Hypatia or New Foes with an Old Face Part 63

And with trembling hands she drew the sword from its sheath and covered the blade with kisses.

'Yes-on this sword-with which he won his battles. That is right-his to the last! How keen and cold it looks! Will it be very painful?.... No-I will not try the point, or my heart might fail me. I will fall on it at once: let it hurt me as it may, it will be too late to draw back then. And after all it is his sword-It will not have the heart to torture me much. And yet he struck me himself this morning!'

And at that thought, a long wild cry of misery broke from her lips, and rang through the house. Hurriedly she fastened the sword upright to the foot of the bed, and tore open her tunic.... 'Here-under this widowed bosom, where his head will never lie again! There are footsteps in the pa.s.sage! Quick, Pelagia! Now-'

And she threw up her arms wildly, in act to fall....

'It is his step! And he will find me, and never know that it is for him I die!'

The Amal tried the door. It was fast. With a single blow he burst it open, and demanded-

'What was that shriek? What is the meaning of this? Pelagia!'

Pelagia, like a child caught playing with a forbidden toy, hid her face in her hands and cowered down.

'What is it?' cried he, lifting her.

But she burst from his arms.

'No, no!-never more! I am not worthy of you! Let me die, wretch that I am! I can only drag you down. You must be a king. You must marry her-the wise woman!'

'Hypatia! She is dead!'

'Dead?' shrieked Pelagia.

'Murdered, an hour ago, by those Christian devils.'

Pelagia put her hands over her eyes, and burst into tears. Were they of pity or of joy?... She did not ask herself; and we will not ask her.

'Where is my sword? Soul of Odin! Why is it fastened here?'

'I was going to-Do not be angry!.... They told me that I had better die, and-

The Amal stood thunderstruck for a moment.

'Oh, do not strike me again! Send me to the mill. Kill me now with your own hand! Anything but another blow!'

'A blow?-n.o.ble woman!'cried the Amal, clasping her in his arms.

The storm was past; and Pelagia had been nestling to that beloved heart, cooing like a happy dove, for many a minute before the Amal aroused himself and her....

'Now!-quick! We have not a moment to lose. Up to the tower, where you will be safe; and then to show these curs what comes of snarling round the wild wolves' den!'

CHAPTER XXIX: NEMESIS

And was the Amal's news true, then?

Philammon saw Raphael rush across the street into the Museum gardens. His last words had been a command to stay where he was; and the boy obeyed him. The black porter who let Raphael out told him somewhat insolently, that his mistress would see no one, and receive no messages: but he had made up his mind: complained of the sun, quietly ensconced himself behind a b.u.t.tress, and sat coiled up on the pavement, ready for a desperate spring. The slave stared at him: but he was accustomed to the vagaries of philosophers; and thanking the G.o.ds that he was not born in that station of life, retired to his porter's cell, and forgot the whole matter.

There Philammon awaited a full half-hour. It seemed to him hours, days, years. And yet Raphael did not return: and yet no guards appeared. Was the strange Jew a traitor? Impossible!-his face had shown a desperate earnestness of terror as intense as Philammon's own.... Yet why did he not return?

Perhaps he had found out that the streets were clear; their mutual fears groundless.... What meant that black knot of men some two hundred yards off, hanging about the mouth of the side street, just opposite the door which led to her lecture-room? He moved to watch them: they had vanished. He lay down again and waited.... There they were again. It was a suspicious post. That street ran along the back of the Caesareum, a favourite haunt of monks, communicating by innumerable entries and back buildings with the great Church itself.... And yet, why should there not be a knot of monks there? What more common in every street of Alexandria? He tried to laugh away his own fears. And yet they ripened, by the very intensity of thinking on them, into certainty. He knew that something terrible was at hand. More than once he looked out from his hiding-place-the knot of men were still there;.... it seemed to have increased, to draw nearer. If they found him, what would they not suspect? What did he care? He would die for her, if it came to that-not that it could come to that: but still he must speak to her-he must warn her. Pa.s.senger after pa.s.senger, carriage after carriage pa.s.sed along the street: student after student entered the lecture-room; but he never saw them, not though they pa.s.sed him close. The sun rose higher and higher, and turned his whole blaze upon the corner where Philammon crouched, till the pavement scorched like hot iron, and his eyes were dazzled by the blinding glare: but he never heeded it. His whole heart, and sense, and sight, were riveted upon that well-known door, expecting it to open....

At last a curricle, glittering with silver, rattled round the corner and stopped opposite him. She must becoming now. The crowd had vanished. Perhaps it was, after all, a fancy of his own. No; there they were, peeping round the corner, close to the lecture-room-the h.e.l.l-hounds! A slave brought out an embroidered cushion-and then Hypatia herself came forth, looking more glorious than ever; her lips set in a sad firm smile; her eyes uplifted, inquiring, eager, and yet gentle, dimmed by some great inward awe, as if her soul was far away aloft, and face to face with G.o.d.

In a moment he sprang up to her, caught her robe convulsively, threw himself on his knees before her-

'Stop! Stay! You are going to destruction!'

Calmly she looked down upon him.

'Accomplice of witches! Would you make of Theon's daughter a traitor like yourself?'

He sprang up, stepped back, and stood stupefied with shame and despair....

She believed him guilty, then!.... It was the will of G.o.d!

The plumes of the horses were waving far down the street before he recovered himself, and rushed after her, shouting he knew not what.

It was too late! A dark wave of men rushed from the ambuscade, surged up round the car.... swept forward.... she had disappeared! and as Philammon followed breathless, the horses galloped past him madly homeward with the empty carriage.

Whither were they dragging her? To the Caesareum, the Church of G.o.d Himself? Impossible! Why thither of all places of the earth? Why did the mob, increasing momentarily by hundreds, pour down upon the beach, and return brandishing flints, sh.e.l.ls, fragments of pottery?

She was upon the church steps before he caught them up, invisible among the crowd; but he could track her by the fragments of her dress.

Where were her gay pupils now? Alas! they had barricaded themselves shamefully in the Museum, at the first rush which swept her from the door of the lecture-room. Cowards! he would save her!

And he struggled in vain to pierce the dense ma.s.s of Parabolani and monks, who, mingled with the fishwives and dock-workers, leaped and yelled around their victim. But what he could not do another and a weaker did-even the little porter. Furiously-no one knew how or whence-he burst up as if from the ground in the thickest of the crowd, with knife, teeth, and nails, like a venomous wild-cat, tearing his way towards his idol. Alas! he was torn down himself, rolled over the steps, and lay there half dead in an agony of weeping, as Philammon sprang up past him into the church.

Yes. On into the church itself! Into the cool dim shadow, with its fretted pillars, and lowering domes, and candles, and incense, and blazing altar, and great pictures looking from the walls athwart the gorgeous gloom. And right in front, above the altar, the colossal Christ watching unmoved from off the wall, His right hand raised to give a blessing-or a curse?

On, up the nave, fresh shreds of her dress strewing the holy pavement-up the chancel steps themselves-up to the altar-right underneath the great still Christ: and there even those h.e.l.l-hounds paused.

She shook herself free from her tormentors, and springing back, rose for one moment to her full height, naked, snow-white against the dusky ma.s.s around-shame and indignation in those wide clear eyes, but not a stain of fear. With one hand she clasped her golden locks around her; the other long white arm was stretched upward toward the great still Christ appealing-and who dare say in vain?-from man to G.o.d. Her lips were opened to speak: but the words that should have come from them reached G.o.d's ear alone; for in an instant Peter struck her down, the dark ma.s.s closed over her again.... and then wail on wail, long, wild, ear-piercing, rang along the vaulted roofs, and thrilled like the trumpet of avenging angels through Philammon's ears.

Crushed against a pillar, unable to move in the dense ma.s.s, he pressed his hands over his ears. He could not shut out those shrieks! When would they end? What in the name of the G.o.d of mercy were they doing? Tearing her piecemeal? Yes, and worse than that. And still the shrieks rang on, and still the great Christ looked down on Philammon with that calm, intolerable eye, and would not turn away. And over His head was written in the rainbow, 'I am the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever!' The same as He was in Judea of old, Philammon? Then what are these, and in whose temple? And he covered his face with his hands, and longed to die.

It was over. The shrieks had died away into moans; the moans to silence. How long had he been there? An hour, or an eternity? Thank G.o.d it was over! For her sake-but for theirs? But they thought not of that as a new cry rose through the dome.

'To the Cinaron! Burn the bones to ashes! Scatter them into the sea!' And the mob poured past him again....

He turned to flee: but, once outside the church, he sank exhausted, and lay upon the steps, watching with stupid horror the glaring of the fire, and the mob who leaped and yelled like demons round their Moloch sacrifice.

A hand grasped his arm; he looked up; it was the porter.