Across the Zodiac

  CHAPTER XXV - APOSTACY.

  We were received on landing by our former host and conducted to hishouse. On this occasion, however, I was not detained in the hall, butpermitted at once to enter the chamber allotted to us. Eveena, who hadexacted from me all that I knew, and much that I meant to conceal,respecting the occasion of our journey, was much agitated and not alittle alarmed. My own humble rank in the Zinta rendered so sudden andimperative a summons the more difficult to understand, and though bythis time well versed in the learning, neither of us was familiar withthe administration of the Brotherhood. I was glad therefore on heraccount, even more than on my own, when, a scratch at the door havingobtained admission for an amba, it placed before me a message fromEsmo requesting a private conference. Her father's presence setEveena's mind at rest; since she had learned, strangely enough frommyself, what she had never known before, the rank he held among thebrethren.

  "I have summoned you," he said as soon as I joined him, "for more thanone reason. There is but one, however, that I need now explain.Important questions, are as a rule either settled by the Chiefs alonein Council, or submitted to a general meeting of the Order. In thiscase neither course can be adopted. It would not have occurred tomyself that, under present circumstances, you could render materialservice in either of the two directions in which it may be required.But those by whom the cause has been prepared have asked that youshould be one of the Convent, and such a request is never refused.Indeed, its refusal would imply either such injustice as would renderthe whole proceeding utterly incompatible with the first principles ofour cohesion, or such distrust of the person summoned as is never feltfor a member of the Brotherhood. I would rather say no more on thesubject now. Your nerve and judgment will be sufficiently triedto-night; and it is a valuable maxim of our science that, in the hoursimmediately preceding either an important decision or a severe trial,the spirit should be left as far as possible calm and unvexed by vagueshadows of that which is to come."

  The maxim thus expressed, if rendered into the language of materialmedicine, is among those which every man of experience holds andpractically acts upon. I turned the conversation, then, by invitingEsmo into my own apartment; and I was touched indeed by the eagerdelight, even stronger than I had expected, with which Eveena welcomedher father, and inquired into the minutest details of the home lifefrom which she had been, as it seemed to her, so long separated. Whatwas, however, specially characteristic was the delicate care withwhich, even in this first meeting with one of her own family, shecontrived still to give the paramount place in her attention to herhusband, and never for a moment to let him feel excluded from aconversation with whose topics he was imperfectly acquainted, and inwhich he might have been supposed uninterested. The hours thus passedpleasantly away; and, except when Kevima, joined us at the eveningmeal, adding a new and unexpected pleasure to Eveena's natural delightin this sudden reunion, we remained undisturbed until a very lowelectric signal, sounding apparently through several chambers at once,recalled Esmo's mind to the duties before him.

  "You will not," he said, "return till late, and I wish you wouldinduce Eveena to ensure, by composing herself to sleep before yourreturn, that you shall not be asked to converse until the morning."

  He withdrew with Kevima, and, as instructed, I proceeded to change mydress for one of pure white adapted to the occasion, with only a bandof crimson around the waist and throat, and to invest myself in thebadge of the Order. The turban which I wore, without attractingattention, in the Asiatic rather than in the Martial form, was ofwhite mingled with red; a novelty which seemed to Eveena's eyespainfully ominous. In Martial language, as in Zveltic symbolism,crimson generally takes the place of black as the emblem of guilt andperil. When Esmo re-entered our chamber for a moment to summon me, hewas invested, as in the Shrine itself, in the full attire of hisoffice, and I was recalled to a recollection of the reverence due tothe head of the Brotherhood by the sudden change in Eveena's manner.To her father, though a most respectful, she was a fearlesslyaffectionate child. For Clavelta she had only the reverence, deeplyintermingled with awe, with which a devout Catholic convert from theEast may approach for the first time some more than usually imposingoccupant of the Chair of St. Peter. Before the arm that bore theSignet, and the sash of gold, we bent knee and head in the deferenceprescribed by our rules--a homage which the youngest child in thepublic Nurseries would not dream of offering to the Campta himself. Ata sign from his hand I followed Esmo, hoping rather than expectingthat Eveena would obey the counsel indirectly addressed to her.Traversing the same passages as before, save that a slight turnavoided the symbolic bridge, and formally challenged at each point asusual by the sentries, who saluted with profoundest reverence theSignet of the Order, we passed at last into the Hall of Initiation.

  But on this occasion its aspect was completely changed. A spaceimmediately in front of what I may call the veil of the Shrine wasclosed in by drapery of white bordered with crimson. The Chiefsoccupied, as before, their seats on the platform. Some fifty membersof the Order sat to right and left immediately below; but Esmo, onthis occasion, seated himself on the second leftward step of theThrone, which, with the silver light and the other mystic emblems, wasunveiled in the same strange manner as before at his approach. Nearthe lower end of the small chamber thus formed, crossing the passagebetween the seats on either hand, was a barrier of the bright redmetal I have more than once mentioned, and behind it a seat of somesable material. Behind this, to right and left, stood silent and erecttwo sentries robed in green, and armed with the usual spear. A deepintense absolute silence prevailed, from the moment when the last ofthe party had taken his place, for the space of some ten minutes. Inthe faces of the Chiefs and of some of the elder Initiates, who wereprobably aware of the nature of the scene to follow, was an expressionof calm but deep pain and regret; crossed now and then by a shade ofanxiety, such as rarely appeared in that abode of assured peace andprofound security. On no countenance was visible the slightest shadowof restlessness or curiosity. In the changed aspect of the place, thechanged tone of its associations and of the feelings habitual to itsfrequenters, there was something which impressed and overawed thepetulance of youth, and even the indifference of an experience like myown. At last, stretching forth the ivory-like staff of mingled whiteand red, which on this occasion each of the Chiefs had substituted fortheir usual crystal wand, Esmo spoke, not raising his voice a singlesemitone above its usual pitch, but with even unwonted gravity--

  "Come forward, Asco Zvelta!" he said.

  The sight I now witnessed, no description could represent to one whohad not seen the same. Parting the drapery at the lower end, therecame forward a figure in which the most absolutely inexperienced eyecould not fail to recognise a culprit called to trial. "Came forward,"I have said, because I can use no other words. But such was not theterm which would have occurred to any one who witnessed the movement."Was dragged forward," I should say, did I attempt to convey theimpression produced;--save that no compulsion, no physical force wasused, nor were there any to use it. And yet the miserable manapproached slowly, reluctantly, shrinking back as one who strives withsuperior corporeal power exerted to force him onward, as if physicallydragged on step by step by invisible bonds held by hands unseen. Sowith white face and shaking form he reached the barrier, and knelt asEsmo rose from his place, honouring instinctively, though his eyesseemed incapable of discerning them, the symbols of supreme authority.Then, at a silent gesture, he rose and fell back into the chair placedfor him, apparently unable to stand and scarcely able to sustainhimself on his seat.

  "Brother," said the junior of the Chiefs, or he who occupied the placefarthest to the right;--and now I noticed that eleven were present,the last seat on the right of him who spoke being vacant--"you haveunveiled to strangers the secrets of the Shrine."

  He paused for an answer; and, in a tone strangely unnatural andexpressionless, came from the scarcely parted lips of the culprit thereply--"

  "It is true."
br />   "You have," said the next of the Chiefs, "accepted reward to place thelives of your brethren at the mercy of their enemies."

  "It is true."

  "You have," said he who occupied the lowest seat upon the left,"forsworn in heart and deed, if not in word, the vows by which youwillingly bound yourself, and the law whose boons you had accepted."

  Again the same confession, forced evidently by some overwhelming powerfrom one who would, if he could, have denied or remained silent.

  "And to whom," said Esmo, interposing for the first time, "have youthus betrayed us?"

  "I know not," was the reply.

  "Explain," said the Chief immediately to the left of the Throne, who,if there were a difference in the expression of the calm sad faces,seemed to entertain more of compassion and less of disgust andrepulsion towards the offender than any other.

  "Those with whom I spoke," replied the culprit, in the same strangetone, "were not known to me, but gave token of authority next to thatof the Campta. They told me that the existence of the Order had longbeen known, that many of its members were clearly indicated by theirhousehold practices, that their destruction was determined; that I wasknown as a member of the Order, and might choose between perishingfirst of their victims and receiving reward such as I should namemyself for the information I could give."

  "What have you told?" asked another of the Chiefs.

  "I have not named one of the symbols. I have not betrayed the Shrineor the passwords. I have told that the Zinta _is_. I have told themeaning of the Serpent, the Circle, and the Star, though I have notnamed them."

  "And," said he on the left of the Throne, "naming the hope that ismore than all hope, recalling the power that is above all power, couldyou dare to renounce the one and draw on your own head the justice ofthe other? What reward could induce a child of the Light to turn backinto darkness? What authority could protect the traitor from the fatehe imprecated and accepted when he first knelt before the Throne?""The hope was distant and the light was dim," the offender answered."I was threatened and I was tempted. I knew that death, speedy andpainless, was the penalty of treason to the Order, that a death ofprolonged torture might be the vengeance of the power that menaced me.I hoped little in the far and dim future of the Serpent's promise, andI hoped and feared much in the life on this side of death."

  "Do you know," asked the last inquirer again, "no name, and nothingthat can enable us to trace those with whom you spoke or those whoemployed them?"

  "Only this," was the answer, "that one of them has an especial hatredto one Initiate present," pointing to myself; "and seeks his life, notonly as a child of the Star, not only as husband of the daughter ofClavelta, but for a reason that is not known to me."

  "And," asked another Chief, "do you know what instrument that enemyseeks to use?"

  "One who has over her intended victim such influence as few of her sexever have over their lords; one of whom his love will learn nodistrust, against whom his heart has no guard and his manhood nowisdom."

  A shiver of horror passed over the forms of the Chiefs and of many whosat near them, incomprehensible to me till a sudden light was affordedby the indignant interruption of Kevima, who sat not far from myself.

  "It cannot be," he cried, "or you can name her whom you accuse."

  "Be silent!" Esmo said, in the cold, grave tone of a presidentrebuking disorder, mingled with the deeper displeasure of a priestrepressing irreverence in the midst of the most solemn religious rite."None may speak here till the Chiefs have ceased to speak."

  None of the latter, however, seemed disposed to ask another question.The guilt of the accused was confessed. All that he could tell toguide their further inquiries had been told. To doubt that what wasforced from him was to the best of his knowledge true, was to them,who understood the mysterious power that had compelled the spirit andthe lips to an unwilling confession, impossible. And if it had seemedthat further information might have been extracted relative to my ownpersonal danger, a stronger tie, a deeper obligation, bound them tothe supposed object of the last obscure imputation, and none waswilling to elicit further charges or clearer evidence. Probably alsothey anticipated that, when the word was extended to the Initiates, Ishould take up my own cause.

  "Would any brother speak?" asked Esmo, when the silence of the Chiefshad lasted for a few moments.

  But his rebuke had silenced Kevima, and no one else cared tointerpose. The eyes of the assembly turned upon me so generally and sopointedly, that at last I felt myself forced, though against my ownjudgment, to rise.

  "I have no question to ask the accused," I said.

  "Then," replied Esmo calmly, "you have nothing now to say. Give to thebrother accused before us the cup of rest."

  A small goblet was handed by one of the sentries to the miserablecreature, now half-insensible, who awaited our judgment. In a very fewmoments he had sunk into a slumber in which his face was comparativelycalm, and his limbs had ceased to tremble. His fate was to be debatedin the presence indeed of his body, but in the absence ofconsciousness and knowledge.

  "Has any elder brother," inquired Esmo, "counsel to afford?"

  No word was spoken.

  "Has any brother counsel to afford?"

  Again all were silent, till the glance which the Chief cast in orderalong the ranks of the assembly fell upon myself.

  "One word," I said. "I claim permission to speak, because the mattertouches closely and cruelly my own honour."

  There was that inaudible, invisible, motionless "movement," as someFrench reporters call it, of surprise throughout the assembly whichcommunicates itself instinctively to a speaker.

  "My own honour," I continued, "in the honour dearer and nearer to meeven than my own. What the accused has spoken may or may not be true."

  "It is true," interposed a Chief, probably pitying my ignorance.

  "May be true," I continued, "though I will not believe it, towhomsoever his words may apply. That no such treason as they havesuggested ever for one moment entered, or could enter, the heart ofher who knelt with me, in presence of many now here, before thatThrone, I will vouch by all the symbols we revere in common, and withthe life which it seems is alone threatened by the feminine domestictreason alleged, from whomsoever that treason may proceed. I willaccuse none, as I suspect none; but I will say that the charge mightbe true to the letter, and yet not touch, as I know it does not justlytouch, the daughter of our Chief."

  A deep relief was visible in the faces which had so lately beenclouded by a suspicion terrible to all. Esmo's alone remainedimpassive throughout my vindication, as throughout the apparentaccusation and silent condemnation of his daughter.

  "Has any brother," he said, "counsel to speak respecting the questionactually before us?"

  One and all were silent, till Esmo again put the formal question:--

  "Has he who was our brother betrayed the brotherhood?"

  From every member of the assembly came a clear unmistakable assent.

  "Is he outcast?"

  Silence rather than any distinct sign answered in the affirmative.

  "Is it needful that his lips be sealed for ever?"

  One or two of the Chiefs expressed in a single sentence an affirmativeconviction, which was evidently shared by all present except myself.Appealing by a look to Esmo, and encouraged by his eye, I spoke--

  "The outcast has confessed treason worthy of death. That I cannotdeny. But he has sinned from fear rather than from greed or malice;and to fear, courage should be indulgent. The coward is but what Allahhas made him, and to punish cowardice is to punish the child for theheritage his parents have inflicted. Moreover, no example ofpunishment will make cowards brave. It seems to me, then, that thereis neither justice nor wisdom in taking vengeance upon the crime ofweakness."

  In but two faces, those of Esmo and of his next colleague on the left,could I see the slightest sign of approval. One of the other chiefsanswered briefly and decisively my plea for mercy.

  "If,
" he said, "treason proceed from fear, the more cause that agreater fear should prevent the treason of cowardice for the future.The same motives that have led the offender to betray so much wouldassuredly lead him to betray more were he released; and to attemptlifelong confinement is to make the lives of all dependent on a chancein order to spare one unworthy life. The excuse which our brother haspleaded may, we hope, avail with a tribunal which can regard theconscience apart from the consequences. It ought not to avail withus."

  But the law of the Zinta, as I now learned, will not allow sentence ofdeath to be passed save by an absolutely unanimous vote. It is heldthat if one judge educated in the ideas of the Order, appreciating tothe full the priceless importance of its teaching and the guilt oftreason against it, is unpersuaded that there exists sufficient causefor the supreme penalty, the doubt is such as should preclude theinfliction of that penalty. It is, however, permitted and expectedthat the dissentients, if few in number, much more a singledissentient, shall listen attentively and give the most respectful andimpartial consideration to the arguments of brethren, and especiallyof seniors. If a single mind remains unmoved, its dissent is decisive.But it would be the gravest dereliction of duty to persist fromwilfulness, obstinacy, or pride, in adhesion to a view perhaps hastilyexpressed in opposition to authority and argument. The debate to whichmy speech gave rise lasted for two hours. Each speaker spoke but a fewterse expressive sentences; and after each speech came a pauseallowing full time for the consideration of its reasoning. Two pointswere very soon made clear to all. The offender had justly forfeitedhis life; and if his death were necessary or greatly conducive to thesafety of the rest, the mercy which for his sake imperilled worthiermen and sacred truths would have been no less than a crime. Thethought, however, that weighed most with me against my natural feelingwas an experience to which none present could appeal. I had sat onmany courts-martial where cowardice was the only charge imputed; andin every case in which that charge was proved, sentence of death hadbeen passed and carried out on a ground I could not refuse to considersufficient:--namely, that the infection of terror can best berepressed by an example inspiring deeper terror than that to which theprisoner has yielded. Compelled by these precedents, though withintense reluctance, I submitted at last to the universal judgment.Esmo having collected the will, I cannot say the voices, of theassembly, paused for a minute in silence.

  "The Present has pronounced," he said at last. "Are the voices of thePast assentient?"

  He looked around as if to see whether, under real or supposedinspiration, any of those before him would give in another name ajudgment opposite to that in which all had concurred. Instinctively Iglanced towards the Throne, but it remained vacant as ever. Then,fixing his eyes for a few moments upon the culprit, who started andwoke to full consciousness under his gaze--and receiving from theChief nearest to him on the left a chain of small golden circlessimilar to that of the canopy, represented also on the Signet, whilehe on the right held a small roll, on the golden surface of which along list of names was inscribed--our Superior pronounced, amiddeepest stillness, in a low clear tone, the form of excommunication;breaking at the appropriate moment one link from the chain, and, at alater point, drawing a broad crimson bar through one cipher on theroll:--

  "Conscience-convict, tried in truth, Judged in justice, doomed in ruth; Ours no more--once ours in vain-- Falls the Veil and snaps the Chain, Drops the link and lies alone:-- Traitor to the Emerald Throne, Alien from the troth we plight, Kature native to the night; Trained in Light the Light to scorn, Soul apostate and forsworn, False to symbol, sense, and sign, To the Serpent's pledge divine, To the Wings that reach afar, To the Circle and the Star; Recreant to the mystic rule, Outlaw from the sacred school-- Backward is the Threshold crossed; Lost the Light, the Life is lost. Go; the golden page we blot: Go; forgetting and forgot! Go--by final sentence shriven, Be thy crime absolved in Heaven!"

  Once more the Throne and the Emblems behind and above it had beenveiled in impenetrable darkness. Instinctively, as it seemed, everyone present had risen to his feet, and stood with bent head anddowncast eyes as the Condemned, rising mechanically, turned without aword and passed away.