At the Queen’s Mercy
The next day passed without event of any kind, save the welcome advent
of three good meals. I can say, for my part, that no sweet adventure
could so well have satisfied my palate; and I bore the lack of present
peril with all fortitude. But Lestrade was not of my mind, and ate
moodily and more sparely than is fitting for the wellbeing of a
Christian stomach. He spoke, moreover, ungratefully of “fattening for
the sacrifice,” which, I take it, was neither a wise nor a comfortable
saying, inasmuch as there appears, to my way of thinking, little profit
in vain forebodings of that which is to come, and much mischief in
despising present good for fear of future evil.
To be tied like a dog to a ring in the wall vexed him also, and sorely;
nor did my pointing out to him the value of a submissive spirit, and its
purpose in mastering the carnal pride of the flesh, greatly avail him.
For myself, I believe in patience until the time be ripe for the
chastisement of the enemy, to the hurt, indeed, of his mortal body, but
to the everlasting benefit of his heathen soul. But Lestrade is of a
fiery nature, that cannot brook delay. Still the day wore on, and at
nightfall the sound of footsteps and the clang of metal resounded once
more through the rock-hewn corridors without.
Nearer came the approaching feet, and soon the light of torches could be
seen by us dimly in the distance.
Then he of the broad shoulders appeared, accompanied by a guard of armed
men. The seal of our prison was cut asunder, the door opened, we were
loosed from our chains, and cords were bound about our wrists. Then a
sign to follow was given, and we went forth.
We passed from the temple into the street, and so on through many other
streets, until we halted before a great building, whose walls were set
with marbles of rare tints, and embellished with silver that glistened
in the moonlight.
No time was given us to look and wonder; the massive gates swung open,
and we went within. From Lestrade and myself there broke an exclamation
of wonder, for we had come from darkness into the brightness of a hall,
the like of which is not, I verily believe, in all Africa.
For a little the glare was blinding, but soon my eyes became used to the
light, and I began to look attentively about me.
This then is what I saw. The audience room was brilliant with thousands
of torches that hung from silver sockets set in the wall, and depending
also from pillars of carved wood that held up the roof. These torches
burned clearly and with a sweet smell, and their light was shed on a
countless multitude of men that lined the room itself.
The walls, too, of this great hall, though of stone, were enriched with
panels of rare woods in pink and in amber, polished like the supporting
pillars to a rare excellence of mirror-like brightness.
The floor was fashioned of huge blocks of marble set close and in a
curious pattern, and covered towards the centre with a silk rug woven
with pictures of strange beasts and birds like to those carved upon the
temple we had just left.
The corners of this room were filled with plants bearing vivid flowers
that gave forth a strong but very sweet scent. One end of this strange
apartment was fenced off from what might be called the outer court, by a
silver screen of fine open-work. Opposite this, at the further end,
stood a low chair of ebony, round which coiled a carven serpent wrought
in the same black wood, but with scales overlaid also in silver.
On this seat, or throne, I beheld the aged man who had commanded the
force that had captured us, and whom I felt must be the High Priest of
the dread god Hed.
He sat now, his chin in his hand, and he regarded us, I saw, with the
same dark disfavor.
Surrounding him were men with shaven crowns and wearing woven garments
like to those of the dead priest Sagamoso, and without this circle stood
another line of men, but these were clothed in white like the six who
had received us at the entrance of our prison house.
Beyond these again were massed warriors, naked save for their
leopard-skin girdles, their shields and swords. The outer ring was
composed of a curious throng of every age and condition, with women
closely veiled, and even children.
Near the silver screen, on each side of the hall, sat, cross-legged, six
negroes, natives of a tribe I had never seen. These were richly dressed,
and before each was a drum ornamented with gold, and these they beat
constantly with long spoon-shaped pieces of wood.
Behind them stood still other negroes thrumming on rude harps; the whole
producing a strange, not unmusical sound, very soul-stirring in effect
on him who listened. Suddenly there came from behind the silver screen
the clash of cymbals. The people bent to the earth, and even the white
beard of the haughty High Priest swept the ground. The warriors clashed
their shields together; a cry of reverence and of welcome broke from the
waiting throng; the silver screen parted. It slipped noiselessly back
into the wall on either side.
Lestrade drew a quick breath, and at the same instant my eyes rested on
the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. For a little her
loveliness held me fixed as though some spell had been wrought upon my
vision. It was not until her voice, full and musical, broke the tense
silence, that I turned my eyes away to see what setting held so fair a
jewel.
And truly it was worthy. For the throne was of pure gold, and the back a
peacock’s tail, so encrusted with gems as to quite hide the precious
yellow metal, and the seat supported by four elephants’ tusks banded at
the top by a row of egg-shaped emeralds. Behind the throne crouched a
circle of mute veiled women before negro fan-bearers, erect and naked
save for turban and loin cloth of golden tissue. Surrounding with drawn
swords their royal mistress stood the guard of the household, each a
perfect specimen of manhood and each plainly but richly dressed.
Lah, the Queen, was arrayed in some Eastern fabric, not silver and not
silk, but partaking of the nature of each, and bound about the waist by
the girdle that I had seen in the hands of him who had committed us to
the safe keeping of the temple.
This garment was held in its place over the bare shoulder, by a clasp
whereof the diamonds were as big as hazel nuts. A fillet shaped like a
serpent encircled the Queen’s head and kept back from her face the long,
braided locks of blue-black hair that hung, heavy also with jewels, to
her knees. She alone of all the women present was unveiled. I drank in
the glory of her unfathomable eyes darker than midnight. I saw the
scarlet of her lips, the warm olive of her skin, the graceful lines of
her strong, supple, beautiful body.
But I have little skill in such portraying. To Lestrade that task.
Enough that Lah, Queen of the people of the Walled City, was not only
fair above the need of woman,—the Lord knoweth the ruin that hath
followed the working of the tenth part of such charm,—but she held also
a subtle something in the serene cruelty of her gaze, a something in the
calm command that curved her lips, to drive men mad, to fill the heart
with a love that was half hatred, and a hate that could not do its worst
because of the love that stayed its ordering.
So much let me say in my defence for what has followed. I am a man not
easily prone to fall into the toils of women; to whom has been given
subtlety to offset their weakness. But to Lah, a man’s brain and a
woman’s wit; a man’s will and a woman’s will; a man’s strength and a
woman’s beauty. Aye! more than woman’s. Look to it, you who would judge
me, and remember likewise the end, the end also with the beginning.
But enough. I will now set down for the better ordering of this tale,
what befell at the Queen’s audience, although it was not for days after
that I learned the true import of that fateful evening.
Lah then spoke in this wise:—
“Who are these two strangers, whence their coming, and what their
purpose?”
Then arose Agno, the High Priest, and his eyes glowed with a strange
fire, and we, watching, saw his aged hand clench fast the staff of
office that it held. With a fine gesture of mingled scorn and anger, he
threw out the other, palm open, towards us, where, still close guarded,
we stood in silence.
“Behold!” he cried, “the invaders of our City, the murderers of the
sacred ape, whose hands are red with the blood of our warriors, whose
sacrilegious weapons have been turned against the dread god. Yes, I have
said it—violators of Hed himself!”
A sudden thrill ran through the people, and there was something in the
faces turned towards us, so pitilessly cruel, that a cold chill settled
on my heart, and I was well put to it to preserve the calm disdain that
sat, as was fitting, upon my countenance.
Only Lah, the Queen, looked straight before her at the speaker, and her
lips, I thought, curved slightly with a little smile whose meaning was
not plain to me.
Agno turned towards the listening throng with a sudden change of voice
and manner.
“O worshippers of the Serpent and of Edba! Shall the wrath of the gods
fall upon your heads because they look down from the appointed place and
see such deeds unpunished?
“Nevertheless warmed and fed and unhurt have these two rested by royal
order till now in the sacred temple, and the wrath above grows black,
and the thirst of the Serpent is not slaked.”
I thought I beheld again a swift change pass over the face of the Queen,
like a cloud that covers for an instant the glory of the sun, but when I
looked closer I saw that I was wrong, since her lips still wore that
same curious half-smile.
“Doubtless,” went on the High Priest smoothly, “doubtless the Queen, who
is ever zealous for the glory of the gods, but bides her time, lest in
too swift a death, some pang of body or soul be lost to these defamers.
Surely such thought for the honor of Hed and of Edba shall not be
without reward. But I warn you,” and here his voice rang out with its
old passion, “the patience of the Serpent is at an end; the god clamors
for vengeance. Woe! woe! to him who setteth a stumbling-block in the way
of rightful punishment.
“Let Lah, the Queen, command it! Let the torture that is the portion of
these begin! Let their death and the manner of their passing plead for
us and turn away, while there be yet time, the wrath that is to come!”
A hoarse murmur of applause rang through the multitude, and of their
number, a man richly dressed and I judged a warrior, stepped out from
among his fellows and stood in the centre, alone.
“Agno, the High Priest, has said it. We, the people, repeat it. Oh
Queen, let the blood of the stranger flow freely that the gods may be
appeased.”
Lah turned, and I saw then, what, bewildered by the rising storm, I had
not noticed; namely, that the Queen’s sandalled foot rested upon the
head of an enormous tiger that lay motionless before the throne.
She uttered a low, brief word of command, and the great beast rose,
stretched himself lazily, and then stepped noiselessly forth.
A shudder ran through the throng. I saw the face blanch of the man who
had spoken. The soft, padding footfall sounded now through the tense
silence as the tiger drew slowly near.
At length when about ten paces from the warrior, the beast paused. The
victim tried to speak, but no words came. His fixed distended eyes were
on the lithe form before him. The great cat was crouched to spring, its
tail waving gently, its tawny head raised.
Lah’s voice broke the silence, caressingly, once more.
The creature bounded lightly through the air. The next instant the
warrior lay prone on the marble floor, a swift, wide-spreading pool of
blood speaking dumbly yet to heaven, of the doom that had fallen. The
Queen turned to Agno.
“Behold,” she said, “your answer.”
With a graceful gesture she stopped the rising murmur of the multitude,
and again her wonderful voice changed. It hid not the majesty of the
speaker; no, truly, it hinted at power to enforce the words, but it was
sweet, sweet and persuasive, over and above anything that I have ever
heard.
“O my people!” thus spoke the Queen. “When, before to-night, has the
highest in the land received an order of him who standeth next unto the
throne? When before this hour has the chief servant of the Snake set a
limit to the will of her who calls herself, and truly, the Snake’s
Bride? Have I not borne the embrace of the holy one, the python? In the
dread hour in the pit itself has not the marriage rite been held, and
for this?
“Turn, O my people, ere it be too late! The fate of yonder man,” and she
pointed to the loose-limbed, weltering form upon the pavement, “the fate
of such as he is naught to the vengeance that shall surely fall on him
who sets his neck stiffly against the will of her, the best beloved of
Hed. Aye! of the highest! I have said it. Look you to it.
“I am Lah, the Queen, and the just gods have given unto the hollow of my
hand all power. As for these,” and she turned her beautiful face an
instant towards us, “rest quietly. The defamers of the Serpent may not
hope for mercy. Nevertheless, in mine own time, and after mine own
choosing, shall they pay the penalty.
“Guards, lead the prisoners behind the veil!” She turned smiling to the
High Priest.
“More prudence would better befit thy white hairs, most pious Agno,” she
said, and the clash of cymbals answering to her nod drowned the bitter
answer that writhed upon his lips, and proved that the Queen was, after
all, but yet a woman, and so holding fast to the sex’s dear privilege of
the final word.
Obedient to Lah’s command, six stalwart negro warriors, gorgeous in loin
cloths of scarlet and gold, advanced, and laying hands upon us, hurried
us, Lestrade and me, through the gaping multitude, on past the silver
screen, by the Queen’s glittering throne, the host of slave girls, the
musicians, the courtiers, onward still, until we reached a shimmering
network of silk and steel that draped securely an entrance at the back.
With averted eyes the guards drew aside this heavy veil, and we passed
within, the plaudits of the fickle throng still ringing in our ears.