CHAPTER II
BACK TO THE PAST
The City of a Hundred Kings, vast and sombre, stretched away into thedim, soft distance of the moonlit night to right and left and far behindhim. In front lay the broad, smooth, silver-gleaming Nile, thenapproaching its full flood-time, and looking like a wide, shining roadout of the shadows through the light and into the shadows again--symbolof the visible present coming invisibly out of the domains of the past,and fading away into the still more hazy domain of the unknown future.Symbol, too, in its countless ripples under the fresh north wind, of thegenerations of Man drifting endlessly down the Stream of Time.
He was standing in the dark shadows of a huge pylon at one end of thebroad white terrace of the palace of Pepi in Memphis--he, Ma-Rim[=o]n,Priest of Amen-Ra and Initiate of the Higher Mysteries.
Nitocris was standing beside him with her hands clasped behind her andher head slightly thrown back, and as she gazed out over the river themoonlight fell full on the white loveliness of her face and into thedark depths of her eyes, where it seemed to lose itself in the dusk thatlay deep down in them, a dusk like the shadow of a soul in sorrow.
He looked upon her face, and saw in it a beauty and a mystery deepereven than the beauty and the mystery of the Egyptian night as it was inthose old days--the face of a fair woman, a riddle of the gods which menmight go mad in seeking to read aright, and yet never learn the truemeaning of it.
The silence between them had been long and yet so solemn in its wordlessmeaning that he had not dared to break it. Then at length she spoke,moving only her lips, her body still motionless and her eyes stillgazing at the stars, or into the depths beyond them.
"Can it be true, Ma-Rim[=o]n? Can the gods indeed have permitted such athing to be? Can the All-Father have given His Chief Minister to be theinstrument of such a foul crime and monstrous impiety as this?"
And he replied, slowly and sadly:
"Yes, it is true, Nitocris, true that thou art now Queen in the land bythe will of the great Rameses; and true also it is that the shade ofNefer is now waiting in the halls of Amenti till his murderers shall besent by the hand of a just vengeance into the presence of the DivineAssessors."
"Ah yes, vengeance," she replied, turning towards him with a gasp in hervoice, "that must come; but whose hand shall cast the spear or draw thebow? We claim kinship with the gods, but we are not the gods, and whatmortal hand could avenge a crime like this?"
"A woman's hand is soft and a woman's lips are sweet, yet what so cruelor so merciless in all the world as a woman? As there is nothing likerHeaven than a woman's love, so there is nothing liker Hell than awoman's hate. So saith the Ancient Wisdom, O Nitocris; and therefore, asthou hast loved Nefer the Prince, so shalt thou also hate Menkau-Ra andAnemen-Ha, his murderers and the destroyers of his promised happiness."
She shivered as he spoke, not with cold, for the breath of that perfectnight was well nigh as soft as her touch and as warm as her own breath.She turned swiftly and laid her hand on his shoulder. Her touch was aslight as the falling of the rose-leaves in the gardens of Sais, yet hetrembled under it, and his face, which had been as pale as her ownbefore, flushed darkly red as she looked into his eyes.
"You--yes, you, Ma-Rim[=o]n, you too love me, do you not--truly? Thestars are the eyes of the gods: they are looking on you. Tell me, do youlove me? Does your blood throb in your veins when I touch you? Does yourheart beat quicker when you come near me? Are your ears keener for myvoice than for that of any other woman--tell me?"
His hands went up and clasped hers as they lay on his shoulders. He tookher right hand and pressed it to his heart, and laid her left hand onhis cheek. Then he let them fall. He stepped back, bowed his head, andsaid:
"The Queen is answered!"
"Not the Queen, but the woman, Ma-Rim[=o]n, and as a woman loves to beanswered. And now the woman shall speak. Nefer is dead, yet is not Neferre-incarnated in another form, another man of another build, but yetNefer that was--and is beside me now?"
She whispered these words very softly and very distinctly, and as thewords came rippling out from between her half-smiling lips, she tookhalf a pace forward and looked up into his face.
"Not dead--Nefer--I!" he exclaimed, starting back. "Have not theParaschites done their work on his body? Is not his mummy even nowresting in the City of the Dead? How can it be? Surely, Nitocris, thouart dreaming."
"And hast thou, a priest and sage, standing on the threshold of the HolyMysteries, hast thou not learned the law which tells thee how, with thepermission of the Divine Assessors, the souls of the dead may come backfrom the halls of Amenti to do their bidding in other mortal shapes? Andwhat if they should have ordained that his soul should have thusreturned?
"Thou, who art so like him that while he was yet alive mortal eyes couldscarce distinguish the one from the other. May it not be that the gods,who foresee all things, made thee in the same image, perchance to thisvery end?"
"No, the riddle is too deep for me, even as that other riddle which Iread in thy eyes, O Queen!"
"Let thy love help thee to read it, then!" she replied, coming to himand putting her hands on his shoulders again. "Tell me now, Ma-Rim[=o]n,what wouldst thou do if thy soul were now waiting in the land of Aaluand the soul of Nefer was listening to me with thine ears, and lookingat me with thine eyes?"
"And if thou----"
"Yes, and if I too believed that this were so?"
He saw the sweet, red, smiling lips coming nearer to him, and felt thesoft breath on his bare throat. He saw the deep eyes melting intotenderness as the moonlight shone upon them, and in the pale olivecheeks a faint flush swiftly deepened.
"Nefer or Ma-Rim[=o]n, I am mortal," he said, swiftly catching herwrists and drawing her towards him. "I am flesh and blood. I am man, andthou art woman--and I love thee! I love thee! Ah, how sweet thy kissesare! Now let the gods bless or curse, for never could they take awaywhat thou hast given--and for it I will give thee all. All that hasbeen, and is, and might have been! Priest and sage, Initiate of theMysteries, what are they to me now! O Nitocris, my queen and my love!Sooner would I live through one year of bliss with thee than aneternity in the Peace of the Gods itself!"
The words of blasphemy came hot and fast between his kisses, and sheheard them unresisting in his arms, giving him back kiss for kiss, andlooking into his eyes under the dark lashes which half-hid hers; and soMa-Rim[=o]n, the youthful Initiate of the Holy Mysteries, became in thatmoment a man, and so he began to learn the long lesson which teaches towhat heights and depths a woman who has loved and hated can rise andfall for the sake of her love and her hate.
"And now, my Nefer," she went on, throwing her clinging arms round hisneck again, "now, good-night! Go and dream of me as I will dream ofthee, and remember that, though mortals may plan, the gods decide. Wemay try to paint the picture, but the outline is drawn by their handsand may not be changed by ours. But, so far as this matter is concerned,I swear by the Veil of Isis, by these sacred kisses of ours, and by theUraeus Crown of the Three Kingdoms, that, rather than be sold as apriceless chattel to grace the triumph of Menkau-Ra, I will give myself,as others did in the old days, to be the bride of Father Nile. Rememberthat, and remember, too, that, whatever the outward seeming of thingsmay be, I am thine and thou art mine, as it was, and is, and shall be,until the Peace of all Things shall come."
* * * * *
Then the dream-vision changed from moonlight to sunlight, from night tomorning; for it was the dawn of the day that was to see, as all menbelieved, the gorgeous ceremony of the nuptials of the daughter ofRameses with Menkau-Ra, the Mohar, chief of the House of War andmightiest of all the warriors of the Land of Khem, now that Rameses hadpassed from the black banks of the Nile to the shores of Amenti, and hismummy was waiting the summons of the High Gods which should recall it tolife in the fulness of time and the dawn of the Everlasting Peace.
Never had even the Land of Khem seen a fairer dawn. The East shone insi
lver, blushed into amethyst, and flamed in gold as the Restorer of allthings rose bright and glorious in sudden splendour over the City of theWhite Wall. Standing on the flat roof of the temple of Ptah, he lookedabout him in the first flush of this morning which had just dawned, bigwith fate, not only for him and his beloved, but also for the Land ofKhem, and perchance for the world.
The great river was spreading its annual blessings over the land. Thewaters were broadening out into wide shining sheets, and the slow, softmusic of their rippling was stealing along the great water-walls of thetemples and palaces which formed the river-front of Memphis. Only a weekago the victorious armies of Khem had brought their spoils and theirprisoners across the eastern frontier. There had been fruit, bread, andflesh, and wine for the poor, and banquets of royal lavishness forthose who could claim right of entry into the sacred circle whichenclosed the Throne, the Temple, and the camp of the victorious warrior.
For days he had heard the name of Menkau-Ra the Conqueror shouted up tothe heavens by the crowds that had thronged the streets and themarket-places, and, mingled with it, he had also heard the name of thegirl-queen whose arms had been about his neck, and whose lips he hadkissed the night before, and he knew that even now the people wereasking why the Conqueror should not wed the daughter of Rameses, andbecome the father of a line of even greater and yet mightier Pharaohs.
He had heard their cries calmly and without anger, for he knew that thatone stolen hour of sweet intercourse with her meant much more than theConqueror himself could win--something that could not be taken by force,or even through the will of the dead king. Her soul was his, and he knewwell that the man to whom she had not given her soul would never bepermitted to lay a loving hand on her body.
"Ah yes, there he comes, I suppose," he went on, still talking aloud tohimself, as a shrill musical peal of silver trumpets broke out from thedirection of the barracks to the north of the palace. "Alas! were I buttruly Nefer! That golden-crowned murderer--for sure I am that he killedhim--he would not now be making ready for his triumph at the head ofhis victorious troops through the streets and squares of Memphis. Ifthat were so, how glad a day this would be for Egypt and for us!"
But, as the Divine Assessors willed it, there was no triumph that day inMemphis. The sun had hardly risen to a level with the topmost wall ofthe Rameseum before messengers were sent out from the palace bearing thetidings that Nitocris the Queen had been stricken with a sudden malady,and that all festivities were to be deferred till the next day at theearliest.
That night, when the moon was sinking low down in the west towards thedark hills of the Libyan Desert, and the Isis Star was glowing palelylike an expiring lamp hung high above the brightening easternearth-line, he saw her muffled form gliding ghost-like towards him as hestood waiting for her on the terrace. She was clad like the meanest ofher serving-maids, just as a common slave-wench who had stolen out tomeet a lover of her own sort might have been. When she came within apace of him, he held his arms out. She put hers out too, and for amoment they looked in silence into each other's eyes, and then she,seeing that the kiss which she expected did not come, parted her lipsand said smilingly:
"You need not fear to kiss them, dearest, they have not yet beenpolluted by the lips of Menkau-Ra, although all the city has beenhailing him as the betrothed of Nitocris."
Then he smiled too, and their lips met in such a long, silent kiss asonly lovers give and take.
"Thy words are almost as sweet as thy kisses are, O Nitocris!" he said,"for I would sooner see thee--yes, I would sooner see thee in the handsof the Paraschites--this lovely body of thine dead--knowing that thysoul was waiting for mine on the shores of Amenti, than I would knowthat those sweet lips had been defiled by the touch of such as he; andyet surely thou hast spoken with him. Did he not claim the fulfilment ofthe promise of the great king?"
"Ah yes," she replied softly, as she slipped out of his arms, "but it isone thing to claim and another to get. Yes, I have spoken with him. Ihave promised all, and given nothing. I have not even yielded my hand tohis lips, for I told him in answer to all the entreaties of hislove--and of a truth I tell thee that he loves me very dearly, for thatgreat, strong frame of his shook like a bulrush in the wind under thebreath of my lightest words--that, until the last vows had made us manand wife, I would be his queen and he should be my subject and my slave,even as he was of the great Rameses; and with this he was fain to becontent, thinking, no doubt, how soon he would be my lord and master,and I his--his queen and plaything, bound by the law that may not bebroken, to submit to every varying whim and humour of his passion."
"Thy master, Nitocris! Thine! Such shame could never be. Rather wouldthe High Gods permit Death to be the Master of Life, or Night to be Lordof Day. Is there no other way?"
"Yes, there is another way, and only one to save me, Nefer--if truly thesoul of my beloved is looking out of thine eyes into mine," shewhispered, coming close to him and laying her hands lightly upon hisshoulders, "there is another way, but it is the way that leads throughthe mystery of the things that are into the deeper mystery of the thingsthat are to be--the way of death and vengeance. Tell me, my beloved,hast thou the courage to tread it with me?"
The lovely face, the pleading lips, the searching eyes were close tohis. He could feel the soft contact of her body, even her flutteringheartbeats answering his. It was the moment of the supreme test, theparting of the ways--to the heights whose pinnacles reach to the heavenof Perfect Knowledge, or to the abysses whose lowest depths are the roofof hell; for there is but one heaven and one hell, and their names areKnowledge and Ignorance.
There lay the fulfilment of his vows, the renunciation of the lower lifewith all its potent witcheries of the senses, with all its exquisitedelights and glittering prizes, fame and honours, power and wealth,and, dearest of all, the love of woman.
Here, clasped in his arms, stood Nitocris, her hands still restinglightly on his shoulders, her head lying on his breast, her eyesupturned, the star-beams swimming in their luminous depths.
"Nefer, beloved, answer me!"
The stars grew dim, and the solid floor of the terrace shook under hisfeet. He bent his head and laid his lips upon hers.
"Thou art answered, O Nitocris--even unto death and the life beyond!"
Her lips returned his kisses--kisses that were curses--and then for manyminutes they conversed in hurried whispers. At last she slipped out ofhis arms and left him, his lips burning from the clinging touch of hers,and his heart cold with a fear that was greater than the fear of death.
He clasped his hands to his temples and looked up at the coldly shiningIsis Star, and through the silence there came to his soul in the speechthat is never heard by the ears of flesh the fateful words:
"Once only is it given to mortals to look into the eyes of Isis. He wholooks and turns his gaze aside has found and lost."