V
THE VOICE OF THE DEAD
When Meriamun the Queen had watched the chariot of the Wanderer till itwas lost in the dust of the desert, she passed down from the Palace roofto the solitude of her chamber.
Here she sat in her chamber till the darkness gathered, as the evilthoughts gathered in her heart, that was rent with love of him whom shehad won but to lose. Things had gone ill with her, to little purpose shehad sinned after such a fashion as may not be forgiven. Yet there washope. He had sworn that he would wed her when Pharaoh was dead, and whenArgive Helen had followed Pharaoh to the Shades. Should she shrink thenfrom the deed of blood? Nay, from evil to evil she would go. She laidher hand upon the double-headed snake that wound her about, and spakeinto the gloom:
"Osiris waits thee, Meneptah--Osiris waits thee! The Shades of those whohave died for thy love, Helen, are gathering at the gates. It shall bedone. Pharaoh, thou diest to-night. To-morrow night, thou Goddess Helen,shall all thy tale be told. _Man_ may not harm thee indeed, but shallfire refuse to kiss thy loveliness? Are there no _women's_ hands tolight thy funeral pile?"
Then she rose, and calling her ladies, was attired in her most splendidrobes, and caused the uraeus crown to be set upon her head, the snakecirclet of power on her brow, the snake girdle of wisdom at her heart.And now she hid somewhat in her breast, and passed to the ante-chamber,where the Princes gathered for the feast.
Pharaoh looked up and saw her loveliness. So glorious she seemed in herroyal beauty that his heart forgot its woes, and once again he loved heras he had done in years gone by, when she conquered him at the Game ofPieces, and he had cast his arms about her and she stabbed him.
She saw the look of love grow on his heavy face, and all her gatheredhate rose in her breast, though she smiled gently with her lips andspake him fair.
They sat at the feast and Pharaoh drank. And ever as he drank she smiledupon him with her dark eyes and spake him words of gentlest meaning,till at length there was nothing he desired more than that they shouldbe at one again.
Now the feast was done. They sat in the ante-chamber, for all weregone save Meneptah and Meriamun. Then he came to her and took her hand,looking into her eyes, nor did she say him nay.
There was a lute lying on a golden table, and there too, as it chanced,was a board for the Game of Pieces, with the dice, and the piecesthemselves wrought in gold.
Pharaoh took up the gold king from the board and toyed with it in hishand. "Meriamun," he said, "for these five years we have been apart,thou and I. Thy love I have lost, as a game is lost for one false move,or one throw of the dice; and our child is dead and our armies arescattered, and the barbarians come like flies when Sihor stirs withinhis banks. Love only is left to us, Meriamun."
She looked at him not unkindly, as if sorrow and wrong had softened herheart also, but she did not speak.
"Can dead Love waken, Meriamun, and can angry Love forgive?"
She had lifted the lute and her fingers touched listlessly on the cords.
"Nay, I know not," she said; "who knows? How did Pentaur sing of Love'srenewal, Pentaur the glorious minstrel of our father, Rameses Miamun?"
He laid the gold king on the board, and began listlessly to cast thedice. He threw the "Hathor" as it chanced, the lucky cast, two sixes,and a thought of better fortune came to him.
"How did the song run, Meriamun? It is many a year since I heard theesing."
She touched the lute lowly and sweetly, and then she sang. Her thoughtswere of the Wanderer, but the King deemed that she thought of himself.
O joy of Love's renewing, Could Love be born again; Relenting for thy rueing, And pitying my pain: O joy of Love's awaking, Could Love arise from sleep, Forgiving our forsaking The fields we would not reap!
Fleet, fleet we fly, pursuing The Love that fled amain, But will he list our wooing, Or call we but in vain? Ah! vain is all our wooing, And all our prayers are vain, Love listeth not our suing, Love will not wake again.
"Will he not waken again?" said Pharaoh. "If two pray together, willLove refuse their prayer?"
"It might be so," she said, "if two prayed together; for if they prayed,he would have heard already!"
"Meriamun," said the Pharaoh eagerly, for he thought her heart was movedby pity and sorrow, "once thou didst win my crown at the Pieces, wiltthou play me for thy love?"
She thought for one moment, and then she said:
"Yes, I will play thee, my Lord, but my hand has lost its cunning, andit may well be that Meriamun shall lose again, as she has lost all. Letme set the Pieces, and bring wine for my lord."
She set the Pieces, and crossing the room, she lifted a great cup ofwine, and put it by Pharaoh's hand. But he was so intent on the gamethat he did not drink.
He took the field, he moved, she replied, and so the game went betweenthem, in the dark fragrant chamber where the lamp burned, and theQueen's eyes shone in the night. This way and that went the game, tillshe lost, and he swept the board.
Then in triumph he drained the poisoned cup of wine, and cried, "Pharaohis dead!"
"Pharaoh is dead!" answered Meriamun, gazing into his eyes.
"What is that look in thine eyes, Meriamun, what is that look in thineeyes?"
And the King grew pale as the dead, for he had seen that lookbefore--when Meriamun slew Hataska.
"Pharaoh is dead!" she shrilled in the tone of women who wail thedirges. "Pharaoh, great Pharaoh is dead! Ere a man may count a hundredthy days are numbered. Strange! but to-morrow, Meneptah, shalt thou sitwhere Hataska sat, dead on the knees of Death, an Osirian in the lap ofthe Osiris. Die, Pharaoh, die! But while thy diest, hearken. There isone I love, the Wanderer who leads thy hosts. His love I stole by artsknown to me, and because I stole it he would have shamed me, and Iaccused him falsely in the ears of men. But he comes again, and, so sureas thou shalt sit on the knees of Osiris, so surely shall he sit uponthy throne, Pharaoh. For Pharaoh is dead!"
He heard. He gathered his last strength. He rose and staggered towardsher, striking at the air. Slowly she drew away, while he followed her,awful to see. At length he stood still, he threw up his hands, and felldead.
Then Meriamun drew near and looked at him strangely.
"Behold the end of Pharaoh," she said. "That then was a king, upon whosebreath the lives of peoples hung like a poised feather. Well, let himgo! Earth can spare him, and Death is but the richer by a wearyfool. 'Tis done, and well done! Would that to-morrow's task were alsodone--and that Helen lay as Pharaoh lies. So--rinse the cup--and now tosleep--if sleep will come. Ah, where hath sleep flown of late? To-morrowthey'll find him dead. Well, what of it? So do kings ofttimes die.There, I will be going; never were his eyes so large and so unlovely!"
Now the light of morning gathered again on all the temple tops, and menrose from sleep to go about their labours. Meriamun watched it grow asshe lay sleepless in her golden bed, waiting for the cry that presentlyshould ring along the Palace walls. Hark! What was that? The sound ofswinging doors, the rush of running feet. And now it came--long andshrill it rose.
"Pharaoh is dead! Awake! Awake, ye sleepers! Awake! awake! and look uponthat which has come about. Pharaoh is dead! Pharaoh is dead!"
Then Meriamun arose, and followed by the ladies, rushed from herchamber.
"Who dreams so evilly?" she said. "Who dreams and cries aloud in hishaunted sleep?"
"O Queen, it is no dream," said one. "Pass into the ante-chamber andsee. There lies Pharaoh dead, and with no wound upon him to tell themanner of his end."
Then Meriamun cried aloud with a great cry, and threw her hair about herface, while tears fell from her dark eyes. She passed into the chamber,and there, fallen on his back and cold, lay Pharaoh in his royal robes.Awhile the Queen looked upon him as one who is dumb with grief. Then shelifted up her voice and cried:
"Still is the curse heavy upon Khem and the people of Khem. Pharaoh liesdead; yea
, he is dead who has no wound, and this I say, that he isslain of the witchcraft of her whom men name the Hathor. Oh, my Lord,my Lord!" and kneeling, she laid her hand upon his breast; "by this deadheart of thine I swear that I will wreak thy murder on her who wroughtit. Lift him up! Lift up this poor clay, that was the first of kings.Clothe him in the robes of death, and set him on the knees of Osiris inthe Temple of Osiris. Then go forth through the city and call out this,the Queen's command; call it from street to street. This is the Queen'scommand, that 'every woman in Tanis who has lost son, or husband, orbrother, or kin or lover, through the witchcraft of the False Hathor,or by the plagues that she hath wrought on Khem, or in the war with theApura, whom she caused to fly from Khem, do meet me at sundown inthe Temple of Osiris before the face of the God and of dead Pharaoh'sMajesty.'"
So they took Meneptah the Osirian, and wrapping him in the robes ofdeath, bore him to the knees of Osiris, where he should sit a day and anight. And the messengers of Meriamun went forth summoning the womenof the city to meet her at sunset in the Temple of Osiris. Moreover,Meriamun sent out slaves by tens and by twenties to the number of twothousand, bidding them gather up all the wood that was in Tanis, and allthe oil and the bitumen, and bundles of reeds by hundreds such as areused for the thatching of houses, and lay them in piles and stacks in acertain courtyard near the Temple of Hathor. This they did, and so theday wore on, while the women wailed about the streets because of thedeath of Pharaoh.