CHAPTER VI.
Pangs of soul and doubtings of conscience had, in fact, prompted thegovernor to purchase the hanging and he therefore might have been gladif it had cost him still dearer. The greater the gift the better foundedhis hope of grace and favor from the recipient! And he had groundsfor being uneasy and for asking himself whether he had acted rightly.Revenge was no Christian virtue, but to let the evil done to him by theMelchites go unpunished when the opportunity offered for crushing themwas more than he could bring himself to. Nay, what father whose twobright young sons had been murdered, but would have done as he did? Thatfearful blow had struck him in a vital spot. Since that day he hadfelt himself slowly dying; and that sense of weakness, those desperatetremors, the discomforts and suffering which blighted every hour of hislife, were also to be set down to the account of the Melchite tyrants.
His waning powers had indeed only been kept up by his original vigor andhis burning thirst for revenge, and fate had allowed him to quench itin a way which, as time went on, seemed too absolute to his peace-lovingnature. Though not indeed by his act, still with his complicity hesaw the Byzantine Empire bereft of the rich province which Caesar hadentrusted to his rule, saw the Greeks and everything that bore the nameof Melchite driven out of Egypt with ignominy--though he would gladlyhave prevented it--in many places slain like dogs by the furiouspopulace who hailed the Moslems as their deliverers.
Thus all the evil he had invoked on the murderers of his children andthe oppressors and torturers of his people had come upon them; hisrevenge was complete. But, in the midst of his satisfaction at thisstrange fulfilment of the fervent wish of years, his conscience hadlifted up its voice; new, and hitherto unknown terrors had come uponhim. He lacked the strength of mind to be a hero or a reformer. Toogreat an event had been wrought through his agency, too fearful a doomvisited on thousands of men! The Christian Faith--to him the highestconsideration--had been too greatly imperilled by his act, for thethought that he had caused all this to be calmly endurable. Theresponsibility proved too heavy for his shoulders; and whenever herepeated to himself that it was not he who had invited the Arabs intothe land, and that he must have been crushed in the attempt to repelthem, he could hear voices all round him denouncing him as the manwho had surrendered his native land to them, and he fancied himselfenvironed by dangers--believing those who spoke to him of assassins sentforth by the Byzantines to kill him.--But even more appalling, washis dread of the wrath of Heaven against the man who had betrayed aChristian country to the Infidels. Even his consciousness of havingbeen, all his life long, a right-minded, just man could not fortifyhim against this terror; there was but one thing which could raise hisquelled spirit: the white pillules which had long been as indispensableto him as air and water. The kind-hearted old bishop of Memphis,Plotinus, and his clergy had forgiveness for all; the PatriarchBenjamin, on the contrary, had treated him as a reprobate sentenced toeternal damnation, though at the time of this prelate's exile in thedesert he had hailed the Arabs as their deliverers from the tyrannyof the Melchites, and though George had principally contributed to hisrecall and reinstatement, and had therefore counted on his support. And,although the Mukaukas could clearly see through the secondary motiveswhich influenced the Patriarch, he nevertheless believed that Benjamin'soffice as Shepherd of souls gave him power to close the Gates of Heavenagainst any sheep in his flock.
The more firmly the Arabs took root in his land, the wiser their rule,and the more numerous the Egyptian converts from the Cross to theCrescent, the greater he deemed his guilt; and when, after theaccomplishment of his work of vengeance--his double treason as theGreeks called it--instead of the wrath of God, everything fell tohis lot which men call happiness and the favors of fortune, thesuperstitious man feared lest this was the wages of the Devil, intowhose clutches his hasty compact with the Moslems had driven so manyChristian souls.
He had unexpectedly fallen heir to two vast estates, and his excavatorsin the Necropolis had found more gold in the old heathen tombs than allthe others put together. The Moslem Khaliff and his viceroy had lefthim in office and shown him friendship and respect; the bulaites--[Towncouncillors]--of the town had given him the cognomen of "the Just"by acclamation of the whole municipality; his lands had never yieldedgreater revenues; he received letters from his son's widow in herconvent full of happiness over the new and higher aims in life that shehad found; his grandchild, her daughter, was a creature whose brightand lovely blossoming was a joy even to strangers; his son's frequentepistles from Constantinople assured him that he was making progress inall respects; and he did not forget his parents; for he was never wearyof reporting to them, of his own free impulse, every pleasure he enjoyedand every success he won.
Thus even in a foreign land he had lived with the father and mother whoto him were all that was noblest and dearest.
And Paula! Though his wife could not feel warmly towards her the old manregarded her presence in the house as a happy dispensation to which heowed many a pleasant hour, not only over the draughts-board.
All these things might indeed be the wages of Satan; but if indeed itwere so, he--George the Mukaukas--would show the Evil One that he wasno servant of his, but devoted to the Saviour in whose mercy he trusted.With what fervent gratitude to the Almighty was his soul filled forthe return of such a son! Every impulse of his being urged him to giveexpression to this feeling; his terrors and gratitude alike promptedhim to spend so vast a sum in order to dedicate a matchless gift to theChurch of Christ. He viewed himself as a prisoner of war whose ransomhas just been paid, as he handed to the merchant the tablet with theorder for the money; and when he was carried to bed, and his wife wasnot yet weary of thanking him for his pious intention, he felt happierand more light-hearted than he had done for many years. Generally hecould hear Paula walking up and down her room which was over his; forshe went late to rest, and in the silence of the night would indulgein sweet and painful memories. How many loved ones a cruel fate hadsnatched from her! Father, brother, her nearest relations and friends;all at once, by the hand of the Moslems to whom he had abandoned hernative land almost without resistance.
"I do not hear Paula to-night," he remarked, glancing up as though hemissed something. "The poor child has no doubt gone to bed early afterwhat passed."
"Leave her alone!" said Neforis who did not like to be interrupted inher jubilant effusiveness, and she shrugged her shoulders angrily. "Howshe behaved herself again! We have heard a great deal too much aboutcharity, and though I do not want to boast of my own I am very ready toexercise it--indeed, it is no more than my duty to show every kindnessto a destitute relation of yours. But this girl! She tries me too far,and after all I am no more than human. I can have no pleasure in herpresence; if she comes into the room I feel as though misfortune hadcrossed the threshold. Besides!--You never see such things; but Orionthinks of her a great deal more than is good. I only wish she had beensafe out of the house!"
"Neforis!" her husband said in mild reproach; and he would have reprovedher more sharply but that since he had become a slave to opium he hadlost all power of asserting himself vigorously whether in small mattersor great.
Ere long the Mukaukas had fallen into an uneasy sleep; but he opened hiseyes more frequently than usual. He missed the light footfall overheadto which he had been accustomed for these two years past; but she whowas wont to pace the floor above half the night through had not goneto rest as he supposed. After the events of the evening she had indeedretired to her room with tingling cheeks and burning eyes; but theslave-girls, who paid little attention to a guest who was no more thanendured and looked on askance by their mistress, had neglected to openher window-shutters after sundown, as she had requested, and the roomwas oppressively sultry and airless. The wooden shutters felt hot to thetouch, so did the linen sheets over the wool mattrasses. The water inher jug, and even the handkerchief she took up were warm. To an Egyptianall this would have been a matter of course; but the native of Damascushad always passed the s
ummer in her father's country house on theheights of Lebanon, in cool and lucent shade, and the all-pervading heatof the past day had been to her intolerable.
Outside it was pleasant now; so without much reflection she pushed openthe shutter, wrapped a long, dark-hued kerchief about her head andstole down the steep steps and out through a little side door into thecourt-yard.
There she drew a deep breath and spread out her arms longingly, asthough she would fain fly far, far from thence; but then she droppedthem again and looked about her. It was not the want of fresh air alonethat had brought her out; no, what she most craved for was to open heroppressed and rebellious heart to another; and here, in the servants'quarters, there were two souls, one of which knew, understood and lovedher, while the other was as devoted to her as a faithful dog, and diderrands for her which were to be kept hidden from the governor's houseand its inhabitants.
The first was her nurse who had accompanied her to Egypt; the other wasa freed slave, her father's head groom, who had escorted the women withhis son, a lad, giving them shelter when, after the massacre of Abyla,they had ventured out of their hiding-place, and after lurking for sometime in the valley of Lebanon, had found no better issue than to flyto Egypt and put themselves under the protection of the Mukaukas, whosesister had been Paula's father's first wife. She herself was the childof his second marriage with a Syrian of high rank, a relation of theEmperor Heraclius, who had died, quite young, shortly after Paula'sbirth.
Both these servants had been parted from her. Perpetua, the nurse, hadbeen found useful by the governor's wife, who soon discovered that sizewas particularly skilled in weaving and who had made her superintendentof the slave-girls employed at the loom; the old woman had willinglyundertaken the duties though she herself was free-born, for her firstpoint in life was to remain near her beloved foster-child. Hiramtoo, the groom, and his son had found their place among the Mukaukas'household; in the first instance to take charge of the five horsesfrom her father's stable which had brought the fugitives to Egypt, butafterwards--for the governor was not slow to discern his skill insuch matters--as a leech for all sorts of beasts, and as an adviser ispurchasing horses.
Paula wanted to speak with them both, and she knew exactly where to findthem; but she could not get to them without exposing herself to muchthat was unpleasant, for the governor's free retainers and theirfriends, not to mention the guard of soldiers who, now that the gateswere closed, were still sitting in parties to gossip; they wouldcertainly not break up for some time yet, since the slaves were only nowbringing out the soldiers' supper.
The clatter in the court-yard was unceasing, for every one who was freeto come out was enjoying the coolness of the night. Among them therewere no slaves; these had been sent to their quarters when the gateswere shut; but even in their dwellings voices were still audible.
With a beating heart Paula tried to see and hear all that came withinthe ken of her keen eyes and ears. The growing moon lighted up half theenclosure, the rest, so far as the shadow fell, lay in darkness. But inthe middle of a large semi-circle of free servants a fire was blazing,throwing a fitful light on their brown faces; and now and again, asfresh pine-cones were thrown in, it flared up and illuminated even thedarker half of the space before her. This added to her trepidation;she had to cross the court-yard, as she hoped, unseen; for innocent andnatural as her proceedings were, she knew that her uncle's wife wouldput a wrong construction on her nocturnal expedition.
At first Neforis had begged her husband to assist Paula in her searchfor her father, of whose death no one had any positive assurance. Buthis wife's urgency had not been needed: the Mukaukas, of his own freewill, had for a whole year done everything in his power to learn thetruth as to the lost man's end, from Christian or Moslem, till, manymonths since, Neforis had declared that any further exertions in thematter were mere folly, and her weak-willed husband had soon beenbrought to share her views and give up the search for the missing hero.He had secured for Paula, not without some personal sacrifice, muchof her father's property, had sold the landed estates to advantage,collected outstanding debts wherever it was still possible, and wasanxious to lay before her a statement of what he had recovered for her.But she knew that her interests were safe in his hands and was satisfiedto learn that, though she was not rich in the eyes of this EgyptianCroesus, she was possessed of a considerable fortune. When once andagain she had asked for a portion of it to prosecute her search, theMukaukas at once caused it to be paid to her; but the third time herefused, with the best intentions but quite firmly, to yield to herwishes. He said he was her Kyrios and natural guardian, and explainedthat it was his duty to hinder her from dissipating a fortune whichshe might some day find a boon or indeed indispensable, in pursuit of aphantom--for that was what this search had long since become.
[Kyrios: The woman's legal proxy, who represented her in courts of justice. His presence gave her equal rights with a man in the eyes of the Law.]
The money she had already spent he had replaced out of his own coffers.
This, she felt, was a noble action; still she urged him again andagain to grant her wish, but always in vain. He laid his hand withfirm determination on the wealth in his charge and would not allow heranother solidus for the sole and dearest aim of her life.
She seemed to submit; but her purpose of spending her all to recover anytrace of her lost parent never wavered in her determined soul. She hadsold a string of pearls, and for the price, her faithful Hiram had beenable first to make a long journey himself and then to send out a numberof messengers into various lands. By this time one at least might verywell have reached home with some news, and she must see the freed-man.
But how could she get to him undetected? For some minutes she stoodwatching and listening for a favorable moment for crossing thecourt-yard. Suddenly a blaze lighted up a face--it was Hiram's.
At this moment the merry semi-circle laughed loudly as with one voice;she hastily made up her mind--drew her kerchief closer over her face,ran quickly along the darker half of the quadrangle and, stooping low,hurried across the moonlight towards the slaves' quarters.
At the entrance she paused; her heart throbbed violently. Had she beenobserved? No.--There was not a cry, not a following footstep--every dogknew her; the soldiers who were commonly on guard here had quitted theirposts and were sitting with their comrades round the fire.
The long building to the left was the weaving shop and her nursePerpetua lived there, in the upper story. But even here she must becautious, for the governor's wife often came out to give her orders tothe workwomen, and to see and criticise the produce of the hundred loomswhich were always in motion, early and late. If she should be seen, oneof the weavers might only too probably betray the fact of her nocturnalvisit. They had not yet gone to rest, for loud laughter fell upon herear from the large sheds, open on all sides, which stood over the dyers'vats. This class of the governor's people were also enjoying the coolnight after the fierce heat of the day, and the girls too had lighted afire.
Paula must pass them in full moonshine--but not just yet; and shecrouched close to the straw thatch which stretched over the huge claywater-jars placed here for the slave-girls to get drink from. It casta dark triangular shadow on the dusty ground that gleamed in themoonlight, and thus screened her from the gaze of the girls, while shecould hear and see what was going on in the sheds.
The dreadful day of torture ending in a harsh discord was at end; andbehind it she looked back on a few blissful hours full of the promiseof new happiness;--beyond these lay a long period of humiliation, thesequel of a terrible disaster. How bright and sunny had her childhoodbeen, how delightful her early youth! For long years of her life shehad waked every morning to new joys, and gone to rest every eveningwith sincere and fervent thanksgivings, that had welled from her soulas freely and naturally as perfume from a rose. How often had she shakenher head in perplexed unbelief when she heard life spoken of as a valeof sorrows, and the lot of man bewailed as lamentabl
e. Now she knewbetter; and in many a lonely hour, in many a sleepless night, she hadasked herself whether He could, indeed, be a kind and fatherly-lovingGod who could let a child be born and grow up, and fill its soulwith every hope, and then bereave it of everything that was dear anddesirable--even of hope.
But the hapless girl had been piously brought up; she could stillbelieve and pray; and lately it had seemed as though Heaven would grantthat for which her tender heart most longed: the love of a beloved andlove-worthy man. And now--now?
There she stood with an inconsolable sense ofbereavement--empty-hearted; and if she had been miserable before Orion'sreturn, now she was far more so; for whereas she had then been lonelyshe was now defrauded--she, the daughter of Thomas, the relation andinmate of the wealthiest house in the country; and close to her, fromthe rough hewn, dirty dyers' sheds such clear and happy laughter rangout from a troop of wretched slave wenches, always liable to the blowsof the overseer's rod, that she could not help listening and turningto look at the girls on whom such an overflow of high spirits andlight-heartedness was bestowed.
A large party had collected under the wide palm-thatched roof of thedyeing shed-pretty and ugly, brown and fair, tall and short; someupright and some bent by toil at the loom from early youth, but allyoung; not one more than eighteen years old. Slaves were capital,bearing interest in the form of work and of children. Every slave girlwas married to a slave as soon as she was old enough. Girls and marriedwomen alike were employed in the weaving shop, but the married onesslept in separate quarters with their husbands and children, whilethe maids passed the night in large sleeping-barracks adjoining theworksheds. They were now enjoying the evening respite and had gatheredin two groups. One party were watching an Egyptian girl who wasscribbling sketches on a tablet; the others were amusing themselves witha simple game. This consisted in each one in turn flinging her shoe overher head. If it flew beyond a chalk-line to which she turned her backshe was destined soon to marry the man she loved; if it fell betweenher and the mark she must yet have patience, or would be united to acompanion she did not care for.
The girl who was drawing, and round whom at least twenty others werecrowded, was a designer of patterns for weaving; she had too the giftwhich had characterized her heathen ancestors, of representing facesin profile, with a few simple lines, in such a way that, though oftencomically distorted, they were easily recognizable. She was executingthese works of art on a wax tablet with a copper stylus, and the otherswere to guess for whom they were meant.
One girl only sat by herself by the furthest post of the shed, and gazedsilently into her lap.
Paula looked on and could understand everything that was going forward,though no coherent sentence was uttered and there was nothing to beheard but laughter--loud, hearty, irresistible mirth. When a girl threwthe shoe far enough the youthful crowd laughed with all their might,each one shouting the name of some one who was to marry her successfulcompanion; if the shoe fell within the line they laughed even louderthan before, and called out the names of all the oldest and dirtiestslaves. A dusky Syrian had failed to hit the mark, but she boldly seizedthe chalk and drew a fresh line between herself and the shoe so thatit lay beyond, at any rate; and their merriment reached a climax when anumber of them rushed up to wipe out the new line, a saucy, crisp-hairedNubian tossed the shoe in the air and caught it again, while the restcould not cease for delight in such a good joke and cried every namethey could think of as that of the lover for whom their companion had soboldly seized a spoke in Fortune's wheel.
Some spirit of mirth seemed to have taken up his quarters in thedraughty shed; the group round the sketcher was not less noisy than theother. If a likeness was recognized they were all triumphant, if notthey cried the names of this or that one for whom it might be intended.A storm of applause greeted a successful caricature of the severest ofthe overseers. All who saw it held their sides for laughing, and greatwas the uproar when one of the girls snatched away the tablet and therest fell upon her to scuffle for it.
Paula had watched all this at first with distant amazement, shakingher head. How could they find so much pleasure in such folly, in suchsenseless amusements? When she was but a little child even she, ofcourse, could laugh at nothing, and these grown-up girls, in theirignorance and the narrow limitations of their minds, were they not oneand all children still? The walls of the governor's house enclosed theirworld, they never looked beyond the present moment--just like children;and so, like children, they could laugh.
"Fate," thought she, "at this moment indemnifies them for the misfortuneof their birth and for a thousand days of misery, and presently theywill go tired and happy to bed. I could envy these poor creatures! If itwere permissible I would join them and be a child again."
The comic portrait of the overseer was by this time finished, and ashort, stout wench burst into a fit of uproarious and unquenchablelaughter before any of the rest. It came so naturally, too, from thevery depths of her plump little body that Paula, who had certainly notcome hither to be gay, suddenly caught the infection and had to laughwhether she would or no. Sorrow and anxiety were suddenly forgotten,thought and calculation were far from her; for some minutes she feltnothing but that she, too, was laughing heartily, irrepressibly, likethe young healthful human creature that she was. Ah, how good it wasthus to forget herself for once! She did not put this into words, butshe felt it, and she laughed afresh when the girl who had beensitting apart joined the others, and exclaimed something which wasunintelligible to Paula, but which gave a new impetus to their mirth.
The tall slight form of this maiden was now standing by the fire. Paulahad never seen her before and yet she was by far the handsomest of themall; but she did not look happy and perhaps was in some pain, for shehad a handkerchief over her head which was tied at the top over thethick fair hair as though she had the toothache. As she looked at herPaula recovered herself, and as soon as she began to think merriment wasat an end. The slave-girls were not of this mind; but their laughterwas less innocent and frank than it had been; for it had found an objectwhich they would have done better to pass by.
The girl with the handkerchief over her head was a slave too, but shehad only lately come into the weaving-sheds after being employed for along time at needle work under two old women, widows of slaves. She hadbeen brought as an infant from Persia to Alexandria with her mother, bythe troops of Heraclius, after the conquest of Chosroes II.; and theyhad been bought together for the Mukaukas. When her little one was butthirteen the mother died under the yoke to which she was not born; thechild was a sweet little girl with a skin as white as the swan and thickgolden hair, which now shone with strange splendor in the firelight.Orion had remarked her before his journey, and fascinated by the beautyof the Persian girl, had wished to have her for his own. Servants andofficials, in unscrupulous collusion, had managed to transport her to acountry-house belonging to the Mukaukas on the other side of the Nile,and there Orion had been able to visit her undisturbed as often asfancy prompted him. The slave-girl, scarcely yet sixteen, ignorant andunprotected, had not dared nor desired to resist her master's handsomeson, and when Orion had set out for Constantinople--heedless and wearyalready of the girl who had nothing to give him but her beauty--DameNeforis found out her connection with her son and ordered the headoverseer to take care that the unhappy girl should not "ply herseductive arts" any more. The man had carried out her instructions bycondemning the fair Persian, according to an ancient custom, to have herears cut off. After this cruel punishment the mutilated beauty sank intoa state of melancholy madness, and although the exorcists of the Churchand other thaumaturgists had vainly endeavored to expel the demon ofmadness, she remained as before: a gentle, good-humored creature, quietand diligent at her work, under the women who had charge of her, andnow in the common work-shop. It was only when she was idle that hercraziness became evident, and of this the other girls took advantage fortheir own amusement.
They now led Mandane to the fire, and with farcical reverenc
e requestedher to be seated on her throne--an empty color cask, for she sufferedunder the strange permanent delusion that she was the wife of theMukaukas George. They laughingly did her homage, craved some favor ormade enquiries as to her husband's health and the state of her affairs.Hitherto a decent instinct of reserve had kept these poor ignorantcreatures from mentioning Orion's name in her presence, but now awoolly-headed negress, a lean, spiteful hussy, went up to her, and saidwith a horrible grimace:
"Oh, mistress, and where is your little son Orion?" The crazy girl didnot seem startled by the question; she replied very gravely: "I havemarried him to the emperor's daughter at Constantinople."
"Hey day! A splendid match!" exclaimed the black girl. "Did you knowthat the young lord was here again? He has brought home his grand wifeto you no doubt, and we shall see purple and crowns in these parts!"
These words brought a deep flush into the poor creature's face. Sheanxiously pressed her hands on the bandage that covered her ears andsaid: "Really Has he really come home?"
"Only quite lately," said another and more good-natured girl, to sootheher.
"Do not believe her!" cried the negress. "And if you want to know thelatest news of him: Last night he was out boating on the Nile with thetall Syrian. My brother, the boatman, was among the rowers; and he wenton finely with the lady I can tell you, finely...."
"My husband, the great Mukaukas?" asked Mandane, trying to collect herideas.
"No. Your son Orion, who married the emperor's daughter," laughed thenegress.
The crazy girl stood up, looked about with a restless glance, andthen, as though she had not fully understood what had been said to her,repeated: "Orion? Handsome Orion?"
"Aye, your sweet son, Orion!" they all shouted, as loud as though shewere deaf. Then the usually placable girl, holding her hand over herear, with the other hit her tormentor such a smack on her thick lipsthat it resounded, while she shrieked out loud, in shrill tones:
"My son, did you say? My son Orion?--As if you did not know! Why, he wasmy lover; yes, he himself said he was, and that was why they came andbound me and cut my ears.--But you know it. But I do not love him--Icould, I might wish, I...." She clenched her fists, and gnashed herwhite teeth, and went on with panting breath:
"Where is he?--You will not tell me? Wait a bit--only wait. Oh, I amsharp enough, I know you have him here.--Where is be? Orion, Orion,where are you?"
She sprang away, ran through the sheds and lifted the lids of all thecolor-vats, stooping low to look down into each as if she expected tofind him there, while the others roared with laughter.
Most of her companions giggled at this witless behavior; but some, whofelt it somewhat uncanny and whom the unhappy girl's bitter cryhad struck painfully, drew apart and had already organized some newamusement, when a neat little woman appeared on the scene, clapping herplump hands and exclaiming:
"Enough of laughter--now, to bed, you swarm of bees. The night isover too soon in the morning, and the looms must be rattling again bysunrise. One this way and one that, just like mice when the cat appears.Will you make haste, you night-birds? Come, will you make haste?"
The girls had learnt to obey, and they hurried past the matron to theirsleeping-quarters. Perpetua, a woman scarcely past fifty, whose facewore a pleasant expression of mingled shrewdness and kindness, stoodpricking up her ears and listening; she heard from the water-shed apeculiar low, long-drawn Wheeuh!--a signal with which she was familiaras that by which the prefect Thomas had been wont to call together hisscattered household from the garden of his villa on Mount Lebanon. Itwas now Paula who gave the whistle to attract her nurse's attention.
Perpetua shook her head anxiously. What could have brought her belovedchild to see her at so late an hour? Something serious must haveoccurred, and with characteristic presence of mind she called out, toshow that she had heard Paula's signal: "Now, make haste. Will you bequick? Wheeuh! girls--wheeuh! Hurry, hurry!"
She followed the last of the slave-girls into the sleeping-room, andwhen she had assured herself that they were all there but the crazyPersian she enquired where she was. They had all seen her a few minutesago in the shed; so she bid them good-night and left them, letting it beunderstood that she was about to seek the missing girl.