THE MESSENGERS
We descended at the great gate of the palace and were led through empty
halls that were no longer used now when there was no king in Egypt, to
the wing of the building in which dwelt the Prince Peroa. Here we were
received by a chamberlain, for the Prince of Egypt still kept some
state although it was but small, and had about him men who bore the
old, high-sounding titles of the “Officers of Pharaoh.”
The chamberlain led me and Bes to an ante-chamber of the banqueting
hall and left us, saying that he would summon the Prince who wished to
see me before he ate. This, however, was not necessary since while he
spoke Peroa, who as I guessed had been waiting for me, entered by
another door. He was a majestic-looking man of middle age, for grey
showed in his hair and beard, clad in white garments with a purple hem
and wearing on his brow a golden circlet, from the front of which rose
the _uræus_ in the shape of a hooded snake that might be worn by those
of royal blood alone. His face was full of thought and his black and
piercing eyes looked heavy as though with sleeplessness. Indeed I could
see that he was troubled. His gaze fell upon us and his features
changed to a pleasant smile.
“Greeting, Cousin Shabaka,” he said. “I am glad that you have returned
safe from the East, and burn to hear your tidings. I pray that they may
be good, for never was good news more needed in Egypt.”
“Greeting, Prince,” I answered, bowing my knee. “I and my servant here
are returned safe, but as for our tidings, well, judge of them for
yourself,” and drawing the letter of the Great King from my robe, I
touched my forehead with the roll and handed it to him.
“I see that you have acquired the Eastern customs, Shabaka,” he said as
he took it. “But here in my own house which once was the palace of our
forefathers, the Pharaohs of Egypt, by your leave I will omit them.
Amen be my witness,” he added bitterly, “I cannot bear to lay the
letter of a foreign king against my brow in token of my country’s
vassalage.”
Then he broke the silk of the seals and read, and as he read his face
grew black with rage.
“What!” he cried, casting down the roll and stamping on it. “What! Does
this dog of an Eastern king bid me send my niece, by birth the Royal
Princess of Egypt, to be his toy until he wearies of her? First I will
choke her with my own hands. How comes it, Shabaka, that you care to
bring me such a message? Were I Pharaoh now I think your life would pay
the price.”
“As it would certainly have paid the price, had I not done so. Prince,
I brought the letter because I must. Also a copy of it has gone, I
believe, to Idernes the Satrap at Sais. It is better to face the truth,
Prince, and I think that I may be of more service to you alive than
dead. If you do not wish to send the lady Amada to the King, marry her
to someone else, after which he will seek her no more.”
He looked at me shrewdly and said,
“To whom then? I cannot marry her, being her uncle and already married.
Do you mean to yourself, Shabaka?”
“I have loved the lady Amada from a child, Prince,” I answered boldly.
“Also I have high blood in me and having brought much gold from the
East, am rich again and one accustomed to war.”
“So you have brought gold from the East! How? Well, you can tell me
afterwards. But you fly high. You, a Count of Egypt, wish to marry the
Royal Lady of Egypt, for such she is by birth and rank, which, if ever
Egypt were free again, would give you a title to the throne.”
“I ask no throne, Prince. If there were one to fill I should be content
to leave that to you and your heirs.”
“So you say, no doubt honestly. But would the children of Amada say the
same? Would you even say it if you were her husband, and would she say
it? Moreover she is a priestess, sworn not to wed, though perhaps that
trouble might be overcome, if she wishes to wed, which I doubt. Mayhap
you might discover. Well, you are hungry and worn with long travelling.
Come, let us eat, and afterwards you can tell your story. Amada and the
others will be glad to hear it, as I shall. Follow me, Count Shabaka.”
So we went to the lesser banqueting-hall, I filled with joy because I
should see Amada, and yet, much afraid because of that story which I
must tell. Gathered there, waiting for the Prince, we found the
Princess his wife, a large and kindly woman, also his two eldest
daughters and his young son, a lad of about sixteen. Moreover, there
were certain officers, while at the tables of the lower hall sat others
of the household, men of smaller rank, and their wives, since Peroa
still maintained some kind of a shadow of the Court of old Egypt.
The Princess and the others greeted me, and Bes also who had always
been a favourite with them, before he went to take his seat at the
lowest table, and I greeted them, looking all the while for Amada whom
I did not see. Presently, however, as we took our places on the
couches, she entered dressed, not as a priestess, but in the beautiful
robes of a great lady of Egypt and wearing on her head the _uræus_
circlet that signified her royal blood. As it chanced the only seat
left vacant was that next to myself, which she took before she
recognized me, for she was engaged in asking pardon for her lateness of
the Prince and Princess, saying that she had been detained by the
ceremonies at the temple. Seeing suddenly that I was her neighbour, she
made as though she would change her place, then altered her mind and
stayed where she was.
“Greeting, Cousin Shabaka,” she said, “though not for the first time
to-day. Oh! my heart was glad when looking up, outside the temple, I
caught sight of you clad in that strange Eastern armour, and knew that
you had returned safe from your long wanderings. Yet afterwards I must
do penance for it by saying two added prayers, since at such a time my
thoughts should have been with the goddess only.”
“Greeting, Cousin Amada,” I answered, “but she must be a jealous
goddess who grudges a thought to a relative—and friend—at such a time.”
“She is jealous, Shabaka, as being the Queen of women she must be who
demands to reign alone in the hearts of her votaries. But tell me of
your travels in the East and how you came by that rope of wondrous
pearls, if indeed there can be pearls so large and beautiful.”
This at the time I had little chance of doing, however, since the young
Princess on the other side of her began to talk to Amada about some
forthcoming festival, and the Prince’s son next to me who was fond of
hunting, to question me about sport in the East and when, unhappily, I
said that I had shot lions there, gave me no peace for the rest of that
feast. Also the Princess opposite was anxious to learn what food noble
people ate in the East, and how it was cooked and how they sat at
table, and what was the furniture of their rooms and did women attend
feasts as in Egypt, and so forth. So it came about that what between
these things and eating and drinking, which, being well-nigh starved, I
was obliged to do, for, save a cup of wine, I had taken nothing in my
mother’s house, I found little chance of talking with the lovely Amada,
although I knew that all the while she was studying me out of the
corners of her large eyes. Or perhaps it was the rose-hued pearls she
studied, I was not sure.
Only one thing did she say to me when there was a little pause while
the cup went round, and she pledged me according to custom and passed
it on. It was,
“You look well, Shabaka, though somewhat tired, but sadder than you
used, I think.”
“Perhaps because I have seen things to sadden me, Amada. But you too
look well but somewhat lovelier than you used, I think, if that be
possible.”
She smiled and blushed as she replied,
“The Eastern ladies have taught you how to say pretty things. But you
should not waste them upon me who have done with women’s vanities and
have given myself to learning and—religion.”
“Have learning and religion no vanities of their own?” I began, when
suddenly the Prince gave a signal to end the feast.
Thereon all the lower part of the hall went away and the little tables
at which we ate were removed by servants, leaving us only wine-cups in
our hands which a butler filled from time to time, mixing the wine with
water. This reminded me of something, and having asked leave, I
beckoned to Bes, who still lingered near the door, and took from him
that splendid, golden goblet which the Great King had given me, that by
my command he had brought wrapped up in linen and hidden beneath his
robe. Having undone the wrappings I bowed and offered it to the Prince
Peroa.
“What is this wondrous thing?” asked the Prince, when all had finished
admiring its workmanship. “Is it a gift that you bring me from the King
of the East, Shabaka?”
“It is a gift from myself, O Prince, if you will be pleased to accept
it,” I answered, adding, “Yet it is true that it comes from the King of
the East, since it was his own drinking-cup that he gave me in exchange
for a certain bow, though not the one he sought, after he had pledged
me.”
“You seem to have found much favour in the eyes of this king, Shabaka,
which is more than most of us Egyptians do,” he exclaimed, then went on
hastily, “Still, I thank you for your splendid gift, and however you
came by it, shall value it much.”
“Perhaps my cousin Shabaka will tell us his story,” broke in Amada, her
eyes still fixed upon the rose-hued pearls, “and of how he came to win
all the beauteous things that dazzle our eyes to-night.”
Now I thought of offering her the pearls, but remembering my mother’s
words, also that the Princess might not like to see another woman bear
off such a prize, did not do so. So I began to tell my story instead,
Bes seated on the ground near to me by the Prince’s wish, that he might
tell his.
The tale was long for in it was much that went before the day when I
saw myself in the chariot hunting lions with the King of kings, which
I, the modern man who set down all this vision, now learned for the
first time. It told of the details of my journey to the East, of my
coming to the royal city and the rest, all of which it is needless to
repeat. Then I came to the lion hunt, to my winning of the wager, and
all that happened to me; of my being condemned to death, of the
weighing of Bes against the gold, and of how I was laid in the boat of
torment, a story at which I noticed Amada turn pale and tremble.
Here I ceased, saying that Bes knew better than I what had chanced at
the Court while I was pinned in the boat, whereon all present cried out
to Bes to take up the tale. This he did, and much better than I could
have done, bringing out many little things which made the scene appear
before them, as Ethiopians have the art of doing. At last he came to
the place in his story where the king asked him if he had ever seen a
woman fairer than the dancers, and went on thus:
“O Prince, I told the Great King that I had; that there dwelt in Egypt
a lady of royal blood with eyes like stars, with hair like silk and
long as an unbridled horse’s tail, with a shape like to that of a
goddess, with breath like flowers, with skin like milk, with a voice
like honey, with learning like to that of the god Thoth, with wit like
a razor’s edge, with teeth like pearls, with majesty of bearing like to
that of the king himself, with fingers like rosebuds set in pink
seashells, with motion like that of an antelope, with grace like that
of a swan floating upon water, and—I don’t remember the rest, O
Prince.”
“Perhaps it is as well,” exclaimed Peroa. “But what did the King say
then?”
“He asked her name, O Prince.”
“And what name did you give to this wondrous lady who surpasses all the
goddesses in loveliness and charm, O dwarf Bes?” inquired Amada much
amused.
“What name, O High-born One? Is it needful to ask? Why, what name could
I give but your own, for is there any other in the world of whom a man
whose heart is filled with truth could speak such things?”
Now hearing this I gasped, but before I could speak Amada leapt up,
crying,
“Wretch! You dared to speak my name to this king! Surely you should be
scourged till your bones are bare.”
“And why not, Lady? Would you have had me sit still and hear those fat
trollops of the East exalted above you? Would you have had me so
disloyal to your royal loveliness?”
“You should be scourged,” repeated Amada stamping her foot. “My Uncle,
I pray you cause this knave to be scourged.”
“Nay, nay,” said Peroa moodily. “Poor simple man, he knew no better and
thought only to sing your praises in a far land. Be not angry with the
dwarf, Niece. Had it been Shabaka who gave your name, the thing would
be different. What happened next, Bes?”
“Only this, Prince,” said Bes, looking upwards and rolling his eyes, as
was his fashion when unloading some great lie from his heart. “The King
sent his servants to bring my master from the boat, that he might
inquire of him whether he had always found me truthful. For, Prince,
those Easterns set much store by truth which here in Egypt is
worshipped as a goddess. There they do not worship her because she
lives in the heart of every man, and some women.”
Now all stared at Bes who continued to stare at the ceiling, and I rose
to say something, I know not what, when suddenly the doors opened and
through them appeared heralds, crying,
“Hearken, Peroa, Prince of Egypt by grace of the Great King. A message
from the Great King. Read and obey, O Peroa, Prince of Egypt by grace
of the Great King!”
As they cried thus from between them emerged a man whose long Eastern
robes were stained with the dust of travel. Advancing without salute he
drew out a roll, touched his forehead with it, bowing deeply, and
handed it to the prince, saying,
“Kiss the Word. Read the Word. Obey the Word, O servant of our Master,
the King of kings, beneath whose feet we are all but dust.”
Peroa took the roll, made a semblance of lifting it to his forehead,
opened and read it. As he did so I saw the veins swell upon his neck
and his eyes flash, but he only said,
“O Messenger, to-night I feast, to-morrow an answer shall be given to
you to convey to the Satrap Idernes. My servants will find you food and
lodging. You are dismissed.”
“Let the answer be given early lest you also should be dismissed, O
Peroa,” said the man with insolence.
Then he turned his back upon the prince, as one does on an inferior,
and walked away, accompanied by the herald.
When they were gone and the doors had been shut, Peroa spoke in a voice
that was thick with fury, saying,
“Hearken, all of you, to the words of the writing.”
Then he read it.
“From the King of kings, the Ruler of all the earth, to Peroa, one of
his servants in the Satrapy of Egypt,
“Deliver over to my servant Idernes without delay, the person of
Amada, a lady of the blood of the old Pharaohs of Egypt, who is
your relative and in your guardianship, that she may be numbered
among the women of my house.”
Now all present looked at each other, while Amada stood as though she
had been frozen into stone. Before she could speak, Peroa went on,
“See how the King seeks a quarrel against me that he may destroy me and
bray Egypt in his mortar, and tan it like a hide to wrap about his
feet. Nay, hold your peace, Amada. Have no fear. You shall not be sent
to the East; first will I kill you with my own hands. But what answer
shall we give, for the matter is urgent and on it hang all our lives?
Bethink you, Idernes has a great force yonder at Sais, and if I refuse
outright, he will attack us, which indeed is what the King means him to
do before we can make preparation. Say then, shall we fight, or shall
we fly to Upper Egypt, abandoning Memphis, and there make our stand?”
Now the Councillors present seemed to find no answer, for they did not
know what to say. But Bes whispered in my ear,
“Remember, Master, that you hold the King’s seal. Let an answer be sent
to Idernes under the White Seal, bidding him wait on you.”
Then I rose and spoke.
“O Peroa,” I said, “as it chances I am the bearer of the private signet
of the Great King, which all men must obey in the north and in the
south, in the east and in the west, wherever the sun shines over the
dominions of the King. Look on it,” and taking the ancient White Seal
from about my neck, I handed it to him.
He looked and the Councillors looked. Then they said almost with one
voice,
“It is the White Seal, the very signet of the Great Kings of the East,”
and they bowed before the dreadful thing.
“How you came by this we do not know, Shabaka,” said Peroa. “That can
be inquired of afterwards. Yet in truth it seems to be the old Signet
of signets, that which has come down from father to son for countless
generations, that which the King of kings carries on his person and
affixes to his private orders and to the greatest documents of State,
which afterwards can never be recalled, that of which a copy is
emblazoned on his banner.”
“It is,” I answered, “and from the King’s person it came to me for a
while. If any doubt, let the impress be brought, that is furnished to
all the officers throughout the Empire, and let the seal be set in the
impress.”
Now one of the officers rose and went to bring the impress which was in
his keeping, but Peroa continued,
“If this be the true seal, how would you use it, Shabaka, to help us in
our present trouble?”
“Thus, Prince,” I answered. “I would send a command under the seal to
Idernes to wait upon the holder of the seal here in Memphis. He will
suspect a trap and will not come until he has gathered a great army.
Then he will come, but meanwhile, you, Prince, can also collect an
army.”
“That needs gold, Shabaka, and I have little. The King of kings takes
all in tribute.”
“I have some, Prince, to the weight of a heavy man, and it is at the
service of Egypt.”
“I thank you, Shabaka. Believe me, such generosity shall not go
unrewarded,” and he glanced at Amada who dropped her eyes. “But if we
can collect the army, what then?”
“Then you can put Memphis into a state of defence. Then too when
Idernes comes I will meet him and, as the bearer of the seal, command
him under the seal to retreat and disperse his army.”
“But if he does, Shabaka, it will only be until he has received fresh
orders from the Great King, whereon he will advance again.”
“No, Prince, _he_ will not advance, or that army either. For when they
are in retreat we will fall on them and destroy them, and declare you,
O Prince, Pharaoh of Egypt, though what will happen afterwards I do not
know.”
When they heard this all gasped. Only Amada whispered,
“Well said!” and Bes clapped his big hands softly in the Ethiopian
fashion.
“A bold counsel,” said Peroa, “and one on which I must have the night
to think. Return here, Shabaka, an hour after sunrise to-morrow, by
which time I can gather all the wisest men in Memphis, and we will
discuss this matter. Ah! here is the impress. Now let the seal be
tried.”
A box was brought and opened. In it was a slab of wood on which was an
impress of the King’s seal in wax, surrounded by those of other seals
certifying that it was genuine. Also there was a writing describing the
appearance of the seal. I handed the signet to Peroa who, having
compared it with the description in the writing, fitted it to the
impress on the wax.
“It is the same,” he said. “See, all of you.”
They looked and nodded. Then he would have given it back to me but I
refused to take it, saying,
“It is not well that this mighty symbol should hang about the neck of a
private man whence it might be stolen or lost.”
“Or who might be murdered for its sake,” interrupted Peroa.
“Yes, Prince. Therefore take it and hide it in the safest and most
secret place in the palace, and with it these pearls that are too
priceless to be flaunted about the streets of Memphis at night, unless
indeed——” and I turned to look for Amada, but she was gone.
So the seal and the pearls were taken and locked in the box with the
impress and borne away. Nor was I sorry to see the last of them, wisely
as it happened. Then I bade the Prince and his company good night, and
presently was driving homeward with Bes in the chariot.
Our way led us past some large houses once occupied by officers of the
Court of Pharaoh, but now that there was no Court, fallen into ruins.
Suddenly from out of these houses sprang a band of men disguised as
common robbers, whose faces were hidden by cloths with eye-holes cut in
them. They seized the horses by the bridles, and before we could do
anything, leapt upon us and held us fast. Then a tall man speaking with
a foreign accent, said,
“Search that officer and the dwarf. Take from them the seal upon a gold
chain and a rope of rose-hued pearls which they have stolen. But do
them no harm.”
So they searched us, the tall man himself helping and, aided by others,
holding Bes who struggled with them, and searched the chariot also, by
the light of the moon, but found nothing. The tall man muttered that I
must be the wrong officer, and at a sign they left us and ran away.
“That was a wise thought of mine, Bes, which caused me to leave certain
ornaments in the palace,” I said. “As it is they have taken nothing.”
“Yes, Master,” he answered, “though I have taken something from them,”
a saying that I did not understand at the time. “Those Easterns whom we
met by the canal told Idernes about the seal, and he ordered this to be
done. That tall man was one of the messengers who came to-night to the
palace.”
“Then why did they not kill us, Bes?”
“Because murder, especially of one who holds the seal, is an ugly
business, that is easily tracked down, whereas thieves are many in
Memphis and who troubles about them when they have failed? Oh! the
Grasshopper, or Amen, or both, have been with us to-night.”
So I thought although I said nothing, for since we had come off
scatheless, what did it matter? Well, this. It showed me that the
signet of the Great King was indeed to be dreaded and coveted, even
here in Egypt. If Idernes could get it into his possession, what might
he not do with it? Cause himself to be proclaimed Pharaoh perhaps and
become the forefather of an independent dynasty. Why not, when the
Empire of the East was taxed with a great war elsewhere? And if this
was so why should not Peroa do the same, he who had behind him all Old
Egypt, maddened with its wrongs and foreign rule?
That same night before I slept, but after Bes and I had hidden away the
bags of gold by burying them beneath the clay floor, I laid the whole
matter before my mother who was a very wise woman. She heard me out,
answering little, then said,
“The business is very dangerous, and of its end I will not speak until
I have heard the counsel of your great-uncle, the holy Tanofir. Still,
things having gone so far, it seems to me that boldness may be the best
course, since the great King has his Grecian wars to deal with, and
whatever he may say, cannot attack Egypt yet awhile. Therefore if Peroa
is able to overcome Idernes and his army he may cause himself to be
proclaimed Pharaoh and make Egypt free if only for a time.”
“Such is my mind, Mother.”
“Not all your mind, Son, I think,” she answered smiling, “for you think
more of the lovely Amada than of these high policies, at any rate
to-night. Well, marry your Amada if you can, though I misdoubt me
somewhat of a woman who is so lost in learning and thinks so much about
her soul. At least if you marry her and Egypt should become free, as it
was for thousands of years, you will be the next heir to the throne as
husband of the Great Royal Lady.”
“How can that be, Mother, seeing that Peroa has a son?”
“A vain youth with no more in him than a child’s rattle. If once Amada
ceases to think about her soul she will begin to think about her
throne, especially if she has children. But all this is far away and
for the present I am glad that neither she nor the thieves have got
those pearls, though perhaps they might be safer here than where they
are. And now, my son, go rest for you need it, and dream of nothing,
not even Amada, who for her part will dream of Isis, if at all. I will
wake you before the dawn.”
So I went, being too tired to talk more, and slept like a crocodile in
the sun, till, as it seemed to me, but a few minutes later I saw my
mother standing over me with a lamp, saying that it was time to rise. I
rose, unwillingly enough, but refreshed, washed and dressed myself, by
which time the sun had begun to appear. Then I ate some food and,
calling Bes, made ready to start for the palace.
“My son,” said my mother, the lady Tiu, before we parted, “while you
have been sleeping I have been thinking, as is the way of the old.
Peroa, your cousin, will be glad enough to make use of you, but he does
not love you over much because he is jealous of you and fears lest you
should become his rival in the future. Still he is an honest man and
will keep a bargain which he once has made. Now it seems that above
everything on earth you desire Amada on whom you have set your heart
since boyhood, but who has always played with you and spoken to you
with her arm stretched out. Also life is short and may come to an end
any day, as you should know better than most men who have lived among
dangers, and therefore it is well that a man should take what he
desires, even if he finds afterwards that the rose he crushes to his
breast has thorns. For then at least he will have smelt the rose, not
only have looked on and longed to smell it. Therefore, before you hand
over your gold, and place your wit and strength at the service of
Peroa, make your bargain with him; namely, that if thereby you save
Amada from the King’s House of Women and help to set Peroa on the
throne, he shall promise her to you free of any priestly curse, you
giving her as dowry the priceless rose-hued pearls that are worth a
kingdom. So you will get your rose till it withers, and if the thorns
prick, do not blame me, and one day you may become a king—or a slave,
Amen knows which.”
Now I laughed and said that I would take her counsel who desired Amada
and nothing else. As for all her talk about thorns, I paid no heed to
it, knowing that she loved me very much and was jealous of Amada who
she thought would take her place with me.