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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Arachne, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: Arachne, Complete
+
+Author: Georg Ebers
+
+Last Updated: March 9, 2009
+Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #5516]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARACHNE, COMPLETE ***
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+ARACHNE
+
+By Georg Ebers
+
+
+Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 1.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Deep silence brooded over the water and the green islands which rose
+like oases from its glittering surface. The palms, silver poplars, and
+sycamores on the largest one were already casting longer shadows as the
+slanting rays of the sun touched their dark crowns, while its glowing
+ball still poured a flood of golden radiance upon the bushes along the
+shore, and the light, feathery tufts at the tops of the papyrus reeds in
+the brackish water.
+
+More than one flock of large and small waterfowl flew past beneath the
+silvery cloudlets flecking the lofty azure vault of heaven; here and
+there a pelican or a pair of wild ducks plunged, with short calls which
+ceased abruptly, into the lush green thicket, but their cackling and
+quacking belonged to the voices of Nature, and, when heard, soon
+died away in the heights of the tipper air, or in the darkness of the
+underbrush that received the birds. Very few reached the little city of
+Tennis, which now, during the period of inundation in the year 274 B.C.,
+was completely encircled by water.
+
+From the small island, separated from it by a channel scarcely three
+arrow-shots wide, it seemed as though sleep or paralysis had fallen upon
+the citizens of the busy little industrial town, for few people appeared
+in the streets, and the scanty number of porters and sailors who were
+working among the ships and boats in the little fleet performed their
+tasks noiselessly, exhausted by the heat and labour of the day.
+
+Columns of light smoke rose from many of the buildings, but the sunbeams
+prevented its ascent into the clear, still air, and forced it to spread
+over the roofs as if it, too, needed rest.
+
+Silence also reigned in the little island diagonally opposite to the
+harbour. The Tennites called it the Owl's Nest, and, though for no
+especial reason, neither they nor the magistrates of King Ptolemy II
+ever stepped upon its shores. Indeed, a short time before, the latter
+had even been forbidden to concern themselves about the pursuits of its
+inhabitants; since, though for centuries it had belonged to a family
+of seafaring folk who were suspected of piracy, it had received, two
+generations ago, from Alexander the Great himself, the right of asylum,
+because its owner, in those days, had commanded a little fleet which
+proved extremely useful to the conqueror of the world in the siege
+of Gaza and during the expedition to Egypt. True, under the reign of
+Ptolemy I, the owners of the Owl's Nest were on the point of being
+deprived of this favour, because they were repeatedly accused of piracy
+in distant seas; but it had not been done. Yet for the past two years
+an investigation had threatened Satabus, the distinguished head of the
+family, and during this period he, with his ships and his sons, had
+avoided Tennis and the Egyptian coast.
+
+The house occupied by the islanders stood on the shore facing the little
+city. It had once been a stately building, but now every part of it
+seemed to be going to ruin except the central portion, which presented
+a less dilapidated appearance than the sorely damaged, utterly neglected
+side wings.
+
+The roof of the whole long structure had originally consisted of palm
+branches, upon which mud and turf had been piled; but this, too, was now
+in repair only on the central building. On the right and left wings the
+rain which often falls in the northeastern part of the Nile Delta, near
+the sea, had washed off the protecting earth, and the wind had borne it
+away as dust.
+
+Once the house had been spacious enough to shelter a numerous family and
+to store a great quantity of goods and provisions, but it was now long
+since the ruinous chambers had been occupied. Smoke rose only from the
+opening in the roof of the main building, but its slender column showed
+from what a very scanty fire it ascended.
+
+The purpose which this was to serve was readily discovered, for in
+front of the open door of the dwelling, that seemed far too large and
+on account of the pillars at the entrance, which supported a triangular
+pediment--also too stately for its sole occupant, sat an old woman,
+plucking three ducks.
+
+In front of her a girl, paying no heed to her companion, stood leaning
+against the trunk of the low, wide-branching sycamore tree near the
+shore. A narrow boat, now concealed from view by the dense growth of
+rushes, had brought her to the spot.
+
+The beautiful, motherless young creature, needing counsel, had come to
+old Tabus to appeal to her art of prophecy and, if she wanted them,
+to render her any little services; for the old dame on the island
+was closely bound to Ledscha, the daughter of one of the principal
+ship-owners in Tennis, and had once been even more closely united to the
+girl.
+
+Now, as the sun was about to set, the latter gave herself up to a wild
+tumult of sweet memories, anxious fears, and yearning expectation.
+
+Not until a cool breath from the neighbouring sea fanned her brow did
+she throw down the cord and implement with which she had been adding a
+few meshes to a net, and rising, gaze sometimes across the water at a
+large white house in the northern part of the city, sometimes at the
+little harbour or the vessels on the horizon steering toward Tennis,
+among which her keen eyes discovered a magnificent ship with bright-hued
+sails.
+
+Drawing a long breath, she enjoyed the coolness which precedes the
+departure of the daystar.
+
+But the effect of this harbinger of night upon her surroundings was
+even more powerful than upon herself, for the sun in the western horizon
+scarcely began to sink slowly behind the papyrus thicket on the shore
+of the straight Tanite arm of the Nile, dug by human hands, than one new
+and strange phenomenon followed another.
+
+First a fan, composed of countless glowing rays which spread in dazzling
+radiance over the west, rose from the vanishing orb and for several
+minutes adorned the lofty dome of the deep-blue sky like the tail of
+a gigantic peacock. Then the glitter of the shining plumes paled. The
+light-giving body from which they emanated disappeared and, in its
+stead, a crimson mantle, with gold-bordered, crocus-yellow edges, spread
+itself over the space it had left until the gleaming tints merged into
+the deeper hues of the violet.
+
+But the girl paid no heed to this splendid spectacle. Perhaps she
+noticed how the fading light diffused a delicate rose-hued veil over
+the light-blue sails, embroidered with silver vines, of the approaching
+state galley, making its gilded prow glitter more brightly, and saw one
+fishing boat after another move toward the harbour, but she gave the
+whole scene only a few careless glances.
+
+Ledscha cared little for the poor fishermen of Tennis, and the
+glittering state galley could scarcely bring or bear away anything of
+importance to her.
+
+The epistrategus of the whole province was daily expected. But of what
+consequence to the young girl were the changes which it was rumoured
+he intended to introduce into the government of the country, concerning
+which her father had expressed such bitter dissatisfaction before he set
+out on his last trip to Pontus?
+
+A very different matter occupied her thoughts, and as, pressing her hand
+upon her heart, she gazed at the little city, gleaming with crimson hues
+in the reflection of the setting sun, a strange, restless stir pervaded
+the former stillness of Nature. Pelicans and flamingoes, geese and
+ducks, storks and herons, ibises and cranes, bitterns and lapwings,
+flew in dark flocks of manifold forms from all directions. Countless
+multitudes of waterfowl darkened the air as they alighted upon the
+uninhabited islands, and with ear-splitting croaking and cackling,
+whistling and chirping, clapping and twittering, dropped into the sedges
+and bushes which concealed their nests, while in the city the doors of
+the houses opened, and men, women, and children, after toiling at the
+loom and in the workshop, came out to enjoy the coolness of the evening
+in the open air.
+
+One fishing boat after another was already throwing a rope to the shore,
+as the ship with the gay sails approached the little roadstead.
+
+How large and magnificent it was!
+
+None of the king's officials had ever used such a galley, not even the
+epistrategus of the Delta, who last year had given the banking and the
+oil trade to new lessees. Besides, the two transports that had followed
+the magnificent vessel appeared to belong to it.
+
+Ledscha had watched the ships indifferently enough, but suddenly her
+gaze--and with it the austere beauty of her face--assumed a different
+expression.
+
+Her large black eyes dilated, and with passionate intentness she looked
+from the gaily ornamented galley to the shore, which several men in
+Greek costume were approaching.
+
+The first two had come from the large white house whose door, since
+sunset, had been the principal object of her attention.
+
+It was Hermon, the taller one, for whom she was waiting with old Tabus.
+He had promised to take her from the Owl's Nest, after nightfall, for a
+lonely row upon the water.
+
+Now he was not coming alone, but with his fellow-artist, the
+sculptor Myrtilus, the nomarch and the notary--she recognised both
+distinctly--Gorgias, the rich owner of the second largest weaving
+establishment in Tennis, and several slaves.
+
+What did it mean?
+
+A sudden flush crimsoned her face, now slightly tanned, to the brow, and
+her lips were compressed, giving her mouth an expression of repellent,
+almost cruel harshness.
+
+But the tension of her charming features, whose lines, though sharp,
+were delicately outlined, soon vanished. There was still plenty of
+time before the darkness would permit Hermon to join her unnoticed. A
+reception, from which he could not be absent, was evidently about to
+take place.
+
+Yes, that was certainly the case; for now the magnificent galley had
+approached as near the land as the shallow water permitted, and the
+whistle of the rowers' flute-player, shouts of command, and the barking
+of dogs could be heard.
+
+Then a handkerchief waved a greeting from the vessel to the men on
+shore, but the hand that held it was a woman's. Ledscha would have
+recognised it had the twilight been far deeper.
+
+The features of the new arrival could no longer be distinguished; but
+she must be young. An elderly woman would not have sprung so nimbly into
+the skiff that was to convey her to the land.
+
+The man who assisted her in doing so was the same sculptor, Hermon, for
+whom she had watched with so much longing.
+
+Again the blood mounted into Ledscha's cheeks, and when she saw the
+stranger lay her hand upon the shoulder of the Alexandrian who, only
+yesterday, had assured the young girl of his love with ardent vows, and
+allow him to lift her out of the boat, she buried her little white teeth
+deeply in her lips.
+
+She had never seen Hermon in the society of a woman of his own class,
+and, full of jealous displeasure; perceived with what zealous assiduity
+he who bowed before no one in Tennis, paid court to the stranger no less
+eagerly than did his friend Myrtilus.
+
+The whole scene passed like a shadow in the dusk before Ledscha's eyes,
+half dimmed by uneasiness, perplexity, and suddenly inflamed jealousy.
+
+The Egyptian twilight is short, and when Hermon disappeared with the
+new-comer it was no longer possible to recognise the man who entered the
+very boat in which she was to have taken the nocturnal voyage with her
+lover, and which was now rowed toward the Owl's Nest.
+
+Surely it would bring her a message from Hermon; and as the stranger,
+who was now joined by a number of other women and two packs of barking
+dogs, with their keepers, vanished in the darkness, the skiff already
+touched the shore close at her side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+In spite of the surrounding gloom, Ledscha recognised the man who left
+the boat.
+
+The greeting he shouted told her that it was Hermon's slave, Pias, a
+Biamite, whom she had met in the house of some neighbours who were his
+relatives and had sharply rebuffed when he ventured to accost her more
+familiarly than was seemly for one in bondage.
+
+True, in his childhood this man had lived near Tennis as the son of
+a free papyrus raiser, but when still a lad was sold into slavery in
+Alexandria with his father, who had been seized for taking part in an
+insurrection against the last king.
+
+In the service of Areluas, his present master's uncle, who had given him
+to his nephew, and as the slave of the impetuous yet anything but cruel
+sculptor, Hermon, he had become accustomed to bondage, but was still far
+more strongly attached to his Biamite race than to the Greek, to whom,
+it is true, his master belonged, but who had robbed him and his family
+of freedom.
+
+The man of forty did not lack mother wit, and as his hard fate rendered
+him thoughtful and often led him to use figurative turns of speech,
+which were by no means intended as jests, he had been called by his
+first master "Bias" for the sage of Priene.
+
+In the house of Hermon, who associated with the best artists in
+Alexandria, he had picked up all sorts of knowledge and gladly welcomed
+instruction. His highest desire was to win esteem, and he often did so.
+
+Hermon prized the useful fellow highly. He had no secrets from him, and
+was sure of his silence and good will.
+
+Bias had managed to lure many a young beauty in Alexandria, in whom the
+sculptor had seen a desirable model, to his studio, even under the most
+difficult circumstances; but he was vexed to find that his master had
+cast his eye upon the daughter of one of the most distinguished families
+among his own people. He knew, too, that the Biamites jealously
+guarded the honour of their women, and had represented to Hermon what
+a dangerous game he was playing when he began to offer vows of love to
+Ledscha.
+
+So it was an extremely welcome task to be permitted to inform her that
+she was awaiting his master in vain.
+
+In reply to her inquiry whether it was the aristocrat who had just
+arrived who kept Hermon from her, he admitted that she was right, but
+added that the gods were above even kings, and his master was obliged to
+yield to the Alexandrian's will.
+
+Ledscha laughed incredulously: "He--obey a woman!"
+
+"He certainly would not submit to a man," replied the slave. "Artists,
+you must know, would rather oppose ten of the most powerful men than
+one weak woman, if she is only beautiful. As for the daughter of
+Archias--thereby hangs a tale."
+
+"Archias?" interrupted the girl. "The rich Alexandrian who owns the
+great weaving house?"
+
+"The very man."
+
+"So it is his daughter who is keeping Hermon? And you say he is obliged
+to serve her?"
+
+"As men serve the Deity, to the utmost, or truth," replied the slave
+importantly. "Archias, the father, it is true, imposed upon us the debt
+which is most tardily paid, and which people, even in this country, call
+'gratitude.' We are under obligations to the old man--there's no denying
+it--and therefore also to his only child."
+
+"For what?" Ledscha indignantly exclaimed, and the dark eyebrows which
+met above her delicate nose contracted suspiciously. "I must know!"
+
+"Must!" repeated the slave. "That word is a ploughshare which suits only
+loose soil, and mine, now that my master is waiting for me, can not be
+tilled even by the sharpest. Another time! But if, meanwhile, you have
+any message for Hermon----"
+
+"Nothing," she replied defiantly; but Bias, in a tone of the most eager
+assent, exclaimed: "One friendly word, girl. You are the fairest among
+the daughters of the highest Biamite families, and probably the richest
+also, and therefore a thousand times too good to yield what adorns you
+to the Greek, that it may tickle the curiosity of the Alexandrian apes.
+There are more than enough women in the capital to serve that purpose.
+Trust the experience of a man not wholly devoid of wisdom, my girl. He
+will throw you aside like an empty wine bottle when he has used you for
+a model."
+
+"Used?" interrupted Ledscha disdainfully; but he repeated with firm
+decision: "Yes, used! What could you learn of life, of art and artists,
+here in the weaver's nest in the midst of the waves? I know them. A
+sculptor needs beautiful women as a cobbler wants leather, and the
+charms he seeks in you he does not conceal from his friend Myrtilus, at
+least. They are your large almond-shaped eyes and your arms. They make
+him fairly wild with delight by their curves when, in drawing water, you
+hold the jug balanced on your head. Your slender arched foot, too, is a
+welcome morsel to him."
+
+The darkness prevented Bias from seeing Ledscha's features, but it
+was easy to perceive what was passing in her mind as, hoarse with
+indignation, she gasped: "How can I know the object of your accusations?
+but fie upon the servant who would alienate from his own kind master
+what his soul desires!"
+
+Then Bias changed not only his tone of voice, but his language, and,
+deeply offended, poured forth a torrent of wrath in the dialect of his
+people: "If to guard you, and my master with you, from harm, my words
+had the power to put between you and Hermon the distance which separates
+yonder rising moon from Tennis, I would make them sound as loud as
+the lion's roar. Yet perhaps you would not understand them, for you go
+through life as though you were deaf and blind. Did you ever even ask
+yourself whether the Greek is not differently constituted from the sons
+of the Biamite sailors and fishermen, with whom you grew up, and to whom
+he is an abomination? Yet he is no more like them than poppy juice is
+like pure water. He and his companions turn life upside down. There is
+no more distinction between right and wrong in Alexandria than we here
+in the dark can make between blue and green. To me, the slave, who is
+already growing old, Hermon is a kind master. I know without your
+aid what I owe him, and serve him as loyally as any one; but where he
+threatens to lead to ruin the innocent daughter of the race whose blood
+flows in my veins as well as yours, and in doing so perhaps finally
+destroy himself too, conscience commands me to raise my voice as loud
+as the sentinel crane when danger threatens the flock. Beware, girl, I
+repeat! Keep your beauty, which is now to be degraded to feast the eyes
+of gaping Greeks, for the worthiest husband among our people. Though
+Hermon has vowed, I know not what, your love-dallying will very soon be
+over; we shall leave Tennis within the next few days. When he has gone
+there will be one more deceived Biamite who will call down the curse
+of the gods upon the head of a Greek. You are not the only one who will
+execrate the destiny that brought us here. Others have been caught in
+his net too."
+
+"Here?" asked Ledscha in a hollow tone; and the slave eagerly answered:
+"Where else? And that you may know the truth--among those who visited
+Hermon in his studio is your own young sister."
+
+"Our Taus? That child?" exclaimed the girl, stretching her hands toward
+the slave in horror, as if to ward off some impending disaster.
+
+"That child, who, I think, has grown into a very charming girl--and,
+before her, pretty Gula, the wife of Paseth, who, like your father, is
+away on his ship."
+
+Here, in a tone of triumphant confidence, the answer rang from the
+Biamite's lips: "There the slanderer stands revealed! Now you are
+detected, now I perceive the meaning of your threat. Because, miserable
+slave, you cherish the mad hope of beguiling me yourself, you do your
+utmost to estrange me from your master. Gula, you say, visited Hermon
+in his studio, and it may be true. But though I have been at home only
+a short time, Tennis is too full of the praises of the heroic Greek
+who, at the risk of his own life, rescued a child from Paseth's burning
+house, for the tale not to reach my ears from ten or a dozen different
+quarters. Gula is the mother of the little girl whose life was saved
+by Hermon's bold deed, and perhaps the young mother only knocked at her
+benefactor's door to thank him; but you, base defamer--"
+
+"I," Bias continued, maintaining his composure with difficulty, "I saw
+Gula secretly glide into our rooms again and again to permit her child's
+preserver to imitate in clay what he considered beautiful. To seek your
+love, as you know, the slave forbade himself, although a man no more
+loses tender desires with his freedom than the tree which is encircled
+by a fence ceases to put forth buds and blossoms. Eros chooses the
+slave's heart also as the target for his arrows; but his aim at yours
+was better than at mine. Now I know how deeply he wounds, and so, as
+soon as yonder ship in the harbour bears our visitor away again, I shall
+see you, Schalit's daughter, Ledscha, standing before Hermon's modelling
+table and behold him scan your beauty to determine what seems worth
+copying."
+
+The Biamite, panting for breath, had listened to the end. Then, raising
+her little clinched hand menacingly, she muttered through her set teeth:
+"Let him try even to touch my veil with his fingers! If I had not been
+obliged to go away, this would not have happened to my Taus and luckless
+Gula."
+
+"Scarcely," replied Bias calmly. "If the chicken runs into the water,
+the hen can not save it. For the rest--I grew up as a boy in freedom
+with the husband of your sister, who summoned you to her aid. His
+father's brick-kiln was next to our papyrus plantation. Then we fared
+like so many others--the great devour the small, the just cause is
+the lost one, and the gods are like men. My father, who drew the
+sword against oppression and violence, was robbed of liberty, and your
+brother-in-law, in payment for his honest courage, met an early death.
+Is the story which is told of you here true? I heard that soon after the
+poor fellow's burial the slaves in the brick-kiln refused to obey his
+widow. There were a dozen rebellious brick-moulders, and you--one can
+forgive you much for it--you, the weak girl----"
+
+"I am not weak," interrupted Ledscha proudly. "I could have taught three
+times twelve of the scoundrels who was master. Now they obey my sister,
+and yet I wish I had stayed in Tennis. Our Taus," she continued in a
+more gentle tone, "is still so young, and our mother died when she was
+a little child; but I, fool, who should have warned her, left her alone,
+and if she yielded to Hermon's temptations the fault is mine, wholly
+mine."
+
+During this outburst the light of the fire, which old Tabus had fed with
+fresh straw and dry rushes, fell upon the face of the agitated girl. It
+revealed her thoughts plainly enough, and, pleased with the success of
+his warning, Bias exclaimed: "And Ledscha, you, too, will not grant him
+that from which you would so gladly have withheld your sister. So I will
+go and tell my master that you refuse to give him another appointment."
+
+He had confidently expected an assent, and therefore started indignantly
+at her exclamation: "I intend to do just the contrary." Yet she eagerly
+added, as if in explanation: "He must give me an account of himself, no
+matter where, and, since it can not be to-day, to-morrow at latest."
+
+The slave, disappointed and anxious, now tried to make her understand
+how foolish and hard to accomplish her wish was, but she obstinately
+insisted upon having her own way.
+
+Bias angrily turned his back upon her and, in the early light of the
+moon, walked toward the shore, but she hastened after him, seized his
+arm and, with imperious firmness, commanded: "You will stay! I must
+first know whether Hermon really means to leave Tennis so soon."
+
+"That was his intention early this morning," replied the other,
+releasing himself from her grasp. "What are we to do here longer, now
+that his work is as good as finished?"
+
+"But when is he going?" she urged with increased eagerness.
+
+"Day after to-morrow," was the reply, "in five, or perhaps even in six
+days, just as it suits him. Usually we do not even know to-day what
+is to be done to-morrow. So long as the Alexandrian remains, he will
+scarcely leave her, or Myrtilus either. Probably she will take both
+hunting with her, for, though a kind, fair-minded woman, she loves the
+chase, and as both have finished their work, they probably will not be
+reluctant to go with Daphne."
+
+He stepped into the boat as he spoke, but Ledscha again detained him,
+asking impatiently: "And 'the work,' as you call it? It was covered
+with a cloth when I visited the studio, but Hermon himself termed it the
+statue of a goddess. Yet what it represents--Does it look like my sister
+Taus--enough like her, I mean, to be recognised?"
+
+A half-compassionate, half-mocking smile flitted over the Biamite's
+copper-coloured visage, and in a tone of patronizing instruction assumed
+by the better informed, he began: "You are thinking of the face? Why no,
+child! What that requires can be found in the countenance of no Biamite,
+hardly even in yours, the fairest of all."
+
+"And the goddess's figure?" asked Ledscha eagerly.
+
+"For that he first used as a model the fair-haired Heliodora, whom
+he summoned from Alexandria, and as the wild cat could endure the
+loneliness only a fortnight, the sisters Nico and Pagis came together.
+But Tennis was too quiet for them too. The rabble can only be contented
+among those of their own sort in the capital. But the great preliminary
+work was already finished before we left Alexandria."
+
+"And Gula--my sister?"
+
+"They were not used for the Demeter," said the slave, smiling. "Just
+think, that slender scarcely grown creature, Taus, and the matronly
+patroness of marriage. And Gula? True, her little round face is fresh
+and not ill-looking--but the model of a goddess requires something more.
+That can only be obtained in Alexandria. What do not the women there do
+for the care of the body! They learn it in the Aphrodision, as the boys
+study reading and writing. But you! What do you here know even about
+colouring the eyelids and the lips, curling the hair, and treating the
+nails on the hands and feet? And the clothes! You let them hang just as
+you put them on, and my master's work is full of folds and little lines
+in the robe and the peplos--But I have staid too long already. Do you
+really insist upon meeting Hermon again?
+
+"I will and must see him," she eagerly declared.
+
+"Well, then," he answered harshly. "But if you cast my warning to the
+winds, pity will also fly away with it."
+
+"I do not need it," the girl retorted in a contemptuous tone.
+
+"Then let Fate take its course," said the slave, shrugging his shoulders
+regretfully. "My master shall learn what you wish. I shall remain at
+home until the market is empty. There are plenty of servants at your
+farm. Your messenger shall bring you Hermon's answer."
+
+"I will come myself and wait for it under the acacia," she cried
+hastily, and went toward the house, but this time it was Bias who called
+her back.
+
+Ledscha reluctantly fulfilled his wish, but she soon regretted it, for
+though what he had to say was doubtless kindly meant, it contained a
+fresh and severe offence: the slave represented to her the possibility
+that, so long as the daughter of Archias remained his guest, Hermon
+might rebuff her like a troublesome beggar.
+
+Then, as if sure of her cause, she indignantly cut short his words: "You
+measure him according to your own standard, and do not know what depends
+upon it for us. Remind him of the full moon on the coming night and,
+though ten Alexandrians detained him, he would escape from them to hear
+what I bring him."
+
+With these words Ledscha again turned her back upon him, but Bias, with
+a low imprecation, pushed the boat from the shore and rowed toward the
+city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+When Ledscha heard the strokes of the oars she stopped again and, with
+glowing cheeks, gazed after the boat and the glimmering silver furrow
+which it left upon the calm surface of the moonlit water.
+
+Her heart was heavy. The doubts of her lover's sincerity which the slave
+had awakened tortured her proud soul.
+
+Was Hermon really only trifling mischievously with her affection?
+
+Surely it was impossible.
+
+She would rather endure everything, everything, than this torturing
+uncertainty.
+
+Yet she was here on the Owl's Nest to seek the aid of old Tabus's magic
+arts. If any one could give her satisfaction, it was she and the demons
+who obeyed her will, and the old woman was glad to oblige Ledscha; she
+was bound to her by closer ties than most people in Tennis knew.
+
+Ledscha had no cause to be ashamed of her frequent visits to the Owl's
+Nest, for old Tabus had no equal as a leech and a prophetess, and the
+corsair family, of which she was the female head, stood in high repute
+among the Biamites. People bore them no ill-will because they practised
+piracy; many of their race pursued the same calling, and the sailors
+made common cause with them.
+
+Ledscha's father, too, was on good terms with the pirates, and when
+Abus, a handsome fellow who commanded his father's second ship and had
+won a certain degree of renown by many a bold deed, sought the hand
+of his oldest daughter, he did not refuse him, and only imposed the
+condition that when he had gained riches enough and made Ledscha his
+wife, he would cease his piratical pursuits and, in partnership with
+him, take goods and slaves from Pontus to the Syrian and Egyptian
+harbours, and grain and textiles from the Nile to the coasts of the
+Black Sea.
+
+Young Abus had yielded to this demand, since his grandmother on the
+Owl's Nest thought it wise to delay for a time the girl's marriage to
+him, the best beloved of her grandsons; she was then scarcely beyond
+childhood.
+
+Yet Ledscha had felt a strong affection for the young pirate, in
+whom she saw the embodiment of heroic manhood. She accompanied him
+in imagination through all his perilous expeditions; but she had been
+permitted to enjoy his society only after long intervals for a few days.
+
+Once he remained absent longer than usual, and this very voyage was to
+have been his last on a pirate craft--the peaceful seafaring life was to
+begin, after his landing, with the marriage.
+
+Ledscha had expected her lover's return with eager longing, but week
+after week elapsed, yet nothing was seen or heard of the ships owned by
+the Owl's Nest family; then a rumour spread that this time the corsairs
+were defeated in a battle with the Syrian war-galleys.
+
+The first person who received sure tidings was old Tabus. Her grandson
+Hanno, who escaped with his life, at the bidding of his father Satabus,
+who revered his mother, had made his way to her amid great perils to
+convey the sorrowful news. Two of the best ships in the family had
+been sunk, and on one the brave Abus, Ledscha's betrothed husband, who
+commanded it, had lost his life; on the other the aged dame's oldest son
+and three of her grandchildren.
+
+Tabus fell as if struck by lightning when she heard the tidings, and
+since that time her tongue had lost its power of fluent speech, her ear
+its sharpness; but Ledscha did not leave her side, and saved her life by
+tireless, faithful nursing.
+
+Neither Satabus, the old woman's second son, who now commanded the
+little pirate fleet, nor his sons, Hanno and Labaja, had been seen in
+the neighbourhood of Tennis since the disaster, but after Tabus had
+recovered sufficiently to provide for herself, Ledscha returned to
+Tennis to manage her father's great household and supply the mother's
+place to her younger sister, Taus.
+
+She had not recovered the careless cheerfulness of earlier years, but,
+graver than the companions of her own age, she absented herself from
+the gaieties of the Biamite maidens. Meanwhile her beauty had increased
+wonderfully, and, attracting attention far and wide, drew many suitors
+from neighbouring towns to Tennis. Only a few, however, had made offers
+of marriage to her father; the beautiful girl's cold, repellent manner
+disheartened them. She herself desired nothing better; yet it secretly
+incensed her and pierced her soul with pain to see herself at twenty
+unwedded, while far less attractive companions of her own age had long
+been wives and mothers.
+
+The arduous task which she had performed a short time before for her
+widowed sister had increased the seriousness of her disposition to
+sullen moroseness.
+
+After her return home she often rowed to the Owl's Nest, for Ledscha
+felt bound to old Tabus, and, so far as lay in her power, under
+obligation to atone for the injury which the horror of her lover's
+sudden death had inflicted upon his grandmother.
+
+Now she had at last been subjugated by a new passion--love for the Greek
+sculptor Hermon, who did his best to win the heart of the Biamite girl,
+whose austere, extremely singular beauty attracted his artist eyes.
+
+To-day Ledscha had come to the sorceress to learn from her what awaited
+her and her love. She had landed on the island, sure of favourable
+predictions, but now her hopes lay as if crushed by hailstones.
+
+If Bias, who was superior to an ordinary slave, was right, she was to be
+degraded to a toy and useful tool by the man who had already proved
+his pernicious power over other women of her race, even her own young
+sister, whom she had hitherto guarded with faithful care. It had by no
+means escaped her notice that the girl was concealing something from
+her, though she did not perceive the true cause of the change.
+
+The bright moonbeams, which now wove a silvery web over every
+surrounding object, seemed like a mockery of her darkened soul.
+
+If the demons of the heights and depths had been subject to her, as to
+the aged enchantress she would have commanded them to cover the heavens
+with black clouds. Now they must show her what she had to hope or to
+fear.
+
+She shook her head slightly, as if she no longer believed in a
+favourable turn of affairs, pushed the little curls which had escaped
+from the wealth of her black hair back from her forehead with her
+slender hand, and walked firmly to the house.
+
+The old dame was crouching beside the hearth in the middle room, turning
+the metal spit, on which she had put the ducks, over the freshly kindled
+fire.
+
+The smoke hurt her eyes, which were slightly inflamed, yet they seemed
+to serve their purpose better than her half-dulled ear, for, after a
+swift glance at Ledscha, she stammered in her faltering speech: "What
+has happened? Nothing good, certainly. It is written on your face."
+
+The girl nodded assent, pointed with a significant gesture to her eyes
+and the open air, and went down to the shore again to convince herself
+that no other vessel was approaching.
+
+What she had to confide to Tabus was intended for her alone, and
+experience taught how far spoken words could be heard at night over the
+water.
+
+When she had returned to the hut, she bent down to the old woman's ear
+and, holding her curved hand to her lips, cried, "He is not coming!"
+
+Tabus shrugged her shoulders, and the smile of satisfaction which
+flitted over her brown, wrinkled face showed that the news was welcome.
+
+For her murdered grandson's sake the girl's confession that she had
+given her heart to a Greek affected her painfully; but Tabus also had
+something else on her mind for her beautiful darling.
+
+Now she only intimated by a silent nod that she understood Ledscha, and
+her head remained constantly in motion as the latter continued: "True,
+I shall see him again to-morrow, but when we part, it will hardly be
+in love. At any rate--do you hear, grandmother?--to-morrow must decide
+everything. Therefore--do you understand me?--you must question the
+cords now, to-night, for to-morrow evening what they advised might be
+too late."
+
+"Now?" repeated Tabus in surprise, letting her gaze rest inquiringly
+upon the girl. Then she took the spit from the fire, exclaiming angrily:
+"Directly, do you mean? As if that could be! As if the stars obeyed
+us mortals like maids or men servants! The moon must be at the full to
+learn the truth from the cords. Wait, child! What is life but waiting?
+Only have patience, girl! True, few know how to practise this art at
+your age, and it is alien to many all their lives. But the stars! From
+them, the least and the greatest, man can learn to go his way patiently,
+year by year. Always the same course and the same pace. No deviation
+even one hair's breadth, no swifter or slower movement for the unresting
+wanderers. No sudden wrath, no ardent desire, no weariness or aversion
+urges or delays them. How I love and honour them! They willingly submit
+to the great law until the end of all things. What they appoint for
+this hour is for it alone, not for the next one. Everything in the vast
+universe is connected with them. Whoever should delay their course a
+moment would make the earth reel. Night would become day, the rivers
+would return to their sources. People would walk on their heads
+instead of their feet, joy would be transformed to sorrow and power to
+servitude. Therefore, child, the full moon has a different effect from
+the waxing or waning one during the other twenty-nine nights of the
+month. To ask of one what belongs to another is to expect an answer from
+the foreigner who does not understand your language. How young you are,
+child, and how foolish! To question the cords for you in the moonlight
+now is to expect to gather grapes from thorns. Take my word for that!"
+
+Here she interrupted the words uttered with so much difficulty, and
+with her blackish-blue cotton dress wiped her perspiring face, strangely
+flushed by the exertion and the firelight.
+
+Ledscha had listened with increasing disappointment.
+
+The wise old dame was doubtless right, yet before she ventured to the
+sculptor's workshop the next day she must know at every cost how matters
+stood, what she had to fear or to hope from him; so after a brief
+silence she ventured to ask the question, "But are there only the stars
+and the cords which predict what fate holds in store for one who is so
+nearly allied to you?"
+
+"No, child, no," was the reply. "But nothing can be clone about looking
+into the future now. It requires rigid fasting from early dawn, and I
+ate the dates you brought me. I inhaled the odor of the roasting ducks,
+too, and then--it must be done at midnight; and at midnight your people
+will be anxious if you are not at home by that time, or perhaps send a
+slave to seek you here at my house, and that--that must not be done--I
+must prevent it."
+
+"So you are expecting some one," Ledscha eagerly replied. "And I know
+who it is. Your son Satabus, or one of your grandsons. Else why are the
+ducks cooked? And for what is the wine jar which I just took from its
+hiding place?"
+
+A vehement gesture of denial from Tabus contradicted the girl's
+conjecture; but directly after she scanned her with a keen, searching
+glance, and said: "No, no. We have nothing to fear from you, surely.
+Poor Abus! Through him you will always belong to us. In spite of the
+Greek, ours you are and ours you will remain. The stars confirm it,
+and you have always been faithful to the old woman. You are shrewd and
+steadfast. You would have been the right mate for him who was also wise
+and firm. Poor, dear, brave boy! But why pity him? Because the salt
+waves now flow over him? Fools that we are! There is nothing better than
+death, for it is peace. And almost all of them have found it. Of nine
+sons and twenty grandsons, only three are left. The others are all
+calm after so much conflict and danger. How long ago it is since seven
+perished at once! The last three their turn will come too. How I envy
+them that best of blessings, only may they not also go before me!"
+
+Here she lowered her voice, and in a scarcely audible whisper murmured:
+"You shall know it. My son Satabus, with his brave boys Hanno and
+Labaja, are coming later in the evening. About midnight--if ye protect
+them, ye powers above--they will be with me. And you, child, I know your
+soul to its inmost depths. Before you would betray the last of Abus's
+kindred--"
+
+"My hand and tongue should wither!" Ledscha passionately interrupted,
+and then, with zealous feminine solicitude, she asked whether the three
+ducks would suffice to satisfy the hunger of these strong men.
+
+The old woman smiled and pointed to a pile of fresh leaves heaped one
+above another, beneath which lay several fine shad. They were not to be
+cooked until the expected visitors arrived, and she had plenty of bread
+besides.
+
+In the presence of these proofs of maternal solicitude the morose,
+wrinkled countenance of the old sorceress wore a kind, almost tender
+expression, and the light of joyous anticipation beamed upon her young
+guest from her red-rimmed eyes.
+
+"I am to see them once more!" cried Tabus in an agitated tone. "The
+last--and all three, all! If they--But no; they will not set to work so
+near Pelusium. No, no! They will not, lest they should spoil the meeting
+with the old woman. Oh, they are kind; no one knows how kind my rough
+Satabus can be. He would be your father now, girl, if we could have kept
+our Abus--he was the best of all--longer. It is fortunate that you are
+here, for they must see you, and it would have been hard for me to fetch
+the other things: the salt, the Indian pepper, and the jug of Pelusinian
+zythus, which Satabus is always so fond of drinking."
+
+Then Ledscha went into the ruinous left wing of the house, where she
+took from a covered hole in the floor what the old woman had kept for
+the last of her race, and she performed her task gladly and with rare
+skill.
+
+Next she prepared the fish and the pan, and while her hands were moving
+busily she earnestly entreated the old woman to gratify her wish and
+look into the future for her.
+
+Tabus, however, persisted in her refusal, until Ledscha again called her
+"grandmother," and entreated her, by the heads of the three beloved ones
+whom she expected, to fulfil her desire.
+
+Then the old dame rose, and while the girl, panting for breath, took the
+roasted ducks from the spit, the former, with her own trembling hands,
+drew from the little chest which she kept concealed behind a heap of dry
+reeds, branches, and straw, a shining copper dish, tossed the gold coins
+which had been in it back into the box, and moistened the bottom with
+the blackish-red juice of the grape from the wine jar.
+
+After carefully making these preparations she called Ledscha and
+repeated that the cords possessed the power of prophecy only on nights
+when the moon was full, and that she would use another means of looking
+into the future.
+
+Then she commanded the girl to let her hands rest now and to think of
+nothing except the questions whose answer she had at heart. Lastly,
+she muttered into the vessel a series of incantations, which Ledscha
+repeated after her, and gazed as if spellbound at the dark liquid which
+covered the bottom.
+
+The girl, panting for breath, watched every movement of the sorceress,
+but some time elapsed ere the latter suddenly exclaimed, "There he is!"
+and then, without removing her eyes from the bottom of the vessel, she
+went on, with faltering accents, as though she was describing a scene
+close before her eyes. "Two young men-both Greeks, if the dress does not
+deceive--one is at your right hand, the other at your left. The former
+is fair-haired; the glance of his eyes is deep and constant. It is he,
+I think--But no! His image is fading, and you are turning your back upon
+him. You do it intentionally. No, no, you two are not destined for each
+other. You think of the one with the waving black hair and beard--of him
+alone. He is growing more and more distinct--a handsome man, and how his
+brow shines! Yet his glance--it sees more than that of many others, but,
+like the rest of his nature, it lacks steadfastness."
+
+Here she paused, raised her shaking head, looked at Ledscha's flushed
+face, and in a grave, warning tone, said: "Many signs of happiness, but
+also many dark shadows and black spots. If he is the one, child, you
+must be on your guard."
+
+"He is," murmured the girl softly, as if speaking to herself.
+
+But the deaf old crone had read the words from her lips, and while
+gazing intently at the wine, went on impatiently: "If the picture would
+only grow more distinct! As it was, so it has remained. And now! The
+image of the fair man with the deep-blue eyes melts away entirely, and a
+gray cloud flutters between you and the other one with the black beard.
+If it would only scatter! But we shall never make any progress in this
+way. Now pay attention, girl."
+
+The words had an imperious tone, and with outstretched head and
+throbbing heart Ledscha awaited the old woman's further commands.
+
+They came at once and ordered her to confess, as freely and openly as
+though she was talking to herself, where she had met the man whom she
+loved, how he had succeeded in snaring her heart, and how he repaid her
+for the passion which he had awakened.
+
+These commands were so confused and mingled in utterance that any one
+less familiar with the speaker would scarcely have comprehended what
+they required of her, but Ledscha understood and was ready to obey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+This reserved, thoroughly self-reliant creature would never have
+betrayed to any human being what moved her soul and filled it some times
+with inspiring hope, sometimes with a consuming desire for vengeance;
+but Ledscha did not shrink from confiding it to the demons who were to
+help her to regain her composure.
+
+So, obeying a swift impulse, she threw herself on her knees by the old
+woman's side. Then, supporting her head with her hands, she gazed at the
+still glimmering fire, and, as if one memory after another received new
+life from it, she began the difficult confession:
+
+"I returned from my sister's brick-kiln a fortnight ago," she commenced,
+while the sorceress leaned her deaf ear nearer to her lips.
+
+"During my absence something--I know not what it was--had saddened the
+cheerful spirits of my young sister Taus. At the recent festival of
+Astarte she regained them, and obtained some beautiful bright flowers
+to make wreaths for herself and me. So we joined the procession of the
+Tennis maidens and, as the fairest, they placed us directly behind the
+daughters of Hiram.
+
+"When we were about to go home after the sacrifice, two young Greeks
+approached us and greeted Hiram's daughters and my sister also.
+
+"One was a quiet young man, with narrow shoulders and light, curling
+hair; the other towered above him in stature. His powerful figure was
+magnificently formed, and he carried his head with its splendid black
+beard proudly.
+
+"Since the gods snatched Abus from me, though so many men had wooed me,
+I had cared for no one; but the fair-haired Greek with the sparkling
+light in his blue eyes and the faint flush on his cheeks pleased me, and
+his name, 'Myrtilus,' fell upon my ear like music. I was glad when he
+joined me and asked, as simply as though he were merely inquiring the
+way, why he had never seen me, the loveliest among the beauties in the
+temple, in Tennis.
+
+"I scarcely noticed the other. Besides, he seemed to have eyes only
+for Taus and the daughters of Hiram. He played all sorts of pranks with
+them, and they laughed so heartily that, fearing the strangers, of whom
+there was no lack, might class them with the Hieroduli who followed
+the sailors and young men in the temple grottoes, I motioned to Taus to
+restrain herself.
+
+"Hermon--this was the name of the tall, bearded man--noticed it and
+turned toward me. In doing so his eyes met mine, and it seemed as though
+sweet wine flowed through my veins, for I perceived that my appearance
+paralyzed his reckless tongue. Yet he did not accost me; but Myrtilus,
+the fair one, entreated me not to lessen for the beautiful children the
+pleasure to which we are all born.
+
+"I thought this remark foolish--how much sorrow and how little pleasure
+I had experienced from childhood!--so I only shrugged my shoulders
+disdainfully.
+
+"Then the black-bearded man asked if, young and beautiful as I was, I
+had forgotten to believe in mirth and joy. My reply was intended to tell
+him that, though this was not the case, I did not belong to those who
+spent their lives in loud laughing and extravagant jests.
+
+"The answer was aimed at the black-bearded man's reckless conduct; but
+the fair-haired one parried the attack in his stead, and retorted that I
+seemed to misunderstand his friend. Pleasure belonged to a festival, as
+light belonged to the sun; but usually Hermon laboured earnestly, and
+only a short time before he had saved the little daughter of Gula, the
+sailor's wife, from a burning house.
+
+"The other did not let Myrtilus finish, but exclaimed that this would
+only confirm my opinion of him, for this very leap into the flames had
+afforded him the utmost joy.
+
+"The words fell from his bearded lips as if the affair was very simple,
+a mere matter of course, yet I knew that the bold deed had nearly cost
+him his life--I said to myself that no one but our Abus would have done
+it, and then I may have looked at him more kindly, for he cried out that
+I, too, understood how to smile, and would never cease doing so if I
+knew how it became me.
+
+"As he spoke he turned away from the girls to my side, while Myrtilus
+joined them. Hermon's handsome face had become grave and thoughtful, and
+when our eyes met I could have wished that they would never part again.
+But on account of the others I soon looked down at the ground and we
+walked on in this way, side by side, for some distance; but as he
+did not address a word to me, only sometimes gazed into my face as if
+seeking or examining, I grew vexed and asked him why he, who had just
+entertained the others gaily enough, had suddenly become so silent.
+
+"He shook his head and answered--every word impressed itself firmly upon
+my memory: 'Because speech fails even the eloquent when confronted with
+a miracle.'
+
+"What, except me and my beauty, could be meant by that? But he probably
+perceived how strangely his words confused me, for he suddenly seized
+my hand, pressing it so firmly that it hurt me, and while I tried to
+withdraw it he whispered, 'How the immortals must love you, that they
+lend you so large a share of their own divine beauty!'"
+
+"Greek honey," interposed the sorceress, "but strong enough to turn such
+a poor young head. And what more happened? The demons desire to hear
+all--all--down to the least detail--all!"
+
+"The least detail?" repeated Ledscha reluctantly, gazing into vacancy
+as if seeking aid. Then, pressing her hand on her brow, she indignantly
+exclaimed: "Ah, if I only knew myself how it conquered me so quickly! If
+I could understand and put it into intelligible words, I should need
+no stranger's counsel to regain my peace of mind. But as it is! I was
+driven by my anxiety from temple to temple, and now to you and your
+demons. I went from hour to hour as though in a burning fever. If I
+left the house firmly resolved to bethink myself and, as I had bidden my
+sister, avoid danger and the gossip of the people, my feet still led me
+only where he desired to meet me. Oh, and how well he understood how to
+flatter, to describe my beauty! Surely it was impossible not to believe
+in it and trust its power!"
+
+Here she hesitated, and while gazing silently into vacancy a sunny
+light flitted over her grave face, and, drawing a long breath, she began
+again: "I could curse those days of weakness and ecstasy which now--at
+least I hope so--are over. Yet they were wonderfully beautiful, and
+never can I forget them!"
+
+Here she again bowed her head silently, but the old dame nodded
+encouragingly, saying eagerly; "Well, well! I understand all that, and
+I shall learn what more is coming, for whatever appears in the mirror
+of the wine is infallible--but it must become still more distinct. Let
+me--first conjure up the seventy-seven great and the seven hundred and
+seventy-seven little demons. They will do their duty, if you open your
+heart to us without reserve."
+
+This demand sounded urgent enough, and Ledscha pressed her head against
+the old woman's shoulder as if seeking assistance, exclaiming: "I can
+not--no, I can not! As if the spirits who obey you did not know already
+what had happened and will happen in the future! Let them search the
+depths of my soul. There they will see, with their own eyes, what I
+should never, never succeed in describing. I could not tell even
+you, grandmother, for who among the Biamites ever found such lofty,
+heart-bewitching words as Hermon? And what looks, what language he had
+at command, when he desired to put an end to my jealous complaints!
+Could I still be angry with him, when he confessed that there were other
+beauties here whom he admired, and then gazed deep into my eyes and said
+that when I appeared they all vanished like the stars at sunrise? Then
+every reproach was forgotten, and resentment was transformed into doubly
+ardent longing. This, however, by no means escaped his keen glance,
+which detects everything, and so he urged me with touching, ardent
+entreaties to go with him to his studio, though but for one poor, brief
+hour."
+
+"And you granted his wish?" Tabus anxiously interrupted.
+
+"Yes," she answered frankly, "but it was the evening of the day before
+yesterday--that was the only time. Secrecy--nothing, Grand mother, was
+more hateful to me from childhood."
+
+"But he," the old woman again interrupted, "he--I know it--he praised it
+to you as the noblest virtue."
+
+A silent nod from Ledscha confirmed this conjecture, and she added
+hesitatingly: "'Only far from the haunts of men,' he said, 'when the
+light had vanished, did we hear the nightingale trill in the
+dark thickets. Those are his own words, and though it angers you,
+Grandmother, they are true."
+
+"Until the secrecy is over, and the sun shines upon misery," the
+sorceress answered in her faltering speech, with menacing severity.
+
+"And beneath the tempter's roof you enjoyed the lauded secret love until
+the cock roused you?"
+
+"No," replied Ledscha firmly. "Did I ever tell you a lie, that you look
+at me so incredulously?"
+
+"Incredulously?" replied the old woman in protest. "I only trembled at
+the danger into which you plunged."
+
+"There could be no greater peril," the girl admitted. "I foresaw it
+clearly enough, and yet--this is the most terrible part of it--yet my
+feet moved as if obeying a will of their own, instead of mine, and when
+I crossed his threshold, resistance was silenced, for I was received
+like a princess. The lofty, spacious apartment was brilliantly
+illuminated, and the door was garlanded with flowers.
+
+"It was magnificent! Then, in a manner as respectful as if welcoming an
+illustrious guest, he invited me to take my place opposite to him, that
+he might form a goddess after my model. This was the highest flattery of
+all, and I willingly assumed the position he directed, but he looked
+at me from every side, with sparkling eyes, and asked me to let down my
+hair and remove the veil from the back of my head. Then--need I assure
+you of it?--my blood boiled with righteous indignation; but instead of
+being ashamed of the outrage, he raised his hand to my head and pulled
+the veil. Resentment and wrath suddenly flamed in my soul, and before he
+could detain me I had left the room. In spite of his representations and
+entreaties, I did not enter it again."
+
+"Yet," asked the sorceress in perplexity, "you once more obeyed his
+summons?"
+
+"Yesterday also I could not help it," Ledscha answered softly.
+
+"Fool!" cried Tabus indignantly, but the girl exclaimed, in a tone of
+sincere shame: "You do well to call me that. Perhaps I deserve still
+harsher names, for, in spite of the sternness with which I forbade him
+ever to remind me of the studio by even a single word, I soon listened
+to him willingly when he besought me, if I really loved him, not to
+refuse what would make him happy. If I allowed him to model my figure,
+his renown and greatness would be secured. And how clearly he made me
+understand this! I could not help believing it, and at last promised
+that, in spite of my father and the women of Tennis, I would grant all,
+all, and accompany him again to the work room if he would have patience
+until the night of the next day but one, when the moon would be at the
+full."
+
+"And he?" asked Tabus anxiously.
+
+"He called the brief hours which I required him to wait an eternity,"
+replied the girl, "and they seemed no less long to me--but neither
+entreaties nor urgency availed; what you predicted for me from the
+cords last year strengthened my courage. I should wantonly throw away--I
+constantly reminded myself--whatever great good fortune Fate destined
+for me if I yielded to my longing and took prematurely what was already
+so close at hand; for--do you remember?--at that time it was promised
+that on a night when the moon was at the full a new period of the
+utmost happiness would begin for me. And now--unless everything deceives
+me--now it awaits me. Whether it will come with the full moon of
+to-morrow night, or the next, or the following one, your spirits
+alone can know; but yesterday was surely too soon to expect the new
+happiness."
+
+"And he?" asked the old dame.
+
+"He certainly did not make it easy for me," was the reply, "but as
+I remained firm, he was obliged to yield. I granted only his earnest
+desire to see me again this evening. I fancy I can still hear him
+exclaim, with loving impetuosity, that he hated every day and every
+night which kept him from me. And now? Now? For another's sake he lets
+me wait for him in vain, and if his slave does not lie, this is only the
+beginning of his infamous, treacherous game."
+
+She had uttered the last words in a hoarse cry, but Tabus answered
+soothingly: "Hush, child, hush! The first thing is to see clearly, if
+I am to interpret correctly what is shown me here. The demons are to
+be fully informed they have required it. But you? Did you come to hear
+whether the spirits still intend to keep the promise they made then?"
+
+Ledscha eagerly assented to this question, and the old woman continued
+urgently: "Then tell me first what suddenly incenses you so violently
+against the man whom you have so highly praised?"
+
+The girl related what had formerly been rumoured in Tennis, and which
+she had just heard from the slave.
+
+He had lured other women--even her innocent young sister--to his studio.
+Now he wanted to induce Ledscha to go there, not from love, but merely
+to model her limbs so far as he considered them useful for his work.
+He was in haste to do so because he intended to return to the capital
+immediately. Whether he meant to leave her in the lurch after using her
+for his selfish purposes, she also desired to learn from the sorceress.
+But she would ask him that question herself to-morrow. Woe betide him if
+the spirits recognised in him the deceiver she now believed him.
+
+Hitherto Tabus had listened quietly, but when she closed her passionate
+threats with the exclamation that he also deserved punishment for
+alienating Gula, the sailor's wife, from her absent husband, the
+enchantress also lost her composure and cried out angrily: "If that
+is true, if the Greek really committed that crime--then certainly. The
+foreigners destroy, with their laughing levity, much that is good among
+us. We must endure it; but whoever broke the Biamite's marriage bond,
+from the earliest times, forfeited his life, and so, the gods be
+thanked, it has remained. This very last year the fisherman Phabis
+killed with a hammer the Alexandrian clerk who had stolen into his
+house, and drowned his faithless wife. But your lover--though you should
+weep for sorrow till your eyes are red--"
+
+"I would denounce the traitor, if he made himself worthy of death,"
+Ledscha passionately interrupted, with flashing eyes. "What portion
+of the slave's charge is true will appear at once--and if it proves
+correct, to morrow's full moon shall indeed bring me the greatest bliss;
+for though, when I was younger and happier, I contradicted Abus when he
+declared that one thing surpassed even the raptures of love--satisfied
+vengeance--now I would agree with him."
+
+A loud cry of "Right! right!" from the old crone's lips expressed the
+gray-haired Biamite's pleasure in this worthy daughter of her race.
+
+Then she again gazed at the wine in the vessel, and this time she did so
+silently, as if spellbound by the mirror on its bottom.
+
+At last, raising her aged head, she said in a tone of the most sincere
+compassion: "Poor child! Yes, you would be cruelly and shamefully
+deceived. Tear your love for this man from your heart, like poisonous
+hemlock. But the full moon which is to bring you great happiness is
+scarcely the next, perhaps not even the one which follows it, but surely
+and certainly a later one will rise, by whose light the utmost bliss
+awaits you. True, I see it come from another man than the Greek."
+
+The girl had listened with panting breath. She believed as firmly in the
+infallibility of the knowledge which the witch received from the demons
+who obeyed her as she did in her own existence.
+
+All her happiness, all that had filled her joyous soul with freshly
+awakened hopes, now lay shattered at her feet, and sobbing aloud she
+threw herself down beside the old woman and buried her beautiful face in
+her lap.
+
+Completely overwhelmed by the great misfortune which had come upon her,
+without thinking of the vengeance which had just made her hold her head
+so proudly erect, or the rare delight which a later full moon was to
+bring, she remained motionless, while the old woman, who loved her and
+who remembered an hour in the distant past when she herself had been
+dissolved in tears at the prediction of another prophetess, laid her
+trembling hand upon her head.
+
+Let the child weep her fill.
+
+Time, perhaps vengeance also, cured many a heartache, and when they had
+accomplished this office upon the girl who had once been betrothed to
+her grandson, perhaps the full moon bringing happiness, whose appearance
+first the cords, then the wine mirror in the bottom of the vessel had
+predicted, would come to Ledscha, and she believed she knew at whose
+side the girl could regain what she had twice lost--satisfaction for the
+young heart that yearned for love.
+
+"Only wait, wait," she cried at last, repeating the consoling words
+again and again, till Ledscha raised her tear-stained face.
+
+Impulse urged her to kiss the sufferer, but as she bent over the mourner
+the copper dish slipped from her knees and fell rattling on the floor.
+
+Ledscha started up in terror, and at the same moment the Alexandrian's
+packs of hounds on the shore opposite to the Owl's Nest began to bark
+so loudly that the deaf old woman heard the baying as if it came from a
+great distance; but the girl ran out into the open air and, returning
+at the end of a few minutes, called joyously to the sorceress from the
+threshold, "They are coming!"
+
+"They, they," faltered Tabus, hurriedly pushing her disordered gray hair
+under the veil on the back of her head, while exclaiming, scarcely able
+to use her voice in her joyous excitement: "I knew it. He keeps his
+word. My Satabus is coming. The ducks, the bread, the fish, girl! Good,
+loyal heart."
+
+Then a wide, long shadow fell across the dimly lighted room, and from
+the darkened threshold a strangely deep, gasping peal of laughter rang
+from a man's broad breast.
+
+"Satabus! My boy!" the witch's shriek rose above the peculiar sound.
+
+"Mother!" answered the gray-bearded lips of the pirate.
+
+For one short moment he remained standing at the door with outstretched
+arms. Then he took a step toward the beloved being from whom he had been
+separated more than two years, and suddenly throwing himself down before
+her, while his huge lower limbs covered part of the floor, he stretched
+his hands toward the little crooked old woman, who had not strength
+to rise from her crouching posture, and seizing her with loving
+impetuosity, lifted her as if she were a child, and placing her on his
+knees, drew her into a close embrace.
+
+Tabus willingly submitted to this act of violence, and passing her
+thin left arm around her son's bull neck with her free hand, patted his
+bearded cheeks, wrinkled brow, and bushy, almost white hair.
+
+No intelligible words passed the lips of either the mother or the son
+at this meeting; nothing but a confused medley of tender and uncouth
+natural sounds, which no language knows.
+
+Yet they understood each other, and Ledscha, who had moved silently
+aside, also comprehended that these low laughs, moans, cries, and
+stammers were the expressions of love of two deeply agitated hearts, and
+for a moment an emotion of envy seized her.
+
+The gods had early bereft her of her mother, while this savage fighter
+against the might of the waves, justice, law, and their pitiless,
+too powerful defenders, this man, already on the verge of age, still
+possessed his, and sunned his rude heart in her love.
+
+It was some time before the old pirate had satisfied his yearning for
+affection and placed his light burden down beside the fire.
+
+Tabus now regained the power to utter distinct words, and, difficult
+as it was for her half paralyzed tongue to speak, she poured a flood of
+tender pet names and affectionate thanks upon the head of her rude son,
+the last one left, who had grown gray in bloody warfare; but with the
+eyes of her soul she again saw in him the little boy whom, with warm
+maternal love, she had once pressed to her breast and cradled in her
+arms.
+
+When, in his rough fashion, he warmly returned her professions of
+tenderness, her eyes grew wet with tears, and at the question what he
+could still find in her, a withered, good-for-nothing little creature
+who just dragged along from one day to another, an object of pity
+to herself, he again burst into his mighty laugh, and his deep voice
+shouted: "Do you want to know that? But where would be the lime that
+holds us on the ships if you were no longer here? The best capture
+wouldn't be worth a drachm if we could not say, 'Hurrah! how pleased the
+old mother will be when she hears it!' And when things go badly, when
+men have been wounded or perished in the sea, we should despair of
+our lives if we did not know that whatever troubles our hearts the
+old mother feels, too, and we shall always get from her the kind words
+needed to press on again. And then, when the strait is sore and life is
+at stake, whence would come the courage to cast the die if we did not
+know that you are with us day and night, and will send your spirits to
+help us if the need is great? Hundreds of times they rushed to our aid
+just at the right time, and assisted us to hew off the hand of the foe
+which was already choking us. But that is only something extra, which we
+could do without, if necessary. That you are here, that a man still
+has his dear mother, whose heart wishes us everything good and our foes
+death and destruction, whose aged eyes will weep if anything harms us,
+that, mother dear, that is the main thing!"
+
+He bent his clumsy figure over her as he spoke, and cautiously, as if he
+were afraid of doing her some injury, kissed her head with tender care.
+
+Then, rising, he turned to Ledscha, whom he always regarded as his dead
+son's betrothed bride, and greeted her with sincere kindness.
+
+Her great beauty strengthened his plan of uniting her to his oldest son,
+and when the latter entered the house he cast a searching glance at him.
+
+The result was favourable, for a smile of satisfaction flitted over his
+scarred features.
+
+The young pirate's stately figure was not inferior in height to the
+old one's, but his shoulders were narrower, his features less broad and
+full, and his hair and beard had the glossy raven hue of the blackbird's
+plumage.
+
+The young man paused on the threshold in embarrassment, and gazed at
+Ledscha with pleased surprise. When he saw her last his grandmother had
+not been stricken by paralysis, and the girl was the promised wife of
+his older brother, to whom custom forbade him to raise his eyes.
+
+He had thought of her numberless times as the most desirable of women.
+Now nothing prevented his wooing her, and finding her far more beautiful
+than memory had showed her, strengthened his intention of winning her.
+
+This purpose had matured in the utmost secrecy. He had concealed it even
+from his father and his brother Labaja, who was still keeping watch on
+the ships, for he had a reserved disposition, and though obliged to obey
+his father, wherever it was possible he pursued his own way.
+
+Though Satabus shared Hanno's wish, it vexed him that at this meeting,
+after so long a separation, his son should neglect his beloved and
+honoured mother for the sake of a beautiful girl. So, turning his back
+on Ledscha, he seized the young giant's shoulder with a powerful grip to
+drag him toward the old woman; but Hanno perceived his error, and now,
+in brief but affectionate words, showed his grandmother that he, too,
+rejoiced at seeing her again.
+
+The sorceress gazed at her grandson's stalwart figure with a pleasant
+smile, and, after welcoming him, exclaimed to Ledscha: "It seems as if
+Abus had risen from the grave."
+
+The girl vouchsafed her dead lover's brother a brief glance, and, while
+pouring oil upon the fish in the pan, answered carelessly: "He is a
+little like him."
+
+"Not only in person," remarked the old pirate, with fatherly pride, and
+pointing to the broad scar across the young man's forehead, visible
+even in the dim light, he added by way of explanation: "When we took
+vengeance for Abus, he bore away that decoration of honour. The blow
+nearly made him follow his brother, but the youth first sent the souls
+of half a dozen enemies to greet him in the nether world."
+
+Then Ledscha held out her hand to Hanno, and permitted him to detain it
+till an ardent glance from his black eyes met hers, and she withdrew
+it blushing. As she did so she said to Tabus: "You can put them on the
+fire, and there stands whatever else you need. I must go home now."
+
+In taking leave of the men she asked if she could hope to find them here
+again the next day. "The full moon will make it damnably light," replied
+the father, "but they will scarcely venture to assail the right of
+asylum, and the ships anchored according to regulation at Tanis, with a
+cargo of wood from Sinope. Besides, for two years people have believed
+that we have abandoned these waters, and the guards think that if we
+should return, the last time to choose would be these bright nights.
+Still, I should not like to decide anything positively about the morrow
+until news came from Labaja."
+
+"You will find me, whatever happens," Hanno declared after his father
+had ceased speaking. Old Tabus exchanged a swift glance with her son,
+and Satabus said: "He is his own master. If I am obliged to go--which
+may happen--then, my girl, you must be content with the youth. Besides,
+you are better suited to him than to the graybeard."
+
+He shook hands with Ledscha as he spoke, and Hanno accompanied her to
+her boat.
+
+At first he was silent, but as she was stepping into the skiff he
+repeated his promise of meeting her here the following night.
+
+"Very well," she answered quickly. "Perhaps I may have a commission to
+give you."
+
+"I will fulfil it," he answered firmly.
+
+"To-morrow, then," she called, "unless something unexpected prevents."
+
+But when seated on the thwart she again turned to him, and asked: "Does
+it need a long time to bring your ship, with brave men on board, to this
+place?"
+
+"We can be here in four hours, and with favourable winds still sooner,"
+was the reply.
+
+"Even if it displeases your father?"
+
+"Even then, and though the gods, many as there are, should forbid--if
+only your gratitude will be gained."
+
+"It will," she answered firmly, and the water plashed lightly under the
+strokes of her oars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+In the extreme northern portion of the little city of Tennis a large,
+perfectly plain whitewashed building stood on an open, grass-grown
+square.
+
+The side facing the north rested upon a solid substructure of hard
+blocks of hewn stone washed by the waves.
+
+This protecting wall extended along both sides of the long, plain
+edifice, and prevented the water from overflowing the open space which
+belonged to it.
+
+Archias, the owner of the largest weaving establishment in Tennis, the
+father of the Alexandrian aristocrat who had arrived the evening before,
+was the owner of the house, as well as of the broad plain on which
+he had had it built, with the indestructible sea wall, to serve as a
+storehouse to receive the supplies of linen, flax, and wool which were
+manufactured in his factories.
+
+It was favourably situated for this purpose, for the raw materials could
+be moved from the ships which brought them to Tennis directly into the
+building. But as the factories were at a considerable distance, the
+transportation required much time and expense, and therefore Archias had
+had a canal dug connecting the workshops with the water, and at its end
+erected a new storehouse, which rendered a second transportation of the
+ships' cargoes unnecessary.
+
+The white mansion had not yet been devoted to any other purpose when the
+owner determined to offer the spacious empty rooms of the ware house to
+his nephews, the sculptors Hermon and Myrtilus, for the production
+of two works with whose completion he associated expectations of good
+fortune both for the young artists, who were his nephews and wards, and
+himself.
+
+The very extensive building which now contained the studios and spacious
+living apartments for the sculptors and their slaves would also have
+afforded ample room for his daughter and her attendants, but Daphne
+had learned from the reports of the artists that rats, mice, and other
+disagreeable vermin shared the former storehouse with them, so she had
+preferred to have tents pitched in the large open space which belonged
+it.
+
+True, the broad field was exposed to the burning sun, and its soil was
+covered only with sand and pitiably scorched turf, but three palm trees,
+a few sunt acacias, two carob trees, a small clump of fig trees, and the
+superb, wide-branched sycamore on the extreme outer edge had won for it
+the proud name of a "garden."
+
+Now a great change in its favour had taken place, for Daphne's beautiful
+tent, with walls and top of blue and white striped sail-cloth, and the
+small adjoining tents of the same colours, gave it a brighter aspect.
+
+The very roomy main tent contained the splendidly furnished sitting and
+dining rooms. The beds occupied by Daphne and her companion, Chrysilla,
+had been placed in an adjoining one, which was nearly as large, and the
+cook, with his assistants, was quartered in a third.
+
+The head keeper, the master of the hounds, and most of the slaves
+remained in the transports which had followed the state galley. Some
+had slept under the open sky beside the dog kennel hastily erected for
+Daphne's pack of hounds.
+
+So, on the morning after the wholly unexpected arrival of the owner's
+daughter, the "garden" in front of the white house, but yesterday a
+desolate field, resembled an encampment, whose busy life was varied and
+noisy enough.
+
+Slaves and freedmen had been astir before sunrise, for Daphne was up
+betimes in order to begin the hunt in the early hour when the birds left
+their secret nooks on the islands.
+
+Her cousins, the young sculptors, to please her, had gone out, too, but
+the sport did not last long; for when the market place of Tennis, just
+between the morning and noontide hours, was most crowded, the little
+boats which the hunters had used again touched the shore.
+
+With them and Daphne's servants seafaring men also left the
+boats--Biamite fishermen and boatmen, who knew the breeding places and
+nests of the feathered prey--and before them, barking loudly and shaking
+their dripping bodies, the young huntress's brown and white spotted dogs
+ran toward the tents.
+
+Dark-skinned slaves carried the game, which had been tied in bunches
+while in the boats, to the white house, where they laid three rows of
+large water fowl, upon the steps leading to the entrance.
+
+Daphne's arrows were supposed to have killed all these, but the master
+of the hunt had taken care to place among his mistress's booty some of
+the largest pelicans and vultures which had been shot by the others.
+
+Before retiring to her tent, she inspected the result of the shooting
+expedition and was satisfied.
+
+She had been told of the numbers of birds in this archipelago, but
+the quantity of game which had been killed far exceeded her greatest
+expectations, and her pleasant blue eyes sparkled with joy as she began
+to examine the birds which had been slaughtered in so short a time.
+
+Yet, ere she had finished the task, a slight shadow flitted over her
+well-formed and attractive though not beautiful features.
+
+The odour emanating from so many dead fowls, on which the sun, already
+high in the heavens, was shining, became disagreeable to her, and a
+strong sense of discomfort, whose cause, however, she did not seek, made
+her turn from them.
+
+The movement with which she did so was full of quiet, stately grace, and
+the admiring glance with which Hermon, a tall, black-bearded young man,
+watched it, showed that he knew how to value the exquisite symmetry of
+her figure.
+
+The somewhat full outlines of her form and the self-possession of her
+bearing would have led every one to think her a young matron rather than
+a girl; but the two artists who accompanied her on the shooting party
+had been intimate with her from childhood, and knew how much modesty and
+genuine kindness of heart were united with the resolute nature of this
+maiden, who numbered two and twenty years.
+
+Fair-haired Myrtilus seemed to pay little heed to the game which Gras,
+Archias's Bithynian house steward, was counting, but black-bearded
+Hermon had given it more attention, and when Daphne drew back he nodded
+approvingly, and pointing to the heap of motionless inhabitants of the
+air, exclaimed with sincere regret: "Fie upon us human wretches! Would
+the most bloodthirsty hyena destroy such a number of living creatures in
+a few hours? Other beasts of prey do not kill even one wretched
+sparrow more than they need to appease their hunger. But we and you,
+tender-hearted priestess of a gracious goddess--leading us friends of
+the Muse--we pursue a different course! What a mound of corpses! And
+what will become of it? Perhaps a few geese and ducks will go into the
+kitchen; but the rest--the red flamingoes and the brave pelicans who
+feed their young with their own blood? They are only fit to throw away,
+for the Biamites eat no game that is shot, and your black slaves, too,
+would refuse to taste it. So we destroy hundreds of lives for pastime.
+Base word! As if we had so many superfluous hours at our disposal ere we
+descend into Hades. A philosopher among brutes would be entitled to cry
+out, 'Shame upon you, raging monster!'"
+
+"Shame on you, you perpetual grumbler," interrupted Daphne in an
+offended tone. "Who would ever have thought it cruel to test the steady
+hand and the keen eye upon senseless animals in the joyous chase? But
+what shall we call the fault-finder, who spoils his friend's innocent
+enjoyment of a happy morning by his sharp reproaches?"
+
+Hermon shrugged his shoulders, and, in a voice which expressed far
+more compassion than resentment, answered: "If this pile of dead birds
+pleases you, go on with the slaughter. You can sometimes save the arrows
+and catch the swarming game with your hands. If your lifeless victims
+yonder were human beings, after all, they would have cause to thank you;
+for what is existence?"
+
+"To these creatures, everything," said Myrtilus, the Alexandrian's
+other cousin, beckoning to Daphne, who had summoned him to her aid by
+a beseeching glance, to draw nearer. "Gladly as I would always and
+everywhere uphold your cause, I can not do so this time. Only look here!
+Your arrow merely broke the wing of yonder sea eagle, and he is just
+recovering from the shock. What a magnificent fellow! How wrathfully and
+vengefully his eyes sparkle! How fiercely he stretches his brave head
+toward us in helpless fury, and--step back!--how vigorously, spite of
+the pain of his poor, wounded, drooping pinion, he flaps the other, and
+raises his yellow claws to punish his foes! His plumage glistens and
+shines exquisitely where it lies smooth, and how savagely he puffs
+out the feathers on his neck! A wonderful spectacle! The embodiment
+of powerful life! And the others by his side. We transformed the poor
+creatures into a motionless, miserable mass, and just now they were
+cleaving the air with their strong wings, proclaiming by proud, glad
+cries to their families among the reeds their approach with an abundant
+store of prey. Every one was a feast to the eyes before our arrows
+struck it, and now? When Hermon, with his pitying heart, condemns this
+kind of hunting, he is right. It deprives free, harmless creatures of
+their best possession--life--and us thereby of a pleasant sight. In
+general, a bird's existence seems to me also of little value, but
+beauty, to me as to you, transcends everything else. What would
+existence be without it? and wherever it appears, to injure it is
+infamous."
+
+Here a slight cough interrupted the young artist, and the moist glitter
+of his blue eyes also betrayed that he was suffering from an attack of
+severe pain in his lungs; but Daphne nodded assent to him, and to Hermon
+also, and commanded the steward Gras to take the birds out of her sight.
+
+"But," said the Bithynian, "our mistress will doubtless allow us at
+least to take the hard lower part of the pelicans' beaks, and the wing
+feathers of the flamingoes and birds of prey, to show our master on our
+return as trophies."
+
+"Trophies?" repeated the girl scornfully. "Hermon, you are better than
+I and the rest of us, and I see that you are right. Where game flies
+toward us in such quantities, hunting becomes almost murder. And
+successes won by so slight an exertion offer little charm. The second
+expedition before sunset, Gras, shall be given up. The master of the
+hounds, with his men and the dogs, will return home on the transports
+this very day. I am disgusted with sport here. Birds of prey, and those
+only when brought down from the air, would probably be the right game in
+this place."
+
+"Those are the very ones to which I would grant life," said Hermon,
+smiling, "because they enjoy it most."
+
+"Then we will at least save the sea eagle," cried Daphne, and ordered
+the steward, who was already having the dead fowl carried off, to care
+for the wounded bird of prey; but when the latter struck furiously with
+his beak at the Biamite who attempted to remove it, Hermon again turned
+to the girl, saying: "I thank you in the eagle's name for your good
+will, you best of women; but I fear even the most careful nursing will
+not help this wounded creature, for the higher one seeks to soar, the
+more surely he goes to destruction if his power of flight is broken.
+Mine, too, was seriously injured."
+
+"Here?" asked Daphne anxiously. "At this time, which is of such great
+importance to you and your art?"
+
+Then she interrupted herself to ask Myrtilus's opinion, but as he had
+gone away coughing, she continued, in a softer tone: "How anxious you
+can make one, Hermon! Has anything really happened which clouds your
+pleasure in creating, and your hope of success?"
+
+"Let us wait," he answered, hastily throwing back his head, with its
+thick, waving raven locks. "If, in leaping over the ditch, I should fall
+into the marsh, I must endure it, if thereby I can only reach the shore
+where my roses bloom!"
+
+"Then you fear that you have failed in the Demeter?" asked Daphne.
+
+"Failed?" repeated the other. "That seems too strong. Only the work is
+not proving as good as I originally expected. For the head we both used
+a model--you will see--whose fitness could not be surpassed. But the
+body! Myrtilus knows how earnestly I laboured, and, without looking to
+the right or the left, devoted all my powers to the task of creation.
+True, the models did not remain. But even had a magic spell doubled my
+ability, the toil would still have been futile. The error is there; yet
+I am repairing it. To be sure, many things must aid me in doing so, for
+which I now hope; who knows whether it will not again be in vain? You
+are acquainted with my past life. It has never yet granted me any great,
+complete success, and if I was occasionally permitted to pluck a flower,
+my hands were pricked by thorns and nettles!"
+
+He pursed up his lips as if to hiss the unfriendly fate, and Daphne felt
+that he, whose career she had watched from childhood with the interest
+of affection, and to whom, though she did not confess it even to
+herself, she had clung for years with far more than sisterly love,
+needed a kind word.
+
+Her heart ached, and it was difficult for her to assume the cheerful
+tone which she desired to use; but she succeeded, and her voice sounded
+gay and careless enough as she exclaimed to the by no means happy artist
+and Myrtilus, who was just returning: "Give up your foolish opposition,
+you obstinate men, and let me see what you have accomplished during this
+long time. You promised my father that you would show your work to no
+one before him, but believe my words, if he were here he would give
+you back the pledge and lead me himself to the last production of your
+study. Compassion would compel you disobliging fellows to yield, if you
+could only imagine how curiosity tortures us women. We can conquer it
+where more indifferent matters are concerned. But here!--it need not
+make you vainer than you already are, but except my father, you are
+dearest in all the world to me. And then, only listen! In my character
+as priestess of Demeter I hereby release you from your vow, and thus
+from any evil consequences of your, moreover, very trivial guilt; for a
+father and daughter who live together, as I do with your uncle, are
+just the same as one person. So come! Wearied as I am by the miserable
+hunting excursion which caused me such vexation, in the presence of your
+works--rely upon it--I shall instantly be gay again, and all my life
+will thank you for your noble indulgence."
+
+While speaking, she walked toward the white house, beckoning to the
+young men with a winning, encouraging smile.
+
+It seemed to produce the effect intended, for the artists looked at
+each other irresolutely, and Hermon was already asking himself whether
+Daphne's arguments had convinced Myrtilus also, when the latter, in
+great excitement, called after her: "How gladly we would do it, but we
+must not fulfil your wish, for it was no light promise--no, your father
+exacted an oath. He alone can absolve us from the obligation of showing
+him, before any one else, what we finish here. It is not to be submitted
+to the judges until after he has seen it."
+
+"Listen to me!" Daphne interrupted with urgent warmth, and began to
+assail the artists with fresh entreaties.
+
+For the second time black-bearded Hermon seemed inclined to give up his
+resistance, but Myrtilus cried in zealous refusal: "For Hermon's sake,
+I insist upon my denial. The judges must not talk about the work until
+both tasks are completed, for then each of us will be as good as certain
+of a prize. I myself believe that the one for Demeter will fall to me."
+
+"But Hermon will succeed better with the Arachne?" asked Daphne eagerly.
+
+Myrtilus warmly assented, but Hermon exclaimed: "If I could only rely
+upon the good will of the judges!"
+
+"Why not?" the girl interrupted. "My father is just, the king is an
+incorruptible connoisseur, and certainly yesterday evening you, too,
+believed the others to be honest men; as for your fellow-candidate
+Myrtilus, he will no more grudge a prize to you than to himself."
+
+"Why should he?" asked Hermon, as if he, too, was perfectly sure of his
+friend. "We have shared many a bit of bread together. When we determined
+upon this competition each knew the other's ability. Your father
+commissioned us to create peaceful Demeter, the patroness of
+agriculture, peace, marriage, and Arachne, the mortal who was the most
+skilful of spinners; for he is both a grain dealer and owner of spinning
+factories. The best Demeter is to be placed in the Alexandrian temple of
+the goddess, to whose priestesses you belong; the less successful one
+in your own house in the city, but whose Demeter is destined for the
+sanctuary, I repeat, is now virtually decided. Myrtilus will add this
+prize to the others, and grant me with all his heart the one for the
+Arachne. The subject, at any rate, is better adapted to my art than to
+his, and so I should be tolerably certain of my cause. Yet my anxiety
+about the verdict of the judges remains, for surely you know how much
+the majority are opposed to my tendency. I, and the few Alexandrians
+who, following me, sacrifice beauty to truth, swim against the stream
+which bears you, Myrtilus, and those who are on your side, smoothly
+along. I know that you do it from thorough conviction, but with
+other acknowledged great artists and our judges, you, too, demand
+beauty--always beauty. Am I right, or wrong? Is not any one who refuses
+to follow in the footsteps left by the ancients of Athens as certain of
+condemnation as the convicted thief or murderer? But I will not follow
+the lead of the Athenians, inimitably great though they are in their
+own way, because I would fain be more than the ancients of Ilissus: a
+disciple and an Alexandrian."
+
+"The never-ending dispute," Myrtilus answered his fellow-artist, with a
+cordiality in which, nevertheless, there was a slight accent of pity.
+
+"Surely you know it, Daphne. To me the ideal and its embodiment
+within the limits of the natural, according to the models of Phidias,
+Polycletus, and Myron is the highest goal, but he and his co-workers
+seek objects nearer at hand."
+
+"Or rather we found them," cried Hermon, interrupting his companion
+with angry positiveness. "The city of Alexandria, which is growing with
+unprecedented vigour, is their home. There, the place to which every
+race on earth sends a representative, the pulse of the whole world is
+throbbing. There, whoever does not run with the rest is run over; there,
+but one thing is important--actual life. Science has undertaken to
+fathom it, and the results which it gains with measures and numbers is
+of a different value and more lasting than that which the idle sport of
+the intellects of the older philosophers obtained. But art, her nobler
+sister, must pursue the same paths. To copy life as it is, to reproduce
+the real as it presents itself, not as it might or must be, is the task
+which I set myself. If you would have me carve gods, whom man can not
+represent to himself except in his own form, allow me also to represent
+them as reality shows me mortals. I will form them after the models of
+the greatest, highest, and best, and also, when the subject permits, in
+powerful action in accordance with my own power, but always as real men
+from head to foot. We must also cling to the old symbols which those
+who order demand, because they serve as signs of recognition, and my
+Demeter, too, received the bundle of wheat."
+
+As the excited artist uttered this challenge a defiant glance rested
+upon his comrade and Daphne. But Myrtilus, with a soothing gesture of
+the hand, answered: "What is the cause of this heat? I at least watch
+your work with interest, and do not dispute your art so long as it does
+not cross the boundaries of the beautiful, which to me are those of
+art."
+
+Here the conversation was interrupted; the steward Gras brought a letter
+which a courier from Pelusium had just delivered.
+
+Thyone, the wife of Philippus, the commander of the strong border
+fortress of Pelusium, near Tennis, had written it. She and her husband
+had been intimate friends of Hermon's father, who had served under the
+old general as hipparch, and through him had become well acquainted with
+his wealthy brother Archias and his relatives.
+
+The Alexandrian merchant had informed Philippus--whom, like all the
+world, he held in the highest honour as one of the former companions
+of Alexander the Great--of his daughter's journey, and his wife now
+announced her visit to Daphne. She expected to reach Tennis that evening
+with her husband and several friends, and mentioned especially her
+anticipation of meeting Hermon, the son of her beloved Erigone and her
+husband's brave companion in arms.
+
+Daphne and Myrtilus received the announcement with pleasure; but
+Hermon, who only the day before had spoken of the old couple with great
+affection, seemed disturbed by the arrival of the unexpected guests. To
+avoid them entirely appeared impossible even to him, but he declared
+in an embarrassed tone, and without giving any reason, that he should
+scarcely be able to devote the entire evening to Daphne and the
+Pelusinians.
+
+Then he turned quickly toward the house, to which a signal from his
+slave Bias summoned him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+As soon as Hermon had disappeared behind the door Daphne begged Myrtilus
+to accompany her into the tent.
+
+After taking their seats there, the anxious exclamation escaped her
+lips: "How excited he became again! The stay in Tennis does not seem to
+agree with you--you are coughing, and father expected so much benefit to
+your ailment from the pure moist air, and to Hermon still more from
+the lonely life here in your society. But I have rarely seen him more
+strongly enlisted in behalf of the tendency opposed to beauty."
+
+"Then your father must be satisfied with the good effect which our
+residence here has exerted upon me," replied Myrtilus. "I know that
+he was thinking of my illness when he proposed to us to complete his
+commissions here. Hermon--the good fellow!--could never have been
+induced to leave his Alexandria, had not the hope of thereby doing me a
+kindness induced him to follow me. I will add it to the many for which
+I am already indebted to his friendship. As for art, he will go his
+own way, and any opposition would be futile. A goddess--he perceives it
+himself--was certainly the most unfortunate subject possible for his--"
+
+"Is his Demeter a complete failure?" asked Daphne anxiously.
+
+"Certainly not," replied Myrtilus eagerly.
+
+"The head is even one of his very best. Only the figure awakens grave
+doubts. In the effort to be faithful to reality, the fear of making
+concessions to beauty, he lapsed into ungraceful angularity and a
+sturdiness which, in my opinion, would be unpleasing even in a mortal
+woman. The excess of unbridled power again makes it self visible in the
+wonderfully gifted man. Many things reached him too late, and others too
+soon."
+
+Daphne eagerly asked what he meant by these words, and Myrtilus replied:
+"Surely you know how he became a sculptor. Your father had intended him
+to be his successor in business, but Hermon felt the vocation to become
+an artist--probably first in my studio--awake with intense force. While
+I early placed myself under the instruction of the great Bryaxis, he was
+being trained for a merchant's life. When he was to guide the reed in
+the counting-house, he sketched; when he was sent to the harbour to
+direct the loading of the ships, he became absorbed in gazing at the
+statues placed there. In the warehouse he secretly modelled, instead
+of attending to the bales of goods. You are certainly aware what a
+sad breach occurred then, and how long Hermon was restrained before he
+succeeded in turning his back upon trade."
+
+"My father meant so kindly toward him," Daphne protested. "He was
+appointed guardian to you both. You are rich, and therefore he aided in
+every possible way your taste for art; but Hermon did not inherit from
+his parents a single drachm, and so my father saw the most serious
+struggles awaiting him if he devoted himself to sculpture. And, besides,
+he had destined his nephew to become his successor, the head of one of
+the largest commercial houses in the city."
+
+"And in doing so," Myrtilus responded, "he believed he had made the best
+provision for his happiness. But there is something peculiar in art.
+I know from your father himself how kind his intentions were when he
+withdrew his assistance from Hermon, and when he had escaped to the
+island of Rhodes, left him to make his own way during the first period
+of apprenticeship through which he passed there. Necessity, he thought,
+would bring him back to where he had a life free from anxiety awaiting
+him. But the result was different. Far be it from me to blame the
+admirable Archias, yet had he permitted his ward to follow his true
+vocation earlier, it would have been better for him."
+
+"Then you think that he began to study too late?" asked Daphne eagerly.
+
+"Not too late," was the reply, "but with his passionate struggle to
+advance, an earlier commencement would have been more favourable. While
+the companions of his own age were already doing independent work, he
+was still a student, and so it happened that he began for himself too
+soon."
+
+"Yet," Daphne answered, "can you deny that, directly after Hermon
+produced his first work which made his talent undeniable, my father
+again treated him like his own son?"
+
+"On the contrary," replied Myrtilus, "I remember only too well how
+Archias at that time, probably not entirely without your intercession,
+fairly showered gold upon his nephew, but unfortunately this abundance
+was by no means to his advantage."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Daphne. "Were not you, at that very time,
+in full possession of the great wealth inherited from your father and
+mother, and yet did you not work far beyond your strength? Bryaxis--I
+heard him--was full of your praises, and yet entreated my father to use
+all his influence, as guardian, to warn you against overwork."
+
+"My kind master!" cried Myrtilus, deeply moved. "He was as anxious about
+me as a father."
+
+"Because he perceived that you were destined for great achievements."
+
+"And because it did not escape his penetration how much I needed care.
+My lungs, Daphne, my lungs--surely you know how the malicious disease
+became fatal to my clear mother, and to my brother and sister also. All
+three sank prematurely into the grave, and for years the shades of my
+parents have been beckoning to me too. When the cough shakes my chest, I
+see Charon raise his oar and invite me also to enter his sable boat."
+
+"But you just assured me that you were doing well," observed the girl.
+"The cough alone makes me a little anxious. If you could only see for
+yourself what a beautiful colour the pure air has given your cheeks!"
+
+"This flush," replied Myrtilus gravely, "is the sunset of life's closing
+day, not the dawn of approaching convalescence. But let us drop the
+subject. I allude to these sorrowful things only to prevent your praises
+of me at Hermon's expense. True, even while a student I possessed wealth
+far beyond my needs, but the early deaths of my brother and sister had
+taught me even then to be economical of the brief span of life allotted
+to me. Hermon, on the contrary, was overflowing with manly vigour, and
+the strongest among the Ephebi in the wrestling school. After three
+nights' revel he would not even feel weary, and how difficult the women
+made it for the handsome, black-bearded fellow to commence his work
+early! Did you ever ask yourself why young steeds are not broken in
+flowery meadows, but upon sand? Nothing which attracts their attention
+and awakens their desires must surround them; but your father's gold
+led Hermon, ere the season of apprenticeship was over, into the most
+luxuriant clover fields. Honour and respect the handsome, hot-blooded
+youth that, nevertheless, he allowed himself to be diverted from work
+only a short time and soon resumed it with ardent zeal, at first in
+superabundance, and then amid fresh need and privation."
+
+"O Myrtilus," the girl interrupted, "how terribly I suffered in those
+days! For the first time the gods made me experience that there are
+black clouds, as well as bright sunshine, in the human soul. For weeks
+an impassable gulf separated me from my father, with whom I had always
+had one heart and soul. But I never saw him as he was then. The first
+prize had been awarded to you for your Aphrodite, radiant in marvellous
+beauty, and your brow had also been already crowned for your statue of
+Alexander, when Hermon stepped forward with his works. They were at the
+same time the first which were to show what he believed to be the true
+mission of art--a hideous hawker, hide in hand, praising his wares with
+open mouth, and the struggling Maenads. Surely you know the horrible
+women who throw one another on the ground, tearing and rending with
+bestial fury. The spectacle of these fruits of the industry of one dear
+to me grieved me also, and I could not understand how you and the others
+saw anything to admire in them. And my father! At the sight of these
+things the colour faded from his cheeks and lips, and, as if by virtue
+of his guardianship he had a right to direct Hermon in the paths of
+art also, he forbade his ward to waste any more time in such horrible
+scarecrows, and awaken loathing and wrath instead of gratification,
+exultation, and joy. You know the consequences, but you do not know how
+my heart ached when Hermon, frantic with wounded pride and indignation,
+turned his back upon my father and severed every tie that united him to
+us. In spite of his deep vexation and the unbridled violence with which
+the nephew had allowed himself to address his uncle, my father did not
+dream of withholding his assistance from him. But Hermon no longer
+came to our house, and when I sent for him to bring him to reason, he
+positively declared that he would not accept another obolus from my
+father--he would rather starve than permit any one to dictate to him
+in the choice of his subjects. Liberty was worth more than his uncle's
+gold. Yet my father sent him his annual allowance."
+
+"But he refused it," added Myrtilus. "I remember that day well, how I
+tried to persuade him, and, when he persisted in his intention, besought
+him to accept from my abundance what he needed. But this, too, he
+resolutely refused, though at that time I was already so deeply in his
+debt that I could not repay him at all with paltry money."
+
+"You are thinking of the devotion with which he nursed you when you were
+so ill?" asked Daphne.
+
+"Certainly; yet not of that alone," was the reply. "You do not know how
+he stood by me in the worst days. Who was it that after my first great
+successes, when base envy clouded many an hour of my life, rejoiced with
+me as though he himself had won the laurel? It was he, the ambitious
+artist, though recognition held even farther aloof from his creations
+than success. And when, just at that time, the insidious disease
+attacked me more cruelly than ever, he devoted himself to me like a
+loving brother. While formerly, in the overflowing joy of existence, he
+had revelled all day and caroused all night, how often he paused in the
+rush of gaiety to exchange the festal hall for a place beside my couch,
+frequently remaining there until Eos dyed the east, that he might
+hold my fevered hand and support my shaken frame! Frequently too, when
+already garlanded for some gay banquet, he took the flowers from his
+head and devoted the night to his friend, that he might not leave him to
+the attendance of the slaves. It is owing to him, and the care and skill
+of the great leech Erasistratus, that I am still standing before you
+alive and can praise what my Hermon was and proved himself to me in
+those days. Yet I must also accuse him of a wrong; to this hour I bear
+him a grudge for having, in those sorrowful hours, refused to share my
+property with me fraternally. What manly pride would have cheerfully
+permitted him to accept was opposed by the defiant desire to show me,
+your father, you, the whole world, that he would depend upon himself,
+and needed assistance neither from human beings nor even the gods. In
+the same way, while working, he obstinately rejected my counsel and
+my help, though the Muse grants me some things which he unfortunately
+lacks. Great as his talent is, firmly as I believe that he will yet
+succeed some day in creating something grand, nay, perhaps something
+mighty, the unbelieving disciple of Straton lacks the power of
+comprehending the august dignity, the superhuman majesty of the divine
+nature, and he does not succeed in representing the bewitching charm
+of woman, because he hates it as the bull hates a red rag. Only once
+hitherto has he been successful, and that was with your bust."
+
+Daphne's cheeks suddenly flamed with a burning flush, and feeling it
+she raised her feather fan to her eyes, and with forced indifference
+murmured: "We were good friends from our earliest childhood. And,
+besides, how small is the charm with which the artist who chooses me for
+a model has to deal!"
+
+"It is rather an unusually fascinating one," Myrtilus asserted
+resolutely. "I have no idea of flattering you, and you are certainly
+aware that I do not number you among the beauties of Alexandria. But
+instead of the delicate, symmetrical features which artists need, the
+gods bestowed upon you a face which wins all hearts, even those of
+women, because it is a mirror of genuine, helpful, womanly kindness, a
+sincere disposition, and a healthy, receptive mind. To reproduce such a
+face, not exactly beautiful, and yet bewitching, is the hardest possible
+task, and Hermon, I repeat it, has succeeded. You are the only one of
+your noble sex who inspires the motherless man with respect, and for
+whom he feels more than a fleeting fancy. What does he not owe you?
+After the bridge which united him to his uncle and paternal friend had
+been so suddenly broken, it was you who rebuilt it. Now, I think, it is
+stronger than ever. I could not imagine anything that would induce him
+to give you up; and all honour to your father, who, instead of bearing
+the insubordinate fellow a grudge, only drew him more warmly to his
+heart, and gave us two commissions which will permit each to do his
+best. If I see clearly, the daughter of Archias is closely connected
+with this admirable deed."
+
+"Of course," replied Daphne, "my father discussed his intention with me,
+but the thought was entirely his own. True, Hermon's Street-Boy eating
+Figs was not exactly according to his taste, but it pleased him better
+than his former works, and I agree with Euphranor, it is remarkably true
+to nature. My father perceived this too. Besides, he is a merchant who
+sets a high value upon what he has earned, and Hermon's refusal of his
+gold startled him. Then the good man also saw how nobly, in spite of his
+wild life, his obstinacy, and the work so unpleasing to him, his nephew
+always showed the noble impulses inherited from his brave father, and
+thus Hermon gained the day."
+
+"But what would have become of him last year, after the mortifying
+rejection of his model of The Happy Return Home for the harbour of
+Eunostus," asked Myrtilus, "if you and your encouragement had not
+cheered him?"
+
+"That verdict, too, was abominable!" exclaimed Daphne indignantly. "The
+mother opening her arms to the returning son was unlovely, it is true,
+and did not please me either; but the youth with the travelling hat and
+staff is magnificent in his vigour and natural action."
+
+"That opinion, as you know, is mine also," replied Myrtilus. "In the
+mother the expression was intended to take the place of beauty. For the
+returning son, as well as for the fig-eater, he found a suitable model.
+True, the best was at his disposal for his Demeter."
+
+Here he hesitated; but Daphne so urgently asked to know what he, who had
+already denied her admission to the studios, was now again withholding
+from her, that, smiling indulgently, he added: "Then I must probably
+consent to tell in advance the secret with which you were to be
+surprised. Before him, as well as before me, hovered--since you wish
+to know it--in Alexandria, when we first began to model the head of
+the goddess, a certain charming face which is as dear to one as to the
+other."
+
+Daphne, joyously excited, held out her hand to the artist, exclaiming:
+"Oh, how kind that is! Yet how was it possible, since I posed neither to
+him nor to you?"
+
+"Hermon had finished your bust only a short time before, and you
+permitted me to use your head for my statue of the goddess of Peace,
+which went down with the ship on the voyage to Ostia. This was at the
+disposal of us both in three or four reproductions, and, besides, it
+hovered before our mental vision clearly enough. When the time to show
+you our work arrives, you will be surprised to discover how differently
+two persons see and copy the same object."
+
+"Now that I know so much, and have a certain share in your works, I
+insist upon seeing them!" cried Daphne with far greater impetuosity than
+usual. "Tell Hermon so, and remind him that I shall at any rate expect
+him to meet the Pelusinian guests at the banquet. Threaten him seriously
+with my grave displeasure if he persists in leaving it speedily."
+
+"I will not fail to do my part," replied Myrtilus; "but as to your wish
+to see the two Demeters--"
+
+"That will come to pass," interrupted Daphne, "as soon as we three are
+together again like a clover leaf." She returned the sculptor's farewell
+greeting as she spoke, but before he reached the entrance to the tent
+she again detained him with the exclamation: "Only this one thing more:
+Does Hermon deceive himself when he hopes so confidently for success
+with the weaver, Arachne?"
+
+"Hardly--if the model whom he desires does not fail him."
+
+"Is she beautiful, and did he find her here in Tennis?" asked Daphne,
+trying to assume an indifferent manner; but Myrtilus was not deceived,
+and answered gaily: "That's the way people question children to find out
+things. Farewell until the banquet, fair curiosity!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The slave Bias had not gone to the hunting party with his master. He had
+never been fit for such expeditions, since the Egyptian guard who took
+him to the slave market for sale crippled the arch-traitor's son's left
+leg by a blow, but he was all the more useful in the house, and even the
+keenest eye could scarcely now perceive the injury which lessened his
+commercial value.
+
+He had prepared everything his master would need to shoot the birds very
+early in the morning, and after helping the men push the boats into the
+water, he, too, remained out of doors.
+
+The old Nubian doorkeeper's little badger dog ran to meet him, as usual,
+barking loudly, and startled a flock of sparrows, which flew up directly
+in front of Bias and fluttered to and fro in confusion.
+
+The slave regarded this as an infallible omen, and when Stephanion,
+Daphne's maid, who had grown gray in the household of Archias, and
+though a freed woman still worked in the old way, came out of the tent,
+he called to her the gay Greek greeting, "Rejoice!" pointed to the
+sparrows, and eagerly continued: "How one flies above another! how they
+flutter and chirp and twitter! It will be a busy day."
+
+Stephanion thought this interpretation of the ordinary action of the
+birds very consistent with Bias's wisdom, which was highly esteemed in
+the household of Archias, and it also just suited her inclination to
+chat with him for a while, especially as she had brought a great deal of
+news from Alexandria.
+
+By way of introduction she mentioned the marriages and deaths in their
+circle of acquaintances, bond and free, and then confided to the slave
+what had induced her mistress to remain so long absent from her father,
+whom she usually left alone for only a few hours at the utmost.
+
+Archias himself had sent her here, after young Philotas, who was now
+apparently wooing her with better success than other suitors, had
+spoken of the enormous booty which one of his friends had brought from a
+shooting expedition at Tennis, and Daphne had expressed a wish to empty
+her quiver there too.
+
+True, Philotas himself had been eager to guide the hunting party, but
+Daphne declined his escort because--so the maid asserted--she cared far
+more about meeting her cousins, the sculptors, than for the chase. Her
+mistress had frankly told her so, but her father was delighted to hear
+her express a wish, because for several months she had been so quiet and
+listless that she, Stephanion, had become anxious about her. Meanwhile,
+Daphne had tried honestly to conceal her feelings from the old man,
+but such games of hide and seek were useless against the master's keen
+penetration. He spared no pains in the preparations for the journey,
+and the girl now seemed already transformed. This was caused solely by
+meeting her cousins again; but if any one should ask her whether Daphne
+preferred Myrtilus or Hermon, she could not give a positive answer.
+
+"Cautious inquiry saves recantation," replied Bias importantly. "Yet you
+may believe my experience, it is Myrtilus. Fame inspires love, and what
+the world will not grant my master, in spite of his great talent, it
+conceded to the other long ago. And, besides, we are not starving; but
+Myrtilus is as rich as King Croesus of Sardis. Not that Daphne, who is
+stifling in gold herself, would care about that, but whoever knows life
+knows--where doves are, doves will fly."
+
+Stephanion, however, was of a different opinion, not only because Daphne
+talked far more about the black-bearded cousin than the fair one, but
+because she knew the girl, and was seldom mistaken in such matters.
+She would not deny that Daphne was also fond of Myrtilus. Yet probably
+neither of the artists, but Philotas, would lead home the bride, for he
+was related to the royal family--a fine, handsome man; and, besides,
+her father preferred him to the other suitors who hovered around her as
+flies buzzed about honey. Of course, matters would be more favourable
+to Philotas in any other household. Who else in Alexandria would consult
+the daughter long, when he was choosing her future husband? But Archias
+was a white raven among fathers, and would never force his only child to
+do anything.
+
+Marrying and loving, however, were two different affairs. If Eros had
+the final decision, her choice might perhaps fall on one of the artists.
+
+Here she was interrupted by the slave's indignant exclamation: "What
+contradictions! 'Woman's hair is long, but her wit is short,' says the
+proverb. 'Waiting is the merchant's wisdom,' I have heard your master
+say more than once, and to obey the words of shrewd people is the best
+plan for those who are not so wise. Meanwhile, I am of the opinion that
+curiosity alone brought Daphne--who, after all, is only a woman--to this
+place. She wants to see the statues of Demeter which her father ordered
+from us."
+
+"And the Arachne?" asked the maid. This was an opportune question to the
+slave--how often he had heard the artists utter the word "Arachne!"--and
+his pride of education had suffered from the consciousness that he knew
+nothing about her except the name, which in Greek meant "the spider."
+
+Some special story must surely be associated with this Arachne, for
+which his master desired to use his young countrywoman, Ledscha, as
+a model, and whose statues Archias intended to place in his house in
+Alexandria and in the great weaving establishment at Tennis beside the
+statue of Demeter.
+
+Stephanion, a Greek woman who grew up in a Macedonian household, must
+know something about her.
+
+So he cautiously turned the conversation to the spinner Arachne, and
+when Stephanion entered into it, admitted that he, too, was curious to
+learn in what way the sculptors would represent her.
+
+"Yes," replied the maid, "my mistress has more than once racked her
+brains over that, and Archias too. Perhaps they will carve her as a girl
+at work in the house of her father Idmon, the purple dyer of Colophon."
+
+"Never," replied Bias in a tone of dissent. "Just imagine how the loom
+would look wrought in gold and ivory!"
+
+"I thought so too," said Stephanion, in apology for the foolish idea.
+"Daphne thinks that the two will model her in different ways: Myrtilus,
+as mistress in the weaving room, showing with proud delight a piece just
+completed to the nymphs from the Pactolus and other rivers, who sought
+her at Colophon to admire her work; but Hermon, after she aroused the
+wrath of Athene because she dared to weave into the hangings the love
+adventures of the gods with mortal women."
+
+"Father Zeus as a swan toying with Leda," replied Bias as confidently
+as if Arachne's works were before his eyes, "and in the form of a
+bull bearing away Europa, the chaste Artemis bending over the sleeping
+Endymion."
+
+"How that pleases you men!" interrupted the maid, striking him lightly
+on the arm with the duster which she had brought from the tent. "But
+ought the virgin Athene to be blamed because she punished the weaver
+who, with all her skill, was only a mortal woman, for thus exposing her
+divine kindred?"
+
+"Certainly not," replied Bias, and Stephanion went on eagerly: "And
+when the great Athene, who invented weaving and protects weavers,
+condescended to compete with Arachne, and was excelled by her, surely
+her gall must have overflowed. Whoever is just will scarcely blame
+her for striking the audacious conqueror on the brow with the weaver's
+shuttle."
+
+"It is that very thing," replied Bias modestly, "which to a
+short-sighted fool like myself--may the great goddess not bear me a
+grudge for it!--never seemed just in her. Even the mortal who succumbs
+in a fair fight ought not to be enraged against the victor. At least, so
+I was taught. But what, I ask myself, when I think of the stones which
+were flung at Hermon's struggling Maenads, could be less suited for
+imitation than two women, one of whom strikes the other?"
+
+"The woman who in her desperation at that blow desires to hang herself,
+must produce a still more horrible impression," replied Stephanion.
+"Probably she will be represented as Athene releases her from the noose
+rather than when, as a punishment for her insolence, she transforms
+Arachne into a spider."
+
+"That she might be permitted, in the form of an insect, to make artistic
+webs until the end of her life," the slave, now sufficiently well
+informed, added importantly. "Since that transformation, as you know,
+the spider has been called by the Greeks Arachne. Perhaps--I always
+thought so--Hermon will represent her twisting the rope with which she
+is to kill herself. You have seen many of our works, and know that we
+love the terrible."
+
+"Oh, let me go into your studio!" the maid now entreated no less
+urgently than her mistress had done a short time before, but her wish,
+too, remained ungratified.
+
+"The sculptors," Bias truthfully asserted, "always kept their workrooms
+carefully locked." They were as inaccessible as the strongest fortress,
+and it was wise, less on account of curious spectators, from whom there
+was nothing to fear, than of the thievish propensities of the
+people. The statues, by Archias's orders, were to be executed in
+chryselephantine work, and the gold and ivory which this required might
+only too easily awaken the vice of cupidity in the honest and frugal
+Biamites. So nothing could be done about it, not to mention the fact
+that he was forbidden, on pain of being sold to work in a stone quarry,
+to open the studio to any one without his master's consent.
+
+So the maid, too, was obliged to submit, and the sacrifice was rendered
+easier for her because, just at that moment, a young female slave called
+her back to the tent where Chrysilla, Daphne's companion, a matron who
+belonged to a distinguished Greek family, needed her services.
+
+Bias, rejoicing that he had at last learned, without exposing his own
+ignorance, the story of the much-discussed Arachne, returned to the
+house, where he remained until Daphne came back from shooting with
+her companions. While the latter were talking about the birds they had
+killed, Bias went out of doors; but he was forced to give up his desire
+to listen to a conversation which was exactly suited to arrest his
+attention, for after the first few sentences he perceived behind the
+thorny acacias in the "garden" his countrywoman Ledscha.
+
+So she was keeping her promise. He recognised her plainly, in spite of
+the veil which covered the back of her head and the lower portion of her
+face. Her black eyes were visible, and what a sinister light shone in
+them as she fixed them sometimes on Daphne, sometimes on Hermon, who
+stood talking together by the steps!
+
+The evening before Bias had caught a glimpse of this passionate
+creature's agitated soul. If anything happened here that incensed or
+wounded her she would be capable of committing some unprecedented act
+before the very master's honoured guest.
+
+To prevent this was a duty to the master whom he loved, and against whom
+he had only warned Ledscha because he was reluctant to see a free maiden
+of his own race placed on a level with the venal Alexandrian models,
+but still more because any serious love affair between Hermon and the
+Biamite might bring disastrous consequences upon both, and therefore
+also on himself. He knew that the free men of his little nation would
+not suffer an insult offered by a Greek to a virgin daughter of their
+lineage to pass unavenged.
+
+True, in his bondage he had by no means remained free from all the bad
+qualities of slaves, but he was faithfully devoted to his master, who
+had imposed upon him a great debt of gratitude; for though, during the
+trying period of variance with his rich and generous uncle, Hermon had
+often been offered so large a sum for him that it would have relieved
+the artist from want, he could not be induced to yield his "wise and
+faithful Bias" to another. The slave had sworn to himself that he would
+never forget this, and he kept his oath.
+
+Freedmen and slaves were moving to and fro in the large open square
+before him, amid the barking of the dogs and the shouts of the male and
+female venders of fruit, vegetables, and fish, who hoped to dispose of
+their wares in the kitchen tent of the wealthy strangers.
+
+The single veiled woman attracted no attention here, but Bias kept his
+gaze fixed steadily upon her, and as she curved her little slender hand
+above her brow to shade her watchful eyes from the dazzling sunlight,
+and set her beautifully arched foot on a stone near one of the trees in
+order to gain a better view, he thought of the story of the weaver which
+he had just heard.
+
+Though the stillness of the hot noontide was interrupted by many sounds,
+it exerted a bewitching influence over him.
+
+Ledscha seemed like the embodiment of some great danger, and when she
+lowered one arm and raised the other to protect herself again from the
+radiance of the noonday sun, he started; for through the brain of the
+usually fearless man darted the thought that now the nimble spider-legs
+were moving to draw him toward her, entwine him, and suck his heart's
+blood.
+
+The illusion lasted only a few brief moments, but when it vanished and
+the girl had regained the figure of an unusually slender, veiled Biamite
+woman, he shook his head with a sigh of relief, for never had such a
+vision appeared to him in broad noonday and while awake, and it must
+have been sent to warn him and his master against this uncanny maiden.
+
+It positively announced some approaching misfortune which proceeded from
+this beautiful creature.
+
+The Biamite now advanced hesitatingly toward Hermon and Daphne, who were
+still a considerable distance from her. But Bias had also quitted his
+post of observation, and after she had taken a few steps forward, barred
+her way.
+
+With a curt "Come," he took her hand, whispering, "Hermon is joyously
+expecting your visit."
+
+Ledscha's veil concealed her mouth, but the expression of her eyes made
+him think that it curled scornfully.
+
+Yet she silently followed him.
+
+At first he led her by the hand, but on the way he saw at the edge of
+her upper veil the thick, dark eyebrows which met each other, and her
+fingers seemed to him so strangely cold and tapering that a shudder ran
+through his frame and he released them.
+
+Ledscha scarcely seemed to notice it, and, with bowed head, walked
+beside him through the side entrance to the door of Hermon's studio.
+
+It was a disappointment to her to find it locked, but Bias did not
+heed her angry complaint, and led her into the artist's sitting room,
+requesting her to wait for his master there.
+
+Then he hurried to the steps, and by a significant sign informed the
+sculptor that something important required his attention.
+
+Hermon understood him, and Bias soon had an opportunity to tell the
+artist who it was that desired to speak to him and where he had taken
+Ledscha. He also made him aware that he feared some evil from her,
+and that, in an alarming vision, she had appeared to him as a hideous
+spider.
+
+Hermon laughed softly. "As a spider? The omen is appropriate. We will
+make her a woman spider--an Arachne that is worth looking at. But this
+strange beauty is one of the most obstinate of her sex, and if I let her
+carry out her bold visit in broad daylight she will get the better of
+me completely. The blood must first be washed from my hands here. The
+wounded sea eagle tore the skin with its claw, and I concealed the
+scratch from Daphne. A strip of linen to bandage it! Meanwhile, let
+the impatient intruder learn that her sign is not enough to open every
+door."
+
+Then he entered his sitting room, greeted Ledscha curtly, invited her to
+go into the studio, unlocked it, and left her there alone while he
+went to his chamber with the slave and had the slight wound bandaged
+comfortably.
+
+While Bias was helping his master he repeated with sincere anxiety his
+warning against the dangerous beauty whose eyebrows, which had grown
+together, proved that she was possessed by the demons of the nether
+world.
+
+"Yet they increase the austere beauty of her face," assented the artist.
+"I should not want to omit them in modelling Arachne while the goddess
+is transforming her into a spider! What a subject! A bolder one was
+scarcely ever attempted and, like you, I already see before me the
+coming spider."
+
+Then, without the slightest haste, he exchanged the huntsman's chiton
+for the white chlamys, which was extremely becoming to his long, waving
+beard, and at last, exclaiming gaily, "If I stay any longer, she will
+transform herself into empty air instead of the spider," he went to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+While waiting in the studio Ledscha had used the time to satisfy her
+curiosity.
+
+What was there not to be seen!
+
+On pedestals and upon the boards of the floor, on boxes, racks, and
+along the wall, stood, lay, or hung the greatest variety of articles:
+plaster casts of human limbs and parts of the bodies of animals, male
+and female, of clay and wax, withered garlands, all sorts of sculptor's
+tools, a ladder, vases, cups and jars for wine and water, a frame over
+which linen and soft woollen materials were spread, a lute and a zither,
+several seats, an armchair, and in one corner a small table with three
+dilapidated book rolls, writing tablets, metal styluses, and reed pens.
+
+All these articles were arranged haphazard, and showed that Bias
+possessed more wisdom than care in the use of duster and broom.
+
+It would have been difficult to count the number of things brought
+together here, but the unusually long, wide room was by no means
+crowded.
+
+Ledscha cast a wondering glance sometimes at one object, sometimes at
+another, but without understanding its meaning or its use.
+
+The huge figure on the pedestal in the middle of the studio, upon which
+the full glare of light fell through the open windows, was certainly
+the statue of the goddess on which Hermon was working; but a large gray
+cloth concealed it from her gaze.
+
+How tall it was!
+
+When she looked at it more closely she felt small and oppressed by
+comparison.
+
+A passionate longing urged her to remove the cloth, but the boldness
+of the act restrained her. After she had taken another survey of
+the spacious apartment, which she was visiting for the first time by
+daylight, the torturing feeling of being neglected gained possession of
+her.
+
+She clinched her white teeth more firmly, and when there was a noise at
+the door that died away again without bringing the man she expected, she
+went up to the statue which she had already walked past quietly several
+times and, obeying an impatient impulse, freed it from its covering.
+
+The goddess, now illumined by the sunlight, shone before her in gleaming
+yellow gold and snowy ivory.
+
+She had never seen such a statue, and drew back dazzled.
+
+What a master was the man who had deceived her trusting heart!
+
+He had created a Demeter; the wheat in her hand showed it.
+
+How beautiful this work was--and how valuable! It produced a powerful
+impression upon her mind, wholly unaccustomed to the estimate of such
+things.
+
+The goddess before her was the very one whose statue stood in the temple
+of Demeter, and to whom she also sacrificed, with the Greeks in Tennis,
+when danger threatened the harvest. Involuntarily she removed the lower
+veil from her face and raised her hand in prayer.
+
+Meanwhile she gazed into the pallid face, carved from ivory, of the
+immortal dispenser of blessings, and suddenly the blood crimsoned her
+cheeks, the nostrils of her delicate, slightly arched nose rose and
+fell more swiftly, for the countenance of the goddess--she was not
+mistaken--was that of the Alexandrian whom she had just watched so
+intently, and for whose sake Hermon had left her in the lurch the
+evening before.
+
+Now, too, she remembered for what purpose the sculptor was said to have
+lured Gula, the sailor's wife, and her own young sister Taus, to his
+studio, and in increasing excitement she drew the cloth also from the
+bust beside the Demeter.
+
+Again the Alexandrian's face--the likeness was even more unmistakable
+than in the goddess.
+
+The Greek girl alone occupied his thoughts. Hermon had disdained to
+model the Biamite's head.
+
+What could the others, or she herself, be to him, since he loved the
+rich foreigner in the tent outside, and her alone? How firmly her image
+must have been impressed upon his soul, that he could reproduce the
+features of the absent one with such lifelike fidelity!
+
+Yet with what bold assurance he had protested that his heart belonged
+solely to her. But she thought that she now perceived his purpose. If
+the slave was right, it was done that she might permit him to model
+what he admired in her figure, only not the head and face, whose beauty,
+nevertheless, he praised so extravagantly.
+
+Had he attracted Gula and her sister with similar sweet flatteries?
+Had the promise to bestow their charms upon a goddess been made to them
+also?
+
+The swift throbbing of her indignant heart made it impossible for her to
+think calmly, but its vehement pulsation reminded her of the object of
+her presence here.
+
+She had come to obtain a clear understanding between him and herself.
+
+She stood here as a judge.
+
+She must know whether she had been betrayed or deceived.
+
+He should confess what his intentions toward her were. The next moments
+must decide the fate of her life, and she added, drawing a long breath,
+perhaps of his also.
+
+Suddenly Ledscha started. She had not heard Hermon enter the studio, and
+was now startled by his greeting.
+
+It was not positively unkind, but certainly not a lover's.
+
+Perhaps the words might have been warmer, but for his annoyance at the
+insolent boldness with which she had removed the coverings from his
+works. He restrained himself from openly blaming her, it is true, but he
+exclaimed, with a tinge of gay sarcasm: "You seem to feel very much at
+home here already, fairest of the fair. Or was it the goddess herself
+who removed the curtain from her image in order to show herself to her
+successor upon this pedestal?"
+
+But the question was to remain unanswered, for under the spell of the
+resentment which filled her heart, and in the effort not to lose sight
+of the object that brought her here, Ledscha had only half understood
+its meaning, and pointing her slender forefinger at the face of his
+completed work, she demanded to know whom she recognised in this statue.
+
+"The goddess Demeter," he answered quietly; "but if it pleases you
+better, as you seem to be on the right track, also the daughter of
+Archias."
+
+Then, angered by the wrathful glance she cast at him, he added more
+sternly: "She is kind-hearted, free from disagreeable whims and the
+disposition to torture others who are kindly disposed toward her. So I
+adorned the goddess with her pleasant features."
+
+"Mine, you mean to say," Ledscha answered bitterly, "would be less
+suitable for this purpose. Yet they, too, can wear a different
+expression from the present one. You, I think, have learned this. Only I
+shall never acquire the art of dissimulation, not even in your society."
+
+"You seem to be angry on account of my absence yesterday evening?"
+Hermon asked in an altered tone, clasping her hand; but Ledscha snatched
+it from him, exclaiming: "The model of the Demeter, the daughter of the
+wealthy Archias, detained you, you were going to tell me, and you think
+that ought to satisfy the barbarian maiden."
+
+"Folly!" he answered angrily. "I owe a debt of gratitude to her father,
+who was my guardian, and custom commands you also to honour a guest. But
+your obstinacy and jealousy are unbearable. What great thing is it that
+I ask of your love? A little patience. Practise it. Then your turn will
+come too."
+
+"Of course, the second and third will follow the first," she answered
+bitterly. "After Gula, the sailor's wife, you lured my innocent young
+sister, Taus, to this apartment; or am I mistaken in the order, and was
+Gula the second?"
+
+"So that's it!" cried Hermon, who was surprised rather than alarmed by
+this betrayal of his secret. "If you want confirmation of the fact, very
+well--both were here."
+
+"Because you deluded them with false vows of love."
+
+"By no means. My heart has nothing what ever to do with these visits.
+Gula came to thank me because I rendered her a service--you know
+it--which to every mother seems greater than it is."
+
+"But you certainly did not underestimate it," Ledscha impetuously
+interrupted, "for you demanded her honour in return."
+
+"Guard your tongue!" the artist burst forth angrily. "The woman visited
+me unasked, and I let her leave me as faithful or as unfaithful to her
+husband as she came. If I used her as a model--"
+
+"Gula, whom the sculptor transforms into a goddess," Ledscha
+interrupted, with a sneering laugh.
+
+"Into a fish-seller, if you wish to know it," cried Hermon indignantly.
+"I saw in the market a young woman selling shad. I took the subject, and
+found in Gula a suitable model. Unfortunately, she ventured here far too
+seldom. But I can finish it with the help of the sketch--it stands in
+yonder cupboard."
+
+"A fish-seller," Ledscha repeated contemptuously. "And for what did my
+Taus, poor lovely child, seem desirable?"
+
+"Over opposite," Hermon answered quickly, as if he wished to get rid of
+a troublesome duty, pointing through the window out of doors, "the free
+maidens, during the hot days, took off their sandals and waded through
+the water. There I saw your sister's feet. They were the prettiest
+of all, and Gula brought the young girl to me. I had commenced in
+Alexandria a figure of a girl holding her foot in her hand to take out a
+thorn, so I used your sister's for it."
+
+"And when my turn comes?" Ledscha demanded.
+
+"Then," he replied, freshly captivated by the magic of her beauty, in a
+kinder, almost tender tone, "then I will make of you, in gold and ivory,
+you wonderfully lovely creature, the counterpart of this goddess."
+
+"And you will need a long time for it?"
+
+"The oftener you come the faster the work will advance."
+
+"And the more surely the Biamite women will point their fingers at me."
+
+"Yet you ventured here to-day, unasked, in the broad light of noon."
+
+"Because I wish to remind you myself that I shall expect you this
+evening. Yesterday you did not appear; but to-day-I am right, am I
+not?--to-day you will come."
+
+"With the greatest delight, if it is possible," he answered eagerly.
+
+A warmer glance from her dark eyes rested upon him. The blood seethed in
+his veins, and as he extended both hands to her and ardently uttered her
+name, she rushed forward, clinging to him with passionate devotion, as
+if seeking assistance, but when his lips touched hers she shrank back
+and loosed her soft arms from his neck.
+
+"What does this mean?" asked the sculptor in surprise, trying to draw
+her toward him again; but Ledscha would not permit it, pleading in a
+softer tone than before: "Not now; but--am I not right, dearest--I may
+expect you this evening? Just this once let the daughter of Archias
+yield to me, who loves you better. We shall have a full moon to-night,
+and you have heard what was predicted to me--to-night the highest bliss
+which the gods can bestow upon a mortal awaits me."
+
+"And me also," cried Hermon, "if you will permit me to share it with
+you."
+
+"Then I will expect you on the Pelican Island--just when the full moon
+is over the lofty poplars there. You will come? Not to the Owl's Nest:
+to the Pelican Island. And though your love is far less, far cooler than
+mine, yet you will not defraud me of the best happiness of my life?"
+
+"How could I?" he asked, as if he felt wounded by such distrust. "What
+detains me must be something absolutely unavoidable."
+
+Ledscha's eyebrows contracted sharply, and in a choked voice she
+exclaimed: "Nothing must detain you--nothing, whatever it may be! Though
+death should threaten, you will be with me just at midnight."
+
+"I will, if it is possible," he protested, painfully touched by the
+vehemence of her urging. "What can be more welcome to me also than to
+spend happy hours with you in the silence of a moonlight night? Besides,
+my stay in Tennis will not be long."
+
+"You are going?" she asked in a hollow tone.
+
+"In three or four days," he answered carelessly; "then Myrtilus and I
+will be expected in Alexandria. But gently--gently--how pale you are,
+girl! Yes, the parting! But in six weeks at latest I shall be here
+again; then real life will first begin, and Eros will make the roses
+bloom for us."
+
+Ledscha nodded silently, and gazing into his face with a searching look
+asked, "And how long will this season of blossoming last?"
+
+"Several months, girl; three, if not six."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Who looks so far into the future?"
+
+She lowered her glance, and, as if yielding to the inevitable, answered:
+"What a fool I was! Who knows what the morrow may bring? Are we even
+sure whether, six months hence, we shall not hate, instead of loving,
+each other?"
+
+She passed her hand across her brow as she spoke, exclaiming: "You said
+just now that only the present belonged to man. Then let us enjoy it
+as though every moment might be the last. By the light of the full moon
+to-night, the happiness which has been predicted to me must begin. After
+it, the orb between the horns of Astarte will become smaller; but when
+it fulls and wanes again, if you keep your promise and return, then,
+though they may curse and condemn me, I will come to your studio and
+grant what you ask. But which of the goddesses do you intend to model
+from me as a companion statue to the Demeter?"
+
+"This time it can not be one of the immortelles," he answered
+hesitatingly, "but a famous woman, an artist who succeeded in a
+competition in vanquishing even the august Athene."
+
+"So it is no goddess?" Ledscha asked in a disappointed tone.
+
+"No, child, but the most skilful woman who ever plied the weaver's
+shuttle."
+
+"And her name?"
+
+"Arachne."
+
+The young girl started, exclaiming contemptuously: "Arachne? That
+is--that is what you Greeks call the most repulsive of creatures--the
+spider."
+
+"The most skilful of all creatures, that taught man the noble art of
+weaving," he eagerly retorted.
+
+Here he was interrupted; his friend Myrtilus put his fair head into the
+room, exclaiming: "Pardon me if I interrupt you--but we shall not see
+each other again for some time. I have important business in the city,
+and may be detained a long while. Yet before I go I must perform the
+commission Daphne gave me for you. She sends word that she shall expect
+you without fail at the banquet for the Pelusinian guests. Your absence,
+do you hear?--pardon the interruption, fairest Ledscha--your absence
+would seriously anger her."
+
+"Then I shall be prepared for considerable trouble in appeasing her,"
+replied Hermon, glancing significantly at the young girl.
+
+Myrtilus crossed the threshold, turned to the Biamite, and said in his
+quiet, cheerful manner: "Where beautiful gifts are to be brought to
+Eros, it beseems the friend to strew with flowers the path of the one
+who is offering the sacrifices; and you, if everything does not deceive
+me, would fain choose to-night to serve him with the utmost devotion.
+Therefore, I shall need forgiveness from you and the god, if I beseech
+you to defer the offering, were it only until to-morrow."
+
+Ledscha silently shrugged her shoulders and made no answer to the
+inquiring glance with which Hermon sought hers, but Myrtilus changed his
+tone and addressed a grave warning to his friend to consider well that
+it would be an insult to the manes of his dead parents if he should
+avoid the old couple from Pelusium, who had been their best friends and
+had taken the journey hither for his sake.
+
+Hermon looked after him in painful perplexity, but the Biamite also
+approached the threshold, and holding her head haughtily erect, said
+coldly: "The choice is difficult for you, as I see. Then recall to your
+memory again what this night of the full moon means--you are well
+aware of it--to me. If, nevertheless, you still decide in favour of the
+banquet with your friends, I can not help it; but I must now know: Shall
+this night belong to me, or to the daughter of Archias?"
+
+"Is it impossible to talk with you, unlucky girl, as one would with
+other sensible people?" Hermon burst forth wrathfully. "Everything is
+carried to extremes; you condemn a brief necessary delay as breach of
+faith and base treachery. This behaviour is unbearable."
+
+"Then you will not come?" she asked apathetically, laying her hand
+upon the door; but Hermon cried out in a tone half beseeching, half
+imperious: "You must not go so! If you insist upon it, surely I will
+come. There is no room in your obstinate soul for kind indulgence. No
+one, by the dog, ever accused me of being specially skilled in this
+smooth art; yet there may be duties and circumstances--"
+
+Here Ledscha gently opened the door; but, seized with a fear of losing
+this rare creature, whose singular beauty attracted him powerfully,
+even now, this peerless model for a work on which he placed the highest
+hopes, he strode swiftly to her side, and drawing her back from the
+threshold, exclaimed: "Difficult as it is for me on this special day, I
+will come, only you must not demand what is impossible. The right course
+often lies midway. Half the night must belong to the banquet with my old
+friends and Daphne; the second half--"
+
+"To the barbarian, you think--the spider," she gasped hoarsely. "But my
+welfare as well as yours depends on the decision. Stay here, or come to
+the island--you have your choice."
+
+Wrenching herself from his hold as she spoke, she slipped through the
+doorway and left the room.
+
+Hermon, with a muttered oath, stood still, shrugging his shoulders
+angrily.
+
+He could do nothing but yield to this obstinate creature's will.
+
+In the atrium Ledscha met the slave Bias, and returned his greeting only
+by a wave of the hand; but before opening the side door which was
+to lead her into the open air, she paused, and asked bluntly in the
+language of their people: "Was Arachne--I don't mean the spider, but the
+weaver whom the Greeks call by that name--a woman like the rest of us?
+Yet it is said that she remained victor in a contest with the goddess
+Athene."
+
+"That is perfectly true," answered Bias, "but she had to atone cruelly
+for this triumph; the goddess struck her on the forehead with the
+weaver's shuttle, and when, in her shame and rage, she tried to hang
+herself, she was transformed into the spider."
+
+Ledscha stood still, and, while drawing the veil over her pallid face,
+asked with quivering lips, "And is there no other Arachne?"
+
+"Not among mortals," was the reply, "but even here in this house there
+are more than enough of the disagreeable, creeping creatures which bear
+the same name."
+
+Ledscha now went clown the steps which led to the lawn, and Bias saw
+that she stumbled on the last one and would have fallen had not her
+lithe body regained its balance in time.
+
+"A bad omen!" thought the slave. "If I had the power to build a wall
+between my master and the spider yonder, it should be higher than the
+lighthouse of Sostratus. To heed omens guides one safely through life. I
+know what I know, and will keep my eyes open, for my master too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Hermon had intended to add a few more touches to his Demeter, but he
+could not do it. Ledscha, her demand, and the resentment with which she
+had left him, were not to be driven from his mind.
+
+There was no doubt that he must seek her if he was not to lose her, yet
+he reproached himself for having acted like a thoughtless fool when he
+proposed to divide the night between her and Daphne.
+
+There was something offensive in the proposal to so proud a creature.
+He ought to have promised positively to come, and then left the banquet
+somewhat earlier. It would have been easy to apologize for his late
+arrival, and Ledscha would have had no cause to be angry with him.
+
+Now she had, and her resentment awakened in him--though he certainly
+did not lack manly courage--an uncomfortable feeling closely allied to
+anxiety.
+
+Angered by his own conduct, he asked himself whether he loved the
+barbarian, and could find no satisfactory answer.
+
+At their first meeting he had felt that she was far superior to the
+other Biamite maidens, not only in beauty but in everything else. The
+very acerbity of her nature had seemed charming. To win this wonderful,
+pliant creature, slender as a cypress, whose independence merged into
+fierce obstinacy, had appeared to him worth any sacrifice; and having
+perceived in her an admirable model for his Arachne, he had also
+determined to brave the dangers which might easily arise for the Greek
+from a love affair with a Biamite girl, whose family was free and
+distinguished.
+
+It had been easier for him to win her heart than he expected; yet at
+none of the meetings which she granted him had he rejoiced in the secret
+bond between them.
+
+Hitherto her austere reserve had been invincible, and during the
+greater part of their interviews he had been compelled to exert all his
+influence to soothe, appease her, and atone for imprudent acts which he
+had committed.
+
+True, she, too, had often allowed herself to display passionate
+tenderness, but always only to torture him with reproaches and demands
+inspired by her jealousy, suspicion, and wounded pride.
+
+Yet her beauty, and the strong power of resistance which she offered to
+his wooing, exerted so bewitching a thrall over him that he had been led
+into conceding far too much, and making vows which he could not and did
+not desire to fulfil.
+
+Love had usually been to him a richly flowing well-spring of gay
+delight, but this bond had plunged him from one vexation into another,
+one anxiety to another, and now that he had almost reached the goal of
+his wishes, he could not help fearing that he had transformed Ledscha's
+love to hate.
+
+Daphne was dear to him. He esteemed her highly, and owed her a great
+debt of gratitude. Yet in this hour he anathematized her unexpected
+journey to Tennis; for without it he would have obtained from Ledscha
+that very day what he desired, and could have returned to Alexandria
+with the certainty of finding her ready later to pose as the model for
+his Arachne.
+
+Never could he find anywhere a more fitting one.
+
+He had devoted himself with passionate love to his art, and even his
+enemies numbered him among its most promising disciples. Yet hither to
+he had not succeeded in obtaining a great and undisputed success. On
+the other hand, he had experienced what were termed failures in abundant
+measure.
+
+The art to which he had gained entrance by so severe a struggle, and on
+whose soil he had laboured diligently enough, proved, so far as outward
+recognition was concerned, cruel to the enthusiastic disciple. Yet even
+now he would not have abandoned it at any price; the joy of creation
+compensated him richly for suffering and disappointment. Confidence in
+his own powers and the final triumph of his conviction had deserted him
+only occasionally, and for a few brief hours.
+
+He was born for conflicts. What ill-success, what antagonism and
+difficulties he had encountered! Some day the laurel which had so long
+adorned the brow of Myrtilus must also grow green for him and the
+great talent whose possession he felt. With the Arachne--he was sure of
+this--he would compel even his opponents to accord him the recognition
+for which hitherto he had striven in vain.
+
+While pacing restlessly up and down the spacious apartment, stopping
+from time to time before his work to fix his eyes angrily upon it, he
+thought of his friend's Demeter, whose head also had Daphne's features,
+who also bore in her hand a bundle of wheat, and even in attitude
+did not differ very widely from his own. And yet--eternal gods!--how
+thoroughly dissimilar the two were!
+
+In the figure created by Myrtilus, supernatural dignity blended with
+the utmost womanly charm; in his, a pleasing head rested upon a body
+in whose formation he had used various models without striving to
+accomplish anything except to depart as far as possible from established
+custom, with which he was at variance.
+
+Yet had he not found himself, nevertheless, compelled to follow the old
+rules? One arm was raised, the other hung down; the right foot was put
+forward, the left one back.
+
+Exactly the same as in Myrtilus's statue, and thousands of other figures
+of Demeter!
+
+If he could have used the hammer and chisel, the thing might have become
+more powerful; but how many things he had had to consider in employing
+the accursed gold and ivory upon which Archias obstinately insisted!
+
+This hammering, chipping, and filing told unfavourably upon his power
+and his aspiration toward grandeur.
+
+This time the battle seemed to be lost.
+
+It was fortunate that the conqueror was no other than Myrtilus. Often
+as he had gone astray in his young life, many as were the errors he had
+committed, not even the faintest shadow of an envious feeling concerning
+his friend's more successful work had ever stained his soul.
+
+True, the fact that fate, in addition to such abundant gifts of mind
+and spirit, had also endowed the latter with great worldly possessions,
+while he, but for the generosity of his uncle Archias, must have
+starved, had often led Hermon to inveigh angrily against the injustice
+of the gods. Yet he did not grudge Myrtilus the wealth without which he
+could not imagine him, and which his invalid friend needed to continue
+successfully the struggle against the insidious disease inherited with
+the gold. And his sufferings! Hermon could not have endured keener pain
+had they been his own. He must even rejoice over the poor dear fellow's
+victory; for if he, Hermon, succeeded with his Arachne as he hoped, it
+would make Myrtilus--he could swear to it--happier than his own triumph.
+
+After these reflections, which again reminded him of the second
+appointment and of Ledscha, the sculptor turned away from his work and
+went to the window to look across at Pelican Island, where she must not
+await him in vain.
+
+The boat which was to convey him over to it lay ready in the little
+flotilla, where a magnificently equipped galley had just been moored to
+the shore, undoubtedly the one that had brought the guests from Pelusium
+hither. The best thing he could do was to greet them at once, share
+the banquet with them, and, before the dessert was served, seek the
+beautiful woman whom his absence threatened to make his foe. And she
+was certainly justified in resenting it if, with cruel lack of
+consideration, he paid no heed to what had been prophesied for her on
+this night of the full moon.
+
+For the first time compassion mingled with his feelings for Ledscha.
+If to avoid the fleeting censure of aristocratic friends he left in the
+lurch the simple barbarian maiden who loved him with ardent passion,
+it was no evidence of resolute strength of soul, but of pitiful,
+reprehensible weakness. No, no! He must take the nocturnal voyage in
+order not to grieve Ledscha.
+
+Soon after the girl's abrupt departure he dressed himself in festal
+garments for the banquet. It would flatter Ledscha also if he went to
+her in this attire and, with his figure drawn up to its full height, he
+walked toward the door to go to the Alexandrian's tent.
+
+But what did this mean? Myrtilus was standing before his Demeter,
+scanning it intently with his keen artist eyes. Hermon had not noticed
+his entrance, and did not disturb him now, but fixed his gaze upon his
+mobile features in intense expectation.
+
+There were few of his fellow-artists whose opinion he valued as highly
+as that of this darling of the Muse.
+
+At a slight shake of the head, which Hermon interpreted as disapproval,
+he clinched his teeth; but soon his lips relaxed and his breast heaved
+with a sigh of relief, for the sunny glance that Myrtilus bent upon the
+face of the goddess seemed to show Hermon that it aroused his approval,
+and, as if relieved from an oppressive nightmare, he approached his
+friend.
+
+The latter turned toward him, exclaiming: "Daphne! As in the case
+of yonder bust, you have succeeded most perfectly with this dear
+face--only--"
+
+"Only," Hermon repeated slowly; "I am familiar with that evil word.
+Doubts knock at the door with it. Out with them honestly. I gave up my
+last hope of the prize yesterday while looking at your Demeter. Besides,
+careful scrutiny has just destroyed the last gleam of satisfaction with
+my own work. But if you like the head, what seem to you the greatest
+defects in the figure?"
+
+"It has nothing to do with defects, which, with your rare ability,
+can scarcely exist," replied the other, the faint pink flush in his
+beardless cheeks deepening to a more vivid hue. "It refers rather to
+the expression which you have given the divinity in yonder statue."
+Here Myrtilus hesitated, and, turning so that he stood face to face
+with Hermon, asked frankly, "Did you ever seek the goddess and, when you
+found her, did you feel any supernatural power and beauty?"
+
+"What a question!" exclaimed Hermon in astonishment. "A pupil of
+Straton, and go in search of beings and powers whose existence he
+denies! What my mother instilled into my heart I lost with my childhood,
+and you address your question only to the artist who holds his own
+ground, not to the boy. The power that calls creation to life, and
+maintains it, has for me long had nothing in common with those beings
+like mortals whom the multitude designates by the name of divinities."
+
+"I think differently," replied Myrtilus. "While I numbered myself among
+the Epicureans, whose doctrine still possesses the greatest charm for
+me, I nevertheless shared the master's opinion that it is insulting the
+gods to suppose that they will disturb their blissful repose for the
+sake of us insignificant mortals. Now my mind and my experience rebel
+against holding to this view, yet I believe with Epicurus, and with you,
+that the eternal laws of Nature bow to neither divine nor human will."
+
+"And yet," said Hermon, "you expect me to trouble myself about those who
+are as powerless as myself!"
+
+"I only wished that you might do so," answered Myrtilus; "for they
+are not powerless to those who from the first assumed that they can do
+nothing in opposition to those changeless laws. The state, too, rules
+according to them, and the wise king who refrains from interfering with
+them in the smallest trifle can therefore wield the sceptre with mighty
+power. So, in my opinion, it is perfectly allowable to expect aid from
+the gods. But we will let that pass. A healthy man, full of exuberant
+vigour like yourself, rarely learns early what they can bestow in
+suffering and misfortune; yet where the great majority believe in them,
+he, too, will be unable to help forming some idea of them; nay, even you
+and I have experienced it. By a thousand phenomena they force themselves
+into the world which surrounds us and our emotional life. Epicurus, who
+denied their power, saw in them at least immortal beings who possess
+in stainless perfection everything which in mortals is disfigured by
+errors, weaknesses, and afflictions. To him they are the intensified,
+reflected image of our own nature, and I think we can do nothing wiser
+than to cling to that, because it shows us to what heights of beauty and
+power, intellect, goodness, and purity we may attain. To completely deny
+their existence would hardly be possible even for you, because their
+persons have found a place in your imagination. Since this is the case,
+it can only benefit you to recognise in them magnificent models, by
+whose means we artists, if we imitate, perfect, and model them, will
+create works far more sublime and beautiful than anything visible to our
+senses which we meet here beneath the sun."
+
+"It is this very superiority in sublimity and beauty which I, and those
+who pursue the same path with me, oppose," replied Hermon. "Nature
+is sufficient for us. To take anything from her, mutilates; to add
+anything, disfigures her."
+
+"But not," replied Myrtilus firmly, "when it is done only in a special
+sense, and within the limits of Nature, to which the gods also belong.
+The final task of art, fiercely as you and your few followers contend
+against it, lies in the disentanglement, enhancing, and ennobling of
+Nature. You, too, ought not to overlook it when you undertake to model
+a Demeter; for she is a goddess, no mortal like yourself. The rest or I
+ought rather to say the alteration which converts the mortal woman into
+the immortal one, the goddess--I miss, and with special regret, because
+you do not even deem it worth consideration."
+
+"That I shall never do," retorted Hermon irritably, "so long as it is a
+changing chimera which presents itself differently to every mind."
+
+"Yet, should it really be a chimera, it is at any rate a sublime one,"
+Myrtilus protested, "and whoever among us artists wanders through Nature
+with open eyes and heart, and then examines his own soul, will find it
+worth while to attempt to give his ideal form."
+
+"Whatever stirs my breast during such walks, unless it is some unusual
+human being, I leave to the poet," replied Hermon. "I should be
+satisfied with the Demeter yonder, and you, too, probably, if--entirely
+apart from that--I had only succeeded fully and entirely in making her
+an individual--that is, a clearly outlined, distinct personality. This,
+you have often told me, is just wherein I am usually most successful.
+But here, I admit, I am baffled. Demeter hovered before me as a
+kindly dispenser of good gifts, a faithful, loving wife. Daphne's head
+expresses this; but in modelling the body I lost sight of the whole
+creation. While, for instance, in my fig-eater, every toe, every scrap
+of the tattered garments, belongs to the street urchin whom I wished
+to represent, in the goddess everything came by chance as the model
+suggested it, and you know that I used several. Had the Demeter from
+head to foot resembled Daphne, who has so much in common with our
+goddess, the statue would have been harmonious, complete, and you would
+perhaps have been the first to acknowledge it."
+
+"By no means," Myrtilus eagerly interrupted. "What our statues of the
+gods are we two know best: a wooden block, covered with gold and sheets
+of ivory. But to tens of thousands the statue of the divinity must be
+much more. When they raise their hearts, eyes, hands to it in prayer,
+they must be possessed by the idea of the deity which animated us while
+creating it, and with which we, as it were, permeated it. If it shows
+them only a woman endowed with praiseworthy qualities--"
+
+"Then," interrupted Hermon, "the worshipper should thank the sculptor;
+for is it not more profitable to him to be encouraged by the statue to
+emulate the human virtues whose successful embodiment it shows him than
+to strive for the aid of the botchwork of human hands, which possesses
+as much or as little power as the wood, gold, and ivory that compose it?
+If the worshipper does not appeal to the statue, but to the goddess, I
+fear it will be no less futile. So I shall consider it no blemish if you
+see in my Demeter a mortal woman, and no goddess; nay, it reconciles me
+in some degree to her weaknesses, to which I by no means close my eyes.
+I, too--I confess it--often feel a great desire to give the power of
+imagination greater play, and I know the divinities in whom I have lost
+faith as well as any one; for I, too, was once a child, and few have
+ever prayed to them more fervently, but with the increasing impulse
+toward liberty came the perception: There are no gods, and whoever bows
+to the power of the immortals makes himself a slave. So what I banished
+from life I will also remove from art, and model nothing which might not
+meet me to-day or to-morrow."
+
+"Then, as an honest man, abstain altogether from making statues of the
+gods," interrupted his friend.
+
+"That was my intention long ago, as you are aware," the other answered.
+
+"You could not commit a worse robbery upon yourself," cried Myrtilus. "I
+know you; nay, perhaps I see farther into your soul than you yourself.
+By ingenious fetters you force the mighty winged intellect to content
+itself within the narrow world of reality. But the time when you will
+yourself rend the bonds and find the divinity you have lost, will come,
+and then, with your mighty power once more free, you will outstrip most
+of us, and me also if I live to see it."
+
+Then he pressed his hand upon his rattling chest and walked slowly
+to the couch; but Hermon followed, helped him to lie down, and with
+affectionate solicitude arranged his pillows.
+
+"It is nothing," Myrtilus said soothingly, after a few minutes' silence.
+"My undermined strength has been heavily taxed to-day. The Olympians
+know how calmly I await death. It ends all things. Nothing will be left
+of me except the ashes, to which you will reduce my body, and what you
+call 'possession.' But even this can no longer belong to me after death,
+because I shall then be no more, and the idea of possession requires a
+possessor. My estate, too, is now disposed of. I have just been to the
+notary, and sixteen witnesses--neither more nor less--have signed my
+will according to the custom of this ceremonious country. There, now,
+if you please, go before me, and let me stay here alone a little while.
+Remember me to Daphne and the Pelusinians. I will join you in an hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+"When the moon is over Pelican Island." How often Ledscha had repeated
+this sentence to herself while Hermon was detained by Daphne and her
+Pelusinian guests!
+
+When she entered the boat after nightfall she exclaimed hopefully, sure
+of her cause, "When the moon is over Pelican Island he will come."
+
+Her goal was quickly reached in the skiff; the place selected for the
+nocturnal meeting was a familiar one to her.
+
+The pirates had remained absent from it quite two years. Formerly
+they had often visited the spot to conceal their arms and booty on the
+densely wooded island. The large papyrus thicket on the shore also hid
+boats from spying eyes, and near the spot where Ledscha landed was a
+grassy seat which looked like an ordinary resting place, but beneath
+it the corsairs had built a long, walled passage, that led to the other
+side of the island, and had enabled many a fugitive to vanish from the
+sight of pursuers, as though the earth had swallowed them.
+
+"When the moon is over the island," Ledscha repeated after she had
+waited more than an hour.
+
+The time had not yet come; the expanse of water lay before her
+motionless, in hue a dull, leaden gray, and only the dimly illumined air
+and a glimmering radiance along the edges of the waves that washed the
+island showed that the moon was already brightening the night.
+
+When its full orb floated above the island Hermon, too, would appear,
+and the happiness which had been predicted to Ledscha would begin.
+
+Happiness?
+
+A bitter smile hovered around her delicately cut lips as she repeated
+the word.
+
+Hitherto no feeling was more distant from her; for when love and longing
+began to stir in her heart, it seemed as though a hideous spider was
+weaving its web about her, and vague fears, painful memories, and in
+their train fierce hate would force glad expectation into the shadow.
+
+Yet she yearned with passionate fervour to see Hermon again, and when
+he was once there all must be well between them. The prediction of old
+Tabus, who ruled as mistress over so many demons, could not deceive.
+
+After Ledscha had so lately reminded the lover who so vehemently roused
+her jealous wrath what this night of the full moon meant to her, she
+could rely upon his appearance in spite of everything.
+
+Various matters undoubtedly held him firmly enough in Tennis--she
+admitted this to herself after she grew calmer--but he had promised to
+come; he would surely enter the boat, and she--she would submit to share
+the night with the Hellene.
+
+Her whole being longed for the bliss awaiting her, and it could come
+from no one save the man whose lips would seek hers when the moon rose
+over the Pelican Island.
+
+How tardily and sluggishly the cow-headed goddess who bore the silver
+orb between her horns rose to-night! how slowly the time passed, yet she
+did not move forward more certainly that the man whom Ledscha expected
+must arrive.
+
+Of the possibility of his non-appearance she would not think; but when
+the fear that she was perhaps looking for him in vain assailed her,
+the blood crimsoned her face as if she felt the shame of a humiliating
+insult. Yet why should she make the period of waiting more torturing
+than it was already?
+
+Surely he must come!
+
+Sometimes she rested on the grassy seat and gazed across the dull gray
+surface of the water into the distance; sometimes she walked to and fro,
+stopping at every turn to look across at Tennis and the bright torches
+and lights which surrounded the Alexandrian's tent.
+
+So one quarter of an hour after another passed away.
+
+A light breeze rose, and gradually the tops of the rushes began to
+shine, and the leafage before, beside, and above her to glitter in the
+silvery light.
+
+The water was no longer calm, but furrowed by countless little ripples,
+on whose crests the rays from above played, sparkling and flashing
+restlessly. A web of shimmering silvery radiance covered the edges of
+every island, and suddenly the brilliant full moon was reflected in
+argent lustre like a magnificent quivering column upon the surface of
+the water, now rippled by the evening breeze.
+
+The time during which Ledscha could repeat "When the moon is over
+Pelican Island" was past; already its course had led it beyond.
+
+The island lay behind it, and it continued its pilgrimage before the
+young girl's eyes.
+
+The glittering column of light upon the water proved that she was
+not mistaken; the time which she had appointed for Hermon had already
+expired.
+
+The moon in calm majesty sailed farther and farther onward in its
+course, and with it minute after minute elapsed, until they became a
+half hour, then a whole one.
+
+"How long is it since the moon was over Pelican Island?" was the
+question which now pressed itself upon her again and again, and to
+which she found an answer at every glance upward, for she had learned to
+estimate time by the position of the stars.
+
+Rarely was the silence of the night interrupted by the call of a human
+being or the barking of a dog from the city, or even the hooting of an
+owl at a still greater distance; but the farther the moon moved on above
+her the fiercer grew the uproar in Ledscha's proud, cruelly wronged
+soul. She felt offended, scorned, insulted, and at the same time
+defrauded of the happiness which this night of the full moon contained
+for her. Or had the demons who promised happiness meant something else
+in their prediction than Hermon's love? Was she to owe the bliss they
+had foretold to hate and pitiless retribution?
+
+When the midnight hour had nearly arrived she prepared to depart, but
+after she had already set her foot on the edge of the boat she returned
+to the grassy seat. She would wait a little longer yet. Then there would
+be nothing which could give Hermon a right to consideration; then she
+might let loose upon him the avenging powers at her command.
+
+Ledscha again gazed over the calm landscape, but in the wild tumult of
+her heart she no longer distinguished the details upon which her eyes
+rested. Doubtless she saw the light mists hovering like ghosts, or the
+restless shades of the unburied dead, over the shining expanse before
+her, and the filmy vapours that veiled the brightness of the stars, but
+she had ceased to question the heavenly bodies about the time.
+
+What did she care for the progress of the hours, since the constellation
+of Charles's Wain showed her that it was past midnight?
+
+The moon no longer stood forth in sharp outlines against the deep azure
+of the vaulted sky, but, robbed of its radiance, floated in a circle of
+dimly illumined mists.
+
+Not only the feelings which stirred Ledscha's soul, but the scene around
+her, had gained a totally different aspect.
+
+Since every hope of the happiness awaiting her was destroyed, she no
+longer sought to palliate the wrongs Hermon had inflicted upon her.
+While dwelling on them, she by no means forgot the trivial purpose for
+which the artist intended to use her charms; and when she again gazed up
+at the slightly-clouded sky, the shrouded moon no longer reminded her of
+the silver orb between the horns of Astarte.
+
+She did not ask herself how the transformation had occurred, but in its
+place, high above her head, hung a huge gray spider. Its gigantic limbs
+extended over the whole firmament, and seemed striving to clutch and
+stifle the world beneath. The enormous monster was weaving its gray net
+over Tennis, and all the islands in the water, the Pelican Island, and
+she herself upon the seat of turf, and held them all prisoned in it.
+
+It was a horrible vision, fraught with terrors which, even when she shut
+her eyes in order to escape it, showed very little change.
+
+Assailed by anxious fears, Ledscha started up, and a few seconds later
+was urging her boat with steady strokes toward the Owl's Nest.
+
+Even now lights were still shining from the Alexandrian's tent through
+the sultry, veiled night.
+
+There seemed to be no waking life on the pirates' island. Even old Tabus
+had probably put out the fire and gone to sleep, for deathlike silence
+and deep darkness surrounded it.
+
+Had Hanno, who agreed to meet her here after midnight, also failed to
+come? Had the pirate learned, like the Greek, to break his promise?
+
+Only half conscious what she was doing, she left the boat; but her
+slender foot had scarcely touched the land when a tall figure emerged
+from the thicket near the shore and approached her through the darkness.
+
+"Hanno!" she exclaimed, as if relieved from a burden, and the young
+pirate repeated "Hanno" as if the name was the watchword of the night.
+
+Her own name, uttered in a tone of intense yearning, followed. Not
+another syllable accompanied it, but the expression with which it fell
+upon her ear revealed so plainly what the young pirate felt for and
+expected from her that, in spite of the darkness which concealed her,
+she felt her face flush.
+
+Then he tried to clasp her hand, and she dared not withdraw it from the
+man whom she had chosen for her tool. So she unresistingly permitted him
+to hold her right hand while he whispered his desire to take the place
+of the fallen Abus and make her his wife.
+
+Ledscha, in hurried, embarrassed tones, answered that she appreciated
+the honour of his suit, but before she gave full consent she must
+discuss an important matter with him.
+
+Then Hanno begged her to go out on the water.
+
+His father and his brother Labaja were sitting in the house by the
+fire with his grandmother. They had learned, in following the trade of
+piracy, to hide the glimmer of lights. The old people had approved his
+choice, but the conversation in the dwelling would soon be over, and
+then the opportunity of seeing each other alone would be at an end.
+
+Without uttering a word in reply, Ledscha stepped back into the boat,
+but Hanno plied the oars with the utmost caution and guided the skiff
+without the slightest sound away from the island to an open part of the
+water far distant from any shore.
+
+Here he took in the oars and asked her to speak. They had no cause to
+fear being overheard, for the surrounding mists merely subdued the
+light of the full moon, and no other boat could have approached them
+unobserved.
+
+The few night birds, sweeping swiftly on their strong pinions from one
+island to another, flew past them like flitting shadows. One hawk only,
+in search of nocturnal booty, circled around the motionless skiff, and
+sometimes, with expanded wings, swooped down close to the couple who
+were talking together so eagerly; but both spoke so low that it would
+have been impossible, even for the bird's keen hearing, to follow the
+course of their consultation. Merely a few louder words and exclamations
+reached the height where it hovered.
+
+The young pirate himself was obliged to listen with the most strained
+attention while Ledscha, in low whispers, accused the Greek sculptor of
+having basely wronged and deceived her; but the curse with which Hanno
+received this acknowledgment reached even the bird circling around
+the boat, and it seemed as if it wished to express its approval to the
+corsair, for this time its fierce croak, as it suddenly swooped down to
+the surface of the water behind the boat, sounded shrilly through the
+silent night. But it soon soared again, and now Ledscha's declaration
+that she would become Hanno's bride only on condition that he would aid
+her to punish the Hellenic traitor also reached him.
+
+Then came the words "valuable booty," "slight risk," "thanks and
+reward."
+
+The girl's whispered allusion to two colossal statues made of pure gold
+and genuine ivory was followed by a laugh of disagreeable meaning from
+the pirate.
+
+At last he raised his deep voice to ask whether Ledscha, if the venture
+in which he would willingly risk his life were successful, would
+accompany him on board the Hydra, the good ship whose command his
+father intrusted to him. The firm "Yes" with which she answered, and
+her indignant exclamation as she repulsed Hanno's premature attempt
+at tenderness, might have been heard by the hawk even at a greater
+distance.
+
+Then the pirate's promised bride lowered her voice again, and did not
+raise her tones until she saw in imagination the fulfilment of the
+judgment which she was calling down upon the man who had torn her heart
+with such pitiless cruelty.
+
+Was this the happiness predicted for her on the night of the full moon?
+It might be, and, radiant with secret joy, her eyes sparkling and her
+bosom heaving as if her foot was already on the breast of the fallen
+foe, she assured Hanno that the gold and the ivory should belong to him,
+and to him alone; but not until he had delivered the base traitor to her
+alive, and left his punishment in her hands, would she be ready to go
+with him wherever he wished--not until then, and not one moment earlier.
+
+The pirate, with a proud "I'll capture him!" consented to this
+condition; but Ledscha, in hurried words, now described how she had
+planned the attack, while the corsair, at her bidding, plied the oars so
+as to bring the boat nearer to the scene of the assault.
+
+The vulture followed the skiff; but when it stopped opposite to the
+large white building, one side of which was washed by the waves, Ledscha
+pointed to the windows of Hermon's studio, exclaiming hoarsely to the
+young pirate: "You will seize him there--the Greek with the long, soft
+black beard, and the slender figure, I mean. Then you will bind and gag
+him, but, you hear, without killing him, for I can only inflict what he
+deserves upon the living man. I am not bargaining for a dead one."
+
+Just at that instant the bird of prey, with a shrill, greedy cry, as if
+it were invited to a delicious banquet, flew far away into the distance
+and did not return. It flew toward the left; the girl noticed it, and
+her heavy black eyebrows, which already met, contracted still more. The
+direction taken by the bird, which soon vanished in the darkness of the
+night, indicated approaching misfortune; but she was here only to sow
+destruction, and the more terrible growth it attained the better!
+
+With an acuteness which aroused the admiration of the young corsair, who
+was trained to similar plots, she explained hers.
+
+That they must wait until after the departure of the Alexandrian with
+her numerous train, and for the first dark night, was a matter of
+course.
+
+One signal was to notify Hanno to hold himself in readiness, another to
+inform him that every one in the white house had gone to rest, and
+that Hermon was there too. The pirates were to enter the black-bearded
+Greek's studio. While some were shattering his statues to carry away
+in sacks the gold and ivory which they contained, others were to force
+their way into Myrtilus's workroom, which was on the opposite side of
+the house. There they would find the second statue; but this they must
+spare, because, on account of the great fame of its creator, it was more
+valuable than the other. The fair-haired artist was ill, and it would be
+no difficult matter to take him alive, even if he should put himself on
+the defensive. Hermon, on the contrary, was a strong fellow, and to bind
+him without injuring him severely would require both strength and skill.
+Yet it must be done, for only in case Hanno succeeded in delivering both
+sculptors to her alive would she consider herself--she could not repeat
+it often enough--bound to fulfil what she had promised him.
+
+With the exception of the two artists, only Myrtilus's servant, the old
+doorkeeper, and Bias, Hermon's slave, remained during the night in the
+house which was to be attacked, and Hanno would undertake the assault
+with twenty-five sturdy fellows whom he commanded on the Hydra if his
+brother Labaja consented to share in the assault, this force could be
+considerably increased.
+
+To take the old corsair into their confidence now would not be
+advisable, for, on account of his mother's near presence, he would
+scarcely consent to enter into the peril. Should the venture fail,
+everything would be over; but if it succeeded, the old man could only
+praise the courage and skill with which it had been executed.
+
+Nothing was to be feared from the coast guard, for since Abus's death
+the authorities believed that piracy had vanished from these waters,
+and the ships commanded by Satabus and his sons had been admitted from
+Pontus into the Tanite arm of the Nile as trading vessels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+While Hanno was discussing these considerations, he rowed the boat past
+the landing place from which the "garden" with the Alexandrian's tent
+could be seen.
+
+The third hour after midnight had begun. Smoking flames were still
+rising from the pitch pans and blazing torches, and long rows of
+lanterns also illumined the broad space.
+
+It was as light as day in the vicinity of the tent, and Biamite huntsmen
+and traders were moving to and fro among the slaves and attendants as
+though it was market time.
+
+"Your father, too," Hanno remarked in his awkward fashion, "will
+scarcely make life hard for us. We shall probably find him in Pontus.
+He is getting a cargo of wood for Egypt there. We have had dealings with
+him a long time. He thought highly of Abus, and I, too, have already
+been useful to him. There were handsome young fellows on the Pontine
+coast, and we captured them. At the peril of our lives we took them to
+the mart. He may even risk it in Alexandria. So the old man makes
+over to him a large number of these youths, and often a girl into
+the bargain, and he does it far too cheaply. One might envy him the
+profit--if it were not your father! When you are once my wife, I'll make
+a special contract with him about the slaves. And, besides, since the
+last great capture, in which the old man allowed me a share of my own,
+I, too, need not complain of poverty. I shall be ready for the dowry. Do
+you want to know what you are worth to me?"
+
+But Ledscha's attention was attracted by other things, and even after
+Hanno, with proud conceit, repeated his momentous question, he waited in
+vain for a reply.
+
+Then he perceived that the girl was gazing at the brilliantly lighted
+square as if spellbound, and now he himself saw before the tent a shed
+with a canopied roof, and beneath it cushioned couches, on which several
+Greeks--men and women--were half sitting, half lying, watching with
+eager attention the spectacle which a slender young Hellenic woman was
+presenting to them.
+
+The tall man with the magnificent black beard, who seemed fairly
+devouring her with his eyes, must be the sculptor whom Ledscha commanded
+him to capture.
+
+To the rude pirate the Greek girl, who in a light, half-transparent
+bombyx robe, was exhibiting herself to the eyes of the men upon a
+pedestal draped with cloths, seemed bold and shameless.
+
+Behind her stood two female attendants, holding soft white garments
+ready, and a handsome Pontine boy with black, waving locks, who gazed up
+at her waiting for her signs.
+
+"Nearer," Ledscha ordered the pirate in a stifled voice, and he rowed
+the boat noiselessly under the shadow of a willow on the bank. But the
+skiff had scarcely been brought to a stop there when an elderly matron,
+who shared the couch of an old Macedonian man of a distinguished,
+soldierly appearance, called the name "Niobe."
+
+The Hellene on the pedestal took a cloth from the hand of one of the
+female attendants, and beckoned to the boy, who obediently drew through
+his girdle the short blue chiton which hung only to his knees, and
+sprang upon the platform.
+
+There the Greek girl manipulated in some way the red tresses piled high
+upon her head, and confined above the brow by a costly gold diadem,
+flung the white linen fabric which the young slave handed to her over
+her head, wound her arm around the shoulders of the raven-locked boy,
+and drew him toward her with passionate tenderness. At the same time
+she raised the end of the linen drapery with her left hand, spreading it
+over him like a protecting canopy.
+
+The mobile features which had just smiled so radiantly expressed mortal
+terror, and the pirate, to whom even the name "Niobe" was unfamiliar,
+looked around him for the terrible danger threatening the innocent
+child, from which the woman on the pedestal was protecting it with
+loving devotion.
+
+The mortal terror of a mother robbed by a higher power of her child
+could scarcely be more vividly depicted, and yet haughty defiance
+hovered around her slightly pouting lips; the uplifted hands seemed
+not only anxiously to defend, but also to defy an invisible foe with
+powerless anger.
+
+The pirate's eyes rested on this spectacle as if spellbound, and the
+man who in Pontus had dragged hundreds of young creatures--boys and
+girls--on his ship to sell them into slavery, never thinking of the
+tears which he thereby caused in huts and mansions, clinched his rough
+hand to attack the base wretch who was robbing the poor mother of her
+lovely darling.
+
+But just as Hanno was rising to look around him for the invisible
+evildoer, the loud shouts of many voices startled him. He glanced toward
+the pedestal; but now, instead of the hapless mother, he found there
+the bold woman whom he had previously seen, as radiant as if some great
+piece of good fortune had befallen her, bowing and waving her hand to
+the other Greeks, who were thanking her with loud applause.
+
+The sorely threatened boy, bowing merrily, sprang to the ground; but
+Hanno put his hand on Ledscha's arm, and in great perplexity whispered,
+"What did that mean?"
+
+"Hush!" said the girl softly, stretching her slender neck toward the
+illuminated square, for the performer had remained standing upon the
+pedestal, and Chrysilla, Daphne's companion, sat erect on her couch,
+exclaiming, "If it is agreeable to you, beautiful Althea, show us Nike
+crowning the victor."
+
+Even the Biamite's keen ear could not catch the reply and the purport
+of the rapid conversation which followed; but she guessed the point in
+question when the young men who were present rose hastily, rushed toward
+the pedestal, loosed the wreaths from their heads, and offered them to
+the Greek girl whom Chrysilla had just called "beautiful Althea."
+
+Four Hellenic officers in the strong military force under Philippus,
+the commandant of the "Key of Egypt," as Pelusium was justly called,
+had accompanied the old Macedonian general to visit his friend
+Archias's daughter at Tennis; but Althea rejected their garlands with an
+explanation which seemed to satisfy them.
+
+Ledscha could not hear what she said, but when only Hermon and Myrtilus
+still stood with their wreaths of flowers opposite the "beautiful
+Althea," and she glanced hesitatingly from one to the other, as if she
+found the choice difficult, and then drew from her finger a sparkling
+ring, the Biamite detected the swift look of understanding which Hermon
+exchanged with her.
+
+The girl's heart began to throb faster, and, with the keen premonition
+of a jealous soul, she recognised in Althea her rival and foe.
+
+Now there was no doubt of it; now, as the actress, skilled in every
+wile, hid the hand holding the ring, as well as the other empty one,
+behind her back, she would know how to manage so that she could use the
+garland which Hermon handed her.
+
+Ledscha's foreboding was instantly fulfilled, for when Althea held out
+her little tightly clinched fist to the artists and asked Myrtilus to
+choose, the hand to which he pointed and she then opened was empty, and
+she took from the other the ring, which she displayed with well-feigned
+regret to the spectators.
+
+Then Hermon knelt before her, and, as he offered Althea his wreath,
+his dark eyes gazed so ardently into the blue ones of the red-haired
+Greek-like Queen Arsinoe, she was of Thracian descent--that Ledscha was
+now positively certain she knew for whose sake her lover had so basely
+betrayed her.
+
+How she hated this bold woman!
+
+Yet she was forced to keep quiet, and pressed her lips tightly together
+as Althea seized the white sheet and with marvellous celerity wound it
+about her until it fell in exquisite folds like a long robe.
+
+Surprise, curiosity, and a pleasant sense of satisfaction in seeing
+what seemed to her a shameless display withdrawn from her lover's eyes,
+rendered it easier for Ledscha to maintain her composure; yet she felt
+the blood throbbing in her temples as Hermon remained kneeling before
+the Hellene, gazing intently into her expressive face.
+
+Was it not too narrow wholly to please the man who had known how to
+praise her own beauty so passionately? Did not the outlines of Althea's
+figure, which the bombyx robe only partially concealed, lack roundness
+even more than her own?
+
+And yet! As soon as Althea had transformed the sheet into a robe,
+and held the wreath above him, Hermon's gaze rested on hers as though
+enraptured, while from her bright blue eyes a flood of ardent admiration
+poured upon the man for whom she held the victor's wreath.
+
+This was done with the upper portion of her body bending very far
+forward. The slender figure was poised on one foot; the other, covered
+to the ankle with the long robe, hovered in the air. Had not the wings
+which, as Nike, belonged to her been lacking, every one would have been
+convinced that she was flying--that she had just descended from the
+heights of Olympus to crown the kneeling victor. Not only her hand, her
+gaze and her every feature awarded the prize to the man at her feet.
+
+There was no doubt that, if Nike herself came to the earth to make the
+best man happy with the noblest of crowns, the spectacle would be a
+similar one.
+
+And Hermon! No garlanded victor could look up to the gracious divinity
+more joyously, more completely enthralled by grateful rapture.
+
+The applause which now rang out more and more loudly was certainly
+not undeserved, but it pierced Ledscha's soul like a mockery, like the
+bitterest scorn.
+
+Hanno, on the contrary, seemed to consider the scene scarcely worth
+looking at. Something more powerful was required to stir him. He was
+particularly averse to all exhibitions. The utmost which his relatives
+could induce the quiet, reserved man to do when they ventured into the
+great seaports was to attend the animal fights and the games of the
+athletes. He felt thoroughly happy only when at sea, on board of his
+good ship. His best pleasure was to gaze up at the stars on calm nights,
+guide the helm, and meanwhile dream--of late most gladly of making the
+beautiful girl who had seemed to him worthy of his brave brother Abus,
+his own wife.
+
+In the secluded monotony of his life as a scar over memory had exalted
+Ledscha into the most desirable of all women, and the slaughtered Abus
+into the greatest of heroes.
+
+To win the love of this much-praised maiden seemed to Hanno peerless
+happiness, and the young corsair felt that he was worthy of it; for
+on the high seas, when a superior foe was to be opposed by force and
+stratagem, when a ship was to be boarded and death spread over her deck,
+he had proved himself a man of unflinching courage.
+
+His suit had progressed more easily than he expected. His father would
+rejoice, and his heart exulted at the thought of encountering a serious
+peril for the girl he loved. His whole existence was a venture of life,
+and, had he had ten to lose, they would not have been too dear a price
+to him to win Ledscha.
+
+While Althea, as the goddess of Victory, held the wreath aloft, and loud
+applause hailed her, Hanno was thinking of the treasures which he had
+garnered since his father had allowed him a share of the booty, and of
+the future.
+
+When he had accumulated ten talents of gold he would give up piracy,
+like Abus, and carry on his own ships wood and slaves from Pontus to
+Egypt, and textiles from Tennis, arms and other manufactured articles
+from Alexandria to the Pontine cities. In this way Ledscha's father had
+become a rich man, and he would also, not for his own sake--he needed
+little--but to make life sweet for his wife, surround her with splendour
+and luxury, and adorn her beautiful person with costly jewels. Many a
+stolen ornament was already lying in the safe hiding place that even his
+brother Labaja did not know.
+
+At last the shouts died away, and as the stopping of the clattering
+wheel wakes the miller, so the stillness on the shore roused Hanno from
+his dream.
+
+What was it that Ledscha saw there so fascinating that she did not
+even hear his low call? His father and Labaja had undoubtedly left his
+grandmother's house long ago, and were looking for him in vain.
+
+Yes, he was right; the old pirate's shrill whistle reached his ear from
+the Owl's Nest, and he was accustomed to obedience.
+
+So, lightly touching Ledscha on the shoulder, he whispered that he must
+return to the island at once. His father would be rejoiced if she went
+with him.
+
+"To-morrow," she answered in a tone of resolute denial. Then, reminding
+him once more of the meaning of the signals she had promised to give,
+she waved her hand to him, sprang swiftly past him to the prow of the
+boat, caught an overhanging bough of the willow on the shore, and, as
+she had learned during the games of her childhood, swung herself as
+lightly as a bird into the thicket at the water's edge, which concealed
+her from every eye.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Without even vouchsafing Hanno another glance, Ledscha glided forward in
+the shadow of the bushes to the great sycamore, whose thick, broad top
+on the side toward the tents was striped with light from the flood of
+radiance streaming from them. On the opposite side the leafage vanished
+in the darkness of the night, but Myrtilus had had a bench placed there,
+that he might rest in the shade, and from this spot the girl could
+obtain the best view of what she desired to see.
+
+How gay and animated it was under the awning!
+
+A throng of companions had arrived with the Pelusinians, and some also
+had probably been on the ship which--she knew it from Bias--had come to
+Tennis directly from Alexandria that afternoon. The galley was said to
+belong to Philotas, an aristocratic relative of King Ptolemy. If she was
+not mistaken, he was the stately young Greek who was just picking up the
+ostrich-feather fan that had slipped from Daphne's lap.
+
+The performance was over.
+
+Young slaves in gay garments, and nimble female servants with glittering
+gold circlets round their upper arms and on their ankles, were
+passing from couch to couch, and from one guest to another, offering
+refreshments. Hermon had risen from his knees, and the wreath of bright
+flowers again adorned his black curls. He held himself as proudly erect
+as if the goddess of Victory herself had crowned him, while Althea was
+reaping applause and thanks. Ledscha gazed past her and the others to
+watch every movement of the sculptor.
+
+It was scarcely the daughter of Archias who had detained Hermon, for he
+made only a brief answer--Ledscha could not hear what it was--when she
+accosted him pleasantly, to devote himself to Althea, and--this could be
+perceived even at a distance--thank her with ardent devotion.
+
+And now--now he even raised the hem of her peplos to his lips.
+
+A scornful smile hovered around Ledscha's mouth; but Daphne's guests
+also noticed this mark of homage--an unusual one in their circle--and
+young Philotas, who had followed Daphne from Alexandria, cast a
+significant glance at a man with a smooth, thin, birdlike face, whose
+hair was already turning gray. His name was Proclus, and, as grammateus
+of the Dionysian games and high priest of Apollo, he was one of the most
+influential men in Alexandria, especially as he was one of the favoured
+courtiers of Queen Arsinoe.
+
+He had gone by her command to the Syrian court, had enjoyed on
+his return, at Pelusium, with his travelling companion Althea, the
+hospitality of Philippus, and accompanied the venerable officer to
+Tennis in order to win him over to certain plans. In spite of his
+advanced age, he still strove to gain the favour of fair women, and the
+sculptor's excessive ardour had displeased him.
+
+So he let his somewhat mocking glance wander from Althea to Hermon,
+and called to the latter: "My congratulations, young master; but I need
+scarcely remind you that Nike suffers no one--not even goodness and
+grace personified--to take from her hand what it is her sole duty to
+bestow."
+
+While speaking he adjusted the laurel on his own thin hair; but Thyone,
+the wife of Philippus, answered eagerly: "If I were a young man like
+Hermon, instead of an old woman, noble Proclus, I think the wreath which
+Beauty bestows would render me scarcely less happy than stern Nike's
+crown of victory."
+
+While making this pleasant reply the matron's wrinkled face wore an
+expression of such cordial kindness, and her deep voice was so winning
+in its melody, that Hermon forced himself to heed the glance of urgent
+warning Daphne cast at him, and leave the sharp retort that hovered on
+his lips unuttered. Turning half to the grammateus, half to the matron,
+he merely said, in a cold, self-conscious tone, that Thyone was right.
+In this gay circle, the wreath of bright flowers proffered by the hands
+of a beautiful woman was the dearest of all gifts, and he would know how
+to value it.
+
+"Until other more precious ones cast it into oblivion," observed Althea.
+"Let me see, Hermon: ivy and roses. The former is lasting, but the
+roses--" She shook her finger in roguish menace at the sculptor as she
+spoke.
+
+"The roses," Proclus broke in again, "are of course the most welcome to
+our young friend from such a hand; yet these flowers of the goddess of
+Beauty have little in common with his art, which is hostile to beauty.
+Still, I do not know what wreath will be offered to the new tendency
+with which he surprised us."
+
+At this Hermon raised his head higher, and answered sharply: "Doubtless
+there must have been few of them, since you, who are so often among the
+judges, do not know them. At any rate, those which justice bestows have
+hitherto been lacking."
+
+"I should deplore that," replied Proclus, stroking his sharp chin with
+his thumb and forefinger; "but I fear that our beautiful Nike also
+cared little for this lofty virtue of the judge in the last coronation.
+However, her immortal model lacks it often enough."
+
+"Because she is a woman," said one of the young officers, laughing; and
+another added gaily: "That very thing may be acceptable to us soldiers.
+For my part, I think everything about the goddess of Victory is
+beautiful and just, that she may remain graciously disposed toward
+us. Nay, I accuse the noble Althea of withholding from Nike, in her
+personation, her special ornament--her swift, powerful wings."
+
+"She gave those to Eros, to speed his flight," laughed Proclus, casting
+a meaning look at Althea and Hermon.
+
+No one failed to notice that this jest alluded to the love which seemed
+to have been awakened in the sculptor as quickly as in the personator
+of the goddess of Victory, and, while it excited the merriment of the
+others, the blood mounted into Hermon's cheeks; but Myrtilus perceived
+what was passing in the mind of his irritable friend, and, as the
+grammateus praised Nike because in this coronation she had omitted the
+laurel, the fair-haired Greek interrupted him with the exclamation:
+
+"Quite right, noble Proclus, the grave laurel does not suit our gay
+pastime; but roses belong to the artist everywhere, and are always
+welcome to him. The more, the better!"
+
+"Then we will wait till the laurel is distributed in some other place,"
+replied the grammateus; and Myrtilus quickly added, "I will answer for
+it that Hermon does not leave it empty-handed."
+
+"No one will greet the work which brings your friend the wreath of
+victory with warmer joy," Proclus protested. "But, if I am correctly
+informed, yonder house hides completed treasures whose inspection would
+give the fitting consecration to this happy meeting. Do you know what
+an exquisite effect gold and ivory statues produce in a full glow of
+lamplight? I first learned it a short time ago at the court of King
+Antiochus. There is no lack of lights here. What do you say, gentlemen?
+Will you not have the studios lighted till the rooms are as bright as
+day, and add a noble enjoyment of art to the pleasures of this wonderful
+night?"
+
+But Hermon and Myrtilus opposed this proposal with equal decision.
+
+Their refusal awakened keen regret, and the old commandant of Pelusium
+would not willingly yield to it.
+
+Angrily shaking his large head, around which, in spite of his advanced
+age, thick snowwhite locks floated like a lion's mane, he exclaimed,
+"Must we then really return to our Pelusium, where Ares restricts the
+native rights of the Muses, without having admired the noble works which
+arose in such mysterious secrecy here, where Arachne rules and swings
+the weaver's shuttle?"
+
+"But my two cruel cousins have closed their doors even upon me, who came
+here for the sake of their works," Daphne interrupted, "and, as rather
+Zeus is threatening a storm--just see what black clouds are rising!--we
+ought not to urge our artists further; a solemn oath forbids them to
+show their creations now to any one."
+
+This earnest assurance silenced the curious, and, while the conversation
+took another turn, the gray-haired general's wife drew Myrtilus aside.
+
+Hermon's parents had been intimate friends of her own, as well as of
+her husband's, and with the interest of sincere affection she desired
+to know whether the young sculptor could really hope for the success of
+which Myrtilus had just spoken.
+
+It was years since she had visited Alexandria, but what she heard of
+Hermon's artistic work from many guests, and now again through Proclus,
+filled her with anxiety.
+
+He had succeeded, it was said, in attracting attention, and his great
+talent was beyond question; but in this age, to which beauty was as much
+one of the necessities of life as bread and wine, and which could not
+separate it from art, he ventured to deny it recognition. He headed a
+current in art which was striving to destroy what had been proved and
+acknowledged, yet, though his creations were undeniably powerful,
+and even showed many other admirable qualities, instead of pleasing,
+satisfying, and ennobling, they repelled.
+
+These opinions had troubled the matron, who understood men, and was the
+more disposed to credit them the more distinctly she perceived traces
+of discontent and instability in Hermon's manner during the present
+meeting.
+
+So it afforded her special pleasure to learn from Myrtilus his firm
+conviction that, in Arachne, Hermon would produce a masterpiece which
+could scarcely be excelled.
+
+During this conversation Althea had come to Thyone's side, and, as
+Hermon had already spoken to her of the Arachne, she eagerly expressed
+her belief that this work seemed as if it were specially created for
+him.
+
+The Greek matron leaned back comfortably upon her cushions, her
+wrinkled, owl-like face assumed a cheerful expression, and, with the
+easy confidence conferred by aristocratic birth, a distinguished social
+position, and a light heart, she exclaimed: "Lucifer is probably already
+behind yonder clouds, preparing to announce day, and this exquisite
+banquet ought to have a close worthy of it. What do you say, you
+wonder-working darling of the Muses"--she held out her hand to Althea as
+she spoke--"to showing us and the two competing artists yonder the model
+of the Arachne they are to represent in gold and ivory?"
+
+Althea fixed her eyes upon the ground, and, after a short period of
+reflection, answered hesitatingly: "The task which you set before me is
+certainly no easy one, but I shall rely upon your indulgence."
+
+"She will!" cried the matron to the others.
+
+Then, clapping her hands, she continued gaily, in the tone of the
+director of an entertainment issuing invitations to a performance: "Your
+attention is requested! In this city of weavers the noble Thracian,
+Althea, will depict before you all the weaver of weavers, Arachne, in
+person."
+
+"Take heed and follow my advice to sharpen your eyes," added Philotas,
+who, conscious of his inferiority in intellect and talents to the men
+and women assembled here, took advantage of this opportunity to assert
+himself in a manner suited to his aristocratic birth. "This artistic yet
+hapless Arachne, if any one, teaches the lesson how the lofty Olympians
+punish those who venture to place themselves on the same level; so
+let artists beware. We stepchildren of the Muse can lull ourselves
+comfortably in the assurance of not giving the jealous gods the
+slightest cause for the doom which overtook the pitiable weaver."
+
+Not a word of this declaration of the Macedonian aristocrat escaped the
+listening Ledscha. Scales seemed to fall from her eyes. Hermon had won
+her love in order to use her for the model of his statue of Arachne,
+and, now that he had met Althea, who perhaps suited his purpose even
+better, he no longer needed the barbarian. He had cast her aside like
+a tight shoe as soon as he found a more acceptable one in this female
+juggler.
+
+The girl had already asked herself, with a slight thrill of horror,
+whether she had not prematurely called down so terrible a punishment
+upon her lover; now she rejoiced in her swift action. If anything else
+remained for her to do, it was to make the vengeance with which she
+intended to requite him still more severe.
+
+There he stood beside the woman she hated. Could he bestow even one poor
+thought upon the Biamite girl and the wrong he had inflicted?
+
+Oh, no! His heart was filled to overflowing by the Greek--every look
+revealed it.
+
+What was the shameless creature probably whispering to him now?
+
+Perhaps a meeting was just being granted. The rapture which had been
+predicted to her for this moonlight night, and of which Hermon had
+robbed her, was mirrored in his features. He could think of everything
+except her and her poor, crushed heart.
+
+But Ledscha was mistaken. Althea had asked the sculptor whether he
+still regretted having been detained by her before midnight, and he had
+confessed that his remaining at the banquet had been connected with a
+great sacrifice--nay, with an offence which weighed heavily on his
+mind. Yet he was grateful to the favour of the gods that had guided his
+decision, for Althea had it in her power to compensate him richly for
+what he had lost.
+
+A glance full of promise flashed upon him from her eloquent eyes, and,
+turning toward the pedestal at the same instant, she asked softly, "Is
+the compensation I must and will bestow connected with the Arachne?"
+
+An eager "Yes" confirmed this question, and a swift movement of her
+expressive lips showed him that his boldest anticipations were to be
+surpassed.
+
+How gladly he would have detained her longer!--but she was already the
+object of all eyes, and his, too, followed her in expectant suspense as
+she gave an order to the female attendant and then stood thoughtfully
+for some time before the platform.
+
+When she at last ascended it, the spectators supposed that she would
+again use a cloth; but, instead of asking anything more from the
+assistants, she cast aside even the peplos that covered her shoulders.
+
+Now, almost lean in her slenderness, she stood with downcast eyes; but
+suddenly she loosed the double chain, adorned with flashing gems, from
+her neck, the circlets from her upper arms and wrists, and, lastly, even
+the diadem, a gift bestowed by her relative, Queen Arsinoe, from her
+narrow brow.
+
+The female slaves received them, and then with swift movements Althea
+divided her thick long tresses of red hair into narrower strands, which
+she flung over her back, bosom, and shoulders.
+
+Next, as if delirious, she threw her head so far on one side that it
+almost touched her left shoulder, and stared wildly upward toward the
+right, at the same time raising her bare arms so high that they extended
+far above her head.
+
+It was again her purpose to present the appearance of defending herself
+against a viewless power, yet she was wholly unlike the Niobe whom she
+had formerly personated, for not only anguish, horror, and defiance,
+but deep despair and inexpressible astonishment were portrayed by her
+features, which obediently expressed the slightest emotion.
+
+Something unprecedented, incomprehensible even to herself, was
+occurring, and to Ledscha, who watched her with an expectation as
+passionate as if her own weal and woe depended upon Althea's every
+movement, it seemed as if an unintelligible marvel was happening before
+her eyes, and a still greater one was impending; for was the woman up
+there really a woman like herself and the others whose eyes were now
+fixed upon the hated actress no less intently than her own?
+
+Did her keen senses deceive her, or was not what was occurring actually
+a mysterious transformation?
+
+As Althea stood there, her delicate arms seemed to have lengthened and
+lost even their slight roundness, her figure to have become even more
+slender and incorporeal, and how strangely her thin fingers spread
+apart! How stiffly the strands of the parted, wholly uncurled locks
+stood out in the air!
+
+Did it not seem as if they were to help her move?
+
+The black shadow which Althea's figure and limbs cast upon the surface
+of the brightly lighted pedestal-no, it was no deception, it not only
+resembled the spinner among insects, it presented the exact picture of a
+spider.
+
+The Greek's slender body had contracted, her delicate arms and narrow
+braids of hair changed into spider legs, and the many-jointed hands were
+already grasping for their prey like a spider, or preparing to wind the
+murderous threads around another living creature.
+
+"Arachne, the spider!" fell almost inaudibly from her quivering lips,
+and, overpowered by torturing fear, she was already turning away from
+the frightful image, when the storm of applause which burst from the
+Alexandrian guests soothed her excited imagination.
+
+Instead of the spider, a slender, lank woman, with long, outstretched
+bare arms, and fingers spread wide apart, fluttering hair, and wandering
+eyes again stood before Ledscha.
+
+But no peace was yet granted to her throbbing heart, for while Althea,
+with perspiring brow and quivering lips, descended from the pedestal,
+and was received with loud demonstrations of astonishment and delight,
+the glare of a flash of lightning burst through the clouds, and a loud
+peal of thunder shook the night air and reverberated a long time over
+the water.
+
+At the same instant a loud cry rang from beneath the canopy.
+
+Thyone, the wife of Alexander the Great's comrade, though absolutely
+fearless in the presence of human foes, dreaded the thunder by which
+Zeus announced his anger. Seized with sudden terror, she commanded a
+slave to obtain a black lamb for a sacrifice, and earnestly entreated
+her husband and her other companions to go on board the ship with her
+and seek shelter in its safe, rain-proof cabin, for already heavy drops
+were beginning to fall upon the tensely drawn awning.
+
+"Nemesis!" exclaimed the grammateus.
+
+"Nemesis!" whispered young Philotas to Daphne in a confidential murmur,
+throwing his own costly purple cloak around her to shield her from the
+rain. "Nowhere that we mortals overstep the bounds allotted to us do we
+await her in vain."
+
+Then bending down to her again, he added, by way of explanation: "The
+winged daughter of Night would prove herself negligent if she allowed
+me to enjoy wholly without drawback the overwhelming happiness of being
+with you once more."
+
+"Nemesis!" remarked Thoas, an aristocratic young hipparch of the
+guards of the Diadochi, who had studied in Athens and belonged to the
+Peripatetics there. "The master sees in the figure of this goddess the
+indignation which the good fortune of the base or the unworthy use of
+good fortune inspires in us. She keeps the happy mean between envy and
+malicious satisfaction." The young soldier looked around him, expecting
+applause, but no one was listening; the tempest was spreading terror
+among most of the freedmen and slaves.
+
+Philotas and Myrtilus were following Daphne and her companion Chrysilla
+as they hurried into the tent. The deep, commanding tones of old
+Philippus vainly shouted the name of Althea, whom, as he had bestowed
+his hospitality upon her in Pelusium, he regarded as his charge, while
+at intervals he reprimanded the black slaves who were to carry his wife
+to the ship, but at another heavy peal of thunder set down the litter to
+throw themselves on their knees and beseech the angry god for mercy.
+
+Gras, the steward whom Archias had given to his daughter, a Bithynian
+who had attached himself to one school of philosophy after an other, and
+thereby ceased to believe in the power of the Olympians, lost his quiet
+composure in this confusion, and even his usual good nature deserted
+him. With harsh words, and no less harsh blows, he rushed upon the
+servants, who, instead of carrying the costly household utensils and
+embroidered cushions into the tent, drew out their amulets and idols to
+confide their own imperilled lives to the protection of higher powers.
+
+Meanwhile the gusts of wind which accompanied the outbreak of the storm
+extinguished the lamps and pitch-pans. The awning was torn from the
+posts, and amid the wild confusion rang the commandant of Pelusium's
+shouts for Althea and the screams of two Egyptian slave women, who, with
+their foreheads pressed to the ground, were praying, while the angry
+Gras was trying, by kicks and blows, to compel them to rise and go to
+work.
+
+The officers were holding a whispered consultation whether they should
+accept the invitation of Proclus and spend the short remnant of the
+night on his galley over the wine, or first, according to the counsel
+of their pious commandant, wait in the neighbouring temple of Zeus until
+the storm was over.
+
+The tempest had completely scattered Daphne's guests. Even Ledscha
+glanced very rarely toward the tents. She had thrown her self on the
+ground under the sycamore to beseech the angry deity for mercy, but,
+deeply as fear moved her agitated soul, she could not pray, but listened
+anxiously whenever an unexpected noise came from the meeting place of
+the Greeks.
+
+Then the tones of a familiar voice reached her. It was Hermon's, and
+the person to whom he was speaking could be no one but the uncanny
+spider-woman, Althea.
+
+They were coming to have a secret conversation under the shade of the
+dense foliage of the sycamore. That was easily perceived, and in an
+instant Ledscha's fear yielded to a different feeling.
+
+Holding her breath, she nestled close to the trunk of the ancient tree
+to listen, and the first word she heard was the name "Nemesis," which
+had just reached her from the tent.
+
+She knew its meaning, for Tennis also had a little temple dedicated to
+the terrible goddess, which was visited by the Egyptians and Biamites as
+well as the Greeks.
+
+A triumphant smile flitted over her unveiled features, for there was no
+other divinity on whose aid she could more confidently rely. She could
+unchain the vengeance which threatened Hermon with a far more terrible
+danger than the thunder clouds above, under the protection--nay, as it
+were at the behest of Nemesis.
+
+To-morrow she would be the first to anoint her altar.
+
+Now she rejoiced that her wealthy father imposed no restriction upon her
+in the management of household affairs, for she need spare no expense in
+choosing the animal she intended to offer as a sacrifice.
+
+This reflection flashed through her mind with the speed of lightning
+while she was listening to Althea's conversation with the sculptor.
+
+"The question here can be no clever play upon the name and the nature
+of the daughter of Erebus and Night," said the Thracian gravely. "I
+will remind you that there is another Nemesis besides the just being who
+drives from his stolen ease the unworthy mortal who suns himself in
+good fortune. The Nemesis whom I will recall to-day, while angry Zeus
+is hurling his thunderbolts, is the other, who chastises sacrilege--Ate,
+the swiftest and most terrible of the Erinyes. I will invoke her wrath
+upon you in this hour if you do not confess the truth to me fully and
+entirely."
+
+"Ask," Hermon interrupted in a hollow tone. "Only, you strange woman--"
+
+"Only," she hastily broke in, "whatever the answer may be, I must
+pose to you as the model for your Arachne--and perhaps it may come
+to that--but first I must know, briefly and quickly, for they will be
+looking for me immediately. Do you love Daphne?"
+
+"No," he answered positively. "True, she has been dear to me from
+childhood--"
+
+"And," Althea added, completing the sentence, "you owe her father a debt
+of gratitude. But that is not new to me; I know also how little reason
+you gave her for loving you. Yet her heart belongs neither to Philotas,
+the great lord with the little brain, nor to the famous sculptor
+Myrtilus, whose body is really too delicate to bear all the laurels with
+which he is overloaded, but to you, and you alone--I know it."
+
+Hermon tried to contradict her, but Althea, without allowing him to
+speak, went on hurriedly: "No matter! I wished to know whether you loved
+her. True, according to appearances, your heart does not glow for her,
+and hitherto you have disdained to transform by her aid, at a single
+stroke, the poverty which ill suits you into wealth. But it was not
+merely to speak of the daughter of Archias that I accompanied you into
+this tempest, from which I would fain escape as quickly as possible. So
+speak quickly. I am to serve you in your art, and yet, if I understood
+you correctly, you have already found here another excellent model."
+
+"A native of the country," answered Hermon in an embarrassed tone.
+
+"And for my sake you allowed her to wait for you in vain?"
+
+"It is as you say."
+
+"And you had promised to seek her?"
+
+"Certainly; but before the appointed hour came I met you. You rose
+before me like a new sun, shedding a new light that was full of promise.
+Everything else sank into darkness, and, if you will fulfil the hope
+which you awakened in this heart--"
+
+Just at that moment another flash of lightning blazed, and, while
+the thunder still shook the air, Althea continued his interrupted
+protestation: "Then you will give yourself to me, body and soul--but
+Zeus, who hears oaths, is reminding us of his presence--and what will
+await you if the Biamite whom you betrayed invokes the wrath of Nemesis
+against you?"
+
+"The Nemesis of the barbarians!" he retorted contemptuously. "She only
+placed herself at the service of my art reluctantly; but you, Althea,
+if you will loan yourself to me as a model, I shall succeed in doing my
+very best; for you have just permitted me to behold a miracle, Arachne
+herself, whom you became, you enchantress. It was real, actual life, and
+that--that is the highest goal."
+
+"The highest?" she asked hesitatingly. "You will have to represent the
+female form, and beauty, Hermon, beauty?"
+
+"Will be there, allied with truth," flamed Hermon, "if you, you
+peerless, more than beautiful creature, keep your word to me. But you
+will! Let me be sure of it. Is a little love also blended with the wish
+to serve the artist?"
+
+"A little love?" she repeated scornfully.
+
+"This matter concerns love complete and full--or none. We will see each
+other again to-morrow. Then show me what the model Althea is worth to
+you."
+
+With these words she vanished in the darkness, while the call of her
+name again rang from the tents.
+
+"Althea!" he cried in a tone of mournful reproach as he perceived her
+disappearance, hurrying after her; but the dense gloom soon forced him
+to give up the pursuit.
+
+Ledscha, too, left her place beneath the sycamore.
+
+She had seen and heard enough.
+
+Duty now commanded her to execute vengeance, and the bold Hanno was
+ready to risk his life for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The following day the sun shone radiantly, with scorching brilliancy,
+upon Tennis and the archipelago, which at this season of the year
+surrounded the little city of weavers.
+
+Young Philotas, without going to rest, had set out at dawn in pursuit of
+game, accompanied by a numerous hunting party, to which several of the
+Pelusinian officers belonged. He, too, had brought home a great quantity
+of booty, with which he had expected to awaken Daphne's admiration, and
+to lay as a token of homage at her feet. He had intended to lead before
+her garlanded slaves bearing, tied by ropes, bunches of slaughtered wild
+fowl, but his reception was very different from what he had anticipated.
+
+Instead of praising his exploit, he had been indignantly requested to
+remove the poor, easily killed victims from her presence; and, wounded
+and disappointed, he had retired to his magnificent Nile boat, where,
+spent by his sleepless night, he slumbered so soundly on his soft
+cushions that he did not appear at the breakfast which the gray-haired
+commander of Pelusium had invited him to attend on his galley.
+
+While the others were still feasting there, Daphne was enjoying an hour
+alone with her companion Chrysilla.
+
+She had remained absent from Philippus's banquet, and her pale cheeks
+showed the ill effects produced by the excitement of the previous night.
+
+A little before noon Hermon came to see her. He, too, had not gone to
+the Pelusinian's breakfast.
+
+After Althea had left him the evening before he went directly back
+to the white house, and, instead of going to rest, devoted himself to
+Myrtilus; for the difficulty of breathing, which during his industrious
+life in quiet seclusion had not troubled him for several months,
+attacked him with twofold violence after the gaiety of the previous
+night. Hermon had not left him an instant until day brought the sufferer
+relief, and he no longer needed the supporting hand of his kind nurse.
+
+While Hermon, in his own sleeping room, ordered Bias to anoint his hair
+and beard and put on festal garments, the slave told him certain things
+that destroyed the last remnant of composure in his easily agitated
+soul.
+
+With the firm resolution to keep the appointment on Pelican Island,
+Hermon had gone at sunset, in response to the Alexandrian's invitation,
+to attend her banquet, and by no means unwillingly, for his parents'
+old friends were dear to him, and he knew by experience the beneficial
+influence Daphne's sunny, warmhearted nature exerted upon him.
+
+Yet this time he did not find what he expected.
+
+In the first place, he had been obliged to witness how earnestly
+Philotas was pressing his suit, and perceived that her companion
+Chrysilla was most eagerly assisting him. As she saw in the young
+aristocrat a suitable husband for the daughter of Archias, and it was
+her duty to assign the guests their seats at the banquet, she had given
+the cushion beside Daphne to Philotas, and also willingly fulfilled
+Althea's desire to have Hermon for her neighbour.
+
+When Chrysilla presented the black-bearded artist to the Thracian, she
+would have sworn that Althea found an old acquaintance in the sculptor;
+but Hermon treated the far-famed relative of Queen Arsinoe as coldly
+and distantly as if he now saw her for the first time, and with little
+pleasure.
+
+In truth, he was glad to avoid women of Althea's stamp. For some time he
+had preferred to associate with the common people, among whom he found
+his best subjects, and kept far aloof from the court circles to which
+Althea belonged, and which, thanks to his birth and his ability as an
+artist, would easily have been accessible to him also.
+
+The over-refined women who gave themselves airs of avoiding everything
+which imposes a restraint upon Nature, and therefore, in their
+transparent robes, treated with contempt all that modest Macedonian
+dames deemed worthy of a genuine woman's consideration, were repulsive
+to him--perhaps because they formed so rude a contrast to his noble dead
+mother and to Daphne.
+
+Although he had been very frequently in feminine society, Althea's
+manner at first caused him a certain degree of embarrassment; for, in
+spite of the fact that he believed he met her here for the first time,
+there was something familiar about her, especially in the tone of her
+voice, and he fancied that her first words were associated with some
+former ones.
+
+Yet no! If he had ever met her, he would surely have remembered her
+red-gold hair and the other peculiarities of a personality which was
+remarkable in every respect.
+
+It soon proved that they were total strangers, and he wished matters to
+remain so.
+
+He was glad that she attracted him so little, for at least she would
+scarcely make the early departure to the Biamite, which he considered
+his duty, a difficult task.
+
+True, he admired from the first the rare milk-white line of her delicate
+skin, which was wholly free from rouge--his artist eye perceived that
+and the wonderfully beautiful shape of her hands and feet. The pose of
+the head on the neck, too, as she turned toward him seemed remarkably
+fine. This slender, pliant woman would have been an admirable model!
+
+Again and again she reminded him of a gay Lesbian with whom he had
+caroused for a night during the last Dionysia in Alexandria, yet, on
+closer inspection, the two were as different as possible.
+
+The former had been as free and reckless in her conduct as Althea was
+reserved. The hair and eyebrows of the Lesbian, instead of reddish
+gold, were the deepest black, and her complexion--he remembered it
+perfectly--was much darker. The resemblance probably consisted merely in
+the shape of the somewhat too narrow face, with its absolutely straight
+nose, and a chin which was rather too small, as well as in the sound of
+the high voice.
+
+Not a serious word had reached his ears from the wanton lips of the
+Lesbian, while Althea at once desired information concerning his art,
+and showed that she was thoroughly familiar with the works and the
+aspirations of the Alexandrian sculptors. Although aware that Hermon had
+begun his career as an artist, and was the leader of a new tendency,
+she pretended to belong to the old school, and thereby irritated him to
+contradiction and the explanation of his efforts, which were rooted in
+the demands of the present day and the life of the flourishing capital.
+
+The Thracian listened to the description of the new art struggling
+to present truth, as if these things were welcome surprises, grand
+revelations, for which she had waited with eager longing. True, she
+opposed every statement hostile to the old beliefs; but her extremely
+expressive features soon betrayed to him that he was stirring her to
+reflect, shaking her opinions, and winning her to his side.
+
+Already, for the sake of the good cause, he devoted himself with the
+utmost zeal to the task of convincing Althea; she, however, did not make
+it an easy one, but presented clever arguments against his assertions.
+
+Whenever he or she, by way of example, mentioned any well-known work
+of art, she imitated, as if involuntarily, its pose and action with
+surprising fidelity, frequently also in admirable caricature, whose
+effect was extremely comical. What a woman!
+
+She was familiar with whatever Grecian art had created, and the animated
+conversation became a bewitching spectacle. When the grammateus Proclus,
+who as Althea's travelling companion had a certain claim upon her
+attention, mingled for a while in the discussion and attracted Althea's
+notice, Hermon felt injured, and answered his sensible remarks with such
+rudeness that the elder man, whose social position was so much higher,
+angrily turned his back upon him.
+
+Althea had imposed a certain degree of restraint upon herself while
+talking to the grammateus, but during the further conversation with
+Hermon she confessed that she was decidedly of his opinion, and added to
+the old reasons for the deposition of beauty and ideality in favour of
+truth and reality new ones which surprised the sculptor. When she at
+last offered him her hand for a firm alliance, his brain was fevered,
+and it seemed a great honour when she asked eagerly what would occupy
+him in the immediate future.
+
+Passionate sympathy echoed in every word, was expressed in every
+feature, and she listened as if a great happiness was in store for
+herself when he disclosed the hopes which he based upon the statue of
+Arachne.
+
+True, as time passed he had spoken more than once of the necessity of
+retiring, and before midnight really tried to depart; but he had fallen
+under Althea's thrall, and, in reply to her inquiry what must shorten
+these exquisite hours, had informed her, in significant words, what drew
+him away, and that his delay threatened him with the loss of a model
+such as the favour of fate rarely bestowed upon an artist.
+
+Now the Thracian for the first time permitted her eyes to make frank
+confessions. She also bent forward with a natural movement to examine
+the artistic work on a silver vase, and as while doing so her peplos
+fell over his hand, she pressed it tenderly.
+
+He gazed ardently up at her; but she whispered softly: "Stay! You will
+gain through me something better than awaits you there, and not only for
+to-day and to-morrow. We shall meet again in Alexandria, and to serve
+your art there shall be a beloved duty."
+
+His power of resistance was broken; yet he beckoned to his slave Bias,
+who was busied with the mixing jars, and ordered him to seek Ledscha and
+tell her not to wait longer; urgent duties detained him.
+
+While he was giving this direction, Althea had become engaged in the
+gay conversation of the others, and, as Thyone called Hermon, and he
+was also obliged to speak to Daphne, he could not again obtain an
+opportunity for private talk with the wonderful woman who held out far
+grander prospects for his art than the refractory, rude Biamite maiden.
+
+Soon Althea's performance seemed to prove how fortunate a choice he had
+made. Her Arachne appeared like a revelation to him. If she kept her
+promise, and he succeeded in modelling her in the pose assumed while
+imagining the process of transformation, and presented her idea to the
+spectators, the great success which hitherto--because he had not
+yielded to demands which were opposed to his convictions--he had vainly
+expected, could no longer escape him. The Alexandrian fellow-artists who
+belonged to his party would gratefully welcome this special work; for
+what grew out of it would have nothing in common with the fascination
+of superhuman beauty, by which the older artists ensnared the hearts and
+minds of the multitude. He would create a genuine woman, who would not
+lack defects, yet who, though she inspired neither gratification nor
+rapture, would touch, perhaps even thrill, the heart by absolute truth.
+
+While Althea was standing on the pedestal, she had not only represented
+the transformation into the spider, but experienced it, and the features
+of the spectators revealed that they believed they were witnessing
+the sinister event. His aim was now to awaken the same feeling in the
+beholders of his Arachne. Nothing, nothing at all must be changed in
+the figure of the model, in which many might miss the roundness and
+plumpness so pleasing to the eye. Althea's very defects would perfect
+the figure of the restless, wretched weaver whom Athene transformed into
+the spider.
+
+While devoting himself to nursing his friend, he had thought far less of
+the new love-happiness which, in spite of her swift flight, was probably
+awaiting him through Althea than of the work which was to fill his
+existence in the immediate future.
+
+His healthy body, steeled in the palaestra, felt no fatigue after the
+sleepless night passed amid so many powerful excitements when he retired
+to his chamber and committed himself to the hands of his slave.
+
+It had not been possible to hear his report before, but when he at last
+received it Hermon was to learn something extremely unpleasant, and not
+only because no word of apology or even explanation of his absence had
+reached Ledscha.
+
+Bias was little to blame for this neglect, for, in the first place, he
+had found no boat to reach the Pelican Island, because half Tennis
+was on the road to Tanis, where, on the night of the full moon, the
+brilliant festivals of the full eye of Horns and the great Astarte were
+celebrated by the mixed population of this place. When a boat which
+belonged to Daphne's galley was finally given to him, the Biamite girl
+was no longer at the place appointed for the meeting.
+
+Hoping to find her on the Owl's Nest with old Tabus, he then landed
+there, but had been so uncivilly rebuffed on the shore by a rough fellow
+that he might be glad to have escaped with sound limbs. Lastly, he stole
+to Ledscha's home, and, knowing that her father was absent, had ventured
+as far as the open courtyard in the centre of the stately dwelling. The
+dogs knew him, and as a light was shining from one of the rooms that
+opened upon the courtyard, he peeped in and saw Taus, Ledscha's younger
+sister. She was kneeling before the statue of a god at the back of the
+room, weeping, while the old housekeeper had fallen asleep with the
+distaff in her lap.
+
+He called cautiously to the pretty child. She was awaiting the return of
+her sister, who, she supposed, was still detained on the Owl's Nest by
+old Tabus's predictions; she had sorrowful tidings for her.
+
+The husband of her friend Gula had returned on his ship and learned that
+his wife had gone to the Greek's studio. He had raged like a madman, and
+turned the unfortunate woman pitilessly out of doors after sunset. Her
+own parents had only been induced to receive her with great difficulty.
+Paseth, the jealous husband, had spared her life and refrained from
+going at once to kill the artist solely because Hermon had saved his
+little daughter at his own peril from the burning house.
+
+"Now," said Ledscha's pretty little sister, "it would also be known that
+she had gone with Gula to his master, who was certainly a handsome man,
+but for whom, now that young Smethis was wooing her, she cared no more
+than she did for her runaway cat. All Tennis would point at her, and she
+dared not even think what her father would do when he came home."
+
+These communications had increased Hermon's anxiety.
+
+He was a brave man, and did not fear the vengeance of the enraged
+husband, against whom he was conscious of no guilt except having
+persuaded his wife to commit an imprudence. What troubled him was only
+the consciousness that he had given her and innocent little Taus every
+reason to curse their meeting.
+
+The ardent warmth with which Gula blessed him as the preserver of her
+child had given him infinite pleasure. Now it seemed as if he had been
+guilty of an act of baseness by inducing her to render a service which
+was by no means free from danger, as though he wished to be paid for a
+good deed.
+
+Besides, the slave had represented the possible consequences of his
+imprudence in the most gloomy light, and, with the assurance of knowing
+the disposition of his fellow-countrymen, urged his master to leave
+Tennis at once; the other Biamite men, who would bear anything rather
+than the interference of a Greek in their married lives, might force
+Gula's husband to take vengeance on him.
+
+He said nothing about anxiety concerning his own safety, but he had good
+reason to fear being regarded as a go-between and called to account for
+it.
+
+But his warnings and entreaties seemed to find deaf ears in Hermon.
+True, he intended to leave Tennis as soon as possible, for what
+advantage could he now find here? First, however, he must attend to the
+packing of the statues, and then try to appease Ledscha, and make Gula's
+husband understand that he was casting off his pretty wife unjustly.
+
+He would not think of making a hasty departure, he told the slave,
+especially as he was to meet Althea, Queen Arsinoe's art-appreciating
+relative, in whom he had gained a friend, later in Alexandria.
+
+Then Bias informed him of a discovery to which one of the Thracian's
+slave women had helped him, and what he carelessly told his master drove
+the blood from his cheeks, and, though his voice was almost stifled by
+surprise and shame, made him assail him with questions.
+
+What great thing had he revealed? There had been reckless gaiety at
+every festival of Dionysus since he had been in the artist's service,
+and the slaves had indulged in the festal mirth no less freely than the
+masters. To intoxicate themselves with wine, the gift of the god to whom
+they were paying homage, was not only permitted, but commanded, and the
+juice of the grape proved its all-equalizing power.
+
+There had been no lack of pretty companions even for him, the bondman,
+and the most beautiful of all had made eyes at his master, the tall,
+slender man with the splendid black beard.
+
+The reckless Lesbian who had favoured Hermon at the last Dionysia had
+played pranks with him madly enough, but then had suddenly vanished. By
+his master's orders Bias had tried to find her again, but, in spite of
+honest search, in vain.
+
+Just now he had met, as Althea's maid, the little Syrian Margula, who
+had been in her company, and raced along in the procession of bacchanals
+in his, Bias's, arms. True, she could not be persuaded to make a frank
+confession, but he, Bias, would let his right hand wither if Hermon's
+companion at the Dionysia was any other than Althea. His master would
+own that he was right if he imagined her with black hair instead of red.
+Plenty of people in Alexandria practised the art of dyeing, and it was
+well known that Queen Arsinoe herself willingly mingled in the throng at
+the Dionysia with a handsome Ephebi, who did not suspect the identity of
+his companion.
+
+This was the information which had so deeply agitated Hermon, and then
+led him, after pacing to and fro a short time, to go first to Myrtilus
+and then to Daphne.
+
+He had found his friend sleeping, and though every fibre of his being
+urged him to speak to him, he forced himself to leave the sufferer
+undisturbed.
+
+Yet so torturing a sense of dissatisfaction with himself, so keen a
+resentment against his own adverse destiny had awaked within him, that
+he could no longer endure to remain in the presence of his work, with
+which he was more and more dissatisfied.
+
+Away from the studio!
+
+There was a gay party on board the galley of his parents' old friends.
+Wine should bring him forgetfulness, too, bless him again with the sense
+of joyous existence which he knew so well, and which he now seemed on
+the point of losing.
+
+When he had once talked and drunk himself into the right mood, life
+would wear a less gloomy face.
+
+No! It should once more be a gay and reckless one.
+
+And Althea?
+
+He would meet her, with whom he had once caroused and revelled madly
+enough in the intoxication of the last Dionysia, and, instead of
+allowing himself to be fooled any longer and continuing to bow
+respectfully before her, would assert all the rights she had formerly so
+liberally granted.
+
+He would enjoy to-day, forget to-morrow, and be gay with the gay.
+
+Eager for new pleasure, he drew a long breath as he went out into the
+open air, pressed his hands upon his broad chest, and with his eyes
+fixed upon the commandant of Pelusium's galley, bedecked with flags,
+walked swiftly toward the landing place.
+
+Suddenly from the deck, shaded by an awning, the loud laugh of a woman's
+shrill voice reached his ear, blended with the deeper tones of
+the grammateus, whose attacks on the previous night Hermon had not
+forgotten.
+
+He stopped as if the laugh had pierced him to the heart. Proclus
+appeared to be on the most familiar terms with Althea, and to meet
+him with the Thracian now seemed impossible. He longed for mirth and
+pleasure, but was unwilling to share it with these two. As he dared not
+disturb Myrtilus, there was only one place where he could find what he
+needed, and this was--he had said so to himself when he turned his back
+on his sleeping friend--in Daphne's society.
+
+Only yesterday he would have sought her without a second thought, but
+to-day Althea's declaration that he was the only man whom the daughter
+of Archias loved stood between him and his friend.
+
+He knew that from childhood she had watched his every step with sisterly
+affection. A hundred times she had proved her loyalty; yet, dear as she
+was to him, willingly as he would have risked his life to save her from
+a danger, it had never entered his mind to give the tie that united them
+the name of love.
+
+An older relative of both in Alexandria had once advised him, when
+he was complaining of his poverty, to seek her hand, but his pride of
+manhood rebelled against having the wealth which fate denied flung into
+his lap by a woman. When she looked at him with her honest eyes, he
+could never have brought himself to feign anything, least of all a
+passion of which, tenderly attached to her though he had been for years,
+hitherto he had known nothing.
+
+"Do you love her?" Hermon asked himself as he walked toward Daphne's
+tent, and the anticipated "No" had pressed itself upon him far less
+quickly than he expected.
+
+One thing was undeniably certain: whoever won her for a wife--even
+though she were the poorest of the poor--must be numbered among the most
+enviable of men. And should he not recognise in his aversion to every
+one of her suitors, and now to the aristocratic young Philotas, a
+feeling which resembled jealousy?
+
+No! He did not and would not love Daphne. If she were really his, and
+whatever concerned him had become hers, with whom could he have sought
+in hours like these soothing, kind, and sensible counsel, comfort that
+calmed the heart, and the refreshing dew which his fading courage and
+faltering creative power required?
+
+The bare thought of touching clay and wax with his fingers, or taking
+hammer, chisel, and file in his hands, was now repulsive; and when, just
+outside of the tent, a Biamite woman who was bringing fish to the cook
+reminded him of Ledscha, and that he had lost in her the right model for
+his Arachne, he scarcely regretted it.
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+While the market place in Tennis was filling, Archias's white house
+had become a heap of smouldering ruins. Hundreds of men and women were
+standing around the scene of the conflagration, but no one saw the
+statue of Demeter, which had been removed from Hermon's studio just in
+time. The nomarch had had it locked up in the neighbouring temple of the
+goddess.
+
+It was rumoured that the divinity had saved her own statue by a miracle;
+Pamaut, the police officer, said that he had seen her himself as,
+surrounded by a brilliant light, she soared upward on the smoke that
+poured from the burning house. The strategist and the nomarch used
+every means in their power to capture the robbers, but without the least
+success.
+
+As it had become known that Paseth, Gula's husband, had cast off his
+wife because she had gone to Hermon's studio, the magistrates believed
+that the attack had been made by the Biamites; yet Paseth was absent
+from the city during the assault, and the innocence of the others could
+also be proved.
+
+Since, for two entire years, piracy had entirely ceased in this
+neighbourhood, no one thought of corsairs, and the bodies of the
+incendiaries having been consumed by the flames with the white house, it
+could not be ascertained to what class the marauders belonged.
+
+The blinded sculptor could only testify that one of the robbers was a
+negro, or at any rate had had his face blackened, and that the size of
+another had appeared to him almost superhuman. This circumstance gave
+rise to the fable that, during the terrible storm of the previous clay,
+Hades had opened and spirits of darkness had rushed into the studio of
+the Greek betrayer.
+
+The strategist, it is true, did not believe such tales, but the
+superstition of the Biamites, who, moreover, aided the Greeks
+reluctantly to punish a crime which threatened to involve their own
+countrymen, put obstacles in the way of his measures.
+
+Not until he heard of Ledscha's disappearance, and was informed by
+the priest of Nemesis of the handsome sum which had been found in the
+offering box of the temple shortly after the attack, did he arrive at
+a conjecture not very far from the real state of affairs; only it
+was still incomprehensible to him what body of men could have placed
+themselves at the disposal of a girl's vengeful plan.
+
+On the second day after the fire, the epistrategus of the whole Delta,
+who had accidentally come to the border fortress, arrived at Tennis
+on the galley of the commandant of Pelusium, and with him Proclus, the
+grammateus of the Dionysian artists, the Lady Thyone, Daphne, and her
+companion Chrysilla.
+
+The old hero Philippus was detained in the fortress by the preparations
+for war.
+
+Althea had returned to Alexandria, and Philotas, who disliked her, had
+gone there himself, as Chrysilla intimated to him that he could hope
+for no success in his suit to her ward so long as Daphne had to devote
+herself to the care of the blinded Hermon.
+
+The epistrategus proceeded with great caution, but his efforts also
+remained futile. He ordered a report to be made of all the vessels which
+had entered the harbours and bays of the northeastern Delta, but those
+commanded by Satabus and his sons gave no cause for investigation; they
+had come into the Tanite arm of the Nile as lumber ships from Pontus,
+and had discharged beams and planks for the account of a well-known
+commercial house in Sinope.
+
+Yet the official ordered the Owl's Nest to be searched. In doing this
+he made himself guilty of an act of violence, as the island's right of
+asylum still existed, and this incensed the irritable and refractory
+Biamites the more violently, the deeper was the reverent awe with which
+the nation regarded Tabus, who, according to their belief, was over a
+hundred years old. The Biamites honoured her not only as an enchantress
+and a leech, but as the ancestress of a race of mighty men. By molesting
+this aged woman, and interfering with an ancient privilege, the
+epistrategus lost the aid of the hostile fishermen, sailors, and
+weavers. Any information from their ranks to him was regarded as
+treachery; and, besides, his stay in Tennis could be but brief, as the
+King, on account of the impending war, had summoned him back to the
+capital.
+
+On the third day after his arrival he left Tennis and sailed from Tanis
+for Alexandria. He had had little time to attend to Thyone and her
+guests.
+
+Proclus, too, could not devote himself to them until after the departure
+of the epistrategus, since he had gone immediately to Tanis, where,
+as head of the Dionysian artists of all Egypt, he had been occupied in
+attending to the affairs of the newly established theatre.
+
+On his return to Tennis he had instantly requested to be conducted to
+the Temple of Demeter, to inspect the blinded Hermon's rescued work.
+
+He had entered the cella of the sanctuary with the expectation of
+finding a peculiar, probably a powerful work, but one repugnant to his
+taste, and left it fairly overpowered by the beauty of this noble work
+of art.
+
+What he had formerly seen of Hermon's productions had prejudiced
+him against the artist, whose talent was great, but who, instead of
+dedicating it to the service of the beautiful and the sublime, chose
+subjects which, to Proclus, did not seem worthy of artistic treatment,
+or, when they were, sedulously deprived them of that by which, in his
+eyes, they gained genuine value. In Hermon's Olympian Banquet he--who
+also held the office of a high priest of Apollo in Alexandria--had even
+seen an insult to the dignity of the deity. In the Street Boy Eating
+Figs, the connoisseur's eye had recognised a peculiar masterpiece, but
+he had been repelled by this also; for, instead of a handsome boy, it
+represented a starving, emaciated vagabond.
+
+True to life as this figure might be, it seemed to him reprehensible,
+for it had already induced others to choose similar vulgar subjects.
+
+When recently at Althea's performance he had met Hermon and saw how
+quickly his beautiful travelling companion allowed herself to be induced
+to bestow the wreath on the handsome, black-bearded fellow, it vexed
+him, and he had therefore treated him with distant coldness, and allowed
+him to perceive the disapproval which the direction taken by his art had
+awakened in his mind.
+
+In the presence of Hermon's Demeter, the opinion of the experienced man
+and intelligent connoisseur had suddenly changed.
+
+The creator of this work was not only one of the foremost artists of his
+day, nay, he had also been permitted to fathom the nature of the deity
+and to bestow upon it a perfect form.
+
+This Demeter was the most successful personification of the divine
+goodness which rewards the sowing of seed with the harvest. When Hermon
+created it, Daphne's image had hovered before his mind, even if he had
+not been permitted to use her as a model, and of all the maidens whom he
+knew there was scarcely one better suited to serve as the type for the
+Demeter.
+
+So what he had seen in Pelusium, and learned from women, was true. The
+heart and mind of the artist who had created this work were not filled
+with the image of Althea--who during the journey had bestowed many a
+mark of favour upon the aging man, and with whom he was obliged to work
+hand in hand for Queen Arsinoe's plans--but the daughter of Archias, and
+this circumstance also aided in producing his change of view.
+
+Hermon's blindness, it was to be hoped, would be cured.
+
+Duty, and perhaps also interest, commanded him to show him frankly how
+highly he estimated his art and his last work.
+
+After the arrival of Thyone and Daphne, Hermon had consented to
+accompany them on board the Proserpina, their spacious galley. True, he
+had yielded reluctantly to this arrangement of his parents' old friend,
+and neither she nor Daphne had hitherto succeeded in soothing the fierce
+resentment against fate which filled his soul after the loss of his
+sight and his dearest friend. As yet every attempt to induce him to
+bear his terrible misfortune with even a certain degree of composure had
+failed.
+
+The Tennis leech, trained by the Egyptian priests at Sais in the art of
+healing, who was attached as a pastophorus to the Temple of Isis, in the
+city of weavers, had covered the artist's scorched face with bandages,
+and earnestly adjured him never in his absence to raise them, and to
+keep every ray of light from his blinded eyes. But the agitation which
+had mastered Hermon's whole being was so great that, in spite of the
+woman's protestations, he lifted the covering again and again to see
+whether he could not perceive once more at least a glimmer of the
+sunlight whose warming power he felt. The thought of living in darkness
+until the end of his life seemed unendurable, especially as now all the
+horrors which, hitherto, had only visited him in times of trial during
+the night assailed him with never-ceasing cruelty.
+
+The image of the spider often forced itself upon him, and he fancied
+that the busy insect was spreading its quickly made web over his blinded
+eyes, which he was not to touch, yet over which he passed his hand to
+free them from the repulsive veil.
+
+The myth related that because Athene's blow had struck the ambitious
+weaver Arachne, she had resolved, before the goddess transformed her
+into a spider, to put an end to her disgrace.
+
+How infinitely harder was the one dealt to him! How much better reason
+he had to use the privilege in which man possesses an advantage over the
+immortals, of putting himself to death with his own hand when he deems
+the fitting time has come! What should he, the artist, to whom his eyes
+brought whatever made life valuable, do longer in this hideous black
+night, brightened by no sunbeam?
+
+He was often overwhelmed, too, by the remembrance of the terrible end
+of the friend in whom he saw the only person who might have given him
+consolation in this distress, and the painful thought of his poverty.
+
+He was supported solely by what his art brought and his wealthy uncle
+allowed him. The Demeter which Archias had ordered had been partially
+paid for in advance, and he had intended to use the gold--a considerable
+sum--to pay debts in Alexandria. But it was consumed with the rest of
+his property--tools, clothing, mementoes of his dead parents, and a
+few books which contained his favourite poems and the writings of his
+master, Straton.
+
+These precious rolls had aided him to maintain the proud conviction of
+owing everything which he attained or possessed solely to himself. It
+had again become perfectly clear to him that the destiny of earth-born
+mortals was not directed by the gods whom men had invented after
+their own likeness, in order to find causes for the effects which they
+perceived, but by deaf and blind chance. Else how could even worse
+misfortune, according to the opinion of most people, have befallen
+the pure, guiltless Myrtilus, who so deeply revered the Olympians and
+understood how to honour them so magnificently by his art, than himself,
+the despiser of the gods?
+
+But was the death for which he longed a misfortune?
+
+Was the Nemesis who had so swiftly and fully granted the fervent prayer
+of an ill-used girl also only an image conjured up by the power of human
+imagination?
+
+It was scarcely possible!
+
+Yet if there was one goddess, did not that admit the probability of the
+existence of all the others?
+
+He shuddered at the idea; for if the immortals thought, felt, acted, how
+terribly his already cruel fate would still develop! He had denied and
+insulted almost all the Olympians, and not even stirred a finger to the
+praise and honour of a single one.
+
+What marvel if they should choose him for the target of their resentment
+and revenge?
+
+He had just believed that the heaviest misfortune which can befall a man
+and an artist had already stricken him. Now he felt that this, too, had
+been an error; for, like a physical pain, he realized the collapse of
+the proud delusion of being independent of every power except himself,
+freely and arbitrarily controlling his own destiny, owing no gratitude
+except to his own might, and being compelled to yield to nothing save
+the enigmatical, pitiless power of eternal laws or their co-operation,
+so incomprehensible to the human intellect, called "chance," which took
+no heed of merit or unworthiness.
+
+Must he, who had learned to silence and to starve every covetous desire,
+in order to require no gifts from his own uncle and his wealthy kinsman
+and friend, and be able to continue to hold his head high, as the most
+independent of the independent, now, in addition to all his other woe,
+be forced to believe in powers that exercised an influence over his
+every act? Must he recognise praying to them and thanking them as the
+demand of justice, of duty, and wisdom? Was this possible either?
+
+And, believing himself alone, since he could not see Thyone and Daphne,
+who were close by him, he struck his scorched brow with his clinched
+fist, because he felt like a free man who suddenly realizes that a rope
+which he can not break is bound around his hands and feet, and a giant
+pulls and loosens it at his pleasure.
+
+Yet no! Better die than become for gods and men a puppet that obeys
+every jerk of visible and invisible hands.
+
+Starting up in violent excitement, he tore the bandage from his face and
+eyes, declaring, as Thyone seriously reprimanded him, that he would go
+away, no matter where, and earn his daily bread at the handmill, like
+the blind Ethiopian slave whom he had seen in the cabinetmaker's house
+at Tennis.
+
+Then Daphne spoke to him tenderly, but her soothing voice caused him
+keener pain than his old friend's stern one.
+
+To sit still longer seemed unendurable, and, with the intention of
+regaining his lost composure by pacing to and fro, he began to walk; but
+at the first free step he struck against the little table in front of
+Thyone's couch, and as it upset and the vessels containing water fell
+with it, clinking and breaking, he stopped and, as if utterly crushed,
+groped his way back, with both arms outstretched, to the armchair he had
+quitted.
+
+If he could only have seen Daphne press her handkerchief first to her
+eyes, from which tears were streaming, and then to her lips, that
+he might not hear her sobs, if he could have perceived how Thyone's
+wrinkled old face contracted as if she were swallowing a colocynth
+apple, while at the same time she patted his strong shoulder briskly,
+exclaiming with forced cheerfulness: "Go on, my boy! The steed rears
+when the hornet stings! Try again, if it only soothes you! We will take
+everything out of your way. You need not mind the water-jars. The potter
+will make new ones!"
+
+Then Hermon threw back his burning head, rested it against the back of
+the chair, and did not stir until the bandage was renewed.
+
+How comfortable it felt!
+
+He knew, too, that he owed it to Daphne; the matron's fingers could not
+be so slender and delicate, and he would have been more than glad
+to raise them to his lips and thank her; but he denied himself the
+pleasure.
+
+If she really did love him, the bond between them must now be severed;
+for, even if her goodness of heart extended far enough to induce her
+to unite her blooming young existence to his crippled one, how could he
+have accepted the sacrifice without humiliating himself? Whether such a
+marriage would have made her happy or miserable he did not ask, but he
+was all the more keenly aware that if, in this condition, he became her
+husband, he would be the recipient of alms, and he would far rather, he
+mentally repeated, share the fate of the negro at the handmill.
+
+The expression of his features revealed the current of his thoughts to
+Daphne, and, much as she wished to speak to him, she forced herself to
+remain silent, that the tones of her voice might not betray how deeply
+she was suffering with him; but he himself now longed for a kind word
+from her lips, and he had just asked if she was still there when Thyone
+announced a visit from the grammateus Proclus.
+
+He had recently felt that this man was unfriendly to him, and again his
+anger burst forth. To be exposed in the midst of his misery to the scorn
+of a despiser of his art was too much for his exhausted patience.
+
+But here he was interrupted by Proclus himself, who had entered the
+darkened cabin where the blind man remained very soon after Thyone.
+
+Hermon's last words had betrayed to the experienced courtier how well
+he remembered his unkind remarks, so he deferred the expression of
+his approval, and began by delivering the farewell message of the
+epistrategus, who had been summoned away so quickly.
+
+He stated that his investigations had discovered nothing of importance,
+except, perhaps, the confirmation of the sorrowful apprehension that the
+admirable Myrtilus had been killed by the marauders. A carved stone had
+been found under the ashes, and Chello, the Tennis goldsmith, said he
+had had in his own workshop the gem set in the hapless artist's shoulder
+clasp, and supplied it with a new pin.
+
+While speaking, he took Hermon's hand and gave him the stone, but the
+artist instantly used his finger tips to feel it.
+
+Perhaps it really did belong to the clasp Myrtilus wore, for, although
+still unpractised in groping, he recognised that a human head was carved
+in relief upon the stone, and Mrytilus's had been adorned with the
+likeness of the Epicurean.
+
+The damaged little work of art, in the opinion of Proclus and Daphne,
+appeared to represent this philosopher, and at the thought that his
+friend had fallen a victim to the flames Hermon bowed his head and
+exerted all his strength of will in order not to betray by violent sobs
+how deeply this idea pierced his heart.
+
+Thyone, shrugging her shoulders mournfully, pointed to the suffering
+artist. Proclus nodded significantly, and, moving nearer to Hermon,
+informed him that he had sought out his Demeter and found the statue
+uninjured. He was well aware that it would be presumptuous to offer
+consolation in so heavy an affliction, and after the loss of his dearest
+friend, yet perhaps Hermon would be glad to hear his assurance that he,
+whose judgment was certainly not unpractised, numbered his work among
+the most perfect which the sculptor's art had created in recent years.
+
+"I myself best know the value of this Demeter," the sculptor broke in
+harshly. "Your praise is the bit of honey which is put into the mouth of
+the hurt child."
+
+"No, my friend," Proclus protested with grave decision. "I should
+express no less warmly the ardent admiration with which this noble
+figure of the goddess fills me if you were well and still possessed your
+sight. You were right just now when you alluded to my aversion, or, let
+us say, lack of appreciation of the individuality of your art; but this
+noble work changes everything, and nothing affords me more pleasure
+than that I am to be the first to assure you how magnificently you have
+succeeded in this statue."
+
+"The first!" Hermon again interrupted harshly. "But the second and third
+will be lacking in Alexandria. What a pleasure it is to pour the gifts
+of sympathy upon one to whom we wish ill! But, however successful my
+Demeter may be, you would have awarded the prize twice over to the one
+by Myrtilus."
+
+"Wrong, my young friend!" the statesman protested with honest zeal.
+"All honour to the great dead, whose end was so lamentable; but in
+this contest--let me swear it by the goddess herself!--you would
+have remained victor; for, at the utmost, nothing can rank with the
+incomparable save a work of equal merit, and--I know life and art--two
+artists rarely or never succeed in producing anything so perfect as this
+masterpiece at the same time and in the same place."
+
+"Enough!" gasped Hermon, hoarse with excitement; but Proclus, with
+increasing animation, continued: "Brief as is our acquaintance, you have
+probably perceived that I do not belong to the class of flatterers, and
+in Alexandria it has hardly remained unknown to you that the younger
+artists number me, to whom the office of judge so often falls, among
+the sterner critics. Only because I desire their best good do I frankly
+point out their errors. The multitude provides the praise. It will soon
+flow upon you also in torrents, I can see its approach, and as this
+blindness, if the august Aesculapius and healing Isis aid, will pass
+away like a dreary winter night, it would seem to me criminal to deceive
+you about your own ability and success. I already behold you creating
+other works to the delight of gods and men; but this Demeter extorts
+boundless, enthusiastic appreciation; both as a whole, and in detail, it
+is faultless and worthy of the most ardent praise. Oh, how long it
+is, my dear, unfortunate friend, since I could congratulate any other
+Alexandrian with such joyful confidence upon the most magnificent
+success! Every word--you may believe it!--which comes to you in
+commendation of this last work from lips unused to eulogy is sincerely
+meant, and as I utter it to you I shall repeat it in the presence of the
+King, Archias, and the other judges."
+
+Daphne, with hurried breath, deeply flushed cheeks, and sparkling
+eyes, had fairly hung upon the lips of the clever connoisseur. She knew
+Proclus, and his dreaded, absolutely inconsiderate acuteness, and was
+aware that this praise expressed his deepest conviction. Had he been
+dissatisfied with the statue of Demeter, or even merely superficially
+touched by its beauty, he might have shrunk from wounding the
+unfortunate artist by censure, and remained silent; but only something
+grand, consummate, could lead him to such warmth of recognition.
+
+She now felt it a misfortune that she and Thyone had hitherto been
+prevented, by anxiety for their patient, from admiring his work. Had it
+still been light, she would have gone to the temple of Demeter at once;
+but the sun had just set, and Proclus was obliged to beg her to have
+patience.
+
+As the cases were standing finished at the cabinetmaker's, the statue
+had been packed immediately, under his own direction, and carried on
+board his ship, which would convey it with him to the capital the next
+day.
+
+While this arrangement called forth loud expressions of regret from
+Daphne and the vivacious matron, Hermon assented to it, for it would
+at least secure the ladies, until their arrival in Alexandria, from a
+painful disappointment.
+
+"Rather," Proclus protested with firm dissent, "it will rob you for some
+time of a great pleasure, and you, noble daughter of Archias, probably
+of the deepest emotion of gratitude with which the favour of the
+immortals has hitherto rendered you happy; yet the master who created
+this genuine goddess owes the best part of it to your own face."
+
+"He told me himself that he thought of me while at work," Daphne
+admitted, and a flood of the warmest love reached Hermon's ears in her
+agitated tones, while, greatly perplexed, he wondered with increasing
+anxiety whether the stern critic Proclus had really been serious in the
+extravagant eulogium, so alien to his reputation in the city.
+
+Myrtilus, too, had admired the head of his Demeter, and--this he himself
+might admit--he had succeeded in it, and yet ought not the figure, with
+its too pronounced inclination forward, which, it is true, corresponded
+with Daphne's usual bearing, and the somewhat angular bend of the arms,
+have induced this keen-sighted connoisseur to moderate the exalted
+strain of his praise? Or was the whole really so admirable that it would
+have seemed petty to find fault with the less successful details? At any
+rate, Proclus's eulogy ought to give him twofold pleasure, because his
+art had formerly repelled him, and Hermon tried to let it produce this
+effect upon him. But it would not do; he was continually overpowered by
+the feeling that under the enthusiastic homage of the intriguing Queen
+Arsinoe's favourite lurked a sting which he should some day feel. Or
+could Proclus have been persuaded by Thyone and Daphne to help them
+reconcile the hapless blind man to his hard fate?
+
+Hermon's every movement betrayed the great anxiety which filled his
+mind, and it by no means escaped Proclus's attention, but he attributed
+it to the blinded sculptor's anguish in being prevented, after so great
+a success, from pursuing his art further.
+
+Sincerely touched, he laid his slender hand on the sufferer's muscular
+arm, saying: "A more severe trial than yours, my young friend, can
+scarcely be imposed upon the artist who has just attained the highest
+goal, but three things warrant you to hope for recovery--your vigorous
+youth, the skill of our Alexandrian leeches, and the favour of the
+immortal gods. You shrug your shoulders? Yet I insist that you have won
+this favour by your Demeter. True, you owe it less to yourself than to
+yonder maiden. What pleasure it affords one whom, like myself, taste and
+office bind to the arts, to perceive such a revolution in an artist's
+course of creation, and trace it to its source! I indulged myself in it
+and, if you will listen, I should like to show you the result."
+
+"Speak," replied Hermon dully, bowing his head as if submitting to the
+inevitable, while Proclus began:
+
+"Hitherto your art imitated, not without success, what your eyes showed
+you, and if this was filled with the warm breath of life, your work
+succeeded. All respect to your Boy Eating Figs, in whose presence you
+would feel the pleasure he himself enjoyed while consuming the sweet
+fruit. Here, among the works of Egyptian antiquity, there is imminent
+danger of falling under the tyranny of the canon of proportions which
+can be expressed in figures, or merely even the demands of the style
+hallowed by thousands of years, but in a subject like the 'Fig-eater'
+such a reproach is not to be feared. He speaks his own intelligible
+language, and whoever reproduces it without turning to the right or left
+has won, for he has created a work whose value every true friend of art,
+no matter to what school he belongs, prizes highly.
+
+"To me personally such works of living reality are cordially welcome.
+Yet art neither can nor will be satisfied with snatches of what is
+close at hand; but you are late-born, sons of a time when the two great
+tendencies of art have nearly reached the limits of what is attainable
+to them. You were everywhere confronted with completed work, and you are
+right when you refuse to sink to mere imitators of earlier works, and
+therefore return to Nature, with which we Hellenes, and perhaps
+the Egyptians also, began. The latter forgot her; the former--we
+Greeks--continued to cling to her closely."
+
+"Some few," Hermon eagerly interrupted the other, "still think it
+worth the trouble to take from her what she alone can bestow. They
+save themselves the toilsome search for the model which others so
+successfully used before them, and bronze and marble still keep
+wonderfully well. Bring out the old masterpieces. Take the head from
+this one, the arm from that, etc. The pupil impresses the proportions on
+his mind. Only so far as the longing for the beautiful permits do even
+the better ones remain faithful to Nature, not a finger's breadth more."
+
+"Quite right," the other went on calmly. "But your objection only
+brings one nearer the goal. How many who care only for applause content
+themselves to-day, unfortunately, with Nature at second hand! Without
+returning to her eternally fresh, inexhaustible spring, they draw from
+the conveniently accessible wells which the great ancients dug for
+them."
+
+"I know these many," Hermon wrathfully exclaimed. "They are the brothers
+of the Homeric poets, who take verses from the Iliad and Odyssey to
+piece out from them their own pitiful poems."
+
+"Excellent, my son!" exclaimed Thyone, laughing, and Daphne remarked
+that the poet Cleon had surprised her father with such a poem a few
+weeks before. It was a marvellous bit of botchwork, and yet there was a
+certain meaning in the production, compiled solely from Homeric verses.
+
+"Diomed's Hecuba," observed Proclus, "and the Aphrodite by Hippias,
+which were executed in marble, originated in the same way, and deserve
+no better fate, although they please the great multitude. But, praised
+be my lord, Apollo, our age can also boast of other artists. Filled with
+the spirit of the god, they are able to model truthfully and faithfully
+even the forms of the immortals invisible to the physical eye. They
+stand before the spectator as if borrowed from Nature, for their
+creators have filled them with their own healthy vigour. Our poor
+Myrtilus belonged to this class and, after your Demeter, the world will
+include you in it also."
+
+"And yet," answered Hermon in a tone of dissent, "I remained faithful to
+myself, and put nothing, nothing at all of my own personality, into the
+forms borrowed from Nature."
+
+"What need of that was there?" asked Proclus with a subtle smile. "Your
+model spared you the task. And this at last brings me to the goal I
+desired to reach. As the great Athenians created types for eternity,
+so also does Nature at times in a happy hour, for her own pleasure, and
+such a model you found in our Daphne.-No contradiction, my dear young
+lady! The outlines of the figure--By the dog! Hermon might possibly have
+found forms no less beautiful in the Aphrosion, but how charming and
+lifelike is the somewhat unusual yet graceful pose of yours! And then
+the heart, the soul! In your companionship our artist had nothing to do
+except lovingly to share your feelings in order to have at his disposal
+everything which renders so dear to us all the giver of bread, the
+preserver of peace, the protector of marriage, the creator and supporter
+of the law of moderation in Nature, as well as in human existence. Where
+would all these traits be found more perfectly united in a single human
+being than in your person, Daphne, your quiet, kindly rule?"
+
+"Oh, stop!" the girl entreated. "I am only too well aware--"
+
+"That you also are not free from human frailties," Proclus continued,
+undismayed. "We will take them, great or small as they may be, into the
+bargain. The secret ones do not concern the sculptor, who does not or
+will not see them. What he perceives in you, what you enable him to
+recognise through every feature of your sweet, tranquillizing face,
+is enough for the genuine artist to imagine the goddess; for the
+distinction between the mortal and the immortal is only the degree of
+perfection, and the human intellect and artist soul can find nothing
+more perfect in the whole domain of Demeter's jurisdiction than is
+presented to them in your nature. Our friend yonder seized it, and his
+magnificent work of art proves how nearly it approaches the purest and
+loftiest conception we form of the goddess whom he had to represent. It
+is not that he deified you, Daphne; he merely bestowed on the divinity
+forms which he recognised in you."
+
+Just at that moment, obeying an uncontrollable impulse, Hermon pulled
+the bandage from his eyes to see once more the woman to whom this warm
+homage was paid.
+
+Was the experienced connoisseur of art and the artist soul in the right?
+
+He had told himself the same thing when he selected Daphne for a model,
+and her head reproduced what Proclus praised as the common possession of
+Daphne and Demeter. Truthful Myrtilus had also seen it. Perhaps his work
+had really been so marvellously successful because, while he was engaged
+upon it, his friend had constantly stood before his mind in all the
+charm of her inexhaustible goodness.
+
+Animated by the ardent desire to gaze once more at the beloved face, to
+which he now owed also this unexpectedly great success, he turned toward
+the spot whence her voice had reached him; but a wall of violet mist,
+dotted with black specks, was all that his blinded eyes showed him, and
+with a low groan he drew the linen cloth over the burns.
+
+This time Proclus also perceived what was passing in the poor artist's
+mind, and when he took leave of him it was with the resolve to do his
+utmost to brighten with the stars of recognition and renown the dark
+night of suffering which enshrouded this highly gifted sculptor, whose
+unexpectedly great modesty had prepossessed him still more in his
+favour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+After the grammateus had retired, Daphne insisted upon leaving Tennis
+the next day.
+
+The desire to see Hermon's masterpiece drew her back to Alexandria even
+more strongly than the knowledge of being missed by her father.
+
+Only the separation from Thyone rendered the departure difficult, for
+the motherless girl had found in her something for which she had long
+yearned, and most sorely missed in her companion Chrysilla, who from
+expediency approved of everything she did or said.
+
+The matron, too, had become warmly attached to Daphne, and would gladly
+have done all that lay in her power to lighten Hermon's sad fate, yet
+she persisted in her determination to return speedily to her old husband
+in Pelusium.
+
+But she did not fully realize how difficult this departure would be
+for her until the blind man, after a long silence, asked whether it was
+night, if the stars were in the sky, and if she really intended to leave
+him.
+
+Then burning sympathy filled her compassionate soul, and she could no
+longer restrain her tears. Daphne, too, covered her face, and imposed
+the strongest restraint upon herself that she might not sob aloud.
+
+So it seemed a boon to both when Hermon expressed the desire to spend
+part of the night on deck.
+
+This desire contained a summons to action, and to be able to bestir
+themselves in useful service appeared like a favour to Thyone and
+Daphne.
+
+Without calling upon a slave, a female servant, or even Chrysilla for
+the smallest office, the two prepared a couch on deck for the blind man,
+and, leaning on the girl's stronger arm, he went up into the open air.
+
+There he stretched both arms heavenward, inhaled deep breaths of the
+cool night breeze, and thirstily emptied the goblet of wine which Daphne
+mixed and gave him with her own hand.
+
+Then, with a sigh of relief, he said: "Everything has not grown black
+yet. A delightful feeling of pleasure takes possession even of the blind
+man when the open air refreshes him and the wine warms his blood in the
+sunshine of your kindness."
+
+"And much better things are still in prospect," Daphne assured him.
+"Just think what rapture it will be when you are permitted to see the
+light again after so long a period of darkness!"
+
+"When--" repeated Hermon, his head drooping as he spoke.
+
+"It must, it must be so!" rang with confident assurance from Thyone's
+lips.
+
+"And then," added Daphne, gazing sometimes upward to the firmament
+strewn with shining stars, sometimes across the broad, rippling expanse
+of the water, in which the reflection of the heavenly bodies shimmered
+in glittering, silvery radiance, "yes, Hermon, who would not be glad to
+exchange with you then? You may shake your head, but I would take your
+place quickly and with joyous courage. There is a proof of the existence
+of the gods, which so exactly suits the hour when you will again see,
+enjoy, admire what this dreary darkness now hides from you. It was a
+philosopher who used it; I no longer know which one. How often I have
+thought of it since this cruel misfortune befell you! And now--"
+
+"Go on," Hermon interrupted with a smile of superiority. "You are
+thinking of Aristotle's man who grew up in a dark cave. The conditions
+which must precede the devout astonishment of the liberated youth when
+he first emerged into the light and the verdant world would certainly
+exist in me."
+
+"Oh, not in that way," pleaded the wounded girl; and Thyone exclaimed:
+"What is the story of the man you mention? We don't talk about Aristotle
+and such subjects in Pelusium."
+
+"Perhaps they are only too much discussed in Alexandria," said the
+blind artist. "The Stagirite, as you have just heard, seeks to prove the
+existence of the gods by the man of whom I spoke."
+
+"No, he does prove it," protested Daphne. "Just listen, Mother Thyone. A
+little boy grows up from earliest childhood into a youth in a dark cave.
+Then suddenly its doors are opened to him. For the first time he sees
+the sun, moon, and stars, flowers and trees, perhaps even a beautiful
+human face. But at the moment when all these things rush upon him like
+so many incomprehensible marvels, must he not ask himself who created
+all this magnificence? And the answer which comes to him--"
+
+"There is only one," cried the matron; "the omnipotent gods. Do you
+shrug your shoulders at that, son of the pious Erigone? Why, of course!
+The child who still feels the blows probably rebels against his earthly
+father. But if I see aright, the resentment will not last when you, like
+the man, go out of the cave and your darkness also passes away. Then the
+power from which you turned defiantly will force itself upon you, and
+you will raise your hands in grateful prayer to the rescuing divinity.
+As to us women, we need not be drawn out of a cave to recognise it.
+A mother who reared three stalwart sons--I will say nothing of the
+daughters--can not live without them. Why are they so necessary to her?
+Because we love our children twice as much as ourselves, and the danger
+which threatens them alarms the poor mother's heart thrice as much as
+her own. Then it needs the helping powers. Even though they often refuse
+their aid, we may still be grateful for the expectation of relief. I
+have poured forth many prayers for the three, I assure you, and after
+doing so with my whole soul, then, my son, no matter how wildly the
+storm had raged within my breast, calmness returned, and Hope again
+took her place at the helm. In the school of the denier of the gods, you
+forgot the immortals above and depended on yourself alone. Now you need
+a guide, or even two or three of them, in order to find the way. If your
+mother were still alive, you would run back to her to hide your face in
+her lap. But she is dead, and if I were as proud as you, before clasping
+the sustaining hand of another mortal I would first try whether one
+would not be voluntarily extended from among the Olympians. If I were
+you, I would begin with Demeter, whom you honoured by so marvellous a
+work."
+
+Hermon waved his hand as if brushing away a troublesome fly, exclaiming
+impatiently: "The gods, always the gods! I know by my own mother,
+Thyone, what you women are, though I was only seven years old when I was
+bereft of her by the same powers that you call good and wise, and who
+have also robbed me of my eyesight, my friend, and all else that was
+dear. I thank you for your kind intention, and you, too, Daphne, for
+recalling the beautiful allegory. How often we have argued over its
+meaning! If we continued the discussion, perhaps it might pleasantly
+shorten the next few hours, which I dread as I do my whole future
+existence, but I should be obliged in the outset to yield the victory to
+you. The great Herophilus is right when he transfers the seat of thought
+from the heart to the head. What a wild tumult is raging here behind my
+brow, and how one voice drowns another! The medley baffles description.
+I could more easily count with my blind eyes the cells in a honeycomb
+than refute with my bewildered brain even one shrewd objection. It seems
+to me that we need our eyes to understand things. We certainly do to
+taste. Whatever I eat and drink--langustae and melons, light Mareotic
+wine and the dark liquor of Byblus my tongue can scarcely distinguish
+it. The leech assures me that this will pass away, but until the chaos
+within merges into endurable order there is nothing better for me than
+solitude and rest, rest, rest."
+
+"We will not deny them to you," replied Thyone, glancing significantly
+at Daphne. "Proclus's enthusiastic judgment was sincerely meant. Begin
+by rejoicing over it in the inmost depths of your heart, and vividly
+imagining what a wealth of exquisite joys will be yours through your
+last masterpiece."
+
+"Willingly, if I can," replied the blind man, gratefully extending his
+hand. "If I could only escape the doubt whether the most cruel tyrant
+could devise anything baser than to rob the artist, the very person to
+whom it is everything, of his sight."
+
+"Yes, it is terrible," Daphne assented. "Yet it seems to me that a
+richer compensation for the lost gift is at the disposal of you artists
+than of us other mortals, for you understand how to look with the eyes
+of the soul. With them you retain what you have seen, and illumine it
+with a special radiance. Homer was blind, and for that very reason, I
+think, the world and life became clear and transfigured for him though a
+veil concealed both from his physical vision."
+
+"The poet!" Hermon exclaimed. "He draws from his own soul what sight,
+and sight alone, brings to us sculptors. And, besides, his spirit
+remained free from the horrible darkness that assailed mine. Joy itself,
+Daphne, has lost its illuminating power within. What, girl, what is to
+become of the heart in which even hope was destroyed?"
+
+"Defend it manfully and keep up your courage," she answered softly;
+but he pressed her hand firmly, and, in order not to betray how
+self-compassion was melting his own soul, burst forth impetuously: "Say
+rather: Crush the wish whose fulfilment is self-humiliation! I will go
+back to Alexandria. Even the blind and crippled can find ways to earn
+their bread there. Now grant me rest, and leave me alone!"
+
+Thyone drew the girl away with her into the ship's cabin.
+
+A short time after, the steward Gras went to Hermon to entreat him to
+yield to Thyone's entreaties and leave the deck.
+
+The leech had directed the sufferer to protect himself from draughts
+and dampness, and the cool night mists were rising more and more densely
+from the water.
+
+Hermon doubtless felt them, but the thought of returning to the close
+cabin was unendurable. He fancied that his torturing thoughts would
+stifle him in the gloom where even fresh air was denied him.
+
+He allowed the careful Bithynian to throw a coverlet over him and draw
+the hood of his cloak over his head, but his entreaties and warnings
+were futile.
+
+The steward's watchful nursing reminded Hermon of his own solicitude
+for his friend and of his faithful slave Bias, both of whom he had lost.
+Then he remembered the eulogy of the grammateus, and it brought up the
+question whether Myrtilus would have agreed with him. Like Proclus, his
+keen-sighted and honest friend had called Daphne the best model for the
+kindly goddess. He, too, had given to his statue the features of the
+daughter of Archias, and admitted that he had been less successful. But
+the figure! Perhaps he, Hermon, in his perpetual dissatisfaction with
+himself had condemned his own work too severely, but that it lacked the
+proper harmony had escaped neither Myrtilus nor himself. Now he recalled
+the whole creation to his remembrance, and its weaknesses forced
+themselves upon him so strongly and objectionably that the extravagant
+praise of the stern critic awakened fresh doubts in his mind.
+
+Yet a man like the grammateus, who on the morrow or the day following it
+would be obliged to repeat his opinion before the King and the judges,
+certainly would not have allowed himself to be carried away by mere
+compassion to so great a falsification of his judgment.
+
+Or was he himself sharing the experience of many a fellow-artist? How
+often the creator deceived himself concerning the value of his own work!
+He had expected the greatest success from his Polyphemus hurling the
+rock at Odysseus escaping in the boat, and a gigantic smith had posed
+for a model. Yet the judges had condemned it in the severest manner as
+a work far exceeding the bounds of moderation, and arousing positive
+dislike. The clay figure had not been executed in stone or metal, and
+crumbled away. The opposite would probably now happen with the Demeter.
+Her bending attitude had seemed to him daring, nay, hazardous; but the
+acute critic Proclus had perceived that it was in accord with one of
+Daphne's habits, and therefore numbered it among the excellences of the
+statue.
+
+If the judges who awarded the prize agreed with the verdict of the
+grammateus, he must accustom himself to value his own work higher,
+perhaps even above that of Myrtilus.
+
+But was this possible?
+
+He saw his friend's Demeter as though it was standing before him, and
+again he recognised in it the noblest masterpiece its maker had ever
+created. What praise this marvellous work would have deserved if his own
+really merited such high encomiums!
+
+Suddenly an idea came to him, which at first he rejected as
+inconceivable; but it would not allow itself to be thrust aside, and its
+consideration made his breath fail.
+
+What if his own Demeter had been destroyed and Myrtilus's statue saved?
+If the latter was falsely believed to be his work, then Proclus's
+judgment was explained--then--then---
+
+Seized by a torturing anguish, he groaned aloud, and the steward Gras
+inquired what he wanted.
+
+Hermon hastily grasped the Bithynian's arm, and asked what he knew about
+the rescue of his statue.
+
+The answer was by no means satisfying. Gras had only heard that, after
+being found uninjured in his studio, it had been dragged with great
+exertion into the open air. The goldsmith Chello had directed the work.
+
+Hermon remembered all this himself, yet, with an imperious curtness in
+marked contrast to his usual pleasant manner to this worthy servant, he
+hoarsely commanded him to bring Chello to him early the next morning,
+and then again relapsed into his solitary meditations.
+
+If the terrible conjecture which had just entered his mind should be
+confirmed, no course remained save to extinguish the only new light
+which now illumined the darkness of his night, or to become a cheat.
+
+Yet his resolution was instantly formed. If the goldsmith corroborated
+his fear, he would publicly attribute the rescued work to the man who
+created it. And he persisted in this intention, indignantly silencing
+the secret voice which strove to shake it. It temptingly urged that
+Myrtilus, so rich in successes, needed no new garland. His lost sight
+would permit him, Hermon, from reaping fresh laurels, and his friend
+would so gladly bestow this one upon him. But he angrily closed his
+ears to these enticements, and felt it a humiliation that they dared to
+approach him.
+
+With proud self-reliance he threw back his head, saying to himself that,
+though Myrtilus should permit him ten times over to deck him self with
+his feathers, he would reject them. He would remain himself, and was
+conscious of possessing powers which perhaps surpassed his friend's.
+He was as well qualified to create a genuine work of art as the best
+sculptor, only hitherto the Muse had denied him success in awakening
+pleasure, and blindness would put an end to creating anything of his
+own.
+
+The more vividly he recalled to memory his own work and his friend's,
+the more probable appeared his disquieting supposition.
+
+He also saw Myrtilus's figure before him, and in imagination heard his
+friend again promise that, with the Arachne, he would wrest the prize
+even from him.
+
+During the terrible events of the last hours he had thought but seldom
+and briefly of the weaver, whom it had seemed a rare piece of good
+fortune to be permitted to represent. Now the remembrance of her took
+possession of his soul with fresh power.
+
+The image of Arachne illumined by the lamplight, which Althea had showed
+him, appeared like worthless jugglery, and he soon drove it back into
+the darkness which surrounded him. Ledscha's figure, however, rose
+before him all the more radiantly. The desire to possess her had flown
+to the four winds; but he thought he had never before beheld anything
+more peculiar, more powerful, or better worth modelling than the
+Biamite girl as he saw her in the Temple of Nemesis, with uplifted hand,
+invoking the vengeance of the goddess upon him, and there--he discovered
+it now--Daphne was not at all mistaken. Images never presented
+themselves as distinctly to those who could see as to the blind man
+in his darkness. If he was ever permitted to receive his sight, what a
+statue of the avenging goddess he could create from this greatest event
+in the history of his vision!
+
+After this work--of that he was sure--he would no longer need the
+borrowed fame which, moreover, he rejected with honest indignation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+It must be late, for Hermon felt the cool breeze, which in this region
+rose between midnight and sunrise, on his burned face and, shivering,
+drew his mantle closer round him.
+
+Yet it seemed impossible to return to the cabin; the memory of Ledscha
+imploring vengeance, and the stern image of the avenging goddess in the
+cella of the little Temple of Nemesis, completely mastered him. In
+the close cabin these terrible visions, united with the fear of having
+reaped undeserved praise, would have crouched upon his breast like
+harpies and stifled or driven him mad. After what had happened, to
+number the swift granting of the insulted Biamite's prayer among the
+freaks of chance was probably a more arbitrary and foolish proceeding
+than, with so many others, to recognise the incomprehensible power of
+Nemesis. Ledscha had loosed it against him and his health, perhaps even
+his life, and he imagined that she was standing before him with the
+bridle and wheel, threatening him afresh.
+
+Shivering, as if chilled to the bone, overwhelmed by intense horror,
+he turned his blinded eyes upward to the blackness above and raised his
+hand, for the first time since he had joined the pupils of Straton in
+the Museum, to pray. He besought Nemesis to be content, and not add to
+blindness new tortures to augment the terrible ones which rent his soul,
+and he did so with all the ardour of his passionate nature.
+
+The steward Gras had received orders to wake the Lady Thyone if anything
+unusual happened to the blind man, and when he heard the unfortunate
+artist groan so pitifully that it would have moved a stone, and saw him
+raise his hand despairingly to his head, he thought it was time to utter
+words of consolation, and a short time after the anxious matron followed
+him.
+
+Her low exclamation startled Hermon. To be disturbed in the first
+prayer after so long a time, in the midst of the cries of distress of a
+despairing soul, is scarcely endurable, and the blind man imposed little
+restraint upon himself when his old friend asked what had occurred, and
+urged him not to expose himself longer to the damp night air.
+
+At first he resolutely resisted, declaring that he should lose his
+senses alone in the close cabin.
+
+Then, in her cordial, simple way, she offered to bear him company in the
+cabin. She could not sleep longer, at any rate; she must leave him early
+in the morning, and they still had many things to confide to each other.
+
+Touched by so much kindness, he yielded and, leaning on the Bithynian's
+arm, followed her, not into his little cabin, but into the captain's
+spacious sitting room.
+
+Only a single lamp dimly lighted the wainscoting, composed of ebony,
+ivory, and tortoise shell, the gay rug carpet, and the giraffe and
+panther skins hung on the walls and doors and flung on the couches and
+the floor.
+
+Thyone needed no brilliant illumination for this conversation, and the
+blinded man was ordered to avoid it.
+
+The matron was glad to be permitted to communicate to Hermon so speedily
+all that filled her own heart.
+
+While he remained on deck, she had gone to Daphne's cabin.
+
+She had already retired, and when Thyone went to the side of the couch
+she found the girl, with her cheeks wet with tears, still weeping,
+and easily succeeded in leading the motherless maiden to make a frank
+confession.
+
+Both cousins had been dear to her from childhood; but while Myrtilus,
+though often impeded by his pitiable sufferings, had reached by a smooth
+pathway the highest recognition, Hermon's impetuous toiling and striving
+had constantly compelled her to watch his course with anxious solicitude
+and, often unobserved, extend a helping hand.
+
+Sympathy, disapproval, and fear, which, however, was always blended with
+admiration of his transcendent powers, had merged into love. Though he
+had disdained to return it, it had nevertheless been perfectly evident
+that he needed her, and valued her and her opinion. Often as their views
+differed, the obstinate boy and youth had never allowed any one except
+herself a strong influence over his acts and conduct. But, far as he
+seemed to wander from the paths which she believed the right ones,
+she had always held fast to the conviction that he was a man of noble
+nature, and an artist who, if he only once fixed his eyes upon the
+true goal, would far surpass by his mighty power the other Alexandrian
+sculptors, whatever names they bore, and perhaps even Myrtilus.
+
+To the great vexation of her father who, after her mother's death, in
+an hour when his heart was softened, had promised that he would never
+impose any constraint upon her in the choice of a husband, she had
+hitherto rejected every suitor. She had showed even the distinguished
+Philotas in Pelusium, without the least reserve, that he was seeking her
+in vain; for just at that time she thought she had perceived that
+Hermon returned her love, and after his abrupt departure it had become
+perfectly evident that the happiness of her life depended upon him.
+
+The terrible misfortune which had now befallen him had only bound her
+more firmly to the man she loved. She felt that she belonged to him
+indissolubly, and the leech's positive assurance that his blindness
+was incurable had only increased the magic of the thought of being and
+affording tenfold more to the man bereft of sight than when, possessing
+his vision, the world, life, and art belonged to him. To be able to
+lavish everything upon the most beloved of mortals, and do whatever her
+warm, ever-helpful heart prompted, seemed to her a special favour of the
+gods in whom she believed.
+
+That it was Demeter, to the ranks of whose priestesses she belonged, who
+was so closely associated with his blinding, also seemed to her no mere
+work of chance. The goddess on whom Hermon had bestowed the features of
+her own face had deprived him of sight to confer upon her the happiness
+of brightening and beautifying the darkness of his life.
+
+If she saw aright, and it was only the fear of obtaining, with herself,
+her wealth, that still kept him from her, the path which would finally
+unite them must be found at last. She hoped to conquer also her father's
+reluctance to give his only child in marriage to a blind man, especially
+as Hermon's last work promised to give him the right to rank with the
+best artists of his age.
+
+The matron had listened to this confession with an agitated heart.
+She had transported herself in imagination into the soul of the girl's
+mother, and brought before her mind what objections the dead woman would
+have made to her daughter's union with a man deprived of sight; but
+Daphne had firmly insisted upon her wish, and supported it by many
+a sensible and surprising answer. She was beyond childhood, and her
+three-and-twenty years enabled her to realize the consequences which so
+unusual a marriage threatened to entail.
+
+As for Thyone herself, she was always disposed to look on the bright
+side, and the thought that this vigorous young man, this artist crowned
+with the highest success, must remain in darkness to the end of his
+life, was utterly incompatible with her belief in the goodness of the
+gods. But if Hermon was cured, a rare wealth of the greatest happiness
+awaited him in the union with Daphne.
+
+The mood in which she found the blind man had wounded and troubled her.
+Now she renewed the bandage, saying: "How gladly I would continue to
+use my old hands for you, but this will be the last time in a long while
+that I am permitted to do this for the son of my Erigone; I must leave
+you to-morrow."
+
+Hermon clasped her hand closely, exclaiming with affectionate warmth:
+"You must not go, Thyone! Stay here, even if it is only a few days
+longer."
+
+What pleasure these words gave her, and how gladly she would have
+fulfilled his wish! But it could not be, and he did not venture to
+detain her by fresh entreaties after she had described how her aged
+husband was suffering from her absence.
+
+"I often ask myself what he still finds in me," she said. "True, so long
+a period of wedded life is a firm tie. If I am gone and he does not find
+me when he returns home from inspections, he wanders about as if lost,
+and does not even relish his food, though the same cook has prepared it
+for years. And he, who forgets nothing and knows by name a large number
+of the many thousand men he commands, would very probably, when I am
+away, join the troops with only sandals on his feet. To miss my ugly
+old face really can not be so difficult! When he wooed me, of course
+I looked very different. And so--he confessed it himself--so he always
+sees me, and most plainly when I am absent from his sight. But that,
+Hermon, will be your good fortune also. All you now know as young and
+beautiful will continue so to you as long as this sorrowful blindness
+lasts, and on that very account you must not remain alone, my boy--that
+is, if your heart has already decided in favour of any one--and that is
+the case, unless these old eyes deceive me."
+
+"Daphne," he answered dejectedly, "why should I deny that she is dear to
+me? And yet, how dare the blind man take upon himself the sin of binding
+her young life--"
+
+"Stop! stop!" Thyone interrupted with eager warmth. "She loves you, and
+to be everything to you is the greatest happiness she can imagine."
+
+"Until repentance awakes, and it is too late," he answered gravely.
+"But even were her love strong enough to share her husband's misfortune
+patiently--nay, perhaps with joyous courage--it would still be
+contemptible baseness were I to profit by that love and seek her hand."
+
+"Hermon!" the matron now exclaimed reproachfully; but he repeated with
+strong emphasis: "Yes, it would be baseness so great that even her most
+ardent love could not save me from the reproach of having committed it.
+I will not speak of her father, to whom I am so greatly indebted. It may
+be that it might satisfy Daphne, full of kindness as she is, to devote
+herself, body and soul, to the service of her helpless companion. But
+I? Far from thinking constantly, like her, solely of others and their
+welfare, I should only too often, selfish as I now am, be mindful of
+myself. But when I realize who I am, I see before me a blind man who is
+poorer than a beggar, because the scorching flames melted even the gold
+which was to help him pay his debts."
+
+"Folly!" cried the matron. "For what did Archias gather his boundless
+treasures? And when his daughter is once yours--"
+
+"Then," Hermon went on bitterly, "the blinded artist's poverty will be
+over. That is your opinion, and the majority of people will share it.
+But I have my peculiarities, and the thought of being rescued from
+hunger and thirst by the woman I love, and who ought to see in me the
+man from whom she receives the best gifts--to be dependent on her as
+the recipient of her alms--seems to me worse than if I were once more to
+lose my sight. I could not endure it at all! Every mouthful would choke
+me. Just because she is so dear to me, I can not seek her hand; for,
+in return for her great self-sacrificing love, I could give her nothing
+save the keen discontent which seizes the proud soul that is forced
+constantly to accept benefits, as surely as the ringing sound follows
+the blow upon the brass. My whole future life would become a chain of
+humiliations, and do you know whither this unfortunate marriage would
+lead? My teacher Straton once said that a man learns to hate no one more
+easily than the person from whom he receives benefits which it is out
+of his power to repay. That is wise, and before I will see my great love
+for Daphne transformed to hate, I will again try the starving which,
+while I was a sculptor at Rhodes, I learned tolerably well."
+
+"But would not a great love," asked Thyone, "suffice to repay tenfold
+the perishable gifts that can be bought with gold and silver?"
+
+"No, and again no!" Hermon answered in an agitated tone. "Something else
+would blend with the love I brought to the marriage, something that must
+destroy all the compensation it might offer; for I see myself becoming
+a resentful misanthrope if I am compelled to relinquish the pleasure of
+creating and, condemned to dull inaction, can do nothing except allow
+myself to be tended, drink, eat, and sleep. The gloomy mood of her
+unfortunate husband would sadden Daphne's existence even more than my
+own; for, Thyone, though I should strive with all my strength to bear
+patiently, with her dear aid, the burden imposed upon me, and move on
+through the darkness with joyous courage, like many another blind man, I
+could not succeed."
+
+"You are a man," the matron exclaimed indignantly, "and what thousands
+have done before you--"
+
+"There," he loudly protested, "I should surely fail; for, you dear
+woman, who mean so kindly by me, my fate is worse than theirs. Do you
+know what just forced from my lips the exclamation of pain which alarmed
+you? I, the only child of the devout Erigone, for whose sake you are so
+well disposed toward me, am doomed to misfortune as surely as the victim
+dragged to the altar is certain of death. Of all the goddesses, there is
+only one in whose power I believe, and to whom I just raised my hands in
+prayer. It is the terrible one to whom I was delivered by hate and the
+deceived love which is now dragging me by the hair, and will rob and
+torture me till I despair of life. I mean the gray daughter of Night,
+whom no one escapes, dread Nemesis."
+
+Thyone sank down into the chair by the blind artist's side, asking
+softly, "And what gave you into her avenging hands, hapless boy?"
+
+"My own abominable folly," he answered mournfully and, with the feeling
+that it would relieve his heart to pour out to this true friend what he
+would usually have confided only to his Myrtilus, he hurriedly related
+how he had recognised in Ledscha the best model for his Arachne, how he
+had sought her love, and then, detained by Althea, left her in the lurch
+and most deeply offended and insulted her. Lastly, he gave a brief but
+vivid description of his meeting with the vengeful barbarian girl in
+the Temple of Nemesis, how Ledscha had invoked upon him the wrath of the
+terrible goddess, and how the most horrible punishment had fallen upon
+him directly after the harsh accusation of the Biamite.
+
+The matron had listened to this confession in breathless suspense. Now
+she fixed her eyes on the floor, shook her gray head gently, and said
+anxiously: "Is that it? It certainly puts things in a different light.
+As the son of your never-to-be-forgotten mother, you are indeed dear to
+my heart; but Daphne is not less dear to me, and though in your marriage
+I just saw happiness for you both, that is now past. What is poverty,
+what is blindness! Eros would reconcile far more difficult problems, but
+his arrows are shattered on the armour of Nemesis. Where there is a pair
+of lovers, and she raises her scourge against one of them, the other
+will also be struck. Until you feel that you are freed from this
+persecutor, it would be criminal to bind a loving woman to you and your
+destiny. It is not easy to find the right path for you both, for even
+Nemesis and her power do not make the slightest change in the fact that
+you need faithful care and watching in your blindness. Daylight brings
+wisdom, and we will talk further to-morrow."
+
+She rose as she spoke; but Hermon detained her, while from his lips
+escaped the anxious question, "So you will take Daphne away from me, and
+leave me alone in my blindness?"
+
+"You in your blindness?" cried Thyone, and the mere reproachful tone of
+the question banished the fear. "I would as quickly deprive my own son
+of my support as I would you just at this time, my poor boy; but whether
+my conscience will permit me to let Daphne remain near you only grant
+me, I repeat it, until sunrise to-morrow for reflection. My old heart
+will then find the right way."
+
+"Yet whatever you may decide concerning us," pleaded the blind man,
+"tell Daphne that, on the eve of losing her, I first felt in its full
+power how warmly I love her. Even without Nemesis, the joy of making
+her mine would have been denied me. Fate will never permit me to possess
+her; yet never again to hear her gentle voice, never more to feel her
+dear presence, would be blinding me a second time."
+
+"It need not be imposed upon you long," said the matron soothingly.
+
+Then she went close to him, laid her hand on his shoulder, and said:
+"The power of the goddess who punishes the misdeeds of the reckless is
+called irresistible and uncontrollable; but one thing softens even her,
+and checks her usually resistless wheel: it is a mother's prayer. I
+heard this from my own mother, and experienced it myself, especially in
+my oldest son Eumedes, who from the wildest madcap became an ornament
+of his class, and to whom the King--you doubtless know it--intrusted the
+command of the fleet which is to open the Ethiopian land of elephants
+to the Egyptian power. You, Hermon, are an orphan, but for you, too,
+the souls of your parents live on. Only I do not know whether you still
+honour and pray to them."
+
+"I did until a few years ago," replied Hermon.
+
+"But later you neglected this sacred duty," added Thyone. "Yet how was
+that possible? In our barren Pelusium I could not help thinking hundreds
+of times of the grove which Archias planted in your necropolis for the
+dead members of his family, and how often, while we were in Alexandria,
+it attracted me to think in its shade of your never-to-be-forgotten
+mother. There I felt her soul near me; for there was her home, and in
+imagination I saw her walking and resting under the trees. And you--her
+beloved child--you remained aloof from this hallowed spot! Even at the
+festival of the dead you omitted prayers and sacrifices?"
+
+The blind artist assented to this question by a silent bend of the head;
+but the matron indignantly exclaimed: "And did not you know, unhappy
+man, that you were thus casting away the shield which protects mortals
+from the avenging gods? And your glorious mother, who would have given
+her life for you? Yet you loved her, I suppose?"
+
+"Thyone!" Hermon cried, deeply wounded, holding out his right hand as if
+in defence. "Well, well!" said the matron. "I know that you revere her
+memory. But that alone is not sufficient. On memorial festivals, and
+especially on the birthdays, a mother's soul needs a prayer and a gift
+from the son, a wreath, a fillet, fragrant ointment, a piece of honey, a
+cup of wine or milk--all these things even the poor man spares from his
+penury--yet a warm prayer, in pure remembrance and love, would suffice
+to rob the wrath of Nemesis, which the enraged barbarian girl let loose
+upon you, of its power. Only your mother, Hermon, the soul of the noble
+woman who bore you, can restore to you what you have lost. Appeal for
+aid to her, son of Erigone, and she will yet make everything right."
+
+Bending quickly over the artist as she spoke, she kissed his brow and
+moved steadily away, though he called her name with yearning entreaty.
+
+A short time after, the steward Gras led Hermon to his cabin, and while
+undressing him reported that a messenger from Pelusium had announced
+that the commandant Philippus was coming to Tennis the next morning,
+before the market place filled, to take his wife with him to Alexandria,
+where he was going by the King's command.
+
+Hermon only half listened, and then ordered the Bithynian to leave him.
+
+After he had reclined on the couch a short time, he softly called the
+names of the steward, Thyone, and Daphne. As he received no answer, and
+thus learned that he was alone, he rose, drew himself up to his full
+height, gazed heavenward with his bandaged eyes, stretched both hands
+toward the ceiling of the low cabin, and obeyed his friend's bidding.
+
+Thoroughly convinced that he was doing right, and ashamed of having
+so long neglected what the duty of a son commanded, he implored his
+mother's soul for forgiveness.
+
+While doing so he again found that the figure which he recalled to his
+memory appeared before him with marvellous distinctness. Never had she
+been so near him since, when a boy of seven, she clasped him for the
+last time to her heart. She tenderly held out her arms to him, and he
+rushed into her embrace, shouting exultantly while she hugged and kissed
+him. Every pet name which he had once been so glad to hear, and during
+recent years had forgotten, again fell from her lips. As had often
+happened in days long past, he again saw his mother crown him for a
+festival. Pleased with the little new garment which she herself had
+woven for him and embroidered with a tiny tree with red apples, beneath
+which stood a bright-plumaged duckling, she led him by the hand in the
+necropolis to the empty tomb dedicated to his father.
+
+It was a building the height of a man, constructed of red Cyprian
+marble, on which, cast in bronze, shield, sword, and lance, as well as
+a beautiful helmet, lay beside a sleeping lion. It was dedicated to
+the memory of the brave hipparch whom he had been permitted to call his
+father, and who had been burned beside the battlefield on which he had
+found a hero's death.
+
+Hermon now again beheld himself, with his mother, garlanding, anointing,
+and twining with fresh fillets the mausoleum erected by his uncle
+Archias to his brave brother. The species of every flower, the colour
+of the fillets-nay, even the designs embroidered on his little holiday
+robe--again returned to his mind, and, while these pleasant memories
+hovered around him, he appealed to his mother in prayer.
+
+She stood before him, young and beautiful, listening without reproach or
+censure as he besought her forgiveness and confided to her his sins, and
+how severely he was punished by Nemesis.
+
+During this confession he felt as though he was kneeling before the
+beloved dead, hiding his face in her lap, while she bent over him and
+stroked his thick, black hair. True, he did not hear her speak; but when
+he looked up again he could see, by the expression of her faithful blue
+eyes, that his manly appearance surprised her, and that she rejoiced in
+his return to her arms.
+
+She listened compassionately to his laments, and when he paused
+pressed his head to her bosom and gazed into his face with such joyous
+confidence that his heart swelled, and he told himself that she could
+not look at him thus unless she saw happiness in store for him.
+
+Lastly, he began also to confide that he loved no woman on earth more
+ardently than the very Daphne whom, when only a pretty little child, she
+had carried in her arms, yet that he could not seek the wealthy heiress
+because manly pride forbade this to the blind beggar.
+
+Here the anguish of renunciation seized him with great violence, and
+when he wished to appeal again to his mother his exhausted imagination
+refused its service, and the vision would not appear.
+
+Then he groped his way back to the bed, and, as he let his head sink
+upon the pillows, he fancied that he would soon be again enwrapped in
+the sweet slumber of childhood, which had long shunned his couch.
+
+It was years since he had felt so full of peace and hope, and he told
+himself, with grateful joy, that every childlike emotion had not yet
+died within him, that the stern conflicts and struggles of the last
+years had not yet steeled every gentle emotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The sun of the following day had long passed its meridian when Hermon
+at last woke. The steward Gras, who had grown gray in the service of
+Archias, was standing beside the couch.
+
+There was nothing in the round, beardless face of this well-fed yet
+active man that could have attracted the artist, yet the quiet tones of
+his deep voice recalled to memory the clear, steadfast gaze of his gray
+eyes, from which so often, in former days, inviolable fidelity, sound
+sense, caution, and prudence had looked forth at him.
+
+What the blind man heard from Gras surprised him--nay, at first seemed
+impossible. To sleep until the afternoon was something unprecedented for
+his wakeful temperament; but what was he to say to the tidings that
+the commandant of Pelusium had arrived in his state galley early in
+the morning and taken his wife, Daphne, and Chrysilla away with him to
+Alexandria?
+
+Yet it sounded credible enough when the Bithynian further informed him
+that the ladies had left messages of remembrance for him, and said that
+Archias's ship, upon which he was, would be at his disposal for any
+length of time he might desire. Gras was commissioned to attend him. The
+Lady Thyone especially desired him to heed her counsel.
+
+While the steward was communicating this startling news as calmly as
+if everything was a matter of course, the events of the preceding night
+came back to Hermon's memory with perfect distinctness, and again the
+fear assailed him that the rescued Demeter was the work of Myrtilus, and
+not his own.
+
+So the first question he addressed to Gras concerned the Tennis
+goldsmith, and it was a keen disappointment to Hermon when he learned
+that the earliest time he could expect to see him would be the following
+day. The skilful artisan had been engaged for weeks upon the gold
+ornaments on the new doors of the holy of holies in the Temple of Amon
+at Tanis. Urgent business had called him home from the neighbouring
+city just before the night of the attack; but yesterday evening he had
+returned to Tanis, where his wife said he would have only two days' work
+to do.
+
+This answer, however, by no means appeased Hermon's impatience.
+He commanded that a special messenger should be sent to summon the
+goldsmith, and the Bithynian received the order with a slight shake of
+his round head.
+
+What new trouble had befallen the usually alert young artist that he
+received this unexpected change in his situation as apathetically as
+a horse which is led from one stall to another, and, instead of
+questioning him, thought only of hastening his interview with the
+goldsmith? If his mistress, who had left him full of anxiety from the
+fear that her departure would deeply agitate the blind man, should learn
+how indifferently he had received it! He, Gras, certainly would not
+betray it. Eternal gods--these artists! He knew them. Their work was
+dearer to their hearts than their own lives, love, or friendship.
+
+During breakfast, of which the steward was obliged to remind him, Hermon
+pondered over his fate; but how could he attain any degree of clearness
+of vision until he secured accurate information concerning the statue
+of Demeter? Like a dark cloud, which sweeps over the starry sky and
+prevents the astronomer from seeing the planets which he desires to
+observe, the fear that Proclus's praise had been bestowed upon the work
+of Myrtilus stood between him and every goal of his thought.
+
+Only the fact that he still remained blind, and not even the faintest
+glimmer of light pierced the surrounding darkness, while the sun
+continued its course with glowing radiance, and that, blinded and
+beggared, he must despise himself if he sought to win Daphne, was
+certain. No reflection could alter it.
+
+Again the peace of mind which he thought he had regained during
+slumber was destroyed. Fear of the artisan's statement even rendered it
+impossible to pray to his mother with the affectionate devotion he had
+felt the day before.
+
+The goldsmith had directed the rescue of the Demeter, yet he would
+scarcely have been able to distinguish it from the statue by Myrtilus;
+for though, like his friend, he had often employed his skilful hands in
+the arrangement of the gold plates at the commencement of the work, the
+Egyptian had been summoned to Tennis before the statues had attained
+recognisable form. He had not entered the studios for several months,
+unless Bias had granted him admittance without informing his master.
+This was quite possible, for the slave's keen eyes certainly had not
+failed to notice how little he and Myrtilus valued the opinion of the
+honest, skilful, but extremely practical and unimaginative man, who
+could not create independently even the smallest detail.
+
+So it was impossible to determine at present whether Chello had seen
+the finished statues or not, yet Hermon desired the former with actual
+fervour, that he might have positive certainty.
+
+While reflecting over these matters, the image of the lean Egyptian
+goldsmith, with his narrow, brown, smooth-shaven face and skull,
+prominent cheek bones, receding brow, projecting ears and, with all
+its keenness, lustreless glance, rose before him as if he could see
+his bodily presence. Not a single word unconnected with his trade,
+the weather, or an accident, had ever reached the friends' ears from
+Chello's thick lips, and this circumstance seemed to warrant Hermon in
+the expectation of learning from him the pure, unadulterated truth.
+
+Rarely had a messenger of love been awaited with such feverish suspense
+as the slave whom Gras had despatched to Tanis to induce the goldsmith
+to return home. He might come soon after nightfall, and Hermon used the
+interval to ask the Bithynian the questions which he had long expected.
+
+The replies afforded little additional information. He learned only that
+Philippus had been summoned to Alexandria by the King, and that the Lady
+Thyone and her husband had talked with the leech and assented to his
+opinion that it would be better for Hermon to wait here until the burns
+on his face were healed before returning to Alexandria.
+
+For Daphne's sake this decision had undoubtedly been welcome to the
+matron, and it pleased him also; for he still felt so ill physically,
+and so agitated mentally, that he shrank from meeting his numerous
+acquaintances in the capital.
+
+The goldsmith! the goldsmith! It depended upon his decision whether he
+would return to Alexandria at all.
+
+Soon after Hermon had learned from Gras that the stars had risen, he
+was informed that he must wait patiently for his interview with the
+Egyptian, as he had been summoned to the capital that very day by a
+messenger from Proclus.
+
+Then the steward had fresh cause to marvel at his charge, for this news
+aroused the most vehement excitement.
+
+In fact, it afforded the prospect of a series--perhaps a long one--of
+the most torturing days and nights. And the dreaded hours actually
+came--nay, the anguish of uncertainty had become almost unendurable,
+when, on the seventh day, the Egyptian at last returned from Alexandria.
+They had seemed like weeks to Hermon, had made his face thinner, and
+mingled the first silver hairs in his black beard.
+
+The calls of the cheerful notary and the daily visits of the leech, an
+elderly man, who had depressed rather than cheered him by informing him
+of many cases like his own which all proved incurable, had been his sole
+diversion. True, the heads of the Greek residents of Tennis had also
+sometimes sought him: the higher government officials, the lessees of
+the oil monopoly and the royal bank, as well as Gorgias, who, next to
+Archias the Alexandrian, owned the largest weaving establishments, but
+the tales of daily incidents with which they entertained Hermon
+wearied him. He listened with interest only to the story of Ledscha's
+disappearance, yet he perceived, from the very slight impression it made
+upon him, how little he had really cared for the Biamite girl.
+
+His inquiries about Gula called down upon him many well-meant jests. She
+was with her parents; while Taus, Ledscha's young sister, was staying
+at the brick-kiln, where the former had reduced the unruly slaves to
+submission.
+
+Care had been taken to provide for his personal safety, for the attack
+might perhaps yet prove to have been connected with the jealousy of the
+Biamite husbands.
+
+The commandant of Pelusium had therefore placed a small garrison of
+heavily armed soldiers and archers in Tennis, for whom tents had been
+pitched on the site of the burned white house.
+
+Words of command and signals for changing the guards often reached
+Hermon when he was on the deck of his ship, and visitors praised the
+wise caution and prompt action of Alexander the Great's old comrade.
+
+The notary, a vivacious man of fifty, who had lived a long time in
+Alexandria and, asserting that he grew dull and withered in little
+Tennis, went to the capital as frequently as possible, had often called
+upon the sculptor at first, and been disposed to discuss art and the
+other subjects dear to Hermon's heart, but on the third day he again
+set off for his beloved Alexandria. When saying farewell, he had been
+unusually merry, and asked Hermon to send him away with good wishes
+and offer sacrifices for the success of his business, since he hoped to
+bring a valuable gift on his return from the journey.
+
+The blind artist was glad to have other visits for a short time, but he
+preferred to be alone and devote his thoughts to his own affairs.
+
+He now knew that his love was genuine. Daphne seemed the very
+incarnation of desirable, artless, heart-refreshing womanliness, but his
+memory could not dwell with her long; anxiety concerning Chello's report
+only too quickly interrupted it, as soon as he yielded to its charm.
+
+He did not think at all of the future. What was he to appoint for a time
+which the words of a third person might render unendurable?
+
+When Gras at last ushered in the goldsmith, his heart throbbed so
+violently that it was difficult for him to find the words needed for the
+questions he desired to ask.
+
+The Egyptian had really been summoned to Alexandria by Proclus, not on
+account of the Demeter, but the clasp said to belong to Myrtilus, found
+amid the ruins of the fallen house, and he had been able to identify it
+with absolute positiveness as the sculptor's property.
+
+He had been referred from one office to another, until finally the
+Tennis notary and Proclus opened the right doors to him.
+
+Now the importance of his testimony appeared, since the will of the
+wealthy young sculptor could not be opened until his death was proved,
+and the clasp which had been found aided in doing so.
+
+Hermon's question whether he had heard any particulars about this will
+was answered by the cold-hearted, dull-brained man in the negative.
+
+He had done enough, he said, by expressing his opinion. He had gone to
+Alexandria unwillingly, and would certainly have stayed in Tennis if he
+could have foreseen what a number of tiresome examinations he would
+be obliged to undergo. He had been burning with impatience to quit the
+place, on account of the important work left behind in Tanis, and he
+did not even know whether he would be reimbursed for his travelling
+expenses.
+
+During this preliminary conversation Hermon gained the composure he
+needed.
+
+He began by ascertaining whether Chello remembered the interior
+arrangement of the burned white house, and it soon appeared that he
+recollected it accurately.
+
+Then the blind man requested him to tell how the rescue of the statue
+had been managed, and the account of the extremely prosaic artisan
+described so clearly and practically how, on entering the burning
+building, he found Myrtilus's studio already inaccessible, but the
+statue of Demeter in Hermon's still uninjured, that the trustworthiness
+of his story could not be doubted.
+
+One circumstance only appeared strange, yet it was easily explained.
+Instead of standing on the pedestal, the Demeter was beside it, and even
+the slow-witted goldsmith inferred from this fact that the robbers had
+intended to steal it and placed it on the floor for that purpose, but
+were prevented from accomplishing their design by the interference of
+Hermon and the people from Tennis.
+
+After the Egyptian, in reply to the artist's inquiry concerning what
+other works of art and implements he had seen in the studio, had
+answered that nothing else could be distinguished on account of the
+smoke, he congratulated the sculptor on his last work. People were
+already making a great stir about the new Demeter. It had been discussed
+not only in the workshop of his brother, who, like himself, followed
+their father's calling, but also in the offices, at the harbour, in the
+barbers' rooms and the cookshops, and he, too, must admit that, for a
+Greek goddess, that always lacked genuine, earnest dignity, it really
+was a pretty bit of work.
+
+Lastly, the Egyptian asked to whom he should apply for payment for the
+remainder of his labour.
+
+The strip of gold, from which Hermon had ordered the diadem to be made,
+had attracted his attention on the head of his Demeter, and compensation
+for the work upon this ornament was still due.
+
+Hermon, deeply agitated, asked, with glowing cheeks, whether Chello
+really positively remembered having prepared for him the gold diadem
+which he had seen in Alexandria, and the Egyptian eagerly assured him
+that he had done so. Hitherto he had found the sculptors honest men, and
+Hermon would not withhold the payment for his well-earned toil.
+
+The artist strenuously denied such an intention; but when, in his desire
+to have the most absolute assurance, he again asked questions about the
+diadem, the Egyptian thought that the blind sculptor doubted the justice
+of his demand, and wrathfully insisted upon his claim, until Gras
+managed to whisper, undetected by Hermon, that he would have the money
+ready for him.
+
+This satisfied the angry man. He honestly believed that he had prepared
+the gold for the ornament on the head of the Demeter in Alexandria; yet
+the statue chiselled by Myrtilus had also been adorned with a diadem,
+and Chello had wrought the strip of gold it required. Only it had
+escaped his memory, because he had been paid for the work immediately
+after its delivery.
+
+Glad to obey his mistress's orders to settle at once any debts which the
+artist might have in Tennis, the steward followed the goldsmith while
+Hermon, seizing the huge goblet which had just been filled with wine and
+water for him drained it at one long draught. Then, with sigh of relief,
+he restored it to its place, raised his hand and his blinded eyes
+heavenward, and offered a brief, fervent thanksgiving to his mother's
+soul and the great Demeter, whom, he might now believe it himself, he
+had honoured with a masterpiece which had extorted warm admiration even
+from a connoisseur unfriendly his art.
+
+When Gras returned, he said, with a grin of satisfaction, that the
+goldsmith was like all the rest of his countrymen. The artists did not
+owe him another drachm; the never-to-be-forgotten Myrtilus had paid for
+the work ordered by Hermon also.
+
+Then, for the first time since he had been led on board the ship, a gay
+laugh rang fro the blind man's lips, rising in deep, pure, joyous tones
+from his relieved breast.
+
+The faithful gray eyes of honest Gras glittered with tears at the
+musical tones, and how ardently he wished for his beloved mistress
+when the sculptor, not content with this, exclaimed as gleefully as in
+happier days: "Hitherto I have had no real pleasure from my successful
+work, old Gras, but it is awaking now! If my Myrtilus were still alive,
+and these miserable eyes yet possessed the power of rejoicing in the
+light and in beautiful human forms, by the dog! I would have the mixing
+vessels filled, wreath after wreath brought, boon companions summoned,
+and with flute-playing, songs, and fiery words, offer the Muses,
+Demeter, and Dionysus their due meed of homage!"
+
+Gras declared that this wish might easily be fulfilled. There was no
+lack of wine or drinking cups on the vessel, the flute-players whom he
+had heard in the Odeum at Tanis did not understand their business amiss,
+flowers and wreaths could be obtained, and all who spoke Greek in Tennis
+would accept his invitation.
+
+But the Bithynian soon regretted this proposal, for it fell like a
+hoar-frost upon the blind man's happy mood. He curtly declined. He would
+not play host where he was himself a guest, and pride forbade him to use
+the property of others as though it were his own.
+
+He could not regain his suddenly awakened pleasure in existence before
+Gras warned him it was time to go to rest. Not until he was alone in the
+quiet cabin did the sense of joy in his first great success overpower
+him afresh.
+
+He might well feel proud delight in the work which he had created, for
+he had accomplished it without being unfaithful to the aims he had set
+before him.
+
+It had been taken from his own studio, and the skilful old artisan had
+recognised his preliminary work upon the diadem which he, Hermon, had
+afterward adorned with ornaments himself. But, alas! this first must at
+the same time be his last great success, and he was condemned to live on
+in darkness.
+
+Although abundant recognition awaited him in Alexandria, his quickly
+gained renown would soon be forgotten, and he would remain a beggared
+blind man. But it was now allowable for him to think secretly of
+possessing Daphne; perhaps she would wait for him and reject other
+suitors until he learned in the capital whether he might not hope to
+recover his lost sight. He was at least secure against external want;
+the generous Archias would hardly withhold from him the prize he
+had intended for the successful statue, although the second had been
+destroyed. The great merchant would do everything for his fame-crowned
+nephew, and he, Hermon, was conscious that had his uncle been in his
+situation he would have divided his last obol with him. Refusal of
+his assistance would have been an insult to his paternal friend and
+guardian.
+
+Lastly, he might hope that Archias would take him to the most skilful
+leeches in Alexandria and, if they succeeded in restoring his lost power
+of vision, then--then Yet it seemed so presumptuous to lull himself in
+this hope that he forbade himself the pleasure of indulging it.
+
+Amid these consoling reflections, Hermon fell asleep, and awoke fresher
+and more cheerful than he had been for some time.
+
+He had to spend two whole weeks more in Tennis, for the burns healed
+slowly, and an anxious fear kept him away from Alexandria.
+
+There the woman he loved would again meet him and, though he could
+assure Thyone that Nemesis had turned her wheel away from him, he would
+have been permitted to treat Daphne only with cool reserve, while every
+fibre of his being urged him to confess his love and clasp her in his
+arms.
+
+Gras had already written twice to his master, telling him with what
+gratifying patience Hermon was beginning to submit to his great
+misfortune, when the notary Melampus returned from Alexandria with news
+which produced the most delightful transformation in the blind artist's
+outer life.
+
+More swiftly than his great corpulence usually permitted the jovial man
+to move, he ascended to the deck, calling: "Great, greater, the greatest
+of news I bring, as the heaviest but by no means the most dilatory of
+messengers of good fortune from the city of cities. Prick up your ears,
+my friend, and summon all your strength, for there are instances of the
+fatal effect of especially lavish gifts from the blind and yet often
+sure aim of the goddess of Fortune. The Demeter, in whom you proved so
+marvellously that the art of a mortal is sufficient to create immortals,
+is beginning to show her gratitude. She is helping to twine wreaths for
+you in Alexandria."
+
+Here the vivacious man suddenly hesitated and, while wiping his plump
+cheeks, perspiring brow, and smooth, fat double chin with his kerchief,
+added in a tone of sincere regret: "That's the way with me! In one thing
+which really moves me, I always forget the other. The fault sticks to me
+like my ears and nose. When my mother gave me two errands, I attended to
+the first in the best possible way, but overlooked the second entirely,
+and was paid for it with my father's staff, yet even the blue wales made
+no change in the fault. But for that I should still be in the city of
+cities; but it robbed me of my best clients, and so I was transferred
+to this dullest of holes. Even here it clings to me. My detestable
+exultation just now proves it. Yet I know how dear to you was the dead
+man who manifests his love even from the grave. But you will forgive me
+the false note into which my weakness led me; it sprang from regard for
+you, my young friend. To serve your cause, I forgot everything else.
+Like my mother's first errand, it was performed in the best possible
+way. You will learn directly. By the lightnings of Father Zeus and the
+owl of Athene, the news I bring is certainly great and beautiful; but
+he who yearned to make you happy was snatched from you and, though his
+noble legacy must inspire pleasure and gratitude, it will nevertheless
+fill your poor eyes with sorrowful tears."
+
+Melampus turned, as he spoke, to the misshapen Egyptian slave who
+performed the duties of a clerk, and took several rolls from the
+drumshaped case that hung around his neck; but his prediction concerning
+Hermon was speedily fulfilled, for the notary handed him the will of his
+friend Myrtilus.
+
+It made him the heir of his entire fortune and, however happy the
+unexpected royal gift rendered the blind man, however cheering might
+be the prospects it opened to him for the future and the desire of
+his heart, sobs nevertheless interrupted the affectionate words which
+commenced the document Melampus read aloud to him.
+
+Doubtless the tears which Hermon dedicated to the most beloved of human
+beings made his blinded eyes smart, but he could not restrain them,
+and even long after the notary had left him, and the steward had
+congratulated him on his good fortune, the deep emotion of his tender
+heart again and again called forth a fresh flood of tears consecrated to
+the memory of his friend.
+
+The notary had already informed the grammateus of the disposition which
+Myrtilus had made of his property in Hermon's favour a few days before,
+but, by the advice of the experienced Proclus, the contents of the will
+had been withheld from the sculptor; the unfortunate man ought to be
+spared any disappointment, and proof that Myrtilus was really among the
+victims of the accident must first be obtained.
+
+The clasp found in the ruins of the white house appeared to furnish
+this, and the notary had put all other business aside and gone to
+Alexandria to settle the matter.
+
+The goldsmith Chello, who had fastened a new pin to the clasp, and could
+swear that it had belonged to Myrtilus, had been summoned to the capital
+as a witness, and, with the aid of the influential grammateus of
+the Dionysian games and priest of Apollo, the zeal of Melampus had
+accomplished in a short time the settlement of this difficult affair,
+which otherwise might perhaps have consumed several months.
+
+The violent death of Myrtilus had been admitted as proved by the
+magistrate, who had been prepossessed in Hermon's favour by his
+masterpiece. Besides, no doubts could be raised concerning the validity
+of a will attested by sixteen witnesses. The execution of this last
+testament had been intrusted to Archias, as Myrtilus's nearest relative,
+and several other distinguished Alexandrians.
+
+The amount of the fortune bequeathed had surprised even these wealthy
+men, for under the prudent management of Archias the property inherited
+by the modest young sculptor had trebled in value.
+
+The poor blind artist had suddenly become a man who might be termed
+"rich," even in the great capital.
+
+Again the steward shook his head; this vast, unexpected inheritance did
+not seem to make half so deep an impression upon the eccentric blind
+man as the news received a short time ago that his trivial debt to the
+goldsmith Chello was already settled. But Hermon must have dearly loved
+the friend to whom he owed this great change of fortune, and grief for
+him had cast joy in his immense new wealth completely into the shade.
+
+This conjecture was confirmed on the following morning, for the blind
+man had himself led to the Greek necropolis to offer sacrifices to the
+gods of the nether world and to think of his friend.
+
+When, soon after noon, the lessee of the royal bank appeared on the ship
+to offer him as many drachmae or talents as he might need for present
+use, he asked for a considerable sum to purchase a larger death-offering
+for his murdered friend. The next morning he went with the architect
+of the province to the scene of the conflagration, and had him mark the
+spot of ground on which he desired to erect to his Myrtilus a monument
+to be made in Alexandria.
+
+At sunset, leaning on the steward's arm, he went to the Temple of
+Nemesis, where he prayed and commissioned the priest to offer a costly
+sacrifice to the goddess in his name.
+
+On the return home, Hermon suddenly stood still and mentioned to Gras
+the sum which he intended to bestow upon the blind in Tennis. He knew
+now what it means to live bereft of light, and, he added in a low tone,
+to be also poor and unable to earn his daily bread.
+
+On the ship he asked the Bithynian whether his burned face had become
+presentable again, and no longer made a repulsive impression.
+
+This Gras could truthfully assure him. Then the artist's features
+brightened, and the Bithynian heard genuine cheerfulness ring in the
+tones of his voice as he exclaimed: "Then, old Gras, we will set out for
+Alexandria as soon as the ship is ready to sail. Back to life, to the
+society of men of my own stamp, to reap the praise earned by my own
+creations, and to the only divine maiden among mortals--to Daphne!"
+
+"The day after to-morrow!" exclaimed the steward in joyous excitement;
+and soon after the carrier dove was flying toward the house of Archias,
+bearing the letter which stated the hour when his fame-crowned blind
+nephew would enter the great harbour of Alexandria.
+
+The evening of the next day but one the Proserpina was bearing Hermon
+away from the city of weavers toward home.
+
+As the evening breeze fanned his brow, his thoughts dwelt sadly on his
+Myrtilus. Hitherto it had always seemed as if he was bound, and must
+commit some atrocious deed to use the seething power condemned to
+inaction. But as the galley left the Tanitic branch of the Nile behind,
+and the blind man inhaled the cool air upon the calm sea, his heart
+swelled, and for the first time he became fully aware that, though the
+light of the sun would probably never shine for him again, and therefore
+the joy of creating, the rapture of once more testing his fettered
+strength, would probably be forever denied him, other stars might
+perhaps illumine his path, and he was going, in a position of brilliant
+independence, toward his native city, fame, and--eternal gods!--love.
+
+Daphne had conquered, and he gave only a passing thought to Ledscha and
+the hapless weaver Arachne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+At the third hour after sunrise a distinguished assemblage of people
+gathered at the landing place east of the Temple of Poseidon in the
+great harbour of Alexandria.
+
+Its members belonged to the upper classes, for many had come in
+carriages and litters, and numerous pedestrians were accompanied by
+slaves bearing in delicately woven baskets and cornucopias a laurel
+wreath, a papyrus crown, or bright-hued flowers.
+
+The most aristocratic among the gentlemen had gathered on the western
+side of the great sanctuary, between the cella and the long row of Doric
+columns which supported the roof of the marble temple.
+
+The Macedonian Council of the city was already represented by several of
+its members. Among their number was Archias, Daphne's father, a man
+of middle height and comfortable portliness, from whose well-formed,
+beardless face looked forth a pair of shrewd eyes, and whose quick
+movements revealed the slight irritability of his temperament.
+
+Several members of the Council and wealthy merchants surrounded
+him, while the grammateus Proclus first talked animatedly with other
+government officials and representatives of the priesthood, and then
+with Archias. The head of the Museum, who bore the title of "high
+priest," had also appeared there with several members of this famous
+centre of the intellectual life of the capital. They shared the shade
+of this part of the temple with distinguished masters of sculpture
+and painting, architecture and poetry, and conversed together with the
+graceful animation of Greeks endowed with great intellectual gifts.
+
+Among them mingled, distinguishable neither by costume nor language, a
+number of prominent patrons of art in the great Jewish community.
+Their principal, the alabarch, was talking eagerly with the philosopher
+Hegesias and the Rhodian leech Chrysippus; Queen Arsinoe's favourite,
+whom at Althea's instigation she had sent with Proclus to receive the
+returning traveller.
+
+Sometimes all gazed toward the mouth of the harbour, where the expected
+ship must soon pass the recently completed masterpiece of Sostratus, the
+towering lighthouse, still shining in its marble purity.
+
+Soon many Alexandrians also crowded the large platform in front of the
+Temple of Poseidon, and the very wide marble staircase leading from it
+to the landing place.
+
+Beneath the bronze statues of the Dioscuri, at the right and left of the
+topmost step, had also gathered the magnificent figures of the Phebi and
+the younger men from the wrestling school of Timagetes, with garlands on
+their curling locks, as well as many younger artists and pupils of the
+older masters.
+
+The statues of the gods and goddesses of the sea and their lofty
+pedestals, standing at the sides of the staircase, cast upon the marble
+steps, gleaming in the radiance of the morning sun, narrow shadows,
+which attracted the male and female chorus singers, who, also wearing
+beautiful garlands, had come to greet the expected arrival with solemn
+chants.
+
+Several actors were just coming from rehearsal in the theatre of
+Dionysus, east of the Temple of Poseidon, of which, like all the stages
+in the city, Proclus was chief manager.
+
+A pretty dancing girl, who hung on the arm of the youngest, extended her
+hand with a graceful gesture toward the staircase, and asked:
+
+"Whom can they be expecting there? Probably some huge new animal for the
+Museum which has been caught somewhere for the King, for yonder stiff
+wearer of a laurel crown, who throws his head back as though he would
+like to eat the Olympians and take the King for a luncheon into the
+bargain, is Straton, the denier of the gods, and the little man with the
+bullethead is the grammarian Zoilus."
+
+"Of course," replied her companion. "But there, too, is Apollodorus, the
+alabarch of the Jews, and the heavy money-bag Archias--"
+
+"Why look at them!" cried the younger mime. "It's far better worth
+while to stretch your neck for those farther in front. They are genuine
+friends of the Muses--the poets Theocritus and Zenodotus."
+
+"The great Athene, Apollo, and all his nine Pierides, have sent their
+envoys," said the older actor pathetically, "for there, too, are
+the sculptors Euphranor and Chares, and the godlike builder of the
+lighthouse, Sostratus in person."
+
+"A handsome man," cried the girl flute-player, "but vain, I tell you,
+vain--"
+
+"Self-conscious, you ought to say," corrected her companion.
+
+"Certainly," added the older actor, patting his smooth cheeks and chin
+with a rose he held in his hand. "Who can defend himself against the
+highest merit, self-knowledge? But the person who is to have this
+reception, by the staff of Dionysus! if modesty flies away from him
+like the bird from a girl, it ought Just look there! The tall,
+broad-shouldered fellow yonder is Chrysippus, the right hand of Arsinoe,
+as our grammateus Proclus is her left. So probably some prince is
+expected."
+
+"The gentlemen of the Museum and the great artists yonder would not stir
+a foot, far less lose so precious a morning hour, for any mere wearer of
+a crown or sceptre," protested the other actor; "it must be--"
+
+"That the King or the Queen command it," interrupted the older player.
+"Only Arsinoe is represented here. Or do you see any envoy of Ptolemy?
+Perhaps they will yet arrive. If there were ambassadors of the great
+Roman Senate--"
+
+"Or," added the dancer, "envoys from King Antiochus. But--goose that I
+am!--then they would not be received here, but in the royal harbour at
+the Lochias. See if I don't prove to be right! Divine honours are to be
+paid to some newly attracted hero of the intellect. But--just follow my
+finger! There--yonder--it comes floating along at the left of the
+island of Antirrhodus. That may be his galley! Magnificent! Wonderfully
+beautiful! Brilliant! Like a swan! No, no, like a swimming peacock! And
+the silver embroidery on the blue sails! It glitters and sparkles like
+stars in the azure sky."
+
+Meanwhile the elder actor, shading his eyes with his hand, had been
+gazing at the harbour, where, amid the innumerable vessels, the expected
+one, whose sails were just being reefed, was steered by a skilful
+hand. Now he interrupted the blond beauty with the exclamation: "It is
+Archias's Proserpina! I know it well." Then, in a declamatory tone, he
+continued: "I, too, was permitted on the deck of the glittering vessel,
+lightly rocked by the crimson waves, to reach my welcome goal; as the
+guest of peerless Archias, I mean. The most magnificent festival in
+his villa! There was a little performance there in which Mentor and I
+allowed ourselves to be persuaded to take part. But just see how the
+beautiful ship uses the narrow passage between the two triremes, as
+if it had the bloodleech's power of contraction! But to return to
+the festival of Archias: the oyster ragout served there, the pheasant
+pasties--"
+
+Here he interrupted himself, exclaiming in surprise: "By the club of
+Hercules, the Proserpina is to be received with a full chorus! And there
+is the owner himself descending the stairs! Whom is she bringing?"
+
+"Come! come!" cried the dancing girl to her companion, dragging him
+after her, "I shall die of curiosity."
+
+The singing and shouting of many voices greeted the actors as they
+approached the platform of the Temple of Poseidon.
+
+When from this spot the dancer fixed her eyes upon the landing place,
+she suddenly dropped her companion's arm, exclaiming: "It is the
+handsome blind sculptor, Hermon, the heir of the wealthy Myrtilus. Do
+you learn this now for the first time, you jealous Thersites? Hail,
+hail, divine Hermon! Hail, noble victim of the ungrateful Olympians!
+Hail to thee, Hermon, and thy immortal works! Hail, hail, hail!"
+
+Meanwhile she waved her handkerchief with frenzied eagerness, as if she
+could thus force the blind man to see her, and a group of actors whom
+Proclus, the grammateus of the Dionysian arts, had sent here to receive
+Hermon worthily, followed her example.
+
+But her cries were drowned by the singing of the chorus and by thousands
+of shouting voices, while Hermon was embraced by Archias on board the
+galley, and then, by his guidance, stepped on shore and ascended the
+staircase of the Temple of Poseidon.
+
+Before the ship entered the harbour, the artist had had a large goblet
+of unmixed wine given to him, that he might conquer the emotion that had
+overpowered him.
+
+Though his blind eyes did not show him even the faintest outline of a
+figure, he felt as if he was flooded with brilliant sunshine.
+
+While the Proserpina was bearing him past the lighthouse, Gras told him
+that they had now reached the great harbour, and at the same time he
+heard the shouts, whistles, signals, and varying sounds of the landing
+place with its crowded shipping, and of the capital.
+
+His blood surged in his veins, and before his mind rose the vision of
+the corn-flower blue sky, mirrored in the calm surface of the bluest of
+seas. The pharos built by Sostratus towered in dazzling whiteness above
+the tide, and before him rose the noble temple buildings, palaces, and
+porticoes of the city of Alexandria, with which he was familiar, and
+before and between them statue after statue of marble and bronze, the
+whole flooded with radiant golden light.
+
+True, darkness sometimes swallowed this wonderful picture, but an effort
+of the will was sufficient to show it to him again.
+
+"The Temple of Poseidon!" cried Gras. "The Proserpina is to land at
+the foot of the steps." And now Hermon listened to the sounds from
+the shore, whose hum and buzz transported him into the midst of the
+long-missed city of commerce, knowledge, and arts.
+
+Then the captain's shouts of command fell imperiously upon his ears, the
+strokes of the oars ceased, their blades sank with a loud splash into
+the water, and at the same instant from the temple steps Hermon was
+greeted by the solemn notes of the chorus, from whose rhythm his own
+name rang forth again and again like so many shouts of victory.
+
+He thought his heart would fairly burst through his arched chest,
+and the passionate violence of its throbbing did not lessen when Gras
+exclaimed: "Half Alexandria has assembled to greet you. Ah, if you could
+only see it! How the kerchiefs are waving! Laurel after laurel in every
+hand! All the distinguished people in the capital have gathered on the
+sacred soil of the Temple of Poseidon. There is Archias, too; there are
+the artists and the famous gentlemen of the Museum, the members of the
+Ephebi, and the priests of the great gods."
+
+Hermon listened with his hand pressed on his breast, and while doing
+so the power of his imagination showed the vast, harmoniously noble
+structure of the many-pillared Temple of Poseidon, surrounded by as
+many thousands as there were in reality hundreds. From all parts of the
+sanctuary, even from the tops of the roofs, he beheld laurel branches
+and kerchiefs waving and tossing, and wreaths flung on the ground before
+him. If this picture was correct, the whole city was greeting him,
+headed by the men whom he honoured as great and meritorious, and in
+front of them all Daphne, with drooping head, full of feminine grace and
+heart-winning goodness.
+
+While the chorus continued their song, and the welcoming shouts grew
+louder, the brilliant picture faded away, but in return he felt friendly
+arms clasp him. First Archias, then Proclus, and after him a succession
+of fellow-artists-the greatest of all--drew him into a warm embrace.
+
+Finally he felt himself led away, placed his feet as his Uncle Archias
+whispered directions, and as they gropingly obeyed them ascended the
+temple steps and stood in utter darkness upon the platform listening to
+the speeches which so many had prepared.
+
+All the distinguished men in the city expressed their sympathy, their
+pity, their admiration, their hopes, or sent assurances of them to him.
+The Rhodian Chrysippus, despatched by the Queen, delivered the wreath
+which the monarch bestowed, and informed Hermon, with her greetings,
+that Arsinoe deemed his Demeter worthy of the laurel.
+
+The most famous masters of his art, the great scholars from the Museum,
+the whole priesthood of Demeter, which included Daphne, the servants
+of Apollo, his dear Ephebi, the comrades of his physical exercises--all
+whom he honoured, admired, loved-loaded him with praises and good
+wishes, as well as the assurance of their pride in numbering him among
+them.
+
+No form, no colour from the visible world, penetrated the darkness
+surrounding him, not even the image of the woman he loved. Only his ears
+enabled him to receive the praises, honours, congratulations lavished
+here and, though he sometimes thought he had received enough, he again
+listened willingly and intently when a new speaker addressed him in warm
+words of eulogy. What share compassion for his unprecedentedly sorrowful
+fate had in this extravagantly laudatory and cordial greeting, he did
+not ask; he only felt with a throbbing heart that he now stood upon a
+summit which he had scarcely ventured to hope ever to attain. His dreams
+of outward success which had not been realized, because he deemed it
+treason to his art to deviate from the course which he believed right
+and best adapted to it, he now, without having yielded to the demands of
+the old school, heard praised as his well-earned possessions.
+
+He felt as if he breathed the lighter, purer air of the realms of the
+blessed, and the laurel crown which the Queen's envoy pressed upon his
+brow, the wreaths which his fellow-artists presented to him by hands
+no less distinguished than those of the great sculptor Protogenes, and
+Nicias, the most admired artist after the death of Apelles, seemed,
+like the wings on the hat and shoes of Hermes, messenger of the gods, to
+raise him out of himself and into the air.
+
+Darkness surrounded him, yet a bright dazzling light issued from his
+soul and illuminated his whole being with the warm golden radiance of
+the sun.
+
+Not even the faintest shadow dimmed it until Soteles, his fellow-student
+at Rhodes, who sustained him with ardent earnestness in the struggle to
+prefer truth to beauty, greeted him.
+
+He welcomed him and wished that he might recover his lost sight as
+warmly as his predecessors. He praised the Demeter, too, but added that
+this was not the place to say what he missed in her. Yet that she did
+lack it awakened in him an emotion of pain, for this, Hermon's last
+work, apparently gave the followers of the ancients a right to number
+him in their ranks.
+
+His cautious expression of regret must refer to the head of his Demeter.
+Yet surely it was not his fault that Daphne's features bore the impress
+of that gentle, winning kindness which he himself and Soteles, imitating
+him, had often condemned as weak and characterless.
+
+The correctness of his belief was instantly proved to him by the address
+of gray-haired, highly praised Euphranor, who spoke of the Demeter's
+countenance with warm admiration. And how ardently the poets Theocritus
+and Zenodotus extolled his work to the skies!
+
+Amid so much laudation, one faint word of dissatisfaction vanished like
+a drop of blood that falls into a clear stream.
+
+The welcome concluded with a final chant by the chorus, and continued to
+echo in Hermon's ears as he entered his uncle's chariot and drove away
+with him, crowned with laurel and intoxicated as if by fiery wine.
+
+Oh, if he could only have seen his fellow-citizens who so eagerly
+expressed their good will, their sympathy, their admiration! But the
+black and coloured mist before his eyes revealed no human figure, not
+even that of the woman he loved, who, he now learned for the first time
+from her father, had appeared among the priestesses of Demeter to greet
+him.
+
+Doubtless he was gladdened by the sound of her voice, the clasp of her
+hand, the faint fragrance of violets exhaling from her fair hair, which
+he had often remembered with so much pleasure when alone in Tennis; but
+the time to devote himself to her fully and completely had not yet come,
+for what manifold and powerful impressions, how much that was elevating,
+delightful, and entertaining awaited him immediately!
+
+The Queen's envoy had expressed his mistress's desire to receive the
+creator of the Demeter, the Ephebi and his fellow-artists had invited
+him to a festival which they desired to give in his honour, and on
+the way Archias informed him that many of his wealthy friends in the
+Macedonian Council expected that he, the honoured hero of the day, would
+adorn with his presence a banquet in their houses.
+
+What a rich, brilliant life awaited him in spite of his blindness!
+When he entered his uncle's magnificent city home, and not only all the
+servants and clients of the family, but also a select party of ladies
+and gentlemen greeted him with flowers and hundreds of other tokens of
+affection and appreciation, he gave himself up without reserve to this
+novel excess of fame and admiration.
+
+Notwithstanding his blindness, he felt, after the burns on his face had
+healed, thoroughly well, as strong as a giant--nay, more vigorous and
+capable of enjoyment than ever. What prevented him from revelling to
+the full in the superabundant gifts which Fate, recently so cruel, now
+suddenly cast into his lap with lavish kindness?
+
+Yet many flattering and pleasant things as he had experienced that day,
+he was far from feeling satiety. On entering the hall of the men in his
+uncle's dwelling, the names of famous men and proud beauties had been
+repeated to him. Formerly they had taken little notice of him, yet now
+even the most renowned received him like an Olympian victor.
+
+What did all these vain women really care for him? Yet their favour was
+part of the triumph whose celebration he must permit to-day. His heart
+held but one being for whom it yearned, and with whom thus far he had
+been able only to exchange a few tender greetings.
+
+The time for a long conversation had not yet arrived, but he asked
+Thyone to lead him to her and, while she listened anxiously, described
+with feverish animation the incidents of the last few days. But he soon
+lowered his voice to assure her that he had not ceased to think of her
+even for a single hour, and the feeling of happiness which, in spite of
+his misfortune, had filled and lent wings to his soul, was not least due
+to the knowledge of being near her again.
+
+And her presence really benefited him almost as much as he had
+anticipated during the hours of solitary yearning in Tennis; he felt it
+a great favour of Fate to be permitted to strive to possess her, felt
+even during the delirium of this reception that he loved her. What a
+tremendous longing to clasp her at once in his arms as his betrothed
+bride overwhelmed him; but her father's opposition to the union of
+his only child with a blind man must first be conquered, and the great
+agitation in his soul, as well as the tumult around him, seemed like a
+mockery of the quiet happiness which hovered before him when he thought
+of his marriage with Daphne. Not until everything was calmer would the
+time come to woo her. Until then both must be satisfied with knowing
+from each other's lips their mutual love, and he thought he perceived in
+the tone of her voice the deep emotion of her heart.
+
+Perhaps this had prevented Daphne's expressing her congratulations upon
+the success of his Demeter as eagerly and fully as he had expected.
+Painfully disturbed by her reserve, he had just attempted to induce her
+to give a less superficial opinion of his work, when the curtains of
+the dining room parted-the music of flutes, singing, and pleasant odours
+greeted him and the guests. Archias summoned them to breakfast, and a
+band of beautiful boys, with flowers and garlands of ivy, obeyed the
+command to crown them.
+
+Then Thyone approached the newly united pair and, after exchanging a few
+words with Daphne, whispered in an agitated voice to the blind sculptor,
+over whose breast a brown-locked young slave was just twining a garland
+of roses: "Poverty no longer stands between you and the object of your
+love; is it Nemesis who even now still seals your lips?"
+
+Hermon stretched out his hand to draw her nearer to him and murmur
+softly that her counsel had aided him to break the power of the terrible
+goddess, but he grasped the empty air. At the same time the deep voice
+of his love's father, whose opposition threatened to cloud his new
+happiness, singing, flute-playing, and the laughter of fair women
+greeted him and, only half master of his own will, he assented, by a
+slight bend of the head, to the matron's question. A light shiver ran
+through his frame with the speed of lightning, and the Epicurean's maxim
+that fear and cold are companions darted through his brain. But what
+should he fear? He had endured severe trials, it is true, for the sake
+of remaining faithful to truth in art and life; but who probably ever
+reached the age of manhood without once deviating from it? Besides, he
+was surely aware that, had he been obliged to answer Thyone in words, he
+would not have been guilty of the falsehood. His reply had consisted
+of a slight motion of the head, and it negatived nothing; it was merely
+intended to defer for a short time the thing he most desired.
+
+Yet the rash answer weighed heavily on his mind; but it could no longer
+be recalled that day, and was believed, for Thyone whispered, "We shall
+succeed in reconciling the terrible being."
+
+Again the light tremour ran through him, but it lasted only an instant;
+for Chrysilla, the representative of the dead mistress of the house,
+whose duty it was to assign the guests their places, called to Hermon,
+"The beautiful Glycera does you the honour of choosing you for a
+neighbour" and, before the sentence was finished, Archias himself seized
+his arm and led him to the cushions at the side of the much-courted
+beauty.
+
+The guests began the banquet in a very joyous mood.
+
+Greek gaiety, and the quick intellect and keen wit of the Alexandrians,
+combined with the choicest viands of the luxurious capital, where the
+wines and dainties of all the countries of the Mediterranean found
+sellers and buyers, and the cook's vocation was developed into a fine
+art, to spice this banquet with a hundred charms for the mind and
+senses. To-day the principal place in this distinguished circle of
+famous men, great and wealthy nobles, beautiful and aristocratic women,
+was awarded to the blind sculptor. He was pledged by every one who had
+admired his Demeter, who compassionated his sad fate, or who desired to
+be agreeable to him or his host.
+
+Every kind remark about his person, his blindness, and his masterpiece
+was repeated to him and, after the wine and the effort to attract
+Daphne's attention and shine in the presence of his beautiful neighbour
+had heated and winged his thoughts, he found an apt reply to each
+noteworthy word.
+
+When the dessert was finally eaten, and after sunset, in the brilliant
+light of the lamps and candles, greater attention was paid to the mixing
+vessels, all remained silent to listen to his fervid speech.
+
+Glycera had asked him, at the beginning of the banquet, to tell her
+about the attack in Tennis. Now he yielded to her wish that he should
+repeat the captivating tale to the others, and the spirits of the wine
+helped him to perform the task with such animation that his hearers
+listened to his description in breathless suspense, and many eyes rested
+on the handsome face of the great blind artist as if spellbound.
+
+When he paused, loud applause rewarded him, and as it reached him from
+every part of the spacious room, his deep, resonant voice put him in
+communication even with the more distant guests, and he might have been
+taken for the symposiarch or director of the banquet.
+
+This conspicuous position of the feted artist did not please every
+one, and a rhetorician, famed for his sharp tongue, whispered to his
+neighbour, one of Hermon's older fellow-artists, "What his eyes have
+lost seems to benefit his tongue." The sculptor answered: "At any rate,
+the impetuous young artist might succeed better in proving himself,
+by its assistance, a good entertainer, than in creating more mediocre
+masterpieces like the Demeter."
+
+Similar remarks were made on other cushions; but when the philosopher
+Hegesias asked the famous sculptor Euphranor what he thought of Hermon's
+Demeter, the kindly old man answered, "I should laud this noble work
+as a memorable event, even if it did not mark the end, as well as the
+beginning, of its highly gifted creator's new career."
+
+Nothing of this kind was uttered near Hermon. Everything that reached
+him expressed delight, admiration, sympathy, and hope. At dessert the
+beautiful Glycera divided her apple, whispering as she gave him one
+half, "Let the fruit tell you what the eyes can no longer reveal, you
+poor and yet so abundantly rich darling of the gods."
+
+He murmured in reply that his happiness would awake the envy of the
+immortals if, in addition, he were permitted to feast upon the sight of
+her beauty.
+
+Had he been able to see himself, Hermon, who, as a genuine Greek, was
+accustomed to moderate his feelings in intercourse with others, would
+have endeavoured to express the emotions of joy which filled his heart
+with more reserve, and to excel his companions at the festival less
+recklessly.
+
+His enthusiastic delight carried many away with him; others, especially
+Daphne, were filled with anxious forebodings by his conduct, and others
+still with grave displeasure.
+
+Among the latter was the famous leech Erasistratus, who shared Archias's
+cushions, and had been solicited by the latter to try to restore his
+blind nephew's sight. But the kindly physician, who gladly aided even
+the poorest sufferer, curtly and positively refused. To devote his time
+and skill to a blind man who, under the severest of visitations, lulled
+himself so contentedly in happiness, he considered unjust to others who
+desired recovery more ardently.
+
+"When the intoxication of this unbridled strength passes away, and is
+followed by a different mood," remarked the merchant, "we will talk of
+this matter again," and the confident tone of his deep voice gave the
+simple sentence such significance that the learned leech held out his
+hand, saying: "Only where deep, earnest longing for recovery fills the
+sufferer's mind will the gods aid the physician. We will wait for the
+change which you predict, Archias!"
+
+The guests did not disperse until late, and the best satisfied of
+all was the grammateus Proclus, who had taken advantage of the rich
+merchant's happy mood, and his own warm intercession in behalf of his
+nephew's work, to persuade Archias to advance Queen Arsinoe a large sum
+of money for an enterprise whose object he still carefully concealed.
+
+The highly honoured blind artist spent the night under his uncle's roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Hermon rose from his couch the next morning alert and ready for new
+pleasures.
+
+He had scarcely left the bath when envoys from the Ephebi and the
+younger artists invited him to the festivities which they had arranged
+in his honour. He joyously accepted, and also promised messengers from
+many of Archias's friends, who wished to have the famous blind sculptor
+among their guests, to be present at their banquets.
+
+He still felt as if he were intoxicated, and found neither disposition
+nor time for quiet reflection. His great strength, fettered as it were
+by his loss of sight, now also began to stir. Fate itself withheld him
+from the labour which he loved, yet in return it offered him a wealth of
+varying pleasure, whose stimulating power he had learned the day before.
+He still relished the draught from the beaker of homage proffered by his
+fellow-citizens; nay, it seemed as if it could not lose its sweetness
+for a long time.
+
+He joined the ladies before noon, and his newly awakened feeling of joy
+beamed upon them scarcely less radiantly than yesterday. Though Thyone
+might wonder that a man pursued by Nemesis could allow himself to be
+borne along so thoughtlessly by the stream of pleasure, Daphne certainly
+did not grudge him the festal season which, when it had passed, could
+never return to the blind artist. When it was over, he would yearn for
+the quiet happiness at her side, which gazed at him like the calm eyes
+of the woman he loved. With her he would cast anchor for the remainder
+of his life; but first must come the period when he enjoyed the
+compensation now awarded to him for such severe sufferings.
+
+His heart was full of joy as he greeted Daphne and the Lady Thyone, whom
+he found with her; but his warm description of the happy emotion which
+had overpowered him at the abundant honours lavished upon him was
+interrupted by Archias.
+
+In his usual quick, brisk manner, he asked whether Hermon wished to
+occupy the beautiful villa with the magnificent garden on Lake Mareotis,
+inherited from Myrtilus, which could scarcely be reached in a vehicle
+from the Brucheium in less than an hour, or the house situated in the
+centre of the city, and Hermon promptly decided in favour of the latter.
+
+His uncle, and probably the ladies also, had expected the contrary.
+Their silence showed this plainly enough, and Hermon therefore added
+in a tone of explanation that later the villa would perhaps suit his
+condition better, but now he thought it would be a mistake to retire
+to the quiet which half the city was conspiring to disturb. No one
+contradicted him, and he left the women's apartment with a slight
+feeling of vexation, which, however, was soon jested away by the gay
+friends who sought him.
+
+When he removed to the city house the next day, he had not yet found
+time for a serious talk with Daphne. His uncle, who had managed
+the estate of Myrtilus, and wished to give Hermon an account of his
+inheritance, was refused by the blind artist, who assured him that he
+knew Archias had greatly increased rather than diminished his property,
+and thanked him sincerely and warmly. In the convenient and spacious
+city house the young sculptor very soon thought he had good reason to be
+satisfied with his choice.
+
+Most of his friends were busy artists, and what loss of time every visit
+to the remote villa would have imposed upon them, what haste he himself
+would have been obliged to use to reach home from the bath, where he
+often spent many hours, from the wrestling school, from the meetings of
+fashionable people in the Paneum gardens, and at sunset by the seashore
+on the royal highway in the Brucheium. All these places were very far
+from the villa. It would have required whole hours, too, to reach a
+famous cookshop in the Canopus, at whose table he liked to assemble
+beloved guests or revel with his friends. The theatre, the Odeum, most
+of the public buildings, as well as the houses of his best friends,
+and especially the beautiful Glycera, were easily reached from his city
+home, and, among the temples, that of Demeter, which he often visited to
+pray, offer sacrifices, and rejoice in the power of attraction which his
+statue of the goddess exerted upon the multitude. It stood at the back
+of the cella in a place accessible to the priesthood alone, visible
+only through the open doors, upon a pedestal which his fellow-artists
+pronounced rather too high. Yet his offer to have it made smaller was
+not accepted, because had it been lower the devout supplicants who stood
+there to pray could not have raised their eyes to it.
+
+It was not only at the festivals of the dead that he went to the Greek
+cemetery, where he had had a magnificent monument erected for his dead
+mother. If his head ached after a nocturnal carouse, or the disagreeable
+alarming chill stole over him which he had felt for the first time when
+he falsely answered Thyone that he was still under the ban of Nemesis,
+he went to the family monuments, supplied them with gifts, had
+sacrifices offered to the souls of the beloved dead, and in this way
+sometimes regained a portion of his lost peace of mind.
+
+The banquet in the evening always dispelled whatever still oppressed
+him on his return home from these visits, for, though months had elapsed
+since his brilliant reception, he was still numbered, especially in
+artist circles, with the most honoured men; he, the blind man, no longer
+stood in any one's way; conversation gained energy and meaning through
+the vivacity of his fervid intellect, which seemed actually deepened by
+his blindness when questions concerning art were at issue, and from a
+modest fellow-struggler he had become a patron bestowing orders.
+
+The sculptor Soteles, who had followed his footsteps since the
+apprenticeship in Rhodes, was intrusted with the erection of the
+monument to Myrtilus in Tennis, and another highly gifted young
+sculptor, who pursued his former course, with the execution of the one
+to his mother.
+
+From a third he ordered a large new mixing vessel of chased silver for
+the society of Ephebi, whose members had lauded him, at the magnificent
+festival given in his honour, with genuine youthful fervour.
+
+In the designs for these works his rich and bold gift of invention and
+the power of his imagination proved their full value, and even his older
+fellow-artists followed him with sincere admiration when, in spite of
+his darkened eyes, he brought before them distinctly, and often even
+with the charcoal or wax tablet in his hand, what he had in mind. What
+magnificent things might not this man have created had he retained his
+sight, what masterpieces might not have been expected! and his former
+works, which had been condemned as unlovely, offensive, and exaggerated,
+were now loudly admired; nay, the furious Maenads struggling on
+the ground and the Street Boy Eating Figs, which were no longer his
+property, were sold at high prices. No meeting of artists was complete
+without Hermon, and the great self-possession which success and wealth
+bestowed, besides his remarkable talent and the energy peculiar to him,
+soon aided him to great influence among the members of his profession;
+nay, he would speedily have reached the head of their leaders had not
+the passionate impetuosity of his warlike nature led the more cautious
+to seek to restrain the powerful enthusiast.
+
+Archias's wealthy friends had no such apprehension. To them the lauded
+blind artist was not much more than a costly dish certain to please
+their guests; yet this, too, was no trifle in social circles which spent
+small fortunes for a rare fish.
+
+At the banquets of these princes of commerce he often met Daphne, still
+more frequently the beautiful Glycera, whose husband, an old ship-owner
+of regal wealth, was pleased to see famous men harnessed to his young
+wife's chariot of victory. Hermon's heart had little to do with the
+flirtation to which Glycera encouraged him at every new meeting, and the
+Thracian Althea only served to train his intellect to sharp debates. But
+in this manner he so admirably fulfilled her desire to attract attention
+that she more than once pointed out to the Queen, her relative, the
+remarkably handsome blind man whose acquaintance she had made on a night
+of mad revel during the last Dionysia but one. Althea even thought
+it necessary to win him, in whom she saw the future son-in-law of the
+wealthy Archias, for through the graminateus Proclus the merchant had
+been persuaded to advance the King's wife hundreds of talents, and
+Arsinoe cherished plans which threatened to consume other large sums.
+
+Thyrone watched Hermon's conduct with increasing indignation, while
+Daphne perceived that these women had no more power to estrange her
+lover from her than the bedizened beauties who were never absent from
+the artists' festivals. How totally different was his intercourse
+with her! His love and respect were hers alone; yet she saw in him a
+soul-sick man, and persistently rejected Philotas, who wooed her with
+the same zeal as before, and the other suitors who were striving to win
+the wealthy heiress. She had confessed her feelings to her father, her
+best friend, and persuaded him to have patience a little longer, and
+wait for the change which he himself expected in his nephew.
+
+This had not been difficult, for Archias loved Hermon, in spite of the
+many anxieties he had caused him, as if he were his own son and, knowing
+his daughter, he was aware that she could be happy with the man who
+possessed her heart though he was deprived of sight.
+
+The fame which Hermon had won by great genius and ability had gratified
+him more than he expressed, and he could not contradict Daphne when
+she asserted that, in spite of the aimless life of pleasure to which
+he devoted himself, he had remained the kind-hearted, noble man he had
+always been.
+
+In fact, he used, unasked and secretly, a considerable portion of
+his large revenues to relieve the distress of the poor and suffering.
+Archias learned this as the steward of his nephew's property, and when
+to do good he made new demands upon him, he gladly fulfilled them;
+only he constantly admonished the blind man to think of his own severe
+sufferings and his cure. Daphne did the same, and he willingly obeyed
+her advice; for, loudly and recklessly as he pursued pleasure in social
+circles, he showed himself tenderly devoted to her when he found her
+alone in her father's house. Then, as in better days, he opened his
+heart to her naturally and modestly and, though he refrained from vows
+of love, he showed her that he did not cease to seek with her, and her
+alone, what his noisy pleasures denied. Then he also found the old tone
+of affection, and of late he came more frequently, and what he confided
+to no one else implied to her, at least by hints.
+
+Satiety and dissatisfaction were beginning to appear, and what he had
+attempted to do for the cure of his eyes had hitherto been futile. The
+remedies of the oculists to whom he had been directed by Daphne herself
+had proved ineffectual. The great physician Erasistratus, from whom he
+first sought help, had refrained, at her entreaty and her father's, from
+refusing to aid him, but indignantly sent him away when he persisted in
+the declaration that it would be impossible for him to remain for months
+secluded from all society and subsist for weeks on scanty fare.
+
+He would submit even to that, he assured Daphne, after she represented
+to him what he was losing by such lack of resignation, when the time
+of rest had come for which he longed, but from which many things still
+withheld him. Yesterday the King had invited him to the palace for the
+first time, and to decline such an honour was impossible.
+
+In fact, he had long wished for this summons, because he had been
+informed that no representative of the sovereign had been present at
+his reception. Only his wife Arsinoe had honoured him by a wreath and
+congratulations. This lack of interest on the part of the King had
+wounded him, and the absence of an invitation from the royal connoisseur
+had cast a shadow into the midst of many a mirthful hour. He had
+doubtless been aware what great and important affairs of state were
+claiming the conscientious sovereign just at this time, and how almost
+unbearable his restless, unloving spouse was rendering his domestic
+life; yet Hermon thought Ptolemy might have spared a short time for
+an event in the art life of the city, as his Demeter had been called
+hundreds of times.
+
+Now the long-desired command to appear before the sovereign had finally
+reached him, and, in the secure belief that it would bring fresh
+recognition and rare honours, he entered the royal palace.
+
+Proclus, who neglected no opportunity of serving the nephew of the rich
+man whose aid he constantly required for the Queen's finances, was his
+guide, and described the decoration of the inner apartments of the royal
+residence. Their unostentatious simplicity showed the refined taste of
+their royal occupant. There was no lack of marble and other rare kinds
+of stone, and the numerous bas-reliefs which covered the walls like the
+most superb tapestry were worthy of special attention. In the oblong
+apartment through which the blind man was guided these marble pictures
+represented in magnificent work scenes from the campaigns in which
+Ptolemy, the King's father, had participated as Alexander's general.
+Others showed Athene, Apollo, the Muses, and Hermes, surrounding or
+hastening toward the throne of the same monarch, and others again Greek
+poets and philosophers. Magnificent coloured mosaic pictures covered the
+floor and many flat spaces above door and windows, but gold and silver
+had been sparingly used.
+
+Masterpieces of painting and sculpture were the ornaments of the room.
+In the antechamber, where Hermon waited for the King, Proclus mentioned
+one of the finest statues of Alexander by Lysippus, and an exquisite
+Eros by Praxiteles.
+
+The period of waiting, however, became so long to the spoiled artist
+that he anticipated the monarch's appearance with painful discomfort,
+and the result of the few minutes which Ptolemy II devoted to his
+reception was far behind the hopes he had fixed upon them.
+
+In former days he had often seen the narrow-shouldered man of barely
+medium height who, to secure his own safety, had had two brothers killed
+and sent another into exile, but now ruled Egypt shrewdly and prudently,
+and developed the prosperity of Alexandria with equal energy and
+foresight.
+
+Now, for the first time, Hermon heard him speak. He could not deny that
+his voice was unusually pleasant in tone, yet it unmistakably issued
+from the lips of a sufferer.
+
+The brief questions with which he received the blind artist were kindly,
+and as natural as though addressing an equal, and every remark made
+in connection with Hermon's answers revealed a very quick and keen
+intellect.
+
+He had seen the Demeter, and praised the conception of the goddess
+because it corresponded with her nature. The sanctity which, as it were,
+pervaded the figure of the divine woman pleased him, because it made the
+supplicants in the temple feel that they were in the presence of a being
+who was elevated far above them in superhuman majesty.
+
+"True," he added, "your Demeter is by no means a powerful helper in
+time of need. She is a goddess such as Epicurus imagines the immortals.
+Without interfering with human destiny, she stands above it in sublime
+grandeur and typical dignity. You belong, if I see correctly, to the
+Epicureans?"
+
+"No," replied Hermon. "Like my lord and King, I, too, number myself
+among the pupils of the wise Straton."
+
+"Indeed?" asked Ptolemy in a drawling tone, at the same time casting
+a glance of astonishment at the blind man's powerful figure and
+well-formed, intellectual face. Then he went on eagerly: "I shall
+scarcely be wrong in the inference that you, the creator of the
+Fig-eater, had experienced a far-reaching mental change before your
+unfortunate loss of sight?"
+
+"I had to struggle hard," replied Hermon, "but I probably owe the
+success of the Demeter to the circumstance that I found a model whose
+mind and nature correspond with those of the goddess to a rare degree."
+
+The monarch shook his fair head, and protested in a tone of positive
+superior knowledge: "As to the model, however well selected it may be,
+it was not well chosen for this work, far less for you. I have watched
+your battle against beauty in behalf of truth, and rejoiced, though I
+often saw you and your little band of young disciples shoot beyond the
+mark. You brought something new, whose foundation seemed to me sound,
+and on which further additions might be erected. When the excrescences
+fell off, I thought, this Hermon, his shadow Soteles, and the others
+who follow him will perhaps open new paths to the declining art which is
+constantly going back to former days. Our time will become the point of
+departure of a new art. But for that very reason, let me confess it, I
+regret to see you fall back from your bold advance. You now claim for
+your work that it cleaves strictly to Nature, because the model is taken
+from life itself. It does not become me to doubt this, yet the stamp
+of divinity which your Demeter bears is found in no mortal woman.
+Understand me correctly! This is certainly no departure from the truth,
+for the ideal often deserves this lofty name better than anything the
+visible world offers to the eye; but hitherto you have done honour to
+another truth. If I comprehend your art aright, its essence is opposed
+to the addition of superhuman dignity and beauty, with which you, or the
+model you used, strove to ennoble and deify your Demeter. Admirably
+as you succeeded in doing so, it forces your work out of the sphere of
+reality, whose boundary I never before saw you cross by a single inch.
+Whether this occurred unconsciously to you in an hour of mental ecstasy,
+or whether you felt that you still lacked the means to represent the
+divine, and therefore returned to the older methods, I do not venture to
+decide. But at the first examination of your work I was conscious of
+one thing: It means for you a revolution, a rupture with your former
+aspirations; and as--I willingly confess it--you had been marvellously
+successful, it would have driven you, had your sight been spared, out
+of your own course and into the arms of the ancients, perhaps to your
+material profit, but scarcely to the advantage of art, which needs a
+renewal of its vital energies."
+
+"Let me assure you, my lord," Hermon protested, "that had I remained
+able to continue to create, the success of the Demeter would never,
+never have rendered me faithless to the conviction and method of
+creation which I believed right; nay, before losing my sight, my whole
+soul was absorbed in a new work which would have permitted me to remain
+wholly and completely within the bounds of reality."
+
+"The Arachne?" asked the King.
+
+"Yes, my lord," cried Hermon ardently. "With its completion I expected
+to render the greatest service, not only to myself, but to the cause of
+truth."
+
+Here Ptolemy interrupted with icy coldness: "Yet you were certainly
+wrong; at least, if the Thracian Althea, who is the personification of
+falsehood, had continued to be the model." Then he changed his tone, and
+with the exclamation: "You are protected from the needs of life, unless
+your rich uncle throws his property into the most insatiable of gulfs.
+May Straton's philosophy help you better to sustain your courage in the
+darkness which surrounds you than it has aided me to bear other trials!"
+he left the room.
+
+Thus ended the artist's conversation with the King, from which Hermon
+had expected such great results and, deeply agitated, he ordered the
+driver of his horses to take him to Daphne. She was the only person to
+whom he could confide what disappointment this interview had caused him.
+
+Others had previously reproached him, as the King had just done, with
+having, in the Demeter, become faithless to his artistic past. How false
+and foolish this was! Many a remark from the critics would have been
+better suited to Myrtilus's work than to his. Yet his fear in Tennis had
+not been true. Only Daphne's sweet face did not suit his more vigorous
+method of emphasizing distinctions.
+
+What a many-hued chameleon was the verdict upon works of plastic art!
+Once--on his return to the capital--thousands had united in the same
+one, and now how widely they differed again!
+
+His earlier works, which were now lauded to the skies, had formerly
+invited censure and vehement attacks.
+
+What would he not have given for the possibility of seeing his admired
+work once more!
+
+As his way led past the Temple of Demeter, he stopped near it and was
+guided to the sanctuary.
+
+It was filled with worshippers, and when, in his resolute manner, he
+told the curator and the officiating priest that he wished to enter
+the cella, and asked for a ladder to feel the goddess, he was most
+positively refused.
+
+What he requested seemed a profanation of the sacred image, and it would
+not do to disturb the devout throng. His desire to lower the pedestal
+could not be gratified.
+
+The high priest who came forward upheld his subordinates and, after a
+short dispute, Hermon left the sanctuary with his wish unfulfilled.
+
+Never had he so keenly lamented his lost vision as during the remainder
+of the drive, and when Daphne received him he described with passionate
+lamentation how terribly blindness embittered his life, and declared
+himself ready to submit to the severest suffering to regain his sight.
+
+She earnestly entreated him to apply to the great physician Erasistratus
+again, and Hermon willingly consented. He had promised to attend a
+banquet given that day by the wealthy ship-owner Archon. The feast
+lasted until early morning, but toward noon Hermon again appeared in his
+uncle's house, and met Daphne full of joyous confidence, as if he were
+completely transformed.
+
+While at Archon's table he had determined to place his cure in the hands
+of higher powers. This was the will of Fate; for the guest whose cushion
+he shared was Silanus, the host's son, and the first thing he learned
+from him was the news that he was going the next day, with several
+friends, to the oracle of Amon in the Libyan Desert, to ask it what
+should be done for his mother, who had been for several years an invalid
+whom no physician could help. He had heard from many quarters that the
+counsel of the god, who had greeted Alexander the Great as his son, was
+infallible.
+
+Then Hermon had been most urgently pressed by the young man to accompany
+him. Every comfort would be provided. One of his father's fine ships
+would convey them to Paraetonium, where tents, saddle horses, and guides
+for the short land journey would be ready.
+
+So he had promised to go with Silanus, and his decision was warmly
+approved by his uncle, Daphne, and the gray-haired Pelusinian couple.
+Perhaps the god would show the blind man the right path to recovery. He
+would always be able to call the skill of the Alexandrian leeches to his
+aid.
+
+Soon after Hermon went on board Archon's splendidly equipped vessel
+and, instead of a tiresome journey, began a new and riotous period of
+festivity.
+
+Lavish provision had been made for gay companions of both sexes, merry
+entertainment by means of dancing, music, and song, well filled dishes
+and mixing vessels, and life during the ride through the coast and
+desert regions was not less jovial and luxurious than on the ship.
+
+It seemed to the blind man like one vast banquet in the dark,
+interrupted only by sleep.
+
+The hope of counsel from the gods cheered the depressed mood which had
+weighed upon him for several weeks, and rich young Silanus praised the
+lucky fate which had enabled him to find a travelling companion whose
+intellect and wit charmed him and the others, and often detained them
+over the wine until late into the night.
+
+Here, too, Hermon felt himself the most distinguished person, the
+animating and attracting power, until it was said that the voyage was
+over, and the company pitched their tents in the famous oasis near the
+Temple of Amon.
+
+The musicians and dancers, with due regard to propriety, had been left
+behind in the seaport of Paraetonium. Yet the young travellers were
+sufficiently gay while Silanus and Hermon waited for admission to the
+place of the oracle. A week after their arrival it was opened to them,
+yet the words repeated to them by the priest satisfied neither Hermon
+nor Archon's son, for the oracle advised the latter to bring his mother
+herself to the oasis by the land road if she earnestly desired recovery,
+while to Hermon was shouted the ambiguous saying:
+
+  "Only night and darkness spring from the rank marsh of pleasure;
+   Morning and day rise brightly from the starving sand."
+
+Could Silanus's mother, who was unable to move, endure the desert
+journey? And what was the meaning of the sand, from which morning and
+day--which was probably the fresh enjoyment of the light--were to rise
+for Hermon? The sentence of the oracle weighed heavily upon him, as
+well as on Archon's son, who loved his mother, and the homeward journey
+became to the blind man by no means a cheerful but rather a very
+troubled dream.
+
+Thoughtful, very disturbed, dissatisfied with himself, and resolved to
+turn his back upon the dreary life of pleasure which for so long a time
+had allowed him no rest, and now disgusted him, he kept aloof from his
+travelling companions, and rejoiced when, at Alexandria, he was led
+ashore in the harbour of Eunostus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Hermon entered his house with drooping head.
+
+Here he was informed that the grammateus of the Dionysian artists had
+already called twice to speak to him concerning an important matter.
+When he came from the bath, Proclus visited him again. His errand was
+to invite him to a banquet which was to take place that evening at his
+residence in a wing of the royal palace.
+
+But Hermon was not in the mood to share a joyous revel, and he frankly
+said so, although immediately after his return he had accepted the
+invitation to the festival which the whole fellowship of artists would
+give the following day in honour of the seventieth birthday of the old
+sculptor Euphranor. The grammateus alluded to this, and most positively
+insisted that he could not release him; for he came not only by his own
+wish, but in obedience to the command of Queen Arsinoe, who desired to
+tell the creator of the Demeter how highly she esteemed his work and his
+art. She would appear herself at dessert, and the banquet must therefore
+begin at an unusually early hour. He, Proclus, was to have the high
+honour of including the royal lady among his guests solely on Hermon's
+account, and his refusal would be an insult to the Queen.
+
+So the artist found himself obliged to relinquish his opposition. He did
+this reluctantly; but the Queen's attention to him and his art flattered
+his vanity and, if he was to abandon the intoxicating and barren life
+of pleasure, it could scarcely be done more worthily than at a festival
+where the King's consort intended to distinguish him in person.
+
+The banquet was to begin in a few hours, yet he could not let the day
+pass without seeing Daphne and telling her the words of the oracle. He
+longed, with ardent yearning, for the sound of her voice, and still more
+to unburden his sorely troubled soul to her.
+
+Oh, if only his Myrtilus still walked among the living! How totally
+different, in spite of his lost vision, would his life have been!
+
+Daphne was now the only one whom he could put in his place.
+
+Since his return from the oracle, the fear that the rescued Demeter
+might yet be the work of Myrtilus had again mastered him. However loudly
+outward circumstances might oppose this, he now felt, with a certainty
+which surprised him, that this work was not his own. The approval, as
+well as the doubts, which it aroused in others strengthened his opinion,
+although even now he could not succeed in bringing it into harmony with
+the facts. How deep had been the intoxication in which he had so long
+reeled from one day to the next, since it had succeeded in keeping every
+doubt of the authorship of this work far from him!
+
+Now he must obtain certainty, and Daphne could help him to it; for, as
+a priestess of Demeter, she possessed the right to procure him access
+to the cella and get permission for him to climb the lofty pedestal and
+feel the statue with his fingers, whose sense of touch had become much
+keener.
+
+He would frankly inform her of his fear, and her truthful nature would
+find the doubt that gnawed his heart as unendurable as he himself.
+
+It would have been a grave crime to woo her before he was relieved of
+this uncertainty, and he would utter the decisive words that very day,
+and ask her whether her love was great enough to share the joys and
+sorrows of life with him, the blind man, who perhaps must also divest
+himself of a false fame.
+
+Time pressed.
+
+He called at Archias's house with a wreath on his head and in festal
+robes; but Daphne was in the temple, whither old Philippus and Thyone
+had gone, and his uncle was attending a late session of the Council.
+
+He would have liked to follow Daphne to the sanctuary, but the late
+hour forbade it, and he therefore only charged Gras to tell his young
+mistress that he was going to Proclus's banquet, and would return early
+the next morning to discuss a most important subject with her.
+
+Then he went directly to the neighbouring palace. The Queen might have
+appeared already, and it would not do to keep her waiting.
+
+He was aware that she lived at variance with her husband, but how
+could he have suspected that she cherished the more than bold design
+of hurling the sovereign from his throne and seizing the Egyptian crown
+herself.
+
+Proclus and Althea were among the conspirators who supported Arsinoe,
+and the Queen thought it would be an easy matter to win over to her
+cause and herself the handsome sculptor, whom she remembered at the last
+Dionysia.
+
+The wealthy blind artist, so highly esteemed among the members of his
+profession, might become valuable to the conspiracy, for she knew what
+enthusiastic devotion the Alexandrian artists felt for the King, and
+everything depended upon forming a party in her own favour among them.
+This task was to fall to Hermon, and also another, still more important
+one; for he, his nephew and future son-in-law, if any one, could
+persuade the wealthy Archias to lend the plot his valuable aid. Hitherto
+the merchant had been induced, it is true, to advance large sums of
+money to the Queen, but the loyal devotion which he showed to her
+royal husband had rendered it impossible to give him even a hint of the
+conspiracy. Althea, however, declared that the blind man's marriage to
+Daphne was only a question of time, and Proclus added that the easily
+excited nephew would show himself more pliant than the uncle if Arsinoe
+exerted upon him the irresistible charm of her personality.
+
+When Hermon entered the residence of the grammateus in the palace, the
+guests had already assembled. The Queen was not to appear until after
+the feast, when the mixing jars were filled. The place by Hermon's side,
+which Althea had chosen for herself, would then be given up to Arsinoe.
+
+The sovereign was as unaccustomed to the society of a blind artist
+as Hermon was to that of a queen, and both eagerly anticipated the
+approaching meeting.
+
+Yet it was difficult for Hermon to turn a bright face toward his
+companion. The sources of anxiety and grief which had previously
+burdened his mind would not vanish, even under the roof of the royal
+palace.
+
+Althea's presence reminded him of Tennis, Ledscha, and Nemesis, who for
+so long a time seemed to have suspended her persecution, but since he
+had returned from the abode of the oracle was again asserting the old
+right to him. During many a sleepless hour of the night he had once more
+heard the rolling of her terrible wheel.
+
+Even before the journey to the oasis of Amon, everything life could
+offer him, the idle rake, in his perpetual darkness, had seemed shallow
+and scarcely worth stretching out his hand for it.
+
+True, an interesting conversation still had power to charm him, but
+often during its continuance the full consciousness of his misfortune
+forced itself upon his mind; for the majority of the subjects discussed
+by the artists came to them through the medium of sight, and referred
+to new creations of architecture, sculpture, and painting, from whose
+enjoyment his blindness debarred him.
+
+When returning home from a banquet, if his way lay through the city,
+he was reminded of the superb buildings, marble terraces and fountains,
+statues and porticoes, which had formerly satiated his eyes with
+delight, and must now be illumined with a brilliant radiance by the
+morning sunbeams, though a hostile fate shut them out from his eyes,
+starving and thirsting for beautiful forms.
+
+But it had seemed to him still harder to bear that his blinded eyes
+refused to show him the most beautiful of all beautiful things, the
+human form, when he lingered among the Ephebi or the spectators of
+a festal procession, or visited the gymnasium, the theatre, the
+Aphrodisium, or the Paneum gardens, where the beautiful women met at
+sunset.
+
+The Queen was to appear immediately, and when she took her place near
+him his blindness would again deprive him of the sight of her delicately
+cut features, prevent his returning the glances from her sparkling eyes,
+and admiring the noble outlines of her thinly veiled figure.
+
+Would his troubled spirit at least permit him to enjoy and enter without
+restraint into the play of her quick wit?
+
+Perhaps her arrival would relieve him from the discomfort which
+oppressed him here.
+
+A stranger, out of his own sphere, he felt chilled among these closely
+united men and women, to whom no tie bound him save the presence of the
+same host.
+
+He was not acquainted with a single individual except the mythograph
+Crates, who for several months had been one of the members of the
+Museum, and who had attached himself to Hermon at Straton's lectures.
+
+The artist was surprised to find this man in such a circle, but he
+learned from Althea that the young member of the Museum was a relative
+of Proclus, and a suitor of the beautiful Nico, one of the Queen's
+ladies in waiting, who was among the guests.
+
+Crates had really been invited in order to win him over to the Queen's
+cause; but charming fair-haired Nico had been commissioned by the
+conspirators to persuade him to sing Arsinoe's praises among his
+professional associates.
+
+The rest of the men present stood in close connection with Arsinoe,
+and were fellow-conspirators against her husband's throne and life.
+The ladies whom Proclus had invited were all confidants of Arsinoe, the
+wives and daughters of his other guests. All were members of the highest
+class of society, and their manners showed the entire freedom from
+restraint that existed in the Queen's immediate circle. Althea profited
+by the advantage of being Hermon's only acquaintance here. So, when he
+took his place on the cushion at her side, she greeted him familiarly
+and cordially, as she had treated him for a long time, wherever they
+met, and in a low voice told him, sometimes in a kindly tone, sometimes
+with biting sarcasm, the names and characters of the other guests.
+
+The most aristocratic was Amyntas, who stood highest of all in the
+Queen's favour because he had good reason to hate the other Arsinoe, the
+sister of the King. His son had been this royal dame's first husband,
+and she had deserted him to marry Lysimachus, the aged King of Thrace.
+
+The Rhodian Chrysippus, her leech and trusted counsellor, also possessed
+great influence over the Queen.
+
+"The noble lady," whispered Althea, "needs the faithful devotion of
+every well-disposed subject, for perhaps you have already learned how
+cruelly the King embitters the life of the mother of his three children.
+Many a caprice can be forgiven the suffering Ptolemy, who recently
+expressed a wish that he could change places with the common workmen
+whom he saw eating their meal with a good appetite, and who is now
+tortured by the gout; yet he watches the hapless woman with the jealousy
+of a tiger, though he himself is openly faithless to her. What is the
+Queen to him, since the widow of Lysimachus returned from Thrace--no,
+from Cassandrea, Ephesus, and sacred Samothrace, or whatever other
+places there are which would no longer tolerate the murderess?"
+
+"The King's sister--the object of his love?" cried Hermon incredulously.
+"She must be forty years old now."
+
+"Very true," Althea assented. "But we are in Egypt, where marriages
+between brothers and sisters are pleasing to gods and men; and besides,
+we make our own moral laws here. Her age! We women are only as old as we
+look, and the leeches and tiring women of this beauty of forty practise
+arts which give her the appearance of twenty-five, yet perhaps the King
+values her intellect more than her person, and the wisdom of a hundred
+serpents is certainly united in this woman's head. She will make our
+poor Queen suffer unless real friends guard her from the worst. The
+three most trustworthy ones are here: Amyntas, the leech Chrysippus, and
+the admirable Proclus. Let us hope that you will make this three-leaved
+clover the luck-promising four-leaved one. Your uncle, too, has often
+with praiseworthy generosity helped Arsinoe in many an embarrassment.
+Only make the acquaintance of this beautiful royal lady, and the
+last drop of your blood will not seem too precious to shed for her!
+Besides--Proclus told me so in confidence--you have little favour to
+expect from the King. How long he kept you waiting for the first word
+concerning a work which justly transported the whole city with delight!
+When he did finally summon you, he said things which must have wounded
+you."
+
+"That is going too far," replied Hermon.
+
+"Then he kept back his real opinion," Althea protested. "Had I not made
+it a rule to maintain absolute silence concerning everything I hear in
+conversation from those with whom I am closely associated--"
+
+Here she was interrupted by Chrysippus, who asked if Althea had told her
+neighbour about his Rhodian eye-salve.
+
+He winked at her and made a significant gesture as he spoke, and then
+informed the blind artist how graciously Arsinoe had remembered him when
+she heard of the remedy by whose aid many a wonderful cure of blind eyes
+had been made in Rhodes. The royal lady had inquired about him and his
+sufferings with almost sisterly interest, and Althea eagerly confirmed
+the statement.
+
+Hermon listened to the pair in silence.
+
+He had not been able to see them, it is true, yet he had perceived
+their design as if the loss of sight had sharpened his mental vision.
+He imagined that he could see the favourite and Althea nudge each other
+with sneering gestures, and believed that their sole purpose was to
+render him--he knew not for what object--the obedient tool of the Queen,
+who had probably also succeeded in persuading his usually cautious uncle
+to render her great services.
+
+The remembrance of Arsinoe's undignified conduct at the Dionysia, and
+the shameful stories of her which he had heard returned to his mind. At
+the same time he saw Daphne rise before him in her aristocratic dignity
+and kindly goodness, and a smile of satisfaction hovered around his lips
+as he said to himself: "The spider Althea again! But, in spite of my
+blindness, I will be caught neither in her net nor in the Queen's. They
+are the last to bar the way which leads to Daphne and real happiness."
+
+The Rhodian was just beginning to praise Arsinoe also as a special
+friend and connoisseur of the sculptor's art when Crates, Hermon's
+fellow-student, asked the blind artist, in behalf of his beautiful
+companion, why his Demeter was placed upon a pedestal which, to others
+as well as himself, seemed too high for the size of the statue.
+
+Hermon replied that he had heard several make this criticism, but the
+priests of the goddess refused to take it into account.
+
+Here he hesitated, for, like a blow from an invisible hand, the thought
+darted through his mind that perhaps, on the morrow, he would see
+himself compelled before the whole world to cast aside the crown of fame
+which he owed to the statue on the lofty pedestal. He did not have even
+the remotest idea of continuing to deck himself with false renown if
+his dread was realized; yet he doubtless imagined how this whole
+aristocratic circle, with the Queen, Althea, and Proclus at its head,
+would turn with reckless haste from the hapless man who had led them
+into such a shameful error.
+
+Yet what mattered it, even if these miserable people considered
+themselves deceived and pointed the finger of scorn at him? Better
+people would thereby be robbed of the right to accuse him of
+faithlessness to himself. This thought darted through his heated brain
+like a flash of lightning, and when, in spite of his silence, the
+conversation was continued and Althea told the others that only Hermon's
+blindness had prevented the creation of a work which could have been
+confidently expected far to surpass the Demeter, since it seemed to have
+been exactly suited to his special talent, he answered his beautiful
+companion's remark curtly and absently.
+
+She perceived this with annoyance and perplexity.
+
+A woman who yearns for the regard of all men, and makes love a toy,
+easily lessens the demands she imposes upon individuals. Only, even
+though love has wholly disappeared, she still claims consideration, and
+Althea did not wish to lose Hermon's regard.
+
+When Amyntas, the head of the conspirators, attracted the attention of
+the company by malicious remarks about the King's sister, the Thracian
+laid her hand on the blind artist's arm, whispering: "Has the image of
+the Arachne which, at Tennis, charmed you even in the presence of the
+angry Zeus, completely vanished from your memory? How indifferent you
+look! But I tell you"--her deep blue eyes flashed as she spoke--"that so
+long as you were still a genuine creating artist the case was different.
+Even while putting the last touches of the file to the Demeter, for
+which Archias's devout daughter posed as your model, another whom you
+could not banish from your mind filled your imagination. Though so loud
+a denial is written on your face, I persist in my conviction, and that
+no idle delusion ensnares me I can prove!"
+
+Hermon raised his sightless eyes to her inquiringly, but she went on
+with eager positiveness: "Or, if you did not think of the weaver while
+carving the goddess, how did you happen to engrave a spider on the
+ribbon twined around the ears of grain in Demeter's hand? Not the
+smallest detail of a work produced by the hand of a valued friend
+escapes my notice, and I perceived it before the Demeter came to the
+temple and the lofty pedestal. Now I would scarcely be able to discover
+it in the dusky cella, yet at that time I took pleasure in the sight of
+the ugly insect, not only because it is cleverly done, but because it
+reminded me of something"--here she lowered her voice still more--"that
+pleased me, though probably it would seem less flattering to the
+daughter of Archias, who perhaps is better suited to act as guide to the
+blind. How bewildered you look! Eternal gods! Many things are forgotten
+after long months have passed, but it will be easy for me to sharpen
+your memory. 'At the time Hermon had just finished the Demeter,' the
+spider called to me, 'he scratched me on the gold.' But at that very
+time--yes, my handsome friend, I can reckon accurately--you had met me,
+Althea, in Tennis, I had brought the spider-woman before your eyes. Was
+it really nothing but foolish vanity that led me to the conviction
+that you were thinking of me also when you engraved on the ribbon the
+despised spider-for which, however, I always felt a certain regard--with
+the delicate web beneath its slender legs?"
+
+Hitherto Hermon had listened to every word in silence, labouring for
+breath. He was transported as if by magic to the hour of his return from
+Pelusium; he saw himself enter Myrtilus's studio and watch his friend
+scratch something, he did not know what, upon the ribbon which fastened
+the bunch of golden grain. It was--nay, it could have been nothing
+else--that very spider. The honoured work was not his, but his dead
+friend's. How the exchange had occurred he could not now understand,
+but to disbelieve that it had taken place would have been madness or
+self-deception.
+
+Now he also understood the doubts of Soteles and the King. Not
+he--Myrtilus, and he alone, was the creator of the much-lauded Demeter!
+
+This conviction raised a hundred-pound weight from his soul.
+
+What was applause! What was recognition! What were fame and laurel
+wreaths! He desired clearness and truth for himself and all the world
+and, as if frantic, he suddenly sprang from his cushions, shouting to
+the startled guests: "I myself and this whole great city were deceived!
+The Demeter is not mine, not the work of Hermon! The dead Myrtilus
+created it!"
+
+Then pressing his hand to his brow, he called his student friend to
+his side, and, as the scholar anxiously laid his arm on his shoulder,
+whispered: "Away, away from here! Only let me get out of doors into the
+open air!"
+
+Crates, bewildered and prepared for the worst, obeyed his wish; but
+Althea and the other guests left behind felt more and more impressed by
+the suddenly awakened conviction that the hapless blind man had now also
+become the victim of madness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Without a word of explanation, Hermon dragged his guide along in
+breathless haste. No one stopped them.
+
+The atrium, usually swarming with guards, servants, and officials until
+a far later hour, was completely deserted when the blind man hurried
+through it with his friend.
+
+The door leading into the outer air stood open, but Hermon, leaning on
+the scholar's arm, had scarcely crossed the threshold and entered the
+little courtyard encircled with ornamental plants, which separated this
+portion of the palace from the street, when both were surrounded by a
+band of armed Macedonian soldiers, whose commander exclaimed: "In the
+name of the King! Not a sound, if you value your lives!"
+
+Incensed, and believing that there was some mistake, Hermon announced
+himself as a sculptor and Crates as a member of the Museum, but this
+statement did not produce the slightest effect upon the warrior; nay,
+when the friends answered the officer's inquiry whether they were coming
+from Proclus's banquet in the affirmative; he curtly commanded them to
+be put in chains.
+
+To offer resistance would have been madness, for even Hermon perceived,
+by the loud clanking of weapons around them, the greatly superior power
+of the enemy, and they were acting by the orders of the King. "To the
+prison near the place of execution!" cried the officer; and now not only
+the mythograph, but Hermon also was startled--this dungeon opened only
+to those sentenced to death.
+
+Was he to be led to the executioner's block? A cold shudder ran through
+his frame; but the next moment he threw back his waving locks, and his
+chest heaved with a long breath.
+
+What pleasure had life to offer him, the blind man, who was already dead
+to his art? Ought he not to greet this sudden end as a boon from the
+immortals?
+
+Did it not spare him a humiliation as great and painful as could be
+imagined?
+
+He had already taken care that the false renown should not follow him
+to the grave, and Myrtilus should have his just due, and he would do
+whatever else lay in his power to further this object. Wherever the
+beloved dead might be, he desired to go there also. Whatever might await
+him, he desired no better fate. If he had passed into annihilation, he,
+Hermon, wished to follow him thither, and annihilation certainly meant
+redemption from pain and misery. But if he were destined to meet his
+Myrtilus and his mother in the world beyond the grave, what had he not
+to tell them, how sure he was of finding a joyful reception there from
+both! The power which delivered him over to death just at that moment
+was not Nemesis--no, it was a kindly deity.
+
+Only his heart grew heavy at the thought of leaving Daphne to the
+tireless wooer Philotas or some other--everything else from which it is
+usually hard to part seemed like a burden that we gladly cast aside.
+
+"Forward!" he called blithely and boldly to the officer; while Crates,
+with loud lamentations, was protesting his innocence to the warrior who
+was putting fetters upon him.
+
+A chain was just being clasped around Hermon's wrists also when he
+suddenly started. His keen ear could not deceive him, and yet a demon
+must be mocking him, for the voice that had called his name was the
+girl's of whom, in the presence of welcome death, he had thought with
+longing regret.
+
+Yet it was no illusion that deceived him. Again he heard the beloved
+voice, and this time it addressed not only him, but with the utmost
+haste the commander of the soldiers.
+
+Sometimes with touching entreaty, sometimes with imperious command, she
+protested, after giving him her name, that this matter could be nothing
+but an unfortunate mistake. Lastly, with earnest warmth, she besought
+him, before taking the prisoners away, to permit her to speak to the
+commanding general, Philippus, her father's guest, who, she was certain,
+was in the palace. The blood of these innocent men would be on his head
+if he did not listen to her representations.
+
+"Daphne!" cried Hermon in grateful agitation; but she would not listen
+to him, and followed the soldier whom the captain detailed to guide her
+into the palace.
+
+After a few moments, which the blind artist used to inspire the
+despairing scholar with courage, the girl returned, and she did not come
+alone. The gray-haired comrade of Alexander accompanied her, and after
+a few minutes both prisoners were released from their fetters. Philippus
+hastily refused their thanks and, after addressing a few words to the
+officer, he changed his tone, and his deep voice sounded paternally
+cordial as he exclaimed to Daphne: "Fifteen minutes more, you dear,
+foolhardy girl, and it would have been too late. To-morrow you shall
+confess to me who treacherously directed you to this dangerous path."
+
+Lastly, he turned to the prisoners to explain that they would be
+conducted to the adjacent barracks of the Diadochi, and spend the night
+there.
+
+Early the next morning they should be examined, and, if they could
+clear themselves from the suspicion of belonging to the ranks of the
+conspirators, released.
+
+Daphne again pleaded for the liberation of the prisoners, but Philippus
+silenced her with the grave exclamation, "The order of the King!"
+
+The old commander offered no objection to her wish to accompany
+Hermon to prison. Daphne now slipped her arm through her cousin's, and
+commanded the steward Gras, who had brought her here, to follow them.
+
+The goal of the nocturnal walk, which was close at hand, was reached
+at the end of a few minutes, and the prisoners were delivered to the
+commander of the Diadochi. This kindly disposed officer had served under
+Hermon's father, and when the names of the prisoners were given, and the
+officer reported to him that General Philippus recommended them to his
+care as innocent men, he had a special room opened for the sculptor and
+his fair guide, and ordered Crates to enter another.
+
+He could permit the beautiful daughter of the honoured Archias to remain
+with Hermon for half an hour, then he must beg her to allow herself to
+be escorted to her home, as the barracks were closed at that time.
+
+As soon as the captive artist was alone with the woman he loved, he
+clasped her hand, pouring forth incoherent words of the most ardent
+gratitude, and when he felt her warmly return the pressure, he could not
+restrain the desire to clasp her to his heart. For the first time his
+lips met hers, he confessed his love, and that he had just regarded
+death as a deliverer; but his life was now gaining new charm through her
+affection.
+
+Then Daphne herself threw her arms around his neck with fervent
+devotion.
+
+The love that resistlessly drew his heart to her was returned with equal
+strength and ardour. In spite of his deep mental distress, he could
+have shouted aloud in his delight and gratitude. He might now have been
+permitted to bind forever to his life the woman who had just rescued
+him from the greatest danger, but the confession he must make to his
+fellow-artists in the palaestra the following morning still sealed his
+lips. Yet in this hour he felt that he was united to her, and ought not
+to conceal what awaited him; so, obeying a strong impulse, he exclaimed:
+"You know that I love you! Words can not express the strength of my
+devotion, but for that very reason I must do what duty commands before I
+ask the question, 'Will you join your fate to mine?'"
+
+"I love you and have loved you always!" Daphne exclaimed tenderly. "What
+more is needed?"
+
+But Hermon, with drooping head, murmured: "To-morrow I shall no longer
+be what I am now. Wait until I have done what duty enjoins; when that is
+accomplished, you shall ask yourself what worth the blind artist still
+possesses who bartered spurious fame for mockery and disgrace in order
+not to become a hypocrite."
+
+Then Daphne raised her face to his, asking, "So the Demeter is the work
+of Myrtilus?"
+
+"Certainly," he answered firmly. "It is the work of Myrtilus."
+
+"Oh, my poor, deceived love!" cried Daphne, strongly agitated, in a tone
+of the deepest sorrow. "What a terrible ordeal again awaits you! It
+must indeed distress me--and yet Do not misunderstand me! It seems
+nevertheless as if I ought to rejoice, for you and your art have not
+spoken to me even a single moment from this much-lauded work."
+
+"And therefore," he interrupted with passionate delight, "therefore
+alone you withheld the enthusiastic praise with which the others
+intoxicated me? And I, fool, blinded also in mind, could be vexed with
+you for it! But only wait, wait! Soon-to-morrow even--there will be
+no one in Alexandria who can accuse me of deserting my own honest
+aspiration, and, if the gods will only restore my sight and the ability
+to use my hands as a sculptor, then, girl, then--"
+
+Here he was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door.
+
+The time allowed had expired.
+
+Hermon again warmly embraced Daphne, saying: "Then go! Nothing can cloud
+what these brief moments have bestowed. I must remain blind; but you
+have restored the lost sight to my poor darkened soul. To-morrow I shall
+stand in the palaestra before my comrades, and explain to them what a
+malicious accident deceived me, and with me this whole great city. Many
+will not believe me, and even your father will perhaps consider it a
+disgrace to give his arm to his scorned, calumniated nephew to guide
+him home. Bring this before your mind, and everything else that you must
+accept with it, if you consent, when the time arrives, to become mine.
+Conceal and palliate nothing! But should the Lady Thyone speak of the
+Eumenides who pursued me, tell her that they had probably again extended
+their arms toward me, but when I return to-morrow from the palaestra I
+shall be freed from the terrible beings."
+
+Lastly, he asked to be told quickly how she had happened to come to the
+palace at the right time at so late an hour, and Daphne informed him
+as briefly and modestly as if the hazardous venture which, in strong
+opposition to her retiring, womanly nature, she had undertaken, was a
+mere matter of course.
+
+When Thyone in her presence heard from Gras that Hermon intended to go
+to Proclus's banquet, she started up in horror, exclaiming, "Then the
+unfortunate man is lost!"
+
+Her husband, who had long trusted even the gravest secrets to his
+discreet old wife, had informed her of the terrible office the King had
+confided to him. All the male guests of Proclus were to be executed; the
+women--the Queen at their head--would be sent into exile.
+
+Then Daphne, on her knees, besought the matron to tell her what
+threatened Hermon, and succeeded in persuading her to speak.
+
+The terrified girl, accompanied by Gras, went first to her lover's house
+and, when she did not find him there, hastened to the King's palace.
+
+If Hermon could have seen her with her fluttering hair, dishevelled by
+the night breeze, and checks blanched by excitement and terror, if he
+had been told how she struggled with Thyone, who tried to detain her and
+lock her up before she left her father's house, he would have perceived
+with still prouder joy, had that been possible, what he possessed in the
+devoted love of this true woman.
+
+Grateful and moved by joyous hopes, he informed Daphne of the words of
+the oracle, which had imprinted themselves upon his memory.
+
+She, too, quickly retained them, and murmured softly:
+
+"Noise and dazzling radiance are hostile to the purer light, Morning and
+day will rise quietly from the starving sand."
+
+What could the verse mean except that the blind man would regain the
+power to behold the light of clay amid the sands of the silent desert?
+
+Perhaps it would be well for him to leave Alexandria now, and she
+described how much benefit she had received while hunting from the
+silence of the wilderness, when she had left the noise of the city
+behind her. But before she had quite finished, the knocking at the door
+was repeated.
+
+The lovers took leave of each other with one last kiss, and the final
+words of the departing girl echoed consolingly in the blind man's heart,
+"The more they take from you, the more closely I will cling to you."
+
+Hermon spent the latter portion of the night rejoicing in the
+consciousness of a great happiness, yet also troubled by the difficult
+task which he could not escape.
+
+When the market place was filling, gray-haired Philippus visited him.
+
+He desired before the examination, for which every preparation had been
+made, to understand personally the relation of his dead comrade's son to
+the defeated conspiracy, and he soon perceived that Hermon's presence at
+the banquet was due solely to an unlucky accident or in consequence of
+the Queen's desire to win him over to her plot.
+
+Yet he was forced to advise the blind sculptor to leave Alexandria. The
+suspicion that he had been associated with the conspirators was the more
+difficult to refute, because his Uncle Archias had imprudently allowed
+himself to be persuaded by Proclus and Arsinoe to lend the Queen large
+sums, which had undoubtedly been used to promote her abominable plans.
+
+Philippus also informed him that he had just come from Archias, whom he
+had earnestly urged to fly as quickly as possible from the persecution
+which was inevitable; for, secure as Hermon's uncle felt in his
+innocence, the receipts for the large sums loaned by him, which had just
+been found in Proclus's possession, would bear witness against him. Envy
+and ill will would also have a share in this affair, and the usually
+benevolent King knew no mercy where crime against his own person was
+concerned. So Archias intended to leave the city on one of his own ships
+that very day. Daphne, of course, would accompany him.
+
+The prisoner listened in surprise and anxiety.
+
+His uncle driven from his secure possessions to distant lands! Daphne
+taken from him, he knew not whither nor for how long a time, after he
+had just been assured of her great love! He himself on the way to expose
+himself to the malice and mockery of the whole city!
+
+His heart contracted painfully, and his solicitude about his uncle's
+fate increased when Philippus informed him that the conspirators had
+been arrested at the banquet and, headed by Amyntas, the Rhodian,
+Chrysippus, and Proclus, had perished by the executioner's sword at
+sunrise.
+
+The Queen, Althea, and the other ladies were already on the way to
+Coptos, in Upper Egypt, whither the King had exiled them.
+
+Ptolemy had intrusted the execution of this severe punishment to
+Alexander's former comrade as the most trustworthy and discreet of his
+subjects, but rejected, with angry curtness, Philippus's attempt to
+uphold the innocence of his friend Archias.
+
+The old man's conversation with Hermon was interrupted by the
+functionaries who subjected him and Crates to the examination. It lasted
+a long time, and referred to every incident in the artist's life since
+his return to Alexandria. The result was favourable, and the prisoner
+was dismissed from confinement with the learned companion of his fate.
+
+When, accompanied by Philippus, Hermon reached his house, it was so
+late that the artists' festival in honour of the sculptor Euphranor,
+who entered his seventieth year of life that day, must have already
+commenced.
+
+On the way the blind man told the general what a severe trial awaited
+him, and the latter approved his course and, on bidding him farewell,
+with sincere emotion urged Hermon to take courage.
+
+After hastily strengthening himself with a few mouthfuls of food and a
+draught of wine, his slave Patran, who understood writing, wished to put
+on the full laurel wreath; but Hermon was seized with a painful sense of
+dissatisfaction, and angrily waved it back.
+
+Without a single green leaf on his head, he walked, leaning on the
+Egyptian's arm, into the palaestra, which was diagonally opposite to his
+house.
+
+Doubtless he longed to hasten at once to Daphne, but he felt that he
+could not take leave of her until he had first cast off, as his heart
+and mind dictated, the terrible burden which oppressed his soul.
+Besides, he knew that the object of his love would not part from him
+without granting him one last word.
+
+On the way his heart throbbed almost to bursting.
+
+Even Daphne's image, and what threatened her father, and her with him,
+receded far into the background. He could think only of his design, and
+how he was to execute it.
+
+Yet ought he not to have the laurel wreath put on, in order, after
+removing it, to bestow it on the genius of Myrtilus?
+
+Yet no!
+
+Did he still possess the right to award this noble branch to any one? He
+was appearing before his companions only to give truth its just due. It
+was repulsive to endow this explanation of an unfortunate error with a
+captivating aspect by any theatrical adornment. To be honest, even for
+the porter, was a simple requirement of duty, and no praiseworthy merit.
+
+The guide forced a path for him through carriages, litters, and whole
+throngs of slaves and common people, who had assembled before the
+neighbouring palaestra.
+
+The doorkeepers admitted the blind man, who was well known here, without
+delay; but he called to the slave: "Quick, Patran, and not among the
+spectators--in the centre of the arena!"
+
+The Egyptian obeyed, and his master crossed the wide space, strewn with
+sand, and approached the stage which had been erected for the festal
+performances.
+
+Even had his eyes retained the power of sight, his blood was coursing
+so wildly through his veins that he might perhaps have been unable to
+distinguish the statues around him and the thousands of spectators, who,
+crowded closely together, richly garlanded, their cheeks glowing with
+enthusiasm, surrounded the arena.
+
+"Hermon!" shouted his friend Soteles in joyful surprise in the midst of
+this painful walk. "Hermon!" resounded here, there, and everywhere
+as, leaning on his friend's arm, he stepped upon the stage, and the
+acclamations grew louder and louder as Soteles fulfilled the sculptor's
+request and led him to the front of the platform.
+
+Obeying a sign from the director of the festival, the chorus, which had
+just sung a hymn to the Muses, was silent.
+
+Now the sculptor began to speak, and noisy applause thundered around him
+as he concluded the well-chosen words of homage with which he offered
+cordial congratulations to the estimable Euphranor, to whom the festival
+was given; but the shouts soon ceased, for the audience had heard
+his modest entreaty to be permitted to say a few words, concerning a
+personal matter, to those who were his professional colleagues, as well
+as to the others who had honoured him with their interest and, only too
+loudly, with undeserved applause. The more closely what he had to say
+concerned himself, the briefer he would make his story.
+
+And, in fact, he did not long claim the attention of his hearers.
+Clearly and curtly he stated how it had been possible to mistake
+Mrytilus's work for his, how the Tennis goldsmith had dispelled his
+first suspicion, and how vainly he had besought the priests of Demeter
+to be permitted to feel his statue. Then, without entering into details,
+he informed them that, through an accident, he had now reached the firm
+conviction that he had long worn wreaths which belonged to another. But,
+though the latter could not rise from the grave, he still owed it to
+truth, to whose service he had dedicated his art from the beginning,
+and to the simple honesty, dear alike to the peasant and the artist, to
+divest himself of the fame to which he was not entitled. Even while he
+believed himself to be the creator of the Demeter, he had been seriously
+troubled by the praise of so many critics, because it had exposed him to
+the suspicion of having become faithless to his art and his nature. In
+the name of the dead, he thanked his dear comrades for the enthusiastic
+appreciation his masterpiece had found. Honour to Myrtilus and his
+art, but he trusted this noble festal assemblage would pardon the
+unintentional deception, and aid his prayer for recovery. If it should
+be granted he hoped to show that Hermon had not been wholly unworthy to
+adorn himself for a short time with the wreaths of Myrtilus.
+
+When he closed, deep silence reigned for a brief interval, and one man
+looked at another irresolutely until the hero of the day, gray-haired
+Euphranor, rose and, leaning on the arm of his favourite pupil, walked
+through the centre of the arena to the stage, mounted it, embraced
+Hermon with paternal warmth, and made him happy by the words: "The
+deception that has fallen to your lot, my poor young friend, is a
+lamentable one; but honour to every one who honestly means to uphold
+the truth. We will beseech the immortals with prayers and sacrifices
+to restore sight to your artist eyes. If I am permitted, my dear young
+comrade, to see you continue to create, it will be a source of joy to me
+and all of us; yet the Muses, even though unasked, lead into the eternal
+realm of beauty the elect who consecrates his art to truth with the
+right earnestness."
+
+The embrace with which the venerable hero of the festival seemed to
+absolve Hermon was greeted with loud applause; but the kind words which
+Euphranor, in the weak voice of age, had addressed to the blind man had
+been unintelligible to the large circle of guests.
+
+When he again descended to the arena new plaudits rose; but soon hisses
+and other signs of disapproval blended with them, which increased in
+strength and number when a well known critic, who had written a learned
+treatise concerning the relation of the Demeter to Hermon's earlier
+works, expressed his annoyance in a loud whistle. The dissatisfied and
+disappointed spectators now vied with one another to silence those who
+were cheering by a hideous uproar while the latter expressed more
+and more loud the sincere esteem with which they were inspired by the
+confession of the artist who, though cruelly prevented from winning
+fresh fame, cast aside the wreath which a dead man had, as were,
+proffered from his tomb.
+
+Probably every man thought that, in the same situation, he would have
+done the same yet not only justice--nay, compassion--dictated showing
+the blind artist that they believed in and would sustain him. The
+ill-disposed insisted that Hermon had only done what duty commanded
+the meanest man, and the fact that he had deceived all Alexandria still
+remained. Not a few joined this party, for larger possession excite envy
+perhaps even more frequently than greater fame.
+
+Soon the approving and opposing voices mingled in an actual conflict.
+But before the famous sculptor Chares, the great and venerable artist
+Nicias, and several younger friends of Hermon quelled this unpleasant
+disturbance of the beautiful festival, the blind man, leaning on the arm
+of his fellow-artist Soteles, had left the palaestra.
+
+At the exit he, parted from his friend, who had been made happy by the
+ability to absolve his more distinguished leader from the reproach of
+having become faithless to their common purpose, and who intended to
+intercede further in his behalf in the palaestra.
+
+Hermon no longer needed him; for, besides his slave Patran, he found
+the steward Gras, who, by his master's order, guided the blind man to
+Archias's closed harmamaxa, which was waiting outside the building.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The sculptor's head was burning feverishly when he entered the vehicle.
+He had never imagined that the consequences of his explanation would
+be so terrible. During the drive--by no means a long one--to the great
+harbour, he strove to collect his thoughts. Groaning aloud, he covered
+his ears with his hands to shut out the shouts and hisses from the
+palaestra, which in reality were no longer audible.
+
+True, he would not need to expose himself to this uproar a second time,
+yet if he remained in Alexandria the witticisms, mockery, and jibes of
+the whole city, though in a gentler form, would echo hundreds of times
+around him.
+
+He must leave the city. He would have preferred to go on board the
+staunch Tacheia and be borne far away with his uncle and Daphne, but he
+was obliged to deny himself the fulfilment of this desire. He must now
+think solely of regaining his sight.
+
+Obedient to the oracle, he would go to the desert where from the
+"starving sand" the radiant daylight was to rise anew for him.
+
+There he would, at any rate, be permitted to recover the clearness
+of perception and feeling which he had lost in the delirium of the
+dissolute life of pleasure that he had led in the past. Pythagoras had
+already forbidden the folly of spoiling the present by remorse; and
+he, too, did not do this. It would have been repugnant to his genuinely
+Greek nature. Instead of looking backward with peevish regret, his
+purpose was to look with blithe confidence toward the future, and to do
+his best to render it better and more fruitful than the months of revel
+which lay behind him.
+
+He could no longer imagine a life worth living without Daphne, and the
+thought that if his uncle were robbed of his wealth he would become her
+support cheered his heart. If the oracle did not fulfil its promise, he
+would again appeal to medical skill, and submit even to the most severe
+suffering which might be imposed upon him.
+
+The drive to the great harbour was soon over, but the boat which lay
+waiting for him had a considerable distance to traverse, for the Tacheia
+was no longer at the landing place, but was tacking outside the Pharos,
+in order, if the warrant of arrest were issued, not to be stopped at
+the channel dominated by the lighthouse. He found the slender trireme
+pervaded by a restless stir. His uncle had long been expecting him with
+burning impatience.
+
+He knew, through Philippus, what duty still detained the deceived
+artist, but he learned, at the same time, that his own imprisonment had
+been determined, and it would be advisable for him to leave the city
+behind him as quickly as possible. Yet neither Daphne nor he was willing
+to depart without saying farewell to Hermon.
+
+But the danger was increasing every moment, and, warm as was the
+parting, the last clasp of the hand and kiss swiftly followed the first
+words of greeting.
+
+So the blind artist learned only that Archias was going to the island of
+Lesbos, his mother's home, and that he had promised his daughter to
+give Hermon time to recover his sight. The property bequeathed to him by
+Myrtilus had been placed by the merchant in the royal bank, and he had
+also protected himself against any chance of poverty. Hermon was to send
+news of his health to Lesbos from time to time if a safe opportunity
+offered and, when Daphne knew where he was to be found, she could let
+him have tidings. Of course, for the present great caution must be
+exercised in order not to betray the abode of the fugitives.
+
+Hermon, too, ought to evade the pursuit of the incensed King as quickly
+as possible.
+
+Not only Daphne's eyes, but her father's also, overflowed with tears at
+this parting, and Hermon perceived more plainly than ever that he was as
+dear to his uncle as though he were his own son.
+
+The low words which the artist exchanged with the woman whose love, even
+during the period of separation, would shed light and warmth upon his
+darkened life, were deeply impressed upon the souls of both.
+
+For the present, faithful Gras was to remain in charge of his master's
+house in Alexandria. Leaning on his arm, the blind man left the Tacheia,
+which, as soon as both had entered the boat, was urged forward by
+powerful strokes of the oars.
+
+The Bithynian informed Hermon that kerchiefs were waving him a farewell
+from the trireme, that the sails had been unfurled, and the wind was
+driving the swift vessel before it like a swallow.
+
+At the Pharos Gras reported that a royal galley was just passing them,
+undoubtedly in pursuit of the Tacheia; but the latter was the swiftest
+of all the Greek vessels, and they need not fear that she would be
+overtaken by the war ship.
+
+With a sore heart and the desolate feeling of being now utterly alone,
+Hermon again landed and ordered that his uncle's harmamaxa should convey
+him to the necropolis. He desired to seek peace at his mother's grave,
+and to take leave of these beloved tombs.
+
+Guided by the steward, he left them cheered and with fresh confidence in
+the future, and the faithful servant's account of the energy with which
+Daphne had aided the preparations for departure benefited him like a
+refreshing bath.
+
+When he was again at home, one visitor after another was announced,
+who came there from the festival in the palaestra, and, in spite of
+his great reluctance to receive them, he denied no one admittance, but
+listened even to the ill-disposed and spiteful.
+
+In the battle which he had commenced he must not shrink from wounds,
+and he was struck by many a poisoned shaft. But, to make amends, a clear
+understanding was effected between him and those whom he esteemed.
+
+The last caller left him just before midnight.
+
+Hermon now made many preparations for departure.
+
+He intended to go into the desert with very little luggage, as the
+oracle seemed to direct. How long a time his absence would extend could
+not be estimated, and the many poor people whom he had fed and supported
+must not suffer through his departure. The arrangements required to
+effect this he dictated to the slave, who understood writing. He had
+gained in him an extremely capable servant, and Patran expressed his
+readiness to follow him into the desert; but the wry face which, sure
+that the blind man could not see him, he made while saying so, seemed to
+prove the contrary.
+
+Weary, and yet too excited to find sleep, Hermon at last went to rest.
+
+If his Myrtilus had been with him now, what would he not have had to say
+to express his gratitude, to explain! How overjoyed he would have been
+at the fulfilment of his wish to see him united to Daphne, at least in
+heart; with what fiery ardour he would have upbraided those who believed
+him capable of having appropriated what belonged to another!
+
+But Myrtilus was no more, and who could tell whether his body had not
+remained unburied, and his soul was therefore condemned to be borne
+restlessly between heaven and earth, like a leaf driven by the wind?
+Yet, if the earth covered him, where was the spot on which sacrifices
+could be offered to his soul, his tombstone could be anointed, and he
+himself remembered?
+
+Then a doubt which had never before entered his mind suddenly took
+possession of Hermon.
+
+Since for so many months he had firmly believed his friend's work to be
+his own, he might also have fallen into another delusion, and Myrtilus
+might still dwell among the living.
+
+At this thought the blind man, with a swift movement, sat erect upon his
+couch; it seemed as if a bright light blazed before his eyes in the dark
+room.
+
+The reasons which had led the authorities to pronounce Myrtilus dead
+rendered his early end probable, it is true, yet by no means proved it
+absolutely. He must hold fast to that.
+
+He who, ever since he returned to Alexandria from Tennis, had squandered
+precious time as if possessed by evil demons, would now make a better
+use of it. Besides, he longed to leave the capital. What! Suppose he
+should now, even though it were necessary to delay obeying the oracle's
+command, search, traverse, sail through the world in pursuit of
+Myrtilus, even, if it must be, to the uttermost Thule?
+
+But he fell back upon the couch as quickly as he had started up.
+
+"Blind! blind!" he groaned in dull despair. How could he, who was
+not able even to see his hand before his eyes, succeed in finding his
+friend?
+
+And yet, yet----
+
+Had his mind been darkened with his eyes, that this thought came to him
+now for the first time, that he had not sent messengers to all quarters
+of the globe to find some trace of the assailants and, with them, of the
+lost man?
+
+Perhaps it was Ledscha who had him in her power, and, while he
+was pondering and forming plans for the best way of conducting
+investigations, the dimmed image of the Biamite again returned
+distinctly to his mind, and with it that of Arachne and the spider, into
+which the goddess transformed the weaver.
+
+Half overcome by sleep, he saw himself, staff in hand, led by Daphne,
+cross green meadows and deserts, valleys and mountains, to seek his
+friend; yet whenever he fancied he caught sight of him, and Ledscha with
+him, in the distance, the spider descended from above and, with magical
+speed, wove a net which concealed both from his gaze.
+
+Groaning and deeply disturbed, half awake, he struggled onward, always
+toward one goal, to find his Myrtilus again, when suddenly the sound of
+the knocker on the entrance door and the barking of Lycas, his Arabian
+greyhound, shook the house.
+
+Recalled to waking life, he started up and listened.
+
+Had the men who were to arrest him or inquisitive visitors not allowed
+themselves to be deterred even by the late hour?
+
+He listened angrily as the old porter sternly accosted the late guest;
+but, directly after, the gray-haired native of the region near the First
+Cataract burst into the strange Nubian oaths which he lavished liberally
+whenever anything stirred his aged soul.
+
+The dog, which Hermon had owned only a few months, continued to bark;
+but above his hostile baying the blind man thought he recognised a name
+at whose sound the blood surged hotly into his cheeks. Yet he could
+scarcely have heard aright!
+
+Still he sprang from the couch, groped his way to the door, opened it,
+and entered the impluvium that adjoined his bedroom. The cool night air
+blew upon him from the open ceiling. A strong draught showed that the
+door leading from the atrium was being opened, and now a shout, half
+choked by weeping, greeted him: "Hermon! My clear, my poor beloved
+master!"
+
+"Bias, faithful Bias!" fell from the blind man's lips, and when he felt
+the returned slave sink down before him, cover his hand with kisses and
+wet it with tears, he raised him in his strong arms, clasped him in a
+warm embrace, kissed his checks, and gasped, "And Myrtilus, my Myrtilus,
+is he alive?"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," sobbed Bias. "But you, my lord-blind, blind! Can it be
+true?"
+
+When Hermon released him to inquire again about his friend, Bias
+stammered: "He isn't faring so badly; but you, you, bereft of light and
+also of the joy of seeing your faithful Bias again! And the immortals
+prolong one's years to experience such evils! Two griefs always belong
+to one joy, like two horses to a chariot."
+
+"My wise Bias! Just as you were of old!" cried Hermon in joyful
+excitement.
+
+Then he quieted the hound and ordered one of the attendants, who came
+hurrying in, to bring out whatever dainty viands the house contained and
+a jar of the best Byblus wine from the cellar.
+
+Meanwhile he did not cease his inquiries about his friend's health, and
+ordered a goblet to be brought him also, that he might pledge the slave
+and give brief answers to his sympathizing questions about the cause of
+the blindness, the noble Archias, the gracious young mistress Daphne,
+the famous Philippus and his wife, the companion Chrysilla, and the
+steward Gras. Amid all this he resolved to free the faithful fellow and,
+while Bias was eating, he could not refrain from telling him that he had
+found a mistress for him, that Daphne was the wife whom he had chosen,
+but the wedding was still a long way off.
+
+He controlled his impatience to learn the particulars concerning his
+friend's fate until Bias had partially satisfied his hunger.
+
+A short time ago Hermon would have declared it impossible that he could
+ever become so happy during this period of conflict and separation from
+the object of his love.
+
+The thought of his lost inheritance doubtless flitted through his
+mind, but it seemed merely like worthless dust, and the certainty
+that Myrtilus still walked among the living filled him with unclouded
+happiness. Even though he could no longer see him, he might expect to
+hear his beloved voice again. Oh, what delight that he was permitted to
+have his friend once more, as well as Daphne, that he could meet him
+so freely and joyously and keep the laurel, which had rested with such
+leaden weight upon his head, for Myrtilus, and for him alone!
+
+But where was he?
+
+What was the name of the miracle which had saved him, and yet kept him
+away from his embrace so long?
+
+How had Myrtilus and Bias escaped the flames and death on that night of
+horror?
+
+A flood of questions assailed the slave before he could begin a
+connected account, and Hermon constantly interrupted it to ask for
+details concerning his friend and his health at each period and on every
+occasion.
+
+Much surprised by his discreet manner, the artist listened to the
+bondman's narrative; for though Bias had formerly allowed himself to
+indulge in various little familiarities toward his master, he refrained
+from them entirely in this story, and the blind man's misfortune
+invested him in his eyes with a peculiar sacredness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+He had arrived wounded on the pirate ship with his master's friend,
+the returned bondman began. When he had regained consciousness, he met
+Ledscha on board the Hydra, as the wife of the pirate Hanno. She had
+nursed Myrtilus with tireless solicitude, and also often cared for his,
+Bias's, wounds. After the recovery of the prisoners, she became their
+protectress, and placed Bias in the service of the Greek artist.
+
+They, the Gaul Lutarius, and one of the sculptor's slaves, were the only
+ones who had been brought on board the Hydra alive from the attack in
+Tennis, but the latter soon succumbed to his wounds.
+
+Hermon owed it solely to the bridge-builder that he had escaped from
+the vengeance of his Biamite foe, for the tall Gaul, whose thick beard
+resembled Hermon's in length and blackness, was mistaken by Hanno for
+the person whom Ledscha had directed him to deliver alive into her
+power.
+
+The pirate had surrendered the wrong captive to the woman he loved and,
+as Bias declared, to his serious disadvantage; for, though Hanno and
+the Biamite girl were husband and wife, no one could help perceiving the
+cold dislike with which Ledscha rebuffed the giant who read her every
+wish in her eyes. Finally, the captain of the pirate ship, a silent man
+by nature, often did not open his lips for days except to give orders
+to the crew. Frequently he even refused to be relieved from duty, and
+remained all night at the helm.
+
+Only when, at his own risk, or with the vessels of his father and
+brother, he attacked merchant ships or defended himself against a war
+galley, did he wake to vigorous life and rush with gallant recklessness
+into battle.
+
+A single man on the Hydra was little inferior to him in strength and
+daring--the Gaul Lutarius. He had been enrolled among the pirates, and
+when Hanno was wounded in an engagement with a Syrian war galley,
+was elected his representative. During this time Ledscha faithfully
+performed her duty as her young husband's nurse, but afterward treated
+him as coldly as before.
+
+Yet she devoted herself eagerly to the ship and the crew, and
+the fierce, lawless fellows cheerfully submitted to the sensible
+arrangements of their captain's beautiful, energetic wife. At this
+period Bias had often met Ledscha engaged in secret conversation with
+the Gaul, yet if any tender emotion really attracted her toward any one
+other than her husband, Myrtilus would have been suspected rather than
+the black-bearded bridge-builder; for she not only showed the sculptor
+the kindest consideration, but often entered into conversation with
+him, and even persuaded him, when the sea was calm, or the Hydra lay at
+anchor in one of the hidden bays known to the pirates, to practise his
+art, and at last to make a bust of her. She had succeeded in getting
+him clay, wax, and tools for the purpose. After asking which goddess
+had ill-treated the weaver Arachne, she commanded him to make a head of
+Athene, adorned with the helmet, modelled from her own. During this time
+she frequently inquired whether her features really were not beautiful
+enough to be copied for the countenance of a goddess, and when he
+eagerly assured her of the fact, made him swear that he was not
+deceiving her with flattery.
+
+Neither Bias nor Myrtilus had ever been allowed to remain on shore; but,
+on the whole, the slave protested, Myrtilus's health, thanks to the pure
+sea air on the Hydra, had improved, in spite of the longing which
+often assailed him, and the great excitements to which he was sometimes
+exposed.
+
+There had been anxious hours when Hanno's father and brothers visited
+the Hydra to induce her captain to make money out of the captive
+sculptor, and either sell him at a high price or extort a large ransom
+from him; but Bias had overheard how resolutely Ledscha opposed these
+proposals, and represented to old Satabus of what priceless importance
+Myrtilus might become to them if either should be captured and
+imprisoned.
+
+The greatest excitements, of course, had been connected with the battles
+of the pirates. Myrtilus, who, in spite of his feeble health, by no
+means lacked courage, found it especially hard to bear that during the
+conflicts he was locked up with Bias, but even Ledscha could neither
+prevent nor restrict these measures.
+
+Bias could not tell what seas the Hydra had sailed, nor at what--usually
+desolate-shores she had touched. He only knew that she had gone to
+Sinope in Pontus, passed through the Propontis, and then sought booty
+near the coasts of Asia Minor. Ledscha had refused to answer every
+question that referred to these things.
+
+Latterly, the young wife had become very grave, and apparently
+completely severed her relations with her husband; but she also
+studiously avoided the Gaul and, if they talked to each other at all, it
+was in hurried whispers.
+
+So events went on until something occurred which was to affect the lives
+of the prisoners deeply. It must have been just beyond the outlet from
+the Hellespont into the AEgean Sea; for, in order to pass through the
+narrow straits leading thither from Pontus, the Hydra had been most
+skilfully given the appearance of a peaceful merchant vessel.
+
+The slave's soul must have been greatly agitated by this experience, for
+while, hitherto, whenever he was interrupted by Hermon he had retained
+his composure, and could not refrain from occasionally connecting a
+practical application with his report, now, mastered by the power of
+the remembrance, he uttered what he wished to tell his master in an
+oppressed tone, while bright drops of perspiration bedewed the speaker's
+brow.
+
+A large merchant ship had approached them, and three men came on board
+the Hydra--old Satabus, his son Labaja, and a gray-haired, bearded
+seafarer of tall stature and dignified bearing, Schalit, Ledscha's
+father.
+
+The meeting between the Biamite ship-owner and his child, after so long
+a separation, was a singular one; for the young wife held out her hand
+to her father timidly, with downcast eyes, and he refused to take it.
+Directly after, however, as if constrained by an irresistible impulse,
+he drew his unruly daughter toward him and kissed her brow and cheeks.
+
+Roast meat and the best wine had been served in the large ship's cabin;
+but though Myrtilus and Bias had been locked up as if a bloody battle
+was expected, the loud, angry uproar of men's deep voices reached them,
+and Ledscha's shrill tones shrieking in passionate wrath blended in the
+strife. Furniture must have been upset and dishes broken, yet the giants
+who were disputing here did not come to blows.
+
+At last the savage turmoil subsided.
+
+When Bias and his master were again released, Ledscha was standing,
+in the dusk of evening, at the foot of the mainmast, pressing her brow
+against the wood as if she needed some support to save herself from
+falling.
+
+She checked Myrtilus's words with an imperious "Let me alone!" The next
+day she had paced restlessly up and down the deck like a caged beast of
+prey, and would permit no one to speak to her.
+
+At noon Hanno was about to get into a boat to go to her father's ship,
+and she insisted upon accompanying him. But this time the corsair seemed
+completely transformed, and with the pitiless sternness, which he so
+well knew how to use in issuing commands, ordered her to remain on the
+Hydra.
+
+She, however, by no means obeyed her husband's mandate without
+resistance, and, at the recollection of the conflict which now occurred
+between the pair, in which she raged like a tigress, the narrator's
+cheeks crimsoned.
+
+The quarrel was ended by the powerful seaman's taking in his arms his
+lithe, slender wife, who resisted him with all her strength and had
+already touched the side of the boat with her foot, and putting her down
+on the deck of his ship.
+
+Then Hanno leaped back into the skiff, while Ledscha, groaning with
+rage, retired to the cabin.
+
+An hour after she again appeared on deck, called Myrtilus and Bias and,
+showing them her eyes, reddened by tears, told them, as if in apology
+for her weakness, that she had not been permitted to bid her father
+farewell. Then, pallid as a corpse, she had turned the conversation upon
+Hermon, and informed Myrtilus that an Alexandrian pilot had told her
+father that he was blind, and her brother-in-law Labaja had heard the
+same thing. While saying this, her lips curled scornfully, but when she
+saw how deeply their friend's misfortune moved her two prisoners, she
+waved her hand, declaring that he did not need their sympathy; the pilot
+had reported that he was living in magnificence and pleasure, and the
+people in the capital honoured and praised him as if he were a god.
+
+Thereupon she had laughed shrilly and reviled so bitterly the
+contemptible blind Fortune that remains most loyal to those who deserve
+to perish in the deepest misery, that Bias avoided repeating her words
+to his master.
+
+The news of Myrtilus's legacy had not reached her ears, and Bias, too,
+had just heard of it for the first time.
+
+Ledscha's object had been to relieve her troubled soul by attacks
+upon the man whom she hated, but she suddenly turned to the master and
+servant to ask if they desired to obtain their liberty.
+
+Oh, how quickly a hopeful "Yes" reached the ears of the gloomy woman!
+how ready both were to swear, by a solemn oath, to fulfil the conditions
+the Biamite desired to impose!
+
+As soon as opportunity offered, both were to leave the Hydra with one
+other person who, like Bias and herself, understood how to mange a boat.
+
+The favourable moment soon came. One moonless night, when the steering
+of the Hydra was intrusted to the Gaul, Ledscha waked the two prisoners
+and, with the Gaul Lutarius, Myrtilus, and the slave, entered the boat,
+which conveyed them to the shore without accident or interruption.
+
+Bias knew the name of the place where it had anchored, it is true, but
+the oath which Ledscha had made him swear there was so terrible that he
+would not have broken it at any cost.
+
+This oath required the slave, who, three days after their landing,
+was sent to Alexandria by the first ship that sailed for that port, to
+maintain the most absolute secrecy concerning Myrtilus's hiding place
+until he was authorized to speak. Bias was to go to Alexandria without
+delay, and there obtain from Archias, who managed Myrtilus's property,
+the sums which Ledscha intended to use in the following manner: Two
+attic talents Bias was to bring back. These were for the Gaul, probably
+in payment for his assistance. Two more were to be taken by the slave to
+the Temple of Nemesis. Lastly, Bias was to deliver five talents to old
+Tabus, who kept the treasure of the pirate family on the Owl's Nest, and
+tell her that Ledscha, in this money, sent back the bridal dowry which
+Hanno had paid her father for his daughter. With this she released
+herself from the husband who inspired her with feelings very unlike
+love.
+
+Hermon asked to have this commission repeated, and received the
+directions Myrtilus had given to the slave. The blind man's hope that
+they must also include greetings and news from his friend's hand was
+destroyed by Bias, whom Myrtilus, in the leisure hours on the Hydra,
+had taught to read. This was not so difficult a task for the slave, who
+longed for knowledge, and had already tried it before. But with writing,
+on the other hand, he could make no headway. He was too old, and his
+hand had become too clumsy to acquire this difficult art.
+
+In reply to Hermon's anxious question whether his friend needed anything
+in his present abode, the slave reported that he was at liberty to move
+about at will, and was not even obliged to share Ledscha's lodgings. He
+lacked nothing, for the Biamite, besides some gold, had left with him
+also gems and pearls of such great value that they would suffice to
+support him several years. As for himself, she had supplied him more
+than abundantly with money for travelling expenses.
+
+Myrtilus was awaiting his return in a city prospering under a rich and
+wise regent, and sent whole cargoes of affectionate remembrances. The
+sculptor, too, was firmly resolved to keep the oath imposed upon him.
+
+As soon as he, Bias, had performed the commission intrusted to him, he
+and Myrtilus would be released from their vow, and Hermon would learn
+his friend's residence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+No morning brightened Hermon's night of darkness.
+
+When the returned slave had finished his report, the sun was already
+shining into his master's room.
+
+Without lying down again, the latter went at once to the Tennis notary,
+who had moved to Alexandria two months before, and with his assistance
+raised the money which his friend needed.
+
+Worthy Melampus had received the news that Myrtilus was still alive in a
+very singular manner. Even now he could grasp only one thing at a time,
+and he loved Hermon with sincere devotion. Therefore the lawyer who
+had so zealously striven to expedite the blind man's entering into
+possession of his friend's inheritance would very willingly have
+permitted Myrtilus--doubtless an invalid--to continue to rest quietly
+among the dead. Yet his kind heart rejoiced at the deliverance of the
+famous young artist, and so during Hermon's story he had passed from
+sincere regret to loud expressions of joyous sympathy.
+
+Lastly, he had placed his whole property at the disposal of Hermon, who
+had paid him liberally for his work, to provide for the blind sculptor's
+future. This generous offer had been declined; but he now assisted
+Hermon to prepare the emancipation papers for his faithful Bias, and
+found a ship that was bound to Tanis. Toward evening he accompanied
+Hermon to the harbour and, after a cordial farewell from his helpful
+friend, the artist, with the new "freedman" Bias and the slave clerk
+Patran, went on board the vessel, now ready to sail.
+
+The voyage was one of the speediest, yet the end came too soon for both
+master and servant--Hermon had not yet heard enough of the friend beyond
+his reach, and Bias was far from having related everything he desired
+to tell about Myrtilus and Ledscha; yet he was now permitted to express
+every opinion that entered his mind, and this had occupied a great deal
+of time.
+
+Bias also sought to know much more about Hermon's past and future than
+he had yet learned, not merely from curiosity, but because he foresaw
+that Myrtilus would not cease to question him about his blind friend.
+
+The misfortune must have produced a deep and lasting effect upon the
+artist's joyous nature, for his whole bearing was pervaded by such
+earnestness and dignity that years, instead of months, seemed to have
+elapsed since their separation.
+
+It was characteristic of Daphne that her lover's blindness did not
+alienate her from him; yet why had not the girl, who still desired to
+become his wife, been able to wed the helpless man who had lost his
+sight? If the father did not wish to be separated from his daughter,
+surely he could live with the young couple. A home was quickly made
+everywhere for the rich, and, if Archias was tired of his house in
+Alexandria, as Hermon had intimated, there was room enough in the world
+for a new one.
+
+But that was the way with things here below! Man was the cause of man's
+misfortune! Daphne and Hermon remained the same; but Archias from an
+affectionate father had become transformed into an entirely different
+person. If the former had been allowed to follow their inclinations,
+they would now be united and happy, while, because a third person so
+willed, they must go their way solitary and wretched.
+
+He expressed this view to his master, and insisted upon his opinion
+until Hermon confided to him what had driven Archias from Alexandria.
+
+Patran, Bias's successor, was by no means satisfactory to him. Had
+Hermon retained his sight, he certainly would not have purchased him, in
+spite of his skill as a scribe, for the Egyptian had a "bad face."
+
+Oh, if only he could have been permitted to stay with his benefactor
+instead of this sullen man! How carefully he would have removed the
+stones from his darkened pathway!
+
+During the voyage he was obliged to undergo severe struggles to keep the
+oath of secrecy imposed upon him; but perjury threatened him with the
+most horrible tortures, not to mention the sorceress Tabus, whom he was
+to meet.
+
+So Myrtilus's abode remained unknown to Hermon.
+
+Bias approved his master's intention of going into the desert. He had
+often seen the oracle of Amon tested, and he himself had experienced the
+healthfulness of the desert air. Besides, it made him proud to see that
+Hermon was disposed to follow his suggestion of pitching his tent in a
+spot which he designated. This was at the end of the arm of the sea at
+Clysma. Several trees grew there beside small springs, and a peaceful
+family of Amalekites raised vegetables in their little garden, situated
+on higher ground, watered by the desert wells.
+
+When a boy, before the doom of slavery had been pronounced upon him
+and his father, his mother, by the priest's advice, took him there to
+recover from the severe attack of fever which he could not shake off
+amid the damp papyrus plantations surrounding his parents' house. In
+the dry, pure air of the desert he recovered, and he would guide Hermon
+there before returning to Myrtilus.
+
+From Tanis they reached Tennis in a few hours, and found shelter in the
+home of the superintendent of Archias's weaving establishments, whose
+hospitality Myrtilus and Hermon had enjoyed before their installation
+in the white house, now burned to the ground. The Alexandrian bills of
+exchange were paid in gold by the lessee of the royal bank, who was a
+good friend of Hermon. Toward evening, both rowed to the Owl's Nest,
+taking the five talents with which the runaway wife intended to purchase
+freedom from her husband.
+
+As the men approached the central door of the pirates' house, a
+middy-aged Biamite woman appeared and rudely ordered them to leave
+the island. Tabus was weak, and refused to see visitors. But she was
+mistaken; for when Bias, in the dialect of his tribe, shouted loudly
+that messengers from the wife of her grandson Hanno had arrived, there
+was a movement at the back of the room, and broken sentences, gasped
+with difficulty, expressed the old dame's wish to receive the strangers.
+
+On a sheep's-wool couch, over which was spread a wolfskin, the last
+gift of her son Satabus, lay the sorceress, who raised herself as Hermon
+passed through the door.
+
+After his greeting, she pointed to her deaf ear and begged him to
+speak louder. At the same time she gazed into his eyes with a keen,
+penetrating glance, and interrupted him by the question: "The Greek
+sculptor whose studio was burned over his head? And blind? Blind still?"
+
+"In both eyes," Bias answered for his master.
+
+"And you, fellow?" the old dame asked; then, recollecting herself,
+stopped the reply on the servant's lips with the hasty remark: "You
+are the blackbeard's slave--a Biamite? Oh, I remember perfectly! You
+disappeared with the burning house."
+
+Then she gazed intently and thoughtfully from one to the other, and
+at last, pointing to Bias, muttered in a whisper: "You alone come from
+Hanno and Ledscha, and were with them on the Hydra? Very well. What news
+have you for the old woman from the young couple?"
+
+The freedman began to relate what brought him to the Owl's Nest, and
+the gray-haired crone listened eagerly until he said that Ledscha lived
+unhappily with her husband, and therefore had left him. She sent back
+to her, as the head of Hanno's family, the bridal dowry with which Hanno
+had bought her from her father as his wife.
+
+Then Tabus struggled into a little more erect posture, and asked: "What
+does this mean? Five talents--and gold, not silver talents? And she
+sends the money to me? To me? And she ran away from her husband? But
+no--no! Once more--you are a Biamite--repeat it in our own language--and
+loudly. This ear is the better one."
+
+Bias obeyed, and the old dame listened to the end without interrupting
+him: then raising her brown right hand, covered with a network of
+blue-black veins, she clinched it into a fist, which she shook far more
+violently than Bias would have believed possible in her weak condition.
+At the same time she pressed her lips so tightly together that her
+toothless mouth deepened into a hole, and her dim eyes shone with a
+keen, menacing light. For some time she found no reply, though strange,
+rattling, gasping sounds escaped her heaving breast.
+
+At last she succeeded in uttering words, and shrieked shrilly:
+"This--this--away with the golden trash! With the bridal dowry of the
+family rejected, and once more free, the base fool thinks she would be
+like the captive fox that gnawed the rope! Oh, this age, these people!
+And this, this is the haughty, strong Ledscha, the daughter of the
+Biamites, who--there stands the blind girl--deceiver!--who so admirably
+avenged herself?"
+
+Here her voice failed, and Hermon began to speak to assure her that she
+understood Ledscha's wish aright. Then he asked her for a token by which
+she acknowledged the receipt of the gold, which he handed her in a stout
+linen bag.
+
+But his purpose was not fulfilled, for suddenly, flaming with passionate
+wrath, she thrust the purse aside, groaning: "Not an obol of the
+accursed destruction of souls shall come back to Hanno, nor even into
+the family store. Until his heart and hers stop beating, the most
+indissoluble bond will unite both. She desires to ransom herself from
+a lawful marriage concluded by her father, as if she were a captive of
+war; perhaps she even wants to follow another. Hanno, brave lad, was
+ready to go to death for her sake, and she rewards him by bringing
+shame on his head and disgrace on us all. Oh, these times, this world!
+Everything that is inviolable and holy trampled in the dust! But they
+are not all so! In spite of Grecian infidelity, marriage is still
+honoured among our people. But she who mocks what is sacred, and
+tramples holy customs under foot, shall be accursed, execrated, given
+over to want, hunger, disease, death!"
+
+With rattling breath and closed eyes she leaned farther back against the
+cushions that supported her; but Bias, in their common language, tried
+to soothe her, and informed her that, though Ledscha had probably run
+away from her husband, she had by no means renounced her vengeance. He
+was bringing two talents with him to place in the Temple of Nemesis.
+
+"Of Nemesis?" repeated the old dame. Then she tried to raise herself
+and, as she constantly sank back again, Bias aided her. But she had
+scarcely recovered her sitting posture when she gasped to the freedman:
+"Nemesis, who helped, and is to continue to help her to destroy her foe?
+Well, well! Five talents--a great sum, a great sum! But the more the
+better! To Nemesis with them, to Ate and the Erinyes! The talons of the
+avenging goddess shall tear the beautiful face, the heart, and the liver
+of the accursed one! A twofold malediction on her who has wronged the
+son of my Satabus!"
+
+While speaking, her head nodded swiftly up and down, and when at last
+she bowed it wearily, her visitors heard her murmur the names of Satabus
+and Hanno, sometimes tenderly, sometimes mournfully.
+
+Finally she asked whether any one else was concerned in Ledscha's
+flight; and when she learned that a Gallic bridge-builder accompanied
+the fugitive wife, she again started up as if frantic, exclaiming: "Yes,
+to Nemesis with the gold! We neither need nor want it, and Satabus, my
+son, he will bless me for renunciation--"
+
+Here exhaustion again silenced her. She gazed mutely and thoughtfully
+into vacancy, until at last, turning to Bias, she began more calmly:
+"You will see her again, man, and must tell her what the clan of Tabus
+bought with her talents. Take her my curse, and let her know that
+her friends would be my foes, and her foes should find in Tabus a
+benefactress!"
+
+Then, deeply buried in thought, she again fixed her eyes on the floor;
+but at last she called to Hermon, saying: "You, blind Greek--am I not
+right?--the torch was thrust into your face, and you lost the sight of
+both eyes?"
+
+The artist assented to this question; but she bade him sit down before
+her, and when he bent his face near her she raised one lid after the
+other with trembling fingers, yet lightly and skilfully, gazed long
+and intently into his eyes, and murmured: "Like black Psoti and lawless
+Simeon, and they are both cured."
+
+"Can you restore me?" Hermon now asked in great excitement. "Answer
+me honestly, you experienced woman! Give me back my sight, and demand
+whatever gold and valuables I still possess--"
+
+"Keep them," Tabus contemptuously interrupted. "Not for gold or goods
+will I restore you the best gift man can lose. I will cure you because
+you are the person to whom the infamous wretch most ardently wished the
+sorest trouble. When she hoped to destroy you, she perceived in this
+deed the happiness which had been promised to her on a night when
+the full moon was shining. To-day--this very night--the disk
+between Astarte's horns rounds again, and presently--wait a little
+while!--presently you shall have what the light restores you--" Then she
+called the Biamite woman, ordered her to bring the medicine chest, and
+took from it one vessel after another. The box she was seeking was
+among the last and, while handing it to Bias, she muttered: "Oh, yes,
+certainly--it does one good to destroy a foe, but no less to make her
+foe happy!"
+
+Turning to the freedman, she went on in a louder tone: "You, slave,
+shall inform Hanno's wife that old Tabus gave the sculptor, whose
+blindness she caused, the remedy which restored the sight of black
+Psoti, whom she knew." Here she paused, gazed upward, and murmured
+almost unintelligibly: "Satabus, Hanno! If this is the last act of the
+old mother, it will give ye pleasure."
+
+Then she told Hermon to kneel again, and ordered the slave to hold the
+lamp which her nurse Tasia had just lighted at the hearth fire.
+
+"The last," she said, looking into the box, "but it will be enough. The
+odour of the herb in the salve is as strong as if it had been prepared
+yesterday."
+
+She laid the first bandage on Hermon's eyes with her own weak fingers,
+at the same time muttering an incantation; but it did not seem to
+satisfy her. Great excitement had taken possession of her, and as the
+silver light of the full moon shone into her room she waved her hands
+before the artist's eyes and fixed her gaze upon the threshold illumined
+by the moonbeams, ejaculating sentences incomprehensible to the blind
+man. Bias supported her, for she had risen to her full height, and he
+felt how she tottered and trembled.
+
+Yet her strength held out to whisper to Hermon: "Nearer, still nearer!
+By the light of the august one whose rays greet us, let it be said: You
+will see again. Await your recovery patiently in a quiet place in the
+pure air, not in the city. Refrain from everything with which the Greeks
+intoxicate themselves. Shun wine, and whatever heats the blood. Recovery
+is coming; I see it drawing near. You will see again as surely as I now
+curse the woman who abandoned the husband to whom she vowed fidelity.
+She rejoiced over your blindness, and she will gnash her teeth with rage
+and grief when she hears that it was Tabus who brought light into the
+darkness that surrounds you."
+
+With these words she pushed off the freedman's supporting arms and sank
+back upon the couch.
+
+Again Hermon tried to thank her; but she would not permit it, and said
+in an almost inaudible tone: "I really did not give the salve to do you
+good--the last act of all--"
+
+Finally she murmured a few words of direction for its use, and added
+that he must keep the sunlight from his blind eyes by bandages and
+shades, as if it were a cruel foe.
+
+When she paused, and Bias asked her another question, she pointed to the
+door, exclaiming as loudly as her weakness permitted, "Go, I tell you,
+go!"
+
+Hermon obeyed and left her, accompanied by the freedman, who carried the
+box of salve so full of precious promise.
+
+The next morning Bias delivered to the astonished priest of Nemesis the
+large gifts intended for the avenging goddess.
+
+Before Hermon entered the boat with him and his Egyptian slave, the
+freedman told his master that Gula was again living in perfect harmony
+with the husband who had cast her off, and Taus, Ledscha's younger
+sister, was the wife of the young Biamite who, she had feared, would
+give up his wooing on account of her visit to Hermon's studio.
+
+After a long voyage through the canal which had been dug a short time
+before, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, the three men
+reached Clysma. Opposite to it, on the eastern shore of the narrow
+northern point of the Erythraean sea--[Red Sea]--lay the goal of their
+journey, and thither Bias led his blind master, followed by the slave,
+on shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+It was long since Hermon had felt so free and light-hearted as during
+this voyage.
+
+He firmly believed in his recovery.
+
+A few days before he had escaped death in the royal palace as if by a
+miracle, and he owed his deliverance to the woman he loved.
+
+In the Temple of Nemesis at Tennis the conviction that the goddess had
+ceased to persecute him took possession of his mind.
+
+True, his blind eyes had been unable to see her menacing statue, but not
+even the slightest thrill of horror had seized him in its presence. In
+Alexandria, after his departure from Proclus's banquet, she had desisted
+from pursuing him. Else how would she have permitted him to escape
+uninjured when he was already standing upon the verge of an abyss, and a
+wave of her hand would have sufficed to hurl him into the death-dealing
+gulf?
+
+But his swift confession, and the transformation which followed it, had
+reconciled him not only with her, but also with the other gods; for they
+appeared to him in forms as radiant and friendly as in the days of his
+boyhood, when, while Bias took the helm on the long voyage through the
+canal and the Bitter Lakes, he recalled the visible world to his memory
+and, from the rising sun, Phoebus Apollo, the lord of light and
+purity, gazed at him from his golden chariot, drawn by four horses, and
+Aphrodite, the embodiment of all beauty, rose before him from the snowy
+foam of the azure waves. Demeter, in the form of Daphne, appeared,
+dispensing prosperity, above the swaying golden waves of the ripening
+grain fields and bestowing peace beside the domestic hearth. The whole
+world once more seemed peopled with deities, and he felt their rule in
+his own breast.
+
+The place of which Bias had told him was situated on a lofty portion of
+the shore. Beside the springs which there gushed from the soil of the
+desert grew green palm trees and thorny acacias. Farther on flourished
+the fragrant betharan. About a thousand paces from this spot the
+faithful freedman pitched the little tent obtained in Tennis under the
+shade of several tall palm trees and a sejal acacia.
+
+Not far from the springs lived the same family of Amalekites whom Bias
+had known from boyhood. They raised a few vegetables in little beds, and
+the men acted as guards to the caravans which came from Egypt through
+the peninsula of Sinai to Petrea and Hebron. The daughter of the aged
+sheik whose men accompanied the trains of goods, a pleasant, middle-aged
+woman, recognised the Biamite, who when a boy had recovered under her
+mother's nursing, and promised Bias to honour his blind master as a
+valued guest of the tribe.
+
+Not until after he had done everything in his power to render life in
+the wilderness endurable, and had placed a fresh bandage over his eyes,
+would Bias leave his master.
+
+The freedman entered the boat weeping, and Hermon, deeply agitated,
+turned his face toward him.
+
+When he was left alone with his Egyptian slave, with whom he rarely
+exchanged a word, he fancied that, amid the murmur of the waves washing
+the strand at his feet, blended the sounds of the street which led
+past his house in Alexandria, and with them all sorts of disagreeable
+memories crowded upon him; but soon he no longer heard them, and the
+next night brought refreshing sleep.
+
+Even on the second day he felt that the profound silence which
+surrounded him was a benefit. The stillness affected him like something
+physical.
+
+The life was certainly monotonous, and at first there were hours when
+the course of the new existence, so devoid of any change, op pressed
+him, but he experienced no tedium. His mental life was too rich, and the
+unburdening of his anxious soul too great a relief for that.
+
+He had shunned serious thought since he left the philosopher's school;
+but here it soon afforded him the highest pleasure, for never had his
+mind moved so freely, so undisturbed by any limit or obstacle.
+
+He did not need to search for what he hoped to find in the wilderness.
+His whole past life passed before him as if by its own volition. All
+that he had ever experienced, learned, thought, felt, rose before his
+mind with wonderful distinctness, and when he overlooked all his mental
+possessions, as if from a high watch-tower in the bright sunshine, he
+began to consider how he had used the details and how he could continue
+to do so.
+
+Whatever he had seen incorrectly forced itself resistlessly upon him,
+yet here also the Greek nature, deeply implanted in his soul, guarded
+him, and it was easy for him to avoid self-torturing remorse. He only
+desired to utilize for improvement what he recognised as false.
+
+When in this delicious silence he listened to the contradictory demands
+of his intellect and his senses, it often seemed as though he was
+present at a discussion between two guests who were exchanging their
+opinions concerning the subject that occupied his mind.
+
+Here he first learned to deepen sound intellectual power and listen to
+the demands of the heart, or to repulse and condemn them.
+
+Ah, yes, he was still blind; but never had he observed and recognised
+human life and its stage, down to the minutest detail, which his eyes
+refused to show him, so keenly as during these clays. The phenomena
+which had attracted or repelled his vision here appeared nearer and more
+distinctly.
+
+What he called "reality" and believed he understood thoroughly and
+estimated correctly, now disclosed many a secret which had previously
+remained concealed.
+
+How defective his visual perception had been! how necessary it now
+seemed to subject his judgment to a new test! Doubtless a wealth of
+artistic subjects had come to him from the world of reality which he had
+placed far above everything else, but a greater and nobler one from the
+sphere which he had shunned as unfruitful and corrupting.
+
+As if by magic, the world of ideality opened before him in this
+exquisite silence. He again found in his own soul the joyous creative
+forces of Nature, and the surrounding stillness increased tenfold his
+capacity of perceiving it; nay, he felt as if creative energy dwelt in
+solitude itself.
+
+His mind had always turned toward greatness. The desire to impress his
+works with the stamp of his own overflowing power had carried him far
+beyond moderation in modelling his struggling Maenads.
+
+Now, when he sought for subjects, beside the smaller and more simple
+ones appeared mighty and manifold ones, often of superhuman grandeur.
+
+Oh, if a higher power would at some future day permit him to model
+with his strong hands this battle of the Amazons, this Phoebus Apollo,
+radiant in beauty and the glow of victory, conquering the dragons of
+darkness!
+
+Arachne, too, returned to his mind, and also Demeter. But she did not
+hover before him as the peaceful dispenser of blessings, the preserver
+of peace, but as the maternal earth goddess, robbed of her daughter
+Proserpina. How varied in meaning was this myth!--and he strove to
+follow it in every direction.
+
+Nothing more could come to the blind artist from Nature by the aid of
+his physical vision. The realm of reality was closed to him; but he had
+found the key to that of the ideal, and what he found in it proved to be
+no less true than the objects the other had offered.
+
+How rich in forms was the new world which forced itself unbidden on his
+imagination! He who, a short time before, had believed whatever could
+not be touched by the hands was useless for his art, now had the choice
+among a hundred subjects, full of glowing life, which were attainable by
+no organ of the senses. He need fear to undertake none, if only it was
+worthy of representation; for he was sure of his ability, and difficulty
+did not alarm him, but promised to lend creating for the first time its
+true charm.
+
+And, besides, without the interest of animated conversation, without
+festal scenes where, with garlanded head and intoxicating pleasure
+soaring upward from the dust of earth, existence had seemed to him
+shallow and not worth the trouble it imposed upon mortals, solitude now
+offered him hours as happy as he had ever experienced while revelling
+with gay companions.
+
+At first many things had disturbed them, especially the dissatisfied,
+almost gloomy disposition of his Egyptian slave, who, born in the city
+and accustomed to its life, found it unbearable to stay in the desert
+with the strange blind master, who lived like a porter, and ordered him
+to prepare his wretched fare with the hands skilled in the use of the
+pen.
+
+But this living disturber of the peace was not to annoy the recluse
+long. Scarcely a fortnight after Bias's departure, the slave Patran, who
+had cost so extravagant a sum, vanished one morning with the sculptor's
+money and silver cup.
+
+This rascally trick of a servant whom he had treated with almost
+brotherly kindness wounded Hermon, but he soon regarded the morose
+fellow's disappearance as a benefit.
+
+When for the first time he drank water from an earthen jug, instead of
+a silver goblet, he thought of Diogenes, who cast his cup aside when he
+saw a boy raise water to his lips in his hand, yet with whom the great
+Macedonian conqueror of the world would have changed places "if he had
+not been Alexander."
+
+The active, merry son of Bias's Amalekite friend gladly rendered him
+the help and guidance for which he had been reluctant to ask his
+ill-tempered slave, and he soon became accustomed to the simple fare of
+the nomads. Bread and milk, fruits and vegetables from his neighbour's
+little garden, satisfied him, and when the wine he had drunk was used,
+he contented himself, obedient to old Tabus's advice, with pure water.
+
+As he still had several gold coins on his person, and wore two costly
+rings on his finger, he doubtless thought of sending to Clysma for meat,
+poultry, and wine, but he had refrained from doing so through the advice
+of the Amalekite woman, who anointed his eyes with Tabus's salve and
+protected them by a shade of fresh leaves from the dazzling rays of
+the desert sun. She, like the sorceress on the Owl's Nest, warned him
+against all viands that inflamed the blood, and he willingly allowed her
+to take away what she and her gray-haired father, the experienced head
+of the tribe, pronounced detrimental to his recovery.
+
+At first the "beggar's fare" seemed repulsive, but he soon felt that it
+was benefiting him after the riotous life of the last few months.
+
+One day, when the Amalekite took off his bandage, he thought he saw
+a faint glimmer of light, and how his heart exulted at this faint
+foretaste of the pleasure of sight!
+
+In an instant hope sprang up with fresh power in his excitable soul,
+and his lost cheerfulness returned to him like a butterfly to the newly
+opened flower. The image of his beloved Daphne rose before him in sunny
+radiance, and he saw himself in his studio in the service of his art.
+
+He had always been fond of children, and the little ones in the
+Amalekite family quickly discovered this, and crowded around their blind
+friend, who played all sorts of games with them, and in spite of the
+bandaged eyes, over which spread a broad shade of green leaves, could
+make whistles with his skilful artist hands from the reeds and willow
+branches they brought.
+
+He saw before him the object to which his heart still clung as
+distinctly as if he need only stretch out his hand to draw it nearer,
+and perhaps--surely and certainly, the Amalekite said--the time would
+come when he would behold it also with his bodily eyes.
+
+If the longing should be fulfilled! If his eyes were again permitted
+to convey to him what formerly filled his soul with delight! Yes,
+beauty--was entitled to a higher place than truth, and if it again
+unfolded itself to his gaze, how gladly and gratefully he would pay
+homage to it with his art!
+
+The hope that he might enjoy it once more now grew stronger, for the
+glimmer of light became brighter, and one day, when his skilful nurse
+again took the bandage from his milk-white pupils, he saw something long
+appear, as if through, a mist. It was only the thorny acacia tree at
+his tent; but the sight of the most beautiful of beautiful things never
+filled him with more joyful gratitude.
+
+Then he ordered the less valuable of his two rings to be sold to offer a
+sacrifice to health-bestowing Isis, who had a little temple in Clysma.
+
+How fervently he now prayed also to the great Apollo, the foe of
+darkness and the lord of everything light and pure! How yearningly he
+besought Aphrodite to bless him again with the enjoyment of eternal
+beauty, and Eros to heal the wound which his arrow had inflicted upon
+his heart and Daphne's, and bring them together after so much distress
+and need!
+
+When, after the lapse of another week, the bandage was again removed,
+his inmost soul rejoiced, for his eyes showed him the rippling
+emerald-green surface of the Red Sea, and the outlines of the palms, the
+tents, the Amalekite woman, her boy, and her two long-eared goats.
+
+How ardently he thanked the gracious deities who, in spite of Straton's
+precepts, were no mere figments of human imagination and, as if he
+had become a child again, poured forth his overflowing heart with mute
+gratitude to his mother's soul!
+
+The artist nature, yearning to create, began to stir within more
+ceaselessly than ever before. Already he saw clay and wax assuming forms
+beneath his skilful hands; already he imagined himself, with fresh power
+and delight, cutting majestic figures from blocks of marble, or, by
+hammering, carving, and filing, shaping them from gold and ivory.
+
+And he would not take what he intended to create solely from the world
+of reality perceptible to the senses. Oh, no! He desired to show through
+his art the loftiest of ideals. How could he still shrink from using the
+liberty which he had formerly rejected, the liberty of drawing from his
+own inner consciousness what he needed in order to bestow upon the ideal
+images he longed to create the grandeur, strength, and sublimity in
+which he beheld them rise before his purified soul!
+
+Yet, with all this, he must remain faithful to truth, copy from Nature
+what he desired to represent. Every finger, every lock of hair, must
+correspond with reality to the minutest detail, and yet the whole must
+be pervaded and penetrated, as the blood flows through the body, by the
+thought that filled his mind and soul.
+
+A reflected image of the ideal and of his own mood, faithful to truth,
+free, and yet obedient to the demands of moderation--in this sentence
+Hermon summed up the result of his solitary meditations upon art and
+works of art. Since he had found the gods again, he perceived that the
+Muse had confided to him a sacerdotal office. He intended to perform its
+duties, and not only attract and please the beholder's eyes through his
+works, but elevate his heart and mind, as beauty, truth, grandeur, and
+eternity uplifted his own soul. He recognised in the tireless creative
+power which keeps Nature ever new, fresh, and bewitching, the presence
+of the same deity whose rule manifested itself in the life of his own
+soul.
+
+So long as he denied its existence, he had recognised no being more
+powerful than himself; now that he again felt insignificant beside it,
+he knew himself to be stronger than ever before, that the greatest
+of all powers had become his ally. Now it was difficult for him to
+understand how he could have turned away from the deity. As an artist
+he, too, was a creator, and, while he believed those who considered
+the universe had come into existence of itself, instead of having been
+created, he had robbed himself of the most sublime model. Besides, the
+greatest charm of his noble profession was lost to him. Now he knew it,
+and was striving toward the goal attainable by the artist alone among
+mortals--to hold intercourse with the deity, and by creations full of
+its essence elevate the world to its grandeur and beauty.
+
+One day, at the end of the second month of his stay in the desert,
+when the Amalekite woman removed the bandage, her boy, whose form he
+distinguished as if through a veil, suddenly exclaimed: "The white cover
+on your eyes is melting! They are beginning to sparkle a little, and
+soon they will be perfectly well, and you can carve the lion's head on
+my cane."
+
+Perhaps the artist might really have succeeded in doing so, but he
+forbade himself the attempt.
+
+He thought that the time for departure had now arrived, and an
+irresistible longing urged him back to the world and Daphne.
+
+But he could not resist the entreaties of the old sheik and his daughter
+not to risk what he had gained, so he continued to use the shade of
+leaves, and allowed himself to be persuaded to defer his departure until
+the dimness which still prevented his seeing anything distinctly passed
+away.
+
+True, the beautiful peace which he had enjoyed of late was over and,
+besides, anxiety for the dear ones in distant lands was constantly
+increasing. He had had no news of them for a long time, and when he
+imagined what fate might have overtaken Archias, and his daughter with
+him, if he had been carried back to the enraged King in Alexandria, a
+terrible dread took possession of him, which scattered even joy in
+his wonderful recovery to the four winds, and finally led him to the
+resolution to return to the world at any risk and devote himself to
+those whose fate was nearer to his heart than his own weal and woe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Hermon, filled with longing, went down toward evening to the shore.
+
+The sun was setting, and the riot of colours in the western horizon
+seemed like a mockery of the torturing anxiety which had mastered his
+soul.
+
+He did not notice the boat that was approaching the land; many
+travellers who intended to go through Arabia Petrea landed here, and
+for several days--he knew why--there had been more stir in these quiet
+waters.
+
+Suddenly he was surprised by the ringing shout with which he had
+formerly announced his approach to Myrtilus.
+
+Unconsciously agitated by joy, as if the sunset glow before him had
+suddenly been transformed into the dawn of a happy day, he answered by a
+loud cry glad with hope. Although his dim eyes did not yet permit him to
+distinguish who was standing erect in the boat, waving greetings to him,
+he thought he knew whom this exquisite evening was bringing.
+
+Soon his own name reached him. It was his "wise Bias" who shouted, and
+soon, with a throbbing heart, he held out both hands to him.
+
+The freedman had performed his commission in the best possible manner,
+and was now no longer bound to silence by oath.
+
+Ledscha had left him and Myrtilus to themselves and, as Bias thought
+he had heard, had sailed with the Gaul Lutarius for Paraetonium, the
+frontier city between the kingdom of Egypt and that of Cyrene.
+
+Myrtilus felt stronger than he had done for a long time, and had sent
+him back to the blind friend who would need him more than he did.
+
+But worthy Bias also brought messages from Archias and Daphne. They were
+well, and his uncle now had scarcely any cause to fear pursuers.
+
+Before the landing of the boat, the shade had covered Hermon's eyes;
+but when, after the freedman's first timid question about his sight, he
+raised it again, at the same time reporting and showing what progress
+he had already made toward recovery, the excess of joy overpowered
+the freedman, and sometimes laughing, sometimes weeping, he kissed the
+convalescent's hands and simple robe. It was some time before he calmed
+himself again, then laying his forefinger on the side of his nose, he
+said: "Therein the immortals differ from human beings. We sculptors can
+only create good work with good tools, but the immortals often use the
+very poorest of all to accomplish the best things. You owe your sight to
+the hate of this old witch and mother of pirates, so may she find peace
+in the grave. She is dead. I heard it from a fellow-countryman whom I
+met in Herocipolis. Her end came soon after our visit."
+
+Then Bias related what he knew of Hermon's uncle, of Daphne, and
+Myrtilus.
+
+Two letters were to give him further particulars.
+
+They came from the woman he loved and from his friend, and as soon as
+Bias had lighted the lamp in the tent, at the same time telling his
+master in advance many items of news they contained, he set about the
+difficult task of reading.
+
+He had certainly scarcely become a master of this art on board the
+Hydra, yet his slow performance did all honour to the patience of his
+teacher Myrtilus.
+
+He began with Daphne's letter, but by the desire of prudent Archias it
+communicated few facts. But the protestations of love and expressions of
+longing which filled it pierced the freedman's soul so deeply that his
+voice more than once failed while reading them.
+
+Myrtilus's letter, on the contrary, gave a minute description of his
+mode of life, and informed his friend what he expected for him and
+himself in the future. The contents of both relieved Hermon's sorely
+troubled heart, made life with those who were dearest to him possible,
+and explained many things which the reports of the slave had not
+rendered perfectly clear.
+
+Archias had gone with Daphne to the island of Lesbos, his mother's
+native city. The ships which conveyed travellers to Pergamus, where
+Myrtilus was living, touched at this port, and Bias, to whom Hermon had
+confided the refuge of the father and daughter, had sought them there,
+and found them in a beautiful villa.
+
+After being released from his oath, Myrtilus had put himself into
+communication with his uncle, and just before Bias's departure the
+merchant had come to Pergamus with his daughter. As he had the most
+cordial reception from the Regent Philetaerus, he seemed inclined to
+settle permanently there.
+
+As for Myrtilus, he had cast anchor with Ledscha in the little Mysian
+seaport town of Pitane, near the mouth of the Caicus River, on which,
+farther inland, was the rapidly growing city of Pergamus.
+
+She had found a hospitable welcome in the family of a seafarer who were
+relatives, while the Gaul continued his voyage to obtain information
+about his tribe in Syria. But he had already returned when Bias reached
+Pitane with the two talents intended for him. Myrtilus had availed
+himself of Ledscha's permission long before and gone to Pergamus, where
+he had lived and worked in secrecy until, after the freedman's return
+from Ledscha, who at once left Pitane with the Gaul, he was released
+from his oath.
+
+During the absence of Bias he had modelled a large relief, a triumphal
+procession of Dionysus, and as the renown of his name had previously
+reached Pergamus, the artists and the most distinguished men in the city
+flocked to his studio to admire the work of the famous Alexandrian.
+
+Soon Philetoerus, who had founded the Pergamenian kingdom seven years
+before, and governed it with great wisdom, came to Myrtilus.
+
+Like his nephew and heir Eumenes, he was a friend to art, and induced
+the laurel-crowned Alexandrian to execute the relief, modelled in clay,
+in marble for the Temple of Dionysus at Pergamus.
+
+The heir to the throne of Philetaerus, who was now advancing in years,
+was especially friendly to Myrtilus, and did everything in his power to
+bind him to Pergamus.
+
+He succeeded, for in the beautiful house, located in an extremely
+healthful site, which Eumenes had assigned for a residence and studio to
+the Alexandrian artist, whose work he most ardently admired, and whom he
+regarded as the most welcome of guests, Myrtilus felt better physically
+than he had for years. Besides, he thought that, for many reasons,
+his friend would be less willing to settle in Alexandria, and that the
+presence of his uncle and Daphne would attract him to Pergamus.
+
+Moreover, Hermon surely knew that if he came to him as a blind man he
+would find a brother; if he came restored to sight, he would also find a
+brother, and likewise a fellow-artist with whom he could live and work.
+
+Myrtilus had told the heir to the throne of Pergamus of his richly
+gifted blind relative, and of the peculiarity of his art, and Eumenes
+eagerly endeavoured to induce his beloved guest to persuade his friend
+to remove to his capital, where there was no lack of distinguished
+leeches.
+
+If Hermon remained blind, he would honour him; if he recovered his
+sight, he would give him large commissions.
+
+How deeply these letters moved the heart of the recovering man! What
+prospects they opened for his future life, for love, friendship, and,
+not least, for his art!
+
+If he could see--if he could only see again! This exclamation blended
+with everything he thought, felt, and uttered. Even in sleep it haunted
+him. To regain the clearness of vision he needed for his work, he would
+willingly have submitted to the severest tortures.
+
+In Alexandria alone lived the great leeches who could complete the work
+which the salve of an ignorant old woman had begun. Thither he must
+go, though it cost him liberty and life. The most famous surgeon of the
+Museum at the capital had refused his aid under other circumstances.
+Perhaps he would relent if Philippus, a friend of Erasistratus, smoothed
+the way for him, and the old hero was now living very near. The ships,
+whose number on the sea at his feet was constantly increasing, were
+attracted hither by the presence of the Egyptian King and Queen on the
+isthmus which connects Asia and Africa. The priest of Apollo at Clysma,
+and other distinguished Greeks whom he met there, had told him the day
+before yesterday, and on two former visits to the place, what was
+going on in the world, and informed him how great an honour awaited the
+eastern frontier in these days. The appearance of their Majesties in
+person must not only mean the founding of a city, the reception of a
+victorious naval commander, and the consecration of a restored temple,
+but also have still deeper causes.
+
+During the last few years severe physical suffering had brought the
+unfortunate second king of the house of Ptolemy to this place to seek
+the aid of the ancient Egyptian gods, and, besides the philosophy, busy
+himself with the mystic teachings and magic arts of their priesthood.
+
+Only a short period of life seemed allotted to the invalid ruler, and
+the service of the time-honoured god of the dead, to whom he had erected
+one of the most magnificent temples in the world at Alexandria, to which
+Egyptians and Hellenes repaired with equal devotion, opened hopes for
+the life after death which seemed to him worthy of examination.
+
+For this reason also he desired to secure the favour of the Egyptian
+priesthood.
+
+For this purpose, for the execution of his wise and beneficent
+arrangements, as well as for the gratification of his expensive tastes,
+large sums of money were required; therefore he devoted himself with
+especial zeal to enlarging the resources of his country, already so rich
+by nature.
+
+In all these things he had found an admirable assistant in his sister
+Arsinoe. As the daughter of the father and mother to whom he himself
+owed existence, he could claim for her unassailable legitimacy the same
+recognition from the priesthood, and the same submission from the people
+rendered to his own person, whom the religion of the country commanded
+them to revere as the representative of the sun god.
+
+As marriages between brothers and sisters had been customary from
+ancient times, and were sanctioned by religion and myth, he had married
+the second Arsinoe, his sister, immediately after the banishment of the
+first Queen of this name.
+
+After the union with her, he called himself Philadelphus--brotherly
+love--and honoured his sister and wife with the same name.
+
+True, this led the sarcastic Alexandrians to utter many a biting, more
+or less witty jest, but he never had cause to regret his choice; in
+spite of her forty years, and more than one bloody deed which before her
+marriage to him she had committed as Queen of Thrace and as a widow, the
+second Arsinoe was always a pattern of regally aristocratic, dignified
+bearing and haughty womanly beauty.
+
+Though the first Philadelphus could expect no descendants from her, he
+had provided for securing them through her, for he had induced her to
+adopt the first Arsinoe's three children, who had been taken from their
+exiled mother.
+
+Arsinoe was now accompanying her royal husband Philadelphus to the
+eastern frontier. There the latter expected to name the city to be newly
+founded "Arsinoe" for her, and-to show his esteem for the priesthood--to
+consecrate in person the new Temple of Tum in the city of Pithom, near
+Heroopolis.
+
+Lastly, the monarch had been endeavouring to form new connections
+with the coast countries of eastern Africa, and open them to Egyptian
+commerce.
+
+Admiral Eumedes, the oldest son of Philippus and Thyone, had succeeded
+in doing this most admirably, for the distinguished commander had not
+only founded on the Ethiopian shore of the Red Sea a city which he named
+for the King "Ptolemais," but also won over the princes and tribes of
+that region to Egypt.
+
+He was now returning from Ethiopia with a wealth of treasures.
+
+After the brilliant festivals the invalid King, with his new wife, was
+to give himself up to complete rest for a month in the healthful air of
+the desert region which surrounded Pithom, far from the tumult of the
+capital and the exhausting duties of government.
+
+The magnificent shows which were to be expected, and the presence of the
+royal pair, had attracted thousands of spectators on foot or horseback,
+and by water, and the morning after Bias's return the sea near Clysma
+was swarming with vessels of all kinds and sizes.
+
+It was more than probable that Philippus, the father, and Thyone, the
+mother of the famous returning Admiral Eumedes, would not fail to be
+present at his reception on his native soil, and therefore Hermon wished
+to seek out his dear old friends in Heroopolis, where the greeting was
+to take place, and obtain their advice.
+
+The boat on which the freedman had come was at the disposal of his
+master and himself. Before Hermon entered it, he took leave, with an
+agitated heart and open hand, of his Amalekite friends and, in spite
+of the mist which still obscured everything he beheld, he perceived how
+reluctantly the simple dwellers in the wilderness saw him depart.
+
+When the master and servant entered the boat, in spite of the sturdy
+sailors who manned it, it proved even more difficult than they had
+feared to make any progress; for the whole narrow end of the arm of the
+sea, which here extended between Egypt and Arabia Petrea, was covered
+with war galleys and transports, boats and skiffs. The two most
+magnificent state galleys from Heroopolis were coming here, bearing the
+ambassadors who, in the King's name, were to receive the fleet and its
+commander. Other large and small, richly equipped, or unpretending ships
+and boats were filled with curious spectators.
+
+What a gay, animated scene! What brilliant, varied, strange, hitherto
+unseen objects were gathered here: vessels of every form and size, sails
+white, brown, and black, and on the state galleys and boats purple,
+blue, and every colour, adorned with more or less costly embroidery!
+What rising and falling of swiftly or slowly moving oars!
+
+"From Alexandria!" cried Bias, pointing to a state galley which the King
+was sending to the commander of the southern fleet.
+
+"And there," remarked Hermon, proud of his regained power of
+distinguishing one thing from another, and letting his eyes rest on
+one of the returning transports, on whose deck stood six huge African
+elephants, whose trumpeting mingled with the roaring of the lions and
+tigers on the huge freight vessels, and the exulting shouts of the men
+and women in the ships and boats.
+
+"After the King's heart!" exclaimed Bias. "He probably never received at
+one time before so large an accession to his collection of rare animals.
+What is the transport with the huge lotus flower on the prow probably
+bringing?"
+
+"Oh, and the monkeys and parrots over yonder!" joyously exclaimed the
+Amalekite boy who had been Hermon's guide, and had accompanied him
+into the boat. Then he suddenly lowered his voice and, fearing that his
+delight might give pain to the less keen-sighted man whom he loved, he
+asked, "You can see them, my lord, can't you?"
+
+"Certainly, my boy, though less plainly than you do," replied Hermon,
+stroking the lad's dark hair.
+
+Meanwhile the admiral's ship had approached the shore.
+
+Bias pointed to the poop, where the commander Eumedes was standing
+directing the course of the fleet.
+
+As if moulded in bronze, a man thoroughly equal to his office, he
+seemed, in spite of the shouts, greetings, and acclamations thundering
+around him, to close his eyes and ears to the vessels thronging about
+his ship and devote himself body and soul to the fulfilment of his duty.
+He had just embraced his father and mother, who had come here to meet
+him.
+
+"The King undoubtedly sent by his father the laurel wreath on his
+helmet," observed Bias, pointing to the admiral. "So many honours
+while he is still so young! When you went to the wrestling school in
+Alexandria, Eumedes was scarcely eight years older than you, and I
+remember how he preferred you to the others. A sign, and he will notice
+us and allow you to go on his ship, or, at any rate, send us a boat in
+which we can enter the canal."
+
+"No, no," replied Hermon. "My call would disturb him now."
+
+"Then let us make ourselves known to the Lady Thyone or her husband,"
+the freedman continued. "They will certainly take us on their large
+state galley, from which, though your eyes do not yet see as far as a
+falcon's, not a ship, not a man, not a movement will escape them."
+
+But Hermon added one more surprise to the many which he had already
+given, for he kindly declined Bias's well-meant counsel, and, resting
+his hand on the Amalekite boy's shoulder, said modestly: "I am no longer
+the Hermon whom Eumedes preferred to the others. And the Lady Thyone
+must not be reminded of anything sad in this festal hour for the
+mother's heart. I shall meet her to-morrow, or the day after, and yet I
+had intended to let no one who is loyal to me look into my healing eyes
+before Daphne."
+
+Then he felt the freedman's hand secretly press his, and it comforted
+him, after the sorrowful thoughts to which he had yielded, amid the
+shouts of joy ringing around him. How quietly, with what calm dignity,
+Eumedes received the well-merited homage, and how disgracefully the
+false fame had bewildered his own senses!
+
+Yet he had not passed through the purifying fire of misfortune in vain!
+The past should not cloud the glad anticipation of brighter days!
+
+Drawing a long breath, he straightened himself into a more erect
+posture, and ordered the men to push the boat from the shore. Then he
+pressed a farewell kiss on the Amalekite boy's forehead, the lad sprang
+ashore, and the journey northward began.
+
+At first the sailors feared that the crowd would be too great, and the
+boat would be refused admission to the canal; but the helmsman succeeded
+in keeping close behind a vessel of medium size, and the Macedonian
+guards of the channel put no obstacle in their countryman's way, while
+boats occupied by Egyptians and other barbarians were kept back.
+
+In the Bitter Lakes, whose entire length was to be traversed, the ships
+had more room, and after a long voyage through dazzling sunlight, and
+along desolate shores, the boat anchored at nightfall at Heroopolis.
+
+Hermon and Bias obtained shelter on one of the ships which the sovereign
+had placed at the disposal of the Greeks who came to participate in the
+festivals to be celebrated.
+
+Before his master went to rest, the freedman--whom he had sent out to
+look for a vessel bound to Pelusium and Alexandria the next day or the
+following one--returned to the ship.
+
+He had talked with the Lady Thyone, and told Hermon from her that she
+would visit or send for him the next day, after the festival.
+
+His own mother, the freedman protested, could not have rejoiced more
+warmly over the commencement of his recovery, and she would have come
+with him at once had not Philippus prevented his aged wife, who was
+exhausted by the long journey.
+
+The next morning the sun poured a wealth of radiant light upon the
+desert, the green water of the harbour, and the gray and yellow walls of
+the border fortress.
+
+Three worlds held out their hands to one another on this water way
+surrounded by the barren wilderness--Egypt, Hellas, and Semitic Asia.
+
+To the first belonged the processions of priests, who, with images of
+the gods, consecrated vessels, and caskets of relics, took their places
+at the edge of the harbour. The tawny and black, half-naked soldiers
+who, with high shields, lances, battle-axes and bows, gathered around
+strangely shaped standards, joined them, amid the beating of drums and
+blare of trumpets, as if for their protection. Behind them surged a vast
+multitude of Egyptians and dark-skinned Africans.
+
+On the other side of the canal the Asiatics were moving to and fro.
+The best places for spectators had been assigned to the petty kings and
+princes of tribes, Phoenician and Syrian merchants, and well-equipped,
+richly armed warriors. Among them thronged owners of herds and seafarers
+from the coast. Until the reception began, fresh parties of bearded sons
+of the desert, in floating white bernouse, mounted on noble steeds, were
+constantly joining the other Asiatics.
+
+The centre was occupied by the Greeks. The appearance of every
+individual showed that they were rulers of the land, and that they
+deserved to be. How free and bold was their bearing! how brightly and
+joyously sparkled the eyes of these men, whose wreaths of green leaves
+and bright-hued flowers adorned locks anointed for the festivals! Strong
+and slender, they were conspicuous in their stately grace among the
+lean Egyptians, unbridled in their jests and jeers, and the excitable
+Asiatics.
+
+Now the blare of trumpets and the roll of drums shook the air like
+echoing lightning and heavy peals of thunder; the Egyptian priests sang
+a hymn of praise to the God King and Goddess Queen, and the aristocratic
+priestesses of the deity tinkled the brass rings on the sistrum. Then a
+chorus of Hellenic singers began a polyphonous hymn, and amid its full,
+melodious notes, which rose above the enthusiastic shouts of "Hail!"
+from the multitude, King Ptolemy and his sister-wife showed themselves
+to the waiting throng. Seated on golden thrones borne on the broad
+shoulders of gigantic black Ethiopians, and shaded by lofty canopies,
+both were raised above the crowd, whom they saluted by gracious
+gestures.
+
+The athletic young bearers of the large round ostrich-feather fans which
+protected them from the sunbeams were followed in ranks by the monarch's
+"relatives" and "friends," the dignitaries, the dark and fair-haired
+bands of the guards of Grecian youths and boys, as well as divisions of
+the picked corps of the Hetairoi, Diadochi, and Epigoni, in beautiful
+plain Macedonian armour.
+
+They were followed in the most informal manner by scholars from the
+Museum, many Hellenic artists, and wealthy gentlemen of Alexandria of
+Greek and Jewish origin, whom the King had invited to the festival.
+
+In his train they went on board the huge galley on which the reception
+was to take place. Scarcely had the last one stepped on the deck when it
+began.
+
+Eumedes came from the admiral's galley to the King's. Ptolemy embraced
+him like a friend, and Arsinoe added a wreath of fresh roses to the
+laurel crown which the sovereign had sent the day before.
+
+At the same time thundering plaudits echoed from the walls of the
+fortifications and broke, sometimes rising, sometimes falling, against
+the ships and masts in the calm water of the harbour.
+
+The King had little time to lose. Even festal joy must move swiftly.
+There were many and varied things to be seen and done; but in the course
+of an hour--so ran the order--this portion of the festivities must be
+over, and it was fully obeyed.
+
+The hands and feet of the woolly-headed blacks who, amid loud
+acclamations, carried on shore the cages in which lions, panthers, and
+leopards shook the bars with savage fury, moved as if they were winged.
+The slender, dark-brown Ethiopians who led giraffes, apes, gazelles, and
+greyhounds past the royal pair rushed along as if they were under the
+lash; and the sixty elephants which Eumedes and his men had caught in
+the land of Chatyth moved at a rapid pace past the royal state galley.
+
+At the sight of them the King joined in the cheers of thousands of
+voices on the shore; these giant animals were to him auxiliaries
+who could put to flight a whole corps of hostile cavalry, and
+Arsinoe-Philadelphus, the Queen, sympathized with his pleasure.
+
+She raised her voice with her royal husband, and it seemed to the
+spectators on the shore as if they had a share in the narrative when she
+listened to Eumedes's first brief report.
+
+Only specimens of the gold and ivory, spices and rare woods, juniper
+trees and skins of animals which the ships brought home could be borne
+past their Majesties, and the black and brown men who carried them moved
+at a breathless rate.
+
+The sun was still far from the meridian when the royal couple and their
+train withdrew from the scene of the reception ceremonial, and drove, in
+a magnificent chariot drawn by four horses, to the neighbouring city
+of Pithoin, where new entertainments and a long period of rest awaited
+them. Hermon had seen, as if through a veil of white mists, the objects
+that aroused the enthusiasm of the throng, and so, he said to himself,
+it had been during the whole course of his life. Only the surface of the
+phenomena on which he fixed his eyes had been visible to him; he had
+not learned to penetrate further into their nature, fathom them to their
+depths, until he became blind.
+
+If the gods fulfilled his hope, if he regained his vision entirely, and
+even the last mists had vanished, he would hold firmly to the capacity
+he had gained, and use it in life as well as in art.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The messenger from Philippus appeared in the afternoon. It was the young
+hipparch who had studied in Athens and accompanied the commandant of
+Pelusium to Tennis the year before. He came charged with the commission
+to convey the artist, in the carriage of the gray-haired comrade of
+Alexander, to the neighbouring city of Pithom, where Philippus, by the
+King's command, was now residing.
+
+On the way the hipparch told the sculptor that the Lady Thyone had
+recently done things unprecedented for a woman of her age.
+
+She had been present at the founding of the city of Arsinoe, as well
+as at the laying of the corner stone of the temple which was to be
+consecrated to the new god Serapis in the neighbourhood. The day before
+she had welcomed her returning son before the entry of the fleet into
+the canal, and to-day had remained from the beginning to the end of his
+reception by the King, without being unduly wearied.
+
+Her first thought, after the close of the ceremony, had concerned
+her convalescing young friend. New entertainments, in which the Queen
+commanded her to participate, awaited her in Pithom, but pleasure at the
+return of her famous son appeared to double her power of endurance.
+
+Pithom was the sacred name of the temple precincts of the desert city of
+Thekut--[The biblical Suchot]--near Heroopolis, where the citizens lived
+and pursued their business.
+
+The travellers reached the place very speedily. Garlands of flowers and
+hangings adorned the houses. The sacred precinct Pithom, above which
+towered the magnificently restored temple of the god Turn, was also
+still adorned with many superb ones, as well as lofty masts, banners,
+and triumphal arches.
+
+Before they reached it the equipage passed the sumptuous tents which had
+been erected for the royal pair and their attendants. If Hermon had
+not known how long the monarch intended to remain here, their size and
+number would have surprised him.
+
+A regular messenger and carrier-dove service had been established
+between Alexandria and Pithom for the period of Ptolemy's relaxation;
+and the sovereign was accompanied not only by several of the chief
+councillors and secretaries, but artists and some of the Museum
+scientists with whom he was on specially intimate terms, who were to
+adorn the festival on the frontier with their presence, and cheer the
+invalid King, who needed entertainment. Singers and actors also belonged
+to the train.
+
+As they passed the encampment of the troops who accompanied the
+sovereign, the hipparch could show Hermon a magnificent military
+spectacle.
+
+Heroopolis was fortified, and belonged to the military colonies which
+Alexander the Great had established throughout all Egypt in order to win
+it over more quickly to Grecian customs. A Hellenic phalanx and Libyan
+mercenaries formed the garrison there, but at Pithom the King had
+gathered the flower of his troops around him, and this circumstance
+showed how little serious consideration the cautious ruler, who usually
+carefully regarded every detail, gave to the war with Cyrene, in which
+he took no personal part. The four thousand Gauls whom he had sent
+across the frontier as auxiliary troops promised to become perilous to
+the foe, who was also threatened in the rear by one of the most powerful
+Libyan tribes.
+
+Therefore, the artist was assured by his military companion,
+Philadelphus could let the campaign take its course, and permit himself
+the brief period of rest in this strangely chosen place, which the
+leeches had advised.
+
+The house where the aged couple lived with their son, Admiral Eumedes,
+was on the edge of the precincts of the temple. It belonged to the
+most distinguished merchant in the place, and consisted of a large open
+courtyard in the form of a square, surrounded by the building and its
+communicating wings.
+
+When the hipparch led Hermon into this place a number of people had
+already assembled there. Soldiers and sailors stood in groups in the
+centre, awaiting the orders of the old general and his subordinate
+officers. Messengers and slaves, coming and going on various errands,
+were crossing it, and on the shady side benches and chairs stood under
+a light awning. Most of these were occupied by visitors who came to
+congratulate the mother of the fame-crowned admiral.
+
+Thyone was reclining on a divan in their midst, submitting with a sigh
+to the social duties which her high position imposed upon her.
+
+Her face was turned toward the large doorway of the main entrance, while
+she sometimes greeted newly introduced guests, sometimes bade farewell
+to departing ones, and meanwhile answered and asked questions.
+
+She had been more wearied by the exertions of the last few days than her
+animated manner revealed. Yet as soon as Hermon, leaning on the young
+hipparch's arm, approached her, she rose and cordially extended both
+hands to him. True, the recovering man was still unable to see her
+features distinctly, but he felt the maternal kindness with which she
+received him, and what his eyes could not distinguish his ears taught
+him in her warm greetings. His heart dilated and, after he had kissed
+her dear old hand more than once with affectionate devotion, she led
+him among her guests and presented him to them as the son of her dearest
+friend.
+
+A strange stir ran through the assembled group, nearly all whose members
+belonged to the King's train, and the low whispers and murmurs around
+him revealed to Hermon that the false wreaths he wore had by no means
+been forgotten in this circle.
+
+A painful feeling of discomfort overwhelmed the man accustomed to the
+silence of the desert, and a voice within cried with earnest insistence,
+"Away from here!"
+
+But he had no time to obey it; an unusually tall, broad-shouldered man,
+with a thick gray beard and grave, well-formed features, in whom he
+thought he recognised the great physician Erasistratus, approached
+Thyone, and asked, "The recluse from the desert with restored sight?"
+
+"The same," replied the matron, and whispered to the other, who was
+really the famous scientist and leech whom Hermon had desired to seek
+in Alexandria. "Exhaustion will soon overcome me, and how many important
+matters I had to discuss with you and the poor fellow yonder!"
+
+The physician laid his hand on the matron's temples, and, raising his
+voice, said in a tone of grave anxiety: "Exhaustion! It would be better
+for you, honoured lady, to keep your bed."
+
+"Surely and certainly!" the wife of the chief huntsman instantly
+assented. "We have already taxed your strength far too long, my noble
+friend."
+
+This welcome confession produced a wonderful effect upon the other
+visitors, and very soon the last one had vanished from the space under
+the awning and the courtyard. Not a single person had vouchsafed Hermon
+a greeting; for the artist, divested of the highest esteem, had
+been involved in the ugly suspicion of having driven his uncle from
+Alexandria, and the monarch was said to have spoken unfavourably of him.
+
+When the last one had left the courtyard, the leech exchanged a quick
+glance of understanding, which also included Hermon, with Thyone,
+and the majordomo received orders to admit no more visitors, while
+Erasistratus exclaimed gaily, "It is one of the physician's principal
+duties to keep all harmful things--including living ones--from his
+patient."
+
+Then he turned to Hermon and had already begun to question him about
+his health, when the majordomo announced another visitor. "A very
+distinguished gentleman, apparently," he said hastily; "Herophilus of
+Chalcedon, who would not be denied admittance."
+
+Again the eyes of Erasistratus and the matron met, and the former
+hastened toward his professional colleague.
+
+The two physicians stopped in the middle of the courtyard and talked
+eagerly together, while Thyone, with cordial interest, asked Hermon to
+tell her what she had already partially learned through the freedman
+Bias.
+
+Finally Erasistratus persuaded the matron, who seemed to have
+forgotten her previous exhaustion, to share the consultation, but the
+convalescent's heart throbbed faster as he watched the famous leeches.
+
+If these two men took charge of his case, the most ardent desire of his
+soul might be fulfilled, and Thyone was certainly trying to induce them
+to undertake his treatment; what else would have drawn her away from him
+before she had said even one word about Daphne?
+
+The sculptor saw, as if through a cloud of dust, the three consulting
+together in the centre of the courtyard, away from the soldiers and
+messengers.
+
+Hermon had only seen Erasistratus indistinctly, but before his eyes were
+blinded he had met him beside the sick-bed of Myrtilus, and no one who
+had once beheld it could forget the manly bearded face, with the grave,
+thoughtful eyes, whose gaze deliberately sought their goal.
+
+The other also belonged to the great men in the realm of intellect.
+Hermon knew him well, for he had listened eagerly in the Museum to the
+lectures of the famous Herophilus, and his image also had stamped itself
+upon his soul.
+
+Even at that time the long, smooth hair of the famous investigator had
+turned gray. From the oval of his closely shaven, well-formed face, with
+the long, thin, slightly hooked nose, a pair of sparkling eyes had
+gazed with penetrating keenness at the listeners. Hermon had imagined
+Aristotle like him, while the bust of Pythagoras, with which he was
+familiar, resembled Erasistratus.
+
+The convalescent could scarcely expect anything more than beneficial
+advice from Herophilus; for this tireless investigator rarely rendered
+assistance to the sick in the city, because the lion's share of his time
+and strength were devoted to difficult researches. The King favoured
+these by placing at his disposal the criminals sentenced to death. In
+his work of dissection he had found that the human brain was the seat of
+the soul, and the nerves originated in it.
+
+Erasistratus, on the contrary, devoted himself to a large medical
+practice, though science owed him no less important discoveries.
+
+The circle of artists had heard what he taught concerning the blood
+in the veins and the air bubbles in the arteries, how he explained the
+process of breathing, and what he had found in the investigation of the
+beating of the heart.
+
+But he performed his most wonderful work with the knife in his hand as a
+surgeon. He had opened the body of one of Archias's slaves, who had been
+nursed by Daphne, and cured him after all other physicians had given him
+up.
+
+When this man's voice reached Hermon, he repeated to himself the words
+of refusal with which the great physician had formerly declined to
+devote his time and skill to him. Perhaps he was right then--and how
+differently he treated him to-day!
+
+Thyone had informed the famous scientist of everything which she knew
+from Hermon, and had learned of the last period of his life through
+Bias.
+
+She now listened with eager interest, sometimes completing Hermon's
+acknowledgments by an explanatory or propitiating word, as the leeches
+subjected him to a rigid examination, but the latter felt that his
+statements were not to serve curiosity, but an honest desire to aid him.
+So he spoke to them with absolute frankness.
+
+When the examination was over, Erasistratus exclaimed to his
+professional colleague: "This old woman! Precisely as I would have
+prescribed. She ordered the strictest diet with the treatment. She
+rejected every strong internal remedy, and forbade him wine, much meat,
+and all kinds of seasoning. Our patient was directed to live on milk and
+the same simple gifts of Nature which I would have ordered for him. The
+herb juice in the clever sorceress's salve proved the best remedy. The
+incantations could do no harm. On the contrary, they often produce a
+wonderful effect on the mind, and from it proceed further."
+
+Here Erasistratus asked to have a description of the troubles which
+still affected Hermon's vision, and the passionate eagerness with which
+the leeches gazed into his eyes strengthened the artist's budding hope.
+Never had he wished more ardently that Daphne was back at his side.
+
+He also listened with keen attention when the scientists finally
+discussed in low tones what they had perceived, and caught the words,
+"White scar on the cornea," "leucoma," and "operation." He also heard
+Herophilus declare that an injury of the cornea by the flame of the
+torch was the cause of the blindness. In the work which led him to the
+discovery of the retina in the eye he had devoted himself sedulously to
+the organs of sight. This case seemed as if it had been created for his
+friend's keen knife.
+
+What expectations this assurance aroused in the half-cured man, who felt
+as if the goal was already gained, when, shortly after, Erasistratus,
+the greatest physician of his time, offered to make the attempt in
+Alexandria to remove, by a few little incisions, what still dimmed his
+impaired vision!
+
+Hermon, deeply agitated, thanked the leech, and when Thyone perceived
+what was passing in his mind she ventured to ask the question whether
+it would not be feasible to perform the beneficent work here, and, if
+possible, the next day, and the surgeon was ready to fulfil the wish
+of the matron and the sufferer speedily. He would bring the necessary
+instruments with him. It only depended upon whether a suitable room
+could be found in the crowded city, and Thyone believed that such a one
+could not be lacking in the great building at her disposal.
+
+A short conversation with the steward confirmed this opinion.
+
+Then Erasistratus appointed the next morning for the operation. During
+the ceremony of consecrating the temple it would be quiet in the house
+and its vicinity. The preliminary fasting which he imposed upon his
+patients Hermon had already undergone.
+
+"The pure desert air here," he added, "will be of the utmost assistance
+in recovery. The operation is slight, and free from danger. A few days
+will determine its success. I shall remain here with their Majesties,
+only"--and here he hesitated doubtfully--"where shall I find a competent
+assistant?"
+
+Herophilus looked his colleague in the face with a sly smile, saying,
+"If you credit the old man of Chalcedon with the needful skill, he is at
+your disposal."
+
+"Herophilus!" cried Thyone, and tears of emotion wet her aged eyes,
+which easily overflowed; but when Hermon tried to give expression to his
+fervent gratitude in words, Erasistratus interrupted him, exclaiming,
+as he grasped his comrade's hand, "It honours the general in his purple
+robe, when he uses the spade in the work of intrenchment."
+
+Many other matters were discussed before the professional friends
+withdrew, promising to go to work early the next morning.
+
+They kept their word, and while the temple of the god Turn resounded
+with music and the chanting of hymns by the priests, whose dying notes
+entered the windows of the sick-room, while Queen Arsinoe-Philadelphus
+led the procession, and the King, who was prevented by the gout from
+entering and passing around the sanctuary at her side, ordered a
+monument to be erected in commemoration of this festival, the famous
+leeches toiled busily.
+
+When the music and the acclamations of the crowd died away, their
+task was accomplished. The great Herophilus had rendered his equally
+distinguished colleague the aid of an apprentice. When Hermon's lips
+again tried to pour forth his gratitude, Herophilus interrupted him
+with the exclamation: "Use the sight you have regained, young master, in
+creating superb works of art, and I shall be in your debt, since, with
+little trouble, I was permitted to render a service to the whole Grecian
+world."
+
+Hermon spent seven long days and nights full of anxious expectation in
+a darkened room. Bias and a careful old female slave of the Lady Thyone
+watched him faithfully. Philippus, his wife, and his famous son Eumedes
+were allowed to pay him only brief visits; but Erasistratus watched the
+success of the operation every morning. True, it had been by no means
+dangerous, and certainly would not have required his frequent visits,
+but it pleased the investigator, reared in the school of Stoics, to
+watch how this warm-blooded young artist voluntarily submitted to
+live in accord with reason and Nature--the guiding stars of his own
+existence.
+
+But Hermon opened his soul to his learned friend, and what Erasistratus
+thus learned strengthened the conviction of this great alleviator
+of physical pain that suffering and knowledge of self were the best
+physicians for the human soul. The scientist, who saw in the arts
+the noblest ornament of mortal life, anticipated with eager interest
+Hermon's future creative work.
+
+On the seventh day the leech removed the bandage from his patient's
+eyes, and the cry of rapture with which Hermon clasped him in his arms
+richly rewarded him for his trouble and solicitude.
+
+The restored man beheld in sharp, clear, undimmed outlines everything at
+which the physician desired him to look.
+
+Now Erasistratus could write to his friend Herophilus in Alexandria that
+the operation was successful.
+
+The sculptor was ordered to avoid the dazzling sunlight a fortnight
+longer, then he might once more use his eyes without restriction, and
+appeal to the Muse to help in creating works of art.
+
+Thyone was present at this explanation. After she had conquered the
+great emotion which for a time sealed her lips, her first question,
+after the physician's departure, was: "And Nemesis? She too, I think,
+has fled before the new light?"
+
+Hermon pressed her hand still more warmly, exclaiming with joyous
+confidence: "No, Thyone! True, I now have little reason to fear the
+avenging goddess who pursues the criminal, but all the more the other
+Nemesis, who limits the excess of happiness. Will she not turn her swift
+wheel, when I again, with clear eyes, see Daphne, and am permitted to
+work in my studio once more with keen eyes and steady hand?"
+
+Now the barriers which had hitherto restricted Hermon's social
+intercourse also fell. Eumedes, the commander of the fleet, often
+visited him, and while exchanging tales of their experiences they became
+friends.
+
+When Hermon was alone with Thyone and her gray-haired husband, the
+conversation frequently turned upon Daphne and her father.
+
+Then the recovered artist learned to whom Archias owed his escape from
+being sentenced to death and having his property confiscated. Papers,
+undeniably genuine, had proved what large sums had been advanced by the
+merchant during the period of the first Queen Arsinoe's conspiracy,
+and envious foes had done their best to prejudice the King and his
+sister-wife against Archias. Then the gray-haired hero fearlessly
+interceded for his friend, and the monarch did not remain deaf to his
+representations. King Ptolemy was writing the history of the conqueror
+of the world, and needed the aged comrade of Alexander, the sole
+survivor who had held a prominent position in the great Macedonian's
+campaigns. It might be detrimental to his work, on which he set great
+value, if he angered the old warrior, who was a living source of
+history. Yet the King was still ill-disposed to the merchant, for while
+he destroyed Archias's death sentence which had been laid before him for
+his signature, he said to Philippus: "The money-bag whose life I give
+you was the friend of my foe. Let him beware that my arm does not yet
+reach him from afar!"
+
+Nay, his resentment went so far that he refused to receive Hermon, when
+Eumedes begged permission to present the artist whose sight had been so
+wonderfully restored.
+
+"To me he is still the unjustly crowned conspirator," Philadelphus
+replied. "Let him create the remarkable work which I formerly expected
+from him, and perhaps I shall have a somewhat better opinion of him,
+deem him more worthy of our favour."
+
+Under these circumstances it was advisable for Archias and Daphne to
+remain absent from Alexandria, and the experienced couple could only
+approve Hermon's decision to go to Pergamus as soon as Erasistratus
+dismissed him. A letter from Daphne, which reached Thyone's hands at
+this time, increased the convalescent's already ardent yearning to
+the highest pitch. The girl entreated her maternal friend to tell her
+frankly the condition of her lover's health. If he had recovered, he
+would know how to find her speedily; if the blindness was incurable,
+she would come herself to help him bear the burden of his darkened
+existence. Chrysilla would accompany her, but she could leave her father
+alone in Pergamus a few months without anxiety, for he had a second
+son there in his nephew Myrtilus, and had found a kind friend in
+Philetaerus, the ruler of the country.
+
+From this time Hermon daily urged Erasistratus to grant him entire
+liberty, but the leech steadfastly refused, though he knew whither his
+young friend longed to go.
+
+Not until the beginning of the fourth week after the operation did
+he himself lead Hermon into the full sunlight, and when the recovered
+artist came out of the house he raised his hands in mute prayer, gushing
+from the inmost depths of his heart.
+
+The King was to return to Alexandria in a few days, and at the same
+time Philippus and Thyone were going back to Pelusium. Hermon wished to
+accompany them there and sail thence on a ship bound for Pergamus.
+
+With Eumedes he visited the unfamiliar scenes around him, and his newly
+restored gift of sight presented to him here many things that formerly
+he would scarcely have noticed, but which now filled him with grateful
+joy. Gratitude, intense gratitude, had taken possession of his whole
+being. This feeling mastered him completely and seemed to be fostered
+and strengthened by every breath, every heart throb, every glance into
+his own soul and the future.
+
+Besides, many beauties, nay, even many marvels, presented themselves to
+his restored eyes. The whole wealth of the magic of beauty, intellect,
+and pleasure in life, characteristic of the Greek nature, appeared
+to have followed King Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoe-Philadelphus hither.
+Gardens had been created on the arid, sandy soil, whose gray and yellow
+surface extended in every direction, the water on the shore of the canal
+which united Pithom with the Nile not sufficing to render it possible
+to make even a narrow strip of arable land. Fresh water flowed from
+beautiful fountains adorned with rich carvings, and the pure fluid
+filled large porphyry and marble basins. Statues, single and in groups,
+stood forth in harmonious arrangement against green masses of leafage,
+and Grecian temples, halls, and even a theatre, rapidly constructed in
+the noblest forms from light material, invited the people to devotion,
+to the enjoyment of the most exquisite music, and to witness the perfect
+performance of many a tragedy and comedy.
+
+Statues surrounded the hurriedly erected palaestra where the Ephebi
+every morning practised their nude, anointed bodies in racing,
+wrestling, and throwing the discus. What a delight it was to Hermon to
+feast his eyes upon these spectacles! What a stimulus to the artist, so
+long absorbed in his own thoughts, who had so recently returned from
+the wilderness to the world of active life, when he was permitted, in
+Erasistratus's tent, to listen to the great scholars who had accompanied
+the King to the desert! Only the regret that Daphne was not present to
+share his pleasure clouded Hermon's enjoyment, when Eumedes related
+to his parents, himself, and a few chosen friends the adventures
+encountered, and the experiences gathered in distant Ethiopia, on land
+and water, in battle and the chase, as investigator and commander.
+
+The utmost degree of variety had entered into the simplicity of the
+monotonous desert, the most refined abundance for the intellect and the
+need of beauty appeared amid its barrenness.
+
+The poet Callimachus had just arrived with a new chorus of singers,
+tablets by Antiphilus and Nicias had come to beautify the last days of
+the residence in the desert--when doves, the birds of Aphrodite, flew
+with the speed of lightning into Pithom, but instead of bringing a new
+message of love and announcing the approach of fresh pleasure, they bore
+terrible tidings which put joy to flight and stifled mirthfulness.
+
+The unbridled greed of rude barbarians had chosen Alexandria for its
+goal, and startled the royal pair and their chosen companions from the
+sea of pleasure where they would probably have remained for weeks.
+
+The four thousand Gauls who had been obtained to fight against Cyrene
+were in the act of rushing rapaciously upon the richest city in the
+world. The most terrible danger hung like a black cloud over the capital
+founded by Alexander, whose growth had been so rapid. True, General
+Satvrus asserted that he was strong enough, with the troops at his
+disposal, to defeat the formidable hordes; but a second dove, sent
+by the epitropus who had remained in Alexandria, alluded to serious
+disaster which it would scarcely be possible to avert.
+
+The doves now flew swiftly to and fro; but before the third arrived,
+Eumedes, the commander of the fleet just from Ethiopia, was already on
+the way to Alexandria with all the troops assembled on the frontier.
+
+The King and Queen, with the corps of pages and the corps of youths,
+entered the boats waiting for them to return, drawn by teams of four
+swift horses, to Memphis, to await within the impregnable fortress of
+the White Castle the restoration of security in the capital.
+
+The Greeks prized the most valiant fearlessness so highly that no shadow
+could be suffered to rest upon the King's, and therefore the monarch's
+hurried departure was made in a way which permitted no thought of
+flight, and merely resembled impatient yearning for new festivals and
+the earnest desire to fulfil grave duties in another portion of the
+kingdom.
+
+Many of the companions of the royal pair, among them Erasistratus,
+accompanied them. Hermon bade him farewell with a troubled heart, and
+the leech, too, parted with regret from the artist to whom, a year
+before, he had refused his aid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Hermon went, with Philippus and Thyone, on board the ship which was to
+convey them through the new canal to Pelusium, where the old commandant
+had to plan all sorts of measures. In the border fortress the artist
+was again obliged to exercise patience, for no ship bound to Pergamus or
+Lesbos could be found in the harbour. Philippus had as much work as
+he could do, but all his arrangements were made when carrier doves
+announced that the surprise intended by the Gauls had been completely
+thwarted, and his son Eumedes was empowered to punish them.
+
+The admiral would take his fleet to the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile.
+
+Another dove came from King Ptolemy, and summoned the old general at
+once to the capital. Philippus resolved to set off without delay and, as
+the way led past that mouth of the Nile, met his son on the voyage.
+
+Hermon must accompany him and his wife to Alexandria, whence, without
+entering the city, he could sail for Pergamus; ships bound to all the
+ports in the Mediterranean were always in one of the harbours of the
+capital. A galley ready to weigh anchor was constantly at the disposal
+of the commandant of the fortress, and the next noon the noble pair,
+with Hermon and his faithful Bias, went on board the Galatea.
+
+The weather was dull, and gray clouds were sweeping across the sky over
+the swift vessel, which hugged the coast, and, unless the wind shifted,
+would reach the narrow tongue of land pierced by the Sebennytic mouth of
+the Nile before sunrise.
+
+Though the general and his wife went to rest early, Hermon could not
+endure the close air of the cabin. Wrapped in his cloak he went on deck.
+The moon, almost full, was sailing in the sky, sometimes covered by dark
+clouds, sometimes leaving them behind. Like a swan emerging from the
+shadow of the thickets along the shore upon the pure bosom of the
+lake, it finally floated into the deep azure of the radiant firmament.
+Hermon's heart swelled.
+
+How he rejoiced that he was again permitted to behold the starry sky,
+and satiate his soul with the beauty of creation! What delight it gave
+him that the eternal wanderers above were no longer soulless forms,
+that he again saw in the pure silver disk above friendly Selene, in the
+rolling salt waves the kingdom of Poseidon! To-morrow, when the deep
+blue water was calm, he would greet the sea-god Glaucus, and when snowy
+foam crowned the crests of the waves, white-armed Thetis. The wind was
+no longer an empty sound to him; no, it, too, came from a deity. All
+Nature had regained a new, divine life. Doubtless he felt much nearer to
+his childhood than before, but he was infinitely less distant from the
+eternal divinity. And all the forms, so full of meaning, which appeared
+to him from Nature, and from every powerful emotion of his own soul,
+were waiting to be represented by his art in the noblest of forms, those
+of human beings. There were few with whose nature he had not become
+familiar in the darkness and solitude that once surrounded him.
+
+When he began to create again, he had only to summon them, and he
+awaited, with the suspense of the general who is in command of new
+troops on the eve of battle, the success of his own work after the great
+transformation which had taken place in him.
+
+What a stress and tumult!
+
+He had controlled it since the first hour when he regained his full
+vision. He would fain have transformed the moon into the sun, the ship
+into the studio, and begun to model.
+
+He knew, too, what he desired to create.
+
+He would model an Apollo trampling under foot the slain dragon of
+darkness.
+
+He would succeed in this work now. And as he looked up and saw Selene
+just emerging again from the black cloud island, the thought entered his
+mind that it was a moonlight night like this when all the unspeakably
+terrible misfortune occurred--which was now past.
+
+Yet neither the calm wanderer above nor a resentful woman had exposed
+him to the persecution of Nemesis. In the stillness of the desert he had
+perceived what had brought all this terrible suffering upon him; but
+he would not repeat it to himself now, for he felt within his soul the
+power to remain faithful to his best self in the future.
+
+With clear eyes he gazed keenly and blithely at the new life. Nothing,
+least of all, futile self-torturing regret for faults committed, should
+cloud the fair morning dawning anew for him, which summoned him to
+active work, to gratitude and love.
+
+Uttering a sigh of relief, he paced the deck--now brilliantly
+illuminated by silvery light--with long strides.
+
+The moon above his head reminded him of Ledscha. He was no longer angry
+with her. The means by which she had intended to destroy him had been
+transformed into a benefit, and while in the desert he had perceived
+how often man finally blesses, as the highest gain, what he at first
+regarded as the most cruel affliction.
+
+How distinctly the image of the Biamite again stood before his agitated
+soul!
+
+Had he not loved her once?
+
+Or how had it happened that, though his heart was Daphne's, and hers
+alone, he had felt wounded and insulted when his Bias, who was leaning
+over the railing of the deck yonder, gazing at the glittering waves, had
+informed him that Ledscha had been accompanied in her flight from her
+unloved husband by the Gaul whose life he, Hermon, had saved? Was this
+due to jealousy or merely wounded vanity at being supplanted in a heart
+which he firmly believed belonged, though only in bitter hate, solely to
+him?
+
+She certainly had not forgotten him, and while the remembrance of her
+blended with the yearning for Daphne which never left him, he sat down
+and gazed out into the darkness till his head drooped on his breast.
+
+Then a dream showed the Biamite to the slumbering man, yet no longer in
+the guise of a woman, but as the spider Arachne. She increased before
+his eyes to an enormous size and alighted upon the pharos erected by
+Sostratus. Uninjured by the flames of the lighthouse, above which she
+hovered, she wove a net of endlessly long gray threads over the whole
+city of Alexandria, with its temples, palaces, and halls, harbours and
+ships, until Daphne suddenly appeared with a light step and quietly cut
+one after the other.
+
+Suddenly a shrill whistle aroused him. It was the signal of the
+flute-player to relieve the rowers.
+
+A faint yellow line was now tingeing the eastern horizon of the gray,
+cloudy sky. At his left extended the flat, dull-brown coast line, which
+seemed to be lower than the turbid waves of the restless sea. The cold
+morning wind was blowing light mists over the absolutely barren shore.
+Not a tree, not a bush, not a human dwelling was to be seen in this
+dreary wilderness. Wherever the eye turned, there was nothing but sand
+and water, which united at the edge of the land. Long lines of surf
+poured over the arid desert, and, as if repelled by the desolation of
+this strand, returned to the wide sea whence they came.
+
+The shrill screams of the sea-gulls behind the ship, and the hoarse,
+hungry croaking of the ravens on the shore blended with the roaring of
+the waves. Hermon shuddered at this scene. Shivering, he wrapped his
+cloak closer around him, yet he did not go to the protecting cabin, but
+followed the nauarch, who pointed out to him the numerous vessels which,
+in a wide curve, surrounded the place where the Sebennytic arm of the
+Nile pierced the tongue of land to empty into the sea.
+
+The experienced seaman did not know what ships were doing there, but it
+was hardly anything good; for ravens in a countless multitude were to be
+seen on the shore and all moved toward the left.
+
+Philippus's appearance on deck interrupted the nauarch. He anxiously
+showed the birds to the old hero also, and the latter's only reply was,
+"Watch the helm and sails!"
+
+Yonder squadron, Philippus said to the artist, was a part of his son's
+fleet; what brought it there was a mystery to him too.
+
+After the early meal, the galley of Eumedes approached his father's
+trireme. Two other galleys, not much inferior in size, were behind, and
+probably fifty smaller vessels were moving about the mouth of the Nile
+and the whole dreary tongue of land.
+
+All belonged to the royal war fleet, and the deck of every one was
+crowded with armed soldiers.
+
+On one a forest of lances bristled in the murky air, and upon its
+southward side a row of archers, each man holding his bow in his hand,
+stood shoulder to shoulder.
+
+At what mark were their arrows to be aimed? The men on board the Galatea
+saw it distinctly, for the shore was swarming with human figures, here
+standing crowded closely together, like horses attacked by a pack of
+wolves; yonder running, singly or in groups, toward the sea or into the
+land. Dark spots on the light sand marked the places where others had
+thrown themselves on the ground, or, kneeling, stretched out their arms
+as if in defence.
+
+Who were the people who populated this usually uninhabited, inhospitable
+place so densely and in so strange a manner?
+
+This could not be distinguished from the Galatea with the naked eye,
+but Philippus thought that they were the Gauls whose punishment had been
+intrusted to his son, and it soon proved that the old general was right;
+for just as the Galatea was approaching the shore, a band of twenty or
+thirty men plunged into the sea. They were Gauls. The light complexions
+and fair and red bristling hair showed this--Philippus knew them, and
+Hermon remembered the hordes of men who had rushed past him on the ride
+to Tennis.
+
+But the watchers were allowed only a short time for observation; brief
+shouts of command rang from the ships near them, long bows were raised
+in the air, and one after another of the light-hued forms in the water
+threw up its arms, sprang up, or sank motionless into the waves around
+them, which were dyed with a crimson stain.
+
+The artist shuddered; the gray-haired general covered his head with his
+cloak, and the Lady Thyone followed his example, uttering her son's name
+in a tone of loud lamentation.
+
+The nauarch pointed to the black birds in the air and close above the
+shore and the water; but the shout, "A boat from the admiral's galley!"
+soon attracted the attention of the voyagers on the Galatea in a new
+direction.
+
+Thirty powerful rowers were urging the long, narrow boat toward them.
+Sometimes raised high on the crest of a mountain wave, sometimes sinking
+into the hollow, it completed its trip, and Eumedes mounted a swinging
+rope ladder to the Galatea's deck as nimbly as a boy.
+
+Here the young commander of the fleet hastened toward his parents. His
+mother sobbed aloud at his anything but cheerful greeting; Philippus
+said mournfully, "I have heard nothing yet, but I know all."
+
+"Father," replied the admiral, and raising the helmet from his head,
+covered with brown curls, he added mournfully: "First as to these men
+here. It will teach you to understand the other terrible things. Your
+Uncle Archias's house was destroyed; yonder men were the criminals."
+
+"In the capital!" Philippus exclaimed furiously, and Hermon cried in no
+less vehement excitement: "How did my uncle get the ill will of these
+monsters? But as the vengeance is in your hands, they will atone for
+this breach of the peace!"
+
+"Severely, perhaps too severely," replied Eumedes gloomily, and
+Philippus asked his son how this evil deed could have happened, and the
+purport of the King's command.
+
+The admiral related what had occurred in the capital since his departure
+from Pithom.
+
+The four thousand Gauls who had been sent by King Antiochus to the
+Egyptian army as auxiliary troops against Cyrene refused, before
+reaching Paraetonium, on the western frontier of the Egyptian kingdom,
+to obey their Greek commanders. As they tried to force them to continue
+their march, the barbarians left them bound in the road. They
+spared their lives, but rushed with loud shouts of exultation toward
+Alexandria, which was close at hand.
+
+They had learned that the city was almost stripped of troops, and the
+most savage instinct urged them toward the wealthy capital.
+
+Without encountering any resistance, they broke through the necropolis
+into Alexandria, crossed the Draco canal, and marched past the
+unfinished Temple of Serapis through the Rhakotis. At the Canopic Way
+they turned eastward and rushed through this main artery of traffic
+till, in the Brucheium, they hastened in a northerly direction toward
+the sea.
+
+South of the Theatre of Dionysus they halted. One division turned toward
+the market-place, another toward the royal palaces.
+
+Until they reached the Brucheium the hordes, so eager for booty, had
+refrained from plunder and pillage.
+
+Their whole strength was to be reserved, as the examination proved, for
+the attack upon the royal palaces. Several people who were thoroughly
+familiar with Alexandria had acted as guides.
+
+The instigator of the mutiny was said to be a Gallic captain who had
+taken part in the surprise of Delphi, but, having ventured to punish
+disobedient soldiers, he was killed. A bridge-builder from the ranks,
+and his wife, who was not of Gallic blood, had taken his place.
+
+This woman, a resolute and obstinate but rarely beautiful creature, when
+the division that was to attack the royal palaces was marching past the
+house which Hermon had occupied as the heir of Myrtilus, pressed forward
+herself across the threshold, to order the mutineers who followed her to
+destroy and steal whatever came in their way. The bridge-builder went to
+the market-place, and in pillaging the wealthy merchants' houses
+began with Archias's. Meanwhile it was set on fire and, with the large
+warehouses adjoining it, was burned to the foundation walls.
+
+But the robbers were to obtain no permanent success, either in the
+market-place or in Myrtilus's house, which was diagonally opposite
+to the palaestra; for General Satyrus, at the first tidings of their
+approach, had collected all the troops at his disposal and the crews of
+several war galleys, and imprisoned the division in the market-place
+as though in a mouse-trap. The bands to which the woman belonged were
+forced by the cavalry into the palaestra and the neighbouring Maander,
+and kept there until Eumedes brought re-enforcements and compelled the
+Gauls to surrender.
+
+The King sent from Memphis the order to take the vanquished men to
+the tongue of land where they now were, and could easily be imprisoned
+between the sea and the Sebennytic inland lake. They were guilty of
+death to the last man, and starvation was to perform the executioner's
+office upon them.
+
+He, Eumedes, the admiral concluded, was in the King's service, and must
+do what his commander in chief ordered.
+
+"Duty," sighed Philippus; "yet what a punishment!"
+
+He held out his hand to his son as he spoke, but the Lady Thyone shook
+her head mournfully, saying: "There are four thousand over yonder; and
+the philosopher and historian on the throne, the admirable art critic
+who bestows upon his capital and Egypt all the gifts of peace, who
+understands how to guard and develop it better than any one else--yet
+what influence the gloomy powers exert upon him!"
+
+Here she hesitated, and went on in a low whisper: "The blood of two
+brothers stains his hand and his conscience. The oldest, to whom
+the throne would have belonged, he exiled. And our friend, Demetrius
+Phalereus, his father's noble councillor! Because you, Philippus,
+interceded for him--though you were in a position of command, because
+Ptolemy knows your ability--you were sent to distant Pelusium, and there
+we should be still--"
+
+"Guard your tongue, wife!" interrupted the old general in a tone
+of grave rebuke. "The vipers on the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt
+symbolize the King's swift power over life and death. To the Egyptians
+the Philadelphi, Ptolemy and Arsinoe, are gods, and what cause have we
+to reproach them except that they use their omnipotence?"
+
+"And, mother," Eumedes eagerly added, "do not the royal pair on the
+throne merely follow the example of far greater ones among the immortal
+gods? When the very Gauls who are devoted to death yonder, greedy for
+booty, attacked Delphi, four years ago, it was the august brother and
+sister, Apollo and Artemis, who sent them to Hades with their arrows,
+while Zeus hurled his thunderbolts at them and ordered heavy boulders
+to fall upon them from the shaken mountains. Many of the men over there
+fled from destruction at Delphi. Unconverted, they added new crimes
+to the old ones, but now retribution will overtake them. The worse the
+crime, the more bloody the vengeance.
+
+"Even the last must die, as my sovereign commands; only I shall
+determine the mode of death according to my own judgment, and at the
+same time, mother, feel sure of your approval. Instead of lingering
+starvation, I shall use swift arrows. Now you know what you were obliged
+to learn. It would be wise, mother, for you to leave this abode of
+misery. Duty summons me to my ship." He held out his hand to his parents
+and Hermon as he spoke, but the latter clasped it firmly, exclaiming in
+a tone of passionate emotion, "What is the name of the woman to whom,
+though she is not of their race, the lawless barbarians yielded?"
+
+"Ledscha," replied the admiral.
+
+Hermon started as if stung by a scorpion, and asked, "Where is she?"
+
+"On my ship," was the reply, "if she has not yet been taken ashore with
+the others."
+
+"To be killed with the pitiable band there?" cried Thyone angrily,
+looking her son reproachfully in the face.
+
+"No, mother," replied Eumedes. "She will be taken to the others under
+the escort of trustworthy men in order, perhaps, to induce her to speak.
+It must be ascertained whether there were accomplices in the attack on
+the royal palaces, and lastly whence the woman comes."
+
+"I can tell you that myself," replied Hermon. "Allow me to accompany
+you. I must see and speak to her."
+
+"The Arachne of Tennis?" asked Thyone. Hermon's mute nod of assent
+answered the question, but she exclaimed: "The unhappy woman, who called
+down the wrath of Nemesis upon you, and who has now herself fallen a
+prey to the avenging goddess. What do you want from her?"
+
+Hermon bent down to his old friend and whispered, "To lighten her
+terrible fate, if it is in my power."
+
+"Go, then," replied the matron, and turned to her son, saying, "Let
+Hermon tell you how deeply this woman has influenced his life, and, when
+her turn comes, think of your mother."
+
+"She is a woman," replied Eumedes, "and the King's mandate only commands
+me to punish men. Besides, I promised her indulgence if she would make a
+confession."
+
+"And she?" asked Hermon.
+
+"Neither by threats nor promises," answered the admiral, "can this
+sinister, beautiful creature be induced to speak."
+
+"Certainly not," said the artist, and a smile of satisfaction flitted
+over his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A short row took Hermon and Eumedes the admiral's galley. Ledscha had
+already been carried ashore. There she was to be confronted with the men
+who were suspected of having showed the mutineers the way to the city.
+
+Absorbed in his own thoughts, Hermon waited for the admiral, who at
+first was claimed by one official duty after another. The artist's
+thoughts lingered with Daphne. To her father the loss of his house, nay,
+perhaps of his wealth, would seem almost unendurable, yet even were he
+beggared, provision was made for him and his daughter. He, Hermon, could
+again create, as in former days, and what happiness it would be if he
+were permitted to repay the man to whom he owed so much for the kindness
+bestowed upon him!
+
+He longed to give to the woman he loved again and again, and it would
+have seemed to him a favour of fortune if the flames had consumed even
+the last drachm of her wealthy father.
+
+Completely engrossed by these reflections, he forgot the horrors before
+him, but when he raised his eyes and saw the archers continuing their
+terrible work he shuddered.
+
+The admiral's galley lay so near the shore that he distinguished the
+figures of the Gauls separately. Some, obeying the instinct of self
+preservation, fled from the places which could be reached by the arrows
+of the archers on the ships, but others pressed toward the shafts.
+A frightful, heart-rending spectacle, yet how rich in food for the
+long-darkened eyes of the artist! Two brothers of unusual height, who,
+nude like all their comrades in death, offered their broad, beautifully
+arched chests to the arrows, would not leave his memory. It was a
+terrible sight, yet grand and worthy of being wrested from oblivion by
+art, and it impressed itself firmly on his mind.
+
+After noon Eumedes could at last devote himself to his young friend.
+Although the wind drove showers of fine rain before it, the admiral
+remained on deck with the sculptor. What cared they for the inclement
+weather, while one was recalling to mind and telling his friend how the
+hate of an offended woman had unchained the gloomy spirits of revenge
+upon him, the other, who had defied death on land water, listened to his
+story, sometimes in surprise, sometimes with silent horror?
+
+After the examination to which she had been subjected, Eumedes had
+believed Ledscha to be as Hermon described her. He found nothing
+petty in this beautiful, passionate creature who avenged the injustice
+inflicted upon her as Fate took vengeance, who, with unsparing energy,
+anticipated the Nemesis to whom she appealed, compelled men's obedience,
+and instead of enriching herself cast away the talents extorted to bring
+down fresh ruin upon the man who had transformed her love to hate.
+
+While the friends consulted together with lowered voices, their
+conjecture became conviction that it was the Biamite's inextinguishable
+hate which had led her to the Gauls and induced her to share the attack
+upon the capital.
+
+The assault upon the houses of Archias and Myrtilus was a proof of
+this, for the latter was still believed to be Hermon's property. She had
+probably supposed that the merchant's palace sheltered Daphne, in whom,
+even at Tennis, she had seen and hated her successful rival.
+
+Only the undeniable fact that Ledscha was the bridge-builder's companion
+presented an enigma difficult to solve. The freedman Bias had
+remained on Philippus's galley, and could not now be appealed to for
+a confirmation of his assertions, but Hermon distinctly remembered his
+statement that Ledscha had allowed the Gaul, after he had received the
+money intended for him, to take her from Pitane to Africa.
+
+When the short November day was drawing to a close, and the friends had
+strengthened themselves with food and drink, the rain ceased and, as
+the sun set, its after-glow broke through the rifts and fissures in the
+black wall of clouds in the western horizon like blazing flames in the
+conflagration of a solid stone building. Yet the glow vanished swiftly
+enough. The darkness of night spread over the sea and the arid strip of
+land in the south, but the greedy croaking of the ravens and vultures
+echoed more and more loudly from the upper air. From time to time the
+outbursts of rage and agony of despairing men, and horrible jeering
+laughter, drowned the voices of the flocks of birds and the roaring
+of the tempestuous sea. Sometimes, too, a sharp word of command, or a
+signal heard for a long distance, pierced through the awful sounds.
+
+Here and there, and at last everywhere on the squadron, which surrounded
+the tongue of land in a shallow curve, dim lights began to appear on the
+masts and prows of the ships; but darkness brooded over the coast. Only
+in the three fortified guardhouses, which had been hastily erected here,
+the feeble light of a lantern illumined the gloom.
+
+Twinkling lights also appeared in the night heavens between the swiftly
+flying clouds. One star after another began to adorn the blue islands in
+the cloudy firmament, and at last the full moon burst through the heavy
+banks of dark clouds, and shone in pure brilliancy above their heads,
+like a huge silver vessel in the black catafalque of a giant.
+
+At the end of the first hour after sunset Eumedes ordered the boat to be
+manned.
+
+Armed as if for battle, he prepared for the row to the scene of misery,
+and requested Hermon to buckle a coat of mail under his chlamys and
+put on the sword he gave him. True, a division of reliable Macedonian
+warriors was to accompany them, and Ledscha was in a well-guarded
+place, yet it might perhaps be necessary to defend themselves against
+an outburst of despair among the condemned prisoners. On the short trip,
+the crests of the tossing waves sometimes shone with a flickering light,
+while elsewhere long shadows spread like dark sails over the sea. The
+flat coast on which both men soon stepped was brightly illumined by the
+moonbeams, and the forms of the doomed men stood forth, like the black
+figures on the red background of a vase, upon the yellowish-brown sand
+on which they were standing, running, walking, or lying.
+
+At the western end of the tongue of land a sand hill had been surrounded
+by a wall and moat, guarded by heavily armed soldiers and several
+archers. The level ground below had been made secure against any attack,
+and on the right side was a roof supported by pillars.
+
+The officials intrusted with the examination of the ringleaders had
+remained during the day in this hastily erected open hut. The latter,
+bound to posts, awaited their sentence.
+
+The only woman among them was Ledscha, who crouched, unfettered, on the
+ground behind the enclosure, which consisted of short stakes fastened by
+a rope.
+
+Without presenting any serious obstacle, it merely indicated how far
+the prisoners might venture to go. Whoever crossed it must expect to
+be struck down by an arrow from the wall. This earthwork, it is true,
+menaced those held captive here, but they also owed it a debt of
+gratitude, for it shut from their eyes the horrible incidents on the
+sandy plain between the sea and the inland lake.
+
+This spot was now made as light as day by the rays of the full moon
+which floated in the pure azure sky far above the black cloud mountains,
+like a white lotus flower on clear waters, and poured floods of silvery
+radiance upon the earth.
+
+Eumedes commanded the Macedonians who formed his escort to remain at the
+fortress on the dune, and, pointing out Ledscha by a wave of the hand,
+he whispered to Hermon: "By the girdle of Aphrodite! she is terribly
+beautiful! For whom is the Medea probably brewing in imagination the
+poisoned draught?"
+
+Then he gave the sculptor permission to promise her immunity from
+punishment if she would consent at least to explain the Gauls'
+connection with the royal palaces; but Hermon strenuously refused to
+undertake this or a similar commission to Ledscha.
+
+Eumedes had expected the denial, and merely expressed to his friend his
+desire to speak to the Biamite after his interview was over. However
+refractory she might be, his mother's intercession should benefit her.
+Hermon might assure her that he, the commander, meant to deal leniently.
+He pressed the artist's hand as he spoke, and walked rapidly away to
+ascertain the condition of affairs in the other guardhouses.
+
+Never had the brave artist's heart throbbed faster in any danger than on
+the eve of this meeting; but it was no longer love that thrilled it so
+passionately, far less hate or the desire to let his foe feel that her
+revenge was baffled.
+
+It was easy for the victor to exercise magnanimity, and easiest of all
+for the sculptor in the presence of so beautiful an enemy, and Hermon
+thought he had never seen the Biamite look fairer. How exquisitely
+rounded was the oval, how delicately cut the profile of her face, how
+large were the widely separated, sparkling eyes, above which, even in
+the pale moonlight, the thick black brows were visible, united under the
+forehead as if for a dark deed to be performed in common!
+
+Time had rather enhanced than lessened the spell of this wonderful young
+creature. Now she rose from the ground where she had been crouching and
+paced several times up and down the short path at her disposal; but
+she started suddenly, for one of the Gauls bound to the posts, in whom
+Hermon recognised the bridge-builder, Lutarius, called her name, and
+when she turned her face toward him, panted in broken Greek like one
+overwhelmed by despair: "Once more--it shall be the last time--I beseech
+you! Lay your hand upon my brow, and if that is too much, speak but one
+kind word to me before all is over! I only want to hear that you do not
+hate me like a foe and despise me like a dog. What can it cost you? You
+need only tell me in two words that you are sorry for your harshness."
+
+"The same fate awaits us both," cried Ledscha curtly and firmly. "Let
+each take care of himself. When my turn comes and my eyes grow dim in
+death, I will thank them that they will not show you to me again, base
+wretch, throughout eternity."
+
+Lutarius shrieked aloud in savage fury, and tore so frantically at the
+strong ropes which bound him that the firm posts shook, but Ledscha
+turned away and approached the hut.
+
+She leaned thoughtfully against one of the pillars that supported the
+roof, and the artist's eyes watched her intently; every movement seemed
+to him noble and worth remembering.
+
+With her hand shading her brow, she gazed upward to the full moon.
+
+Hermon had already delayed speaking to her too long, but he would have
+deemed it criminal to startle her from this attitude. So must Arachne
+have stood when the goddess, in unjust anger, raised the weaver's
+shuttle against the more skilful mortal; for while Ledscha's brow
+frowned angrily, a triumphant smile hovered around her mouth. At the
+same time she slightly opened her exquisitely formed lips, and the
+little white teeth which Hermon had once thought so bewitchingly
+beautiful glittered between them.
+
+Like the astronomer who fixes his gaze and tries to imprint upon his
+memory some rare star in the firmament which a cloud is threatening to
+obscure, he now strove to obtain Ledscha's image. He would and could
+model her in this attitude, exactly as she stood there, without her
+veil, which had been torn from her during the hand-to-hand conflict when
+she was captured, with her thick, half-loosened tresses falling over
+her left shoulder; nav, even with the slightly hooked nose, which was
+opposed to the old rule of art that permitted only the straight bridge
+of the nose to be given to beautiful women. Her nature harmonized with
+the ideal even in the smallest detail; here any deviation from reality
+must tend to injure the work.
+
+She remained motionless for minutes in the same attitude, as if she knew
+that she was posing to an artist; but Hermon gazed at her as if spell
+bound till the fettered Gaul again called her name.
+
+Then she left the supporting pillar, approached the barrier, stopped at
+the rope which extended from one short stake to another, and gazed at
+the man who was following her outside of the rope.
+
+It was a Greek who stood directly opposite to her. A black beard adorned
+his grave, handsome countenance. He, too, had a chlamys, such as she had
+formerly seen on another. Only the short sword, which he wore suspended
+at his right side in the Hellenic fashion, would not suit that other;
+but suddenly a rush of hot blood crimsoned her face. As if to save
+herself from falling, she flung out both arms and clutched a stake with
+her right and her left hand, thrusting her head and the upper portion of
+her body across the rope toward the man whose appearance had created so
+wild a tumult in her whole being.
+
+At last she called Hermon's name in such keen suspense that it fell upon
+his ear like a shrill cry.
+
+"Ledscha," he answered warmly, extending both hands to her in sincere
+sympathy; but she did not heed the movement, and her tone of calm
+self-satisfaction surprised him as she answered: "So you seek me in
+misfortune? Even the blind man knows how to find me here."
+
+"I would far rather have met you again in the greatest happiness!"
+he interrupted gently. "But I am no longer blind. The immortals again
+permit me, as in former days, to feast my eyes upon your marvellous
+beauty."
+
+A shrill laugh cut short his words, and the "Not blind!" which fell
+again and again from her lips sounded more like laughter than speech.
+
+There are tears of grief and of joy, and the laugh which is an
+accompaniment of pleasure is also heard on the narrow boundary between
+suffering and despair.
+
+It pierced the artist's heart more deeply than the most savage outburst
+of fury, and when Ledscha gasped: "Not blind! Cured! Rich and possessed
+of sight, perfect sight!" he understood her fully for the first time,
+and could account for the smile of satisfaction which had just surprised
+him on her lips.
+
+He gazed at her, absolutely unable to utter a word; but she went on
+speaking, while a low, sinister laugh mingled with her tones: "So this
+is avenging justice! It allows us women to be trampled under foot, and
+holds its hands in its lap! My vengeance! How I have lauded Nemesis!
+How exquisitely my retaliation seemed to have succeeded! And now? It was
+mere delusion and deception. He who was blind sees. He who was to perish
+in misery is permitted, with a sword at his side, to gloat over our
+destruction. Listen, if the good news has not already reached you! I,
+too, am condemned to death. But what do I care for myself? Even less
+than those to whom we pray and offer sacrifices for the betrayed woman.
+Now I am learning to know them! Thus Nemesis thanks me for the lavish
+gifts I have bestowed upon her? Just before my end she throws you, the
+rewarded traitor, into my way! I must submit to have the hated foe,
+whose blinding was the sole pleasure in my ruined life, look me in the
+face with insolent joy."
+
+Hermon's quick blood boiled.
+
+With fierce resentment he grasped her hand, which lay on the rope,
+pressed it violently in his strong clasp, and exclaimed, "Stop, mad
+woman, that I may not be forced to think of you as a poisonous serpent
+and repulsive spider!"
+
+Ledscha had vainly endeavoured to withdraw her hand while he was
+speaking. Now he himself released it; but she looked up at him in
+bewilderment, as if seeking aid, and said sadly: "Once--you know that
+yourself--I was different--even as long as I supposed my vengeance had
+succeeded. But now? The false goddess has baffled every means with which
+I sought to punish you. Who averted the sorest ill treatment from my
+head? And I was even defrauded of the revenge which it was my right,
+nay, my duty, to exercise."
+
+She finished the sentence with drooping head, as if utterly crushed, and
+this time she did not laugh, but Hermon felt his wrath transformed
+to sympathy, and he asked warmly and kindly if she would let nothing
+appease her, not even if he begged her forgiveness for the wrong he had
+done her, and promised to obtain her life, nay, also her liberty.
+
+Ledscha shook her head gently, and gravely answered: "What is left me
+without hate? What are the things which others deem best and highest to
+a miserable wretch like me?"
+
+Here Hermon pointed to the bridge-builder, bound to the post, saying,
+"Yonder man led you away from the husband whom you had wedded, and from
+him you received compensation for the love you had lost."
+
+"From him?" she cried furiously, and, raising her voice in a tone of the
+most intense loathing: "Ask yonder scoundrel himself! Because I needed a
+guide, I permitted him to take me away from my unloved husband and from
+the Hydra. Because he would help me to shatter the new and undeserved
+good fortune which you--yes, you--do you hear?--enjoyed, I remained with
+him among the Gauls. More than one Alexandrian brought me the news that
+you were revelling in golden wealth, and the wretch promised to make you
+and your uncle beggars if the surprise succeeded. He did this, though he
+knew that it was you who took him up from the road and saved his life;
+for nothing good and noble dwells in his knavish soul. He yearned for
+me, and still more ardently for the Alexandrians' gold. Worse than the
+wolf that licked the hand of the man who bandaged its wounds, he would
+have shown his teeth to the preserver of his life. I have learned this,
+and if he dies here of starvation and thirst he will receive only what
+he deserves. He knows, too, what I think of him. The greedy beast of
+prey was not permitted even to touch my hand. Just ask him! There he is.
+Let him tell you how I listened to his vows of love. Before I would
+have permitted yonder wretch to recall to life what you crushed in this
+heart--"
+
+Here Lutarius interrupted her with a flood of savage, scarcely
+intelligible curses, but very soon one of the guards, who came out of
+the hut, stopped him with a lash.
+
+When the Gaul, howling under the blows, was silenced, Hermon asked, "So
+your mad thirst for vengeance also caused this suicidal attack?"
+
+"No," she answered simply; "but when they determined upon the assault,
+and had killed their leader, Belgius, yonder monster stole to their
+head. So it happened--I myself do not know how--that they also obeyed
+me, and I took advantage of it and induced them to begin with your house
+and Archias's. When they had captured the royal palaces, they intended
+to assail the Temple of Demeter also."
+
+"Then you thought that even the terrible affliction of blindness would
+not suffice to punish the man you hated?" asked Hermon.
+
+"No," she answered firmly; "for you could buy with your gold everything
+life offers except sight, while in me--yes, in me--gloom darker than the
+blackest night shrouded my soul. Through your fault I was robbed of
+all, all that is clear to woman's heart: my father's house, his love,
+my sister. Even the pleasure in myself which had been awakened by your
+sweet flatteries was transformed by you into loathing."
+
+"By me?" cried Hermon, amazed by the injustice of this severe reproach;
+but Ledscha answered his question with the resolute assertion, "By you
+and you alone!" and then impatiently added: "You, who, by your art,
+could transform mortal women into goddesses, wished to make me a
+humiliated creature, with the rope which was to strangle her about her
+neck, and at the same time the most repulsive of creeping insects.
+'The hideous, gray, eight-legged spider!' I exclaimed to myself, when I
+raised my arms and saw my shadow on the sunlit ground. 'The spider!'
+I thought, when I shook the distaff to draw threads from the flax in
+leisure hours. 'Your image!' I said, when I saw spiders hanging in dusty
+corners, and catching flies and gnats. All these things made me a horror
+to myself. And at the same time to know that the Demeter, on whom you
+bestowed the features of the daughter of Archias, was kindling the
+whole great city of Alexandria with enthusiasm, and drawing countless
+worshippers to her sanctuary! She, an object of adoration to thousands,
+I--the much-praised beauty--a horror to myself! This is what fed my
+desire for vengeance with fresh food by day and night; this urged me
+to remain with yonder wretch; for he had promised, after pillaging the
+royal palaces, to shatter your Demeter, the image of the daughter of
+Archias, which they lauded and which brought you fame and honour--it was
+to be done before my eyes--into fragments."
+
+"Mad woman!" Hermon again broke forth indignantly, and hastily told her
+how she had been misinformed.
+
+Ledscha's large black eyes dilated as if some hideous spectre was rising
+from the ground before her, while she heard that the Demeter was the
+work of Myrtilus and not his; that his friend's legacy had long since
+ceased to belong to him, and that he was again as poor as when he was in
+Tennis during the time of their love.
+
+"And the blindness?" she asked sadly.
+
+"It transformed life for me into one long night, illumined by no single
+ray of light," was the reply; "but, the immortals be praised, I was
+cured of it, and it was old Tabus, on the Owl's Nest at Tennis, whose
+wisdom and magic arts you so often lauded, who gave the remedy and
+advice to which I owe my recovery."
+
+Here he hesitated, for Ledscha had seized the rope with one hand and the
+stake at her right with the other, in order not to fall upon her knees;
+but Hermon perceived how terribly his words agitated her, and spoke
+to her soothingly. Ledscha did not seem to hear him, for while still
+clinging to the rope she looked sometimes at the sand at her feet,
+sometimes up to the full moon, which was now flooding both sky and earth
+with light.
+
+At last she dropped it, and said in a hollow tone: "Now I understand
+everything. You met her when Bias gave her the bridal dowry which was
+to purchase my release from my husband. How it must have enraged her! I
+thought of it all, pondered and pondered how to spare her; but through
+whom, except Tabus, could I return to Hanno the property, won in battle
+by his blood, which he had thrown away for me? Tabus kept the family
+wealth. And she--the marriage bond which two persons formed was sacred
+and unassailable--the woman who broke her faith with her husband and
+turned from him--was an abomination to her. How she loved her sons and
+grandsons! I knew that she would never forgive the wrong I did Hanno.
+From resentment to me she cured the man whom I hated."
+
+"Yet probably also," said Hermon, "because my blighted youth aroused her
+pity."
+
+"Perhaps so," replied Ledscha hesitatingly, gazing thoughtfully into
+vacancy. "She was what her demons made her. Hard as steel and gentle
+as a tender girl. I have experienced it. Oh, that she should die
+with rancour against me in her faithful old heart! She could be so
+kind!--even when I confessed that you had won my love, she still held me
+dear. But there are many great and small demons, and most of them were
+probably subject to her. Tabus must have learned through them how deeply
+I offended her son Satabus, and how greatly his son Hanno's life was
+darkened through me. That is why she thwarted my vengeance, and her
+spirits aided her. Thus all these things happened. I suspected it when
+I heard that she had succumbed to death, which I--yes, I here--had held
+back from her with severe toil through many a sleepless night. O these
+demons! They will continue to act in the service of the dead. Wherever
+I may go, they will pursue me and, at their mistress's bidding, baffle
+what I hope and desire. I have learned this only too distinctly!"
+
+"No, Ledscha, no," Hermon protested. "Every power ceases with death,
+even that of the sorceress over spirits. You shall be freed, poor woman!
+You will be permitted to go wherever you desire; and I shall model no
+spider after your person, but the fairest of women. Thousands will see
+and admire her, and--if the Muse aids me--whoever, enraptured by her
+beauty, asks, 'Who was the model for this work which inflames the most
+obdurate heart?' will be told, 'It was Ledscha, the daughter of Shalit,
+the Biamite, whom Hermon of Alexandria found worthy of carving in costly
+marble."
+
+Ledscha uttered a deep sigh of relief, and asked: "Is that true? May I
+believe it?"
+
+"As true," he answered warmly, "as that Selene, who promised to grant
+you in her full radiance the greatest happiness, is now shedding her
+mild, forgiving light upon us both."
+
+"The full moon," she murmured softly, gazing upward at the shining disk.
+
+Then she added in a louder tone: "Old Tabus's demons promised me
+happiness--you know. It was the spider which so cruelly shadowed it for
+me on every full moon, every day, and every night. Will you now swear to
+model a statue from me, the statue of a beautiful human being that
+will arouse the delight of all who see it? Delight--do you hear?--not
+loathing--I ask again, will you?"
+
+"I will, and I shall succeed," he said earnestly, holding out his hand
+across the rope. She clasped it, looked up to the full moon again, and
+whispered: "This time--I will believe it--you will keep your promise
+better than when you were in Tennis. And I--I will cease to wish you
+evil, and I will tell you why. Bend your ear nearer, that I may confess
+it openly." Hermon willingly obeyed the request, but she leaned her head
+against his, and he felt her laboured breathing and the warm tears that
+coursed silently down her cheeks as she said, in a low whisper: "Because
+the moon is full, and will yet bring me what the demons promised, and
+because, though strong, I am still a woman. Happiness! How long ago I
+ceased to expect it!--but now-yes, it is what I now feel! I am happy,
+and yet can not tell why. My love--oh, yes! It was more ardent than the
+burning hate. Now you know it, too, Hermon. And I--I shall be free,
+you say? And Tabus, how she lauded rest--eternal rest! Oh dearest--this
+sorely tortured heart, too--you can not even imagine how weary I am!"
+
+Here she was silent, but the man into whose face she was gazing with
+loving devotion felt a sudden movement at his side as she uttered the
+exclamation.
+
+He did not notice it, for the sweet tone of her voice was penetrating
+the inmost depths of his heart. It sounded as though she was speaking
+from the happiest of dreams.
+
+"Ledscha!" he exclaimed warmly, extending his arm toward her--but
+she had already stepped back from his side, and he now perceived the
+terrible object--she had snatched his sword from its sheath, and as,
+seized by sudden terror, he gazed at her, he saw the shining blade
+glitter in the moonlight and suddenly vanish.
+
+In an instant he swung his agile body over the rope and rushed to her.
+But she had already sunk to her knees, and while he clasped her in
+is arms to support her, he heard her call his own name tenderly, then
+murmur it in a lower tone, and the words "Full moon" and "Happiness"
+escape her lips.
+
+Then she was silent, and her beautiful head dropped on her breast like a
+flower broken by a tempest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"It was best so for her and for us," said Eumedes, after gazing long at
+Ledscha's touchingly beautiful, still, dead face.
+
+Then he ordered her to be buried at once and shouted to the guards:
+"Everything must be over on this strip of land early to-morrow morning!
+Let all who bear arms begin at once. Selene will light the men brightly
+enough for the work."
+
+The terrible order given in mercy was fulfilled, and hunger and thirst
+were robbed of their numerous prey. When the new day dawned the friends
+were still on deck, engaged in grave conversation. The cloudless sky now
+arched in radiant light above the azure sea. White seagulls came flying
+from the right across the ship, and sportive dolphins gambolled around
+her keel.
+
+The flutes of the musicians, marking time for the rowers, echoed gaily
+up from the hold, and, obedient to quick words of command, the seamen
+were spreading the sails.
+
+The voyage began with a favourable wind. As Hermon looked back for the
+last time, the flat, desolate tongue of land appeared like a line of
+gray mist in the southeastern horizon; but over it hovered, like a
+gloomy thundercloud, the flocks of vultures and ravens, whose numbers
+were constantly increasing. Their greedy screaming could still be heard,
+though but faintly, yet the eye could no longer distinguish anything
+in the fast-vanishing abode of horror, save the hovering whirl of dark
+spots--ravens and vultures, vultures and ravens.
+
+Whatever human life had moved there yesterday, now rested from bloody
+greed for booty, after victory and defeat, mortal terror, fury, and
+despair.
+
+Eumedes pointed out the quiet grave by the sea to his parents, saying:
+"The King's command is fulfilled. Not even the one man who is usually
+spared to carry the news remains out of the four thousand."
+
+"I thank you," exclaimed Alexander's gray-haired comrade, shaking his
+son's right hand, but Thyone laid her hand on Hermon's arm, saving:
+"Where the birds are darkening the air behind us lies buried what
+incensed Nemesis against you. You must leave the soil of Egypt. True,
+it is said that to live in foreign lands, far from the beloved home,
+darkens the existence; yet Pergamus, too, is Grecian soil, and there
+I see the two noblest of stars illumine your path with their pure
+light-art and love."
+
+And his old friend's premonition was fulfilled.
+
+         .......................
+
+The story of Arachne is ended. It closed on the Nile. Hermon's new life
+began in Pergamus.
+
+As Daphne's husband, under the same roof with the wonderfully
+invigorated Myrtilus, his Uncle Archias, and faithful Bias, Hermon found
+in the new home what had hovered before the blind man as the fairest
+goal of existence in art, love, and friendship.
+
+He did not long miss the gay varied life of Alexandria, because he found
+a rich compensation for it, and because Pergamus, too, was a rapidly
+growing city, whose artistic decoration was inferior to no other in
+Greece.
+
+Of the numerous works which Hermon completed in the service of the first
+three art-loving rulers of the new Pergamenian kingdom, Philetaerus,
+Eumenes, and Attalus, nothing was preserved except the head of a Gaul.
+This noble masterpiece proves how faithful Hermon remained to truth,
+which he had early chosen for the guiding star of his art. It is the
+modest remnant of the group in which Hermon perpetuated in marble the
+two Gallic brothers whom he saw before his last meeting with Ledscha, as
+they offered their breasts to the fatal shafts.
+
+One had gazed defiantly at the arrows of the conquerors; the other,
+whose head has been preserved, feeling the inevitable approach of
+death, anticipates, with sorrowful emotion, the end so close at hand.
+Philetaerus had sent this touching work to King Ptolemy to thank him for
+the severity with which he had chastised the daring of the barbarians,
+who had not spared his kingdom also. The Gaul's head was again found on
+Egyptian soil.
+
+   [Copied in Th. Schrieber's The Head of the Gaul in the Museum of
+   Ghizeh in Cairo. Leipsic, 1896. With appendix. By H. Curschmann.]
+
+Hermon also took other subjects in Pergamus from the domain of real
+life, though, in most of his work he crossed the limits which he had
+formerly imposed upon himself. But one barrier, often as he rushed
+forward to its outermost verge, he never dared to pass--moderation, the
+noblest demand, to which his liberty-loving race subjected themselves
+willingly in life as well as in art. The whole infinite, limitless world
+of the ideal had opened itself to the blind man.
+
+He made himself at home in it by remaining faithful to the rule which he
+had found in the desert for his creative work, and the genuine happiness
+which he enjoyed through Daphne's love and the great fame his sculptures
+brought him increased the strong individuality of his power.
+
+The fruits of his tireless industry, the much-admired god of light,
+Phoebus Apollo, slaying the dragons of darkness, as well as his
+bewitching Arachne, gazing proudly at the fabric with which she
+thinks she has surpassed the skill of the goddess, were overtaken by
+destruction. In this statue Bias recognised his countrywoman Ledscha,
+and often gazed long at it with devout ecstasy. Even Hermon's works of
+colossal size vanished from the earth: the Battle of the Amazons and
+the relief containing numerous figures: the Sea Gods, which the Regent
+Eumenes ordered for the Temple of Poseidon in Pergamus.
+
+The works of his grandson and grandson's pupils, however, are preserved
+on the great altar of victory in Pergamus.
+
+The power and energy natural to Hermon, the skill he had acquired in
+Rhodes, everything in the changeful life of Alexandria which had induced
+him to consecrate his art to reality, and to that alone, and whatever
+he had, finally, in quiet seclusion, recognised as right and in
+harmony with the Greek nature and his own, blend in those works of his
+successor, which a gracious dispensation of Providence permits us still
+to admire at the present day, and which we call in its entirety, the art
+of Pergamus.
+
+The city was a second beloved home to him, as well as to his wife and
+Myrtilus. The rulers of the country took the old Alexandrian Archias
+into their confidence and knew how to honour him by many a distinction.
+He understood how to value the happiness of his only daughter, the
+beautiful development of his grandchildren, and the high place that
+Hermon and Myrtilus, whom he loved as if they were his own sons,
+attained among the artists of their time. Yet he struggled vainly
+against the longing for his dear old home. Therefore Hermon deemed it
+one of the best days of his life when his turn came to make Daphne's
+father a happy man.
+
+King Ptolemy Philadelphus had sent laurel to the artist who had fallen
+under suspicion in Egypt, and his messenger invited him and Myrtilus,
+and with them also the exiled merchant, to return to his presence. In
+gratitude for the pleasure which Hermon's creation afforded him and his
+wife, the cause that kept the fugitive Archias from his home should be
+forgiven and forgotten.
+
+The gray-haired son of the capital returned with the Bithynian Gras to
+his beloved Alexandria, as if his lost youth was again restored. There
+he found unchanged the busy, active life, the Macedonian Council, the
+bath, the marketplace, the bewitching conversation, the biting wit, the
+exquisite feasts of the eyes--in short, everything for which his
+heart had longed even amid the happiness and love of his dear ones in
+Pergamus.
+
+For two years he endeavoured to enjoy everything as before; but when
+the works of the Pergamenian artists, obtained by Ptolemy, had been
+exhibited in the royal palaces, he returned home with a troubled mind.
+Like the rest of the world, he thought that the reliefs of Myrtilus,
+representing scenes of rural life, were wonderful.
+
+The Capture of Proserpina, a life-size marble group by his son-in-law
+Hermon, seemed to him no less perfect; but it exerted a peculiar
+influence upon his paternal heart, for, in the Demeter, he recognised
+Daphne, in the Proserpina her oldest daughter Erigone, who bore the name
+of Hermon's mother and resembled her in womanly charm. How lovely this
+budding girl, who was his grand-daughter, seemed to the grandfather!
+How graceful, in spite of the womanly dignity peculiar to her, was the
+mother, encircling her imperilled child with her protecting arm!
+
+No work of sculpture had ever produced such an effect upon the old
+patron of art.
+
+Gras heard him, in his bedroom, murmur the names "Daphne" and "Erigone,"
+and therefore it did not surprise him when, the next morning, he
+received the command to prepare everything for the return to Pergamus.
+It pleased the Bithynian, for he cared more for Daphne, Hermon, and
+their children than all the pleasures of the capital.
+
+A few weeks later Archias found himself again in Pergamus with his
+family, and he never left it, though he reached extreme old age, and was
+even permitted to gaze in wondering admiration at the first attempts of
+the oldest son of Hermon and Daphne, and to hear them praised by others.
+
+This grandson of the Alexandrian Archias afterward became the master who
+taught the generation of artists who created the Pergamenian works, in
+examining which the question forced itself upon the narrator of this
+story: How do these sculptures possess the qualities which distinguish
+them so strongly from the other statues of later Hellenic antiquity?
+
+Did the great weaver Imagination err when she blended them, through the
+mighty wrestler Hermon, with a tendency of Alexandrian science and
+art, which we see appearing again among us children of a period so much
+later?
+
+Science, which is now once more pursuing similar paths, ought and will
+follow them further, but Hermon's words remain applicable to the present
+clay: "We will remain loyal servants of the truth; yet it alone does not
+hold the key to the holy of holies of art. To him for whom Apollo, the
+pure among the gods, and the Muses, friends of beauty, do not open it
+at the same time with truth, its gates will remain closed, no matter how
+strongly and persistently he shakes them."
+
+
+     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE ARACHNE:
+
+     Aimless life of pleasure
+     Camels, which were rarely seen in Egypt
+     Cast my warning to the winds, pity will also fly away with it
+     Cautious inquiry saves recantation
+     Forbidden the folly of spoiling the present by remorse
+     Must--that word is a ploughshare which suits only loose soil
+     Nature is sufficient for us
+     Regular messenger and carrier-dove service had been established
+     Tender and uncouth natural sounds, which no language knows
+     There is nothing better than death, for it is peace
+     There are no gods, and whoever bows makes himself a slave
+     Tone of patronizing instruction assumed by the better informed
+     Two griefs always belong to one joy
+     Wait, child! What is life but waiting?
+     Waiting is the merchant's wisdom
+     Woman's hair is long, but her wit is short
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Arachne, Complete, by Georg Ebers
+
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