"That is so," said a voice from the company. "But four months gone thedeep, deep pit was opened that I had dug in the shadow of the Pyramid ofCephren, who begat me in the world. There in my chamber I slept alone,two handfuls of white bones, since when I died they did not preservethe body with wrappings and with spices. Now I see those bones of mine,beside which my Double has watched for these five thousand years, hid inthe blackness of a great ship and tossing on a sea that is strewn withice."
"It is so," echoed a hundred other voices.
"Then," went on the young king, turning to Menes, "I ask of your Majestywhether there is no means whereby we may be avenged on those who do usthis foul wrong."
"Let him who has wisdom speak," said the old Pharaoh.
A man of middle age, short in stature and of a thoughtful brow, who heldin his hand a wand and wore the feathers and insignia of the heir to thethrone of Egypt and of a high priest of Amen, moved to the steps. Smithknew him at once from his statues. He was Khaemuas, son of Rameses theGreat, the mightiest magician that ever was in Egypt, who of his ownwill withdrew himself from earth before the time came that he should situpon the throne.
"I have wisdom, your Majesties, and I will answer," he said. "The timedraws on when, in the land of Death which is Life, the land that wecall Amenti, it will be given to us to lay our wrongs as to this matterbefore Those who judge, knowing that they will be avenged. On this nightof the year also, when we resume the shapes we were, we have certainpowers of vengeance, or rather of executing justice. But our time isshort, and there is much to say and do before the sun-god Ra arisesand we depart each to his place. Therefore it seems best that we shouldleave these wicked ones in their wickedness till we meet them face toface beyond the world."
Smith, who had been following the words of Khaemuas with the closestattention and considerable anxiety, breathed again, thanking Heaventhat the engagements of these departed monarchs were so numerous andpressing. Still, as a matter of precaution, he drew the cigar-box whichcontained Ma-Mee's hand from his pocket, and pushed it as far away fromhim as he could. It was a most unlucky act. Perhaps the cigar-box gratedon the floor, or perhaps the fact of his touching the relic put him intopsychic communication with all these spirits. At any rate, he becameaware that the eyes of that dreadful magician were fixed upon him, andthat a bone had a better chance of escaping the search of a Rontgen raythan he of hiding himself from their baleful glare.
"As it happens, however," went on Khaemuas, in a cold voice, "I nowperceive that there is hidden in this place, and spying on us, one ofthe worst of these vile thieves. I say to your Majesties that I see himcrouched beneath yonder funeral barge, and that he has with him at thismoment the hand of one of your Majesties, stolen by him from her tomb atThebes."
Now every queen in the company became visibly agitated (Smith, who waswatching Ma-Mee, saw her hold up her hands and look at them), while allthe Pharaohs pointed with their fingers and exclaimed together, in avoice that rolled round the hall like thunder:
"Let him be brought forth to judgment!"
Khaemuas raised his wand and, holding it towards the boat where Smithwas hidden, said:
"Draw near, Vile One, bringing with thee that thou hast stolen."
Smith tried hard to remain where he was. He sat himself down and sethis heels against the floor. As the reader knows, he was always shy andretiring by disposition, and never had these weaknesses oppressed himmore than they did just then. When a child his favourite nightmare hadbeen that the foreman of a jury was in the act of proclaiming himguilty of some dreadful but unstated crime. Now he understood what thatnightmare foreshadowed. He was about to be convicted in a court ofwhich all the kings and queens of Egypt were the jury, Menes wasChief Justice, and the magician Khaemuas played the _role_ ofAttorney-General.
In vain did he sit down and hold fast. Some power took possession of himwhich forced him first to stretch out his arm and pick up the cigar-boxcontaining the hand of Ma-Mee, and next drew him from the friendlyshelter of the deal boards that were about the boat.
Now he was on his feet and walking down the flight of steps opposite tothose on which Menes stood far away. Now he was among all that throngof ghosts, which parted to let him pass, looking at him as he went withcold and wondering eyes. They were very majestic ghosts; the ages thathad gone by since they laid down their sceptres had taken nothing fromtheir royal dignity. Moreover, save one, none of them seemed to have anypity for his plight. She was a little princess who stood by her mother,that same little princess whose mummy he had seen and pitied in theDirector's room with a lotus flower thrust beneath her bandages. As hepassed Smith heard her say:
"This Vile One is frightened. Be brave, Vile One!"
Smith understood, and pride came to his aid. He, a gentleman of themodern world, would not show the white feather before a crowd of ancientEgyptian ghosts. Turning to the child, he smiled at her, then drewhimself to his full height and walked on quietly. Here it may bestated that Smith was a tall man, still comparatively young, and verygood-looking, straight and spare in frame, with dark, pleasant eyes anda little black beard.
"At least he is a well-favoured thief," said one of the queens toanother.
"Yes," answered she who had been addressed. "I wonder that a man withsuch a noble air should find pleasure in disturbing graves and stealingthe offerings of the dead," words that gave Smith much cause forthought. He had never considered the matter in this light.
Now he came to the place where Ma-Mee stood, the black-browed Pharaohwho had been her husband at her side. On his left hand which held thecigar-box was the gold Bes ring, and that box he felt constrained tocarry pressed against him just over his heart.
As he went by he turned his head, and his eyes met those of Ma-Mee. Shestarted violently. Then she saw the ring upon his hand and again startedstill more violently.
"What ails your Majesty?" asked the Pharaoh.
"Oh, naught," she answered. "Yet does this earth-dweller remind you ofanyone?"
"Yes, he does," answered the Pharaoh. "He reminds me very much of thataccursed sculptor about whom we had words."
"Do you mean a certain Horu, the Court artist; he who worked the imagethat was buried with me, and whom you sent to carve your statues in thedeserts of Kush, until he died of fevers--or was it poison?"
"Aye; Horu and no other, may Set take and keep him!" growled thePharaoh.
Then Smith passed on and heard no more. Now he stood before thevenerable Menes. Some instinct caused him to bow to this Pharaoh, whobowed back to him. Then he turned and bowed to the royal company, andthey also bowed back to him, coldly, but very gravely and courteously.
"Dweller on the world where once we had our place, and therefore brotherof us, the dead," began Menes, "this divine priest and magician"--andhe pointed to Khaemuas--"declares that you are one of those who foullyviolate our sepulchres and desecrate our ashes. He declares, moreover,that at this very moment you have with you a portion of the mortal fleshof a certain Majesty whose spirit is present here. Say, now, are thesethings true?"
To his astonishment Smith found that he had not the slightest difficultyin answering in the same sweet tongue.
"O King, they are true, and not true. Hear me, rulers of Egypt. It istrue that I have searched in your graves, because my heart has beendrawn towards you, and I would learn all that I could concerning you,for it comes to me _now_ that once I was one of you--no king, indeed,yet perchance of the blood of kings. Also--for I would hide nothing evenif I could--I searched for one tomb above all others."
"Why, O man?" asked the Judge.
"Because a face drew me, a lovely face that was cut in stone."
Now all that great audience turned their eyes towards him and listenedas though his words moved them.
"Did you find that holy tomb?" asked Menes. "If so, what did you findtherein?"
"Aye, Pharaoh, and in it I found these," and he took from the box thewithered hand, from his pocket the broken bronze, and from his fingerthe
ring.
"Also I found other things which I delivered to the keeper of thisplace, articles of jewellery that I seem to see to-night upon one who ispresent here among you."
"Is the face of this figure the face you sought?" asked the Judge.
"It is the lovely face," he answered.
Menes took the effigy in his hand and read the cartouche that wasengraved beneath its breast.
"If there be here among us," he said, presently, "one who long aftermy day ruled as queen in Egypt, one who was named Ma-Me, let her drawnear."
Now from where she stood glided Ma-Mee and took her place opposite toSmith.
"Say, O Queen," asked Menes, "do you know aught of this matter?"
"I know that hand; it was my own hand," she answered. "I know that ring;it was my ring. I know that image in bronze; it was my image. Look onme and judge for yourselves whether this be so. A certain sculptorfashioned it, the son of a king's son, who was named Horu, the firstof sculptors and the head artist of my Court. There, clad in strangegarments, he stands before you. Horu, or the Double of Horu, he who cutthe image when I ruled in Egypt, is he who found the image and the manwho stands before you; or, mayhap, his Double cast in the same mould."
The Pharaoh Menes turned to the magician Khaemuas and said:--
"Are these things so, O Seer?"
"They are so," answered Khaemuas. "This dweller on the earth is he who,long ago, was the sculptor Horu. But what shall that avail? He, oncemore a living man, is a violator of the hallowed dead. I say, therefore,that judgment should be executed on his flesh, so that when the lightcomes here to-morrow he himself will again be gathered to the dead."
Menes bent his head upon his breast and pondered. Smith said nothing. Tohim the whole play was so curious that he had no wish to interfere withits development. If these ghosts wished to make him of their number, letthem do so. He had no ties on earth, and now when he knew full surelythat there was a life beyond this of earth he was quite prepared toexplore its mysteries. So he folded his arms upon his breast and awaitedthe sentence.
But Ma-Mee did not wait. She raised her hand so swiftly that thebracelets jingled on her wrists, and spoke out with boldness.
"Royal Khaemuas, prince and magician," she said, "hearken to one who,like you, was Egypt's heir centuries before you were born, one also whoruled over the Two Lands, and not so ill--which, Prince, never was yourlot. Answer me! Is all wisdom centred in your breast? Answer me! Do youalone know the mysteries of Life and Death? Answer me! Did your god Amenteach you that vengeance went before mercy? Answer me! Did he teachyou that men should be judged unheard? That they should be hurried byviolence to Osiris ere their time, and thereby separated from the deadones whom they loved and forced to return to live again upon this evilEarth?
"Listen: when the last moon was near her full my spirit sat in my tombin the burying-place of queens. My spirit saw this man enter into mytomb, and what he did there. With bowed head he looked upon my bonesthat a thief of the priesthood had robbed and burnt within twenty yearsof their burial, in which he himself had taken part. And what did thisman with those bones, he who was once Horu? I tell you that he hid themaway there in the tomb where he thought they could not be found again.Who, then, was the thief and the violator? He who robbed and burnt mybones, or he who buried them with reverence? Again, he found the jewelsthat the priest of your brotherhood had dropped in his flight, when thesmoke of the burning flesh and spices overpowered him, and with them thehand which that wicked one had broken off from the body of my Majesty.What did this man then? He took the jewels. Would you have had him leavethem to be stolen by some peasant? And the hand? I tell you that hekissed that poor dead hand which once had been part of the body of myMajesty, and that now he treasures it as a holy relic. My spirit sawhim do these things and made report thereof to me. I ask you, therefore,Prince, I ask you all, Royalties of Egypt--whether for such deeds thisman should die?"
Now Khaemuas, the advocate of vengeance, shrugged his shoulders andsmiled meaningly, but the congregation of kings and queens thundered ananswer, and it was:--
"_No!_"
Ma-Mee looked to Menes to give judgment. Before he could speak thedark-browed Pharaoh who had named her wife strode forward and addressedthem.
"Her Majesty, Heiress of Egypt, Royal Wife, Lady of the Two Lands, hasspoken," he cried. "Now let me speak who was the husband of her Majesty.Whether this man was once Horu the sculptor I know not. If so he wasalso an evil-doer who, by my decree, died in banishment in the landof Kush. Whatever be the truth as to that matter, he admits that heviolated the tomb of her Majesty and stole what the old thieves hadleft. Her Majesty says also--and he does not deny it--that he dared tokiss her hand, and for a man to kiss the hand of a wedded Queen of Egyptthe punishment is death. I claim that this man should die to the Worldbefore his time, that in a day to come again he may live and suffer inthe World. Judge, O Menes."
Menes lifted his head and spoke, saying:--
"Repeat to me the law, O Pharaoh, under which a living man must diefor the kissing of a dead hand. In my day and in that of those who wentbefore me there was no such law in Egypt. If a living man, who was nother husband, or of her kin, kissed the living hand of a wedded Queen ofEgypt, save in ceremony, then perchance he might be called upon to die.Perchance for such a reason a certain Horu once was called upon to die.But in the grave there is no marriage, and therefore even if he hadfound her alive within the tomb and kissed her hand, or even her lips,why should he die for the crime of love?
"Hear me, all; this is my judgment in the matter. Let the soul of thatpriest who first violated the tomb of the royal Ma-Mee be hunted downand given to the jaws of the Destroyer, that he may know the last depthsof Death, if so the gods declare. But let this man go from among usunharmed, since what he did he did in reverent ignorance and becauseHathor, Goddess of Love, guided him from of old. Love rules this worldwherein we meet to-night, with all the worlds whence we have gatheredor whither we still must go. Who can defy its power? Who can refuse itsrites? Now hence to Thebes!"
There was a rushing sound as of a thousand wings, and all were gone.
No, not all, since Smith yet stood before the draped colossi and theempty steps, and beside him, glorious, unearthly, gleamed the vision ofMa-Mee.
"I, too, must away," she whispered; "yet ere I go a word with you whoonce were a sculptor in Egypt. You loved me then, and that love cost youyour life, you who once dared to kiss this hand of mine that again youkissed in yonder tomb. For I was Pharaoh's wife in name only; understandme well, in name only; since that title of Royal Mother which they gaveme is but a graven lie. Horu, I never was a wife, and when you died,swiftly I followed you to the grave. Oh, you forget, but I remember!I remember many things. You think that the priestly thief broke thisfigure of me which you found in the sand outside my tomb. Not so. _I_broke it, because, daring greatly, you had written thereon, 'Beloved,'not 'of _Horus_ the God,' as you should have done, but 'of _Horu_ theMan.' So when I came to be buried, Pharaoh, knowing all, took the imagefrom my wrappings and hurled it away. I remember, too, the casting ofthat image, and how you threw a gold chain I had given you into thecrucible with the bronze, saying that gold alone was fit to fashion me.And this signet that I bear--it was you who cut it. Take it, take it,Horu, and in its place give me back that which is on your hand, the Besring that I also wore. Take it and wear it ever till you die again, andlet it go to the grave with you as once it went to the grave with me.
"Now hearken. When Ra the great sun arises again and you awake you willthink that you have dreamed a dream. You will think that in this dreamyou saw and spoke with a lady of Egypt who died more than three thousandyears ago, but whose beauty, carved in stone and bronze, has charmedyour heart to-day. So let it be, yet know, O man, who once was namedHoru, that such dreams are oft-times a shadow of the truth. Know thatthis Glory which shines before you is mine indeed in the land that isboth far and near, the land wherein I dwell eternally, and that what ismine has been, is, and
shall be yours for ever. Gods may change theirkingdoms and their names; men may live and die, and live again once moreto die; empires may fall and those who ruled them be turned to forgottendust. Yet true love endures immortal as the souls in which it wasconceived, and from it for you and me, the night of woe and separationdone, at the daybreak which draws on, there shall be born the splendourand the peace of union. Till that hour foredoomed seek me no more,though I be ever near you, as I have ever been. Till that most blessedhour, Horu, farewell."
She bent towards him; her sweet lips touched his brow; the perfumefrom her breath and hair beat upon him; the light of her wondrous eyessearched out his very soul, reading the answer that was written there.
He stretched out his arms to clasp her, and lo! she was gone.
It was a very cold and a very stiff Smith who awoke on the followingmorning, to find himself exactly where he had lain down--namely, on acement floor beneath the keel of a funeral boat in the central hall ofthe Cairo Museum. He crept from his shelter shivering, and looked atthis hall, to find it quite as empty as it had been on the previousevening. Not a sign or a token was there of Pharaoh Menes and all thosekings and queens of whom he had dreamed so vividly.