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THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
WE ARE BUT DREAMS, LET US GO AMONG DREAMS"
""The Sword of
* Welleran ~
And Other Stories
By Lord Dunsany
Author of " Time and The Gods," etc. JT-
With Illustrations by S. H. Sime
London : George Allen & Sons
Raskin House, 156 Charing Cross Road mcmviii
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON 6- Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
M4//J
DEDICATED
with deep gratitude to those few, known to me
or unknown, who have cared for either of my
former books, " The Gods of Pegana" " Time
and the Gods"
I AM indebted to the editor of the Saturday Review
for permission to republish here two stories, " In the
Twilight" and "The Lord of Cities," which originally
appeared in his Review.
My thanks are also due to the editors of The Celtic
Christmas } The N eolith, and The Shanachie, in which
papers have appeared " The Fall of Babbulkund,"
"The Highwaymen," "The Hurricane," "On the Dry
Land," "The Doom of La Traviata," and " The
Whirlpool."
CONTENTS
PACK
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN i
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND 39
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK 73
THE HIGHWAYMEN in
IN THE TWILIGHT 125
THE GHOSTS 139
THE WHIRLPOOL 153
THE HURRICANE 161
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE, SAVE FOR
SACNOTH 167
THE LORD OF CITIES 211
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA 229
ON THE DRY LAND 237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
" WE ARE BUT DREAMS, LET US GO AMONG
DREAMS" Frontispiece
"WELLERAN! AND THE SWORD OF WEL-
LERAN ! " To face page 34
"EVEN I TOO, EVEN I TOO!" .... ,, 54
THE LIGHT OF ONG ZWARBA , 58
TOM O THE ROADS ., ,,113
"GOOD-BYE" ,, ,,134
ONELEIGH 141
"A HERD OF BLACK CREATURES" . . ,, 147
THE FORTRESS ,,183
THE SOUL OF LA TRAVIATA .... ,, ,,235
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
WHERE the great plain of Tarphet runs up, as
the sea in estuaries, among the Cyresian moun
tains, there stood long since the city of Merimna
well-nigh among the shadows of the crags. I
have never seen a city in the world so beautiful
as Merimna seemed to me when first I dreamed
of it. It was a marvel of spires and figures of
bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of
fabulous wars, and broad streets given over
wholly to the Beautiful. Right through the
centre of the city there went an avenue fifty
strides in width, and along each side of it stood
likenesses in bronze of the Kings of all the
countries that the people of Merimna had ever
known. At the end of that avenue was a colossal
3
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
chariot with three bronze horses driven by the
winged figure of Fame, and behind her in the
chariot the huge form of Welleran, Merimna s
ancient hero, standing with extended sword.
So urgent was the mien and attitude of Fame,
and so swift the pose of the horses, that you had
sworn that the chariot was instantly upon you,
and that its dust already veiled the faces of the
Kings. And in the city was a mighty hall
wherein were stored the trophies of Merimna s
heroes. Sculptured it was and domed, the glory
of the art of masons a long while dead, and on
the summit of the dome the image of Rollory sat
gazing across the Cyresian mountains toward
the wide lands beyond, the lands that knew his
sword. And beside Rollory, like an old nurse,
the figure of Victory sat, hammering into a
golden wreath of laurels for his head the crowns
of fallen Kings.
Such was Merimna, a city of sculptured
4
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
Victories and warriors of bronze. Yet in the
time of which I write the art of war had been
forgotten in Merimna, and the people almost
slept. To and fro and up and down they would
walk through the marble streets, gazing at
memorials of the things achieved by their
country s swords in the hands of those that
long ago had loved Merimna well. Almost they
slept, and dreamed of Welleran, Soorenard,
Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax, and young Iraine.
Of the lands beyond the mountains that lay all
round about them they knew nothing, save that
they were the theatre of the terrible deeds of
Welleran, that he had done with his sword.
Long since these lands had fallen back into the
possession of the nations that had been scourged
by Merimna s armies. Nothing now remained
to Merimna s men save their inviolate city and
the glory of the remembrance of their ancient
fame. At night they would place sentinels far
5
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
out in the desert, but these always slept at their
posts dreaming of Rollory, and three times every
night a guard would march around the city clad
in purple, bearing lights and singing songs of
Welleran. Always the guard went unarmed,
but as the sound of their song went echoing
across the plain towards the looming mountains,
the desert robbers would hear the name of
Welleran and steal away to their haunts. Often
dawn would come across the plain, shimmering
marvellously upon Merimna s spires, abashing
all the stars, and find the guard still singing
songs of Welleran, and would change the colour
of their purple robes and pale the lights they
bore. But the guard would go back leaving the
ramparts safe, and one by one the sentinels in
the plain would awake from dreaming of Rollory
and shuffle back into the city quite cold. Then
something of the menace would pass away from
the faces of the Cyresian mountains, that from
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
the north and the west and the south lowered
upon Merimna, and clear in the morning the
statues and the pillars would arise in the old
inviolate city. You would wonder that an un
armed guard and sentinels that slept could
defend a city that was stored with all the glories of
art, that was rich in gold and bronze, a haughty
city that had erst oppressed its neighbours,
whose people had forgotten the art of war. Now
this is the reason that, though all her other lands
had long been taken from her, Merimna s city
was safe. A strange thing was believed or
feared by the fierce tribes beyond the mountains,
and it was credited among them that at certain
stations round Merimna s ramparts there still
rode Welleran, Soorenard, Mommolek, Rollory,
Akanax, and young Iraine. Yet it was close on
a hundred years since Iraine, the youngest of
Merimna s heroes, fought his last battle with
the tribes.
7
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
Sometimes indeed there arose among the
tribes young men who doubted and said : " How
may a man for ever escape death ? "
But graver men answered them: " Hear us,
ye whose wisdom has discerned so much, and
discern for us how a man may escape death
when two score horsemen assail him with their
swords, all of them sworn to kill him, and all
of them sworn upon their country s gods ; as
often Welleran hath. Or discern for us how
two men alone may enter a walled city by
night, and bring away from it that city s king,
as did Soorenard and Mommolek. Surely men
that have escaped so many swords and so
many sleety arrows shall escape the years and
Time."
And the young men were humbled and
became silent. Still, the suspicion grew. And
often when the sun set on the Cyresian moun
tains, men in Merimna discerned the forms of
8
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
savage tribesmen black against the light, peer
ing towards the city.
All knew in Merimna that the figures round
the ramparts were only statues of stone, yet
even there a hope lingered among a few that
some day their old heroes would come again,
for certainly none had ever seen them die.
Now it had been the wont of these six
warriors of old, as each received his last wound
and knew it to be mortal, to ride away to a
certain deep ravine and cast his body in, as
somewhere I have read great elephants do,
hiding their bones away from lesser beasts. It
was a ravine steep and narrow even at the
ends, a great cleft into which no man could
come by any path. There rode Welleran alone,
panting hard ; and there later rode Soorenard and
Mommolek, Mommolek with a mortal wound
upon him not to return, but Soorenard was un-
wounded and rode back alone from leaving his
9
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
dear friend resting among the mighty bones of
Welleran. And there rode Soorenard, when
his day was come, with Rollory and Akanax,
and Rollory rode in the middle and Soorenard
and Akanax on either side. And the long ride
was a hard and weary thing for Soorenard and
Akanax, for they both had mortal wounds ;
but the long ride was easy for Rollory, for he
was dead. So the bones of these five heroes
whitened in an enemy s land, and very still
they were, though they had troubled cities, and
none knew where they lay saving only Iraine,
the young captain, who was but twenty-five when
Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax rode away. And
among them were strewn their saddles and their
bridles, and all the accoutrements of their horses,
lest any man should ever find them afterwards
and say in some foreign city: "Lo ! the bridles or
the saddles of Merimna s captains, taken in war,"
but their beloved trusty horses they turned free.
10
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
Forty years afterwards, in the hour of a great
victory, his last wound came upon Iraine, and
the wound was terrible and would not close.
And Iraine was the last of the captains, and
rode away alone. It was a long way to the
dark ravine, and Iraine feared that he would
never come to the resting-place of the old heroes,
and he urged his horse on swiftly, and clung
to the saddle with his hands. And often as
he rode he fell asleep, and dreamed of earlier
days, and of the times when he first rode forth
to the great wars of Welleran, and of the time
when Welleran first spake to him, and of the
faces of Welleran s comrades when they led
charges in the battle. And ever as he awoke
a great longing arose in his soul as it hovered
on his body s brink, a longing to lie among
the bones of the old heroes. At last when he
saw the dark ravine making a scar across the
plain, the soul of Iraine slipped out through
ii
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
his great wound and spread its wings, and
pain departed from the poor hacked body and,
still urging his horse forward, Iraine died.
But the old true horse cantered on till suddenly
he saw before him the dark ravine and put
his forefeet out on the very edge of it and
stopped. Then the body of Iraine came toppling
forward over the right shoulder of the horse,
and his bones mingle and rest as the years
go by with the bones of Merimna s heroes.
Now there was a little boy in Merimna
named Rold. I saw him first, I, the dreamer,
that sit before my fire asleep, I saw him first
as his mother led him through the great hall
where stand the trophies of Merimna s heroes.
He was five years old, and they stood before
the great glass casket wherein lay the sword
of Welleran, and his mother said : " The sword
of Welleran." And Rold said: "What should
a man do with the sword of Welleran ? " And
12
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
his mother answered : " Men look at the sword
and remember Welleran." And they went on
and stood before the great red cloak of Welle
ran, and the child said: "Why did Welleran
wear this great red cloak?* And his mother
answered : " It was the way of Welleran."
When Rold was a little older he stole out
of his mother s house quite in the middle of
the night when all the world was still, and
Merimna asleep dreaming of Welleran, Soore-
nard, Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax, and young
Iraine. And he went down to the ramparts
to hear the purple guard go by singing of
Welleran. And the purple guard came by
with lights, all singing in the stillness, and
dark shapes out in the desert turned and fled.
And Rold went back again to his mother s
house with a great yearning towards the name
of Welleran, such as men feel for very holy
things.
13
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
And in time Rold grew to know the path
way all round the ramparts, and the six eques
trian statues that were there guarding Merimna
still. These statues were not like other statues,
they were so cunningly wrought of many-coloured
marbles that none might be quite sure until
very close that they were not living men.
There was a horse of dappled marble, the horse
of Akanax. The horse of Rollory was of ala
baster, pure white, his armour was wrought
out of a stone that shone, and his horseman s
cloak was made of a blue stone, very precious.
He looked northward.
But the rparble horse of Welleran was
pure black, and there sat Welleran upon him
looking solemnly westwards. His horse it was
whose cold neck Rold most loved to stroke,
and it was Welleran whom the watchers at
sunset on the mountains the most clearly saw
as they peered towards the city. And Rold
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
loved the red nostrils of the great black horse
and his rider s jasper cloak.
Now beyond the Cyresians the suspicion
grew that Merimna s heroes were dead, and a
plan was devised that a man should go by
night and come close to the figures upon the
ramparts and see whether they were Welleran,
Soorenard, Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax, and
young Iraine. And all were agreed upon the
plan, and many names were mentioned of those
who should go, and the plan matured for many
years. It was during these years that watchers
clustered often at sunset upon the mountains
but came no nearer. Finally, a better plan
was made, and it was decided that two men
who had been by chance condemned to death
should be given a pardon if they went down
into the plain by night and discovered whether
or not Merimna s heroes lived. At first the
two prisoners dared not go, but after a while
15 <
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
one of them, Seejar, said to his companion,
Sajar-Ho : " See now, when the King s axe
man smites a man upon the neck that man
dies."
And the other said that this was so. Then
said Seejar : " And even though Welleran smite
a man with his sword no more befalleth him
than death."
Then Sajar-Ho thought for a while. Pre
sently he said : " Yet the eye of the King s
axeman might err at the moment of his stroke
or his arm fail him, and the eye of Welleran
hath never erred nor his arm failed. It were
better to bide* here."
Then said Seejar : " Maybe that Welleran
is dead and that some other holds his place upon
the ramparts, or even a statue of stone."
But Sajar-Ho made answer : " How can
Welleran be dead when he even escaped from
two score horsemen with swords that were sworn
16
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
to slay him, and all sworn upon our country s
gods?"
And Seejar said : " This story his father
told my grandfather concerning Welleran. On
the day that the fight was lost on the plains
of Kurlistan he saw a dying horse near to the
river, and the horse looked piteously toward
the water but could not reach it. And the
father of my grandfather saw Welleran go down
to the river s brink and bring water from it
with his own hand and give it to the horse.
I
Now we are in as sore a plight as was that
horse, and as near to death ; it may be that
Welleran will pity us, while the King s axeman
cannot because of the commands of the King."
Then said Sajar-Ho: "Thou wast ever a
cunning arguer. Thou broughtest us into this
trouble with thy cunning and thy devices, we
will see if thou canst bring us out of it. We
will go."
17 B
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
So news was brought to the King that the
two prisoners would go down to Merimna.
That evening the watchers led them to the
mountain s edge, and Seejar and Sajar-Ho went
down towards the plain by the way of a deep
ravine, and the watchers watched them go.
Presently their figures were wholly hid in the
dusk. Then night came up, huge and holy, out
of waste marshes to. the eastwards and low lands
and the sea; and the angels that watched over
all men through the day closed their great eyes
and slept, and the angels that watched over all
men through the night awoke and ruffled their
deep blue feathers and stood up and watched.
But the plain became a thing of mystery filled
with fears. So the two spies went down the
deep ravine, and coming to the plain sped
stealthily across it. Soon they came to the
line of sentinels asleep upon the sand, and one
stirred in his sleep calling on Rollory, and a
18
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
great dread seized upon the spies and they
whispered " Rollory lives," but they remembered
the King s axeman and went on. And next they
came to the great bronze statue of Fear, carved
by some sculptor of the old glorious years in
the attitude of flight towards the mountains,
calling to her children as she fled. And the
children of Fear were carved in the likeness of
;| the armies of all the trans-Cyresian tribes with
their backs towards Merimna, flocking after
Fear. And from where he sat on his horse
behind the ramparts the sword of Welleran was
stretched out over their heads as ever it was
wont. And the two spies kneeled down in the
sand and kissed the huge bronze foot of the
statue of Fear, saying : " O Fear, Fear." And
as they knelt they saw lights far off along the
ramparts coming nearer and nearer, and heard
men singing of Welleran. And the purple
guard came nearer and went by with their lights,
19
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
and passed on into the distance round the
ramparts still singing of Welleran. And all the
while the two spies clung to the foot of the
statue, muttering : " O Fear, Fear." But when
they could hear the name of Welleran no more
they arose and came to the ramparts and climbed
over them and came at once upon the figure of
Welleran, and they bowed low to the ground,
and Seejar said: "O Welleran, we came to see
whether thou didst yet live." And for a long
while they waited with their faces to the earth.
At last Seejar looked up towards Welleran s
terrible sword, and it was still stretched out
pointing to the carved armies that followed
after Fear. And Seejar bowed to the ground
again and touched the horse s hoof, and it
seemed cold to him. And he moved his hand
higher and touched the leg of the horse, and
it seemed quite cold. At last he touched
Welleran s foot, and the armour on it seemed
20
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
hard and stiff. Then as Welleran moved not
and spake not, Seejar climbed up at last and
touched his hand, the terrible hand of Welleran,
and it was marble. Then Seejar laughed aloud,
and he and Sajar-Ho sped down the empty
pathway and found Rollory, and he was marble
too. Then they climbed down over the ramparts
and went back across the plain, walking con
temptuously past the figure of Fear, and heard
the guard returning round the ramparts for the
third time, singing of Welleran ; and Seejar said :
" Ay, you may sing of Welleran, but Welleran is
dead and a doom is on your city."
And they passed on and found the sentinel
still restless in the night and calling on Rollory.
And Sajar-Ho muttered : " Ay, you may call on
Rollory, but Rollory is dead and naught can
save your city/
And the two spies went back alive to their
mountains again, and as they reached them the
21
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
first ray of the sun came up red over the desert
behind Merimna and lit Merimna s spires. It
was the hour when the purple guard were wont
to go back into the city with their tapers pale
and their robes a brighter colour, when the cold
sentinels came shuffling in from dreaming in the
desert ; it was the hour when the desert robbers hid
themselves away going back to their mountain
caves, it was the hour when gauze-winged insects
are born that only live for a day, it was the hour
when men die that are condemned to death, and
in this hour a great peril, new and terrible, arose
for Merimna and Merimna knew it not.
Then Seejar turning said : " See how red
the dawn is and how red the spires of Merimna.
They are angry with Merimna in Paradise and
they bode its doom."
So the two spies went back and brought
the news to their King, and for a few days
the Kings of those countries were gathering
22
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
their armies together; and one evening the
armies of four Kings were massed together at
the top of the deep ravine, all crouching below
the summit waiting for the sun to set. All
wore resolute and fearless faces, yet inwardly
every man was praying to his gods, unto each
one in turn.
Then the sun set, and it was the hour when
the bats and the dark creatures are abroad and
the lions come down from their lairs, and the
desert robbers go into the plains again, and
fevers rise up winged and hot out of chill
marshes, and it was the hour when safety
leaves the thrones of Kings, the hour when
dynasties change. But in the desert the purple
guard came swinging out of Merimna with
their lights to sing of Welleran, and the sen
tinels lay down to sleep.
Now into Paradise no sorrow may ever
come, but may only beat like rain against its
23
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
crystal walls, yet the souls of Merimna s heroes
were half aware of some sorrow far away as
some sleeper feels that some one is chilled and
cold yet knows not in his sleep that it is he.
And they fretted a little in their starry home.
Then unseen there drifted earthward across the
setting sun the souls of Welleran, Soorenard,
Mommolek, Rollory, Akanax, and young Iraine.
Already when they reached Merimna s ramparts
it was just dark, already the armies of the
four Kings had begun to move, jingling, down
the deep ravine. But when the six warriors
saw their city again, so little changed after
so many years, they looked towards her with a
longing that was nearer to tears than any that
their souls had known before, crying to her :
"O Merimna, our city: Merimna, our walled
city.
" How beautiful thou art with all thy spires,
Merimna. For thee we left the earth, its
24
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
kingdoms and little flowers, for thee we have
come away for awhile from Paradise.
" It is very difficult to draw away from the
face of God it is like a warm fire, it is like
dear sleep, it is like a great anthem, yet there
is a stillness all about it, a stillness full of
lights.
" We have left Paradise for awhile for thee,
Merimna.
" Many women have we loved, Merimna, but
only one city.
" Behold now all the people dream, all our
loved people. How beautiful are dreams ! In
dreams the dead may live, even the long dead
and the very silent. Thy lights are all sunk
low, they have all gone out, no sound is in thy
streets. Hush ! Thou art like a maiden that
shutteth up her eyes and is asleep, that draweth
her breath softly and is quite still, being at
ease and untroubled.
25
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
" Behold now the battlements, the old battle
ments. Do men defend them still as we defended
them ? They are worn a little, the battlements,"
and drifting nearer they peered anxiously. " It
is not by the hand of man that they are worn,
our battlements. Only the years have done it
and indomitable Time. Thy battlements are
like the girdle of a maiden, a girdle that is round
about her. See now the dew upon them, they
are like a jewelled girdle.
"Thou art in great danger, Merimna, because
thou art so beautiful. Must thou perish to
night because we no more defend thee, because
we cry out and none hear us, as the bruised
lilies cry out and none have known their voices ? "
Thus spake those strong-voiced, battle-order
ing captains, calling to their dear city, and
their voices came no louder than the whispers
of little bats that drift across the twilight in
the evening. Then the purple guard came
26
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
near, going round the ramparts for the first
time in the night, and the old warriors called
to them, " Merimna is in danger ! Already
her enemies gather in the darkness." But their
voices were never heard because they were only
wandering ghosts. And the guard went by and
passed unheeding away, still singing of Welleran.
Then said Welleran to his comrades: "Our
hands can hold swords no more, our voices
cannot be heard, we are stalwart men no
longer. We are but dreams, let us go among
dreams. Go all of you, and thou too, young
Iraine, and trouble the dreams of all the men
that sleep, and urge them to take the old
swords of their grandsires that hang upon the
walls, and to gather at the mouth of the ravine ;
and I will find a leader and make him take
my sword."
Then they passed up over the ramparts and
into their dear city. And the wind blew about,
27
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
this way and that, as he went, the soul of
Welleran who had upon his day withstood the
charges of tempestuous armies. And the souls
of his comrades, and with them young Iraine,
passed up into the city and troubled the dreams
of every man who slept, and to every man the
souls said in their dreams : " It is hot and still
in the city. Go out now into the desert, into
the cool under the mountains, but take with
thee the old sword that hangs upon the wall
for fear of the desert robbers."
And the god of that city sent up a fever
over it, and the fever brooded over it and the
streets were hot ; and all that slept awoke from
dreaming that it would be cool and pleasant
where the breezes came down the ravine out
of the mountains : and they took the old swords
that their grandsires had, according to their
dreams, for fear of the desert robbers. And in
and out of dreams passed the souls of Welleran s
28
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
comrades, and with them young Iraine, in great
haste as the night wore on ; and one by one they
troubled the dreams of all Merimna s men and
caused them to arise and go out armed, all save
the purple guard who, heedless of danger, sang
of Welleran still, for waking men cannot hear
the souls of the dead.
But Welleran drifted over the roofs of the
city till he came to the form of Rold lying fast
asleep. Now Rold was grown strong and was
eighteen years of age, and he was fair of hair and
tall like Welleran, and the soul of Welleran
hovered over him and went into his dreams as a
butterfly flits through trellis-work into a garden
of flowers, and the soul of Welleran said to Rold
in his dreams : " Thou wouldst go and see again
the sword of Welleran, the great curved sword of
Welleran. Thou wouldst go and look at it in
the night with the moonlight shining upon it."
And the longing of Rold in his dreams to see
29
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
the sword caused him to walk still sleeping from
his mother s house to the hall wherein were the
trophies of the heroes. And the soul of Welle-
ran urging the dreams of Rold caused him to
pause before the great red cloak, and there the
soul said among the dreams : " Thou art cold in
the night ; fling now a cloak around thee."
And Rold drew round about him the huge red
cloak of Welleran. Then Rold s dreams took
him to the sword, and the soul said to the
dreams : " Thou hast a longing to hold the sword
of Welleran : take up the sword in thy hand."
But Rold said: "What should a man do
with the sword of Welleran ? "
And the soul of the old captain said to the
dreams : " It is a good sword to hold : take up
the sword of Welleran. "
And Rold, still sleeping and speaking aloud,
said : "It is not lawful ; none may touch the
sword."
30
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
And Rold turned to go. Then a great and
terrible cry arose in the soul of Welleran, all
the more bitter for that he could not utter it,
and it went round and round his soul finding
no utterance, like a cry evoked long since by
some murderous deed in some old haunted
chamber that whispers through the ages heard
by none.
And the soul of Welleran cried out to the
dreams of Rold: "Thy knees are tied! Thou
art fallen in a marsh ! Thou canst not move/
And the dreams of Rold said to him: "Thy
knees are tied, thou art fallen in a marsh," and
Rold stood still before the sword. Then the
soul of the warrior wailed among Rold s dreams,
as Rold stood before the sword.
"Welleran is crying for his sword, his won
derful curved sword. Poor Welleran, that once
fought for Merimna, is crying for his sword in
the night. Thou wouldst not keep Welleran
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
without his beautiful sword when he is dead
and cannot come for it, poor Welleran who
fought for Merimna."
And Rold broke the glass casket with his
hand and took the sword, the great curved
sword of Welleran ; and the soul of the warrior
said among Rold s dreams: "Welleran is wait
ing in the deep ravine that runs into the moun
tains, crying for his. sword."
And Rold went down through the city and
climbed over the ramparts, and walked with his
eyes wide open but still sleeping over the desert
to the mountains.
Already a great multitude of Merimna s
citizens were gathered in the desert before the
deep ravine with old swords in their hands, and
Rold passed through them as he slept holding
the sword of Welleran, and the people cried in
amaze to one another as he passed : " Rold hath
the sword of Welleran ! "
32
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
And Rold came to the mouth of the ravine,
and there the voices of the people woke him.
And Rold knew nothing that he had done in
his sleep, and looked in amazement at the sword
in his hand and said : " What art thou, thou
beautiful thing? Lights shimmer in thee, thou
art restless. It is the sword of Welleran, the
curved sword of Welleran I "
And Rold kissed the hilt of it, and it was salt
upon his lips with the battle-sweat of Welleran.
And Rold said: "What should a man do with
the sword of Welleran ? "
And all the people wondered at Rold as he sat
there with the sword in his hand muttering, " What
should a man do with the sword of Welleran ? "
Presently there came to the ears of Rold the
noise of a jingling up in the ravine, and all the
people, the people that knew naught of war,
heard the jingling coming nearer in the night;
for the four armies were moving on Merimna
33 c
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
and not yet expecting an enemy. And Rold
gripped upon the hilt of the great curved sword,
and the sword seemed to lift a little. And a
new thought came into the hearts of Merimna s
people as they gripped their grandsires swords.
Nearer and nearer came the heedless armies of
the four Kings, and old ancestral memories
began to arise in the minds of Merimna s people
in the desert with their swords in their hands
sitting behind Rold. And all the sentinels were
awake holding their spears, for Rollory had put
their dreams to flight, Rollory that once could
put to flight armies and now was but a dream
struggling with other dreams.
And now the armies had come very near.
Suddenly Rold leaped up, crying : " Welleran !
And the sword of Welleran ! " And the savage,
lusting sword that had thirsted for a hundred
years went up with the hand of Rold and swept
through a tribesman s ribs. And with the warm
34
"\YELLI-;RAX ; AND THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
blood all about it there came a joy into the
curved soul of that mighty sword, like to the joy
of a swimmer coming up dripping out of warm
seas after living for long in a dry land. When
they saw the red cloak and that terrible sword
a cry ran through the tribal armies, " Welleran
lives 1 " And there arose the sounds of the
exulting of victorious men, and the panting of
those that fled, and the sword singing softly
to itself as it whirled dripping through the
air. And the last that I saw of the battle as
it poured into the depth and darkness of the
ravine was the sword of Welleran sweeping up
and falling, gleaming blue in the moonlight
whenever it arose and afterwards gleaming red,
and so disappearing into the darkness.
But in the dawn Merimna s men came back,
and the sun arising to give new life to the world,
shone instead upon the hideous things that the
sword of Welleran had done. And Rold said :
35
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
"O sword, sword! How horrible thou art!
Thou art a terrible thing to have come among
men. How many eyes shall look upon gardens
no more because of thee? How many fields
must go empty that might have been fair with
cottages, white cottages with children all about
them ? How many valleys must go desolate that
might have nursed warm hamlets, because thou
hast slain long since the men that might have
built them? I hear the wind crying against thee,
thou sword ! It comes from the empty valleys.
It comes over the bare fields. There are chil
dren s voices in it. They were never born.
Death brings an end to crying for those that
had life once, but these must cry for ever. O
sword! sword! why did the gods send thee
among men ? " And the tears of Rold fell down
upon the proud sword but could not wash it clean.
And now that the ardour of battle had passed
away, the spirits of Merimna s people began to
36
THE SWORD OF WELLERAN
gloom a little, like their leader s, with their
fatigue and with the cold of the morning; and
they looked at the sword of Welleran in Rold s
hand and said : " Not any more, not any more
for ever will Welleran now return, for his sword
is in the hand of another. Now we know indeed
that he is dead. O Welleran, thou wast our sun
and moon and all our stars. Now is the sun
fallen down and the moon broken, and all the
stars are scattered as the diamonds of a necklace
that is snapped off one who is slain by violence."
Thus wept the people of Merimna in the hour
of their great victory, for men have strange
moods, while beside them their old inviolate city
slumbered safe. But back from the ramparts
and beyond the mountains and over the lands
that they had conquered of old, beyond the world
and back again to Paradise, went the souls
of Welleran, Soorenard, Mommolek, Rollory,
Akanax, and young Iraine.
37
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
I SAID : " I will arise now and see Babbul-
kund, City of Marvel. She is of one age with
the earth; the stars are her sisters. Pharaohs
of the old time coming conquering from Araby
first saw her, a solitary mountain in the desert,
and cut the mountain into towers and terraces.
They destroyed one of the hills of God, but they
made Babbulkund. She is carven, not built;
her palaces are one with her terraces, there is
neither join nor cleft. Hers is the beauty of the
youth of the world. She deemeth herself to be
the middle of Earth, and hath four gates facing
outward to the Nations. There sits outside her
eastern gate a colossal god of stone. His face
flushes with the lights of dawn. When the
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
morning sunlight warms his lips they part a
little, and he giveth utterance to the words " Oon
Oom," and the language is long since dead in
which he speaks, and all his worshippers are
gathered to their tombs, so that none knoweth
what the words portend that he uttereth at
dawn. Some say that he greets the sun as
one god greets another in the language thereof,
and others say that he proclaims the day,
and others that he uttereth warning. And
at every gate is a marvel not credible until
beholden/
And I gathered three friends and said to
them : " We are what we have seen and known.
Let us journey now and behold Babbulkund,
that our minds may be beautified with it and
our spirits made holier."
So we took ship and travelled over the lift
ing sea, and remembered not things done in the
towns we knew, but laid away the thoughts
42
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
of them like soiled linen and put them by, and
dreamed of Babbulkund.
But when we came to the land of which
Babbulkund is the abiding glory, we hired a
caravan of camels and Arab guides, and passed
southwards in the afternoon on the three days
journey through the desert that should bring us
to the white walls of Babbulkund. And the heat
of the sun shone upon us out of the bright grey
sky, and the heat of the desert beat up at us
from below.
About sunset we halted and tethered our
horses, while the Arabs unloaded the provisions
from the camels and prepared a fire out of the
dry scrub, for at sunset the heat of the desert
departs from it suddenly, like a bird. Then we
saw a traveller approaching us on a camel coming
from the south. When he was come near we
said to him :
" Come and encamp among us, for in the
43
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
desert all men are brothers, and we will give thee
meat to eat and wine, or, if thou art bound by
thy faith, we will give thee some other drink that
is not accursed by the prophet"
The traveller seated himself beside us on the
sand, and crossed his legs and answered :
" Hearken, and I will tell you of Babbulkund,
City of Marvel. Babbulkund stands just below
the meeting of the rivers, where Oonrana, River
of Myth, flows into the Waters of Fable, even the
old stream Plegathanees. These, together, enter
her northern gate rejoicing. Of old they flowed
in the dark through the Hill that Nehemoth, the
first of Pharaohs, carved into the City of Marvel.
Sterile and desolate they float far through the
desert, each in the appointed cleft, with life upon
neither bank, but give birth in Babbulkund to
the sacred purple garden whereof all nations
sing. Thither all the bees come on a pilgrimage at
evening by a secret way of the air. Once, from
44
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
his twilit kingdom, which he rules equally with
the sun, the moon saw and loved Babbulkund,
clad with her purple garden ; and the moon
wooed Babbulkund, and she sent him weeping
.away, for she is more beautiful than all her sisters
the stars. Her sisters come to her at night into
her maiden chamber. Even the gods speak
sometimes of Babbulkund, clad with her purple
garden. Listen, for I perceive by your eyes that
ye have not seen Babbulkund ; there is a restless
ness in them and an unappeased wonder. Listen.
In the garden whereof I spoke there is a lake that
hath no twin or fellow in the world; there is no
companion for it among all the lakes. The
shores of it are of glass, and the bottom of it.
In it are great fish having golden and scarlet
scales, and they swim to and fro. Here it is the
wont of the eighty-second Nehemoth (who rules
in the city to-day) to come, after the dusk has
fallen, and sit by the lake alone, and at this hour
45
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
eight hundred slaves go down by steps through
caverns into vaults beneath the lake. Four
hundred of them carrying purple lights march
one behind the other, from east to west, and four
hundred carrying green lights march one behind
the other, from west to east. The two lines cross
and re-cross each other in and out as the slaves
go round and round, and the fearful fish flash
up and down and to and fro."
But upon that traveller speaking night de
scended, solemn and cold, and we wrapped our
selves in our blankets and lay down upon the
sand in the sight of the astral sisters of Babbul-
kund. And ail that night the desert said many
things, softly and in a whisper, but I knew not
what he said. Only the sand knew and arose
and was troubled and lay down again, and the
wind knew. Then, as the hours of the night
went by, these two discovered the foot-tracks
wherewith we had disturbed the holy desert, and
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
they troubled over them and covered them up ;
and then the wind lay down and the sand rested.
Then the wind arose again and the sand danced.
This they did many times. And all the while
the desert whispered what I shall not know.
Then I slept awhile and awoke just before
sunrise, very cold. Suddenly the sun leapt up
and flamed upon our faces ; we all threw off
our blankets and stood up. Then we took
food, and afterwards started southwards, and
in the heat of the day rested, and afterwards
pushed on again. And all the while the desert
remained the same, like a dream that will not
cease to trouble a tired sleeper.
And often travellers passed us in the desert,
coming from the City of Marvel, and there was
a light and a glory in their eyes from having
seen Babbulkund.
That evening, at sunset, another traveller
neared us, and we hailed him, saying :
47
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
" Wilt thou eat and drink with us, seeing that
all men are brothers in the desert?"
And he descended from his camel and sat
by us and said :
"When morning shines on the colossus
Neb and Neb speaks, at once the musicians
of King Nehemoth in Babbulkund awake.
"At first their fingers wander over their
golden harps, or they stroke idly their violins.
Clearer and clearer the note of each instru
ment ascends like larks arising from the dew,
till suddenly they all blend together and a new
melody is born. Thus, every morning, the
musicians of King Nehemoth make a new
marvel in the City of Marvel; for these are no
common musicians, but masters of melody,
raided by conquest long since, and carried
away in ships from the Isles of Song. And,
at the sound of the music, Nehemoth awakes
in the eastern chamber of his palace, which is
48
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
carved in the form of a great crescent, four
miles long, on the northern side of the city.
Full in the windows of its eastern chamber
the sun rises, and full in the windows of its
western chamber the sun sets.
"When Nehemoth awakes he summons
slaves who bring a palanquin with bells, which
the King enters, having lightly robed. Then the
slaves run and bear him to the onyx Chamber
of the Bath, with the sound of small bells ring
ing as they run. And when Nehemoth emerges
thence, bathed and anointed, the slaves run
on with their ringing palanquin and bear him
to the Orient Chamber of Banquets, where the
King takes the first meal of the day. Thence,
through the great white corridor whose windows
all face sunwards, Nehemoth, in his palanquin,
passes on to the Audience Chamber of Embassies
from the North, which is all decked with Northern
wares.
49 D
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
"All about it are ornaments of amber from
the North and carven chalices of the dark brown
Northern crystal, and on its floors lie furs from
Baltic shores.
" In adjoining chambers are stored the wonted
food of the hardy Northern men, and the strong
wine of the North, pale but terrible. Therein
the King receives barbarian princes from the
frigid lands. Thence the slaves bear him swiftly
to the Audience Chamber of Embassies from
the East, where the walls are of turquoise,
studded with the rubies of Ceylon, where the
gods are the gods of the East, where all the
hangings have been devised in the gorgeous
heart of Ind, and where all the carvings have
been wrought with the cunning of the isles.
Here, if a caravan hath chanced to have come
in from Ind or from Cathay, it is the King s
wont to converse awhile with Moguls or Man
darins, for from the East come the arts and
50
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
knowledge of the world, and the converse of
their people is polite. Thus Nehemoth passes
on through the other Audience Chambers and
receives, perhaps, some Sheikhs of the Arab
folk who have crossed the great desert from the
West, or receives an embassy sent to do him
homage from the shy jungle people to the South.
And all the while the slaves with the ringing
palanquin run westwards, following the sun,
and ever the sun shines straight into the
chamber where Nehemoth sits, and all the while
the music from one or other of his bands of
musicians comes tinkling to his ears. But when
the middle of the day draws near, the slaves run
to the cool groves that lie along the verandahs
on the northern side of the palace, forsaking
the sun, and as the heat overcomes the genius
of the musicians, one by one their hands fall
from their instruments, till at last all melody
ceases. At this moment Nehemoth falls asleep,
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
and the slaves put the palanquin down and lie
down beside it. At this hour the city becomes
quite still, and the palace of Nehemoth and the
tombs of the Pharaohs of old face to the sun
light, all alike in silence. Even the jewellers
in the market-place, selling gems to princes,
cease from their bargaining and cease to sing;
for in Babbulkund the vendor of rubies sings
the song of the ruby, and the vendor of sapphires
sings the song of the sapphire, and each stone
hath its song, so that a man, by his song, pro
claims and makes known his wares.
" But all these sounds cease at the meridian
hour, the jewellers in the market-place lie down
in what shadow they can find, and the princes
go back to the cool places in their palaces, and
a great hush in the gleaming air hangs over
Babbulkund. But in the cool of the late after
noon, one of the King s musicians will awake
from dreaming of his home and will pass his
52
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
fingers, perhaps, over the strings of his harp
and, with the music, some memory may arise
of the wind in the glens of the mountains that
stand in the Isles of Song. Then the musician
will wrench great cries out of the soul of his
harp for the sake of the old memory, and his
fellows will awake and all make a song of home,
woven of sayings told in the harbour when the
ships came in, and of tales in the cottages about
the people of old time. One by one the other
bands of musicians will take up the song, and
Babbulkund, City of Marvel, will throb with
this marvel anew. Just now Nehemoth awakes,
the slaves leap to their feet and bear the palan
quin to the outer side of the great crescent
palace between the south and the west, to
behold the sun again. The palanquin, with its
ringing bells, goes round once more ; the voices
of the jewellers sing again, in the market-place,
the song of the emerald, the song of the sapphire ;
53
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
men talk on the housetops, beggars wail in the
streets, the musicians bend to their work, all
the sounds blend together into one murmur,
the voice of Babbulkund speaking at evening.
Lower and lower sinks the sun, till Nehemoth,
following it, comes with his panting slaves to
the great purple garden of which surely thine
own country has its songs, from wherever thou
art come.
" There he alights from his palanquin and
goes up to a throne of ivory set in the garden s
midst, facing full westwards, and sits there alone,
long regarding the sunlight until it is quite
gone. At this hour trouble comes into the face
of Nehemoth. Men have heard him muttering
at the time of sunset : Even I too, even I too/
Thus do King Nehemoth and the sun make their
glorious ambits about Babbulkund.
"A little later, when the stars come out to
envy the beauty of the City of Marvel, the King
54 "
- EVEN I TOO ! EVEN I TOO <
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
walks to another part of the garden and sits in an
alcove of opal all alone by the marge of the sacred
lake. This is the lake whose shores and floors
are of glass, which is lit from beneath by slaves
with purple lights and with green lights inter
mingling, and is one of the seven wonders of
Babbulkund. Three of the wonders are in the
city s midst and four are at her gates. There is
the lake, of which I tell thee, and the purple
garden of which I have told thee and which is
a wonder even to the stars, and there is Ong
Zwarba, of which I shall tell thee also. And the
wonders at the gates are these. At the eastern
gate Neb. And at the northern gate the wonder
of the river and the arches, for the River of Myth,
which becomes one with the Waters of Fable in
the desert outside the city, floats under a gate
of pure gold, rejoicing, and under many arches
fantastically carven that are one with either bank.
The marvel at the western gate is the marvel of
55
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
Annolith and the dog Voth. Annolith sits out
side the western gate facing towards the city.
He is higher than any of the towers or palaces, for
his head was carved from the summit of the
old hill ; he hath two eyes of sapphire wherewith
he regards Babbulkund, and the wonder of the
eyes is that they are to-day in the same sockets
wherein they glowed when first the world began,
only the marble that covered them has been
carven away and the light of day let in and the
sight of the envious stars. Larger than a lion is
the dog Voth beside him ; every hair is carven
upon the back of Voth, his war hackles are erected
and his teeth are bared. All the Nehemoths have
worshipped the god Annolith, but all their
people pray to the dog Voth, for the law of the
land is that none but a Nehemoth may worship
the god Annolith. The marvel at the southern
gate is the marvel of the jungle, for he comes with
all his wild untravelled sea of darkness and trees
56
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
and tigers and sunward-aspiring orchids right
through a marble gate in the city wall and enters
the city, and there widens and holds a space in its
midst of many miles across. Moreover, he is
older than the City of Marvel, for he dwelt long
since in one of the valleys of the mountain
which Nehemoth, first of Pharaohs, carved into
Babbulkund.
" Now the opal alcove in which the King sits
at evening by the lake stands at the edge of the
jungle, and the climbing orchids of the jungle
have long since crept from their homes through
clefts of the opal alcove, lured by the lights of
the lake, and now bloom there exultingly. Near
to this alcove are the hareems of Nehemoth.
" The King hath four hareems one for the
stalwart women from the mountains to the north,
one for the dark and furtive jungle women, one
for the desert women that have wandering souls
and pine in Babbulkund, and one for the princesses
57
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
of his own kith, whose brown cheeks blush with
the blood of ancient Pharaohs and who exult
with Babbulkund in her surpassing beauty, and
who know nought of the desert or the jungle or
the bleak hills to the north. Quite unadorned
and clad in simple garments go all the kith of
Nehemoth, for they know well that he grows
weary of pomp. Unadorned all save one, the
Princess Linderith, who weareth Ong Zwarba
and the three lesser gems of the sea. Such a
stone is Ong Zwarba that there are none like
it even in the turban of Nehemoth nor in all
the sanctuaries of the sea. The same god that
made Linderith made long ago Ong Zwarba ; she
and Ong Zwarba shine together with one light,
and beside this marvellous stone gleam the three
lesser ones of the sea.
" Now when the King sitteth in his opal alcove
by the sacred lake with the orchids blooming
around him all sounds are become still. The
58
Till-: Lir.IIT OF ONG ZWARliA
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
sound of the tramping of the weary slaves as they
go round and round never comes to the surface.
Long since the musicians sleep, and their hands
have fallen dumb upon their instruments, and
the voices in the city have died away. Perhaps
a sigh of one of the desert women has become
half a song, or on a hot night in summer one
of the women of the hills sings softly a song
of snow; all night long in the midst of the
purple garden sings one nightingale ; all else
is still ; the stars that look on Babbulkund
arise and set, the cold unhappy moon drifts
lonely through them, the night wears on ; at
last the dark figure of Nehemoth, eighty-second
of his line, rises and moves stealthily away/
The traveller ceased to speak. For a long
time the clear stars, sisters of Babbulkund, had
shone upon him speaking, the desert wind had
arisen and whispered to the sand, and the sand
had long gone secretly to and fro ; none of us
59
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
had moved, none of us had fallen asleep, not so
much from wonder at his tale as from the thought
that we ourselves in two days time should
see that wondrous city. Then we wrapped our
blankets around us and lay down with our feet
towards the embers of our fire and instantly
were asleep, and in our dreams we multiplied
the fame of the City of Marvel.
The sun arose and flamed upon our faces,
and all the desert glinted with its light. Then
we stood up and prepared the morning meal,
and, when we had eaten, the traveller departed.
And we commended his soul to the god of the
land whereto he went, of the land of his home
to the northward, and he commended our souls
to the God of the people of the land wherefrom
we had come. Then a traveller overtook us
going on foot ; he wore a brown cloak that was
all in rags and he seemed to have been walking
all night, and he walked hurriedly but appeared
60
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
weary, so we offered him food and drink, of
which he partook thankfully. When we asked
him where he was going, he answered " Babbul-
kund." Then we offered him a camel upon which
to ride, for we said, " We also go to Babbulkund."
But he answered strangely :
" Nay, pass on before me, for it is a sore
thing never to have seen Babbulkund, having
lived while yet she stood. Pass on before me
and behold her, and then flee away at once, re
turning northward."
Then, though we understood him not, we
left him, for he was insistent, and passed on our
journey southwards through the desert, and we
came before the middle of the day to an oasis
of palm trees standing by a well and there we
gave water to the haughty camels and replen
ished our water-bottles and soothed our eyes
with the sight of green things and tarried for
many hours in the shade. Some of the men
61
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
slept, but of those that remained awake each
man sang softly the songs of his own country,
telling of Babbulkund. When the afternoon
was far spent we travelled a little way south
wards, and went on through the cool evening
until the sun fell low and we encamped, and
as we sat in our encampment the man in rags
overtook us, having travelled all the day, and
we gave him food and drink again, and in the
twilight he spoke, saying :
" I am the servant of the Lord the God of
my people, and I go to do his work on Babbul
kund. She is the most beautiful city in the
world ; there Hath been none like her, even the
stars of God go envious of her beauty. She is
all white, yet with streaks of pink that pass
through her streets and houses like flames in
the white mind of a sculptor, like desire in
Paradise. She hath been carved of old out of
a holy hill, no slaves wrought the City of Marvel,
62
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
but artists toiling at the work they loved. They
took no pattern from the houses of men, but
each man wrought what his inner eye had seen
and carved in marble the visions of his dream.
All over the roof of one of the palace chambers
winged lions flit like bats, the size of every
one is the size of the lions of God, and the
wings are larger than any wing created ; they
are one above the other more than a man can
number, they are all carven out of one block of
marble, the chamber itself is hollowed from it,
and it is borne aloft upon the carven branches
of a grove of clustered tree-ferns wrought by the
hand of some jungle mason that loved the tall
fern well. Over the River of Myth, which is one
with the Waters of Fable, go bridges, fashioned
like the wisteria tree and like the drooping
laburnum, and a hundred others of wonderful
devices, the desire of the souls of masons a long
while dead. Oh 1 very beautiful is white Babbul-
63
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
kund, very beautiful she is, but proud ; and the
Lord the God of my people hath seen her in her
pride, and looking towards her hath seen the
prayers of Nehemoth going up to the abomination
Annolith, and all the people following after Voth.
She is very beautiful, Babbulkund ; alas that I
may not bless her. I could live always on one
of her inner terraces looking on the mysterious
jungle in her midst and the heavenward faces of
the orchids that, clambering from the darkness,
behold the sun. I could love Babbulkund with
a great love, yet am I the servant of the Lord the
God of my people, and the King hath sinned
unto the abomination Annolith, and the people
lust exceedingly for Voth. Alas for thee, Babbul
kund, alas that I may not even now turn back, for
to-morrow I must prophesy against thee and cry
out against thee, Babbulkund. But ye travellers
that have entreated me hospitably rise and pass
on with your camels, for I can tarry no longer,
64
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
and I go to do the work on Babbulkund of
the Lord the God of my people. Go now
and see the beauty of Babbulkund before I
cry out against her, and then flee swiftly
northwards."
A smouldering fragment fell in upon our
camp fire and sent a strange light into the
eyes of the man in rags. He rose at once,
and his tattered cloak swirled up with him
like a great wing ; he said no more, but
turned round from us instantly southwards,
and strode away into the darkness towards
Babbulkund. Then a hush fell upon our en
campment, and the smell of the tobacco of
those lands arose. When the last flame died
down in our camp fire I fell asleep, but
my rest was troubled by shifting dreams of
doom.
Morning came, and our guides told us that
we should come to the city ere nightfall. Again
65 E
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
we passed southwards through the changeless
desert ; sometimes we met travellers coming
from Babbulkund, with the beauty of its marvels
still fresh in their eyes.
When we encamped near the middle of the
day we saw a great number of people on foot
coming towards us running, from the south
wards. These we hailed when they were come
near, saying, " What of Babbulkund ? "
They answered : " We are not of the race
of the people of Babbulkund, but were cap
tured in youth and taken away from the hills
that are to the northward. Now we have all
seen in visions of the stillness the Lord the
God of our people calling to us from His
hills, and therefore we all flee northward. But
in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been
troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams
of doom, and none may interpret what the
dreams portend. Now this is the dream that
66
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
King Nehemoth dreamed on the first night
of his dreaming. He saw move through the
stillness a bird all black, and beneath the
beatings of his wings Babbulkund gloomed
and darkened ; and after him flew a bird all
white, beneath the beatings of whose wings
Babbulkund gleamed and shone ; and there
flew by four more birds alternately black and
white. And, as the black ones passed Bab
bulkund darkened, and when the white ones
appeared her streets and houses shone. But
after the sixth bird there came no more, and
Babbulkund vanished from her place, and there
was only the empty desert where she had
stood, and the rivers Oonrana and Plegathanees
mourning alone. Next morning all the pro
phets of the King gathered before their abomi
nations and questioned them of the dream,
and the abominations spake not. But when
the second night stepped down from the halls
67
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
of God, dowered with many stars, King Nehe-
moth dreamed again ; and in this dream King
Nehemoth saw four birds only, black and
white alternately as before. And Babbulkund
darkened again as the black ones passed, and
shone when the white came by ; only after the
four birds came no more, and Babbulkund
vanished from her place, leaving only the for
getful desert and the mourning rivers.
" Still the abominations spake not, and none
could interpret the dream. And when the
third night came forth from the divine halls
of her home dowered like her sisters, again
King Nehemoth dreamed. And he saw a bird
all black go by again, beneath whom Babbul
kund darkened, and then a white bird and
Babbulkund shone ; and after them came no
more, and Babbulkund passed away. And the
golden day appeared, dispelling dreams, and
still the abominations were silent, and the
68
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
King s prophets answered not to portend the
omen of the dream. One prophet only spake
before the King, saying: The sable birds, O
King, are the nights, and the white birds are
the days, . . . This thing the King had feared,
and he arose and smote the prophet with his
sword, whose soul went crying away and had
to do no more with nights and days.
" It was last night that the King dreamed
his third dream, and this morning we fled
away from Babbulkund. A great heat lies over
it, and the orchids of the jungle droop their
heads. All night long the women in the hareem
of the North have wailed horribly for their
hills. A fear hath fallen upon the city, and a
boding. Twice hath Nehemoth gone to worship
Annolith, and all the people have prostrated
themselves before Voth. Thrice the horolo-
gers have looked into the great crystal globe
wherein are foretold all happenings to be, and
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
thrice the globe was blank. Yea, though they
went a fourth time yet was no vision revealed ;
and the people s voice is hushed in Babbulkund."
Soon the travellers arose and pushed on north
wards again, leaving us wondering. Through the
heat of the day we rested as well as we might,
but the air was motionless and sultry and the
camels ill at ease. The Arabs said that it boded
a desert storm, and that a great wind would
arise full of sand. So we arose in the after
noon, and travelled swiftly, hoping to come to
shelter before the storm. And the air burned
in the stillness between the baked desert and
the glaring sky.
Suddenly a wind arose out of the South,
blowing from Babbulkund, and the sand lifted
and went by in great shapes, all whispering.
And the wind blew violently, and wailed as it
blew, and hundreds of sandy shapes went tower
ing by, and there were little cries among them
70
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
and the sounds of a passing away. Soon the
wind sank quite suddenly, and its cries died,
and the panic ceased among the driven sands.
And when the storm departed the air was cool,
and the terrible sultriness and the boding were
passed away, and the camels had ease among
them. And the Arabs said that the storm
which was to be had been, as was willed of
old by God.
The sun set and the gloaming came, and we
neared the junction of Oonrana and Plegdthanees,
but in the darkness discerned not Babbulkund.
We pushed on hurriedly to reach the city ere
nightfall, and came to the junction of the River
of Myth where he meets with the Waters of
Fable, and still saw not Babbulkund. All
round us lay the sand and rocks of the un
changing desert, save to the southwards where
the jungle stood with its orchids facing sky
wards. Then we perceived that we had arrived
THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
too late, and that her doom had come to Babbul-
kund ; and by the river in the empty desert on
the sand the man in rags was seated, with his
face hidden in his hands, weeping bitterly.
Thus passed away in the hour of her ini
quities before Annolith, in the two thousand
and thirty-second year of her being, in the
six thousand and fiftieth year of the building
of the World, Babbulkund, City of Marvel,
sometime called by those that hated her City of
the Dog, but hourly mourned in Araby and
Ind and wide through jungle and desert ; leaving
no memorial in stone to show that she had
been, but remembered with an abiding love, in
spite of the anger of God, by all that knew
her beauty, whereof still they sing.
72
I
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
f
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
CHAPTER I
THE north wind was blowing, and red and
golden the last days of Autumn were stream
ing hence. Solemn and cold over the marshes
arose the evening.
It became very still.
Then the last pigeon went home to the
trees on the dry land in the distance, whose
shapes already had taken upon themselves a
mystery in the haze.
Then all was still again.
As the light faded and the haze deepened,
mystery crept nearer from every side.
Then the green plover came in crying, and
all alighted.
75
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
And again it became still, save when one of
the plover arose and flew a little way uttering
the cry of the waste. And hushed and silent
became the earth, expecting the first star. Then
the duck came in, and the widgeon, company by
company : and all the light of day faded out of
the sky saving one red band of light. Across
the light appeared, black and huge, the wings of
a flock of geese beating up wind to the marshes.
These, too, went down among the rushes.
Then the stars appeared and shone in the
stillness, and there was silence in the great
spaces of the night.
Suddenly the bells of the cathedral in the
marshes broke out, calling to evensong.
Eight centuries ago on the edge of the marsh
men had built the huge cathedral, or it may have
been seven centuries ago, or perhaps nine it
was all one to the Wild Things.
So evensong was held, and candles lighted,
76
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
and the lights through the windows shone red
and green in the water, and the sound of the
organ went roaring over the marshes. But from
the deep and perilous places, edged with bright
mosses, the Wild Things came leaping up to
dance on the reflection of the stars, and over
their heads as they danced the marsh-lights rose
and fell.
The Wild Things are somewhat human in
appearance, only all brown of skin and barely
two feet high. Their ears are pointed like the
squirrel s, only far larger, and they leap to pro
digious heights. They live all day under deep
pools in the loneliest marshes, but at night they
come up and dance. Each Wild Thing has
over its head a marsh-light, which moves as
the Wild Thing moves ; they have no souls,
and cannot die, and are of the kith of the
Elf-folk.
All night they dance over the marshes,
77
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
treading upon the reflection of the stars (for the
bare surface of the water will not hold them
by itself) ; but when the stars begin to pale,
they sink down one by one into the pools of
their home. Or if they tarry longer, sitting
upon the rushes, their bodies fade from view
as the marsh-fires pale in the light, and by
daylight none may see the Wild Things of
the kith of the Elf-folk. Neither may any see
them even at night unless they were born, as
I was, in the hour of dusk, just at the moment
when the first star appears.
Now, on the night that I tell of, a little Wild
Thing had gone drifting over the waste, till it
came right up to the walls of the cathedral and
danced upon the images of the coloured saints as
they lay in the water among the reflection of the
stars. And as it leaped in its fantastic dance, it
saw through the painted windows to where the
people prayed, and heard the organ roaring over
78
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
the marshes. The sound of the organ roared
over the marshes, but the song and prayers of
the people streamed up from the cathedral s
highest tower like thin gold chains, and reached
to Paradise, and up and down them went the
angels from Paradise to the people, and from
the people to Paradise again.
Then something akin to discontent troubled
the Wild Thing for the first time since the
making of the marshes ; and the soft grey ooze
and the chill of the deep water seemed to be not
enough, nor the first arrival from northwards
of the tumultuous geese, nor the wild rejoicing
of the wings of the wildfowl when every feather
sings, nor the wonder of the calm ice that comes
when the snipe depart and beards the rushes
with frost and clothes the hushed waste with a
mysterious haze where the sun goes red and low,
nor even the dance of the Wild Things in the
marvellous night ; and the little Wild Thing
79
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
longed to have a soul, and to go and worship
God.
And when evensong was over and the lights
were out, it went back crying to its kith.
But on the next night, as soon as the
images of the stars appeared in the water, it
went leaping away from star to star to the
farthest ; edge of the marshlands, where a great
wood grew where .dwelt the oldest of the Wild
Things.
And it found the Oldest of Wild Things
sitting under a tree, sheltering itself from the
moon.
And the little Wild Thing said : " I want to
have a soul to worship God, and to know the
meaning of music, and to see the inner beauty
of the marshlands and to imagine Paradise."
And the Oldest of the Wild Things said to it :
"What have we to do with God? We are only
Wild Things, and of the kith of the Elf-folk."
80
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
But it only answered, " I want to have a
soul."
Then the Oldest of the Wild Things said : " I
have no soul to give you ; but if you got a soul,
one day you would have to die, and if you
knew the meaning of music you would learn
the meaning of sorrow, and it is better to be
a Wild Thing and not to die."
So it went weeping away.
But they that were kin to the Elf-folk were
sorry for the little Wild Thing; and though
the Wild Things cannot sorrow long, having no
souls to sorrow with, yet they felt for awhile a
soreness where their souls should be when they
saw the grief of their comrade.
So the kith of the Elf-folk went abroad by
night to make a soul for the little Wild Thing.
And they went over the marshes till they
came to the high fields among the flowers and
grasses. And there they gathered a large piece
81 F
THE KITH OF THE ELRFOLK
of gossamer that the spider had laid by twilight ;
and the dew was on it.
Into this dew had shone all the lights of the
long banks of the ribbed sky, as all the colours
changed in the restful spaces of evening. And
over it the marvellous night had gleamed with
all its stars.
Then the Wild Things went with their dew-
bespangled gossamer down to the edge of their
home. And there they gathered a piece of the
grey mist that lies by night over the marsh
lands. And into it they put the melody of the
waste that is borne up and down the marshes
in the evening on the wings of the golden
plover. And they put into it, too, the mournful
song that the reeds are compelled to sing before
the presence of the arrogant North Wind. Then
each of the Wild Things gave some treasured
memory of the old marshes, " For we can spare
it," they said. And to all this they added a few
82
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
images of the stars that they gathered out of the
water. Still the soul that the kith of the Elf-
folk were making had no life.
Then they put into it the low voices of two
lovers that went walking in the night, wander
ing late alone. And after that they waited for
the dawn. And the queenly dawn appeared,
and the marsh-lights of the Wild Things paled
in the glare, and their bodies faded from view ;
and still they waited by the marsh s edge. And
to them waiting came over field and marsh,
from the ground and out of the sky, the myriad
song of the birds.
This, too, the Wild Things put into the
piece of haze that they had gathered in the
marshlands, and wrapped it all up in their dew-
bespangled gossamer. Then the soul lived.
And there it lay in the hands of the Wild
Things no larger than a hedgehog ; and wonder
ful lights were in it, green and blue ; and they
83
THE KITH OF THE ELF^FOLK
changed ceaselessly, going round and round,
and in the grey midst of it was a purple
flare.
And the next night they came to the little
Wild Thing and showed her the gleaming soul.
And they said to her : " If you must have a
soul and go and worship God, and become a
mortal and die, place this to your left breast a
little above the heart, and it will enter and you
will become a human. But if you take it you
can never be rid of it to become a mortal
again unless you pluck it out and give it to
another; and we will not take it, and most of
the humans have a soul already. And if you
cannot find a human without a soul you will
one day die, and your soul cannot go to Paradise
because it was only made in the marshes."
Far away the little Wild Thing saw the
cathedral windows alight for evensong, and the
song of the people mounting up to Paradise,
84
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
and all the angels going up and down. So it
bid farewell with tears and thanks to the Wild
Things of the kith of Elf-folk, and went leap
ing away towards the green dry land, holding
the soul in its hands.
And the Wild Things were sorry that it had
gone, but could not be sorry long because they
had no souls.
At the marsh s edge the little Wild Thing
gazed for some moments over the water to where
the marsh-fires were leaping up and down, and
then pressed the soul against its left breast a
little above the heart.
Instantly it became a young and beautiful
woman, who was cold and frightened. She clad
herself somehow with bundles of reeds, and went
towards the lights of a house that stood close
by. And she pushed open the door and entered,
and found a farmer and a farmer s wife sitting
over their supper.
85
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
And the farmer s wife took the little Wild
Thing with the soul of the marshes up to her
room, and clothed her and braided her hair, and
brought her down again, and gave her the first
food that she had ever eaten. Then the farmer s
wife asked many questions.
" Where have you come from?" she said.
" Over the marshes."
" From what direction?" said the farmer s
wife.
" South," said the little Wild Thing with the
new soul.
" But none can come over the marshes from
the south," said the farmer s wife.
" No, they can t do that," said the farmer.
" I lived in the marshes."
" Who are you ? " asked the farmer s wife.
" I am a Wild Thing, and have found a soul
in the marshes, and we are kin to the Elf-folk."
Talking it over afterwards, the farmer and his
86
THE KITH OF THE ELF^FOLK
wife agreed that she must be a gipsy who had
been lost, and that she was queer with hunger
and exposure.
So that night the little Wild Thing slept in
the farmer s house, but her new soul stayed
awake the whole night long dreaming of the
beauty of the marshes.
As soon as dawn came over the waste and
shone on the farmer s house, she looked from the
window towards the glittering waters, and saw
the inner beauty of the marsh. For the Wild
Things only love the marsh and know its haunts,
but now she perceived the mystery of its distances
and the glamour of its perilous pools, with their
fair and deadly mosses, and felt the marvel of
the North Wind who comes dominant out of
unknown icy lands, and the wonder of that ebb
and flow of life when the wildfowl whirl in at
evening to the marshlands and at dawn pass out
to sea. And she knew that over her head above
8?
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
the farmer s house stretched wide Paradise, where
perhaps God was now imagining a sunrise while
angels played low on lutes, and the sun came
rising up on the world below to gladden fields
and marsh.
And all that heaven thought, the marsh
thought too ; for the blue of the marsh was as
the blue of heaven, and the great cloud shapes
in heaven became the shapes in the marsh, and
through each ran momentary rivers of purple,
errant between banks of gold. And the stalwart
army of reeds appeared out of the gloom with all
their pennons waving as far as the eye could see.
And from another window she saw the vast
cathedral gathering its ponderous strength to
gether, and lifting it up in towers out of the
marshlands.
She said, " I will never, never leave the
marsh."
An hour later she dressed with great difficulty
88
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
and went down to eat the second meal of her
life. The farmer and his wife were kindly
folk, and taught her how to eat.
" I suppose the gipsies don t have knives and
forks," one said to the other afterwards.
After breakfast the farmer went and saw the
Dean, who lived near his cathedral, and presently
returned and brought back to the Dean s house
the little Wild Thing with the new soul.
"This is the lady," said the farmer. "This
is Dean Murnith." Then he went away.
"Ah," said the Dean, " I understand you were
lost the other night in the marshes. It was a
terrible night to be lost in the marshes."
" I love the marshes," said the little Wild
Thing with the new soul.
" Indeed ! How old are you ? " said the Dean.
41 1 don t know," she answered.
"You must know about how old you are," he
said.
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
"Oh, about ninety," she said, "or more."
" Ninety years I " exclaimed the Dean.
" No, ninety centuries," she said ; " I am as
old as the marshes."
Then she told her story how she had longed
to be a human and go and worship God, and
have a soul and see the beauty of the world,
and how all the Wild Things had made her a
soul of gossamer and mist and music and
strange memories.
"But if this is true," said Dean Murnith,
" this is very wrong. God cannot have intended
you to have a soul.
" What is your name ? "
" I have no name," she answered.
" We must find a Christian name and a
surname for you. What would you like to be
called?"
" Song of the Rushes," she said.
"That won t do at all," said the Dean.
90
THE KITH OF THE ELF/FOLK
"Then I would like to be called Terrible
North Wind, or Star in the Waters," she said.
" No, no, no," said Dean Murnith ; " that is
quite impossible. We could call you Miss
Rush if you like. How would Mary Rush do ?
Perhaps you had better have another name
say Mary Jane Rush."
So the little Wild Thing with the soul of
the marshes took the names that were offered
her, and became Mary Jane Rush.
"And we must find something for you to
do," said Dean Murnith. " Meanwhile we can
give you a room here."
" I don t want to do anything," replied Mary
Jane; "I want to worship God in the cathedral
and live beside the marshes."
Then Mrs. Murnith came in, and for the
rest of that day Mary Jane stayed at the house
of the Dean.
And there with her new soul she perceived
9 1
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
the beauty of the world ; for it came grey and
level out of misty distances, and widened into
grassy fields and ploughlands right up to the
edge of an old gabled town ; and solitary in the
fields far off an ancient windmill stood, and his
honest hand-made sails went round and round
in the free East Anglian winds. Close by, the
gabled houses leaned out over the streets, planted
fair upon sturdy timbers that grew in the olden
time, all glorying among themselves upon their
beauty. And out of them, buttress by buttress,
growing and going upwards, aspiring tower by
tower, rose the cathedral.
And she saw the people moving in the streets
all leisurely and slow, and unseen among them,
whispering to each other, unheard by living men
and concerned only with bygone things, drifted
the ghosts of very long ago. And wherever the
streets ran eastwards, wherever were gaps in the
houses, always there broke into view the sight of
92
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
the great marshes, like to some bar of music
weird and strange that haunts a melody, arising
again and again, played on the violin by one
musician only, who plays no other bar, and he is
swart and lank about the hair and bearded about
the lips, and his moustache droops long and low,
and no one knows the land from which he comes.
All these were good things for a new soul
to see.
Then the sun set over green fields and
ploughland and the night came up. One by one
the merry lights of cheery lamp-lit windows took
their stations in the solemn night.
Then the bells rang, far up in a cathedral
tower, and their melody fell on the roofs of the
old houses and poured over their eaves until the
streets were full, and then flooded away over
green fields and plough till it came to the sturdy
mill and brought the miller trudging to evensong,
and far away eastwards and seawards the sound
93
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
rang out over the remoter marshes. And it was
all as yesterday to the old ghosts in the streets.
Then the Dean s wife took Mary Jane to even
ing service, and she saw three hundred candles
filling all the aisle with light. But sturdy pillars
stood there in unlit vastnesses ; great colonnades
going away into the gloom where evening and
morning, year in year out, they did their work in
the dark, holding the cathedral roof aloft. And it
was stiller than the marshes are still when the ice
has come and the wind that brought it has fallen.
Suddenly into this stillness rushed the sound
of the organ, roaring, and presently the people
prayed and sang.
No longer could Mary Jane see their prayers
ascending like thin gold chains, for that was but
an elfin fancy, but she imagined clear in her
new soul the seraphs passing in the ways of
Paradise, and the angels changing guard to watch
the World by night.
94
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
When the Dean had finished service, a young
curate, Mr. Millings, went up into the pulpit.
He spoke of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of
Damascus : and Mary Jane was glad that there
were rivers having such names, and heard with
wonder of Nineveh, that great city, and many
things strange and new.
And the light of the candles shone on the
curate s fair hair, and his voice went ringing down
the aisle, and Mary Jane rejoiced that he was there.
But when his voice stopped she felt a sudden
loneliness, such as she had not felt since the
making of the marshes ; for the Wild Things
never are lonely and never unhappy, but dance
all night on the reflection of the stars, and having
no souls desire nothing more.
After the collection was made, before any one
moved to go, Mary Jane walked up the aisle to
Mr. Millings.
" I love you," she said.
95
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
CHAPTER II
NOBODY sympathised with Mary Jane.
"So unfortunate for Mr. Millings," every
one said ; " such a promising young man. 1
Mary Jane was sent away to a great manu
facturing city of the Midlands, where work had
been found for her in a cloth factory. And there
was nothing in that town that was good for a
soul to see. For it did not know that beauty
was to be desired ; so it made many things by
machinery, and became hurried in all its ways,
and boasted its superiority over other cities and
became riche r and richer, and there was none
to pity it.
In this city Mary Jane had had lodgings
found for her near the factory.
At six o clock on those November mornings,
about the time that, far away from the city, the
wildfowl rose up out of the calm marshes and
96
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
passed to the troubled spaces of the sea, at six
o clock the factory uttered a prolonged howl and
gathered the workers together, and there they
worked, saving two hours for food, the whole of
the daylit hours and into the dark till the bells
tolled six again.
There Mary Jane worked with other girls
in a long dreary room, where giants sat pound
ing wool into a long thread-like strip with iron,
rasping hands. And all day long they roared
as they sat at their soulless work. But the
work of Mary Jane was not with these, only
their roar was ever in her ears as their clattering
iron limbs went to and fro.
Her work was to tend a creature smaller, but
infinitely more cunning.
It took the strip of wool that the giants had
threshed, and whirled it round and round until
it had twisted it into hard thin thread. Then
it would make a clutch with fingers of steel at
97 G
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
the thread that it had gathered, and waddle
away about five yards and come back with
more.
It had mastered all the subtlety of skilled
workers, and had gradually displaced them ; one
thing only it could not do, it was unable to
pick up the ends if a piece of the thread
broke, in order to tie them together again. For
this a human soul was required, and it was
Mary Jane s business to pick up broken ends ;
and the moment she placed them together the
busy soulless creature tied them for itself.
All here \yas ugly; even the green wool as
it whirled round and round was neither the
green of the grass nor yet the green of the
rushes, but a sorry muddy green that befitted
a sullen city under a murky sky.
When she looked out over the roofs of the
town, there too was ugliness ; and well the
houses knew it, for with hideous stucco they aped
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
in grotesque mimicry the pillars and temples
of old Greece, pretending to one another to be
that which they were not. And emerging from
these houses and going in, and seeing the
pretence of paint and stucco year after year
until it all peeled away, the souls of the poor
owners of those houses sought to be other
souls until they grew weary of it.
At evening Mary Jane went back to her
lodgings. Only then, after the dark had
fallen, could the soul of Mary Jane per
ceive any beauty in that city, when the lamps
were lit and here and there a star shone
through the smoke. Then she would have
gone -abroad and beheld the night, but this the
old woman to whom she was confided would
not let her do. And the days multiplied them
selves by seven and became weeks, and the
weeks passed by, and all days were the same,
all the while the soul of Mary Jane was
99
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
crying for beautiful things, and found not
one, saving on Sundays, when she went to
church, and left it to find the city greyer than
before.
One day she decided that it was better to
be a wild thing in the lovely marshes than
to have a soul that cried for beautiful things
and found not one. From that day she deter
mined to be rid of her soul, so she told her
story to one of the factory girls, and said
to her:
"The other girls are poorly clad and they
do soulless work ; surely some of them have
no souls and would take mine."
But the factory girl said to her: "All the
poor have souls. It is all they have."
Then Mary Jane watched the rich whenever
she saw them, and vainly sought for some one
without a soul.
One day at the hour when the machines
100
THE KITH OF THE EUvFOLK
rested and the human beings that tended them
rested too, the wind being at that time from
the direction of the marshlands, the soul of
Mary Jane lamented bitterly. Then, as she
stood outside the factory gates, the soul irre
sistibly compelled her to sing, and a wild song
came from her lips hymning the marshlands.
And into her song came crying her yearning
for home and for the sound of the shout of the
North Wind, masterful and proud, with his
lovely lady the Snow ; and she sang of tales
that the rushes murmured to one another, tales
that the teal knew and the watchful heron. And
over the crowded streets her song went crying
away, the song of waste places and of wild free
lands, full of wonder and magic, for she had in
her elf-made soul the song of the birds and
the roar of the organ in the marshes.
At this moment Signor Thompsoni, the
well-known English tenor, happened to go by
101
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
with a friend. They stopped and listened ;
every one stopped and listened.
"There has been nothing like this in
Europe in my time," said Signor Thompsoni.
So a change came into the life of Mary Jane.
People were written to, and finally it was
arranged that she should take a leading part
in the Covent Garden Opera in a few weeks.
So she went to London to learn.
London and singing lessons were better than
the City of the Midlands and those terrible
machines. Yet still Mary Jane was not free
to go and live as she liked by the edge of
the marshlands, and she was still determined
to be rid of her soul, but could find no one
that had not a soul of their own.
One day she was told that the English
people would not listen to her as Miss Rush,
and was asked what more suitable name she
would like to be called by.
102
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
"I would like to be called Terrible North
Wind," said Mary Jane, "or Song of the
Rushes."
When she was told that this was impossible
and Signorina Maria Russiano was suggested,
she acquiesced at once, as she had acquiesced
when they took her away from her curate ;
she knew nothing of the ways of humans.
At last the day of the Opera came round,
and it was a cold day of the winter.
And Signorina Russiano appeared on the
stage before a crowded house.
And Signorina Russiano sang.
And into the song went all the longing of
her soul, the soul that could not go to Paradise,
but could only worship God and know the
meaning of music, and the longing pervaded
that Italian song as the infinite mystery of
the hills is borne along the sound of distant
sheep-bells. Then in the souls that were in
103
THE KITH OF THE ELF^FOLK
that crowded house arose little memories of
a great while since that were quite quite dead,
and lived awhile again during that marvellous
song.
And a strange chill went into the blood of
all that listened, as though they stood on the
border of bleak marshes and the North Wind
blew.
And some it moved to sorrow and some
to regret, and some to an unearthly joy,
then suddenly the song went wailing away
like the winds of the winter from the marsh
lands when Spring appears from the South.
So it ended. And a great silence fell fog-
like over all that house, breaking in upon the
end of a chatty conversation that Cecilia,
Countess of Birmingham, was enjoying with
a friend.
In the dead hush Signorina Russiano rushed
from the stage ; she appeared again running
104
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
among the audience, and dashed up to Lady
Birmingham.
"Take my soul," she said; "it is a beauti
ful soul. It can worship God, and knows the
meaning of music and can imagine Paradise.
And if you go to the marshlands with it you
will see beautiful things ; there is an old town
there built of lovely timbers, with ghosts in
its streets."
Lady Birmingham stared. Every one was
standing up. " See," said Signorina Russiano,
"it is a beautiful soul."
And she clutched at her left breast a little
above the heart, and there was the soul shining
in her hand, with the green and blue lights
going round and round and the purple flare in
the midst.
"Take it," she said, "and you will love all
that is beautiful, and know the four winds, each
one by his name, and the songs of the birds at
105
THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK
dawn. I do not want it, because I am not free.
Put it to your left breast a little above the
heart."
Still everybody was standing up, and Lady
Birmingham felt uncomfortable.
" Please offer it to some one else," she said.
" But they all have souls already/ said
Signorina Russiano.
And everybody went on standing up. And
Lady Birmingham took the soul in her hand.
" Perhaps it is lucky," she said.
She felt that she wanted to pray.
She half-closed her eyes, and said " Un-
berufen." Then she put the soul to her left
breast a little above the heart, and hoped that
the people would sit down and the singer
go away.
Instantly a heap of clothes collapsed before
her. For a moment, in the shadow among the
seats, those who were born in the dusk hour
1 06
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
might have seen a little brown thing leaping
free from the clothes, then it sprang into the
bright light of the hall, and became invisible to
any human eye.
It dashed about for a little, then found the
door, and presently was in the lamplit streets.
To those that were born in the dusk hour
it might have been seen leaping rapidly where-
ever the streets ran northwards and eastwards,
disappearing from human sight as it passed
under the lamps and appearing again beyond
them with a marsh-light over its head.
Once a dog perceived it and gave chase,
and was left far behind.
The cats of London, who are all born in
the dusk hour, howled fearfully as it went by.
Presently it came to the meaner streets,
where the houses are smaller. Then it went
due north-eastwards, leaping from roof to roof.
And so in a few minutes it came to more
107
THE KITH OF THE ELF^FOLK
open spaces, and then to the desolate lands,
where market gardens grow, which are neither
town nor country. Till at last the good black
trees came into view, with their demoniac
shapes in the night, and the grass was cold
and wet, and the night-mist floated over it.
And a great white owl came by, going up and
down in the dark. And at all these things
the little Wild Thing rejoiced elvishly.
And it left London far behind it, reddening
the sky, and could distinguish no longer its
unlovely roar, but heard again the noises of
the night.
And now it would come through a hamlet
glowing and comfortable in the night ; and
now to the dark, wet, open fields again ; and
many an owl it overtook as they drifted
through the night, a people friendly to the
Elf-folk. Sometimes it crossed wide rivers,
leaping from star to star ; and, choosing its
1 08
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
way as it went, to avoid the hard rough roads,
came before midnight to the East Anglian lands.
And it heard there the shout of the North
Wind, who was dominant and angry, as he
drove southwards his adventurous geese ; while
the rushes bent before him chaunting plain
tively and low, like enslaved rowers of some
fabulous trireme, bending and swinging under
blows of the lash, and singing all the while a
doleful song.
And it felt the good dank air that clothes
by night the broad East Anglian lands, and
came again to some old perilous pool where
the soft green mosses grew, and there plunged
downward and downward into the dear dark
water till it felt the homely ooze once more
coming up between its toes. Thence, out of
the lovely chill that is in the heart of the ooze,
it arose renewed and rejoicing to dance upon
the image of the stars.
109
THE KITH OF THE ELF.FOLK
I chanced to stand that night by the
marsh s edge, forgetting in my mind the affairs
of men ; and I saw the marsh-fires come leap
ing up from all the perilous places. And they
came up by flocks the whole night long to
the number of a great multitude, and danced
away together over the marshes.
And I believe that there was a great re
joicing all that night among the kith of the
Elf-folk.
no
THE HIGHWAYMEN
TOM O THE RUADS
THE HIGHWAYMEN
TOM o the Roads had ridden his last ride,
and was now alone in the night. From where
he was, a man might see the white recumbent
sheep and the black outline of the lonely downs,
and the grey line of the farther and lonelier
downs beyond them ; or in hollows far below
him, out of the pitiless wind, he might see
the grey smoke of hamlets arising from black
valleys. But all alike was black to the eyes
of Tom, and all the sounds were silence in his
ears ; only his soul struggled to slip from the
iron chains and to pass southwards into Para
dise. And the wind blew and blew.
For Tom to-night had nought but the
wind to ride ; they had taken his true black
113 H
THE HIGHWAYMEN
horse on the day when they took from him the
green fields and the sky, men s voices and the
laughter of women, and had left him alone with
chains about his neck to swing in the wind
for ever. And -the wind blew and blew.
But the soul of Tom o* the Roads was
nipped by the cruel chains, and whenever it
struggled to escape it was beaten backwards
into the iron collar by the wind that blows
from Paradise from the south. And swinging
there by the neck, there fell away old sneers
from off his lips, and scoffs that he had long
since scoffed at God fell from his tongue, and
there rotted old bad lusts out of his heart, and
from his fingers the stains of deeds that were
evil ; and they all fell to the ground and grew
there in pallid rings and clusters. And when
these ill things had all fallen away, Tom s
soul was clean again, as his early love had
found it, a long while since in spring; and
114
THE HIGHWAYMEN
it swung up there in the wind with the bones
of Tom, and with his old torn coat and rusty
chains.
And the wind blew and blew.
And ever and anon the souls of the sepul-
tured, coming from consecrated acres, would
go by beating up wind to Paradise past the
Gallows Tree and past the soul of Tom, that
might not go free.
Night after night Tom watched the sheep
upon the downs with empty hollow sockets, till
his dead hair grew and covered his poor dead
face, and hid the shame of it from the sheep.
And the wind blew and blew.
Sometimes on gusts of the wind came some
one s tears, and beat and beat against the iron
chains, but could not rust them through. And
the wind blew and blew.
And every evening all the thoughts that
Tom had ever uttered came flocking in from
THE HIGHWAYMEN
doing their work in the world, the work that
may not cease, and sat along the gallows branches
and chirrupped to the soul of Tom, the soul
that might not go free. All the thoughts that
he had ever uttered ! And the evil thoughts
rebuked the soul that bore them because they
might not die. And all those that he had uttered
the most furtively, chirrupped the loudest and
the shrillest in the branches all the night.
And all the thoughts that Tom had ever
thought about himself now pointed at the wet
bones and mocked at the old torn coat. But
the thoughts that he had had of others were
the only companions that his soul had to soothe
it in the night as it swung to and fro. And
they twittered to the soul and cheered the poor
dumb thing that could have dreams no more,
till there came a murderous thought and drove
them all away.
And the wind blew and blew.
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THE HIGHWAYMEN
Paul, Archbishop of Alois and Vayence, lay
in his white sepulchre of marble, facing full to
the southwards towards Paradise. And over
his tomb was sculptured the Cross of Christ,
that his soul might have repose. No wind
howled here as it howled in lonely tree-tops
up upon the downs, but came with gentle
breezes, orchard scented, over the low lands
from Paradise from the southwards, and played
about forget-me-nots and grasses in the con
secrated land where lay the Reposeful round
the sepulchre of Paul, Archbishop of Alois and
Vayence. Easy it was for a man s soul to
pass from such a sepulchre, and, flitting low
over remembered fields, to come upon the
garden lands of Paradise and find eternal ease.
And the wind blew and blew.
In a tavern of foul repute three men were
lapping gin. Their names were Joe and Will
and the gypsy Puglioni ; none other names had
117
THE HIGHWAYMEN
they, for of whom their fathers were they had
no knowledge, but only dark suspicions.
Sin had caressed and stroked their faces
often with its paws, but the face of Puglioni
Sin had kissed all over the mouth and chin.
Their food was robbery and their pastime
murder. All of them had incurred the sorrow
of God and the enmity of man. They sat at
a table with a pack of cards before them, all
greasy with the marks of cheating thumbs.
And they whispered to one another over their
gin, but so low that the landlord of the tavern
at the other end of the room could hear only
muffled oaths/ and knew not by Whom they
swore or what they said.
These three were the staunchest friends
that ever God had given unto a man. And
he to whom their friendship had been given
had nothing else besides, saving some bones
that swung in the wind and rain, and an old
118
THE HIGHWAYMEN
torn coat and iron chains, and a soul that
might not go free.
But as the night wore on the three friends
left their gin and stole away, and crept down
to that graveyard where rested in his sepulchre
Paul, Archbishop of Alois and Vayence. At
the edge of the graveyard, but outside the
consecrated ground, they dug a hasty grave,
two digging while one watched in the wind
and rain. And the worms that crept in the
unhallowed ground wondered and waited.
And the terrible hour of midnight came
upon them with its fears, and found them still
beside the place of tombs. And the three
friends trembled at the horror of such an hour
in such a place, and shivered in the wind and
drenching rain, but still worked on. And the
wind blew and blew.
Soon they had finished. And at once they
left the hungry grave with all its worms unfed,
119
THE HIGHWAYMEN
and went away over the wet fields stealthily
but in haste, leaving the place of tombs behind
them in the midnight. And as they went they
shivered, and each man as he shivered cursed
the rain aloud. And so they came "to the spot
where they had hidden a ladder and a lantern.
There they held long debate whether they should
light the lantern, or whether they should go
without it for fear of the King s men. But
in the end it seemed to them better that they
should have the light of their lantern, and risk
being taken by the King s men and hanged,
than that they should come suddenly face to
face in the darkness with whatever one might
come face to face with a little after midnight
about the Gallows Tree.
On three roads in England whereon it was
not the wont of folk to go their ways in safety,
travellers to-night went unmolested. But the
three friends, walking several paces wide of the
120
THE HIGHWAYMEN
King s highway, approached the Gallows Tree,
and Will carried the lantern and Joe the ladder,
but Puglioni carried a great sword wherewith
to do the work which must be done. When they
came close, they saw how bad was the case with
Tom, for little remained of that fine figure of
a man and nothing at all of his great resolute
spirit, only as they came they thought they
heard a whimpering cry like the sound of a
thing that was caged and unfree.
To and fro, to and fro in the winds swung
the bones and the soul of Tom, for the sins that
he had sinned on the King s highway against
the laws of the King ; and with shadows and a
lantern through the darkness, at the peril of
their lives, came the three friends that his soul
had won before it swung in chains. Thus the
seeds of Tom s own soul that he had sown all
his life had grown into a Gallows Tree that bore
in season iron chains in clusters ; while the care-
121
THE HIGHWAYMEN
less seeds that he had strewn here and there,
a kindly jest and a few merry words, had grown
into the triple friendship that would not desert
his bones.
Then the three set the ladder against the
tree, and Puglioni went up with his sword in
his right hand, and at the top of it he reached
up and began to hack at the neck below the
iron collar. Presently, the bones and the old
coat and the soul of Tom fell down with a
rattle, and a moment afterwards his head that
had watched so long alone swung clear from
the swinging chain. These things Will and
Joe gathered up, and Puglioni came running
down his ladder, and they heaped upon its
rungs the terrible remains of their friend, and
hastened away wet through with the rain, with
the fear of phantoms in their hearts and horror
lying before them on the ladder. By two
o clock they were down again in the valley out
122
THE HIGHWAYMEN
of the bitter wind, but they went on past the
open grave into the graveyard all among the
tombs, with their lantern and their ladder and
the terrible thing upon it, which kept their
friendship still. Then these three, that had
robbed the Law of its due and proper victim,
still sinned on for what was still their friend,
and levered out the marble slabs from the
sacred sepulchre of Paul, Archbishop of Alois
and Vayence. And from it they took the very
bones of the Archbishop himself, and carried
them away. to the eager grave that they had
left, and put them in and shovelled back the
earth. But all that lay on the ladder they
placed, with a few tears, within the great white
sepulchre under the Cross of Christ, and put
back the marble slabs.
Thence the soul of Tom, arising hallowed
out of sacred ground, went at dawn down the
valley, and, lingering a little about his mother s
123
THE HIGHWAYMEN
cottage and old haunts of childhood, passed
on and came to the wide lands beyond the
clustered homesteads. There, there met with
it all the kindly thoughts that the soul of Tom
had ever had, and they flew and sang beside
it all the way southwards, until at last, with
singing all about it, it came to Paradise.
But Will and Joe and the gypsy Puglioni
went back to their gin, and robbed and cheated
again in the tavern of foul repute, and knew
not that in their sinful lives they had sinned
one sin at which the Angels smiled.
124
IN THE TWILIGHT
IN THE TWILIGHT
THE lock was quite crowded with boats when we
capsized. I went down backwards for some few
feet before I started to swim, then I came splut
tering upwards towards the light ; but, instead
of reaching the surface, I hit my head against the
keel of a boat and went down again. I struck
out almost at once and came up, but before I
reached the surface my head crashed against a
boat for the second time, and I went right to
the bottom. I was confused and thoroughly
frightened. I was desperately in need of air,
and knew that if I hit a boat for the third time
I should never see the surface again. Drowning
is a horrible death, notwithstanding all that has
been said to the contrary. My past life never
127
IN THE TWILIGHT
occurred to my mind, but I thought of many
trivial things that I might not do or see again
if I were drowned. I swam up in a slanting
direction, hoping to avoid the boat that I had
struck. Suddenly I saw all the boats in the lock
quite clearly just above me, and every one of
their curved varnished planks and the scratches
and chips upon their keels. I saw several gaps
among the boats where I might have swam up
to the surface, but it did not seem worth while
to try and get there, and I had forgotten why
I wanted to. Then all the people leaned over
the sides of their boats : I saw the light flannel
suits of the men and the coloured flowers in
the women s hats, and I noticed details of their
dresses quite distinctly. Everybody in the boats
was looking down at me ; then they all said to
one another, " We must leave him now, * and
they and the boats went away ; and there was
nothing above me but the river and the sky,
128
IN THE TWILIGHT
and on either side of me were the green weeds
that grew in the mud, for I had somehow sunk
back to the bottom again. The river as it flowed
by murmured not unpleasantly in my ears, and
the rushes seemed to be whispering quite softly
among themselves. Presently the murmuring
of the river took the form of words, and I
heard it say, "We must go on to the sea; we
must leave him now."
Then the river went away, and both its
banks; and the rushes whispered, "Yes, we
must leave him now." And they too departed,
and I was left in a great emptiness staring up
at the blue sky. Then the great sky bent over
me, and spoke quite softly like a kindly nurse
soothing some little foolish child, and the sky
said, "Goodbye. All will be well. Goodbye."
And I was sorry to lose the blue sky, but the
sky went away. Then I was alone, with no
thing round about me ; I could see no light, but
129 i
IN THE TWILIGHT
it was not dark there was just absolutely
nothing, above me and below me and on every
side. I thought that perhaps I was dead, and
that this might be eternity; when suddenly
some great southern hills rose up all round
about me, and I was lying on the warm, grassy
slope of a valley in England. It was a valley
that I had known well when I was young, but
I had not seen it now for many years. Beside
me stood the tall flower of the mint ; I saw the
sweet-smelling thyme flower and one or two
wild strawberries. There came up to me from
fields below me the beautiful smell of hay, and
there was a break in the voice of the cuckoo.
There was a feeling of summer and of evening
and of lateness and of Sabbath in the air; the
sky was calm and full of a strange colour, and
the sun was low ; the bells in the church in the
village were all a-ring, and the chimes went
wandering with echoes up the valley towards
130
IN THE TWILIGHT
the sun, and whenever the echoes died a new
chime was born. And all the people of the
village walked up a stone-paved path under a
black oak porch and went into the church, and
the chimes stopped and the people of the village
began to sing, and the level sunlight shone on
the white tombstones that stood all round the
church. Then there was a stillness in the
village, and shouts and laughter came up from
the valley no more, only the occasional sound
of the organ and of song. And the blue
butterflies, those that love the chalk, came and
perched themselves on the tall grasses, five or
six sometimes on a single piece of grass, and
they closed their wings and slept, and the grass
bent a little beneath them. And from the woods
along the tops of the hills the rabbits came hop
ping out and nibbled the grass, and hopped a little
further and nibbled again, and the large daisies
closed their petals up and the birds began to sing.
IN THE TWILIGHT
Then the hills spoke, all the great chalk hills
that I loved, and with a deep and solemn voice
they said, "We have come to you to say
Goodbye."
Then they all went away, and there was
nothing again all round about me upon every
side. I looked everywhere for something on
which to rest the eye. Nothing. Suddenly a
low grey sky swept over me and a moist air
met my face; a great plain rushed up to me
from the edge of the clouds ; on two sides it
touched the sky, and on two sides between it
and the clouds a line of low hills lay. One line
of hills brooded grey in the distance, the other
stood a patchwork of little square green fields,
with a few white cottages about it. The plain
was an archipelago of a million islands each
about a yard square or less, and every one of
them was red with heather. I was back on the
Bog of Allen again after many years, and it was
132
IN THE TWILIGHT
just the same as ever, though I had heard that
they were draining it. I was with an old friend
whom I was glad to see again, for they had told
me that he died some years ago. He seemed
strangely young, but what surprised me most
was that he stood upon a piece of bright green
moss which I had always learned to think would
never bear. .. I ;was glad, too, to see the old bog
again and all the lovely things that grew there
the scarlet . mosses and the green mosses and
the firm and friendly heather, and the deep silent
water. I saw a little stream that wandered
vaguely through the bog, and little white shells
down in the clear .depths of it ; I saw, a little
way off, one of the great pools where no islands
are, with rushes round its borders, where . the
duck love, to come. I looked long at that un
troubled world of heather, and then I looked
at the white cottages on the hill, and saw the
grey smoke curling from their chimneys and
133
IN THE TWILIGHT
knew that they burned turf there, and longed
for the smell of burning turf again. And far
away there arose and came nearer the weird cry
of wild and happy voices, and a flock of geese
appeared that was coming from the northward.
Then their cries blended into one great voice
of exultation, the voice of freedom, the voice of
Ireland, the voice of the Waste; and the voice
said " Goodbye to you. Goodbye ! " and passed
away into the distance ; and as it passed, the
tame geese on the farms cried out to their
brothers up above them that they were free.
Then the hills went away, and the bog and the
sky went with them, and I was alone again,
as lost souls are alone.
Then there grew up beside me the red brick
buildings of my first school and the chapel
that adjoined it. The fields a little way off
were full of boys in white flannels .playing
cricket. On the asphalt playing ground, just
134
IN THE TWILIGHT
by the schoolroom windows, stood Agamemnon,
Achilles, and Odysseus, with their Argives armed
behind them ; but Hector stepped down out of
a ground-floor window, and in the schoolroom
were all Priam s sons and the Achaeans and
fair Helen ; and a little farther away the Ten
Thousand drifted across the playground, going
up into the heart of Persia to place Cyrus on
his brother s throne. And the boys that I
knew called to me from the fields, and said
" Goodbye," and they and the fields went away ;
and the Ten Thousand said " Goodbye," each
file as they passed me marching swiftly, and
they too disappeared. And Hector and Aga
memnon said " Goodbye," and the host of the
Argives and of the Achaeans ; and they all
went away and the old school with them, and
I was alone again.
The next scene that filled the emptiness
was rather dim : I was being led by my nurse
135
IN THE TWILIGHT
along a little footpath over a common in Surrey.
She was quite young. Close by a. band of
gypsies had lit their fire, near . them their
romantic caravan stood unhorsed, and the horse
cropped grass beside it. It was evening, and
the gypsies muttered round their fire in a
tongue unknown and strange. Then they all
said in English, " Goodbye." And the evening
and the common and the camp-fire went away.
And instead of this a white highway with
darkness and stars below it that led into dark
ness and stars, but at the near end of the road
were common fields and gardens, and there I
stood close to a large number of people, men
and women. And I saw a man walking alone
down the road away from me towards the
darkness and the stars, and all the people
called him by his name, and the man would
not hear them, but walked on down the road,
and the people went on calling him by his
136
IN THE TWILIGHT
name. But I became irritated with the man
because he would not stop or turn round when
so many people called him by his name, and
it was a very strange name. And I became
weary of hearing the strange name so very
often repeated, so that I made a great effort
to call him, that he might listen and that the
people might stop repeating this strange name.
And with the effort I opened my eyes wide,
and the name that the people called was my
own name, and I lay on the river s bank with
men and women bending over me, and my
hair was wet.
137
I
THE GHOSTS
THE GHOSTS
THE argument that I had with my brother in
his great lonely house will scarcely interest
my readers. Not those, at least, whom I hope
may be attracted by the experiment that I
undertook, and by the strange things that be
fell me in that hazardous region into which so
lightly and so ignorantly I allowed my fancy
to enter. It was at Oneleigh that I had visited
him.
Now Oneleigh stands in a wide isolation,
in the midst of a dark gathering of old
whispering cedars. They nod their heads to
gether when the North Wind comes, and nod
again and agree, and furtively grow still again,
and say no more awhile. The North Wind is
141
THE GHOSTS
to them like a nice problem among wise old
men ; they nod their heads over it, and mutter
about it all together. They know much, those
cedars, they have been there so long. Their
grandsires knew Lebanon, and the grandsires
of these were the servants of the King of Tyre
and came to Solomon s court. And amidst
these black-haired children of grey-headed Time
stood the old house of Oneleigh. I know not
how many centuries had lashed against it their
evanescent foam of years; but it was still un-
shattered, and all about it were the things of
long ago, as cling strange growths to some
sea-defying rock. Here, like the shells of long-
dead limpets, was armour that men encased
themselves in long ago ; here, too, were tapes
tries of many colours, beautiful as seaweed ; no
modern flotsam ever drifted hither, no early
Victorian furniture, no electric light. The great
trade routes that littered the years with empty
142
THE GHOSTS
meat tins and cheap novels were far from here.
Well, well, the centuries will shatter it and
drive its fragments on to distant shores. Mean
while, while it yet stood, I went on a visit
there to my brother, and we argued about
ghosts. My brother s intelligence on this sub
ject seemed to me to be in need of correction.
He mistook things imagined for things having
an actual existence; he argued that second-hand
evidence of persons having seen ghosts proved
ghosts to exist. I said that even if they had
seen ghosts, this was no proof at all; no
body believes that there are red rats, though
there is plenty of first-hand evidence of men
having seen them in delirium. Finally, I said I
would see ghosts myself, and continue to argue
against their actual existence. So I collected
a handful of cigars and drank several cups of
very strong tea, and went without my dinner,
and retired into a room where there was dark
H3
THE GHOSTS
oak and all the chairs were covered with
tapestry ; and my brother went to bed bored
with our argument, and trying hard to dissuade
me from making myself uncomfortable. All
the way up the old stairs as I stood at the
bottom of them, and as his candle went wind
ing up and up, I heard him still trying to
persuade me to have supper and go to bed.
It was a windy winter, and outside the cedars
were muttering I know not what about; but I
think that they were Tories of a school long
dead, and were troubled about something new.
Within, a great damp log upon the fireplace
began to squeak and sing, and struck up a
whining tune, and a tall flame stood up over
it and beat time, and all the shadows crowded
round and began to dance. In distant corners
old masses of darkness sat still like chaperones
and never moved. Over there, in the darkest
part of the room, stood a door that was always
144
THE GHOSTS
locked. It led into the hall, but no one ever
used it ; near that door something had happened
once of which the family are not proud. We
do not speak of it. There in the firelight stood
the venerable forms of the old chairs ; the hands
that had made their tapestries lay far beneath
the soil, the needles with which they wrought
were many separate flakes of rust. No one
wove now in that old room no one but the
assiduous ancient spiders who, watching by
the deathbed of the things of yore, worked
shrouds to hold their dust. In shrouds about
the cornices already lay the heart of the oak
wainscot that the worm had eaten out.
Surely at such an hour, in such a room,
a fancy already excited by hunger and strong
tea might see the ghosts of former occupants.
I expected nothing less. The fire flickered and
the shadows danced, memories of strange historic
things rose vividly in my mind ; but midnight
THE GHOSTS
chimed solemnly from a seven-foot clock, and
nothing happened. My imagination would not
be hurried, and the chill that is with the small
hours had come upon me, and I had nearly
abandoned myself to sleep, when in the hall
adjoining there arose the rustling of silk dresses
that I had waited for and expected. Then
there entered two by two the high-born ladies
and their gallants of Jacobean times. They
were little more than shadows very dignified
shadows, and almost indistinct; but you have
all read ghost stories before, you have all seen
in museums the dresses of those times there
is little need to describe them ; they entered,
several of them, and sat down on the old chairs,
perhaps a little carelessly considering the value
of the tapestries. Then the rustling of their
dresses ceased.
Well I had seen ghosts, and was neither
frightened nor convinced that ghosts existed.
146
"A MICRO OF BLACK CREATURES
THE GHOSTS
I was about to get up out of my chair and go
to bed, when there came a sound of pattering in
the hall, a sound of bare feet coming over the
polished floor, and every now and then a foot
would slip and I heard claws scratching along
the wood as some four-footed thing lost and
regained its balance. I was not frightened, but
uneasy. The pattering came straight towards
the room that I was in, then I heard the sniffing
of expectant nostrils; perhaps " uneasy" was not
the most suitable word to describe my feelings
then. Suddenly a herd of black creatures larger
than bloodhounds came galloping in ; they had
large pendulous ears, their noses were to the
ground sniffing, they went up to the lords and
ladies of long ago and fawned about them
disgustingly. Their eyes were horribly bright,
and ran down to great depths. When I looked
into them I knew suddenly what these creatures
were, and I was afraid. They were the sins,
H7
THE GHOSTS
the filthy, immortal sins of those courtly men
and women.
How demure she was, the lady that sat
near me on an old-world chair how demure
she was, and how fair, to have beside her with
its jowl upon her lap a sin with such cavernous
red eyes, a clear case of murder. And you,
yonder lady with the golden hair, surely not
you and yet that fearful beast with the yellow
eyes slinks from you to yonder courtier there,
and whenever one drives it away it slinks
back to the other. Over there a lady tries to
smile as she strokes the loathsome furry head
of another s sin, but one of her own is jealous
and intrudes itself under her hand. Here sits
an old nobleman with his grandson on his
knee, and one of the great black sins of the
grandfather is licking the child s face and has
made the child its own. Sometimes a ghost
would move and seek another chair, but always
148
THE GHOSTS
his pack of sins would move behind him.
Poor ghosts, poor ghosts! how many flights
they must have attempted for two hundred
years from their hated sins, how many excuses
they must have given for their presence, and
the sins were with them still and still unex
plained. Suddenly one of them seemed to
scent my living blood, and bayed horribly, and
all the others left their ghosts at once and
dashed up to the sin that had given tongue.
The brute had picked up my scent near the
door by which I had entered, and they moved
slowly nearer to me sniffing along the floor,
and uttering every now and then their fearful
cry. I saw that the whole thing had gone too
far. But now they had seen me, now they
were all about me, they sprang up trying to
reach my throat ; and whenever their claws
touched me, horrible thoughts came into my
mind and unutterable desires dominated my
149
THE GHOSTS
heart. I planned bestial things as these crea
tures leaped around me, and planned them with
a masterly cunning. A great red-eyed murder
was among the foremost of those furry things
from whom I feebly strove to defend my throat.
Suddenly it seemed to me good that I should
kill my brother. It seemed important to me
that I should not risk being punished. I
knew where a revolver was kept ; after I had
shot him, I would dress the body up and put
flour on the face like a man that had been
acting as a ghost. It would be very simple.
I would say that he had frightened me and
the servants had heard us talking about ghosts.
There were one or two trivialities that would
have to be arranged, but nothing escaped my
mind. Yes, it seemed to me very good that I
should kill my brother as I looked into the
red depths of this creature s eyes. But one
last effort as they dragged me down " If two
150
THE GHOSTS
straight lines cut one another," I said, " the
opposite angles are equal. Let AB, CD, cut
one another at E, then the angles CEA, CEB
equal two right angles (prop. xiii.). Also CEA,
AED equal two right angles."
I moved towards the door to get the re
volver; a hideous exultation arose among the
beasts. " But the angle CEA is common,
therefore AED equals CEB. In the same
way CEA equals DEB. Q.E.D" It was
proved. Logic and reason re-established them
selves in my mind, there were no dark hounds
of sin, the tapestried chairs were empty. It
seemed to me an inconceivable thought that a
man should murder his brother.
THE WHIRLPOOL
THE WHIRLPOOL
ONCE going down to the shore of the great
sea I came upon the Whirlpool lying prone
upon the sand and stretching his huge limbs
in the sun.
I said to him : " Who art thou ? "
And he said :
"I am named Nooz Wana, the Whelmer
of Ships, and from the Straits of Pondar Obed
I am come, wherein it is my wont to vex the
seas. There I chased Leviathan with my
hands when he was young and strong; often
he slipped through my fingers, and away into
the weed forests that grow below the storms
in the dusk on the floor of the sea; but at
last I caught and tamed him. For there I
155
THE WHIRLPOOL
lurk upon the ocean s floor, midway between the
knees of either cliff, to guard the passage of
the Straits from all the ships that seek the
Further Seas ; and whenever the white sails
of the tall ships come swelling round the
corner of the crag out of the sunlit spaces of
the Known Sea and into the dark of the
Straits, then standing firm upon the ocean s
floor, with my knees a little bent, I take the
waters of the Straits in both my hands and whirl
them round my head. But the ship comes glid
ing on with the sound of the sailors singing on
her decks, all singing songs of the islands and
carrying the rumour of their cities to the lonely
seas, till they see me suddenly astride athwart
their course, and are caught in the waters as
I whirl them round my head. Then I draw in
the waters of the Straits towards me and
downwards, nearer and nearer to my terrible
feet, and hear in my ears above the roar of
156
THE WHIRLPOOL
my waters the ultimate cry of the ship ; for
just before I drag them to the floor of ocean
and stamp them asunder with my wrecking
feet, ships utter their ultimate cry, and with it
go the lives of all the sailors and passes the
soul of the ship. And in the ultimate cry of
ships are the songs the sailors sing, and their
hopes and all their loves, and the song of the
wind among the masts and timbers when they
stood in the forest long ago, and the whisper
of the rain that made them grow, and the soul
of the tall pine-tree or the oak. All this a ship
gives up in one cry which she makes at the
last. And at that moment I would pity the
tall ship if I might ; but a man may feel pity
who sits in comfort by his fireside telling tales
in the winter no pity are they permitted ever
to feel who do the work of the gods ; and so
when I have brought her circling from round
my shoulders to my waist and thence, with
157
THE WHIRLPOOL
her masts all sloping inwards, to my knees,
and lower still and downwards till her topmast
pennants flutter against my ankles, then I,
Nooz Wana, Whelmer of Ships, lift up my
feet and trample her beams asunder, and there
go up again to the surface of the Straits only
a few broken timbers and the memories of the
sailors and of their early loves to drift for ever
down the empty seas.
" Once in every hundred years, for one day
only, I go to rest myself along the shore and
to sun my limbs on the sand, that the tall ships
may go through the unguarded Straits and find
the Happy Isles. And the Happy Isles stand
midmost among the smiles of the sunny Further
Seas, and there the sailors may come upon
content and long for nothing ; or if they long
for aught, they shall possess it.
" There comes not Time with his devouring
hours ; nor any of the evils of the gods or
158
THE WHIRLPOOL
men. These are the islands whereto the souls
of the sailors every night put in from all the
world to rest from going up and down the seas,
to behold again the vision of far-off intimate
hills that lift their orchards high above the
fields facing the sunlight, and for a while again
to speak with the souls of old. But about the
dawn dreams twitter and arise, and circling
thrice around the Happy Isles set out again to
find the world of men, then follow the souls
of the sailors, as, at evening, with slow stroke
of stately wings the heron follows behind the
flight of multitudinous rooks ; but the souls
returning find awakening bodies and endure
the toil of the day. Such are the Happy Isles,
whereunto few have come, save but as roam
ing shadows in the night, and for only a little
while.
" But longer than is needed to make me
strong and fierce again I may not stay, and
59
THE WHIRLPOOL
at set of sun, when my arms are strong again,
and when I feel in my legs that I can plant
them fair and bent upon the floor of ocean,
then I go back to take a new grip upon the
waters of the Straits, and to guard the Further
Seas again for a hundred years. Because the
gods are jealous, lest too many men shall pass
to the Happy Isles and find content. For the
gods have not content."
160
THE HURRICANE
THE HURRICANE
ONE night I sat alone on the great down,
looking over the edge of it at a murky, sullen
city. All day long with its smoke it had troubled
the holy sky, and now it sat there roaring in
the distance and glared at me with its furnaces
and lighted factory windows. Suddenly I be
came aware that I was not the only enemy of
that city, for I perceived the colossal form of
the Hurricane walking over the down towards
me, playing idly with the flowers as he passed,
and near me he stopped and spake to the Earth
quake, who had come up mole-like but vast out
of a cleft in the earth.
" Old friend," said the Hurricane, " remem-
berest when we wrecked the nations and drave
the herds of the sea into new pasturage?"
163
THE HURRICANE
"Yes," said the Earthquake, drowsily ; "Yes,
yes."
"Old friend," said the Hurricane, "there
are cities everywhere. Over thy head while
thou didst sleep they have built them constantly.
My four children the Winds suffocate with the
fumes of them, the valleys are desolate of flowers,
and the lovely forests are cut down since last
we went abroad together."
The Earthquake lay there, with his snout
towards the city, blinking at the lights, while
the tall Hurricane stood beside him pointing
fiercely at it.
"Come," said the Hurricane, "let us fare
forth again and destroy them, that all the lovely
forests may come back and the furry creeping
things. Thou shalt whelm these cities utterly
and drive the people forth, and I will smite
them in the shelterless places and sweep their
desecrations from the sea. Wilt thou come
164
THE HURRICANE
forth with me and do this thing for the glory
of it? Wilt thou wreck the world again as we
did, thou and I, or ever Man had come? Wilt
thou come forth to this place at this hour to
morrow night?"
"Yes," said the Earthquake, "Yes," and he
crept to his cleft again, and head foremost
waddled down into the abysses.
When the Hurricane strode away, I got up
quietly and departed, but at that hour of the
next night I came up cautiously to the same
spot. There I found the huge grey form of the
Hurricane alone, with his head bowed in his
hands, weeping ; for the Earthquake sleeps long
and heavily in the abysses, and he would not
wake.
165
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE,
SAVE FOR SACNOTH
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE,
SAVE FOR SACNOTH
IN a wood older than record, a foster brother
of the hills, stood the village of Allathurion ;
and there was peace between the people of that
village and all the folk who walked in the dark
ways of the wood, whether they were human
or of the tribes of the beasts or of the race of
the fairies and the elves and the little sacred
spirits of trees and streams. Moreover, the
village people had peace among themselves and
between them and their lord, Lorendiac. In
front of the village was a wide and grassy space,
and beyond this the great wood again, but at
the back the trees came right up to the houses,
which, with their great beams and wooden
169
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
framework and thatched roofs, green with moss,
seemed almost to be a part of the forest.
Now in the time I tell off, there was trouble
in Allathurion, for of an evening fell dreams
were wont to come slipping through the tree
trunks and into the peaceful village ; and they
assumed dominion of men s minds and led them
in watches of the night through the cindery
plains of Hell. Then the magician of that
village made spells against those fell dreams ;
yet still the dreams came flitting through the
trees as soon as the dark had fallen, and led
men s minds by night into terrible places and
caused them to praise Satan openly with their
lips.
And men grew afraid of sleep in Allathurion.
And they grew worn and pale, some through
the want of rest, and others from fear of the
things they saw on the cindery plains of Hell.
Then the magician of the village went up
170
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
into the tower of his house, and all night long
those whom fear kept awake could see his window
high up in the night glowing softly alone. The
next day, when the twilight was far gone and
night was gathering fast, the magician went
away to the forest s edge, and uttered there the
spell that he had made. And the spell was a
compulsive, terrible thing, having a power over
evil dreams and over spirits of ill ; for it was
a verse of forty lines in many languages, both
living and dead, and had in it the word where
with the people of the plains are wont to curse
their camels, and the shout wherewith the whalers
of the north lure the whales shoreward to be
killed, and a word that causes elephants to
trumpet ; and every one of the forty lines closed
with a rhyme for " wasp."
And still the dreams came flitting through
the forest, and led men s souls into the plains
of Hell. Then the magician knew that the
171
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
dreams were from Gaznak. Therefore he
gathered the people of the village, and told
them that he had uttered his mightiest spell
a spell having power over all that were human
or of the tribes of the beasts ; and that since
it had not availed the dreams must come from
Gaznak, the greatest magician among the spaces
of the stars. And he read to the people out
of the Book of Magicians, which tells the
comings of the comet and foretells his coming
again. And he told them how Gaznak rides
upon the comet, and how he visits Earth once
in every two hundred and thirty years, and
makes for himself a vast, invincible fortress
and sends out dreams to feed on the minds of
men, and may never be vanquished but by
the sword Sacnoth.
And a cold fear fell on the hearts of the
villagers when they found that their magician
had failed them.
172
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
Then spake Leothric, son of the Lord
Lorendiac, and twenty years old was he:
"Good Master, what of the sword Sacnoth?"
And the village magician answered : " Fair
Lord, no such sword as yet is wrought, for
it lies as yet in the hide of Tharagavverug,
protecting his spine."
Then said Leothric: "Who is Tharagav
verug, and where may he be encountered ? "
And the magician of Allathurion answered :
" He is the dragon-crocodile who haunts the
Northern marshes and ravages the homesteads
by their marge. And the hide of his back is
of steel, and his under parts are of iron ; but
along the midst of his back, over his spine,
there lies a narrow strip of unearthly steel.
This strip of steel is Sacnoth, and it may be
neither cleft nor molten, and there is nothing
in the world that may avail to break it, nor
even leave a scratch upon its surface. It is
173
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
of the length of a good sword, and of the
breadth thereof. Shouldst thou prevail against
Tharagavverug, his hide may be melted away
from Sacnoth in a furnace ; but there is only
one thing that may sharpen Sacnoth s edge,
and this is one of Tharagavverug s own steel
eyes ; and the other eye thou must fasten
to Sacnoth s hilt, and it will watch for thee.
But it is a hard task to vanquish Tharagavve
rug, for no sword can pierce his hide; his back
cannot be broken, and he can neither burn nor
drown. In one way only can Tharagavverug
die, and that is by starving."
Then sorrow fell upon Leothric, but the
magician spoke on :
" If a man drive Tharagavverug away from
his food with a stick for three days, he will
starve on the third day at sunset. And though
he is not vulnerable, yet in one spot he may
take hurt, for his nose is only of lead. A
174
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
sword would merely lay bare the uncleavable
bronze beneath, but if his nose be smitten
constantly with a stick he will always recoil
from the pain, and thus may Tharagawerug, to
left and right, be driven away from his food."
Then Leothric said : " What is Tharagav-
ve rug s food?"
And the magician of Allathurion said : " His
food is men."
But Leothric went straightway thence, and
cut a great staff from a hazel tree, and slept
early that evening. But the next morning,
awaking from troubled dreams, he arose before
the dawn, and, taking with him provisions for
five days, set out through the forest northwards
towards the marshes. For some hours he
moved through the gloom of the forest, and
when he emerged from it the sun was above
the horizon shining on pools of water in the
waste land. Presently he saw the claw-marks
175
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
of Tharagavverug deep in the soil, and the
track of his tail between them like a furrow
in a field. Then Leothric followed the tracks
till he heard the bronze heart of Tharagavverug
before him, booming like a bell.
And Tharagavverug, it being the hour when
he took the first meal of the day, was moving
toward a village with his heart tolling. And
all the people of the village were come out to
meet him, as it was their wont to do ; for they
abode not the suspense of awaiting Tharagav
verug and of hearing him sniffing brazenly as
he went from door to door, pondering slowly
in his metal mind what habitant he should
choose. And none dared to flee, for in the days
when the villagers fled from Tharagavverug,
he, having chosen his victim, would track him
tirelessly, like a doom. Nothing availed them
against Tharagavverug. Once they climbed
the trees when he came, but Tharagavverug
176
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
went up to one, arching his back and leaning
over slightly, and rasped against the trunk
until it fell. And when Leothric came near,
Tharagavverug saw him out of one of his small
steel eyes and came towards him leisurely, and
the echoes of his heart swirled up through his
open mouth. And Leothric stepped sideways
from his onset, and came between him and the
village and smote him on the nose, and the
blow of the stick made a dint in the soft lead.
And Tharagavverug swung clumsily away, utter
ing one fearful cry like the sound of a great
church bell that had become possessed of a
soul that fluttered upward from the tombs
at night an evil soul, giving the bell a
voice. Then he attacked Leothric, snarling,
and again Leothric leapt aside, and smote
him on the nose with his stick. Tharagav
verug uttered like a bell howling. And when
ever the dragon-crocodile attacked him, or
I 77 M
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
turned towards the village, Leothric smote
him again.
So all day long Leothric drove the monster
with a stick, and he drove him farther and
farther from his prey, with his heart tolling
angrily and his voice crying out for pain.
Towards evening Tharagavverug ceased to
snap at Leothric, but ran before him to avoid
the stick, for his nose was sore and shining;
and in the gloaming the villagers came out
and danced to cymbal and psaltery. When
Tharagavverug heard the cymbal and psaltery,
hunger and anger came upon him, and he felt
as some lord might feel who was held by force
from the banquet in his own castle and heard
the creaking spit go round and round and the
good meat crackling on it. And all that night
he attacked Leothric fiercely, and ofttimes nearly
caught him in the darkness ; for his gleaming
eyes of steel could see as well by night as by
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
day. And Leothric gave ground slowly till the
dawn, and when the light came they were near
the village again ; yet not so near to it as they
had been when they encountered, for Leothric
drove Tharagavverug farther in the day than
Tharagavverug had forced him back in the
night. Then Leothric drove him again with
his stick till the hour came when it was the
custom of the dragon-crocodile to find his
man. One third of his man he would eat at
the time he found him, and the rest at noon
and evening. But when the hour came for
finding his man a great fierceness came on
Tharagavverug, and he grabbed rapidly at Leo
thric, but could not seize him, and for a long
while neither of them would retire. But at
last the pain of the stick on his leaden nose
overcame the hunger of the dragon-crocodile,
and he turned from it howling. From that
moment Tharagavverug weakened. All that
179
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
day Leothric drove him with his stick, and at
night both held their ground ; and when the
dawn of the third day was come the heart of
Tharagavverug beat slower and fainter. It was
as though a tired man was ringing a bell.
Once Tharagavverug nearly seized a frog, but
Leothric snatched it away just in time. Towards
noon the dragon-crocodile lay still for a long
while, and Leothric stood near him and leaned
on his trusty stick. He was very tired and
sleepless, but had more leisure now for eating
his provisions. With Tharagavverug the end
was coming fast, and in the afternoon his breath
came hoarsely, rasping in his throat. It was as
the sound of many huntsmen blowing blasts
on horns, and towards evening his breath came
faster but fainter, like the sound of a hunt going
furious to the distance and dying away, and
he made desperate rushes towards the village ;
but Leothric still leapt about him, battering
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
his leaden nose. Scarce audible now at all
was the sound of his heart : it was like a church
bell tolling beyond hills for the death of some
one unknown and far away. Then the sun set
and flamed in the village windows, and a chill
went over the world, and in some small garden
a woman sang; and Tharagavverug lifted up
his head and starved, and his life went from
his invulnerable body, and Leothric lay down
beside him and slept. And later in the star
light the villagers came out and carried Leothric,
sleeping, to the village, all praising him in
whispers as they went. They laid him down
upon a couch in a house, and danced outside
in silence, without psaltery or cymbal. And
the next day, rejoicing, to Allathurion they
hauled the dragon-crocodile. And Leothric went
with them, holding his battered staff; and a
tall, broad man, who was smith of Allathurion,
made a great furnace, and melted Tharagavverug
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
away till only Sacnoth was left, gleaming among
the ashes. Then he took one of the small eyes
that had been chiselled out, and filed an edge
on Sacnoth, and gradually the steel eye wore
away facet by facet, but ere it was quite gone
it had sharpened redoubtably Sacnoth. But
the other eye they set in the butt of the hilt,
and it gleamed there bluely.
And that night Leothric arose in the dark
and took the sword, and went westwards to
find Gaznak ; and he went through the dark
forest till the dawn, and all the morning and till
the afternoon. But in the afternoon he came
into the open and saw in the midst of The Land
Where No Man Goeth the fortress of Gaznak,
mountainous before him, little more than a mile
away.
And Leothric saw that the land was marsh
and desolate. And the fortress went up all
white out of it, with many buttresses, and was
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THE FORTRESS
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
broad below but narrowed higher up, and was
full of gleaming windows with the light upon
them. And near the top of it a few white
clouds were floating, but above them some of
its pinnacles reappeared. Then Leothric ad
vanced into the marshes, and the eye of Thara-
gavverug looked out warily from the hilt of
Sacnoth ; for Tharagawerug had known the
marshes well, and the sword nudged Leothric
to the right or pulled him to the left away
from the dangerous places, and so brought
him safely to the fortress walls.
And in the wall stood doors like precipices
of steel, all studded with boulders of iron, and
above every window were terrible gargoyles of
stone ; and the name of the fortress shone on
the wall, writ large in letters of brass: "The
Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth."
Then Leothric drew and revealed Sacnoth,
and all the gargoyles grinned, and the grin
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
went flickering from face to face right up into
the cloud-abiding gables.
And when Sacnoth was revealed and all the
gargoyles grinned, it was like the moonlight
emerging from a cloud to look for the first
time upon a field of blood, and passing swiftly
over the wet faces of the slain that lie together
in the horrible night. Then Leothric advanced
towards a door, and it was mightier than the
marble quarry, Sacremona, from which of old
men cut enormous slabs to build the Abbey
of the Holy Tears. Day after day they
wrenched out the very ribs of the hill until
the Abbey was builded, and it was more beauti
ful than anything in stone. Then the priests
blessed Sacremona, and it had rest, and no
more stone was ever taken from it to build
the houses of men. And the hill stood looking
southwards lonely in the sunlight, defaced by
that mighty scar. So vast was the door of
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
steel. And the name of the door was The
Porte Resonant, the Way of Egress for War.
Then Leothric smote upon the Porte Reso
nant with Sacnoth, and the echo of Sacnoth
went ringing through the halls, and all the
dragons in the fortress barked. And when the
baying of the remotest dragon had faintly
joined in the tumult, a window opened far up
among the clouds below the twilit gables,
and a woman screamed, and far away in Hell
her father heard her and knew that her doom
was come.
And Leothric went on smiting terribly with
Sacnoth, and the grey steel of the Porte Reso
nant, the Way of Egress for War, that was
tempered to resist the swords of the world,
came away in ringing slices.
Then Leothric, holding Sacnoth in his hand,
went in through the hole that he had hewn in
the door, and came into the unlit, cavernous hall.
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
An elephant fled trumpeting. And Leothric
stood still, holding Sacnoth. When the sound
of the feet of the elephant had died away in
the remoter corridors, nothing more stirred, and
the cavernous hall was still.
Presently the darkness of the distant halls
became musical with the sound of bells, all
coming nearer and nearer.
Still Leothric waited in the dark, and the
bells rang louder and louder, echoing through
the halls, and there appeared a procession of
men on camels riding two by two from the
interior of the fortress, and they were armed
with scimitars of Assyrian make and were all
clad with mail, and chain-mail hung from their
helmets about their faces, and flapped as the
camels moved. And they all halted before
Leothric in the cavernous hall, and the camel
bells clanged and stopped. And the leader
said to Leothric :
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" The Lord Gaznak has desired to see you
die before him. Be pleased to come with us,
and we can discourse by the way of the manner
in which the Lord Gaznak has desired to see
you die."
And as he said this he unwound a chain
of iron that was coiled upon his saddle, and
Leothric answered :
"I would fain go with you, for I am come
to slay Gaznak."
Then all the camel-guard of Gaznak laughed
hideously, disturbing the vampires that were
asleep in the measureless vault of the roof.
And the leader said :
"The Lord Gaznak is immortal, save for
Sacnoth, and weareth armour that is proof even
against Sacnoth himself, and hath a sword the
second most terrible in the world."
Then Leothric said : " I am the Lord of the
sword Sacnoth."
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
And he advanced towards the camel-guard
of Gaznak, and Sacnoth lifted up and down in
his hand as though stirred by an exultant
pulse. Then the camel-guard of Gaznak fled,
and the riders leaned forward and smote their
camels with whips, and they went away with a
great clamour of bells through colonnades and
corridors and vaulted halls, and scattered into
the inner darknesses of the fortress. When
the last sound of them had died away, Leothric
was in doubt which way to go, for the camel-
guard was dispersed in many directions, so he
went straight on till he came to a great stair
way in the midst of the hall. Then Leothric
set his foot in the middle of a wide step, and
climbed steadily up the stairway for five minutes.
Little light was there in the great hall through
which Leothric ascended, for it only entered
through arrow slits here and there, and in the
world outside evening was waning fast. The
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
stairway led up to two folding doors, and
they stood a little ajar, and through the crack
Leothric entered and tried to continue straight
on, but could get no farther, for the whole room
seemed to be full of festoons of ropes which
swung from wall to wall and were looped and
draped from the ceiling. The whole chamber
was thick and black with them. They were
soft and light to the touch, like fine silk, but
Leothric was unable to break any one of them,
and though they swung away from him as
he pressed forward, yet by the time he had
gone three yards they were all about him like
a heavy cloak. Then Leothric stepped back
and drew Sacnoth, and Sacnoth divided the
ropes without a sound, and without a sound
the severed pieces fell to the floor. Leothric
went forward slowly, moving Sacnoth in front
of him up and down as he went. When he
was come into the middle of the chamber,
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
suddenly, as he parted with Sacnoth a great
hammock of strands, he saw a spider before
him that was larger than a ram, and the spider
looked at him with eyes that were little, but
in which there was much sin, and said :
"Who are you that spoil the labour of
years all done to the honour of Satan?"
And Leothric answered : "I am Leothric,
son of Lorendiac."
And the spider said : "I will make a rope
at once to hang you with."
Then Leothric parted another bunch of
strands, and came nearer to the spider as he
sat making his rope, and the spider, looking
up from his work, said: "What is that sword
which is able to sever my ropes?"
And Leothric said : " It is Sacnoth."
Thereat the black hair that hung over the
face of the spider parted to left and right,
and the spider frowned ; then the hair fell
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
back into its place, and hid everything except
the sin of the little eyes which went on gleam
ing lustfully in the dark. But before Leothric
could reach him, he climbed away with his
hands, going up by one of his ropes to a lofty
rafter, and there sat, growling. But clearing
his way with Sacnoth, Leothric passed through
the chamber, and came to the farther door;
and the door being shut, and the handle far
up out of his reach, he hewed his way through
it with Sacnoth in the same way as he had
through the Porte Resonant, the Way of
Egress for War. And so Leothric came into
a well-lit chamber, where Queens and Princes
were banqueting together, all at a great table ;
and thousands of candles were glowing all
about, and their light shone in the wine that
the Princes drank and on the huge gold can
delabra, and the royal faces were irradiant
with the glow, and the white table-cloth and the
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
silver plates and the jewels in the hair of the
Queens, each jewel having a historian all to
itself, who wrote no other chronicles all his
days. Between the table and the door there
stood two hundred footmen in two rows of
one hundred facing one another. Nobody
looked at Leothric as he entered through the
hole in the door, but one of the Princes asked
a question of a footman, and the question was
passed from mouth to mouth by all the hun
dred footmen till it came to the last one
nearest Leothric ; and he said to Leothric,
without looking at him:
"What do you seek here?"
And Leothric answered : "I seek to slay
Gaznak."
And footman to footman repeated all the
way to the table: " He seeks to slay Gaznak."
And another question came down the line
of footmen: "What is your name?"
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
And the line that stood opposite took his
answer back.
Then one of the Princes said: "Take him
away where we shall not hear his screams."
And footman repeated it to footman till it
came to the last two, and they advanced to
seize Leothric.
Then Leothric showed to them his sword,
saying, " This is Sacnoth," and both of them
said to the man nearest: "It is Sacnoth;"
then screamed and fled away.
And two by two, all up the double line,
footman to footman repeated, " It is Sacnoth,"
then screamed and fled, till the last two gave
the message to the table, and all the rest had
gone. Hurriedly then arose the Queens and
Princes, and fled out of the chamber. And the
goodly table, when they were all gone, looked
small and disorderly and awry. And to Leo
thric, pondering in the desolate chamber by
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
what door he should pass onwards, there came
from far away the sounds of music, and he
knew that it was the magical musicians playing
to Gaznak while he slept.
Then Leothric, walking towards the distant
music, passed out by the door opposite to the
one through which he had cloven his entrance,
and so passed into a chamber vast as the
other, in which were many women, weirdly
beautiful. And they all asked him of his
quest, and when they heard that it was to slay
Gaznak, they all besought him to tarry among
them, saying that Gaznak was immortal, save
for Sacnoth, and also that they had need of a
knight to protect them from the wolves that
rushed round and round the wainscot all the
night and sometimes broke in upon them
through the mouldering oak. Perhaps Leothric
had been tempted to tarry had they been
human women, for theirs was a strange beauty,
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
it he perceived that instead of eyes they had
;tle flames that flickered in their sockets, and
lew them to be the fevered dreams of Gaznak.
herefore he said :
" I have a business with Gaznak and with
icnoth," and passed on through the chamber.
And at the name of Sacnoth those women
reamed, and the flames of their eyes sank
w and dwindled to sparks.
And Leothric left them, and, hewing with
icnoth, passed through the farther door.
Outside he felt the night air on his face,
id found that he stood upon a narrow way
;tween two abysses. To left and right of him,
far as he could see, the walls of the fortress
ded in a profound precipice, though the roof
ill stretched above him ; and before him lay
e two abysses full of stars, for they cut
eir way through the whole Earth and re-
aled the under sky ; and threading its course
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
between them went the way, and it sloped up
ward and its sides were sheer. And beyond
the abysses, where the way led up to the
farther chambers of the fortress, Leothric heard
the musicians playing their magical tune. So
he stepped on to the way, which was scarcely
a stride in width, and moved along it holding
Sacnoth naked. And to and fro beneath him
in each abyss whirred the wings of vampires
passing up and down, all giving praise to
Satan as they flew. Presently he perceived
the dragon Thok lying upon the way, pretend
ing to sleep, and his tail hung down into one
of the abysses.
And Leothric went towards him, and when
he was quite close Thok rushed at Leothric.
And he smote deep with Sacnoth, and Thok
tumbled into the abyss, screaming, and his
limbs made a whirring in the darkness as he
fell, and he fell till his scream sounded no
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
louder than a whistle and then could be heard
no more. Once or twice Leothric saw a star
blink for an instant and reappear again, and
this momentary eclipse of a few stars was all
that remained in the world of the body of Thok.
And Lunk, the brother of Thok, who had lain
a little behind him, saw that this must be
Sacnoth and fled lumbering away. And all
the while that he walked between the abysses,
the mighty vault of the roof of the fortress
still stretched over Leothric s head, all filled
with gloom. Now, when the farther side of
the abyss came into view, Leothric saw a
chamber that opened with innumerable arches
upon the twin abysses, and the pillars of the
arches went away into the distance and vanished
in the gloom to left and right.
Far down the dim precipice on which the
pillars stood he could see windows small and
closely barred, and between the bars there
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
showed at moments, and disappeared again,
things that I shall not speak of.
There was no light here except for the
great Southern stars that shone below the
abysses, and here and there in the chamber
through the arches lights that moved furtively
without the sound of footfall.
Then Leothric stepped from the way, and
entered the great chamber.
Even to himself he seemed but a tiny dwarf
as he walked under one of those colossal arches.
The last faint light of evening flickered
through a window painted in sombre colours
commemorating the achievements of Satan upon
Earth. High up in the wall the window stood,
and the streaming lights of candles lower down
moved stealthily away.
Other light there was none, save for a faint
blue glow from the steel eye of Tharagavverug
that peered restlessly about it from the hilt
THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
of Sacnoth. Heavily in the chamber hung the
clammy odour of a large and deadly beast.
Leothric moved forward slowly with the
blade of Sacnoth in front of him feeling for a
foe, and the eye in the hilt of it looking out
behind.
Nothing stirred.
If anything lurked behind the pillars of the
colonnade that held aloft the roof, it neither
breathed nor moved.
The music of the magical musicians sounded
from very near.
Suddenly the great doors on the far side
of the chamber opened to left and right. For
some moments Leothric saw nothing move,
and waited clutching Sacnoth. Then Wong
Bongerok came towards him, breathing.
This was the last and faithfullest guard of
Gaznak, and came from slobbering just now
his master s hand.
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
More as a child than a dragon was Gaznak
wont to treat him, giving him often in his
fingers tender pieces of man all smoking from
his table.
Long and low was Wong Bongerok, and
subtle about the eyes, and he came breathing
malice against Leothric out of his faithful breast,
and behind him roared the armoury of his tail,
as when sailors drag the cable of the anchor
all rattling down the deck.
And well Wong Bongerok knew that he
now faced Sacnoth, for it had been his wont
to prophesy quietly to himself for many years
as he lay curled, at the feet of Gaznak.
And Leothric stepped forward into the blast
of his breath, and lifted Sacnoth to strike.
But when Sacnoth was lifted up, the eye
of Tharagavverug in the butt of the hilt beheld
the dragon and perceived his subtlety.
For he opened his mouth wide, and revealed
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
to Leothric the ranks of his sabre teeth, and
his leather gums flapped upwards. But while
Leothric made to smite at his head, he shot
forward scorpion-wise over his head the length
of his armoured tail. All this the eye perceived
in the hilt of Sacnoth, who smote suddenly
sideways. Not with the edge smote Sacnoth,
for, had he done so, the severed end of the
tail had still come hurtling on, as some pine
tree that the avalanche has hurled point fore
most from the cliff right through the broad
breast of some mountaineer. So had Leothric
been transfixed ; but Sacnoth smote sideways
with the flat of his blade, and sent the tail
whizzing over Leothric s left shoulder; and it
rasped upon his armour as it went, and left
a groove upon it. Sideways then at Leothric
smote the foiled tail of Wong Bongerok, and
Sacnoth parried, and the tail went shrieking
up the blade and over Leothric s head. Then
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
Leothric and Wong Bongerok fought sword
to tooth, and the sword smote as only Sacnoth
can, and the evil faithful life of Wong Bongerok
the dragon went out through the wide wound.
Then Leothric walked on past that dead
monster, and the armoured body still quivered
a little. And for a while it was like all the
ploughshares in a county working together in
one field behind tired and struggling horses ;
then the quivering ceased, and Wong Bongerok
lay still to rust.
And Leothric went on to the open gates,
and Sacnoth dripped quietly along the floor.
By the open gates through which Wong
Bongerok had entered, Leothric came into a
corridor echoing with music. This was the
first place from which Leothric could see any
thing above his head, for hitherto the roof
had ascended to mountainous heights and had
stretched indistinct in the gloom. But along
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
the narrow corridor hung huge bells low and
near to his head, and the width of each brazen
bell was from wall to wall, and they were one
behind the other. And as he passed under
each the bell uttered, and its voice was mourn
ful and deep, like to the voice of a bell speak
ing to a man for the last time when he is
newly dead. Each bell uttered once as Leothric
came under it, and their voices sounded solemnly
and wide apart at ceremonious intervals. For
if he walked slow, these bells came closer to
gether, and when he walked swiftly they moved
farther apart. And the echoes of each bell
tolling above his head went on before him
whispering to the others. Once when he stopped
they all jangled angrily till he went on again.
Between these slow and boding notes came
the sound of the magical musicians. They
were playing a dirge now very mournfully.
And at last Leothric came to the end of
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
the Corridor of the Bells, and beheld there a
small black door. And all the corridor behind
him was full of the echoes of the tolling, and
they all muttered to one another about the
ceremony ; and the dirge of the musicians came
floating slowly through them like a procession
of foreign elaborate guests, and all of them
boded ill to Leothric.
The black door opened at once to the hand
of Leothric, and he found himself in the open
air in a wide court paved with marble. High
over it shone the moon, summoned there by the
hand of Gaznak.
There Gaznak slept, and around him sat
his magical musicians, all playing upon strings.
And, even sleeping, Gaznak was clad in armour,
and only his wrists and face and neck were
bare.
But the marvel of that place was the dreams
of Gaznak ; for beyond the wide court slept a
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
dark abyss, and into the abyss there poured a
white cascade of marble stairways, and widened
out below into terraces and balconies with fair
white statues on them, and descended again
in a wide stairway, and came to lower terraces
in the dark, where swart uncertain shapes went
to and fro. All these were the dreams of
Gaznak, and issued from his mind, and, becoming
gleaming marble, passed over the edge of the
abyss as the musicians played. And all the
while out of the mind of Gaznak, lulled by that
strange music, went spires and pinnacles beau
tiful and slender, ever ascending skywards.
And the marble dreams moved slow in time
to the music. When the bells tolled and the
musicians played their dirge, ugly gargoyles
came out suddenly all over the spires and
pinnacles, and great shadows passed swiftly
down the steps and terraces, and there was
hurried whispering in the abyss.
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
When Leothric stepped from the black door,
Gaznak opened his eyes. He looked neither
to left nor right, but stood up at once facing
Leothric.
Then the magicians played a deathspell on
their strings, and there arose a humming along
the blade of Sacnoth as he turned the spell
aside. When Leothric dropped not down,
and they heard the humming of Sacnoth, the
magicians arose and fled, all wailing, as they
went, upon their strings.
Then Gaznak drew out screaming from its
sheath the sword that was the mightiest in
the world except for Sacnoth, and slowly walked
towards Leothric ; and he smiled as he walked,
although his own dreams had foretold his doom.
And when Leothric and Gaznak came together,
each looked at each, and neither spoke a word ;
but they smote both at once, and their swords
met, and each sword knew the other and from
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
whence he came. And whenever the sword of
Gaznak smote on the blade of Sacnoth it
rebounded gleaming, as hail from off slated
roofs ; but whenever it fell upon the armour
of Leothric, it stripped it off in sheets. And
upon Gaznak s armour Sacnoth fell oft and
furiously, but ever he came back snarling, leaving
no mark behind, and as Gaznak fought he held
his left hand hovering close over his head.
Presently Leothric smote fair and fiercely at his
enemy s neck, but Gaznak, clutching his own head
by the hair, lifted it high aloft, and Sacnoth went
cleaving through an empty space. Then Gaznak
replaced his head upon his neck, and all the
while fought nimbly with his sword ; and again
and again Leothric swept with Sacnoth at
Gaznak s bearded neck, and ever the left hand
of Gaznak was quicker than the stroke, and
the head went up and the sword rushed vainly
under it.
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
And the ringing fight went on till Leothric s
armour lay all round him on the floor and the
marble was splashed with his blood, and the
sword of Gaznak was notched like a saw from
meeting the blade of Sacnoth. Still Gaznak
stood unwounded and smiling still.
At last Leothric looked at the throat of
Gaznak and aimed with Sacnoth, and again
Gaznak lifted his head by the hair; but not at
his throat flew Sacnoth, for Leothric struck
instead at the lifted hand, and through the
wrist of it went Sacnoth whirring, as a scythe
goes through the stem of a single flower.
And bleeding, the severed hand fell to the
floor; and at once blood spurted from the
shoulders of Gaznak and dripped from the
fallen head, and the tall pinnacles went down
into the earth, and the wide fair terraces all
rolled away, and the court was gone like the
dew, and a wind came and the colonnades
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
drifted thence, and all the colossal halls of
Gaznak fell. And the abysses closed up sud
denly as the mouth of a man who, having told
a tale, will for ever speak no more.
Then Leothric looked around him in the
marshes where the night mist was passing
away, and there was no fortress nor sound of
dragon or mortal, only beside him lay an old
man, wizened and evil and dead, whose head
and hand were severed from his body.
And gradually over the wide lands the dawn
was coming up, and ever growing in beauty as it
came, like to the peal of an organ played by a
master s hand, growing louder and lovelier as
the soul of the master warms, and at last giving
praise with all its mighty voice.
Then the birds sang, and Leothric went
homeward, and left the marshes and came to
the dark wood, and the light of the dawn as
cending lit him upon his way. And into
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THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE
Allathurion he came ere noon, and with him
brought the evil wizened head, and the people
rejoiced, and their nights of trouble ceased.
This is the tale of the vanquishing of The
Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth, and
of its passing away, as it is told and believed
by those who love the mystic days of old.
Others have said, and vainly claim to prove,
that a fever came to Allathurion, and went
away; and that this same fever drove Leothric
into the marshes by night, and made him
dream there ,and act violently with a sword.
And others again say that there hath been
no town of Allathurion, and that Leothric never
lived.
Peace to them. The gardener hath gathered
up this autumn s leaves. Who shall see them
again, or who wot of them ? And who shall say
what hath befallen in the days of long ago?
210
THE LORD OF CITIES
THE LORD OF CITIES
I CAME one day upon a road that wandered
so aimlessly that it was suited to my mood,
so I followed it, and it led me presently among
deep woods. Somewhere in the midst of them
Autumn held his court, sitting wreathed with
gorgeous garlands ; and it was the day before
his annual festival of the Dance of Leaves, the
courtly festival upon which hungry Winter
rushes mob-like, and there arise the furious
cries of the North Wind triumphing, and all
the splendour and grace of the woods is gone,
and Autumn flees away, discrowned and for
gotten, and never again returns. Other Autumns
arise, other Autumns, and fall before other
Winters. A road led away to the left, but my
213
THE LORD OF CITIES
road went straight on. The road to the left
had a trodden appearance ; there were wheel
tracks on it, and it seemed the correct way to
take. It looked as if no one could have any
business with the road that led straight on
and up the hill. Therefore I went straight on
and up the hill ; and here and there on the
road grew blades of grass undisturbed in the
repose and hush that the road had earned from
going up and down the world ; for you can go
by this road, as you can go by all roads, to
London, to Lincoln, to the North of Scotland,
to the West of Wales, and to Wrellisford
where roads end. Presently the woods ended,
and I came to the open fields and at the same
moment to the top of the hill, and saw the
high places of Somerset and the downs of
Wilts spread out along the horizon. Suddenly
I saw underneath me the village of Wrellisford,
with no sound in its street but the voice of
214
THE LORD OF CITIES
the Wrellis roaring as he tumbled over a weir
above the village. So I followed my road
down over the crest of the hill, and the road
became more languid as I descended, and less
and less concerned with the cares of a high
way. Here a spring broke out in the middle
of it, and here another. The road never heeded.
A stream ran right across it, still it straggled
on. Suddenly it gave up the minimum pro
perty that a road should possess, and, re
nouncing its connection with High Streets, its
lineage of Piccadilly, shrank to one side and
became an unpretentious footpath. Then it led
me to the old bridge over the stream, and thus
I came to Wrellisford, and found after travel
ling in many lands a village with no wheel
tracks in its street. On the other side of the
bridge, my friend the road struggled a few
yards up a grassy slope, and there ceased.
Over all the village hung a great stillness, with
215
THE LORD OF CITIES
the roar of the Wrellis cutting right across it,
and there came occasionally the bark of a dog
that kept watch over the broken stillness and
over the sanctity of that untravelled road.
That terrible and wasting fever that, unlike so
many plagues, comes not from the East but
from the West, the fever of hurry, had not
come here only the Wrellis hurried on his
eternal quest, but it was a calm and placid
hurry that gave one time for song. It was in
the early afternoon, and nobody was about.
Either they worked beyond the mysterious
valley that nursed Wrellisford and hid it from
the world, or else they secluded themselves
within their old-time houses that were roofed
with tiles of stone. I sat down upon the old
stone bridge and watched the Wrellis, who
seemed to me to be the only traveller that
came from far away into this village where
roads end, and passed on beyond it. And yet
216
,THE LORD OF CITIES
the Wrellis comes singing out of eternity, and
tarries for a very little while in the village
where roads end, and passes on into eternity
again ; and so surely do all that dwell in
Wrellisford. I wondered as I leaned upon
the bridge in what place the Wrellis would
first find the sea, whether as he wound idly
through meadows on his long quest he would
suddenly behold him, and, leaping down over
some rocky cliff, take to him at once the
message of the hills. Or whether, widening
slowly into some grand and tidal estuary, he
would take his waste of waters to the sea and
the might of the river should meet with the
might of the waves, like to two Emperors
clad in gleaming mail meeting midway between
two hosts of war; and the little Wrellis would
become a haven for returning ships and a
setting-out place for adventurous men.
A little beyond the bridge there stood an
217
THE LORD OF CITIES
old mill with a ruined roof, and a small branch
of the Wrellis rushed through its emptiness
shouting, like a boy playing alone in a corridor
of some desolate house. The mill-wheel was
gone, but there lay there still great bars and
wheels and cogs, the bones of some dead
industry. I know not what industry was once
lord in that house, I know not what retinue
of workers mourns him now ; I only know who
is lord there to-day in all those empty chambers.
For as soon as I entered, I saw a whole wall
draped with his marvellous black tapestry, with
out price because inimitable and too delicate
to pass from hand to hand among merchants.
I looked at the wonderful complexity of its
infinite threads, my finger sank into it for
more than an inch without feeling the touch ;
so black it was and so carefully wrought,
sombrely covering the whole of the wall, that
it might have been worked to commemorate
218
THE LORD OF CITIES
the deaths of all that ever lived there, as
indeed it was. I looked through a hole in the
wall into an inner chamber where a worn-out
driving band went among many wheels, and
there this priceless inimitable stuff not merely
clothed the walls but hung from bars and
ceiling in beautiful draperies, in marvellous
festoons. Nothing was ugly in this desolate
house, for the busy artist s soul of its present
lord had beautified everything in its desolation.
It was the unmistakable work of the spider,
in whose house I was, and the house was
utterly desolate but for him, and silent but for
the roar of the Wrellis and the shout of the
little stream. Then I turned homewards ; and
as I went up and over the hill and lost the
sight of the village, I saw the road whiten and
harden and gradually broaden out till the tracks
of wheels appeared ; and it went afar to take
the young men of Wrellisford into the wide
219
THE LORD OF CITIES
ways of the earth -to the new West and the
mysterious East, and into the troubled South.
And that night, when the house was still and
sleep was far off, hushing hamlets and giving
ease to cities, my fancy wandered up that aim
less road and came suddenly to Wrellisford.
And it seemed to me that the travelling of
so many people for so many years between
Wrellisford and John o Groat s, talking to one
another as they went or muttering alone, had
given the road a voice. And it seemed to me
that night that the road spoke to the river by
Wrellisford bridge, speaking with the voice of
many pilgrims. And the road said to the
river: "I rest here. How is it with you?"
And the river, who is always speaking, said :
" I rest nowhere from doing the Work of the
World. I carry the murmur of inner lands to
the sea, and to the abysses voices of the hills."
"It is I," said the road, "that do the
220
THE LORD OF CITIES
Work of the World, and take from city to city
the rumour of each. There is nothing higher
than Man and the making of cities. What do
you do for Man?"
And the river said : " Beauty and song are
higher than Man. I carry the news seaward
of the first song of the thrush after the furious
retreat of winter northward, and the first timid
anemone learns from me that she is safe and
that spring has truly come. Oh but the song
of all the birds in spring is more beautiful
than Man, and the first coming of the hyacinth
more delectable than his face! When spring
is fallen upon the days of summer, I carry
away with mournful joy at night petal by petal
the rhododendron s bloom. No lit procession
of purple kings is nigh so fair as that. No
beautiful death of well-beloved men hath such
a glory . of forlornness. And I bear far away
the pink and white petals of the apple-blossom s
221
THE LORD OF CITIES
youth when the laborious time comes for his
work in the world and for the bearing of apples.
And I am robed each day and every night
anew with the beauty of heaven, and I make
lovely visions of the trees. But Man! What
is Man? In the ancient parliament of the
elder hills, when the grey ones speak together,
they say nought of Man, but concern them
selves only with their brethren the stars. Or
when they wrap themselves in purple cloaks
at evening, they lament some old irreparable
wrong, or, uttering some mountain hymn, all
mourn the set of sun."
"Your beauty," said the road, "and the
beauty of the sky, and of the rhododendron
blossom and of spring, live only in the mind
of Man, and except in the mind of Man the
mountains have no voices. Nothing is beautiful
that has not been seen by Man s eye. Or if
your rhododendron blossom was beautiful for
222
THE LORD OF CITIES
a moment, it soon withered and was drowned,
and spring soon passes away ; beauty can only
live on in the mind of Man. I bring thought
into the mind of Man swiftly from distant
places every day. I know the Telegraph I
know him well ; he and I have walked for
hundreds of miles together. There is no work
in the world except for Man and the making
of his cities. I take wares to and fro from
city to city."
"My little stream in the field there," said
the river, "used to make wares in that house
for awhile once."
"Ah," said the road, "I remember, but I
brought cheaper ones from distant cities. No
thing is of any importance but making cities
for Man."
" I know so little about him," said the
river, " but I have a great deal of work to do
I have all this water to send down to the sea ;
223
THE LORD OF CITIES
and then to-morrow or next day all the leaves
of Autumn will be coming this way. It will
be very beautiful. The sea is a very, very
wonderful place. I know all about it ; I have
heard shepherd boys singing of it, and some
times before a storm the gulls come up. It
is a place all blue and shining and full of
pearls, and has in it coral islands and isles of
spice, and storms and galleons and the bones
of Drake. The sea is much greater than Man.
When I come to the sea, he will know that I
have worked well for him. But I must hurry,
for I have much to do. This bridge delays
me a little ; some day I will carry it away."
" Oh, you must not do that," said the road.
" Oh, not for a long time," said the river.
"Some centuries perhaps and I have much to
**
do besides. There is my song to sing, for
instance, and that alone is more beautiful than
any noise that Man makes."
224
THE LORD OF CITIES
"All work is for Man," said the road, "and
for the building of cities. There is no beauty
or romance or mystery in the sea except for the
men that sail abroad upon it, and for those that
stay at home and dream of them. As for
your song, it rings night and morning, year in,
year out, in the ears of men that are born
in Wrellisford ; at night it is part of their
dreams, at morning it is the voice of day, and
so it becomes part of their souls. But the
song is not beautiful in itself. I take these
men with your song in their souls up over the
edge of the valley and a long way off beyond,
and I am a strong and dusty road up there, and
they go with your song in their souls and turn
it into music and gladden cities. But nothing
is the Work of the World except work for Man."
" I wish I was quite sure about the Work
of the World," said the stream ; " I wish I
knew for certain for whom we work. I feel
225 P
THE LORD OF CITIES
almost sure that it is for the sea. He is very
great and beautiful. I think that there can be
no greater master than the sea. I think that
some day he may be so full of romance and
mystery and sound of sheep bells and murmur
of mist-hidden hills, which we streams shall
have brought him, that there will be no more
music or beauty left in the world, and all the
world will end ; and perhaps the streams shall
gather at the last, we all together, to the sea.
Or perhaps the sea will give us at the last
unto each one his own again, giving back all
that he has garnered in the years the little
petals of the apple-blossom and the mourned
ones of the rhododendron, and our old visions
of the trees and sky ; so many memories have
left the hills. But who may say? For who
knows the tides of the sea?"
" Be sure that it is all for Man," said the
road. " For Man and the making of cities."
226
THE LORD OF CITIES
Something had come near on utterly silent
feet.
" Peace, peace!" it said. "You disturb the
queenly night, who, having come into this
valley, is a guest in my dark halls. Let us
have an end to this discussion."
It was the spider who spoke.
" The Work of the World is the making
of cities and palaces. But it is not for Man.
What is Man? He only prepares my cities
for me, and mellows them. All his works
are ugly, his richest tapestries are coarse
and clumsy. He is a noisy idler. He only
protects me from mine enemy the wind ; and
the beautiful work in my cities, the curving
outlines and the delicate weavings, is all mine.
Ten years to a hundred it takes to build a city,
for five or six hundred more it mellows, and is
prepared for me ; then I inhabit it, and hide
away all that is ugly, and draw beautiful lines
227
THE LORD OF CITIES
about it to and fro. There is nothing so beauti
ful as cities and palaces ; they are the loveliest
places in the world, because they are the stillest,
and so most like the stars. They are noisy
at first, for a little, before I come to them ; they
have ugly corners not yet rounded off, and
coarse tapestries, and then they become ready
for me and my exquisite work, and are quite
silent and beautiful. And there I entertain the
regal nights when they come there jewelled
with stars, and all their train of silence, and
regale them with costly dust. Already nods,
in a city that I wot of, a lonely sentinel whose
lords are dead, who grows too old and sleepy
to drive away the gathering silence that infests
the streets ; to-morrow I go to see if he be
still at his post. For me Babylon was built,
and rocky Tyre ; and still men build my cities I
All the Work of the World is the making of
cities, and all of them I inherit."
228
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
EVENING stole up out of mysterious lands and
came down on the streets of Paris, and the
things of the day withdrew themselves and hid
away, and the beautiful city was strangely altered,
and with it the hearts of men. And with lights
and music, and in silence and in the dark, the
other life arose, the life that knows the night,
and dark cats crept from the houses and moved
to silent places, and dim streets became haunted
with dusk shapes. At this hour in a mean
house, near to the Moulin Rouge, La Traviata
died ; and her death \vas brought to her by her
own sins, and not by the years of God. But
the soul of La Traviata drifted blindly about
the streets where she had sinned till it struck
231
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
against the wall of Notre Dame de Paris. Thence
it rushed upwards, as the sea mist when it
beats against a cliff, and streamed away to
Paradise, and was there judged. And it seemed
to me, as I watched from my place of dreaming,
when La Traviata came and stood before the
seat of judgment, that clouds came rushing up
from the far Paradisal hills and gathered to
gether over the head of God, and became one
black cloud ; and the clouds moved swiftly as
shadows of the night when a lantern is swung
in the hand, and more and more clouds rushed
up, and ever more and more, and, as they gathered,
the cloud a little above the head of God became
no larger, but only grew blacker and blacker.
And the halos of the saints settled lower upon
their heads and narrowed and became pale, and
the singing of the choirs of the seraphim faltered
and sunk low, and the converse of the blessed
suddenly ceased. Then a stern look came into
232
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
the face of God, so that the seraphim turned
away and left Him, and the saints. Then God
commanded, and seven great angels rose up
slowly through the clouds that carpet Paradise,
and there was pity on their faces, and their eyes
were closed. Then God pronounced judgment,
and the lights of Paradise went out, and the
azure crystal windows that look towards the
world, and the windows rouge and verd, became
dark and colourless, and I saw no more. Pre
sently the seven great angels came out by one
of Heaven s gates and set their faces Hellwards,
and four of them carried the young soul of La
Traviata, and one of them went on before and
one of them followed behind. These six trod
with mighty strides the long and dusty road
that is named the Way of the Damned. But
the seventh flew above them all the way,
and the light of the fires of Hell that was
hidden from the six by the dust of that
233
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
dreadful road flared on the feathers of his
breast.
Presently the seven angels, as they swept
Hellwards, uttered speech.
" She is very young," they said; and "She
is very beautiful," they said ; and they looked
long at the soul of La Traviata, looking not
at the stains of sin, but at that portion of her
soul wherewith she had loved her sister a long
while dead, who flitted now about an orchard
on one of Heaven s hills with a low sunlight
ever on her face, who communed daily with
the saints when they passed that way going to
bless the dead from Heaven s utmost edge.
And as they looked long at the beauty of all
that remained beautiful in her soul they said :
" It is but a young soul ; " and they would have
taken her to one of Heaven s hills, and would
there have given her a cymbal and a dulcimer,
but they knew that the Paradisal gates were
234
THI-: SOUL OF LA TRAVIATA
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
clamped and barred against La Traviata. And
they would have taken her to a valley in the
world where there were a great many flowers
and a loud sound of streams, where birds were
singing always and church bells rang on
Sabbaths, only this they durst not do. So
they swept onward nearer and nearer Hell.
But when they were come quite close and the
glare was on their faces, and they saw the gates
already divide and prepare to open outwards,
they said : " Hell is a terrible city, and she is
tired of cities ; " then suddenly they dropped her
by the side of the road, and wheeled and flew
away. But into a great pink -flower that was
horrible and lovely grew the soul of La Tra
viata ; and it had in it two eyes but no eyelids,
and it stared constantly into the faces of all
the passers-by that went along the dusty road
to Hell ; and the flower grew in the glare of
the lights of Hell, and withered but could not
235
THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA
die ; only, one petal turned back towards the
heavenly hills as an ivy leaf turns outwards to
the day, and in the soft and silvery light of
Paradise it withered not nor faded, but heard
at times the commune of the saints coming
murmuring from the distance, and sometimes
caught the scent of orchards wafted from the
heavenly hills, and felt a faint breeze cool it
every evening at the hour when the saints to
Heaven s edge went forth to bless the dead.
But the Lord arose with His sword, and
scattered His disobedient angels as a thresher
scatters chaff.
236
ON THE DRY LAND
ON THE DRY LAND
OVER the marshes hung the gorgeous night
with all his wandering bands of nomad stars,
and his whole host of still ones blinked and
watched.
Over the safe dry land to eastward, grey
and cold, the first clear pallor of dawn was
coming up above the heads of the immortal
gods.
Then, as they neared at last the safety of
the dry land, Love looked at the man whom
he had led for so long through the marshes,
and saw that his hair was white, for it was
shining in the pallor of the dawn.
Then they stepped together on to the land,
and the old man sat down weary on the grass,
239
ON THE DRY LAND
for they had wandered in the marshes for many
years ; and the light of the grey dawn widened
above the heads of the gods.
And Love said to the old man, " I will
leave you now."
And the old man made no answer, but
wept softly.
Then Love was grieved in his little careless
heart, and he said : " You must not be sorry that
I go, nor yet regret me, nor care for me at all.
" I am a very foolish child, and was never
kind to you, nor friendly. I never cared for
your great thoughts, or for what was good in
you, but perplexed you by leading you up and
down the perilous marshes. And I was so
heartless that, had you perished where I led
you, it would have been nought to me, and I
only stayed with you because you were good
to play with.
"And I am cruel and altogether worthless
240
ON THE DRY LAND
and not such a one as any should be sorry for
when I go, or one to be regretted, or even cared
for at all."
And still the old man spoke not, but wept
softly ; and Love grieved bitterly in his kindly
heart.
And Love said : f( Because I am so small
my strength has been concealed from you, and
the evil that I have done. But my strength is
great, and I have used it unjustly. Often I
pushed you from the causeway through the
marshes, and cared not if you drowned. Often
I mocked you, and caused others to mock you.
And often I led you among those that hated
me, and laughed when they revenged themselves
upon you.
"So weep not, for there is no kindness in
my heart, but only murder and foolishness, and
I am no companion for one so wise as you,
but am so frivolous and silly that I laughed
241 Q
ON THE DRY LAND
at your noble dreams and hindered all your
deeds. See now, you have found me out, and
now you will send me away, and here you will
live at ease, and, undisturbed, have noble dreams
of the immortal gods.
" See now, here is dawn and safety, and there
is darkness and peril."
Still the old man wept softly.
Then Love said: "Is it thus with you?"
and his voice was grave now and quiet. "Are
you so troubled ? Old friend of so many years,
there is grief in my heart for you. Old friend
of perilous ventures, I must leave you now.
But I will send my brother soon to you my
little brother Death. And he will come up out of
the marshes to you, and will not forsake you,
but will be true to you as I have not been true."
And dawn grew brighter over the immor
tal gods, and the old man smiled through
his tears, which glistened wondrously in the
242
ON THE DRY LAND
increasing light. But Love went down to the
night and to the marshes, looking backward
over his shoulder as he went, and smiling
beautifully about his eyes. And in the marshes
whereunto he went, in the midst of the gorgeous
night, and under the wandering bands of nomad
stars, rose shouts of laughter and the sounds
of the dance.
And after a while, with his face towards
the morning, Death out of the marshes came
up tall and beautiful, and with a faint smile
shadowy on his lips, and lifted in his arms
the lonely man, being gentle with him, and,
murmuring with his low deep voice an ancient
song, carried him to the morning to the gods.
THE END
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co.
Edinburgh & London
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