登陆注册
20287000000024

第24章 I HAVE SPOKEN

It was a week after Nyleptha's visit,when I had begun to get about a little in the middle of the day,that a message came to me from Sir Henry to say that Sorais would be brought before them in the Queen's first antechamber at midday,and requesting my attendance if possible.Accordingly,greatly drawn by curiosity to see this unhappy woman once more,I made shift,with the help of that kind little fellow Alphonse,who is a perfect treasure to me,and that of another waiting-man,to reach the antechamber.

I got there,indeed,before anybody else,except a few of the great Court officials who had been bidden to be present,but I had scarcely seated myself before Sorais was brought in by a party of guards,looking as beautiful and defiant as ever,but with a worn expression on her proud face.She was,as usual,dressed in her royal 'kaf',emblazoned with the emblem of the Sun,and in her right hand she still held the toy spear of silver.

A pang of admiration and pity went through me as I looked at her,and struggling to my feet I bowed deeply,at the same time expressing my sorrow that I was not able,owing to my condition,to remain standing before her.

She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly.'Thou dost forget,Macumazahn,'she said,'I am no more a Queen,save in blood;I am an outcast and a prisoner,one whom all men should scorn,and none show deference to.'

'At least,'I replied,'thou art still a lady,and therefore one to whom deference is due.Also,thou art in an evil case,and therefore it is doubly due.'

'Ah!'she answered,with a little laugh,'thou dost forget that I would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the angel's trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.'

'No,'I answered,'I assure thee that I forgot it not;indeed,I often thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass was turning against us;but the trumpet is there,and I am still here,though perchance not for long,so why talk of it now?'

'Ah!'she went on,'the battle!the battle!Oh,would that Iwere once more a Queen,if only for one little hour,and I would take such a vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need;that it should only be spoken of in whispers;those woman,those pigeon-hearted half-breeds who suffered temselves to be overcome!'and she choked in her wrath.

'Ay,and that little coward beside thee,'she went on,pointing at Alphonse with the silver spear,whereat he looked very uncomfortable;'he escaped and betrayed my plans.I tried to make a general of him,telling the soldiers it was Bougwan,and to scourge valour into him'(here Alphonse shivered at some unhappy recollection),'but it was of no avail.He hid beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans.

I would that I had slain him,but,alas!I held my hand.

'And thou,Macumazahn,I have hard of what thou didst;thou art brave,and hast a loyal heart.And the black one too,ah,he was a man.I would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.'

'Thou art a strange woman,Sorais,'I said;'I pray thee now plead with the Queen Nyleptha,that perchance she may show mercy unto thee.'

She laughed out loud.'I plead for mercy!'she said and at that moment the Queen entered,accompanied by Sir Henry and Good,and took her seat with an impassive face.As for poor Good,he looked intensely ill at ease.

'Greeting,Sorais!'said Nyleptha,after a short pause.'Thou hast rent the kingdom like a rag,thou hast put thousands of my people to the sword,thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder,thou hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from the Stairway.What hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die?Speak,O Sorais!'

'Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the indictment,'answered Sorais in her slow musical tones.

'It runs thus:"Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu."It is for this crime that my sister will slay me,not because I levied war.It is perchance happy for thee,Nyleptha,that I fixed my mind upon his love too late.

'Listen,'she went on,raising her voice.'I have nought to say save that I would I had won instead of lost.Do thou with me even as thou wilt,O Queen,and let my lord the King there'

(pointing to Sir Henry)--'for now will he be King --carry out the sentence,as it is meet he should,for as he is the beginning of the evil,let him also be the end.'And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her deep fringed eyes,and then began to toy with her spear.

Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could not catch,and then the Queen spoke.

'Sorais,ever have I been a good sister to thee.When our father died,and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit upon the throne with me,I being the elder,I gave my voice for thee and said,"Nay,let her sit.She is twin with me;we were born at a birth;wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?"And so has it ever been 'twixt thee and me,my sister.But now thou knowest in what sort thou hast repaid me,but I have prevailed,and thy life is forfeit,Sorais.And yet art thou my sister,born at a birth with me,and we played together when we were little and loved each other much,and at night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the other's neck,and therefore even now does my heart go out to thee,Sorais.

'But not for that would I spare thy life,for thy offence has been too heavy;it doth drag down the wide wings of my mercy even to the ground.Also,while thou dost live the land will never be at peace.

'Yet shalt thou not die,Sorais,because my dear lord here hath begged thy life of me as a boon;therefore as a boon and as a marriage gift give I it to him,to do with even as he wills,knowing that,though thou dost love him,he loves thee not,Sorais,for all thy beauty.Nay,though thou art lovely as the night in all her stars,O Lady of the Night,yet it is me his wife whom he loves,and not thee,and therefore do I give thy life to him.'

Sorais flushed up to her eyes and said nothing,and I do not think that I ever saw a man look more miserable than did Sir Henry at that moment.Somehow,Nyleptha's way of putting the thing,though true and forcible enough,was not altogether pleasant.

'I understand,'stammered Curtis,looking at Good,'I understood that he were attached --eh --attached to --to the Queen Sorais.

I am --eh --not aware what the --in short,the state of your feelings may be just now;but if they happened to be that way inclined,it has struck me that --in short,it might put a satisfactory end to an unpleasant business.The lady also has ample private estates,where I am sure she would be at liberty to live unmolested as far as we are concerned,eh,Nyleptha?Of course,I only suggest.'

'So far as I am concerned,'said Good,colouring up,'I am quite willing to forget the past;and if the Lady of the Night thinks me worth the taking I will marry her tomorrow,or when she likes,and try to make her a good husband.'

All eyes were now turned to Sorais,who stood with that same slow smile upon her beautiful face which I had noticed the first time that I ever saw her.She paused a little while,and cleared her throat,and then thrice she curtseyed low,once to Nyleptha,once to Curtis,and once to Good,and began to speak in measured tones.

'I thank thee,most gracious Queen and royal sister,for the loving-kindness thou hast shown me from my youth up,and especially in that thou hast been pleased to give my person and my fate as a gift to the Lord Incubu --the King that is to be.May prosperity,peace and plenty deck the life-path of one so merciful and so tender,even as flowers do.Long mayst thou reign,Ogreat and glorious Queen,and hold thy husband's love in both thy hands,and many be the sons and daughters of thy beauty.

And I thank thee,my Lord Incubu --the King that is to be --I thank thee a thousand times in that thou hast been pleased to accept that gracious gift,and to pass it on to thy comrade in arms and in adventure,the Lord Bougwan.Surely the act is worthy of thy greatness,my Lord Incubu.And now,lastly,Ithank thee also,my Lord Bougwan,who in thy turn hast deigned to accept me and my poor beauty.I thank thee a thousand times,and I will add that thou art a good and honest man,and I put my hand upon my heart and swear that I would that I could say thee "yea".And now that I have rendered thanks to all in turn'

--and again she smiled --'I will add one short word.

'Little can you understand of me,Queen Nyleptha and my lords,if ye know not that for me there is no middle path;that I scorn your pity and hate you for it;that I cast off your forgiveness as though it were a serpent's sting;and that standing here,betrayed,deserted,insulted,and alone,I yet triumph over you,mock you,and defy you,one and all,and thus I answer you.'

And then,of a sudden,before anybody guessed what she intended to do,she drove the little silver spear she carried in her hand into her side with such a strong and steady aim that the keen point projected through her back,and she fell prone upon the pavement.

Nyleptha shrieked,and poor Good almost fainted at the sight,while the rest of us rushed towards her.But Sorais of the Night lifted herself upon her hand,and for a moment fixed her glorious eyes intently on Curtis'face,as though there were some message in the glance,then dropped her head and sighed,and with a sob her dark but splendid spirit passed.

Well,they gave her a royal funeral,and there was an end of her.

It was a month after the last act of the Sorais tragedy that a great ceremony was held in the Flower Temple,and Curtis was formally declared King-Consort of Zu-Vendis.I was too ill to go myself;and indeed,I hate all that sort of thing,with the crowds and the trumpet-blowing and banner-waving;but Good,who was there (in his full-dress uniform),came back much impressed,and told me that Nyleptha had looked lovely,and Curtis had borne himself in a right royal fashion,and had been received with acclamations that left no doubt as to his popularity.Also he told me that when the horse Daylight was led along in the procession,the populace had shouted 'Macumazahn,Macumazahn!'till they were hoarse,and would only be appeased when he,Good,rose in his chariot and told them that I was too ill to be present.

Afterwards,too,Sir Henry,or rather the King,came to see me,looking very tired,and vowing that he had never been so bored in his life;but I dare say that that was a slight exaggeration.

It is not in human nature that a man should be altogether bored on such an extraordinary occasion;and,indeed,as I pointed out to him,it was a marvellous thing that a man,who but little more than one short year before had entered a great country as an unknown wanderer,should today be married to its beautiful and beloved Queen,and lifted,amidst public rejoicings,to its throne.I even went the length to exhort him in the future not to be carried away by the pride and pomp of absolute power,but always to strive to remember that he was first a Christian gentleman,and next a public servant,called by Providence to a great and almost unprecedented trust.These remarks,which he might fairly have resented,he was so good as to receive with patience,and even to thank me for making them.

It was immediately after this ceremony that I caused myself to be moved to the house where I am now writing.It is a very pleasant country seat,situated about two miles from the Frowning City,on to which it looks.That was five months ago,during the whole of which time I have,being confined to a kind of couch,employed my leisure in compiling this history of our wanderings from my journal and from our joint memories.It is probable that it will never be read,but it does not much matter whether it is or not;at any rate,it has served to while away many hours of suffering,for I have suffered a deal of pain lately.Thank God,however,there will not be much more of it.

It is a week since I wrote the above,and now I take up my pen for the last time,for I know that the end is at hand.My brain is still clear and I can manage to write,though with difficulty.

The pain in my lung,which has been very bad during the last week,has suddenly quite left me,and been succeeded by a feeling of numbness of which I cannot mistake the meaning.And just as the pain has gone,so with it all fear of that end has departed,and I feel only as though I were going to sink into the arms of an unutterable rest.Happily,contentedly,and with the same sense of security with which an infant lays itself to sleep in its mother's arms,do I lay myself down in the arms of the Angel Death.All the tremors,all the heart-shaking fears which have haunted me through a life that seems long as I looked back upon it,have left me now;the storms have passed,and the Star of our Eternal Hope shines clear and steady on the horizon that seems so far from man,and yet is so very near to me tonight.

And so this is the end of it --a brief space of troubling,a few restless,fevered,anguished years,and then the arms of that great Angel Death.Many times have I been near to them,and now it is my turn at last,and it is well.Twenty-four hours more and the world will be gone from me,and with it all its hopes and all its fears.The air will close in over the space that my form filled and my place know me no more;for the dull breath of the world's forgetfulness will first dim the brightness of my memory,and then blot it out for ever,and of a truth Ishall be dead.So is it with us all.How many millions have lain as I lie,and thought these thoughts and been forgotten!

--thousands upon thousands of years ago they thought them,those dying men of the dim past;and thousands on thousands of years hence will their descendants think them and be in their turn forgotten.'As the breath of the oxen in winter,as the quick star that runs along the sky,as a little shadow that loses itself at sunset,'as I once heard a Zulu called Ignosi put it,such is the order of our life,the order that passeth away.

Well,it is not a good world --nobody can say that it is,save those who wilfully blind themselves to facts.How can a world be good in which Money is the moving power,and Self-interest the guiding star?The wonder is not that it is so bad,but that there should be any good left in it.

Still,now that my life is over,I am glad to have lived,glad to have known the dear breath of woman's love,and that true friendship which can even surpass the love of woman,glad to have heard the laughter of little children,to have seen the sun and the moon and the stars,to have felt the kiss of the salt sea on my face,and watched the wild game trek down to the water in the moonlight.But I should not wish to live again!

Everything is changing to me.The darkness draws near,and the light departs.And yet it seems to me that through that darkness I can already see the shining welcome of many a long-lost face.

Harry is there,and others;one above all,to my mind the sweetest and most perfect woman that ever gladdened this grey earth.

But of her I have already written elsewhere,and at length,so why speak of her now?Why speak of her after this long silence,now that she is again so near to me,now that I go where she has gone?

The sinking sun is turning the golden roof of the great Temple to a fiery flame,and my fingers tire.

So to all who have known me,or known of me,to all who can think one kindly thought of the old hunter,I stretch out my hand from the far-off shore and bid a long farewell.

And now into the hands of Almighty God,who sent it,do I commit my spirit.

'I have spoken,'as the Zulus say.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 天下无双之李师师

    天下无双之李师师

    她穿越来到宋朝,成了天下名妓李师师。你许我万世功名,我还你一代千秋。你随我生死相依,我还你一世情缘。一段千古绝恋,让人心潮澎湃,希望大家给点动力!【铁杆群204301158】
  • 雄主八荒

    雄主八荒

    无穷宇宙,源能密布,洪荒开天,自古流传一句话:自混沌生,玄黄乃存,天地生灵,玄黄化法,吾辈修行,悟法纳灵。轮回少年,携今世法,书写传奇!“神魔仙皇,皆臣服于我,顺者昌,逆者亡!我的光辉,必将照耀整个世界!”——叶辉
  • tfboys之源之恋

    tfboys之源之恋

    几经周折,我们经历那么多坎坷,终于见到了彩虹
  • 创世战皇

    创世战皇

    天生厄体的故寒被同门出卖,夺走家传玉印后被打入山崖,在隐世强者的灵印指引下,得到万古强者恒尘的帮助,逐渐成为大陆巅峰强者的存在,最终体内魔道觉醒,疯魔状态挑战天地间任何强者,纵横星渊大陆,但是故寒的目标绝对不会仅限于此,他要主宰的是天地玄黄,宇宙洪荒,端坐在乾坤太虚顶端,俯视芸芸众生,成为超越一切的存在,那便是金鼎王图!他生来厄难,武道未通,却逐步走向强者大道。他神魔一体,亦正亦邪,疯魔状态下纵横无敌。他强者拥护,天地认同,最终迈向诸神的巅峰,金鼎王图!
  • 憾仙

    憾仙

    一个蛮荒森林长大的凡人,机缘巧合得到神秘石雕,因修仙者死亡的追杀,而后机缘步入修仙界,从此行走在死亡之前,逆转生死......断苍穹之意,凝众生执念......造天歌,忘仙路,一曲仙无憾!
  • The Memoirs of Louis XIV

    The Memoirs of Louis XIV

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 漫游瓦罗兰

    漫游瓦罗兰

    穿越到瓦罗兰里要如何保证安全问题?要知道,现实世界中空手搏击近乎无敌的李小龙,换算到英雄联盟里的话也才等同于……一级裸装盲僧?这让我等战斗力5的渣肿么活?难道真要和厂长一样被F4咬死?然而对于主角来说这一切都不是重点,他所关注的是——“妖姬不是美服原画实在是太好了!”by吃着碗里看着锅里的主角。
  • 乱世双神妖才冥千曦

    乱世双神妖才冥千曦

    一朝魂穿,黑道党无人不惧之杀神一夕间尽变世家之弃女,人唾之妖女,树可忍果不可忍。看她如何逆转乾坤,颠倒世家。姐乃从天而降之神女,岂忍汝等妖邪鬼怪在此作乱。但太出名好像也不是什么好事,弃女变才女,世家人捧之,姐冷眼一撇不屑之,给姐从哪来爬哪去。妖女变神女,天下人供之,姐拿刀一阵乱挥,姐乃杀人不眨眼之妖女,各位请避之。
  • 青云仙侠传

    青云仙侠传

    白赤族灭5年后,苏雨菲,尔矢和祥嫂带着白天青云来到了青天国。此后为隐藏真实身份改名为青天云,在青天国生活了10年,为了找到身中剧毒的南霜的解毒方法也为了按照母亲的安排,青天云在苏雨菲关元杰的陪伴下前往了中土大唐。孤轩云在亡灵山脉入口处等待着三人的到来,后一同开始了漫漫征途。播州城误打误撞识破了史小柯女扮男装的身份,更让心中荡起一片涟漪。为解除水患,青天云前往仙水宫寻找镇水宝物,不小心弄丢了仙水宫宫主寒水炼制的仙水丸,为了保住自己和穆语诗的性命,匆忙间答应了寒水重新制作仙水丸还给她。制作仙水丸需要集齐十个湖泊的水,镇住了播州水患,青天云穆语诗和史小柯便开始了寻找湖水的征途。
  • 离固执远一点,离幸福近一点

    离固执远一点,离幸福近一点

    在成长中,妥协是等待与忍耐,是一种以退为进的策略;在爱情中,妥协是理解与牺牲,是此处无声胜有声的温暖;在交往中,妥协是宽容与谦逊,是相逢一笑泯恩仇的洒脱;在对抗中,妥协是和谐与从容,是一种无招胜有招的境界。