it was night—dead night—and the silence lay on the frowning city like a cloud.
secretly, as evildoers, sir henry curtis, umslopogaas, and myself threaded our way through the passages towards a by-entrance to the great throne chamber. once we were met by the fierce rattling challenge of the sentry. i gave the countersign, and the man grounded his spear and let us pass. also we were officers of the queens’ bodyguard, and in that capacity had a right to come and go unquestioned.
we gained the hall in safety. so empty and so still was it, that even when we had passed the sound of our footsteps yet echoed up the lofty walls, vibrating faintly and still more faintly against the carven roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of dead men haunting the place that once they trod.
it was an eerie spot, and it oppressed me. the moon was full, and threw great pencils and patches of light through the high windowless openings in the walls, that lay pure and beautiful upon the blackness of the marble floor, like white flowers on a coffin. one of these silver arrows fell upon the statue of the sleeping rademas, and of the angel form bent over him, illumining it, and a small circle round it, with a soft clear light, reminding me of that with which catholics illumine the altars of their cathedrals.
here by the statue we took our stand, and waited. sir henry and i close together, umslopogaas some paces off in the darkness, so that i could only just make out his towering outline leaning on the outline of an axe.
so long did we wait that i almost fell asleep resting against the cold marble, but was suddenly aroused by hearing curtis give a quick catching breath. then from far away there came a little sound as though the statues that lined the walls were whispering to each other some message of the ages.
it was the faint sweep of a lady’s dress. nearer it grew, and nearer yet. we could see a figure steal from patch to patch of moonlight, and even hear the soft fall of sandalled feet. another second and i saw the black silhouette of the old zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and nyleptha was before us.
oh, how beautiful she looked as she paused a moment just within the circle of the moonlight! her hand was pressed upon her heart, and her white bosom heaved beneath it. round her head a broidered scarf was loosely thrown, partially shadowing the perfect face, and thus rendering it even more lovely; for beauty, dependent as it is to a certain extent upon the imagination, is never so beautiful as when it is half hid. there she stood radiant but half doubting, stately and yet so sweet. it was but a moment, but i then and there fell in love with her myself, and have remained so to this hour; for, indeed, she looked more like an angel out of heaven than a loving, passionate, mortal woman. low we bowed before her, and then she spoke.
‘i have come,’ she whispered, ‘but it was at great risk. ye know not how i am watched. the priests watch me. sorais watches me with those great eyes of hers. my very guards are spies upon me. nasta watches me too. oh, let him be careful!’ and she stamped her foot. ‘let him be careful; i am a woman, and therefore hard to drive. ay, and i am a queen, too, and can still avenge. let him be careful, i say, lest in place of giving him my hand i take his head,’ and she ended the outburst with a little sob, and then smiled up at us bewitchingly and laughed.
‘thou didst bid me come hither, my lord incubu’ (curtis had taught her to call him so). ‘doubtless it is about business of the state, for i know that thou art ever full of great ideas and plans for my welfare and my people’s. so even as a queen should i have come, though i greatly fear the dark alone,’ and again she laughed and gave him a glance from her grey eyes.
at this point i thought it wise to move a little, since secrets ‘of the state’ should not be made public property; but she would not let me go far, peremptorily stopping me within five yards or so, saying that she feared surprise. so it came to pass that, however unwillingly, i heard all that passed.
‘thou knowest, nyleptha,’ said sir henry, ‘that it was for none of these things that i asked thee to meet me at this lonely place. nyleptha, waste not the time in pleasantry, but listen to me, for—i love thee.’
as he said the words i saw her face break up, as it were, and change. the coquetry went out of it, and in its place there shone a great light of love which seemed to glorify it, and make it like that of the marble angel overhead. i could not help thinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinct which made the long dead rademas limn, in the features of the angel of his inspiring vision, so strange a likeness of his own descendant. sir henry, also, must have observed and been struck by the likeness, for, catching the look upon nyleptha’s face, he glanced quickly from it to the moonlit statue, and then back again at his beloved.
‘thou sayest thou dost love me,’ she said in a low voice, ‘and thy voice rings true, but how am i to know that thou dost speak the truth?’
‘though,’ she went on with proud humility, and in the stately third person which is so largely used by the zu-vendi, ‘i be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,’ and she curtseyed towards him, ‘who comes from among a wonderful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here am i a queen and a leader of men, and if i would go to battle a hundred thousand spears shall sparkle in my train like stars glimmering down the path of the bent moon. and although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my lord,’ and she lifted her broidered skirt and curtseyed again, ‘yet here among my own people am i held right fair, and ever since i was a woman the great lords of my kingdom have made quarrel concerning me, as though forsooth,’ she added with a flash of passion, ‘i were a deer to be pulled down by the hungriest wolf, or a horse to be sold to the highest bidder. let my lord pardon me if i weary my lord, but it hath pleased my lord to say that he loves me, nyleptha, a queen of the zu-vendi, and therefore would i say that though my love and my hand be not much to my lord, yet to me are they all.’
‘oh!’ she cried, with a sudden and thrilling change of voice, and modifying her dignified mode of address. ‘oh, how can i know that thou lovest but me? how can i know that thou wilt not weary of me and seek thine own place again, leaving me desolate? who is there to tell me but that thou lovest some other woman, some fair woman unknown to me, but who yet draws breath beneath this same moon that shines on me tonight? tell me how am i to know?’ and she clasped her hands and stretched them out towards him and looked appealingly into his face.
‘nyleptha,’ answered sir henry, adopting the zu-vendi way of speech; ‘i have told thee that i love thee; how am i to tell thee how much i love thee? is there then a measure for love? yet will i try. i say not that i have never looked upon another woman with favour, but this i say that i love thee with all my life and with all my strength; that i love thee now and shall love thee till i grow cold in death, ay, and as i believe beyond my death, and on and on for ever: i say that thy voice is music to my ear, and thy touch as water to a thirsty land, that when thou art there the world is beautiful, and when i see thee not it is as though the light was dead. oh, nyleptha, i will never leave thee; here and now for thy dear sake i will forget my people and my father’s house, yea, i renounce them all. by thy side will i live, nyleptha, and at thy side will i die.’
he paused and gazed at her earnestly, but she hung her head like a lily, and said never a word.
‘look!’ he went on, pointing to the statue on which the moonlight played so brightly. ‘thou seest that angel woman who rests her hand upon the forehead of the sleeping man, and thou seest how at her touch his soul flames up and shines out through his flesh, even as a lamp at the touch of the fire, so is it with me and thee, nyleptha. thou hast awakened my soul and called it forth, and now, nyleptha, it is not mine, not mine, but thine and thine only. there is no more for me to say; in thy hands is my life.’ and he leaned back against the pedestal of the statue, looking very pale, and his eyes shining, but proud and handsome as a god.
slowly, slowly she raised her head, and fixed her wonderful eyes, all alight with the greatness of her passion, full upon his face, as though to read his very soul. then at last she spoke, low indeed, but clearly as a silver bell.
‘of a truth, weak woman that i am, i do believe thee. ill will be the day for thee and for me also if it be my fate to learn that i have believed a lie. and now hearken to me, oh man, who hath wandered here from far to steal my heart and make me all thine own. i put my hand upon thy hand thus, and thus i, whose lips have never kissed before, do kiss thee on the brow; and now by my hand and by that first and holy kiss, ay, by my people’s weal and by my throne that like enough i shall lose for thee—by the name of my high house, by the sacred stone and by the eternal majesty of the sun, i swear that for thee will i live and die. and i swear that i will love thee and thee only till death, ay, and beyond, if as thou sayest there be a beyond, and that thy will shall be my will, and thy ways my ways.
‘oh see, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is she who loves; i, who am a queen, i kneel before thee, even at thy feet i do my homage;’ and the lovely impassioned creature flung herself down on her knees on the cold marble before him. and after that i really do not know, for i could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a little of old umslopogaas’ society, leaving them to settle it their own way, and a very long time they were about it.
i found the old warrior leaning on inkosi-kaas as usual, and surveying the scene in the patch of moonlight with a grim smile of amusement.
‘ah, macumazahn,’ he said, ‘i suppose it is because i am getting old, but i don’t think that i shall ever learn to understand the ways of you white people. look there now, i pray thee, they are a pretty pair of doves, but what is all the fuss about, macumazahn? he wants a wife, and she wants a husband, then why does he not pay his cows down {endnote 17} like a man and have done with it? it would save a deal of trouble, and we should have had our night’s sleep. but there they go, talk, talk, talk, and kiss, kiss, kiss, like mad things. eugh!’
some three-quarters of an hour afterwards the ‘pair of doves’ came strolling towards us, curtis looking slightly silly, and nyleptha remarking calmly that the moonlight made very pretty effects on the marble. then, for she was in a most gracious mood, she took my hand and said that i was ‘her lord’s’ dear friend, and therefore most dear to her—not a word for my own sake, you see. next she lifted umslopogaas’ axe, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that he might soon have cause to use it in defence of her.
after that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting a tender glance at her lover, glided off into the darkness like a beautiful vision.
when we got back to our quarters, which we did without accident, curtis asked me jocularly what i was thinking about.
‘i am wondering,’ i answered, ‘on what principle it is arranged that some people should find beautiful queens to fall in love with them, while others find nobody at all, or worse than nobody; and i am also wondering how many brave men’s lives this night’s work will cost.’ it was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feelings do not evaporate with age, and i could not help being a little jealous of my old friend’s luck. vanity, my sons; vanity of vanities!
on the following morning, good was informed of the happy occurrence, and positively rippled with smiles that, originating somewhere about the mouth, slowly travelled up his face like the rings in a duckpond, till they flowed over the brim of his eyeglass and went where sweet smiles go. the fact of the matter, however, was that not only was good rejoiced about the thing on its own merits but also for personal reasons. he adored sorais quite as earnestly as sir henry adored nyleptha, and his adoration had not altogether prospered. indeed, it had seemed to him and to me also that the dark cleopatra-like queen favoured curtis in her own curious inscrutable way much more than good. therefore it was a relief to him to learn that his unconscious rival was permanently and satisfactorily attached in another direction. his face fell a little, however, when he was told that the whole thing was to be kept as secret as the dead, above all from sorais for the present, inasmuch as the political convulsion which would follow such an announcement at the moment would be altogether too great to face and would very possibly, if prematurely made, shake nyleptha from her throne.
that morning we again attended in the throne hall, and i could not help smiling to myself when i compared the visit to our last, and reflecting that, if walls could speak, they would have strange tales to tell.
what actresses women are! there, high upon her golden throne, draped in her blazoned ‘kaf’ or robe of state, sat the fair nyleptha, and when sir henry came in a little late, dressed in the full uniform of an officer of her guard and humbly bent himself before her, she merely acknowledged his salute with a careless nod and turned her head coldly aside. it was a very large court, for not only did the signing of the laws attract many outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumour that nasta was going to publicly ask the hand of nyleptha in marriage had gone abroad, with the result that the great hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. there were our friends the priests in force, headed by agon, who regarded us with a vindictive eye; and a most imposing band they were, with their long white embroidered robes girt with a golden chain from which hung the fish-like scales. there, too, were a number of the lords, each with a band of brilliantly attired attendants, and prominent among them was nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and looking unusually pleasant. it was a splendid and impressive sight, especially when the officer after having read out each law handed them to the queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and the queens’ guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. this reading and signing of the laws took a long time, but at length it came to an end, the last one reciting that ‘whereas distinguished strangers, etc.’, and proceeding to confer on the three of us the rank of ‘lords’, together with certain military commands and large estates bestowed by the queen. when it was read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual, but i saw some of the lords turn and whisper to each other, while nasta ground his teeth. they did not like the favour that was shown to us, which under all the circumstances was not perhaps unnatural.
then there came a pause, and nasta stepped forward and bowing humbly, though with no humility in his eye, craved a boon at the hands of the queen nyleptha.
nyleptha turned a little pale, but bowed graciously, and prayed the ‘well-beloved lord’ to speak on, whereon in a few straightforward soldier-like words he asked her hand in marriage.
then, before she could find words to answer, the high priest agon took up the tale, and in a speech of real eloquence and power pointed out the many advantages of the proposed alliance; how it would consolidate the kingdom, for nasta’s dominions, of which he was virtually king, were to zu-vendis much what scotland used to be to england; how it would gratify the wild mountaineers and be popular among the soldiery, for nasta was a famous general; how it would set her dynasty firmly on the throne, and would gain the blessing and approval of the ‘sun’, i.e. of the office of the high priest, and so on. many of his arguments were undoubtedly valid, and there was, looking at it from a political point of view, everything to be said for the marriage. but unfortunately it is difficult to play the game of politics with the persons of young and lovely queens as though they were ivory effigies of themselves on a chessboard. nyleptha’s face, while agon spouted away, was a perfect study; she smiled indeed, but beneath the smile it set like a stone, and her eyes began to flash ominously.
at last he stopped, and she prepared herself to answer. before she did so, however, sorais leant towards her and said in a voice sufficiently loud for me to catch what she said, ‘bethink thee well, my sister, ere thou dost speak, for methinks that our thrones may hang upon thy words.’
nyleptha made no answer, and with a shrug and a smile sorais leant back again and listened.
‘of a truth a great honour has been done to me,’ she said, ‘that my poor hand should not only have been asked in marriage, but that agon here should be so swift to pronounce the blessing of the sun upon my union. methinks that in another minute he would have wed us fast ere the bride had said her say. nasta, i thank thee, and i will bethink me of thy words, but now as yet i have no mind for marriage, that is a cup of which none know the taste until they begin to drink it. again i thank thee, nasta,’ and she made as though she would rise.
the great lord’s face turned almost as black as his beard with fury, for he knew that the words amounted to a final refusal of his suit.
‘thanks be to the queen for her gracious words,’ he said, restraining himself with difficulty and looking anything but grateful, ‘my heart shall surely treasure them. and now i crave another boon, namely, the royal leave to withdraw myself to my own poor cities in the north till such time as the queen shall say my suit nay or yea. mayhap,’ he added, with a sneer, ‘the queen will be pleased to visit me there, and to bring with her these stranger lords,’ and he scowled darkly towards us. ‘it is but a poor country and a rough, but we are a hardy race of mountaineers, and there shall be gathered thirty thousand swordsmen to shout a welcome to her.’
this speech, which was almost a declaration of rebellion, was received in complete silence, but nyleptha flushed up and answered it with spirit.
‘oh, surely, nasta, i will come, and the strange lords in my train, and for every man of thy mountaineers who calls thee prince, will i bring two from the lowlands who call me queen, and we will see which is the staunchest breed. till then farewell.’
the trumpets blared out, the queens rose, and the great assembly broke up in murmuring confusion, and for myself i went home with a heavy heart foreseeing civil war.
after this there was quiet for a few weeks. curtis and the queen did not often meet, and exercised the utmost caution not to allow the true relation in which they stood to each other to leak out; but do what they would, rumours as hard to trace as a buzzing fly in a dark room, and yet quite as audible, began to hum round and round, and at last to settle on her throne.
