CHAPTER X.
All Katharina's sympathy with Heliodora had died finally in the courseof the past, moonless night. She had secretly accompanied her, with hermaid and an old deaf and dumb stable-slave, to a soothsayer--for therestill were many in Memphis, as well as magicians and alchemists; andthis woman had told the young widow that her line of life led to thegreatest happiness, and that even the wildest wishes of her heart wouldfind fulfilment. What those wishes were Katharina knew only too well;the probability of their accomplishment had roused her fierce jealousyand made her hate Heliodora.
Heliodora had gone to consult the sorceress in a simple but rich dress.Her peplos was fastened on the shoulder, not by an ordinary goldpin, but by a button which betrayed her taste for fine jewels, as itconsisted of a sapphire of remarkable size; this had at once caught theeye of the witch, showing her that she had to deal with a woman of rankand wealth. She had taken Katharina, who had come very plainly dressed,for her companion or poor friend, so she had promised her no more thanthe removal of certain hindrances, and a happy life at last, with ahusband no longer young and a large family of children.
The woman's business was evidently a paying one; the interior of herhouse was conspicuously superior to the wretched hovels which surroundedit, in the poorest and most squalid part of the town. Outside, indeed,it differed little from its neighbors; in fact; it was intentionallyneglected, to mislead the authorities, for witchcraft and the practiceof magic arts were under the penalty of death. But the fittings ofthe roofless centre-chamber in which she was wont to perform herincantations and divinations argued no small outlay. On the walls werehangings with occult figures; the pillars were painted with weirdand grewsome pictures; crucibles and cauldrons of various sizes weresimmering over braziers on little altars; on the shelves and tablesstood cups, phials, and vases, a wheel on which a wryneck hopped upand down, wax images of men and women--some with needles through theirhearts, a cage full of bats, and glass jars containing spiders, frogs,leeches, beetles, scorpions, centipedes and other foul creatures; andlengthways down the room was stretched a short rope walk, used in aThracian form of magic. Perfumes and pungent vapors filled the air, andfrom behind a curtain which hid the performers came a monotonous musicof children's voices, bells, and dull drumming.
Medea, so the wise woman was called, though scarcely past five andforty, harmonized in appearance with this strange habitation, full as itwas of objects calculated to rouse repulsion, dread, and amazement. Herface was pale, and her extraordinary height was increased by a mass ofcoal-black hair, curled high over a comb at the very top of her head.
At the end of the first visit paid her by the two young women, who hadtaken her by surprise, so that several things were lacking which on thesecond occasion proved to be very effective in the exercise of her art,she had made Heliodora promise to return in three days' time. The youngwidow had kept her word, and had made her appearance punctually withKatharina.
To be in Egypt, the land of sorcery and the magic arts, without puttingthem to the test, was impossible. Even Martina allowed this, though shedid not care for such things for herself. She was content with her lot;and if any change for the worse were in prospect she would rather not betormented beforehand by a wise prophet; nor was it better to be deludedby a foolish one. Happiness as of Heaven itself she no longer craved;it would only have disturbed her peace. But she was the last person tothink ill of the young, whose life still lay before them, if they longedto look into futurity.
The fair widow and her companion crossed the sorceress' threshold insome trepidation, and Katharina was the more agitated of the two; forthis afternoon she had seen Philippus leave the house of Rufinus, andnot long after some Arab officials had called there. Paula had come intothe garden shortly before sundown, her eyes red with weeping; and when,soon after, Pulcheria and her mother had joined her there, Paula hadthrown herself on Joanna's neck, sobbing so bitterly that the motherand daughter--"whose tears were near her eyes"--had both followed herexample. Something serious had occurred; but when she had gone to thehouse to pick up further information, old Betta, who was particularlysnappish with her, had refused her admission quite rudely.
Then, on their way hither, she and Heliodora had had a painfuladventure; the chariot, lent by Neforis to convey them as far as theedge of the necropolis, was stopped on the way by a troop of Arab horse,and they were subjected to a catechism by the leader.
So they entered the house of "Medea of the curls," as the common peoplecalled the witch, with uneasy and throbbing hearts; they were received,however, with such servile politeness that they soon recoveredthemselves, and even the timid Heliodora began to breathe freely again.The sorceress knew this time who Katharina was, and paid more respectfulattention to the daughter of the wealthy widow.
The young crescent moon had risen, a circumstance which Medea declaredenabled her to see more clearly into the future than she could do atthe time of the Luna-negers as she called the moonless night. Her inwardvision had been held in typhornian darkness at the time of their firstvisit, by the influence of some hostile power. She had felt this as soonas they had quitted her, but to-day she saw clearer. Her mind's eye wasas clear as a silver mirror, she had purified it by three days' fastingand not a mote could escape her sight.--"Help, ye children of Horapollo!Help, Hapi and Ye three holy ones!"
"Oh, my beauties, my beauties!" she went on enthusiastically. "Hundredsof great dames have proved my art, but such splendid fortunes I neverbefore saw crowding round any two heads as round yours. Do you hearhow the cauldrons of fortune are seething? The very lids lift! Amazing,amazing."
She stretched out her hand towards the vessels as though conjuring themand said solemnly: "Abundance of happiness; brimming over, brimmingover! Bursting storehouses! Zefa-oo Metramao. Return, return, to theright levels, the right heights, the right depth, the right measure!Your Elle Mei-Measurer, Leveller, require them, Techuti, require them,double Ibis!"
She made them both sit down on elegant seats in front of the boilingpots, tied the "thread of Anubis" round the ring-finger of each, askedin a low whisper between muttered words of incantation for a hair ofeach, and after placing the hairs both in one cauldron she cried outwith wild vehemence, as though the weal or woe of her two visitors wereinvolved in the smallest omission:
"Press the finger with the thread of Anubis on your heart; fix youreyes on the cauldron and the steam which rises to the spirits above, thespirits of light, the great One on high!"
The two women obeyed the sorceress' directions with beating hearts,while she began spinning round on her toes with dizzy rapidity; hercurls flew out, and the magic wand in her extended hand described alarge and beautiful curve. Suddenly, and as if stricken by terror, shestopped her whirl, and at the same instant the lamps went out andthe only light was from the stars and the twinkling coals under thecauldrons. The low music died away, and a fresh strong perfume welledout from behind the curtain.
Medea fell on her knees, lifted up her hands to Heaven, threw her headso far back that her whole face was turned up to the sky and her eyesgazed straight up at the stars-an attitude only possible to so supple aspine. In this torturing attitude she sang one invocation after another,to the zenith of the blue vault over their heads, in a clear voice offervent appeal. Her body was thrown forward, her mass of hair no longerstood up but was turned towards the two young women, who every momentexpected that the supplicant would be suffocated by the blood mountingto her head, and fall backwards; but she sang and sang, while her whiteteeth glittered in the starlight that fell straight upon her face.Presently, in the midst of the torrent of demoniacal names and magicformulas that she sang and warbled out, a piteous and terrifying soundcame from behind the curtain as of two persons gasping, sighing,and moaning: one voice seemed to be that of a man oppressed by greatanguish; the other was the half-suffocated wailing of a suffering child.This soon became louder, and at length a voice said in Egyptian: "Water,a drink of water."
The woman started to her fe
et, exclaiming: "It is the cry of the poorand oppressed who have been robbed to enrich those who have too muchalready; the lament of those whom Fate has plundered to heap you withwealth enough for hundreds." As she spoke these words, in Greek andwith much unction, she turned to the curtain and added solemnly, but inEgyptian: "Give drink to the thirsty; the happy ones will spare hima drop from their overflow. Give the white drink to the wailingchild-spirit, that he may be soothed and quenched.--Play, music, anddrown the lamentations of the spirits in sorrow."
Then, turning to Heliodora's kettle she said sternly, as if in obedienceto some higher power:
"Seven gold pieces to complete the work,"--and while the young widowdrew out her purse the sorceress lighted the lamps, singing as she didso and as she dropped the coin into the boiling fluid: "Pure, brightgold! Sunlight buried in a mine! Holy Seven. Shashef, Shashef! HolySeven, marry and mingle--melt together!"
When this was done she poured out of the cauldron a steaming fluid asblack as ink, into a shallow saucer, called Heliodora to her side, andtold her what she could see in the mirror of its surface.
It was all fair, and gave none but delightful replies to the widow'squestioning. And all the sorceress said tended to confirm the youngwoman's confidence in her magic art; she described Orion as exactly asthough she saw him indeed in the surface of the ink, and said he wastravelling with an older man. And lo! he was returning already; in thebright mirror she could see Heliodora clasped in her lover's arms; andnow--it was like a picture: A stranger--not the bishop of Memphis--laidher hand in his and blessed their union before the altar in a vast andmagnificent cathedral.
Katharina, who had been chilled with apprehensions and a thrill of awe,as she listened to Medea's song, listened to every word with anxiousattention; what Medea said--how she described Orion--that was morewonderful than anything else, beyond all she had believed possible. Andthe cathedral in which the lovers were to be united was the church ofSt. Sophia at Constantinople, of which she had heard so much.
A tight grip seemed to clutch her heart; still, eagerly as shelistened to Medea's words, her sharp ears heard the doleful gasping andwhimpering behind the hanging; and this distressed and dismayed her; herbreath came short, and a deep, torturing sense of misfortune possessedher wholly. The wailing child-spirit within, a portion of whose joysMedea said had been allotted to her--nay, she had not robbed him,certainly not--for who could be more wretched than she? It was only thatbeautiful, languishing young creature who was so lavishly endowed byFortune with gifts enough and to spare for others without number. Oh!if she could but have snatched them from her one after another, from thesplendid ruby she was wearing to-day, to Orion's love!
She was pale and tremulous as she rose at the call of the sorceress,after she also had offered seven gold pieces. She would gladly havepurchased annihilating curses to destroy her happier rival.
The black liquid in the saucer began to stir, and a sharply smellingvapor rose from it; the witch blew this aside, and as soon as the murkyfluid was a little cool, and the surface was smooth and mirror-like,she asked Katharina what she most desired to know. But the answer waschecked on her lips; a fearful thundering and roaring suddenly madethe house shake; Medea dropped the saucer with a piercing shriek, thecontents splashed up, and warm, sticky drops fell on the girl's arms anddress. She was quite overcome with the startling horror, and Heliodora,who could herself scarcely stand, had to support her, for she totteredand would have fallen.
The sorceress had vanished; a half-grown lad, a young man, and a verytall Egyptian girl in scanty attire were rushing about the room. Theyflew hither and thither, throwing all the vessels they could lay handson into an opening in the floor from which they had lifted a trap-door;pouring water on the braziers and extinguishing the lights, while theydrove the two strangers into a corner of the hall, rating and abusingthem. Then the lads clambered like cats up to the opening in the roof,and sprang off and away.
A shrill whistle rang through the house, and in moment Medea burst intothe room again, clutched the two trembling women by the shoulders, andexclaimed: "For Christ's sake, be merciful! My life is at stake Sorceryis punishable by death. I have done my best for you. You came here--thatis what you must say--out of charity to nurse the sick." She pushed themboth behind the hanging whence they still heard feeble groans, into alow, stuffy room, and the over-grown girl slipped in behind them.
Here, on miserable couches, lay an old man shivering, and showing darkspots on his bare breast and face: and a child of five, whose crimsoncheeks were burning with fever.
Heliodora felt as if she must suffocate in the plague stricken, heavyatmosphere, and Katharina clung to her helplessly; but the soothsayerpulled her away, saying: "Each to one bed: you to the child, andyou--the old man."
Involuntarily they obeyed the woman who was panting with fright. Thewater-wagtail, who never in her life thought of a sick person, turnedvery sick and looked away from the sufferer; but the your widow, who hadspent many and many a night by the death-bed of a man she had loved, andwho, tender-hearted, had often tended her sick slaves with her own hand,looked compassionately into the pretty, pain-stricken face of the child,and wiped the dews from his clammy brow.
Katharina shuddered; but her attention was presently attracted tosomething fresh; from the other side of the house came a clatter ofweapons, the door was pushed open, and the physician Philippus walkedinto the room. He desired the night-watch, who were with him, to waitoutside. He had come by the command of the police authorities, to whoseears information had been brought that there were persons sick of theplague in the house of Medea, and that she, nevertheless, continued toreceive visitors. It had long been decided that she must be taken in theact of sorcery, and warning had that day been given that she expectedillustrious company in the evening. The watch were to find herred-handed, so to speak; the leech was to prove whether her house wasindeed plague-stricken; and in either case the senate wished to have thesorceress safe in prison and at their mercy, though even Philippus hadnot been taken into their confidence.
The visitors he had come upon were the last he had expected tofind here. He looked at them with a disapproving shake of the head,interrupted the woman's voluble asseverations that these noble ladieshad come, out of Christian charity, to comfort and help the sick, witha rough exclamation: "A pack of lies!" and at once led the coerced sicknurses out of the house. He then represented to them the fearful riskto which their folly had exposed them, and insisted very positivelyon their returning home and, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour,taking a bath and putting on fresh garments.
With trembling knees they found their way back to the chariot; buteven before it could start Heliodora had broken down in tears, whileKatharina, throwing herself back on the cushions, thought, as sheglanced at her weeping companion: "This is the beginning of thewonderful happiness she was promised! It is to be hoped it maycontinue!"
It seemed indeed as though Katharina's guardian spirit had overheardthis amiable wish; for, as the chariot drove past the guard-house intothe court-yard of the governor's house, it was stopped by armed men withbrown, warlike faces, and they had to wait some minutes till an Arabofficer appeared to enquire who they were, and what they wanted. Thisthey explained in fear and trembling, and they then learnt that theArab government had that very evening taken possession of the residence.Orion was accused of serious crimes, and his guests were to depart onthe following day.
Katharina, who was known to the interpreter, was allowed to go withHeliodora to the senator's wife; she might also use the chariot toreturn home in, and if she pleased, take the Byzantines with her, forthe palace would be in the hands of the soldiery for the next few days.
The two young women held council. Katharina pressed her friend to comeat once to her mother's house, for she felt certain that they wereplague-stricken, and how could they procure a bath in a house full ofsoldiers? Heliodora could not and must not remain with Martina in thiscondition, and the senator's wife could follow her next
day. Her mother,she added, would be delighted to welcome so dear a guest.
The widow was passive, and when Martina had gladly consented to acceptthe invitation of her "delivering angel," the chariot carried them toSusannah's house. The widow had long been in bed, firmly convinced thather daughter was asleep and dreaming in her own pretty room.
Katharina would not have her disturbed, and the bath-room was so farfrom Susannah's apartment that she slept on quietly while Katharina andher guest purified themselves.