Part 16 (1/2)
THE THIRD ORDEAL
An hour, two hours passed, while we strove to rest in our sleeping place, but could not, for some influence disturbed us
”Why does not Ayesha co in his walk up and down the rooain; I cannot bear to be apart fro me to her”
”How can I tell you? Ask Oros; he is outside the door”
So he went and asked him, but Oros only smiled, and answered that the Hesea had not entered her chamber, so doubtless sheto look for her Come, Oros, and you too, Horace”
Oros bowed, but declined, saying that he was bidden to bide at our door, adding that we, ”to whom all the paths were open,” could return to the Sanctuary if we thought well
”I do think well,” replied Leo sharply ”Will you coo without you?”
I hesitated The Sanctuary was a public place, it is true, but Ayesha had said that she desired to be alone there for awhile Without ed his shoulders and started
”You will never find your way,” I said, and followed hihted with laallery Here we found no lareat wooden doors They were shut, but Leo pushed upon the open a little, so that we could squeeze ourselves between them As we passed it closed noiselessly behind us
Noe should have been in the Sanctuary, and in the full blaze of those awful colu fire But they were out, or we had strayed elsewhere; at least the darkness was intense We tried to work our way back to the doors again, but could not We were lost
More, so oppressed us; we did not dare to speak We went on a few paces and stopped, for we became aware that ere not alone Indeed, it see s pressed about us; we could feel their robes, yet could not touch them; we could feel their breath, but it was cold The air stirred all round us as they passed to and fro, passed in endless nuh we had entered a cathedral filled with the vast congregation of all the dead who once had worshi+pped there We grew afraid-my face was damp with fear, the hair stood up upon my head We seeth light appeared far away, andthat it emanated from the two pillars of fire which had burned on either side of the Shrine, that of a sudden became luminous So ere in the Sanctuary, and still near to the doors Now those pillars were not bright; they were low and lurid; the rays fro in the dense shadow
But if we could not be seen in them we still could see Look! Yonder sat Ayesha on a throne, and oh! she ful in her death-like ht of the sunken columns played upon her, and in it she sat erect, with such a face and mien of pride as no human creature ever wore Power seelittering eyes like light froe fro-I know not which-for, as I thought it, a shadowy Shape arose before the throne and bent the knee to her, then another, and another, and another
As each vague Being appeared and bowed its starry head she raised her sceptre in answering salutation We could hear the distant tinkle of the sistrum bells, the only sound in all that place, yes, and see her lips h no whisper reached us froripped each other We shrank back and found the door It gave to our push Noere in the passages again, and noe had reached our roo as we had left hi no note of the terror written on our faces We passed hi the rooasped Leo ”An angel?”
”Yes,” I answered, ”soht that there are doubtless els
”And ere those-those shadows-doing?” he asked again
”Welco her after her transformation, I suppose But perhaps they were not shadows-only priests disguised and conducting soed his shoulders but th the door opened, and Oros, entering, said that the Hesea commanded our presence in her chamber
So, still oppressed with fear and wonder-for e had seen was perhaps one before-ent, to find Ayesha seated and looking soed With her was the priestess Papave, who had just unrobed her of the royal mantle which she wore in the Sanctuary
Ayesha beckoned Leo to her, taking his hand and searching his face with her eyes, not without anxiety as I thought
Now I turned, purposing to leave the-”Why wouldst thou forsake us, Holly? To go back to the Sanctuary once lance ”Hast thou questions to ask of the statue of the Mother yonder that thou lovest the place soof the future to those who dare to kneel beside it uncoht till dawn Yet I have often done so, but toto learn the future more”
I made no answer, nor did she seem to expect any, for she went on at once-”Nay, bide here and let us have done with all sad and soleether as of old, and for awhile forget our fears and cares, and be happy as children who know not sin and death, or that change which is death indeed Oros, await my lord without Papave, I will call thee later to disrobe me Till then let none disturb us”
The rooe, asby the hanging lah richly furnished, the rock walls being covered with tapestries, and the tables and chairs inlaid with silver, but the only token that here a woman had her home was that about it stood several bowls of flowers One of these, I remember, was filled with the delicate harebells I had ad up roots and all, and set in moss
”A poor place,” said Ayesha, ”yet better than that in which I dwelt those two thousand years awaiting thy coarden, wherein I sit,” and she sank down upon a couch by the table,to us to take our places opposite to her
The s boiled hard and cold venison; for her, milk, some little cakes of flour, and orgeous, purple-broidered robe, which he still wore, and cast upon a chair the crook-headed sceptre that Oros had again thrust into his hand Ayesha s-”It would seem that thou holdest these sacred emblems in but small respect”
”Very small,” he answered ”Thou heardest my words in the Sanctuary, Ayesha, so let us ion I do not understand, but I understand my own, and not even for thy sake will I take part in what I hold to be idolatry”
Now I thought that she would be angered by this plain speaking, but she only bowed her head and answered h it will not be easy always to explain thy absence froht to thine own faith, which doubtless isup
”Because all great Faiths are the sa tiypt, which, in a fashi+on, we still follow here? That hidden in a ood, rules all the universes: that the holy shall inherit a life eternal and the vile, eternal death: that ed by their own hearts and deeds, and here and hereafter drink of the cup which they have brewed: that their real home is not on earth, but beyond the earth, where all riddles shall be answered and all sorrows cease Say, dost thou believe these things, as I do?”
”Aye, Ayesha, but Hes or Isis is thy Goddess, for hast thou not told us tales of thy dealings with her in the past, and did we not hear thee make thy prayer to her? Who, then, is this Goddess Hes?”
”Know, Leo, that she is what I named her-Nature's soul, no divinity, but the secret spirit of the world; that universal Motherhood, whose symbol thou hast seen yonder, and in whose e”
”Does, then, this merciful Motherhood follow her votaries with death and evil, as thou sayest she has followed thee for thy disobedience, and o?” Leo asked quietly
Resting her arm upon the table, Ayesha looked at him with sombre eyes and answered-”In that Faith of thine of which thou speakest are there perchance two Gods, each having ood and a God of evil, an Osiris and a Set?”
He nodded
”I thought it And the God of ill is strong, is he not, and can put on the shape of good? Tell me, then, Leo, in the world that is to-day, whereof I know so little, hast thou ever heard of frail souls who for some earthly bribe have sold themselves to that evil one, or to his uish?”
”All wicked folk do as much in this form or in that,” he answered
”And if once there lived a woman as mad with the thirst for beauty, for life, for wisdoht she not perchance--”
”Sell herself to the God called Set, or one of his angels? Ayesha, dost thouin a voice that was full of fear-”that thou art such a wo slowly near to him
”If so,” he answered hoarsely, ”if so, I think that perhaps we had best fulfil our fates apart--”
”Ah!” she said, with a little screah a knife had stabbed her, ”wouldst thou away to Atene? I tell thee that thou canst not leave me I have power-above all men thou shouldst know it, whom once I slew Nay, thou hast no memory, poor creature of a breath, and I-I reain-I'll hold thee living Look now onfor eyes-”and begone if thou canst Why, thou drawest nearer to ht