Cleopatra

  CHAPTER IV

  OF THE DEPARTURE OF HARMACHIS AND OF HIS MEETING WITH HIS UNCLE SEPA,THE HIGH PRIEST OF ANNU EL RA; OF HIS LIFE AT ANNU, AND OF THE WORDS OFSEPA

  At the dawning of the next day I was awakened by a priest of the temple,who brought word to me to make ready for the journey of which my fatherhad spoken, inasmuch as there was an occasion for me to pass down theriver to Annu el Ra. Now this is the Heliopolis of the Greeks, whither Ishould go in the company of some priests of Ptah at Memphis who had comehither to Abouthis to lay the body of one of their great men in the tombthat had been prepared near the resting place of the blessed Osiris.

  So I made ready, and the same evening, having received letters andembraced my father and those about the temple who were dear to me, Ipassed down the banks of Sihor, and we sailed with the south wind.As the pilot stood upon the prow and with a rod in his hand bade thesailor-men loosen the stakes by which the vessel was moored to thebanks, the old wife, Atoua, hobbled up, her basket of simples in herhand, and, calling out farewell, threw a sandal after me for goodchance, which sandal I kept for many years.

  So we sailed, and for six days passed down the wonderful river, makingfast each night at some convenient spot. But when I lost sight of thefamiliar things that I had seen day by day since I had eyes to see, andfound myself alone among strange faces, I felt very sore at heart, andwould have wept had I not been ashamed. And of all the wonderful thingsI saw I will not write here, for, though they were new to me, have theynot been known to men since such time as the Gods ruled in Egypt? Butthe priests who were with me showed me no little honour and expounded tome what were the things I saw.

  On the morning of the seventh day we came to Memphis, the city ofthe White Hall. Here, for three days I rested from my journey and wasentertained of the priests of the wonderful Temple of Ptah the Creator,and shown the beauties of the great and marvellous city. Also I was ledin secret by the High Priest and two others into the holy presence ofthe God Apis, the Ptah who deigns to dwell among men in the form of abull. The God was black, and on his forehead there was a white square,on his back was a white mark shaped like an eagle, beneath his tonguewas the likeness of a scarabaeus, in his tail were double hairs, and aplate of pure gold hung between his horns. I entered the place of theGod and worshipped, while the High Priest and those with him stoodaside, watching earnestly. And when I had worshipped, saying the wordswhich had been told me, the God knelt, and lay down before me. Thenthe High Priest and those with him, who, as I heard in after time, weregreat men of Upper Egypt, approached wondering, and, saying no word,made obeisance to me because of the omen. And many other things I saw inMemphis that are too long to write of here.

  On the fourth day some priests of Annu came to lead me to Sepa, myuncle, the High Priest of Annu. So, having bidden farewell to those ofMemphis, we crossed the river and rode on asses two parts of a day'sjourney through many villages, which we found in great poverty becauseof the oppression of the tax-gatherers. Also, as we went, I saw forthe first time the great pyramids that are beyond the image of the GodHoremkhu, that Sphinx whom the Greeks name Harmachis, and the Temples ofthe Divine Mother Isis, Queen of the Memnonia, and the God Osiris, Lordof Rosatou, of which temples, together with the Temple of the worshipof the Divine Menkau-ra, I, Harmachis, am by right Divine the HereditaryHigh Priest. I saw them and marvelled at their greatness and the whitecarven limestone, and red granite of Syene, that flashed the sun's raysback to heaven. But at this time I knew nothing of the treasure that washid in _Her_, which is the third among the pyramids--would I had neverknown of it!

  And so at last we came within sight of Annu, which after Memphis hasbeen seen is no large town, but stands on raised ground, before whichare lakes fed by a canal. Behind the town is the inclosed field of theTemple of the God Ra.

  We dismounted at the pylon, and were met beneath the portico by a mannot great of stature, but of noble aspect, having his head shaven, andwith dark eyes that twinkled like the further stars.

  "Hold!" he cried, in a great voice which fitted his weak body but ill."Hold! I am Sepa, who opens the mouth of the Gods!"

  "And I," I said, "am Harmachis, son of Amenemhat, Hereditary High Priestand Ruler of the Holy City Abouthis; and I bear letters to thee, OSepa!"

  "Enter," he said. "Enter!" scanning me all the while with his twinklingeyes. "Enter, my son!" And he took me and led me to a chamber in theinner hall, closed to the door, and then, having glanced at the lettersthat I brought, of a sudden he fell upon my neck and embraced me.

  "Welcome," he cried, "welcome, son of my own sister, and hope of Khem!Not in vain have I prayed the Gods that I might live to look upon thyface and impart to thee the wisdom which perchance I alone have masteredof those who are left alive in Egypt. There are few whom it is lawfulthat I should teach. But thine is the great destiny, and thine shall bethe ears to hear the lessons of the Gods."

  And he embraced me once more and bade me go bathe and eat, saying thaton the morrow he would speak with me further.

  This of a truth he did, and at such length that I will forbear to setdown all he said both then and afterwards, for if I did so there wouldbe no papyrus left in Egypt when the task was ended. Therefore, havingmuch to tell and but little time to tell it, I will pass over the eventsof the years that followed.

  For this was the manner of my life. I rose early, I attended the worshipof the Temple, and I gave my days to study. I learnt of the rites ofreligion and their meaning, and of the beginning of the Gods and thebeginning of the Upper World. I learnt of the mystery of the movementsof the stars, and of how the earth rolls on among them. I was instructedin that ancient knowledge which is called magic, and in the way ofinterpretation of dreams, and of the drawing nigh to God. I was taughtthe language of symbols and their outer and inner secrets. I becameacquainted with the eternal laws of Good and Evil, and with the mysteryof that trust which is held of man; also I learnt the secrets of thepyramids--which I would that I had never known. Further, I read therecords of the past, and of the acts and words of the ancient kings whowere before me since the rule of Horus upon earth; and I was made toknow all craft of state, the lore of earth, and with it the history ofGreece and Rome. Also I learnt the Grecian and Roman tongues, of whichindeed I already had some knowledge--and all this while, for five longyears, I kept my hands clean and my heart pure, and did no evil in thesight of God or man; but laboured heavily to acquire all things, and toprepare myself for the destiny that awaited me.

  Twice every year greetings and letters came from my father Amenemhat,and twice every year I sent back my answers asking if the time had cometo cease from labour. And so the days of my probation sped away till Igrew faint and weary at heart, for being now a man, ay and learned, Ilonged to make a beginning of the life of men. And often I wondered ifthis talk and prophecy of the things that were to be was but a dreamborn of the brains of men whose wish ran before their thought. I was,indeed, of the Royal blood, that I knew: for my uncle, Sepa the Priest,showed me a secret record of the descent, traced without break fromfather to son, and graven in mystic symbols on a tablet of the stoneof Syene. But of what avail was it to be Royal by right when Egypt, myheritage, was a slave--a slave to do the pleasure and minister to theluxury of the Macedonian Lagidae--ay, and when she had been so long aserf that, perchance, she had forgotten how to put off the servile smileof Bondage and once more to look across the world with Freedom's happyeyes?

  Then I bethought me of my prayer upon the pylon tower of Abouthis and ofthe answer given to my prayer, and wondered if that, too, were a dream.

  And one night, as, weary with study, I walked within the sacred grovethat is in the garden of the temple, and mused thus, I met my uncleSepa, who also was walking and thinking.

  "Hold!" he cried in his great voice; "why is thy face so sad, Harmachis?Has the last problem that we studied overwhelmed thee?"

  "Nay, my uncle," I answered, "I am overwhelmed indeed, but not of theproblem; it was a light one. My heart is heavy, for I a
m weary of lifewithin these cloisters, and the piled-up weight of knowledge crushes me.It is of no avail to store up force which cannot be used."

  "Ah, thou art impatient, Harmachis," he answered; "it is ever the wayof foolish youth. Thou wouldst taste of the battle; thou dost tire ofwatching the breakers fall upon the beach, thou wouldst plunge intothem and venture the desperate hazard of the war. And so thou wouldst begoing, Harmachis? The bird would fly the nest as, when they are grown,the swallows fly from the eaves of the Temple. Well, it shall be asthou desirest; the hour is at hand. I have taught thee all that I havelearned, and methinks that the pupil has outrun his master," and hepaused and wiped his bright black eyes, for he was very sad at thethought of my departure.

  "And whither shall I go, my uncle?" I asked rejoicing; "back to Abouthisto be initiated into the mysteries of the Gods?"

  "Ay, back to Abouthis, and from Abouthis to Alexandria, and fromAlexandria to the Throne of thy fathers, Harmachis! Listen, now; thingsare thus: Thou knowest how Cleopatra, the Queen, fled into Syria whenthat false eunuch Pothinus set the will of her father Auletes at naughtand raised her brother Ptolemy to the sole lordship of Egypt. Thouknowest also how she came back, like a Queen indeed, with a great armyin her train, and lay at Pelusium, and how at this juncture the mightyCaesar, that great man, that greatest of all men, sailed with a weakcompany hither to Alexandria from Pharsalia's bloody field in hotpursuit of Pompey. But he found Pompey already dead, having been baselymurdered by Achillas, the General, and Lucius Septimius, the chief ofthe Roman legions in Egypt, and thou knowest how the Alexandrians weretroubled at his coming and would have slain his lictors. Then, asthou hast heard, Caesar seized Ptolemy, the young King, and his sisterArsinoe, and bade the army of Cleopatra and the army of Ptolemy, underAchillas, which lay facing each other at Pelusium, disband and gotheir ways. And for answer Achillas marched on Caesar, and besieged himstraitly in the Bruchium at Alexandria, and so, for a while, thingswere, and none knew who should reign in Egypt. But then Cleopatra tookup the dice, and threw them, and this was the throw she made--in truth,it was a bold one. For, leaving the army at Pelusium, she came at duskto the harbour of Alexandria, and alone with the Sicilian Apollodorusentered and landed. Then Apollodorus bound her in a bale of rich rugs,such as are made in Syria, and sent the rugs as a present to Caesar. Andwhen the rugs were unbound in the palace, behold! within them was thefairest girl on all the earth--ay, and the most witty and the mostlearned. And she seduced the great Caesar--even his weight of years didnot avail to protect him from her charms--so that, as a fruit of hisfolly, he wellnigh lost his life, and all the glory he had gained in ahundred wars."

  "The fool!" I broke in--"the fool! Thou callest him great; but how canthe man be truly great who has no strength to stand against a woman'swiles? Caesar, with the world hanging on his word! Caesar, at whose breathforty legions marched and changed the fate of peoples! Caesar the cold!the far-seeing! the hero!--Caesar to fall like a ripe fruit into a falsegirl's lap! Why, in the issue, of what common clay was this Roman Caesar,and how poor a thing!"

  But Sepa looked at me and shook his head. "Be not so rash, Harmachis,and talk not with so proud a voice. Knowest thou not that in every suitof mail there is a joint, and woe to him who wears the harness if thesword should search it out! For Woman, in her weakness, is yet thestrongest force upon the earth. She is the helm of all things human; shecomes in many shapes and knocks at many doors; she is quick and patient,and her passion is not ungovernable like that of man, but as a gentlesteed that she can guide e'en where she will, and as occasion offers cannow bit up and now give rein. She has a captain's eye, and stout must bethat fortress of the heart in which she finds no place of vantage. Doesthy blood beat fast in youth? She will outrun it, nor will her kissestire. Art thou set toward ambition? She will unlock thy inner heart,and show thee roads that lead to glory. Art thou worn and weary? She hascomfort in her breast. Art thou fallen? She can lift thee up, and to theillusion of thy sense gild defeat with triumph. Ay, Harmachis, she cando these things, for Nature ever fights upon her side; and while shedoes them she can deceive and shape a secret end in which thou hastno part. And thus Woman rules the world. For her are wars; for her menspend their strength in gathering gains; for her they do well and ill,and seek for greatness, to find oblivion. But still she sits like yonderSphinx, and smiles; and no man has ever read all the riddle of hersmile, or known all the mystery of her heart. Mock not! mock not!Harmachis; for he must be great indeed who can defy the power of Woman,which, pressing round him like the invisible air, is often strongestwhen the senses least discover it."

  I laughed aloud. "Thou speakest earnestly, my uncle Sepa," I said;"one might almost think that thou hadst not come unscathed through thisfierce fire of temptation. Well, for myself, I fear not woman and herwiles; I know naught of them, and naught do I wish to know; and I stillhold that this Caesar was a fool. Had I stood where Caesar stood, to coolits wantonness that bale of rugs should have been rolled down the palacesteps, into the harbour mud."

  "Nay, cease! cease!" he cried aloud. "It is evil to speak thus; may theGods avert the omen and preserve to thee this cold strength of whichthou boastest. Oh! man, thou knowest not!--thou in thy strength andbeauty that is without compare, in the power of thy learning and thesweetness of thy tongue--thou knowest not! The world where thou must mixis not a sanctuary as that of the Divine Isis. But there--it may be so!Pray that thy heart's ice may never melt, so thou shalt be great andhappy and Egypt shall be delivered. And now let me take up my tale--thouseest, Harmachis, even in so grave a story woman claims her place. Theyoung Ptolemy, Cleopatra's brother, being loosed of Caesar, treacherouslyturned on him. Then Caesar and Mithridates stormed the camp of Ptolemy,who took to flight across the river. But his boat was sunk by thefugitives who pressed upon it, and such was the miserable end ofPtolemy.

  "Thereon, the war being ended, though she had but then borne him a son,Caesarion, Caesar appointed the younger Ptolemy to rule with Cleopatra,and be her husband in name, and he himself departed for Rome, bearingwith him the beautiful Princess Arsinoe to follow his triumph in herchains. But the great Caesar is no more. He died as he had lived, inblood, and right royally. And but now Cleopatra, the Queen, if mytidings may be trusted, has slain Ptolemy, her brother and husband, bypoison, and taken the child Caesarion to be her fellow on the throne,which she holds by the help of the Roman legions, and, as they say,of young Sextus Pompeius, who has succeeded Caesar in her love. But,Harmachis, the whole land boils and seethes against her. In every citythe children of Khem talk of the deliverer who is to come--and thou arthe, Harmachis. The time is almost ripe. The hour is nigh at hand. Gothou back to Abouthis and learn the last secrets of the Gods, andmeet those who shall direct the bursting of the storm. Then act,Harmachis--act, I say, and strike home for Khem, rid the land of theRoman and the Greek, and take thy place upon the throne of thy divinefathers and be a King of men. For to this end thou wast born, O Prince!"