CHAPTER XVI.
A short row took Hermon and Eumedes the admiral's galley. Ledscha hadalready been carried ashore. There she was to be confronted with the menwho were suspected of having showed the mutineers the way to the city.
Absorbed in his own thoughts, Hermon waited for the admiral, who atfirst was claimed by one official duty after another. The artist'sthoughts lingered with Daphne. To her father the loss of his house, nay,perhaps of his wealth, would seem almost unendurable, yet even were hebeggared, provision was made for him and his daughter. He, Hermon, couldagain create, as in former days, and what happiness it would be if hewere permitted to repay the man to whom he owed so much for the kindnessbestowed upon him!
He longed to give to the woman he loved again and again, and it wouldhave seemed to him a favour of fortune if the flames had consumed eventhe last drachm of her wealthy father.
Completely engrossed by these reflections, he forgot the horrors beforehim, but when he raised his eyes and saw the archers continuing theirterrible work he shuddered.
The admiral's galley lay so near the shore that he distinguished thefigures of the Gauls separately. Some, obeying the instinct of selfpreservation, fled from the places which could be reached by the arrowsof the archers on the ships, but others pressed toward the shafts.A frightful, heart-rending spectacle, yet how rich in food for thelong-darkened eyes of the artist! Two brothers of unusual height, who,nude like all their comrades in death, offered their broad, beautifullyarched chests to the arrows, would not leave his memory. It was aterrible sight, yet grand and worthy of being wrested from oblivion byart, and it impressed itself firmly on his mind.
After noon Eumedes could at last devote himself to his young friend.Although the wind drove showers of fine rain before it, the admiralremained on deck with the sculptor. What cared they for the inclementweather, while one was recalling to mind and telling his friend how thehate of an offended woman had unchained the gloomy spirits of revengeupon him, the other, who had defied death on land water, listened to hisstory, sometimes in surprise, sometimes with silent horror?
After the examination to which she had been subjected, Eumedes hadbelieved Ledscha to be as Hermon described her. He found nothingpetty in this beautiful, passionate creature who avenged the injusticeinflicted upon her as Fate took vengeance, who, with unsparing energy,anticipated the Nemesis to whom she appealed, compelled men's obedience,and instead of enriching herself cast away the talents extorted to bringdown fresh ruin upon the man who had transformed her love to hate.
While the friends consulted together with lowered voices, theirconjecture became conviction that it was the Biamite's inextinguishablehate which had led her to the Gauls and induced her to share the attackupon the capital.
The assault upon the houses of Archias and Myrtilus was a proof ofthis, for the latter was still believed to be Hermon's property. She hadprobably supposed that the merchant's palace sheltered Daphne, in whom,even at Tennis, she had seen and hated her successful rival.
Only the undeniable fact that Ledscha was the bridge-builder's companionpresented an enigma difficult to solve. The freedman Bias hadremained on Philippus's galley, and could not now be appealed to fora confirmation of his assertions, but Hermon distinctly remembered hisstatement that Ledscha had allowed the Gaul, after he had received themoney intended for him, to take her from Pitane to Africa.
When the short November day was drawing to a close, and the friends hadstrengthened themselves with food and drink, the rain ceased and, asthe sun set, its after-glow broke through the rifts and fissures in theblack wall of clouds in the western horizon like blazing flames in theconflagration of a solid stone building. Yet the glow vanished swiftlyenough. The darkness of night spread over the sea and the arid strip ofland in the south, but the greedy croaking of the ravens and vulturesechoed more and more loudly from the upper air. From time to time theoutbursts of rage and agony of despairing men, and horrible jeeringlaughter, drowned the voices of the flocks of birds and the roaringof the tempestuous sea. Sometimes, too, a sharp word of command, or asignal heard for a long distance, pierced through the awful sounds.
Here and there, and at last everywhere on the squadron, which surroundedthe tongue of land in a shallow curve, dim lights began to appear on themasts and prows of the ships; but darkness brooded over the coast. Onlyin the three fortified guardhouses, which had been hastily erected here,the feeble light of a lantern illumined the gloom.
Twinkling lights also appeared in the night heavens between the swiftlyflying clouds. One star after another began to adorn the blue islands inthe cloudy firmament, and at last the full moon burst through the heavybanks of dark clouds, and shone in pure brilliancy above their heads,like a huge silver vessel in the black catafalque of a giant.
At the end of the first hour after sunset Eumedes ordered the boat to bemanned.
Armed as if for battle, he prepared for the row to the scene of misery,and requested Hermon to buckle a coat of mail under his chlamys andput on the sword he gave him. True, a division of reliable Macedonianwarriors was to accompany them, and Ledscha was in a well-guardedplace, yet it might perhaps be necessary to defend themselves againstan outburst of despair among the condemned prisoners. On the short trip,the crests of the tossing waves sometimes shone with a flickering light,while elsewhere long shadows spread like dark sails over the sea. Theflat coast on which both men soon stepped was brightly illumined by themoonbeams, and the forms of the doomed men stood forth, like the blackfigures on the red background of a vase, upon the yellowish-brown sandon which they were standing, running, walking, or lying.
At the western end of the tongue of land a sand hill had been surroundedby a wall and moat, guarded by heavily armed soldiers and severalarchers. The level ground below had been made secure against any attack,and on the right side was a roof supported by pillars.
The officials intrusted with the examination of the ringleaders hadremained during the day in this hastily erected open hut. The latter,bound to posts, awaited their sentence.
The only woman among them was Ledscha, who crouched, unfettered, on theground behind the enclosure, which consisted of short stakes fastened bya rope.
Without presenting any serious obstacle, it merely indicated how farthe prisoners might venture to go. Whoever crossed it must expect tobe struck down by an arrow from the wall. This earthwork, it is true,menaced those held captive here, but they also owed it a debt ofgratitude, for it shut from their eyes the horrible incidents on thesandy plain between the sea and the inland lake.
This spot was now made as light as day by the rays of the full moonwhich floated in the pure azure sky far above the black cloud mountains,like a white lotus flower on clear waters, and poured floods of silveryradiance upon the earth.
Eumedes commanded the Macedonians who formed his escort to remain at thefortress on the dune, and, pointing out Ledscha by a wave of the hand,he whispered to Hermon: "By the girdle of Aphrodite! she is terriblybeautiful! For whom is the Medea probably brewing in imagination thepoisoned draught?"
Then he gave the sculptor permission to promise her immunity frompunishment if she would consent at least to explain the Gauls'connection with the royal palaces; but Hermon strenuously refused toundertake this or a similar commission to Ledscha.
Eumedes had expected the denial, and merely expressed to his friend hisdesire to speak to the Biamite after his interview was over. Howeverrefractory she might be, his mother's intercession should benefit her.Hermon might assure her that he, the commander, meant to deal leniently.He pressed the artist's hand as he spoke, and walked rapidly away toascertain the condition of affairs in the other guardhouses.
Never had the brave artist's heart throbbed faster in any danger than onthe eve of this meeting; but it was no longer love that thrilled it sopassionately, far less hate or the desire to let his foe feel that herrevenge was baffled.
It was easy for the victor to exercise magnanimity, and easiest of allfor the sculptor in the presenc
e of so beautiful an enemy, and Hermonthought he had never seen the Biamite look fairer. How exquisitelyrounded was the oval, how delicately cut the profile of her face, howlarge were the widely separated, sparkling eyes, above which, even inthe pale moonlight, the thick black brows were visible, united under theforehead as if for a dark deed to be performed in common!
Time had rather enhanced than lessened the spell of this wonderful youngcreature. Now she rose from the ground where she had been crouching andpaced several times up and down the short path at her disposal; butshe started suddenly, for one of the Gauls bound to the posts, in whomHermon recognised the bridge-builder, Lutarius, called her name, andwhen she turned her face toward him, panted in broken Greek like oneoverwhelmed by despair: "Once more--it shall be the last time--I beseechyou! Lay your hand upon my brow, and if that is too much, speak but onekind word to me before all is over! I only want to hear that you do nothate me like a foe and despise me like a dog. What can it cost you? Youneed only tell me in two words that you are sorry for your harshness."
"The same fate awaits us both," cried Ledscha curtly and firmly. "Leteach take care of himself. When my turn comes and my eyes grow dim indeath, I will thank them that they will not show you to me again, basewretch, throughout eternity."
Lutarius shrieked aloud in savage fury, and tore so frantically at thestrong ropes which bound him that the firm posts shook, but Ledschaturned away and approached the hut.
She leaned thoughtfully against one of the pillars that supported theroof, and the artist's eyes watched her intently; every movement seemedto him noble and worth remembering.
With her hand shading her brow, she gazed upward to the full moon.
Hermon had already delayed speaking to her too long, but he would havedeemed it criminal to startle her from this attitude. So must Arachnehave stood when the goddess, in unjust anger, raised the weaver'sshuttle against the more skilful mortal; for while Ledscha's browfrowned angrily, a triumphant smile hovered around her mouth. At thesame time she slightly opened her exquisitely formed lips, and thelittle white teeth which Hermon had once thought so bewitchinglybeautiful glittered between them.
Like the astronomer who fixes his gaze and tries to imprint upon hismemory some rare star in the firmament which a cloud is threatening toobscure, he now strove to obtain Ledscha's image. He would and couldmodel her in this attitude, exactly as she stood there, without herveil, which had been torn from her during the hand-to-hand conflict whenshe was captured, with her thick, half-loosened tresses falling overher left shoulder; nav, even with the slightly hooked nose, which wasopposed to the old rule of art that permitted only the straight bridgeof the nose to be given to beautiful women. Her nature harmonized withthe ideal even in the smallest detail; here any deviation from realitymust tend to injure the work.
She remained motionless for minutes in the same attitude, as if she knewthat she was posing to an artist; but Hermon gazed at her as if spellbound till the fettered Gaul again called her name.
Then she left the supporting pillar, approached the barrier, stopped atthe rope which extended from one short stake to another, and gazed atthe man who was following her outside of the rope.
It was a Greek who stood directly opposite to her. A black beard adornedhis grave, handsome countenance. He, too, had a chlamys, such as she hadformerly seen on another. Only the short sword, which he wore suspendedat his right side in the Hellenic fashion, would not suit that other;but suddenly a rush of hot blood crimsoned her face. As if to saveherself from falling, she flung out both arms and clutched a stake withher right and her left hand, thrusting her head and the upper portion ofher body across the rope toward the man whose appearance had created sowild a tumult in her whole being.
At last she called Hermon's name in such keen suspense that it fell uponhis ear like a shrill cry.
"Ledscha," he answered warmly, extending both hands to her in sinceresympathy; but she did not heed the movement, and her tone of calmself-satisfaction surprised him as she answered: "So you seek me inmisfortune? Even the blind man knows how to find me here."
"I would far rather have met you again in the greatest happiness!"he interrupted gently. "But I am no longer blind. The immortals againpermit me, as in former days, to feast my eyes upon your marvellousbeauty."
A shrill laugh cut short his words, and the "Not blind!" which fellagain and again from her lips sounded more like laughter than speech.
There are tears of grief and of joy, and the laugh which is anaccompaniment of pleasure is also heard on the narrow boundary betweensuffering and despair.
It pierced the artist's heart more deeply than the most savage outburstof fury, and when Ledscha gasped: "Not blind! Cured! Rich and possessedof sight, perfect sight!" he understood her fully for the first time,and could account for the smile of satisfaction which had just surprisedhim on her lips.
He gazed at her, absolutely unable to utter a word; but she went onspeaking, while a low, sinister laugh mingled with her tones: "So thisis avenging justice! It allows us women to be trampled under foot, andholds its hands in its lap! My vengeance! How I have lauded Nemesis!How exquisitely my retaliation seemed to have succeeded! And now? It wasmere delusion and deception. He who was blind sees. He who was to perishin misery is permitted, with a sword at his side, to gloat over ourdestruction. Listen, if the good news has not already reached you! I,too, am condemned to death. But what do I care for myself? Even lessthan those to whom we pray and offer sacrifices for the betrayed woman.Now I am learning to know them! Thus Nemesis thanks me for the lavishgifts I have bestowed upon her? Just before my end she throws you, therewarded traitor, into my way! I must submit to have the hated foe,whose blinding was the sole pleasure in my ruined life, look me in theface with insolent joy."
Hermon's quick blood boiled.
With fierce resentment he grasped her hand, which lay on the rope,pressed it violently in his strong clasp, and exclaimed, "Stop, madwoman, that I may not be forced to think of you as a poisonous serpentand repulsive spider!"
Ledscha had vainly endeavoured to withdraw her hand while he wasspeaking. Now he himself released it; but she looked up at him inbewilderment, as if seeking aid, and said sadly: "Once--you know thatyourself--I was different--even as long as I supposed my vengeance hadsucceeded. But now? The false goddess has baffled every means with whichI sought to punish you. Who averted the sorest ill treatment from myhead? And I was even defrauded of the revenge which it was my right,nay, my duty, to exercise."
She finished the sentence with drooping head, as if utterly crushed, andthis time she did not laugh, but Hermon felt his wrath transformedto sympathy, and he asked warmly and kindly if she would let nothingappease her, not even if he begged her forgiveness for the wrong he haddone her, and promised to obtain her life, nay, also her liberty.
Ledscha shook her head gently, and gravely answered: "What is left mewithout hate? What are the things which others deem best and highest toa miserable wretch like me?"
Here Hermon pointed to the bridge-builder, bound to the post, saying,"Yonder man led you away from the husband whom you had wedded, and fromhim you received compensation for the love you had lost."
"From him?" she cried furiously, and, raising her voice in a tone of themost intense loathing: "Ask yonder scoundrel himself! Because I needed aguide, I permitted him to take me away from my unloved husband and fromthe Hydra. Because he would help me to shatter the new and undeservedgood fortune which you--yes, you--do you hear?--enjoyed, I remained withhim among the Gauls. More than one Alexandrian brought me the news thatyou were revelling in golden wealth, and the wretch promised to make youand your uncle beggars if the surprise succeeded. He did this, though heknew that it was you who took him up from the road and saved his life;for nothing good and noble dwells in his knavish soul. He yearned forme, and still more ardently for the Alexandrians' gold. Worse than thewolf that licked the hand of the man who bandaged its wounds, he wouldhave shown his teeth to the preserver of his life. I have learned
this,and if he dies here of starvation and thirst he will receive only whathe deserves. He knows, too, what I think of him. The greedy beast ofprey was not permitted even to touch my hand. Just ask him! There he is.Let him tell you how I listened to his vows of love. Before I wouldhave permitted yonder wretch to recall to life what you crushed in thisheart--"
Here Lutarius interrupted her with a flood of savage, scarcelyintelligible curses, but very soon one of the guards, who came out ofthe hut, stopped him with a lash.
When the Gaul, howling under the blows, was silenced, Hermon asked, "Soyour mad thirst for vengeance also caused this suicidal attack?"
"No," she answered simply; "but when they determined upon the assault,and had killed their leader, Belgius, yonder monster stole to theirhead. So it happened--I myself do not know how--that they also obeyedme, and I took advantage of it and induced them to begin with your houseand Archias's. When they had captured the royal palaces, they intendedto assail the Temple of Demeter also."
"Then you thought that even the terrible affliction of blindness wouldnot suffice to punish the man you hated?" asked Hermon.
"No," she answered firmly; "for you could buy with your gold everythinglife offers except sight, while in me--yes, in me--gloom darker than theblackest night shrouded my soul. Through your fault I was robbed ofall, all that is clear to woman's heart: my father's house, his love,my sister. Even the pleasure in myself which had been awakened by yoursweet flatteries was transformed by you into loathing."
"By me?" cried Hermon, amazed by the injustice of this severe reproach;but Ledscha answered his question with the resolute assertion, "By youand you alone!" and then impatiently added: "You, who, by your art,could transform mortal women into goddesses, wished to make me ahumiliated creature, with the rope which was to strangle her about herneck, and at the same time the most repulsive of creeping insects.'The hideous, gray, eight-legged spider!' I exclaimed to myself, when Iraised my arms and saw my shadow on the sunlit ground. 'The spider!'I thought, when I shook the distaff to draw threads from the flax inleisure hours. 'Your image!' I said, when I saw spiders hanging in dustycorners, and catching flies and gnats. All these things made me a horrorto myself. And at the same time to know that the Demeter, on whom youbestowed the features of the daughter of Archias, was kindling thewhole great city of Alexandria with enthusiasm, and drawing countlessworshippers to her sanctuary! She, an object of adoration to thousands,I--the much-praised beauty--a horror to myself! This is what fed mydesire for vengeance with fresh food by day and night; this urged meto remain with yonder wretch; for he had promised, after pillaging theroyal palaces, to shatter your Demeter, the image of the daughter ofArchias, which they lauded and which brought you fame and honour--it wasto be done before my eyes--into fragments."
"Mad woman!" Hermon again broke forth indignantly, and hastily told herhow she had been misinformed.
Ledscha's large black eyes dilated as if some hideous spectre was risingfrom the ground before her, while she heard that the Demeter was thework of Myrtilus and not his; that his friend's legacy had long sinceceased to belong to him, and that he was again as poor as when he was inTennis during the time of their love.
"And the blindness?" she asked sadly.
"It transformed life for me into one long night, illumined by no singleray of light," was the reply; "but, the immortals be praised, I wascured of it, and it was old Tabus, on the Owl's Nest at Tennis, whosewisdom and magic arts you so often lauded, who gave the remedy andadvice to which I owe my recovery."
Here he hesitated, for Ledscha had seized the rope with one hand and thestake at her right with the other, in order not to fall upon her knees;but Hermon perceived how terribly his words agitated her, and spoketo her soothingly. Ledscha did not seem to hear him, for while stillclinging to the rope she looked sometimes at the sand at her feet,sometimes up to the full moon, which was now flooding both sky and earthwith light.
At last she dropped it, and said in a hollow tone: "Now I understandeverything. You met her when Bias gave her the bridal dowry which wasto purchase my release from my husband. How it must have enraged her! Ithought of it all, pondered and pondered how to spare her; but throughwhom, except Tabus, could I return to Hanno the property, won in battleby his blood, which he had thrown away for me? Tabus kept the familywealth. And she--the marriage bond which two persons formed was sacredand unassailable--the woman who broke her faith with her husband andturned from him--was an abomination to her. How she loved her sons andgrandsons! I knew that she would never forgive the wrong I did Hanno.From resentment to me she cured the man whom I hated."
"Yet probably also," said Hermon, "because my blighted youth aroused herpity."
"Perhaps so," replied Ledscha hesitatingly, gazing thoughtfully intovacancy. "She was what her demons made her. Hard as steel and gentleas a tender girl. I have experienced it. Oh, that she should diewith rancour against me in her faithful old heart! She could be sokind!--even when I confessed that you had won my love, she still held medear. But there are many great and small demons, and most of them wereprobably subject to her. Tabus must have learned through them how deeplyI offended her son Satabus, and how greatly his son Hanno's life wasdarkened through me. That is why she thwarted my vengeance, and herspirits aided her. Thus all these things happened. I suspected it whenI heard that she had succumbed to death, which I--yes, I here--had heldback from her with severe toil through many a sleepless night. O thesedemons! They will continue to act in the service of the dead. WhereverI may go, they will pursue me and, at their mistress's bidding, bafflewhat I hope and desire. I have learned this only too distinctly!"
"No, Ledscha, no," Hermon protested. "Every power ceases with death,even that of the sorceress over spirits. You shall be freed, poor woman!You will be permitted to go wherever you desire; and I shall model nospider after your person, but the fairest of women. Thousands will seeand admire her, and--if the Muse aids me--whoever, enraptured by herbeauty, asks, 'Who was the model for this work which inflames the mostobdurate heart?' will be told, 'It was Ledscha, the daughter of Shalit,the Biamite, whom Hermon of Alexandria found worthy of carving in costlymarble."
Ledscha uttered a deep sigh of relief, and asked: "Is that true? May Ibelieve it?"
"As true," he answered warmly, "as that Selene, who promised to grantyou in her full radiance the greatest happiness, is now shedding hermild, forgiving light upon us both."
"The full moon," she murmured softly, gazing upward at the shining disk.
Then she added in a louder tone: "Old Tabus's demons promised mehappiness--you know. It was the spider which so cruelly shadowed it forme on every full moon, every day, and every night. Will you now swear tomodel a statue from me, the statue of a beautiful human being thatwill arouse the delight of all who see it? Delight--do you hear?--notloathing--I ask again, will you?"
"I will, and I shall succeed," he said earnestly, holding out his handacross the rope. She clasped it, looked up to the full moon again, andwhispered: "This time--I will believe it--you will keep your promisebetter than when you were in Tennis. And I--I will cease to wish youevil, and I will tell you why. Bend your ear nearer, that I may confessit openly." Hermon willingly obeyed the request, but she leaned her headagainst his, and he felt her laboured breathing and the warm tears thatcoursed silently down her cheeks as she said, in a low whisper: "Becausethe moon is full, and will yet bring me what the demons promised, andbecause, though strong, I am still a woman. Happiness! How long ago Iceased to expect it!--but now-yes, it is what I now feel! I am happy,and yet can not tell why. My love--oh, yes! It was more ardent than theburning hate. Now you know it, too, Hermon. And I--I shall be free,you say? And Tabus, how she lauded rest--eternal rest! Oh dearest--thissorely tortured heart, too--you can not even imagine how weary I am!"
Here she was silent, but the man into whose face she was gazing withloving devotion felt a sudden movement at his side as she uttered theexclamation.
He did not notice it, for the sweet tone of her v
oice was penetratingthe inmost depths of his heart. It sounded as though she was speakingfrom the happiest of dreams.
"Ledscha!" he exclaimed warmly, extending his arm toward her--butshe had already stepped back from his side, and he now perceived theterrible object--she had snatched his sword from its sheath, and as,seized by sudden terror, he gazed at her, he saw the shining bladeglitter in the moonlight and suddenly vanish.
In an instant he swung his agile body over the rope and rushed to her.But she had already sunk to her knees, and while he clasped her inis arms to support her, he heard her call his own name tenderly, thenmurmur it in a lower tone, and the words "Full moon" and "Happiness"escape her lips.
Then she was silent, and her beautiful head dropped on her breast like aflower broken by a tempest.