by Edward Plunkett

“ 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 little Queen that calls to you, Nile. The little Queen that cannot bear to have enemies.
Hear me, O Nile.
Men speak of other rivers. But I do not hearken to fools. There is only Nile. It is the little child that prays to you who used to pick mauve flowers.
Hear me, O Nile.
I have prepared a sacrifice to god. Men speak of other gods: there is only Nile. I have prepared a sacrifice of wine--the Lesbian wine from fairy Mitylene--to mingle with your waters till you are drunken and go singing to the sea from the Abyssinian hills. ”

“ 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.] Ludibras:
If the King discovers this we shall be painfully tortured. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ O that I might marry the child of some unkingly house that generation to generation had never known a city, and that we might ride from here down the long track through the desert, always we two alone till we came to the tents of the Arabs. And the crown--some foolish, greedy man should be given it to his sorrow. And all this may not be, for a King is yet a King. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ There was the empty plain and the Nile only.
Zophérnes:
Who knows what she may have in this dark temple?
Rhádamandáspes:
It is small and the stairway narrow; our friends are close behind us. We could hold these steps with our swords against all her men.
Zophérnes:
True. They are narrow steps. Yet... Rhádamandáspes, I do not fear man or god or even woman, yet when I saw the letter this woman sent bidding us banquet with her I felt that it was not well that we should come.
Rhádamandáspes:
She said that she would love us though we were her enemies. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A King's word is like a King's crown and a King's sceptre and a King's throne. It is in fact a foolish thing, like a city.
King:
I cannot break my word. But you can be Queen in Thalanna.
Eznarza:
Thalanna will not have a gypsy for a Queen.
King:
I will make Thalanna have her for a Queen.
Eznarza:
You cannot make a gypsy live for a year in a city.
King:
I knew of a gypsy that lived once in a city.
Eznarza:
Not such a gypsy as I... come back to the tents of the Arabs. ”

“ Rhádamandáspes:
No, no, Zophérnes. Do you not see? The Queen takes it to heart.
[Zophérnes sits down.] Queen:
O feast with me a little longer and make merry, and be my enemies no more. Rhádamandáspes, there is some country eastwards towards Assyria, is there not? I do not know its name--a country which your dynasty claims of me...
Zophérnes:
Ha!
Rhádamandáspes: [resignedly]
We have lost it.
Queen:
...and for whose sake you are my enemy and your fierce uncle, Prince Zophérnes.
Rhádamandáspes:
We fought somewhat with your armies, Queen. But indeed it was but to practise the military art. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I am alone in the jungle, and here I shall be buried.
Ludibras:
But----
Arolind:
Oh, will you not leave me alone? Is nothing sacred to you? Not even my grief?
[Exeunt Arolind and Carolyx.] Harpagas: [To Ludibras]
What are we to do?
Ludibras:
All women are alike.
Ichtharion:
I do not allow my wife to speak to me like that.
[Exeunt Harpagas and Ludibras.] I hope Tharmia will not weep; it is very distressing to see a woman in tears.
[Enter Tharmia.] Do not be unhappy, do not be at all unhappy. But I have been unable to persuade the King to return to Barbul-el-Sharnak. ”

“ 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. 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. 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sniggers: [In tears.]
O Toffy, Toffy, take it back. Take my share. Say you take it.
The Toff:
What has he seen?
[Dead silence only broken by Sniggers' sobs. Then stony steps are heard.] [Enter a hideous Idol. It is blind and gropes its way. It gropes its way to the ruby and picks it up and screws it into a socket in the forehead.] [Sniggers still weeps softly; the rest stare in horror. The Idol steps out, not groping. Its steps move off then stops.] ”

“ 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. ”

“ And just when it would be dark, and out in the desert there would be nothing to see but a black horizon and a black sky on top of it, just then the swinging lanterns are lighted up and lights come out in windows one by one and all the colours of the raiments change. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Zabra:
Iktra is pacified.
King:
Is pacified?
Zabra:
It happened suddenly. The men of Iktra met with a few of your Majesty's fighting men and an arrow chanced to kill the leader of the revolt, and therefore the mob fled away although they were many, and they have all cried for three hours, "Great is the King!"
King:
I will even yet see Mecca and the dreamed-of tents of the Arabs. I will go down now into the golden sands, I----
Chamberlain:
Your Majesty----
King:
In a few years I will return to you.
Chamberlain:
Your Majesty, it cannot be. We could not govern the people for more than a year. ”

“ 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.] ”

“ He destroys all things utterly.
Eznarza:
There is a little child of man that is mightier than he, and who saves the world from Time.
King:
Who is this little child that is mightier than Time? Is it Love that is mightier? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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,... ”

“ Those black priests would follow you round the world in circles, year after year, till they got the idol's eye. And if we died with it they'd follow our grandchildren. That fool thinks he can escape men like that by running round three streets in the town of Hull. ”

“ If you're a little slow you will see enacted the cheerful spectacle that accompanied the demise of Jim.
Sniggers:
Don't, Toffy. We'll be there all right.
The Toff:
Very well. Now watch me.
[He goes past the windows to the inner door R.; he opens it inwards. Then under cover of the open door he slips down on his knee and closes it, remaining on the inside, appearing to have gone out. He signs to the others who understand. Then he appears to re-enter in the same manner.] Now, I shall sit with my back to the door. You go out one by one so far as our friends can make out. ”

“ When I thought of what they did in Malta to poor old Jim.
Bill:
Yes, and to George in Bombay before we started.
Sniggers:
Ugh!
Bill:
Why didn't you give 'em in charge?
Albert:
What about the ruby, Bill?
Bill:
Ah!
Albert:
Well, I did better than that. I walks up and down through Hull. I walks slow enough. And then I turns a corner and I runs. I never sees a corner but I turns it. But sometimes I let a corner pass just to fool them. I twists about like a hare. Then I sits down and waits. No priests.
Sniggers:
What? ”