The public official reception was over. The sentence had been read, the
name of Phorenice, the Empress, adored, and the new Viceroy installed
with all that vast and ponderous ceremonial which had gained its pomp
and majesty from the ages. Formally, I had delivered up the reins of my
government; formally, Tatho had seated himself on the snake-throne, and
had put over his neck the chain of gems which symbolised the supreme
office; and then, whilst the drums and the trumpets made their
proclamation of clamour, he had risen to his feet, for his first state
progress round that gilded council chamber as Viceroy of the Province of
Yucatan.
With folded arms and bended head, I followed him between the glittering
lines of soldiers, and the brilliant throng of courtiers, and chiefs,
and statesmen. The roof-beams quivered to the cries of “Long Live
Tatho!” “Flourish the Empress!” which came forth as in duty bound, and
the new ruler acknowledged the welcome with stately inclinations of
the head. In turn he went to the three lesser thrones of the lesser
governors--in the East, the North, and the South, and received homage
from each as the ritual was; and I, the man whom his coming had deposed,
followed with the prescribed meekness in his train.
It was a hard task, but we who hold the higher offices learn to carry
before the people a passionless face. Once, twenty years before, these
same fine obeisances had been made to me; now the Gods had seen fit to
make fortune change. But as I walked bent and humbly on behind the heels
of Tatho, though etiquette forbade noisy salutations to myself, it could
not inhibit kindly glances, and these came from every soldier, every
courtier, and every chief who stood there in that gilded hall, and
they fell upon me very gratefully. It is not often the fallen meet such
tender looks.
The form goes, handed down from immemorial custom, that on these great
ceremonial days of changing a ruler, those of the people being present
may bring forward petitions and requests; may make accusations against
their retiring head with sure immunity from his vengeance; or may state
their own private theories for the better government of the State in the
future. I think it may be pardoned to my vanity if I record that not a
voice was raised against me, or against any of the items of my twenty
years of rule. Nor did any speak out for alterations in the future.
Yes, even though we made the circuit for the three prescribed times, all
present showed their approval in generous silence.
Then, one behind the other, the new Viceroy and the old, we marched with
formal step over golden tiles of that council hall beneath the pyramid,
and the great officers of state left their stations and joined in our
train; and at the farther wall we came to the door of those private
chambers which an hour ago had been mine own.
Ah, well! I had no home now in any of those wondrous cities of Yucatan,
and I could not help feeling a bitterness, though in sooth I should have
been thankful enough to return to the Continent of Atlantis with my head
still in its proper station.
Tatho gave his formal summons of “Open ye to the Viceroy,” which the
ritual commands, and the slaves within sent the massive stone valves of
the door gaping wide. Tatho entered, I at his heels; the others halted,
sending valedictions from the threshold; and the valves of the door
clanged on the lock behind us. We passed on to the chamber beyond, and
then, when for the first time we were alone together, and the forced
etiquette of courts was behind us, the new Viceroy turned with meekly
folded arms, and bowed low before me.
“Deucalion,” he said, “believe me that I have not sought this office. It
was thrust upon me. Had I not accepted, my head would have paid forfeit,
and another man--your enemy--would have been sent out as viceroy in
your place. The Empress does not permit that her will shall ever be
questioned.”
“My friend,” I made answer, “my brother in all but blood, there is no
man living in all Atlantis or her territories to whom I had liefer hand
over my government. For twenty years now have I ruled this country
of Yucatan, and Mexico beyond, first under the old King, and then
as minister to this new Empress. I know my colony like a book. I am
intimate with all her wonderful cities, with their palaces, their
pyramids, and their people. I have hunted the beasts and the savages in
the forests. I have built roads, and made the rivers so that they will
carry shipping. I have fostered the arts and crafts like a merchant; I
have discoursed, three times each day, the cult of the Gods with
mine own lips. Through evil years and through good have I ruled here,
striving only for the prosperity of the land and the strengthening of
Atlantis, and I have grown to love the peoples like a father. To you I
bequeath them, Tatho, with tender supplications for their interests.”
“It is not I that can carry on Deucalion’s work with Deucalion’s power,
but rest content, my friend, that I shall do my humble best to follow
exactly on in your footsteps. Believe me, I came out to this government
with a thousand regrets, but I would have died sooner than take your
place had I known how vigorously the supplanting would trouble you.”
“We are alone here,” I said, “away from the formalities of formal
assemblies, and a man may give vent to his natural self without fear of
tarnishing a ceremony. Your coming was something of the suddenest.
Till an hour ago, when you demanded audience, I had thought to rule on
longer; and even now I do not know for what cause I am deposed.”
“The proclamation said: ‘We relieve our well-beloved Deucalion of his
present service, because we have great need of his powers at home in our
kingdom of Atlantis.’”
“A mere formality.”
Tatho looked uneasily round the hangings of the chamber, and drew me
with him to its centre, and lowered his voice.
“I do not think so,” he whispered. “I believe she has need of you. There
are troublous times on hand, and Phorenice wants the ablest men in the
kingdom ready to her call.”
“You may speak openly,” I said, “and without fear of eavesdroppers.
We are in the heart of the pyramid here, built in every way by a man’s
length of solid stone. Myself, I oversaw the laying of every course.
And besides, here in Yucatan, we have not the niceties of your old world
diplomacy, and do not listen, because we count it shame to do so.”
Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “I acted only according to mine education.
At home, a loose tongue makes a loose head, and there are those whose
trade it is to carry tales. Still, what I say is this: The throne
shakes, and Phorenice sees the need of sturdy props. So she has sent
this proclamation.”
“But why come to me? It is twenty years since I sailed to this colony,
and from that day I have not returned to Atlantis once. I know little of
the old country’s politics. What small parcel of news drifts out to us
across the ocean, reads with slender interest here. Yucatan is another
world, my dear Tatho, as you in the course of your government will
learn, with new interests, new people, new everything. To us here,
Atlantis is only a figment, a shadow, far away across the waters. It
is for this new world of Yucatan that I have striven through all these
years.”
“If Deucalion has small time to spare from his government for brooding
over his fatherland, Atlantis, at least, has found leisure to admire
the deeds of her brilliant son. Why, sir, over yonder at home, your name
carries magic with it. When you and I were lads together, it was the
custom in the colleges to teach that the men of the past were the
greatest this world has ever seen; but to-day this teaching is changed.
It is Deucalion who is held up as the model and example. Mothers name
their sons Deucalion, as the most valuable birth-gift they can make.
Deucalion is a household word. Indeed, there is only one name that is
near to it in familiarity.”
“You trouble me,” I said, frowning. “I have tried to do my duty for its
own sake, and for the country’s sake, not for the pattings and fondlings
of the vulgar. And besides, if there are names to be in every one’s
mouth, they should be the names of the Gods.”
Tatho shrugged his shoulders. “The Gods? They occupy us very little
these latter years. With our modern science, we have grown past the
tether of the older Gods, and no new one has appeared. No, my Lord
Deucalion, if it were merely the Gods who were your competitors on men’s
lips, your name would be a thousand times the better known.”
“Of mere human names,” I said, “the name of this new Empress should come
first in Atlantis, our lord the old King being now dead.”
“She certainly would have it so,” replied Tatho, and there was something
in his tone which made me see that more was meant behind the words. I
drew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself familiarly towards
him. “I am speaking,” I said, “not to the new Viceroy of Yucatan, but
to my old friend Tatho, a member of the Priests’ Clan, like myself, with
whom I worked side by side in a score of the smaller home governments,
in hamlets, in villages, in smaller towns, in greater towns, as we
gained experience in war and knowledge in the art of ruling people, and
so tediously won our promotion. I am speaking in Tatho’s private abode,
that was mine own not two hours since, and I would have an answer with
that plainness which we always then used to one another.”
The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. “I almost forget how to speak in
plain words now,” he said. “We have grown so polished in these latter
days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as indelicate. But for the
memory of those early years, when we expended as much law and thought
over the ownership of a hay-byre as we should now over the fate of a
rebellious city, I will try and speak plain to you even now, Deucalion.
Tell me, old friend, what is it?”
“What of this new Empress?”
He frowned. “I might have guessed your subject,” he said.
“Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have been made.
What has this Phorenice done to make her throne unstable in Atlantis?”
Tatho frowned still. “If I did not know you to be as honest as our Lord
the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them. Phorenice has a
short way with those who are daring enough to discuss her policies for
other purpose than politely to praise them.”
“You can leave me ignorant if you wish,” I said with a touch of chill.
This Tatho seemed to be different from the Tatho I had known at home,
Tatho my workmate, Tatho who had read with me in the College of Priests,
who had run with me in many a furious charge, who had laboured with me
so heavily that the peoples under us might prosper. But he was quick
enough to see my change of tone.
“You force me back to my old self,” he said with a half smile, “though
it is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned during the last
twenty years, even when speaking with you. Still, whatever may have
happened to the rest of us, it is clear to see that you at least have
not changed, and, old friend, I am ready to trust you with my life if
you ask it. In fact, you do ask me that very thing when you tell me to
speak all I know of Phorenice.”
I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was full
confidence between us. “The Gods will it now that I return to Atlantis,”
I said, “and what happens after that the Gods alone know. But it would
be of service to me if I could land on her shores with some knowledge of
this Phorenice, for at present I am as ignorant concerning her as some
savage from Europe or mid-Africa.”
“What would you have me tell?”
“Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the ancient
law of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of the Priestly
Clan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn; and that, from
what you say, she has caused the throne to totter. The throne was as
firm as the everlasting hills in the old King’s day, Tatho.”
“History has moved with pace since then, and Phorenice has spurred it.
You know her origin?”
“I know only the exact little I have told you.”
“She was a swineherd’s daughter from the mountains, though this is never
even whispered now, as she has declared herself to be a daughter of the
Gods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As she has decreed it a
sacrilege to question this parentage, and has ordered to be burnt all
those that seem to recollect her more earthly origin, the fable passes
current for truth. You see the faith I put in you, Deucalion, by telling
you what you wish to learn.”
“There has always been trust between us.”
“I know; but this habit of suspicion is hard to cast off, even with you.
However, let me put your good faith between me and the torture further.
Zaemon, you remember, was governor of the swineherd’s province, and
Zaemon’s wife saw Phorenice and took her away to adopt and bring up as
her own. It is said that the swineherd and his woman objected; perhaps
they did; anyway, I know they died; and Phorenice was taught the arts
and graces, and brought up as a daughter of the Priestly Clan.”
“But still she was an adopted daughter only,” I objected.
“The omission of the ‘adopted’ was her will at an early age,” said Tatho
dryly, “and she learnt early to have her wishes carried into fact. It
was notorious that before she had grown to fifteen years she ruled not
only the women of the household, but Zaemon also, and the province that
was beyond Zaemon.”
“Zaemon was learned,” I said, “and a devout follower of the Gods, and
searcher into the higher mysteries; but, as a ruler, he was always a
flabby fellow.”
“I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in Phorenice’s
way, but she has genius as well. For her to have raised herself at all
from what she was, was remarkable. Not one woman out of a thousand,
placed as she was, would have grown to be aught higher than a mere wife
of some sturdy countryman, who was sufficiently simple to care nothing
for pedigree. But look at Phorenice: it was her whim to take exercise
as a man-at-arms and practise with all the utensils of war; and then,
before any one quite knows how or why it happened, a rebellion had
broken out in the province, and here was she, a slip of a girl, leading
Zaemon’s troops.”
“Zaemon, when I knew him, was a mere derision in the field.”
“Hear me on. Phorenice put down the rebellion in masterly fashion, and
gave the conquered a choice between sword and service. They fell into
her ranks at once, and were faithful to her from that moment. I tell
you, Deucalion, there is a marvellous fascination about the woman.”
“Her present historian seems to have felt it.”
“Of course I have. Every one who sees her comes under her spell. And
frankly, I am in love with her also, and look upon my coming here as
detestable exile. Every one near to Phorenice, high and low, loves her
just the same, even though they know it may be her whim to send them to
execution next minute.”
Perhaps I let my scorn of this appear.
“You feel contempt for our weakness? You were always a strong man,
Deucalion.”
“At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time to palter
with the fripperies of women.”
“Ah, but these colonists here are crude and unfascinating. Wait till you
see the ladies of the court, my ascetic.”
“It comes to my mind,” I said dryly, “that I lived in Atlantis before I
came out here, and at that time I used to see as much of court life as
most men. Yet then, also, I felt no inducement to marry.”
Tatho chuckled. “Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly know the
country to-day. A new era has come over everything, especially over
the other sex. Well do I remember the women of the old King’s time, how
monstrous uncomely they were, how little they knew how to walk or carry
themselves, how painfully barbaric was their notion of dress. I dare
swear that your ladies here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day as
ours were then. But you should see them now at home. They are delicious.
And above all in charm is the Empress. Oh, Deucalion, you shall see
Phorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of these
fine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees and
repent.”
“I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life’s ways. The
Gods make all things possible. But for the present I remain as I am,
celibate, and not wishful to be otherwise; and so in the meantime I
would hear the continuance of your history.”
“It is one long story of success. She deposed Zaemon from his government
in name as well as in fact, and the news was spread, and the Priestly
Clan rose in its wrath. The two neighbouring governors were bidden join
forces, take her captive, and bring her for execution. Poor men! They
tried to obey their orders; they attacked her surely enough, but in
battle she could laugh at them. She killed both, and made some slaughter
amongst their troops; and to those that remained alive and became her
prisoners, she made her usual offer--the sword or service. Naturally
they were not long over making their choice: to these common people one
ruler is much the same as another: and so again her army was reinforced.
“Three times were bodies of soldiery sent against her, and three times
was she victorious. The last was a final effort. Before, it had been
customary to despise this adventuress who had sprung up so suddenly. But
then the priests began to realise their peril; to see that the throne
itself was in danger; and to know that if she were to be crushed, they
would have to put forth their utmost. Every man who could carry arms was
pressed into the service. Every known art of war was ordered to be put
into employment. It was the largest army, and the best equipped army
that Atlantis then had ever raised, and the Priestly Clan saw fit to put
in supreme command their general, Tatho.”
“You!” I cried.
“Even myself, Deucalion. And mark you, I fought my utmost. I was not her
creature then; and when I set out (because they wanted to spur me to the
uttermost) the High Council of the priests pointed out my prospects. The
King we had known so long, was ailing and wearily old; he was so wrapped
up in the study of the mysteries, and the joy of closely knowing them,
that earthly matters had grown nauseous to him; and at any time he might
decide to die. The Priestly Clan uses its own discretion in the election
of a new king, but it takes note of popular sentiment; and a general who
at the critical time could come home victorious from a great campaign,
which moreover would release a harassed people from the constant
application of arms, would be the idol of the moment. These things were
pointed out to me solemnly and in the full council.”
“What! They promised you the throne?”
“Even that. So you see I set out with a high stake before me. Phorenice
I had never seen, and I swore to take her alive, and give her to be the
sport of my soldiery. I had a fine confidence in my own strategy then,
Deucalion. But the old Gods, in whom I trusted then, remained old,
taught me no new thing. I drilled and exercised my army according to the
forms you and I learnt together, old comrade, and in many a tough fight
found to serve well; I armed them with the choicest weapons we knew of
then, with sling and mace, with bow and spear, with axe and knife, with
sword and the throwing fire; their bodies I covered with metal plates;
even their bellies I cared for, with droves of cattle driven in the rear
of the fighting troops.
“But when the encounter came, they might have been men of straw for all
the harm they did. Out of her own brain Phorenice had made fire-tubes
that cast a dart which would kill beyond two bowshots, and the fashion
in which she handled her troops dazzled me. They threatened us on one
flank, they harassed us on the other. It was not war as we had been
accustomed to. It was a newer and more deadly game, and I had to watch
my splendid army eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did I
get a chance of forcing close action. These new tactics that had come
from Phorenice’s invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand. We
were eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us so much
the more easy for slaughter. A panic came, and those who could fled.
Myself, I had no wish to go back and earn the axe that waits for the
unsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting where I stood. But
death would not come. It was a fine melee, Deucalion, that last one.”
“And so she took you?”
“I stood with three others back to back, with a ring of dead round us,
and a ring of the enemy hemming us in. We taunted them to come on. But
at hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold our own, and so
they were calling for fire-tubes with which they could strike us down
in safety from a distance. Then up came Phorenice. ‘What is this to-do?’
says she. ‘We seek to kill Lord Tatho, who led against you,’ say they.
‘So that is Tatho?’ says she. ‘A fine figure of a man indeed, and a
pretty fighter seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is one
who would acquire the newer method. See now Tatho,’ says she, ‘it is my
custom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe me,
was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my banner. Will
you make a choice?’
“‘Woman,’ I said, ‘fairest that ever I saw, finest general the world
has ever borne, you tempt me sorely by your qualities, but there is a
tradition in our Clan, that we should be true to the salt we eat. I am
the King’s man still, and so I can take no service from you.’
“‘The King is dead,’ says she. ‘A runner has just brought the tidings,
meaning them to have fallen into your hands. And I am the Empress.’
“‘Who made you Empress?’ I asked.
“‘The same most capable hand that has given me this battle,’ says she.
‘It is a capable hand, as you have seen: it can be a kind hand also, as
you may learn if you choose. With the King dead, Tatho is a masterless
man now. Is Tatho in want of a mistress?’
“‘Such a glorious mistress as you,’ I said, ‘Yes.’ And from that moment,
Deucalion, I have been her slave. Oh, you may frown; you may get up from
this seat and walk away if you will. But I ask you this: keep back your
worst judgment of me, old friend, till after you have seen Phorenice
herself in the warm and lovely flesh. Then your own ears and your own
senses will be my advocates, to win me back your old esteem.”