CHAPTER VIII.
As Hiram had supposed, the better class of the household were stillsitting with their friends, and they had been joined by the guide andby the Arab merchant's head man: Rustem the Masdakite, as well as hissecretary and interpreter.
With the exception only of Gamaliel the Jewish goldsmith, and the Arab'sfollowers, the whole of the party were Christians; and it had goneagainst the grain to admit the Moslems into their circle--the Jew hadfor years been a welcome member of the society. However, they had doneso, and not without marked civility; for their lord had desired thatthe strangers should be made welcome, and they might expect to hear muchthat was new from wanderers from such a distance. In this, to be sure,they were disappointed, for the dragoman was taciturn and the Masdakitecould speak no Egyptian, and Greek very ill. So, after various futileattempts to make the new-comers talk, they paid no further heed to them,and Orion's secretary became the chief speaker. He had already told themyesterday much that was fresh and interesting about the Imperial court;to-day he entered into fuller details of the brilliant life his younglord had led at Constantinople, whither he had accompanied him. Hedescribed the three races he had won in the Circus with his own horses;gave a lively picture of his forcing his way with only five followersthrough a raging mob of rioters, from the palace to the church of St.Sophia; and then enlarged on Orion's successes among the beauties of theCapital.
"The queen of them all," he went on in boastful accents, "wasHeliodora--no flute-player nor anything of that kind; no indeed, buta rich, elegant, and virtuous patrician lady, the widow of Flavianus,nephew to Justinus the senator, and a relation of the Emperor. AllConstantinople was at her feet, the great Gratian himself sought to winher, but of course, in vain. There is no palace to compare with hers inall Egypt, not even in Alexandria. The governor's residence here--forI think nothing of mere size--is a peasant's hut--a wretched barn bycomparison! I will tell you another time what that casket of treasuresis like. Its door was besieged day and night by slaves and freedmenbringing her offerings of flowers and fruit, rare gifts, and tenderverses written on perfumed, rose-colored silk; but her favors were notto be purchased till she met Orion. Would you believe it: from the firsttime she saw him in Justinus' villa she fell desperately in love withhim; it was all over with her; she was his as completely as the ring onmy finger is mine!"
And in his vanity he showed his hearers a gold ring, with a gem of somevalue, which he owed to the liberality of his young master. "From thatday forth," he eagerly went on, "the names of Orion and Heliodora werein every mouth, and how often have I seen men quite beside themselvesover the beauty of this divine pair. In the Circus, in the theatre, orsailing about the Bosphorus--they were to be seen everywhere together;and through the hideous, bloody struggle for the throne they lived in aParadise of their own. He often took her out in his chariot; or she tookhim in hers."
"Such a woman has horses too?" asked the head groom contemptuously.
"A woman!" cried the secretary. "A lady of rank!--She has none butbright chestnuts; large horses of Armenian breed, and small, swiftbeasts from the island of Sardinia, which fly on with the chariot, fourabreast, like hunted foxes. Her horses are always decked with flowersand ribbons fluttering from the gold harness, and the grooms know howto drive them too!--Well, every one thought that our young lord and thehandsome widow would marry; and it was a terrible blow to the haplessHeliodora when nothing came of it--she looks like a saint and is as softas a kitten. I was by when they parted, and she shed such bitter tearsit was pitiable to see. Still, she could not be angry with her idol,poor, gentle, tender kitten. She even gave him her lap-dog for akeepsake--that little silky thing you have seen here. And take my wordfor it, that was a true love-token, for her heart was as much set onthat little beast as if it had been her favorite child. And he felt theparting too, felt it deeply; however, I am his confidential secretary,and it would never do for me to tell tales out of school. He clasped thelittle dog to his heart as he bid her farewell, and he promised her tosend some keepsake in return which should show her how precious her lovehad been--and it will be no trifle, that any one may swear who knowsmy master. You, Gamaliel, I daresay he has been to you about it by thistime."
The man thus addressed--the same to whom Hiram was to offer Paula'semerald--was a rich Alexandrian of a happy turn of mind; as soon as theincursion of the Saracens had made Alexandria an unsafe residence, sothat the majority of his fellow Israelites had fled from the great port,he had found his way to Memphis, where he could count on the protectionof his patron, the Mukaukas George.
He shook his grizzled curls at this question, but he presently whisperedin the secretary's ear. "We have the very thing he wants. You bring methe cow and you shall have a calf--and a calf with twelve legs too. Isit a bargain?"
"Twelve per cent on the profits? Done!" replied the secretary in thesame tone, with a sly smile of intelligence.
When, by-and-bye, an accountant asked him why Orion had not brought homethis fair dame, the bearer too of a noble name, to his parents as theirdaughter-in-law, he replied that, being a Greek, she was of course aMelchite. Those present asked no better reason; as soon as the questionof creed was raised the conversation, as usual in these convivialevenings, became a squabble over dogmatic differences; in the course ofit a legal official ventured to opine that if the case had been that ofa less personage than a son of the Mukaukas--for whom it was, ofcourse, out of the question--of a mere Jacobite citizen and his Melchitesweetheart, for instance, some compromise might have been effected. Theyneed only have made up their minds each, respectively, to subscribe tothe Monothelitic doctrine--though, he, for his part, could have nothingto say to anything of the kind; it was warmly upheld by the Imperialcourt, and by Cyrus, the deceased patriarch of Alexandria, and was basedon the assumption that there were indeed two natures in Christ, but bothunder the control of one and the same will. By this dogma there werein the Saviour two persons no doubt; still it asserted His unity in acertain qualified sense, and this was the most important point.
Such an heretical proposition was of course loudly disapproved of by theassembled Jacobites; differences of opinion were more and more stronglyasserted, and a calm interchange of views turned to a riotous quarrelwhich threatened to end in actual violence.
This discussion was already beginning when Paula succeeded in slippingunseen across the court-yard.
She silently beckoned to Hiram to follow her; he cautiously took offhis shoes, pushed them under the steep servants' stairs, and in a fewminutes was standing in the young girl's room. Paula at once opened achest, and took out a costly and beautifully-wrought necklace set withpearls. This she handed to the Syrian, desiring him to wrench fromits setting a large emerald which hung from the middle. The freedman'sstrong hand, with the aid of a knife, quickly and easily did the work;and he stood weighing the gem, as it lay freed from the gold hemispherethat had held it, larger than a walnut, shining and sparkling on hispalm, while Paula repeated the instructions she had already given him inher nurse's room.
The faithful soul had no sooner left his beloved mistress than sheproceeded to unplait her long thick hair, smiling the while with happyhope; but she had not yet begun to undress when she heard a knock. Shestarted, flew to the door and hastily bolted it, while she enquired:
"Who is there?"--preparing herself for the worst. "Hiram," was thewhispered reply. She opened the door, and he told her that meanwhile theside door had been locked, and that he knew no other way out from thegreat rambling house whither he rarely had occasion to come.
What was to be done? He could not wait till the door was opened again,for he must carry out her commission quite early in the morning, and ifhe were caught and locked up for only half the day the Nabathaean wouldtake some other engagement.
With swift decision she twisted up her hair, threw a handkerchief overher head, and said: "Then come with me; the moon is still up; it wouldnot be safe to carry a lamp. I will lead the way and you must keepbehind me If only the k
itchen is empty, we can reach the Viridariumunseen. If the upper servants are still sitting in the court-yard thegreat door will be open, for several of them sleep in the house. At anyrate you must go through the vestibule; you cannot miss your way outof the viridarium. But stay! Beki generally lies in front of thetablinum--the fierce dog from Herrionthis in Thebais; and he does notknow you, for he never goes out of the house, but he will obey me.
"When I lift my hand, hang back a little. He is quite quiet with hismasters, and does not hurt a stranger if they are by. Now, we must notutter another word.--If we are discovered, I will confess the truth; ifyou alone are seen, you can say--well, say you were waiting for Orion,to speak to him very early about the horse-fair at Niku."
"A horse was off--off--offered me for sale this very day."
"Good, very good; then you lingered in the vestibule to speak ofthat--to ask the master about it before he should go out. It must bedaylight in a few hours.--Now, come."
Paula went down the stairs with a sure and rapid step. At the bottomHiram again took off his shoes, holding them in his hand, so as to loseno time in following his mistress. They went on in silence through thedarkness till they reached the kitchen. Here Paula turned and said tothe Syrian:
"If there is any one here, I will say I came to fetch some water; ifthere is no one I will cough and you can follow. At any rate I willleave the door open, and then you will hear what happens. If I amobliged to return, do you hurry on before me back by the way we came. Inthat case I will return to my room where you must wait outside tillthe side door is opened again, and if you are found there leave theexplanation to me.--Shrink back, quite into that corner."
She softly opened the door into the kitchen; the roof was open to thelight of the declining moon and myriad stars. The room was quite empty:only a cat lay on a bench by the wide hearth, and a few bats flittedto and fro on noiseless wings; a few live coals still glowed among theashes under the spits, like the eyes of lurking beasts of prey. Paulacoughed gently, and immediately heard Hiram's step behind her; then,with a beating heart and agonizing fears, she proceeded on her way.First down a few steps, then through a dark passage, where the bats intheir unswerving flight shot by close to her head. At last they hadto cross the large, open dining-hall. This led into the viridarium, aspacious quadrangle, paved at the edges and planted in the middle, wherea fountain played; round this square the Governor's residence was built.All was still and peaceful in this secluded space, vaulted over by thehigh heavens whose deep blue was thickly dotted with stars. The moonwould soon be hidden behind the top of the cornice which crowned theroof of the building. The large-leaved plants in the middle of thequadrangle threw strange, ghostly shadows on the dewy grass-plot; thewater in the fountain splashed more loudly than by day, but with asoothing, monotonous gurgle, broken now and then by a sudden shortpause. The marble pillars gleamed as white as snow, and filmy mists,which were beginning to rise from the damp lawn, floated languidlyhither and thither on the soft night breeze, like ghosts veiled inflowing crape. Moths flitted noiselessly round and over the clumps ofbushes, and the whole quiet and restful enclosure was full of sweetnessfrom the Lotos flowers in the marble basin, from the blossoms of theluxuriant shrubs and the succulent tropical herbs at their feet. At anyother time it would have been a joy to pause and look round, only tobreathe and let the silent magic of the night exert its spell; butPaula's soul was closed against these charms. The sequestered silencelent a threatening accent to the furious wrangling in the court-yard,which was audible even here in bursts of uproar; and it was with ananxious heart that she observed that everything was not in its usualorder; for her sharp eyes could discern no one, nothing, at the entranceto the tablinum, which was usually guarded by an armed sentinel or bythe watch-dog; and surely--yes, she was not mistaken--the bronze doorswere open, and the moon shone on the bright metal of one half whichstood ajar.
She stopped, and Hiram behind her did the same. They both listened withsuch tension that the veins in their foreheads swelled; but from thetablinum, which was hardly thirty paces from them, came only very faintand intermittent sounds, indistinct in character and drowned by thetumult without.
A few long and anxious minutes, and then the half-closed door wassuddenly opened and a man came forth. Paula's heart stood still, butshe did not for an instant lose her keenness of vision; she at once andpositively recognized the man who came out of the tablinum as Orionand none other, and the big, long-haired dog too came out and past him,sniffed the air and then, with a loud bark, rushed on the two watchers.Trembling and with clenched teeth, but still mistress of herself, shelet him come close to her, and then, calling him by his name: "Beki" inlow, caressing tones, as soon as he recognized her, she laid her hand onhis shaggy head to scratch his ears, as he loved it done.
Paula and her companion were standing behind a column in the deepestshadow. Thus Orion could not see her, and the dog's loud bark hadprevented his hearing her coaxing call; so when Beki was quiet and stoodstill, Orion whistled to him. The obedient and watchful beast, ranback, wagging his tail; and his master, greeting him as "a stupid oldcat-hunter," let him spring over his arm, hugged the creature and thenpushed him off again in play. Then he closed the door and went into theapartments leading to the courtyard.
"But he must come back this way to go to his own rooms," said Paula toher companion with a sigh of relief. "We must wait. But now we must notlose a minute. Come over to the door of the tablinum. The dog will knowme now and will not bark again." They hastened on, and when they hadreached the door, which lay in shadow within a deep doorway, Paula askedher companion: "Did you see who the man was who came out?"
"My lord Orion," said Hiram. "He was co--co--coming home from the townwhen I preceded you across the yard."
"Indeed?" she said with apparent indifference, and as she leaned againstthe cold metal door-panels she looked back into the garden and thoughtshe was now free to return. She would describe to the freedman the wayhe must now go--it was quite simple; but she had not had time to do sowhen, from a room dividing the viridarium from the vestibule she heardfirst a woman's shrill voice; then the deeper tones of a man; and hardlyhad they exchanged a few sentences, when every sound was lost in thefurious barking of the hound, and immediately after a loud shriek ofpain from a woman fell upon her ear, and the noise of a heavy objectfalling to the ground.
What had happened? It must be something portentous and terrible; of thatthere could be no doubt; and ere long Paula's fears were justified. Outfrom the room where the scene had taken place rushed Orion, and with himthe dog, across the grass-plot which was usually respected and cherishedas holy ground, towards the side of the house facing the river, whichwas where he and all the family had their rooms.
"Now!" cried Paula, quickly leading the way.
She flew in breathless haste through the first room and into theunguarded hall; but she had not reached the middle of it when she gave ascream, for before her in the moonlight, lay a body, motionless, at fulllength, on the hard, marble floor.
"Run, Hiram, fly!" she cried to her companion. "The door isajar--open--I can see it is."
She fell on her knees by the side of the lifeless form, raised the head,and saw--the beautiful, deathlike face of the crazy Persian slave. Shefelt her hand wet with the blood that had soaked the hapless girl'sthick, fair hair, and she shuddered; but she resisted her impulse ofhorror and loathing, and perceiving some dark stains on the torn peplosshe pulled it aside and saw that the white bosom was bleeding from deepwounds made in the tender flesh by the cruel fangs of the hound.
Paula's heart thrilled with indignation, grief and pity. He--he whomshe had only yesterday held to be the epitome of every manlyperfection--Orion, was guilty of so foul a deed! He, of whoseunflinching, dauntless courage she had heard so much, had fled like acoward, and had left the victim to her fate--twice a victim to him!
But something must be done besides lamenting and raging, and wonderinghow in one human soul there could be room for so much that w
as noble andfine with so much that was shameful and cruel. She must save the girl,she must seek help, for Mandane's bosom still faintly rose and fellunder Paula's tremulous fingers.
The freedman's brave heart would not allow him to fly to leave her withthe injured girl; he flung his shoes on the floor, raised the senselessform, and propped it against one of the columns that stood round thehall. It was not till his mistress had repeated her orders that hehurried away. Paula watched him depart; as soon as she heard theheavy door of the atrium close upon him, heedless of her ownsuspicious-looking position, she shouted for help, so loudly that hercries rang through the nocturnal silence of the house, and in a fewminutes, from this side and that, a slave, a maid, a clerk, a cook, awatchman, came hurrying in.
Foremost of all--so soon indeed that he must have been on his way whenhe heard her cry--came Orion. He wore a light night-dress, intended, soshe said to herself, to give the wretch the appearance of having sprungout of bed. But was this indeed he? Was this man with a flushed face,staring eyes, disordered hair and hoarse voice, that favorite of fortunewhose happy nature, easy demeanor, sunny gaze and enchanting song hadbewitched her soul? His hand shook as he came close to her and theinjured slave; and how forced and embarrassed was his enquiry as to whathad happened; how scared he looked as he asked her what had brought herinto this part of the house at such an hour.
She made no reply; but when his mother repeated the question soon after,in a sharp voice, she--she who had never in her life told a lie--saidwith hasty decision: "I could not sleep, and the bark of the dog and acry for help brought me here."
"I call that having sharp ears!" retorted Neforis with an incredulousshrug. "For the future, at any rate, under similar circumstancesyou need not be so prompt. How long, pray, have young girls trustedthemselves alone when murder is cried?"
"If you had but armed yourself, fair daughter of heroes!" added Orion;but he had no sooner spoken than he bitterly regretted it. What a glancePaula cast at him! It was more than she could bear to hear him addressher in jest, almost in mockery: him of all men, and at this moment forthe first time--and to be thus reminded of her father! She answeredproudly and with cutting sharpness: "I leave weapons to fighting men andmurderers!"
"To fighting men, and murderers!" repeated Orion, pretending not tounderstand the point of her words. He forced a smile; but then, feelingthat he must make some defence, he added bitterly: "Really, that soundslike the utterance of a feeble-hearted damsel! But let me beg you tocome closer and be calm. These pitiable gashes on the poor creature'sshoulder--I care more about her than you do, take my word for it--wereinflicted by a four-footed assassin, whose weapons were given by nature.Yes, that is what happened. Rough old Beki keeps watch at the door ofthe tablinum. What brought the poor child here I know not, but he caughtscent of her and pulled her down."
"Or nothing of the kind!" interrupted Neforis, picking up a pair ofman's shoes which lay on the ground by the sufferer.
Orion turned as pale as death and hastily took the shoes from hismother's hand; he would have liked to fling them up and away through theopen roof. How came they here? Whose were they? Who had been here thisnight? Before going into the tablinum he had locked the outer door onthat side, and had returned subsequently to open it again for the peoplein the court-yard. It was not till after he had done this that the crazygirl had rushed upon him; she must have been lurking somewhere aboutwhen he first went through the atrium but had not then found courageenough to place herself in his way. When she had thrown herself uponhim, the dog had pulled her down before he could prevent it: he wouldcertainly have sprung past her and have come to the rescue but that hemust thus have betrayed his visit to the tablinum.
It had required all his presence of mind to hurry to his room, fling onhis night garments, and rush back to the scene of disaster. When Paulahad first called for help he was already on his way, and with whatfeelings! Never had he felt so bewildered, so confused, so deeplydissatisfied with himself; for the first time in his life, as he stoodface to face with Paula, he dared not look straight into the eyes of hisfellow-man.
And now these shoes! The owner must have come there with the crazy girl,and if he had seen him in the tablinum and betrayed what he was doingthere, how could he ever again appear in his parents' presence? He hadlooked upon it as a good joke, but now it had turned to bitter earnest.At any cost he must and would prevent his nocturnal doings from becomingknown! Some new wrong-doing-nay, the worst was preferable to a stain onhis honor.--Whose could the shoes be? He suddenly held them up on high,crying with a loud voice: "Do these shoes belong to any of you, youpeople? To the gate-keeper perhaps?"
When all were silent, and the porter denied the ownership, he stoodthinking; then he added with a defiant glare, and in a husky voice:"Then some one who had broken into the house has been startled anddropped them. Our house-stamp is here on the leather: they were made inour work-shop, and they still smell of the stable-here, Sebek, youcan convince yourself. Take them into your keeping, man; and tomorrowmorning we will see who has left this suspicious offering in ourvestibule.--You were the first to reach the spot, fair Paula. Did yousee a man about?"
"Yes," she replied with a hostile and challenging stare.
"And which way did he go?"
"He fled across the viridarium like a coward, running across thepoor, well-kept grass-plot to save time, and vanished upstairs in thedwelling-rooms."
Orion ground his teeth, and a mad hatred surged up in him of thismystery in woman's form in whose power, as it seemed, his ruin lay, andwhose eyes mashed with revenge and the desire to undo him. What wasshe plotting against him? Was there a being on earth who would dare toaccuse him, the spoilt favorite of great and small...? And her look hadmeant more than aversion, it had expressed contempt.... How dare shelook so at him? Who in the wide world had a right to accuse him ofanything that could justify such a feeling? Never, never had he met withenmity like this, least of all from a girl. He longed to annihilate thehigh-handed, cold-hearted, ungrateful creature who could humble him sooutrageously after he had allowed her to see that his heart was hers,and who could make him quail--a man whose courage had been proved ahundred times. He had to exercise his utmost self-control not to forgetthat she was a woman.--What had happened? What demon had been playingtricks on him--What had so completely altered him within this half-hourthat his whole being seemed subverted even to himself, and that any onedared to treat him so?
His mother at once observed the terrible change that came over her son'sface when Paula declared that a man had fled towards the dwelling-rooms;but she accounted for it in her own way, and exclaimed in genuine alarm:"Towards the Nile-wing, the rooms where your father sleeps? MercifulHeaven! suppose they have planned an attack there! Run--fly, Sebek.
"Go across with some armed men! Search the whole house from top tobottom! Perhaps you will catch the rascal--he had trodden down thegrass--you must find him--you must not let him escape."
The steward hurried off, but Paula begged the head gardener, who hadcome in with the rest, to compare the foot-prints of the fugitive, whichmust yet be visible on the damp grass, with the shoes; her heartbeat wildly, and again she tried to catch the young man's eye. Orion,however, started forward and went into the viridarium, saying as hewent: "That is my concern."
But he was ashamed of himself, and felt as if something tight wasthrottling him. In his own eyes he appeared like a thief caught in theact, a traitor, a contemptible rascal; and he began to perceive that hewas indeed no longer what he had been before he had committed that fataldeed in the tablinum.
Paula breathed hard as she watched him go out. Had he sunk so low as tofalsify the evidence, and to declare that the groom's broad sole fittedthe tracks of his small and shapely feet? She hated him, and yet shecould have found it in her heart to pray that this, at least, he mightnot do; and when he came back and said in some confusion that he couldnot be sure, that the shoes did not seem exactly to fit the foot-marks,she drew a breath of relief and turned
again to the wounded girl and thephysician, who, had now made his appearance. Before Neforis followed herexample she drew Orion aside and anxiously asked him what ailed him, helooked so pale and upset. He only said with some hesitation: "That poorgirl's fate..." and he pointed to the Persian slave.--"It troubles me."
"You are so soft-hearted--you were as a boy!" said his mothersoothingly. She had seen the moisture sparkling in his eyes; but histears were not for the Persian, but for the mysterious something--hehimself knew not what to call it--that he had forfeited in this lasthour, and of which the loss gave him unspeakable pain.
But their dialogue was interrupted: the first misfortune of thisluckless night had brought its attendant: the body of Rustem, thesplendid and radiantly youthful Rustem, the faithful Persian leaderof the caravan, was borne into the hall, senseless. He had made somesatirical remark on the quarrel over creeds, and a furious Jacobite hadfallen upon him with a log of wood, and dealt him a deep and perhapsmortal wound. The leech at once gave him his care, and several of thecrowd of muttering and whispering men, who had made their way in out ofcuriosity or with a wish to be of use, now hurried hither and thither inobedience to the physician's orders.
As soon as he saw the Masdakite's wound he exclaimed angrily:
"A true Egyptian blow, dealt from behind!--What does this mob want here?Out with every man who does not belong to the place! The first thingsneeded are litters. Will you, Dame Neforis, desire that two rooms maybe got ready; one for that poor, gentle creature, and one for this finefellow, though all will soon be over with him, short of a miracle."
"To the north of the viridarium," replied the lady, "there are two roomsat your service."
"Not there!" cried the leech. "I must have rooms with plenty of freshair, looking out upon the river."
"There are none but the handsome rooms in the visitor's quarters, wheremy husband's niece has hers, Sick persons of the family have often lainthere, but for such humble folk--you understand?"
"No--I am deaf," replied the physician.
"Oh, I know that," laughed Neforis. "But those rooms are really justrefurnished for exalted guests."
"It would be hard to find any more exalted than such as these, sick untodeath," replied Philippus. "They are nearer to God in Heaven than youare; to your advantage I believe. Here, you people! Carry these poorsouls up to the guests' rooms."