Part 16 (1/2)
Issachar listened in silence. When both Aziel and Metem had done speaking, he said:--
”At least, I thank you, Prince, for being open with me; and now without more words I pray you to abandon this rash plan, which can end only in pain, and perhaps in death.”
”Abandon it not, Prince,” interrupted Metem, ”seeing that if you do it will certainly end in my death, for the girl is mad, and will have her way. Or if she does not, then I must pay the price.”
”Have no fear,” answered Aziel smiling. ”Issachar, this must be done or----”
”Or what, Prince?”
”I will not leave the city. It is true that Sakon may thrust me from it, but it shall be as a dead man. Nay, waste no words, since she desires it; I must and will meet the Lady Elissa for the last time, not as lover meets lover, but as those meet who part for ever in the world.”
”You say so, Prince; then have I your permission to accompany you?”
”Yes, if you wish it, Issachar; but there is danger.”
”Danger! What care I for danger? The will of Heaven be done to me. So be it, we will go together, but the end of it is not with us.”
CHAPTER XII
THE TRYST
Two days had gone by, and at the appointed hour three figures, wrapped in dark cloaks, might have been seen walking swiftly towards the little entrance of the temple fortress. Although it was near to midnight the city was still astir with men, for this very evening news had reached it that Ithobal was advancing at the head of tens of thousands of the warriors of the Tribes. More, it was rumoured freely that within the next few days the siege of Zimboe would begin. Late as it was, the council had been just summoned to the palace of Sakon to consider the conduct of the defence, while in every street stood knots of men engaged in anxious discussion, and from many a smithy rose the sound of armourers at their work. Here marched parties of soldiers of various races, there came long strings of mules laden with dried flesh and grain; yonder a woman beat her breast, and wept loudly because her three sons had been impressed by order of the council, two of them to serve as archers and the third to carry blocks of stone for the fortifications.
Pa.s.sing unnoticed through all this crowd and tumult, Aziel, Issachar and Metem entered a winding pa.s.sage in the temple wall, and came to the little gate. Metem tried it, and whispered:--
”She has kept her word; it is unlocked. Now enter to your love-tryst, holy Issachar.”
”Do you not come with us?” asked the Levite.
”No, I am too old for such adventures. Listen, I go to make ready.
Within an hour the mules with the prince's bodyguard will stand in the archway near the small gate of the palace, for by now the baggage and its escort await us a day's march from this accursed city. Will you meet me there? No; I think it is best that I should come to your chambers to fetch you, and, I pray you, let there be no delay, for it is dangerous in many ways. When once the prince has done with his tender interview, and wiped away his tears, there should be nothing to stay him, since the farewell cup with Sakon has been already drunk. Enter now swiftly before some prowling priest happens upon you, and pray that you may come out as sound as you go in. Oh! what a sight! A prince of Israel and an aged Levite of established reputation going to keep a tryst at midnight with the high-priestess of Baaltis in the sanctuary of her G.o.d! Nay, answer not; there is no time”--and he was gone.
Having pa.s.sed the gate, Aziel and Issachar crept down the winding pa.s.sages of stone, groping their path by such light as fell from the narrow line of sky above them, till at length they reached the court of the sanctuary. Here the place was as silent as death, for the noise from the city without could not pierce its towering walls of ma.s.sive granite.
”It is the very pit of Tophet,” murmured Issachar, peering through the dense shadows, ”the house of Beelzebub, where his presence dwells.
Whither now, Aziel?”
The prince pointed to two objects that were visible in the starlight, and answered:--
”Thither, at the foot of the pillar of El.”
”Ah! I remember,” said Issachar, ”where the accursed woman would have offered sacrifice, and the priests struck me down because I prophesied to them of the wrath to come, and that is now at hand. An ill-omened spot, indeed, and an ill-omened tryst with the fiends for witnesses.
Well, lead on, and I pray you to be brief as may be, for this place weighs down my soul, and I feel danger in it--danger to the body and the spirit.”
So they went forward. ”Be careful,” whispered Aziel presently. ”The pit of sacrifice is at your feet.”
”Yes, yes,” he answered, ”we walk upon the edge of the pit, and, in truth, I grow fearful, for at the threshold of such places the angel of the Lord deserts us.”