_ AYESHA
THE RETURN OF SHE
BY
H. RIDER HAGGARD
"Here ends this history so far as it concerns science and the
outside world. What its end will be as regards Leo and myself is
more than I can guess. But we feel that it is not reached. . . .
Often I sit alone at night, staring with the eyes of my mind into
the blackness of unborn time, and wondering in what shape and form
the great drama will be finally developed, and where the scene of
its next act will be laid. And when, ultimately, that /final/
development occurs, as I have no doubt it must and will occur, in
obedience to a fate that never swerves and a purpose which cannot
be altered, what will be the part played therein by that beautiful
Egyptian Amenar-tas, the Princess of the royal house of the
Pharaohs, for the love of whom the priest Kallikrates broke his
vows to Isis, and, pursued by the vengeance of the outraged
goddess, fled down the coast of Lybia to meet his doom at Kor?"--
/She/, Silver Library Edition, p. 277.
DEDICATION
My dear Lang,
The appointed years--alas! how many of them--are gone by, leaving
Ayesha lovely and loving and ourselves alive. As it was promised
in the Caves of Kor /She/ has returned again.
To you therefore who accepted the first, I offer this further
history of one of the various incarnations of that Immortal.
My hope is that after you have read her record, notwithstanding
her subtleties and sins and the shortcomings of her chronicler (no
easy office!) you may continue to wear your chain of "loyalty to
our lady Ayesha." Such, I confess, is still the fate of your old
friend
H. RIDER HAGGARD.
DITCHINGHAM, 1905.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Not with a view of conciliating those readers who on principle
object to sequels, but as a matter of fact, the Author wishes to
say that he does not so regard this book.
Rather does he venture to ask that it should be considered as the
conclusion of an imaginative tragedy (if he may so call it)
whereof one half has been already published.
This conclusion it was always his desire to write should he be
destined to live through those many years which, in obedience to
his original design, must be allowed to lapse between the events
of the first and second parts of the romance.
In response to many enquiries he may add that the name Ayesha,
which since the days of the prophet Mahomet, who had a wife so
called, and perhaps before them, has been common in the East,
should be pronounced /Assha/. _