第57章

Down came the ivory arms again, and as they did so she spoke, or rather hissed, in Arabic, in a note that curdled my blood, and for a second stopped my heart, "Curse her, may she be everlastingly accursed."The arms fell and the flame sank.Up they went again, and the broad tongue of fire shot up after them; then again they fell.

"Curse her memoryaccursed be the memory of the Egyptian."Up again, and again down.

"Curse her, the fair daughter of the Nile, because of her beauty.

"Curse her, because her magic hath prevailed against me.

"Curse her, because she kept my beloved from me."And again the flame dwindled and shrank.

She put her hands before her eyes, and, abandoning the hissing tone, cried aloud:

"What is the use of cursing?she prevailed, and she is gone."Then she commenced with an even more frightful energy:

"Curse her where she is.Let my curses reach her where she is and disturb her rest.

"Curse her through the starry spaces.Let her shadow be accursed.

"Let my power find her even there.

"Let her hear me even there, Let her hide herself in the blackness.

"Let her go down into the pit of despair, because Ishall one day find her."

Again the flame fell, and again she covered her eyes with her hands.

"It is no useno use," she wailed; "who can reach those who sleep? Not even I can reach them."Then once more she began her unholy rites.

"Curse her when she shall be born again.Let her be born accursed.

"Let her be utterly accursed from the hour of her birth until sleep finds her.

"Yea, then, let her be accursed; for then shall Iovertake her with my vengeance, and utterly destroy her."And so on.The flame rose and fell, reflecting itself in her agonized eyes; the hissing sound of her terrible maledictions, and no words of mine, especially on paper, can convey how terrible they were, ran round the walls and died away in little echoes, and the fierce light and deep gloom alternated themselves on the white and dreadful form stretched upon that bier of stone.

But at length she seemed to wear herself out, and ceased.She sat herself down upon the rocky floor, and shook the dense cloud of her beautiful hair over her face and breast, and began to sob terribly in the torture of a heart-rending despair.

"Two thousand years," she moaned, "two thousand years have I waited and endured; but though century doth still creep on to century, and time give place to time, the sting of memory hath not lessened, the light of hope doth not shine more bright.Oh! to have lived two thousand years, with my passion eating at my heart, and with my sin ever before me.Oh, that for me life cannot bring forgetfulness! Oh, for the weary years that have.been and are yet to come, and evermore to come, endless and without end!

"My love! my love! my love! Why did that stranger bring thee back to me after this sort? For five hundred years I have not suffered thus.Oh, if Isinned against thee, have I not wiped away the sin?

When wilt thou come back to me who have all, and yet without thee have naught? What is there that I can do?

What? What? What? And perchance sheperchance that Egyptian doth abide with thee where thou art, and mock my memory.Oh, why could I not die with thee, I who slew thee? Alas, that I cannot die! Alas! Alas!" and she flung herself prone upon the ground, and sobbed and wept until I thought her heart must burst.

Suddenly she ceased, raised herself to her feet, rearranged her robe, and, tossing back her long locks impatiently, swept across to where the figure lay upon the stone.

"Oh, Kallikrates,".she cried, and I trembled at the name, "I must look upon thy face again, though it be agony.It is a generation since I looked upon thee whom I slewslew with mine own hand," and with trembling fingers she seized the corner of the sheetlike wrapping that covered the form upon the stone bier, and then paused.When she spoke again, it was in a kind of awed whisper, as though her idea were terrible even to herself.

"Shall I raise thee," she said, apparently addressing the corpse, "so that thou standest there before me, as of old? I can do it." and she held out her hands over the sheeted dead, while her whole frame became rigid and terrible to see, and her eyes grew fixed and dull.

I shrank in horror behind the curtain, my hair stood up upon my head, andwhether it was my imagination or a fact I am unable to say, but I thought that the quiet form beneath the covering began to quiver, and the winding sheet to lift as though it lay on the breast of one who slept.Suddenly she withdrew her hands, and the motion of the corpse seemed to me to cease.

"What is the use?" she said, gloomily."Of what use is it to recall the semblance of life if I cannot recall the spirit.Even if thou stoodest before me thou wouldst not know me, and couldst but do what I bid thee.The life in thee would be my life, and not thy life, Kallikrates."For a moment she stood there brooding, and then cast herself down on her knees beside the form, and began to press her lips against the sheet, and weep.There was something so horrible about the sight of this awe-inspiring woman letting loose her passion on the deadso much more horrible even than anything that had gone before, that I could no longer bear to look at it and, turning, began to creep, shaking as I was in every limb, slowly along the pitch-dark passage, feeling in my trembling heart that I had had a vision of a soul in Hell.

On I stumbled, I scarcely know how.Twice I fell, once I turned up the bisecting passage, but fortunately found out my mistake in time.For twenty minutes or more I crept along, till at last it occurred to me that I must have passed the little stair by which Idescended.So, utterly exhausted, and nearly frightened to death, I sank down at length there on the stone flooring, and passed into oblivion.

When I came to I noticed a faint ray of light in the passage just behind me.I crept to it, and found it was the little stair down which the weak dawn was stealing.Passing up it, I gained my chamber in safety, and, flinging myself on the couch, was soon lost in slumber, or rather stupor.