VII
THE QUEEN'S VISION
There was silence without at last; the clamour and the tread of the
Apura were hushed in the distance, dying far away, and Rei grew calm,
when he heard no longer the wild song, and the clashing of the
timbrels.
"I must tell thee, Eperitus," he said, "how the matter ended between
the divine Prince and Meriamun. She bowed her pride before her father
and her brother: her father's will was hers; she seemed to let her
secret sleep, and she set her own price on her hand. In everything she
must be the equal of Pharaoh--that was her price; and in all the
temples and all the cities she was to be solemnly proclaimed joint
heir with him of the Upper and Lower Land. The bargain was struck and
the price was paid. After that night over the game of pieces Meriamun
was changed. Thenceforth she did not mock at the Prince, she made
herself gentle and submissive to his will.
"So the time drew on till at length in the beginning of the rising of
the waters came the day of her bridal. With a mighty pomp was
Pharaoh's daughter wedded to Pharaoh's son. But her hand was cold as
she stood at the altar, cold as the hand of one who sleeps in Osiris.
Proudly and coldly she sat in the golden chariot passing in and out
the great gates of Tanis. Only when she listened and heard the
acclaiming thousands cry /Meriamun/ so loudly that the cry of
/Meneptah/ was lost in the echoes of her name--then only did she
smile.
"Cold, too, she sat in her white robes at the feast that Pharaoh made,
and she never looked at the husband by her side, though he looked
kindly on her.
"The feast was long, but it ended at last, and then came the music and
the singers, but Meriamun, making excuse, rose and went out, attended
by her ladies. And I also, weary and sad at heart, passed thence to my
own chamber and busied myself with the instruments of my art, for,
stranger, I build the houses of gods and kings.
"Presently, as I sat, there came a knocking at the door, and a woman
entered wrapped in a heavy cloak. She put aside the cloak, and before
me was Meriamun in all her bridal robes.
"'Heed me not, Rei,' she said, 'I am yet free for an hour; and I would
watch thee at thy labour. Nay, it is my humour; gainsay me not, for I
love well to look on that wrinkled face of thine, scored by the
cunning chisel of thy knowledge and thy years. So from a child have I
watched thee tracing the shapes of mighty temples that shall endure
when ourselves, and perchance the very Gods we worship, have long
since ceased to be. Ah, Rei, thou wise man, thine is the better part,
for thou buildest in cold enduring stone and attirest thy walls as thy
fancy bids thee. But I--I build in the dust of human hearts, and my
will is written in their dust. When I am dead, raise me a tomb more
beautiful than ever has been known, and write upon the portal, /Here,
in the last temple of her pride, dwells that tired builder, Meriamun,
the Queen/.'
"Thus she talked wildly in words with little reason.
"'Nay, speak not so,' I said, 'for is it not thy bridal night? What
dost thou here at such a time?'
"'What do I here? Surely I come to be a child again! See, Rei, in all
wide Khem there is no woman so shamed, so lost, so utterly undone as
is to-night the Royal Meriamun, whom thou lovest. I am lower than she
who plies the street for bread, for the loftier the spirit the greater
is the fall. I am sold into shame, and power is my price. Oh, cursed
be the fate of woman who only by her beauty can be great. Oh, cursed
be that ancient Counsellor thou wottest of, and cursed be I who
wakened That which slept, and warmed That which was a-cold in my
breath and in my breast! And cursed be this sin to which he led me!
Spurn me, Rei; strike me on the cheek, spit upon me, on Meriamun, the
Royal harlot who sells herself to win a crown. Oh, I hate him, hate
him, and I will pay him in shame for shame--him, the clown in king's
attire. See here,'--and from her robe she drew a white flower that was
known to her and me--'twice to-day have I been minded with this deadly
blossom to make an end of me, and of all my shame, and all my empty
greed of glory. But this thought has held my hand: I, Meriamun, will
live to look across his grave and break his images, and beat out the
writings of his name from every temple wall in Khem, as they beat out
the hated name of Hatshepu. I----' and suddenly she burst into a rain
of tears; she who was not wont to weep.
"'Nay, touch me not,' she said. 'They were but tears of anger.
Meriamun is mistress of her Fate, not Fate of Meriamun. And now, my
lord awaits me, and I must be gone. Kiss me on the brow, old friend,
whilst yet I am the Meriamun thou knewest, and then kiss me no more
for ever. At the least this is well for thee, for when Meriamun is
Queen of Khem thou shalt be first in all the land, and stand on the
footsteps of my throne. Farewell.' And she gathered up her raiment and
cast her white flower of death in the flame of the brazier, and was
gone, leaving me yet sadder at heart. For now I knew that she was not
as other women are, but greater for good or evil.
"On the morrow night I sat again at my task, and again there came a
knocking at the door, and again a woman entered and threw aside her
wrappings. It was Meriamun. She was pale and stern, and as I rose she
waved me back.
"'Has, then, the Prince--thy husband----' I stammered.
"'Speak not to me of the Prince, Rei, my servant,' she made answer.
'Yesterday I spoke to thee wildly, my mind was overwrought; let it be
forgotten--a wife am I, a happy wife'; and she smiled so strangely
that I shrunk back from her.
"'Now to my errand. I have dreamed a dream, a troublous dream, and
thou art wise and instructed, therefore I pray thee interpret my
vision. I slept and dreamed of a man, and in my dream I loved him more
than I can tell. For my heart beat to his heart, and in the light of
him I lived, and all my soul was his, and I knew that I loved him for
ever. And Pharaoh was my husband; but, in my dream, I loved him not.
Now there came a woman rising out of the sea, more beautiful than I,
with a beauty fairer and more changeful than the dawn upon the
mountains; and she, too, loved this godlike man, and he loved her.
Then we strove together for his love, matching beauty against beauty,
and wit against wit, and magic against magic. Now one conquered, and
now the other; but in the end the victory was mine, and I went arrayed
as for a marriage-bed--and I clasped a corpse.
"'I woke, and again I slept, and saw myself wearing another garb, and
speaking another tongue. Before me was the man I loved, and there,
too, was the woman, wrapped about with beauty, and I was changed, and
yet I was the very Meriamun thou seest. And once more we struggled for
the mastery and for this man's love, and in that day she conquered me.
"'I slept, and again I woke, and in another land than Khem--a strange
land, and yet methought I knew it from long ago. There I dwelt among
the graves, and dark faces were about me, and I wore That thou knowest
for a girdle. And the tombs of the rock wherein we dwelt were scored
with the writings of a dead tongue--the tongue of that land whence our
fathers came. We were all changed, yet the same, and once more the
woman and I struggled for the mastery, and though I seemed to conquer,
yet a sea of fire came over me, and I woke and I slept again.
"'Then confusion was piled upon confusion, nor can my memory hold all
that came to pass. For this game played itself afresh in lands, and
lives, and tongues without number. Only the last bout and the winner
were not revealed to me.
"'And in my dream I cried aloud to the protecting Gods to escape out
of the dream, and I sought for light that I might see whence these
things were. Then, as in a vision, the Past opened up its gates. It
seemed that upon a time, thousand, thousand ages agone, I and this man
of my dream had arisen from nothingness and looked in each other's
eyes, and loved with a love unspeakable, and vowed a vow that shall
endure from time to time and world to world. For we were not mortal
then, but partook of the nature of the Gods, being more fair and great
than any of human kind, and our happiness was the happiness of Heaven.
But in our great joy we hearkened to the Voice of the That thou
knowest, of that Thing, Rei, with which, against thy counsel, I have
but lately dealt. The kiss of our love awakened That which slept, the
fire of our love warmed That which was a-cold! We defied the holy
Gods, worshipping them not, but rather each the other, for we knew
that as the Gods we were eternal. And the Gods were angered against us
and drew us up into their presence. And while we trembled they spake
as with a voice:
"'"Ye twain who are one life, each completing each, because with your
kisses ye have wakened That which slept, and with the fire of your
love have warmed That which was a-cold: because ye have forgotten them
that gave you life and love and joy: hearken to your Doom!
"'"From Two be ye made /Three/, and through all Time strive ye to be
Twain again. Pass from this Holy Place down to the Hell of Earth, and
though ye be immortal put on the garments of mortality. Pass on from
Life to Life, live and love and hate and seem to die: have
acquaintance with every lot, and in your blind forgetfulness, being
one and being equal, work each other's woe according to the law of
Earth, and for your love's sake sin and be shamed, perish and
re-arise, appear to conquer and be conquered, pursuing your threefold
destiny, and, at the word of Fate, the unaltering circle meets, and
the veil of blindness falls from your eyes, and, as a scroll, your
folly is unrolled, and the hid purpose of your sorrow is accomplished
and once more ye are Twain and One."
"'Then, as we trembled, clinging each to each, again the great Voice
spoke:
"'"Ye twain who are One--let That to which ye have hearkened divide
you and enfold you! Be ye Three!"
"'And as the Voice spoke I was torn with agony, and strength went out
of me, and there, by him I loved, stood the woman of my dream crowned
with every glory and adorned with the Star. And we were three. And
between him and me, yet enfolding him and me, writhed that Thing thou
wottest of. And he whom I loved turned to look upon the fair woman,
wondering, and she smiled and stretched out her arm towards him as one
who would take that which is her own, and Rei, in that hour, though it
was but in a dream, I knew the mortal pain of jealousy, and awoke
trembling. And now read thou this vision, Rei, thou who art learned in
the interpretation of dreams and in the ways of sleep.'
"'Oh, Lady,' I made answer, 'this thing is too high for me, I cannot
interpret it; but where thou art, there may I be to help thee.'
"'I know thy love,' she said, 'but in thy words is little light. So--
so--let it pass! It was but a dream, and if indeed it came from the
Under World, why, it was from no helpful God, but rather from Set, the
Tormentor; or from Pasht, the Terrible, who throws the creeping shadow
of her doom upon the mirror of my sleep. For that which is decreed
will surely come to pass! I am blown like the dust by the breath of
Fate; now to rest upon the Temple's loftiest tops, now to be trodden
underfoot of slaves, and now to be swallowed by the bitter deep, and
in season thence rolled forth again. I love not this lord of mine, who
shall be Pharaoh, and never may /he/ come whom I shall love. 'Tis well
that I love him not, for to love is to be a slave. When the heart is
cold then the hand is strong, and I am fain to be the Queen leading
Pharaoh by the beard, the first of all the ancient land of Khem; for I
was not born to serve. Nay, while I may, I rule, awaiting the end of
rule. Look forth, Rei, and see how the rays from Mother Isis' throne
flood all the courts and all the city's streets and break in light
upon the water's breast. So shall the Moon-child's flame flood all
this land of Khem. What matters it, if ere the morn Isis must pass to
her dominion of the Dead, and the voice of Meriamun be hushed within a
sepulchre?'
"So she spoke and went thence, and on her face was no bride's smile,
but rather such a gaze as that with which the great sphinx, Horemku,
looks out across the desert sands."
"A strange Queen, Rei," said the Wanderer, as he paused, "but what
have I to make in this tale of a bride and her mad dreams?"
"More than thou shalt desire," said Rei; "but let us come to the end,
and thou shalt hear thy part in the Fate."
