第60章

"Ye have heard," said _i_ She _i_ , at length, in a cold, clear voice, very different from her usual tonesindeed, it was one of the most remarkable things about this extraordinary creature that her voice had the power of suiting itself in a wonderful manner to the mood of the moment."What have ye to say, ye rebellions children, why vengeance should not be done upon you?"For some time there was no answer, but at last one of the men, a fine, broad-chested fellow, well on in middle life, with deep-graven features and an eye like a hawk's, spoke, and said that the orders that they had received were not to harm the white men; nothing was said of their black servant, so, egged on thereto by a woman who was now dead, they proceeded to try to hot-pot him after the ancient and honorable custom of their country, with a view of eating him in due course.As for the attack upon ourselves, it was made in an access of sudden fury, and they deeply regretted it.He ended by humbly praying that mercy might be extended to them; or, at least, that they might be banished into the swamps, to live or die as it might chance; but I saw it written on his face that he had but little hope of mercy.

Then came a pause, and the most intense silence reigned over the whole scene, which, illuminated as it was by the flicker of the lamps striking out broad patterns of light and shadow upon the rocky walls, was as strange as any I ever saw, even in that unholy land.Upon the ground before the dais were stretched scores of the corpselike forms of the spectators, till at last the long lines of them were lost in the gloomy background.Before this outstretched audience were the knots of evil-doers, trying to cover up their natural terrors with a brave appearance of unconcern.On the right and left stood the silent guards, robed in white and armed with great spears and daggers, and men and women mutes watching with hard, curious eyes.Then, seated in her barbaric chair above them all, with myself at her feet, was the veiled white woman, whose loveliness and awesome power seemed to visibly shine about her like a halo, or rather like the glow from some unseen light.Never have I seen her veiled shape look more terrible than it did in that space, while she gathered herself up for vengeance.

At last it came.

"Dogs and serpents," _i_ She _i_ began, in a low voice that gradually gathered power as she went on till the place rang with it."Eaters of human flesh, two things have ye done.First, ye have attacked these strangers, being white men, and would have slain their servant, and for that alone death is your reward.But that is not all.Ye have dared to disobey me.Did I not send my word unto you by Billali, my servant, and the father of your household? Did I not bid you to hospitably entertain these strangers, whom now ye have striven to slay, and whom, had not they been brave and strong beyond the strength of men, ye would cruelly have murdered? Hath it not been taught to you from childhood that the law of _i_ She _i_ is an ever-fixed law, and that he who breaketh it by so much as one jot or tittle shall perish? And is not my lightest word a law? Have not your fathers taught you this, I say, while as yet ye were but children? Do ye not know that as well might ye bid these great caves to fall upon you, or the sun to cease its journeying, as to hope to turn me from my courses, or make my word light or heavy, according to your minds? Well do ye know it, ye wicked ones.But ye are all evilevil to the corethe wickedness bubbles up in you like a fountain in the spring-time.Were it not for me, generations since had ye ceased to be, for of your own evil way had ye destroyed each other.And now, because ye have done this thing, because ye have striven to put these men, my guests, to death, and yet more because ye have dared to disobey my word, this is the doom that I doom you to.That ye be taken to the cave of torture, and given over to the tormentors, and that on the going down of to-morrow's sun those of you who yet remain alive be slain, even as ye would have slain the servant of this my guest."_i_ She _i_ ceased, and a faint murmur of horror ran round the cave.As for the victims, as soon as they realized the full hideousness of their doom, their stoicism forsook them, and they flung themselves down upon the ground, and wept and implored for mercy in a way that was dreadful to behold.I, too, turned to Ayesha, and begged her to spare them, or at least to mete out their fate in some less awful way.But she was hard as adamant about it.

"My Holly," she said, again speaking in Greek, which, to tell the truth, although I have always been considered a better scholar of that language than most men, I found it rather difficult to follow, chiefly because of the change in the fall of the accent.

Ayesha, of course, talked with the accent of her contemporaries, whereas we have only tradition and the modern accent to guide us as to the exact pronunciation"My Holly, it cannot be.Were I to show mercy to those wolves, your lives would not be safe among this people for a day.Thou knowest them not.

They are tigers to lap blood, and even now they hunger for your lives.How thinkest thou that I rule this people? I have but a regiment of guards to do my bidding, therefore it is not by force.It is by terror.My empire is of the imagination.Once in a generation mayhap I do as I have done but now, and slay a score by torture.Believe not that I would be cruel, or take vengeance on anything so low.What can it profit me to be avenged on such as these? Those who live long, my Holly, have no passions, save where they have interests.Though I may seem to slay in wrath, or because my mood is crossed, it is not so.Thou hast seen how in the heavens the little clouds blow this way and that without a cause, yet behind them is the great wind sweeping on its path whither it listeth.So is it with me, O Holly.My moods and changes are the little clouds, and fitfully these seem.to turn; but behind them ever blows the great wind of my purpose.

Nay, the men must die; and die as I have said." Then, suddenly turning to the captain of the guard-"As my word is, so be it!"