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diff --git a/5511-h/5511-h.htm b/5511-h/5511-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ef370c --- /dev/null +++ b/5511-h/5511-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2866 @@ +<!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 Arachne—Volume 04, by Georg Ebers</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Arachne—Volume 04, by Georg Ebers</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: Arachne<br/> + Volume 04</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Georg Ebers</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 1, 2004 [eBook #5511]<br /> +[Most recently updated: November 15, 2022]</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: David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE — VOLUME 04 ***</div> + +<p> +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file +for those who may wish to sample the author’s ideas before making an entire +meal of them. D.W.] +</p> + +<h1>Arachne</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">By Georg Ebers</h2> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>Volume 4.</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p> +Outside the door of the tent Hermon was trying to banish Althea’s image from +his mind. How foolishly he had overestimated last night the value of this +miserable actress, who as a woman had lost all charm for him—even as a model +for his Arachne! +</p> + +<p> +He would rather have appeared before his pure friend with unsightly stains on +his robe than while mastered by yearning for the Thracian. +</p> + +<p> +The first glance at Daphne’s beloved face, the first words of her greeting, +taught him that he should find with her everything for which he longed. +</p> + +<p> +In simple, truthful words she reproached him for having neglected her to the +verge of incivility the evening before, but there was no trace of bitterness or +resentment in the accusation, and she gave Hermon little time for apology, but +quickly gladdened him with words of forgiveness. +</p> + +<p> +In the opinion of her companion Chrysilla, Daphne ought to have kept the +capricious artist waiting much longer for pardon. True, the cautious woman took +no part in the conversation afterward, but she kept her charge in sight while +she was skilfully knotting the fringe into a cloth which she had woven herself. +On account of her favourite Philotas, it was well for Daphne to be aware that +she was watched. +</p> + +<p> +Chrysilla was acquainted with life, and knew that Eros never mingles more +arbitrarily in the intercourse of a young couple than when, after a long +separation, there is anything whatever to forgive. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, many words which the two exchanged escaped her hearing, for they +talked in low tones, and it was hot in the tent. Often the fatigue she felt +after the sleepless night bowed her head, still comely with its unwrinkled +face, though she was no longer young; then she quickly raised it again. +</p> + +<p> +Neither Daphne nor Hermon noticed her. The former at once perceived that +something was weighing on the sculptor’s mind, but he did not need any long +inquiry. He had come to confide his troubles to her, and she kindly lightened +the task for him by asking why he had not gone to breakfast with the +Pelusinians. +</p> + +<p> +“Because I am not fit for gay company today,” was the reply. +</p> + +<p> +“Again dissatisfied with Fate?” +</p> + +<p> +“True, it has given me small cause for contentment of late.” +</p> + +<p> +“Put in place of Fate the far-seeing care of the gods, and you will accept what +befalls you less unkindly.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let us stick to us mortals, I entreat you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then. Your Demeter does not fully satisfy you.” +</p> + +<p> +A discontented shrug of the shoulders was the reply. +</p> + +<p> +“Then work with twofold zeal upon the Arachne.” +</p> + +<p> +“Although one model I hoped to obtain forsook me, and my soul is estranged from +the other.” +</p> + +<p> +“Althea?” she asked eagerly, and he nodded assent. +</p> + +<p> +Daphne clapped her hands joyfully, exclaiming so loudly that Chrysilla’s head +sprang up with a jerk. “It could not help being so! O Hermon! how anxious I +have been! Now, I thought, when this horrible woman represented the +transformation into the spider with such repulsive accuracy, Hermon will +believe that this is the true, and therefore the right, ideal; nay, I was +deceived myself while gazing. But, eternal gods! as soon as I imagined this +Arachne in marble or chryselephantine work, what a painful feeling overpowered +me!” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course!” he replied in an irritated tone. “The thirst for beauty, to which +you all succumb, would not have much satisfaction to expect from this work.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, no!” Daphne interrupted in a louder tone than usual, and with the +earnest desire to convince him. “Precisely because I transported myself into +your tendency, your aspirations, I recognised the danger. O Hermon! what +produced so sinister an effect by the wavering light of the lamps and torches, +while the thunderstorm was rising—the strands of hair, the outspread fingers, +the bewildered, staring blue eyes—do you not feel yourself how artificial, how +unnatural it all was? This transformation was only a clever trick of acting, +nothing more. Before a quiet spectator, in the pure, truthful light of Apollo, +the foe of all deception, what would this Arachne probably become? Even now—I +have already said so—when I imagine her executed in marble or in gold and +ivory! Beauty? Who would expect to find in the active, constantly toiling +weaver, the mortal daughter of an industrious dyer in purple, the calm, +refreshing charm of divine women? I at least am neither foolish nor unjust +enough to do so. The degree of beauty Althea possesses would entirely satisfy +me for the Arachne. But when I imagine a plastic work faithful to the model of +yesterday evening—though I have seen a great deal with my own eyes, and am +always ready to defer to riper judgment—I would think, while looking at it: +This statue came to the artist from the stage, but never from Nature. Such +would be my view, and I am not one of the initiated. But the adepts! The King, +with his thorough connoisseurship and fine taste, my father, and the other +famous judges, how much more keenly they would perceive and define it!” +</p> + +<p> +Here she hesitated, for the blood had left Hermon’s cheeks, and she saw with +surprise the deep impression which the candid expression of her opinion had +produced upon the artist, usually so independent and disposed to contradiction. +Her judgment had undoubtedly disturbed, nay, perhaps convinced him; but at the +same time his features revealed such deep depression that, far from rejoicing +in so rare a success, she patted his arm like an affectionate sister, saying: +“You have not yet found time to realize calmly what yesterday dazzled us +all—and you,” she added in a lower tone, “the most strongly.” +</p> + +<p> +“But now,” he murmured sadly, half to himself, half to, her, “my vision is +doubly clear. Close before the success of which I dreamed failure and bitter +disappointment.” +</p> + +<p> +“If this ‘doubly’ refers to your completed work, and also to the Arachne,” +cried Daphne in the affectionate desire to soothe him, “a pleasant surprise +will perhaps soon await you, for Myrtilus judges your Demeter much more +favourably than you yourself do, and he also betrayed to me whom it resembles.” +</p> + +<p> +She blushed slightly as she spoke, and, as her companion’s gloomy face +brightened for a short time, went on eagerly: “And now for the Arachne. You +will and must succeed in what you so ardently strive to accomplish, a subject +so exactly adapted to your magnificent virile genius and so strangely suited to +the course which your art has once entered upon. And you can not fail to secure +the right model. You had not found it in Althea, no, certainly not! O Hermon! +if I could only make you see clearly how ill suited she, in whom everything is +false, is to you—your art, your only too powerful strength, your aspiration +after truth—” +</p> + +<p> +“You hate her,” he broke in here in a repellent tone; but Daphne dropped her +quiet composure, and her gray eyes, usually so gentle, flashed fiercely as she +exclaimed: “Yes, and again yes! From my inmost soul I do, and I rejoice in it. +I have long disliked her, but since yesterday I abhor her like the spider which +she can simulate, like snakes and toads, falsehood and vice.” +</p> + +<p> +Hermon had never seen his uncle’s peaceful daughter in this mood. The emotions +that rendered this kindly soul so unlike itself could only be the one powerful +couple, love and jealousy; and while gazing intently at her face, which in this +moment seemed to him as beautiful as Dallas Athene armed for battle, he +listened breathlessly as she continued: “Already the murderous spider had half +entangled you in her net. She drew you out into the tempest—our steward Gras +saw it—in order, while Zeus was raging, to deliver you to the wrath of the +other gods also and the contempt of all good men; for whoever yields himself to +her she destroys, sucks the marrow from his bones like the greedy harpies, and +all that is noble from his soul.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, Daphne,” interrupted Chrysilla, raising herself from her cushions in +alarm, “must I remind you of the moderation which distinguishes the Greeks from +the barbarians, and especially the Hellenic woman—” +</p> + +<p> +Here Daphne indignantly broke in: “Whoever practises moderation in the conflict +against vice has already gone halfway over to evil. She utterly ruined—how long +ago is it?—the unfortunate Menander, my poor Ismene’s young husband. You know +them both, Hermon. Here, of course, you scarcely heard how she lured him from +his wife and the lovely little girl who bears my name. She tempted the poor +fellow to her ship, only to cast him off at the end of a month for another. Now +he is at home again, but he thinks Ismene is the statue from the Temple of +Isis, which has gained life and speech; for he has lost his mind, and when I +saw him I felt as if I should die of horror and pity. Now she is coming home +with Proclus, and, as the way led through Pelusium, she attached herself to our +friends and forces herself in here with them. What does she care about her +elderly travelling companion? But you—yes, you, Hermon—are the next person whom +she means to capture. Just now, when my eyes closed But no! It is not only in +my dreams; the hideous gray threads which proceed from this greedy spider are +continually floating before me and dim the light.” Here she paused, for the +maid Stephanion announced the coming of visitors, and at the same time loud +voices were heard outside, and the merry party who had been attending the +breakfast given by the commandant of Pelusium entered the tent. +</p> + +<p> +Althea was among the guests, but she took little notice of Hermon. +</p> + +<p> +Proclus, her associate in Queen Arsinoe’s favour, was again asserting his +rights as her travelling companion, and she showed him plainly that the +attention which he paid her was acceptable. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile her eager, bright blue eyes were roving everywhere, and nothing that +was passing around her escaped her notice. +</p> + +<p> +As she greeted Daphne she perceived that her cheeks had flushed during her +conversation with Hermon. +</p> + +<p> +How reserved and embarrassed the sculptor’s manner was now to his uncle’s +daughter, whom only yesterday he had treated with as much freedom as though she +were his sister! What a bungler in dissimulation! how short- sighted was this +big, strong man and remarkable artist! He had carried her, Althea, in his arms +like a child for a whole quarter of an hour at the festival of Dionysus, and, +in spite of the sculptor’s keen eye, he did not recognise her again! +</p> + +<p> +What would not dyes and a change of manner accomplish! +</p> + +<p> +Or had the memory of those mad hours revived and caused his embarrassment? If +he should know that her companion, the Milesian Nanno, whom he had feasted with +her on oyster pasties at Canopus after she had given the slip to her handsome +young companion was Queen Arsinoe! Perhaps she would inform him of it some day +if he recognised her. +</p> + +<p> +Yet that could scarcely have happened. He had only been told what she betrayed +to him yesterday, and was now neglecting her for Daphne’s sake. That was +undoubtedly the way the matter stood. How the girl’s cheeks were glowing when +she entered! +</p> + +<p> +The obstacle that stood between her and Hermon was the daughter of Archias, and +she, fool that she was, had attracted Hermon’s attention to her. +</p> + +<p> +No matter! +</p> + +<p> +He would want her for the Arachne, and she needed only to stretch out her hand +to draw him to her again if she found no better amusement in Alexandria. Now +she would awaken his fears that the best of models would recall her favour. +Besides, it would not do to resume the pleasant game with him under the eyes of +Philippus and his wife, who was a follower of the manners of old times. The +right course now was to keep him until later. +</p> + +<p> +Standing at Proclus’s side, she took part gaily in the general conversation; +but when Myrtilus and Philemon had joined the others, and Daphne had consented +to go with Philippus and Thyone that evening, in order, after offering +sacrifice together to Selene, to sail for Pelusium, Althea requested the +grammateus to take her, into the open air. +</p> + +<p> +Before leaving the tent, however, she dropped her ostrich-feather fan as she +passed Hermon, and, when he picked it up, whispered with a significant glance +at Daphne, “I see that what was learned of her heart is turned to account +promptly enough.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, laughing gaily, she continued loudly enough to be heard by her companion +also: “Yesterday our young artist maintained that the Muse shunned abundance; +but the works of his wealthy friend Myrtilus contradicted him, and he changed +his view with the speed of lightning.” +</p> + +<p> +“Would that this swift alteration had concerned the direction of his art,” +replied Proclus in a tone audible to her alone. +</p> + +<p> +Both left the tent as he spoke, and Hermon uttered a sigh of relief as he +looked after them. She attributed the basest motives to him, and Daphne’s +opinion of her was scarcely too severe. +</p> + +<p> +He no longer needed to fear her power of attraction, though, now that he had +seen her again, he better understood the spell which she had exerted over him. +Every movement of her lithe figure had an exquisite grace, whose charm was +soothing to the artist’s eye. Only there was something piercing in her gaze +when it did not woo love, and, while making the base charge, her extremely thin +lips had showed her sharp teeth in a manner that reminded him of the way the +she-wolf among the King’s wild beasts in the Paneum gardens raised her lips +when any one went near her cage. +</p> + +<p> +Daphne was right. Ledscha would have been infinitely better as a model for the +Arachne. Everything in this proud creature was genuine and original, which was +certainly not the case with Althea. Besides, stern austerity was as much a part +of the Biamite as her hair and her hands, yet what ardent passion he had seen +glow in her eyes! The model so long sought in vain he had found in Ledscha, who +in so many respects resembled Arachne. Fool that he was to have yielded to a +swift and false ebullition of feeling! +</p> + +<p> +Since Myrtilus was again near him Hermon had devoted himself with fresh +eagerness to his artistic task, while a voice within cried more and more loudly +that the success of his new work depended entirely upon Ledscha. He must try to +regain her as a model for the Arachne! But while pondering over the “how,” he +felt a rare sense of pleasure when Daphne spoke to him or her glance met his. +</p> + +<p> +At first he had devoted himself eagerly to his father’s old friends, and +especially to Thyone, and had not found it quite easy to remain firm when, in +her frank, kindly, cordial manner, she tried to persuade him to accompany her +and the others to Pelusium. Yet he had succeeded in refusing the worthy +couple’s invitation. But when he saw Philotas, whose resemblance to the King, +his cousin, had just been mentioned by one of the officers, become more and +more eager in his attentions to Daphne, and heard him also invited by Philippus +to share the nocturnal voyage, he felt disturbed, and could not conceal from +himself that the uneasiness which constantly obtained a greater mastery over +him arose from the fear of losing his friend to the young aristocrat. +</p> + +<p> +This was jealousy, and where it flamed so hotly love could scarcely be absent. +Yet, had the shaft of Eros really struck him, how was it possible that the +longing to win Ledscha back stirred so strongly within him that he finally +reached a resolution concerning her? +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the guests left Tennis he would approach the Biamite again. He had +already whispered this intention to Myrtilus, when he heard Daphne’s companion +say to Thyone, “Philotas will accompany us, and on this voyage they will plight +their troth if Aphrodite’s powerful son accepts my sacrifice.” +</p> + +<p> +He involuntarily looked at the pair who were intended for each other, and saw +Daphne lower her eyes, blushing, at a whisper from the young Macedonian. +</p> + +<p> +His blood also crimsoned his cheeks, and when, soon after, he asked his friend +whether she cared for his companionship, and Daphne assented in the most eager +way, he said that he would share the voyage to Pelusium. Daphne’s eyes had +never yet beamed upon him so gladly and graciously. Althea was right. She must +love him, and it seemed as if this conviction awoke a new star of happiness in +his troubled soul. +</p> + +<p> +If Philotas imagined that he could pluck the daughter of Archias like a ripe +fruit from a tree, he would find himself mistaken. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon did not yet exactly understand himself, only he felt certain that it +would be impossible to surrender Daphne to another, and that for her sake he +would give up twenty Ledschas, though he cherished infinitely great +expectations from the Biamite for his art, which hitherto had been more to him +than all else. +</p> + +<p> +Everything that he still had to do in Tennis he could intrust to his +conscientious Bias, to Myrtilus, and his slaves. +</p> + +<p> +If he returned to the city of weavers, he would earnestly endeavour to palliate +the offence which he had inflicted on Ledscha, and, if possible, obtain her +forgiveness. Only one thing detained him—anxiety about his friend, who +positively refused to share the night voyage. +</p> + +<p> +He had promised his uncle Archias to care for him like a brother, and his own +kind heart bade him stay with Myrtilus, and not leave him to the nursing of his +very skilful but utterly unreliable body-servant, after the last night had +proved to what severe attacks of his disease he was still liable. +</p> + +<p> +Myrtilus, however, earnestly entreated him not to deprive himself on his +account of a pleasure which he would gladly have shared. There was plenty of +time to pack the statues. As for himself, nothing would do him more good just +now than complete rest in his beloved solitude, which, as Hermon knew, was more +welcome to him than the gayest society. Nothing was to be feared for him now. +The thunderstorm had purified the air, and another one was not to be expected +soon in this dry region. He had always been well here in sunny weather. Storms, +which were especially harmful to him, never came at this season of the year. +</p> + +<p> +Myrtilus secretly thought that Hermon’s departure would be desirable, because +the slave Bias had confided to him what dangers threatened his friend from the +incensed Biamite husbands. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, Myrtilus turned to the others and begged them not to let Hermon leave +Pelusium quickly. +</p> + +<p> +When, at parting, he was alone with him, he embraced him and said more tenderly +than usual: “You know how easy it will be for me to depart from life; but it +would be easier still if I could leave you behind without anxiety, and that +would happen if the hymeneal hymns at your marriage to Daphne preceded the +dirges which will soon resound above my coffin. Yesterday I first became sure +that she loves you, and, much good as you have in your nature, you owe the best +to her.” +</p> + +<p> +Hermon clasped him in his arms with passionate affection, and after confessing +that he, too, felt drawn with the utmost power toward Daphne, and urging him to +anticipate complete recovery instead of an early death, he held out his hand to +his friend; but Myrtilus clasped it a long time in his own, saying earnestly: +“Only this one frank warning: An Arachne like the model which Althea presented +yesterday evening would deal the past of your art a blow in the face. No one at +Rhodes—and this is just what I prize in you—hated imitation more, yet what +would using the Arachne on the pedestal for a model be except showing the world +not how Hermon, but how Althea imagines the hapless transformed mortal? Even if +Ledscha withdraws from you, hold fast to her image. It will live on in your +soul. Recall it there, free it from whatever is superfluous, supply whatever it +lacks, animate it with the idea of the tireless artist, the mocking, defiant +mortal woman who ended her life as the weaver of weavers in the insect world, +as you have so often vividly described her to me. Then, my dear fellow, you +will remain loyal to yourself, and therefore also to the higher truth, toward +which every one of us who labours earnestly strives, and, myself included, +there is no one who wields hammer and chisel in Greece who could contest the +prize with you.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p> +When the sun was approaching the western horizon the travellers started. +</p> + +<p> +Light mists veiled the radiant right eye of the goddess of heaven. The blood of +the contending spirits of light and darkness, which usually dyed the west of +Egypt crimson at the departure of the great sun god, to-day vanished from +sight. +</p> + +<p> +The sultry air was damp and oppressive, and experienced old Philippus, who had +commanded a fleet of considerable size under the first Ptolemies, agreed with +the captain of the vessel, who pointed to several small dark clouds under the +silvery stratus, and expressed the fear that Selene would hardly illumine the +ship’s course during the coming night. +</p> + +<p> +But before the departure the travellers had offered sacrifices to the foam-born +Cyprian Aphrodite and the Dioscuri, the protectors of mariners, and the +conversation took the gayest turn. +</p> + +<p> +In the harbour of the neighbouring seaport Tanis they went aboard of the +commandant’s state galley, one of the largest and finest in the royal fleet, +where a banquet awaited them. +</p> + +<p> +Cushions were arranged on the high poop, and the sea was as smooth as the +silver dishes in which viands were offered to the guests. +</p> + +<p> +True, not a breath stirred the still, sultry air, but the three long double +ranks of rowers in the hold of the ship provided for her swift progress, and if +no contrary wind sprang up she would run into the harbour of Pelusium before +the last goblet was emptied. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after the departure it seemed as if the captain of the little vessel had +erred in his prediction, for the moon burst victoriously through the black +clouds, only its shining orb was surrounded by a dull, glimmering halo. +</p> + +<p> +Doubtless many a guest longed for a cool breeze, but when the mixed wine had +moistened the parched tongues the talk gained fresh animation. +</p> + +<p> +Every one did his or her part, for the point in question was to induce +Philippus and his wife to visit Alexandria again and spend some time there as +beloved guests with Daphne in her father’s house or in the palace of Philotas, +who jestingly, yet with many reasons, contested the honour with the absent +Archias. +</p> + +<p> +The old warrior had remained away from the capital for several years; he alone +knew why. Now the act which had incensed him and the offence inflicted upon him +were forgotten, and, having passed seventy four years, he intended to ask the +commander in chief once more for the retirement from the army which the monarch +had several times refused, in order, as a free man, to seek again the city +which in his present position he had so long avoided. +</p> + +<p> +Thyone, it is true, thought that her husband’s youthful vigour rendered this +step premature, but the visit to Alexandria harmonized with her own wishes. +</p> + +<p> +Proclus eagerly sided with her. “To him,” said the man of manifold knowledge, +who as high priest of Apollo was fond of speaking in an instructive tone, +“experience showed that men like Philippus, who solely on account of the number +of their years withdrew their services from the state, felt unhappy, and, like +the unused ploughshare, became prematurely rusty. What they lacked, and what +Philippus would also miss, was not merely the occupation, which might easily be +supplied by another, but still more the habit of command. One who had had +thousands subject to his will was readily overcome by the feeling that he was +going down hill, when only a few dozen of his own slaves and his wife obeyed +him.” +</p> + +<p> +This word aroused the mirth of old Philippus, who praised all the good +qualities of Macedonian wives except that of obedience, while Thyone protested +that during her more than forty years of married life her husband had become so +much accustomed to her complete submission than he no longer noticed it. If +Philippus should command her to-morrow to leave their comfortable palace in +Pelusium to accompany him to Alexandria, where they possessed no home of their +own, he would see how willingly she obeyed him. +</p> + +<p> +While speaking, her bright, clear eyes, which seemed to float in the deep +hollows sunk by age, sparkled so merrily in her wrinkled face that Philippus +shook his finger gaily at her and showed plainly how much pleasure the jest of +the old companion of his wanderings gave him. +</p> + +<p> +Yet he insisted upon his purpose of not entering Alexandria again until he had +resigned his office, and to do this at present was impossible, since he was +bound just now, as if with chains, to the important frontier fortress. Besides, +there had probably been little change in the capital since the death of his +beloved old companion in arms and master, the late King. +</p> + +<p> +This assertion evoked a storm of contradiction, and even the younger officers, +who usually imposed severe restraint upon themselves in the general’s presence, +raised their voices to prove that they, too, had looked around the flourishing +capital with open eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Yet it was not six decades since Philippus, then a lad of seventeen, had been +present at its foundation. +</p> + +<p> +His father, who had commanded as hipparch a division of cavalry in the army of +Alexander the Great, had sent for the sturdy youth just at that time to come to +Egypt, that he might enter the army. The conqueror of the world had himself +assigned him, as a young Macedonian of good family, to the corps of the +Hetairoi; and how the vigorous old man’s eyes sparkled as, with youthful +enthusiasm, he spoke of the divine vanquisher of the world who had at that time +condescended to address him, gazed at him keenly yet encouragingly with his +all-discerning but kindly blue eyes, and extended his hand to him! +</p> + +<p> +“That,” he cried, “made this rough right hand precious to me. Often when, in +Asia, in scorching India, and later here also, wounded or exhausted, it was +ready to refuse its service, a spirit voice within cried, ‘Do not forget that +he touched it’; and then, as if I had drunk the noble wine of Byblus, a fiery +stream flowed from my heart into the paralyzed hand, and, as though animated +with new life, I used it again and kept it worthy of his touch. To have seen a +darling of the gods like him, young men, makes us greater. It teaches us how +even we human beings are permitted to resemble the immortals. Now he is +transported among the gods, and the Olympians received him, if any one, gladly. +Whoever shared the deeds of such a hero takes a small portion of his renown +with him through life and into the grave, and whom he touched, as befell me, +feels himself consecrated, and whatever is petty and base flows away from him +like water from the anointed body of the wrestler. Therefore I consider myself +fortunate above thousands of others, and if there is anything which still +tempts me to go to Alexandria, it is the desire to touch his dead body once +more. To do that before I die is my most ardent desire.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then gratify it!” cried Thyone with urgent impatience; but Proclus turned to +the matron, and, after exchanging a hasty glance with Althea, said: “You +probably know, my venerable friend, that Queen Arsinoe, who most deeply honours +your illustrious husband, had already arranged to have him summoned to the +capital as priest of Alexander. True, in this position he would have had the +burden of disposing of all the revenues from the temples throughout Egypt; but, +on the other hand, he would always have his master’s mortal remains near and be +permitted to be their guardian. What influences baffled the Queen’s wish +certainly have not remained hidden from you here.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are mistaken,” replied Philippus gravely. “Not the least whisper of this +matter reached my ears, and it is fortunate.” +</p> + +<p> +“Impossible!” Althea eagerly interrupted; “nothing else was talked of for weeks +in the royal palace. Queen Arsinoe—you might be jealous, Lady Thyone—has been +fairly in love with your hero ever since her last stay in your house on her way +home from Thrace, and she has not yet given up her desire to see him in the +capital as priest of Alexander. It seems to her just and fair that the old +companion of the greatest of the great should have the highest place, next to +her husband’s, in the city whose foundation he witnessed. Arsinoe speaks of you +also with all the affection natural to her feeling heart.” +</p> + +<p> +“This is as flattering as it is surprising,” replied Thyone. “The attention we +showed her in Pelusium was nothing more than we owed to the wife of the +sovereign. But the court is not the principal attraction that draws me to the +capital. It would make Philippus happy—you have just heard him say so—to +remember his old master beside the tomb of Alexander.” +</p> + +<p> +“And,” added Daphne, “how amazed you will be when you see the present form of +the ‘Soma’, in which rests the golden coffin with the body of the divine hero +whom the fortunate Philippus aided to conquer the world!” +</p> + +<p> +“You are jesting,” interrupted the old warrior. “I aided him only as the drops +in the stream help to turn the wheel of the mill. As to his body, true, I +marched at the head of the procession which bore it to Memphis and thence to +Alexandria. In the Soma I was permitted to think of him with devout reverence, +and meantime I felt as if I had again seen him with these eyes—exactly as he +looked in the Egyptian fishing village of Rhacotis, which he transformed into +your magnificent Alexandria. What a youth he was! Even what would have been a +defect in others became a beauty in him. The powerful neck which supported his +divine head was a little crooked; but what grace it lent him when he turned +kindly to any one! One scarcely noticed it, and yet it was like the bend of a +petitioner, and gave the wish which he expressed resistless power. When he +stood erect, the sharpest eye could not detect it. Would that he could appear +before me thus once more! Besides, the buildings which surrounded the golden +coffin were nearly completed at the time of our departure.” +</p> + +<p> +“But the statues, reliefs, and mosaic work were lacking,” said Hermon. “They +were executed by Lysippus, Euphranor, and others of our greatest artists; the +paintings by Apelles himself, Antiphilus, and Nicias. Only those who had won +renown were permitted to take part in this work, and the Ares rushing to +battle, created by our Myrtilus, can be seen among the others. The tomb of +Alexander was not entirely completed until three years ago.” +</p> + +<p> +“At the same time as the Paneum,” added Philotas, completing the sentence; and +Althea, waving her beaker toward the old hero, remarked: “When you have your +quarters in the royal palace with your crowned admirer, Arsinoe—which, I hope, +will be very soon—I will be your guide.” +</p> + +<p> +“That office is already bestowed on me by the Lady Thyone,” Daphne quietly +replied. +</p> + +<p> +“And you think that, in this case, obedience is the husband’s duty?” cried the +other, with a sneering laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“It would only be the confirmation of a wise choice,” replied Philippus, who +disliked the Thracian’s fawning manner. +</p> + +<p> +Thyone, too, did not favour her, and had glanced indignantly at her when Althea +made her rude remark. Now she turned to Daphne, and her plain face regained its +pleasant expression as she exclaimed: “We really promised your father to let +him show us the way, child; but, unfortunately, we are not yet in Alexandria +and the Paneum.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you would set out to-morrow,” Hermon protested, “if we could succeed in +fitly describing what now awaits you there. There is only one Alexandria, and +no city in the world can offer a more beautiful scene than is visible from the +mountain in the Paneum gardens.” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not,” protested the young hipparch, who had studied in Athens. “I +stood on the Acropolis; I was permitted to visit Rhodes and Miletus—” +</p> + +<p> +“And you saw nothing more beautiful there,” cried Proclus. “The aristocratic +Roman envoys, who left us a short time ago, admitted the same thing. They are +just men, for the view from the Capitol of their growing city is also to be +seen. When the King’s command led me to the Tiber, many things surprised me; +but, as a whole, how shall I compare the two cities? The older Rome, with her +admirable military power: a barbarian who is just beginning to cultivate more +refined manners—Alexandria: a rich, aristocratic Hellene who, like you, my +young friend, completed her education in Ilissus, and unites to the elegant +taste and intellect of the Athenian the mysterious thoughtfulness of the +Egyptian, the tireless industry of the Jew, and the many-sided wisdom and +brilliant magnificence of the other Oriental countries.” +</p> + +<p> +“But who disdains to dazzle the eyes with Asiatic splendour,” interrupted +Philotas. +</p> + +<p> +“And yet what do we not hear about the unprecedented luxury in the royal +palace!” growled the gray-haired warrior. +</p> + +<p> +“Parsimony—the gods be praised!—no one need expect from our royal pair,” Althea +broke in; “but King Ptolemy uses his paternal wealth for very different +purposes than glittering gems and golden chambers. If you disdain my guidance, +honoured hero, at least accept that of some genuine Alexandrian. Then you will +understand Proclus’s apt simile. You ought to begin with the royal palaces in +the Brucheium.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no-with the harbour of Eunostus!” interrupted the grammateus. +</p> + +<p> +“With the Soma!” cried the young hipparch, while Daphne wished to have the tour +begin in the Paneum gardens. +</p> + +<p> +“They were already laid out when we left Alexandria,” said Thyone. +</p> + +<p> +“And they have grown marvellously, as if creative Nature had doubled her powers +in their behalf,” Hermon added eagerly. “But man has also wrought amazing +miracles here. Industrious hands reared an actual mountain. A winding path +leads to the top, and when you stand upon the summit and look northward you at +first feel like the sailor who steps on shore and hears the people speak a +language which is new to him. It seems like a jumble of meaningless sounds +until he learns, not only to understand the words, but also to distinguish the +sentences. Temples and palaces, statues and columns appear everywhere in motley +confusion. Each one, if you separate it from the whole and give it a careful +examination, is worthy of inspection, nay, of admiration. Here are light, +graceful creations of Hellenic, yonder heavy, sombre ones of Egyptian art, and +in the background the exquisite azure of the eternal sea, which the marvellous +structure of the heptastadium unites to the land; while on the island of Pharos +the lighthouse of Sostratus towers aloft almost to the sky, and with a flood of +light points out the way to mariners who approach the great harbour at night. +Countless vessels are also at anchor in the Eunostus. The riches of the whole +earth flow into both havens. And the life and movement there and in the inland +harbour on Lake Mareotis, where the Nile boats land! From early until late, +what a busy throng, what an abundance of wares—and how many of the most +valuable goods are made in our own city! for whatever useful, fine, and costly +articles industrial art produces are manufactured here. The roof has not yet +been put on many a factory in which busy workers are already making beautiful +things. Here the weaver’s shuttle flies, yonder gold is spun around slender +threads of sheep guts, elsewhere costly materials are embroidered by women’s +nimble fingers with the prepared gold thread. There glass is blown, or weapons +and iron utensils are forged. Finely polished knives split the pith of the +papyrus, and long rows of workmen and workwomen gum the strips together. No +hand, no head is permitted to rest. In the Museum the brains of the great +thinkers and investigators are toiling. Here, too, reality asserts its rights. +The time for chimeras and wretched polemics is over. Now it is observing, +fathoming, turning to account, nothing more!” +</p> + +<p> +“Gently, my young friend,” Proclus interrupted the artist. “I know that you, +too, sat at the feet of some of the philosophers in the Museum, and still +uphold the teachings of Straton, which your fellow-pupil, King Ptolemy, outgrew +long ago. Yet he, also, recognised in philosophy, first of all, the bond which +unites the widely sundered acquisitions of the intellect, the vital breath +which pervades them, the touchstone which proves each true or false. If the +praise of Alexandria is to be sung, we must not forget the library to which the +most precious treasures of knowledge of the East and West are flowing, and +which feeds those who thirst for knowledge with the intellectual gains of +former ages and other nations. Honour, too, to our King, and, that I may be +just, to his illustrious wife; for wherever in the Grecian world a friend of +the Muses appears, whether he is investigator, poet, architect, sculptor, +artist, actor, or singer, he is drawn to Alexandria, and, that he may not be +idle, work is provided. Palaces spring from the earth quickly enough.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet not like mushrooms,” Hermon interrupted, “but as the noblest, most +carefully executed creations of art-sculpture and painting provide for their +decoration both without and within.” +</p> + +<p> +“And,” Proclus went on, “abodes are erected for the gods as well as for men, +both Egyptian and Hellenic divinities, each in their own style, and so +beautiful that it must be a pleasure for them to dwell under the new roof.” +</p> + +<p> +“Go to the gardens of the Paneum, friends!” cried young Philotas; and Hermon, +nodding to Thyone, added gaily: “Then you must climb the mountain and keep your +eyes open while you are ascending the winding path. You will find enough to do +to look at all the new sights. You will stand there with dry feet, but your +soul will bathe in eternal, imperishable, divine beauty.” +</p> + +<p> +“The foe of beauty!” exclaimed Proclus, pointing to the sculptor with a +scornful glance; but Daphne, full of joyous emotion, whispered to Hermon as he +approached her: “Eternal, divine beauty! To hear it thus praised by you makes +me happy.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” cried the artist, “what else should I call what has so often filled me +with the deepest rapture? The Greek language has no more fitting expression for +the grand and lofty things that hovered before me, and which I called by that +chameleon of a word. Yet I have a different meaning from what appears before +you at its sound. Were I to call it truth, you would scarcely understand me, +but when I conjure before my soul the image of Alexandria, with all that +springs from it, all that is moving, creating, and thriving with such +marvellous freedom, naturalness, and variety within it, it is not alone the +beauty that pleases the eye which delights me; I value more the sound natural +growth, the genuine, abundant life. To truth, Daphne, as I mean it.” +</p> + +<p> +He raised his goblet as he spoke and drank to her. +</p> + +<p> +She willingly pledged him, but, after removing her lips from the cup, she +eagerly exclaimed: “Show it to us, with the mind which animates it, in perfect +form, and I should not know wherein it was to be distinguished from the beauty +which hitherto has been our highest goal.” +</p> + +<p> +Here the helmsman’s loud shout, “The light of Pelusium!” interrupted the +conversation. The bright glare from the lighthouse of this city was really +piercing the misty night air, which for some time had again concealed the moon. +</p> + +<p> +There was no further connected conversation, for the sea was now rising and +falling in broad, leaden, almost imperceptible waves. The comfort of most of +Philippus’s guests was destroyed, and the ladies uttered a sigh of relief when +they had descended from the lofty galley and the boats that conveyed them +ashore, and their feet once more pressed the solid land. The party of +travellers went to the commandant’s magnificent palace to rest, and Hermon also +retired to his room, but sleep fled from his couch. +</p> + +<p> +No one on earth was nearer to his heart and mind than Daphne, and it often +seemed as if her kind, loyal, yet firm look was resting upon him; but the +memory of Ledscha also constantly forced itself upon his mind and stirred his +blood. When he thought of the menacing fire of her dark eyes, she seemed to him +as terrible as one of the unlovely creatures born of Night, the Erinyes, Apate, +and Eris. +</p> + +<p> +Then he could not help recalling their meetings in the grove of Astarte, her +self-forgetting, passionate tenderness, and the wonderfully delicate beauty of +her foreign type. True, she had never laughed in his presence; but what a +peculiar charm there was in her smile! Had he really lost her entirely and +forever? Would it not yet be possible to obtain her forgiveness and persuade +her to pose as the model of his Arachne? +</p> + +<p> +During the voyage to Pelusium he had caught Althea’s eye again and again, and +rejected as an insult her demand to give her his whole love. The success of the +Arachne depended upon Ledscha, and on her alone. He had nothing good to expect +from the Demeter, and during the nocturnal meditation, which shows everything +in the darkest colours, his best plan seemed to be to destroy the unsuccessful +statue and not exhibit it for the verdict of the judges. +</p> + +<p> +But if he went to work again in Tennis to model the Arachne, did not love for +Daphne forbid him to sue afresh for Ledscha’s favour? +</p> + +<p> +What a terrible conflict of feelings! +</p> + +<p> +But perhaps all this might gain a more satisfactory aspect by daylight. Now he +felt as though he had entangled himself in a snare. Besides, other thoughts +drove sleep from his couch. +</p> + +<p> +The window spaces were closed by wooden shutters, and whenever they moved with +a low creaking or louder banging Hermon started and forgot everything else in +anxiety about his invalid friend, whose suffering every strong wind brought on +again, and often seriously increased. +</p> + +<p> +Three times he sprang up from the soft wool, covered with linen sheets, and +looked out to convince himself that no storm had risen. But, though masses of +black clouds concealed the moon and stars, and the sea beat heavily against the +solid walls of the harbour, as yet only a sultry breeze of no great strength +blew on his head as he thrust it into the night air. +</p> + +<p> +This weather could scarcely be dangerous to Myrtilus, yet when the morning +relieved him from the torturing anxiety which he had found under his host’s +roof instead of rest and sleep, gray and black clouds were sweeping as swiftly +over the port and the ramparts beside him as if they were already driven by a +tempest, and warm raindrops besprinkled his face. +</p> + +<p> +He went, full of anxiety, to take his bath, and, while committing the care of +the adornment of his outer man to one of the household slaves, he determined +that unless—as often happened in this country—the sun gained the victory over +the clouds, he would return to Tennis and join Myrtilus. +</p> + +<p> +In the hall of the men he met the rest of the old hero’s guests. +</p> + +<p> +They received him pleasantly enough, Althea alone barely noticed his greeting; +she seemed to suspect in what way he thought of her. +</p> + +<p> +Thyone and Daphne extended their hands to him all the more cordially. +</p> + +<p> +Philippus did not appear until after breakfast. He had been detained by +important despatches from Alexandria, and by questions and communications from +Proclus. The latter desired to ascertain whether the influential warrior who +commanded the most important fortress in the country could be persuaded to join +a conspiracy formed by Arsinoe against her royal husband, but he seemed to have +left Philippus with very faint hopes. +</p> + +<p> +Subordinate officers and messengers also frequently claimed the commandant’s +attention. When the market place was filling, however, the sturdy old soldier +kindly fulfilled his duties as host by offering to show his guests the sights +of the fortified seaport. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon also accompanied him at Daphne’s side, but he made it easy for Philotas +to engross her attention; for, though the immense thickness of the walls and +the arrangement of the wooden towers which, crowned with battlements, rose at +long intervals, seemed to him also well worth seeing, he gave them only partial +attention. +</p> + +<p> +While Philippus was showing the guests how safely the archers and slingers +could be concealed behind the walls and battlements and discharge their +missiles, and explaining the purpose of the great catapults on the outermost +dike washed by the sea, the artist was listening to the ever-increasing roar of +the waves which poured into the harbour from the open sea, to their loud +dashing against the strong mole, to the shrill scream of the sea gulls, the +flapping of the sails, which were being taken in everywhere—in short, to all +the sounds occasioned by the rising violence of the wind. +</p> + +<p> +There were not a few war ships in the port and among them perfect giants of +amazing size and unusual construction, but Hermon had already seen many similar +ones. +</p> + +<p> +When, shortly after noon, the sun for a few brief moments pierced with +scorching rays the dark curtain that shrouded it from sight, and then suddenly +dense masses of clouds, driven from the sea by the tempest, covered the day +star, his eyes and cars were engrossed entirely by the uproar of the elements. +</p> + +<p> +The air darkened as if night was falling at this noontide hour, and with savage +fury the foaming mountain waves rushed like mad wild beasts in fierce assault +upon the mole, the walls, and the dikes of the fortified port. +</p> + +<p> +“Home!” cried Thyone, and again entered the litter which she had left to +inspect the new catapults. +</p> + +<p> +Althea, trembling, drew her peplos together as the storm swept her light figure +before it, and, shrieking, struggled against the black slaves who tried to lift +her upon the war elephant which had borne her here. +</p> + +<p> +Philotas gave his arm to Daphne. Hermon had ceased to notice her; he had just +gone to his gray-haired host with the entreaty that he would give him a ship +for the voyage to Tennis, where Myrtilus would need his assistance. +</p> + +<p> +“It is impossible in such weather,” was the reply. +</p> + +<p> +“Then I will ride!” cried Hermon resolutely, and Philippus scanned the son of +his old friend and companion in arms with an expression of quiet satisfaction +in his eyes, still sparkling brightly, and answered quickly, “You shall have +two horses, my boy, and a guide who knows the road besides.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, turning swiftly to one of the officers who accompanied him, he ordered +him to provide what was necessary. +</p> + +<p> +When, soon after, in the impluvium, the tempest tore the velarium that covered +the open space from its rings, and the ladies endeavoured to detain Hermon, +Philippus silenced them with the remark: +</p> + +<p> +“A disagreeable ride is before him, but what urges him on is pleasing to the +gods. I have just ventured to send out a carrier dove,” he added, turning to +the artist, “to inform Myrtilus that he may expect you before sunset. The storm +comes from the cast, otherwise it would hardly reach the goal. Put even if it +should be lost, what does it matter?” +</p> + +<p> +Thyone nodded to her old husband with a look of pleasure, and her eyes shone +through tears at Hermon as she clasped his hand and, remembering her friend, +his mother, exclaimed: “Go, then, you true son of your father, and tell your +friend that we will offer sacrifices for his welfare.” +</p> + +<p> +“A lean chicken to Aesculapius,” whispered the grammateus to Althea. “She holds +on to the oboli.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which, at any rate, would be hard enough to dispose of in this wretched place +unless one were a dealer in weapons or a thirsty sailor,” sighed the Thracian. +“As soon as the sky and sea are blue again, chains could not keep me here. And +the cooing around this insipid rich beauty into the bargain!” +</p> + +<p> +This remark referred to Philotas, who was just offering Daphne a magnificent +bunch of roses, which a mounted messenger had brought to him from Alexandria. +</p> + +<p> +The girl received it with a grateful glance, but she instantly separated one of +the most beautiful blossoms from its companions and handed it to Hermon, +saying, “For our suffering friend, with my affectionate remembrances.” +</p> + +<p> +The artist pressed her dear hand with a tender look of love, intended to +express how difficult it was for him to leave her, and when, just at that +moment, a slave announced that the horses were waiting, Thyone whispered: “Have +no anxiety, my son! Your ride away from her through the tempest will bring you +a better reward than his slave’s swift horse will bear the giver of the roses.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p> +Hermon, with the rose for his friend fastened in the breast folds of his +chiton, mounted his horse gratefully, and his companion, a sinewy, bronzed +Midianite, who was also to attend to the opening of the fortress gates, did the +same. +</p> + +<p> +Before reaching the open country the sculptor had to ride through the whole +city, with which he was entirely unfamiliar. Fiercely as the storm was sweeping +down the streets and squares, and often as the horseman was forced to hold on +to his travelling hat and draw his chlamys closer around him, he felt the +anxieties which had made his night sleepless and saddened his day suddenly +leave him as if by a miracle. Was it the consciousness of having acted rightly? +was it the friendly farewell which Daphne had given him, and the hope Thyone +had aroused, or the expectation of seeing Ledscha once more, and at least +regaining her good will, that had restored his lost light-heartedness? He did +not know himself, nor did he desire to know. +</p> + +<p> +While formerly he had merely glanced carelessly about him in Pelusium, and only +half listened to the explanations given by the veteran’s deep voice, now +whatever he saw appeared in clear outlines and awakened his interest, in spite +of the annoyances caused by the storm. +</p> + +<p> +Had he not known that he was in Pelusium, it would have been difficult for him +to determine whether the city he was crossing was an Egyptian, a Hellenic, or a +Syrian one; for here rose an ancient temple of the time of the Pharaohs, with +obelisks and colossal statues before the lofty pylons, yonder the sanctuary of +Poseidon, surrounded by stately rows of Doric columns, and farther on the +smaller temple dedicated to the Dioscuri, and the circular Grecian building +that belonged to Aphrodite. +</p> + +<p> +In another spot, still close to the harbour, he saw the large buildings +consecrated to the worship of the Syrian Baal and Astarte. +</p> + +<p> +Here he was obliged to wait awhile, for the tempest had excited the war +elephants which were returning from their exercising ground, and their black +keepers only succeeded with the utmost difficulty in restraining them. +Shrieking with fear, the few persons who were in the street besides the +soldiers, that were everywhere present, scattered before the huge, terrified +animals. +</p> + +<p> +The costume and appearance of the citizens, too, gave no clew to the country to +which the place belonged; there were as many Egyptians among them as Greeks, +Syrians, and negroes. Asiatics appeared in the majority only in the market +place, where the dealers were just leaving their stands to secure their goods +from the storm. In front of the big building where the famous Pelusinian xythus +beer was brewed, the drink was being carried away in jugs and wineskins, in +ox-carts and on donkeys. Here, too, men were loading camels, which were rarely +seen in Egypt, and had been introduced there only a short time before. +</p> + +<p> +How forcibly all these things riveted Hermon’s attention, now that no one was +at hand to explain them and no delay was permitted! He scarcely had time for +recollection and expectation. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, the last gate was unlocked, and the ramparts and moats lay behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Thus far the wind had kept back the rain, and only scattered drops lashed the +riders’ faces; but as soon as they entered the open country, it seemed as +though the pent-up floods burst the barriers which retained them above, and a +torrent of water such as only those dry regions know rushed, not in straight or +slanting lines, but in thick streams, whirled by the hurricane, upon the marshy +land which stretched from Pelusium to Tennis, and on the horsemen. +</p> + +<p> +The road led along a dike raised above fields which, at this season of the +year, were under water, and Hermon’s companion knew it well. +</p> + +<p> +For a time both riders allowed themselves to be drenched in silence. The water +ran down upon them from their broad-brimmed hats, and their dripping horses +trotted with drooping heads and steaming flanks one behind the other until, at +the very brick-kiln where Ledscha had recalled her widowed sister’s unruly +slaves to obedience, the guide stopped with an oath, and pointed to the water +which had risen to the top of the dam, and in some places concealed the road +from their eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Now it was no longer possible to trot, for the guide was obliged to seek the +traces of the dike with great caution. Meanwhile the force of the pouring rain +by no means lessened—nay, it even seemed to increase—and the horses were +already wading in water up to their fetlocks. +</p> + +<p> +But if the votive stones, the little altars and statues of the gods, the bushes +and single trees along the sides of the dike road were overflowed while the +travellers were in the region of the marsh, they would be obliged to interrupt +their journey, for the danger of sinking into the morass with their horses +would then threaten them. +</p> + +<p> +Even at the brick-kiln travellers, soldiers, and trains of merchandise had +stopped to wait for the end of the cloud-burst. +</p> + +<p> +In front of the farmhouse, too, which Hermon and his companion next reached, +they saw dozens of people seeking shelter, and the Midianite urged his master +to join them for a short time at least. The wisest course here was probably to +yield, and Hermon was already turning his horse’s head toward the house when a +Greek messenger dashed past the beckoning refuge and also by him. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you dare to ride farther?” the artist shouted in a tone of warning inquiry +to the man on the dripping bay, and the latter, without pausing, answered: +“Duty! On business for the King!” +</p> + +<p> +Then Hermon turned his steed back toward the road, beat the water from his +soaked beard with the edge of his hand, and with a curt “Forward!” announced +his decision to his companion. Duty summoned him also, and what another risked +for the King he would not fail to do for his friend. +</p> + +<p> +The Midianite, shaking his head, rode angrily after him; but, though the +violence of the rain was lessening, the wind began to blow with redoubled +force, beating and lashing the boundless expanse of the quickly formed lake +with such savage fury that it rolled in surges like the sea, and sweeping over +it dense clouds of foam like the sand waves tossed by the desert tempests. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes moaning, sometimes whistling, the gusts of the hurricane drove the +water and the travellers before it, while the rain poured from the sky to the +earth, and wherever it struck splashed upward, making little whirlpools and +swiftly breaking bubbles. +</p> + +<p> +What might not Myrtilus suffer in this storm! This thought strengthened +Hermon’s courage to twice ride past other farmhouses which offered shelter. At +the third the horse refused to wade farther in such a tempest, so there was +nothing to be done except spring off and lead it to the higher ground which the +water had not yet reached. +</p> + +<p> +The interior of the peasant hut was filled with people who had sought shelter +there, and the stifling atmosphere which the artist felt at the door induced +him to remain outside. +</p> + +<p> +He had stood there dripping barely fifteen minutes when loud shouts and yells +were heard on the road from Pelusium by which he had come, and upon the flooded +dike appeared a body of men rushing forward with marvellous speed. +</p> + +<p> +The nearer they came the fiercer and more bewildering sounded the loud, shrill +medley of their frantic cries, mingled with hoarse laughter, and the spectacle +presented to the eyes was no less rough and bold. +</p> + +<p> +The majority seemed to be powerful men. Their complexions were as light as the +Macedonians; their fair, red, and brown locks were thick, unkempt, and +bristling. Most of the reckless, defiantly bold faces were smooth- shaven, with +only a mustache on the upper lip, and sometimes a short imperial. All carried +weapons, and a fleece covered the shoulders of many, while chains, ornamented +with the teeth of animals, hung on their white muscular chests. +</p> + +<p> +“Galatians,” Hermon heard one man near him call to another. “They came to the +fortress as auxiliary troops. Philippus forbade them to plunder on pain of +death, and showed them—the gods be thanked!—that he was in earnest. Otherwise +it would soon look here as though the plagues of locusts, flood, and fire had +visited us at once. Red-haired men are not the only sons of Typhon!” +</p> + +<p> +And Hermon thought that he had indeed never seen any human beings equally +fierce, bold to the verge of reckless madness, as these Gallic warriors. The +tempest which swept them forward, and the water through which they waded, only +seemed to increase their enjoyment, for sheer delight rang in their exulting +shouts and yells. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, yes! To march amid this uproar of the elements was a pleasure to the +healthy men. It afforded them the rarest, most enlivening delight. For a long +time nothing had so strongly reminded them of the roaring of the wind and the +rushing of the rain in their northern home. It seemed a delicious relief, after +the heat and dryness of the south, which they had endured with groans. +</p> + +<p> +When they perceived the eyes fixed upon them they swung their weapons, arched +their breasts with conscious vanity, distorted their faces into terrible +threatening grimaces, or raised bugle horns to their lips, drew from them +shrill, ear-piercing notes and gloated, with childish delight, in the terror of +the gaping crowd, on whom the restraint of authority sternly forbade them to +show their mettle. +</p> + +<p> +Lust of rapine and greed for booty glittered in many a fiery, longing look, but +their leaders kept them in check with the sword. So they rushed on without +stopping, like a thunderstorm pregnant with destruction which the wind drives +over a terrified village. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon also had to take the road they followed, and, after giving the Gauls a +long start, he set out again. +</p> + +<p> +But though he succeeded in passing the marshy region without injury, there had +been delay after delay; here the horses had left the flooded dike road and +floundered up to their knees in the morass, there trees from the roadside, +uprooted by the storm, barred the way. +</p> + +<p> +As night closed in the rain ceased and the wind began to subside, but dark +clouds covered the sky, and the horsemen were still an hour’s ride from the +place where the road ended at the little harbour from which travellers entered +the boat which conveyed them to Tennis. +</p> + +<p> +The way no longer led through the marsh, but through tilled lands, and crossed +the ditches which irrigated the fields on wooden bridges. +</p> + +<p> +On their account, in the dense darkness which prevailed, caution was necessary, +and this the guide certainly did not lack. He rode at a slow walk in front of +the artist, and had just pointed out to him the light at the landing place of +the boat which went to Tennis, when Hermon was suddenly startled by a loud cry, +followed by clattering and splashing. +</p> + +<p> +With swift presence of mind he sprang from his horse and found his conjecture +verified. The bridge had broken down, and horse and rider had fallen into the +broad canal. +</p> + +<p> +“The Galatians!” reached Hermon from the dark depths, and the exclamation +relieved him concerning the fate of the Midianite. +</p> + +<p> +The latter soon struggled up to the road uninjured. The bridge must have given +way under the feet of the savage horde, unless the Gallic monsters, with brutal +malice, had intentionally shattered it. +</p> + +<p> +The first supposition, however, seemed to be the correct one, for as Hermon +approached the canal he heard moans of pain. One of the Gauls had apparently +met with an accident in the fall of the bridge and been deserted by his +comrades. With the skill acquired in the wrestling school, Hermon descended +into the canal to look for the wounded man, while his guide undertook to get +the horses ashore. +</p> + +<p> +The deep darkness considerably increased the difficulty of carrying out his +purpose, but the young Greek went up to his neck in the water he could not +become wetter than he was already. So he remained in the ditch until he found +the injured man whose groans of suffering pierced his compassionate heart. +</p> + +<p> +He was obliged to release the luckless Gaul from the broken timbers of the +bridge, and, when Hermon had dragged him out on the opposite bank of the canal, +he made no answer to any question. A falling beam had probably struck him +senseless. +</p> + +<p> +His hair, which Hermon’s groping fingers informed him was thick and rough, +seemed to denote a Gaul, but a full, long beard was very rarely seen in this +nation, and the wounded man wore one. Nor could anything be discovered from the +ornaments or weapons of this fierce barbarian. +</p> + +<p> +But to whatever people he might belong, he certainly was not a Greek. The +thoroughly un-Hellenic wrapping up of the legs proved that. +</p> + +<p> +No matter! Hermon at any rate was dealing with some one who was severely +injured, and the self-sacrificing pity with which even suffering animals +inspired him, and which in his boyhood had drawn upon him the jeers of the +companions of his own age, did not abandon him now. +</p> + +<p> +Reluctantly obeying his command, the Midianite helped him bandage the +sufferer’s head, in which a wound could be felt, as well as it could be done in +the darkness, and lift him on the artist’s horse. During this time fresh groans +issued from the bearded lips of the injured warrior, and Hermon walked by his +side, guarding the senseless man from the danger of falling from the back of +the horse as it slowly followed the Midianite’s. +</p> + +<p> +This tiresome walk, however, did not last long; the landing place was reached +sooner than Hermon expected, and the ferryboat bore the travellers and the +horses to Tennis. +</p> + +<p> +By the flickering light of the captain’s lantern it was ascertained that the +wounded man, in spite of his long dark beard, was probably a Gaul. The stupor +was to be attributed to the fall of a beam on his head, and the shock, rather +than to the wound. The great loss of blood sustained by the young and powerful +soldier had probably caused the duration of the swoon. +</p> + +<p> +During the attempts at resuscitation a sailor boy offered his assistance. He +carefully held the lantern, and, as its flickering light fell for brief moments +upon the artist’s face, the lad of thirteen or fourteen asked if he was Hermon +of Alexandria. +</p> + +<p> +A curt “If you will permit,” answered the question, considered by the Hellenes +an unseemly one, especially from such a youth; but the sculptor paid no further +attention to him, for, while devoting himself honestly to the wounded man, his +anxiety about his invalid friend increased, and Ledscha’s image also rose again +before him. +</p> + +<p> +At last the ferryboat touched the land, and when Hermon looked around for the +lad he had already leaped ashore, and was just vanishing in the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +It was probably within an hour of midnight. +</p> + +<p> +The gale was still blowing fiercely over the water, driving the black clouds +across the dark sky, sometimes with long-drawn, wailing sounds, sometimes with +sharp, whistling ones. The rain had wholly ceased, and seemed to have exhausted +itself here in the afternoon. +</p> + +<p> +As Archias’s white house was a considerable distance from the landing place of +the ferryboat, Hermon had the wounded warrior carried to it by Biamite sailors, +and again mounted his horse to ride to Myrtilus at as swift a trot as the +soaked, wretched, but familiar road would permit. +</p> + +<p> +Considerable time had been spent in obtaining a litter for the Gaul, yet Hermon +was surprised to meet the lad who had questioned him so boldly on the ferryboat +coming, not from the landing place, but running toward it again from the city, +and then saw him follow the shore, carrying a blazing torch, which he waved +saucily. The wind blew aside the flame and smoke which came from the burning +pitch, but it shone brightly through the gloom and permitted the boy to be +distinctly seen. Whence had the nimble fellow come so quickly? How had he +succeeded, in this fierce gale, in kindling the torch so soon into a powerful +flame? Was it not foolish to let a child amuse itself in the middle of the +night with so dangerous a toy? +</p> + +<p> +Hermon hastily thought over these questions, but the supposition that the light +of the torch might be intended for a signal did not occur to him. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, the boy and the light in his hand occupied his mind only a short time. +He had better things to think of. With what longing Myrtilus must now be +expecting his arrival! But the Gaul needed his aid no less urgently than his +friend. Accurately as he knew what remedies relieved Myrtilus in severe attacks +of illness, he could scarcely dispense with an assistant or a leech for the +other, and the idea swiftly flashed upon him that the wounded man would afford +him an opportunity of seeing Ledscha again. +</p> + +<p> +She had told him more than once about the healing art possessed by old Tabus on +the Owl’s Nest. Suppose he should now seek the angry girl to entreat her to +speak to the aged miracle-worker in behalf of the sorely wounded young +foreigner? +</p> + +<p> +Here he interrupted himself; something new claimed his attention. +</p> + +<p> +A dim light glimmered through the intense darkness from a bit of rising ground +by the wayside. It came from the Temple of Nemesis—a pretty little structure +belonging to the time of Alexander the Great, which he had often examined with +pleasure. Several steps led to the anteroom, supported by Ionic columns, which +adjoined the naos. +</p> + +<p> +Two lamps were burning at the side of the door leading into the little open +cella, and at the back of the consecrated place the statue of the winged +goddess was visible in the light of a small altar fire. +</p> + +<p> +In her right hand she held the bridle and scourge, and at her feet stood the +wheel, whose turning indicates the influence exerted by her power upon the +destiny of mortals. With stern severity that boded evil, she gazed down upon +her left forearm, bent at the elbow, which corresponds with the ell, the just +measure. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon certainly now, if ever, lacked both time and inclination to examine +again this modest work of an ordinary artist, yet he quickly stopped his weary +horse; for in the little pronaos directly in front of the cella door stood a +slender figure clad in a long floating dark robe, extending its hands through +the cella door toward the statue in fervent prayer. She was pressing her brow +against the left post of the door, but at her feet, on the right side, cowered +another figure, which could scarcely be recognised as a human being. +</p> + +<p> +This, too, was a woman. +</p> + +<p> +Deeply absorbed in her own thoughts, she was also extending her arms toward the +statue of Nemesis. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon knew them both. +</p> + +<p> +At first he fancied that his excited imagination was showing him a threatening +illusion. But no! +</p> + +<p> +The erect figure was Ledscha, the crouching one Gula, the sailor’s wife whose +child he had rescued from the flames, and who had recently been cast out by her +husband. +</p> + +<p> +“Ledscha!” escaped his lips in a muttered tone, and he involuntarily extended +his hands toward her as she was doing toward the goddess. +</p> + +<p> +But she did not seem to hear him, and the other woman also retained the same +attitude, as if hewn from stone. +</p> + +<p> +Then he called the supplicant’s name loud tone, and the next instant still more +loudly; and now she turned, and, in the faint light of the little lamp, showed +the marvellously noble outlines of her profile. He called again, and this time +Ledscha heard anguished yearning in his deep tones; but they seemed to have +lost their influence over her, for her large dark eyes gazed at him so +repellently and sternly that a cold tremor ran down his spine. +</p> + +<p> +Swinging himself from his horse, he ascended the steps of the temple, and in +the most tender tones at his command exclaimed: “Ledscha! Severely as I have +offended you, Ledscha—oh, do not say no! Will you hear me?” +</p> + +<p> +“No!” she answered firmly, and, before he could speak, continued: “This place +is ill chosen for another meeting! Your presence is hateful to me! Do not +disturb me a moment longer!” +</p> + +<p> +“As you command,” he began hesitatingly; but she swiftly interrupted with the +question, “Do you come from Pelusium, and are you going directly home?” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not heed the storm on account of Myrtilus’s illness,” he answered +quietly, “and if you demand it, I will return home at once; but first let me +make one more entreaty, which will be pleasing also to the gods.” +</p> + +<p> +“Get your response from yonder deity! “she impatiently interrupted, pointing +with a grand, queenly gesture, which at any other time would have delighted his +artist eye, to the statue of Nemesis in the cella. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Gula had also turned her face toward Hermon, and he now addressed +her, saying with a faint tone of reproach: “And did hatred lead you also, Gula, +to this sanctuary at midnight to implore the goddess to destroy me in her +wrath?” +</p> + +<p> +The young mother rose and pointed to Ledscha, exclaiming, “She desires it.” +</p> + +<p> +“And I?” he asked gently. “Have I really done you so much evil?” +</p> + +<p> +She raised her hand to her brow as if bewildered; her glance fell on the +artist’s troubled face, and lingered there for a short time. Then her eyes +wandered to Ledscha, and from her to the goddess, and finally back again to the +sculptor. Meanwhile Hermon saw how her young figure was trembling, and, before +he had time to address a soothing-word to her, she sobbed aloud, crying out to +Ledscha: “You are not a mother! My child, he rescued it from the flames. I will +not, and I can not—I will no longer pray for his misfortune!” +</p> + +<p> +She drew her veil over her pretty, tear-stained face as she spoke, and darted +lightly down the temple steps close beside him to seek shelter in her parents’ +house, which had been unwillingly opened to the cast-off wife, but now afforded +her a home rich in affection. +</p> + +<p> +Immeasurably bitter scorn was depicted in Ledscha’s features as she gazed after +Gula. She did not appear to notice Hermon, and when at last he appealed to her +and briefly urged her to ask the old enchantress on the Owl’s Nest for a remedy +for the wounded Gaul, she again leaned against the post of the cella door, +extended both arms with passionate fervour toward the goddess, and remained +standing there motionless, deaf to his petition. +</p> + +<p> +His blood seethed in his veins, and he was tempted to go nearer and force her +to hear him; but before he had ascended the first of the flight of steps +leading to the pronaos, he heard the footsteps of the men who were bearing the +wounded warrior after him. +</p> + +<p> +They must not see him here with one of their countrywomen at this hour, and +manly pride forbade him to address her again as a supplicant. +</p> + +<p> +So he went back to the road, mounted his horse, and rode on without vouchsafing +a word of farewell to the woman who was invoking destruction upon his head. As +he did so his eyes again rested on the stern face of Nemesis, and the wheel +whose turning determined the destiny of men at her feet. +</p> + +<p> +Assailed by horrible fears, and overpowered by presentiments of evil, he +pursued his way through the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps Myrtilus had succumbed to the terrible attack which must have visited +him in such a storm, and life without his friend would be bereft of half its +charm. Orphaned, poor, a struggler who had gained no complete victory, it had +been rich only in disappointments to him, in spite of his conviction that he +was a genuine artist, and was fighting for a good cause. Now he knew that he +had also lost the woman by whose assistance he was certain of a great success +in his own much-disputed course, and Ledscha, if any one, was right in +expecting a favourable hearing from the goddess who punished injustice. +</p> + +<p> +He did not think of Daphne again until he was approaching the place where her +tents had stood, and the remembrance of her fell like a ray of light into his +darkened soul. +</p> + +<p> +Yet on that spot had also been erected the wooden platform from which Althea +had showed him the transformation into the spider, and the recollection of the +foolish error into which the Thracian had drawn him disagreeably clouded the +pleasant thought of Daphne. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p> +Complete darkness enfolded the white house. Hermon saw only two windows +lighted, the ones in his friend’s studio, which looked out into the open +square, while his own faced the water. +</p> + +<p> +What did this mean? +</p> + +<p> +It must be nearly midnight, and he could no longer expect Myrtilus to be still +at work. He had supposed that he should find him in his chamber, supported by +his slaves, struggling for breath. What was the meaning of the light in the +workrooms now? +</p> + +<p> +Where was his usually efficient Bias? He never went to rest when his master was +to return home, yet the carrier dove must have announced his coming! +</p> + +<p> +But Hermon had also enjoined the care of Myrtilus upon the slave, and he was +undoubtedly beside the sufferer’s couch, supporting him in the same way that he +had often seen his master. +</p> + +<p> +He was now riding across the open space, and he heard the men who carried the +Gaul talking close behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Was the wounded barbarian the sole acquisition of this journey? +</p> + +<p> +The beat of his horse’s hoofs and the voices of the Biamites echoed distinctly +enough amid the stillness of the night, which was interrupted only by the +roaring of the wind. And this disturbance of the deep silence around had +entered the lighted windows before him, for a figure appeared at one of them, +and—could he believe his own eyes?—Myrtilus looked down into the square, and a +joyous welcome rang from his lips as loudly as in his days of health. +</p> + +<p> +The darkness of the night suddenly seemed to Hermon to be illumined. A leap to +the ground, two bounds up the steps leading to the house, an eager rush through +the corridor that separated him from the room in which Myrtilus was, the +bursting instead of opening of the door, and, as if frantic with happy +surprise, he impetuously embraced his friend, who, burin and file in hand, was +just approaching the threshold, and kissed his brow and cheeks in the pure joy +of his heart. +</p> + +<p> +Then what questions, answers, tidings! In spite of the torrents of rain and the +gale, the invalid’s health had been excellent. The solitude had done him good. +He knew nothing about the carrier dove. The hurricane had probably “blown it +away,” as the breeders of the swift messengers said. +</p> + +<p> +Question and reply now followed one another in rapid succession, and both were +soon acquainted with everything worth knowing; nay, Hermon had even delivered +Daphne’s rose to his friend, and informed him what had befallen the Gaul who +was being brought into the house. +</p> + +<p> +Bias and the other slaves had quickly appeared, and Hermon soon rendered the +wounded man the help he needed in an airy chamber in the second story of the +house, which, owing to the heat that prevailed in summer so close under the +roof, the slaves had never occupied. +</p> + +<p> +Bias assisted his master with equal readiness and skill, and at last the Gaul +opened his eyes and, in the language of his country, asked a few brief +questions which were incomprehensible to the others. Then, groaning, he again +closed his lids. +</p> + +<p> +Hitherto Hermon had not even allowed himself time to look around his friend’s +studio and examine what he had created during his absence. But, after +perceiving that his kind act had not been in vain, and consuming with a +vigorous appetite the food and wine which Bias set before him, he obliged +Myrtilus—for another day was coming—to go to rest, that the storm might not +still prove hurtful to him. +</p> + +<p> +Yet he held his friend’s hand in a firm clasp for a long time, and, when the +latter at last prepared to go, he pressed it so closely that it actually hurt +Myrtilus. But he understood his meaning, and, with a loving glance that sank +deep into Hermon’s heart, called a last good night. +</p> + +<p> +After two sleepless nights and the fatiguing ride which he had just taken, the +sculptor felt weary enough; but when he laid his hand on the Gaul’s brow and +breast, and felt their burning heat, he refused Bias’s voluntary offer to watch +the sufferer in his place. +</p> + +<p> +If to amuse or forget himself he had caroused far more nights in succession in +Alexandria, why should he not keep awake when the object in question was to +wrest a young life from the grasp of death? This man and his life were now his +highest goal, and he had never yet repented his foolish eccentricity of +imposing discomforts upon himself to help the suffering. +</p> + +<p> +Bias, on his part, was very willing to go to rest. He had plenty of cause for +weariness; Myrtilus’s unscrupulous body-servant had stolen off with the other +slaves the night before, and did not return, with staggering gait, until the +next morning, but, in order to keep his promise to his master, he had scarcely +closed his eyes, that he might be at hand if Myrtilus should need assistance. +</p> + +<p> +So Bias fell asleep quickly enough in his little room in the lower story, while +his master, by the exertion of all his strength of will, watched beside the +couch of the Gaul. +</p> + +<p> +Yet, after the first quarter of an hour, his head, no matter how he struggled +to prevent it, drooped again and again upon his breast. But just as slumber was +completely overpowering him his patient made him start up, for he had left his +bed, and when Hermon, fully roused, looked for him, was standing in the middle +of the room, gazing about him. +</p> + +<p> +The artist thought that fever had driven the wounded warrior from his couch, as +it formerly did his fellow-pupil Lycon, whom, in the delirium of typhus, he +could keep in bed only by force. So he led the Gaul carefully back to the couch +he had deserted, and, after moistening the bandage with healing balm from +Myrtilus’s medicine chest, ordered him to keep quiet. +</p> + +<p> +The barbarian yielded as obediently as a child, but at first remained in a +sitting posture and asked, in scarcely intelligible broken Greek, how he came +to this place. +</p> + +<p> +After Hermon had satisfied his curiosity, he also put a few questions, and +learned that his charge not only wore a mustache, like his fellow countrymen, +but also a full beard, because the latter was the badge of the bridge builders, +to which class he belonged. While examining the one crossing the canal, it had +fallen in upon him. +</p> + +<p> +He closed his eyes as he spoke, and Hermon wondered if it was not time for him +to lie down also; but the wounded man’s brow was still burning, and the Gallic +words which he constantly muttered were probably about the phantoms of fever, +which Hermon recognised from Lycon’s illness. +</p> + +<p> +So he resolved to wait and continue to devote the night, which he had already +intended to give him, to the sufferer. From the chair at the foot of the bed he +looked directly into his face. The soft light of the lamp, which with two +others hung from a tall, heavy bronze stand in the shape of an anchor, which +Bias had brought, shone brightly enough to allow him to perceive how powerful +was the man whose life he had saved. His own face was scarcely lighter in hue +than the barbarian’s, and how sharp was the contrast between his long, thick +black beard and his white face and bare arched chest! +</p> + +<p> +Hermon had noticed this same contrast in his own person. Otherwise the Gaul did +not resemble him in a single feature, and he might even have refused to compare +his soft, wavy beard with the harsh, almost bristly one of the barbarian. And +what a defiant, almost evil expression his countenance wore when—perhaps +because his wound ached—he closed his lips more firmly! The children who so +willingly let him, Hermon, take them in his arms would certainly have been +afraid of this savage-looking fellow. +</p> + +<p> +Yet in build, and at any rate in height and breadth of shoulders, there was +some resemblance between him and the Gaul. +</p> + +<p> +As a bridge builder, the injured man belonged, in a certain sense, to the ranks +of the artists, and this increased Hermon’s interest in his patient, who was +now probably out of the most serious danger. +</p> + +<p> +True, the Greek still cast many a searching glance at the barbarian, but his +eyes closed more and more frequently, and at last the idea took possession of +him that he himself was the wounded man on the couch, and some one else, who +again was himself, was caring for him. +</p> + +<p> +He vainly strove to understand the impossibility of this division of his own +being, but the more eagerly he did so the greater became his bewilderment. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the scene changed; Ledscha had appeared. +</p> + +<p> +Bending over him, she lavished words of love; but when, in passionate +excitement, he sprang from the couch to draw her toward him, she changed into +the Nemesis to whose statue she had just prayed. +</p> + +<p> +He stood still as if petrified, and the goddess, too, did not stir. Only the +wheel which had rested at her feet began to move, and rolled, with a thundering +din, sometimes around him, sometimes around the people who, as if they had +sprung from the ground, formed a jeering company of spectators, and clapped +their hands, laughed, and shouted whenever it rolled toward him and he sprang +back in fear. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the wheel constantly grew larger, and seemed to become heavier, for +the wooden beams over which it rolled splintered, crashing like thin laths, and +the spectators’ shouts of applause sounded ruder and fiercer. +</p> + +<p> +Then mortal terror suddenly seized him, and while he shouted for help to +Myrtilus, Daphne, and her father Archias, his slave Bias, the old comrade of +Alexander, Philippus, and his wife, he awoke, bathed in perspiration, and +looked about him. +</p> + +<p> +But he must still be under the spell of the horrible dream, for the rattling +and clattering around him continued, and the bed where the wounded Gaul had +lain was empty. +</p> + +<p> +Hermon involuntarily dipped his hand into the water which stood ready to wet +the bandages, and sprinkled his own face with it; but if he had ever beheld +life with waking eyes, he was doing so now. Yet the barbarian had vanished, and +the noise in the house still continued. +</p> + +<p> +Was it possible that rats and mice—? No! That was the shriek of a terrified +human being—that a cry for help! This sound was the imperious command of a +rough man’s voice, that—no, he was not mistaken—that was his own name, and it +came from the lips of his Myrtilus, anxiously, urgently calling for assistance. +</p> + +<p> +Then he suddenly realized that the white house had been attacked, that his +friend must be rescued from robbers or the fury of a mob of Biamites, and, like +the bent wood of a projectile when released from the noose which holds it to +the ground, the virile energy that characterized him sprang upward with mighty +power. The swift glance that swept the room was sent to discover a weapon, and +before it completed the circuit Hermon had already grasped the bronze anchor +with the long rod twined with leaves and the teeth turned downward. Only one of +the three little vessels filled with oil that hung from it was burning. Before +swinging the heavy standard aloft, he freed it from the lamps, which struck the +floor with a clanging noise. +</p> + +<p> +The man to whom he dealt a blow with this ponderous implement would forget to +rise. Then, as if running for a prize in the gymnasium, he rushed through the +darkness to the staircase, and with breathless haste groped his way down the +narrow, ladderlike steps. He felt himself an avenging, punishing power, like +the Nemesis who had pursued him in his dreams. He must wrest the friend who was +to him the most beloved of mortals from the rioters. To defeat them himself +seemed a small matter. His shout—“I am coming, Myrtilus! Snuphis, Bias, Dorcas, +Syrus! here, follow me!” was to summon the old Egyptian doorkeeper and the +slaves, and inform his friend of the approach of a deliverer. +</p> + +<p> +The loudest uproar echoed from his own studio. Its door stood wide open, and +black smoke, mingled with the deep red and yellow flames of burning pitch, +poured from it toward him. +</p> + +<p> +“Myrtilus!” he shouted at the top of his voice as he leaped across the +threshold into the tumult which filled the spacious apartment, at the same time +clashing the heavy iron anchor down upon the head of the broad- shouldered, +half-naked fellow who was raising a clumsy lance against him. +</p> + +<p> +The pirate fell as though struck by lightning, and he again shouted “Myrtilus!” +into the big room, so familiar to him, where the conflict was raging +chaotically amid a savage clamour, and the smoke did not allow him to +distinguish a single individual. +</p> + +<p> +For the second time he swung the terrible weapon, and it struck to the floor +the monster with a blackened face who had rushed toward him, but at the same +time the anchor broke in two. +</p> + +<p> +Only a short metal rod remained in his hand, and, while he raised his arm, +determined to crush the temples of the giant carrying a torch who sprang +forward to meet him, it suddenly seemed as if a vulture with glowing plumage +and burning beak was attacking his face, and the terrible bird of prey was +striking its hard, sharp, red-hot talons more and more furiously into his lips, +cheeks, and eyes. +</p> + +<p> +At first a glare as bright as sunshine had flashed before his gaze; then, where +he had just seen figures and things half veiled by the smoke, he beheld only a +scarlet surface, which changed to a violet, and finally a black spot, followed +by a violet-blue one, while the vulture continued to rend his face with beak +and talons. +</p> + +<p> +Then the name “Myrtilus!” once more escaped his lips; this time, however, it +did not sound like the encouraging shout of an avenging hero, but the cry for +aid of one succumbing to defeat, and it was soon followed by a succession of +frantic outbursts of suffering, terror, and despair. +</p> + +<p> +But now sharp whistles from the water shrilly pierced the air and penetrated +into the darkened room, and, while the tumult around Hermon gradually died +away, he strove, tortured by burning pain, to grope his way toward the door; +but here his foot struck against a human body, there against something hard, +whose form he could not distinguish, and finally a large object which felt +cool, and could be nothing but his Demeter. +</p> + +<p> +But she seemed doomed to destruction, for the smoke was increasing every +moment, and constantly made his open wounds smart more fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a cooler air fanned his burning face, and at the same time he heard +hurrying steps approach and the mingled cries of human voices. +</p> + +<p> +Again he began to shout the names of his friends, the slaves, and the porter; +but no answer came from any of them, though hasty questions in the Greek +language fell upon his ear. +</p> + +<p> +The strategist, with his officers, the nomarch of the district with his +subordinates, and many citizens of Tennis had arrived. Hermon knew most of them +by their voices, but their figures were not visible. The red, violet, and black +cloud before him was all he could see. +</p> + +<p> +Yet, although the pain continued to torture him, and a voice in his soul told +him that he was blinded, he did not allow the government officials who eagerly +surrounded him to speak, only pointed hastily to his eyes, and then bade them +enter Myrtilus’s studio. The Egyptian Chello, the Tennis goldsmith, who had +assisted the artists in the preparation of the noble metal, and one of the +police officers who had been summoned to rid the old house of the rats and mice +which infested it, both knew the way. +</p> + +<p> +They must first try to save Myrtilus’s work and, when that was accomplished, +preserve his also from destruction by the flames. +</p> + +<p> +Leaning on the goldsmith’s arm, Hermon went to his friend’s studio; but before +they reached it smoke and flames poured out so densely that it was impossible +even to gain the door. +</p> + +<p> +“Destroyed—a prey to the flames!” he groaned. “And he—he—he—” +</p> + +<p> +Then like a madman he asked if no one had seen Myrtilus, and where he was; but +in vain, always in vain. +</p> + +<p> +At last the goldsmith who was leading him asked him to move aside, for all who +had flocked to the white house when it was seized by the flames had joined in +the effort to save the statue of Demeter, which they had found unharmed in his +studio. +</p> + +<p> +Seventeen men, by the exertion of all their strength, were dragging the heavy +statue from the house, which was almost on the point of falling in, into the +square. Several others were bearing corpses into the open air- the old porter +Snuphis and Myrtilus’s body servant. Some motionless forms they were obliged to +leave behind. Both the bodies had deep wounds. There was no trace of Myrtilus +and Bias. +</p> + +<p> +Outside the storm had subsided, and a cool breeze blew refreshingly into +Hermon’s face. As he walked arm in arm with the notary Melampus, who had +invited him to his house, and heard some one at his side exclaim, “How lavishly +Eos is scattering her roses to-day!” he involuntarily lifted the cloth with +which he had covered his smarting face to enjoy the beautiful flush of dawn, +but again beheld nothing save a black and violet-blue surface. +</p> + +<p> +Then drawing his hand from his guide’s arm, he pressed it upon his poor, +sightless, burning eyes, and in helpless rage, like a beast of prey which feels +the teeth of the hunter’s iron trap rend his flesh, groaned fiercely, “Blind! +blind!” and again, and yet again, “Blind!” +</p> + +<p> +While the morning star was still paling, the lad who after Hermon’s landing had +raced along the shore with the burning torch glided into the little pronaos of +the Temple of Nemesis. +</p> + +<p> +Ledscha was still standing by the doorpost of the cella with uplifted hand, so +deeply absorbed in fervent prayer that she did not perceive the approach of the +messenger until he called her. +</p> + +<p> +“Succeeded?” she asked in a muffled tone, interrupting his hasty greeting. +</p> + +<p> +“You must give the goddess what you vowed,” was the reply. “Hanno sends you the +message. And also, ‘You must come with me in the boat quickly-at once!’” +</p> + +<p> +“Where?” the girl demanded. +</p> + +<p> +“Not on board the Hydra yet,” replied the boy hurriedly. “First only to the old +man on the Megara. The dowry is ready for your father. But there is not a +moment to lose.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well!” she gasped hoarsely. “But, first, shall I find the man with the +black beard on board of one of the ships?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly!” answered the lad proudly, grasping her arm to hurry her; but she +shook him off violently, turned toward the cella again, and once more lifted +her hands and eyes to the statue of Nemesis. +</p> + +<p> +Then she took up the bundle she had hidden behind a pillar, drew from it a +handful of gold coins, which she flung into the box intended for offerings, and +followed the boy. +</p> + +<p> +“Alive?” she asked as she descended the steps; but the lad understood the +meaning of the question, and exclaimed: “Yes, indeed! Hanno says the wounds are +not at all dangerous.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the other?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not a scratch. On the Hydra, with two severely wounded slaves. The porter and +the others were killed.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the statues?” +</p> + +<p> +“They-such things can’t be accomplished without some little blunder-Labaja +thinks so, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did they escape you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Only one. I myself helped to smash the other, which stood in the workroom that +looks out upon the water. The gold and ivory are on the ship. We had horrible +work with the statue which stood in the room whose windows faced the square. +They dragged the great monster carefully into the studio that fronts upon the +water. But probably it is still standing there, if the thing is not +already—just see how the flames are whirling upward!—if it is not already +burned with the house.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a misfortune!” Ledscha reproachfully exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +“It could not be helped,” the boy protested. “People from Tennis suddenly +rushed in. The first—a big, furious fellow-killed our Loule and the fierce +Judas. Now he has to pay for it. Little Chareb threw the black powder into his +eyes, while Hanno himself thrust the torch in his face.” +</p> + +<p> +“And Bias, the blackbeard’s slave?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know. Oh, yes! Wounded, I believe, on board the ship.” +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the lad, a precocious fourteen-year-old cabin-boy from the Hydra, +pointed to the boat which lay ready, and took Ledscha’s bundle in his hand; but +she sprang into the light skiff before him and ordered it to be rowed to the +Owl’s Nest, where she must bid Mother Tabus good-bye. The cabin-boy, however, +declared positively that the command could not be obeyed now, and at his signal +two black sailors urged it with swift oar strokes toward the northwest, to +Satabus’s ship. Hanno wished to receive his bride as a wife from his father’s +hand. +</p> + +<p> +Ledscha had not insisted upon the fulfilment of her desire, but as the boat +passed the Pelican Island her gaze rested on the lustreless waning disk of the +moon. She thought of the torturing night, during which she had vainly waited +here for Hermon, and a triumphant smile hovered around her lips; but soon the +heavy eyebrows of the girl who was thus leaving her home contracted in a +frown—she again fancied she saw, where the moon was just fading, the body of a +gigantic, hideous spider. She banished the illusion by speaking to the +boy—spiders in the morning mean misfortune. +</p> + +<p> +The early dawn, which was now crimsoning the east, reminded her of the blood +which, as an avenger, she must yet shed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS:</h2> + +<p> +Camels, which were rarely seen in Egypt +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE — VOLUME 04 ***</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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