Part 6 (1/2)
”The Persians have been gone for Egypt for nigh two thousand years, and since then the Ptolemies, the Romans, and many others have flourished and held sway upon the Nile, and fallen when their tihast ”What canst thou know of the Persian Artaxerxes?”
She laughed, and h me ”And Greece,” she said; ”is there still a Greece? Ah, I loved the Greeks Beautiful were they as the day, and clever, but fierce at heart and fickle, notwithstanding”
”Yes,” I said, ”there is a Greece; and, just now, it is once more a people Yet the Greeks of to-day are not what the Greeks of the old time were, and Greece herself is but a mockery of the Greece that was”
”So! The Hebrews, are they yet at Jerusale built stand, and if so what God do they worshi+p therein? Is their Messiah come, of whom they preached so much and prophesied so loudly, and doth He rule the earth?”
”The Jews are broken and gone, and the fragments of their people strew the world, and Jerusalem is no more As for the temple that Herod built----”
”Herod!” she said ”I know not Herod But go on”
”The Roles flew across its ruins, and now Judaea is a desert”
”So, so! They were a great people, those Roht to their end--ay, they sped to it like Fate, or like their own eagles on their prey!--and left peace behind theested
”Ah, thou canst speak the Latin tongue, too!” she said, in surprise ”It hath a strange ring in my ears after all these days, and it seems to me that thy accent does not fall as the Ro, but it is a true one of that great people It seems that I have found a learned man--one whose hands have held the water of the world's knowledge Knowest thou Greek also?”
”Yes, oh Queen, and so of Hebrew, but not to speak thees now”
She clapped her hands in childish glee ”Of a truth, ugly tree that thou art, thou growest the fruits of wisdom, oh Holly,” she said; ”but of those Jehoht them my philosophy--did their Messiah come, and doth He rule the world?”
”Their Messiah came,” I answered with reverence; ”but He came poor and lowly, and they would have none of Hied Him, and crucified Him upon a tree, but yet His words and His works live on, for He was the Son of God, and now of a truth He doth rule half the world, but not with an Empire of the World”
”Ah, the fierce-hearted wolves,” she said, ”the followers of Sense and ain and faction-torn I can see their dark faces yet So they crucified their Messiah? Well can I believe it That He was a Son of the Living Spirit would be naught to them, if indeed He was so, and of that ill talk afterwards They would care naught for any God if He came not with pomp and power They, a chosen people, a vessel of Him they call Jehovah, ay, and a vessel of Baal, and a vessel of Astoreth, and a vessel of the Gods of the Egyptians--a high- stoht them wealth and power So they crucified their Messiah because He cauise--and now are they scattered about the earth? Why, if I remember, so said one of their prophets that it should be Well, let theo--they broke my heart, those Jews, and made me look with evil eyes across the world, ay, and drove me to this wilderness, this place of a people that was before theht them wisdom in Jerusalem they stoned me, ay, at the Gate of the Temple those white- bearded hypocrites and Rabbis hounded the people on to stone me! See, here is the mark of it to this day!” and with a suddenon her rounded arainst its milky beauty
I shrank back, horrified
”Pardon h upon two thousand years have rolled across the earth since the Jewish Messiah hung upon His cross at Golgotha How then canst thou have taught thy philosophy to the Jews before He was? Thou art a woman and no spirit How can a woman live two thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, oh Queen?”
She leaned back upon the couch, and onceoutvery slowly and deliberately, ”it sees upon the earth of which thou knowest naught Dost thou still believe that all things die, even as those very Jews believed? I tell thee that naught dies There is no such thing as Death, though there be a thing called Change See,” and she pointed to some sculptures on the rocky wall ”Three tireat race that hewed those pictures fell before the breath of the pestilence which destroyed them, yet are they not dead E'en now they live; perchance their spirits are draards us at this very hour,” and she glanced round ”Of a surety it sometimes seems to me that my eyes can see them”
”Yes, but to the world they are dead”
”Ay, for a tiain I, yes I, Ayesha[]--for that, stranger, is my name--I say to thee that I wait now for one I loved to be born again, and here I tarry till he findsof a surety that hither he will coreet me Why, dost thou believe that I, who am all-powerful, I, whose loveliness is more than the loveliness of the Grecian Helen, of who, and whose wisdom is wider, ay, far more wide and deep than the wisdom of Solomon the Wise--I, who know the secrets of the earth and its riches, and can turn all things to e, that ye call Death--why, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?”
[] pronounced assha--L H H
”I know not,” I said humbly
”Because I wait for him I love My life has perchance been evil, I know not--for who can say what is evil and what good?--so I fear to die even if I could die, which I cannot until o and seek hiht rise a wall I could not climb, at least, I dread it Surely easy would it be also to lose the way in seeking in those great spaces wherein the planets wander on for ever But the day will come, it may be when five thousand more years have passed, and are lost and melted into the vault of Tiht, or it ain, and then, following a law that is stronger than any human plan, he shall find me here, where once he knew h I sinned against hiain, yet will he love me, if only for my beauty's sake”
For a moment I was dumbfounded, and could not answer The rasp
”But even so, oh Queen,” I said at last, ”even if we ain, that is not so with thee, if thou speakest truly” Here she looked up sharply, and once ht the flash of those hidden eyes; ”thou,” I went on hurriedly, ”who hast never died?”
”That is so,” she said; ”and it is so because I have, half by chance and half by learning, solved one of the great secrets of the world Tell thened for a while? What are ten or twenty or fifty thousand years in the history of life? Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness? In two thousand years these caves have not changed, nothing has changed but the beasts, and ht that is wonderful about the matter, couldst thou but understand Life is wonderful, ay, but that it should be a little lengthened is not wonderful Nature hath her ani spirit as well as man, who is Nature's child, and he who can find that spirit, and let it breathe upon him, shall live with her life He shall not live eternally, for Nature is not eternal, and she herself must die, even as the nature of the e and sleep till it be tiain But when shall she die? Not yet, I ween, and while she lives, so shall he who hath all her secret live with her All I have it not, yet have I some, more perchance than any ere before reat mystery, therefore I will not overcome thee with it now Another tih perchance I shall never speak thereof again Dost thou wonder how I knew that ye were co to this land, and so saved your heads from the hot-pot?”
”Ay, oh Queen,” I answered feebly
”Then gaze upon that water,” and she pointed to the font-like vessel, and then, bending forward, held her hand over it
I rose and gazed, and instantly the water darkened Then it cleared, and I saw as distinctly as I ever saw anything in my life--I saw, I say, our boat upon that horrible canal There was Leo lying at the bottom asleep in it, with a coat thrown over him to keep off the mosquitoes, in such a fashi+on as to hide his face, andon the bank
I started back, aghast, and cried out that it was nised the whole scene--it was one which had actually occurred
”Nay, nay; oh Holly,” she answered, ”it is noas e of the secrets of Nature That water is lass; in it I see what passes if I will to summon up the pictures, which is not often Therein I can show thee what thou wilt of the past, if it be anything that hath to do with this country and hat I have known, or anything that thou, the gazer, hast known Think of a face if thou wilt, and it shall be reflected from thy mind upon the water I know not all the secret yet--I can read nothing in the future But it is an old secret; I did not find it In Arabia and in Egypt the sorcerers knew it centuries gone So one day I chanced to bethink es since I sailed upon it, and I was ain So I looked, and there I saw the boat and three , and one, whose face I could not see, but a youth of noble for in the boat, and so I sent and saved ye And now farewell But stay, tell me of this youth--the Lion, as the old man calls him I would look upon him, but he is sick, thou sayest --sick with the fever, and also wounded in the fray”
”He is very sick,” I answered sadly; ”canst thou do nothing for him, oh Queen! who knowest so much?”
”Of a surety I can I can cure him; but why speakest thou so sadly? Dost thou love the youth? Is he perchance thy son?”
”He is ht in before thee?”
”Nay How long hath the fever taken him?”
”This is the third day”
”Good; then let him lie another day Then will he perchance throw it off by his own strength, and that is better than that I should cure him, for my medicine is of a sort to shake the life in its very citadel If, however, by to-ht, at that hour when the fever first took hiin to mend, then will I come to him and cure him Stay, who nurses hi; also,” and here I spoke with some little hesitation, ”a woman named Ustane, a very handsome woman of this country, who came and embraced him when she first saw him, and hath stayed by him ever since, as I understand is the fashi+on of thy people, oh Queen”
”My people! speak not to me of my people,” she answered hastily; ”these slaves are no people oftill the day of ht have I to do with them Also, call me not Queen--I am weary of flattery and titles--call me Ayesha, the name hath a sweet sound in mine ears, it is an echo from the past As for this Ustane, I know not I wonder if it be she against whom I arned, and whom I in turn did warn? Hath she--stay, I will see;” and, bending forward, she passed her hand over the font of water and gazed intently into it ”See,” she said quietly, ”is that the woman?”
I looked into the water, and there, mirrored upon its placid surface, was the silhouette of Ustane's stately face She was bending forward, with a look of infinite tenderness upon her features, watching so on to her right shoulder
”It is she,” I said, in a low voice, for once ht ”She watches Leo asleep”
”Leo!” said Ayesha, in an absent voice; ”why, that is 'lion' in the Latin tongue The old e,” she went on, speaking to herself, ”very So like--but it is not possible!” With an iesture she passed her hand over the water once e vanished silently and ht, and the laht only, shone on the placid surface of that liht to ask oest, oh Holly?” she said, after a few moments' reflection ”It is but a rude life that thou es, and know not the ways of cultivated man Not that I am troubled thereby, for behold my food,” and she pointed to the fruit upon the little table ”Naught but fruit doth ever pass my lips--fruit and cakes of flour, and a little water I have bidden irls to wait upon thee They are mutes, thou knowest, deaf are they and dumb, and therefore the safest of servants, save to those who can read their faces and their signs I bred them so --it hath taken many centuries and much trouble; but at last I have triuly, so I let it die away; but now, as thou seest, they are otherwise Once, too, I reared a race of giants, but after a while Nature would no ht to ask of , oh Ayesha,” I said boldly; but feeling by no aze upon thy face”
She laughed out in her bell-like notes ”Bethink thee, Holly,” she answered; ”bethink thee It seems that thou knowest the old myths of the Gods of Greece Was there not one Actaeon who perished miserably because he looked on too much beauty? If I show thee my face, perchance thou wouldst perish miserably also; perchance thou wouldst eat out thy heart in impotent desire; for know I am not for thee--I am for no man, save one, who hath been, but is not yet”
”As thou wilt, Ayesha,” I said ”I fear not thy beauty I have put my heart away from such vanity as woman's loveliness, that passeth like a flower”
”Nay, thou errest,” she said; ”that does not pass My beauty endures even as I endure; still, if thou wilt, oh rash man, have thy will; but blayptian breakers used to uide it whither thou wilt not Never may the man to whom my beauty has been unveiled put it froo veiled, lest they vex me, and I should slay them Say, wilt thou see?”