expose me to your gaze. At the approach of +night I shall turn back one of the folding doors upon you, undress +myself, lie down, and when he shall be asleep I will give you a signal. +Above all things, let there be no hesitancy, no feebleness; and take +heed that your hand does not tremble when the moment shall have come! +And now, for fear lest you might change your mind, I propose to make +sure of your person until the fatal hour. You might attempt to escape, +to forewarn your master. Do not think to do so."</p> + +<p>Nyssia whistled in a peculiar way, and immediately from behind a Persian +tapestry embroidered with flowers, there appeared four monsters, +swarthy, clad in robes diagonally striped, which left visible arms +muscled and gnarled as trunks of oaks. Their thick pouting lips, the +gold rings which they wore through the partition of their nostrils, +their great teeth sharp as the fangs of wolves, the expression of stupid +servility on their faces, rendered them hideous to behold.</p> + +<p>The queen pronounced some words in a language unknown to Gyges, +doubtless in Bactrian, and the four slaves rushed upon the young man, +seized him, and carried him away, even as a nurse might carry off a +child in the fold of her robe.</p> + +<p>Now what were Nyssia's real thoughts? Had she, indeed, noticed Gyges at +the time of her meeting with him near Bactria, and preserved some memory +of the young captain in one of those secret recesses of the heart where +even the most virtuous women always have something buried? Was the +desire to avenge her modesty goaded by some other unacknowledged desire? +And if Gyges had not been the handsomest young man in all Asia would she +have evinced the same ardor in punishing Candaules for having outraged +the sanctity of marriage? That is a delicate question to resolve, +especially after a lapse of three thousand years; and although we have +consulted Herodotus, Hephæstion, Plato, Dositheus, Archilochus of +Paros, Hesychius of Miletus, Ptolomæus, Euphorion, and all who have +spoken either at length or in only a few words concerning Candaules, +Nyssia, and Gyges, we have been unable to arrive at any definite +conclusion. To pursue so fleeting a shadow through so many centuries, +under the ruins of so many crumbled empires, under the dust of departed +nations, is a work of extreme difficulty, not to say impossibility.</p> + +<p>At all events, Nyssia's resolution was implacably taken; this murder +appeared to her in the light of the accomplishment of a sacred duty. +Among the barbarian nations every man who has surprised a woman in her +nakedness is put to death. The queen believed herself exercising her +right; only inasmuch as the injury had been secret, she was doing +herself justice as best she could. The passive accomplice would become +the executioner of the other, and the punishment would thus spring from +the crime itself. The hand would chastise the head.</p> + +<p>The olive-tinted monsters shut Gyges up in an obscure portion of the +palace, whence it was impossible that he could escape, or that his cries +could be heard.</p> + +<p>He passed the remainder of the day there in a state of cruel anxiety, +accusing the hours of being lame, and again of walking too speedily. The +crime which he was about to commit, although he was only, in some sort, +the instrument of it, and though he was only yielding to an irresistible +influence, presented itself to his mind in the most sombre colors. If +the blow should miss through one of those circumstances which none could +foresee? If the people of Sardes should revolt and seek to avenge the +death of the king? Such were the very sensible though useless +reflections which Gyges made while waiting to be taken from his prison +and led to the place whence he could only depart to strike his master.</p> + +<p>At last the night unfolded her starry robe in the sky, and its shadow +fell upon the city and the palace. A light footstep became audible, +a veiled woman entered the room and conducted him through the obscure +corridors and multiplied mazes of the royal edifice with as much +confidence as though she had been preceded by a slave bearing a lamp or +a torch.</p> + +<p>The hand which held that of Gyges was cold, soft, and small; +nevertheless those slender fingers clasped it with a bruising force, as +the fingers of some statue of brass animated by a prodigy would have +done. The rigidity of an inflexible will betrayed itself in that +ever-equal pressure as of a vise—a pressure which no hesitation of +head or heart came to vary. Gyges, conquered, subjugated, crushed, +yielded to that imperious traction, as though he were borne along by the +mighty arm of Fate.</p> + +<p>Alas! it was not thus he had wished to touch for the first time that +fair royal hand, which had presented the poniard to him, and was leading +him to murder, for it was Nyssia herself who had come for Gyges, to +conceal him in the place of ambuscade.</p> + +<p>No word was exchanged between the sinister couple on the way from the +prison to the nuptial chamber.</p> + +<p>The queen unfastened the thongs, raised the bar of the entrance, and +placed Gyges behind the folding door as Candaules had done the evening +previous. This repetition of the same acts, with so different a purpose, +had something of a lugubrious and fatal character. Vengeance, this time, +had placed her foot upon every track left by the insult. The +chastisement and the crime alike followed the same path. Yesterday it +was the turn of Candaules, to-day it was that of Nyssia; and Gyges, +accomplice in the injury, was also accomplice in the penalty. He had +served the king to dishonor the queen; he would serve the queen to kill +the king, equally exposed by the vices of the one and the virtues of the +other.</p> + +<p>The daughter of Megabazus seemed to feel a savage joy, a ferocious +pleasure, in employing only the same means chosen by the Lydian king, +and turning to account for the murder those very precautions which had +been adopted for voluptuous fantasy.</p> + +<p>"You will again this evening see me take off these garments which are so +displeasing to Candaules. This spectacle should become wearisome to +you," said the queen in accents of bitter irony, as she stood on the +threshold of the chamber; "you will end by finding me ugly." And a +sardonic, forced laugh momentarily curled her pale mouth; then, +regaining her impassible severity of mien, she continued: "Do not +imagine you will be able to steal away this time as you did before; you +know my sight is piercing. At the slightest movement on your part I +shall awake Candaules; and you know that it will not be easy for you to +explain what you are doing in the king's apartments, behind a door, with +a poniard in your hand. Further, my Bactrian slaves, the copper-colored +mutes who imprisoned you a short time ago, guard all the issues of the +palace, with orders to massacre you should you attempt to go out. +Therefore let no vain scruples of fidelity cause you to hesitate. Think +that I will make you King of Sardes, and that ... I will love you if you +avenge me. The blood of Candaules will be your purple, and his death +will make for you a place in that bed."</p> + +<p>The slaves came according to their custom to change the fuel in the +tripod, renew the oil in the lamps, spread tapestry and the skins of +animals upon the royal couch; and Nyssia hurried into the chamber as +soon as she heard their footsteps resounding in the distance.</p> + +<p>In a short time Candaules arrived all joyous. He had purchased the bed +of Ikmalius and proposed to substitute it for the bed wrought after the +Oriental fashion, which he declared had never been much to his taste. He +seemed pleased to find that Nyssia had already retired to the nuptial +chamber.</p> + +<p>"The trade of embroidery, and spindles, and needles seems not to have +the same attraction for you to-day as usual. In fact, it is a monotonous +labor to perpetually pass one thread between other threads, and I wonder +at the pleasure which you seem ordinarily to take in it. To tell the +truth, I am afraid that some fine day Pallas-Athena, on finding you so +skilful, will break her shuttle over your head as she once did to poor +Arachne."</p> + +<p>"My lord, I felt somewhat tired this evening, and so came down-stairs +sooner than usual. Would you not like before going to sleep to drink a +cup of black Samian wine mixed with the honey of Hymettus?" And she +poured from a golden urn, into a cup of the same metal, the +sombre-colored beverage which she had mingled with the soporiferous +juice of the nepenthe.</p> + +<p>Candaules took the cup by both handles and drained it to the last drop; +but the young Heracleid had a strong head, and sinking his elbow into +the cushions of his couch he watched Nyssia undressing without any sign +that the dust of sleep was commencing to gather upon his eyes.</p> + +<p>As on the evening before, Nyssia unfastened her hair and permitted its +rich blonde waves to ripple over her shoulders. From his hiding-place +Gyges fancied that he saw those locks slowly becoming suffused with +tawny tints, illuminated with reflections of blood and flame; and their +heavy curls seemed to lengthen with viperine undulations, like the hair +of the Gorgons and Medusas.</p> + +<p>All simple and graceful as that action was in itself, it took from the +terrible events about to transpire a frightful and ominous character, +which caused the hidden assassin to shudder with terror.</p> + +<p>Nyssia then unfastened her bracelets, but, agitated as her hands had +been by nervous straining, they ill served her will. She broke the +string of a bracelet of beads of amber inlaid with gold, which rolled +over the floor with a loud noise, causing Candaules to reopen his +gradually closing eyes.</p> + +<p>Each one of those beads fell upon the heart of Gyges as a drop of molten +lead falls upon water.</p> + +<p>Having unlaced her buskins, the queen threw her upper tunic over the +back of an ivory chair. This drapery, thus arranged, produced upon Gyges +the effect of one of those sinister-folding winding sheets wherein the +dead were wrapped ere being borne to the funeral pyre. Every object in +that room, which had the evening before seemed to him one scene of +smiling splendor, now appeared to him livid, dim, and menacing. The +statues of basalt rolled their eyes and smiled hideously. The lamp +flickered weirdly, and its flame dishevelled itself in red and sanguine +rays like the crest of a comet. Far back in the dimly lighted corners +loomed the monstrous forms of the Lares and Lemures. The mantles hanging +from their hooks seemed animated by a factitious life, and assumed a +human aspect of vitality; and when Nyssia, stripped of her last garment, +approached the bed, all white and naked as a shade, he thought that +Death herself had broken the diamond fetters wherewith Hercules of old +enchained her at the gates of hell when he delivered Alcestes, and had +come in person to take possession of Candaules.</p> + +<p>Overcome by the power of the nepenthe-juice, the king at last slumbered. +Nyssia made a sign for Gyges to come forth from his retreat; and, laying +her finger upon the breast of the victim, she directed upon her +accomplice a look so humid, so lustrous, so weighty with languishment, +so replete with intoxicating promise, that Gyges, maddened and +fascinated, sprang from his hiding-place like the tiger from the summit +of the rock where it has been crouching, traversed the chamber at a +bound, and plunged the Bactrian poniard up to the very hilt in the +heart of the descendant of Hercules. The chastity of Nyssia was avenged, +and the dream of Gyges accomplished.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the dynasty of the Heracleidæ, after having endured for five +hundred and five years, and commenced that of the Mermnades in the +person of Gyges, son of Dascylus. The Sardians, indignant at the death +of Candaules, threatened revolt; but the oracle of Delphi having +declared in favor of Gyges, who had sent thither a vast number of silver +vases and six golden cratera of the value of thirty talents, the new +king maintained his seat on the throne of Lydia, which he occupied for +many long years, lived happily, and never showed his wife to any one, +knowing too well what it cost.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="ADDENDA" id="ADDENDA"></a>ADDENDA</h2> + +<p class="center">"ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHTS"</p> + +<p>A. There is no correct English plural of "necropolis"; the French word +<i>nécropole</i> is more normal. As the Greek plural could not be used very +euphoniously, and as I have tried throughout to render an exact English +equivalent for each French word whenever comprehensible, I beg +indulgence for the illegitimate plural "necropoli," used to signify more +than one necropolis, as an equivalent for the French <i>nécropoles</i>.</p> + +<p>B. In the opening scene of "One of Cleopatra's Nights," the reader may +be surprised at the expression "the <i>chuckling</i> of the crocodiles." Our +own southern alligators often make a little noise which could not be +better described—a low, guttural sound, bearing a sinister resemblance +to a human chuckle or subdued, sneering laugh. A Creole friend who has +lived much in those regions of Southern Louisiana intersected by bayous +and haunted by alligators, comprehended at once the whole force of the +term <i>rire étouffe</i> as applied to the sounds made by the crocodile. +"<i>Je l'ai entendu souvent</i>" he said, with a smile.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="center">"CLARIMONDE"</p> + +<p>The idea of love after death has been introduced by Gautier into several +beautiful creations, sometimes Hoffmanesquely, sometimes with an +exquisite sweetness peculiarly his own. Among his most touching poems +there is a fantastic—<i>Les Tâches Jaunes</i>—so remarkable that I cannot +refrain from offering a rude translation of it. Though transplanted even +by a master-hand into the richest soil of another language, such +poetical flora necessarily lose something of their strange color and +magical perfume. In this instance the translator, who is no poet, only +strives to convey the beautiful weirdness of the original idea:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With elbow buried in the downy pillow</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">I've lain and read,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">All through the night, a volume strangely written</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">In tongues long dead.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">For at my bedside lie no dainty slippers;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">And, save my own,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Under the paling lamp I hear no breathing:—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">I am alone!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">But there are yellow bruises on my body</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">And violet stains;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Though no white vampire came with lips blood-crimsoned</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">To suck my veins!</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Now I bethink me of a sweet weird story,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">That in the dark</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Our dead loves thus with seal of chilly kisses</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Our bodies mark.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Gliding beneath the coverings of our couches</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">They share our rest,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And with their dead lips sign their loving visit</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">On arm and breast.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Darksome and cold the bed where now she slumbers,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">I loved in vain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">With sweet soft eyelids closed, to be reopened</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Never again.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Dead sweetheart, can it be that thou hast lifted</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">With thy frail hand</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thy coffin-lid, to come to me again</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">From Shadowland?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Thou who, one joyous night, didst, pale and speechless,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Pass from us all,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Dropping thy silken mask and gift of flowers</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Amidst the ball?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Oh, fondest of my loves, from that far heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Where thou must be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Hast thou returned to pay the debt of kisses</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Thou owest me?</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="center">"ARRIA MARCELLA"</p> + +<p>Gautier doubtless obtained inspiration for this exquisite romance from +an old Greek ghost story, first related by Phlegon, the freedman of +Hadrian. Versions of it were current in the twelfth and sixteenth +centuries; and Goethe reproduced it in his "Bride of Corinth." We offer +a translation from the brief version of Michelet, who accuses Goethe of +bad taste for having introduced the Slavic idea of vampirism into a +purely Greek story.</p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> + +<p>A young Athenian goes to Corinth to visit the house of the man who has +promised him his daughter in marriage. He has always remained a pagan, +and does not know that the family into which he hopes to enter has been +converted to Christianity. He arrives at a very late hour. All are in +bed except the mother, who prepares a hospitable repast for him, and +then leaves him to repose. He throws himself upon a couch, overwhelmed +with fatigue. Scarcely has he closed his eyes, when a figure enters the +room; it is a girl, all clad in white, with a white veil; there is a +black-and-gold fillet about her brows. She beholds him. Astonishment! +Lifting her white hand, she exclaims:</p> + +<p>"Am I then such a stranger in the house? Alas! poor recluse that I am! +But I am ashamed to be here. I shall now depart. Repose in peace!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, remain, beautiful young girl! Behold! here are Ceres, Bacchus, +and, with thee, Love! Fear not! be not so pale!"</p> + +<p>"Ah! touch me not, young man! I belong no more to joy. Through a vow +made by my sick mother, my youth and life are fettered forever. The +gods have fled away. And now the only sacrifices are sacrifices of human +victims."</p> + +<p>"What! is it thou! thou, my beloved affianced, betrothed to me from +childhood! The oath of our fathers bound us together forever under the +benediction of heaven! Oh, virgin, be mine!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, friend, nay!—not I. Thou shalt have my young sister. If I sigh in +my chill prison, thou mayst, at least, while in her arms, think of me, +of me who pines and thinks only of thee, and whom the earth must soon +cover again."</p> + +<p>"Never! I swear it by this flame, it is the torch of Hymen. Thou shalt +come with me to my father's house. Remain, my well-beloved!"</p> + +<p>For marriage-gift he offers her a cup of gold. She gives him her chain; +but prefers a lock of his hair to the cup.</p> + +<p>It is the ghostly hour. She sips with her pale lips the dark wine that +is the color of blood. Eagerly he drinks after her. He invokes Love. +She, though her poor heart was dying for it, nevertheless resists him. +But he, in despair, casts himself upon the bed and weeps. Then she, +flinging herself down beside him, murmurs:</p> + +<p>"Ah! how much hurt thy pain causes me! Yet shouldst thou touch me—what +horror! White as snow, cold as ice, alas! is thy betrothed!"</p> + +<p>"I shall warm thee, love! come to me! even though thou hadst but this +moment left the tomb." Sighs and kisses are exchanged.... Love binds +and fetters them. Tears mingle with happiness. Thirstily she drinks the +fire of his lips; her long-congealed blood takes flame with amorous +madness, yet no heart beats in her breast.</p> + +<p>But the mother was there; listening. Sweet vows; cries of plaint and +pleasure. "Hush," says the bride; "I hear the cock crow! Farewell, till +to-morrow, after nightfall." Then adieu, and the sound of kisses +smothering kisses.</p> + +<p>Indignant, the mother enters. What does she behold! Her daughter! He +seeks to hide her—to veil her! But she disengages herself; and waxing +taller, towers from the couch to the roof.</p> + +<p>"O, mother, mother! dost thou then envy me my sweet night? dost thou +seek to drive me from this warm place? Was it not enough to have wrapped +me in the shroud, and borne me so early to the tomb! But there was a +power that lifted the stone! Vainly did thy priests hum above my grave. +What avail salt and water where youth burns? The earth may not chill +love.... Thou didst promise me to this youth.... I come to claim my +right.</p> + +<p>"Alack! friend, thou must die. Here thou must pine and wither away. I +possess thy hair; to-morrow it shall be white.... Mother, a last prayer! +Open my black dungeon; erect a funeral pyre; and let the sweetheart +obtain the repose that only flames can give. Let the sparks gush out, +let the ashes redden! We return to our ancient gods."—<i>La Sorcière</i>, +pages 32-34; edition of 1863.</p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<p class="caption"><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</p> +<p> +<a href="#TO_THE_READER">TO THE READER</a><br /> +<a href="#ONE_OF_CLEOPATRAS_NIGHTS">ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHTS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_Ia">CHAPTER I</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IIa">CHAPTER II</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IIIa">CHAPTER III</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IVa">CHAPTER IV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_Va">CHAPTER V</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIa">CHAPTER VI</a><br /> +<a href="#CLARIMONDE">CLARIMONDE</a><br /> +<a href="#ARRIA_MARCELLA">ARRIA MARCELLA</a><br /> +<a href="#THE_MUMMYS_FOOT">THE MUMMY'S FOOT</a><br /> +<a href="#OMPHALE_A_ROCOCO_STORY">OMPHALE: A ROCOCO STORY</a><br /> +<a href="#KING_CANDAULES">KING CANDAULES</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a><br /> +<a href="#ADDENDA">ADDENDA</a><br /> +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF CLEOPATRA’S NIGHTS AND OTHER FANTASTIC ROMANCES ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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