Shebeen

“ She gives him her portrait, a picture which does not resemble her at all, but represents the fairy Belkis, who in olden days was the Queen of Sheba beloved by Solomon. The youth falls in love with this picture of a beautiful, dazzling, bewitching woman. Wherever he goes her name meets him; when he determines to try his fortune in a foreign country, the ship he sails in is called the Queen of Sheba. He wanders about the world dreaming of Belkis, as we wander, one and all of us, dreaming of our castle in the air, our ideal, our fixed idea, which to our neighbours is madness. ”

“ The pallor of his face lent accent to the fire that smouldered in his eyes.
"I'm going to marry you, Sheba. Make up your mind to that, girl," he said harshly.
There was infinite pity in the look she gave him. "'There's caulder things than salt waves between us, so they are,'" she quoted.
"Not if I love you and you love me. By God, I trample down everything that comes between us." ”

“ Solomon bade the eagle release the peewit, and bade him relate what he had heard of Sheba and its queen.
5. THE HISTORY OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA.
"Sheba," said the peewit, "is the name of the king who founded the kingdom; it is also the name of the capital. Sheba was a worshipper of the sun, Eblis having drawn him from the true God, who sends rain from heaven, and covers the earth with plenty, and who reads the thoughts of men's hearts. ”

“ From a little knoll Sheba looked down upon the top of the stage three hundred yards below her, and while she stood there the promise of the new day was blazoned on the sky. It came with amazing beauty of green and primrose and amethyst, while the stars flickered out and the heavens took on the blue of sunrise. In a crotch between two peaks a faint golden glow heralded the sun. A circle of lovely rose-pink flushed the horizon.
Sheba had this much of the poet in her, that every sunrise was still a miracle. She drew a deep, slow breath of adoration and turned away. ”

“ In many respects we resemble the Queen of Sheba. Though of royal birth, she was doubtless, like the bride in the Song of Solomon, black, because the sun had looked upon her. The post which she was called to occupy was no easy one; in her own life, and in her duty towards others, she found many hard questions to which she saw no solution. She hear of one reigning in the power of the Lord, whose wisdom exceeded that of the wisest of men, and who, if any one could, might afford her the help that she needed. ”

“ SEBASTIAN–GONZALEZ–ZAMOR.
Seb.—Withstand me not. I tell thee that my soul,
With all its passionate energies, is rous'd
Unto that fearful strength which must have way,
E'en like the elements, in their stormy hour
Of mastery o'er creation.
Gon.—But they wait
That hour in silence. Oh! be calm a while;
Thine is not come. My king—
Seb.—I am no king,
While, in the very palace of my sires,
Aye, where mine eyes first drank the glorious light,
Where my soul's thrilling echoes first awoke
To the high sound of earth's immortal names,
The usurper lives and reigns. ”

“ My troops are the sprites, [7] whilst the demons and little she-devils [8] are the legions who will strangle you upon your beds in the midst of your houses. And the wild beasts shall kill you in the fields, while the birds of the heavens shall devour your flesh from your bodies!”
Now since the hoopoe bird was greatly desirous of being sent back to the land of Sheba with a message from the king, he was forthwith released with this message to bring to the queen of Sheba. ”

“ Nip and Tuck put their heads on one side and considered. The Queen of Sheba advanced one step, slowly; the puppies retired, too, and sat down, wagging their tails. Perhaps, after all, it was a kind of dog; their minds were cheerfully open to new impressions, and they were full of good will toward all creation. Perceiving their innocence, the Queen of Sheba, who had seen many generations of puppies, lowered her warlike arch, and, sitting down opposite them, proceeded to wash herself elaborately. Nip and Tuck looked on with open-mouthed admiration. ”

“ The window was promptly opened, and in flew the little bee. Straight towards the Queen of Sheba it flew, and now its buzzing could be heard by all the courtiers, who eagerly watched its flight through the air. Without any hesitation, it settled on the bouquet in the Queen's left hand.
"Thou hast my answer, fair Queen of Sheba," said King Solomon, rising, "given to thee by one of the tiniest of my subjects. It has settled on the flowers that are natural. The bouquet in your right hand is made by human hands." ”

“ Sebastian received the boy with trembling avidity:—as he bent to kiss his infant cheek, his silver locks sweeping over the eyelids of the little Prince, awoke him, and he looked smiling up. A nobler smile (for it was radiant with the immortal spirit) lighted up the face of the aged King, he leaned back in the royal{320} chair, he looked at the son of Gaspar, then at Braganza and Luisa, cast a last glance at their child, thought of them he was hastening to rejoin, and fixing his eyes on heaven, he feebly exclaimed, “Die, die! thou hast lived long enough.” ”

“ How does the outward lustre of a crown dazzle all eyes, and blind them to its thorny lining! ambition, more potent even than love, sees no defect in its object, but{137} grasps at it with the avidity of a soul certain of seizing beautitude!—The nobles round King Sebastian looked at each other for awhile without speaking; then actuated by the same spirit, cast themselves at his feet in a transport of gratitude ”

“ The girl in her said: "Go back. They will think you are seeking love. They will think that with your white teeth, your sloe-black eyes, your color of fine bronze, your body, lithe and sleek and graceful as a cat's, you want love from the king of the Jews." And all her face flushed at that thought, and she debated whether she should send for the captain general of the fighting men and tell him to face his troops about and return to her Ethiopia. But the queen in her rose and said: "What care I what they say? Does Sheba need the love of any lowland king, or plead for alliance? ”

“ There followed hordes of women, in every spectacular costume that a crude fancy, endeavoring to reproduce the visit of the Queen of Sheba, could imagine.
Then the fans, immense, downy and soft, moving as in rhythm above the Oriental beauty, for a moment revealed her.
And the man on the curb,—this Buddhist novitiate in the clerical dress of the Church of England, this youth,—straining forward on his toes, sprang into the street, crossed in a stride and leaped onto the float. ”

“ I was one in the fatally-memorable expedition of Don Sebastian!—After many hardships, and more sorrows, I am come hither to offer my services to the Sophi; a Christian knight may war by the side of infidels when their cause is just, for then, he sees in them only men and brethren.—Have you confidence enough in this countenance to believe me what I profess myself? dare you pledge your faith for my integrity while presenting me to the Persian? ”

“ Yet, in a jest, we called her the Queen of Sheba; and I make a venture that she looked exceeding fair in the eyes of our little Mistress Merciless: for the eyes of children look not upon the faces but into the hearts and souls of others. Whilst these two walked in the full fair garden at that time they came presently unto an arbor wherein there was a rustic seat, which was called the Siege of Restfulness ”

“ Henceforward, as the queen of Sheba came from the uttermost end of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and to have every enigma and hard question solved, so must every master, doctor, heads of universities, every diocesan and metropolitan, however wise, have recourse to their queen, by reference or appeal, with every difficult question, and every learned and deep controversy, and be responsible to her for their every decision. ”

“ Sebastian’s penetrating eye read the lover’s heart; he smiled graciously, and pressing his hand, said, “Yes, for her also, I speak: her safety and her happiness are the sole objects of her father’s anxiety; and how are they to be secured, save in domestic privacy? Think of her again, Hyppolito, as you were used to do; forget the Princess of Portugal, but ever protect and cherish the unpretending Blanche.” ”

“ A dead man who is wrapped in a burial shroud findeth praise from men, but woe unto the living man whose burial shroud his habit [52] be! Birds eat the flax seeds and make their nests from its fibres, and they are made happy thereby. But fish are caught in nets made of linen cords, and are grieved thereby.”
The queen of Sheba, not being able to conceal her maze [53] at the ease with which the king answered her questions, propensed to ask him yet other questions, saying, “Seven are departing. Nine are entering in. Two are giving drink, but only one is drinking. ”

“ The city is crowded with men. On their heads they wear garlands wreathed in Paradise. They know not how to fight, nor how to shoot with bow and arrow. Their ruler is a woman, she is called the Queen of Sheba. If, now, it please thee, O lord and king, I shall gird my loins like a hero, and journey to the city of Kitor in the land of Sheba. ”

“ A tall, curly-haired man stands in the night before the many-colored house of the apothecary Zeusel, peeps up at the lighted third story, which he is about to occupy, and at last opens, instead of the wooden door, the glass one of the apothecary's shop. O my good Sebastian! a blessing on thy entry! May a good angel give thee his hand, to lift thee over boggy roads and man-traps; and when thou hast fallen into a snare and been wounded, then may he fan the wound with his wing, and a kind man cover it with his heart! ”

“ Sheba.
[Through her tears.] We’ve been brought up as young ladies—that can’t be done for nothing!
Salome.
Sheba’s small, but she cuts into a lot of material.
The Dean.
My girls, it is such unbosomings as this which preserve the domestic unison of a family. Weep, howl, but listen. The total of these weeds which spring up in the beautiful garden of paternity is a hundred and fifty-six, eighteen, three. Now, all the money I can immediately command is considerably under five hundred pounds. ”

“ Seb has opened thy blind eyes, (1) he has loosened thy legs which were fettered. Thou hast received thy heart of thy mother, thy whole heart of thy own body; thy soul is in the sky, thy body is under the ground. There is bread for thy body, water for thy throat, sweet breeze for thy nostrils.
Thou restest in their funereal chambers, which those who are in their coffins have opened for thee and for thy ... when thou journeyest; thou art firm on thy pedestal, of thy existence, thou appearest in heaven, and thou fastenest the tackle (2) by the side of Rā. ”

“ A Shepherd may be as Easy in a Cottage, as a Prince in a Palace, with a Mind Suited to his Station, but if they will be Launching out into Trade, or Bus'ness that they do not understand, they have nothing left them to trust to when they are once Bewilder'd, but the Hope of some Kind Providence to put them in the Right Way Home again. ”

“ You assert it?”
“I assert nothing: persons and voices may resemble; but in events we cannot be mistaken. If this be the King, whom I entertained at Cadiz, ere his expedition to Africa, he will be able to point out to me amongst some armour which I have had brought hither, the present he made to me at that period.”
“I gave thee a sword, Sidonia!” said Sebastian, “and I think I should remember it again.”
The surrounding nobles, with dismay and surprise, followed the Duke to the stern of the galley, where some attendants had just arrived with a heap of swords, spurs, curious pistols, and daggers. ”

“ At the sound of the trumpet, the war-horse long dismissed to pasture, starts, flashes his fiery eyes, tosses his proud neck aloft, strains every sinew, and rushes upon the shock of battle: Sebastian’s limbs shook like his, with a powerful emotion excited by the troops of the Sophi: his heart beat high; it swelled with a sentiment of fraternity towards every soldier before him. His eyes long pursued their{48} hurried march, till distance lessened them, and then turning into one of the gates, he sought impatiently some house where he might obtain information of Sir Anthony Shirley. ”

“ Their very horses, proudly pranced under housings of cloth of gold and precious stones.
As the long procession passed from the palace to the cathedral, crouds of spectators lining the streets and windows, easily distinguished their prince by the superior nobleness of his air. In the very flower of his youth Sebastian appeared mounted on a white Arabian, the trappings of which were studded with rubies: his own ornaments were few: the order of Christus, alone sparkled in brilliants upon his majestic chest ”

“ Well, whoever had set Cora Belle's tires had forgotten to cut away the surplus burlap, so all the ragtags were merrily waving in the breeze.
Cora Belle's team would bring a smile to the soberest face alive. Sheba is a tall, lanky old mare. Once she was bay in color, but the years have added gray hair until now she is roan. Being so long-legged she strides along at an amazing pace which her mate, Balaam, a little donkey, finds it hard to keep up with. Balaam, like Sheba, is full of years. ”

“ Sebastian.
He readily complied with my Request; for being a Person of Quality and Worth, he is much esteem’d at Bayonne. He fail’d not the next Morning to bring several Ladies to visit me.
These Women begin here to feel the scorching Heats of the Sun; their Complexion is dark, their Eyes sparkling; they are charming enough, their Wits are sharp: And I could give you a farther Account of their Capacities, could I have better understood what they said: not but that they could all speak French, yet with such a different Dialect, as surpast my Understanding. ”