symmetrically in rouleaux. He has a straight nose, drooping eyelids,
a heavy and cunning physiognomy. At the four corners of the dais
stretched above his head are placed four golden doves; and at the foot
of the throne are two lions in enamel crouching. The doves begin to
sing, the lions to roar. The Emperor rolls his eyes; Anthony advances;
and forthwith, without preamble, they commence to converse about
recent events. In the cities of Antioch, Ephesus, and Alexandria,
the temples have been sacked, and the statues of the gods converted
into pots and cooking utensils; the Emperor laughs heartily about it.
Anthony reproaches him with his tolerance toward the Novations. But the
Emperor becomes vexed. Novations, Arians or Meletians--he is sick of
them all! Nevertheless, he admires the episcopate; for inasmuch as the
Christians maintain bishops, who depend for their position upon five or
six important personages, it is only necessary to gain over the latter,
in order to have all the rest on one's side. Therefore he did not fail
to furnish them with large sums. But he detests the Fathers of the
Council of Nicæa._
"Let us go and see them!"
_Anthony follows him._
_And they find themselves on a terrace, upon the same floor._
_It overlooks a hippodrome thronged with people, and surmounted by
porticoes where other spectators are walking to and fro. From the
centre of the race-course rises a narrow platform of hewn stone,
supporting a little temple of Mercury, the statue of Constantine, and
three serpents of brass twisted into a column; there are three huge
wooden eggs at one end, and at the other a group of seven dolphins with
their tails in the air._
_Behind the imperial pavilion sit the Prefects of the Chambers, the
Counts of the Domestics, and the Patricians--in ranks rising by tiers
to the first story of a church whose windows are thronged with women.
On the right is the tribune of the Blue Faction; on the left, that of
the Green; below, a picket of soldiers is stationed; and on a level
with the arena is a row of Corinthian arches, forming the entrances to
the stables._
_The races are about to commence; the horses are drawn up in line.
Lofty plumes, fastened between their ears, bend to the wind like
saplings; and with every restive bound, they shake their chariots
violently, which are shell-shaped, and conducted by charioteers clad
in a sort of multi-colored cuirass, having sleeves tight at the wrist
and wide in the arms; their legs are bare; their beards, faces and
foreheads are shaven after the manner of the Huns._
_Anthony is at first deafened by the billowy sound of voices. From
the summit of the hippodrome to its lowest tiers, he sees only faces
painted with rouge, garments checkered and variegated with many colors,
flashing jewelry; and the sand of the arena, all white, gleams like a
mirror._
_The Emperor entertains him. He confides to him many matters of high
importance, many secrets; he confesses the assassination of his son
Criopus, and even asks Anthony for advice regarding his health._
_Meanwhile Anthony notices some slaves in the rear portion of the
stables below. They are the Fathers of Nicæa, ragged and abject. The
martyr Paphnutius is brushing the mane of one horse; Theophilus is
washing the legs of another; John is painting the hoofs of a third;
Alexander is collecting dung in a basket._
_Anthony passes through the midst of them. They range themselves on
either side respectfully; they beseech his intercession; they kiss his
hands. The whole assemblage of spectators hoots at them; and he enjoys
the spectacle with immeasurable pleasure. Lo! he is now one of the
grandees of the Court--the Emperor's confidant--the prime minister!
Constantine places his own diadem upon his brows. Anthony allows it to
remain upon his head, thinking this honor quite natural._
_And suddenly in the midst of the darkness a vast hall appears,
illuminated by golden candelabra._
_Candles so lofty that they are half lost in the darkness, stretch away
in huge files beyond the lines of banquet-tables, which seem to extend
to the horizon, where through a luminous haze loom superpositions of
stairways, suites of arcades, colossi, towers, and beyond all a vague
border of palace walls, above which rise the crests of cedars, making
yet blacker masses of blackness against the darkness._
_The guests, crowned with violet wreaths, recline upon very low couches
and are leaning upon their elbows. Along the whole length of this
double line of couches, wine is being poured out from amphoræ, and at
the further end, all alone, coiffed with the tiara and blazing with
carbuncles, King Nebuchadnezzar eats and drinks._
_On his right and left, two bands of priests in pointed caps are
swinging censers. On the pavement below crawl the captive kings whose
hands and feet have been cut off; from time to time he flings them
bones to gnaw. Further off sit his brothers, with bandages across their
eyes, being all blind._
_From the depths of the ergastula arise moans of ceaseless pain. Sweet
slow sounds of a hydraulic organ alternate with choruses of song; and
one feels that all about the palace without extends an immeasurable
city--an ocean of human life whose waves break against the walls. The
slaves run hither and thither carrying dishes. Women walk between the
ranks of guests, offering drinks to all; the baskets groan under their
burthen of loaves; and a dromedary, laden with perforated water-skins:
passes and repasses through the hall, sprinkling and cooling the
pavement with vervain._
_Lion tamers are leading tamed lions about. Dancing girls--their
hair confined in nets--balance themselves and turn upon their hands,
emitting fire through their nostrils; negro boatmen are juggling; naked
children pelt each other with pellets of snow, which burst against the
bright silverware. There is an awful clamor as of a tempest; and a huge
cloud hangs over the banquet--so numerous are the meats and breaths.
Sometimes a flake of fire torn from the great flambeaux by the wind,
traverses the night like a shooting star._
_The king wipes the perfumes from his face with his arm. He eats from
the sacred vessels--then breaks them; and secretly reckons up the
number of his fleets, his armies, and his subjects. By and by, for a
new caprice, he will burn his palace with all its guests. He dreams of
rebuilding the tower of Babel, and dethroning God._
_Anthony, from afar off, reads all these thoughts upon his brow. They
penetrate his own brain, and he becomes Nebuchadnezzar. Immediately he
is cloyed with orgiastic excesses, sated with fury of extermination;
and a great desire comes upon him to wallow in vileness. For the
degradation of that which terrifies men is an outrage inflicted upon
their minds--it affords yet one more way to stupefy them; and as
nothing is viler than a brute, Anthony goes upon the table on all
fours, and bellows like a bull._
_He feels a sudden pain in his hand--a pebble has accidentally wounded
him--and he finds himself once more in front of his cabin._
_The circle of the rocks is empty. The stars are glowing in the sky.
All is hushed._)
"Again have I allowed myself to be deceived! Why these things? They
come from the rebellion of the flesh. Ah! wretch!"
(_He rushes into his cabin, and seizes a bunch of thongs, with metallic
hooks attached to their ends, strips himself to the waist and, lifting
his eyes to heaven exclaims_:)
"Accept my penance, O my God: disdain it not for its feebleness. Render
it sharp, prolonged, excessive! It is time, indeed!--to the work!"
(_He gives himself a vigorous lash--and shrieks._)
"No! no!--without mercy it must be."
(_He recommences._)
"Oh! oh! oh! each lash tears my skin, rends my limbs! It burns me
horribly!"
"Nay!--it is not so very terrible after all!--one becomes accustomed to
it. It even seems to me...."
(_Anthony pauses._)
"Continue, coward! continue! Good! good!--upon the arms, on the back,
on the breast, on the belly--everywhere! Hiss, ye thongs! bite me!
tear me! I would that my blood could spurt to the stars!--let my bones
crack!--let my tendons be laid bare! O for pincers, racks, and melted
lead! The martyrs have endured far worse; have they not, Ammonaria?"
(_The shadow of the Devil's horns reappears._)
"I might have been bound to the column opposite to thine,--face to
face--under thy eyes--answering thy shrieks by my sighs; and our pangs
might have been interblended, our souls intermingled."
(_He lashes himself with fury._)
"What! what! again. Take that!--But how strange a titillation thrills
me! What punishment! what pleasure! I feel as though receiving
invisible kisses; the very marrow of my bones seems to melt. I die...."
_And he sees before him three cavaliers, mounted upon onagers, clad in
robes of green--each holding a lily in his hand, and all resembling
each other in feature._
_Anthony turns round, and beholds three other cavaliers exactly
similar, riding upon similar onagers, and preserving the same attitude._
_He draws back. Then all the onagers advance one pace at the same time,
and rub their noses against him, trying to bite his garment. Voices
shout_:--
"Here! here! this way!"
_And between the clefts of the mountain, appear standards,--camels'
heads with halters of red silk--mules laden with baggage, and women
covered with yellow veils, bestriding piebald horses._
_The panting beasts lie down; the slaves rush to the bales and
packages, motley-striped carpets are unrolled; precious glimmering
things are laid upon the ground._
_A white elephant, caparisoned with a golden net, trots forward,
shaking the tuft of ostrich plumes attached to his head-band._
_Upon his back, perched on cushions of blue wool, with her legs
crossed, her eyes half closed, her comely head sleepily nodding, is a
woman so splendidly clad that she radiates light about her. The crowd
falls prostrate; the elephant bends his knees; and_
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA
_letting herself glide down from his shoulder upon the carpets spread
to receive her, approaches Saint Anthony._
_Her robe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls,
of jet, and of sapphires, sheaths her figure closely with its
tight-fitting bodice, set off by colored designs representing the
twelve signs of the Zodiac. She wears very high pattens--one of which
is black, and sprinkled with silver stars, with a moon crescent; the
other, which is white, is sprinkled with a spray of gold, with a golden
sun in the middle._
_Her wide sleeves, decorated with emeralds and bird-plumes, leave
exposed her little round bare arms, clasped at the wrist by ebony
bracelets; and her hands, loaded with precious rings, are terminated by
nails so sharply pointed that the ends of her fingers seem almost like
needles._
_A chain of dead gold, passing under her chin, is caught up on either
side of her face, and spirally coiled about her coiffure, whence,
redescending, it grazes her shoulders and is attached upon her bosom
to a diamond scorpion, which protrudes a jewelled tongue between her
breasts. Two immense blond pearls depend heavily from her ears. The
borders of her eyelids are painted black. There is a natural brown spot
upon her left cheek; and she opens her mouth in breathing, as if her
corset inconvenienced her._
_She shakes, as she approaches, a green parasol with an ivory handle,
and silver-gilt bells attached to its rim; twelve little woolly-haired
negro-boys support the long train of her robe, whereof an ape holds the
extremity, which it raises up from time to time. She exclaims_:
"Ah! handsome hermit! handsome hermit!--my heart swoons!
"By dint of stamping upon the ground with impatience, callosities have
formed upon my heel, and I have broken one of my nails. I sent out
shepherds, who remained upon the mountain tops, shading their eyes with
their hands--and hunters who shouted thy name in all the forests--and
spies who travelled along the highways, asking every passer-by:
"'Hast thou seen him?'
"By night I wept, with my face turned to the wall. And at last my tears
made two little holes in the mosaic, like two pools of water among the
rocks;--for I love thee!--oh! how I love thee!"
(_She takes him by the beard._)
"Laugh now, handsome hermit! laugh! I am very joyous, very gay: thou
shalt soon see! I play the lyre; I dance like a bee; and I know a host
of merry tales to tell, each more diverting than the other.
"Thou canst not even imagine how mighty a journey we have made. See!
the onagers upon which the green couriers rode are dead with fatigue!"
(_The onagers are lying motionless upon the ground._)
"For three long moons they never ceased to gallop on with the same
equal pace, holdings flints between their teeth to cut the wind, their
tails ever streaming out behind them, their sinews perpetually strained
to the uttermost, always galloping, galloping. Never can others be
found like them. They were bequeathed me by my paternal grand-father,
the Emperor Saharil, son of Iakhschab, son of Iaarab, son of Kastan.
Ah! if they were still alive, we should harness them to a litter that
they might bear us back speedily to the palace! But ... what ails
thee?--of what art thou dreaming?"
(_She stares at him, examines him closely._)
"Ah, when thou shalt be my husband, I will robe thee, I will perfume
thee, I will depilate thee."
(_Anthony remains motionless, more rigid than a stake, more pallid
than a corpse._)
"Thou hast a sad look--is it because of leaving thy hermitage? Yet I
have left everything for thee--even King Solomon, who, nevertheless,
possesses much wisdom, twenty thousand chariots of war, and a beautiful
beard. I have brought thee my wedding gifts. Choose!"
(_She walks to and fro among the ranks of slaves and the piles of
precious goods._)
"Here is Genezareth balm, incense from Cape Gardefui, labdanum,
cinnamon, and silphium--good to mingle with sauces. In that bale are
Assyrian embroideries, ivory from the Ganges, purple from Elissa;
and that box of snow contains a skin of chalybon, the wine, which
is reserved for the Kings of Assyria, and which is drunk from the
horn of a unicorn. Here are necklaces, brooches, nets for the hair,
parasols, gold powder from Baasa, cassiteria from Tartessus, blue wood
from Pandio, white furs from Issidonia, carbuncles from the Island
Palæsimondus, and toothpicks made of the bristles of the tachas--that
lost animal which is found under the earth. These cushions come from
Emath, and these mantle-fringes from Palmyra. On this Babylonian carpet
there is.... But come hither! come! come!"
(_She pulls Saint Anthony by the sleeve. He resists. She continues_:)
"This thin tissue which crackles under the finger with a sound as of
sparks, is the famous yellow cloth which the merchants of Bactria bring
us. I will have robes made of it for thee, which thou shalt wear in the
house. Unfasten the hooks of that sycamore box, and hand me also the
little ivory casket tied to my elephant's shoulder."
(_They take something round out of a box--something covered with a
cloth--and also bring a little ivory casket covered with carving._)
"Dost thou desire the buckler of Dgian-ben-Dgian, who built the
pyramids?--behold it!--It is formed of seven dragon-skins laid one over
the other, tanned in the bile of parricides, and fastened together by
adamantine screws. Upon one side are represented all the wars that have
taken place since the invention of weapons; and upon the other, all the
wars that will take place until the end of the world. The lightning
itself rebounds from it like a ball of cork. I am going to place it
upon thy arm; and thou wilt carry it during the chase.
"But if thou didst only know what I have in this little box of mine!
Turn it over and over again! try to open it! No one could ever succeed
in doing that. Kiss me! and I will tell thee how to open it."
(_She takes Saint Anthony by both cheeks. He pushes her away at arms'
length._)
"It was one night that King Solomon lost his head. At last we concluded
a bargain. He arose, and stealing out on tiptoe...."
(_She suddenly executes a pirouette._)
"Ah, ah! comely hermit, thou shalt not know it! thou shalt not know!"
(_She shakes her parasol, making all its little bells tinkle._)
"And I possess many other strange things--oh! yes! I have treasures
concealed in winding galleries where one would lose one's way, as
in a forest. I have summer-palaces constructed in trellis-work of
reeds, and winter-palaces all built of black marble. In the midst of
lakes vast as seas, I have islands round as pieces of silver, and all
covered with mother-of-pearl,--islands whose shores make music to
the lapping of tepid waves upon the sand. The slaves of my kitchens
catch birds in my aviaries, and fish in my fishponds. I have engravers
continually seated at their benches to hollow out my likeness in hard
jewel-stones, and panting molders forever casting statues of me, and
perfumers incessantly mingling the sap of rare plants with vinegar,
or preparing cosmetic pastes. I have female dressmakers cutting out
patterns in richest material, goldsmiths cutting and mounting jewels of
price, and careful painters pouring upon my palace wainscoting boiling
resins, which they subsequently cool with fans. I have enough female
attendants to form a harem, eunuchs enough to make an army. I have
armies likewise; I have nations! In the vestibule of my palace I keep a
guard of dwarfs--all bearing ivory trumpets at their backs." (_Anthony
sighs._)
"I have teams of trained gazelles; I have elephant quadrigæ; I have
hundreds of pairs of camels, and mares whose manes are so long that
their hoofs become entangled therein when they gallop, and herds of
cattle with horns so broad that when they go forth to graze the woods
have to be hewn down before them. I have giraffes wandering in my
gardens; they stretch their heads over the edge of my roof, when I take
the air after dinner.
"Seated in a shell drawn over the waters by dolphins, I travel
through the grottoes, listening lo the dropping of the water from the
stalactites. I go down to the land of diamonds, where my friends the
magicians allow me to choose the finest: then I reascend to earth and
return to my home."
(_She utters a sharp whistle; and a great bird, descending from the
sky, alights upon her hair, from which it makes the blue powder fall._
_Its orange-colored plumage seems formed of metallic scales. Its little
head, crested with a silver tuft, has a human face._
_It has four wings, the feet of a vulture, and an immense peacock's
tail which it spreads open like a fan._
_It seizes the Queen's parasol in its beak, reels a moment ere
obtaining its balance; then it erects all its plumes, and remains
motionless._)
"Thanks! my beautiful Simorg-Anka!--thou didst tell me where the loving
one was hiding! Thanks! thanks! my heart's messenger!
"He flies swiftly as Desire! He circles the world in his flight. At eve
he returns; he perches at the foot of my couch and tells me all he has
seen--the seas that have passed far beneath him with all their fishes
and ships, the great void deserts he has contemplated from the heights
of the sky, the harvests that were bowing in the valleys, and the
plants that were growing upon the walls of cities abandoned."
(_She wrings her hands, languorously._)
"Oh! if thou wast willing! if thou wast willing!... I have a pavilion
on a promontory in the middle of an isthmus dividing two oceans. It is
all wain-scoted with sheets of glass, and floored with tortoise shell,
and open to the four winds of heaven. From its height I watch my fleets
come in, and my nations toiling up the mountain-slopes with burthens
upon their shoulders. There would we sleep upon downs softer than
clouds; we would drink cool draughts from fruit-shells, and we would
gaze at the sun through emeralds! Come!" ...
(_Anthony draws back. She approaches him again, and exclaims in a tone
of vexation_:--)
"How? neither the rich, nor the coquettish, nor the amorous woman can
charm thee: is it so? None but a lascivious woman, with a hoarse voice
and lusty person, with fire-colored hair and superabundant flesh? Dost
thou prefer a body cold as the skin of a serpent, or rather great dark
eyes deeper than the mystic caverns?--behold them, my eyes!--look into
them!"
(_Anthony, in spite of him, gazes into her eyes._)
"All the women thou hast ever met--from the leman of the cross-roads,
singing under the light of her lantern, even to the patrician lady
scattering rose-petals abroad from her litter,--all the forms thou hast
ever obtained glimpses of--all the imaginations of thy desire thou hast
only to ask for them! I am not a woman: I am a world! My cloak has only
to fall in order that thou mayest discover a succession of mysteries."
(_Anthony's teeth chatter._)
"Place but thy finger upon my shoulder: it will be as though a stream
of fire shot through all thy veins. The possession of the least part
of me will fill thee with a joy more vehement than the conquest of an
Empire could give thee! Approach thy lips: there is a sweetness in my
kisses as of a fruit dissolving within thy heart. Ah! how thou wilt
lose thyself beneath my long hair, inhale the perfume of my bosom,
madden thyself with the beauty of my limbs: and thus, consumed by the
fire of my eyes, clasped within my arms as in a whirlwind...."
[Illustration: ... there is a sweetness in my kisses as of a fruit
dissolving within thy heart]
(_Anthony makes the sign of the cross._)
"Thou disdainest me! farewell!"
(_She departs, weeping; then, suddenly turning round_:--)
"Art quite sure?--so beautiful a woman...."
(_She laughs, and the ape that bears her train, lifts it up._)
"Thou wilt regret it, my comely hermit! thou wilt yet weep! thou wilt
again feel weary of thy life; but I care not a whit! La! la! la!--oh!
oh! oh!"
(_She takes her departure, hopping upon one foot and covering her face
with her hands._
_All the slaves file off before Saint Anthony--the horses, the
dromedaries, the elephant, the female attendants, the mules (which
have been reloaded), the negro boys, the ape, the green couriers each
holding his broken lily in his hand; and the Queen of Sheba departs,
uttering a convulsive hiccough at intervals, which might be taken
either for a sound of hysterical sobbing, or the half-suppressed
laughter of mockery._)
[1] _Thalamegii_--pleasure-boats having apartments.
III
(_When she has disappeared in the distance, Anthony observes a child
seated upon the threshold of his cabin._)
"It is one of the Queen's servants, no doubt," (_he thinks_).
(_This child is small like a dwarf, and nevertheless squat of build,
like one of the Cabiri; deformed withal, and wretched of aspect. His
prodigiously large head is covered with white hair; and he shivers
under a shabby tunic, all the while clutching a roll of papyrus. The
light of the moon passing through a cloud falls upon him._)
ANTHONY
(_watches him from a distance, and is afraid of him._) "Who art thou?"
THE CHILD (_replies_). "Thy ancient disciple, Hilarion."
ANTHONY. "Thou liest! Hilarion hath been dwelling in Palestine for
many long years."
HILARION. "I have returned! It is really I!"
ANTHONY (_draws near and examines him closely_). "Yet his face was
radiant as the dawn, candid, joyous. This face is the face of one
gloomy and old."
HILARION. "Long and arduous labor hath wearied me!"
ANTHONY. "The voice is also different. It hath an icy tone."
HILARION. "Because I have nourished me with bitter things!"
ANTHONY. "And those white hairs?"
HILARION. "I have endured many woes!"
ANTHONY (_aside_). "Could it be possible?"
HILARION. "I was not so far from thee as thou doest imagine. The hermit
Paul visited thee this year, during the month of Schebar. It is just
twenty days since the Nomads brought thee bread. Thou didst tell a
sailor, the day before yesterday, to send thee three bodkins."
ANTHONY. "He knows all!"
HILARION. "Know further more that I have never left thee. But there are
long periods during which thou hast no knowledge of my presence."
ANTHONY. "How can that be? Yet it is true that my head is so much
troubled--this night especially."
HILARION. "All the Capital Sins came hither. But their wretched snares
can avail nothing against such a Saint as thou."