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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5530.txt b/5530.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1300ccf --- /dev/null +++ b/5530.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1968 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook A Thorny Path, by Georg Ebers, v1 +#91 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: A Thorny Path, Volume 1. + +Author: Georg Ebers + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5530] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A THRONY PATH, BY EBERS, V1 *** + + + +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.] + + + + + +A THORNY PATH + +By Georg Ebers + +Volume 1. + + + +CHAPTER I. + +The green screen slowly rose, covering the lower portion of the broad +studio window where Heron, the gem-cutter, was at work. It was Melissa, +the artist's daughter, who had pulled it up, with bended knees and +outstretched arms, panting for breath. + +"That is enough!" cried her father's impatient voice. He glanced up at +the flood of light which the blinding sun of Alexandria was pouring into +the room, as it did every autumn afternoon; but as soon as the shadow +fell on his work-table the old man's busy fingers were at work again, and +he heeded his daughter no more. + +An hour later Melissa again, and without any bidding, pulled up the +screen as before, but it was so much too heavy for her that the effort +brought the blood into her calm, fair face, as the deep, rough "That is +enough" was again heard from the work-table. + +Then silence reigned once more. Only the artist's low whistling as he +worked, or the patter and pipe of the birds in their cages by the window, +broke the stillness of the spacious room, till the voice and step of a +man were presently heard in the anteroom. + +Heron laid by his graver and Melissa her gold embroidery, and the eyes +of father and daughter met for the first time for some hours. The very +birds seemed excited, and a starling, which had sat moping since the +screen had shut the sun out, now cried out, "Olympias!" Melissa rose, and +after a swift glance round the room she went to the door, come who might. + +Ay, even if the brother she was expecting should bring a companion, +or a patron of art who desired her father's work, the room need not fear +a critical eye; and she was so well assured of the faultless neatness of +her own person, that she only passed a hand over her brown hair, and with +an involuntary movement pulled her simple white robe more tightly through +her girdle. + +Heron's studio was as clean and as simple as his daughter's attire, +though it seemed larger than enough for the purpose it served, for only a +very small part of it was occupied by the artist, who sat as if in exile +behind the work-table on which his belongings were laid out: a set of +small instruments in a case, a tray filled with shells and bits of onyx +and other agates, a yellow ball of Cyrenian modeling-wax, pumice-stone, +bottles, boxes, and bowls. + +Melissa had no sooner crossed the threshold, than the sculptor drew up +his broad shoulders and brawny person, and raised his hand to fling away +the slender stylus he had been using; however, he thought better of it, +and laid it carefully aside with the other tools. But this act of self- +control must have cost the hot-headed, powerful man a great effort; for +he shot a fierce look at the instrument which had had so narrow an +escape, and gave it a push of vexation with the back of his hand. + +Then he turned towards the door, his sunburnt face looking surly enough, +in its frame of tangled gray hair and beard; and, as he waited for the +visitor whom Melissa was greeting outside, he tossed back his big head, +and threw out his broad, deep chest, as though preparing to wrestle. + +Melissa presently returned, and the youth whose hand she still held was, +as might be seen in every feature, none other than the sculptor's son. +Both were dark-eyed, with noble and splendid heads, and in stature +perfectly equal; but while the son's countenance beamed with hearty +enjoyment, and seemed by its peculiar attractiveness to be made--and to +be accustomed--to charm men and women alike, his father's face was +expressive of disgust and misanthropy. It seemed, indeed, as though the +newcomer had roused his ire, for Heron answered his son's cheerful +greeting with no word but a reproachful "At last!" and paid no heed to +the hand the youth held out to him. + +Alexander was no doubt inured to such a reception; he did not disturb +himself about the old man's ill-humor, but slapped him on the shoulder +with rough geniality, went up to the work-table with easy composure, took +up the vice which held the nearly finished gem, and, after holding it to +the light and examining it carefully, exclaimed: "Well done, father! +You have done nothing better than that for a long time." + +"Poor stuff!" said his father. But his son laughed. + +"If you will have it so. But I will give one of my eyes to see the man +in Alexandria who can do the like!" + +At this the old man broke out, and shaking his fist he cried: "Because +the man who can find anything worth doing, takes good care not to waste +his time here, making divine art a mere mockery by such trifling with +toys! By Sirius! I should like to fling all those pebbles into the +fire, the onyx and shells and jasper and what not, and smash all those +wretched tools with these fists, which were certainly made for other work +than this." + +The youth laid an arm round his father's stalwart neck, and gayly +interrupted his wrath. "Oh yes, Father Heron, Philip and I have felt +often enough that they know how to hit hard." + +"Not nearly often enough," growled the artist, and the young man went on: + +"That I grant, though every blow from you was equal to a dozen from the +hand of any other father in Alexandria. But that those mighty fists on +human arms should have evoked the bewitching smile on the sweet lips of +this Psyche, if it is not a miracle of art, is--" + +"The degradation of art," the old man put in; but Alexander hastily +added: + +"The victory of the exquisite over the coarse." + +"A victory!" exclaimed Heron, with a scornful flourish of his hand. +"I know, boy, why you are trying to garland the oppressive yoke with +flowers of flattery. So long as your surly old father sits over the +vice, he only whistles a song and spares you his complaints. And then, +there is the money his work brings in!" + +He laughed bitterly, and as Melissa looked anxiously up at him, her +brother exclaimed: + +"If I did not know you well, master, and if it would not be too great a +pity, I would throw that lovely Psyche to the ostrich in Scopas's court- +yard; for, by Herakles! he would swallow your gem more easily than we can +swallow such cruel taunts. We do indeed bless the Muses that work brings +you some surcease of gloomy thoughts. But for the rest--I hate to speak +the word gold. We want it no more than you, who, when the coffer is +full, bury it or hide it with the rest. Apollodorus forced a whole +talent of the yellow curse upon me for painting his men's room. The +sailor's cap, into which I tossed it with the rest, will burst when +Seleukus pays me for the portrait of his daughter; and if a thief robs +you, and me too, we need not fret over it. My brush and your stylus will +earn us more in no time. And what are our needs? We do not bet on +quail-fights; we do not run races; I always had a loathing for purchased +love; we do not want to wear a heap of garments bought merely because +they take our fancy--indeed, I am too hot as it is under this scorching +sun. The house is your own. The rent paid by Glaukias, for the work- +room and garden you inherited from your father, pays for half at least of +what we and the birds and the slaves eat. As for Philip, he lives on air +and philosophy; and, besides, he is fed out of the great breadbasket of +the Museum." + +At this point the starling interrupted the youth's vehement speech with +the appropriate cry, "My strength! my strength!" The brother and sister +looked at each other, and Alexander went on with genuine enthusiasm: + +"But it is not in you to believe us capable of such meanness. Dedicate +your next finished work to Isis or Serapis. Let your masterpiece grace +the goddess's head-gear, or the god's robe. We shall be quite content, +and perhaps the immortals may restore your joy in life as a reward." + +The bird repeated its lamentable cry, "My strength!" and the youth +proceeded with increased vehemence: + +"It would really be better that you should throw your vice and your +graver and your burnisher, and all that heap of dainty tools, into the +sea, and carve an Atlas such as we have heard you talk about ever since +we could first speak Greek. Come, set to work on a colossus! You have +but to speak the word, and the finest clay shall be ready on your +modeling-table by to-morrow, either here or in Glaukias's work-room, +which is indeed your own. I know where the best is to be found, and can +bring it to you in any quantity. Scopas will lend me his wagon. I can +see it now, and you valiantly struggling with it till your mighty arms +ache. You will not whistle and hum over that, but sing out with all your +might, as you used when my mother was alive, when you and your +apprentices joined Dionysus's drunken rout. Then your brow will grow +smooth again; and if the model is a success, and you want to buy marble, +or pay the founder, then out with your gold, out of the coffer and its +hiding-place! Then you can make use of all your strength, and your dream +of producing an Atlas such as the world has not seen--your beautiful +dream-will become a reality!" + +Heron had listened eagerly to his son's rhapsody, but he now cast a timid +glance at the table where the wax and tools lay, pushed the rough hair +from his brow, and broke in with a bitter laugh: "My dream, do you say-- +my dream? As if I did not know too well that I am no longer the man to +create an Atlas! As if I did not feel, without your words, that my +strength for it is a thing of the past!" + +"Nay, father," exclaimed the painter. "Is it right to cast away the +sword before the battle? And even if you did not succeed--" + +"You would be all the better pleased," the sculptor put in. "What surer +way could there be to teach the old simpleton, once for all, that the +time when he could do great work is over and gone?" + +"That is unjust, father; that is unworthy of you," the young man +interrupted in great excitement; but his father went on, raising his +voice; "Silence, boy! One thing at any rate is left to me, as you know-- +my keen eyes; and they did not fail me when you two looked at each other +as the starling cried, 'My strength!' Ay, the bird is in the right when +he bewails what was once so great and is now a mere laughing-stock. But +you--you ought to reverence the man to whom you owe your existence and +all you know; you allow yourself to shrug your shoulders over your own +father's humbler art, since your first pictures were fairly successful. +--How puffed up he is, since, by my devoted care, he has been a painter! +How he looks down on the poor wretch who, by the pinch of necessity, has +come down from being a sculptor of the highest promise to being a mere +gem-cutter! In the depths of your soul--and I know it--you regard my +laborious art as half a handicraft. Well, perhaps it deserves no better +name; but that you--both of you--should make common cause with a bird, +and mock the sacred fire which still burns in an old man, and moves him +to serve true and noble art and to mold something great--an Atlas such as +the world has never seen on a heroic scale; that--" + +He covered his face with his hands and sobbed aloud. And the strong +man's passionate grief cut his children to the heart, though, since their +mother's death, their father's rage and discontent had many a time ere +now broken down into childish lamentation. + +To-day no doubt the old man was in worse spirits than usual, for it was +the day of the Nekysia--the feast of the dead kept every autumn; and he +had that morning visited his wife's grave, accompanied by his daughter, +and had anointed the tombstone and decked it with flowers. The young +people tried to comfort him; and when at last he was more composed and +had dried his tears, he said, in so melancholy and subdued a tone that +the angry blusterer was scarcely recognizable: "There--leave me alone; +it will soon be over. I will finish this gem to-morrow, and then I must +do the Serapis I promised Theophilus, the high-priest. Nothing can come +of the Atlas. Perhaps you meant it in all sincerity, Alexander; but +since your mother left me, children, since then--my arms are no weaker +than they were; but in here--what it was that shriveled, broke, leaked +away--I can not find words for it. If you care for me--and I know you +do--you must not be vexed with me if my gall rises now and then; there is +too much bitterness in my soul. I can not reach the goal I strive after +and was meant to win; I have lost what I loved best, and where am I to +find comfort or compensation?" + +His children tenderly assured him of their affection, and he allowed +Melissa to kiss him, and stroked Alexander's hair. + +Then he inquired for Philip, his eldest son and his favorite; and on +learning that he, the only person who, as he believed, could understand +him, would not come to see him this day above all others, he again broke +out in wrath, abusing the degeneracy of the age and the ingratitude of +the young. + +"Is it a visit which detains him again?" he inquired, and when Alexander +thought not, he exclaimed contemptuously: "Then it is some war of words +at the Museum. And for such poor stuff as that a son can forget his duty +to his father and mother!" + +"But you, too, used to enjoy these conflicts of intellect," his daughter +humbly remarked; but the old man broke in: + +"Only because they help a miserable world to forget the torments of +existence, and the hideous certainty of having been born only to die some +horrible death. But what can you know of this?" + +"By my mother's death-bed," replied the girl, "we, too, had a glimpse +into the terrible mystery." And Alexander gravely added, "And since we +last met, father, I may certainly account myself as one of the +initiated." + +"You have painted a dead body?" asked his father. + +"Yes, father," replied the lad with a deep breath. "I warned you," said +Heron, in a tone of superior experience. + +And then, as Melissa rearranged the folds of his blue robe, he said he +should go for a walk. He sighed as he spoke, and his children knew +whither he would go. It was to the grave to which Melissa had +accompanied him that morning; and he would visit it alone, +to meditate undisturbed on the wife he had lost. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The brother and sister were left together. Melissa sighed deeply; but +her brother went up to her, laid his arm round her shoulder, and said: +"Poor child! you have indeed a hard time of it. Eighteen years old, and +as pretty as you are, to be kept locked up as if in prison! No one would +envy you, even if your fellow-captive and keeper were younger and less +gloomy than your father is! But we know what it all means. His grief +eats into his soul, and it does him as much good to storm and scold, as +it does us to laugh." + +"If only the world could know how kind his heart really is!" said the +girl. + +"He is not the same to his friends as to us," said Alexander; but Melissa +shook her head, and said sadly: "He broke out yesterday against Apion, +the dealer, and it was dreadful. For the fiftieth time he had waited +supper for you two in vain, and in the twilight, when he had done work, +his grief overcame him, and to see him weep is quite heartbreaking! The +Syrian dealer came in and found him all tearful, and being so bold as to +jest about it in his flippant way--" + +"The old man would give him his answer, I know!" cried her brother with +a hearty laugh. "He will not again be in a hurry to stir up a wounded +lion." + +"That is the very word," said Melissa, and her large eyes sparkled. "At +the fight in the Circus, I could not help thinking of my father, when the +huge king of the desert lay with a broken spear in his loins, whining +loudly, and burying his maned head between his great paws. The gods are +pitiless!" + +"Indeed they are," replied the youth, with deep conviction; but his +sister looked up at him in surprise. + +"Do you say so, Alexander? Yes, indeed--you looked just now as I never +saw you before. Has misfortune overtaken you too?" + +"Misfortune?" he repeated, and he gently stroked her hair. "No, not +exactly; and you know my woes sit lightly enough on me. The immortals +have indeed shown me very plainly that it is their will sometimes to +spoil the feast of life with a right bitter draught. But, like the moon +itself, all it shines on is doomed to change--happily! Many things here +below seem strangely ordered. Like ears and eyes, hands and feet, many +things are by nature double, and misfortunes, as they say, commonly come +in couples yoked like oxen." + +"Then you have had some twofold blow?" asked Melissa, clasping her hands +over her anxiously throbbing bosom. + +"I, child! No, indeed. Nothing has befallen your father's younger son; +and if I were a philosopher, like Philip, I should be moved to wonder why +a man can only be wet when the rain falls on him, and yet can be so +wretched when disaster falls on another. But do not look at me with such +terror in your great eyes. I swear to you that, as a man and an artist, +I never felt better, and so I ought properly to be in my usual frame of +mind. But the skeleton at life's festival has been shown to me. What +sort of thing is that? It is an image--the image of a dead man which +was carried round by the Egyptians, and is to this day by the Romans, to +remind the feasters that they should fill every hour with enjoyment, +since enjoyment is all too soon at an end. Such an image, child--" + +"You are thinking of the dead girl--Seleukus's daughter--whose portrait +you are painting?" asked Melissa. + +Alexander nodded, sat down on the bench by his sister, and, taking up her +needlework, exclaimed "Give us some light, child. I want to see your +pretty face. I want to be sure that Diodorus did not perjure himself +when, at the 'Crane,' the other day, he swore that it had not its match +in Alexandria. Besides, I hate the darkness." + +When Melissa returned with the lighted lamp, she found her brother, who +was not wont to keep still, sitting in the place where she had left him. +But he sprang up as she entered, and prevented her further greeting by +exclaiming: + +"Patience! patience! You shall be told all. Only I did not want to +worry you on the day of the festival of the dead. And besides, to-morrow +perhaps he will be in a better frame of mind, and next day--" + +Melissa became urgent. "If Philip is ill--" she put in. + +"Not exactly ill," said he. "He has no fever, no ague-fit, no aches and +pains. He is not in bed, and has no bitter draughts to swallow. Yet is +he not well, any more than I, though but just now, in the dining-hall at +the Elephant, I ate like a starving wolf, and could at this moment jump +over this table. Shall I prove it?" + +"No, no," said his sister, in growing distress. "But, if you love me, +tell me at once and plainly--"At once and plainly," sighed the painter. +"That, in any case, will not be easy. But I will do my best. You knew +Korinna?" + +"Seleukus's daughter?" + +"She herself--the maiden from whose corpse I am painting her portrait." + +"No. But you wanted--" + +"I wanted to be brief, but I care even more to be understood; and if you +have never seen with your own eyes, if you do not yourself know what a +miracle of beauty the gods wrought when they molded that maiden, you are +indeed justified in regarding me as a fool and Philip as a madman--which, +thank the gods, he certainly is not yet." + +"Then he too has seen the dead maiden?" + +"No, no. And yet--perhaps. That at present remains a mystery. I hardly +know what happened even to myself. I succeeded in controlling myself in +my father's presence; but now, when it all rises up before me, before my +very eyes, so distinct, so real, so tangible, now--by Sirius! Melissa, +if you interrupt me again--" + +"Begin again. I will be silent," she cried. "I can easily picture your +Korinna as a divinely beautiful creature." + +Alexander raised his hands to heaven, exclaiming with passionate +vehemence: "Oh, how would I praise and glorify the gods, who formed that +marvel of their art, and my mouth should be full of their grace and +mercy, if they had but allowed the world to sun itself in the charm of +that glorious creature, and to worship their everlasting beauty in her +who was their image! But they have wantonly destroyed their own +masterpiece, have crushed the scarce-opened bud, have darkened the star +ere it has risen! If a man had done it, Melissa, a man what would his +doom have been! If he--" + +Here the youth hid his face in his hands in passionate emotion; but, +feeling his sister's arm round his shoulder, he recovered himself, and +went on more calmly: "Well, you heard that she was dead. She was of just +your age; she is dead at eighteen, and her father commissioned me to +paint her in death.--Pour me out some water; then I will proceed as +coldly as a man crying the description of a runaway slave." He drank a +deep draught, and wandered restlessly up and down in front of his sister, +while he told her all that had happened to him during the last few days. + +The day before yesterday, at noon, he had left the inn where he had been +carousing with friends, gay and careless, and had obeyed the call of +Seleukus. Just before raising the knocker he had been singing cheerfully +to himself. Never had he felt more fully content--the gayest of the gay. +One of the first men in the town, and a connoisseur, had honored him with +a fine commission, and the prospect of painting something dead had +pleased him. His old master had often admired the exquisite delicacy of +the flesh-tones of a recently deceased body. As his glance fell on the +implements that his slave carried after him, he had drawn himself up with +the proud feeling of having before him a noble task, to which he felt +equal. Then the porter, a gray-bearded Gaul, had opened the door to him, +and as he looked into his care-worn face and received from him a silent +permission to step in, he had already become more serious. + +He had heard marvels of the magnificence of the house that he now +entered; and the lofty vestibule into which he was admitted, the mosaic +floor that he trod; the marble statues and high reliefs round the upper +hart of the walls, were well worth careful observation; yet he, whose +eyes usually carried away so vivid an impression of what he had once seen +that he could draw it from memory, gave no attention to any particular +thing among the various objects worthy of admiration. For already in the +anteroom a peculiar sensation had come over him. The large halls, which +were filled with odors of ambergris and incense, were as still as the +grave. And it seemed to him that even the sun, which had been shining +brilliantly a few minutes before in a cloudless sky, had disappeared +behind clouds, for a strange twilight, unlike anything he had ever seen, +surrounded him. Then he perceived that it came in through the black +velarium with which they had closed the open roof of the room through +which he was passing. + +In the anteroom a young freedman had hurried silently past him--had +vanished like a shadow through the dusky rooms. His duty must have been +to announce the artist's arrival to the mother of the dead girl; for, +before Alexander had found time to feast his gaze on the luxurious mass +of flowering plants that surrounded the fountain in the middle of the +impluvium, a tall matron, in flowing mourning garments, came towards him +--Korinna's mother. + +Without lifting the black veil which enveloped her from head to foot, she +speechlessly signed him to follow her. Till this moment not even a +whisper had met his ear from any human lips in this house of death and +mourning; and the stillness was so oppressive to the light-hearted young +painter, that, merely to hear the sound of his own voice, he ex-plained +to the lady who he was and wherefore he had come. But the only answer +was a dumb assenting bow of the head. + +He had not far to go with his stately guide; their walk ended in a +spacious room. It had been made a perfect flower-garden with hundreds of +magnificent plants; piles of garlands strewed the floor, and in the midst +stood the couch on which lay the dead girl. In this hall, too, reigned +the same gloomy twilight which had startled him in the vestibule. + +The dim, shrouded form lying motionless on the couch before him, with a +heavy wreath of lotus-flowers and white roses encircling it from head to +foot, was the subject for his brush. He was to paint here, where he +could scarcely distinguish one plant from another, or make out the form +of the vases which stood round the bed of death. The white blossoms +alone gleamed like pale lights in the gloom, and with a sister radiance +something smooth and round which lay on the couch--the bare arm of the +dead maiden. + +His heart began to throb; the artist's love of his art had awaked within +him; he had collected his wits, and explained to the matron that to paint +in the darkness was impossible. + +Again she bowed in reply, but at a signal two waiting women, who were +squatting on the floor behind the couch, started up in the twilight, as +if they had sprung from the earth, and approached their mistress. + +A fresh shock chilled the painter's blood, for at the same moment the +lady's voice was suddenly audible close to his ear, almost as deep as a +man's but not unmelodious, ordering the girls to draw back the curtain as +far as the painter should desire. + +Now, he felt, the spell was broken; curiosity and eagerness took the +place of reverence for death. He quietly gave his orders for the +necessary arrangements, lent the women the help of his stronger arm, took +out his painting implements, and then requested the matron to unveil the +dead girl, that he might see from which side it would be best to take the +portrait. But then again he was near losing his composure, for the lady +raised her veil, and measured him with a glance as though he had asked +something strange and audacious indeed. + +Never had he met so piercing a glance from any woman's eyes; and yet they +were red with weeping and full of tears. Bitter grief spoke in every +line of her still youthful features, and their stern, majestic beauty was +in keeping with the deep tones of her speech. Oh that he had been so +happy as to see this woman in the bloom of youthful loveliness! She did +not heed his admiring surprise; before acceding to his demand, her regal +form trembled from head to foot, and she sighed as she lifted the shroud +from her daughter's face. Then, with a groan, she dropped on her knees +by the couch and laid her cheek against that of the dead maiden. At last +she rose, and murmured to the painter that if he were successful in his +task her gratitude would be beyond expression. + +"What more she said," Alexander went on, "I could but half understand, +for she wept all the time, and I could not collect my thoughts. It was +not till afterward that I learned from her waiting-woman--a Christian-- +that she meant to tell me that the relations and wailing women were to +come to-morrow morning. I could paint on till nightfall, but no longer. +I had been chosen for the task because Seleukus had heard from my old +teacher, Bion, that I should get a faithful likeness of the original more +quickly than any one else. She may have said more, but I heard nothing; +I only saw. For when the veil no longer hid that face from my gaze, I +felt as though the gods had revealed a mystery to me which till now only +the immortals had been permitted to know. Never was my soul so steeped +in devotion, never had my heart beat in such solemn uplifting as at that +moment. What I was gazing at and had to represent was a thing neither +human nor divine; it was beauty itself--that beauty of which I have often +dreamed in blissful rapture. + +"And yet--do not misapprehend me--I never thought of bewailing the +maiden, or grieving over her early death. She was but sleeping--I could +fancy: I watched one I loved in her slumbers. My heart beat high! Ay, +child, and the work I did was pure joy, such joy as only the gods on +Olympus know at their golden board. Every feature, every line was of +such perfection as only the artist's soul can conceive of, nay, even +dream of. The ecstasy remained, but my unrest gave way to an +indescribable and wordless bliss. I drew with the red chalk, and mixed +the colors with the grinder, and all the while I could not feel the +painful sense of painting a corpse. If she were slumbering, she had +fallen asleep with bright images in her memory. I even fancied again and +again that her lips moved her exquisitely chiseled mouth, and that a +faint breath played with her abundant, waving, shining brown hair, as it +does with yours. + +"The Muse sped my hand and the portrait--Bion and the rest will praise +it, I think, though it is no more like the unapproachable original than +that lamp is like the evening star yonder." + +"And shall we be allowed to see it?" asked Melissa, who had been +listening breathlessly to her brother's narrative. + +The words seemed to have snatched the artist from a dream. He had to +pause and consider where he was and to whom he was speaking. He hastily +pushed the curling hair off his damp brow, and said: + +"I do not understand. What is it you ask?" + +"I only asked whether we should be allowed to see the portrait," she +answered timidly. "I was wrong to interrupt you. But how hot your head +is! Drink again before you go on. Had you really finished by sundown?" + +Alexander shook his head, drank, and then went on more calmly: "No, no! +It is a pity you spoke. In fancy I was painting her still. There is the +moon rising already. I must make haste. I have told you all this for +Philip's sake, not for my own." + +"I will not interrupt you again, I assure you," said Melissa. +"Well, well," said her brother. "There is not much that is pleasant left +to tell. Where was I?" + +"Painting, so long as it was light--" + +"To be sure--I remember. It began to grow dark. Then lamps were brought +in, large ones, and as many as I wished for. Just before sunset +Seleukus, Korinna's father, came in to look upon his daughter once more. +He bore his grief with dignified composure; yet by his child's bier he +found it hard to be calm. But you can imagine all that. He invited me to +eat, and the food they brought might have tempted a full man to excess, +but I could only swallow a few mouthfuls. Berenike--the mother--did not +even moisten her lips, but Seleukus did duty for us both, and this I +could see displeased his wife. During supper the merchant made many +inquiries about me and my father; for he had heard Philip's praises from +his brother Theophilus, the high-priest. I learned from him that Korinna +had caught her sickness from a slave girl she had nursed, and had died of +the fever in three days. But while I sat listening to him, as he talked +and ate, I could not keep my eyes off his wife who reclined opposite to +me silent and motionless, for the gods had created Korinna in her very +image. The lady Berenike's eyes indeed sparkle with a lurid, I might +almost say an alarming, fire, but they are shaped like Korinna's. I said +so, and asked whether they were of the same color; I wanted to know for +my portrait. On this Seleukus referred me to a picture painted by old +Sosibius, who has lately gone to Rome to work in Caesar's new baths. He +last year painted the wall of a room in the mer chant's country house at +Kanopus. In the center of the picture stands Galatea, and I know it now +to be a good and true likeness. + +"The picture I finished that evening is to be placed at the head of the +young girl's sarcophagus; but I am to keep it two days longer, to +reproduce a second likeness more at my leisure, with the help of the +Galatea, which is to remain in Seleukus's town house. + +"Then he left me alone with his wife. + +"What a delightful commission! I set to work with renewed pleasure, and +more composure than at first. I had no need to hurry, for the first +picture is to be hidden in the tomb, and I could give all my care to the +second. Besides, Korinna's features were indelibly impressed on my eye. + +"I generally can not paint at all by lamp-light; but this time I found no +difficulty, and I soon recovered that blissful, solemn mood which I had +felt in the presence of the dead. Only now and then it was clouded by a +sigh, or a faint moan from Berenike: 'Gone, gone! There is no comfort-- +none, none!' + +"And what could I answer? When did Death ever give back what he has +snatched away? + +"' I can not even picture her as she was,' she murmured sadly to herself +--but this I might remedy by the help of my art, so I painted on with +increasing zeal; and at last her lamentations ceased to trouble me, for +she fell asleep, and her handsome head sank on her breast. The watchers, +too, had dropped asleep, and only their deep breathing broke the +stillness. + +"Suddenly it flashed upon me that I was alone with Korinna, and the +feeling grew stronger and stronger; I fancied her lovely lips had moved, +that a smile gently parted them, inviting me to kiss them. As often as I +looked at them--and they bewitched me--I saw and felt the same, and at +last every impulse within me drove me toward her, and I could no longer +resist: my lips pressed hers in a kiss!" + +Melissa softly sighed, but the artist did not hear; he went on: "And in +that kiss I became hers; she took the heart and soul of me. I can no +longer escape from her; awake or asleep, her image is before my eyes, and +my spirit is in her power." + +Again he drank, emptying the cup at one deep gulp. Then he went on: +"So be it! Who sees a god, they say, must die. And it is well, for he +has known something more glorious than other men. Our brother Philip, +too, lives with his heart in bonds to that one alone, unless a demon has +cheated his senses. I am troubled about him, and you must help me." + +He sprang up, pacing the room again with long strides, but his sister +clung to his arm and besought him to shake off the bewitching vision. +How earnest was her prayer, what eager tenderness rang in her every word, +as she entreated him to tell her when and where her elder brother, too, +had met the daughter of Seleukus! + +The artist's soft heart was easily moved. Stroking the hair of the +loving creature at his side--so helpful as a rule, but now bewildered +--he tried to calm her by affecting a lighter mood than he really felt, +assuring her that he should soon recover his usual good spirits. She +knew full well, he said, that his living loves changed in frequent +succession, and it would be strange indeed if a dead one could bind him +any longer. And his adventure, so far as it concerned the house of +Seleukus, ended with that kiss; for the lady Berenike had presently +waked, and urged him to finish the portrait at his own house. + +Next morning he had completed it with the help of the Galatea in the +villa at Kanopus, and he had heard a great deal about the dead maiden. +A young woman who was left in charge of the villa had supplied him with +whatever he needed. Her pretty face was swollen with weeping, and it was +in a voice choked with tears that she had told him that her husband, who +was a centurion in Caesar's pretorian guard, would arrive to-morrow or +next day at Alexandria, with his imperial master. She had not seen him +for a long time, and had an infant to show him which he had not yet seen; +and yet she could not be glad, for her young mistress's death had +extinguished all her joy. + +"The affection which breathed in every word of the centurion's wife," +Alexander said, "helped me in my work. I could be satisfied with the +result. + +"The picture is so successful that I finished that for Seleukus in all +confidence, and for the sarcophagus I will copy it as well or as ill as +time will allow. It will hardly be seen in the half-dark tomb, and how +few will ever go to see it! None but a Seleukus can afford to employ so +costly a brush as your brother's is--thank the Muses! But the second +portrait is quite another thing, for that may chance to be hung next a +picture by Apelles; and it must restore to the parents so much of their +lost child as it lies in my power to give them. So, on my way, I made up +my mind to begin the copy at once by lamp-light, for it must be ready by +to-morrow night at latest. + +"I hurried to my work-room, and my slave placed the picture on an easel, +while I welcomed my brother Philip who had come to see me, and who had +lighted a lamp, and of course had brought a book. He was so absorbed in +it that he did not observe that I had come in till I addressed him. Then +I told him whence I came and what had happened, and he thought it all +very strange and interesting. + +"He was as usual rather hurried and hesitating, not quite clear, but +understanding it all. Then he began telling me something about a +philosopher who has just come to the front, a porter by trade, from whom +he had heard sundry wonders, and it was not till Syrus brought me in a +supper of oysters--for I could still eat nothing more solid--that he +asked to see the portrait. + +"I pointed to the easel, and watched him; for the harder he is to please, +the more I value his opinion. This time I felt confident of praise, or +even of some admiration, if only for the beauty of the model. + +"He threw off the veil from the picture with a hasty movement, but, +instead of gazing at it calmly, as he is wont, and snapping out his sharp +criticisms, he staggered backward, as though the noonday sun had dazzled +his sight. Then, bending forward, he stared at the painting, panting as +he might after racing for a wager. He stood in perfect silence, for I +know not how long, as though it were Medusa he was gazing on, and when at +last he clasped his hand to his brow, I called him by name. He made no +reply, but an impatient 'Leave me alone!' and then he still gazed at the +face as though to devour it with his eyes, and without a sound. + +"I did not disturb him; for, thought I, he too is bewitched by the +exquisite beauty of those virgin features. So we were both silent, till +he asked, in a choked voice: 'And did you paint that? Is that, do you +say, the daughter that Seleukus has just lost?' + +"Of course I said 'Yes'; but then he turned on me in a rage, and +reproached me bitterly for deceiving and cheating him, and jesting with +things that to him were sacred, though I might think them a subject for +sport. + +"I assured him that my answer was as earnest as it was accurate, and that +every word of my story was true. + +"This only made him more furious. I, too, began to get angry, and as he, +evidently deeply agitated, still persisted in saying that my picture +could not have been painted from the dead Korinna, I swore to him +solemnly, with the most sacred oath I could think of, that it was really +so. + +"On this he declared to me in words so tender and touching as I never +before heard from his lips, that if I were deceiving him his peace of +mind would be forever destroyed-nay, that he feared for his reason; and +when I had repeatedly assured him, by the memory of our departed mother, +that I had never dreamed of playing a trick upon him, he shook his head, +grasped his brow, and turned to leave the room without another word." + +"And you let him go?" cried Melissa, in anxious alarm. + +"Certainly not," replied the painter. "On the contrary, I stood in his +way, and asked him whether he had known Korinna, and what all this might +mean. But he would make no reply, and tried to pass me and get away. +It must have been a strange scene, for we two big men struggled as if we +were at a wrestling-match. I got him down with one hand behind his +knees, and so he had to remain; and when I had promised to let him go, he +confessed that he had seen Korinna at the house of her uncle, the high- +priest, without knowing who she was or even speaking a word to her. And +he, who usually flees from every creature wearing a woman's robe, had +never forgotten that maiden and her noble beauty; and, though he did not +say so, it was obvious, from every word, that he was madly in love. +Her eyes had followed him wherever he went, and this he deemed a great +misfortune, for it had disturbed his power of thought. A month since he +went across Lake Mareotis to Polybius to visit Andreas, and while, on his +return, he was standing on the shore, he saw her again, with an old man +in white robes. But the last time he saw her was on the morning of the +very day when all this happened; and if he is to be believed, he not only +saw her but touched her hand. That, again, was by the lake; she was just +stepping out of the ferry-boat. The obolus she had ready to pay the +oarsman dropped on the ground, and Philip picked it up and returned it +to her. Then his fingers touched hers. He could feel it still, he +declared, and yet she had then ceased to walk among the living. + +"Then it was my turn to doubt his word; but he maintained that his story +was true in every detail; he would hear nothing said about some one +resembling her, or anything of the kind, and spoke of daimons showing +him false visions, to cheat him and hinder him from working out his +investigations of the real nature of things to a successful issue. But +this is in direct antagonism to his views of daimons; and when at last he +rushed out of the house, he looked like one possessed of evil spirits. + +"I hurried after him, but he disappeared down a dark alley. Then I had +enough to do to finish my copy, and yesterday I carried it home to +Seleukus. + +"Then I had time to look for Philip, but I could hear nothing of him, +either in his own lodgings or at the Museum. To-day I have been hunting +for him since early in the morning. I even forgot to lay any flowers on +my mother's grave, as usual on the day of the Nekysia, because I was +thinking only of him. But he no doubt is gone to the city of the dead; +for, on my way hither, as I was ordering a garland in the flower-market, +pretty little Doxion showed me two beauties which she had woven for him, +and which he is presently to fetch. So he must now be in the Nekropolis; +and I know for whom he intends the second; for the door-keeper at +Seleukus's house told me that a man, who said he was my brother, had +twice called, and had eagerly inquired whether my picture had yet been +attached to Korinna's sarcophagus. The old man told him it had not, +because, of course, the embalming could not be complete as yet. But the +picture was to be displayed to-day, as being the feast of the dead, in +the hall of the embalmers. That was the plan, I know. So, now, child, +set your wise little woman's head to work, and devise something by which +he may be brought to his senses, and released from these crazy +imaginings." + +"The first thing to be done," Melissa exclaimed, "is to follow him and +talk to him.-Wait a moment; I must speak a word to the slaves. My +father's night-draught can be mixed in a minute. He might perhaps return +home before us, and I must leave his couch--I will be with you in a +minute." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The brother and sister had walked some distance. The roads were full of +people, and the nearer they came to the Nekropolis the denser was the +throng. + +As they skirted the town walls they took counsel together. + +Being perfectly agreed that the girl who had touched Philip's hand could +certainly be no daimon who had assumed Korinna's form, they were inclined +to accept the view that a strong resemblance had deceived their brother. +They finally decided that Alexander should try to discover the maiden who +so strangely resembled the dead; and the artist was ready for the task, +for he could only work when his heart was light, and had never felt such +a weight on it before. The hope of meeting with a living creature who +resembled that fair dead maiden, combined with his wish to rescue his +brother from the disorder of mind which threatened him; and Melissa +perceived with glad surprise how quickly this new object in life restored +the youth's happy temper. + +It was she who spoke most, and Alexander, whom nothing escaped that had +any form of beauty, feasted his ear on the pearly ring of her voice. + +"And her face is to match," thought he as they went on in the darkness; +"and may the Charites who have endowed her with every charm, forgive my +father for burying her as he does his gold." + +It was not in his nature to keep anything that stirred him deeply to +himself, when he was in the society of another, so he murmured to his +sister: "It is just as well that the Macedonian youths of this city +should not be able to see what a jewel our old man's house contains. +--Look how brightly Selene shines on us, and how gloriously the stars +burn! Nowhere do the heavens blaze more brilliantly than here. As soon +as we come out of the shadow that the great walls cast on the road we +shall be in broad light. There is the Serapeum rising out of the +darkness. They are rehearsing the great illumination which is to dazzle +the eyes of Caesar when he comes. But they must show too, that to-night, +at least, the gods of the nether world and death are all awake. You can +never have been in the Nekropolis at so late an hour before." + +"How should I?" replied the girl. And he expressed the pleasure that it +gave him to be able to show her for the first time the wonderful night +scene of such a festival. And when he heard the deep-drawn "Ah!" with +which she hailed the sight of the greatest temple of all, blazing in the +midst of the darkness with tar-pans, torches, and lamps innumerable, he +replied with as much pride and satisfaction as though she owed the +display to him, "Ay, what do you think of that?" + +Above the huge stone edifice which was thus lighted up, the dome of the +Serapeum rose high into the air, its summit appearing to touch the sky. +Never had the gigantic structure seemed so beautiful to the girl, who had +only seen it by daylight; for under the illumination, arranged by a +master-hand, every line stood out more clearly than in the sunlight; and +in the presence of this wonderful sight Melissa's impressionable young +soul forgot the trouble that had weighed on it, and her heart beat +higher. + +Her lonely life with her father had hitherto fully satisfied her, and she +had, never yet dreamed of anything better in the future than a quiet and +modest existence, caring for him and her brothers; but now she thankfully +experienced the pleasure of seeing for once something really grand and +fine, and rejoiced at having escaped for a while from the monotony of +each day and hour. + +Once, too, she had been with her brothers and Diodoros, Alexander's +greatest friend, to see a wild-beast fight, followed by a combat of +gladiators; but she had come home frightened and sorrowful, for what she +had seen had horrified more than it had interested her. Some of the +killed and tortured beings haunted her mind; and, besides, sitting in the +lowest and best seats belonging to Diodoros's wealthy father, she had +been stared at so boldly and defiantly whenever she raised her eyes, by a +young gallant opposite, that she had felt vexed and insulted; nay, had +wished above all things to get home as soon as possible. And yet she had +loved Diodoros from her childhood, and she would have enjoyed sitting +quietly by his side more than looking on at the show. + +But on this occasion her curiosity was gratified, and the hope of being +able to help one who was dear to her filled her with quiet gladness. +It was a comfort to her, too, to find herself once more by her mother's +grave with Alexander, who was her especial friend. She could never come +here often enough, and the blessing which emanated from it--of that she +was convinced--must surely fall on her brother also, and avert from him +all that grieved his heart. + +As they walked on between the Serapeum on one hand, towering high above +all else, and the Stadium on the other, the throng was dense; on the +bridge over the canal it was difficult to make any progress. Now, as the +full moon rose, the sacrifices and games in honor of the gods of the +under world were beginning, and now the workshops and factories had +emptied themselves into the streets already astir for the festival of the +dead, so every moment the road became more crowded. + +Such a tumult was generally odious to her retiring nature; but to-night +she felt herself merely one drop in the great, flowing river, of which +every other drop felt the same impulse which was carrying her forward to +her destination. The desire to show the dead that they were not +forgotten, that their favor was courted and hoped for, animated men and +women, old and young alike. + +There were few indeed who had not a wreath or a posy in their hands, or +carried behind them by a slave. In front of the brother and sister was a +large family of children. A black nurse carried the youngest on her +shoulder, and an ass bore a basket in which were flowers for the tomb, +with a wineflask and eatables. A memorial banquet was to be held at the +grave of their ancestors; and the little one, whose golden head rose +above the black, woolly poll of the negress, nodded gayly in response to +Melissa's smiles. The children were enchanted at the prospect of a meal +at such an unusual hour, and their parents rejoiced in them and in the +solemn pleasure they anticipated. + +Many a one in this night of remembrance only cared to recall the happy +hours spent in the society of the beloved dead; others hoped to leave +their grief and pain behind them, and find fresh courage and contentment +in the City of the Dead; for tonight the gates of the nether world stood +open, and now, if ever, the gods that reigned there would accept the +offerings and hear the prayers of the devout. + +Those lean Egyptians, who pushed past in silence and haranging their +heads, were no doubt bent on carrying offerings to Osiris and Anubis--for +the festival of the gods of death and resurrection coincided with the +Nekysia--and on winning their favors by magical formulas and spells. + +Everything was plainly visible, for the desert tract of the Nekropolis, +where at this hour utter darkness and silence usually reigned, was +brightly lighted up. Still, the blaze failed to banish entirely the +thrill of fear which pervaded the spot at night; for the unwonted glare +dazzled and bewildered the bats and night-birds, and they fluttered about +over the heads of the intruders in dark, ghostly flight. Many a one +believed them to be the unresting souls of condemned sinners, and looked +up at them with awe. + +Melissa drew her veil closer and clung more tightly to her brother, for a +sound of singing and wild cries, which she had heard behind her for some +time, was now coming closer. They were no longer treading the paved +street, but the hard-beaten soil of the desert. The crush was over, for +here the crowd could spread abroad; but the uproarious troop, which she +did not even dare to look at, came rushing past quite close to them. +They were Greeks, of all ages and of both sexes. The men flourished +torches, and were shouting a song with unbridled vehemence; the women, +wearing garlands, kept up with them. What they carried in the baskets +on their heads could not be seen, nor did Alexander know; for so many +religious brotherhoods and mystic societies existed here that it was +impossible to guess to which this noisy troop might belong. + +The pair had presently overtaken a little train of white-robed men moving +forward at a solemn pace, whom the painter recognized as the +philosophical and religious fraternity of the Neo-Pythagoreans, when a +small knot of men and women in the greatest excitement came rushing past +as if they were mad. The men wore the loose red caps of their Phrygian +land; the women carried bowls full of fruits. Some beat small drums, +others clanged cymbals, and each hauled his neighbor along with deafening +cries, faster and faster, till the dust hid them from sight and a new din +drowned the last, for the votaries of Dionysus were already close upon +them, and vied with the Phrygians in uproariousness. But this wild troop +remained behind; for one of the light-colored oxen, covered with +decorations, which was being driven in the procession by a party of men +and boys, to be presently sacrificed, had broken away, maddened by the +lights and the shouting, and had to be caught and led again. + +At last they reached the graveyard. But even now they could not make +their way to the long row of houses where the embalmers dwelt, for an +impenetrable mass of human beings stood pent up in front of them, and +Melissa begged her brother to give her a moment's breathing space. + +All she had seen and heard on the way had excited her greatly; but she +had scarcely for a moment forgotten what it was that had brought her out +so late, who it was that she sought, or that it would need her utmost +endeavor to free him from the delusion that had fooled him. In this +dense throng and deafening tumult it was scarcely possible to recover +that collected calm which she had found in the morning at her mother's +tomb. In that, doubt had had no part, and the delightful feeling of +freedom which had shone on her soul, now shrank deep into the shade +before a growing curiosity and the longing for her usual repose. + +If her father were to find her here! When she saw a tall figure +resembling his cross the torchlight, all clouded as it was by the dust, +she drew her brother away behind the stall of a seller of drinks and +other refreshments. The father, at any rate, must be spared the distress +she felt about Philip, who was his favorite. Besides, she knew full well +that, if he met her here, he would at once take her home. + +The question now was where Philip might be found. + +They were standing close to the booths where itinerant dealers sold +food and liquors of every description, flowers and wreaths, amulets and +papyrus-leaves, with strange charms written on them to secure health for +the living and salvation for the souls of the dead. An astrologer, +who foretold the course of a man's life from the position of the planets, +had erected a high platform with large tables displayed to view, and the +instrument wherewith he aimed at the stars as it were with a bow; and his +Syrian slave, accompanying himself on a gayly-painted drum, proclaimed +his master's powers. There were closed tents in which magical remedies +were to be obtained, though their open sale was forbidden by the +authorities, from love-philters to the wondrous fluid which, if rightly +applied, would turn lead, copper, or silver to gold. Here, old women +invited the passer-by to try Thracian and other spells; there, magicians +stalked to and fro in painted caps and flowing, gaudy robes, most of them +calling themselves priests of some god of the abyss. Men of every race +and tongue that dwelt in the north of Africa, or on the shores of the +Mediterranean, were packed in a noisy throng. + +The greatest press was behind the houses of the men who buried the dead. +Here sacrifices were offered on the altars of Serapis, Isis, and Anubis; +here the sacred sistrum of Isis might be kissed; here hundreds of priests +performed solemn ceremonies, and half of those who came hither for the +festival of the dead collected about them. The mysteries were also +performed here, beginning before midnight; and a dramatic representation +might be seen of the woes of Isis, and the resurrection of her husband +Osiris. But neither here, nor at the stalls, nor among the graves, where +many families were feasting by torchlight and pouring libations in the +sand for the souls of the dead, did Alexander expect to find his brother. +Nor would Philip be attending the mysterious solemnities of any of the +fraternities. He had witnessed them often enough with his friend +Diodoros, who never missed the procession to Eleusis, because, as he +declared, the mysteries of Demeter alone could assure a man of the +immortality of the soul. The wild ceremonies of the Syrians, who maimed +themselves in their mad ecstasy, repelled him as being coarse and +barbarous. + +As she made her way through this medley of cults, this worship of gods +so different that they were in some cases hostile, but more often merged +into each other, Melissa wondered to which she ought to turn in her +present need. Her mother had best loved to sacrifice to Serapis and +Isis. But since, in her last sickness, Melissa had offered everything +she possessed to these divinities of healing, and all in vain, and since +she had heard things in the Serapeum itself which even now brought a +blush to her cheek, she had turned away from the great god of the +Alexandrians. Though he who had offended her by such base proposals was +but a priest of the lower grade--and indeed, though she knew it not, was +since dead--she feared meeting him again, and had avoided the sanctuary +where he officiated. + +She was a thorough Alexandrian, and had been accustomed from childhood to +listen to the philosophical disputations of the men about her. So she +perfectly understood her brother Philip, the skeptic, when he said that +he by no means denied the existence of the immortals, but that, on the +other hand, he could not believe in it; that thought brought him no +conviction; that man, in short, could be sure of nothing, and so could +know nothing whatever of the divinity. He had even denied, on logical +grounds, the goodness and omnipotence of the gods, the wisdom and fitness +of the ordering of the universe, and Melissa was proud of her brother's +acumen; but what appeals to the brain only, and not to the heart, can not +move a woman to anything great--least of all to a decisive change of life +or feeling. So the girl had remained constant to her mother's faith in +some mighty powers outside herself, which guided the life of Nature and +of human beings. Only she did not feel that she had found the true god, +either in Serapis or Isis, and so she had sought others. Thus she had +formulated a worship of ancestors, which, as she had learned from the +slave-woman of her friend Ino, was not unfamiliar to the Egyptians. + +In Alexandria there were altars to every god, and worship in every form. +Hers, however, was not among them, for the genius of her creed was the +enfranchised soul of her mother, who had cast off the burden of this +perishable body. Nothing had ever come from her that was not good and +lovely; and she knew that if her mother were permitted, even in some +other than human form, she would never cease to watch over her with +tender care. + +And those initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, as Diodoros had told +her, desired the immortality of the soul, to the end that they might +continue to participate in the life of those whom they had left behind. +What was it that brought such multitudes at this time out to the +Nekropolis, with their hands full of offerings, but the consciousness +of their nearness to the dead, and of being cared for by them so long as +they were not forgotten? And even if the glorified spirit of her mother +were not permitted to hear her prayers, she need not therefore cease to +turn to her; for it comforted her unspeakably to be with her in spirit, +and to confide to her all that moved her soul. And so her mother's tomb +had become her favorite place of rest. Here, if anywhere, she now hoped +once more to find comfort, some happy suggestion, and perhaps some +definite assistance. + +She begged Alexander to take her thither, and he consented, though he was +of opinion that Philip would be found in the mortuary chamber, in the +presence of Korinna's portrait. + +It was not easy to force their way through the thousands who had come out +to the great show this night; however, most of the visitors were +attracted by the mysteries far away from the Macedonian burial-ground, +and there was little to disturb the silence near the fine marble monument +which Alexander, to gratify his father, had erected with his first large +earnings. It was hung with various garlands, and Melissa, before she +prayed and anointed the stone, examined them with eye and hand. + +Those which she and her father had placed there she recognized at once. +That humble garland of reeds with two lotus-flowers was the gift of their +old slave Argutis and his wife Dido. This beautiful wreath of choice +flowers had come from the garden of a neighbor who had loved her mother +well; and that splendid basketful of lovely roses, which had not been +there this morning, had been placed here by Andreas, steward to the +father of her young friend Diodoros, although he was of the Christian +sect. And these were all. Philip had not been here then, though it was +now past midnight. + +For the first time in his life he had let this day pass by without a +thought for their dead. How bitterly this grieved Melissa, and even +added to her anxiety for him! + +It was with a heavy heart that she and Alexander anointed the tombstone; +and while Melissa uplifted her hands in prayer, the painter stood in +silence, his eyes fixed on the ground. But no sooner had she let them +fall, than he exclaimed: + +"He is here, I am sure, and in the house of the embalmers. That he +ordered two wreaths is perfectly certain; and if he meant one for +Korinna's picture, he surely intended the other for our mother. If he +has offered both to the young girl--" + +"No, no!" Melissa put in. "He will bring his gift. Let us wait here a +little while, and do you, too, pray to the manes of our mother. Do it to +please me." + +But her brother interrupted her eagerly I think of her wherever I may +be; for those we truly love always live for us. Not a day passes, nor if +I come in sober, not a night, when I do not see her dear face, either +waking or dreaming. Of all things sacred, the thought of her is the +highest; and if she had been raised to divine honors like the dead +Caesars who have brought so many curses on the world--" + +"Hush--don't speak so loud!" said Melissa, seriously, for men were +moving to and fro among the tombs, and Roman guards kept watch over the +populace. + +But the rash youth went on in the same tone: + +"I would worship her gladly, though I have forgotten how to pray. For +who can tell here--unless he follows the herd and worships Serapis--who +can tell to which god of them all he shall turn when he happens to be at +his wits' end? While my mother lived, I, like you, could gladly worship +and sacrifice to the immortals; but Philip has spoiled me for all that. +As to the divine Caesars, every one thinks as I do. My mother would +sooner have entered a pesthouse than the banqueting-hall where they +feast, on Olympus. Caracalla among the gods! Why, Father Zeus cast his +son Hephaistos on earth from the height of Olympus, and only broke his +leg; but our Caesar accomplished a more powerful throw, for he cast his +brother through the earth into the nether world--an imperial thrust--and +not merely lamed him but killed him." + +"Well done!" said a deep voice, interrupting the young artist. "Is that +you, Alexander? Hear what new titles to fame Heron's son can find for +the imperial guest who is to arrive to-morrow." + +"Pray hush!" Melissa besought him, looking up at the bearded man who had +laid his arm on Alexander's shoulder. It was Glaukias the sculptor, her +father's tenant; for his work-room stood on the plot of ground by the +garden of Hermes, which the gem-cutter had inherited from his father-in- +law. + +The man's bold, manly features were flushed with wine and revelry; his +twinkling eyes sparkled, and the ivy-leaves still clinging to his curly +hair showed that he had been one in the Dionysiac revellers; but the +Greek blood which ran in his veins preserved his grace even in +drunkenness. He bowed gayly to the young girl, and exclaimed to his +companions: + +"The youngest pearl in Alexandria's crown of beauties!" while Bion, +Alexander's now gray-haired master, clapped the youth on the arm, and +added: "Yes, indeed, see what the little thing has grown! Do you +remember, pretty one, how you once--how many years ago, I wonder?-- +spotted your little white garments all over with red dots! I can see you +now, your tiny finger plunged into the pot of paint, and then carefully +printing off the round pattern all over the white linen. Why, the little +painter has become a Hebe, a Charis, or, better still, a sweetly dreaming +Psyche." + +"Ay, ay!" said Glaukias again. "My worthy landlord has a charming model. +He has not far to seek for a head for his best gems. His son, a Helios, +or the great Macedonian whose name he bears; his daughter--you are right, +Bion--the maid beloved of Eros. Now, if you can make verses, my young +friend of the Muses, give us an epigram in a line or two which we may +bear in mind as a compliment to our imperial visitor." + +"But not here--not in the burial-ground," Melissa urged once more. + +Among Glaukias's companions was Argeios, a vain and handsome young poet, +with scented locks betraying him from afar, who was fain to display the +promptness of his poetical powers; and, even while the elder artist was +speaking, he had run Alexander's satirical remarks into the mold of +rhythm. Not to save his life could he have suppressed the hastily +conceived distich, or have let slip such a justifiable claim to applause. +So, without heeding Melissa's remonstrance, he flung his sky-blue mantle +about him in fresh folds, and declaimed with comical emphasis: + + "Down to earth did the god cast his son: but with mightier hand + Through it, to Hades, Caesar flung his brother the dwarf." + +The versifier was rewarded by a shout of laughter, and, spurred by the +approval of his friends, he declared he had hit on the mode to which to +sing his lines, as he did in a fine, full voice. + +But there was another poet, Mentor, also of the party, and as he could +not be happy under his rival's triumph, he exclaimed: "The great dyer-- +for you know he uses blood instead of the Tyrian shell--has nothing of +Father Zeus about him that I can see, but far more of the great +Alexander, whose mausoleum he is to visit to-morrow. And if you would +like to know wherein the son of Severus resembles the giant of Macedon, +you shall hear." + +He thrummed his thyrsus as though he struck the strings of a lyre, and, +having ended the dumb prelude, he sang: + + "Wherein hath the knave Caracalla outdone Alexander? + He killed a brother, the hero a friend, in his rage." + +These lines, however, met with no applause; for they were not so lightly +improvised as the former distich, and it was clumsy and tasteless, as +well as dangerous thus to name, in connection with such a jest, the +potentate at whom it was aimed. And the fears of the jovial party were +only too well founded, for a tall, lean Egyptian suddenly stood among the +Greeks as if he had sprung from the earth. They were sobered at once, +and, like a swarm of pigeons on which a hawk swoops down, they dispersed +in all directions. + +Melissa beckoned to her brother to follow her; but the Egyptian intruder +snatched the mantle, quick as lightning, from Alexander's shoulders, and +ran off with it to the nearest pine-torch. The young man hurried after +the thief, as he supposed him to be, but there the spy flung the cloak +back to him, saying, in a tone of command, though not loud, for there +were still many persons among the graves: + +"Hands off, son of Heron, unless you want me to call the watch! I have +seen your face by the light, and that is enough for this time. Now we +know each other, and we shall meet again in another place!" + +With these words he vanished in the darkness, and Melissa asked, in great +alarm: + +"In the name of all the gods, who was that?" + +"Some rascally carpenter, or scribe, probably, who is in the service of +the night-watch as a spy. At least those sort of folks are often built +askew, as that scoundrel was," replied Alexander, lightly. But he knew +the man only too well. It was Zminis, the chief of the spies to the +night patrol; a man who was particularly inimical to Heron, and whose +hatred included the son, by whom he had been befooled and misled in more +than one wild ploy with his boon companions. This spy, whose cruelty and +cunning were universally feared, might do him a serious mischief, and he +therefore did not tell his sister, to whom the name of Zminis was well +known, who the listener was. + +He cut short all further questioning by desiring her to come at once to +the mortuary hall. + +"And if we do not find him there," she said, "let us go home at once; I +am so frightened." + +"Yes, yes," said her brother, vaguely. "If only we could meet some one +you could join." + +"No, we will keep together," replied Melissa, decisively; and simply +assenting, with a brief "All right," the painter drew her arm through +his, and they made their way through the now thinning crowd. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The houses of the embalmers, which earlier in the evening had shone +brightly out of the darkness, now made a less splendid display. The dust +kicked up by the crowd dimmed the few lamps and torches which had not by +this time burned out or been extinguished, and an oppressive atmosphere +of balsamic resin and spices met the brother and sister on the very +threshold. The vast hall which they now entered was one of a long row of +buildings of unburned bricks; but the Greeks insisted on some +ornamentation of the simplest structure, if it served a public purpose, +and the embalming-houses had a colonnade along their front, and their +walls were covered with stucco, painted in gaudy colors, here in the +Egyptian and there in the Greek taste. There were scenes from the +Egyptian realm of the dead, and others from the Hellenic myths; for the +painters had been enjoined to satisfy the requirements and views of +visitors of every race. The chief attraction, however, this night was +within; for the men whose duties were exercised on the dead had displayed +the finest and best of what they had to offer to their customers. + +The ancient Greek practice of burning the dead had died out under the +Antonines. Of old, the objects used to deck the pyre had also been on +show here; now there was nothing to be seen but what related to interment +or entombment. + +Side by side with the marble sarcophagus, or those of coarser stone, were +wooden coffins and mummy-cases, with a place at the head for the portrait +of the deceased. Vases and jars of every kind, amulets of various forms, +spices and balsams in vials and boxes, little images in burned clay of +the gods and of men, of which none but the Egyptians knew the allegorical +meaning, stood in long rows on low wooden shelves. On the higher shelves +were mummy bands and shrouds, some coarse, others of the very finest +texture, wigs for the bald heads of shaven corpses, or woolen fillets, +and simply or elaborately embroidered ribbons for the Greek dead. + +Nothing was lacking of the various things in use for decking the corpse +of an Alexandrian, whatever his race or faith. + +Some mummy-cases, too, were there, ready to be packed off to other towns. +The most costly were covered with fine red linen, wound about with +strings of beads and gold ornaments, and with the name of the dead +painted on the upper side. In a long, narrow room apart hung the +portraits, waiting to be attached to the upper end of the mummy-cases of +those lately deceased, and still in the hands of embalmers. Here, too, +most of the lamps were out, and the upper end of the room was already +dark. Only in the middle, where the best pictures were on show, the +lights had been renewed. + +The portraits were painted on thin panels of sycamore or of cypress, and +in most of them the execution betrayed that their destiny was to be +hidden in the gloom of a tomb. + +Alexander's portrait of Korinna was in the middle of the gallery, in a +good light, and stood out from the paintings on each side of it as a +genuine emerald amid green glass. It was constantly surrounded by a +crowd of the curious and connoisseurs. They pointed out the beautiful +work to each other; but, though most of them acknowledged the skill of +the master who had painted it, many ascribed its superiority to the +magical charm of the model. One could see in those wonderfully +harmonious features that Aristotle was right when he discerned beauty +in order and proportion; while another declared that he found there the +evidence of Plato's doctrine of the identity of the good and the +beautiful--for this face was so lovely because it was the mirror of a +soul which had been disembodied in the plenitude of maiden purity and +virtue, unjarred by any discord; and this gave rise to a vehement +discussion as to the essential nature of beauty and of virtue. + +Others longed to know more about the early-dead original of this +enchanting portrait. Korinna's wealthy father and his brothers were +among the best-known men of the city. The elder, Timotheus, was high- +priest of the Temple of Serapis; and Zeno, the younger, had set the +whole world talking when he, who in his youth had been notoriously +dissipated, had retired from any concern in the corn-trade carried on +by his family, the greatest business of the kind in the world, perhaps, +and--for this was an open secret--had been baptized. + +The body of the maiden, when embalmed and graced with her portrait, was +to be transported to the family tomb in the district of Arsinoe, where +they had large possessions, and the gossip of the embalmer was eagerly +swallowed as he expatiated on the splendor with which her liberal father +proposed to escort her thither. + +Alexander and Melissa had entered the portrait-gallery before the +beginning of this narrative, and listened to it, standing behind several +rows of gazers who were between them and the portrait. + +As the speaker ceased, the little crowd broke up, and when Melissa could +at last see her brother's work at her ease, she stood speechless for some +time; and then she turned to the artist, and exclaimed, from the depths +of her heart, "Beauty is perhaps the noblest thing in the world!" + +"It is," replied Alexander, with perfect assurance. And he, bewitched +once more by the spell which had held him by Korinna's couch, gazed into +the dark eyes in his own picture, whose living glance his had never met, +and which he nevertheless had faithfully reproduced, giving them a look +of the longing of a pure soul for all that is lovely and worthy. + +Melissa, an artist's daughter, as she looked at this portrait, understood +what it was that had so deeply stirred her brother while he painted it; +but this was not the place to tell him so. She soon tore herself away, +to look about for Philip once more and then to be taken home. + +Alexander, too, was seeking Philip; but, sharp as the artist's eyes were, +Melissa's seemed to be keener, for, just as they were giving it up and +turning to go, she pointed to a dark corner and said softly, "There he +is." + +And there, in fact, her brother was, sitting with two men, one very tall +and the other a little man, his brow resting on his hand in the deep +shadow of a sarcophagus, between the wall and a mummy-case set on end, +which till now had hidden him from Alexander and Melissa. + +Who could the man be who had kept the young philosopher, somewhat +inaccessible in his pride of learning, so long in talk in that half-dark +corner? He was not one of the learned society at the Museum; Alexander +knew them all. Besides, he was not dressed like them, in the Greek +fashion, but in the flowing robe of a Magian. And the stranger was a +man of consequence, for he wore his splendid garment with a superior air, +and as Alexander approached him he remembered having somewhere seen this +tall, bearded figure, with the powerful head garnished with flowing and +carefully oiled black curls. Such handsome and well-chiseled features, +such fine eyes, and such a lordly, waving beard were not easily +forgotten; his memory suddenly awoke and threw a light on the man as he +sat in the gloom, and on the surroundings in which he had met him for the +first time. + +It was at the feast of Dionysus. Among a drunken crowd, which was +rushing wildly along the streets, and which Alexander had joined, himself +one of the wildest, this man had marched, sober and dignified as he was +at this moment, in the same flowing raiment. This had provoked the +feasters, who, being full of wine and of the god, would have nothing that +could remind them of the serious side of life. Such sullen reserve on a +day of rejoicing was an insult to the jolly giver of the fruits of the +earth, and to wine itself, the care-killer; and the mad troop of artists, +disguised as Silenus, satyrs, and fauns, had crowded round the stranger +to compel him to join their rout and empty the wine-jar which a burly +Silenus was carrying before him on his ass. + +At first the man had paid no heed to the youths' light mockery; but as +they grew bolder, he suddenly stood still, seized the tall faun, who was +trying to force the wine-jar on him, by both arms, and, holding him +firmly, fixed his grave, dark eyes on those of the youth. Alexander had +not forgotten the half-comical, half-threatening incident, but what he +remembered most clearly was the strange scene that followed: for, after +the Magian had released his enemy, he bade him take the jar back to +Silenus, and proceed on his way, like the ass, on all-fours. And the +tall faun, a headstrong, irascible Lesbian, had actually obeyed the +stately despot, and crept along on his hands and feet by the side of the +donkey. No threats nor mockery of his companions could persuade him to +rise. The high spirits of the boisterous crew were quite broken, and +before they could turn on the magician he had vanished. + +Alexander had afterward learned that he was Serapion, the star-gazer and +thaumaturgist, whom all the spirits of heaven and earth obeyed. + +When, at the time, the painter had told the story to Philip, the +philosopher had laughed at him, though Alexander had reminded him that +Plato even had spoken of the daimons as being the guardian spirits of +men; that in Alexandria, great and small alike believed in them as a fact +to be reckoned with; and that he--Philip himself--had told him that they +played a prominent part in the newest systems of philosophy. + +But to the skeptic nothing was sure: and if he would deny the existence +of the Divinity, he naturally must disbelieve that of any beings in a +sphere between the supersensual immortals and sentient human creatures. +That a man, the weaker nature, could have any power over daimons, who, +as having a nearer affinity to the gods, must, if they existed, be the +stronger, he could refute with convincing arguments; and when he saw +others nibbling whitethorn-leaves, or daubing their thresholds with pitch +to preserve themselves and the house from evil spirits, he shrugged his +shoulders contemptuously, though his father often did such things. + +Here was Philip, deep in conversation with the man he had mocked at, and +Alexander was flattered by seeing that wise and famous Serapion, in whose +powers he himself believed, was talking almost humbly to his brother, as +though to a superior. The magician was standing, while the philosopher, +as though it were his right, remained seated. + +Of what could they be conversing? + +Alexander himself was anxious to be going, and only his desire to hear at +any rate a few sentences of the talk of two such men detained him longer. + +As he expected, it bore on Serapion's magical powers; but the bearded man +spoke in a very low tone, and if the painter ventured any nearer he would +be seen. He could only catch a few incoherent words, till Philip +exclaimed in a louder voice: "All that is well-reasoned. But you will be +able to write an enduring inscription on the shifting wave sooner than +you will shake my conviction that for our spirit, such as Nature has made +it, there is nothing infallible or certain." + +The painter was familiar with this postulate, and was curious to hear the +Magian's reply; but he could not follow his argument till he ended by +saying, rather more emphatically: "You, even, do not deny the physical +connection of things; but I know the power that causes it. It is the +magical sympathy which displays itself more powerfully in the universe, +and among human beings, than any other force." + +"That is just what remains to be proved," was the reply. But as the +other declared in all confidence, "And I can prove it," and was +proceeding to do so, Serapion's companion, a stunted, sharp-featured +little Syrian, caught sight of Alexander. The discourse was interrupted, +and Alexander, pointing to Melissa, begged his brother to grant them a +few minutes' speech with him. Philip, however, scarcely spared a moment +for greeting his brother and sister; and when, in answer to his request +that they be brief in what they had to say, they replied that a few words +would not suffice, Philip was for putting them off till the morrow, as he +did not choose to be disturbed just now. + +At this Melissa took courage; she turned to Serapion and modestly +addressed him: + +"You, sir, look like a grave, kind man, and seem to have a regard for my +brother. You, then, will help us, no doubt, to cure him of an illusion +which troubles us. A dead girl, he says, met him, and he touched her +hand." + +"And do you, sweet child, think that impossible?" the Magian asked +with gentle gravity. "Have the thousands who bring not merely fruit +and wine and money for their dead, but who even burn a black sheep for +them--you, perhaps, have done the same--have they, I ask, done this so +long in vain? I can not believe it. Nay, I know from the ghosts +themselves that this gives them pleasure; so they must have the organs of +sense." + +"That we may rejoice departed souls by food and drink," said Melissa, +eagerly, "and that daimons at times mingle with the living, every one of +course, believes; but who ever heard that warm blood stirred in them? +And how can it be possible that they should remunerate a service with +money, which certainly was not coined in their airy realm, but in the +mint here?" + +"Not too fast, fair maid," replied the Magian, raising a warning hand. +"There is no form which these intermediate beings can not assume. They +have the control of all and everything which mortals may use, so the soul +of Korinna revisiting these scenes may quite well have paid the ferryman +with an obolus." + +"Then you know of it?" asked Melissa in surprise; but the Magian broke +in, saying: + +"Few such things remain hidden from him who knows, not even the smallest, +if he strives after such knowledge." + +As he spoke he gave the girl such a look as made her eyelids fall, and he +went on with greater warmth: "There would be fewer tears shed by death- +beds, my child, if we could but show the world the means by which the +initiated hold converse with the souls of the dead." + +Melissa shook her pretty head sadly, and the Magian kindly stroked her +waving hair; then, looking her straight in the eyes, he said: "The dead +live. What once has been can never cease to be, any more than out of +nothing can anything come. It is so simple; and so, too, are the +workings of magic, which amaze you so much. What you call magic, when I +practice it, Eros, the great god of love, has wrought a thousand times in +your breast. When your heart leaps at your brother's caress, when the +god's arrow pierces you, and the glance of a lover fills you with +gladness, when the sweet harmonies of fine music wrap your soul above +this earth, or the wail of a child moves you to compassion, you have felt +the magic power stirring in your own soul. You feel it when some +mysterious power, without any will of your own, prompts you to some act, +be it what it may. And, besides all this, if a leaf flutters off the +table without being touched by any visible hand, you do not doubt that a +draught of air, which you can neither hear nor see, has swept through the +room. If at noon the world is suddenly darkened, you know, without +looking up at the sky, that it is overcast by a cloud. In the very same +way you can feel the nearness of a soul that was dear to you without +being able to see it. All that is necessary is to strengthen the faculty +which knows its presence, and give it the proper training, and then you +will see and hear them. The Magians have the key which unlocks the door +of the world of spirits to the human senses. Your noble brother, in whom +the claims of the spirit have long since triumphed over those of sense, +has found this key without seeking it, since he has been permitted to see +Korinna's soul. And if he follows a competent guide he will see her +again." + +"But why? What good will it do him?" asked Melissa, with a reproachful +and anxious look at the man whose influence, as she divined would be +pernicious to her brother, in spite of his knowledge. The Magian gave +a compassionate shrug, and in the look he cast at the philosopher, the +question was legible, "What have such as these to do with the highest +things?" + +Philip nodded in impatient assent, and, without paying any further heed +to his brother and sister, besought his friend to give him the proofs of +the theory that the physical causation of things is weaker than the +sympathy which connects them. Melissa knew full well that any attempt +now to separate Philip from Serapion would be futile; however, she would +not leave the last chance untried, and asked him gravely whether he had +forgotten his mother's tomb. + +He hastily assured her that he fully intended to visit it presently. +Fruit and fragrant oil could be had here at any hour of the night. + +"And your two wreaths?" she said, in mild reproach, for she had observed +them both below the portrait of Korinna. + +"I had another use for them," he said, evasively; and then he added, +apologetically: "You have brought flowers enough, I know. If I can find +time, I will go to-morrow to see my father." He nodded to them both, +turned to the Magian, and went on eagerly: + +"Then that magical sympathy--" + +They did not wait to hear the discussion; Alexander signed to his sister +to follow him. + +He, too, knew that his brother's ear was deaf now to anything he could +say. What Serapion had said had riveted even his attention, and the +question whether it might indeed be vouchsafed to living mortals to see +the souls of the departed, and hear their voices, exercised his mind so +greatly that he could not forbear asking his sister's opinion on such +matters. + +But Melissa's good sense had felt that there was something not quite +sound in the Magian's argument--nor did she conceal her conviction that +Philip, who was always hard to convince, had accepted Serapion's views, +not because he yielded to the weight of his reasons, but because he--and +Alexander, too, for that matter--hoped by his mediation to see the +beautiful Korinna again. + +This the artist admitted; but when he jested of the danger of a jealous +quarrel between him and his brother, for the sake of a dead girl, there +was something hard in his tone, and very unlike him, which Melissa did +not like. + +They breathed more freely as they got out into the open air, and her +efforts to change the subject of their conversation were happily +seconded; for at the door they met the family of their neighbor Skopas, +the owner of a stone-quarry, whose grave-plot adjoined theirs, and +Melissa was happy again as she heard her brother laughing as gayly as +ever with Skopas's pretty daughter. The mania had not taken such deep +hold of the light-hearted young painter as of Philip, the poring and +gloomy philosopher; and she was glad as she heard her friend Ino call +Alexander a faithless butterfly, while her sister Helena declared that he +was a godless scoffer. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Man, in short, could be sure of nothing +Misfortunes commonly come in couples yoked like oxen + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A THRONY PATH, BY EBERS, V1 *** + +******** This file should be named 5530.txt or 5530.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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