Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard (13 ebook reader txt) đ
- Author: H. Rider Haggard
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âThou seest,â she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators had died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his feet, âI have put my collar round the âwolfâsâ neck, and behold! he shall be my watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen Sorais, my sister, and to those with thee. Fear not,â she went on, smiling sweetly on her lover, and pointing to the golden snake she had twined round his massive throat, âif my yoke be heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not gall thee.â
Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud tone, âAy, Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here gathered together, by this sign do I take the foreigner to husband, even here in the face of you all. What, am I a Queen, and yet not free to choose the man whom I will love? Then should I be lower than the meanest girl in all my provinces. Nay, he hath won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and all I haveâay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord fairer and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so being what he is!â And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him, and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And such was her sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and so beautiful she looked standing hand in hand there at her loverâs side, so sure of him and of herself, and so ready to risk all things and endure all things for him, that most of those who saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever forget, caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her blushing face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human nature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and not afraid to break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible to appeals to its poetical side.
And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the Night stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear to see her sisterâs triumph, which robbed her of the man whom she had hoped to win, and in the awfulness of her jealous anger she trembled and turned white like an aspen in the wind. I think I have said somewhere of her that she reminded me of the sea on a calm day, having the same aspect of sleeping power about her. Well, it was all awake now, and like the face of the furious ocean it awed and yet fascinated me. A really handsome woman in a royal rage is always a beautiful sight, but such beauty and such a rage I never saw combined before, and I can only say that the effect produced was well worthy of the two.
She lifted her white face, the teeth set, and there were purple rings beneath her glowing eyes. Thrice she tried to speak and thrice she failed, but at last her voice came. Raising her silver spear, she shook it, and the light gleamed from it and from the golden scales of her cuirass.
âAnd thinkest thou, Nyleptha,â she said in notes which pealed through the great hall like a clarion, âthinkest thou that I, Sorais, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi, will brook that this base outlander shall sit upon my fatherâs throne and rear up half-breeds to fill the place of the great House of the Stairway? Never! never! while there is life in my bosom and a man to follow me and a spear to strike with. Who is on my side? Who?
âNow hand thou over this foreign wolf and those who came hither to prey with him to the doom of fire, for have they not committed the deadly sin against the sun? or, Nyleptha, I give thee Warâred War! Ay, I say to thee that the path of thy passion shall be marked out by the blazing of thy towns and watered with the blood of those who cleave to thee. On thy head rest the burden of the deed, and in thy ears ring the groans of the dying and the cries of the widows and those who are left fatherless for ever and for ever.
âI tell thee I will tear thee, Nyleptha, the White Queen, from thy throne, and that thou shalt be hurledâay, hurled even from the topmost stair of the great way to the foot thereof, in that thou hast covered the name of the House of him who built it with black shame. And I tell ye strangersâall save Bougwan, whom because thou didst do me a service I will save alive if thou wilt leave these men and follow meâ (here poor Good shook his head vigorously and ejaculated âCanât be doneâ in English)ââthat I will wrap you in sheets of gold and hang you yet alive in chains from the four golden trumpets of the four angels that fly east and west and north and south from the giddiest pinnacles of the Temple, so that ye may be a token and a warning to the land. And as for thee, Incubu, thou shalt die in yet another fashion that I will not tell thee now.â
She ceased, panting for breath, for her passion shook her like a storm, and a murmur, partly of horror and partly of admiration, ran through the hall. Then Nyleptha answered calmly and with dignity:
âIll would it become my place and dignity, oh sister, so to speak as thou hast spoken and so to threat as thou hast threatened. Yet if thou wilt make war, then will I strive to bear up against thee, for if my hand seem soft, yet shalt thou find it of iron when it grips thine armies by the throat. Sorais, I fear thee not. I weep for that which thou wilt bring upon our people and on thyself, but for myself I sayâI fear thee not. Yet thou, who but yesterday didst strive to win my lover and my lord from me, whom today thou dost call a âforeign wolfâ, to be thy lover and thy lordâ (here there was an immense sensation in the hall), âthou who but last night, as I have learnt but since thou didst enter here, didst creep like a snake into my sleeping-placeâay, even by a secret way, and wouldst have foully murdered me, thy sister, as I lay asleepââ
âIt is false, it is false!â rang out Agonâs and a score of other voices.
âIt is not false,â said I, producing the broken point of the dagger and holding it up. âWhere is the haft from which this flew, oh Sorais?â
âIt is not false,â cried Good, determined at last to act like a loyal man. âI took the Lady of the Night by the White Queenâs bed, and on my breast the dagger broke.â
âWho is on my side?â cried Sorais, shaking her silver spear, for she saw that public sympathy was turning against her. âWhat, Bougwan, thou comest not?â she said, addressing Good, who was standing close to her, in a low, concentrated voice. âThou pale-souled fool, for a reward thou shalt eat out thy heart with love of me and not be satisfied, and thou mightest have been my husband and a king! At least I hold thee in chains that cannot be broken.
âWar! war! war!â she cried. âHere, with my hand upon the sacred stone that shall endure, so runs the prophecy, till the Zu-Vendi set their necks beneath an alien yoke, I declare war to the end. Who follows Sorais of the Night to victory and honour?â
Instantly the whole concourse began to break up in indescribable confusion. Many present hastened to throw in their lot with the âLady of the Nightâ, but some came from her following to us. Amongst the former was an under officer of Nylepthaâs own guard, who suddenly turned and made a run for the doorway through which Soraisâ people were already passing. Umslopogaas, who was present and had taken the whole scene in, seeing with admirable presence of mind that if this soldier got away others would follow his example, seized the man, who drew his sword and struck at him. Thereon the Zulu sprang back with a wild shout, and, avoiding the sword cuts, began to peck at his foe with his terrible axe, till in a few seconds the manâs fate overtook him and he fell with a clash heavily and quite dead upon the marble floor.
This was the first blood spilt in the war.
âShut the gates,â I shouted, thinking that we might perhaps catch Sorais so, and not being troubled with the idea of committing sacrilege. But the order came too late, her guards were already passing through them, and in another minute the streets echoed with the furious galloping of horses and the rolling of her chariots.
So, drawing half the people after her, Sorais was soon passing like a whirlwind through the Frowning City on her road to her headquarters at MâArstuna, a fortress situated a hundred and thirty miles to the north of Milosis.
And after that the city was alive with the endless tramp of regiments and preparations for the gathering war, and old Umslopogaas once more began to sit in the sunshine and go through a show of sharpening Inkosi-kaasâs razor edge.
A STRANGE WEDDING
One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in time before the gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as we had every reason to believe, was Soraisâ great ally, and the heart and soul of her party. This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us for those hippopotami, or rather that was what he said. What he meant was that he would never brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and foreign learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping us out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system of religion, and no doubt was in daily terror of our attempting to introduce it into Zu-Vendis. One day he asked me if we had any religion in our country, and I told him that so far as I could remember we had ninety-five different ones. You might have knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficult not to pity a high priest of a well-established cult who is haunted by the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.
When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I discussed what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating him, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce a disastrous effect throughout the country. âAh!â she added, with a stamp of her foot, âif I win and am once really Queen, I will break the power of those priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.â I only wished that old Agon could have heard her, it would have frightened him.
âWell,â said Sir Henry, âif we are not to imprison him, I suppose that we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.â
Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in a dry little voice, âThinkest thou so, my lord?â
âEh?â said Curtis. âNo, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.â
She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that was as shy as it was sweet.
Then at last he understood.
âForgive me, Nyleptha,â he said, rather tremulously. âDost thou mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?â
âNay, I know not; let my lord say,â was her rapid answer; âbut if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is thereââpointing to the entrance to a private chapelââand am I not ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my lord! In eight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in warâmen sometimes fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if only for memoryâs sake;â and the tears overflowed her lovely eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of a rose.
âMayhap, too,â she went on, âI shall lose my crown, and with my crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very bitter, and if she prevails she will
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