________________________________________________
_ After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to our
quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two Queens,
the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing us honour
and showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little incident
of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were quite
content to leave it. Every day deputations and individuals
waited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts,
and our instruments, especially our watches, with which they were
much delighted. In short, we became quite the rage, so much so
that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendi
began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry's
shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us and,
as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion.
This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those
who generally came to visit us. They were little insignificant
men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour; and
their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing
the details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they took
copious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at the
time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading
tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when on
attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very
fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind. I
shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust. It was
after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because our clothes
were wearing out and had to be saved up, that we resolved to
adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable one we found it,
though I am bound to say that I looked sufficiently ridiculous in
it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas would have none of
these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce old Zulu
made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim and naked
as his own battleaxe.
Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made
very good progress. On the morning following our adventure in
the temple, three grave and reverend signiors presented
themselves armed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather
pens, and indicated that they had been sent to teach us. So,
with the exception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will,
doing four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he would have none
of that either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's talk',
not he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive
way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag
under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang up
with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes of our
learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt to teach HIM
Zu-Vendi.
Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more
and more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were
given up to recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one to
the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both of which I
wish I had space and time to describe; and sometimes we went out
hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose, and a very
exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agricultural
enclosures and our horses were magnificent. This is not to be
wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our command,
in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given to
us by Nyleptha.
Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great
favour among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a
species of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and
strength of its flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird
appears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flies
high into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport. I have seen
one of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed
by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a variety of
solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in
this country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and
highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging of
the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and
movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful
one. Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of a
very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and it
certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and
soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and
then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some
cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the
eagle takes the buck running.
On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of
the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages
clustering beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and
corn-fields and well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in
them as filled me with delight, for I do love a good tree. There
it stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type
of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head to
the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices when
the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too, when it
talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot equal the
beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All day it points
to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and thus passionless,
and yet full of life, it endures through the centuries, come
storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of
its mother earth, and as the slow years roll by, learning the
great mysteries of growth and of decay. And so on and on through
generations, outliving individuals, customs, dynasties--all save
the landscape it adorns and human nature--till the appointed day
when the wind wins the long battle and rejoices over a reclaimed
space, or decay puts the last stroke to his fungus-fingered work.
Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself
to dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties--not every night,
indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they had
not much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it. And
I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the most
charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with. How
true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always the
most simple and kindly. It is from your half-and-half sort of
people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the difference
between the two being very much what you one sees every day in
England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county
family, and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and
'take the place'. I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm
is her sweet simplicity, and her kindly genuine interest even in
little things. She is the simplest woman I ever knew, and where
her passions are not involved, one of the sweetest; but she can
look queenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as any
savage too.
For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the
first time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis. It
came about in this way--all through Good's weakness for ladies'
society. When we had been employed for some three months in
learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master Good that he was getting
rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the honour to lead
us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without saying
a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiar
fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the deeper
intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by
ladies--young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own
country, he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very
best-looking and most charming girls who could be found to
instruct any strangers who happened to come that way, etc.
All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There was,
they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation of
the beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain
porosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical body
by the healthful influences of sun and air. Consequently it was
probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little faster
if suitable teachers could be found. Another thing was that, as
the female sex was naturally loquacious, good practice would be
gained in the viva voce department of our studies.
To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our
wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views should be
met.
Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I
trust and believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where we
were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning, we
found, instead of our usual venerable tutors, three of the
best-looking young women whom Milosis could produce--and that is
saying a good deal--who blushed and smiled and curtseyed, and
gave us to understand that they were there to carry on our
instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in
bewilderment, thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped
his memory before--but the old gentlemen had told him, on the
previous evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our
further education should be carried on by the other sex. I was
overwhelmed, and appealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a
crisis.
'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? If we
sent them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings, eh?
One doesn't like to be rough, you see; and they look regular
BLUES, don't they, eh?'
By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the
handsomest of the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day
everything went very well: the young ladies were certainly very
clever, and they only smiled when we blundered. I never saw Good
so attentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared to
tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. 'Ah,' thought I, 'will it
always be thus?'
Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly
interspersed with questions about our native country, what the
ladies were like there, etc., all of which we answered as best as
we could in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that
her loveliness was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the
moon, to which she replied with a little toss of the head, that
she was a plain teaching woman and nothing else, and that it was
not kind 'to deceive a poor girl so'. Then we had a little
singing that was really charming, so natural and unaffected. The
Zu-Vendi love-songs are most touching. On the third day we were
all quite intimate. Good narrated some of his previous love
affairs to his fair teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs
mingled with his own. I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed
girl, upon Zu-Vendian art, and never saw that she was waiting for
an opportunity to drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my
back, whilst in the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared,
so far as I could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on
the great educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers
Esq., though in a very modified or rather spiritualized form.
The lady softly repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he
took hers; 'eyes', and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips',
and--but just at that moment MY young lady dropped the cockroach
down my back and ran away laughing. Now if there is one thing I
loathe more than another it is cockroaches, and moved quite
beyond myself, and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the
cushion she had been sitting on and threw it after her. Imagine
then my shame--my horror, and my distress--when the door opened,
and, attended by two guards only, in walked NYLEPTHA. The
cushion could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of
the guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried
to look as though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing,
and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir
Henry whistled and looked silly. As for the poor girls, they
were utterly dumbfounded.
And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower
even above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red,
and then pale as death.
'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the
fair but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that
woman.'
The men hesitated, as well they might.
'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice, 'or
will ye not?'
Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears. By this
time Sir Henry had recovered himself, and saw that the comedy was
likely to turn into a tragedy.
'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time
getting in front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee,
Nyleptha--shame! Thou shalt not kill her.'
'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her. Thou
couldst hardly do less in honour,' answered the infuriated Queen;
'but she shall die--she shall die,' and she stamped her little
foot.
'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thy
servant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.' And he bowed
towards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost
make a mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and I
suppose not knowing what else to do, she burst into such a storm
of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionate distress,
that, old as I am, I must say I envied Curtis his task of
supporting her. It was rather odd to see him holding her in his
arms considering what had just passed--a thought that seemed to
occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself free and
went, leaving us all much disturbed.
Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message to
the girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city and
return to their homes in the country, and that no further harm
would come to them; and accordingly they went, one of them
remarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and that
it was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little
serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and,
overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my favourite
lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After that
our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless
to say to my great relief.
That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal
supper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad
headache. That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the
fourth she was present at supper as usual, and with the most
gracious and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to
the table. No allusion was made to the little affair described
above beyond her saying, with a charming air of innocence, that
when she came to see us at our studies the other day she had been
seized with a giddiness from which she had only now recovered.
She supposed, she added with a touch of the humour that was
common to her, that it was the sight of people working so hard
which had affected her.
In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not
look quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those
quick glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of a
man must have gone through him like a knife, and the subject
dropped entirely. Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha
condescended to put us through an examination to see what we had
learnt, and to express herself well satisfied with the results.
Indeed, she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson
on her own account, and very interesting we found it.
And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and
laughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and
look at us and read us all like a book, only from time to time
saying a few words, and smiling that quick ominous smile of hers
which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloud
than anything else. And as near to her as he dared would sit
Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting
seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking
personally, I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and
soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was
at heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found
out, and the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that
she ALSO was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I
could not be sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a
woman; but I noticed one or two little things, and, as elephant
hunters know, dried grass shows which way the wind has set.
And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had
all attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi
language, which is an easy one to learn. And as the time went on
we became great favourites with the people, and even with the
courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness,
because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show them
how to make glass, which was a national want, and also, by the
help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predict
various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by the
native astronomers. We even succeeded in demonstrating the
principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned men,
who were filled with amazement; and several other things of the
same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made up
their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out of
the country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if
we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour and made
officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent
quarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was
asked upon questions of national policy.
But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one, on
the horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded
hippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed that
our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of the great and
powerful priesthood headed by Agon appeased. On the contrary, it
was burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily
suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in
downright direct hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the priests
had been the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as
well as from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar
veneration. But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our
strange inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a
serious blow to this state of affairs, and, among the educated
Zu-Vendi, went far towards destroying the priestly prestige. A
still worse affront to them, however, was the favour with which
we were regarded, and the trust that was reposed in us. All
these things tended to make us excessively obnoxious to the great
sacerdotal clan, the most powerful because the most united
faction in the kingdom.
Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of
some of the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to us
had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to
break out into open flame. Nasta had for some years been a
candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage, and when we appeared
on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there
were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means
out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha
smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess the
cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to
Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain
side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door
was closed on him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the
thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding
through the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn
the gates of Milosis with our heads.
But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt
and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the
formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been
proclaimed by the Queens during the year.
Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated
nonchalance, and with a little trembling of the voice herself
informed us of it as we sat at supper on the night preceding the
great ceremony of the law-giving.
Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly
showed his agitation.
'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the great
Lord?' asked I, in a jesting manner.
'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu
names in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory
shoulder. 'Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the
wooer has thirty thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?'
And from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis.
Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me. 'Listen. I
have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love
Nyleptha. What am I to do?'
Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as
seemed the wisest to me.
'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,' I said. 'Now is your time,
now or never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her,
and whisper to her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue
at the end of the great hall. I will keep watch for you there.
Now or never, Curtis.'
We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her
hands before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face. A
little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured
tones.
The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that,
according to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir
Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private: indeed,
though we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no means easy
to see them alone. I racked my brains, and at last an idea came
to me.
'Will the Queen be pleased,' I said, bowing low before Sorais,
'to sing to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing
to us, oh Lady of the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among the
people).
'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy
heart, yet will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she
rose and went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument
not unlike a zither, and struck a few wandering chords.
Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her
rounded voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so
eerie and sad a refrain, that it made the very blood stand still.
Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed to melt far away, and
then to grow again and travel on, laden with all the sorrow of
the world and all the despair of the lost. It was a marvellous
song, but I had not time to listen to it properly. However, I
got the words of it afterwards, and here is a translation of its
burden, so far as it admits of being translated at all.
SORAIS' SONG
As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is
winging,
As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is
swinging,
So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my
singing.
As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness
unspoken,
As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is
broken.
As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge
are sending,
As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky
are rending,
So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its
ending.
So short is our life; yet with space for all things to
forsake us,
A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall
o'ertake us.
REFRAIN
Oh, the world is fair at the dawning--dawning--dawning,
But the red sun sinks in blood--the red sun sinks in blood.
I only wish that I could write down the music too.
'Now, Curtis, now,' I whispered, when she began the second verse,
and turned my back.
'Nyleptha,' he said--for my nerves were so much on the stretch
that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through
Sorais' divine notes--'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this
night, upon my life I must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'
'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before
her; 'Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and
watched.'
'Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas
in the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can
pass in. Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him
the Zulu. Oh come, my Queen, deny me not.'
'It is not seemly,' she murmured, 'and tomorrow--'
Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain,
and Sorais slowly turned her round.
'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see
that thou fail me not.' _
Read next: CHAPTER XVI - BEFORE THE STATUE
Read previous: CHAPTER XIV - THE FLOWER TEMPLE
Table of content of Allan Quatermain
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
