_ It was dawn. Ithobal the king stood without the gates of the tomb of
Baaltis, the grey light glimmering faintly on his harness, and knocked
upon the brazen bars with the handle of his sword.
"Who troubles me now?" said a voice within.
"Lady, it is I, Ithobal, who, as I promised by Metem the Phœnician, am
come to learn your will as to the fate of my prisoner, the Prince
Aziel. Already he hangs above the gulf, and within one short hour, if
you so decree it, he will fall and be dashed to pieces. Or, if you so
decree it, he will be set free to return to his own land."
"At what price will he be set free, king Ithobal?"
"Lady, you know the price; it is yourself. Oh! I beseech you, be wise!
spare his life and your own. Listen: spare his life, and I will spare
this city which lies in the hollow of my hand, and you shall rule it
with me."
"You cannot bribe me thus, king Ithobal. My father whom I loved is
dead, and shall I give myself to you for the sake of a city and a
Faith that would have betrayed me into your hands?"
"Nay, but for the sake of the man to whom you are dear, you shall do
even this, Elissa. Think: if you refuse, his blood will be upon your
head, and what will you have gained?"
"Death, which I seek, for I weary of the struggle of my days."
"Then end it in my arms, lady. Soon this fancy will escape your mind,
and you will remain one of the mightiest queens of men."
Elissa returned no answer, and for a while there was silence.
"Lady," said Ithobal at length, "the sun rises and my servants yonder
await a signal."
Then she spoke like one who hesitates.
"Are you not afraid, king Ithobal, to trust your life to a woman won
in such a fashion?"
"Nay," answered Ithobal, "for though you say that their fate does not
concern you, the lives of all those penned-up thousands are hostages
for my own. Should you by chance find a means to stab me unawares,
then to-night fire and sword would rage through the city of Zimboe.
Nor do I fear the future, since I know well that you who think you
hate me now, very soon will learn to love me."
"You promise, king Ithobal, that if I yield myself you will set the
prince Aziel free; but how can I believe you who twice have tried to
murder him?"
"Doubt me if you will, Elissa, at least, you cannot doubt your own
eyes. Look, his road to the sea runs beneath this rock. Come from the
tomb and take your stand upon it and you shall see him pass; yes, and
should you wish, speak with him in farewell that you may be sure that
it is he and alive. Further, I swear to you by my head and honour,
that no finger shall be laid upon you till he is gone by, and that no
pursuit of him shall be attempted. Now choose."
Again there was silence for a while. Then Elissa spoke in a broken
voice.
"King Ithobal, I have chosen. Trusting to your royal word I will stand
upon the rock and when I have seen the prince Aziel go by in safety,
then, since you desire it, you shall put your arms about me and bear
me whither you will. You have conquered me, king Ithobal! Henceforward
these lips of mine are yours and no other man's. Give the signal, I
pray you, and I will cast aside the dagger and the poison and come out
living from this tomb."
Aziel hung in his cage over the abyss of air, awaiting death, and glad
to die, because now he was sure that Elissa had refused to purchase
his life at the expense of her own surrender. There he hung, dizzy and
sick at heart, making his prayer to heaven and waiting the end, while
the eagles that would prey upon his shattered flesh swept past him.
Presently, from the opposing cliff, came the sound of a horn blown
thrice. Then, while Aziel wondered what this might mean, the cage in
which he lay was drawn in gently over the edge of the precipice, and
carried down the steeps of the granite hill as it had been carried up
them.
At the foot of the hill its covering was torn aside, and he saw before
him a caravan of camels, and seated on each camel a comrade of his
own. But one camel had no rider, and Metem led it by a rope.
The servants of Ithobal took him from the cage and set him upon this
camel, though they did not loosen the bonds about the wrists.
"This is the command of the king," said the captain to Metem "that the
arms of the prince Aziel shall remain bound until you have travelled
for six hours. Begone in safety, fearing nothing."
*****
"What happens now, Metem," asked Aziel, as the camels strode forward,
"and why am I set free who was expecting death? Is this some new
artifice of yours, or has the lady Elissa----" and he ceased.
"Upon the word of an honest merchant I cannot tell you, Prince.
Yesterday, as I was forced, I gave the message of king Ithobal to the
lady Elissa yonder in the tomb. She would answer me only one thing,
which she whispered in my ear through the bars of the holy tomb; that
if we could escape we should do so, moreover that you must have no
fear for her since she also had found a means of escape from Ithobal,
and would certainly join us upon the road."
As Metem spoke, the camels passed round the little hill on to the path
that ran beneath the tomb of Baaltis. There, standing upon the rock
some fifty feet above them, was Elissa, and with her, but at a
distance, Ithobal the king.
"Halt, prince Aziel," she called in a clear voice, "and hearken to my
farewell. I have bought your life, and the lives of your companions,
and you are free, for the road is clear and nothing can overtake the
twelve swiftest camels in Zimboe. Go, therefore, and be happy,
forgetting no word that has passed my lips. For all my words are true,
even to a certain promise which I made you lately by the mouth of
Metem, and which I now fulfil--that I would join you on your road lest
you should deem me faithless to the troth which I have so often sworn
to you.
"King Ithobal, this shape is yours; come now and take your prize.
Prince Aziel, my soul is yours, in life it shall companion you, and in
death await you. Prince Aziel, I come to you." Then, before he could
answer a single word, with one swift and sudden spring she hurled
herself from the cliff edge to fall crushed upon the road beneath.
Aziel saw. In his agony he strained so fiercely at the bonds which
held him that they burst like rushes. He leapt from the camel and
knelt beside Elisa. She was not yet dead, for her eyes were open and
her lips stirred.
"I have kept faith, keep it also, Aziel! the story is not yet done,"
she gasped. Then her life flickered out, and her spirit passed.
Aziel rose from beside the corpse and looked upward. There upon the
edge of the rock above him, leaning forward, his eyes blind with
horror, stood Ithobal the king. Aziel saw him, and a fury entered into
his heart because this man, whose jealous rage and evil doing had bred
such woe and caused the death of his beloved still lived upon the
earth. By the prince was Metem, who, for once, had no words, and from
his hand he snatched a bow, set an arrow on the string and loosed.
The shaft rushed upwards, it smote Ithobal between the joints of his
harness so that the point of it sunk through this neck.
"This gift, king Ithobal, from Aziel the Israelite," he cried, as the
arrow sped.
For a moment the great man stood still, then he opened his arms wide
and of a sudden plunged downward, falling with a crash on the roadway,
where he lay dead at the side of dead Elissa.
*****
"The play is played, and the fate fulfilled," cried Metem. "See, the
servants of the king speed yonder with their evil tidings; let us away
lest we bide here with these two for ever."
"That is my desire," said Aziel.
"A desire which may not be fulfilled," answered Metem. "Come, Prince,
since we cannot go without you. Surely you do not wish to sacrifice
the lives of all of us as an offering to the great spirit of the lady
who is dead. It is one that she would not seek."
Then Aziel knelt down and kissed the brow of the dead Elissa, and went
his way, saying no word.
*****
That night, when the darkness fell, the sky behind these travellers
grew red with fire.
"Behold the end of the golden city!" said Metem. "Zimboe is food for
flames and its children for the sword. Issachar was a prophet indeed,
who foretold that it should be so."
Aziel bowed his head, remembering that Issachar had foretold also that
for Elissa and for him there was hope beyond the grave. As he thought
it, a wind beat upon his brow and through it a soft voice seemed to
murmur to his heart:--
"Be of good courage: Beloved, /there is hope/."
*****
So, turning from the death behind him, this far away forgotten lover
set his face to the sea of Life and passed it, and long ago, at his
appointed hour, gained its further shore, to be welcomed there by her
who watched for him.
And thus, because of the fateful and predestined loves of Aziel the
prince, and Elissa the priestess and daughter of Sakon, three
thousands years and more ago, the ancient city of Zimboe fell at the
hand of king Ithobal and his Tribes, so that to-day there remain of it
nothing but a desolate grey tower of stone, and beneath, the crumbling
bones of men.
_________
-THE END-
Sir Henry Rider Haggard's novel: Elissa _