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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5511-0.txt b/5511-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3348916 --- /dev/null +++ b/5511-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2220 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Arachne—Volume 04, by Georg Ebers + +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 +www.gutenberg.org. 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. + +Title: Arachne + Volume 04 + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April 1, 2004 [eBook #5511] +[Most recently updated: November 15, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE — VOLUME 04 *** + + + + +[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.] + + + + +Arachne + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 4. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +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! + +He would rather have appeared before his pure friend with unsightly +stains on his robe than while mastered by yearning for the Thracian. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“Because I am not fit for gay company today,” was the reply. + +“Again dissatisfied with Fate?” + +“True, it has given me small cause for contentment of late.” + +“Put in place of Fate the far-seeing care of the gods, and you will +accept what befalls you less unkindly.” + +“Let us stick to us mortals, I entreat you.” + +“Very well, then. Your Demeter does not fully satisfy you.” + +A discontented shrug of the shoulders was the reply. + +“Then work with twofold zeal upon the Arachne.” + +“Although one model I hoped to obtain forsook me, and my soul is +estranged from the other.” + +“Althea?” she asked eagerly, and he nodded assent. + +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!” + +“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.” + +“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!” + +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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +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—” + +“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.” + +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.” + +“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—” + +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. + +Althea was among the guests, but she took little notice of Hermon. + +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. + +Meanwhile her eager, bright blue eyes were roving everywhere, and +nothing that was passing around her escaped her notice. + +As she greeted Daphne she perceived that her cheeks had flushed during +her conversation with Hermon. + +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! + +What would not dyes and a change of manner accomplish! + +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. + +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! + +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. + +No matter! + +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. + +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. + +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.” + +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.” + +“Would that this swift alteration had concerned the direction of his +art,” replied Proclus in a tone audible to her alone. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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.” + +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. + +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. + +If Philotas imagined that he could pluck the daughter of Archias like a +ripe fruit from a tree, he would find himself mistaken. + +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. + +Everything that he still had to do in Tennis he could intrust to his +conscientious Bias, to Myrtilus, and his slaves. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Finally, Myrtilus turned to the others and begged them not to let +Hermon leave Pelusium quickly. + +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.” + +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.” + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +When the sun was approaching the western horizon the travellers +started. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Doubtless many a guest longed for a cool breeze, but when the mixed +wine had moistened the parched tongues the talk gained fresh animation. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Yet it was not six decades since Philippus, then a lad of seventeen, +had been present at its foundation. + +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! + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“You are mistaken,” replied Philippus gravely. “Not the least whisper +of this matter reached my ears, and it is fortunate.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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!” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“That office is already bestowed on me by the Lady Thyone,” Daphne +quietly replied. + +“And you think that, in this case, obedience is the husband’s duty?” +cried the other, with a sneering laugh. + +“It would only be the confirmation of a wise choice,” replied +Philippus, who disliked the Thracian’s fawning manner. + +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.” + +“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.” + +“Certainly not,” protested the young hipparch, who had studied in +Athens. “I stood on the Acropolis; I was permitted to visit Rhodes and +Miletus—” + +“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.” + +“But who disdains to dazzle the eyes with Asiatic splendour,” +interrupted Philotas. + +“And yet what do we not hear about the unprecedented luxury in the +royal palace!” growled the gray-haired warrior. + +“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.” + +“No, no-with the harbour of Eunostus!” interrupted the grammateus. + +“With the Soma!” cried the young hipparch, while Daphne wished to have +the tour begin in the Paneum gardens. + +“They were already laid out when we left Alexandria,” said Thyone. + +“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!” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +“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.” + +He raised his goblet as he spoke and drank to her. + +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.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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? + +What a terrible conflict of feelings! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In the hall of the men he met the rest of the old hero’s guests. + +They received him pleasantly enough, Althea alone barely noticed his +greeting; she seemed to suspect in what way he thought of her. + +Thyone and Daphne extended their hands to him all the more cordially. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“Home!” cried Thyone, and again entered the litter which she had left +to inspect the new catapults. + +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. + +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. + +“It is impossible in such weather,” was the reply. + +“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.” + +Then, turning swiftly to one of the officers who accompanied him, he +ordered him to provide what was necessary. + +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: + +“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?” + +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.” + +“A lean chicken to Aesculapius,” whispered the grammateus to Althea. +“She holds on to the oboli.” + +“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!” + +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. + +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.” + +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.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In another spot, still close to the harbour, he saw the large buildings +consecrated to the worship of the Syrian Baal and Astarte. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Finally, the last gate was unlocked, and the ramparts and moats lay +behind him. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Even at the brick-kiln travellers, soldiers, and trains of merchandise +had stopped to wait for the end of the cloud-burst. + +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. + +“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!” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“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!” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Hermon also had to take the road they followed, and, after giving the +Gauls a long start, he set out again. + +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. + +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. + +The way no longer led through the marsh, but through tilled lands, and +crossed the ditches which irrigated the fields on wooden bridges. + +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. + +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. + +“The Galatians!” reached Hermon from the dark depths, and the +exclamation relieved him concerning the fate of the Midianite. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But to whatever people he might belong, he certainly was not a Greek. +The thoroughly un-Hellenic wrapping up of the legs proved that. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It was probably within an hour of midnight. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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? + +Here he interrupted himself; something new claimed his attention. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +This, too, was a woman. + +Deeply absorbed in her own thoughts, she was also extending her arms +toward the statue of Nemesis. + +Hermon knew them both. + +At first he fancied that his excited imagination was showing him a +threatening illusion. But no! + +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. + +“Ledscha!” escaped his lips in a muttered tone, and he involuntarily +extended his hands toward her as she was doing toward the goddess. + +But she did not seem to hear him, and the other woman also retained the +same attitude, as if hewn from stone. + +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. + +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?” + +“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!” + +“As you command,” he began hesitatingly; but she swiftly interrupted +with the question, “Do you come from Pelusium, and are you going +directly home?” + +“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.” + +“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. + +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?” + +The young mother rose and pointed to Ledscha, exclaiming, “She desires +it.” + +“And I?” he asked gently. “Have I really done you so much evil?” + +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!” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Assailed by horrible fears, and overpowered by presentiments of evil, +he pursued his way through the darkness. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +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. + +What did this mean? + +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? + +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! + +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. + +He was now riding across the open space, and he heard the men who +carried the Gaul talking close behind him. + +Was the wounded barbarian the sole acquisition of this journey? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +Yet in build, and at any rate in height and breadth of shoulders, there +was some resemblance between him and the Gaul. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Suddenly the scene changed; Ledscha had appeared. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But she seemed doomed to destruction, for the smoke was increasing +every moment, and constantly made his open wounds smart more fiercely. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +They must first try to save Myrtilus’s work and, when that was +accomplished, preserve his also from destruction by the flames. + +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. + +“Destroyed—a prey to the flames!” he groaned. “And he—he—he—” + +Then like a madman he asked if no one had seen Myrtilus, and where he +was; but in vain, always in vain. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!” + +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. + +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. + +“Succeeded?” she asked in a muffled tone, interrupting his hasty +greeting. + +“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!’” + +“Where?” the girl demanded. + +“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.” + +“Well, well!” she gasped hoarsely. “But, first, shall I find the man +with the black beard on board of one of the ships?” + +“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. + +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. + +“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.” + +“And the other?” + +“Not a scratch. On the Hydra, with two severely wounded slaves. The +porter and the others were killed.” + +“And the statues?” + +“They-such things can’t be accomplished without some little +blunder-Labaja thinks so, too.” + +“Did they escape you?” + +“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.” + +“What a misfortune!” Ledscha reproachfully exclaimed. + +“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.” + +“And Bias, the blackbeard’s slave?” + +“I don’t know. Oh, yes! Wounded, I believe, on board the ship.” + +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. + +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. + +The early dawn, which was now crimsoning the east, reminded her of the +blood which, as an avenger, she must yet shed. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: + + +Camels, which were rarely seen in Egypt + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE — VOLUME 04 *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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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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D.W.] + + + + + +ARACHNE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 4. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +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! + +He would rather have appeared before his pure friend with unsightly +stains on his robe than while mastered by yearning for the Thracian. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Because I am not fit for gay company today," was the reply. + +"Again dissatisfied with Fate?" + +"True, it has given me small cause for contentment of late." + +"Put in place of Fate the far-seeing care of the gods, and you will +accept what befalls you less unkindly." + +"Let us stick to us mortals, I entreat you." + +"Very well, then. Your Demeter does not fully satisfy you." + +A discontented shrug of the shoulders was the reply. + +"Then work with twofold zeal upon the Arachne." + +"Although one model I hoped to obtain forsook me, and my soul is +estranged from the other." + +"Althea?" she asked eagerly, and he nodded assent. + +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!" + +"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." + +"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!" + +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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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--" + +"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." + +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." + +"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--" + +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. + +Althea was among the guests, but she took little notice of Hermon. + +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. + +Meanwhile her eager, bright blue eyes were roving everywhere, and nothing +that was passing around her escaped her notice. + +As she greeted Daphne she perceived that her cheeks had flushed during +her conversation with Hermon. + +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! + +What would not dyes and a change of manner accomplish! + +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. + +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! + +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. + +No matter! + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +"Would that this swift alteration had concerned the direction of his +art," replied Proclus in a tone audible to her alone. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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." + +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. + +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. + +If Philotas imagined that he could pluck the daughter of Archias like a +ripe fruit from a tree, he would find himself mistaken. + +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. + +Everything that he still had to do in Tennis he could intrust to his +conscientious Bias, to Myrtilus, and his slaves. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Finally, Myrtilus turned to the others and begged them not to let Hermon +leave Pelusium quickly. + +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." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +When the sun was approaching the western horizon the travellers started. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Doubtless many a guest longed for a cool breeze, but when the mixed wine +had moistened the parched tongues the talk gained fresh animation. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Yet it was not six decades since Philippus, then a lad of seventeen, had +been present at its foundation. + +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! + +"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." + +"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." + +"You are mistaken," replied Philippus gravely. "Not the least whisper of +this matter reached my ears, and it is fortunate." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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!" + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"That office is already bestowed on me by the Lady Thyone," Daphne +quietly replied. + +"And you think that, in this case, obedience is the husband's duty?" +cried the other, with a sneering laugh. + +"It would only be the confirmation of a wise choice," replied Philippus, +who disliked the Thracian's fawning manner. + +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." + +"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." + +"Certainly not," protested the young hipparch, who had studied in Athens. +"I stood on the Acropolis; I was permitted to visit Rhodes and Miletus--" + +"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." + +"But who disdains to dazzle the eyes with Asiatic splendour," interrupted +Philotas. + +"And yet what do we not hear about the unprecedented luxury in the royal +palace!" growled the gray-haired warrior. + +"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." + +"No, no-with the harbour of Eunostus!" interrupted the grammateus. + +"With the Soma!" cried the young hipparch, while Daphne wished to have +the tour begin in the Paneum gardens. + +"They were already laid out when we left Alexandria," said Thyone. + +"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!" + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +He raised his goblet as he spoke and drank to her. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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? + +What a terrible conflict of feelings! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In the hall of the men he met the rest of the old hero's guests. + +They received him pleasantly enough, Althea alone barely noticed his +greeting; she seemed to suspect in what way he thought of her. + +Thyone and Daphne extended their hands to him all the more cordially. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Home!" cried Thyone, and again entered the litter which she had left to +inspect the new catapults. + +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. + +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. + +"It is impossible in such weather," was the reply. + +"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." + +Then, turning swiftly to one of the officers who accompanied him, he +ordered him to provide what was necessary. + +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: + +"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?" + +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." + +"A lean chicken to Aesculapius," whispered the grammateus to Althea. +"She holds on to the oboli." + +"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!" + +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. + +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." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In another spot, still close to the harbour, he saw the large buildings +consecrated to the worship of the Syrian Baal and Astarte. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Finally, the last gate was unlocked, and the ramparts and moats lay +behind him. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Even at the brick-kiln travellers, soldiers, and trains of merchandise +had stopped to wait for the end of the cloud-burst. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Hermon also had to take the road they followed, and, after giving the +Gauls a long start, he set out again. + +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. + +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. + +The way no longer led through the marsh, but through tilled lands, and +crossed the ditches which irrigated the fields on wooden bridges. + +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. + +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. + +"The Galatians!" reached Hermon from the dark depths, and the exclamation +relieved him concerning the fate of the Midianite. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But to whatever people he might belong, he certainly was not a Greek. +The thoroughly un-Hellenic wrapping up of the legs proved that. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It was probably within an hour of midnight. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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? + +Here he interrupted himself; something new claimed his attention. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +This, too, was a woman. + +Deeply absorbed in her own thoughts, she was also extending her arms +toward the statue of Nemesis. + +Hermon knew them both. + +At first he fancied that his excited imagination was showing him a +threatening illusion. But no! + +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. + +"Ledscha!" escaped his lips in a muttered tone, and he involuntarily +extended his hands toward her as she was doing toward the goddess. + +But she did not seem to hear him, and the other woman also retained the +same attitude, as if hewn from stone. + +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. + +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?" + +"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!" + +"As you command," he began hesitatingly; but she swiftly interrupted with +the question, "Do you come from Pelusium, and are you going directly +home?" + +"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." + +"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. + +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?" + +The young mother rose and pointed to Ledscha, exclaiming, "She desires +it." + +"And I?" he asked gently. "Have I really done you so much evil?" + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Assailed by horrible fears, and overpowered by presentiments of evil, he +pursued his way through the darkness. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +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. + +What did this mean? + +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? + +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! + +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. + +He was now riding across the open space, and he heard the men who carried +the Gaul talking close behind him. + +Was the wounded barbarian the sole acquisition of this journey? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +Yet in build, and at any rate in height and breadth of shoulders, there +was some resemblance between him and the Gaul. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Suddenly the scene changed; Ledscha had appeared. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But she seemed doomed to destruction, for the smoke was increasing every +moment, and constantly made his open wounds smart more fiercely. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +They must first try to save Myrtilus's work and, when that was +accomplished, preserve his also from destruction by the flames. + +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. + +"Destroyed--a prey to the flames!" he groaned. "And he--he--he--" + +Then like a madman he asked if no one had seen Myrtilus, and where he +was; but in vain, always in vain. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +"Succeeded?" she asked in a muffled tone, interrupting his hasty +greeting. + +"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!'" + +"Where?" the girl demanded. + +"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." + +"Well, well!" she gasped hoarsely. "But, first, shall I find the man +with the black beard on board of one of the ships?" + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +"And the other?" + +"Not a scratch. On the Hydra, with two severely wounded slaves. The +porter and the others were killed." + +"And the statues?" + +"They-such things can't be accomplished without some little blunder- +Labaja thinks so, too." + +"Did they escape you?" + +"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." + +"What a misfortune!" Ledscha reproachfully exclaimed. + +"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." + +"And Bias, the blackbeard's slave?" + +"I don't know. Oh, yes! Wounded, I believe, on board the ship." + +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. + +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. + +The early dawn, which was now crimsoning the east, reminded her of the +blood which, as an avenger, she must yet shed. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Camels, which were rarely seen in Egypt + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE, BY GEORG EBERS, V4 *** + +******** This file should be named 5511.txt or 5511.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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