fyxMll Wimvmxi^ Jilratg THE GIFT OF ..U^.......^l=sftAU- v%.f\'&.vs. XiftAtsrlftv:.. s 1287 Cornell University Library PR 4349.B57A72 Armenosa of Egypt; a romance of the Arab 3 1924 013 448 091 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3448091 , ARMENOSA OF EGYPT Armenosa of Egypt A ROMANCE THE AEAB CONQUEST CHAKLES HENRY BUTCHER D.D., P.S.A. ~ CHAPLAIN AT CAIRO ; FORMERLY DEAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, SHANGHAI, CHINA WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCXCVII f PREFATORY NOTE. My warmest acknowledgments are due to Mr A. J. Butler, of Brasenose College, Oxford, for the help which his admirable work on the Coptic Churches of Egypt and his valuable suggestions have given me in writing this book. CONTENTS. CHAP. ■ PAGE INTRODUCTION ..... il I. HOW THE HOLT RELIC WAS BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS 1 II. HOW THE PRIEST MENAS WAS ROBBED OP THE SACRED CHALICE . . . .14 IIL ARMBNOSA ..... 26 IV. HOW GEORGE THE PAGABCH VISITED MENAS AT BABYLON , . . . .46 V. FATHER AND SON ... 61 VI. CALLINICUS . . . . 70 VII. IN THE CONVENT OP THE HOLY TREE . . 80 VIII. AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE ... 98 IX. THE CONVENT AGAIN . . . .111 X. HOW THE PEOPLE OF MEMPHIS CONGRATULATED THE PAGAECH . . .117 XL A VIRGIN SACRIFICE . . . 125 XII. THE RUBICON . . . . .140 XIII. THE DREAM AND THE AWAKENING . . 148 Vlll CONTENTS. XIV. BBLBEIS XV. THE LOOSIKra OF THE WATERS XVI. TEMPTATION XVII. THE priest's SECRET . XVIII. THE COUNCIL OP WAR . XIX. THE FIRST ASSAULT XX. THE SIEGE XXI. A NEW SUITOR XXII. THE CARRIER-PIGEON . XXIII. THE SCAPEGOAT XXIV. THE GUARDIAN OF THE TOMB XXV. THE SON FOLLOWS THE FATHER XXVI. THE SALLY XXVII. RHODA ISLAND XXVIII. THE MONASTERY OF ST ARSENIUS NOTES. A. THE PAGARCH .... B. THE ROMAN FORTRESS OF BABYLON . C. ARMENOSA .... D. THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE AT OLD CAIRO E. CALLINICUB F. BELBEIS .... G. GREEK FIRE INTKODUCTION. The seventh century offers generous opportunities to the writer of Eomance. There is a background of authentic and important history, and there are figures moving on the borderland between fact and fiction which fulfil all the requirements of the story- teller. The sceptical historian of the school of Von Eanke and "Weil is obliged to dismiss characters and incidents related by the Moslem Al Wakidi and the English Ockley, but we may well turn to those delightful authors for our plot and personages while we strive to be absolutely accurate in our picture of the period. When this tale begins, the Emperor Heraclius had closed the last of the six campaigns which freed the world for ever from the dominion of Persia. Had he died in 629 he would have ranked with Alexander, X INTEODUCTION. Hannibal, and Csesar as one of the great world- conquerors. The victory over Chosroes and the deliverance of the East from the Zoroastrians was one of the many blessings which the great Byzantine sovereigns conferred on the world. But no sooner was Dastagerd, the treasure city of the Persians, taken than a cloud arose among the Arabs, like that which develops into a tremendous Genius in one of their own stories, and suddenly the forces of New Eome, wearied with a seven years' war, had to confront the fresh armies of fanatic Islam. Again the battle is between two races and two religions, and in Egypt, where our scene is laid, two remarkable champions were opposed to each other. The Arabs were led by Amru or Amr, called Amr-ibn-al-Asi ; the representative Christian was the Copt George the Pagarch, called the Mukaukis. Amr was one of the bravest warriors of Islam. After a brilliant campaign in Syria he obtained permission of Omar to invade Egypt with a force of five thousand men. He took Perenum or Farma and Belbeis, where he was opposed by the Egyptian militia, who were Copts ; then he laid siege to Babylon, the fortress of which the remains are still visible in Old Cairo. Amr in many points antici- INTEODUCTION. XI pated the highly idealised figure of the Kurd Sal§,h- ad-Din, the virtuous Saladin of Dante, the hero of Scott's ' Talisman.' Thus in him Mohammedanism is seen at its best, while the foremost Christian of Egypt was a mysterious character whose action is difficult to explain and impossible to justify. So many and hard are the problems connected with George the son of Mennas that Von Eanke doubts whether such a person ever existed, and even writers of high authority still confuse his name and his title of honour. The Papyrus documents in the collection of the Archduke Eainer have yielded their secrets to the German archaeologist Karabacek, and his monograph on the Mukaukis of Egypt has explained one of the hardest enigmas of the Islamite Conquest. It is impossible to understand the man and his unique position without first making an effort to comprehend the state of Egypt political and religious. The key to the political situation was the ever- increasing exhaustion of the empire brought to a crisis by the life -and -death struggle with Persia. All through his reign Heraclius had been hampered by want of money. He was weighed down by the extravagance of his surroundings. To quote the XU INTRODUCTION. historian Finlay : " The luxury of the Eoman Court had during ages of unbounded wealth and unlimited power assembled round the Emperor an infinity of courtly offices and caused an enormous expendi- ture which it was extremely dangerous to suppress and impossible to continue." This had been so strongly felt that Heraclius had actually contem- plated removing the seat of empire to Carthage. If this strain was felt before the Persian war, it was intensified during its continuance. Heraclius wanted money above all things. Chosroes had held Egypt, the granary of Rome, for nine years, and the man who had the financial control of Egypt and the, task of collecting the revenues from its peasantry was George the son of Mennas, called the Pagarch, whose title of honour, fieyavx>]'i> " Your Excellency " or " Your Magnificence," has been perverted into a proper name by every English historian from G-ibbon to Bury. Though some of this man's acts bear a more favourable interpretation than is usually placed on them, ambition and perhaps avarice were strong mo- tives with him. He had extraordinary opportuni- ties of enriching himself, and during the Persian oc- cupation he had a valid excuse for not remitting the INTEODUCTIOK. XIU Egyptian tribute to Constantinople. A large portion of this tribute he has been accused of appropriating to himself. Certainly when the Emperor was firmly reseated on his throne the arrears were impatiently required. Dreading lest if he failed to meet these demands he would be superseded or disgraced, the Pagarch is believed to have trafficked with the Arabs, and in spite of Von Eanke, it seems possible that at an earlier day he had exchanged messages and gifts with the Prophet Mohammed. Still it is surprising that he did not lose the favour of Her- aclius, though the existence of a story recording the betrothal of Armenosa and Constantine affords prima facie evidence for believing he retained that favour to the last. Of this there are two explanations. First, he may by enormous efforts have actually sent large sums to Constantinople, though still retaining enough to maintain his splendid position in Egypt. Secondly, he may have pleased Heraclius by accepting as satisfactory his cherished scheme of religious com- prehension — the Monothelite doctrine. This leads us to note the situation of the two great religious parties whose differences were inter- twined so closely with the politics of the day. The XIV INTRODUCTION. Jacobites, or Monophysites, who had affirmed the one nature of Christ and had been condemned at the Council of Chalcedon or Constantinople, were strong- est in Egypt, comprising in fact the native Egyptians ; but the garrison and a large number of the officials were Melchites or Kingsmen. Thus there was con- stant danger of friction between the army of occu- pation and the populace. The legionaries of New Rome had just gained a series of victories, and freed Egypt from Chosroes ; they were therefore disposed to look down on the natives, and were perhaps not sorry to have the term " heretic " to hurl at them. But experience proved that the Egyptian people were not to be browbeaten or oppressed with safety. The seafaring population of Alexandria had always been formidable. The wealthy citizens of Memphis had an organised militia force well equipped and disciplined, and the Jacobite priesthood had far- reaching influence. The Emperor longed to make peace between the contending parties. He hoped to do it by the adoption of the term Monothelite for Monophysite, thus affirming one will or "theandric energy " instead of one nature in Christ. It seems incredible that George, a native Egyptian, should have held the place he did had he been a Jacobite. INTRODUCTION. XV It is certain he was not a Melchite. All the dis- crepancies are cleared up if we believe him to have professed the faith of the Emperor. Thus he would have been enabled to preserve the position of intermediary between his nation and his sovereign, which he was maintaining with such marvellous tact when this story opens. AEMENOSA OF EGYPT. CHAPTER I. HOW THE HOLY RELIC WAS BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS. On a certain spring day, in the year of Christ 639, the people of Egypt were keeping a double holiday. First it was a day of great moment to the Church, when a holy relic sent by the Emperor Heraclius was to be carried in solemn pomp to the great cathedral of Memphis. It was also a popular fes- tival, dating from time immemorial, and known as The Smelling of the Zephyr. The secular holiday corresponded to the spring festival in the old Eoman calendar — the Feast of Flora, which reappears year by year in Europe, when young men and maidens, with the excuse of a saint's day to aid them, go A 2 AKMBNOSA. forth to celebrate the coming of May. It is the festival of the opening spring, when everything in nature tells of winter past and genial days to come, when life and hope begin to burgeon once more in the fields and gardens of the old, old world, when fresh thoughts of quickening love pulse gladly in the young man's heart, and touch the maiden's cheek with the glowing hue of the rose. In Egypt the winter has no biting rost or angry storms, so the contrast of its seasons is not violent as with us. But on this day the balm in the air has a spell to invite city dwellers and villagers to go afield, and blends, perhaps by some subtle tie of blood, with the reminiscence of a happy primeval worship that brightened men's lives before a temple or a pyramid was raised by the religions of Fear. Those who could not leave the city decorated their houses and shops with palm branches and rose wreaths, to make them look as much like the country as possible. Every man who had a garden invited his friends, and spread tables piled with fruits wrapped in cool leaves. But the people loved best to go beyond the city limits and wander in the groves of palm and acacia and tamarisk, dancing and singing to the pipe and the cymbals, THE HOLY RELIC BEOUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 3 and stretching themselves on the ground in the pleasant shade. The island of Khoda was the favourite resort. Here the rose-gardens were crowded with the richer citizens, and tents of many colours were pitched, and men and maidens wandered in the groves of orange and myrtle, and their elders sat on carpets covering the steps of marble and alabaster that descended to the sacred river. The Nile itself was sparkling with a flotilla of skiffs and barges. Each boat was gay with waving streamers and merry with music. And ever and anon the laughter rang in silvery peals as one crew splashed another in pass- ing with the spray of its gilded oars. But in Memphis the ecclesiastical function domi- nated the popular feast. The city was in holiday dress ; the streets, as well as the fields and gardens, were filled with an ever-moving crowd clad in the gayest colours; but, besides all this, the churches were festooned with flowers. Wooden arches were erected in the great thoroughfare. The ancient lake of Menes glittered with small pleasure-boats, — some shaped like birds, others like flowers, others resem- bling the Turkish caique or the Venetian gondola. Here, as on the Nile, the water-parties waged mimic 4 AEMENOSA. war, pelting each other with roses and sweatmeats ; and the passengers in the streets exchanged jokes and banter, laughing and clapping hands at every humorous incident, after the manner of good-natured crowds in all ages and countries. But as the morning advanced, the noisier sports ceased. Processions of priests appeared with crosses and banners. Signs of some transaction unusual on a spring festival were visible. In the principal square scaffolds were erected to seat the great ones of the city; and since dawn workmen had been actively employed in putting up extra supports for the structures that were expected to be most crowded, and in covering the planks with silken carpets and embroidered drapery. Jugglers and showmen were performing in all the open spaces, and sherbet-sellers with their clinking cups and porous bottles were busy supplying the wants of the spec- tators, and inviting the thirsty to drink without fee or charge at the expense of the Most Excellent and Benevolent the Pagarch,i whose liberality flowed as the river. Though the festivity was general, and the poorest lanes in the city and suburbs showed their few ^ See Note A, The Pagaroh. THE HOLY RELIC BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 5 strips of triangular scarlet cloth, and their lamps ready to contribute a tiny gleam to the night's illumination, the centre of the pageant was the ancient church of St Gabriel the Harbinger, which stood opposite the huge remains of the house of Ptah, now known as the White Church. The bronze doors of the sanctuary were wide open. Urns steaming with fragrant incense were placed in its porch and between the pillars of its long colonnade. The steps were covered with carpets, and acolytes and vergers were busy marshalling those whose rank gave them the right of occupying the scarlet chairs on the great dais. Precautions were taken in case of riot; for though the people were gay and good-humoured, there was always danger in Egypt from the religious passions. Mel- chites and Jacobites were as little likely to mix as oil and water, and at any moment the men now laughing and jesting together might fly at each other's throats. To guard against this danger, small bodies of legionaries were placed at irregular inter- vals amongst the mass of sightseers, and, wherever they could be masked by porch or parapet, larger bodies were drawn up fully armed. A soldier's eye would have detected that these troops were scientifi- 6 ARMENOSA. cally disposed, and that at any moment they could occupy every post of vantage and surround the great square. The crowd had begun to collect at daylight. Now, as the day advanced, the discordant noises of the multitude settled into a low hum of anticipation. A pathway was cleared through the street from the Governor's palace to the Church of the Archangel, and the people began to question and discuss the object of their gathering together. "They won't be long now — see, the lictors are clearing the way. Well done, lictors ! clear out the Jacobite scum and let the Emperor's loyal and faithful lieges have the front benches to themselves. Who can enjoy the sight of the holy relic or reap the full benefit of His Beatitude's benediction if he is jostled by an unsavoury heretic and " The speaker, a corpulent critic, whose stained arms and hands showed the traces of the dyeing-vat he worked in, was interrupted by his neighbour, a sharp-faced d^ruggist — " Silence, Lampo ! Is this the day to rip up sores and call ugly names ? Is the divine Heraclius as orthodox as he should be ? I don't know, nor you either ; perhaps he is, perhaps he is not. The man THE HOLY EELIC BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 7 who has banged Chosroes and his sun-worshippers out of Egypt and restored the true cross to Jerusalem may think as he pleases, and when he honours Memphis with a peculiar mark of his favour, and the trusty and well -beloved Pagarch spends a thousand pieces on olibanum to set the censers asmoke, the best we can do is to thank the saints and keep silence about dangerous questions." "Eight, friend," struck in a grim ruffian in a leather apron. " I have seen tongues that cackled too freely stuck through with a hissing hot skewer before now, so take my advice and keep quiet." " No offence, no offence ; ivpon my tongue a tig ox has trodden, quoth the man in the play," said the dyer, turniag pale and fidgeting uneasily. "You are more glib with heathen stage plays than holy homilies, it seems, friend," said a tall monk in a goatskin mantle. " In for it again," muttered Lampo. " This corner is getting too warm for me ; " and the poor fellow slunk off through an opening in the crowd, and left his place to the druggist, who slipped into it with a complaisant smile. " I only came to Memphis from the Thebaid last night," said the monk, "so I know not the cause 8 AEMENOSA. of tins solemnity. Is" it the consecration of a bishop?" "The divine Emperor has presented an inestim- able relic, even a fragment of the true cross, to the Church of St Gabriel the Harbinger. It has been set in a frame of gold and rubies, and is to be displayed at the celebration of the Adorable Mysteries this morning." "Thrice blessed was the chance that brought me hither on an auspicious day. Thou needst not stoop, friend," to, the druggist. " I could see easily over thy head were another cubit added to thy stature. Here they come." The procession, which was long and splendid, now came in sight. First, to clear the way, appeared a troop of running footmen, selected for their speed and grace of limb. These men, who have been from the earliest days a feature in Egyptian pageants, were attired in jackets of gold embroidery, had their legs bare, and carried white wands. They were followed by two bands of music — one consisting of metallic, the other of stringed, instruments, which played alternately. The silver trumpets and clash- ing cymbals of the first were supposed to stir the pulses of the valiant Greeks, and the flutes and THE HOLY EBLIC BKOUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 9 citherns of the second gave undoubted pleasure to the less martial Egyptians. After this a space was interposed, and then the military part of the pageant began. It was headed by Celadion, the commandant of the imperial fortress of Babylon. Before the Persian invasion, high commands in the army were oftenest bestowed by favouritism. The friend of a eunuch or a Court lady had the best chance, unless the War Minister were a needy man, when the posts were shamelessly sold. But in the campaign against Chosroes these of&cers had been weeded out. Some had disgraced themselves by notorious proofs of incapacity. Others had wisely retired from the service, to make way for men who knew the trade of war. None knew it better than Celadion. Trained at the camp at Issus, and dis- tinguished at the Phasis and at Dastagerd, he was at the close of the war appointed to Egypt; and Heraclius never made a wiser choice. To-day he looked a thorough soldier. His armour, of old Eoman fashion, was of frosted silver ; his high crest was surrounded with a laurel chaplet, his truncheon crowned with a winged Victory, his cream-coloured steed trapped and bridled with blue leather. The legionaries marched behind him with the measured 10 AKMENOSA. tread, evenly sloped spears, and faultless line which always impress undisciplined masses. A perfectly ordered, highly polished, keenly bristling war- machine, the long lines of men moved between the mass of sight-seers until the eye grew weary of the monotony. A company of Soudanese bowmen, who were lately enlisted for the border wars always going on, brought up the rear of the army. Then very different figures appeared. These were the craftsmen marching under their several flags with emblems of their trades, and the counsellors and judges of Memphis. Once more a space intervened ; and then, with censer - bearers and choristers on either hand, came a superb ivory inlaid car in which sat the Pagarch. This was the title by which George was distin- guished. His functions were of the first importance, for he was Collector of Taxes, Sheriff, and Head of the Finance. He controlled the public administra- tion, the taxes and police, the municipality and public works of the great city, which even in those days of decadence displayed, to use the phrase of our own Gibbon, " the magnificence of ancient kings." On this day of festival he sat by the side of the imperial envoy, a holy bishop carrying THE HOLY RELIC BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 11 in a bag of imperial purple the inestimable and miraculous relic — the wonder-working fragment of the true cross. Hitherto the emblazoned robes and jewels, the armour and the weapons, had attracted attention, but at last the eyes of all were fixed on a man. Yet that man was not the Byzantine ecclesiastic, who was a grey withered ascetic, his shaven head half-hidden by the stiff embroidery of a cope ; it was George the Pagarch, who filled the scene directly he entered on it. He wore a robe of white, and carried in his hand a rod or sceptre of office surmounted by a ring-dove, which was the emblem of the Byzantine sovereignty in Egypt, as a hawk had been the crest or symbol of the Pharaohs. The same device appeared on the canopy of his chariot and on the harness of his horses, and was curiously connected with his title of office. He was the most familiar figure in the whole procession, and every eye had been looking for the delegate who bore the relic; but beside the Pagarch most men would have seemed insignificant. Thin, nervous, and delicate of feature, rather below the middle height, he attracted by the brightness of his eye, his vivid gestures, and the mixture of grace and command that every movement presented. His 12 AKMENOSA. bodyguard and ensigns closed the procession, which now halted in the middle of the great square. Then at a signal from Celadion the trumpet sounded and the soldiers formed in two lines on either side of St Gabriel's Church. The guilds of craftsmen divided and branched off to the right and left. Then the military music ceased and the chants of monks and priests arose. Singing the glorious psalm which was first sung when David brought the ark from the house of Obed-edom, the long array of acolytes, choristers, priests, and bishops descended the steps, and, halting midway, met the venerable delegate, who, supported by the Pagarch, carried the holy relic with trembling hands into the great church. There, after solemn service and a celebration of the Adorable Mysteries, it was confided to the perpetual keeping of the Bishop of Memphis and the clergy, priests, and deacons of the Church of St Gabriel the Harbinger. It was high noon when the solemn service was over, and the square baked in the white scorching sunshine. The people, who had been awed into silence while the ceremony was going on, had grown impatient, and were surging to and fro, eager for the THE HOLY RELIC BROUGHT TO MEMPHIS. 13 departure of the great ones. For with them would march off the legionaries who had been penning them in behind a wall of steel for some four or five burning hours. At last the time of release came, and like water through an open sluice the mob flowed out into the thoroughfares, shouting, laughing, and gesticulating in the delight of re- covered liberty. 14 CHAPTER II. HOW THE PEIEST MENAS WAS ROBBED OF THE SACKED CHALICE. " Take care — keep back — you have crushed my foot." " Dog of a Jew ! do you push before an ordained deacon ? Things have come to a pretty pass." " Saints and angels ! shall we ever get home with- out broken bones ? " " Keep your blue hands off my new silk chlamys, you dyeing- vat ! " " A drink of water. Hand it down to me, and I will see if I have a copper-piece for you." " I can't reach it. The press is carrying me well off my feet." " Take care of the old man. It is the holy priest Menas." THE PRIEST MENAS ROBBED. 15 "A blessing on me, father. Benediction from a priest is better for the rheumatism than all the drugs in your shop, apothecary." "Not if he is a Jacobite." " Oh no. Of course that makes a difference. Blessed be the saints ! we shall get cured of all our ailments now we have got a fragment of the true cross in our city." These and a hundred cries like these rose from the hustling and tossing crowd as they pushed and trampled and jostled to get out into the open square which the removal of the cordon of soldiers had opened to them, only to find their way instantane- ously blocked by a cross-stream of people coming from a side-street. Heat and pressure were no re- specters of persons. The sedan of the chief magis- trate's wife was crushed against the fruit-seller's ass, and the richest Hebrew in Memphis found himself struggling with a huge parsley-crowned prize-fighter. A pedagogue was a target for a hail of peach-stones delivered by some of his urchins who had climbed to the frieze of a convenient portico. Huge black slaves were trying with rhinoceros -hide whips to make a way for a grand Justiciary ; but the spirit of the people was roused, and the negroes were dis- 16 AEMENOSA. armed, knocked down, and yelling nnder the lashes of their: own courbashes in the twinkling of an eye. "Down with you, heathen pigs! Shame, shame on the Christian who keeps black swine to strike the free citizens of Memphis !— guardians of the relic of the true cross." In vain did the unfortunate judge endeavour to pacify the multitude by abject apologies, and at the same time to outvoice the loudest of them in abuse of his negroes. The whole scene was agitated. The tempers and humours of the crowd had been held in check too long, and now found furious vent in violent banter and rude horse-play. The donkey- boys with heavy sticks were fighting and pushing for fares, and the citizens who tried to bargain with them were shouted at and mocked as niggards and hucksters. " Who would haggle for a miserable obol on a day like this ? " cried one. " The miser Harpax, who rolls in gold-pieces, to be sure," answered another. " Shame, shame, shame ! " shouted the chorus. " Take my Eutychus," said a third boy ; " the red velvet saddle will match your ladyship's robe to THE PRIEST MENAS EOBBED. 17 a nicety. Nay, then, save an obol and foul your dainty buskins in the mire." The tide of men, women, and children, horses, mules, and asses, surged through the streets ; but at last, by little and little, they dwindled away down side-alleys, or took shelter in their homes or the houses of their friends, and the Kctors had time to pause and wipe their hot faces, and to look ruefully to the cuts and bruises they had received in the cause of order. In one narrow street at some distance from the church lay a victim of the festival whose case was piteous indeed. This was the priest Menas, who, as we have seen, had been recognised and compassion- ated by the crowd. He was an old man, who served one of the most ancient churches in Babylon,^ and who had not ventured out to take part in the spec- tacle, but to adminster the Holy Eucharist to a sick man in a distant suburb. He was usually reckoned too old and infirm to perform any outdoor duties, but in order to let younger priests share in the pageant he had undertaken this mission, and faith- fully performed it. He had hoped to get back through side-streets which he knew, while the multi- ' See Note B, The Roman Fortress of Babylon. B 18 AEMENOSA. tude were occupied in the great square ; but the office with the dying and the subsequent consola- tion of the friends had taken a longer time than he had expected, and he found himself entangled in the dense mass of human beings at the moment when they were released from their imprisonment between the lines of soldiers. The result was that he was hustled and thrown from his mule. Some friendly hand dragged him out of the middle of the road under the shelter of a block of stone, the headless and legless body of some ancient Nile god, and thus he escaped being trampled on. He had fallen into a swoon, and lay on his side. His long white beard was covered with mire ; his high forehead was gashed with a sharp stone; and his robe was torn and draggled; but he held fast the golden chalice used in his ministry, and kept a fold of his sleeve wrapped tightly over it. After he had lain some time the street cleared, and only a stray passenger or two was threading his way through the narrow alley, which, as it did not lead to a frequented part of the town, was then wellnigh deserted. The world has not much changed since the days THE PEIEST MENAS EOBBED. 19 when the Master told the story of the " Good Sam- aritan," and the worshippers who had crowded the great church that day were as disinclined as men had been six centuries before to translate the lessons of the Gospel into act. Noon had gone by. For an hour only two groups passed. One was a courtier attended by two beau- tiful boys — one carrying his state mantle, the other holding a parasol over his head. He moved care- fully, picking his way through the mire, and chiding his page for choosing such a disgusting way home. He came suddenly on Menas and uttered a pettish cry, for his golden-fringed buskin was stained with the little runnel of blood which flowed from the cut in the priest's forehead. " Whom have we here ? Some holy man who has taken more wine than he can carry. Well, we will let him sleep off his fit and wish him joy of his wak- ing. Hold the parasol slantwise, Hylas. At present it shelters your own head and leaves mine to be baked by the sunbeams. Make haste or we shall be late at the Pagarch's." And the great man went his way. The next passenger was a richly jewelled and floridly painted lady borne aloft by four slaves in a 20 AJRMENOSA. high sedan or litter. The foremost of them stum- bled in his swinging stride over the unhappy priest's foot, and got soundly rated by his mistress. " That is the second time you have nearly dropped me into the street. First it was into a dust-heap, now it is on the top of some diseased beggar. You will pay for this when you get home. "What are you stopping for ? " " There is a poor man grievously wounded," said a female slave, who was nearly fainting in her attempts to keep pace with the bearers, and who had signalled them to stop. " Very likely. There are sure to have been brawls and fighting-bouts on a day like this, and you are glad enough to loiter in the streets to avoid the whipping I promised you. It will be sundown be- fore we get home at this rate. Forward ! I shall have no time to bathe and dress for the Pagarch's." And the rich banker's wife swept on with her panting retinue. An hour passed, and a humbler figure than these checked his hurried step before the fragment of granite and looked at the prostrate figure it sheltered. The new-comer was an austere man in a black robe, who discharged the office of a precentor in a chapel THE PRIEST MENAS ROBBED. 21 near the White Church. He said nothing, but stopped at once and knelt by the side of his unfor- tunate brother. For an instant it seemed as if he would obey his first kind impulse, but he checked himself and rose hurriedly. " It is not my place to keep breath in the body of a heretic. There are enough of them and to spare, and every one that aids or succours them is guilty of their sin and will share their condemnation." So saying, he arose with an effort that showed his heart was softer than his creed, and departed to sing even- song in the choir of St Theophistus. The priest's footsteps had scarcely died away when a very different figure approached. This time the passenger was not a person of rank or religion. He was a tall young man with a tunic and robe of black and a peaked cap and yellow girdle, which marked him for a Jew even when the light was too uncer- tain to see his features. He came stealthily along with a deprecating bend of the head and a noiseless step. Like the others, he stopped before the pros- trate Menas and at once recognised him. He felt his pulse. He cautiously rolled back his large covering sleeve and drew away the sacred chalice. He felt it, weighed it in his hands, and examined closely and 22 AEMENOSA. carefully the chasing, the monogram, the figure of the Christ in high relief, the five onyx stones. Then he lifted the robe and felt if there was any other precious vessel beneath its folds. The attempt to rifle the treasure he was so jealously guarding awoke Menas. He opened his eyes and clutched the hand of the robber with a tight clasp. The Jew struggled, but he did not want to loose his hold of the chalice, which he held in his right hand, and so he was ham- pered and could not use his full strength to get free. Though the contest was unequal, for one man was old and weak with loss of blood and the other in full vigour, the fact that the youth had to hold the cup as high as he could out of the other's reach, and that the old man had both hands free and was able to battle passionately with the thief, placed the former at a disadvantage. Of course it would have been easy to throw the sacred cup out of reach and to stun the priest with a single blow, but this the Jew hesitated to do, and indeed, when he found such unexpected resistance he seemed for a moment in- clined to give back the stolen property, and to pretend the attempt had not been a serious one. " Be quiet, father ; I thought you were a peaceable old carle who would understand a frolic, instead of THE PEIEST MENAS EOBBBD. 23 which you are fighting like a demoniac or a wild cat for a few ounces of gold, which you shall have back in a minute if you will take your grip off my wrist." " Liar ! You would ravish the sacred vessels and put them to abominable uses. Eestore the chalice or beware my ban. Hands that have wrought less abominable sacrifice than yours have been blasted in the act. The God who could wither the arm of Jeroboam can speak a word of power at which your arm, stalwart as it is, shall shrivel and shrink. Help ! help ! To the rescue, ye faithful ! " The cries, which were uttered in a voice wonder- fully strong and vigorous, were at last heard, and an answering shout and hurrying steps told of as- sistance at hand. Flinging himself free by a savage effort from the nervous hold of the priest, the robber dashed off down a side-alley which led in the direc- tion of the Jews' Quarter. Meantime the new-comer, whose voice had reas- sured Menas by his answering hail, dashed upon the scene down the steep street, stopped himself by clutching the granite block, and swung round to face — his father. " Marcus ! my son ! " The eyes that had been kindling with fire and 24 AEMENOSA. passion gushed out with tears, and with a great sob the old man fell back. In an instant, how- ever, he recalled his loss. "God and the saints be praised for guiding you here, but haste or it will be too late. Follow the villain, who ran down that street to the left — no, not the first turning, the second — and take from him our golden chalice set with onyxes that he has reft from me. Eun; I am well and need no care. Get the holy cup back, my son. He has start of you, and is as fleet of foot as Ahimaaz." Without pausing Marcus hurried off. He was a runner famous in the stadium, sound and strong in wind and limb, and though it was growing dark, and he was a stranger to the winding and uneven street, he soon came in sight of the robber. Per- haps the Jew repented the impulse which had prompted him to take the cup, and was anxious to avoid discovery. He could not be under any mistake as to the rapidly diminishing distance be- tween him and his pursuer, and so he turned sud- denly round, and flinging one cloaked arm across his face to prevent recognition, dashed the chalice in the face of Marcus, and making a clever feint as if he were going to take shelter under a neigh- THE PRIEST MENAS ROBBED. 25 bouring portico, turned suddenly down a narrow passage leading to the river and disappeared. Though disappointed at not being able to secure and punish the robber, Marcus was glad that his main object, the recovery of the chalice, was secured, and resolved to waste no time in a fruitless pursuit. He hurried back to his father, and the sight of the cherished cup acted like a medicine on the spirits of the old priest. "Thanks to the Virgin and St Sergius, sacri- legious hands have not been allowed to retain thee, thrice precious treasure of the Lord ! " he said, folding it carefully in the silken veil, a corner of which he pressed reverently to his lips. By the help of his son he then rose and mounted his mule, which had strayed into a street close by, and was contentedly browsing on a heap of berseem dropped by a chariot-driver. The old man was too much shaken in body to bear being carried at a brisker pace than a walk, and so father and son proceeded slowly homewards. They dwelt at some distance from Memphis, in a house near the ancient Church of St Sergius, in the midst of the Eoman fortress-city of Babylon. 26 CHAPTEE, III. AEMENOSA.^ Foe several days Marcus was in close attendance on his father, but after a week of careful nursing the old man declared himself well enough to go out, as he was anxious to see the Pagarch on business of pressing importance. He had, how- ever, overestimated his strength, as he found when he attempted to rise and dress himself, so a com- promise was effected, and Marcus was commis- sioned to go and ask the great man to name a day when he would be disengaged and able to accord to Menas the favour of an interview. The relations between the two fathers were intimate. They had been schoolfellows, and had both been intended originally for the ecclesiastical ofBce. ' See Note C, Armenosa. AEMENOSA. 27 They had read the same books and shared the same enthusiasms. The theological questions which seem to us perplexing enigmas, and often insoluble riddles, were the dominating studies of the age, and the two students sought to unravel their per- plexities with equal ardour. Menas was more reverent and perhaps less alert of brain than his companion. His character was pure, high-minded, and simple. Less versed than his brethren in the intricate doctrinal disputes that formed in that age the daily bread of religious life, he was often able to mitigate rancour by reference to the Mas- ter's words. His charity and self-sacrifice were boundless, and he was known as "the good priest Menas" not only in his own community, but in the congregations of the hostile Melchites. In periods of burning religious controversy such spirits are always found, and their influence is wide and beneficial. Their conduct is liable to misconstruction, and they are sometimes stigma- tised as lukewarm and even treacherous by the zealot priests who head religious movements; but the respect of the sober-minded laity compensates for the distrust of their brethren, and when they are called away they leave a gap which those who 28 AEMENOSA. have depreciated them during their lives are often the first to acknowledge. Menas with consistent humility had refused preferment, and lived on as the priest of the venerable Church of the Pure Lady Mary in the Eoman fortress, with his son and a few poor fami- lies around him; but his personal character and the protection of the Pagarch gave him more real weight than was possessed by many archpriests and bishops who strove to vie with their Greek rivals in outward splendour. We have already caught a glimpse of the Pag- arch, and the many folds of his complex character will be unrolled as we trace the events that de- veloped them. Por the present it may be said that he was holding his unique position with diffi- culty, and that his utmost skill was required to balance conflicting interests and to maintain the equipoise between strong and bitter factions. Though a Byzantine official, and conforming out- wardly to the religion of the State, he was of Egyptian blood, and his sympathies were with the Jacobites. During the Persian invasion he had remained in high command, and had amassed great wealth. He had been foremost, however, to wel- AEMENOSA. 29 come the Emperor's reconquering troops, and had even accepted the religious document known as the Act of Union, by which Heraclius sought to reconcile his Jacobite and Melchite subjects. But all this had not been enough. He was further required to remit the arrears of tribute due to the Emperor, and with this demand he was both un- able and unwilling to comply. Part of the money had gone to bribe the Persians that he might re- main in his ofBce, much had been spent to supply the demands of a greedy and corrupt secret ser- vice department which was always discovering plots and counterplots, and a very large proportion had gone — as he hoped — for good into his own coffers. Now he saw his position with Heraclius threatened, yet to comply in full with the Emperor's demand meant absolute ruin. He had enemies at Court who poured insinuations into the Imperial ear, and he had received despatches from headquarters threatening inquiry and throwing out vague hints of impeachment and supersession. He knew well the methods of the Court, and had contrived to send them lately large sums; but to do so he had stripped himself of much of his household gold, as he dared not increase the taxes of the peasantry 30 AEMENOSA. lest they should join with the Greeks against him. The gift of the holy relic to the chief church in Memphis was a sign of imperial favour, and he hoped it was an acknowledgment of the immense private sacrifice which he had made. At all events there seemed at the moment a renewal of Court favour, and he knew the populace of Memphis too well to be ignorant of the fact that he owed to this impression the glowing welcome which had greeted him at the festival. For some time before, he had observed on occasions of public display signs that his popularity was waning, and he guessed accurately enough that the languid huzzas of the Memphis mob were hints of suspected dis- favour at the capital. Knowing how unwise it would be to allow this impression to harden into a conviction, he had doubled his largesses, and pressed on Heraclius through the clergy the request for a gift of some relic from the Holy City. He had succeeded, and was satisfied on the evening of the festival that nothing had been left undone to secure two objects, — the re -establishment of his peace with the Emperor, and the gratification of his Egyptian subjects. There was one burden on his mind and conscience. He had, in obedience AEMENOSA. 31 to the dictates of an impulse apparently wholly inconsistent with his character for statecraft and policy, taken a step which, if known, meant abso- lute ruin. The dread of this action being discovered, and published or conveyed privately to the emperor, haunted him day and night. It made him nervous, moody, and uncertain, and many hinted that noth- ing but some wizard spell, or the glance of the evil eye, could account for the strange fits of gloom that at times clouded the brightness of the most ener- getic intellect in Egypt. There was one person, however, who had the skill to lift and lighten the Pagarch's mind, and that was his daughter Armenosa. She could remove, finger by finger, the strong hand which hid her father's face, and drag him out to make her a flower- ball, or to watch the leafy boat or Moses' ark her playmate Marcus launched on the waters of the great river. Indeed the only persons who could approach George in his dark hours were Menas and the boy and girl who had grown up together, and who were only now feeling that they were children no longer. Marcus therefore set out on his visit to the 32 AEMENOSA. palace with a much lighter heart than most of the good citizens of Memphis would have carried in their breasts had they been bound for the same place. For in spite of his courtier-like grace of manner when he condescended to grant an inter- view, the Pagarch had purposely hedged himself round with extraordinary pomp and ceremony. The minute etiquette of Constantinople was copied in Egypt, and after waiting in anterooms, and being handed on from vice-chamberlain to chamberlain, and from secretary to secretary, the suppliant was often only allowed to prostrate himself before the great man, and leave his petition in the hand of a deputy - remembrancer, who required to have his recollection kept alive by purses of gold, or he would inevitably forget all about it. 'No such cold reception awaited Marcus. He entered the garden unchallenged, and was at once taken by a smiling black page into a summer-house, where he imagined his master was reclining. On pushing aside the silk curtain, however, Mar- cus uttered a cry of pleasure that, in spite of his. affectionate feelings towards him, the sight of his father's stately patron would hardly have accounted for. The picture presented when the embroidered AEMBNOSA. 33 veil was removed was exquisite from its combina- tion of flowing lines and delicate colour. The summer-house was eight-sided, and curtains of the hue of the autumnal vine-leaf hid five of its windows, and softened the warm colour and splen- dour of the after-glow which was enriching every light and deepening every shadow in the outside landscape. Without, the river was turquoise, the distant hills cornelian, the sloping bank an emerald. But when once the threshold was crossed, the senses were suffused with a tender and restful twilight, for the glare had been tempered to suit the dreamy languor of the beautiful girl who sat on a high divan gazing out at the shadowy shapes of the pyramids, but who, at the voice of Marcus, sprang from her seat and hurried to meet him, with a quiver of joy in her voice there was no mistak- ing for any note save that of love. She was an Eastern maiden ; but her mouth and chin were dif- ferent from those of Egyptian women, and were fashioned on Greek lines. Her lips were full and imaginative, her forehead small. The eyebrows and lashes were deepened, in the fashion of the day, with a slight trace of the dyer's pencil; but there were no disfiguring henna-marks on the nails of her nar- c 34 AEMENOSA. row hands, and she was unweighted by the clinquant chains, bangles, bracelets, and brooches which at that time encumbered the movements of ladies of rank at home and abroad. Her garment, of the soft tint of the blush rose, was shaped like a classic tunic, and a peplum of pearl-grey hung from her shoulders and fell in folds to her sandalled feet. " Marcus," she said, taking his hand with an air of frank welcome, "1 did not expect you to-day. Indeed," she added, with a pretty, pouting smile, "I had given up expecting you altogether. You have stayed away from us so long. But I really thought it was my father. He should have returned from the council-room an hour ago." " I thought to find him here," said Marcus ; " and since you are expecting him I may wait with you a while, may I not ? I have a message to him from my father." " The good Father Menas is well, I trust ? " asked the Pagarch's daughter, as she seated herself and signed to Marcus to do the same. Informally the two were betrothed; but though the Egyptian women were still allowed a freedom and given an education to which their unhappy descendants are strangers, it was not in accordance AEMENOSA. 35 with etiquette that the motherless Armenosa should receive him alone. The presence of her companion lady, silent and apparently unobservant as she seemed, at the other end of the summer-house, gave, therefore, a certain constraint to the intercourse of the two young people who so short a time ago had played freely in the gardens together. " My father is better, but by no means well," said Marcus, " or he would have come himself with me. He met with an accident on the festival day, and has not been able to leave the house since." " Indeed. Oh, Marcus, how grieved I am ! " exclaimed Armenosa. " How was it — what happened ? " Marcus told the story of the priest's misadventure, of the attempt at sacrilegious robbery, and of his fortunate arrival at the critical moment. He added that Menas desired to see the Pagarch without delay, and that he had come to ask if an interview could be arranged. "Time was when you were not so formal," said the Pagarch's daughter, smiling. "Are not my father's doors ever open to his oldest friend?" " No," said Marcus, with a bluntness which startled the beautiful girl into a perception that something 36 AEMENOSA. was wrong. "Three times in the last month he has crossed the river only to be told that the Pagarch was busy and could not see him. And my father is not strong enough to come now unless he knows that he will not have his journey for nothing." " Is it so indeed, Marcus ? " asked Armenosa, with tears springing to her eyes. "Truly, I had feared something was amiss with my father of late, and something must be very much amiss if he has been avoiding speech of the good father. Oh, Marcus, I had forgotten my anxieties at sight of you, and yet I had been longing so for you to share them ! " " Tell me, my sweet," murmured Marcus, in tones that a discreet lady-in-waiting could avoid hearing, "you cannot suppose that I had any thought of reproach for you in my mind? What have you been fearing when I have been unable to come to you?" " My father is so changed, Marcus, you would hardly know him for the man who bade us be happy that sunny day in Ehoda only six weeks ago. Of course there have always been times of trouble, even since the Persians were driven back and the rule of our most august Emperor was restored. We thought everything would be bright in future, did AEMENOSA. 37 we not? Yet I cannot discover that anything has gone wrong. "Was not our glorious festival the other day a triumph for the Pagarch above all ? Did you mark him as he rode in state, a king indeed among our people ? The Greeks had no such figure to show in the whole pageant, though they had gold armour and cream-white horses and the lines of legionaries to make a show withal. No one looked such a hero as my father as he sat in his chariot dressed in that simple' white robe with the ring-dove staff in his hand. How they shouted and applauded him ! Do you know, I even felt jealous — as if the mob were claiming a share in him to which they had no title, and were taking him away from me to whom he belongs, — my darling noble father, whom none of them can know and value as Armenosa does. I could scarcely sleep for happiness that night. But on the very next day the cloud came down again. I had seen it on his brow often of late, but I knew he had many affairs of state to trouble him, and hoped this festival and the honour shown him by the Em- peror would bring all right. I could have wept before him when I saw him gloomy and depressed, wander- ing alone in the intervals of his labours instead of coming to forget his troubles with me. But I would 38 AEMENOSA. not add to his distress, so I have striven to smile ; but it was hard — and you came not, Marcus." Marcus ventured to take her hand and bend towards her with eyes of love. "Did not my pigeon bring you my greeting and explanation ? " he asked. "Ah, I feared some evil had befallen him when he did not return. But you knew — you must have guessed, my dearest one." " Yes, yes," said Armenosa, blushing through her tears ; " I did not suppose — I knew some good cause must have kept you. But I wanted you to help me with my father. I thought if the good Menas • came • And you tell me he was refused ad- mittance! And yet my father spoke of him only yesterday with such love in his tone. It must be a mistake. Beg him to come soon. I will ask my father to fix a. day, that there shall be no more mis- understanding between the two whom we most love and reverence." "We have both reason for pride in our fathers," answered Marcus ; " but it needs all my trust in their wisdom to submit to the delay they have imposed between us and our great happiness. Six months more ! How will they ever pass ? " "No, I must not hear any murmurs," said Ar- AEMENOSA. 39 menosa, with a lovely blush. " It is against the com- pact we made in the garden at Ehoda when our troth-plight was sanctioned. We agreed that we should not rebel or rail against the rule, but admit that our elders had right and reason on their side. Besides, I want you to be the brave one to-night, for it is I who have the hardest lot. This day week you know I go to my aunt Barbara at Heliopolis." "That was only a threat in case we were not obedient and tried to see each other oftener than on the permitted days." " No, no, my Marcus. It was the decision of the fathers in any case that the six months before the wedding were to be spent in the Nunnery of the Holy Tree at Heliopolis, of which aunt Barbara is Mother Superior. You won't love your wife the less because she comes to you fresh from the midst of a holy sisterhood, strong in the strength that comes from fast and vigil kept beneath shadow of the very tree that sheltered the Pure Lady Mary and the Child Jesus." "I do not want you any holier or better than you are," said Marcus, petulantly. " No fast or vigil or nunnery can make you more lovable than you are, and they will keep you from my arms six weary months. I keep my word and bear it like a man. 40 AEMBNOSA. but you must not expect me to smile at it or call it anything but needless cruelty " " Silence ! silence ! not a word against the parents we were praising a minute ago. I must charm away the spirit of rebellion with a song if my spoken words cannot exorcise it." " You know I like that better than anything in the world ; but, before you touch the cithern " — he held it at arm's-length out of her reach — " promise me one thing." "What is it?" " I will tell you. In the holy house of Mary you will be safe — there no harm can reach you — but be careful not to stray beyond the precincts. Heliopolis was the city of the old idol-worship. There men bowed down to devils, and offered incense to beasts and birds and creeping things. My father has told me that the Israelites learned there the worship of the calf Mnevis, for which they deserted the service of the true God. Our forefathers called the gods Ea Harmachis and Isis Hathor, but these were the same as the plague-sender Apollo and the wanton Aphrodite. But besides all this there was from days of old, centuries before Father Abraham came to Egypt, a tree at Heliopolis to which men offered ARMBNOSA. 41 human sacrifices and for which women wove hang- ings, as they did in the time of Manasseh, King of Judah. So keep, my dearest, keep within doors, or at least in the convent garden. There no powers of evil can assail you. You promise me this ? " "Yes, if it will make you happy I will promise it. But have you forgotten that when the holy Jesus passed through Heliopolis with His mother, flying from the rage of Herod, all the idols bowed down before Him and did Him homage ? It is faith- less to believe in the powers of evil when we have the Lord of lords for our shield and buckler." " I know not, dearest, nor do any of us know, what liberty is still permitted to evil spirits." " They have no power to withstand the cross of Christ." With these words she reached her hand to the cithern and sang — Sweet Love said, " Canst thou bide with me, And Time's dull burden carry, Nor falter though full wearily The hour of wedlock tarry ? " Then Patience in her suit of grey, With eyes of meek reliance, Came softly down to point the way, And teach my heart affiance. 42 AEMBNOSA. But as the days grew long and dark, And light seemed breaking never, While Love a-cold in stranded bark Wept baffled of endeavour — Fair Faith with starry aureole crowned, And heavenward-pointing finger, Cried, " Oh ! Love's triumph shall abound : Faint not, nor fall, nor linger." As the last line of the song died away, the silent lady-in-waiting rose from her seat and went out upon the terrace. This was the signal for the lovers to part. '' It is uncertain when my father will return. . You must not wait. I will give him your father's message. If he were well I would bid you wait in the deipneterion and share his evening meal, but it is impossible to say when he will come home. Business often detains him until midnight, and when he reaches home he is too tired to talk, and goes to his chamber at once. Good night." Sadly and wistfully they looked in each other's eyes ere the final kiss was exchanged. " Farewell, my queen. All angels watch over you. When we meet next there will be no more long partings." AEMENOSA. 43 He held her very close to his heart, then hurried away down the avenue of orange-trees. The Pagarch's garden was not laid out in beds and parterres intersected by walks, but was in the fashion of the East, carelessly ordered, yet full of delicious roses, and hedged round with thick plantations of orange, myrtle, and lemon. Here and there were painted summer-houses covered with convolvulus, now closed and veiling its azure glory; and amid groves of white and pink oleanders rose clusters of Corinthian and Ionic columns surmounted by pediment and architrave with tangles of fragrant jasmine twisting round their fluted shafts. In the distance, against the flushing sky, could be seen the delicately pencilled outlines of the palm-orchard, which was the glory of the Pagarch's estate. The gardens were full of unexpected glimpses of lawny expanses and of irregular avenues converging to various centres and leading up sometimes to an obelisk, sometimes to a plashing fountain. Marcus, who thought he knew every winding alley, rustic grotto, and pillared alcove in the domain, took the road he usually took to the gate of exit, but the gardeners had been busy lately in diverting the path so as to lead from the palace 44 AEMENOSA. direct to a small marble edifice, apparently a chapel or oratory newly built. This was masked by large trees, and thus Marcus met with a double surprise : first, he found that the road did not lead to the gate ; secondly, that he was confronted by a build- ing of exquisite workmanship which he had never seen before. A light was burning, and the priest's son from religious habit turned in to say a prayer. As he bent the knee for a moment on the door- step he thought he heard a slight movement within, and entered cautiously. His first impression was that the place was an utterly different one from that which he had expected to find. He had supposed that he was entering an oratory or chapel, and looked for the usual furniture, the holy picture of the blessed Virgin, St George or St Mark, the cross and prayer-desk with rosary and missal. But the walls of the little chamber were perfectly bare, — its only furniture a silver candelabrum shaped like a serpent, and a heap of papyrus scrolls. In the midst of the room stood Armenosa's father, no longer clad as at the pageant with official vestments, but in a long black robe. He was studying intently a huge parchment chart which lay on the floor, on which Mar- cus could see marked the figures of stars and planets. AKMENOSA. 45 Startled at the sight, and feeling that he in- truded, he stood irresolute. But the Pagarch had not heard him enter. He was busy tracing the astral signs with an ebony staff, so intent on his task that he neither saw nor heard. Awe of the chief of his nation had been inculcated on Mar- cus from childhood, and he would never have dreamed of spying on his privacy. Besides, the studies in which he was engaged were clearly not those of which he desired a witness. Marcus therefore retired as silently as he had entered. Fortunately the turning he took on leaving the building was the right one, and he soon gained the garden gate, and reached home an hour before midnight. 46 CHAPTEE IV. HOW GEORGE THE PAGAKCH VISITED MENAS AT BABYLON. The Pagarch debated whether it would be better to see Menas in his own palace or in the priest's house. He decided, after much thought, that it would be the safer course to visit him in Baby- lon. The rooms of the palace in Memphis were large and opened into each other, and there were plenty of places where eavesdroppers might post themselves. Then, again, chance words might reach the ears of gossiping slaves, or visitors of rank might interrupt the conference by sudden calls. So, after thinking it over, he sent a message that he would come down after evensong in the cool of the summer evening and visit his time-honoured friend. The priest was somewhat disappointed : GEORGE THE PAGAECH VISITS MENAS. 47 his life was monotonous, and he would have en- joyed the change of scene. It was one of the few pleasures of his life to visit the stately house in Memphis, and see the statues and rich furni- ture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and handle the manuscripts hlazing with azure and gold illumina- tion, and to rest by the fountain in the garden and listen to the singing of Armenosa. He re- alised, however, the motives of the Pagarch, and knew better than any one else the extraordinary difficulties of his position. The communications that must pass between the two related to matters of vital importance, and he pleased himself with the hope that he might be invited to stay in the palace later in the year, when the tide of public affairs was ebbing, and the great man was secure of com- parative privacy. Within a week of the visit of Marcus to Armen- osa the Pagarch, in a simple robe and attended by one strong slave, got off his mule at the low door of the priest. The house was close to the church, with which it was connected by a trellised gallery, and was dominated by the lofty bastions of the fortress, within the cincture of which it 48 AKMENOSA. stood. Its walls, like all those in Babylon, were very thick, and the iron -guarded door resembled the entrance to some rich treasury rather than the abode of a humble priest. In fact, though the priest was personally a poor man, the church possessed large stores of plate and jewels, the offerings of the religious; and as the Melchites were fierce and greedy and ready to spoil their rivals at the least provocation, precautions were necessary. A watchword was exchanged between the Pagarch and a deacon who was in attendance; then Marcus, who was waiting, came from the porter's lodge, and kissing the hand of his father's friend, bade him welcome to his poor dwelling. The upper room in which Menas sat was nearly dark, but the windows, which had been closed all day, admitted the little air that was stirring through holes in the shutters. The chamber was lighted by a silver lamp hanging before a picture of the Saviour rising from the tomb. A high seat covered with matting occupied three sides of the room, and in a corner of this Menas was reclining. The two friends exchanged a few in- quiries; Marcus handed them some sherbet and then withdrew, shutting the door carefully. GEOEGE THE PAGAEGH VISITS MENAS. 49 " I have asked to see you, my friend, for my mind is torn with fears and forebodings, and in the course of events I cannot expect to be long in this world. ' The keepers of the house tremble, the strong men bow -themselves, and those that look ouj} of the windows are darkened' — all the signs of the end that the Preacher reckons up are coming or already come upon me, and I must speak, even though the words I utter should be grievous and painful in your ears." " Open reproof is better than secret love. It is the part of a friend not to spare his friend's faults to his face, as it is his duty to be silent concerning them behind his back. But do not think I am un- accustomed to censure though I have lip-service and flattery enough in my palace yonder. I am no stranger to rebuke and blame. The reptile liars and slanderers of the city, and the august calum- niators who sit behind the Emperor's purple chair and by every post, menace me with ruin if I do not bribe their silence. These, Menas, prevent my hours from gliding by in the Elysian bliss that fools believe to be the lot of every one who holds a sceptre. My days are weary, my nights sleepless. I would gladly exchange my palace for D 50 AKMENOSA. a monastery. If it were not for Armenosa, a cave -tomb in the Thebaid or a cell beside the Natron lakes should bury all the years that are left to the Pagarch of Egypt." " I know it, and I can tell you exactly how long you have had this distaste of life. It dates from the day when you began to distrust your holy faith and to look out of and beyond it for sup- port and help. For months there has been a dis- tance between us, growing wider and wider, until from a narrow rift it has stretched into a chasm, and irom a chasm it has broadened into a gulf. You have been silent and unhappy. The holy services you loved have been neglected on the plea of the claims and duties of business, public and private. This, my brother, has not been the real cause. Must I tell you what it is ? Will you not confide in me ? Must I show you to yourself ? Will you not pour out your grief ? I ask you not as confessor to penitent, but as friend to friend." At the first words of this appeal the Pagarch set his features in firm lines as of one determined to resist all entreaty, but when the priest ended he laid his hand on the hand of Menas and spoke in a tone pathetic from its naturalness. GEORGE THE PAGAECH VISITS MENAS. 51 " Should I have spoken to any living being save you as I spoke but now ? You know how, when I was a young man, my heart went out to others, and what an effort it has cost me to stop the natural flow of frank speech and franker feeling, and to insulate myself as the island castle is in- sulated by the lake that girdles it. I had to learn first reserve with some, then suspicion of all. I had to hold men apart, and to watch every word, gesture, smile, and frown — to teach my face to mask my dearest feelings, and while I revealed nothing, to scrutinise every eye that drooped its servile lids before me. If I am cold and hard, the traffic with my fellows has made me what I am." "No one expects the ruler of men to be free of tongue. Silence and haughty carriage are proper to the part you play in the world. That neces- sity we have admitted ever since you were raised to the rank you now hold. I did not ask this interview to learn that dignity befits the Emperor's representative, and that a politician must keep his own counsel. Do not let us fence and fight over the outworks of the citadel. There is a secret weighing on your breast. I have learned by means 52 AEMENOSA. not to be revealed what it is. Only I ask you, for the sake of your duty to your God and your nation, to pause before you take one step — though it be but an inch long — on the downward road. You took precautions that seemed to defy detection. You used as tools wretched mutes, and you took care that no single scroll of legible writing should remain to witness against you. But the mysteri- ous providence of God has revealed the secret to me. The bird of the air that carried the matter reached my hands, and I know you have sought to bring the armies of the False Prophet into Egypt. You have exchanged messages and gifts with Mohammed, the enemy of your God, the denier of your Saviour." Menas had dreaded the moment when duty should oblige him to speak this word. He had at first resolutely denied the accusation against his friend and had only yielded to evidence that it was utterly impossible to resist. He had prayed and striven to see if there was any conceivable alternative between charging him with his treachery and incurring the guilt of criminal compliance, but he had found no middle course. It had been forced upon him that the trusted representative of the Emperor, his own GEOEGE THE PAGARCH VISITS MENAS. 53 close friend and schoolfellow, had taken the first steps towards the betrayal of Christian Egypt to men who denied Christ. It was then clearly his duty as an ordained priest to disregard all the ties of past intimacy, to banish all tender recollections of older years, and to tell the truth whatsoever conse- quences might follow. Menas had tried to picture, as he lay awake pondering over the burden laid upon him, the expression of George's face when the terrible charge was first launched against him. He had feared lest the convicted traitor should rush out from his presence and, like Iscariot, put an end to his own life. He had prayed that, if it were pos- sible, the dreadful accusation should be put in any other mouth than his. And now that he had taxed him with his infamy, he hardly dared to raise his eyes to see the effect of his words. To the priest's utter astonishment, however, the arraigned traitor replied in the tone of one relieved from a painful duty, and made no perceptible attempt to repel the charge. " You have only anticipated me a few hours, per- haps minutes," said the Pagarch, " in mentioning this transaction. When you sought this interview I purposed to tell you of what I had done, and to lay 54 AEMENOSA. bare the state of my mind to the only human being I can trust. You were absent in the desert- convent when I opened communications with the Prophet, or I should perhaps have told you what I purposed to do. The resolution was not taken hastily, or with- out many and fervent prayers. It was the outcome of the doubts and fears of years. I have bent my neck too long to the tyrant at Constantinople. I have seen for too many years this people of Egypt crushed, enslaved, insulted, and tortured by the Mel- chite devils, while I have been obliged outwardly to conform to their heretical rites. I have seen the poor taxed and ruined, the priests insulted, their most cherished doctrines mocked and ridiculed, and vile names hurled at them. The nunneries where their holiest and purest women sought refuge have been broken open on charges that only leprous hearts could invent and lying lips speak. These things have I seen, and I have kept silence. The ancestors of the men who built this castle, the idolatrous Baby- lonians, did not evil entreat God's people the Israel- ites more foully than Melchite prelates and Melchite soldiers have treated us whom they call Jacobites. So I say the time of endurance is over. The day of submission and sufferance is past and gone. GEORGE THE PAGAECH VISITS MENAS. 55 Henceforth, as we are too weak and too divided to resist without foreign aid, we must summon it and cry, ' Islam to the rescue ! ' Eemember the soldiers of the Man of Mecca have not been stained with blood as are the Greeks. They hold a pure but an imperfect creed. Who shall say that it may not be mine to teach them what is lacking ? They believe in a God of righteousness and truth, they are tem- perate and just. May not this Mohammed be the destined deliverer after all?" He paused and looked eagerly to see if his appeal had in any way touched the heart of Menas. " No, no — a thousand times no," replied the priest. " "Whatever is right, I am certain that this your act must be wrong. It cannot be God's will that one body of Christians should call in a heathen to fight for them against another body of Christians. And who is this camel - driver that he should be sum- moned to take part in the armed debate of emperors and the controversies of holy churchmen ? " " Who is he ? " said the Pagarch. " A like ques- tion was asked often in this land when Moses defied the power of Pharaoh, and in later years when the disciples of Jesus defied the tyranny of Eome. I tell you God has raised this man up as He raised up 56 AEMENOSA. Moses. The scimitar in his hand is God's instru- ment as much as was the rod that turned into a serpent and divided the Eed Sea when Moses grasped it. I am not deceived. Voices super- human as well as human assure me that I am right. This man has been marked out as the Deliverer by signs, and by wonders, and by war. On the night of his birth the palace of Chosroes was shaken, and fourteen of its turrets fell. The fires of the Per- sians were extinguished, which had never been ex- tinguished before for a thousand years, and the Lake Sawah sank. He was helped by the angel Gabriel at Bedr. He conquered in thirty battles. To resist his followers is as idle as to oppose a raging torrent with a wall of platted straw. Do not ask me more, but I tell you, my father, that in addition to the signs of his victory which all the world can see, I have heard voices and seen sights which there is no mistaking. Tongues that speak no lies have spoken to me ; tokens that cannot deceive have been shown to me, and not to me only, but to one in whom even you place reliance. Yes ! I say men in comparison with whose knowledge mine is blank ignorance look to the Man of Mecca, to the son of Abdallah, as the restorer of religion, as the saviour of Egypt." GEOEGE THE PAGAEOH VISITS MENAS. 57 " You speak in riddles," said the priest, bitterly. " All these dark sayings hide projects that you dare not avow, and prelude acts you dare not call by their right names. Treason and apostasy are the demons with whom you are trafficking, though they come to you with visors on their faces and call themselves patriotism and reformation. I have listened long enough. Would I had died ere I heard from the lips of my oldest and most cherished friend the words I have heard to - night. There cannot be many years in store for me, and I have not used the past well, God knows. I have been a negligent shepherd, and have loved my rest and my child before my Master's service. Chastening was needed, and Thou, Lord, hast sent it in the shape that Thou knowest to be best, but would God I had died without knowing what I do know. Would God I had been trodden under the feet of the Melchite crowd, when I lay prostrate in the streets of Memphis, rather than hear what shall come upon this people at thy hands. The sounds of their greetings, the voices of their flatteries, are in your ears. How will you feel when those sounds are exchanged for the wailings of your brethren over desecrated altars, and the curses of women given 58 AEMENOSA. over to men to whom the wolf and the hysena could teach mercy ? " "I did not expect you would see as I see," said the Pagarch, "but I did expect you would trust me. There is no choice, therefore, but to disclose what I would willingly have kept secret even from you. Listen to one word which even in this thy private chamber I must whisper in thine ear. All this is not my vain dream. It is the firm faith of " He bent his head and whispered in the priest's ear. As he received the mysterious communication a strange change passed over the old man's face. Though he had denounced George's new and ex- traordinary policy, and started aside like a broken bow at the bare idea of a fusion of parties so dia- metrically opposed to each other as the Jacobites and the sons of Islam, the vivid conviction and burning zeal of his old schoolfellow had not been without effect. For years Menas had been accus- tomed to look up to the ruler of Egypt with pride and admiration. He had, as we have seen, gained an accession of personal consequence from his inti- macy, and the family tie that was soon to connect GEOEGE THE PAGAECH VISITS MENAS. 59 them more closely than ever endeared him to the old man, whose heart was singularly affectionate. While he had poured forth the vials of his righteous indignation against the sophistries of the Pagarch, the thought of his son Marcus and his love for Armenosa had caused hia voice to falter and break in spite of himself. And now George claimed the sanction of a name which to a true son of the national Church of Egypt was above all other names on earth. For the moment ^enas was stunned into silence. He sat with his face buried in his hands. The Pagarch, who, in spite of the bold face he had assumed, had found the interview full as trying as he could have feared, seized the occasion to end it, and leave the poison of his last suggestion to work in the priest's mind. Before Menas could recover speech he rose to go. "We have said all that can be said. Whatever happens we shall be friends. Good night. Marcus will see me across the court, and I have ser- vants waiting at the postern," and he quitted the room. "He never left me before without asking my blessing," said the priest. "Could I have given it 60 ARMENOSA. to him if he had sought it? Could I have with- held it? send out Thy light and Thy truth, that they may lead me." And he knelt before the picture of the Christ and wrestled in prayer until the morning broke. 61 CHAPTEE V. FATHER AND SON. Eliezee the Jew, the father of Eeuben, lived in a quarter of Memphis which was remote from the great square, the fashionable churches, and the lake frequented by pleasure-takers. He knew that if one of his nation showed signs of wealth he was sure to be accused of violating some civic or religious law, and mulcted with a heavy iine to the public treas- ury. If he escaped these legal penalties, he was compelled to bribe informers or tax-gatherers to avoid being denounced to the magistrates, impris- oned, and perhaps tortured. The Jew then chose an obscure suburb near a huge broken statue of a hippopotamus god, which was regarded as haunted and dangerous. Here he had built himself a strong house, with chambers in which he could store his 62 ARMENOSA. gold and silver, his pledged jewels and his~ parch- ment securities, and here, tired and ill at ease, he arrived late in the afternoon of the day on which the Pagarch visited Menas. He had no wife living, but dwelt with his son Eeuben and an old cripple who acted as servant. Many of the Jews made up for playing the part of paupers abroad by luxury at home. Eliezer's house was bare and poverty-stricken, containing nothing save necessary furniture of the rudest kind. Against these sordid surroundings his son, who was pleasure-loving and expensive, chafed and fretted. To-day he had come home from watch- ing the splendid show made by the sons of rich Greeks in the stadium, and his sense of exclusion from all this gaiety was gall and wormwood to him. A dinner of one dish, sorrily served, and the thrifty contents of a small flask of sour wine, aggravated his ill-temper, and when Eliezer arrived he found his son cynical, sullen, and defiant. He remained silent while his father ate a like meal to that which had disgusted him, and it was only when the old man rose and muttered from habit the usual form of thanksgiving after meat that his sulkiness relieved itself in a sneer. " If you matched your grace to your feast it would FATHEE AND SON. 63 have been two words long at the most. No grace say I until you broach one of those jars of Faler- nian that have been gathering dust and cobwebs in the cellar these seven years. After a flask of that I may feel disposed to say a thanksgiving." " To sing a lewd song to Bacchus or Venus rather. Eeuben, every day you fall lower. For lighter acts and words than yours men have been cast out of the synagogue. You think you blind me, but I know what you have done and what you plan to do. Be warned; you are watched with keen eyes. I know of your attempt at theft; I know of your mad passion for a Gentile." Eeuben had not expected this, but he determined to brazen it out. " Well, and if I did pick up a piece of plate that chance put temptingly before me. Are not the Chris- tians fair game, and am I not doing a pious act when I convert their goods to the use of the chosen people ? Is all the gain to be on one side ? " It was not easy for Eliezer to reply, as his son was putting into coarse words the creed he himself had taught him; besides, he had that lurking ad- miration for boldness common to crafty subterranean natures. Craft always secretly worships force. 64 AEMENOSA. "Well, well, at least be warned," he added, and there was no threat in the tone this time, only a note of earnest entreaty. "Be warned. I am not deceiving you. There is danger from those who will have no mercy. I dare not quarrel with the Gentiles yet, but in less time than you guess we may drop the mask." " Not until you secure the church with the tomb of Jeremiah in it for a synagogue ? " ^ There was a sneer underlying Eeuben's question that stung his father to a fury. " Mock anything but that," he said. " I have sinned, plotted, tampered with things holy, but that has been the one pure aim of my life. My father Ezra told me on his deathbed that far away in this land of old devil-worship was the tomb of the holiest of our prophets, and that it was in the hands of the Gentiles. I have resolved to get it back. Directly my father was dead I left the Holy City where we dwelt. I journeyed, I starved, I toiled for that one object, and now I have gold enough to buy it from the Nazarene. Let me hear the holy language read over the sepulchre of the prophet ; let me know that ' See Note D, The Jewish Synagogue at Old Cairo. FATHEE AND SON. 65 the eud is wrought through my means. That will be an atonement acceptable to God. If only I see that day, I die in peace." "But why traffic with the Christian? His hold is loosening every day over Egypt. Wait and you will get good terms from the Moslem." " I must work while the Cross sways Egypt. The Christians, Jacobites, Melchites — all will sell them- selves for gold. The sons of Islam are uncorrupted by greed. Men who live on a handful of dates and a mouthful of water are not to be bribed. It is your silken pagarchs and your epicure priests who are my commodity." " I wish, most austere father, you would for once class me with these reprobates, and open your purse and cellar to relieve the wants of your off- spring." He seconded his appeal with a comic gesture of supplication. "Never! What have I done to father a mime and a wine-bibber?" " Not the last, for you take precious good care I get no wine to bib. But one word. I have not been absolutely idle. Callinicus at least gives E 66 AKMENOSA. me a good character for working hard at his mystery. I have sweated and grown thin over his furnaces at Heliopolis for the last week, and he bids me tell you that he has an order for one hundred casks full of the you-know-what from Celadion. It is to be conveyed to Khoda and stored carefully. He bids me ask you, shall the casks be marked H or B?" " B is safer," said Eliezer after a pause. " I dare not trust this new fire demon within the city lest it destroy what I would preserve with my life. So you are learning how to make this war-fire. The knowledge may stand you in good stead some day. There is a time to break down and a time to build up ; you are born for the time to break down." "I cannot say that I am learning the secret from Callinicus. The cunning Egyptian sets me to grind his chemicals and watch his furnace, but the ingredient on which all depends I know not. When you advanced him the money to purchase the shop at Heliopolis, did you not stipulate he should teach me all he knew ? " "I will speak to him myself on that matter. Now I must to my study. I shall see the Pagarch , to-night. If I hear by word or sign from him FATHEE AND SON. 67 that you have dared to approach his daughter, I have means to punish that you will not be able to escape." Eliezer then retired to a chamber on the roof of the house, and was soon absorbed in drawing out a horoscope he had promised to give George, who had for some years employed him as his con- fidential agent. He sketched the diagram with the rapidity of a master of science; then laid down his reed pen and took up the threads of a reverie which, woven together, formed a plan of as complex a pattern as was ever wrought in a plotter's brain. " Does the end draw nearer ? " he asked himself. "Yes; and will it be accepted as an atonement if I can reach it? The great rabbis have told me so, and, at least from mine own people, honour, worship, fame, are promised me. The worship of the one God in whose name Moses triumphed over Pharaoh will be set up again in Egypt, and it is Eliezer who will bring it back. And the sin of Iseariot shall George sin, and the names of both shall flame together blazoned in fire unquenchable in the book wherein the doom of the accursed is written ! " 68 ARMENOSA. A noise from below broke in upon his reverie. He rose and looked over the parapet of the roof, and saw Eeuben in the act of leaving the house. According to his custom, Doeg, the deformed serv- ing-man, had wrapped himself in his rug, and settled to sleep before the door. Eeuben in going out had waked him, and then the servant had tried to hold his young master back. Angry words were passing as Eeuben struggled to free himself from the old man's clutch. Eliezer heard the quaver of remonstrance, and the impatient curse with which it was answered. "Why do you lie like a watch-dog for every one to fall over? Let go my cloak." " I am no dog, though you and your master give me the language and the food of one. Where are you going ? To the Gentile woman and the Gentile wizard. Stop, I will call your father." " What care I ? Let go ; " and Eliezer heard a short scuiide^ a fall, and a cry of pain. His son had struck the old man's arresting hand and flung him to the ground. For an in- stant Eliezer hesitated. Should he go down and try to detain Eeuben? At least he would see if the old man were injured. He heard him rise, FATHEE AND SON. 69 however, and go grumbling back to his lair — the mat on the threshold. And Eeuben was out of reach, flying fast across the moonlit sand until his shadow was swallowed up in that of the great hippopotamus-god that rose up like a rocky moun- tain between him and the gleaming streets of Memphis. 70 CHAPTER VI. OALLINIOUS. The scene changes to Heliopolis. Through a thick cloud of furnace-smoke and an atmosphere heavy with the smell of chemicals a man was dimly visible. He was the master of the Jew Eeuben, the philosopher and architect Callinicus. The room in which he sat was not far from the spot where the rose granite obelisk which marks the site of Heliopolis now stands. Against the wall of a ruined temple^ Callinicus had built a brick house of moderate size, and fitted up the largest of four rooms with the apparatus of his trade. Compared with the carefully made and well-adjusted instruments of a modern chemist the machinery of the Egyptian was rough and ' See Note E, Callinious. CALLINICUS. 7 1 unserviceable; but with such means as he had Callinicus did good work as a pioneer in science, and unquestionably stood on the border -land of great discoveries. The invention of the Greek fire seems incontestably to have been his. Enthusiastic to a degree, he constantly ran risks of ghastly accidents, so zealous and Tegardless of consequences was he in pursuit of his studies. His face, which had never been handsome, was seamed by scars. He had lost an eye, and all his hair, even his eyebrows and eyelashes, was singed off. Still the face, though ugly, was not repulsive. A queer cynical smile curved the big lips, and the one seeing eye took in the humours of the world as well as its tragedy. Callinicus, when we peep in at him, had just finished a dish of red mullet from the lake of Tinnis, and, after quenching his thirst from a pitcher, settled himself in an attitude fav- ourable to digestion and repose. He leaned against the wall, doubled his thin legs under him, crossed his smoke -engrained hands over his stomach, and inclining his head over his left shoulder, passed into a state of dreamy reverie, like a Buddha en- tering Nirvana. He slept in great peace for the space of an hour; then he awoke gradually, and, 72 AHMENOSA. in the transition - time between sleep and wake- fulness, put his reflections into the shape of a fragmentary murmurous soliloquy which seemed like the continuation of a dream. " I have given my precious apprentice one day's holiday, and he is not likely to show up for a week unless he has to give leg-bail to a husband or a creditor. It is the plague of philosophers that their experiments want coin, and so they find themselves under the yoke of the money - lender, who saddles the advance with some infernal con- dition that counterbalances the benefit. Eliezer said he would accept no share of my profits, but insisted on my taking his prodigal Eeuben as a make-weight. He hopes the young fry will worm out the mystery for himself, but I will lay odds on an Egyptian baffling a Jew any day. He has never seen the yellow powder, and knows not where it is stored, though he treads on the stone that covers its receptacle every day; and without thc(,t the great invention is nought — and, by He- phaistos, what an invention it is ! Pools will call it cruel, savage, satanic, but that is because they are fools and judge according to their folly." He was interrupted by three knocks at the door CALLINICUS. 73 — the two first following immediately on each other, the last given after a space during which one could count ten. He rose with a yawn, prolonged ap- parently with two purposes: first, by a lingering and delicious farewell to defer as long as possible his re-entrance into the troublous world of wake- fulness; and secondly, to exasperate the patience of the visitor who was waiting for admission into the house. At last he unbarred the door, and Reuben entered with a curse on his master's dil- atoriness; for though he inwardly respected Cal- linicus as much as he was capable of respecting anybody, to bully and swagger were parts of his brutal nature, and he asserted himself by airs of superiority over his employer and by coarse banter of his odd appearance. This afternoon the master's grotesque face, with its red eye blearing through the darkness, struck the pupil as so like a comic mask which he had seen lately in a pantomime that he burst into a laugh. The acrid smoke-reek turned it into a loud sneeze. When he had re- covered from this Eeuben spoke. " Hail ! most learned master. I am returned before you expected me, and as it is too late to work, let us come out of this den, which smells 74 AKMENOSA. like Acheron and all the rivers of Tartarus, and get a breath of fresh air." As he spoke he brought out two stools, one for himself and one for the philosopher. Callinicus, however, took his seat on the head of a stone ram which he had placed -on one side of his door, handed Eeuben his pitcher, and watched him empty it with a mingled expression of jealousy and wonder. " I always tell my friends, who devoutly believe you have sold yourself to the devil, that if you had you would have stipulated for a handsome face in exchange." "Beauty is of two kinds. There is the loveli- ness of the outward shape, and the loveliness of the intellect. My eyes " "Eye you mean." "My eyes, I repeat, may lack the lustre and fire which are proper for an actor or an orator, but they have been darkened and dimmed by re- searches into the mysteries of nature; and my fingers " "Those you have left of them." "My fingers, I repeab, have become hard and callous by working in the elements amidst which CALLINICUS. 75 the god Ptah, whom the ancients worshipped at Memphis, laboured for purposes far less benevo- lent than those which occupy Callinicus." '' I fail to see the benevolence of inventions which will multiply the number of the slain in every battle a thousandfold, and cause men to depend more upon chemistry and arts diabolic than on the strength of their muscles and the prowess of their hearts." "You are a tyro, and fail to see many things which to those experienced in science are obvious as the sun at noonday. But listen, and reply to the questions which I shall address to you, and if there be any virtue in the method of Socrates I shall convince you out of your own mouth." "I am all ears." "Are the majority of men brave or cowardly?" " Cowardly." "Assuredly. Yet do they not desire to appear brave? And thus when called on to fight they accept the challenge ? " '■ Yes." "And put on armour, and listen to heroic speeches, and blow trumpets, and pretend to be eager to fight ? " 76 AEMENOSA. "Yes." "And if by the use of certain things they can slay whole armies of the enemy and lose few of their own number, will they not rejoice ? " "Yes." " And be eager to fight again ? " "Certainly, as long as they are sure of a suc- cessful result." "Eightly said; but when the enemy shall ob- tain the things, or the thing, by the employment of which against them they met with such dis- asters, will they not rush to arms and retaliate on those who before were victors ? " "Yes." " And what will be the result of the second battle ? " "Great loss on both sides, and the slaying of many more men than the nation can afford to lose." " And then will men be eager to go to war ? " Eeuben was silent. '' I say they will be for a time-; for those who are beaten will be angry, and those who are conquerors and have made great gains will desire more. But after a time, when many men are CALLINICUS. 77 killed, not only soldiers, but artisans and mer- chants, and those who till the ground — for all will have to answer to the war-levies, — then will nations grow weary of fighting, because, owing to THE THING which makes the carnage so great, war will be the most terrible scourge that there is, and men will cease from it." "Something like that is written in our books, wherein it is said that a time should come when swords should be turned into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks," said Eeuben, dreamily. "So the lore of the Jew may point to that which the science of the Greek shall achieve. But enough of dialectics. Let me hear imme- diately why you have come when your services are not needed, since I know very well that some purpose of your own has to be served, or you would not leave your boon companions to seek me while you have a single coin of your month's wage in your purse." "I should not certainly, but coins take unto themselves wings and fly away when usurers clamour and the dice have forgotten the way to turn up sixes. However, all will come right soon if you will only help me. You know I love the 78 ABMENOSA. richest and loveliest girl in Memphis. Her father's consent cannot be got, so I must do without it. You can help." " I ?— never. The part of Thersites I might play, for nature has fitted me for it, but I have no qualification for the character of Pandarus." " Pandarus ! Heaven forbid ! I only ask you the loan of that cunning helot Hydrax for a couple of hours to take a message to the Convent of the Holy Tree." " Is that the prison of the Memphian cynosure ? " " For the present, yes." "If that is all, you may have Hydrax. He is now gone on an errand to the city, but he will be back before sunset. Now as I must go to work again at 'midnight, let me take the other half of the nap you so inhumanly interrupted;" and he curled himself up on the ground and went to sleep instantaneously. Eeuben waited patiently until he was assured by the philosopher's snores that he was uncon. scions, then stole into the house and began to look eagerly amongst the jars and bottles on the shelves. As we have seen, he was perfectly well aware that he only partially shared the great CALLINICUS. 79 secret, and he lost no opportunity of searching for a clue that would unravel it. In his eager- ness he spilled a jar of ill-smelling powder, and before he could replace it he was aware of ap- proaching footsteps and of the darkening of the doorway by the body of a man. Motioning to Hydrax (for it was he) not to waken Callinicus, he stepped across the prostrate sage and took the slave to a spot a few paces from the house. Here with much gesture of head and hands the two had colloquy with each other for about half an hour. Then they parted — Hydrax in the direction of the balsam-groves amidst which rose the towers of the Christian monastery, Eeuben towards a small fountain by the roadside, near which he had tethered the horse on which he had ridden out from Memphis. 80 CHAPTEE Vir. IN THE CONVENT OF THE HOLY TKEE. Quietly and happily the days glided by, with Armenosa safely bestowed, as her father hoped, in the Convent of the Holy Tree. Long before the flight of the Christ Child and Mary His mother, the spot where the convent stood had been regarded as sacred. It was connected with an ancient cult, and miracle and legend blended with its authentic history. To the Christian of the seventh century all before the era of the Saviour was dark and terrible. The old world was the devil's world, which Christ had come to change and mend. Marcus said what everybody thought when he spoke of the old demon-worship lingering in those palmy groves and giving voice to those carven idols. All this was to be ^juried in silence, or never spoken of save in a whisper ; the event to be remembered was that the CONVENT OF THE HOLY TEEE. 81 Blessed Virgin, or, as the Egyptian Church called her, the Pure Lady Mary, and her Divine Son had rested under the ancient sycamore which grew in the convent precinct, and that when Herod's slaughter-men came in pursuit of them a spider, Arachne-like, had spread a wondrous web over the hollow in the trunk where they were sheltered, and hid them from the fury of their foes until the tyranny was overpast. The Mother Superior of the holy house was Barbara, Armenosa's aunt, a woman destined to exercise after her death a far-reaching influence. For was not her dead hand, enclosed in its silken case, with its many wrappings and swathings, to be placed under the altar of a church bearing her name, and to work cures of epilepsy and palsy, of which the fame was spread throughout the whole preaching of St Mark? In the days of her flesh she was a grave kindly woman — devout in her prayers, punctual in her long fasts, and not sparing her nuns the scourge of godly discipline. Life under her rule was regular and hard, but she was not, as were many of her class, cruel or given to favouritism. She spared not others, because before she rose to her present rank she had not spared 82 AKMENOSA. herself, and she was just and charitable according to her lights to all save the Melchite pretenders to orthodoxy, whose condemnation, she believed, though it lingered, was not slumbering. Armenosa was her one link with the outside world. She saw her seldom, but she loved her more than she acknow- ledged, and much more than she considered it right to reveal to the sisterhood. Indeed on Armenosa's arrival at the convent on her periodical visits it was the Mother's wont to exhibit to her nuns her niece's embroidered peplum, and gilded sandals and jewelled bracelets, as the gauds and bedeckments wherewith Satan lured the daughters of this world, and to bid them add special thanksgivings to their evening devotions that they were free from the temptations to such excess of apparel. It is true that in private the aunt questioned her niece minutely as to the price and quality of each robe, gem, and armlet ; but after having been examined, fingered, and held to the light for a whole evening, the trinkets were con- signed to their cedar- wood chests, and Armenosa was enjoined to wear sober raiment during her stay, save on feasts of the saints, when it was permissible to adorn oneself. On the present occasion, as it was the last visit CONVENT OP THE HOLY TREE. 83 that Armenosa would pay the convent before her marriage, her aunt had a curious struggle between her desire to make her sojourn a time of chastening and penance and her curiosity to see the fashion of the garments she was preparing for the bridal ceremony. Then, though extra vigils, fasts, and prayers were enjoined and enforced, the hours of silence were lessened, and the Mother Superior spent many days in the cell assigned to her niece. Thus after the morning instruction of the novices, a task which invariably tried her temper, Barbara would seat herself with a sigh of fatigue on the one chair in Armenosa's cubicle and address her some- what in this fashion : — " It needs patience, indeed, to listen to the mis- takes of those girls, specially Appia and Lycia, who grow worse every day. I am wearied out bending over their copies and correcting them. No, thank you," as Armenosa placed a cushion behind her back. " No, no ; such luxuries are not permitted save in case of infirmity, though my back aches so that I might indeed plead for some indulgence this morn- ing. Kneel, child, and say your psalms, remem- bering to bow the head thrice as I bade you at the glorias." 84 AEMENOSA. Armenosa knelt and repeated {he seven peni- tentials without mistake or correction, while the Superior closed her eyes in pious meditation. The exercise over, she sighed again yet more audibly than before, rubbed her eyes, and continued — " Eepeat them this evening, and the devotions for the commemoration of the Holy Justina along with them. By the way, there was a monogram of a curious pattern embroidered on the green silk robe you showed me yesterday. I would have it copied by Sister Thekla, to whom the saints have given a skill in needlework, though, alas ! a temper none of the sweetest. It would suit well for a device in one of the four corners of the banner she is working for the arch -priest of St Mercurius." Armenosa fetched the silk and held it dutifully in various lights, while her aunt became so absorbed in examining its shape and quality, and in contrasting them with the fashions of her own girlhood, that she forgot for twenty minutes at least to look at the sacred initials which she had at first been so anxious to study. This is a sample of many mornings spent in the convent. Then came the long services in the CONVENT OF THE HOLY TREE. 85 chapel, the simple meals in the refectory eaten in silence, while a sister read the Acts of saints and martyrs. Then the hour of recreation in the high - walled garden for those who had wrought their tasks and performed their penances, and then the work amongst the many sick and old and poverty - stricken who dwelt in the mud- hovels round the convent. It was here that the sisterhood showed at their very best. Barbara never gave a sidelong glance at the gauds of the outside when binding up some gangrened or ulcering limb. Thekla's snappish voice was modulated as she lulled to sleep some fever- wasted baby whose cries were torturing its dying mother. Appia and Lycia atoned for many pain- ful pictures of saints with eyes asquint, and martyrs with wry necks and splay feet, by bathing ophthalmic lids and poulticing sores and wounds, with the cheerful tireless patience that only the one great Master teaches. Then when the work was done, and the evening light deepened the red of the granite obelisks of Heliopolis, and burnished the twisted trunks of the sycamores, and flashed on the crosses and ■aureoles of the saints whose images surmounted 86 ARMENOSA. the. convent chapel, the little group of women walked home, chatting cheerfully of their work, and their patients, and their heavenly patrons and patronesses, suffused with a beautiful light in heart and spirit, even as their bodies were embathed in the tremulous splendours of the after-glow. Then came the service answering to compline. Then each nun retired to her mat in a little cell, which had a crucifix and a holy picture for its only ornaments, and slept with a rosary be- tween her tired fingers until the bell summoned her to begin a day the counterpart of that just ended. Thus passed several weeks. This resting -time was a blessing to Armenosa. She did not know until she entered upon it how much she needed a pause for quiet and meditation. It was true that her life in Memphis was secluded compared with the lives of Western women in the modern world, but it was one of alternate outward ceremony and inward anxiety. Her place was one of distinction. Her father, for reasons of policy, and perhaps from preference, kept up much state. She had to exchange with the wiveS' and daughters CONVENT OF THE HOLY TREE. 87 of high officers the long visits which occupy time and weary the flesh by the perpetual re- pression they require. And in her heart she had as constant indwelling fears as to the change she had observed in her father, and vague doubts as to his intentions about her marriage. Before everything else she knew he was ambitious. Though she understood one side of his character, she was aware there were many leaves of the difficult book she could not read, and for some time she had been haunted by a fear that some of the complex motives connected with his intri- cate policy might suddenly induce him to bar her union with Marcus. Her love was deep, the growth of years of companionship. Her father treated her betrothed like a son, and had never opposed the engagement; but there was a feeling of distrust, deepening and widening, lest some sudden change of policy should break in and dispel the peaceful love - dreaming, as so many love - dreams had been dispelled in that cruel age. The contrast between the life of sweet love she longed for and her Memphis existence was held up to her every day as in a mirror by the talk of the great ladies she visited. Intrigue, false- 88 AEMENOSA- hood, shameless selfishness — these she saw all around her save in the few moments she was allowed to spend with Marcus. These were usually her only times of unmixed happiness, and now, though she could not see him-, there was nothing to jar upon the inner life of hope which was bound up in him. She could forget and banish the hateful serpent shapes of scandal, envy, and impurity, and feel that she was pre- paring herself for him, — the bride adorning herself for the bridegroom. The traces of weakness in the sisterhood — the lingering looks world wards that she detected in the Mother Superior, — what were they to the garish lies of that society she had left behind her when she crossed the Nile ? She was soon to require all the supplies of strength that the round of holy service and the guileless companionship had given her. It was a spring evening; the nuns were return- ing from visiting their poor, and were in sight of the convent gate. They were walking through the brown dust with weary feet. The last few minutes of rough road always seemed long, but it was a point of honour not to complain of it. There had been a kh§,msin wind blowing all day, CONVENT OF THE HOLY TREE. 89 scorching like a furnace - blast, and covering with impalpable sand every corner of the convent. Within, novices with their busy feather - brushes had been removing the defiling enemy from altar furniture and oratory. Without, the rose'- trees in the garden were blighted and burnt up. In the mud -huts the patients down with fever had tossed all day in parching misery. The visit of the brave Sisters had lightened their pain, and the presence of the Lady Armenosa, who had come with them all of her own accord, had been a very wellspring of comfort, as was Elim to the old wanderers. With a sigh of relief they approached the wooden gate. " I think the wind is freshening," said sanguine Sister Euphemia. "It always lasts three days," said gloomy Sister Sophia. " What do you want ? " said the Mother Superior to a strange figure who crawled out from behind some tamarisks and barred their progress. He was a beggar of loathsome shape. One arm was wrapped in rags and splints as if it had been recently broken. He crawled rather than walked, 90 AKMENOSA. dragging a paralysed leg after him, and oaring himself with two brown hands covered with noisome spots like leprous marks. " Help ! ladies, help ! " whined the wretch, " in the name of the holy Lazarus who lay full of sores at the rich man's gate ! Help, in the name of St Lydia, and St Dorcas, and St Dorothea ! My child is sick — very grievously tormented. He is despaired of by the leeches, but I know if the Lady Armenosa would come she could do what all of them, including St ^sculapius himself, could not do. The touch of a betrothed maiden " Says who ? " asked the Mother Superior, severely. " You have been going to the witch again. Woe unto this people who go after enchanters and wizards and mutterers, and not to the blessed saints and martyrs whose virtues have an efficacy beyond all gold and rubies. Say where you live ? We will send to assist you, if your story be a true one, early to-morrow." Her parched skin and tired limbs were draw- ing the poor Superior for a moment from the path of duty. It had been a hard day, and visions of food and rest had been rising pleasantly before her when the beggar broke in upon them. CONVENT OF THE HOLY TEEE. 91 " Oh, send her ! Lady, do not put me off ! " said the wretched object, laying his noisome hand on the hem of the Mother Superior's garment. " Come, and deny not the prayer of the poor destitute. It is my only child, my chaplet of lilies. Even as Isaac was a laughter and a joy to Sarai, the wife of Abraham, so is my boy Namin to me. Send her, I beseech you." " God forbid that the Sisters of the Holy Tree should be deaf to the cry of sorrow, or sluggards when called to an errand of mercy. I will go even now, without waiting for a morsel of meat or a draught of water. I will go," she added, with a look of rueful resignation, — "yea! though I faint by the way." "Nay, Mother," said Armenosa, "this is not fitting. You require rest, and are needed to pre- side at the service of Benediction. Let me go. I am the youngest and strongest, and perhaps, if the poor boy has set his heart on seeing me, he may take medicines from my hand more readily than from any other of us." Sister Sophia murmured something about her readiness to go, so indistinctly that no one noticed her. 92 ARiMENOSA. Judging from the look of relief on the Superior's features that there was a chance of gaining her end, the beggar redoubled his importunities. "I see the blessed saints are helping me. Come ere it grows dark, lady of charity. My child lies close by, behind the first balsam -grove, beside the red pillar." The red pillar was, a huge block of rose granite which had once formed part of one of the pylons of Heliopolis. It was about half a mile from the convent gate. "It may be well for the girl, whose life has been one of softness and ease, and who will dwell henceforth in the luxury and pride of life, to taste the cup of bitterness and to carry the cross of self-denial for a space," said the Mother Superior, half to herself and half aloud; then she added hurriedly, as anxious to get the matter settled anyhow — " The blessed Virgin be with thee. There are medicaments in this basket, and Michael the sub- janitor will follow thee. Come, Sisters.'' And sighing deeper than ever, Barbara gathered her flock about her and entered the convent. Armenosa followed the beggar, who twisted him- self along at such a pace that the girl, who was CONVENT OF THE HOLY TKEE. 93 more exhausted than she had imagined, could scarcely keep up with him. Michael, the sub-janitor, was fast asleep when summoned by Sister Euphemia. He heard her directions very imperfectly, for he was deaf as the Psalmist's adder, and grunted- his acquies- cence ; but he resolved to finish his supper of bread and cucumbers before starting: so when at last he set out on his way, Armenosa and her guide were out of sight. As it was impossible to know which road they had taken, he returned after walking a few yards, and was soon snoring on his mat. Armenosa walked rapidly on until she reached the plantation of balsam shrubs, successors of those which were famous in the days of Solomon, King of Israel. It was now nearly dark, and her guide moved on so fast and kept so far ahead of her that she could not make him hear. The shrubs grew thick to the right and left, and the road narrowed into a footpath between them. She saw no hut or sign of man's habitation any- where. Suddenly, however, the beggar struck to the right, where a group of tamarisks, possibly the remains of a grove, surrounded the huge red 94 AKMENOSA. block that he had named as a landmark. Armen- osa called to the man, and refused to go any farther, as there was no house in sight. She stopped, fairly frightened. The warning of Marcus came to her mind, and she felt the tears welling up in her eyes. She^ trembled, and tried to call to the guide, but no words came. The Mother Superior had charged the man with complicity with a witch. Was she to be dragged to some devilish scene of magic ritual ? "Was the beggar a fiend ? She made the sign of the cross, and pressed a medal blessed by Menas, which she always wore, to her lips. Suddenly she was conscious of. some one beside her. In her panic it seemed one of the old brute gods, but it was only a mounted man who had come silently from the direction of Heliopolis. Before she could ask herself why he was there, the rider — a youth of lithe limbs and bold bearing — dismounted, caught her in his arms, and mounted with her in front of him. She screamed, but a silk handkerchief was instantly twisted over her mouth. "Pardon me," said Eeuben, for he it was. " It breaks my heart to stop the tongue whose CONVENT OF THE HOLY TREE. 95 music I love best in the world. But we must put a league between us and the poultry -yard yonder, or some of the cacklers will b_e guessing our whereabouts." A light touch of the stirrup sent the horse forward, and Armenosa was borne away into the darkness. She had no note of time, but it seemed hours since she was drawing near the convent gate in the quiet evening and the beginning of this wild race. The hideous guide, the dialogue with the Sisters, the red pillar, the seizure — all seemed pictures for a fever -fit. There was no coherence in it. Still it was real. She felt the tight bandage round her face, the hands clutching her waist. She heard the quick breath of the horse and the clatter of the hoofs as they struck some frag- ment of causeway. On, on. There seemed no end to that ride, no light in that darkness. The movement at last loosened her eye -bandage, and she saw the horse's head and ears. Then ib slipped a little lower, and she saw objects in front of her — lights, high buildings, walls, obelisks. Then the direc- tion of the ride changed, and the horse stopped, panting and steaming. 96 AEMENOSA. Eeuben called twice — thrice. Then everything real vanished. The facts that she was trying to fix in her mind in order to keep her senses disappeared. She had counted. She had tried to say to herself that she was seized probably by some robber who would detain her for ransom, and that she must be on the alert to save herself by courage or craft. Above all that, the one thing to dread was losing her senses. This, though nearly dead with fatigue, she had tried to keep before her. Any fall into unconscious- ness might mean ruin. Her perils were strange, but they were from the hands of men. With the protection of the Virgin, while her lips could say a prayer or her fingers clasp the cross, she was safe from the powers of evil. No! At once the ground shook. Fires of every hideous colour — blood red, livid green — flamed up against the sky. Then came a crash, redoubled by the echoes. " The voice of Thy thunder was heard round about — the earth was moved and shook withal." The words she had sung in the chapel that morning rang in her ears. Then all CONVENT OF THE HOLY TKEE. 97 was silence and darkness. The horse plunged. The arms no longer clasped her. She saw no more, she heard no more. In her last passion- ate moment of knowledge so much was crowded in that it seemed there could never be anything more to know. 9S CHAPTEE VIII. AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE. The Pagarch had risen early, and sat in his favourite pavilion reading and re-reading a closely written scroll. It was not one of the Jews' horoscopes, but one of those formidable letters from Constantinople which Armenosa dreaded almost more than the mystic parchments. George, as we have seen, had successfully baffled the intriguers behind the im- perial throne, and had obtained a signal mark of favour from Heraclius. This had been done at enormous expense, for the courtiers, chamberlains, and secretaries who guarded the avenues of approach to the Emperor were insatiable. Thus the sum that should have been devoted to the imperial treasury had been spent in illicit ways, and to make up the deficiency, money had been borrowed at ruinous AN OFIEK OF MARRIAGE. 99 interest from Eliezer and his brethren. Now new and startling tidings had arrived. Affairs had taken a turn wholly unexpected. Heraclius proposed to assume the command of the troops, and to lead the veterans who had conquered Chosroes against the armies of Omar. He called upon Egypt, the wealthiest of his provinces, to supply money and men, and hinted that a mark of unparalleled favour would reward the loyalty and zeal of the Pagarch. But as he read the high-sounding phrases and mag- nificent promises George's face grew darker. He rose and walked impatiently about the room. " Is my fate never to be that of other men ? We are taught that misfortunes are blessings in disguise. To me blessings are but veiled curses. Gifts of honour, fortune, and preferment, that the rank and file of men plot, struggle, and damn themselves to gain, are to me messages of ruin. I have strained my credit to the last aureus to glut the harpies of the Chalkoprateia,^ and now they cry More, more. Fresh imposts are impossible. Egypt is burdened far be- yond her powers already — poll-tax and land-tax, and a dozen taxes direct and indirect, as well as the coronary gold that was wrung as a 'free gift' ' The quarter of Constantinople occupied by Jew money-lenders. 100 AEMENOSA. from the poor wretches when Heraclius triumphed. It is impossible. But if I fail to send the gold, the old stories will be revived. They are known to more persons than I once imagined. Everything is known here, and then my refusal to help against the Arab will be alleged as a corroborative proof of the truth of the old story. He will not assist his Emperor against Omar because he has trafficked with the false Prophet. All will be discovered. Oh the shame, the shame ! " And George fell upon his knees, his face buried in his hands. Overwhelmed with passionate emotion, he did not hear two low knocks at the pa,vilion door, nor the noise of the lifted latch when the Jew Eliezer entered. His face, as he peered through the door, wore its old subservient smile, which, on seeing the Pagarch's attitude, changed to a look of contempt and triumph. The Emperor's letter was still lying open on the table, and Eliezer glanced quickly at its contents. Then he paused for a moment, looking at the prostrate figure on the ground with the sneer of a being who stood aloof from pity. With his first spoken words, however, he replaced the mask of sub- servience and became the Eliezer known to the Gentiles. AN OFFER OF MAEEIAGE. 101 " Rise, Illustrious ! This is not the posture for the man whom kings delight to honour, and on whom emperors shower their richest gifts. I thought to find you in the midst of your slaves issuing orders for the grandest pageant Memphis has ever seen." George rose and looked at him with a dazed ex- pression. He had heard his words, but did not com- prehend them. " Else, I say, Illustrious ! This is the proudest day of your life, and a day which makes all those who glory in your renown rejoice with exceeding joy. Surely you have heard the news that all the city will ring with ere we are an hour older." " Do you mean the news contained in this despatch, that the sacred Emperor will take the field in person against the Arabs ? " " No ; I mean the tidings contained in a later des- patch — not from Constantinople, but from Csesarea." As he spoke the door opened, and a slave entered and prostrated himself — • " A messenger from the sacred Emperor." "Admit him." A courier tanned with the sun, and covered from buskins to bonnet with dust, entered the room almost before the order to give him entrance had 102 AEMENOSA. lefb the Pagarch's lips, and handed him a tasselled and embroidered case carefully sealed. His com- mission executed, he retired with the servant. George took the case in his hand, pressed it to his lips, heart, and forehead. Then he cut very care- fully the purple silk thread with which it was tied and drew out two scrolls. As he read his face quiv- ered and flushed, and he almost dropped the paper from his trembling hand. " Is it not as I said ? " asked Eliezer. " The sacred Emperor commands that I give my daughter to his son Constantine in marriage, and urges that she be sent at once with a suitable escort to Csesarea. His Imperial "Wisdom seems to believe that this alliance will knit together more firmly than hitherto the interests of Africa and Asia, and also cure that melancholy wherewithal the heir to the throne has been oppressed ever since he beheld Lady Armenosa at a festival at Jerusalem two years ago. And further, Constantine Augustus himself writes to ask the hand of my daughter, and to urge me to lose no time in sending her to him under a sufficient guard, so that the marriage may be con- cluded before the fast, and on an auspicious day." " Did I not tell you so ? We of the nation have AN OFFER OF MAERTA6E. 103 early news of all things that concern the welfare of our friends. Accept the congratulations of the most devoted of your servants." " Congratulations ! " said George, bitterly. " That word from you of all men living. Do you not see that this means ruin, and nothing more? It is a death-draught, though handed to me in a jewelled cup." " Death-draught ! It is the elixir of life you are bidden to taste. It is a cup full to the brim of all men love — power, wealth, rank, victory, fame. You are bidden step into the imperial circle. Your foot is planted on the first step of the staircase that leads to a throne. It is well known that the Augustus is weak of body and mind. Even if he lives, he will be your tool and instrument; and if he dies, who knows that you may not grasp the sceptre that falls from his hand." The words were spoken with extraordinary fer- vour, and George was carried away by the passion of them. After all, if the Jews would only help him, the financial crisis might be tided over. The father-in-law of the future emperor could not be called to account as easily as a provincial governor. But could he depend on Eljezer ? Why was he sq 104 AEMENOSA. hearty in his desire that he should gain this prize, which meant enormous outlay ? He asked himself the question as the other was speaking, and the answer he received was so far satisfactory. The higher his place, the larger his fortunes, the surer would be his credit, and the greater his capacity for paying high interest on his loans. He said this to himself, and thought he had read the Jew's motives ; but the strongest of them had escaped his ken. Eliezer loved his profligate son, and dreaded above everything else his passion for Armenosa. It was no figure of speech — he would rather have seen Eeuben dead at his feet than married to the woman whom an emperor was seeking as his daughter-in-law. Armenosa's be- trothal once known, and the danger of his son's marrying a Gentile would be over. He remem- bered, too, the love of Marcus for Armenosa ; and, strong in his hatreds, it pleased him to think that the man who had detected Eeuben in a villany should suffer defeat. Briefly, the scheme in its main ' object and in its incidents wove itself into his subtle policy, and harmonised with the pattern of the piece. "Jew, the spirit of Moses and Joshua fires you to-day. Look at the reflection of our faces in that AN OFFER OF MAEEIAGE. 105 steel mirror." He pointed to one that hung over the ebony cabinet. " Would not you say I was the man of action and energy, and you the timid grey- beard, infirm of purpose and impotent of will. But what is the truth ? A crisis comes : I tremble and hesitate, and see only danger in front of me ; your spirit mounts like an eagle, and looks beyond the peril to the prize." The blended speech of depreciation and flattery which Eliezer began to stammer in reply was never finished, for suddenly a man's voice was heard im- patiently demanding admittance, and overbearing the remonstrances of servants. " What is this ? who is this ? " cried George, angrily. Marcus burst in. "I should say it is a gentleman who will leave the room somewhat less haughtily than he is enter- ing it," sneered Eliezer. " Pardon me, pardon me," cried the young man. " I know I am unmannerly, I know I am intruding on hours sacred to state affairs ; but I must be the first to tell you she is saved, she is saved ! " "What does this mean ? Who is it of whom you speak ? Fool ! what ill wind blew you hither at a time like this?" 106 AEMENOSA. "I have come because I feared you might hear that the Lady Armenosa had been abducted from the Convent of the Holy Tree." " The Lady Armenosa abducted ! Who dares lay hands on the Pagarch's daughter and violate a con- vent of holy nuns at one stroke ? Do law and piety count for nothing in Egypt ? " " If Eeuben's hand be here," muttered Eliezer aside, "may he be accursed with Hophni, Phinehas, and Absalom." "She was abducted by a shameful trick, but the villain was struck down by fire from heaven, and I saved her and took her back to the holy sisterhood." " She is safe then ? All the saints be praised ! " Eliezer whispered in George's ear. He saw that in his joy at the news of Armenosa's safety the Pagarch was in danger of forgetting everything else. "Well said. I had forgotten. There is an im- portant question to be asked. What took you to Heliopolis ? Was it not against the promise made solemnly, and understood by your father as well as by me, that you should not approach within a league of the convent? Did I not confine my AN OFFEE OF MARRIAGE. 107 daughter to the sacred precincts solely and en- tirely to protect her from your importunities ? Did I not fear that, as my friendship for Menas threw you together, some dreams of ambition might cross your mind and lead yon to think of Armenosa as of one who would listen to a love -suit? Ex- plain, then, what took you to the forbidden ground ; and if your tale halts in a single particular, were you my brother's son you should rue it." A smile of pleasure lit up Eliezer's eye as he saw how every word stabbed Marcus like a knife. "Might you not ask the young man to tell us some more about the lire from heaven ? " he asked, sneeringly. " Yes. What was all this ? Let me have a plain tale plainly told." Marcus was stunned. He had entered the room expecting the thanks of his father's friend, the blessing of his future father-in-law. He found the ground he stood on cut from under him ; the love which was the essence of his existence spoken of as a delusion; the Jew whom he instinctively loathed installed high in George's favour, and urg- ing him to commit the grossest injustice. It was the sudden conviction that Eliezer was gloating 108 AEMENOSA. over his confusion, and that every moment of hesi- tation was noted against him by the estranged eyes of the Pagarch, that nerved him to speak. "My plain tale I will tell. I was yesterday riding towards Heliopolis. I came just after sun- down to the balsam - grove. There I found the Lady Armenosa on the ground insensible. I brought her water, and after a time she recovered consciousness. She implored me to take her to the convent, and on arriving there I heard from the Sisters how she had been entreated by a crippled beggar to go out to visit a sick child; and then I learned slowly and with difficulty, for her mind was perplexed and her speech faltering, that there was no sick person needing help, and that, when at a distance from the convent, she had been seized by a strange horseman and carried some way on the road to Heliopolis. Then in answer to her prayer, and by the special help of St Barbara, the abductor had been struck down, as she supposed, by lightning, and she saw him no more. When she opened her eyes there was no one near save me, but the tamarisks and prickly pear bushes were blackened and burnt." AN OFFER OF MAHEIAGE. 109 " I have heard of abductors and rescuers being in league when beauty was to be won by bold ad- venturers," said Eliezer. " Jew, I will not bear this — give the Jew the lie. Pagarch, as you are my father's friend, tell me I misheard your words when you said you knew not of my troth to Armenosa ! Bid this man leave us, and be your noble self again. Say you spoke to test my loyalty. Say there has been a spell cast over me." "Listen," thundered George, his voice resonant and his whole frame straining and quivering with passion. "Not to you or such as you shall my daughter be given. Ypu have taken advantage of the fact that' I was overburdened with affairs of state and could see my child seldom, to gain her heart and fill her brain with fantasy. But your practice is detected. It will pain me to break with Menas, the friend of my youth, but my daughter and my allegiance before everything. Yes ! my allegiance to my sacred Emperor before my daughter." He motioned the unfortunate Marcus to depart, and, taking the Jew's arm to support him, left the 110 AEMENOSA. pavilion by a door leading to a private apartment. Marcus flung himself on his knees and clasped the Pagarch's mantle. It caught and tore as Eliezer slammed the door after him, and Marcus stood with the piece of rent silk in his hand. Ill CHAPTEE IX. THE CONVENT AGAIN. Peostrate with fever, Armenosa lay in her cell in the Convent of the Holy Tree. The first shock had passed. Gradually what had seemed a nightmare was shaping itself into a series of separate impres- sions, and she was beginning to realise the order in which the events occurred. At first she hardly knew whether she had been carried off on a horse, or on some hideous monster with a steed's body but with the distorted face and shambling gait of the beggar who had acted as decoy. Then over and over again she heard the noise of the explosion and saw the flash of the fire, and then a figure, at one time like her patron saint, and at another time like her lover Marcus, bent over her with soothing words and healing touch. The remedies promptly applied 112 AEMENOSA. by the Sisters helped the cure. The febrifuge soou allayed the more violent symptoms of brain excite- ment, and an opiate brought a refreshing sleep. When the sunset rays quivered through the latticed window and dappled the walls of the cell with a golden pattern, the girl's mouth had lost its tense and pained expression, and she smiled gratefully at the Sister who sat by the bedside fanning her. "Thank you, Sophia. I am stronger now and the fever is lessened, but still I scarcely know what befell me yesternight. Whose was the hand that brought me hither ? I heard the thunder peal, and in the lightning St Barbara descended, but no saint or woman bent over me when I awoke, but even Marcus, the son of Menas." " It was he and no other who brought you to the convent insensible, and with no power to move hand or foot. And, judging from the imperfect sight I had of him through my veil, he was like the youth- ful David, of a fair countenance. But I would know more of the appearance of the blessed St Barbara. Was she tall or short ? dark or fair ? and did she carry her tower in her hand?" "Verily all was confusion, and the sound seems now not to have been like thunder, nor the fire like THE CONVENT AGAIN. 113 ordinary lightning, but more like the flames which I have seen in a picture of the destruction of Cora and his company. But do not talk more of it just now please, Sister." And Armenosa turned her head wearily on her pillow. The Sister continued to fan her for a while, and then fell into a doze. She was awakened after a time, with a guilty sense of having been asleep at her post, by a knock and whispering voices. Sophia rose, finger on lip, and opened the door softly. She was on the eve of saying " Armenosa is asleep," and forbidding the visitors to enter, but sank into a profound obeisance directly she saw that they were the Mother Superior and the Pagarch. " The lady Armenosa has slept well, I hear," said George, "and I am come to take her to a place where she shall be more safely guarded from fraud and outrage than it seems she can be here." "Though Armenosa has slept, she is still very weak. I implore you to let her remain somewhat longer in the convent. Twelve hours more will restore her completely." "I do not think any one in these days can venture to say what will happen in twelve hours," H 114 AEMENOSA. said George. " Besides, it is a matter of high con- sequence that my daughter should be at once conveyed home. There is no delay, and as this road is perilous after dark, we will not waste time. Prepare her for the journey — a litter waits below." A few days before, George would have shrunk from a measure so violent. The least hint of danger to his daughter's health was a word of power with him. He had been always kindness and courtesy itself to the holy Sisters and the Mother Superior, but now all was altered. He was mad with ambition. The dream of raising his daughter to a throne intoxicated him. The strange influence of Eliezer, gained partly by the power of money and partly by his astrological predictions, had dominated every softer passion, every gentler impulse. He must carry out the Jew's advice at once. The Mother remonstrated passionately, forgetting her awe of the Pagarch. "Take her hence to-night! It is madness. No physician would answer for her life if she is moved thus early. The fever is not abated. Touch her," THE CONVENT AGAIN. 115 and she put her hand on the girl's hot cheek. " The fire is still burning in her blood, and it would be fatal to remove her." " Father, what is this ? " said' Arnienosa, wearily. " Send these strangers away ; I would sleep a little." "I have provided for all this. Socrates" — he beckoned to a grave bearded man who was standing on the threshold — " examine my daughter and see if she is fit to be moved. This," he added, turning to the Mother Superior, " is one of the imperial physi- cians. Whatever he orders we may do with the assurance that it is absolutely safe." He stood aside while the man whom he had ad- dressed as Socrates came to the bedside, felt the pulse of the girl, and with much show of care tested the temperature of her body. He then said slowly — "The lady Armenosa will travel with safety indeed. The journey in the cool evening, if she be fortified with the remedy which I shall give her, will hasten and not retard her cure." He then took a small phial from his girdle, poured its contents into water, and bade her swallow the 116 AEMENOSA. mixture. She fell asleep in a few moments. Then the insensible girl was carried into the courtyard of the convent, placed in a well-cushioned and cur- tained litter, and, surrounded by a troop of the Pagarch's guards, hurried to Memphis. 117 CHAPTEE X. HOW THE PEOPLE OF MEMPHIS CONGRATULATED THE PAGAECH. Meantime by every means in his power Eliezer had diffused the news of the betrothal of the Pagarch's daughter. It is to this day a wonder how rapidly tidings are spread abroad in the East. In many cases now the money-lenders and usurers are busy agents in the work of circulating reports political and financial, and in the seventh century they had no rivals in the newspapers. At a hint from Eliezer or some powerful member of his tribe, every money- changer communicated the news to his customers as he weighed him out his silver. The customer re- tailed it to a knot of gossips as they paused to have their drink of sherbet in the cool colonnades. The barbers passed it on as they trimmed the beards 118 ARMENOSA. of the rich youths whom Eeuben envied. They chatted it over at the public baths, and then it ran fast until it reached the boxes at the circus and the symposia of the high officials. If, as in this case, it was a topic likely to interest the womankind, a few of the cosmetic-sellers and fortune-tellers, who were nearly all Jewesses, received the order of the day, and the languid ladies rose from their silken divans and bustled oS in their sedans to make a round of visits, assured that for once even their rivals would welcome them. Knowing well the weak places of George's char- acter, it was Eliezer's policy to force him to despatch his daughter at once. He went direct from the palace to the houses of several of his rich brethren, and, by arguments suited to each, induced what we should now call a powerful syndicate to guarantee the needful money. This difficulty got over, he had nothing to fear but the tears of Armenosa. " The fool dotes upon that girl of his," he muttered. "At the last moment he may start aside like a broken bow, and spoil the finest plot my mind ever minted." He rightly judged the point whence resistance would come, and all through the night, while George THE PAGAECH CONGEATULATED. 119 paced his chamber with nervous steps, trying to stifle his conscience by every sophist argument, Eliezer was setting the machinery in motion which should stun the Pagarch, as he went out into the world next day, with a chorus of congratulations. Fortunately for his plan, it was the levde-day, when George was accustomed to appear in robes of state and receive from early morn until high noon the crowd of officials in possession and officials expectant whose rank or birth entitled them to be presented to him. Never had he dreaded this ordeal more than on the morning when he was deemed the happiest man in Memphis. Pale, hollow-eyed, and weary, he allowed himself to be robed and prepared for the ceremony ; but no rouge nor cosmetic could make the face look other than haggard, or the smile he tried to call up other than a mockery. As he took his station under the silken canopy a herald pro- claimed his titles, and announced that he was ready to receive all loyal subjects of the sacred Emperor, to reward the good and punish evil-doers. Contrary to custom, a unanimous murmur of greeting, swelling into a shout, echoed through the hall. " Hail to the Illustrious George ! Hail to the father-in-law of our Augustus ! Hail to the Glory 120 AHMENOSA. of Egypt ! Blessing, prosperity, and peace upon the house of the Pagarch! Blessing, prosperity, and peace upon the elect Lady Armenosa!" It seemed as if the voices would never cease. At last, however, the general burst of congratula- tion died out, and the Melchite Bishop of Memphis, with his attendant priests, moved — a mass of flash- ing jewels and gold embroidery— up the hall. As they halted before the Pagarch's chair, the crowd became with one accord silent, and the Bishop spoke. " We desire to be the first, Pagarch, to ofier our congratulations on the betrothal of your daughter, the virtuous Armenosa, to the illustrious Constantine Augustus, the well -beloved son and heir of our Emperor,- the sacred Heraclius. The union will join the loyal province of Egypt with new and firm bonds to the imperial throne, and strengthen " The end of the speech, like many perorations, was inaudible. The Bishop was not sufficiently sure of George's or Armenosa's orthodoxy to say anything about " the faith of Chalcedon- and the two natures," which were the phrases made and provided for such occasions. He therefore trusted to his chaplains, who, seeing his difficulty, shouted THE PAGAECH CONGRATULATED. 121 the formula, "God save the Emperor!" in sonorous tones, to veil the impotency of his conclusion. George was dazed. The image of his heart-broken girl and the consciousness of the lie he was acting rose before him. The praises sounded like hisses. Instead of servile courtiers bending the knee, he seemed to see mocking fiends jeering him as he walked to perdition. For one moment he was on the eve of rushing from the hall, imploring his daughter's forgiveness, and begging the pardon of Marcus- and Menas; but the penalty would, he knew," be more than he could bear. He was pushed too far forward to recede, and by an exercise of his iron will he nerved himself to reply. A fluent orator, the words came readily to his lips, and the emotion visible before he spoke seemed only a becoming expression of humility at the extra;- ordinary honour his sovereign had bestowed upon him. His enemies, who accused him of arrogancy and presumption, were disarmed by an exhibition of right feeling which was clearly genuine. "Friends and fellow-servants of our sacred Em- peror, I did not expect your greeting. Holy and reverend Fathers, I did not anticipate your con- gratulations. I had intended to announce this 122 ARMENOSA. command of his Sacred and Imperial Majesty to my Council, and to ask the reverend the clergy to put up solemn prayers that my child might bear the responsibility and burden of the honour bestowed upon her becomingly; but your zeal has got the start of me, and, all unprepared, I am asked to say first before man in the hall what I would have desired first to utter before God in the church, — I mean my sense of utter unworthiness to receive the least of all these honours from the imperial hand; and I would have asked you to allow me to retire for a space, that in solitude, fasting, and prayer I and my child might prepare ourselves for this high decision and destiny: but time presses, 'the king's commandment is urgent,' and I must consult with the right valiant Celadion and the Treasurer the Intendant of the public works, so that not an hour be lost. Come with me then to the council chamber, right trusty and sage ad- visers. To you, friends, I must say farewell, until we meet at the wedding festival." George then rose. His chamberlains and heralds took their places, and leaning on Celadion's shoulder, and closely followed by the members of his little THE PAGAECH CONGRATULATED. 123 Senate, he passed within the curtains that draped the door behind the throne. The courtiers hurried to their homes, but the crowd that always gathered outside the palace on lev^e-days was much too excited by the news to go home speedily or silently. "Did you hear the holy Bishop was unable to finish his speech?" said burly Lampo, who as one of the palace tradespeople had squeezed himself in at the end of the hall. "He knows that the Pagarch has not got the orthodox symbol written up in that fine new oratory of his, depend upon it." "Why, they say it is no oratory at all, but a place where he and Eliezer the Jew meet to cast spells and consult Diabolos," said the druggist, in a "whisper. " Better raise Diabolos than the anger of a Jew, you wine-vat," said a man in a leather apron. "Hold your tattling tongues, and listen for once to a man who knows which side of the cake has honey on it. What George believes is his own business; but if he did not humour the Jew, where would he get money ? and if he does not get money, how can he marry his daughter to Augustus ? and if he 124 AEMENOSA. does marry his daughter to Augustus, who will be the gainers? Why, the dyers that furnish the purple, the druggists that sell the perfumes, the smiths that make the new cuirasses for the horse- guards. So let us go across the square to the old wine - shop and drink the health of the Pagarch and his daughter." 125 CHAPTEE XI. A TIRGIN SACKIFICE. Owing to the good offices of the Jew, who had supphed the Pagarch liberally with money, the Council despatched its business easily. The gifts and loyal addresses to the Emperor were voted, and the more important question of the number of men to be sent as Armenosa's escort discussed and fixed. The Egyptian youth exercised in martial games and well disciplined were a numerous body, and to find an outlet for their energy was one of the constant objects of the Government. They were the very men to send on an expedition which might be called an armed pageant, as they were rich and splendid in equipment, and would make a gallant show in the wedding processions at Csesarea. Be- 126 ARMENOSA. sides, as there was always jealousy between the militia and the regulars, which now and then broke out into broils, Celadion pressed on George the importance of keeping up the Pagarch's dignity by sending a large escort with his daughter, really desiring to have a free hand in Memphis, which would be left practically under the control of his legions. Still, though the councillors had been unanimous, many hours were consumed, and it was not until the afternoon that the various seals and signatures were affixed to the documents and, the ceremonious farewells taken. At last George was at liberty to visit Armenosa. He had never dreaded an interview with her before. Lately, as we have seen, since the com- plications of his affairs and his enslavement by the arts of Eliezer, he had not found her society the solace and comfort it had been in former days, but still he had always turned to it. Hers was the one pure presence that had blessed his life. Now he was going to enter it burdened with a lie and fresh from an act of treachery to the man she loved. In the excitement of the morning, however, he had forgotten many of his scruples. The plaudits and compliments of the crowd were ringing in his ears. A VIRGIN SACRIFICE. 127 So, hastily swallowing a cu^ of wine, he walked across the garden to Armenosa's apartments. At the door a hand was laid on his shoulder, and turning with a strange start, he confronted Eliezer. "I pray you pardon me for frightening you. It is only Eliezer, who desires to know if all has gone well at the Council, and if there is any poor service you require of him ? " " Yes ; all has gone well. N"o ; there is nothing else. I go to my daughter Armenosa." "You will ilnd your work dif&cult with her. The young are easily persuaded to folly, hardly to wisdom. But I think I can help you here. Should she resist, give her this." He took from his pocket a small bag and drew from it a white stone. " Bid her look into it, and she may see something that will alter her mind; but recollect you are pledged, and there must be no going back. At all hazards she must leave for Caesarea within a week." The Jew presumed on his influence with the Christian, and presented himself at the wrong time. At that instant George desired to forget him. He was going to ask his child to rise to a high destiny. The motives he was to put before her 128 AEMENOSA. were those of religion and patriotism — motives by which for the moment he believed himself to be actuated. In one sense all that was best in him was leading him to one of the worst actions of his life. He had in an ill-starred moment be- come the tool of the Jew's arts, but the thought of tampering by such unhallowed means with his Armenosa revolted him. The word " must " in Eli- ezer's speech cut him to the quick, and he was on the eve of a fierce outburst of passion, but mas- tered it. "No, Eliezer," he said, putting the magic stone back with an impatient hand. "I will not use any arts with my child save those of persuasion and love. Leave me now. To - morrow I will summon you." " Be it so. Lord Pagarch. I desired to save time, and my arts are certainties. May your eloquence be as effectual." He turned away. Somewhat ruffled by the interruption, George took a turn in the corridor, stopped for a while before a crucifix which stood in the recess, and then with a composed face knocked at the door of the anteroom to his child's chamber. One of her maidens answered the summons and showed him A VIEGIN SACEIFIOE. 129 into the room. Armenosa was lying on a bed, her fever abated and her face less flushed than when we saw her at the convent. Her father kissed her and motioned the maid to withdraw, which she did after placing a small cup, containing a cooling drink, where Armenosa could conveniently reach it. "My child," said George, "I would have given you another day of rest, bub the matter of which I must speak cannot be put off. Since we parted many things have happened. May I ask you to listen patiently while I recount them ? " '' Dear father, I have been expecting you since morning. No nurse or physician could keep you from my bedside." " Not now, for you are better ; so listen. You have seen lately that I have been sad and uneasy. My heart has known its own bitterness. But it has not been hidden from me that you were longing to share it. Armenosa, you can do more than share it. You can remove it. Your father's honour is in your hands. By a word you can put me in possession of a happiness which I never dreamed of. One word and the toils that have whitened my hair, scarred nie I 130 AEMENOSA. with wrinkles, ay, filled my nights with remorse, will all be forgotten. I shall be overpaid a hundredfold if you will help me." Vague fears filled Armenosa's mind. What was she to be asked to do ? " Dearest father, your honour and happiness are not in the keeping of a girl like me. They are high above the reach of envious hands. They are the glory and the pride of Egypt." "They are not now, but they shall be here- after, if you will help me. You remember our visit to Jerusalem after your mother's death? You remember the stranger who accompanied us to Bethlehem, whose name I forbade you to ask? It was Constantine Augustus, the heir to the imperial throne, and your husband if you will have it so." " Husband ! Am I not betrothed to Marcus ? How can I break my faith ? father, unsay this ; call it a trial of my loyalty, a dream of delirium, anything but the request of George to his daughter." "Armenosa, your love for Marcus was the love of a girl for a boy. I sent you to the convent to forget it, and had it not been for that ab- A TIEGIN SACEIFICE. 131 duction, the secret of which I more than suspect is known to Marcus, you would have forgotten him hy this time. No ! The Emperor has de- manded you in marriage for his son. You have the future of your father, your Church, and your nation in your hands. Eead for yourself the sacred Emperor's handwriting." He placed the scroll in his daughter's hand. " Write to him and implore him to spare me. He will not want a loveless bride. But no ! You cannot do that, dear father. Let me go. I will kiss his feet. I will implore him to spare me.'' " To spare you from the highest rank, save one, woman can reach, and within a step of the highest of all ! But no. My dear one," he said, in that voice of irresistible " music and pathos which was one of his greatest gifts, "yours is not the ambition which can be tempted by rank and titles, by the purple robe and the jewelled diadem. You remember rather that in this great choice you are surrendering what you most prize. You are giving up your heart's desire and wrenching yourself away from all you hold dearest for the sake of duty to your Church. Constantine would be easily moulded by your 1.32 AKMENOSA. hands, and untold good to Egypt would follow. This is not the path of pleasure you are called upon to tread. It is the narrow path of duty and self - denial, though the thorns are hidden by the imperial purple. Yes," he cried, as if in a flash of inspiration, " it is the path your Marcus, if -he be the true son of my Menas, would bid you tread. For years we have had to bear an imperial yoke laid on our consciences by an un- willing Emperor. Heraclius himself is too old to recant, so for his few rema,ining years there may be no change, but Constantine will be free and unfettered by the past. He will be what you will make him. Be the Esther of your Church and na- tion, and let the first act of your husband's reign be to summon a council whicH shall cancel and blot out for ever the false faith promulgated at Chalcedon." " father, if I could only believe this, there is no sacrifice I would not make to gain this end. If I could help you by vowing never to marry, if I could serve my Church by penances and vigils, by fasts, by scourgings, the flesh should not shrink from pain or whip or hunger ; but God cannot require falsehood. How can that save His Church?" A VIRGIN SACEIFICE. 133 "We are bidden to pluck out an eye and to cut off a right hand if they offend us. This love for Marcus is the impediment that hampers you in the heavenward race : cut it away — cast it from thee. Thou hast not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin." The father rose as he said these words, with the gesture of one who had made his last appeal. " If I could be sure of this." " It is written, ' An evil and adulterous genera- tion seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given them ' ; but yet to God's servants it has happened that tokens for good and notes of guid- ance have been vouchsafed in the time of stress and perplexity." He spoke in the dreamy voice of one com- muning with himself, and his eyes wandered over the room as if they sought for something. They rested on a picture of the crucified Saviour. Suddenly — whether deceiver or self-deceived, who can say ? but seemingly in an ecstasy of convic- tion — ^he pointed to it. " Look, look, Armenosa ! Doubt no more. He speaks who cannot lie. He commands whom you dare not disobey." 134 ARMENOSA. And as his daughter's intense gaze fixed itself on the picture, whether by a play of light and shadow, by a trick of imagination, or by some outside artifice of one who overheard the conversation, the head seemed to bow, and the right hand to disengage itself from the nails and to extend its pierced palm in benediction. At the same time a handmaid entered and gave a small scroll tied with a silken thread to her mistress. " This was given me by one wrapped in a cloak, who' hurried away after saying, ' Give this with speed to the Lady Armenosa.' " She opened it. "A message from Marcus sealed with his seal and containing the words, ' Obey thy father and my father — a short parting — a long reunion.' God and man speak. I dare not contradict them. I submit to the Emperor's pleasure." Eliezer spared no effort to hasten the departure of Armenosa. George was feverishly anxious to hurry on the preparations, dreading that some hin- drance might arise at the last moment. Armenosa herself lay on her couch obeying the prescription of A VIEGIN SACRIFICE. 135 her physicians, uninterested by anything that hap- pened around her. The tire-women and sempstresses and embroiderers lavished their skill on the prepara- tion of dainty veils delicate as gossamer, and mantles of state heavy with gold; tissues from Sicily, and brocades and damasks from Tinnis and Dabik. The jewellers spread their brooches and bracelets, neck- laces and girdles of precious stones, to tempt her; but she lay with her eyes fixed on the sacred pic- ture and her hands clasping her rosary, less like a royal bride than a corpse on a funeral bier. Menas made two or three attempts to see George, but the attendants always barred his entrance to the palace. Barbara, whose exultation in the high fortunes of her niece was unbounded, was admitted to see her ; but the Mother Superior's congratulations found no response save an eager entreaty for her prayers. Seven days passed. The excitement in Memphis was at fever-heat. The families of the young men who were to form the bodyguard of the bride-elect vied with each other in equipping their sons gal- lantly. The gifts offered by the guilds of artificers to the daughter of the Pagarch were unparalleled in splendour. The chariot of the bride was only to be compared to that in which Eudocia rode at the 1 36 AEMENOSA. triumph of her imperial husband. The Egyptians love show and pageantry, and here was an occasion that dwarfed the procession of the sacred relic. Both banks of the river were astir. The popula- tions of Babylon and Memphis were provided with processions. For while the immediate cortige of the bride-elect assembled at the Pagarch's palace, the mounted escort was drawn up in front of the for- tress of Babylon. It was arranged that the caval- cade was to travel at night, and rest during the heat of the day. The moon was rising, and showering over land and river a rain of silver light, when the horsemen formed in the great square. The multi- tude, as before, crowded every terrace and portico, and wherever foothold could be found there men and boys clustered. Flaming torches were suspended between the pillars of the churches, and huge lan- terns hung from masts placed at intervals in the chief thoroughfares. The dyer, the druggist, and the butcher, with hundreds of their fellows, were ex- changing banter and gibe as the great ones passed within the enclosure reserved for dignities. In a Memphis crowd there were always two parties — Melchite and Jacobite, orthodox and heterodox. To-day there was a cross-division, and those who A VIRGIN SACEIFICE. 137 lived by providing for the imperial troops, and those who belonged to the families whence the militia were drawn, tossed quip and mock across the square like ball-players in a tennis-court. Such was the scene without ; and within the palace, except in one chamber, all was merriment and min- strelsy. Musicians and banqueters filled the halls; for the Pagarch feasted the officers of his household. But in Armenosa's chamber, beneath the mysteri- ous picture of the Christ — which now showed blood- red in the light of a ruby lamp, while all else was shadow and darkness— the father and the daughter were parting. There was no screen between them now. He saw nothing save his great debt to her. She saw nothing save her resolve to do anything for him. " My child, my darling," he said, as he held her face from him by a sufficient space to gaze into her eyes, " no emperor is worthy of you, and I am not giving you to an emperor, but to the cause of Christ. Be strong and of good courage. I shall know no rest until I hear of your safety." " Promise me one thing," she said. " Be kind to Menas. He has been turned from the door during my sickness, and perhaps it was for the best, but do 138 AEMENOSA. not let estrangement separate us longer than neces- sary. Meet him as of old. Tell him I have fol- lowed no leading of ambition or vanity, but the voice of the Lord and the beckoning of the Saviour's hand. Show him this paper" — she gave him the scroll stamped with the seal of Marcus — " and beg him to pray for me at morning and evening." " I will. May a curse and not a blessing light on me if I fail to fulfil all you have told me ! " The trumpet - call announcing that the hour of departure had come drowned his last farewell. The curtains were swung aside, and, leading his daughter by the hand, George moved slowly along the corri- dor and descended the marble steps. They passed through lines of courtiers and slaves to the portal under which the white and silver litter was waiting. Her maidens placed Armenosa on the pillows. The Pagarch pressed on her forehead a last kiss. A shower of roses, poured from above, hid her for a moment from view, and the blushing and perfumed leaves continued to rain down long after the heroine of the festival had disappeared in the moonlight. George made one stately obeisance as a sign to his guests that the feast was over, and retired. The departure of Armenosa was a sign to the crowd to A VIRGIN SACRIFICE. 139 disperse. Many had skiffs ready to row across the river, in order that they might get the start of the cavalcade and see the reception of the bride by her escort at the Castle of Babylon. But the father ascended to the roof of the palace and strained his eyes in the direction of the bridge of boats across which Armenosa was to pass. The moving lights of the torches showed first like beacon-fires, then like stars, and at last diminished to sparks, getting smaller and smaller until not a single gleam was visible. 140 CHAPTEK XII. THE RUBICON. On the same day that the bridal cavalcade departed from Memphis a host of a very different character halted at Ehinacolura, the modern El Arish, within sight of Eaphia. It was the victorious Eive Thou- sand, with which Amr had resolved to conquer Egypt. The Arabs contrasted strangely with the cavaliers of Memphis and the legionaries of Con- stantinople. Around Armenosa flashed cuirasses of gold, and silver helmets with plumes of white ostrich- feathers. The housings of the horses were aglow with jewels. The very swords were sheathed in diamonded scabbards. Amongst the Moslem no gold gleamed and no precious stone sparkled. Dark sinewy warriors, clad in loose robes and snow-white turbans, their arms the scimitar, the lance, and the THE RUBICON. 141 bow, they sat erect on their superb horses in long lines, silent, grave, and expectant. Tor though the evening prayer was over, the word had been given to remount, and none knew what command would next be issued by the General, It was impossible to look at these wild warriors without awe. In little more than twenty years they had been transformed from irregular bands of horsemen, living at perpetual blood -feud with each other, into a strong united force that had defeated imperial armies and laid siege to the strongest cities of the East. These men, who seemed so ill - accoutred and poorly armed, had broken legions led by Eoman veterans and mar- shalled under Eoman discipline. Many had charged with Derar before Damascus. Others had defeated the Emperor's splendid levies at Aiznadid. The grey-bearded chieftain of one wing had knelt with the Prophet himself on the hill of Bedr. His lieu- tenant, a fiery young tribesman of the Koreish, had been the first to mount the breach at the siege of Csesarea. One troop armed with heavy maces bore as their standard a smith's leather apron, to mark the fact that their captain had learned his trade at the anvil. In the van was the green ensign of Islam. 142 AEMENOSA. In the rear floated the Hamra, the blood -red flag which sheltered those who surrendered and claimed quarter on the battle-field. And between these two banners there were representatives of all the tribes of Arabia, — some lithe and wiry cavaliers capable of enduring the extremities of heat, thirst, and fatigue, others gigantic champions to whom the Samson-like feats of Ali seemed possible. Here and there were negroes conspicuous for wearing gaudier caftans than the Arabs, but these were exceptions. The Arab type predominated. There was a general likeness in the warriors one to another, and all wore a look of grave and fierce resolution, held in check by the habit of obedience, but waiting only a word to burst out into flame. Thus they waited; for Amr, Zobair, and some half-dozen trusted chiefs held a council, under a group of palms a bow - shot from the army, and there seemed not at first to be agreement between them. After a while, however, it appeared that the objectors were silenced and the will of Amr pre- vailed. Then the hands that had been clenched in angry gesture opened in sign of acquiescence, and salutations were made, and the General on his iron- THE RUBICON. 143 grey horse rode forward, with a sealed letter in his hand. Like so many of the heroes of fact as dis- tinct from the heroes of fiction, Amr was not dis- tinguished by extraordinary stature or preternatural strength. He was short, broad-chested, and broad- shouldered ; but his head was of unusual size, and his mouth large and resolute. Still, by the magic of distinction Amr was marked out as a leader of men and ruler of his fellows. In spite of the stain on his birth, his father was of the Koreish, and he had been the companion and friend of the heroic Kaled. Not only a soldier, but an orator and poet, his tongue and pen had, before his conversion, been the terror of the Prophet. But, once converted, Islam had no more devoted servant. Strong in faith, burning with zeal unquenchable, and with a domi- nating will, he. often aroused the jealousy of his captains. But as Amr thought the army thought, and in the cabals of chieftain against chieftain that arose in the short intervals of peace a speech from Amr crushed a rival in the council as his scimitar swept and scattered his enemies on the battle-field. As he faced his men at that critical moment they all knew that he had triumphed in debate, had over- borne timid advisers, and was about to lead them 144 ARMENOSA. to spoils and victories richer and more glorious than they had known before. "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful ! The time has come to read the missive which Our Lord the Caliph Omar has addressed to us. Approach, messenger, and give us the scroll of which the string is 'uncut and the seal un- broken." A tall man, who had stood a little aloof from the group of captains, placed a letter in Amr's hands. He kissed it and raised it to his forehead, then opened it and read in a clear ringing voice: — " In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful ! Omar, Caliph of Islam, to Amr-Ibn-el- Asi, General of the Armies. We charge and command you, if you have not yet entered the land of Egypt, to halt and await our orders, by which it shall be seen whether you shall retire or advance. But if this our message is not read until you have crossed the frontier, then shall you lead our armies against the fenced cities of Memphis, Babylon, and Alex- andria, and shall do unto them as thou hast done' unto Bosra, Damascus, and Antioch." He paused to let the full meaning of the message THE EUBICON. 145 sink into the minds of those who heard it, and then, turning to the messenger, asked in a natural way the question, the answer to which he knew full well before he heard it — " On what soil do I stand, friend ? Is it Egypt or Syria ? " " When you crossed yonder torrent you left Syria behind you and entered the land of Egypt." A murmur of distinct approval was heard throughout the host. Amr took advantage of the moment. " my brethren, we might have known what our master would command. It was not to be expected that the Caliph Omar, whom the Prophet (on whom be peace !) compared to Noah, the son of Lamech, in that he prayed for the utter destruction of the infidels, should now speak even as Abu Bekr, whom the Prophet (on whom be peace !) compared to Abra- ham, the son of Terah, who sought to save Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, as it is written in the Book of the Koran, 'The hour of judgment approacheth, and the moon hath been split in sunder.' Behold the sign is set in the heavens." He pointed with his scimitar to the horizon, K 146 ARMENOSA. above which, half-hidden by a blood-red cloud, the moon was slowly rising. The Arabs had too lately bowed before the heavenly bodies to be uninfluenced by this omen. "God is great." "Mohammed is the Prophet of God." " Amr is the soldier of the Prophet." " Amr wields the sword of Kaled," resounded on all sides. Zobair,^ whose jealousy of Amr was well known, curbed his rising anger hardly. He knew that Omar for many reasons objected to the immediate advance on Egypt, and that the letter Amr had so artfully produced was intended to delay his march and not to expedite it. But, as on many eventful days in the stormy history of the new creed, the readiness of the orator had decided the policy by an apt simile or a telling fable, and certainly hitherto success had justified many at- tempts as bold as that of Amr's invasion. The tide was too strong to be stemmed by any opposi- tion the rival chieftain could offer. So he followed the example of the rest and rode sulkily off to his division. Meantime the signal to encamp was given, and the host began to picket their horses, ' His full name was Az Zubair ibn Al Awwam. THE RUBICON. 147 and to bring out of their wallets their simple desert fare. In an hour the meal was done, and the men, exhausted by a long march, had thrown themselves on the ground, and the Five Thousand were as silent as an army under the spell of an enchanter. 148 CHAPTEE XIII. THE DEEAM AND THE AWAKENING. Akmenosa and her little army moved slowly. The heafc was so intense that they could only march at night, and the time taken in encamping and breaking up camp was long and wearisome. At last they reached the rising ground now known as Kantara-el-Khazneh, the " Bridge of the Treasure," and pitched amidst the ruins of an ancient town. The sun had risen some two hours, the morning meal was over, the men were asleep in their tents, and the horses picketed beside them. Armenosa's pavilion was pitched under the shadow of a huge sandstone block, once a sacrificial altar dedicated by the Pharaoh of the Oppression. The place was distasteful to her, as, in common with all those who were brought up with any strictness of belief, THE DKEAM AND THE AWAKENING. 149 she held the memorials of the ancient Egyptian kings as relics of devil-worship. ' Her adventures at Heliopolis had confirmed this opinion, and she ordered her maidens to draw the tent curtain over the hieroglyphs on the slab, lest by unconsciously looking at them she should pass under a spell. The enthusiasm which had borne her up on the day when she dedicated herself to the cause of her Church and nation had not died out, for she was steadfast and strong. But the weary days and nights, the formality of her surroundings, and the absence of any one to whom she could speak freely, were taxing her powers to the uttermost. Would the old days ever come back ? She thought of her father, and Marcus, and the good priest Menas, and the garden of Memphis, and it seemed as if years instead of days divided her from her girlhood. Then from reverie she sank into sleep and dreamed a dream. She was once more in a garden, and in one far fairer than that which bloomed around the home of her childhood. She seemed to have lived there a long time. It was beautiful with glowing roses and plashing fountains, and musical with the song of birds. Her bower, which was wreathed with 150 AKMENOSA jasmine aud lilies larger and fairer than she had ever seen, fronted a hroad river. On the farther bank of the river was another garden and another bower, and there, looking as he had looked when she had last seen him, was Marcus. He beckoned her to come to him, and as she was motioning to show that it was impossible, a barge of pearl and silver appeared alongside the bank, and she walked down the flowery slope to step into it. Then the sun was darkened, the earth shook, the river that had been clear as crystal became dark and clotted and of the hue of blood, while all around her there seemed to be a conflict and struggle of armies. There were no hosts of flesh and blood charging and clashing. She saw no palpable champions, and yet there were battle- cries and groans, and the indistinct shock of armour against armour, and steed against steed, the voices of generals issuing high commands, the whistle and hurtle of arrows, and then cries of pain and agony as of tortured fiends. And all the time the demon battle raged there were thunder- ings and lightnings, and the storm and tumult of elemental war. The din of the fray seemed as if it would never cease, but was taken up by an end- THE DREAM AND THE AWAKENING. 151 less succession of combatants, and while it roared through it all, when the lightning showed her the garden and the river, Marcus appeared standing on the opposite bank. He seemed real, and she was conscious of her own reality; but the storm of warriors that swept between them were spirits of the abyss fighting against each other with a fury and a hate that mortal men know not. Then suddenly all changed, and as it grew light, and a great rainbow of ruby and emerald spanned the scene, while the river became clear and shining, all traces of war vanished, and instead there ap- peared through a silvery mist what seemed at first a bright cluster of flowers; but, when the spark- ling films rolled away, the flowers were revealed to be radiant angels sweeping upwards from the ground to the azure heavens, and singing praises to One who dwelt in glory, and whose symbol was a luminous cross. A feeling of delicious rapture possessed Armenosa as she listened to the heavenly harmony. Exceed- ing calm, joy, and peace steeped her senses. But again there was a vision of woe. Blotting out the angelic shapes, surged up again, more ghastly than ever with roaring sound and lashing foam, the sea of 152 ARMENOSA. blood. And in the sea were struggling horses, and broken armour, and drowning men. And the face of one of the men was turned towards her, and when she saw it she uttered a piercing cry and woke. . . . In a moment three thoughts crossed her mind. It was only a dream, but it was not as other dreams are, for it was sent by the devils whose names were engraven on the altar slab against which her tent was pitched. It was going to be fulfilled, and the voices she heard ringing in her ear were calling her to see its fulfilment. "Awake, Lady Armenosa. All are calling for you. There is news from the sacred Emperor. There is news from the Augustus. The messenger will give the scroll to no other hands save yours. Let me bind on the sandals. Fling over all the silver robe. The captains are waiting without." So cried the tire-women, joining in a shrill chorus, while they laved, perfumed, and robed their startled mistress, who tried in vain to discover the cause of their panic. The impression of the dream was too vivid for her to shake it off. She was bewildered, between terror of the superhuman powers, and sur- prise at the passion of the human beings around THE DREAM AND THE AWAKENING. 153 her. Women usually mute, doing their offices with the precision of machines and the reverence of creatures of clay before a divinity, were hurrying her to make a toilet four hours before it was necessary, and ordering the mistress before whom they were usually prostrate. " What means all this ? Darta, you are wont to obey me when I speak." " There is a messenger without. The soldiers are clamouring. The Prefect bade me implore your Ladyship's presence. It will restore order in the camp." Shouts and trumpet-calls interrupted her speech and emphasised her appeal. "I am ready." The curtains were drawn aside, and Armenosa showed herself to the soldiers. They were grouped in parties, talking eagerly with each other, and apparently paying little heed to their officers. Within a few yards of the pavilion lay a superb bay horse, afroth with sweat and blood, in the agonies of death. By his side knelt a man- in corslet and greaves covered with sand, haggard and gaunt, with one hand supporting the horse's head, and with the other carefully guarding a thick roll of red silk. 154 AKMENOSA. As Armenosa stepped upon tlie scene, the horse shuddered all over, a quivering spasm passed over its limbs, and he was dead. The man rose with horror and despair in his face. " Farewell, my good Dorkon ! ^ You had better die. Would that your master could quit himself of his troubles as easily as you have done. Pardon, lady, I knew not I was in your presence." " You are weary and in evil case. Give him a cup of wine," she said. The wine was brought, and the man drank it eagerly. " Thanks ! I have not tasted such a draught for years. Yes, I am in evil case, but there are thou- sands worse off than I, Marianus the standard-bearer. I come with ill-tidings that little suit with brides and bridals. That scroll will attest my truth. Abu Obeidah is in possession of Antioch, thanks to the dastards whio guarded the iron bridge and the traitor Youkenna. The Moslem is master of Syria. The august Emperor Heraclius set sail for Constan- tinople two months ago, and his son Constantine left Csesarea secretly, and followed his father. Some of us fought like men. Had there been a few ^ The war'horse of the Emperor Heraclius was so called. THE DREAM AND THE AWAKENING. 155 hundreds with hearts like Nestorius, my general, we should have conquered. As it is, I have kept my trust." He unfolded from its staff the crimson roll, and disclosed a gorgeous embroidered banner emblazoned with the figure of Christ on the cross. " There is the standard. Three infidels clutched it. Two I cut down. The third, a negro, got off cheaper, but I have a relic of him which will prevent his forgetting me." And he flung upon the ground a sinewy black hand cut off at the wrist. As it fell on the sand with a cold thud, a cry of horror broke from Armenosa's women. " You will have to get used to worse sights than that, my dainty maidens, if Amr-ibn-el-As enters Egypt, as he will before a month is out." " What is this ? Let me see the scroll." "Eead, and you wiU see that the cause of Christ and the Emperor is lost." "The cause of Christ is never lost. Our sins may have offended a righteous God, and He may in punishment have suffered our light to be quenched, but the servants of the false Prophet cannot prevail against the warriors of the Cross." But even as she spoke she beheld again the vision of the blood - red sea, and heard the shock 156 AKMENOSA. of the mysterious battle, and the words of hope seemed to die on her lips. To hide her face she held the parchment which Marianus handed her close to her eyes. It was from Constantino. In a few sentences, written as he was preparing for flight, he bade her forget him and ally herself with one whose fortunes were happier. The mes- sage of farewell was rolled within a larger scroll addressed by the Emperor himself to the Pagarch. But meantime the news had spread like wild- fire through the camp. There was no doubt that something terrible had happened. The haggard blood-stained veteran was no herald of victory. The flag was not the captured standard of an Arab general, but the ensign of their own Em- peror. The word "Lost" passed from lip to lip. Some flung down their gilded arms in panic. Others saddled and bridled their horses, and cal- culated how quickly they could measure the dis- tance back to Memphis. Some of the cowards and traitors, of whom there is a sprinkling in every army, drew together and began to form a plan to seize the treasure - waggons. In less than an hour the mass of men, who had seemed welded together by one motive and loyal to one chieftain, THE DEEAM AND THE AWAKENING. 157 were divided and scattered in groups, evidently distrusting, if not plotting against, each other. Ow- ing to the jealousy between the militia and the imperialist army at Memphis, it had been impos- sible to place a commanding officer of experience in charge of the expedition. The officers command- ing the citizen soldiery were all equal, and ready to resent the claim of any one of the number to the leadership. Armenosa, who had lived all her life in the midst of Memphian society, knew the position of affairs only too well. It was in arranging such difficulties and toning down such animosities that her father had spent the most anxious hours of every day for twenty weary years. During the journey, whenever she presented herself, though the bride -elect of the Augustus, she had never distinguished any of her glittering guards by a note of preference. Now, however, a crisis had come. Her quick eye saw the danger. Ere the sun set, that ordered army might be scattered hither and thither, or, worse, the swords Egypt needed so urgently might be pointed at their neighbours' throats. The murmur of stirring mutiny, so un- mistakable when once heard, was beginning to buzz 158 AEMENOSA. in the ear. Handsome Damien, Prefect of the Blue Cohort, was moving amongst his friends, and rich Menander, Prefect of the Green Cohort, was sending his parasites to whisper his name amongst the poorer oificers who wore his colours. The factions of -Constantinople were not unrepresented in Egypt, and if the party -cries were once shouted, the encampment would he divided into two parties at once, and the rival colours would give the pre- text for which the disaffected were eager. Of course the exact state of the case was only known to those who had heard the tidings brought by Marianus, but all understood that the Emperor had met with a reverse, and that the object of the journey was defeated. To the blue factions Armenosa had been safe as the bride-elect of Constantine ; now she was simply a woman to whom they owed no allegiance, and her gold and jewels were the booty of the strongest arm. All these thoughts, that were passing through the minds of the men around her, she grasped in a flash of insight. She saw what wanted doing, and she resolved to do it. But first she must secure attention. Near her stood one of her heralds with a long trumpet. THE DEEAM AND THE AWAKENING. 159 " Blow three blasts," she said, and springing on one of the smaller altar-stones of the old Pharaoh, she waited until the trumpet - call ceased, then raised her hand to enjoin silence, and spoke thus : — " Fellow countrymen ! when you left my father's house in our city of Memphis you were the guard- ians of a woman whom the divine Emperor had selected for special honour. You were going to a wedding festival. Now God has ruled that you shall have a harder but a more honourable duty. You are to guard not Armenosa, daughter of George the Pagarch, but our ancient and famous Egypt, against the armies of Islam. God has seen fit to give the false Prophet victory. Antioch and Csesarea are taken, and the enemies of the Cross are perhaps even now upon our soil. They will enter by the route which has ever been the one taken by invaders ; they will seize the key of Egypt — Pelusium. Thither, then, I implore you, hasten. I with the Green Cohort will proceed with the treasure destined for the Emperor to Belbeis, and thence to Memphis. Should you want counsel how to repel these enemies, seek it of this stout soldier Marianus, whose valour has saved the holy 160 AEMENOSA. standard of our faith from the dutch of the in- fidel!" and in a sudden inspiration she seized the silken flag, and pointing to the figure of the Cruci- fied, exclaimed, "In this sign conquer!" The right moment was seized, the right word spoken. The appeal to loyalty and duty struck the better sort, who echoed the great Christian battle-cry with ringing voices. Then the mass of waverers, who were waiting to see which was the winning side, followed as a matter of course. The jealousies and rivalries were stopped from bursting out by the nomina- tion of the man who was the hero of the hour, and the immediate danger of the crisis was passed. Armenosa saw that she had the army almost with her, and that only a stroke was needed to clench the last rivet which should hold them together. " Give me your sword," she said to Marianus. The soldier handed her his short, straight Ro- man blade, dinted with blows and blotched with blood-stains. She had stepped down from the block of stone and stood beside it. Now she laid her hand on the hilt of the sword and called the group of officers to approach. THE DEEAM Al^D THE AWAKENING. 161 "Friends," she said to Damien, Menander, and the rest, " on the hilt of this sword, symbol of the Cross, swear to be loyal, true, and faithful to your captain, Marianus, so long as he shall be true, loyal, and faithful to our master, the sacred Emperor Heraclius, and to have neither truce nor traffic with the followers of the False Prophet or with the chieftains of Islam." The officers, as if under a spell, obeyed her voice, and laying their hands on the hilt of the sword which Marianus presented to them, repeated the oath. " And I in my turn," said the commander, " swear to exercise this my function without fear or favour, and to hold it only until an officer shall be ap- pointed to the command by the sacred Emperor or his representative." Armenosa then retired to her pavilion, and the officers waited to hear what Marianus would say. In a few words he thanked them for their con- fidence, and urged the need of instant action. " There is not a moment to lose. The lady speaks words of wisdom worthy of a veteran general. We must march to Pelusium. Thither the enemy are hastening. There can be no doubt that they will 162 AEMENOSA. not be satisfied with Syria. Egypt is their next prey. Unless we can fling them back now, their grip will be round our throats." Events had followed so quickly on each other that the young captains had scarcely realised all that was needed. Still, the blood-stained flag and the severed hand were visible signs of danger that struck them more than the most eloquent battle-speech. A chivalrous admiration for Armen- osa burned in many breasts, and had given them an inspiring motive; but her distinct and unhesi- tating advice, which allowed no time to debate, had more weight than anything else. Marianus assigned each his station, detached the green cohort which was to guard Armenosa and the treasure to Belbeis,^ made diligent inquiry as to the route, and an hour after sunset the larger body began its march along the road that the alternate armies of the patriot and the invader had traversed over and over again since history began. Later the smaller cavalcade moved, by the light of many stars, in the direction of the ancient Pharbsethus. 1 See Nofe F, Belbeis. 163 CHAPTEE XIV. BELBEIS. The Moslems entered Egypt in the month Baunah/ which answers to our June. Through the fiery weeks of July and August their main army be- sieged Pelusium, while a lesser force invested Bel- beis. At last the heroic struggle approached an end, and when the hottest month of the year had burned itself out, the city of Belbeis was a city of the dead. Armenosa had hastened thither only to meet a second messenger of ill, with tidings even more alarming than those which had been brought by Marianus. As she had foreseen, the troops of Islam were actually on Egyptian soil; but as she had not foreseen, Amr was marching straight towards Belbeis. ^ strictly speaking, the month Bdtoah begins on May 26, and ends on June 24. 164 AEMENOSA. According to the practice of all previous invaders of Egypt, Amr had determined to make Pelusium his first object of attack, and he had put his army in motion with that end. But the information reached him that a smaller Christian force was moving at a slower pace than the main army, in the direction of the present Kantarah, to Belbeis. Years before he had listened to the Prophet's call, Amr had visited Egypt, and therefore he knew its geography better than his master. He satisfied himself that it would be wise to send one column along the coast to Pelusium, but that if he was to get possession of the treasure - waggons, he must make a dash to come up with the second or conyoy army, if possible, before they reached Belbeis. This he had failed to do, and on arriving there he found the gates shut, and the little garrison prepared to resist to the uttermost. As always in their early wars, the Arabs were ill equipped for sieges, and the resolute garrison held him at bay for fifty days. Now at last the Christians were on the point of yielding, not to force, but to famine. Entering the town unexpectedly, they had not had time to pro- vision it. Armenosa refused to allow the old and sickly to be turned out as useless mouths to the BELBEIS. 165 tender mercies of the Arabs, and the investment of the place was so close that no relief could reach the defenders. Now fever had shown itself in the town, and the supply of water was failing. A score of men had died in one day, and there was a rumour that a traitor had poisoned the wells. The corpses lay unburied and blackening in the narrow streets. The women who watched them were too weak to drive away the crows and vultures that wheeled and flapped about their heads, coming lower at every swoop. They had held out twelve days longer than they had thought possible, waiting for succour; and no succour had come. Hitherto there had been no mutiny; but there were fewer and fewer men at their posts every day, and the eyes of all were looking to Armenosa with a plead- ing piteousness that broke her heart. The decision time had come. That very morning the conditions of surrender had been received from Amr, and indeed they were more merciful than might have been expected. She held them in her hand in silence for a space, praying for deliverance and light, but no light came. She had hoped against hope that aid would come on the day just over, for it was the feast of the holy King Heze- 166 AEMENOSA. kiah,i and she had read how he had laid Sen- nacherib's letter before the Lord, and how the Assyrian had raised the siege of Salem. But the commemoration-day of Israel's deliverance was over and done, and she looked for the last time through a narrow slit in the direction of Memphis to see if there was any sign of rescue. But there was none. She rose and clapped her hands. "Bid the prefects Damien and Menander attend me," she said to the slave who answered the summons. And in a few moments the two men who had once been rivals, but whom the common peril had made comrades, mounted the platform. "Friends," said Armenosa, "I hold in my hand the message of the infidel. It is idle to pretend we can hold out longer. There is no help com- ing to Belbeis — I believe because our messengers have never been allowed to pass the enemy's lines. Eead the conditions." The two men took the scroll, which was in Arabic with a Greek translation, each authenticated with the seal of Amr. " The infidel demands surrender before to-morrow ' The feast, known as the Rest in the Lord, of the pious and good King Hezekiah, occurs in the Coptic month Mesre, August. BELBEIS. 167 £^t noon. He promises that the lives of the garrison shall be spared, but the treasure and the commander are to be given to the Moslems." There was a pause. Armenosa broke it. " You have done nobly," she said. " The defence of Belbeis need not fear to be compared with that of any of the Syrian cities. We have detained Amr fifty days, and we may be sure they have been well employed by my father and the valiant Celadion in preparing Babylon to resist the invader. It is impossible to save the treasure, but had we been able to carry it to Csesarea it would have been equally lost to us." " Truly the treasure is the booty of the conqueror, but how can we give up our commander to the infidel when you are our commander ? " Again there was a pause. Armenosa knew what was in the minds of the two men. In the days of their old Memphis life they had been dissipated and selfish, caring little for honour or manliness, but she had taught them a new lesson. Already in those Greek hearts was kindled the sparks of the flame that centuries later in the Western world was to bear the glorious name of chivalry ! " I know what you would say, Damien. I know 168 ARMENOSA. what is in your mind, Menander. You dread to trust a Christian maiden to the infidel. You feel you would not dare to face my father if you had purchased your safety by the sacrifice of mine ; or perhaps," she said, smiling, " you will not allow that I have been your commander." " No, no," cried Damien ; " the honour and the glory are all yours. In the council-room and in the battle-field rule us, lead us as you have done, only to-morrow let it be ours to deliver the sword and staff of command to the conqueror.'' " It may not be. I will finish the work I have undertaken. With my maidens in mourning weeds I will hand the keys of Belbeis to Amr. I have no fear. Infidel as he is, Amr, as this scroll proves, is no bigot like his master Omar; but if I am mis- taken, and I fall into peril from him or any of his captains, I have but to press this gem " — she drew a jewelled signet from her finger — " and swallow the drug this opal conceals to be safe from danger — and from sin. The sword of Islam gives not such a quick path to Paradise as this ring." Next day, an hour before sunrise, the iron-studded gates of the city were slowly swung open, and a BELBEIS, 169 procession, strange and sad even in that age of sorrow and tragedy, issued from its portal. First came two heralds carrying in place of their wands of office boughs of funeral cypress. Then an aged man, the Melchite governor, bearing the heavy keys of the city gate. Then alone Armenosa, robed in black, her long hair unbound, her arms bare, and her feet unsandalled. Next followed four of her six maidens, for two lay fever-stricken and could not move. All the women were ghastly pale, and walked with feeble and unequal steps across the ground that separated them from the camp, picking their way amidst heaped-up bodies, dead steeds, and broken armour. Then came the carts of treasure, still en- closed in the gilded boxes in which it had been despatched from Memphis, but drawn tardUy by the few famished horses that were left to the besieged. And last of all in long line the remains of the bold garrison which had fought so well. The men who had started two short months ago to take part in a marriage pageant came forth haggard and hunger-bitten, — some grievously wounded, and sup- ported by their comrades ; others newly risen from sick-beds, and propping their tottering steps with the weapons they were about to surrender. The 170 AEMENOSA. procession closed with a miserable crowd of such of the women and children as had strength to crawl out into the open to escape the stench and reek of the corpses within the walls. Though they had started in close order, many figures fell out or dropped down by the way ; and when Armenosa met Amr at his tent door, the five black-robed shapes stood out in the pale grey mists of the morning like embodiments of the lingering hours of night unwilling to leave that world of horror to the revealing cruelty of the sun ! Amr, just risen from prayer, watched for the approach of the General who had so heroically defended the position. He expected a veteran like those who had led the imperial armies in Syria. But no tall figure with high crest and flowing chlamys appeared, only those dark spectral women moved through the mist. His first thought was that it was a vain appeal to his clemency; his second, that" it was some cunning piece of treachery. The voice that addressed him dispelled the suspicion. " Amr, General of the Arabs, we come as you have desired, to surrender ourselves, our treasures, and the keys of this city, on the conditions of the scroll you sent to us yesterday." BELBEIS. 171 " Who and what are you ? " " I am Armenosa, daughter of George the son of Mennas the Pagarch, Commander of the garrison of Belbeis, which I have held for fifty days for the illustrious Emperor Heraclius." And then the conqueror saw that he had been held at bay and defied by a woman, and a strong passion of anger and shame came over him; but when he beheld the dignity of her bearing, and her mourning garments, and saw the light of her brave spirit shining through her tears, he held his hand before his eyes, a,nd said — " The wives of Islam are brave : notably the wife of Aban Ibn Zeid helped her lord in the field with bow and spear ; but never, since our lord the Prophet (on whom be peace) brought us from ignorance to light, has a maiden fought for us or against us as thou hast done. Therefore fear nothing. If the word of Amr has weight with his master, his head shall fall rather than a hair of thine shall suffer." 172 CHAPTEE XV. THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. Again Memphis was keeping holiday, for the great festival of the Loosing of the Waters had come. As in the case of the spring feast of the Smelling of the Zephyr, the rites and observances that accompany the autumn ceremony go back for their origin to hoar antiquity. They have undergone many changes since the days of the Pharaohs, as new races and new religions have successively held sway over the people. The ideas of a mythology long since dead reappear at intervals through the vesture of customs that are distinctly symbolic of Christian doctrine, and traces of the faith of the Cross underlie the superstructure raised by Islam. First the old myth of the Marriage of the Earth and Water common to so many Eastern nations THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. 173 found an expressive emblem in the act that every year broke the barrier and admitted the fertilising waters of the Nile to gladden and fructify the ex- pectant land. But with the amassing centuries the myth had been forgotten, and about it the annual ceremony had gathered a variety of customs obscene and licentious to the last degree. Practices grosser even than those which up to a recent date dis- graced the fairs in many of the cities of Egypt were frequent, and had of course a demoralising effect on the population. The Church wished to purify the feast, and sought to give it a religious character. She was unwilling to lose the idea of a bridal, but she wished to cleanse it from coarse associations and to connect it with sacred memories ; therefore the embalmed body of a virgin saint was lowered into the water. Later, perhaps at the time of which we write, a holy relic, usually the hand of some martyred maiden, was dropped with many ceremonies into the ancient stream. Later still a cross specially blessed by the Patriarch was substituted for the hand. This was the history of the Nile Feast, called sometimes the Benediction, but oftener the Loosing of the Waters. Like the Smelling of the Zephyr, it was a great 174 AEMENOSA. popular holiday, but it had a religious side and a peculiar ritual. The Pagarch, the Bishop of Memphis, and the high officers of State assembled early at the Church of the Virgin in Babylon. Hither the relic had been con- veyed on the previous night, and had been watched by the two nuns from the neighbouring convent who had been most strict in their devotions during the past year. At dawn the Bishop received the holy relic and touched certain sick folk with it, then prayers were said and litanies chanted, and all marched in solemn procession to Trajan's Canal, where embroidered tents were pitched, banners streamed, and censers smoked with incense. Now the Pagarch gave a signal, and suddenly, as if by magic, a hundred swarthy arms went to work with axes and mattocks, and in a few moments the dam of brown mud was cut through and the waters rushed in. Then a shower of gold-pieces was thrown into the ditch, to be scrambled for by the workmen with much laughter and shouting. Next the Pagarch and the clergy mounted a gilded barge, shaped like a monster ring-dove, and from its prow dropped the relic into the water. Then with a mighty fanfaron of trumpets and clash of cymbals the stately vessel THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. 175 moved slowly across the Nile, so that the great ones might take part in the second and statelier pageant which was to honour the city of Memphis. The chief feature of this was a meeting of George and Oeladion, who, after a celebration of the Holy Mys- teries, met in a rich pavilion outside the old Temple of Ptah. There they ate and drank and exchanged compliments. The children of the chief men of the city sang a hymn in honour of the day, and then the two great ones departed to receive their civil and military guests in the gardens of their palaces. It was arranged that the early services in the Melchite and Jacobite churches should end at about the same time, and the subsequent pro- cessions through the streets were so timed that George and Celadion should enter the large de- corated tent simultaneously but at opposite doors, meet before a sort of altar decorated with flowers, and after exchanging formal greetings take their state in the high gilded chairs. All the prelim- inaries of the ceremony had been carefully arranged, and nothing marred the order. At the same moment the music which accompanied the two processions was heard in the distance — one band coming from the great "White Church, the other 176 AEMENOSA. from the Church of St Gabriel the Harbinger. The strains were loud and triumphant, but as they both played the same hymn in honour of the Emperor, there was no rivalry. At last, as the trumpets pealed loudest, the two heroes of the day entered the pavilion. White curtains looped with silver cords were drawn to admit George, and scarlet curtains with golden cords were drawn to admit Celadion. Both paused and expressed in formal phrase their votive wishes for the health of the Emperor. Then they embraced and took their seats, having before them the altar wreathed with flowers, and over their heads the gold ring-dove, sign of the imperial sovereignty in Egypt. The tent was filled with officers of high rank — the judges, the under -judges, the Superin- tendent of the Board of Punishments, the city councillors, the Superintendent of the Taxes, the Inspectors of the Eevenues, Markets, and Gran- aries, the Master of the Games, — all bearing high- sounding titles in imitation of the ranks and orders of the Byzantine Court, and all having degrees of precedence assigned to them, which it was a grave offence to transgress. Their mantles, their insignia, the length and colour of their tunics, the number THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. 177 of straps on their sandals, the angle at which they held their various emblems of ofQce, — all were marked by special provisions in the great Book of Etiquette, which regulated questions of costume and carriage in the remotest cities and provinces of the empire. Egypt was then, as it has ever been, ready as a waxen tablet to receive super- ficial impressions, but constant in preserving under- neath its immemorial type of character. This is absolutely indelible, and was written in the faces of the groups that ranged themselves on the white side of the pavilion. They were unmistakably the descendants of the men whose mummies lay in the tombs of Thebes, and who had held the rod, the scourge, and the scales when their captive slaves built the Pyramids. Nothing could be more marked than the contrast between the Egyptian side and the Greek side. Straight eyebrows, high cheek-bones, full lips, were the marks of the faces that bowed themselves thrice at every mention of the august Emperor's name on the left of the two thrones. In spite of curled hair, chlamys, and buskin, the civic officers were by blood and heredity Egyptians. Behind and around Ce- ladion every figure was European. Straight profiles, M 178 AEMENOSA. fair complexions, and rounded limbs showed the breed of the officers and men who practically gar- risoned Memphis, Babylon, and Alexandria. Their crested helmets, shields, and short swords were the time-honoured equipments of the well-greaved Greeks. After the exchange of salutations between the chiefs of the two nations, they seated themselves at the same moment on their chairs. George raised his staff of office. The city herald, crowned with an olive chaplet, proclaimed silence, and a choir of boys and maidens in white vestments ranged themselves on each side of the altar and sang a hymn. There was a pause after the last strain died away. Then the choregus who had trained the singers came forward and received two purses of gold from George and Celadion. Slaves entered with wine and fruits, and the ceremonious silence was broken by the exchange of congratulations, praises of the grace- fulness of the choric hymn, and hopes that the dreaded Nile would be a good one. So well tutored were the Greeks that not a word about the impending invasion was spoken on their side, though once or twice the ominous name Islam was mentioned by the Egyptians. At last the signal for breaking up the THE LOOSING OF THE WATEES. 179 assembly was passed from the chamberlains to the heralds, and from the heralds to the captain of the escort. There was that peculiar pause of expectation which precedes the dismissal of such gatherings, each one assenting to his neighbour's remark as a hint to him not to continue the conversation. Then the talk slipped from a continuous buzz into a dropping fire of single sentences. Suddenly a cry beyond the power of ushers and heralds to silence was borne from the crowd into the great square. There was a confusion of sounds in which cries of fear, shouts of wonder, and summons to arms were all blended in a wild medley. " The enemy ! the enemy ! Treason ! George — Islam — Amr — we are betrayed ! Cut them to pieces ! Let them pass." George, in spite of a tremendous effort at self- control, grew livid and trembled. Celadion laid his hand on his sword, descended the steps of the dais, and moved with his officers to the door of the pavilion, which was rudely torn open from without. Through a lane in the crowd of holiday-keepers, trampling over all in their way, dashed a troop of Arab horsemen guarding a swift camel with a negro and a woman on its back. 180 AEMENOSA. The multitude of white-robed men and women resembled a sea of foam-crested waves parting before one of the huge high-prowed vessels that took their name from the ship of the desert. The horsemen halted in front of the tent steps. The dromedary knelt, and George saw that the woman she carried was no other than his daughter Armenosa. All those who were standing near recognised her, and a strange sigh of suppressed wonder passed from one to the other. The negro dismounted and handed a scroll to George. For a moment he hesitated to take it, and asked himself if he could deny his knowledge of the character; but a translation was appended, and seeing, or fancying he saw, suspicion in every eye, he said — " Whatever this may mean, it is for all to hear. There are no secrets betweep me and the enemy of Egypt and the faith. Noble, Celadion, read this scroll, and then, if it is fitting, we will publish its contents aloud." Celadion ran his eye over the Greek translation, and said dryly enough — " The unbeliever has captured your daughter and restores her to you, whether in good faith or from policy the saints only know. Our feast must end. THE LOOSING OF THE WATEES. 181 St Michael only knows if our Nile will not run blood instead of water before many days are over. We must at once to Babylon. Leo," to an officer, "take a maniple and guard the Pagarch and the Lady Armenosa to his palace." He whispered a further command; but George could not have heard it had he spoken aloud, for all the passion of his love for his child had broken out, and she was sobbing in his arms. Then the crowd who were afar off as well as those who were near knew it was Armenosa. " Eead the scroll, — tell us what has happened." "Proclaim silence, herald," said the Greek com- mander; and stepping back on the dais, he spoke with a clear ringing voice audible to all. "We learned yesterday that the soldiers of the False Prophet have had some successes over the garrisons of Pelusium and Belbeis. But we resolved to hold our festival, as the solemn services of the churches wherewithal the feast begins may bring the blessing of God and of His saints on our counsels and our arms. We have not, however, ceased to make preparations for defence. Sooner than we had expected the armies of Amr have advanced, and have sent an envoy with the letter that I 182 AEMENOSA. now read. 'la the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate! Amr-ibn-el-Asi, servant of Omar Caliph at Medina, to the illustrious George, called the Pagarch, greeting. Be it known unto you that your daughter has fallen into our hands, and might be held as a lawful prey and captive of our sword. But we desire not that there be war between us until thou hast rejected the terms that shall be brought to thee in good time. Eeceive the maiden pure and unhurt, and let our clemency teach you to submit, for you are not '" Celadion broke off. "There are words here that it is not fitting to read before the people. They are addressed to you, and should be read privately." But there was no choice. The people were stirred to a frenzy of curiosity. " No ! no ! There is nothing to be hidden. Eead," cried the mob. George motioned with his hand. He had not resumed his seat, but still clasped his daughter. "Have I your permission to read the whole message? Beware, I warn you. There is danger in it." " Eead, read ! " shouted the crowd. THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. 183 ''Eead if the scroll charges me with treachery. I appeal from it to the Emperor," said George. "Hush! for the saints' sake hush, father!" said Armenosa. Celadion resumed : " ' Let our clemency teach you to submit. I speak to you as to one unto whom Allah has given understanding, and who art not like those who make unto themselves a god of the man Heraclius.'" The Greek commander dropped the parchment with a gesture of horror that wa'S not all acting, though the trick of expressing extravagant loyalty to the Emperor by gestures of abject concurrence in his praises, and by starts of horror at anything that could offend him, was stamped from their earliest years into the soldiers and courtiers of Constantinople. "I had bitten my tongue in two ere it should have uttered such a blasphemy. Comrades, forget that you have heard me speak," cried Celadion. " It is a plot to sow dissension amongst us," cried George ; " a babe can read such a transparent arti- fice as this. Amr has restored my child that he may appear to be in accord with me. I ask you to be patient," 184 AEMENOSA. "No patience with traitors. Treachery ! treachery! The Jacobites are trafScking with the Moslem. They deny the two natures in Christ, and they are in treaty with the Moslem." The old fanatic spirit was aroused, and the mob, not knowing with certainty' what had happened, harked back to the well-known cry and the phrase that came easiest to their lips. The Melchites and Jacobites were rapidly drawing together, one on one side of the square and the other on the other, leaving in the midst the Arab horsemen and the dromedary that had brought Armenosa. Celadion saw he had gone too far. Again he ordered the herald to proclaim silence, and directly the clamour lulled began to speak. " Citizens ! the infidel has blasphemed our sacred and immortal Emperor. He is upon us, inflamed with madness and lifted up with pride because he has overcome the fishermen of Pelusium and the vine-dressers of Belbeis. If any citizen of Memphis has trafficked with him " — he looked "at George — " vengeance shall not halt ; but for that there will be a time hereafter. Meantime I must hasten to Babylon; our citadel is no Pelusium to yield in a week. Depart each to his ward. I will hold THE LOOSING OF THE WATERS. 185 a council, and by noon you shall each know what duty is assigned you. The noble George accompanies me to the fortress and brings his daughter with him. Be our watchword KeracKus." He drew his sword and raised it aloft. At the signal he was girt with a ring of flashing steel. The legionaries waved their spears and clashed their shields. Pearing some violence, the gigantic negro drew his scimitar and advanced as if to seize Armenosa. The Arabs uttered their shrill cry, and drew together as if to resist the attack they deemed imminent. '' Assure the envoy that his person is sacred," said George. " I had forgot," said Celadion, and in a few words he bade the Arabs go in peace, promising to answer their master's message in due season. Then, in strange contrast with its beginning, the Feast of the Nile ended. Some hurried away in panic to their homes to try and hide their treasures of jewels and money. Others went to their several wards to await their orders. Others ran into the open churches to pray. All asked questions of neighbours who knew as little as they did of the meaning of the strange scene. But in a crisis like 186 AEMENOSA. this there are always spirits who want to do some- thing original. So, as George and his party left the square, a few set their teeth and began to hiss. One of these was Lampo the dyer. In a moment a hand smelling villainously of asafoetida was put across his mouth. "Peace. Hush thy snakes' music," said Batalan the chemist. " It may cause a riot. There is danger, no doubt, but until the swords are out there is a hope some glue may be found to stick them to their scabbards. Our holiday is marred, but we may have a merry Nile-cutting yet." "A merry throat-cutting you mean. Have you heard how the Moslems got into Bosra?" "By the gate probably." " No. By the treachery of Eomanus. Have you heard how they got into Damascus ? " " Perhaps I have, and perhaps I have not." " By the treachery of Josias. And do you know how they will get into Memphis ? " "By fools like you sowing suspicion among the defenders." 187 CHAPTEK XVI. TEMPTATION. The noble George accompanies me to the for- tress." The significance of this sentence was only too clear to the Pagarch. At last his enemies had grounds on which to base their suspicions of his loyalty. For years he had struggled against the efforts of the Melchites to prove his complicity with the Prophet of Islam. Stories of the wildest kind were circulated to show the intimacy of his "corre- spondence with Mohammed, and many of the tales still find a place in the pages of grave historians. No wonder, then, that prejudiced contemporaries believed them implicitly. Amr's treatment of Armenosa had produced precisely the result which he most desired. Whether a politic design or a 188 AEMENOSA. generous impulse prompted his action can never be known. • At all events, he had by a stroke cut the crafty webs that George had been weaving ever since his elevation to the government of Egypt. The hostile faction had a handle against him, and his own friends began to waver in their belief in him. That scene in the great square of Memphis could never be forgotten. An imputation on the loyalty of the Jacobite chief had been made in the most public place, and had been left practically answer- less. The sentence in Amr's letter — " I speak unto you as unto one to whom Allah has given understanding, and not as I would to one of those who make to themselves a god of the man Heraclius'' — ^had, it seemed, to those who heard it, only one meaning. It proved that messages had passed between the chief of Islam and the foremost Christian layman in Egypt which depreciated the authority and dig- nity of the orthodox Emperor, for at that moment the current rumours of the heterodoxy of Heraclius were forgotten. These were private matters between the man's God and himself. He who sat on the purple throne the ruler at Constantinople was the conqueror of the Persian sun- worshippers ; he had TEMPTATION. 189 overthrown "Chosroes Iscariot, who was burning for ever in hell." ^ Complicity with his enemies was treachery to the faith. Then a thought rose in men's minds which aggra- vated George's guilt. He had been lately honoured with extraordinary marks of royal favour. In spite of his leanings to the Monophysite heresy— for his outward conformity had always been regarded as a hypocrisy — he had been preferred to men of unblemished loyalty, and offered an alliance with the Imperial family. While they were enjoying his liberal largesses and gazing at his splendid pageants, the flaws in their benefactor were forgotten ; but now that everything had failed, they felt that they had a right to reproach him as not only a traitor but an ingrate. He, forsooth, whom Herac- lius had delighted to honour as none of the orthodox had been honoured, had been plotting against his lord and betraying the people committed to his charge ! Then, as men talked over the day's events, super- subtle brains devised a new reading of them. Had not George known of the imperial defeat at Csesarea 1 In these words Heraclius announced his final victory. His manifesto began, "0 be joyful in the Lord." 190 AEMENOSA. when the wedding procession was sent forth ? Was not the diversion of the treasure to Belheis part of a plan to plunder Egypt, to bribe Amr ? And was not the price of this Judas-like treachery the safety of Armenosa ? At any other time the religious passions would have caught fire, a cry would have been raised, and George the hero of yesterday would have been the martyr of the mob ; but now the duty of resisting the Arab extinguished every other thought. The city was in a panic: the fierce Oiitlanders had been seen in the midst of Memphis. Stories of their wild shapes and uncouth arms flew from mouth to mouth. A crowd can usually only think of what they see. Moslem spearmen were visible and tangible ; George's treachery might be only one of the thousand floating accusations that always surrounded a high official. And though, had the Pagarch appeared in any public place, the crowd would have wreaked their fury on him, in Babylon he was secure. Yet it is doubtful if personal freedom from violence compensated for the sense of indignity that domi- nated every other feeling in George's mind, as he found himself alone in a tower chamber of the fortress, a prisoner in all but name. TEMPTATION. 191 " This was the end of alL" These were the words he repeated over and over again to himself as he walked to and fro. For this he had turned aside from entering the holy calling of the priesthood ; for this he had relinquished all the happiness of domestic life ; for this he had forfeited the regard of the saintly Menas, and wronged the loyal love of Marcus, and sacrificed his daughter's happiness. A noble and unselfish man would have been full of remorse for the deadly peril in which his ambi- tion had placed Armenosa. A religious and genuine man would have been full of gratitude to God for giving him so noble a daughter, and for saving her almost by miracle from a hideous fate ; but George had walked so long in crooked ways, and party hate, the curse of his Church and age, had so long lorded it in his bosom, that he only saw a victory of the Melchites and his own shameful defeat. The triumph that Celadion's courtesy thinly veiled was complete. He, the Pagarch, was a detected conspirator, trusted by none ; indeed the iron doors which his enemy had closed on him were his only protection from the just revenge of his betrayed friends. He saw how he stood clearly, and he faced the facts. . . . But a man who has been fighting all his life soon 192 AEMENOSA. recovers from a blow, recalls the victories he has scored in field or council, and rallies himself for another throw with Fortune. Egotism alwaj^s makes its own wrong right. After a few hours' reflection George had persuaded himself that his only mistake had been temporising with the Melchites, and that for his Church and nation there was one hope, and one only, — an alliance offensive and defensive with the invader. The soldiers of the Prophet, as he had always believed in his heart, were going to win. He would seek the first opportunity to communicate with Amr. If possible, he would acquaint him with the weak points in the fortress, and with the various positions of the defenders, so as to hasten the cap- ture of the place ; but in any case he would assure him of his good offices in the future, and pledge himself to make his people acquiesce in the new rule. Bigotry, interest, revenge, and all the voices that, like Ahab's prophets at Eamoth-gilead, unite to hurry men to evil, pressed on George at this crisis- time of his history, and urged him to cast in his lot with the foes of Christ. On the other side he seemed to hear the appeal of his daughter's voice, solitary as that of Micaiah the son of Imlah, pleading with TEMPTATION. 193 him to resist the tempters. As the struggle went on he instinctively put his hands before his eyes to shut out the image of her face, looking as he knew it would look did she guess the purpose in his heart. Since her mother's death Armenosa had em- bodied everything that was fair, honourable, and pure to her father. She had been to him a con- science. Her bright smile assured him he was right. If there was trouble on her face he felt he must be wrong. But those that were against her outnumbered far those that were on her side. All the years of hypocrisy and resistance to his better angel were allies and auxiliaries of the evil; and now he put aside the pleading face and the recol- lection of the victories it had helped him to win, and rose impatiently as if to do something that should put hesitation henceforth out of his power. For a moment, in the thick of the fight between the good and the evil principles, he forgot where he was, and fancied himself free to act as well as to resolve. Then it was borne in upon him that he was to all intents and purposes a prisoner. He saw the bare stone walls of his chamber, so different from the marbles and draperies of the palace at Memphis, and flung open the window to get a breath of air. N 194 AEMENOSA. But only a hot blast scorched his face, and walls and battlements, rising one behind the other, showed him how completely he was debarred from the outer world. He could hear the hum and bustle of the people in the narrow streets. Some pleasure-seekers, who had not heard of the approach of the enemy, re- turning laughing and singing from the festival; others, panic-stricken citizens, hurrying to bring provisions within the walls. But the only moving objects he could see were the helmeted head and spear-point of the sentry passing to and fro in the court below, and catching and losing alternately the gleam of the westering sun. Then followed a yet wilder panic of rage and hate. He was trapped and shackled, kept in bonds, while the great world game of empire was left to be played by sworders and courtiers. But do what they might, he was still the representative of Her- aclius. In the last resort Amr must treat with him! The light faded out, and there was no glint of sunset flame on morion or spear-head, but his pas- sion was not spent. He walked to and fro in the growing darkness, lashing himself into a fury, piling TEMPTATION. 195 up the wrongs he had suffered to justify the wrong he was to do. At last there was the sound of a key turning in the door. It opened, and a soldier entered with a lamp. "The Jew Eliezer asks admission; he brings a permit from the commander. Shall he enter ? " Before the consent was given the Jew had glided into the room. Never in the days of his greatest pride had Eliezer bowed so obsequiously. " Do not mock me with marks of reverence," he said, angrily, for the word " permit " had emphasised the sense of his powerlessness. "I am a prisoner and a disgraced man. You and your tribe lent your money on bad security. Go and make what terms you can with the Melehites.'' " Hush, most Illustrious. These stone walls have ears, and a stray word reported to Celadion might mean ruin. I have with difficulty obtained this interview, and the moments are golden. Listen and trust me." " Speak ; let me hear if your voice agrees with that of the unseen spirits." " If they are spirits of truth, it must agree with them. Once for all, know that the imperial sway is 196 AEMENOSA. over in Egypt. The mercenary legions will hold out for a few weeks or months, but the end is certain." "When you last saw me you helped me to beggar myself to aid Heraclius." " I suffered more than you did ; but I confess I was wrong to try and uphold the tyrant. Strong in self-conceit, I set myself against the counsel of our wisest rabbis, thinking by bribery to win back the tomb of Jeremiah. I have been punished. I should have known, when Heraclius issued his edict against our nation at Jerusalem, his doom was sealed, and his fate was to be like that of Sennacherib and Heliodorus. I know now that it was blind folly — nay, worse, it was falsehood to my people to help him, and I have been punished. There is no resisting what is written, and the gold I gave you to aid the Christian has strengthened the Moslem. Egypt is given to Islam. This fortress will only keep him back for a while, then — what follows depends on you. At once renew friendship with Amr. Tell him he has an ally in the heart of the citadel. Assure him at once before it is too late. A word tww before he has conquered will be worth a thousand words when the breach is in the wall and his standard on the tower of the Beacon." TEMPTATION. 197 Eliezer stopped for some reply often, as he poured out his appeal in a voice nervous with passion, though studiously subdued, indeed at times almost a whisper ; but George remained looking at the speaker like one dazed. He was struck silent with wonder at the suddenness with which another hand, as it were, had seized him, and was dragging him across the line he was on the eve of passing alone. There was no daughter's voice to warn him. Conscience had let go the helm. The bark was caught in the rapids, and hung for a moment in suspense; then, oarless and pilotless, was carried away by the whirling waters. " You say to me what they all say," he murmured, dreamily. " Assuredly there is no hope elsewhere. But we have only a few moments. Write me one word to Amr assuring him of your good offices. Tell him that his foes are the Melchites only, and that the Jacobites (save a few fanatics) still look to you for guidance." The Jew drew from his girdle a small writing-case, took out a slip of papyrus, and placed a reed pen in George's hand. He wrote almost the very words Eliezer whispered in his ear 198 AEMENOSA. The paper was scarcely signed and superscribed when they heard the key turn in the lock. Eliezer thrust his prize into his breast and rose. The sentinel entered and announced that the hour granted for the interview was over, and motioned the Jew to go out before him. Then George was left alone. The darkness closed on the solitary man as he sat with clenched hands and shut lip, stern in his resolu- tion to baffle his rivals though the price of his triumph was the wreck of his nation and the slavery of his Church. It is not easy to estimate the weight of conse- quence which that night's decision involved. To George the Pagarch, a mysterious figure whose true name had until lately almost dropped out of history, was committed far more than the future of Memphis. It is not too much to say that had a united front opposed Islam at that critical hour, the tide of Arab conquest would have been rolled back. Alexandria with all its wealth of learning would not have fallen. Constantinople would have been saved its six years' siege. The military spirit of the Greeks, which was crushed by the second capture of Alexandria, would TEMPTATION. 199 not have died out, and the part played by Constanti- nople in the future would have been worthy of her Eoman origin. George first set the fatal example of trafficking with the Moslem which in later years wrecked the crusader kingdom in Palestine and sold Spain to the Moors. He first taught the Arab that, though foiled in battle, he need never despair of victory as long as Christendom was divided against itself. 200 CHAPTER XVII. THE PEIEST'S SECEET. And now began the work of preparation for the siege. It seemed as if sufficient victuals and war material would never be brought into the fortress to enable the garrison to hold out as long as they hoped to do, and the constant messages of scouts and spies bringing word of the near approach of the enemy warned Celadion to hasten the laggards by naming an hour when the gates should be finally closed. The priest Menas had been working hard all day amongst the poorer people, comforting the women and children, a large number of whom it was neces- sary to send out of Babylon, and seeing to the conveyance of the most precious vessels to places of secrecy and security. An hour after sunset he THE PKIEST'S secret. 201 had finished his more pressing tasks, and sat with Marcus in the room where we first saw him. "Had you not better go to rest?" said Marcus. "You have had a weary day." " No, my son," he said. " I have sent my reader away, and asked you to come here because I have yet to do the most important work of all, and I must have your help in it. Lock the outer door, so that no one may intrude or overhear. Come nearer and listen. To day I have despatched by trustworthy hands to Memphis and the convents the most costly and holy chalices, patens, flagons, and consecrated vessels that we have inherited from ancient days ; but the treasure of treasures remains, and that I will intrust neither to Church nor monas- tery. You and you only, my son, shall know where it is concealed. The priest of this church, the oldest in Babylon — perhaps in the world — is a guardian of a copy of the Holy Gospels which was partly written by the hand of the blessed evangelist St Mark. I received it from my predecessor Zacharias, who had it from the holy Molatius, who received it from Sergius the Martyr. This must never be touched by the infidel. If it is God's will that Egypt pass under the power of Omar, as Palestine and Syria 202 AEMENOSA. have done, we must bear it as a chastisement for our sins ; but this most sacred volume must be deposited where no sacrilegious touch can defile it. If God grants us peace, you will seek the spot where it is hidden and give it to his Holiness the Patriarch. If it is discovered in the meantime, the finder will read in this scroll which I shall bind round it, under what penalties he takes it from its case or shows it to any other eyes save those of Benjamin or his successor." " Where will you find a place of security ? The world is given over to bloodthirsty and deceitful men, and the spoiler's hand is everywhere." " I have thought anxiously. There is one spot and tomb in the desert not far from here, guarded by images set up by the old devil - worshippers. It is shunned of all, as though the lightning had blasted it." " Was there not a booth there long ago, dwelt in by a holy hermit ? " " There was a booth or the relics of one until the great storm wrecked it. But the dweller there was no holy hermit ; he was a parricide who fled thither to hide himself, and at last died by his own hand. This has added to the ill renown of the place, and makes THE pkiest's secret. 203 it safer for our purpose. Besides, who knows but the presence of the blessed Evangel may help to remove the curse." Thus saying, he took a lamp from the table and beckoned Marcus to follow him to his sleeping- chamber. Then he unscrewed a bracket which supported a crucifix over the head of the mattress on which he slept, and disclosed a small door in the wall. This he opened, and putting in his hand drew out a silver case wrapped in folds of em- broidered silk. This he reverently kissed himself, and then held it to the lips of his companion. The silver case was tightly closed, so that no portion of the sacred writing was exposed to the air. " I have seen it once," he whispered ; " but then it was shown to me after forty days of fasting and prayer by my predecessor Zacharias (equal to angels), on the Easter Day before he entered into his rest." Then he motioned Marcus to be silent, and after closing the small door and replacing the crucifix, they quitted the house. The streets v/ere crowded with people, and piled with huge barrels and crates of provisions which were being brought in at the last moment. The officers, however, kept the mob in tolerable order 204 AEMENOSA. with strokes of their vine-sticks ; and as the priest was recognised, and supposed to be going to visit some sick or dying penitent, a passage was respect- fully made for him, which would have been accorded to no one else. Turning sharply down an alley, he soon gained an unfrequented street and reached the city gate, which was open. They were not unwatched, though the throng of citizens were occupied with their own business, and hurrying to get it finished before it should be too late. Two eyes, sharp as poniards, peering from behind a money-changer's counter, were fixed on the priest and Marcus, noting their every movement. Their owner, Eliezer, knew that many sacred vessels had been conveyed away already, and he guessed that Marcus was carrying silver or golden treasures of especial value to some hiding-place outside the walls. He did not hesitate a moment, but called to a slave who sat outside the shop to close the shutters, and not to expect him at his evening meal. Then he joined the crowd, and slipping and gliding through its intricacies in his sna;ke-like fashion, regained sight of the men he had sought. When once the gate was passed he followed at a cautious distance, keeping to the left and moving parallel THE priest's secret. 205 with the two at a pace which was exactly adapted to theirs. Once in the desert, Menas paused and rested. There is no twilight in the East, and it was quite dark. Indeed it was not easy to find any landmarks or guiding points. They left the ruins of the village of Troja, devoutly believed to have been founded by Menelaus, to the left, and walked as fast as they could. As they got out of reach of the noise of the busy fortress-city behind them there were no sounds except the occasional cry of a jackal. The silence, and darkness, and mystery of the place, seemed to forbid speech, and they exchanged no word. Sud- denly Menas stopped. "There is something stirring behind us," he said. Marcus had heard nothing, and they moved on. The sky was clouded, and the few stars that were visible lacked the usual clear-cut, gem-like bright- ness of the Egyptian night. It was sultry, and there was a trouble in the air that filled the two men with a sense of the neighbourhood of unseen powers other than the shapeless darkness and the buffeting wind. Their tread made a muffled sound, save when the hurrying feet struck against a stone. 206 AEMENOSA. " I wish we had a moon to light us," said Marcus. " It is hard to know if we are bearing towards the tomb. Surely it is farther toward the left.'' " Fear not ; I shall be guided aright. If the moon shone, we should be liable to be seen. I have a lantern which we can light when we come to the place. The ground is beginning to rise. We are not far from the end now." But with Menas the spirit was stronger than the flesh, and he had to halt and take breath many times as he traversed the long sandy ascent. The hot wind in their faces made the task harder than it would have been otherwise, and the older man often needed the support of the younger. They tried to pierce the darkness, but heavy slumberous clouds covered the sky, and hid the few stars that had been visible. There was no distinct horizon-line, and the objects that seemed for a moment outlined in front of them altered their position and shape so often that the disappointed eyes refused to be cheated by cloud phantasies, and distrusted the reality of the actual hillocks and mounds until they were absolutely fronting them. The powers of the priest had nearly given way, and he could only clasp his hands in thankfulness when the tomb, the old THE PEIEST'S SECfiET. 207 treasure-guarding god, and the few palm-stems, relics of the outcast's hut, were at last reached. " Eest, father, for a few moments. You are faint and exhausted. Lean against this slab and take breath." The old man obeyed, and remained for some time motionless as the stone that supported him. The moments of perfect quiet reinvigorated him, and after lying apparently dead for a while, he rose with a long-drawn sigh of relief. "I am strong," he said. "Now let us light the lantern, and be careful. The wind is gone down, and that wall will shelter us while I get a light." After some delay and many vain attempts the flint-iire was struck and the lantern lighted. It showed a cavity in the side of the hill large enough to admit a man, and inside the entrance there were hieroglyphs and symbols partially obliterated. " Stoop and enter ; after a while you will find your- self in a chamber. In that there is a stone coffin, the lid of which you can slip aside. Put the precious case enclosed in its wrapping into the coffin, and note well the paintings that are above the sarcophagus, that you may know it again. Stay ; unfold the silk and read the scroll I have tied round the case." 208 AEMENOSA. Marcus read — "This case, containing the Gospel of the holy evangelist St Mark, placed here on the feast of the assumption of Isaac the son of Abraham, in the month Mesre, in the year three hundred and twenty- one of the righteous martyrs, when the armies of the infidel approached the city of Memphis and the fortress of Babylon, by the priest Menas. thou who lightest upon this treasure more precious than fine gold, give it unto the holy hands of the Patriarch who shall then bear sway in the preaching of St Mark. In this be faithful, as thou lookest for mercy in the day of the Lord." The reader paused as he asked himself, " Would his be the hands that should open this depository and take out the sacred scroll, and when and how should he visit the spot ? Or would the secret be disclosed in distant years when he was dead and forgotten ? " He thrust aside these thoughts and forced himself to obey Menas mechanically. He took the case, then entered the passage, groped his way into the larger chamber, and found the coffin. By a vehement exertion of strength he slid aside the narrow but heavy lid. There was no corpse inside, — nothing THE priest's secret. 209 save a few withered lotus-flowers. He placed the silver case in the coffin, readjusted the lid, and returned. He found Menas listening intently, with one finger on his lip and the other raised to command silence. Marcus held his breath and uttered no sound. He could hear nothing except a slight rustling amidst some brown wood. "It is a lizard moving amongst the dry palm- leaves," he said. " The noise I heard was too loud for that." " It is a fox. They are common enough here. I have caught them often in a trap when I was a boy." There was a still longer pause of suspense, but all was quiet. "I must have been deceived," said the old man. " You have deposited the treasure in the place I told you of safely ? But I know you have, my son, for you have never failed me yet in duty or obedience. We have done all we can, and must leave the issue to God." He blew out the little lantern and prepared to return. The wind had fallen, and the whole desert prospect seemed lighter than before. The shape of the hillocks and the ruins that dotted the sand here 210 ARMENOSA. and there were now dimly seen. They walked faster than when they were going from the city, as the ground sloped downwards and was easier for the old man's breath than the ascent, slight though it was. They had not gone far before a curious figure rose from behind the pile of palm-trunks and stones that formed the ruins of the hut. It was thin, sinuous, and clothed in a long yellow robe. There was no mistaking the Jew Eliezer. "I am glad I came," he muttered. "These two Nazarenes are hiding some treasure in that tomb. I will not search for it now. In the days to come the wealthy man who is wise will be as one of the poor. It will be hard to keep jewels or gold from the clutch of the Arabs. All the nation are sending their plate and stones of price to Italy. All the money left us after the advances to George I have laid out in grain. But that neither Pagarch nor commander shall know yet. In the siege they will soon feel the bite of hunger, and then they will come and crouch to me for a morsel of bread as they did to Samuel the prophet." So saying he set his face towards Babylon, and entered the city a few mo- ments after Menas and Marcus. 211 CHAPTEE XVIII. THE COUNCIL OF WAR. Feom the west tower of the Castle of the Beacon the modern traveller who is venturesome enough to climb it sees stretched before him the Saracenic splendours of Cairo — the mosques and minarets, the tombg and the palaces, of nine Mohammedan dyn- asties. Above all he sees the marvellous Citadel Mosque, like the palace of a magian enchanter or a pageant dome of cloud-land. On the September day in the year 639, Marcus, looking intently, beheld nothing but fawn-coloured sand alternating with waving palm -groves. The boundary was the Mo- kattam range of hills. Between lay vineyards and patches of verdure in green strips, and then sand, nothing but sand. Above him wheeled the Egyptian kites with their flapping wings; from below rose 212 AKMENOSA. the stir of awakening life in the busy town that clustered round the fortress. He strained his eyes until they were weary. It seemed as if those he expected would never come. At last from behind the sandhills, in and out between the stems of the date-palms, he saw a thin moving line. Here and there a patch of colour, then a flash as of steel or brass touched by sun -fire. These specks of light became a sparkling unbroken line, sending out rays like a procession of tiny suns. Next figures moving steadily came out. White is the prevailing colour of the riders. Then the undulating sandhills inter- vene between them and Marcus, and the ground swallows them up. He closes his tired eyes to rest them for a moment, then fixes them on a nearer point where he knows the line will next appear. He waits some time, but when once it emerges all is distinct and clear. Not a line of white robes and starry radiating steel, but an army of which each unit is a warrior joying in the neigh of the battle- steed — longing for death beneath the shadow of swords. " They have come at last," said a deep but trem- bling voice. It was that of the Pagarch, who had mounted the stairs and come out upon the platform THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 213 unheard, while Marcus was absorbed in watching the approach of the host. " I must give the alarm. They will be upon us before we are prepared to meet them ! " "Wait. All the preparations that can be made are made. Cannot you trust our Melchite com- mander for that? The valiant Celadion has his outposts who will fall back in exemplary military fashion when they sight the enemy. There they are." And as he spoke Marcus saw a squadron of cav- alry in gilded helmets and corselets gallop across the sand and make for the shelter of the suburbs. No horsemen pursued them. The Arabs halted in a long line with their faces toward the town ; then, at the shrill word of command, changed their forma- tion and drew up in the shape of a widely extended crescent. They remained perfectly silent — not a chain jangled, not a steed stamped. Then a cry louder than the last rang out, and in a moment every trooper had dismounted and stood beside his horse. There was yet a third cry, and the white turbans were all prostrate on the sand. It was the hour of prayer, an auspicious and happy hour for approaching within sight of the goal of their 214 AEMEKOSA. enterprise, and every heart in the host beat high with the assurance that it was an omen of victory. They repeated their prayers, made the proper genu- flections, then rose as one man. The sight bore in upon the mind of Marcus the great lesson which, as we read the history, stamps itself on our minds — "These men think one thing, believe one thing, hope one thing. We are only agreed in hatred of those whom we should love." "We need keen swords in our hands, and wise counsel in our heads, to repel the attack of such a host. But God and His holy angels are with us, and we will not despair." The Pagarch said nothing in reply, but strained his eyes to observe the character and further pro- ceedings of the enemy. There was no slackness in the preparations of the besieged. All day boats were crossing the river, bringing provisions and material from Memphis. Men and asses laden with grain crowded the bridge of boats. The defences of the island of Ehoda were strengthened by numerous stockades, and strongly hooped barrels, said to contain some new and mysterious projectile, were stored in the high-walled THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 215 granaries on the side of the island farthest from the castle. Huge catapults were swung on the battle- ments by heavy chains. Sheaves of arrows were laid in readiness near every embrasure, slit, and eyelet- hole of the walls. Cart-loads of enormous stones from the quarries of Tourah were brought in and hoisted by cranes to the catapult platforms. Iron kettles and ladles to contain boiling oil were ranged close by the catapults. Every available inch of room, even ledges and window-sills, were filled with cross- bow bolts. One courtyard was devoted to the smiths with anvils and hammers ready to repair injuries done to the headpieces and coats of mail. But the greatest care was taken with the fosse or ditch which encircled the castle. This had been thick sown with sharp iron spikes, spear-heads, and jagged nails. To render it more difficult to pass, pits were dug in it, and these were filled with pointed steel rods, like modern bayonets. Over these pits were placed thin planks and mats covered with earth, so as to tempt the besiegers to trust them as safe footholds. Then it was hoped that the front-rank men, writhing and struggling in these infernal traps, would delay their following sufficiently to hold them as a mark for the arrow volleys and crossbow-bolts. In a word, as the 216 AEMENOSA. Arabs would try to carry the walls with a rush, the Greeks by preparation and tactic laboured to render this impossible. The work was terribly hard. All day the naked sun was ablaze in the sky, scorching and blistering the brown flesh of the slaves who dragged the heavy machines along the sand or struggled with them through the zigzag alleys of the stifling fortress. Bruised by the vine-stick of the legionary, bleeding from the hide-whip of the taskmaster, tortured by the pressure of weights which always fell with cruel incidence on the weak place in each man's body, stung and bitten by mosquitoes, half-poisoned by fllthy flies, the Egyptian worked as he had worked under Pharaoh, doggedly and hopelessly, in dust and blindness, reek and sweat, never for himself, but always to strengthen the conqueror of yesterday against the conqueror of to-morrow. It was the last weary day of a week of weary days. Extra rations of bread and fish had been served to the labourers, and half the effective force of the garrison, consisting of soldiers who had been resting during the day, were turned out to guard the battle- ments. Many of the rank and file had not seen any service save that afforded by keeping in order the THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 217 Jacobite factions, but they were officered by tribunes and centurions who had conquered the Persians under Heraclius, and who still moved with the gait and bearing of men who fought under the eagles of all-conquering Eome. Four of these chief captains — Leo, Michael, Nicephorus, and Phocas — were sum- moned by Celadion to meet in a hall of the fortress, called from its containing a portrait of the Emperor the Koom of the Picture, there to take final counsel and decision. Though Celadion had exchanged his silver armour for a serviceable coat of mail, and his delicate buskins for plain leather sandals, there was enough of the courtier in his voice and gesture to show how differ- ent had been his training from that of his associates. The four ofBcers were men of the time, compounded in varying proportions of fighter and theologian. Leo was nearly all soldier and Phocas all bigot, whereas Mcephorus had moods and moments when casuistry overlaid his militarism like the filigree pattern on his armour, and Michael's orthodoxy was tempered by quotations from profane writers. "When all were seated the commaiider spoke thus : — " Comrades, it is likely to be our good fortune to 218 AEMENOSA. defend this post for our orthodox and adorable Emperor against the heathen worshippers of the False Prophet. Drunk with some successes over the Syrians, they have sent their swordsmen to attack this imperial province. But they forget that it cost the Persian Cambyses ten thousand men to do what they are attempting with five thousand. We cannot wish anything better than that they should dash themselves against' this rock. We are brave, we have had time to prepare for their reception, and I will not anticipate anything but victory. I have called you together to ask your counsel. To-morrow the enemy will with their usual insolence summon us to surrender. Shall we parley with their envoy from the walls or admit him into the fortress ? " There was a pause : the veterans had sneered and shrugged their shoulders during the ornate flourishes of the preface, but the practical question with which their commander ended set them thinking, and being Orientals, they did not ask themselves first, as a Western man would have asked himself, Which of these two plans is the wiser, and which shall we do ? but, What second motive has the commaDder in his mind prompting him to ask this question ? and they concluded aright that he desired to see if any had THE COUNCIL OF WAR. 219 trafficked with the Moslem; for a traitor would desire to admit the enemy's envoy, but a loyal man would parley with him from the walls. And the four high captains, who were really loyal, having no desire for or interest in treachery, said with one voice, " Open not the gates, valiant commander. Hold no speech with the infidel save from the walls." And all held up their right hands, and Celadion, making a pause as if to assure himself that they were unanimous, said — " It is well." He proceeded — " To you, Nicephorus, who are our stratopedarch, I give command of the northern bastion ; to you, Michael, the west; to you Phocas, the east; and to you, Leo, the south. Is this wise in your eyes ? " Again he paused, again they held up their hands, and again he said — " It is well." " And now," he said, assuming a more confidential voice, "I have assigned you your places, I assume my own. Should you need help at any post, I will not fail you ; but while you are fighting the enemy without, I shall watch the enemy within. I have taken the first step. The Pagarch, who has given 220 AEMENOSA. me his parole, sleeps to-night in the house of the priest Menas, with whom he has placed his daughter. But he has not regained his freedom. To-morrow he will find quarters suited to his dignity prepared for him in the northern bastion — thy charge, Mce- phorus — and he will not leave them. New locks were put on the door yesterday. The keys to fit them are in my girdle." He flung them on the table with a jangle of iron that woke the echoes of the arched roof. " Does this please you, comrades stead- fast and orthodox ? " For a third time he paused, and a third time they held up their hands, and said — " It is well." " The last matter is this. You know Callinicus of Heliopolis. He has toiled for years to compound a certain war-fire which shall do in a moment what our arrows, crossbows, and mangonels take months to do. It will burn up an army like the lightning of heaven. Of this I have a secret store laid up on Ehoda. Does it please you that we bring it to the citadel ? " The proposal was received very differently from the former ones. " Callinicus is a sorcerer," said the burly ignoramus Leo. THE COUNCIL OF WAK. 221 " He who mimics the lightning shall perish by the lightning," said the epigrammatic Michael. "We might use it against the Moslem, though not, I think, in a war with Christians," said the scrupulous Nicephorus. " A monophysite Christian is worse than a mono- theistic paynim," said the dogmatic Phocas. To assent to this proposition or to deny it was equally dangerous, and none of the four was dis- posed to touch the gantlet thrown down by the last speaker. " We will trust to our own weapons then. I did but desire to know the pleasures of your valiancies. We are of one mind in all that is important. E"ow to sleep, that we may be ready for to-morrow." The commandant rose. The four captains saluted him by touching their winged helmets, then bent the knee to the portrait of the Emperor which hung on the wall, and departed to their several quarters. Celadion stood for a moment in a reverie after he was left alone. " In spite of your wisdom the war fire shall be at hand. The priests tell us these Koran-readers are the spawn of Sathanas, and the hot flame will only give them an early taste of the climate they are des- tined for." 322 CHAPTEE XIX. THE FIRST ASSAULT. "Blessing and peace, blessing and peace, blessing and peace." Thrice the call to prayer resounded, in strange contrast with the work to which it was the prologue. Then reverently and quietly Amr's little airoiy performed their devotions. Kot an inclination of the body, not a lifting of the hands, not a movement of the feet, was omitted. As they worship in the mosques to-day, they worshipped in the plain where those mosques were to cluster so proudly a few years later. Every man dismounted, stuck his spear in the ground, and standing beside his horse, copied each bow and genuflection, each word and tone of his commander. Then Amr spoke— " Comrades, we have offered the Nazarenes who THE FIRST ASSAULT. 223 dwell in the city such terms as are fitting. We have ofifered them life and peace if they become the followers of the Prophet (may God bless and save him), and if they are rebellious and obstinate, the sword is drawn and the arrow-feather at the bow- string. Fear not the number of the enemy. It is written in the Koran, even in the Sura called ' the spoils ' revealed at Mecca, ' If there be one hundred of you who persevere with constancy, they shall overcome two hundred ; and if they be a thousand of you, they shall overcome- two thousand by the permission of God, for God is with those who persevere.' " As he ended, the whole line moved forward until they were within bow-shot of the walls. Then suddenly and all at once the arrow-storm hailed on the defenders. If a Greek spearman showed him- self on the battlements, if a single eyelet-hole in the wall showed the flesh of a face or the glint of a morion, it was a target for an archer who never missed his mark. Then steadily, under cover of the discharge, Zobair, and Abadah the gigantic negro, hurried forward, with lash and goad and prick of lance, a mixed gang of blacks, Copts, and fellaheen whose charge it was to drag the huge palm-trunks 224 AEMENOSA. that were to bridge the moat and batter the gates. Twelve enormous masses of timber crashed and scraped and rolled along, impelled by hundreds of naked wretches for whom there was imminent death in front and certain death behind. The sun blazed overhead. Amr's officers had not had time to choose only able - bodied men, and weaklings fainted and dropped out. The ropes of palm-fibre often broke, and had to be pieced again, causing recurring delay and discouragement. The attack was to be directed against the east gate. Here half a mile of burning sand had to be covered by this primitive siege-train, and for the last two hundred yards they were fully exposed to the dis- charge of darts and arrows from the walls. Owing, as we have seen, to the perpetual vigilance of the Arabs, the Greek bowmen were at a terrible disadvantage. Still some of the showers of shafts poured into the midst of the crowded gang of men who dragged the palm-trunks, and pierced the straining breasts of the slaves who acted as team-leaders. If a man dropped, his replacement caused further harass- ment ; for when a halt was called, for however short a time, to drag out the body of a disabled man, the whole team stood at gaze, and were easily riddled THE FIEST ASSAULT. 225 by arrows and missiles innumerable. At last the foremost of the line of palm-trunks was brought within sight of the moat. The bottom of this was defended, as we have seen, by sharp spikes and spear-heads, but these had been concealed with layers of planks artfully covered with earth and shrubs. In all such manoeuvres the Greeks were masters, and no effort had been spared to make the fosse-work look natural and safe. It seemed a pit of brown Nile mud, with shrubs of prickly pear tuft- ing its sloping banks. All looked so secure that Zobair ordered the rear men to push the trunk down the slope, and the front rank to jump into the fosse, divide, and be ready to drag it up the opposite side. If groups of four or five had gone down into the treacherous ditch this might have been done. Indeed a few lithe Arabs actually crossed the planks without their giving way, and scrambled up the castle side of the fosse. But in their zeal to obey their leader a troop of fifty men rushed down together. The false stays cracked beneath the weight, and in a few minutes the fosse was a mass of bleeding, struggling, writhing bodies. The first rank lay spiked on lance-heads, nails, and calthrops, while' the second rank, pouring down p 226 AHMENOSA. upon them in masses, pinned their comrades on the bed of torture and death. Paralysed at the sight, the Arab archers forgot to maintain their fire, and the Greek slingers, seizing the opportunity, poured volleys of heavy stones from the battlements on the choice troops who were protecting the teams. At the same time the bowmen from the slits and eye- let-holes in the flanking towers showered arrows with jagged points on the shrieking, cursing mass of bodies that struggled in the fosse. Celadion and Phocas watched the success of their device from the battlements. " Don't waste your arrows, men. That tall fellow has as many shafts in him as Sebastian, while there are two devils who have climbed up under the cactus-bushes this side with whole skins. Ha ! the crossbow-bolt has knocked them over." " I pray your Excellency not to liken the circum- cised infidel to a holy saint and martyr of the Church. Such random words can bring no blessing on us, and the day is not won yet. These men show more fight than the Sun-worshippers." " Thanks for thy reminder, good Phocas. By St George, that black fellow must be under the protec- tion of Sathanas himself. He seems to enjoy our THE I-IEST ASSAULT. 227 archers' welcome as if it were a girls' rose-pelting on a holiday." "It is he they call Abadah, doubtless from Abaddon, the home of the fiends infernal. But see, he re- treats." " It is only to rally his squadrons. Look, he has cleft to the chin that man in Syrian head-gear who was turning to fly. Now he brings up another team, and they are fixing the palm-tree as a bridge to span the fosse. It will cost some men to fix it if our bolts fly straight and " A sharp cry interrupted the speech, and Phocas fell heavily with a clatter of steel on the pavement beside his chief, the blood flowing profusely from an arrow-wound in the mouth. The temporary panic which had seized the Arab archers had passed, and arrows, aimed with the same fatal accuracy as before the interruption, came hailing in at every crevice. Celadion drew out the shaft and called to two soldiers to carry Phocas to the surgeon. He stayed to ascertain that the wound was not serious. This done, he returned to his post. On the spot where Phocas had fallen he found the Jacobite Marcus. " How," he said angrily ; " I ordered you to keep 228 AKMENOSA. in your father's quarters. You risk arrest by trans- gressing my commands.'' "I should have risked the fate of Egypt had I obeyed them. We are attacked on- the south side. This assault made with such show is not led by Amr. The Moslem general himself is at the gate of St Sergius." " The gate over which your chief and future father- in-law is imprisoned, and where the Jacobites are herding. And you bring me news of this." "I do ; but on the way I alarmed Leo, who was in a sound sleep. The walls are lined by this time, and Amr will fail, as Zobair and Abadah have failed." The cry " To arms ! " and a shrill trumpet-call broke further speech. Celadion saw that the alarm had not been given a moment too soon. The picked troops of the Arabs were forming for the attack, marshalled by a figure on an iron-grey war-steed, who was evidently Amr himself. At the moment Celadion and Marcus gained the battlements a rain of arrows whizzed and hurtled round them. Then a band of twenty men with shaven heads and half-naked bodies, wild with the drunkenness of battle, singing a strange chant of which the only THE FIEST ASSAULT. 229 word audible was the name of Allah, plunged two and two into the fosse, carrying on their shoulders a long scaling-ladder fashioned of rope and cane. Either by accident or knowledge, they chose a spot on the earth-covered platform which bore their weight, crossed with incredible quickness, and began to fix the ladder against the wall. One man, seem- ingly of prodigious strength, knelt while another climbed on his shoulders. A third clambered on the back of the second, and was actually within reach of a low window barred with iron, to which he prepared to bind a rope. A feat which at any other time would have seemed the trick of a troop of acrobats, appeared then a military exploit whereof the success meant ruin. Marcus rushed down the tower stairs and dashed his poniard into the frenzied face that stared at him through the grating. The face changed to a mass of blood and disappeared as the man fell backward, toppling down his two supporters with yells of pain blending with their battle chant. But now a like fate to that which befell Zobair overtook the troops of Amr. "Whether chance or secret advice had led the twenty to choose the point for crossing the fosse which they selected, and where 230 AEMENOSA. the planks were well supported, can never be known ; but even if the timely arrival of Marcus had not baffled the attack, it would have failed owing to the fiery fervour of the Arabs. Instead of adventuring across the fosse at one narrow point and ia a line of two and two, a mass of swordsmen crowded down the slope, to fall as their brethren had done on the points and jags of the hidden chevaux-de-frise. There was a repetition of the carnage ; but as the desperation and fury of the picked soldiers were greater than that of the others, the wounds inflicted were more ghastly than those received at the northern tower. Veterans who had fought in all the battles of Islam, and who had seen the scimitar of the Prophet flash in the front of twenty battles, were not to be disheartened. They poured over the bodies of the impaled men; they fought through the chaos of writhing limbs and gashed faces which formed a bridge of bleeding trampled humanity; and then found themselves baffled by the tall masses of Eoman masonry that fronted them, stark, sheer, and impregnable. Amr saw that his first attack had failed, but before he gave the signal for retreat he determined on one desperate venture. He did not imagine that THE FIEST ASSAULT. 231 it would succeed. It was written that Babylon was not to fall on that day, but he saw that something was required to sustain the courage of his men. It would give them something besides the slaughter of the morning to talk over in their tents. It would supply a strain for their singers and a story for their tale-tellers of which he should be the hero. The zeal of the little army needed to be kept at fever- heat, and hitherto the campaign, though successful, had been barren of high exploits. Amr resolved to cover the morning's repulse with a feat of daring which should set ablaze the fire of his minstrels and strike dumb the prophets of disaster. He took a rapid glance to see what he could attempt. Any effort to effect a lodgment was hopeless. He guessed by the steam rising above the battlements that the defenders were getting ready their caldrons of boil- ing pitch to pour down on the struggling mass in the fosse, and before this was ready he must sum- mon out of reach of it as many of his brave men as could struggle back. He foresaw that the soldiers who would pass that pit of horror would be few. He could not give them victory that day, but he could give them an omen of victory on the morrow. As we have said, a few of the forlorn-hope had 232 AEMBNOSA. struggled across the fosse, and, gasping from the passage, stood dazed before the solid walls which faced them. Every window and arrow-slit rained barbed and poisoned shafts. ITo frieze, or cornice, or gargoyle stood out for hand to grasp or rope to coil round. The ten (for the zealots had lost half their number) stood round their scaling-ladders like shipwrecked sailors on a reef. While round them surged the blood-red wave tossing on the narrow shelf, they stood on the wreckage and the war-drift of the battle. As it was, there seemed no retreat for them. One or two might by a miracle recross the fosse over the bridge of bodies; but the rest could not escape, and the first stream of boiling pitch that poured over the battlements must scald and shrivel to death the men under it. But the eyes of the Greeks might be diverted from the defence for a moment, and in the instant of slack- ness the Arabs might retreat. Every man of these Dare-aUs was a treasure to Amr as the signet on his right hand, and as it was, their failure had dashed the courage of his followers. He saw all this in an instant, but he saw something else. Just below the barred window so nearly entered there was a small doorway long disused and built up with THE FIEST ASSAULT. 233 masonry. Over this doorway was a narrow niche once occupied by a figure of St George, and in this a gilded crucifix wreathed with flowers had been placed in honour of the Nile festival. Amr pushed ahead of his men, thrust past those who were hesi- tating on the brink, and, leaping from his horse, dashed into the fosse, crossed on a fallen tree-trunk, and scrambled up the other side. Then with his poised spear he aimed at the crucifix, and struck it full in the midst of the superscription scroll. The whole feat was transacted in a moment. The cry of horror from the Greeks was lost in the victor shout of the Arabs as their hero recrossed, sprang into his saddle, and, waving his hand in air, called on all to follow him. In the panic of astonishment, as he had foreseen, the rain of missiles ceased, and nine of the forlorn-hope scrambled back across the fosse. In the sweep and swing of achievement he carried all before him. It seemed to the fierce religionists that they had gained their end. They forgot in that mad moment that Babylon was un- touched, and that they had been foiled and flung from its walls like surf from the shore. They only saw the fragment of the cross sticking on Amr's lance-point. The symbol of the Nazarenes had been 234 AEMENOSA. overthrown. Under the screen of this exploit the champion of Islam drew off his men. Zobair and Abadah had suffered too heavily to remain longer under arrow-fire, and, leaving a pile of dead and wounded to fester in the sun, they made for their encampment. At first they had thought the shout announced some real success, but Amr's flying figure seeking his tent told them that he had fared no better than they had, and had only raised the note of triumph to cover his discomfiture. 235 CHAPTER XX. THE SIEGE. Aemenosa had viewed the battle from the tower of the Beacon. She was thankful that the enemy- had been foiled, but the sights of horror she had witnessed recalled Belbeis. Images of ghastly com- bats when the scimitar cleft the spear, visions of faces transfixed with arrows, shapes of rearing horses gushing with blood from stabs of lances, all crowded in a welter of horror before eyes to which hard sorrow had denied the respite and relief of tears. At last, when there was nothing more to see and the end had come, she crept down the stairs, hurried through crooked passages and winding streets, and entered the Church of the Virgin. It was almost dark, but a gleam of sunshine lighted up the pictured saints. Michael's brandished sword 236 AEMENOSA. and Stephen's golden censer were touched with fire. She knelt before the picture of the Christ and covered her face with her hands. Of the many holy places consecrated by legend and miracle in olden Babylon, that was the holiest spot of all. Here, according to immemorial tradition, the blessed Mary and Jesus had rested, and the spot was speci- ally sacred to Armenosa, for in the font beside the altar she had been baptised by Menas. Here she had often prayed in girlhood. Here she had received the holy mysteries with her mother shortly before her death. Here she had prayed with Marcus before her simpler maiden life was absorbed in the pubHe career at Memphis. And now in her day of tribu- lation she came back to the old shrine to see if there was a ray of hope for her Church, her father, or her lover. It was long before a word of prayer would come, and she knelt as motionless as the pictured saints around her, until even the single sunset gleam had died out and the darkness had settled down. At last the fountain was unsealed and she was able to pray. Her devotions ended, she rose to leave the church, when a footfall she would have known amongst a thousand struck her ear, and a man THE SIEGE. 237 carrying a lamp entered and stood beside her. There was no voice that thrilled her as this voice did, for it was the voice of her lover. It was their first meeting since he had carried her, senseless and fainting, to the Convent of the Holy Tree. In the interval she had been snatched from him, by her father's ambition, to become the bride of Constantine; she had been the champion of her nation and a captive to the infidel. As in the never- to-be-forgotten dream, a river of blood seemed to have separated her from him. But now, though that river still surged round them, he held her in his arms, she looked up into his face. "Dearest, it seemed as if we should never meet. I have longed to see you, but dared not after your father told me you bade me forget you, and that for our Church's sake you gave your hand to Con- stantine.'' " Marcus, had I not your own words ? " She took a small scroll from a locket she wore round her neck and put it in his hands. " Yes, your own words, ' Obey thy father and my father — a short parting, a long reunion.' " " I never wrote those words," he said. Then a dread that had been slumbering in 238 AEMENOSA. Armenosa's mind awoke never to be lulled to sleep again — her father had deceived her. But even this suspicion could not mar the joy of that sweet meeting. All the old days came back, and they instinctively sought the inner shrine together. Then, after kneeling for a short time in prayer, they went into the outer court of the church and sat a while hand in hand as they had sat as children. " When I heard of your danger I hated myself for not having gone with your escort. I could have disguised myself, and to have been near you would have been everything." "I could not have expected that after the letter you thought you had received from me. But I prayed for you so during the days when we were shut up in Belbeis." " Tell me of that. All Egypt rang with your name. I was proud to think my queen had done so bravely ! " " No, no. Let us talk whUe we can of the present. Every moment is precious. Tell me of our General. Is he hopeful of help from the Emperor ? Is there danger of our having to yield to Amr ? Marcus, Marcus, anything but that ! " and she hid her face on his shoulder. THE SIEGE. 239 He soothed her with gentle words, and cheered her with brave ones. Then the time came to part. They had only been together for an hour, but it seemed an age of joy, for our happiest hours are not always our shortest hours. They lingered for a while in the porch, and as they said " Farewell " the star of love, clear-cut as a gem, came out in the glowing sky. This was the only uninterrupted meeting of the lovers for many weary weeks. Individual hopes and sorrows were swallowed up in the work that absorbed all the energies of old and young, men and women, in the beleaguered fortress. The days and weeks that followed the first unsuc- cessful assault were terribly like each other, only that as time went on everything grew harder to the besieged. The daily routine of duty was more diffi- cult, as the w