The World's Desire

  Early in the morning, a waiting-woman came to the Queen saying thatPharaoh would speak with her. She went into the ante-chamber and foundhim there, and in his hand was the black bow of Eurytus.

  "Dost thou know this weapon?" he asked.

  "Yea, I know it," she answered; "and thou shouldst know it also, forsurely it saved us from the fury of the people on the night of the deathof the first-born. It is the bow of the Wanderer, who lies in theplace of torment, and waits his doom because of the wrong he would havewrought upon me."

  "If he hath wronged thee, yet it is he who shall save Khem fromthe barbarians," said Pharaoh. "Listen now to the dream that I havedreamed," and he told her all the vision.

  "It is indeed evil that he who would have wrought such wickedness uponme should go forth honoured, the first of the host of Pharaoh," quothMeriamun. "Yet as the God hath spoken, so let it be. Send now and bidthem loose the man from the place of torment, and put his armour on himand bring him before thee."

  So Pharaoh went out, and the Wanderer was loosed from his bed of stoneand clothed again in his golden harness, and came forth glorious to see,and stood before Pharaoh. But no arms were given him. Then Pharaoh toldhim all his dream, and why he caused him to be released from the grip ofthe tormentors. The Wanderer hearkened in silence, saying no word.

  "Now choose, thou Wanderer," said Pharaoh: "choose if thou wilt beborne back to the bed of torment, there to die beneath the hands of thetormentors, or if thou wilt go forth as the captain of my host to dobattle with the Nine-bow barbarians who waste the land of Khem. It seemsthere is little faith in thine oaths, therefore I ask no more oaths fromthee. But this I swear, that if thou art false to my trust, I will yetfind means to bring thee back to that chamber whence thou wast led butnow."

  Then the Wanderer spoke:--

  "Of that charge, Pharaoh, which is laid against me I will say nothing,though perchance if I stood upon my trial for the sin that is laidagainst me, I might find words to say. Thou askest no oath from me, andno oath I swear, yet I tell thee that if thou givest me ten thousandsoldiers and a hundred chariots, I will smite these foes of thine sothat they shall come no more to Khem, ay, though they be of my ownpeople, yet will I smite them, and if I fail, then may those who go withme slay me and send me down to Hades."

  Thus he spoke, and as he spoke he searched the hall with his eyes.For he desired to see Rei the Priest, and charge him with a message toHelen. But he sought him in vain, for Rei had fled, and was in hidingfrom the anger of Meriamun.

  Then Pharaoh bade his officers take the Wanderer, and set him ina chariot and bear him to the city of On, where Pharaoh's host wasgathering. Their charge was to watch him night and day with upliftedswords, and if he so much as turned his face from the foe towards Tanis,then they should slay him. But when the host of Pharaoh marched fromOn to do battle on the foe, then they should give the Wanderer his ownsword and the great black bow, and obey him in everything. But if heturned his back upon the foe, then they should slay him; or if the hostof Pharaoh were driven back by the foe, then they should slay him.

  The Wanderer heard, and smiled as a wolf smiles, but spoke no word.Thereon the great officers of Pharaoh took him and led him forth. Theyset him in a chariot, and with the chariot went a thousand horsemen; andsoon Meriamun, watching from the walls of Tanis, saw the long line ofdesert dust that marked the passing of the Wanderer from the city whichhe should see no more.

  The Wanderer also looked back on Tanis with a heavy heart. There, faraway, he could see the shrine of Hathor gleaming like crystal above thetawny flood of waters. And he must go down to death, leaving no word forHer who sat in the shrine and deemed him faithless and forsworn. Evilwas the lot that the Gods had laid upon him, and bitter was his guerdon.

  His thoughts were sad enough while the chariot rolled towards the cityof On, where the host of Pharaoh was gathering, and the thunder of thefeet of horses echoed in his ears, when, as he pondered, it chanced thathe looked up. There, on a knoll of sand before him, a bow-shot from thechariot, stood a camel, and on the camel a man sat as though he waitedthe coming of the host. Idly the Wanderer wondered who this might be,and, as he wondered, the man urged the camel towards the chariot, and,halting before it cried "Hold!" in a loud voice.

  "Who art thou?" cried the captain of the chariot, "who darest cry 'hold'to the host of Pharaoh?"

  "I am one who have tidings of the barbarians," the man made answer fromthe camel.

  The Wanderer looked on him. He was wondrous little, withered and old;moreover, his skin was black as though with the heat of the sun, and hisclothing was as a beggar's rags, though the trappings of the camel wereof purple leather and bossed with silver. Again the Wanderer looked; heknew him not, and yet there was that in his face which seemed familiar.

  Now the captain of the chariot bade the driver halt the horses, andcried, "Draw near and tell thy tidings."

  "To none will I tell my tidings save to him who shall lead the host ofPharaoh. Let him come down from the chariot and speak with me."

  "That may not be," said the captain, for he was charged that theWanderer should have speech with none.

  "As thou wilt," answered the aged man upon the camel; "go then, go tothy doom! thou art not the first who hath turned aside a messenger fromthe Gods."

  "I am minded to bid the soldiers shoot thee with arrows," cried thecaptain in anger.

  "So shall my wisdom sink in the sand with my blood, and be lost with mybreath. Shoot on, thou fool."

  Now the captain was perplexed, for from the aspect of the man he deemedthat he was sent by the Gods. He looked at the Wanderer, who took butlittle heed, or so it seemed. But in his crafty heart he knew that thiswas the best way to win speech with the man upon the camel. Then thecaptain took counsel with the captain of the horsemen, and in the endthey said to the Wanderer:

  "Descend from the chariot, lord, and walk twelve paces forward, andthere hold speech with the man. But if thou go one pace further, then wewill shoot thee and the man with arrows." And this he cried out also tohim who sat upon the camel.

  Then the man on the camel descended and walked twelve paces forward,and the Wanderer descended also from the chariot and walked twelve pacesforward, but as one who heeds little what he does. Now the two stoodface to face, but out of earshot of the host, who watched them witharrows set upon the strings.

  "Greetings, Odysseus of Ithaca, son of Laertes," he said who was clothedin the beggar's weeds.

  The Wanderer looked upon him hard, and knew him through his disguise.

  "Greeting, Rei the Priest, Commander of the Legion of Amen, Chief of theTreasury of Amen."

  "Rei the Priest I am indeed," he answered, "the rest I am no more, forMeriamun the Queen has stripped me of my wealth and offices, because ofthee, thou Wanderer, and the Immortal whose love thou hast won, and bywhom thou hast dealt so ill. Hearken! I learned by arts known to me ofthe dream of Pharaoh, and of thy sending forth to do battle with thebarbarians. Then I disguised myself as thou seest, and took the swiftestcamel in Tanis, and am come hither by another way to meet thee. Now Iwould ask thee one thing. How came it that thou didst play the Immortalfalse that night? Knowest thou that she waited for thee there by thepylon gate? Ay, there I found her and led her to the Palace, and forthat I am stripped of my rank and goods by Meriamun, and now the Ladyof Beauty is returned to her shrine, grieving bitterly for thyfaithlessness; though how she passed thither I know not."

  "Methought I heard her voice as those knaves bore me to my dungeon,"said the Wanderer. "And she deemed me faithless! Say, Rei, dost thouknow the magic of Meriamun? Dost thou know how she won me to herself inthe shape of Argive Helen?"

  And then, in as few words as might be, he told Rei how he had been ledaway by the magic of Meriamun, how he who should have sworn by the Starhad sworn by the Snake.

  When Rei heard that the Wanderer had sworn by the Snake, he shuddered."Now I know all," he said. "Fear not, thou Wanderer, not on thee shallall the evil fall, nor on that Immortal wh
om thou dost love; the Snakethat beguiled thee shall avenge thee also."

  "Rei," the Wanderer said, "one thing I charge thee. I know that I godown to my death. Therefore I pray thee seek out her whom thou namestthe Hathor and tell her all the tale of how I was betrayed. So shall Idie happily. Tell her also that I crave her forgiveness and that I loveher and her only."

  "This I will do if I may," Rei answered. "And now the soldiers murmurand I must be gone. Listen, the might of the Nine-bow barbariansrolls up the eastern branch of Sihor. But one day's march from On themountains run down to the edge of the river, and those mountains arepierced by a rocky pass through which the foe will surely come. Set thouthy ambush there, Wanderer, there at Prosopis--so shalt thou smite them.Farewell. I will seek out the Hathor if in any way I can come at her,and tell her all. But of this I warn thee, the hour is big with Fate,and soon will spawn a monstrous birth. Strange visions of doom and deathpassed before mine eyes as I slept last night. Farewell!"

  Then he went back to the camel and climbed it, and passing round thearmy vanished swiftly in a cloud of dust.

  The Wanderer also went back to the host, where the captains murmuredbecause of the halt, and mounted his chariot. But he would tell nothingof what the man had said to him, save that he was surely a messengerfrom the Under-world to instruct him in the waging of the war.

  Then the chariot and the horsemen passed on again, till they came to thecity of On, and found the host of Pharaoh gathering in the great walledspace that is before the Temple of Ra. And there they pitched their camphard by the great obelisks that stand at the inner gate, which Rei thearchitect fashioned by Thebes, and the divine Rameses Miamun set up tothe glory of Ra for ever.