Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

trials of air, fire, and water, to be permitted to enter the mysterious chamber where the passions of life were imaged and its destiny unfolded; and, lastly, to be afforded a vision of the realms of Elysium and the gloomy regions of the dead.

this city, through which an awful Figure was seen, seated on a throne, a glare of level light fell on a black river flowing round the walls and far across the plain; and as it illuminated the faces of the endless army of shadows advancing, Gyges perceived, that, although they bore an unusual aspect of terror and regret, their countenances as they approached nearer the burning throne of the judgment hall, bore amid endless variety, an expression of all the varied passions of humanity.

As one mighty multitude swept across the river and gathered in silent and gloomy circles beneath the throne, occupied by the presiding figure, a sound, as of thunder, which had ceaselessly muttered through the dark cavernous clouds of the upper firmament, suddenly broke above the city, terroring in peals of such concentrated wrath and vengeance, that for the time its deep foundations shook and the infernal heaven seemed threatening its overthrow and ruin. Then Gyges saw the shadows, one by one, called to judgment; as each passed, the lightning eyes of the potent minister becoming fixed on their hearts,

The awful lights and darkness, the mysterious voices and music, which filled the air during his contemplation of the wondrously managed drama of existence and destiny, were indeed well calculated, by affecting the imagination, to prepare it for the culminating terrors and splendours of the final scenes of initiation; and, despite the profound insight which his magical power had given him into the motives and machinery of general life, it was not without a feeling of fear that he followed the hierophant to the chamber, from which he was to descend into the regions of subterranean darkness. Seated, as it seemed, in a winged chariot, he felt himself descending, for upwards of an hour, into the depths of the earth, in silence and profound gloom. Arrived at the bottom of the gulf, a long arcade, dimly illuminated, opened; and as he advanced he was joined by the hiero-read in a swift and single glance phant, who, leading him through a gloomy cavern, to what seemed the summit of a precipice, shrouded in gloom, waved his wand and announced the vision of the Land of the Dead. Advancing with cautious footsteps through the impenetrable gloom of this narrow subterranean path, the hierophant, who held his hand, caused him to pause at a certain point, a few feet in advance of which the mountain's side precipitously descended. Looking beneath, Gyges perceived an immense plain, which stretched away to a dark horizon, crossed by a level streak, dimly gleaming, like a distant sea. Across this vast region long trains of shadows were seen passing from a ravine between two remote, stupendous mountains, like drifts of dark clouds, towards a mighty city, whose huge black towers, palaces of judgment, and halls of atonement, piled in colossal majesty, dominated the region, while fires, fierce and cruel, glared from the inner chambers and pinnacles, which ascended until they were lost in, and mingled with, the firmamental dome of impenetrable shadow. From the gigantic portal of one great structure in the centre of

the history of their lives on earth, and adjudicated their destiny. On either side of the throne the hosts of the blessed and the doomed were seen to form, and as the judge signalled his attending powers each were hurried away, the one heralded by a music whose happy strains seemed to pass in vibrations of joy, towards a bright region beyond the shining sea;--the other by soul-terrifying thunders, which, raging over and following the dark hosts of despair, seemed to roll to some remote realm in the depths of the subterranean infinite, where, beyond the fiery cataracts of Phlegethon, darkened the land of eternal punishment, of everlasting sorrow, and despair.

Suddenly, a thick cloud possessing the region terminated the vision. Presently a light, as that of day, broke upon a new world, and series of new scenes, and Gyges beheld, passing in succession before him, the history of the gods and the mighty heroes, their offspring. First, from the chaotic tumult of the yet commingled heaven and earth, a group of giant forms, rude as the rock, yet crowned with a celestial brightness, were seen to

arise, and preside over the prospect of mountains and seas, assuming distinctness, and of a clearing firmament, with its glittering stars; then a vision of a green and fruitful region, inhabited by a happy race, who dwelt in plains filled with flocks and yellow with corn, and in remote cities on the mountain summits, where Saturn reigned. Then the age of peace and plenty gave way to a scene of war and devastation; armies of giants were seen advancing under a flaming sun, from the wild fastnesses of the earth, and contending with heaven itself, until overwhelmed with the thunders of a warlike king. These, and many other scenes, from time to time, arose before the vision of the neophyte, and hours passed while he gazed attentively on the history of the world from the age of the gods until that of the war of Troy.

When, after the above series of visions had passed, the hierophant left Gyges alone, as customary, to permit the impression of the awful world of death to work upon the imagination, the latter rendering himself invisible began, having procured a torch, to examine the place in which he was. It was not without laughter he discovered, that he had been gazing through a series of magnifying glasses on a number of puppets moved by machinery in an underground chamber, and that the awful drama which had so affected his fancy and emotions was the result of a toy.

After visiting Eleusis, and consulting several of the most famous oracles, whose mysteries, like those of the holy town, vanished under his examination, Gyges passed several years in travelling from city to city, and through the various nations of the earth, Greek and barbarian. Immense, during this interval, was the experience which he gained of the nature of races and humanity in its manifold phases, from the palace of the monarch to the hut of the savage. Gifted with invisibility, all varieties of life, the inmost secrets of the heart became known to him, and he alternately drained the cup of pleasure and revelled in the exercise of almost unlimited power. Unharmed, he escaped every danger; recklessly he revelled in every delight; and while his nature, moulded by the exercise of supreme dominion over mortal souls

wherever he wandered, assumed a demoniacal cast, he already conceived himself to have attained to the being of a god.

After ranging the earth from the regions of civilization to those still enveloped in the cloud of fable-from the flaming skies of the tropic to the snows of Scythia-from the gardens of the Hesperides, in the shadow of Atlas, whose terrors and beauties sunk into commonplace, disenchanted by observation, to the fabled realm of phantoms in the ignorant, deserted realms of cloud and snow-now hurrying through the seas, and along the western shores, amid races scarcely less savage than the wild animals with whom they lived in common--through the lairs of monstrous forms in the remote fastnesses of creation giants of the ocean, the earth, the air -and now revelling among the most luxuriant of the world, in the cedared halls of Nineveh and Babylon-Gyges eventually returned to Lydia. Then, as laden with riches, and attended by a numerous train of slaves, he entered the gates of Sardis, sated with pleasure and experience, one desire only remained in his haughty and arrogant soul-that of reigning.

Received with the highest honours and the supremest pomp by King Candules, who, rejoicing at his return, and conceiving that he could utilize in the furtherance of his policy the mysterious gift possessed by his guest, Gyges, already began to entertain the most ambitious dreams of empire. He took up his residence in a palace allotted him, and by lavishing largess and gifts amid the nobles of the court and the people, well-nigh outshone the monarch in magnificence.

Among other gifts bestowed by Gyges on the king was a beautiful slave, named Paipha, whom he had purchased for a vast sum in one of the Ionian cities, where, on her arrival from those northern mountains lying between the great inland seas, where her race-said to be the handsomest among the people of the earth-had their habitation, she had been educated by the cunningest masters and mistresses in music, dancing, and such like arts, as ministered to the luxury of Asiatic palaces. Suddenly, enchanted with the charms and graces of this lovely odalisque, Candules appeared to forget his projects

of power; he passed days and nights in revel, and, for the time, the festal garland, the cithara, and wine-cup, rather than the sceptre, became the symbol of his majesty. From this dream, however, he might have shortly reawakened, but for the jealousy with which his Queen, Nysseawho was a daughter of the oldest and most potent line of Persian kings-regarded the changed demeanour of the monarch, the loss of his heart which she had won by her beauty, while she added possessions to his throne, and the degrading indolence in which Candules, once renowned as a warriornow turned out an effeminate sybarite, -was plunged. Presently, however, as time rolled on, and increased the King's indifference to his consort, who never entered his presence-indeed seldom beheld him, except when accompanied by Paipha, he descended to the gilded barge, for moonlit revel on the bosom of the bright river-the jealousy with which Queen Nyssea had been smitten became inflamed into revengful rage, and this passion soon led to events whose thread was woven in the darkest and most tragic loom of destiny.

Simultaneously with the success of the plans which Gyges had thus laid for the attainment of sovereignty, his intimacy with the Queen (who at first regarded him with fear and antipathy, as the chief cause of the alteration of conduct manifested towards her by Candules) increased; nor during the now frequent interviews which occurred between them in a palace plunged in riot, did he lose the opportunity of working on the darker passions of her being, and seeking, by attracting her confidence, to establish himself in her heart, thus unworthily abandoned by the King. Nyssea, however, whose tact equalled her beauty, possessed a character, strong, ambitious, revengeful. The furies of outraged affection and dignity, reigning sleeplessly in her soul, sternly guarded its doors against the admission of a second passion, except under such conditions as would render its inspirer the instrument of her designs. A number of feelings, some fixed, some fluctuating, agitated her breast -hatred of Paipha, hatred and contempt of the king, antipathy of Gyges, alternating with a softer emotion; but the latter, despite his attractive

person and even supernatural gifts, found that neither could he touch the heart of the Queen or accomplish his ambitious purposes without acquiescence in the demands of her imperious will, whose direction he was at little loss to discover.

THE PALACE TERRACE.

IT is evening a magnificent sunset flaming along the west, and tingeing with fire the palace of Sardis, glows goldenly on the fountains and arbours scattered along its lofty-terraced gardens, from which, for many a league, the rich surrounding country can be seen, with its plains, mountains, rivers, and woods, mingling in a superb panorama. The only figures which appear in this luxurious resort are Gyges and the Queen; and as they pace to-and-fro, wrapped in converse, the light flames on her angry forehead and on the strong, dark, mysterious eyes and daring face of her companion. Presently a train of horsemen are seen approaching the palace gate, surrounding a chariot in which a female figure reclines, under a silken canopy. The queen averts her face, on which centres an expression of mingled rage and disdain.

As suddenly they pause beneath the colossal statue of a giant king, which throws its shadow along the terrace, a dark cloud crossing the sun swiftly broods over the sky,-a peal of thunder, startles the echoes of the mountains, a gloom falls on the gardens and palace.

Gyges.-The King returns from hunting. How passes he the night?

Nyssea.-As usual, in sottish revel with this wretched slave. Ah, Gyges, hadst thou ambition, thou mightest be king.

Gyges. And share thy throne?
Nyssea.---Ay.

[A pause.]

Gyges.-Thou knowest the passage leading from my palace to the private chambers of the king; of late the entrance door from that side I have ever found locked. You understand?

Nyssea. At midnight, when he is asleep, I will open the southern portal; then, invisibly, thou canst enter, and the morning finds thee on the Lydian throne.

Gyges.-So; let's pass the interval

with feast and music; beautiful Queen, thy word wields my will. [Thunder. They enter the palace.]

THE KING'S CHAMBER.

IT is midnight, and the clear full moon looks from the blue Asian sky upon the palace of King Candules, all whose inmates are at rest-all whose splendid halls are wrapped in breathless silence. The King, wearied with the hunt, in which he had passed the day, and lulled by the wine of the banquet, which had crowned the night, and who has been for some hours buried in repose, reclines on his couch, in a chamber through whose open marble casement the warm moonlight streams, illuming his dark bearded countenance and bare breast, from which, in a movement of slumber, the purple coverlid has been thrown back. His pillow is sprinkled with opiate blossoms, several of which lie strewn on the rich tesselated floor, which is scattered with flowers, and silken robes, and golden ornaments, wine yases, and weapons. On one side of the still bright window lies a great heap of roses, whose perfume mingles with that of the odoriferous trees embowering the garden terraces beneath, as the gentle air breathes into the still room, bearing the almost inaudible sound of a fountain, whose drizzly sprays seem languishing to rest, as though they, too, were influenced by the pervading presence of the midnight spirit of repose. So perfect is the bright calm in the royal chamber, that even the flutter of a rose-leaf can be heard; and the only object therein which gives evidence of movement and life is a beautiful tame snake, which, stretched in an indolent emerald coil along the snowy marble, gorged with feasting on a heap of fruit, now and then sidles its crested head playfully among the perfumed clusters of nectarines, grapes, and melons.

The midnight star has just dipped beneath the silvered roof of the western woods, and a single breath of awaking wind has for an instant undulated the silken tapestries, when a female figure, with dark hair floating over her disarrayed robe, and wild and earnest watchful eyes, steals stealthily with bare feet along a passage, and reaching the open portal, pauses a moment; then glancing, as

she holds her breath, at the royal sleeper, crosses towards a door at the opposite side of the chamber, and withdrawing a key from her bosom, and inserting it into the wards with fearful caution, opens it noiselessly. A little, and with another glance at the couch, she crosses the chamber, silent as a cloud, and hastily vanishes. It is the Queen.

There is a pause of some minutes; and, lo! at the same door through which the royal lady entered, beautiful Paipha appearing, silently advances, with upraised arms wound languidly over her head, and halfclosed eyes, as though just awakened from slumber. Approaching the couch, she bends for a space over the king, in an attitude partly expressive of awe and of voluptuous indolence, the clear beams lighting in an amorous hallow the graces of her whiterobed form, whose flood of ebon tresses, half veiling the nude bosom, descend almost to the small, bare, blueveined feet. Presently, scarce breathing, lest she should disturb the sleeper, she advances to the open casement, and throwing herself on the heap of roses, gazes dreamily, now at the tranquil moonlight scene without the languid-leaved trees, which, bending, seem to embrace like lovers-the long, bright river breaking into diamond dances, as it curves round some promontory of woodland or verdure, and floating in its radiant sleep towards the mountains and the dawn;and now turning, gazes with careless curiosity on the splendid-hued viper, which, rolling aside the fruit, and nearing her with stealthy stillness, erects its bright-eyed head, eager to be petted, and rests its shining scales in her hand.

Thus occupied, but a short space had elapsed when Paipha is suddenly aroused by a low noise, like that of footsteps entering the door beside her, and a sound of some one breathing deeply, passing her. Startled, she listens acutely-glancing round the chamber, and unable to perceive any figure, or to recognise any cause for the mysterious sounds she had just heard, has already satisfied herself that it was but a fancy or the wind-when, turning her eyes in the direction of the King's couch, her amazement is re-awakened at beholding a light, which, glimmering keenly as a prism

of steel in the moonbeam, seems hovering round the royal sleeper. Scarcely a moment has elapsed, when, still gazing towards it with wonder and fearful earnestness, she sees it raised for a second-then swiftly descending; then, just as excited by superstitious fear, she is about to utter a cry, she hears a smothered groan swooning dolorously from the couch, and rushing in terror towards the King, beholds-oh, horror! that stab bed to the heart, and weltering in his blood, he is dying.

Suddenly, her shrieks ringing through the palace, arouse its sleeping inmates, and presently a throng of men and women hurry into the chamber, followed by the Queen, who, first throwing herself on the body of the expiring monarch, and uttering exclamations of well-simulated distraction and sorrow, suddenly points to Paipha, whom several have already seized, denouncing her as the assassin. Pale, and shuddering with terror, the concubine, in broken sobs, narrates the mysterious and terrible appearance which she had witnessed; but incredulity is stamped upon every face; and, overwhelmed with a sense that she is regarded as the murderer of her royal paramour, losing consciousness, she sinks into the arms of her furious guards. "Wretch," cries the Queen, seizing her by the hair, "what torture can be adequate to thy crime?" then, flinging her from her, with furious gesture "Away!" she cries, "hurry her to prison- would she could die a thousand deaths away!"

BATTLE.

HAVING thus gained possession of the throne, Gyges inaugurated his reign by giving the inhabitants of Sardis and the other Lydian cities a series of banquets, unparalleled in magnificence; and while the people, dazzled by the treasures he scattered among them with lavish hand, occupied with never-ending games and amusements, and intoxicated with ceaseless revel, appeared to lose for the time the feeling of superstitious awe and terror with which they had long regarded him-for the rumour of the mysterious power he possessed had flown to the furthest limits of the land-a terror gloomily augmented by the strange death of Candules, and the sudden ascent of Gyges to the throne-de

claring war against the King of Babylon, he assembled his armies, and surrounded by his cavalry, headed by his satraps, marched in martial array eastward towards the great Mesopotamian plain.

After a triumphal progress through the neighbouring states, his army were already approaching the frontier of Armenia, then a dependency of the great Babylonian empire, when its king advanced to give the usurper battle. It was a bright, but tempestuous morning when the combat took place - on a level plain, beneath a range of steep mountains, and skirted by the sunny stormy sea. Long hours the combat raged, during which the earth trembled beneath the furious shocks of phalanxed horsemen, contending with sword and spear-of solid squares of footmen, struggling hand to hand-while from the heights the bowmen on either side darkened the air with clouds of arrows. Overhead throughout the day the thunder pealed along the mountain crests, and the convulsed sea, heaving its mighty billows, roared in sympathetic unison with the war. Yet louder than the thunder or ocean rose the noise of battle, the shock of armour, the ringing of weapons, the hissing of missiles, the cries of the captains, and clamour of the hosts encountering. Gyges at early dawn had been seen accoutring in his tent, where his armourers had been bidden to close the rivets of a mighty suit of Chalybean steel which he had carried with him from a foreign land; but after the fight commenced he had disappeared, and was believed to be watching the combat from an eminence. About the time his warriors had lost sight of him; however, an unaccountable panic took place in the region of the plain where the war raged most furiously, where the Armenian monarch, encompassed by his bravest, and mounted on a moving throne, surveyed the war. From time to time one of his captains fell, pierced with a deadly wound, cries of treachery ever and anon rose from the lines of his body-guard, amid which a thrill of mysterious awe passed at finding the hand of an invisible death among them, when suddenly they heard the king, who sat alone and supreme in his royal chair, utter a piercing shriek, and saw him next

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »