Part 11 (1/2)
Now my heart swelled till I thought it would burst with rage. Then of a sudden, a certain spirit entered into me and I rose to my feet and said,
”O King, you have declared that I must die and as this is so, I will kneel to you no more who soon shall sup at the table of Osiris, and there be far greater than any king, going before him with clean hands.
Is it not your law that he who is condemned to die has first the right to set out his case for the honour of his name?”
”It is,” said the King, I think because he was curious to hear what I had to say. ”Speak on.”
”O King, although my blood is as high as your own, of that I say nothing, for at the wish of your satrap I came to the East from Egypt as a hunter, to show you how we of Egypt kill lions and other beasts. For three months I have waited in the royal city seeking admission to the presence of the King, and in vain. At length I was bidden to this hunt when I was about to depart to my own land, and being taunted by your servants, entered the reeds with my slave, and there slew a lion. Then it pleased you to thrust a wager upon me which I did not wish to take, as to which of us would shoot the most lions; a wager as I now understand you did not mean that I should win, whatever might be my skill, since you thought I knew that I must shoot at nothing till you had first shot and killed the beasts or scared them away.
”So I matched myself against you, as hunter against hunter, for in the field, as before the G.o.ds, all are equal, not as a slave against a king who is determined to avenge defeat by death. We were posted and the lions came. I shot at those which appeared opposite to me, or upon my side, leaving those that appeared opposite to you, or on your side unshot at, as is the custom of hunters. My skill, or my fortune, was better than yours and I killed, whereas you missed or only wounded. In the end a lioness sprang at you and I shot it lest it should kill you; as could easily be proved by the arrow in its body. Now you say that I must die because I have broken some laws of yours which men should be ashamed to make, and to save your honour, pay me what I have won, knowing that pearls and gold and slaves are of no value to a dying man and can be taken back again. That is all the story.
”Yet I would add one word. You Easterns have two sayings which you teach to your children; that they should learn to shoot with the bow, and to tell the truth. O King, they are my last lessons to you. Learn to shoot with the bow--which you cannot do, and to tell the truth which you have not done. Now I have spoken and am ready to die and I thank you for the patience with which you have heard my words, that, as the King does _not_ live for ever, I hope one day to repeat to you more fully beyond the grave.”
Now at this bold speech of mine all those n.o.bles and attendants gasped, for never had they heard such words addressed to his Majesty. The King turned red as though with shame, but made no answer, only he asked of those about him.
”What fate for this man?”
”Death, O King!” they cried with one voice.
”What death?” he asked again.
Then his Councillors consulted together and one of them answered,
”The slowest known to our law, _death by the boat_.”
Hearing this and not knowing what was meant, it came into my mind that I was to be turned adrift in a boat and there left to starve.
”Behold the reward of good hunting!” I mocked in my rage. ”O King, because of this deed of shame I call upon you the curse of all the G.o.ds of all the peoples. Henceforth may your sleep be ever haunted by evil dreams of what shall follow the last sleep, and in the end may you also die in blood.”
The King opened his mouth as though to answer, but from it came nothing but a low cry of fear. Then guards rushed up and seized me.
CHAPTER VI. THE DOOM OF THE BOAT
The guards led me to my chariot and thrust me into it, and with me Bes.
I asked them if they would murder him also, to which the eunuch, Houman, answered No, since he had committed no crime, but that he must go with me to be weighed. Then soldiers took the horses by the bridles and led them, while others, having first s.n.a.t.c.hed away my bow and all our other weapons, surrounded the chariot lest we should escape. So Bes and I were able to talk together in a Libyan tongue that none of them understood, even if they heard our words.
”Your life is spared,” I said to him, ”that the King may take you as a slave.”
”Then he will take an ill slave, Master, since I swear by the Gra.s.shopper that within a moon I will find means to kill him, and afterwards come to join you in a land where men hunt fair.”
I smiled and Bes went on,
”Now I wish I had time to teach you that trick of swallowing your own tongue, since perhaps you will need it in this boat of which they talk.”
”Did you not say to me an hour or two ago, Bes, that we are fools to stretch out our hands to Death until he stretches out his to us? I will not die until I must--now.”
”Why 'now,' Master, seeing that only this afternoon you bade me kill you rather than let you be thrown to the wild beasts?” he asked peering at me curiously.
”Do you remember the old hermit, the holy Tanofir, who dwells in a cell over the sepulchre of the Apis bulls in the burial ground of the desert near to Memphis, Bes?”