The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đ
- Author: Bram Stoker
- Performer: -
Book online «The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đ». Author Bram Stoker
proof that resurrection can be accomplished!â That is much. A
marvellous thing in this age of science, and the scepticism that
knowledge makes. But life and resurrection are themselves but items in
what may be won by the accomplishment of this Great Experiment. Imagine
what it will be for the world of thoughtâthe true world of human
progressâthe veritable road to the Stars, the itur ad astra of the
Ancientsâif there can come back to us out of the unknown past one who
can yield to us the lore stored in the great Library of Alexandria, and
lost in its consuming flames. Not only history can be set right, and
the teachings of science made veritable from their beginnings; but we
can be placed on the road to the knowledge of lost arts, lost learning,
lost sciences, so that our feet may tread on the indicated path to their
ultimate and complete restoration. Why, this woman can tell us what the
world was like before what is called âthe Floodâ; can give us the origin
of that vast astounding myth; can set the mind back to the consideration
of things which to us now seem primeval, but which were old stories
before the days of the Patriarchs. But this is not the end! No, not
even the beginning! If the story of this woman be all that we thinkâ
which some of us most firmly believe; if her powers and the restoration
of them prove to be what we expect, why, then we may yet achieve a
knowledge beyond what our age has ever knownâbeyond what is believed
today possible for the children of men. If indeed this resurrection can
be accomplished, how can we doubt the old knowledge, the old magic, the
old belief! And if this be so, we must take it that the âKaâ of this
great and learned Queen has won secrets of more than mortal worth from
her surroundings amongst the stars. This woman in her life voluntarily
went down living to the grave, and came back again, as we learn from the
records in her tomb; she chose to die her mortal death whilst young, so
that at her resurrection in another age, beyond a trance of countless
magnitude, she might emerge from her tomb in all the fulness and
splendour of her youth and power. Already we have evidence that though
her body slept in patience through those many centuries, her
intelligence never passed away, that her resolution never flagged, that
her will remained supreme; and, most important of all, that her memory
was unimpaired. Oh, what possibilities are there in the coming of such
a being into our midst! One whose history began before the concrete
teaching of our Bible; whose experiences were antecedent to the
formulation of the Gods of Greece; who can link together the Old and the
New, Earth and Heaven, and yield to the known worlds of thought and
physical existence the mystery of the Unknownâof the Old World in its
youth, and of Worlds beyond our ken!â
He paused, almost overcome. Margaret had taken his hand when he spoke
of her being so dear to him, and held it hard. As he spoke she
continued to hold it. But there came over her face that change which I
had so often seen of late; that mysterious veiling of her own
personality which gave me the subtle sense of separation from her. In
his impassioned vehemence her father did not notice; but when he stopped
she seemed all at once to be herself again. In her glorious eyes came
the added brightness of unshed tears; and with a gesture of passionate
love and admiration, she stooped and kissed her fatherâs hand. Then,
turning to me, she too spoke:
âMalcolm, you have spoken of the deaths that came from the poor Queen;
or rather that justly came from meddling with her arrangements and
thwarting her purpose. Do you not think that, in putting it as you have
done, you have been unjust? Who would not have done just as she did?
Remember she was fighting for her life! Ay, and for more than her life!
For life, and love, and all the glorious possibilities of that dim
future in the unknown world of the North which had such enchanting hopes
for her! Do you not think that she, with all the learning of her time,
and with all the great and resistless force of her mighty nature, had
hopes of spreading in a wider way the lofty aspirations of her soul!
That she hoped to bring to the conquering of unknown worlds, and using
to the advantage of her people, all that she had won from sleep and
death and time; all of which might and could have been frustrated by the
ruthless hand of an assassin or a thief. Were it you, in such case
would you not struggle by all means to achieve the object of your life
and hope; whose possibilities grew and grew in the passing of those
endless years? Can you think that that active brain was at rest during
all those weary centuries, whilst her free soul was flitting from world
to world amongst the boundless regions of the stars? Had these stars in
their myriad and varied life no lessons for her; as they have had for us
since we followed the glorious path which she and her people marked for
us, when they sent their winged imaginations circling amongst the lamps
of the night!â
Here she paused. She too was overcome, and the welling tears ran down
her cheeks. I was myself more moved than I can say. This was indeed my
Margaret; and in the consciousness of her presence my heart leapt. Out
of my happiness came boldness, and I dared to say now what I had feared
would be impossible: something which would call the attention of Mr.
Trelawny to what I imagined was the dual existence of his daughter. As
I took Margaretâs hand in mine and kissed it, I said to her father:
âWhy, sir! she couldnât speak more eloquently if the very spirit of
Queen Tera was with her to animate her and suggest thoughts!â
Mr. Trelawnyâs answer simply overwhelmed me with surprise. It
manifested to me that he too had gone through just such a process of
thought as my own.
âAnd what if it was; if it is! I know well that the spirit of her
mother is within her. If in addition there be the spirit of that great
and wondrous Queen, then she would be no less dear to me, but doubly
dear! Do not have fear for her, Malcolm Ross; at least have no more
fear than you may have for the rest of us!â Margaret took up the theme,
speaking so quickly that her words seemed a continuation of her
fatherâs, rather than an interruption of them.
âHave no special fear for me, Malcolm. Queen Tera knows, and will offer
us no harm. I know it! I know it, as surely as I am lost in the depth
of my own love for you!â
There was something in her voice so strange to me that I looked quickly
into her eyes. They were bright as ever, but veiled to my seeing the
inward thought behind them as are the eyes of a caged lion.
Then the two other men came in, and the subject changed.
That night we all went to bed early. The next night would be an anxious
one, and Mr. Trelawny thought that we should all be fortified with what
sleep we could get. The day, too, would be full of work. Everything in
connection with the Great Experiment would have to be gone over, so that
at the last we might not fail from any unthought-of flaw in our working.
We made, of course, arrangements for summoning aid in case such should
be needed; but I do not think that any of us had any real apprehension
of danger. Certainly we had no fear of such danger from violence as we
had had to guard against in London during Mr. Trelawnyâs long trance.
For my own part I felt a strange sense of relief in the matter. I had
accepted Mr. Trelawnyâs reasoning that if the Queen were indeed such as
we surmisedâsuch as indeed we now took for grantedâthere would not be
any opposition on her part; for we were carrying out her own wishes to
the very last. So far I was at easeâfar more at ease than earlier in
the day I should have thought possible; but there were other sources of
trouble which I could not blot out from my mind. Chief amongst them was
Margaretâs strange condition. If it was indeed that she had in her own
person a dual existence, what might happen when the two existences
became one? Again, and again, and again I turned this matter over in my
mind, till I could have shrieked out in nervous anxiety. It was no
consolation to me to remember that Margaret was herself satisfied, and
her father acquiescent. Love is, after all, a selfish thing; and it
throws a black shadow on anything between which and the light it stands.
I seemed to hear the hands go round the dial of the clock; I saw
darkness turn to gloom, and gloom to grey, and grey to light without
pause or hindrance to the succession of my miserable feelings. At last,
when it was decently possible without the fear of disturbing others, I
got up. I crept along the passage to find if all was well with the
others; for we had arranged that the door of each of our rooms should be
left slightly open so that any sound of disturbance would be easily and
distinctly heard.
One and all slept; I could hear the regular breathing of each, and my
heart rejoiced that this miserable night of anxiety was safely passed.
As I knelt in my own room in a burst of thankful prayer, I knew in the
depths of my own heart the measure of my fear. I found my way out of
the house, and went down to the water by the long stairway cut in the
rock. A swim in the cool bright sea braced my nerves and made me my old
self again.
As I came back to the top of the steps I could see the bright sunlight,
rising from behind me, turning the rocks across the bay to glittering
gold. And yet I felt somehow disturbed. It was all too bright; as it
sometimes is before the coming of a storm. As I paused to watch it, I
felt a soft hand on my shoulder; and, turning, found Margaret close to
me; Margaret as bright and radiant as the morning glory of the sun! It
was my own Margaret this time! My old Margaret, without alloy of any
other; and I felt that, at least, this last and fatal day was well
begun.
But alas! the joy did not last. When we got back to the house from a
stroll around the cliffs, the same old routine of yesterday was resumed:
gloom and anxiety, hope, high spirits, deep depression, and apathetic
aloofness.
But it was to be a day of work; and we all braced ourselves to it with
an energy which wrought its own salvation.
After breakfast we all adjourned to the cave, where Mr. Trelawny went
over, point by point, the position of each item of our paraphernalia.
He explained as he went on why each piece was so placed. He had with
him the great rools of paper with the measured plans and the signs and
Comments (0)