CHAPTER XXXIII - THE FUNERAL PYRE

The dual death in the royal family gave striking prominence to a curious superstition of the people in reference to the disposal of the dead. The bodies of Queens were carefully embalmed and laid to rest in the Hall of the Dead, where the remains of departed rulers were to be seen in an unbroken line, and various stages of disappearance, until it grew impossible to distinguish between the dust of the Queen-mother of the settlement and the earth to which the corpse had returned.

The body of Sazone would take its appointed place in this succession of death, but with respect to that of Vedrona, though so near to the throne, she had not actually ascended it, and hence must be cremated upon the funeral pyre, in order that her shade might be released from the influences of the earth. Lifted thus upon the wings of flame, she would be able to mount the Car of Phœbus as it rose above the mountain tops, and so be carried to the gardens of the blessed.

Whether Queens had power to snap the connection and secure liberty by their own divine right, or whether, owing to the inadvertent anomaly, they were condemned to remain earthbound, as would be the fate of ordinary individuals deprived of a funeral pyre, never appears to have suggested itself to the minds of the people. The priests and magicians had decreed the institutions, and they were supposed to know all about it. There the matter ended.

In accordance with another very deeply rooted superstition in the Orient, all funeral rites must be performed on the third day after decease. Before

that time the soul might obtain power to return, but with the third day, the fact of death was indisputably settled and the body had to be immediately disposed of.

This superstition of liberating the soul by fire demanded that the ceremonies should commence while it was yet dark in order that all preliminaries might be discharged and the pyre lighted before the appearance of the sun above the hills. To do this in the case of the loved and lamented Vedrona, meant a whole night of sorrowful demonstration and preparation for the sad farewell.

Before midnight every available position in the sacred amphitheatre had been appropriated. How different was this assembly from that gathered in the same place only three short days ago, when she for whom the pyre was now waiting, had so graciously recognised the enthusiastic plaudits of her people! In place of the thunder-roar of welcome by which she was then received, nothing but sighs, tears, and bitter lamentations could now be heard. The air was charged with magnetic sorrow, which rose in peculiarly dismal wails from the darkness around the pyre, and quivered along the road to the palace, only to be returned like the despairing moan of an astral seeking rest.

At length Meshrac appeared upon the steps of the palace holding high above his head the sacred torch, with which he performed certain magical evolutions, to summon the shade of the Princess from its wanderings in preparation for the funeral rites. These accomplished, the minor priests, who had outlined the circle of his operations, passed by, and each lit a similar brand from the magician's flame, then proceeded to light the first of the lamps produced by every person waiting along the route. From hand to hand on either side the weird uncanny bands of fire travelled, scarcely accomplishing more than adding jewel points to blackness and bringing into evidence a multitude of ghosts.

But while these two fiery serpents wriggled on their way, a strong detachment of the Queen's Guard passed down the steps and took up their position before the torch-bearers. Next came such representatives of the people as Casca had chosen to invite, followed by the slaves of the household, the lords and ladies in attendance, the officers and the Council. After these came the whole body of priests, magicians, and wise men, each separate group surrounding the particular altar at which they ministered, and clothed in all the mystical and magical honours pertaining to their positions. Meshrac, as master of the magicians, arrayed in cabalistic splendour, was borne in state upon the shoulders of

eight acolytes. Over the white robes of the priesthood Chryses wore the richly embroidered mantle and headgear of a patriarch in his ministry upon the golden altar. Hereon, protected by its crystal lantern, burned the lamp of sacred oil from which Glarces would presently be called upon to light the pyre.

Behind the altar came the couch with the form of Vedrona lying as if asleep. Dressed in the robes she had worn at the banquet, with her wealth of wavy golden hair covering her shoulders like a super-mantle, she looked as if, overcome with fatigue, she was stealing a refresher ere her maids disrobed her. It was a sweet - a peaceful sleep, without suspicion of uneasiness or troubled dreams.

The bier was reverently borne by the men of her own company of the guard, and attended by flower-wreathed virgins in white, who sang the melancholy dirge for the dead, within a circle of thurifers, burning incense to drive malicious spirits away.

Circumstances forbade more than a passing glance of sympathy and affection at the beautiful sleeper before the coming of Glarces attracted all attention. As chief mourner he was constrained to take his place. Never before had he feared to meet the people, but never in the history of humanity had any man so basely betrayed confidence, so heinously offended the traditions of morality, so criminally ruined the fondest hopes of a nation. He had spent the night endeavouring to find one redeeming excuse for himself, but had most miserably failed. Now the moment had arrived for the verdict of the people to be delivered, and with a crushing sense of the penalty he merited he took his place like a condemned man going to execution. His head was bare and bowed; across his chest his arms were folded as if in compact readiness to receive the blow. Again he seemed to lose himself, but now it was not in the merciful delirium of oblivion, but the horribly sickening sense of terror, in which the power to suffer was increased and only the strength of self-defence was lost. In the cold sweat of waking nightmare, without ability to resist, he took his place and moved forward to his doom.

But his judgments were always most severe upon himself. The confidence of his people was in this instance deeper than his own. That he had been the instrument of the murder was unfortunately beyond dispute, but that he was equally a victim with his sister was also as certainly believed. Where the guilt really lay no one knew at present, but suspicion, without any tangible or conceivable cause, generally turned in one direction. So it was that a great surprise awaited him, and the tender expression of

sorrowful sympathy by which he was greeted had a wonderful effect in strengthening him to perform the task before him.

Zhan and Zhade were the first to declare their unshaken confidence by mounting guard on either side of their master. This was not by arrangement or design, but much to the annoyance of the Queen, who had only consented to their presence out of deference to policy. Maphir had been commanded to take his place with the lions behind the personal slaves of the Princess, but while he waited, as the Prince passed by the brutes asserted their own choice, nor was Maphir able to change their determination. Lais protested, and vainly ordered their immediate return to quarters; royal edicts lack force in the animal world, and for once the authority was set at naught. An omen not without effect upon her superstitious mind.

The hunter was more than glad at the propitious incident, which was not altogether a surprise to him. It compelled him to keep in close attendance upon the Prince. Such a possibility having been previously considered between Teresh and himself, he speedily attempted to ascertain all the councillor desired to learn for the furtherance of his plans, but Glarces was determined to say nothing but what he was justly entitled to say in the public presence of his countrymen around the pyre. Maphir persisted, but the Prince was obdurate, and there it had to rest.

Lais made her first appearance as Queen in her own private chair carried by four slaves. It was not a time for State ceremonial, and in her anxiety for conciliation, as well as to disarm rumour and suspicion, which by an intangible but very real presence vexed and irritated her, she rather erred on the right side than otherwise. Still, the wish was abortive. She was received in ominous, sullen silence, which fell upon her hopes like a pall of death. The disquieting effect of her interview with Glarces had not yet been overcome, and the repudiation of the people added volume to her fears, increasing moment by moment as it became more and more certain that the feeling against her was deep-rooted and general. That she would be able to cope with it was never doubted, provided it could be held in check until the rites were over, but for the present she was compelled to bear its expression with the painful possibility upon her that the silence might at any moment break into hostile demonstration, and she be overpowered before measures to protect herself were possible. Never did the fortunes of a throne hang in such uncertain and dangerous jeopardy. The sword of Damocles was a tower of refuge in comparison. The attitude of the people made one thing certain to her mind- the day would be a fatal one to either herself or Glarces. Which would be the victim? Of that there

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appeared at present to be little doubt; but she would not fall easily, and trusted to fortune and her own ingenuity to secure the advantage.

At length the pyre was reached, and while the bier with its sleeping burden was reverently placed in position, the virgins again took up the funeral dirge, this time joined by the vast concourse of weeping spectators. In the journey Glarces had gathered strength from the sympathy extended, and was far more like himself than when he started. Occasionally he ventured to raise his eyes for a moment, but they drooped again under their weight of sorrow, in which it was hopeless for him to look for any adequate companionship. The multitude reached towards him, but he was out of all practical help in the depths of his despair. Nevertheless, the certainty that - he had not sacrificed their loyalty and good - will comforted him somewhat in his terrible ordeal.

Around the pyre twenty-one altars formed a magical circle, within which stood Chryses presiding over the one on which burned the sacred flame. When all but the officials and virgins had withdrawn from the enclosure the altar fires were lighted and preliminary ceremonies began. Gifts and sacrifices to the gods on behalf of the deceased were received and burned to the chanting invocations of priests; while at alternate fires the magicians presided with incantations and incense calculated to drive away the powers of evil and purify the pathway by which the released spirit must reach the celestial car.

This fully assured the presence and protection of the holy gods, and all the immortals were invoked to welcome and accompany the departed; after which the singers, keeping time to their voices by a grotesquely sinuous dance, chanted earth's farewell, and finally committed Vedrona to the care and keeping of the gods.

Now the Archpriest approached Glarces, led him within the circle between the altar and the pyre, and bade him speak, in accordance with custom, such words as he desired, then set the soul of the Princess free.

It was a kindly invitation to a fearful ordeal - an unspeakable sacrifice. It was the one act that would for ever separate him from all he loved! By the application of that torch he would drop the curtain of oblivion between himself and his sister - how could he do it? The realisation of it sickened him; robbed him of energy, will, and all intelligent control of his actions, while duty impelled him forward to do that against which he vehemently protested.

So did he quietly follow the leading of the priest to his assigned position. He passed his hand bewilderingly across his eyes - and started. It was as if

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Meshrac, by his magic art, had wrought a miracle, and transformed the Prince into his old confident, self-possessed self; as if the duty he had to discharge was to offer his sister the assurance of a nation's homage at the festival rather than say an eternal farewell at the pyre.

Superstitious humanity has been deftly educated at all times and in all nations, to accredit priests and magicians - they are really the same with different names - with miraculous powers. England is very much like Egypt in this respect, and nominal Christianity only next door to Paganism. Science and Reason, however, are now offering their discipleship to the Christ for the coming exodus, and the future morning is already bright with the daybreak of liberty. The magician has become the confrere of the jester and the clown in our entertainments; and the priest, who once was leader, is now on the outer edge of the rearguard of progress, vainly attempting to keep that position while the spluttering tallow-dips of his antiquated theology are burning.

Ignorance is no longer allowed to blind the eyes of justice, and the prophetic mantle is at length thrown around the shoulders of Reason and Intellect. The electric torch of Inspiration blazes in the hand of Science, and the world is marching back to God and righteousness along the highway of Knowledge and Logic, in the Röntgen rays of which we discover that all the working capital of priestly miracles are the stored up provisions of an all-wise Father for all necessities which can arise. Under this new guidance humanity, like the chrysalis, sheds the encumbering fetters of its lower stages and rises into the nobler atmosphere of spirituality combined with reason.

The experience of Glarces at that moment was no miracle, but the assertion of a law of nature which we are only just beginning to recognise. Edison has taught us how to preserve the voices of the dead; Marconi is demonstrating the fact of the tangibility of thought, and that wires may be laughed at in the presence of sympathetic attraction; but Glarces outstripped both these discoveries and found - given the sympathy of soul with soul - death itself can be annihilated, and the telegraphy of heart to heart is not only a fact from land to land but also from world to world.

It was this revelation that worked the so-called miracle. It was but a quiver - a lightning flash dying away into the blackness, but it was certain. He saw Vedrona, and was conscious that she recognised him! No wonder his face brightened! No wonder the stupendous fact was doubted but an instant later! It had its effect, however, giving him much needed strength for the present, and encouraging a hope for the future.

Lais was not so fortunate. For her the poise of destiny was dangerously unsteady, and the chances of success grew more and more uncertain. The only course upon which she could determine was to keep close to Glarces during the rites, so that, should her safety be imperilled, her dagger - which was carefully hidden, but ever ready - should first secure his death.

When Chryses conducted the Prince to the pyre she would have followed, but the priests restrained her, as none but the one to apply the torch was allowed within the circle. But when she saw the inexplicable, and, to her, appalling transformation come over him, her alarm banished all scruples, and she commanded her slaves to carry her forward.

Chryses hurriedly interposed.

“No one, O mighty Queen, save the Prince can enter here.”

“Am I not next of kin as well as Queen, O Priest?” she answered, with a defiance more threatening than sorrowful. “Forward, slaves!”

Chryses hesitated whether he should enforce his prerogative against such a contestant. It was only for an instant, but when he decided to maintain his authority it was too late. The slaves had passed the line of priests, and the muttered consternation of the people had also convinced Lais that she had made a mistake, but she would not go back.

Of this incident Glarces, in his ecstasy, knew nothing. The vision of enraptured immortality had passed across him and filled his soul with music vibrating in a hope too sweet even for the presence of Lais to disturb. It gave him all the needed strength for the duty he proceeded to discharge.

“Friends, citizens, and neighbours,” he began, in his usually calm, familiar voice; “nothing but my confidence in your desire for justice tempts me to speak to you in the presence of this awful witness. Whatever claim I have hitherto had to your confidence and sympathy has now been forfeited - “

“No, no!” was the sympathetic response.

“I thank you for such an evidence of your readiness to grant my request, but my time is short, and I pray you let me speak. It may be - I do not know - that this hand of mine has done the deed that brings the body of my sister, together with my happiness, my life, my hopes, here to be consumed. But if this be so, in the presence of the mighty gods, the yet unreleased spirit of my sister, and yourselves, I swear I am not conscious of it. The love existing between Vedrona and myself did not need to be spoken of before, you knew it; it was no selfish passion consuming itself

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in uncontrolled desire; it was like a divine mantle thrown over us by the gods to clothe us for service to yourselves, and in the glory of its tenderness you all partook. Of all the blessings Sahama has received this promised to be the greatest in its results, and in its loss the nation's hopes, as well as my own, have been destroyed.

“But if you who saw her so rarely - who knew her so slightly and whose lives are taken up with a thousand additional interests - felt the fragrance and sweetness of her nature, how much more was it known to me who dwelt continually in its sacred presence - who had no other duty or ambition but to watch and feed its holy fire? Where your knowledge of her came to an end my own began - your feet were compelled to pause upon the threshold, but it was my privilege to minister within the shekinah, and of the rapture of that service it is alike impossible to speak or clearly think. In such sacred shrines, lying well within the suburbs of Elysium, no care nor disturbing thought can come. In its harmonious silence soul holds communion with soul, not with the slow and weary thread of words, but by the picture sphere of thought ensured against the danger of misunderstanding. The blight of jealousy and the frosts of suspicion never cross the boundary of that condition, but in the pleasant enchanting avenues of virgin content the favoured soul takes its first inspiration from the hills of delight which mark the boundary of the immortal land. In such a dream of love I have wandered since childhood with my sister; the fires of its sacred devotion have melted and blended our hearts in one; we have bathed in its sacred streams until each, lost within the other, cannot live apart.

“From such a dream what man would willingly awake - who would be anxious to put an end to such existence? What man would choose to sever such a bond and leave himself henceforth the legacy of a living death? Even with the slight acquaintance you have had of her we mourn, I ask - Do you think Sahama base enough to give birth to one who could strike the blow which lays my sister here?”

“Never! The gods forbid!” was the general response. “Then how can you think it possible that I, of deliberate choice and wish, should do the deed?”

“No one does think so,” answered Teresh, who stood just behind the circle of priests; and from the vast multitude like a thunder-peal came the cry, “Glarces is innocent!”

“Thanks, friends - a thousand thanks for such a priceless verdict! Not that I wish to escape the penalty which is justly mine; but to think that you will

patiently bear with me in what I have to say will always be some consolation in my punishment. Half my trouble, so far, has been to fear that you might hold me guilty.”

“Never, Glarces!” cried Teresh, forcing his way through the circle and throwing himself at the feet of the Prince. “Never, Glarces! The gods of Tartarus in their envy of thee have struck this blow, but the mighty gods and all Sahama love thee and share thy grief.”

“Amen!” cried all the people.

While the Prince was speaking Lais lay back hiding her head in the cushions of her litter in an endeavour to work out some feasible scheme of regaining the ground she had lost, but the words of Glarces fell upon her ears like the lashes of scorpions, exciting her fear - even terror - at the declaration of the truth, which she had hitherto flattered herself he only guessed at but never truly comprehended. She knew the superstition of the people, and had already gone too far in what she had done. To dare to interrupt him, whatever might be said, was only to hasten the penalty his accusation would secure, while to patiently endure might possibly lead to some fortuity of escape. If Glarces had suffered more than she was called upon to bear during that interval of uncertainty, even she could feel some touch of pity for him; but the instant Teresh entered the circle she was herself again - triumphant, and determined to take a full and complete revenge.

“Back! back!” she cried. “How dare you thus endanger our sister's peace? See you not that the car arises, and the fire has not yet been kindled to set her free?”

“There is time enough for that, my cousin,” responded Glarces, quietly, at the same time taking Teresh by the hand as if to bid him stay. “We are not impatient to rid the earth of so fair a soul as this, and if in the fullness of our love for her we pray she tarry for a little while, Phœbus will halt his car for such a traveller. She is of those immortals whose passage lends more glory to the path by the reflection of their purity. Behind her going will shine a brighter radiance, lighting all future souls along the way to Paradise. Let us be patient in our farewells while I recount the story of this accursed deed.”

“This is neither the time nor place for accusation,” she objected. “Did I say accusation?” he replied. “If so I have soon forgotten it.”

“Proceed, most noble Prince,” counselled Chryses; “the car ascends and Phœbus cannot tarry.”