CHAPTER VI.

As Miriam uttered the last words, Alric replaced the glass disk that he had been holding, in the bosom of his toga, he dropped his raised hands, and the Israelite closed her eyes, and her head fell upon her breast and she slept.

Then Alric folded his arms and looked at the girl.

"I would," he said softly, as to himself, "that you could know, sweet Miriam, that there is a something within me, crying '_Shame_, upon this power I wield;' but the necessity is great, and fate has made you the medium by which I may gain my end. I have sought Egypt for a subject upon whom I might yield perfect illusory impression, an impression conveyed by hypnotic suggestion to make me master of the actions, and spoken words of another, who is the next link in the human chain to this, my subject.

"Oh, that this occult science, were less feebly understood in my day! Oh, that I may be re-born into that to come in the world's history, when this power shall be truly a subjective phenomena! a servant of man! when it shall, in its three stages of lethargy, somnambulism, and catelepsy, be used for the good of mankind in the arts of medicine and surgery, to a time when the priest physician, who believes in cure through faith, the priest physician who believes in cure through the cast-off garments of saints, or the charms of philtre and prayer wheel, shall be swept away, with the chaff and the dross! A time when the priest physician shall be the scientist, who can understand the harmony of the unseen, and apply it to the daily and hourly life conditions, and needs.

"How far,--now having found my medium--shall I be able to use her?

"I must take this woman into my own life. If she were any other than the property of the Princess, my gold and influence could buy her, as it is I must ask her from Hatsu. Not in the marriage of a master to a concubine, but through all the sacred Egyptian rights of vow and ring. Yes, I shall wed you, Miriam, and you will love me, and in the fullness of time you will bear me a son. Aye, carry it under your heart, and bring it forth unconscious of your motherhood. For I will keep you in entrancement through those days and safe hid from all eyes save Hatsu's and my own, and when the time has been accomplished Hatsu shall take the child, and holding it before the people, proclaim it her son and heir!

"That Zelas is true to me, I now know, beyond all doubt. Zelas, Hatsu's uncle! Of what sad comminglings are we made! my soul and heart are crying out in pity, and yet my mortal mind, my scholar's questioning, urges me on----"

But--he pauses--his quick ear detects a footstep--and looking up he sees coming slowly toward him the Princess.

She walks with her lithe young body held erect, as though the generations of poising the urn upon the shoulder, had made a graceful carriage of the body, an Egyptian woman's distinguishing characteristic.

As she draws still nearer, Alric kneels, and with bowed head awaits her command, "to rise."

"Faithful Friend," said the sweet low voice "rejoice with me, my mission has prospered, on the morrow I go out of this city of sorrow, to meet, and to greet my sovereign lord, the King; my husband, that is to be."

Alric took the hem of the Princess' robe, and touched it to his lips.

"All hail sovereign Queen!" he said softly. "Egypt's sun by day, her moon by night."

It was merciful, that he could not see the look of hungry, wistful woman's love, that she bent upon him, kneeling there; but he _could_ hear, the quick fluttering breaths. He _could see_ the jewelled hands, held tight against her beating heart.

"My queen," he said, "here among your sacred dead, I give my life, to your service."

He had risen and they were looking into each other's faces; then, as if recalling Miriam for the first time, the princess with anxious eyes sought her maid, and seeming in one glance, to realize what Alric had done, her pale face flushed, and her gray eyes showed angry light.

"How dare you trifle, with that which is most precious to me!" she said.

"Quick undo the spell that binds her! Miriam! sister! Hatsu calls! Awake!"

But Miriam slept on, and something in the unbroken silence of the man beside her, made Hatsu turn imploringly to him.

"Surely my lord," she said. "You who know how dear Miriam is to me, can not hurt or wrong me through her! surely you know, that should this wanton act of yours, ever come to her, with the added knowledge, that I did not reprove you most severely, Miriam would turn from me, in scorn preferring _torture_ and _death_, to serving so false and thankless a mistress."

"My Princess listen! No idle impulse has led to this unnatural slumber, in which you find Miriam, it has been induced, that I might gain the one chance, the only chance perhaps in our present life, to speak with you alone."

"You are bold my lord!"

"Aye but not so bold, as to do aught but prove to you my loyalty. 'Tis true it is but seldom, oh gracious bride of Tothmes the Second, that a subject forces upon the ear of his sovereign queen, his personal confidence and seeks the aid of the throne itself, to further his selfish aims, and ambitions! yet I Alric, venture into this untrodden path, and ask your interest, and may hap (since you have a gentle heart) your sympathy. Know then future queen, that at the court of Tothmes the Second--and very close to his throne--_my soul lives_, for it is there, the only woman I have ever loved, shall abide.

"She is by birth and station, so far above me, that to love her, is like loving a star in heaven! but oh queen (that is to be) such love as mine knows no repining, because the object of its worship is beyond mortal possession! love such as mine, finds only joy in the thought that eons of what we call time, may stretch out, before I can take unto myself this other self but while I wait I can serve.

"Listen! In and about the court of Tothmes the Second, lurk unnumbered dangers, for my _love_. All that I crave at the _queen's_ hands, is the power, to stand her sentinel, to guard her night, and day, day, and night, so long as my time on the earth continues."

He ceased to speak, and stood in respectful attitude, awaiting her reply.

"Love, that is faithful, pure, and true, is a gift from the Gods, my lord," she said. "And the woman that calls forth this affection (who e'er she be) should feel that nothing earth or heaven could give, could crown her with more _honor_ or more _glory_, aye, for love like this she should gladly renounce all else; speak on my lord."

"My princess, there is but one way, _through_, and by _which_, I may serve my love, there is but one way in which I can guard her, and it comes through a gift from you to me. On the day in which you wed yonder _great_, and sainted _King_, give me as _wife_ not as _slave_, but as free woman _Miriam_."

With a cry the Princess, all unmindful of past, and future, with no thought of Queenship, or of station, flung her arms about the neck of the man, and nestled close to him so that her warm lips touched his brown throat.

"Not that!" she moaned, "not that! Ask from me any other woman high, or low, rich, or poor, bound, or free! and she is yours but not _Miriam_!

"I have loved her, and she has loved me, and she _knows_ my soul, she has read my most sacred thoughts. If," (she cried looking up into his face) "if I thought, that _she_ had been false to me, if I thought, that she had _dared_ to love _you_! if I thought that you loved her, I would kill her as she sleeps, and then thrust the wet blade, into my own heart."

He took the girl's arms from about his neck, and laid her head upon his breast. He drew her close to him, and bent down and kissed her lips--he said words to her that only complete possession justifies, and she answered with the silence of acceptance, the silence of unspoken gladness. How long they stood thus, locked in each others' arms, they never knew, for time and place are not spiritual attributes, and they had been lifted above the finite. It was Miriam stirring in her sleep, that came to be the Angel with the Sword, to drive them out, of their Eden! and the woman, wrapped her naked heart, in a mantle of crimson blushes, and the man rudely thrust away the light frail form, and fled to Miriam's side, and by a few passes kept back _still_--_a little longer_--her returning consciousness.

Hatsu was the first to speak.

"My lord," she said quietly, "ask your gift at my hands, and she shall be thine."