In front of the gate of the king’s palace sat a crowd of petitioners who
were accustomed to stay here from early dawn till late at night, until
they were called into the palace to receive the answer to the petition
they had drawn up. When Klea reached the end of her journey she was
so exhausted and bewildered that she felt the imperative necessity of
seeking rest and quiet reflection, so she seated herself among these
people, next to a woman from Upper Egypt. But hardly had she taken her
place by her with a silent greeting, when her talkative neighbor began
to relate with particular minuteness why she had come to Memphis, and
how certain unjust judges had conspired with her bad husband to trick
her--for men were always ready to join against a woman--and to deprive
her of everything which had been secured to her and her children by her
marriage-contract. For two months now, she said, she had been waiting
early and late before the sublime gate, and was consuming her last ready
cash in the city where living was so dear; but it was all one to her,
and at a pinch she would sell even her gold ornaments, for sooner or
later her cause must come before the king, and then the wicked villain
and his accomplices would be taught what was just.
Klea heard but little of this harangue; a feeling had come over her like
that of a person who is having water poured again and again on the top
of his head. Presently her neighbor observed that the new-comer was not
listening at all to her complainings; she slapped her shoulder with her
hand, and said:
“You seem to think of nothing but your own concerns; and I dare say they
are not of such a nature as that you should relate them to any one else;
so far as mine are concerned the more they are discussed, the better.”
The tone in which these remarks were made was so dry, and at the same
time so sharp, that it hurt Klea, and she rose hastily to go closer to
the gate. Her neighbor threw a cross word after her; but she did not
heed it, and drawing her veil closer over her face, she went through
the gate of the palace into a vast courtyard, brightly lighted up by
cressets and torches, and crowded with foot-soldiers and mounted guards.
The sentry at the gate perhaps had not observed her, or perhaps had
let her pass unchallenged from her dignified and erect gait, and the
numerous armed men through whom she now made her way seemed to be so
much occupied with their own affairs, that no one bestowed any notice on
her. In a narrow alley, which led to a second court and was lighted
by lanterns, one of the body-guard known as Philobasilistes, a haughty
young fellow in yellow riding-boots and a shirt of mail over his red
tunic, came riding towards her on his tall horse, and noticing her he
tried to squeeze her between his charger and the wall, and put out his
hand to raise her veil; but Klea slipped aside, and put up her hands to
protect herself from the horse’s head which was almost touching her.
The cavalier, enjoying her alarm, called out: “Only stand still--he is
not vicious.”
“Which, you or your horse?” asked Klea, with such a solemn tone in
her deep voice that for an instant the young guardsman lost his
self-possession, and this gave her time to go farther from the horse.
But the girl’s sharp retort had annoyed the conceited young fellow,
and not having time to follow her himself, he called out in a tone of
encouragement to a party of mercenaries from Cyprus, whom the frightened
girl was trying to pass:
“Look under this girl’s veil, comrades, and if she is as pretty as she
is well-grown, I wish you joy of your prize.” He laughed as he pressed
his knees against the flanks of his bay and trotted slowly away, while
the Cypriotes gave Klea ample time to reach the second court, which
was more brightly lighted even than the first, that they might there
surround her with insolent importunity.
The helpless and persecuted girl felt the blood run cold in her veins,
and for a few minutes she could see nothing but a bewildering confusion
of flashing eyes and weapons, of beards and hands, could hear nothing
but words and sounds, of which she understood and felt only that they
were revolting and horrible, and threatened her with death and ruin.
She had crossed her arms over her bosom, but now she raised her hands
to hide her face, for she felt a strong hand snatch away the veil that
covered her head. This insolent proceeding turned her numb horror to
indignant rage, and, fixing her sparkling eyes on her bearded opponents,
she exclaimed:
“Shame upon you, who in the king’s own house fall like wolves on a
defenceless woman, and in a peaceful spot snatch the veil from a young
girl’s head. Your mothers would blush for you, and your sisters cry
shame on you--as I do now!”
Astonished at Klea’s distinguished beauty, startled at the angry glare
in her eyes, and the deep chest-tones of her voice which trembled with
excitement, the Cypriotes drew back, while the same audacious rascal
that had pulled away her veil came closer to her, and cried:
“Who would make such a noise about a rubbishy veil! If you will be my
sweetheart I will buy you a new one, and many things besides.”
At the same time he tried to throw his arm round her; but at his touch
Klea felt the blood leave her cheeks and mount to her bloodshot eyes,
and at that instant her hand, guided by some uncontrollable inward
impulse, grasped the handle of the knife which Krates had lent her; she
raised it high in the air though with an unsteady arm, exclaiming:
“Let me go or, by Serapis whom I serve, I will strike you to the heart!”
The soldier to whom this threat was addressed, was not the man to be
intimidated by a blade of cold iron in a woman’s hand; with a quick
movement he seized her wrist in order to disarm her; but although Klea
was forced to drop the knife she struggled with him to free herself from
his clutch, and this contest between a man and a woman, who seemed to be
of superior rank to that indicated by her very simple dress, seemed to
most of the Cypriotes so undignified, so much out of place within the
walls of a palace, that they pulled their comrade back from Klea, while
others on the contrary came to the assistance of the bully who defended
himself stoutly. And in the midst of the fray, which was conducted with
no small noise, stood Klea with flying breath. Her antagonist, though
flung to the ground, still held her wrist with his left hand while he
defended himself against his comrades with the right, and she tried with
all her force and cunning to withdraw it; for at the very height of her
excitement and danger she felt as if a sudden gust of wind had swept her
spirit clear of all confusion, and she was again able to contemplate her
position calmly and resolutely.
If only her hand were free she might perhaps be able to take advantage
of the struggle between her foes, and to force her way out between their
ranks.
Twice, thrice, four times, she tried to wrench her hand with a sudden
jerk through the fingers that grasped it; but each time in vain.
Suddenly, from the man at her feet there broke a loud, long-drawn cry of
pain which re-echoed from the high walls of the court, and at the same
time she felt the fingers of her antagonist gradually and slowly slip
from her arm like the straps of a sandal carefully lifted by the surgeon
from a broken ankle.
“It is all over with him!” exclaimed the eldest of the Cypriotes. “A man
never calls out like that but once in his life! True enough--the dagger
is sticking here just under the ninth rib! This is mad work! That is
your doing again, Lykos, you savage wolf!”
“He bit deep into my finger in the struggle--”
“And you are for ever tearing each other to pieces for the sake of the
women,” interrupted the elder, not listening to the other’s excuses.
“Well, I was no better than you in my time, and nothing can alter it!
You had better be off now, for if the Epistrategist learns we have
fallen to stabbing each other again--”
The Cypriote had not ceased speaking, and his countrymen were in the
very act of raising the body of their comrade when a division of the
civic watch rushed into the court in close order and through the passage
near which the fight for the girl had arisen, thus stopping the way
against those who were about to escape, since all who wished to get out
of the court into the open street must pass through the doorway into
which Klea had been forced by the horseman. Every other exit from this
second court of the citadel led into the strictly guarded gardens and
buildings of the palace itself.
The noisy strife round Klea, and the cry of the wounded man had
attracted the watch; the Cypriotes and the maiden soon found themselves
surrounded, and they were conducted through a narrow side passage into
the court-yard of the prison. After a short enquiry the men who had been
taken were allowed to return under an escort to their own phalanx, and
Klea gladly followed the commander of the watch to a less brilliantly
illuminated part of the prison-yard, for in him she had recognized at
once Serapion’s brother Glaucus, and he in her the daughter of the man
who had done and suffered so much for his father’s sake; besides they
had often exchanged greetings and a few words in the temple of Serapis.
“All that is in my power,” said Glaucus--a man somewhat taller but not
so broadly built as his brother--when he had read the recluse’s note and
when Klea had answered a number of questions, “all that is in my power
I will gladly do for you and your sister, for I do not forget all that
I owe to your father; still I cannot but regret that you have incurred
such risk, for it is always hazardous for a pretty young girl to venture
into this palace at a late hour, and particularly just now, for the
courts are swarming not only with Philometor’s fighting men but with
those of his brother, who have come here for their sovereign’s birthday
festival. The people have been liberally entertained, and the soldier
who has been sacrificing to Dionysus seizes the gifts of Eros and
Aphrodite wherever he may find them. I will at once take charge of my
brother’s letter to the Roman Publius Cornelius Scipio, but when you
have received his answer you will do well to let yourself be escorted
to my wife or my sister, who both live in the city, and to remain till
to-morrow morning with one or the other. Here you cannot remain a minute
unmolested while I am away--Where now--Aye! The only safe shelter I
can offer you is the prison down there; the room where they lock up
the subaltern officers when they have committed any offence is quite
unoccupied, and I will conduct you thither. It is always kept clean, and
there is a bench in it too.”
Klea followed her friend who, as his hasty demeanor plainly showed, had
been interrupted in important business. In a few steps they reached the
prison; she begged Glaucus to bring her the Roman’s answer as quickly as
possible, declared herself quite ready to remain in the dark--since she
perceived that the light of a lamp might betray her, and she was not
afraid of the dark--and suffered herself to be locked in.
As she heard the iron bolt creak in its brass socket a shiver ran
through her, and although the room in which she found herself was
neither worse nor smaller than that in which she and her sister lived
in the temple, still it oppressed her, and she even felt as if an
indescribable something hindered her breathing as she said to herself
that she was locked in and no longer free to come and to go. A dim light
penetrated into her prison through the single barred window that opened
on to the court, and she could see a little bench of palm-branches on
which she sat down to seek the repose she so sorely needed. All sense
of discomfort gradually vanished before the new feeling of rest and
refreshment, and pleasant hopes and anticipations were just beginning
to mingle themselves with the remembrance of the horrors she had just
experienced when suddenly there was a stir and a bustle just in front
of the prison--and she could hear, outside, the clatter of harness
and words of command. She rose from her seat and saw that about twenty
horsemen, whose golden helmets and armor reflected the light of the
lanterns, cleared the wide court by driving the men before them, as the
flames drive the game from a fired hedge, and by forcing them into a
second court from which again they proceeded to expel them. At least
Klea could hear them shouting ‘In the king’s name’ there as they had
before done close to her. Presently the horsemen returned and placed
themselves, ten and ten, as guards at each of the passages leading into
the court. It was not without interest that Klea looked on at this scene
which was perfectly new to her; and when one of the fine horses, dazzled
by the light of the lanterns, turned restive and shied, leaping and
rearing and threatening his rider with a fall--when the horseman checked
and soothed it, and brought it to a stand-still--the Macedonian warrior
was transfigured in her eyes to Publius, who no doubt could manage a
horse no less well than this man.
No sooner was the court completely cleared of men by the mounted guard
than a new incident claimed Klea’s attention. First she heard footsteps
in the room adjoining her prison, then bright streaks of light fell
through the cracks of the slight partition which divided her place of
retreat from the other room, then the two window-openings close to hers
were closed with heavy shutters, then seats or benches were dragged
about and various objects were laid upon a table, and finally the door
of the adjoining room was thrown open and slammed to again so violently,
that the door which closed hers and the bench near which she was
standing trembled and jarred.
At the same moment a deep sonorous voice called out with a loud and
hearty shout of laughter:
“A mirror--give me a mirror, Eulaeus. By heaven! I do not look much like
prison fare--more like a man in whose strong brain there is no lack of
deep schemes, who can throttle his antagonist with a grip of his fist,
and who is prompt to avail himself of all the spoil that comes in his
way, so that he may compress the pleasures of a whole day into every
hour, and enjoy them to the utmost! As surely as my name is Euergetes
my uncle Antiochus was right in liking to mix among the populace. The
splendid puppets who surround us kings, and cover every portion of their
own bodies in wrappings and swaddling bands, also stifle the expression
of every genuine sentiment; and it is enough to turn our brain to
reflect that, if we would not be deceived, every word that we hear--and,
oh dear! how many words we must needs hear-must be pondered in our
minds. Now, the mob on the contrary--who think themselves beautifully
dressed in a threadbare cloth hanging round their brown loins--are far
better off. If one of them says to another of his own class--a naked
wretch who wears about him everything he happens to possess--that he is
a dog, he answers with a blow of his fist in the other’s face, and what
can be plainer than that! If on the other hand he tells him he is a
splendid fellow, he believes it without reservation, and has a perfect
right to believe it.
“Did you see how that stunted little fellow with a snub-nose and
bandy-legs, who is as broad as he is long, showed all his teeth in a
delighted grin when I praised his steady hand? He laughs just like a
hyena, and every respectable father of a family looks on the fellow as
a god-forsaken monster; but the immortals must think him worth something
to have given him such magnificent grinders in his ugly mouth, and to
have preserved him mercifully for fifty years--for that is about the
rascal’s age. If that fellow’s dagger breaks he can kill his victim with
those teeth, as a fox does a duck, or smash his bones with his fist.”
“But, my lord,” replied Eulaeus dryly and with a certain matter-of-fact
gravity to King Euergetes--for he it was who had come with him into the
room adjoining Klea’s retreat, “the dry little Egyptian with the thin
straight hair is even more trustworthy and tougher and nimbler than his
companion, and, so far, more estimable. One flings himself on his prey
with a rush like a block of stone hurled from a roof, but the other,
without being seen, strikes his poisoned fang into his flesh like an
adder hidden in the sand. The third, on whom I had set great hopes, was
beheaded the day before yesterday without my knowledge; but the pair
whom you have condescended to inspect with your own eyes are sufficient.
They must use neither dagger nor lance, but they will easily achieve
their end with slings and hooks and poisoned needles, which leave wounds
that resemble the sting of an adder. We may safely depend on these
fellows.”
Once more Euergetes laughed loudly, and exclaimed: What criticism!
Exactly as if these blood-hounds were tragic actors of which one could
best produce his effects by fire and pathos, and the other by the
subtlety of his conception. I call that an unprejudiced judgment. And
why should not a man be great even as a murderer? From what hangman’s
noose did you drag out the neck of one, and from what headsman’s block
did you rescue the other when you found them?
“It is a lucky hour in which we first see something new to us, and,
by Heracles! I never before in the whole course of my life saw such
villains as these. I do not regret having gone to see them and talked to
them as if I were their equal. Now, take this torn coat off me, and help
me to undress. Before I go to the feast I will take a hasty plunge in my
bath, for I twitch in every limb, I feel as if I had got dirty in their
company.
“There lie my clothes and my sandals; strap them on for me, and tell me
as you do it how you lured the Roman into the toils.”
Klea could hear every word of this frightful conversation, and clasped
her hand over her brow with a shudder, for she found it difficult to
believe in the reality of the hideous images that it brought before her
mind. Was she awake or was she a prey to some horrid dream?
She hardly knew, and, indeed, she scarcely understood half of all she
heard till the Roman’s name was mentioned. She felt as if the point of a
thin, keen knife was being driven obliquely through her brain from right
to left, as it now flashed through her mind that it was against him,
against Publius, that the wild beasts, disguised in human form, were
directed by Eulaeus, and face to face with this--the most hideous, the
most incredible of horrors--she suddenly recovered the full use of her
senses. She softly slipped close to that rift in the partition through
which the broadest beam of light fell into the room, put her ear close
to it, and drank in, with fearful attention, word for word the
report made by the eunuch to his iniquitous superior, who frequently
interrupted him with remarks, words of approval or a short laugh-drank
them in, as a man perishing in the desert drinks the loathsome waters of
a salt pool.
And what she heard was indeed well fitted to deprive her of her senses,
but the more definite the facts to which the words referred that she
could overhear, the more keenly she listened, and the more resolutely
she collected her thoughts. Eulaeus had used her own name to induce
the Roman to keep an assignation at midnight in the desert close to the
Apis-tombs. He repeated the words that he had written to this effect
on a tile, and which requested Publius to come quite alone to the spot
indicated, since she dare not speak with him in the temple. Finally he
was invited to write his answer on the other side of the square of clay.
As Klea heard these words, put into her own mouth by a villain, she
could have sobbed aloud heartily with anguish, shame, and rage; but the
point now was to keep her ears wide open, for Euergetes asked his odious
tool:
“And what was the Roman’s answer?” Eulaeus must have handed the tile to
the king, for he laughed loudly again, and cried out:
“So he will walk into the trap--will arrive by half an hour after
midnight at the latest, and greets Klea from her sister Irene. He
carries on love-making and abduction wholesale, and buys water-bearers
by the pair, like doves in the market or sandals in a shoe maker’s
stall. Only see how the simpleton writes Greek; in these few words there
are two mistakes, two regular schoolboys’ blunders.
“The fellow must have had a very pleasant day of it, since he must have
been reckoning on a not unsuccessful evening--but the gods have an ugly
habit of clenching the hand with which they have long caressed their
favorites, and striking him with their fist.
“Amalthea’s horn has been poured out on him today; first he snapped up,
under my very nose, my little Hebe, the Irene of Irenes, whom I hope
to-morrow to inherit from him; then he got the gift of my best Cyrenaan
horses, and at the same time the flattering assurance of my valuable
friendship; then he had audience of my fair sister--and it goes more to
the heart of a republican than you would believe when crowned heads
are graciously disposed towards him--finally the sister of his pretty
sweetheart invites him to an assignation, and she, if you and Zoe speak
the truth, is a beauty in the grand style. Now these are really too many
good things for one inhabitant of this most stingily provided world; and
in one single day too, which, once begun, is so soon ended; and justice
requires that we should lend a helping hand to destiny, and cut off
the head of this poppy that aspires to rise above its brethren; the
thousands who have less good fortune than he would otherwise have great
cause to complain of neglect.”
“I am happy to see you in such good humor,” said Eulaeus.
“My humor is as may be,” interrupted the king. “I believe I am only
whistling a merry tune to keep up my spirits in the dark. If I were on
more familiar terms with what other men call fear I should have ample
reason to be afraid; for in the quail-fight we have gone in for I have
wagered a crown-aye, and more than that even. To-morrow only will decide
whether the game is lost or won, but I know already to-day that I would
rather see my enterprise against Philometor fail, with all my hopes of
the double crown, than our plot against the life of the Roman; for I
was a man before I was a king, and a man I should remain, if my throne,
which now indeed stands on only two legs, were to crash under my weight.
“My sovereign dignity is but a robe, though the costliest, to be sure,
of all garments. If forgiveness were any part of my nature I might
easily forgive the man who should soil or injure that--but he who comes
too near to Euergetes the man, who dares to touch this body, and the
spirit it contains, or to cross it in its desires and purposes--him I
will crush unhesitatingly to the earth, I will see him torn in pieces.
Sentence is passed on the Roman, and if your ruffians do their duty, and
if the gods accept the holocaust that I had slain before them at sunset
for the success of my project, in a couple of hours Publius Cornelius
Scipio will have bled to death.
“He is in a position to laugh at me--as a man--but I therefore--as a
man--have the right, and--as a king--have the power, to make sure that
that laugh shall be his last. If I could murder Rome as I can him how
glad should I be! for Rome alone hinders me from being the greatest of
all the great kings of our time; and yet I shall rejoice to-morrow when
they tell me Publius Cornelius Scipio has been torn by wild beasts, and
his body is so mutilated that his own mother could not recognize it more
than if a messenger were to bring me the news that Carthage had broken
the power of Rome.”
Euergetes had spoken the last words in a voice that sounded like the
roll of thunder as it growls in a rapidly approaching storm, louder,
deeper, and more furious each instant. When at last he was silent
Eulaeus said: “The immortals, my lord, will not deny you this happiness.
The brave fellows whom you condescended to see and to talk to strike as
certainly as the bolt of our father Zeus, and as we have learned from
the Roman’s horse-keeper where he has hidden Irene, she will no more
elude your grasp than the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.--Now, allow
me to put on your mantle, and then to call the body-guard that they may
escort you as you return to your residence.”
“One thing more,” cried the king, detaining Eulaeus. “There are always
troops by the Tombs of Apis placed there to guard the sacred places; may
not they prove a hindrance to your friends?”
“I have withdrawn all the soldiers and armed guards to Memphis down to
the last man,” replied Eulaeus, “and quartered them within the White
Wall. Early tomorrow, before you proceed to business, they will
be replaced by a stronger division, so that they may not prove a
reinforcement to your brother’s troops here if things come to fighting.”
“I shall know how to reward your foresight,” said Euergetes as Eulaeus
quitted the room.
Again Klea heard a door open, and the sound of many hoofs on the
pavement of the court-yard, and when she went, all trembling, up to the
window, she saw Euergetes himself, and the powerfully knit horse that
was led in for him. The tyrant twisted his hand in the mane of the
restless and pawing steed, and Klea thought that the monstrous mass
could never mount on to the horse’s back without the aid of many men;
but she was mistaken, for with a mighty spring the giant flung himself
high in the air and on to the horse, and then, guiding his panting steed
by the pressure of his knees alone, he bounded out of the prison-yard
surrounded by his splendid train.
For some minutes the court-yard remained empty, then a man hurriedly
crossed it, unlocked the door of the room where Klea was, and informed
her that he was a subaltern under Glaucus, and had brought her a message
from him.
“My lord,” said the veteran soldier to the girl, “bid me greet you, and
says that he found neither the Roman Publius Scipio, nor his friend the
Corinthian at home. He is prevented from coming to you himself; he has
his hands full of business, for soldiers in the service of both the
kings are quartered within the White Wall, and all sorts of squabbles
break out between them. Still, you cannot remain in this room, for it
will shortly be occupied by a party of young officers who began the
fray. Glaucus proposes for your choice that you should either allow
me to conduct you to his wife or return to the temple to which you are
attached. In the latter case a chariot shall convey you as far as the
second tavern in Khakem on the borders of the desert-for the city is
full of drunken soldiery. There you may probably find an escort if you
explain to the host who you are. But the chariot must be back again in
less than an hour, for it is one of the king’s, and when the banquet is
over there may be a scarcity of chariots.”
“Yes--I will go back to the place I came from,” said Klea eagerly,
interrupting the messenger. “Take me at once to the chariot.”
“Follow me, then,” said the old man.
“But I have no veil,” observed Klea, “and have only this thin robe on.
Rough soldiers snatched my wrapper from my face, and my cloak from off
my shoulders.”
“I will bring you the captain’s cloak which is lying here in the
orderly’s room, and his travelling-hat too; that will hide your face
with its broad flap. You are so tall that you might be taken for a man,
and that is well, for a woman leaving the palace at this hour would
hardly pass unmolested. A slave shall fetch the things from your temple
to-morrow. I may inform you that my master ordered me take as much care
of you as if you were his own daughter. And he told me too--and I had
nearly forgotten it--to tell you that your sister was carried off by
the Roman, and not by that other dangerous man, you would know whom he
meant. Now wait, pray, till I return; I shall not be long gone.”
In a few minutes the guard returned with a large cloak in which he
wrapped Klea, and a broad-brimmed travelling-hat which she pressed down
on her head, and he then conducted her to that quarter of the palace
where the king’s stables were. She kept close to the officer, and was
soon mounted on a chariot, and then conducted by the driver--who took
her for a young Macedonian noble, who was tempted out at night by
some assignation--as far as the second tavern on the road back to the
Serapeum.