CHAPTER VIII.
TAKEN PRISONER.
I was in a vast hall, and Lilian Ross stood by my side. How we gotthere I did not know, I only knew that we were there and still alive,that death was yet to come. At the other end of the hall, upon a kindof red dais, stood a man. I suppose he was a man, but he appeared to meto be more like a personation of the evil one, he had such a cruel,wicked face; and, as he sat glowering there, he looked as if he wouldlike to devour us, so great was his hatred and wrath. One or two menwere near him, but, for the most part, they stood in a vast circle,leaving a clear space in the centre for us, and, as they glared at us,they brandished their spears and shrieked for our blood. They seemedmore like wild beasts than men. Then one who stood near the thronebegan to gesticulate, and brandish his horrid, blood-stained spear, butthe man on the raised dais smiled. His smile was worse than the other'sfury, and then he said a few words. I could not understand it all, but Iknew enough of Chinese to guess that we were to die a lingering death ofagony. The implements of torture were all round us, and these menthirsted for our blood; indeed, they seemed to be mad with the lust forblood; but there were preliminaries to be gone through; they would nottouch us until they had performed their horrid ceremonies. Waving theirhands and brandishing their spears, they seemed to be mingling in somekind of weird dance.
In the centre was a blood-stained stone, and, as they sang, they boweddown until their spears touched this stone. They seemed by theseterrible orgies to be working themselves up to a still greater pitch offury. Every moment I expected to be our last, for it seemed as if theywould not be able much longer to restrain themselves, but would tear usto pieces in their fury.
I closed my eyes and shuddered. We clung to each other and tried topray. Then I found out that they were speaking to us. I could notunderstand all that they said, but I understood enough to know that theywished us to abjure our religion. We were to deny Christ, and fall downand worship their horrible idols. If we did this, they promised us ourlives. It was a deadly temptation. Lilian thought of her husband, andI thought of father; and we were young, and life was sweet, and it wasso horrible to die without saying good-bye to anyone. Perhaps people inEngland will wonder and blame us that it was a temptation to us at all,but I heard Uncle Paul say once that temptation was not sin: that itonly becomes sin when we yield. They say that times of greatpersecution are times of decision, too. I had not cared much for Christin the old days; I had not been like Uncle Paul or Cicely--I had beencareless and thoughtless; but now, with a cruel death staring me in theface, now, I chose Him. I turned to Lilian. "Christ for me," I said,in reply to her questioning look, and all my heart seemed on fire and mysoul to be full of love. Lilian had made the choice also--I read theanswer on her face before she spoke. Terribly frightened as I was, Igazed at her in the keenest admiration; her beautiful hair had becomeloosened, and now fell over her shoulders in a mass of gold; her lovelystarlight eyes, pure and steadfast as those of any pictured saint, werefixed on our persecutors.
"Nina," she said to me in a whisper, "I do not know whether they wouldallow us to take that poison, but even if it were possible I think itwould be better not to do so. We are in God's hands, and they cannottouch a hair of our heads until He gives them permission."
"Yes," I replied, "I agree with you--it's difficult, of course, to knowif a thing is right or wrong now, but Uncle Paul would not have done it.I will follow him."
They seemed to be making some horrid preparations at the other end ofthe room--our time had come; we felt that and prepared to die. It's allvery well to read about these things in a story, but unless you havepassed through it yourself, you can have no idea of the horror and fearand deadly anticipation of coming woe which we felt. I was positivelysick with terror, but I also felt full of an overwhelming love--I knewthat Christ was worth all and more than all.
I whispered to Lilian that it would soon be over, and a text camerunning into my mind, "Our light affliction which is but for a moment,worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
They seemed to have completed their preparations now, and came toward uswith horrid cries.
"Oh, Lilian, do pray that we may be kept."
"Yes, yes, darling, it will soon be over, and then the glory."
I just remember that--I know they seized us; they tore us away from eachother. And then I can recall nothing but some awful place of pain--aplace of confusion and horrible noise and terrible suffering and then ablank, which seemed to last for years and years--then Lilian's voice,very faint, very far away--then a little nearer, a little louder.
"Are you better, darling?"
"Yes" (my voice was so weak, I could hardly hear it myself), "have Ibeen ill?"
"Very, very ill, but you are better now, thank God, thank God."
"Where are we, Lilian?"
"In a kind of a cave at the back of a house."
"But how did we get here, I want to know all about it."
"I wonder if you are strong enough to hear more now?"
"Yes, yes," I cried, feverishly; "it will make me much worse not toknow."
"Well," she replied, soothingly, "I think it would, and you must notagitate yourself. Now I will give you a cooling draught, and then youmust lie quite still, and I will tell you everything."
"You won't hide anything, will you? I want to know what happened afterthat dreadful torture," and I shuddered.
"You were not tortured, darling; what their intentions were I do notknow. I think they did mean to put us to a cruel death, but God is overall and prevented it."
"But why have I been ill then, Lilian? I am sure I could not havefancied it all."
"My poor darling, you had a dreadful blow--they pushed us so violentlyapart that you fell with your head against that platform; it was ahorrid cut, but it is healing up nicely now."
"Then what happened?"
"Well, the sight of your blood, instead of calling forth theircompassion, only seemed to infuriate them, and as I knelt beside you andtried to staunch the blood, I thought all was lost; but just at thatmoment a wonderful thing happened: I heard a great noise at the far endof the hall--two men had entered, and one of them was violentlygesticulating. It appears that enormous rewards have been promised forour discovery, and this man had undertaken to find us. I could not makeout what they said, but, no doubt, you would have been able to do so.The other man, who was scholarly and refined-looking, and altogether ofa different type, seemed for some reason or other to have greatinfluence with them. He did not say much, but when he did speak theylistened, and gradually they ceased to brandish their spears, and afterwhat seemed an eternity to me, I saw that they had given up the idea ofmurdering us, at any rate for the present. What arguments these menused, of course, I do not know, but anything like the expression ofconcentrated disappointment and rage on the faces of those who wouldhave killed us, I have never seen. It makes me shudder to think of itnow. An order was then given, and we, or rather, I was marched off, foryou, poor darling, were past marching or doing anything. The twostrange men picked you up, not un-gently, and we moved off; it seemed tome along, long way. Then there was another altercation, but at last itwas decided that we should be taken to this house, and here we have beenever since. These two men guard us; if you look through the roomopening out of this into the courtyard, you will see one of themstanding there now. I do not know what their intentions are, but Iconclude they are friendly--at any rate, we have not been molested bythe Boxers since that terrible morning; and they have been kind andattentive in bringing us food; and once, when you were very ill, theybrought a Chinese doctor to see you. I think we must either be outsideor else very near the walls of the city; at any rate, it's a long, longway from the Legation. Now that you are better and can speak you willbe able to talk to them; my great difficulty has been that understandingthe language so little I have not been able to converse with them atall."
/> "You will see one of them standing there now."]