Lord Dunsany

“ O Queen, it is part of the art of war to be well prepared when in an enemy's country, and we have been so long at war with your Captains that we perforce remember some of the art. It is not that we do not trust you.
Queen:
I am all alone with my handmaid and none will trust me! O Ackazárpses, I am frightened: what if my enemies should slay me and carry me up, and cast my body into the lonely Nile.
Ackazárpses:
No, no, Illustrious Lady. They will not harm you. They do not know how their fierce looks distress you. They do not know how delicate you are. ”

“ It is the shadows of the camels moving towards Mecca. How silently they slip over the ground, beautiful shadows. Soon they are out in the desert flat on the golden sands. And then the sun will set and they will be one with night.
Chamberlain:
If your Majesty has time for such things there are the camels themselves.
King:
No, no, I do not wish to watch the camels. They can never take me out to the beautiful desert to be free forever from cities. Here I must stay to do the work of a King. Only my dreams can go, and the shadows of the camels carry them, to find peace by the tents of the Arabs. ”

“ We dwelt alone in tents in the golden desert. We heard the wild free day sing sings in his freedom, we heard the beautiful night wind. Nothing remains of our year but desolate shadows. Memory whips them and they will not dance.
[Eznarza does not answer.]
We made our farewells where the desert was. The city shall not hear them.
[Eznarza covers her face. The King rises softly and walks up the steps. Enter L. the Chamberlain and Zabra, only noticing each other.]
Chamberlain:
He will come. He will come.
Zabra:
But it is noon now. Our fatness has left us. Our enemies mock at us. ”

“ Look upon Thek. It is built of rock and our palace is all of marble. Time has not scratched it with six centuries. Six tearing centuries with all their claws. We are throned on gold and founded upon marble. Death will some day find me, indeed, but I am young. Sire after sire of mine has died in Barbul-el-Sharnak or in Thek, but has left our dynasty laughing sheer in the face of Time from over these age-old walls. ”

“ Ackazárpses:
I have poured out dark wine to them, I have offered them fat, indeed, I have often offered them savoury things. I have said: The Queen should not have enemies; she is too delicate, too fair. But they will not understand.
Queen:
If they could see my tears they would never permit such woes to be borne by one small woman. But they only look at men and their horrible wars. Why must men slay one another and make horrible war?
Ackazárpses:
I blame your enemies, Illustrious Lady, more than the gods. Why should they trouble you who are so fair and so easily hurt by their anger? ”

“ A crown should not be worn upon the head. A sceptre should not be carried in Kings' hands. But a crown should be wrought into a golden chain, and a sceptre driven stake-wise into the ground so that a King may be chained to it by the ankle. Then he would know that he might not stray away into the beautiful desert and might never see the palm trees by the wells. O Thalanna, Thalanna, how I hate this city with its narrow, narrow ways, and evening after evening drunken men playing skabash in the scandalous gambling house of that old scoundrel Skarmi. ”

“ Ludibras:
Can we make him do it?
Ichtharion:
I think we can make him do it.
Harpagas:
The King is more highly civilised even than we are. He will not care for the gods.
Ichtharion:
He cannot ignore them; the gods crowned his forefather and if there are no gods who made him King?
Ludibras:
Why, that is true. He must obey a prophecy.
Ichtharion:
If the King disobeys the gods the people will tear him asunder, whether the gods created the people or the people created the gods.
[Harpagas slips out after the Prophet.] ”

“ King: [To Harpagas]
Then we can stay here long, can we not?
Harpagas:
There are reasons of State why that were dangerous.
King:
Reasons of State? Why should we not stay here?
Harpagas:
Your Majesty, there is a legend in the World, that he who is greatest in the city of Barbul-el-Sharnak is the greatest in the world.
King:
I had not heard that legend.
Harpagas:
Your Majesty, little legends do not hive in the sacred ears of kings; nevertheless they hum among lesser men from generation to generation. ”

“ Ludibras:
The prophet is coming this way.
Ichtharion:
Sit down. We must speak with him. He will betray us.
Ludibras:
Why should the prophet betray us?
Ichtharion:
Because the guilt of the false prophecy is not his guilt; it is ours; and the King may spare him if he tells him that. Again, he mutters of vengeance as he walks; many have told me.
Ludibras:
The King will not spare him even if he betrays us. It was he that spoke the false prophecy to the King.
Ichtharion:
The King does not in his heart believe in the gods. It is for cheating him that the prophet is to die. ”

“ For I have prophesied falsely and at sunset the gods will lie.
King Karnos:
It is not sunset yet. No doubt you have spoken truly.
[Enter Queen.]
How well the Queen looks. Her maidens are quite excellent.
Ludibras: [To Ichtharion]
There is something a little dreadful in seeing the Queen so calm. She is like a windless sunset in the Winter before a hurricane comes and the snow swirls up before it over the world.
Ichtharion:
I do not like calm sunsets; they make me think that something is going to happen. Yes, the Queen is very quiet; she will sleep to-night. ”

“ Ichtharion:
Watch his eyes.
[Enter the Prophet, his eyes concealed by his cloak.]
Ichtharion and Ludibras:
The gods are good.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
They are benignant.
Ichtharion:
I am much to blame. I am very much to blame.
Ludibras:
We trust that the King will relent.
Ichtharion:
He often relents at sunset; he looks out over the orchids in the evening. They are very beautiful then, and if he is angry his anger passes away just when the cool breeze comes at the set of sun.
Ludibras:
He is sure to relent at sunset.
Ichtharion:
Do not be angry. I am indeed to blame. Do not be angry. ”

“ O Nile, hear me.
Fruits also I have made ready, all the sweet juices of the earth; and the meat of beasts also.
Hear me, O Nile: for it is not the meat of beasts only. I have slaves for you and princes and a King. There has been no such sacrifice. ”

“ It is a trick that Memory can do. He comes up softly in the town or the desert, wherever a few men are, like the strange dark conjurors who sing to snakes, and he does his trick before them, and does it again and again. ”

“ The voices of men and women begin to arise in the streets, scarce audible, one by one, till a slow loud murmur arises and all the voices are one. I often think the city speaks to me then: she says in that voice of hers, "Aoob, Aoob, who one of these days shall die, I am not earthly, I have been always, I shall not die."
Bel-Narb:
I do not think that cities are loveliest at dawn. We can see dawn in the desert any day. ”

“ If they can do things like this there's no one can save us but you, Toffy—I always knew you were a clever one. We won't be fools any more. We'll obey you, Toffy.
The Toff:
You're brave enough and strong enough. There isn't many that would steal a ruby eye out of an idol's head, and such an idol as that was to look at, and on such a night. You're brave enough, Bill. But you're all three of you fools. Jim would have none of my plans and where's Jim? And George. What did they do to him?
Sniggers:
Don't, Toffy!
The Toff:
Well, then, your strength is no use to you. You want cleverness ”

“ We will often make him bring the old days back when you are gone to your people and I am miserably wedded to the princess coming from Tharba.
Eznarza:
They will come with sand on their feet from the golden, beautiful desert; they will come with a long-gone sunset each one over his head. Their lips will laugh with the olden evening voices. ”

“ Aoob:
Yes, it is pleasant to think of the Siroc when one is safe in a city, but I do not like to think about it now, for before the day is out we will be taking pilgrims to Mecca, and who ever prophesied or knew by wit what the desert had in store? Going into the desert is like throwing bone after bone to a dog, some he will catch and some of them he will drop. He may catch our bones, or we may go by and come to gleaming Mecca. ”

“ We have only that little child of man whose name is Memory.
King:
Come. He shall bring back to us, before we part, one of those days that were banished.
Eznarza:
Let it be the first day. The day we met by the well when the camels came to El-Lolith.
King:
Our year lacked some few days. For my year began here. The camels were some days out.
Eznarza:
You were riding a little wide of the caravan, upon the side of the sunset. Your camel was swinging on with easy strides. But you were tired. ”

“ I am sure that the prophet will betray you. But we have spoken to the Queen. We have told her it would be dreadful if the King were to grow angry with you, and she things she will cry all night if he is angry.
Ichtharion:
Poor frightened brain! How strong are little fancies! She should be a beautiful Queen. But she goes about white and crying, in fear of the gods. The gods, that are no more than shadows in the moonlight. Man's fear rises weird and large in all this mystery and makes a shadow of himself upon the ground and Man jumps and says "the gods." Why they are less than shadows ”

“ They draw it away from them slowly and let it fall like a cloak and stand quite naked in their beauty to shine in some broad river; and the light comes up and kisses them on the forehead. I think they are loveliest then. ”

“ Aoob:
Ah!
Bel-Narb:
We shall see the lights come out, looking back from the camel-track; that is the last we shall see of it.
Aoob:
We shall be in the desert then.
Bel-Narb:
The old angry desert.
Aoob:
How cunningly the Desert hides his wells. You would say he had an enmity with man. He does not welcome you as the cities do.
Bel-Narb:
He has an enmity. I hate the desert.
Aoob:
I think there is nothing in the world so beautiful as cities.
Bel-Narb:
Cities are beautiful things.
Aoob:
I think they are loveliest a little after dawn when night falls off from the houses. ”

“ If God were to make me King I would go down to the edge of the desert once, and I would shake the sand out of my turban and out of my beard and then I would never look at the desert again. Greedy and parched old parent of thousands of devils! He might cover the wells with sand, and blow with his Siroc, year after year and century after century, and never earn one of my curses—if God made me King.
Aoob:
They say you are like the King.
Bel-Narb:
Yes, I am like the King. Because his father disguised himself as a camel-driver and came through our villages. I often say to myself, "God is just. ”

“ No, Queen... [He drinks.]
Queen: [she looks at the Twin Dukes amiably]
All Ethiopia shall be yours, down to the unknown kingdoms of the beasts.
1st Duke of Ethiopia:
Queen.
2nd Duke of Ethiopia:
Queen. We drink to the glory of your throne.
Queen:
Stay then and feast with me. For not to have enemies is the beggar's joy; and I have looked from windows long and long, envying those that go their way in rags. Stay with me, dukes and princes.
Priest of Horus:
Illustrious Lady, the generosity of your royal heart has given the gods much joy.
Queen: [smiles at him.] ”

“ Then a woman perhaps will slip from a little door and go away up the street into the night, and a man perhaps will steal by with a dagger for some old quarrel's sake, and Skarmi will light up his house to sell brandy all night long, and men will sit on benches outside his door playing skabash by the glare of a small green lantern, while they light great bubbling pipes and smoke nargroob. ”

“ Bring back that prophet. [Attendant bows and exits.]
[The King looks thoughtful. The rest have a frightened look. Re-enter Prophet.]
King Karnos:
When the gods prophesy rain in the season of rain, or the death of an old man, we believe them. But when the gods prophesy something incredible and ridiculous, such as happens not nowadays, and hath not been heard of since the fall of Bleth, then our credulity is overtaxed. It is possible that a man should lie; it is not possible that the gods should destroy a city nowadays. ”

“ A man is a small thing and the night very large and full of wonders. ”

“ It has been the custom of all that held my office, from the time when there went on earth the children of the Moon, never to eat till the food is dedicate, by our sacred signs, to the gods. [He begins to wave his hands over the food.]
Queen:
The King of the Four Countries does not eat. And you, Prince
Rhádamandáspes, you have given royal wine unto your slave.
Rhádamandáspes:
O Queen, it is the custom of our dynasty... and has indeed long been so,... as many say,... ”