As Hiram had supposed, the better class of the household were still
sitting with their friends, and they had been joined by the guide and
by the Arab merchant’s head man: Rustem the Masdakite, as well as his
secretary and interpreter.
With the exception only of Gamaliel the Jewish goldsmith, and the Arab’s
followers, the whole of the party were Christians; and it had gone
against the grain to admit the Moslems into their circle--the Jew had
for years been a welcome member of the society. However, they had done
so, and not without marked civility; for their lord had desired that
the strangers should be made welcome, and they might expect to hear much
that was new from wanderers from such a distance. In this, to be sure,
they were disappointed, for the dragoman was taciturn and the Masdakite
could speak no Egyptian, and Greek very ill. So, after various futile
attempts to make the new-comers talk, they paid no further heed to them,
and Orion’s secretary became the chief speaker. He had already told them
yesterday much that was fresh and interesting about the Imperial court;
to-day he entered into fuller details of the brilliant life his young
lord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. He
described the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses;
gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followers
through a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St.
Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion’s successes among the beauties of the
Capital.
“The queen of them all,” he went on in boastful accents, “was
Heliodora--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, but
a rich, elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus,
nephew to Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. All
Constantinople was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to win
her, but of course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers in
all Egypt, not even in Alexandria. The governor’s residence here--for
I think nothing of mere size--is a peasant’s hut--a wretched barn by
comparison! I will tell you another time what that casket of treasures
is like. Its door was besieged day and night by slaves and freedmen
bringing her offerings of flowers and fruit, rare gifts, and tender
verses written on perfumed, rose-colored silk; but her favors were not
to be purchased till she met Orion. Would you believe it: from the first
time she saw him in Justinus’ villa she fell desperately in love with
him; it was all over with her; she was his as completely as the ring on
my finger is mine!”
And in his vanity he showed his hearers a gold ring, with a gem of some
value, which he owed to the liberality of his young master. “From that
day forth,” he eagerly went on, “the names of Orion and Heliodora were
in every mouth, and how often have I seen men quite beside themselves
over the beauty of this divine pair. In the Circus, in the theatre, or
sailing about the Bosphorus--they were to be seen everywhere together;
and through the hideous, bloody struggle for the throne they lived in a
Paradise of their own. He often took her out in his chariot; or she took
him in hers.”
“Such a woman has horses too?” asked the head groom contemptuously.
“A woman!” cried the secretary. “A lady of rank!--She has none but
bright chestnuts; large horses of Armenian breed, and small, swift
beasts from the island of Sardinia, which fly on with the chariot, four
abreast, like hunted foxes. Her horses are always decked with flowers
and ribbons fluttering from the gold harness, and the grooms know how
to drive them too!--Well, every one thought that our young lord and the
handsome widow would marry; and it was a terrible blow to the hapless
Heliodora when nothing came of it--she looks like a saint and is as soft
as a kitten. I was by when they parted, and she shed such bitter tears
it was pitiable to see. Still, she could not be angry with her idol,
poor, gentle, tender kitten. She even gave him her lap-dog for a
keepsake--that little silky thing you have seen here. And take my word
for it, that was a true love-token, for her heart was as much set on
that little beast as if it had been her favorite child. And he felt the
parting too, felt it deeply; however, I am his confidential secretary,
and it would never do for me to tell tales out of school. He clasped the
little dog to his heart as he bid her farewell, and he promised her to
send some keepsake in return which should show her how precious her love
had been--and it will be no trifle, that any one may swear who knows
my master. You, Gamaliel, I daresay he has been to you about it by this
time.”
The man thus addressed--the same to whom Hiram was to offer Paula’s
emerald--was a rich Alexandrian of a happy turn of mind; as soon as the
incursion of the Saracens had made Alexandria an unsafe residence, so
that the majority of his fellow Israelites had fled from the great port,
he had found his way to Memphis, where he could count on the protection
of his patron, the Mukaukas George.
He shook his grizzled curls at this question, but he presently whispered
in the secretary’s ear. “We have the very thing he wants. You bring me
the cow and you shall have a calf--and a calf with twelve legs too. Is
it a bargain?”
“Twelve per cent on the profits? Done!” replied the secretary in the
same tone, with a sly smile of intelligence.
When, by-and-bye, an accountant asked him why Orion had not brought home
this fair dame, the bearer too of a noble name, to his parents as their
daughter-in-law, he replied that, being a Greek, she was of course a
Melchite. Those present asked no better reason; as soon as the question
of creed was raised the conversation, as usual in these convivial
evenings, became a squabble over dogmatic differences; in the course of
it a legal official ventured to opine that if the case had been that of
a less personage than a son of the Mukaukas--for whom it was, of
course, out of the question--of a mere Jacobite citizen and his Melchite
sweetheart, for instance, some compromise might have been effected. They
need only have made up their minds each, respectively, to subscribe to
the Monothelitic doctrine--though, he, for his part, could have nothing
to say to anything of the kind; it was warmly upheld by the Imperial
court, and by Cyrus, the deceased patriarch of Alexandria, and was based
on the assumption that there were indeed two natures in Christ, but both
under the control of one and the same will. By this dogma there were
in the Saviour two persons no doubt; still it asserted His unity in a
certain qualified sense, and this was the most important point.
Such an heretical proposition was of course loudly disapproved of by the
assembled Jacobites; differences of opinion were more and more strongly
asserted, and a calm interchange of views turned to a riotous quarrel
which threatened to end in actual violence.
This discussion was already beginning when Paula succeeded in slipping
unseen across the court-yard.
She silently beckoned to Hiram to follow her; he cautiously took off
his shoes, pushed them under the steep servants’ stairs, and in a few
minutes was standing in the young girl’s room. Paula at once opened a
chest, and took out a costly and beautifully-wrought necklace set with
pearls. This she handed to the Syrian, desiring him to wrench from
its setting a large emerald which hung from the middle. The freedman’s
strong hand, with the aid of a knife, quickly and easily did the work;
and he stood weighing the gem, as it lay freed from the gold hemisphere
that had held it, larger than a walnut, shining and sparkling on his
palm, while Paula repeated the instructions she had already given him in
her nurse’s room.
The faithful soul had no sooner left his beloved mistress than she
proceeded to unplait her long thick hair, smiling the while with happy
hope; but she had not yet begun to undress when she heard a knock. She
started, flew to the door and hastily bolted it, while she enquired:
“Who is there?”--preparing herself for the worst. “Hiram,” was the
whispered reply. She opened the door, and he told her that meanwhile the
side door had been locked, and that he knew no other way out from the
great rambling house whither he rarely had occasion to come.
What was to be done? He could not wait till the door was opened again,
for he must carry out her commission quite early in the morning, and if
he were caught and locked up for only half the day the Nabathaean would
take some other engagement.
With swift decision she twisted up her hair, threw a handkerchief over
her head, and said: “Then come with me; the moon is still up; it would
not be safe to carry a lamp. I will lead the way and you must keep
behind me If only the kitchen is empty, we can reach the Viridarium
unseen. If the upper servants are still sitting in the court-yard the
great door will be open, for several of them sleep in the house. At any
rate you must go through the vestibule; you cannot miss your way out
of the viridarium. But stay! Beki generally lies in front of the
tablinum--the fierce dog from Herrionthis in Thebais; and he does not
know you, for he never goes out of the house, but he will obey me.
“When I lift my hand, hang back a little. He is quite quiet with his
masters, and does not hurt a stranger if they are by. Now, we must not
utter another word.--If we are discovered, I will confess the truth; if
you alone are seen, you can say--well, say you were waiting for Orion,
to speak to him very early about the horse-fair at Niku.”
“A horse was off--off--offered me for sale this very day.”
“Good, very good; then you lingered in the vestibule to speak of
that--to ask the master about it before he should go out. It must be
daylight in a few hours.--Now, come.”
Paula went down the stairs with a sure and rapid step. At the bottom
Hiram again took off his shoes, holding them in his hand, so as to lose
no time in following his mistress. They went on in silence through the
darkness till they reached the kitchen. Here Paula turned and said to
the Syrian:
“If there is any one here, I will say I came to fetch some water; if
there is no one I will cough and you can follow. At any rate I will
leave the door open, and then you will hear what happens. If I am
obliged to return, do you hurry on before me back by the way we came. In
that case I will return to my room where you must wait outside till
the side door is opened again, and if you are found there leave the
explanation to me.--Shrink back, quite into that corner.”
She softly opened the door into the kitchen; the roof was open to the
light of the declining moon and myriad stars. The room was quite empty:
only a cat lay on a bench by the wide hearth, and a few bats flitted
to and fro on noiseless wings; a few live coals still glowed among the
ashes under the spits, like the eyes of lurking beasts of prey. Paula
coughed gently, and immediately heard Hiram’s step behind her; then,
with a beating heart and agonizing fears, she proceeded on her way.
First down a few steps, then through a dark passage, where the bats in
their unswerving flight shot by close to her head. At last they had
to cross the large, open dining-hall. This led into the viridarium, a
spacious quadrangle, paved at the edges and planted in the middle, where
a fountain played; round this square the Governor’s residence was built.
All was still and peaceful in this secluded space, vaulted over by the
high heavens whose deep blue was thickly dotted with stars. The moon
would soon be hidden behind the top of the cornice which crowned the
roof of the building. The large-leaved plants in the middle of the
quadrangle threw strange, ghostly shadows on the dewy grass-plot; the
water in the fountain splashed more loudly than by day, but with a
soothing, monotonous gurgle, broken now and then by a sudden short
pause. The marble pillars gleamed as white as snow, and filmy mists,
which were beginning to rise from the damp lawn, floated languidly
hither and thither on the soft night breeze, like ghosts veiled in
flowing crape. Moths flitted noiselessly round and over the clumps of
bushes, and the whole quiet and restful enclosure was full of sweetness
from the Lotos flowers in the marble basin, from the blossoms of the
luxuriant shrubs and the succulent tropical herbs at their feet. At any
other time it would have been a joy to pause and look round, only to
breathe and let the silent magic of the night exert its spell; but
Paula’s soul was closed against these charms. The sequestered silence
lent a threatening accent to the furious wrangling in the court-yard,
which was audible even here in bursts of uproar; and it was with an
anxious heart that she observed that everything was not in its usual
order; for her sharp eyes could discern no one, nothing, at the entrance
to the tablinum, which was usually guarded by an armed sentinel or by
the watch-dog; and surely--yes, she was not mistaken--the bronze doors
were open, and the moon shone on the bright metal of one half which
stood ajar.
She stopped, and Hiram behind her did the same. They both listened with
such tension that the veins in their foreheads swelled; but from the
tablinum, which was hardly thirty paces from them, came only very faint
and intermittent sounds, indistinct in character and drowned by the
tumult without.
A few long and anxious minutes, and then the half-closed door was
suddenly opened and a man came forth. Paula’s heart stood still, but
she did not for an instant lose her keenness of vision; she at once and
positively recognized the man who came out of the tablinum as Orion
and none other, and the big, long-haired dog too came out and past him,
sniffed the air and then, with a loud bark, rushed on the two watchers.
Trembling and with clenched teeth, but still mistress of herself, she
let him come close to her, and then, calling him by his name: “Beki” in
low, caressing tones, as soon as he recognized her, she laid her hand on
his shaggy head to scratch his ears, as he loved it done.
Paula and her companion were standing behind a column in the deepest
shadow. Thus Orion could not see her, and the dog’s loud bark had
prevented his hearing her coaxing call; so when Beki was quiet and stood
still, Orion whistled to him. The obedient and watchful beast, ran
back, wagging his tail; and his master, greeting him as “a stupid old
cat-hunter,” let him spring over his arm, hugged the creature and then
pushed him off again in play. Then he closed the door and went into the
apartments leading to the courtyard.
“But he must come back this way to go to his own rooms,” said Paula to
her companion with a sigh of relief. “We must wait. But now we must not
lose a minute. Come over to the door of the tablinum. The dog will know
me now and will not bark again.” They hastened on, and when they had
reached the door, which lay in shadow within a deep doorway, Paula asked
her companion: “Did you see who the man was who came out?”
“My lord Orion,” said Hiram. “He was co--co--coming home from the town
when I preceded you across the yard.”
“Indeed?” she said with apparent indifference, and as she leaned against
the cold metal door-panels she looked back into the garden and thought
she was now free to return. She would describe to the freedman the way
he must now go--it was quite simple; but she had not had time to do so
when, from a room dividing the viridarium from the vestibule she heard
first a woman’s shrill voice; then the deeper tones of a man; and hardly
had they exchanged a few sentences, when every sound was lost in the
furious barking of the hound, and immediately after a loud shriek of
pain from a woman fell upon her ear, and the noise of a heavy object
falling to the ground.
What had happened? It must be something portentous and terrible; of that
there could be no doubt; and ere long Paula’s fears were justified. Out
from the room where the scene had taken place rushed Orion, and with him
the dog, across the grass-plot which was usually respected and cherished
as holy ground, towards the side of the house facing the river, which
was where he and all the family had their rooms.
“Now!” cried Paula, quickly leading the way.
She flew in breathless haste through the first room and into the
unguarded hall; but she had not reached the middle of it when she gave a
scream, for before her in the moonlight, lay a body, motionless, at full
length, on the hard, marble floor.
“Run, Hiram, fly!” she cried to her companion. “The door is
ajar--open--I can see it is.”
She fell on her knees by the side of the lifeless form, raised the head,
and saw--the beautiful, deathlike face of the crazy Persian slave. She
felt her hand wet with the blood that had soaked the hapless girl’s
thick, fair hair, and she shuddered; but she resisted her impulse of
horror and loathing, and perceiving some dark stains on the torn peplos
she pulled it aside and saw that the white bosom was bleeding from deep
wounds made in the tender flesh by the cruel fangs of the hound.
Paula’s heart thrilled with indignation, grief and pity. He--he whom
she had only yesterday held to be the epitome of every manly
perfection--Orion, was guilty of so foul a deed! He, of whose
unflinching, dauntless courage she had heard so much, had fled like a
coward, and had left the victim to her fate--twice a victim to him!
But something must be done besides lamenting and raging, and wondering
how in one human soul there could be room for so much that was noble and
fine with so much that was shameful and cruel. She must save the girl,
she must seek help, for Mandane’s bosom still faintly rose and fell
under Paula’s tremulous fingers.
The freedman’s brave heart would not allow him to fly to leave her with
the injured girl; he flung his shoes on the floor, raised the senseless
form, and propped it against one of the columns that stood round the
hall. It was not till his mistress had repeated her orders that he
hurried away. Paula watched him depart; as soon as she heard the
heavy door of the atrium close upon him, heedless of her own
suspicious-looking position, she shouted for help, so loudly that her
cries rang through the nocturnal silence of the house, and in a few
minutes, from this side and that, a slave, a maid, a clerk, a cook, a
watchman, came hurrying in.
Foremost of all--so soon indeed that he must have been on his way when
he heard her cry--came Orion. He wore a light night-dress, intended, so
she said to herself, to give the wretch the appearance of having sprung
out of bed. But was this indeed he? Was this man with a flushed face,
staring eyes, disordered hair and hoarse voice, that favorite of fortune
whose happy nature, easy demeanor, sunny gaze and enchanting song had
bewitched her soul? His hand shook as he came close to her and the
injured slave; and how forced and embarrassed was his enquiry as to what
had happened; how scared he looked as he asked her what had brought her
into this part of the house at such an hour.
She made no reply; but when his mother repeated the question soon after,
in a sharp voice, she--she who had never in her life told a lie--said
with hasty decision: “I could not sleep, and the bark of the dog and a
cry for help brought me here.”
“I call that having sharp ears!” retorted Neforis with an incredulous
shrug. “For the future, at any rate, under similar circumstances
you need not be so prompt. How long, pray, have young girls trusted
themselves alone when murder is cried?”
“If you had but armed yourself, fair daughter of heroes!” added Orion;
but he had no sooner spoken than he bitterly regretted it. What a glance
Paula cast at him! It was more than she could bear to hear him address
her in jest, almost in mockery: him of all men, and at this moment for
the first time--and to be thus reminded of her father! She answered
proudly and with cutting sharpness: “I leave weapons to fighting men and
murderers!”
“To fighting men, and murderers!” repeated Orion, pretending not to
understand the point of her words. He forced a smile; but then, feeling
that he must make some defence, he added bitterly: “Really, that sounds
like the utterance of a feeble-hearted damsel! But let me beg you to
come closer and be calm. These pitiable gashes on the poor creature’s
shoulder--I care more about her than you do, take my word for it--were
inflicted by a four-footed assassin, whose weapons were given by nature.
Yes, that is what happened. Rough old Beki keeps watch at the door of
the tablinum. What brought the poor child here I know not, but he caught
scent of her and pulled her down.”
“Or nothing of the kind!” interrupted Neforis, picking up a pair of
man’s shoes which lay on the ground by the sufferer.
Orion turned as pale as death and hastily took the shoes from his
mother’s hand; he would have liked to fling them up and away through the
open roof. How came they here? Whose were they? Who had been here this
night? Before going into the tablinum he had locked the outer door on
that side, and had returned subsequently to open it again for the people
in the court-yard. It was not till after he had done this that the crazy
girl had rushed upon him; she must have been lurking somewhere about
when he first went through the atrium but had not then found courage
enough to place herself in his way. When she had thrown herself upon
him, the dog had pulled her down before he could prevent it: he would
certainly have sprung past her and have come to the rescue but that he
must thus have betrayed his visit to the tablinum.
It had required all his presence of mind to hurry to his room, fling on
his night garments, and rush back to the scene of disaster. When Paula
had first called for help he was already on his way, and with what
feelings! Never had he felt so bewildered, so confused, so deeply
dissatisfied with himself; for the first time in his life, as he stood
face to face with Paula, he dared not look straight into the eyes of his
fellow-man.
And now these shoes! The owner must have come there with the crazy girl,
and if he had seen him in the tablinum and betrayed what he was doing
there, how could he ever again appear in his parents’ presence? He had
looked upon it as a good joke, but now it had turned to bitter earnest.
At any cost he must and would prevent his nocturnal doings from becoming
known! Some new wrong-doing-nay, the worst was preferable to a stain on
his honor.--Whose could the shoes be? He suddenly held them up on high,
crying with a loud voice: “Do these shoes belong to any of you, you
people? To the gate-keeper perhaps?”
When all were silent, and the porter denied the ownership, he stood
thinking; then he added with a defiant glare, and in a husky voice:
“Then some one who had broken into the house has been startled and
dropped them. Our house-stamp is here on the leather: they were made in
our work-shop, and they still smell of the stable-here, Sebek, you
can convince yourself. Take them into your keeping, man; and tomorrow
morning we will see who has left this suspicious offering in our
vestibule.--You were the first to reach the spot, fair Paula. Did you
see a man about?”
“Yes,” she replied with a hostile and challenging stare.
“And which way did he go?”
“He fled across the viridarium like a coward, running across the
poor, well-kept grass-plot to save time, and vanished upstairs in the
dwelling-rooms.”
Orion ground his teeth, and a mad hatred surged up in him of this
mystery in woman’s form in whose power, as it seemed, his ruin lay, and
whose eyes mashed with revenge and the desire to undo him. What was
she plotting against him? Was there a being on earth who would dare to
accuse him, the spoilt favorite of great and small...? And her look had
meant more than aversion, it had expressed contempt.... How dare she
look so at him? Who in the wide world had a right to accuse him of
anything that could justify such a feeling? Never, never had he met with
enmity like this, least of all from a girl. He longed to annihilate the
high-handed, cold-hearted, ungrateful creature who could humble him so
outrageously after he had allowed her to see that his heart was hers,
and who could make him quail--a man whose courage had been proved a
hundred times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forget
that she was a woman.--What had happened? What demon had been playing
tricks on him--What had so completely altered him within this half-hour
that his whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any one
dared to treat him so?
His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her son’s
face when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms;
but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm:
“Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? Merciful
Heaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Run--fly, Sebek.
“Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top to
bottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down the
grass--you must find him--you must not let him escape.”
The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who had
come in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, which
must yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heart
beat wildly, and again she tried to catch the young man’s eye. Orion,
however, started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as he
went: “That is my concern.”
But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight was
throttling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in the
act, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that he
was indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fatal
deed in the tablinum.
Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as to
falsify the evidence, and to declare that the groom’s broad sole fitted
the tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet she
could have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he might
not do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he could
not be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks,
she drew a breath of relief and turned again to the wounded girl and the
physician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed her
example she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, he
looked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: “That poor
girl’s fate...” and he pointed to the Persian slave.--“It troubles me.”
“You are so soft-hearted--you were as a boy!” said his mother
soothingly. She had seen the moisture sparkling in his eyes; but his
tears were not for the Persian, but for the mysterious something--he
himself knew not what to call it--that he had forfeited in this last
hour, and of which the loss gave him unspeakable pain.
But their dialogue was interrupted: the first misfortune of this
luckless night had brought its attendant: the body of Rustem, the
splendid and radiantly youthful Rustem, the faithful Persian leader
of the caravan, was borne into the hall, senseless. He had made some
satirical remark on the quarrel over creeds, and a furious Jacobite had
fallen upon him with a log of wood, and dealt him a deep and perhaps
mortal wound. The leech at once gave him his care, and several of the
crowd of muttering and whispering men, who had made their way in out of
curiosity or with a wish to be of use, now hurried hither and thither in
obedience to the physician’s orders.
As soon as he saw the Masdakite’s wound he exclaimed angrily:
“A true Egyptian blow, dealt from behind!--What does this mob want here?
Out with every man who does not belong to the place! The first things
needed are litters. Will you, Dame Neforis, desire that two rooms may
be got ready; one for that poor, gentle creature, and one for this fine
fellow, though all will soon be over with him, short of a miracle.”
“To the north of the viridarium,” replied the lady, “there are two rooms
at your service.”
“Not there!” cried the leech. “I must have rooms with plenty of fresh
air, looking out upon the river.”
“There are none but the handsome rooms in the visitor’s quarters, where
my husband’s niece has hers, Sick persons of the family have often lain
there, but for such humble folk--you understand?”
“No--I am deaf,” replied the physician.
“Oh, I know that,” laughed Neforis. “But those rooms are really just
refurnished for exalted guests.”
“It would be hard to find any more exalted than such as these, sick unto
death,” replied Philippus. “They are nearer to God in Heaven than you
are; to your advantage I believe. Here, you people! Carry these poor
souls up to the guests’ rooms.”