The triumphal chariot rattled on madly. Emeralda stretched out her
sceptre, on the top of which glowed a star of destroying rays. When
she stretched out the sceptre and directed the rays, she scorched
monuments, palaces, and parks to a white ash, and, for her cruel
jubilant procession, she cut down everything that came in her way. The
thick white ashes flew up like dust; the jubilant multitude were
scorched; the palaces of jaspar and malachite shrivelled up like
burnt paper; the breath of the horses blew away, like ash, the white
burnt gardens. And right over everything went Emeralda, scorching
as she went. Powerful, foolish, arrogant, and proud she was, and
more unfeeling than ever, spiteful and cruel, hurt in her pride;
and she scorched, and made the way smooth before her. Behind her
lay all the town, and she drove through her kingdom, filling the air
with her rays. She drove through valleys and burnt up the harvest;
she reduced villages to dust; she dried up rivers; and before her,
the mountains split asunder.
Her sceptre made a way for her, and no law of nature resisted her
power. The air was grey with the clouds of ash, which rained down
upon the earth.
She went along as swiftly as an arrow, swiftly as lightning, swiftly
as light, swiftly as thought. She went so swiftly, that in a single
hour she had gone all round her wide kingdom intoxicated with the
pride of annihilation, and she drove her maddened horses through
endless plains of sand.
Desert after desert she consumed; the lions fled before her; she
overtook them in a moment; clouds of sand she sent up into the air....
But then she relaxed her speed. She stopped.
Before her, grey and high through the clouds of sand and falling ash,
there loomed a most dreadful shadow.
The shadow was like a gigantic beast, squatting in the sand,
with a woman's head in a stiff basalt veil. The woman's head had
a woman's breast, two basalt breasts of a gigantic woman. But the
body that squatted in the sand was a lion, and the paws stuck out
like walls. And so great was the shadow, so monstrous the beast,
that even the triumphal chariot of Emeralda appeared small.
"Sphinx!" said Emeralda, "I will know. I am powerful, but there is
power above me. There are spheres above mine, and there are gods
above my divinity. There are laws of nature which my sceptre cannot
alter. Sphinx, tell me the riddle. Reveal to me the place where the
Jewel lies hidden, which gives almighty power over the world and God,
so that I may find it and become the mightiest of all gods. Sphinx,
answer me, I say! Open your stony lips and let your voice once
more be heard, that shall make the world tremble with wonder. For
centuries you have not spoken. Sphinx, speak now! For if you do not
speak, Sphinx, and reveal to me where the Jewel lies hidden, then,
great and terrible as you are, I will scorch you to a white ash and
go over you in triumph. Sphinx, speak!"
The Sphinx was silent. The Sphinx looked with stony eyes at the clouds
of sand and raining ash. Her basalt lips remained shut.
"Sphinx, speak!!" said Emeralda, threateningly and red with rage.
The Sphinx spoke not and looked.
Emeralda stretched out her sceptre and directed the destroying rays.
The rays split on the basalt with crackling sparks like flashes of
forked lightning. Emeralda uttered a cry, hoarse and terrible. She
threw away her broken sceptre. But of her greater power she did not
doubt, and for the last time she threatened.
"Terrible Sphinx, tremble! I am more terrible than you!! Speak,
Sphinx!!"
The Sphinx was silent.
Then Emeralda tugged at the reins.
The maddened horses reared, snorting, foaming, panting, trampling,
pulling, and dashed against the Sphinx.
But the foremost horses were dashed to pieces against the god-like
basalt.
Then Emeralda uttered cry after cry, one hoarse cry after another,
which resounded through the desert. She tugged at the reins; the
horses, despairing of their attack against the immovable, drove
at the Sphinx, and fell back crushed, falling over one another and
trampling one another to death; the triumphal chariot split, and the
splinters of sparkling jewels flew up like cracking fireworks, and
Emeralda fell between the still revolving wheels. And her heart of
ruby broke. All her dazzling splendour suddenly faded. The terrifying
fan-like aureola suddenly grew dim, and the desert was grey and gloomy,
with a gentle rain of thick white ash falling down.
The Sphinx was silent, and looked on....