Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1890 — ALLAN QUATERMAIN. [ARTICLE]

ALLAN QUATERMAIN.

A Record of Remarkable Adventures and Discoveries.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

CHAPTER XV —Continued. Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of the great lords headed by Nasta, Whose antagonism to us had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to break out-into open flame. Fasta had for some years been a oandidate for Nyleptha’s hand in marriage, and when'we appeared on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to Sorais, only to find that ha might as well try to woo a mountain-side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on him forever. So Nasta bethought him of the thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding through the northern passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with our heads. But first he determined, as we learned, to make one more attempt, and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open court after the formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the queens dtiring the year. Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance, and with a little trembling of the voice

herself informed us of it as we sat at a supper ou the night preceding the great ceremony of the law-signing. Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed his agitation., “And what answer will the queen be pleased to give to the great lord?” asked I, in a jesting manner. “Answer, Maeumazahn,” (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder. “Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do when the wooer has thirty thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?” and from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis.

Just then we rose from the table to ■adjourn into another room. “Quaternain, a word, quick,” said Sir Henry to mo. “Listen; I have never spoken about it. but surely you have guessedI love Nyleptha. What am Ito do?” Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the wisest to me.

“You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,” I said. -Now is your time, now or never. Listen: in the sitting room get near to her and whisper to I her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue at the end of the great hall. I will keep watch for you there. Now or never, Curtis.” passed on into the. other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her hands before her, and a sad, anxious look upon her lovely face. A little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow', measured tones. -- . The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according to their habit, the queens would retire. As yet. Sir Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private; indeed, although we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no means easy to see them alone. I racked my brains, and at last an idea came to me. “Will the queen be pleased,” I said, . bowing low before Sorais, “to sing unto her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh Lady of the Night " (Soraid's favorite name among the people).

“My songs, Macumaza’n, are not such as to lighten the he. y heart, yet I will I sing if it pleases the: she answered; and she rose and went a few I paces to a table, whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither, and struck a few wandering chords. Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her rounded voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with so weird and sad a refrain | that it made the very blood stand still. Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed to melt far away, and then to grow again and travel on, laden with alt the sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost. It was a marvelous song, but I had not time to listen to it properly.

“Now, Curtis, now.” I whispered, when she began the second verse, and turned my back. “Nyleptha,” he said—for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through Sorais’s divine notes —“Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this night, upon my life I must. Say’hle not nay; oh, say me not nay!” “How can I speak with thee?” she answered, looking fixedly before her; ‘•queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched.” “Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be

before the statue of Rademas in the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can pass in. Macumazahn will ne there to keep guard, with him the Zulu. Oh, come, my queen, deny mb not}” v -It is not seemly,” she murmured, “and to-morrow—”

Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain, and Sorais ■lowly tushed round. “I will be there,” said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 1 “on thy life see that thou fail me not.” ’ CHAPTER XYL BEFORE THE STATUE. It WEB night— dead .

silea** lay on the Frowning CSty like a cloud. Secretly, as evildoers, Sir Henry Curtis, Umslopogaas, and myself threaded our way through the passages toward a by-entraDce 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 queen’s body-guard, 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 car ven roof, like ghosts of the footsteps of the 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 ax. . 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, 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 sandaled feet. Another second and I saw the black silhoute of the old Zulu raise its arm in mute salute, and Nyleptha stood 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 lively; 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 lam 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 lam 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 I ended the outburst with a little sob, I and then looked up at us bewitchingly and laugliod. “Thou didst bid me come hither, my Lord Incubu,” (Curtis had taught her to eall him so). it is about [business of the State, for I .know that.

thou art ever full of great plans for my welfare and my peopled. No 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 hep gray 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 1 feared surprise So it came to pass that, however unwillingly, I heard all 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—l love thee.” As he said the words I saw her face break up, as it were, and change. The j 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 o /erhead. I could not help thinking that it must have been a touch of prophetic instinct which made the long dead Rademas limn in the featur® B 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.

“ThouliayestTibou dost love me,” she said In a low voide, “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 ZuYendi, “I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,” and she courtesied toward him; “who comes from among a won-* derful people, to whom my people are but children, yet here I am a queen aud 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 ben' moon. And although my beauty be a little thing in the eyes of my, lord, ' and she lifted her broidered skirt and

eourteeied again, ••yet hare among my own people am I held right fair, and ever sinoe 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 ‘l 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-Ven* di, 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. * 'O, how can I know that thou loyest 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 to-night? Tell me how am Ito know?” And she clasped her hands and stretched them out toward 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 1 to tell thee how much I love thee? Is there then a measure for love? Yet will I try. I say not that I never looked upon another woman with favor, but this I say, that I love thee with all my life and with all my Strength and that I love thee now and shall lovo thee till 1 grow cold in death, ay, and as 1 believe beyond my death, and on and on forever; 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 ne’. 3r a word. “Look!” lie went on.poTiifmgto the statute 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 soest 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 it is with me and. thee, Nyleptha. Though 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 hand-

some as a god. Slowly, very 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 inde'ed, but clearly as a silver bell. ‘ ‘Of a truth, we£k woman that I am, Ido believe thee. 11l 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 unto me, oh man who hath wandered here from afar 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 which like enough 1 shall lose for thee—by the name of my high House, by the sacred stone and by the eternal majesty of the Sun, I swoar that for thee will I live and die. And I swear that I will love thee, and thee only, till deathay. and beyond, if, as thou sayest, there be a beyond: and thy will shall be my will, and thv wavs mv wava.

• ‘Oh, see, my lord! thou knowest not how humble is ehe who loves; I, who am a queen, I kneel before thee, even at thy feet I do my homage;” and the lovely, impassioned oreature flung herself down on her knees on the cold marble before him. And after that I really do not know what happened, for I could stand it no longer, and cleared off to refresh myself with a little of old Umslopogaas’s society, leaving them to settle it in 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, Maoumazahn? He wants a wife, and she wants a-jhusband, then why does ho not pay his cows down* 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!”

Sqme three-quarters of an hour afterward the “pair of doves 1 ’ came strolling toward 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 I was “her lord’s” dear friend, and therefore most dear to her—not a &ord for my own sake, you see. Next she lifted Umslopogaas’s ax, and examined it curiously, saying significantly as she did so that he might soon have cause to use it in defense Of her. After that she nodded prettily to us all, and casting one tender glance at I ,ier lover glided off into the darkness ; ike a beautiful vision. When we got back to our quarters, 1 to USlUlm Q,

[ wtiioh we did without accident, Curtis asked me jocularly what I was think, iag about “I am wondering,” I answered, “on what principle it is arranged that some people should find beautifulqasefPirlar fall in love with them, while others find nobody at all, or worse than nbbody; and lam also wondering now many brave men’s lives this night’s work will cost.” It Was rather nasty of me, perhaps, but somehow all the feel inga .da .nal .evaporate with-agerandr 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 from somewhere about the mouth, slowly traveled up his face like the rings in a duck-pond, till they flowed over the rim of his eyeglass and went where all 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 thiß dark, Cleopatra-like queen favored Curtis in her own curious inscrutable way 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-that 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 herthrone. That morningr, we again attended in the Throne Hall, and I could no t help smiling to myself when I compared the visit to our last, and reflecting, that if walls Could speak they would 5 have strange tales to tell. What actresses woman are! There, high upon her golden throne, draped in her blazoned ‘kaf’ or robe of state, sat the fair Nyleptha. and whim 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 ceremony of the signing of the laws attract many outside of those whose duty it was to attend, but also the rumor 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 with 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 atetendants, and prominent among them was Nasta, stroking his black beard meditatively and looking unusually unpleasant. It was- a splendid and impressive sight, especially when theofficers having read out each law, it was handed to the queens to sign, whereon the trumpets blared out and t.he queens’ guard grounded their spears with a crash in salute. This readingand signing of the laws took a long time, but at last it came to au end,: the last one reciting that “whereas certain 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 queens. When it was read the trumpets blared and the spears clashed down as usual, but I saw some the lords turn and whisper to each other while Nasta ground his teeth. They did not like the favor that.was shown to us, which under all the circumstances was. not perhaps unnatural. ' T<x be Continued.