"So say I. There was a something, eh?"
"A sort of a peculiar, as it were, kind of something, eh?"
"You have well described it. Every man felt the same. I have often mentioned it to my comrades. Say what you like, said I, but slay my mother if ever since the old man strangled himself, things did not seem, as it were, in their natural propinquity. "Twas the phrase I used."
"A choice one. Unless there is a natural propinquity, the best-arranged matters will fall out. However, the a.s.s sees farther than his rider, and so it was with Alroy, the best commander I ever served under, all the same."
"Let us go forth and see how affairs run."
"Ay, do. If we hear any one abuse Alroy, we"ll cleave his skull."
"That will we. There are a good many of our stout fellows about; we might do something yet."
"Who knows?"
A subterranean dungeon of the citadel of Bagdad held in its gloomy limits the late lord of Asia. The captive did not sigh, or weep, or wail. He did not speak. He did not even think. For several days he remained in a state of stupor. On the morning of the fourth day, he almost unconsciously partook of the wretched provision which his gaolers brought him. Their torches, round which the bats whirled and flapped their wings, and twinkled their small eyes, threw a ghastly glare over the nearer walls of the dungeon, the extremity of which defied the vision of the prisoner; and, when the gaolers retired, Alroy was in complete darkness.
The image of the past came back to him. He tried in vain to penetrate the surrounding gloom. His hands were manacled, his legs also were loaded with chains. The notion that his life might perhaps have been cruelly spared in order that he might linger on in this horrible state of conscious annihilation filled him with frenzy. He would have dashed his fetters against his brow, but the chain restrained him. He flung himself upon the damp and rugged ground. His fall disturbed a thousand obscene things. He heard the quick glide of a serpent, the creeping retreat of the cl.u.s.tering scorpions, and the swift escape of the dashing rats. His mighty calamities seemed slight when compared with these petty miseries. His great soul could not support him under these noisome and degrading incidents. He sprang, in disgust, upon his feet, and stood fearful of moving, lest every step should introduce him to some new abomination. At length, exhausted nature was unable any longer to sustain him. He groped his way to the rude seat, cut in the rocky wall, which was his only accommodation. He put forth his hand. It touched the slimy fur of some wild animal, that instantly sprang away, its fiery eyes sparkling in the dark. Alroy recoiled with a sensation of woe-begone dismay. His shaken nerves could not sustain him under this base danger, and these foul and novel trials. He could not refrain from an exclamation of despair; and, when he remembered that he was now far beyond the reach of all human solace and sympathy, even all human aid, for a moment his mind seemed to desert him; and he wrung his hands in forlorn and almost idiotic woe. An awful thing it is, the failure of the energies of a master-mind. He who places implicit confidence in his genius will find himself some day utterly defeated and deserted. "Tis bitter! Every paltry hind seems but to breathe to mock you. Slow, indeed, is such a mind to credit that the never-failing resource can at least be wanting. But so it is. Like a dried-up fountain, the perennial flow and bright fertility have ceased, and ceased for ever. Then comes the madness of retrospection.
Draw a curtain! draw a curtain! and fling it over this agonising anatomy.
The days of childhood, his sweet sister"s voice and smiling love, their innocent pastimes, and the kind solicitude of faithful servants, all the soft detail of mild domestic life: these were the sights and memories that flitted in wild play before the burning vision of Alroy, and rose upon his tortured mind. Empire and glory, his sacred nation, his imperial bride; these, these were nothing. Their worth had vanished with the creative soul that called them into action. The pure sympathies of nature alone remained, and all his thought and grief, all his intelligence, all his emotion, were centred in his sister.
It was the seventh morning. A guard entered at an unaccustomed hour, and, sticking a torch into a niche in the wall, announced that a person was without who had permission to speak to the prisoner. They were the first human accents that had met the ear of Alroy during his captivity, which seemed to him an age, a long dark period, that cancelled all things. He shuddered at the harsh tones. He tried to answer, but his unaccustomed lips refused their office. He raised his heavy arms, and endeavoured to signify his consciousness of what had been uttered. Yet, indeed, he had not listened to the message without emotion. He looked forward to the grate with strange curiosity; and, as he looked, he trembled. The visitor entered, m.u.f.fled in a dark caftan. The guard disappeared; and the caftan falling to the ground, revealed Honain.
"My beloved Alroy," said the brother of Jabaster; and he advanced, and pressed him to his bosom. Had it been Miriam, Alroy might have at once expired; but the presence of this worldly man called back his worldliness. The revulsion of his feelings was wonderful. Pride, perhaps even hope, came to his aid; all the a.s.sociations seemed to counsel exertion; for a moment he seemed the same Alroy.
"I rejoice to find at least thee safe, Honain."
"I also, if my security may lead to thine."
"Still whispering hope!"
"Despair is the conclusion of fools."
"O Honain! "tis a great trial. I can play my part, and yet methinks "twere better we had not again met. How is Schirene?"
"Thinking of thee."
"Tis something that she can think. My mind has gone. Where"s Miriam?"
"Free."
"That"s something. Thou hast done that. Good, good Honain, be kind to that sweet child, if only for my sake. Thou art all she has left."
"She hath thee."
"Her desolation."
"Live and be her refuge."
"How"s that? These walls! Escape? No, no; it is impossible."
"I do not deem it so."
"Indeed! I"ll do anything. Speak! Can we bribe? can we cleave their skulls? can we----"
"Calm thyself, my friend. There is no need of bribes, no need of bloodshed. We must make terms."
"Terms! We might have made them on the plain of Nehauend. Terms! Terms with a captive victim?"
"Why victim?"
"Is Arslan then so generous?"
"He is a beast, more savage than the boar that grinds its tusks within his country"s forests."
"Why speakest thou then of hope?"
"I spoke of certainty. I did not mention hope."
"Dear Honain, my brain is weak; but I can bear strange things, or else I should not be here. I feel thy thoughtful friendship; but indeed there need no winding words to tell my fate. Pr"ythee speak out."
"In a word, thy life is safe."
"What! spared?"
"If it please thee."
"Please me? Life is sweet. I feel its sweetness. I want but little.
Freedom and solitude are all I ask. My life spared! I"ll not believe it. Thou hast done this deed, thou mighty man, that masterest all souls.
Thou hast not forgotten me; thou hast not forgotten the days gone by, thou hast not forgotten thine own Alroy! Who calls thee worldly is a slanderer. O Honain! thou art too faithful!"
"I have no thought but for thy service, Prince."
"Call me not Prince, call me thine own Alroy. My life spared! "Tis wonderful! When may I go? Let no one see me. Manage that, Honain. Thou canst manage all things. I am for Egypt. Thou hast been to Egypt, hast thou not, Honain?"
"A very wondrous land, "twill please thee much."
"When may I go? Tell me when I may go. When may I quit this dark and noisome cell? "Tis worse than all their tortures, dear Honain. Air and light, and I really think my spirit never would break, but this horrible dungeon---- I scarce can look upon thy face, sweet friend. "Tis serious."
"Wouldst thou have me gay?"
"Yes! if we are free."
"Alroy! thou art a great spirit, the greatest that I e"er knew, have ever read of. I never knew thy like, and never shall."
"Tush, tush, sweet friend, I am a broken reed, but still I am free. This is no time for courtly phrases. Let"s go, and go at once."