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diff --git a/old/ge90v10.txt b/old/ge90v10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cfa297 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ge90v10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Bride of the Nile, by Georg Ebers, Entire +#90 in our series by Georg Ebers + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Bride of the Nile, Complete + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5529] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 4, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, ALL *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 1. + +Translated from the German by Clara Bell + + + + +PREFACE. + +The "Bride of the Nile" needs no preface. For the professional student I +may observe that I have relied on the authority of de Goeje in adhering +to my own original opinion that the word Mukaukas is not to be regarded +as a name but as a title, since the Arab writers to which I have made +reference apply it to the responsible representatives of the Byzantine +Emperor in antagonism to the Moslem power. I was unfortunately unable to +make further use of Karabacek's researches as to the Mukaukas. + +I shall not be held justified in placing the ancient Horus Apollo +(Horapollo) in the seventh century after Christ by any one who regards +the author of the Hieroglyphica as identical with the Egyptian +philosopher of the same name who, according to Suidas, lived under +Theodosius, and to whom Stephanus of Byzantium refers, writing so early +as at the end of the fifth century. But the lexicographer Suidas +enumerates the works of Horapollo, the philologer and commentator on +Greek poetry, without naming the Hieroglyphica, which is the only +treatise alluded to by Stephanus. Besides, all the other ancient writers +who mention Horapollo at all leave us quite free to suppose that there +may have been two sages of the same name--as does C. Leemans, who is most +intimately versed in the Hieroglyphica--and the second certainly cannot +have lived earlier than the VIIth century, since an accurate knowledge of +hieroglyphic writing must have been lost far more completely in his time +than we can suppose possible in the IVth century. It must be remembered +that we still possess well-executed hieroglyphic inscriptions dating from +the time of Decius, 250 years after Christ. Thus the Egyptian +commentator on Greek poetry could hardly have needed a translator, +whereas the Hieroglyphica seems to have been first rendered into Greek by +Philippus. The combination by which the author called in Egyptian Horus +(the son of Isis) is supposed to have been born in Philae, where the +cultus of the Egyptian heathen was longest practised, and where some +familiarity with hieroglyphics must have been preserved to a late date, +takes into due account the real state of affairs at the period I have +selected for my story. + + GEORG EBERS. + October 1st, 1886. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +Half a lustrum had elapsed since Egypt had become subject to the +youthful power of the Arabs, which had risen with such unexampled vigor +and rapidity. It had fallen an easy prey, cheaply bought, into the +hands of a small, well-captained troop of Moslem warriors; and the fair +province, which so lately had been a jewel of the Byzantine Empire and +the most faithful foster-mother to Christianity, now owned the sway of +the Khalif Omar and saw the Crescent raised by the side of the Cross. + +It was long since a hotter season had afflicted the land; and the Nile, +whose rising had been watched for on the Night of Dropping--the 17th of +June--with the usual festive preparations, had cheated the hopes of the +Egyptians, and instead of rising had shrunk narrower and still narrower +in its bed.--It was in this time of sore anxiety, on the 10th of July, +A.D. 643, that a caravan from the North reached Memphis. + +It was but a small one; but its appearance in the decayed and deserted +city of the Pyramids--which had grown only lengthwise, like a huge reed- +leaf, since its breadth was confined between the Nile and the Libyan +Hills--attracted the gaze of the passers-by, though in former years a +Memphite would scarcely have thought it worth while to turn his head to +gaze at an interminable pile of wagons loaded with merchandise, an +imposing train of vehicles drawn by oxen, the flashing maniples of the +imperial cavalry, or an endless procession wending its way down the five +miles of high street. + +The merchant who, riding a dromedary of the choicest breed, conducted +this caravan, was a lean Moslem of mature age, robed in soft silk. A +vast turban covered his small head and cast a shadow over his delicate +and venerable features. + +The Egyptian guide who rode on a brisk little ass by his side, looked up +frequently and with evident pleasure at the merchant's face--not in +itself a handsome one with its hollow cheeks, meagre beard and large +aquiline nose--for it was lighted up by a pair of bright eyes, full of +attractive thoughtfulness and genuine kindness. But that this fragile- +looking man, in whose benevolent countenance grief and infirmities had +graven many a furrow, could not only command but compel submission was +legible alike in his thin, firmly-closed lips and in the zeal with which +his following of truculent and bearded fighting men, armed to the teeth, +obeyed his slightest sign. + +His Egyptian attendant, the head of the Hermeneutai--the guild of the +Dragomans of that period--was a swarthy and surly native of Memphis; +whenever he accidentally came too close to the fierce-looking riders of +the dromedaries he shrunk his shoulders as if he expected a blow or a +push, while he poured out question and answer to the Merchant Haschim, +the owner of the caravan, without timidity and with the voluble +garrulity of his tribe. + +"You seem very much at home here in Memphis," he observed, when the old +man had expressed his surprise at the decadence and melancholy change in +the city. + +"Thirty years ago," replied the merchant, "my business often brought me +hither. How many houses are now empty and in ruins where formerly only +heavy coin could secure admittance! Ruins on all sides!--Who has so +cruelly mutilated that fine church? My fellow-believers left every +Christian fane untouched--that I know from our chief Amru himself." + +"It was the principal church of the Melchites, the Emperor's minions," +cried the guide, as if that were ample explanation of the fact. The +merchant, however, did not take it so. + +"Well," he said, "and what is there so dreadful in their creed?" + +"What?" said the Egyptian, and his eye flashed wrathfully. "What?-- +They dismember the divine person of the Saviour and attribute to it two +distinct natures. And then!--All the Greeks settled here, and encouraged +by the protection of the emperor, treated us, the owners of the land, +like slaves, till your nation came to put an end to their oppression. +They drove us by force into their churches, and every true-born Egyptian +was punished as a rebel and a leper. They mocked at us and persecuted us +for our faith in the one divine nature of our Lord." + +"And so," interrupted the merchant, "as soon as we drove out the Greeks +you behaved more unmercifully to them and their sanctuaries than we--whom +you scorn as infidels--did to you!" + +"Mercy?--for them!" cried the Egyptian indignantly, as he cast an evil +eye on the demolished edifice. "They have reaped what they sowed; and +now every one in Egypt who does not believe in your One God--blessed be +the Saviour!--confesses the one sole nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. +You drove out the Melchite rabble, and then it was our part to demolish +the temples of their wretched Saviour, who lost His divine Unity at the +synod of Chalcedon--damnation wait upon it!" + +"But still the Melchites are fellow-believers with you--they are +Christians," said the merchant. + +"Christians?" echoed the guide with a contemptuous shrug. "They may +regard themselves as Christians; but I, with every one else great and +small in this land, am of opinion that they have no right whatever to +call themselves our fellow-believers and Christians. They all are and +shall be for ever accursed with their hundreds--nay thousands of devilish +heresies, by which they degrade our God and Redeemer to the level of that +idol on the stone pillar. Half a cow and half a man! Why, what rational +being, I ask you, could pray to such a mongrel thing? We Jacobites or +Monophysites or whatever they choose to call us will not yield a jot or +tittle of the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour; and if the old faith +must die out, I will turn Moslem and be converted to your One Omnipotent +God; for before I confess the heresies of the Melchites I will be hewn in +pieces, and my wife and children with me. Who knows what may be coming +to pass? And there are many advantages in going over to your side: for +the power is in your hands, and long may you keep it! We have got to be +ruled by strangers; and who would not rather pay small tribute to the +wise and healthy Khalif at Medina than a heavy one to the sickly imperial +brood of Melchites at Constantinople. The Mukaukas George, to be sure, +is not a bad sort of man, and as he so soon gave up all idea of resisting +you he was no doubt of my opinion. Regarding you as just and pious +folks, as our next neighbors, and perhaps even of our own race and blood, +he preferred you--my brother told me so--to those Byzantine heretics, +flayers of men and thirsting for blood, but yet, the Mukaukas is as good +a Christian as breathes." + +The Arab had listened attentively and with a subtle smile to the +Memphite, whose duties as guide now compelled him to break off. The +Egyptian made the whole caravan turn down an alley that led into a street +running parallel to the river, where a few fine houses still stood in the +midst of their gardens. When men and beasts were making their way along +a better pavement the merchant observed: "I knew the father of the man +you were speaking of, very well. He was wealthy and virtuous; of his son +too I hear nothing but good. But is he still allowed to bear the title +of governor, or, what did you call him?--Mukaukas?" + +"Certainly, Master," said the guide. "There is no older family than his +in all Egypt, and if old Menas was rich the Mukaukas is richer, both by +inheritance and by his wife's dower. Nor could we wish for a more +sensible or a juster governor! He keeps his eye on his underlings too; +still, business is not done now as briskly as formerly, for though he is +not much older than I am--and I am not yet sixty--he is always ailing and +has not been seen out of the house for months. Even when your chief +wants to see him he comes over to this side of the river. It is a pity +with such a man as he; and who was it that broke down his stalwart +strength? Why, those Melchite dogs; you may ask all along the Nile, long +as it is, who was at the bottom of any misfortune, and you will always +get the same answer: Wherever the Melchite or the Greek sets foot the +grass refuses to grow." + +"But the Mukaukas, the emperor's representative.... the Arab began. The +Egyptian broke in however: + +"He, you think, must be safe from them? They did not certainly injure +his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against +our party--it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus had a +finger in that pie--they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid men-- +killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely." + +"Poor man!" sighed the Arab. "And has he no child left?" + +"Oh, yes. One son, and the widow of his eldest. She went into a convent +after her husband's death, but she left her child, her little Mary--she +must be ten years old now--to live with her grandparents." + +"That is well," said the old man, "that will bring some sunshine into the +house." + +"No doubt, Master. And just lately they have had some cause for +rejoicing. The only surviving son--Orion is his name--came home only +the day before yesterday from Constantinople where he has been for a long +time. There was a to-do! Half the city went crazy. Thousands went out +to meet him, as though he were the Saviour; they erected triumphal +arches, even folks of my creed--no one thought of hanging back. One and +all wanted to see the son of the great Mukaukas, and the women of course +were first and foremost!" + +"You speak, however," said the Arab, "as though the returning hero were +not worthy of so much honor." + +"That is as folks think," replied the Egyptian shrugging his shoulders. +"At any rate he is the only son of the greatest man in the land." + +"But he does not promise to be like the old man?" + +"Oh, yes, indeed," said the guide. "My brother, a priest, and the head +of one of our great schools, was his tutor, and he never met such a +clever head as Orion's, he tells me. He learnt everything without any +trouble and at the same time worked as hard as a poor man's son. We may +expect him to win fame and honor--so Marcus says--for his parents and for +the city of Memphis: but for my part, I can see the shady side, and I +tell you the women will turn his head and bring him to a bad end. He is +handsome, taller even than the old man in his best days, and he knows how +to make the most of himself when he meets a pretty face--and pretty faces +are always to be met in his path . . ." + +"And the young rascal takes what he finds!" said the Moslem laughing. +"If that is all you are alarmed at I am glad for the youth. He is young +and such things are allowable." + +"Nay, Sir, even my brother--he lives now in Alexandria, and is blind and +foolish enough still in all that concerns his former pupil--and even he +thinks this is a dangerous rock ahead. If he does not change in this +respect he will wander further and further from the law of the Lord, and +imperil his soul, for dangers surround him on all sides like roaring +lions. The noble gifts of a handsome and engaging person will lead him +to his ruin; and though I do not desire it, I suspect. . . ." + +"You look on the dark side and judge hardly," replied the old man. "The +young. . . ." + +"Even the young, or at least the Christian young, ought to control +themselves, though I, if any one, am inclined to make the utmost +allowance for the handsome lad--nay, and I may confess: when he smiles at +me I feel at once as if I had met with some good-luck; and there are a +thousand other men in Memphis who feel the same, and still more the women +you may be sure--but many a one has shed bitter tears on his account for +all that.--But, by all the saints!--Talk of the wolf and you see his +tail! Look, there he is!--Halt! Stop a minute, you men; it is worth +while, Sir, to tarry a moment." + +"Is that his fine quadriga in front of the high garden gate yonder?" + +"Those are the Pannonian horses he brought with him, as swift as +lightning and as.... But look! Ah, now they have disappeared behind +the hedge; but you, high up on your dromedary, must be able to see them. +The little maid by his side is the widow Susannah's daughter. This +garden and the beautiful mansion behind the trees belong to her." + +"A very handsome property!" said the Arab. + +"I should think so indeed!" replied the Memphite. "The garden goes down +to the Nile, and then, what care is taken of it!" + +"Was it not here that Philommon the corn-merchant lived formerly?" asked +the old man, as though some memories were coming back to him. + +"To be sure. He was Susannah's husband and must have been a man of fifty +when he first wooed her. The little girl is their only child and the +richest heiress in the whole province; but she is not altogether grown up +though she is sixteen years old--an old man's child, you understand, but +a pretty, merry creature, a laughing dove in human form, and so quick and +lively. Her own people call her the little water-wagtail." + +"Good!--Good and very appropriate," said the merchant well pleased. +"She is small too, a child rather than a maiden; but the graceful, +gladsome creature takes my fancy. And the governor's son--what is his +name?" + +"Orion, Sir," replied the guide. + +"And by my beard," said the old man smiling. "You have not over-praised +him, man! Such a youth as this Orion is not to be seen every day. What +a tall fellow, and how becoming are those brown curls. Such as he are +spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the other women +follow suit. And he has a frank, shrewd face with something behind it. +If only he had left his purple coat and gold frippery in Constantinople! +Such finery is out of place in this dismal ruinous city." + +While he was yet speaking the Memphite urged his ass forward, but the +Arab held him back, for his attention was riveted by what was taking +place within the enclosure. He saw handsome Orion place a small white +dog, a silky creature of great beauty that evidently belonged to him--in +the little maiden's arms saw her kiss it and then put a blade of grass +round its neck as if to measure its size. The old man watched them as, +both laughing gaily, they looked into each other's eyes and presently bid +each other farewell. The girl stood on tiptoe in front of some rare +shrub to reach two exquisite purple flowers that blossomed at the top, +hastily plucked them and offered them to him with a deep blush; she +pushed away the hand he had put out to support her as she stretched up +for the flowers with a saucy slap; and a bright glance of happiness +lighted up her sweet face as the young man kissed the place her fingers +had hit, and then pressed the flowers to his lips. The old man looked on +with sympathetic pleasure, as though it roused the sweetest memories in +his mind; and his kind eyes shone as Orion, no less mischievously happy +than the young girl, whispered something in her ear; she drew the long +stem of grass out of her waist-belt to administer immediate and condign +punishment withal, struck it across his face, and then fled over grass- +plot and flower-bed, as swift as a roe, without heeding his repeated +shouts of "Katharina! bewitching, big damsel, Katharina!" till she +reached the house. + +It was a charming little interlude. Old Haschim was still pondering it +in his memory with much satisfaction when he and his caravan had gone +some distance further. He felt obliged to Orion for this pretty scene, +and when he heard the young man's quadriga approaching at an easy trot +behind him, he turned round to gaze. But the Arab's face had lost its +contentment by the time the four Pannonians and the chariot, overlaid +with silver ornamentation and forming, with its driver, a picture of rare +beauty and in perfect taste, had slowly driven past, to fly on like the +wind as soon as the road was clear, and to vanish presently in clouds of +dust. There was something of melancholy in his voice as he desired his +young camel-driver to pick up the flowers, which now lay in the dust of +the road, and to bring them to him. He himself had observed the handsome +youth as, with a glance and a gesture of annoyance with himself, he flung +the innocent gift on the hot, sandy highway. + +"Your brother is right," cried the old man to the Memphite. "Women are +indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life--and he in theirs, I +fear! Poor little girl!" + +"The little water-wagtail do you mean? Oh! with her it may perhaps turn +to real earnest. The two mothers have settled the matter already. They +are both rolling in gold, and where doves nest doves resort.--Thank God, +the sun is low down over the Pyramids! Let your people rest at the large +inn yonder; the host is an honest man and lacks nothing, not even shade!" + +"So far as the beasts and drivers are concerned," said the merchant, +"they may stop here. But I, and the leader of the caravan, and some of +my men will only take some refreshment, and then you must guide us to the +governor; I have to speak with him. It is growing late. . ." + +"That does not matter," said the Egyptian. "The Mukaukas prefers to see +strangers after sundown on such a scorching day. If you have any +dealings with him I am the very man for you. You have only to make play +with a gold piece and I can obtain you an audience at once through Sebek, +the house-steward he is my cousin. While you are resting here I will +ride on to the governor's palace and bring you word as to how matters +stand." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The caravansary into which Haschim and his following now turned off +stood on a plot of rising ground surrounded by palm-trees. Before the +destruction of the heathen sanctuaries it had been a temple of Imhotep, +the Egyptian Esculapius, the beneficient god of healing, who had had his +places of special worship even in the city of the dead. It was half +relined, half buried in desert sand when an enterprising inn-keeper had +bought the elegant structure with the adjacent grove for a very moderate +sum. Since then it had passed to various owners, a large wooden building +for the accommodation of travellers had been added to the massive +edifice, and among the palm-trees, which extended as far as the ill- +repaired quay, stables were erected and plots of ground fenced in for +beasts of all kinds. The whole place looked like a cattle-fair, and +indeed it was a great resort of the butchers and horse-dealers of the +town, who came there to purchase. The palm-grove, being one of the few +remaining close to the city, also served the Memphites as a pleasure- +ground where they could "sniff fresh air" and treat themselves in a +pleasant shade. 'Tables and seats had been set out close to the river, +and there were boats on hire in mine host's little creek; and those who +took their pleasure in coming thither by water were glad to put in and +refresh themselves under the palms of Nesptah. + +Two rows of houses had formerly divided this rendezvous for the sober and +the reckless from the highroad, but they had long since been pulled down +and laid level with the ground by successive landlords. Even now some +hundreds of laborers might be seen, in spite of the scorching heat, +toiling under Arab overseers to demolish a vast ruin of the date of the +Ptolemies. and transporting the huge blocks of limestone and marble, and +the numberless columns which once had supported the roof of the temple of +Zeus, to the eastern shore of the Nile-loading them on to trucks drawn by +oxen which hauled them down to the quay to cross the river in flat- +bottomed boats. + +Amru, the Khaliff's general and representative, was there building his +new capital. For this the temples of the old gods were used as quarries, +and they supplied not only finely-squared blocks of the most durable +stone, but also myriads of Greek columns of every order, which had only +to be ferried over and set up again on the other shore; for the Arabs +disdained nothing in the way of materials, and made indiscriminate use of +blocks and pillars in their own sanctuaries, whether they took them from +heathen temples or Christian churches. + +The walls of the temple of Imhotep had originally been completely covered +with pictures of the gods, and hieroglyphic inscriptions; but the smoke +of reeking hearths had long since blackened them, fanatical hands had +never been wanting to deface them, and in many places they had been lime- +washed and scrawled with Christian symbols or very unchristian mottoes, +in Greek and the spoken dialect of the Egyptians. The Arab and his men +took their meal in what had been the great hall of the temple--none of +them drinking wine excepting the captain of the caravan, who was no +Moslem but belonged to the Parsee sect of the Masdakites. + +When the old merchant, sitting at a table by himself, had satisfied his +hunger, he called this chief and desired him to load the bale containing +the hanging on a litter between the two largest baggage camels, and to +fasten it securely but so that it could easily be removed. + +"It is done," replied the Persian, as he wiped his thick moustache--he +was a magnificent man as tall and stalwart as an oak, with light flowing +hair like a lion's mane. + +"So much the better," said Haschim. "Then come out with me." And he led +the way to the palmgrove. + +The sun had sunk to rest behind the pyramids, the Necropolis, and the +Libyan hills; the eastern sky, and the bare limestone rock of Babylon on +the opposite shore were shining with hues of indescribable diversity and +beauty. It seemed as though every variety of rose reared by the skilled +gardeners of Arsinoe or Naukratis had yielded its hues, from golden buff +to crimson and the deepest wine-tinted violet, to shed their magic glow +on the plains, the peaks and gorges of the hills, with the swiftness of +thought. + +The old man's heart beat high as he gazed at the scene; he drew a deep +breath, and laying his slender hand on the Persian's mighty arm he said: +"Your prophet, Masdak, taught that it was God's will that no one should +think himself more or less chosen than another, and that there should be +neither rich nor poor on earth, but that every possession should belong +to all in common. Well, look around you here as I do. The man who has +not seen this has seen nothing. There is no fairer scene here below and +to whom does it belong? To poor simple Salech yonder, whom we allowed to +tramp half naked at our camels' heels out of pity.--It is his as much as +it is yours or mine or the Khaliff's. God has given us all an equal +share in the glory of his works, as your prophet would have it. How much +beauty is the common possession of our race! Let us be thankful for it, +Rustem, for indeed it is no small matter.--But as to property, such as +man may win or lose, that is quite a different matter. We all start on +the same race-course, and what you Masdakites ask is that lead should be +tied to the feet of the swift so that no one should outstrip another; but +that would be.... Well, well! Let us feast our eyes now on the +marvellous beauty before us. Look: What just now was the purple of this +flower is now deep ruby red; what before was a violet gleam now is the +richest amethyst. Do you see the golden fringe to those clouds? It is +like a setting.--And all this is ours--is yours and mine--so long as we +have eyes and heart to enjoy and be uplifted by it!" + +The Masdakite laughed, a fresh, sonorous laugh, and said: "Yes, Master, +for those who see as you see. The colors are bright no doubt over the +sky and the hills, and we do not often see such a red as that at home in +my country; but of what use is all that magic show? You see rubies and +amethysts--but as for me! The gems in your hanging stand for something +more than that shining show. I mean no harm, Master, but I would give +all the sunsets that ever glowed on earth for your bales and never repent +of the bargain!" He laughed more heartily than before and added: "But +you, worthy Father, would think twice before you signed it.--As to what +we Masdakites hope for, our time is not yet come." + +"And suppose it were, and that the hanging were yours?" + +"I should sell it and add the price to my savings, and go home and buy +some land, and take a pretty wife, and breed camels and horses." + +"And next day would come the poorer men who had laid nothing by, and had +made no bargain over hangings and sunsets; and they would ask for a share +of your land, and a camel and a foal each, and you would not be able ever +to see a sunset again but must wander about the world, and your pretty +wife with you to help you share everything with others.--Let us abide by +the old order, my Rustem, and may the Most High preserve you your good +heart, for you have but a foolish and crotchety head." + +The big man bent over his master and gratefully kissed his arm; at this +moment the guide rejoined them, but with a long face for he had promised +more than he could perform. The Mukaukas George had set out--a quite +unheard of event--for an excursion on the river in his barge, with his +son and the ladies of the house just as he was hoping to secure an +audience for the Arab. Orion's return--the steward had explained--had +made the old man quite young again. Haschim must now wait till the +morrow, and he, the guide, would counsel him to pass the night in the +city at an inn kept by one Moschion, where he would be well cared for. + +But the merchant preferred to remain where he was. He did not care +about the delay, more particularly as he wished to consult an Egyptian +physician with regard to an old standing complaint he suffered from, +and there was no more skilful or learned leech in the whole land, +the Egyptian guide assured him, than the famous Philip of Memphis. The +situation here, outside the town, was very pleasant, and from the river's +bank he might observe the comet which had been visible for some nights +past--a portent of evil no doubt. The natives of the city had been +paralysed with terror; that indeed was evident even here in Nesptah's +caravansary, for usually as the evening grew cool, the tables and benches +under the palms were crowded with guests; but who would care to think of +enjoyment in those days of dread? + +So he remounted his ass to fetch the physician, while old Haschim, +leaning on the Masdakite's arm, betook himself to a bench by the river. +There he sat gazing thoughtfully at the starry sky, and his companion +dreamed of home and of buying a meadow, even without the price of the +gorgeous hanging, of building a house, and of choosing a pretty little +wife to manage it. Should she be fair or dark? He would rather she +should be fair. + +But his castle in the air was shattered at this point, for an object was +approaching across the Nile which attracted his attention, and which he +pointed out to his chief. The stream lay before them like a broad belt +of black and silver brocade. The waxing moon was mirrored in the almost +unruffled surface and where a ripple curled it the tiny crest glittered +like white flame. Bats swooped to and fro in the gloom from the city of +the dead to the river, and flitted above it like shadows blown about by +the wind. A few lateen sails moved like pale, gigantic birds over the +dark waters; but now from the north--and from the city--a larger mass +came towards the palm-grove with bright, gleaming eyes of light. + +"A fine boat,--the governor's no doubt," said the merchant, as it slowly +came towards the grove from the middle of the stream. At the same time +the clatter of hoofs became audible from the road behind the inn. +Haschim turned round and was aware of torchbearers running ahead of a +chariot. + +"The sick man has come so far by water," said the Arab, "and now, he is +to be driven home.--Strange! this is the second time to-day that I have +met his much-talked-of son!" + +The governor's pleasure-barge was nearing the palm-grove. It was a large +and handsome boat, built of cedar-wood and richly gilt, with an image of +John, the patron-saint of the family, for a figure-head. The nimbus +round the head was a crown of lamps, and large lanterns shone both at the +bows and stern of the vessel. The Mukaukas George was reclining under an +awning, his wife Neforis by his side. Opposite to them sat their son and +a tall young girl, at whose feet a child of ten sat on the ground, +leaning her pretty head against her knees. An older Greek woman, the +child's governess, had a place by the side of a very tall man, on an +ottoman beyond the verge of the awning. This man was Philip the leech. +The cheerful sound of the lute accompanied the barge, and the performer +was the returned wanderer Orion, who touched the strings with skill and +deep feeling. + +It was altogether a pleasing scene--a fair picture of a wealthy and +united family. But who was the damsel sitting by Orion's side? He was +devoting his whole attention to her; as he struck the strings with deeper +emphasis his eyes sought hers, and it seemed as though he were playing +for her alone. Nor did she appear unworthy of such homage, for when the +barge ran into the little haven and Haschim could distinguish her +features he was startled by her noble and purely Greek beauty. + +A few handsomely-dressed slaves, who must have come with the vehicle by +the road, now went on board the boat to carry their invalid lord to his +chariot; and it then became apparent that the seat in which he reclined +was provided with arms by which it could be lifted and moved. A burly +negro took this at the back, but just as another was stooping to lift it +in front Orion pushed him away and took his place, raised the couch with +his father on it, and carried him across the landing-stage between the +deck and the shore, past Haschim to the chariot. The young man did the +work of bearer with cheerful ease, and looked affectionately at his +father while he shouted to the ladies--for only his mother and the +physician accompanied the invalid after carefully wrapping him in shawls +--to get out of the barge and wait for him. Then he went forward, +lighted by the torches which were carried before them. + +"Poor man!" thought the merchant as he looked after the Mukaukas. +"But to a man who has such a son to carry him the saddest and hardest +lot floats by like a cloud before the wind." + +He was now ready to forgive Orion even the rejected flowers; and when the +young girl stepped on shore, the child clinging fondly to her arm, he +confessed to himself that Dame Susannah's little daughter would find it +hard indeed to hold her own by the side of this tall and royal vision of +beauty. What a form was this maiden's, and what princely bearing; and +how sweet and engaging the voice in which she named some of the +constellations to her little companion, and pointed out the comet which +was just rising! + +Haschim was sitting in shadow; he could see without being seen, and note +all that took place on the bench, which was lighted by one of the barge's +lanterns. The unexpected entertainment gave him pleasure, for everything +that affected the governor's son roused his sympathy and interest. The +idea of forming an opinion of this remarkable young man smiled on his +fancy, and the sight of the beautiful girl who sat on the bench yonder +warmed his old heart. The child must certainly be Mary, the governor's +granddaughter. + +Then the chariot started off, clattering away down the road, and in a few +minutes Orion came back to the rest of the party. + +Alas! Poor little heiress of Susannah's wealth! How different was his +demeanor to this beautiful damsel from his treatment of that little +thing! His eyes rested on her face in rapture, his speech failed him now +and again as he addressed her, and what he said must be sometimes grave +and captivating and sometimes witty, for not she alone but the little +maid's governess listened to him eagerly, and when the fair one laughed +it was in particularly sweet, clear tones. There was something so lofty +in her mien that this frank expression of contentment was almost +startling; like a breath of perfume from some gorgeous flower which seems +created to rejoice the eye only. And she, to whom all that Orion had to +say was addressed, listened to him not only with deep attention, but in a +way which showed the merchant that she cared even more for the speaker +than for what he was so eager in expressing. If this maiden wedded the +governor's son, they would indeed be a pair! Taus, the innkeeper's wife, +now came out, a buxom and vigorous Egyptian woman of middle age, carrying +some of the puffs for which she was famous, and which she had just made +with her own hands. She also served them with milk, grapes and other +fruit, her eyes sparkling with delight and gratified ambition; for the +son of the great Mukaukas, the pride of the city, who in former years had +often been her visitor, and not only for the sake of her cakes, in water +parties with his gay companions--mostly Greek officers who now were all +dead and gone or exiles from the country--now did her the honor to come +here so soon after his return. Her facile tongue knew no pause as she +told him that she and her husband had gone forth with the rest to welcome +him at the triumphal arch near Menes' Gate, and Emau with them, and the +little one. Yes, Emau was married now, and had called her first child +Orion. And when the young man asked Dame Taus whether Emau was as +charming as ever and as like her mother as she used to be, she shook her +finger at him and asked in her turn, as she pointed towards the young +lady, whether the fickle bird at whose departure so many had sighed, was +to be caged at last, and whether yon fair lady.... + +But Orion cut her short, saying that he was still his own master though +he already felt the noose round his neck; and the fair lady blushed even +more deeply than at the good woman's first question. He however soon got +over his awkwardness and gaily declared that the worthy Taus' little +daughter was one of the prettiest girls in Memphis, and had had quite as +many admirers as her excellent mother's puff-pastry. Taus was to greet +her kindly from him. + +The landlady departed, much touched and flattered; Orion took up his +lute, and while the ladies refreshed themselves he did the maiden's +bidding and sang the song by Alcaeus which she asked for, in a rich +though subdued voice to the lute, playing it like a master. The young +girl's eyes were fixed on his lips, and again, he seemed to be making +music for her alone. When it was time to start homewards, and the ladies +returned to the barge, he went up to the inn to pay the reckoning. As he +presently returned alone the Arab saw him pick up a handkerchief that the +young lady had left on the table, and hastily press it to his lips as he +went towards the barge. + +The gorgeous red blossoms had fared worse in the morning. The young +man's heart was given to that maiden on the water. She could not be his +sister; what then was the connection between them? + +The merchant soon gained this information, for the guide on his return +could give it him. She was Paula, the daughter of Thomas, the famous +Greek general who had defended the city of Damascus so long and so +bravely against the armies of Islam. She was Mukaukas George's niece, +but her fortune was small; she was a poor relation of the family, and +after her father's disappearance--for his body had never been found-- +she had been received into the governor's house out of pity and charity +--she, a Melchite! The interpreter had little to say in her favor, by +reason of her sect; and though he could find no flaw in her beauty, he +insisted on it that she was proud and ungracious, and incapable of +winning any man's love; only the child, little Mary--she, to be sure, was +very fond of her. It was no secret that even her uncle's wife, worthy +Neforis, did not care for her haughty niece and only suffered her to +please the invalid. And what business had a Melchite at Memphis, under +the roof of a good Jacobite? Every word the dragoman spoke breathed the +scorn which a mean and narrow-minded man is always ready to heap on those +who share the kindness of his own benefactors. + +But this beautiful and lofty-looking daughter of a great man had +conquered the merchant's old heart, and his opinion of her was quite +unmoved by the Memphite's strictures. It was ere long confirmed indeed, +for Philip, the leech whom the guide had been to find, and whose +dignified personality inspired the Arab with confidence, was a daily +visitor to the governor, and he spoke of Paula as one of the most perfect +creatures that Heaven had ever formed in a happy hour. But the Almighty +seemed to have forgotten to care for his own masterpiece; for years her +life had been indeed a sad one. + +The physician could promise the old man some mitigation of his +sufferings, and they liked each other so well that they parted the best +of friends, and not till a late hour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The Mukaukas' barge, urged forward by powerful rowers, made its way +smoothly down the river. On board there was whispering, and now and +again singing. Little Mary had dropped asleep on Paula's shoulder; the +Greek duenna gazed sometimes at the comet which filled her with terrors, +sometimes at Orion, whose handsome face had bewitched her mature heart, +and sometimes at the young girl whom she was ill-pleased to see thus +preferred by this favorite of the gods. It was a deliciously warm, still +night, and the moon, which makes the ocean swell and flow, stirs the tide +of feeling to rise in the human breast. + +Whatever Paula asked for Orion sang, as though nothing was unknown to him +that had ever sounded on a Greek lute; and the longer they went on the +clearer and richer his voice grew, the more melting and seductive its +expression, and the more urgently it appealed to the young girl's heart. +Paula gave herself up to the sweet enchantment, and when he laid down the +lute and asked in low tones if his native land was not lovely on such a +night as this, or which song she liked best, and whether she had any idea +of what it had been to him to find her in his parents' house, she yielded +to the charm and answered him in whispers like his own. + +Under the dense foliage of the sleeping garden he pressed her hand to his +lips, and she, tremulous, let him have his way.--Bitter, bitter years lay +behind her. The physician had spoken only too truly. The hardest blows +of fate had brought her--the proud daughter of a noble father--to a +course of cruel humiliations. The life of a friendless though not +penniless relation, taken into a wealthy house out of charity, had proved +a thorny path to tread, but now-since the day before yesterday--all was +changed. Orion had come. His home and the city had held high festival +on his return, as at some gift of Fortune, in which she too had a goodly +share. He had met her, not as the dependent relative, but as a beautiful +and high-born woman. There was sunshine in his presence which warmed her +very heart, and made her raise her head once more like a flower that is +brought out under the open sky after long privation of light and air. +His bright spirit and gladness of life refreshed her heart and brain; the +respect he paid her revived her crushed self-confidence and filled her +soul with fervent gratitude. Ah! and how delightful it was to feel that +she might be grateful, devotedly grateful.--And then, then this evening +had been hers, the sweetest, most blessed that she had known for years. +He had reminded her of what she had almost forgotten: that she was still +young, that she was still lovely, that she had a right to be happy, to +enchant and be enchanted--perhaps even to love and to be loved. + +Her hand was still conscious of his burning kiss as she entered the cool +room where the Lady Neforis sat awaiting the return of the party, turning +her spinning-wheel by the couch of her invalid husband who always went to +rest at late hours. It was with an overflowing heart that Paula raised +her uncle's hand to her lips--Orion's father, might she not say HER +Orion's?--Then she kissed her aunt--his mother, and it was long since she +had done so--as she and little Mary bid her good-night. Neforis accepted +the kiss coolly but with some surprise, and looked up enquiringly at the +girl and at her son. No doubt she thought many things, but deemed it +prudent to give them no utterance for the present. She allowed the girl +to retire as though nothing unusual had occurred, superintended the +servants who came to carry her husband into his bedroom, gave him the +white globule which was to secure him sleep, and with indefatigable +patience turned and moved his pillows till his couch was to his mind. +Not till then, nor till she was satisfied that a servant was keeping +watch in the adjoining room, did she leave him; and then--for there was +danger in delay--she went to seek her son. + +This tall, large and rather too portly woman had been in her youth a +slender and elegant girl; a graceful creature though her calm and +expressionless features had never been strikingly beautiful. Age had +altered them but little; her face was now that of a good-looking, plump, +easy-going matron, which had lost its freshness through long and devoted +attendance on the sick man. Her birth and position gave her confidence +and self-reliance, but there was nothing gracious or captivating in her +individuality. The joys and woes of others were not hers; still she +could be moved and stirred by them, even to self-denial, and was very +capable of feeling quite a passionate interest for others; only, those +others must be her own immediate belongings and no one else. Thus a more +devoted and anxious wife, or a more loving mother would have been hard to +find; but, if we compare her faculty for loving with a star, its rays +were too short to reach further than to those nearest to her, and these +regarded it as an exceptional state of grace to be included within the +narrow circle of those beloved by her somewhat grudging soul. + +She knocked at Orion's sitting-room, and he hailed her late visit with +surprise and pleasure. She had come to speak of a matter of importance, +and had done so promptly, for her son's and Paula's conduct just now +urged her to lose no time. Something was going on between these two and +her husband's niece was far outside the narrow limits of her loving +kindness. + +This, she began by saying, would not allow her to sleep. She had but one +heart's desire and his father shared it: Orion must know full well what +she meant; she had spoken to him about it only yesterday. His father had +received him with warm affection, had paid his debts unhesitatingly and +without a word of reproach, and now it was his part to turn over a new +leaf: to break with his former reckless life and set up a home of his +own. The bride, as he knew, was chosen for him. "Susannah was here just +now," she said. "You scapegrace, she confessed that you had quite turned +her Katharina's little head this morning." + +"I am sorry for it," he interrupted in a tone of annoyance. "These ways +with women have grown upon me as a habit; but I have done with them +henceforth. They are unworthy of me now, and I feel, my dear Mother...." + +"That life is beginning in earnest," Neforis threw in. "The wish which +brings me to you now entirely accords with that. You know what it is, +and I cannot imagine what you can have to say against it. In short, you +must let me settle the matter to-morrow with Dame Susannah. You are sure +of her daughter's affection, she is the richest heiress in the country, +well brought up, and as I said before, she has quite lost her little +heart to you." + +"And she had better have kept it!" said Orion with a laugh. + +Then his mother waxed wroth and exclaimed: "I must beg you to reserve +your mirth for a more fitting season and for laughable things. I am very +much in earnest when I say: The girl is a sweet, good little creature and +will be a faithful and loving wife to you, under God. Or have you left +your heart in Constantinople? Has the Senator Justinus' fair relation. +--But nonsense! You can hardly suppose that that volatile Greek girl..." + +Orion clasped her in his arms, and said tenderly, "No, dearest mother, +no. Constantinople lies far, far behind me, in grey mist beyond the +farthest Thule; and here, close here, under my father's roof, I have +found something far more lovely and more perfect than has ever been +beheld by the dwellers on the Bosphorus. That little girl is no match +for a son of our stalwart and broad-shouldered race. Our future +generations must still tower proudly above the common herd in every +respect; I want no plaything for a wife, but a woman, such as you +yourself were in youth--tall, dignified and handsome. My heart goes +forth to no gold-crested wren but to a really royal maiden.--Of what use +to waste words! Paula, the noble daughter of a glorious father, is my +choice. It came upon me just now like a revelation; I ask your blessing +on my union with her!" + +So far had Neforis allowed her son to speak. He had frankly and boldly +uttered what she had indeed feared to hear. And so long she had +succeeded in keeping silence!--But now her patience gave way. Trembling +with anger she abruptly broke in, exclaiming, as her face grew crimson: + +"No more, no more! Heaven grant that this which I have been compelled +to hear may be no more than a fleeting and foolish whim! Have you quite +forgotten who and what we are? Have you forgotten that those were +Melchites who slew your two dear brothers--our two noble sons? Of what +account are we among the orthodox Greeks? While among the Egyptians and +all who confess the saving doctrine of Eutyches, among the Monophysites +we are the chief, and we will remain so, and close our ears and hearts +against all heretics and their superstitions. What! A grandson of +Menas, the brother of two martyrs for our glorious faith, married to a +Melchite! The mere idea is sacrilege, is blasphemy; I can give it no +milder name! I and your father will die childless before we consent! +And it is for the love of this woman, whose heart is so cold that I +shiver only to think of it--for this waif and stray, who has nothing but +her ragged pride and the mere scrapings of a lost fortune, which never +could compare with ours--for this thankless creature, who can hardly +bring herself to bid me, your mother, such a civil good-morning--by +Heaven it is the truth--as I can say to a slave--for her that I, that +your parents are to be bereft of their son, the only child that a +gracious Providence has left to be their joy and comfort? No, no, +never! Far be it from me! You, Orion, my heart's darling, you have been +a wilful fellow all your life, but you cannot have such a perverse heart +as to bring your old mother, who has kept you in her heart these four and +twenty years, in sorrow to the grave and embitter your father's few +remaining days--for his hours are numbered!--And all for the sake of this +cold beauty, whom you have seen for a few hours these last two days. You +cannot have the heart to do this, my heart's treasure, no, you cannot!-- +But if you should in some accursed hour, I tell you--and I have been a +tender mother to you all your life-but as surely as God shall be my stay +and your father's in our last hour, I will tear all love for you out of +my heart like a poisonous weed--I will, though that heart should break!" + +Orion put his arms round the excited woman, who lead freed herself from +his embrace, laid his hand lightly on her lips and kissed her eyes, +whispering in her ear: + +"I have not the heart indeed, and could scarcely find it." Then, taking +both her hands, he looked straight into her face. + +"Brrr!" he exclaimed, "your daredevil son was never so much frightened +in his life as by your threats. What dreadful words are these--and even +worse were at the tip of your tongue! Mother--Mother Neforis! Your name +means kindness, but you can be cruel, bitterly cruel!" + +Still he drew her fondly to him, and kissed her hair and brow and cheeks +with eager haste, in a vehemence of feeling which came over him like a +revulsion after the shock he had gone through; and when they parted he +had given her leave to negotiate for little Katharina's hand on his +behalf, and she had promised in return that it should be not on the +morrow but the day after at soonest. This delay seemed to him a sort of +victory and when he found himself alone and reflected on what he had done +in yielding to his mother, though his heart bled from the wounds of which +he himself knew not the depth, he rejoiced that he had not bound Paula by +any closer tie. His eyes had indeed told her much, but the word "Love" +had not passed his lips--and yet that was what it came to.--But surely +a cousin might be allowed to kiss the hand of a lovely relation. She was +a desirable woman--ah, how desirable!--and must ever be: but to quarrel +with his parents for the sake of a girl, were she Aphrodite herself, +or one of the Muses or the Graces--that was impossible! There were +thousands of pretty women in the world, but only one mother; and how +often had his heart beat high and won another heart, taken all it had +to give, and then easily and quickly recovered its balance. + +This time however, it seemed more deeply hit than on former occasions; +even the lovely Persian slave for whose sake he had committed the wildest +follies while yet scarcely more than a school-boy--even the bewitching +Heliodora at Constantinople for whom he still had a tender thought, had +not agitated him so strongly. It was hard to give up this Paula; but +there was no help for it. To-morrow he must do his best to establish +their intercourse on a friendly and fraternal footing; for he could have +no hope that she would be content to accept his love only, like the +gentle Heliodora, who was quite her equal in birth. Life would have been +fair, unutterably fair, with this splendid creature by his side! If only +he could take her to the Capital he felt sure that all the world would +stand still to turn round and gaze at her. And if she loved him--if she +met him open-armed.... Oh, why had spiteful fate made her a Melchite? +But then, alas, alas! There must surely be something wrong with her +nature and temper; would she not otherwise have been able in two years to +gain the love, instead of the dislike, of his excellent and fond mother? +--Well, after all, it was best so; but Paula's image haunted him +nevertheless and spoilt his sleep, and his longing for her was not +to be stilled. + +Neforis, meanwhile, did not return at once to her husband but went to +find Paula. This business must be settled on all sides and at once. +If she could have believed that her victory would give the invalid +unqualified pleasure she would have hastened to him with the good news, +for she knew no higher joy than to procure him a moment's happiness; but +the Mukaukas had agreed to her choice very reluctantly. Katharina seemed +to him too small and childish for his noble son, whose mental superiority +had been revealed to him unmistakably and undeniably, in many long +discussions since his return, to the delight of his father's heart. +"The water-wagtail," though he wished her every happiness, did not +satisfy him for Orion. To him, the father, Paula would have been a well- +beloved daughter-in-law, and he had often found pleasure in picturing her +by Orion's side. But she was a Melchite; he knew too how ill-affected +his wife was towards her, so he kept his wish locked in his own breast in +order not to vex the faithful companion who lived, thought, and felt for +him alone; and Dame Neforis knew or guessed all this, and said to herself +that it would cost him his night's rest if he were to be told at once +what a concession Orion had made. + +With Paula it was different. The sooner she learnt that she had nothing +to expect from their son, the better for her. + +That very morning she and Orion had greeted each other like a couple of +lovers and just now they had parted like a promised bride and bridegroom. +She would not again be witness to such vexatious doings; so she went to +the young girl's room and confided to her with much satisfaction the +happy prospects her son had promised them,--only Paula must say nothing +about it till the day after to-morrow. + +The moment she entered the room Paula inferred from her beaming +expression that she had something to say unpleasant to herself, so she +preserved due composure. Her face wore a look of unmoved indifference +while she submitted to the overflow of a too-happy mother's heart; and +she wished the betrothed couple joy: but she did so with a smile that +infuriated Neforis. + +She was not on the whole spiteful; but face to face with this girl, her +nature was transformed, and she rather liked the idea of showing her, +once more in her life, that in her place humility would beseem her. All +this she said to herself as she quitted Paula's room; but perhaps this +woman, who had much that was good in her, might have felt some ruth, if +in the course of the next few hours she could but have looked into the +heart of the orphan entrusted to her protection. Only once did Paula sob +aloud; then she indignantly dried her tears, and sat for a long time +gazing at the floor, shaking her pretty head again and again as though +something unheard-of and incredible had befallen her. + +At last, with a bitter sigh, she went to bed; and while she vainly strove +for sleep, and for strength to pray and be silently resigned, Time seemed +to her a wild-beast chase, Fate a relentless hunter, and the quarry he +was pursuing was herself. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +On the following evening Haschim, the merchant, came to the governor's +house with a small part of his caravan. A stranger might have taken the +mansion for the home of a wealthy country-gentleman rather than the +official residence of a high official; for at this hour, after sunset, +large herds of beasts and sheep were being driven into the vast court- +yard behind the house, surrounded on three sides by out-buildings; half a +hundred horses of choice breed came, tied in couples, from the watering- +place; and in a well-sanded paddock enclosed by hurdles, slaves, brown +and black, were bringing fodder to a large troop of camels. + +The house itself was well-fitted by its unusually palatial size and +antique splendor to be the residence of the emperor's viceroy, and the +Mukaukas, to whom it all belonged, had in fact held the office for a long +time. After the conquest of the country by the Arabs they had left him +in possession, and at the present date he managed the affairs of his +Egyptian fellow-countrymen, no more in the name of the emperor at +Byzantium, but under the authority of the Khaliff at Medina and his great +general, Amru. The Moslem conquerors had found him a ready and judicious +mediator; while his fellow-Christians and country-men obeyed him as being +the noblest and wealthiest of their race and the descendant of ancestors +who had enjoyed high distinction even under the Pharaohs. + +Only the governor's residence was Greek--or rather Alexandrian-in style; +the court-yards and out-buildings on the contrary, looked as though +they belonged to some Oriental magnate-to some Erpaha (or prince of a +province) as the Mukaukas' forefathers had been called, a rank which +commanded respect both at court and among the populace. + +The dragoman had not told the merchant too much beforehand of the +governor's possessions: he had vast estates, in both Upper and Lower +Egypt, tilled by thousands of slaves under numerous overseers. Here in +Memphis was the centre of administration of his property, and besides the +offices for his private affairs were those he needed as a state official. + +Well-kept quays, and the wide road running along the harbor side, divided +his large domain from the river, and a street ran along the wall which +enclosed it on the north. On this side was the great gate, always wide +open by day, by which servants or persons on business-errands made their +entrance; the other gate, a handsome portal with Corinthian columns +opening from the Nile-quay, was that by which the waterparty had returned +the evening before. This was kept closed, and only opened for the +family, or for guests and distinguished visitors. There was a guardhouse +at the north gate with a small detachment of Egyptian soldiers, who were +entrusted with the protection of the Mukaukas' person. + +As soon as the refreshing evening breeze came up from the river after the +heat of the day there was a stir in the great court-yard. Men, women and +girls came trooping out of the retainers' dwellings to breathe the cooler +air. Waiting-maids and slaves dipped for water into enormous earthen +vessels and carried it away in graceful jars; the free-men of the +household rested in groups after the fatigues of the day, chatting, +playing and singing. From the slaves' quarters in another court-yard +came confused sounds of singing hymns, with the shrill tones of the +double pipe and duller noise of the tabor--an invitation to dance; +scolding and laughter; the jubilant shouts of a girl led out to dance, +and the shrieks of a victim to the overseer's rod. + +The servant's gateway, still hung with flowers and wreaths in honor of +Orion's recent return, was wide open for the coming and going of the +accountants and scribes, or of such citizens as came very willingly to +pay an evening call on their friends in the governor's household; for +there were always some officials near the Mukaukas' person who knew more +than other folks of the latest events in Church and State. + +Ere long a considerable number of men had assembled to sit under the deep +wooden porch of the head-steward's dwelling, all taking eager part in the +conversation, which they would have found very enjoyable even without the +beer which their host offered them in honor of the great event of his +young lord's return; for what was ever dearer to Egyptians than a brisk +exchange of talk, at the same time heaping ridicule or scorn on their +unapproachable superiors in rank, and on all they deem enemies to their +creed or their country. + +Many a trenchant word and many a witty jest must have been uttered this +evening, for hearty laughter and loud applause were incessant in the head +steward's porch; the captain of the guard at the gate cast envious and +impatient glances at the merry band, which he would gladly have joined; +but he could not yet leave his post. The messengers' horses were +standing saddled while their riders awaited their orders, there were +supplicants and traders to be admitted or turned away, and there were +still a number of persons lingering in the large vestibule of the +governor's palace and craving to speak with him, for it was well known in +Memphis that during the hot season the ailing Mukaukas granted audience +only in the evening. + +The Egyptians had not yet acquired full confidence in the Arab +government, and every one tried to avoid being handed over to its +representative; for none of its officials could be so wise or so just as +their old Mukaukas. How the suffering man found strength and time to +keep an eye on everything, it was hard to imagine; but the fact remained +that he himself looked into every decision. At the same time no one +could be sure of his affairs being settled out of hand unless he could +get at the governor himself. + +Business hours were now over; the anxiety caused both by the delay in the +rising of the Nile and by the advent of the comet had filled the waiting- +rooms with more petitioners than usual. Deputations from town and +village magistrates had been admitted in parties; supplicants on private +business had gone in one by one; and most of them had come forth content, +or at any rate well advised. Only one man still lingered,--a countryman +whose case had long been awaiting settlement--in the hope that a gift to +the great man's doorkeeper, of a few drachmae out of his poverty might at +length secure him the fruit of his long patience--when the chamberlain, +bidding him return on the morrow, officiously flung open the high doors +that led to the Mukaukas' apartments, to admit the Arab merchant, in +consideration of Haschim's gold piece which had come to him through his +cousin the dragoman. Haschim, however, had observed the countryman, and +insisted on his being shown in first. This was done, and a few minutes +later the peasant came out satisfied, and gratefully kissed the Arab's +hand. + +Then the chamberlain led the old merchant, and the men who followed him +with a heavy bale, into a magnificent anteroom to wait; and his patience +was put to a severe test before his name was called and he could show the +governor his merchandise. + +The Mukaukas, in fact, after signifying by a speechless nod that he would +presently receive the merchant--who came well recommended--had retired to +recreate himself, and was now engaged in a game of draughts, heedless of +those whom he kept waiting. He reclined on a divan covered with a sleek +lioness' skin, while his young antagonist sat opposite on a low stool, +The doors of the room, facing the Nile, where he received petitioners +were left half open to admit the fresher but still warm evening-air. The +green velarium or awning, which during the day had screened off the sun's +rays where the middle of the ceiling was open to the sky, was now rolled +back, and the moon and stars looked down into the room. It was well +adapted to its purpose as a refuge from the heat of the summer day, for +the walls were lined with cool, colored earthenware tiles, the floor was +a brightly-tinted mosaic of patterns on a ground of gold glass, and in +the circular central ornament of this artistic pavement stood the real +source of freshness: a basin, two man's length across, of brown porphyry +flecked with white, from which a fountain leaped, filling the surrounding +air with misty spray. A few stools, couches and small tables, all of +cool-looking metal, formed the sole furniture of this lofty apartment +which was brilliantly lighted by numerous lamps. + +A light air blew in through the open roof and doors, made the lamps +flicker, and played with Paula's brown hair as she sat absorbed, as it +seemed, in the game. Orion, who stood behind her, had several times +endeavored to attract her attention, but in vain. He now eagerly offered +his services to fetch her a handkerchief to preserve her from a chill; +this, however, she shortly and decidedly declined, though the breeze came +up damp from the river and she had more than once drawn her peplos more +closely across her bosom. + +The young man set his teeth at this fresh repulse. He did not know that +his mother had told Paula what he had yesterday agreed to, and could not +account for the girl's altered behavior. All day she had treated him +with icy coldness, had scarcely answered his questions with a distant +"Yes," or "No;" and to him, the spoilt favorite of women, this conduct +had become more and more intolerable. Yes, his mother had judged her +rightly: she allowed herself to be swayed in a most extraordinary +manner by her moods; and now even he was to feel the insolence of her +haughtiness, of which he had as yet seen nothing. This repellent +coldness bordered on rudeness and he had no mind to submit to it for +long. It was with deep vexation that he watched every turn of her hand, +every movement of her body, and the varying expression of her face; and +the more the image of this proud maiden sank into his heart the more +lovely and perfect he thought her, and the greater grew his desire to see +her smile once more, to see her again as sweetly womanly as she had been +but yesterday. Now she was like nothing so much as a splendid marble +statue, though he knew indeed that it had a soul--and what a glorious +task it would be to free this fair being from herself, as it were, from +the foolish tempers that enslaved her, to show her--by severity if need +should be--what best beseems a woman, a maiden. + +He became more and more exclusively absorbed in watching the young girl, +as his mother--who was sitting with Dame Susannah on a couch at some +little distance from the players--observed with growing annoyance, and +she tried to divert his attention by questions and small errands, so as +to give his evident excitement a fresh direction. + +Who could have thought, yesterday morning, that her darling would so soon +cause her fresh vexation and anxiety. + +He had come home just such a man as she and his father could have wished: +independent and experienced in the ways of the great world. In the +Capital he had, no doubt, enjoyed all that seems pleasant in the eyes of +a wealthy youth, but in spite of that he had remained fresh and open- +hearted even to the smallest things; and this was what most rejoiced his +father. In him there was no trace of the satiety, the blunted faculty +for enjoyment, which fell like a blight on so many men of his age and +rank. He could still play as merrily with little Mary, still take as +much pleasure in a rare flower or a fine horse, as before his departure. +At the same time he had gained keen insight into the political situation +of the time, into the state of the empire and the court, into +administration, and the innovations in church matters; it was a joy +to his father to hear him discourse; and he assured his wife that he had +learnt a great deal from the boy, that Orion was on the high road to be +a great statesman and was already quite capable of taking his father's +place. + +When Neforis confessed how large a sum in debts Orion had left in +Constantinople the old man put his hand in his purse with a sort of +pride, delighted to find that his sole remaining heir knew how to spend +the immense wealth which to him was now a burden rather than a pleasure-- +to make good use of it, as he himself had done in his day, and display a +magnificence of which the lustre was reflected on him and on his name. + +"With him, at any rate," said the old man, "one gets something for the +money. His horses cost a great deal but he knows how to win with them; +his entertainments swallow up a pretty sum, but they gain him respect +wherever he goes. He brought me a letter from the Senator Justinus, and +the worthy man tells me what a leading part he plays among the gilded +youth of the Capital. All this is not to be had for nothing, and it will +be cheap in the end. What need we care about a hundred talents more or +less! And there is something magnanimous in the lad that has given him +the spirit to feel that." + +And it was not a hale old grey-beard who spoke thus, but a broken man, +whose only joy it was to lavish on his son the riches which he had long +been incapable of enjoying. The high-spirited and gifted youth, scarcely +more than a boy in years, whom he had sent to the Capital with no small +misgivings, must have led a far less lawless life than might have been +expected; of this the ruddy tinge in his sunburnt cheeks was ample +guarantee, the vigorous solidity of his muscles, and the thick waves of +his hair, which was artificially curled and fell in a fringe, as was then +the fashion, over his high brow, giving him a certain resemblance to the +portraits of Antinous, the handsomest youth in the time of the Emperor +Hadrian. Even his mother owned that he looked like health itself, and +no member of the Imperial family could be more richly, carefully and +fashionably dressed than her darling. But even in the humblest garb he +would have been a handsome--a splendid youth, and his mother's pride! +When he left home there was still a smack of the provincial about him; +but now every kind of awkwardness had vanished, and wherever he might go +--even in the Capital, he was certain to be one of the first to attract +observation and approval. + +And what had he not known in his city experience? The events of half a +century had followed each other with intoxicating rapidity in the course +of the thirty months he had spent there. The greater the excitement, the +greater the pleasure was the watchword of his time; and though he had +rioted and revelled on the shores of the Bosphorus if ever man did, +still the pleasures of feasting and of love, or of racing with his own +victorious horses--all of which he had enjoyed there to the full--were +as child's play compared with the nervous tension to which he had been +strung by the appalling events he had witnessed on all sides. How petty +was the excitement of an Alexandrian horse-race! Whether Timon or +Ptolemy or he himself should win--what did it matter? It was a fine +thing no doubt to carry off the crown in the circus at Byzantium, but +there were other and soul-stirring crises there beyond those which were +bound up with horses or chariots. There a throne was the prize, and +might cost the blood and life of thousands!--What did a man bring home +from the churches in the Nile valley? But if he crossed the threshold +of St. Sophia's in Constantinople he often might have his blood curdled, +or bring home--what matter?--bleeding wounds, or even be carried home +--a corpse. + +Three times had he seen the throne change masters. An emperor and an +empress had been stripped of the purple and mutilated before his eyes. + +Aye, then and there he had had real and intense excitement to thrill him +to the marrow and quick. As for the rest! Well, yes, he had had more +trivial pleasures too. He had not been received as other Egyptians were: +half-educated philosophers--who called themselves Sages and assumed a +mystic and pompously solemn demeanor, Astrologers, Rhetoricians, poverty- +stricken but witty and venemous satirists, physicians making a display of +the learning of their forefathers, fanatical theologians--always ready to +avail themselves of other weapons than reason and dogma in their bitter +contests over articles of faith, hermits and recluses-- +as foul in mind as they were dirty in their persons, corn-merchants and +usurers with whom it was dangerous to conclude a bargain without +witnesses. Orion was none of these. As the handsome, genial, and +original-minded son of the rich and noble Governor, Mukaukas George, he +was welcomed as a sort of ambassador; whatever the golden youth of the +city allowed themselves was permitted to him. His purse was as well +lined as theirs, his health and vigor far more enduring; and his horses +had beaten theirs in three races, though he drove them himself and did +not trust them to paid charioteers. The "rich Egyptian," the "New +Antinous," "handsome Orion," as he was called, could never be spared from +feast or entertainment. He was a welcome guest at the first houses in +the city, and in the palace and the villa of the Senator Justinus, an old +friend of his father, he was as much at home as a son of the house. + +It was under his roof, and the auspices of his kindhearted wife Martina, +that he made acquaintance with the fair Heliodora, the widow of a nephew +of the Senator; and the whole city had been set talking of the tender +intimacy Orion had formed with the beautiful young woman whose rigid +virtue had hitherto been a subject of admiration no less than her fair +hair and the big jewels with which she loved to set off her simple but +costly dress. And many a fair Byzantine had striven for the young +Egyptian's good graces before Heliodora had driven them all out of the +field. Still, she had not yet succeeded in enslaving Orion deeply and +permanently; and when, last evening, he had assured his mother that she +was not mistress of his heart he spoke truly. + +His conduct in the Capital had not certainly been exemplary, but he had +never run wild, and had enjoyed the respect not only of his companions in +pleasure, but of grave and venerable men whom he had met in the house of +Justinus, and who sang the praises of his intelligence and eagerness to +learn. As a boy he had been a diligent scholar, and here he let no +opportunity slip. Not least had he cultivated his musical talents in the +Imperial city, and had acquired a rare mastery in singing and playing the +lute. + +He would gladly have remained some time longer at the Capital, but at +last the place grew too hot to hold him-mainly on his father's account. +The conviction that George had largely contributed to the disaffection of +Egypt for the Byzantine Empire and had played into the hands of the +irresistible and detested upstart Arabs, had found increasing acceptance +in the highest circles, especially since Cyrus--the deposed and now +deceased Patriarch of Alexandria--had retired to Constantinople. Orion's +capture was in fact already decided on, when the Senator Justinus and +some other friends had hinted a warning which he had acted on just in +time. + +His father's line of conduct had placed him in great peril; but he owed +him no grudge for it--indeed, he most deeply approved of it. A thousand +times had he witnessed the contempt heaped on the Egyptians by the +Greeks, and the loathing and hatred of the Orthodox for the Monophysite +creed of his fellow-countrymen. + +He had with difficulty controlled his wrath as he had listened again +and again to the abuse and scorn poured out on his country and people by +gentle and simple, laymen and priests, even in his presence; regarding +him no doubt as one of themselves--a Greek in whose eyes everything +"Barbarian" was as odious and as contemptible as in their own. + +But the blood of his race flowed in the veins of the "new Antinous" who +could sing Greek songs so well and with so pure an accent; every insult +to his people was stamped deep in his heart, every sneer at his faith +revived his memory of the day when the Melchites had slain his two +brothers. And these bloody deeds, these innumerable acts of oppression +by which the Greek; had provoked and offended the schismatic Egyptian and +hunted them to death, were now avenged by his father. It lifted up his +heart and made him proud to think of it. He showed his secret soul to +the old man who was as much surprised as delighted at what he found +there; for he had feared that Orion might not be able wholly to escape +the powerful influences of Greek beguilements;--nay, he had often felt +anxious lest his own son might disapprove of his having surrendered to +the Arab conquerors the province entrusted to his rule, and concluded a +peace with them. + +The Mukaukas now felt himself as one with Orion, and from time to time +looked tenderly up at him from the draught-board. Neforis was doing her +best to entertain the mother of her son's future bride, and divert her +attention from his strange demeanor. She seemed indeed to be successful, +for Dame Susannah agreed to everything she said; but she betrayed the +fact that she was keeping a sharp watch by suddenly asking: "Does your +husband's lofty niece not think us worthy of a single word?" + +"Oh no!" said Neforis bitterly. "I only hope she may soon find some +other people to whom she can behave more graciously. You may depend +upon it I will put no obstacle in her way." + +Then she brought the conversation round to Katharina, and the widow told +her that her brother-in-law, Chrysippus, was now in Memphis with his two +little daughters. They were to go away on the morrow, so the young girl +had been obliged to devote herself to them: "And so the poor child is +sitting there at this minute," she lamented, "and must keep those two +little chatter-boxes quiet while she is longing to be here instead." + +Orion quite understood these last words; he asked after the young girl, +and then added gaily: + +"She promised me a collar yesterday for my little white keepsake from +Constantinople. Fie! Mary, you should not tease the poor little beast." + +"No, let the dog go," added the widow, addressing the governor's little +granddaughter, who was trying to make the recalcitrant dog kiss her doll. +"But you know, Orion, this tiny creature is really too delicate for such +a big man as you are! You should give him to some pretty young lady and +then he would fulfil his destiny! And Katharina is embroidering him a +collar; I ought not to tell her little secret, but it is to have gold +stars on a blue ground." + +"Because Orion is a star," cried the little girl. "So she is working +nothing but Orions." + +"But fortunately there is but one star of my name," observed he. "Pray +tell her that Dame Susa." + +The child clapped her hands. "He does not choose to have any other star +near him!" she exclaimed. + +The widow broke in: "Little simpleton! I know people who cannot even +bear to have a likeness traced between themselves and any one else.--But +this you must permit, Orion--you were quite right just now, Neforis; his +mouth and brow might have been taken from his father's face." + +The remark was quite accurate; and yet it would have been hard to imagine +two men more unlike than the bright youth full of vitality, and the +languid old man on the couch, to whom even the small exertion of moving +the men was an effort. The Mukaukas might once have been like his son, +but in some long past time. Thin grey locks now only covered one half of +his bald head, and of his eyes, which, thirty years since, had sparkled +perhaps as keenly as Orion's, there was usually nothing, or very little +to be seen; for the heavy lids always drooped over them as though they +had lost the power to open, and this gave his handsome but deathly-pale +face a somewhat owl-like look. It was not morose, however; on the +contrary the mingled lines of suffering and of benevolent kindliness +resulted in an expression only of melancholy. The mouth and flabby +cheeks were as motionless as though they were dead. Grief, anxiety and +alarms seemed to have passed over them with a paralysing hand and had +left their trace there. He looked like a man weary unto death, and still +living only because fate had denied him the grace to die. Indeed, he had +often been taken for dead by his family when he had dipped too freely +into a certain little blood-stone box to take too many of the white +opium-pills, one of which he placed between his colorless lips at long +intervals, even during his game of draughts. + +He lifted each piece slowly, like a sleeper with his eyes half shut; and +yet his opponent could not hold her own against his wary tactics and was +defeated by him now for the third time, though her uncle himself called +her a good player. It was easy to read in her high, smooth brow and +dark-blue eyes with their direct gaze, that she could think clearly and +decisively, and also feel deeply. But she seemed wilful too, and +contradictory--at any rate to-day; for when Orion pointed out some move +to her she rarely took his advice, but with set lips, pushed the piece +according to her own, rarely wiser, judgment. It was quite plain that +she was refractory under the guidance of this--especially of this +counsellor. + +The bystanders could not fail to see the girl's repellent manner and +Orion's eager attempts to propitiate her; and for this reason Neforis was +glad when, just as her husband had finished the third game, and had +pushed the men together on the board with the back of his hand, his +chamberlain reminded him that the Arab was without, awaiting his pleasure +with growing impatience. The Mukaukas answered only by a sign, drew his +long caftan of the finest wool closer around him, and pointed to the +doors and the open roof. The rest of the party had long felt the chill +of the damp night air that blew through the room from the river, but +knowing that the father suffered more from heat than from anything, they +had all willingly endured the draught. Now, however, Orion called the +slaves, and before the strangers were admitted the doors were closed and +the roof covered. + +Paula rose; the governor lay motionless and kept his eyes apparently +closed; he must, however, have seen what was going forward through an +imperceptible slit, for he turned first to Paula and then to the other +women saying: "Is it not strange?--Most old folks, like children, seek +the sun, and love to sit, as the others play, in its heat. While I-- +something that happened to me years ago--you know;--and it seemed to +freeze my blood. Now it never gets warm, and I feel the contrast between +the coolness in here and the heat outside most acutely, almost as a pain. +The older we grow the more ready we are to abandon to the young the +things we ourselves used most to enjoy. The only thing which we old +folks do not willingly relinquish is personal comfort, and I thank you +for enduring annoyances so patiently for the sake of securing mine.--It +is a terrific summer! You, Paula, from the heights of Lebanon, know what +ice is. How often have I wished that I could have a bed of snow. To +feel myself one with that fresh, still coldness would be all I wish for! +The cold air which you dread does me good. But the warmth of youth +rebels against everything that is cool." + +This was the first long sentence the Mukaukas had uttered since the +beginning of the game. Orion listened respectfully to the end, but then +he said with a laugh: "But there are some young people who seem to take +pleasure in being cool and icy--for what cause God alone knows!" + +As he spoke he looked the girl at whom the words were aimed, full in the +face; but she turned silently and proudly away, and an angry shade passed +over her lovely features. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +When the Arab was at last admitted to the governor's presence his +attendants unfolded a hanging before him. The giant Masdakite did the +chief share of the work; but as soon as the Mukaukas caught sight of the +big man, with his bushy, mane-like hair, and a dagger and a battle-axe +stuck through his belt, he cried out: + +"Away, away with him! That man--those weapons--I will not look at the +hanging till he is gone." + +His hands were trembling, and the merchant at once desired his faithful +Rustem, the most harmless of mortals, to quit the room. The governor, +whose sensitive nerves had been liable to such attacks of panic ever +since an exiled Greek had once attempted to murder him, now soon +recovered his composure, and looked with great admiration at the hanging +round which the family were standing. They all confessed they had never +seen anything like it, and the vivacious Dame Susannah proposed to send +for her daughter and her visitors; but it was already late, and her house +was so far from the governor's that she gave that up. The father and son +had already heard of this marvellous piece of work, which had formed part +of the plunder taken by the Arab conquerors of the Persian Empire at the +sack of the "White Tower"--the royal palace of Madam, the capital of the +Sassanidze. They knew that it had been originally 300 ells long and 60 +ells wide, and had heard with indignation that the Khaliff Omar, who +always lived and dressed and ate like the chief of a caravan, and +looked down with contempt on all such objects of luxury, had cut this +inestimable treasure of art into pieces and divided it among the +Companions of the Prophet. + +Haschim explained to them that this particular fragment had been the +share of the booty allotted to Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law. Haschim +himself had seen the work before its dismemberment at Madain, where it +hung on the wall of the magnificent throne-room, and subsequently, at +Medina. + +His audience eagerly requested him to describe the other portions; he, +however, seemed somewhat uneasy, looking down at his bare feet which were +standing on the mosaic pavement, damp from the fountain; for, after the +manner of his nation, he had left his shoes in the outer room. The +governor had noticed the old man's gestures as he repeatedly put his hand +to his mouth, and while his wife, Orion, and the widow were besieging the +merchant with questions, he whispered a few words to one of the slaves. +The man vanished, and returned bringing in, by his master's orders, a +long strip of carpet which he laid in front of the Arab's brown and +strong but delicately-formed feet. + +A wonderful change came over the merchant's whole being as this was done. +He drew himself up with a dignity which none of those present had +suspected in the man who had so humbly entered the room and so diligently +praised his wares; an expression of satisfaction overspread his calm, +mild features, a sweet smile parted his lips, and his kind eyes sparkled +through tears like those of a child unexpectedly pleased. Then he bowed +before the Mukaukas, touching his brow, lips and breast with the finger- +tips of the right hand to express: "All my thoughts, words and feelings +are devoted to you,"--while he said: "Thanks, Son of Menas. That was the +act of Moslem." + +"Of a Christian!" cried Orion hastily. But his father shook his head +gently, and said, slowly and impressively: "Only of a man." + +"Of a man," repeated the merchant, and then he added thoughtfully: "Of a +man! Yes, that is the highest mark so long as we are what we ought to be +The image of the one God. Who is more compassionate than He? And every +mother's son who is likewise compassionate, is like him." + +"Another Christian rule, thou strange Moslem!" said Orion interrupting +him. + +"And yet," said Haschim, with tranquil dignity, "it corresponds word +for word with the teaching of the Best of men--our Prophet. I am one of +those who knew him here on earth. His brother's smallest pain filled his +soft heart with friendly sympathy; his law insists on charity, even +towards the shrub by the, wayside; he pronounces it mortal sin to injure +it, and every Moslem must obey him. Compassion for all is the command of +the Prophet. . . ." Here the Arab was suddenly and roughly interrupted; +Paula, who, till now, had been leaning against a pilaster, contemplating +the hanging and silently listening to the conversation, hastily stepped +nearer to the old man, and with flaming cheeks and flashing eyes pointed +at him wrathfully, while she exclaimed in a trembling voice-heedless +alike of the astonished and indignant bystanders, and of the little dog +which flew at the Arab, barking furiously: + +"You--you, the followers of the false prophet--you, the companions of the +bloodhound Khalid--you and Charity! I know you! I know what you did in +Syria. With these eyes have I seen you, and your bloodthirsty women, and +the foam on your raging lips. Here I stand to bear witness against you +and I cast it in your teeth: You broke faith in Damascus, and the +victims of your treachery--defenceless women and tender infants as well +as men--you killed with the sword or strangled with your hands. You--you +the Apostle of Compassion?--have you ever heard of Abyla? You, the +friend of your Prophet--I ask you what did you, who so tenderly spare the +tree by the wayside, do to the innocent folk of Abyla, whom you fell upon +like wolves in a sheepfold? You--you and Compassionate!" The vehement +girl, to whom no one had ever shown any pity, and on whose soul the word +had fallen like a mockery, who for long hours had been suffering +suppressed and torturing misery, felt it a relief to give free vent to +the anguish of her soul; she ended with a hard laugh, and waved her hand +round her head as though to disperse a swarm of gadflies. + +What a woman! + +Orion's gaze was fixed on her in horror--but in enchantment. Yes, his +mother had judged her rightly. No gentle, tender-hearted woman laughed +like that; but she was grand, splendid, wonderful in her wrath. She +reminded him of the picture of the goddess of vengeance, by Apelles, +which he had seen in Constantinople. His mother shrugged her shoulders +and cast a meaning glance at the widow, and even his father was startled +at the sight. He knew what had roused her; still he felt that he could +not permit this, and he recalled the excited girl to her senses by +speaking her name, half-reproachfully and half-regretfully, at first +quite gently but then louder and more severely. + +She started like a sleep-walker suddenly awaked from her trance, passed +her hand over her eyes, and said, as she bowed her head before the +governor: + +"Forgive me, Uncle, I am sorry for what has occurred--but it was too much +for me. You know what my past has been, and when I am reminded--when I +must listen to the praises even of the wretches to whom my father and +brother...." + +A loud sob interrupted her; little Mary was clinging to her and weeping. +Orion could hardly keep himself from hastening to her and clasping her in +his arms. Ah, how well her woman's weakness became the noble girl! How +strongly it drew him to her! + +But Paula soon recovered from it; even while the governor was soothing +her with kind words she mastered her violent agitation, and said gently, +though her tears still quietly flowed: "Let me go to my room, I beg...." + +"Good-night, then, child," said the Mukaukas affectionately, and Paula +turned towards the door with a silent greeting to the rest of the party; +but the Moslem detained her and said: + +"I know who you are, noble daughter of Thomas, and I have heard that +your brother was the bridegroom who had come to Abyla to solemnize his +marriage with the daughter of the prefect of Tripolis. Alas, alas! +I myself was there with my merchandise at the fair, when a maddened horde +of my fellow-believers fell upon the peaceful town. Poor child, poor +child! Your father was the greatest and most redoubtable of our foes. +Whether still on earth or in heaven he yet, no doubt honors our sword +as we honor his. But your brother, whom we sent to his grave as a +bridegroom--he cursed us with his dying breath. You have inherited his +rancor; and when it surges up against me, a Moslem, I can do no more than +bow my head and do penance for the guilt of those whose blood runs in my +veins and whose faith I confess. I have nothing to plead--no, noble +maiden, nothing that can excuse the deed of Abyla. There--there alone it +was the fate of my grey hairs to be ashamed of my fellow-Moslems--believe +me, maiden, it was grievous to me. War, and the memory of many friends +slain and of wealth lightly plundered had unchained men's passion; and +where passion's pinions wave, whether in the struggle for mine and thine +or for other possessions, ever since the days of Cain and Abel, it is +always and everywhere the same." + +Paula, who till now had stood motionless in front of the old man, shook +her head and said bitterly: + +"But all this will not give me back my father and brother. You yourself +look like a kind-hearted man; but for the future--if you are as just as +you are kind--find out to whom you are speaking before you talk of the +compassion of the Moslems!" + +She once more bowed good-night and left the room. Orion followed her; +come what might he must see her. But he returned a few minutes after, +breathing hard and with his teeth set. He had taken her hand, had tried +to tell her all a loving heart could find to say; but how sharply, how +icily had he been repulsed, with what an air of intolerable scorn had she +turned her back upon him! And now that he was in their midst again he +scarcely heard his father express his regrets that so painful a scene +should have occurred under his roof, while the Arab said that he could +quite understand why the daughter of Thomas should have been betrayed +to anger: the massacre of Abyla was quite inexcusable. + +"But then," the old man went on, "in what war do not such things take +place? Even the Christian is not always master of himself: you yourself +I know, lost two promising sons--and who were the murderers? Christians +--your own fellow-believers. . ." + +"The bitterest foes of my beliefs," said the governor slowly, and every +syllable was a calm and dignified reproof to the Moslem for supposing +that the creed of those who had killed his sons could be his. As he +spoke he opened his eyes wide with the look of those hard, opaquely- +glittering stones which his ancestors had been wont to set for eyes in +their portrait statues. But he suddenly closed them again and said +indifferently: + +"At what price do you value your hanging? I have a fancy to buy it. +Name your lowest terms: I cannot bear to bargain." + +"I had thought of asking five hundred thousand drachmae," said the +dealer. "Four hundred thousand drachmae, and it is yours." + +The governor's wife clasped her hands at such a sum and made warning +signals to her husband, shaking her head disapprovingly, when Orion, +making a great effort to show that he too took an interest in this +important transaction, said: "It may be worth three hundred thousand." + +"Four hundred thousand," repeated the merchant coolly. "Your father +wished to know the lowest price, and I am asking no more than is right. +The rubies and garnets in these grapes, the pearls in the myrtle +blossoms, the turquoises in the forget-me-nots, the diamonds hanging as +dew on the grass, the emeralds which give brilliancy to the green leaves +--this one especially, which is an immense stone--alone are worth more." + +"Then why do you not cut them out of the tissue?" asked Neforis. + +"Because I cannot bear to destroy this noble work," replied the Arab. "I +will sell it as it is or not at all." At these words the Mukaukas nodded +to his son, heedless of the disapprobation his wife persisted in +expressing, asked for a tablet which lay near the chessboard, and on it +wrote a few words. + +"We are agreed," he said to the merchant. "The treasurer, Nilus, will +hand you the payment to-morrow morning on presenting this order." + +A fresh emotion now took possession of Orion, and crying: "Splendid! +Splendid!" he rushed up to his father and excitedly kissed his hand. +Then, turning to his mother, whose eyes were full of tears of vexation, +he put his hand under her chin, kissed her brow, and exclaimed with +triumphant satisfaction: "This is how we and the emperor do business! +When the father is the most liberal of men the son is apt to look small. +Meaning no harm, worthy merchant! As far as the hanging is concerned, +it may be more precious than all the treasures of Croesus; but you have +something yet to give us into the bargain before you load your camels +with our gold: Tell us what the whole work was like before it was +divided." + +The Moslem, who had placed the precious tablet in his girdle, at once +obeyed this request. + +"You know how enormous were its length and breadth," he began. "The hall +it decorated could hold several thousand guests, besides space for a +hundred body guards to stand on each side of the throne. As many +weavers, embroiderers and jewellers as there are days in the year worked +on it, they say, for the years of a man's life. The woven picture +represented paradise as the Persians imagine it--full of green trees, +flowers and fruits. Here you can still see a fragment of the sparkling +fountain which, when seen from a distance, with its sprinkling of +diamonds, sapphires and emeralds, looked like living water. Here the +pearls represent the foam on a wave. These leaves, cut across here, +belonged to a rose-bush which grew by the fountain of Eden before the +evil of the first rain fell on the world. + +"Originally all roses were white, but as the limbs of the first woman +shone with more dazzling whiteness they blushed for shame, and since then +there are crimson as well as white roses. So the Persians say." + +"And this--our piece?" asked Orion. + +"This," replied the merchant, with a pleasant glance at the young man, +"was the very middle of the hanging. On the left you see the judgment at +the bridge of Chinvat. The damned were not represented, but only the +winged, Fravashi, Genii who, as the Persians believe, dwell one with each +mortal as his guardian angel through life, united to him but separable. +They were depicted in stormy pursuit of the damned--the miscreant +followers of Angramainjus, the evil Spirit, of whom you must imagine a +vast multitude fleeing before them. The souls in bliss, the pure and +faithful servants of the Persian divinity Auramazda, enter with songs of +triumph into the flower-decked pleasure-garden, while at their feet the +spirits were shown of those who were neither altogether cursed nor +altogether blessed, vanishing in humble silence into a dusky grove. The +pure enjoyed the gifts of paradise in peace and contentment.--All this +was explained to me by a priest of the Fire-worshippers. Here, you see, +is a huge bunch of grapes which one of the happy ones is about to pluck; +the hand is uninjured--the arm unfortunately is cut through; but here is +a splendid fragment of the wreath of fruit and flowers which framed the +whole. That emerald forming a bud--how much do you think it is worth?" + +"A magnificent stone!" cried Orion. "Even Heliodora has nothing to +equal it.--Well, father, what do you say is its value?" + +"Great, very great," replied the Mukaukas. "And yet the whole +unmutilated work would be too small an offering for Him to whom I propose +to offer it." + +"To the great general, Amru?" asked Orion. + +"No child," said the governor decidedly. "To the great, indivisible and +divine Person of Jesus Christ and his Church." + +Orion looked down greatly disappointed; the idea of seeing this splendid +gem hidden away in a reliquary in some dim cupboard did not please him: +He could have found a much more gratifying use for it. + +Neither his father nor his mother observed his dissatisfaction, for +Neforis had rushed up to her husband's couch, and fallen on her knees by +his side, covering his cold, slender hand with kisses, as joyful as +though this determination had relieved her of a heavy burden of dread: +"Our souls, our souls, George! For such a gift--only wait--you will be +forgiven all, and recover your lost peace!" + +The governor shrugged his shoulders and said nothing; the hanging was +rolled up and locked into the tablinum by Orion; then the Mukaukas bid +the chamberlain show the Arab and his followers to quarters for the +night. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Abandon to the young the things we ourselves used most to enjoy +Spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the women +Talk of the wolf and you see his tail +Temples of the old gods were used as quarries +Women are indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 2. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Pangs of soul and doubtings of conscience had, in fact, prompted the +governor to purchase the hanging and he therefore might have been glad if +it had cost him still dearer. The greater the gift the better founded +his hope of grace and favor from the recipient! And he had grounds for +being uneasy and for asking himself whether he had acted rightly. +Revenge was no Christian virtue, but to let the evil done to him by the +Melchites go unpunished when the opportunity offered for crushing them +was more than he could bring himself to. Nay, what father whose two +bright young sons had been murdered, but would have done as he did? That +fearful blow had struck him in a vital spot. Since that day he had felt +himself slowly dying; and that sense of weakness, those desperate +tremors, the discomforts and suffering which blighted every hour of his +life, were also to be set down to the account of the Melchite tyrants. + +His waning powers had indeed only been kept up by his original vigor and +his burning thirst for revenge, and fate had allowed him to quench it in +a way which, as time went on, seemed too absolute to his peace-loving +nature. Though not indeed by his act, still with his complicity he saw +the Byzantine Empire bereft of the rich province which Caesar had +entrusted to his rule, saw the Greeks and everything that bore the name +of Melchite driven out of Egypt with ignominy--though he would gladly +have prevented it--in many places slain like dogs by the furious populace +who hailed the Moslems as their deliverers. + +Thus all the evil he had invoked on the murderers of his children and the +oppressors and torturers of his people had come upon them; his revenge +was complete. But, in the midst of his satisfaction at this strange +fulfilment of the fervent wish of years, his conscience had lifted up its +voice; new, and hitherto unknown terrors had come upon him. He lacked +the strength of mind to be a hero or a reformer. Too great an event had +been wrought through his agency, too fearful a doom visited on thousands +of men! The Christian Faith--to him the highest consideration--had been +too greatly imperilled by his act, for the thought that he had caused all +this to be calmly endurable. The responsibility proved too heavy for his +shoulders; and whenever he repeated to himself that it was not he who had +invited the Arabs into the land, and that he must have been crushed in +the attempt to repel them, he could hear voices all round him denouncing +him as the man who had surrendered his native land to them, and he +fancied himself environed by dangers--believing those who spoke to him of +assassins sent forth by the Byzantines to kill him.--But even more +appalling, was his dread of the wrath of Heaven against the man who had +betrayed a Christian country to the Infidels. Even his consciousness of +having been, all his life long, a right-minded, just man could not +fortify him against this terror; there was but one thing which could +raise his quelled spirit: the white pillules which had long been as +indispensable to him as air and water. The kind-hearted old bishop of +Memphis, Plotinus, and his clergy had forgiveness for all; the Patriarch +Benjamin, on the contrary, had treated him as a reprobate sentenced to +eternal damnation, though at the time of this prelate's exile in the +desert he had hailed the Arabs as their deliverers from the tyranny of +the Melchites, and though George had principally contributed to his +recall and reinstatement, and had therefore counted on his support. And, +although the Mukaukas could clearly see through the secondary motives +which influenced the Patriarch, he nevertheless believed that Benjamin's +office as Shepherd of souls gave him power to close the Gates of Heaven +against any sheep in his flock. + +The more firmly the Arabs took root in his land, the wiser their rule, +and the, more numerous the Egyptian converts from the Cross to the +Crescent, the greater he deemed his guilt; and when, after the +accomplishment of his work of vengeance--his double treason as the Greeks +called it--instead of the wrath of God, everything fell to his lot which +men call happiness and the favors of fortune, the superstitious man +feared lest this was the wages of the Devil, into whose clutches his +hasty compact with the Moslems had driven so many Christian souls. + +He had unexpectedly fallen heir to two vast estates, and his excavators +in the Necropolis had found more gold in the old heathen tombs than all +the others put together. The Moslem Khaliff and his viceroy had left him +in office and shown him friendship and respect; the bulaites--[Town +councillors]--of the town had given him the cognomen of "the Just" by +acclamation of the whole municipality; his lands had never yielded +greater revenues; he received letters from his son's widow in her convent +full of happiness over the new and higher aims in life that she had +found; his grandchild, her daughter, was a creature whose bright and +lovely blossoming was a joy even to strangers; his son's frequent +epistles from Constantinople assured him that he was making progress in +all respects; and he did not forget his parents; for he was never weary +of reporting to them, of his own free impulse, every, pleasure he enjoyed +and every success he won. + +Thus even in a foreign land he had lived with the father and mother who +to him were all that was noblest and dearest. + +And Paula! Though his wife could not feel warmly towards her the old man +regarded her presence in the house as a happy dispensation to which he +owed many a pleasant hour, not only over the draughts-board. + +All these things might indeed be the wages of Satan; but if indeed it +were so, he--George the Mukaukas--would show the Evil One that he was no +servant of his, but devoted to the Saviour in whose mercy he trusted. +With what fervent gratitude to the Almighty was his soul filled for the +return of such a son! Every impulse of his being urged him to give +expression to this feeling; his terrors and gratitude alike prompted him +to spend so vast a sum in order to dedicate a matchless gift to the +Church of Christ. He viewed himself as a prisoner of war whose ransom +has just been paid, as he handed to the merchant the tablet with the +order for the money; and when he was carried to bed, and his wife was not +yet weary of thanking him for his pious intention, he felt happier and +more light-hearted than he had done for many years. Generally he could +hear Paula walking up and down her room which was over his; for she went +late to rest, and in the silence of the night would indulge in sweet and +painful memories. How many loved ones a cruel fate had snatched from +her! Father, brother, her nearest relations and friends; all at once, by +the hand of the Moslems to whom he had abandoned her native land almost +without resistance. + +"I do not hear Paula to-night," he remarked, glancing up as though he +missed something. "The poor child has no doubt gone to bed early after +what passed." + +"Leave her alone!" said Neforis who did not like to be interrupted in +her jubilant effusiveness, and she shrugged her shoulders angrily. "How +she behaved herself again! We have heard a great deal too much about +charity, and though I do not want to boast of my own I am very ready to +exercise it--indeed, it is no more than my duty to show every kindness +to a destitute relation of yours. But this girl! She tries me too far, +and after all I am no more than human. I can have no pleasure in her +presence; if she comes into the room I feel as though misfortune had +crossed the threshold. Besides!--You never see such things; but Orion +thinks of her a great deal more than is good. I only wish she had been +safe out of the house!" + +"Neforis!" her husband said in mild reproach; and he would have reproved +her more sharply but that since he had become a slave to opium he had +lost all power of asserting himself vigorously whether in small matters +or great. + +Ere long the Mukaukas had fallen into an uneasy sleep; but he opened his +eyes more frequently than usual. He missed the light footfall overhead +to which he had been accustomed for these two years past; but she who was +wont to pace the floor above half the night through had not gone to rest +as he supposed. After the events of the evening she had indeed retired +to her room with tingling cheeks and burning eyes; but the slave-girls, +who paid little attention to a guest who was no more than endured and +looked on askance by their mistress, had neglected to open her window- +shutters after sundown, as she had requested, and the room was +oppressively sultry and airless. The wooden shutters felt hot to the +touch, so did the linen sheets over the wool mattrasses. The water in +her jug, and even the handkerchief she took up were warm. To an Egyptian +all this would have been a matter of course; but the native of Damascus +had always passed the summer in her father's country house on the heights +of Lebanon, in cool and lucent shade, and the all-pervading heat of the +past day had been to her intolerable. + +Outside it was pleasant now; so without much reflection she pushed open +the shutter, wrapped a long, dark-hued kerchief about her head and stole +down the steep steps and out through a little side door into the court- +yard. + +There she drew a deep breath and spread out her arms longingly, as though +she would fain fly far, far from thence; but then she dropped them again +and looked about her. It was not the want of fresh air alone that had +brought her out; no, what she most craved for was to open her oppressed +and rebellious heart to another; and here, in the servants' quarters, +there were two souls, one of which knew, understood and loved her, while +the other was as devoted to her as a faithful dog, and did errands for +her which were to be kept hidden from the governor's house and its +inhabitants. + +The first was her nurse who had accompanied her to Egypt; the other was a +freed slave, her father's head groom, who had escorted the women with his +son, a lad, giving them shelter when, after the massacre of Abyla, they +had ventured out of their hiding-place, and after lurking for some time +in the valley of Lebanon, had found no better issue than to fly to Egypt +and put themselves under the protection of the Mukaukas, whose sister had +been Paula's father's first wife. She herself was the child of his +second marriage with a Syrian of high rank, a relation of the Emperor +Heraclius, who had died, quite young, shortly after Paula's birth. + +Both these servants had been parted from her. Perpetua, the nurse, had +been found useful by the governor's wife, who soon discovered that size +was particularly skilled in weaving and who had made her superintendent +of the slave-girls employed at the loom; the old woman had willingly +undertaken the duties though she herself was free-born, for her first +point in life was to remain near her beloved foster-child. Hiram too, +the groom, and his son had found their place among the Mukaukas' +household; in the first instance to take charge of the five horses from +her father's stable which had brought the fugitives to Egypt, but +afterwards--for the governor was not slow to discern his skill in such +matters--as a leech for all sorts of beasts, and as an adviser is +purchasing horses. + +Paula wanted to speak with them both, and she knew exactly where to find +them; but she could not get to them without exposing herself to much that +was unpleasant, for the governor's free retainers and their friends, not +to mention the guard of soldiers who, now that the gates were closed, +were still sitting in parties to gossip; they would certainly not break +up for some time yet, since the slaves were only now bringing out the +soldiers' supper. + +The clatter in the court-yard was unceasing, for every one who was free +to come out was enjoying the coolness of the night. Among them there +were no slaves; these had been sent to their quarters when the gates were +shut; but even in their dwellings voices were still audible. + +With a beating heart Paula tried to see and hear all that came within the +ken of her keen eyes and ears. The growing moon lighted up half the +enclosure, the rest, so far as the shadow fell, lay in darkness. But in +the middle of a large semi-circle of free servants a fire was blazing, +throwing a fitful light on their brown faces; and now and again, as fresh +pine-cones were thrown in, it flared up and illuminated even the darker +half of the space before her. This added to her trepidation; she had to +cross the court-yard, as she hoped, unseen; for innocent and natural as +her proceedings were, she knew that her uncle's wife would put a wrong +construction on her nocturnal expedition. + +At first Neforis had begged her husband to assist Paula in her search for +her father, of whose death no one had any positive assurance. But his +wife's urgency had not been needed: the Mukaukas, of his own free will, +had for a whole year done everything in his power to learn the truth as +to the lost man's end, from Christian or Moslem, till, many months since, +Neforis had declared that any further exertions in the matter were mere +folly, and her weak-willed husband had soon been brought to share her +views and give up the search for the missing hero. He had secured for +Paula, not without some personal sacrifice, much of her father's +property, had sold the landed estates to advantage, collected outstanding +debts wherever it was still possible, and was anxious to lay before her a +statement of what he had recovered for her. But she knew that her +interests were safe in his hands and was satisfied to learn that, though +she was not rich in the eyes of this Egyptian Croesus, she was possessed +of a considerable fortune. When once and again she had asked for a +portion of it to prosecute her search, the Mukaukas at once caused it to +be paid to her; but the third time he refused, with the best intentions +but quite firmly, to yield to her wishes. He said he was her Kyrios and +natural guardian, and explained that it was his duty to hinder her from +dissipating a fortune which she might some day find a boon or indeed +indispensable, in pursuit of a phantom--for that was what this search had +long since become. + + [Kyrios: The woman's legal proxy, who represented her in courts of + justice. His presence gave her equal rights with a man in the eyes + of the Law.] + +The money she had already spent he had replaced out of his own coffers. + +This, she felt, was a noble action; still she urged him again and again +to grant her wish, but always in vain. He laid his hand with firm +determination on the wealth in his charge and would not allow her another +solidus for the sole and dearest aim of her life. + +She seemed to submit; but her purpose of spending her all to recover any +trace of her lost parent never wavered in her determined soul. She had +sold a string of pearls, and for the price, her faithful Hiram had been +able first to make a long journey himself and then to send out a number +of messengers into various lands. By this time one at least might very +well have reached home with some news, and she must see the freed-man. + +But how could she get to him undetected? For some minutes she stood +watching and listening for a favorable moment for crossing the court- +yard. Suddenly a blaze lighted up a face--it was Hiram's. + +At this moment the merry semi-circle laughed loudly as with one voice; +she hastily made up her mind--drew her kerchief closer over her face, ran +quickly along the darker half of the quadrangle and, stooping low, +hurried across the moonlight towards the slaves' quarters. + +At the entrance she paused; her heart throbbed violently. Had she been +observed? No.--There was not a cry, not a following footstep--every dog +knew her; the soldiers who were commonly on guard here had quitted their +posts and were sitting with their comrades round the fire. + +The long building to the left was the weaving shop and her nurse Perpetua +lived there, in the upper story. But even here she must be cautious, for +the governor's wife often came out to give her orders to the workwomen, +and to see and criticise the produce of the hundred looms which were +always in motion, early and late. If she should be seen, one of the +weavers might only too probably betray the fact of her nocturnal visit. +They had not yet gone to rest, for loud laughter fell upon her ear from +the large sheds, open on all sides, which stood over the dyers' vats. +This class of the governor's people were also enjoying the cool night +after the fierce heat of the day, and the girls too had lighted a fire. + +Paula must pass them in full moonshine--but not just yet; and she +crouched close to the straw thatch which stretched over the huge clay +water-jars placed here for the slave-girls to get drink from. It cast a +dark triangular shadow on the dusty ground that gleamed in the moonlight, +and thus screened her from the gaze of the girls, while she could hear +and see what was going on in the sheds. + +The dreadful day of torture ending in a harsh discord was at end; and +behind it she looked back on a few blissful hours full of the promise of +new happiness;--beyond these lay a long period of humiliation, the sequel +of a terrible disaster. How bright and sunny had her childhood been, how +delightful her early youth! For long years of her life she had waked +every morning to new joys, and gone to rest every evening with sincere +and fervent thanksgivings, that had welled from her soul as freely and +naturally as perfume from a rose. How often had she shaken her head in +perplexed unbelief when she heard life spoken of as a vale of sorrows, +and the lot of man bewailed as lamentable. Now she knew better; and in +many a lonely hour, in many a sleepless night, she had asked herself +whether He could, indeed, be a kind and fatherly-loving God who could let +a child be born and grow up, and fill its soul with every hope, and then +bereave it of everything that was dear and desirable--even of hope. + +But the hapless girl had been piously brought up; she could still believe +and pray; and lately it had seemed as though Heaven would grant that for +which her tender heart most longed: the love of a beloved and love-worthy +man. And now--now? + +There she stood with an inconsolable sense of bereavement--empty-hearted; +and if she had been miserable before Orion's return, now she was far more +so; for whereas she had then been lonely she was now defrauded--she, the +daughter of Thomas, the relation and inmate of the wealthiest house in +the country; and close to her, from the rough hewn, dirty dyers' sheds +such clear and happy laughter rang out from a troop of wretched slave +wenches, always liable to the blows of the overseer's rod, that she could +not help listening and turning to look at the girls on whom such an +overflow of high spirits and light-heartedness was bestowed. + +A large party had collected under the wide palm-thatched roof of the +dyeing shed-pretty and ugly, brown and fair, tall and short; some upright +and some bent by toil at the loom from early youth, but all young; not +one more than eighteen years old. Slaves were capital, bearing interest +in the form of work and of children. Every slave girl was married to a +slave as soon as she was old enough. Girls and married women alike were +employed in the weaving shop, but the married ones slept in separate +quarters with their husbands and children, while the maids passed the +night in large sleeping-barracks adjoining the worksheds. They were now +enjoying the evening respite and had gathered in two groups. One party +were watching an Egyptian girl who was scribbling sketches on a tablet; +the others were amusing themselves with a simple game. This consisted in +each one in turn flinging her shoe over her head. If it flew beyond a +chalk-line to which she turned her back she was destined soon to marry +the man she loved; if it fell between her and the mark she must yet have +patience, or would be united to a companion she did not care for. + +The girl who was drawing, and round whom at least twenty others were +crowded, was a designer of patterns for weaving; she had too the gift +which had characterized her heathen ancestors, of representing faces in +profile, with a few simple lines, in such a way that, though often +comically distorted, they were easily recognizable. She was executing +these works of art on a wax tablet with a copper stylus, and the others +were to guess for whom they were meant. + +One girl only sat by herself by the furthest post of the shed, and gazed +silently into her lap. + +Paula looked on and could understand everything that was going forward, +though no coherent sentence was uttered and there was nothing to be heard +but laughter--loud, hearty, irresistible mirth. When a girl threw the +shoe far enough the youthful crowd laughed with all their might, each one +shouting the name of some one who was to marry her successful companion; +if the shoe fell within the line they laughed even louder than before, +and called out the names of all the oldest and dirtiest slaves. A dusky +Syrian had failed to hit the mark, but she boldly seized the chalk and +drew a fresh line between herself and the shoe so that it lay beyond, at +any rate; and their merriment reached a climax when a number of them +rushed up to wipe out the new line, a saucy, crisp-haired Nubian tossed +the shoe in the air and caught it again, while the rest could not cease +for delight in such a good joke and cried every name they could think of +as that of the lover for whom their companion had so boldly seized a +spoke in Fortune's wheel. + +Some spirit of mirth seemed to have taken up his quarters in the draughty +shed; the group round the sketcher was not less noisy than the other. If +a likeness was recognized they were all triumphant, if not they cried the +names of this or that one for whom it might be intended. A storm of +applause greeted a successful caricature of the severest of the +overseers. All who saw it held their sides for laughing, and great was +the uproar when one of the girls snatched away the tablet and the rest +fell upon her to scuffle for it. + +Paula had watched all this at first with distant amazement, shaking her +head. How could they find so much pleasure in such folly, in such +senseless amusements? When she was but a little child even she, of +course, could laugh at nothing, and these grown-up girls, in their +ignorance and the narrow limitations of their minds, were they not one +and all children still? The walls of the governor's house enclosed their +world, they never looked beyond the present moment--just like children; +and so, like children, they could laugh. + +"Fate," thought she, "at this moment indemnifies them for the misfortune +of their birth and for a thousand days of misery, and presently they will +go tired and happy to bed. I could envy these poor creatures! If it +were permissible I would join them and be a child again." + +The comic portrait of the overseer was by this time finished, and a +short, stout wench burst into a fit of uproarious and unquenchable +laughter before any of the rest. It came so naturally, too, from the +very depths of her plump little body that Paula, who had certainly not +come hither to be gay, suddenly caught the infection and had to laugh +whether she would or no. Sorrow and anxiety were suddenly forgotten, +thought and calculation were far from her; for some minutes she felt +nothing but that she, too, was laughing heartily, irrepressibly, like the +young healthful human creature that she was. Ah, how good it was thus to +forget herself for once! She did not put this into words, but she felt +it, and she laughed afresh when the girl who had been sitting apart +joined the others, and exclaimed something which was unintelligible to +Paula, but which gave a new impetus to their mirth. + +The tall slight form of this maiden was now standing by the fire. Paula +had never seen her before and yet she was by far the handsomest of them +all; but she did not look happy and perhaps was in some pain, for she had +a handkerchief over her head which was tied at the top over the thick +fair hair as though she had the toothache. As she looked at her Paula +recovered herself, and as soon as she began to think merriment was at an +end. The slave-girls were not of this mind; but their laughter was less +innocent and frank than it had been; for it had found an object which +they would have done better to pass by. + +The girl with the handkerchief over her head was a slave too, but she had +only lately come into the weaving-sheds after being employed for a long +time at needle work under two old women, widows of slaves. She had been +brought as an infant from Persia to Alexandria with her mother, by the +troops of Heraclius, after the conquest of Chosroes II.; and they had +been bought together for the Mukaukas. When her little one was but +thirteen the mother died under the yoke to which she was not born; the +child was a sweet little girl with a skin as white as the swan and thick +golden hair, which now shone with strange splendor in the firelight. +Orion had remarked her before his journey, and fascinated by the beauty +of the Persian girl, had wished to have her for his own. Servants and +officials, in unscrupulous collusion, had managed to transport her to a +country-house belonging to the Mukaukas on the other side of the Nile, +and there Orion had been able to visit her undisturbed as often as fancy +prompted him. The slave-girl, scarcely yet sixteen, ignorant and +unprotected, had not dared nor desired to resist her master's handsome +son, and when Orion had set out for Constantinople--heedless and weary +already of the girl who had nothing to give him but her beauty--Dame +Neforis found out her connection with her son and ordered the head +overseer to take care that the unhappy girl should not "ply her seductive +arts" any more. The man had carried out her instructions by condemning +the fair Persian, according to an ancient custom, to have her ears cut +off. After this cruel punishment the mutilated beauty sank into a state +of melancholy madness, and although the exorcists of the Church and other +thaumaturgists had vainly endeavored to expel the demon of madness, she +remained as before: a gentle, good-humored creature, quiet and diligent +at her work, under the women who had charge of her, and now in the common +work-shop. It was only when she was idle that her craziness became +evident, and of this the other girls took advantage for their own +amusement. + +They now led Mandane to the fire, and with farcical reverence requested +her to be seated on her throne--an empty color cask, for she suffered +under the strange permanent delusion that she was the wife of the +Mukaukas George. They laughingly did her homage, craved some favor or +made enquiries as to her husband's health and the state of her affairs. +Hitherto a decent instinct of reserve had kept these poor ignorant +creatures from mentioning Orion's name in her presence, but now a woolly- +headed negress, a lean, spiteful hussy, went up to her, and said with a +horrible grimace: + +"Oh, mistress, and where is your little son Orion?" The crazy girl did +not seem startled by the question; she replied very gravely: "I have +married him to the emperor's daughter at Constantinople." + +"Hey day! A splendid match!" exclaimed the black girl. "Did you know +that the young lord was here again? He has brought home his grand wife +to you no doubt, and we shall see purple and crowns in these parts!" + +These words brought a deep flush into the poor creature's face. She +anxiously pressed her hands on the bandage that covered her ears and +said: "Really Has he really come home?" + +"Only quite lately," said another and more good-natured girl, to soothe +her. + +"Do not believe her!" cried the negress. "And if you want to know the +latest news of him: Last night he was out boating on the Nile with the +tall Syrian. My brother, the boatman, was among the rowers; and he went +on finely with the lady I can tell you, finely. . . ." + +"My husband, the great Mukaukas?" asked Mandane, trying to collect her +ideas. + +"No. Your son Orion, who married the emperor's daughter," laughed the +negress. + +The crazy girl stood up, looked about with a restless glance, and then, +as though she had not fully understood what had been said to her, +repeated: "Orion? Handsome Orion?" + +"Aye, your sweet son, Orion!" they all shouted, as loud as though she +were deaf. Then the usually placable girl, holding her hand over her +ear, with the other hit her tormentor such a smack on her thick lips that +it resounded, while she shrieked out loud, in shrill tones: + +"My son, did you say? My son Orion?--As if you did not know! Why, he +was my lover; yes, he himself said he was, and that was why they came and +bound me and cut my ears.--But you know it. But I do not love him--I +could, I might wish, I. . . ." She clenched her fists, and gnashed her +white teeth, and went on with panting breath: + +"Where is he?--You will not tell me? Wait a bit--only wait. Oh, I am +sharp enough, I know you have him here.--Where is be? Orion, Orion, +where are you?" + +She sprang away, ran through the sheds and lifted the lids of all the +color-vats, stooping low to look down into each as if she expected to +find him there, while the others roared with laughter. + +Most of her companions giggled at this witless behavior; but some, who +felt it somewhat uncanny and whom the unhappy girl's bitter cry had +struck painfully, drew apart and had already organized some new +amusement, when a neat little woman appeared on the scene, clapping her +plump hands and exclaiming: + +"Enough of laughter--now, to bed, you swarm of bees. The night is over +too soon in the morning, and the looms must be rattling again by sunrise. +One this way and one that, just like mice when the cat appears. Will you +make haste, you night-birds? Come, will you make haste?" + +The girls had learnt to obey, and they hurried past the matron to their +sleeping-quarters. Perpetua, a woman scarcely past fifty, whose face +wore a pleasant expression of mingled shrewdness and kindness, stood +pricking up her ears and listening; she heard from the water-shed a +peculiar low, long-drawn Wheeuh!--a signal with which she was familiar +as that by which the prefect Thomas had been wont to call together his +scattered household from the garden of his villa on Mount Lebanon. It +was now Paula who gave the whistle to attract her nurse's attention. + +Perpetua shook her head anxiously. What could have brought her beloved +child to see her at so late an hour? Something serious must have +occurred, and with characteristic presence of mind she called out, to +show that she had heard Paula's signal: "Now, make haste. Will you be +quick? Wheeuh! girls--wheeuh! Hurry, hurry!" + +She followed the last of the slave-girls into the sleeping-room, and when +she had assured herself that they were all there but the crazy Persian +she enquired where she was. They had all seen her a few minutes ago in +the shed; so she bid them good-night and left them, letting it be +understood that she was about to seek the missing girl. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Paula went into her nurse's room, and Perpetua, after a short and vain +search for the crazy girl, abandoned her to her fate, not without some +small scruples of conscience. + +A beautifully-polished copper lamp hung from the ceiling and the little +room exactly suited its mistress both were neat and clean, trim and +spruce, simple and yet nice. Snowy transparent curtains enclosed the bed +as a protection against the mosquitoes, a crucifix of delicate +workmanship hung above the head of the couch, and the seats were covered +with good cloth of various colors, fag-ends from the looms. Pretty straw +mats lay on the floor, and pots of plants, filling the little room with +fragrance, stood on the window-sill and in a corner of the room where a +clay statuette of the Good Shepherd looked down on a praying-desk. + +The door had scarcely closed behind them when Perpetua exclaimed: "But +child, how you frightened me! At so late an hour!" + +"I felt I must come," said Paula. I could contain myself no longer." + +"What, tears?" sighed the woman, and her own bright little eyes twinkled +through moisture. "Poor soul, what has happened now?" + +She went up to the young girl to stroke her hair, but Paula rushed into +her arms, clung passionately round her neck, and burst into loud and +bitter weeping. The little matron let her weep for a while; then she +released herself, and wiped away her own tears and those of her tall +darling, which had fallen on her smooth grey hair. She took Paula's chin +in a firm hand and turned her face towards her own, saying tenderly but +decidedly: "There, that is enough. You might cry and welcome, for it +eases the heart, but that it is so late. Is it the old story: home- +sickness, annoyances, and so forth, or is there anything new?" + +"Alas, indeed!" replied the girl. She pressed her handkerchief in her +hands as she went on with excited vehemence: "I am in the last extremity, +I can bear it no longer, I cannot--I cannot! I am no longer a child, and +when in the evening you dread the night and in the morning dread the day +which must be so wretched, so utterly unendurable. . . ." + +"Then you listen to reason, my darling, and say to yourself that of two +evils it is wise to choose the lesser. You must hear me say once more +what I have so often represented to you before now: If we renounce our +city of refuge here and venture out into the wide world again, what shall +we find that will be an improvement?" + +"Perhaps nothing but a hovel by a well under a couple of palm-trees; that +would satisfy me, if I only had you and could be free--free from every +one else!" + +"What is this; what does this mean?" muttered the elder woman shaking +her head. "You were quite content only the day before yesterday. +Something must have. . . ." + +"Yes, must have happened and has," interrupted the girl almost beside +herself. "My uncle's son.--You were there when he arrived--and I +thought, even I firmly believed that he was worthy of such a reception. +--I--I--pity me, for I. . . You do not know what influence that man +exercises over hearts.--And I--I believed his eyes, his words, his songs +and--yes, I must confess all--even his kisses on this hand! But it was +all false, all--a lie, a cruel sport with a weak, simple heart, or even +worse--more insulting still! In short, while he was doing all in his +power to entrap me--even the slaves in the barge observed it--he was in +the very act--I heard it from Dame Neforis, who is only too glad when she +can hurt me--in the very act of suing for the hand of that little doll-- +you know her--little Katharina. She is his betrothed; and yet the +shameless wretch dares to carry on his game with me; he has the face...." + +Again Paula sobbed aloud; but the older woman did not know how to help in +the matter and could only mutter to herself: "Bad, bad--what, this too! +--Merciful Heaven! . . ." But she presently recovered herself and said +firmly: "This is indeed a new and terrible misfortune; but we have known +worse--much, much worse! So hold up your head, and whatever liking you +may have in your heart for the traitor, tear it out and trample on it. +Your pride will help you; and if you have only just found out what my +lord Orion is, you may thank God that things had gone no further between +you!" Then she repeated to Paula all that she knew of Orion's misconduct +to the frenzied Mandane, and as Paula gave strong utterance to her +indignation, she went on: + +"Yes, child, he is a man to break hearts and ruin happiness, and perhaps +it was my duty to warn you against him; but as he is not a bad man in +other things--he saved the brother of Hathor the designer--you know her +--from drowning, at the risk of his own life--and as I hoped you might be +on friendly terms with him at least, on his return home, I refrained.... +And besides, old fool that I am, I fancied your proud heart wore a +breastplate of mail, and after all it is only a foolish girl's heart like +any other, and now in its twenty-first year has given its love to a man +for the first time." + +But Paula interrupted her: "I love the traitor no more! No, I hate him, +hate him beyond words! And the rest of them! I loathe them all!" + +"Alas! that it should be so!" sighed the nurse. "Your lot is no doubt a +hard one. He--Orion--of course is out of the question; but I often ask +myself whether you might not mend matters with the others. If you had +not made it too hard for them, child, they must have loved you; they +could not have helped it; but ever since you have been in the house you +have only felt miserable and wished that they would let you go your own +way, and they--well they have done so; and now you find it ill to bear +the lot you chose for yourself. It is so indeed, child, you need not +contradict me. This once we will put the matter plainly: Who can hope to +win love that gives none, but turns away morosely from his fellow- +creatures? If each of us could make his neighbors after his own pattern +--then indeed! But life requires us to take them just as we find them, +and you, sweetheart, have never let this sink into your mind!" + +"Well, I am what I am !" + +"No doubt, and among the good you are the best--but which of them all can +guess that? Every one to some extent plays a part. And you! What +wonder if they never see in you anything but that you are unhappy? God +knows it is ten thousand times a pity that you should be! But who can +take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face?" + +"I have never uttered a single word of complaint of my troubles to any +one of them!" cried Paula, drawing herself up proudly. + +"That is just the difficulty," replied Perpetua. "They took you in, +and thought it gave them a claim on your person and also on your sorrows. +Perhaps they longed to comfort you; for, believe me, child, there is a +secret pleasure in doing so. Any one who is able to show us sympathy +feels that it does him more good than it does us. I know life! Has it +never occurred to you that you are perhaps depriving your relations in +the great house of a pleasure, perhaps even doing them an injury by +locking up your heart from them? Your grief is the best side of you, and +of that you do indeed allow them to catch a glimpse; but where the pain +is you carefully conceal. Every good man longs to heal a wound when he +sees it, but your whole demeanor cries out: 'Stay where you are, and +leave me in peace.'--If only you were good to your uncle!" + +"But I am, and I have felt prompted a hundred times to confide in him-- +but then. . ." + +"Well--then?" + +"Only look at him, Betta; see how he lies as cold as marble, rigid and +apathetic, half dead and half alive. At first the words often rose to my +lips. . ." + +"And now?" + +"Now all the worst is so long past; I feel I have forfeited the right to +complain to him of all that weighs me down." + +"Hm," said Perpetua who had no answer ready. "But take heart, my child. +Orion has at any rate learnt how far he may venture. You can hold your +head high enough and look cool enough. Bear all that cannot be mended, +and if an inward voice does not deceive me, he whom we seek. . ." + +"That was what brought me here. Are none of our messengers returned +yet?" + +"Yes, the little Nabathaean is come," replied her nurse with some +hesitation, "and he indeed--but for God's sake, child, form no vain +hopes! Hiram came to me soon after sun-down. . ." + +"Betta!" screamed the girl, clinging to her nurse's arm. "What has he +heard, what news does he bring?" + +"Nothing, nothing! How you rush at conclusions! What he found out is +next to nothing. I had only a minute to speak to Hiram. To-morrow +morning he is to bring the man to me. The only thing he told me. . ." + +"By Christ's Wounds! What was it?" + +"He said that the messenger had heard of an elderly recluse, who had +formerly been a great warrior." + +"My father, my father!" cried Paula. "Hiram is sitting by the fire with +the others. Fetch him here at once--at once; I command you, Perpetua, do +you hear? Oh best, dearest Betta! Come with me; we will go to him." + +"Patience, sweetheart, a little patience!" urged the nurse. "Ah, poor +dear soul, it will turn out to be nothing again; and if we again follow +up a false clue it will only lead to fresh disappointment." + +"Never mind: you are to come with me." + +"To all the servants round the fire, and at this time of night? I should +think so indeed!--But do you wait here, child. I know how it can be +managed. + +"I will wake Hiram's Joseph. He sleeps in the stable yonder--and then he +will fetch his father. Ah! what impatience! What a stormy, passionate +little heart it is! If I do not do your bidding, I shall have you awake +all night, and wandering about to-morrow as if in a dream.--There, be +quiet, be quiet, I am going." + +As she spoke she wrapped her kerchief round her head and hurried out; +Paula fell on her knees before the crucifix over the bed, and prayed +fervently till her nurse returned, Soon after she heard a man's steps on +the stairs and Hiram came in. + +He was a powerful man of about fifty, with a pair of honest blue eyes in +his plain face. Any one looking at his broad chest would conclude that +when he spoke it would be in a deep bass voice; but Hiram had stammered +from his infancy; and from constant companionship with horses he had +accustomed himself to make a variety of strange, inarticulate noises in a +high, shrill voice. Besides, he was always unwilling to speak. When he +found himself face to face with the daughter of his master and +benefactor, he knelt at her feet, looked up at her with faithful, dog- +like eyes full of affection, and kissed first her dress, and then her +hand which she held out to him. Paula kindly but decidedly cut short the +expressions of delight at seeing her again which he painfully stammered +out; and when he at length began to tell his story his words came far too +slowly for her impatience. + +He told her that the Nabathaean who had brought the rumor that had +excited her hopes, was not unwilling to follow up the trace he had found, +but he would not wait beyond noon the next day and had tried to bid for +high terms. + +"He shall have them--as much as he wants!" cried Paula. But Hiram +entreated her, more by looks and vague cries than by articulate words, +not to hope for too much. Dusare the Nabathaean--Perpetua now took up +the tale--had heard of a recluse, living at Raithu on the Red Sea, who +had been a great warrior, by birth a Greek, and who for two years had +been leading a life of penance in great seclusion among the pious +brethren on the sacred Mount of Sinai. The messenger had not been able +to learn what his name in the world had been, but among the hermits he +was known as Paulus." + +"Paulus!" interrupted the girl with panting breath. "A name that must +remind him of my mother and of me, yes, of me! And he, the hero of +Damascus, who was called Thomas in the world, believing that I was dead, +has no doubt dedicated himself to the service of God and of Christ, and +has taken the name of Paulus, as Saul, the other man of Damascus did +after his con version,--exactly like him! Oh! Betta, Hiram, you will +see: it is he, it must be! How can you doubt it?" + +The Syrian shook his head doubtfully and gave vent to a long-drawn +whistle, and Perpetua clasped her hands exclaiming distressfully: "Did I +not say so? She takes the fire lighted by shepherds at night to warm +their hands for the rising sun--the rattle of chariots for the thunders +of the Almighty!--Why, how many thousands have called themselves Paulus! +By all the Saints, child, I beseech you keep quiet, and do not try to +weave a holiday-robe out of airy mist! Be prepared for the worst; then +you are armed against failure and preserve your right to hope! Tell her, +tell her, Hiram, what else the messenger said; it is nothing positive; +everything is as uncertain as dust in the breeze." + +The freedman then explained that this Nabathaean was a trustworthy man, +far better skilled in such errands than himself, for he understood both +Syriac and Egyptian, Greek and Aramaic; and nevertheless he had failed to +find out anything more about this hermit Paulus at Tor, where the monks +of the monastery of the Transfiguration had a colony. Subsequently, +however, on the sea voyage to Holzum, he had been informed by some monks +that there was a second Sinai. The monastery there--but here Perpetua +again was the speaker, for the hapless stammerer's brow was beaded with +sweat--the monastery at the foot of the peaked, heaven-kissing mountain, +had been closed in consequence of the heresies of its inhabitants; but in +the gorges of these great heights there were still many recluses, some in +a small Coenobium, some in Lauras and separate caves, and among these +perchance Paulus might be found. This clue seemed a good one and she and +Hiram had already made up their minds to follow it up; but the warrior +monk was very possibly a stranger, and they had thought it would be cruel +to expose her to so keen a disappointment. + +Here Paula interrupted her, crying in joyful excitement: + +"And why should not something besides disappointment be my portion for +once? How could you have the heart to deprive me of the hope on which my +poor heart still feeds?--But I will not be robbed of it. Your Paulus of +Sinai is my lost father. I feel it, I know it! If I had not sold my +pearls, the Nabathaean. . . . But as it is. When can you start, my good +Hiram?" + +"Not before a fort--a fortnight at--at--at--soonest," said the man. +"I am in the governor's service now, and the day after to-morrow is the +great horse-fair at Niku. The young master wants some stallions bought +and there are our foals to. . . ." + +"I will implore my uncle to-morrow, to spare you," cried Paula. +"I will go on my knees to him." + +"He will not let him go," said the nurse. "Sebek the steward told him +all about it from me before the hour of audience and tried to have Hiram +released." + +"And he said.... ?" + +"The lady Neforis said it was all a mere will-o'-the-wisp, and my lord +agreed with her. Then your uncle forbade Sebek to betray the matter to +you, and sent word to me that he would possibly send Hiram to Sinai when +the horse-fair was over. So take patience, sweetheart. What are two +weeks, or at most three--and then. . . ." + +"But I shall die before then!" cried Paula. "The Nabathaean, you say, +is here and willing to go." + +"Yes, Mistress." + +"Then we will secure him," said Paula resolutely. Perpetua, however, who +must have discussed the matter fully with her fellow-countryman, shook +her head mournfully and said: "He asks too much for us!" + +She then explained that the man, being such a good linguist, had already +been offered an engagement to conduct a caravan to Ctesiphon. This would +be a year's pay to him, and he was not inclined to break off his +negotiations with the merchant Hanno and search the deserts of Arabia +Petraea for less than two thousand drachmae. + +"Two thousand drachmae!" echoed Paula, looking down in distress and +confusion; but she presently looked up and exclaimed with angry +determination: "How dare they keep from me that which is my own? If my +uncle refuses what I have to ask, and will ask, then the inevitable must +happen, though for his sake it will grieve me; I must put my affairs in +the hands of the judges." + +"The judges?" Perpetua smiled. "But you cannot lay a complaint without +your kyrios, and your uncle is yours. Besides: before they have settled +the matter the messenger may have been to Ctesiphon and back, far as it +is." + +Again her nurse entreated her to have patience till the horse-fair should +be over. Paula fixed her eyes on the ground. She seemed quite crushed; +but Perpetua started violently and Hiram drew back a step when she +suddenly broke out in a loud, joyful cry of "Father in Heaven, I have +what we need!" + +"How, child, what?" asked the nurse, pressing her hand to her heart. +But Paula vouchsafed no information; she turned quickly to the Syrian: + +"Is the outer court-yard clear yet? Are the people gone?" she asked. + +The reply was in the affirmative. The freed servants had retired when +Hiram left them. The officials would not break up for some time yet, but +there was less difficulty in passing them. + +"Very good," said the girl. "Then you, Hiram, lead the way and wait for +me by the little side door. I will give you something in my room which +will pay the Nabathaean's charges ten times over. Do not look so +horrified, Betta. I will give him the large emerald out of my mother's +necklace." The woman clasped her hands, and cried out in dismay and +warning. + +"Child, child! That splendid gem! an heirloom in the family--that stone +which came to you from the saintly Emperor Theodosius--to sell that of +all things! Nay-to throw it away; not to rescue your father either, but +merely--yes child, for that is the truth, merely because you lack +patience to wait two little weeks!" + +"That is hard, that is unjust, Betta," Paula broke in reprovingly. "It +will be a question of a month, and we all know how much depends on the +messenger. Do you forget how highly Hiram spoke of this very man's +intelligence? And besides--must I, the younger, remind you?--What is the +life of man? An instant may decide his life or death; and my father is +an old man, scarred from many wounds even before the siege. It may make +just the difference between our meeting, or never meeting again." + +"Yes, yes," said the old woman in subdued tones, "perhaps you are right, +and if I. . ." But Paula stopped her mouth with a kiss, and then +desired Hiram to carry the gem, the first thing in the morning, to +Gamaliel the Jew, a wealthy and honest man, and not to sell it for less +than twelve thousand drachmae. If the goldsmith could not pay so much +for it at once, he might be satisfied to bring away the two thousand +drachmae for the messenger, and fetch the remainder at another season. + +The Syrian led the way, and when, after a long leave-taking, she quitted +her nurse's pleasant little room, Hiram had done her bidding and was +waiting for her at the little side door. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +As Hiram had supposed, the better class of the household were still +sitting with their friends, and they had been joined by the guide and by +the Arab merchant's head man: Rustem the Masdakite, as well as his +secretary and interpreter. + +With the exception only of Gamaliel the Jewish goldsmith, and the Arab's +followers, the whole of the party were Christians; and it had gone +against the grain to admit the Moslems into their circle--the Jew had for +years been a welcome member of the society. However, they had done so, +and not without marked civility; for their lord had desired that the +strangers should be made welcome, and they might expect to hear much that +was new from wanderers from such a distance. In this, to be sure, they +were disappointed, for the dragoman was taciturn and the Masdakite could +speak no Egyptian, and Greek very ill. So, after various futile attempts +to make the new-comers talk, they paid no further heed to them, and +Orion's secretary became the chief speaker. He had already told them +yesterday much that was fresh and interesting about the Imperial court; +to-day he entered into fuller details of the brilliant life his young +lord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. He +described the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses; +gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followers +through a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St. +Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion's successes among the beauties of the +Capital. + +"The queen of them all," he went on in boastful accents, "was Heliodora +--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, but a rich, +elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus, nephew to +Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. All Constantinople +was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to win her, but of +course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers in all Egypt, +not even in Alexandria. The governor's residence here--for I think +nothing of mere size--is a peasant's hut--a wretched barn by comparison! +I will tell you another time what that casket of treasures is like. Its +door was besieged day and night by slaves and freedmen bringing her +offerings of flowers and fruit, rare gifts, and tender verses written on +perfumed, rose-colored silk; but her favors were not to be purchased till +she met Orion. Would you believe it: from the first time she saw him in +Justinus' villa she fell desperately in love with him; it was all over +with her; she was his as completely as the ring on my finger is mine!" + +And in his vanity he showed his hearers a gold ring, with a gem of some +value, which he owed to the liberality of his young master. "From that +day forth," he eagerly went on, "the names of Orion and Heliodora were in +every mouth, and how often have I seen men quite beside themselves over +the beauty of this divine pair. In the Circus, in the theatre, or +sailing about the Bosphorus--they were to be seen everywhere together; +and through the hideous, bloody struggle for the throne they lived in a +Paradise of their own. He often took her out in his chariot; or she took +him in hers." + +"Such a woman has horses too?" asked the head groom contemptuously. + +"A woman!" cried the secretary. "A lady of rank!--She has none but +bright chestnuts; large horses of Armenian breed, and small, swift beasts +from the island of Sardinia, which fly on with the chariot, four abreast, +like hunted foxes. Her horses are always decked with flowers and ribbons +fluttering from the gold harness, and the grooms know how to drive them +too!--Well, every one thought that our young lord and the handsome widow +would marry; and it was a terrible blow to the hapless Heliodora when +nothing came of it--she looks like a saint and is as soft as a kitten. +I was by when they parted, and she shed such bitter tears it was pitiable +to see. Still, she could not be angry with her idol, poor, gentle, +tender kitten. She even gave him her lap-dog for a keepsake--that little +silky thing you have seen here. And take my word for it, that was a true +love-token, for her heart was as much set on that little beast as if it +had been her favorite child. And he felt the parting too, felt it +deeply; however, I am his confidential secretary, and it would never do +for me to tell tales out of school. He clasped the little dog to his +heart as he bid her farewell, and he promised her to send some keepsake +in return which should show her how precious her love had been--and it +will be no trifle, that any one may swear who knows my master. You, +Gamaliel, I daresay he has been to you about it by this time." + +The man thus addressed--the same to whom Hiram was to offer Paula's +emerald--was a rich Alexandrian of a happy turn of mind; as soon as the +incursion of the Saracens had made Alexandria an unsafe residence, so +that the majority of his fellow Israelites had fled from the great port, +he had found his way to Memphis, where he could count on the protection +of his patron, the Mukaukas George. + +He shook his grizzled curls at this question, but he presently whispered +in the secretary's ear. "We have the very thing he wants. You bring me +the cow and you shall have a calf--and a calf with twelve legs too. Is +it a bargain?" + +"Twelve per cent on the profits? Done!" replied the secretary in the +same tone, with a sly smile of intelligence. + +When, by-and-bye, an accountant asked him why Orion had not brought home +this fair dame, the bearer too of a noble name, to his parents as their +daughter-in-law, he replied that, being a Greek, she was of course a +Melchite. Those present asked no better reason; as soon as the question +of creed was raised the conversation, as usual in these convivial +evenings, became a squabble over dogmatic differences; in the course of +it a legal official ventured to opine that if the case had been that of a +less personage than a son of the Mukaukas--for whom it was, of course, +out of the question--of a mere Jacobite citizen and his Melchite +sweetheart, for instance, some compromise might have been effected. +They need only have made up their minds each, respectively, to subscribe +to the Monothelitic doctrine--though, he, for his part, could have +nothing to say to anything of the kind; it was warmly upheld by the +Imperial court, and by Cyrus, the deceased patriarch of Alexandria, and +was based on the assumption that there were indeed two natures in Christ, +but both under the control of one and the same will. By this dogma there +were in the Saviour two persons no doubt; still it asserted His unity in +a certain qualified sense, and this was the most important point. + +Such an heretical proposition was of course loudly disapproved of by the +assembled Jacobites; differences of opinion were more and more strongly +asserted, and a calm interchange of views turned to a riotous quarrel +which threatened to end in actual violence. + +This discussion was already beginning when Paula succeeded in slipping +unseen across the court-yard. + +She silently beckoned to Hiram to follow her; he cautiously took off his +shoes, pushed them under the steep servants' stairs, and in a few minutes +was standing in the young girl's room. Paula at once opened a chest, and +took out a costly and beautifully-wrought necklace set with pearls. This +she handed to the Syrian, desiring him to wrench from its setting a large +emerald which hung from the middle. The freedman's strong hand, with the +aid of a knife, quickly and easily did the work; and he stood weighing +the gem, as it lay freed from the gold hemisphere that had held it, +larger than a walnut, shining and sparkling on his palm, while Paula +repeated the instructions she had already given him in her nurse's room. + +The faithful soul had no sooner left his beloved mistress than she +proceeded to unplait her long thick hair, smiling the while with happy +hope; but she had not yet begun to undress when she heard a knock. She +started, flew to the door and hastily bolted it, while she enquired: + +"Who is there?"--preparing herself for the worst. "Hiram," was the +whispered reply. She opened the door, and he told her that meanwhile +the side door had been locked, and that he knew no other way out from +the great rambling house whither he rarely had occasion to come. + +What was to be done? He could not wait till the door was opened again, +for he must carry out her commission quite early in the morning, and if +he were caught and locked up for only half the day the Nabathaean would +take some other engagement. + +With swift decision she twisted up her hair, threw a handkerchief over +her head, and said: "Then come with me; the moon is still up; it would +not be safe to carry a lamp. I will lead the way and you must keep +behind me If only the kitchen is empty, we can reach the Viridarium +unseen. If the upper servants are still sitting in the court-yard the +great door will be open, for several of them sleep in the house. At any +rate you must go through the vestibule; you cannot miss your way out of +the viridarium. But stay! Beki generally lies in front of the tablinum-- +the fierce dog from Herrionthis in Thebais; and he does not know you, for +he never goes out of the house, but he will obey me. + +"When I lift my hand, hang back a little. He is quite quiet with his +masters, and does not hurt a stranger if they are by. Now, we must not +utter another word.--If we are discovered, I will confess the truth; +if you alone are seen, you can say--well, say you were waiting for Orion, +to speak to him very early about the horse-fair at Niku." + +"A horse was off--off--offered me for sale this very day." + +"Good, very good; then you lingered in the vestibule to speak of that--to +ask the master about it before he should go out. It must be daylight in +a few hours.--Now, come." + +Paula went down the stairs with a sure and rapid step. At the bottom +Hiram again took off his shoes, holding them in his hand, so as to lose +no time in following his mistress. They went on in silence through the +darkness till they reached the kitchen. Here Paula turned and said to +the Syrian: + +"If there is any one here, I will say I came to fetch some water; if +there is no one I will cough and you can follow. At any rate I will +leave the door open, and then you will hear what happens. If I am +obliged to return, do you hurry on before me back by the way we came. +In that case I will return to my room where you must wait outside till +the side door is opened again, and if you are found there leave the +explanation to me.--Shrink back, quite into that corner." + +She softly opened the door into the kitchen; the roof was open to the +light of the declining moon and myriad stars. The room was quite empty: +only a cat lay on a bench by the wide hearth, and a few bats flitted to +and fro on noiseless wings; a few live coals still glowed among the ashes +under the spits, like the eyes of lurking beasts of prey. Paula coughed +gently, and immediately heard Hiram's step behind her; then, with a +beating heart and agonizing fears, she proceeded on her way. First down +a few steps, then through a dark passage, where the bats in their +unswerving flight shot by close to her head. At last they had to cross +the large, open dining-hall. This led into the viridarium, a spacious +quadrangle, paved at the edges and planted in the middle, where a +fountain played; round this square the Governor's residence was built. +All was still and peaceful in this secluded space, vaulted over by the +high heavens whose deep blue was thickly dotted with stars. The moon +would soon be hidden behind the top of the cornice which crowned the roof +of the building. The large-leaved plants in the middle of the quadrangle +threw strange, ghostly shadows on the dewy grass-plot; the water in the +fountain splashed more loudly than by day, but with a soothing, +monotonous gurgle, broken now and then by a sudden short pause. The +marble pillars gleamed as white as snow, and filmy mists, which were +beginning to rise from the damp lawn, floated languidly hither and +thither on the soft night breeze, like ghosts veiled in flowing crape. +Moths flitted noiselessly round and over the clumps of bushes, and the +whole quiet and restful enclosure was full of sweetness from the Lotos +flowers in the marble basin, from the blossoms of the luxuriant shrubs +and the succulent tropical herbs at their feet. At any other time it +would have been a joy to pause and look round, only to breathe and let +the silent magic of the night exert its spell; but Paula's soul was +closed against these charms. The sequestered silence lent a threatening +accent to the furious wrangling in the court-yard, which was audible even +here in bursts of uproar; and it was with an anxious heart that she +observed that everything was not in its usual order; for her sharp eyes +could discern no one, nothing, at the entrance to the tablinum, which was +usually guarded by an armed sentinel or by the watch-dog; and surely-- +yes, she was not mistaken--the bronze doors were open, and the moon shone +on the bright metal of one half which stood ajar. + +She stopped, and Hiram behind her did the same. They both listened with +such tension that the veins in their foreheads swelled; but from the +tablinum, which was hardly thirty paces from them, came only very faint +and intermittent sounds, indistinct in character and drowned by the +tumult without. + +A few long and anxious minutes, and then the half-closed door was +suddenly opened and a man came forth. Paula's heart stood still, but she +did not for an instant lose her keenness of vision; she at once and +positively recognized the man who came out of the tablinum as Orion and +none other, and the big, long-haired dog too came out and past him, +sniffed the air and then, with a loud bark, rushed on the two watchers. +Trembling and with clenched teeth, but still mistress of herself, she let +him come close to her, and then, calling him by his name: "Beki" in low, +caressing tones, as soon as he recognized her, she laid her hand on his +shaggy head to scratch his ears, as he loved it done. + +Paula and her companion were standing behind a column in the deepest +shadow. Thus Orion could not see her, and the dog's loud bark had +prevented his hearing her coaxing call; so when Beki was quiet and stood +still, Orion whistled to him. The obedient and watchful beast, ran back, +wagging his tail; and his master, greeting him as "a stupid old cat- +hunter," let him spring over his arm, hugged the creature and then pushed +him off again in play. Then he closed the door and went into the +apartments leading to the courtyard. + +"But he must come back this way to go to his own rooms," said Paula to +her companion with a sigh of relief. "We must wait. But now we must not +lose a minute. Come over to the door of the tablinum. The dog will know +me now and will not bark again." They hastened on, and when they had +reached the door, which lay in shadow within a deep doorway, Paula asked +her companion: "Did you see who the man was who came out?" + +"My lord Orion," said Hiram. "He was co--co--coming home from the town +when I preceded you across the yard." + +"Indeed?" she said with apparent indifference, and as she leaned against +the cold metal door-panels she looked back into the garden and thought +she was now free to return. She would describe to the freedman the way +he must now go--it was quite simple; but she had not had time to do so +when, from a room dividing the viridarium from the vestibule she heard +first a woman's shrill voice; then the deeper tones of a man; and hardly +had they exchanged a few sentences, when every sound was lost in the +furious barking of the hound, and immediately after a loud shriek of pain +from a woman fell upon her ear, and the noise of a heavy object falling +to the ground. + +What had happened? It must be something portentous and terrible; of that +there could be no doubt; and ere long Paula's fears were justified. Out +from the room where the scene had taken place rushed Orion, and with him +the dog, across the grass-plot which was usually respected and cherished +as holy ground, towards the side of the house facing the river, which was +where he and all the family had their rooms. + +"Now!" cried Paula, quickly leading the way. + +She flew in breathless haste through the first room and into the +unguarded hall; but she had not reached the middle of it when she gave a +scream, for before her in the moonlight, lay a body, motionless, at full +length, on the hard, marble floor. + +"Run, Hiram, fly !" she cried to her companion. "The door is ajar-- +open--I can see it is." + +She fell on her knees by the side of the lifeless form, raised the head, +and saw--the beautiful, deathlike face of the crazy Persian slave. She +felt her hand wet with the blood that had soaked the hapless girl's +thick, fair hair, and she shuddered; but she resisted her impulse of +horror and loathing, and perceiving some dark stains on the torn peplos +she pulled it aside and saw that the white bosom was bleeding from deep +wounds made in the tender flesh by the cruel fangs of the hound. + +Paula's heart thrilled with indignation, grief and pity. He--he whom she +had only yesterday held to be the epitome of every manly perfection-- +Orion, was guilty of so foul a deed! He, of whose unflinching, dauntless +courage she had heard so much, had fled like a coward, and had left the +victim to her fate--twice a victim to him! + +But something must be done besides lamenting and raging, and wondering +how in one human soul there could be room for so much that was noble and +fine with so much that was shameful and cruel. She must save the girl, +she must seek help, for Mandane's bosom still faintly rose and fell under +Paula's tremulous fingers. + +The freedman's brave heart would not allow him to fly to leave her with +the injured girl; he flung his shoes on the floor, raised the senseless +form, and propped it against one of the columns that stood round the +hall. It was not till his mistress had repeated her orders that he +hurried away. Paula watched him depart; as soon as she heard the heavy +door of the atrium close upon him, heedless of her own suspicious-looking +position, she shouted for help, so loudly that her cries rang through the +nocturnal silence of the house, and in a few minutes, from this side and +that, a slave, a maid, a clerk, a cook, a watchman, came hurrying in. + +Foremost of all--so soon indeed that he must have been on his way when he +heard her cry--came Orion. He wore a light night-dress, intended, so she +said to herself, to give the wretch the appearance of having sprung out +of bed. But was this indeed he? Was this man with a flushed face, +staring eyes, disordered hair and hoarse voice, that favorite of fortune +whose happy nature, easy demeanor, sunny gaze and enchanting song had +bewitched her soul? His hand shook as he came close to her and the +injured slave; and how forced and embarrassed was his enquiry as to what +had happened; how scared he looked as he asked her what had brought her +into this part of the house at such an hour. + +She made no reply; but when his mother repeated the question soon after, +in a sharp voice, she--she who had never in her life told a lie--said +with hasty decision: "I could not sleep, and the bark of the dog and a +cry for help brought me here." + +"I call that having sharp ears!" retorted Neforis with an incredulous +shrug. "For the future, at any rate, under similar circumstances you +need not be so prompt. How long, pray, have young girls trusted +themselves alone when murder is cried?" + +"If you had but armed yourself, fair daughter of heroes!" added Orion; +but he had no sooner spoken than he bitterly regretted it. What a glance +Paula cast at him! It was more than she could bear to hear him address +her in jest, almost in mockery: him of all men, and at this moment for +the first time--and to be thus reminded of her father! She answered +proudly and with cutting sharpness: "I leave weapons to fighting men and +murderers!" + +"To fighting men, and murderers!" repeated Orion, pretending not to +understand the point of her words. He forced a smile; but then, feeling +that he must make some defence, he added bitterly: "Really, that sounds +like the utterance of a feeble-hearted damsel! But let me beg you to +come closer and be calm. These pitiable gashes on the poor creature's +shoulder--I care more about her than you do, take my word for it--were +inflicted by a four-footed assassin, whose weapons were given by nature. +Yes, that is what happened. Rough old Beki keeps watch at the door of +the tablinum. What brought the poor child here I know not, but he caught +scent of her and pulled her down." + +"Or nothing of the kind!" interrupted Neforis, picking up a pair of +man's shoes which lay on the ground by the sufferer. + +Orion turned as pale as death and hastily took the shoes from his +mother's hand; he would have liked to fling them up and away through the +open roof. How came they here? Whose were they? Who had been here this +night? Before going into the tablinum he had locked the outer door on +that side, and had returned subsequently to open it again for the people +in the court-yard. It was not till after he had done this that the crazy +girl had rushed upon him; she must have been lurking somewhere about when +he first went through the atrium but had not then found courage enough to +place herself in his way. When she had thrown herself upon him, the dog +had pulled her down before he could prevent it: he would certainly have +sprung past her and have come to the rescue but that he must thus have +betrayed his visit to the tablinum. + +It had required all his presence of mind to hurry to his room, fling on +his night garments, and rush back to the scene of disaster. When Paula +had first called for help he was already on his way, and with what +feelings! Never had he felt so bewildered, so confused, so deeply +dissatisfied with himself; for the first time in his life, as he stood +face to face with Paula, he dared not look straight into the eyes of his +fellow-man. + +And now these shoes! The owner must have come there with the crazy girl, +and if he had seen him in the tablinum and betrayed what he was doing +there, how could he ever again appear in his parents' presence? He had +looked upon it as a good joke, but now it had turned to bitter earnest. +At any cost he must and would prevent his nocturnal doings from becoming +known! Some new wrong-doing-nay, the worst was preferable to a stain on +his honor.--Whose could the shoes be? He suddenly held them up on high, +crying with a loud voice: "Do these shoes belong to any of you, you +people? To the gate-keeper perhaps?" + +When all were silent, and the porter denied the ownership, he stood +thinking; then he added with a defiant glare, and in a husky voice: +"Then some one who had broken into the house has been startled and +dropped them. Our house-stamp is here on the leather: they were made in +our work-shop, and they still smell of the stable-here, Sebek, you can +convince yourself. Take them into your keeping, man; and tomorrow +morning we will see who has left this suspicious offering in our +vestibule.--You were the first to reach the spot, fair Paula. Did you +see a man about?" + +"Yes," she replied with a hostile and challenging stare. + +"And which way did he go?" + +"He fled across the viridarium like a coward, running across the poor, +well-kept grass-plot to save time, and vanished upstairs in the dwelling- +rooms." + +Orion ground his teeth, and a mad hatred surged up in him of this mystery +in woman's form in whose power, as it seemed, his ruin lay, and whose +eyes mashed with revenge and the desire to undo him. What was she +plotting against him? Was there a being on earth who would dare to +accuse him, the spoilt favorite of great and small....? And her look had +meant more than aversion, it had expressed contempt.... How dare she +look so at him? Who in the wide world had a right to accuse him of +anything that could justify such a feeling? Never, never had he met with +enmity like this, least of all from a girl. He longed to annihilate the +high-handed, cold-hearted, ungrateful creature who could humble him so +outrageously after he had allowed her to see that his heart was hers, and +who could make him quail--a man whose courage had been proved a hundred +times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forget that she +was a woman.--What had happened? What demon had been playing tricks on +him--What had so completely altered him within this half-hour that his +whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any one dared to +treat him so? + +His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her son's +face when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms; +but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm: +"Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? Merciful +Heaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Run--fly, Sebek. + +"Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to +bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down the +grass--you must find him--you must not let him escape." + +The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who had come +in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, which must. +yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heart beat wildly, +and again she tried to catch the young man's eye. Orion, however, +started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as he went: "That is +my concern." + +But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight was +throttling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in the +act, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that he +was indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fatal +deed in the tablinum. + +Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as to +falsify the evidence, and to declare that the groom's broad sole fitted +the tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet she +could have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he might +not do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he could +not be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks, +she drew a breath of relief and turned again to the wounded girl and the +physician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed her +example she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, he +looked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: "That poor +girl's fate. . . ." and he pointed to the Persian slave.--"It troubles +me." + +"You are so soft-hearted--you were as a boy!" said his mother +soothingly. She had seen the moisture sparkling in his eyes; but his +tears were not for the Persian, but for the mysterious something--he +himself knew not what to call it--that he had forfeited in this last +hour, and of which the loss gave him unspeakable pain. + +But their dialogue was interrupted: the first misfortune of this luckless +night had brought its attendant: the body of Rustem, the splendid and +radiantly youthful Rustem, the faithful Persian leader of the caravan, +was borne into the hall, senseless. He had made some satirical remark on +the quarrel over creeds, and a furious Jacobite had fallen upon him with +a log of wood, and dealt him a deep and perhaps mortal wound. The leech +at once gave him his care, and several of the crowd of muttering and +whispering men, who had made their way in out of curiosity or with a wish +to be of use, now hurried hither and thither in obedience to the +physician's orders. + +As soon as he saw the Masdakite's wound he exclaimed angrily: + +"A true Egyptian blow, dealt from behind!--What does this mob want here? +Out with every man who does not belong to the place! The first things +needed are litters. Will you, Dame Neforis, desire that two rooms may be +got ready; one for that poor, gentle creature, and one for this fine +fellow, though all will soon be over with him, short of a miracle." + +"To the north of the viridarium," replied the lady, "there are two rooms +at your service." + +"Not there!" cried the leech. "I must have rooms with plenty of fresh +air, looking out upon the river." + +"There are none but the handsome rooms in the visitor's quarters, where +my husband's niece has hers, Sick persons of the family have often lain +there, but for such humble folk--you understand?" + +"No--I am deaf," replied the physician. + +"Oh, I know that," laughed Neforis. "But those rooms are really just +refurnished for exalted guests." + +"It would be hard to find any more exalted than such as these, sick unto +death," replied Philippus. "They are nearer to God in Heaven than you +are; to your advantage I believe. Here, you people! Carry these poor +souls up to the guests' rooms." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"It is impossible, impossible, impossible!" cried Orion, jumping up from +his writing-table. He thought of what he had done as a misfortune, and +not as a crime; he himself hardly knew how it had all come about. Yes, +there must be demons, evil, spiteful demons--and it was they who had led +him to so mad a deed. + +Yesterday evening, after the buying of the hanging, he had yielded to his +mother's request that he should escort the widow Susannah home. At her +house he had met her husband's brother, a jovial old fellow named +Chrysippus; and when the conversation turned on the tapestry, and the +Mukaukas' purpose of dedicating this work of art with all the gems worked +into it, to the Church, the old man had clasped his hands, fully sharing +Orion's disapproval, and had exclaimed laughing "What, you the son, and +is not even a part of the precious stones to fall to your share? Why +Katharina? Just a little diamond, a tiny opal might well add to the +earthly happiness of the young, though the old must lay up treasure in +heaven.--Do not be a fool! The Church's maw is full enough, and really +a mouthful is your due." + +And then they drank a good deal of fine wine, till at last the older man +had accompanied Orion home, to stretch his limbs in the cool night air. +A litter was carried behind him for him to return in, and all the way he +had continued to persuade the youth to induce his father not to fling the +whole treasure into the jaws of the Church, but to spare him a few stones +at least for a more pleasing use. They had laughed over it a good deal, +and Orion in his heart had thought Chrysippus very right, and had +remembered Heliodora, and her love of large, handsome gems, and the +keepsake he owed her. But that neither his father nor his mother would +remove a single stone, and that the whole hanging would be dedicated, was +beyond a doubt; at the same time, some of this superfluous splendor was +in fact his due as their son, and a prettier gift to Heliodora than the +large emerald could not be imagined. Yes--and she should have it! How +delighted she would be! He even thought of the chief idea for the verses +to accompany the gift. + +He had the key of the tablinum, in which the work was lying, about his +person; and when, on his return, he found the servants still sitting +round the fire, he shut the door of the out-buildings while a feeling +came over him which he remembered having experienced last on occasions +when he and his brothers had robbed a forbidden fruit-tree. He was on +the point of giving up his mad project; and when, in the tablinum itself, +a horrible inward tremor again came over him he had actually turned to +retreat--but he remembered old Chrysippus and his prompts. To turn and +fly now would be cowardice. Heliodora must have the large emerald, and +with his verses; his father might give away all the rest as he pleased. +When he was kneeling in front of the work with his knife in his hand, +that sickening terror had come over him for the third time; if the large +emerald had not come off into his hand at the first effort he would +certainly have rolled the bale up again and have left the tablinum clean- +handed. But the evil demon had been at his elbow, had thrust the gem +into his hand, as it were, so that two cuts with the knife had sufficed +to displace it from its setting. It rolled into his hand and he felt its +noble weight; he cast aside all care, and had thought no more with +anything but pleasure of this splendid trick, which he would relate +to-morrow to old Chrysippus--of course under seal of secrecy. + +But now, in the sober light of day, how different did this mad, rash deed +appear; how heavily had he already been punished; what consequences might +it not entail? His hatred of Paula grew every minute: she had certainly +seen all that had happened and would not hesitate to betray him--that she +had shown last night. War, as it were, was declared between them, and he +vowed to himself, with fire in his eyes, that he would not shirk it! At +the same time he could not deny that she had never looked handsomer than +when she stood, with hair half undone, confronting him--threatening him. +"It is to be love or hate between us." he muttered to himself. +"No half-measures: and she has chosen hate! Good! Hitherto I have only +had to fight against men; but this bold, hard, and scornful maiden, who +rejects every gentle feeling, is no despicable foe. She has me at bay. +If she does her worst by me I will return it in kind!--And who is the +owner of the shoes? I have taken all possible means to find him. +Shameful, shameful! that I cannot hold up my head to look boldly at my +own face in the glass. Heliodora is a sweet creature, an angel of +kindness. She loved me truly; but this--this--Ah; even for her, this is +too great a sacrifice!" + +He pressed his hand to his brow and flung himself on a divan. He might +well be weary, for he had not closed his eyes for more than thirty hours +and had already done much business that morning. He had given orders to +Sebek the house-steward and to the captain of the Egyptian guard to hunt +out the owner of the sandals by the aid of the dogs, and to cast him into +prison; next he had of his own accord--since his father generally did not +fall asleep till the morning and had not yet left his room--tried to +pacify the Arab merchant with regard to the mishap that had befallen his +head man under the governor's roof; but with small success. + +Finally the young man had indulged his desire to compose a few lines +addressed to the fair Heliodora--for there was no form of physical or +mental effort to which he was not trained. He had not lost the idea that +had occurred to him yesterday before his theft in the tablinum, and to +put it into verse was in his present mood an easy task. He wrote as +follows: + + "'Like liketh like' saith the saw; and like to like is but fitting. + Yet, in the hardest of gems thy soft nature rejoices? + Nay, but if noble and rare, if its beauty is priceless, + Then, Heliodora, the stone is like thee--akin to thy beauty. + Thus let this emerald please thee;--and know that the fire + That fills it with light burns more fierce in the heart of thy + Friend." + +He penned the lines rapidly; and as he did so he felt, he knew not why, +an excited thrill, as though every word he threw off was a blow aimed at +Paula. Last night he had intended to send the costly jewel to the +handsome widow in a suitable setting; but now it would be madly imprudent +to order such a thing. He must send it away at once; he had hastened to +pack it up with the verses, with his own hand, and entrusted it to +Chusar, a horsedealer's groom from Constantinople, who had brought his +Pannonian steeds to Memphis. He had himself seen off this trustworthy +messenger, who could speak no Egyptian and very little Greek, and when +his horse was lost to sight in the dust of the road leading to Alexandria +he had returned home in a calmer mood. Ships were constantly putting to +sea from that port for Constantinople, and Chusar was enjoined to sail by +the first that should be leaving. At least the odious deed should not +have been committed in vain; and yet he would have given a year of his +life if now he could but know that it had never been done. + +"Impossible!" and "Curse it!" were the words he had most frequently +repeated in the course of his retrospect during the past night and +morning. How he had had to rush and hurry under the broiling sun! and +the sense of being compelled to do so for mere concealment's sake seemed +to him--who had never in his life before done anything that he could not +justify in the eyes of honest men--so humiliating, that it brought the +sweat to his burning brow. He--Orion--to dread discovery as a thief! +It was inconceivable, and he was afraid, positively afraid for the first +time since his boyhood. His fortunate star, which in the Capital had +shone on him so brightly and benevolently, seemed to have proved +faithless in this ruinous hole! What had that Persian girl taken into +her crazy head that she must rush upon him like some furious beast of +prey? He had been bound to her once, no doubt, by a transient passion-- +and what youth of his age was blind to the charms of a pretty slave-girl? +She had been a lovely child, and it was a vexation, nay a grief to him, +that she should have been so shamefully punished. If she should recover, +and he could have prayed that she might, it would of course be his part +to provide for her--of course. To be just, he could not but confess that +she indeed had good reason to hate him: but Paula? He had shown her +nothing but kindness and yet how unhesitatingly, how openly she had +displayed her enmity. He could see her now with the name "murderer" on +her quivering lips; the word had stung him like a lance-thrust. What a +hideous, degrading and unjust accusation lay in that exclamation! Should +he submit to it unrevenged? + +Was she as innocent as she was haughty and cold? What was she doing in +the viridarium at midnight?--For she must have been there before that +ill-starred dog flew at Mandane. An assignation with the owner of the +shoes his mother had found was out of the question, for they belonged to +some man about the stables. Love, thought he, for a wonder had nothing +to do with it; but as he came in he had noticed a man crossing the court- +yard who looked like Paula's freedman, Hiram the trainer. Probably she +had arranged a meeting with her stammering friend in order--in order?-- +Well, there was but one thing that seemed likely: She was plotting to fly +from his parents' house and needed this man's assistance. + +He had seen within a few hours of his return that his mother did not make +life sweet to the girl, and yet his father had very possibly opposed her +wish to seek another home. But why should she avoid and hate him? In +that expedition on the river and on their way home he could have sworn +that she loved him, and the remembrance of those hours brought her near +to him again, and wiped out his schemes of vengeance against her, of +punishment to be visited on her. Then he thought of little Katharina +whom his mother intended him to marry, and at the thought he laughed +softly to himself. In the Imperial gardens at Constantinople he had once +seen a strange Indian bird, with a tiny body and head and an immensely +long tail, shining like silver and mother of pearl. This was Katharina! +She herself a mere nothing; but then her tail! vast estates and immense +sums of money; and this--this was all his mother saw. But did he need +more than he had? How rich his father must be to spend so large a sum +on an offering to the Church as heedlessly as men give alms to a beggar. + +Katharina--and Paula! + +Yes, the little girl was a bright, brisk creature; but then Thomas' +daughter--what power there was in her eye, what majesty in her gait, +how--how--how enchanting her--her voice could be--her voice.... + +He was asleep, worn out by heat and fatigue; and in a dream he saw Paula +lying on a couch strewn with roses while all about her sounded wonderful +heart-ensnaring music; and the couch was not solid but blue water, gently +moving: he went towards her and suddenly a large black eagle swooped down +on him, flapped his wings in his face and when, half-blinded, he put his +hand to his eyes the bird pecked the roses as a hen picks millet and +barley. Then he was angry, rushed at the eagle, and tried to clutch him +with his hands; but his feet seemed rooted to the ground, and the more he +struggled to move freely the more firmly he was dragged backwards. He +fought like a madman against the hindering force, and suddenly it +released him. He was still under this impression when he woke, streaming +with perspiration, and opened his eyes. By his couch stood his mother +who had laid her hand on his feet to rouse him. + +She looked pale and anxious and begged him to come quickly to his father +who was much disturbed, and wished to speak with him. Then she hurried +away. + +While he hastily arranged his hair and had his shoes clasped he felt +vexed that, under the influence of that foolish dream, and still half +asleep, he had let his mother go before ascertaining what the +circumstances were that had given rise to his father's anxiety. Had it +anything to do with the incidents of the past night? No.--If he had been +suspected his mother would have told him and warned him. It must refer +to something else. Perhaps the old merchant's stalwart headman had died +of his wounds, and his father wished to send him--Orion--across the Nile +to the Arab viceroy to obtain forgiveness for the murder of a Moslem, +actually within the precincts of the governor's house. This fatal blow +might indeed entail serious consequences; however, the matter might very +likely be quite other than this. + +When he left his room the brooding heat that filled the house struck him +as peculiarly oppressive, and a painful feeling, closely resembling +shame, stole over him as he crossed the viridarium, and glanced at the +grass from which--thanks to Paula's ill-meant warning--he had carefully +brushed away his foot-marks before daybreak. How cowardly, how base, +it all was The best of all in life: honor, self-respect, the proud +consciousness of being an honest man--all staked and all lost for nothing +at all! He could have slapped his own face or cried aloud like a child +that has broken its most treasured toy. But of what use was all this? +What was done could not be undone; and now he must keep his wits about +him so as to remain, in the eyes of others at least, what he had always +been, low as he had fallen in his own. + +It was scorchingly hot in the enclosed garden-plot, surrounded by +buildings, and open to the sun; not a human creature was in sight; the +house seemed dead. The gaudy flag-staffs and trellis-work, and the +pillars of the verandah, which had all been newly painted in honor of his +return and were still wreathed with garlands, exhaled a smell, to him +quite sickening, of melting resin, drying varnish and faded flowers. +Though there was no breath of air the atmosphere quivered, as it seemed +from the fierce rays of the sun, which were reflected like arrows from +everything around him. The butterflies and dragonflies appeared to Orion +to move their wings more languidly as they hovered over the plants and +flowers, the very fountain danced up more lazily and not so high as +usual: everything about him was hot, sweltering, oppressive; and the man +who had always been so independent and looked up to, who for years had +been free to career through life uncontrolled, and guarded by every good +Genius now felt trammelled, hemmed in and harassed. + +In his father's cool fountain-room he could breathe more freely; but only +for a moment. The blood faded from his cheeks, and he had to make a +strong effort to greet his father calmly and in his usual manner; for in +front of the divan where the governor commonly reclined, lay the Persian +hanging, and close by stood his mother and the Arab merchant. Sebek, the +steward awaited his master's orders, in the background in the attitude of +humility which was torture to his old back, but in which he was never +required to remain: Orion now signed to him to stand up: + +The Arab's mild features wore a look of extreme gravity, and deep +vexation could be read in his kindly eyes. As the young man entered he +bowed slightly; they had already met that morning. The Mukaukas, who was +lying deathly pale with colorless lips, scarcely opened his eyes at his +son's greeting. It might have been thought that a bier was waiting in +the next room and that the mourners had assembled here. + +The piece of work was only half unrolled, but Orion at once saw the spot +whence its crowning glory was now missing--the large emerald which, as he +alone could know, was on its way to Constantinople. His theft had been +discovered. How fearful, how fatal might the issue be! + +"Courage, courage!" he said to himself. "Only preserve your presence +of mind. What profit is life with loss of honor? Keep your eyes open; +everything depends on that, Orion!" + +He succeeded in hastily collecting his thoughts, and exclaimed in a voice +which lacked little of its usual eager cheerfulness: + +"How dismal you all look! It is indeed a terrible disaster that the dog +should have handled the poor girl so roughly, and that our people should +have behaved so outrageously; but, as I told you this morning, worthy +Merchant, the guilty parties shall pay for it with their lives. My +father, I am sure, will agree that you should deal with them according to +your pleasure, and our leech Philippus, in spite of his youth, is a +perfect Hippocrates I can assure you! He will patch up the fine fellow-- +your head-man I mean, and as to any question of compensation, my father +--well, you know he is no haggler." + +"I beg you not to add insult to the injury that I have suffered under +your roof," interrupted Haschim. "No amount of money can buy off my +wrath over the spilt blood of a friend--and Rustem was my friend--a free +and valiant youth. As to the punishment of the guilty: on that I insist. +Blood cries for blood. That is our creed; and though yours, to be sure, +enjoins the contrary, so far as I know you act by the same rule as we. +All honor to your physician; but it goes to my heart, and raises my gall +to see such things take place in the house of the man to whom the Khaliff +has confided the weal or woe of Egyptian Christians. Your boasted +tolerance has led to the death of an honest though humble man in a time +of perfect peace--or at least maimed him for life. As to your honesty, +it would seem. . ." + +"Who dares impugn it?" cried Orion. + +"I, young man," replied the merchant with the calm dignity of age. +"I, who sold this piece of work last evening, and find it this morning +robbed of its most precious ornament." + +"The great emerald has been cut from the hanging during the night." Dame +Neforis explained. "You yourself went with the man who carried it to the +tablinum and saw it laid there." + +"And in the very cloth in which your people had wrapped it," added Orion. +"Our good old Sebek there was with me. Who fetched away the bale this +morning; who brought it here and opened it?" + +"Happily for us," said the Arab, "it was your lady mother herself, with +that man--your steward if I mistake not--and your own slaves." + +"Why was it not left where it was?" asked Orion, giving vent to the +annoyance which at this moment he really felt. + +"Because I had assured your father, and with good reason, that the beauty +of this splendid work and of the gems that decorate it show to much +greater advantage by daylight and in the sunshine than under the lamps +and torches." + +"And besides, your father wished to see his new purchase once more," +Neforis broke in, "and to ask the merchant how the gems might be removed +without injury to the work itself. So I went to the tablinum myself with +Sebek." + +"But I had the key!" cried Orion putting his hand into the breast of his +robe. + +"That I had forgotten," replied his mother. "But unfortunately we did +not need it. The tablinum was open." + +"I locked it yesterday; you saw me do it, Sebek. . ." + +"So I told the mistress," replied the steward. "I perfectly recollect +hearing the snap of the strong lock." + +Orion shrugged his shoulders, and his mother went on: + +But the bronze doors must have been opened during the night with a false +key, or by some other means; for part of the hanging had been pulled out +of the wrapper, and when we looked closely we saw that the large emerald +had been wrenched out of the setting." + +"Shameful!" exclaimed Orion. + +"Disgraceful!" added the governor, vehemently starting up. He had +fallen a prey to fearful unrest and horror: he thought that his Lord and +Saviour, to whom he had dedicated the precious jewel, regarded him as so +sinful and worthless that He would not accept the gift at his hands. +But perhaps it was only Satan striving to hinder him from approaching the +Most High with so noble an offering. At any rate, human cunning had been +at work, so he said with stern resolution: + +"The matter shall be enquired into, and in the name of Jesus Christ, to +whom the stone already belongs, I will never rest nor cease till the +criminal is in my hands." + +"And in the name of Allah and the Prophet," added the Arab, "I will aid +thee, if I have to appeal for help to the great chief Amru, the Khaliff's +representative in this country.--A word was spoken here just now that I +cannot and will not forget. And the tone you have chosen to adopt, young +man, seems to spring from the same fount: the old fox, you think, put a +false gem of impossible size into the hanging, and has had it stolen that +his fraud may not be detected when a jeweller examines the work by +daylight. This is too much! I am an honest man, Sirs, and I am fain to +add a rich one; and the man who tries to cast a stain on the character I +have borne through a long life shall learn, to his ruing, that old +Haschim has greater and more powerful friends to back him than you may +care to meet!" + +As he uttered this threat the merchant's eyes glistened through tears; it +grieved him to be unjustly suspected and to be forced to express himself +so hardly to the Mukaukas for whom he felt both reverence and pity. It +was clear from the tone of his speech that he was in fact a determined +and a powerful personage, and Orion interrupted him with the eager +enquiry: "Who has dared to think so basely of you?" + +"Your own mother, I regret to say," replied the Moslem sadly, with an +oriental shrug of distress and annoyance--his shoulders up to his ears. + +"Forget it, I beg of you," said the governor. "God knows women have +softer hearts than men, and yet they more readily incline to think evil +of their fellow-creatures, and particularly of the enemies of their +faith. On the other hand they are more sensitive to kindness. A woman's +hair is long and her wits short, says the saw." + +"You have plenty to say against us women!" retorted Neforis. "But scold +away--scold if it is a comfort to you!" But she added, while she +affectionately turned her husband's pillows and gave him another of his +white pillules: "I will submit to the worst to-day for I am in the wrong. +I have already asked your pardon, worthy Haschim, and I do so again, with +all my heart." + +As she spoke, she went up to the Arab and held out her hand; he took it, +but lightly, however, and quickly released it, saying: + +"I do not find it hard to forgive. But I find it impossible, here or +anywhere, to let so much as a grain of dust rest on my bright good name. +I shall follow up this affair, turning neither to the right hand nor to +the left.--And now, one question: Is the dog that guarded the tablinum a +watchful, savage beast?" + +"How savage he is he unfortunately proved on the person of the poor +Persian slave; and his watchfulness is known to all the household," cried +Orion. + +"But I would beg you, worthy merchant," said Neforis, "and in the name +of all present, to give us the help of your experience. I myself--wait +a little wait: in spite of her long hair and her short wits a woman often +has a happy idea. I, probably, was the first to come on the robber's +track. It is clear that he must belong to the household since the dog +did not attack him. Paula, who was so wonderfully quick in coming to the +rescue of the Persian, is of course not to be thought of. . ." + +Here her husband interrupted her with an angry exclamation: "Leave the +girl quite out of the question wife!" + +"As if I supposed her to be the thief!" retorted Neforis indignantly, +and she shrugged her shoulders as Orion, in mild reproach, also cried: +"Mother! consider. . . ." and the merchant asked: + +"Do you mean the young girl from whom I had to take such hard words last +night?--Well, then, I will stake my whole fortune on her innocence. That +beautiful, passionate creature is incapable of any underhand dealings." + +"Passionate!" Neforis smiled. "Her heart is as cold and as hard as the +lost emerald; we have proved that by experience." + +"Nevertheless," said Orion, "she is incapable of baseness." + +"How zealous men can be for a pair of fine eyes!" interrupted his +mother. "But I have not the most remote suspicion of her; I have +something quite different in my mind. A pair of man's shoes were found +lying by the wounded girl. Did you do what my lord Orion ordered, +Sebek?" + +"At once, Mistress," replied the steward, "and I have been expecting the +captain of the watch for some time; for Psamtik. . . ." + +But here he was interrupted: the officer in question, who for more than +twenty years had commanded the Mukaukas' guard of honor, was shown into +the room; after answering a few preliminary enquiries he began his report +in a voice so loud that it hurt the governor, and his wife was obliged to +request the soldier to speak more gently. + +The bloodhounds and terriers had been let out after being allowed to +smell at the shoes, and a couple of them had soon found their way to the +side-door where Hiram had waited for Paula. There they paused, sniffing +about on all sides, and had then jumped up a few steps. + +"And those stairs lead to Paula's room," observed Neforis with a shrug. + +"But they were on a false scent," the officer eagerly added. "The little +toads might have thrown suspicion on an innocent person. The curs +immediately after rushed into the stables, and ran up and down like Satan +after a lost soul. The pack had soon pulled down the boy--the son of the +freedman who came here from Damascus with the daughter of the great +Thomas--and they went quite mad in his father's room: Heaven and earth! +what a howling and barking and yelping. They poked their noses into +every old rag, and now we knew where the hole in the wine-skin was.-- +I am sorry for the man. He stammered horribly, but as a trainer, and in +all that has to do with horses, all honor to him!--The shoes are Hiram's +as surely as my eyes are in my head; but we have not caught him yet. He +is across the river, for a boat is missing and where it had been lying +the dogs began again. Unless the unbelievers over there give him shelter +we are certain to have him." + +"Then we know who is the criminal!" cried Orion, with a sigh as deep as +though some great burden were lifted from his soul. Then he went on in a +commanding tone--and his voice rang so fiercely that the color which had +mounted to his cheeks could hardly be due to satisfaction at this last +good news.... + +"As it is not yet two hours after noon, send all your men out to search +for him and deliver him up. My father will give you a warrant, and the +Arabs on the other shore will assist you. Perhaps the thief may fall +into our hands even sooner and with him the emerald, unless the rogue has +succeeded in hiding it or selling it." Then his voice sank, and he added +in a tone of regret. It is a pity as concerns the man, we had not one in +our stables who knew more about horses! Fresh proof of your maxim, +mother: if you want to be well served you must buy rascals!" + +"Strictly speaking," said Neforis meditatively, "Hiram is not one of our +people. He was a freedman of Thomas' and came here with his daughter. +Every one speaks highly of his skill in the stable; but for this robbery +we might have kept him for the rest of his life still, if the girl had +ever taken it into her head to leave us and to take him with her, we +could not have detained him.--You may say what you will, and abuse me and +mock me; I have none of what you call imagination; I see things simply as +they are: but there must be some understanding between that girl and the +thief." + +"You are not to say another word of such monstrous nonsense!" exclaimed +her husband; and he would have said more, but that at that moment the +groom of the chambers announced that Gamaliel, the Jewish goldsmith, +begged an audience. The man had come to give information with regard to +the fate of the lost emerald. + +At this statement Orion changed color, and he turned away from the +merchant as the slave admitted the same Israelite who had been sitting +over the fire with the head-servants. He at once plunged into his story, +telling it in his peculiar light-hearted style. He was so rich that the +loss he might suffer did not trouble him enough to spoil his good-humor, +and so honest that it was a pleasure to him to restore the stolen +property to its rightful owner. Early that morning, so he told them, +Hiram the groom had been to him to offer him a wonderfully large and +splendid emerald for sale. The freedman had assured him that the stone +was part of the property left by the famous Thomas, his former master. +It had decorated the head-stall of the horse which the hero of Damascus +had last ridden, and it had come to him with the steed. + +"I offered him what I thought fair," the Jew went on, "and paid him two +thousand drachmae on account; the remainder he begged me to take charge +of for the present. To this I agreed, but ere long a fly began to hum +suspicion in my ear. Then the police rushed through the town with the +bloodhounds. Good Heavens, what a barking! The creatures yelped as if +they would bark my poor house down, like the trumpets round the walls of +Jericho--you know. 'What is the matter now,' I asked of the dog-keepers, +and behold! my suspicions about the emerald were justified; so here, my +lord Governor, I have brought you the stone, and as every suckling in +Memphis hears from its nurse--unless it is deaf--what a just man Mukaukas +George is, you will no doubt make good to me what I advanced to that +stammering scoundrel. And you will have the best of the bargain, noble +Sir; for I make no demand for interest or even maintenance for the two +hours during which it was mine." + +"Give me the stone !" interrupted the Arab, who was annoyed by the Jew's +jesting tone; he snatched the emerald from him, weighed it in his hand, +put it close to his eyes, held it far off, tapped it with a small hammer +that he took out of his breast-pocket, slipped it into its place in the +work, examining it keenly, suspiciously, and at last with satisfaction. +During all this, Orion had more than once turned pale, and the sweat +broke out on his handsome, pale face. Had a miracle been wrought here? +How could this gem, which was surely on its way to Alexandria, have found +its way into the Jew's hands? Or could Chusar have opened the little +packet and have sold the emerald to Hiram, and through him to the +jeweller? He must get to the bottom of it, and while the Arab was +examining the gem he went up to Gamaliel and asked him: "Are you +positively certain--it is a matter of freedom or the dungeon--certain +that you had this stone from Hiram the Syrian and from no one else? +I mean, is the man so well-known to you that no mistake is possible?" + +"God preserve us!" exclaimed the Jew drawing back a step from Orion, +who was gazing at him with a sinister light in his eyes. "How can my +lord doubt it? Your respected father has known me these thirty years, +and do you suppose that I--I do not know the Syrian? Why, who in Memphis +can stammer to compare with him? And has he not killed half my children +with your wild young horses?--Half killed every one of my children I mean +--half killed them, I say, with fright. They are all still alive and +well, God preserve them, but none the better for your horsebreaker; for +fresh air is good for children and my little Rebecca would stop indoors +till he was at home again for fear of his terrifying pranks." + +"Well, well!" Orion broke in. "And at what hour did he bring you the +emerald for sale? Exactly. Now, recollect: when was it? You surely +must remember." + +"Adonai! How should I?" said the Jew. "But wait, Sir, perhaps I may be +able to tell you. In this hot weather we are up before sunrise; then we +said our prayers and had our morning broth; then. . . ." + +"Senseless chatter!" urged Orion. But Gamaliel went on without allowing +himself to be checked. "Then little Ruth jumped into my lap to pull out +the white hairs that will grow under my nose and, just as the child was +doing it and I cried out: 'Oh, you hurt me!' the sun fell upon the earth +bank on which I was sitting." + +"And at what time does it reach the bank?" cried the young man. + +"Exactly two hours after sunrise," replied the Jew, "at this time of +year. Do me the honor of a visit tomorrow morning; you will not regret +it, for I can show you some beautiful, exquisite things--and you can +watch the shadow yourself." + +"Two hours after sunrise," murmured Orion to himself, and then with fresh +qualms he reflected that it was fully four hours later when he had given +the packet to Chusar. It was impossible to doubt the Jew's statement. +The man was rich, honest and content: he did not lie. The jewel Orion +had sent away and that purchased from Hiram could not in any case be +identical. But how could all this be explained? It was enough to turn +his brain. And not to dare to speak when mere silence was falsehood-- +falsehood to his father and mother!--If only the hapless stammerer might +escape! If he were caught; then--then merciful Heaven! But no; it was +not to be thought of.--On, then, on; and if it came to the worst the +honor of a hundred stablemen could not outweigh that of one Orion; +horrible as it was, the man must be sacrificed. He would see that his +life was spared and that he was soon set at liberty! + +The Arab meanwhile had concluded his examination; still he was not +perfectly satisfied. Orion longed to interpose; for if the merchant +expressed no doubts and acknowledged the recovered gem to be the stolen +one, much would be gained; so he turned to him again and said: "May I ask +you to show me the emerald once more? It is quite impossible, do you +think, that a second should be found to match it?" + +"That is too much to assert," said the Arab gravely. "This stone +resembles that on the hanging to a hair; and yet it has a little +inequality which I do not remember noticing on it. It is true I had +never seen it out of the setting, and this little boss may have been +turned towards the stuff, and yet, and yet.--Tell me, goldsmith, did the +thief give you the emerald bare--unset?" + +"As bare as Adam and Eve before they ate the apple," said the Jew. + +"That is a pity--a great pity!--And still I fancy that the stone in +the work was a trifle longer. In such a case it is almost folly and +perversity to doubt, and yet I feel--and yet I ask myself: Is this really +the stone that formed that bud?" + +"But Heaven bless us!" cried Orion, "the twin of such an unique gem +would surely not drop from the skies and at the same moment into one and +the same house. Let us be glad that the lost sheep has come back to us. +Now, I will lock it into this iron casket, Father, and as soon as the +robber is caught you send for me: do you understand, Psamtik?" He nodded +to his parents, offered his hand to the Arab, and that in a way which +could not fail to satisfy any one, so that even the old man was won over; +and then he left the room. + +The merchant's honor was saved; still his conscientious soul was +disturbed by a doubt that he could not away with. He was about to take +leave but the Mukaukas was so buried in pillows, and kept his eyes so +closely shut, that no one could detect whether he were sleeping or +waking; so the Arab, not wishing to disturb him, withdrew without +speaking. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Ancient custom, to have her ears cut off +Caught the infection and had to laugh whether she would or no +Gave them a claim on your person and also on your sorrows +How could they find so much pleasure in such folly +Of two evils it is wise to choose the lesser +Prepared for the worst; then you are armed against failure +Who can hope to win love that gives none +Who can take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face? + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 3. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +After the great excitement of the night Paula had thrown herself on her +bed with throbbing pulses. Sleep would not come to her, and so at rather +more than two hours after sunrise she went to the window to close the +shutters. As she did so she looked out, and she saw Hiram leap into a +boat and push the light bark from the shore. She dared neither signal +nor call to him; but when the faithful soul had reached open water he +looked back at her window, recognized her in her white morning dress and +flourished the oar high in the air. This could only mean that he had +fulfilled his commission and sold her jewel. Now he was going to the +other side to engage the Nabathaean. + +When she had closed the shutters and darkened the room she again lay +down. Youth asserted its rights the weary girl fell into deep, dreamless +slumbers. + +When she woke, with the heat drops on her forehead, the sun was nearly at +the meridian, only an hour till the Ariston would be served, the Greek +breakfast, the first meal in the morning, which the family eat together +as they also did the principal meal later in the clay. She had never yet +failed to appear, and her absence would excite remark. + +The governor's household, like that of every Egyptian of rank, was +conducted more on the Greek than the Egyptian plan; and this was the case +not merely as regarded the meals but in many other things, and especially +the language spoken. From the Mukaukas himself down to the youngest +member of the family, all spoke Greek among themselves, and Coptic, the +old native dialect, only to the servants. Nay, many borrowed and foreign +words had already crept into use in the Coptic. + +The governor's granddaughter, pretty little Mary, had learnt to speak +Greek fluently and correctly before she spoke Coptic, but when Paula had +first arrived she could not as yet write the beautiful language of Greece +with due accuracy. Paula loved children; she longed for some occupation, +and she had therefore volunteered to instruct the little girl in the art. +At first her hosts had seemed pleased that she should render this +service, but ere long the relation between the Lady Neforis and her +husband's niece had taken the unpleasant aspect which it was destined to +retain. She had put a stop to the lessons, and the reason she had +assigned for this insulting step was that Paula had dictated to her pupil +long sentences out of her Orthodox Greek prayerbook. This, it was true, +she had done; but without the smallest concealment; and the passages she +had chosen had contained nothing but what must elevate the soul of every +Christian, of whatever confession. + +The child had wept bitterly over her grandmother's fiat, though Paula had +always taken the lessons quite seriously, for Mary loved her older +companion with all the enthusiasm of a half-grown girl--as a child of ten +really is in Egypt; her passionate little heart worshipped the beautiful +maiden who was in every respect so far above her, and Paula's arms had +opened wide to embrace the child who brought sunshine into the gloomy, +chill atmosphere she breathed in her uncle's house. But Neforis regarded +the child's ardent love for her Melchite relation as exaggerated and +morbid, imperilling perhaps her religious faith; and she fancied that +under Paula's influence Mary had transferred her affections from her to +the younger woman with added warmth. Nor was this idea wholly fanciful; +the child's strong sense of justice could not bear to see her friend +misunderstood and slighted, often simply and entirely misjudged and +hardly blamed, so Mary felt it her duty, as far as in her lay, to make up +for her grandmother's delinquencies in regard to the guest who in the +child's eyes was perfection. + +But Neforis was not the woman to put up with this demeanor in a child. +Mary was her granddaughter, the only child of her lost son, and no one +should come between them. So she forbid the little girl to go to Paula's +room without an express message, and when a Greek teacher was engaged for +her, her instructions were that she should keep her pupil as much as +possible out of the Syrian damsel's way. All this only fanned the +child's vehement affection; and tenderly as her grandmother would +sometimes caress her--while Mary on her part never failed in dutiful +obedience--neither of them ever felt a true and steady warmth of heart +towards the other; and for this Paula was no doubt to blame, though +against her will and by her mere existence. + +Often, indeed, and by a hundred covert hints Dame Neforis gave Paula to +understand that she it was who had alienated her grandchild; there was +nothing for it but to keep the child for whom she yearned, at a distance, +and only rarely reveal to her the abundance of her love. At last her +life was so full of grievance that she was hardly able to be innocent +with the innocent--a child with the child; Mary was not slow to note +this, and ascribed Paula's altered manner to the suffering caused by +her grandmother's severity. + +Mary's most frequent opportunities of speaking to her friend were +just before meals; for at that time no one was watching her, and her +grandmother had not forbidden her calling Paula to table. A visit to her +room was the child's greatest delight--partly because it was forbidden-- +but no less because Paula, up in her own room, was quite different from +what she seemed with the others, and because they could there look at +each other and kiss without interference, and say what ever they pleased. +There Mary could tell her as much as she dared of the events in their +little circle, but the lively and sometimes hoydenish little girl was +often withheld from confessing a misdemeanor, or even an inoffensive +piece of childishness, by sheer admiration for one who to her appeared +nobler, greater and loftier than other beings. + +Just as Paula had finished putting up her hair, Mary, who would rush like +a whirlwind even into her grandmother's presence, knocked humbly at the +door. She did not fly into Paula's arms as she did into those of +Susannah or her daughter Katharina, but only kissed her white arm with +fervent devotion, and colored with happiness when Paula bent down to her, +pressed her lips to her brow and hair, and wiped her wet, glowing cheeks. +Then she took Mary's head fondly between her hands and said: + +"What is wrong with you, madcap?" + +In fact the sweet little face was crimson, and her eyes swelled as if she +had been crying violently. + +"It is so fearfully hot," said Mary. "Eudoxia"--her Greek governess-- +"says that Egypt in summer is a fiery furnace, a hell upon earth. She is +quite ill with the heat, and lies like a fish on the sand; the only good +thing about it is. . ." + +"That she lets you run off and gives you no lessons?" + +Mary nodded, but as no lecture followed the confession she put her head +on one side and looked up into Paula's face with large roguish eyes. + +"And yet you have been crying!--a great girl like you?" + +"I--I crying?" + +"Yes, crying. I can see it in your eyes. Now confess: what has +happened?" + +"You will not scold me?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Well then. At first it was fun, such fun you cannot think, and I do +not mind the heat; but when the great hunt had gone by I wanted to go +to my grand mother and I was not allowed. Do you know, something very +particular had been going on in the fountain-room; and as they all +came out again I crept behind Orion into the tablinum--there are such +wonderful things there, and I wanted just to frighten him a little; +we have often played games together before. At first he did not see me, +and as he was bending over the hanging, from which the gem was stolen--I +believe he was counting the stones in the faded old thing--I just jumped +on to his shoulder, and he was so frightened--I can tell you, awfully +frightened! And he turned upon me like a fighting-cock and--and he gave +me a box on the ear; such a slap, it is burning now--and all sorts of +colors danced before my eyes. He always used to be so nice and kind to +me, and to you, too, and so I used to be fond of him--he is my uncle too +--but a box on the ears, a slap such as the cook might give to the +turnspit--I am too big for that; that I will certainly not put up with +it! Since my last birthday all the slaves and upper servants, too, have +had to treat me as a lady and to bow down to me! And now!--it was just +here.--How dare he?" She began to cry again and sobbed out: "But that +was not all. He locked me into the dark tablinum and left--left me...." +her tears flowed faster and faster, "left me sitting there! It was so +horrible; and I might have been there now if I had not found a gold +plate; I seized my great-grandfather--I mean the silver image of Menas, +and hammered on it, and screamed Fire! Then Sebek heard me and fetched +Orion, and he let me out, and made such a fuss over me and kissed me. +But what is the good of that; my grandfather will be angry, for in my +terror I beat his father's nose quite flat on the plate." + +Paula had listened, now amused and now grave, to the little girl's story; +when she ceased, she once more wiped her eyes and said: + +"Your uncle is a man, and you must not play with him as if he were a +child like yourself. The reminder you got was rather a hard one, no +doubt, but Orion tried to make up for it.--But the great hunt, what was +that?" + +At this question Mary's eyes suddenly sparkled again. In an instant all +her woes were forgotten, even her ancestor's flattened nose, and with a +merry, hearty laugh she exclaimed: + +"Oh! you should have seen it! You would have been amused too. They +wanted to catch the bad man who cut the emerald out of the hanging. He +had left his shoes and they had held them under the dogs' noses and then +off they went! First they rushed here to the stairs; then to the +stables, then to the lodgings of one of the horse-trainers, and I kept +close behind, after the terriers and the other dogs. Then they stopped +to consider and at last they all ran out at the gate towards the town. I +ought not to have gone beyond the court-yard, but--do not be cross with +me--it was such fun!--Out they went, along Hapi Street, across the +square, and at last into the Goldsmith's Street, and there the whole pack +plunged into Gamaliel's shop--the Jew who is always so merry. While he +was talking to the others his wife gave me some apricot tartlets; we do +not have such good ones at home." + +"And did they find the man?" asked Paula, who had changed color +repeatedly during the child's story. + +"I do not know," said Mary sadly. "They were not chasing any one in +particular. The dogs kept their noses to the ground, and we ran after +them." + +"And only to catch a man, who certainly had nothing whatever to do with +the theft.--Reflect a little, Mary. The shoes gave the dogs the scent +and they were set on to seize the man who had worn them, but whom no +judge had examined. The shoes were found in the hall; perhaps he had +dropped them by accident, or some one else may have carried them there. +Now think of yourself in the place of an innocent man, a Christian like +ourselves, hunted with a pack of dogs like a wild beast. Is it not +frightful? No good heart should laugh at such a thing!" + +Paula spoke with such impressive gravity and deep sorrow, and her whole +manner betrayed such great and genuine distress that the child looked tip +at her anxiously, with tearful eyes, threw herself against her, and +hiding her face in Paula's dress exclaimed: "I did not know that they +were hunting a poor man, and if it makes you so sad, I wish I had not +been there! But is it really and truly so bad? You are so often unhappy +when we others laugh!" She gazed into Paula's face with wide, wondering +eyes through her tears, and Paula clasped her to her, kissed her fondly, +and replied with melancholy sweetness: + +"I would gladly be as gay as you, but I have gone through so much to +sadden me. Laugh and be merry to your heart's content; I am glad you +should. But with regard to the poor hunted man, I fear he is my +father's freedman, the most faithful, honest soul! Did your exciting +hunt drive any one out of the goldsmith's shop?" + +Mary shook her head; then she asked: + +"Is it Hiram, the stammerer, the trainer, that they are hunting?" + +"I fear it is." + +"Yes, yes," said the child. "Stay--oh, dear! it will grieve you again, +but I think--I think they said--the shoes belonged--but I did not attend. +However, they were talking of a groom--a freedman--a stammerer. . . ." + +"Then they certainly are hunting down an innocent man," cried Paula with +a deep sigh; and she sat down again in front of her toilet-table to +finish dressing. Her hands still moved mechanically, but she was lost in +thought; she answered the child vaguely, and let her rummage in her open +trunk till Mary pulled out the necklace that had been bereft of its gem, +and hung it round her neck. Just then there was a knock at the +door and Katharina, the widow Susannah's little daughter, came into the +room. The young girl, to whom the governor's wife wished to marry her +tall son scarcely reached to Paula's shoulder, but she was plump and +pleasant to look upon; as neat as if she had just been taken out of a +box, with a fresh, merry lovable little face. When she laughed she +showed a gleaming row of small teeth, set rather wide apart, but as white +as snow; and her bright eyes beamed on the world as gladly as though they +had nothing that was not pleasing to look for, innocent mischief to dream +of. She too, tried to win Paula's favor; but with none of Mary's devoted +and unvarying enthusiasm. Often, to be sure, she would devote herself to +Paula with such stormy vehemence that the elder girl was forced to be +repellent; then, on the other hand, if she fancied her self slighted, or +treated more coolly than Mary, she would turn her back on Paula with +sulky jealousy, temper and pouting. It always was in Paula's power to +put an end to the "Water-wagtails tantrums"--which generally had their +comic side--by a kind word or kiss; but without some such advances +Katharina was quite capable of indulging her humors to the utmost. + +On the present occasion she flew into Paula's arm, and when her friend +begged, more quietly than usual that she would allow her first to finish +dressing, she turned away without any display of touchiness and took +the necklace from Mary's hand to put it on herself. It was of fine +workmanship, set with pearls, and took her fancy greatly; only the empty +medallion from which Hiram had removed the emerald with his knife spoiled +the whole effect. Still, it was a princely jewel, and when she had also +taken from the chest a large fan of ostrich feathers she showed off to +her play-fellow, with droll, stiff dignity, how the empress and +princesses at Court curtsied and bowed graciously to their inferiors. +At this they both laughed a great deal. When Paula had finished her +toilet and proceeded to take the necklace off Katharina, the empty +setting, which Hiram's knife had bent, caught in the thin tissue of her +dress. Mary disengaged it, and Paula tossed the jewel back into the +trunk. + +While she was locking the box she asked Katharina whether she had met +Orion. + +"Orion!" repeated the younger girl, in a tone which implied that she +alone had the right to enquire about him. "Yes, we came upstairs +together; he went to see the wounded man. Have you anything to say to +him?" + +She crimsoned as she spoke and looked suspiciously at Paula, who simply +replied: "Perhaps," and then added, as she hung the ribbon with the key +round her neck: "Now, you little girls, it is breakfast time; I am not +going down to-day." + +"Oh, dear!" cried Mary disappointed, "my grandfather is ailing and +grandmother will stay with him; so if you do not come I shall have to sit +alone with Eudoxia; for Katharina's chariot is waiting and she must go +home at once. Oh! do come. Just to please me; you do not know how +odious Eudoxia can be when it is so hot." + +"Yes, do go down," urged Katharina. "What will you do up hereby +yourself? And this evening mother and I will come again." + +"Very well," said Paula. "But first I must go to see the invalids." + +"May I go with you?" asked the Water wagtail, coaxingly stroking Paula's +arm. But Mary clapped her hands, exclaiming: + +"She only wants to go to Orion--she is so fond of him. . . ." + +Katharina put her hand over the child's mouth, but Paula, with quickened +breath, explained that she had very serious matters to discuss with +Orion; so Katharina, turning her back on her with a hasty gesture of +defiance, sulkily went down stairs, while Mary slipped down the bannister +rail. Not many days since, Katharina, who was but just sixteen, would +gladly have followed her example. + +Paula meanwhile knocked at the first of the sickrooms and entered it as +softly as the door was opened by a nursing-sister from the convent of St. +Katharine. Orion, whom she was seeking, had been there, but had just +left. + +In this first room lay the leader of the caravan; in that beyond was the +crazy Persian. In a sitting-room adjoining the first room, which, being +intended for guests of distinction, was furnished with royal +magnificence, sat two men in earnest conversation: the Arab merchant and +Philippus the physician, a young man of little more than thirty, tall and +bony, in a dress of clean but very coarse stuff without any kind of +adornment. He had a shrewd, pale face, out of which a pair of bright +black eyes shone benevolently but with keen vivacity. His large cheek- +bones were much too prominent; the lower part of his face was small, ugly +and, as it were, compressed, while his high broad forehead crowned the +whole and stamped it as that of a thinker, as a fine cupola may crown an +insignificant and homely structure. + +This man, devoid of charm, though his strongly-characterized +individuality made it difficult to overlook him even in the midst of +a distinguished circle, had been conversing eagerly with the Arab, who, +in the course of their two-days' acquaintance, had inspired him with a +regard which was fully reciprocated. At last Orion had been the theme of +their discourse, and the physician, a restless toiler who could not like +any man whose life was one of idle enjoyment, though he did full justice +to his brilliant gifts and well-applied studies, had judged him far more +hardly than the older man. To the leech all forms of human life were +sacred, and in his eyes everything that could injure the body or soul of +a man was worthy of destruction. He knew all that Orion had brought upon +the hapless Mandane, and how lightly he had trifled with the hearts of +other women; in his eyes this made him a mischievous and criminal member +of society. He regarded life as an obligation to be discharged by work +alone, of whatever kind, if only it were a benefit to society as a whole. +And such youths as Orion not only did not recognize this, but used the +whole and the parts also for base and selfish ends. The old Moslem, on +the contrary, viewed life as a dream whose fairest portion, the time of +youth, each one should enjoy with alert senses, and only take care that +at the waking which must come with death he might hope to find admission +into Paradise. How little could man do against the iron force of fate! +That could not be forefended by hard work; there was nothing for it but +to take up a right attitude, and to confront and meet it with dignity. +The bark of Orion's existence lacked ballast; in fine weather it drifted +wherever the breeze carried it, He himself had taken care to equip it +well; and if only the chances of life should freight it heavily--very +heavily, and fling it on the rocks, then Orion might show who and what he +was; he, Haschim, firmly believed that his character would prove itself +admirable. It was in the hour of shipwreck that a man showed his worth. + +Here the physician interrupted him to prove that it was not Fate, as +imagined by Moslems, but man himself who guided the bark of life--but at +this moment Paula looked into the room, and he broke off. The merchant +bowed profoundly, Philippus respectfully, but with more embarrassment +than might have been expected from the general confidence of his manner. +For some years he had been a daily visitor in the governor's house, and +after carefully ignoring Paula on her first arrival, since Dame Neforis +had taken to treating her so coolly he drew her out whenever he had the +opportunity. Her conversations with him had now become dear and even +necessary to her, though at first his dry, cutting tone had displeased +her, and he had often driven her into a corner in a way that was hard to +bear. They kept her mind alert in a circle which never busied itself +with anything but the trivial details of family life in the decayed city, +or with dogmatic polemics--for the Mukaukas seldom or never took part in +the gossip of the women. + +The leech never talked of daily events, but expressed his views as to +other and graver subjects in life, or in books with which they were both +familiar; and he had the art of eliciting replies from her which he met +with wit and acumen. By degrees she had become accustomed to his bold +mode of thought, sometimes, it is true, too recklessly expressed; and the +gifted girl now preferred a discussion with him to any other form of +conversation, recognizing that a childlike and supremely unselfish soul +animated this thoughtful reservoir of all knowledge. Almost everything +she did displeased her uncle's wife, and so, of course, did her familiar +intercourse with this man, whose appearance certainly had in it nothing +to attract a young girl.--The physician to a family of rank was there to +keep its members in good health, and it was unbecoming in one of them to +converse with him on intimate terms as an equal. She reproached Paula-- +whose pride she was constantly blaming--for her unseemly condescension +to Philippus; but what chiefly annoyed her was that Paula took up many +a half-hour which otherwise Philippus would have devoted to her husband; +and in him and his health her life and thoughts were centred. + +The Arab at once recognized his foe of the previous evening; but they +soon came to a friendly understanding--Paula confessing her folly in +holding a single and kindly-disposed man answerable for the crimes of a +whole nation. Haschim replied that a right-minded spirit always came to +a just conclusion at last; and then the conversation turned on her +father, and the physician explained to the Arab that she was resolved +never to weary of seeking the missing man. + +"Nay, it is the sole aim and end of my life," cried the girl. + +"A great mistake, in my opinion," said the leech. But the merchant +differed: there were things, he said, too precious to be given up for +lost, even when the hope of finding them seemed as feeble and thin as a +rotten reed. + +"That is what I feel!" cried Paula. "And how can you think differently, +Philip? Have I not heard from your own lips that you never give up all +hope of a sick man till death has put an end to it? Well, and I cling to +mine--more than ever now, and I feel that I am right. My last thought, +my last coin shall be spent in the search for my father, even without my +uncle and his wife, and in spite of their prohibition." + +"But in such a task a young girl can hardly do without a man's succor," +said the merchant. "I wander a great deal about the world, I speak with +many foreigners from distant lands, and if you will do me the honor, pray +regard me as your coadjutor, and allow me to help you in seeking for the +lost hero." + +"Thanks--I fervently thank you!" cried Paula, grasping the Moslem's hand +with hearty pleasure. "Wherever you go bear my lost father in mind; I am +but a poor, lonely girl, but if you find him. . ." + +"Then you will know that even among the Moslems there are men. . ." + +"Men who are ready to show compassion and to succor friendless women!" +interrupted Paula. + +"And with good success, by the blessing of the Almighty," replied the +Arab. "As soon as I find a clue you shall hear from me; now, however, +I must go across the Nile to see Amru the great general; I go in all +confidence for I know that my poor, brave Rustem is in good hands, friend +Philippus. My first enquiries shall be made in Fostat, rely upon that, +my daughter." + +"I do indeed," said Paula with pleased emotion. "When shall we meet +again?" + +"To-morrow, or the morning after at latest." + +The young girl went up to him and whispered: "We have just heard of a +clue; indeed, I hope my messenger is already on his way. Have you time +to hear about it now?" + +"I ought long since to have been on the other shore; so not to-day, but +to-morrow I hope." The Arab shook hands with her and the physician, and +hastily took his leave. + +Paula stood still, thinking. Then it struck her that Hiram was now on +the further side of the Nile, within the jurisdiction of the Arab ruler, +and that the merchant could perhaps intercede for him, if she were to +tell him all she knew. She felt the fullest confidence in the old man, +whose kind and sympathetic face was still visible to her mind's eye, and +without paying any further heed to the physician she went quickly towards +the door of the sick-room. A crucifix hung close by, and the nun had +fallen on her knees before it, praying for her infidel patient, and +beseeching the Good Shepherd to have mercy on the sheep that was not of +His fold. Paula did not venture to disturb the worshipper, who was +kneeling just in the narrow passage; so some minutes elapsed before the +leech, observing her uneasiness, came out of the larger room, touched the +nun on the shoulder, and said in a low voice of genuine kindness: + +"One moment, good Sister. Your pious intercession will be heard--but +this damsel is in haste." The nun rose at once and made way, sending a +wrathful glance after Paula as she hurried down the stairs. + +At the door of the court-yard she looked out and about for the Arab, but +in vain. Then she enquired of a slave who told her that the merchant's +horse had waited for him at the gate a long time, that he had just come +galloping out, and by this time must have reached the bridge of boats +which connected Memphis with the island of Rodah and, beyond the island, +with the fort of Babylon and the new town of Fostat. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Paula went up-stairs again, distressed and vexed with herself. Was it +the heat that had enervated her and robbed her of the presence of mind +she usually had at her command? She herself could not understand how it +was that she had not at once taken advantage of the opportunity to plead +to Haschim for her faithful retainer. The merchant might have interested +himself for Hiram. + +The slave at the gate had told her that he had not yet been taken; the +time to intercede, then, had not yet come. But she was resolved to do +so, to draw the wrath of her relations down on herself, and, if need +should be, to relate all she had seen in the course of the night, to save +her devoted servant. It was no less than her duty: still, before +humiliating Orion so deeply she would warn him. The thought of charging +him with so shameful a deed pained her like the need for inflicting an +injury on herself. She hated him, but she would rather have broken the +most precious work of art than have branded him--him whose image still +reigned in her heart, supremely glorious and attractive. + +Instead of following Mary to breakfast, or offering herself as usual to +play draughts with her uncle, she went back to the sick-room. To meet +Neforis or Orion at this moment would have been painful, indeed odious +to her. It was long since she had felt so weary and oppressed. +A conversation with the physician might perhaps prove refreshing; after +the various agitations of the last few hours she longed for something, be +it what it might, that should revive her spirits and give a fresh turn to +her thoughts. + +In the Masdakite's room the Sister coldly asked her what she wanted, and +who had given her leave to assist in tending the sufferers. The leech, +who at that moment was moistening the bandage on the wounded man's head, +at this turned to the nun and informed her decidedly that he desired the +young girl's assistance in attending on both his patients. Then he led +the way sitting-room, saying in subdued into the adjoining tones: + +"For the present all is well. Let us rest here a little while." + +She sat down on a divan, and he on a seat opposite, and Philippus began: + +"You were seeking handsome Orion just now, but you must. . . ." + +"What?" she asked gravely. "And I would have you to know that the son +of the house is no more to me than his mother is. Your phrase 'Handsome +Orion' seems to imply something that I do not again wish to hear. But I +must speak to him, and soon, in reference to an important matter." + +"To what, then, do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here again? To +confess the truth I did not hope for your return." + +"And why not?" + +"Excuse me from answering. No one likes to hear unpleasant things. If +one of my profession thinks any one is not well. . . ." + +"If that is meant for me," replied the girl, "all I can tell you is that +the one thing on which I still can pride myself is my health. Say what +you will--the very worst for aught I care. I want something to-day to +rouse me from lethargy, even if it should make me angry." + +"Very well then," replied the leech, "though I am plunging into deep +waters!--As to health, as it is commonly understood, a fish might envy +you; but the higher health--health of mind: that I fear you cannot boast +of." + +"This is a serious beginning," said Paula. "Your reproof would seem to +imply that I have done you or some one else a wrong." + +"If only you had!" exclaimed he. "No, you have not sinned against us in +any way.--'I am as I am' is what you think of yourself; and what do you +care for others?" + +"That must depend on whom you mean by 'others!'" + +"Nothing less than all and each of those with whom you live--here, in +this house, in this town, in this world. To you they are mere air--or +less; for the air is a tangible thing that can fill a ship's sails and +drive it against the stream, whose varying nature can bring comfort or +suffering to your body." + +"My world is within!" said Paula, laying her hand on her heart. + +"Very true. And all creation may find room there; for what cannot the +human heart, as it is called, contain! The more we require it to take +and keep, the more ready it is to hold it. It is unsafe to let the lock +rust; for, if once it has grown stiff, when we want to open it no pulling +and wrenching will avail. And besides--but I do not want to grieve you. +--You have a habit of only looking backwards...." + +"And what that is pleasurable lies before me? Your blame is harsh and at +the same time unjust.--Indeed, and how can you tell which way I look?" + +"Because I have watched you with the eye of a friend. In truth, Paula, +you have forgotten how to look around and forward. The life which lies +behind you and which you have lost is all your world. I once showed you +on a fragmentary papyrus that belonged to my foster father, Horus Apollo, +a heathen demon represented as going forwards, while his head was turned +on his neck so that the face and eyes looked behind him." + +"I remember it perfectly." + +Well, you have long been just like him. 'All things move,' says +Heraclitus, so you are forced to float onwards with the great stream; +or, to vary the image, you must walk forwards on the high-road of life +towards the common goal; but your eye is fixed on what lies behind you, +feasting on the prospect of a handsome and wealthy home, kindness and +tenderness, noble and loving faces, and a happy, but alas! long-lost +existence. All the same, on you must go.--What must the result be?" + +"I must stumble, you think, and fall?" + +The physician's reproof had hit Paula all the harder because she could +not conceal from herself that there was much truth in it. She had come +hither on purpose to find encouragement, and these accusations troubled +even her sense of high health. Why should she submit to be taken to task +like a school-girl by this man, himself still young? If this went on she +would let him hear.... But he was speaking again, and his reply calmed +her, and strengthened her conviction that he was a true and well-meaning +friend. + +"Not that perhaps," he said, "because--well, because nature has blessed +you with perfect balance, and you go forward in full self-possession as +becomes the daughter of a hero. We must not forget that it is of your +soul that I am speaking; and that maintains its innate dignity of feeling +among so much that is petty and mean." + +"Then why need I fear to look back when it gives me so much comfort?" +she eagerly enquired, as she gazed in his face with fresh spirit. + +"Because it may easily lead you to tread on other people's feet! That +hurts them; then they are annoyed, and they get accustomed to think +grudgingly of you--you who are more lovable than they are." + +"But quite unjustly; for I am not conscious of ever having intentionally +grieved or hurt any one in my whole life." + +"I know that; but you have done so unintentionally a thousand times." + +"Then it would be better I should quit them altogether." + +"No, and a thousand times no! The man who avoids his kind and lives in +solitude fancies he is doing some great thing and raising himself above +the level of the existence he despises. But look a little closer: it is +self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave and the cloister. +In any case he neglects his highest duty towards humanity--or let us say +merely towards the society he belongs to--in order to win what he +believes to be his own salvation. Society is a great body, and every +individual should regard himself as a member of it, bound to serve and +succor it, and even, when necessary, to make sacrifices for it. The +greatest are not too great. But those who crave isolation,--you +yourself--nay, hear me out, for I may never again risk the danger of +incurring your wrath--desire to be a body apart. What Paula has known +and possessed, she keeps locked in the treasure-house of her memory under +bolt and key; What Paula is, she feels she still must be--and for whom? +Again, for that same Paula. She has suffered great sorrow and on that +her soul lives; but this is evil nourishment, unwholesome and bad for +her." + +She was about to rise; but he bent forward, with a zealous conviction +that he must not allow himself to be interrupted, and lightly touched her +arm as though to prevent her quitting her seat, while he went on +unhesitatingly: + +"You feed on your old sorrows! Well and good. Many a time have I seen +that trial can elevate the soul. It can teach a brave heart to feel the +woes of others more deeply; it can rouse a desire to assuage the griefs +of others with beautiful self-devotion. Those who have known pain and +affliction enjoy ease and pleasure with double satisfaction; sufferers +learn to be grateful for even the smaller joys of life. But you?-- +I have long striven for courage to tell you so--you derive no benefit +from suffering because you lock it up in your breast--as if a man were to +enclose some precious seed in a silver trinket to carry about with him. +It should be sown in the earth, to sprout and bear fruit! However, I do +not blame you; I only wish to advise you as a true and devoted friend. +Learn to feel yourself a member of the body to which your destiny has +bound you for the present, whether you like it or not. Try to contribute +to it all that your capacities allow you achieve. You will find that you +can do something for it; the casket will open, and to your surprise and +delight you will perceive that the seed dropped into the soil will +germinate, that flowers will open and fruit will form of which you may +make bread, or extract from it a balm for yourself or for others! Then +you will leave the dead to bury the dead, as the Bible has it, and +dedicate to the living those great powers and gracious gifts which an +illustrious father and a noble mother--nay, and a long succession of +distinguished ancestors, have bequeathed to a descendant worthy of them. +Then you will recover that which you have lost: the joy in existence +which we ought both to feel and to diffuse, because it brings with it an +obligation which it which is only granted to us once to fulfil. Kind +fate has fitted you above a hundred thousand others for being loved; and +if you do not forget the gratitude you owe for that, hearts will be +turned to you, though now they shun the tree which has beset itself +intentionally with thorns, and which lets its branches droop like the +weeping-willows by the Nile. Thus you will lead a new and beautiful +life, receiving and giving joy. The isolated and charmless existence you +drag through here, to the satisfaction of none and least of all to your +own, you can transform to one of fruition and satisfaction--breathing and +moving healthily and beneficently in the light of day. It lies in your +power. When you came up here to give your care to these poor injured +creatures, you took the first step in the new path I desire to show you, +to true happiness. I did not expect you, and I am thankful that you have +come; for I know that as you entered that door you may have started on +the road to renewed happiness, if you have the will to walk in it.--Thank +God! That is said and over!" + +The leech rose and wiped his forehead, looking uneasily at Paula who had +remained seated; her breath came fast, and she was more confused and +undecided than he had ever seen her. She clasped her hand over her brow, +and gazed, speechless, into her lap as though she wished to smother some +pain. + +The young physician beat his arms together, like a laborer in the winter +when his hands are frozen, and exclaimed with distressful emotion: "Yes, +I have spoken, and I cannot regret having done so; but what I foresaw has +come to pass: The greatest happiness that ever sweetened my daily life +is gone out of it! To love Plato is a noble rule, but greater than Plato +is the truth; and yet, those who preach it must be prepared to find that +truth scares away friends from the unpleasing vicinity of its ill-starred +Apostles!" + +At this Paula rose, and following the impulse of her generous heart, +offered the leech her hand in all sincerity; he grasped it in both his, +pressing it so tightly that it almost hurt her, and his eyes glistened +with moisture as he exclaimed: "That is as I hoped; that is splendid, +that is noble! Let me but be your brother, high-souled maiden!--Now, +come. That poor, crazy, lovely girl will heal of her death-wound under +your hands if under any!" + +"I will come!" she replied heartily; and there was something healthy and +cheerful in her manner as they entered the sick-room; but her expression +suddenly changed, and she asked pensively: + +"And supposing we restore the unhappy girl--what good will she get by +it?" + +"She will breathe and see the sunshine," replied the leech; "she will be +grateful to you, and finally she will contribute what she can to the +whole body. She will be alive in short, she will live. For life--feel +it, understand it as I do--life is the best thing we have." Paula gazed +with astonishment in the man's unlovely but enthusiastic face. How +radiantly joyful! + +No one could have called it ugly at this moment, or have said that it +lacked charm. + +He believed what he had asserted with such fervent feeling, though it was +in contradiction to a view he had held only yesterday and often defended: +that life in itself was misery to all who could not grasp it of their own +strength, and make something of it worth making. At this moment he +really felt that it was the best gift. + +Paula went forward, and his eyes followed her, as the gaze of the pious +pilgrim is fixed on the holy image he has travelled to see, over seas and +mountains, with bruised feet. + +They went up to the sick girl's bed. The nun drew back, making her own +reflections on the physician's altered mien, and his childlike, beaming +contentment, as he explained to Paula what particular peril threatened +the sufferer, and by what treatment he hoped to save her; how to make the +bandages and give the medicines, and how necessary it was to accept the +poor crazy girl's fancies and treat them as rational ideas so long as the +fever lasted. + +At last he was forced to go and attend to other patients. Paula remained +sitting at the head of the bed and gazing at the face of the sufferer. + +How fair it was! And Orion had snatched this rose in the bud, and +trodden it under foot! She had, no doubt, felt for him what Paula +herself felt. And now? Did she feel nothing but hatred of him, or could +her heart, in spite of her indignation and scorn, not altogether cast off +the spell that had once bound it? + +What weakness was this! She was, she must, she would be his foe! + +Her thoughts went back to the idle and futile life that she had led for +so many years. The physician had hit the mark; and he had been too easy +rather than severe. Yes, she would begin to make good use of her powers +--but how, in what way, here and among these people? How transfigured +poor Philippus had seemed when she had given him her hand; with what +energy had he poured forth his words. + +"And how false," she mused, "is the saying that the body is the mirror of +the soul! If it were so, Philippus would have the face of Orion, and +Orion that of Philippus." But could Orion's heart be wholly reprobate? +Nay, that was impossible; her every impulse resisted the belief. She +must either love him or hate him, there was no third alternative; but as +yet the two passions were struggling within her in a way that was quite +intolerable. + +The physician had spoken of being a brother to her, and she could not +help smiling at the idea. She could, she thought, live very happily and +calmly with him, with her nurse Betta, and with the learned old friend +who shared his home, and of whom he had often talked to her; she could +join him in his studies, help him in his calling, and discuss many things +well worth knowing. Such a life, she told herself, would be a thousand +times preferable to this, with Neforis. In him she had certainly found +a friend; and her glad recognition of the fact was the first step towards +the fulfilment of his promise, since it showed that her heart was still +ready to go forth to the kindness of another. + +Amid these meditations, however, her anxiety for Hiram constantly +recurred to her, and it was clear to her mind that, if she and Orion +should come to extremities, she could no longer dwell under the +governor's roof. Often she had longed for nothing so fervently as to be +able to quit it; but to-day it filled her with dread, for parting from +her uncle necessarily involved parting from his son. She hated him; +still, to lose sight of him altogether would be very hard to bear. +To go with Philippus and live with him as his sister would never do; +nay, it struck her as something inconceivable, strangely incongruous. + +Meanwhile she listened to Mandane's breathing and treated her in +obedience to the leech's orders, longing for his return; presently +however, not he but the nun came to the bed-side, laid her hand on the +girl's forehead, and without paying any heed to Paula, whispered kindly: +"That is right child, sleep away; have a nice long sleep. So long as she +can be kept quiet; if only she goes on like this!--Her head is cooler. +Philippus will certainly say there is scarcely any fever. Thank God, the +worst danger is over!" + +"Oh, how glad I am!" cried Paula, and she spoke with such warmth and +sincerity that the nun gave her a friendly nod and left the sick girl to +her care, quite satisfied. + +It was long since Paula had felt so happy. She fancied that her presence +had had a good affect on the sufferer, that Mandane had already been +brought by her nursing to the threshold of a new life. Paula, who but +just now had regarded herself as a persecuted victim of Fate, now +breathed more freely in the belief that she too might bring joy to some +one. She looked into Mandane's more than pretty face with real joy and +tenderness, laid the bandage which had slipped aside gently over her +ears, and breathed a soft kiss on her long silken lashes. + +She rapidly grew in favor with the shrewd nun; when the hour for prayer +came round, the sister included in her petitions--Paula--the orphan under +a stranger's roof, the Greek girl born, by the inscrutable decrees of +God, outside the pale of her saving creed. At length Philippus returned; +he was rejoiced at his new friend's brightened aspect, and declared that +Mandane had, under her care, got past the first and worst danger, and +might be expected to recover, slowly indeed, but completely. + +After Paula had renewed the compress--and he intentionally left her to do +it unaided, he said encouragingly: + +"How quickly you have learnt your business.--Now, the patient is asleep +again; the Sister will keep watch, and for the present we can be of no +use to the girl; sleep is the best nourishment she can have. But with +us--or at any rate with me, it is different. We have still two hours to +wait for the next meal: my breakfast is standing untouched, and yours no +doubt fared the same; so be my guest. They always send up enough to +satisfy six bargemen." + +Paula liked the proposal, for she had long been hungry. The nun was +desired to hasten to fetch some more plates, of drinking-vessels there +was no lack--and soon the new allies were seated face to face, each at a +small table. He carved the duck and the roast quails, put the salad +before her and some steaming artichokes, which the nun had brought up at +the request of the cook whose only son the physician had saved; he +invited her attention to the little pies, the fruits and cakes which were +laid ready, and played the part of butler; and then, while they heartily +enjoyed the meal, they carried on a lively conversation. + +Paula for the first time asked Philippus to tell her something of his +early youth; he began with an account of his present mode of life, as a +partner in the home of the singular old priest of Isis, Horus Apollo, a +diligent student; he described his strenuous activity by day and his +quiet studies by night, and gave everything such an amusing aspect that +often she could not help laughing. But presently he was sad, as he told +her how at an early age he had lost his father and mother, and was left +to depend solely on himself and on a very small fortune, having no +relations; for his father had been a grammarian, invited to Alexandria +from Athens, who had been forced to make a road for himself through life, +which had lain before him like an overgrown jungle of papyrus and reeds. +Every hour of his life was devoted to his work, for a rough, outspoken +Goliath, such as he, never could find it easy to meet with helpful +patrons. He had managed to live by teaching in the high schools of +Alexandria, Athens, and Caesarea, and by preparing medicines from choice +herbs--drinking water instead of wine, eating bread and fruit instead of +quails and pies; and he had made a friend of many a good man, but never +yet of a woman--it would be difficult with such a face as his! + +"Then I am the first?" said Paula, who felt deep respect for the man who +had made his way by his own energy to the eminent position which he had +long held, not merely in Memphis, but among Egyptian physicians +generally. + +He nodded, and with such a blissful smile that she felt as though a +sunbeam had shone into her very soul. He noticed this at once, raised +his goblet, and drank to her, exclaiming with a flush on his cheek: + +"The joy that comes to others early has come to me late; but then the +woman I call my friend is matchless!" + +"Well, it is to be hoped she may not prove to be so wicked as you just +now described her.--If only our alliance is not fated to end soon and +abruptly." + +"Ah!" cried the physician, "every drop of blood in my veins......" + +"You would be ready to shed it for me," Paula broke in, with a pathetic +gesture, borrowed from a great tragedian she had seen at the theatre in +Damascus. "But never fear: it will not be a matter of life and death-- +at worst they will but turn me out of the house and of Memphis." + +"You?" cried Philippus startled, "but who would dare to do so?" + +"They who still regard me as a stranger.--You described the case +admirably. If they have their way, my dear new friend, our fate will be +like that of the learned Dionysius of Cyrene." + +"Of Cyrene?" + +"Yes. It was my father who told me the story. When Dionysius sent his +son to the High School at Athens, he sat down to write a treatise for him +on all the things a student should do and avoid. He devoted himself to +the task with the utmost diligence; but when, at the end of four years, +he could write on the last leaf of the roll. "Here this book hath a +happy ending," the young man whose studies it was intended to guide +came home to Cyrene, a finished scholar." + +"And we have struck up a friendship.... ?" + +"And made a treaty of alliance, only to be parted ere long." + +Philippus struck his fist vehemently on the little table in front of his +couch and exclaimed: "That I will find means to prevent!--But now, tell +me in confidence, what has last happened between you and the family down- +stairs?" + +"You will know quite soon enough." + +"Whichever of them fancies that you can be turned out of doors without +more ado and there will be an end between us, may find himself mistaken!" +cried the physician with an angry sparkle in his eyes. "I have a right +to put in a word in this house. It has not nearly come to that yet, and +what is more, it never shall. You shall quit it certainly; but of your +own free will, and holding your head high...." + +As he spoke the door of the outer room was hastily opened and the next +instant Orion was standing before them, looking with great surprise at +the pair who had just finished their meal. He said coldly: + +"I am disturbing you, I see." + +"Not in the least," replied the leech; and the young man, perceiving what +bad taste it would be and how much out of place to give expression to his +jealous annoyance, said, with a smile: "If only it had been granted to a +third person to join in this symposium!" + +"We found each other all-sufficient company," answered Philippus. + +"A man who could believe in all the doctrines of the Church as readily as +in that statement would be assured of salvation," laughed Orion. "I am +no spoilsport, respected friends; but I deeply regret that I must, on the +present occasion, disturb your happiness. The matter in question......" +And he felt he might now abandon the jesting tone which so little +answered to his mood, "is a serious one. In the first instance it +concerns your freedman, my fair foe." + +"Has Hiram come back?" asked Paula, feeling herself turn pale. + +"They have brought him in," replied Orion. "My father at once summoned +the court of judges. Justice has a swift foot here with us; I am sorry +for the man, but I cannot prevent its taking its course. I must beg of +you to appear at the examination when you are called." + +"The whole truth shall be told!" said Paula sternly and firmly. + +"Of course," replied Orion. Then turning to the physician, he added: "I +would request you, worthy Esculapius, to leave me and my cousin together +for a few minutes. I want to give her a word of counsel which will +certainly be to her advantage." + +Philippus glanced enquiringly at the girl; she said with clear decision: +"You and I can have no secrets. What I may hear, Philippus too may +know." + +Orion, with a shrug, turned to leave the room: + +On the threshold he paused, exclaiming with some excitement and genuine +distress: + +"If you will not listen to me for your own sake, do so at least, whatever +ill-feeling you may bear me, because I implore you not to refuse me this +favor. It is a matter of life or death to one human being, of joy or +misery to another. Do not refuse me.--I ask nothing unreasonable, +Philippus. Do as I entreat you and leave us for a moment alone." + +Again the physician's eyes consulted the young girl's; this time she +said: "Go!" and he immediately quitted the room. + +Orion closed the door. + +"What have I done, Paula," he began with panting breath, "that since +yesterday you have shunned me like a leper--that you are doing your +utmost to bring me to ruin?" + +"I mean to plead for the life of a trusty servant; nothing more," she +said indifferently. + +"At the risk of disgracing me!" he retorted bitterly. + +"At that risk, no doubt, if you are indeed so base as to throw your +own guilt on the shoulders of an honest man." + +"Then you watched me last night?" + +"The merest chance led me to see you come out of the tablinum...." + +"I do not ask you now what took you there so late," he interrupted, "for +it revolts me to think anything of you but the best, the highest.--But +you? What have you experienced at my hands but friendship--nay, for +concealment or dissimulation is here folly--but what a lover....?" + +"A lover!" cried Paula indignantly. "A lover? Dare you utter the +word, when you have offered your heart and hand to another--you. . . ." + +"Who told you so?" asked Orion gloomily. + +"Your own mother." + +"That is it; so that is it?" cried the young man, clasping his hands +convulsively. "Now I begin to see, now I understand. But stay. For if +it is indeed that which has roused you to hate me and persecute me, you +must love me, Paula--you do love me, and then, noblest and sweetest...." +He held out his hand; but she struck it aside, exclaiming in a tremulous +voice: + +"Be under no delusion. I am not one of the feeble lambs whom you have +beguiled by the misuse of your gifts and advantages; and who then are +eager to kiss your hands. I am the daughter of Thomas; and another +woman's betrothed, who craves my embraces on the way to his wedding, will +learn to his rueing that there are women who scorn his disgraceful suit +and can avenge the insult intended them. Go--go to your judges! You, +a false witness, may accuse Hiram, but I will proclaim you, you the son +of this house, as the thief! We shall see which they believe." + +"Me!" cried Orion, and his eyes flashed as wrathfully and vindictively +as her own. "The son of the Mukaukas! Oh, that you were not a woman! +I would force you to your knees and compel you to crave my pardon. How +dare you point your finger at a man whose life has hitherto been as +spotless as your own white raiment? Yes, I did go to the tablinum--I did +tear the emerald from the hanging; but I did it in a fit of recklessness, +and in the knowledge that what is my father's is mine. I threw away the +gem to gratify a mere fancy, a transient whim. Cursed be the hour when +I did it!--Not on account of the deed itself, but of the consequences it +may entail through your mad hatred. Jealousy, petty, unworthy jealousy +is at the bottom of it! And of whom are you jealous?" + +"Of no one; not even of your betrothed, Katharina," replied Paula with +forced composure. "What are you to me that, to spare you humiliation, +I should risk the life of the most honest soul living? I have said: +The judges shall decide between you." + +"No, they shall not!" stormed Orion. "At least, not as you intend! +Beware, beware, I say, of driving me to extremities! I still see in you +the woman I loved; I still offer you what lies within my power: to let +everything end for the best for you. . . ." + +"For me! Then I, too, am to suffer for your guilt?" + +"Did you hear the barking of hounds just now?" + +"I heard dogs yelping." + +"Very well.--Your freedman has been brought in, the pack got on his +scent and have now been let into the house close to the tablinum. The +dogs would not stir beyond the threshold and on the white marble step, +towards the right-hand side, the print of a man's foot was found in the +dust. It is a peculiar one, for instead of five toes there are but +three. Your Hiram was fetched in, and he was found to have the same +number of toes as the mark on the marble, neither more nor less. A horse +trod on his foot, in your father's stable, and two of his toes had to be +cut off: we got this out of the stammering wretch with some difficulty. +--On the other side of the door-way there was a smaller print, but though +the dogs paid no heed to that I examined it, and assured myself--how, +I need not tell you--that it was you who had stood there. He, who has no +business whatever in the house, must have made his way last night into +the tablinum, our treasury. Now, put yourself in the judges' place. How +can such facts be outweighed by the mere word of a girl who, as every one +knows, is on anything rather than good terms with my mother, and who will +leave no stone unturned to save her servant." + +"Infamous!" cried Paula. "Hiram did not steal the gem, as you must know +who stole it. The emerald he sold was my property; and were those stones +really so much alike that even the seller. . ." + +"Yes, indeed. He could not tell one from the other. Evil spirits have +been at work all through, devilish, malignant demons. It would be enough +to turn one's brain, if life were not so full of enigmas! You yourself +are the greatest.--Did you give the Syrian your emerald to sell in +order to fly from this house with the money?--You are silent? Then I am +right. What can my father be to you--you do not love my mother--and the +son!--Paula, Paula, you are perhaps doing him an injustice--you hate him, +and it is a pleasure to you to injure him." + +"I do not wish to hurt you or any one," replied the girl. "And you have +guessed wrongly. Your father refused me the means of seeking mine." + +"And you wanted to procure money to search for one who is long since +dead!--Even my mother admits that you speak the truth; if she is right, +and you really take no pleasure in doing me a mischief, listen to me, +follow my advice, and grant my prayer! I do not ask any great matter." + +"Speak on then." + +"Do you know what a man's honor is to him? Need I tell you that I am a +lost and despised man if I am found guilty of this act of the maddest +folly by the judges of my own house? It may cost my father his life if +he hears that the word 'guilty' is pronounced on me; and I--I--what would +become of me I cannot foresee!--I--oh God, oh God, preserve me from +frenzy!--But I must be calm; time presses.... How different it is for +your servant; he seems ready even now to take the guilt on himself, for, +whatever he is asked, he still keeps silence. Do you do the same; and +if the judges insist on knowing what you had to do with the Syrian last +night--for the dogs traced the scent to your staircase--hazard a +conjecture that the faithful fellow stole the emerald in order to gratify +your desire to search for your father, his beloved master. If you can +make up your mind to so great a sacrifice--oh, that I should have to ask +it of you!--I swear to you by all I hold sacred, by yourself and by my +father's head, I will set Hiram free within three days, unbeaten and +unhurt, and magnificently indemnified; and I will myself help him on the +way whither he may desire to go, or you to send him, in search of your +father.--Be silent; remain neutral in the background; that is all I ask, +and I will keep my word--that, at any rate, you do not doubt?" She had +listened to him with bated breath; she pitied him deeply as he stood +there, a suppliant in bitter anguish of soul, a criminal who still could +not understand that he was one, and who relied on the confidence that, +only yesterday, he still had had the right to exact from all the world. +He appeared before her like a fine proud tree struck by lightning, whose +riven trunk, trembling to its fall, must be crushed to the earth by the +first storm, unless the gardener props it up. She longed to be able to +forget all he had brought upon her and to grasp his hand in friendly +consolation; but her deeply aggrieved pride helped her to preserve the +cold and repellent manner she had so far succeeded in assuming. + +With much hesitation and reserve she consented to be silent as long as +he kept his promise. It was for his father's sake, rather than his own, +that she would so far become his accomplice: at the same time everything +else was at an end between them, and she should bless the hour which +might see her severed from him and his for ever. + +The end of her speech was in a strangely hard and repellent tone; she +felt she must adopt it to disguise how deeply she was touched by his +unhappiness and by the extinction of the sunshine in him which had once +warmed her own heart too with bliss. To him it seemed that an icy rigor +breathed in her words--bitter contempt and hostile revulsion. He had +some difficulty in keeping himself from breaking out again in violent +wrath. He was almost sorry that he had trusted her with his secret and +begged her for mercy, instead of leaving things to run their course, and +if it had come to the worst, dragging her to perdition with him. Sooner +would he forfeit honor and peace than humble himself again before this +pitiless and cold-hearted foe. At this moment he really hated her, and +only wished it were possible to fight her, to break her pride, to see her +vanquished and crying for quarter at his feet. It was with a great +effort--with tingling cheeks and constrained utterance that he said: + +"Severance from you is indeed best for us all.--Be ready: the judges will +send for you soon." + +"Very well," she replied. "I will be silent; you have only to provide +for the Syrian's safety. You have given me your word." + +"And so long as you keep yours I will keep mine. Or else. . ." the +words would come from his quivering lips--"or else war to the knife!" + +"War to the knife!" she echoed with flashing eyes. "But one thing more. +I have proof that the emerald which Hiram sold belonged to me. By all +the saints--proof!" + +"So much the better for you," he said. "Woe to us both, if you force me +to forget that you are a woman!" + +And he left the room with a rapid step. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Orion went down stairs scowling and clenching his fists. His heart ached +to bursting. + +What had he done, what had befallen him? That a woman should dare to +treat him so!--a woman whom he had deigned to love--the loveliest and +noblest of women; but at the same time the haughtiest, most vengeful, +and most hateful. + +He had once read this maxim: "When a man has committed a base action, +if only one other knows of it he carries the death-warrant of his peace +in the bosom of his garment." He felt the full weight of this sentence; +and the other--the one who knew--was Paula, the woman of all others whom +he most wished should look up to him. But yesterday it had been a vision +of heaven on earth to dream of holding her in his arms and calling her +his; now he had but one wish: that he could humble and punish her. Oh, +that his hands should be tied, that he should be dependent on her mercy +like a condemned criminal! It was inconceivable--intolerable! + +But she should be taught to know him. He had passed through life +hitherto as white as a swan; if this luckless hour and this woman made +him appear as a vulture, it was not his fault, it was hers. She should +soon see which was the stronger of the two. He would punish her in every +way in which a woman can be punished, even if the way to it led through +crime and misery! He was not afraid that the leech bad won her +affections, for he knew, with strange certainty that, in spite of the +hostility she displayed, her heart was his and his alone. "The gold coin +called love," said he to himself, "has two faces: tender devotion and +bitter aversion; just now she is showing me the latter. But, however +different the image and superscription may be on the two sides, if you +ring it, it always gives out the same tone; and I can hear it even in her +most insulting words." + +When the family met at table he made Paula's excuses; he himself ate only +a few mouthfuls, for the judges had assembled some time since and were +waiting for him. + +The right of life and death had been placed in the hands of the ancestors +of the Mukaukas, powerful princes of provinces; they had certainly +wielded it even in the dynasty of Psammitichus, whose power had been put +to a terrible end by Cambyses the Persian. And still the Uraeus snake-- +the asp whose bite caused almost instant death, reared its head as the +time-honored emblem of this privilege, by the side of St. George the +Dragon-slayer, over the palaces of the Mukaukas at Memphis, and at +Lykopolis in Upper Egypt. And in both these places the head of the +family retained the right of arbitrary judgment and capital punishment +over the retainers of his house and the inhabitants of the district he +governed, after Justinian first, and then the Emperor Heraclius, had +confirmed them in their old prerogative. The chivalrous St. George +was placed between the snakes so as to replace a heathen symbol by a +Christian one. Formerly indeed the knight himself had had the head of +a sparrow-hawk: that is to say of the god Horus, who had overthrown the +evil-spirit, Seth-Typhon, to avenge his father; but about two centuries +since the heathen crocodile-destroyer had been transformed into the +Christian conqueror of the dragon. + +After the Arab conquest the Moslems had left all ancient customs and +rights undisturbed, including those of the Mukaukas. + +The court which assembled to sit in judgment on all cases concerning +the adherents of the house consisted of the higher officials of the +governor's establishment. The Mukaukas himself was president, and his +grown-up son was his natural deputy. During Orion's absence, Nilus, the +head of the exchequer, a shrewd and judicious Egyptian, had generally +represented his invalid master; but on the present occasion Orion was +appointed to take his place, and to preside over the assembly. + +The governor's son hastened to his father's bedroom to beg him to lend +him his ring as a token of the authority transferred to him; the Mukaukas +had willingly allowed him to take it off his finger, and had enjoined him +to exercise relentless severity. Generally he inclined to leniency; but +breaking into a house was punishable with death, and in this instance it +was but right to show no mercy, out of deference to the Arab merchant. +But Orion, mindful of his covenant with Paula, begged his father to give +him full discretion. The old Moslem was a just man, who would agree to a +mitigated sentence under the circumstances; besides, the culprit was not +in strict fact a member of the household, but in the service of a +relation. + +The Mukaukas applauded his son's moderation and judgment. If only he +had been in rather better health he himself would have had the pleasure +of being present at the sitting, to see him fulfil for the first time so +important a function, worthy of his birth and position. + +Orion kissed his father's hand with heart-felt but melancholy emotion, +for this praise from the man he so truly loved was a keen pleasure; and +yet he felt that it was of ill-omen that his duties as judge, of which he +knew the sacred solemnity, should be thus--thus begun. + +It was in a softened mood, sunk in thought as to how he could best save +Hiram and leave Paula's name altogether out of the matter, that he went +to the hall of justice; and there he found the nurse Perpetua in eager +discussion with Nilus. + +The old woman was quite beside herself. In the clatter of her loom she +had heard nothing of what had been going on till a few minutes ago; now +she was ready to swear to the luckless Hiram's innocence. The stone he +had sold had belonged to his young mistress, and thank God there was no +lack of evidence of the fact; the setting of the emerald was lying safe +and sound in Paula's trunk. Happily she had had an opportunity of +speaking to her; and that she, the daughter of Thomas, should be brought +before the tribunal, like a citizen's daughter or slave-girl, was unheard +of, shameful! + +At this Orion roughly interfered; he desired the old gate-keeper to +conduct Perpetua at once to the storeroom next to the tablinum, where the +various stuffs prepared for the use of the household were laid by, and to +keep her there under safe guard till further notice. The tone in which +he gave the order was such that even the nurse did not remonstrate; and +Nilus, for his part obeyed in silence when Orion bid him return to his +place among the judges. + +Nilus went back to the judgment-hall in uneasy consternation. Never +before had he seen his young lord in this mood. As he heard the nurse's +statement the veins had swelled in his smooth youthful forehead, his +nostrils had quivered with convulsive agitation, his voice had lost all +its sweetness, and his eyes had a sinister gleam. + +Orion was now alone; he ground his teeth with rage. Paula had betrayed +him in spite of her promise, and how mean was her woman's cunning! +She could be silent before the judges--yes. Silent in all confidence +now, to the very last; but the nurse, her mouthpiece, had already put +Nilus, the keenest and most important member of the court, in possession +of the evidence which spoke for her and against him. It was shocking, +disgraceful! Base and deliberately malicious treachery. But the end was +not yet: he still was free to act and to ward off the spiteful stroke by +a counterthrust. How it should be dealt was clear from Perpetua's +statement; but his conscience, his instincts and long habits of +submission to what was right, good, and fitting held him back. +Not only had he never himself done a base or a mean action; he loathed +it in another, and the only thing he could do to render Paula's perfidy +harmless was, as he could not deny, original and bold, but at the same +time detestable and shameful. + +Still, he could not and he would not succumb in this struggle. Time +pressed. Long reflection was impossible; suddenly he felt carried away +by a fierce and mad longing to fight it out--he felt as he had felt on. +a race-day in the hippodrome, when he had driven his own quadriga ahead +of all the rest. + +Onwards, then, onwards; and if the chariot were wrecked, if the horses +were killed, if his wheels maimed his comrades overthrown in the arena- +still, onwards, onwards! + +A few hasty steps brought him to the lodge of the gate-keeper, a sturdy +old man who had held his post for forty years. He had formerly been a +locksmith and it still was part of his duty to undertake the repairs of +the simple household utensils. Orion as a youth had been a beautiful and +engaging boy and a great favorite with this worthy man; he had delighted +in sitting in his little room and handing him the tools for his work. +He himself had remarkable mechanical facility and had been the old man's +apt pupil; nay, he had made such progress as to be able to carve pretty +little boxes, prayer-book cases, and such like, and provide them with +locks, as gifts to his parents on their birth days--a festival always +kept with peculiar solemnity in Egypt, and marked by giving and receiving +presents. He understood the use of tools, and he now hastily selected +such as he needed. On the window-ledge stood a bunch of flowers which +he had ordered for Paula the day before, and which he had forgotten to +fetch this terrible morning. With this in one hand, and the tools in the +breast of his robe he hastened upstairs. + +"Onwards, I must keep on!" he muttered, as he entered Paula's room, +bolted the door inside and, kneeling before her chest, tossed the flowers +aside. If he was discovered, he would say that he had gone into his +cousin's chamber to give her the bouquet. + +"Onwards; I must go on!" was still his thought, as he unscrewed the +hinge on which the lid of the trunk moved. His hands trembled, his +breath came fast, but he did his task quickly. This was the right way to +work, for the lock was a peculiar one, and could not have been opened +without spoiling it. He raised the lid, and the first thing his hand +came upon in the chest was the necklace with the empty medallion--it was +as though some kind Genius were aiding him. The medallion hung but +slightly to the elegantly-wrought chain; to detach it and conceal it +about his person was the work of a minute. + +But now the most resolute. "On, on. . . ." was of no further avail. +This was theft: he had robbed her whom, if she only had chosen it, he was +ready to load with everything wherewith fate had so superabundantly +blessed him. No, this--this.... + +A singular idea suddenly flashed through his brain; a thought which +brought a smile to his lips even at this moment of frightful tension. +He acted upon it forth with: he drew out from within his under-garment a +gem that hung round his neck by a gold chain. This jewel--a masterpiece +by one of the famous Greek engravers of heathen antiquity--had been given +him in Constantinople in exchange for a team of four horses to which his +greatest friend there had taken a fancy. It was in fact of greater price +than half a dozen fine horses. Half beside himself, and as if +intoxicated, Orion followed the wild impulse to which he had yielded; +indeed, he was glad to have so precious a jewel at hand to hang in the +place of the worthless gold frame-work. It was done with a pinch; but +screwing up the hinge again was a longer task, for his hands trembled +violently--and as the moment drew near in which he meant to let Paula +feel his power, the more quickly his heart beat, and the more difficult +he found it to control his mind to calm deliberation. + +After he had unbolted the door he stood like a thief spying the long +corridor of the strangers' wing, and this increased his excitement to a +frenzy of rage with the world, and fate, and most of all with her who had +compelled him to stoop to such base conduct. But now the charioteer had +the reins and goad in his hand. Onwards now, onwards! + +He flew down stairs, three steps at a time, as he had been wont when a +boy. In the anteroom he met Eudoxia, Mary's Greek governess, who had +just brought her refractory pupil into the house, and he tossed her the +nosegay he still held in his hands; then, without heeding the languishing +glances the middle-aged damsel sent after him with her thanks, he +hastened back to the gate-keeper's lodge where he hurriedly disburdened +himself of the locksmith's tools. + +A few minutes later he entered the judgment-hall. Nilus the treasurer +showed him to the governor's raised seat, but an overpowering bashfulness +kept him from taking this position of honor. It was with a burning brow, +and looks so ominously dark that the assembly gazed at him with timid +astonishment, that he opened the proceedings with a few broken sentences. +He himself scarcely knew what he was saying, and heard his own voice as +vaguely as though it were the distant roar of waves. However, he +succeeded in clearly stating all that had happened: he showed the +assembly the stone which had been stolen and recovered; he explained how +the thief had been taken; he declared Paula's freedman to be guilty of +the robbery, and called upon him to bring forward anything he could in +his own defence. But the accused could only stammer out that he was not +guilty. He was not able to defend himself, but his mistress could no +doubt give evidence that would justify him. + +Orion pushed the hair from his forehead, proudly raised his aching head, +and addressed the judges: + +"His mistress is a lady of rank allied to our house. Let us keep her +out of this odious affair as is but seemly. Her nurse gave Nilus some +information which may perhaps avail to save this unhappy man. We will +neglect nothing to that end; but you, who are less familiar with the +leading circumstances, must bear this in mind to guard yourselves against +being misled: This lady is much attached to the accused; she clings to +him and Perpetua as the only friends remaining to her from her native +home. Moreover, there is nothing to surprise me or you in the fact that +a noble woman, as she is, should assume the onus of another's crime, and +place herself in a doubtful light to save a man who has hitherto been +honest and faithful. The nurse is here; shall she be called, or have +you, Nilus, heard from her everything that her mistress can say in favor +of her freedman?" + +"Perpetua told me, and told you, too, my lord, certain credible facts," +replied the treasurer. "But I could not repeat them so exactly as she +herself, and I am of opinion that the woman should be brought before the +court." + +"Then call her," said Orion, fixing his eyes on vacancy above the heads +of the assembly, with a look of sullen dignity. + +After a long and anxious pause the old woman was brought in. Confident +in her righteous cause she came forward boldly; she blamed Hiram somewhat +sharply for keeping silence so long, and then explained that Paula, to +procure money for her search for her father, had made the freedman take a +costly emerald out of its setting in her necklace, and that it was the +sale of this gem that had involved her fellow-countryman in this +unfortunate suspicion. + +The nurse's deposition seemed to have biased the greater part of the +council in favor of the accused; but Orion did not give them time to +discuss their impressions among themselves. Hardly had Perpetua ceased +speaking, when Orion took up the emerald, which was lying on the table +before him, exclaiming excitedly, nay, angrily: + +"And the stone which is recognized by the man who sold it--an expert in +gems--as being that which was taken from the hanging, and unique of its +kind, is supposed, by some miracle of nature, to have suddenly appeared +in duplicate?--Malignant spirits still wander through the world, but +would hardly dare to play their tricks in this Christian house. You all +know what 'old women's tales' are; and the tale that old woman has told +us is one of the most improbable of its class. 'Tell that to Apelles the +Jew,' said Horace the Roman; but his fellow-Israelite, Gamaliel'--and he +turned to the jeweller who was sitting with the other witnesses will +certainly not believe it; still less I, who see through this tissue of +falsehood. The daughter of the noble Thomas has condescended to weave it +with the help of that woman--a skilled weaver, she--to spread it before +us in order to mislead us, and so to save her faithful servant from +imprisonment, from the mines, or from death. These are the facts.--Do I +err, woman, or do you still adhere to your statement?" + +The nurse, who had hoped to find in Orion her mistress' advocate, had +listened to his speech with growing horror. Her eyes flashed as she +looked at him, first with mockery and then with vehement disgust; but, +though they filled with tears at this unlooked-for attack, she preserved +her presence of mind, and declared she had spoken the truth, and nothing +but the truth, as she always did. The setting of her mistress' emerald +would prove her statement. + +Orion shrugged his shoulders, desired the woman to fetch her mistress, +whose presence was now indispensable, and called to the treasurer: + +"Go with her, Nilus! And let a servant bring the trunk here that the +owner may open it in the presence of us all and before any one else +touches the contents. I should not be the right person to undertake it +since no one in this Jacobite household--hardly even one of yourselves-- +has found favor in the eyes of the Melchite. She has unfortunately a +special aversion for me, so I must depute to others every proceeding that +could lead to a misunderstanding.--Conduct her hither, Nilus; of course +with the respect due to a maiden of high rank." + +While the envoy was gone Orion paced the room with swift, restless steps, +Once only he paused and addressed the judges: + +"But supposing the empty setting should be found, how do you account for +the existence of two--two gems, each unique of its kind? It is +distracting. Here is a soft-hearted girl daring to mislead a serious +council of justice for the sake, for the sake of. . . ." he stamped his +foot with rage and continued his silent march. + +"He is as yet but a beginner," thought the assembled officials as they +watched his agitation. "Otherwise how could he allow such an absurd +attempt to clear an accused thief to affect him so deeply, or disturb +his temper?" + +Paula's arrival presently put an end to Orion's pacing the room. He +received her with a respectful bow and signed to her to be seated. Then +he bid Nilus recapitulate the results of the proceedings up to the +present stage, and what he and his colleagues supposed to be her motive +for asserting that the stolen emerald was her property. He would as far +as possible leave it to the others to question her, since she knew full +well on what terms she was with himself. Even before he had come into +the council-room she had offered her explanation of the robbery to Nilus, +through her nurse Perpetua; but it would have seemed fairer and more +friendly in his eyes--and here he raised his voice--if she had chosen to +confide to him, Orion, her plan for helping the freedman. Then he might +have been able to warn her. He could only regard this mode of action, +independently of him, as a fresh proof of her dislike, and she must hold +herself responsible for the consequences. Justice must now take its +course with inexorable rigor. + +The wrathful light in his eyes showed her what she had to expect from +him, and that he was prepared to fight her to the end. She saw that he +thought that she had broken the promise she had but just now given him; +but she had not commissioned Perpetua to interfere in the matter; on the +contrary, she had desired the woman to leave it to her to produce her +evidence only in the last extremity. Orion must believe that she had +done him a wrong; still, could that make him so far forget himself as to +carry out his threats, and sacrifice an innocent man--to divert suspicion +from himself, while he branded her as a false witness? Aye, even from +that he would not shrink! His flaming glance, his abrupt demeanor, his +laboring breath, proclaimed it plainly enough.--Then let the struggle +begin! At this moment she would have died rather than have tried to +mollify him by a word of excuse. The turmoil in his whole being vibrated +through hers. She was ready to throw herself at his feet and implore him +to control himself, to guard himself against further wrong-doing--but she +maintained her proud dignity, and the eyes that met his were not less +indignant and defiant than his own. + +They stood face to face like two young eagles preparing to fight, with +feathers on end, arching their pinions and stretching their necks. She, +confident of victory in the righteousness of her cause, and far more +anxious for him than for herself; he, almost blind to his own danger, +but, like a gladiator confronting his antagonist in the arena, far more +eager to conquer than to protect his own life and limb. + +While Nilus explained to her what, in part, she already knew, and +repeated their suspicion that she had been tempted to make a false +declaration to save the life of her servant, whose devotion, no doubt, +to his missing master had led him to commit the robbery; she kept her +eye on Orion rather than on the speaker. At last Nilus referred to the +trunk, which had been brought from Paula's room under her own eyes, +informing her that the assembly were ready to hear and examine into +anything she had to say in her own defence. + +Orion's agitation rose to its highest pitch. He felt that the blood had +fled from his cheeks, and his thoughts were in utter confusion. The +council, the accused, his enemy Paula--everything in the room lay before +him shrouded in a whirl of green mist. All he saw seemed to be tinted +with light emerald green. The hair, the faces, the dresses of those +present gleamed and floated in a greenish light; and not till Paula went +up to the chest with a firm, haughty step, drew out a small key, gave it +to the treasurer, and answered his speech with three words: "Open the +box!"--uttering them with cold condescension as though even this were too +much--not till then did he see clearly once more: her bright brown hair, +the fire of her blue eyes, the rose and white of her complexion, the +light dress which draped her fine figure in noble folds, and her +triumphant smile. How beautiful, how desirable was this woman! A few +minutes and she would be worsted in this contest; but the triumph had +cost him not only herself, but all that was good and pure in his soul, +and worthy of his forefathers. An inward voice cried it out to him, but +he drowned it in the shout of "Onwards," like a chariot-driver. Yes--on; +still on towards the goal; away over ruins and stones, through blood and +dust, till she bowed her proud neck, crushed and beaten, and sued for +mercy. + +The lid of the trunk flew open. Paula stooped, lifted the necklace, held +it out to the judges, pulling it straight by the two ends.... Ah! what +a terrible, heartrending cry of despair! Orion even, never, never wished +to hear the like again. Then she flung the jewel on the table, +exclaiming: "Shameful, shameful! atrocious!" she tottered backwards and +clung to her faithful Betta; for her knees were giving way, and she felt +herself in danger of sinking to the ground. + +Orion sprang forward to support her, but she thrust him aside, with a +glance so full of anguish, rage and intense contempt that he stood +motionless, and clasped his hand over his heart.--And this deed, which +was to work such misery for two human beings, he had smiled in doing! +This practical joke which concealed a death-warrant--to what fearful +issues might it not lead? + +Paula had sunk speechless on to a seat, and he stood staring in silence, +till a burst of laughter broke from the assembly and old Psamtik, the +captain of the guard, who had long been a member of the council of +justice, exclaimed: + +"By my soul, a splendid stone! There is the heathen god Eros with his +winged sweetheart Psyche smiling in his face. Did you never read that +pretty story by Apuleius--'The Golden Ass' it is called? The passage is +in that. Holy Luke! how finely it is carved. The lady has taken out +the wrong necklace. Look, Gamaliel, where could your green pigeon's egg +have found a place in that thing?" and he pointed to the gem. + +"Nowhere," said the Jew. "The noble lady. . ." But Orion roughly bid +the witness to be silent, and Nilus, taking up the engraved gem, examined +it closely. Then he--he the grave, just man, on whose support Paula had +confidently reckoned--went up to her and with a regretful shrug asked her +whether the other necklace with the setting of which she had spoken was +in the trunk. + +The blood ran cold in her veins. This thing that had happened was as +startling as a miracle. But no! No higher Power had anything to do with +this blow. Orion believed that she had failed in her promise of +screening him by her silence, and this, this was his revenge. By what +means--how he had gone to work, was a mystery. What a trick!--and it had +succeeded! But should she take it like a patient child? No. A thousand +times no! Suddenly all her old powers of resistance came back; hatred +steeled her wavering will; and, as in fancy, he had seen himself in the +circus, driving in a race, so she pictured herself seated at the chess- +board. She felt herself playing with all her might to win; but not, as +with his father, for flowers, trifling presents or mere glory; nay, for a +very different stake Life or Death! + +She would do everything, anything to conquer him; and yet, no--come what +might--not everything. Sooner would she succumb than betray him as the +thief or reveal what she had discovered in the viridarium. She had +promised to keep the secret; and she would repay the father's kindness +by screening the son from this disgrace. How beautiful, how noble had +Orion's image been in her heart. She would not stain it with this +disgrace in her own eyes and in those of the world. But every other +reservation must be cast far, far away, to snatch the victory from him +and to save Hiram. Every fair weapon she might use; only this treachery +she could not, might not have recourse to. He must be made to feel that +she was more magnanimous than he; that she, under all conceivable +circumstances, kept her word. That was settled; her bosom once more rose +and fell, and her eye brightened again; still it was some little time +before she could find the right words with which to begin the contest. + +Orion could see the seething turmoil in her soul; he felt that she was +arming herself for resistance, and he longed to spur her on to deal the +first blow. Not a word had she uttered of surprise or anger, not a +syllable of reproach had passed her lips. What was she thinking of, what +was she plotting? The more startling and dangerous the better; the more +bravely she bore herself, the more completely in the background might he +leave the painful sense of fighting against a woman. Even heroes had +boasted of a victory over Amazons. + +At last, at last!--She rose and went towards Hiram. He had been tied to +the stake to which criminals were bound, and as an imploring glance from +his honest eyes met hers, the spell that fettered her tongue was +unloosed; she suddenly understood that she had not merely to protect +herself, but to fulfil a solemn duty. With a few rapid steps she went up +to the table at which her judges sat in a semi-circle, and leaning on it +with her left hand, raised her right high in the air, exclaiming: + +"You are the victims of a cruel fraud; and I of an unparalleled and +wicked trick, intended to bring me to ruin!--Look at that man at the +stake. Does he look like a robber? A more honest and faithful servant +never earned his freedom, and the gratitude Hiram owed to his master, my +father, he has discharged to the daughter for whose sake he quitted his +home, his wife and child. He followed me, an orphan, here into a strange +land.--But that matters not to you.--Still, if you will hear the truth, +the strict and whole. . . ." + +"Speak!" Orion put in; but she went on, addressing herself exclusively +to Nilus, and his peers, and ignoring him completely: + +"Your president, the son of the Mukaukas, knows that, instead of the +accused, I might, if I chose, be the accuser. But I scorn it--for love +of his father, and because I am more high-minded than he. He will +understand!--With regard to this particular emerald Hiram, my freedman, +took it out of its setting last evening, under my eyes, with his knife; +other persons besides us, thank God! have seen the setting, empty, on the +chain to which it belonged. This afternoon it was still in the place to +which some criminal hand afterwards found access, and attached that gem +instead. That I have just now seen for the first time--I swear it by +Christ's wounds. It is an exquisite work. Only a very rich man--the +richest man here, can give away such a treasure, for whatever purpose he +may have in view--to destroy an enemy let us say.--Gamaliel," and she +turned to the Jew--"At what sum would you value that onyx?" + +The Israelite asked to see the gem once more; he turned it about, and +then said with a grin: "Well, fair lady, if my black hen laid me little +things like that I would feed it on cakes from Arsinoe and oysters from +Canopus. The stone is worth a landed estate, and though I am not a rich +man, I would pay down two talents for it at any moment, even if I had to +borrow the money." + +This statement could not fail to make a great impression on the judges. +Orion, however, exclaimed: "Wonders on wonders mark this eventful day! +The prodigal generosity which had become an empty name has revived again +among us! Some lavish demon has turned a worthless plate of gold into a +costly gem.--And may I ask who it was that saw the empty setting hanging +to your chain?" Paula was in danger of forgetting even that last reserve +she had imposed on herself; she answered with trembling accents: + +"Apparently your confederates or you yourself did. You, and you alone, +have any cause. . . ." + +But he would not allow her to proceed. He abruptly interrupted her, +exclaiming: "This is really too much! Oh, that you were a man! How far +your generosity reaches I have already seen. Even hatred, the bitterest +hostility. . . ." + +"They would have every right to ruin you completely!" she cried, roused +to the utmost. "And if I were to charge you with the most horrible +crime. . . ." + +"You yourself would be committing a crime, against me and against this +house," he said menacingly. "Beware! Can self-delusion go so far that +you dare to appeal to me to testify to the fable you have trumped up...." + +"No. Oh, no! That would be counting on some honesty in you yet," she +loudly broke in. "I have other witnesses: "Mary, the granddaughter of +the Mukaukas," and she tried to catch his eye. + +"The child whose little heart you have won, and who follows you about +like a pet dog!" he cried. + +"And besides Mary, Katharina, the widow Susannah's daughter," she added, +sure of her triumph, and the color mounted to her cheeks. "She is no +longer a child, but a maiden grown, as you know. I therefore demand of +you--" and she again turned to the assembly--"that you will fulfil your +functions worthily and promote justice in my behalf by calling in both +these witnesses and hearing their evidence." + +On this Orion interposed with forced composure: "As to whether a soft- +hearted child ought to be exposed to the temptation to save the friend +she absolutely worships by giving evidence before the judges, be it what +it may, only her grandparents can decide. Her tender years would at any +rate detract from the validity of her evidence, and I am averse to +involving a child of this house in this dubious affair. With regard to +Katharina, it is, on the contrary, the duty of this court to request her +presence, and I offer myself to go and fetch her." + +He resolutely resisted Paula's attempts to interrupt him again: she +should have a patient hearing presently in the presence of her witness. +The gem no doubt had come to her from her father. But at this her +righteous indignation was again too much for her; she cried out quite +beside herself: + +"No, and again no. Some reprobate scoundrel, an accomplice of yours-- +yes, I repeat it--made his way into my room while I was in the sick-room, +and either forced the lock of my trunk or opened it with a false key." + +"That can easily be proved," said Orion. In a confident tone he desired +that the box should be placed on the table, and requested one of the +council, who understood such matters, to give his opinion. Paula knew +the man well. He was one of the most respected members of the household, +the chief mechanician whose duty it was to test and repair the water- +clocks, balances, measures and other instruments. He at once proceeded +to examine the lock and found it in perfect order, though the key, which +was of peculiar form, could certainly not have found a substitute in any +false key; and Paula was forced to admit that she had left the trunk +locked at noon and had worn the key round her neck ever since. Orion +listened to his opinion with a shrug, and before going to seek Katharina +gave orders that Paula and the nurse should be conducted to separate +rooms. To arrive at any clear decision in this matter, it was necessary +that any communication between these two should be rendered impossible. +As soon as the door was shut on them he hastened into the garden, where +he hoped to find Katharina. + +The council looked after him with divided feelings. They were here +confronted by riddles that were hard to solve. No one of them felt that +he had a right to doubt the good intentions of their lord's son, whom +they looked up to as a talented and high-minded youth. His dispute with +Paula had struck them painfully, and each one asked himself how it was +that such a favorite with women should have failed to rouse any sentiment +but that of hatred in one of the handsomest of her sex. The marked +hostility she displayed to Orion injured her cause in the eyes of her +judges, who knew only too well how unpleasant her relations were with +Neforis. It was more than audacious in her to accuse the Mukaukas' son +of having broken open her trunk; only hatred could have prompted her to +utter such a charge. Still, there was something in her demeanor which +encouraged confidence in her assertions, and if Katharina could really +testify to having seen the empty medallion on the chain there would be no +alternative but to begin the enquiry again from a fresh point of view, +and to inculpate another robber. But who could have lavished such a +treasure as this gem in exchange for mere rubbish? It was inconceivable; +Ammonius the mechanician was right when he said that a woman full of +hatred was capable of anything, even the incredible and impossible. + +Meanwhile it was growing dusk and the scorching day had turned to the +tempered heat of a glorious evening. The Mukaukas was still in his room +while his wife with Susannah and her daughter, Mary and her governess, +were enjoying the air and chatting in the open hall looking out on the +garden and the Nile. The ladies had covered their heads with gauze veils +as a protection against the mosquitoes, which were attracted in swarms +from the river by the lights, and also against the mists that rose from +the shallowing Nile; they were in the act of drinking some cooling fruit- +syrup which had just been brought in, when Orion made his appearance. + +"What has happened?" cried his mother in some anxiety, for she concluded +from his dishevelled hair and heated cheeks that the meeting had gone +anything rather than smoothly. + +"Incredible things," he replied. "Paula fought like a lioness for her +father's freedman. . ." + +"Simply to annoy us and put us in a difficulty," replied Neforis. + +"No, no, Mother," replied Orion with some warmth. "But she has a will of +iron; a woman who never pauses at anything when she wants to carry her +point; and at the same time she goes to work with a keen wit that is +worthy of the greatest lawyer that I ever heard defend a cause in the +high court of the capital. Besides this her air of superiority, and her +divine beauty turn the heads of our poor household officers. It is fine +and noble, of course, to be so zealous in the cause of a servant; but it +can do no good, for the evidence against her stammering favorite is +overwhelming, and when her last plea is demolished the matter is ended. +She says that she showed a necklace to the child, and to you, charming +Katharina." + +"Showed it?" cried the young girl. "She took it away from us--did not +she, Mary?" + +"Well, we had taken it without her leave," replied the child. + +"And she wants our children to appear in a court of justice to bear +witness for her highness?" asked Neforis indignantly. + +"Certainly," replied Orion. "But Mary's evidence is of no value in law." + +"And even if it were," replied his mother, "the child should not be mixed +up with this disgraceful business under any circumstances." + +"Because I should speak for Paula!" cried Mary, springing up in great +excitement. + +"You will just hold your tongue," her grandmother exclaimed. + +"And as for Katharina," said the widow, "I do not at all like the notion +of her offering herself to be stared at by all those gentlemen." + +"Gentlemen!" observed the girl. "Men--household officials and such +like. They may wait long enough for me!" + +"You must nevertheless do their bidding, haughty rosebud," said Orion +laughing. "For you, thank God, are no longer a child, and a court of +justice has the right of requiring the presence of every grown person as +a witness. No harm will come to you, for you are under my protection. +Come with me. We must learn every lesson in life. Resistance is vain. +Besides, all you will have to do will be to state what you have seen, and +then, if I possibly can, I will bring you back under the tender escort of +this arm, to your mother once more. You must entrust your jewel to me +to-day, Susannah, and this trustworthy witness shall tell you afterwards +how she fared under my care." + +Katharina was quite capable of reading the implied meaning of these +words, and she was not ill-pleased to be obliged to go off alone with the +governor's handsome son, the first man for whom her little heart had beat +quicker; she sprang up eagerly; but Mary clung to her arm, and insisted +so vehemently and obstinately on being taken with them to bear witness in +Paula's behalf, that her governess and Dame Neforis had the greatest +difficulty in reducing her to obedience and letting the pair go off +without her. Both mothers looked after them with great satisfaction, and +the governor's wife whispered to Susannah: "Before the judges to-day, but +ere long, please God, before the altar at Church!" + +To reach the hall of judgment they could go either through the house or +round it. If the more circuitous route were chosen, it lay first through +the garden; and this was the course taken by Orion. He had made a very +great effort in the presence of the ladies to remain master of the +agitation that possessed him; he saw that the battle he had begun, and +from which he, at any rate, could not and would not now retire, was +raging more and more fiercely, obliging him to drag the young creature +who must become his wife--the die was already cast--into the course of +crime he had started on. + +When he had agreed with his mother that he was not to prefer his suit for +Katharina till the following day, he had hoped to prove to her in the +interval that this little thing was no wife for him; and now--oh! Irony +of Fate--he found himself compelled to the very reverse of what he longed +to do: to fight the woman he loved--Yes, still loved--as if she were his +mortal foe, and pay his court to the girl who really did not suit him. +It was maddening, but inevitable; and once more spurring himself with the +word "Onwards!" be flung himself into the accomplishment of the unholy +task of subduing the inexperienced child at his elbow into committing +even a crime for his sake. His heart was beating wildly; but no pause, +no retreat was possible: he must conquer. "Onwards, then, onwards!" + +When they had passed out of the light of the lamps into the shade he took +his young companion's slender hand-thankful that the darkness concealed +his features--and pressed the delicate fingers to his lips. + +"Oh!--Orion!" she exclaimed shyly, but she did not resist. + +"I only claim my due, sunshine of my soul!" he said insinuatingly. +"If your heart beat as loud as mine, our mothers might hear them!" + +"But it does!" she joyfully replied, her curly head bent on one side. + +"Not as mine does," he said with a sigh, laying her little hand on his +heart. He could do so in all confidence, for its spasmodic throbbing +threatened to suffocate him. + +"Yes indeed," she said. "It is beating. . ." + +"So that they can hear it indoors," he added with a forced laugh. +"Do you think your dear mother has not long since read our feelings?" + +"Of course she has," whispered Katharina. "I have rarely seen her in +such good spirits as since your return." + +"And you, you little witch?" + +"I? Of course I was glad--we all were.--And your parents!" + +"Nay, nay, Katharina! What you yourself felt when we met once more, that +is what I want to know." + +"Oh, let that pass! How can I describe such a thing?" + +"Is that quite impossible?" he asked and clasped her arm more closely +in his own. He must win her over, and his romantic fancy helped him to +paint feelings he had never had, in glowing colors. He poured out sweet +words of love, and she was only too ready to believe them. At a sign +from him she sat down confidingly on a wooden bench in the old avenue +which led to the northern side of the house. Flowers were opening on +many of the shrubs and shedding rich, oppressive perfume. The moonlight +pierced through the solemn foliage of the sycamores, and shimmering +streaks and rings of light played in the branches, on the trunks, and on +the dark ground. The heat of the day still lingered in the leafy roofs +overhead, sultry and heavy even now; and in this alley he called her for +the first time his own, his betrothed, and enthralled her heart in chains +and bonds. Each fervent word thrilled with the wild and painful +agitation that was torturing his soul, and sounded heartfelt and sincere. +The scent of flowers, too, intoxicated her young and inexperienced heart; +she willingly offered her lips to his kisses, and with exquisite bliss +felt the first glow of youthful love returned. + +She could have lingered thus with him for a lifetime; but in a few +minutes he sprang up, anxious to put an end to this tender dalliance +which was beginning to be too much even for him, and exclaimed: + +"This cursed, this infernal trial! But such is the fate of man! Duty +calls, and he must return from all the bliss of Paradise to the world +again. Give me your arm, my only love, my all!" + +And Katharina obeyed. Dazzled and bewildered by the extraordinary +happiness that had come to meet her, she allowed him to lead her on, +listening with suspended breath as he added: "Out of this beatitude back +to the sternest of duties!--And how odious, how immeasurably loathesome +is the case in question! How gladly would I have been a friend to Paula, +a faithful protector instead of a foe!" + +As he spoke he felt the girl's left hand clench tighter on his arm, +and this spurred him on in his guilty purpose. Katharina herself had +suggested to his mind the course he must pursue to attain his end. +He went on to influence her jealousy by praising Paula's charm and +loftiness, excusing himself in his own eyes by persuading himself that a +lover was justified in inducing his betrothed to save his happiness and +his honor. + +Still, as he uttered each flattering word, he felt that he was lowering +himself and doing a fresh injustice to Paula. He found it only too easy +to sing her praises; but as he did so with growing enthusiasm Katharina +hit him on the arm exclaiming, half in jest and half seriously vexed: + +"Oh, she is a goddess! And pray do you love her or me? You had better +not make me jealous! Do you hear?" + +"You little simpleton!" he said gaily; and then he added soothingly: +"She is like the cold moon, but you are the bright warming sun. +Yes, Paula!--we will leave Paula to some Olympian god, some archangel. +I rejoice in my gladsome little maiden who will enjoy life with me, +and all its pleasures!" + +"That we will!" she exclaimed triumphantly; the horizon of her future +was radiant with sunshine. + +"Good Heavens!" he exclaimed as if in surprise. "The lights are already +shining in that miserable hall of justice! Ah, love, love! Under that +enchantment we had forgotten the object for which we came out.--Tell me, +my darling, do you remember exactly what the necklace was like that you +and Mary were playing with this afternoon?" + +"It was very finely wrought, but in the middle hung a rubbishy broken +medallion of gold." + +"You are a pretty judge of works of art! Then you overlooked the fine +engraved gem which was set in that modest gold frame?" + +"Certainly not." + +"I assure you, little wise-head!" + +"No, my dearest." As she spoke she looked up saucily, as though she had +achieved some great triumph. "I know very well what gems are. My father +left a very fine collection, and my mother says that by his will they are +all to belong to my future husband." + +"Then I can set you, my jewel, in a frame of the rarest gems." + +"No, no," she cried gaily. "Let me have a setting indeed, for I am but a +fugitive thing; but only, only in your heart." + +"That piece of goldsmith's work is already done.--But seriously my child; +with regard to Paula's necklace: it really was a gem, and you must have +happened to see only the back of it. That is just as you describe it: a +plain setting of gold." + +"But Orion. . . ." + +"If you love me, sweetheart, contradict me no further. In the future +I will always accept your views, but in this case your mistake might +involve us in a serious misunderstanding, by compelling me to give in to +Paula and make her my ally.--Here we are! But wait one moment longer.-- +And once more, as to this gem. You see we may both be wrong--I as much +as you; but I firmly believe that I am in the right. If you make a +statement contrary to mine I shall appear before the judges as a liar. +We are now betrothed--we are but one, wholly one; what damages or +dignifies one of us humiliates or elevates the other. If you, who love +me--you, who, as it is already whispered, are soon to be the mistress of +the governor's house--make a statement opposed to mine they are certain +to believe it. You see, your whole nature is pure kindness, but you are +still too young and innocent quite to understand all the duties of that +omnipotent love which beareth and endureth all things. If you do not +yield to me cheerfully in this case you certainly do not love me as you +ought. And what is it to ask? I require nothing of you but that you +should state before the court that you saw Paula's necklace at noon +to-day, and that there was a gem hanging to it--a gem with Love and +Psyche engraved on it." + +"And I am to say that before all those men?" asked Katharina doubtfully. + +"You must indeed, you kind little angel!" cried Orion tenderly. "And +do you think it pretty in a betrothed bride to refuse her lover's first +request so grudgingly, suspiciously, and ungraciously? Nay, nay. If +there is the tiniest spark of love for me in your heart, if you do not +want to see me reduced to implore Paula for mercy. . . ." + +"But what is it all about? How can it matter so much to any one whether +a gem or a mere plate of gold....?" + +"All that I will explain later," he hastily replied. + +"Tell me now...." + +"Impossible. We have already put the patience of the judges to too +severe a test. We have not a moment to lose." + +"Very well then; but I shall die of confusion and shame if I have to make +a declaration. . . ." + +"Which is perfectly truthful, and by which you can prove to me that you +love me," he urged. + +"But it is dreadful!" she exclaimed anxiously. "At least fasten my veil +closely over my face.--All those bearded men. . . ." + +"Like the ostrich," said Orion, laughing as he complied. "If you really +cannot agree with your.... What is it you called me just now? Say it +again." + +"My dearest!" she said shyly but tenderly. + +She helped Orion to fold her veil twice over her face, and did not thrust +him aside when he whispered in her ear: "Let us see if a kiss cannot be +sweet even through all that wrapping!--Now, come. It will be all over in +a few minutes." + +He led the way into the anteroom to the great hall, begged her to wait +a moment, and then went in and hastily informed the assembly that Dame +Susannah had entrusted her daughter to him only on condition that he +should escort her back again as soon as she had given her testimony. +Then Paula was brought in and he desired her to be seated. + +It was with a sinking and anxious heart that Katharina had entered the +anteroom. She had screened herself from a scolding before now by trivial +subterfuges, but never had told a serious lie; and every instinct +rebelled against the demand that she should now state a direct falsehood. +But could Orion, the noblest of mankind, the idol of the whole town, so +pressingly entreat her to do anything that was wrong? Did not love--as +he had said--make it her duty to do everything that might screen him from +loss or injury? It did not seem to her to be quite as it should be, but +perhaps she did not altogether understand the matter; she was so young +and inexperienced. She hated the idea, too, that, if she opposed her +lover, he would have to come to terms with Paula. She had no lack of +self-possession, and she told herself that she might hold her own with +any girl in Memphis; still, she felt the superiority of the handsome, +tall, proud Syrian, nor could she forget how, the day before yesterday, +when Paula had been walking up and down the garden with Orion the chief +officer of Memphis had exclaimed: "What a wonderfully handsome couple!" +She herself had often thought that no more beautiful, elegant and lovable +creature than Thomas' daughter walked the earth; she had longed and +watched for a glance or a kind word from her. But since hearing those +words a bitter feeling had possessed her soul against Paula, and there +had been much to foster it. Paula always treated her like a child +instead of a grown-up girl, as she was. Why, that very morning, had she +sought out her betrothed--for she might call him so now--and tried to +keep her away from him? And how was it that Orion, even while declaring +his love for her, had spoken more than warmly--enthusiastically of Paula? +She must be on her guard, and though others should speak of the great +good fortune that had fallen to her lot, Paula, at any rate, would not +rejoice in it, for Katharina felt and knew that she was not indifferent +to Orion. She had not another enemy in the world, but Paula was one; +her love had everything to fear from her--and suddenly she asked herself +whether the gold medallion she had seen might not indeed have been a gem? +Had she examined the necklace closely, even for a moment? And why should +she fancy she had sharper sight than Orion with his large, splendid eyes? + +He was right, as he always was. Most engraved gems were oval in form, +and the pendant which she had seen and was to give evidence about, was +undoubtedly oval. Then it was not like Orion to require a falsehood of +her. In any case it was her duty to her betrothed to preserve from evil, +and prevent him from concluding any alliance with that false Siren. She +knew what she had to say; and she was about to loosen a portion of her +veil from her face that she might look Paula steadfastly in the eyes, +when Orion came back to fetch her into the hall where the Court was +sitting. To his delight--nay almost to his astonishment--she stated with +perfect confidence that a gem had been hanging to Paula's necklace at +noon that day; and when the onyx was shown her and she was asked if she +remembered the stone, she calmly replied: + +"It may or it may not be the same; I only remember the oval gold back to +it: besides I was only allowed to have the necklace in my hands for a +very short time." + +When Nilus, the treasurer, desired her to look more closely at the +figures of Eros and Psyche to refresh her memory, she evaded it by +saying: "I do not like such heathen images: we Jacobite maidens wear +different adornments." + +At this Paula rose and stepped towards her with a look of stern reproof; +little Katharina was glad now that it had occurred to her to cover her +face with a double veil. But the utter confusion she felt under the +Syrian girl's gaze did not last long. Paula exclaimed reproach fully: +"You speak of your faith. Like mine, it requires you to respect the +truth. Consider how much depends on your declaration; I implore you, +child. . ." + +But the girl interrupted her rival exclaiming with much irritation and +vehement excitement: + +"I am no longer a child, not even as compared with you; and I think +before I speak, as I was taught to do." + +She threw back her little head with a confident air, and said very +decidedly: + +"That onyx hung to the middle of the chain." + +"How dare you, you audacious hussy!" It was Perpetua, quite unable to +contain herself, who flung the words in her face. Katharina started as +though an asp had stung her and turned round on the woman who had dared +to insult her so grossly and so boldly. She was on the verge of tears as +she looked helplessly about her for a defender; but she had not long to +wait, for Orion instantly gave orders that Perpetua should be imprisoned +for bearing false witness. Paula, however, as she had not perjured +herself, but had merely invented an impossible tale with a good motive, +was dismissed, and her chest was to be replaced in her room. + +At this Paula once more stepped forth; she unhooked the onyx from the +chain and flung it towards Gamaliel, who caught it, while she exclaimed: + +"I make you a present of it, Jew! Perhaps the villain who hung it to my +chain may buy it back again. The chain was given to my great-grandmother +by the saintly Theodosius, and rather than defile it by contact with that +gift from a villain, I will throw it into the Nile!--You--you, poor, +deluded judges--I cannot be wroth with you, but I pity you!--My Hiram..." +and she looked at the freedman, "is an honest soul whom I shall remember +with gratitude to my dying day; but as to that unrighteous son of a most +righteous father, that man. . ." and she raised her voice, while she +pointed straight at Orion's face; but the young man interrupted her with +a loud: + +"Enough!" + +She tried to control herself and replied: + +"I will submit. Your conscience will tell you a hundred times over what +I need not say. One last word. . ." She went close up to him and said +in his ear: + +"I have been able to refrain from using my deadliest weapon against you +for the sake of keeping my word. Now you, if you are not the basest +wretch living, keep yours, and save Hiram." + +His only reply was an assenting nod; Paula paused on the threshold and, +turning to Katharina, she added: "You, child--for you are but a child-- +with what nameless suffering will not the son of the Mukaukas repay you +for the service you have rendered him!" Then she left the room. Her +knees trembled under her as she mounted the stairs, but when she had +again taken her place by the side of the hapless, crazy girl a merciful +God granted her the relief of tears. Her friend saw her and left her to +weep undisturbed, till she herself called him and confided to him all she +had gone through in the course of this miserable day. + +Orion and Katharina had lost their good spirits; they went back to the +colonnade in a dejected mood. On the way she pressed him to explain to +her why he had insisted on her making this declaration, but he put her +off till the morrow. They found Susannah alone, for his mother had been +sent for by her husband, who was suffering more than usual, and she had +taken Mary with her. + +After bidding the widow good-night and escorting her to her chariot, +he returned to the hall where the Court was still sitting. There he +recapitulated the case as it now stood, and all the evidence against +the freed man. The verdict was then pronounced: Hiram was condemned +to death with but one dissentient voice that of Nilus the treasurer. + +Orion ordered that the execution of the sentence should be postponed; he +did not go back into the house, however, but had his most spirited horse +saddled and rode off alone into the desert. He had won, but he felt as +though in this race he had rushed into a morass and must be choked in it. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Love has two faces: tender devotion and bitter aversion +Self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave +The man who avoids his kind and lives in solitude +You have a habit of only looking backwards + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 4. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Paula's report of the day's proceedings, of Orion's behavior, and of +the results of the trial angered the leech beyond measure; he vehemently +approved the girl's determination to quit this cave of robbers, this +house of wickedness, of treachery, of imbecile judges and false +witnesses, as soon as possible. But she had no opportunity for a quiet +conversation with him, for Philippus soon had his hands full in the care +of the sufferers. + +Rustem, the Masdakite, who till now had been lying unconscious, had been +roused from his lethargy by some change of treatment, and loudly called +for his master Haschim. When the Arab did not appear, and it was +explained to him that he could not hope to see him before the morning, +the young giant sat up among his pillows, propping himself on his arms +set firmly against the couch behind him, looked about him with a +wandering gaze, and shook his big head like an aggrieved lion--but that +his thick mane of hair had been cut off--abusing the physician all the +time in his native tongue, and in a deep, rolling, bass voice that rang +through the rooms though no one understood a word. Philippus, quite +undaunted, was trying to adjust the bandage over his wound, when Rustem +suddenly flung his arms round his body and tried with all his might, and +with foaming lips, to drag him down. He clung to his antagonist, roaring +like a wild beast; even now Philippus never for an instant lost his +presence of mind but desired the nun to fetch two strong slaves. The +Sister hurried away, and Paula remained the eyewitness of a fearful +struggle. The physician had twisted his ancles round those of the +stalwart Persian, and putting forth a degree of strength which could +hardly have been looked for in a stooping student, tall and large-boned +as he was, he wrenched the Persian's hands from his hips, pressed his +fingers between those of Rustem, forced him back on to his pillows, set +his knees against the brazen frame of the couch, and so effectually held +him down that he could not sit up again. Rustem exerted every muscle to +shake off his opponent; but the leech was the stronger, for the Masdakite +was weakened by fever and loss of blood. Paula watched this contest +between intelligent force and the animal strength of a raving giant with +a beating heart, trembling in every limb. She could not help her friend, +but she followed his every movement as she stood at the head of the bed; +and as he held down the powerful creature before whom her frail uncle had +cowered in abject terror, she could not help admiring his manly beauty; +for his eyes sparkled with unwonted fire, and the mean chin seemed to +lengthen with the frightful effort he was putting forth, and so to be +brought into proportion with his wide forehead and the rest of his +features. Her spirit quaked for him; she fancied she could see something +great and heroic in the man, in whom she had hitherto discovered no merit +but his superior intellect. + +The struggle had lasted some minutes before Philip felt the man's arms +grow limp, and he called to Paula to bring him a sheet--a rope--what not +--to bind the raving man. She flew into the next room, quite collected; +fetched her handkerchief, snatched off the silken girdle that bound her +waist, rushed back and helped the leech to tie the maniac's hands. She +understood her friend's least word, or a movement of his finger; and when +the slaves whom the nun had fetched came into the room, they found Rustem +with his hands firmly bound, and had only to prevent him from leaping out +of bed or throwing himself over the edge. Philippus, quite out of +breath, explained to the slaves how they were to act, and when he opened +his medicine-chest Paula noticed that his swollen, purple fingers were +trembling. She took out the phial to which he pointed, mixed the draught +according to his orders, and was not afraid to pour it between the teeth +of the raving man, forcing them open with the help of the slaves. + +The soothing medicine calmed him in a few minutes, and the leech himself +could presently wash the wound and apply a fresh dressing with the +practised aid of the Sister. + +Meanwhile the crazy girl had been waked by the ravings of the Persian, +and was anxiously enquiring if the dog--the dreadful dog--was there. +But she soon allowed herself to be quieted by Paula, and she answered the +questions put to her so rationally and gently, that her nurse called the +physician who could confirm Paula in her hope that a favorable change had +taker place in her mental condition. Her words were melancholy and mild; +and when Paula remarked on this Philippus observed: + +"It is on the bed of sickness that we learn to know our fellow- +creatures. The frantic girl, who perhaps fell on the son of this house +with murderous intent, now reveals her true, sweet nature. And as for +that poor fellow, he is a powerful creature, an honest one too; I would +stake my ten fingers on it!" + +"What makes you so sure of that?" + +"Even in his delirium he did hot once scratch or bite, but only defended +himself like a man.--Thank you, now, for your assistance. If you had not +flung the cord round his hands, the game might have ended very +differently." + +"Surely not!" exclaimed Paula decidedly. "How strong you are, Philip. +I feel quite alarmed!" + +"You?" said the leech laughing. "On the contrary, you need never be +alarmed again now that you have seen by chance that your champion is no +weakling.--Pfooh! I shall be glad now of a little rest." She offered +him her handkerchief, and while he thankfully used it to wipe his brow-- +controlling with much difficulty the impulse to press it to his lips, he +added lightly: + +"With such an assistant everything must go well. There is no merit in +being strong; every one can be strong who comes into the world with +healthy blood and well-knit bones, who keeps all his limbs well +exercised, as I did in my youth, and who does not destroy his inheritance +by dissipated living.--However, I still feel the struggle in my hands; +but there is some good wine in the next room yet, and two or three cups +of it will do me good." They went together into the adjoining room +where, by this time, most of the lamps were extinguished. Paula poured +out the wine, touched the goblet with her lips, and he emptied it at a +draught; but he was not to be allowed to drink off a second, for he had +scarcely raised it, when they heard voices in the Masdakite's room, and +Neforis came in. The governor's careful wife had not quitted her +husband's couch--even Rustem's storming had not induced her to leave +her post; but when she was informed by the slaves what had been going on, +and that Paula was still up-stairs with the leech, she had come to the +strangers' rooms as soon as her husband could spare her to speak to +Philippus, to represent to Paula what the proprieties required, and to +find out what the strange noises could be which still seemed to fill the +house--at this hour usually as silent as the grave. They proceeded from +the sick-rooms, but also from Orion, who had just come in, and from Nilus +the treasurer, who had been called by the former into his room, though +the night was fast drawing on to morning. To the governor's wife +everything seemed ominous at the close of this terrible day, marked in +the calendar as unlucky; so she made her way up-stairs, escorted by her +husband's night watcher, and holding in her hand a small reliquary to +which she ascribed the power of banning vile spirits. + +She came into the sick-room swiftly and noiselessly, put the nun through +a strict cross-examination with the fretful sharpness of a person +disturbed in her night's rest. Then she went into the sitting-room where +Philippus was on the point of pledging Paula in his second cup of wine, +while she stood before him with dishevelled hair and robe ungirt. All +this was an offence against good manners such as she would not suffer in +her house, and she stoutly ordered her husband's niece to go to bed. +After all the offences that had been pardoned her this day--no, +yesterday--she exclaimed, it would have been more becoming in the girl +to examine herself in silence, in her own room, to exorcise the lying +spirits which had her in their power, and implore her Saviour for +forgiveness, than to pretend to be nursing the sick while she was +carrying on, with a young man, an orgy which, as the Sister had just told +her, had lasted since mid-day. + +Paula spoke not a word, though the color changed in her face more than +once as she listened to this speech. But when Neforis finally pointed to +the door, she said, with all the cold pride she had at her command when +she was the object of unworthy suspicions: + +"Your aim is easily seen through. I should scorn to reply, but that you +are the wife of the man who, till you set him against me, was glad to +call himself my friend and protector, and who is also related to me. As +usual, you attribute to me an unworthy motive. In showing me the door of +this room consecrated by suffering, you are turning me out of your house, +which you and your son--for I must say it for once--have made a hell to +me." + +"I! And my--No! this is indeed--" exclaimed the matron in panting rage. +She clasped her hands over her heaving bosom and her pale face was dyed +crimson, while her eyes flashed wrathful lightnings. "That is too much; +a thousand times too much--a thousand times--do you hear?--And I--I +condescend to answer you! We picked her up in the street, and have +treated her like a daughter, spent enormous sums on her, and now. . . ." + +This was addressed to the leech rather than to Paula; but she took up the +gauntlet and replied in a tone of unqualified scorn: + +"And now I plainly declare, as a woman of full age, free to dispose of +myself, that to-morrow morning I leave this house with everything that +belongs to me, even if I should go as a beggar;--this house, where I have +been grossly insulted, where I and my faithful servant have been falsely +condemned, and where he is even now about to be murdered." + +"And where you have been dealt with far too mildly," Neforis shrieked at +her audacious antagonist, "and preserved from sharing the fate of the +robber you smuggled into the house. To save a criminal--it is unheard +of:--you dared to accuse the son of your benefactor of being a corrupt +judge." + +"And so he is," exclaimed Paula furious. "And what is more, he has +inveigled the child whom you destine to be his wife into bearing false +witness. More--much more could I say, but that, even if I did not +respect the mother, your husband has deserved that I should spare him." + +"Spare him-spare!" cried Neforis contemptuously. "You--you will spare +us! The accused will be merciful and spare the judge! But you shall be +made to speak;--aye, made to speak! And as to what you, a slanderer, can +say about false witness. . ." + +"Your own granddaughter," interrupted the leech, "will be compelled to +repeat it before all the world, noble lady, if you do not moderate +yourself." + +Neforis laughed hysterically. + +"So that is the way the wind blows!" she exclaimed, quite beside +herself. "The sick-room is a temple of Bacchus and Venus; and this +disgraceful conduct is not enough, but you must conspire to heap shame +and disgrace on this righteous house and its masters." + +Then, resting her left hand which held the reliquary on her hip, she +added with hasty vehemence: + +"So be it. Go away; go wherever you please! If I find you under this +roof to-morrow at noon, you thankless, wicked girl, I will have you +turned out into the streets by the guard. I hate you--for once I will +ease my poor, tormented heart--I loathe you; your very existence is an +offence to me and brings misfortune on me and on all of us; and besides +--besides, I should prefer to keep the emeralds we have left." + +This last and cruelest taunt, which she had brought out against her +better feelings, seemed to have relieved her soul of a hundred-weight of +care; she drew a deep breath, and turning to Philippus, went on far more +quietly and rationally: + +"As for you, Philip, my husband needs you. You know well what we have +offered you and you know George's liberal hand. Perhaps you will think +better of it, and will learn to perceive. . ." + +"I! . . ." said the leech with a lofty smile. "Do you really know me +so little? Your husband, I am ready to admit, stands high in my esteem, +and when he wants me he will no doubt send for me. But never again will +I cross this threshold uninvited, or enter a house where right is trodden +underfoot, where defenceless innocence is insulted and abandoned to +despair. + +"You may stare in astonishment! Your son has desecrated his father's +judgment-seat, and the blood of guiltless Hiram is on his head.--You-- +well, you may still cling to your emeralds. Paula will not touch them; +she is too high-souled to tell you who it is that you would indeed do +well to lock up in the deepest dungeon-cell! What I have heard from your +lips breaks every tie that time had knit between us. I do not demand +that my friends should be wealthy, that they should have any attractions +or charm, any special gifts of mind or body; but we must meet on common +ground: that of honorable feeling. That you did not bring into the +world, or you have lost it; and from this hour I am a stranger to you and +never wish to see you again, excepting by the side of your husband when +he requires me." + +He spoke the last words with such immeasurable dignity that Neforis was +startled and bereft of all self-control. She had been treated as a +wretch worthy of utter scorn by a man beneath her in rank, but whom she +always regarded as one of the most honest, frank and pure-minded she had +ever known; a man indispensable to her husband, because he knew how to +mitigate his sufferings, and could restrain him from the abuse of his +narcotic anodyne. He was the only physician of repute, far and wide. +She was to be deprived of the services of this valuable ally, to whom +little Mary and many of the household owed their lives, by this Syrian +girl; and she herself, sure that she was a good and capable wife and +mother, was to stand there like a thing despised and avoided by every +honest man, through this evil genius of her house! + +It was too much. Tortured by rage, vexation, and sincere distress, she +said in a complaining voice, while the tears started to her eyes: + +"But what is the meaning of all this? You, who know me, who have seen me +ruling and caring for my family, you turn your back upon me in my own +house and point the finger at me? Have I not always been a faithful +wife, nursing my husband for years and never leaving his sick-bed, never +thinking of anything but how to ease his pain? I have lived like a +recluse from sheer sense of duty and faithful lose, while other wives, +who have less means than I, live in state and go to entertainments.--And +whose slaves are better kept and more often freed than ours? Where is +the beggar so sure of an alms as in our house, where I, and I alone, +uphold piety?--And now am I so fallen that the sun may not shine on me, +and that a worthy man like you should withdraw his friendship all in a +moment, and for the sake of this ungrateful, loveless creature--because, +because, what did you call it--because the mind is wanting in me--or what +did you call it that I must have before you....?" + +"It is called feeling," interrupted the leech, who was sorry for the +unhappy woman, in whom he knew there was much that was good. "Is the +word quite new to you, my lady Neforis?--It is born with us; but a firm +will can elevate the least noble feeling, and the best that nature can +bestow will deteriorate through self-indulgence. But, in the day of +judgment, if I am not very much mistaken, it is not our acts but our +feeling that will be weighed. It would ill-become me to blame you, but I +may be allowed to pity you, for I see the disease in your soul which, +like gangrene in the body. . ." + +"What next!" cried Neforis. + +"This disease," the physician calmly went on--"I mean hatred, should be +far indeed from so pious a Christian. It has stolen into your heart like +a thief in the night, has eaten you up, has made bad blood, and led you +to treat this heavily-afflicted orphan as though you were to put stocks +and stones in the path of a blind man to make him fall. If, as it would +seem, my opinion still weighs with you a little, before Paula leaves +your house you will ask her pardon for the hatred with which you have +persecuted her for years, which has now led you to add an intolerable +insult--in which you yourself do not believe--to all the rest." + +At this Paula, who had been watching the physician all through his +speech, turned to Dame Neforis, and unclasped her hands which were lying +in her lap, ready to shake hands with her uncle's wife if she only +offered hers, though she was still fully resolved to leave the house. + +A terrible storm was raging in the lady's soul. She felt that she had +often been unkind to Paula. That a painful doubt still obscured the +question as to who had stolen the emerald she had unwillingly confessed +before she had come up here. She knew that she would be doing her +husband a great service by inducing the girl to remain, and she would +only too gladly have kept the leech in the house;--but then how deeply +had she, and her son, been humiliated by this haughty creature! + +Should she humble herself to her, a woman so much younger, offer her +hand, make.... + +At this moment they heard the tinkle of the silver bowl, into which her +husband threw a little ball when he wanted her. His pale, suffering face +rose before her inward eye, she could hear him asking for his opponent +at draughts, she could see his sad, reproachful gaze when she told him +to-morrow that she, Neforis, had driven his niece, the daughter of the +noble Thomas, out of the house--, with a swift impulse she went towards +Paula, grasping the reliquary in her left hand and holding out her right, +and said in a low voice. + +"Shake hands, girl. I often ought to have behaved differently to you; +but why have you never in the smallest thing sought my love? God is my +witness that at first I was fully disposed to regard you as a daughter, +but you--well, let it pass. I am sorry now that I should--if I have +distressed you." + +At the first words Paula had placed her hand in that of Neforis. Hers +was as cold as marble, the elder woman's was hot and moist; it seemed as +though their hands were typical of the repugnance of their hearts. They +both felt it so, and their clasp was but a brief one. When Paula +withdrew hers, she preserved her composure better than the governor's +wife, and said quite calmly, though her cheeks were burning: + +"Then we will try to part without any ill-will, and I thank you for +having made that possible. To-morrow morning I hope I may be permitted +to take leave of my uncle in peace, for I love him; and of little Mary." + +"But you need not go now! On the contrary, I urgently request you to +stay," Neforis eagerly put in. + +"George will not let you leave. You yourself know how fond he is of +you." + +"He has often been as a father to me," said Paula, and even her eyes +shone through tears. "I would gladly have stayed with him till the end. +Still, it is fixed--I must go." + +"And if your uncle adds his entreaties to mine?" + +"It will be in vain." + +Neforis took the maiden's hand in her own again, and tried with genuine +anxiety to persuade her,--but Paula was firm. She adhered to her +determination to leave the governor's house in the morning. + +"But where will you find a suitable house?" cried Neforis. "A residence +that will be fit for you?" + +"That shall be my business," replied the physician. "Believe me, noble +lady, it would be best for all that Paula should seek another home. But +it is to be hoped that she may decide on remaining in Memphis." + +At this Neforis exclaimed: + +"Here, with us, is her natural home!--Perhaps God may turn your heart +for your uncle's sake, and we may begin a new and happier life." Paula's +only reply was a shake of the head; but Neforis did not see it the metal +tinkle sounded for the third time, and it was her duty to respond to its +call. + +As soon as she had left the room Paula drew a deep breath, exclaiming: + +"O God! O God! How hard it was to refrain from flinging in her teeth +the crime her wicked son.... No, no; nothing should have made me do +that. But I cannot tell you how the mere sight of that woman angers me, +how light-hearted I feel since I have broken down the bridge that +connected me with this house and with Memphis." + +"With Memphis?" asked Philippus. + +"Yes," said Paula gladly. "I go away--away from hence, out of the +vicinity of this woman and her son!--Whither? Oh! back to Syria, or to +Greece--every road is the right one, if it only takes me away from this +place." + +"And I, your friend?" asked Philippus. + +"I shall bear the remembrance of you in a grateful heart." + +The physician smiled, as though something had happened just as he +expected; after a moment's reflection he said: + +"And where can the Nabathaean find you, if indeed he discovers your +father in the hermit of Sinai?" + +The question startled and surprised Paula, and Philippus now adduced +every argument to convince her that it was necessary that she should +remain in the City of the Pyramids. In the first place she must liberate +her nurse--in this he could promise to help her--and everything he said +was so judicious in its bearing on the circumstances that had to be +reckoned with, and the facts actual or possible, that she was astonished +at the practical good sense of this man, with whom she had generally +talked only of matters apart from this world. Finally she yielded, +chiefly for the sake of her father and Perpetua; but partly in the hope +of still enjoying his society. She would remain in Memphis, at any rate +for the present, under the roof of a friend of the physician's--long +known to her by report--a Melchite like herself, and there await the +further development of her fate. + +To be away from Orion and never, never to see him again was her heartfelt +wish. All places were the same to her where she had no fear of meeting +him. She hated him; still she knew that her heart would have no peace so +long as such a meeting was possible. Still, she longed to free herself +from a desire to see what his further career would be, which came over +her again and again with overwhelming and terrible power. For that +reason, and for that only, she longed to go far, far away, and she was +hardly satisfied by the leech's assurance that her new protector would be +able to keep away all visitors whom she might not wish to receive. And +he himself, he added, would make it his business to stand between her and +all intruders the moment she sent for him. + +They did not part till the sun was rising above the eastern hills; as +they separated Paula said: + +"So this morning a new life begins for me, which I can well imagine will, +by your help, be pleasanter than that which is past." + +And Philippus replied with happy emotion: "The new life for me began +yesterday." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Between morning and noon Mary was sitting on a low cane seat under the +sycamores which yesterday had shaded Katharina's brief young happiness; +by her side was her governess Eudoxia, under whose superintendence she +was writing out the Ten Commandments from a Greek catechism. + +The teacher had been lulled to sleep by the increasing heat and the +pervading scent of flowers, and her pupil had ceased to write. Her eyes, +red with tears, were fixed on the shells with which the path was strewn, +and she was using her long ruler, at first to stir them about, and then +to write the words: "Paula," and "Paula, Mary's darling," in large +capital letters. Now and again a butterfly, following the motion of the +rod, brought a smile to her pretty little face from which the dark spirit +"Trouble" had not wholly succeeded in banishing gladness. Still, her +heart was heavy. Everything around her, in the garden and in the house, +was still; for her grandfather's state had become seriously worse at +sunrise, and every sound must be hushed. Mary was thinking of the poor +sufferer: what pain he had to bear, and how the parting from Paula would +grieve him, when Katharina came towards her down the path. + +The young girl did little credit to-day to her nickname of "the water- +wagtail;" her little feet shuffled through the shelly gravel, her head +hung wearily, and when one of the myriad insects, that were busy in the +morning sunshine, came within her reach she beat it away angrily with her +fan. As she came up to Mary she greeted her with the usual "All +hail!" but the child only nodded in response, and half turning her back +went on with her inscription. + +Katharina, however, paid no heed to this cool reception, but said in +sympathetic tones: + +"Your poor grandfather is not so well, I hear?" Mary shrugged her +shoulders. + +"They say he is very dangerously ill. I saw Philippus himself." + +"Indeed?" said Mary without looking up, and she went on writing. + +"Orion is with him," Katharina went on. "And Paula is really going +away?" + +The child nodded dumbly, and her eyes again filled with tears. + +Katharina now observed how sad the little girl was looking, and that she +intentionally refused to answer her. At any other time she would not +have troubled herself about this, but to-day this taciturnity provoked +her, nay it really worried her; she stood straight in front of Mary, who +was still indefatigably busy with the ruler, and said loudly and with +some irritation: + +"I have fallen into disgrace with you, it would seem, since yesterday. +Every one to his liking; but I will not put up with such bad manners, I +can tell you!" + +The last words were spoken loud enough to wake Eudoxia, who heard them, +and drawing herself up with dignity she said severely: + +"Is that the way to behave to a kind and welcome visitor, Mary?" + +"I do not see one," retorted the child with a determined pout. + +"But I do," cried the governess. "You are behaving like a little +barbarian, not like a little girl who has been taught Greek manners. +Katharina is no longer a child, though she is still often kind enough to +play with you. Go to her at once and beg her pardon for being so rude." + +"I!" exclaimed Mary, and her tone conveyed the most positive refusal to +obey this behest. She sprang to her feet, and with flashing eyes, she +cried: "We are not Greeks, neither she nor I, and I can tell you once +for all that she is not my kind and welcome visitor, nor my friend any +more! We have nothing, nothing whatever to do with each other any more!" + +"Are you gone mad?" cried Eudoxia, and her long face assumed a +threatening expression, while she rose from her easy-chair in spite of +the increasing heat, intending to capture her pupil and compel her to +apologize; but Mary was more nimble than the middle-aged damsel and fled +down the alley towards the river, as nimble as a gazelle. + +Eudoxia began to run after her; but the heat was soon too much for her, +and when she stopped, exhausted and panting, she perceived that +Katharina, worthy once more of her name of "water-wagtail," had flown +past her and was chasing the little girl at a pace that she shuddered to +contemplate. Mary soon saw that no one but Katharina was in pursuit; she +moderated her pace, and awaited her cast-off friend under the shade of a +tall shrub. In a moment Katharina was facing her; with a heightened +color she seized both her hands and exclaimed passionately: + +"What was it you said? You--you-- If I did not know what a wrong-headed +little simpleton you were, I could . . . ." + +"You could accuse me falsely!--But now, leave go of my hands or I will +bite you. And as Katharina, at this threat, released her she went on +vehemently. + +"Oh! I know you now--since yesterday! And I tell you, once for all, +I say thank you for nothing for such friends. You ought to sink into the +earth for shame of the sin you have committed. I am only ten years old, +but rather than have done such a thing I would have let myself be shut up +in that hot hole with poor, innocent Perpetua, or I would have let myself +be killed, as you want poor, honest Hiram to be! Oh, shame!" + +Katharina's crimson cheeks bad turned pale at this address and, as she +had no answer ready, she could only toss her head and say, with as much +pride and dignity as she could assume: + +"What can a child like you know about things that puzzle the heads of +grown-up people?" + +"Grown-up people!" laughed Mary, who was not three inches shorter than +her antagonist. "You must be a great deal taller before I call you grown +up! In two years time, you will scarcely be up to my eyes." At this the +irascible Egyptian fired up; she gave the child a slap in the face with +the palm of her hand. Mary only stood still as if petrified, and after +gazing at the ground for a minute or two without a cry, she turned her +back on her companion and silently went back into the shaded walk. + +Katharina watched her with tears in her eyes. She felt that Mary was +justified in disapproving of what she had done the day before; for she +herself had been unable to sleep and had become more and more convinced +that she had acted wrongly, nay, unpardonably. And now again she had +done an inexcusable thing. She felt that she had deeply hurt the child's +feelings, and this sincerely grieved her. She followed Mary in silence, +at some little distance, like a maid-servant. She longed to hold her +back by her dress, to say something kind to her, nay, to ask her pardon. +As they drew near to the spot where the governess had dropped into her +chair again, a hapless victim to the heat of Egypt, Katharina called Mary +by her name, and when the child paid no heed, laid her hand on her +shoulder, saying in gentle entreaty: "Forgive me for having so far +forgotten myself. But how can I help being so little? You know very +well when any one laughs at me for it......" + +"You get angry and slap!" retorted the child, walking on. "Yesterday, +perhaps, I might have laughed over a box on the ear--it is not the first +--or have given it to you back again; but to-day!--Just now," and she +shuddered involuntarily, "just now I felt as if some black slave had laid +his dirty hand on my cheek. You are not what you were. You walk quite +differently, and you look--depend upon it you do not look as nice and as +bright as you used, and I know why: You did a very bad thing last +evening." + +"But dear pet," said the other, "you must not be so hard. Perhaps I did +not really tell the judges everything I knew, but Orion, who loves me so, +and whose wife I am to be. . . ." + +"He led you into sin!--Yes; and he was always merry and kind till +yesterday; but since--Oh, that unlucky day!" + +Here she was interrupted by Eudoxia, who poured out a flood of +reproaches and finally desired her to resume her task. The child obeyed +unresistingly; but she had scarcely settled to her wax tablets again when +Katharina was by her side, whispering to her that Orion would certainly +not have asserted anything that he did not believe to be true, and that +she had really been in doubt as to whether a gem with a gold back, or a +mere gold frame-work, had been hanging to Paula's chain. At this Mary +turned sharply and quickly upon her, looked her straight in the eyes and +exclaimed--but in Egyptian that the governess might not understand, for +she had disdained to learn a single word of it: + +"A rubbishy gold frame with a broken edge was hanging to the chain, and, +what is more, it caught in your dress. Why, I can see it now! And, when +you bore witness that it was a gem, you told a lie--Look here; here are +the laws which God Almighty himself gave on the sacred Mount of Sinai, +and there it stands written: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against +thy neighbor.' And those who do, the priest told me, are guilty of +mortal sin, for which there is no forgiveness on earth or in Heaven, +unless after bitter repentance and our Saviour's special mercy. So it is +written; and you could actually declare before the judges a thing that +was false, and that you knew would bring others to ruin?" + +The young criminal looked down in shame and confusion, and answered +hesitatingly: + +"Orion asserted it so positively and clearly, and then--I do not know +what came over me--but I was so angry, so--I could have murdered her!" + +"Whom?" asked Mary in surprise. "You know very well: Paula." + +"Paula!" said Mary, and her large eyes again filled with tears. "Is it +possible? Did you not love her as much as I do? Have not you often and +often clung about her like a bur?" + +"Yes, yes, very true. But before the judges she was so intolerably +proud, and then.--But believe me, Mary you really and truly cannot +understand anything of all this." + +"Can I not?" asked the child folding her arms. + +"Why do you think me so stupid?" + +"You are in love with Orion--and he is a man whom few can match, over +head and ears in love; and because Paula looks like a queen by the side +of you, and is so much handsomer and taller than you are, and Orion, till +yesterday--I could see it all--cared a thousand times more for her than +for you, you were jealous and envious of her. Oh, I know all about it. +--And I know that all the women fall in love with him, and that Mandaile +had her ears cut off on his account, and that it was a lady who loved him +in Constantinople that gave him the little white dog. The slave-girls +tell me what they hear and what I like.--And after all, you may well be +jealous of Paula, for if she only made a point of it, how soon Orion +would make up his mind never to look at you again! She is the handsomest +and the wisest and the best girl in the whole world, and why should she +not be proud? The false witness you bore will cost poor Hiram his life: +but the merciful Saviour may forgive you at last. It is your affair, and +no concern of mine; but when Paula is forced to leave the house and all +through you, so that I shall never, never, never see her any more--I +cannot forget it, and I do not think I ever shall; but I will pray God to +make me." + +She burst into loud sobs, and the governess had started up to put an end +to a dialogue which she could not understand, and which was therefore +vexatious and provoking, when the water-wagtail fell on her knees before +the little girl, threw her arms round her, and bursting into tears, +exclaimed: + +"Mary--darling little Mary forgive me. + + [The German has the diminutive 'Mariechen'. To this Dr. Ebers + appends this note. "An ignorant critic took exception to the use of + the diminutive form of names (as for instance 'Irenchen', little + Irene) in 'The Sisters,' as an anachronism. It is nevertheless a + fact that the Greeks settled in Egypt were so fond of using the + diminutive form of woman's names that they preferred them, even in + the tax-rolls. This form was common in Attic Greek,"] + +Oh, if you could but know what I endured before I came out here! Forgive +me, Mary; be my sweet, dear little Mary once more. Indeed and indeed you +are much better than I am. Merciful Saviour, what possessed me last +evening? And all through him, through the man no one can help loving-- +through Orion!--And would you believe it: I do not even know why he led +me into this sin. But I must try to care for him no more, to forget him +entirely, although, although,--only think, he called me his betrothed; +but now that he has betrayed me into sin, can I dare to become his wife? +It has given me no peace all night. I love him, yes I love him, you +cannot think how dearly; still, I cannot be his! Sooner will I go into a +convent, or drown myself in the Nile!--And I will say all this to my +mother, this very day." + +The Greek governess had looked on in astonishment, for it was indeed +strange to see the young girl kneeling in front of the child. She +listened to her eager flow of unintelligible words, wondering whether she +could ever teach her pupil--with her grandmother's help if need should +be--to cultivate a more sedate and Greek demeanor. + +At this juncture Paula came down the path. Some slaves followed her, +carrying several boxes and bundles and a large litter, all making their +way to the Nile, where a boat was waiting to ferry her up the river to +her new home. + +As she lingered unobserved, her eye rested on the touching picture of the +two young things clasped in each other's arms, and she overheard the last +words of the gentle little creature who had done her such cruel wrong. +She could only guess at what had occurred, but she did not like to be a +listener, so she called Mary; and when the child started up and flew to +throw her arms round her neck with vehement and devoted tenderness, she +covered her little face and hair with kisses. Then she freed herself +from the little girl's embrace, and said, with tearful eyes: + +"Good-bye, my darling! In a few minutes I shall no longer belong here; +another and a strange home must be mine. Love me always, and do not +forget me, and be quite sure of one thing: you have no truer friend on +earth than I am." + +At this, fresh tears flowed; the child implored her not to go away, not +to leave her; but Paula could but refuse, though she was touched and +astonished to find that she had reaped so rich a harvest of love, here +where she had sown so little. Then she gave her hand at parting to the +governess, and when she turned to Katharina, to bid farewell, hard as it +was, to the murderer of her happiness, the young girl fell at her feet +bathed in tears of repentance, covered her knees and hands with kisses, +and confessed herself guilty of a terrible sin. Paula, however, would +not allow her to finish; she lifted her up, kissed her forehead, and said +that she quite understood how she had been led into it, and that she, +like Mary, would try to forgive her. + +Standing by the governor's many-oared barge, to which the young girls now +escorted her, she found Orion. Twice already this morning he had tried +in vain to get speech with her, and he looked pale and agitated. He had +a splendid bunch of flowers in his hand; he bestowed a hasty greeting on +Mary and his betrothed, and did not heed the fact that Katharina returned +it hesitatingly and without a word. + +He went close up to Paula, told her in a low voice that Hiram was safe, +and implored her, as she hoped to be forgiven for her own sins, to grant +him a few minutes. When she rejected his prayer with a silent shrug, +and went on towards the boat he put out his hand to help her, but she +intentionally overlooked it and gave her hand to the physician. At this +he sprang after her into the barge, saying in her ear in a tremulous +whisper: + +"A wretch, a miserable man entreats your mercy. I was mad yesterday. I +love you, I love you--how deeply!--you will see!" + +"Enough," she broke in firmly, and she stood up in the swaying boat. +Philippus supported her, and Orion, laying the flowers in her lap, cried +so that all could hear: "Your departure will sorely distress my father. +He is so ill that we did not dare allow you to take leave of him. If you +have anything to say to him. . ." + +"I will find another messenger," she replied sternly. + +"And if he asks the reason for your sudden departure?" + +"Your mother and Philippus can give him an answer." + +"But he was your guardian, and your fortune, I know. . ." + +"In his hands it is safe." + +"And if the physician's fears should be justified?" + +"Then I will demand its restitution through a new Kyrios." + +"You will receive it without that! Have you no pity, no forgiveness?" +For all answer she flung the flowers he had given her into the river; +he leaped on shore, and regardless of the bystanders, pushed his fingers +through his hair, clasping his hands to his burning brow. + +The barge was pushed off, the rowers plied their oars like men; Orion +gazed after it, panting with laboring breath, till a little hand grasped +his, and Mary's sweet, childish voice exclaimed: + +"Be comforted, uncle. I know just what is troubling you." + +"What do you know?" he asked roughly. + +"That you are sorry that you and Katharina should have spoken against her +last evening, and against poor Hiram." + +"Nonsense!" he angrily broke in. "Where is Katharina?" + +"I was to tell you that she could not see you today. She loves you +dearly, but she, too, is so very, very sorry." + +"She may spare herself!" said the young man. "If there is anything to +be sorry for it falls on me--it is crushing me to death. But what is +this!--The devil's in it! What business is it of the child's? Now, be +off with you this minute. Eudoxia, take this little girl to her tasks." + +He took Mary's head between his hands, kissed her forehead with impetuous +affection, and then pushed her towards her governess, who dutifully led +her away. + +When Orion found himself alone, he leaned against a tree and groaned like +a wounded wild beast. His heart was full to bursting. + +"Gone, gone! Thrown away, lost! The best on earth!" He laid his hands +on the tree-stem and pressed his head against it till it hurt him. He +did not know how to contain himself for misery and self-reproach. He +felt like a man who has been drunk and has reduced his own house to ashes +in his intoxication. How all this could have come to pass he now no +longer knew. After his nocturnal ride he had caused Nilus the treasurer +to be waked, and had charged him to liberate Hiram secretly. But it was +the sight of his stricken father that first brought him completely to his +sober senses. By his bed-side, death in its terrible reality had stared +him in the face, and he had felt that he could not bear to see that +beloved parent die till he had made his peace with Paula, won her +forgiveness, brought her whom his father loved so well into his presence, +and besought his blessing on her and on himself. + +Twice he had hastened from the chamber of suffering to her room, to +entreat her to hear him, but in vain; and now, how terrible had their +parting been! She was hard, implacable, cruel; and as he recalled her +person and individuality as they had struck him before their quarrel, +he was forced to confess that there was something in her present behavior +which was not natural to her. This inhuman severity in the beautiful +woman whose affection had once been his, and who, but now, had flung his +flowers into the water, had not come from her heart; it was deliberately +planned to make him feel her anger. What had withheld her, under such +great provocation, from betraying that she had detected him in the theft +of the emerald? All was not yet lost; and he breathed more freely as he +went back to the house where duty, and his anxiety for his father, +required his presence. There were his flowers, floating on the stream. + +"Hatred cast them there," thought he, "but before they reach the sea many +blossoms will have opened which were mere hard buds when she flung them +away. She can never love any man but me, I feel it, I know it. The +first time we looked into each other's eyes the fate of our hearts was +sealed. What she hates in me is my mad crime; what first set her against +me was her righteous anger at my suit for Katharina. But that sin was +but a dream in my life, which can never recur; and as for Katharina--I +have sinned against her once, but I will not continue to sin through a +whole, long lifetime. I have been permitted to trifle with love +unpunished so often, that at last I have learnt to under-estimate its +power. I could laugh as I sacrificed mine to my mother's wishes; but +that, and that alone, has given rise to all these horrors. But no, all +is not yet lost! Paula will listen to me; and when she sees what my +inmost feelings are--when I have confessed all to her, good and evil +alike--when she knows that my heart did but wander, and has returned to +her who has taught me that love is no jest, but solemn earnest, swaying +all mankind, she will come round--everything will come right." + +A noble and rapturous light came into his face, and as he walked on, his +hopes rose: + +"When she is mine I know that everything good in me that I have inherited +from my forefathers will blossom forth. When my mother called me to my +father's bed-side, she said: 'Come, Orion, life is earnest for you and me +and all our house, your father. . .' Yes, it is earnest indeed, however +all this may end! To win Paula, to conciliate her, to bring her near to +me, to have her by my side and do something great, something worthy of +her--this is such a purpose in life as I need! With her, only with her I +know I could achieve it; without her, or with that gilded toy Katharina, +old age will bring me nothing but satiety, sobering and regrets--or, +to call it by its Christian designation: bitter repentance. As Antaeus +renewed his strength by contact with mother earth, so, father do I feel +myself grow taller when I only think of her. She is salvation and honor; +the other is ruin and misery in the future. My poor, dear Father, you +will, you must survive this stroke to see the fulfilment of all your +joyful hopes of your son. You always loved Paula; perhaps you may be the +one to appease her and bring her back to me; and how dear will she be to +you, and, God willing, to my mother, too, when you see her reigning by my +side an ornament to this house, to this city, to this country--reigning +like a queen, your son's redeeming and guardian angel!" + +Uplifted, carried away by these thoughts, he had reached the viridarium. +He there found Sebek the steward waiting for his young master: "My lord +is asleep now," he whispered, "as the physician foretold, but his face... +Oh, if only we had Philippus here again!" + +"Have you sent the chariot with the fast horses to the Convent of St. +Cecilia?" asked Orion eagerly; and when Sebek had replied in the +affirmative and vanished again indoors, the young man, overwhelmed with +painful forebodings, sank on his knees near a column to which a crucifix +was hung, and lifted up his hands and soul in fervent prayer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The physician had installed Paula in her new home, and had introduced her +to the family who were henceforth to be her protectors, and to enable her +to lead a happier life. + +He had but a few minutes to devote to her and her hosts; for scarcely had +he taken her into the spacious rooms, gay with flowers, of which she now +took possession, when he was enquired for by two messengers, both anxious +to speak with him. Paula knew how critical her uncle's state was, and +now, contemplating the probability of losing him, she first understood +what he had been to her. Thus sorrow was her first companion in her new +abode--a sorrow to which the comfort of her pretty, airy rooms added +keenness. + +One of the messengers was a young Arab from the other side of the river, +who handed to Philippus a letter from the merchant Haschim. The old man +informed him that, in consequence of a bad fall his eldest son had had, +he was forced to start at once for Djiddah on the Red Sea. He begged the +physician to take every care of his caravan-leader, to whom he was much +attached, to remove him when he thought fit from the governor's house, +and to nurse him till he was well, in some quiet retreat. He would bear +in mind the commission given him by the daughter of the illustrious +Thomas. He sent with this letter a purse well-filled with gold pieces. + +The other messenger was to take the leech back again in the light chariot +with the fast horses to the suffering Mukaukas. He at once obeyed the +summons, and the steeds, which the driver did not spare, soon carried him +back to the governor's house. + +A glance at his patient told him that this was the beginning of the end; +still, faithful to his principle of never abandoning hope till the heart +of the sufferer had ceased to beat, he raised the senseless man, heedless +of Orion, who was on his knees by his father's pillow, signed to the +deaconess in attendance, an experienced nurse, and laid cool, wet cloths +on the head and neck of the sufferer, who was stricken with apoplexy. +Then he bled him. + +Presently the Mukaukas wearily opened his eyes, turned uneasily from side +to side, and recognizing his kneeling son and his wife, bathed in tears, +he murmured, almost inarticulately, for his paralyzed tongue no longer +did his will: "Two pillules, Philip!" + +The physician unhesitatingly acceded to the request of the dying man, who +again closed his eyes; but only to reopen them, and to say, with the same +difficulty, but with perfect consciousness: "The end is at hand! The +blessing of the Church--Orion, the Bishop." + +The young man hastened out of the room to fetch the prelate, who was +waiting in the viridarium with two deacons, an exorcist, and a sacristan +bearing the sacred vessels. + +The governor listened in devout composure to the service of the last +sacrament, looked on at the ceremonies performed by the exorcist as, with +waving of hands and pious ejaculations he banned the evil spirits and +cast out from the dying man the devil that might have part in him; but +he could no longer swallow the bread which, in the Jacobite rite, was +administered soaked in the wine. Orion took the holy elements for him, +and the dying man, with a smile, murmured to his son: + +"God be with thee, my son! The Lord, it seems, denies me His precious +Blood--and yet--let me try once more." + +This time he succeeded in swallowing the wine and a few crumbs of bread; +and the bishop Ptolimus, a gentle old man of a beautiful and dignified +presence, spoke comfort to him, and asked him whether he felt that he was +dying penitent and in perfect faith in the mercy of his Lord and Saviour, +and whether he repented of his sins and forgave his enemies. + +The sick man bowed his head with an effort and murmured: + +"Even the Melchites who murdered my sons--and even the head of our +Church, the Patriarch, who was only too glad to leave it to me to achieve +things which he scrupled to do himself. That--that--But you, Ptolimus-- +a wise and worthy servant of the Lord--tell me to the best of your +convictions: May I die in the belief that it was not a sin to conclude a +peace with the Arab conquerors of the Greeks?--May I, even at this hour, +think of the Melchites as heretics?" + +The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, and his +mild features assumed a determined--nay a stern expression as he +exclaimed: + +"You know the, decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus--the words +which should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marble +and brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ--and this is what the +Melchites do--be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burnt +alive!'--No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at the +Moslems who adore the One God!" + +The sufferer drew a deep breath, but he presently added with a sigh: + +"But Benjamin the Patriarch, and John of Niku have tormented my soul with +fears! Still, you too, Ptolimus, bear the crosier, and to you I will +confess that your brethren in office, the shepherds of the Jacobite fold, +have ruined my peace for hundreds of days and nights, and I have been +near to cursing them. But before the night fell the Lord sent light into +my soul, and I forgave them, and now, through you, I crave their pardon +and their blessing. The Church has but reluctantly opened the doors to +me in these last years; but what servant can be allowed to complain of +the Master from whom he expects grace? So listen to me. I close my eyes +as a faithful and devoted adherent of the Church, and in token thereof I +will endow her to the best of my power and adorn her with rich and costly +gifts; I will--but I can say no more.--Speak for me, Orion. You know-- +the gems--the hanging. . . ." + +His son explained to the bishop what a splendid gift, in priceless +jewels, the dying man intended to offer to the Church. He desired to be +buried in the church of St. John at Alexandria by his father's side, and +to be prayed for in front of the mortuary chapel of his ancestors in the +Necropolis; he had set aside a sum of money, in his will, to pay for the +prayers to be offered for his soul. The priests were well pleased to +hear this, and they absolved him unconditionally and completely; then, +after blessing him fervently, they quitted the room. + +Philippus heaved a sigh of relief when the ecclesiastics had departed, +and constantly renewed the wet compress, while the dying governor lay for +a long time in silence with his eyes shut. Presently he rubbed them as +though he felt revived, raised his head a little with the physician's +help, and looking up, said: + +"Draw the ring off my finger, Orion, and wear it worthily.--Where is +little Mary, where is Paula? I should wish to bid them farewell too." + +The young man and his mother exchanged uneasy glances, but Neforis +collected herself at once and replied: + +"We have sent for Mary; but Paula--you know she never was happy with +us--and since the events of yesterday. . . ." + +"Well?" asked the invalid. + +"She hastily quitted the house; but we parted friends, I can assure you +of that; she is still in Memphis, and she spoke of you most +affectionately and wished to see you, and charged me with many loving +messages for you; so, if you really care to see her. . . ." + +The sick man tried to nod his head, but in vain. He did not, however, +insist on her being sent for, but his face wore an expression of deep +melancholy and the words came faintly from his lips. + +"Thomas' daughter! The noblest and loveliest of all." + +"The noblest and loveliest," echoed Orion, in a voice that was tremulous +with strong, deep and sincere emotion; then he begged the leech and the +deaconess to leave him alone with his parents. As soon as they had left +the room the young man spoke softly but urgently into his father's ear: + +"You are quite right, Father," he said. "She is better and more noble, +more beautiful and more highminded than any girl living. I love her, +and will stake everything to win her heart. Oh, God! Oh, God! Merciful +Heaven!--Are you glad, do you give your consent, Father? You dearest and +best of men; I see it in your face." + +"Yes, yes, yes," murmured the governor; his yellow, bloodshot eyes looked +up to Heaven, and with a terrible effort he stammered out: "Blessing--my +blessing, on you and Paula.--Tell her from me.... If she had confided in +her old uncle, as she used to do, the freedman would never have robbed +us.--She is a brave soul; how she fought for the poor fellow. I will +hear more about it if my strength holds out.--Why is she not here?" + +"She wished so much to bid you farewell," replied Neforis, "but you were +asleep." + +"Was she in such a hurry to be gone?" asked her husband with a bitter +smile. "Fear about the emerald may have had something to do with it? +But how could I be angry with her? Hiram acted without her knowledge, +I suppose? Yes, I knew it!--Ah; that dear, sweet face! If I could but +see it once more. The joy--of my eyes, and my companion at draughts! +A faithful heart too; how she clung to her father! she was ready to +sacrifice everything for him.--And you, you, my old.... But no--no +reproaches at such a time. You, Mother--you, my Neforis, thanks, +a thousand thanks for all your love and kindness. What a mystical and +magic bond is that of a Christian marriage like ours? Mark that, Orion. +And you, Mother: I am anxious about this. You--do not hurt the girl's +feelings again. Say--say you bless this union; it will make me happier +at the last.--Paula and Orion; both of them-both.--I never dared before +--but what better could we wish?" + +The matron clasped her hands and sobbed out: + +"Anything, everything you wish! But Father, Orion, our faith!-- +And then, merciful Saviour, that poor little Katharina!" + +"Katharina!" repeated the sick man, and his feeble lips parted in a +compassionate smile. "Our boy and the water--water--you know what I +would say." + +Then his eyes began to sparkle more brightly and he said in a low voice, +but still eagerly, as though death were yet far from him: + +"My name is George, the son of the Mukaukas; I am the great Mukaukas and +our family--all fine men of a proud race; all: My father, my uncle, our +lost sons, and Orion here--all palms and oaks! And shall a dwarf, a mere +blade of rice be grafted on to the grand old stalwart stock? What would +come of that?--Oh, ho! a miserable little brood! But Paula! The cedar +of Lebanon--Paula; she would give new life to the grand old race." + +"But our faith, our faith," moaned Neforis. "And you, Orion, do you even +know what her feeling is towards you?" + +"Yes and no. Let that rest for the present," said the youth, who was +deeply moved. "Oh Father! if I only knew that your blessing. . ." + +"The Faith, the Faith," interrupted the Mukaukas in a broken voice. + +"I will be true to my own!" cried Orion, raising his father's hand to +his lips. "But think, picture to yourself, how Paula and I would reign +in this house, and how another generation would grow up in it worthy of +the great Mukaukas and his ancestors!" + +"I see it, I see it," murmured the sick man sinking back on his pillows, +unconscious. + +Philippus was immediately called in, and, with him, little Mary came +weeping into the room. The physician's efforts to revive the sufferer +were presently successful; again the sick man opened his eyes, and spoke +more distinctly and loudly than before: + +"There is a perfume of musk. It is the fragrance that heralds the Angel +of Death." + +After this he lay still and silent for a long time. His eyes were +closed, but his brows were knit and showed that he was thinking with a +painful effort. At length, with a sigh, he said, almost inaudibly: +"So it was and so it is: The Greek oppressed my people with arbitrary +cruelty as if we were dogs; the Moslem, too, is a stranger, but he is +just. That which happened it was out of my power to prevent; and it is +well, it is very well that it turned out so.--Very well," he repeated +several times, and then he shivered and said with a groan: + +"My feet are so cold! But never mind, never mind, I like to be cool." + +The leech and the deaconess at once set to work to heat blocks of wood to +warm his feet; the sick man looked up gratefully and went on: "At church, +in the House of God, I have often found it deliciously cool and to-day it +is the Church that eases my death-bed by her pardon. Do you, my Son, be +faithful to her. No member of our house should ever be an apostate. As +to the new faith--it is overspreading land after land with incredible +power; ambition and covetousness are driving thousands into its fold. +But we--we are faithful to Christ Jesus, we are no traitors. If I, I the +Mukaukas, had consented to go over to the Khaliff I might have been a +prince in purple, and have governed my own country in his name. How many +have deserted to the Moslems! And the temptation will come to you, too, +and their faith offers much that is attractive to the crowd. They +imagine a Paradise full of unspeakably alluring joys--but we, my son-- +we shall meet again in our own, shall we not?" + +"Yes, yes, Father!" cried the young man. "I will remain a Christian, +staunch and true. . ." + +"That is right," interrupted the sick man. He was determined to forget +that his son wished to marry a Melchite and went on quickly: "Paula... +But no more of that. Remain faithful to your own creed--otherwise... +However, child, seek your own road; you are--but you will walk in the +right way, and it is because I know that, know it surely, that I can die +so calmly. + +"I have provided abundantly for your temporal welfare. I have been a +good husband, a faithful father, have I not, O Saviour?--Have I not, +Neforis? And that which is my best and surest comfort is that for many +long years I have administered justice in this land, and never, never +once--and Thou my Refuge and Comforter art my witness!--never once +consciously or willingly have I been an unrighteous judge. Before me the +poor were equal with the rich, the powerful with the helpless widow. Who +would have dared..." Here he broke off; his eyes, wandering feebly round +the room, fell on Mary who had sunk on her knees, opposite to Orion on +the other side of the bed. The dying man, who had thus summed up the +outcome of a long and busy life, ceased his reflections, and when the +child saw that he was vainly trying to turn his powerless head towards +her, she threw her arms round him with passionate grief; unscared by his +fixed gaze or the altered hue of his beloved face, she kissed his lips +and cheeks, exclaiming: + +"Grandfather, dear grandfather, do not leave us; stay with us, pray, pray +stay with us!" + +Something faintly resembling a smile parted his parched lips, and all the +tenderness with which his soul was overflowing for this sweet young bud +of humanity would have found expression in his voice but that he could +only mutter huskily: + +"Mary, my darling! For your sake I should be glad to live a long while +yet, a very long while; but the other world--I am standing already on its +threshold. Good-bye--I must indeed say good-bye." + +"No, no--I will pray; oh! I will pray so fervently that you may get well +again!" cried the child. But he replied: + +"Nay, nay. The Saviour is already taking me by the hand. Farewell, and +again farewell. Did you bring Paula? I do not see her. Did you bring +Paula with you, sweetheart? She--did she leave us in anger? If she only +knew; ah! your Paula has treated us ill." The child's heart was still +full of the horrible crime which had so revolted her truthful nature, and +which had deprived her of rest all through an evening, a long night and +a morning; she laid her little head close to that of the old man--her +dearest and best friend. For years he had filled her father's place, and +now he was dying, leaving her forever! But she could not let him depart +with a false idea of the woman whom she worshipped with all the fervor of +her child's heart; in a subdued voice, but with eager feeling, she said, +close to his ear: + +"But Grandfather, there is one thing you must know before the Saviour +takes you away to be happy in Heaven. Paula told the truth, and never, +never told a lie, not even for Hiram's sake. An empty gold frame hung to +her necklace and no gem at all. Whatever Orion may say, I saw it myself +and cannot be mistaken, as truly as I hope to see you and my poor father +in heaven! And Katharina, too, thought better of it, and confessed to me +just now that she had committed a great sin and had borne false witness +before the judges to please her dear Orion. I do not know what Hiram had +done to offend him; but on the strength of Katharina's evidence the +judges condemned him to death. But Paula--you must understand that Paula +had nothing, positively nothing whatever to do with the stealing of the +emerald." + +Orion, kneeling there, was condemned to hear every word the little girl +so vehemently whispered, and each one pierced his heart like a dagger- +thrust. Again and again he felt inclined to clutch at her across the bed +and fling her on the ground before his father's eyes; but grief and +astonishment seemed to have paralyzed his whole being; he had not even +the power to interrupt her with a single word. + +She had spoken, and all was told. + +He clung to the couch like a shattered wretch; and when his father turned +his eyes on him and gasped out: "Then the Court--our Court of justice +pronounced an unrighteous sentence?" he bowed his head in contrition. + +The dying man murmured even less articulately and incoherently than +before: "The gem--the hanging--you, you perhaps--was it you? that +emerald--I cannot. . ." + +Orion helped his father in his vain efforts to utter the dreadful words. +Sooner would he have died with the old man than have deceived him in such +a moment; he replied humbly and in a low voice: + +"Yes, Father--I took it. But as surely as I love you and my mother this, +the first reckless act of my life, which has brought such horrors in its +train. . . Shall be the last," he would have said; but the words "I took +it," had scarcely passed his lips when his father was shaken by a violent +trembling, the expression of his eyes changed fearfully, and before the +son had spoken his vow to the end the unhappy father was, by a tremendous +effort, sitting upright. Loud sobs of penitence broke from the young +man's heaving breast, as the Mukaukas wrathfully exclaimed, in thick +accents, as quickly as the heavy, paralyzed tongue would allow: + +"You, you! A disgrace to our ancient and blameless Court! You?--Away +with you! A thief, an unjust judge, a false witness,--and the only +descendant of Menas! If only these hands were able--you--you--Go, +villain!" And with this wild outcry, George, the gentle and just +Mukaukas, sank back on his pillows; his bloodshot eyes were staring, +fixed on vacancy; his gasping lips repeated again and again, but less and +less audibly the one word "Villain;" his swollen fingers clutched at the +light coverlet that lay over him; a strange, shrill wheezing came through +his open mouth, and the heavy corpse of the great dignitary fell, like a +falling palm-tree, into Orion's arms. + +Orion started up, his eyes inflamed, his hair all dishevelled, and shook +the dead man as though to compel him back to life again, to hear his oath +and accept his vow, to see his tears of repentance, to pardon him and +take back the name of infamy which had been his parting word to his loved +and spoilt child. + +In the midst of this wild outbreak the physician came back, glanced at +the dead man's distorted features, laid a hand on his heart, and said +with solemn regret as he led little Mary away from the couch: + +"A good and just man is gone from the land of the living." + +Orion cried aloud and pushed away Mary, who had stolen close to him; for, +young as she was, she felt that it was she who had brought the worst woe +on her uncle, and that it was her part to show him some affection. + +She ran then to her grandmother; but she, too, put her aside and fell on +her knees by the side of her wretched son to weep with him; to console +him who was inconsolable, and in whom, a few minutes since, she had hoped +to find her own best consolation; but her fond words of motherly comfort +found no echo in his broken spirit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +When Philippus had parted from Paula he had told her that the Mukaukas +might indeed die at any moment, but that it was possible that he might +yet struggle with death for weeks to come. This hope had comforted her; +for she could not bear to think that the only true friend she had had in +Memphis, till she had become more intimate with the physician, should +quit the world forever without having heard her justification. Nothing +could be more unlikely than that any one in Neforis' household--excepting +her little grandchild should ever remember her with kindness; and she +scarcely desired it; but she rebelled against the idea of forfeiting the +respect she had earned, even in the governor's house. If her friend +should succeed in prolonging her uncle's life, by a confidential +interview with him she might win back his old affection and his good +opinion. + +Her new home she felt was but a resting-place, a tabernacle in the +desert-journey of her solitary pilgrimage, and she here meant to avail +herself of the information she had gathered from her Melchite dependents. +Hope had now risen supreme in her heart over grief and disappointment. +Orion's presence alone hung like a threatening hail-cloud over the +sprouting harvest of her peace of mind. And yet, next to the necessity +of waiting at Memphis for the return of her messenger, nothing tied her +to the place so strongly as her interest in watching the future course of +his life, at any rate from a distance. What she felt for him-and she +told herself it was deep aversion-nevertheless constituted a large share +of her inner life, little as she would confess it to herself. + +Her new hosts had received her as a welcome guest, and they certainly did +not seem to be poor. The house was spacious, and though it was old and +unpretentious it was comfortable and furnished with artistic taste. The +garden had amazed her by the care lavished on it; she had seen a hump- +backed gardener and several children at work in it. A strange party-for +every one of them, like their chief, was in some way deformed or +crippled. + +The plot of ground--which extended towards the river to the road-way for +foot passengers, vehicles and the files of men towing the Nile-boats--was +but narrow, and bounded on either side by extensive premises. Not far +from the spot where it lay nearest to the river was the bridge of boats +connecting Memphis with the island of Rodah. To the right was the +magnificent residence--a palace indeed--belonging to Susannah; to the +left was an extensive grove, where tall palms, sycamores with spreading +foliage, and dense thickets of blue-green tamarisk trees cast their +shade. Above this bower of splendid shrubs and ancient trees rose a +long, yellow building crowned with a turret; and this too was not unknown +to her, for she had often heard it spoken of in her uncle's house, and +had even gone there now and then escorted by Perpetua. It was the +convent of St. Cecilia, the refuge of the last nuns of the orthodox creed +left in Memphis; for, though all the other sisterhoods of her confession +had long since been banished, these had been allowed to remain in their +old home, not only because they were famous sick-nurses, a distinction +common to all the Melchite orders, but even more because the decaying +municipality could not afford to sacrifice the large tax they annually +paid to it. This tax was the interest on a considerable capital +bequeathed to the convent by a certain wise predecessor of the Mukaukas', +with the prudent proviso, ratified under the imperial seal of Theodosius +II., that if the convent were at any time broken up, this endowment, with +the land and buildings which it likewise owed to the generosity of the +same benefactor, should become the property of the Christian emperor at +that time reigning. + +Mukaukas George, notwithstanding his well-founded aversion for everything +Melchite, had taken good care not to press this useful Sisterhood too +hardly, or to deprive his impoverished capital of its revenues only to +throw them into the hands of the wealthy Moslems. The title-deed on +which the Sisters relied was good; and the governor, who was a good +lawyer as well as a just man, had not only left them unmolested, but in +spite of his fears--during the last few years--for his own safety, had +shown himself no respecter of persons by defending their rights firmly +and resolutely against the powerful patriarch of the Jacobite Church. +The Senate of the ancient capital naturally, approved his course, and had +not merely suffered the heretic Sisterhood to remain, but had helped and +encouraged it. + +The Jacobite clergy of the city shut their eyes, and only opened them to +watch the convent at Easter-tide; for on the Saturday before Easter, the +nuns, in obedience to an agreement made before the Monophysite Schism, +were required to pay a tribute of embroidered vestments to the head of +the Christian Churches, with wine of the best vintages of Kochome near +the Pyramid of steps, and a considerable quantity of flowers and +confectionary. So the ancient coenobium of women was maintained, and +though all Egypt was by this time Jacobite or Moslem, and many of the +older Sisters had departed this life within the last year, no one had +thought of enquiring how it was that the number of the nuns remained +still the same, till the Jacobite archbishop Benjamin filled the +patriarchal throne of Alexandria in the place of the Melchite Cyrus. + +To Benjamin the heretical Sisters at Memphis--the hawks in a dove-cote, +as he called them--were an offence, and he thought that the deed might +bear a new interpretation: that as there was no longer a Christian +emperor, and as the word "Christian" was used in the document, if the +convent were broken up the property should pass into the hands of the +only Christian magnate then existing in the country: himself, namely, +and his Church. The ill-feeling which the Patriarch fostered against the +Mukaukas had been aggravated to hostility by their antagonism on this +matter. + +A musical dirge now fell on Paula's ear from the convent chapel. Was the +worthy Mother Superior dead? No, this lament must be for some other +death, for the strange skirling wail of the Egyptian women came up to her +corner window from the road, from the bridge, and from the boats on the +river. No Jacobite of Memphis would have dared to express her grief so +publicly for the death of a Melchite; and as the chorus of voices +swelled, the thought struck her with a chill that it must be her uncle +and friend who had closed his weary eyes in death. + +It was with deep emotion and many tears that she perceived how sincerely +the death of this righteous man was bewailed by all his fellow-citizens. +Yes, he only, and no other Egyptian, could have called forth this great +and expressive regret. The wailing women in the road were daubing the +mud of the river on their foreheads and bosoms; men were standing in +large groups and beating their heads and breasts with passionate +gestures. On the bridge of boats the men would stop others, and from +thence, too, piercing shrieks came across to her. + +At last Philippus came in and confirmed her fears. The governor's death +had shocked him no less than it did her, and he had to tell Paula all he +knew of the dead man's last hours. + +"Still, one good thing has come out of this misery," he said. "There is +nothing so comforting as the discovery that we have been deceived in +thinking ill of a man and of his character. This Orion, who has sinned +so basely against himself and against you, is not utterly reprobate." + +"Not?" interrupted Paula. "Then he has taken you in too!" + +"Taken me in?" said the leech. "Hardly, I think. I have, alas! stood +by many a death-bed; for I am too often sent for when Death is already +beckoning the sick man away. I have met thousands of mourners in these +melancholy scenes, which, I can assure you, are the very best school for +training any one who desires to search the hearts of his fellow- +creatures. By the bed of death, or in the mart, where everything is a +question of Mine and Thine, it is easy to see how some--we for instance +--are as careful to hide from the world all that is great and noble in us +as others are to conceal what is petty and mean--we read men's hearts as +an open page. From my observations of the dying and of those who sorrow +for them, I, who am not Menander not Lucian, could draw a series of +portraits which should be as truthful likenesses as though the men had +turned themselves inside out before me." + +"That a dying man should show himself as he really is I can well +believe," replied Paula. "He need have no further care for the opinions +of others; but the mourners? Why, custom requires them to assume an air +of grief and to shed tears." + +"Very true; regret repeats itself by the side of the dead," replied the +physician. "But the chamber of the dying is like a church. Death +consecrates it, and the man who stands face to face with death often +drops the mask by which he cheats his fellows. There we may see faces +which you would shudder to look on, but others, too, which merely to see +is enough to make us regard the degenerate species to which we belong +with renewed respect." + +"And you found such a comforting vision in Orion,--the thief, the false +witness, the corrupt judge!" exclaimed Paula, starting up in indignant +astonishment. + +"There! you see," laughed Philippus. "Just like a woman! A little +juggling, and lo! what was only rose color is turned to purple. No. +The son of the Mukaukas has not yet undergone such a dazzling change of +hue; but he has a feeling and impressible heart--and I hold even that in +high esteem. I have no doubt that he loved his father deeply, nay +passionately; though I have ample reason to believe him capable of the +very worst. So long as I was present at the scene of death the father +and son were parting in all friendship and tenderness, and when the good +old man's heart had ceased to beat I found Orion in a state which is only +possible to have when love has lost what it held dearest." + +"All acting!" Paula put in. + +"But there was no audience, dear friend. Orion would not have got up +such a performance for his mother and little Mary." + +"But he is a poet--and a highly-gifted one too. He sings beautiful songs +of his own invention to the lyre; his ecstatic and versatile mind works +him up into any frame of feeling; but his soul is perverted; it is soaked +in wickedness as a sponge drinks up water. He is a vessel full of +beautiful gifts, but he has forfeited all that was good and noble in him +--all!" + +The words came in eager haste from her indignant lips. Her cheeks glowed +with her vehemence, and she thought she had won over the physician; but +he gravely shook his head, and said: + +"Your righteous anger carries you too far. How often have you blamed me +for severity and suspicions but now I have to beg you to allow me to ask +your sympathy for an experience to which you would probably have raised +no objection the day before yesterday: + +"I have met with evil-doers of every degree. Think, for instance, how +many cases of wilful poisoning I have had to investigate." + +"Even Homer called Egypt the land of poison," exclaimed Paula. "And it +seems almost incredible that Christianity has not altered it in the +least. Kosmas, who had seen the whole earth, could nowhere find more +malice, deceit, hatred, and ill-will than exist here." + +"Then you see in what good schools my experience of the wickedness of men +has ripened," said Philippus smiling, "and they have taught me chiefly +that there is never a criminal, a sinner, or a scapegrace, however +infamous he may be, however cruel or lost to virtue, in whom some good +quality or other may not be discovered.--Do you remember Nechebt, the +horrible woman who poisoned her two brothers and her own father? She was +captured scarcely three weeks ago; and that very monster in human form +could almost die of hunger and thirst for the sake of her rascally son, +who is a common soldier in the imperial army; at last she took to +concocting poisons, not to improve her own wretched condition, but to +send the shameless wretch means for a fresh debauch. I have known a +thousand similar cases, but I will only mention that of one of the +wildest and blood-thirstiest of robbers, who had evaded the vigilance +of the watch again and again, but at last fell into their hands--and how? +Because he had heard that his old mother was ill and he longed to see the +withered old woman once more and give her a kiss, since he was her own +child! In the same way Orion, however reprobate we may think him, has at +any rate one characteristic which we must approve of: a tender affection +for his father and mother. Your sponge is not utterly steeped in +wickedness; there are still some pores, some cells which resist it; and +if in him, as in so many others, the heart is one of them, then I say +hopefully, like Horace the Roman: 'Nil desperandum.' It would be unjust +to give him up altogether for lost." + +To this assurance Paula found no answer; indeed, it struck her that--if +Orion had told her the truth--it was only to please his mother that he +had asked Katharina to marry him, while she herself occupied his heart. +--The physician, wishing to change the subject, was about to speak again +of the death of the Mukaukas, when one of the crippled serving girls came +to announce a woman who asked to speak with Paula. A few minutes later +she was clasped in the embrace of her faithful old friend and nurse, who +rejoiced as heartily, laughing and crying for sheer delight, as if no +tidings of misfortune had reached her; while Paula, though so much +younger, was cut to the heart, and could not shake off the spell of her +grief. + +Perpetua understood this and owed her no grudge for the coolness with +which she met her joyful excitement. + +She told Paula that she had been well treated in her hot cell, and that +about half an hour since Orion himself, the young Master now, had opened +the door of her prison. He had been very gracious to her, but looked so +pale and sad. The overbearing young man was quite altered; his eyes, +which were dim with weeping, had moved her, Perpetua, to tears. She +trusted that God would forgive him for his sins against herself and +Paula; he must have been possessed by some evil demon; he had not been at +all like himself; for he had a kind, warm heart, and though he had been +so hard and unjust yesterday to poor Hiram he had made it up to him the +first thing this morning, and had not only let him out of prison but had +sent him and his son home to Damascus with large gifts and two horses. +Nilus had told her this. He who hoped to be forgiven by his neighbor +must also be ready to forgive. The great Augustine, even, had been no +model of virtue in his youth and yet he had become a shining light in the +Church; and now the son of the Mukaukas would tread in his father's +footsteps. He was a handsome, engaging man, who would be the joy of +their hearts yet, they might be very sure. Why, he had been as grave and +as solemn as a bishop to-day; perhaps he had already turned over a new +leaf. He himself had put her into his mother's chariot and desired the +charioteer to drive her hither: what would Paula say to that? Her things +were to be given over to her to-morrow morning, and packed under her own +eyes, and sent after her. Nilus, the treasurer, had come with her to +deliver a message to Paula; but he had gone first to the convent. + +Paula desired the old woman to go thither and fetch him; as soon as +Perpetua had left the room, she exclaimed: + +"There, you see, is some one who is quite of your opinion. What +creatures we are! Last evening my good Betta would have thought no pit +of hell too deep for our enemy, and now? To be led to a chariot by such +a fine gentleman in person is no doubt flattering; and how quickly the +old body has forgotten all her grievances, how soothed and satisfied she +is by the gracious permission to pack her precious and cherished +possessions with her own hands.--You told me once that the Jacobites had +made a Saint Orion out of the pagan god Osiris, and my old Betta sees a +future Saint Augustine in the governor's son. I can see that she already +regards him as her tutelary patron, and when we get back to Syria, she +will be begging me to join her in a pilgrimage to his shrine!" + +"And you will perhaps consent," replied the physician, to whom Paula at +this moment, for the first time since his heart had glowed with love for +her, did not seem to be quite what a man looks for in the woman he +adores. Hitherto he had seen and heard nothing that was not high-minded +and worthy of her; but her last words had, been spoken with vehement and +indignant irony--and in Philip's opinion irony, blame which was intended +to wound and not to improve its object, was unbecoming in a noble woman. +The scornful laugh, with which she had triumphantly ended her speech, +had opened as it were a wide abyss between his mind and hers. He, as he +freely confessed to himself, was of a coarser and humbler grain than +Paula, and he was apt to be satirical oftener than was right. She had +been wont to dislike this habit in him; he had been glad that she did; it +answered to the ideal he had formed of what the woman he loved should be. +But now she had turned satirical; and her irony was no jest of the lips. +It sprang, full of passion, from her agitated soul; this it was that +grieved the leech who knew human nature, and at the same time roused his +apprehensions. Paula read his disapproval in his face, and felt that +there was a deep significance in his words And you will perhaps consent." + +"Men are vexed," thought she, "when, after they have decisively expressed +an opinion, we women dare unhesitatingly to assert a different one," so, +as she would on no account hurt the feelings of the friend to whom she +owed so much, she said kindly: + +"I do not care to enquire into the meaning of your strange +prognostication. Thank God, by your kindness and care I have severed +every tie that could have bound me to my poor uncle's son!--Now we will +drop the subject; we have said too much about him already." + +"That is quite my opinion," replied Philippus. "And, indeed, I would beg +you quite to forget my 'perhaps.' I live wholly in the present and am no +prophet; but I foresee, nevertheless, that Orion will make every effort, +cost what it may. . . ." + +"Well?" + +"To approach you again, to win your forgiveness, to touch your heart, +to......" + +"Let him dare" exclaimed Paula lifting her hand with a threatening +gesture. + +"And when he, gifted as he is in every way, has found his better self +again and can come forward purified and worthy of the approbation of the +best. . . ." + +"Still I will never, never forget how he has sinned and what he brought +upon me!--Do you think that I have already forgotten your conversation +with Neforis? You ask nothing of your friends but honest feeling akin to +your own,--and what is it that repels me from Orion but feeling? +Thousands have altered their behavior, but--answer me frankly--surely not +what we mean by their feeling?" + +"Yes, that too," said the leech with stern gravity. "Feeling, too, may +change. Or do you range yourself on the side of the Arab merchant and +his fellow-Moslems, who regard man as the plaything of a blind Fate?-- +But our spiritual teachers tell us that the evil to which we are +predestined, which is that born into the world with us, may be averted, +turned and guided to good by what they call spiritual regeneration. But +who that lives in the tumult of the world can ever succeed in 'killing +himself' in their sense of the word, in dying while yet he lives, to be +born again, a new man? The penitent's garb does not suit the stature of +an Orion; however, there is for him another way of returning to the path +he has lost. Fortune has hitherto offered her spoilt favorite so much +pleasure, that sheer enjoyment has left him no time to think seriously on +life itself; now she is showing him its graver side, she is inviting him +to reflect; and if he only finds a friend to give him the counsel which +my father left in a letter for me, his only child, as a youth--and if he +is ready to listen, I regard him as saved." + +"And that word of counsel--what is it?" asked Paula with interest. + +"To put it briefly, it is this: Life is not a banquet spread by fate for +our enjoyment, but a duty which we are bound to fulfil to the best of our +power. Each one must test his nature and gifts, and the better he uses +them for the weal and benefit of the body of which he was born a member, +the higher will his inmost gladness be, the more certainly will he attain +to a beautiful peace of mind, the less terrors will Death have for him. +In the consciousness of having sown seed for eternity he will close his +eyes like a faithful steward at the end of each day, and of the last hour +vouchsafed to him on earth. If Orion recognizes this, if he submits to +accept the duties imposed on him by existence, if he devotes himself to +them now for the first time to the best of his powers, a day may come +when I shall look up to him with respect--nay, with admiration. The +shipwreck of which the Arab spoke has overtaken him. Let us see how he +will save himself from the waves, and behave when he is cast on shore." + +"Let us see!" repeated Paula, "and wish that he may find such an +adviser! As you were speaking it struck me that it was my part.--But no, +no! He has placed himself beyond the pale of the compassion which I +might have felt even for an enemy after such a frightful blow. He! He +can and shall never be anything to me till the end of time. I have to +thank you for having found me this haven of rest. Help me now to keep +out everything that can intrude itself here to disturb my peace. If +Orion should ever dare, for whatever purpose, to force or steal a way +into this house, I trust to you, my friend and deliverer!" + +She held out her hand to Philippus, and as he took it the blood seethed +in his veins with tender emotion. + +"My strength, like my heart, is wholly yours!" he exclaimed ardently. +"Command them, and if the devoted love of a faithful, plain-spoken man--" + +"Say no more, no, no!" Paula broke in with anxious vehemence. "Let us +remain closely bound together by friendship-as brother and sister." + +"As brother and sister?" he dully echoed with a melancholy smile. "Aye, +friendship too is a beautiful, beautiful thing. But yet--let me speak-- +I have dreamed of love, the tossing sea of passion; I have felt its +surges here--in here; I feel them still.... But man, man," and he struck +his forehead with his fist, "have you forgotten, like a fool, what your +image is in the mirror; have you forgotten that you are an ugly, clumsy +fellow, and that the gorgeous flower you long for. . . ." + +Paula had shrunk back, startled by her friend's vehemence; but she now +went up to him, and taking his hand with frank spirit, she said +impressively: + +"It is not so, Philippus, my dear, kind, only friend. The gorgeous +flower you desire I can no longer give you--or any one. It is mine no +longer; for when it had opened, once for all, cruel feet trod it down. +Do not abuse your mirrored image; do not call yourself a clumsy fellow. +The best and fairest might be proud of your love, just as you are. +Am I not proud, shall I not always be proud of your friendship?" + +"Friendship, friendship!" he retorted, snatching away his hand. +"This burning, longing heart thirsts for other feelings! Oh, woman! +I know the wretch who has trodden down the flower of flowers in your +heart, and I, madman that I am, can sing his praises, can take his part; +and cost what it may, I will still do so as long as you.... But perhaps +the glorious flower may strike new roots in the soil of hatred and I, the +hapless wretch who water it, may see it." + +At this, Paula again took both his hands, and exclaimed in deep and +painful agitation of mind: + +"Say no more, I beg and entreat you. How can I live in peace here, under +your protection and in constant intercourse with you, without knowing +myself guilty of a breach of propriety such as the most sacred feelings +of a young girl bid her avoid, if you persist in overstepping the limits +which bound true and faithful friendship? I am a lonely girl and should +give myself up to despair, as lost, if I could not take refuge in the +belief that I can rely upon myself. Be satisfied with what I have to +offer you, my friend, and may God reward you! Let us both remain worthy +of the esteem which, thank Heaven! we are fully justified in feeling for +each other." + +The physician, deeply moved, bent his head; scarcely able to control +himself, he pressed her firm white hand to his lips, while, just at this +moment, Perpetua and the treasurer came into the room. + +This worthy official--a perfectly commonplace man, neither tall nor +short, neither old nor young, with a pale, anxious face, furrowed by work +and responsibility, but shrewd and finely cut-glanced keenly at the pair, +and then proceeded to lay a considerable sum in gold pieces before Paula. +His young master had sent it, in obedience to his deceased father's +wishes, for her immediate needs; the rest, the larger part of her +fortune, with a full account, would be given over to her after the +Mukaukas was buried. Nilus could, however, give her an approximate idea +of the sum, and it was so considerable that Paula could not believe her +ears. She now saw herself secure against external anxiety, nay, in such +ease that she was justified in living at some expense. + +Philippus was present throughout the interview, and it cut him to the +heart. It had made him so happy to think that he was all in all to the +poor orphan, and could shelter her against pressing want. He had been +prepared to take upon himself the care of providing Paula with the home +she had found and everything she could need; and now, as it turned out, +his protege was not merely higher in rank than himself, but much richer. + +He felt as though Orion's envoy had robbed him of the best joy in life. +After introducing Paula to her worthy host and his family, he quitted the +house of Rufinus with a very crushed aspect. + +When night came Perpetua once more enjoyed the privilege of assisting her +young mistress to undress; but Paula could not sleep, and when she joined +her new friends next morning she told herself that here, if anywhere, was +the place where she might recover her lost peace, but that she must still +have a hard struggle and a long pilgrimage before she could achieve this. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +In whom some good quality or other may not be discovered +Life is not a banquet + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 5. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +During all these hours Orion had been in the solitude of his own rooms. +Next to them was little Mary's sleeping-room; he had not seen the child +again since leaving his father's death-bed. He knew that she was lying +there in a very feverish state, but he could not so far command himself +as to enquire for her. When, now and again, he could not help thinking +of her, he involuntarily clenched his fists. His soul was shaken to the +foundations; desperate, beside himself, incapable of any thought but that +he was the most miserable man on earth--that his father's curse had +blighted him--that nothing could undo what had happened--that some cruel +and inexorable power had turned his truest friend into a foe and had +sundered them so completely that there was no possibility of atonement or +of moving him to a word of pardon or a kindly glance--he paced the long +room from end to end, flinging himself on his knees at intervals before +the divan, and burying his burning face in the soft pillows. From time +to time he could pray, but each time he broke off; for what Power in +Heaven or on earth could unseal those closed eyes and stir that heart to +beat again, that tongue to speak--could vouchsafe to him, the outcast, +the one thing for which his soul thirsted and without which he thought he +must die: Pardon, pardon, his father's pardon! Now and then he struck +his forehead and heart like a man demented, with cries of anguish, curses +and lamentations. + +About midnight--it was but just twelve hours since that fearful scene, +and to him it seemed like as many days--he threw himself on the couch, +dressed as he was in the dark mourning garments, which he had half torn +off in his rage and despair, and broke out into such loud groans that he +himself was almost frightened in the silence of the night. Full of self- +pity and horror at his own deep grief, he turned his face to the wall to +screen his eyes from the clear, full moon, which only showed him things +he did not want to see, while it hurt him. + +His torture was beginning to be quite unbearable; he fancied his soul was +actually wounded, riven, and torn; it had even occurred to him to seize +his sharpest sword and throw himself upon it like Ajax in his fury--and +like Cato--and so put a sudden end to this intolerable and overwhelming +misery. + +He started up for--surely it was no illusion, no mistake-the door of his +room was softly opened and a white figure came in with noiseless, ghostly +steps. He was a brave man, but his blood ran cold; however, in a moment +he recognized his nocturnal visitor as little Mary. She came across the +moonlight without speaking, but he exclaimed in a sharp tone: + +"What is the meaning of this? What do you want?" + +The child started and stood still in alarm, stretching out imploring +hands and whispering timidly: + +"I heard you lamenting. Poor, poor Orion! And it was I who brought it +all on you, and so I could not stay in bed any longer--I must--I could +not help...." But she could say no more for sobs. Orion exclaimed: + +"Very well, very well: go back to your own room and sleep. I will try +not to groan so loud." + +He ended his speech in a less rough tone, for he observed that the child +had come to see him, though she was ill, with bare feet and only in her +night-shift, and was trembling with cold, excitement, and grief. Mary, +however, stood still, shook her head, and replied, still weeping though +less violently: + +"No, no. I shall stop here and not go away till you tell me that you-- +Oh, God, you never can forgive me, but still I must say it, I must." + +With a sudden impulse she ran straight up to him, threw her arms round +his neck, laid her head against his, and then, as he did not immediately +push her away, kissed his cheeks and brow. + +At this a strange feeling came over him; he himself did not know what it +was, but it was as though something within him yielded and gave way, and +the moisture which felt warm in his eyes and on his cheeks was not from +the child's tears but his own. This lasted through many minutes of +silence; but at last he took the little one's arms from about his neck, +saying: + +"How hot your hands and your cheeks are, poor thing! You are feverish, +and the night air blows in chill--you will catch fresh cold by this mad +behavior." + +He had controlled his tears with difficulty, and as he spoke, in broken +accents, he carefully wrapped her in the black robe he had thrown off and +said kindly: + +"Now, be calm, and I will try to compose myself. You did not mean any +harm, and I owe you no grudge. Now go; you will not feel the draught in +the anteroom with that wrap on. Go; be quick." + +"No, no," she eagerly replied. "You must let me say what I have to say +or I cannot sleep. You see I never thought of hurting you so dreadfully, +so horribly--never, never! I was angry with you, to be sure, because-- +but when I spoke I really and truly did not think of you, but only of +poor Paula. You do not know how good she is, and grandfather was so fond +of her before you came home; and he was lying there and going to die so +soon, and I knew that he believed Paula to be a thief and a liar, and it +seemed to me so horrible, so unbearable to see him close his eyes with +such a mistake in his mind, such an injustice!--Not for his sake, oh no! +but for Paula's; so then I--Oh Orion! the Merciful Saviour is my +witness, I could not help it; if I had had to die for it I could not have +helped it! I should have died, if I had not spoken!" + +"And perhaps it was well that you spoke," interrupted the young man, with +a deep sigh. "You see, child, your lost father's miserable brother is a +ruined man and it matters little about him; but Paula, who is a thousand +times better than I am, has at least had justice done her; and as I love +her far more dearly than your little heart can conceive of, I will gladly +be friends with you again: nay, I shall be more fond of you than ever. +That is nothing great or noble, for I need love--much love to make life +tolerable. The best love a man may have I have forfeited, fool that I +am! and now dear, good little soul, I could not bear to lose yours! So +there is my hand upon it; now, give me another kiss and then go to bed +and sleep." + +But still Mary would not do his bidding, but only thanked him vehemently +and then asked with sparkling eyes: + +"Really, truly? Do you love Paula so dearly?" At this point however she +suddenly checked herself. "And little Katharina. . ." + +"Never mind about that," he replied with a sigh. "And learn a lesson +from all this. I, you see, in an hour of recklessness did a wrong thing; +to hide it I had to do further wrong, till it grew to a mountain which +fell on me and crushed me. Now, I am the most miserable of men and I +might perhaps have been the happiest. I have spoilt my own life by my +own folly, weakness, and guilt; and I have lost Paula, who is dearer to +me than all the other creatures on earth put together. Yes, Mary, if she +had been mine, your poor uncle would have been the most enviable fellow +in the world, and he might have been a fine fellow, too, a man of great +achievements. But as it is!--Well, what is done cannot be undone! Now +go to bed child; you cannot understand it all till you are older." + +"Oh I understand it already and much better perhaps than you suppose," +cried the ten years' old child. "And if you love Paula so much why +should not she love you? You are so handsome, you can do so many things, +every one likes you, and Paula would have loved you, too, if only ... +Will you promise not to be angry with me, and may I say it?" + +"Speak out, little simpleton." + +"She cannot owe you any grudge when she knows how dreadfully you are +suffering on her account and that you are good at heart, and only that +once ever did--you know what. Before you came home, grandfather said a +hundred times over what a joy you had been to him all your life through, +and now, now... Well, you are my uncle, and I am only a stupid little +girl; still, I know that it will be just the same with you as it was with +the prodigal son in the Bible. You and grandfather parted in anger...." + +"He cursed me," Orion put in gloomily. + +"No, no! For I heard every word he said. He only spoke of your evil +deed in those dreadful words and bid you go out of his sight." + +"And what is the difference--Cursed or outcast?" + +"Oh! a very great difference! He had good reason to be angry with you; +but the prodigal son in the Bible became his father's best beloved, and +he had the fatted calf slain for him and forgave him all; and so will +grandfather in heaven forgive, if you are good again, as you used to be +to him and to all of us. Paula will forgive you, too; I know her--you +will see. Katharina loved you of course; but she, dear Heaven! She is +almost as much a child as I am; and if only you are kind to her and make +her some pretty present she will soon be comforted. She really deserves +to be punished for bearing false witness, and her punishment cannot, at +any rate, be so heavy as yours." + +These words from the lips of an innocent child could not but fall like +seed corn on the harrowed field of the young man's tortured soul and +refresh it as with morning dew. Long after Mary had gone to rest he lay +thinking them over. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +The funeral rites over the body of the deceased Mukaukas were performed +on the day after the morrow. Since the priesthood had forbidden the old +heathen practice of mummifying the dead, and even cremation had been +forbidden by the Antonines, the dead had to be interred soon after +decease; only those of high rank were hastily embalmed and lay in state +in some church or chapel to which they had contributed an endowment. +Mukaukas George was, by his own desire, to be conveyed to Alexandria and +there buried in the church of St. John by his father's side; but the +carrier pigeon, by which the news of the governor's death had been sent +to the Patriarch, had returned with instructions to deposit the body in +the family tomb at Memphis, as there were difficulties in the way of the +fulfillment of his wishes. + +Such a funeral procession had not been seen there within the memory of +man. Even the Moslem viceroy, the great general Amru, came over from the +other side of the Nile, with his chief military and civil officers, to +pay the last honors to the just and revered governor. Their brown, +sinewy figures, and handsome calm faces, their golden helmets and shirts +of mail, set with precious stones--trophies of the war of destruction in +Persia and Syria--their magnificent horses with splendid trappings, and +the authoritative dignity of their bearing made a great impression on the +crowd. They arrived with slow and impressive solemnity; they returned +like a cloud driven before the storm, galloping homewards from the +burial-ground along the quay, and then thundering and clattering over the +bridge of boats. Vivid and dazzling lightnings had flashed through the +wreaths of white dust that shrouded them, as their gold armor reflected +the sun. Verily, these horsemen, each of them worthy to be a prince in +his pride, could find it no very hard task to subdue the mightiest realms +on earth. + +Men and women alike had gazed at them with trembling admiration: most of +all at the heroic stature and noble dusky face of Amru, and at the son of +the deceased Mukaukas, who, by the Moslem's desire, rode at his side in +mourning garb on a fiery black horse. + +The handsome youth, and the lordly, powerful man were a pair from whom +the women were loth to turn their eyes; for both alike were of noble +demeanor, both of splendid stature, both equally skilled in controlling +the impatience of their steeds, both born to command. Many a Memphite +was more deeply impressed by the head of the famous warrior, erect on a +long and massive throat, with its sharply-chiselled aquiline nose and +flashing black eyes, than by the more regular features and fine, +slightly-waving locks of the governor's son--the last representative of +the oldest and proudest race in all Egypt. + +The Arab looked straight before him with a steady, commanding gaze; the +youth, too, looked up and forwards, but turned from time to time to +survey the crowd of mourners. As he caught sight of Paula, among the +group of women who had joined the procession, a gleam of joy passed over +his pale face, and a faint flush tinged his cheeks; his fixed outlook had +knit his brows and had given his features an expression of such ominous +sternness that one and another of the bystanders whispered: + +"Our gay and affable young lord will make a severe ruler." + +The cause of his indignation had not escaped the notice either of his +noble companion or of the crowd. He alone knew as yet that the Patriarch +had prohibited the removal of his father's remains to Alexandria; but +every one could see that the larger portion of the priesthood of Memphis +were absent from this unprecedented following. The Bishop alone marched +in front of the six horses drawing the catafalque on which the costly +sarcophagus was conveyed to the burying-place, in accordance with ancient +custom:--Bishop Plotinus, with John, a learned and courageous priest, and +a few choristers bearing a crucifix and chanting psalms. + +On arriving at the Necropolis they all dismounted, and the barefooted +runners in attendance on the Arabs came forward to hold the horses. By +the tomb the Bishop pronounced a few warm words of eulogy, after which +the thin chant of the choristers sounded trivial and meagre enough; but +scarcely had they ceased when the crowd uplifted its many thousand +voices, and a hymn of mourning rang out so loud and grand that this +burial ground had scarcely ever heard the like. The remaining ceremonies +were hasty and incomplete, since the priests who were indispensable to +their performance had not made their appearance. + +Amru, whose falcon eye nothing could escape, at once noted the omission +and exclaimed, in so loud and inconsiderate a voice that it could be +heard even at some distance. + +"The dead is made to atone for what the living, in his wisdom, did for +his country's good, hand-in-hand with us Moslems." + +"By the Patriarch's orders," replied Orion, and his voice quavered, +while the veins in his forehead swelled with rage. "But I swear, by my +father's soul, that as surely as there is a just God, it shall be an evil +day for Benjamin when he closes the gate of Heaven against this noblest +of noble souls." + +"We carry the key of ours under our own belt," replied the general, +striking his deep chest, while he smiled consciously and with a kindly +eye on the young man. "Come and see me on Saturday, my young friend; I +have something to say to you! I shall expect you at sundown at my house +over there. If I am not at home by dusk, you must wait for me." + +As he spoke he twisted his hand in his horse's mane and Orion prepared to +assist him to mount; but the Arab, though a man of fifty, was too quick +for him. He flung himself into the saddle as lightly as a youth, and +gave his followers the signal for departure. + +Paula had been standing close to the entrance of the tomb with Dame +Neforis, and she had heard every word of the dialogue between the two +men. Pale, as she beheld him, in costly but simple, flowing, mourning +robes, stricken by solemn and manly indignation, it was impossible that +she should not confess that the events of the last days had had a +powerful effect on the misguided youth. + +When Paula had led the grief-worn but tearless widow to her chariot, and +had then returned home with Perpetua, the image of the handsome and +wrathful youth as he lifted his powerful arm and tightly-clenched fist +and shook them in the air, still constantly haunted her. She had not +failed to observe that he had seen her standing opposite to him by the +open tomb and she had been able to avoid meeting his eye; but her heart +had throbbed so violently that she still felt it quivering, she had not +succeeded in thinking of the beloved dead with due devotion. + +Orion, as yet, had neither come near her in her peaceful retreat, nor +sent any messenger to deliver her belongings, and this she thought very +natural; for she needed no one to tell her how many claims there must be +on his time. + +But though, before the funeral, she had firmly resolved to refuse to see +him if he came, and had given her nurse fall powers to receive from his +hand the whole of her property, after the ceremony this line of conduct +no longer struck her as seemly; indeed, she considered it no more than +her duty to the departed not to repel Orion if he should crave her +forgiveness. + +And there was another thing which she owed to her uncle. She desired to +be the first to point out to Orion, from Philip's point of view, that +life was a post, a duty; and then, if his heart seemed opened to this +admonition, then--but no, this must be all that could pass between them +--then all must be at an end, extinct, dead, like the fires in a sunken +raft, like a soap-bubble that the wind has burst, like an echo that has +died away--all over and utterly gone. + +And as to the counsel she thought of offering to the man she had once +looked up to? What right had she to give it? Did he not look like a man +quite capable of planning and living his own life in his own strength? +Her heart thirsted for him, every fibre of her being yearned to see him +again, to hear his voice, and it was this longing, this craving to which +she gave the name of duty, connecting it with the gratitude she owed to +the dead. + +She was so much absorbed in these reflections and doubts that she +scarcely heard all the garrulous old nurse was saying as she walked by +her side. + +Perpetua could not be easy over such a funeral ceremony as this; so +different to anything that Memphis had been wont to see. No priests, a +procession on horseback, mourners riding, and among them the son even of +the dead--while of old the survivors had always followed the body on +foot, as was everywhere the custom! And then a mere chirping of crickets +at the tomb of such illustrious dead, followed by the disorderly +squalling of an immense mob--it had nearly cracked her ears! However, +the citizens might be forgiven for that, since it was all in honor of +their departed governor!--this thought touched even her resolute heart +and brought the tears to her eyes; but it roused her wrath, too, for had +she not seen quite humble folk buried in a more solemn manner and with +worthier ceremonial than the great and good Mukaukas George, who had made +such a magnificent gift to the Church. Oh those Jacobites! They only +were capable of such ingratitude, only their heretical prelate could +commit such a crime. Every one in the Convent of St. Cecilia, from the +abbess down to the youngest novice, knew that the Patriarch had sent word +by a carrier pigeon forbidding the Bishop to allow the priests to take +part in the ceremony. Plotinus was a worthy man, and he had been highly +indignant at these instructions; it was not in his power to contravene +them; but at any rate he had led the procession in person, and had not +forbidden John's accompanying him. Orion, however, had not looked as +though he meant to brook such an insult to his father or let it pass +unpunished. And whose arm was long enough to reach the Patriarch's +throne if not.... But no, it was impossible! the mere thought of such a +thing made her blood run cold. Still, still... And how graciously the +Moslem leader had talked with him!--Merciful Heaven! If he were to turn +apostate from the holy Christian faith, like so many reprobate Egyptians, +and subscribe to the wicked doctrines of the Arabian false prophet! +It was a tempting creed for shameless men, allowing them to have half +a dozen wives or more without regarding it as a sin. A man like Orion +could afford to keep them, of course; for the abbess had said that every +one knew that the great Mukaukas was a very rich man, though even the +chief magistrate of the city could not fully satisfy himself concerning +the enormous amount of property left. Well, well; God's ways were past +finding out. Why should He smother one under heaps of gold, while He +gave thousands of poor creatures too little to satisfy their hunger! + +By the end of this torrent of words the two women had reached the house; +and not till then was Paula clear in her own mind: Away, away with the +passion which still strove for the mastery, whether it were in deed +hatred or love! For she felt that she could not rightly enjoy her +recovered freedom, her new and quiet happiness in the pretty home she +owed to the physician's thoughtful care, till she had finally given up +Orion and broken the last tie that had bound her to his house. + +Could she desire anything more than what the present had to offer her? +She had found a true haven of rest where she lacked for nothing that she +could desire for herself after listening to the admonitions of Philip +pus. Round her were good souls who felt with and for her, many +occupations for which she was well-fitted, and which suited her tastes, +with ample opportunities of bestowing and winning love. Then, a few +steps through pleasant shades took her to the convent where she could +every day attend divine service among pious companions of her own creed, +as she had done in her childhood. She had longed intensely for such food +for the spirit, and the abbess--who was the widow of a distinguished +patrician of Constantinople and had known Paula's parents--could supply +it in abundance. How gladly she talked to the girl of the goodness and +the beauty of those to whom she owed her being and whom she had so early +lost! She could pour out to this motherly soul all that weighed on her +own, and was received by her as a beloved daughter of her old age. + +And her hosts--what kind-hearted though singular folks! nay, in their +way, remarkable. She had never dreamed that there could be on earth any +beings at once so odd and so lovable. + +First there was old Rufinus, the head of the house, a vigorous, hale old +man, who, with his long silky, snow-white hair and beard, looked +something like the aged St. John and something like a warrior grown grey +in service. What an amiable spirit of childlike meekness he had, in +spite of the rough ways he sometimes fell into. Though inclined to be +contradictory in his intercourse with his fellow-men, he was merry and +jocose when his views were opposed to theirs. She had never met a more +contented soul or a franker disposition, and she could well understand +how much it must fret and gall such a man to live on,--day after day, +appearing, in one respect at any rate, different from what he really was. +For he, too, belonged to her confession; but, though he sent his wife and +daughter to worship in the convent chapel, he himself was compelled to +profess himself a Coptic Christian, and submit to the necessity of +attending a Jacobite church with all his family on certain holy days, +averse as he was to its unattractive form of worship. + +Rufinus possessed a sufficient fortune to secure him a comfortable +maintenance; and yet he was hard at work, in his own way, from morning +till night. Not that his labors brought him any revenues; on the +contrary, they led to claims on his resources; every one knew that he was +a man of good means, and this would have certainly involved him in +persecution if the Patriarch's spies had discovered him to be a Melchite, +resulting in exile and probably the confiscation of his goods. Hence it +was necessary to exercise caution, and if the old man could have found a +purchaser for his house and garden, in a city where there were ten times +as many houses empty as occupied, he would long since have set out with +all his household to seek a new home. + +Most aged people of vehement spirit and not too keen intellect, adopt a +saying as a stop-gap or resting-place, and he was fond of using two +phrases one of which ran: "As sure as man is the standard of all things" +and the other--referring to his house--"As sure as I long to be quit of +this lumber." But the lumber consisted of a well-built and very spacious +dwellinghouse, with a garden which had commanded a high price in earlier +times on account of its situation near the river. He himself had +acquired it at very small cost shortly before the Arab incursion, +and--so quickly do times change--he had actually bought it from a +Jacobite Christian who had been forced by the Melchite Patriarch Cyrus, +then in power, to fly in haste because he had found means to convert his +orthodox slaves to his confession. + +It was Philippus who had persuaded his accomplished and experienced +friend to come to Memphis; he had clung to him faithfully, and they +assisted each other in their works. + +Rufinus' wife, a frail, ailing little woman, with a small face and +rather hollow cheeks, who must once have been very attractive and +engaging, might have passed for his daughter; she was, in fact, twenty +years younger than her husband. It was evident that she had suffered +much in the course of her life, but had taken it patiently and all for +the best. Her restless husband had caused her the greatest trouble and +alarms, and yet she exerted herself to the utmost to make his life +pleasant. She had the art of keeping every obstacle and discomfort out +of his way, and guessed with wonderful instinct what would help him, +comfort him, and bring him joy. The physician declared that her stooping +attitude, her bent head, and the enquiring expression of her bright, +black eyes were the result of her constant efforts to discover even a +straw that might bring harm to Rufinus if his callous and restless foot +should tread on it. + +Their daughter Pulcheria, was commonly called "Pul" for short, to save +time, excepting when the old man spoke of her by preference as "the poor +child." There was at all times something compassionate in his attitude +towards his daughter; for he rarely looked at her without asking himself +what could become of this beloved child when he, who was so much older, +should have closed his eyes in death and his Joanna perhaps should soon +have followed him; while Pulcheria, seeing her mother take such care of +her father that nothing was left for her to do, regarded herself as the +most superfluous creature on earth and would have been ready at any time +to lay down her life for her parents, for the abbess, for her faith, for +the leech; nay, and though she had known her for no more than two days, +even for Paula. However, she was a very pretty, well-grown girl, with +great open blue eyes and a dreamy expression, and magnificent red-gold +hair which could hardly be matched in all Egypt. Her father had long +known of her desire to enter the convent as a novice and become a nursing +sister; but though he had devoted his whole life to a similar impulse, +he had more than once positively refused to accede to her wishes, for he +must ere long be gathered to his fathers and then her mother, while she +survived him, would want some one else to wear herself out for. + +Just now "Pul" was longing less than usual to take the veil; for she had +found in Paula a being before whom she felt small indeed, and to whom her +unenvious soul, yearning and striving for the highest, could look up in +satisfied and rapturous admiration. In addition to this, there were +under her own roof two sufferers needing her care: Rustem, the wounded +Masdakite, and the Persian girl. Neforis, who since the fearful hour of +her husband's death had seemed stunned and indifferent to all the claims +of daily life, living only in her memories of the departed, had been more +than willing to leave to the physician the disposal of these two and +their removal from her house. + +In the evening after Paula's arrival Philippus had consulted with his +friends as to the reception of these new guests, and the old man had +interrupted him, as soon as he raised the question of pecuniary +indemnification, exclaiming: + +"They are all very welcome. If they have wounds, we will make them heal; +if their heads are turned, we will screw them the right way round; if +their souls are dark, we will light up a flame in them. If the fair +Paula takes a fancy to us, she and her old woman may stay as long as it +suits her and us. We made her welcome with all our hearts; but, on the +other hand, you must understand that we must be free to bid her farewell +--as free as she is to depart. It is impossible ever to know exactly how +such grand folks will get on with humble ones, and as sure as I long to +be quit of this piece of lumber I might one day take it into my head to +leave it to the owls and jackals and fare forth, staff in hand.--You know +me. As to indemnification--we understand each other. A full purse hangs +behind the sick, and the sound one has ten times more than she needs, so +they may pay. You must decide how much; only--for the women's sake, and +I mean it seriously--be liberal. You know what I need Mammon for; and it +would be well for Joanna if she had less need to turn over every silver +piece before she spends it in the housekeeping. Besides, the lady +herself will be more comfortable if she contributes to pay for the food +and drink. It would ill beseem the daughter of Thomas to be down every +evening under the roof of such birds of passage as we are with thanks for +favors received. When each one pays his share we stand on a footing of +give and take; and if either one feels any particular affection to +another it is not strangled by 'thanks' or 'take it;' it is love for +love's sake and a joy to both parties." + +"Amen," said the leech; and Paula had been quite satisfied by her +friend's arrangements. + +By the next day she felt herself one of the household, though she every +hour found something that could not fail to strike her as strange. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +When Paula had eaten with Rufinus and his family after the funeral +ceremonies, she went into the garden with Pul and the old man--it had +been impossible to induce Perpetua to sit at the same table with her +mistress. The sun was now low, and its level beams gave added lustre to +the colors of the flowers and to the sheen of the thick, metallic foliage +of the south, which the drought and scorching heat had still spared. +A bright-hued humped ox and an ass were turning the wheel which raised +cooling waters from the Nile and poured them into a large tank from which +they flowed through narrow rivulets to irrigate the beds. This toil was +now very laborious, for the river had fallen to so low a level as to give +cause for anxiety, even at this season of extreme ebb. Numbers of birds +with ruffled feathers, with little splints on their legs, or with sadly +drooping heads, were going to roost in small cages hung from the branches +to protect them from cats and other beasts of prey; to each, as he went +by, Rufinus spoke a kindly word, or chirruped to encourage and cheer it. +Aromatic odors filled the garden, and rural silence; every object shone +in golden glory, even the black back of the negro working at the water- +wheel, and the white and yellow skin of the ox; while the clear voices of +the choir of nuns thrilled through the convent-grove. Pul listened, +turning her face to meet it, and crossing her arms over her heart. Her +father pointed to her as he said to Paula: + +"That is where her heart is. May she ever have her God before her eyes! +That cannot but be the best thing for a woman. Still, among such as we +are, we must hold to the rule: Every man for his fellowman on earth, in +the name of the merciful Lord!--Can our wise and reasonable Father in +Heaven desire that brother should neglect brother, or--as in our case--a +child forsake its parents?" + +"Certainly not," replied Paula. "For my own part, nothing keeps me from +taking the veil but my hope of finding my long-lost father; I, like your +Pulcheria, have often longed for the peace of the cloister. How piously +rapt your daughter stands there! What a sweet and touching sight!--In my +heart all was dark and desolate; but here, among you all, it is already +beginning to feel lighter, and here, if anywhere, I shall recover what I +lost in my other home.--Happy child! Could you not fancy, as she stands +there in the evening light, that the pure devotion which fills her soul, +radiated from her? If I were not afraid of disturbing her, and if I were +worthy, how gladly would I join my prayers to hers!" + +"You have a part in them as it is," replied the old man with a smile. +"At this moment St. Cecilia appears to her under the guise of your +features. We will ask her--you will see." + +"No, leave her alone!" entreated Paula with a blush, and she led Rufinus +away to the other end of the garden. + +They soon reached a spot where a high hedge of thorny shrubs parted the +old man's plot from that of Susannah. Rufinus here pricked up his ears +and then angrily exclaimed: + +"As sure as I long to be quit of this lumber, they are cutting my hedge +again! Only last evening I caught one of the slaves just as he was going +to work on the branches; but how could I get at the black rascal through +the thorns? It was to make a peep-hole for curious eyes, or for spies, +for the Patriarch knows how to make use of a petticoat; but I will be +even with them! Do you go on, pray, as if you had seen and heard +nothing; I will fetch my whip." + +The old man hurried away, and Paula was about to obey him; but scarcely +had he disappeared when she heard herself called in a shrill girl's voice +through a gap in the hedge, and looking round, she spied a pretty face +between the boughs which had yesterday been forced asunder by a man's +hands--like a picture wreathed with greenery. + +Even in the twilight she recognized it at once, and when Katharina put +her curly head forward, and said in a beseeching tone: "May I get +through, and will you listen to me?" she gladly signified her consent. + +The water-wagtail, heedless of Paula's hand held out to help her, slipped +through the gap so nimbly that it was evident that she had not long +ceased surmounting such obstacles in her games with Mary. As swift as +the wind she came down on her feet, holding out her arms to rush at +Paula; but she suddenly let them fall in visible hesitancy, and drew back +a step. Paula, however, saw her embarrassment; she drew the girl to her, +kissed her forehead, and gaily exclaimed: + +"Trespassing! And why could you not come in by the gate? Here comes my +host with his hippopotamus thong.--Stop, stop, good Rufinus, for the +breach effected in your flowery wall was intended against me and not +against you. There stands the hostile power, and I should be greatly +surprised if you did not recognize her as a neighbor?" + +"Recognize her?" said the old man, whose wrath was quickly appeased. +"Do we know each other, fair damsel--yes or no? It is an open question." + +"Of course!" cried Katharina, "I have seen you a hundred times from the +gnat-tower." + +"You have had less pleasure than I should have had, if I had been so +happy as to see you.--We came across each other about a year ago. I was +then so happy as to find you in my large peach-tree, which to this day +takes the liberty of growing over your garden-plot." + +"I was but a child then," laughed Katharina, who very well remembered how +the old man, whose handsome white head she had always particularly +admired, had spied her out among the boughs of his peach-tree and had +advised her, with a good-natured nod, to enjoy herself there. + +"A child!" repeated Rufinus. "And now we are quite grown up and do not +care to climb so high, but creep humbly through our neighbor's hedge." + +"Then you really are strangers?" cried Paula in surprise. "And have you +never met Pulcheria, Katharina?" + +"Pul?--oh, how glad I should have been to call her!" said Katharina. +"I have been on the point of it a hundred times; for her mere appearance +makes one fall in love with her,--but my mother. . . ." + +"Well, and what has your mother got to say against her neighbors?" asked +Rufinus. "I believe we are peaceable folks who do no one any harm." + +"No, no, God forbid! But my mother has her own way of viewing things; +you and she are strangers still, and as you are so rarely to be seen in +church. . . ." + +"She naturally takes us for the ungodly. Tell her that she is mistaken, +and if you are Paula's friend and you come to see her--but prettily, +through the gate, and not through the hedge, for it will be closely +twined again by to-morrow morning--if you come here, I say, you will find +that we have a great deal to do and a great many creatures to nurse and +care for--poor human creatures some of them, and some with fur or +feathers, just as it comes; and man serves his Maker if he only makes +life easier to the beings that come in his way; for He loves them all. +Tell that to your mother, little wagtail, and come again very often." + +"Thank you very much. But let me ask you, if I may, where you heard that +odious nickname? I hate it." + +"From the same person who told you the secret that my Pulcheria is called +Pul!" said Rufinus; he laughed and bowed and left the two girls +together. + +"What a dear old man!" cried Katharina. "Oh, I know quite well how he +spends his Days! And his pretty wife and Pul--I know them all. How +often I have watched them--I will show you the place one day! I can see +over the whole garden, only not what goes on near the convent on the +other side of the house, or beyond those trees. You know my mother; +if she once dislikes any one... But Pul, you understand, would be such +a friend for me!" + +"Of course she would," replied Paula. "And a girl of your age must chose +older companions than little Mary." + +"Oh, you shall not say a word against her!" cried Katharina eagerly. +"She is only ten years old, but many a grown-up person is not so upright +or so capable as I have found her during these last few miserable days." + +"Poor child!" said Paula stroking her hair. + +At this a bitter sob broke suddenly and passionately from Katharina; she +tried with all her might to suppress it, but could not succeed. Her fit +of weeping was so violent that she could not utter a word, till Paula had +led her to a bench under a spreading sycamore, had induced her with +gentle force to sit down by her side, clasping her in her arms like a +suffering child, and speaking to her words of comfort and encouragement. + +Birds without number were going to rest in the dense branches overhead, +owls and bats had begun their nocturnal raids, the sky put on its +spangled glory of gold and silver stars, from the western end of the town +came the jackals' bark as they left their lurking-places among the ruined +houses and stole out in search of prey, the heavy dew, falling through +the mild air silently covered the leaves, the grass, and the flowers; the +garden was more powerfully fragrant now than during the day-time, and +Paula felt that it was high time to take refuge from the mists that came +up from the shallow stream. But still she lingered while the little +maiden poured out all that weighed upon her, all she repented of, +believing she could never atone for it; and then all she had gone +through, thinking it must break her heart, and all she still had to +live down and drive out of her mind. + +She told Paula how Orion had wooed her, how much she loved him, how her +heart had been tortured by jealousy of her, Paula, and how she had +allowed herself to be led away into bearing false witness before the +judges. And then she went on to say it was Mary who had first opened her +eyes to the abyss by which she was standing. In the afternoon after the +death of the Mukaukas she had gone with her mother to the governor's +house to join in her friends' lamentations. She had at once asked after +Mary, but had not been allowed to see her, for she was still in bed and +very feverish. She was then on her way to the cool hall when she heard +her mother's voice--not in grief, but angry and vehement--so, thinking it +would be more becoming to keep out of the way, she wandered off into the +pillared vestibule opening towards the Nile. She would not for worlds +have met Orion, and was terribly afraid she might do so, but as she went +out, for it was still quite light, there she found him--and in what a +state! He was sitting all in a heap, dressed in black, with his head +buried in his hands. He had not observed her presence; but she pitied +him deeply, for though it was very hot he was trembling in every limb, +and his strong frame shuddered repeatedly. She had therefore spoken to +him, begging him to be comforted, at which he had started to his feet in +dismay, and had pushed his unkempt hair back from his face, looking so +pale, so desperate, that she had been quite terrified and could not +manage to bring out the consoling words she had ready. For some time +neither of them had uttered a syllable, but at length he had pulled +himself together as if for some great deed, he came slowly towards her +and laid his hands on her shoulders with a solemn dignity which no one +certainly had ever before seen in him. He stood gazing into her face-- +his eyes were red with much weeping--and he sighed from his very heart +the two words: "Unhappy Child!"--She could hear them still sounding in +her ears. + +And he was altered: from head to foot quite different, like a stranger. +His voice, even, sounded changed and deeper than usual as he went on: + +"Child, child! Perhaps I have given much pain in my life without knowing +it; but you have certainly suffered most through me, for I have made you, +an innocent, trusting creature, my accomplice in crime. The great sin we +both committed has been visited on me alone, but the punishment is a +hundred--a thousand times too heavy!" + +"And with this," Katharina went on, "he covered his face with his hands, +threw himself on the couch again, and groaned and sighed. Then he sprang +up once more, crying out so loud and passionately that I felt as if I +must die of grief and pity: 'Forgive me if you can! Forgive me, wholly, +freely. I want it--you must, you must! I was going to run up to him and +throw my arms round him and forgive him everything, his trouble +distressed me so much; but he gravely pushed me away--not roughly or +sternly, and he said that there was an end of all love-making and +betrothal between us--that I was young, and that I should be able to +forget him. He would still be a true friend to me and to my mother, +and the more we required of him the more gladly would he serve us. + +"I was about to answer him, but he hastily interrupted me and said firmly +and decisively: 'Lovable as you are, I cannot love you as you deserve; +for it is my duty to tell you, I have another and a greater love in my +heart--my first and my last; and though once in my life I have proved +myself a wretch, still, it was but once; and I would rather endure your +anger, and hurt both you and myself now, than continue this unrighteous +tie and cheat you and others.'--At this I was greatly startled, and +asked: 'Paula?' However, he did not answer, but bent over me and touched +my forehead with his lips, just as my father often kissed me, and then +went quickly out into the garden. + +"Just then my mother came up, as red as a poppy and panting for breath: +she took me by the hand without a word, dragged me into the chariot after +her, and then cried out quite beside herself--she could not even shed a +tear for rage: 'What insolence! what unheard-of behavior--How can I find +the heart to tell you, poor sacrificed lamb. . .'" + +"And she would have gone on, but that I would not let her finish; I told +her at once that I knew all, and happily I was able to keep quite calm. +I had some bad hours at home; and when Nilus came to us yesterday, after +the opening of the will, and brought me the pretty little gold box with +turquoises and pearls that I have always admired, and told me that the +good Mukaukas had written with his own hand, in his last will, that it +was to be given to me I his bright little 'Katharina,' my mother insisted +on my not taking it and sent it back to Neforis, though I begged and +prayed to keep it. And of course I shall never go to that house again; +indeed my mother talks of quitting Memphis altogether and settling in +Constantinople or some other city under Christian rule. 'Then our nice, +pretty house must be given up, and our dear, lovely garden be sold to the +peasant folk, my mother says. It was just the same a year and a half ago +with Memnon's palace. His garden was turned into a corn-field, and the +splendid ground-floor rooms, with their mosaics and pictures, are now +dirty stables for cows and sheep, and pigs are fed in the rooms that +belonged to Hathor and Dorothea. Good Heavens! And they were my +clearest friends! And I am never to play with Mary any more; and mother +has not a kind word for any living soul, hardly even for me, and my old +nurse is as deaf as a mole! Am I not a really miserable, lonely +creature? And if you, even you, will have nothing to say to me, who is +there in all Memphis whom I can trust in? But you will not be so cruel, +will you? And it will not be for long, for my mother really means to go +away. You are older than I am, of course, and much graver and wiser...." + +"I will be kind to you, child; but try to make friends with Pulcheria!" + +"Gladly, gladly. But then my mother! I should get on very well by +myself if it were not. . . Well, you yourself heard what Orion said to +me, that time in the avenue. He surely loved me a little! What sweet, +tender names he gave me then. Oh God! no man can speak like that to any +one he is not fond of!--And he is rich himself; it cannot have been only +my fortune that bewitched him. And does he look like a man who would +allow himself to be parted from a girl by his mother, whether he would or +no?" + +"He was always fond of me I think; but then, afterwards, he remembered +what a high position he had to fill and regarded me as too little and too +childish. Oh, how many tears I have shed over being so absurdly little! +A Water-wagtail--that is what I shall always be. Your old host called me +so; and if a man like Orion feels that he must have a stately wife I can +hardly blame him. That other one whom he thinks he loves better than he +does me is tall and beautiful and majestic--like you; and I have always +told myself that his future wife ought to look like you. It is all over +between him and me, and I will submit humbly; but at the same time I +cannot help thinking that when he came home he thought me pretty and +attractive, and had a real fancy and liking for me. Yes, it was so, it +certainly was so!--But then he saw that other one, and I cannot compare +with her. She is indeed the woman he wants,--and that other, Paula, is +yourself. Yes, indeed, you yourself; an inner voice tells me so. And I +tell you truly, you may quite believe me: it is a pain no doubt, but I +can be glad of it too. I should hate any mere girl to whom he held out +his hand--but, if you are that other--and if you are his wife. . ." + +"Nonsense," exclaimed Paula decidedly. "Consider what you are saying. +When Orion tempted you to perjure yourself, did he behave as my friend or +as my foe, my bitterest and most implacable enemy?" + +"Before the judges, to be sure. . ." replied the girl looking down +thoughtfully. But she soon looked up again, fixed her eyes on Paula's +face with a sparkling, determined glance, and frankly and unhesitatingly +exclaimed: "And you?--In spite of it all he is so handsome, so clever, so +manly. You can hardly help it--you love him!" + +Paula withdrew her arm, which had been round Katharina, and answered +candidly. + +"Until to-day, at the funeral, I hated and abominated him; but there, +by his father's tomb, he struck me as a new man, and I found it easy to +forgive him in my heart." + +"Then you mean to say that you do not love him?" urged Katharina, +clasping her friend's round arm with her slender fingers. + +Paula started to feel how icy cold her hand was. The moon was up, the +stars rose higher and higher, so, simply saying: "Come away," she rose. +"It must be within an hour of midnight," she added. "Your mother will be +anxious about you." + +"Only an hour of midnight!" repeated the girl in alarm. "Good Heavens, +I shall have a scolding! She is still playing draughts with the Bishop, +no doubt, as she does every evening. Good-bye then for the present. +The shortest way is through the hedge again." + +"No," said Paula firmly, "you are no longer a child; you are grown up, +and must feel it and show it. You are not to creep through the bushes, +but to go home by the gate. Rufinus and I will go with you and explain +to your mother. . ." + +"No, no!" cried Katharina in terror. "She is as angry with you as she +is with them. Only yesterday she forbid. . ." + +"Forbid you to come to me?" asked Paula. "Does she believe. . ." + +"That it was for your sake that Orion.... Yes, she is only too glad to +lay all the blame on you. But now that I have talked to you I.... Look, +do you see that light? It is in her sitting-room." + +And, before Paula could prevent her, she ran to the hedge and slipped +through the gap as nimbly as a weasel. + +Paula looked after her with mingled feelings, and then went back to the +house, and to bed. Katharina's story kept her awake for a long time, and +the suspicion--nay almost the conviction--that it was herself, indeed, +who had aroused that "great love" in Orion's heart gave her no rest. If +it were she? There, under her hand was the instrument of revenge on the +miscreant; she could make him taste of all the bitterness he had brewed +for her aching spirit. But which of them would the punishment hurt most +sorely: him or herself? Had not the little girl's confidences revealed a +world of rapture to her and her longing heart? No, no. It would be too +humiliating to allow the same hand that had smitten her so ruthlessly to +uplift her to heaven; it would be treason against herself. + +Slumber overtook her in the midst of these conflicting feelings and +thoughts, and towards morning she had a dream which, even by daylight, +haunted her and made her shudder. + +She saw Orion coming towards her, as pale as death, robed in mourning, +pacing slowly on a coal-black horse; she had not the strength to fly, and +without speaking to her or looking at her, he lifted her high in the air +like a child, and placed her in front of him on the horse. She put forth +all her strength to get free and dismount, but he clasped her with both +arms like iron clamps and quelled her efforts. Life itself would not +have seemed too great a price for escape from this constraint; but, the +more wildly she fought, the more closely she was held by the silent and +pitiless horseman. At their feet flowed the swirling river, but Orion +did not seem to notice it, and without moving his lips, he coolly guided +the steed towards the water. Beside herself now with horror and dread, +she implored him to turn away; but he did not heed her, and went on +unmoved into the midst of the stream. Her terror increased to an +agonizing pitch as the horse bore her deeper and deeper into the water; +of her own free will she threw her arms round the rider's neck; his +paleness vanished, his cheeks gained a ruddy hue, his lips sought hers in +a kiss; and, in the midst of the very anguish of death, she felt a thrill +of rapture that she had never known before. She could have gone on thus +for ever, even to destruction; and, in fact, they were still sinking--she +felt the water rising breast high, but she cared not. Not a word had +either of them spoken. Suddenly she felt urged to break the silence, and +as if she could not help it she asked: "Am I the other?" At this the +waves surged down on them from all sides; a whirlpool dragged away the +horse, spinning him round, and with him Orion and herself, a shrill blast +swept past them, and then the current and the waves, the roaring of the +whirlpool, the howling of the storm--all at once and together, as with +one voice, louder than all else and filling her ears, shouted: "Thou!"-- +Only Orion remained speechless. An eddy caught the horse and sucked him +under, a wave carried her away from him, she was sinking, sinking, and +stretched out her arms with longing.--A cold dew stood on her brow as she +slept, and the nurse, waking her from her uneasy dream, shook her head as +she said: + +"Why, child? What ails you? You have been calling Orion again and +again, at first in terror and then so tenderly.--Yes, believe me, +tenderly." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +In the neat rooms which Rufinus' wife had made ready for her sick guests +perfect peace reigned, and it was noon. A soft twilight fell through the +thick green curtains which mitigated the sunshine, and the nurses had +lately cleared away after the morning meal. Paula was moistening the +bandage on the Masdakite's head, and Pulcheria was busy in the adjoining +room with Mandane, who obeyed the physician's instructions with +intelligent submission and showed no signs of insanity. + +Paula was still spellbound by her past dream. She was possessed by such +unrest that, quite against her wont, she could not long remain quiet, and +when Pulcheria came to her to tell her this or that, she listened with so +little attention and sympathy that the humble-minded girl, fearing to +disturb her, withdrew to her patient's bed-side and waited quietly till +her new divinity called her. + +In fact, it was not without reason that Paula gave herself up to a +certain anxiety; for, if she was not mistaken, Orion must necessarily +present himself to hand over to her the remainder of her fortune; and +though even yesterday, on her way from the cemetery, she had said to +herself that she must and would refuse to meet him, the excitement +produced by Katharina's story and her subsequent dream had confirmed +her in her determination. + +Perpetua awaited Orion's visit on the ground-floor, charged to announce +him to Rufinus and not to her mistress. The old man had willingly +undertaken to receive the money as her representative; for Philippus had +not concealed from her that he had acquainted him with the circumstances +under which Paula had quitted the governor's house, describing Orion as a +man whom she had good reason for desiring to avoid. + +By about two hours after noon Paula's restlessness had increased so much +that now and then she wandered out of the sick-room, which looked over +the garden, to watch the Nile-quay from the window of the anteroom; for +he might arrive by either way. She never thought of the security of her +property; but the question arose in her mind as to whether it were not +actually a breach of duty to avoid the agitation it would cost her to +meet her cousin face to face. On this point no one could advise her, +not even Perpetua; her own mother could hardly have understood all her +feelings on such an occasion. She scarcely knew herself indeed; for +hitherto she had never failed, even in the most difficult cases, to know +at once and without long reflection, what to do and to leave undone, what +under special circumstances was right or wrong. But now she felt herself +a yielding reed, a leaf tossed hither and thither; and every time she set +her teeth and clenched her hands, determined to think calmly and to +reason out the "for" and "against," her mind wandered away again, while +the memory of her dream, of Orion as he stood by his father's grave--of +Katharina's tale of "the other," and the fearful punishment which he had +to suffer, nay indeed, certainly had suffered--came and went in her mind +like the flocks of birds over the Nile, whose dipping and soaring had +often passed like a fluttering veil between her eye and some object on +the further shore. + +It was three hours past noon, and she had returned to the sick-room, when +she thought that she heard hoofs in the garden and hurried to the window +once more. Her heart had not beat more wildly when the dog had flown at +her and Hiram that fateful night, than it did now as she hearkened to the +approach of a horseman, still hidden from her gaze by the shrubs. It +must be Orion--but why did he not dismount? No, it could not be he; his +tall figure would have overtopped the shrubbery which was of low growth. + +She did not know her host's friends; it was one of them very likely. Now +the horse had turned the corner; now it was coming up the path from the +front gate; now Rufinus had gone forth to meet the visitor--and it was +not Orion, but his secretary, a much smaller man, who slipped off a mule +that she at once recognized, threw the reins to a lad, handed something +to the old man, and then dropped on to a bench to yawn and stretch his +legs. + +Then she saw Rufinus come towards the house. Had Orion charged this +messenger to bring her her possessions? She thought this somewhat +insulting, and her blood boiled with wrath. But there could be no +question here of a surrender of property; for what her host was holding +in his hand was nothing heavy, but a quite small object; probably, nay, +certainly a roll of papyrus. He was coming up the narrow stairs, so she +ran out to meet him, blushing as though she were doing something wrong. +The old man observed this and said, as he handed her the scroll: + +"You need not be frightened, daughter of a hero. The young lord is not +here himself, he prefers, it would seem, to treat with you by letter; +and it is best so for both parties." + +Paula nodded agreement; she took the roll, and then, while she tore the +silken tie from the seal, she turned her back on the old man; for she +felt that the blood had faded from her face, and her hands were +trembling. + +"The messenger awaits an answer," remarked Rufinus, before she began to +read it. "I shall be below and at your service." He left; Paula +returned to the sick-room, and leaning against the frame of the casement, +read as follows, with eager agitation: + +"Orion, the son of George the Mukaukas who sleeps in the Lord, to his +cousin the daughter of the noble Thomas of Damascus, greeting. + +"I have destroyed several letters that I had written to you before this +one." Paula shrugged her shoulders incredulously. "I hope I may succeed +better this time in saying what I feel to be indispensable for your +welfare and my own. I have both to crave a favor and offer counsel." + +"Counsel! he!" thought the girl with a scornful curl of the lips, as she +went on. "May the memory of the man who loved you as his daughter, and +who on his death-bed wished for nothing so much as to see you--averse as +he was to your creed--and bless you as his daughter indeed, as his son's +wife,--may the remembrance of that just man so far prevail over your +indignant and outraged soul that these words from the most wretched man +on earth, for that am I, Paula, may not be left unread. Grant me the +last favor I have to ask of you--I demand it in my father's name." + +"Demand!" repeated the damsel; her cheeks flamed, her eye sparkled +angrily, and her hands clutched the opposite sides of the letter as +though to tear it across. But the next words: "Do not fear," checked her +hasty impulse--she smoothed out the papyrus and read on with growing +excitement: + +"Do not fear that I shall address you as a lover--as the man for whom +there is but one woman on earth. And that one can only be she whom I +have so deeply injured, whom I fought with as frantic, relentless, and +cruel weapons as ever I used against a foe of my own sex." + +"But one," murmured the girl; she passed her hand across her brow, and a +faint smile of happy pride dwelt on her lips as she went on: + +"I shall love you as long as breath animates this crushed and wretched +heart." + +Again the letter was in danger of destruction, but again it escaped +unharmed, and Paula's expression became one of calm and tender pleasure +as she read to the end of Orion's clearly written epistle: + +"I am fully conscious that I have forfeited your esteem, nay even all +good feeling towards me, by my own fault; and that, unless divine love +works some miracle in your heart, I have sacrificed all joy on earth. +You are revenged; for it was for your sake--understand that--for your +sake alone, that my beloved and dying father withdrew the blessings he +had heaped on my remorseful head, and in wrath that was only too just at +the recreant who had desecrated the judgment-seat of his ancestors, +turned that blessing to a curse." + +Paula turned pale as she read. This then was what Katharina had meant. +This was what had so changed his appearance, and perhaps, too, his whole +inward being. And this, this bore the stamp of truth, this could not be +a lie--it was for her sake that a father's curse had blighted his only +son! How had it all happened? Had Philippus failed to observe it, or +had he held his peace out of respect for the secrets of another?--Poor +man, poor young man! She must see him, must speak to him. She could not +have a moment's ease till she knew how it was that her uncle, a tender +father.--But she must go on, quickly to the end: + +"I come to you only as what I am: a heart-broken man, too young to give +myself over for lost, and at the same time determined to make use of all +that remains to me of the steadfast will, the talents, and the self- +respect of my forefathers to render me worthy of them, and I implore you +to grant me a brief interview. Not a word, not a look shall betray the +passion within and which threatens to destroy me. + +"You must on no account fail to read what follows, since it is of no +small real importance even to you. In the first place restitution must +be made to you of all of your inheritance which the deceased was able to +rescue and to add to by his fatherly stewardship. In these agitated +times it will be a matter of some difficulty to invest this capital +safely and to good advantage. Consider: just as the Arabs drove out +the Byzantines, the Byzantines might drive them out again in their turn. +The Persians, though stricken to the earth, the Avars, or some other +people whose very name is as yet unknown to history, may succeed our +present rulers, who, only ten years since, were regarded as a mere +handful of unsettled camel-drivers, caravan-leaders, and poverty-stricken +desert-tribes. The safety of your fortune would be less difficult to +provide for if, as was formerly the case here, we could entrust it to the +merchants of Alexandria. But one great house after another is being +ruined there, and all security is at an end. As to hiding or burying +your possessions, as most Egyptians do in these hard times, it is +impossible, for the same reason as prevents our depositing it on interest +in the state land-register. You must be able to get it at the shortest +notice; since you might at some time wish to quit Egypt in haste with all +your possessions. + +"These are matters with which a woman cannot be familiar. I would +therefore propose that you should leave the arrangement of them to us +men; to Philippus, the physician, Rufinus, your host--who is, I am +assured, an honest man--and to our experienced and trustworthy treasurer +Nilus, whom you know as an incorruptible judge. + +"I propose that the business should be settled tomorrow in the house of +Rufinus. You can be present or not, as you please. If we men agree in +our ideas I beg you--I beseech you to grant me an interview apart. It +will last but a few minutes, and the only subject of discussion will be a +matter--an exchange by which you will recover something you value and +have lost, and grant me I hope, if not your esteem, at any rate a word of +forgiveness. I need it sorely, believe me, Paula; it is as indispensable +to me as the breath of life, if I am to succeed in the work I have begun +on myself. If you have prevailed on yourself to read through this +letter, simply answer 'Yes' by my messenger, to relieve me from torturing +uncertainty. If you do not--which God forefend for both our sakes, Nilus +shall this very day carry to you all that belongs to you. But, if you +have read these lines, I will make my appearance to-morrow, at two hours +after noon, with Nilus to explain to the others the arrangement of which +I have spoken. God be with you and infuse some ruth into your proud and +noble soul!" + +Paula drew a deep breath as the hand holding this momentous epistle +dropped by her side; she stood for some time by the window, lost in grave +meditation. Then calling Pulcheria, she begged her to tend her patient, +too, for a short time. The girl looked up at her with rapt admiration in +her clear eyes, and asked sympathetically why she was so pale; Paula +kissed her lips and eyes, and saying affectionately: "Good, happy child!" +she retired to her own room on the opposite side of the house. There she +once more read through the letter. + +Oh yes; this was Orion as she had known him after his return till the +evening of that never-to-be-forgotten water-party. He was, indeed, a +poet; nature herself had made it so easy to him to seduce unguarded souls +into a belief in him! And yet no! This letter was honestly meant. +Philippus knew men well; Orion really had a heart, a warm heart. Not the +most reckless of criminals could mock at the curse hurled at him by a +beloved father in his last moments. And, as she once more read the +sentence in which he told her that it was his crime as an unjust judge +towards her that had turned the dying man's blessing to a curse, she +shuddered and reflected that their relative attitude was now reversed, +and that he had suffered more and worse through her than she had through +him. His pale face, as she had seen it in the Necropolis, came back +vividly to her mind, and if he could have stood before her at this moment +she would have flown to him, have offered him a compassionate hand, and +have assured him that the woes she had brought upon him filled her with +the deepest and sincerest pity. + +That morning she had asked the Masdakite whether he had besought Heaven +to grant him a speedy recovery, and the man replied that Persians never +prayed for any particular blessing, but only for "that which was good;" +for that none but the Omnipotent knew what was good for mortals. How +wise! For in this instance might not the most terrible blow that could +fall on a son--his father's curse--prove a blessing? It was undoubtedly +that curse which had led him to look into his soul and to start on this +new path. She saw him treading it, she longed to believe in his +conversion--and she did believe in it. In this letter he spoke of his +love; he even asked her hand. Only yesterday this would have roused her +wrath; to-day she could forgive him; for she could forgive anything to +this unhappy soul--to the man on whom she had brought such deep anguish. +Her heart could now beat high in the hope of seeing him again; nay, it +even seemed to her that the youth, whose return had been hailed with such +welcome and who had so powerfully attracted her, had only now grown and +ripened to full and perfect manhood through his sin, his penitence, and +his suffering. + +And how noble a task it would be to assist him in seeking the right way, +and in becoming what he aspired to be! + +The prudent care he had given to her worldly welfare merited her +gratitude. What could he mean by the "exchange" he proposed? The +"great love" of which he had spoken to Katharina was legible in every +line of his letter, and any woman can forgive any man--were he a sinner, +and a scarecrow into the bargain--for his audacity in loving her. Oh! +that he might but set his heart on her--for hers, it was vain to deny +it, was strongly drawn to him. Still she would not call it Love that +stirred within her; it could only be the holy impulse to point out to him +the highest goal of life and smooth the path for him. The pale horseman +who had clutched her in her dream should not drag her away; no, she would +joyfully lift him up to the highest pinnacle attainable by a brave and +noble man. + +So her thoughts ran, and her cheeks flushed as, with swift decision, she +opened her trunk, took out papyrus, writing implements and a seal, and +seated herself at a little desk which Rufinus had placed for her in the +window, to write her answer. + +At this a sudden fervent longing for Orion came over her. She made a +great effort to shake it off; still, she felt that in writing to him it +was impossible that she should find the right words, and as she replaced +the papyrus in the chest and looked at the seal a strange thing happened +to her; for the device on her father's well-known ring: a star above two +crossed swords--perchance the star of Orion--caught her eye, with the +motto in Greek: "The immortal gods have set sweat before virtue," meaning +that the man who aims at being virtuous must grudge neither sweat nor +toil. + +She closed her trunk with a pleased smile, for the motto round the star +was, she felt, of good augury. At the same time she resolved to speak to +Orion, taking these words, which her forefathers had adopted from old +Hesiod, as her text. She hastened down stairs, crossed the garden, +passing by Rufinus, his wife and the physician, awoke the secretary who +had long since dropped asleep, and enjoined him to say: "Yes" to his +master, as he expected. However, before the messenger had mounted his +mule, she begged him to wait yet a few minutes and returned to the two +men; for she had forgotten in her eagerness to speak to them of Orion's +plans. They were both willing to meet him at the hour proposed and, +while Philippus went to tell the messenger that they would expect his +master on the next day, the old man looked at Paula with undisguised +satisfaction and said: + +"We were fearing lest the news from the governor's house should have +spoilt your happy mood, but, thank God, you look as if you had just come +from a refreshing bath.--What do you say, Joanna? Twenty years ago such +an inmate here would have made you jealous? Or was there never a place +for such evil passions in your dove-like soul?" + +"Nonsense!" laughed the matron. "How can I tell how many fair beings +you have gazed after, wanderer that you are in all the wide world far +away?" + +"Well, old woman, but as sure as man is the standard of all things, +nowhere that I have carried my staff, have I met with a goddess like +this!" + +"I certainly have not either, living here like a snail in its shell," +said Dame Joanna, fixing her bright eyes on Paula with fervent +admiration. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +That evening Rufinus was sitting in the garden with his wife and daughter +and their friend Philippus. Paula, too, was there, and from time to time +she stroked Pulcheria's silky golden hair, for the girl had seated +herself at her feet, leaning her head against Paula's knee. + +The moon was full, and it was so light out of doors that they could see +each other plainly, so Rufinus' proposition that they should remain to +watch an eclipse which was to take place an hour before midnight found +all the more ready acceptance because the air was pleasant. The men had +been discussing the expected phenomenon, lamenting that the Church should +still lend itself to the superstitions of the populace by regarding it as +of evil omen, and organizing a penitential procession for the occasion to +implore God to avert all ill. Rufinus declared that it was blasphemy +against the Almighty to interpret events happening in the course of +eternal law and calculable beforehand, as a threatening sign from Him; as +though man's deserts had any connection with the courses of the sun and +moon. The Bishop and all the priests of the province were to head the +procession, and thus a simple natural phenomenon was forced in the minds +of the people into a significance it did not possess. + +"And if the little comet which my old foster father discovered last week +continues to increase," added the physician, "so that its tail spreads +over a portion of the sky, the panic will reach its highest pitch; I can +see already that they will behave like mad creatures." + +"But a comet really does portend war, drought, plague, and famine," said +Pulcheria, with full conviction; and Paula added: + +"So I have always believed." + +"But very wrongly," replied the leech. "There are a thousand reasons +to the contrary; and it is a crime to confirm the mob in such a +superstition. It fills them with grief and alarms; and, would you +believe it--such anguish of mind, especially when the Nile is so low +and there is more sickness than usual, gives rise to numberless forms +of disease? We shall have our hands full, Rufinus." + +"I am yours to command," replied the old man. "But at the same time, if +the tailed wanderer must do some mischief, I would rather it should break +folks' arms and legs than turn their brains." + +"What a wish!" exclaimed Paula. "But you often say things--and I see +things about you too--which seem to me extraordinary. Yesterday you +promised. . . ." + +"To explain to you why I gather about me so many of God's creatures who +have to struggle under the burden of life as cripples, or with injured +limbs." + +"Just so," replied Paula. "Nothing can be more truly merciful than to +render life bearable to such hapless beings. . . ." + +"But still, you think," interrupted the eager old man, "that this noble +motive alone would hardly account for the old oddity's riding his hobby +so hard.--Well, you are right. From my earliest youth the structure of +the bones in man and beast has captivated me exceedingly; and just as +collectors of horns, when once they have a complete series of every +variety of stag, roe, and gazelle, set to work with fresh zeal to find +deformed or monstrous growths, so I have found pleasure in studying every +kind of malformation and injury in the bones of men and beasts." + +"And to remedy them," added Philippus. "It has been his passion from +childhood. + +"And the passion has grown upon me since I broke my own hip bone and know +what it means," the old man went on. "With the help of my fellow-student +there, from a mere dilettante I became a practised surgeon; and, what is +more, I am one of those who serve Esculapius at my own expense. However, +there are accessory reasons for which I have chosen such strange +companions: deformed slaves are cheap and besides that, certain +investigations afford me inestimable and peculiar satisfaction. +But this cannot interest a young girl." + +"Indeed it does!" cried Paula. "So far as I have understood Philippus +when he explains some details of natural history. . . ." + +"Stay," laughed Rufinus, "our friend will take good care not to explain +this. He regards it as folly, and all he will admit is that no surgeon +or student could wish for better, more willing, or more amusing house- +mates than my cripples." + +"They are grateful to you," cried Paula. + +"Grateful?" asked the old man. "That is true sometimes, no doubt; +still, gratitude is a tribute on which no wise man ever reckons. Now I +have told you enough; for the sake of Philippus we will let the rest +pass." + +"No, no," said Paula putting up entreating hands, and Rufinus answered +gaily: + +"Who can refuse you anything? I will cut it short, but you must pay +good heed.--Well then Man is the standard of all things. Do you +understand that?" + +"Yes, I often hear you say so. Things you mean are only what they seem +to us." + +"To us, you say, because we--you and I and the rest of us here--are sound +in body and mind. And we must regard all things--being God's handiwork-- +as by nature sound and normal. Thus we are justified in requiring that +man, who gives the standard for them shall, first and foremost, himself +be sound and normal. Can a carpenter measure straight planks properly +with a crooked or sloping rod?" + +"Certainly not." + +"Then you will understand how I came to ask myself: 'Do sickly, crippled, +and deformed men measure things by a different standard to that of sound +men? And might it not be a useful task to investigate how their +estimates differ from ours?'" + +"And have your researches among your cripples led to any results?" + +"To many important ones," the old man declared; but Philippus interrupted +him with a loud: "Oho!" adding that his friend was in too great a hurry +to deduce laws from individual cases. Many of his observations were, no +doubt, of considerable interest... Here Rufinus broke in with some +vehemence, and the discussion would have become a dispute if Paula had +not intervened by requesting her zealous host to give her the results, at +any rate, of his studies. + +"I find," said Rufinus very confidently, as he stroked down his long +beard, "that they are not merely shrewd because their faculties are early +sharpened to make up by mental qualifications for what they lack in +physical advantages; they are also witty, like AEesop the fabulist and +Besa the Egyptian god, who, as I have been told by our old friend Horus, +from whom we derive all our Egyptian lore, presided among those heathen +over festivity, jesting, and wit, and also over the toilet of women. +This shows the subtle observation of the ancients; for the hunchback +whose body is bent, applies a crooked standard to things in general. +His keen insight often enables him to measure life as the majority of men +do, that is by a straight rule; but in some happy moments when he yields +to natural impulse he makes the straight crooked and the crooked +straight; and this gives rise to wit, which only consists in looking at +things obliquely and--setting them askew as it were. You have only to +talk to my hump-backed gardener Gibbus, or listen to what he says. When +he is sitting with the rest of our people in an evening, they all laugh +as soon as he opens his mouth.--And why? Because his conformation makes +him utter nothing but paradoxes.--You know what they are?" + +"Certainly." + +"And you, Pul?" + +"No, Father." + +"You are too straight-nay, and so is your simple soul, to know what the +thing is! Well, listen then: It would be a paradox, for instance, if I +were to say to the Bishop as he marches past in procession: 'You are +godless out of sheer piety;' or if I were to say to Paula, by way of +excuse for all the flattery which I and your mother offered her just now: +'Our incense was nauseous for very sweetness.'--These paradoxes, when +examined, are truths in a crooked form, and so they best suit the +deformed. Do you understand?" + +"Certainly," said Paula. + +"And you, Pul?" + +"I am not quite sure. I should be better pleased to be simply told: "We +ought not to have made such flattering speeches; they may vex a young +girl." + +"Very good, my straightforward child," laughed her father. "But look, +there is the man! Here, good Gibbus--come here!--Now, just consider: +supposing you had flattered some one so grossly that you had offended him +instead of pleasing him: How would you explain the state of affairs in +telling me of it?" + +The gardener, a short, square man, with a huge hump but a clever face and +good features, reflected a minute and then replied: "I wanted to make an +ass smell at some roses and I put thistles under his nose." + +"Capital!" cried Paula; and as Gibbus turned away, laughing to himself, +the physician said: + +"One might almost envy the man his hump. But yet, fair Paula, I think we +have some straight-limbed folks who can make use of such crooked phrases, +too, when occasion serves." + +But Rufinus spoke before Paula could reply, referring her to his Essay on +the deformed in soul and body; and then he went on vehemently: + +"I call you all to witness, does not Baste, the lame woman, restrict her +views to the lower aspect of things, to the surface of the earth indeed? +She has one leg much shorter than the other, and it is only with much +pains that we have contrived that it should carry her. To limp along at +all she is forced always to look down at the ground, and what is the +consequence? She can never tell you what is hanging to a tree, and about +three weeks since I asked her under a clear sky and a waning moon whether +the moon had been shining the evening before and she could not tell me, +though she had been sitting out of doors with the others till quite late, +evening after evening. I have noticed, too, that she scarcely recognizes +men who are rather tall, though she may have seen them three or four +times. Her standard has fallen short-like her leg. Now, am I right or +wrong?" + +"In this instance you are right," replied Philippus, "still, I know some +lame people. . ." + +And again words ran high between the friends; Pulcheria, however, put an +end to the discussion this time, by exclaiming enthusiastically: + +"Baste is the best and most good-natured soul in the whole house!" + +"Because she looks into her own heart," replied Rufinus. "She knows +herself; and, because she knows how painful pain is, she treats others +tenderly. Do you remember, Philippus, how we disputed after that +anatomical lecture we heard together at Caesarea?" + +"Perfectly well," said the leech, "and later life has but confirmed the +opinion I then held. There is no less true or less just saying than the +Latin motto: 'Mens sana in corpore sano,' as it is generally interpreted +to mean that a healthy soul is only to be found in a healthy body. As +the expression of a wish it may pass, but I have often felt inclined to +doubt even that. It has been my lot to meet with a strength of mind, a +hopefulness, and a thankfulness for the smallest mercies in the sickliest +bodies, and at the same time a delicacy of feeling, a wise reserve, and +an undeviating devotion to lofty things such as I have never seen in a +healthy frame. The body is but the tenement of the soul, and just as we +find righteous men and sinners, wise men and fools, alike in the palace +and the hovel--nay, and often see truer worth in a cottage than in the +splendid mansions of the great--so we may discover noble souls both +in the ugly and the fair, in the healthy and the infirm, and most +frequently, perhaps, in the least vigorous. We should be careful how we +go about repeating such false axioms, for they can only do harm to those +who have a heavy burthen to bear through life as it is. In my opinion a +hunchback's thoughts are as straightforward as an athlete's; or do you +imagine that if a mother were to place her new-born children in a spiral +chamber and let them grow up in it, they could not tend upwards as all +men do by nature?" + +"Your comparison limps," cried Rufinus, "and needs setting to rights. +If we are not to find ourselves in open antagonism. . . ." + +"You must keep the peace," Joanna put in addressing her husband; and +before Rufinus could retort, Paula had asked him with frank simplicity: + +"How old are you, my worthy host?" + +"Your arrival at my house blessed the second day of my seventieth year," +replied Rufinus with a courteous bow. His wife shook her finger at him, +exclaiming: + +"I wonder whether you have not a secret hump? Such fine phrases. . ." + +"He is catching the style from his cripples," said Paula laughing at him. +"But now it is your turn, friend Philippus. Your exposition was worthy +of an antique sage, and it struck me--for the sake of Rufinus here I will +not say convinced me. I respect you--and yet I should like to know how +old. . . ." + +"I shall soon be thirty-one," said Philippus, anticipating her question. + +"That is an honest answer," observed Dame Joanna. "At your age many a +man clings to his twenties." + +"Why?" asked Pulcheria. + +"Well," said her mother, "only because there are some girls who think a +man of thirty too old to be attractive." + +"Stupid creatures," answered Pulcheria. "Let them find me a young +man who is more lovable than my father; and if Philippus--yes you, +Philippus--were ten or twenty years over nine and twenty, would that make +you less clever or kind?" + +"Not less ugly, at any rate," said the physician. Pulcheria laughed, but +with some annoyance, as though she had herself been the object of the +remark. "You are not a bit ugly!" she exclaimed. "Any one who says so +has no eyes. And you will hear nothing said of you but that you are a +tall, fine man!" + +As the warm-hearted girl thus spoke, defending her friend against +himself, Paula stroked her golden hair and added to the physician: + +"Pulcheria's father is so far right that she, at any rate, measures men +by a true and straight standard. Note that, Philippus!--But do not take +my questioning ill.--I cannot help wondering how a man of one and thirty +and one of seventy should have been studying in the high schools at the +same time? The moon will not be eclipsed for a long time yet--how bright +and clear it is!--So you, Rufinus, who have wandered so far through the +wide world, if you would do me a great pleasure, will tell us something +of your past life and how you came to settle in Memphis." + +"His history?" cried Joanna. "If he were to tell it, in all its details +from beginning to end, the night would wane and breakfast would get cold. +He has had as many adventures as travelled Odysseus. But tell us +something husband; you know there is nothing we should like better." + +"I must be off to my duties," said the leech, and when he had taken a +friendly leave of the others and bidden farewell to Paula with less +effusiveness than of late, Rufinus began his story. + +"I was born in Alexandria, where, at that time, commerce and industry +still flourished. My father was an armorer; above two hundred slaves and +free laborers were employed in his work-shops. He required the finest +metal, and commonly procured it by way of Massilia from Britain. On one +occasion he himself went to that remote island in a friend's ship, and he +there met my mother. Her ruddy gold hair, which Pul has inherited, seems +to have bewitched him and, as the handsome foreigner pleased her well-- +for men like my father are hard to match nowadays--she turned Christian +for his sake and came home with him. They neither of them ever regretted +it; for though she was a quiet woman, and to her dying day spoke Greek +like a foreigner, the old man often said she was his best counsellor. +At the same time she was so soft-hearted, that she could not bear that +any living creature should suffer, and though she looked keenly after +everything at the hearth and loom, she could never see a fowl, a goose, +or a pig slaughtered. And I have inherited her weakness--shall I say +'alas!' or 'thank God?' + +"I had two elder brothers who both had to help my father, and who were to +carry on the business. When I was ten years old my calling was decided +on. My mother would have liked to make a priest of me and at that time I +should have consented joyfully; but my father would not agree, and as we +had an uncle who was making a great deal of money as a Rhetor, my father +accepted a proposal from him that I should devote myself to that career. +So I went from one teacher to another and made good progress in the +schools. + +"Till my twentieth year I continued to live with my parents, and during +my many hours of leisure I was free to do or leave undone whatever I had +a fancy for; and this was always something medical, if that is not too +big a word. I was but a lad of twelve when this fancy first took me, +and that through pure accident. Of course I was fond of wandering about +the workshops, and there they kept a magpie, a quaint little bird, which +my mother had fed out of compassion. It could say 'Blockhead,' and call +my name and a few other words, and it seemed to like the noise, for it +always would fly off to where the smiths were hammering and filing their +loudest, and whenever it perched close to one of the anvils there were +sure to be mirthful faces over the shaping and scraping and polishing. +For many years its sociable ways made it a favorite; but one day it got +caught in a vice and its left leg was broken. Poor little creature!" + +The old man stooped to wipe his eyes unseen, but he went on without +pausing: + +"It fell on its back and looked at me so pathetically that I snatched the +tongs out of the bellows-man's hand--for he was going to put an end to +its sufferings in all kindness--and, picking it up gently, I made up my +mind I would cure it. Then I carried the bird into my own room, and to +keep it quiet that it might not hurt itself, I tied it down to a frame +that I contrived, straightened its little leg, warmed the injured bone by +sucking it, and strapped it to little wooden splints. And behold it +really set: the bird got quite well and fluttered about the workshops +again as sound as before, and whenever it saw me it would perch upon my +shoulder and peck very gently at my hair with its sharp beak. + +"From that moment I could have found it in me to break the legs of every +hen in the yard, that I might set them again; but I thought of something +better. I went to the barbers and told them that if any one had a bird, +a dog, or a cat, with a broken limb, he might bring it to me, and that I +was prepared to cure all these injuries gratis; they might tell all their +customers. The very next day I had a patient brought me: a black hound, +with tan spots over his eyes, whose leg had been smashed by a badly-aimed +spear: I can see him now! Others followed; feathered or four-footed +sufferers; and this was the beginning of my surgical career. The invalid +birds on the trees I still owe to my old allies the barbers. I only +occasionally take beasts in hand. The lame children, whom you saw in the +garden, come to me from poor parents who cannot afford a surgeon's aid. +The merry, curly-headed boy who brought you a rose just now is to go home +again in a few days.--But to return to the story of my youth. + +"The more serious events which gave my life this particular bias occurred +in my twentieth year, when I had already left even the high school behind +me; nor was I fully carried away by their influence till after my uncle +had procured me several opportunities of proving my proficiency in my +calling. I may say without vanity that my speeches won approval; but I +was revolted by the pompous, flowery bombast, without which I should have +been hissed down, and though my parents rejoiced when I went home from +Niku, Arsmoe, or some other little provincial town, with laurel-wreaths +and gold pieces, to myself I always seemed an impostor. Still, for my +father's sake, I dared not give up my profession, although I hated more +and more the task of praising people to the skies whom I neither loved +nor respected, and of shedding tears of pathos while all the time I was +minded to laugh. + +"I had plenty of time to myself, and as I did not lack courage and held +stoutly to our Greek confession, I was always to be found where there was +any stir or contention between the various sects. They generally passed +off with nothing worse than bruises and scratches, but now and then +swords were drawn. On one occasion thousands came forth to meet +thousands, and the Prefect called out the troops--all Greeks--to restore +order by force. A massacre ensued in which thousands were killed. I +could not describe it! Such scenes were not rare, and the fury and greed +of the mob were often directed against the Jews by the machinations of +the creatures of the archbishop and the government. The things I saw +there were so horrible, so shocking, that the tongue refuses to tell +them; but one poor Jewess, whose husband the wretches--our fellow +Christians--killed, and then pillaged the house, I have never forgotten! +A soldier dragged her down by her hair, while a ruffian snatched the +child from her breast and, holding it by its feet, dashed its skull +against the wall before her eyes--as you might slash a wet cloth against +a pillar to dry it--I shall never forget that handsome young mother and +her child; they come before me in my dreams at night even now. + +"All these things I saw; and I shuddered to behold God's creatures, +beings endowed with reason, persecuting their fellows, plunging them into +misery, tearing them limb from limb--and why? Merciful Saviour, why? +For sheer hatred--as sure as man is the standard for all things--merely +carried away by a hideous impulse to spite their neighbor for not +thinking as they do--nay, simply for not being themselves--to hurt him, +insult him, work him woe. And these fanatics, these armies who raised +the standard of ruthlessness, of extermination, of bloodthirstiness, +were Christians, were baptized in the name of Him who bids us forgive our +enemies, who enlarged the borders of love from the home and the city and +the state to include all mankind; who raised the adulteress from the +dust, who took children into his arms, and would have more joy over a +sinner who repents than over ninety and nine just persons!--Blood, blood, +was what they craved; and did not the doctrine of Him whose followers +they boastfully called themselves grow out of the blood of Him who shed +it for all men alike,--just as that lotos flower grows out of the clear +water in the marble tank? And it was the highest guardians and keepers +of this teaching of mercy, who goaded on the fury of the mob: Patriarchs, +bishops, priests and deacons--instead of pointing to the picture of the +Shepherd who tenderly carries the lost sheep and brings it home to the +fold. + +"My own times seemed to me the worst that had ever been; aye, and--as +surely as man is the standard of all things--so they are! for love is +turned to hatred, mercy to implacable hardheartedness. The thrones not +only of the temporal but of the spiritual rulers, are dripping with the +blood of their fellow-men. Emperors and bishops set the example; +subjects and churchmen follow it. The great, the leading men of the +struggle are copied by the small, by the peaceful candidates for +spiritual benefices. All that I saw as a man, in the open streets, I had +already seen as a boy both in the low and high schools. Every doctrine +has its adherents; the man who casts in his lot with Cneius is hated by +Caius, who forthwith speaks and writes to no other end than to vex and +put down Cneius, and give him pain. Each for his part strives his utmost +to find out faults in his neighbor and to put him in the pillory, +particularly if his antagonist is held the greater man, or is likely +to overtop him. Listen to the girls at the well, to the women at the +spindle; no one is sure of applause who cannot tell some evil of the +other men or women. Who cares to listen to his neighbor's praises? +The man who hears that his brother is happy at once envies him! Hatred, +hatred everywhere! Everywhere the will, the desire, the passion for +bringing grief and ruin on others rather than to help them, raise them +and heal them! + +"That is the spirit of my time; and everything within me revolted +against it with sacred wrath. I vowed in my heart that I would live and +act differently; that my sole aim should be to succor the unfortunate, to +help the wretched, to open my arms to those who had fallen into unmerited +contumely, to set the crooked straight for my neighbor, to mend what was +broken, to pour in balm, to heal and to save! + +"And, thank God! it has been vouchsafed to me in some degree to keep this +vow; and though, later, some whims and a passionate curiosity got mixed +up with my zeal, still, never have I lost sight of the great task of +which I have spoken, since my father's death and since my uncle also left +me his large fortune. Then I had done with the Rhetor's art, and +travelled east and west to seek the land where love unites men's hearts +and where hatred is only a disease; but as sure as man is the standard of +all things, to this day all my endeavors to find it have been in vain. +Meanwhile I have kept my own house on such a footing that it has become a +stronghold of love; in its atmosphere hatred cannot grow, but is nipped +in the germ. + +"In spite of this I am no saint. I have committed many a folly, many an +injustice; and much of my goods and gold, which I should perhaps have +done better to save for my family, has slipped through my fingers, though +in the execution, no doubt, of what I deemed the highest duties. Would +you believe it, Paula?--Forgive an old man for such fatherly familiarity +with the daughter of Thomas;--hardly five years after my marriage with +this good wife, not long after we had lost our only son, I left her and +our little daughter, Pul there, for more than two years, to follow the +Emperor Heraclius of my own free will to the war against the Persians who +had done me no harm--not, indeed, as a soldier, but as a surgeon eager +for experience. To confess the truth I was quite as eager to see and +treat fractures and wounds and injuries in great numbers, as I was to +exercise benevolence. I came home with a broken hip-bone, tolerably +patched up, and again, a few years later, I could not keep still in one +place. The bird of passage must need drag wife and child from the peace +of hearth and homestead, and take them to where he could go to the high +school. A husband, a father, and already grey-headed, I was a singular +exception among the youths who sat listening to the lectures and +explanations of their teachers; but as sure as man is the standard of all +things, they none of them outdid me in diligence and zeal, though many a +one was greatly my superior in gifts and intellect, and among them the +foremost was our friend Philippus. Thus it came about, noble Paula, that +the old man and the youth in his prime were fellow-students; but to this +day the senior gladly bows down to his young brother in learning and +feeling. To straighten, to comfort, and to heal: this is the aim of his +life too. And even I, an old man, who started long before Philippus on +the same career, often long to call myself his disciple." + +Here Rufinus paused and rose; Paula, too, got up, grasped his hand +warmly, and said: + +"If I were a man, I would join you! But Philippus has told me that even +a woman may be allowed to work with the same purpose.--And now let me beg +of you never to call me anything but Paula--you will not refuse me this +favor. I never thought I could be so happy again as I am with you; here +my heart is free and whole. Dame Joanna, do you be my mother! I have +lost the best of fathers, and till I find him again, you, Rufinus, must +fill his place!" + +"Gladly, gladly!" cried the old man; he clasped both her hands and went +on vivaciously: "And in return I ask you to be an elder sister to Pul. +Make that timid little thing such a maiden as you are yourself.--But +look, children, look up quickly; it is beginning!--Typhon, in the form +of a boar, is swallowing the eye of Horns: so the heathen of old in this +country used to believe when the moon suffered an eclipse. See how the +shadow is covering the bright disk. When the ancients saw this happening +they used to make a noise, shaking the sistrum with its metal rings, +drumming and trumpeting, shouting and yelling, to scare off the evil one +and drive him away. It may be about four hundred years since that last +took place, but to this day--draw your kerchiefs more closely round your +heads and come with me to the river--to this day Christians degrade +themselves by similar rites. Wherever I have been in Christian lands, +I have always witnessed the same scenes: our holy faith has, to be sure, +demolished the religions of the heathen; but their superstitions have +survived, and have forced their way through rifts and chinks into our +ceremonial. They are marching round now, with the bishop at their head, +and you can hear the loud wailing of the women, and the cries of the men, +drowning the chant of the priests. Only listen! They are as passionate +and agonized in their entreaty as though old Typhon were even now about +to swallow the moon, and the greatest catastrophe was hanging over the +world. Aye, as surely as man is the standard of all things, those +terrified beings are diseased in mind; and how are we to forgive those +who dare to scare Christians; yes, Christian souls, with the traditions +of heathen folly, and to blind their inward vision?" + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Gratitude is a tribute on which no wise man ever reckons +Healthy soul is only to be found in a healthy body +Man is the standard of all things +Persians never prayed for any particular blessing +The immortal gods have set sweat before virtue +Things you mean are only what they seem to us +Would want some one else to wear herself out for +Any woman can forgive any man for his audacity in loving her + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 6. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Up to within a few days Katharina had still been a dependent and docile +child, who had made it a point of honor to obey instantly, not only her +mother's lightest word, but Dame Neforis, too; and, since her own Greek +instructress had been dismissed, even the acid Eudoxia. She had never +concealed from her mother, or the worthy teacher whom she had truly +loved, the smallest breach of rules, the least naughtiness or wilful act +of which she had been guilty; nay, she had never been able to rest till +she had poured out a confession, before evening prayer, of all that her +little heart told her was not perfectly right, to some one whom she +loved, and obtained full forgiveness. Night after night the "Water- +wagtail" had gone to sleep with a conscience as clear and as white as the +breast of her whitest dove, and the worst sin she had ever committed +during the day was some forbidden scramble, some dainty or, more +frequently, some rude and angry word. + +But a change had first come over her after Orion's kiss in the +intoxicating perfume of the flowering trees; and almost every hour since +had roused her to new hopes and new views. It had never before occurred +to her to criticise or judge her mother; now she was constantly doing so. +The way in which Susannah had cut herself off from her neighbors in the +governor's house, to her daughter seemed perverse and in bad taste; and +the bitterly vindictive attacks on her old friends, which were constantly +on Susannah's lips, aggrieved the girl, and finally set her in opposition +to her mother, whose judgment had hitherto seemed to her infallible. +Thus, when the governor's house was closed against her, there was no one +in whom she cared to confide, for a barrier stood between her and Paula, +and she was painfully conscious of its height each time the wish to pass +it recurred to her mind. Paula was certainly "that other" of whom Orion +had spoken; when she had stolen away to see her in the evening after the +funeral, she had been prompted less by a burning wish to pour out her +heart to a sympathizing hearer, than by torturing curiosity mingled with +jealousy. She had crept through the hedge with a strangely-mixed feeling +of tender longing and sullen hatred; when they had met in the garden she +had at first given herself up to the full delight of being free to speak, +and of finding a listener in a woman so much her superior; but Paula's +reserved replies to her bold questioning had revived her feelings of envy +and grudge. Any one who did not hate Orion must, she was convinced, love +him. + +Were they not perhaps already pledged to each other! Very likely Paula +had thought of her as merely a credulous child, and so had concealed the +fact! + +This "very likely" was torture to her, and she was determined to try, at +any rate, to settle the doubt. She had an ally at her command; this was +her foster-brother, the son of her deaf old nurse; she knew that he would +blindly obey all her wishes--nay, to please her, would throw himself to +the crocodiles in the Nile. Anubis had been her comrade in all her +childish sports, till at the age of fourteen, after learning to read and +write, her mother had obtained an appointment for him in the governor's +household, as an assistant to be further trained by the treasurer Nilus. +Dame Susannah intended to find him employment at a future date on her +estates, or at Memphis, the centre of their administration, as he might +prove himself capable. The lad was still living with his mother under +the rich widow's roof, and only spent his working days at the governor's +house, he was industrious and clever during office hours, though between +whiles he busied himself with things altogether foreign to his future +calling. At Katharina's request he had opened a communication between +the two houses by means of carrier-pigeons, and many missives were thus +despatched with little gossip, invitations, excuses, and the like, from +Katharina to Mary and back again. Anubis took great pleasure in the +pretty creatures, and by the permission of his superiors a dovecote was +erected on the roof of the treasurer's house. Mary was now lying ill, +and their intercourse was at an end; still, the well-trained messengers +need not be idle, and Katharina had begun to use them for a very +different purpose. + +Orion's envoy had been detained a long time at Rufinus' door the day +before; and she had since learnt from Anubis, who was acquainted with +all that took place in Nilus' office, that Paula's moneys were to be +delivered over to her very shortly, and in all probability by Orion +himself. They must then have an interview, and perhaps she might succeed +in overhearing it. She knew well how this could be managed; the only +thing was to be on the spot at the right moment. + +On the morning after the full-moon, at two hours and a half before noon, +the little boy whose task it was to feed the feathered messengers in +their dove-cote brought her a written scrap, on which Anubis informed her +that Orion was about to set out; but he was not very warmly welcomed, for +the hour did not suit her at all. Early in the morning Bishop Plotinus +had come to inform Susannah that Benjamin, Patriarch of Alexandria, was +visiting Amru on the opposite shore, and would presently honor Memphis +with his presence. He proposed to remain one day; he had begged to have +no formal reception, and had left it to the bishop to find suitable +quarters for himself and his escort, as he did not wish to put up at the +governor's house. The vain widow had at once pressingly urged her +readiness to receive the illustrious guest under her roof: The prelate's +presence must bring a blessing on the house, and she thought, too, that +she might turn it to advantage for several ends she just now happened to +have in view. + +A handsome reception must be prepared; there were but a few hours to +spare, and even before the bishop had left her, she had begun to call the +servants together and give them orders. The whole house must be turned +upside down; some of the kitchen staff were hurried off into the town to +make purchases, others bustled round the fire; the gardeners plundered +the beds and bushes to weave wreaths and nosegays for decorations; from +cellar to roof half a hundred of slaves, white, brown and black, were +toiling with all their might, for each believed that, by rendering a +service to the Patriarch, he might count on the special favor of Heaven, +while their unresting mistress never ceased screaming out her orders as +to what she wished done. + +Susannah, who as a girl had been the eldest of a numerous and not wealthy +family, and had been obliged to put her own hand to things, quite forgot +now that she was a woman of position and fortune whom it ill-beseemed to +do her own household work; she was here, there, and everywhere, and had +an eye on all--excepting indeed her own daughter; but she was the petted +darling of the house, brought up to Greek refinement, whose help in such +arduous labors was not to be thought of; indeed, she would only have been +in the way. + +When the bishop had taken his leave Katharina was merely desired to be +ready in her best attire, with a nosegay in her hand, to receive the +Patriarch under the awning spread outside the entrance. More than this +the widow did not require of her, and as the girl flew up the stairs to +her room she was thinking: "Orion will be coming directly: it still wants +fully two hours of noon, and if he stays there half an hour that will be +more than enough. I shall have time then to change my dress, but I will +put my new sandals on at once as a precaution; nurse and the maid must +wait for me in my room. They must have everything ready for my return-- +perhaps he and Paula may have much to say to each other. He will not get +off without a lecture, unless she has already found an opportunity +elsewhere of expressing her indignation." + +A few minutes later she had sprung to the top of a mound of earth covered +with turf, which she had some time since ordered to be thrown up close +behind the hedge through which she had yesterday made her way. Her +little feet were shod with handsome gold sandals set with sapphires, and +she seated herself on a low bench with a satisfied smile, as though to +assist at a theatrical performance. Some broad-leaved shrubs, placed +behind this place of ambush, screened her to some extent from the heat of +the sun, and as she sat watching and listening in this lurking place, +which she was not using for the first time, her heart began to beat more +quickly; indeed, in her excitement she quite forgot some sweetmeats which +she had brought to wile away the time and had poured into a large leaf in +her lap. + +Happily she had not long to wait; Orion arrived in his mother's four- +wheeled covered chariot. By the side of the driver sat a servant, and a +slave was perched on the step to the door on each side of the vehicle. +It was followed by a few idlers, men and women, and a crowd of half-naked +children. But they got nothing by their curiosity, for the carruca did +not draw up in the road, but was driven into Rufinus' garden, and the +trees and shrubs hid it from the gaze of the expectant mob, which +presently dispersed. + +Orion got out at the principal door of the house, followed by the +treasurer; and while the old man welcomed the son of the Mukaukas, Nilus +superintended the transfer of a considerable number of heavy sacks to +their host's private room. + +Nothing of all this had seemed noteworthy to Katharina but the quantity +and size of the bags--full, no doubt, of gold--and the man, whom alone +she cared to see. Never had she thought Orion so handsome; the long, +flowing mourning robe, which he had flung over his shoulder in rich +folds, added to the height of his stately form; his abundant hair, not +curled but waving naturally, set off his face which, pale and grave as it +was, both touched and attracted her ir resistibly. The thought that this +splendid creature had once courted her, loved her, kissed her--that he +had once been hers, and that she had lost him to another, was a pang +like physical agony, mounting from her heart to her brain. + +After Orion had vanished indoors, she still seemed to see him; and when +she thrust his image from her fancy, forced to remind herself that he was +now standing face to face with that other, and was looking at Paula as, +a few days since, he had looked at her, the anguish of her soul was +doubled. And was Paula only half as happy as she had been in that hour +of supreme bliss? Ah! how her heart ached! She longed to leap over the +hedge--she could have rushed into the house and flung herself between +Paula and Orion. + +Still, there she sat; restless but without moving; wholly under the +dominion of evil thoughts, among which a good one rarely and timidly +intruded, with her eyes fixed on Rufinus' dwelling. It stood in the +broad sunshine as silent as death, as if all were sleeping. In the +garden, too, all was motionless but the thin jet of water, which danced +up from the marble tank with a soft and fitful, but monotonous tinkle, +while butterflies, dragonflies, bees, and beetles, whose hum she could +not hear, seemed to circle round the flowers without a sound. The birds +must be asleep, for not one was to be seen or broke the oppressive +stillness by a chirp or a twitter. The chariot at the door might have +been spellbound; the driver had dismounted, and he, with the other +slaves, had stretched himself in the narrow strips of shade cast by the +pillars of the verandah; their chins buried in their breasts, they spoke +not a word. The horses alone were stirring-flicking off the flies with +their flowing tails, or turning to bite the burning stings they +inflicted. This now and then lifted the pole, and as the chariot +crunched backwards a few inches, the charioteer growled out a sleepy +"Brrr." + +Katharina had laid a large leaf on her head for protection against the +sun; she did not dare use a parasol or a hat for fear of being seen. The +shade cast by the shrubs was but scanty, the noontide heat was torment; +still, though minute followed minute and one-quarter of an hour after +another crept by at a snail's pace, she was far too much excited to be +sleepy. She needed no dial to tell her the time; she knew exactly how +late it was as one shadow stole to this point and another to that, and, +by risking the danger to her eyes of glancing up at the sun, she could +make doubly sure. + +It was now within three-quarters of an hour of noon, and in that house +all was as still as before; the Patriarch, however, might be expected to +be punctual, and she had done nothing towards dressing but putting on +those gilt sandals. This brought her to swift decision she hurried to +her room, desired the maid not to dress her hair, contenting herself with +pinning a few roses into its natural curls. Then, in fierce haste, she +made her throw on her sea-green dress of bombyx silk edged with fine +embroidery, and fasten her peplos with the first pins that came to hand; +and when the snap of her bracelet of costly sapphires broke, as she +herself was fastening it, she flung it back among her other trinkets as +she might have tossed an unripe apple back upon a heap. She slipped her +little hand into a gold spiral which curled round half her arm, and +gathered up the rest of her jewels, to put them on out of doors as she +sat watching. The waiting-woman was ordered to come for her at noon with +the flowers for the Patriarch, and, in a quarter of an hour after leaving +her lurking place, she was back there again. Just in time;--for while +she was putting on the trinkets Nilus came out, followed by some slaves +with several leather bags which they replaced in the chariot. Then the +treasurer stepped in and with him Philippus, and the vehicle drove away. + +"So Paula has entrusted her property to Orion again," thought Katharina. +"They are one again; and henceforth there will be endless going and +coming between the governor's house and that of Rufinus. A very pretty +game!--But wait, only wait." And she set her little white teeth; but she +retained enough self-possession to mark all that took place. + +During her absence indoors Orion's black horse had been brought into the +garden; a groom on horseback was leading him, and as she watched their +movements she muttered to herself with a smile of scorn: "At any rate he +is not going to carry her home with him at once." + +A few minutes passed in silence, and at last Paula came out, and close +behind her, almost by her side, walked Orion. + +His cheeks were no longer pale, far from it, no more than Katharina's +were; they were crimson! How bright his eyes were, how radiant with +satisfaction and gladness!--She only wished she were a viper to sting +them both in the heel!--At the same time Paula had lost none of her proud +and noble dignity--and he? He gazed at his companion like a rapt soul; +she fancied she could see the folds of his mourning cloak rising and +falling with the beating of his heart. Paula, too, was in mourning. Of +course. They were one; his sorrow must be hers, although she had fled +from his father's house as though it were a prison. And of course this +virtuous beauty knew full well that nothing became her better than dark +colors! In manner, gait and height this pair looked like two superior +beings, destined for each other by Fate; Katharina herself could not but +confess it. + +Some spiteful demon--a friendly one, she thought--led them past her, so +close that her sharp ears could catch every word they said as they slowly +walked on, or now and then stood still, dogged by the agile water- +wagtail, who stole along parallel with them on the other side of the +hedge. + +"I have so much to thank you for," were the first words she caught from +Orion, "that I am shy of asking you yet another favor; but this one +indeed concerns yourself. You know how deep a blow was struck me by +little Mary's childish hand; still, the impulse that prompted her had its +rise in her honest, upright feeling and her idolizing love of you." + +"And you would like me to take charge of her?" asked Paula. "Such a wish +is of course granted beforehand -only. . . ." + +"Only?" repeated Orion. + +"Only you must send her here; for you know that I will never enter your +doors again." + +"Alas that it should be so!--But the child has been very ill and can +hardly leave the house at present; and--since I must own it--my mother +avoids her in a way which distresses the child, who is over-excited as it +is, and fills her with new terrors." + +"How can Neforis treat her little favorite so?" + +"Remember," said Orion, "what my father has been to my poor mother. She +is now completely crushed: and, when she sees the little girl, that last +scene of her unhappy husband's life is brought back to her, with all that +came upon my father and me, beyond a doubt through Mary. She looks on +the poor little thing as the bane of the family?" + +"Then she must come away," said Paula much touched. "Send her to us. +Kind and comforting souls dwell under Rufinus' roof." + +"I thank you warmly. I will entreat my mother most urgently. . . ." + +"Do so," interrupted Paula. "Have you ever seen Pulcheria, the daughter +of my worthy host?" + +"Yes.--A singularly lovable creature!" + +"She will soon take Mary into her faithful heart--" + +"And our poor little girl needs a friend, now that Susannah has forbidden +her daughter to visit at our house." + +The conversation now turned on the two girls, of whom they spoke as sweet +children, both much to be pitied; and, when Orion observed that his niece +was old for her tender years, Paula replied with a slight accent of +reproach: "But Katharina, too, has ripened much during the last few days; +the lively child has become a sober girl; her recent experience is a +heavy burden on her light heart." + +"But, if I know her at all, it will soon be cast off," replied Orion. +"She is a sweet, happy little creature; and, of all the dreadful things +I did on that day of horrors, the most dreadful perhaps was the woe I +wrought for her. There is no excuse possible, and yet it was solely to +gratify my mother's darling wish that I consented to marry Katharina.-- +However, enough of that.--Henceforth I must march through life with large +strides, and she to whom love gives courage to become my wife, must be +able to keep pace with me." + +Katharina could only just hear these last words. The speakers now turned +down the path, sparsely shaded from the midday sun by a few trees, which +led to the tank in the centre of the garden, and they went further and +further from her. + +She heard no more--still, she knew enough and could supply the rest. The +object of her ambush was gained: she knew now with perfect certainty who +was "the other." And how they had spoken of her! Not as a deserted +bride, whose rights had been trodden in the dust, but as a child who is +dismissed from the room as soon as it begins to be in the way. But she +thought she could see through that couple and knew why they had spoken of +her thus. Paula, of course, must prevent any new tie from being formed +between herself and Orion; and as for Orion, common prudence required +that he should mention her--her, whom he had but lately loaded with +tenderness--as a mere child, to protect himself against the jealousy of +that austere "other" one. That he had loved her, at any rate that +evening under the trees, she obstinately maintained in her own mind; to +that conviction she must cling desperately, or lose her last foothold. +Her whole being was a prey to a frightful turmoil of feeling. Her hands +shook; her mouth was parched as by the midday heat; she knew that there +were withered leaves between her feet and the sandals she wore, that +twigs had got caught in her hair; but she could not care and when the +pair were screened from her by the denser shrubs she flew back to her +raised seat-from which she could again discover them. At this moment she +would have given all she held best and dearest, to be the thing it vexed +her so much to be called: a water-wagtail, or some other bird. + +It must be very near noon if not already past; she dusted her sandals and +tidied her curly hair, picking out the dry leaves and not noticing that +at the same time a rose fell out on the ground. Only her hands were +busy; her eyes were elsewhere, and suddenly they brightened again, for +the couple on which she kept them fixed were coming back, straight +towards the hedge, and she would soon be able again to hear what they +were saying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Orion and Paula had had much to talk about, since the young man had +arrived. The discussion over the safe keeping of the girl's money had +been tedious. Finally, her counsellors had decided to entrust half of it +to Gamaliel the jeweller and his brother, who carried on a large business +in Constantinople. He happened to be in Memphis, and they had both +declared themselves willing each to take half of the sum in question and +use it at interest. They would be equally responsible for its security, +so that each should make good the whole of the property in their hands in +case of the other stopping payment. Nilus undertook to procure legal +sanction and the necessary sixteen witnesses to this transaction. + +The other half of her fortune was, by the advice of Philippus, to be +placed in the hands of a brother of Haschim's, the Arab merchant, who had +a large business as money changer in Fostat, the new town on the further +shore, in which the merchant himself was a partner. This investment had +the advantage of being perfectly safe, at any rate so long as the Arabs +ruled the land. + +After all this was settled Nilus departed with that half of the money +which Orion was to hand over to the keeping of the Moslem money changer +on the following morning. + +Paula, though she had taken no part in the men's discussion, had been +present throughout, and had expressed her grateful consent. The +clearness, gravity, and decision which Orion had displayed had not +escaped her notice; and though the treasurer's shrewd remarks, briefly +and modestly made, had in every case proved final, it was Orion's +reasoning and explanations that had most come home to her, for it seemed +to her that he was always prompted by loftier, wider, and more +statesmanlike considerations than the others. + +When this was over she and Orion were left together, and neither she nor +the young man had been able to escape a few moments of anxious heart- +beating. + +It was not till the governor's son had summoned up his courage and, +sinking on his knees, was imploring her pardon, that she recovered some +firmness and reminded him of the letter he had sent her. But her heart +drew her to him almost irresistibly, and in order not to yield to its +urgent prompts, she hastily enquired what he had meant by the exchange he +had written about. + +At this he went up to her with downcast eyes, drew a small box out of the +breast of his robe, and took out the emerald with the damaged setting. +He held them towards her with a beseeching gesture, exclaiming, with all +the peculiar sweetness of his deep voice: + +"It is your property! Take it and give me in return your confidence, +your forgiveness." + +She drew back a little, looking first at him and then at the stone and +its setting--surprised, pleased, and deeply moved, with a bright light in +her eyes. The young man found it impossible to utter a single word, only +holding the jewel and the broken setting closer to her, and yet closer, +like some poor man who makes bold to offer the best he has to a wealthy +superior, though conscious that it is all too humble a gift to find +favor. + +And Paula was not long undecided; she took the proffered gem and feasted +her glistening eyes with glad thankfulness on her recovered treasure. + +Two days ago she had thought of it as defiled and desecrated; it had +gratified her pride to fancy that she had cast the precious jewel at the +feet, as it were, of Neforis and her son, never to see it again. So hard +is it to forego the right of hating those who have basely brought grief +into our lives and anguish to our souls!--and yet Paula, who would not +have yielded this right at any price a short time since, now waived it of +her own free will--nay, thrust it from her like some tormenting incubus +which choked her pulses and kept her from breathing freely. In this gem +she saw once more a cherished memorial of her lost mother, the honorable +gift of a great monarch to her forefathers; and she was happy to possess +it once more. But it was not this that gave life to the warm, sunny glow +of happiness which thrilled through her, or occasioned its quick and +delightful growth; for her eye did not linger on the large and glittering +stone, but rested spellbound on the poor gold frame which had once held +it, and which had cost her such hours of anguish. This broken and +worthless thing, it is true, was powerful to justify her in the opinions +of her judges and her enemies; with this in her hand she would easily +confute her accusers. Still, it was not that which so greatly consoled +her. The physician's remark, that there was no greater joy than the +discovery that we have been deceived in thinking ill of another, recurred +to her mind; and she had once loved the man who now stood before her open +to every good influence, deeply moved in her presence; and her judgment +of him had been a hundred, a thousand times too hard. Only a noble soul +could confidently expect magnanimity from a foe and he, he had put +himself defenceless into the power of her who had been mortally stricken +by the most fateful, and perhaps the only disgraceful act of his life. +In giving up this gold frame Orion also gave himself up; with this +talisman in her possession she stood before him as irresistible Fate. +And now, as she looked up at him and met his large eyes, full of life and +intellect but sparkling through tears of violent agitation, she felt +absolutely certain that this favorite of Fortune, though he had indeed +sinned deeply and disastrously, was capable of the highest and greatest +aims if he had a friend to show him what life required of him and were +but ready to follow such guidance. And such a friend she would be to +him! + +She, like Orion, could not for some time speak; but he, at last, was +unable to contain himself; he hastened towards her and pressed her hand +to his lips with fervent gratitude, while she--she had to submit; nay, +she would have been incapable of resisting him if, as in her dream, he +had clasped her in his arms, to his heart. His burning lips had rested +fervently on her hand, but it was only for an instant that she abandoned +herself to the violent agitation that mastered her. Then with a great +effort her instinct and determination to do right enabled her to control +it; she pushed him from her decisively but not ungently, and then, with +some emotion and an arch sweetness which he had never before seen in her, +and which charmed him even more than her noble and lofty pride, she said, +threatening him with her finger. + +"Take care, Orion! Now I have the stone and the setting; yes, that very +setting. Beware of the consequences, rash man!" + +"Not at all. Say rather: Fool, who at last has succeeded in doing +something rational," he replied joyfully. "What I have brought you is +not a gift; it is your own. To you it can be neither more nor less than +it was before; but to me it has gained inestimably in value since it +places my honor, perhaps my life even, in your keeping; I am in your +power as completely as the humblest slave in the palace is in that of the +Emperor. Keep the gem, and use it and this fateful gold trifle till the +day shall come when my weal and woe are one with yours." + +"For your dead father's sake," she answered, coloring deeply, "your weal +lies already very near my heart. Am not I, who brought upon you your +father's curse, bound indeed to help you to free yourself from the burden +of it? And it may perhaps be in my power to do so, Orion, if you do not +scorn to listen to the counsels of an ignorant girl?" + +"Speak," he cried; but she did not reply immediately. She only begged +him to come into the garden with her; the close atmosphere of the room +had become intolerable to both, and when they got out and Katharina had +first caught sight of them their flushed cheeks had not escaped her +watchful eye. + +In the open air, a scarcely perceptible breath from the river moderated +the noontide heat, and then Paula found courage to tell him what +Philippus had called his apprehension in life. It was not new to him; +indeed it fully answered to the principles he had laid down for the +future. He accepted it gratefully: "Life is a function, a ministry, a +duty!" the words were a motto, a precept that should aid him in carrying +out his plans. + +"And the device," he exclaimed, "will be doubly precious to me as having +come from your lips.--But I no longer need its warning. The wisest and +most practical axioms of conduct never made any man the better. Who does +not bring a stock of them with him when he quits school for the world at +large? Precepts are of no use unless, in the voyage of life, a manly +will holds the rudder. I have called on mine, and it will steer me to +the goal, for a bright guiding star lights the pilot on his way. You +know that star; it is. . . ." + +"It is what you call your love," she interposed, with a deep blush.--Your +love for me, and I will trust it." + +"You will!" he cried passionately. "You allow me to hope. . . ." + +"Yes, yes, hope!" she again broke in, "but meanwhile. . . ." + +"Meanwhile," he said, "'do not press me further,' ought to end your +sentence. Oh! I quite understand you; and until I feel that you have +good reason once more to respect the maniac who lost you by his own +fault, I, who fought you like your most deadly foe, will not even speak +the final word. I will silence my longing, I will try......" + +"You will try to show me--nay, you will show me--that in you, my foe and +persecutor, I have gained my dearest friend!--And now to quite another +matter. We know how we stand towards each other and can count on each +other with glad and perfect confidence, thanking the Almighty for having +opened out a new life to us. To Him we will this day. . . ." + +"Offer praise and thanksgiving," Orion joyfully put in. + +And here began the conversation relating to little Mary which Katharina +had overheard. + +They had gone out of hearing again when Orion explained to Paula that +all arrangements for the little girl must be postponed till the morrow, +as he had business now with Amru, on the other shore of the Nile. He +decisively confuted her fears lest he should allow himself to be +perverted by the Moslems to their faith; for though he ardently desired +to let the Patriarch feel that he had no mind to submit patiently to the +affront to his deceased father, he clung too firmly to his creed, and +knew too well what was due to the memory of the dead, and to Paula +herself, ever to take this extreme step. He spoke in glowing terms as he +described how, for the future, he purposed to devote his best powers to +his hapless and oppressed country, whether it were in the service of the +Khaliff or in some other way; and she eagerly entered into his schemes, +quite carried away by his noble enthusiasm, and acknowledging to herself +with silent rapture the superiority of his mind and the soaring loftiness +of his soul. + +When, presently, they began talking again of the past she asked him quite +frankly, but in a low voice and without looking up, what had become of +the emerald he had taken from the Persian hanging. He turned pale at +this, looked at the ground, and hesitatingly replied that he had sent it +to Constantinople--"to have it set--set in an ornament--worthy of her whom +--whom he. . . ." + +But here he broke off, stamped angrily with his foot, and looking +straight into the girl's eyes exclaimed: + +"A pack of lies, foul and unworthy lies!--I have been truthful by nature +all my life; but does it not seem as though that accursed day forced me +to some base action every time it is even mentioned? Yes, Paula; the gem +is really on its way to Byzantium. But the stolen gift was never meant +for you, but for a fair, gentle creature, in nothing blameworthy, who +gave me her heart. To me she was never anything but a pretty plaything; +still, there were moments when I believed--poor soul!--I first learnt +what love meant through you, how great and how sacred it is!--Now you +know all; this, indeed, is the truth!" + +They walked on again, and Katharina, who had not been able to gather the +whole of this explanation, could plainly hear Paula's reply in warm, glad +accents: + +"Yes, that is the truth, I feel. And henceforth that horrible day is +blotted out, erased from your life and mine; and whatever you tell me in +the future I shall believe." + +And the listener heard the young man answer in a tremulous voice: + +"And you shall never be deceived in me. Now I must leave you; and I go, +in spite of my griefs, a happy man, entitled to rejoice anew. O Paula, +what do I not owe to you! And when we next meet you will receive me, +will you not, as you did that evening on the river after my return?" + +"Yes, indeed; and with even more glad confidence," replied Paula, +holding out her hand with a lovely graciousness that came from her heart; +he pressed it a moment to his lips, and then sprang on to his horse and +rode off at a round trot, his slave following him. + +"Katharina, child, Katharina!" was shouted from Susannah's house in +a woman's high-pitched voice. The water-wagtail started up, hastily +smoothing her hair and casting an evil glance at her rival, "the other," +the supplanter who had basely betrayed her under the sycamores; she +clenched her little fist as she saw Paula watching Orion's retreating +form with beaming eyes. Paula went back into the house, happy and +walking on air, while the other poor, deeply-wounded child burst into +violent weeping at the first hasty words from her mother, who was not at +all satisfied with the disorder of her dress; and she ended by declaring +with defiant audacity that she would not present the flowers to the +patriarch, and would remain in her own room, for she was dying of +headache.--And so she did. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +In the course of the afternoon Orion paid his visit to the Arab governor. +He crossed the bridge of boats on his finest horse. + +Only two years since, the land where the new town of Fostat was now +growing up under the old citadel of Babylon had been fields and gardens; +but at Amru's word it had started into being as by a miracle; house after +house already lined the streets, the docks were full of ships and barges, +the market was alive with dealers, and on a spot where, during the siege +of the fortress, a sutler's booth had stood, a long colonnade marked out +the site of a new mosque. + +There was little to be seen here now of native Egyptian life; it looked +as though some magician had transported a part of Medina itself to the +shores of the Nile. Men and beasts, dwellings and shops, though they had +adopted much of what they had found in this ancient land of culture, +still bore the stamp of their origin; and wherever Orion's eye fell on +one of his fellow-countrymen, he was a laborer or a scribe in the service +of the conquerors who had so quickly made themselves at home. + +Before his departure for Constantinople one of his father's palm-groves +had occupied the spot where Amru's residence now stood opposite the half- +finished mosque. Where, now, thousands of Moslems, some on foot, some on +richly caparisoned steeds, were passing to and fro, turbaned and robed +after the manner of their tribe, with such adornment as they had stolen +or adopted from intercourse with splendor-loving nations, and where long +trains of camels dragged quarried stones to the building, in former times +only an occasional ox-cart with creaking wheels was to be seen, an +Egyptian riding an ass or a bare-backed nag, and now and then a few +insolent Greek soldiers. On all sides he heard the sharper and more +emphatic accent of the sons of the desert instead of the language of his +forefathers and their Greek conquerors. Without the aid of the servant +who rode at his side he could not have made himself understood on the +soil of his native land. + +He soon reached Amru's house and was there informed by an Egyptian +secretary that his master was gone out hunting and would receive him, +not in the town, but at the citadel. There, on a pleasant site on the +limestone hills which rose behind the fortress of Babylon and the newly- +founded city, stood some fine buildings, originally planned as a +residence for the Prefect; and thither Amru had transported his wives, +children, and favorite horses, preferring it, with very good reason, to +the palace in the town, where he transacted business, and where the new +mosque intercepted the view of the Nile, while this eminence commanded a +wide prospect. + +The sun was near setting when Orion reached the spot, but the general had +not yet come in from the chase, and the gate-keeper requested that he +would wait. + +Orion was accustomed to be treated in his own country as the heir of the +greatest man in it; the color mounted to his brow and his Egyptian heart +revolted at having to bend his pride and swallow his wrath before an +Arab. He was one of the subject race, and the thought that one word from +his lips would suffice to secure his reception in the ranks of the rulers +forced itself suddenly on his mind; but he repressed it with all his +might, and silently allowed himself to be conducted to a terrace screened +by a vine-covered trellis from the heat of the sun. + +He sat down on one of the marble seats by the parapet of this hanging +garden and looked westward. He knew the scene well, it was the +playground of his childhood and youth; hundreds of times the picture had +spread before him, and yet it affected him to-day as it had never done +before. Was there on earth--he asked himself--a more fertile and +luxuriant land? Had not even the Greek poets sung of the Nile as the +most venerable of rivers? Had not great Caesar himself been so +fascinated by the idea of discovering its source that to that end-- +so he had declared--he would have thought the dominion of the world well +lost? On the produce of those wide fields the weal and woe of the +mightiest cities of the earth had been dependent for centuries; nay, +imperial Rome and sovereign Constantinople had quaked with fears of +famine, when a bad harvest here had disappointed the hopes of the +husbandman. + +And was there anywhere a more industrious nation of laborers, had there +ever been, before them, a thriftier or a more skilful race? When he +looked back on the fate and deeds of nations, on the remotest horizon +where the thread of history was scarcely perceptible, that same gigantic +Sphinx was there--the first and earliest monument of human joy in +creative art--those Pyramids which still proudly stood in undiminished +and inaccessible majesty beyond the Nile, beyond the ruined capital of +his forefathers, at the foot of the Libyan range. He was the son of the +men who had raised these imperishable works, and in his veins perchance +there still might flow a drop of the blood of those Pharaohs who had +sought eternal rest in these vast tombs, and whose greater progeny, had +overrun half the world with their armies, and had exacted tribute and +submission. He, who had often felt flattered at being praised for the +purity of his Greek--pure not merely for his time: an age of bastard +tongues--and for the engaging Hellenism of his person, here and now had +an impulse of pride of his Egyptian origin. He drew a deep breath, as he +gazed at the sinking sun; it seemed to lend intentional significance to +the rich beauty of his home as its magical glory transmuted the fields, +the stream, and the palm-groves, the roofs of the city, and even the +barren desert-range and the Pyramids to burning gold. It was fast going +to rest behind the Libyan chain. The bare, colorless limestone sparkled +like translucent crystal; the glowing sphere looked as though it were +melting into the very heart of the mountains behind which it was +vanishing, while its rays, shooting upwards like millions of gold +threads, bound his native valley to heaven--the dwelling of the +Divine Power who had blessed it above all other lands. + +To free this beautiful spot of earth and its children from their +oppressors--to restore to them the might and greatness which had once +been theirs--to snatch down the crescent from the tents and buildings +which lay below him and plant the cross which from his infancy he had +held sacred--to lead enthusiastic troops of Egyptians against the +Moslems--to quell their arrogance and drive them back to the East like +Sesostris, the hero of history and legend--this was a task worthy of the +grandson of Menas, of the son of George the great and just Mukaukas. + +Paula would not oppose such an enterprise; his excited imagination +pictured her indeed as a second Zenobia by his side, ready for any great +achievement, fit to aid him and to rule. + +Fully possessed by this dream of the future, he had long ceased to gaze +at the glories of the sunset and was sitting with eyes fixed on the +ground. Suddenly his soaring visions were interrupted by men's voices +coming up from the street just below the terrace. He looked over and +perceived at its foot about a score of Egyptian laborers; free men, with +no degrading tokens of slavery, making their way along, evidently against +their will and yet in sullen obedience, with no thought of resistance or +evasion, though only a single Arab held them under control. + +The sight fell on his excited mood like rain on a smouldering fire, like +hail on sprouting seed. His eye, which a moment ago had sparkled with +enthusiasm, looked down with contempt and disappointment on the miserable +creatures of whose race he came. A line of bitter scorn curled his lip, +for this troop of voluntary slaves were beneath his anger--all the more +so as he more vividly pictured to himself what his people had once been +and what they were now. He did not think of all this precisely, but +as dusk fell, one scene after another from his own experience rose +before his mind's eye--occasions on which the Egyptians had behaved +ignominiously, and had proved that they were unworthy of freedom and +inured to bow in servitude. Just as one Arab was now able to reduce a +host of his fellow-countrymen to subjection, so formerly three Greeks had +held them in bondage. He had known numberless instances of almost glad +submission on the part of freeborn Egyptians--peasants, village magnates, +and officials, even on his father's estates and farms. In Alexandria and +Memphis the sons of the soil had willingly borne the foreign yoke, +allowing themselves to be thrust into the shade and humbled by Greeks, +as though they were of a baser species and origin, so long only as their +religious tenets and the subtleties of their creed remained untouched. +Then he had seen them rise and shed their blood, yet even then only with +loud outcries and a promising display of enthusiasm. But their first +defeat had been fatal and it had required only a small number of trained +soldiers to rout them. + +To make any attempt against a bold and powerful invader as the leader of +such a race would be madness; there was no choice but to rule his people +in the service of the enemy and so exert his best energies to make their +lot more endurable. His father's wiser and more experienced judgment +had decided that the better course was to serve his people as mediator +between them and the Arabs rather than to attempt futile resistance +at the head of Byzantine troops. + +"Wretched and degenerate brood!" he muttered wrathfully, and he began to +consider whether he should not quit the spot and show the arrogant Arab +that one Egyptian, at any rate, still had spirit enough to resent his +contempt, or whether he should yet wait for the sake of the good cause, +and swallow down his indignation. No! he, the son of the Mukaukas, could +not--ought not to brook such treatment. Rather would he lose his life as +a rebel, or wander an exile through the world and seek far from home a +wider field for deeds of prowess, than put his free neck under the feet +of the foe. + +But his reflections were disturbed by the sound of footsteps, and looking +round he saw the gleam of lanterns moving to and fro on the terrace, +turned directly on him. These must be Amru's servants come to conduct +him to their master, who, as he supposed, would now do him the honor to +receive him--tired out with hunting, no doubt, and stretched on his divan +while he imperiously informed his guest, as if he were some freed slave, +what his wishes were. + +But the steps were not those of a messenger. The great general himself +had come to welcome him; the lantern-bearers were not to show the way to +Amru's couch, but to guide Amru to the "son of his dear departed friend." +The haughty Vicar of the Khaliffs was the most cordial host, prompted by +hospitality to make his guest's brief stay beneath his roof as pleasant +as possible, and giving him the right hand of welcome. + +He apologized for his prolonged absence in very intelligible Greek, +having learnt it in his youth as a caravan-leader to Alexandria; he +expressed his regret at having left Orion to wait so long, blamed his +servants for not inviting him indoors and for neglecting to offer him +refreshment. As they crossed the garden-terrace he laid his hand on the +youth's shoulder, explained to him that the lion he had been pursuing, +though wounded by one of his arrows, had got away, and added that he +hoped to make good his loss by the conquest of a nobler quarry than the +beast of prey. + +There was nothing for it but that the young man should return courtesy +for courtesy; nor did he find it difficult. The Arab's fine pleasant +voice, full of sincere cordiality, and the simple distinction and dignity +of his manner appealed to Orion, flattered him, gave him confidence, and +attracted him to the older man who was, besides, a valiant hero. + +In his brightly-lighted room hung with costly Persian tapestry, Amru +invited his guest to share his simple hunter's supper after the Arab +fashion; so Orion placed himself on one side of the divan while the +Governor and his Vekeel--[Deputy]--Obada--a Goliath with a perfectly +black moorish face squatted rather than sat on the other, after the +manner of his people. + +Amru informed his guest that the black giant knew no Greek, and he only +now and then threw in a few words which the general interpreted to Orion +when he thought fit; but the negro's remarks were not more pleasing to +the young Egyptian than his manner and appearance. + +Obada had in his childhood been a slave and had worked his way up to his +present high position by his own exertions; his whole attention seemed +centred in the food before him, which he swallowed noisily and greedily, +and yet that he was able to follow the conversation very well, in spite +of his ignorance of Greek, his remarks sufficiently proved. Whenever he +looked up from the dishes, which were placed in the midst on low tables, +to put in a word, he rolled his big eyes so that only the whites remained +visible; but when he turned them on Orion, their small, black pupils +transfixed him with a keen and, as the young man thought, exceedingly +sinister glare. + +The presence of this man oppressed him; he had heard of his base origin, +which to Orion's lofty ideas rendered him contemptible, of his fierce +valor, and remarkable shrewdness; and though he did not understand what +Obada said, more than once there was something in the man's tone that +brought the blood into his face and made him set his teeth. The more +kindly and delightful the effect of the Arab's speech and manner, the +more irritating and repulsive was his subordinate; and Orion was +conscious that he would have expressed himself more freely, and have +replied more candidly to many questions, if he had been alone with Amru. + +At first his host made enquiries as to his residence in Constantinople +and asked much about his father; and he seemed to take great interest in +all he heard till Obada interrupted Orion, in the midst of a sentence, +with an enquiry addressed to his superior. Amru hastily answered him in +Arabic and soon after gave a fresh turn to the conversation. + +The Vekeel had asked why Amru allowed that Egyptian boy to chatter so +much before settling the matter about which he had sent for him, and his +master had replied that a man is best entertained when he has most +opportunity given him for hearing himself talk; that moreover the young +man was well-informed, and that all he had to say was interesting and +important. + +The Moslems drank nothing; Orion was served with capital wine, but he +took very little, and at length Amru began to speak of his father's +funeral, alluding to the Patriarch's hostility, and adding that he had +talked with him that morning and had been surprised at the marked +antagonism he had confessed towards his deceased fellow-believer, who +seemed formerly to have been his friend. Then Orion spoke out; he +explained fully what the reasons were that had moved the Patriarch to +display such conspicuous and far-reaching animosity towards his father. +All that Benjamin cared for was to stand clear in the eyes of Christendom +of the reproach of having abandoned a Christian land to conquerors who +were what Christians termed "infidels" and his aim at present was to put +his father forward as the man wholly and solely responsible for the +supremacy of the Moslems in the land. + +"True, true; I understand," Amru put in, and when the young man went on +to tell him that the final breach between the Patriarch and the Mukaukas +George had been about the convent of St. Cecilia, whose rights the +prelate had tried to abrogate by an illegal interpretation of certain +ancient and perfectly clear documents; the Arab exchanged rapid glances +with the Vekeel and then broke in: + +"And you? Are you disposed to submit patiently to the blow struck at you +and at your parent's worthy memory by this restless old man, who hates +you as he did your father before you?" + +"Certainly not," replied the youth proudly. + +"That is right!" cried the general. "That is what I expected of you; +but tell me now, with what weapons you, a Christian, propose to defy this +shrewd and powerful man, in whose hands--as I know full well--you have +placed the weal and woe, not of your souls alone...." + +"I do not know yet," replied Orion, and as he met a glance of scorn from +the Vekeel, he looked down. + +At this Amru rose, went closer to him, and said "And you will seek them +in vain, my young friend; nor, if you found them, could you use them. +It is easier to hit a woman, an eel, a soaring bird, than these supple, +weak, unarmed, robed creatures, who have love and peace on their tongues +and use their physical helplessness as a defence, aiming invisible but +poisoned darts at those they hate--at you first and foremost, Son of the +Mukaukas; I know it and I advise you: Be on your guard! If indeed manly +revenge for this slight on your father's memory is dear to your heart you +can easily procure it--but only on one condition." + +"Show it me!" cried Orion with flaming eyes. "Become one of us." + +"That is what I came here for. My brain and my arm from this day forth +are at the service of the rulers of my country: yourself and our common +master the Khaliff." + +"Ya Salaam--that is well!" cried Amru, laying his hand on Orion's +shoulder. "There is but one God, and yours is ours, too, for there is +none other but He! you will not have to sacrifice much in becoming a +Moslem, for we, too, count your lord Jesus as one of the prophets; and +even you must confess that the last and greatest of them is Mohammed, +the true prophet of God. Every man must acknowledge our lord Mohammed, +who does not wilfully shut his eyes to the events which have come about +under his government and in his name. Your own father admitted. . ." + +"My father?" + +"He was forced to admit that we are more zealous, more earnest, more +deeply possessed by our faith than you, his own fellow-believers." + +"I know it." + +"And when I told him that I had given orders that the desk for the reader +of the Koran in our new mosque should be discarded, because when he +stepped up to it he was uplifted above the other worshippers, the weary +Mukaukas was quite agitated with satisfaction and uttered a loud cry of +approbation. We Moslems--for that was what my commands implied--must all +be equal in the presence of God, the Eternal, the Almighty, the All- +merciful; their leader in prayer must not be raised above them, even by +a head; the teaching of the Prophet points the road to Paradise, to all +alike, we need no earthly guide to show us the way. It is our faith, +our righteousness, our good deeds that open or close the gates of heaven; +not a key in the hand of a priest. When you are one of us, no Benjamin +can embitter your happiness on earth, no Patriarch can abrogate your +claims and your father's to eternal bliss. You have chosen well, boy! +Your hand, my convert to the true faith!" + +And he held out his hand to Orion with glad excitement. But the young +man did not take it; he drew back a little and said rather uneasily: + +"Do not misunderstand me, great Captain. Here is my hand, and I can know +no greater honor than that of grasping yours, of wielding my sword under +your command, of wearing it out in your service and in that of my lord +the Khaliff; but I cannot be untrue to my faith." + +"Then be crushed by Benjamin--you and all your people!" cried Armu, +disappointed and angry. He waved his hand with a gesture of disgust +and dismissal, and then turned to the Vekeel with a shrug, to answer +the man's scornful exclamation. + +Orion looked at them in dumb indecision; but he quickly collected +himself, and said in a tone of modest but urgent entreaty: + +"Nay; hear me and do not reject my petition. It could only be to my +advantage to go over to you; and yet I can resist so great a temptation; +but for that very reason I shall keep faith with you as I do to my +religion." + +"Until the priests compel you to break it," interrupted the Arab roughly. + +"No, no!" cried Orion. "I know that Benjamin is my foe; but I have lost +a beloved parent, and I believe in a meeting beyond the grave." + +"So do I," replied the Moslem. "And there is but one Paradise and one +Hell, as there is but one God." + +"What gives you this conviction?" + +"My faith." + +"Then forgive me if I cling to mine, and hope to see my father once more +in that Heaven...." + +"The heaven to which, as you fools believe, no souls but your own are +admitted! But supposing that it is open only to the immortal spirit of +Moslems and closed against Christians?--What do you know of that +Paradise? I know your sacred Scriptures--Is it described in them? But +the All-merciful allowed our Prophet to look in, and what he saw he has +described as though the Most High himself had guided his reed. The +Moslem knows what Heaven has to offer him,--but you? Your Hell, you do +know; your priests are more readier to curse than to bless. If one of +you deviates by one hair's breadth from their teaching they thrust him +out forthwith to the abode of the damned.--Me and mine, the Greek +Christians, and--take my word for it boy--first and foremost you and your +father!" + +"If only I were sure of finding him there!" cried Orion striking his +breast. "I really should not fear to follow him. I must meet him, must +see him again, were it in Hell itself!" + +At these words the Vekeel burst into loud laughter, and when Amru +reproved him sharply the negro retorted and a vehement dialogue ensued. + +Obada's contumely had roused Orion's wrath; he was longing, burning to +reduce this insolent antagonist to silence. However, he contained +himself by a supreme effort of will, till Amru turned to him once more +and said in a reserved tone, but not unkindly: + +"This clear-sighted man has mentioned a suspicion which I myself had +already felt. A worldly-minded young Christian of your rank is not so +ready to give up earthly joys and happiness for the doubtful bliss of +your Paradise and when you do so and are prepared to forego all that a +man holds most dear: Honor, temporal possessions, a wide field of action, +and revenge on your enemies, to meet the spirit of the departed once more +after death, there must be some special reason in the background. Try to +compose yourself, and believe my assurances that I like you and that you +will find in me a zealous protector and a discreet friend if you will +but tell me candidly and fully what are the motives of your conduct. +I myself really desire that our interview should be fruitful of +advantages on both sides. So put your trust in a man so much your +senior and your father's friend, and speak." + +"On no consideration in the presence of that man!" said Orion in a +tremulous voice. "Though he is supposed not to understand Greek, he +follows every word I say with malicious watchfulness; he dared to laugh +at me, he. . ." + +"He is as discreet as he is brave, and my Vekeel," interrupted Amru +reprovingly. "If you join us you will have to obey him; and remember +this, young man. I sent for you to impose conditions on you, not to have +them dictated to me. I grant you an audience as the ruler of this +country, as the Vicar of Omar, your Khaliff and mine." + +"Then I entreat you to dismiss me, for in the presence of that man my +heart and lips are sealed; I feel that he is my enemy." + +"Beware of his becoming so!" cried the governor, while Obada shrugged +his shoulders scornfully. + +Orion understood this gesture, and although he again succeeded in keeping +cool he felt that he could no longer be sure of himself; he bowed low, +without paying any heed to the Vekeel, and begged Amru to excuse him for +the present. + +Amru, who had not failed to observe Obada's demeanor and who keenly +sympathized with what was going on in the young man's mind, did not +detain him; but his manner changed once more; he again became the +pressing host and invited his guest, as it was growing late, to pass the +night under his roof. Orion politely declined, and when at length he +quitted the room--without deigning even to look at the Negro--Amru +accompanied him into the anteroom. There he grasped the young man's +hand, and said in a low voice full of sincere and fatherly interest: + +"Beware of the Negro; you let him perceive that you saw through him--it +was brave but rash. For my part I honestly wish you well." + +"I believe it, I know it," replied Orion, on whose perturbed soul the +noble Arab's warm, deep accents fell like balm. "And now we are alone +I will gladly confide in you. I, my Lord, I--my father--you knew him. +In cruel wrath, before he closed his eyes, he withdrew his blessing from +his only son." + +The memory of the most fearful hour of his life choked his voice for a +moment, but he soon went on: "One single act of criminal folly roused his +anger; but afterwards, in grief and penitence, I thought over my whole +life, and I saw how useless it had been; and now, when I came hither with +a heart full of glad expectancy to place all I have to offer of mind and +gifts at your disposal, I did so, my Lord, because I long to achieve +great and noble, and difficult or, if it might be, impossible deeds--to +be active, to be doing. . ." + +Here he was interrupted by Amru, who said, laying his sinewy arm across +the youth's shoulders: + +"And because you long to let the spirit of your dead father, that +righteous man, see that a heedless act of youthful recklessness has not +made you unworthy of his blessing; because you hope by valiant deeds to +compel his wrath to turn to approval, his scorn to esteem. . ." + +"Yes, yes, that is the thing, the very thing!" Orion broke in with fiery +enthusiasm; but the Arab eagerly signed to him to lower his voice, as +though to cheat some listener, and whispered hastily, but with warm +kindliness: + +"And I, I will help you in this praiseworthy endeavor. Oh, how much you +remind me of the son of my heart who, like you, erred, and who was +permitted to atone for all, for more than all by dying like a hero for +his faith on the field of battle!--Count on me, and let your purpose +become deed. In me you have found a friend.--Now, go. You shall hear +from me before long. But, once more: Do not provoke the Negro; beware of +him; and the next time you meet him subdue your pride and make as though +you had never seen him before." + +He looked sadly at Orion, as though the sight of him revived some loved +image in his mind, kissed his brow, and as soon as the youth had left the +anteroom he hastily drew open the curtain that hung across the door into +the dining-room.--A few steps behind it stood the Vekeel, who was +arranging the straps of his sword-belt. + +"Listener!" exclaimed the Arab with intense scorn, "you, a man of gifts, +a man of deeds! A hero in battle and in council; lion, serpent, and toad +in one! When will you cast out of your soul all that is contemptible +and base? Be what you have made yourself, not what you were; do not +constantly remind the man who helped you to rise that you were born +of a slave!" + +"My Lord!" began the Moor, and the whites of his rolling eyes were +ominously conspicuous in his black face. But Amru took the words out of +his mouth and went on in stern and determined reproof: + +"You behaved to that noble youth like an idiot, like a buffoon at a fair, +like a madman." + +"To Hell with him!" cried Obada, "I hate the gilded upstart." + +"Envious wretch! Do not provoke him! Times change, and the day may come +when you will have reason to fear him." + +"Him?" shrieked the other. "I could crush the puppet like a fly! And +he shall live to know it." + +"Your turn first and then his!" said Amru. "To us he is the more +important of the two--yes, he, the up start, the puppet. Do you hear? +Do you understand? If you touch a hair of his head, it will cost you +your nose and ears! Never for an hour forget that you live--and ought +not to live--only so long as two pairs of lips are sealed. You know +whose. That clever head remains on your shoulders only as long as they +choose. Cling to it, man; you have only one to lose! It was necessary, +my lord Vekeel, to remind you of that once more!" + +The Negro groaned like a wounded beast and sullenly panted out: "This is +the reward of past services; these are the thanks of Moslem to Moslem!-- +And all for the sake of a Christian dog." + +"You have had thanks, and more than are your due," replied Amru more +calmly. "You know what you pledged yourself to before I raised you to be +my Vekeel for the sake of your brains and your sword, and what I had to +overlook before I did so--not on your behalf, but for the great cause of +Islam. And, if you wish to remain where you are, you will do well to +sacrifice your wild ambition. If you cannot, I will send you back to the +army, and to-day rather than to-morrow; and if you carry it with too high +a hand you will find yourself at Medina in fetters, with your death- +warrant stuck in your girdle." + +The Negro again groaned sullenly; but his master was not to be checked. + +"Why should you hate this youth? Why, a child could see through it! +In the son and heir of George you see the future Mukaukas, while you are +cherishing the insane wish to become the Mukaukas yourself." + +"And why should such a wish be insane?" cried the other in a harsh +voice. "Putting you out of the question, who is there here that is +shrewder or stronger than I?" + +"No Moslem, perhaps. But neither you nor any other true believer will +succeed to the dead man's office, but an Egyptian and a Christian. +Prudence requires it, and the Khaliff commands it." + +"And does he also command that this curled ape shall be left in +possession of his millions?" + +"So that is what you covet, you greedy curmudgeon--that is it? Do not +all the crimes you have committed out of avarice weigh upon you heavily +enough? Gold, and yet more gold--that is the end, the foul end, of all +your desires. A fat morsel, no doubt: the Mukaukas' estates, his talents +of gold, his gems, slaves, and horses; I admit that. But thank God the +All-merciful, we are not thieves and robbers!" + +"And who was it that dug out the hidden millions from beneath the +reservoir of Peter the Egyptian, and who made him bite the dust?" + +"I--I. But--as you know--only to send the money to Medina. Peter had +hidden it before we killed him. The Mukaukas and his son have declared +all their possessions to the uttermost dinar and hide of land; they have +faithfully paid the taxes, and consequently their property belongs to +them as our swords, our horses, our wives belong to you or me. What will +not your grasping spirit lead you to!--Take your hand from your dagger!-- +Not a copper coin from them shall fall into your hungry maw, so help me +God! Do not again cast an evil eye on the Mukaukas' son! Do not try my +patience too far, man, or else--Hold your head tight on your shoulders or +you will have to seek it at your feet; and what I say I mean!--Now, good- +night! To-morrow morning in the divan you are to explain your scheme for +the new distribution of the land; it will not suit me in any way, and I +shall have other projects to propose for discussion." + +With this the Arab turned his back on the Vekeel; but no sooner had the +door closed on him than Obada clenched his fist in fury at his lord and +master, who had hitherto said nothing of his having had purloined a +portion of the consignment of gold which Amru had charged him to escort +to Medina. Then he rushed up and down the room, snorting and foaming +till slaves came in to clear the tables. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Orion made his way home under the moonlit and starry night. He held his +head high, and not since that evening on the water with Paula had he felt +so glad or so hopeful. On the other side of the bridge he did not at +once turn his horse's head homewards; the fresh night air was so +delightful, his heart beat so high that he shrunk from the oppression of +a room. Full of renewed life, freed from a burden as it were, he made +his way at a round pace to the house that held his beloved, picturing to +himself how gladly she would welcome the news that he had found Amru +ready to encourage him in his projects, indeed, to be a fatherly friend. + +The Arab general, whose lofty character, intellect, and rectitude his +father had esteemed highly, had impressed him, too, as the ideal of noble +manliness, and as he compared him with the highest officials and warriors +he had met at the Court of Byzantium he could not help smiling. By the +side of this dignified, but impetuous and warm-hearted man they appeared +like the old, rigid idols of his ancestors in comparison with the freely- +wrought works of Greek art. He could bless the memory of his father for +having freed the land from that degenerate race. Now, he felt, that lost +parent, whose image lived in his soul, was satisfied with him, and this +gave him a sense of happiness which he meant to cling to and enhance by +every thought and deed in the future. "Life is a function, a ministry, +and a duty!" this watchword, which had been given him by those beloved +lips, should keep him in the new path; and soon he hoped to feel sure of +himself, to be able to look back on such deeds of valor as would give him +a right in his own judgment to unite his lot to that of this noblest of +women. + +Full of such thoughts as these, he made his way to the house of Rufinus. +The windows of the corner room on the upper floor were lighted up; two of +these windows looked out on the river and the quay. He did not know +which rooms were Paula's, but he looked up at the late-burning light with +a vague feeling that it must be hers; a female figure which now appeared +framed m the opening, showed him that he was not mistaken; it was that of +Perpetua. The sound of hoofs had roused her curiosity, but she did not +seem to recognize him in the dim starlight. + +He slowly rode past, and when he presently turned back and again looked +up, in the hope this time of seeing Paula, the place was vacant: however, +he perceived a tall dark shadow moving across from one side of the room +to the other, which could not be that of the nurse nor of her slender +mistress. It must indeed be that of a remarkably big man, and stopping +to gaze with anxious and unpleasant apprehension, he plainly recognized +Philippus. + +It was past midnight. How could he account for his being with Paula at +this hour?--Was she ill?--Was this room hers after all?--Was it merely by +chance that the nurse was in Rufinus' room with the physician. + +No. The woman whom he could now see pass across the window and go +straight up to the man, with outstretched hands, was Paula and none +other. Isis heart was already beating fast, and now a suspicion grew +strong in him which his vanity had hitherto held in check, though he had +often seen the friendly relations that subsisted between Paula and the +leech.--Perhaps it was a warmer feeling than friendship and guileless +trust, which had led her so unreservedly to claim this man's protection +and service. Could he have won Paula's heart--Paula's love? + +Was it conceivable!--But why not? + +What was there against Philippus but his homely face and humble birth? +And how many a woman had he not seen set her heart on quite other things! +The physician was not more than five years his senior; and recalling the +expression in his eyes as he looked at Paula only that morning Orion felt +more and more uneasy. + +Philippus loved Paula.--A trifling incident suddenly occurred to his mind +which made him certain on that point; he had only too much experience in +such matters. Yesterday, it had struck him that ever since his father's +death--that was ever since Paula's change of residence--Philippus dressed +more carefully than had been his wont. "Now this," thought he, "is a +change that does not come over so serious a man unless it is caused by +love." + +A mingled torment of pain and rage shot through him as he again saw the +tall shadow cross the window. For the first time in his life he felt the +pangs of jealousy, which he had so often laughed at in his friends; but +was it not absurd to allow it to torture him; was he not sure, since that +morning's meeting, quite sure of Paula? And Philippus! Even if he, +Orion, must retire into the background before a higher judge, in the eyes +of a woman he surely had the advantage!--But in spite of all this it +troubled him to know that the physician was with Paula at such an hour; +he angrily pulled his horse's head round, and it was a pleasure to him to +feel the fiery creature, unused as it was to such rough treatment, turn +restive at it now. By the time he had gone a hundred steps from those +windows with their cursed glare, the horse was displaying all the temper +and vice that had been taken out of him as a foal. Orion had to fight a +pitched battle with his steed, and it was a relief to him to exercise his +power with curb and knee. In vain did the creature dance round and +round; in vain did he rear and plunge; the steady rider was his master; +and it was not till he had brought him to quietness and submission that +Orion drew breath and looked about him while he patted the horse's smooth +neck. + +Close at hand, behind a low hedge, spread the thick, dark groves of +Susannah's garden and between them the back of the house was visible, +being more brilliantly lighted than even Paula's rooms. Three of the +windows showed lights; two were rather dim, however, the result probably +of one lamp only. + +All this could not matter to him; nevertheless he remained gazing at the +roof of the colonnade which went round the house below the upper floor; +for, on the terrace it formed, leaning against a window-frame, stood a +small figure with her head thrust so far forth to listen that the light +shone through the curls that framed it. Katharina was trying to overhear +a dialogue between the Patriarch Benjamin--whose bearded and apostolic +head Orion could clearly recognize--and the priest John, an insignificant +looking little man, of whom, however, the deceased Mukaukas had testified +that he was far superior to old Plotinus the Bishop in intellect and +energy. + +The young man could easily have watched Katharina's every movement, but +he did not think it worth while. Nevertheless, as he rode on, the water- +wagtail's little figure dwelt in his mind; not alone, however, for that +of Paula immediately rose by her side; and the smaller Katharina's +seemed, the more ample and noble did the other appear. Every word he +had heard that day from Paula's lips rushed to his remembrance, and +the vivid and lovely memory drove out all care. That woman, who only a +few hours since, had declared herself ready, with him, to hope all +things, to believe all things, and to accept his protection--that lordly +maiden whom he had been glad to bid fix her eye, with him, on the goal of +his future efforts, whose pure gaze could restrain his passion and +impetuosity as by a charm, and who yet granted him the right to strive to +possess her--that proud daughter of heroes, whom even his father would +have clasped to his heart as a daughter--was it possible that she should +betray him like some pleasure-seeking city beauty? Could she forget her +dignity as a woman?--No! and a thousand times no. To doubt her was to +insult her--was to wrong her and himself. + +The physician loved her; but it certainly was not any warmer feeling than +friendship on her part that made her receive him at this late hour. The +shame would be his own, if he ever again allowed such base suspicion to +find place in his soul! + +He breathed a deep sigh of relief. And when his servant, who had +lingered to pay the toll at the bridge, came up with him, Orion +dismounted and desired him to lead his horse home, for he himself wished +to return on foot, alone with his thoughts. He walked meditatively and +slowly under the sycamores, but he had not gone far when, on the other +side of the deserted road, he heard some one overtaking him with long, +quick strides. He recognized the leech Philippus at a glance and was +glad, for this proved to him how senseless and unjust his doubts had +been, and how little ground he had for regarding the physician as a +rival; for indeed this man did not look like a happy lover. He hurried +on with his head bent, as though under a heavy burthen, and clasped his +hand to his forehead with a gesture of despair. No, this nocturnal +wanderer had left no hour of bliss behind him; and if his demeanor was +calculated to rouse any feeling it was not envy, but pity. + +Philippus did not heed Orion; absorbed in himself, he strode on, moaning +dully, as if in pain. For a few minutes he disappeared into a house +whence came loud cries of suffering, and when he came out again, he +walked on, shaking his head now and then, as a man who sees many things +happen which his understanding fails to account for. + +The end of his walk was a large, palatial building. The stucco had +fallen off in places, and in the upper story the windows had been broken +away till their open ings were a world too wide. In former times this +house had accommodated the State officers of Finance for the province, +and the ground-floor rooms had been suitably and comfortably fitted up +for the Ideologos--the supreme controller of this department, who usually +resided at Alexandria, but who often spent some weeks at Memphis when on +a tour of inspection. But the Arabians had transferred the management of +the finances of the whole country to the new capital of Fostat on the +other shore of the river, and that of the monetary affairs of the +decaying city had been incorporated with the treasurer's department of +the Mukaukas' household. The senate of the city had found the expense of +this huge building too heavy, and had been well content to let the lower +rooms to Philippus and his Egyptian friend, Horapollo. + +The two men occupied different rooms, but the same slaves attended to +their common housekeeping and also waited on the physician's assistant, a +modest and well-informed Alexandrian. + +When Philippus entered his old friend's lofty and spacious study he found +him still up, sitting before a great number of rolls of manuscript, and +so absorbed in his work that he did not notice his late-coming comrade +till the leech bid him good-evening. His only reply was an +unintelligible murmur, for some minutes longer the old man was lost in +study; at last, however, he looked up at Philippus, impatiently tossing +an ivory ruler-which he had been using to open and smooth the papyrus on +to the table; and at the same moment a dark bundle under it began to +move--this was the old man's slave who had long been sleeping there. + +Three lamps on the writing-table threw a bright light on the old man and +his surroundings, while the physician, who had thrown himself on a couch +in a corner of the large room, remained in the dark. + +What startled the midnight student was his housemate's unwonted silence; +it disturbed him as the cessation of the clatter of the wheel disturbs a +man who lives in a mill. He looked at his friend with surprised enquiry, +but Philippus was dumb, and the old man turned once more to his rolls of +manuscript. But he had lost the necessary concentration; his brown hand, +in which the blue veins stood out like cords, fidgeted with the scrolls +and the ivory rule, and his sunken lips, which had before been firmly +closed, were now twitching restlessly. + +The man's whole aspect was singular and not altogether pleasing: his lean +brown figure was bent with age, his thoroughly Egyptian face, with broad +cheekbones and outstanding ears, was seamed and wrinkled like oak-bark; +his scalp was bare of its last hair, and his face clean-shaved, but for a +few tufts of grey hair by way of beard, sprouting from the deep furrows +on his cheeks and chin, like reeds from the narrow bed of a brook; the +razor could not reach them there, and they gave him an untidy and +uncared-for appearance. His dress answered to his face--if indeed that +could be called dress which consisted of a linen apron and a white +kerchief thrown over his shoulders after sundown. Still, no one meeting +him in the road could have taken him for a beggar; for his linen was fine +and as white as snow, and his keen, far-seeing eyes, above which, exactly +in the middle, his bristly eyebrows grew strangely long and thick, shone +and sparkled with clear intelligence, firm self-reliance, and a repellent +severity which would no more have become an intending mendicant than the +resolute and often scornful expression which played about his lips. +There was nothing amiable, nothing prepossessing, nothing soft in this +man's face; and those who knew what his life had been could not wonder +that the years had failed to sweeten his abrupt and contradictory +acerbity or to transmute them into that kindly forbearance which old men, +remembering how often they have stumbled and how many they have seen +fall, sometimes find pleasure in practising. + +He had been born, eighty years before, in the lovely island of Philae, +beyond the cataract in the district of the temple of Isis, and under the +shadow of the only Egyptian sanctuary in which the heathen cultus was +kept up, and that publicly, as late as in his youth. Since Theodosius +the Great, one emperor and one Praefectus Augustalis after another had +sent foot-soldiers and cavalry above the falls to put an end to idolatry +in the beautiful isle; but they had always been routed or destroyed by +the brave Blemmyes who haunted the desert between the Nile and the Red +Sea. These restless nomad tribes acknowledged the Isis of Philae as +their tutelary goddess, and, by a very ancient agreement, the image of +their patroness was carried every year by her priests in a solemn +procession to the Blemmyes, and then remained for a few weeks in their +keeping. Horapollo's father was the last of the horoscope readers, and +his grandfather had been the last high-priest of the Isis of Philae. His +childhood had been passed on the island but then a Byzantine legion had +succeeded in beating the Blemmyes, in investing the island, and in +plundering and closing the temple. The priests of Isis escaped the +imperial raid and Horapollo had spent all his early years with his +father, his grandfather, and two younger sisters, in constant peril and +flight. His youthful spirit was unremittingly fed with hatred of the +persecutors, the cruel contemners and exterminators of the faith of his +forefathers; and this hatred rose to irreconcilable bitterness after the +massacre at Antioch where the imperial soldiery fell upon all his family, +and his grandfather and two innocent sisters were murdered. These +horrors were committed at the instigation of the Bishop, who denounced +the Egyptian strangers as idolaters, and to whom the Roman prefect, a +proud and haughty patrician, had readily lent the support of an armed +force. It was owing to the narrowest chance--or, as the old man would +have it, to the interposition of great Isis, that his father had been so +happy as to get away with him and the treasures he had brought from the +temple at Philae. Thus they had means to enable them to travel farther +under an assumed name, and they finally settled in Alexandria. Here the +persecuted youth changed his name, Horus, to its Greek equivalent, and +henceforth he was known at home and in the schools as Apollo. He was +highly gifted by nature, and availed himself with the utmost zeal of the +means of learning that abounded in Alexandria; he labored indefatigably +and dug deep into every field of Greek science, gaining, under his +father's guidance, all the knowledge of Egyptian horoscopy, which +was not wholly lost even at this late period. + +In the midst of the contentious Christian sects of the capital, both +father and son remained heathen and worshippers of Isis; and when the old +priest died at an advanced age, Horapollo moved to Memphis where he led +the quiet and secluded life of a student, mingling only now and then with +the astronomers, astrologers, and calendar-makers at the observatory, or +visiting the alchemists' laboratories, where, even in Christian Egypt, +they still devoted themselves to attempts to transmute the baser into the +noble metals. Alchemists and star-readers alike soon detected the old +man's superior knowledge, and in spite of his acrid and often +offensively-repellent demeanor, took counsel of him on difficult +questions. His fame had even reached the Arabs, and, when it was +necessary to find the exact direction towards Mecca for the prayer niche +in Amru's new mosque, he was appealed to, and his decision was final. + +Philippus had, some years since, been called to the old man's bedside in +sickness, and being then a beginner and in no great request, he had given +the best of his time and powers to the case. Horapollo had been much +attracted by the young physician's wide culture and earnest studiousness; +he had conceived a warm liking for him, the warmest perhaps that he had +ever felt for any fellow-human since the death of his own family. At +last the elder took the younger man into his heart with such overflowing +affection, that it seemed as though his spirit longed to make up now for +the stint of love it had hitherto shown. No father could have clung to +his son with more fervent devotion, and when a relapse once more brought +him to death's door he took Philippus wholly into his confidence, +unrolled before his eyes the scroll of his inner and outer life from its +beginnings, and made him his heir on condition that he should abide by +him to the end. + +Philippus, who, from the first, had felt a sympathetic attraction to +this venerable and talented man, agreed to the bargain; and when he +subsequently became associated with the old man in his studies, assisting +him from time to time, Horapollo desired that he would help him to +complete a work he hoped to finish before he died. It was a treatise on +hieroglyphic writing, and was to interpret the various signs so far as +was still possible, and make them intelligible to posterity. + +Tne old man disliked writing anything but Egyptian, using Greek +unwillingly and clumsily, so he entrusted to his young friend the task +of rendering his explanations into that language. Thus the two men-- +so different in age and character, but so closely allied in intellectual +aims--led a joint existence which was both pleasant and helpful to both, +in spite of the various eccentricities, the harshness and severity of the +elder. + +Horapollo lived after the manner of the early Egyptian priests, +subjecting himself to much ablution and shaving; eating little but bread, +vegetables, and poultry, and abstaining from pulse and the flesh of all +beasts--not merely of the prohibited animal, swine; wearing nothing but +pure linen clothing, and setting apart certain hours for the recitation +of those heathen forms of prayer whose magic power was to compel the gods +to grant the desires of those who thus appealed to them. + +And if the old man had given his full confidence to Philippus, the +leech, on his part, had no secrets from him; or, if he withheld anything, +Horapollo, with wonderful acumen, was at once aware of it. Philippus had +often spoken of Paula to his parental friend, describing her charms with +all the fervor of a lover, but the old man was already prejudiced against +her, if only as the daughter of a patrician and a prefect. All who bore +these titles were to him objects of hatred, for a patrician and a prefect +had been guilty of the blood of those he had held most dear. The +Governor of Antioch, to be sure, had acted only under the orders of the +bishop; but old Horapollo, and his father before him, from the first +had chosen to throw all the blame on the prefect, for it afforded some +satisfaction to the descendant of an ancestral race of priests to be able +to vent all his wrathful spite on any one rather than on the minister of +a god--be that god who or what he might. + +So when Philippus praised Paula's dignified grandeur, her superior +elegance, the height of her stature or the loftiness of her mind, the +old man would bound up exclaiming: "Of course--of course!--Beware boy, +beware! You are disguising haughtiness, conceit, and arrogance under +noble names. The word 'patrician' includes everything we can conceive of +as most insolent and inhuman; and those apes in purple who disgrace the +Imperial throne pick out the worst of them, the most cold-hearted and +covetous, to make prefects of them. And as they are, so are their +children! Everything which they in their vainglory regard as 'beneath +them' they tread into the dust--and we--you and I, all who labor with +their hands in the service of the state--we, in their dull eyes, are +beneath them. Mark me, boy! To-day the governor's daughter, the +patrician maiden, can smile at you because she needs you; tomorrow she +will cast you aside as I push away the old panther-skin which keeps my +feet warm in winter, as soon as the March days come!" + +Nor was his aversion less for the son of the Mukaukas, whom, however, +he had never seen; when the leech had confessed to him how deep a grudge +against Orion dwelt in the heart of Paula, old Horapollo had chuckled +scornfully, and he exclaimed, as though he could read hearts and look +into the future--: "They snap at each other now, and in a day or two they +will kiss again! Hatred and love are the opposite ends of the same rod; +and how easily it is reversed!--Those two!--Like in blood is like in +kind;--such people attract each other as the lodestone tends towards the +iron and the iron towards the lodestone!" + +But these and similar admonitions had produced little effect on the +physician's sentiments; even Paula's repulse of his ardent appeal after +she had moved to the house of Rufinus had failed to extinguish his hope +of winning her at last. This very morning, in the course of the +discussion as to the stewardship of her fortune, Paula had been ready and +glad to accept him as her Kyrios--her legal protector and representative; +but he now thought that he could perceive by various signs that his +venerable friend was right: that the rod had been reversed, and that +aversion had been transformed to love in the girl's heart. The anguish +of this discovery was hard to bear. And yet Paula had never shown him +such hearty warmth of manner, never had she spoken to him in a voice so +soft and so full of feeling, as this evening in the garden. More +cheerful and talkative than usual, she had constantly turned to address +him, while he had felt his pain and torment of mind gradually eased, till +in him too, sentiment had blossomed anew, and his intellectual power had +expanded. Never--so he believed--had he expressed his thoughts better or +more brilliantly than in that hour. Nor had she withheld her approval; +she had heartily agreed with his views; and when, half an hour before +midnight, he had gone with her to visit his patients, rapturous hopes +had sprung once more in his breast. Ecstatically happy, like a man +intoxicated, he had, by her own desire, accompanied her into her sitting- +room, and then--and there.... + +Poor, disappointed man, sitting on the divan in a dark corner of the +spacious room! In his soul hitherto the intellect had alone made itself +heard, the voice of the heart had never been listened to. + +How he had found his way home he never knew. All he remembered was that, +in the course of duty, he had gone into the house of a man whose wife-- +the mother of several children--he had left at noon in a dying state; +that he had seen her a corpse, surrounded by loud but sincere mourners; +that he had gone on his way, weighed down by their grief and his own, and +that he had entered his friend's rooms rather than his own, to feel safe +from himself. Life had no charm, no value for him now; still, he felt +ashamed to think that a woman could thus divert him from the fairest aims +of life, that he could allow her to destroy the peace of mind he needed +to enable him to carry out his calling in the spirit of his friend +Rufinus. He knew his house-mate well and felt that he would only pour +vitriol into his wounds, but it was best so. The old man had already +often tried to bring down Paula's image from its high pedestal in his +soul, but always in vain; and even now he should not succeed. He would +mar nothing, scatter nothing to the winds, tread nothing in the dust but +the burning passion, the fevered longing for her, which had fired his +blood ever since that night when he had vanquished the raving Masdakite. +That old sage by the table, on whose stern, cold features the light fell +so brightly, was the very man to accomplish such a work of destruction, +and Philippus awaited his first words as a wounded man watches the +surgeon heating the iron with which to cauterize the sore. + +Poor disappointed wretch, sorely in need of a healing hand! + +He lay back on the divan, and saw how his friend leaned over his scroll +as if listening, and fidgeted up and down in his arm-chair. + +It was clear that Horapollo was uneasy at Philippus' long silence, and +his pointed eyebrows, raised high on his brow, plainly showed that he was +drawing his own conclusions from it--no doubt the right ones. The peace +must soon be broken, and Philippus awaited the attack. He was prepared +for the worst; but how could he bring himself to make his torturer's task +easy for him. Thus many minutes slipped away; while the leech was +waiting for the old man to speak, Horapollo waited for Philippus. +However, the impatience and curiosity of the elder were stronger than the +young man's craving for comfort; he suddenly laid down the roll of +manuscript, impatiently snatched up the ivory stick which he had thrown +aside, set his heavy seat at an angle with a shove of amazing vigor for +his age, turned full on Philippus, and asked him, in a loud voice, +pointing his ruler at him as if threatening him with it: + +"So the play is out. A tragedy, of course!" + +"Hardly, since I am still alive," replied the other. + +"But there is inward bleeding, and the wound is painful," retorted the +old man. Then, after a short pause, he went on: "Those who will not +listen must feel! The fox was warned of the trap, but the bait was too +tempting! Yesterday there would still have been time to pull his foot +out of the spring, if only he had sincerely desired it; he knew the +hunter's guile. Now the foe is down on the victim; he has not spared his +weapons, and there lies the prey dumb with pain and ignominy, cursing his +own folly.--You seem inclined for silence this evening. Shall I tell you +just how it all came about?" + +"I know only too well," said Philippus. + +"While I, to be sure, can only imagine it!" growled the old man. +"So long as that patrician hussy needed the poor beast of burthen she +could pet it and throw barley and dates to it. Now she is rolling in +gold and living under a sheltering roof, and hey presto, the discarded +protector is sent to the right about in no time. This mistress of the +hearts of our weak and bondage-loving sex raises this rich Adonis to fill +the place of the hapless, overgrown leech, just as the sky lets the sun +rise when the pale moon sinks behind the hills. If that is not the fact +give me the lie!" + +"I only wish I could," sighed Philippus. "You have seen rightly, +wonderfully rightly--and yet, as wrongly as possible." + +"Dark indeed!" said the old man quietly. "But I can see even in the +dark. The facts are certain, though you are still so blinded as not +to see their first cause. However, I am satisfied to know that your +delusion has come to so abrupt, and in my opinion so happy, an end. To +its cause--a woman, as usual--I am perfectly indifferent. Why should I +needlessly ascribe to her any worse sin than she had committed? If only +for your sake I will avoid doing so, for an honorable soul clings to +those whom it sees maligned. Still, it seems to me that it is for you to +speak, not for me. I should know you for a philosopher, without such +persistent silence; and as for myself, I am not altogether bereft of +curiosity, in spite of my eighty years." + +At this Philippus hastily rose and pacing the room while he spoke, or +pausing occasionally in front of the old man, he poured out with glowing +cheeks and eager gestures, the history of his hopes and sufferings--how +Paula had filled him with fresh confidence, and had invited him to her +rooms--only to show him her whole heart; she had been strongly moved, +surprised at herself, but unable and unwilling to conceal from him the +happiness that had come into her life. She had spoken to him, her best +friend, as a burthened soul pours itself out to a priest: had confessed +all that she had felt since the funeral of the deceased Mukaukas, and +said that she felt convinced now that Orion had come to a right mind +again after his great sin. + +"And that there, was so much joy over him in heaven," interrupted +Horapollo, "that she really could not delay doing her cast-off lover +the honor of inviting his sympathy!" + +"On the contrary. It was with the utmost effort that she uttered all +her heart prompted her to tell; she had nothing to look for from me but +mockery, warning, and reproach, and yet she opened her heart to me." + +"But why? To what end?" shrieked the old man. "Shall I tell you. +Because a man who is a friend must still be half a lover, and a woman +cannot bear to give up even a quarter of one." + +"Not so!" exclaimed Philippus, indignantly interrupting him. "It was +because she esteems and values me,--because she regards me as a brother, +and--I am not a vain man--and could not bear--those were her very words +--to cheat me of my affection for even an hour! It was noble, it was +generous, worthy of her! And though every fibre of my nature rebelled I +found myself compelled to admire her sincerity, her true friendship, her +disregard of her own feelings, and her womanly tenderness!--Nay, do not +interrupt me again, do not laugh at me. It is no small matter for a +proud girl, conscious of her own dignity, to lay bare her heart's +weakness to a man who, as she knows, loves her, as she did just now to +me. She called me her benefactor and said she would be a sister to me; +and whatever motive you--who hate her out of a habit of prejudice without +really knowing her--may choose to ascribe her conduct to, I--I believe in +her, and understand her. + +"Could I refuse to grasp the hand she held out to me as she entreated me +with tears in her eyes to be still her friend, her protector, and her +Kyrios! And yet, and yet!--Where shall I find resolution enough to ask +of her who excites me to the height of passion no more than a kind +glance, a clasp of the hand, an intelligent interest in what I say? How +am I to preserve self-control, calmness, patience, when I see her in the +arms of that handsome young demi-god whom I scorned only yesterday as a +worthless scoundrel? What ice may cool the fire of this burning heart? +What spear can transfix the dragon of passion which rages here? I have +lived almost half my life without ever feeling or yearning for the love +of which the poets sing. I have never known anything of such feelings +but through the pangs of some friend whose weakness had roused my pity; +and now, when love has come upon me so late with all its irresistible +force--has subjugated me, cast me into bondage--how shall I, how can I +get free? + +"My faithful friend, you who call me your son, whom I am glad to hear +speak to me as 'boy,' and 'child,' who have taken the place of the father +I lost so young--there is but one issue: I must leave you and this city-- +flee from her neighborhood--seek a new home far from her with whom I +could have been as happy as the Saints in bliss, and who has made me more +wretched than the damned in everlasting fire. Away, away! I will go--I +must go unless you, who can do so much, can teach me to kill this passion +or to transmute it into calm, brotherly regard." + +He stood still, close in front of the old man and hid his face in his +hands. At his favorite's concluding words, Horapollo had started to his +feet with all the vigor of youth; he now snatched his hand down from his +face, and exclaimed in a voice hoarse with indignation and the deepest +concern: + +"And you can say that in earnest? Can a sensible man like you have sunk +so deep in folly? Is it not enough that your own peace of mind should +have been sacrificed, flung at the feet of this--what can I call her?-- +Do you understand at last why I warned you against the Patrician brood? +--The faith, gratitude, and love of a good man!--What does she care for +them? Unhook the whiting; away with him in the dust! Here comes a fine +large fish who perhaps may swallow the bait!--Do you want to ruin, for +her sake, and the sake of that rascally son of the governor, the comfort +and happiness of an old man's last years when he has become accustomed to +love you, who so well deserve it, as his own son? Will you--an energetic +student, you--a man of powerful intellect, zealous in your duty, and in +favor with the gods--will you pine like a deserted maiden or spring from +the Leucadian rock like love-sick Sappho in the play while the spectators +shake with laughter? You must stay, Boy, you must stay; and I will show +you how a man must deal with a passion that dishonors him." + +"Show me," replied Philippus in a dull voice. "I ask no more. Do you +suppose that I am not myself ashamed of my own weakness? It ill beseems +me of all men, formed by fate for anything rather than to be a sighing +and rapturous lover. I will struggle with it, wrestle with it with all +the strength that is in me; but here, in Memphis, close to her and as her +Kyrios, I should be forced every day to see her, and day after day be +exposed to fresh and humiliating defeat! Here, constantly near her and +with her, the struggle must wear me out--I should perish, body and soul. +The same place, the same city, cannot hold her and me." + +"Then she must make way for you," croaked Horus. Philippus raised his +bowed head and asked, in some surprise and with stern reproof: + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Nothing," replied the other airily. He shrugged his shoulders and went +on more gently: "Memphis has greater need of you than of the patrician +hussy." Then he shook himself as if he were cold, struck his breast and +added: "All is turmoil here within; I can neither help nor advise you. +Day must soon be dawning in the east; we will try to sleep. A knot can +often be untied by daylight which by lamplight seems inextricable, and +perhaps on my sleepless couch the goddess may reveal to me the way I have +promised to show you. A little more lightness of heart would do neither +of us any harm.--Try to forget your own griefs in those of others; you +see enough of them every day. To wish you a good night would probably be +waste of words, but I may wish you a soothing one, You may count on my +aid; but you will not let me, a poor old man, hear another word about +flight and departure and the like, will you? No, no. I know you better, +Philippus--you will never treat your lonely old friend so!" + +These were the tenderest words that the leech had ever heard from the +old man's lips, and it comforted him when Horapollo pressed him to his +heart in a hasty embrace. He thought no more of the hint that it was +Paula's part to make room for him. But the old man had spoken in all +seriousness, for, no sooner was he alone than he petulantly flung down +the ivory ruler on the table, and murmured, at first angrily and then +scornfully, his eyes sparkling the while: + +"For this true heart, and to preserve myself and the world from losing +such a man, I would send a dozen such born hussies to Amentis--[The +Nether world of the ancient Egyptians.]--Hey, hey! My beauty! So this +noble leech is not good enough for the like of us; he may be tossed away +like a date-stone that we spit out? Well, every one to his taste; but +how would it be if old Horapollo taught us his value? Wait a bit, wait! +--With a definite aim before my eyes I have never yet failed to find my +way--in the realm of science, of course; but what is life--the life of +the sage but applied knowledge? And why should not old Horapollo, for +once before he dies, try what his brains can contrive to achieve in the +busy world of outside human existence? Pleasant as you may think it to +be in Memphis with your lover, fair heart-breaker, you will have to make +way for the plaything you have so lightly tossed aside! Aye, you +certainly will, depend upon that my beauty, depend upon that!--Here, +Anubis!" + +He gave the slave, who had fallen asleep again under the table, a kick +with his bare foot, and while Anubis lighted his master to his sleeping- +room, and helped him in his long and elaborate ablutions, Horapollo never +ceased muttering broken sentences and curses, or laughing maliciously to +himself. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A knot can often be untied by daylight +Hatred and love are the opposite ends of the same rod +Life is a function, a ministry, a duty +So hard is it to forego the right of hating +Those who will not listen must feel +Use their physical helplessness as a defence + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 7. + + + +CHAPTER I. [Note: In the print copy used for this eBook the chapter + numbers and page numbers start here over at one.] + +If Philippus found no sleep that night, neither did Orion. He no longer +doubted Paula, but his heart was full of longing to hear her say once +more that she loved him and him alone, and the yearning kept him awake. +He sprang from his bed at the first glimmer of dawn, glad that the night +was past, and started to cross the Nile in order to place half of Paula's +fortune in the hands of Salech, the brother of Haschim the merchant. + +In Memphis all was still silent, and all he saw in the old town struck +him as strangely worn-out, torpid, and decayed; it seemed only fit to be +left to ruin, while on the other side of the river, in the new town of +Fostat, on all hands busy, eager, new-born vitality met his eyes. + +He involuntarily compared the old capital of the Pharaohs to a time-eaten +mummy, and Amru's new city to a vigorous youth. Here every one was astir +and in brisk activity. The money-changer, who had risen, like all +Moslems, to perform his morning prayer, "as soon as a white thread could +be distinguished from a black one," was already busy with his rolls of +gold and silver coin; and how quick, clear, and decisive the Arab was in +concluding his bargain with Orion and with Nilus, who had accompanied +him! + +Whichever way the young man turned, bright and flashing eyes met his +gaze, energetic, resolute, and enterprising faces; no bowed heads, no +dull, brooding looks, no gloomy resignation like those in his native town +on the other shore. Here, in Fostat, his blood flowed more swiftly; +there, existence was an oppressive burden. Everything attracted him to +the Arabs! + +The changer's shop, like all those in the Sook or Bazaar of Fostat, +consisted of a wooden stall in which he sat with his assistants. On the +side open to the street he transacted business with his customers, who, +when the affair promised to be lengthy, were invited by the Arab to seat +themselves with him on his little platform. + +Orion and Nilus had accepted such an invitation, and it happened that, +while they sat in treaty with Salech, visible to the passers-by, the +Vekeel Obada, who had so deeply stirred the wrath of the governor's son +on the previous evening, came by, close to him. To Orion's amazement he +greeted him with great amiability, and he, remembering Amru's warning, +responded, though not without an effort, to his hated foe's civility. +When Obada passed the stall a second and a third time, Orion felt that he +was watching him; however, it was quite possible that the Vekeel might +also have business with the money-changer and be waiting only for the +conclusion of his. + +At any rate Orion ere long forgot the incident, for matters of more +pressing importance claimed his attention at home. + +As often happens, the death of one man had changed everything in his +house so utterly as to make it unlike the same; though his removal had +made it neither richer nor poorer, and though his secluded presence of +late had scarcely had an appreciable influence. The rooms formerly so +full of life now seemed dead. Petitioners and suppliants no longer +crowded the anteroom, and all visits of condolence had, according to the +ancient custom, been received on the day after the funeral. The Lady +Neforis had ceased fussing and bustling, the clatter of her keys and her +scolding were no longer to be heard; she sat apart, either in her +sleeping-room or the cool hall with the fountain which had been her +husband's favorite room, excepting when she was at church whither she +went twice every day. She returned from thence with the same weary, +abstracted expression that she took there, and any one seeing her lying +on the divan which her husband had formerly occupied, idly absorbed in +gloomy thought, would hardly have recognized her as the same woman who +had but lately been so active and managing. She did not exactly mourn +or bewail her loss; indeed, she had no tears for her grief, as though she +had shed them all, once for all, during the night after his death and +burial. But she could not attain to that state of sadness made sacred +by memories with which consoling angels so often mingle some drops of +sweetness, after the first anguish is overpast. She felt--she knew-- +that with her husband a portion of her own being had been riven from her, +but she could not yet perceive that this last portion was nothing less +than the very foundations of her whole moral and social being. + +Her father and her husband's father had been the two leading men in +Memphis, nay, in all Egypt. She had given her hand and a heart full of +love to the son of Menas, a proud and happy woman. It was as one with +her, and not by himself alone, that he had risen to the highest dignity +attainable by a native Egyptian, and she had done everything that lay in +her power to uphold him in a position which many envied him, and in +filling it with dignity and effect. After many years of rare happiness +their grief at the loss of their murdered sons only bound the attached +couple more closely, and when her husband had fallen into bad health she +had gladly shared his seclusion, had devoted herself entirely to caring +for him, and divided all the doubts and anxieties which came upon him +from his political action. The consciousness of being not merely much +but everything to him, was her pride and her joy. Her dislike of Paula +had its rise, in the first instance, in the discovery that she, his wife, +was no longer indispensable to the sufferer when he had his fair young +niece's company. And now? + +At night, after long lying awake, when she woke from a snatch of uneasy +sleep, she involuntarily listened for the faint panting breath, but no +heart now throbbed by her side; and when she quitted her lonely couch at +dawn the coming day lay before her as a desert and treeless solitude. +By night, as by day, she constantly tried to call up the image of the +dead, but whenever her small imaginative power had succeeded in doing so +--not unfrequently at first--she had seen him as in the last moments of +his life, a curse on his only son on his trembling lips. This horrible +impression deprived her of the last consolation of the mourner: +a beautiful memory, while it destroyed her proud and glad satisfaction +in her only child. The youth, who had till now been her soul's idol, +was stigmatized and branded in her eyes. She might not ignore the burden +laid on Orion by that most just man; instead of taking him to her heart +with double tenderness and softening or healing the fearful punishment +inflicted by his father, she could only pity him. When Orion came to see +her she would stroke his waving hair and, as she desired not to wound him +and make him even more unhappy than he must be already, she neither +blamed nor admonished him, and never reminded him of his father's curse. +And how beggared was that frugal heart, accustomed to spend all its store +of love on so few objects--nay, chiefly on one alone who was now no more! + +The happy voices of the children had always given her pleasure, so long +as they did not disturb her suffering husband; now, they too were silent. +She had withdrawn the sunshine of her narrow affection from her only +grandchild, who had hitherto held a place in it, for little Mary had had +a share in the horrors that had come upon her and Orion in her husband's +last moments. Indeed, the bereaved woman's excited fancy had firmly +conceived the mad notion that the child was the evil genius of the house +and the tool of Satan. + +Neforis had, however, enjoyed some hours of greater ease during the last +two days. In the misery of wakefulness which was beginning to torture +her like an acute pain, she had suddenly recollected what relief from +sleeplessness her husband had been wont to find in the opium pillules, +and a box of the medicine, only just opened, was at hand. And was not +she, too, suffering unutterable wretchedness? Why should she neglect +the remedy which had so greatly mitigated her husband's distress? It was +said to have a bad effect after long and frequent use, and she had often +checked the Mukaukas in taking it too freely; but could her sufferings be +greater? Would she not, indeed, be thankful to the drug if it should +shorten her miserable existence? + +So she took the familiar remedy, at first hesitatingly and then more +freely; and on the second day again, with real pleasure and happy +expectancy, for it had not merely procured her a good night but had +brought her joy in the morning: The dead had appeared to her, and for +the first time not in the act of cursing, but as a young and happy man. + +No one in the house knew what comfort the widow had had recourse to; the +physician and her son had been glad yesterday to find her more composed. + +When Orion returned home, after concluding his business with the money- +changer at Fostat, he had to make his way through a crowd of people, and +found the court-yard full of men, and the guards and servants in the +greatest excitement. No less a personage than the Patriarch had arrived +on a visit, and was now in conference with Neforis. Sebek, the steward, +informed Orion that he had asked for him, and that his mother wished that +he should immediately join them and pay his respects to the very reverend +Father. + +"She wished it?" asked the young man, as he tossed his riding-hat to a +slave, and he stood hesitating. + +He was too much a son of his time, and the Church and her ministers had +exercised too marked influence on his education, for the great prelate's +visit to be regarded otherwise than as a high honor. At the same time he +could not forget the insult done to his father's vanes, nor the Arab +general's warning to be on his guard against Benjamin's enmity; and +perhaps, he said to himself, it might be better to avoid a meeting with +the powerful priest than to expose himself to the danger of losing his +self-control and finding fresh food for his wrath. + +However, he had in fact no choice, for the patriarch just now came out of +the fountain-hall into the viridarium. The old man's tall figure was not +bent, his snowy hair flowed in abundance round his proud head, and a +white beard fell in soft waves far down his breast. His fine eyes rested +on the young man with a keen glance, and though he had last seen Orion as +a boy he recognized him at once as the master of the house. While Orion +bowed low before him, the patriarch, in his deep, rich voice, addressed +him with cheerful dignity. + +"All hail, son of my never-to-be-forgotten friend! The child I remember, +has, I see, grown to a fine man. I have devoted a short time to the +mother, and now I must say what is needful to the son." + +"In my father's study," Orion said to the steward; and he led the way +with the ceremonious politeness of a chamberlain of the imperial court. + +The patriarch, as he followed him, signed to his escort to remain behind, +and as soon as the door was closed upon them, he went up to Orion and +exclaimed: "Again I greet you! This, then, is the descendant of the +great Menas, the son of Mukaukas George, the adored ruler of my flock +at Memphis, who held the first place among the gilded youth of +Constantinople in their gay whirl! A strange achievement for an Egyptian +and a Christian! But first of all, child, first give me your hand!" +He held out his right hand and Orion accepted it, but not without +reserve, for he had suspected a scornful ring in the patriarch's address, +and he could not help asking himself whether this man honestly meant so +well by him, that he could address him thus paternally as "child" in all +sincerity of heart? To refuse his hand was, however, impossible; still, +he found courage to reply: + +"I can but obey your desire, holy Father; but, at the same time, I do not +know whether it becomes the son to grasp the hand of the foe who was not +to be appeased even by Death, the reconciler--who grossly insulted the +father, the noblest of men, and, in him, the son too, at the grave +itself." + +The patriarch shook his head with a supercilious smile, and a hot thrill +shot through Orion as Benjamin laid his hand on his shoulder and said +with grave kindness: + +"A Christian does not find it hard to forgive a sinner, an antagonist, an +enemy; and it is a joy to me to pardon the son who feels himself injured +through his lost father, blind and foolish as his indignation may be. +Your wrath can no more affect me, Child, than the Almighty in Heaven, +and it would not even be blameworthy, but that--and of this we must speak +presently--but that--well, I will be frank with you at once--but that +your manner clearly and unmistakably betrays what you lack to make you a +true Christian, and such a man as he must be who fills so conspicuous a +position in this land governed by infidels. You know what I mean?" + +The prelate let his hand slip from the young man's shoulder, looking +enquiringly in his face; and when Orion, finding no reply ready, drew +back a step or two, the old man went on with growing excitement: + +"It is humility, pious and submissive faith, that I find you lack, my +friend. Who, indeed, am I? But as the Vicar, the representative of Him +before whom we all are as worms in the dust, I must insist that every man +who calls himself a Christian, a Jacobite, shall submit to my will and +orders, without hesitation or doubt, as obediently and unresistingly as +though salvation or woe had fallen on him from above. What would become +of us, if individuals were to take upon themselves to defy me and walk in +their own way? In one miserable generation, and with the death of the +elders who had grown up as true Christians, the doctrine of the Saviour +would be extinct on the shores of the Nile, the crescent would rise in +the place of the Cross, and our cry would go up to Heaven for so many +lost souls. Learn, haughty youth, to bow humbly and submissively to the +will of the Most High and of His vicar on earth, and let me show you, +from your demeanor to myself especially, how far your own judgment is to +be relied on. You regard me as your father's enemy?" + +"Yes," said Orion firmly. + +"And I loved him as a brother!" replied the patriarch in a softer voice. +"How gladly would I have heaped his bier with palm branches of peace, +such as the Church alone can grow, wet with my own tears!" + +"And yet," cried Orion, "you denied to him, whom you call your friend, +what the Church does not refuse to thieves and murderers, if only they +desire forgiveness and have received absolution from a priest; +and that. . . ." + +"And that your father did!" interrupted the old man. "Peace be to him! +He is now, no doubt, gazing on the glory of the Lord. And nevertheless +I could forbid the priesthood here showing him honor at the grave.--Why? +For what urgent reason was such a prohibition spoken by a friend against +a friend?" + +"Because you wished to brand him, in the eyes of the world, as the man +who lent his support to the unbelievers and helped them to victory," said +Orion gloomily. + +"How well the boy can read the thoughts of men!" exclaimed the prelate, +looking at the young man with approbation in which, however, there was +some irony and annoyance. "Very good. We will assume that my object +was to show the Christians of Memphis what fate awaits the man, who +surrenders his country to the enemy and walks hand-in-hand with +unbelievers? And may I not possibly have been right?" + +"Do you suppose my father invited the Arabs?" interrupted the young man. + +"No, Child," replied the patriarch, "the enemy came of his own free +will." + +"And you," Orion went on, "after the Greeks had driven you into exile, +prophesied from the desert that they would come and overthrow the +Melchites, the Greek enemies of our faith, drive them out of the +country." + +"It was revealed to me by the Lord!" replied the old man, bowing his +head reverently. "And yet other things were shown to me while I dwelt a +devout ascetic, mortifying my flesh under the scorching sun of the +desert. Beware my son, beware! Heed my warning, lest it should be +fulfilled and the house of Menas vanish like clouds swept before the +wind.--Your father, I know, regarded my prophecy as advice given by me +to receive the infidels as the instrument of the Almighty and to support +them in driving the Melchite oppressors out of the land." + +"Your prophecy," replied Orion, "had, no doubt, a marked effect on my +father; and when the cause of the emperor and the Greeks was lost, your +opinion that the Melchites were unbelievers as much as the sons of Islam, +was of infinite comfort to him. For he, if any one--as you know--had +good reason to hate the sectarians who killed his two sons in their +prime. What followed, he did to rescue his and your unfortunate brethren +and dependants from destruction. Here, here in this desk, lies his +answer to the emperor's accusations, as given to the Greek deputation +who had speech of him in this very room. He wrote it down as soon as +they had left him. Will you hear it?" + +"I can guess its purport." + +"No, no!" cried the excited youth; he hastily opened his father's desk, +laid his hand at once on the wax tablet, and exclaimed: "This was his +reply!" And he proceeded to read: + +"These Arabs, few as they are, are stronger and more powerful than we +with all our numbers. One man of them is equal to a hundred of us, for +they rush on death and love it better than life. Each of them presses to +the front in battle, and they have no longing to return home and to their +families. For every Christian they kill they look for a great reward in +Heaven, and they say that the gates of Paradise open at once for those +who fall in the fight. They have not a wish in this world beyond the +satisfaction of their barest need of food and clothing. We, on the +contrary, love life and dread death;--how can we stand against them? +I tell you that I will not break the peace I have concluded with the +Arabs. . . ." + +"And what is the upshot of all this reply?" interrupted the patriarch +shrugging his shoulders. + +"That my father found himself compelled to conclude a peace, and that-- +but read on.--That as a wise man he was forced to ally himself with the +foe." + +"The foe to whom he yielded more readily and paid much greater honor than +became him as a Christian!--Does not this discourse convey the idea that +the joys of Paradise solely and exclusively await our damned and blood- +thirsty oppressors?--And the Moslem Paradise! What is it but a gulf +of iniquity, in which they are to wallow in sensual delight? The false +prophet invented it to tempt his followers to force his lying creed, +by might of arms and in mad contempt of death, on nation after nation. +Our Lord, the Word made flesh, came down on earth to win hearts and souls +by the persuasive power of the living truth, one and eternal, which +emanates from Him as light proceeds from the sun; this Mohammed, on the +contrary, is a sword made flesh! For me, then, there is no choice but to +submit to superior strength; but I can still hate and loathe their +accursed and soul-destroying superstition.--And so I do, and so I shall, +to the last throb of this old heart, which only longs for rest, the +sooner the better.... + +"But you? And your father? Verily, verily, the man who, even for an +instant, ceases to hate unbelief or false doctrine has sinned for his +whole life on this side of the grave and beyond it; sinned against the +only true and saving faith and its divine Founder. Blasphemous and +flattering praise of the piety and moderation of our foes, the very +antichrist incarnate, who kill both body and soul.--With these your +father fouled his heart and tongue. . ." + +"Fouled?" cried Orion and the blood tingled in his cheeks. "He kept his +heart and tongue alike pure and honorable; never did a false word pass +his lips. Justice, justice to all, even to his enemies, was the ruling +principle, the guiding clue of his blameless life; and the noblest of the +heathen Greeks admired the man who could so far triumph over himself as +to recognize what was fine and good in a foe." + +"And they were right," replied the patriarch, "for they were not yet +acquainted with truth. In a worldly sense, even now, each of us may aim +at such magnanimity; but the man who forgives those who tamper with the +sacred truth, which is the bread, meat, and wine of the Christian's soul, +sins against that truth; and, if he is a leader of men, he draws on those +who look up to him, and who are only too ready to follow his example, +into everlasting fire. Where your father ought to have been a +recalcitrant though conquered enemy, he became an ally; nay, so far as +the leader of the infidels was concerned, a friend--how many tears it +cost me! And our hapless people were forced to see this attitude of +their chief, and imitated it.--Forgive their seducer, Merciful God!-- +forming their conduct on his. Thousands fell away from our saving faith +and went over to those, who in their eyes could not be reprobate, could +not be damned, since they saw them dwelling and working hand-in-hand with +their wise and righteous leader; and it was simply and solely to warn his +misguided people that I did not hesitate to wound my own heart, to raise +the voice of reproof at the grave of a dear friend, and to refuse the +honor and blessing of which his just and virtuous life rendered him more +worthy than thousands of others. I have spoken, and now your foolish +anger must be appeased; now you will grasp the hand held out to you by +the shepherd of the souls entrusted to him with an easy and willing +heart." + +And again he offered his hand to Orion, who, however, again took it +doubtfully, and instead of looking the prelate in the face, cast down his +eyes in gloomy bewilderment. The patriarch appeared not to observe the +young man's repulsion and clasped his hand warmly. Then he changed the +subject, speaking of the grieving widow, of the decadence of Memphis, +of Orion's plans for the future, and finally of the gems dedicated to +the Church by the deceased Mukaukas. The dialogue had taken a calm, +conversational tone; the patriarch was sitting in the dead man's arm- +chair, and there was nothing forced or unnatural in his asking, in the +course of discussing the jewels, what had become of the great emerald. + +Orion replied, in the same tone, that this stone was not, strictly +speaking, any part of his father's gift; but Benjamin expressed an +opposite opinion. + +All the tortures Orion had endured since that luckless deed in the +tablinum revived in his soul during this discussion; however, it was some +small relief to him to perceive, that neither his mother nor Dame +Susannah seemed to have told the patriarch the guilt he had incurred by +reason of that gem. Susannah, of course, had said nothing of the +incident in order to avoid speaking of her daughter's false evidence; +still, this miserable business might easily have come to the ears of the +stern old man, and to the guilty youth no sacrifice seemed too great to +smother any enquiry for the ill-fated jewel. He unhesitatingly explained +that the emerald had disappeared, but that he was quite ready to make +good its value. Benjamin might fix his own estimate, and name any sum he +wished for some benevolent purpose, and he, Orion, was ready to pay it to +him on the spot. + +The prelate, however, calmly persisted in his demand, enjoined Orion to +have a diligent search made for the gem, and declared that he regarded it +as the property of the Church. He added that, when his patience was at +an end, he should positively insist on its surrender and bring every +means at his disposal into play to procure it. + +Orion had no choice but to say that he would prosecute his search for the +lost stone; but his acquiescence was sullen, as that of a man who accedes +to an unreasonable demand. + +At first the patriarch took this coolly; but presently, when he rose to +take leave, his demeanor changed; he said, with stern solemnity: + +"I know you now, Son of Mukaukas George, and I end as I began: +The humility of the Christian is far from you, you are ignorant of the +power and dignity of our Faith, you do not even know the vast love that +animates it, and the fervent longing to lead the straying sinner back to +the path of salvation.--Your admirable mother has told me, with tears in +her eyes, of the abyss over which you are standing. It is your desire to +bind yourself for life to a heretic, a Melchite--and there is another +thing which fills her pious mother's heart with fears, which tortures it +as she thinks of you and your eternal welfare. She promised to confide +this to my ear in church, and I shall find leisure to consider of it on +my return home; but at any rate, and be it what it may, it cannot more +greatly imperil your soul than marriage with a Melchite. + +"On what have you set your heart? On the mere joys of earth! You sue +for the hand of an unbeliever, the daughter of an unbelieving heretic; +you go over to Fostat--nay, hear me out--and place your brain and your +strong arm at the service of the infidels--it is but yesterday; but I, +I, the shepherd of my flock, will not suffer that he who is the highest +in rank, the richest in possessions, the most powerful by the mere +dignity of his name, shall pervert thousands of the Jacobite brethren. +I have the will and the power too, to close the sluice gates against such +a disaster. Obey me, or you shall rue it with tears of blood." + +The prelate paused, expecting to see Orion fall on his knees before him; +but the young man did nothing of the kind. He stood looking at him, +open-eyed and agitated, but undecided, and Benjamin went on with added +vehemence: + +"I came to you to lift up my voice in protest, and I desire, I require, +I command you: sever all ties with the enemies of your nation and of your +faith, cast out your love for the Melchite Siren, who will seduce your +immortal part to inevitable perdition. . . ." + +Till this Orion had listened with bowed head and in silence to the +diatribe which the patriarch had hurled at him like a curse; but at this +point his whole being rose in revolt, all self-control forsook him, and +he interrupted the speaker in loud tones: + +"Never, never, never will I do such a thing! Insult me as you will. +What I am, I will still be: a faithful son of the Church to which my +fathers belonged, and for which my brothers died. In all humility I +acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord. I believe in him, believe in the +God-made-man who died to save us, and who brought love into the world, +and I will remain unpersuaded and faithful to my own love. Never will I +forsake her who has been to me like a messenger from God, like a good +angel to teach me how to lay hold on what is earnest and noble in life- +her whom my father, too, held dear. Power, indeed, is yours. Demand of +me anything reasonable, and within my attainment, and I will try to force +myself to obedience; but I never can and never will be faithless to her, +to prove my faith to you; and as to the Arabs...." + +"Enough!" exclaimed the prelate. "I am on my way to Upper Egypt. Make +your choice by my return. I give you till then to come to a right mind, +to think the matter over; and it is quite deliberately that I bid you to +forget the Melchite. That you, of all men, should marry a heretic would +be an abomination not to be borne. With regard to your alliance with the +Arabs, and whether it becomes you--being what you are--to take service +with them, we will discuss it at a future day. If, by the time I return, +you have thought better of the matter as regards your marriage--and you +are free to choose any Jacobite maiden--then I will speak to you in a +different tone. I will then offer you my friendship and support; instead +of the Church's curse I will pronounce her blessing on you--the pardon +and grace of the Almighty, a smooth path to eternity and peace, and the +prospect of giving new joy to the aching heart of your sorrowing mother. +My last word is that you must and shall give up the woman from whom you +can look for nothing but perdition." + +"I cannot, and shall not, and I never will!" replied Orion firmly. + +"Then I can, and shall, and will make you feel how heavily the curse +falls which, in the last resort, I shall not hesitate to pronounce upon +you!" + +"It is in your power," said Orion. "But if you proceed to extremities +with me, you will drive me to seek the blessing for which my soul thirsts +more ardently than you, my lord, can imagine, and the salvation I crave, +with her whom you hold reprobate, and on the further side of the Nile." + +"I dare you!" cried the patriarch, quitting the room with a resolute +step and flaming cheeks. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Orion was alone in the spacious room, feeling as though the whole world +were sinking into nothingness after the rack of storm and tempest. At +first he was merely conscious of having gone through a fearful +experience, which threatened to fling him far outside the sphere of +everything he was wont to reverence and hold sacred. For love and honor +of his guardian angel he had declared war to the patriarch, and that +man's power was as great as his stature. Still, the image of Paula rose +high and supreme above that of the terrible old man, in Orion's fancy, +and his father, as it seemed to him, was like an ally in the battle he +was destined to wage in his own strength. + +The young man's vivid imagination and excellent memory recapitulated +every word the prelate had uttered. The domineering old man, overflowing +with bigoted zeal, had played with him as a cat with a mouse. He had +tried to search his soul and sift him to the bottom before he attacked +the subject with which he ought to have begun, and concerning which +he was fully informed when he offered him his hand that first time-- +as cheerfully, too, as though he had no serious grievance seething in +his soul. Orion resolved that he would cling fast to his faith without +Benjamin's interposition, and not allow his hold on the two other +Christian graces, Hope and Love, to be weakened by his influence. + +By some miracle his mother had not yet told the prelate of his father's +curse, in spite of the anguish of her aching heart; and what a weapon +would not that have been in Benjamin's hand. It was with the deepest +pity that he thought of that poor, grief-stricken woman, and the idea +flashed through his mind that the patriarch might have gone back to his +mother to accuse him and to urge her to further revelations. + +Many minutes had passed since the patriarch had left him; Orion had +allowed his illustrious guest to depart unescorted, and this could +not fail to excite surprise. Such a breach of good manners, of the +uncodified laws of society, struck Orion, the son of a noble and ancient +house, who had drunk in his regard for them as it were with his mother's +milk, as an indignity to himself; and to repair it he started up, hastily +smoothing down his tumbled hair, and hurried into the viridarium. His +fears were confirmed, for the patriarch's following were standing in the +fountain-hall close to the exit; his mother, too, was there and Benjamin +was in the act of departure. + +The old man accepted his offered escort with dignified affability, as if +nothing but what was pleasant had passed between him and Orion. As they +crossed the viridarium he asked his young host what was the name of some +rare flower, and counselled him to take care that shade-giving trees were +planted in abundance on his various estates. In the outer hall, on +either side of the door, was a statue: Truth and justice, two fine works +by Aristeas of Alexandria, who flourished in the time of the Emperor +Hadrian. Justice held the scales and sword, Truth was gazing into her +mirror. As the patriarch approached them, he said to the priest who +walked by his side: "Still here!" Then, standing still, he said, partly +to Orion and partly to his companion: + +"Your father, I see, neglected my suggestion that these heathen images +had no place in any Christian house, and least of all in one attached, as +this is, to a public function. We, no doubt, know the meaning of the +symbols they bear; but how easily might the ordinary man, waiting here, +mistake the figure with the mirror for Vanity and that with the scales +Venality: 'Pay us what we ask,' she might be saying, 'or else your life +is a forfeit,'--so the sword would imply." + +He smiled and walked on, but added airily to Orion: + +"When I come again--you know--I shall be pleased if my eye is no longer +offended by these mementos of an extinct idolatry." + +"Truth and justice!" replied Orion in a constrained voice. "They have +dwelt on this spot and ruled in this house for nearly five hundred +years." + +"It would look better, and be more suitable," retorted the patriarch, +"if you could say that of Him to whom alone the place of honor is due in +a Christian house; in His presence every virtue flourishes of itself. +The Christian should proscribe every image from his dwelling; at the door +of his heart only should he raise an image on the one hand of Faith and +on the other of Humility." + +By this time they had reached the court-yard, where Susannah's chariot +was waiting. Orion helped the prelate into it, and when Benjamin offered +him his hand to kiss, in the presence of several hundred slaves and +servants, all on their knees, the young man lightly touched it with his +lips. He stood bowed low in reverence so long as the holy father +remained visible, in the attitude of blessing the crowd from the open +side of the chariot; then he hurried away to join his mother. + +He expected to find her exhausted by the excitement of the patriarch's +visit; but, in fact, she was more composed than he had seen her yet since +his father's death. Her eyes indeed, commonly so sober in their +expression, were bright with a kind of rapture which puzzled Orion. +Had she been thinking of his father? Could the patriarch have succeeded +in inspiring her pious fervor to such a pitch, that it had carried her, +so to speak, out of herself? + +She was dressed to go to church, and after expressing her delight at the +honor done to herself and her whole household by the prelate's visit, she +invited Orion to accompany her. Though he had proposed devoting the next +few hours to a different purpose, the dutiful son at once acceded to this +wish; he helped her into her chariot, bid the driver go slowly, and +seated himself by her side. + +As they drove along he asked her what she had told the patriarch, and her +replies might have reassured him but that she filled him with grave +anxiety on fresh grounds. Her mind seemed to have suffered under the +stress of grief. It was usually so clear, so judicious, so reasonable; +and now all she said was incoherent and not more than half intelligible. +Still, one thing he distinctly understood: that she had not confided to +the patriarch the fact of his father's curse. The prelate must certainly +have censured the conduct of the deceased to her also and that had sealed +her lips. She complained to her son that Benjamin had never understood +her lost husband, and that she had felt compelled to repress her desire +to disclose everything to him. Nowhere but in church, in the very +presence of the Redeemer, could she bring herself to allow him to read +her heart as it were an open book. A voice had warned her that in the +house of God alone, could she find salvation for herself and her son; +that voice she heard day and night, and much as it pained her to grieve +him he must hear it now--: That voice never ceased to enjoin her to tear +asunder his connection with the Melchite maiden. Last evening it had +seemed to her that it was her eldest son, who had died for the Jacobite +faith, that was speaking to her. The voice had sounded like his, and it +had warned her that the ancient house of Menas must perish, if a Melchite +should taint the pure blood of their race. And Benjamin had confirmed +her fears; he had come back to her on purpose to beseech her to oppose +Orion's sinful affection for Thomas' daughter with the utmost maternal +authority, and, as the patriarch expressed the same desire as the voice, +it must be from God and she must obey it. + +Her old grudge against Paula had revived, and her very tones betrayed +that it grew stronger with every word she spoke which had any reference +to the girl. + +At this Orion begged her to be calm, reminding her of the promise she had +made him by his father's deathbed; and just as his mother was about to +reply in a tone of pitiful recrimination, the chariot stopped at the door +of the church. He did everything in his power to soothe her; his gentle +and tender tones comforted her, and she nodded to him more happily, +following him into the sanctuary. + +Beyond the narthex--the vestibule of the church, where three penitents +were flaying their backs with scourges by the side of a small marble +fountain, and in full view of the crowd--they were forced to part, as the +women were divided from the men by a screen of finely-carved woodwork. + +As Neforis went to her place, she shook her bowed head: she was +meditating on the choice offered her by Orion, of yielding to the +patriarch's commands or to her son's wishes. How gladly would she have +seen her son in bright spirits again. But Benjamin had threatened her +with the loss of all the joys of Heaven, if she should agree to Orion's +alliance with the heretic--and the joys of Heaven to her meant a meeting, +a recognition, for which she would willingly have sacrificed her son and +everything else that was dear to her heart. + +Orion assisted at the service in the place reserved for the men of his +family, close to the hekel, or holy of holies, where the altar stood and +the priests performed their functions. A partition, covered with ill- +wrought images and a few gilt ornaments, divided it from the main body of +the church, and the whole edifice produced an impression that was neither +splendid nor particularly edifying. The basilica, which had once been +richly decorated, had been plundered by the Melchites in a fight between +them and the Jacobites, and the impoverished city had not been in a +position to restore the venerable church to anything approaching its +original splendor. Orion looked round him; but could see nothing +calculated to raise his devotion. + +The congregation were required to stand all through the service; and as +it often was a very long business, not the women only, behind the screen, +but many of the men supported themselves like cripples on crutches. How +unpleasing, too, were the tones of the Egyptian chant, accompanied by the +frequent clang of a metal cymbal and mingled with the babble of +chattering men and women, checked only when the talk became a quarrel, +by a priest who loudly and vehemently shouted for silence from the hekel. + +Generally the chanted liturgy constituted the whole function, unless the +Lord's Supper was administered; but in these anxious times, for above a +week past, a priest or a monk preached a daily sermon. This began a +short while after the young man had taken his place, and it was with +painful feelings that he recognized, in the hollow-eyed and ragged monk +who mounted the pulpit, a priest whom he had seen more than once drunk to +imbecility, in Nesptah's tavern, And the revolting creature, who thus +flaunted his dirty, dishevelled person even in the pulpit, thundered down +on the trembling congregation declarations that the delay in the rising +of the Nile was the consequence of their sins, and God's punishment for +their evil deeds. Instead of comforting the terrified souls, or +encouraging their faith and bidding them hope for better times, he set +before them in burning words the punishment that awaited their wicked +despondency. + +God Almighty was plaguing them and the land with great heat; but this was +like the cool north wind at Advent-tide, as compared with the fierceness +of the furnace of hell which Satan was making hot for them. The +scorching sun on earth at any rate gave them daylight, but the flames of +hell shed no light, that the terrors might never cease of those whom the +devil's myrmidons drove over the narrow bridge leading to his horrible +realm, goading them with spears and pitchforks, with heavy cudgelling or +gnawing of their flesh. In the anguish of death, and the crush by the +way, mothers trod down their infants and fathers their daughters; and +when the damned reached the spiked threshold of hell itself, a hideous +and poisoned vapor rose up to meet them, choking them, and yet giving +them renewed strength to feel fresh torments with increased keenness of +every sense. Then the devil's shrieks of anguish, which shake the vault +of hell, came thundering on their ears; with hideous yells he snatched at +them from the grate on which he lay, crushed and squeezed them in his +iron jaws like a bunch of grapes, and swallowed them into his fiery maw; +or else they were hung up by their tongues by attendant friends in +Satan's fiery furnace, or dragged alternately through ice and flames, +and finally beaten to pieces on the anvil of hell, or throttled and wrung +with ropes and cloths.--As compared with the torments they would suffer +there, every present anxiety was as the kiss of a lover. Mothers would +hear the brain seething in their infants' skulls.... + +At this point of the monk's grewsome discourse, Orion turned away with a +shudder. The curse with which the patriarch had threatened him recurred +to his mind; he could have fancied that the hot, stuffy, incense-laden +air of the church was full of flapping daws and hideous bats. Deadly +horror crept over him; but then, suddenly, the rebound came of youthful +vigor, longing for freedom and joy in living; a voice within cried out: +"Away with coercion and chains! Winged spirit, use your pinions! Down +with the god of terrors! He is not that Heavenly Father whose love +embraces mankind. Forward, leap up and be free! Trusting in your own +strength, guided by your own will, go boldly forth into the open sunshine +of life! Be free, be free!--Still, be not like a slave who is no sooner +cut adrift and left to himself than he falls a slave again to his own +senses. No; but striving unceasingly and of your own free will, in the +sweat of your brow, to reach the high goal, to work out to its fulfilment +and fruition everything that is best in your soul and mind. Yes--life is +a ministry.... I, like the disciples of the Stoa, will strive after all +that is known as virtue, with no other end in view than to practise it +for its own sake, because it is fair and gives unmixed joys. I will rely +on myself to seek the truth--and do what I feel to be right and good; +this, henceforth, shall be the lofty aim of my existence. To the two +chief desires of my heart--: atonement to my father and union with Paula, +I here add a third: the attainment of the loftiest goal that I may reach, +by valiant striving to get as near to it as my strength will allow. The +road thither is by Work; the guiding star I must keep before me that I +may not go astray is my Love!" + +His cheeks were burning, and with a deep breath he looked about him as +though to find an adversary with whom he might measure his strength. The +horrible sermon was ended and the words of the chanting crowd fell on his +ear. "Lord, reward me not according to mine iniquities!" The load of +his own sin fell on his heart again, and his dying father's curse; his +proud head drooped on his breast, and he said to himself that his burthen +was too heavy for him to venture on the bold flight for which he had but +now spread his wings. The ban was not yet lifted; he was not yet +redeemed from its crushing weight. But the mere word "redeemed" brought +to his mind the image of Him who took on Himself the sins of the world; +and the more deeply he contemplated the nature of the Saviour whom he had +loved from his childhood, the more surely he felt that it would be doing +no violence to the freedom of his own will, but rather be the fulfilment +of a long-felt desire, if he were to tell Jesus simply all that oppressed +him; that his love for Him, his faith in Him, had a saving power even for +his soul. He lifted up his eyes and heart to Him, and to Him, as to a +trusted friend, confided all that troubled and hindered him and besought +His aid. + +In loving Him, he and Paula were one, he knew, though they had not the +same idea of His nature. + +Orion, as he meditated, thought out the points on which her views +deviated from his own: she believed that the divine and the human natures +were distinct in the person of Christ. And as he reflected on this +creed, till now so horrible in his eyes, he felt that the unique +individuality of the Saviour, shedding forth love and truth, came home to +him more closely when he pictured Him perfect and spotless, yet feeling +as a man; walking among men with all their joy in life in His heart, +alive to every pang and sorrow which can torture mortals, rejoicing with +them, and taking upon Himself unspeakable humiliation, suffering, and +death, with a stricken, bleeding, and yet self-devoting heart, for pure +love of the wretched race to which He could stoop from His glory. Yes, +this Christ could be his Redeemer too. The Almighty Lord had become his +perfect and most loving friend, his glorious, but lenient and tender +brother, to whom he could gladly give his whole heart, who understood +everything, who was ready to forgive everything--even all that was +seething in his aching heart which longed for purification--and all +because He once had suffered as a man suffers. + +For the first time he, the Jacobite, dared to confess so much to himself; +and not solely for Paula's sake. A violent clanging on a cracked metal +plate roused him from his meditations by its harsh clamor; the sacrament +of the Last Supper was about to be administered: the invariable +conclusion of the Jacobite service. The bishop came forth from behind +the screen of the inner sanctuary, poured some wine into a silver cup and +crumbled into it two little cakes stamped with the Coptic cross. Of this +mixture he first partook, and then gave it in a spoon to each member of +the congregation who came up to receive it. Orion approached after two +elders of the Church. Finally the priest rinsed out the cup, and drained +the very washings, that no drop of the saving liquid should be lost. + +How high had Orion's heart throbbed when, as a youth, he had been +admitted for the first time to this most sacred of all Christian +privileges! He was instructed in its deep and glorious symbolism, and +had often felt the purifying, saving, and refreshing effect of the +sacrament, strengthening him in all goodness, when he had partaken of it +with his parents and brothers. Hand-in-hand, they had gone home feeling +as if newly robed in body and soul and more closely bound together than +before. And to-day, insensible as he was to the repulsiveness of the +forms of worship of his confession he felt as though the bread and wine +--the Flesh and Blood of the Saviour--had sealed the bond he had silently +entered into with himself; as though the Lord had put forth an invisible +hand to remove the guilt and the curse that crushed him so sorely. Deep +devotion fell on his soul: his future life, he thought, should bring him +nearer to God than ever before, and be spent in loving, and in the more +earnest, full, and laborious exercise of the gifts Heaven had bestowed on +him. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Orion had dreaded the drive home with his mother, but after complaining +to him of Susannah's conduct in having made a startling display of her +vexation in the women's place behind the screen, she had leaned on him +and fallen fast asleep. Her head was on her son's shoulder when they +reached home, and Orion's anxiety for the mother he truly loved was +enhanced when he found it difficult to rouse her. He felt her stagger +like a drunken creature, and he led her not into the fountain-room but to +her bed-chamber, where she only begged to lie down; and hardly had she +done so when she was again overcome by sleep. + +Orion now made his way to Gamaliel the jeweller, to purchase from him a +very large and costly diamond, plainly set, and the Israelite's brother +undertook to deliver it to the fair widow at Constantinople, who was +known to him as one of his customers. Orion, in the jeweller's sitting- +room, wrote a letter to his former mistress, in which he begged her in +the most urgent manner to accept the diamond, and in exchange to return +to him the emerald by a swift and trustworthy messenger, whom Simeon the +goldsmith would provide with everything needful. + +After all this be went home hungry and weary, to the late midday meal +which he shared, as for many days past, with no one but Eudoxia, Mary's +governess. The little girl was not yet allowed to leave her room, and of +this, for one reason, her instructress was glad, for a dinner alone with +the handsome youth brought extreme gratification to her mature heart. +How considerate was the wealthy and noble heir in desiring the slaves to +offer every dish to her first, how kind in listening to her stories of +her young days and of the illustrious houses in which she had formerly +given lessons! She would have died for him; but, as no opportunity +offered for such a sacrifice, at any rate she never omitted to point out +to him the most delicate morsels, and to supply his room with fresh +flowers. + +Besides this, however, she had devoted herself with the most admirable +unselfishness to her pupil, since the child had been ill and her +grandmother had turned against her, noticing, too, that Orion took a +tender and quite fatherly interest in his little niece. This morning the +young man had not had time to enquire for Mary, and Eudoxia's report that +she seemed even more excited than on the day before disturbed him so +greatly, that he rose from table, in spite of Eudoxia's protest, without +waiting till the end of the meal, to visit the little invalid. + +It was with genuine anxiety that he mounted the stairs. His heart was +heavy over many things, and as he went towards the child's room he said +to himself with a melancholy smile, that he, who had contemned many a +distinguished man and many a courted fair one at Constantinople because +they had fallen short of his lofty standard, had here no one but this +child who would be sure to understand him. Some minutes elapsed before +his knock was answered with the request to 'come in,' and he heard a +hasty bustle within. He found Mary lying, as the physician had ordered, +on a couch by the window, which was wide open and well-shaded; her couch +was surrounded by flowering plants and, on a little table in front of +her, were two large nosegays, one fading, the other quite fresh and +particularly beautiful. + +How sadly the child had changed in these few days. The soft round cheeks +had disappeared, and the pretty little face had sunk into nothingness by +comparison with the wonderful, large eyes, which had gained in size and +brilliancy. Yesterday she had been free from fever and very pale, but +to-day her cheeks were crimson, and a twitching of her lips and of her +right shoulder, which had come on since the scene at the grandfather's +deathbed, was so incessant that Orion sat down by her side in some alarm. + +"Has your grandmother been to see you?" was his first question, but the +answer was a mournful shake of her head. + +The blossoming plants were his own gift and so was the fading nosegay; +the other, fresher one had not come from him, so he enquired who was the +giver, and was not a little astonished to see his favorite's confusion +and agitation at the question. There must be something special connected +with the posey, that was very evident, and the young man, who did not +wish to excite her sensitive nerves unnecessarily, but could not recall +his words, was wishing he had never spoken them, when the discovery of a +feather fan cut the knot of his difficulty; he took it up, exclaiming: +"Hey--what have we here?" + +A deeper flush dyed Mary's cheek, and raising her large eyes imploringly +to his face, she laid a finger on her lips. He nodded, as understanding +her, and said in a low voice: + +"Katharina has been here? Susannah's gardener ties up flowers like that. +The fan--when I knocked--she is here still perhaps?" + +He had guessed rightly; Mary pointed dumbly to the door of the adjoining +room. + +"But, in Heaven's name, child," Orion went on, in an undertone, "what +does she want here?" + +"She came by stealth, in the boat," whispered the child. "She sent +Anubis from the treasurer's office to ask me if she might not come, she +could not do without me any longer, and she never did me any harm and so +I said yes--and then, when I knew it was your knock, whisk--off she went +into the bedroom." + +"And if your grandmother were to come across her?" + +"Then--well, then I do not know what would become of me! But oh! Orion, +if you only knew how--how..." Two big tears rolled down her cheeks and +Orion understood her; he stroked her hair lovingly and said in a whisper, +glancing now and again at the door of the next room. + +"But I came up on purpose to tell you something more about Paula. She +sends you her love, and she invites you to go to her and stay with her, +always. But you must keep it quite a secret and tell no one, not even +Eudoxia and Katharina; for I do not know myself how we can contrive to +get your grandmother's consent. At any rate we must set to work very +prudently and cautiously, do you understand? I have only taken you into +our confidence that you may look forward to it and have something to be +glad of at night, when you are such a silly little thing as to keep your +eyes open like the hares, instead of sleeping like a good child. If +things go well, you may be with Paula to-morrow perhaps--think of that! +I had quite given up all hope of managing it at all; but now, just now-- +is it not odd--just within these two minutes I suddenly said to myself: +'It will come all right!'--So it must be done somehow." + +A flood of tears streamed down Mary's burning cheeks but, freely as they +flowed, she did not sob and her bosom did not heave. Nor did she speak, +but such pure and fervent gratitude and joy shone from her glistening +eyes that Orion felt his own grow moist. He was glad to find some way of +concealing his emotion when Mary seized his hand and, pressing a long +kiss on it, wetted it with her tears. + +"See!" he exclaimed. "All wet! as if I had just taken it out of the +fountain." + +But he said no more, for the bedroom door was suddenly thrown open and +Eudoxia's high, thin voice was heard saying: + +"But why make any fuss? Mary will be enchanted! Here, Child, here is +your long-lost friend! Such a surprise!" And the water-wagtail, pushed +forward by no gentle hand, appeared within the doorway. Eudoxia was as +radiant as though she had achieved some heroic deed; but she drew back a +little when she found that Orion was still in the room. The divided +couple stood face to face. What was done could not be undone; but, +though he greeted her with only a calm bow, and she fluttered her fan +with abrupt little jerks to conceal her embarrassment, nothing took place +which could surprise the bystander; indeed, Katharina's pretty features +assumed a defiant expression when he enquired how the little white dog +was, and she coldly replied that she had had him chained up in the +poultry-yard, for that the patriarch, who was their guest, could not +endure dogs. + +"He honors a good many men with the same sentiments," replied Orion, but +Katharina retorted, readily enough. + +"When they deserve it." + +The dialogue went on in this key for some few minutes; but the young man +was not in the humor either to take the young girl's pert stings or to +repay her in the same coin; he rose to go but, before he could take +leave, Katharina, observing from the window how low the sun was, cried: +"Mercy on me! how late it is--I must be off; I must not be absent at +supper time. My boat is lying close to yours in the fishing-cove. I +only hope the gate of the treasurer's house is still open." + +Orion, too, looked at the sun and then remarked: "To-day is Sanutius." + +"I know," said Katharina. "That is why Anubis was free at noon." + +"And for the same reason," added Orion, "there is not a soul at work now +in the office." + +This was awkward. Not for worlds would she have been seen in the house; +and knowing, as she did from her games with Mary, every nook and corner +of it, she began to consider her position. Her delicate features assumed +a sinister expression quite new to Orion, which both displeased him and +roused his anxiety--not for himself but for Mary, who could certainly get +no good from such a companion as this. These visits must not be repeated +very often; he would not allude to the subject in the child's presence, +but Katharina should at once have a hint. She could not get out of the +place without his assistance; so he intruded on her meditations to inform +her that he had the key of the office about him. Then he went to see if +the hall were empty, and led her at once to the treasurer's office +through the various passages which connected it with the main buildings. +The office at this hour was as lonely as the grave, and when Orion found +himself standing with her, close to the door which opened on the road to +the harbor, and had already raised the key to unlock it, he paused and +for the first time broke the silence they had both preserved during their +unpleasant walk, saying: + +"What brought you to see Mary, Katharina? Tell me honestly." Her heart, +which had been beating high since she had found herself alone with him in +the silent and deserted house, began to throb wildly; a great terror, she +knew not of what, came over her. + +"She had come to the house for several reasons, but one had outweighed +all the rest: Mary must be told that her young uncle and Paula were +betrothed; for she knew by experience that the child could keep nothing +of importance from her grandmother, and that Neforis had no love for +Paula was an open secret. As yet she certainly could know nothing of her +son's formal suit, but if once she were informed of it she would do +everything in her power--of this Katharina had not a doubt--to keep Orion +and Paula apart. So the girl had told Mary that it was already reported +that they were a betrothed and happy pair, and that she herself had +watched them making love in her neighbor's garden. To her great +annoyance, however, Mary took this all very coolly and without any +special excitement. + +"So, when Orion enquired of his companion what had brought her to the +governor's house, she could only reply that she longed so desperately to +see little Mary. + +"Of course," said Orion. "But I must beg of you not to yield again to +your affectionate impulse. Your mother makes a public display of her +grudge against mine, and her ill-feeling will only be increased if she +is told that we are encouraging you to disregard her wishes. Perhaps you +may, ere long, have opportunities of seeing Mary more frequently; but, +if that should be the case, I must especially request you not to talk of +things that may agitate her. You have seen for yourself how excitable +she is and how fragile she looks. Her little heart, her too precocious +brain and feelings must have rest, must not be stirred and goaded by +fresh incitements such as you are in a position to apply. The patriarch +is my enemy, the enemy of our house, and you--I do not say it to offend +you--you overheard what he was saying last night, and probably gathered +much important information, some of which may concern me and my family." + +Katharina stood looking at her companion, as pale as death. He knew that +she had played the listener, and when, and where! The shock it gave her, +and the almost unendurable pang of feeling herself lowered in his eyes, +quite dazed her. She felt bewildered, offended, menaced; however, she +retained enough presence of mind to reply in a moment to her antagonist: + +"Do not be alarmed! I will come no more. I should not have come at all, +if I could have foreseen. . ." + +"That you would meet me?" + +"Perhaps.--But do not flatter yourself too much on that account!--As to +my listening... Well, yes; I was standing at the window. Inside the +room I could only half hear, and who does not want to hear what great men +have to say to each other? And, excepting your father, I have met none +such in Memphis since Memnon left the city. We women have inherited some +curiosity from our mother Eve; but we rarely indulge it so far as to hunt +for a necklace in our neighbor's trunk! I have no luck as a criminal, my +dear Orion. Twice have I deserved the name. Thanks to the generous and +liberal use you made of my inexperience I sinned--sinned so deeply that +it has ruined my whole life; and now, again, in a more venial way; but I +was caught out, you see, in both cases." + +"Your taunts are merited," said Orion sadly. "And yet, Child, we may +both thank Providence, which did not leave us to wander long on the wrong +road. Once already I have besought your forgiveness, and I do so now +again. That does not satisfy you I see--and I can hardly blame you. +Perhaps you will be better pleased, when I assure you once more that +no sin was ever more bitterly or cruelly punished than mine has been." + +"Indeed!" said Katharina with a drawl; then, with a flutter of her fan, +she went on airily: "And yet you look anything rather than crushed; and +have even succeeded in winning 'the other'--Paula, if I am not mistaken." + +"That will do!" said Orion decisively, and he raised the key to the +lock. Katharina, however, placed herself in his way, raised a +threatening finger, and exclaimed: + +"So I should think!--Now I am certain. However, you are right with your +insolent 'That will do!' I do not care a rush for your love affairs; +still, there is one thing I should like to know, which concerns myself +alone; how could you see over our garden hedge? Anubis is scarcely a +head shorter than you are. . . ." + +"And you made him try?" interrupted Orion, who could not forbear +smiling, perceiving that his honestly meant gravity was thrown away on +Katharina. "Notwithstanding such a praiseworthy experiment, I may beg +you to note for future cases that what is true of him is not true of +every one, and that, besides foot-passengers, a tall man sometimes mounts +a tall horse?" + +"It was you, then, who rode by last night?" + +"And who could not resist glancing up at your window." + +At these words she drew back in surprise, and her eyes lighted up, but +only for an instant; then, clenching the feathers of her fan in both +hands, she sharply asked: + +"Is that in mockery?" + +"Certainly not," said Orion coolly; "for though you have reason enough to +be angry with me......" + +"I, at any rate, have, so far given you none," she petulantly broke in. +"No, I have not. It is I, and I alone, who have been insulted and ill- +used; you must confess that you owe me some amends, and that I have a +right to ask them." + +"Do so," replied he. "I am yours to command." She looked him straight +in the face. + +"First of all," she began, "have you told any one else that I was. . ." + +"That you were listening? No--not a living soul." + +"And will you promise never to betray me?" + +"Willingly. Now, what is the 'secondly' to this 'first of all?'" + +But there was no immediate answer; the water-wagtail evidently found it +difficult. However, she presently said, with downcast eyes: + +"I want.... You will think me a greater fool than I am.... +nevertheless, yes, I will ask you, though it will involve me in fresh +humiliation.--I want to know the truth; and if there is anything you hold +sacred, before I ask, you must swear by what is holiest to answer me, not +as if I were a silly girl, but as if I were the Supreme judge at the last +day.--Do you hear?" + +"This is very solemn," said Orion. "And you must allow me to observe +that there are some questions which do not concern us alone, and if yours +is such......" + +"No, no," replied Katharina, "what I mean concerns you and me alone." + +"Then I see no reason for refusing," he said. "Still, I may ask you a +favor in return. It seems to me no less important than it did to you, +to know what a great man like the patriarch finds to talk about, and +since I place myself at your commands...." + +"I thought," said the girl with a smile, "that your first object would be +to discharge some small portion of your debt to me; however, I expect no +excessive magnanimity, and the little I heard is soon told. It cannot +matter much to you either--so I will agree to your wishes, and you, in +return, must promise. . . ." + +"To speak the whole truth." + +"As truly as you hope for forgiveness of your sins?" + +"As truly as that." + +"That is well." + +"And what is it that you want to know?" + +At this she shook her head, exclaiming uneasily: + +"Nay, nay, not yet. It cannot be done so lightly. First let me speak; +and then open the door, and if I want to fly let me go without saying or +asking me another word.--Give me that chair; I must sit down." And in +fact she seemed to need it; for some minutes she had looked very pale and +exhausted, and her hands trembled as she drew her handkerchief across her +face. + +When she was seated she began her story; and while her words flowed on +quickly but without expression, as though she spoke mechanically, Orion +listened with eager interest, for what she had to tell struck him as +highly significant and important. + +He had been watched by the patriarch's orders. By midnight Benjamin +had already been informed of Orion's visit to Fostat, and to the Arab +general. Nothing, however, had been said about it beyond a fear lest +he had gone thither with a view to abjuring the faith of his fathers +and going over to the Infidels. Far more important were the facts +Orion gathered as to the prelate's negotiations with the Khaliff's +representative. Amru had urged a reduction of the number of convents and +of the monks and nuns who lived on the bequests and gifts of the pious, +busied in all kinds of handiwork according to the rule of Pachomius, and +enabled, by the fact of their living at free quarters, to produce almost +all the necessaries of life, from the mats on the floors to the shoes +worn by the citizens, at a much lower price than the independent +artisans, whether in town or country. The great majority of these poor +creatures were already ruined by such competition, and Amru, seeing the +Arab leather-workers, weavers, ropemakers, and the rest, threatened with +the same fate, had determined to set himself firmly to restrict all this +monastic work. The patriarch had resisted stoutly and held out long, +but at last he had been forced to sacrifice almost half the convents +for monks and nuns. + +But nothing had been conceded without an equivalent; for Benjamin was +well aware of the immense difficulties which he, as chief of the Church, +could put in the way of the new government of the country. So it was +left to him to designate which convents should be suppressed, and he had, +of course, begun by laying hands on the few remaining Melchite retreats, +among them the Convent of St. Cecilia, next to the house of Rufinus. +This establishment was now to be closed within three days and to become +the property of the Jacobite Church; but it was to be done quite quietly, +for there was no small fear that now, when the delayed rising of the +river was causing a fever of anxiety in all minds, the impoverished +populace of the town might rise in defence of the wealthy sisterhood to +whom they were beholden for much benevolence and kind care. + +Opposition from the town-senate was also to be looked for, since the +deceased Mukaukas had pronounced this measure unjust and detrimental to +the common welfare. The evicted orthodox nuns were to be taken into +various Jacobite convents as lay sisters similar cases had already been +known; but the abbess, whose superior intellect, high rank, and far- +reaching influence might, if she were left free to act, easily rouse the +prelates of the East to oppose Benjamin, was to be conveyed to a remote +convent in Ethiopia, whence no flight or return was possible. + +Katharina's report took but few minutes, and she gave it with apparent +indifference; what could the suppression of an orthodox cloister, and the +dispersion of its heretic sisterhood, matter to her, or to Orion, whose +brothers had fallen victims to Melchite fanaticism? Orion did not betray +his deep interest in all he heard, and when at length Katharina rose and +pointed feebly to the door, all she said, as though she were vexed at +having wasted so much time, was: "That, on the whole, is all." + +"All?" asked Orion unlocking the door. + +"Certainly, all," she repeated uneasily. "What I meant to ask--whether I +ever know it or not--it does not matter.--It would be better perhaps-yes, +that is all.--Let me go." + +But he did not obey her. + +"Ask," he said kindly. "I will answer you gladly." + +"Gladly?" she retorted, with an incredulous shrug. "In point of fact +you ought to feel uncomfortable whenever you see me; but things do not +always turn out as they ought, in Memphis or in the world; for what do +you men care what becomes of a poor girl like me? Do not imagine that +I mean to reproach you; God forbid! I do not even owe you a grudge. +If anyone can live such a thing down I can. Do not you think so? +Everything is admirably arranged for me; I cannot fail to do well. +I am very rich, and not ugly, and I shall have a hundred suitors yet. +Oh, I am a most enviable creature! I have had one lover already, and the +next will be more faithful, at any rate, and not throw me over so +ruthlessly as the first.--Do not you think so?" + +"I hope so," said Oriole gravely. "Bitter as the cup is that you offer +me to drink. . ." + +"Well?" + +"I can only repeat that I must even drink it, since the fault was mine. +Nothing would so truly gladden me as to be able to atone in some degree +for my sin against you." + +"Oh dear no!" she scornfully threw in. "Our hopes shall not be fixed so +high as that! All is at an end between us, and if you ever were anything +to me, you are nothing to me now--absolutely nothing. One hour in the +past we had in common; it was short indeed, but to me--would you believe +it?--a very great matter. It aged the young creature, whom you, but +yesterday, still regarded as a mere child--that much I know--with amazing +rapidity; aye, and made a worse woman of her than you can fancy." + +"That indeed would grieve me to the bottom of my soul," replied Orion. +"There is, I know, no excuse for my conduct. Still, as you yourself +know, our mothers' wish in the first instance. . ." + +"Destined us for each other, you would say. Quite true!--And it was all +to please Dame Neforis that you put your arms round me, under the +acacias, and called me your own, your all, your darling, your rose-bud? +Was that--and this is exactly what I want to ask you, what I insist on +knowing--was that all a lie--or did you, at any rate, in that brief +moment, under the trees, love me with all your heart--love me as now you +love--I cannot name her--that other?--The truth, Orion, the whole truth, +on your oath!" + +She had raised her voice and her eyes glowed with the excitement of +passion; and now, when she ceased speaking, their sparkling, glistening +enquiry plainly and unreservedly confessed that her heart still was his, +that she counted on his high-mindedness and expected him to say "yes." +Her round arm lay closely pressed to her bosom, as though to keep its +wild heaving within bounds. Her delicate face had lost its pallor and +seemed bathed in a glow, now tender and now crimson. Her little mouth, +which but now had uttered such bitter words, was parted in a smile as if +ready to bestow a sweet reward for the consoling, saving answer, for +which her whole being yearned, and her eager eyes, shining through tears, +did not cease to entreat him so pathetically, so passionately! How +bewitching an image of helpless, love-sick, beseeching youth and grace. + +"As you love that other,--on your oath."--The words still rang in the +young man's ear. All that was soft in his soul urged him to make good +the evil he had brought upon this fair, hapless young creature; but those +very words gave him strength to remain steadfast; and though he felt +himself appealed to for comfort and compassion, he could only stretch out +imploring hands, as though praying for help, and say: + +"Ah Katharina, and you are as lovely, as charming now, as you were then; +but--much as you attracted me, the great love that fills a life can come +but once... Forget what happened afterwards... Put your question in +another form, alter it a little, and ask me again--or let me assure you." + +But he had no time to say more; for, before he could atop her, she had +slipped past him and flown away like some swift wild thing into the road +and down to the fishing cove. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Orion stood alone gazing sadly after her. Was this his father's curse-- +that all who loved him must reap pain and grief in return? + +He shivered; still, his youthful energy and powers of resistance were +strong enough to give him speedy mastery over these torturing +reflections. What opportunities lay before him of proving his prowess! +Even while Katharina was telling her story, the brave and strenuous youth +had set himself the problem of rescuing the cloistered sisters. The +greater the danger its solution might involve him in, the more impossible +it seemed at first sight, the more gladly, in his present mood, would he +undertake it. He stepped out into the road and closed the door behind +him with a feeling of combative energy. + +It was growing dusk. Philippus must now be with Mary and, with the +leech's aid, he was resolved to get the child away from his mother's +house. Not till he felt that she was safe with Paula in Rufinus' house, +could he be free to attempt the enterprise which floated before his eyes. +On the stairs he shouted to a slave: + +"My chariot with the Persian trotting horse!" and a few minutes after he +entered the little girl's room at the same time with a slave girl who +carried in a lamp. Neither Mary nor the physician observed him at first, +and he heard her say to Philippus, who sat holding her wrist between his +fingers. + +"What is the matter with you this evening? Good heavens, how pale and +melancholy you look!" The lamplight fell full on his face. "Look here, +I have just made such a smart little man out of wax. . ." + +She hoped to amuse the friend who was always so kind to her with this +comical work of art; but, as she leaned forward to reach it, she caught +sight of her uncle and exclaimed: "Philippus comes here to cure me, but +he looks as if he wanted a draught himself. Take care, or you will have +to drink that bitter brown stuff you sent yesterday; then you will know +for once how nasty it can be." Though the child's exclamation was well- +meant, neither of the men took any notice of it. They stood face to face +in utter silence and with only a formal greeting; for Orion, without +Mary's remark, had been struck by the change that had come over the +physician since yesterday. Ignoring Orion's presence, he asked the child +a few brief questions, begged Eudoxia to persevere in the same course of +treatment, and then hastily bid a general farewell to all present; Orion, +however, did not respond, but said, with an affectionate glance at the +little patient: "One word with you presently." + +This made Philippus turn to look at Mary and, as the eyes of the rivals +met, they knew that on one subject at any rate they thought and felt +alike. The leech already knew how tenderly the young man had taken to +Mary, and he followed him into the room which Orion now occupied, and +which, as Philippus was aware, had formerly been Paula's. + +"In the cause of duty," he said to himself again and again, to keep +himself calm and enable him to gather at least the general sense of what +the handsome young fellow opposite to him was saying in his rich, +pleasant voice, and urging as a request with more warmth than the leech +had given him credit for. Philippus, of course, had heard of the +grandmother's lamentable revulsion of feeling against her grandchild, +and he thought Orion's wish to remove the little girl fully justified. +But, on learning that she was to be placed under Paula's care, he seemed +startled, and gazed at the floor in such sullen gloom that the other +easily guessed what was going on in his mind. In fact, the physician +suspected that the child was to serve merely as an excuse for the more +frequent meetings of the lovers. Unable to bury this apprehension in his +own breast he started to his feet, and was about to put it into words, +when Orion took the words out of his mouth, saying modestly but frankly, +with downcast eyes: + +"I speak only for the child's--for Mary's sake. By my father's soul...." + +But Philippus shook his head dismally, went up to his rival, and murmured +dully: + +"For the sake of that child I am capable of doing or enduring a great +deal. She could not be better cared for than with Rufinus and Paula; +but if I could suppose," and he raised his voice, while his eyes took a +sinister and threatening expression, "if I could suppose that her sacred +and suffering innocence were merely an excuse. . . ." + +"No, no," said Orion urgently. "Again, on my sacred word, I assure you +that I have no aim in view but the child's safety; and, as we have said +so much, I will not stick at a word more or less! "Rufinus' house is +open to you day and night, and I, if all turns out as I expect, shall ere +long be far from hence--from Memphis--from Paula. There is mischief +brewing--I dare say no more--an act of treachery; and I will try to +prevent it at the risk of my life. You, every one, shall no longer have +a right to think me capable of things which are as repulsive to my nature +as to yours. You and I, if I mistake not, strive for the same prize, +and so far are rivals; but why should the child therefor suffer? Forget +it in her presence, and that forgetting will, as you well know, enhance +your merit in her--her eyes." + +"My merit?" retorted the other scornfully. "Merit is not in the +balance; nothing but the gifts of blind Fortune--a nose, a chin, an eye, +anything in short--a crime as much as a deed of heroism--that happens to +make a deep impression on the wax of a girl's soft heart. But curse me," +and he shouted the words at Orion as if he were beside himself, "if I +know how we came to talk of such things! Has my folly gone running +through the streets, bare-bosomed, to display itself to the world at +large? How do you know what my feelings are? She, perhaps, has laughed +with you at her ridiculous lover?--Well, no matter. You know already, +or will know by to-morrow, which of us has won the cock-fight. You +have only to look at me! What woman ever broke her heart for such a +Thersites-face. Good-luck to the winner, and the other one--well, since +it must be so, farewell till to-morrow." + +He hastily made his way towards the door; Orion, however, detained him, +imploring him to set aside his ill-feeling--at any rate for the present; +assured him that Paula had not betrayed what his feelings were; that, on +the contrary, he himself, seeing him with her so late on the previous +night, had been consumed by jealousy, and entreated him to vent his wrath +on him in abusive words, if that could ease his heart, only, by all that +was good, not to withdraw his succor from that poor, innocent child. + +The physician's humane heart was not proof against his prayer; and when +at length he prepared to depart, in the joyful and yet painful conviction +that his happier rival had become more worthy of the prize, he had agreed +that he would impress on Neforis, whose mind he suspected to be slightly +affected, that the air of the governor's residence did not suit Mary, and +that she should place her in the care of a physician outside the town. + +As soon as Philippus had quitted the house, Orion went to see Rufinus, +who, on his briefly assuring him that he had come on grave and important +business, begged him to accompany him to his private room. The young +man, however, detained him till he had made all clear with the women as +to the reception of little Mary. + +"By degrees all the inhabitants of the residence will be transplanted +into our garden!" exclaimed Rufinus. "Well, I have no objection; and +you, old woman, what do you say to it?" + +"I have none certainly," replied his wife. "Besides, neither you nor I +have to decide in this case: the child is to be Paula's guest." + +"I only wish she were here already," said Paula, "for who can say whether +your mother, Orion--the air here is perilously Melchite." + +"Leave Philippus and me to settle that.--You should have seen how pleased +Mary was." + +Then, drawing Paula aside, he hastily added: + +"Have I not hoped too much? Is your heart mine? Come what may, can I +count on you--on your lov-?" + +"Yes, Yes!" The words rushed up from the very bottom of her heart, and +Orion, with a sigh of relief, followed the old man, glad and comforted. + +The study was lighted up, and there, without mentioning Katharina, he +told Rufinus of the patriarch's scheme for dispersing the nuns of St. +Cecilia. What could he care for these Melchite sisters? But, since that +consoling hour in the church, he felt as though it were his duty to stand +forth for all that was right, and to do battle against everything that +was base. Besides, he knew how warmly and steadfastly his father had +taken the part of this very convent against the patriarch. Finally, he +had heard how strongly his beloved was attached to this retreat and its +superior, so he prepared himself gleefully to come forth a new man of +deeds, and show his prowess. + +The old man listened with growing surprise and horror, and when Orion had +finished his story he rose, helplessly wringing his hands. Orion spoke +to him encouragingly, and told him that he had come, not merely to give +the terrible news, but to hold council with him as to how the innocent +victims might be rescued. At this the grey-headed philanthropist and +wanderer pricked up his ears; and as an old war horse, though harnessed +to the plough, when he hears the trumpet sound lifts his head and arches +his neck as proudly and nobly as of yore under his glittering trappings, +so Rufinus drew himself up, his old eyes sparkled, and he exclaimed with +all the enthusiasm and eagerness of youth: + +"Very good, very good; I am with you; not merely as an adviser; no, no. +Head, and hand, and foot, from crown to heel! And as for you, young man +--as for you! I always saw the stuff that was in you in spite--in spite. +--But, as surely as man is the standard of all things, those who reach +the stronghold of virtue by a winding road are often better citizens than +those who are born in it.--It is growing late, but evensong will not yet +have begun and I shall still be able to see the abbess. Have you any +plan to propose?" + +"Yes; the day after to-morrow at this hour. . . ." + +"And why not to-morrow?" interrupted the ardent old man. + +"Because I have preparations to make which cannot be done in twelve hours +of daylight." + +"Good! Good!" + +"The day after to-morrow at dusk, a large barge--not one of ours--will be +lying by the bank at the foot of the convent garden. I will escort the +sisters as far as Doomiat on the Lake. I will send on a mounted +messenger to-night, and I will charter a ship for the fugitives by the +help of my cousin Columella, the greatest ship-owner of that town. That +will take them over seas wherever the abbess may command." + +"Capital, splendid!" cried Rufinus enthusiastically. He took up his hat +and stick, and the radiant expression of his face changed to a very grave +one. He went up to the young man with solemn dignity, looked at him with +fatherly kindliness, and said: + +"I know what woes befell your house through those of our confession, the +fellow-believers of these whom you propose to protect with so much +prudence and courage; and that, young man, is noble, nay, is truly great. +I find in you--you who were described to me as a man of the world and not +over-precise--for the first time that which I have sought in vain for +many years and in many lands, among the pious and virtuous: the spirit +of willing self-sacrifice to save an enemy of a different creed from +pressing peril.--But you are young, Orion, and I am old. You triumph +in the action only, I foresee the consequences. Do you know what lies +before you, if it should be discovered that you have covered the escape +of the prey whom the patriarch already sees in his net? Have you +considered that Benjamin, the most implacable and most powerful hater +among the Jacobites, will pursue you as his mortal foe with all the +fearful means at his command?" + +"I have considered it," replied Orion. + +Rufinus laid his left hand on the young man's shoulder, and his right +hand on his head, saying, "Then take with you, to begin with, an old +man's--a father's blessing." + +"Yes, a father's," repeated Orion softly. A happy thrill ran through his +body and soul, and he fell on the old man's neck deeply moved. + +For a minute they stood clasped in each other's arms; then Rufinus freed +himself, and set out to seek the abbess. Orion returned to the women, +whose curiosity had been roused to a high pitch by seeing Rufinus +disappear through the gate leading to the convent-garden. Dame Joanna +could not sit still for excitement, and Pulcheria answered at random when +Orion and Paula, who had an infinity of things to say or whisper to each +other, now and then tried to draw her into the conversation. Once she +sighed deeply, and when her friend asked her: "What ails you, Child?" +she answered anxiously: + +"Something serious must be going forward, I feel it. If only Philippus +were here!" + +"But we are all safe and well, thank God!" observed Orion, and she +quickly replied: + +"Yes indeed, the Lord be praised!" But she thought to herself: + +"You think he is of no use but to heal the sick; but it is only when he +is here that everything goes right and happens for the best!" + +Still, all felt that there was something unusual and ominous in the +air, and when the old man presently returned his face confirmed their +suspicions. He laid aside his hat and staff in speechless gravity; +then he put his arm affectionately round his wife and said: + +"You will need all your courage and self-command once more, as you have +often done before, good wife; I have taken upon myself a serious duty." + +Joanna had turned very pale, and while she clung to her husband and +begged him to speak and not to torture her with suspense, her frail +figure was trembling, and bitter tears ran down her cheeks. She could +guess that her husband was once more going away from her and their child, +in the service and for the benefit of others, and she knew full well that +she could not prevent it. If she could, she never would have had the +heart to interfere: for she always understood him, and felt with him +that something to take him out of the narrow circle of home-life was +indispensable to his happiness. + +He read her thoughts, and they gave him pain; but he was not to be +diverted from his purpose. The man who would try to heal every suffering +brute was accustomed to see those whom he loved best grieve on his +account. Marriage, he would say, ought not to hinder a man in following +his soul's vocation; and he was fond of using this high-sounding name to +justify himself in his own and his wife's eyes, in doing things to which +he was prompted only by restlessness and unsatisfied energy. Without +this he would, no doubt, have done his best for the imperilled +sisterhood, but it added to his enjoyment of the grand and +dangerous rescue. + +The wretched fate of the hapless nuns, and the thought of losing them as +near neighbors, grieved the women deeply, and the men saw many tears +flow; at the same time they had the satisfaction of finding them all +three firmly and equally determined to venture all, and to bid these whom +they loved venture all, to hinder the success of a deed which filled them +with horror and disgust. + +Joanna spoke not a word of demur when Rufinus said that he intended to +accompany the fugitives; and when, with beaming looks, he went on to +praise Orion's foresight and keen decisiveness, Paula flew to him proudly +and gladly, holding out both her hands. As for the young man, he felt as +though wings were growing from his shoulders, and this fateful evening +was one of the happiest of his life. + +The superior had agreed to his scheme, and in some details had improved +upon it. Two lay sisters and one nun should remain behind. The two +former were to attend to the sick in the infirmary, to ring the bell and +chant the services as usual, that the escape of the rest might not be +suspected; and Joanna, Paula, and Pulcheria, were to assist them. + +When, at a late hour, Orion was about to leave, Rufinus asked whether, +under these circumstances, it would be well to bring Mary to his house; +he himself doubted it. Joanna was of his opinion; Paula, on the +contrary, said that she believed it would be better to let the child run +the risk of a remote danger--hardly to be called danger, than to leave +her to pine away body and soul in her old home. Pulcheria supported her, +but the two girls were forced to yield to the decision of the elders. + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 8. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +After that interview with Orion, Philippus hurried off through the town, +paying so little heed to the people he met and to the processions +besieging Heaven with loud psalms to let the Nile at last begin to rise, +that he ran up against more than one passer-by, and had many a word of +abuse shouted after him. He went into two or three houses, and neither +his patients nor their attendants could recognize, in this abrupt and +hasty visitor, the physician and friend who was usually so sympathetic to +the sufferer: who would speak with a cordiality that brought new +life to his heart, who would toss the children in the air, kiss one and +nod merrily to another. To-day their elders even felt shy and anxious in +his presence. For the first time he found the duty he loved a wearisome +burthen; the sick man was a tormenting spirit in league with the world +against his peace of mind. What possessed him, that he should feel such +love of his fellow-men as to deprive himself of all comfort in life and +of his night's rest for their sake? Rufinus was right. In these times +each man lived solely to spite his neighbor, and he who could be most +brazenly selfish, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, was +the most certain to get on in life. Fool that he was to let other folks' +woes destroy his peace and hinder him in his scientific advancement! + +Tormented by such bitter thoughts as these, he went into a neat little +house by the harbor where a worthy pilot lay dying, surrounded by his +wife and children; and there, at once, he was himself again, putting +forth all his knowledge and heartfelt kindliness, quitting the scene with +a bleeding heart and an empty purse; but no sooner was he out of doors +than his former mood closed in upon him with double gloom. The case was +plain: Even with the fixed determination not to sacrifice himself for +others he could not help doing it; the impulse was too strong for him. +He could no more help suffering with the sufferer, and giving the best +he had to give with no hope of a return, than the drunkard can help +drinking. He was made to be plundered; it was his fate! + +With a drooping head he returned to his old friend's work-room. +Horapollo was sitting, just as he had sat the night before, at his +writing-table with his scrolls and his three lamps, a slave below, +snoring while he awaited his master's pleasure. + +The leech's pretty Greek greeting "Rejoice !" sounded rather like "May +you choke!" as he flung aside his upper garment; and to the old man's +answer and anxious exclamation: "How badly you look, Philip!" he +answered crossly: "Like a man who deserves a kick rather than a welcome; +a booby who has submitted to have his nose pulled; a cur who has licked +the hand of the lout who has thrashed him!" + +He threw himself on the divan and told Horapollo all that had passed +between him and Orion. "And the maddest part of it all," he ended, +"is that I almost like the man; that he really seems to me to be on the +high road to become a capital fellow; and that I no longer feel inclined +to pitch him into a lime-kiln at the mere thought of his putting out a +hand to Paula. At the same time," and he started to his feet, "even if +I help him to bring the poor little girl away from that demented old hag, +I cannot and will not continue to be her physician. There are plenty of +quacks about in this corpse of a town, and they may find one of them. + +"You will continue to treat the child," interrupted the old man quietly. + +"To have my heart daily flogged with nettles!" exclaimed the leech, going +towards Horapollo with wild gesticulations. "And do you believe that I +have any desire to meet that young fellow's sweetheart day after day, +often twice a day, that the barb may be twisted round and round in my +bleeding wound?" + +"I expect a quite different result from your frequent meeting," said the +other. "You will get accustomed to see her under the aspect which alone +she can hence forth bear to you: that of a handsome girl--there are +thousands such in Egypt,--and the betrothed of another." + +"Certainly, if my heart were like a hunting-dog that lies down the moment +it is bid," said Philippus with a scornful laugh. "The end of it is that +I must go away, away from Memphis--away from this miserable world for all +I care! I?--Recover my peace of mind within reach of her? Alas, for my +blissful, lost peace!" + +"And why not? To every man a thing is only as he conceives of it. Only +listen to me: I had finished a treatise on the old and new Calendars, and +my master desired me to deliver a lecture on it in the Museum--if the +school of pedants in Alexandria now deserves the name; but I did not wish +to do so because I knew that the presence of such a large and learned +audience would embarrass me. But my master advised me to imagine that my +hearers were not men, but mere cabbages. This gave me new light; I took +his advice, got over my shyness, and my speech flowed like oil." + +"A very good story," said Philippus, "but I do not see..." + +"The moral of it for you," interrupted the old man, "is that you must +regard the supremely adorable lady of your love as one among a dozen +others--I will not say as a cabbage--as one with whom your heart has no +more concern. Put a little strength of will into it, and you will +succeed." + +"If a heart were a cipher, and if passion were calendar-making! . . ." +retorted Philippus. "You are a very wise man, and your manuscripts and +tables have stood like walls between you and passion." + +"Who can tell?" said Horapollo. "But at any rate, it never should have +had such power over me as to make me embitter the few remaining days +under the sun yet granted to my father and friend for the sake of a woman +who scorned my devotion. Will you promise me to talk no more nonsense +about flying from Memphis, or anything of the kind?" + +"Teach me first to measure my strength of will." + +"Will you try, at any rate?" + +"Yes, for your sake." + +"Will you promise to continue your treatment of that poor little girl, +whom I love dearly in spite of her forbears?" + +"As long as I can endure the daily meeting with her--you know. . ." + +"That, then, is a bargain.--Now, come and let us translate a few more +chapters." + +The friends sat at work together till a late hour, and when the old man +was alone again he reflected: "So long as he can be of use to the child +he will not go away, and by that time I shall have dug a pit for that +damned siren." + + ......................... + +Orion had his hands full of work for the next morning. Before it was +light he sent off two trustworthy messengers to Doomiat, giving each of +them a letter with instructions that a sailing vessel should be held in +readiness for the fugitives. One was to start three hours after the +other, so that the business in hand should not fail if either of them +should come to grief. + +He then went out; first to the harbor, where he succeeded in hiring a +large, good Nile-boat from Doomiat, whose captain, a trustworthy and +experienced man, promised to keep their agreement a secret and to be +prepared to start by noon next day. Next, after taking council with +himself, he went to the treasurer's office, and there, with the +assistance of Nilus, made his will, to be ratified and signed next +morning in the presence of a notary and witnesses. His mother, little +Mary, and Paula were to inherit the bulk of his property. He also +bequeathed a considerable sum as a legacy to the hospitals and orphan +asylums, as well as to the Church, to the end that they might pray for +his soul; and a legacy to Nilus "as the most just judge of his +household." Eudoxia, Mary's Greek governess, was not forgotten; and +finally he commanded that all his house-slaves should be liberated, and +to the end that they might not suffer from want he bequeathed to them one +of his largest estates in Upper Egypt, where they might settle and labor +for their common good. He increased the handsome sums already devised by +his father to the freedmen of his family. + +This business occupied several hours. Nilus, who wrote while Orion +dictated, giving the document a legal form, was deeply touched by +the young man's fore thought and kindness; for in truth, since his +desecration of the judgment-seat, he had given him up for a lost soul. + +By Orion's orders this will was to be opened after four weeks, in case he +should not have returned from a journey on which he proposed starting on +the morrow, and this injunction revealed to the faithful steward, who had +grown grey in the service, that the last scion of the house expected to +run considerable risk; however, he was too modest to ask any questions, +and his master did not take him into his confidence. + +When, after all this, the two men went back into the anteroom, Anubis, +the young clerk and Katharina's ally, was standing there. Nilus took no +notice of him, and while he, with tearful eyes, stooped to kiss the hand +Orion held out to him as he bid him come to take leave of him once more +next evening, Anubis, who had withdrawn respectfully to a little +distance, keeping his ears open, however, officiously opened the heavy +iron-plated door. + +Orion was exhausted and hungry; he enquired for his mother, and hearing +that she had gone to lie down, he went into the dining-room to get some +food. Although breakfast had but just been served, Eudoxia was awaiting +him with evident impatience. Her heart was bursting with a great piece +of news, and as Orion entered, greeting her, she cried out: + +"Have you heard? Do you know?" Then she began, encouraged by his curt +negative, to pour out to him how that Neforis, by the desire of the +physician who had lately been to see her, had decided on sending her, +Eudoxia, away with her granddaughter to enjoy better air under the roof +of a friend of the leech's; they were to go this very day, or to-morrow +at latest. + +Orion was disagreeably startled by this intelligence. He had not +expected that Philippus would come so early, and he himself had been the +first to promote a scheme which now no longer seemed advisable. + +"How very provoking!" he muttered between his teeth, as a slave offered +him a roast fowl and asparagus. + +"Is it not? And perhaps we shall have to go quite far into the country," +said the Greek, with a languishing look, as she drew one of the long +stems between her teeth. + +The words and the glance made Orion feel as if he grudged the old fool +the good food she was eating, and his voice was not particularly +ingratiating as he replied that town and country were all the same, the +only point was which would be best for the child. When he went on to say +that he was quitting home next evening, Eudoxia cried out, let a stick of +asparagus drop in her lap, and said despairingly: "Oh, then everything is +at an end!" + +He, however, interposed reproachfully: "On the contrary, then your duty +begins; you must devote yourself wholly and exclusively to the child. +You know that her own grandmother is averse to her. Give her your best +affection, as you have already begun to do, be a mother to her; and if +you really are my well-wisher, show it in that way. For my part you will +find me grateful, and not in words alone. Go tomorrow to the treasurer's +office; Nilus will give you the only thing by which I can at present +prove my gratitude. Do your best to cherish the child; I have taken care +to provide for your old age." + +He rose, cutting short the Greek's profuse expressions of thanks, and +betook himself to his mother. She was still in her room; however, he now +sent word that he had come to see her, and she was ready to admit him, +having expected that he would come even sooner. + +She was reclining, half-sitting, on a divan in her cool and shady +bedroom, and she at once told her son of her determination to follow the +physician's advice and entrust the little girl to his friend. She spoke +in a tone of sleepy indifference; but as soon as Orion opposed her and +begged her to keep Mary at home, she grew more lively, and looking him +wrathfully in the face exclaimed: "Can you wish that? How can you ask +me?" and she went on in repining lamentation: + +"Everything is changed nowadays. Old age no longer forgets; it is youth +that has a short memory. Your head has long been full of other things, +but I--I still remember who it was that made my lost dear one's last +hours on earth a hell, even in view of the gates of Heaven!" Her breast +heaved with feeble, tearless sobs--a short, convulsive gasping, and Orion +did not dare contravene her wishes. He sought to soothe her with loving +words and, when she recovered herself, he told her that he proposed to +leave her for a short time to look after his estates, as the law +required, and this information gladdened her greatly. To be alone-- +solitary and unobserved now seemed delightful. Those white pills did +more for her, raised her spirits better, than any human society. They +brought her dreams, sleeping or waking; dreams a thousand times more +delightful than her real, desolate existence. To give herself up to +memory, to pray, to dream, to picture herself in the other world among +her beloved dead--and besides that to eat and drink, which she was always +ready to do very freely--this was all she asked henceforth of life on +earth. + +When, to her further questions, Orion replied that he was going first to +the Delta, she expressed her regret, since, if he had gone to Upper +Egypt, he might have visited his sister-in-law, Mary's mother, in her +convent. She sat up as she spoke, passed her hand across her forehead, +and pointed to a little table near the head of the couch, on which, by +the side of a cup with fruit syrup, phials, boxes, and other objects, lay +a writing-tablet and a letter-scroll. This she took up and handed to +Orion, saying: + +"A letter from your sister-in-law. It came last evening and I began to +read it; but the first words are a complaint of your father, and that-- +you know, just before going to sleep--I could not read any more; I could +not bear it! And to-day; first there was church, and then the physician +came with his request about the child; I have not yet found courage to +read the rest of it.--What can any letter bring to me but evil! Do you +know at all whence anything pleasant could come to me? But now: read me +the letter. Not that part again about your father; that I will keep till +presently for myself alone." + +Orion undid the roll, and with quivering lips glanced over the nun's +accusations against his father. The wildest fanaticism breathed in every +line of this epistle from the martyr's widow. She had found in the +cloister all she sought: she lived now, she said, in God alone and in the +Divine Saviour. She thought of her child, even, only as an alien, one of +God's young creatures for whom it was a joy to pray. At the same time it +was her duty to care for the little one's soul, and if it were not too +hard for her grandmother to part from her, she longed to see Mary once +more. She had lately been chosen abbess of her convent--and no one could +prevent her taking possession of the child; but she feared lest an +overwhelming natural affection might drag her back to the carnal world, +which she had for ever renounced, so she would have Mary brought up in a +neighboring nunnery, and led to Heavenly joys, not to earthly misery--to +be the wife of no sinful husband, but a pure bride of Christ. + +Orion shuddered as he read and, when he laid the letter down, his mother +exclaimed: + +"Perhaps she is right, perhaps it is already ordained that the child +should be sent to the convent, and not to the leech's friend, and started +on the only path that leads to Heaven without danger or hindrance!" + +But Orion said to himself that he would make it his duty to guard the +happy-hearted child from this fate, and he begged his mother to consider +that the first important point was to restore the little girl to health. +He now saw that she had been right. His father had always obeyed the +prescriptions of Philippus, and for that reason, if for no other, it +would be her duty to act by his advice. + +Neforis, who for some time had been casting longing eyes at a small box +by her side, did not contradict him; and in the course of the afternoon +Orion conducted little Mary and her governess to the house of Rufinus, +who, notwithstanding the doubts he had expressed the day before, made +them heartily welcome. + +When Mary was lying in her bed, close by the side of Paula's, the child +threw her arms round the young girl's neck as she leaned over her, and +laying her head on her bosom, felt herself in soft and warm security. +There, as one released from prison and bondage, she wept out her woes, +pouring all the grief of her deeply wounded child's heart into that of +her friend. + +Paula, however, heard Orion's voice, and she longed to go down to her +lover, whom she had greeted but briefly on his arrival; still, she could +not bear to snatch the child from her bosom, to disturb her in her newly- +found happiness and leave her at this very moment! And yet, she must-- +she must see him! Every impulse urged her towards him and, when +Pulcheria came into the room, she placed Mary's hand in hers and said: +"There, now make friends and stay together like good children till I come +back again and have something nice to tell you. You are fond of Orion, +little one, my story shall be all about him." + +"He was obliged to go," said Pulcheria, interrupting her. "Here is his +message on this tablet. He was almost dying of impatience, and when he +could wait no longer he wrote this for you." + +Paula took the tablet, with a cry of regret, and carried it to her room +to read. He had longed for their meeting as eagerly as herself, but at +last he could wait no longer. How differently--so he wrote--had he hoped +to end this day which must be devoted to the rescue of her friends. + +Why, oh why had she allowed herself to be detained here? Why had she not +flown to him, at least for a few moments, to thank him for his kindness +and faithfulness, and to hear him confess publicly and aloud what he had +but murmured in her ear the day before? She returned to the little girl, +anxious and dissatisfied with herself. + +Orion had in fact postponed his departure till the last moment; he +thought it necessary to give Amru due notice of his journey and of his +rupture with the patriarch. Of all the motives which could prompt him +to aid the nuns, revenge was that which the Arab could best understand. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +As Orion rode across the bridge of boats to Fostat, the gladness that had +inspired him died away. Could not--ought not Paula to have spared him a +small part of the time she had devoted to the child? He had been left to +make the most of a kind grasp of the hand and a grateful look of welcome. +Would she not have flown to meet him, if the love of which she had +assured him yesterday were as fervent, as ardent as his own? Was the +proud spirit of this girl, who, as his mother said, was cold and +unapproachable, incapable of passionate, self-forgetting devotion? Was +there no way of lighting up in her the sacred fire which burnt in him? +He was tormented by many doubts and a bitter feeling of disappointment, +and a crowd of suspicions forced themselves upon him, which would never +have troubled him if only he had seen her once more, had heard her happy +words of love, and felt his lips consecrated by his mistress' first kiss. + +He was out of spirits, indeed out of temper, as he entered the Arab +general's dwelling. In the anteroom he was met by rejected petitioners, +and he said to himself, with a bitter smile, that he had just been sent +about his business in the same unsatisfied mood--yes, sent about his +business--and by whom? + +He was announced, and his spirits rose a little when he was at once +admitted and led past many, who were left waiting, into the Arab +governor's presence-chamber. He was received with paternal warmth; and, +when Amru heard that Orion and the patriarch had come to high words, he +jumped up and holding out both his hands exclaimed: + +"My right hand on that, my friend; come over to Islam, and with my left I +will appoint you your father's successor, in the Khaliff's name, in spite +of your youth. Away with hesitation! Clasp hands; at once, quickly! I +cannot bear to quit Egypt and know that there is no governor at Memphis!" + +The blood tingled in the young man's veins. His father's successor! +He, the new Mukaukas! How it flattered his ambition, what a way to all +activity it opened out to him! It dazzled his vision, and moved him +strongly to grasp the right hand which his generous patron still held out +to him. But suddenly his excited fancy showed him the image of the +Redeemer with whom he had entered into a silent covenant in the church, +sadly averting his gentle face. At this he remembered what he had vowed; +at this he forgot all his grievance against Paula; he took the general's +hand, indeed, but only to raise it to his lips as he thanked him with all +his heart. But then he implored him, with earnest, pleading urgency, not +to be wroth with him if he remained firm and clung to the faith of his +father and his ancestors. And Amru was not wroth, though it was with +none of the hearty interest with which he had at first welcomed him, that +he hastily warned Orion to be on his guard against the prelate, since, so +long as he remained a Christian, he had no power to protect him against +Benjamin. + +When Orion went on to tell him that he was intending to travel for a +short time, and had, in fact, come to take leave of him, the Arab was +much annoyed. He, too, he said, must be going away and was starting +within two days for Medina. + +"And in casting my eye on you," he went on, "in spite of your youth, to +fill your father's place, I took care to find a task for you which would +enable you to prove that I had not put too great confidence in you. But, +if you persist in your own opinions, I cannot possibly entrust so +important a post as the governorship of Memphis to a Christian so young +as you are; with the youthful Moslem I might have ventured on it.-- +However, I will not deprive you of the enterprise which I had intended +for you. If you succeed in it, it will be a good thing for yourself, and +I can, I believe, turn it to the benefit of the whole province--for what +could take me from hence at this time, when my presence is so needful for +a hundred incomplete projects, but my anxiety for the good of this +country--in which I am but an alien, while you must love it as your +native soil, the home of your race?--I am going to Medina because the +Khaliff, in this letter, complains that I send too small a revenue into +the treasury from so rich a land as Egypt. And yet not a single dinar of +your taxes finds its way into my own coffers. I keep a hundred and fifty +thousand laborers at work to restore the canals and waterworks which my +predecessors, the blood-sucking Byzantines, neglected so disgracefully +and left to fall to ruin--I build, and plan, and sow seed for posterity +to reap. All this costs money. It swallows up the lion's share of the +revenue. And I am making the journey, not merely to purge myself from +reproach, but to obtain Omar's permission for the future to exact no +extortionate payments, but to consider only the true weal of the +province. I am most unwilling to go, for a thousand reasons; and you, +young man, if you care for your native land, ought .... Do you really +love it and wish it well?" + +"With all my soul!" cried Orion. + +"Well then, at this time, if by any possibility you can arrange it so, +you ought to remain at home, and devote yourself heart and soul to the +task I have to propose to you. I hate postponements. Ride straight at +the foe, and do not canter up and down till you tire the horses! that is +my principle, and not in battle only. Take the moral to heart!--And you +will have no time to waste; what I require is no light matter: It is that +you should endeavor to sketch a new division of the districts, drawing on +your own knowledge of the country and its inhabitants, and using the +records and lists in the archives of your ancient government-offices, +of which your father has told me; you must have special regard to the +financial condition of each district. That the old mode of levying taxes +is unsatisfactory we find every day; you will have ample room for +improvements in every respect. Overthrow the existing arrangements, if +you consider it necessary. Other men have attempted to redistribute the +divisions and devise new modes of collecting the revenue. The best +scheme will have the preference; and you seem to me to be the man to win +the prize, and, with it, a wide and noble field of work in the future. +It is not a mere sense of tedium, or a longing for the pleasures of the +capital to which you are accustomed, that are tempting you to quit +Memphis the melancholy. . . ." + +"No, indeed, my Lord," Orion assured him. "The duty I have in view does +not even profit me, and if I had not given my word I would throw myself, +heart and soul, into so grand a task, no later than to-morrow. That you +should expect me to solve so hard a problem is the most precious incense +ever offered me. If it is only to be worthy of your confidence, I will +return as soon as possible and put forth my utmost powers of intelligence +and prudence, of endurance and patriotism. I have always been a diligent +student; and it would be a shame indeed, if my experiences as a youth +could hinder the man from outdoing the school-boy." + +"That is right, well said!" replied Amru, holding out his hand. +"Do your best, and you shall have ample opportunity of proving your +powers.--Take my warnings to heart as regards the patriarch and the black +Vekeel. I unfortunately have no one who could fill his place except the +worthy Kadi Othman; but he is no soldier, and he cannot be spared from +his post. Keep out of Obada's way, return soon, and may the All-merciful +protect you. . ." + +When Orion had recrossed the bridge on his way home, he saw a gaily- +dressed Nile-boat, such as now but rarely stopped at Memphis, lying at +anchor in the dock, and on the road he met two litters followed by beasts +of burden and a train of servants. The whole party had a brilliant and +wealthy appearance, and at any other time would have roused his +curiosity; but to-day he merely wondered for a moment who these new- +comers might be, and then continued to meditate on the task proposed to +him by Amru. From the bottom of his heart he cursed the hour in which he +had pledged himself to take the part of these strangers; for after such +long idleness he longed to be able to prove his powers. Suddenly, and as +if by a miracle, he saw the way opened before him which he had himself +hoped to tread, and now he was fettered and held back from an enterprise +which he felt he could carry out with success and benefit to his country, +while it attracted him as with a hundred lode-stones. + +Next morning, when his will had been duly signed and witnessed, he called +the treasurer for an interview alone with him. He had made up his mind +that one person, at least, must be informed of the enterprise he had +planned, and that one could be no other than Nilus. So he begged him to +accompany him to the impluvium of his private residence; and several +office scribes who were present heard the invitation given. They did +not, however, allow themselves to be disturbed in their work; the +youngest only--a handsome lad of sixteen, an olive-complexioned Egyptian, +with keen, eager black eyes, who had listened sharply to every word +spoken by the treasurer and his master, quietly rose from his squatting +posture as soon as they had quitted the office, and, stole, unobserved +into the anteroom. From thence he flew up the ladder-like steps which +led to the dovecote of which he had the care, sprang on to the roof of +the lower story, and crept flat on his face till he was close to the edge +of the large square opening which gave light and air to the impluvium +below. With a swift movement of the hand he pushed back the awning which +shaded it at midday, and listened intently to the dialogue that went on +below. + +This listener was Anubis, the water-wagtail's foster-brother; and he +seemed to be in no way behind his beloved mistress in the art of +listening; for no one could prick up his ears more sharply than Anubis. +He knew, too, what was to be his reward for exposing himself on a roof to +the shafts of the pitiless African sun, for Katharina, his adored play- +fellow and the mistress of his ardent boy's heart, had promised him a +sweet kiss, if only he would bring her back some more exact news as to +Orion's perilous journey. Anubis had told her, the evening before, all +he had heard in the anteroom to the office, but such general information +had not satisfied her. She must see clearly before her, must know +exactly what was going on, and she was not mistaken when she imagined +that the reward she had promised the lad would spur him to the utmost. + +Anubis had not indeed expected to gain his end so soon, boldly as he +dared to hope; scarcely had he pushed aside the awning, when Orion began +to explain to Nilus all his plan and purpose. + +When he had finished speaking, the boy did not wait to hear Nilus reply. +Intoxicated with his success, and the prospect of a guerdon which to him +included all the bliss of heaven, he crept back to the dovecote. But he +could not go back by the way by which he had come; for if one of the +older scribes should meet him in the anteroom, he would be condemned to +return to his work. He therefore wriggled along the ridge of the roof +towards the fishing-cove, got over it, and laid hold of a gutter pipe, +intending to slip down it; unfortunately it was old and rotten-rain was +rare in Memphis--and hardly had he trusted his body after his hands when +the lead gave way. The rash youth fell with the clattering fragments of +the gutter from a height of four men; a heavy thump on the pavement was +followed by a loud cry, and in a few minutes all the officials had heard +that poor Anubis, nimble as he was, had fallen from the roof while +attending to his pets, and had broken his leg. + +The two men in the impluvium were not informed of the accident till some +time later, for strict orders had been given that they were not to be +disturbed. + +Nilus had received his young master's communication with growing +amazement, indignation, and horror. When Orion ended, the treasurer put +forth all the eloquence of a faithful heart, anxious for the safety of +the body and soul of the youth he loved, to dissuade him from a deed of +daring which could bring him nothing but misapprehension, disaster, and +persecution. Nilus was with all his soul a Jacobite; and the idea that +his young master was about to risk everything for a party of Melchite +nuns, and draw down upon himself the wrath and maledictions of the +patriarch, was more than he could bear. + +His faithful friend's warnings and entreaties did not leave Orion +unmoved; but he clung to his determination, representing to Nilus that he +had pledged his word to Rufinus, and could not now draw back, though he +had already lost all his pleasure in the enterprise. But it went against +him to leave the brave old man to face the danger alone--indeed, it was +out of the question. + +Genuine anxiety is fertile in expedient; Orion had scarcely done +speaking, when Nilus had a proposal to make which seemed well calculated +to dispel the youth's last objections. Melampus, the chief shipbuilder, +was a Greek and a zealous Melchite, though he no longer dared to confess +his creed openly. He and his sons, two bold and sturdy ships carpenters, +had often given proof of their daring, and Nilus had no doubt that they +would be more than willing to share in an expedition which had for its +object the rescue of so many pious fellow-believers. They might take +Orion's place, and would be far more helpful to the old man than Orion +himself. + +Orion so far approved of this suggestion as to promise himself good aid +from the brave artisans, who were well known to him; and he was willing +to take them with him, though he would not give up his own share in the +business. + +Nilus, though he adhered firmly to his objections, was at last reduced to +silence. However, Orion went with his anxious friend to the ship-yard; +the old ship-builder, a kind-hearted giant, was as ready and glad to +undertake the rescue of the Sisters as if each one was his own mother. +It would be a real treat to the youngsters to have a hand in such a job, +--and he was right, for when they were taken into confidence one +flourished his hatchet with enthusiasm, and the tether struck his horny +fist against his left palm as gleefully as though he were bidden to a +dance. + +Orion took boat at once with the three men, and was rowed to the house of +Rufinus, to whom he introduced them; the old man was entirely satisfied. + +Orion remained with him after dismissing them. He had promised last +evening to breakfast with him, and the meal was waiting. Paula had gone, +about an hour since, to the convent, and Joanna expected her to return at +any moment. They began without her, however; the various dishes were +carried away, the meal was nearly ended-still she had not returned. +Orion, who had at first been able to conceal his disappointment, was now +so uneasy that his host could with difficulty extract brief and +inadvertent replies to his repeated questions. Rufinus himself was +anxious; but just as he rose to go in search of her, Pulcheria, who was +at the window, saw her coming, and joyfully exclaiming: "There she is!" +ran out. + +But now again minute after minute passed, a quarter of an hour grew to +half an hour, and still Orion was waiting in vain. Glad expectation had +long since turned to impatience, impatience to a feeling of injured +dignity, and this to annoyance and bitter vexation, when at last +Pulcheria came back instead of Paula, and begged him from Paula +to join her in the garden. + +She had been detained too long at the convent. The terrible rumor had +scared the pious sisters out of their wonted peace and put them all into +confusion, like smoke blown into a bee-hive. The first thing was to pack +their most valuable possessions; and although Orion had expressly said +only a small number of cases and bags could be taken on board, one was +for dragging her prayer-desk, another a large picture of some saint, a +third a copper fish-kettle, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth the great +reliquary with the bones of Ammonius the Martyr, to which the chapel owed +its reputation for peculiar sanctity. To reduce this excess of baggage, +the abbess had been obliged to exert all her energy and authority, and +many a sister retired weeping over some dear but too bulky treasure. + +The superior had therefore been unable to devote herself to Paula till +this portable property had been under review. Then the damsel had been +admitted to her parlor, a room furnished with rich and elegant +simplicity, and there she had been allowed to pour out her whole heart +to warm and sympathetic ears. + +Any one who could have seen these two together might have thought that +this was a daughter in grief seeking counsel on her mother's breast. In +her youth the grey-haired abbess must have been very like Thomas' +daughter; but the lofty and yet graceful mien of the younger woman had +changed in the matron to majestic and condescending dignity, and it was +impossible to guess from her defiantly set mouth that it had once been +the chief charm of her face. + +As she listened to the girl's outpourings the expression of her calm eyes +changed frequently; when her soul was fired by fanatical zeal they could +gleam brightly; but now she was listening to a variety of experiences, +for Paula regarded this interview as a solemn confession, and concealed +nothing from the friend who was both mother and priest-neither of what +had happened to her in external circumstances, nor of what had moved her +heart and mind ever since she had first entered the house of the +Mtikaukas. Not a corner of her soul did she leave unsearched; she +neither concealed nor palliated anything; and when she described her +lover's strenuous efforts to apprehend the whole seriousness of life, her +love and enthusiasm fairly carried her away, making his image shine all +the more brightly by comparison with the brief, but dark shadow, that had +fallen upon it. When Paula had at last ended her confession, the +superior had remained silent for some time; then drawing the girl to her, +she had affectionately asked her: + +"And now? Now, tell me truly, does not the passion that has such +wonderful power over you prompt and urge your inmost soul to yield--to fly +to the embrace of the man you love--to give all up for him and say: 'Here +I am--I am yours! Call a priest to bless our union!--Is it not so--am I +not right?'" + +Paula, deeply blushing, bowed assent; but the old woman drew her head on +to her motherly bosom, and went on thoughtfully: + +"I saw him drive past in his quadriga, and was reminded of many a noble +statue of the heathen Greeks. Beauty, rank, wealth, aye--and talents and +intellect--all that could ruin the heart of a Paula are his, and she--I +see it plainly--will give it to him gladly." + +And again the maiden bowed her head. The abbess sighed, and went on as +though she had with difficulty succeeded in submitting to the inevitable +"Then all warning would be in vain.--Still, he is not of our confession, +he...." + +"But how highly he esteems it!" cried Paula. "That he proves by +risking his freedom and life for you and your household." + +"Say rather for you whom he loves," replied the other. "But putting that +out of the question, it pains me deeply to think of Thomas' daughter as +the wife of a Jacobite. You will not, I know, give him up; and the +Father of Love often leads true love to good ends by wonderful ways, even +though they are ways of error, passing through pitfalls and abysses." + +Paula fell on her neck to kiss her gratefully: but the abbess could only +allow the girl a few minutes to enjoy her happiness. She desired her to +sit down by her side, and holding Paula's hand in both her own, she spoke +to her in a tone of calm deliberation. She and her sisterhood, she began +by saying, were deeply indebted to Orion. She had no dearer wish than +that Paula should find the greatest earthly happiness in her marriage; +still, it was her part to tender advice, and she dared not blind herself +to the dangers which threatened this happiness. She herself had a long +life behind her of varied experience, in which she had seen hundreds of +young men who had been given up as lost sinners by father and mother-- +lost to the Church and to all goodness--and among these many a one, like +Saul, had had his journey to Damascus. A turning point had come to them, +and the outcast sons had become excellent and pious men. + +Paula, as she listened, had drawn closer to the speaker, and her eyes +beamed with joy; but the elder woman shook her head, and her gaze grew +more devout and rapt, as she went on with deep solemnity: + +"But then, my child, in all of these Grace had done its perfect work; the +miracle was accomplished which we term regeneration. They were still the +same men in the flesh and in the elements of their sensible nature, but +their relation to the world and to life was altogether new. All that +they had formerly thought desirable they could now hate; what they had +deemed important was now worthless, and the worthless precious in their +eyes; whereas they once referred everything to their own desires, they +now referred all to God and His will. Their impulses were the same as of +old, but they kept them within bounds by a never-sleeping consciousness +that they led, not to joys, but to everlasting punishment. These +regenerate souls learned to contemn the world, and instead of gazing down +at the dust their eyes were fixed upwards on Heaven. If either of them +tottered, his whole 'new man' prompted him to recover his balance before +he fell to the ground.--But Orion! Your lover? His guilt seems to have +passed over him; he hopes for reunion with God from a more meritorious +life in the world. Not only is his nature unaltered, but his attitude +with regard to life and to the joys it offers to the children of this +world. Earthly love is spurring him on to strive for what is noble and +great and he earnestly seeks to attain it; but he will fall over every +stone that the devil casts in his path, and find it hard to pick himself +up again, for misfortune has not led him to the new birth or the new life +in God. Just such men have I seen, numbers of times, relapsing into the +sins they had escaped from. Before we can entirely trust a man who has +once--though but once-wandered so far from God's ways, while Grace has +not yet worked effectually in him, we shall do well to watch his dealings +and course for more than a few short days. If you still feel that you +must follow the dictates of your heart, at any rate do not fly into your +lover's open arms, do not abandon to him the pure sanctuary of your body +and soul, do not be wholly his till he has been fully put to the proof." + +"But I believe in him entirely!" cried Paula, with a flood of tears. + +"You believe because you love him," replied the abbess. + +"And because he deserves it." + +"And how long has he deserved it?" + +"Was he not a splendid man before his fall?" + +"And so was many a murderer. Most criminals become outcasts from society +in a single moment." + +"But society still accepts Orion." + +"Because he is the son of the Mukaukas." + +"And because he wins all hearts !" + +"Even that of the Almighty?" + +"Oh! Mother, Mother! why do you measure him by the standard of your own +sanctified soul? How few are the elect who find a share of the grace of +which you speak!" + +"But those who have sinned like him must strive for it." + +"And he does so, Mother, in his way." + +"It is the wrong way; wrong for those who have sinned as he has. All he +strives for is worldly happiness." + +"No, no. He is firm in his faith in God and the Saviour. He is not a +liar." + +"And yet he thinks he may escape the penalty?" + +"And does not the Lord pardon true repentance?--He has repented; and how +bitterly, how fearfully he has suffered!" + +"Say rather that he has felt the stripes that his own sin brought upon +him.--There are more to come; and how will he take them? Temptation +lurks in every path, and how will he avoid it? As your mother, indeed it +is my duty to warn you: Keep your passion and yourself still under +control; continue to watch him, and grant him nothing--not the smallest +favor, as you are a maiden, before he. . ." + +"Till when; how long am I to be so basely on my guard?" sobbed Paula. +"Is that love which trusts not and is not ready to share the lot even of +the backslider?" + +"Yes, child, yes," interrupted the old woman. "To suffer all things, to +endure all things, is the duty of true love, and therefore of yours; but +you must not allow the most indissoluble of all bonds to unite you to him +till the back-slider has learnt to walk firmly. Follow him step by step, +hold him up with faithful care, never despair of him if he seems other +than what you had hoped. Make it your duty, pious soul, to render him +worthy of grace--but do not be in a hurry to speak the final yes--do not +say it yet." + +Paula yielded, though unwillingly, to this last word of counsel; but, in +fact, Orion's fault had filled the abbess with deep distrust. So great a +sinner, under the blight, too, of a father's curse, ought, in her +opinion, to have retired from the world and besieged Heaven for grace and +a new birth, instead of seeking joys, such as she thought none but the +most blameless--and, those of her own confession--could deserve, in union +with so exceptional a creature as her beloved Paula. Indeed, having +herself found peace for her soul only in the cloister, after a stormy and +worldly youth, she would gladly have received the noble daughter of her +old friend as the Bride of Christ within those walls, to be, perhaps, her +successor as Mother Superior. She longed that her darling should be +spared the sufferings she had known through the ruthlessness of faithless +men; so she would not abate a jot of the tenor of her advice, or cease to +impress on Paula, firmly though lovingly, the necessity of following it. +At last Paula took leave of her, bound by a promise not to pledge herself +irrevocably to Orion till his return from Doomiat, and till the abbess +had informed her by letter what opinion she had formed of him in the +course of their flight. + +The high-spirited girl had not shed so many tears, as in the course of +this interview, since the fatal affair at Abyla where she had lost her +father and brother; it was with a tear-stained face and aching head that +she had made her way back, under the scorching mid-day sun, to Rufinus' +house, where she sought her old nurse. Betta had earnestly entreated her +to lie down, and when Paula refused to hear of it she persuaded her at +any rate to bathe her head with water as cold as was procurable in this +terrific heat, and to have her hair carefully rearranged by her skilful +hand; for this had been her mother's favorite remedy against headache. +When, at length, Paula and her lover stood face to face, in a shady spot +in the garden, they both looked embarrassed and estranged. He was pale, +and gazed at her with some annoyance; and her red eyes and knit brows, +for her brain was throbbing with piercing pain, did not tend to improve +his mood. It was her part to explain and excuse herself; and as he did +not at once address her after they had exchanged greetings, she said in a +low tone of urgent entreaty: + +"Forgive me for coming so late. How long you must have been waiting! +But parting from my best friend, my second mother, agitated me so +painfully--it was so unspeakably sad.--I did not know how to hold up my +head, it ached so when I came home, and now--oh, I had hoped that we +might meet to-day so differently!" + +"But even yesterday you had no time to spare for me," he retorted +sullenly, "and this morning--you were present when Rufinus invited me-- +this morning!--I am not exacting, and to you, good God! How could I be? +--But have we not to part, to bid each other farewell--perhaps for ever? +Why should you have given up so much time and strength to your friend, +that so scanty a remnant is left for the lover? That is an unfair +division." + +"How could I deny it?" she said with melancholy entreaty. "You are +indeed very right; but I could not leave the child last evening, as soon +as she came, and while she was weeping out all her sorrows; and if you +only knew how surprised and grieved I was--how my heart ached when, +instead of finding you, your note......" + +"I was obliged to go to Amru," interrupted Orion. "This undertaking +compels me to leave much behind, and I am no longer the freest of the +free, as I used to be. During this dreadful breakfast I have been +sitting on thorns. But let all that pass. I came hither with a heart +high with hope--and now?--You see, Paula, this enterprise tears me in two +in more ways than you can imagine, puts me into a more critical position, +and weighs more on my mind than you can think or know--I will explain it +all to you at another time--and to bear it all, to keep up the spirit and +happy energy that I need, I must be secure of the one thing for which I +could take far greater toil and danger as mere child's play; I must +know......" + +"You must know," she interposed, "whether my heart is fully and wholly +open to your love. . . ." + +"And whether," he added, with growing ardor, "in spite of the bitter +suffering that weighs on my wretched soul, I may hope to be happier than +the saints in bliss. O Paula, adored and only woman, may I. . . ." + +"You may," she said clearly and fervently. "I love you, Orion, and shall +never, never cease to love you with my whole soul." + +He flew to her side, clasped both her hands as if beside himself, +snatched them to his lips regardless of the nearness of the house, whence +ten pairs of eyes might have seen him, and covered them with burning +kisses, till she drew them from him with the entreaty: "No, no; forbear, +I entreat you. No--not now." + +"Yes, now, at this very moment--or, if not, when?" he asked vehemently. +"But here, in this garden--you are right, this is no place for two human +beings so happy as we are. Come with me; come into the house and lead +the way to a spot where we may be unseen and unheard, alone with each +other and our happiness." + +"No, no, no!" she hastily put in, pressing her hand to her aching brow. +"Come with me to the bench under the sycamore; it is shady there, and you +can tell me everything, and hear once more how entirely love has taken +possession of me." + +He looked in her face, surprised and disappointed; but she turned towards +the sycamore and sat down beneath it. He slowly followed her. She +signed to him to take a seat by her side, but he stood up in front of +her, saying sadly and despondently. + +"Always the same--always calm and cold. Is this fair, Paula? Is this +the overwhelming love of which you spoke? Is this your response to the +yearning cry of a passionately ardent heart? Is this all that love can +grant to love--that a betrothed owes to her lover on the very eve of +parting?" + +At this she looked up at him, deeply distressed, and said in pathetically +urgent entreaty: "O Orion, Orion! Have I not told you, can you not see +and feel how much I love you? You must know and feel it; and if you do, +be content, I entreat. You, whom alone I love, be satisfied to know that +this heart is yours, that your Paula--your own Paula, for that indeed I +am--will think of nothing, care for nothing, pray and entreat Heaven for +nothing but you, yes you, my own, my all." + +"Then come, come with me," he insisted, "and grant your betrothed the +rights that are his due. + +"Nay, not my betrothed--not yet," she besought him, with all the fervor +of her tortured soul. "In my veins too the blood flows warm with +yearning. Gladly would I fly to your arms and lay my head against +yours, but not to-day can I become your betrothed, not yet; I cannot, +I dare not!" + +"And why not? Tell me, at any rate, why not," he cried indignantly, +clenching his fist to his breast. "Why will you not be my bride, if +indeed it is true that you love me? Why have you invented this new and +intolerable torment?" + +"Because prudence tells me," she replied in a low, hurried voice, while +her bosom heaved painfully, as though she were afraid to hear her own +words; "because I see that the time is not yet come. Ah, Orion! you +have not yet learnt to bridle the desires and cravings that burn within +you; you have forgotten all too quickly what is past--what a mountain we +had to cross before we succeeded in finding each other, before I--for I +must say it, my dear one--before I could look you in the face without +anger and aversion. A strange and mysterious ordering has brought it +about; and you, too, have honestly done your best that everything should +be changed, that what was white should now be black, that the chill north +wind should turn to a hot southerly one. Thus poison turns to healing, +and a curse to a blessing. In this foolish heart of mine passionate +hatred has given way to no less fervent love. Still, I cannot yet be +your bride, your wife. Call it cowardice, call it selfish caution, what +you will. I call it prudence, and applaud it; though it cost my poor +eyes a thousand bitter tears before my heart and brain could consent to +be guided by the warning voice. Of one thing you may be fully assured: +my heart will never be another's, come what may--it is yours with my +whole soul!--But I will not be your bride till I can say to you with glad +confidence, as well as with passionate love: 'You have conquered--take +me, I am yours!' Then you shall feel and confess that Paula's love is +not less vehement, less ardent.... O God! Orion, learn to know and +understand me. You must--for my sake and your own, you must!--My head, +merciful Heaven, my head!" + +She bowed her face and clasped her hands to her burning brow; Orion, pale +and shivering, laid his hand on her shoulder, and said in a harsh, forced +voice that had lost all its music: "The Esoterics impose severe trials +on their disciples before they admit them into the mysteries. And we are +in Egypt--but the difference is a wide one when the rule is applied to +love. How ever, all this is not from yourself. What you call prudence +is the voice of that nun!" + +"It is the voice of reason," replied Paula softly. "The yearning of my +heart had overpowered it, and I owe to my friend. . . ." + +"What do you owe her?" cried the young man furiously indignant. "You +should curse her, rather, for doing you so ill a turn, as I do at this +moment. What does she know of me? Has she ever heard a word from my +lips? If that despotic and casuistic recluse could have known what my +heart and soul are like, she would have advised you differently. Even as +a childs' confidence and love alone could influence me. Whatever my +faults might be, I never was false to kindness and trust.--And, so far +as you are concerned--you who are prudence and reason in person--blest in +your love, I should have cared only for your approbation. If I could +have overcome the last of your scruples, I should indeed have been proud +and happy!--I would have brought the sun and stars down from the sky for +you, and have laughed temptation to scorn!--But as it is--instead of +being raised I am lowered, a laughing-stock even in my own eyes. One +with you, I could have led the way on wings to the realms of light where +Perfection holds sway!--But as it is? What a task lies before me!--To +heat your frigid love to flaming point by good deeds, as though they were +olive-logs. A pretty task for a man--to put himself to the proof before +the woman he loves! It is a hideous and insulting torture which I will +not submit to, against which my whole inner man revolts, and which you +will and must forego--if indeed it is true that you love me!" + +"I love you, oh! I love you," she cried, beside herself, and seizing his +hands. "Perhaps you are right. I--my God what shall I do? Only do not +ask me yet, to speak the final yes or no. I cannot control myself to the +feeblest thought. You see, you see, how I am suffering!" + +"Yes, I see it," he replied, looking compassionately at her pale face and +drawn brow. "And if it must be so, I say: till this evening then. Try +to rest now, and take care of yourself.--But then. . . ." + +"Then, during the voyage, the flight, repeat to the abbess all you have +just said to me. She is a noble woman, and she, too, will learn to +understand and to love you, I am sure. She will retract the word I know. +. . ." + +"What word?" + +"My word, given to her, that I would not be yours. . . ." + +"Till I had gone through the Esoteric tests?" exclaimed Orion with an +angry shrug. "Now go,--go and lie down. This hour, which should have +been the sweetest of our lives, a stranger has embittered and darkened. +You are not sure of yourself--nor I of myself. Anything more that we +could say now and here would lead to no good issue for either you or me. +Go and rest; sleep off your pain, and I--I will try to forget.--If you +could but see the turmoil in my soul!--But farewell till our next, more +friendly--I hardly dare trust myself to say our happier meeting." + +He hastily turned away, but she called after him in sad lament: "Orion do +not forget--Orion, you know that I love you." + +But he did not hear; he burried on with his head bowed over his breast, +down to the road, without reentering Rufinus' house. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +When Orion reached home, wounded to the quick, he flung himself on a +divan. Paula had said that her heart was his indeed, but what a cool and +grudging love was this that would give nothing till it had insured its +future. And how could Paula have allowed a third person to come between +them, and rule her feelings and actions? She must have revealed to that +third person all that had previously passed between them--and it was for +this Melchite nun, his personal foe, that he was about to--it was enough +to drive him mad!--But he could not withdraw; he had pledged himself to +the brave old man to carry out this crazy enterprise. And in the place +of the lofty, noble mistress of his whole being, his fancy pictured Paula +as a tearful, vacillating, and cold-hearted woman. + +There lay the maps and plans which he had desired Nilus to send in from +his room for his study of the task set him by Amru; as his eye fell upon +them, he struck his fist against the wall, started up, and ran like a +madman up and down the room which had been sacred to her peaceful life. + +There stood her lute; he had freshly strung and tuned it. To calm +himself he drew it to him, took up the plectrum, and began to play. But +it was a poor instrument; she had been content with this wretched thing! +He flung it on the couch and took up his own, the gift of Heliodora. How +sweetly, how delightfully she had been wont to play it! Even now its +strings gave forth a glorious tone; by degrees he began to rejoice in his +own playing, and music soothed his excitement, as it had often done +before. It was grand and touching, though he several times struck the +strings so violently that their loud clanging and sighing and throbbing +answered each other like the wild wailing of a soul in torment. + +Under this vehement usage the bridge of the lute suddenly snapped off +with a dull report; and at the same instant his secretary, who had been +with him at Constantinople, threw open the door in glad excitement, and +began, even before he had crossed the threshold: + +"Only think, my lord! Here is a messenger come from the inn kept by +Sostratus with this tablet for you.--It is open, so I read it. Only +think! it is hardly credible! The Senator Justinus is here with his +wife, the noble Martina--here in Memphis, and they beg you to visit them +at once to speak of matters of importance. They came last night, the +messenger tells me, and now--what joy! Think of all the hospitality you +enjoyed in their house. Can we leave them in an inn? So long as +hospitality endures, it would be a crime!" + +"Impossible, quite impossible!" cried Orion, who had cast aside the +lute, and was now reading the letter himself. "It is true indeed! +his own handwriting. And that immovable pair are in Egypt--in Memphis! +By Zeus!"--for this was still the favorite oath of the golden youth of +Alexandria and Constantinople, even in these Christian times.--"By Zeus, +I ought to receive them here like princes!--Wait!--of course you must +tell the messenger that I am coming at once--have the four new Pannonians +harnessed to the silver-plated chariot. I must go to my mother; but +there is time enough for that. Desire Sebek to have the guest-chambers +prepared for distinguished guests--those sick people are out of them, +thank God! Take my present room for them too; I will go back to the old +one. Of course they have a numerous suite. Set twenty or thirty slaves +to work. Everything must be ready in two hours at furthest. The two +sitting-rooms are particularly handsome, but where anything is lacking, +place everything in the house at Sebek's command.--Justinus in Egypt!-- +But make haste, man! Nay, stay! One thing more. Carry these maps and +scrolls--no; they are too heavy for you. Desire a slave to fetch them, +and take them to Rufinus; he must keep them till I come. Tell him I +meant to use them on the way--he knows." + +The secretary rushed off; Orion performed a rapid toilet and had his +mourning dress rearranged in fresh folds; then he went to his mother. +She had often heard of the cordial reception that her son, and her +husband, too, in former days, had met with in the senator's house, and +she took it quite as a matter of course that the strangers' rooms, and +among them that which had been Paula's, should be prepared for the +travellers; all she asked was that it should be explained that she was +suffering, so that she might not have to trouble herself to entertain +them. + +She advised Orion to put off his journey and to devote himself to his +friends; but he explained that even their arrival must not delay him. +He had entire confidence in Sebek and the upper housekeeper, and the +emperor himself would remit the duties of hostess to a sick woman. Once, +at any rate, she would surely allow the illustrious guests to pay their +respects to her,--but even this Neforis refused It would be quite enough +if her visitors received messages and greetings daily in her name, with +offerings of choice fruit and flowers, and on the last day some costly +gift. Orion thought this proposal quite worthy of them both, and +presently drove off behind his Pannonians to the hostelry. + +By the harbor he met the captain of the boat he had hired; to him he held +up two fingers, and the boatman signified by repeated nodding that he had +understood the meaning of this signal: "Be ready at two hours before +midnight." + +The sight of this weather-beaten pilot, and the prospect of making some +return to his noble friends for all their kindness, cheered Orion +greatly; and though he regretted being obliged to leave these guests of +all others, the perils that lay before him reasserted their charm. He +could surely win over the abbess in the course of the voyage, and Paula +might be brought to reason, perhaps, this very evening. Justinus and his +wife were Melchites, and he knew that both these friends--for whom he had +a particular regard--would be enchanted with his scheme if he took them +into his confidence. + +The inn kept by Sostratus, a large, square building surrounding a +spacious court-yard, was the best and most frequented in the town. The +eastern side faced the road and the river, and contained the best rooms, +in which, on the previous night, the senator had established himself with +his wife and servants. The clatter of the quadriga drew Justinus to the +window; as soon as he recognized Orion he waved a table-napkin to him, +shouting a hearty "Welcome!" and then retired into the room again. + +"Here he is!" he cried to his wife, who was lying on a couch in the +lightest permissible attire, and sipping fruit-syrup from time to time +to moisten her dry lips, while a boy fanned her for coolness. + +"That is well indeed!" she exclaimed, and desired her maid to be quick, +very quick, and fetch her a wrap, but to be sure it was a thin one. +Then, turning to a very lovely young woman who had started to her feet +at Justinus' first exclamation, she asked: + +"Would you rather that he should find you here, my darling, or shall we +see him first, and tell him that we have brought you with us?" + +"That will be best," answered the other in a sweet voice, and she sighed +softly before she added: "What will he not think of me? We may grow +older, but folly--folly. . ." + +"Grows with years?" laughed the matron. "Or do you think it decreases? +--But here he is." + +The younger woman hurried away by a side door, behind which she +disappeared. Martina looked after her, and pointing that way to direct +her husband's glance, she observed: "She has left herself a chink. Good +God! Fancy being in love in such heat as this; what a hideous thought!" + +At this moment the door was opened, and the heartiest greetings ensued. +It was evident that the meeting was as great a pleasure to the elderly +pair as to the young man. Justinus embraced him warmly, while the matron +cried out: "And a kiss for me too!" And when the youth immediately and +heartily gave it, she exclaimed with a groan: + +"O man, and child of man, great Sesostris! How did your famous ancestor +ever achieve heroic deeds under such a sun as this? For my part I am +fast disappearing, melting away like butter; but what will a man not do +for love's sake?--Syra, Syra; for God's sake bring me something, however +small, that looks like a garment! How rational is the fashion of the +people of Africa whom we met with on our journey. If they have three +fingers' breadth of cloth about them, they consider themselves elegantly +dressed.--But come, sit down--there, at my feet. A seat, Argos, and some +wine, and water in a damp clay pitcher, and cool like the last. Husband, +the boy seems to me handsomer than ever. But dear God! he is in +mourning, and how becoming it is! Poor boy, poor boy! Yes, we heard in +Alexandria." + +She wiped first her eyes and then her damp brow, and her husband added +his expressions of sympathy at the death of the Mukaukas. + +They were a genial and comfortable couple, Justinus and his wife Martina. +Two beings who felt perfectly secure in their vast inherited wealth, and +who, both being of noble birth, never need make any display of dignity, +because they were sure of it in the eyes of high and low alike. They had +asserted their right to remain natural and human under the formalities of +the most elaborately ceremonious society; those who did not like the easy +tone adopted by them in their house might stay away. He, devoid of +ambition, a senator in virtue of his possessions and his name, never +caring to make any use of his adventitious dignity but that of procuring +good appointments for his favorite clients, or good places for his family +on any festive occasion, was a hospitable soul; the good friend of all +his friends, whose motto was "live and let live." Martina, with a heart +as good as gold, had never made any pretensions to beauty, but had +nevertheless been much courted. This worthy couple had for many years +thought that nothing could be more delightful than a residence in the +capital, or at their beautiful villa on the Bosphorus, scorning to follow +the example of other rich and fashionable folks, and go to take baths or +make journeys. It was enough for them to be able to make others happy +under their roof; and there was never any lack of visitors, just because +those who were weary of bending their backs at the Byzantine Court, found +this unceremonious circle particularly restful. + +Martina was especially fond of having young people about her, and +Heliodora, the widow of her nephew, had found comfort with her in her +trouble; it was in her house that Orion and Heliodora had met. The young +widow was a great favorite with the old couple, but higher in their +esteem even than she, had been the younger brother of her deceased +husband. He was to have been their heir; but they had mourned his death +now two years; for news had reached them that Narses, who had served in +the Imperial army as tribune of cavalry, had fallen in battle against the +infidels. No one, however, had ever brought a more exact report of his +death; and at last their indefatigable enquiries had resulted in their +learning that he had been taken prisoner by the Saracens and carried into +slavery in Arabia. This report received confirmation through the efforts +of Orion and his deceased father. Within a few hours of the young +Egyptian's departure, they received a letter from the youth they had +given up for lost, written in trembling characters, in which he implored +them to effect his deliverance through Amru, the Arab governor of Egypt. +The old people had set forth at once on their pilgrimage, and Heliodora +had done her part in urging them to this step. Her passion for Orion, +to whom, for more than a year, her gentle heart had been wholly devoted, +had increased every hour since his departure. She had not concealed it +from Martina, who thought it no less than her duty to stand by the poor +lovesick child; for Heliodora had nursed her husband, the senator's +nephew, to the end, with touching fidelity and care; and besides, Martina +had given the young Egyptian--with whom she was "quite in love herself" +--every opportunity of paying his addresses to the young widow. + +They were a pair that seemed made for each other, and Martina delighted +in match-making. But in this case, though hearts had met, hands had not, +and finally it had been a real grief to Martina to hear Orion and +Heliodora called--and with good reason--a pair of lovers. + +Once she had appealed in her genial way to the young man's conscience, +and he had replied that his father, who was a Jacobite, would never +consent to his union with a woman of any other confession. At that time +she had found little to answer; but she had often thought if only she +could make the Mukaukas acquainted with Heliodora, he, whom she had known +in the capital as a young and handsome admirer of every charming woman, +would certainly capitulate. + +Her favorite niece had indeed every grace that a father's heart could +desire to attract the son. She was of good family, the widow of a man of +rank, rich, but just two and twenty, and beautiful enough to bewitch old +or young. A sweeter and gentler soul Martina had never known. Those +large dewy eyes-imploring eyes, she called them--might soften a stone, +and her fair waving hair was as soft as her nature. Add to this her +full, supple figure--and how perfectly she dressed, how exquisitely she +sang and struck the lute! It was not for nothing that she was courted by +every youth of rank in Constantinople--and if the old Mukaukas could but +hear her laugh! There was not a sound on earth more clear, more glad +than Heliodora's laugh. She was not indeed remarkable for intellect, but +no one could call her a simpleton, and your very clever women were not to +every man's taste. + +So, when they were to travel to Egypt, Martina took it for granted that +Heliodora must go with them, and that the flirtation which had made her +favorite the talk of the town must, in Memphis, become courtship in +earnest. Then, when she heard at Alexandria that the Mukaukas was lately +dead, she regarded the game as won. Now they were in Memphis, Orion was +sitting before her, and the young man had invited her and her following +of above twenty persons to stay in his house. It was a foregone +conclusion that the travellers were to accept this bidding as prescribed +by the laws of hospitality, and preparations for the move were +immediately set on foot. + +Justinus meanwhile explained what had brought them to Egypt, and begged +Orion's assistance. The young man had known the senator's nephew well as +one of the most brilliant and amiable youths of the capital, and he was +sincerely distressed to be forced to inform his friends that Amru, who +could easily have procured the release of Narses, was to start within two +days for Medina, while he himself was compelled to set out on a journey +that very evening, at an hour be could not name. + +He saw how greatly this firmly-expressed determination agitated and +disturbed the old couple, and the senator's urgency led him to tell them, +under the pledge of strict secrecy, what business it was that took him +away and what a perilous enterprise he had before him. + +He began his story confident of his orthodox guests' sympathy; but to his +amazement they both disapproved of the undertaking, and not, as they +declared, on his account only or for the sake of the help they had +counted on. + +The senator reminded him that he was the natural chief of the Egyptian +population in Memphis, and that, by such a scheme, he was undermining his +influence with those whose leader he was by right and duty as his +father's son. His ambition ought to make him aim at this leadership; +and instead of offering such a rebuff to the patriarch, it was his part +to work with him--whose power he greatly underrated--so as to make life +tolerable to their fellow-Christians in a land ruled by Moslems. + +Paula's name was not once mentioned; but Orion thought of her and +remained firm, though not without an inward struggle. + +At the same time, to prove to his friends how sincerely he desired to +please them, he proposed that he and Justinus should immediately cross +the Nile to lay his application before the Khaliff's vicar. A glance at +the sky showed him that it wanted still an hour and a half of sunset. +His swift horses would not need more than that time for the journey, and +during their absence the rest of the party could move from the inn. +Carts for the baggage were already in waiting below, and chariots had +been ordered to follow and convey his beloved guests to their new +quarters. + +The senator agreed to this proposal, and as the two men went off Martina +called after Orion. + +"My senator must talk to you on the road, and if you can be brought to +reason you will find your reward waiting for you! Do not be saving of +your talents of gold, old man, till the general has promised to procure +the lad's release.--And listen to me, Orion; give up your mad scheme." + +The sun had not wholly disappeared behind the Libyan range when the +snorting Pannonians, all flecked with foam, drove back into the court- +yard of the governor's residence. The two men had unfortunately gained +nothing; for Amru was absent, reviewing the troops between Heliopolis and +Onix, and was not expected home till night or even next morning. The +party had removed from the inn and the senator's white slaves were +already mixing with the black and brown ones of the establishment. + +Martina was delighted with her new quarters, and with the beautiful +flowers--most of them new to her--with which the invalid mistress of the +house had had the two great reception-rooms garnished in token of +welcome; but the failure of Justinus' visit to Fostat fell like hoar- +frost on her happy mood. + +Orion, she asserted, ought to regard this stroke of ill-luck as a +judgment from God. It was the will of Heaven that he should give up his +enterprise and be content to make due preparations for a noble work which +could be carried through without him, in order to accomplish another, out +of friendship, which urgently needed his help. However, he again +expressed his regret that in spite of everything he must adhere to his +purpose; and when Martina asked him: "What, even if my reward is one that +would especially delight you?" he nodded regretfully. "Yes, even then." + +So she merely added, "Well, we shall see," and went on impressively: +"Every one has some peculiarity which stamps his individuality and +becomes him well: in you it is amiability, my son. Such obstinacy does +not suit you; it is quite foreign to you, and is the very opposite to +what I call amiability. Be yourself, even in this instance." + +"That is to say weak and yielding, especially when a kind woman. . . ." + +"When old friends ask it," she hastily put in; but almost before she had +finished she turned to her husband, exclaiming: "Good Heavens! come to +the window. Did you ever see such a glorious mingling of purple and gold +in the sky? It is as though the old pyramids and the whole land of Egypt +were in flames. But now, great Sesostris,"--the name she gave to Orion +when she was in a good humor with him, "it is time that you should see +what I have brought you. In the first place this trinket," and she gave +him a costly bracelet of old Greek workmanship set with precious stones, +"and then--nay, no Thanks--and then--Well the object is rather large, and +besides--come with me." + +As she spoke she went from the reception-room into the anteroom, led the +way to the door of the room which had once been Paula's, and then his +own, opened it a little way, peeped in, and then pushed Orion forward, +saying hastily: "There--do you see--there it is!" + +By the window stood Heliodora. The bright radiance of the sinking sun +bathed her slender but round and graceful form, her "imploring" eyes +looked up at him with rapturous delight, and her white arms folded across +her bosom gave her the aspect of a saint, waiting with humble longing for +some miracle, in expectation of unutterable joys. + +Martina's eyes, too, were fixed on Orion; she saw how pale he turned at +seeing the young widow, she saw him start as though suddenly overcome by +some emotion--what, she could not guess--and shrink back from the sunlit +vision in the window. These were effects which the worthy matron had not +anticipated. + +Never off the stage, thought she, had she seen a man so stricken by love; +for she could not suspect that to him it was as though a gulf had +suddenly yawned at his feet. + +With a swiftness which no one could have looked for from her heavy and +bulky figure, Martina hastily returned to her husband, and even at the +door exclaimed: "It is all right, all has gone well! At the sight of her +he seemed thunderstruck! Mark my words: we shall have a wedding here by +the Nile." + +"My blessing on it," replied Justinus. "But, wedding or no wedding, all +I care is that she should persuade that fine young fellow to give up his +crazy scheme. I saw how even the brown rascals in the Arab's service +bowed down before him; and he will persuade the general, if any one can, +to do all in his power for Narses. He must not and shall not go! You +impressed it strongly on Heliodora. . . ." + +"That she should keep him?" laughed the matron. "I tell you, she will +nail him down if need be." + +"So much the better," replied her husband. "But, wife, folks might say +that it was not quite seemly in you to force them together. Properly +speaking, you are as it were her female mentor, the motherly patroness." + +"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Martina. "At home they invited no witnesses +to look on at their meetings. The poor love-lorn souls must at any rate +have a chance of speaking to each other and rejoicing that they have met +once more. I will step in presently, and be the anxious, motherly +friend. Tine, Tine! And if it does not end in a wedding, I will make a +pilgrimage to St. Agatha, barefoot." + +"And I with only one shoe!" the senator declared, "for, everything in +reason--but the talk about Dora was at last beyond all bounds. It was no +longer possible to have them both together under the same roof. And you +yourself--no, seriously; go in to them." + +"Directly, directly.--But first look out of this window once more. Oh, +what a sun!--there, now it is too late. Only two minutes ago the whole +heaven was of the hue of my red Syrian cloak; and now it is all dark!-- +The house and garden are beautiful, and everything is old and handsome; +just what I should have expected in the home of the rich Mukaukas." + +"And I too," replied Justinus. "But now, go. If they have come to an +understanding, Dora may certainly congratulate herself." + +"I should think so! But she need not be ashamed even of her villa, and +they must spend every summer there, I will manage that. If that poor, +dear fellow Narses does not escape with his life--for two years of +slavery are a serious matter--then I should be able. . . ." + +"To alter your will? Not a bad idea; but there is no hurry for that; and +now, you really must go." + +"Yes, yes, in a minute. Surely I may have time to speak.--I, for my +part, know of no one whom I would sooner put in the place of Narses....." + +"Than Orion and Heliodora? Certainly, I have no objection; but now...." + +"Well, perhaps it is wicked to think of a man who may still be alive as +numbered with the dead.--At any rate the poor boy cannot go back to his +legion. . . ." + +"On no consideration. But, Martina. . . ." + +"To-morrow morning Orion must urge our case on the Arab . . . ." + +"If he does not go away." + +"Will you bet that she fails to keep him." + +"I should be a fool for my pains," laughed Justinus. "Do you ever pay me +when I win?--But now, joking apart, you must go and see what they are +about." + +And this time she obeyed. She would have won her bet; for Orion, who had +remained unmoved by his sister-in-law's letter, by the warning voice of +the faith of his childhood, by the faithful council of his honest servant +Nilus, or by the senator's convincing arguments--had yielded to +Heliodora's sweet blandishments. + +How ardently had her loving heart flamed up, when she saw him so deeply +agitated at the sight of her! With what touching devotion had she sunk +into his arms; how humbly-half faint with sweet sorrow and sweeter +ecstasy--had she fallen at his feet, and clasped his knees, and entreated +him, with eyes full of tears of adoring rapture, not to leave to-day, to +wait only till tomorrow, and then, if he would, to tread her in the dust. +Now--now when she had just found him again after being worn out with +pining and longing-to part now, to see him rush on an uncertain fate--it +would kill her, it would certainly be her death! And when he still had +tried to resist she had rushed into his arms, had stopped his lips with +burning kisses, and whispered in his ear all the flattering words of love +he once had held so dear. + +Why had he never seriously tried to win her, why had he so soon forgotten +her? Because she, who could assert her dignity firmly enough with +others, had abandoned herself to him unresistingly after a few meetings, +as if befooled by some magician's spell. The precious spoil so easily +won had soon lost its value in his eyes. But to-day the fire which had +died out blazed up again. Yes, this was the love he craved, he must +have! To be loved with entire and utter devotion, with a heart that +thought only of him and not of itself, that asked only for love in return +for love, that did not fence itself round with caution and invoke the aid +of others for protection against him. This lovely creature, all passion, +who had taken upon herself to endure the contumely of society, and pain +and grief for his sake, knowing too that he had abandoned her, and would +never make her his wife before God and men--she indeed knew what it was +to love; and he who was so often inclined to despair of himself felt his +heart uplifted at the thought that he was so precious in her eyes, nay-- +he would own it--so idolized. + +And how sweet, how purely womanly she was! Those imploring eyes-- +which he had grown quite sick of in Constantinople, for they were as +full of pathetic entreaty when she merely begged him to hold her cloak +for her as when she appealed to his heart of hearts not to leave her-- +that entrancing play of glances which had first bewitched him, came to +him to-day as something new and worked the old spell. + +In this moment of tender reunion he had promised her at any rate to +consider whether he could not release himself from the pledge by which he +was bound; but hardly had he spoken the words when the memory of Paula +revived in his mind, and an inward voice cried out to him that she was a +being of nobler mould than this yielding, weak woman, abject before him-- +that she symbolized his upward struggle, Heliodora his perdition. + +At length he was able to tear himself from her embrace; and at the first +step out of this intoxication into real life again he looked about like +one roused from sleep, feeling as though it were by some mocking sport of +the devil himself that Paula's room should have been the scene of this +meeting and of his weakness. + +An enquiry from Heliodora, as to the fate of the little white dog that +she had given him as a remembrance, recalled to his mind that luckless +emerald which was to have been his return offering or antidoron. He +evasively replied that, remembering her love of rare gems, he had sent +her a remarkably fine stone about which he had a good deal to say; and +she gave such childlike and charming expression to her delight and +gratitude, and took such skilful advantage of his pleasure in her +clinging tenderness, to convince him of the necessity for remaining at +home, that he himself began to believe in it, and gave way. The more +this conclusion suited his own wishes the easier it became to find +reasons for it: old Rufinus really did not need him; and if he--Orion-- +had cause to be ashamed of his vacillation, on the other hand he could +comfort himself by reflecting that it would be unkind and ungrateful to +his good friends to leave them in the lurch just when he could be of use +to them. One pair of protecting arms more or less could not matter to +the nuns, while the captive Narses might very probably perish before he +could be rescued without his interest with the Arab general. + +It was high time to decide one way or the other.--Well, no; he ought not +to go away to-day! + +That was settled! + +Rufinus must at once be informed of his change of purpose. To sit down +and write at such a moment he felt was impossible: Nilus should go and +speak in his name; and he knew how gladly and zealously he would perform +such an errand. + +Heliodora clapped her hands, and just as Martina knocked at the door +the pair came out into the anteroom: She, radiant with happiness, +and so graceful in her fashionable, costly, and well-chosen garb, +so royal-looking in spite of her no more than middle height, that even in +the capital she would have excited the admiration of the men and the envy +of the women: He, content, but with a thoughtful smile on his lips. + +He had not yet closed the door when in the anteroom he perceived two +female figures, who had come in while Martina was knocking at her niece's +door. These were Katharina and her waiting-maid. + +Anubis had been brought to these rooms after his fall from the roof, and +notwithstanding the preparations that had been made for illustrious +guests Philippus could not be persuaded to allow his patient, for whom +perfect quiet was indispensable, to be moved to the lower floor. + +The listener who had been so severely punished had with him his mother, +Katharina's old nurse; the water-wagtail, with her maid, had accompanied +her to see the lad, for she was very anxious to assure herself whether +her foster-brother, before his tumble, had succeeded in hearing anything; +but the poor fellow was so weak and his pain so severe that she had not +the heart to torment him with questions. However, her Samaritan's visit +brought her some reward, for to meet Orion coming out of Paula's room +with so beautiful and elegant a woman was a thing worth opening her eyes. +to see. She would have walked from home hither twice over only to see +the clothes and jewels of this heaven sent stranger. Such a being rarely +strayed to Memphis,--and might not this radiant and beautiful creature +be "the other" after all, and not Paula? Might not Orion have been +trifling with her rival as he had already trifled with her? They must +have had a rapturous meeting in that room; every feature of the fair +beauty's saint-like face betrayed the fact. Oh, that Orion! She would +have liked to throttle him; and yet she was glad to think that there was +another besides herself--and she so elegant and lovely--whom he had +betrayed. + +"He will stay!" Heliodora exclaimed as she came out of the room; and +Martina held out her hand to the young man, with a fervent: "God bless +you for that!" + +She was delighted to see how happy her niece looked but the lively old +woman's eyes were everywhere at once, and when she caught sight of +Katharina who had stood still with curiosity, she turned to her with a +friendly nod and said to Orion: + +"Your sister? Or the little niece of whom you used to speak?" + +Orion called Katharina and introduced her to his guests, and the girl +explained what had brought her hither; in such a sweet and pathetic +manner--for she was sincerely fond of her foster-brother and play-fellow +--that she quite charmed Martina and Heliodora, and the younger woman +expressed a hope that they might see her often. Indeed, when she was +gone, Martina exclaimed: "A charming little thing! As fresh and bright +as a newly-fledged bird, so brisk and pretty too--and how nicely she +prattles!" + +"And the richest heiress in Memphis into the bargain," added Orion. But, +noticing that on this Heliodora cast down her eyes with a troubled +expression, he went on with a laugh: "Our mothers destined us to marry +each other, but we are too ill-matched in size, and not exactly made for +a pair in other ways." + +Then, taking leave of them, he went to Nilus and informed him of his +decision. His request that the treasurer would make his excuses to +Rufinus, carry his greetings to Thomas' daughter, and make the most of +his reasons for remaining behind, sent the good man almost beside himself +for joy; and he so far forgot his modest reserve as to embrace Orion as a +son. + +The young host sat with his visitors till nearly midnight: and when, on +the following morning, Martina first greeted her niece--who looked +peacefully happy though somewhat tired--she was able to tell her that +the two men had already gone across the Nile, and, she hoped, settled +everything with the Arab governor. Great was her disappointment when +presently Justinus and Orion came back to say that Amru, instead of +returning to Fostat from the review at Heliopolis, had gone straight to +Alexandria. He had engagements there for a few days, and would then +start for Medina. + +The senator saw nothing for it but to follow him up, and Orion +volunteered to accompany him. + +A faint attempt on Heliodora's part to detain him met with a decisive, +nay, stern refusal. This journey was indeed sheer flight from his own +weakness and from the beautiful creature who could never be anything to +him. + +Early in the day he had found time to write to Paula; but he had cast +aside more than one unfinished letter before he could find the right +words. He told her that he loved her and her alone; and as his stylus +marked the wax he felt, with horror of himself, that in fact his heart +was Paula's, and his determination ripened to put an end once for all to +his connection with Heliodora, and not allow himself to see Paula again +till he had forever cut the tie that bound him to the young widow. + +The two women went out to see the travellers start, and as they returned +to the house, hanging their heads like defeated warriors, in the +vestibule they met Katharina and her maid. Martina wanted to detain the +little girl, and to persuade her to go up to their rooms with them; but +Katharina refused, and appeared to be in a great hurry. She had just +come from seeing Anubis, who was in less pain to-day, and who had done +his best to tell her what he had overheard. That the flight was to be +northwards he was certain; but he had either misunderstood or forgotten +the name of the place whither the sisters were bound. + +His mother and the nurse were dismissed from the room, and then the +water-wagtail in her gratitude had bent over him, had raised his pretty +face a little, and had given him two such sweet kisses that the poor boy +had been quite uneasy. But, when he was alone with his mother once more, +he had felt happier and happier, and the remembrance of the transient +rapture he had known had alleviated the pain he was suffering on +Katharina's account. + +Katharina, meanwhile, did not go home at once to her mother; on the +contrary, she went straight off to the Bishop of Memphis, to whom she +divulged all she had learnt with regard to the inhabitants of the convent +and the intended rescue. The gentle Plotinus even had been roused to +great wrath, and no sooner had she left him than he set out for Fostat to +invoke the help of Amru, and--finding him absent--of his Vekeel to enable +him to pursue the fugitive Melchite sisters. + +When the water-wagtail was at home again and alone in her room, she said +to herself, with calm satisfaction, that she had now contrived something +which would spoil several days for Orion and for Paula, and that might +prove even fatal, so far as she was concerned. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Nilus had performed his errand well, and Rufinus was forced to admit that +Orion had done his part and had planned the enterprise with so much care +and unselfishness that his personal assistance could be dispensed with. +Under these circumstances he scarcely owed the young man a grudge for +placing himself at the service of his Byzantine friends; still, his not +coming to the house disturbed and vexed him, less on his own account, or +that of the good cause, than for Paula's sake, for her feelings towards +Orion had remained no secret to him or his wife. + +Dame Joanna, indeed, felt the young man's conduct more keenly than +Rufinus; she would have been glad to withhold her husband from the +enterprise, whose dangers now appeared to her frightened soul tenfold +greater than they were. But she knew that the Nile would flow backwards +before she could dissuade him from keeping his promise to the abbess, so +she forced herself to preserve at any rate outward composure. + +Before Paula, Rufinus declared that Orion was fully justified and he +loudly praised the young man's liberality in providing the Nile-boat and +the vessel for the sea-voyage, and such admirable substitutes for +himself. Pulcheria was delighted with her father's undertaking; she only +longed to go with him and help him to save her dear nuns. The ship- +builder had brought with him, besides his sons, three other Greeks of the +orthodox confession, shipwrights like himself, who were out of work in +consequence of the low ebb of the Nile, which had greatly restricted the +navigation. Hence they were glad to put a hand to such a good work, +especially as it would be profitable, too, for Orion had provided the old +man with ample funds. + +As the evening grew cooler after sundown Paula had got better. She did +not, indeed, know what to think of Orion's refusal to start. First she +was grieved, then she rejoiced; for it certainly preserved him from great +perils. In the early days after his return from Constantinople she had +heard his praise of the senator's kindness and hospitality, in which the +Mukaukas, who had pleasant memories of the capital, heartily joined. He +must, of course, be glad to be able to assist those friends, of all +others; and Nilus, who was respectfully devoted to her, had greeted her +from Orion with peculiar warmth. He would come to-morrow, no doubt; and +the oftener she repeated to herself his assertion that he had never +betrayed affectionate trust, the more earnestly she felt prompted, in +spite of the abbess' counsel, to abandon all hesitancy, to follow the +impulse of her heart, and to be his at once in full and happy confidence. + +The waning moon had not yet risen, and the night was very dark when the +nuns set forth. The boat was too large to come close to the shore in the +present low state of the river, and the sisters, disguised as peasant- +women, had to be carried on board one by one from the convent garden. +Last of all the abbess was to be lifted over the shallow water, and the +old ship-builder held himself in readiness to perform this service. +Joanna, Pulcheria, Perpetua, and Eudoxia, who was also zealously +orthodox, were standing round as she gave Paula a parting kiss and +whispered: "God bless thee, child!--All now depends on you, and you must +be doubly careful to abide by your promise." + +"I owe him, in the first place, friendly trust," was Paula's whispered +reply, and the abbess answered: But you owe yourself firmness and +caution." Rufinus was the last; his wife and daughter clung around him +still. + +"Take example from that poor girl," cried the old man, clasping his wife +in his arms. "As sure as man is the standard of all things, all must go +well with me this time if everlasting Love is not napping. Till we meet +again, best of good women!--And, if ill befalls your stupid old husband, +always remember that he brought it upon himself in trying to save a +quarter of a hundred innocent women from the worst misfortunes. At any +rate I shall fall on the road I myself have chosen.--But why has +Philippus not come to take leave of me?" + +Dame Joanna burst into tears: "That-that is so hard too! What has come +over him that he has deserted us, and just now of all times? Ah, +husband! If you love me, take Gibbus with you on the voyage." + +"Yes, master, take me," the hunchbacked gardener interposed. "The Nile +will be rising again by the time we come back, and till then the flowers +can die without my help. I dreamt last night that you picked a rose from +the middle of my Bump. It stuck up there like the knob on the lid of a +pot. There is some meaning in it and, if you leave me at home, what is +the good of the rose--that is to say what good will you get out of me?" + +"Well then, carry your strange flower-bed on board," said the old man +laughing. "Now, are you satisfied Joanna?" + +Once more he embraced her and Pulcheria and, as a tear from his wife's +eyes dropped on his hand, he whispered in her ear: "You have been the +rose of my life; and without you Eden--Paradise itself can have no joys." + +The boat pushed out into the middle of the stream and was soon hidden by +the darkness from the eyes of the women on the bank. + +The convent bells were soon heard tolling after the fugitives: Paula and +Pulcheria were pulling them. There was not a breath of air; not enough +even to fill the small sail of the seaward-bound boat; but the rowers +pulled with all their might and the vessel glided northward. The captain +stood at the prow with his pole; sounding the current: his brother, no +less skilled, took the helm.--The shallowness of the water made +navigation very difficult, and those who knew the river best might easily +run aground on unexpected shoals or newly-formed mud-drifts. The moon +had scarcely risen when the boat was stranded at a short distance below +Fostat, and the men had to go overboard to push it off to an +accompaniment of loud singing which, as it were, welded their individual +wills and efforts into one. Thus it was floated off again; but such +delays were not unfrequent till they reached Letopolis, where the Nile +forks, and where they hoped to steal past the toll-takers unobserved. +Almost against their expectation, the large boat slipped through under +the heavy mist which rises from the waters before sunrise, and the +captain and crew, steering down the Phatmetic branch of the river with +renewed spirit, ascribed their success to the intercession of the pious +sisters. + +By daylight it was easier to avoid the sand-banks; but how narrow was the +water-way-at this season usually overflowing! The beds of papyrus on the +banks now grew partly on dry land, and their rank green had faded to +straw-color. The shifting ooze of the shore had hardened to stone, and +the light west wind, which now rose and allowed of their hoisting the +sail, swept clouds of white dust before it. In many cases the soil was +deeply fissured and wide cracks ran across the black surface, yawning to +heaven for water like thirsty throats. The water-wheels stood idle, far +away from the stream, and the fields they were wont to irrigate looked +like the threshing floors on which the crops they bore should be threshed +out. The villages and palm-groves were shrouded in shimmering mist, +quivering heat, and dazzling yellow light; and the passer-by on the +raised dykes of the shore bent his head as he dragged his weary feet +through the deep dust. + +The sun blazed pitilessly in the cloudless sky, down on land and river, +and on the fugitive nuns who had spread their white head-cloths above +them for an awning and sat in dull lethargy, awaiting what might he +before them. + +The water-jar passed from hand to band; but the more they drank the more +acute was their discomfort, and their longing for some other refreshment. +At meal time the dishes were returned to the tiny cabin almost untouched. +The abbess and Rufinus tried to speak comfort to them; but in the +afternoon the superior herself was overpowered by the heat, and the air +in the little cabin, to which she retired, was even less tolerable stuffy +than on deck. + +Thus passed a long day of torment, the hottest that even the men could +remember; and they on the whole suffered least from it, though they +toiled at the oar without ceasing and with wonderful endurance. + +At length evening fell after those fearful midday hours; and as a cool +breeze rose shortly before sunset to fan their moist brows, the hapless +victims awoke to new energies. Their immediate torment had so crushed +them that, incapable of anticipating the future, they had ceased either +to fear or to hope; but now they could rejoice in thinking of the start +they had gained over their pursuers. They were hungry and enjoyed their +evening meal; the abbess made friends with the worthy ship-wright, and +began an eager conversation with Rufinus as to Paula and Orion: Her wish +that the young man should spend a time of probation did not at all please +Rufinus; with such a wife as Paula, he could not fail to be at all times +the noble fellow which his old friend held him to be in spite of his +having remained at home. + +The hump-backed gardener made the younger nuns merry with his jests, and +after supper they all united in prayer. + +Even the oarsmen had found new vigor and new life; and it was well that +few of the Greek sisters understood Egyptian, for the more jovial of them +started a song in praise of the charms of the maids they loved, which was +not composed for women's ears. + +The nuns chatted of those they had left behind, and many a one spoke of a +happy meeting at home once more; but an elderly nun put a stop to this, +saying that it was a sin to anticipate the ways of God's mercy, or, when +His help was still so sorely needed, to speak as though He had already +bestowed it. They could only tremble and pray, for they knew from +experience that a threatening disaster never turned to a good end unless +it had been expected with real dread. + +Another one then began to speculate as to whether their pursuers could +overtake them on foot or on horseback, and as it seemed only too probable +that they could, their hearts sank again with anxiety. Ere long, +however, the moon rose; the objects that loomed on the banks and were +mirrored in the stream, were again clearly visible and lost their +terrors. + +The lower down they sailed, the denser were the thickets of papyrus on +the shore. Thousands of birds were roosting there, but they were all +asleep; a "dark ness that might be felt" brooded over the silent land +scape. The image of the moon floated on the dark water, like a gigantic +lotos-flower below the smaller, fragrant lotos-blossoms that it out-did +in sheeny whiteness; the boat left a bright wake in its track, and every +stroke of the oar broke the blackness of the water, which reflected the +light in every drop. The moonlight played on the delicate tufts that +crowned the slender papyrus-stems, filmy mist, like diaphanous brocade of +violet and silver, veiled the trees; and owls that shun the day, flew +from one branch to another on noiseless, rhythmic wings. + +The magic of the night fell on the souls of the nuns; they ceased +prattling; but when Sister Martha, the nightingale of the sisterhood, +began to sing a hymn the others followed her example. The sailors' songs +were hushed, and the psalms of the virgin sisters, imploring the +protection of the Almighty, seemed to float round the gliding boat as +softly as the light of the circling moon. For hours--and with increased +zeal as the comet rose in the sky--they gave themselves up to the +soothing and encouraging pleasure of singing; but one by one the voices +died away and their peaceful hymn was borne down the river to the sea, by +degrees more low, more weary, more dreamlike. + +They sat looking in their laps, gazing in rapture up to heaven, or at the +dazzling ripples and the lotos flowers on the surface. No one thought of +the shore, not even the men, who had been lulled to sleep or daydreams by +the nuns' singing. The pilot's eyes were riveted on the channel--and +yet, as morning drew near, from time to time there was a twinkle, a flash +behind the reed-beds on the eastern bank, and now and then there was a +rustling and clatter there. Was it a jackal that had plunged into the +dense growth to surprise a brood of water-fowl; was it a hyena trampling +through the thicket? + +The flashing, the rustling, the dull footfall on parched earth followed +the barge all through the night like a sinister, lurid, and muttering +shadow. + +Suddenly the captain started and gazed eastwards.--What was that? + +There was a herd of cattle feeding in a field beyond the reeds-two bulls +perhaps were sharpening their horns. The river was so low, and the banks +rose so high, that it was impossible to see over them. But at this +moment a shrill voice spoke his name, and then the hunchback whispered in +his ear: + +"There--over there--it is glittering again.--I will bite off my own nose +if that is not--there, again. Merciful God! I am not mistaken. +Harness--and there, that is the neighing of a horse; I know the sound. +The east is growing grey. By all the saints, we are pursued!" + +The captain looked eastwards with every sense alert, and after a few +minutes silence he said decidedly "Yes." + +"Like a flight of quail for whom the fowler spreads his net," sighed the +gardener; but the boatman impatiently signed to him to be quiet, and +gazed cautiously on every side. Then he desired Gibbus to wake Rufinus +and the shipwrights, and to hide all the nuns in the cabin. + +"They will be packed as close as the dates sent to Rome in boxes," +muttered the gardener, as he went to call Rufinus. "Poor souls, their +saints may save them from suffocation; and as for me, on my faith, if it +were not that Dame Joanna was the very best creature on two legs, and if +I had not promised her to stick to the master, I would jump into the +water and try the hospitality of the flamingoes and storks in the reeds! +We must learn to condescend!" + +While he was fulfilling his errand, the captain was exchanging a few +words with his brother at the helm. There was no bridge near, and that +was well. If the horsemen were indeed in pursuit of them, they must ride +through the water to reach them; and scarcely three stadia lower down, +the river grew wider and ran through a marshy tract of country; the only +channel was near the western bank, and horsemen attempting to get to it +ran the risk of foundering in the mud. If the boat could but get as far +as that reach, much would be gained. + +The captain urged the men to put forth all their strength, and very soon +the boat was flying along under the western shore, and divided by an oozy +flat from the eastern bank. Day was breaking, and the sky was tinged red +as with blood--a sinister omen that this morning was destined to witness +bitter strife and gaping wounds. + +The seed sown by Katharina was beginning to grow. At the bishop's +request the Vekeel had despatched a troop of horse in pursuit of the +nuns, with orders to bring the fugitives back to Memphis and take their +escort prisoners. As the boat had slipped by the toll watch unperceived, +the Arabs had been obliged to divide, so as to follow down each arm of +the Nile. Twelve horsemen had been told off to pursue the Phasmetic +branch; for by every calculation these must suffice for the capture of a +score or so of nuns, and a handful of sailors would scarcely dare to +attempt to defend themselves. The Vekeel had heard nothing of the +addition to the party of the ship-master and his sons. + +The pursuers had set out at noon of the previous day, and had overtaken +the vessel about two hours before daylight. But their leader thought it +well to postpone the attack till after sunrise, lest any of the fugitives +should escape. He and his men were all Arabs, and though well acquainted +with the course of that branch of the river which they were to follow, +they were not familiar with its peculiarities. + +As soon as the morning star was invisible, the Moslems performed their +devotions, and then rushed out of the papyrus-beds. Their leader, making +a speaking trumpet of his hand, shouted to the boat his orders to stop. +He was commissioned by the governor to bring it back to Fostat. And the +fugitives seemed disposed to obey, for the boat lay to. The captain had +recognized the speaker as the captain of the watch from Fostat, an +inexorable man; and now, for the first time, he clearly understood the +deadly peril of the enterprise. He was accustomed, no doubt, to evade +the commands of his superiors, but would no more have defied them than +have confronted Fate; and he at once declared that resistance was +madness, and that there was no alternative but to yield. Rufinus, +however, vehemently denied this; he pointed out to him that the same +punishment awaited him, whether he laid down his arms or defended +himself, and the old ship-wright eagerly exclaimed: + +"We built this boat, and I know you of old, Setnau; You will not turn +Judas--and, if you do, you know that Christian blood will be shed on this +deck before we can show our teeth to those Infidels." + +The captain, with all the extravagant excitability of his southern blood, +beat his forehead and his breast, bemoaned himself as a betrayed and +ruined man, and bewailed his wife and children. Rufinus, however, put an +end to his ravings. He had consulted with the abbess, and he put it +strongly to the unhappy man that he could, in any case, hope for no mercy +from the unbelievers; while, on Christian ground, he would easily find a +safe and comfortable refuge for himself and his family. The abbess would +undertake to give them all a passage on board the ship that was awaiting +her, and to set them on shore wherever he might choose. + +Setnau thought of a brother living in Cyprus; still, for him it meant +sacrificing his house and garden at Doomiat, where, at this very hour, +fifty date-palms were ripening their fruit; it meant leaving the fine new +Nile-boat by which he and his family got their living; and as he +represented this to the old man, bitter tears rolled down his brown +cheeks. Rufinus explained to him that, if he should succeed in saving +the sisters, he might certainly claim some indemnification. He might +even calculate the value of his property, and not only would he have the +equivalent paid to him out of the convent treasure, now on board in heavy +coffers, but a handsome gift into the bargain. + +Setnau exchanged a meaning glance with his brother, who was a single man, +and when it was also agreed that he, too, might embark on the sea-voyage +he shook hands with Rufinus on the bargain. Then, giving himself a +shake, as if he had thrown off something that cramped him, and sticking +his leather cap knowingly on one side of his shaven head, he drew himself +up to his full height and scornfully shouted back to the Arab--who had +before now treated him and other Egyptian natives with insolent +haughtiness--that if he wanted anything of him he might come and fetch +it. + +The Moslem's patience was long since exhausted, and at this challenge he +signed to his followers and sprang first into the river; but the foremost +horses soon sank so deep in the ooze that further advance was evidently +impossible, and the signal to return was perforce given. In this +manoeuvre a refractory horse lost his footing, and his rider was choked +in the mud. + +On this, the men in the boat could see the foe holding council with +lively gesticulations, and the captain expressed his fears lest they +should give up all hope of capturing the boat, and ride forward to +Doomiat to combine with the Arab garrison to cut off their further +flight. But he had not reckoned on the warlike spirit of these men, +who had overcome far greater difficulties in twenty fights ere this. +They were determined to seize the boat, to take its freight prisoners, +and have them duly punished. + +Six horsemen, among them the leader of the party, were now seen to +dismount; they tied their horses up, and then proceeded to fell three +tall palms with their battle-axes; the other five went off southwards. +These, no doubt, were to ride round the morass, and ford the river at a +favorable spot so as to attack the vessel from the west, while the others +tried to reach it from the east with the aid of the palm-trunks. + +On the right, or eastern shore, where the Arabs were constructing the +raft, spread solid ground-fields through which lay the road to Doomiat; +on the other shore, near which the boat was lying, the bog extended for a +long way. An interminable jungle of papyrus, sedge, and reeds, burnt +yellow by the heat of the sun and the extraordinary drought, covered +almost the whole of this parched and baked wilderness; and, when a stiff +morning breeze rose from the northeast, the captain was inspired with a +happy thought. The five men who had ridden forward would have to force +their way through the mass of scorched and dried up vegetation. If the +Christians could but set fire to it, on the further side of a canal which +must hinder their making a wide sweep to the north, the wind would carry +it towards the enemy; and, they would be fortunate if it did not stifle +them or compel them to jump into the river, where, when the flames +reached the morass, they must inevitably perish. + +As soon as the helmsman's keen eyes had made sure, from the mast-head, +that the Arabs had forded the river at a point to the south, they set +fire to several places and it roared and flared up immediately. The wind +swept it southwards, and with it clouds of pale grey smoke through which +the rising sun shot shafts of light. The flames writhed and darted over +the baked earth like gigantic yellow and orange lizards, here shooting +upwards, there creeping low. Almost colorless in the ardent daylight, +they greedily consumed everything they approached, and white ashes marked +their track. Their breath added to the heat of the advancing day; and +though the smoke was borne southwards by the wind, a few cloudlets came +over to the boat, choking the sisters and their deliverers. + +A large vessel now came towards them from Doomiat and found the narrow +channel barred by the other one. The captain was related to Setnau, and +when Setnau shouted to him that they were engaged in a struggle with Arab +robbers, his friend followed his advice, turned the boat's head with +considerable difficulty, and cast anchor at the nearest village to warn +other vessels southward bound not to get themselves involved in so +perillous an adventure. Any that were coming north would be checked by +the fire and smoke. + +The six horsemen left on the eastern shore beheld the spreading blaze +with rage and dismay; however, they had by this time bound the palm- +trunks together, and were preparing by their aid to inflict condign +punishment on the refractory Christians. These, meanwhile, had not been +idle. Every man on board was armed, and one of the ship-wrights was sent +on shore with a sailor, to steal through the reeds, ford the river at a +point lower down and, as soon as the Arabs put out to the attack, to +slaughter their horses, or--if one of them should be left to go forward +on the road to Doomiat--to drag him from his steed. + +The six men now laid hold of the slightly-constructed float, on which +they placed their bows and quivers; they pushed it before them, and it +supported them above the shallow water, while their feet only just +touched the oozy bottom. They were all thorough soldiers, true sons of +the desert and of their race--men whom nature seemed to have conceived +as a counterpart to the eagle, the master-piece of the winged creation. +Keen-eyed, strongly-knit though small-boned, bereft of every fibre of +superfluous flesh on their sinewy limbs, with bold brown faces and +sharply-cut features, suggesting the king of birds not merely by the +aquiline nose, they had also the eagle's courage, thirst for blood, and +greed of victory. + +Each held on to the raft by one lean, wiry arm, carrying on the other the +round bucklers on which the arrows that came whistling from the boat, +fell and stuck as soon as they were within shot. They ground their white +teeth with fury and nothing within ken escaped their bright hawk's eyes. +They had come to fight, even if the boat had been defended by fifty +Egyptian soldiers instead of carrying a score or so of sailors and +artisans. Their brave hearts felt safe under their shirts of mail, and +their ready, fertile brains under their brazen helmets; and they marked +the dull rattle of the arrows against their metal shields with elation +and contempt. To deal death was the wish of their souls; to meet it +caused them no dread; for their glowing fancy painted an open Paradise +where beautiful women awaited them open-armed, and brimming goblets +promised to satisfy every desire. + +Their keen ears heard their captain's whispered commands; when they +reached the ship's side, one caught hold of the sill of the cabin window, +their leader, as quick as thought, sprang on to his shoulders, and from +thence on to the deck, thrusting his lance through the body of a sailor +who tried to stop him with his axe. A second Arab was close at his +heels; two gleaming scimitars flashed in the sun, the shrill, guttural, +savage war-cry of the Moslems rent the air, and the captain fell, the +first victim to their blood-thirsty fury, with a deep cut across the face +and forehead; in a moment, however, a heavy spar sang through the air +down on the head of the Moslem leader and laid him low. The helmsman, +the brother of the fallen pilot, had wielded it with the might of the +avenger. + +A fearful din, increased by the shrieks and wailing of the nuns, now +filled the vessel. The second Arab dealt death on all sides with the +courage and strength of desperation, and three of his fellows managed to +climb up the boat's side; but the last man was pushed back into the +water. By this time two of the shipwrights and five sailors had fallen. +Rufinus was kneeling by the captain, who was crying feebly for help, +bleeding profusely, though not mortally wounded. Setnau had spoken with +much anxiety of his wife and children, and Rufinus, hoping to save his +life for their sakes, was binding up the wounds, which were wide and +deep, when suddenly a sabre stroke came down on the back of his head and +neck, and a dark stream of blood rushed forth. But he, too, was soon +avenged: the old shipwright hewed down his foe with his heavy axe. On +the eastern shore, meanwhile, the men charged to kill the Arabs' horses +were doing their work, so as to prevent any who might escape from +returning to Fostat, or riding forward to Doormat and reporting what had +occurred. + +On board silence now prevailed. All five Arabs were stretched on the +deck, and the insatiate boatmen were dealing a finishing stroke to those +who were only wounded. A sailor, who had taken refuge up a mast, could +see how the other five horsemen had plunged into the bog to avoid the +fire and had disappeared beneath the waters; so that none of the Moslems +had escaped alive--not even that one which Fate and romance love to save +as a bearer of the disastrous tidings. + +By degrees the nuns ventured out on deck again. + +Those who were skilled in tending the wounded gathered round them, and +opened their medicine cases; as they proceeded on their voyage, under the +guidance of the steersman, they had their hands full of work and the zeal +they gave to it mitigated the torment of the heat. + +The bodies of the five Moslems and eight Christians--among these, two of +the Greek ship-wrights--were laid on the shore in groups apart, in the +neighborhood of a village; in the hand of one of them the abbess placed a +tablet with this inscription: + +"These eight Christians met their death bravely fighting to defend a +party of pious and persecuted believers. Pray for them and bury them as +well as those who, in obedience to their duty and their commander, took +their lives." + +Rufinus, lying with his head on the gardener's knee, and sheltered from +the sun under the abbess' umbrella, presently recovered his senses; +looking about him he said to himself in a low voice, as he saw the +captain lying by his side: + +"I, too, had a wife and a dear child at home, and yet--Ah! how this +aches! We may well do all we can to soothe such pain. The only reality +here below is not pleasure, it is pain, vulgar, physical pain; and though +my head burns and aches more than enough.--Water, a drink of water.--How +comfortable I could be at this moment with my Joanna, in our shady house. +--But yet, but yet--we must heal or save, it is all the same, any who +need it.--A drink--wine and water, if it is to be had, worthy Mother!" + +The abbess had it at hand; as she put the cup to his lips she spoke her +warm and effusive thanks, and many words of comfort; then she asked him +what she could do for him and his, when they should be in safety. + +"Love them truly," he said gently. "Pul will certainly never be quite +happy till she is in a convent. But she must not leave her mother--she +must stay with her; Joanna-Joanna. . . ." + +He repeated the name several times as if the sound pleased his ear and +heart. Then he shuddered again and again, and muttered to himself: +"Brrr!--a cold shiver runs all over me--it is of no use!--The cut in my +shoulder.--It is my head that hurts worst, but the other--it is bad luck +that it should have fallen on the left side. And yet, no; it is best so; +for if he--if it had damaged my right shoulder I could not write, and +I must--I must-before it is too late. A tablet and stylus; quick, quick! +And when I have written, good mother, close the tablet and seal it--close +and tight. Promise! Only one person may read it, he to whom it must go. +--Gibbus, do you hear, Gibbus?--It is for Philippus the leech. Take it +to him.--Your dream about a rose on your hump, if I read rightly, means +that peace and joy in Heaven blossom from our misery on earth.--Yes, to +Philippus. And listen my old school friend Christodorus, a leech too, +lives at Doomiat. Take my body to him--mind me now? He is to pack it +with sand which will preserve it, and have it buried by the side of my +mother at Alexandria. Joanna and the child--they can come and visit me +there. I have not much to leave; whatever that may cost. . . ." + +"That is my affair, or the convent's," cried the abbess. + +"Matters are not so bad as that," said the old man smiling. "I can pay +for my own share of the business; your revenue belongs to the poor, noble +Mother.--You will find more than enough in this wallet, good Gibbus. But +now, quick, make haste--the tablets." + +When he had one in his hand, and a stylus for writing with, he thought +for some time, and then wrote with trembling fingers, though exerting all +his strength. How acutely he was suffering could be seen in his drawn +mouth and sad eyes, but he would not allow himself to be interrupted, +often as the abbess and the gardener entreated him to lay aside the +stylus. At last, with a deep sigh of relief, he closed the tablets, +handed them to the abbess, and said: + +"There! Close it fast.--To Philippus the physician; into his own hand: +You hear, Gibbus?" + +Here he fainted; but after they had bathed his forehead and wounds he +came to himself, and softly murmured: "I was dreaming of Joanna and the +poor child. They brought me a comic mask. What can that mean? That I +have been a fool all my life for thinking of other folks' troubles and +forgetting myself and my own family? No, no, no! As surely as man is +the standard of all things--if it were so, then, then folly would be +truth and right.--I, I--my desire--the aim to which my life was +devoted......" + +He paused; then he suddenly raised himself, looked up with a bright light +in his eyes, and cried aloud with joy: "O Thou, most merciful Saviour! +Yes, yes--I see it all now. I thank thee--All that I strove for and +lived for, Thou, my Redeemer who art Love itself--Ah how good, how +comforting to think of that!--It is for this that Thou grantest me +to die!" + +Again he lost consciousness; his head grew very hot, his breath came +hoarsely and his parched lips, though frequently moistened by careful +hands, could only murmur the names of those he loved best, and among them +that of Paula. + +At about five hours after noon he fell back on the hunchback's knees; he +had ceased to suffer. A happy smile lighted up his features, and in +death the old man's calm face looked like that of a child. + +The gardener felt as though he had lost his own father, and his lively +tongue remained speechless till he entered Doormat with the rescued +sisters, and proceeded to carry out his master's last orders. The +abbess' ship took the wounded captain Setnau on board, with his wife, his +children, his brother the steersman, and the surviving ship-wrights. + +At the very hour when Rufinus closed his eyes, the town-watch of Memphis, +led by Bishop Plotinus, appeared to claim the Melchite convent of St. +Cecilia, and all the possessions of the sisterhood, in the name of the +patriarch and the Jacobite church. Next morning the bishop set out for +Upper Egypt to make his report to the prelate. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +He was made to be plundered +Old age no longer forgets; it is youth that has a short memory + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 9. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Philippus started up from the divan on which he had been reclining at +breakfast with his old friend. Before Horapollo was a half-empty plate; +he had swallowed his meal less rapidly than his companion, and looked +disapprovingly at the leech, who drank off his wine and water as he +stood, whereas he generally would sit and enjoy it as he talked to the +old man of matters light or grave. To the elder this was always the +pleasantest hour of the day; but now Philippus would hardly allow himself +more than just time enough to eat, even at their principal evening meal. + +Indeed, not he alone, but every physician in the city, had as much as he +could do with the utmost exertion. Nearly three weeks had elapsed since +the attack on the nuns, and the fearful heat had still gone on in +creasing. The river, instead of rising had sunk lower and lower; the +carrier-pigeons from Ethiopia, looked for day by day with growing anxiety +and excitement, brought no news of a rising stream even in the upper +Nile, and the shallow, stagnant and evil-smelling waters by the banks +began to be injurious, nay, fatal, to the health of the whole population. + +Close to the shore, especially, the water had a reddish tinge, and the +usually sweet, pure fluid in the canals was full of strange vegetable +growths and other foreign bodies putrid and undrinkable. The common +people usually shirked the trouble of filtering it, and it was among them +that the greater number died of a mortal and infectious pestilence, till +then unknown. The number of victims swelled daily, and the approach of +the comet kept pace with the growing misery of the town. Every one +connected it with the intense heat of the season, with the delay in the +inundation, and the appearance of the sickness; and the leech and his +friend often argued about these matters, for Philippus would not admit +that the meteor had any influence on human affairs, while Horapollo +believed that it had, and supported his view by a long series of +examples. + +His antagonist would not accept them and asked for arguments; at the same +time he, like every one else, felt the influence of a vague dread of some +imminent and terrible disaster hanging over the earth and humanity at +large. + +And, just as every heart in Memphis felt oppressed by such forebodings, +and by the weight of a calamity, which indeed no longer threatened them +but had actually come upon them, so the roads, the gardens, the palms and +sycamores by the way-side were covered by thick layers of dingy, choking +dust. The hedges of tamarisk and shrubs looked like decaying walls of +colorless, unburnt mud-bricks; even in the high-roads the wayfarer walked +in the midst of dense white clouds raised by his feet, and if a chariot, +or a horseman galloped down the scorching street, fine, grey sand at once +filled the air, compelling the foot-passengers to shut their eyes and +lips. + +The town was so silent, so empty, so deserted! No one came out of doors +unless under pressure of business or piety. Every house was a furnace, +and even a bath brought no refreshment, for the water had long since +ceased to be cold. A disease had also attacked the ripening dates as +they hung; they dropped off in thousands from the heavy clusters under +the beautiful bending crown of leaves; and now for two days hundreds of +dead fish had been left on the banks. Even the scaly natives of the +river were plague-stricken; and the physician explained to his friend +that this brought the inhabitants a fresh danger; for who could clear the +shores of the dead fish?--And, in such heat, how soon they would become +putrid! + +The old man did not conceal from himself that it was hard, cruelly hard, +for the physician to follow his calling conscientiously at such a time; +but he knew his friend; he had seen him during months of pestilence two +years since--always brisk, decisive and gay, indeed inspired to greater +effort by the greater demands on him. What had so completely altered +him, had poisoned and vexed his soul as with a malignant spell? It was +not the almost superhuman sacrifices required by his duties;--it came of +the unfortunate infatuation of his heart, of which he could not rid +himself. + +Philippus had kept his promise. He went every day to the house of +Rufinus, and every day he saw Paula; but, as a murdered body bleeds +afresh in the presence of the assassin, so every day the old pain revived +when he was forced to meet her and speak with her. The only cure for +this particular sufferer was to remove the cause of his pain: that is to +say, to take Paula away out of his path; and this the old man made his +care and duty. + +Little Mary and the other patients under Rufinus' roof were on the way to +recovery; still there was much to cast gloomy shadows over this happy +termination. Joanna and Pulcheria were very anxious as to the fate of +Rufinus. No news had been received of him or of the sisters, and +Philippus was the vessel into which the forsaken wife and Pulcheria-- +who looked up to him as to a kind, faithful, and all-powerful protecting +spirit-poured all their sorrows, cares, and fears. Their forebodings +were aggravated by the fact that three times Arab officials had come to +the house to enquire about the master and his continued absence. All +that the women told them was written down, and Dame Joanna, whose lips +had never yet uttered a lie, had found herself forced to give a false +clue by saying that her husband had gone to Alexandria on business, and +might perhaps have to proceed to Syria.--What could these enquiries +forebode? Did they not indicate that Rufinus' complicity in the rescue +of the nuns was known at Fostat? + +The authorities there were, in fact, better informed than the women +could suspect. But they kept their knowledge a secret, for it would +never do to let the oppressed people know that a handful of Egyptians +had succeeded in defeating a party of Arab soldiers; so the Memphites +heard no more than a dark rumor of what had occurred. + +Philippus had known nothing of the old man's purpose till he had gone too +far to be dissuaded; and it was misery to him now to reflect that his +dear old friend, and his whole household, might come to ruin for the sake +of the sisterhood who were nothing to them; for he had received private +information that there had been a skirmish between the Moslems and the +deliverers of the nuns, which had cost the lives of several combatants on +both sides. + +And Paula! If only he could have seen her happy--But she was pale; and +that which robbed the young girl--healthy as she was in mind and body-- +of her proud, frank, independent bearing was not the heat, which +tormented all creation, but a secret, devouring sorrow; and this sorrow +was the work of one alone--of him on whom she had set her heart, and who +made, ah! what a return, for the royal gift of her love. + +Philippus had frequent business at the governor's residence, and a +fortnight since he had plainly perceived what it was that had brought +Neforis into this strange state. She was taking the opium that her +husband had had, taking it in excessive quantities; and she could easily +procure more through some other physician. However, her piteous prayer +that Philippus would not abandon her to her fate had prevailed to induce +him to continue to see her, in the hope of possibly restricting her use +of the drug. + +The senator's wife, Martina, also required his visits to the palace. She +was not actually ill, but she suffered cruelly from the heat, and she had +always been wont to see her worthy old house-physician every day, to hear +all the latest gossip, and complain of her little ailments when anything +went wrong with her usually sound health. Philippus was indeed too much +overburdened to chatter, but his professional advice was good and helped +her to endure the fires of this pitiless sky. She liked this incisive, +shrewd, plain-spoken man--often indeed sharp and abrupt in his freedom-- +and he appreciated her bright, natural ways. Now and then Martina even +succeeded in winning a smile from "Hermes Trismegistus," who was +"generally as solemn as though there was no such thing on earth as a +jest," and in spurring him to a rejoinder which showed that this dolorous +being had a particularly keen and ready wit. + +Heliodora attracted him but little. There was, to be sure, an +unmistakable likeness in her "imploring eves" to those of Pulcheria; but +the girl's spoke fervent yearning for the grace and love of God, while +the widow's expressed an eager desire for the admiration of the men she +preferred. She was a graceful creature beyond all question, but such +softness, which never even attempted to assert a purpose or an opinion, +did not commend itself to his determined nature; it annoyed him, when +he had contradicted her, to hear her repeat his last statement and take +his side, as if she were ashamed of her own silliness. Her society, +indeed, did not seem to satisfy the clever older woman, who at home, was +accustomed to a succession of visitors, and to whom the word "evening" +was synomynous with lively conversation and a large gathering. She spoke +of the leech's visits as the oasis in the Egyptian desert, and little +Katharina even she regarded as a Godsend. + +The water-wagtail was her daily visitant, and the girl's gay and often +spiteful gossip helped to beguile her during this terrific heat. +Katharina's mother made no difficulties; for Heliodora had gone to see +her in all her magnificence, and had offered her and her daughter +hospitality, some day, at Constantinople. They were very likely going +thither; at any rate they would not remain in Memphis, and then it would +be a piece of good fortune to be introduced to the society of the capital +by such people as their new acquaintances. + +Martina thus heard a great deal about Paula; and though it was all +adverse and colored to her prejudice she would have liked to see the +daughter of the great and famous Thomas whom she had known; besides, +after all she had heard, she could fear nothing from Paula for her niece: +uncommonly handsome, but haughty, repellent, unamiable, and--like +Heliodora herself--of the orthodox sect.--What could tempt "great +Sesostris" to give her the preference? + +Katharina herself proposed to Martina to make them acquainted; but +nothing would have induced Dame Martina to go out of her rooms, protected +to the utmost from the torrid sunshine, so she left it to Heliodora to +pay the visit and give her a report of the hero's daughter. Heliodora +had devoted herself heart and soul to the little heiress, and humored her +on many points. + +This was carried out. Katharina actually had the audacity to bring the +rivals together, even after she had reported to each all she knew of +Orion's position with regard to the other. It was exquisite sport; +still, in one respect it did not fulfil her intentions, for Paula gave +no sign of suffering the agonies of jealousy which Katharina had hoped +to excite in her. Heliodora, on the other hand, came home depressed and +uneasy; Paula had received her coldly and with polite formality, and the +young widow had remained fully aware that so remarkable a woman might +well cast her own image in Orion's heart into the shade, or supplant it +altogether. + +Like a wounded man who, in spite of the anguish, cannot resist touching +the wound to assure himself of its state, Heliodora went constantly to +see Katharina in order to watch her rival from the garden or to be taken +to call on her, though she was always very coldly received. + +At first Katharina had pitied the young woman whose superior in +intelligence she knew herself to be; but a certain incident had +extinguished this feeling; she now simply hated her, and pricked her with +needle-thrusts whenever she had a chance. Paula seemed invulnerable; +but there was not a pang which Katharina would not gladly have given her +to whom she owed the deepest humiliation her young life had ever known. +How was it that Paula failed to regard Heliodora as a rival? She had +reflected that, if Orion had really returned the widow's passion, he +could not have borne so long a separation. It was on purpose to avoid +Heliodora, and to remain faithful to what he was and must always be to +Paula, that he had gone with the senator, far from Memphis. Heliodora-- +her instinct assured her--was the poor, forsaken woman with whom he had +trifled at Byzantium, and for whom he had committed that fatal theft of +the emerald. If Fate would but bring him home to her, and if she then +yielded all he asked--all her own soul urged her to grant, then she would +be the sole mistress and queen of his heart--she must be, she was sure of +it! And though, even as she thought of it, she bowed her head in care, +it was not from fear of losing him; it was only her anxiety about her +father, her good old friend, Rufinus, and his family, whom she had made +so entirely her own. + +This was the state of affairs this morning, when to his old friend's +vexation, Philippus had so hastily and silently drunk off his after- +breakfast draught; just as he set down the cup, the black door-keeper +announced that a hump-backed man wished to see his master at once on +important business. + +"Important business!" repeated the leech. "Give me four more legs in +addition to my own two, or a machine to make time longer than it is, and +then I will take new patients-otherwise no! Tell the fellow. . . ." + +"No, not sick. . . ." interrupted the negro. "Come long way. +Gardener to Greek man Rufinus." + +Philippus started: he could guess what this messenger had to say, and his +heart sank with dread as he desired that he might be shown in. + +A glance at Gibbus told him what he had rightly feared. The poor fellow +was hardly recognizable. He was coated with dust from head to foot, and +this made him look like a grey-haired old man; his sandals hung to his +feet in strips; the sweat, pouring down his cheeks, had made gutters as +it were in the dust on his face, and his tears, as the physician held out +his hand to him, washed out other channels. + +In reply to the leech's anxious, long drawn "Dead?" he nodded silently; +and when Philippus, clasping his hands to his temples, cried out: "Dead! +My poor old Rufinus dead! But how, in Heaven's name, did it happen? +Speak, man, speak!"--Gibbus pointed to the old philosopher and said: +"Come out then, with me, Master. No third person. . . ." + +Philippus, however, gave him to understand that Horapollo was his second +self; and the hunch-back went on to tell him what he had seen, and how +his beloved master had met his end. Horapollo sat listening in +astonishment, shaking his head disapprovingly, while the physician +muttered curses. But the bearer of evil tidings was not interrupted, +and it was not till he had ended that Philippus, with bowed head and +tearful eyes, said: + +"Poor, faithful old man; to think that he should die thus--he who leaves +behind him all that is best in life, while I--I. . . ." And he +groaned aloud. The old man glanced at him with reproachful displeasure. + +While the leech broke the seals of the tablets, which the abbess had +carefully closed, and began to read the contents, Horapollo asked the +gardener: "And the nuns? Did they all escape?" + +"Yes, Master! on the morning after we reached Doomiat, a trireme took +them all out to sea." + +And the old man grumbled to himself: "The working bees killed and the +Drones saved!" + +Gibbus, however, contradicted him, praising the laborious and useful life +of the sisters, in whose care he himself had once been. + +Meanwhile Philippus had read his friend's last letter. Greatly disturbed +by it he turned hither and thither, paced the room with long steps, and +finally paused in front of the gardener, exclaiming: "And what next? Who +is to tell them the news?" + +"You," replied Gibbus, raising his hands in entreaty. + +"I-oh, of course, I!" growled the physician. "Whatever is difficult, +painful, intolerable, falls on my shoulders as a matter of course! But I +cannot--ought not--I will not do it. Had I any part or lot in devising +this mad expedition? You observe, Father?--What he, the simpleton, +brewed, I--I again am to drink. Fate has settled that!" + +"It is hard, it is hard, child!" replied the old man. "Still, it is +your duty. Only consider--if that man, as he stands before us now, were +to appear before the women...." + +But Philippus broke in: "No, no, that would not do! And you, Gibbus-- +this very day there has been an Arab again to see Joanna; and if they +were to suspect that you had been with your master--for you look +strangely.--No, man; your devotion merits a better reward. They shall +not catch you. I release you from your service to the widow, and we-- +what do you say, Father?--we will keep him here." + +"Right, very right," said Horapollo. "The Nile must some day rise again. +Stay with us; I have long had a fancy to eat vegetables of my own +growing." + +But Gibbus firmly declined the offer, saying he wished to return to his +old mistress. When the physician again pointed out to him how great a +danger he was running into, and the old man desired to know his reasons, +the hunch-back exclaimed: + +"I promised my master to stay with the women; and now, while in all the +household I am the only free man, shall I leave them unprotected to +secure my own miserable life? Sooner would I see a scimitar at my +throat. When my head is off the rascals are welcome to all that is +left." + +The words came hollow and broken from his parched tongue, and as he spoke +the faithful fellow's face changed. Even under the dust he turned pale, +and Philippus had to support him, for his feet refused their office. His +long tramp through the torrid heat had exhausted his strength; but a +draught of wine soon brought him to himself again and Horapollo ordered +the slave to lead him to the kitchen and desire the cook to take the best +care of him. + +As soon as the friends were alone, the elder observed: + +"That worthy, foolhardy, old child who is now dead, seems to have left +you some strange request. I could see that as you were reading." + +"There--take it!" replied Philippus; and again he walked up and down +the room, while Horapollo took the letter. Both faces of the tablets +were covered with irregular, up-and-down lines of writing to the +following effect: + + "Rufinus, in view of death, to his beloved Philippus: + + "One shivering fit after another comes over me; I shall certainly + die to-day. I must make haste. Writing is difficult. If only I + can say what is most pressing.--First: Joanna and the poor child. + Be everything you can be to them. Protect them as their guardian, + Kyrios, and friend. They have enough to live on and something still + to spare for others. My brother Leonax manages the property, and he + is honest. Joanna knows all about it.--Tell her and the poor child + that I send them ten thousand blessings--and to Joanna endless + thanks for all her goodness.--And to you, my friend: heed the old + man's words. Rid your heart of Paula. She is not for you: you + know, young Orion. But as to yourself: Those who were born in high + places rarely suit us, who have dragged ourselves up from below to a + better position. Be her friend; that she deserves--but let that be + all. Do not live alone, a wife brings all that is best into a man's + life; it is she who weaves sweet dreams into his dull sleep. You + know nothing of all this as yet; and your worthy old friend--to whom + my greetings--has held aloof from it all his life.... + + "For your private eye: it is a dying man who speaks thus. You must + know that my poor child, our Pul, regards you as the most perfect of + men and esteems you above all others. You know her and Joanna. + Bear witness to your friend that no evil word ever passed the lips + of either of them. Far be it from me to advise you, who bear the + image of another woman in your heart,--to say: marry the child, she + is the wife for you. But this much to you both--Father and son--I + do advise you to live with the mother and daughter as true and + friendly house-mates. You will none of you repent doing so. This + is a dying man's word. I can write no more. You are the women's + guardian, Philip, a faithful one I know. A common aim makes men + grow alike. You and I, for many a year.--Take good care of them for + me; I entreat you--good care." + +The last words were separated and written all astray; the old man could +hardly make them out. He now sat looking, as Phillipus had done before, +sorely puzzled and undecided over this strange document. + +"Well?" asked the leech at last. + +"Aye-well?" repeated the other with a shrug. Then both again were +silent; till Horapollo rose, and taking his staff, also paced the room +while he murmured, half to himself and half to his younger friend "They +are two quiet, reasonable women. There are not many of that sort, I +fancy. How the little one helped me up from the low seat in the garden!" +It was a reminiscence that made him chuckle to himself; he stopped +Philippus, who was pacing at his side, by lightly patting his arm, +exclaiming with unwonted vivacity: "A man should be ready to try +everything--the care of women even, before he steps into the grave. +And is it a fact that neither of them is a scold or a chatter-box?" + +"It is indeed." + +"And what 'if' or 'but' remains behind?" asked the old man. "Let +us be reckless for once, brother! If the whole business were not so +diabolically serious, it would be quite laughable. The young one for me +and the old one for you in our leisure hours, my son; better washed +linen; clothes without holes in them; no dust on our books; a pleasant +'Rejoice' every morning, or at meal-times;--only look at the fruit on +that dish! No better than the oats they strew before horses. At the old +man's everything was as nice as it used to be in my own home at Philae: +Supper a little work of art, a feast for the eye as well as the appetite! +Pulcheria seems to understand all that as well as my poor dead sister +did. And then, when I want to rise, such a kind, pretty little hand to +help one up! I have long hated this dwelling. Lime and dust fall from +the ceiling in my bedroom, and here there are wide gaps in the flooring- +I stumbled over one yesterday--and our niggardly landlords, the +officials, say that if we want anything repaired we may do it ourselves, +that they have no money left for such things. Now, under that worthy old +man's roof everything was in the best order." The philosopher chuckled +aloud and rubbed his hands as he went on: "Supposing we kick over the +traces for once, Philip. Supposing we were to carry out our friend's +dying wish? Merciful Isis! It would certainly be a good action, and I +have not many to boast of. But cautiously--what do you say? We can +always throw it up at a month's notice." + +Then he grew grave again, shook his head, and said meditatively: "No, no; +such plans only disturb one's peace of mind. A pleasant vision! But +scarcely feasible." + +"Not for the present, at any rate," replied the leech. + +"So long as Paula's fate remains undecided, I beg you to let the matter +rest." + +The old man muttered a curse on her; then he said with a vicious, sharp +flash in his eyes: "That patrician viper! Every where in everything--she +spoils it all! But wait a while! I fancy she will soon be removed from +our path, and then... No, even now, at the present time, I will not +allow that we should be deprived of what would embellish life, of doing a +thing which may turn the scale in my favor in the day of judgment. The +wishes of a dying man are sacred: So our fathers held it; and they were +right. The old man's will must be done! Yes, yes, yes. It is settled. +As soon as that hindrance is removed, we will keep house with the two +women. I have said; and I mean it." + +At this point the gardener came in again, and the old man called out to +him: + +"Listen, man. We shall live together after all; you shall hear more of +this later. Stay with my people till sundown, but you must keep your own +counsel, for they are all listeners and blabs. The physician here will +now take the melancholy tidings to the unfortunate widow, and then you +can talk it all over with her at night. Nothing startling must take +place at the house there; and with regard to your master, even his death +must remain a secret from every one but us and his family." + +The gardener knew full well how much depended on his silence; Philippus +tacitly agreed to the old man's arrangement, but for the present he +avoided discussing the matter with the women. When, at length he set off +on his painful errand to the widow, Horapollo dismissed him saying: + +"Courage, courage, my Son.--And as you pass by, just glance at our little +garden;--we grieved to see the fine old palm-tree perish; but now a young +and vigorous shoot is growing from the root." + +"It has been drooping since yesterday and will die away," replied +Philippus shrugging his shoulders. + +But the old man exclaimed: "Water it, Gibbus! the palm-tree must be +watered at once." + +"Aye, you have water at hand for that!" retorted the leech, but he added +bitterly as he reached the stairs, "If it were so in all cases!" + +"Patience and good purpose will always win," murmured the old man; and +when he was alone he growled on angrily: "Only be rid of that dry old +palm-tree--his past life in all its relations to that patrician hussy +Away with it, into the fire!--But how am I to get her? How can I manage +it?" + +He threw himself back in his arm-chair, rubbing his forehead with the +tips of his fingers. He had come to no result when the negro requested +an audience for some visitors. These were the heads of the senate of +Memphis, who had come as a deputation to ask counsel of the old sage. +He, if any one, would find some means of averting or, at any rate, +mitigating the fearful calamity impending over the town and country, and +against which prayer, sacrifice, processions, and pilgrimages had proved +abortive. They were quite resolved to leave no means untried, not even +if heathen magic should be the last resource. + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +All Katharina's sympathy with Heliodora had died finally in the course of +the past, moonless night. She had secretly accompanied her, with her +maid and an old deaf and dumb stable-slave, to a soothsayer--for there +still were many in Memphis, as well as magicians and alchemists; and this +woman had told the young widow that her line of life led to the greatest +happiness, and that even the wildest wishes of her heart would find +fulfilment. What those wishes were Katharina knew only too well; the +probability of their accomplishment had roused her fierce jealousy and +made her hate Heliodora. + +Heliodora had gone to consult the sorceress in a simple but rich dress. +Her peplos was fastened on the shoulder, not by an ordinary gold pin, but +by a button which betrayed her taste for fine jewels, as it consisted of +a sapphire of remarkable size; this had at once caught the eye of the +witch, showing her that she had to deal with a woman of rank and wealth. +She had taken Katharina, who had come very plainly dressed, for her +companion or poor friend, so she had promised her no more than the +removal of certain hindrances, and a happy life at last, with a husband +no longer young and a large family of children. + +The woman's business was evidently a paying one; the interior of her +house was conspicuously superior to the wretched hovels which surrounded +it, in the poorest and most squalid part of the town. Outside, indeed, +it differed little from its neighbors; in fact; it was intentionally +neglected, to mislead the authorities, for witchcraft and the practice of +magic arts were under the penalty of death. But the fittings of the +roofless centre-chamber in which she was wont to perform her incantations +and divinations argued no small outlay. On the walls were hangings with +occult figures; the pillars were painted with weird and grewsome +pictures; crucibles and cauldrons of various sizes were simmering over +braziers on little altars; on the shelves and tables stood cups, phials, +and vases, a wheel on which a wryneck hopped up and down, wax images of +men and women--some with needles through their hearts, a cage full of +bats, and glass jars containing spiders, frogs, leeches, beetles, +scorpions, centipedes and other foul creatures; and lengthways down the +room was stretched a short rope walk, used in a Thracian form of magic. +Perfumes and pungent vapors filled the air, and from behind a curtain +which hid the performers came a monotonous music of children's voices, +bells, and dull drumming. + +Medea, so the wise woman was called, though scarcely past five and forty, +harmonized in appearance with this strange habitation, full as it was of +objects calculated to rouse repulsion, dread, and amazement. Her face +was pale, and her extraordinary height was increased by a mass of coal- +black hair, curled high over a comb at the very top of her head. + +At the end of the first visit paid her by the two young women, who had +taken her by surprise, so that several things were lacking which on the +second occasion proved to be very effective in the exercise of her art, +she had made Heliodora promise to return in three days' time. The young +widow had kept her word, and had made her appearance punctually with +Katharina. + +To be in Egypt, the land of sorcery and the magic arts, without putting +them to the test, was impossible. Even Martina allowed this, though she +did not care for such things for herself. She was content with her lot; +and if any change for the worse were in prospect she would rather not be +tormented beforehand by a wise prophet; nor was it better to be deluded +by a foolish one. Happiness as of Heaven itself she no longer craved; it +would only have disturbed her peace. But she was the last person to +think ill of the young, whose life still lay before them, if they longed +to look into futurity. + +The fair widow and her companion crossed the sorceress' threshold in some +trepidation, and Katharina was the more agitated of the two; for this +afternoon she had seen Philippus leave the house of Rufinus, and not long +after some Arab officials had called there. Paula had come into the +garden shortly before sundown, her eyes red with weeping; and when, soon +after, Pulcheria and her mother had joined her there, Paula had thrown +herself on Joanna's neck, sobbing so bitterly that the mother and +daughter--"whose tears were near her eyes"--had both followed her +example. Something serious had occurred; but when she had gone to the +house to pick up further information, old Betta, who was particularly +snappish with her, had refused her admission quite rudely. + +Then, on their way hither, she and Heliodora had had a painful adventure; +the chariot, lent by Neforis to convey them as far as the edge of the +necropolis, was stopped on the way by a troop of Arab horse, and they +were subjected to a catechism by the leader. + +So they entered the house of "Medea of the curls," as the common people +called the witch, with uneasy and throbbing hearts; they were received, +however, with such servile politeness that they soon recovered +themselves, and even the timid Heliodora began to breathe freely again. +The sorceress knew this time who Katharina was, and paid more respectful +attention to the daughter of the wealthy widow. + +The young crescent moon had risen, a circumstance which Medea declared +enabled her to see more clearly into the future than she could do at the +time of the Luna-negers as she called the moonless night. Her inward +vision had been held in typhornian darkness at the time of their first +visit, by the influence of some hostile power. She had felt this as soon +as they had quitted her, but to-day she saw clearer. Her mind's eye was +as clear as a silver mirror, she had purified it by three days' fasting +and not a mote could escape her sight.--"Help, ye children of Horapollo! +Help, Hapi and Ye three holy ones!" + +"Oh, my beauties, my beauties!" she went on enthusiastically. "Hundreds +of great dames have proved my art, but such splendid fortunes I never +before saw crowding round any two heads as round yours. Do you hear how +the cauldrons of fortune are seething? The very lids lift! Amazing, +amazing." + +She stretched out her hand towards the vessels as though conjuring them +and said solemnly: "Abundance of happiness; brimming over, brimming over! +Bursting storehouses! Zefa-oo Metramao. Return, return, to the right +levels, the right heights, the right depth, the right measure! Your Elle +Mei-Measurer, Leveller, require them, Techuti, require them, double +Ibis!" + +She made them both sit down on elegant seats in front of the boiling +pots, tied the "thread of Anubis" round the ring-finger of each, asked in +a low whisper between muttered words of incantation for a hair of each, +and after placing the hairs both in one cauldron she cried out with wild +vehemence, as though the weal or woe of her two visitors were involved in +the smallest omission: + +"Press the finger with the thread of Anubis on your heart; fix your eyes +on the cauldron and the steam which rises to the spirits above, the +spirits of light, the great One on high!" + +The two women obeyed the sorceress' directions with beating hearts, while +she began spinning round on her toes with dizzy rapidity; her curls flew +out, and the magic wand in her extended hand described a large and +beautiful curve. Suddenly, and as if stricken by terror, she stopped her +whirl, and at the same instant the lamps went out and the only light was +from the stars and the twinkling coals under the cauldrons. The low +music died away, and a fresh strong perfume welled out from behind the +curtain. + +Medea fell on her knees, lifted up her hands to Heaven, threw her head so +far back that her whole face was turned up to the sky and her eyes gazed +straight up at the stars-an attitude only possible to so supple a spine. +In this torturing attitude she sang one invocation after another, to the +zenith of the blue vault over their heads, in a clear voice of fervent +appeal. Her body was thrown forward, her mass of hair no longer stood up +but was turned towards the two young women, who every moment expected +that the supplicant would be suffocated by the blood mounting to her +head, and fall backwards; but she sang and sang, while her white teeth +glittered in the starlight that fell straight upon her face. Presently, +in the midst of the torrent of demoniacal names and magic formulas that +she sang and warbled out, a piteous and terrifying sound came from behind +the curtain as of two persons gasping, sighing, and moaning: one voice +seemed to be that of a man oppressed by great anguish; the other was the +half-suffocated wailing of a suffering child. This soon became louder, +and at length a voice said in Egyptian: "Water, a drink of water." + +The woman started to her feet, exclaiming: "It is the cry of the poor and +oppressed who have been robbed to enrich those who have too much already; +the lament of those whom Fate has plundered to heap you with wealth +enough for hundreds." As she spoke these words, in Greek and with much +unction, she turned to the curtain and added solemnly, but in Egyptian: +"Give drink to the thirsty; the happy ones will spare him a drop from +their overflow. Give the white drink to the wailing child-spirit, that +he may be soothed and quenched.--Play, music, and drown the lamentations +of the spirits in sorrow." + +Then, turning to Heliodora's kettle she said sternly, as if in obedience +to some higher power: + +"Seven gold pieces to complete the work,"--and while the young widow drew +out her purse the sorceress lighted the lamps, singing as she did so and +as she dropped the coin into the boiling fluid: "Pure, bright gold! +Sunlight buried in a mine! Holy Seven. Shashef, Shashef! Holy Seven, +marry and mingle--melt together!" + +When this was done she poured out of the cauldron a steaming fluid as +black as ink, into a shallow saucer, called Heliodora to her side, and +told her what she could see in the mirror of its surface. + +It was all fair, and gave none but delightful replies to the widow's +questioning. And all the sorceress said tended to confirm the young +woman's confidence in her magic art; she described Orion as exactly as +though she saw him indeed in the surface of the ink, and said he was +travelling with an older man. And lo! he was returning already; in the +bright mirror she could see Heliodora clasped in her lover's arms; and +now--it was like a picture: A stranger--not the bishop of Memphis--laid +her hand in his and blessed their union before the altar in a vast and +magnificent cathedral. + +Katharina, who had been chilled with apprehensions and a thrill of awe, +as she listened to Medea's song, listened to every word with anxious +attention; what Medea said--how she described Orion--that was more +wonderful than anything else, beyond all she had believed possible. And +the cathedral in which the lovers were to be united was the church of St. +Sophia at Constantinople, of which she had heard so much. + +A tight grip seemed to clutch her heart; still, eagerly as she listened +to Medea's words, her sharp ears heard the doleful gasping and whimpering +behind the hanging; and this distressed and dismayed her; her breath came +short, and a deep, torturing sense of misfortune possessed her wholly. +The wailing child-spirit within, a portion of whose joys Medea said had +been allotted to her--nay, she had not robbed him, certainly not--for who +could be more wretched than she? It was only that beautiful, languishing +young creature who was so lavishly endowed by Fortune with gifts enough +and to spare for others without number. Oh! if she could but have +snatched them from her one after another, from the splendid ruby she was +wearing to-day, to Orion's love! + +She was pale and tremulous as she rose at the call of the sorceress, +after she also had offered seven gold pieces. She would gladly have +purchased annihilating curses to destroy her happier rival. + +The black liquid in the saucer began to stir, and a sharply smelling +vapor rose from it; the witch blew this aside, and as soon as the murky +fluid was a little cool, and the surface was smooth and mirror-like, she +asked Katharina what she most desired to know. But the answer was +checked on her lips; a fearful thundering and roaring suddenly made the +house shake; Medea dropped the saucer with a piercing shriek, the +contents splashed up, and warm, sticky drops fell on the girl's arms and +dress. She was quite overcome with the startling horror, and Heliodora, +who could herself scarcely stand, had to support her, for she tottered +and would have fallen. + +The sorceress had vanished; a half-grown lad, a young man, and a very +tall Egyptian girl in scanty attire were rushing about the room. They +flew hither and thither, throwing all the vessels they could lay hands on +into an opening in the floor from which they had lifted a trap-door; +pouring water on the braziers and extinguishing the lights, while they +drove the two strangers into a corner of the hall, rating and abusing +them. Then the lads clambered like cats up to the opening in the roof, +and sprang off and away. + +A shrill whistle rang through the house, and in moment Medea burst into +the room again, clutched the two trembling women by the shoulders, and +exclaimed: "For Christ's sake, be merciful! My life is at stake Sorcery +is punishable by death. I have done my best for you. You came here-- +that is what you must say--out of charity to nurse the sick." She pushed +them both behind the hanging whence they still heard feeble groans, into +a low, stuffy room, and the over-grown girl slipped in behind them. + +Here, on miserable couches, lay an old man shivering, and showing dark +spots on his bare breast and face: and a child of five, whose crimson +cheeks were burning with fever. + +Heliodora felt as if she must suffocate in the plague stricken, heavy +atmosphere, and Katharina clung to her helplessly; but the soothsayer +pulled her away, saying: "Each to one bed: you to the child, and you-- +the old man." + +Involuntarily they obeyed the woman who was panting with fright. The +water-wagtail, who never in her life thought of a sick person, turned +very sick and looked away from the sufferer; but the your widow, who had +spent many and many a night by the death-bed of a man she had loved, and +who, tender-hearted, had often tended her sick slaves with her own hand, +looked compassionately into the pretty, pain-stricken face of the child, +and wiped the dews from his clammy brow. + +Katharina shuddered; but her attention was presently attracted to +something fresh; from the other side of the house came a clatter of +weapons, the door was pushed open, and the physician Philippus walked +into the room. He desired the night-watch, who were with him, to wait +outside. He had come by the command of the police authorities, to whose +ears information had been brought that there were persons sick of the +plague in the house of Medea, and that she, nevertheless, continued to +receive visitors. It had long been decided that she must be taken in the +act of sorcery, and warning had that day been given that she expected +illustrious company in the evening. The watch were to find her red- +handed, so to speak; the leech was to prove whether her house was indeed +plague-stricken; and in either case the senate wished to have the +sorceress safe in prison and at their mercy, though even Philippus had +not been taken into their confidence. + +The visitors he had come upon were the last he had expected to find here. +He looked at them with a disapproving shake of the head, interrupted the +woman's voluble asseverations that these noble ladies had come, out of +Christian charity, to comfort and help the sick, with a rough +exclamation: "A pack of lies!" and at once led the coerced sick nurses +out of the house. He then represented to them the fearful risk to which +their folly had exposed them, and insisted very positively on their +returning home and, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, taking a +bath and putting on fresh garments. + +With trembling knees they found their way back to the chariot; but even +before it could start Heliodora had broken down in tears, while +Katharina, throwing herself back on the cushions, thought, as she glanced +at her weeping companion: "This is the beginning of the wonderful +happiness she was promised! It is to be hoped it may continue!" + +It seemed indeed as though Katharina's guardian spirit had overheard this +amiable wish; for, as the chariot drove past the guard-house into the +court-yard of the governor's house, it was stopped by armed men with +brown, warlike faces, and they had to wait some minutes till an Arab +officer appeared to enquire who they were, and what they wanted. This +they explained in fear and trembling, and they then learnt that the Arab +government had that very evening taken possession of the residence. +Orion was accused of serious crimes, and his guests were to depart on the +following day. + +Katharina, who was known to the interpreter, was allowed to go with +Heliodora to the senator's wife; she might also use the chariot to return +home in, and if she pleased, take the Byzantines with her, for the palace +would be in the hands of the soldiery for the next few days. + +The two young women held council. Katharina pressed her friend to come +at once to her mother's house, for she felt certain that they were +plague-stricken, and how could they procure a bath in a house full of +soldiers? Heliodora could not and must not remain with Martina in this +condition, and the senator's wife could follow her next day. Her mother, +she added, would be delighted to welcome so dear a guest. + +The widow was passive, and when Martina had gladly consented to accept +the invitation of her "delivering angel," the chariot carried them to +Susannah's house. The widow had long been in bed, firmly convinced that +her daughter was asleep and dreaming in her own pretty room. + +Katharina would not have her disturbed, and the bath-room was so far from +Susannah's apartment that she slept on quietly while Katharina and her +guest purified themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +The inhabitants of the governor's residence passed a fearful night. +Martina asked herself what sin she had committed that she, of all people, +should be picked out to witness such a disaster. + +And where were her schemes of marriage now? Any movement in such heat +was indeed scarcely endurable; but she would have moved from one part of +the house to another a dozen times, and allowed herself to be tossed +hither and thither like a ball, if it could have enabled her to save her +dear "great Sesostris" from such hideous peril. And at the bottom of all +this was, no doubt, this wild, senseless business of the nuns. + +And these Arabs! They simply helped themselves to whatever they fancied, +and were, of course, in a position to strip the son of the great Mukaukas +of all he possessed and reduce him to beggary. A pretty business this! + +Heliodora, to be sure, had enough for both, and she and her husband +would not forget them in their will; but there was more than this in +the balance now: it was a matter of life and death. + +A cold shudder ran through her at the thought; and her fears were only +too well founded: the black Arab who had come to parley with her, and had +finally allowed her to remain under this roof till next day, had told her +as much through the interpreter. A fearful, horrible, nameless +catastrophe! And that she should be in the midst of it and have +to see it all! + +Then her husband, her poor Justinus! How hard this would fall on him! +She could not cease weeping; and before she fell asleep she prayed +fervently indeed, to the saints and the dear Mother of God, that they +would bring all to a happy issue. She closed her eyes on the thought: +"What a misfortune!" and she woke to it again early in the morning. + +She, however, had known nothing of the worst horrors of that fatal night. + +A troop of Arab soldiers had crossed the Nile at nightfall, some on foot +or on horseback and some in boats, led by Obada the Vekeel, and had +invested the governor's residence. When they had fully assured +themselves that Orion was indeed absent they took Nilus prisoner. +It was then Obada's business to inform the Mukaukas' widow of what had +happened, and to tell her that she must quit the house next day. This +must be done, because he had views of his own as to what was to become of +the venerable house of the oldest family in the country. + +Neforis was still up, and when the interpreter was announced as Obada's +forerunner, she was in the fountain-room. He found her a good deal +excited; for, although she was incapable of any consecutive train of +thought and, when her mind was required to exert itself, her ideas only +came like lightning-flashes through her brain, she had observed that +something unusual was going on. Sebek and her maid had evaded her +enquiries, and would say no more than that Amru's representative had come +to speak with the young master. It seemed to be something important, +perhaps some false accusation. + +The interpreter now explained that Orion himself was accused of having +planned and aided an enterprise which had cost the lives of twelve Arab +soldiers; and, as she knew, any injury inflicted even on a single Moslem +by an Egyptian was punished by death and the confiscation of his goods. +Besides this, her son was accused of a robbery. + +At the close of this communication, to which Neforis listened with a +vacant stare, horrified and at last almost crushed, the interpreter +begged that she would grant the Vekeel an audience. + +"Not just yet--give me a few minutes," said the widow, bringing out the +words with difficulty: first she must have recourse to her secret +specific. When she had done so, she expressed her readiness to see +Obada. Her son's swarthy foe was anxious to appear a mild and +magnanimous man in her eyes, so it was with flattering servility and many +smirking grins that he communicated to her the necessity for her quitting +the house in which she had passed the longest and happiest half of her +life, and no later than next day. + +To his announcement that her private fortune would remain untouched, and +that she would be at liberty to reside in Memphis or to go to her own +house in Alexandria, she indifferently replied that "she should see." + +She then enquired whether the Arabs had yet succeeded in capturing her +son. + +"Not actually," replied the Vekeel. "But we know where he is hiding, +and by to-morrow or the next day we shall lay hands on the unhappy young +man." + +But, as he spoke, the widow detected a malicious gleam in his eyes to +which, so far, he had tried to give a sympathetic expression, and she +went on with a slight shake of the bead: "Then it is a case of life and +death?" + +"Compose yourself, noble lady," was the reply. "Of death alone." + +Neforis looked up to heaven and for some minutes did not speak; then she +asked: + +"And who has accused him of robbery?" "The head of his own Church....." + +"Benjamin?" she murmured with a peculiar smile. Only yesterday she had +made her will in favor of the patriarch and the Church. "If Benjamin +could see that," said she to herself, "he would change his views of you +and your people, and have prayers constantly said for us." + +As she spoke no more the Vekeel sat looking at her inquisitively and +somewhat at a loss, till at length she rose, and with no little dignity +dismissed him, remarking that now their business was at an end and she +had nothing further to say to him. + +This closed the interview; and as the Vekeel quitted the fountain-room he +muttered to himself: "What a woman! Either she is possessed and her +brain is crazed, or she is of a rarely heroic pattern." + +Neforis was supported to her own room; when she was in bed she desired +her maid to bring a small box out of her chest and place it on the little +table containing medicines by the bead of the couch. + +As soon as she was alone she took out two letters which George had +written to her before their marriage, and a poem which Orion had once +addressed to her; she tried to read them, but the words danced before her +eyes, and she was forced to lay them aside. She took up a little packet +containing hair cut from the heads of her sons after death, and a lock of +her husband's. She gazed on these dear memorials with rapt tenderness, +and now the poppy juice began to take effect: the images of those +departed ones rose clear in her mind, and she was as near to them as +though they were standing in living actuality by her side. + +Still holding the curls in her hand, she looked up into vacancy, trying +to apprehend clearly what had occurred within the last few hours and what +lay before her: She must leave this room, this ample couch, this house-- +all, in short, that was bound up with the dearest memories of those she +had loved. She was to be forced to this--but did it beseem her to submit +to this Negro, this stranger in the house where she was mistress? She +shook her head with a scornful smile; then opening a glass phial, which +was still half-full of opium pillules, she placed a few on her tongue and +again gazed sky-wards.--Another face now looked down on her; she saw the +husband from whom not even death could divide her, and at his feet their +two murdered sons. Presently Orion seemed to rise out of the clouds, as +a diver comes up from the water, and make for the shore of the island on +which George and the other two seemed to be standing. His father opened +his arms to receive him and clasped him to his heart, while she herself +--or was it only her wraith--went to the others, who hurried forward to +greet her tenderly; and then her husband, too, met her, and she found +rest on his bosom. + +For hours, and long before the incursion of the Arabs, she had been +feeling half stunned and her mind clouded; but now a delicious, +slumberous lethargy came over her, to which her whole being urged her to +yield. But every time her eyes closed, the thought of the morrow shot +through her brain, and finally, with a great effort, she sat up, took +some water--which was always close at hand--shook into it the remaining +pillules in the bottle, and drank it off to the very last drop. + +Her hand was steady; the happy smile on her lips, and the eager +expression of her eyes, might have led a spectator to believe that she +was thirsty and had mixed herself a refreshing draught. She had no look +of a desperate creature laying violent hands on her own life; she felt no +hesitancy, no fear of death, no burthen of the guilt she was incurring-- +nothing but ecstatic weariness and hope; blissful hope of a life without +end, united to those she loved. + +Hardly had she swallowed the deadly draught when she shivered with a +sudden chill. Raising herself a little she called her maid, who was +sitting up in the adjoining room; and as the woman looked alarmed at her +mistress's fixed stare, she stammered out: "A priest--quick--I am dying." + +The woman flew off to the viridarium to call Sebek, who was standing in +front of the tablinum with the Vekeel; she told him what had happened, +and the Negro gave him leave to obey his dying mistress, escorting him as +far as the gate. Just outside, the steward met a deacon who had been +giving the blessing of the Church to a poor creature dying of the +pestilence, and in a few minutes they were standing by the widow's bed. + +The locks of her sons' hair lay by her side; her hands were folded over a +crucifix; but her eyes, which had been fixed on the features of the +Saviour, had wandered from it and again gazed up to Heaven. + +The priest spoke her name, but she mistook him for her son and murmured +in loving accents: + +"Orion, poor, poor child! And you, Mary, my darling, my sweet little +pet! Your father--yes, dear boy, only come with me.--Your father is kind +again and forgives you. All those I loved are together now, and no one-- +Who can part us? Husband--George, listen. . ." + +The priest performed his office, but she paid no heed, still staring +upwards; her smiling lips continued to move, but no articulate sound came +from them. At last they were still, her eyelids fell, her hands dropped +the crucifix, a slight shiver ran through her limbs, which then relaxed, +and she opened her mouth as though to draw a deeper breath. But it +closed no more, and when the faithful steward pressed her lips together +her face was rigid and her heart had ceased to beat. + +The honest man sobbed aloud; when he carried the melancholy news to the +Vekeel, Obada growled out a curse, and said to a subaltern officer who +was super-intending the loading of his camels with the treasures from the +tablinum: + +"I meant to have treated that cursed old woman with conspicuous +generosity, and now she has played me this trick; and in Medina they +will lay her death at my door, unless. . ." + +But here he broke off; and as he once more watched the loading of the +camels, he only thought to himself: "In playing for such high stake's, a +few gold pieces more or less do not count. A few more heads must fall +yet--the handsome Egyptian first and foremost.--If the conspirators at +Medina only play their part! The fall of Omar means that of Amru, and +that will set everything right." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Katharina slept little and rose very early, as was her habit, while +Heliodora was glad to sleep away the morning hours. In this scorching +season they were, to be sure, the pleasantest of the twenty-four, and the +water-wagtail usually found them so; but to-day, though a splendid Indian +flower had bloomed for the first time, and the head gardener pointed it +out to her with just pride, she could not enjoy it and be glad. It might +perish for aught she cared, and the whole world with it! + +There was no one stirring yet in the next garden, but the tall leech +Philippus might be seen coming along the road to pay a visit to the +women. + +A few swift steps carried her to the gate, whence she called him. She +must entreat him to say nothing of her last night's expedition; but +before she had time to prefer her request he had paused to tell her that +the widow of the Mukaukas, overcome by alarm and horror, had followed her +husband to the next world. + +There had been a time when Katharina had been devoted to Neforis, +regarding her as a second mother; when the governor's residence had +seemed to her the epitome of all that was great, venerable, and +illustrious; and when she had been proud and happy to be allowed to run +in and out, and to be loved like a child of the family. The tears that +started to her eyes were sincere, and it was a relief to her, too, to lay +aside the gay and defiantly happy mien which she wore as a mask, while +all in her soul was dark, wild, and desperate. + +The physician understood her grief; he readily promised not to betray her +to any one, and did not blame her, though he again pointed out the danger +she had incurred and earnestly insisted that every article of clothing, +which she or Heliodora had worn, must be destroyed. The subtle germ of +the malady, he said, clung to everything; every fragment of stuff which +had been touched by the plague-stricken was especially fitted to carry +the infection and disseminate the disease. She listened to him in deep +alarm, but she could satisfy him on this point; everything she or her +companion had worn had been burnt in the bath-room furnace. + +The physician went on; and she, heedless of the growing heat, wandered +restlessly about the grounds. Her heart beat with short, quick, painful +jerks; an invisible burthen weighed upon her and prevented her breathing +freely. A host of torturing thoughts haunted her unbidden; they were not +to be exorcised, and added to her misery: Neforis dead; the residence in +the hands of the Arabs; Orion bereft of his possessions and held guilty +of a capital crime. + +And the peaceful house beyond the hedge--what trouble was hanging over +its white-haired master and his guileless wife and daughter? A storm was +gathering, she could see it approaching--and beyond it, like another +murky, death-dealing thunder-cloud, was the pestilence, the fearful +pestilence. + +And it was she, a fragile, feeble girl--a volatile water-wagtail--who had +brought all these terrors down on them, who had opened the sluice-gates +through which ruin was now beginning to pour in on all around her. +She could see the flood surging, swelling--saw it lapping round her own +house, her own feet; drops of sweat bedewed her forehead and hands from +terror at the mere thought. And yet, and yet!--If she had really had the +power to bind calamity in the clouds, to turn the tide back into its +channel, she would not have done so! The uttermost that she longed for, +as the fruit of the seed she had sown and which she longed to see ripen, +had not yet come to pass--and to see that she would endure anything, even +death and parting from this deceitful, burning, unlovely world. + +Death awaited Orion; and before it overtook him he should know who had +sharpened the sword. Perhaps he might escape with his life; but the Arab +would not disgorge what he once had seized, and if that young and +splendid Croesus should come out of prison alive, but a beggar, then-- +then... And as for Paula! As for Heliodora! For once her little hand +had wrenched the thunderbolts from Zeus' eagle, and she would find one +for them! + +The sense of her terrible power, to which more than one victim had +already fallen, intoxicated her. She would drive Orion--Orion who had +betrayed her--into utter ruin and misery; she would see him a beggar at +her feet!--And this it was that gave her courage to do her worst; this, +and this alone. What she would do then, she herself knew not; that lay +as yet in the womb of the Future. She might take a fancy to do something +kind, compassionate, and tender. + +By the time she went into the house again her fears and depression had +vanished; revived energy possessed her soul, and the little eavesdropper +and tale-bearer had become in this short hour a purposeful and terrible +woman, ready for any crime. + +"Poor little lamb!" thought Philippus, as he went into Rufinus' garden. +"That miserable man may have brought pangs enough to her little heart!" + +His old friend's garden-plot was deserted. Under the sycamore, however, +he perceived the figures of a very tall young man and a pretty woman, +delicate, fair-haired, and rather pale. The big young fellow was holding +a skein of wool on his huge, outstretched hands; the girl was winding it +on to a ball. These were Rustem the Masdakite and Mandane, both now +recovered from their injuries; the girl, indeed, had been restored to the +new life of a calm and understanding mind. Philippus had watched over +this wonderful resuscitation with intense interest and care. He ascribed +it, in the first instance, to the great loss of blood from the wound in +her head; and secondly, to the fresh air and perfect nursing she had had. +All that was now needful was to protect her against agitation and violent +emotions. In the Masdakite she had found a friend and a submissive +adorer; and Philippus could rejoice as he looked at the couple, for his +skill had indeed brought him nothing but credit. + +His greeting to them was cheery and hearty, and in answer to his enquiry: +"How are you getting on?" Rustem replied, "As lively as a fish in +water," adding, as he pointed to Mandane, "and I can say the same for my +fellow-countrywoman." + +"You are agreed then?" said the leech, and she nodded eager assent. + +At this Philippus shook his finger at the man, exclaiming: "Do not get +too tightly entangled here, my friend. Who knows how soon Haschim may +call you away." + +Then, turning his back on the convalescents, he murmured to himself: +"Here again is something to cheer us in the midst of all this trouble- +these two, and little Mary." + +Rufinus, before starting on his journey, had sent back all the crippled +children he had had in his care to their various parents; thus the +anteroom was empty. + +The women apparently were at breakfast in the dining-room. No, he was +mistaken; it was yet too early, and Pulcheria was still busy laying the +table. She did not notice him as he went in, for she was busy arranging +grapes, figs, pomegranates and sycamore-figs, a fruit resembling +mulberries in flavor which grow in clusters from the trunk of the tree- +between leaves, which the drought and heat of the past weeks had turned +almost yellow. The tempting heap was fast rising in an elegant many-hued +hemisphere; but her thoughts were not in her occupation, for tears were +coursing each other down her cheeks. + +"Those tears are for her father," thought the leech as he watched her +from the threshold. "Poor child!"--How often he had heard his old friend +call her so! + +And till now he had never thought of her but as a child; but to-day he +must look at her with different eyes--her own father had enjoined it. +And in fact he gazed at her as though he beheld a miracle. + +What had come over little Pulcheria?--How was it that he had never +noticed it before?--It was a well-grown maiden that he saw, moving round, +snowwhite arms; and he could have sworn that she had only thin, childish +arms, for she had thrown them round his neck many a time when she had +ridden up and down the garden on his back, calling him her fine horse. + +How long ago was that? Ten years! She was now seventeen! + +And how slender, and delicate, and white her hands were--those hands for +which her mother had often scolded her when, after building castles of +sand, she had sat down to table unwashed. + +Now she was laying the grapes round the pomegranates, and he remembered +how Horapollo, only yesterday, had praised her dainty skill. + +The windows were well screened, but a few sunbeams forced their way into +the room and fell on her red-gold hair. Even the fair Boeotians, whom he +had admired in his student-days at Athens, had no such glorious crown of +hair. That she had a sweet and pretty face he had always known; but now, +as she raised her eyes and first observed him, meeting his gaze with +maidenly embarrassment and sweet surprise, and yet with perfect welcome, +he felt himself color and he had to pause a moment to collect himself +before he could respond with something more than an ordinary greeting to +hers. The dialogue that flashed through his mind in that instant began +with sentences full of meaning. But all he said was: + +"Yes, here I am," which really did not deserve the hearty reply: + +"Thank God for that!" nor the bewitching embarrassment of the explanation +that ensued: "on my mother's account." + +Again he blushed; he, the man who had long since forgotten his youthful +shyness. He asked after Dame Joanna, and how she was bearing her +trouble, and then he said gravely: "I was the bearer of bad news +yesterday, and to-day again I have come like a bird of ill-omen." + +"You?" she said with a smile, and the simple word conveyed so sweet a +doubt of his capacity for bringing evil that he could not help saying to +himself that his friend, in leaving this child, this girl, to his care, +had bequeathed to him the best gift that one mortal can devise to +another: a dear, trustful, innocent daughter--or no, a younger sister--as +pure, as engaging, and as lovable as only the child of such parents could +be. + +While he stood telling her of what had happened at the governor's house, +he noted how deeply, for Paula's and Mary's sake, she took to heart the +widow's death, though Neforis had been nothing to her; and he decided +that he would at once make Pulcheria's mother acquainted with her dead +husband's wishes. + +All this did not supplant his old passion for Paula; far from it--that +tortured him still as deeply and hotly as ever. But at the same time he +was conscious of its evil influence; he knew that by cherishing it he was +doing himself harm--nay a real injury since it was not returned. He knew +that within reach of Paula, and condemned to live with her, he could +never recover his peace, but must suffer constant pangs. It was only +away from her, and yet under the same roof with Joanna and her daughter, +that he could ever hope to be a contented and happy man; but he dared not +put this thought into words. + +Pulcheria detected that he had something in reserve, and feared lest he +should know of some new impending woe; however, on this head he could +reassure her, telling her that, on the contrary, he had something in his +mind which, so far at least as he was concerned, was a source of +pleasure. Her grieved and anxious spirit could indeed hardly believe +him; and he begged her not to lose all hope in better days, asking her +if she had true and entire trust in him. + +She warmly replied that he must surely feel that she did; and now, as the +others came into the room, she nodded to her mother, whom she had already +seen quite early, and offering him her hand shook his heartily. This had +been a restful interval; but the sight of Paula, and the news he had to +give her, threw him back into his old depressed and miserable mood. + +Little Mary, whose cheeks had recovered their roses and who looked quite +well again, threw her arms round Paula's neck as she heard the evil +tidings; but Paula herself was calmer than he had expected. She turned +very pale at the first shock, but soon she could listen to him with +composure, and presently quite recovered her usual demeanor. Philippus, +as he watched her, had to control himself sternly, and as soon as +possible he took his leave. + +It was as though he had been fated once more to see with agonizing +clearness what he had lost in her; she walked through life as though +borne up by lofty feeling, and a thoughtful radiance lent her noble +features a bewitching charm which grieved while it enchanted him. + +Orion a prisoner, and all his possessions confiscated! The thought had +horrified her for a little while; but then it had come to her that this +was just as it should be--that what had at first looked like a dreadful +disaster had been sent to enable her love to cast off its husks, to +appear in all its loftiness and purity, and to give it, by the help of +the All-merciful, its true consecration. + +She did not fear for his life, for he had told her and written to her +that Amru had been paternal in his kindness; and all that had occurred +was, she was sure, the work of the Vekeel, of whose odious and cruel +character he had given her a horrible picture that day when Rufinus had +gone to warn the abbess. + +When Philippus had left his friends, he sighed deeply. How different he +had found these women from what he had expected. Yes, his old friend +knew men well! + +From trifling details he had succeeded in forming a more accurate idea of +Pulcheria than the leech himself had gained in years of intimacy. +Horapollo had foreseen, too, that the danger which threatened the +Mukaukas' son would fan Paula's passions like a fresh breeze; and Joanna, +frail, ailing Joanna! she had behaved heroically under the loss of the +companion with whom she had lived for so many years in faithful love. +He could not help comparing her with the wretched Neforis; what was it +that enabled one to bear the equal loss with so much more dignity than +the other? Nothing but the presence of the tender-hearted Pulcheria, +who shared her sorrow with such beautiful resignation, such ready and +complete sympathy. This the governor's widow had wholly lacked; and how +happy were they who could call such a heart their own! He walked through +the garden with his head bent, and looking neither to the right hand nor +the left. + +The Masdakite, who was still sitting with Mandane under the sycamore, as +indifferent to the torrid heat as she was, looked after him, and said +with a sigh as he pointed to him: + +"There he goes. This is the first time he ever said a rude word to you +or to me: or did you not understand?" + +"Oh yes," said she in a low voice, looking down at her needlework. + +They talked in Persian, for she had not forgotten the language which her +mother had spoken till her dying day. + +Life is sometimes as strange as a fairy-tale; and the accident was indeed +wonderful which had brought these two beings, of all others, at the same +time to the sick room. His distant home was also hers, and he even knew +her uncle--her father's brother--and her father's sad history. + +When the Greek army had taken possession of the province where they had +lived, the men had fled into the woods with their flocks and herds, while +the women and children took refuge in the fortress which defended the +main road. This had not long held out against the Byzantines, and the +women, among them Mandane with her mother, had been handed over to the +soldiers as precious booty. Her father had then joined the troops to +rescue the women, but he and his comrades had only lost their lives in +the attempt. To this day the valiant man's end was a tale told in his +native place, and his property and valuable rose gardens now belonged to +his younger brother. So the two convalescents had plenty to talk about. + +It was curious to note how clearly the memories of her childhood were +stamped on Mandane's mind. + +She had laid her wounded head on the pillow of sickness with a darkened +brain, and the new pain had lifted the veil from her mind as a storm +clears the oppressive atmosphere of a sultry summer's day. She loved to +linger now among the scenes of her childhood--the time when she had a +mother.--Or she would talk of the present; all between was like a night- +sky black, and only lighted up by an awful comet and shining stars. That +comet was Orion. All she had enjoyed with him and suffered through him +she consigned to the period of her craziness; she had taught herself to +regard it all as part of the madness to which she had been a victim. Her +nature was not capable of cherishing hatred and she could feel no +animosity towards the Mukaukas' son. She thought of him as of one who, +without evil intent, had done her great wrong; one whom she might not +even remember without running into peril. + +"Then you mean to say," the Masdakite began once more, "that you would +really miss me if Haschim sent for me?" + +"Yes indeed, Rustem; I should be very sorry." + +"Oh!" said the other, passing his hand over his big head, on which the +dense mane of hair which had been shaved off was beginning to grow again. +"Well then, Mandane, in that case--I wanted to say it yesterday, but I +could not get it out.--Tell me: why would you be sorry if I were to leave +you?" + +"Because--well, no one can have all their reasons ready; because you have +always been kind to me; and because you came from my country, and talk +Persian with me as my mother used." + +"Is that all?" said the man slowly, and he rubbed his forehead. + +"No, no. Because--if once you go away, you will not be here." + +"Aye that is it; that is just the thing. And if you would be sorry for +that, then you must have liked being here--with me." + +"And why not? It has been very nice," said the girl blushing and trying +not to meet his eyes. + +"That it has--and that it is!" cried Rustem, striking his palm with the +other huge fist. "And that is why I must have it out; that is why, if we +have any sense, we two need never part." + +"But your master is sure to want you," said she with growing confusion, +"and we cannot always remain a burthen on the kind folks here. I shall +not work at the loom again; but as I am now free, and have the scroll +that proves it, I must soon look about for some employment. And a +strong, healthy fellow like you cannot always be nursing yourself." + +"Nursing myself!" and he laughed gaily. "I will earn money, and enough +for three!" + +"By your camels always, up and down the country?" + +"I have done with that," said he with a grin. "We will go back to our +own country; there I will buy a good piece of pasture land, for my eldest +brother has our little estate, and you may ask Haschim whether I +understand camel-breeding." + +"But Rustem, consider." + +"Consider! Think this, and think that! Where there's a will there's a +way. That is the upshot of it all. And if you mean to say that before +you buy you must have money, and that the best may come to grief, all I +can tell you is... Can you read? No? nor I; but here in my pocket I +have my accounts in the master's own hand. Eleven thousand, three +hundred and sixty drachmae were due to me for wages the last time we +reckoned: all the profit the master had set down to my credit since I led +his caravan. He has kept almost all of it for me; for food was allowed, +and there was almost always a bit of stuff for a garment to be found +among the bales, and I never was a sot. Eleven thousand, three hundred +and sixty drachmae! Hey, little one, that is the figure. And now what +do you say? Can we buy something with that? Yes or no?" + +He looked at her triumphantly, and she eagerly replied: "Yes, yes indeed; +and in our country I think something worth having." + +"And we--you and I--we will begin a quite new life. I was seventeen when +I first set out with my master, and I was twenty-six last midsummer. How +many years wandering does that make?" + +They both thought this over for some time; then Mandane said doubtfully + +"If I am not mistaken it is eight." + +"I believe it is nine," he exclaimed. "Let us see. Here, give me your +little paw! There, I begin with seventeen, that is where I started. +First your little-finger--what a mite of a thing, and then the rest." He +took her right hand and counted off her fingers till he ended with the +last finger of the left. The result puzzled him; he shook his head, +saying: "There are ten fingers on both hands, sure enough, and yet it +cannot be ten years; it is nine at most I know." + +He began the counting, which he liked uncommonly, all over again; but +with the same result. Mandane said it was but nine, she had counted it +up herself; and he agreed, and declared that her little fingers must be +bewitched. And this game would have gone on still longer but that she +remembered that the seventeen must not be included at all, and that he +ought to begin with eighteen. Rustem could not immediately take this in, +and even when he admitted it he did not release her hand, but went on +with gay resolution: + +"And you see, my girl, I mean to keep this little hand--you may pull it +away if you choose--but it is mine, and the pretty little maid, and all +that belongs to it. And I will take you and both your hands, bewitched +fingers and all, home with me. There they may weave and stitch as much +as you like; but as man and wife no one shall part us, and we will lead a +life such a life! The joys of Paradise shall be no better than a rap on +the skull with an olive-wood log in comparison!" + +He tried to take her hand again, but she drew it away, saying in deep +confusion and without looking up: "No, Rustem. I was afraid yesterday +that it would come to this; but it can never, never be. I am grateful-- +oh! so grateful; but no, it cannot be, and that must be the end of it. +I can never be your wife. Rustem." + +"No?" he asked with a scowl, and the veins swelled in his low forehead. +"Then you have been making a fool of me!--as to the gratitude you talk +of...." + +He stood up in hot excitement; she laid her hand on his arm, drew him +down on to the seat again, and ventured to steal an imploring look into +his eyes, which never could long flash with anger. Then she said: + +How you break out! I shall really and truly be very grieved to part from +you; cannot you see that I am fond of you? But indeed, indeed it will +never do, I--oh! if only I might go back, home, and with you. Yes, with +you, as your wife. What a proud and happy thought! And how gladly would +I work for us both--for I am very handy and hard-working, but. . . ." + +"But?" he repeated, and he put his big, sun-burnt face close to hers, +looking as if he could break her in pieces. + +"But it cannot be, for your sake; it must not be, positively, certainly. +I will not make you so bad a return for all your kindness. What! have +you forgotten what I was, what I am? You, as a freeman, will soon have +a nice little estate at home, and may command respect and reverence from +all; but how different it would be if you had a wife like me at your +heels--if only from the fact that I was once a slave." + +"That is the history of it all!" he interrupted, and his brow cleared. +"That is what is troubling your dear little soul! But do you not know +who and what I am? Have I not told you what a Masdakite is? + + [Eutychius, Bishop of Alexandria thus describes the communistic + doctrine of Masdak: "God has given to men on earth that which is of + the earth to the end that it may be divided equally among them, and + that no more falls to the lot of one than another. And if one hath + more than is seemly of money or wives or slaves or movable goods, we + will take it from him to the end that he and the rest may be equal."] + +We Masdakites believe, nay, we know, that all men are born equal, and +that this mad-cap world would be a better place if there were neither +masters nor servants; however, as things are, so they must remain. The +great Lord of Heaven will suffer it yet for a season; but sooner or +later, perhaps very soon, everything will be quite different, and it is +our business to make ready for the day of equality. Then Paradise will +return on earth; there will be none greater or less than another, but we +shall all walk hand-in-hand and stand by each other on an equal footing. +Then shall war and misery cease; for all that is fair and good on earth +belongs to all men in common; and then all men shall be as willing to +give and to help others, as they now are to seize and to oppress.--We +have no marriage bond like other people; but when a man loves a woman he +says, 'Will you be mine?' and if her heart consents she follows him home; +and one may quit the other if love grows cold. Still, no married couple, +whether Christian or Parsee, ever clung together more faithfully than my +parents or my grandparents; and we will do the same to the end, for our +love will bind us firmly together with strong cords that will last longer +than our lives.--So now you know the doctrine of our master Masdak; my +father and grandfather both followed it, and I was taught it by my mother +when I was a little child. All in our village were Masdakites; and there +was not a slave in the place; the land belonged to all in common and was +tilled by all, and the harvest was equally shared. However, they no +longer receive strangers, and I must seek for fellow-believers elsewhere. +Still, a Masdakite I shall always remain; and, if I were to take a slave +for my wife, I should only be acting on the precepts of the master and +helping them on. But as for you, the case does not apply to you, for you +are the child of a brave freeman, respected in all the land; our people +will regard you as a prisoner of war, not as a slave. They will look up +to me as your deliverer. And if I had found you, just as you are, the +meanest of slaves and keeping pigs, I would have put my hand in my wallet +at once and have bought your freedom and have carried you off home as my +wife--and no Masdakite who saw you would ever blame me. Now you know all +about it, and there, I hope, is an end of your coyness and mincing." + +Mandane, however, still would not yield; she looked at him with eyes that +entreated his pity, and pointed to her cropped ears. + +Rustem shrugged his shoulders with a laugh. "Of course, that too, into +the bargain; You will not let me off any part of it! If it had been your +eyes now, you would not have been able to see, and no countryman can do +with a blind wife, so I should leave you where you are. But you, little +one, have hearing as sharp as a bird's? And what bird--pretty little +things--did you ever see with ears, unless it were a bat or a nasty owl? +--That is all nonsense. Besides, who can see what you have lost now that +Pulcheria has brought your hair down so prettily? And do not you +remember the head-dress our women wear? You might have ears as long as a +hare's, and what good would it do you?--no one could see them. Just as +you are, a lily grown like a cypress, you are ten times sweeter to look +at than the prettiest girl there, if she had three or even four ears. A +girl with three ears! Only think, Mandane, where could the third ear +grow?" + +How heartily he laughed, and how glad he was to have hit on this jest and +have turned off a subject which might so well be painful to her! But his +mirth failed of its effect, and only brought a silent smile to her lips. +Even this died quickly away, and in its place there came such a sad, +pathetic expression, as she hung her pretty head, that he could neither +carry on the joke nor reproach her sharply. He said compassionately, +with a little shake of the head: + +"But you must not look like that, my pigeon: I cannot bear it. What is +it that is weighing on your little soul? Courage, courage, sweetheart, +and make a clean breast of it!--But no! Do not speak. I can spare you +that! I know, poor little darling--it is that old story of the +governor's son." + +She nodded, and her eyes filled with tears; and he, with a loud sigh, +exclaimed: "I thought as much, I was right, poor child!" + +He took her hand, and went on bravely: + +"Yes, that has given me some bad hours, too, and a great deal to think +about; in fact, I came very near to leaving you alone and spoiling my own +happiness and yours too. But I came to my senses before it was too late. +Not on account of what Dame Joanna said the day before yesterday--though +what she says must be true, and she told me that all--you know what--was +at an end. No; my own sense told me this time; for I said to myself: +Such a motherless, helpless little thing, a slave, too, and as pretty as +the angels, her master's son took a fancy to her, how could she defend +herself? And how cruelly the poor little soul was punished!--Yes, little +one, you may well weep! Why, my own eyes are full of tears. Well, so it +had to be and so it was. You and I and the Lord Almighty and the Hosts +of Heaven--who can do anything against us?--So you see that even a poor +fool like me can understand how it all came about; and I do not accuse +you, nor have I anything to forgive. It was just a dreadful misfortune. +But it has come to a good end, thank God I and I can forget it entirely +and for ever, if only you can say: 'It is all over and done with and +buried like the dead!'" + +Before he could hinder her, she snatched his hand, to her lips with +passionate affection and sobbed out: + +"You are so good! Oh! Rustem, there is not another man on earth so good +as you are, and my mother will bless you for it. Do what you will with +me! And I declare to you, once for all that all that is past and gone, +and only to think of it gives me horror. And it was exactly as you say: +my mother dead, no one to warn me or protect me,--I was hardly sixteen, +a simple, ignorant creature, and he called me, and it all came over me +like a dream in my sleep; and when I awoke. . . ." + +"There we are," he interrupted and he tried to laugh as he wiped his +eyes. "Both laid up with holes in our heads.--And when I am in my own +country I always think the prettiest time is just when the hard winter- +frost is over, and the snow melted, and all the flowers in the valleys +rush into bloom--and so I feel now, my little girl. Everything will be +well now, we shall be so wonderfully happy. The day before yesterday, do +you know, I still was not quite clear about it all. Your trouble gave me +no peace, and it went against the grain-well, you can understand. But +then, later, when I was lying in my room and the moon shone down on my +bed. . ." and a rapt expression came into his face that strangely +beautified his harsh features, "I could not help asking myself: 'Although +the moon went down into the sea this morning, does that prevent its +shining as brightly as ever to-night, and bringing a cooler breeze?' And +if a human soul has gone under in the same way, may it not rise up again, +bright and shining, when it has bathed and rested? And such a heart--of +course every man would like to have its love all to himself, but it may +have enough to give more than once. For, as I remembered, my mother, +though she loved me dearly, when another child came and yet another gave +them the best she had to give; and I was none the worse when she had my +youngest sister at the breast, nor was she when I was petted and kissed. +And it must be just the same with you. Thought I to myself: though she +once loved another man, she may still have a good share left for me!" + +"Yes, indeed, Rustem !" she exclaimed, looking tearfully but gratefully +into his eyes. "All that is in me of love and tenderness is for you--for +you only." + +At this he joyfully exclaimed: + +"All, that is indeed good hearing! That will do for me; that is what I +call a good morning's work! I sat down under this tree a vagabond and a +wanderer, and I get up a future land-holder, with the sweetest little +wife in the world to keep house for me." + +They sat a long time under the shady foliage; he craved no more than to +gaze at her and, when he put the old questions asked by all lovers, to be +answered with lips and eyes, or merely a speechless nod. Her hands no +longer plied the needle, and the pair would have smiled in pity on any +one who should have complained of the intolerable heat of this scorching, +parching forenoon. A pair of turtle doves over their heads were less +indifferent to the sun's rays than they, for the birds had closed their +eyes, and the head of the mother bird was resting languidly against the +dark collar round her mate's neck. + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 10. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The Vekeel, like the Persian lovers, did not allow the heat of the day to +interfere with his plans. He regarded the governor's house as his own; +all he found there aroused, not merely his avarice, but his interest. +His first object was to find some document which might justify his +proceedings against Orion and the sequestration of his estates, in the +eyes of the authorities at Medina. + +Great schemes were brewing there; if the conspiracy against the Khaliff +Omar should succeed, he had little to fear; and the greater the sum he +could ere long forward to the new sovereign, the more surely he could +count on his patronage--a sum exceeding, if possible, the largest which +his predecessor had ever cast into the Khaliff's treasury. + +He went from room to room with the curiosity and avidity of a child, +touching everything, testing the softness of the pillows, peeping into +scrolls which he did not understand, tossing them aside, smelling at the +perfumes in the dead woman's rooms, and the medicines she had used. He +showed his teeth with delight when he found in her trunks some costly +jewels and gold coins, stuck the finest of her diamond rings on his +finger, already covered with gems, and then eagerly searched every corner +of the rooms which Orion had occupied. + +His interpreter, who could read Greek, had to translate every document he +found that did not contain verses. While he listened, he clawed and +strummed on the young man's lyre and poured out the scented oil which +Orion had been wont to use to smear it over his beard. In front of the +bright silver mirror he could not cease from making faces. + +To his great disgust he could find nothing among the hundred objects and +trifles that lay about to justify suspicion, till, just as he was leaving +the room, he noticed in a basket near the writing-table some discarded +tablets. He at once pointed them out to the interpreter and, though +there was but little to read on the Diptychon,--[Double writing-tablets, +which folded together]--it seemed important to the negro for it ran as +follows: + +"Orion, the son of George, to Paula the daughter of Thomas! + +"You have heard already that it is now impossible for me to assist in the +rescue of the nuns. But do not misunderstand me. Your noble, and only +too well-founded desire to lend succor to your fellow-believers would +have sufficed. . ." + +From this point the words written on the wax were carefully effaced, and +hardly a letter was decipherable; indeed, there were so few lines that it +seemed as though the letter had never been ended-which was the fact. + +Though it gave the Vekeel no inculpating evidence against Orion it +pointed to his connection with the guilty parties: Paula, doubtless, had +been concerned in the scheme which had cost the lives of so many brave +Moslems. The negro had learnt, through the money-changer at Fostat, that +she was on terms of close intimacy with the Mukaukas' son and had +entrusted her property to his stewardship. They must both be accused as +accomplices in the deed, and the document proved Orion's knowledge of it, +at any rate. + +Plotinus, the bishop, at whose instigation the fugitives had been chased, +could fill up what the damsel might choose to conceal. + +He had started to follow the patriarch immediately after the pursuers had +set out, and had only returned from Upper Egypt early on the previous +day. On his arrival he had forwarded to the Vekeel two indictments +brought against Orion by the prelate: the first relating to the evasion +of the nuns; the other to the embezzlement of a costly emerald; the +rightful property of the church. These accusations were what had +encouraged the Negro to confiscate the young man's estate, particularly +as the bitter tone of the patriarch's document sufficiently proved that +in him he had found an ally. + +Paula must next be placed in safe custody, and he had no doubt whatever +that her statement would incriminate Orion in some degree. He would +gladly have cross-examined her at once, but he had other matters in hand +to-day. + +The longest part of his task was ransacking the treasurer's office; Nilus +himself had to conduct the search. Everything which he pointed out as a +legal document, title-deed, contract for purchase or sale, revenue +account or the like, was at once placed in oxcarts or on camels, with the +large sums of gold and silver coin, and carried across the river under a +strong escort. All the more antique deeds and the family archives, the +Vekeel left untouched. He was indeed an indefatigable man, for although +these details kept him busy the whole day, he allowed himself no rest nor +did he once ask for the refreshment of food or a cooling draught. As the +day went on he enquired again and again for the bishop, with increasing +impatience and irritation. It would have been his part to wait on the +patriarch, but who was Plotinus? Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in +authority, he took the bishop's delay as an act of personal contumely. +But the shepherd of the flock at Memphis was not a haughty prelate, +but a very humble and pious minister. His superior, the patriarch, had +entrusted him with an important mission to Amru or his lieutenant, and +yet he could let the Vekeel wait in vain, and not even send him a message +of explanation; in the afternoon, however, his old housekeeper dispatched +the acolyte who was attached to his person to seek Philippus. Her +master, a hale and vigorous man, had gone to bed by broad day-light a few +hours after his return home, and had not again left it. He was hot and +thirsty, and did not seem fully conscious of where he was or of what was +happening. + +Plotinus had always maintained that prayer was the Christian's best +medicine; still, as his poor body had become alarmingly heated the old +woman ventured to send for the physician; but the messenger came back +saying that Philippus was absent on a journey. This was in fact the +case: He had quitted Memphis in obedience to a letter from Haschim. The +merchant's unfortunate son was not getting better. There seemed to be an +injury to some internal organ, which threatened his life. The anxious +father besought the leech, in whom he had the greatest confidence, to +hasten to Djidda, there to examine the sufferer and undertake the case. +At the same time he desired that Rustem should join him as soon as his +health would permit. + +This letter--which ended with greetings to Paula, for whose father he was +making diligent search--agitated Philippus greatly. How could he leave +Memphis at a time of such famine and sickness?--And Dame Joanna and her +daughter! + +On the other hand he was much drawn to get away on Paula's account--away, +far away; and then how gladly would he do his best to save that fine old +man's son. In spite of all this he would have remained, but that his old +friend, quite unexpectedly, took Haschim's side of the question and +implored him to make the journey. He would make it his business and his +pleasure to take charge of the women in Rufinus' house; Philip's +assistant could fill his place at the bedside of many of the sick, and +the rest could die without him. Had not he himself said that there was +no remedy for the disease? Again, Philip had said not long since that +there could be no peace for him within reach of Paula: here was a +favorable opportunity for escape without attracting remark, and at the +same time for doing a work of the truest charity. + +So Philippus had yielded, and had started on his journey with very mixed +feelings. + +Horapollo did not devote any particular attention to his personal +comfort; but in one respect he took especial care of himself. He had +great difficulty in walking and, as he loved to breathe the fresh air at +sundown, and sometimes to study the stars at a late hour, he kept an ass +of the best and finest breed. He did not hesitate to pay a high price +for such a beast if it really answered his requirements; that is to say +if it were strong, surefooted, gentle, and light-colored. His father and +grandfather, priests of Isis, had always ridden white asses, and so he +would do the same. + +During the last few sultry weeks he had rarely gone out of doors, and +to-day he waited till the hour before sunset before starting to keep his +promise. + +Robed in snowy-white linen, with new sandals on his feet, freshly shaven, +and protected from the sun's rays by a crisply curled, flowing wig, after +the manner of his fathers, as well as by an umbrella, he mounted his +beautiful white ass in the conviction that he had done his best for his +outer man, and set forth, followed by his black slave trotting on foot. + +It was not yet dark when he stopped at the house of Rufinus. His heart +had not beat so high for many a day. + +"I feel as if I had come courting," said he, laughing at himself. "Well, +and I really am come to propose an alliance for the rest of my life! +Still, curiosity, one would think, might be shed with the hair and the +teeth!" However, it still clung to him, and he could not deny to himself +that he was very curious as to the person whom he hated, though he had +never seen her, simply because she was the daughter of a patrician and a +prefect, and had made his Philippus miserable. As he was dismounting, a +graceful young girl and an older woman, in very costly though simple +dresses, came through the garden. These must be the waterwagtail, and +Orion's Byzantine guest.--How annoying! So many women at once! + +Their presence here could only embarrass and disturb him--a lonely +student unused to the society of women. However, there was no help for +it; and the new-comers were not so bad after all. + +Katharina was a very attractive, pretty little mouse, and even without +her millions much too good for the libertine Orion. The matron, who had +a kind, pleasant face, was exactly what Philippus had described her. But +then--and this spoilt all--in their presence he must not allude to the +death of Rufinus, so that he could not mention his proposed arrangement. +He had swallowed all that dust, and borne that heat for nothing, and +to-morrow he must ignominiously go through it all again! + +The first people he met were a handsome young couple: Rustem and Mandane. +There could be no doubt as to their identity; so he went up to them and +gave Rustem the merchant's message, offering in Philip's name to advance +the money for the journey. But the Masdakite patted his sleeve, in which +he carried a good round sum in gold pieces, and exclaimed cheerily: + +"It is all here, and enough for two travellers to the East.--My little +wife, by your leave; the time has come, little pigeon! Off we go, +homeward bound!" + +The huge fellow shouted it out in his deep voice with such effervescent +contentment, and the pretty girl, as she looked up at him, was so glad, +so much in love, and so grateful, that it quite cheered the old man; and +he, who read an omen in every incident, accepted this meeting as of good +augury at his first entering the house which was probably to be his home. + +His visit went on as well as it had begun, for he was welcomed very +warmly both by the widow and daughter of Rufinus. Pulcheria at once +pushed forward her father's arm-chair and placed a pillow behind his +back, and she did it so quietly, so simply, and so amiably that it warmed +his old heart, and he said to himself that it would be almost too much of +a good thing to have such care given him every day and every hour. + +He could not forbear from a kindly jest with the young girl over her +attentions, and Martina at once entered into the joke. She had seen him +coming on his fine ass; she praised the steed, and then refused to +believe that the rider was past eighty. His news of Philip's departure +was regretted by all, and he was delighted to perceive that Pulcheria +seemed startled and presently shrank into the background. What a sweet, +pure, kind face the child had--and pretty withal; she must and should be +his little daughter; and all the while he was talking, or listening to +Katharina's small jokes and a friendly catechism from Martina and Dame +Joanna, in his mind's eye he saw Philippus and that dear little creature +as man and wife, surrounded by pretty children playing all about him. + +He had come to comfort and to condole, and lo! he was having as pleasant +an hour as he had known in a long time. + +He and the other visitors had been received in the vindarium, which was +now brightly lighted up, and now and then he glanced at the doors which +opened on this, the centre of the house, trying to imagine what the +different rooms should by-and-bye be used for. + +But he heard a light step behind him; Martina rose, the water-wagtail +hurried to meet the new-comer, and there appeared on the scene the tall +figure of a girl dressed in mourning-robes. She greeted the matron with +distinguished dignity, cast a cordial glance of sympathetic intelligence +to Joanna and Pulcheria, and when the mistress of the house told her who +the old man was, she went up to him and held out her hand--a cool, +slender hand, as white as marble; the true patrician hand. + +Yes, she was beautiful, wonderfully beautiful! He could hardly remember +ever to have seen her equal. A spotless masterpiece of the Creator's +hand, made like some unapproachable goddess, to command the worship of +subject adorers; however, she must renounce all hope of his, for those +marble features, all the whiter by contrast with her black dress, had no +attraction for him. No warming glow shone in those proud eyes; and under +that lordly bosom beat no loving or lovable heart; he shivered at the +touch of her fingers, and her presence, he thought, had a chilling and +paralyzing influence on all the party. + +This was, in fact, the case. + +Paula had been sent for to see the senator's wife and Katharina. +Martina, thought she, had come out of mere curiosity, and she had a +preconceived dislike to any one connected with Heliodora. She had lost +her confidence in the water-wagtail, for only two days ago the acolyte in +personal attendance on the bishop--and whose child Rufinus had cured +of a lame foot--had been to the house to warn Joanna against the girl. +Katharina, he told her, had a short while since betrayed to Plotinus some +important secret relating to her husband, and the bishop had immediately +gone over to Fostat. It was hard to believe such a thing of any friend, +still, the girl who, by her own confession, had been so ready to play the +part of spy in the neighboring garden, was the only person who would have +told the prelate what plan was in hand for the rescue of the sisters. +The acolyte's positive statement, indeed, left no room for doubt. + +It was not in Paula's nature to think ill of others; but in this case her +candid spirit, incapable of falsehood, would not suffer her to be +anything but cool to the child; the more effusively Katharina clung to +her, the more icily Paula repelled her. + +The old man saw this, and he concluded that this mien and demeanor were +natural to Paula at all times patrician haughtiness, cold-hearted +selfishness, the insolent and boundless pride of the race he loathed-- +noble by birth alone--stood before him incarnate. He hated the whole +class, and he hated this specimen of the class; and his aversion +increased tenfold as he remembered what woe this cold siren had wrought +for the son of his affections and might bring on him if she should thwart +his favorite project. Sooner would he end his days in loneliness, parted +even from Philippus, than share his home, his table, and his daily life +with this woman, who could repel the sincerely-meant caresses of that +pretty, childlike, simple little Katharina with such frigid and +supercilious haughtiness. The mere sight of her at meals would embitter +every mouthful; only to hear her domineering tones in the next room would +spoil his pleasure in working; the touch of her cold hand as she bid him +good-night would destroy his night's rest! + +Here and now her presence was more than he could bear. It was an offense +to him, a challenge; and if ever he had wished to clear her out of his +path and the physician's--by force, if need should be--the idea wholly +possessed him now. + +Irritated and provoked, he took leave of all the others, carefully +avoiding a glance even at Paula, though, after he rose, she went up to +him on purpose to say a few pleasant words, and to assure him how highly +she esteemed his adopted son. + +Pulcheria escorted him through the garden and he promised her to return +on the morrow, or the day after, and then she must take care that he +found her and her mother alone, for he had no fancy to allow Paula to +thrust her pride and airs under his nose a second time. + +He angrily rejected Pulcheria's attempts to take her friend's part, and +he trotted home again, mumbling curses between his old lips. + +Martina, meanwhile, had made friends with Paula in her genial, frank way. +She had met her parents in time past in Constantinople and spoke of them +with heart-felt warmth. This broke the ice between them, and when +Martina spoke of Orion--her 'great Sesostris'--of the regard and +popularity he had enjoyed in Constantinople, and then, with due +recognition and sympathy, of his misfortune, Paula felt drawn towards her +indeed. Her reserve vanished entirely, and the conversation between the +new acquaintances became more and more eager, intimate, and delightful. + +When they parted both felt that they could only gain by further +intercourse. Paula was called away at the very moment of leave-taking, +and left the room with warm expressions intended only for the matron: +"Not good-bye--we must meet again. But of course it is my part, as the +younger, to go to you!" And she was no sooner gone than Martina +exclaimed: + +"What a lovely creature! The worthy daughter of a noble father! And her +mother! O dame Joanna! A sweeter being has rarely graced this +miserable world; she was born to die young, she was only made to bloom +and fade!" Then, turning to Katharina, she went on: with kindly reproof. +"Evil tongues gave me a very false idea of this girl. 'A silver kernel +in a golden shell,' says the proverb, but in this case both alike are of +gold.--Between you two--good God!--But I know what has blinded your clear +eyes, poor little kitten. After all, we all see things as we wish to see +them. I would lay a wager, dame Joanna, that you are of my opinion in +thinking the fair Paula a perfectly noble creature. Aye, a noble +creature; it is an expressive word and God knows! How seldom is it a +true one? It is one I am little apt to use, but I know no other for such +as she is, and on her it is not ill-bestowed." + +"Indeed it is not!" answered Joanna with warm assent; but Martina +sighed, for she was thinking to herself! "Poor Heliodora! I cannot but +confess that Paula is the only match for my 'great Sesostris.' But what +in Heaven's name will become of that poor, unfortunate, love-sick little +woman?" + +All this flashed through her quick brain while Katharina was trying to +justify herself, and asserting that she fully recognised Paula's great +qualities, but that she was proud, fearfully proud--she had given Martina +herself some evidence of that. + +At this Pulcheria interposed in zealous defense of her friend. She, +however, had hardly begun to speak when she, too, was interrupted, for +men's voices were heard in loud discussion in the vestibule, and Perpetua +suddenly rushed in with a terrified face, exclaiming, heedless of the +strangers: "Oh Dame Joanna! Here is another, dreadful misfortune! +Those Arab devils have come again, with an interpreter and a writer. And +they have been sent--Merciful Saviour, is it possible?--they have brought +a warrant to take away my poor dear child, to take her to prison--to drag +her all through the city on foot and throw her into prison." + +The faithful soul sobbed aloud and covered her face with her hands. +Terror fell upon them all; Joanna left the viridarium in speechless +dismay, and Martina exclaimed: + +"What a horrible, vile country! Good God, they are even falling on us +women. Children, children--give me a seat, I feel quite ill.--In prison! +that beautiful, matchless creature dragged through the streets to prison. +If the warrant is all right she must go--she must! Not an angel from +heaven could save her. But that she should be marched through the town, +that noble and splendid creature, as if she were a common thief--it is +not to be borne. So much as one woman can do for another at any rate +shall be done, so long as I am here to stand on two feet!--Katharina, +child, do not you understand? Why do you stand gaping at me +as if I were a feathered ape? What do your fat horses eat oats for? +What, you do not understand me yet? Be off at once, this minute, and +have the horses put in the large closed chariot in which I came here, and +bring it to the door.--Ah! At last you see daylight; now, take to your +heels and fly!" + +And she clapped her hands as if she were driving hens off a garden-bed; +Katharina had no alternative but to obey. + +Martina then felt for her purse, and when she had found it she added +confidently: + +"Thank God! I can talk to these villains! This is a language," and she +clinked the gold pieces, intelligible to all. "Come, where are the +rascals?" + +The universal tongue had the desired effect. The chief of the guard +allowed it to persuade him to convey Paula to prison in the chariot, and +to promise that she should find decent accommodation there, while he also +granted old Betta the leave she insisted on with floods of tears, to +share the girl's captivity. + +Paula maintained her dignity and composure under this unexpected shock. +Only when it came to taking leave of Pulcheria and Mary, who clung to her +in frantic grief and begged to go with her and Betta to prison, she could +not restrain her tears. + +The scribe had informed her that she was charged dy Bishop Plotinus with +having plotted the escape and flight of the nuns, and Joanna's knees +trembled under her when Paula whispered in her ear: + +"Beware of Katharina! No one else could have betrayed us; if she has +also revealed what Rufinus did for the sisters we must deny it, +positively and unflinchingly. Fear nothing: they will get not a word out +of me." Then she added aloud: "I need not beg you to remember me +lovingly; thanks to you both--the warmest, deepest thanks for all.... +You, Pul. . . ." And she clasped the mother and daughter to her bosom, +while Mary, clinging to her, hid her little face in her skirts, weeping +bitterly. . . . "You, Dame Joanna, took me in, a forlorn creature, and +made me happy till Fate fell on us all--you know, ah! you know too well. +--The kindness you have shown to me show now to my little Mary. And +there is one thing more--here comes the interpreter again!--A moment yet, +I beg!--If the messenger should return and bring news of my father or, +my God! my God!--my father himself, let me know, or bring him to me!--Or, +if I am dead by the time he comes, tell him that to find him, to see him +once more, was my heart's dearest wish. And beg my father," she breathed +the words into Joanna's ear, "to love Orion as a son. And tell them both +that I loved them to the last, deeply, perfectly, beyond words!" Then +she added aloud as: she kissed each on her eyes and lips: "I love you +and shall always love you--you, Joanna, and you, my Pulcheria, and you, +Mary, my sweet, precious darling." + +At this the water-wagtail humed forward with outstretched arms, but Dame +Joanna put out a significantly warning hand; and they who were one in +heart clasped each other in a last embrace as though they were indeed but +one and no stranger could have any part in it. + +Once more Katharina tried to approach Paula; but Martina, whose eyes +filled with tears as she looked on the parting, held her back by the +shoulder and whispered: + +"Do not disturb them, child. Such hearts spontaneously attract those for +whom they yearn. I, old as I am, would gladly be worthy to be called." + +The interpreter now sternly insisted on starting. The three women +parted; but still the little girl held tightly to Paula, even when she +went up to the matron and kissed her with a natural impulse. Martina +took her head between her hands, kissed her fondly, and said in a voice +she could scarcely control: "God protect and keep you, child! I thank +Him for having brought us together. A soul so pure and clear as yours is +not to be found in the capital, but we still know how to be friends to +our friends--at any rate I and my husband do--and if Heaven but grants me +the opportunity you shall prove it. You never need feel alone in the +world; never, so long as Justinus and his wife are still in it. Remember +that, child; I mean it in solemn earnest." + +With this, she again embraced Paula, who as she went out to enter the +chariot also bestowed a farewell kiss on Eudoxia and Mandane, for they, +too, stood modestly weeping in the background; then she gave her hand to +the hump-backed gardener, and to the Masdakite, down whose cheeks tears +were rolling. At this moment Katharina stood in her path, seized her arm +in mortified excitement, and said insistantly: + +"And have you not a word for me?" + +Paula freed herself from her clutch and said in a low voice: "I thank you +for lending me the chariot. As you know, it is taking me to prison, and +I fear it is your perfidy that has brought me to this. If I am wrong, +forgive me--if I am right, your punishment will hardly be lighter than my +fate. You are still young, Katharina; try to grow better." + +And with this she stepped into the chariot with old Betta, and the last +she saw was little Mary who threw herself sobbing into Joanna's arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Susannah had never particularly cared for Paula, but her fate shocked her +and moved her to pity. She must at once enquire whether it was not +possible to send her some better food than the ordinary prison-fare. +That was but Christian charity, and her daughter seemed to take her +friend's misfortune much to heart. When she and Martina returned home +she looked so cast down and distracted that no stranger now would ever +have dreamed of comparing her with a brisk little bird. + +Once more a poisoned arrow had struck her. Till now she had been wicked +only in her own eyes; now she was wicked in the eyes of another. Paula +knew it was she who had betrayed her. The traitoress had been met by +treachery. The woman she hated had a right to regard her as spiteful and +malignant, and for this she hated her more than ever. + +Till now she had nowhere failed to find an affectionate greeting and +welcome; and to-day how coldly she had been repulsed--and not by Paula +alone, but also by Martina, who no doubt had noticed something, and whose +dry reserve had been quite intolerable to the girl. + +It was all the old bishop's fault; he had not kept his promise that her +tale-bearing should remain as secret as a confession. Indeed, he must +have deliberately revealed it, for no one but herself knew of the facts. +Perhaps he had even mentioned her name to the Arabs; in that case she +would have to bear witness before the judges, and then in what light +would she appear to Orion, to her mother, to Joanna and Martina? + +She had not failed to understand that old Rufinus must have perished in +the expedition, and she was truly grieved. His wife and daughter had +always been kind neighbors to her; and she would not have willingly +brought sorrow on them. If she were called up to give evidence it might +go hard with them, and she wished no harm to any one but those who had +cheated her out of Orion's love. This idea of standing before a court of +justice was the worst of all; this must be warded off at any cost. + +Where could Bishop Plotinus be? He had returned to Memphis the day +before, and yet he had not been to see her mother, to whom he usually +paid a daily visit. This absence seemed to her ominous. Everything +depended on her reminding the old man of his promise as soon as possible; +for if at the trial next morning--which of course, he must attend--he +should happen to mention her name, the guards, the interpreter, and the +scribe would invade her home too and then-horror! She had given evidence +once already, and could never again go through all that had ensued. + +But how was she to get at the bishop in the course of the night or early +to-morrow at latest? + +The chariot had not yet returned, and if--it still wanted two hours of +midnight; yes--it must be done. + +She began talking to her mother of the prelate's absence; Susannah, too, +was uneasy about it, particularly since she had heard that the old man +had come home ill and that his servant had been out and about in search +of a physician. Katharina promptly proposed to go and see him: the +horses were still in harness, her nurse could accompany her. She really +must go and learn how her venerable friend was going on. + +Susannah thought this very sweet; still, she said it was very late for +such a visit; however, her spoilt child had said that she "must" and the +answer was a foregone conclusion. Dame Susannah gave way; the nurse was +sent for, and as soon as the chariot came round Katharina flung her arms +round her mother's neck, promising her not to stay long, and in a few +minutes the chariot stopped at the door of the bishop's palace. She bid +the nurse wait for her and went alone into the vast, rambling house. + +The spacious hall, lighted feebly by a single lamp, was silent and +deserted, even the door-keeper had left his post; however, she was +familiar with every step and turning, and went on through the impluvium +into the library where, at this hour, the bishop was wont to be found. +But it was dark, and her gentle call met with no reply. In the next +room, to which she timidly felt her way, a slave lay snoring; beside him +were a wine jar and a hand-lamp. The sight somewhat reassured her. +Beyond was the bishop's bedroom, which she had never been into. A dim +light gleamed through the open door and she heard a low moaning and +gasping. She called the house-keeper by name once, twice; no answer. +The sleeping slave did not stir; but a familiar voice addressed her from +the bedroom, groaning rather than saying: + +"Who is there? Is he come? Have you found him at last?" + +The whole household had fled in fear of the pestilence; even the acolyte, +who had indeed a wife and children. The housekeeper had been forced to +leave the master to seek the physician, who had already been there once, +and the last remaining slave, a faithful, goodhearted, heedless sot, had +been left in charge; but he had brought a jar of wine up from the +unguarded cellar, had soon emptied it, and then, overcome by drink and +the heat of the night, he had fallen asleep. + +Katharina at once spoke her name and the old man answered her, saying +kindly, but with difficulty: "Ah, it is you, you, my child!" + +She took up the lamp and went close to the sick man. He put out his lean +arm to welcome her; but, as her approach brought the light near to him he +covered his eyes, crying out distressfully: "No, no; that hurts. Take +away the lamp." + +Katharina set it down on a low chest behind the head of the bed; then she +went up to the sufferer, gave him her mother's message, and asked him how +he was and why he was left alone. He could only give incoherent answers +which he gasped out with great difficulty, bidding her go close to him +for he could not hear her distinctly. He was very ill, he told her-- +dying. It was good of her to have come for she had always been his pet, +his dear, good little girl. + +"And it was a happy impulse that brought you," he added, "to receive an +old man's blessing. I give it you with my whole heart." + +As he spoke he put forth his hand and she, following an instinctive +prompting, fell on her knees by the side of the couch. + +He laid his burning right hand on her head and murmured some words of +blessing; she, however, scarcely heeded them, for his hand felt like lead +and its heat oppressed and distressed her dreadfully. It was a sincere +grief to her to see this true old friend of her childhood suffering thus +--perhaps indeed dying; at the same time she did not forget what had +brought her here--still, she dared not disturb him in this act of +love. He gave her his blessing--that was kind; but his mutterings did +not come to an end, the weight of the hot hand on her head grew heavier +and heavier, and at last became intolerable. She felt quite dazed, but +with an effort she collected her senses and then perceived that the old +man had wandered off from the usual formulas of blessing and was +murmuring disconnected and inarticulate words. + +At this she raised the terrible, fevered hand, laid it on the bed, and +was about to ask him whether he had betrayed her to Benjamin, and if he +had mentioned her name, when--Merciful God! there on his cheeks were the +same livid spots that she had noticed on those of the plague stricken man +in Medea's house. With a cry of horror she sprang up, snatched at the +lamp, held it over the sufferer, heedless of his cries of anguish, looked +into his face, and pulled away the weary hands with which he tried to +screen his eyes from the light. Then, having convinced herself that she +was not mistaken, she fled from room to room out into the hall. + +Here she was met by the housekeeper, who took the lamp out of her hand +and was about to question her; but Katharina only screamed: + +"The plague is in the house! Lock the doors!" and then rushed away, +past the leech who was coming in. With one bound she was in the chariot, +and as the horses started she wailed out to the nurse: + +"The plague--they have the plague. Plotinus has taken the plague!" + +The terrified woman tried to soothe her, assuring her that she must be +mistaken for such hellish fiends did not dare come near so holy a man. +But the girl vouchsafed no reply, merely desiring her to have a bath made +ready for her as soon as they should reach home. + +She felt utterly shattered; on the spot where the old man's plague- +stricken hand had rested she was conscious of a heavy, hateful pressure, +and when the chariot at length drove into their own garden something warm +and heavy-something she could not shake off, still seemed to weigh on her +brain. + +The windows were all dark excepting one on the ground-floor, where a +light was still visible in the room inhabited by Heliodora. A diabolical +thought flashed through her over-excited and restless mind; without +looking to the right hand or the left she obeyed the impulse and went +forward, just as she was, into her friend's sitting-room and then, +lifting a curtain, on into the bedroom. Heliodora was lying on her +couch, still suffering from a headache which had prevented her going to +visit their neighbors; at first she did not notice the late visitor who +stood by her side and bid her good evening. + +A single lamp shed a dim light in the spacious room, and the young girl +had never thought their guest so lovely as she looked in that twilight. +A night wrapper of the thinnest material only half hid her beautiful +limbs. Round her flowing, fair hair, floated the subtle, hardly +perceptible perfume which always pervaded this favorite of fortune. Two +heavy plaits lay like sheeny snakes over her bosom and the white sheet. +Her face was turned upwards and was exquisitely calm and sweet; and as +she lay motionless and smiled up at Katharina, she looked like an angel +wearied in well-doing. + +No man could resist the charms of this woman, and Orion had succumbed. +By her side was a lute, from which she brought the softest and most +soothing tones, and thus added to the witchery of her appearance. + +Katharina's whole being was in wild revolt; she did not know how she was +able to return Heliodora's greeting, and to ask her how she could +possibly play the lute with a headache. + +"Just gliding my fingers over the strings calms and refreshes my blood," +she replied pleasantly. "But you, child, look as if you were suffering +far worse than I.--Did you come home in the chariot that drove up just +now?" + +"Yes," replied Katharina. "I have been to see our dear old bishop. He +is very ill, dying; he will soon be taken from us. Oh, what a fearful +day! First Orion's mother, then Paula, and now this to crown all! Oh, +Heliodora, Heliodora!" + +She fell on her knees by the bed and pressed her face against her pitying +friend's bosom. Heliodora saw the tears which had risen with unaffected +feeling to the girl's eyes; her tender soul was full of sympathy with the +sorrow of such a gladsome young creature, who had already had so much to +suffer, and she leaned over the child, kissing her affectionately on the +brow, and murmuring words of consolation. Katharina clung to her +closely, and pointing to the top of her head where that burning hand had +pressed it, she said: "There, kiss there: there is where the pain is +worst!--Ah, that is nice, that does me good." + +And, as the tender-hearted Heliodora's fresh lips rested on the plague- +tainted hair, Katharina closed her eyes and felt as a gladiator might who +hitherto has only tried his weapons on the practising ground, and now for +the first time uses them in the arena to pierce his opponent's heart. +She had a vision of herself as some one else, taller and stronger than +she was; aye, as Death itself, the destroyer, breathing herself into her +victim's breast. + +These feelings entirely possessed her as she knelt on the soft carpet, +and she did not notice that another woman was crossing it noiselessly to +her comforter's bed-side, with a glance of intelligence at Heliodora. +Just as she exclaimed: "Another kiss there-it burns so dreadfully," she +felt two hands on her temples and two lips, not Heliodora's, were pressed +on her head. + +She looked up in astonishment and saw the smiling face of her mother, who +had come after her to ask how the bishop was, and who wished to take her +share in soothing the pain of her darling. + +How well her little surprise had succeeded! + +But what came over the child? She started to her feet as if lightning +had struck her, as if an asp had stung her, looked horror-stricken into +her mother's eyes, and then, as Susannah was on the point of clasping the +little head to her bosom once more to kiss the aching, the cursed spot, +Katharina pushed her away, flew, distracted, through the sitting-room +into the vestibule, and down the narrow steps leading to the bathroom. + +Her mother looked after her, shaking her head in bewilderment. Then she +turned to Heliodora with a shrug, and said, as the tears filled her eyes: + +"Poor, poor little thing! Too many troubles have come upon her at once. +Her life till lately was like a long, sunny day, and now the hail is +pelting her from all sides at once. She has bad news of the bishop, I +fear." + +"He is dying, she said," replied the young widow with feeling. + +"Our best and truest friend," sobbed Susannah. "It is, it really +is too much. I often think that I must myself succumb, and as for her-- +hardly more than a child!--And with what resignation she bears the +heaviest sorrows!--You, Heliodora, are far from knowing what she has gone +through; but you have no doubt seen how her only thought is to seem +bright, so as to cheer my heart. Not a sigh, not a complaint has passed +her lips. She submits like a saint to everything, without a murmur. +But, now that her clear old friend is stricken, she has lost her self- +control for the first time. She knows all that Plotinus has been to me." +And she broke down into fresh sobbing. When she was a little calmer, she +apologised for her weakness and bid her fair guest good night. + +Katharina, meanwhile, was taking a bath. + +A bathroom was an indispensable adjunct to every wealthy Graeco-Egyptian +house, and her father had taken particular pains with its construction. +It consisted of two chambers, one for men and one for women; both fitted +with equal splendor. + +White marble, yellow alabaster, purple porphyry on all sides; while the +pavement was of fine Byzantine mosaic on a gold ground. There were no +statues, as in the baths of the heathen; the walls were decorated with +bible texts in gold letters, and above the divan, which was covered with +a giraffe skin, there was a crucifix. On the middle panel of the +coffered ceiling was inscribed defiantly, in the Coptic language the +first axiom of the Jacobite creed: "We believe in the single, +indivisible nature of Christ Jesus." And below this hung silver lamps. + +The large bath had been filled immediately for Katharina, as the furnace +was heated every evening for the ladies of the house. As she was +undressing, her maid showed her a diseased date. The head gardener, had +brought it to her, for he had that afternoon, discovered that his palms, +too, had been attacked. But the woman soon regretted her loquacity, for +when she went on to say that Anchhor, the worthy shoemaker who, only the +day before yesterday, had brought home her pretty new sandals, had died +of the plague, Katharina scolded her sharply and bid her be silent. But +as the maid knelt before her to unfasten her sandals, Katharina herself +took up the story again, asking her whether the shoemaker's pretty young +wife had also been attacked. The girl said that she was still alive, but +that the old mother-in-law and all the children had been shut into the +house, and even the shutters barred as soon as the corpse had been +brought out. The authorities had ordered that this should be done in +every case, so that the pestilence might not pervade the streets or be +disseminated among the healthy. Food and drink were handed to the +captives through a wicket in the door. Such regulations, she added, +seemed particularly well-considered and wise. But she would have done +better to keep her opinions to herself, for before she had done speaking +Katharina gave her an angry push with her foot. Then she desired her not +to be sparing with the 'smegma',--[A material like soap, but used in a +soft state.]--and to wash her hair as thoroughly as possible. + +This was done; and Katharina herself rubbed her hands and arms with +passionate diligence. Then she had water poured over her head again and +again, till, when she desired the maid to desist, she had to lean +breathless and almost exhausted against the marble. + +But in spite of smegma and water she still felt the pressure of the +burning hand on top of her head, and her heart seemed oppressed by some +invisible load of lead. + +Her mother! oh, her mother! She had kissed her there, where the plague +had actually touched her, and in fancy she could hear her gasping and +begging for a drink of water like the dying wretches to whom her fate had +led her. And then--then came the servants of the senate and shut her +into the pestilential house with the sick; she saw the pest in mortal +form, a cruel and malignant witch; behind her, tall and threatening, +stood her inexorable companion Death, reaching out a bony hand and +clutching her mother, and then all who were in the house with her, and +last of all, herself. + +Her arms dropped by her side: powerful and terrible as she had felt +herself this morning, she was now crushed by a sense of miserable and +impotent weakness. Her defiance had been addressed to a mortal, a frail, +tender woman; and God and Fate had put her in the front of the battle +instead of Heliodora. She shuddered at the thought. + +As she went up from the bath-room, her mother met her in the hall and +said: + +"What, still here, Child? How you startled me! And is it true? Is +Plotinus really ill of a complaint akin to the plague?" + +"Worse than that, mother," she replied sadly. "He has the plague; and I +remembered that a bath is the right thing when one has been in a plague- +stricken house; you, too, have kissed and touched me. Pray have the fire +lighted again, late as it is, and take a bath too." + +"But, Child," Susannah began with a laugh; but Katharina gave her no +peace till she yielded, and promised to bathe in the men's room, which +had not been used at all since the appearance of the epidemic. +When Dame Susannah found herself alone she smiled to herself in silent +thankfulness, and in the bath again she lifted up her heart and hands in +prayer for her only child, the loving daughter who cared for her so +tenderly. + +Katharina went to her own room, after ascertaining that the clothes she +had worn this evening had been sacrificed in the bath-furnace. + +It was past midnight, but still she bid the maid sit up, and she did not +go to bed. She could not have found rest there. She was tempted to go +out on the balcony, and she sat down there on a rocking chair. The night +was sultry and still. Every house, every tree, every wall seemed to +radiate the heat it had absorbed during the day. Along the quay came a +long procession of pilgrims; this was followed by a funeral train and +soon after came another--both so shrouded in clouds of dust that the +torches of the followers looked like coals glimmering under ashes. +Several who had died of the pestilence, and whom it had been impossible +to bury by day, were being borne to the grave together. One of these +funerals, so she vaguely fancied, was Heliodora's; the other her own +perhaps--or her mother's--and she shivered at the thought. The long +train wandered on under its shroud of dust, and stood still when it +reached the Necropolis; then the sledge with the bier came back empty on +red hot runners--but she was not one of the mourners--she was imprisoned +in the pestiferous house. Then, when she was freed again--she saw it all +quite clearly--two heads had been cut off in the courtyard of the Hall of +justice: Orion's and Paula's--and she was left alone, quite alone and +forlorn. Her mother was lying by her father's side under the sand in the +cemetery, and who was there to care for her, to be troubled about her, to +protect her? She was alone in the world like a tree without roots, like +a leaf blown out to sea, like an unfledged bird that has fallen out of +the nest. + +Then, for the first time since that evening when she had borne false +witness, her memory reverted to all she had been taught at school and in +the church of the torments of hell, and she pictured the abode of the +damned, and the scorching, seething Lake of fire in which murderers, +heretics, false witnesses.... + +What was that? + +Had hell indeed yawned, and were the flames soaring up to the sky through +the riven shell of the earth? Had the firmament opened to pour living +fire and black fumes on the northern part of the city? + +She started up in dismay, her eyes fixed on the terrible sight. The +whole sky seemed to be in flames; a fiery furnace, with dense smoke and +myriads of shooting sparks, filled the whole space between earth and +heaven. A devouring conflagration was apparently about to annihilate the +town, the river, the starry vault itself; the metal heralds which usually +called the faithful to church lifted up their voices; the quiet road at +her feet suddenly swarmed with thousands of people; shrieks, yells and +frantic commands came up from below, and in the confusion of tongues she +could distinguish the words "Governor's Palace"--"Arabs"--"Mukaukas"-- +"Orion"-- "fire"--"Put it out"--"Save it." + +At this moment the old head-gardener called up to her from the lotos- +tank: "The palace is in flames! And in this drought--God All-merciful +save the town!" + +Her knees gave way; she put out her hands with a faint cry to feel for +some support, and two arms were thrown about her-the arms which she so +lately had pushed away: her mother's: that mother who had bent over her +only child and inhaled death in a kiss on her plague-tainted hair. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The governor's palace, the pride and glory of Memphis, the magnificent +home of the oldest and noblest family of the land--the last house that +had given birth to a race of native Egyptians held worthy, even by the +Greeks, to represent the emperor and uphold the highest dignity in the +world--the very citadel of native life, lay in ashes; and just as a giant +of the woods crushes and destroys in its fall many plants of humbler +growth, so the burning of the great house destroyed hundreds of smaller +dwellings. + +This night's work had torn the mast and rudder, and many a plank besides, +from that foundering vessel, the town of Memphis. It seemed indeed a +miracle that had saved the whole from being reduced to cinders; and for +this, next to God's providence, they might thank the black incendiary +himself and his Arabs. The crime was committed with cool and shrewd +foresight, and carried through to the end. During his visitation +throughout the rambling buildings Obada had looked out for spots that +might suit his purpose, and two hours after sunset he had lighted fire +after fire with his own hand, in secret and undetected. The troops he +intended to employ later were waiting under arms at Fostat, and when the +fire broke out, first in the treasury and afterwards in three other +places in the palace, they were immediately marched across and very +judiciously employed. + +All that was precious in this ancient home of a wealthy race, was +conveyed to a place of safety, even the numerous fine horses in the +stables; and the title-deeds of the estate, slaves, and so forth were +already secured at Fostat; still, the flames consumed vast quantities of +treasures that could never be replaced. Beautiful works of art, +manuscripts and books such as were only preserved here, old and splendid +plants from every zone, vessels and woven stuffs that had been the +delight of connoisseurs--all perished in heaps. But the incendiary +regretted none of them, for all possibility of proving how much that was +precious had fallen into his hands was buried under their ashes. + +The worst that could happen to him now was to be deposed from office for +his too audacious proceedings. Of all the towns he had seen in the +course of the triumphant incursions of Islam none had attracted him so +greatly as Damascus, and he now had the means of spending the latter half +of his life there in luxurious enjoyment. + +At the same time it was desirable to rescue as much as possible from the +flames; for it would have given his enemies a fatal hold upon him, if the +famous old city of Memphis should perish by his neglect. And he was a +man to give battle to the awful element. + +Not another building fell a prey to it on the Nile quay; but a light +southerly breeze carried burning fragments to the northwest, and several +houses in the poorer quarter on the edge of the desert caught fire. +Thither the larger portion of those who could combat the flames and +rescue the inhabitants were at once directed; and here, as at the palace, +he acted on the principle of sacrificing whatever could not be saved +entire. Thus a whole quarter of the town was destroyed, hundreds of +beggared families lost all they possessed; and yet he, whose ruthless +avarice had cast so many into misery, was admired and lauded; for he was +everywhere at once: now by the river and now by the desert, always where +the danger was greatest, and where the presence of the leader was most +needed. Here he was seen in the very midst of the fire, there he swung +the axe with his own hand; now, mounted on horseback, he rode down the +line where the dry grass was to be torn up by the roots and soaked with +water; now, on foot, he directed the scanty jet from the pipes or, with +Herculean strength, flung back into the flames a beam which had fallen +beyond the limits he had set. His shrill voice sounded, as his huge +height towered, above all others; every eye was fixed on his black face +and flashing eyes and teeth, while his example carried away all his +followers to imitate it. His shouts of command made the scene of the +fire like a battle-field; the Moslems, so ably led, regardless of life as +they were and ready to strain and exert their strength to the utmost, +wrought wonders in the name of their God and His Prophet. + +The Egyptians, too, did their best; but they felt themselves impotent by +comparison with what these Arabs did, and they hardly felt anything but +the disgrace of being over-mastered by them. + +The light shone far across the country; even he whose splendid +inheritance was feeding the flames perceived, between midnight and dawn, +a glow on the distant western horizon which he was unable to account for. + +He had been riding towards it for about half an hour when the caravan +halted at the last station but one, on the high road between Kolzum and +Babylon. + + [Suez, and the Greek citadel near which Amru founded Fostat and + Cairo subsequently grew up.] + +A considerable troop of horse soldiers dismounted at the same time, but +Orion had not summoned these to protect him; on the contrary, he was in +their charge and they were taking him, a prisoner, to Fostat. He had +quitted the chariot in which he had set out and had been made to mount a +dromedary; two horsemen armed to the teeth rode constantly at his side. +His fellow-travellers were allowed to remain in their chariot. + +At the inn which they had now reached Justinus got out and desired his +companion, a pale-faced man who sat sunk into a heap, to do the same; but +with a weary shake of the head he declined to move. + +"Are you in pain, Narses?" asked Justinus affectionately, and Narses +briefly replied in a husky voice: "All over," and settled himself against +the cushion at the back of the chariot. He even refused the refreshments +brought out to him by the Senator's servant and interpreter. He seemed +sunk in apathy and to crave nothing but peace. + +This was the senator's nephew. + +With Orion's help, and armed with letters of protection and +recommendation from Amru, the senator had gained his purpose. He had +ransomed Narses, but not before the wretched man had toiled for some time +as a prisoner, first at the canal on the line of the old one constructed +by the Pharaohs, which was being restored under the Khaliff Omar, to +secure the speediest way of transporting grain from Egypt to Arabia and +afterwards in the rock-bound harbor of Aila. On the burning shores of +the Red Sea, under the fearful sun of those latitudes, Narses was +condemned to drag blocks of stone; many days had elapsed before his uncle +could trace him--and in what a state did Justinus find him at last! + +A week before he could reach him, the ex-officer of cavalry had laid +himself down in the wretched sheds for the sick provided for the +laborers; his back still bore the scars of the blows by which the +overseer had spurred the waning strength of his exhausted and suffering +victim. The fine young soldier was a wreck, broken alike in heart and +body and sunk in melancholy. Justinus had hoped to take him home +jubilant to Martina, and he had only this ruin to show her, doomed to the +grave. + +The senator was glad, nevertheless, to have saved this much at any rate. +The sight of the sufferer touched him deeply, and the less Narses would +take or give, the more thankful was Justinus when he gave the faintest +sign of reviving interest. + +In the course of this journey by land and water--and latterly as sharing +the senator's care of his nephew--Orion had become very dear to his old +friend; and at the risk of incurring his displeasure he had even +confessed the reasons that had prompted him to leave Memphis. + +He never could cease to feel that everything good or lofty in himself was +Paula's alone; that her love ennobled and strengthened him; that to +desert her was to abandon himself. His trifling with Heliodora could but +divert him from the high aim he had set before himself. This aim he kept +constantly in view; his spirit hungered for peaceful days in which he +might act on the resolution he had formed in church and fulfil the task +set before him by the Arab governor. + +The knowledge that he had inherited an enormous fortune now afforded him +no joy, for he was forced to confess to himself that but for this +superabundant wealth he might have been a very different man; and more +than once a vehement wish came over him to fling away all his possessions +and wrestle for peace of mind and the esteem of the best men by his own +unaided powers. + +The senator had taken his confession as it was meant: if Thomas' daughter +was indeed what Orion described her there could be but small hope for his +beautiful favorite. He and Martina must e'en make their way home again +with two adopted dear ones, and it must be the care of the old folks to +comfort the young ones instead of the young succoring the old as was +natural. And in spite of everything Orion had won on his affections, +for every day, every hour he was struck by some new quality, some greater +trait than he had looked for in the young man. + +Torches were flaring in the inn-yard where, under a palm-thatched roof +supported on poles and covering a square space in the middle, benches +stood for the guests to rest. Here Justinus and Orion again met for a +few minutes' conversation. + +His warders were also seated near them; they did not let Orion out of +their sight even while they ate their meal of mutton, bread, onions, and +dates. The senator's servants brought some food from the chariot, and +just as Justinus and Orion had begun their attack on it, a tall man came +into the yard and made his way to the benches. This was Philippus, +pausing on his road to Djidda. He had learnt, even before coming in, +whom he would find here, a prisoner; and the Arabs, to whom the leech was +known, allowed him to join the pair, though at the same time they came a +little nearer, and their leader understood Greek. + +Philippus was anything rather than cordially disposed towards Orion; +still, he knew what peril hung over the youth, and how sad a loss he had +suffered. His conscience bid him do all he could to prove helpful in the +trial that awaited him in the matter of the expedition in which Rufinus +had perished. He was the bearer, too, of sad news which the Arabs must +necessarily hear. Orion was indeed furious when he heard of the seizure +and occupation of the governor's residence; still, he believed that Amru +would insist on restitution; but on hearing of his mother's death he +broke down completely. Even the Arabs, seeing the strong man shaken with +sobs and learning the cause of his grief, respectfully withdrew; for the +anguish of a son at the loss of his mother was sacred in their eyes. +They regard the man who mourns for one he loves as stricken by the hand +of the Almighty and hallowed by his touch and treat him with the +reverence of pious awe. + +Orion had not observed their absence, but Philippus at once took +advantage of it to tell him, as briefly as possible, all that related to +the escape of the nuns. He himself knew not yet of the burning of the +palace, or of Paula's imprisonment; but he could tell the senator where +he would find his wife and niece. So by the time he was bidden to mount +and start once more Orion was informed of all that had happened. + +It was with a drooping head, and sunk in melancholy thought that he rode +on his way. + +As for the residence!--whether the Arabs gave it back to him or not, what +did he care?--but his mother, his mother! All she had been to him from +his earliest years rose before his mind; in the deep woe of this parting +he forgot the imminent danger and the dungeon that awaited him, and the +intolerable insult to his rights; nay, even the image of the woman he +loved paled by the side of that of the beloved dead. Perhaps he might +not even gain permission to bury her! + +The way lay through a parched tract of rocky desert, and the further they +went the more intense was that wonderful flush in the west, till day +broke behind the travellers and the glory of the sunrise quenched the +vividness of its glow. + +Another scorching day! The rocks by the wayside still threw long shadows +on the sandy desert-road, when a party of Arab horsemen came from Fostat +to meet the travellers, shouting the latest news to the prisoner's +escort. It was evidently important; but Orion did not understand a word +of what they said. Evil tidings fly fast, however; while the men were +talking together, the dragoman rode up to him and told him that his home +was burnt to the ground and half Memphis still in flames. Then came +other newsbearers, on horseback and on dromedaries; and they met chariots +and files of camels loaded with corn and Egyptian merchandise; and each +and all shouted to the Arab escort reports of what was going on in +Memphis, hoping to be the first to tell the homeward bound party. + +How many times did Orion hear the story--and each time that a traveller +began with: "Have you heard?" pointing westward, the wounds the first +news had inflicted bled anew. + +What lay beneath that mass of ashes? How much had the flames consumed +that never could be replaced! Much that he had silently wished were +possible had in fact been fulfilled--and so soon! Where now was the +burthen of great wealth which had hung about his heels and hindered his +running freely? And yet he did not, even now, feel free; the way was not +yet open before him; he secretly mourned over the ruined house of his +fathers and the wrecked home; a miserable sense of insecurity weighed him +down. No father--no mother-no parental roof! For years he had been, in +fact, perfectly independent, and yet he felt now like a pilot whose boat +had lost its rudder. + +Before him lay a prison, and the closing act of the great tragedy of +which he himself had been the hero. Fate had fallen on his house, had +marked it for destruction as erewhile that of Tantalus. It lay in ashes, +and the victims were already many: two brothers, father, mother--and, far +away from home, Rufinus too. + +But whose was the guilt? + +It was not his ancestors who had sinned; it could only be his own that +had called down this ruin. But was there then such a power as the +Destiny of the ancients--inexorable, iron Fate? Had he not repented and +suffered, been reconciled to his Redeemer, and prepared himself to fight +the hard fight? Perhaps he was indeed to be the hero of a tragedy; then +he would show that it was not the blind Inevitable, but what a man can +make of himself, and what he can do by the aid of the God of might, which +determines his fate. If he must still succumb, it should only be after a +valiant struggle and defense. He would battle fearlessly against every +foe, would press onward in the path he had laid down for himself. His +heart beat high once more; he felt as though he could see his father's +example as a guiding star in the sky, so that he must be true to that +whether to live or to die. And when he turned his eye earthwards again, +still, even there, he had that which made it seem worth the cost of +enduring the pangs of living and the brunt of the hardest battle: Paula +and her love. + +The nearer he approached Fostat, the more ardently his heart swelled with +longing. Heaven must grant him to see her once more, once more to clasp +her in his arms, before--the end! + +It seemed to him that what he had gone through in these few hours must +have removed and set aside everything that could part them. Now, he +felt, he had strength to remain worthy of her; if Heliodora were to come +in his way again he would now certainly, positively, regard and treat her +only as a sister. + +He was conducted at once to the house of the Kadi; but this official was +at the Divan--the council, which his arch-foe, that black monster Obada, +had called together. + +After the labors of the past night the Negro had allowed himself only a +few hours rest, and then had met the council, where he had not been slow +to discover that he had as many enemies as there were members present. + +His most determined opponents were the Kadi Othman, the head of the +Courts of justice and administration, and Khalid the governor of the +exchequer. Neither of them hesitated to express his opinion; and indeed, +no one present at this meeting would have suspected for a moment that +most of the members had, in their peaceful youth, guarded flocks as +shepherds on the mountains, led caravans across the desert, or managed +some small trade. In the contests of tribe against tribe they had found +opportunities for practice in the use of weapons, and for steeling their +courage; but where had they learnt to choose their words with so much +care, and emphasize them with gestures of such natural grace that any +Greek orator would have admired them? It was only when the indignant +orator "thundered and lightened" and was carried away by the heat of +passion that he forgot his dignified moderation, and then how grandly +voice, eye, and action helped each other! And never, even under the +highest excitement, was purity of language overlooked. These men, of +whom very few could read and write, had at their command all the most +effective verses of their poets having thousands of lines stored in their +minds. + +The discussion to-day dealt with the social aspects of an ancient +civilization, unknown but a few years since to the warlike children of +the desert, and yet how ably had the four overseers of public buildings +the comptrollers of the markets, of the irrigation works, and of the +mills, achieved their ends. These bright and untarnished spirits were +equal to the hardest task and capable of carrying it through with energy, +acumen, and success. + +And the sons of these men who had passed through no school were already +well-fitted and invited to give new splendor to cities in their decline, +and new life to the learning of the countries they had subdued. +Everything in this council revealed talent, vitality, and ardor; and +Obada, who had been a slave, found it by no means easy to uphold his +pre-eminence among these assertive scions of free and respectable +families. + +The Kadi spoke frankly and fearlessly against his recent proceedings, +declaring in the name of every member of the Divan, that they disclaimed +all responsibility for what had been done, and that it rested on the +Vekeel alone. Obada was very ready to accept it; and he announced with +such fiery eloquence his determination to give shelter at Fostat to the +natives whom the conflagration had left roofless, he was so fair-spoken, +and he had shown his great qualities in so clear a light during the past +night, that they agreed to postpone their attainder and await the reply +from Medina to the complaints they had forwarded. Discipline, indeed, +required that they should submit; and many a man who would have flown to +meet death on the field as a bride, quailed before the terrible +adventurer who would not shrink from the most hideous deeds. + +Obada had won by hard fighting. No one could prove a theft against him +of so much as a single drachma; but he nevertheless had to take many a +rough word, and with one consent the assembly refused him the deference +justly due to the governor's representative. + +Bitterly indignant, he remained till the very last in the council- +chamber, no one staying with him, not even his own subalterns, to speak a +soothing word in praise of the power and eloquence of his address, while +the same cursed wretches would, under similar circumstances, have buzzed +round Amru like swarming bees, and have escorted him home like curs +wagging their tails. He ascribed the contumely and opposition he met +with to their prejudice, as haughty, free-born men against his birth, and +not to any fault of his own, and yet he looked down on them all, feeling +himself the superior of each by himself; if the blow in Medina were +successful, he would pick out his victims, and then.... + +His dreams of vengeance were abruptly broken by a messenger, covered with +dust from head to foot; he brought good news: Orion was taken and safely +bestowed in the Kadi's house. + +"And why not in mine?" asked Obada in peremptory tones. "Who is the +governor's representative here. Othman or I? Take the prisoner to my +house." + +And he forthwith went home. But instead of the prisoner there presently +appeared before him an official of the Kadi's household, who informed +him, from his master, that as the Khaliff had constituted Othman supreme +judge in Egypt this matter was in his hands; if Obada wished to see the +prisoner he might go to the Kadi's residence, or visit him later in the +town prison of Memphis, whither Orion would presently be transferred. + +He rushed off, raging, to his enemy's house, but his stormy fury was met +by the placidity of a calm and judicial mind. Othman was a man between +forty and fifty years old, but his soft, black beard was already turning +grey; his noble dark face bore the stamp of a lofty, high-bred soul, and +a keen but temperate spirit shone in his eyes. There was something +serene and clear in his whole person; he was a man to bear the burthen of +life's vicissitudes with dignity, while he had set himself the task of +saving others from them so far as in him lay. + +The patriarch's complaints had come also to the Kadi's knowledge, and he, +too, was minded to exact retribution for the massacre of the Moslem +soldiers; but the punishment should fall on none but the guilty. He +would have been sorry to believe that Orion was one of them, for he had +esteemed his father as a brave man and a just judge, and had taken many a +word of good advice from the experienced Egyptian. + +The scene between him and the infuriated Vekeel was a painful one even +for the attendants who stood round; and Orion, who heard Obada's raging +from the adjoining room, could gather from it some idea of the relentless +hatred with which his negro enemy would persecute him. + +However, as after the wildest storm the sea ebbs in ripples so even this +tempest came to a more peaceful conclusion. The Kadi represented to the +Vekeel what an unheard-of thing it would be, and in what a disgraceful +light it would set Moslem justice if one of the noblest families in the +country--to whose head, too, the cause of Islam owed so much--were robbed +of its possessions on mere suspicion. To this the Vekeel replied that +there were definite accusations brought by the head of the native Church, +and that nothing had been robbed, but merely confiscated and placed in +security. As to what Allah had thought fit to destroy by fire, no one +could be held answerable for that. There was no "mere suspicion" in the +case, for he himself had in his possession a document which amply proved +that Paula, Orion's beloved, had been the instigator of the crime which +had cost the lives of twelve of the true believers.--The girl herself had +been taken into custody yesterday. He would cross-examine her himself, +too, in spite of all the Kadis in the world; for though Othman might +choose to let any number of Moslems be murdered by these dogs of +Christians he, Obada, would not overlook it; and if he did, by tomorrow +morning the thousand Egyptians who were digging the canal would have +killed with their shovels the three Moslems who kept guard over them. + +At this, Othman assured the Vekeel that he was no less anxious to punish +the miscreants, but that he must first make sure of their identity, and +that, in accordance with the law, justly and without fear of man or blind +hatred, with due caution and justice. He, as judge, was no less averse +to letting off the guilty than he was to punishing the innocent; so the +enquiry must be allowed to proceed quietly. If Obada wished to examine +Paula he, the Kadi, had no objection; to preside over the court and to +direct the trial was his business, and that he would not abdicate even +for the Khaliff himself so long as Omar thought him worthy to hold his +office. + +To all this Obada had no choice but to agree, though with an ill-grace; +and as the Vekeel wished to see Orion, the young man was called in. The +huge negro looked at him from head to foot like a slave he proposed to +buy; and, when Othman went to the door and so could not see him, he could +not resist the malicious impulse: he glanced significantly at the +prisoner, and drew his forefinger sharply and quickly across his black +throat as though to divide the head from the trunk. Then he +contemptuously turned his back on the youth. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +In the course of the afternoon the Vekeel rode across to the prison in +Memphis. He expected to find the bishop there, but instead he was met +with the news that Plotinus was dead of the pestilence. + +This was a malignant stroke of fate; for with the bishop perished the +witness who could have betrayed to him the scheme plotted for the rescue +of the nuns.--But no! The patriarch, too, no doubt, knew all. + +Still, of what use was that at this moment? He had no time to lose, and +Benjamin could hardly be expected to return within three weeks. + +Obada had met Paula's father in the battle-field by Damascus, and it had +often roused his ire to know that this hero's name was held famous even +among the Moslems. His envious soul grudged even to the greatest that +pure honor which friend and foe alike are ready to pay; he did not +believe in it, and regarded the man to whom it was given as a time- +serving hypocrite. + +And as he hated the father so he did the daughter, though he had never +seen her. Orion's fate was sealed in his mind; and before his death he +should suffer more acutely through the execution of Paula, whether she +denied or owned her guilt. He might perhaps succeed in making her +confess, so he desired that she should at once be brought into the +judge's council-room; but he failed completely in his attempt, though he +promised her, through the interpreter, the greatest leniency if she +admitted her guilt and threatened her with an agonizing death if she +refused to do so. His prisoner, indeed, was not at all what he had +expected, and the calm pride with which she denied every accusation +greatly impressed the upstart slave. At first he tried to supplement the +interpreter by shouting words of broken Greek, or intimidating her by +glaring looks whose efficacy he had often proved on his subordinates but +without the least success; and then he had her informed that he possessed +a document which placed her guilt beyond doubt. Even this did not shake +her; she only begged to see it. He replied that she would know all about +it soon enough, and he accompanied the interpreter's repetition of the +answer with threatening gestures. + +He had met with shrewd and influential women among his own people; he had +seen brave ones go forth to battle, and share the perils of a religious +war, with even wilder and more blood-thirsty defiance of death than the +soldiers themselves; but these had all been wives and mothers, and +whenever he had seen them break out of the domestic circle, beyond which +no maiden could ever venture, it was because they were under the dominion +of some passionate impulse and a burning partisanship for husband or son, +family or tribe. The women of his nation lived for the most part in +modest retirement, and none but those who were carried away by some +violent emotion infringed the custom. + +But this girl! There she stood, immovably calm, like a warrior at the +head of his tribe. There was something in her mien that quelled him, and +at the same time roused to the utmost his desire to make her feel his +power and to crush her pride. She was as much taller than the women of +his nation as he was taller than any other captain in the Moslem army; +prompted by curiosity, he went close up to her to measure her height by +his own, and passed his hand through the air from his swarthy throat to +touch the crown of her head; and the depth of loathing with which she +shrank from him did not escape his notice. The blood mounted to his +head; he desired the interpreter to inform her that she was to hope for +no mercy, and inwardly devoted her to a cruel death. + +Pale, but prepared to meet the worst, Paula returned to the squalid room +she occupied with her faithful Betta. + +Her arrival at the prison had been terrible. The guards had seemed +disposed to place her in a room filled with a number of male and female +criminals, whence the rattle of their chains and a frantic uproar of +coarse voices met her ear; however, the interpreter and the captain of +the town-watch had taken charge of her, prompted by Martina's promise of +a handsome reward if they could go to her next morning with a report that +Paula had been decently accommodated. + +The warder's mother-in-law, too, had taken her under her protection. +This woman was the inn-keeper's wife from the riverside inn of Nesptah, +and she at once recognized Paula as the handsome damsel who had refreshed +herself there after the evening on the river with Orion, and whom she had +supposed to be his betrothed. She happened to be visiting her daughter, +the keeper's wife, and induced her to do what she could to be agreeable +to Paula. So she and Betta were lodged in a separate cell, and her gold +coin proved acceptable to the man, who did his utmost to mitigate her +lot. Indeed, Pulcheria had even been allowed to visit her and to bring +her the last roses that the drought had left in the garden. + +Susannah had carried out her purpose of sending her food and fruit; but +they remained in the outer room, and the messenger was desired to explain +that no more were to be sent, for that she was supplied with all she +needed. + +Confident in her sense of innocence, she had looked forward calmly to her +fate building her hopes on the much lauded justice of the Arab judges. +But it was not they, it would seem, who were to decide it, but that black +monster Orion's foe; crushed by the sense of impotence against the +arbitrary despotism of the ruthless villain, whose victim she must be, +she sat sunk in gloomy apathy, and hardly heard the old nurse's words of +encouragement. + +She did not fear death; but to die without having seen her father once +more, without saying and proving to Orion that she was his alone, wholly +his and for ever--that was too hard to bear. + +While she was wringing her hands, in a state verging on despair, the man +who had ruined the happiness, the peace, and the fortunes of so many of +his fellow-creatures was cantering through the streets of Memphis, +mounted on the finest horse in Orion's stable, and firmly determined to +make his defiant prisoner feel his power. When he reached the great +market-place in the quarter known as Ta-anch he was forced to bring his +steed to a quieter pace, for in front of the Curia--the senatehouse--an +immense gathering of people had collected. The Vekeel forced his way +through them with cruel indifference. He knew what they wanted and paid +no heed to them. The hapless crowd had for some time past met here +daily, demanding from the authorities some succor in their fearful need. +Processions and pilgrimages had had no result yesterday, so to-day they +besieged the Curia. But could the senate make the Nile rise, or stay the +pestilence, or prevent the dates dropping from the palm-trees? Could +they help, when Heaven denied its aid? + +These were the questions which the authorities had already put at least +ten times to the shrieking multitude from the balcony of the town hall, +and each time the crowd had yelled in reply: "Yes--yes. You must!--it is +your duty; you take the taxes, and you are put there to take care of us!" + +Even yesterday the distracted creatures had been wholly unmanageable and +had thrown stones at the building: to-day, after the fearful +conflagration and the death of their bishop, they had assembled in vast +numbers, more furious and more desperate than ever. The senators sat +trembling on their antique seats of gilt ivory, the relics of departed +splendor imitated from those of the Roman senators, looking at each other +and shrugging their shoulders while they listened to a letter which had +just reached them from the hadi. This document required them, in +conformity with Obada's determination, to make known to the populace, +by public proclamation and declaration, that any citizen whose house had +been destroyed by the fire of the past night would be granted ground and +building materials without payment, at Fostat across the Nile, where he +might found a new home provided he would settle there and embrace Islam. + +This degrading offer must be announced: no discussion or recalcitrancy +could help that. + +And what could they, for their part, do for the complaining crowd? + +The plague was snatching them away; the vegetables, which constituted +half their food at this season, were dried up; the river, their palatable +and refreshing drink, was poisoned; the dates, their chief luxury, +ripened only to be rejected with loathing. Then there was the comet in +the sky, no hope of a harvest--even of a single ear, for months to come. +The bishop dead, all confidence lost in the intercessions of the Church, +God's mercy extinct as it would seem, withdrawn from the land under +infidel rule! + +And they on whose help the populace counted,--poor, weak men, councillors +of no counsel, liable from hour to hour to be called to follow those who +had succumbed to the plague, and who had but just quitted their vacant +seats in obedience to the fateful word. + +Yesterday each one had felt convinced that their necessity and misery had +reached its height, and yet in the course of the night it had redoubled +for many. Their self-dependence was exhausted; but there still was one +sage in the city who might perhaps find some new way, suggest some new +means of saving the people from despair. + +Stones were again flying down through the open roof, and the members of +the council started up from their ivory seats and sought shelter behind +the marble piers and columns. A wild turmoil came up from the market- +place to the terror-stricken Fathers of the city, and the mob was +hammering with fists and clubs on the heavy doors of the Curia. Happily +they were plated with bronze and fastened with strong iron bolts, but +they might fly open at any moment and then the furious mob would storm +into the hall. + +But what was that? + +For a moment the roar and yelling ceased, and then began again, but in a +much milder form. Instead of frenzied curses and imprecations shouts now +rose of "Hail, hail!" mixed with appeals: "Help us, save us, give us +council. Long live the sage!" "Help us with your magic, Father!" +"You know the secrets and the wisdom of the ancients!" "Save us, Save +us! Show those money-bags, those cheats in the Curia the way to help +us!" + +At this the president of the town-council ventured forth from his refuge +behind the statue of Trajan--the only image that the priesthood had +spared--and to climb a ladder which was used for lighting the hanging +lamps, so as to peep out of the high window. + +He saw an old man in shining white linen robes, riding on a fine white +ass through the crowd which reverently made way for him. The lictors of +the town marched before him with their fasces, on to which they had tied +palm branches in token of a friendly embassy. Looking further he could +see that behind the old man came a slave, besides the one who drove his +ass, carrying a quantity of manuscript scrolls. This raised his hopes, +for the scrolls looked very old and yellow, and no doubt contained a +store of wisdom; nay, probably magic formulas and effectual charms. + +With a loud exclamation of "Here he comes!" the senator descended the +ladder; in a few minutes the door was opened with a rattling of iron +bolts, and it was with a sigh of relief that they saw the old man come in +and none attempt to follow him. + +When Horapollo entered the council-chamber he found the senators sitting +on their ivory chairs with as much dignified calm as though the meeting +had been uninterrupted; but at a sign from the president they all rose to +receive the old man, and he returned their greeting with reserve, as +homage due to him. He also accepted the raised seat, which the president +quitted in his honor while he himself took one of the ordinary chairs at +his side. + +The negotiation began at once, and was not disturbed by the crowd, though +still from the market-place there came a ceaseless roar, like the +breaking of distant waves and the buzzing of thousands of swarming bees. + +The sage began modestly, saying that he, in his simplicity, could not +but despair of finding any help where so many wise men had failed; he was +experienced only in the lore and mysteries of the Fathers, and he had +come thither merely to tell the council what they had considered +advisable in such cases, and to suggest that their example should be +followed. + +He spoke low but fluently, and a murmur of approval followed; then, when +the president went on to speak of the low state of the Nile as the root +of all the evil, the old man interrupted him, begging them to begin by +considering the particular difficulties which they might attack by their +own efforts. + +The pestilence was in possession of the city; he had just come through +the quarter that had been destroyed by the fire, and had seen above fifty +sick deprived of all care and reduced to destitution. Here something +could be done; here was a way of showing the angry populace that their +advisers and leaders were not sitting with their hands in their laps. + +A councillor then proposed that the convent of St. Cecilia, or the now +deserted and dilapidated odeum should be given up to them; but Horapollo +objected explaining very clearly that such a crowd of sick in the midst +of the city would be highly dangerous to the healthy citizens. This +opinion was shared by his friend Philippus, who had indeed commended the +plan he had to propose as the only right one. Whither had their +forefathers transported, not merely their beneficent institutions, +but their vast temples and tomb-buildings which covered so much space? +Always to the desert outside the town. Arrianus had even written these +verses on the gigantic sphinx near the Pyramids. + +"The gods erewhile created these far-shining forms, wisely sparing the +fields and fertile corn-bearing plain." + +The moderns had forgotten thus to spare the arable land, and they had +also neglected to make good use of the desert. The dead and plague- +stricken must not be allowed to endanger the living; they must therefore +be lodged away from the town, in the Necropolis in the desert. + +"But we cannot let them be under the broiling sun," cried the president. + +"Still less," added another, "can we build a house for them in a day." + +To this Horapollo replied: + +"And who would be so foolish as to ask you to do either? But there are +linen and posts to be had in Memphis. Have some large tents pitched in +the Necropolis, and all who fall sick of the pestilence removed there at +the expense of the city and tended under their shade. Appoint three or +four of your number to carry this into execution and there will be a +shelter for the roofless sick in a few hours. How many boatmen and +shipwrights are standing idle on the quays! Call them together and +in an hour they will be at work." + +This suggestion was approved. A linen-merchant present exclaimed: "I can +supply what is needed," and another who dealt in the same wares, and +exported this famous Egyptian manufacture to remote places, also put in a +word, desiring that his house might have the order as he could sell +cheaper. This squabble might have absorbed the attention of the meeting +till it rose, and perhaps have been renewed the next day, if Horapollo's +proposal that they should divide the commission equally had not been +hastily adopted. + +The populace hailed the announcement that tents would be erected for the +sick in the desert, with applause from a thousand voices. The deputies +chosen to superintend the task set to work at once, and by night the most +destitute were safe under the first large hospital tent. + +The old man settled some other important questions in the same way, +always appealing to the lore of the ancients. + +At length he spoke of the chief subject, and he did so with great caution +and tact. + +All the events of the last few weeks, he said, pointed to the conclusion +that Heaven was wroth with the hapless land of their fathers. As a sign +of their anger the Immortals had sent the comet, that terrible star whose +ominous splendor was increasing daily. To make the Nile rise was not in +the power of men; but the ancients--and here his audience listened with +bated breath--the ancients had been more intimately familiar with the +mysterious powers that rule the life of Nature than men in the later +times, whether priests or laymen. In those days every servant of the +Most High had been a naturalist and a student, and when Egypt had been +visited by such a calamity as that of this year, a sacrifice had been +offered--a precious victim against which all mankind, nay and all his own +feelings revolted; still, this sacrifice had never failed of its effect, +no, never. Here was the evidence--and he pointed to the manuscripts in +his lap. + +The councillors had begun to be restless in their seats, and first the +president and then the others, one after another, exclaimed and asked: + +"But the victim?" + +"What did they sacrifice?" + +"What about the victim?" + +"Allow me to say no more about it till another time," said the old man. +"What good could it do to tell you that now? The first thing is to find +the thing that is acceptable to the gods." + +"What is it?" + +"Speak--do not keep us on the rack!" was shouted on all sides; but he +remained inexorable, promising only to call the council together when the +right time should come and desiring that the president would proclaim +from the balcony that Horapollo knew of a sacrifice which would cause the +Nile at last to rise. As soon as the right victim could be found, the +people should be invited to give their consent. In the time of their +forefathers it had never failed of its effect, so men, women, and +children might go home in all confidence, and await the future with new +and well-founded hopes. + +And this announcement, with which the president mingled his praises of +the venerable Horapollo, had a powerful effect. The crowd hallooed with +glee, as though they had found new life. "Hail, hail !" was shouted +again and again, and it was addressed, not merely to the old man who had +promised them deliverance, but also to the Fathers of the city, who felt +as if a fearful load had fallen from their souls. + +The old man's scheme was, to be sure, not pious nor rightly Christian; +but had the power of the Church been in any way effectual? And this +having failed they must of their own accord have had recourse to means +held reprobate by the priesthood. Magic and the black arts were +genuinely Egyptian; and when faith had no power, these asserted +themselves and superstition claimed its own. Though Medea had been taken +by surprise and imprisoned, this had not been done to satisfy the law, +but with a view to secretly utilizing her occult science for the benefit +of the community. In such dire need no means were too base; and though +the old man himself was horrified at those he proposed he was sure of +public approbation if only they had the desired result. If only they +could avert the calamity the sin could be expiated, and the Almighty was +so merciful! + +The bishop had a seat and voice in the council, but Fate itself had saved +them from the dilemma of having to meet his remonstrances. + +When Horapollo went out into the market-place he was received with +acclamations, and as much gratitude as though he had already achieved the +deliverance of the people and country. + +What had he done?--Whether the work he had set going were to fail or to +succeed he could not remain in Memphis, for in either case he would never +have peace again. But that did not daunt him; it would certainly be very +good for the two women to be removed from the perilous neighborhood of +the Arab capital, and he was firmly determined to take them away with +him. For his dear Philip, too, nothing could be better than a +transplantion into other soil. + +At the house of Rufinus he now learnt the fate that had fallen on Paula. + +She was out the way, at any rate for the present; still, if she should be +released to-morrow or the day after, or even a month hence, she would be +as great a hindrance as ever. His plots against her must therefore be +carried out. His own isolation provoked him, and what a satisfaction it +would be if only he should succeed in stirring up the Egyptian Christians +to the heathen deed to which he was endeavoring to prompt them. + +If Paula should be condemned to death by the Arabs, the execution of the +scheme would be greatly promoted; and now the first point was to ensure +the favor of the black Vekeel, for everything depended on his consent. + +Joanna and Pulcheria thought him more good-humored and amiable than they +had ever known him; his proposal that he and Philippus should join their +household was hailed with delight even by little Mary, and the women +conducted him all over the house, supporting his steps with affectionate +care. All he saw there pleased him beyond measure. Such neatness and +comfort could only exist where there was a woman's eye to direct and +watch over everything. The rooms on the ground floor, which had been the +master's, should be his, and the corresponding wing on the other side +could be made ready for Philippus. The dining-room, the large ante- +chamber, and the viridarium would be common ground, and the upper story +was large enough for the women and any guests. He would move in as soon +as he had settled some business he had in hand. + +It must be something of a pleasant nature, for as the old man spoke of it +his sunken lips mumbled with satisfaction, while his sparkling eyes +seemed to say to Pulcheria: "And I have something good in store for you, +too, dear child." + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in authority + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 11. + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Paula passed a fearful night in the small, frightfully hot prison-cell in +which she and Betta were shut up. She could not sleep, and when once she +succeeded in closing her eyes she was roused by the yells and clanking +chains of the captives in the common prison and the heavy step of another +sufferer who paced the room overhead, even more restless than herself. + +Poor fellow-victim! Was it a tortured conscience that drove him hither +and thither, or was he as innocent as she was, and was it longing, love, +and anxiety that bereft him of sleep? + +He was no vulgar criminal. There was no room for those in this part of +the building; and at midnight, when the noise in the large hall was +suddenly silenced, soft sounds of the lute came down to her from his +cell, and only a master could strike the strings with such skill. + +She cared nothing for the stranger; but she was grateful for his gift of +music, for it diverted her thoughts from herself, and she listened with +growing interest. Glad of an excuse for rising from her hard, hot bed, +she sprang up and placed herself close to the one window, an opening +barred with iron. But then the music ceased and a conversation began +between the warder and her fellow-prisoner. + +What voice was that? Did she deceive herself, or hear rightly? + +Her heart stood still while she listened; and now every doubt was +silenced: It was Orion, and none other, whom she heard speaking in the +room above. Then the warder spoke his name; they were talking of her +deceased uncle; and now, as if in obedience to some sign, they lowered +their voices. She heard whispering but could not distinguish what was +said. At length parting words were uttered in louder tones, the door of +the cell was locked and the prisoner approached his window. + +At this she pressed her face close to the heated iron bars, looked +upwards, listened a moment and, as nothing was stirring, she said, first +softly, and then rather louder: "Orion, Orion!" + +And, from above, her name was spoken in reply. She greeted him and asked +how and when he had come hither; but he interrupted her at the first +words with a decisive: "Silence!" adding in a moment, "Look out!" + +She listened in expectancy; the minutes crept on at a snail's pace to a +full half hour before he at last said: "Now!" And, in a few moments, she +held in her hand a written scroll that he let down to her by a lutestring +weighted with a scrap of wood. + +She had neither light nor fire, and the night was moonless. So she +called up "Dark!" and immediately added, as he had done: "Look out." + +She then tied to the string the two best roses of those Pulcheria had +brought her, and at her glad "Now!" they floated up. + +He expressed his thanks in a few low chords overflowing with yearning and +passion; then all was still, for the warder had forbidden him to sing or +play at night and he dared not risk losing the man's favor. + +Paula laid down again with Orion's letter in her hand, and when she felt +slumber stealing upon her, she pushed it under her pillow and ere long +was sleeping on it. When they both woke, soon after sunrise, they had +been dreaming of each other and gladly hailed the return of day. + +How furious Orion had felt when the prison door closed upon him! He +longed to wrench the iron bars from the window and kick down or force the +door; and there is no more humiliating and enraging feeling for a man +than that of finding himself shut up like a wild beast, cut off from the +world to which he belongs and which he needs, both to give him all that +makes life worth having, and to receive such good as he can do and give. + +Yesterday their dungeon had seemed a foretaste of hell, they had each +been on the verge of despair; to-day what different feelings animated +them! Orion had been the victim of blow on blow from Fate--Paula had +looked forward to his return with an anxious and aching heart; to-day how +calm were their souls, though both stood in peril of death. + +The legend tells us that St. Cecilia, who was led away to the rack from +her marriage feast, even in the midst of the torments of martyrdom, +listened in ecstasy to heavenly music and sweet echoes of the organ; and +how many have had the same experience! In the extremity of anguish and +danger they find greater joys than in the midst of splendor, ease and the +intoxicating pleasures of life; for what we call happiness is the +constant guest of those who have within reach that for which their souls +most ardently long, irrespective of place and outward circumstances. + +So these two in their prison were what they had not been for a long time: +full of heartfelt bliss; Paula with his letter, which he had begun at the +Kadi's house, and in which he poured out his whole soul to her; Orion in +the possession of her roses, on which he feasted his eyes and heart, and +which lay before him while he wrote the following lines, which the +kindhearted warder willingly transmitted to her: + + Lo! As night in its gloom and horror fell on my prison, + Methought the sun sank black, dark forever in death. + + I drew thy roses up, and behold! from their crimson petals + Beamed a glory of light, a glow as of sunshine and day! + + Love! Love is the star that rose with those fragrant flowers; + Rose, as Phoebus' car comes up from the tossing waves. + + Is not the ardent flame of a heart that burns with passion + Like the sparkling glow-worm hid in the heart of the rose? + + While it yet was day, and we breathed in freedom and gladness, + While the sun still shone, that light seemed small and dim; + + But now, when night has fallen, sinister, dark, portentous, + Its kindly ray beams forth to raise our drooping souls. + + As seeds in the womb of earth break from the brooding darkness, + Or as the soul soars free, heaven-seeking from the grave, + + So the hopeless soil of a dungeon blossoms to rapture, + Blooms with roses of Love, more sweet than the wildling rose! + +And when had Paula ever felt happier than at the moment when this +offering from her lover, this humble prison-flower, first reached her. + +Old Betta could not hear the verses too often, and cried with joy, not at +the poem, but at the wonderful change it had produced in her darling. +Paula was now the radiant being that she had been at home on the Lebanon; +and when she appeared before the assembled judges in the hall of justice +they gazed at her in amazement, for never had a woman on her trial for +life or death stood in their presence with eyes so full of happiness. +And yet she was in evil straits. The just and clement Kadi, himself +the loving father of daughters, felt a pang at his heart as be noted +the delusive confidence which so evidently filled the soul of this noble +maiden. + +Yes, she was in evil straits: a crushing piece of evidence was in their +hands, and the constitution of the court--which was in strict conformity +with the law must in itself be unfavorable to her. Her case was to be +tried by an equal number of Egyptians and of Arabs. The Moslems were +included because by her co-operation, Arabs had been slain; while Paula, +as a Christian and a resident in Memphis, came under the jurisdiction of +the Egyptians. + +The Kadi presided, and experience had taught him that the Jacobite +members of the bench of judges kept the sentence of death in their +sleeves when the accused was of the Melchite confession. What had +especially prejudiced them against this beautiful creature he knew not; +but he easily discovered that they were hostile to the accused, and if +they should utter the verdict "guilty", and only two Arabs should echo +it, the girl's fate was sealed. + +And what was the declaration which that whiterobed old man among the +witnesses desired to make--the venerable and learned Horapollo? The +glances he cast at Paula augured her no good. + +It was so oppressively, so insufferably hot in the hall! Each one felt +the crushing influence, and in spite of the importance of the occasion, +the proceedings every now and then came to a stand-still and then were +hurried on again with unseemly haste. + +The prisoner herself seemed happily to be quite fresh and not affected by +the sultriness of the day. It had cost her small effort to adhere to her +statement that she had had no share in the escape of the sisters, when +catechised by the ruffianly negro; but she found it hard to defy Othman's +benevolent questioning. However, there was no choice, and she succeeded +in proving that she had never quitted Memphis nor the house of Rufinus at +the time when the Arab warriors met their death between Athribis and +Doomiat. The Kadi endeavored to turn this to account for her advantage +and Obada, who had found much to whisper over with his grey-headed +neighbor on the bench reserved for witnesses, let him talk; but no sooner +had he ended than the Vekeel rose and laid before the judges the note he +had found in Orion's room. + +It was undoubtedly in the young man's handwriting and addressed to Paula, +and the final words: "But do not misunderstand me. Your noble, and only +too well-founded desire to lend succor to your fellow-believers would +have sufficed...." could not fail to make a deep impression. When the +Kadi questioned Paula, however, she replied with perfect truth that this +document was absolutely unknown to her; at the same time she did not deny +that the sisters of St. Cecilia, who were of her own confession, had +always had her warmest wishes, and that she had hoped they might succeed +in asserting their rights in opposition to the patriarch. + +The deceased Mukaukas, and the Jacobite members of the town-council even, +had shared these feelings and the Arabs had never interfered with the +pious sicknurses. + +The calm conciseness with which she made these statements had a favorable +effect, on her Moslem judges especially, and the Kadi began to have some +hopes for her; he desired that Orion should be called as being best able +to account for the meaning of the letter he had written but never sent. + +On this the young man appeared, and though he and Paula did their utmost +to preserve a suitable demeanor, every one could see the violent +agitation they felt at meeting each other in such a situation. Horapollo +never took his eyes off Orion, whom he now saw for the first time, and +his features put on a darkening and menacing expression. + +The young man acknowledged that he had written the letter in question, +but he and Paula alike referred it to the danger with which the +sisterhood had long been threatened from the patriarch's hostility. The +assistance which, in that document, he had refused he would have afforded +readily and zealously at a later and fit season, and he could have +counted on the aid of the Arab governor Amru, who, as he would himself +confirm, shared the views of the Mukaukas George as to the nuns' rights. + +At this the old sage murmured loud enough to be heard: "Clever, very +clever!" and the Vekeel laughed aloud, exclaiming: + +"I call that a cunning way of lengthening your days! Be on your guard, +my lords. These two are partners in the game and are intimately allied. +I have proof of that in my own hands. That youngster takes as good care +of the damsel's fortune as though it were his own already, and what is +more. . . ." + +Here Paula broke in. She did not know what the malicious man was going +to say, but it was something insulting beyond a doubt. And there stood +Orion, just as she had pictured him in moments of tender remembrance; she +felt his eye resting on her in ecstasy. To go up to him, to tell him all +she was feeling in this critical struggle for life or death, seemed +impossible; but as the Vekeel began to disclose to their judges matters +which concerned only herself and her lover, every impulse prompted her to +interpose and, in this fateful hour, to do her friend such service as she +once, like a coward, had shrank from. So with eager emotion, her eyes +flashing, she interrupted the negro "Stop!" she cried, "you are wasting +words and trouble. What you are trying to prove by subtlety I am proud +and glad to declare. Hear it, all of you. The son of the Mukaukas is my +betrothed!" + +At the same time her eye sought to meet Orion's. And thus, in the very +extremity of danger, they enjoyed a solemn moment of the purest, deepest +happiness. Paula's eyes were moist with grateful tenderness, when Orion +exclaimed: + +"You have heard from her own lips what makes the greatest bliss of my +life. The noble daughter of Thomas is my promised bride!" + +There was a murmur among the Jacobite judges. 'Till this moment several +of them, oppressed by the heat, had sat dreaming with their heads sunk on +their breasts, but now they were suddenly as wide-awake and alert as +though a jet of cold water had been turned on to them, and one cried out: +"And your father, young man? You have forgotten him in a hurry! What +would he have said to such a disgrace to his blood as your marriage to a +Melchite, the daughter of those who caused your two brothers to be +murdered? Oh! if the dead could. . . ." + +"He blessed our union on his death-bed," Orion put in. + +"Did he, indeed?" asked another Jacobite with sarcastic scorn. "Then +the patriarch was in the right when he refused to let the priests follow +his corpse. That I should live to be witness to such crimes!" + +But such words fell on the ears of the enraptured pair like the chirping +of crickets. They felt, they cared for nothing but what this blissful +moment had brought them, and never suspected that Paula's glad avowal had +sealed her death-warrant. + +The wrath of the Jacobite faction now hastened the end. The prosecutor, +an Arab, now represented how many Moslems had lost their lives in the +affair of the nuns, and once more read Orion's letter. His Christian +colleagues tried to prove that this document could only refer to the +flight, so ingeniously plotted, of the sisters; and now something quite +new and unlooked-for occurred, which gave a fresh turn to the +proceedings: the old man interrupted the Kadi to make a statement. +At this Paula's confidence rose again for the last speaker had somewhat +shaken it. She felt sure that the tried friend and adoptive father of +her faithful Philippus would take her part. + +But what was this? + +The old man seemed to measure her height in a glance which struck to her +heart with its fierce enmity, and then he said deliberately: + +"On the morning of the nuns' flight the accused, Paula, went to the +convent and there tolled the bell. Contradict me if you can, proud +prefect's daughter; but I warn you beforehand, that in that case, I shall +be compelled to bring forward fresh charges." + +At this the horror-stricken girl pictured to herself the widow and +daughter of Rufinus at her side on the condemned bench before the judges, +and felt that denial would drag her friends to destruction with her; with +quivering lips she confirmed the old man's statement. + +"And why did you toll the bell?" asked the Kadi. + +"To help them," replied Paula. "They are my fellow-believers, and I love +them." + +"She was the originator of the treasonable and bloody scheme," cried the +Vekeel, "and did it for no other purpose than to cheat us, the rulers of +this country." + +The Kadi however signed to him to be silent and bid the Jacobite counsel +for the accused speak next. He had seen her early in the day, and came +forward in the Egyptian manner with a written defence in his hand; but it +was a dull formal performance and produced no effect; though the Kadi did +his utmost to give prominence to every point that might help to justify +her, she was pronounced guilty. + +Still, could her crime be held worthy of death? It was amply proved that +she had had a hand in the rescue of the nuns; but it was no less clear +that she had been far enough away from the sisters and their defenders +when the struggle with the Arabs took place. And she was a woman, and +how pardonable it seemed in a pious maiden that she should help the +fellow-believers whom she loved to evade persecution. + +All this Othman pointed out in eloquent words, repeatedly and sternly +silencing the Vekeel when he sought to argue in favor of the sentence of +death; and the humane persuasiveness of the lenient judge won the hearts +of most of the Moslems. + +Paula's appearance had a powerful effect, too, and not less the +circumstance that their noblest and bravest foe had been the father of +the accused. + +When at length it was put to the vote the extraordinary result was that +all her fellow Christians--the Jacobites--without exception demanded her +death, while of the infidels on the judges' bench only one supported this +severe meed of punishment. + +Sentence was pronounced, and as the Vekeel Obada passed close to Orion-- +who was led back to his cell pale and hardly master of himself--he said, +mocking him in broken Greek: "It will be your turn to-morrow, Son of the +Mukaukas!" + +Orion's lips framed the retort: "And yours, too, some day, Son of a +Slave!"--but Paula was standing opposite, and to avoid infuriating her +foe he was able to do what he never could have done else: to let the +Vekeel and Horapollo pass on without a word in reply. + +As soon as the door was closed on this couple, Othman nodded approvingly +at Orion and said: + +"Rightly and wisely done, my friend! The eagle should never forget that +he must not use his pinions in a cage as he does between the desert and +the sky." + +He signed to the guards to lead him away, and stood apart while the young +man looked and waived an adieu to his betrothed. + +Finally the Kadi went up to Paula, whose heroic composure as she heard +the sentence of death had filled him with admiration. + +"The court has decided against you, noble maiden," he said. "But its +verdict can he overruled by the clemency of our Sovereign Lord the +Khaliff and the mercy of God the compassionate. Do you pray to Him-- +I and a few friends will appeal to the Khaliff." + +He disclaimed her gratitude, and when she, too, had been led away he +added, in the figurative language of his nation, to the friends who were +waiting for him: + +"My heart aches! To have to pronounce such a verdict oppressed me like a +load; but to have an Obada for a fellow Moslem and be bound to obey him-- +there is no heavier lot on earth!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +The mysterious old sage had no sooner left the judgment-hall with the +Vekeel than he begged for a private interview. Obada did not hesitate to +turn the keeper of the prison, with his wife and infant, out of his room, +and there he listened while Horapollo informed him of the fate to which +he destined the condemned girl. The old man's scheme certainly found +favor with the Negro; still, it seemed to him in many respects so daring +that, but for an equivalent service which Horapollo was in a position to +offer Obada, he would scarcely have succeeded in obtaining his consent. + +All the Vekeel aimed at was to make it very certain that Orion had had a +hand in the flight of the nuns, and chance had placed a document in the +old man's hands which seemed to set this beyond a doubt. + +He had effected his removal to the widow's dwelling in the cool hours of +early morning. He had taken with him, in the first instance, only the +most valuable and important of his manuscripts, and as he was placing +these in a small desk--the very same which Rufinus had left for Paula's +use--Horapollo found in it the note which the youth had hastily written +when, after waiting in vain for Paula as she sat with little Mary, he had +at last been obliged to depart and take leave of Amru. This wax-tablet, +on which the writing was much defaced and partly illegible, could not +fail to convince the judges of Orion's guilt, and the production of this +piece of evidence enabled the old man to extort Obada's consent to his +proposal as to the mode of Paula's death. When they finally left the +warder's room, the Negro once more turned to the keeper of the prison and +told him with a snort, as he pointed to his pretty wife and the child at +her breast, that they should all three die if he allowed Orion to quit +his cell for so much as an instant. + +He then swung himself on to his horse, while Horapollo rode off to the +Curia to desire the president of the council to call a meeting for that +evening; then he betook himself to his new quarters. + +There he found his room carefully shaded, and as cool as was possible in +such heat. The floor had been sprinkled with water, flowers stood +wherever there was room for them, and all his properties in scrolls and +other matters had found places in chests or on shelves. There was not a +speck of dust to be seen, and a sweet pervading perfume greeted his +sensitive nostrils. + +What a good exchange he had made! He rubbed his withered hands with +satisfaction as he seated himself in his accustomed chair, and when Mary +came to call him to dinner, it was a pleasure to him to jest with her. + +Pulcheria must lead him through the viridarium into the dining-room; he +enjoyed his meal, and his cross, wrinkled old face lighted up amazingly +as he glanced round at his feminine associates; only Eudoxia was absent, +confined to her room by some slight ailment. He had something pleasant +to say to each; he frankly compared his former circumstances with his +present position, without disguising his heartfelt thankfulness; then, +with a merry glance at Pulcheria, he described how delightful it would be +when Philippus should come home to make the party complete--a true and +perfect star: for every Egyptian star must have five rays. The ancients +had never painted one otherwise nor graven it in stone; nay, they had +used it as the symbol for the number five. + +At this Mary exclaimed: "But then I hope--I hope we shall make a six- +rayed star; for by that time poor Paula may be with us again!" + +"God grant it!" sighed Dame Joanna. Pulcheria, however, asked the old +man what was wrong with him, for his face had suddenly clouded. His +cheerfulness had vanished, his tufted eyebrows were raised, and his +pinched lips seemed unwilling to part, when at length he reluctantly +said: + +"Nothing--nothing is wrong... At the same time; once for all--I loathe +that name." + +"Paula?" cried the child in astonishment. "Oh! but if you knew. . ." + +"I know more than enough," interrupted the old man. "I love you all-- +all; my old heart expands as I sit in your midst; I am comfortable here, +I feel kindly towards you, I am grateful to you; every little attention +you show me does me good; for it comes from your hearts: if I could repay +you soon and abundantly--I should grow young again with joy. You may +believe me, as I can see indeed that you do. And yet," and again his +brows went up, "and yet, when I hear that name, and when you try to win +me over to that woman, or if you should even go so far as to assail my +ears with her praises--then, much as it would grieve me, I would go back +again to the place where I came from." + +"Why, Horapollo, what are you saying?" cried Joanna, much distressed. + +"I say," the old man went on, "I say that in her everything is +concentrated which I most hate and contemn in her class. I say that she +bears in her bosom a cold and treacherous heart; that she blights my days +and my nights; in short, that I would rather be condemned to live under +the same roof with clammy reptiles and cold-blooded snakes than. . ." + +"Than with her, with Paula?" Mary broke in. The eager little thing +sprang to her feet, her eyes flashed lightnings and her voice quivered +with rage, as she exclaimed: "And you not only say it but mean it? Is it +possible?" + +"Not only possible, but positive, sweetheart," replied the old man, +putting out his hand to take hers, but she shrank back, exclaiming +vehemently: + +"I will not be your sweetheart, if you speak so of her! A man as old as +you are ought to be just. You do not know her at all, and what you say +about her heart. . ." + +"Gently, gently, child," the widow put in; and Horapollo answered with +peculiar emphasis. + +"That heart, my little whirlwind!--it would be well for us all if we +could forget it, forget it for good or for evil. She has been tried +to-day, and that heart is sentenced to cease beating." + +"Sentenced! Merciful Heaven!" shrieked Pulcheria, and as she started up +her mother cried out: + +"For God's sake do not jest about such things, it is a sin.--Is it true? +--Is it possible? Those wretches, those... I see in your face it is +true; they have condemned Paula." + +"As you say," replied Horapollo calmly. "The girl is to be executed." + +"And you only tell us now?" wept Pulcheria, while Mary broke out: + +"And yet you have been able to jest and laugh, and you--I hate you! And +if you were not such a helpless, old, old man. . ." But here Joanna +again silenced the child, and she asked between her sobs: + +"Executed?--Will they cut off her head? And is there no mercy for her +who was as far away from that luckless fight as we were--for her, a girl, +and the daughter of Thomas?" + +To which the old man replied: + +"Wait a while, only wait! Heaven has perhaps chosen her for great ends. +She may be destined to save a whole country and nation from destruction +by her death. It is even possible. . ." + +"Speak out plainly; you make me shudder with your oracular hints," cried +the widow; but he only shrugged his shoulders and said coolly: + +"What we foresee is not yet known. Heaven alone can decide in such a +case. It will be well for us all--for me, for her, for Pulcheria, and +even our absent Philip, if the divinity selects her as its instrument. +But who can see into darkness? If it is any comfort to you, Joanna, +I can inform you that the soft-hearted Kadi and his Arab colleagues, +out of sheer hatred of the Vekeel, who is immeasurably their superior +in talent and strength of will, will do everything in their power..." +"To save her?" exclaimed the widow. + +"To-morrow they will hold council and decide whether to send a messenger +to Medina to implore pardon for her," Horapollo went on with a horrible +smile. "The day after they will discuss who the messenger is to be, and +before he can reach Arabia fate will have overtaken the prisoner. The +Vekeel Obada moves faster than they do, and the power lies in his hands +so long as Amru is absent from Egypt. He, they say, perfectly dotes on +the Mukaukas' son, and for his sake--who knows? Paula as his betrothed." + +"His betrothed?" + +"He called her by that name before the judges, and congratulated himself +on his promised bride." + +"Paula and Orion!" cried Pulcheria, jubilant in the midst of her tears, +and clapping her hands for joy. + +"A pair indeed!" said the old man. "You may well rejoice, my girl! +Feeble hearts as you all are, respect the experience of the aged, and +bless Fate if it should lame the horse of the Kadi's messenger!--However, +you will not listen to anything oracular, so it will be better to talk of +something else." + +"No, no," cried Joanna. "What can we think of but her and her fate? +Oh, Horapollo, I do not know you in this mood. What has that poor soul +done to you, persecuted as she is by the hardest fate--that noble +creature who is so dear to us all? And do you forget that the judges who +have sentenced her will now proceed to enquire what Rufinus, and we all +of us. . ." + +"What you had to do with that mad scheme of rescue?" interrupted +Horapollo. "I will make it my business to prevent that. So long as this +old brain is able to think, and this mouth to speak, not a hair of your +heads shall be hurt." + +"We are grateful to you," said Joanna. "But, if you have such power, +set to work--you know how dear Paula is to us all, how highly your friend +Philip esteems her--use your power to save her." + +"I have no power, and refuse to have any," retorted the old man harshly." + +"But Horapollo, Horapollo!--Come here, children!--We were to find in you +a second father--so you promised. Then prove that those were no empty +words, and be entreated by us." + +The old man drew a deep breath; he rose to his feet with such vigor as he +could command, a bright, sharply-defined patch of color tinged each pale +cheek, and he exclaimed in husky tones: + +"Not another word! No attempt to move me, not a cry of lamentation! +Enough, and a thousand times too much, of that already. You have heard +me, and I now say again--me or Paula, Paula or me. Come what may in the +future, if you cannot so far control yourselves as never to mention her +in my presence, I--no, I do not swear, but when I have said a thing I +keep to it--I will go back to my old den and drag out life the richer +by a disappointment--or die, as my ruling goddess shall please." + +With this he left the room, and little Mary raised her clenched right +fist and shook it after him, exclaiming: "Then let him go, hard-hearted, +unjust, old scarecrow! Oh, if only I were a man!" And she burst out +crying aloud. Heedless of the widow's reproof, she went on quite beside +herself: "Oh, there is no one more wicked than he is, Dame Joanna! He +wants to see her die, he wishes her to be dead; I know it, he even wishes +it! Did you hear him, Pul, he would be glad if the messenger's horse +went lame before he could save her? And now she is my Orion's betrothed +--I always meant them for each other--and they want to kill him, too, but +they shall not, if there is still a God of justice in heaven! Oh if I-- +if I. . ." Her voice failed her, choked with sobs. When she had +somewhat recovered she implored Pulcheria and her mother to take her to +see Paula, and as they shared her wish they prepared to start for the +prison before it should grow dark. + +The nearer they went to the market-place, which they must cross, the more +crowded were the streets. Every one was going the same way; the throng +almost carried the women with it; yet, from the market came, as it were, +a contrary torrent of shouts and shrieks from a myriad of human throats. +Dame Joanna was terrified in the press by the uproarious doings in the +market, and she would gladly have turned back with the girls, or have +made her way through by-streets, but the tide bore her on, and it would +have been easier to swim against a swollen mountain stream than to return +home. Thus they soon reached the square, but there they were brought to +a standstill in the crush. + +The widow's terrors now increased. It was dreadful to be kept fast with +the young people in such a mob. Pulcheria clung closely to her, and when +she bid Mary take her hand the child, who thoroughly enjoyed the +adventure, exclaimed: "Only look, Mother Joanna, there is our Rustem. He +is taller than any one." + +"If only he were by our side!" sighed the widow. At this the little +girl snatched away her hand, made her way with the nimbleness of a +squirrel through the mass of men, and soon had reached the Masdakite. +Rustem had not yet quitted Memphis, for the first caravan, which he and +his little wife were to join, was not to start for a few days. The +worthy Persian and Mary were very good friends; as soon as he heard that +his benefactress was alarmed he pushed his way to her, with the child, +and the widow breathed more freely when he offered to remain near her and +protect her. + +Meanwhile the yelling and shouting were louder than ever. Every face, +every eye was turned to the Curia, in the evident expectation of +something great and strange taking place there. + +"What is it?" asked Mary, pulling at Rustem's coat. The giant said +nothing, but he stooped, and to her delight, a moment later she had her +feet on his arms, which he folded across his chest, and was settling +herself on his broad shoulder whence she could survey men and things as +from a tower. Joanna laid her hand in some tremor on the child's little +feet, but Mary called down to her: "Mother--Pulcheria--I am quite sure +our old Horapollo's white ass is standing in front of the Curia, and they +are putting a garland round the beast's neck--a garland of olive." + +At this moment the blare of a tuba rang out from the Senate-house +across the square, through the suffocatingly hot, quivering air; a sudden +silence fell and spread till, when a man opened his mouth to shout or to +speak, a neighbor gave him a shove and bid him hold his tongue. At this +the widow held Mary's ankles more tightly, asking, while she wiped the +drops from her brow: + +"What is going on?" and the child answered quickly, never taking her +eyes off the scene: + +"Look, look up at the balcony of the Curia; there stands the chief of the +Senate--Alexander the dyer of purple--he often used to come to see my +grandfather, and grandmother could not bear his wife. And by his side-- +do you not see who the man is close by him? + +"It is old Horapollo. He is taking the laurel-crown off his wig!-- +Alexander is going to speak." + +She was interrupted by another trumpet call, and immediately after a +loud, manly voice was heard from the Curia, while the silence was so +profound that even the widow and her daughter lost very little of the +speech which followed: + +"Fellow-citizens, Memphites, and comrades in misfortune," the president +began in slow, ringing tones, "you know what the sufferings are which we +all share. There is not a woe that has not befallen us, and even worse +loom before us." + +The crowd expressed their agreement by a fearful outcry, but they were +reduced to silence by the sound of the tuba, and the speaker went on: + +"We, the Senate, the fathers of the city, whom you have entrusted with +the care of your persons and your welfare. . ." + +At this point he was interrupted by wild yells, and cries could be +distinguished of: "Then take care of us--do your duty!" + +"Money bags!" + +"Keep your pledge!" + +"Save us from destruction!" + +The trumpet call, however, again silenced them, and the speaker went on, +almost beside himself with vehement excitement. + +"Hearken! Do not interrupt me! The dearth and misery fall on our heads +as much as on yours. My own wife and son died of the plague last night!" + +At this only a low murmur ran through the crowd, and it died away of its +own accord as the dignified old man on the balcony wiped his eyes and +went on: + +"If there is a single man among you who can prove us guilty of neglect--a +man, woman, or child--let him accuse us before God, before our new ruler +the Khaliff, and yourselves, the citizens of Memphis; but not now, +my fellow-sufferers, not now! At this time cease your cries and +lamentations; now when rescue is in sight. Listen to me, and let us know +what you feel with regard to the last and uttermost means of deliverance +which I now come to propose to you." + +"Silence! Hear him! Down with the noisy ones!" was heard on all +sides, and the orator went on: + +"We, as Christians, in the first instance addressed ourselves to our +Father in Heaven, to our one and only divine Redeemer, and to His Holy +Church to aid us; and I ask you: Has there been any lack of prayers, +processions, pilgrimages, and pious gifts? No, no, my beloved fellow- +citizens! Each one be my witness--certainly not! But Heaven has +remained blind and deaf and dumb in sight of our need, yea as though +paralyzed. And yet no; not indeed paralyzed, for it has been powerful +and swift to move only to heap new woes upon us. Not a thing that human +foresight and prudence could devise or execute has remained untried. + +"The time-honored arts of the magicians, sorcerers, and diviners, which +aforetime have often availed to break the powers of evil spirits, have +proved no less delusive and ineffectual. So then we remembered our +glorious forefathers and ancestors, and we recollected that a man lives +in our midst who knew many things which we others have lost sight of in +the lapse of years. He has made the wisdom of our forefathers his own in +the course of a long life of laborious days and nights. He has the key +to the writing and the secrets of the ancients, and he has communicated +to us the means of deliverance to which they resorted, when they suffered +from such afflictions as have befallen us in these dreadful days; and +this venerable man at my side, the wise and truthful Horapollo, will +acquaint us with it. You see the antique scrolls in his hand: They +teach us the wonders it wrought in times past." + +"Here the speaker was interrupted by a cry of: "Hail Horapollo, the +Deliverer!" and thousands took it up and expressed their satisfaction +and gratitude by loud shouting. + +The old man bowed modestly, pointed to his narrow chest and toothless +mouth and then to the head of the Council as the man who had undertaken +to transmit his opinion to the populace; so Alexander went on: + +"Great favors, my friends and fellow-citizens, must be purchased by great +gifts. The ancients knew this, and when the river--on which, as we know +only too well, the weal or woe of this land solely depends--refused to +rise, and its low ebb brought evils of many kinds upon its banks, they +offered in sacrifice the thing they deemed most noble of all the earth +has to show a pure and beautiful maiden. + +"It is just as we expected: you are horrified! I hear your murmur, I see +your horror-stricken faces; how can a Christian fail to be shocked at the +thought of such a victim? But is it indeed so extraordinary? Have we +ever wholly given up everything of the kind? Which of us does not +entreat Saint Orion, either at home or under the guidance of the priests +in church, whenever he craves a gift from our splendid river; and this +very year as usual, on the Night of Dropping, did we not cast into the +waters a little box containing a human finger. + + [So late as in the XIV. century after Christ the Egyptian Christians + still threw a small casket containing a human finger into the Nile + to induce it to rise. This is confirmed by the trustworthy + Makrizi.] + +"This lesser offering takes the place of the greater and more precious +sacrifice of the heathen; it has been offered, and its necessity has +never at any time been questioned; even the severest and holiest +luminaries of the Church--Antonius and Athanasius, Theophilus and +Cyrillus had nothing to say against it, and year after year it has been +thrown into the waters under their very eyes. + +"A finger in a box! What a miserable exchange for the fairest and purest +that God has allowed to move on earth among men. Can we wonder if the +Almighty has at last disdained and rejected the wretched substitute, and +claims once more for His Nile that which was formerly given? But where +is the mother, where is the father, you will ask, who, in our selfish +days, is so penetrated with love for his country, his province, his +native town, that he will dedicate his virgin daughter to perish in the +waters for the common good? What daughter of our nation is ready of her +own free will to die for the salvation of others? + +"But be not afraid. Have no fears for the growing maiden, the very apple +of your eye, in your women's rooms. Fear not for your granddaughters, +sisters, playfellows and betrothed: From the earliest ages a stringent +law forbade the sacrifice of Egyptian blood; strangers were to perish, or +those who worshipped other gods than those in Egypt. + +"The same law, citizens and fellow-believers, is incumbent on us. And +mark me well, all of you! Would it not seem as though Fate desired to +help us to bring to our blessed Nile the offering which for so many +centuries has been withheld? The river claims it; and, as if by a +miracle, it has been brought to our hand. For a crime which does not +taint her purity our judges have to-day condemned to death a beautiful +and spotless maiden--a stranger, and at the same time a Greek and a +heretic Melchite. + +"This stirs you, this fills your souls with joyful thankfulness; I see +it! Then make ready for thy bridal, noble stream, Benefactor of our land +and nation! The virgin, the bride that thou hast longed for, we deck for +thee, we lead to thine embrace--she shall be Thine! + +"And you, Memphites, citizens and fellow-sufferers," and the orator +leaned far over the parapet towards the crowd, "when I ask you for your +suffrages, when I appeal to you in the name of the senate, and of this +venerable sage...." + +But here he was interrupted by the triumphant shout of the assembled +multitude; a thousand voices went up in a mighty, heaven-rending cry: + +"To the Nile with her--the maiden to the Nile!" + +"Marry the Melchite to the river! Bring wreaths for the bride of the +Nile, bring flowers for her marriage." + +"Let us abide by the teaching of our fathers!" + +"Hail to the councillor! Hail to the sage, Horapollo! Hail to our chief +Senator!" + +These were the glad and enthusiastic shouts that rose in loud confusion; +and it was only on the north side, where the money-changers' tables now +stood deserted-for gold and silver had long since been placed in safety-- +that a sinister murmur of dissent was heard. The little girl in the +Persian's arms had long since been breathing hard and deep. She thought +she knew whom that fiend up there had his eye upon for his cursed heathen +sacrifice; and as Mary bent down to Dame Joanna to see whether she shared +her hideous suspicion, she perceived that her eyes and Pulcheria's were +full of tears.--That was enough; she asked no questions, for a new act in +the drama claimed her attention. + +Close to the money-changer's stalls a hand was lifted on high, holding a +crucifix, and the child could see it steadily progressing through the +crowd towards the Curia. Every one made way for the sacred symbol and +the bearer of it; and to Mary's fancy the throng parted on each side of +the advancing image of the Redeemer, as the waters of the Red Sea had +parted at the approach of the people of God. The murmurs in that part of +the square grew louder; the acclamations of the populace waxed fainter; +every voice seemed to fail, and presently a frail figure in bishop's +robes, small but rigidly dignified, was seen to mount the steps and +finally disappear within the portals of the Curia. + +The turmoil sank like an ebbing wave to a low, enquiring mutter, and even +this died away when the diminutive personage, who looked the taller, +however, for the crucifix which he still held, came out on the balcony, +approached the parapet, and stretched forth the arm that held the image +above the heads of the foremost rows of the people. + +At this Horapollo stepped up to Alexander, his eyes flashing with rage, +and demanded that the intruder should be forbidden to speak; but the +commanding eye of the new-comer rested on the dyer, who bowed his head +and allowed him to proceed. Nor did one of the senators dare to hinder +him, for every one recognized him as the zealous, learned, and determined +priest who had, since yesterday, filled the place of the deceased bishop. + +Their new pastor began, addressing his flock in as loud a voice as he +could command: + +"Look on this Cross and hearken to its minister! You languish for the +blessing of Christ, and you follow after heathen abominations. The +superstitious triumph, through which I have struggled to reach you, will +be turned to howls of anguish if you stop your ears and are deaf to the +words of salvation. + +"Yea, you may murmur! You will not reduce me to silence, for Truth +speaks in me and can never be dumb. I say to each of you that knows it +not: The staff of the departed Plotinus has been placed in my hands. +I would fain bear it with gentleness and mercy; but, if I must, I will +wield it as a sword and a scourge till your wounds bleed and your bruises +ache. + +"Behold in my right hand the image of your Redeemer! I hold it up as a +wall between you and the heathen abomination which you hail with joy in +your blindness. + +"Ye are accursed and apostate. Lift up your hearts, and look at Him who +died on the cross to save you. Verily He will not let him perish who +believeth in Him; but you! where is your faith? Because it is +night ye lament and cry: The Light is dead!' Because ye are sick ye +say: 'The physician cannot heal!' + +"What are these blasphemies that I hear: 'The Lord and His Church are +powerless! Magic, enchantments, and heathen abominations may save us.' +--But, inasmuch as ye trust not in the true Saviour and Redeemer, but in +heathen wickedness, magic, and enchantments, punishment shall be heaped +on punishment; and so it will be,--I see it coming--till ye are choked +in the mud and seek with groans the only Hand that is able to save. + +"That whereby the blinded sons of men hope to escape from the evil, that, +and that only, is the source of their sufferings and I stand here to stay +that spring and dig a channel for its overflow. + +"Children of Moloch ye try to be and I hope to make you Christians again. +But the maiden whom your fury would cast into the abyss of the river is +under the merciful protection of the supreme Church, for the death of her +body will bring death to your souls. Saint Orion turns from you with +horror! Away from the hapless victim! Away, I say, with your accursed +desires and sacrilegious hands!" + +"And sit with them in our laps and wring them in prayer till they ache, +while want and the plague snatch away those that are left!" interrupted +the old man's voice, thin and feeble, but audible at a considerable +distance, and from the market-place thousands proclaimed their approval +by loud shouts. + +The president of the senate had listened with a penitent mien and bowed +head, but now he recovered his presence of mind and exclaimed +indignantly: + +"The people die, the town and country are going to ruin, plague and +horrors rise up from the river. Show us some other way of escape, +or let us trust to our forefathers and try this last means." + +But the litttle man drew himself up more stiffly, pointed with his left +hand to the crucifix, and cried with unmoved composure: + +"Believe, hope, and pray!" + +"Perhaps you think that no evil is come upon us!" cried Alexander. +"You, to be sure, have seen no wife with glazing eyes, no child +struggling for breath. . . ." And a fresh tumult came up from below, +wilder and louder than ever. Each one whose home or beasts had been +blighted by death, whose gardens and fields had perished of drought, +whose dates had dropped one by one from the trees, lifted up his voice +and shrieked: + +"The victim, the victim!" + +"To the river with the maiden!" + +"All hail to our deliverer, the wise Horapollo!" But others shouted +against them: + +"Let us remain Christians! Hail to Bishop John!" + +"Think of our souls!" + +The prelate made an effort once more to rivet the attention of the +populace, and failing in this he turned to the senators and the +trumpeters, whom at length he succeeded in persuading to blow again and +again, and more loudly through their brazen tuba. But the call produced +no effect, for in the market square groups had formed on opposite sides, +and blows and wrestling threatened to end in a sanguinary street-riot. + +The women succeeded in getting away from the scene of action under the +protection of the Masdakite, before the Arab cavalry rode across to +separate the combatants; but in the Curia Bishop John explained to the +Fathers that he would make every effort to prevent this inhuman and +unchristian sacrifice of a young girl, even though she was a Melchite +and under sentence of death. This very day a carrier pigeon should be +dispatched to the patriarch in Upper Egypt, and bring back his decision. + +When, on this, Horapollo replied that the Khaliff's representative here +had signified his consent to the proceedings, and that even against the +will of the clergy the misery of the people must be put an end to, the +Bishop broke out vehemently and threatened all who had first suggested +this hideous scheme with the anathema of the Church. But Horapollo +retorted again with flaming eloquence, the desperate Senators took his +part, and the Bishop left the Curia in the highest wrath. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Few things could be more intolerable to the gentle and retiring widow +than such a riot of the people. The unchained passion, the tumult, and +all the vulgar accessories that surrounded her there grieved her tender +nature; all through the old man's speech she had felt nothing but the +desire to escape, but as soon as she had acquired the certainty that +Paula was the hapless being whom her terrible house-mate was preparing to +hand over to the superstition of the mob, she thought no more of getting +home, but waited in the crush till at length she and the two children +could be conducted by Rustem to the prison, though the way thither was +through the most crowded streets. + +Had the nameless horrors that hung over Paula already found their way to +her ears through the prisonwalls, or might it yet be her privilege to be +able to prepare the girl for the worst, and to comfort the victim who +must already have been driven to the verge of desperation by the sentence +of death? + +On the previous day the chief warder had acceded without demur to her +wish to see Paula, for the Kadi had enjoined him to show her and Orion +all possible courtesy, but the Vekeel's threats made him now refuse to +admit Dame Joanna. However, while he was talking with her, his infant +son stretched out his arms to Pulcheria, who had played with him the day +before in her sweet way, and she now took him up and kissed him, thus +bringing a kindly feeling to three hearts at once; and most of all to +that of the child's mother who immediately interested herself for them, +and persuaded her husband to oblige them once more. + +Pretty Emau had always waited on the mirthful Orion, under the palms by +her father's inn, more gladly than on most other guests; and her husband +who, after the manner of the Egyptians, was docile to his better half +though till now he had not been quite free from jealousy, was even more +ready to serve his benefactor's son since hearing that he was betrothed +to the fair Paula. + +There was a great uproar in the large common prison to-day, as usual when +the judges had passed sentence of death on any criminal, and the women +shuddered as the miserable wretches hallooed and bellowed. Many a shriek +came up, of which it was hard to say whether it was the expression of +wild defiance or of bitter jesting, and no more suitable accompaniment +could be conceived to this terrific riot than the clank of chains. + +When the women reached Paula's cell their hearts throbbed painfully, for +within the door which the warder unlocked anguish and despair must dwell. + +The prisoner was standing at the window, pressing her brow against the +iron bars and listening to the lute played by her lover, which sounded, +amid the turmoil of the other prisoners, like a bell above the roar of +thunder and the storm. By the bed sat Betta on a low stool, asleep with +the distaff in her lap; and neither she nor her mistress heeded the +entrance of the visitors. A miserable lamp lighted the squalid room. + +Mary would have flown to her friend, but Joanna held her back and called +Paula tenderly by name in a low voice. But Paula did not hear; her soul +was no doubt absorbed in anguish and the terror of death. The widow now +raised her voice, and the ill-fated girl turned round; then, with a +little cry of joy, she hastened to meet the faithful creatures who could +find her even in prison, and clasped first the widow, then Pulcheria, +then the child in a tender embrace. Joanna put her hands fondly round +her face to kiss it, and to see how far fear and affliction had altered +her lovely features, and a faint cry of astonishment escaped her, for she +was looking, not at a grief and terror-stricken face, but a glad and calm +one, and a pair of large eyes looked brightly and gratefully into hers. + +Had she not been told then what was hanging over her? Nay--for she at +once asked whether they had heard that she was condemned to die. And she +went on to tell them how things had gone with her at her trial, and how +her good Philip's friend and foster-father had suddenly and inexplicably +become her bitterest foe. + +At this the others could not check their tears; it was Paula who had to +comfort and soothe them, by telling them that she had found a paternal +friend in the Kadi who had promised to intercede for her with the +Khaliff. + +Dame Joanna could scarcely take it all in. This girl and her heroic +demeanor, in the face of such disaster, seemed to her miraculous. Her +trust was beautiful; but how easily might it be deceived! how insecure +was the ground in which she had cast the anchor of hope. + +Even little Mary seemed more troubled than her friend, and threw herself +sobbing on her bosom. And Paula returned her fondness, and tried to +mollify Pulcheria as to the disgraceful conduct of their old housemate, +and smiled kindly at the widow when she asked where she had found such +composure in the face of so much misfortune, saying that it was from her +example that she had learnt resignation to the worst that could befall +her. Even in this dark hour she found more to be thankful for than to +lament over; indeed, it had brought her a glorious joy. And this for the +first time reminded Joanna and the girls that she was now betrothed, and +again she was clasped in their loving arms. + +Just then the warder rapped; Paula rose thoughtfully, and exclaimed in a +low voice: "I have something to send to Orion that I dare not entrust to +a stranger: but now, now I have you, my Mary, and you shall take it to +him." + +As she spoke she took out the emerald, gave it to the little girl, and +charged her to deliver it to her uncle as soon as they should be alone +together. In the little note which she had wrapped around it she +implored her lover to regard it as his own property, and to use it to +satisfy the claims of the Church. + +The man was easily induced to take Mary to her uncle; and how happily she +ran on before him up to Orion's cell, how great was his joy at seeing her +again, how gratefully he pressed the emerald to his lips! But when she +exclaimed that her prophecy had been fulfilled, and that Paula, was now +his, his brow was knit as he replied, with gloomy regret, that though he +had won the woman he loved, it was only to lose her again. + +"But the Kadi is your friend and will gain pardon from the Khaliff!" +cried the child. + +"But then another enemy suddenly starts up: Horapollo !" + +"Oh, our old man!" and the child ground her teeth. "If you did but +know, Orion!--And to think that I must live under the same roof with +him!" + +"You!" asked the young man. + +"Yes, I. And Pulcheria, and Mother Joanna," and Mary went on to tell him +how the old man had come to live with them and Orion could guess from +various indications that she was concealing some important fact; so he +pressed her to keep nothing from him, till the child could not at last +evade telling him all she had seen and heard. + +At this he lost all caution and self-control. Quite beside himself he +called aloud the name of his beloved, invoking in passionate tones the +return of the Governor Amru, the only man who could help them in this +crisis. His sole hope was in him. He had shown himself a real father to +him, and had set him a difficult but a noble task. + +"Into which you have plunged over head and ears!" cried the child. + +"I thought it all out while on my journey," replied Orion. "I tried +yesterday to write out a first sketch of it, but I lacked what I most +wanted: maps and lists. Nilus had put them all up together; I was to +have taken them with me on the voyage with the nuns, and I ordered that +they should be carried to the house of Rufinus. . . ." + +"That they should come to us?" interrupted the child with sparkling +eyes. "Oh, they are all there! I saw the documents myself, when the +chest was cleared out for old Horapollo, and to-morrow, quite early to- +morrow, you shall have them." Orion kissed her brow with glad haste; +then, striking the wall of his cell with his fist, he waited till +something had been withdrawn with a grating sound on the other side, and +exclaimed: + +"Good news, Nilus! The plans and lists are found: I shall have them +to-morrow!" + +"That is well!" replied the treasurer's thin voice from the adjoining +room. "We shall need something to comfort us! A prisoner has just been +brought in for having attacked an Arab horseman in a riot in the market +square. He tells me some dreadful news." + +"Concerning my betrothed?" + +"Alas! yes, my lord." + +"Then I know it already," replied the young man; and after exchanging a +few words with his master with reference to the old man's atrocious +proposal, Nilus went on: + +"My prison-mate tells me, too, that while he was in custody in the guard- +house the Arabs were speaking of a messenger from the governor announcing +his arrival at Medina, and also that he intended making only a short stay +there. So we may expect his return before long." + +"Then he will have started long before the Kadi's messenger can have +arrived and laid the petition for pardon before the Khaliff!--We have no +hope but in Amru; if only we could send information to him on his way..." + +"He would certainly not tarry in Upper Egypt, but hasten his journey, or +send on a plenipotentiary," said the voice on the other side of the wall. +"If we had but a trusty man to despatch! Our people are scattered to the +four winds, and to hunt them up now. . . ." + +At this Mary's childish tones broke in with: "I can find a messenger." + +"You? What are you thinking of, child?" said Orion. She did not heed +his remonstrance, but went on eagerly, quite sure of her own meaning: + +"He shall be told everything, everything! Ought he to know what I heard +about your share in the flight of the sisters?" + +"No, no; on no account!" cried Nilus and his master both at once; and +Mary understood that her proposition was accepted. She clapped her +hands, and exclaimed full of enterprise and with glowing cheeks: + +"The messenger shall start to-morrow; rely on me. I can do it as well as +the greatest. And now tell me exactly the road he is to take. To make +sure, write the names of the stages on my little tablet.--But wait, I +must rub it smooth." + +"What is this on the wax?" asked Orion. "A large heart with squares +all over it.--And that means?" + +"Oh! mere nonsense," said the child somewhat abashed. "It was only to +show how my heart was divided among the persons I love. A whole half of +it belongs to Paula, this quarter is yours; but there, there, there," and +at each word she prodded the wax with the stylus, "that is where I had +kept a little corner for old Horapollo. He had better not come in my way +again!" + +Her nimble fingers smoothed the wax, and over the effaced heart-- +a child's whim--Orion wrote things on which the lives of two human +beings depended. He did so with sincere confidence in his little ally's +adroitness and fidelity. Early next morning she was to receive a letter +to be conveyed to Amru by the messengers. + +"But a rapid journey costs money, and Amru always chooses the road by the +mountains and Berenice," observed the treasurer. "If we put together our +last gold pieces they will hardly suffice." + +"Keep them, you will want them here," said the little girl. "And yet-- +there are my pearls, to be sure, and my mother's jewels--at the same +time. . . ." + +"You ought never to part from such things, you heart of gold!" cried +Orion. + +"Oh yes, yes! What do I want with them? But Dame Joanna has my mother's +things in her keeping." + +"And you are afraid to ask her for them?" asked the young man. He +appealed to Nilus, and when the treasurer had calculated the cost, Orion +took off a costly sapphire ring, which he gave to Mary, charging her to +hand it to Joanna. Gamaliel, the Jew, would lend her as much as she +would require on this gem. Mary joyfully took possession of the ring; +but presently, when the warder appeared to fetch her, her satisfaction +suddenly turned to no less vehement grief, and she took leave of Orion as +if they were parting for ever. + +In the passage leading to Paula's cell the man suddenly stood still: some +one was approaching up the stairs.--If it should be the black Vekeel, and +he should find visitors in the prison at so late an hour! + +But no. Two lamps were borne in front of the new-comers, and by their +light the warder recognized John, the new Bishop of Memphis, who had +often been here before now to console prisoners. + +He had come to-night prompted by his desire to see the condemned +Melchite. Mary's dress and demeanor betrayed at once that she could not +belong to any official employed here; and, as soon as he had learnt who +she was, he whispered to his companion, an aged deacon who always +accompanied him when he visited a female prisoner: "We find her here!" +And when he had ascertained with whom the child had come hither at so +late an hour, he turned again to his colleague and added in a low voice: + +"The wife and daughter of Rufinus! Just so: I have long had my eye on +these Greeks. In church once or twice every year!--Melchites in +disguise! Allied with this Melchite! And this is the school in which +the Mukaukas' granddaughter is growing up! An abominable trick! +Benjamin judged rightly, as he always did!" Then, in a subdued voice, he +asked: + +"Shall we take her away with us at once?" But, as the deacon made +objections, he hastily replied: "You are right; for the present it is +enough that we know where she is to be found." + +The warder meanwhile had opened Paula's cell; before the bishop went in +he spoke a few kind words to the child, asking her whether she did not +long to see her mother; and when Mary replied: "Very often!" he stroked +her hair with his bony hand and said: + +"So I thought.--You have a pretty name, child, and you, like your mother, +will perhaps ere long dedicate your life to the Blessed among women, +whose name you bear." And, holding the little girl by the hand, he +entered the cell. While Paula looked in amazement at the prelate who +came so late a visitor, Joanna and Pulcheria recognized him as the brave +ecclesiastic who had so valiantly opposed the old sage and the misled +populace, and they bowed with deep reverence. This the bishop observed, +and came to the conclusion that these Greeks perhaps after all belonged +to his Church. At any rate, the child might safely be left in their care +a few days longer. + +After he had exchanged a few cordial words with them the widow prepared +to withdraw, and was about to take leave when he went up to her and +announced that he would pay her a visit the next day or the day after; +that he wished to speak with her of matters involving the happiness of +one who was dear to them both, and Dame Joanna, believing that he +referred to Paula, whispered: + +"She has no idea as yet of the terrible fate the people have in store for +her. If possible, spare her the fearful truth before she sleeps this +night." + +"If possible," repeated the prelate. Then, as Mary kissed his hand +before leaving, he drew her to him and said: "Like the Infant Christ, +every Christian child is the Mother's. You, Mary, are chosen before +thousands! The Lord took your father to himself as a martyr; your mother +has dedicated herself to Heaven. Your road is marked out for you, child, +reflect on this. To-morrow-no, the day after, I will see you and guide +you in the new path." + +At these words Joanna turned pale. She now understood what the bishop's +purpose was in calling on her. At the bottom of the stairs, she threw +her arms round the child and asked her in--a low voice: "Do you pine for +the cloister--do you wish to go away from us like your mother, to think +of nothing but saving your soul, to live a nun in the holy seclusion +which Pulcheria has described to you so often?" + +But this the child positively denied; and as Joanna's head drooped +anxiously and sadly, Mary looked up brightly and exclaimed: "Never fear, +Mother dear! Things will have altered greatly by the day after tomorrow. +Let the bishop come! I shall be a match for him!--Oh! you do not know me +yet. I have been like a lamb among you through all this misfortune and +serious trouble; but there is something more in me than that. You will +be quite astonished!" + +"Nay, nay. Remain what you are," the widow said. + +"Always and ever full of love for you and Pul. But I am a grand and +trusted person now! I have something very important to do for Orion +to-morrow. Something--Rustem will go with me.--Important, very +important, Mother Joanna. But what it is I must not tell--not even you!" + +Here she was interrupted, for the heavy prison door opened for their +exit. + +It was many hours before it was again unlocked to let out the bishop, so +long was he detained talking to Paula in her cell. + +To his enquiry as to whether she was an orthodox Greek, or as the common +people called it, a Melchite, she replied that she was the latter; adding +that, if he had come with a view to perverting her from the confession +of her forefathers, his visit was thrown away; at the same time she +reverenced him as a Christian and a priest; as a learned man, and the +friend whom her deceased uncle had esteemed above every other minister of +his confession; she was gladly ready to disclose to him all that lay on +her soul in the face of death. He looked into the pure, calm face; and +though, at her first declaration, he had felt prompted to threaten her +with the hideous end which he had but just done his utmost to avert, he +now remembered the Greek widow's request and bound himself to keep +silence. + +He allowed her to talk till midnight, giving him the whole history of all +she had known of joy and sorrow in the course of her young life; his keen +insight searched her soul, his pious heart rose to meet the strength and +courage of hers; and when he quitted her, as he walked home with the +deacon, the first words with which he broke a long silence were: + +"While you were asleep, God vouchsafed me an edifying hour through that +heretic child of earth." + + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +When the door in the tall prison-wall was closed behind the women, Joanna +made her way through streets still sultry under the silence of the night, +Rustem following with the child. + +The giant's good heart was devoted to Mary, and he often passed his huge +hand over his eyes while she told him all that the scene they had +witnessed meant, and the fearful end that threatened Paula. He broke +in now and again, giving utterance to his grief and wrath in strange, +natural sounds; for he looked up to his beautiful sick nurse as to a +superior being, and Mandane, too, had often remarked that they could +never forget all that the noble maiden had done for them. + +"If only," Rustem cried at length, clenching his powerful fist, "If only +I could--they should see. . . ." and the child looked up with shrewd, +imploring eyes, exclaiming eagerly: + +"But you could, Rustem, you could!" + +"I?" asked Rustem in surprise, and he shook his head doubtfully. + +"Yes, you, Rustem; you of all men. We were talking over something in the +prison, and if only you were ready and willing to help us in the matter." + +"Willing!" laughed the worthy fellow striking his heart; and he went on +in his strangely-broken Greek, which was, however, quite intelligible: +"I would give hair and skin for the noble lady. You have only to speak +out." + +The child clung to the big man with both hands and drew him to her +saying: "We knew you had a grate ful heart. But you see. . ." and she +interrupted herself to ask in an altered voice: + +"Do you believe in a God? or stay--do you know what a sacred oath is? +Can you swear solemnly? Yes, yes. . ." and drawing herself up as tall +as possible she went on very seriously: "Swear by your bride Mandane--as +truly as you believe that she loves you. . ." + +"But, sweet soul...." + +"Swear that you will never betray to a living soul what I am going to +say--not even to Mother Joanna and Pulcheria; no, nor even to your +Mandane, unless you find you cannot help it and she gives her sacred +word...." + +"What is it? You quite frighten me! What am I to swear?" + +"Not to reveal what I am now going to tell you." + +"Yes, yes, little Mistress; I can promise you that." Mary sighed, a +long-drawn "Ah ...!" and told him that a trustworthy messenger must be +found to go forth to meet Amru, so as to be in time to save Paula. Then +came the question whether he knew the road over the hills from Babylon to +the ancient town of Berenice; and when he replied that he had lately +travelled that way, and that it was the shortest road to the sea for +Djidda and Medina, she repeated her satisfied "Ah!" took his hand, and +went on with coaxing but emphatic entreaty while she played with his big +fingers: "And now, best and kindest Rustem, in all Memphis there is but +one really trusty messenger; but he, you see, is betrothed, and so he +would rather get married and go home with his bride than help us to save +the life of poor Paula." + +"The cur!" growled the Persian. + +At this Mary laughed out: "Yes, the cur!" and went on gaily: "But you +are abusing yourself, you stupid Rustem. You, you are the messenger I +mean, the only faithful and trustworthy one far or near. You, you must +meet the governor...." + +"I!" said the man, and he stood still with amazement; but Mary pulled +him onward, saying: "But come on, or the others will notice something.-- +Yes, you, you must...." + +"But child, child," interrupted Rustem lamentably, + +"I must go back to my master; and you see, common right and justice...." + +"You do not choose to leave your sweetheart; not even if the kind +creature who watched over you day and night should die for it--die the +most cruel and horrible death! You were ready enough to call that other, +as you supposed, a cur--that other whom no one nursed till he was well +again; but as for yourself. . . ." + +"Have patience then! Hear me, little Mistress!" Rustem broke in again, +and pulled away his hand. "I am quite willing to wait and Mandane must +just submit. But one man is not good for all tasks. To ride, or guide a +train of merchandise, to keep the cameldrivers in order, to pitch a camp- +--all that I can do; but to parley with grand folks, to go straight up to +such a man as the great chief Amru with prayers and supplications--all +that, you see, sweetheart--even if it were to save my own father, that +would be...." + +"But who asks you to do all that?" said the child. "You may stand as +mute as a fish: it will be your companion's business to do the talking." + +"There is to be another one then? But, great Masdak! I hope that will +be enough at any rate!" + +"Why will you constantly interrupt me?" the little girl put in. "Listen +first and raise objections after wards. The second messenger--now open +your ears wide--it is I, I myself;--but if you stand still again, you +will really betray me. The long and short of it is, that as surely as I +mean to save Paula, I mean to go forth to meet Amru, and if you refuse to +go with me I will set out alone and try whether Gibbus the hunchback...." + +Rustem had needed some time to collect his senses after this stupendous +surprise, but now he exclaimed: "You--you--to Berenice, and over the +mountains. . . ." + +"Yes, over the mountains," she repeated, "and if need be, through the +clouds." + +"But such a thing was never heard of, never heard of on this earth!" the +Persian remonstrated. "A girl, a little lady like you--a messenger, and +all alone with a clumsy fellow like me. No, no, no!" + +"And again no, and a hundred times over no!" cried the child merrily. +"The little lady will stop at home and you will take a boy with you--a +boy called Marius, not Mary." + +"A boy! But I thought.--It is enough to puzzle one...." + +"A boy who is a girl and a boy in one," laughed Mary. "But if you must +have it in plain words: I shall dress up as a boy to go with you; +to-morrow when we set out you will see, you will take me for my own +brother." + +"Your own brother! With a little face like yours! Then the most +impossible things will become possible," cried Rustem laughing, and he +looked down good humoredly at the little girl. But suddenly the +preposterousness of her scheme rose again before his mind, and he +exclaimed half-frantically: "But then my master!--It will not do--It will +never do!" + +"It is for his sake that you will do us this service," said Mary +confidently. "He is Paula's friend and protector; and when he hears what +you have done for her he will praise you, while if you leave us in the +lurch I am quite sure. . . " + +"Well?" + +"That he will say: 'I thought Rustem was a shrewder man and had a +better heart.'" + +"You really think he will say that?" + +"As surely as our house stands before us!--Well, we have no time for any +more discussion, so it is settled: we start together. Let me find you in +the garden early to-morrow morning. You must tell your Mandane that you +are called away by important business." + +"And Dame Joanna?" asked the Persian, and his voice was grave and +anxious as he went on: "The thing I like least, child, is that you should +not ask her, and take her into your confidence." + +"But she will hear all about it, only not immediately," replied Mary. +"And the day after to-morrow, when she knows what I have gone off for and +that you are with me, she will praise us and bless us; yes, she will, as +surely as I hope that the Almighty will succor us in our journey!" + +At these words, which evidently came from the very depths of her heart, +the Masdakite's resistance altogether gave way--just in time, for their +walk was at an end, and they both felt as though the long distance had +been covered by quite a few steps. They had passed close to several +groups of noisy and quarrelsome citizens, and many a funeral train had +borne the plague-stricken dead to the grave by torchlight under their +very eyes, but they had heeded none of these things. + +It was not till they reached the garden-gate that they observed what was +going on around them. There they found the gardener and all the +household, anxiously watching for the return of their belated mistress. +Eudoxia too was waiting for them with some alarm. In the house they were +met by Horapollo, but Joanna and Pulcheria returned his greeting with a +cold bow, while Mary purposely turned her back on him. The old man +shrugged his shoulders with regretful annoyance, and in the solitude of +his own room he muttered to himself: + +"Oh, that woman! She will be the ruin even of the peaceful days I hoped +to enjoy during the short remainder of my life!" + +The widow and her daughter for some time sat talking of Mary. She had +bid them good-night as devotedly and tenderly as though they were parting +for life. Poor child! She had forebodings of the terrible fate to which +the bishop, and perhaps her own mother had predestined her. + +But Mary did not look as if she were going to meet misfortune; Eudoxia, +who slept by her side, was rejoiced on the contrary at seeing her so gay; +only she was surprised to see the child, who usually fell asleep as soon +as her little head was on the pillow, lying awake so long this evening. +The elderly Greek, who suffered from a variety of little ailments and +always went to sleep late, could not help watching the little girl's +movements. + +What was that? Between midnight and dawn Mary sprang from her bed, threw +on her clothes, and stole into the next room with the night-lamp in her +hand. Presently a brighter light shone through the door-way. She must +have lighted a lamp,-and presently, hearing the door of the sitting-room +opened, Eudoxia rose and noiselessly watched her. Mary immediately +returned, carrying a boy's clothes--a suit, in point of fact, which +Pulcheria and Eudoxia had lately been making as a Sunday garb--for the +lame gardener's boy. The child smilingly tried on the little blue tunic; +then, after tossing the clothes into a chest, she sat down at the table +to write. But she seemed to have set herself some hard task; for now she +looked down at the papyrus and rubbed her forehead, and now she gazed +thoughtfully into vacancy. She had written a few sentences when she +started up, called Eudoxia by name, and went towards the sleeping-room. + +Eudoxia went forward to meet her; Mary threw herself into her arms, and +before her governess could ask any questions she told her that she had +been chosen to accomplish a great and important action. She had been +intending to wake her, to make her her confidant and to ask her advice. + +How sweet and genuine it all sounded, and how charmingly confused she +seemed in spite of the ardent zeal that inspired her! + +Eudoxia's heart went forth to her; the words of reproof died on her lips, +and for the first time she felt as though the orphaned child were her +own; as though their joy and grief were one; as though she, who all her +life long had thought only of herself and her own advantage, and who had +regarded her care of Mary as a mere return in kind for a salary and home, +were ready and willing to sacrifice herself and her last coin for this +child. So, when the little girl now threw her arms round Eudoxia's neck, +imploring her not to betray her, but, on the contrary, to help her in the +good work which aimed at nothing less than the rescue of Paula and Orion- +the imperilled victims of Fate, her dry eyes sparkled through tears; she +kissed Mary's burning cheeks once more and called her her own dear, dear +little daughter. This gave the child courage; with tragical dignity, +which brought a smile to the governess' lips, she took Eudoxia's bible +from the desk, and said, fixing her beseeching gaze on the Greek's face: + +"Swear!--nay, you must be quite grave, for nothing can be more solemn-- +swear not to tell a soul, not even Mother Joanna, what I want to confess +to you." + +Eudoxia promised, but she would take no oath. "Yea, yea, and nay, nay," +was the oath of the Christian by the law of the Lord; but Mary clung to +her, stroked her thin cheeks, and at last declared she could not say a +word unless Eudoxia yielded. In such an hour the Greek could not resist +this tender coaxing; she allowed Mary to take possession of her hand and +lay it on the Bible; and when once this was done Eudoxia gave way, and +with much head shaking repeated the oath that her pupil dictated, though +much against her will. + +After this the governess threw herself on the divan, as if exhausted and +shocked at her own weakness; and the little girl took advantage of her +victory, seating herself at her feet, and telling her all she knew about +Paula and the perils that threatened her and Orion; and she was artful +enough to give special prominence to Orion's danger, having long since +observed how high he stood in Eudoxia's good graces. So far Eudoxia had +not ceased stroking her hair, while she assented to everything that was +said; but when she heard that Mary proposed to undertake the embassy to +Amru herself, she started to her feet in horror, and declared most +positively that she would never, never consent to such rashness, +to such fatal folly. + +Mary now brought to bear her utmost resources of persuasion and flattery. +There was no other fit messenger to be found, and the lives of Orion and +Paula were at stake. Was a ride across the mountains such a tremendous +matter after all? How well she knew how to manage a beast, and how +little she suffered from the heat! Had she not ridden more than once +from Memphis to their estates by the seaboard? And faithful Rustem would +be always with her, and the road over the mountains was the safest in all +the country, with frequent stations for the accommodation of travellers. +Then, if they found Amru, she could give a more complete report than any +other living soul. + +But Eudoxia was not to be shaken; though she admitted that Mary's project +was not so entirely crazy as it had at first appeared. + +At this the little girl began again; after reminding Eudoxia once more of +her oath, she went on to tell her of the doom she herself hoped to escape +by setting out on her errand. She told Eudoxia of her meeting with the +bishop, and that even Joanna was uneasy as to her future fate. Ah! that +life within walls under lock and key seemed to her so frightful--and she +pictured her terrors, her love of freedom and of a busy, useful, active +life among men and her friends, and her hope that the great general, +Amru, would defend her against every one if once she could place herself +under his protection--painting it all so vividly, so passionately, and so +pathetically, that the governess was softened. + +She clasped her hands over her eyes, which were streaming with tears, and +exclaimed: "It is horrible, unheard-of--still, perhaps it is the best +thing to do. Well, go to meet the governor,--ride off, ride off!" + +And when the sweet, warm-hearted, joyous creature clang round her neck +she was glad of her own weakness: this fair, fresh, and blooming bud of +humanity should not pine in confinement and seclusion; she should find +and give happiness, to her own joy and that of all good souls, and unfold +to a full and perfect flower. And Eudoxia knew the widow well; she knew +that Joanna would by-and-bye understand why she helped the child to +escape the greatest peril that can hang over a human soul: that of living +in perpetual conflict with itself in the effort to become something +totally different from what, by natural gifts and inclinations, it is +intended to be. + +With a sigh of anguish Eudoxia reflected what she herself, forced by +cruel fate and lacking freedom and pleasurable ease, had become, from an +ardent and generous young creature; and she, the narrow-hearted teacher, +could make allowances for the strange, adventurous yearning of a child, +where a larger souled woman might have derided, and blamed and repressed +it. + +When it was daylight Eudoxia fulfilled the offices she commonly left +to the maid: she arranged Mary's hair, talking to her and listening the +while, as though in this night the child had developed into a woman. +Then she went into the garden with her, and hardly let her out of her +sight. + +At breakfast Joanna and Pulcheria wondered at her singular behavior, but +it did not displease them, and Marv was radiant with contentment. + +The widow made no objection to allowing the child to go into the city to +execute her uncle's mysterious commission. Rustem was with her; and +whatever it was that made the child so happy must certainly be right and +unobjectionable. Orion's maps and lists were sent to the prison early in +the day, and before the child set out with her stalwart escort Gibbus had +returned with the prisoner's letter to the Arab governor. + +On their way it was agreed that Mary should join Rustem at dusk at the +riverside inn of Nesptah. In these clays of famine and death beasts of +burthen of every description were easily procurable, as well as +attendants and guides; and the Masdakite, who was experienced in such +matters, thought it best to purchase none but swift dromedaries and to +carry only a light tent for the "little mistress!" + +At the door of Gamaliel's shop Mary bid him wait; the jovial goldsmith +welcomed her with genuine pleasure.... + +What had befallen the house of the Mukaukas! Fire had destroyed the +dwelling-place of justice, like the Egyptian cities to whom the prophet +had announced a similar fate a thousand years since. + +Gamaliel knew in what peril Orion stood, and the fate that hung over the +noble maiden who had once given him the costliest of gems, and afterwards +entrusted to him a portion of her fortune. + +To see any member of his patron's family alive and well rejoiced his +heart. He asked Mary one sympathizing question after another, and his +wife wanted to give her some of her good apricot tarts; but the little +girl begged Gamaliel to grant her at once a private interview, so the +jeweller led her into his little work-shop, bidding her trust him +entirely, for whatever a grandchild of Mukaukas George might ask +of him it was granted beforehand. + +Blushing with confusion she took Orion's ring out of its wrapper, offered +it to the Jew, and desired him to give her whatever was right. + +She looked enquiringly into his face with her bright eyes, in full +confidence that the kind-hearted man would at once pay her down gold +coins and to spare; but he did not even take the ring out of her hand. +He merely glanced at it, and said gravely: + +"Nay, my little maid, we do not do business with children." + +"But I want the money, Gamaliel," she urged. "I must have it." + +"Must?" he repeated with a smile. "Well, must is a nail that drives +through wood, no doubt; but if it hits iron it is apt to bend. Not that +I am so hard as that; but money, money, money! And whose money do you +mean, little maid? If you want money of mine to spend in bread, or in +cakes, which is more likely, I will shut my eyes and put my hand boldly +into my wallet; but, if I am not mistaken, you are well provided for by +Rufinus the Greek, in whose house there is no lack of anything; and I +have a nice round sum in my own keeping which your grandfather placed in +my hands at interest two years since, with a remark that it was a legacy +to you from your godmother, and the papers stand in your name; so your +necessity looks very like what other folks would call ease." + +"Necessity! I am in no necessity," Mary broke in. "But I want the money +all the same; and if I have some of my own, and you perhaps have it there +in your box, give me as much of it as I want." + +"As much as you want?" laughed the jeweller. "Not so fast, little maid. +Before such matters can be settled here in Egypt we must have plenty of +time, and papyrus and ink, a grand law court, sixteen witnesses, a +Kyrios. . ." + +"Well then, buy the ring! You are such a good, kind man Gamaliel. Just +to please me. Why, you yourself do not really think that I want to buy +cakes!" + +"No. But in these hard times, when so many are starving, a soft heart +may be moved to other follies." + +"No indeed! Do buy the ring; and if you will do me this favor. . ." + +"Old Gamaliel will be both a rogue and a simpleton!--Have you forgotten +the emerald? I bought that, and a pretty piece of business that was! +I can have nothing to say to the ring, my little maid." Mary withdrew +her hand, and the grief and disappointment expressed by her large, +tearful eyes were so bitter and touching, that the Jew paused, and then +went on seriously and heartily: + +"I would sooner give my own old head to be an anvil than distress you, +sweet child; and Adonai! I do not mean to say--why should I--that you +should ever leave old Gamaliel without money. He has plenty, and though +he is always ready to take, he is ready to give, too, when it is meet and +fitting. I cannot buy the ring, to be sure, but do not be down-hearted +and look me well in the face, little maid. It is much to ask, and I have +handsomer things in my stores, but if you see anything in it that gives +you confidence, speak out and whisper to the man of whom even your +grandfather had some good opinion: 'I want so much, and what is more--how +did you put it?--what is more, I must have it.'" + +Mary did see something in the Jew's merry round face that inspired her +with trust, and in her childlike belief in the sanctity of an oath she +made a third person--a believer too, in a third form of religion--swear +not to betray her secret, only marvelling that the administering of the +oath, in which she had now had some practice, should be so easy. Even +grown-up people will sometimes buy another's dearest secret for a light +asseveration. And when she had thus ensured the Israelite's silence, she +confided to him that she was charged by Orion to send out a messenger to +meet Amru, that he and Paula might be reprieved in time. The goldsmith +listened attentively, and even before she had ended he was busying +himself with an iron chest built into the wall, and interrupted her to +ask! "How much?" + +She named the sum that Nilus had suggested, and hardly had she finished +her story when the Jew, who kept the trick by which he opened the chest a +secret even from his wife, exclaimed: + +"Now, go and look out of the window, you wonder among envoys and money- +borrowers, and if you see nothing in the courtyard, then fancy to +yourself that a man is standing there who looks like old Gamaliel, and +who puts his hand on your head and gives you a good kiss. And you may +fancy him, too, as saying to himself: 'God in Heaven! if only my little +daughter, my Ruth may be such another as little Mary, grandchild of the +just Mukaukas!'" + +And as he spoke, the vivacious but stout man, who had dropped on his +knees, rose panting, left the lid of his strong box open, hurried up to +the child, who had been standing at the window all the while, and bending +over her from behind pressed a kiss on her curly head, saying with a +laugh: "There, little pickpocket, that is my interest. But look out +still, till I call you again." He nimbly trotted back on his short +little legs, wiping his eyes; took from the strong box a little bag of +gold, which contained rather more than the desired sum, locked the chest +again, looking at Mary with a mixture of suspicion and hearty +approbation; then at last he called her to him. He emptied the money-bag +before her, counted out the sum she needed, put the remainder of the +coins into his girdle, and handed the bag to the little girl requesting +her to count his "advance", back into it, while he, with a cunning smile, +quitted the room. + +He presently returned and she had finished her task, but she timidly +observed: "One gold piece is wanting." At this he clasped his hands over +his breast and raised his eyes to Heaven exclaiming: "My God! what a +child. There is the solidus, child; and you may take my word for it as a +man of experience: whatever you undertake will prosper. You know what +you are about; and when you are grown up and a suitor comes he will go to +a good market. And now sign your name here. You are not of age, to be +sure, and the receipt is worth no more than any other note scribbled with +ink--however, it is according to rule." + +Mary took the pen, but she first hastily glanced through what Gamaliel +had written; the Jew broke out in fresh enthusiasm: + +"A girl--a mere child! And she reads, and considers, and makes all sure +before she will sign! God bless thee, Child!--And here come the tarts, +and you can taste them before... Just Heaven! a mere child, and such +important business!" + + + + + + +THE BRIDE OF THE NILE + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 12. + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +While Rustem, to whom Mary had entrusted the jeweller's gold, was making +his preparations for their journey with all the care of a practised +guide, and while Mary was comforting her governess and Mandane, to whom +she explained that Rustem's journey was to save Paula's life, a fresh +trial was going forward in the Court of Justice. + +This time Orion was the accused. He had scarcely begun to study the maps +and lists he required for his undertaking when he was bidden to appear +before his judges. + +The members composing the Court were the same as yesterday. Among the +witnesses were Paula and the new bishop, as well as Gamaliel, who had +been sent for soon after Mary had left him. + +The prosecutor accused the son of the Mukaukas of having made away, in +defiance of the patriarch's injunction, with a costly emerald bequeathed +to the Church by his father. + +Orion had determined to conduct his own defence; he recapitulated +everything that he had told the prelate in self-justification in his +father's private room, and then added, that to put a speedy end to this +odious affair he was now prepared to restore the stone, and he placed it +at the disposal of his judges. He handed Paula's emerald to the Kadi who +presented it to the bishop. John, however, did not seem satisfied; he +referred to the written testimony of the widow Susannah, who had been +present when the deceased Mukaukas had designated all the jewels in the +Persian hanging as included in his gift to the Church. This was in +Orion's presence so he was still under suspicion of a fraud; and it was +difficult to determine whether the fine gem now lying on the table before +them were indeed the same to which the Church laid claim. + +All this was urged with excessive vehemence and bore the stamp of a +hostile purpose. + +Obedience and conviction alike prompted the zealous prelate to this +demeanor, for the same carrier-pigeon which had brought from the +patriarch his appointment to the bishopric required him to insist on +Orion's punishment, for he was a thorn in the flesh of the Jacobite +church, a tainted sheep who might infect the rest of the flock. If the +young man should offer an emerald it was therefore to be closely +examined, to see whether it were the original stone or a substitute. + +On these grounds the bishop had expressed his doubts, and though they +gave rise to an indignant murmur among the judges, the Kadi so far +admitted the prelate's suspicions as to explain that last evening a +letter had reached him from his uncle at Djidda, Haschim the merchant, in +which mention was made of the emerald. His son happened to have weighed +that stone, without his knowledge, before he started for Egypt, and +Othman had here a note of its exact weight. The Jew Gamaliel had been +desired to attend with his balances, and could at once use them to +satisfy the bishop. + +The jeweller immediately proceeded to do so, and old Horapollo, who was +an expert in such matters, went close up to him, and watched him +narrowly. + +It was in feverish anxiety, and more eagerly than any other bystander, +that Paula and Orion kept their eyes fixed on the Jew's hands and lips; +after weighing it once, he did so a second time. Old Horapollo himself +weighed it a third time, with a keen eye though his hands trembled a +little; all three experiments gave the same result: this gem was heavier +by a few grains of doura than that which the merchant's son had weighed, +and yet the Jew declared that there was no purer, clearer, or finer +emerald in the world than this. + +Orion breathed more freely, and the question arose among the judges as to +whether the young Arab might have failed in precision, or an exchange had +in fact been effected. This was difficult to imagine, since in that case +the accused would have given himself the loss, and the Church the +advantage. + +The bishop, an honest man, now said that the patriarch's suspicions had +certainly led him too far in this instance, and after this he spoke no +more. + +All through this enquiry the Vekeel had kept silence, but the defiant +gaze, assured of triumph, which he fixed on Paula and Orion alternately, +augured the worst. + +When the prosecutor next accused the young man of complicity in the much +discussed escape of the nuns Orion again asserted his innocence, pointing +out that during the fatal contest between the Arabs and the champions of +the sisters, he had been with the Arab governor, as Amru himself could +testify. By an act of unparalleled despotism, he had been deprived of +his estates and his freedom on mere false suspicion, and he put his trust +in the first instance in a just sentence from his judges and, failing +that, he threw himself on the protection and satisfaction of his +sovereign lord the Khaliff. + +As he spoke his eyes flashed flames at the Vekeel; but the negro still +preserved his self-control, and this doubled the alarm of those who +wished the youth well. + +It was clear from all this that Obada felt sure that he had the noose +well around his victim's neck, and why he thought so, soon became +evident; for Orion had hardly finished his defence when he rose, and +with a malicious grin, handed to the Kadi the little tablet given him +yesterday by old Horapollo, describing it as a document addressed to +Paula and desiring the Kadi to examine it. The heat had effaced much of +what had been written on the wax, but most of the words could still be +deciphered. The venerable Horapollo had already made them out, and was +quite ready to read to the judges all that the accused--who by his own +account, was a spotless dove--had written in his innocence and +truthfulness for his fair one. He signed to the old man and helped +him as he rose with difficulty, but the Kadi begged him to wait, made +himself acquainted with the contents of the letter by the help of the +interpreter, and when the man had, with much pains, fulfilled his task, +he turned, not to Horapollo, but to Obada, and asked whence this document +had come. + +"From Paula's desk," replied the Vekeel. "My old friend found it there." +He pointed to Horapollo, who confirmed his statement by a nod of assent. + +The Kadi rose, went up to the girl, whose cheeks were pale with +indignation, and asked whether she recognized the tablets as her +property; Paula, after convincing herself, replied with a flaming glance +of scorn and aversion at Horapollo: "Yes, my lord. It is mine. That +base old man has taken it with atrocious meanness from among my things." +For an instant her voice failed her; then, turning to the judges, she +exclaimed: + +"If there is one among you to whom helplessness and innocence are sacred +and malice and cunning odious, I beg him to go to Rufinus' wife, over +whose threshold this man has crept like a ferret into a dovecote, for no +other end but to tread hospitable kindness in the dust, to rifle her home +and make use of whatever might serve his vile purpose--to go, I say, and +warn the lonely woman against this treacherous spy and thief." + +At this the old man, gasping and inarticulate, raised his withered arm; +the Christian judges whispered together, but at cross-purposes, while the +Jew fidgeted his round little person on the bench, drumming incessantly +with his fingers on his breast, and trying to meet Orion's or Paula's eye +and to make her understand that he was the man who would warn Joanna. +But a thump from the Vekeel's fist, that came down on his shoulder +unawares, reduced him to sitting still; and while he sat rubbing the +place with subdued sounds of pain, not daring to reproach the all- +powerful negro for his violence, the Kadi gave the tablets to Horapollo +and bid him read the letter. + +But the terrible accusation cast at him by the hated Patrician maiden, +ascribing his removal to Rufinus house to a motive which, in truth, had +been far from his, had so enraged and agitated him that his old lungs, at +all times feeble, refused their office. This woman had done him a fresh +wrong, for he had gone to live with the widow from the kindest impulse; +only an accident had thrown this document in his way. And yet it would +not fail to be reported to Joanna in the course of the day that he had +gone to her house as a spy, and there would be an end to the pleasant +life of which he had dreamed--nay, even Philippus might perhaps quarrel +with him. + +And all, all through this woman. + +He could not utter a word but, as he sank back on the seat, a glance so +full of hatred, so dark with malignant fury, fell on Paula that she +shuddered, and told herself that this man was ready to die himself if +only he could drag her down too. + +The interpreter now began to read Orion's letter and to translate it for +the Arabs; and while he blundered through it, declaring that not a letter +could be plainly made out, she recovered her self-control and, before the +interpreter had done his task, a gleam as of sunshine lighted up her pure +features. Some great, lofty, and rapturous thought must have flashed +through her brain, and it was evident that she had seized it and was +feeding on it. + +Orion, sitting opposite to her, noticed this; still, he did not +understand what her beseeching gaze had to say to him, what it asked of +him as she pressed her hand on her breast, and looked into his eyes with +such urgent entreaty that it went to his very heart. + +The interpreter ceased; but what he had read had had a great effect on +the judges. The Kadi's benevolent face expressed extreme apprehension, +and the contents of the letter were indeed such as to cause it. It ran +as follows: + +"After waiting for you a long time in vain, I must at last make up my +mind to go; and how much I still had to say to you. A written farewell." + +Here a few lines were effaced, and then came the--fatal and quite legible +conclusion: + +"How far otherwise I had dreamed of ending this day, which has been for +the most part spent in preparations for the flight of the Sisters; and I +have found a pleasure in doing all that lay in my power for those kind +and innocent, unjustly persecuted nuns. We must hope for the best for +them; and for ourselves we must look to-morrow for an undisturbed +interview and a parting which may leave us memories on which we can live +for a long time. The noble governor Amru is, among the Arabs, such +another as he whom we mourn was among the Egyptians . . ." Here the +letter ended; not quite three lines were wanting to conclude it. + +The Kadi held the tablets for a few minutes in his hand; then looking up +again at the assembly, who were waiting in great suspense, he began: +"Even if the accused was not one of those who raised their hands in +mutiny against our armed troops, it is nevertheless indisputable, after +what has just been read, that he not only knew of the escape of the nuns, +but aided them to the utmost.--When did you receive this communication, +noble maiden?" + +At this Paula clasped her hands tightly and replied with a slightly bent +head and her eyes fixed on the ground. + +"When did I receive it?--Never; for I wrote it myself. The writing is +mine." + +"Yours?" said the Kadi in amazement. "It is from me to Orion," replied +Paula. + +"From you to him? How then comes it in your desk?" + +"In a very simple way," she explained, still looking down. "After +writing the letter to my betrothed I threw it in with the other tablets +as soon as I had no need for it; for he himself came, and there was no +necessity for his reading what could be better said by word of mouth." + +As she spoke a peculiar smile passed over her lips and a loud murmur ran +through the room. Orion looked first at the girl and then at the Kadi in +growing bewilderment; but the Negro started up, struck his fist on the +table, making it shake, and roared out: + +"An atrocious fabrication! Which of you can allow yourself to be taken +in by a woman's guile?" Horapollo, who had recovered himself by this +time, laughed hoarsely and maliciously; the judges looked at each other +much puzzled; but when the Vekeel went on raging the Kadi interrupted +him, and desired that Orion might speak, for he had twice tried to make +himself heard. Now, with scarlet cheeks and a choking utterance, he +said: + +"No, Othman--no, no indeed, my lords. Do not believe her. Not she, but +I--I wrote the letter that. . . ." + +But Paula broke in: + +"He? Do you not feel that all he wants is to save me, and so he takes my +guilt on himself? It is his generosity, his love for me! Do not, do not +believe him! Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by him." + +"I? No, it is she, it is she," Orion again asserted; but, before he +could say more, Paula declared with a flashing glance that it was a poor +sort of love which sacrificed itself out of false generosity. And as, +at the same time, she again pressed her hand to her bosom with pathetic +entreaty, he was suddenly silent, and casting his eyes up to heaven, he +sank back on the prisoners' bench, deeply affected. + +Paula joyfully went on: + +"He has thought better of it, and given up his crazy attempt to take my +guilt on himself. You see, Othman, you all see, worthy men.--Let me +atone for what I did to help the poor nuns." + +"Have your way!" shrieked the old man; but the Negro cried out: + +"A hellish tissue of lies, an unheard-of deception! But in spite of the +shield a woman holds before you, I have my foot on your neck, treacherous +wretch! Is it credible--I ask you, judges--that a finished letter should +be found, after weeks had elapsed, in the hands of the writer and not +those of the person to whom it was addressed?" + +The Kadi shrugged his shoulders and replied with calm dignity: + +"Consider, Obada, that we are condemning this damsel on the evidence of +a letter which was found in possession, not of the person to whom it was +addressed, but of the writer. This document gave rise to no doubts in +your mind. The judge should mete out equal measure to all, Obada." + +The aptness of these words, spoken in a dogmatic tone, aroused the +approval of the Arabs, and the Jew could not restrain himself from +exclaiming: "Capital!" but no sooner had it escaped him than he shrank +as quick as lightning out of the Vekeel's reach; and Obada hardly heard +him, for he did not allow himself to be interrupted by the Kadi but went +on to explain in wrathful words what a disgrace it was to them, as men +and judges, to have dust cast in their eyes by a woman, and allow +themselves to be molified by the arts of a pair of love-stricken fools; +and how desirable it must be in the eyes of every Moslem to guard the +security of life and bring the severest punishment on the instigator of a +sanguinary revolt against the champions of the Khaliff's power. + +His eloquent and stormy address was not without effect; still, the +Christians, who ascribed every form of evil to the Melchite girl, would +have been satisfied with her death and have been ready to forgive the son +of the Mukaukas this crime--supposing him to have committed it. And it +was after the judges had agreed that it was impossible to decide by whom +the letter on the tablet had been written, and there had been a great +deal of argument on both sides, that the real discussion began. + +It was long before the assembly could agree, and all the while Orion sat +now looking as though he had already been condemned to a cruel death, and +now exchanging glances with Paula, while he pressed his hand to his heart +as though to keep it from bursting. He perfectly understood her, and her +magnanimity upheld him. He had indeed persuaded himself to accept her +self-sacrifice, but he was fully determined that if she must die he would +follow her to the grave. "Non dolet,"--[It does not hurt]--Arria cried +to her lover Paetus, as she thrust the knife into her heart that she +might die before him; and the words rang in his ear; but he said to +himself that Paula would very likely be pardoned, and that then he would +be free and have a whole lifetime in which to thank her. + +At last--at last. The Kadi announced the verdict: It was impossible to +find Orion worthy of death, and equally so to give up all belief in his +guilt; the court therefore declared itself inadequate to pronounce a +sentence, and left it to be decided by the Khaliff or by his +representative in Egypt, Amru. The court only went so far as to rule +that the prisoner was to be kept in close confinement, so that he might +be within reach of the hand of justice, if the supreme decision should be +"guilty!" + +When the Kadi said that the matter was to be referred to the Khaliff or +his representative, the Vekeel cried out: + +"I--I am Omar's vicar!" but a disapproving murmur from the judges, as +with one voice, rejected his pretensions, and at a proposal of the Kadi +it was resolved that the young man should be protected against any +arbitrary attack on the part of the Vekeel by a double guard; for many +grave accusations against Obada were already on their way to Medina. The +negro quitted the court, mad with rage, and concocting fresh indictments +against Paula with the old man. + +When Paula returned to her cell old Betta thought that she must have been +pardoned; for how glad, how proud, how full of spirit she entered it! +The worst peril was diverted from her lover, and she and her love had +saved him! + +She gave herself up for lost; but whatever fate might have in store for +her, life lay open before him; he would have time to prove his splendid +powers, and that he would do so, as she would have him do it, she felt +certain. + +She had not ended telling her nurse of the judges' decision, when the +warder announced the Kadi. In a minute or two he made his appearance; +she expressed her thanks, and he warmly assured her that he regarded the +disgrace of being perhaps a beguiled judge as a favor of Fortune; then he +turned the conversation on the real object of his visit. + +In the letter, he began, which he had received the evening before from +his uncle Haschim, there was a great deal about her. She had quite won +the old merchant's heart, and the enquiries for her father which he had +set on foot.... + +Here she interrupted him saying: "Oh, my lord; is the wish, the prayer of +my life to be granted?" + +"Your father, the noble Thomas, before whom even the Moslem bows, has +been. . . ." and then Othman went on to tell her that the hero of +Damascus had in fact retired to Sinai and had been living there as a +hermit. But she must not indulge in premature rejoicing, for the +messengers had found him ill, consumed by disease arising from his +wounded lungs, and almost at death's door. His days were numbered.... + +"And I, I am a prisoner," groaned the girl. "Held fast, helpless, +robbed of all means of flying to his arms!" + +He again bid her be calm, and went on to tell her: in his soft, composed +manner, that two days since a Nabathaean had come to him and had asked +him, as the chief administrator of justice in Egypt, whether an old foe +of the Moslems, a general who had fought in the service of the emperor +and the cross against the Khaliff and the crescent, and who was now sick, +weary, and broken, might venture on Egyptian soil without fear of being +seized by the Arab authorities; and when he, Othman, had learnt that this +man was no other than Thomas, the hero of Damascus, he had promised him +his life and freedom, promised them gladly, as he felt assured his +sovereign the Khaliff would desire. + +So this very day her father had reached Fostat, and the Kadi had received +him as a guest into his house. Thomas, indeed, stood on the brink of the +grave; but he was inspirited and sustained by the hope of seeing his +daughter. It had been falsely reported to him that she had perished in +the massacre at Abyla and he had already mourned her fate. + +It was now his duty to fulfil the wish of a dying man, and he had ordered +the prison servants to prepare the room adjoining Paula's cell with +furniture which was on the way from his house. The door between the two +would be opened for her. + +"And I shall see him again, have him again to live with--to close his +eyes, perhaps to die with him!" cried Paula; and, seizing the good man's +hand, she kissed it gratefully. + +The Moslem's eyes filled with tears as he bid her not to thank him, but +God the All-merciful; and before the sun went down the head of the doomed +daughter was resting on the breast of the weary hero who was so near his +end, though his unimpaired mind and tender heart rejoiced in their +reunion as fully and deeply as did his beloved and only child. A new and +unutterable joy came to Paula in the gloom of her prison; and that same +day the warder carried a letter from her to Orion, conveying her father's +greetings; and, as he read the fervent blessing, he felt as though an +invisible hand had released him for ever from the curse his own father +had laid upon him. A wonderful glad sense of peace came over him with +power and pleasure in work, and he gave his brains and pen no rest till +morning was growing grey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Horapollo made his way home to his new quarters from the court of justice +with knit and gloomy brows. As he passed Susannah's garden hedge he saw +a knot of people gathered together and pointing out furtively to the +handsome residence beyond. + +They, like a hundred other groups he had passed, hailed him with words of +welcome, thanks, and encouragement and, as he bowed to them slightly, his +eyes followed the direction of their terrified gaze and he started; above +the great garden gates hung the black tablet; a warning that looked like +a mark of disgrace, crying out to the passer-by: "Avoid this threshold! +Here rages the destroying pestilence!" + +The old man had a horror of everything that might remind him of death, +and a cold shiver ran through him. To live so near to a focus of the +disease was most alarming and dangerous! How had it invaded this, the +healthiest part of the town, which the last raging epidemic had spared? + +An officer of the town-council, whom he called to him, told him that two +slaves, father and son, whose duty it was to take charge of the baths in +the widow's house, had been first attacked, but they had been carried +quietly away in the night to the new tents for the sick; to-day, however, +the widow herself had fallen ill. To prevent the spread of the +infection, the plot of ground was now guarded on all sides. + +"Be strict, be sharp; not a rat must creep out !" cried the old man as +he rode on. + +He was later than he had been yesterday; supper must be ready. After a +short rest he was preparing to join the family at their meal, washing and +dressing with the help of his servant, when a lame slave-girl came into +his room and placed a tray covered with steaming dishes on the low table +by the divan. + +What was the meaning of this? Before he could ask, he was informed that +for the future the women wished to eat by themselves; he would be served +in his own room. + +At this a bright patch of red colored his cheeks; after brief reflection +he cried to his servant. "My ass!" and added to the girl: "Where is +your mistress?" + +"In the viridarium with Gamaliel the goldsmith; but they are going to +supper immediately." + +"And without their guest? I understand!" muttered the old man, taking +up his hat and marching past the maid out of the room. In the hall he +met Gamaliel, to whom a slave-girl was handing his stick. Horapollo +could guess that the Jew had come only to warn the women against him and, +without vouchsafing him a glance, he went into the dining-room. There he +found Pulchena and Mary kneeling in tears by the side of Joanna, who was +weeping too. + +He guessed for whom were these lamentations, and prompted by the wish to +prove the falsity of the accusation that charged him with having entered +the house as a spy, he spoke to the widow. She shuddered as he entered, +and she now pointed to the door with an outstretched finger; when he +nevertheless stood still and was about to make his defence, she +interrupted him loudly and urgently: "No, no, my lord! This house is +henceforth closed against you! You yourself have broken every tie that +bound us! Do not any longer disturb our peace! Go back to the place you +came from." + +At this the old man made one more attempt to speak; but the widow rose, +and saying: "Come, my children," she hastily withdrew with the girls into +the adjoining room, and closed the door. + +Horapollo was left alone on the threshold. + +Old as he was, in all his life he had never suffered such an insult; but +he did not lay it to the score of those who had shown him the door, but +to the already long one of the Syrian girl; as he rode back to his own +home on his white ass, he stopped several times to speak to the passers- +by. + +During the following day or two he heeded not the heat of the weather, +nor his own need of rest for his body, and quiet occupation for his mind; +morning, noon and night he was riding about the streets stirring up the +people, and setting forth in insinuating speeches that they must perish +miserably if they rejected the only means of deliverance which he had +pointed out to them. He was present at every meeting of the Senate, and +his inflammatory eloquence kept the town council on his side, and +nullified the efforts of the bishop, while he pressed them to fix +the day of the marriage of the Nile with his bride. + +He knew the Egyptians and their passion for the intoxicating joys of a +splendid ceremonial. This festival: the wedding of the Bride of the Nile +to her mighty and unresting spouse, on whom the weal or woe of the land +depended, was to be as a flowery oasis in the waste of dearth and +desolation. He recalled every detail of the reminiscences of his +childhood as to the processions in Honor of Isis, and the festivals +dedicated to her and her triad; every record of his own experience and +that of former generations; all he had read in books of the great +pilgrimages and dramas of heathen Egypt--and he described it all in his +speeches, painted it in glowing colors to the Senate and the mob, and +counselled the authorities to reproduce it all with unparalleled splendor +on the occasion of this marriage. + +Every man in whose veins flowed Egyptian blood listened to him +attentively, took pleasure in his projects, and was quite ready to do his +utmost to enhance the glories of this ceremonial, in which every one was +to take part either active or passive. Thousands were ruined, but there +was yet enough and to spare for this marriage feast, and the Senate did +not hesitate to raise a fresh loan. + +"Destruction or Deliverance!" was the watch-word Horapollo had given the +Memphites. If everything came to ruin their hoarded talents would be +lost too; if, on the other hand, the sacrifice produced its result, if +the Nile should bless its children with renewed prosperity, what need the +town or country care for a few thousand drachmae more or less? + +So the day was fixed! + +Not quite two weeks after Paula's trial, on the day of Saint Serapis the +miraculous, saving, auspicious ceremonial was to take place. And how +glowing was the picture given of the Bride's beauty by the old man, and +by the judges and officials who had seen her! How brightly old +Horapollo's eyes would flash with hate as he described it! The eyes of +love could not be more radiant. + +All that this patrician hussy had done to aggrieve him--she should +expiate it all, and his triumph meant woe, not only to that one woman, +but to the Christian faith which he hated! + +Bishop John, however, had not been idle meanwhile. Immediately after +his interference with the popular vote he had despatched a letter by a +carrier-pigeon to the patriarch in Upper Egypt, and Benjamin's reply +would no doubt give him powers for still more vigorous measures. In +church, before the Senate, and even in the highways, he and his clergy +did their utmost to combat the atrocious project of the authorities and +the populace, but the zeal which was stirred up by old Horapollo soon +broke into brighter flames than the conservatism, orthodoxy and breadth +of view which the ecclesiastics did their utmost to fan. The wind blew +with equal force from both quarters, but on one side it blew on +smoldering fuel, and on the other on overflowing and flaming stores. +Famine and despair had undermined faith, and weakened discipline; even +the mightiest weapons of the Church--Cursing and blessing--were +powerless. A floating beam was held out to sinking men, and they would +no longer wait for the life-boat that was approaching to rescue them, +with strong hands at the oars and a trusty pilot at the helm. + +Horapollo went no more to the widow's home. A few hours after she had +shown him the door, his slaves came and fetched away the various things +he had carried there with him. His body servant at the same time brought +a large sealed phial and a letter to Dame Joanna, as follows: + +"It is wrong to judge a man without hearing his defence. This you have +done; but I owe you no grudge. Philippus, on his return, will perhaps +pick up the ends of the tie and join again what you have this day cut. +I send you a portion of the remedy he left with me at parting to use +against the plague in case of need. Its good effects have been tested +within the last few days. May the sickness which has fallen on your +neighbors, spare you and yours." + +Joanna was much pleased with this letter but, when she had read it aloud, +little Mary exclaimed: + +"If any one should fall ill he shall not take a drop of that mixture! I +tell you he only wants to poison us!" + +Joanna, however, maintained that the old man was not bad hearted in spite +of his unaccountable hatred of Paula; and Pulcheria declared that it must +be so, if only because Philip esteemed him so highly. If only he were +here, everything would have been different and have turned out well. + +Mary remained with the mother and daughter till it grew dark; her chatter +always led them back to Paula; and when, in the afternoon, the Nabathaean +messenger came to them, and told them from their captive friend that he +had brought her father home to her, the women once more began to hope, +and Mary could allow herself to give free expression to her fond love +before she quitted them, without exciting their suspicions. + +At length she said she must go to her lessons with Eudoxia; she had a +hard task before her and they must think of her and wish her good +success. She threw her arms first round the widow's neck and then round +Pulcheria's; and, as the tears would start to her eyes, she asked them if +she were not indeed a silly childish thing--but they were to think of her +all the same and never to forget her. + +She met the governess in her own room; Eudoxia cut off the fine, soft +curls, shedding her first tears over them; and those tears flowed faster +as she placed round Mary's neck a little reliquary containing a lock from +the sheep-skin of St. John the Baptist, which had belonged to her own +mother. It was very dear and sacred to her, and she had never before +parted from it, but now it was to protect the child and bring her +happiness--great happiness. + +Had it brought her such happiness?--Not much, in truth; and yet she +believed in the saving and beneficent influence of the relic. + +At last Mary stood before her with short hair and in a boy's dress; and +what a sweet and lovely little fellow it was; Eudoxia could not weary of +looking at him. But Mary was too pretty, too frail for a boy; and +Eudoxia advised her to pull her broad travelling hat low over her eyes as +soon as she came in sight of men, or else to darken her color. + +Gamaliel, who had in fact come to warn Dame Joanna against Horapollo, +had kept them informed of the progress of this day's sitting, and Paula's +conduct to save her lover had increased Mary's admiration for her. When +she should confront Amru she could answer him on every head, so she felt +equipped at all points as she stole through the garden with Eudoxia, and +down to the quay. + +When she had passed the gateway she once more kissed her hand to the +house she loved and its inmates; then, pointing with a sigh to the +neighboring garden, she said: + +"Poor Katharina! she is a prisoner now.--Do you know, Eudoxia, I am still +very fond of her, and when I think that she may take the plague, and die +but no!--Tell Mother Joanna and Pulcheria to be kind to her. To-morrow, +after breakfast, give them my letter; and this evening, if they get +anxious, you can only quiet them by saying you know all and that it is of +no use to fret about me. You will set it all right and not allow them to +grieve." + +As they passed a Jacobite chapel that stood open, she begged Eudoxia to +wait for her and fell on her knees before the crucifix. In a few minutes +she came out again, bright and invigorated and, as they passed the last +houses in the town, she exclaimed: + +"Is it not wicked, Eudoxia? I am leaving those I love dearly, very +dearly, and yet I feel as glad as a bird escaping from its cage. Good +Heaven! Only to think of the ride by night through the desert and over +the hills, a swift beast under me, and over my head no ceiling but the +blue sky and countless stars! Onward and still onward to a glorious end, +left entirely to myself and entrusted with an important task like a +grownup person! Is it not splendid? And by God's help--and if I find +the governor and succeed in touching his heart.... Now, confess, +Eudoxia, can there be a happier girl in the whole wide world?" + +They found the Masdakite at Nesptah's inn with some capital dromedaries +and the necessary drivers and attendants. The Greek governess gave her +pupil much good advice, and added her "maternal" blessing with her whole +heart. Rustem lifted the child on to the dromedary, carefully settling +her in the saddle, and the little caravan set out. Mary waved repeated +adieux to her old governess and newly-found friend, and Eudoxia was still +gazing after her long after she had vanished in the darkness. + +Then she made her way home, at first weeping silently with bowed head, +but afterwards tearless, upright, and with a confident step. She was in +unusually good spirits, her heart beat higher than it had done for years; +she felt uplifted by the sense of relief from a burthensome duty, and of +freedom to act independently on the dictates of her own intelligence. +She would assert herself, she would show the others that she had acted +rightly; and when at supper-time Mary was missing, and had not returned +even at bed-time, there was much to do to soothe and comfort them, and +much misconstruction to endure; but she took it all patiently, and it was +a consolation to her to bear such annoyance for her little favorite. + +Next morning, when she had delivered Mary's letter to Dame Joanna, her +love and endurance were put to still severer proof; indeed, the meek- +tempered widow allowed herself to be carried away to such an outbreak +as hitherto would undoubtedly have led Eudoxia to request her dismissal, +with sharp recrimination; but she took it all calmly. + +It was not till noon-day--when the bishop made his appearance to +carry the child off to the convent, and was highly wrathful at Mary's +disappearance, threatening the widow, and declaring that he would search +the whole country through for the little girl and find her at last, that +Eudoxia felt that the moment of her triumph had come. She quietly +allowed the bishop to depart, and then only did she send her last and +best shaft at Joanna by informing her that she had in fact encouraged +the child in her exploit on purpose to save her from the cloister. Her +newly-found motherly feeling made her eloquent, and with a result that +she had almost ceased to hope for: the warm-hearted little woman, who +had hurt her with such cruel words, threw her arms round Eudoxia's tall, +meagre figure, put up her face to kiss her, called her a brave, clever +girl, and begged her forgiveness for all she had said and done the day +before. + +So, when the Greek went to bed, she felt as if her life had turned +backwards and she had grown more like the happy young creature she had +once been with her sisters in her parents' house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Paula now understood what hung over her. It is Bishop John who had told +her, as gently as he could, and with every assurance that he still clung +to the hope that he could stop the hideous heathen abomination; but even +without this she would certainly have known what was impending, for large +crowds of people gathered every day under the prisonwalls, and loud cries +reached her, demanding to see the "Bride of the Nile." + +Now and again shouts of "Hail!" came up to her; but when the demented +creatures had shrieked themselves hoarse, and in vain, they would abuse +her vilely. The cry for the "Bride" never ceased from morning till +night, and the head warder of the prison was glad that the bishop had +relieved him of the task of explaining to Paula the meaning of the +fateful word, whose significance she had repeatedly asked him. + +At first this fresh and terrible peril had startled and shaken her; +but she did her utmost to cling to the hope held out by the bishop so +as to appear calm, and as far as possible cheerful, in her sick father's +presence. And in this she succeeded so long as it was day; but at night +she was a prey to agonizing terrors. Then, in fancy she saw herself +surrounded by a raging mob, dragged to the river and cast into a watery +grave before a thousand eyes. Then, prayer was of no avail, nor any +resolve or effort; not the tender messages that constantly reached her +from Orion, nor the songs he would sing for her in the brief moments of +leisure he allowed himself; not the bishop's words of comfort, nor the +visits of those she loved. The warder would admit her friends as often +as he was able; and among those who found their way to her cell were the +Senator Justinus and his wife. + +By great good fortune Martina had quitted Susannah's house as soon as the +two slaves had fallen ill and she had heard that the physician pronounced +them to be sickening of the plague. She had returned to her rooms in the +inn kept by Sostratus, but her nephew Narses had remained with Katharina +and her mother. He was indeed intending to follow her with Heliodora; +but, by the time they were ready to set out, Susannah, too, had fallen a +victim to the pestilence and the authorities had forbidden all egress +from her house. + +Heliodora might have succeeded in leaving in time, alone; but she would +not abandon her unfortunate brother-in-law; for he never felt easy but in +her presence, would allow no one else to wait on him, and would take +neither food nor drink unless they were offered him by her. Besides +this, the cavalry officer, once so stalwart, had in his weakness become +pathetically like her lost husband, and she knew that Narses had been the +first to love her, and that it was only for his brother's sake that he +had concealed his passion. Her motherly instincts found an outlet in the +care of the half-crushed, but not hopelessly lost man; and the desire to +drag him back to life kept her busy day and night, and made her regard +everything else as trivial and of secondary importance. Her life had +once more found a purpose; her efforts were for an attainable end, and +she devoted herself to him body and soul. + +Her uncle had told her that Orion was bound to Paula by a supreme +passion.--This had been a painful blow, but the Syrian girl had impressed +her; she looked up to her, and it soothed her wounded self-esteem to +reflect that she had lost her lover to no inferior woman. Though her +longing for him still surged up in many a silent hour, she felt it an +injustice, a stint of love to her invalid charge. + +So far as Katharina was concerned, next to her mother, Heliodora was the +object of her deepest anxiety. The least word of complaint from either +terrified her; and if Susannah sank on the divan exhausted by the heat, +or Heliodora had a headache after watching through the night by the sick +man, the girl would turn pale, her heart would beat painfully, she would +paint them in fancy stricken by the plague, with burning brows and the +horrible, fatal spots on their foreheads and cheeks; and whenever these +alarms pressed on the young criminal she felt the ominous weight on the +top of her head where the dead bishop's hand had rested. + +The senator's wife had so completely changed in her demeanor to the +water-wagtail, since Paula's imprisonment, that to Katharina she was as a +living reproach, so she had no regret at seeing the worthy pair depart. +But scarcely had they left when misfortune took their place as an +unbidden guest. + +The slave whose duty it was to heat the baths had reserved a portion of +the infected garments that had been given to him to burn; his son had +helped him, and Katharina's nurse, the mother of her foster-brother +Anubis, had come into direct contact with her immediately after her +return from the soothsayer's and from the bishop's. All three had caught +the disease. They had all three been removed to the hospital tents--the +slave and the nurse as corpses. + +But had the fearful infection been taken away with them? If not, it +would be the turn next of those whom she herself had pushed into the arms +of the fell monster: First Heliodora, and then her mother! And she, +rightfully, ought to have fallen before them; and if the pestilence +should seize her and death should drag her down into the grave it would +be showing her mercy. She was still so young, and yet she hated life. +It had nothing in store for her but humiliation and disappointment, +arrows which, sent from the prison, pierced her to the heart, and a +torturing fear which never gave her any peace, day or night. + +When the physician came to transport the sick to the hospital in the +desert, he mentioned incidentally that the judges had condemned Paula to +death, and that the populace and senate, in spite of the new bishop's +prohibition, had determined to cast her into the river in accordance with +an ancient custom. Orion's fate was not to be decided till the following +day; but it would hardly be to his advantage in the eyes of his Jacobite +judges, that his betrothed was this Syrian Melchite. + +At this Katharina was forced to support herself against her mother's arm- +chair to save herself from sinking on her knees; with tingling cheeks she +questioned the leech till he lost all patience and turned away much +annoyed at such excessive feminine curiosity. + +Yes! "The other" was his betrothed before all the world; but only to +die! The blood rushed through her veins in a hot tide at the thought; +she could have laughed aloud and fallen on the neck of every one she met. +What she felt was hideous; malignant spite possessed her; but it gave her +rapture--delicious rapture--a flower of hell, but with splendid petals +and intoxicating perfume. But its splendor dazzled her and its fragrance +presently sickened her. Sheer horror of herself came over her, and yet +she could have shouted with joy each time that the thought flashed +through her brain: "The other must die!" + +Her mother feared that her daughter, too, was about to fall ill, her eyes +glowed so strangely and she was so restless and nervously excitable. + +Since Heliodora had taken the overwhelming news of Orion's betrothal to +Paula with astonishing though sorrowful calmness, to the hot-blooded girl +she was nothing, nobody, utterly unworthy of her notice. + +To spite her she had committed a crime as like murder as one snake is +like another, and imperilled her own mother's life! It was enough to +drive her to despair, to make her scourge herself with rods! + +When Susannah kissed her at parting for the night she complained of a +slight sore throat and of her lips, which she fancied must be swollen. +Katharina detained her, questioned her with a trembling voice, put the +lamp close to her, and held her breath while she examined her face, her +neck, and her arms for the dreadful spots. But none were to be seen and +her mother laughed at her terrors, called her a dutiful, anxious child, +and warned her not to be too full of fears, as they were supposed to +invite the disease. + +All night the girl could not sleep. Her malicious triumph was past; +nothing but painful thoughts and grewsome images haunted her while awake, +and pursued her more persistently when she dozed. By dawn of day her +alarm for her mother was so great that she sprang out of bed and went to +her room; Susannah was sleeping so soundly that she did not even hear +her. Much relieved Katharina crept back to bed; but in the morning the +worst had happened: Susannah could no longer leave her bed; she was +feverish, and on her lips, the very lips which had kissed her child's +infected hair, there were indeed, between her nose and mouth, the first +terrible, unmistakable spots. + +The leech came and confirmed the fact.--The house was closed and barred. + +The physician and Susannah, who was still in full possession of her +senses, wished and insisted that Katharina should withdraw to the +gardener's house, but she refused with defiant obstinacy, saying she +would rather die with her mother than leave her. + +Quite beside herself she threw herself on the sick woman, and kissed the +spots on her mouth to divert the poison into her own blood; but the +physician angrily pulled her away, and the sufferer reproved her with +tears in her eyes which spoke her fervent affection. + +She was now allowed to nurse her mother. Two nuns came to her +assistance, and said, not only to the rich widow but behind her back, +that they had never seen so devoted and loving a daughter. Even Bishop +John, who did not shrink from entering the houses of the sick to give +them spiritual consolation, praised Katharina's conduct; and he, who had +hitherto regarded the water-wagtail as no more than a bright, restless +child, treated her with respect, talked to her as to a grown-up person, +and answered her questions--which for the most part referred to Paula-- +gravely and fully. + +The prelate, who was full of admiration for Thomas' daughter, told +Katharina how, to save her lover, she had taken a crime upon herself +which deprived her of every claim to mercy. The Syrian girl was only a +Melchite, but to take another's guilt, out of love, was treading indeed +in the footsteps of Christ, if ever anything was. At this Katharina +shrugged her shoulders, as though to say: "Do you think so much of that? +Could not I gladly have done the same?" + +The priest saw this and admonished her kindly to be on her guard against +spiritual pride, though she had indeed earned the right to believe +herself capable of the sternest devotion, and did not cease to set an +example of filial and Christian love. + +He departed; and Katharina, to whom every word in praise of her behavior +to her mother, whom her sin had brought to her death-bed, was a torturing +mockery, felt that she had deceived one more worthy soul. She did not, +to be sure, deserve to be charged with spiritual pride; for in this +silent chamber, where death stood on the threshold, she thought over all +the horrible things she had done, and told herself repeatedly that she +was the chief and most vile of sinners. + +Many times she felt impelled to confide in another soul, to invite a +pitying eye to behold and share her inward suffering. + +To the bishop above all, the most venerable priest she knew, she would +most readily have confessed everything and have submitted to any penance, +however severe, at his hands, but shame held her back; and even more did +another more urgent consideration. The prelate, she knew, would demand +of her that she should forsake her old life, root out from her soul the +old feelings and desires, and begin a new existence; but for this the +time had not yet come: her love was still an indispensable condition of +life, and her hatred was even more dear to her. When Paula's terrible +doom should indeed have overtaken her, and Katharina, her heart full of +those old feelings, had gloated over it; when she should have been able +to prove to Orion that her love was no less great and strong and self- +sacrificing than that of Thomas' daughter; when she should have compelled +him--as she would and must--to acknowledge that he had cruelly misprized +her and sinned against her; then, and not till then, would she make peace +with herself, with the Church, and with her Saviour. Nay, if need be, +she would take the veil and mourn away the rest of her young life as a +penitent, in a convent or a solitary rock-cell. But now--when Paula, +his betrothed, had done this great thing for him--to perish now, with her +love unseen, unknown, uncared for, perhaps forgotten by him, to retire +into herself and vanish from his ken--that was too much for human nature! +Sooner would she be lost forever; body and soul in everlasting perdition, +a prey to Satan and hell--in which she believed as firmly as in her own +existence. + +So she went on nursing her mother, saw the red spots spread over the sick +woman's whole body--watched the fever that increased from day to day, +from hour to hour; listened with a mixture of horror and gladness--at +which she herself shuddered, though she fed her heart on it--to the +reports of the preparations for the sacrifice of the Bride of the Nile, +and to all the bishop could tell her of Paula, and her dying father, and +Orion. She trembled for little Mary, who had disappeared from the +neighboring garden, till she heard that the child had fled to escape the +cloister; each day she learnt that Heliodora, who had moved to the +gardener's house with her invalid, had as yet escaped the pestilence; +while in the prayers, which even now she never failed to offer up morning +and evening, she implored the Almighty and her patron saints to rescue +the young widow, to save her from causing the death of her own mother, +and to forgive her for having indirectly caused that of worthy old +Rufinus, who had always been so good to her, and of so many innocent +creatures by her treachery. + +Thus the terrible days and nights of anguish passed by; and the captives +whom the girl's sins had brought to prison were happier than she, in +spite of the doom that threatened them. + +The fate of his betrothed tortured Orion more than a hundred aching +wounds. Paula's terrible end was fast approaching, and his brain burned +at the mere thought. Now, as he was told by the warder, by the bishop, +and by Justinus, the day after to-morrow was fixed for the bridal of his +betrothed. In two days the bride, decked by base and mocking hands for +an atrocious and accursed farce, would be wreathed and wedded, not to +him, the bridegroom whom she loved, but to the Nile--the insensible, +death-dealing element. He rushed up and down his cell like a madman, +and tore his lute-strings when he tried to soothe his soul with music; +but then a calm, well-intentioned voice would come from the adjoining +room, exhorting him not to lose hope, to trust in God, not to forget his +duty and the task before him. And Orion would control himself +resolutely, pull himself together, and throw himself into his work again. + +Day and night were alike to him. The senator had provided him with a +lamp and oil. When he was wearied out, he allowed himself no longer +sleep on his hard couch than human nature imperatively demanded; and as +soon as he had shaken it off he again became absorbed in maps and lists, +plied his pen, thought, sketched, calculated, and reflected. Then, if a +doubt arose in his mind or he could not trust his own memory and +judgment, he knocked at the wall, and his shrewd and experienced friend +was at all times ready to help him to the best of his knowledge and +opinion. The senator went to Arsinoe for him, to gain information as +to the seaboard from the archives preserved there; and so the work went +forward, approaching its end, strengthening and raising his sinking +spirit, bringing him the pleasures of success, and enabling him not +unfrequently to forget for hours that which otherwise might have brought +the bravest to despair. + +The warder, the senator or his worthy wife, Dame Joanna or Eudoxia--who +twice had the pleasure of accompanying her--each time they visited him +had some message or note to carry to Paula, telling her how far his work +had progressed; and to her it was a consolation and heartfelt joy to be +able to follow him in his labors. And many a token of his love, esteem, +and admiration gave her courage, when even her brave heart began to +quail. + +Ah! It was not alone her terror of a horrible death that tortured her +soul. Her father, whom she considered it her greatest joy in life to +have found again, was fading beyond all hope under her loving hands. +His poor wounded lungs refused its service. It was with great difficulty +that he could swallow a few drops of wine and mouthfuls of food; and in +these last days his clear mind had lain as it were under a shroud-- +perhaps it was happier so, as she told herself and as her friends +said to comfort her. + +He, too, had heard the cries of: "Hail to the Bride of the Nile!" + +"Bring out the Bride!" + +"Away with the Bride of the Nile!" Though he had no suspicion of their +meaning, they had haunted his thoughts incessantly during the last few +days; and the terrible, strange words had seemed to charm his fancy, +for to Paula's distress he would murmur them to himself tenderly or +thoughtfully as the case might be. + +Many times the idea occurred to her that she might put an end to her life +before the worst should befall, before she became a spectacle for a whole +nation, to be jeered at and made a delightful and exciting show to rouse +their cruelty or their compassion. But dared she do it? Dared she defy +the Most High, the Lord in whom she put her trust, into whose hand she +commended herself in a thousand dumb but fervent prayers. + +No. To the very last she would trust and hope. And wonderful to say! +Each time she had reached the very limits of her powers of endurance, +feeling she could certainly bear no more and must succumb, something came +to her to revive her faith or her courage: a message would be brought her +from Orion, or Dame Joanna or Pulcheria came to see her; the bishop +sought an interview, or her father's mind rallied and he could speak to +her in beautiful and stimulating words. Often the warder would announce +the senator and his wife, and their vigorous and healthy minds always hit +on the very thing she needed. Martina, particularly, with her subtle +motherly instinct, always understood whatever was agitating her; and +once she showed her a letter from Heliodora, in which she spoke of the +calmness she had won through nursing their dear invalid, and said how +thankful she was to see the reward of her care and toil. Narses was +already quite another man, and she could know no higher task than that of +reconciling the hapless man to life, nay, of making it dear to him again. +She no longer thought of Orion but as she might of a beautiful song she +once had heard in a delightful hour. + +Thus time passed, even for the imprisoned maiden, till only two nights +remained before St. Serapis' day when the fearful marriage was to be +solemnized. + +It was evening when the bishop came to visit Paula. He regarded it as +his duty to tell her that the execution of her sentence was fixed for the +day after to-morrow. He should hope and believe till the last, but his +own power over the misguided mob was gone from him. In any case, and if +the worst should befall, he would be at her side to protect her by the +dignity of his office. He had come now, so as to give her time to +prepare her self in every respect. The care of her noble father till his +last hour on earth he would take upon himself as a dear and sacred duty. + +Though she had believed herself surely prepared long since for the worst, +this news fell on her like a thunderbolt. What lay before her seemed so +monstrous, so unexampled, that it was impossible that she ever could look +forward to it firmly and calmly. + +For a long time she could not help clinging desperately to her faithful +Betta, and it was only by degrees that she so far recovered herself as to +be able to speak to the bishop, and thank him. He, however, could only +lament his inability to earn her fullest gratitude, for the patriarch's +reply to his complaint of those who promised rescue to the people by the +instrumentality of a heathen abomination--a document on which he had +founded his highest hopes for her--had had a different result from that +which he had expected. The patriarch, to be sure, condemned the +abominable sacrifice, but he did it in a way which lacked the force +necessary to terrify and discourage the misled mob. However, he would +try what effect it might have on the people, and a number of scribes were +at work to make copies of it in the course of the night. These would be +sent to the Senators next morning, posted up in the market-place and +public buildings, and distributed to the people; but he feared all this +would have no effect. + +"Then help me to prepare for death," said Paula gloomily. "You are not +a priest of my confession, but no church has a more worthy minister. +If you can absolve me in the name of your Redeemer, mine will pardon me. +We look at Him, it is true, with different eyes, but He is the Saviour of +us both, nevertheless." A contradictory reply struggled for utterance in +the strict Jacobite's mind, but at such a moment he felt he must repress +it; he only answered: + +"Speak, daughter, I am listening." + +And she poured forth all her soul, as though he had been a priest of her +own creed, and his eyes grew moist as he heard this confession of a pure +and loving heart, yearning for all that was highest and best. He +promised her the mercy of the Redeemer, and when he had ended with +"Amen," and blessed her, he looked down at the ground for some minutes +and presently said, "Follow me, Child." + +"Whither?" she asked in surprise; for she thought that her last hour had +already come, and that he was about to lead her away to the place of +execution, or to her watery, ever-flowing tomb; but he smiled as he +replied: "No, child. To-day I have only the pleasing duty of blessing +your betrothal before God; if only you will promise not to estrange your +husband from the faith of his fathers--for what will not a man sacrifice +to win the love of a woman.--You promise? Then I will take you to your +Orion." + +He rapped on the door of the cell, and when the warder had opened it he +whispered his orders; Paula followed him silently and with blushing +cheeks, and in a few minutes she was clasped to her lover's breast while, +for the first time--and perhaps the last--their lips met in a kiss. + +The prelate gave them a few minutes together; when he had blessed them +both and solemnized their betrothal, he led her back to her cell. +However, she had hardly time to thank him out of the fulness of her +overflowing heart, when a town-watchman came to fetch him to see +Susannah; her last hour was at hand, if not already past. John at once +went with the messenger, and Paula drew a deep breath as she saw him +depart. Then she threw herself on to her nurse's shoulders, crying: + +"Now, come what may! Nothing can divide us; not even death!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The bishop was too late. He found the widow Susannah a corpse; standing +at the head of the bed was little Katharina, as pale as death, +speechless, tearless, utterly annihilated. He kindly tried to cheer her, +and to speak words of comfort; but she pushed him away, tore herself from +him, and before he could stop her, she had fled out of the room. + +Poor child! He had seen many a loving daughter mourning for her mother, +but never such grief as this. Here, thought he, were two human souls all +in all to each other, and hence this overwhelming sorrow. + +Katharina had escaped to her own room, had thrown herself on the couch +--cowering so close that no one entering the room would have taken the +undistinguishable heap for a human being, a grown up, passionately +suffering girl. + +It was very hot, and yet a cold shiver ran through her slender frame. +Was she now attacked by the pestilence? No; it would be too merciful of +Fate to take such pity on her woes. + +The mother was dead, dragged to the grave by her own daughter. The +disease had first shown itself on her lips; and how many times had the +physician expressed his surprise at the plague having broken out in this +healthy quarter of the town, and in a house kept so scrupulously clean. +She knew at whose bidding the avenging angel had entered there, and whose +criminal guile had trifled with him. The words "murdered your mother" +haunted her, and she remembered the law of the ancients which refused to +prescribe a punishment for the killing of parents, because they +considered such a monstrous deed impossible. + +A scornful smile curled her lip. Laws! Principles! Was there one that +she had not defied? She had contemned God, meddled with magic, borne +false witness, committed murder--and as to the one law with promise, +which, if Philippus was right, was exactly the same in the code of her +forefathers as on the tables of Moses, how had she kept that? Her own +mother was no more, and by her act! + +All through this frightful retrospect she had never ceased to shiver and, +as this was becoming unendurable, she took to walking up and down and +seeking excuses for her sinful doings: It was not her mother, but +Heliodora whom she had wished to kill; why had malicious Fate....? + +Here she was interrupted, for the young widow, who had heard the sad +news, sought her out to comfort her and offer her services. She spoke +to the girl with real affection; but her sweet, low tones reminded +Katharina of that evening after the old bishop's death; and when +Heliodora put out her arm to draw her to her, she shrank from her, +begging her in a dry, hoarse voice, not to touch her for her clothes were +infected. She wanted no comfort; all she asked was to be left alone-- +quite alone--nothing more. The words were hard and unkind, and as the +door closed on the young woman Katharina's eyes glared after her. + +Why had this doom passed over Heliodora's head and demanded the sacrifice +of one whose loss she could never cease to mourn? + +This brought her mother vividly to her mind. She flew back to her death- +bed and fell on her knees--but even there she could not bear to stay +long, so she wandered into the garden and visited every spot where she +and her mother had been together. But there were such strange crackings +in the shrubs, and the trees and bushes cast such uncanny shadows that +she hailed daybreak as a deliverance. + +She was on her way back to the house when her foster-brother Anubis came +limping to meet her. Poor fellow! She had made a cripple of him, too, +and his mother had died through her fault. + +The lad spoke to her, giving expression to his sympathy, and she accepted +it; but she said such strange things, and answered him so utterly at +random, that he began to fear that grief had turned her brain. She went +on to ask him point-blank how much money she now had, and as he happened +to know approximately, he could tell her; she clasped her hands, for how +could any one human being who was not a king possess such enormous +wealth! Finally she enquired whether he knew how a will should be drawn +up, and that, too, he answered affirmatively. + +She made him describe it all, and then he added that the signature must +be made valid by those of two witnesses; but she, he added, was too young +to be thinking of making her will. + +"Why?" said she. "Is Paula much older than I am?" + +"And the day after to-morrow," the boy went on, "she is to be cast into +the Nile. All the people call her the Bride of the Nile." + +At this that hideous, malignant smile again curled her lips, but she +hastily suppressed it and walked straight on into the house. At the door +he timidly asked her whether he might once more look on his mistress; but +she was obliged to forbid it for fear of infection. However, he proudly +replied: "What you do not fear, has no terrors for me," and he followed +her to the side of the bed where the corpse now lay washed and in fine +array; and when he saw Katharina kiss the dead woman's hand he, too, as +soon as she looked away, pressed his lips on the place hers had touched. +Then he sat down by the bed and remained there till she sent him away. + +Before noon the bishop arrived to perform the last rites. He found the +body surrounded by beautiful flowers. Katharina had been out in the +garden again and had cut all the rarest and finest; and though she had +allowed the gardener to carry the basket for her, she would not have him +help her in gathering them. The feeling that she was doing something for +her mother had been a comfort to her; still, by day everything about her +seemed even more intolerable than by night. Everything looked so large, +so coarse, so insistent, so menacing, and reminded her at every step of +some injustice or some deed of which she was ashamed. Every eye, she +fancied, must see through her; and now and then it seemed as though the +pillars of the great banqueting-hall, where her mother still lay, were +tottering, and the ceiling about to fall in and crush her. + +She answered the bishop's questions absently and often quite at random, +and the old man supposed that she was stunned by her great sorrow; so to +give her thoughts a new direction he began telling her about Paula, and +believing that Katharina was fond of her, he confided to her that he had +taken Paula, the day before, to Orion's cell, and consecrated their +betrothal. + +At this her face was convulsed in a manner that alarmed the bishop; a +fearful tumult raged in her soul, her bosom rose and fell spasmodically, +and all she could utter was the question: "But they will sacrifice her +all the same?" + +The bishop thought he understood. She was horror stricken by the idea of +the sudden, cruel end that hung over the young bride, and he replied +sadly; "I shall not be able to restrain the wretches; still, no means +shall remain untried. The patriarch's rescript, condemning this mad +crime, shall be made public to-day, and I will read and expound it at the +Curia, and try to give it keener emphasis.--Would you like to read it?" + +As she eagerly assented, the prelate signed to the acolyte who had waited +on him with the holy vessels, and he produced from a packet a written +sheet which he handed to Katharina. As soon as she was alone she read +the patriarch's epistle; at first superficially, then more carefully, and +at last in deep attention and growing interest, stirred by it to strange +thoughts, till at length her eyes flashed and her breath came fast, as +though this paper referred to herself, and could seal her fate for life. + +When the bearers came in to fetch away the body she was still sitting +there, gazing as if spell-bound at the papyrus; but she sprang up, shook +herself, and then bid farewell to the cold rigid form of the mother on +whose warm heart she had so often rested, and to whom she had been the +dearest thing on earth--and even then the solace of tears was denied her. + +She no longer suffered the deep remorse that had tormented her; for she +felt now that her intercourse with her last mother had not been put an +end to by death; that after a short parting they would meet again--soon +perhaps, perhaps even to-morrow--meet for a fulness of speech, an +outpouring of the heart, a revelation of all the past more open and +unreserved than could ever be between mortal beings, even between mother +and daughter. And when she who was sleeping there, blind, deaf, and +senseless, should awake again, up there, with eyes clearer than those of +men below, and the ears and senses of a spiritual being to see and hear +and judge all she had known and done, all she had felt and made others +feel--then, she told herself, her mother might perhaps blame her and +punish her more than she had ever done on earth, but she would also clasp +her more closely to her heart and comfort her more earnestly. + +She whispered gently in her ear as if she were still alive: "Wait awhile, +only wait: I shall come soon and tell you everything!" + +And then she kissed her so passionately and recklessly that the nuns were +shocked and dragged her away, ordering the bearers to close the coffin. +They obeyed, and when the wooden lid fell over the sleeping form, +shutting it in with a slam, and hiding it from the girl's sight, the +barrier gave way which had hitherto restrained her tears and she began to +weep bitterly; now, too, the feeling that she had indeed lost her mother +took complete possession of her--the sense of being an orphan and alone, +quite alone in the wide world. + +She saw and heard no more of what took place round the beloved dead; for +when she took her hands from her face streaming with tears, the house of +the rich widow no longer sheltered its mistress; her remains had been +borne away to the nearest mortuary. The law forbade its being any longer +kept within doors, but did not allow of its being buried till night fell. +The child might not follow her own mother to the cemetery. + +With a drooping head Katharina withdrew to her room and there stood +looking out into the garden. It all was hers now; she was mistress of it +all and of much besides, as free and unfettered to command as hitherto +she had been over the birds, her little dog, or the jewels that lay on +her toilet-table. She could make hundreds happy with a word, a wave of +the hand--but not herself. She had never felt so grown-up, independent, +womanly, nay powerful, and at the same time so unutterably wretched and +helpless as she felt in this hour. + +What did she care for all these vanities? They could not suffice to +check one sigh of disappointed yearning. + +She had parted from her mother with a promise; the fervent longing that +filled her soul was never still; and now the patriarch's letter had given +her a hint as to how she might fulfil the one and silence the other. She +hastily took the document up again, and read it through once more. + +Its instructions were precise to stop the proceedings of the misguided +Memphites with stern promptitude. It explained that the death of the +Christ Jesus, who shed His blood to redeem the world, had satisfied the +need for a human victim. Throughout the wide realms which the Cross +overshadowed with blessing human sacrifice must therefore be accounted a +useless and accursed abomination. It went on to point out how the +heathen had devised their gods in the image of weak, sinful, earthly +beings, and chosen victims in accordance with this idea. "But our God," +it said, "is as high above men as the Spirit is above the flesh, and the +sacrifice He demands is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. Will He not +turn away in wrath and sorrow from the blinded Christians of Memphis who, +in their straits, feel and are about to act like the cruel and foolish +heathen? They take for their victim a heretic and a stranger, deeming +that that will diminish the abomination in the eyes of the Lord; but it +moves Him to loathing all the same, for no human blood may stain the pure +and sacred altars of our mild faith, which gives life and not death. + +"Ask your blind and misguided flock, my brother: Can the Father of Love +feel joy at the sight of one of His children, even an erring one, +suffocated in the waters to the honor of the Most High, while struggling, +and cursing her executioners? + +"If, indeed, there were a pure maiden, possessed with the blessed +intoxication of the love of God, who was ready to follow the example of +Him who redeemed man by His death, to fling herself into the waters while +she cried to Heaven with her dying breath: 'Take me and my innocence as +an offering, O Lord! Release my people from their extremity!'--that +would be a victim indeed; and perchance, the Lord might say: 'I will +accept it; but the will alone is enough. No child of mine may cast away +the life that I have lent her as the most sacred and precious of gifts.'" + +The letter ended with pious exhortations to the community. + +Then a maiden who should voluntarily sacrifice herself in the river to +save the people in their need would be a victim pleasing in the sight of +the Lord--so said the Man of God, through whose mouth the Most High +spoke. And this opinion, this hint, was to Katharina like a distaff from +which she spun a lengthening thread to warp to the loom and weave from it +a tangible tissue. + +She would be the maiden whom the patriarch had imagined--the real, true +Bride of the Nile, inspired to cast off her young life to save her people +in their need. In this there was expiation such as Heaven might accept; +this would release her from the burthen of life that weighed upon her, +and would reunite her to her mother; in this way she could show her lover +and the bishop and all the world the immensity of her self-sacrifice, +which was in nothing behind that of "the other"--the much-vaunted +daughter of Thomas! She would do the great deed before Paula's eyes, in +sight of all the people. But Orion must know whose image she bore in her +heart and for whose sake she made that leap from blooming life into a +watery grave. + +Oh! it was wonderful, splendid! Would she not thus compel him inevitably +to remember her whenever he should think of Paula? Yes, she would force +him to allow her image to dwell in his soul, inseparable from that +"other;" and would not such an unparalleled act add such height to her +figure, that it would be equal to that of her Syrian rival in the +estimation of all men--even in his? + +She now began to long for the supreme moment. Her vain little heart +laughed in anticipation of the delight of being seen, praised and admired +by all. Tomorrow she, her little self, would tower above all the world; +and the more she felt the oppressive heat of the scorching day, the more +delicious it seemed to look forward to finding rest from the torments of +life in the cool element. + +She saw no difficulties in the way of her achievement; she was mistress +now, and her slaves and servants must obey her orders. At the same time +she remembered, too, to protect her large possessions from falling into +the hands of relations for whom she did not care; with a firm hand she +drew up a will in which she bequeathed part of her fortune to her uncle +Chrysippus, small portions to her foster-brother Anubis, and to Rufinus' +widow, to whom she owed reparation for great wrong; then the larger half, +and she owned many millions, she bequeathed to her dear friend Orion, +whom she freely forgave, and who, she hoped, would see that even in the +little "water-wagtail" there had been room for some greatness. She +begged him also to take her house, since she had not been altogether +guiltless of the destruction of the home of his fathers. + +The condition she attached to this bequest showed the same keen, alert +spirit that had guided her through life. + +She knew that the patriarch's indignation might be fatal to the young +man, so to serve as a mediator, and at the same time to ensure for +herself the prayers of the Church, which she desired, she enjoined Orion +to bestow the greater part of his inheritance on the patriarch for the +Church and for benevolent purposes. But not at once, not for ten years, +and in instalments of which Orion himself was to determine the +proportion. In the event of his dying within the next three years all +his claims were to be transferred to her uncle Chrysippus. She added a +request to the Church, to which she belonged with her whole heart, that +every year on her saint's day and her mother's they should be prayed for +in every church in the land. A chapel was to be erected on the scene of +her self-immolation, and if the patriarch thought her worthy of the +honor, it was to bear the name of the Chapel of Susannah and Katharina. + +She gave all her slaves their freedom and devised legacies to all the +officials of her household. + +As she sat for long hours of serious meditation, drawing up this last +will, she smiled frequently with satisfaction. Then she copied it out +fair, and finally called the physician and all the free servants in the +house to witness her signature. + +Though no one had suspected the "water-wagtail" of such forethought, it +was no matter of surprise that the young heiress, shut up in the plague- +stricken house, should dispose of her estates, and before night-fall the +physician brought Alexander, the chief of the Senate, to the garden gate +by her desire, and there they spoke to each other without opening it. He +was an old friend of her father's, and since the death of the Mukaukas, +had been her guardian; he now agreed to stand as her Kyrios, and as such +he ratified her will and the signature, though she would not allow him to +read the document. + +Finally she went to the slaves quarters, from whence a few more sufferers +had been removed to the Necropolis, and desired her boatman to get the +holiday barge in readiness early in the morning, as she purposed seeing +the ceremonial from the river. She gave particular orders to the +gardener as to how it was to be decorated, and what flowers he was to cut +for her personal adornment. + +She went to bed far less excited than she had been the night before, and +before she had ended her evening prayer, slumber overtook her weary +brain. + +When she awoke at sunrise, the large and splendid boat, which her father +had had built at great cost in Alexandria, was manned and ready to put +out. No one interfered to prevent her embarking with Anubis and a few +female servants, for all the guards who had surrounded the house till +yesterday had been withdrawn to do duty at the great ceremonial of the +marriage and sacrifice, since a popular tumult was not unlikely to arise. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +A great number of persons had collected during the night on the quay near +Nesptah's inn. The crowd was increasing every minute, and in spite of +the intense heat, not a Memphite could bear to stop within doors, Men, +women and children were flocking to the scene of the festival; they came +in thousands from the neighboring towns, hamlets and villages, to witness +the unprecedented sacrifice which was to put an end to the misery of the +land. Who had ever heard of such a marriage? What a privilege, what a +happiness, to be so fortunate as to see it! + +The senate had not been idle and had done all in their power to surround +it with magnificence and to enable as many as possible to enjoy the +pageant, which had been planned with a lavish hand and liberal +munificence. + +Round the cove by Nesptah's inn a semi-circular wooden stand had been +constructed, on which thousands found seats or standing-room. Stalls +furnished with hangings were erected in the middle of the tribune for the +authorities and their families as well as for the leading Arab officials, +and arm-chairs were placed in them for the Vekeel, for the Kadi, for +the head of the senate, for old Horapollo and also for the Christian +priesthood, though it was well known that they would not be present +at the ceremony. + +The lower classes, who could not afford to pay for admission to these +seats, had established themselves on the banks of the river; wandering +dealers had followed them, and wherever the crowd was densest they had +displayed their wares--light refreshments or solid food--on two-wheeled +trucks, or on little carpets spread on the ground. In the tribune itself +the cries of the water-sellers were incessant as they offered filtered +Nile water and fruit syrups for sale. + +The parched tops of the palms, where turtle doves, lapwings and sparrow- +hawks were wont to perch, were crowded with the vagabond boys of the +town, who whiled away the time by pulling the withered and diseased dates +from the great clumps and flinging them down on the bystanders below, +till the guard took aim at them with their arrows and stopped the game. + +The centre of attraction to all eyes was a wooden platform or pontoon, +built far out into the stream; from thence the bride was to be flung into +the watery embrace of the expectant bridegroom. Here the masters of the +ceremonies had put forth their best efforts, and it was magnificently +decorated with hangings and handkerchiefs, palm-leaves and flags; with +heavy garlands of tamarisk and willow, mingled with bright blossoms of +the lotos and mallow, lilies and roses; with devices emblematic of the +province, and other gilt ornaments. Only the furthest end of it was +unadorned and without even a railing, that there might be nothing to +intercept the view of the "marriage." + +Three hours before noon none were absent but those whose places were +secured, and ere long curiosity brought them also to the spot. The town- +watch found it required all their efforts to keep the front ranks of the +people from being pushed into the river by those behind; indeed, this +accident could not be everywhere guarded against; but, thanks to the +shallow state of the water, no one was the worse. But the cries of those +who were in danger nevertheless drowned the music of the bands performing +on raised platforms and the shouts of applause which rose on all sides to +hail Horapollo--who was here, there, everywhere on his white ass as brisk +as a lad--or to greet some leading official. + +And now and again loud cries of anguish were heard, or the closely-packed +throng parted with exclamations of horror. A citizen had had a +sunstroke, or had been seized by the plague. Then the fugitives dragged +others away with them; screaming mothers trying to save their little ones +from the crush on one hand and the contagion on the other, oversetting +one dealer's truck, smashing the eggs and cakes of another. A whole +party were pushed into a deep but half-dried up water-course; the +guardians of the peace flourished their staves, yelling and making their +victims yell in their efforts to restore order--but all this hardly +affected the vast body of spectators, and suddenly peace reigned, the +confusion subsided, the shrieks were silenced. Those who were doomed +might fall or die, be crushed or plague-stricken. Trumpet calls and +singing were heard approaching from the town: the procession, the Bridal +procession was coming! Not a man but would have perished rather than be +deprived of seeing a single act of this stupendous drama. + +Those Arabs--what fools they were! Besides the Vekeel only three of +their magnates were present, and those men whom no one knew. Even the +Kadi was nowhere to be seen; and he must have forbidden the Moslem women +to come, for not a single veiled beauty of the harem was visible. Not +one Egyptian woman would have failed to appear if the plague had not kept +so many imprisoned in their houses. Such a thing would never be seen +again; this day's doings would be a tale to tell to future great- +grandchildren! + +The music and singing came nearer and nearer; and it did not indeed sound +as if it were escorting a hapless creature to a fearful end. Blast after +blast rang out from the trumpets, filling the air with festive defiance; +cheerful bridal songs came nearer and nearer to the listeners, the shrill +chorus of boys and maidens sounding above the deeper and stronger chant +of youths and men of all ages; flutes piped a gay invitation to gladness; +the dull roar of drums muttered like the distant waves in time to a +march, broken by the clang of cymbals and the tinkle of bells hung around +tambourines held high by girlish hands which struck, rattled and waved +them above their flowing curls; lute players discoursed sweet music on +the strings; and as this vast tide of mingled tones came closer, behind +it there was still more music and more song. + +To the ear the procession seemed endless, and the eye soon confirmed the +impression. + +All were listening, gazing, watching to see the Bride and her escort. +Every eye seemed compelled to turn in the same direction; and presently +there came: first the trumpeters on spirited horses, and these ranged +themselves on each side of the road by the shore leading to the scene of +the "marriage." In front of them the choir of women took their stand to +the left and, on the right, the men who had marched after them. All +alike were arrayed in light sea-green garments, and loaded with lotos- +flowers. The women's hair, twined with white blossoms, flowed over their +shoulders; the men carried bunches of papyrus and reeds;--they +represented river gods that had risen from the stream. + +Then came boys and bearded men, in white robes, with panther-skins on +their shoulders, as the heathen priests had been wont to wear them. They +were headed by two old men with long white beards, one holding a silver +cup and the other a golden one, ready to fling them into the waves as a +first offering, according to the practise of their forefathers, as +Horapollo had described and ordered it. These went on to the pontoon, to +its farthest end, and took their place on one side of the platform whence +the Bride was to be cast into the river. Behind them came a large troop +of flute-players and drummers, followed by fifty maidens holding +tambourines, and fifty men all dressed and carrying emblems as followers +of Dionysus, or Osiris-Bacchus, who had been worshipped here in the time +of the Romans; with these came the drunken Silenus, goathoofed Satyrs and +Pan, with his reed-pipes, all riding grey asses strangely bedaubed with +yellow. + +Then followed giraffes, elephants, ostriches, antelopes, gazelles; even +some tamed lions and panthers were led past the wondering crowd; for this +had been done in the famous procession in honor of the second Ptolemy, +described by Callixenus of Rhodes. + +Next came a large car drawn by twelve black horses, and on it a +symbolical group of Famine and Pestilence overthrown; they were +surrounded by shrieking black children, with pointed wings on their +shoulders and horns on their foreheads, bound to stakes to represent the +hosts of hell--a performance which they tried to make at once ghastly and +droll. + +On another car the Goddess of the Inundation was to be seen. She sat +amid sheaves, fruits, and garlands of vine; while round her were groups +of children with apples and corn, pomegranates and bunches of dates, +wine-jars and cups in their hands. + +Presently there appeared in a large shell, as though lounging in a bath, +the goddess of health; she was drawn by eight snow-white horses, and held +in one hand a golden goblet and in the other a caduceus. After her came +the river-god Nile, the bridegroom of the marriage, studied from the +famous statue carried away from Alexandria by the Romans: a splendid and +mighty bearded man, resting against an urn. Sixteen naked children--the +sixteen ells that the river must rise for its overflow to bless the land +--played round his herculean form, and a bridal wreath of lotos-flowers +crowned his flowing locks. This car, which was decorated with +crocodiles, sheaves, dates, grapes, and shells, was hailed with shouts of +enthusiasm; it was escorted by old men in the costume of the heathen +priesthood. + +Behind this came more music and singers, with a troop of young men and +maidens led by lute-players singing. These too were dressed as the +genie, and nymphs of the river and were the groomsmen and bridesmaids in +attendance on the betrothed. + +The longer the procession lasted and the nearer the looked-for victim +approached, the more eagerly attent were the gazing multitude. + +When this group of youths and maidens had gone by, there was hardly a +sound to be heard in the tribune and among the crowd. No one felt the +fierce heat of the sun, no one heeded the thirst that parched every +tongue; all eyes were bent in one direction; only the black Vekeel, whose +colossal form towered up where he stood, occasionally sent a sinister and +anxious glance towards the town. He expected to see smoke rising from +the quarter near the prison, and suddenly his lips parted and he +displayed his dazzlingly white teeth in a scornful laugh. That which he +looked for had come to pass; the little grey cloud which he discerned +grew blacker, and then, in the heart of it, rose a crimson glow which did +not take its color from the sun. But of all those thousands he was the +only one who looked behind him and observed it. + +The bride's attendants had by this time taken their station on the +pontoon; here came another band of youths with panther skins on their +shoulders; and now--at last, at last--a car came swaying along, drawn by +eight coal-black oxen dressed with green ostrich-feathers and water- +plants. + +The car was shaded by a tall canopy, supported by four poles, against +which leaned four men in the robes of the heathen priesthood; this awning +was lavishly decorated with wreaths of lotos and reeds, and fenced about +with papyrus, bulrushes, tall grasses and blossoming river-weeds. +Beneath it sat the queen of the festival--the Bride of the Nile. + +Robed in white and closely veiled, she was quite motionless. Her long, +thick brown hair fell over her shoulders; at her feet lay a wreath, and +rare rose-colored lotos-flowers were strewn on the car. + +The bishop had been sitting at her side, the first Christian priest, +certainly, of all the swarms of monks and ecclesiastics in Memphis, who +had ever appeared at such a scene of heathen abomination. He was now +standing, looking down at the crowd with a deeply knit brow and menacing +gaze. What good had come of the penitential sermons in all the churches, +of his and his vicar's warnings and threats? In spite of all +remonstrance he had mounted the car with the condemned victim, +after administering the last consolations to her soul. It might +cost him his life, but he would keep his promise. + +In her hand Paula held two roses: one was Orion's last greeting delivered +by Martina; the other Pulcheria had brought her early in the morning. +Yesterday, in a lucid moment, her dying father had given her his fondest +blessing, little knowing what hung over her; to-day he had not come to +himself, and had neither noticed nor returned her parting kiss. Quite +unconscious, he had been moved from the prison out of doors and to the +house of Rufinus. Dame Joanna would not forego the privilege of giving +him a resting-place and taking care of him till the end. + +Orion's last note was placed in Paula's hands just before she set out; +it informed her that his task was now successfully ended. He had been +told that it was to-morrow, and not to-day, that the hideous act would be +accomplished; and it was a consolation to her to know that he was spared +the agony of following her in fancy in her fearful progress. + +She had allowed the women who came to clothe her in bridal array to +perform their task; among them was Emau, the chief warder's wife, and her +overflowing compassion had done Paula good. But even in the prison-yard +she had felt it unendurable to exhibit herself decked in her bridal +wreaths to the gaping multitude; she had torn them from her and thrown +them on the ground. + +How long--how interminably long--had the road to the river appeared; but +she had never raised her eyes to look at the curious crowd, never ceased +lifting up her heart in prayer; and when her proud blood boiled, or +despair had almost taken possession of her, she had grasped the bishop's +hand and he had never wearied of encouraging her and exhorting her to +cling to love and faith, and not even yet abandon all hope. + +Thus they at last reached the pontoon at whose further end life would +begin for her in another world. The shouts of the crowd were as loud, +as triumphant, as expectant as ever; music and singing mingled with the +roar of thousands of spectators; she allowed herself to be lifted from +the car as though she were stunned, and followed the young men and +maidens who formed the bridal train, and in alternate choruses sang the +finest nuptial song of Sappho the fair Lesbian. + +The bishop now made an attempt to address the people, but he was soon +reduced to silence. So he once more joined Paula, and hand in hand they +went on to the pier. + +All she had in her of strength, pride, and heroic courage she summoned to +her aid to enable her to walk these last few paces with her head erect, +and without tottering; she had gone half way along the wooden structure, +with a mien as lofty and majestic as though she were marching to command +the obedience of the mob, when hoofs came thundering after her on the +boards. + +Old Horapollo, on his white ass, had overtaken her and stopped her on her +road. Breathless, bathed in perspiration, scornful and triumphant, he +desired her to remove her veil, and ordered the bishop to leave her and +give up his place to the man who represented Father Nile--a gigantic +farrier who followed him, somewhat embarrassed in his costume, but very +ready to perform his part to the end. + +The priest and Paula, however, refused to obey. At this the old man tore +the veil from her face and signed to the Nile-God; he stepped forward and +assumed his rights, after bowing respectfully to the prelate--who was +forced to make way--and then led the Bride to the end of the platform. +Here the two elders who had headed the procession in honor of Bacchus, +cast the gold cups as offerings into the river, and then a lawyer, in the +costume of a heathen priest, proceeded to expound, in a well-set speech, +the meaning of this betrothal and sacrifice. He took Paula's hand to +place in that of the farrier, who made ready to cast her into the river +for which he stood proxy. + +But an obstacle intervened before he could do so. A large and splendid +barge had drawn up close to the platform, and shouts were heard from the +tribune and from the mob which had till now looked on in breathless +suspense and profound silence: + +"Susannah's barge!" + +"Look at the Nile, look at the river!" + +"It is the water-wagtail--Philammon's rich heiress!" + +"A pretty sight!" + +"Another Bride--a second Bride!" + +And the gaze of the multitude was now, as one eye, fixed on Katharina. + +Susannah's handsome barge had been passing up and down near the platform +for the last hour, and the guards on duty had several times desired that +it was to be kept at a distance from the scene of the "marriage;" but in +vain; and they in their little boats were not strong enough to take +active measures against the larger vessel manned by fifty rowers. It had +now steered quite close to the pontoon, and the splendid gilding and +carving, the tall deck-house supported on silver pillars, and the crimson +embroidered sails would have been a gorgeous feast for the eye, but that +the black flag floating from the mast gave it a melancholy and gloomy +aspect. + +Within the cabin Katharina had made her waiting-women dress her in white +and deck her with white flowers-myrtle, roses and lotos; but she +vouchsafed no reply to their anxious enquiries. + +The maid who fastened the flowers on her bosom could feel her mistress's +heart beating under her hand, and the lotos-blossoms which drooped from +her shoulder rose and fell as though they were already rocking on the +waves of the Nile. Her lips, too, never ceased moving, and her cheeks +were as pale as death. + +"What is she going to do?" her attendants asked each other. + +Her mother dead only yesterday, and now she chose to be present at this +ceremonial, desiring the steersman to run close to the platform and keep +near to it, where all the world could see her. But she evidently wished +to display herself to the people in all her finery and be admired, for +she presently went up on the roof of the deck-house. And she looked +lovely, as lovely as a guileless angel, as she mounted the steps with +childlike diffidence-timidly, but with wide open eyes, as though +something grand was awaiting her there--something she had long yearned +for with her whole heart. + +Anubis had to help her up the last steps, for her knees gave way; but +once at the top she sent him down again to remain below with the others, +as she wished to be alone. The lad was accustomed to obey; and Katharina +now stepped on a seat close to the side of the boat, turned to Paula, +whom she was now rapidly approaching, and held out to her and the bishop +two tall lily-stems covered with splendid blossoms. At the very moment +when the farrier was measuring by eye the distance between the platform +and the barge, and had judged it impossible to cast the Bride into the +stream till the vessel had moved on, Katharina cried out: + +"Reverend Father John--and all of you! Take me, me and not the daughter +of Thomas! It is I, not she--I am the true Bride of the Nile. Of my own +free will--hear me, John!--of my own free will I am ready to give my life +for my hapless land and the misery of the people, and the patriarch said +that such a sacrifice as mine would be acceptable to Heaven. Farewell! +Pray for me!--Lord have mercy upon me! Mother, dear Mother, I am coming +to you!" + +Then she called to the steersman: "Put out from the platform!" and as +soon as a few strokes of the oars had carried the barge into the deeper +channel she stepped nimbly on to the edge of the bulwark, dropped the +lilies into the river, and then with a smile, her head gracefully bent on +one side and her skirt modestly held round her, she slipped into the +water. + +The waves closed over her; but she was a good swimmer and could not help +coming once to the surface. Her expression was that of a bather enjoying +the cool fresh water that laved and gurgled round her. Perhaps the +wild storm of applause, the mingled cries of horror, compassion and +thanksgiving that went up from the assembled thousands once more reached +her ear--but she dived head foremost to rise no more. + +The "River-God," a good-hearted man, who in his daily life could never +have let a fellow-creature drown under his very eyes, forgot his part, +released Paula, and sprang after Katharina, as did Anubis and a few +boatmen; but they could not reach her, and the boy, who found swimming +difficult with his crippled leg followed the girl to whom his young heart +was wholly devoted to a watery death. + +Her speech had reached no ears but those to whom it was addressed; but +before she was lost in the waters Bishop John turned to the people, took +Paula's hand--and she felt free once more when her terrible bridegroom +had deserted her--and holding up the Crucifix which hung at his girdle he +shouted loudly: + +"Behold the desires of our holy Father Benjamin, by whom God himself +speaks to you, have met with fulfilment. A pure and noble Jacobite +maiden, of her own free and beautiful impulse, has sacrificed herself +after the example of the Saviour, for the sufferings of her nation, +before your eyes. This one," and he drew Paula to him, "this one is +free; the Nile has had his victim!" + +But almost before he had done speaking--before the people could proclaim +their vote--Horapollo had rushed at him and interrupted him. He had +dismounted from his ass during the earlier part of the proceedings, and, +not to let his prey escape, he now came between Paula and the bishop, +grasped her dress and cried to the chorus of youths: + +"Come on--at once! One of you take the part of the Nile-God--into the +river with the Bride!" The bishop however forced himself between the +speaker and the girl to protect her. But Horapollo flew into a fury and +rushed at the prelate to snatch away the image of the Saviour, while John +exclaimed in a voice of ominous thunder: "Anathema!" + +This word of fear roused the Christian blood in the Egyptians; the +sacrilegious attempt stirred the zeal which they had proved in many a +struggle, and which had only been kept under by an effort during these +times of trouble: the leader of the choir dragged the old man away and +took part with the bishop. Others followed his example, while several, +on the contrary, sided with old Horapollo who clung tightly to Paula, +preferring to die himself rather than allow her to escape his hatred and +vengeance. + +At this moment the clang of bells was heard from the town with a terrific +and unaccountable uproar, and a young man was seen forcing his way +through the throng, a naked sword in his hand, and in spite of his torn +garments, his wild hair, and his blackened face, he was at once +recognized as Orion. Every one made way for him, for he rushed on like a +madman; as he reached the pontoon and took in at a glance what was going +forward there, he sprang past the mummers with mighty leaps to the +platform, pushing aside sundry groups of fighting champions; and before +the principal actors were aware of his presence, he had snatched Paula +from the old man's clutch, and called her by her name. She sank on his +breast half-fainting with terror, surprise and unspeakable rapture, and +he clasped her to him with his left arm, while the flashing sword in his +right hand and his flaming looks warned all bystanders that it would be +as wise to attack a lioness defending her young as to defy this desperate +man, who was prepared to face death with the woman he loved. + +His push had sent Horapollo tottering to some distance; and when the old +man had pulled himself together, to throw himself once more on his +victim, he found himself the centre of a fight. A wild troop had +followed Orion and beset the struggling mob, whom they presently drove +over the edge of the pontoon into the river, and with them Horapollo. +Most of these saved themselves by swimming, but the old man sank, and +nothing more was seen of him but his clenched fist, which rose in menace +for some minutes above the waters. + +Meanwhile the Vekeel had become aware of what was going forward on the +platform; he leaped in fury from his seat to restore order, intending to +seize Orion whom he fancied he had seen, or, if necessary to cut him down +with his own hand. + +But a vast multitude stopped his progress, for a fearful horde of +released prisoners with Orion at their head had come rushing down to the +scene of the festival yelling: "Fire! the prison is burning, the town is +in flames!" + +Every one who could run fled at once to Memphis to save his house, his +possessions and those dear to him. Like a flock of doves scared by the +scream of a hawk, like autumn leaves driven before the wind, the +multitude dispersed. They hurried back to the town in wild tumult and +inextricable confusion, jumping into the festal cars, cutting loose the +horses from that of the goddess of health, to mount them and ride home, +overthrowing everything that stood in their way and dragging back the +Vekeel who was striving, sword in hand, to get to the pontoon. + +The smoke and flames of the city were rising every moment, and acted like +magic in spurring the flying crowd to reach their homes in time. But, +before Obada had succeeded in his efforts, the pushing throng were once +more brought to a standstill; horses were heard approaching. Dense +masses of dust hid them and their riders; but it was certainly an armed +troop that was coming clattering onwards, for flashing gleams were seen +here and there through the dull clouds that shrouded them, the reflection +of the sun's bright rays from polished and glittering helmets, breast- +plates, and sabres. + +Now they were visible even where the Vekeel was. Foremost rode the Kadi, +and just as he came up with Obada he sprang from the saddle on to the +wooden structure, and with a loud cry of: "Free-saved!" in which all +the joy of his heart found utterance, he stretched out both his hands to +Paula, who was advancing towards the shore clinging closely to Orion. + +Othman did not observe the Vekeel, who was but a few paces distant. The +words "Free!" "Saved!" from the supreme judge, gave the negro to +understand that a pardon must have arrived for his youthful foe, and this +of course implied the condemnation of his own proceedings. All his hopes +were wrecked, for this meant that Omar still ruled and that the attempt +on the Khaliff's life had failed. Dismissal, punishment or death must be +his doom, when Amru should return. Still, he would not succumb till the +instrument of his ruin had preceded him to the grave. Taking the Kadi by +surprise he thrust him aside, and prepared to deal a fearful blow that +should fell Orion before he himself should fall. But the captain of the +body-guard, who had followed Othman, had watched his movements: Swift as +lightning he rose in his saddle and swung his cimeter, which cut deep +into the Vekeel's neck. With a hideous curse Obada let his arm drop, and +fell struggling for his last breath at the feet of the newly united +couple. + +The populace afterwards declared that his blood was not red like that of +other men, but black like his skin and his soul. They had good cause to +curse his memory, for his villainy had reduced more than half Memphis to +ashes that day, and brought the city to beggary. + +He had hired two venial wretches to set fire to the prison while the +festival was proceeding, with a view to suffocating Orion in his cell; +but the gang were detected and all the prisoners were released in time. +Thus the young man had been able to reach the scene of the ceremonial at +the head of his fellow-captives. The fire, however, had gained the upper +hand in the deserted town. It had spread from house to house along the +sun-scorched streets, and next day nothing remained of the city of the +Pyramids but the road along the shore, and a few wretched alleys. The +ancient Capital of the Pharaohs was reduced to a village, and the +houseless residents moved across to the eastern bank, to people as +Moslems the newly-founded town of Fostat, or sought a home on Christian +territory. + +Among the houses that had escaped was that of Rufinus, and thither the +Kadi escorted Orion and Paula. It was to serve as their prison till the +return of Amru, and there they spent delightful days in the society of +their friends, and there Thomas was so happy as to clasp his children to +his heart once more, and bless them before he died. + +A few minutes before the Kadi had reached the scene of the festival two +carrier pigeons had arrived, each bearing the Arab governor's commands +that the sacrifice of Paula was at any rate to be stopped, and her life +spared till his return. He also reserved the right of deciding Orion's +fate. + +Mary and Rustem had met Amru at Berenice, on the Egyptian coast of the +Red Sea. This decaying sea-port was connected with Medina by a pigeon- +post, and in reply to his viceroy's enquiry with reference to the victim +about to be offered by the despairing Egyptians to the Nile, Omar had +sent a reply which had been immediately forwarded to the Kadi. + +The burning of their town had brought new and fearful suffering on the +stricken Memphites, and notwithstanding Katharina's death the Nile still +did not rise. The Kadi therefore once more summoned a meeting of all +the inhabitants from both sides of the river, three days after the +interrupted marriage-festival. It was held under the palms by Nesptah's +inn, and there he proclaimed to the multitude, Moslem and Christian, by +means of the Arab herald and Egyptian interpreter, what the Khaliff +commanded him to declare, namely: that God, the One, the All-merciful, +scorned human sacrifice. In this firm conviction he, Omar, would beseech +Allah the Compassionate, and he sent a letter which was to be cast into +the river in his name. + +And this letter was addressed: + +"To the River of Egypt." And its contents were as follows: + +"If thou, O River, flowest of thyself, then swell not; but if it be God, +the One, the Compassionate, that maketh thee to flow, then we entreat the +All-merciful that he will bid thee rise!" + +"That which is not of God," wrote Amru in the letter which enclosed +Omar's, "what shall it profit men? But all things created are by Him, +and so is your noble river. The Most High will hearken to Omar's prayers +and ours, and I therefore command that all of you--Moslems, Christians, +and Jews, shall gather together in the Mosque on the other side of the +Nile which I have built to the glory of the All-merciful, and that you +there lift up your souls in one great common prayer, to the end that God +may hear you and take pity on your sufferings!" + +And the Kadi bid all the people to go across the Nile and they obeyed his +bidding. Bishop John called on his clergy and marched at their head, +leading the Christians; the priests and elders of the Jews led their +people next to the Jacobites; and side by side with these the Moslems +gathered in the magnificent pillared sanctuary of Amru, where the three +congregations of different creeds lifted up, their hearts and eyes and +voices to the pitying Father in Heaven. + +And this very Mosque of Amru has more than once been the scene of the +same sublime spectacle; even within the lifetime and before the eyes of +the narrator of this tale have Moslems, Christians, and Jews united there +in one pious prayer, which must have been acceptable indeed in the ears +of the Lord. + +Not long after the letter from the Khaliff Omar had been cast into the +Nile, and the prayer of the united assembly had gone up to Heaven from +the Mosque of Armu, a pigeon came in announcing a sudden rise in the +waters at the cataracts; and after some still anxious but hopeful days of +patience, the Nile swelled higher and yet higher, overflowed its banks, +and gave the laborer a right to look forward to a rich harvest; and then, +when a heavy storm of rain had laid the choking dust, the plague, too, +disappeared. + +Just when the river was beginning to rise perceptibly Amru returned; +bringing in his train little Mary and Rustem, Philippus the leech and +Haschim, who had joined the governor's caravan at Djidda. + +In the course of their journey they received news of all that had been +happening at Memphis, and when the travellers were approaching their last +night-quarters, and the Pyramids were already in sight, the governor said +to little Mary: + +"What do you say little one? Do we not owe the Memphites the treat of a +splendid marriage festival?" + +"No, my lord, two," replied the child. + +"How is that?" laughed Amru, "You are too young and do not count yet, +and I know no other maiden in Memphis whose wedding I should care to +provide for." + +"But there is a man towards whom you feel most kindly, and who lives as +lonely as a recluse. I should like to see him married, and at the same +time as Orion and Paula. I mean our good friend Philippus." + +"The physician? And is he still unwed?" asked Amru in surprise; for no +Moslem of the leech's age and position could remain unmarried without +exposing himself to the contempt of his fellow-believers. "He is a +widower then!" + +"No," replied Mary. "He has never yet found a wife to suit him; but I +know one created on purpose for him by God himself!" + +"You little Khatbe!"--[ A professional go-between]--cried the governor. +"Well, settle the matter, and it shall be no fault of mine if the second +wedding lacks magnificence." + +"And we will have a third!" interrupted the child, clapping her hands +and laughing. "My worthy escort Rustem.... + +"The colossus! Why, child, to you all things are possible! Have you +found a wife for him too?" + +"No, he found Mandane for himself without my help." + +"It is the same thing!" cried the governor jovially. "I will provide +for her. But that must satisfy you, or else all those unbelievers whom +we are settling here will drive us Moslem Arabs out of the land." + +The great man had often held such discourse as this with the child since +she had entered his tent at Berenice, there to lay before him the case of +the couple she loved, and for whom she had taken on herself great risk +and hardship; she had pleaded so eloquently, so kindly, and with such +fervent and pathetic words, that Amru had at once made up his mind to +grant her everything that lay in his power. Mary had done him a service, +too, by bringing him the information she could give him, for it enabled +him to avert perils which threatened the interests of the Crescent, and +also to save the children of two men he honored--the son of the Mukaukas, +and the daughter of Thomas--from imminent danger. + +He found, on his return home, that the Vekeel's crimes far exceeded his +worst fears. Obada's proceedings had begun to undermine that respect for +Arab rule and Moslem justice which Amru had done his utmost to secure. +It was only by a miracle that Orion had escaped his plots, for he had +three times sent assassins to the prison, and it was entirely owing to +the watchful care of pretty Emau's husband that the youth had been able +to save himself in the fire. Obada had done all this to clear out of his +path the hated man whose statements and impeachments might ruin him. +The wretch had met a less ignominious death than his judges would have +granted him. The wealth found hoarded in his dwelling was sent to +Medina; and even Orion was forced to see the vast sums of which the Negro +had plundered his treasury, appropriated by the Arabs. The Arab governor +thought it only right to inflict this penalty for the share he had taken +in the rescue of the nuns; and the young man submitted willingly to a +punishment which restored him and his bride to freedom, and enabled Amru +to apply a larger proportion of the revenues of his native land for its +own benefit. + +The Khaliff Omar, however, never received these moneys, which constituted +far more than half of Orion's patrimony. The Prophet's truest friend, +the wise and powerful ruler, fell by the assassin's hand, and the world +now learnt that the Vekeel had been one of the chief conspirators and had +been spurred on to the rashest extremes by his confidence of success. + +Amru received the son of the Mukaukas as a father might; after examining +the result of his labors he found it far superior to his own efforts in +the same direction, and he charged Orion to carry out the new division of +the country, which he confirmed excepting in a few details. + +Perform your duty and do your utmost in the future to go on as you have +begun!" cried Amru; and the young man replied: + +"In this bitter and yet happy interval I have become clear on many +points." + +"And may I ask on what?" asked the governor. "I would gladly hear." + +"I have discovered, my lord," replied Orion, "that there is no such thing +as happiness or unhappiness in the sense men give to the words. Life +appears to each of us as we ourselves paint it. Hard times which come +into our lives from outside are often no more than a brief night from +which a brighter day presently dawns--or the stab of a surgeon's knife, +which makes us sounder than before. What men call grief is, times +without number, a path to greater ease; whereas the ordinary happiness of +mankind flows, swiftly as running waters, down from that delightful sense +of ease. Like a ship, which, when her rudder is lost, is more likely to +ride out the storm on the high seas than near the sheltering coast, so a +man who has lost himself may easily recover himself and his true +happiness in the wildest turmoil of life, but rarely and with difficulty +if his existence runs calmly on. All other blessings are comparatively +worthless if we are not upheld by the consciousness of fulfilling the +task of life in faithful earnest, and of cheerfully dealing with the +problems it sets before us. The lost one was found as soon as he placed +his whole being and faculties at the service of a higher duty, with God +in his heart and before his eyes. I have learnt from my own experience, +and from Paula's good friends, to strive untiringly after what is right, +and to find my own weal in that of others. + +"The sense of lost liberty is hard to bear; but leave me love, and give +me room and opportunity to prove my best powers in the service of the +community, even in a prison--and though I cannot be perfectly happy, for +that is impossible without freedom--I will be far happier than such an +idle and useless spendthrift of time and abilities as I used to be among +the dissipations of the capital." + +"Then enjoy the consciousness of duty well performed, with liberty and +love," replied the governor. "And believe me, my friend, your father in +Paradise will no more grudge you all that is loveliest and best than I +do. You are on the road where every curse is turned to blessing." + +The three marriages which Amru had promised to provide for, were +celebrated with due splendor. + +That of Orion and Paula was a day never to be forgotten by the gay world +of Memphis. Bishop John performed the ceremony, and the young couple at +once took possession of the beautiful house left them by Katharina, the +real Bride of the Nile. If it could have been granted to her to read +Paula's and Orion's hearts, and see how they held her in remembrance, +she would have found that to them she was no longer the childish water- +wagtail, and that they knew how to value the sacrifice of her young life. + +Their first beloved guest, who went with them to their new home, was +little Mary, and she remained their dearest companion till she married +happily. The governess, Eudoxia, to whom also Orion offered an asylum, +accompanied Mary to her own delightful home; and there at last Mary +closed her old friend's eyes, after the good woman had brought up her +little ones, not like a hireling but as a true mother. + +The Patriarch Benjamin, too, who was led by many considerations--and not +least by Katharina's will to remain on good terms with the son of the +Mukaukas, was a visitor to the youthful pair. Neither he nor the Church +ever had reason to repent his alliance with Orion; and when Paula +presented her husband with a son, the prelate offered to be his sponsor, +and named him George after his grandfather. + +Orion's son, too, inherited the office of Mukaukas, when he came to man's +estate, from his father who was appointed to it, but under a new Arab +title, shortly after his marriage. + +Ere long, however, Orion, as the highest Christian authority in his +native land, had to change his place of residence and leave Memphis, +which was doomed to ruin, for Alexandria. From thence his power extended +over the whole Nile-valley, and he devoted himself to his charge with so +much zeal, fidelity, justice, and prudence, that his name was remembered +with veneration and affection by generations long after. + +Paula was the pride and joy of his life, and they lived together in +devoted union to an advanced age. He regarded it as one of the duties of +his life, to care for the woman who had made him what he was from a lost +and reprobate creature, and to fill every day of her life with joy. When +he built his palace at Alexandria, he graced it with the inscription that +had been engraved on Thomas' ring: "God hath set the sweat of man's brow +before virtue." + +Philippus and his Pulcheria also found a new home in Alexandria. He had +no long wooing to do; for when, on his return, the girl of whom he had +thought constantly during his long journeying, met him for the first time +in her mother's house and held out both her hands with trustful warmth of +welcome, he clasped her to him and would not release her till Joanna had +given them her maternal blessing. The widow lived in the leech's house +with her children and grandchildren, and often visited her husband's +grave. At length she was laid to rest by him and his soft-hearted +mother, in the cemetery of Alexandria. + +Rustem, made a rich man by Orion, became a famous breeder of horses and +camels in his own country, while Mandane ruled mildly but prudently over +his possessions--which he never shared with others, though he remained a +Masdakite till he died. The first daughter his wife bore him was named +Mary, and the first boy Haschim; but she would not agree to Rustem's +proposal that the second should be called Orion; she preferred to give +him the name of Rufinus, and his successors were Rustem and Philippus. + +The senator and his wife were only too glad to quit Egypt. Martina, +however, had the satisfaction of assisting at the marriage of her dear +Heliodora on the shores of the Nile; not, indeed, to her "Great +Sesostris," but to her nephew Narses, who by the young widow's devoted +care was restored, if not to perfect vigor, at any rate to very endurable +good health. + +Paula's wedding gift to her was the great emerald, which had meanwhile +been brought back again to Memphis. Justinus and Martina always remained +on terms of cordial friendship with the young Mukaukas and his wife: +Nilus lived long after to perform his duties with industry and judgment; +and whenever Haschim came to Alexandria there was a contest between Orion +and Philippus, for neither would yield him to the other. But Philip +could no longer envy his former rival the wife he had won. He had not, +indeed, ceased to admire her; but at the same time he would say: "My +comfortable little Pulcheria has not her match; our rooms would be too +small for Paula, but they suit my golden-haired girl best." + +He remained unselfishly devoted to his work till the end, and, when he +saw Orion wearing himself out in energetic toil, he would often say: +"He knows now what life demands, and acts accordingly; and that is why he +grows no older, and his laugh is as winning and gay as ever. It is an +honor to be called friend by a woman who like the Bride of the Nile. +saved herself from certain death, and a man who, like the young Mukaukas, +has freed himself from the heaviest of all curses." + +To this day the Bride of the Nile is not forgotten. Before the river +begins to rise on the Night of Dropping the inhabitants of the town of +Cairo, which grew up after the ruin of Memphis, on the eastern shore by +the side of Fostat, erect a figure of clay, representing a maiden form, +which they call Aroosa or the Bride. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Sea-port was connected with Medina by a pigeon-post + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE BRIDE OF THE NILE: + +A knot can often be untied by daylight +Abandon to the young the things we ourselves used most to enjoy +An old war horse, though harnessed to the plough +Ancient custom, to have her ears cut off +As soon as a white thread could be distinguished from a black one +Better place if there were neither masters nor servants +Caught the infection and had to laugh whether she would or no +Gave them a claim on your person and also on your sorrows +Hatred and love are the opposite ends of the same rod +He was made to be plundered +How could they find so much pleasure in such folly +In whom some good quality or other may not be discovered +Life is not a banquet +Life is a function, a ministry, a duty +Love has two faces: tender devotion and bitter aversion +Of two evils it is wise to choose the lesser +Old age no longer forgets; it is youth that has a short memory +Prepared for the worst; then you are armed against failure +Sea-port was connected with Medina by a pigeon-post +See with agonizing clearness what he had lost in her +Self-interest and egoism which drive him into the cave +So hard is it to forego the right of hating +Spoilt to begin with by their mothers, and then all the women +Talk of the wolf and you see his tail +Temples of the old gods were used as quarries +The man who avoids his kind and lives in solitude +Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in authority +Those who will not listen must feel +Use their physical helplessness as a defence +Who can hope to win love that gives none +Who can take pleasure in always seeing a gloomy face? +Women are indeed the rock ahead in this young fellow's life +You have a habit of only looking backwards + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIDE OF THE NILE, BY EBERS, ALL *** + +********** This file should be named ge90v10.txt or ge90v10.zip *********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, ge90v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ge90v10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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