Ben Hur (44 page)

"Three times the colchyte kissed the floor, and then he replied,
knowing the dead could not hear him, 'At Essouan lives Ne-ne-hofra,
beautiful as Athor the beautiful. Send for her. She has refused all
the lords and princes, and I know not how many kings; but who can
say no to Oraetes?'"

IV.

"Ne-ne-hofra descended the Nile in a barge richer than any ever
before seen, attended by an army in barges each but a little less
fine. All Nubia and Egypt, and a myriad from Libya, and a host of
Troglodytes, and not a few Macrobii from beyond the Mountains
of the Moon, lined the tented shores to see the cortege pass,
wafted by perfumed winds and golden oars.

"Through a dromos of sphinxes and couchant double-winged lions
she was borne, and set down before Oraetes sitting on a throne
specially erected at the sculptured pylon of the palace. He raised
her up, gave her place by his side, clasped the uraeus upon her arm,
kissed her, and Ne-ne-hofra was queen of all queens.

"That was not enough for the wise Oraetes; he wanted love, and a
queen happy in his love. So he dealt with her tenderly, showing her
his possessions, cities, palaces, people; his armies, his ships:
and with his own hand he led her through his treasure-house,
saying, 'O. Ne-ne-hofra! but kiss me in love, and they are
all thine.'

"And, thinking she could be happy, if she was not then, she kissed
him once, twice, thrice—kissed him thrice, his hundred and ten
years notwithstanding.

"The first year she was happy, and it was very short; the third year
she was wretched, and it was very long; then she was enlightened:
that which she thought love of Oraetes was only daze of his power.
Well for her had the daze endured! Her spirits deserted her; she had
long spells of tears, and her women could not remember when they
heard her laugh; of the roses on her cheeks only ashes remained;
she languished and faded gradually, but certainly. Some said she
was haunted by the Erinnyes for cruelty to a lover; others, that she
was stricken by some god envious of Oraetes. Whatever the cause of
her decline, the charms of the magicians availed not to restore
her, and the prescript of the doctor was equally without virtue.
Ne-ne-hofra was given over to die.

"Oraetes chose a crypt for her up in the tombs of the queens; and,
calling the master sculptors and painters to Memphis, he set them
to work upon designs more elaborate than any even in the great
galleries of the dead kings.

"'O thou beautiful as Athor herself, my queen!' said the king,
whose hundred and thirteen years did not lessen his ardor as a
lover, 'Tell me, I pray, the ailment of which, alas! thou art so
certainly perishing before my eyes.'

"'You will not love me any more if I tell you,' she said, in doubt
and fear.

"'Not love you! I will love you the more. I swear it, by the genii
of Amente! by the eye of Osiris, I swear it! Speak!' he cried,
passionate as a lover, authoritative as a king.

"'Hear, then,' she said. 'There is an anchorite, the oldest and
holiest of his class, in a cave near Essouan. His name is Menopha.
He was my teacher and guardian. Send for him, O Oraetes, and he
will tell you that you seek to know; he will also help you find
the cure for my affliction.'

"Oraetes arose rejoicing. He went away in spirit a hundred years
younger than when he came."

V.

"'Speak!' said Oraetes to Menopha, in the palace at Memphis.

"And Menopha replied, 'Most mighty king, if you were young, I should
not answer, because I am yet pleased with life; as it is, I will say
the queen, like any other mortal, is paying the penalty of a crime.'

"'A crime!' exclaimed Oraetes, angrily.

"Menopha bowed very low.

"'Yes; to herself.'

"'I am not in mood for riddles,' said the king.

"'What I say is not a riddle, as you shall hear. Ne-ne-hofra grew
up under my eyes, and confided every incident of her life to me;
among others, that she loved the son of her father's gardener,
Barbec by name.'

"Oraetes's frown, strangely enough, began to dissipate.

"'With that love in her heart, O king, she came to you; of that
love she is dying.'

"'Where is the gardener's son now?' asked Oraetes.

"'In Essouan.'

"The king went out and gave two orders. To one oeris he said,
'Go to Essouan and bring hither a youth named Barbec. You will
find him in the garden of the queen's father;' to another,
'Assemble workmen and cattle and tools, and construct for me
in Lake Chemmis an island, which, though laden with a temple,
a palace, and a garden, and all manner of trees bearing fruit,
and all manner of vines, shall nevertheless float about as the
winds may blow it. Make the island, and let it be fully furnished
by the time the moon begins to wane.'

"Then to the queen he said,

"'Be of cheer. I know all, and have sent for Barbec.'

"Ne-ne-hofra kissed his hands.

"'You shall have him to yourself, and he you to himself; nor shall
any disturb your loves for a year.'

"She kissed his feet; he raised her, and kissed her in return;
and the rose came back to her cheek, the scarlet to her lips,
and the laughter to her heart."

VI.

"For one year Ne-ne-hofra and Barbec the gardener floated as
the winds blew on the island of Chemmis, which became one of
the wonders of the world; never a home of love more beautiful;
one year, seeing no one and existing for no one but themselves.
Then she returned in state to the palace in Memphis.

"'Now whom lovest thou best?' asked the king.

"She kissed his cheek and said, 'Take me back, O good king, for I
am cured.'

"Oraetes laughed, none the worse, that moment, of his hundred and
fourteen years.

"'Then it is true, as Menopha said: ha, ha, ha! it is true, the cure
of love is love.'

"'Even so,' she replied.

"Suddenly his manner changed, and his look became terrible.

"'I did not find it so,' he said.

"She shrank affrighted.

"'Thou guilty!' he continued. 'Thy offense to Oraetes the man
he forgives; but thy offence to Oraetes the king remains to
be punished.'

"She cast herself at his feet.

"'Hush!' he cried. 'Thou art dead!'

"He clapped his hands, and a terrible procession came in—a procession
of parachistes, or embalmers, each with some implement or material of
his loathsome art.

"The King pointed to Ne-ne-hofra.

"'She is dead. Do thy work well.'"

VII.

"Ne-ne-hofra the beautiful, after seventy-two days, was carried
to the crypt chosen for her the year before, and laid with her
queenly predecessors; yet there was no funeral procession in her
honor across the sacred lake."

At the conclusion of the story, Ben-Hur was sitting at the
Egyptian's feet, and her hand upon the tiller was covered by
his hand.

"Menopha was wrong," he said.

"How?"

"Love lives by loving."

"Then there is no cure for it?"

"Yes. Oraetes found the cure."

"What was it?"

"Death."

"You are a good listener, O son of Arrius."

And so with conversation and stories, they whiled the hours away.
As they stepped ashore, she said,

"To-morrow we go to the city."

"But you will be at the games?" he asked.

"Oh yes."

"I will send you my colors."

With that they separated.

Ilderim returned to the dowar next day about the third hour. As
he dismounted, a man whom he recognized as of his own tribe came
to him and said, "O sheik, I was bidden give thee this package,
with request that thou read it at once. If there be answer, I was
to wait thy pleasure."

Ilderim gave the package immediate attention. The seal was
already broken. The address ran, TO VALERIUS GRATUS AT CAESAREA.

"Abaddon take him!" growled the sheik, at discovering a letter
in Latin.

Had the missive been in Greek or Arabic, he could have read it;
as it was, the utmost he could make out was the signature in bold
Roman letters—MESSALA—whereat his eyes twinkled.

"Where is the young Jew?" he asked.

"In the field with the horses," a servant replied.

The sheik replaced the papyrus in its envelopes, and, tucking the
package under his girdle, remounted the horse. That moment a
stranger made his appearance, coming, apparently, from the city.

"I am looking for Sheik Ilderim, surnamed the Generous," the stranger
said.

His language and attire bespoke him a Roman.

What he could not read, he yet could speak; so the old Arab answered,
with dignity, "I am Sheik Ilderim."

The man's eyes fell; he raised them again, and said, with forced
composure, "I heard you had need of a driver for the games."

Ilderim's lip under the white mustache curled contemptuously.

"Go thy way," he said. "I have a driver."

He turned to ride away, but the man, lingering, spoke again.

"Sheik, I am a lover of horses, and they say you have the most
beautiful in the world."

The old man was touched; he drew rein, as if on the point of
yielding to the flattery, but finally replied, "Not to-day,
not to-day; some other time I will show them to you. I am too
busy just now."

He rode to the field, while the stranger betook himself to town
again with a smiling countenance. He had accomplished his mission.

And every day thereafter, down to the great day of the games,
a man—sometimes two or three men—came to the sheik at the
Orchard, pretending to seek an engagement as driver.

In such manner Messala kept watch over Ben-Hur.

The sheik waited, well satisfied, until Ben-Hur drew his horses
off the field for the forenoon—well satisfied, for he had seen
them, after being put through all the other paces, run full speed
in such manner that it did not seem there were one the slowest and
another the fastest—run in other words, as if the four were one.

"This afternoon, O sheik, I will give Sirius back to you."
Ben-Hur patted the neck of the old horse as he spoke. "I will
give him back, and take to the chariot."

"So soon?" Ilderim asked.

"With such as these, good sheik, one day suffices. They are not afraid;
they have a man's intelligence, and they love the exercise. This one,"
he shook a rein over the back of the youngest of the four—"you called
him Aldebaran, I believe—is the swiftest; in once round a stadium he
would lead the others thrice his length."

Ilderim pulled his beard, and said, with twinkling eyes, "Aldebaran is
the swiftest; but what of the slowest?"

"This is he." Ben-Hur shook the rein over Antares. "This is he:
but he will win, for, look you, sheik, he will run his utmost all
day—all day; and, as the sun goes down, he will reach his swiftest."

"Right again," said Ilderim.

"I have but one fear, O sheik."

The sheik became doubly serious.

"In his greed of triumph, a Roman cannot keep honor pure. In the
games—all of them, mark you—their tricks are infinite; in chariot
racing their knavery extends to everything—from horse to driver,
from driver to master. Wherefore, good sheik, look well to all
thou hast; from this till the trial is over, let no stranger so
much as see the horses. Would you be perfectly safe, do more—keep
watch over them with armed hand as well as sleepless eye; then I
will have no fear of the end."

At the door of the tent they dismounted.

"What you say shall be attended to. By the splendor of God, no hand
shall come near them except it belong to one of the faithful.
To-night I will set watches. But, son of Arrius"—Ilderim drew
forth the package, and opened it slowly, while they walked to
the divan and seated themselves—"son of Arrius, see thou here,
and help me with thy Latin."

He passed the despatch to Ben-Hur.

"There; read—and read aloud, rendering what thou findest into
the tongue of thy fathers. Latin is an abomination."

Ben-Hur was in good spirits, and began the reading carelessly.
"'MESSALA TO GRATUS!'" He paused. A premonition drove the blood
to his heart. Ilderim observed his agitation.

"Well; I am waiting."

Ben-Hur prayed pardon, and recommenced the paper, which, it is
sufficient to say, was one of the duplicates of the letter
despatched so carefully to Gratus by Messala the morning after
the revel in the palace.

The paragraphs in the beginning were remarkable only as proof
that the writer had not outgrown his habit of mockery; when they
were passed, and the reader came to the parts intended to refresh
the memory of Gratus, his voice trembled, and twice he stopped to
regain his self-control. By a strong effort he continued. "'I recall
further,'" he read, "'that thou didst make disposition of the family
of Hur'"—there the reader again paused and drew a long breath—"'both
of us at the time supposing the plan hit upon to be the most effective
possible for the purposes in view, which were silence and delivery over
to inevitable but natural death.'"

Here Ben-Hur broke down utterly. The paper fell from his hands,
and he covered his face.

"They are dead—dead. I alone am left."

The sheik had been a silent, but not unsympathetic, witness of the
young man's suffering; now he arose and said, "Son of Arrius, it is
for me to beg thy pardon. Read the paper by thyself. When thou art
strong enough to give the rest of it to me, send word, and I will
return."

He went out of the tent, and nothing in all his life became him
better.

Ben-Hur flung himself on the divan and gave way to his feelings.
When somewhat recovered, he recollected that a portion of the letter
remained unread, and, taking it up, he resumed the reading. "Thou
wilt remember," the missive ran, "what thou didst with the mother
and sister of the malefactor; yet, if now I yield to a desire to
learn if they be living or dead"—Ben-Hur started, and read again,
and then again, and at last broke into exclamation. "He does not
know they are dead; he does not know it! Blessed be the name of
the Lord! there is yet hope." He finished the sentence, and was
strengthened by it, and went on bravely to the end of the letter.