VI
THE BURNING OF THE SHRINE
Rei the Priest saw and heard. Then turning, he stole away through themaddened throng of women and fled with what speed he might from theTemple. His heart was filled with fear and shame, for he knew full wellthat Pharaoh was dead, not at the hand of Hathor, but at the hand ofMeriamun the Queen, whom he had loved. He knew well that dead Meneptahspake not with the voice of the dread Gods, but with the voice of themagic of Meriamun, who, of all women that have been since the days ofTaia, was the most skilled in evil magic, the lore of the Snake. He knewalso that Meriamun would slay Helen for the same cause wherefore she hadslain Pharaoh, that she might win the Wanderer to her arms. While Helenlived he was not to be won away.
Now Rei was a righteous man, loving the Gods and good, and hating evil,and his heart burned because of the wickedness of the woman that once hecherished. This he swore that he would do, if time were left to him. Hewould warn the Helen so that she might fly the fire if so she willed,ay, and would tell her all the wickedness of Meriamun her foe.
His old feet stumbled over each other as he fled till he came to thegates of the Temple of the Hathor, and knocked upon the gates.
"What wouldst thou, old crone?" asked the priest who sat in the gates.
"I would be led to the presence of the Hathor," he answered.
"No woman hath passed up to look upon the Hathor," said the priest."That women do not seek."
Then Rei made a secret sign, and wondering greatly that a woman shouldhave the inner wisdom, the priest let him pass.
He came to the second gates.
"What wouldst thou?" said the priest who sat in the gates.
"I would go up into the presence of the Hathor."
"No woman hath willed to look upon the Hathor," said the priest.
Then again Rei made the secret sign, but still the priest wavered.
"Let me pass, thou foolish warden," said Rei. "I am a messenger from theGods."
"If thou art a mortal messenger, woman, thou goest to thy doom," saidthe priest.
"On my head be it," answered Rei, and the priest let him pass wondering.
Now he stood before the doors of the Alabaster Shrine that glowed withthe light within. Still Rei paused not, only uttering a prayer that hemight be saved from the unseen swords; he lifted the latch of bronze,and entered fearfully. But none fell upon him, nor was he smitten ofinvisible spears. Before him swung the curtains of Tyrian web, but nosound of singing came from behind the curtains. All was silence in theShrine. He passed between the curtains and looked up the Sanctuary. Itwas lit with many hanging lamps, and by their light he saw the GoddessHelen, seated between the pillars of her loom. But she wove no more atthe loom. The web of fate was rent by the Wanderer's hands, and lay oneither side, a shining cloth of gold. The Goddess Helen sat songless inher lonely Shrine, and on her breast gleamed the Red Star of light thatwept the blood of men. Her head rested on her hand, and her heavenlyeyes of blue gazed emptily down the empty Shrine.
Rei drew near trembling, though she seemed to see him not at all, and atlast flung himself upon the earth before her. Now at length she saw him,and spoke in her voice of music.
"Who art thou that dares to break in upon my sorrow?" she saidwonderingly. "Art thou indeed a woman come to look on one who by thewill of the Gods is each woman's deadliest foe?"
Then Rei raised himself saying:
"No woman am I, immortal Lady. I am Rei, that aged priest who metthee two nights gone by the pylon gates, and led thee to the Palace ofPharaoh. And I have dared to seek thy Shrine to tell thee that thou artin danger at the hands of Meriamun the Queen, and also to give theea certain message with which I am charged by him who is named theWanderer."
Now Helen looked upon him wonderingly and spoke:
"Didst thou not but now name me immortal, Rei? How then can I be indanger, who am immortal, and not to be harmed of men? Death hath nopart in me. Speak not to me of dangers, who, alas! can never die tilleverything is done; but tell me of that faithless Wanderer, whom I mustlove with all the womanhood that shuts my spirit in, and all my spiritthat is clothed in womanhood. For, Rei, the Gods, withholding Death,have in wrath cursed me with love to torment my deathlessness. Oh, whenI saw him standing where now thou standest, my soul knew its other part,and I learned that the curse I give to others had fallen on myself andhim."
"Yet was this Wanderer not altogether faithless to thee, Lady," saidRei. "Listen, and I will tell thee all."
"Speak on," she said. "Oh, speak, and speak swiftly."
Then Rei told Helen all that tale which the Wanderer had charged him todeliver in her ear, and keep no word back. He told her how Meriamun hadbeguiled Eperitus in her shape; how he had fallen in the snare and swornby the Snake, he who should have sworn by the Star. He told her how theWanderer had learned the truth, and learning it, had cursed the witchwho wronged him; how he had been overcome by the guards and borne to thebed of torment; how he had been freed by the craft of Meriamun; andhow he had gone forth to lead the host of Khem. All this he told herswiftly, hiding naught, while she listened with eager ears.
"Truly," she said, when all was told, "truly thou art a happy messenger.Now I forgive him all. Yet has he sworn by the Snake who should havesworn by the Star, and because of his fault never in this space of lifeshall Helen call him Lord. Yet will we follow him, Rei. Hark! what isthat? Again it comes, that long shrill cry as of ghosts broke loose fromHades."
"It is the Queen," quoth Rei; "the Queen who with all women of Taniscomes hither to burn thee in thy Shrine. She hath slain Pharaoh, andnow she would slay thee also, and so win the Wanderer to her arms. Fly,Lady! Fly!"
"Nay, I fly not," said Helen. "Let her come. But do thou, Rei, passthrough the Temple gates and mingle with the crowd. There thou shaltawait my coming, and when I come, draw near, fearing nothing; andtogether we will pass down the path of the Wanderer in such fashion asI shall show thee. Go! go swiftly, and bid those who minister to me passout with thee."
Then Rei turned and fled. Without the doors of the Shrine many priestswere gathered.
"Fly! the women of Tanis are upon you!" he cried. "I charge ye to fly!"
"This old crone is mad," quoth one. "We watch the Hathor, and, come allthe women of the world, we fly not."
"Ye are mad indeed," said Rei, and sped on.
He passed the gates, the gates clashed behind him. He won the outerspace, and hiding in the shadows of the Temple walls, looked forth.The night was dark, but from every side a thousand lights poured downtowards the Shrine. On they came like lanterns on the waters of Sihor atthe night of the feast of lanterns. Now he could see their host. It wasthe host of the women of Tanis, and every woman bore a lighted torch.They came by tens, by hundreds, and by thousands, and before them wasMeriamun, seated in a golden chariot, and with them were asses, oxen,and camels, laden with bitumen, wood, and reeds. Now they gained thegates, and now they crashed them in with battering trees of palm. Thegates fell, the women poured through them. At their head went Meriamunthe Queen. Bidding certain of them stay by her chariot she passedthrough, and standing at the inner gates called aloud to the priests tothrow them wide.
"Who art thou who darest come up with fire against the holy Temple ofthe Hathor?" asked the guardian of the gates.
"I am Meriamun, the Queen of Khem," she answered, "come with the womenof Tanis to slay the Witch thou guardest. Throw the gates wide, or diewith the Witch."
"If indeed thou art the Queen," answered the priest, "here there sits agreater Queen than thou. Go back! Go back, Meriamun, who art not afraidto offer violence to the immortal Gods. Go back! lest the curse smitethee."
"Draw on! draw on! ye women," cried Meriamun; "draw on, smite down thegates, and tear these wicked ones limb from limb."
Then the women screamed aloud and battered on the gates with trees, sothat they fell. They fell and the women rushed in madly. They seized thepriests of Hathor and tore them limb from limb as dogs tear a wolf. Nowthe Shrine stood
before them.
"Touch not the doors," cried Meriamun. "Bring fire and burn the Shrinewith her who dwells therein. Touch not the doors, look not in theWitch's face, but burn her where she is with fire."
Then the women brought the reeds and the wood, and piled them aroundthe Shrine to twice the height of a man. They brought ladders also, andpiled the fuel upon the roof of the Shrine till all was covered. Andthey poured pitch over the fuel, and then at the word of Meriamun theycast torches on the pitch and drew back screaming. For a moment thetorches smouldered, then suddenly on every side great tongues of flameleapt up to heaven. Now the Shrine was wrapped in fire, and yet theycast fuel on it till none might draw near because of the heat. Now itburned as a furnace burns, and now the fire reached the fuel on theroof. It caught, and the Shrine was but a sheet of raging flame thatlit the white-walled city, and the broad face of the waters, as the sunlights the lands. The alabaster walls of the Shrine turned whiter yetwith heat: they cracked and split till the fabric tottered to its fall.
"Now there is surely an end of the Witch," cried Meriamun, and the womenscreamed an answer to her.
But even as they screamed a great tongue of flame shot out through themolten doors, ten fathoms length and more, it shot like a spear of fire.Full in its path stood a group of the burners. It struck them, it lickedthem up, and lo! they fell in blackened heaps upon the ground.
Rei looked down the path of the flame. There, in the doorway whence ithad issued, stood the Golden Hathor, wrapped round with fire, and themolten metal of the doors crept about her feet. There she stood in theheart of the fire, but there was no stain of fire on her, nor on herwhite robes, nor on her streaming hair; and even through the glow of thefurnace he saw the light of the Red Star at her breast. The flame lickedher form and face, it wrapped itself around her, and curled throughthe masses of her hair. But still she stood unharmed, while the burnersshrank back amazed, all save Meriamun the Queen. And as she stood shesang wild and sweet, and the sound of her singing came through the roarof the flames and reached the ears of the women, who, forgetting theirrage, clung to one another in fear. Thus she sang--of that Beauty whichmen seek in all women, and never find, and of the eternal war for hersake between the women and the men, which is the great war of the world.And thus her song ended:
"Will ye bring flame to burn my Shrine Who am myself a flame, Bring death to tame this charm of mine That death can never tame? Will ye bring fire to harm my head Who am myself a fire, Bring vengeance for your Lovers dead Upon the World's Desire?
Nay, women while the earth endures, Your loves are not your own. They love you not, these loves of yours, _Helen_ they love alone! My face they seek in every face, Mine eyes in yours they see, They do but kneel to you a space, And rise and follow _me!_"
Then, still singing, she stepped forward from the Shrine, and as shewent the walls fell in, and the roof crashed down upon the ruin and theflames shot up into the very sky. Helen heeded it not. She lookednot back, but out to the gates beyond. She glanced not at the fierceblackened faces of the women, nor on the face of Meriamun, who stoodbefore her, but slowly passed towards the gates. Nor did she go alone,for with her came a canopy of fire, hedging her round with flame thatburned from nothing. The women saw the wonder and fell down in theirfear, covering their eyes. Meriamun alone fell not, but she too mustcover her eyes because of the glory of Helen and the fierceness of theflame that wrapped her round.
Now Helen ceased singing, but moved slowly through the courts till shecame to the outer gates. Here by the gates was the chariot of Meriamun.Then Helen called aloud, and the Queen, who followed, heard her words:
"Rei," she cried, "draw nigh and have no fear. Draw nigh that I maypass with thee down that path the Wanderer treads. Draw nigh, and let usswiftly hence, for the hero's last battle is at hand, and I would greethim ere he die."
Rei heard her and drew near trembling, tearing from him the woman'sweeds he wore, and showing the priest's garb beneath. And as he camethe fire that wrapped her glory round left her, and passed upward like acloak of flame. She stretched out her hand to him, saying:
"Lead me to yonder chariot, Rei, and let us hence."
Then he led her to the chariot, while those who stood by fled in fear.She mounted the chariot, and he set himself beside her. Then he graspedthe reins and called to the horses, and they bounded forward and werelost in the night.
But Meriamun cried in her wrath:
"The Witch is gone, gone with my own servant whom she hath led astray.Bring chariots, and let horsemen come with the chariots, for where shepasses there I will follow, ay, to the end of the world and the coast ofDeath."