THE CRISIS IN ATVATABAR.
The manifesto of Lyone had precipitated an historic crisis in
Atvatabar. The king awaited my leaving the country with the utmost
impatience. He made every effort to prevent the news from reaching the
public, hoping that when I took my departure the goddess would be
amenable to the laws of the realm, and the faith be thus preserved.
The more that Lyone and myself discussed the situation, the more
apparent it appeared that we could not now draw back from the position
we had taken. It was absolutely necessary to provide a following in
case the government attempted arrest, or the execution of either or
both of us. Trusty messengers were despatched to the high priest,
Hushnoly, the grand sorcerer, Charka, the lord of art, Yermoul, and
the other friends of Lyone, informing them of the step she had taken,
and asking their support in case any violence were offered her.
I advised Lyone to have her agents collect and transmit to Kioram all
munitions of war. Some of the royal wayleals were armed with spears,
and others with swords and shields. All battles were fought in the
air, by reason of the wayleals being able to fly, as their movement on
wings was more rapid than movement on foot.
As already stated, the ordinary spear of the king's wayleals was very
effective, by reason of its discharging a magnetic current into the
body, causing instant death. With a view of arming the army of the
goddess with a more potent weapon than magnic spears, I quietly had
agents purchase for immediate transmission to Kioram vast quantities
of iron, and the material for making gunpowder, which happily existed
in great abundance in Atvatabar. My idea was to start a manufactory
for firearms, which were unknown to the interior world, and arm every
man with a magazine rifle--a portable mitrailleuse, in fact.
While engaged in discussing the plan of defence with Lyone the crisis
was precipitated by the press of the country finding out the _coup
d'etat_ of the goddess. With a view of placing the government in the
most favorable light before the people, the chief organ of the king,
_The Calnogor Jossidi_, published a fierce editorial condemning the
action of the goddess, and reviling what it was pleased to call "the
contumacious invader and despoiler of Atvatabar." The article ran
thus:
"IMPIOUS SACRILEGE!
"ASTOUNDING APOSTASY!
"THE SUPREME GODDESS REFUSES FURTHER WORSHIP, AND HAS
DEGRADED HERSELF BY SEEKING MARRIAGE WITH AN
ALIEN LOVER!
"WHAT IS FAITH, IF DECEIT BE OUR DEITY?
"The sweet, the noble, the pure, the exalted worship of holy
love, and of its hitherto most perfect symbol, the Goddess
Lyone, is threatened with extinction, if it be not entirely
destroyed. That sweet and perishable affection that fills
the breasts of lovers, which has been for ages conserved,
expanded, and wrought into an enduring fabric of religion in
the sacred temple of Egyplosis, is about to utterly perish
by a mad act of apostasy on the part of the deity herself.
Whither now will tender and faithful hearts turn to find a
refuge for all that makes the life glorious? Our ideal soul
has sunk into degradation! She has flung herself from her
proud and happy throne, wounding our faith with impious
sacrilege!
"Never before in the history of the world has the treachery
of a goddess been manifest; we have had occasion hitherto
only to mourn the apostasy of the worshipper. Now what
avails our worship, if the object of our adoration fails us
in the hour of need? Who is to console the bereavement of
millions, when their consoler has hopelessly abandoned them?
We say to both his majesty the king and government, follow
the iconoclasts with the sword of justice; no punishment is
too severe for such perfidious workers of iniquity! Death on
the magnic scaffold is the penalty for the infatuation of
the goddess and her atheistic lover! Wanting both men and
money, the standard of revolt will be brought down by the
first blow, and his majesty's troops can be relied upon to
bring the rebels to swift justice. Let them be covered with
eternal infamy who will support this fearful apostasy!"
It became necessary for Lyone to publish the following manifesto to
the nation, stating briefly the reasons that led to her renunciation
of Harikar, to become the apostle of a new creed of one body and one
soul:
"LYONE, _who has been until now Supreme Goddess of the faith
of Harikar, to her faithful people, greeting_:
"I, who have been exalted to the high seat of honor on the
throne of the gods, as the incarnation of the supreme soul,
having received divine honors at your hands, desire at this
crisis to make known to you the nature of the reform I seek
to establish in the faith and worship of Atvatabar.
"I do not seek to annihilate your faith, with all its tender
and memorable qualities. I simply seek to reform such
religion, making it more natural, more holy. All things that
exist do change; if they do not rise to greater glory, they
must sink to profounder shame. I, who have been your goddess
during a long and blessed Nirvana, know how much you love
me. I know that round my throne a tempest of passion has
swept for years, filling me with its ecstasy. But I hasten
to tell you that the delights of Egyplosis have been
purchased at a fearful price. The sacrifices of its priests
and priestesses have proved to me that even the retreat of
ideal love can be as inexorably cruel as the outer world. So
harassing have been these sacrifices that some could not
bear their burden, and at this moment five hundred twin
souls are confined in the dungeons of Egyplosis because they
transgressed the vows of their novitiate. Of what avail are
tender, chivalrous delights, if nature, if reason, be
outraged in producing them?
"Those who have remained steadfast to their vows, have grown
sickly and morbid, feeding too long on fantastic ecstasies.
Despondent and unreal in mind, delicate and nervous in body,
they only appear rich and radiant in some brief ceremonial,
while their every-day life is shuddering, tearful, and
unstable, and utterly unfit to cope with the struggle of
ordinary existence.
"Therefore it is that one moment of pleasure is purchased by
whole days of pain, and the oscillation between such
extremes racks and ruins the dearest souls.
"The motto of the new faith for Egyplosis, 'One Body and One
Soul,' founded on the ordinary marriage rite, will restore
to priest and priestess the steady and temperate possession
of their souls which gives society that virile force
necessary to its very existence.
"By the memory of our mutual love, I claim the support of my
faithful priests and priestesses, worshippers and people, in
the coming struggle.
"LYONE."
The manifesto of the goddess, published in all the papers of the
kingdom, created a profound sensation. It was the first discovery to
millions that their religion had been weighed and found wanting.
Although many were aware of its excesses, they saw that, despite every
regulation, the hornet was in possession of Hesperides, prepared to
sting the hand that reached for the golden fruit.
They learned that passion led to agonized exaltation, and that the
moral fibres of the soul became paralyzed by fierce temptation and
inordinate spiritual delights. They saw that restraint of rapture and
a more natural basis for the fellowship of the sexes were reforms
imperatively needed, if the religion of Atvatabar were to remain an
elevating and purifying force. Their creed must be reformed, both in
faith and practice, and who so capable of introducing such a reform as
Lyone herself?
The power of the deep-rooted conservatism of those who had nothing to
gain by the change, the fear of the merchants that civil war meant
their financial ruin, of a king jealous of his authority, and of the
supremacy of existing laws, were the forces that would oppose the
power of the goddess to carry out her reforms.
I began to accuse myself of being entirely responsible for all this
disturbance in a peaceful country. Had I never discovered Atvatabar,
Lyone might never have desired to disturb the existing order of
things, but would have remained an agonized and crowned goddess,
wedded only to Harikar, in a temple of eternal celibacy.
I knew, however, that all this was changed. I knew it by her sighs at
our first meeting in the garden of Tanje, which, to remember, again
and again made me thrill and shudder with joy.