Part 22 (2/2)
Again it was night, and where once lay that of the Khan, thepillars, the bier of Leo stood in the inentle, unchanging eyes seemed to search his quiet face
On her throne sat the veiled Hesea, giving commands to her priests and priestesses
”I am weary,” she said, ”and it may be that I leave you for a while to rest-beyond the mountains A year, or a thousand years-I cannot say If so, let Papave, with Oros as her counsellor and husband and their seed, hold ain
”Priests and priestesses of the College of Hes, over new territories have I held e froently Henceforth let the Hesea of the Mountain be also the Khania of Kaloon
”Priests and priestesses of our ancient faith, learn to look through its rites and tokens, outward and visible, to the in-for Spirit If Hes the Goddess never ruled on earth, still pitying Nature rules If the nah the courts of heaven, still in heaven, with all love fulfilled, nursing her huhty Motherhood where of this statue is the sy, faithful, will receive us at the end
”For of the bread of bitterness we shall not always eat, of the water of tears we shall not always drink Beyond the night the royal suns ride on; ever the rainbow shi+nes around the rain Though they slip fro hands like melted snow, the lives we lose shall yet be found immortal, and fro a heavenly star”
She paused and waved her hand as though to dis to uest Let hiuard him here, and when the snows have melted and suh the gulf and bring him across the mountains by which he caet not, for be sure that to ht dreards the dawn, and we stood upon the peak above the gulf of fire, four of us only-Ayesha and I, and Oros and Papave For the bearers had laid down the body of Leo upon its edge and gone their way The curtain of flame flared in front of us, its crest bent over like a billow in the gale, and to leeward, one by one, floated the torn-off clouds and pinnacles of fire By the dead Leo knelt Ayesha, gazing at that icy, sth she rose, and said,-”Darkness draws near, lory of the dawn Now fare thee well for one little hour When thou art about to die, but not before, call me, and I will come to thee Stir not and speak not till all be done, lest when I auard some Presence should pass on and slay thee
”Think not that I am conquered, for now th is spent or her tale is done, for of it thou readest but a single page Think not even that I a of sin and pride, the Ayesha thou didst adore and fear, I who in ain conceived , his soul and ht awhile and added, ”Friend take this sceptre in memory of me, but beware how thou usest it save at the last to suave me the jewelled Sistrum that she bore-then said, ”So kiss his brow, stand back, and be still”
Now as once before the darkness gathered on the pit, and presently, although I heard no prayer, though now no h that darkness, beating up the gale, caed flame and hovered where Ayesha stood
It appeared, it vanished, and one by one the long minutes crept away until the first spear of dawn lit upon the point of rock
Lo! it was empty, utterly eone too was Ayesha the ione? I know not But this I know, that as the light returned and the broad sheet of flalorious shapes sweeping upward on its bosom, and the faces that they ere those of Leo and of Ayesha
Often and often during the weary h the temple or amid the winter snows upon the Mountain side, did I seek to solve this question-Whither had She gone? I asked it of my heart; I asked it of the skies; I asked it of the spirit of Leo which often was so near to me
But no sure answer ever cain and lives-for the truth of these things I never learned-so did s, for I cannot think her dead Surely she still is, if not on earth, then in some other sphere?
So I believe; and when my own hour comes, and it draws near swiftly, I shall knohether I believe in vain, or whether she will appear to be uide as, with her last words, she swore that she would do Then, too, I shall learn what she was about to reveal to Leo when he died, the purposes of their being and of their love
So I can wait in patience who h my heart is broken and I aood to me Indeed, even had it been their wish, they would have feared to be otherwise, who remembered and were sure that in some time to come they must render an account of this matter to their dread queen By way of return, I helped theovernment of the conquered country of Kaloon, and with th the long months wore away, till at the approach of suave me of their treasures in precious stones, lest I should need old of which I had such plenty was too heavy to be carried by one man alone They led me across the plains of Kaloon, where now the husbandhed the land and scattered seed, and so on to its city But amidst those blackened ruins over which Atene's palace still frowned unharmed, I would not enter, for to me it was, and always must remain, a home of death So I camped outside the walls by the river just where Leo and I had landed after that poor mad Khan set us free, or rather loosed us to be hunted by his death-hounds
Next day we took boat and rowed up the river, past the place where we had seen Atene's cousin ain I slept, or rather did not sleep
On the followingI went down into the ravine and found to h now-had been roughly bridged, and that in preparation forrude but sufficient ladders were built on the face of the opposing precipice At the foot of these I bade farewell to Oros, who at our parting snantly as on the day we ether,” I said to hie,” he answered
”At least, friend Oros,” I went on aardly enough, ”events have shaped thee, for you inherit a royal mantle”
”I wrap myself in a mantle of borrowed royalty,” he answered with precision, ”of which doubtless one day I shall be stripped”
”You reat Ayesha is not dead?”
”I es, that is all As the wind blo hence, now hither, so she cooes, and who can tell at what spot upon the earth, or beyond it, for a while that wind lies sleeping? But at sunset or at dawn, at noon or at ain, and then woe to those who stand across its path
”Remember the dead heaped upon the plains of Kaloon Ree and the words that she spoke then Re of the Hesea froer from the West, surely as to-ain, and in arment I await her advent”
”I also await her advent,” I answered, and thus we parted
Acco provisions and arh, and now that I had food and shelter, crossed the h the desert beyond, till one night we caantic Buddha that sits before theeternally across the sands and snows
When I awoke next one So I took upslowly came at sunset to the distant laure, wrapped in a tattered cloak, was sitting, engaged apparently in conte his horn spectacles on his nose he looked atyou, brother of the Monastery called 'the World,'” he said in a voice, ht ”Have you grown hungry there that you return to this poor place?”
”Aye, ry for rest”
”It shall be yours for all the days of this incarnation But say, where is the other brother?”
”Dead,” I answered
”And therefore re-born elsewhere or perhaps, drea in Devachan for a while Well, doubtless we shall meet him later on Come, eat, and afterwards tell ht I told him all Kou-en listened with respectful attention, but the tale, strange as it ht seem to most people, excited no particular wonder in his th by aid of soan to doze
”At least,” I said sleepily, ”it would see Plane,” for I thought that favourite catchould please him
”Yes, brother of the Monastery called the World,” Kou-en answered in a severe voice, ”doubtless you are all winningit very slowly, especially the wohty evil spirit-whose names I understand you to tell me are She, Hes, and Ayesha upon earth and in Avitchi, Star-that-hath-Fallen--”
(Here Mr Holly'sbeen burnt when he threw it on to the fire at his house in cumberland)