A RASH PROMISE
In his wooing of the Lady Sesen, Menna, son of Menna, worked tirelessly.
Menna had been born upon the fifth of Paophi, and who does not know that
a child born upon that auspicious day is ever successful in affairs of
the heart!
Following his gift to her of Bhanar, the beautiful Syrian, each day
brought to Sesen bunches of grapes, bursting pomegranates or succulent
dates from Menna’s famous gardens. Frequently there were left at her
door bags of powdered gold or lazuli for the floor of her rooms, or the
choicest of fragrant oils and perfumes for her toilet. These last were
sealed in little jars of rich blue glass or in black obsidian vases
capped with gold.
To-day Sesen opened an ebony coffer richly inlaid with ivory and gold.
Enclosed within she found a frail wooden spoon, an incense spoon, carved
to represent a little maiden stretched at full length in the attitude of
a swimmer. The names and titles of Menna, the Overseer, appeared upon
this exquisite work of art, yet, if truth be told, Renny the Syrian had
fashioned it.
As with Menna’s other gifts, a closely written sheet of fine papyrus
accompanied the gift, whereon Sesen read of Menna’s passionate desire for
a meeting. Enana had advised her to fan the flame of Menna’s passion for
reasons he kept to himself. What would he say to this effusion!
The lines were written alternately in letters of red and black:
The cool zephyrs of the Northland can alone extinguish the flame of
my love!
I am become like the dried mimosa, ripe for the baker’s oven,
The fire of her eyes hath withered it.
When the dove pours forth its plaintive song, Sesen appears beneath
the sycamore.
Her slender form is mirrored in the garden pool.
Seeing her, the Moon-goddess pines away with jealousy; the Sun-god
bids her shine in his stead.
A full moon is her gleaming face;
The brightness of day glows upon her forehead;
Her full throat gleams like the crystals which encircle it;
The rose of the flamingo’s wing is upon her cheek;
Her eyes, painted with black Thinite kohl, were the gift of Hathor
at her birth,
The fires that burn within them scatter flaming darts;
Countless as the desert sands are the victims of those eyes!
Waving is her slender form, like the palm trees of Erment.
The dark shades of night hide in her hair, fragrant with musk and
myrrh.
A pomegranate is her mouth, her little teeth bright mother-of-pearl.
By day she perfumes the air with the odors of the Incense Land.
Her luster illuminates the darkest night!
Ah, deign to heed my pleading, Daughter of Hathor!
As apart from thee, I am as one among the Silent Ones; as one whose
mouth has not been opened.
Ask the Moon-goddess of my bitter state.
She will tell thee that I am indeed the ally of sorrow and anguish.
With a frown Sesen tore the note into little pieces and went on with her
interrupted game of draughts with Merit-aton, Pharaoh’s eldest daughter.
Until Menna had stumbled upon Renny, the Syrian, hawking his despised
figurines in the inhospitable streets of Thinis, Beq, an Egyptian
sculptor attached to his house, had served Menna the Overseer as
messenger.
For Menna, when not on duty at the Palace, was accustomed to rise late.
Menna’s mornings were spent at the bath. Indeed, it not infrequently
happened that the sun had begun his downward flight across the
heavens before the lordly Overseer had succeeded in escaping from the
ministrations of his slaves.
For several hours he must perforce suffer the attentions of his
body-servants, his wig-keeper, sandal-bearer, perfumer, and the keeper of
his jewels.
Thus, one stalwart Ethiopian, having finished rubbing his handsome frame
with aromatic oils, another slipped about him the tunic and over-dress
of the day. And what to an ordinary mortal constituted a tight tunic,
appeared to Benkhu, the Prince’s body-servant, positively loose and
ill-fitting.
And since Menna affected extremes, his tunic fitted far more closely,
his voluminous and richly plaited over-dress swung out in far more ample
folds, than those of any other of the foppish members of the Theban Court.
Indeed, Menna left Benkhu’s nimble fingers dressed as few others of the
courtiers could be dressed.
His costuming completed, Menna listened to the reports of his farm
overseers, and to those of his spies both of court, bazaar and temple.
For Menna, though outwardly faithful to Aton, still continued to hold the
honorific post of Scribe of the Estates of Amen.
His business attended to, Menna essayed a game of draughts with one of
his friends, or rowed about the lake in Thi’s pleasure-barge. It was the
policy of Menna never to be far from Thi, the Queen-Mother.
When Renny, the Syrian, had been enrolled among the retainers of Menna,
the Overseer had affected to see much of him. He went to the length of
separating Renny from Beq and the native Egyptian craftsmen attached to
his house. He even provided Renny with a studio to himself.
To this workshop Menna himself would come at times, ostensibly to seek
instruction in modeling, sculpture and wood-carving. As a matter of fact
his visits were prompted by the desire to use Renny and _his_ art as in
former times he had that of Beq and the native craftsmen.
Renny fell in with this whim of his powerful patron. Many a minor
ornament, such as a small lotus bowl, incense-spoon or sacred image,
had Renny produced, without neglecting to leave some slight detail for
the handsome Overseer to finish. Renny’s artistic productions Menna
incontinently made his own, adding _his_ name and titles together with
the date of its completion.
Coming from the hand of such a critical student of the arts, these small,
but ever choice mementoes were eagerly sought at Court. No one doubted
but that they were the work of the gifted Overseer himself.
Of late gifts and mementoes of this sort had suddenly ceased to
materialize, and Menna, taxed with laziness by his friends at Court,
gave it to be understood that a far more important undertaking now
engaged his time. But the true reason of the present inaction of the
Overseer was due to Renny, the Syrian.
That unhappy youth, in his constant visits to the Palace to deliver his
masters’ gifts and notes to Sesen, had seen all too much of the beautiful
Princess.
Yet, a single visit, and that his first, had proved more than enough
to cause the beauty-loving Renny to come beneath the spell of Sesen’s
haunting loveliness.
Do what he would to conceal his senseless passion, Renny felt that the
fire at his heart would mount to his eyes, the surging blood, that seemed
ever about to burst his heart, would flame into his cheeks.
At one moment Renny soared into the highest heavens; the next found him
plunged into the gloomiest despair. He, an unknown sculptor, a despised
foreigner, dared to lift his eyes to an exalted lady of the Egyptian
Court!
Knowing too well the hopelessness of his present position, Renny sought
to hide his passion.
Unluckily for the distracted sculptor, his burning hand had come in
contact with the tapering fingers of the Princess.
Straightway Renny had thrown himself upon his knees and poured out to her
startled ears the torrent of passionate words which had so long trembled
upon his lips. Renny lost his head; his discretion vanished to the four
winds of Heaven.
Sesen gazed down at the bowed head of the young sculptor in utter
bewilderment. She could not have said whether she was more surprised,
angered or amused. She clapped her hands twice; she would hand him to
the guards. Yet, as the archers appeared from behind the columns of the
courtyard, she changed her mind. A sudden wave of tenderest sympathy for
Bhanar swept over the Princess. So it was not Bhanar he had sought so
eagerly. Her heart ached for the quiet little maid standing so still and
mute behind her. She turned to Bhanar:
“So this is that Renny, the Incomparable, of whom thou hast so often
spoken, my Bhanar! Dare men so address a Princess of the Blood in thine
own country and live? Like master, like man!”
Renny leaped to his feet, his face aflame with various emotions, amongst
which wounded pride, perhaps was not the least.
“Lady! Since when is it considered a deed ill-done that a man should
speak the love and reverence which he bears a maid? The mirror in thy
hand should tell thee that few could look upon a face so fair, a form
that Hathor’s self must envy, and not be stricken with that malady which
not even the King’s physician hath power to cure! That I love thee I
cannot help. My heart beats to thoughts of thee; thy image is stamped
upon my very eyes!
“As to my master, the Lord Menna, I serve the Prince from gratitude. He
found me well nigh starving in the streets of Thinis and gave me food
and shelter. All my work he purchased and put me in the place of Beq, a
sculptor whose work is excellent, according to your Egyptian standard.
His portrait of thee I myself have much admired.
“Yet, Most Beautiful, ’tis not thee! ’Twould answer as well for any
Lady of the Court. Were _I_ to model thee, Fragrance of the Gods, thou
shouldst see a living, breathing ‘double’ of thyself, thy very _ka_ in
stone. This I could prove to thee as could no other.”
During this conversation Bhanar had continued to ply the ostrich-feather
fan above her mistress’s head. Anguish for Renny, pity for herself,
showed in her beautiful eyes.
Sesen’s heart bled for her. Sesen knew Bhanar’s history well. Bhanar
never tired of talking about her beloved village, of her dear Rippa,
nestled among the distant Syrian hills.
The little Princess had soon perceived that Bhanar’s girlish love for her
childhood’s companion had ripened into something stronger.
She had soon noticed how artfully Bhanar managed to forestall Sesen’s
other maids whenever Renny’s name was announced by the usher.
Renny’s joy and relief at finding her in the household of the Princess
had been genuine, since for a time, he had felt that he and Yakab had
failed her. Thereafter, at each and every visit to the Palace, he had
quite naturally sought his beautiful countrywoman. He knew that through
her he would the more readily reach the lady of his master’s infatuation.
Renny had strict orders to deliver his master’s notes into the hand of
Sesen in person. This at first he could never have accomplished, had it
not been for Bhanar’s assistance.
This insistence of Renny to reach her through Bhanar alone Sesen had
misinterpreted.
Then came that fatal day when Bhanar listened to Renny as he poured out
his tale of love for her mistress. Bhanar’s heart seemed to stop its
beating. From that moment she realized that she loved Renny with all the
love that he—that he, alas, felt for Sesen, her mistress.
At this moment an agonizing sympathy for Renny seemed to freeze her
heart. She knew that Renny at best did but provide distraction for the
Princess. And now, in this statue of which he talked, Renny held out
still further hopes of diversion. From her frequent visits to Enana’s
villa, Bhanar knew that the absent Ramses was ever in Sesen’s mind,
though never once had the little maid referred to him. In vain had she
confided her knowledge of the mutual love of Sesen and Ramses to the
unheeding Renny.
Sesen turned from the sculptor as if to leave. At the threshold of the
steps she paused for a moment:
“Syrian, if you can indeed model such a portrait as that of which you
speak, gladly will I purchase it of thee, and with it thy freedom.”
The overjoyed Renny kissed the hand she gave him:
“Within the month, Most Beauteous One! Give me but four short weeks and
thou shalt see thyself as no one within the confines of the four iron
pillars could ever hope to model thee. As to payment, I seek it not.
Freedom might lead me away from thee!”
Renny again passionately kissed the jeweled fingers of the little
Princess and dashed from the Court. How he finally managed to reach his
studio door, he never knew.
Alas, for Renny and his promise. Even as he left the outer corridor, Bar,
chief of his master’s spies, glided noiselessly from behind one of the
great painted columns nearby.
Thereafter, Menna the Overseer saw to it that Renny sped upon no more
missions to the Palace. On the contrary he was sternly warned to keep
within his master’s villa-garden, and the little workshop which had been
provided for him.
Yet, as luck would have it, in order to keep him busily occupied, Menna
commanded him to model a statue of Hathor, Goddess of Beauty. This
statue, when completed, Menna intended to present to the late Pharaoh’s
shrine at Amada to the south. But to Renny he omitted to mention that
_his_ name and his alone would appear upon its ivory pedestal!