Part 15 (2/2)
”She ine, and, Leo, it is useless to trouble yourself with forebodings that are more fitted toBe a philosopher, Leo You have striven by wonderful ways such as are unknown in the history of the world; you have attained Take the goods the Gods provide you-the glory, the love and the power-and let the future look to itself”
Before he could answer Oros appeared fro with more than his usual humility to Leo, said that the Hesea desired our presence at a service in the Sanctuary Rejoiced at the prospect of seeing her again before he had hoped to do so, Leo sprang up and we accompanied hi, who, soainst his will, trimmed his hair and beard, and would have done the saold-enificent, white robe, also richly worked with gold and purple; a soiven to me Lastly, a silver sceptre was thrust into his hand and into mine a plain wand This sceptre was shaped like a crook, and the sight of it gaveceremony
”The crook of Osiris!” I whispered to Leo
”Look here,” he answered, ”I don't want to iyptian God, or to be mixed up in their heathen idolatries; in fact, I won't”
”Better go through with it,” I suggested, ”probably it is only so the strange circuious principles in which I had educated hily indeed, refused to move an inch until the nature of this service was made clear to hiour to Oros At first the priest see cere this Leo raised no further objections, asking only with some nervousness whether the Khania would be present Oros answered ”No,” as she had already departed to Kaloon, voar and vengeance
Then ere led through long passages, till finally we ereat wooden doors of the apse At our approach these swung open and we entered it, Oros going first, then Leo, thenus, the procession of attendant priests
As soon as our eyes beca pillars,that soress in the temple, for in front of the divine statue of Motherhood, white-robed and arranged in serried ranks, stood the company of the priests to the number of over two hundred, and behind these the coation and a little in advance of the two pillars of fire that flared on either side of the shrine, Ayesha herself was seated in a raised chair so that she could be seen of all, while to her right stood a siuess the purpose
She was unveiled and gorgeously apparelled, though save for the white beneath, her robes were those of a queen rather than of a priestess About her radiant brow ran a narrow band of gold, whence rose the head of a hooded asp cut out of a single, crilorious waving hair flowed down and around, hiding even the folds of her purple cloak
This cloak, opening in front, revealed an undertunic of white silk cut low upon her bosoirdle, a double-headed snake, so like to that which She had worn in Kor that it ht have been the saht hand she held the jewelled sistruems and bells
No empress could have looked more royal and no woman was ever half so lovely, for to Ayesha's hue alone Seeing her we could see naught else The rhyth grandeur of their chant of welco flas were lost on us For there re-born, enthroned, her arracious welcome, sat that perfect and immortal woman, the appointed bride of one of us, the friend and lady of the other, her divine presence breathing power, mystery and love
On we marched between the ranks of hierophants, till Oros and the priests left us and we stood alone face to face with Ayesha Now she lifted her sceptre and the chant ceased In the liding down its steps, came to where Leo stood and touched hi in a loud, sweet voice-”Behold the Chosen of the Hesea!” whereon all that audience echoed in a shout of thunder-”Welcome to the Chosen of the Hesea!”
Then while the echoes of that glad cry yet rang round the rocky walls, AyeshaLeo by the hand drew him towards her, so that now he faced the white-robed coan to speak in clear and silvery tones
”Priests and priestesses of Hes, servants with her of the Mother of the world, hearyou as I am, you who heretofore have looked but on a hooded shape, not knowing its form or fashi+on Learn now the reason that I draw er that with his companion had wandered to our shrine I tell you that he is no stranger; that of old, in lives forgotten, he was ain Say, is it not so, Kallikrates?”
”It is so,” answered Leo
”Priests and priestesses of Hes, as ye know, froht and custom of her who holds my place to choose one to be her lord Is it not so?”
”It is so, O Hes,” they answered
She paused a while, then with a gesture of infinite sweetness turned to Leo, bent towards him thrice and slowly sank upon her knee
”Say thou,” Ayesha said, looking up at hiathered, and all those witnesses whoain accept me as thy affianced bride?”
”Aye, Lady,” he answered, in a deep but shaken voice, ”now and for ever”
Then while all watched, in the reat silence, Ayesha rose, cast down her sistru upon the rocky floor, and stretched out her arms towards him
Leo also bent towards her, and would have kissed her upon the lips But I atched, saw his face grohite as it drew near to hers While the radiance crept froold, I saw also that this strong h he were about to fall
I think that Ayesha noted it too, for ere ever their lips rey athered on her face
In an instant it passed She had slipped froh to support hith returned
Oros restored the sceptre to her, and lifting it she said-”O love and lord, take thou the place prepared for thee, where thou shalt sit for ever at ive thee more than thou canst know or than I will tell thee now Mount thy throne, O Affianced of Hes, and receive the worshi+p of thy priests”
”Nay,” he answered with a start as that word fell upon his ears ”Here and now I say it once and for all I ae Gods, their attributes and ceremonials None shall bow the knee to me and on earth, Ayesha, I bow mine to thee alone”
Now at this bold speech some of those who heard it looked astonished and whispered to each other, while a voice called-”Beware, thou Chosen, of the anger of the Mother!”
Again for a h, swept the thing aside, saying-”Surely with that I should be content For , nono choice Leohis splendid presence, enhanced as it was by those glittering robes, he looked ill enough at ease, as indeed must any man of his faith and race Happily however, if soe had been proposed, Ayesha found a means to prevent its celebration, and soon all such , and us who listened to the majestic chant that followed
Of its words unfortunately ere able to understand but little, both because of the volue in which it was given, though its general purport could not bevery low, and conveying a strange iladness alternating withendured, and at the end a joyous, triuers, terain, louder and yet louder, till it culminated in a veritable crash of melody, then of a sudden ceased
Ayesha rose and waved her sceptre, whereon all the co into some sweet, low chant that sounded like a lullaby, marched, rank after rank, across the width of the Sanctuary and through the carven doors which closed behind the last of the us alone, save for the priest Oros and the priestess Papave, who re before her with drea, empty eyes, seemed to awake, for she rose and said-”A noble chant, is it not, and an ancient? It was the wedding song of the feast of Isis and Osiris at Behbit in Egypt, and there I heard it before ever I saw the darksome Caves of Kor Often have I observed, ht else in this changeful world, though it is rare that the very words should remain unvaried Come, beloved-tell me, by what name shall I call thee? Thou art Kallikrates and yet--”
”Call me Leo, Ayesha,” he answered, ”as I was christened in the only life of which I have any knowledge This Kallikrates seems to have been an unlucky ht other than a tool in the hand of destiny, have bred no good to the inheritors of his body-or his spirit, whichever it may be-or to those women hom his life was intertwined Call h since that night when I looked upon the last of him in Kor”
”Ah! I re in that narrow bed, and I sang thee a song, did I not, of the past and of the future? I can recall two lines of it; the rest I have forgotten- ”'Onward, never weary, clad with splendour for a robe!
Till acco down'
”Yes, my Leo, now indeed we are 'clad with splendour for a robe,' and now our fate draws near to its acco of the night;” and she sighed, looked up tenderly and said, ”See, I aotten it?”
”No”
”Then let it be our tongue, for I love it best of all, who lisped it at my mother's knee Now leave htfully, and speaking with a strange and impressive inflexion of the voice, ”there are soive audience”
So ent, all of us, supposing that Ayesha was about to receive a deputation of the Chiefs of the Mountain Tribes who came to felicitate her upon her betrothal
CHAPTER XVIII