Part 6 (2/2)
”Then he spoke to you?” Michael's voice was low, intense.
”Yes, he spoke. He gave me a message for you.”
”For me?” Michael said pa.s.sionately. ”For me? How do you know it was for me?”
Margaret trembled as she spoke. ”How do I know it was for you?” She paused. ”I do know--or, at least, I never doubted while the figure was here. Now it seems foolish--it must all have been a dream.”
”No, go on. I want to hear everything.”
”He said I was to tell you that you were to carry on his work in the world, he said that you would understand.” She paused. ”If it was you, you will understand, because he said you had read his teachings and believed in them. Does that convey anything?”
”Yes, yes. Go on--what else?” Michael's voice trembled with impatience.
”There was one word he used which I have forgotten . . . and it meant everything. I wish I could remember it! It's a name I never heard before.”
”Think,” Michael said, ”do try to think--it may come to you.” Margaret noticed that he was trying to hide his excitement; he was more nervous than she was.
”He spoke of someone as G.o.d, and said beautiful things about Him . . .
this G.o.d, of everlasting mercy . . . those were his words. . . . Oh, I remember the name!” she cried. ”It was Aton--it seemed to be the name of his G.o.d. He spoke of Aton as St. Francis spoke of Christ. Aton was in the birds and fishes and flowers and in the cool streams.”
Michael turned round and grasped Margaret's hand. He was trembling with excitement; he could hide it no longer.
”It was Akhnaton! Oh, Meg, how wonderful! Tell me everything . . .
the spirit of Akhnaton!”
”But who was Akhnaton? I am in the dark. He said he was Aton's messenger.”
”First tell me all you can remember.”
Margaret tried to recall everything that the Pharaoh had said to her.
His exact words she could not repeat, but their essence she contrived to convey quite clearly to the listening Michael.
”Akhnaton,” he kept murmuring. ”It must be Akhnaton . . . a message to me through you!”
One sentence she was able to repeat almost word for word. ”Who are those that draw us to the Kingdom of Heaven? The fowls of the air and all the beasts that are under the earth and upon the earth, and fishes in the sea, these are they which draw you, and the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”
Michael had unconsciously drawn closer to her as she spoke. She heard him say, with a sigh of intense satisfaction, ”His very teachings, Christ's own words!”
”Tell me as exactly as you can what he was like.”
Margaret closed her eyes to bring back a picture of the vision, the wonderful figure, luminous and bright.
”His sadness is what I remember most plainly. I had thought that all the Pharaohs were proud, hard warrior kings, with no pity in their hearts. This king's face spoke of the suffering of Christ, of a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sorrow seemed to be for humanity, for our sins, not the sorrow of a man who had known only personal unhappiness.”
Michael said nothing; he was too deeply moved.
<script>