Allan Quatermain
CHAPTER XIX
A STRANGE WEDDING
One person, however, did not succeed in getting out in
time before the gates were shut, and that was the High Priest Agon, who, as
we had every reason to believe, was Sorais' great ally, and the heart and
soul of her party. This cunning and ferocious old man had not forgiven us
for those hippopotami, or rather that was what he said. What he meant was
that he would never brook the introduction of our wider ways of thought and
foreign learning and influence while there was a possibility of stamping us
out. Also he knew that we possessed a different system of religion, and no
doubt was in daily terror of our attempting to introduce it into Zu-Vendis.
One day he asked me if we had any religion in our country, and I told him
that so far as I could remember we had ninety-five different ones. You
might have knocked him down with a feather, and really it is difficult not
to pity a high priest of a well-established cult who is haunted by the
possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.
When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry,
and I discussed what was to be done with him. I was for closely
incarcerating him, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would
produce a disastrous effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added, with
a stamp of her foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen, I will break the
power of those priests, with their rites and revels and dark secret ways.'
I only wished that old Agon could have heard her, it would have frightened
him.
'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him,
I suppose that we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.'
Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and
said in a dry little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'
'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of
keeping him.'
She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way
that was as shy as it was sweet.
Then at last he understood.
'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously.
'Dost thou mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?'
'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid
answer; 'but if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'
-- pointing to the entrance to a private chapel -- 'and am I not ready to
do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my lord! In eight days or less thou
must leave me and go down to war, for thou shalt lead my armies, and in war
-- men sometimes fall, and so I would for a little space have had thee all
my own, if only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely
eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the red heart of
a rose.
'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and
with my crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very
bitter, and if she prevails she will not spare. Who can read the future?
Happiness is the world's White Bird, that alights seldom, and flies fast
and far till one day he is lost in the clouds. Therefore should we hold
him fast if by any chance he rests for a little space upon our hand. It is
not wise to neglect the present for the future, for who knows what the
future will be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them,
for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others bloom that
we shall never see.' And she lifted her sweet face to him and smiled into
his eyes, and once more I felt a curious pang of jealousy and turned and
went away. They never took much notice of whether I was there or not,
thinking, I suppose, that I was an old fool, and that it did not matter one
way or the other, and really I believe that they were right.
So I went back to our quarters and ruminated over things
in general, and watched old Umslopogaas whetting his axe outside the window
as a vulture whets his beak beside a dying ox.
And in about an hour's time Sir Henry came tearing over,
looking very radiant and wildly excited, and found Good and myself and even
Umslopogaas, and asked us if we should like to assist at a real wedding.
Of course we said yes, and off we went to the chapel, where we found Agon
looking as sulky as any High Priest possibly could, and no wonder. It
appeared that he and Nyleptha had a slight difference of opinion about the
coming ceremony. He had flatly refused to celebrate it, or to allow any of
his priests to do so, whereupon Nyleptha became very angry and told him
that she, as Queen, was head of the Church, and meant to be obeyed.
Indeed, she played the part of a Zu-Vendi Henry the Eighth to perfection,
and insisted that, if she wanted to be married, she would be married, and
that he should marry her.
He still refused to go through the ceremony, so she
clinched her argument thus --
'Well, I cannot execute a High Priest, because there is
an absurd prejudice against it, and I cannot imprison him because all his
subordinates would raise a crying that would bring the stars down on
Zu-Vendis and crush it; but I can leave him to contemplate the altar
of the Sun without anything to eat, because that is his natural vocation,
and if thou wilt not marry me, O Agon! thou shalt be placed before the
altar yonder with nought but a little water till such time as thou hast
reconsidered the matter.'
Now, as it happened, Agon had been hurried away that
morning without his breakfast, and was already exceedingly hungry, so he
presently modified his views and consented to marry them, saying at the
same time that he washed his hands of all responsibility in the matter.
So it chanced that presently, attended only by two of
her favourite maidens, came the Queen Nyleptha, with happy blushing face
and downcast eyes, dressed in pure white, without embroidery of any sort,
as seems to be the fashion on these occasions in most countries of the
world. She did not wear a single ornament, even her gold circlets were
removed, and I thought that if possible she looked more lovely than ever
without them, as really superbly beautiful women do.
She came, curtseyed low to Sir Henry, and then took his
hand and led him up before the altar, and after a little pause, in a slow,
clear voice uttered the following words, which are customary in Zu-Vendis
if the bride desires and the man consents: --
'Thou dost swear by the Sun that thou wilt take no other
woman to wife unless I lay my hand upon her and bid her come?'
'I swear it,' answered Sir Henry; adding in English,
'One is quite enough for me.'
Then Agon, who had been sulking in a corner near the
altar, came forward and gabbled off something into his beard at such a rate
that I could not follow it, but it appeared to be an invocation to the Sun
to bless the union and make it fruitful. I observed that Nyleptha listened
very closely to every word, and afterwards discovered that she was afraid
lest Agon should play her a trick, and by going through the invocations
backwards divorce them instead of marry them. At the end of the
invocations they were asked, as in our service, if they took each other for
husband and wife, and on their assenting they kissed each other before the
altar, and the service was over, so far as their rites were concerned. But
it seemed to me that there was yet something wanting, and so I produced a
Prayer-Book, which has, together which the 'Ingoldsby Legends', that I
often read when I lie awake at night, accompanied me in all my later
wanderings. I gave it to my poor boy Harry years ago, and after his death
I found it among his things and took it back again.
'Curtis,' I said, 'I am not a clergyman, and I do not
know if what I am going to propose is allowable -- I know it is not legal
-- but if you and the Queen have no objection I should like to read the
English marriage service over you. It is a solemn step which you are
taking, and I think that you ought, so far as circumstances will allow, to
give it the sanction of your own religion.'
'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I wish you
would. I do not feel half married yet.'
Nyleptha raised no objection, fully understanding that
her husband wished to celebrate the marriage according to the rites
prevailing in his own country, and so I set to work and read the service,
from 'Dearly beloved' to 'amazement', as well as I could; and when I came
to 'I, Henry, take thee, Nyleptha,' I translated, and also 'I, Nyleptha,
take thee, Henry,' which she repeated after me very well. Then Sir Henry
took a plain gold ring from his little finger and placed it on hers, and so
on to the end. The ring had been Curtis' mother's wedding-ring, and I could
not help thinking how astonished the dear old Yorkshire lady would have
been if she could have foreseen that her wedding-ring was to serve a
similar purpose for Nyleptha, a Queen of the Zu-Vendi.
As for Agon, he was with difficulty kept calm while this
second ceremony was going on, for he at once understood that it was
religious in its nature, and doubtless bethought him of the ninety-five new
faiths which loomed so ominously in his eyes. Indeed, he at once set me
down as a rival High Priest, and hated me accordingly. However, in the end
off he went, positively bristling with indignation, and I knew that we
might look out for danger from his direction.
And off went Good and I, and old Umslopogaas also,
leaving the happy pair to themselves, and very low we all felt. Marriages
are supposed to be cheerful things, but my experience is that they are very
much the reverse to everybody, except perhaps the two people chiefly
interested. They mean the breaking-up of so many old ties as well as the
undertaking of so many new ones, and there is always something sad about
the passing away of the old order. Now to take this case for instance: Sir
Henry Curtis is the best and kindest fellow and friend in the world, but he
has never been quite the same since that little scene in the chapel. It is
always Nyleptha this and Nyleptha that -- Nyleptha, in short, from morning
till night in one way or another, either expressed or understood. And as
for the old friends -- well, of course they have taken the place that old
friends ought to take, and which ladies are as a rule very careful to see
they do take when a man marries, and that is, the second place. Yes, he
would be angry if anybody said so, but it is a fact for all that. He is
not quite the same, and Nyleptha is very sweet and very charming, but I
think that she likes him to understand that she has married him, and
not Quatermain, Good, and Co. But there! what is the use of grumbling? It
is all very right and proper, as any married lady would have no difficulty
in explaining, and I am a selfish, jealous old man, though I hope I never
show it.
So Good and I went and ate in silence and then indulged
in an extra fine flagon of old Zu-Vendian to keep our spirits up, and
presently one of our attendants came and told a story that gave us
something to think about.
It may, perhaps, be remembered that, after his quarrel
with Umslopogaas, Alphonse had gone off in an exceedingly ill temper to
sulk over his scratches. Well, it appears that he walked right past the
Temple to the Sun, down the wide road on the further side of the slope it
crowns, and thence on into the beautiful park, or pleasure gardens, which
are laid out just beyond the outer wall. After wandering about there for a
little he started to return, but was met near the outer gate by Sorais'
train of chariots, which were galloping furiously along the great northern
road. When she caught sight of Alphonse, Sorais halted her train and
called to him. On approaching he was instantly seized and dragged into one
of the chariots and carried off, 'crying out loudly', as our informant
said, and as from my general knowledge of him I can well believe.
At first I was much puzzled to know what object Sorais
could have had in carrying off the poor little Frenchman. She could hardly
stoop so low as to try to wreak her fury on one whom she knew was only a
servant. At last, however, an idea occurred to me. We three were, as I
think I have said, much revered by the people of Zu-Vendis at large, both
because we were the first strangers they had ever seen, and because we were
supposed to be the possessors of almost supernatural wisdom. Indeed,
though Sorais' cry against the 'foreign wolves' -- or, to translate it more
accurately, 'foreign hyenas' -- was sure to go down very well with the
nobles and the priests, it was not as we learnt, likely to be particularly
effectual amongst the bulk of the population. The Zu-Vendi people, like the
Athenians of old, are ever seeking for some new thing, and just because we
were so new our presence was on the whole acceptable to them. Again, Sir
Henry's magnificent personal appearance made a deep impression upon a race
who possess a greater love of beauty than any other I have ever been
acquainted with. Beauty may be prized in other countries, but in Zu-Vendis
it is almost worshipped, as indeed the national love of statuary shows.
The people said openly in the market-places that there was not a man in the
country to touch Curtis in personal appearance, as with the exception of
Sorais there was no woman who could compete with Nyleptha, and that
therefore it was meet that they should marry; and that he had been sent by
the Sun as a husband for their Queen. Now, from all this it will be seen
that the outcry against us was to a considerable extent fictitious, and
nobody knew it better than Sorais herself. Consequently it struck me that
it might have occurred to her that down in the country and among the
country people, it would be better to place the reason of her conflict with
her sister upon other and more general grounds than Nyleptha's marriage
with the stranger. It would be easy in a land where there had been so many
civil wars to rake out some old cry that would stir up the recollection of
buried feuds, and, indeed, she soon found an effectual one. This being so,
it was of great importance to her to have one of the strangers with her
whom she could show to the common people as a great Outlander, who had been
so struck by the justice of her cause that he had elected to leave his
companions and follow her standard.
This, no doubt, was the cause of her anxiety to get a
hold of Good, whom she would have used till he ceased to be of service and
then cast off. But Good having drawn back she grasped at the opportunity
of securing Alphonse, who was not unlike him in personal appearance though
smaller, no doubt with the object of showing him off in the cities and
country as the great Bougwan himself. I told Good that I thought that that
was her plan, and his face was a sight to see -- he was so horrified at the
idea.
'What,' he said, 'dress up that little wretch to
represent me? Why, I shall have to get out of the country! My reputation
will be ruined for ever.'
I consoled him as well as I could, but it is not
pleasant to be personated all over a strange country by an arrant little
coward, and I can quite sympathize with his vexation.
Well, that night Good and I messed as I have said in
solitary grandeur, feeling very much as though we had just returned from
burying a friend instead of marrying one, and next morning the work began
in good earnest. The messages and orders which had been despatched by
Nyleptha two days before now began to take effect, and multitudes of armed
men came pouring into the city. We saw, as may be imagined, but very little
of Nyleptha and not too much of Curtis during those next few days, but Good
and I sat daily with the council of generals and loyal lords, drawing up
plans of action, arranging commissariat matters, the distribution of
commands, and a hundred and one other things. Men came in freely, and all
the day long the great roads leading to Milosis were spotted with the
banners of lords arriving from their distant places to rally round
Nyleptha.
After the first few days it became clear that we should
be able to take the field with about forty thousand infantry and twenty
thousand cavalry, a very respectable force considering how short was the
time we had to collect it, and that about half the regular army had elected
to follow Sorais.
But if our force was large, Sorais' was, according to
the reports brought in day by day by our spies, much larger. She had taken
up her headquarters at a very strong town called M'Arstuna, situated, as I
have said, to the north of Milosis, and all the countryside was flocking to
her standard. Nasta had poured down from his highlands and was on his way
to join her with no less than twenty-five thousand of his mountaineers, the
most terrible soldiers to face in all Zu-Vendis. Another mighty lord,
named Belusha, who lived in the great horse-breeding district, had come in
with twelve thousand cavalry, and so on. Indeed, what between one thing
and another, it seemed certain that she would gather a fully armed host of
nearly one hundred thousand men.
And then came news that Sorais was proposing to break up
her camp and march on the Frowning City itself, desolating the country as
she came. Thereon arose the question whether it would be best to meet her
at Milosis or to go out and give her battle. When our opinion was asked
upon the subject, Good and I unhesitatingly gave it in favour of an
advance. If we were to shut ourselves up in the city and wait to be
attacked, it seemed to us that our inaction would be set down to fear. It
is so important, especially on an occasion of this sort, when a very little
will suffice to turn men's opinions one way or the other, to be up and
doing something. Ardour for a cause will soon evaporate if the cause does
not move but sits down to conquer. Therefore we cast our vote for moving
out and giving battle in the open, instead of waiting till we were drawn
from our walls like a badger from a hole.
Sir Henry's opinion coincided with ours, and so,
needless to say, did that of Nyleptha, who, like a flint, was always ready
to flash out fire. A great map of the country was brought and spread out
before her. About thirty miles this side of M'Arstuna, where Sorais lay,
and ninety odd miles from Milosis, the road ran over a neck of land some
two and a half miles in width, and flanked on either side by forest-clad
hills which, without being lofty, would, if the road were blocked, be quite
impracticable for a great baggage-laden army to cross. She looked
earnestly at the map, and then, with a quickness of perception that in some
women amounts almost to an instinct, she laid her finger upon this neck of
rising ground, and turning to her husband, said, with a proud air of
confidence and a toss of the golden head --
'Here shalt thou meet Sorais' armies. I know the spot,
here shalt thou meet them, and drive them before thee like dust before the
storm.'
But Curtis looked grave and said nothing.