ALLEGORIES 
 
By the same Author. 
 
 THE BIBLE : its Meaning and Supremacy. 
 8vo. 15s. 
 
 DAEKNESS AND DAWN ; or, Scenes in the 
 Days of Nero. An Historic Tale. Crown 
 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 GATHERING CLOUDS : a Tale of the Days 
 of St. Chrysostom. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., 39 Paternoster Eow, London 
 New York and Bombay. 
 
ALLEGOBIE S 
 
 BY 
 
 FEEDEEIC W. FAEEAE 
 
 DEAN OF CANTERBURY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'ERIC' ' ST WINIFRED' 'DARKNESS AND DAWN 
 ETC. 
 
 WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 AMELIA BAUERLE 
 
 LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATEKNOSTER KOW, LONDON 
 NEW YOEK AND BOMBAY 
 
 1898 
 
/It 
 
 FILIOEUM ET PILIARUM 
 
 TREDECIM FILIOLIS 
 
 D. D. 
 AVUS AMANTISSIMUS 
 
 313 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE LIFE STOEY OF ANEE . 1 
 
 THE CHOICE . 113 
 
 THE FOETUNES OF A EOYAL HOUSE . 170 
 
 THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED , 235 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ST. TRYPHONIUS AND THE BASILISK (after Carpaccio) . Frontispiece 
 
 THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 KING ELYON AND PAEDARION ...... to face 4 
 
 ALL LIFE WAS AS A SUNLIT HOLIDAY 11 
 
 HE LAID HIS HAND ON ANEK'S SHOULDEK 31 
 
 ANER AND PHAEDRA . . 59 
 
 AKEDIA GLIDED FORTH 79 
 
 ANER RESCUES PHAEDROS . 103 
 
 TWO BRIGHT FORMS MET HIM 109 
 
 THE CHOICE 
 
 THE WISHING WELL . . . 
 
 THE FINGER OF THE SPIRIT TOUCHED HIS BREAST 
 
 FESTUS FELL UPON HIS KNEES 
 
 TRAVERSING THE DARK SEA . 
 
 115 
 131 
 163 
 167 
 
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DORESS AND INNOCENS 179 
 
 INNOCENS SAT DOWN BY HIM AND TOOK HIS CHAINED HAND . . 215 
 THEY FOUND HIM STILL UPON HIS KNEES 231 
 
 THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 
 
 ALCIPHRON AND FLOBIAN . ^ . . 247 
 
 HE BECAME AWARE THAT THE BASILISK WAS CLOSE BY HIM . .271 
 
 HE PLUCKED THE WATER-LlLY 303 
 
 ' IN ELYON'S NAME I BID THEE AVAUNT ! ' 32y 
 
 ARDENS WEPT BESIDE THE CORPSE OF HIS ONLY BROTHER . . . 355 
 
ALLEGORIES 
 
 IRE LIFE STORY OF ANER 
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
 
 The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 
 Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
 
 And conaeth from afar. 
 Not in entire forgetfulness, 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
 From God, who is our home. WORDSWORTH. 
 
 Out of the deep, my child, out of the deep, 
 From that great deep before our world begins, 
 Whereon the Spirit of God moves as He will 
 Out of the deep, my child, out of the deep, 
 Down yon dark sea thou comest, darling boy. 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 THE KING ELYON was the greatest of all kings. Other 
 lords and sovereigns claimed the sway over wide 
 domains ; but in these realms they were in reality 
 his vassals, even when they most daringly pretended 
 to avow their independence, and strove in open rebellion 
 to thwart his high designs. 
 
 B 
 
2 ALLEGORIES 
 
 There were many points in the government of this 
 mighty King which his subjects could not understand. 
 It was impossible for them to comprehend the necessity 
 for royal dealings which had to bear on the interests 
 of regions more wide by far than those of the little 
 corners of his kingdom in which they dwelt. Just as 
 it is not every village peasant who can tell why the 
 treaties are concluded, or the laws passed, which may 
 seem for the moment to injure his little prosperity, so 
 there were millions of King Elyon's subjects who were 
 sorely perplexed by plans which he in his wisdom knew 
 to be for the best. Yet the vast majority of his subjects 
 could not but admit, when closely questioned, that he 
 was wise and merciful and good, and that, even when 
 his dealings with them seemed to be severe, he pitied 
 them as a father pities the sufferings of his children. 
 
 Now King Elyon had many sons, and among them 
 was one who was specially dear to him. His name 
 was Aner, though during the earliest years of his life he 
 was not called Aner, but Paedarion. Few could even 
 guess why this particular son who was not only the 
 youngest of the family, but also among the least richly 
 endowed should be so specially the object of care and 
 love to this great King. Others of his children were 
 far more beautiful and strong, and looked quite radiant 
 by the side of Aner. Indeed, there were some bad 
 sons of King Elyon, who had long revolted from 
 their father, who, from the first, not only despised 
 Aner as a contemptible weakling which, indeed, in 
 himself, and apart from Elyon's love, he was but even 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 3 
 
 regarded him, though he had done them no harm, with 
 burning hatred. Almost from his birth they plotted 
 against him, and, under disguise of flattery and false 
 friendship, endeavoured to ruin or degrade him. The 
 name of the worst of these bad revolted sons of the 
 great King was Ashmod, and legions of evil spirits 
 owned his sway. 
 
 But the very frailty of Paedarion, combined with 
 some nameless charm which clung about him, inspired a 
 tender and sacred interest for him among all the noblest 
 and most glorious princes of Elyon's family. They took 
 this youngest and feeblest of their brethren under their 
 best care ; they delighted in helping him ; they were 
 so full of joy, when he was good and happy, that they 
 made their father's glorious palace ring to its inmost 
 depths with enraptured jubilance ; and when he 
 showed himself unworthy, and his lot seemed to 
 tremble in the balance, and it became even doubtful 
 whether he might not range himself on the side of the 
 rebel Ashmod, they took off the garlands of rose and 
 amaranth which were twined about their sunny locks, 
 and their eyes were dim with ' such tears as angels 
 weep.' 
 
 For high reasons of his own King Elyon did not 
 allow Paedarion to be nurtured in the Imperial palace 
 where he himself dwelt, vast as were its dimensions 
 and inexhaustible as was its wealth. Though his heart 
 yearned over the boy, yet for his own high purposes 
 he deemed it best to remove him from his im- 
 mediate presence, and to leave him to fight the battle 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ALLEGORIES 
 
 of life away from his proper home, amid circumstances 
 which might have seemed far less delightful and far 
 more full of peril and difficulty than those which were 
 enjoyed by the elder and more richly gifted princes of 
 that royal house. 
 
 To these high-born brethren who never questioned 
 Elyon's love or wisdom, yet would fain have learnt 
 something of his purpose the great King only said, 
 ' My sons, if you could see all things as well as I do, 
 you would know the reason why I send my little 
 Paedarion away. All that I can now tell you is that 
 I mean it for his highest happiness. You know that 
 I have never enforced the obedience of any of you. 
 Your faithfulness would be nothing to me if it did not 
 spring from your own free will. It must be so with 
 this my youngest born. He too, if he so wills it, must 
 be free to follow in the desperate steps of Ashmod. 
 I desire to train him for the cares and duties of his 
 future heritage. I must send him away, but we shall 
 have frequent tidings of him ; you will be able to visit 
 and to watch him without his knowledge, and I shall 
 constantly have him under my own eye, even when he 
 is least aware of it. I wish to train him so that he 
 too may in due time take his place among you and be 
 welcomed by you as a worthy member of this our 
 kingdom.' 
 
 So King Elyon sent for Paedarion, who, though 
 but a child, was very dear in his father's eyes, and 
 exercised a strange power of fascination from his very 
 weakness. The boy came, and smiled into his father's 
 
KING ELTON AND PAEDARION 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANEE 5 
 
 countenance, and the King clasped him to his heart 
 and said : 
 
 ' My child, I must send you far away from me and 
 from this your true home. There is across the 
 sea a lovely little island in my dominions, known 
 as the Purple Island. Its inhabitants are called the 
 Porphyrians. It is among them that you must be 
 educated. My care will be over you, but your future 
 must depend on yourself. I have had some rebellious 
 sons, and Ashmod, the worst of them, is always trying 
 to wean from me the affection of my other children. 
 He has access to the Purple Island. But except by 
 your own fault he cannot do you the smallest harm, 
 and if you keep aloof from him, and from his emissaries, 
 you have nothing to fear. Will you be always true 
 to me, my little son ? ' l 
 
 ' As if I could ever be untrue to so good a father ! ' 
 said the child, looking up with his innocent eyes. 
 
 ' Ah, my boy,' said Ely on ; ' you are only putting 
 on your armour now, and you will have to fight many 
 a perilous battle before you can put it off.' 
 
 * But you will bring me back here, father ? ' 
 
 ' If you keep the rules which I shall give you, 
 Paedarion,' said the King, ' you shall come back and 
 shall be as royal and as happy as these your bright-faced 
 brethren. But if you disobey me ' 
 
 The King paused and heaved a deep sigh. 
 
 1 The Jews thought that every human soul before its birth into the 
 world was taken to Sinai to hear the Commandments and learn the 
 difference between right and wrong. 
 
6 ALLEGORIES 
 
 * What then, my father ? but I can never disobey 
 you. I love you too dearly.' 
 
 'Whatever happens,' said Elyon, ' you will still be 
 the son of my love. Even if you go astray, IMEAH, 
 the supremest of my sons, he my other self will do 
 his utmost to bring you back to me and save you. 
 But the Purple Island is far away, my child; and 
 there you may forget me.' 
 
 At these words the child wept bitterly, but the 
 King kissed away his tears and said : 
 
 'Now listen to me, my child, before I bid you 
 farewell. Your future happiness can only be secured 
 by following my instructions.' 
 
 ' Perhaps I might by accident forget them, father.' 
 
 'Nay,' said the King, 'I have had them carefully 
 written out for you in a book, which you must always 
 carry with you, and must often read. Further, I put 
 upon your finger a ring in which is set a deep blue 
 sapphire. It is a magic ring. If you disobey my 
 commands this sapphire will grow paler and paler ; if 
 you persist in disobeying them it will gradually lose 
 all its colour. 
 
 'But further than this, my child, there are two 
 boys, twins, who tfiough as yet they have had no great 
 concern in your life must henceforth be your constant 
 companions. Their name is Yetser ; the elder is called 
 Hatob, the younger Hara. Lay to heart what I now 
 shall say to you.' l 
 
 1 These boys appear to have Hebrew names. In Hebrew, Yetser 
 means ' Impulse ; ' Hatob, ' the good ; ' Hara, ' the evil.' 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 7 
 
 ' Father, I will.' 
 
 ' On your relation to these two boys your future 
 happiness must depend. They are very different from 
 each other. The eldest, Hatob, is everything that I 
 could desire. Make him your bosom friend, your 
 guide, your leader, your example. Put your hand in 
 his wherever you go. He will never mislead you, 
 never abuse your confidence. You must regard him 
 as your teacher. He has a voice which, though it 
 sometimes seems to sink to a whisper, will always 
 make itself heard if you listen to it. He will always 
 be near you unless you drive him away. Listen for 
 the voice of Hatob, and, if he warns you that you are 
 going wrong, regard his words as though they were 
 mine. 
 
 ' His twin brother Hara is as different from Hatob 
 as possible. If you listen to him, he will lead you 
 into misery and shame such as you can hardly con- 
 ceive.' 
 
 ' Oh, father ! then why do you send this bad boy 
 with me ? ' asked Paedarion with emotion. 
 
 ' That is more than you can as yet understand, my 
 son,' said the King ; ' but this I can tell you : Hara is 
 not so wholly pernicious, if you and Hatob together 
 keep him in complete control, and instantly drive him 
 with anger from your presence whenever he suggests 
 to you anything which you know to be against my 
 wishes. Thus treated, Hara can do you no harm, but 
 may even help forward the purposes of your education 
 during your few years in the Purple Island.' 
 
8 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' But if I fail, and if Hara gets too strong for me ? ' 
 
 ' My child, in order that I may do all for my children 
 that can be done, I sent my own IMEAH, the son of 
 my glory, to live and die for them in that far-off Purple 
 Island. You have but to follow his example, to walk 
 in his steps, and all will be well.' 
 
 'And am I to be sent quite away from you, my 
 father ? ' 
 
 ' It depends, my child, upon yourself.' 
 
 1 But shall I never see you when I am at the 
 Purple Island ? ' 
 
 ' You will not see me with your bodily eyes, but 
 my spirit will be with you unless you drive him away.' 
 
 * Then you will not leave me alone? ' 
 
 'No,' said the great King. 'But now, child of 
 my love, farewell. The day will come when I shall 
 summon you home from the Purple Island, and if you 
 have been my faithful son you will then be with me 
 for evermore. I am sending you now to the vessel 
 which will bear you hence across the sea. You will 
 sleep a very deep sleep to-night. To-morrow you 
 will awake in your new home.' 
 
 Elyon once more folded his son to his breast and 
 kissed him with a kiss which seemed to bathe his 
 whole being in infinite bliss. He appeared to himself 
 to be sinking through unfathomable waves of slumber 
 and remembered nothing more. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 
 
 II 
 
 How easy to keep free from sin : 
 
 How hard that freedom to recall ! 
 For dreadful truth it is that men 
 
 Forget the heaven from which they fall. 
 
 C. PATMOKE. 
 
 WHEN Paedarion woke from his slumber, rising as 
 though from the depths of an ocean of darkness and 
 oblivion, he found himself in the midst of conditions 
 utterly different from those of his father's palace. His 
 reminiscences of his early past had grown most dim 
 and dreamlike. He remembered that he was a son of 
 King Ely on ; he remembered that certain duties were 
 incumbent on him ; he possessed the book which had 
 been given him ; on his finger gleamed the deep azure 
 of the sapphire ring. He was conscious, and was 
 often reminded by grave and elderly persons who were 
 the careful protectors of his earlier years in the Purple 
 Island, that there were around him many fatal tempta- 
 tions which he must avoid, and many obligations 
 which at all costs he must fulfil ; and that issues 
 vaster and more far-reaching than he could imagine 
 depended on his resistance to the one and his devotion 
 to the other. 
 
 As for the Purple Island he was at first enchanted 
 with it. He loved the green and purple seas which 
 surrounded it with their bright ebb and flow, their 
 murmur and their foam. He was never tired of sitting 
 
10 ALLEGORIES 
 
 or playing beside those musical and iridescent waves. 
 The softly verdant meadows sprinkled with their 
 golden flowers, the great trees with their waving 
 boughs, the sun in the blue heavens with its glories of 
 crimson sunset and rosy dawn, the strong mountains, 
 the sweet and balmy air, the yellow wealth of harvests, 
 the crystal of the running streams, the stars shedding 
 their spiritual lustre through the purple twilight, the 
 innocent mirth and laughter of young voices the 
 glory, and the wonder, and the power, and dread 
 magnificence of nature delighted him. All was joyous, 
 and ' the very breeze had mirth in it.' He saw nothing 
 there, as yet, of hatred or crime, or sorrow or vileness. 
 All seemed to love him ; all were kind to him ; all life 
 was as a sunlit holiday in the blossoming springtide of 
 happy days. 
 
 But while he looked with interest on the many 
 of his own race who surrounded him, he was most 
 specially interested in the two boys Yetser Hara and 
 Yetser Hatob. They were of his own age and were 
 always with him. He was quite unable to recall 
 exactly what King Elyon had said to him about them, 
 yet the essential meaning of the King's words seemed 
 to dawn upon his soul by instinct. They were also 
 brought back to his memory by the elders who guided 
 his first years in the island, as well as by Hatob, who 
 at every favourable opportunity lovingly tried to en- 
 grave them on his inmost soul. 
 
 No two boys could be more unlike each other than 
 these two Yetsers, as you will see when I describe them. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 
 
 11 
 
 Hatob was a dark-haired lad of unusual seriousness 
 and calm sweetness of aspect. His eyes, which seemed 
 to shine through those at whom he gazed, were of 
 heaven's deepest azure ; but those who knew him well 
 soon learnt that they could sometimes flash with terrible 
 indignation. The look of sovereign innocence upon 
 
 ALL LIFE WAS AS A SUNLIT HOLIDAY 
 
 his features would have seemed infinitely attractive 
 had not his face at times assumed an aspect of stern- 
 ness which seemed to burn into the hearts of those 
 who defied him. But he had a heavenly smile for 
 those on whom he looked with love and approval, and 
 this smile was fairer and more angelical than anything 
 
12 ALLEGORIES 
 
 which can be conceived. And though his voice, when 
 he was obliged to raise it in just anger, had in it a 
 tone as of Sinai's thunder, yet it was ordinarily most 
 penetrating and musical. Indeed it had one very 
 peculiar quality. It often seemed to thrill into the 
 ear and the heart, even when he was far away. Many 
 of the Porphyrians were startled by it as if he had 
 spoken loud and clear ; and when they looked round 
 he was not there. 
 
 As unlike him as possible was his twin brother, 
 Yetser Hara. There were some who represented him 
 as being in himself, and of his own unchangeable 
 nature, wholly, absolutely, and irredeemably bad ; but 
 they were mistaken. There were indeed within him 
 many of the elements of the fiend Ashmod. To those 
 who watched the collapse and catastrophe which he 
 constantly caused to all who gave themselves up to his 
 allurements, he might well seem to be a compound of 
 unmitigated cruelty and wickedness. It was not so. 
 He was the most ruinous of masters over those who 
 yielded to his dominance, the most fatal of guides when 
 he was left undisturbed. Yet when any Porphyrian 
 with the aid of Hatob kept Hara in such subjection 
 that he did not dare to transgress their bidding, Hara 
 was then capable of living in harmony with them both, 
 and, as a slave who dared not transgress, he even con- 
 tributed to the completeness of the life which kept him 
 bound in reverence and order. 
 
 The difficulty was that this control was rarely 
 absolute. People were apt to make concessions to him, 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANEE 13 
 
 especially when they were young, which made him 
 almost impossible to manage. If you gave him but an 
 inch he would always take an ell. It was not difficult 
 to keep him resolutely in his proper place from the 
 first, but it was a very serious task to dislodge him 
 from any post which he had once been permitted, even 
 for a moment, to usurp. To those who allowed him 
 the smallest semblance of familiarity and independent 
 influence he became in a very short time the most 
 presumptuous of comrades, and finally the most pitiless 
 of tyrants. 
 
 The reason why he so often got his way was that, 
 for his own purposes, he could make himself the most 
 winning, caressing, and fascinating of companions. 
 Nothing could exceed the soft insinuation of his 
 flatteries, or the honeyed seductiveness of his induce- 
 ments. And then he well knew how to assume an air 
 of manly boldness, of attractive liberty, which enhanced 
 his evil but dazzling beauty. For, ugly as was his 
 natural countenance, he could so wreathe it in smiles, 
 could fill it so full of magic brightness, that only those 
 who were earnestly on their guard could find it in their 
 hearts to resist his Belial blandishments. And then he 
 had a voice which in place of its naturally harsh and 
 offensive sound which was something between a bark 
 and a hiss could melt into notes so bewitching that, 
 unless his hearers resolutely closed their ears, they 
 found themselves excited into sweet madness, and 
 lapped in a sensuous Elysium. 
 
 Many found to their cost that the thrilling songs of 
 
14 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Hara were like those of the sirens which lured the 
 victims who listened to them to shipwreck and death 
 on the bare rocks of bone-strewn isles. When Hara 
 raised his voice to charm the soul of Paedarion, and 
 the boy began, almost against his will, to listen to those 
 songs, the only way to rescue him was for Hatob to sing 
 also. Some said that the voice of Hatob was disagree- 
 able in comparison, and undeniably the tone of it was of a 
 sterner and more Doric manliness than Hara's Lydian 
 and dulcet tones ; but then the words of Hatob's songs 
 were so divinely elevating that they seemed to clothe 
 themselves in angelic melodies, and so they became 
 
 Not harsh and rugged as dull fools suppose, 
 But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit reigns. 
 
 Now it cannot be said that Paedarion, the son of 
 King Elyon, was not attracted by Hara. He was very 
 much attracted indeed, and all the more so because 
 Hara laid himself out to win him, to indulge, to gratify, 
 to appeal to all his lowest instincts, to fool him 
 to the top of his bent. Paedarion did not at all like 
 the quiet authority which Hatob assumed over him, 
 kind as it always was. Often when Hatob laid 
 upon him some disagreeable injunction, or with an 
 accent of reproof forbade him some indulgence to which 
 he was strongly inclined when he called him from his 
 glad games to his hard studies, rebuked his indolent 
 selfishness, or warned him against the dubious com- 
 panions with whom Hara tried to surround him the 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 15 
 
 boy's secret inclination to rebel was always fostered 
 by Hara. Hara gave him many a sly look and secret 
 nudge, and smiled bewitchingly in his face as though 
 to indicate how far happier he would be if he would 
 only shake off the influence of Hatob and join Hara in 
 plunging into every kind of gaiety and pleasure. 
 
 It was, however, chiefly when Hatob was absent, 
 or was asleep, or was not well, that Hara put forth 
 the whole force of his seductions, appealing to all 
 Paedarion's worst self. And the boy soon discovered 
 that' while Hatob might counsel and reprove, he never 
 could and never would coerce. When Hatob found 
 him to be hopelessly wilful and obstinate, he would 
 say to him : ' Paedarion, I cannot use force to you. I 
 am the representative of your father, the King. You 
 know full well that I never say anything which does 
 not agree with the rules which he lays down and the 
 book he gave you. You are living here, as IMEAH, the 
 glory and image of ELYON himself, once lived here, and 
 if you will look to him, and think of him, and walk as 
 he walked, his help will be with you, and his spirit 
 will strengthen you. But you must serve him, and 
 listen to me, of your own free will, not as a machine, 
 and you must yield the allegiance of a son, not the 
 mechanical service of a slave. Tell me, have you 
 never observed that the sapphire ring which your father 
 gave you is by no means of so bright a blue as it ought 
 to be?' 
 
 1 You are always grumbling at me and abusing me, 
 Hatob,' said Paedarion peevishly. ' There is nothing 
 
16 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the matter with the ring. Perhaps it has got a little 
 dust in it, and it is not so bright as it was ; but look ! it 
 is still blue. I have done nothing so very bad. After 
 all, King Elyon gave Hara to be with me as well as 
 you. He is a most charming friend and companion 
 I cannot help liking him. He is all smiles : you are 
 all frowns. Soon you will drive me quite away from 
 you.' 
 
 ' Paedarion,' said Hatob, ' I must do the King's 
 work. It is my duty. If you try to love me, you will 
 find that I am worthy of your love. Let not my 
 dangerous brother persuade you to imagine that I am 
 not your best friend, or that I ever say anything which 
 is not for your highest good.' 
 
 ' Hara is much more agreeable and attracti ve than 
 you,' said Paedarion rudely. 
 
 ' He may seem so,' answered Hatob; 'but Elyon 
 did not send you to the Purple Island only to please 
 yourself. You have been here long enough already to 
 judge whether selfish pleasure is as noble, or even as 
 happy, as true obedience.' 
 
 But Paedarion turned away and sought the com- 
 pany of Hara more and more. 
 
 At first, for a very short time, the alliance which 
 he formed with the bad twin seemed to him like a 
 delirious dream. It was so exhilarating to feel himself 
 free to follow his own devices and to walk in the light 
 of his own heart, to be unimpeded by wearisome 
 checks and tiring appeals, and to indulge his lightest 
 fancies and gratify every sense. He exulted, too, in 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 17 
 
 the society of the gay, dashing, emancipated com- 
 panions to whom Hara introduced him. ' Let us,' they 
 said, ' enjoy the good things that now are ; and let us 
 use the creation with all our soul as youth's possession. 
 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they be 
 withered, and let no flower of the spring pass us by : 
 let there be no meadow which our riot doth not traverse. 
 Let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place, 
 because this is our portion, and our lot is this.' 
 
 Yet every now and then in the enchanting cup, 
 though as yet he had only begun to sip it, the boy felt 
 a drop of nauseating bitterness ; and when Hatob 
 spoke to him of these new pleasures which once would 
 have been pains, and recalling to him his old pure 
 and noble ideals, spoke to him of his father, and of 
 his radiant brethren in the palace whence he came, 
 Paedarion would bow his head and put his hands to 
 his face to hide the burning blush which in spite of all 
 his efforts began to mantle it in the hue of shame. 
 
 ' Tell me,' said Hatob, gently laying his hand on 
 the boy's head, 'do you ever think now of Elyon, 
 your royal father, and how he loved you ? do you ever 
 read in the book he gave you? do you ever look to 
 Imrah for help ? has his spirit ceased to speak to you ? ' 
 
 The boy made no answer. 
 
 ' Do you not think that you would be growing up 
 nobler, and more happy, and more worthy of your birth, 
 if you shook off these debased companions with whom 
 Hara has surrounded you ? What becomes of these a 
 few years hence? Have you never read, have you 
 
 C 
 
18 ALLEGORIES 
 
 never witnessed the calamities which befall them? 
 Paedarion, the comedy is short, but the tragedy is long. 
 King Elyon has heard about you and is deeply grieved. 
 He bears with you ; but " when Mercy has played her 
 part in vain, then at last Vengeance leaps upon the 
 stage ; she strikes hard strokes, and Pity does not 
 interpose to break the blow." 
 
 Paedarion's head was bowed, but he remained still 
 silent. 
 
 1 Paedarion,' said Hatob, ' have you ceased to love 
 your father ? ' 
 
 * No/ said Paedarion submissively. 
 
 ' Well, then,, if you really love him, you will try to 
 keep his commandments.' 
 
 'But sometimes King Elyon seems to be so far 
 away from me.' 
 
 'It is the greatest of errors, Paedarion. He is 
 always near those of his children who seek him and 
 love him.' 
 
 Such interviews with Hatob were almost invariably 
 interrupted by Hara. He would enter with a cynical 
 smile upon his face, and when Hatob went out, which 
 he usually did at once, Hara would point towards him 
 with a gesture of his thumb over his shoulder, and 
 scornfully ask : 
 
 'Well, what has our friend Dull been saying to 
 you ? ' or ' Are you going to turn saint after this 
 sermon ? no, my dear Paedarion, you are too far 
 gone. Don't be a hypocrite as well. Come, let us 
 enjoy ourselves a little and get the taste of that lecture 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 19 
 
 out of your mouth.' And the friends and associates 
 with whom Hara had surrounded his victim would 
 look at each other with meaning smiles, followed by 
 yet more assiduous blandishments than before, because 
 they desired to make him wholly their own. 
 
 And if Hara ever had reason to think that the gay 
 carelessness of Paedarion had been more than usually 
 disturbed by the noble presence and serious words of 
 Hatob, he had only to raise his voice in those piercing 
 strains by which he so well knew how to fill his soul 
 with ravishment, and Paedarion would come back to 
 him as a bird flutters down into the snare at the 
 fowler's call. The cunning Hara. when left uncon- 
 trolled, always asserted a strong tyranny, and used his 
 mastery to produce a new rebel against King Elyon 
 and a new votary of the evil Ashmod. He knew well 
 that the oftener and the more readily Paedarion 
 listened to him, the more helplessly would he listen, 
 till passion became slavery, and wrong-doing long 
 after it had lost its sweetness would retain its 
 sway. Experience had taught him how speedily mis- 
 feasance passes into habit, and habit into character, 
 and character assuming the guise of unalterable destiny 
 becomes as a prison from which there seems to be no 
 escape. 
 
 And so indeed it was. Paedarion more and more 
 forgot all that was good, and often out of mere familiarity 
 continued to do what was evil, though it had lost its 
 initial attractiveness, and though he had felt its 
 allurements to be disappointing from the first. Yet 
 
 c 2 
 
20 ALLEGORIES 
 
 even then Hara often felt that in the youth's nature 
 there was something intrinsically noble; that, while 
 he held Hara by the hand, he still was siding with 
 Hatob in his heart ; and that, in all the perversity 
 of his wanderings, he remained perfectly conscious of 
 the right path. He felt, therefore, that to secure 
 Paedarion for the usurper Ashrnod, he would need to 
 put the whole enginery of his temptations into play. 
 
 Ill 
 
 So soon the boy a youth, the youth a man, 
 Eager to run the race his fathers ran. ROGERS. 
 
 BY this time Paedarion 's years of education in the 
 Purple Island had passed away, and he assumed the 
 name of Aner. Hara had won over him a too easy 
 victory, but did not feel himself secure in the youth's 
 allegiance. He flung yet more rapturous sweetness 
 into his wild songs, and the burden of them all was 
 that Aner should rejoice in his youth ; that he should 
 not waste upon serious duties the sweet season of bud 
 and bloom, but that fine young fellow as he was he 
 should eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for Spring would 
 soon pass, and the rest was nothing. A favourite song 
 of Hara's was 
 
 Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 
 
 Old Time is still a-flying ; 
 A.nd the same flower which blooms to-day 
 
 To-morrow will be dying. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 21 
 
 One day Hatob heard the passionate song with its 
 sweet entrancing lilt, in which Aner joined. * Yes,' he 
 said, ' Aner ; but Hara has omitted to tell you, as he 
 always does omit, that before his roses die their per- 
 fume stupefies, and that venomous insects are bred in 
 their soon-withered leaves.' 
 
 ' Stale morality ! ' sneered Hara, as Hatob passed 
 away. 
 
 It might be so ; yet he felt that Aner was not 
 uninfluenced by truths which were so true that he had 
 not yet the courage to declare them false. Hara had 
 been bitterly reproached by Ashmod for having as yet 
 failed to make Aner his open votary. He felt that he 
 must bestir himself. 
 
 There were two schemes on which he relied. He 
 would occupy the whole attention of Aner in things not 
 intrinsically harmful, but which might be developed 
 into harmfulness by excess. If he could get him 
 absorbed in these things, Aner would have the less 
 time to think of any others. He would become too 
 busy to secure his deliverance from the ways of the 
 destroyer. 
 
 And, secondly, he would leave no form of temptation 
 untried, until he discovered the weakest and most 
 susceptible side of Aner's character ; or, if he could not 
 entirely enslave him, as he hoped to do, by a single 
 vice, he would do his best to make him the bondslave 
 of many. 
 
 Now Aner was singularly gifted with bright endow- 
 ments. He won the highest admiration from the other 
 
22 ALLEGORIES 
 
 inhabitants of the Purple Island. He was very beauti- 
 ful of countenance, tall of stature, strong of limb, swift 
 of foot. His voice, while he was yet a boy, was as 
 the voice of an angel, and when he grew to manhood 
 was so rich and mellow that it delighted every society 
 in which he moved. His intellect was quick and 
 powerful; he easily grasped knowledge, and strongly 
 retained it. His wit was brilliant ; his eloquence 
 remarkable ; his gaiety contagious. His outward 
 career, therefore, was one of signal prosperity. He 
 was the ideal and the idol of the youths, his com- 
 panions ; they were emulous for his friendship ; they 
 intoxicated him with the incense of their often 
 unconscious flattery. As a boy he had won all the 
 laurels he possibly could win, and it had been a common 
 prophecy of him that when he grew up he might attain 
 to almost any position in the Purple Island. When 
 he became a youth he continued a career of unbroken 
 distinction. His early manhood was crowned with 
 successes. Year after year wealth flowed in upon him, 
 and ambition was stimulated by the multiplication of 
 honours. And as his wealth grew, even while he was 
 still a young man, by leaps and bounds, so did his 
 luxury and ostentation. More and more as his riches 
 increased he set his heart upon them ; less and less was 
 he honourably scrupulous in the means of their acquisi- 
 tion. He early grew accustomed to lavish his resources 
 upon personal gratifications, and he looked with in- 
 creasing callousness on the miseries for round the 
 Purple Island there was many a dim isle of misery 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 23 
 
 which he could easily have alleviated. It seemed only 
 too probable that he would degenerate into a vulgar 
 worshipper of money, and belie all the hopeful antici- 
 pations which had been formed of him.. 
 
 But Hatob did not leave him unwarned. One day 
 he came into the luxurious room, where Aner, now 
 immersed in business, was at work with his young 
 secretary. He had been dictating replies to various 
 pitiable appeals for help. He had given the same 
 answer to all of them except one. He was already so 
 rich that, without even the semblance or shadow of 
 any real self-denial, he could have aided every wise 
 agency for good, every deserving case of sorrow and 
 penury. He could, without an effort, have enabled 
 many a blessed institution to continue its work of mercy. 
 But his stereotyped answer to all suggestions for an 
 unselfish and beneficent use of his means had come to 
 be, ' I have so many claims that I cannot afford to 
 help you.' The sole exception which he had made was 
 in answer to the request of a very great man who asked 
 aid in some purely fantastic and useless design. This 
 was granted by Aner with profuse readiness. The great 
 man's favour might be very useful to him in his 
 ambitious schemes. If Aner ever felt a moment's 
 hesitation in considering a case, his secretary, who had 
 been purposely recommended to him by Hara, was 
 always ready with the cold water of cynicism to quench 
 any spark of generous impulse. 
 
 Hatob had entered so silently that he had not been 
 noticed ; but directly the secretary had gone out he spoke. 
 
24 ALLEGORIES 
 
 1 Aner,' he asked, ' have you quite forgotten me ? ' 
 
 ' No,' was the short and sullen answer, as Aner 
 averted his gaze. 
 
 Hatob, not stopping to notice his ungracious 
 reception, took up some of the letters lying on the 
 table. One was the prospectus of an imaginary gold 
 mine, written with the intention of luring thousands 
 to buy shares. Aner had stated the promised certainty 
 of large profits with eloquent plausibility. He had been 
 paid for his advocacy by an assignment of shares, which, 
 when the rush of purchasers had raised them to fabulous 
 value, he meant to sell, leaving many a deluded victim 
 to suicide and ruin, and plunging widows and orphans 
 in hopeless penury as soon as the bubble burst. 
 
 ' Are you not utterly ashamed, Aner ? ' asked Hatob 
 in his grave tones. ' Are you not rich enough, and 
 more than rich enough already, without increasing your 
 gains by these vile means ? And has your heart, which 
 was once generous, already grown so cold that you are 
 indifferent to the tears and anguish which your delusive 
 words will cause ? You fairly astonish me, and I am 
 utterly ashamed of you.' 
 
 1 Silence, Hatob ! ' thundered Aner. ' Do you dare 
 to insinuate that I am a cheat? I feel sure that there 
 is gold in this mine ; I merely state its claims as they 
 have been set forth to me.' 
 
 ' Lies, Aner, lies ! ' was the brief and stern answer. 
 He took up one of the letters after another, read them 
 with an expression of disgust, and then, flinging them 
 down, said : 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 25 
 
 1 Oh, Aner, you are farther gone than I had feared. 
 Still but young, your heart, if you go on like this, will 
 in time be cold as ice, and hard as the nether mill- 
 stone.' 
 
 ' Another word,' cried Aner, ' and I will drive you 
 out.' 
 
 ' I have spoken, Aner. It is enough. Farewell ; 
 but oh, if you care for your life, and would be saved from 
 destruction, you know that you can always summon 
 me to your help. And before I go I tell you plainly 
 that, for all your wealth, your life is rapidly tending to 
 become a sordid and despicable lie a lie which even 
 many who are themselves bad men would regard with 
 disdain.' 
 
 Aner had braved it out with Hatob, but he in- 
 stinctively felt that every word which his stern mentor 
 had spoken was true. No sooner had Hatob ended 
 than the young man started up and paced the room. 
 He looked round him at its splendid ornaments, its 
 magnificent works of art. That very morning he had 
 given a large sum for a single picture ; and he had 
 spent nearly as much on a fantastic ornament the 
 day before. Had these objects, he was forced to ask 
 himself, given him one hundredth part of the pure 
 pleasure which he could have derived from that ' high 
 desire that others should be blessed,' which, as he knew 
 from earlier experience, ' savours of heaven ' ? Was it 
 as much worth while to be the proud possessor of a 
 rarity as to have the blessing of those to whom he had 
 been kind ? Angry with himself for once, sickened, 
 
26 ALLEGORIES 
 
 disappointed, pulled up short at the beginning of a 
 despicable career, he summoned back his secretary, 
 and to his cynical astonishment tore up the prospectus 
 which he had written for the mining company, and 
 sent generous aid to those whom he knew to be 
 innocent and suffering. More than this, he made a 
 swift but resolute vow that he would at once combat 
 and subdue the love of money which he already felt 
 to be a root of all kinds of evil in him ; that he 
 would turn with abhorrence from every scheme which 
 had in it even a suspicion of fraudulency ; and that 
 with the money which came to him by honourable 
 labour he would to the utmost of his power do kind 
 and generous deeds. He had repented, and had 
 amended his evil tendency ere it was too late. That 
 evening, as he sat alone, Hatob came in, and affection- 
 ately embraced him. In his sweetest tone he spoke 
 words of praise and encouragement, and gave him one 
 of those radiant smiles which Aner had scarcely seen 
 since he was a boy ; and the same night as Aner slept he 
 dreamed that King Elyon himself appeared to him, laid 
 his hand upon his head in blessing, and said, * My son ! ' 
 But the young secretary was a spy of Hara's, and, 
 when he reported what had occurred, Hara was thrown 
 into a paroxysm of rage. What if, after all, he should 
 entirely lose his hold on Aner ? what if Hatob should 
 yet prevail, and he should himself feel the heavy hand 
 of his master Ashmod ? This must not be. In trying 
 to ruin Aner by avarice and greed and the love of pelf 
 he had indeed for a time succeeded, but he had evidently 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 27 
 
 used a wrong snare. Aner's disposition was intrinsically 
 generous. It was clear that he could not be fatally 
 overthrown by a temptation which was not in accordance 
 with his real tendencies. For Aner was naturally kind- 
 hearted, and, whenever he used his resources for the 
 relief of suffering, the gratitude of those whom his 
 generosity had helped made him feel an unwonted 
 happiness. Hara, defeated in the use of a temptation 
 which he had unwisely chosen, felt conscious that he 
 must adopt another plan. 
 
 IV 
 
 Who knows not Circe, 
 
 The daughter of the sun, whose charmed cup 
 Whoever tasted lost his upright shape, 
 And downward fell into a grovelling swine ? MILTON. 
 
 1 IT was foolish of me to tempt him with the bait of 
 avarice,' thought Hara to himself, ' though it catches 
 millions of older, more worldly, and more hardened 
 souls. That net, thanks to Hatob's interference, is 
 broken, and Aner is delivered. But he shall find, to 
 his cost, that my quiver is full of magic arrows ! What 
 shall I try on him next ? ' 
 
 He meditated a little, and then exclaimed, ' I have 
 it ! My friend Comus shall lend me some of 
 His orient liquor in a crystal glass ; 
 
 and when Aner has learnt to drain it " with fond in- 
 temperate thirst," I will, drive him into the sty of 
 drunkenness.' 
 
28 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Like all highly strung natures, Aner often felt a 
 reaction of lassitude after unwonted exertions. He 
 loved the wine-cup, but had never drunk to excess. 
 From that he had been saved by a certain natural 
 nobleness which made him abhor the lower forms of 
 degradation. In the gay gatherings of his own and 
 Hara's companions he would have been at first so much 
 repelled by the foulness of intoxication, that Hara had 
 taken care to prevent him from feeling this alarmed 
 disgust. But might he not very gradually be seduced 
 into excess, and so, almost before he was aware of it, 
 become the victim of intemperance ? 
 
 Yes ! Little by little Aner grew more fond of wine, 
 and less careful about extreme moderation in its use. 
 At last, when the time seemed ripe, Hara schemed to 
 secure Aner's invitation to a banquet unusually sump- 
 tuous a banquet which it was proposed should be given 
 to him by all the gayest and richest of his associates. 
 It was a congratulatory supper in honour of his recent 
 promotion to a high office which he had won by his 
 abilities at an unusually early age. Hara took care 
 that all the brightest and wittiest young nobles should 
 be invited ; that the adornments of the board should 
 be of the most dazzling beauty, the flowers enchant- 
 ingly fragrant, the viands stimulating and sumptuous, 
 the wines varied, rich, potent, of exquisite bouquet and 
 insidious strength. Health after health was drunk ; 
 song after song was sung; a golden loving cup was 
 frequently passed round. The mirth grew warm and 
 tumultuous. ' No heeltaps to-night ! ' was the general 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 29 
 
 cry, if any one refrained from emptying his glass. Aner 
 had delighted the company with one of his loveliest 
 songs, and no sooner had he ended it than the most 
 distinguished of the guests, amid rapturous applause, 
 poured out a bumper of sparkling wine, and challenged 
 every one present to fill to the brim the glasses of 
 exquisite workmanship upon the table, and to drain 
 them in honour of him whom they all admired and 
 loved. They did so, and then Aner rose, glass in hand, 
 to thank them. 
 
 ' Now, Aner,' they shouted, ' you must drink every 
 drop of it as we have done ; else we shall think that 
 you despise us and don't care for us.' 
 
 He felt that he was flushed; that his hand shook 
 slightly ; that his eyes swam ; that his footing was 
 hardly firm ; that if he took this rich cup of wine he 
 would have had too much : but, actuated by fear of 
 man and love of popularity, he raised the glass to his 
 lips, and was about to drink it to the dregs, when two 
 incidents occurred. 
 
 First, he happened to glance at his hand to see 
 whether its tremulousness was observable, and he 
 noticed that his ring had never seemed to be of a paler 
 blue. The sight filled him with desperation rather 
 than remorse, for the ring had been growing paler year 
 by year, and he seemed to care but little if now its 
 colour was too far gone to be recalled. 
 
 Next, at that instant, and for an instant only, a 
 sudden silence fell on the flushed and laughing throng of 
 his companions. He glanced up in astonishment to find 
 
30 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the cause, and saw Hatob approaching him among the 
 rose-crowned revellers. His simple garb showed a 
 marked contrast with their rich apparel, and his look 
 was anxious and stern. The hush which his presence 
 caused was followed by a roar of excited anger. 
 
 ' Impudent intruder ! ' hissed one. 
 
 ' Now we are to have a teetotal lecture " in one 
 weak, washy, everlasting flood," ' sneered another. 
 
 ' O foolishness of men that lend their ears 
 To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur, 
 And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub, 
 Praising the lean and sallow abstinence,' 
 
 said another. 
 
 ' Aner, turn the fellow out ! ' shouted several. 
 
 ' Begone, Hatob ! ' said Hara, rising from his seat 
 in a flame of fury. ' What business have you here ? ' he 
 added, striding out in front of him with threatening 
 gesture. 
 
 ' Business which I shall perform,' said Hatob in a 
 firm voice, ' and from which, as you well know, you are 
 powerless to hinder me. Stand aside, rebellious servant 
 of Ashmod ! ' 
 
 Hara had raised his arm as though to strike, but he 
 seemed to cower and almost wither away under Hatob' s 
 glance, and his hand fell impotently at his side as he 
 sank back into his seat. Hatob advanced to Aner as 
 he sat in the place of honour, on a richly decorated 
 chair covered with cushions of purple silk. He laid 
 his hand a little roughly on Aner's shoulder, and said, 
 ' Aner, beware ! ' 
 
HE LAID HIS HAND ON ANER'S SHOULDEB 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 33 
 
 The glass was in Aner's hand, and as in a flash of 
 light he seemed to read the words, ' Look not thou 
 upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour 
 in the cup ; when it goeth down smoothly ; at the last 
 it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like a basilisk.' 
 But even while he seemed to see the words burning 
 before him like the mystic letters on Belshazzar's 
 palace-wall, the jeers and jibes of his comrades sounded 
 like a storm in his ears, and a passionate defiance 
 of his better instinct rose in his heated brain. He 
 drained the glass to the bottom, and, while a shout 
 of applause greeted his action, he set it down and 
 dashed the back of his hand with all his force on 
 Hatob's lips. 
 
 ' Go,' he said, ' my tormentor, and let me see you 
 no more ! ' 
 
 With unmoved, dignity Hatob lifted his robe to his 
 bleeding lips. He gave Aner one glance of pity, in 
 which the blue of his eyes seemed to run like fire 
 through the young man's soul ; then, turning away, he 
 passed through the riotous banqueters with such a look 
 upon his face as once more awed them into trembling 
 silence. 
 
 All the spontaneous hilarity of the banquet was now 
 quenched. The guests broke up into sullen groups. 
 There were few of them who had not taken more than 
 was good for them. Some tottered out at once. Those 
 who stayed, drank on, but idly babbled and quarrelled 
 and could not restore the mirth. Some of them soon 
 rested their heads on the tables and fell into heavy 
 
 D 
 
34 ALLEGORIES 
 
 slumber. Others were carried home. Aner, half stu- 
 pefied, sat breathing stertorously with his head sunk 
 upon his breast. Hara looking at him with diabolical 
 satisfaction, and hissing under his breath, ' Now you 
 are mine for ever ' signed to Aner's servant to take 
 him home. 
 
 Aner woke the next morning in shame and sickness, 
 feeling that he had publicly disgraced himself. His 
 sight was dull ; his eyes were red ; his head was 
 aching. Hara assiduously exerted himself to counter- 
 act his depression. He laughed over the occurrences 
 of yesterday. He said that a carouse on a joyous 
 occasion involved no discredit whatever, and did no 
 one any harm. He tried to charm away Aner's gloom. 
 He told him, once and for ever, to get rid of the fetish- 
 worship of ridiculous scruples. He spoke of Hatob's 
 
 warning as 
 
 but the lees 
 And settlings of a melancholy blood. 
 
 He jocularly suggested that Aner would feel quite well 
 again by taking a hair of the dog that bit him. 
 
 It only took a few days for the full tide of life to 
 flow back into its normal channels. Aner's wealth 
 was still growing ; success and honours still flowed on 
 him. But he found that it was not granted him to 
 give himself up to sin for one short hour, and then to 
 be quite happy. His career involved anxieties. He 
 was often in low spirits. When they seemed inclined 
 to master him, he could for the time dispel them by 
 the charmed cup. At such times it always seemed to 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 35 
 
 him as if some tempting spirit offered him wine as a 
 potent nepenthe, and whispered : 
 
 But this will cure all straight ; one sip of this 
 Will bathe the drooping spirit in delight, 
 Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise and taste ! 
 
 Slowly, but very surely, he felt the ugly liking for this 
 mechanical stimulus and this dangerous sedative grow- 
 ing upon him, dimming his faculties, blunting his keen 
 perceptions, confusing his intellect, gradually inflaming 
 his features and palsying his strength. There were 
 times when, though he was still surrounded with envy 
 and admiration for his gifts, his wealth, his position, 
 he began utterly to despise himself. And he knew 
 that the remedy to which he was tempted to resort 
 only aggravated the radical disease ; when he sought 
 relief in wine he did but precipitate the inevitable 
 reaction. The penalty trod more and more swiftly 
 upon the heels of the sin ; and the yet more enervated 
 lassitude, and the yet more unspeakable depression 
 from which he now constantly suffered, were as fiery 
 goads which drove him on to still grosser and more 
 irremediable excess. 
 
 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler : 
 The snare is broken, and we are delivered. Ps. cxxiv. 7. 
 
 AND now Hara thought that he had him safely; that 
 he had bound him in fetters of adamant, and shut him 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ALLEGOKIES 
 
 up in a prison without i^on bars. He thought that by 
 this time he could throw off the mask and needed not 
 to show himself in the guise of a flatterer or a bene- 
 factor any longer. He might now assume the attitude 
 of an insolent and irresistible despot, who would make 
 his tyranny felt and acknowledged, and who had no 
 longer need to simulate the smallest pity or affection, 
 or to leave to his victim the paltry and passing lure of 
 present prosperity. 
 
 It had always been a part of Hara's plan to put 
 Aner into the close proximity of those who would 
 tempt and foster every weaker or baser element of his 
 disposition. Nearly all of Aner's household were of 
 Hara's choosing, and his servant had secret instructions 
 to keep his glass abundantly replenished at his meals, 
 and to see that potent drinks were always ready to his 
 hand. 
 
 Aner had come in, vexed and wearied, from the 
 heat of political strife in which he had been engaged. 
 He felt inclined to ask whether the game was worth 
 the candle; whether the honour and influence to be 
 attained could ever reward him for the labour, anxiety, 
 and turmoil. He was specially disgusted because, that 
 day, a bitter and scurrilous opponent had garnished his 
 speech with many sneers and personal innuendoes in 
 which he had spoken of Aner's 'intemperance.' He 
 used the word ostensibly in one sense, but had quite 
 obviously meant it to be understood in another. Now 
 Aner had taken the utmost pains to disguise his failing 
 and temptation, and he flattered himself that he had 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 37 
 
 succeeded. What if it were otherwise? What if 
 Humour were already clacking against him with her 
 ten thousand tongues ? What if the very abjects could 
 henceforth mouth at him, and his fellow-drunkards 
 make songs upon him? And all of a sudden he 
 noticed that his ring was absolutely colourless. It 
 had been a deep-hued sapphire, now it looked like a dull 
 and common white crystal. It reminded him of thoughts 
 which had long been utter strangers to his soul. Was he 
 not, after all, a son of King Elyon ? Had he altogether 
 forfeited the privileges of his royal birth ? Youth was 
 gone like a dream. His beauty was impaired; his 
 strength was diminishing. Death would come soon, 
 and then what comes hereafter. 
 
 While these thoughts were chasing each other 
 through his brain his butler summoned him to his 
 dinner. That day he happened to be alone. 
 
 ' I see that you are tired, sir,' said the servant 
 insinuatingly. ' A glass of wine will refresh you.' 
 
 Kefresh him? He wondered whether the man 
 knew how frightful at that moment was the imperious 
 craving for wine which he felt gnawing like a viper at 
 his heart. This was the time at which he usually 
 indulged his propensity. But there was something in 
 the glance of the servant which displeased him. Was 
 the man in league with Hara against him for his ruin ? 
 
 Seating himself at the table he summoned the 
 whole fortitude of his will, and said : 
 
 ' Take this wine away. Remove those glasses ; I 
 will only take water this evening.' 
 
38 ALLEGORIES 
 
 1 Water ? ' said the man with open-eyed astonish- 
 ment and disdain. 
 
 1 Water ! ' answered Aner, almost fiercely. ' Did I 
 not speak plainly enough ? Obey my orders ! ' 
 
 The butler slowly removed the cup and the wine 
 from the place where they stood just in front of Aner, 
 but he only removed them a little way and eyed his 
 master with curious looks as he marked the total failure 
 of his appetite, and the suffering caused him by the 
 absence of his usual stimulant. 
 
 * Oh, sir,' he at last ventured to say, ' you are not 
 enjoying your dinner at all. Do just take this little 
 glass of wine. It will do you so much good.' And he 
 poured out a sparkling foaming glass, of which the 
 delicate fragrance filled the room. 
 
 Even this agent of Hara did not know how fearfully 
 the impulse to succumb acted on the perverted senses of 
 his master ; but Aner's pride rose in revolt at being 
 tempted to what he knew was degradation by his own 
 servant. After an instant's struggle to master himself, 
 he seized the glass, hurled it against the wall, and, in a 
 voice which rang with passion, ordered the man to leave 
 the room. 
 
 ' Ah ! he will drink like a fish the moment my back 
 is turned/ thought the man ; ' but it is time that Hara 
 should know of this. And if he takes to drinking water 
 my place won't be worth having.' 
 
 The servant slipped out and told Hara that he 
 thought Aner must be unwell, for he seemed much 
 disturbed, and would only drink w r ater at dinner. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 39 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said Hara, ' I will pay him a visit.' 
 
 He found Aner in a condition absolutely pitiable. 
 His nerves were in a state of violent irritation, and as 
 he madly, despairingly, struggled with himself and 
 tried to shake off the strangling load of his temptation, 
 he trembled piteously, and was reduced to a condition 
 almost abject. 
 
 ' What is the matter with you ? ' said Hara inso- 
 lently, for he had long laid aside his courteous and 
 seductive manner. ' What is the meaning of all this 
 nonsense? Why do you make yourself ill? Take 
 your wine like a man. Who do you suppose will care 
 two straws whether you drink or not ? ' 
 
 Aner looked up at him. Hara's expression was 
 now the one which was natural to him. The sham 
 Belial-beauty in which he had known how to disguise 
 his true appearance in earlier years was gone. Aner 
 felt a spasm of feeble wonder as to how he could ever 
 have found any fascination in this odious, leering, 
 blighted w r retch. He had smitten Hatob the good, 
 the noble Hatob in the face ; could he not spurn this 
 demon- visaged tempter out of his presence? 
 
 Alas ! he felt helpless, paralysed. He could not 
 rise from his seat. 
 
 ' Come, you poor fool,' said Hara ; * as if you could 
 resist ! A secret drunkard like you may shed maudlin 
 tears over himself, but you know very well that if I 
 put a full wine-cup there on the table, and between 
 you and it burned up the nether fires, you would still 
 stretch out your hand and take it. Drink it, slave ! ' 
 
40 ALLEGORIES 
 
 he thundered out, as Aner still sat in trembling 
 silence. 
 
 Aner groaned deeply within himself. He felt the 
 terrible truth of Hara's words ; but had he indeed sunk 
 so low ? 
 
 'Hara,' he muttered, 'you are a very demon, and I 
 loathe you.' 
 
 ' Demon or no demon,' said Hara with a fiendish 
 laugh, * I will have you know that now I am your 
 master.' He rose and poured out the wine and put it 
 close by Aner's hand, that its fragrance might over- 
 power his senses. ' Drink that, slave ! ' he said again, 
 fiercely stamping his foot, ' or it will be the worse for 
 you. You cannot help yourself.' 
 
 It seemed as if the agonising struggle was over, for, 
 in spite of the sense of loathing in his heart, Aner 
 stretched forth his hand for the cup with the heart- 
 broken cry, ' It is true ; I cannot help myself.' 
 
 And, as he did so, raising his eyes for a moment, 
 he caught sight of one of the splendid works of art 
 with which his room was adorned. It was a marble 
 statue of Imrah, son of King Elyon, in kingly robes, 
 in kingly attitude. In his left hand lay the open book, 
 as though to say, ' This do, and thou shalt live ; ' and 
 his right hand was uplifted, not to repel but to invite, 
 not to threaten but to bless. Around him twined the 
 lily of purity, the rose of holy joy, the vine with its 
 clusters of purple fruitfulness. Crouching as the willing 
 pedestal of his feet, with arched backs, were the lion 
 and the young lion. Crushed into the dust beneath 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 41 
 
 were the basilisk and the adder, and underneath was 
 inscribed on black marble in golden letters, ' Thou shalt 
 tread upon the lion and the adder ; the young lion and 
 the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet.' But 
 what struck Aner most was that in the kingly eyes 
 there seemed to be an expression of infinite tenderness, 
 of infinite compassion. 
 
 Hara followed the glance of his eyes and was 
 enraged. ' What has all that to do with you, slave 
 and wretch ? ' he said ; and, striding up to the statue, he 
 tore it from its place and flung it violently upon the 
 ground. ' Now,' he said, ' leave Imrah to the saints. 
 He has nothing to do with you, nor you with him. 
 That is all over long ago. Come ; you see that struggle 
 is useless. Take the good wine ; get rid of this morbid 
 folly and be happy.' 
 
 Again Aner seemed as if he were convulsed to his 
 inmost soul. He felt the utter abjectness of being a 
 slave to a dead thing ; but the fatal force of habit 
 pressed on him like a vice and past sin seemed to 
 have frozen into impotence all his powers of resistance. 
 Was not the struggle useless, as Hara had said ? Why 
 should he thus agonise, when, sooner or later, he must 
 be swept away by the drowning current ? Again he 
 stretched out his hand to the wine with a gesture of 
 despair. As he did so he saw the wicked leer on the 
 face of Hara : but he saw something else. 
 
 On the wall over Hara's head hung another work 
 of art a priceless picture. Again it represented Imrah, 
 the deliverer of the Purple Island. Over the white 
 
42 ALLEGORIES 
 
 vesture, which symbolised his innocence, fell the gold- 
 embroidered folds of his priestly robe, adorned with its 
 jewelled Urim. On his long and flowing locks was a 
 golden crown, in the radiants of which was twined a 
 crown of thorns, such as the rebels of Ashmod had 
 made him wear; but now the thorns had blossomed 
 into flowers. From his left hand, fastened by a golden 
 chain, hung a lamp, of which the overpowering bright- 
 ness fell on the closed door at which he was knocking. 
 But the door had been long unused, and over its rusted 
 stanchions the ivy crept and clung. A bat, creature of 
 the darkness, disturbed by his knock, was flitting away, 
 and from within came no answering gleam. Thick 
 beside the base of the door towered the huge withered 
 stalks of a dead hemlock, once gay in vivid green, now 
 an emblem of chill venom and extinct desires. Under- 
 neath the picture was written, ' Open the door unto 
 him that knocks.' And once more to Aner's fascinated 
 gaze it seemed as if the sad eyes glowed with an inward 
 light, and that the light was full of pardon, and help, 
 and love. 
 
 In an instant he withdrew his hand from the wine- 
 cup ; he beat his breast ; he fell upon his knees. For- 
 gotten memories came back to him ; his eyes were filled 
 with tears of penitence ; and raising heavenwards his 
 clasped hands, his streaming eyes, he cried : 
 
 ' Oh, Elyon, I am thy son ! Imrah, help 
 me ! ' 
 
 As though in instant answer to his prayer, the door 
 of the room swung open and some one entered. It 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 43 
 
 was Hatob still beautiful, still noble. He looked 
 weak and very ill ; but what a contrast between that 
 pale face of peace and holiness, and the tainted features 
 of Hara ! What a difference between those deep-blue 
 eyes and the wicked, surreptitious, ferret glances of the 
 other, full of unhallowed and malignant fires ! 
 
 ' Oh, Hatob,' moaned Aner, still upon his knees and 
 with bent head, ' my brother, my more than brother, 
 have you still pity for a wretch like me? Can you 
 forgive the insult of my cruel blow ? ' 
 
 Hatob gently raised Aner's tear-stained features, in 
 which few could have recognised more than the wreck 
 of Paedarion's early beauty, so deeply had evil passions 
 left their furrows there. 
 
 ' Look at me, Aner,' he said ; ' do I look as if I had 
 not forgiven, as though I did not love you? Even 
 when you cried aloud just now I heard the voice of 
 Imrah send me to you.' 
 
 ' Oh, Hatob, would that I had never deserted you ! 
 Can I ever be snatched from these fetters of my slavery, 
 of which the iron seems to have eaten into my soul ? 
 Oh, Hatob, save me from him ! ' he cried, pointing to 
 Hara, who was glaring upon him so fiercely that he 
 might have seemed to be Ashmod's self. 
 
 ' Depart, Hara ! ' said Hatob, whose whole frame 
 seemed to dilate with majesty as he spoke. ' What ? 
 dare you linger ? Have you never had to shrink and 
 howl ere now under Ely on' s scourge of fire ? Go, or 
 my own hand shall drag you to your prison ! ' 
 
 * He is mine and I will have him yet,' hissed Hara ; 
 
44 ALLEGORIES 
 
 but Hatob looked at him, and with a curse of baffled 
 malice he turned and fled. 
 
 ' Aner,' said Hatob, ' deliverance is yet possible to 
 you, but I should deceive you were I to say that it is 
 easy. There is a law which rivets sin to its conse- 
 quences by a link of adamant. It would have been 
 immeasurably more easy for you never to have fallen 
 into this bondage than now to escape from it. Yet 
 there is one way, if you have resolution to embrace it, 
 which can save you out of this one sin, even if it be so 
 as by fire. Never again must you so much as taste 
 the wine-cup. If you do, the demon which lurks in it 
 for you will leap upon you with tenfold force. He has 
 his clutch upon your hair. Only by this resolution 
 can you shake him off. Dismiss your bad servant ; 
 banish from your house that which for you is poison 
 and is death.' 
 
 ' I will,' murmured Aner, ' if I can.' 
 
 ' If you will, you can,' answered Hatob. ' Pledge 
 yourself even now in Elyon's name, with the help of 
 Imrah and his unseen Spirit, that the wine which you 
 have abused to your own destruction shall touch your 
 lips no more.' 
 
 ' I vow,' said Aner ; ' so help me Heaven ! I blush 
 for, I loathe my servitude.' 
 
 ' There is always help for those that need and seek it. 
 I can help you in one small way by recommending to 
 you a thoroughly honest and faithful servant. His 
 name is Xenios, and you may trust him implicitly. 
 But you must rely mainly upon yourself. Kally all the 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 45 
 
 best powers of your nature. Entreat for aid from 
 above and you will be safe. Eemember ! Watch ! ' 
 
 He lifted a warning hand, he blessed him, he 
 departed. And when he had gone, Aner sank once 
 more upon his knees and vowed his vow. 
 
 VI 
 
 If the roots be left, the grass will grow again. Chinese Provei-b, 
 
 i 
 
 ANER had now reached middle age. He had for some 
 years resolutely kept the vow which he had taken. 
 Wine was never seen at his table. He had gained 
 immeasurably and in every way by his voluntary absti- 
 nence. The rumours about his weakness had died away. 
 His body had recovered much of its old vigour, his mind 
 its normal clearness, his countenance its noble expres- 
 sion. And now the highest guerdons of ambition 
 seemed to be easily within his grasp. 
 
 Again Hara felt himself foiled. Aner had great 
 force of natural character. He had felt so utterly 
 humiliated by the shameful bondage of intemperance 
 that by sheer resolution it might have seemed but in 
 reality by the aid of the unseen Spirit whose help he 
 had implored he had burst the gates of brass and 
 smitten the bars of iron in sunder. 
 
 Indignant at the loss of so fine a votary, Ashmod 
 who was rarely seen, but was known to lurk in dark 
 places of the Purple Island, and had many a secret 
 
46 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 shrine, where his followers burnt to him their un- 
 hallowed incense summoned Hara to his presence. 
 
 . ' You have managed very badly, Hara,' said the 
 terrible Prince. 'You will lose the indulgences I 
 offered you. Aner might have been my most promising 
 subject, and would have won many others to me. You 
 should have studied his nature better.' 
 
 1 Hard and thankless master ! ' snarled the crestfallen 
 Hara. ' I tried him with gold and I succeeded.' 
 
 ' Only for a very short time. It is the meanest 
 natures only which are caught by that glittering and 
 useless bane. Aner is not mean, and you might have 
 known that he would soon get tired of such a fool's 
 bauble, fit only for dotards and old women.' 
 
 ' I subdued him, body and soul, to the ghoul of drink 
 for some years. But for accident, and but for that 
 accursed Hatob, I should have had him. I do not 
 despair of winning him back even yet.' 
 
 ' Drink may be a subsidiary help,' said Ashmod ; 
 ' but there are natures too lofty to accept its degrading 
 servitude.' 
 
 ' It has ruined many a strong man,' said Hara 
 sullenly. 
 
 * It will fail with Aner,' said Ashmod ; ' but try 
 him now with Lilith, the demon of the noonday 
 the demon of perverted love. Many have fallen 
 by her wounds quite late in life ; some even in old 
 age. I am not satisfied with you, Hara ; but do not 
 despair. We have many resources at our disposal ; we 
 shall have him yet.' 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 47 
 
 VII 
 
 Sin startles a man that is the first step ; then it becomes pleasing ; 
 then easy ; then delightful ; then frequent ; then he is impenitent ; 
 then obstinate. JEREMY TAYLOR. 
 
 At quam csecus inest vitiis amor ! omne futurum 
 Despicitur, suadentque brevem preesentia fructum. 
 
 CLAUDIAN, Eutrop. ii. 50. 
 
 ANEE, having for some time broken the violence of 
 the temptation which was destroying him, and deeming 
 himself now secure from it, had greatly relaxed his 
 vigilance. He was trying to content himself with 
 such things as the Purple Island could give. The 
 Porphyrians looked on him as the most successful of 
 men. There seemed to be nothing lacking to his 
 happiness except the home-life into which he had never 
 entered. He had remained unmarried. He had not 
 been attracted by the many maidens who would have 
 felt themselves enchanted by alliance with him. All 
 other possessions which men account as boons seemed 
 to be at his disposal. His magnificent residence was 
 rich in works of art. His parks and gardens were the 
 loveliest and sweetest which the island could show. 
 His woods teemed with the wild life of nature ; his 
 streams were famous for their fish. His aspect was 
 strikingly noble, his manners full of charm, his 
 friends numerous. Honour had showered all her stars 
 upon him ; criticism was now silent ; he was highly 
 
48 ALLEGORIES 
 
 appreciated ; he stood upon the topmost steps of 
 power and influence. And yet he had to confess to 
 himself that he was far from happy. These passing 
 treasures, even at their best and fullest, could not satisfy 
 the heart of a son of Elyon. They seemed to crumble 
 into ashes at every touch. They had looked like 
 ambrosial fruit until he could freely take of them, and 
 then they became Dead Sea apples, filling his mouth 
 with dust and bitterness. In his far-off boyish years, 
 before he had entered into the drearier parts of 
 the wilderness, the visions of such things as he now 
 possessed had looked like an enchanting mirage soft 
 oases of happy verdure and palms and crystal waters ; 
 he had reached them with weary feet, and lo ! he saw 
 nothing around him but barren acres of stony wilder- 
 ness, and dreary wastes of sun-encrimsoned sand. 
 
 There was nothing more to gain. Kiches ? he did 
 not know what to do with what he had ; and though 
 he now gave away largely, yet, as there was no personal 
 contact or personal sympathy of tenderness in his 
 giving, his charity became mechanical, and the thanks 
 which he received sounded hollow. Splendour? rich 
 carpets, and tapestries dyed with purple of the sea, 
 glowing pictures and gilded corridors palled upon 
 him. The works of art had become nothing but 
 pieces of furniture which had no longer any fascina- 
 tion, at which indeed he rarely looked. There over 
 the fireplace in his favourite room hung the picture 
 of Imrah, which had arrested his attention at a 
 crisis of his life ; but now he scarcely ever glanced at 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 49 
 
 an object so familiar. A stream cannot rise higher 
 than its fountain, and Aner, living on the low levels of 
 worldliness, scarcely even by mechanical habit raised 
 his heart to the true source of his being. He saw the 
 days pass by him in long procession ; he felt that the 
 lack of high spiritual discernment had made him snatch 
 only at their most worthless gifts, and as they departed 
 in silence he 
 
 Under their solemn fillets saw the scorn. 
 
 In the estimation of the Porphyrians his character 
 was now quite unexceptionable. ' What a great man 
 Aner is ! ' deferentially murmured all the youths. 
 ' And what a good man too ! ' said their elders. 'Look 
 at his charities ! See how punctually he performs his 
 religious duties ! Even calumny would blush to tell 
 tales of him.' 
 
 And in truth Aner did not neglect the public forms 
 of religion, in so far as they consisted in external 
 functions, though to one or two of his most intimate 
 friends he confessed that he found these functions 
 distressingly dreary, and that sermons were a great 
 trial to an intellectual man. Aner was trusting in 
 his own heart ; and if he had not ceased to read the 
 book which his father Elyon had given him, he would 
 have found there that ' he who trusteth in his own 
 heart is a fool.' 
 
 Hatob had not been near him for a long time, and 
 Hara, who was narrowly watching him, yet kept out 
 of his way. He was indeed glad to see that Aner's 
 
 
 
50 ALLEGORIES 
 
 love to his father Elyon had dwindled to a dim con- 
 vention and a hollow externalism, but he was determined 
 to secure him as an avowed votary of Ashmod. 
 
 Aner was seated in the great window of his town- 
 palace, which was surrounded by a lovely pleasance 
 full of flowers. Two boys, of whom one was carrying 
 to him his daily correspondence, were coming down 
 the path, and were indulging the spontaneous exuber- 
 ance of their mirth in constant antics, with bursts of 
 laughter and snatches of song. 
 
 * Those lads,' thought Aner, ' are only sons of my 
 humblest dependents, and they are far happier than I 
 am. The remembrance of youth is a sigh.' 
 
 One of his gardeners was hard at work watering 
 and tending the flowers, and whistling a merry tune. 
 
 1 Light-hearted wretch ! ' thought Aner, recalling 
 
 the line of a poet, 
 
 He whistles as he goes 
 For want of thought, 
 
 He little fancies that the renowned Aner would gladly 
 change places with him ! ' 
 
 Then he saw a young mother leading her little 
 white-haired child by one hand, while in the other she 
 was carrying ' father ' his breakfast. The labourer 
 kissed his wife, and then he snatched up the little boy 
 in his arms, and pressed his rosy cheeks against his 
 own, and puffed out his own cheeks for the chubby hands 
 to push, and ran his rough fingers through the short 
 sunny curls, murmuring endearing words to the little 
 fellow all the while. Aner sighed. 'What is all I 
 
THE LIFE STOEY OF ANER ol 
 
 possess,' he said, ' to the joy of that man's home ? Why 
 have I never made myself a home ? This is not a 
 home ; it is a gorgeous prison.' And then he murmured 
 to himself : 
 
 ' There's nothing in the world can make me joy ; 
 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, 
 Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. 
 
 Yes, the old epitome is right we are born weeping ; 
 we live unhappy ; we die disappointed.' 
 
 Hara had concealed himself among the thick 
 flowering shrubs, hard by the windows. ' Aner is 
 weary of everything,' he said to himself. ' He will 
 soon be ripe for the demon of the noonday.' 
 
 He waited till evening, when, after the day's routine 
 of business, Aner returned to the desolate magnificence 
 of his abode. Then Hara visited him not like the 
 Hara whom he had last seen, but a gay, courteous, 
 smiling, handsome man of the world. 
 
 ' Aner, my old friend,' he said, ' I am afraid that 
 when last I saw you we did not part on good terms. 
 You were in an excitable mood, and perhaps I was 
 inconsiderate. May I dine with you this evening ? 
 And if you will allow me I will introduce to you my 
 friend Tollas a man of fine taste ; we might have a 
 pleasant evening.' 
 
 Aner, his thoughts still under the shadow, welcomed 
 the diversion, and he ordered for the use of his guests 
 the wines which now he never touched. 
 
 ' What ? do you still drink that ridiculous water, 
 Aner ? ' said Hara. ' That is why you are so moody. 
 
 B 2 
 
52 ALLEGORIES 
 
 I am quite against excess ; I delight in moderation ; 
 but I am sure a few glasses of good wine never did 
 any one any harm.' 
 
 ' Thanks,' said Aner, ' I have not the least desire for 
 it, and feel much better without it.' 
 
 'But at least,' said lollas, 'you will take a glass 
 with us to-day, if only for the sake of good fellowship, 
 and that you may not seem to be passing upon us a 
 silent censure.' 
 
 ' If you wish it,' said Aner, oblivious for the moment 
 of his vow. ' I am now in no danger of its influence,' 
 he added to himself. 
 
 He filled a glass, and drank to these pleasant 
 gentlemen. Instantly the old passion leapt on him 
 again ' terrible, and with a tiger's leaps ' and he 
 took another glass and yet another, and began to 
 feel the rich intoxicant flowing like lava through all 
 his veins. 
 
 But it was not Hara's immediate object to startle 
 him by a relapse into his old failing, and when dinner 
 was over he proposed that they should all go and see a 
 celebrated dancer named Phaedra, whose sprightliness 
 and beauty, and poetry of rhythmic motion, were at 
 that time the common theme of the Porphyrians. 
 
 ' Oh, do,' said lollas ; ' Phaedra's loveliness pene- 
 trates the heart like a sunbeam. She is the most 
 radiant girl I ever saw. Nestor himself might have 
 fallen in love with her. ' 
 
 ' I do not go to see public dancers,' said Aner. 
 
 ' Oh, I forgot,' said lollas, with a slightly veiled 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 53 
 
 sneer. ' Of course you are a personage in the religious 
 world.' 
 
 ' There is a subtle taint about these dancing-halls,' 
 said Aner, offended ; ' and the persons who frequent 
 them are not at all to my taste.' 
 
 ' This will never do,' thought Hara. ' Aner is 
 getting nettled, and lollas will spoil all.' 
 
 'You forget/ he said, 'that Aner is a man of 
 exquisite culture, and distinction, and refinement. But 
 really, Aner, Phaedra is quite exceptional, and there is 
 not the least harm in her exhibition.' 
 
 ' A man of my position is too much stared at, and 
 gives rise to idle talk if he goes to vulgar places of 
 amusement,' said Aner, still displeased. 
 
 ' I agree with you,' answered Hara ; * but a man of 
 your position ought to know something at first hand 
 about the people, their dissipations, and their way of 
 life. Why should you not come with us incognito ? 
 In five minutes I could so disguise you that you would 
 not be recognisable by your dearest friend.' 
 
 ' Do come,' said lollas ; ' it would be delightful.' 
 
 It was strange, but at that moment Aner thought 
 he heard the voice of Hatob. It seemed to be uttered 
 in the lowest whisper, yet it thrilled through him, and 
 it said, ' They know most of evil who know it least.' 
 
 Aner yielded, though unwillingly. A large cloak, a 
 wig, a false moustache, a few other touches which 
 Hara skilfully added, changed his aspect so completely 
 that he hardly knew himself. They drove to the hall ; 
 and when they were there Hara whispered that, to 
 
54 ALLEGORIES 
 
 avoid notice, they must do like the rest and order wine. 
 He took care that it should be of the best, and Aner, 
 uneasy in his present surroundings, took of it freely. 
 
 Phaedra glided upon the stage amid deafening 
 greetings and showers of roses. She was young ; she 
 was undeniably lovely. Her long, perfumed hair 
 floated in waves over her shoulders ; her eyes were 
 large and deep and lustrous, with long dark eyelashes ; 
 her cheek was glowing ; her dress was light and 
 gleamed with jewels ; her every movement in its subtle 
 grace was like voluptuous music. Perhaps under other 
 conditions Aner might have merely looked on with 
 cold curiosity, or even with displeasure. But now the 
 wine had inflamed his senses, and the light and the 
 warmth, and the novelty and the excitement added 
 irresistible potency to the spell of the sorceress. 
 He fixed upon her his burning gaze ; no step, no 
 motion was lost upon him ; and, was he mistaken, or 
 did this fairy vision more than once turn her eyes 
 upon him and answer his passionate and ardent gaze ? 
 
 He was not at all mistaken. Kara had schooled 
 Phaedra well. 
 
 ' How enchantingly lovely ! ' murmured Aner almost 
 to himself ; but Hara overheard him, and laughed in 
 his heart. When the dance was over, he said, ' I know 
 Phaedra a little ; would you like me to introduce you 
 to her ? ' 
 
 * I should like nothing better,' said Aner. 'Is she 
 as good as she is beautiful ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, quite ! ' answered lollas, concealing with 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 55 
 
 difficulty the sardonic smile which it tortured his lips 
 to suppress. 
 
 They went into a luxurious boudoir behind the 
 stage, and Phaedra, who had a brother with her or so 
 she called him whom she introduced by the name of 
 Eutrapelos, received them, though she was still dressed 
 in her jewelled gauze, with the most charming modesty 
 and the sweetest decorum. She knew lollas well, but 
 concealed the fact, and spoke to Hara as a child might 
 speak to an elderly friend for whom it does not much 
 care. It was Aner whom she smote with her most 
 cunning witchery, and dazzled with her most magical 
 smiles. She was perfectly aware who he was, for Hara 
 had told her ; but she carefully concealed her knowledge, 
 and addressed all her remarks as to a casual traveller, 
 not to a great leader of the Porphyrian people. Phaedra 
 was one of those sorceress women of the class to which 
 Queen Cleopatra belonged. Her beauty had in it the 
 same maddening spell as that of her who dragged so 
 many kings and heroes to their ruin. Aner was the 
 last of the visitors to bid her good-bye, for Hara had 
 managed that the others should precede him through 
 the narrow passage. As soon as Hara dropped her 
 hand, Aner seized it, and imprinted on it an impassioned 
 kiss. Hara pretended not to notice it, but he could 
 scarcely control the convulsively malignant amusement 
 which it caused him. That night he went to the 
 secret shrine of Ashmod to report progress, and the two 
 yelled aloud with laughter, till ghosts and dark shadows, 
 and grim fiends and ghastly spectres were disturbed, 
 
56 ALLEGORIES 
 
 and began to flit like vampires about the unhallowed 
 roofs. 
 
 But when Aner was gone, Phaedra turned to her 
 ' brother ' as it was convenient to call him and 
 cried with shrill merriment, ' Good heavens ! what a 
 conquest ! who would have imagined that the dis- 
 tinguished, the eminent, the respectable Aner could be 
 so caught ? This is serious, Eutrapelos. It means 
 nothing less than marriage. An illustrious destiny is 
 before you and me !' 
 
 * Hem ! ' said Eutrapelos enigmatically. ' There 
 are marriages and there are marriages ! ' 
 
 VIII 
 
 BaffKavia yap (f>av\6rT]Tos a/j.avpo'i ra Ka\d.- Wisdom, iv. 12. 
 
 WITHIN a few months thereafter it was publicly an- 
 nounced to the amazed Porphyrians that a marriage 
 was arranged between the beautiful Phaedra, whom 
 all the world admired, and Aner, one of their most 
 illustrious statesmen. Even Ashmod's votaries were 
 astonished. This was indeed bewitchment ! Phaedra 
 might hereafter become a very Lilith or Naama. They 
 repeated the announcement to each other with mean- 
 ing smiles. The faithful subjects of King Elyon were 
 grieved and scandalised. Phaedra had played her part 
 with a skill as marvellous as her dancing. She had 
 passed herself off as an ingenuous maiden of good birth, 
 left an orphan, compelled against her will to support 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 57 
 
 herself by the public display of that poetry of motion 
 which was an inborn gift, and living a quiet and 
 virtuous life under the guardianship of her good 
 brother Eutrapelos. And as for Aner, trusting vainly 
 in his own strength, never looking upwards, forgetting 
 all that was best in the past, he had fallen a hopeless 
 victim to the demon of the noonday. He was infatuated 
 by the fascination of a bad woman. His feeling for her 
 bore no resemblance to holy love. 
 
 Hatob could do but little, for Aner sedulously 
 avoided him. Sometimes indeed Aner fancied that he 
 heard in the inmost caverns of his heart the haunting 
 of a voice which warned and troubled him ; and once 
 when Phaedra had been with him, there came to him, 
 involuntarily, that thrilling whisper, simply recalling 
 to him the words of the neglected and forgotten book 
 which his father had given him : 
 
 ' With her much fair speech she causeth him to 
 yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 
 He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the 
 slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, 
 till a dart strikes through his liver ; as a bird hasteth 
 tojthe^snare and knoweth not that it is. for his life.' 
 
 He was quite unable to prevent the words forcing 
 themselves upon him ; but then he seemed to hear 
 Hara sneering, * Obsolete Pharisaism ! ' 
 
 But the voice would continue, and it said, ' Hearken 
 unto me, therefore, my children, and attend to the 
 words of my mouth. Let not thine heart incline 
 to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath 
 
58 ALLEGORIES 
 
 cast down many wounded ; yea, many strong men 
 have been slain by her. Her house is in the way to 
 hell, going down to the chambers of death.' 
 
 At that moment Hara was announced, and poured 
 out a torrent of felicitations to Aner on the good news 
 that he had won such a gifted, such a lovely bride. 
 * Why, Aner,' he said, 'all the young men are dying 
 with envy of you. They were in crowds at the virtuous 
 Phaedra's feet, and she has shown her calm good sense 
 by rejecting every one of them, and choosing you.' 
 
 The crisis seemed to Hatob so terribly serious that 
 he felt it his duty to interfere. But perhaps his visit 
 was ill-timed. Phaedra, bewitchingly attired, was 
 seated on a rich footstool at Aner's feet. His hand 
 was on her dark locks, enwreathed with gems ; her 
 liquid eyes were upraised to his own. He had been 
 talking over with her the date to be fixed for the 
 bridal day, and all her replies were low, and soft, and 
 sweet. 
 
 It was then that Hatob entered. Phaedra did 
 not feel in the smallest degree embarrassed, but Aner 
 was. 
 
 Let me introduce to you my future bride,' he said 
 to Hatob in a constrained voice. 
 
 ' Did you know her as she is, as all but yourself 
 know her to be, she could never be your bride,' said 
 Hatob gravely. ' You think yourself wise, but you 
 have been egregiously befooled.' 
 
 Phaedra leapt to her feet and uttered a cry. 
 ' Protect me, Aner,' she said, ' from this calumniator.' 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 
 
 59 
 
 'Inquire for yourself, Aner,' said Hatob quietly. 
 ' Mistake not an intoxicating and unhallowed frenzy 
 for a pure and blameless love.' 
 
 ANER AND PHAEDRA 
 
 But Aner's blood ' was ! up and he would not listen. 
 'Leave me,' he cried, 'tormentor, I hate you! For 
 the second time I bid you let me never see your face 
 again.' 
 
60 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 ' One word before I leave you for ever,' said Hatob, 
 ' unless your own will summons me. This word 
 
 ' Not one word,' said Aner ; and as Hatob seemed 
 still about to speak, he seized him by the hair, and 
 would have hurled him out of the room ; but suddenly 
 he caught sight of the sapphire ring, which, after having 
 for a time resumed a certain tinge of lustre, had again 
 blanched to a deathful white. Sensible, by past ex- 
 perience, how solemn was the warning, he felt a shock 
 of agony strike through his nerves. 
 
 Hatob only turned on him a look of the deepest 
 pity. * Farewell, Aner,' he said, without a touch of 
 resentment. * A fool must eat of the fruit of his own 
 ways, and be filled with his own devices.' 
 
 IX 
 
 The wandering of concupiscence doth undermine the simple mind. 
 
 Wisdom, iv. 12. 
 
 SOME time had passed. At first Aner lived as in a 
 delirium of self-deceit. An enchanted dream seemed 
 to wave over his head its wild and fragrant wings. 
 
 Ere six months were spent the dream had ended 
 in ghastly disenchantment. The rustling masquerade 
 was over ; the dread reality began. 
 
 He saw Phaedra as she was beautiful, but partly 
 by artificial aid ; intriguing ; rapacious ; mean, touchy, 
 indescribably commonplace ; habitually untruthful ; 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 61 
 
 domineering ; not to be trusted for a moment ; wholly 
 without intellect, or care for anything intellectual ; 
 immensely extravagant ; panting for outrageous adula- 
 tion ; without a particle of real love for him ; devoted, 
 heart and soul, to any one who would burn at her shrine 
 the thickest fumes of flattery, the one incense which she 
 most loved. And it was to this powdered and painted 
 phantom, whose very hair was dyed, that he had, in 
 infatuated passion, impawned his life. 
 
 She cared in reality for no being in the world ex- 
 cept the handsome Eutrapelos, who, as Aner now dis- 
 covered by accident, was not her brother at all. Aner 
 sternly forbade him, on peril of his life, ever to set foot 
 in the house again ; yet he was tormented by the 
 suspicion that he visited her in secret. 
 
 Every day Phaedra showed herself more plainly in 
 her native ugliness as no longer a siren but a vulgar 
 vixen. She displayed the unutterable odiousness and 
 worthlessness of a character which was nothing but a 
 shallow veneer of surface qualities an assumed charm 
 and simplicity of manner which was but the coloured 
 film over depths of putrescent stagnancy. 
 
 The passion of her life was to win fresh adorers, by 
 once more exhibiting her charms and her dancing on 
 the public stage, under the glare of lamplight. Aner 
 prohibited this with such sternness that she saw it 
 would be impossible. She therefore indemnified herself 
 by giving banquets, preposterously sumptuous, to her 
 crowds of admirers. At these, when Aner was absent, 
 she privately exhibited the dances, which, so far from 
 
62 ALLEGORIES 
 
 seeming beautiful to her husband, now sickened him 
 with disgust at their artificial and voluptuous sameness. 
 
 And this was the creature to whom the demon of 
 the noonday had now linked him by indissoluble ties ! 
 
 At first he had tried to awaken her dormant soul to 
 find if she could be aroused by any topic of human 
 interest. But at once he stood appalled by the depths 
 of an ignorance which, apart from experience, he would 
 have deemed impossible. When he first detected her 
 subterfuges, her ill-concealed passions, her mean in- 
 trigues, he tried expostulation. He might as well have 
 tried to make a rock fruitful by sprinkling it with dew- 
 drops. He began to see that she could only be truly 
 described as earthly, sensual, devilish. When she 
 sailed down in splendid array to the silly and odious 
 circle of male and female admirers with whom she filled 
 his house, she always chose the evening light, which 
 would not betray that her naturally pale cheeks were 
 painted with cinnabar, her eyes artificially brightened 
 with antimony, and her eyelids tinged with henna. 
 When Aner saw her in this guise, she seemed to him 
 barely human. He was filled with a revulsion of loath- 
 ing not to be expressed. 
 
 And, misled by unbridled passion, he had actually 
 wedded this woman to help him to get rid of weariness 
 and loneliness, and thinking that thus he would have 
 a home ! 
 
 Many a shameful and terrible scene took place 
 between them. They were always ended on her part by 
 fits of violence from which he had to protect himself, or 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 63 
 
 by floods of vituperation mingled with words which made 
 him shudder, and by a succession of piercing screams, 
 which, to his intense disgust, caused curious spectators 
 to linger outside the house. Strange tales began to be 
 afloat about the brutality which Aner was asserted to 
 exercise towards that charmer, his lovely and longsuffer- 
 ing wife ! 
 
 The house of Aner became a pandemonium of 
 hopeless wretchedness. The fires of hell were burning 
 upon his hearth. 
 
 At least, however if it were impossible to awaken 
 her to any sense of shame, or to discover in her any 
 decent human quality at least he determined to stop 
 her in the mad career of squandering, which threatened, 
 if unchecked, to exhaust even his wealth, and to reduce 
 him to pauperism. At the morning meal they now 
 used to meet with no greeting, and never looked at 
 each other without an expression of intense mutual 
 aversion, mixed on both sides with vague fear. One 
 day, as soon as the meal was over, she rose to sweep 
 out of the room to the boudoir on which, though it was 
 ugly with the worst incongruousness, she had exhausted 
 the powers of luxury. But Aner bade her stay. He 
 was in a white heat of scorn and indignation. 
 
 1 Woman ! ' he said. 
 
 * Woman ! ' she repeated with a scream ; ' how 
 dare you so address me ? ' 
 
 ' Would you have me call you wife ? ' he said, in a 
 voice which rang with scorn ; ' even the title " woman " 
 is dishonoured by being applied to you.' 
 
64 ALLEGORIES 
 
 She snatched a silver ornament from the table, and 
 hurled it at him, as she had flung such missiles before. 
 It missed him, and with one stride forward he seized 
 her by the two wrists, and, holding her as in a vice, 
 while she trembled at the fury which blazed in his eyes, 
 * Woman,' he said, ' the debts you have already con- 
 tracted are pouring in upon me. That necklace of 
 diamonds which you paraded last night round your 
 neck, those earrings which hung down your painted 
 cheeks ' 
 
 If a look could have killed Aner, surely her glance 
 would here have struck him dead, as she struggled to 
 set herself free ; but he continued ' Those ornaments 
 alone cost as much as a king's ransom. Your other 
 extravagances, equally tasteless and monstrous, would, 
 if continued, bring me before the year is over to utter 
 ruin. This must cease. I have privately sent round to 
 every leading merchant in this part of the Purple Island 
 that no order you give is to be attended to. From this 
 day I take the management of the household out of your 
 hands. I have ordered your horses and carriages to be 
 sold. I have had all the jewels, except those which in 
 my original folly I gave you, sent back or sold. You 
 shall give no more banquets in this house. You shall 
 turn over an entirely new leaf, or, at all costs, I will 
 procure a separation from you.' 
 
 For a moment the blood seemed to congeal in 
 Phaedra's veins, and she grew pale as death. Then, 
 recovering herself, she unpacked her evil heart in such 
 curses and such vile terms as Aner had never heard. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 65 
 
 She rent the house with screams of diabolical rage 
 and disappointment ; lastly, she snatched a knife from 
 the table and aimed a blow with it at Aner's face. 
 Though latterly he had always been on his guard when 
 speaking to her, he had barely time to dash her arm 
 aside ; but she inflicted a gash upon his cheek. 
 
 The many servants of the house, attracted by her 
 screams, had been witnesses of this odious scene, and 
 now some of her female attendants took hold of her 
 and hurried her out of the room. Aner stood there, 
 his wounded cheek streaming with blood, humiliated 
 beyond words to utter. 
 
 For the next week he never saw her. She was 
 shut up in her room, but not a day passed which did 
 not bring him fresh shocks of shame and disaster. The 
 worst was a letter from his colleagues in the Porphyrian 
 Government regretting that, in spite of their high 
 estimate of his abilities, they regarded his marriage as 
 so discreditable, and the scandals which had begun to 
 attach themselves to his name as so flagrant, that, with 
 great regret, they were compelled to request his resigna- 
 tion of his high office. He was thus suddenly and 
 disgracefully hurled down from distinction into insig- 
 nificance. 
 
 The servants gossiped ; the scandals spread. The 
 successful always find intensely bitter critics in the 
 
 malignant. 
 
 It is the penalty of being great, 
 Still to be aimed at. 
 
 Like all public men, Aner had hosts of envious and 
 
 F 
 
66 ALLEGORIES 
 
 unscrupulous enemies who felt a fiendish satisfaction 
 in bespattering his name with nmd. In every organ of 
 news Aner saw himself held up to ridicule or execration. 
 If he ventured into the streets, his acquaintances 
 shunned him, or refused to notice his presence. The 
 secretary of every club to which he belonged sent him 
 a letter saying that a special club-meeting had been 
 summoned, and he had been expelled from member- 
 ship. The most monstrous misrepresentations about 
 him were everywhere rife and everywhere believed. 
 His fair-weather friends fell from him as leaves fall 
 from a tree in winter. It seemed as if past envy left 
 him no single defender. He did not know how to 
 dissipate these calumnies ; he scarcely even cared to 
 do so. And, as a last drop in this thunderstorm of 
 sudden calamities, he heard that one of the great 
 undertakings in which his fortune was invested had 
 unexpectedly collapsed, and that he was only left with a 
 wreck and fraction of his former wealth. Crushed and 
 stupefied by the storm of misfortune, in which financial 
 as well as social ruin were but items, he seemed in 
 his despair to be sinking to the very depths. Too much 
 stunned for consecutive thought smitten and pierced 
 through and through by 
 
 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune 
 
 in the apparent hopelessness and finality of his ruin, 
 he turned once more to the old resource of strong 
 drink. He had broken his vow ; of what consequence 
 was it if he broke it again ? Of what consequence was 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 67 
 
 anything ? Let death come ; whatever it was it must, 
 he thought, be better than such a life as this. The 
 resource of suicide was often present to his mind. His 
 friends seemed to have deserted him unanimously, and 
 he sought no grace, no help. Though sunk to the 
 depths, he would not look up. 
 
 But something must be done ; the future must be 
 arranged for ; his affairs must be settled. It happened 
 that his physician, a good and tender-hearted man, 
 hearing the rumour that he was in evil case, visited 
 him. He found him seriously ill, ordered him change 
 of air, and offered to place him under the care of a good 
 and able young student, who would accompany him to 
 the seaside as a companion. Xenios, the steward whom 
 Hatob had recommended to him, and for whom Aiier 
 had acquired a strong feeling of respect and affection, 
 would nurse him in his present weakness, and, above 
 all, would see that he touched no strong drink. 
 
 x 
 
 Di boni quam male est extra legem viventibus ! quod meruerunt, 
 semper expectant. PETRONIUS. 
 
 BUT, as though he were not already sufficiently ruined 
 body and soul, Hara was anxious to destroy him utterly 
 by goading him to seek revenge. While he was slowly 
 gaining strength and the composure of despair amid the 
 sea breezes, and was summoning his best faculties to 
 meet the new conditions of his life, Hara managed 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ALLEGOBIES 
 
 that a letter, addressed to Phaedra, should, by the 
 intentional misdirection of an emissary in his service, 
 be conveyed to the hands of Aner. He recognised 
 the handwriting of Eutrapelos, and, tearing it open, 
 found that it contained a proposal to Phaedra to fly 
 with him in secret to some far-off place, after she had 
 robbed the house of Aner of every available precious 
 thing which had been left from the shipwreck of his 
 fortunes. 
 
 Jealousy and indignation at this crowning act of 
 treachery determined Aner to hurry back to his house 
 unannounced and at once. At his door he saw a 
 beautiful little child of about four years old, playing 
 among the flowers. He did not stop to notice him, 
 though he felt a vague passing wonder who he was. 
 He rushed in and searched for Phaedra in vain from 
 room to room. At last he bethought him of a distant 
 room in one of the turrets, in which he had amused 
 himself by placing a collection of the arms of every 
 age and nation. He entered, and there, seated on a 
 divan, was Eutrapelos, while Phaedra's arms were 
 round his neck. 
 
 The young man was startled out of his usual self- 
 possession by the sudden interruption. He sprang to 
 his feet. 
 
 ( Phaedra is my wife,' he cried, in his disturbed 
 alarm, as though to defend himself for having been 
 seen with her. 
 
 1 Your wife ! ' exclaimed Aner with fierce indigna- 
 tion. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 69 
 
 1 She was my wife when you first saw her ; the 
 little boy you must have seen outside your door is our 
 son.' 
 
 ' Then I am not married at all/ said Aner. ' Oh, 
 deadly and thrice-accursed villain ! ' He advanced 
 with the deliberate purpose of avenging his wrongs on 
 Eutrapelos, whose lies and deeply dyed treachery had 
 had no small share in accomplishing his ruin. The con- 
 centrated force of his indignation seemed to give him 
 an unnatural calm. He strode to the door, turned the 
 key in the lock, and put it in his robe. Then, taking 
 down two swords which were crossed on the wall, he 
 flung one of them at the feet of Eutrapelos and said : 
 ' Here and now we fight till one of us falls.' 
 
 Eutrapelos did not wish to fight, but he had no 
 choice. An actor by profession, he had been trained 
 in the use of weapons. 
 
 ' Do not fight ! ' screamed Phaedra ; but the two 
 were in such deadly earnest that they did not hear her, 
 and, feeling her impotence, she could only shriek and 
 wring her hands. 
 
 It was clear from the first that the skill of 
 Eutrapelos was thwarted by his sense of guilt, and 
 that Aner's awful indignation made him irresistible. 
 Before long, by a dexterous turn of his arm, Aner had 
 whirled the sword of Eutrapelos out of his grasp and 
 lunged at him. Phaedra realised his danger, and, 
 since Eutrapelos was the only being she had ever 
 loved, she rushed between them in the endeavour to 
 protect him. The result was inevitable. Aner had 
 
70 ALLEGORIES 
 
 no power to stay his arm. The thrust intended for 
 Eutrapelos in fair fight pierced her and she fell. 
 
 There was a horror-stricken pause. Eutrapelos raised 
 her in his arms, and laid her motionless on the divan. 
 
 ' You have killed her ! ' he cried, and with a spasm 
 of fresh fury, in which his eyes seemed to be starting- 
 out of his head, he seized his lost sword and rushed on 
 Aner with mad impetuosity. Aner had barely time to 
 spring back, and the fight began again. Eutrapelos was 
 worsted. As Aner pressed upon him he slipped and 
 fell. In a moment the foot of his outraged adversary 
 was on his breast and his sword-point at his heart. 
 
 Then came to Aner the thrilling whisper, the flash 
 of burning letters, which he always associated with 
 the presence of Hatob. ' Forgive your enemy ' were 
 the words he seemed to hear, and the letters of fire 
 which burned upon his brain were, ' Whoso sheddeth 
 man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' 
 
 He stayed his arm ; he removed his foot from the 
 breast of his prostrate foe. ' Go,' he said, ' I give you 
 your life ; ' and, taking the key from his robe, he un- 
 locked the door. 
 
 ' Murderer ! ' hissed Eutrapelos. ' For this your 
 head shall fall on the scaffold.' 
 
 He turned and fled. Aner walked to the divan 
 where Phaedra lay with the life-blood ebbing from her 
 wound. He tried to stanch it ; then he struck a blow 
 on a great gong, and Xenios came, the faithful steward 
 whom Hatob had chosen, whose advice and help were 
 always wise and good. 
 
THE LIFE STOEY OF ANER 71 
 
 'Attend to her,' he said, pointing to Phaedra. 
 ' Send at once for a physician ; send also for a minister 
 of justice. It was my sword which pierced her, though 
 it was by accident.' 
 
 Xenios summoned Phaedra's attendants. Silent, 
 astonished, full of dreadful surmises, they lifted her 
 apparently lifeless form, and carried her to her room. 
 Aner, his head resting on his hands, lost in anguish 
 and horror, sat motionless, awaiting the summons of 
 justice. 
 
 Two archers of the government came and arrested 
 him. He was led to prison. 
 
 In a few days his trial followed. The judge told 
 him that circumstances looked very black against him. 
 Phaedra had been wounded ; she still lay speechless ; her 
 life was despaired of. It was known that he was on the 
 worst terms with her, and that their quarrels had been 
 frequent and violent. He had been found alone in the 
 room where she fell, his sword wet with blood. There 
 was no evidence produced in favour of what he asserted 
 about the fight and the accident. Evidence less damn- 
 ing had brought many a man to the scaffold. ' Alas ! ' 
 added the compassionate judge, ' who would have 
 dreamed that the brilliant, the famous Aner, one of the 
 leaders of the state, would ever have been reduced by 
 his vices and passions to a position so disgraceful, so 
 deplorable ? But the man who deliberately takes his 
 first bad step soon finds that his path is on the edge 
 of a precipice, where to stop still is impossible, to 
 retreat is ruin, to advance is destruction. Justice 
 
72 ALLEGORIES 
 
 walks with leaden feet, but she strikes with a hand of 
 iron, and her stroke is death.' ] 
 
 Aner, too stricken and too hopeless to plead his 
 own cause, had instructed an advocate simply to tell 
 his unvarnished tale. He disdained to use either 
 argument or appeal. If his destiny were to be averted, 
 it should be by the simple truth ; and if he were con- 
 demned, what could death be except a merciful release 
 to one so wretched ? 
 
 ' Have you any witnesses to produce ? ' asked the 
 judge. ' If your story be true, surely Eutrapelos could 
 be found ; and at least some one must have seen 
 him enter or leave your house.' 
 
 None spoke ; none pleaded for him ; then Xenios 
 rose and asked for a remand. ' There was reason to 
 believe,' he said, ' that Eutrapelos had escaped to a 
 distant part of the Purple Island.' 
 
 A month's remand was granted, and Aner spent it 
 in the dreary prison cell. Then the trial was resumed. 
 It was proved that Eutrapelos, accompanied by a child, 
 had fled proved also that he had carried with him 
 gold and jewels from the house of Aner but he had 
 not been traced. And since it was unquestioned that 
 Phaedra's wound had been inflicted by the sword of 
 Aner, it seemed inevitable that justice should be left 
 to take its course. 
 
 Amid an awful hush the judge had assumed the 
 black cap, and was about to pass sentence of death on 
 
 1 These words were actually addressed by an eminent judge to a well- 
 known criminal. 
 
THE LIFE STOEY OF ANER 73 
 
 Aner, when there was a stir at the door of the court 
 and the wasted form of a woman was carried in on a 
 litter. 
 
 ' Who is this ? ' asked the judge. 
 
 ' It is Phaedra,' answered Xenios, ' who is called 
 the wife of Aner, but was in reality the wife of 
 Eutrapelos. She has something to say.' 
 
 The couch was carried between the judge's chair 
 and the dock of the prisoner. ' What have you to say ? ' 
 asked the judge compassionately. 
 
 She raised her wan hand, and, pointing to Aner, 
 said, amid breathless silence, in a voice scarcely 
 audible : 
 
 ' He has told the truth. He is innocent. I have 
 terribly wronged him. I ran in between them. He 
 did not mean to hurt me. I could not die till I had 
 told the truth respecting the man against whom I have 
 sinned so fearfully.' 
 
 When she had said this she fainted away and was 
 carried out. That night she died. 
 
 The judge consulted his assessors. The intercepted 
 letter which Eutrapelos had written to Phaedra was 
 produced ; other slightly confirmatory evidence was 
 brought forward. Letters were handed into court 
 which Phaedra had given to Xenios, proving that 
 Eutrapelos had promised to be with her in the armoury 
 at the time when Aner had surprised them, and had 
 arranged with her to strip the house of every portable 
 treasure and to fly with their child. 
 
 Aner was acquitted and discharged from prison. 
 
74 ALLEGORIES 
 
 For days he had not uttered a word. He stepped forth 
 a ruined, blighted, haunted man. 
 
 The faithful Xenios conducted him to the house 
 which it would now have been an irony to call his 
 home. As he entered the hall he summoned up energy 
 enough to say, ' Xenios, I have lost all. Sell this house 
 and grounds ; sell all my pictures and works of art ; pay 
 all my servants and discharge my debts. When this is 
 done, let me know ; enough may still be over to support 
 the remainder of my wretched life in deep seclusion.' 
 
 ' Despair not, dear master,' said Xenios. ' Hatob 
 bade me be faithful to you, and I will. You have been 
 a kind master to us all. I will, not leave you in your 
 misfortunes. Pardon me if I dare to t say that you 
 need some one to watch over you.' 
 
 ' I know what you mean, Xenios ; but I shall be far 
 too poor to pay your wages.' 
 
 * Think not of it, sir,' said Xenios. ' I have enough.' 
 
 Aner was touched even to tears. ' Is there,' he 
 thought, ' is there, after all, such a thing in the Purple 
 Island as one disinterested friend? What have all 
 my mouth-friends done for me ? Which of them has 
 helped me ? Which of the old gay companions of my 
 youth showed anything but a cruel rejoicing over my 
 fall ? Which of my many flatterers held out a hand to 
 help me ? Ah, me ! ah, me ! Why did Elyon make 
 such a miserable and worthless race ? Oh, Hatob ! 
 Hatob ! ' 
 
 Scarcely had he uttered the cry when Hatob 
 came. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 75 
 
 ' My Aner,' he said, ' my Aner ! Oh, I am glad 
 that you have summoned me again.' 
 
 Aner could not speak ; he could not even look at 
 Hatob ; he averted his head, while the tears coursed 
 each other down his furrowed face. 
 
 ' Have I ever misled you, Aner ? ' he asked. ' Has 
 not all happened as the King Ely on warned you that 
 it would ? What have you gained by giving your heart 
 to Hara ? Has he bestowed upon you a single blessing ? 
 Has he in one thing showed himself a friend ? ' 
 
 Aner shook his head. 
 
 'All is lies,' he murmured, 'all is treachery, all 
 illusion, all wretchedness.' 
 
 'Not all,' said Hatob. 'When Imrah came to 
 the Purple Island to deliver you and King Elyon's 
 other sons, you know what they made him suffer. 
 But did he despair? And was his life of love less 
 radiant, less lovely, less real ? What has reduced you 
 to this depth of misery ? ' 
 
 ' It is the bitter fruit of those things of which I am 
 now ashamed, Hatob,' said Aner ; ' but, though I am 
 ashamed of them, their poison is in all my veins. I shall 
 go on weakly sinning and half repenting ; loathing what 
 I am, yet continuing to be what I am ; loathing what I 
 do, yet continuing to do what I loathe, till death ends 
 my misery, or begins one yet more awful. Oh, let me 
 curse the hour which called me into existence ! ' 
 
 Hatob spoke not, yet it was as if he spoke, for Aner 
 saw glowing before him the words, ' Lift up thine eyes 
 to the hills, whence cometh thy help.' But Hatob 
 
76 ALLEGOKIES 
 
 let Aner's heart go sorrowing through all the guilty 
 past : from such shame might spring holy sorrow and 
 determined resolution. 
 
 ' Oh, Aner,' he said at last, ' I send the faithful 
 Xenios with you to watch over you, lest you should 
 again relapse into drunkenness. He can guard your 
 habits ; only Elyon can guard, only Imrah heal, only 
 their spirit intercede for your heart. Hope lasts while 
 life lasts. You have read what the poet says : 
 
 Man, what is this ? and why art thou despairing ? 
 God shall forgive thee all but thy despair.' 
 
 XI 
 
 He would have spoke, 
 
 But hiss for hiss returned with forked tongue 
 To forked tongue. MILTON, Paradise Lost, x. 536. 
 
 HABA again visited at midnight the secret grove of 
 Ashmod. Hara was gnashing his teeth with vexation, 
 and Ashmod was in a savage mood. 
 
 ' What are we to do now ? ' asked Hara. ' Again 
 and again from the verge of destruction Aner is snatched 
 from us. I should not wonder if he escaped after all.' 
 
 ' There is yet a chance for our hatred and revenge,' 
 said Ashmod. ' He is wounded already, deeply wounded. 
 We will track him down ; he shall not escape us.' 
 
 ' I tried the imps Flattery and Softness on his 
 youth,' said Hara, ' and they perverted him ; I tried 
 the plausible fiends of Gold and Glitter on his early man- 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 77 
 
 hood and he was entangled by them ; I tried the evil 
 ghoul of Drink and he hopelessly succumbed ; then we 
 agreed to try Lilith, the demon of the noonday, and 
 she fettered him, and he seemed to be ours, body and 
 soul. When she failed, I suddenly turned the fierce 
 spirit Eevenge upon him ; but he forgave his enemy. 
 All our emissaries have more or less succeeded, yet he 
 has at the last shaken them off. He has been des- 
 perately wounded in the house of these his friends, yet 
 at this last moment, after all, Hatob is beside him and 
 the spirit of Imrah, our worst enemy, is wrestling with 
 him to deliver him from me and from his lower self. 
 Had we not better give him up and hunt other game ? ' 
 
 ' I never give up any Porphyrian till he dies,' said 
 Ashmod ; ' warfare with me has no discharge.' 
 
 * Have you an arrow left unbroken in your quiver ? 
 have you yet a demon whom he cannot conquer ? The 
 others, all but the drink-ghoul, have given him up ; 
 and from him, as you know, there is an easy protection 
 which he has tried before, and probably will again.' 
 
 ' I have one potent fiend more,' said Ashmod. 
 
 ' Male, or female this time ? ' asked Hara. 
 
 ' Female.' 
 
 ' Her name ? ' 
 
 ' Akedia, the spirit of moping melancholy and utter 
 weariness of life.' 
 
 Hara clapped his hands. * I know her ; she fre- 
 quents the tombs of the lost. She is death in life. 
 Her home is in the waste places, fertile in sorrow. She 
 lives in darkness which may be felt. She fills houses 
 
78 ALLEGORIES 
 
 with the sound of ghostly footfalls which approach at 
 midnight. She can summon spectre after spectre, gaunt 
 and grey, to stare on haunted men with hollow eyes. 
 She can become a fury, scattering dust and ashes over 
 the blighted garden of human lives. She is own sister 
 to Mania, and at last, in many an instance, hands over 
 her victims to her brother, the demon of Suicide ; and 
 then we triumph.' 
 
 'Yes/ said Ashmod, 'and never was a soul more 
 ready to be her prey than that of Aner. In any case it 
 is something that we have made him grieve the heart 
 of Imrah, and have marred the plans of our enemy 
 Elyon.' 
 
 He had scarcely spoken when thunder crashed over 
 the dark grove. A thunderbolt smote from its pedestal 
 and shattered on the black marble floor a monstrous 
 idol. With a yell Ashmod leapt quaking from his 
 throne, while Hara crouched down and hid himself 
 from the intolerable blaze behind the fragments of the 
 idol, and in that fierce illumination he saw demons 
 clinging together in their fright. The grim temple 
 was filled with sulphurous fumes, and the fiends 
 trembled lest another bolt from heaven should bury 
 them in its ruins. 
 
 But Ashmod soon recovered from his terror ; and 
 next morning Akedia glided forth, robed in tattered and 
 dismal grey, to hide herself in Aner's dwelling and fill 
 it with gibbering ghosts. She glided in unseen, but as 
 she entered he felt a deadly chill congeal his heart. 
 
79 
 
 AKEDIA GLIDED FORTH 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 81 
 
 XII 
 
 Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt, 
 
 Thaw and dissolve itself into a dew, 
 
 Or that the Everlasting had not placed 
 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2. 
 
 ANER had turned his back upon the world of ingratitude 
 and disappointment, of mocking illusions and hollow 
 hopes. He had chosen for his abode a cottage upon the 
 lovely shore of the Purple Island, near a humble fishing 
 village called Klydon. Except Xenios, no one was with 
 him. His riches had made themselves wings and flown 
 away. His mental gifts, devoted mainly to self-interest, 
 had produced little that was not futile. His fame had 
 vanished like the gleams of a meteor in the darkness. 
 He had found that ' smoke and lukewarm water ' was 
 the perfection of friendships based only on the lowest 
 affinities. His pleasures had been as the fragrance of 
 a fruit whose taste is poison, the glitter of a serpent 
 whose sting is death. He had worshipped the idol, 
 self, and now ' the dead idol stretched out its withered 
 hand to a miserable worshipper who had nothing more 
 to give.' 
 
 He gave himself up to misery. He could not rouse 
 himself to seek the grace which could alone redeem the 
 useless perversion of his life. The thoughts of King 
 Elyon had been dimmed within him almost to oblitera- 
 tion. Xenios had purposely saved from the dispersion 
 of his pictures one which represented Imrah, as the 
 Good Shepherd, seated wearily in the stony wilderness 
 
82 ALLEGORIES 
 
 whither he had followed a young strayed lamb. The 
 Fair Shepherd had taken it in his arms, and was 
 nourishing it in his bosom, and underneath was written : 
 
 I did all this for thee : 
 What wilt thou do for me ? 
 
 Aner looked at it sometimes, for it was beautiful as a 
 work of art ; but if it suggested anything to him, he 
 put the thought away. Everything seemed to him too 
 late. The fatal shadows of his past sins walked with 
 him like evil angels. He had reached 'that most 
 disastrous page in the volume of life on which is 
 inscribed the words, "Gratified desires." All that 
 followed was first disenchantment, then ruin, and 
 now a ghastly blank. His youth had vanished like 
 morning dew, and he was possessing its iniquities. 
 His beauty had consumed away, like a moth fretting a 
 garment. He had often regarded as commonplace the 
 age-long cries of human satiety and human disappoint- 
 ment. Now he felt their meaning with all the 
 agonising intensity of personal experience. To him 
 
 Time was 
 
 a maniac scattering dust, 
 
 And Life a fury slinging flame. 
 
 He knew now that life which once looked so full of 
 meaning and blessedness could become no better than 
 
 A tale 
 
 Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 Signifying nothing. 
 
 He had books but of what use was it any longer 
 to read ? what could books bring him ? Much reading 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 88 
 
 became to him but a weariness of the flesh. He had 
 no employment, no aim in life. He had no friends 
 except Xenios, who, though true and kind, could not 
 share his thoughts. He seemed to have sunk out of 
 life before his time. Of what use was life ? of what 
 use was anything? He was haunted by memories, 
 and the sense of enormous loss. Akedia was get- 
 ting possession of him, heart and soul. The whole 
 philosophy of life's experience seemed to him to be 
 summed up in the cry of thrice-doubled emptiness - 
 * Vanity of vanities,' saith the Preacher, ' vanity of 
 vanities, all is vanity.' 
 
 If he could have plucked up courage to summon 
 Hatob to his side for counsel and consultation, all 
 might have been well ; but had he not struck Hatob ? 
 had he not cursed him, and driven him from his 
 presence ? would Hatob care for the withered leaves of 
 so dead a flower as his friendship now ? And how could 
 he call for help to King Ely on ? If he was King Elyon's 
 son, had not Elyon long ago despised and rejected him ? 
 would he not spurn him from his presence as a dis- 
 owned and disinherited rebel, fit only for Ashmod's 
 den ? If he had offered to his high Father, as a flower 
 in the bud, his early years, that would have been an 
 acceptable sacrifice ; but who could care for the gift of 
 flaccid leaves and broken stalks ? Alas ! do not 
 
 Lilies that fester smell more rank than weeds ? 
 
 Yet Hatob did not really desert him. The flash, 
 the whisper, which betokened Hatob 's care for him, 
 
 G 2 
 
8i ALLEGORIES 
 
 came to him again and again. It was Hatob's hand 
 alone which seemed to pluck him back from the edge 
 of the precipice. It was Hatob who, amid his musings 
 of despair, suggested to him the possibility of hope by 
 recalling to his mind at one time such a thought as 
 
 ' Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in me 
 is thy help ; ' 
 and, at another, 
 
 ' If any man sin, it shall be forgiven him.' 
 
 But if, for a moment, the letters gleamed before 
 his imagination, too soon the waves of a sea of darkness 
 seemed to overflow them, and the roar of its devour- 
 ing billows drowned the still small voice. The ocean 
 shore which was the favourite scene of his lonely 
 wanderings tended to deepen his melancholy. The 
 broad waste of wandering foam with its ebb and flow, 
 its meaningless unending murmur, its illimitable and 
 briny barrenness, the aimless and endless plashing of 
 its ineffectual surge was it not an emblem of his 
 futile life ? 
 
 And now Akedia had so thoroughly succeeded in 
 making all the uses of the w r orld seem to Aner to be 
 weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable, that Hara was 
 eagerly awaiting his final success. When Akedia's 
 task was ended, she would hand over Aner to her 
 brother, the fiend of Suicide, and the Purple Island 
 would know him no more. So Hara visited him ; pre- 
 tended to condole with him ; heard, and echoed, and 
 heightened all his complaints, that his life was a 
 dreary and useless burden. Then in a tone of 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 85 
 
 hypocritical sympathy, painting all things even worse 
 than they were, Hara threw out hints about death, 
 which he described as a peace which could never more 
 be broken, a calm refuge, a stormless haven, a dreamless 
 and eternal sleep. 
 
 And just as Hatob often tried to influence Aner's 
 mind by mentally emphasising to him all the best 
 and noblest truths which he had ever read, which he 
 carried in his retentive memory, so Hara had a way of 
 making such lines as these ring in his brain : 
 
 My wine of life is poison mixed with gall, 
 My noonday passes in a nightmare dream ; 
 
 I worse than lose the years which are my all : 
 What can console me for the loss supreme ? 
 
 Thus, over and over again, Aner was tempted to 
 self-murder. How could he go on enduring week 
 after week, month after month these futile yesterdays 
 and wearisome to-morrows ? Of what use was it for 
 him, or for any one else, to groan every morning, 
 ' Would God it were evening ! ' and every evening, 
 1 Would God it were morning ! ' The watchful solici- 
 tude of Xenios had prevented him from taking refuge in 
 drink, and so striving ' to steep his senses in forgetful- 
 ness ; ' but now Xenios had constantly to watch him lest 
 he should seek opportunities for suicide. He carefully 
 moved out of Aner's way everything which might 
 tempt him to a dangerous onslaught upon his own 
 existence. 
 
 But one day when Aner was aimlessly turning out 
 the contents of some old boxes, filled with the relics of 
 
86 ALLEGORIES 
 
 his sold possessions,, he found something which might 
 have fetched a price, but had been accidentally over- 
 looked. It was a dagger with fine point, double-edged ; 
 its handle set with jewels. Xenios evidently did not 
 know that it was there. Aner positively clutched at it 
 and hid it in his robe. 
 
 And now the dagger constantly appealed to him ; 
 floated before his eyes in his sleeplessness ; shone 
 before him at night as with a supernatural glitter ; 
 seemed to offer its jewels to his hand when he felt it 
 beneath his dress where he always wore it. It became 
 like a thing alive ; there seemed to be something devilish 
 in its fascination. The Evil One was upon him ! He 
 would struggle no longer ; he would end it all ! 
 
 He wandered away along the desolate shore. The 
 village of Klydon, near which was his cottage, did not 
 number more than a thousand inhabitants. They were 
 all peasants, for the most part poor fishing people. 
 He rarely walked in that direction. He preferred the 
 sand-dunes with their bright green shrubs, and the 
 yellow sands, and the great rocks and caverns. Often 
 in stormy weather he would watch the billows lash- 
 ing themselves upon the rocks of the headlands, and 
 falling back baffled in sheets of spray, only to come wildly 
 leaping up once more, to be again shattered by the 
 same fate. Were they not an emblem of man's 
 defeated life at any rate of his own ? Did they not 
 
 furnish a living picture of 
 
 the strife 
 
 Of poor humanity's afflicted will, 
 Struggling in vain with ruthless destiny ? 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 87 
 
 And those ever-hungry sea-birds which waved their 
 white wings above the crawling ripples beyond, was 
 not their plaintive cry like an unceasing dirge, wailed 
 over the salt unplumbed sea of life ? 
 
 Sometimes, when Aner desired to be if possible 
 more lonely still, he would plunge into one of the wild 
 glens down which mountain streams forced their rock- 
 impeded course to the sea, where the cormorants built 
 their nests, and over which, in search of prey, the 
 eagles poised themselves on seemingly motionless 
 pinions, or sailed in majestic slowness through the 
 azure air. 
 
 Into one of these glens he wandered on this 
 oppressive afternoon, thinking in his heart that it 
 would be a fitting scene for the deed he meditated. He 
 said to himself that in so rarely visited a nook his body 
 might lie undiscovered for days, till the ravens had 
 picked out the eyes, and the gorged vultures had napped 
 heavily away from the torn flesh, and the wolves and 
 the wild dogs ceased to snarl over the white bones. 
 
 Again the flash, the thrill, the whisper ! If there 
 was one thing about which Aner had prided himself 
 more than another, it was that he was a brave man ; 
 but now the words gleamed before him, and the voice 
 whispered to him : 
 
 When all the blandishments from life are gone, 
 The coward slinks to death, the brave live on. 
 
 It was in vain ! ' Barren verbiage,' he exclaimed to 
 himself ; ' unprofitable morality. It may do for the 
 
88 ALLEGORIES 
 
 innocent and the happy. What can it mean for me ? 
 What profit is there in a doomed and bootless life ? ' 
 
 ' Why need it be bootless ? ' flashed the question. 
 1 Because/ he answered to himself, * its gifts have all 
 been squandered, its opportunities all thrown to the 
 winds, its beauty is consumed away in the sepulchre out 
 of his dwelling. All over my life has been written the 
 doom, " self-destroyed." I cannot face this misery any 
 longer. If death be but a change from monotonous 
 anguish, let the irrevocable come.' 
 
 He was on the point of accomplishing his fell 
 purpose, when a youth, who had been fishing in the 
 upper reaches of the stream, passed by him, touched 
 his cap and bade him 'good-day.' 
 
 It was but a momentary interruption. ' He 'bade me 
 good-day,' said Aner to himself ; 'it is an utterly evil day 
 for me.' And he murmured to himself the lines : 
 
 ' What is good for a bootless " bene " ? ' 
 
 The forester to the lady said. 
 And she made answer, ' Endless sorrow,' 
 For she knew that her son was dead. 
 
 ' Yes, she knew that her only son was dead, and I 
 know that for me every conceivable hope is dead and 
 buried under unfathomable seas.' 
 
 He waited till the youth's figure had disappeared 
 among the windings of the glen, and then resumed his 
 interrupted purpose. 
 
 He drew out the dagger from the folds of his robe. 
 The sun flashed on it ; the light ran and played about 
 the jewels of the hilt ; it looked lovely to him ; he 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 89 
 
 kissed it. And Hara's words came back to him as 
 though Hara himself had said them in his ear : 
 ' Death is a calm refuge, a stormless haven, a dream- 
 less and eternal sleep.' 
 
 He raised the dagger in the air ; it flamed before 
 him in the sunlight ; one instant more, it should be 
 buried in his heart, and all would be over. He did not 
 fear the force or certainty of his own strong stroke. 
 
 And even at the moment when his arm was raised 
 to strike, and his destiny trembled in the balance, and 
 Ashmod and Hara were watching him from a cavern 
 hard by with a fiendish leer upon their faces even at 
 that moment he was startled by a cry of terror. 
 
 Xenios had two children : one, a boy of ten years 
 old, named Krates, a brave, adventurous little fellow, 
 who feared nothing ; the other, named Philos, a 
 lovely child of six. Aner had often noticed them 
 playing at no great distance from him on the shore, 
 sometimes alone, sometimes with other comrades. But, 
 though he had always been fond of children, he had 
 never shown any kindness to them. This disinclination 
 to take the least notice of his little boys was a cause of 
 disappointment to their father, who hoped that their 
 mirth and innocent prattle might sometimes have 
 cheered his master's moody thoughts. Aner, however, 
 had thought to himself, ' I have nothing in common 
 with children now. Why should my soiled unhappy 
 life be like a clouding blight on the blossom of their 
 young days ? They would instinctively shun me ; I 
 should but quench their laughter and spoil their games.' 
 
90 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 The children, however, in their adventurous rambles 
 often liked to be near Aner. They felt a man's pre- 
 sence to be a protection to them amid possible and 
 unknown perils ; and their father and mother rather 
 encouraged them to run and play in the direction he 
 had taken, as it made them feel less anxiety in case the 
 children should fall into any danger. 
 
 The little boys never obtruded themselves on the 
 notice of the sad and solitary wanderer ; but this day 
 also they had followed his steps unobserved, and had 
 been delighted to see him turn into the glen, which 
 since wild creatures were said sometimes to haunt its 
 caverns had for them a certain glamour of fearful 
 mystery, such as they would not have dared to face 
 alone. 
 
 Though he did not know it, they had been within 
 a stone's throw of him when he had flashed his dagger 
 in the sun. Strolling hand in hand behind him, un- 
 heard, unnoticed, they had entered a cave hard by, 
 to look for the crimson and purple sea-anemones which 
 gleamed like flowers round its still pools. But they had 
 only advanced a few steps into its entrance when they 
 saw the green eyes of a wolf glaring through the dark- 
 ness. They turned and fled with screams of terror ; and 
 the gaunt grey wolf, whose midday slumber had been 
 disturbed by the sound of their voices, first lazily shook 
 himself, then showed his white teeth and snarled, then 
 made a bound towards them. There was a huge rock 
 by the cave's mouth, behind which they ran to hide 
 themselves ; but the wolf came sniffing round it and it 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 91 
 
 was at this moment that they raised the second cry of 
 fear, startlingly close to him, which had arrested the 
 uplifted dagger of Aner. 
 
 A glance showed him the situation, and showed 
 him further that, without assistance, one of those 
 fair children could hardly fail to fall a victim to the 
 monster's teeth. 
 
 The shout which he raised seemed to him both 
 involuntary and of quite preternatural strength. It 
 arrested and frightened the wolf ; and Aner, stooping to 
 the ground, hurled at it a mass of rock which lay at his 
 feet; and again seemed to himself to have hurled it 
 with strange force and certainty of aim. It smote 
 the wolf on the head, and brought him half-stunned 
 to the earth. Then Aner his dagger ready to his 
 grasp sprang forward, and with a rush reached the 
 creature's prostrate body, which was still convulsed 
 with fierce spasms. The dagger gleamed in the hot 
 sunlight, and then was dimmed in the wolf's blood, as 
 Aner with strong thrusts pierced it again and again, till 
 it gave one last spasm and was dead. 
 
 The rescue took but one or two moments, and 
 the boys watched it as if magnetised. When they 
 saw that the wolf was dead, the younger child flew to 
 Aner, flung his little arms round his neck, kissed him 
 again and again, and lisped, ' You a good man ! you a 
 dear man ! you saved us from, the horrid wolf.' 
 
 ' But you had a very narrow escape, my child,' said 
 Aner; and, moved by the child's gratitude, and the 
 touch of the soft little hands upon his neck, and the 
 
92 ALLEGORIES 
 
 sweet rosy cheek against his own, he felt the tears 
 course each other down his face. 
 
 ' Don't cry ! don't cry ! ' said the child, still 
 caressing him. ' We safe now ; you a good man, a 
 dear man ! ' 
 
 The elder boy came to him more shyly, but took 
 his hand, and looked up into his eyes and thanked 
 him. ' But for you, sir,' he said, ' the wolf would have 
 killed us both.' The boy looked at the monster's 
 hideous carcase and shuddered. ' May we come home 
 with you ? ' he asked. 
 
 1 Do, my boy,' said Aner, for he saw that the 
 children were still in a state of terror from their recent 
 danger. 
 
 ' And will you carry me ? ' said the little boy. 
 Aner, surprised at himself, took up the little prattler 
 on his arm, while the elder brother held his other 
 hand. 
 
 From the door of the cottage the wife of Xenios 
 saw them coming along the sands. 
 ' Xenios,' she cried, ' look ! ' 
 
 ' What is it ? ' said Xenios, ' an earthquake or an 
 eclipse ? ' 
 
 ' Only look ! ' said his wife ; and when Xenios 
 saw Aner with the arms of one rosy child round his 
 neck, and leading the other by the hand, he was no less 
 glad and astonished than his wife the more so because 
 the oppressed and solitary man seemed to be in animated 
 conversation with both of his young companions. 
 
 Aner felt a little embarrassed when he saw the 
 
THE LIFE STOKY OF ANER 93 
 
 parents watching this unexpected development ; but 
 when the children caught sight of them Krates ran 
 forward, and little Philos wanted to be put dow r n 
 to tell them the wonderful news. The story of the 
 wolf was narrated in a perfect rush of words by both 
 the children, and the father and mother thanked Aner 
 with a transport of gratitude. 
 
 ' Will you take my dagger, Xenios, and clean it for 
 me ? ' said Aner. ' It is red and clotted with the wolf's 
 blood ; and I think, Xenios you had better keep it 
 for me.' 
 
 ' I will, sir,' said Xenios gravely. 'I did not know 
 that you possessed it, but you have made noble use 
 of it.' 
 
 ' I found it a week or two ago,' said Aner, in a 
 rather guilty and conscious tone ; ' but I don't want it.' 
 He left the happy parents and the happy boys, and 
 preserved from a yet worse danger than they he flung 
 himself face downwards on the ground to deplore with 
 tears of shame and penitence his purpose of self-murder, 
 and to give thanks that he had been permitted to do a 
 blessed deed. 
 
 And when he slept he dreamed that his radiant 
 brethren from Elyon's palace tuned for him their golden 
 harps, and sang their brightest melodies ; and that 
 Imrah himself looked gently down on him, and said in 
 a voice of benediction : 
 
 ' Aner, live for others ! ' 
 
94 ALLEGORIES 
 
 XIII 
 A MAN WHO LIVED FOR MEN 
 
 My own hope is a sun shall pierce 
 
 The thickest cloud earth ever stretched ; 
 
 That after last returns the first, 
 
 Though a wide compass round be stretched ; 
 
 That what began best can't end worst, 
 
 Nor what God blessed once prove accurst. BROWNING. 
 
 NEXT morning little Philos came into his room, 
 climbed upon his bed, and kissed him. And when he 
 came down, nothing would content the children but 
 that he should promise in the afternoon to have a 
 game of play with them. They had summoned their 
 little comrades from the village and insisted on his 
 re-enacting the whole adventure of the wolf. The 
 biggest boy in the school was to act the wolf, and 
 Aner with imaginary fierceness had to stun him with 
 an invisible stone, and despatch him with an imaginary 
 dagger. Then he had to tell them stories, and devise 
 games for them, and join in their games ; and the 
 tender winning arts of Philos and the other little 
 ones softened and brightened him, and charmed away 
 his sullen wrath and melancholy. Gradually he grew 
 to love them all as though they were his own children, 
 and to consider all their interests. Seeing their many 
 disadvantages and limitations, he longed to elevate 
 and brighten their poor little lives ; and it happened 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 95 
 
 to him at this time that he received an unexpected 
 increment from the wreck of his fortunes, which 
 placed means at his command. 
 
 Akedia stole back discomfited to the shrine of 
 Ashmod. As she left the threshold Aner felt his heart 
 grow sensibly more warm. 
 
 ' Why are you leaving him ? ' asked Hara, who 
 met the grey spectre as she slunk through the twilight. 
 
 ' He is surrounded by merry and innocent children,' 
 she answered. ' My chance is gone.' 
 
 Step by step Aner became absorbed in the en- 
 deavour to help the village children. He built them 
 a school and a gymnasium. He paid an excellent 
 teacher to give them wise and healthful education for 
 their minds, and a young athlete to train their bodies. 
 He next founded for them a humble technical school 
 in which they were taught the elements of arts and 
 crafts ; so that in a very few years the boys and girls 
 of this village became famed for their usefulness and 
 good training, and obtained employment in the Purple 
 Island far more readily than they would otherwise 
 have done. 
 
 One day a little fellow took him to see his sick 
 father. Aner not only helped and comforted the suffer- 
 ing fisherman, but, using the skill and information he 
 possessed, hastened his complete recovery. He won 
 such a reputation for wisdom that the poor population 
 began to consult him for all their needs. He became 
 the helper, the adviser, the physician, the arbiter 
 of the villagers. He was constantly studying their 
 
96 ALLEGORIES 
 
 happiness. He procured for them seeds and flowers, 
 and fruit trees, and encouraged them to sow and 
 plant, until the seaside village became .famous for its 
 fertile orchards and redolent with blossoming gardens. 
 He had a sheltered harbour built for them, so well 
 planned that it became available for miles along the 
 rockbound coast and saved the fishermen from many 
 a peril of the sea. When the ear heard him it blessed 
 him, and when the eye saw him it gave witness to 
 him. 
 
 But, while all were grateful to him, it was always 
 with the children that he continued to be the prime 
 favourite, and they were nearest and dearest to his 
 heart. During the time which these works occupied 
 he was very happy far happier than he had ever been 
 before. The words of Imrah, ' Aner ! live for others ! ' 
 acted on him as a perpetual incentive and encourage- 
 ment. He was amazed to find how deep was the 
 blessedness of doing good. He had become cynical 
 about human nature in former days, and had come to 
 the conclusion that there was in the world no dis- 
 interestedness, no gratitude. But now he found it quite 
 otherwise. The best qualities of those around him ex- 
 panded into fragrance as a flower unfolds its bloom to the 
 summer sunlight. Not a boy or girl in Klydon who 
 did not love him. The children welcomed his presence 
 with a shout of joy whenever he came among them. 
 They seemed to be weaving round his heart the fresh 
 garlands of their young gladness. And now, to his 
 great joy, Hatob was constantly with him, truest of 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 97 
 
 his counsellors, dearest of his friends ; and Hara rarely 
 came near him, though sometimes he saw his disfigured 
 face scowl upon him from a distance. Once or twice 
 when Hara visited him with cynical sneers and dis- 
 paraging suggestions, calling his life 'provincial and 
 commonplace and goody-good,' and trying to tempt him 
 back to the world and to Ashmod, Aner would break 
 away from him and call for Hatob, or would secretly 
 entreat Ely on to send him help ; and then Hara always 
 turned away and left him. 
 
 And he felt one new source of infinite help and 
 comfort in the fact that the sapphire ring, which for 
 many a long day had been of a deathful white, now 
 began to glow once more faintly at first, but with 
 ever-increasing brightness with the blue of heaven. 
 
 His benefactions had now been so wise, so large, 
 and so eminently helpful, that with the aid of what he 
 had recovered from his wealth he had completely uplifted 
 into prosperity the fortunes of the village. The chief 
 inhabitants combined in a plan to rear for him a 
 memorial of their gratitude, in the form of a statue, 
 under which were to be carved the words : 
 
 'TO ANER THE GOOD.' 
 
 When Aner heard of it he summoned them all to meet 
 him. He thanked them, but begged that they would 
 give him no such title. He was more than repaid by 
 their affection. They had alluded to all which he had 
 tried to do for their children who were present ; but 
 ' Oh, my children,' he said and his eyes grew dim as 
 
 H 
 
98 ALLEGORIES 
 
 he spoke ' I ask no other reward than that you should 
 lift for me your little white hands to Elyon and cry, 
 "0 King, be merciful to thy poor servant Aner." 
 And you, my friends,' he said, 'have contributed your 
 money to raise me a statue. I deserve no statue. I desire 
 no statue. It would only cause me pain. Spend the 
 money on a little beacon light, to be kindled on every 
 dark and stormy night upon yonder jutting headland. 
 There has been many a shipwreck there. If there 
 had been a beacon, some poor vessel might have been 
 saved.' 
 
 They agreed to do this ; and then, as had been 
 preconcerted, the children came up with wreaths and 
 flowers for Aner. The chair on which he sat was 
 heaped around with presents, and his heart was very 
 full. It became almost too full when the sturdy Krates 
 led the boys in three mighty cheers for him, which 
 multiplied themselves many times, and when Philos, 
 who had long been the child of his heart, took his 
 hand, and sang in his sweet voice a song which had 
 been written in his praise. 
 
 When all the rest joined in the chorus, and the air 
 thrilled with the intense sincerity of many voices, Aner 
 had to hide his face in his hands that they might not 
 see his tears. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 99 
 
 XIV 
 A MAN WHO DIED FOR MEN 
 
 * You would not let your little finger ache 
 For such as these ! ' ' But I would die ! ' she said. 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 THE turret which was to bear on its summit the 
 beacon light was begun at once ; but before it 
 could be finished there occurred one of the terrific 
 storms which thundered for leagues along that iron 
 coast. The villagers were roused by the news that a 
 vessel had been driven upon the headland. The shrieks 
 of the helpless crew were heard above the rage of the 
 elements, and without help which it seemed impossible 
 to give every soul on board must perish. Almost 
 the whole population of Klydon hurried to the head- 
 land, and with them Xenios and Aner. The vessel, 
 a fine and large one, had run upon an isolated rock 
 at a little distance from the end of the headland. The 
 wreck crashed, and creaked, and shuddered, and swayed 
 to and fro, as billow after billow burst over it and 
 buried it in deluges of blinding foam. It was 
 certain that very soon it must be dashed to pieces. 
 After a short space the shrieks were heard no more ; 
 but clinging to the shrouds of the mainmast, when for 
 a moment the full moon gleamed through some rift 
 in the black clouds, were just visible the figures of a 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ALLEGORIES 
 
 man, and of a 'boy who clung to him apparently the 
 sole survivors left upon the wreck. 
 
 The horror of the position, the knowledge that one 
 of the survivors was a child, agonised the hearts of all 
 the spectators ; but what could be done? no boat could 
 live for a moment in that hell of waters. 
 
 ' Oh, they must be saved ! they must at all costs 
 be saved ! ' cried Aner, wringing his hands. ' A large 
 reward for any sailor or fisherman who will rescue 
 them ! ' 
 
 No one dared to face so frightful a peril, and Aner 
 seemed to hear a voice saying to him, ' Would you risk 
 the lives of others and not your own ? Most of these 
 poor men have wives and children. You are alone in 
 the world.' 
 
 'I am,' he answered aloud. 'Xenios, tie this long 
 rope tightly round my waist. It will reach to the rock 
 on which the ship has struck. I will try to save those 
 two poor wretches.' 
 
 ' It will be awfully dangerous, sir,' said Xenios. 
 
 ' I know it,' said Aner ; ' but I am a strong swimmer 
 and a skilled diver ; and I am quite calm, and there is 
 a chance.' 
 
 'Don't be such an utter and amazing fool,' hissed 
 the voice of Hara, who had crept up to him unseen in 
 the darkness. 'What is the unknown man to you? 
 Think how useful you are ! Besides, it will be suicide 
 over again.' 
 
 ' It will be nothing of the kind,' said Aner. ' To 
 die in the effort to save others is not suicide ! ' And as 
 
THE LIFE STOEY OF ANER 101 
 
 he turned resolutely from Hara, the flash, the throb, 
 the whisper, which he associated with the thought of 
 Hatob, came to him, and therewith the picture of 
 Imrah, and the words : 
 
 I did all this for thee : 
 What wilb thou do for me ? 
 
 It decided him. ' Tie the rope round me, Xenios,' he 
 said for Xenios had hesitated ' and fear not.' While 
 it was being tied, the boy Philos clung to him, and 
 amid the tumult of the crowd Aner heard him sob 
 forth, ' Oh, don't go ! don't go ! my second father, 
 what should we do without you? Look at those 
 waves ! ' And indeed as he spoke in tempestuous 
 force, as though with the rush of thousands of white 
 leaping steeds, and with blinding, drenching cataracts, 
 of spray, a huge breaker shattered itself to pieces on 
 the rock, and, with a roar and hiss, flung its scarcely 
 expended fury almost at their feet. 
 
 Aner raised Philos in his arms and kissed him. 
 ' Lift your innocent hands to Heaven for me, my child,' 
 he said ; and, as the breaker was falling back into the 
 deep, conscious of all his danger, commending himself 
 to Elyon in one agony of prayer, he plunged, and dived 
 through the next billow before it burst. In the dim 
 light the people, with beating hearts, saw him reach 
 the rock, clutch it with his hands, and climb the 
 vessel's side. He quickly mounted the mast and 
 took the child from the man's arms. 
 
 ' No time for words,' he said to the child. ' Cling to 
 my back ; let nothing make you let go. ... Now ! ' 
 
102 ALLEGORIES 
 
 He had watched his opportunity after the burst of 
 another monstrous billow ; he dived through the swell 
 of the next, and struck out with mighty strokes. The 
 trained and hardy fishermen ran down the rocky 
 shingle in the wake of the ebbing wave, and as they 
 hauled at the rope, he was drawn safely to shore, battered 
 indeed, and hurled about by the storm, but safe. The 
 boy whom he had rescued had lost consciousness. 
 ' Attend to him, Xenios,' he said, ' and, if I perish, train 
 him with your own sons.' 
 
 ' Surely, surely you will not brave that awful 
 struggle again, sir ? ' said Xenios ; and the rough fisher- 
 men thronged round and tried to dissuade him. One 
 or two even offered to go in his place. 
 
 The wind yelled, the sea seemed more and more 
 like a host of hungry demoniac monsters ; but Aner 
 only pointed to the figure which still was visible on 
 the summit of the swaying mast, and they saw in his 
 eyes the light of an unquenchable determination. 
 
 ' Do not hinder me, my men,' he said. ' I have saved 
 one life ; perhaps it may be granted me to save the other.' 
 
 Again he plunged and swam, and even amid the 
 tumult of billow and hurricane he heard the burst of 
 excited cheers which the crowd raised when they saw 
 him once more reach the ship and climb the mast. 
 
 ' Can you swim ? can you help to save yourself ? ' 
 he asked the solitary survivor. 
 
 ' I cannot,' was the answer in tones strangely 
 familiar to Aner ; ' I am almost benumbed. I can 
 scarcely even hold on to the mast.' 
 
ANEK RESCUES PHAEDROS 
 
THE LIFE STOKY OF ANER 
 
 105 
 
 Who was it ? Did not Aner know that voice ? A 
 gleam of moonlight shone for an instant on the man's 
 face through the ragged rift of black clouds, and Aner 
 recognised Eutrapelos. ^ Had he also recognised in 
 Aner the man whom he had so fearfully wronged and 
 almost done to death ? 
 
 He had ! He too had been startled by the familiar 
 voice, and the sudden gleam had revealed to him the 
 features of Aner. 
 
 ' Go ! ' he said ; ' leave me to my fate. Have you 
 come to torment me before the time ? ' 
 
 ' Not to torment you, Eutrapelos,' said Aner very 
 gently, ' but to save you ; or if need be to die with you.' 
 
 ' God ! ' groaned Eutrapelos. His hands relaxed 
 their grasp on the shrouds ; he would have fallen faint- 
 ing : but Aner upheld him, tied one coil of the rope 
 round him, supported him on one strong arm down the 
 mast to the edge of the rock and plunged. He knew 
 that it was but a forlorn chance : but the distance from 
 the shore was not great ; the rope might drag them 
 safely in. 
 
 Alas ! as though in revenge, the huge wave swept 
 and tossed them hither and thither, and smote them 
 down, and rolled their bodies over on the rocks ; and 
 when it flung its expended violence on the shore, and 
 the fishermen were at last able to draw them in, Aner 
 was unconscious and dying, Eutrapelos was dead. 
 
 It was a thrilling scene. The boy whom Aner 
 had saved was the son of Eutrapelos and Phaedra, and 
 when he saw his father lying dead, he flung him- 
 
106 ALLEGORIES 
 
 self upon the battered corpse and kissed the bleeding 
 face and raised piteous cries. But round the dying 
 Aner multitudes gathered with loud wailing. The 
 women tore their hair and wrung their hands ; the 
 children were all weeping ; even the brown faces of 
 strong men were bathed in tears, as they lifted their 
 friend and benefactor most gently in their arms and 
 laid him on a litter and carried him to his home. But 
 it was most of all pitiable to see the two sons of Xenios. 
 Krates, the elder boy, was sobbing as if his heart 
 would break ; Philos was clinging to the cold hand 
 which hung from the couch, and kissing it again and 
 again. He was very pale, and too deeply moved even 
 for tears. 
 
 They took Aner to his room. All that devoted 
 tendance could do was done ; but for many hours the 
 dark eyes remained closed, no gleam of consciousness 
 returned to them. 
 
 Yet while Aner lay there, seemingly without life, 
 unable to speak or stir, he was aware of the love and 
 tenderness of his weeping friends, and all other feelings 
 were lost in a deep sense of peace. He felt as if Hatob 
 were beside him and were holding him by the hand, 
 and smiling on him with that smile which had seemed 
 so radiant to him when he was a boy ; and he saw, or 
 seemed to see, Imrah himself standing patiently by 
 his bedside waiting for him, and shedding on him the 
 light of his countenance, in which was unimaginable 
 beatitude. 
 
 Only at the last did Aner recover consciousness. 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 107 
 
 His eyes opened. Xenios was watching him in speech- 
 less sorrow. 
 
 ' Xenios,' he said in his weak voice, ' my true and 
 faithful friend, I am leaving you. I am going home. 
 I bequeath to you all that I possess. Bring your children 
 here, and the boy whom I saved from the wreck.' 
 
 They came. The boy had all the beauty of his 
 mother, Phaedra. ' What do they call you, my little 
 lad ? ' asked Aner. 
 
 ' They called me Phaedros,' said the boy ; ' but they 
 are dead.' 
 
 ' Elyon leaves none orphans who seek him, my boy. 
 Xenios will be your father ; his sons your brothers. 
 Kesist evil. Live for others and you will be happy. 
 And you, my Krates,' he said, ' set Phaedros a good 
 example and be very kind to him.' He laid his right 
 hand on the head of Phaedros, his left on the 
 head of Krates, and blessed them tenderly. Then he 
 folded his arms round his little Philos, breathed one 
 prayer for the weeping child, blessed him, and bade 
 them all farewell. 
 
 Xenios alone remained with him. 
 
 ' Xenios,' he murmured, ' I am happy, very happy. 
 Do you know who that boy is ? ' 
 
 'No, sir,' said Xenios. 
 
 ' He is,' said Aner, ' the son of her whom I once 
 called my wife. . . . And do you know who was the 
 man whom I tried to save ? ' 
 
 ' Was he ? ' Xenios hesitated before he uttered 
 
 the name. 
 
108 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' I see that you have guessed aright,' said Aner. 
 ' Yes ! he was my worst enemy, Eutrapelos ; and I am 
 so happy that he knew before he was drowned that it 
 was I who had tried to save him.' 
 
 ' Forgiving and forgiven, beloved master ! ' sobbed 
 Xenios. 
 
 ' Farewell, Xenios,' whispered Aner, barely able to 
 speak any longer. ' Do not weep for me. I am happy 
 at last. If this be death, it is not nearly so hard a 
 thing to die as I thought it was.' 
 
 A moment later Xenios saw Aner half rise from his 
 bed, while a light, as of heaven, gleamed on his coun- 
 tenance and shone from his yearning eyes. 
 
 ' Oh, my Father ! ' he cried, ' forgiven ! forgiven ! 
 Cherubim and Seraphim ! ' He opened his eyes wide . 
 then the light faded from them, and he sank back dead, 
 with a happy smile upon his lips. 
 
 The whole population of Klydon, in deepest sadness, 
 accompanied by all the children weeping for him, 
 followed his body to the tomb where they laid him ; 
 and on it they inscribed, ' To Aner, our Benefactor.' 
 
 But Aner seemed to himself to be on a black barge, 
 on a dark and illimitable sea, and at first there was 
 an awful hush. Then he became conscious that 
 Hatob held him by the hand, as the bark glided 
 over the waveless depths. Scarcely daring to break 
 the silence, yet he whispered, * Whither ? ' And Hatob, 
 
TWO BKIGHT FORMS MET HIM 
 
THE LIFE STORY OF ANER 111 
 
 without speaking, pointed him to the horizon. There, 
 on one spot of the dark sea, blazed a glory as of sun- 
 shine. Towards this the bark sped. And as it sped 
 and he sat silent, he thought that he heard .the low 
 sweet voice of Hatob singing to him the words of a 
 poet whom he had known : 
 
 When on my day of life the night is falling, 
 
 And in the winds, from unsunned spaces blown, 
 I hear far voices out of darkness calling 
 My feet to paths unknown. 
 
 I have but Thee, my Father ; let Thy Spirit 
 
 Be with me then to comfort and uphold ; 
 No gate of pearl, no branch of palm, I merit, 
 No street of shining gold. 
 
 Suffice it if my good and ill unreckoned, 
 
 And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace 
 I find myself by hands familiar beckoned 
 Unto my fitting place. 
 
 Some humble door among Thy many mansions, 
 
 Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease, 
 And flows for ever through Heaven's blue expansions 
 The river of Thy peace. 
 
 There, from the music round about me stealing, 
 
 Soon may I learn the new and holy song, 
 And find at last beneath Thy trees of healing 
 The life for which I long. 
 
 The bark touched the shore. No trumpets sounded 
 for him on the other side, but two bright forms, clad 
 with wings, met him and took him by the hand. They 
 clothed him in white raiment. They entered a gate 
 of pearl, and through a sea of heavenly light {ie saw a 
 
112 ALLEGORIES 
 
 rainbow round a throne, in sight like unto an emerald. 
 Aner flung himself upon his face. The wounded hand 
 of Imrah raised him, and when he dared to look up 
 he saw the glory of his Father's countenance, and 
 his Father smiled on him, and welcomed his weary 
 wanderer home. 
 
113 
 
 THE CHOICE 
 
 Before man is life and death : whether him liketh shall be given 
 him. Ecclus. xv. 17. 
 
 Dein Schicksal ruht in deiner eigner Brust. SCHILLEK. 
 
 THERE were three youths among the Porphyrians, in 
 a region of the Purple Island different from that of 
 which we have spoken ; for the Porphyrians had among 
 them various nations and communities and languages. 
 
 The names of these three youths, who knew each 
 other well, and had passed through a similar education, 
 were Faber, Festus, and Fidelis. Their fathers were 
 men of the middle rank of life, neither poor nor rich, 
 neither noble nor plebeian. They could give their sons 
 the best of educations up to early manhood ; after that 
 the youths were compelled of necessity to be the 
 architects of their own fortune, the arbiters of their 
 own ; destiny in the Purple Island, and thereafter. 
 
 These three youths had just been emancipated from 
 tutors and governors, and now stood on the marble 
 threshold of their manly years. They had in them- 
 selves the materials for success, or the germs for 
 
 I 
 
114 ALLEGORIES 
 
 future failure. They were free to make or mar the 
 conditions of their existence. 
 
 The world was all before them where to choose 
 their place of rest ; and Providence would be their Guide 
 if they did not prefer to take the guidance into their 
 own weak hands. 
 
 All three had on their faces the charm of youth ; 
 but otherwise they were very different in appearance. 
 The face of Faber was striking. His open brow was 
 surrounded by short waves of dark hair. The ex- 
 pression of his lips was firm; there was a look of 
 command in his eyes ; you felt that, whatever errors he 
 might commit, he would do nothing ignoble. Upon 
 the face of Festus, on the other hand, there was a 
 somewhat soft and effeminate expression. His light 
 hair was parted in the middle and broke into a tangle 
 of curls over his forehead ; his lips were full and 
 tremulous ; his glance wandered from place to place. 
 His manner was caressing. The third youth, Fidelis, 
 was not in the least handsome, as the others were, but 
 he looked the picture of health and honest manliness : 
 on all who spoke to him he left the impression of 
 courtesy and modest strength. 
 
 They were taking a brief holiday before entering on 
 the task of earning their own living. They had spent 
 this delightful interspace of leisure in wandering 
 among the wildest scenes of the Purple Island, seeing 
 places of fame or beauty, which it might not be their 
 chance ever to revisit. 
 
 In the course of these wanderings they had come to 
 

 THE WISHING WELL 
 
 J 2 
 

 THE CHOICE 117 
 
 a remote village, where the present inhabitants were 
 still given to obsolete superstitions. In this village 
 was a well, known as the Wishing Well. You had but 
 to drop a pebble into its depths, the villagers said, and 
 to wish for anything you liked while it was sinking to 
 the bottom ; if the patron spirit of the well approved 
 of you, your wish would be granted. 
 
 The three youths stood beside the well. 
 
 ' If people really believed in this well,' said Faber, 
 'I should think that it would have been choked up 
 with pebbles long ago, for human desires are as in- 
 satiable as hunger or the sea.' 
 
 'Perhaps the well is fathomless,' said Festus. 'At 
 any rate, don't let us miss a chance. Here goes my 
 pebble, and I make my wish.' 
 
 'It's all nonsense, I believe,' said Faber, smiling. 
 ' Nevertheless I always succumb to this nonsense. I 
 always make a wish when I see a piebald horse, and I 
 always turn my money in my purse when I hear the first 
 cuckoo. So here goes my pebble, and I make my wish.' 
 
 'Now, Fidelis,' said his two companions, 'in with 
 your pebble ! ' 
 
 ' Not I,' said Fidelis, laughing, 
 
 ' Ah,' said Festus, ' he is a philosopher, or a cynic, 
 or something of that sort. He rises superior to our 
 weak credulity.' 
 
 ' I am not what you say, Festus,' he answered, 
 ' though I believe in the well as little as you. Yet 
 that is not my reason for not throwing in the pebble.' 
 
 ' What then ? ' 
 
118 ALLEGORIES 
 
 'Because I have no particular wish to make.' 
 
 ' No wish ! ' said Faber ; ' I have a multitude of 
 devouring and consuming wishes.' 
 
 1 No wish ! ' said Festus, ' while there are hundreds 
 of delights which others enjoy, and which are wholly 
 beyond your reach and ours? What a Phoenix you 
 must be ! ' 
 
 ' Well,' said Fidelis, * if you really press me, I must 
 say that most things men wish for are banes, not boons. 
 You know how one poet said, long ago, that the easy 
 gods have overthrown whole families at their own desire, 
 and another that man is dearer to the gods than even 
 to himself, and that it is better to leave our destinies in 
 their hands ; and another, still more wisely 
 
 We, ignorant of ourselves, 
 
 Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
 Deny us for our good. So gain we profit 
 By losing of our prayers.' 
 
 ' Oh, spare us, spare us ! ' said Festus. ' When 
 Fidelis begins to quote the poets, it's all up with 
 ordinary mortals. He pours them on us in cataracts.' 
 
 1 Whom could I quote more usefully ? ' asked 
 Fidelis good-humouredly. ' Who are sweeter or wiser 
 teachers of what is pure and good? But without 
 quoting any more poets though, after all, they only 
 sum up the universal experience which all know and 
 all ignore you will hardly deny that men, like rats, 
 often ravin their own proper bane.' 
 
 ' There he goes ! He quotes a poet even while he is 
 saying he won't quote any more ! ' said Festus. 
 
THE CHOICE 119 
 
 ' Do you really mean to tell us, Fidelis,' said Faber, 
 ' that you are quite content with everything as it is ? ' 
 
 ' I am by no means such a vain creature as to be 
 perfectly content with myself, Faber, if you mean that ; 
 but, as regards all else, I am content so far.' 
 
 ' I am not,' said Faber frankly. ' You and I are 
 going to enter into professions. We shall toil and 
 drudge for years, and perhaps only "perhaps" after 
 all this dust and desk- work, when youth is over, when 
 life has become stale ' 
 
 'When,' interpolated Festus, 'pleasure has lost all 
 deliciousness, and the roses are withered, and fruits 
 have lost their savour.' 
 
 'When,' continued Faber, 'the almond tree shall 
 flourish, and the grasshopper be a burden, and desire 
 shall fail then we shall possibly only " possibly " 
 have made enough to live on, not in splendour, perhaps 
 barely in comfort, but only in a grinding and degrading 
 mediocrity of struggle and anxiety, while thousands of 
 fools, born with golden spoons in their mouths, welter 
 in dull abundance and are promoted without an effort 
 to the highest offices.' 
 
 ' Who are the cynics now ? ' said Fidelis. ' What 
 a dismal picture of life ! I don't accept it. To you, 
 Faber, I say not to Festus, as he hates poetry 
 
 The sunshine and the shadow of our lives 
 Are less in our surroundings than ourselves.' 
 
 ' Well, then,' said Faber, ' why don't you wish 
 something about your own self ? ' 
 
120 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' That does not come by wishing, Faber, but by 
 willing. One can't yawn it into being while one lolls 
 on flowery beds.' 
 
 1 There he goes, quoting two more poets in one line ! ' 
 said Festus. 
 
 ' Never mind what Festus says, ' said Faber. ' Go on. ' 
 
 'I don't want to bore you,' said Fidelis, 'but you 
 know, as well as I do, that we have to make our true 
 selves ; we have to acquire ourselves.' 
 
 'What is the good of oneself,' asked Festus 
 scornfully, 'if one can't enjoy oneself? Lest you 
 should think that you have the poetry all to yourself, 
 
 I say 
 
 ' Go live your life, and be yourself, 
 And take the goods the gods provide ; 
 
 "pluck the blossom of the flying day." 
 
 'It wasn't I who brought on this conversation, 
 Festus,' said Fidelis ; ' but as to your question, the 
 answer depends on what you call "enjoyment" and 
 what you mean by " oneself." Do you mean by " self ' ; 
 a bundle of passions, or something more divine ? Do 
 you mean by "yourself" a human animal or a child 
 of light? Do you mean a hunger, a thirst, a fever, 
 an appetite, or ? ' 
 
 ' Bah ! ' said Festus, interrupting, ' I am what I am. 
 We are not now in a sermon-house.' 
 
 'Be it so. Pardon my involuntary sententious- 
 ness. Well, I will only say to Faber, who is not 
 quite so impatient as you are, that, as far as I can 
 make out, there is quite as much real happiness in the 
 
THE CHOICE 121 
 
 struggling middle class, to which we all three belong 
 yes, and even " in huts, where poor men lie " as among 
 the rich and great. I say with the old lame slave who 
 was dear to the immortals, " Give me the man who is 
 poor and yet happy ; sick and yet happy ; despised and 
 yet happy ; slandered and yet happy ; persecuted and 
 powerless and yet happy. He is a true man." What 
 is best for us is given us, and the best is good enough.' 
 
 ' Old saws,' sneered Festus. 
 
 ' Yes, and modern instances too, Festus, as we may 
 all three live to find.' 
 
 ' I won't be so brusque as Festus,' said Faber, ' but 
 is not the line you are taking rather ideal ? ' 
 
 ' Is it idealism to be content, Faber ? On the con- 
 trary I prefer the realism of attainable happiness to 
 wild and deluding hopes. Having light enough for 
 present purposes, I don't want to clutch at the stars.' 
 
 ' You are a Stoic,' said Festus, ' and no doubt 
 believe that your wise man would be happy even while 
 he was howling in the red-hot Bull of Phalaris. But 
 if only you had a beard, I would pull your beard as the 
 boys in Home used to do when they heard some ragged 
 Stoic boasting that he was a king.' 
 
 'Luckily, as you say, I have no beard yet,' said 
 Fidelis laughing. ' But you have dropped your pebbles 
 into the well and wished ; and, though you have been 
 very rude to me, Festus, yet, if the granting of your 
 wishes would be a boon, I will wish that your wishes 
 may come true. But now you see that beacon on the 
 hill ? I will race you both there, and will not tire you 
 
122 ALLEGORIES 
 
 any more with my sermons, as Festus calls them, for 
 which I ask your pardon.' 
 
 Festus began the race for a short distance, and then 
 stopped, saying, * Far too much trouble : why should I 
 bother myself, when there is not even a crown of 
 parsley or of olive to be won by it ? ' So, while he 
 lagged hopelessly behind, the other two ran a close 
 race, until Fidelis got clearly ahead and seated himself, 
 laughing, under a shady tree. Faber came up, not at all 
 pleased at having been beaten. But he was soon put 
 into a good humour again, for Fidelis did not triumph 
 over him, and only attributed his victory to the fact 
 that Faber carried more weight. 
 
 II 
 
 Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. CAESAR, De Bell. Gall. iii. 18. 
 Cursed with every granted prayer. POPE. 
 
 FROM the hill-top they saw the little village where they 
 were to sleep that night, and they made their way 
 thither. 
 
 It was- an enchanting spot. The sea there was 
 pure and uncontaminated, varying hour after hour from 
 bright green and purple to sapphire blue. It was a 
 delight to watch the sea-birds sailing over it, or resting 
 on its heaving bosom, and to listen to its unending 
 laughter, and see its wavelets as they plashed in the 
 evening light in rainbow lustre upon the sandy shore. 
 
THE CHOICE 123 
 
 After they had refreshed themselves, the three 
 youths wandered out to a headland which jutted into 
 the sea. Here they separated, and each chose his own 
 place where to sit and watch the splendour of the sun as 
 it set into the encrimsoned waves, while they breathed 
 the balm of the fresh evening air. 
 
 Faber climbed down the cliff and seated himself 
 on the rocks at the utmost point of the headland, 
 where there was nothing in front of him but the restless 
 waters. He had taken with him a book of the stories 
 of heroes and kings, and how they had reared their 
 trophies ' on the neck of crowned fortune proud.' 
 ' While as for me,' he thought with a sigh, ' I seem 
 doomed to a life narrow, limited, of low and dim 
 horizon ; and then,' he added, flinging a piece of rock 
 into the sea, ' I shall sink into the waters of oblivion 
 like that rock, and shall very soon be quite as much 
 forgotten as if I had never been like those ripples which 
 the wave obliterates almost as soon as they are formed.' 
 
 Had the .stone which he had flung disturbed a spirit 
 from the deep ? It might have seemed so ; for im- 
 mediately he saw a figure as of a man approach him, 
 luminous and shadowy, of stately aspect, but of some- 
 what troubled brow. 
 
 1 Youth ! ' said the Spirit, ' I was beside thee at the 
 well. I read thy thoughts ; I heard thy unuttered 
 meditations. Listen ! It has been permitted me to grant 
 to men the thing that they desire. Even without 
 personal experience, they might, if they chose, judge 
 what is good and what is harmful. Nor are my gifts 
 
124 ALLEGORIES 
 
 supernatural. All men are, on the whole, what they 
 desire to be ; and, more or less, all men may obtain the 
 things for which they strive. Choose, then, for thine 
 own life, what thou dost most desire.' 
 
 For a moment Faber was silent, for some of the 
 things which Fidelis had said came into his mind. 
 
 ' Thou dost well to pause,' said the Spirit. ' Let 
 thy choice be deliberate. Before yon sun has set, I 
 will return; and then if thou wilt receive at my 
 hand the amulet which will give thee thy choice be 
 it riches, or pleasure, or fame, or power.' 
 
 FESTUS 
 
 doTTjpi/CTOus. 2 Pet. ii. 14. 
 Sua cuique deus fit dira cupido. VEKG. JEn. ix. 185. 
 
 WHILST Faber had been climbing over the steep crags 
 to reach his rocky throne, Festus had chosen out the 
 sunniest place he could find, where the moss was softest, 
 and the flowering thyme most fragrant ; and there he 
 had flung himself down at full length in the easiest of 
 postures. He had taken with him a loose, voluptuous 
 fiction, base and morally effeminating. It was one 
 of those utterly pestilent books which call evil good, 
 and good evil, and paint the gates of hell with Para- 
 dise. In this vile book, which, had he been wise and 
 manly, he would have flung at the first page into 
 the fire, or, even now, ere he had fully imbibed its 
 
THE CHOICE 125 
 
 poison, would have kicked with indignation into the 
 purging brine in this poisonous pasture of the devil- 
 Greedily he engorged without restraint, 
 And knew not eating death. 
 
 And when he shut it up, to roll its evil taste like a 
 delicious morsel under his tongue, he suddenly heard a 
 ripple of laughter. Looking up he saw one of Ashmod's 
 spirits close beside him, not shining, but rosy and in 
 radiant garb, and with long golden hair floating in the 
 evening breeze. He tried to grasp her hand, but 
 
 ' Oh, no ! ' she said ; ' I have come to grant you the 
 wish you made by the well.' 
 
 ' How do you know it, lovely maiden ? ' he asked. 
 
 'Never mind that/ she answered. 'Enough that 
 now, if you like, you may choose what you will have, 
 and what you choose shall be given you.' 
 
 Festus paused as Faber had paused. Even to his 
 indolent and frivolously self-indulgent nature it seemed 
 too serious a thing to decide at once for he felt that the 
 promise carried in it the potency of its own fulfilment. 
 Could he really dare to state what he would choose for 
 the portion of his entire life in the Purple Island ? 
 
 ' As you like,' cried the bewitching spirit. ' I shall 
 disappear ; but before the sun touches the wave with 
 his lower rim you must be ready to decide, or I withdraw 
 my offer to grant you the wish you made when you 
 dropped your pebble into the well.' 
 
 She turned away; but the mind of Festus was 
 throbbing with the evil images and suggestions of the 
 
126 ALLEGORIES 
 
 book in which he had voluntarily been reading himself 
 to death, and he called after her : ' Stay ! stay ! you 
 are not deceiving me ? ' 
 
 1 Not in the smallest degree,' she said. ' Choose or 
 refuse exactly as you like. It is absolutely in your 
 own power.' 
 
 ' But you will want me to sign some bond to sell 
 my soul, or something of that sort ? ' 
 
 ' Not one syllable,' she answered with a shrill and 
 scornful laugh. But Festus still hesitated, 
 
 Letting ' I dare not ' wait upon ' I would,' 
 Like the poor cat i' the adage. 
 
 At last he cried out : ' Come back before the sun begins 
 to set ; but I wish you would give me some proof that 
 your promises are real.' 
 
 ' Take this, then,' she said ; and with a touch of her 
 soft hand, which thrilled him through and through, 
 she placed in his palm a rosy fruit of intoxicating 
 perfume. ' But remember, you may not taste it till 
 after your choice. Its ambrosial fragrance will suffice. 
 If you disobey me in this, I shall not return.' 
 
 She gave him one more enchanting smile, and then 
 seemed to melt away into the blue waves for she was 
 Naama, the demon of unlawful indulgences. 
 
THE CHOICE 127 
 
 FIDELIS 
 
 Not what we wish, but what we want, 
 
 Thy bounteous grace supply ; 
 The good unasked in mercy grant, 
 
 The ill, though asked, deny. 
 
 Der Erde kostlichster Gewinn 
 1st frohes Herz und reiner Sinn. 
 
 SEAME, Gedichte. 
 
 THE third youth, Fidelis, had chosen his seat on the 
 topmost point of the headland, fronting the pure sea 
 wind, which seemed to bring him health and strength 
 and courage at every breath. He too had taken a 
 book with him. It was a book for a true man. It 
 stirred the noble heart as with the blast of a trumpet, 
 intermingled with Doric strains of beauty, natural and 
 unadorned. It was a song ' to add ardour to virtue, 
 and confidence to truth.' It was 
 
 An Orphic song indeed, 
 
 A song divine, of high and passionate thoughts 
 To their own music chanted. 
 
 As the youth read it, his pure, strong face seemed to 
 shine with the inward light of the thoughts on which 
 he dwelt, and when he closed the poem he was full of 
 manly courage and noble resolution. His musings 
 turned upon the lives of the wise and good of which he 
 had read of old. He recalled how the daily prayer of one 
 had been, ' Give me, Lord, a noble heart which no 
 earthly affection can drag down ; ' and how, when the 
 vision appeared to this saint and offered him any re- 
 ward which he desired, he answered, l Non aliam, nisi 
 te, Domine ' (' No other than Thyself, O Lord ! '). 
 
128 ALLEGORIES 
 
 And even as these thoughts were in his heart, he 
 became conscious that some one was beside him, of 
 noble presence, on whose features seemed to be written, 
 as one has said, not only the Ten Commandments, but 
 the Eight Beatitudes. His presence did not seem 
 strange to Fidelis, though he realised that this^was no 
 human visitor. He felt happy, and not in the least afraid. 
 
 ' Fidelis,' said the Visitant, ' I heard all that you 
 said to your comrades by the Wishing Well. I have 
 come to test your sincerity. It did not require much 
 effort to refuse to wish, for you did not believe in the 
 power of the well ; but now I have come to offer you 
 definitely whatever you desire. At a word, riches shall 
 be your lot in life, or honours, or fame, or position, 
 or what men call pleasure. You shall not answer me 
 now ; but before the sun touches the sea I will again 
 be with you, and you shall tell me your decision.' 
 
 ' If, sir, I could wish,' said Fidelis, ' that I might 
 ever be hardened against myself, this worst traitor to 
 
 myself 
 
 This traitor with pathetic voice, 
 
 That craves for rest, and ease, and joys ; 
 
 if I could wish that I might be enabled to be a good 
 man to be always true to the best I know then I 
 would wish for that. But I suppose it does not come 
 within the scope of your offer ? ' 
 
 ' It does not,' said the stern sweet voice. ' Self- 
 conquest, cannot depend on an external gift. It is the 
 reward of unending effort, the achievement of sincere 
 and unwavering desire.' 
 
THE CHOICE 
 
 129 
 
 Fidelis turned towards him, but he had gone. He 
 mused. ' I have no objection,' thought he, ' to riches 
 in themselves, if they come. They may be well used. 
 Perhaps to those who are consummately wise they may 
 be a source of satisfaction ; but I never knew any one 
 yet whom they made happy, and I have seen how 
 terribly often they cause a subtle deterioration in the 
 character of those who grow insensibly to love them. 
 No, I will not ask for riches. Honours ? I would 
 much rather achieve them than have them as a gift. 
 Fame ? What is fame ? " the murmur of the unborn 
 about the grave." Pleasure? is not all innocent 
 pleasure already at my command ? And as for guilty 
 pleasure, it is anguish in the bud : it first depraves, then 
 ruins, then destroys. No, I have read in Elyon's book, 
 " Entrust thy way unto the Lord, and He shall direct 
 thy paths." 
 
 Ill 
 FABER 
 
 Ambition this shall tempt to rise. GRAY. 
 Devine si tu peux et choisis si tu 1'oses. COBNEILLE, Hdracl. iv. 5. 
 
 THE sun was now rapidly descending. He had already 
 made the curtains of his chamber flame with purple 
 
 and violet, and was 
 
 Proudly carpeting 
 
 The western waves with glory, ere he deigned 
 To set his foot upon them. 
 
 Faber still sat on his projecting rock, and the 
 seething waves seemed to inspire him with the passion 
 
 K 
 
130 ALLEGORIES 
 
 to plunge into them and buffet with and master them. 
 The line of the old Greek poet was ringing in his ears : 
 
 atev afJi(TTvLV Koi VTrtipo~xov e/xyxevai aAAwv 
 
 and he longed to be in the front rank and the loftiest 
 place. But how could he ever attain to be first and best, 
 and a chief among his fellow-men ? How could he 
 ever make himself felt and heard, from that dreadful 
 depth below the surface in which he feared that he 
 must be thrown by the mediocre conditions of his life? 
 Was life worth living, if all that he could hope for was, 
 by the time he was an elderly man, to have attained to 
 the possible dignity of being a head clerk ? He longed 
 to be somebody and something, and felt stirring within 
 him the passion and the power to rule. 
 
 At this crisis in his thoughts he perceived that the 
 luminous shadowy figure had taken its stand unnoticed 
 beside him. 
 
 ' Youth,' said the spirit, * have you made your 
 choice ? ' 
 
 ' Is it unconditional ? ' asked Faber. 
 
 'It is.' 
 
 ' If I choose your proffered gift of success, shall I 
 rise to the highest things ? ' 
 
 'To the highest positions, undoubtedly.' 
 
 ' What sign will you give me ? ' 
 
 'A mark upon your breast. It will stay there 
 indelibly, unless you yourself entreat that it should be 
 obliterated ; but the moment that I obliterate it, you 
 will sink back into obscurity.' 
 
THE CHOICE 
 
 181 
 
 'There is not the least chance that I shall ever 
 entreat for that,' said Faber. ' I choose success ! ' 
 
 THE FINGER OF THE SPIRIT TOUCHED HIS BREAST 
 
 ' Is your choice final ? ' 
 1 It is.' 
 
132 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' Then open your robe.' 
 
 He did so, and the finger of the spirit touched his 
 breast. The touch for one instant felt like fire. 
 
 ' Farewell,' said the spirit, ' until you summon me 
 again.' 
 
 ' Farewell,' said Faber joyfully to the vanishing 
 figure. ' Now the world is before me ! I shall be 
 great, I shall be famous ! What mark has he left ? ' 
 
 He looked, and saw that over his heart was im- 
 pressed the vivid picture of a scarlet tulip. 
 
 ' It is brilliant,' said Faber. ' But the tulip has no 
 fragrance and no fruit. Never mind. It is a flower 
 which no one can overlook.' 
 
 FESTUS 
 
 Ae\fa6[jievos Kal eeA./c(fyiej/os. James i. 14. 
 
 FESTUS still lolled on the mossy, fragrant thyme- 
 besprinkled turf, the evil book beside him, his thoughts 
 lapped in luxurious daydreams which seemed to acquire 
 a more voluptuous fascination as he inhaled the 
 fragrance of the rosy fruit which Naama had left in 
 his hand. He felt tempted to taste it ; ' but if I do,' 
 he said, ' I shall lose my chance.' 
 
 ' Pleasure ! ' he thought to himself. The Siren had 
 offered him abundance of pleasure. He might bathe in 
 it ; steep his imagination with it ; thrill his senses with 
 it. And what could he have better ? Everything in the 
 world is less than nothing, the sages said ; and happi- 
 
THE CHOICE 133 
 
 ness is ' a pearl not of the Indian, but of the empyrean 
 ocean.' If that were so, what could he grasp more 
 tangible, more enchanting than pleasure ? Was he an 
 icicle ? Did not the young blood tingle in his veins ? 
 Was the rejoicing tide of his youth to plash idly on 
 the barren sands of mere professional drudgery ? The 
 spirit had placed the rainbow in his grasp ; he would 
 clutch at it. 
 
 His thoughts were interrupted by a burst of silvery 
 laughter, and Naama in all her beauty flashed upon 
 him. 
 
 ' Well, fair youth,' she asked, ' have you made your 
 choice ? ' 
 
 'I have,' he said pleased to be called 'fair youth.' 
 ' If I choose pleasure, will you give it me abundantly 
 and without stint ? ' 
 
 ' Aye,' she said, laughing again very merrily. ' Not 
 for one day only, or two days, or three days, but for 
 many days, until,' she murmured to herself, 'like the 
 quails which the Israelites preferred to their white 
 angelic manna, it shall come out at your nostrils and 
 be loathsome to you.' 
 
 ' What is that you are murmuring to yourself ? ' 
 asked Festus reproachfully. ' What is your name ? ' 
 
 ' They call me Naama,' she answered lightly. 
 
 ' But Naama is the name of an evil spirit.' 
 
 ' As you like,' she answered with another peal of 
 mirth. ' I offer you pleasure. Keject it if you will.' 
 
 ' Shall I be doing very wrong if I accept ? ' 
 
 ' What is right ? What is wrong ? ' she said with 
 
134 ALLEGORIES 
 
 scornful impatience. ' All that is for your decision. 
 It is your concern, not ours. But what mortal did 
 we spirits, whom you impudently call evil, ever even 
 try to persuade that black was white, or evil good? 
 We do not deceive ; we tempt.' 
 
 Festus was awed to silence, and she pointed with 
 her finger impatiently to the sun. 
 
 ' One moment,' she said, ' and its rim will have 
 touched the wave. It will then be too late. Once 
 more I offer you pleasure. Will you take it ? ' 
 
 He sinelt at the fruit in his hand, and its perfume 
 seemed to sweep him away upon a wave of delirious 
 gratification. 
 
 1 1 accept it,' he said passionately. ' What sign 
 will you give me ? ' 
 
 ' I have given you one in that fruit. I will give 
 you another. Open your breast.' 
 
 He did so. He felt the burning touch of her 
 finger over his heart. He looked to see what mark it 
 had left. It was a blue lotus-flower, which looked as 
 if it had dreamy enchantment on every leaf. 
 
 He turned round, and as Naama vanished he saw the 
 flash of malignant disdain on her lovely lips, and heard 
 the echo of mocking laughter, in which many voices 
 seemed to join. He was disconcerted, though he tried 
 to persuade himself that what he had heard was only 
 the plashing of the sea waves. The fruit was in his 
 hands, and he thought that now he would not only 
 inhale its overpowering scent, but also eat it. He did 
 so. For an instant it seemed in his mouth like honey of 
 
THE CHOICE 135 
 
 maddening sweetness ; but even as he tasted he seemed 
 to feel in it a sting of bitter absinth, and after one or 
 two mouthfuls he found that, though it was rich near 
 the rind, it was poisonously rotten at the core. 
 
 ' The fruit is a fraud,' he said, flinging away its 
 already withered and evil- scented husk. ' Never mind ; 
 pleasure of all kinds is in my grasp.' 
 
 FIDELIS 
 
 Question not, but live and labour 
 
 Till your goal be won, 
 Helping every feeble neighbour, 
 
 Seeking help from none. 
 Life is mostly froth and bubble ; 
 
 Two things stand like stone 
 KINDNESS in another's trouble, 
 
 COURAGE in your own. A. LINDSAY GORDON. 
 
 FIDELIS still sat on the summit of the headland, 
 drinking in the healthful breeze which came to him 
 over leagues of the pure sea. Suddenly he noticed that 
 the sun was near its setting and the Presence was by 
 his side. Fidelis bowed reverently. 
 
 ' Have you made your choice, rny son ? ' 
 
 The youth bent his eyes downwards, and said with 
 deep modesty, ' Blame me not, my father, if I choose 
 not one of the gifts which you proffered me.' 
 
 ' Do you not desire happiness ? ' said the old man 
 with a smile. 
 
 'You did not offer me happiness, sir,' said Fidelis, 
 
136 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' but only gifts which some men deem to confer happi- 
 ness some, but not all, and not the wisest.' 
 
 ' Not the wisest ? ' 
 
 ' I am too young and too inexperienced,' said Fidelis, 
 1 to know for myself. But you offered me riches, and 
 I have read of one wise king who prayed, " Give me 
 neither poverty nor riches ; " and of another the richest 
 king who ever was whom the sage would not pretend 
 to consider happy, but thought that some humble good 
 men and true were far more to be envied. And, look- 
 ing at it on the other side, I have read of one who was 
 a cripple and a slave, and yet happier than emperors. 
 And pleasure? is it not granted us to drink as out 
 of a river, all the innocent pleasure which life can 
 give ? 1 would not say all this if I did not feel that 
 you approve.' 
 
 ' And do you care nothing for fame ? ' asked the 
 sage. 
 
 ' Yes, sir, if it comes from real desert. But, in 
 this case too, those who have enjoyed the highest fame 
 say that it is half disfame.' 
 
 'You are quite right, Fidelis,' said his visitant. 
 ' You have already what may be a priceless gift your 
 own being. Acquire yourself more and more, and you 
 will have a possession of which nothing can rob you. 
 Whatever else you lose, your true self will be a 
 better possession and an abiding. And no one can 
 give it you ; it must be won.' 
 
 ' Then grant me your blessing, father,' said Fidelis. 
 
 'Yes,' he said, ' I bless you ; and, as you have asked 
 
THE CHOICE 137 
 
 nothing, I give you something better than all I offered, 
 and therewith a sign. Unfold your robe.' 
 
 Fidelis did so, and the sage placed a finger upon his 
 breast and disappeared. Fidelis looked and saw over 
 his heart the figure of a lovely pansy. Then he smiled 
 joyfully, for he recalled a passage in an allegory which 
 he had read as a child, how certain pilgrims saw a 
 shepherd boy, meanly clad, but withal of a fresh and 
 well-favoured countenance, who sat and sang ; and as 
 they listened to what the shepherd lad sang, it was : 
 
 He that is down need fear no fall, 
 
 He that is low no pride : 
 He that is lowly ever shall 
 
 Have God to be his guide. 
 
 I am content with what I have, 
 
 Little be it or much, 
 And, Lord, contentment still I crave, 
 
 Because Thou lovest such. 
 
 ' Then,' said Mr. Greatheart, ' hear what the shep- 
 herd lad saith : " I warrant that this boy carries more of 
 the herb called Heartsease in his bosom than many who 
 walk in silk and velvets." ' 
 
 The three youths met that evening after the sun 
 had set, but they did not say much to each other, nor 
 did they reveal what had occurred to them, or show 
 the secret signs imprinted on their breasts. Faber 
 seemed thoughtful and inclined to silence. Festus was 
 moody, fretful, and impatient. Fidelis was very quiet, 
 
138 ALLEGORIES 
 
 but a light of inward happiness gleamed in his eyes 
 and beamed on his open face, making it almost beauti- 
 ful to look upon. 
 
 Next morning the three friends met at breakfast, 
 and Faber asked, '. Did you two find any flowers in your 
 rooms last night ? ' 
 
 1 Yes,' said Festus and Fidelis. 
 
 ' How strange ! ' said Faber. 
 
 ' Why strange ? ' asked Fidelis. 
 
 ' Because I found some in mine, and no one in the 
 inn knows anything about them. Indeed, they asked 
 where I got them, for they said that no such flowers 
 grow here.' 
 
 ' What flowers were they ? ' 
 
 ' There was a great china bowl full of peonies. 
 Ugly, flaunting things ! I disliked the look of them so 
 much that I put them outside the door. Were peonies 
 put in your room too, Festus ? ' 
 
 ' No. I found a huge bunch of syringas. Their 
 scent was so rich, sickly, and overpowering, that I 
 flung them out of the window.' 
 
 ' How strange ! ' said Faber again. ' What flowers 
 had you, Fidelis ? ' 
 
 ' Well, I seem to have been much luckier than you,' 
 said Fidelis. ' I found in my room two small vases of 
 iridescent glass. One of them was full of sweet violets ; 
 the other full of lilies of the valley. I was charmed 
 with them, and shall take them away with me.' 
 
 ' The spirit of the Wishing Well must have been 
 amusing himself with us, I think,' said Faber. ' I 
 
THE CHOICE 139 
 
 can't make it out. But anyhow, you had the best of it, 
 Fidelia. 1 
 
 Next day the youths began their homeward journey 
 to the great city of the Porphyrians ; for now their 
 holiday was over, and the serious work of life had to 
 begin. We shall see what came of the choice they 
 made. 
 
 IV 
 FABEE 
 
 Omnia fui, et nihil expedit. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 
 
 FABEE had chosen from the spirit the boon of success, 
 and his success was astonishing in its rapidity. He 
 had been destined for the career of a merchant and 
 entered an office to learn his work. A good many of the 
 youths of the neighbourhood in which he lived had 
 combined to take part once a week in a mock-political 
 assemblage, both for the sake of amusement and 
 at the same time to train themselves in the gift of 
 oratory, which was in high demand among the Por- 
 phyrians. Usually on grand occasions their gathering 
 was honoured by the presence of some high Porphyrian 
 lord, who thought it worth his while to look out for any 
 indications of rising talent. One of these occasions 
 occurred within a month of the return of Faber from 
 his holiday. A formal debate was held. In this debate 
 it fell to Faber to make an unpremeditated answer to 
 
140 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 all his oratorical opponents. He did this with such 
 grace, readiness, and mastery of the question, that the 
 great visitor was surprised and delighted. Faber reso- 
 lutely grasped the numerous arguments which had 
 been urged on the other side, and showed them to be 
 quite irrelevant. He tore to shreds the objections which 
 had been adduced against him, with masterful and 
 good-humoured irony. Always self-reliant, he gained 
 yet stronger confidence from the consciousness that 
 he was winning an intellectual victory. He ended his 
 speech with a peroration so vigorous in its eloquence 
 as fairly to carry the assemblage by storm and to win 
 the majority of votes, which at first had seemed to 
 be more than dubious. He sat down amid a tumult 
 of applause, during which the distinguished visitor 
 whispered to a friend that, even in the national Synod, 
 he had never listened to a more masterly debating 
 speech. 
 
 ' This young man,' he added, ' must be looked after.' 
 
 He requested the president of the debate to present 
 Faber to him, and, struck with the youth's fine face, 
 modest self-reliance, and attractive demeanour, asked 
 him to call at his house the next day. 
 
 Faber kept his appointment punctually. He en- 
 tered the library of the minister with beating heart, 
 yet without the smallest touch of awkwardness or 
 servility. 
 
 ' I was much pleased with the ability you displayed 
 yesterday,' said his Excellency. * It happens that I 
 am in immediate want of the services of a secretary. 
 
THE CHOICE 141 
 
 May I offer the post to you ? It is an important one 
 and much sought after.' 
 
 Faber accepted the office with delight and gratitude. 
 It was an office far more honourable than he ever 
 dreamed could have fallen to him so soon. In a very 
 short time he learnt to discharge swiftly and skilfully the 
 necessary duties. He won the minister's unreserved 
 confidence, and not only became familiar with the 
 ordinary details of the public business of the nation, 
 but was so much trusted as to be admitted into 
 state secrets of high importance. He thus gained 
 an insight into the innermost workings of national 
 diplomacy. 
 
 In this way he became acquainted and even intimate 
 with many other great Porphyrian statesmen. There 
 was a powerful party opposed to their views, and a 
 contest was coming on for an important seat in the 
 Synod, which the existing government scarcely hoped 
 to wrest out of the hands of a strong opponent. 
 
 ' My secretary, Faber, will win the election for us if 
 any one can,' said the minister. His colleagues took the 
 same view and sent the young man to contest the consti- 
 tuency. Here again, from the first day of his visit, he car- 
 ried all before him. The party of the rival candidate did 
 their utmost to discredit him as a mere boy, and the 
 candidate himself tried to make fun of him. He had 
 reason to regret his temerity. Faber more than justi- 
 fied 'the atrocious crime of being a young man.' He 
 overwhelmed his rival with good-natured yet most 
 telling irony. His wit and geniality aroused the 
 
142 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 enthusiasm of every audience which he addressed, 
 while his close and accurate grasp of the principles of 
 true government commanded the admiration of the 
 more educated electors. When the result of the poll 
 was declared, he stood at the head of it by a triumphant 
 majority, and his success had the further advantage of 
 restoring the somewhat wavering fortunes of his party. 
 He happened one day to glance at the tulip marked 
 upon his breast. He thought that it had never before 
 looked so dazzling in its colours. 
 
 Then began his great career in the Senate. As he 
 had little or nothing'of his own to live on, the ministry 
 presented him to a lucrative sinecure, in order that he 
 might devote his time and talents uninterruptedly to 
 their political interests. They were well repaid. More 
 than one brilliant victory in the Senate was won solely 
 by his ability and eloquence. He sometimes even 
 accomplished the rare feat of changing votes. His 
 anticipated intervention in any debate was sure to fill 
 the galleries with an expectant throng. He became 
 indispensable ; and, young as he was, a vacancy was 
 created for him in the ranks of the ministry. He began 
 to be universally spoken of as ' the boy minister ' and 
 ' the coming man.' 
 
 His party was at last defeated, but after a brief 
 interval his genius rallied the scattered forces of the 
 ousted ministers. There was an appeal to the country 
 and they returned to power. He could now practically 
 command almost any post that he desired. He was 
 honoured with a title ; he was appointed to great foreign 
 
THE CHOICE 143 
 
 embassies ; and, as the years rolled on, the unknown 
 and humbly born youth at last became the chief states- 
 man of the Porphyrian nation. The promise of success 
 which the vision had made to him had been fulfilled 
 more amply than he could possibly have dreamed. He 
 had not nearly reached middle age, and he stood at 
 the head of the government of his country. 
 
 All this was the history of his outward life, and his 
 name was quoted to point the proverbs of success. 
 When a father had an able and ambitious boy, he 
 described the career of Faber to spur him on to fresh 
 exertions. Faber's picture was placed in the hall of 
 the school in which he had been educated, that the 
 example of his successful diligence might stir the lads 
 to aim at similar results. He was the leading man of 
 his day, and the popular hero among the multitudes 
 of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 But was he happy ? 
 
 He lived for politics, for party, for power ; but this 
 question would sometimes force itself upon him, ' Am I 
 happy ? ' And he could not disguise from himself the 
 answer that he was not. 
 
 For he found in his lot, and had created for himself 
 in choosing that lot, many drawbacks. 
 
 He learnt by experience that power itself is a very 
 relative word. From the nature of things he could 
 never be an autocrat. He had to work with human 
 materials, and he found that human beings are a very 
 
144 ALLEGORIES 
 
 unmalleable iron, or, at best, a very stubborn clay. 
 There were hundreds of things which he would have 
 liked to do, and which he clearly saw to be the right 
 things to do, but in which he was thwarted by the 
 opinionativeness of critics, the jealousy of rivals, the 
 incompetence of subordinates. In consequence of this 
 he was often mortified by being compelled to abandon 
 his most cherished designs. He used laughingly to 
 complain that he was driven back from many a striking 
 plan by the bovine resoluteness of infallible ignorance 
 and horned stupidity. 
 
 The same want of adequate support threw upon 
 him a terrible amount of labour. There was much of 
 his correspondence to which, from its nature, he was 
 compelled personally to attend. He sometimes said to 
 himself, ' I am chained to my desk as much as if I were 
 a clerk.' At times he had to work twelve hours a day, 
 till his head and his hand alike were aching. 
 
 He also felt a terrible burden of responsibility. 
 The decisions which depended on his judgment 
 were of the most complicated character, and involved 
 stupendous issues. He was not infallible. He could 
 not know everything. He was liable to be deceived. 
 It was inevitable that he should sometimes be led into 
 mistakes, and it made him miserable to think that, 
 even when those mistakes were chiefly due to the careless- 
 ness or inferiority of his colleagues, political exigencies 
 compelled him to defend them. The blame of them 
 Was thrown upon him, though in the inner councils of the 
 government he might have done his utmost to oppose 
 
THE CHOICE 145 
 
 them. There were times when extreme anxiety almost 
 broke down his health. He felt 
 
 Desperate currents of a whole world's anguish 
 Forced through the channel of a single heart. 
 
 He saw around him grave conditions of evil, both 
 social and foreign, which it was wholly beyond his 
 power to amend. 
 
 Then he felt, like the rankling of a viper's tooth, 
 the sting of ingratitude. Men whose fortunes he had 
 made deserted him for the claims of self-interest. 
 Men whom he had assisted, secretly vilified him. He 
 could not help wincing under the unmeasured scurrility 
 of the attacks made upon him in public journals. 
 Because he was more foresighted than most, arid spoke 
 the truth, and did his duty, he had to thwart many 
 vested interests in falsehood and wickedness, and in con- 
 sequence he had to face measureless insult, and to pass 
 through tornadoes of abuse. It sometimes seemed to 
 him as if no calumny were too monstrous for envy to 
 believe, no misrepresentation too gross to pass cur- 
 rent among the commonplace, the envious, and the 
 malignant. He felt almost driven to adopt the remark 
 of a brilliant President that ' the more familiar he 
 grew with human nature, the deeper was the respect 
 he felt for his dog.' He used to tell the story of the 
 great philosopher who, being asked on his deathbed by 
 a fussy interloper, ' Are you convinced of the greatness 
 of God ? ' answered, ' Yes, and of the littleness of man ! ' 
 
 On one occasion he, the once so popular minister, 
 
 L 
 
146 ALLEGORIES 
 
 was actually hooted in the public streets, was sur- 
 rounded by an angry mob, and had to be hurried 
 into a private house to protect him from insult and 
 attack. He found that his fame brought him no 
 definable satisfaction. He learnt by experience that 
 the higher is the mountain, the more violently do the 
 storms burst upon it. 
 
 These were incidents in his public career. In his 
 private life there were equally serious drawbacks, 
 caused by the absorbing demands of his public 
 position. He had little or no leisure, and was unable 
 to find time for the intellectual pursuits and amuse- 
 ments in which he would otherwise have delighted. 
 His marriage had unhappily been influenced by party 
 considerations. He had wedded the daughter of a 
 noble family, whose interest, he thought, would greatly 
 aid him in his career of ambition. His wife was 
 neither pre-eminently beautiful, nor gifted, nor high- 
 minded. The one thing on which she prided herself 
 was her aristocratic birth. She repelled by her chill 
 hauteur many of his earlier friends, whom she regarded 
 as plebeian ; and, worse than this, she skilfully coDtrived 
 to keep at a distance the members of his own family 
 of whose humbler position she felt ashamed. Faber 
 had a loving heart, and as he could not let his family 
 into the secrets of his wife's subtle manoeuvres, he 
 felt that they looked on him as one whose prosperity 
 had made him ashamed of them. Nor did his wife's 
 affection make up to him for what he had lost. She 
 was virtuous, but of a cold disposition, and, though she 
 
THE CHOICE 147 
 
 was proud of her distinguished husband, she could not 
 become a real companion for him. 
 
 Worse still, his absences from home, his long 
 foreign missions, and his- incessant occupations made 
 it impossible for him to see much of his children. In 
 consequence of this he had but little influence over his 
 boys, and he saw them growing up with tastes and 
 opinions greatly unlike his own. His was a heart 
 which yearned for sympathy, and the fact that even his 
 sons seemed to know but little of his tenderness was a 
 constant grief to him. 
 
 At last he became troubled with insomnia, and 
 spent long nights unrefreshed in the worry of incessant 
 cares. This made him intensely miserable, and wore 
 out his strength before his time. 
 
 Even his triumphs gave him but little gratification. 
 The novelty of power, the glamour of rank, were soon 
 exhausted. If in one great speech or skilful combination 
 he was successful, he had at once to consider the next. 
 The publicity of his life palled upon him, and he was 
 wearied with incessant appeals for his influence or his 
 gifts. He felt it quite refreshing' if here and there he 
 found some man whose admiration and support were 
 purely disinterested ; who wanted nothing from him, 
 but, loving him for his own sake, cared neither to court 
 nor flatter him. He felt more and more isolated as 
 time went on. 
 
 Worst of all, his cares and duties drove out of his 
 mind the more serious concerns of a life beyond. 
 Conscientious and honourable, he yet felt that he was 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ALLEGORIES 
 
 often tempted to strain his conscience, and dim the 
 delicate bloom of his honour. He had thought of 
 many needful things, but what if death should snatch 
 him away from earthly business, 
 
 As a cross nurse might snatch a fretful child 
 From all his toys and baubles, 
 
 and surprise him amid entire neglect of the one thing 
 which was most needful of all ? He could not but feel 
 that it would have been far better for him, if he had left 
 the destinies of his life in higher hands, and the sad 
 verses of a poet rang in his memory, 
 
 Aus der Jugendzeit, aus der Jugendzeit 
 
 Klingt ein Lied mir immerdar. 
 O wie liegt so weit, wie liegt so weit 
 
 Was rnein einst war 1 
 
 While this mood was upon him, a period of rest 
 became necessary to recruit his strength and bring back 
 his vanished sleep. 
 
 He yearned to revisit the seaside village of which 
 he had admired the secluded loveliness with his two 
 friends in his happy youth. He went there, accom- 
 panied only by a young secretary who was sincerely 
 attached to him, and, on the evening of his arrival, he 
 wandered alone to the headland where he had made 
 the choice which decided the destiny of his life. 
 
 It was a lovely peaceful evening. The quiet sea, 
 almost unbroken by a ripple, lying under the crimson 
 flood of sunset light, seemed to breathe from its broad 
 expanse ' the ardours of rest and love.' He was no 
 longer agile enough to climb down the rocks to the far 
 
THE CHOICE 149 
 
 point where he had once meditated, but he went as 
 near it as he could. He sat down full of melancholy 
 and looked at the tulip mark on his breast. It was 
 there ; but it had lost its dazzling brightness. He 
 sighed deeply. ' If I had the choice to make again,' he 
 said to himself, ' should I choose power? I think not.' 
 
 ' Would you rescind your wish ? ' said a low voice be- 
 side him. ' Would you resign its fruits ? Should you be 
 content after all to end your days forgotten and obscure ? ' 
 
 ' What is there for me as it is ? ' he answered 
 humbly, ' but 
 
 To leave a half-remembered name, 
 Cumbered with lies, and dark with shame ? 
 
 Spirit, I have learned to distrust myself and my own 
 ignorance ; but, if it be good for me, recall thy gift ; if 
 not, let me humbly and bravely follow my own unwise 
 choice to its predestined close.' 
 
 ' Not every choice, not every act in life is past remedy 
 in its final issues,' said the spirit gently. ' Open thy 
 robe once more.' He touched him where the tulip was, 
 and his touch seemed to be of ice. ' The sign is gone 
 now,' he said. ' Return to the humble life, and seek 
 for peace ; take no step of thine own ; all shall be 
 arranged for thee.' 
 
 * I thank thee, spirit,' he murmured, and after a few 
 more days of rest he returned home. Could he indeed 
 give up his power and position without a pang ? Yes. 
 Had not one great emperor of the world found himself 
 far happier in his self-corrected mind, when he was 
 planting cabbages at Salona, than when he wielded the 
 
150 ALLEGORIES 
 
 imperial fasces pf the world ? And had not another, after 
 laying aside the crown of many kingdoms, amused him- 
 self with making clocks, and, since he could make no 
 two clocks keep the same time, learnt how impossible 
 had been his effort to make all men take the same views 
 of things as himself ? 
 
 He returned to his place in the Senate, and rose to 
 speak on a public measure of the highest importance. 
 But while he spoke he felt his mind suddenly grow 
 dim and confused. For the first time in his life he 
 hesitated, stammered, lost the thread of his argument, 
 talked nonsense, and at last, amid the profound and 
 pained astonishment of his listeners, hopelessly broke 
 down. 
 
 The next morning there was a leading article in the 
 chief Porphyrian journal, contemptuously alluding to 
 his failure, and remarking what a pity it was that men 
 would not recognise in time their growing imbecility, 
 but would cling to the gains of office long after they 
 were incompetent to fulfil its duties. 
 
 Faber, to his own'astonishment, read the article with 
 a smile. The same day he wrote to resign his seat in the 
 ministry. He retired into private life, and devoted him- 
 self without a regret to the study of literature, to the care 
 of his family, to the good of his neighbours. He found in 
 the shade of his garden a peace which the glare of fame 
 had never given him. In the days of his immense power, 
 in the days of his splendid success, he had never been 
 ignoble, never once consciously dishonourable ; but he 
 had suffered the wings of his aspirations to be soiled as 
 
THE CHOICE 151 
 
 are the wings of the eastern dove when she settles upon 
 the dust-heaps of the villages ; and it is only when she 
 soars again into the blue air and abounding sunshine 
 that we see how she is ' covered with silver wings, 
 and her feathers like gold.' And now in his seclusion 
 and dethronement as it were, he often murmured to 
 himself the words of the ardent saint, Deargentemus 
 pennas ('Let us silver our soul's wings '). 
 
 And one day when he heard his boys talking of their 
 ambitious hopes he told them how once an old man had 
 heard two youths sighing for fame, success, power, and 
 had opened his arms wide three times and folded them 
 again upon his breast. ' Why do you do that ? ' they 
 inquired. ' I have what you desired,' said the old 
 man ; * I have grasped the wind ! ' 
 
 He passed away in peace from a world in which he 
 was already half forgotten ; and once when Fidelis, with 
 whom he had always kept up his friendship, came to 
 stay with him, and talked to him about his past career, 
 he said, ' Fidelis, I wonder whether you still retain your 
 boyish fondness for the words of the poets ? If you do 
 you will recall some familiar lines which will tell you 
 all about me.' 
 
 ' I think I do,' said Fidelis. 
 
 And then Faber, holding his hand in a friendly 
 grasp, said in a low voice, 
 
 ' His overthrow heaped happiness upon him ; 
 For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
 And found the blessedness of being little. 
 And, to add greater honours to his age 
 Than man could give him, he died fearing God.' 
 
152 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Y 
 
 FESTUS 
 
 He f eedeth on ashes : a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that 
 he cannot deliver his soul. Is. xliv. 20. 
 
 Tanto giu cadde, che tutti argomenti 
 Alia salute sua eran gia corti. 
 
 DANTE, Purg. xxx. 136. 
 
 ON the career of Festus we will not dwell at length, for 
 it was one of those deplorable and apparently irredeem- 
 able shipwrecks upon which the curtain ' comes down 
 with the rush of a storm,' and leaves us silent. The 
 thing which he had chosen was given him, but he had 
 already had an intimation that 'the gifts of the evil 
 genii are curses in disguise.' Almost immediately after 
 his return to the great city, and before he had got ac- 
 customed to the wearying routine of business in which 
 he had resentfully thought that his years would be 
 spent, he received a letter to tell him that a distant 
 relative, of whom he hardly knew anything, had died, 
 and had most unexpectedly left him the heir to an 
 immense fortune. The career of pleasure, or what 
 he regarded as pleasure, was thus immediately open 
 to him, and he eagerly embraced it. He at once 
 entered into possession of a splendid town house, and 
 of a mansion in the country, both of which, though 
 they were already furnished with every luxury, he made 
 still more sumptuous. He then plunged without re- 
 straint into a course of headlong dissipation. He lived 
 
THE CHOICE 153 
 
 solely for amusement, for excitement, for selfish in- 
 dulgence, for the gratification of his lowest self and his 
 meanest impulses. His table was that of an epicure ; 
 he drank habitually and to shameful excess the choicest 
 wines ; he lived in the centre of a society of the 
 gilded youth who acted on the notion that, life being 
 short and death without remedy, the only object of 
 human beings should be to make it less tedious, even 
 though no more should remain of its transient mirth 
 than of a mist smitten by the sun. Their practical 
 exhortation to each other was, ' Let none of us go with- 
 out his part of our voluptuousness ; let us leave tokens 
 of our joyfulness in every place ; for this is our portion 
 and our lot.' Betting, gambling, racing, extravagance, 
 the frequenting of low society, the hunting for new 
 sensations, the devising of excitements ever more 
 dubious and more disgraceful in their shamelessness, 
 occupied their ill-spent and degraded days. At all 
 innocence they sneered as at a mere hypocritical 
 semblance, the infatuation of bigots and weaklings. 
 For the loss of character they cared nothing, for they 
 ostentatiously paraded the dissoluteness which they 
 attempted to elevate into a new philosophy. They 
 contented themselves with such society as they could 
 find among those who were as abandoned and as 
 shameless as themselves. Yet, after all, their days were 
 unspeakably listless and weary, for even their most 
 exciting dissipations soon palled upon them ; they were 
 
 the delights 
 That speedy die and turn to carrion. 
 
154 ALLEGORIES 
 
 A certain selfish and voluptuous king used sometimes to 
 take one of his courtiers by the buttonhole and say to 
 him, ' Ennuyons-nous ensemble.' But Festus and his 
 bad companions, hating any interspace of time which 
 might leave them liable to guilty memories, silent 
 self-reproach, and dark anticipations, tried to live in 
 one whirl of excitement which, after all, they felt to 
 be worse than pleasureless. 
 
 Not many years elapsed before the threshold of 
 Festus, whether in town or country, had ceased to be 
 passed by any high-minded man. His name among all 
 those who honoured virtue became a byword of pity 
 and contempt. He lived with loose inferiors boon 
 companions bound to him by associations of folly and 
 of sin. As a matter of course he did not escape the 
 consequences of his misdeeds. 
 
 He became prematurely old and prematurely grey. 
 Soon nothing was left behind of his pleasures except the 
 haggard misery they had wrought. His appetite was 
 sated and jaded, and Pleasure could please no more. The 
 world's experience has fixed on the right nomenclature 
 for such lives and such self-avengers. They are lives 
 of dissipation that is, of utter rout and scattering of 
 the true forces of existence. He who thus lives is a 
 physical and a moral and spiritual bankrupt. He is 
 a roue broken on the wheel ; a debauche, a man 
 swept away by the rushing tide of temptations which 
 become as avenging furies to themselves, and appear 
 to their victims no longer in radiant vesture, but with 
 snaky hair and shaken torch. 
 
THE CHOICE 155 
 
 The beauty of Festus had long vanished from his 
 flaccid and unhealthy face. His strength was dried 
 up like a potsherd ; his health was undermined ; he 
 began, terribly early, to possess the sins of his youth. 
 He was ' lord of himself ' as he had chosen to make, or 
 rather to unmake, himself ; and he found it an heritage 
 of unspeakable woe. And so, day by day, he sank 
 down inevitably to the lowest depths. The sweeping 
 whirlwind had burst upon the bark which had started 
 in gilded trim, with youth at the prow and pleasure at 
 the helm ; and it was now a hopeless shipwreck. 
 
 Fidelis had barely seen him since their boyish tour ; 
 for Festus, when he had sprung into abnormal wealth, 
 affected to look down upon his former companions, and 
 neither Faber nor Fidelis cared to keep up any ac- 
 quaintance with one who, defying all remonstrances, 
 shamelessly set an execrable example and poisoned the 
 moral atmosphere around him. But one day Fidelis 
 received an urgent message that he would visit one of 
 the wards of a great hospital, for a man who was very 
 ill was urgently desirous to see him. 
 
 He went at once. In the miserable figure out- 
 stretched before him, he entirely failed to recognise his 
 once bright and attractive schoolfellow. Festus fixed 
 his gaze upon him and faintly whispered his name. 
 
 Fidelis looked at the sunk eyes ; at the sallow and 
 wasted cheeks ; at the expression full of shame and 
 weariness ; at the unwholesome and degenerate face. 
 
 ' Do you know me ? ' he asked in surprise. ' I do 
 not remember you.' 
 
156 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' Do you not ? ' said Festus humbly. ' I cannot 
 wonder at it. Yet once, many years ago, we were 
 equals and daily companions. And now my bad career 
 is run, and I am here helpless, hopeless, homeless, 
 friendless, penniless, in utter despair, and sick even 
 unto death.' 
 
 ' Surely,' answered Fidelis slowly, ' surely this 
 cannot be Festus ? ' 
 
 'It is ; or what was once Festus. Miserrimus 
 would now be a better name. Oh, Fidelis,' he said, 
 ' I remember that when we were happy boys together, 
 you loved poetry. I recall some lines which a poet 
 wrote on his thirty-sixth birthday, and they are 
 frightfully true of me : 
 
 My days are in the yellow leaf, 
 The flowers, the fruits of love are gone ; 
 
 The worm, the canker, and the grief 
 Are mine alone. 
 
 The fire that on my bosom preys 
 
 Is lone as some volcanic isle; 
 No warmth is kindled at the blaze 
 
 A funeral pile.' , 
 
 ' But how came you here ? I thought you were 
 very rich.' 
 
 * I was ; but my riches have long ago been evilly 
 and senselessly squandered.' 
 
 ' Can I do anything to help you ? ' 
 
 ' I fear it is too late,' moaned Festus. ' The physician 
 tells me that my life is in danger. Friends I have none. 
 My few relatives have long disowned me. I felt so 
 
THE CHOICE 157 
 
 unutterably wretched that I was filled with an intense 
 yearning to see one good man, who had known me in 
 better and happier days. You are very kind to have 
 come to me.' 
 
 ' I should have been very mean and selfish if I had 
 not come,' said Fidelis. ' But now tell me what I can 
 do to help or to comfort you.' 
 
 ' Fidelis,' said Festus, ' you will perhaps hardly 
 believe that years have passed since I have prayed, or 
 ever even heard a prayer. I tried to forget the very 
 existence of King Elyon. I have so long ceased to 
 pray that I know not how. Will you kneel and pray 
 for me ? ' 
 
 Fidelis knelt and prayed. Festus was too ill to say 
 much, but he faintly moaned, ' Can there be any hope 
 for such a one as I ? ' 
 
 ' I trust in the mercy of Elyon,' said Fidelis, ' for 
 ever and beyond.' 
 
 ' May He be merciful to me the sinner ! ' said 
 Festus, in a voice almost inaudible. He heaved a sigh 
 and lay as one dead. 
 
 'You had better leave him now,' said the physician 
 who was watching him. ' His strength is completely 
 exhausted.' 
 
 Fidelis looked at him with deep compassion. 
 He noticed with surprise a livid stain upon his breast. 
 It bore the semblance of a withered, crumpled, leaden- 
 coloured lotus flower. 
 
158 ALLEGORIES 
 
 VI 
 
 FIDELIS 
 
 A good man shall be satisfied from himself. Prov. xiv. 14. 
 
 Libero, dritto, sano, e tuo arbitrio 
 
 E fallo fora non fare a suo senno ; 
 
 Per ch' io te sopra te corono e mitrio. 
 
 DANTE, Purgat. xxvii. 140. 
 
 WHEN Fidelis had returned with his two youthful 
 companions to begin the business of his life, no such 
 ' stroke of fortune/ as men call it, had occurred to him 
 as to them. He had gone into business and his days 
 were quietly occupied with its duties. He had set 
 before himself the conviction that life is service. He 
 believed that he was not meant to live for himself or as 
 an isolated atom. He belonged to the great family of 
 man, and thought that he could do nothing nobler or 
 happier than to live and die for them. As a youth he 
 did all he could in his leisure hours to brighten the 
 days of the young, to uplift their aspirations, to make 
 the wretched less miserable, and ' to add sunlight to 
 daylight by making the happy happier.' He still set 
 the same ideal before him when his diligence and 
 faithfulness won for him trust and promotion, and 
 through useful, uneventful years of peace and of duty, 
 he rose step by step, slowly but surely, to easy compe- 
 tence, and then to as much wealth as he desired. He 
 
THE CHOICE 159 
 
 married a wife of like mind with himself, and they 
 
 two 
 
 Walked this world 
 Yoked in all exercise of noble end, 
 And so through those dark gates across the wild 
 Which no man knows. 
 
 He lived among his children, enjoyed their happiness, 
 tried to influence their lives for worthy aims. He did 
 his utmost to 'lend ardour to virtue, and confidence 
 to truth.' 
 
 Being fearless in the cause of righteousness, 
 like every other true man, he did not escape the ex- 
 asperated opposition of the votaries of shams, cruelty, 
 and greed. Yet he was happy ; for though at times 
 he seemed to be walking with his head ' in a cloud of 
 poisonous flies,' the humble consciousness of sincerity 
 supported him, and he never ceased ' to wear the herb 
 called heartsease in his bosom.' 
 
 No attacks made him swerve from the path of self- 
 imposed duty, and, as years went on, his friends became 
 ever more grateful and more numerous, and his enemies 
 relapsed into silence from very shame. 
 
 His life was not, of course, exempt from those 
 natural trials which come to all. To no man can life 
 be like a summer holiday. But amid the trials which 
 befall even the just and the upright there springs up 
 always the panacea, the healing balm. There were 
 many men much wealthier than Fidelis. He won for 
 himself no distinguished honours ; he earned no title, 
 and very little public applause ; but every day he was 
 
160 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 useful to some one, and all his days were filled with 
 little, unremembered, unconsidered, acts of kindness, 
 and words and deeds of sympathy. Thus the life of 
 Fidelis was full indeed of balm and blessedness. He 
 gradually won general affection by his many unobtrusive 
 benefactions. Multitudes in the Purple Island felt 
 that they had been the better for his efforts, and love 
 and honour lay like a beam of light athwart the sunset 
 days of a life well spent. His name was mentioned 
 with gratitude in the homes of those who earned their 
 bread by the sweat of their brow. He knew by personal 
 experience how truly 
 
 The high desire that others may be blest 
 Savours of heaven. 
 
 VII 
 
 io mi rendei' 
 
 Piangendo a quei che \olontier perdona. 
 Orribil furon li peccati raiei, 
 
 Ma la bonta infinita ha si gran braccia, 
 Che prende cio, che si rivolge a lei. 
 
 DANTE, Purgat. iii. 120. 
 
 Yea, thou forgivest ; but with all forgiving 
 
 Canst not restore mine innocence again. F. MYERS. 
 
 FESTUS had gained from the visit of Fidelis a fresh 
 access of hope and strength. The dying flame of life 
 seemed to leap up from its white embers as though for 
 one last flickering gleam. It was even thought that 
 he might partially recover, if he could be removed to 
 
THE CHOICE 161 
 
 the seaside. Directly Fidelis heard this he furnished 
 what was necessary to send him down to the village 
 which he had visited in his youth, a place which he had 
 expressed a yearning to see again, and where he could 
 enjoy perfect quiet and the purest air. 
 
 On the same evening that Faber had been sitting on 
 the rocks and had been permitted to reverse an unwise 
 choice, Festus, very pale and very feeble, walked in the 
 warm evening air to the spot on the green moss where 
 he had sat on that former evening so long ago. 
 
 His mind was full of penitence and gloom as he 
 sat looking on the sea, and revolving the memories 
 of his life which were unspeakable for sadness. The 
 brightness without, the waters flashing as with millions 
 of diamonds, the clouds smitten here and there by 
 the sunlight into flakes of rainbow, could not dispel 
 the blackness of thick darkness within his soul. But 
 suddenly he heard a laugh, merry but mocking, and 
 Naama, whose evil fascination had planted the germs 
 of ruin into his youth, gleamed before his eyes. Had 
 she come to taunt him, to triumph over him ? It was 
 even so ! 
 
 ' Well,' she said, ' see how fairly I have treated you ! 
 Your wish was fulfilled was it not ? You asked for 
 pleasure ; you have had it to the full. You have drunk 
 the cup of enjoyment down to the bitter and ragged lees. 
 You began as a fair youth ; you end as a withered man. 
 Have you enjoyed the boon I conferred on you ? ' 
 
 ' Avaunt, witch and demon ! ' said Festus. 
 
 ' No, no ! ' said Naama. ' What ! were you such a 
 
 M 
 
162 ALLEGORIES 
 
 fool as to think that you could commit the sin and not 
 pay the penalty ? Did none of your old books I don't 
 mean the lewd fictions/ she added with another laugh 
 1 ever tell you that vice and punishment are twins, who 
 walk the world with their heads tied together ? Oh, 
 fool, fool, fool ! ' 
 
 Festus was still silent, though his heart was 
 breaking, for his conscience echoed the word 'fool.' 
 Yes, and he felt that, as a fool, he had been filled 
 with the fruit of his own devices. 
 
 ' You have had your choice,' sneered the mocking 
 spirit. ' It cannot be recalled ; you are ours ; and now 
 I can reveal secrets, and show you what I am in my 
 true shape. Look ! ' 
 
 The female form, the enchanting face, melted away, 
 and Naama began before his eyes to assume her true 
 and revolting aspect ; a siren no longer, but a withered 
 witch with distorted feet and yellow hands, hideous 
 and execrable. 
 
 Festus rose with overpowering horror and affright, 
 and, even as he rose, a voice, which thrilled through 
 him like a lightning flash, exclaimed : 
 
 ' Hence, evil one ! ' 
 
 As though smitten by a thunderbolt, Naama 
 instantly vanished. 
 
 There was a pause which Festus dared not break, 
 and then the voice, which had now changed to tones 
 of the deepest compassion, seemed to say to him, * The 
 tender mercies of the demons are cruel, Festus, and 
 their sorcery destructive.' 
 
THE CHOICE 
 
 163 
 
 He turned. An old man stood beside him, and 
 Festus fell upon his knees. 
 
 ' What fruit have you,' asked the vision, ' in those 
 
 FESTUS FELL UPON HIS KNEES 
 
 things whereof you are now ashamed ? For the end of 
 those things is death.' 
 
 M 2 
 
164 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' Oh, to recall my choice ! Oh, that I might have 
 my youth again ! ' moaned Festus. 
 
 * That may not be ! ' said the old man. ' The past 
 is irrevocable even by Omnipotence. The thing that 
 hath been, remains.' 
 
 ' Then I am lost ! ' murmured Festus. ' I must 
 depart into the everlasting night.' 
 
 ' Go forth into the night,' said the sage, ' but let it 
 be to meet the morning dawn. Hast thou repented? ' 
 
 ' I repent,' said Festus. ' I repent in dust and 
 ashes. I abhor myself. But of what use is repentance ? 
 The sin has been committed ; the leprous state remains. 
 Oh ! ' he cried in accents which could scarce find a 
 passage through the sobs which shook his frame, as 
 he flung himself prostrate upon his face, grasping the 
 feet of his reprover and wetting them with tears, ' I 
 am undone, undone ! Is there no mercy for such as 
 I am?' 
 
 ' Rise, unhappy one,' said the vision ; ' though the 
 past is irrevocable, Elyon can give thee a present and 
 a future. Though the old heart be corroded, he who 
 made thee can create in thee a new heart, and a right 
 spirit. Thou shalt have yet a few more years to live. 
 Be much upon thy knees ; seek for grace to purchase 
 back the opportunity.' 
 
 ' that thou wouldst give me some token for 
 good, my father, my father ! ' 
 
 ' I will,' he said ; and Festus felt on his breast the 
 touch of the old man's cleansing finger. It obliterated 
 the wrinkled and lurid lotus flower, and left the mark 
 
THE CHOICE 165 
 
 of a blood-red cross. Then he laid his hand on the 
 head of the poor wretch, and the touch, as though 
 surcharged with blessing, inspired him with the first 
 gleam of hope which he had felt for many days. A 
 sound was murmuring in his ears which seemed to say, 
 1 Kejoice not over me, mine enemy, for when I fall 
 I shall rise again.' 
 
 VIII 
 
 All his thoughts 
 
 Pleasant as roses in the thickets blown, 
 And pure as dew bathing their crimson leaves. 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 THAT same evening by another path Fidelis also had 
 wandered to the top of the headland. He had not sat 
 there many minutes when he was conscious of the 
 Presence by his side. 
 
 1 It is many years, my son,' said the sage with a 
 smile, ' since you sat here last, and I was commissioned 
 then to make you great offers. Do you regret that you 
 refused them? You might have been rich, eminent, 
 famous at a bound and you are not ! ' 
 
 'But I am content,' said Fidelis, with a happy 
 smile, ' and that is more than all. I have what has 
 come to me by Elyon's blessing. I do not regret, my 
 father, that I left the choice in higher hands. I have 
 lived a very happy life.' 
 
 ' Have you nothing to pray for ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, many things,' said Fidelis, ' for myself and for 
 
166 ALLEGORIES 
 
 others continually. But for myself, my most frequent 
 petition is this : " Grant me to do thy will, Elyon, 
 and give me what thou seest to be best." 
 
 ' You could have offered no more blessed prayer,' 
 said the sage. ' Let me look at the mark upon your 
 breast.' He opened the robe of Fidelis. 'Ah!' he 
 said, ' I see the pansy there. It has indeed been an 
 amulet. Its colours are as bright and fresh as when I 
 pressed them over your heart ; nay, brighter and more 
 heavenly is their beauty. Happy Fidelis ! Farewell, 
 we shall meet again. He who has been with you 
 hitherto shall remain with you henceforth. We shall 
 meet I know you love the words of the poets, my son,' 
 he added, with a smile ' we shall meet 
 
 ' In regions calm, of blue and serene air, 
 Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 
 Which men call earth.' 
 
 The three who had been youths together chanced 
 to die at about the same age. 
 
 For all three in the eventide there had been light, 
 though the life of Fidelis only had continued its un- 
 broken tenor and been golden from its beginning to its 
 close. 
 
 Si non si perde, 
 
 Che non possa tornar 1' eterno amore, 
 Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde. 
 
 DANTE, Purgat. iii. 133. 
 
 They met once more. It was on the dark barge, 
 traversing the dark sea, and their eyes gazed together 
 
THE CHOICE 169 
 
 on the one spot on the far horizon, where, to some 
 happy eyes, it seemed as though a blaze of sunlight 
 were burning for evermore. 
 
 ' Do you see yonder flood of light ? ' asked Fidehs 
 joyfully, pointing to it with his finger. 
 
 ' I do ! ' said Faber in a voice of thanksgiving. 
 
 Festus raised his hands to his eyes and gazed long. 
 
 ' My eyes,' he murmured, ' are very, very dim ; but 
 I think or almost think that I can see a distant 
 glimmer.' 
 
170 ALLEGORIES 
 
 THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL 
 HOUSE 1 
 
 I 
 
 THE PALACE OF KING DOEE88 
 
 This should have been a noble creature. He 
 Hath all the energy which should have made 
 A goodly frame of glorious elements, 
 Had they been wisely mingled ; as it is, 
 It is an awful chaos light and darkness 
 And mind and dust. BYRON, Manfred. 
 
 THE demon Ashmod was so deadly a foe of the Por- 
 phyrian race that he was usually known as ' The 
 Enemy,' as though there were no other. Now Ashmod 
 had acquired many thousands of years' experience of 
 the nature of life in the Purple Island. He was con- 
 sequently well aware that prosperity, though it went 
 by the name of ' felicity,' and caused men to receive 
 the ' felicitations ' of the multitude, was often leagues 
 apart from happiness. Yet to a nature like his, cankered 
 
 1 In this allegory some readers will recognise an underlying basis 
 of historic incidents ; but the characters and scenes are almost 
 entirely imaginary. Prince Innocens and other characters had no historic 
 existence. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 171 
 
 through and through with envy, even earthly prosperity 
 was an intolerable spectacle. He never saw it without 
 a mad desire to undermine and destroy it. 
 
 Now if ever there was a king who seemed to have 
 climbed the summits of human prosperity, it was King 
 Doress the Magnificent. 
 
 He had not been born a king, but had risen to the 
 throne by a combination of warlike genius and superb 
 endowments. He was exceptionally beautiful. He was 
 also a superb athlete and marvellously fearless. His 
 arrow would pierce the distant gazelle with unerring 
 aim, and he would face the lion with a smile certain to 
 transfix its heart with his mighty javelin. In ability 
 he towered far above his contemporaries ; his talents 
 were of the most versatile description ; he had an 
 instinctive genius for the arts alike of war and peace. 
 Above all, he had a truly wonderful gift of winning 
 his way to the confidence of the greatest rulers of the 
 world, and owed much to the favour and friendship of 
 the mighty Emperor of Dumi. Step by step he climbed 
 the height of power, aided by marriage with a lovely 
 princess of an old but banished royal line, for whose 
 sake he had repudiated his former wife, and had sent 
 away his eldest son, Ambivius, to be educated for a 
 private career. 
 
 Doress had risen to the throne of Elkuds. Never 
 did earthly sovereign reign more royally. His wealth 
 seemed inexhaustible and he lavished it both on his 
 own subjects and on adjacent lands. He decorated 
 city after city with palaces of white marble and 
 
172 ALLEGORIES 
 
 * imperial mantles of proud towers.' In every city he 
 visited, in every land through which he travelled, it 
 might have seemed as if all the inhabitants were sup- 
 pliants for his lavish bounty, and poured their choicest 
 honours at his feet. 
 
 The foreign kings or potentates who were his 
 frequent guests went away amazed and envious at a 
 splendour which they could not emulate. It was 
 specially displayed in the palace which was his favourite 
 residence. This royal residence was ceiled with cedar 
 and painted with vermilion. The figures, carved with 
 choicest skill upon its architraves, shone with gilt and 
 blue and crimson. The pillars were of rare marble 
 purple and green and gold and rose-colour. The 
 floors were of the same lustrous materials, and looked 
 like mosaics of jewels. The banquet rooms were hung 
 with silken tapestries and hangings of sea-purple, and 
 were lighted either with huge candelabra of gold, of 
 which the like was never seen, or with statues of youths 
 in gold and silver, holding brilliant lamps in their hands. 
 The tables groaned under their load of plate, wrought 
 in artistic forms and chased with exquisite designs, 
 and these were upheaped with all kinds of delicious 
 
 dainties 
 
 Candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd, 
 And lucent syrups tinct with cinnamon. 
 
 As the guests lay on their sumptuous couches, they 
 were waited on by pages, with their long fair hair 
 crowned with flowers, who had been bought for their 
 beauty in far-off lands. All round the halls stood 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 173 
 
 soldiers, splendidly accoutred and tall of stature, who 
 formed the foreign body-guard of this great king. 
 
 Ashmod was well aware that all this gorgeous 
 materialism, so far from hindering, tended to further 
 his designs of entangling the souls of King Elyon's 
 children in earthliness and sensualism, and making them 
 more liable to become his own slaves. Yet he looked 
 with so rancorous an envy on anything in any Porphy- 
 rian which bore even the external semblance of aught 
 but misery, that since King Doress the Magnificent 
 still manifested some laudable qualities, the demon was 
 spitefully and passionately desirous to overwhelm him 
 under floods of misfortune and drive him for ever, if 
 it were possible, from King Elyon's love. 
 
 He summoned his henchman, Yetser Hara, and, 
 pointing to the palace of King Doress, said, ' I loathe 
 it all. Blight it for me ! ' 
 
 ' I do not think it will be difficult,' said Hara. 
 < Several of the dwellers in that abode are ripe for my 
 machinations in various ways, and I have fiends already 
 in training to entice them.' 
 
 Before we hear of Hara's plans, we must first 
 mention the members of the family of Doress who 
 were denizens of his palace. There was his favourite 
 sister, the Lady Pacifica ; there was Queen Leila, his 
 bride, who was the loveliest woman in all the world ; 
 and he had two sons living with him very princely 
 boys Prince Hilaris and Prince Innocens. 
 
 'What will you give me,' said Hara, 'if I make 
 that palace, which is the most splendid on earth, a 
 
174 ALLEGORIES 
 
 chaos of hatreds, a torture chamber, shambles red with 
 massacres, a place resounding with the dismal shrieks 
 of all the furies ? What reward will you promise me 
 if I deal with those lovely and royal creatures, and 
 make them so miserable that they shall almost wish 
 themselves to be with you in Pandemonium ? ' 
 
 ' Do that,' said Ashmod, ' and I will promise you a 
 throne not even second to that of Prince Zebul.' 
 
 ' Agreed ! ' said Hara. ' My success is certain.' 
 
 ' How ? ' 
 
 ' To King Doress I shall assign the grim and rest- 
 less demon of Suspicion ; to Queen Leila the demon of 
 Haughty Disdain ; to Pacifica the green-eyed demon 
 of Jealousy, who shall pass from one to the other. 
 For the ruin of Hilaris the imp of Heedless Folly will 
 for the present suffice ; and to the eldest son, Ambivius, 
 whom I shall manage to get summoned home, I will 
 assign the fiery and insatiable fiend of Unscrupulous 
 Ambition.' 
 
 'You have not mentioned Prince Innocens,' said 
 Ashmod, 
 
 ' I know it ; I can at present do nothing with him.' 
 
 Ashmod warmly commended Hara for his plan. 
 We shall see how it worked. 
 
 The demons, as we have already noticed, have too 
 much experience to precipitate their operations. They 
 approach their victims with the noiseless sinuous glide 
 of a serpent the serpent which looks like a dead and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 175 
 
 slumbrous thing, and yet can ' outclimb the monkey, 
 outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle the 
 athlete, crush the tiger ; and, before we have time to 
 think, we are fascinated and bewildered ; its coils rapidly 
 gather round us, and its stroke flashes poison through 
 our blood.' It is only at later phases in the soul's 
 history that the fiends know the best time to crash out 
 of the dark forest of temptation with the glare and roar 
 of the wild beast bounding on his prey. 
 
 For a time the palace of King Doress the 
 Magnificent might have been (as indeed it was) the 
 envy of the world. The populace admired its splendid 
 inhabitants, those imperially moulded men and lovely 
 women, and fair youths, who rode forth from its porch 
 to the chase or to the games, surrounded by the utmost 
 pomp and prodigality of royal state. But, unseen, the 
 evil spirits were moving in the midst of it, and sowing 
 the invisible germs which should burst forth in the 
 future whirlwind. 
 
 Up to this time King Doress had lived a life in 
 which many munificent and kindly deeds had not as 
 yet been stained with any unpardonable crime ; but, 
 unobserved by any, the fiends of Pride and Suspicion 
 and Jealousy were daily working in the dark corners of 
 his palace. 
 
 There would be much to tell of his fortunes, but we 
 have mainly to do with the story of his sons. We shall 
 therefore pass over some crimes into which the King 
 was hurried by his proud, passionate, suspicious nature, 
 above all the crowning crime which had led him to 
 
176 ALLEGORIES 
 
 suffer his whole soul to be poisoned against his wife 
 Queen Leila, until at last, under a false accusation, he 
 had ordered her execution an atrocity which for years 
 afterwards poisoned his soul with remorse as bitter as 
 it was unavailing. 
 
 II 
 
 THE THREE PRINCES 
 
 If thou wouldst see the star of thy destiny, look for it in thine 
 own heart. 
 
 FOR some years after this crime Doress was suffered to 
 pursue his career of outward success and splendour 
 undisturbed. He was victorious in war, munificent in 
 peace, and the palace continued for a time in com- 
 parative calm. But it was only because the unseen 
 demons felt secure of him, only because they knew 
 that his heart was secretly turned to idols, that for a 
 little while they let him alone. 
 
 For a little while only. Years sped on, and the two 
 youngprinces, sons of the King by Leila Prince Hilaris 
 and Prince Innocens were growing up. Hara and his 
 confederates felt that it was time for them to renew 
 active measures. 
 
 Prince Hilaris was a youth of eighteen. He was 
 not ill-intentioned, but he was somewhat weak. His 
 fault and peril was that he was too much given to 
 frivolity, and had by no means realised that life is a 
 very serious thing. His father with amazing mag- 
 nificence had married him to the daughter of a 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 177 
 
 neighbouring King ; unhappily she was, like her hus- 
 band, of a careless temperament. 
 
 Prince Innocens, on the other hand, seemed to have 
 inherited all the best qualities of King Doress and 
 Queen Leila, and none of the evil ones. He was now 
 a boy of fifteen. His bright face, his golden hair were 
 pleasant to look upon, and his singular blamelessness, 
 joined to a jaost unselfish and affectionate nature, made 
 him the beloved of all. Even the stern moods of his 
 father, his fits of suspicious jealousy, his bursts of un- 
 controllable anger, were calmed to gentleness when this 
 his favourite boy sat at the foot of his royal chair, and 
 the King's hand was resting lovingly upon his head, as 
 it had so often done when he was still a child. 
 
 All might now have been well, or comparatively 
 well, as far as outward events were concerned, in the 
 palace of King Doress, if those who were its denizens 
 had but taken to themselves the shield of faith and the 
 panoply of watchfulness, and refused to leave any place 
 in their souls for the malignant attacks of the evil 
 demons. But when the subterranean depths of human 
 hearts are surcharged with volcanic fires, the evil ones 
 below sit ' nursing the impatient earthquake.' 
 
 The King often lent his ear to his sister, the Lady 
 Pacifica, who was the dme damnee of his house. It 
 Was impossible for her cordially to like the two young 
 Princes. They were her nephews but were they not 
 sons of Queen Leila, who was now dead, but whom she 
 had hated for her pride? Besides this, Pacifica had 
 sons of her own, and was specially devoted to Philip 
 
 N 
 
178 ALLEGORIES 
 
 her eldest born. If these young rivals could be swept 
 out of her path, who could tell but what she might yet 
 live to see Philip nominated heir to King Doress and 
 his splendid crown ? 
 
 Ill 
 
 Gefahrlich 1st mit Geistern sich gesellen. GOETHE. 
 
 HEBE then were promising materials on which Hara 
 could work. He summoned the evil spirits who were 
 under his command and consulted with them. 
 
 ' There is yet more to be done,' he said, ' in the 
 palace of Doress. Who will take in hand the Lady 
 Pacifica ? ' 
 
 ' She does not want much taking in hand,' said 
 Echthos, the spirit of Hatred. ' She has long ago given 
 her secret signature to my bond.' 
 
 ' And I will help Echthos in any plan he has,' said 
 Eris, the spirit of Ambition and Discord. 
 
 ' Very well,' said Hara, ' and several of you already 
 have your hold on Doress, so that he will not give us 
 any trouble. But now what is to.be done with Prince 
 Hilaris ? ' 
 
 1 1 have made a little way with him/ said Elaphros, 
 the young and comparatively harmless imp of Levity. 
 ' I can induce him to blurt out all sorts of dangerous 
 speeches without thinking, and his young wife is so 
 like him that the two together may cause endless 
 mischief.' 
 
DORESS AND INNOCENS 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 181 
 
 ' And in that matter I can be of the greatest use/ 
 said another young imp, whose name was Psithuros, 
 the spirit of Whisperings. 
 
 ' Good, you pretty little imps of darkness,' said 
 Hara. 
 
 'When they have done their little best,' said 
 Iggereth, the demon of Perverted Aims, with some 
 contempt, ' I shall be ready for more serious business.' 
 
 ' But now, what about Prince Innocens ? ' asked 
 Hara. 
 
 Devils, and demons, and imps alike were silent. . 
 
 * What ? ' said Hara. ' Are all of you so completely 
 defeated by one young Porphyrian boy ? I hate Prince 
 Innocens. I would rather drag him down than any 
 one.' 
 
 ' We can do no good with him,' said one after another 
 sullenly. 
 
 ' Hatob is always with that boy/ said Lilith. ' They 
 walk hand in hand. If one of us does but show himself 
 he instantly calls out to Hatob in alarm, and says that 
 he has been frightened by an ugly face. He says so 
 even if I appear to him ; and you all know that I am 
 beautiful. Even such mere children as Elaphros and 
 Psithuros alarm him.' 
 
 ' Yes/ said Psithuros, 'for one day when I had got 
 among his friends he suddenly ceased talking and went 
 out. And I once heard him tell Hatob that it made 
 him afraid to think that evil spirits were on the watch 
 to lead him astray ; and Hatob answered that neither 
 he nor any one need be in the smallest degree alarmed, 
 
182 ALLEGOKIES 
 
 since no evil spirit would touch, much less hurt, any one, 
 however young, who would refuse to have anything 
 to do with them.' 
 
 ' Cease, you silly chatterer ! ' said Eris. ' We all 
 know that, and don't want to listen to Hatch's sermons 
 here.' 
 
 ' How do you account for it ? ' asked Hara. * It is 
 most exceptional when any young Porphyrian has so 
 little part in me.' 
 
 ' I will tell you,' murmured Echthos. ' King Doress 
 has a very distant and mysterious palace in the hills 
 where saints and prophets are buried. In the garden 
 of this palace grows a herb, rare as the mandrake. It 
 is called GEnaris. Its root is of flame-colour, and 
 on the darkest night it is beautifully luminous. But it 
 requires a trained and delicate eye to see this pure flame. 
 To most people it looks a common plant enough, and 
 numbers who have suspected that it has some magic 
 power have pulled it, and hacked at it, and bragged 
 about it, and turned it to the silliest material uses. 
 But I happen to know that when Innocens was four- 
 teen, Hatob had long and earnest talks with him, and 
 the Prince grew even more serious than he was before, 
 and then Hatob showed him this plant, and how to use 
 it ; and it has been a potent amulet against all our 
 snares.' 
 
 1 Yes,' said Naama, ' and Elyon has given him the 
 not uncommon sapphire ring which he gave to Aner. 
 On the fingers of most who wear it, it soon grows white, 
 or at the best pale enough ; but on his finger it is still 
 of the deepest blue.' 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 183 
 
 ' I know,' said Lilith ; ' he is one of Ely on' s special 
 favourites.' 
 
 ' For the present,' said many voices, ' we must leave 
 Sir Innocens alone. Some day perhaps one or other of 
 us you, Naama, have the best chance may find him 
 off his guard, and then ! ' 
 
 All that the demons said was true ; for the boy's 
 name was a reflex of his character, and he had given 
 his heart to Elyon. The use which he made of the 
 herb (Enaris was to place his young life of temperance, 
 soberness, and chastity under the guardianship of 
 heavenly powers. 
 
 ' Ah ! but,' said Hara, ' I have another card to play 
 in the palace of Doress.' 
 
 ' What is that '? ' they asked inquisitively. 
 
 ' There is tjie eldest son of Doress Ambivius.' 
 
 His name was received by the demons with peals of 
 malignant laughter. 
 
 ' Ambivius oh, he is mine already, heart and soul,' 
 said Lilith. 
 
 ' And ours too,' chimed in Naama and Iggereth in 
 one breath. 
 
 ' And mine ' ' And mine ' ' And mine/ said the 
 demons of Treachery and Hatred, and Baseness and 
 Ambition. 
 
 ' But he lives far away,' said Phobos, the spirit of 
 Timidity. ' He is not in the palace, or he would be 
 a most serviceable aid to us ; much more than a counter- 
 poise to that hateful boy, Prince Innocens.' 
 
 ' Leave that to me ! I will manage that/ said Hara ; 
 and the conclave of demons broke up. 
 
184 ALLEGORIES 
 
 IV 
 
 Whispering tongues will poison truth COLERIDGE. 
 
 'THE Lady Pacifica,' said the page in waiting; and 
 the sister of Doress sailed into the audience chamber of 
 the King in her jewelled apparel. 
 
 ' You don't often pay me a visit, Pacifica,' said 
 Doress ; * and you are like a bird of evil omen when- 
 ever you come to me in state I always feel sure that 
 there is something wrong.' 
 
 ' I never say anything which I do not think 
 necessary for your Majesty's happiness, brother,' she 
 answered. ' A great king is always surrounded by 
 enemies, and sometimes they are of his own house- 
 hold.' 
 
 ' What is the matter now ? ' asked Doress, drawing 
 his brows into the terrible frown which portended a 
 burst of wrath. 
 
 ' I am not quite satisfied with the doings either of 
 your son Hilaris or his wife,' said Pacifica. 
 
 ' He never had too much brains,' said Doress ; ' and 
 as for her, she is insignificant ' 
 
 ' If they were not very silly,' said Pacifica, ' she 
 would hardly venture publicly to repeat the gossip of 
 the backstairs, and laugh at you for dyeing your hair, 
 and using cosmetics as she says you do.' 
 
 King Doress felt that this was beneath his contempt. 
 ' Never mind her chatter,' he said ; ' she is a fool.' 
 
 ' Yes, but even fools can scatter firebrands.' 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 185 
 
 ' What has Hilaris been doing ? I can soon reduce 
 him to order.' 
 
 ' Is he so certain of the crown when you die, Doress,' 
 asked Pacifica, ' that you are not even to have a voice 
 in the matter ? ' 
 
 ' I can leave the crown to whom I choose, and, if I 
 choose, can divide my kingdom into parts.' 
 
 ' Exactly so ; then I do not think that the phrase, 
 " When I am king," should be so habitually on his lips.' 
 
 ' Certainly not.' 
 
 ' He builds,' said Pacifica, ' on his being the son of 
 Leila. He poses as the scion of what he calls the 
 genuine royal line.' 
 
 ' Has he the presumption, the puppy ? ' said Doress 
 angrily. 
 
 ' Indeed he has. Your own son is being set up as 
 your rival. The people, devoted to the ancient line of 
 princes, dare not speak openly, but are discussing in 
 treasonable enigmas whether a pure stream of water 
 may not come out of an entirely new channel ; and 
 whether the son of a daughter has not as much right 
 as the son of a son and so on.' 
 
 ' The old royal line were mere nobodies compared 
 with me,' said the King. 
 
 'And that is the very reason,' answered Pacifica, 
 ' why Hilaris should be more proud of you, and not 
 harp so incessantly upon them ' 
 
 Doress grew more and more angry. ' I will have 
 him thrown into prison,' he said. 
 
 ' No ! ' said Pacifica, ' do nothing rash. Let us have 
 
186 ALLEGORIES 
 
 no more scandals in the family ; we have had enough 
 already.' 
 
 ' Silence ! ' thundered Doress, who could not endure 
 the slightest reference to the crimes of his past years. 
 
 ' Pardon, your Majesty ! ' said Pacifica. * I only 
 spoke rashly out of my loyalty ; but may I advise ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' Then summon home your eldest son, Ambivius. 
 You have not seen him for years. After all he is your 
 eldest son, and he might prove himself a salutary 
 counterpoise to the insolence of Hilaris towards the 
 members of your own family.' 
 
 ' Insolence ? ' 
 
 ' Well, I do not know whether you call this insolence 
 or not, but when he and his wife are surrounded by 
 their parasites, who are far more numerous than yours, 
 how do you think they speak of me, and my son Philip, 
 and your other relatives ? The young lady always 
 stigmatises us as "that plebeian lot." 
 
 ' If you are plebeian, I am plebeian,' said Doress 
 with a roar like that of a lion. 
 
 ' Oh, pray do not get angry, brother ! Hilaris only 
 says that when you die a common phrase of his ' 
 (Pacifica lingered over the phrase) * he means to strip me 
 and my daughters of our fine robes, and make us card 
 wool. Our male relatives are to be turned into slaves 
 or common soldiers. Perhaps my good son Philip 
 may rise to be a centurion, if he is very submissive.' 
 
 King Doress was pacing the room in his fury, and 
 Pacifica saw that it was time to go. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 187 
 
 ' Check your wrath, brother,' she said ; ' only send 
 for Ambivius, and give him the title of Prince. That 
 will be quite sufficient at present : unless you would 
 like to confer the same honour on your nephew Philip.' 
 
 Soon after Pacifica had left him, the King received 
 his usual daily visit from Prince Hilaris. He received 
 the youth roughly and contemptuously. Hilaris, who 
 really loved his father, was deeply hurt. 
 
 ' Have I done anything wrong, sir ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Wrong ? Yes ! ' said the King. ' How dare you 
 presume to set yourself up among the people as a rival 
 to me ? How dare you insult my family, which is also 
 your family ? I will tame your insolence, boy. Out of 
 my sight ! And let your wife curb her silly tongue also, 
 or it will be the worse for her.' 
 
 Hilaris stood amazed. Who could have been telling 
 lies of him ? Who could have been repeating his light 
 and half -playful remarks ? He would have spoken ; 
 but his father cut him short so imperiously with the 
 order, ' Get out of my sight ! ' that he hurriedly left the 
 room. 
 
 The little imp Psithuros, who stood on a perch in 
 the disguise of the King's favourite parrot, looked on 
 at the scene with delight, and retailed it afterwards to 
 Hara with shouts of laughter. 
 
 But the imp fled away when Prince Innocens 
 entered. 
 
 The boy usually received a most cordial welcome 
 from his father ; but not so to-day. Doress in his fierce 
 mood remembered that Innocens also had in his veins 
 
188 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the blood of the old royal line, and might hereafter be 
 set up as a sort of rival to himself. He pushed his 
 son away, and did not return his greeting. 
 
 ' Father ! ' said Innocens astonished, * what is the 
 matter ? ' 
 
 ' Matter enough ! As if I were not sufficiently 
 burdened by affairs of state without being plagued by 
 ungrateful sons.' 
 
 ' Ungrateful, father ? What can I possibly have 
 done to vex you so much ? ' 
 
 1 Oh, I suppose you are in league with Hilaris 
 against me. You think that I am getting old, and that 
 you will have fine times when he is king.' 
 
 'Father,' said the boy, boldly seizing his reluctant 
 hand, and looking up into his face with his fearless 
 blue eyes, ' you have always been kind and indulgent 
 to me. I love Hilaris, but what could he possibly do 
 for me more than you have done or as much? In 
 league with Hilaris against you ? Oh, father ' for by 
 this time the boy's guileless pleading had charmed the 
 frowning face of Doress into a smile ' how can you 
 talk such nonsense ? ' 
 
 ' There ! ' said Doress, laughing in spite of himself, 
 ' a mere hop o' my thumb like you is impudent enough 
 to tell the King his father that he talks nonsense ! ' 
 
 ' And so you do,' said Innocens, kissing him ; and 
 Doress could not forbear from returning the kiss, and 
 clasping his son to his heart. But the moody fit 
 speedily came back upon him like a cloud over the 
 sunshine. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 189 
 
 ' Then you have not joined with Hilaris in insult- 
 ing the Lady Pacifica, or talking of my family as 
 plebeian ? ' 
 
 ' Father, how can you ? ' said Innocens reproach- 
 fully. ' Why does a great king like you listen to such 
 idle tittle-tattle ? ' 
 
 ' Dearest son,' said Doress, ' you can say what you 
 like to me, for I believe that you are good and true, and 
 that you really love me for my own sake as few do. 
 But Hilaris is not like you.' 
 
 ' Ah, do not separate us in that way, father ! We 
 are brothers. We love each other, and we both love 
 you: 
 
 ' Yet tell me, Innocens, have you never heard him 
 talk in that style ? ' 
 
 1 Never, father,' said Innocens, looking up frankly 
 into his eyes. ' But even if I had, I should have put it 
 down as nonsense, quite harmless. Hilaris talks and 
 talks especially when his heart is merry and he means 
 nothing. You know, father, that other people as well 
 as Hilaris can talk nonsense sometimes,' he said with a 
 demure smile. 
 
 Innocens in his transparent simplicity had charmed 
 away the fierceness of the King's wrath. ' You are a 
 dear little fellow,' said King Doress, 'in spite of your 
 impudence.' 
 
 ' Thank you, father,' he said, ' for saying that. And 
 you are a dear old king for letting your foolish boy tell 
 you that you talk nonsense. Kiss me again, and give 
 me your blessing.' 
 
190 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Doress did so, and, as the boy reached the door, he 
 turned round, fixed his earnest gaze upon him, and 
 said : 
 
 ' But, dear father, do not listen to gossips who would 
 poison your kind heart against your sons.' 
 
 Eheu, quid volui misero mihi ? floribus austrum 
 Perditus et liquidis immisi fontibus apros. 
 
 VIBG. Eel ii. 58. 
 
 FOE a time the sweet influence of Innocens prevailed. 
 The King dismissed his gloomy and suspicious 
 jealousies; but they had been indulged too often to 
 loosen their hold finally. They returned upon him 
 like a flood. He did not take Pacifica's hint, and 
 deeply vexed both her and her son by not putting 
 Philip in the line of succession and allowing him the 
 title of prince ; but he did despatch an order to 
 Ambivius to come to the palace. The day before his 
 arrival, he said to Hilaris and Innocens : 
 
 'Boys, your elder brother, Ambivius, whom you 
 have not seen, will arrive to-morrow. Eeceive him, I 
 bid you, in all respects as your equal, and as your elder 
 brother; and remember that I give to him also the 
 title of prince, and regard him as the possible heir, or 
 coheir, of my kingdom.' 
 
 Next day when the young princes paid him their 
 morning visit, he tried to ascertain their feelings. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 19J 
 
 * I will obey your commands, sir,' said Hilaris, 
 whom his wife had, however, made to feel that the 
 summons to Ambivius materially altered her position 
 and prospects. 
 
 ' And you, my Innocens ? ' 
 
 ' I shall be as formidable to him as I am to you, 
 father,' he said, laughing, ' and if he ever talks nonsense 
 I shall tell him so.' 
 
 VI 
 
 purblind race of miserable men ! 
 How many among us at this very hour 
 Do forge a lifelong trouble for ourselves 
 By taking true for false, and false for true ! 
 Here in this mirky twilight of the world 
 Groping : how many ! TENNYSON. 
 
 AMBIVIUS or, as we must now call him, the Prince 
 Ambivius was introduced into the court with great 
 formality. His father sent an escort to meet him, and 
 all the drums were beating, and the trumpets sounded a 
 triumphant fanfare as he entered the palace court in one 
 of the royal chariots surrounded by a glittering escort of 
 the King's bodyguard. He was undeniably handsome ; 
 and when his face was wreathed with winning smiles, 
 he made, at first sight, a favourable impression. Yet 
 several of Ashmod's demons, who were looking on in 
 various disguises some perched like ravens on the 
 trees, others flitting hither and thither like bright- 
 coloured birds laughed and screeched to each other in 
 
192 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 the notes of their own secret language, and said, ' We 
 shall have little to do now that Ambivius is here.' 
 
 His prime and immediate object was to ingratiate 
 himself with the King, from whose presence he had 
 been secluded for many years. When he entered the 
 audience chamber of Doress he fell gracefully and most 
 humbly on his knee, and bent his head. He spoke in 
 low respectful words, which seemed to be trembling 
 with affection. Afterwards, day by day, at banquets, 
 and whenever he was in his father's presence, he 
 watched his least movements and seemed eager to 
 anticipate his slightest wish. He laid himself out 
 sedulously to amuse the King's family and guests by his 
 brightness, geniality, and wit. This he could well do, 
 for he had inherited much of the King's ability, and 
 his intellectual gifts and versatility were far superior to 
 those of his two brothers. He was such a gain to the 
 society of the court that he was never omitted from the 
 King's public hospitalities, and was constantly sum- 
 moned to his private society. Later on, as he saw 
 himself gaining in the affections of Doress, he began 
 to seek his society uninvited, which few of the royal 
 family ventured to do, and he used his best exertions 
 to dissipate the monarch's frequent ennui. After that, 
 he would even come to his bedchamber to inquire after 
 his safety with the utmost solicitude, and he asked if 
 he might not act as Page of the Chamber, so as to be 
 the faithful guardian of the King's slumbers. At last 
 which was what he had been aiming at Doress 
 gave him his unbounded confidence. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 193 
 
 His simultaneous efforts were devoted to win all the 
 other members of the royal family, and to become their 
 chief favourite. For his ultimate aim was in due 
 time to oust and get rid of his two brothers, and make 
 himself the heir of Doress as sole king of the whole 
 realm of Elkuds. 
 
 He first laid siege to Prince Hilaris ; sought his 
 society ; flattered him ; treated him with a charming 
 mixture of deference and familiarity, always affecting 
 to regard him as his unquestioned superior ; asked his 
 advice, tried in every way to bring him out, to worm 
 his way into his secrets, and unobserved to mould 
 his thoughts and elicit his most perilous confidences, 
 though nothing seemed to be farther from his intentions. 
 Ambivius was a consummate master in the arts of 
 treacherous hypocrisy, while he tried to wear the aspect 
 of simplicity itself. The unhappy Hilaris came to 
 look upon this his deadliest enemy as his truest friend, 
 and both he and his young wife regarded him as the 
 one person to whom they might say everything with 
 the certainty that he would neither betray nor misuse 
 their frankness. 
 
 At the same time he set himself to win the Lady 
 Pacifica. Did he not belong to her family, the genuine 
 family of King Doress ? There was no fear that he 
 would give himself any supercilious airs, or profess to 
 look down on the sons and daughters of his aunt as 
 though they came of a race inferior to his own. He 
 subtly made Pacifica feel that her interests, and those 
 of her children, were closely identified with his. He 
 
 o 
 
194 ALLEGORIES 
 
 paid special court to her eldest son Philip. Without 
 saying anything which could be taken hold of, he some- 
 how created in Philip's mind the conviction that, if he 
 and his wife Bhoda would ally themselves in a close 
 secret alliance with him, they might one day share 
 his future kingdom. Ambivius seemed to have some 
 mysterious power of impressing his thoughts upon 
 others without clothing them in express words. He 
 was a master of hints, and turns of expression which 
 seemed to say one thing, and yet conveyed the very 
 opposite. Philip and Rhoda, with the full approval of 
 their mother, became his unconscious tools and practical 
 bond-slaves. 
 
 There was only one member of the court with whom 
 he completely failed. He would have made any sacri- 
 fice to master the mind of young Prince Innocens as he 
 had mastered the wills of the others. He flashed upon 
 the boy all his chameleon colours ; he assumed the 
 guise of beautiful ingenuousness ; he gave the young 
 Prince his choicest gifts ; murmured in his ear his 
 most delicately modulated flatteries ; exercised all his 
 blandishments. His failure was complete, for the boy. 
 
 was innocent ; 
 
 And to be innocent is nature's wisdom. 
 The hedge -dove knows the prowlers of the air, 
 Feared soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter ; 
 And the young steed recoils upon its haunches, 
 The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard. 
 Oh, surer than Suspicion's hundred eyes 
 Is that fine sense which to the pure in heart, 
 By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness, 
 Reveals the approach of evil. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 195 
 
 Innocens was cold to all the fascinations of 
 Ambivius. He put aside his flatteries, did his best 
 to refuse his gifts, and, as far as was consistent with 
 courtesy, tried to avoid his society, and to escape sitting 
 next to him, or listening to his conversation. Ambivius 
 would dearly have loved to plant some secret germs of 
 deterioration in the lad's character. But he found him 
 unassailable in the triple steel of guilelessness. Was 
 it the herb (Enaris, which he kept in constant use, 
 which protected him 
 
 'Gainst all enchantments, mildew, blast, or damp, 
 And ghastly furies' apparition ; 
 
 or was it that, when Ambivius was trying to get hold 
 of him, his ring seemed to wear a less vivid blue, and 
 he became sensible of the thrill and flash of Hatch's 
 unspoken warnings ? Whatever may have been the 
 cause, certain it is that, long before Ambivius was 
 found out by any one else, Innocens saw through 
 him. He said nothing, but regarded him as a wily 
 and dangerous conspirator, and almost shuddered at 
 the presence which every one else seemed to wel- 
 come. 
 
 Doress the Magnificent was delighted with the 
 success of his plan. Ambivius was clearly the ablest 
 of his sons, and was also the most ostensibly loving. 
 He congratulated himself on his wisdom in sending for 
 a youth of whose filial devotion he might be proud, and 
 whom he fancied that he could implicitly trust. 
 
 caecas homimim mentes ! pectora caeca 1 
 
 o 2 
 
196 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Doress asked Pacifica and her son Philip their 
 opinion of Ambivius. They were warm in his praises. 
 
 'A true scion of our family,' said Pacifica with 
 emphasis. 
 
 Doress asked Prince Hilaris what he thought of his 
 brother. 
 
 ' I like him extremely,' said Hilaris. ' He is more 
 than a brother, he is a true friend.' 
 
 O caecas hominum mentes ! pectora caeca ! 
 
 Somehow the King had divined or suspected that 
 his beloved young Innocens did not quite feel the 
 same warm enthusiasm for this new member of the 
 family. 
 
 'My Innocens,' he said to him, 'I hope you find 
 your new brother as delightful as Hilaris, and as all 
 the others do.' 
 
 'Do they find him delightful?' asked the boy, 
 with that ingenuous blush which always betrayed his 
 sensibility. 
 
 * And do not you ? ' asked Doress. 
 
 ' He seems to wish to be kind,' said Innocens. ' He 
 tries to make himself agreeable. He offers me valuable 
 presents.' 
 
 ' That is very good of him, seeing that you are so 
 much younger,' said the King. 
 
 Innocens was silent. 
 
 ' Oh, my boy,' said Doress, ' for the first time I feel 
 a little ashamed of you. You are evidently jealous. I 
 should not have thought it of you ! ' 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 197 
 
 ' Jealous, father ? Certainly not that. I am quite 
 sure that he has not robbed me of any of your love.' 
 
 ' Robbed you, Innocens ? Why, he has a kind word 
 for everybody ; but perhaps you are afraid that he will 
 now inherit a large share of my kingdom, and leave all 
 the less for you ? ' 
 
 Innocens laughed aloud. ' Oh, how little your 
 Majesty understands me ! ' he said. ' Come, father ; my 
 room is close by. You don't visit me there as often as 
 you ought to do. I feel inclined to scold you, and I 
 want to show you something.' 
 
 He took the King by the hand and led him to his 
 room, and pointed to one of the windows. Doress 
 looked with curiosity on the glass. 
 
 Innocens had engraved, with the diamond of a ring 
 which his father had given him, the words, which an 
 unhappy English princess cut many hundreds of 
 years afterwards on the window of her castle-chamber, 
 1 keep me innocent ; make others great ! ' 
 
 ' There, father/ he said ; * I scratched that prayer 
 on the window, with the diamond of the ring you 
 gave me, when I was fourteen years old. Who- 
 ever may desire the splendours of royalty, I do not. 
 Never think of me as an heir, father; love me as a 
 dear son.' 
 
 'I do ! I do ! ' said the King, much moved. ' I cannot 
 explain your obvious dislike of Ambivius, and I am 
 sorry for it. You usually see the best side of everybody. 
 I cannot account for the prejudice. But you are the 
 dearest of boys, and your father will always love you.' 
 
198 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 VII 
 
 He aids 
 
 The friends who drudge for him, as the blind man 
 Was aided by his guide, who lent his shoulder 
 O'er rough and smooth until he reach'd the brink 
 Of the far precipice : then hurled him downward. Old Play. 
 
 AMBIVIUS had now planted his foot deep into the 
 affairs of the palace of Elkuds. He never lost sight of 
 his ulterior aims. He cared for no human being but 
 himself. Vice, and crime, and treachery were words 
 which for him had no meaning. One thing he meant 
 to do, which was to make himself the sole undisputed 
 monarch of Elkuds, and then to revel in every luxury 
 and indulgence which wealth and sovereignty and 
 gratified ambition could bestow upon him. He looked 
 down on all the personages around him as his inferiors. 
 He despised King Doress, while he fooled him to the 
 top of his bent. He despised the Lady Pacifica ; he 
 specially despised Prince Hilaris. He would play on 
 them all as if they were his instruments, and mould 
 them to his purposes exactly as he liked. He did not 
 at all despise Prince Innocens, but hated and feared 
 him. In the presence of that blameless boy his dark 
 genius felt rebuked. Innocens could not be got rid of 
 by entangling him in real plots, or overwhelming him 
 with suborned perjuries. But . . . well, well, Innocens 
 could wait. He was not generally suspicious, and were 
 there not such things as poisons, which might be used 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 199 
 
 when the other plans of Ambivius had succeeded, as 
 succeed he felt sure they would ? 
 
 And being now a most powerful and popular 
 personage far more really influential than Prince 
 Hilaris, though he had always been hitherto regarded 
 as the heir to the crown Ambivius began to set into 
 active motion his sinister designs. If he had deceived 
 the greatest, nothing was easier to him than to enlist 
 in his interest a swarm of inferior persons. He was 
 always a kind and condescending master to his slaves. 
 It suited him to make them all think that he had a 
 personal regard for them, and felt a personal interest 
 in them. In this way he established a subterranean 
 ascendency over them, which made them his un- 
 scrupulous agents without seeming to be so, and 
 enabled him to secure their incessant help in plans 
 which they could not fathom. On all sorts of pretences 
 of affection for Hilaris, and as though his sole wish was 
 to protect him, he surrounded him and indeed all 
 others except Innocens, of whom no spy could ever 
 find anything to report with a swarm of spies. The 
 whole palace buzzed with whisperhood, and clacked 
 with gossip. Everything which the King did or said, 
 however secretly, somehow found its way to the ears of 
 Ambivius. As for poor Prince Hilaris, he could scarcely 
 smile, or yawn, or make a joke, or raise his hand to his 
 head without Ambivius being informed of it. Indeed, 
 Ambivius had laid himself out specially to win and 
 bribe the confidential page and secretary of the Prince 
 so that he never wrote a note of which the silken band 
 
200 ALLEGORIES 
 
 was not unloosed, or the seal broken and counterfeited 
 before it reached its destination. The close alliance 
 between Ambivius and Philip, the elder son of Pacifica, 
 made him familiar with the most intimate secrets of 
 her household also. 
 
 The Lady Pacifica was the chief instrument whom 
 he employed to insinuate into the King's mind the most 
 angry suspicions of Hilaris. Garbled quotations of 
 what he had said ; downright inventions of what he 
 Jiad not said ; harmless jests into which might be read 
 a sinister meaning all found their way through the 
 spies of Ambivius to Philip, through Philip to Pacifica, 
 and through Pacifica to the King. When Doress 
 mentioned these to Ambivius, it was always this 
 impostor's aim to make them tell with deadliest force 
 while yet he assumed the role of the defender of his 
 dear brother, and the palliator of all his offences. He 
 often posed as an intercessor between him and his 
 incensed father. Yet all the while he was accomplishing 
 his secret object of enhancing his own apparent merits, 
 and leaving the King more furious against Hilaris, and 
 more convinced that the harmless youth was a secret 
 traitor. 
 
 Ambivius did all this so well, and was so entirely 
 unsuspected, that, on one occasion, the two young 
 fiends, Eris and Psithuros, laughed outright, and 
 noiselessly remarked to each other that some day 
 Ambivius would be a most effectual ally in the demon 
 coterie of Ashmod perhaps almost a rival to Hara 
 himself ! And as for Ambivius, when he left the 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 201 
 
 presence of Doress, he too laughed in his evil heart, and 
 said, ' Thanks to my good management I now have all 
 the threads of the web in my own hands, and my 
 success is certain. I shall be king and then ! ' 
 
 And thus the unfortunate Hilaris, who had neither 
 the desire nor the capacity to become a conspirator, 
 was gradually entangled hand and foot in a stake-net 
 of destruction. 
 
 VIII 
 
 What wounds sorer than an evil tongue ? PHILLIPS. 
 
 FOE now the hapless Prince, undermined by the 
 brother whom he regarded as his best friend, was 
 constantly received by his father with coldness, or with 
 frowns and black looks, or with bursts of ill-humour 
 and contemptuous taunts ; and these gradually passed, 
 first into veiled, then into open threats. The whole 
 nature of the young man which was frank and harm- 
 less revolted against this treatment. Why was his 
 father so grossly unjust, so brutally unkind ? What 
 harm had he done ? If he ventured to ask the King 
 wherein he had offended, he was cut short with mocking 
 sneers as to his clever assumption of ignorance. No 
 opportunity was afforded him Ambivius took good 
 care of that of a quiet explanation, or of probing to 
 the bottom the charges which he supposed must have 
 been made against him. 
 
 Prince Innocens saw this state of things and 
 
202 ALLEGORIES 
 
 suspected how it arose ; but, having no ostensible ground 
 to urge for his suspicions, he thought that it would be 
 calumnious, or at least uncharitable, on his part to give 
 expression to them. Besides this, Ambivius was now 
 so constantly closeted with the King, was so completely 
 the chosen sharer of his amusements and of his leisure, 
 that Innocens found it more and more difficult to 
 get opportunities for confidential intercourse with his 
 father. 
 
 There was a dark reason why Doress did not himself 
 seek more of the society of his youngest and favourite 
 son. Ambivius had succeeded in instilling into the 
 mind of Doress a suspicion that both of his sons by 
 Queen Leila, however much they might conceal their 
 feelings, yet cherished against him a veiled indignation 
 for the execution of their mother, and nourished a secret 
 design of avenging it upon the other members of the 
 King's family. Now, when Leila had been so cruelly 
 done to death, Innocens had been very young, and 
 immense pains had been taken to keep him in ignorance 
 of the facts. He had simply been told that, while he 
 and his brother were absent, their mother had died ; and 
 the King had threatened to torture and execute any one 
 who revealed to him the real state of the case. But it 
 had been impossible to prevent the knowledge from 
 ultimately reaching him; for Hilaris, who had been 
 aware of it from the first, told his brother how things 
 stood. Now Hilaris, chiefly through being goaded on 
 by Ambivius at passionate moments, had sometimes 
 spoken with indignation of his mother's execution, and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 203 
 
 had threatened to inflict vengeance some day upon those 
 by whom she had been brought to the scaffold. All this 
 had been reported to the King with added particulars. It 
 was the one point upon which his wounded conscience 
 was most sore, and on such a subject it was impossible 
 that he could ever talk with the boy whose mother he 
 had doomed so unjustly to the sword. 
 
 And now all the worst demons who from early days 
 had established a lien on the character of the magnifi- 
 cent King tightened their clutch upon his hair. His 
 career was ripe for fresh catastrophes, caused partly by 
 the lack of manly firmness in Hilaris, but mostly by 
 the King's own evil passions, the guilty memories of 
 his past, and the diabolical machinations of his eldest 
 son. 
 
 For to Prince Hilaris life became quite intolerable. 
 He was ready for almost anything. Death itself would 
 be a deliverance from the crushing weight of his father's 
 rage and injustice. On one occasion he had even been 
 ordered into chains, and had only been reprieved at 
 the hypocritical intercession of Ambivius. Existence 
 became a burden and a weariness to the unhappy young 
 man. 
 
 He had returned to his quarter of the palace after 
 one of the stormy interviews which were now of 
 constant occurrence between him and the King. His 
 father had raved at him, had overwhelmed him with 
 reproaches, had covered him with shameful vitupera- 
 tion, and that in the presence of others. Goaded by 
 the sense of immeasurable wrong, Hilaris had fired up, 
 
204 ALLEGORIES 
 
 had answered his father back, had spoken of his unjust 
 tyranny ; at last, to the horror of the attendant guards, 
 had been so transported by passion as to exclaim : 
 
 1 Do you want to murder me, as you murdered 
 my ' 
 
 Before he had uttered the word ' mother,' the King 
 strode upon him with eyes of flame and felled him to 
 the earth with one blow of his mighty right hand. 
 
 A dead silence fell on all. Hilaris rose, and with 
 bent head and bleeding face, shamed beyond expression, 
 was led out of the hall by his weeping wife. He went 
 to his rooms, and there Ambivius immediately visited 
 him, to all appearances overwhelmed with grief, but in 
 reality laughing and triumphant in his black heart, 
 assured that his day of triumph was now very near at 
 hand. 
 
 Hilaris, his cheek bruised and swollen, was too 
 much depressed to speak. Ambivius took his hand, 
 fondled it, and murmured condoling words and titles 
 of endearment, till at last the sorrow burst in a flood 
 from the overburdened heart of Hilaris, and he wept 
 on his brother's neck. 
 
 ' What can I do- for you ? ' said Ambivius ; ' I would 
 do anything. I have again and again interceded with 
 the King for you, even to my own peril.' 
 
 'I know that you are good and true,' said Hilaris. 
 
 ' I wish, oh how I wish, that you had some one to 
 protect you. But who is more powerful than King 
 Doress ? No one, I suppose, unless it be the Emperor 
 of Dumi ? ' 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 205 
 
 The words, and their probable effect, had been most 
 accurately calculated. Hilaris seemed struck by them. 
 That night the angry King was put on the same trail. 
 Vast as was his own power, it was overshadowed by that 
 of the Emperor of Dumi, the grandest potentate in the 
 Purple Island. If there was one thing which Doress 
 resented more than another, it was any attempt to 
 invoke the action of the Emperor in the kingdom of 
 Elkuds. The least step in that direction he regarded 
 as the worst form of high treason. He had felt a 
 momentary remorse to think that he had smitten his 
 own heir apparent to the ground in the presence of his 
 courtiers, but now his feelings were still more madly 
 exacerbated, when Philip, prompted by Ambivius, ven- 
 tured to say to him, ' I hope, sir, that Prince Hilaris 
 will not ask protection from the Emperor of Dumi.' 
 Maddened by such a suggestion, Doress threatened 
 then and there to have Hilaris seized and thrown into 
 a dungeon. But this would not have suited the plans 
 of Ambivius. He wanted the youth's death, not his 
 incarceration ; and he interceded so passionately for 
 him that he persuaded the King to have patience. 
 Ambivius promised to watch over his interests with all 
 tenderness, and to see that he received no harm from 
 the plots of Hilaris. 
 
 The next step was to induce Hilaris really to write 
 co the Emperor of Dumi ; and this, in the sore state of 
 the young man's mind cruelly insulted as he felt him- 
 self to be was not difficult. Ambivius had already 
 planted the germ of the suggestion. He now persuaded 
 
206 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 the page of Hilaris to condole with his master, to 
 express indignation at the conduct of King Doress, and 
 to persuade him to write a line entreating the Emperor 
 to protect him from further outrage. 
 
 But Hilaris did not venture to go so far. He knew 
 the Emperor, and knew that he was not uninterested 
 in his welfare ; for, during his early boyhood, Hilaris 
 had spent several years at the court of Dumi, that 
 he might receive the best education, and obtain some 
 insight into the principles of law and government. 
 He thought, therefore, that he might secretly venture 
 not by any means to invoke the Emperor's pro- 
 tection but, since he was wholly innocent of wrong- 
 doing, to write and ask if he would intercede for him, 
 and persuade his father not to misjudge him, nor to 
 treat him with such galling cruelty. 
 
 The letter was written ; Ambivius knew that it was 
 going to be written, and his object was to gain posses- 
 sion of it. The page promised that he should see it ; 
 but his treachery did not go so far, even under the 
 secret hints of his corrupter, as to forge another in its 
 place. Ambivius therefore opened an intrigue with a 
 girl, the daughter of the slave messenger who would, 
 he knew, be entrusted with any letter which might 
 be sent. As this slave was incorruptible by bribes, 
 Ambivius promised an immense reward to the young 
 girl if she would get possession of the letter for a single 
 hour, and bring it to him. This was the more easy 
 since his spies had ascertained the day on which the 
 messenger was to start for Dumi. The bad Prince 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 207 
 
 waited in disguise to receive from the girl the fateful 
 letter, and, on receiving it, rushed to his rooms, cut 
 the silken band, opened the seal. But the letter was 
 not strong and incriminating enough for his purpose. 
 Skilled in the arts of forgery he erased a few phrases, 
 and substituted others far stronger and more stinging. 
 He also dexterously altered the humble request for the 
 Emperor's intercession into an urgent request for his 
 armed intervention, and so made the letter treasonable 
 in the highest degree. It was this letter, with its 
 forged interpolations, which he handed back to the 
 slave girl, receiving from her at the same time the 
 news that it was to be sent the next day sewed up in 
 the messenger's robe. 
 
 No time was to be lost. Ambivius asked the King 
 whether it would not be desirable to have the roads 
 watched, so that any messenger to the Emperor might 
 be arrested. The suggestion fell in with the King's 
 suspicions. The slave of Hilaris was arrested early the 
 next morning and brought before the King and some of 
 his assessors. A letter was found on him, but it was a 
 harmless request, not to the Emperor, but to one of his 
 sons, that he would purchase for Hilaris a few of the 
 finely wrought jewels of Dumi's capital to be given as 
 a present to his young wife. 
 
 ' That cannot be all,' said Doress. ' Slave, you 
 shall .be stretched on the rack if you do not confess 
 you are the bearer of other missives.' 
 
 At this point Ambivius whispered something into 
 the ear of Philip, who said, * Before the slave is 
 
208 ALLEGORIES 
 
 tortured, sire, permit me for one moment to deal with 
 him.' 
 
 Leave was granted. 
 
 'Hold up both your arms in the air,' said Philip to 
 the slave, ' and remain standing so.' 
 
 The slave did as he was ordered, and Philip felt his 
 outer garment. There was nothing there ; but when 
 he proceeded to examine the inner tunic he noticed that- 
 one of the folds was almost imperceptibly thicker than 
 the other. 
 
 ' Give me a knife,' he exclaimed. 
 
 A courtier handed him one. He ripped open the 
 seam of the tunic, and there the letter was found con- 
 cealed. 
 
 It was read aloud in the form into which Ambivius 
 had forged it, and was heard with a shudder of horror. 
 
 ' Take that slave and execute him,' said the King to 
 his headsman. ' The Prince shall be tried before our 
 chief judge to-morrow.' 
 
 IX 
 
 L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend a la vertu. LA 
 
 KOCHEFOUCAULT. 
 
 THE trial was held with all solemnity. The whole 
 court of judges was summoned to sit in judgment on 
 Prince Hilaris, who was brought before them in chains, in 
 the garments of woe, and in the deepest dejection. The 
 case was so serious, the guilt so apparent, the terror 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 209 
 
 inspired by the King's wrath so abject, that no one 
 dared openly to sympathise with him except his 
 brother, Prince Innocens. The boy stood beside him 
 in mourning habiliments, with his flowing curls cut 
 short and his eyes bathed in tears. But every one saw 
 that Hilaris was hopelessly doomed, when the King 
 himself, hurried by rage into total loss of dignity, stood 
 up as the accuser of his own son. He poured upon him 
 such a torrent of invective that Hilaris, conscious of 
 no crime, and believing that he had once possessed his 
 father's love, raised for a moment his downcast eyes, 
 aghast at such a revelation of unsuspected hatred. 
 The incriminating letter was read ; the evidence of 
 various spies as to things which Hilaris had incautiously 
 said was given ; there seemed to be nothing left but 
 to pronounce sentence. Then Ambivius arose, and, with 
 consummate acting and unctuous hypocrisy, spoke for 
 Hilaris. ' I assume,' he said, 'that the letter is genuine. 
 Of that there can, I suppose, be no doubt, since it was 
 found concealed in the tunic of a confidential slave. 
 But Prince Hilaris is young. The letter, it is true, 
 involves the guilt of high treason ; but certainly my 
 brother has meant much less than he said. His main 
 fault has only been one of hasty imprudence. May 
 
 he not, guilty though he be ' 
 
 At this point Prince Innocens fixed the full gaze of 
 his blue eyes upon Ambivius. The effect was astonish- 
 ing. The plotter could not meet the light of those 
 pure eyes. His artificial graces collapsed ; his flowing 
 rhetoric ended in a stammer ; his falsetto pathos became 
 
 p 
 
210 ALLEGORIES 
 
 unavailing. He hesitated, lost the thread of his oration, 
 his face grew dark with every bad passion ; he sat 
 down. It was a sudden, strange, and ignominious 
 collapse. All rejoiced in secret over his utter discom- 
 fiture ; none more so than the fiends whose agent he 
 had long been, for they were secure of him, and now 
 their work was done. 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. To all outward 
 appearance Ambivius had seemed to be the most 
 popular personage in the whole palace. Every one said 
 he was, and therefore every one assumed it to be so. But 
 the disguises of hypocrisy have an awkward way of 
 slipping off, and once or twice the demons, out of sheer 
 mischief, had pulled the strings of their votary's mask 
 from behind, and had revealed the real features of 
 Ambivius, just when it was most inopportune for him 
 that they should be seen. It was impossible for him 
 always to coin his lips into smiles, and to wear the look 
 of radiant and simple-hearted amiability. His nominal 
 friends had not unfrequently surprised an expression on 
 his features which seemed to underlie the one which 
 he intended. Besides this it had been indispensable 
 that he should discover himself to some few of his 
 spies and agents in his true guise. In some strange 
 way hatred and suspicion of this popular prince were 
 everywhere in the air. And when he sullenly resumed 
 his seat, though no one knew all the facts of his 
 black treachery, yet to their own general amazement 
 almost every one joined in a low unmistakable hiss. 
 There was an indefinable unuttered expression of 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 211 
 
 aversion the moment that he was cut short in his 
 unctuous envenomed pleading, and hastily stopped, 
 overwhelmed with confusion. 
 
 The King's own mind was too much blinded by 
 jealous passions to enable him even to notice, much 
 less to understand, the significance of the occurrence. 
 He said to Hilaris in an ominous voice, * Traitor, 
 what have you to say in defence of your treason ? ' 
 
 ' Sire,' said Hilaris in a quiet tone, and with un- 
 wonted dignity of manner, ' in one sense I am guilty, 
 if you so regard it. I did write a letter to the 
 Emperor of Dumi, who was kind to me when I was a 
 boy, and I did ask him to intercede for me. I did not 
 write the letter which has been read in court. It has 
 been altered by forgery.' 
 
 * A likely story ! ' said the King. * Is this your 
 seal ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' And the silken band you use ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' And was the slave whom I have ordered to the 
 block your confidential messenger ? ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 ' And is this letter in your handwriting ? ' 
 
 ' I wrote most of it ; but some words have been 
 altered by forgery.' 
 
 The defence, however, seemed desperately impro- 
 bable. Hilaris admitted that, with his own hand, he had 
 given the letter to the slave the night before he started. 
 No interpolation could be detected, for Ambivius had 
 
 p 2 
 
212 ALLEGORIES 
 
 done his work with accomplished skill. Who could 
 have stolen the letter ? In whose interest could it 
 have been altered ? One person, and one only, sus- 
 pected the real state of the case Prince Innocens. 
 But he dared not utter a suspicion for which he had 
 no shadow of evidence only he once more fixed his 
 gaze on Ambivius, and once more Ambivius confirmed 
 his misgivings by visibly shrinking, and growing pale 
 beneath his glance. 
 
 The judges gave their sentence. Prince Hilaris was 
 doomed to die that evening, as a convicted traitor, by 
 the sword of the executioner. 
 
 No sooner was the court broken up than Innocens 
 sought his father. He still wore the dress of a 
 suppliant ; he had even sprinkled ashes over his fair 
 hair. When he entered the presence-chamber Ambi- 
 vius was with the King, explaining that he had 
 only broken down from extreme emotion ! The King 
 was praising his generosity to his brother. Innocens 
 quietly said that he wished to speak to the King alone, 
 and requested Ambivius to retire. Then the princely 
 boy prostrated himself at his father's feet, and clasped 
 them, and bathed them with his tears, and implored 
 pardon, or at least a reprieve, for Hilaris. 
 
 ' He has sinned too deeply for pardon,' answered 
 Doress sullenly. ' Princes who indulge in high treason 
 must die the death.' 
 
 ' Father,' said the boy, * what Hilaris said in court 
 was the simple truth. I cannot prove it ; but I am as 
 convinced of it as I am of my own existence, for I can 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 213 
 
 read his thoughts as clearly as if they were written in 
 a book.' 
 
 'Your goodness blinds you to the guilt of others, 
 my poor boy,' said the King. ' The defence of Hilaris 
 was absurd and impossible on the face of it. What 
 he was forced to admit was itself criminal ; and who 
 could have got hold of his letter, or would have dared 
 to put forged interpolations into his confessed message ? ' 
 
 The King put his hands on his son's shoulder, and 
 gazed into his eyes as though he would read his inmost 
 soul. Innocens fearlessly and guilelessly met that 
 searching gaze. And then, somehow, without a word 
 being uttered, Doress read in the unspoken thoughts 
 of Innocens, ' Ambivius is guilty. Ambivius is the 
 forger ! ' With a start of surprise he became conscious 
 of the boy's conviction; with yet deeper surprise it 
 flashed upon him that perhaps the boy was right. Yet 
 how could such a thing be ? Was not Ambivius the 
 trusted friend, the constant defender of Hilaris ? 
 
 All that Doress said was, 'Impossible, my son, 
 impossible.' 
 
 ' And must Hilaris die ? ' 
 
 ' All the judges have found him guilty. He must die. ' 
 
 ' father, father ! Will you not even listen to my 
 intercession ? ' 
 
 ' I have already refused the intercession of your 
 elder brother, Ambivius,' said the King ; and again, 
 though Innocens spoke no word, yet as Doress looked 
 into his eyes he read the thought, The intercession of 
 Ambivius was a guilty sham ! 
 
214 ALLEGORIES 
 
 But Doress would not admit the suspicion. He 
 turned away and said, ' You plead in vain : Hilaris 
 must die.' 
 
 Innocens burst into a storm of sobs and tears, and 
 with a breaking heart went to the prison of Hilaris. 
 Strange to say he found him cheerful, almost happy, 
 and altogether fearless. He had spoken his last fare- 
 wells to his wife. Life under its present conditions had 
 no charm for him. He was ready to die. 
 
 The young Prince had scarcely entered when 
 Ambivius, with cruel and deadly falsity, came in to see 
 him for the last time. Hilaris would have received him, 
 but Innocens rose, and with a gesture of command, and 
 an accent more passionately stern than Hilaris had ever 
 heard him utter, ordered him not to enter. To the 
 astonishment of Hilaris, the eldest son of Doress 
 obeyed the boy, and went sheepishly out. 
 
 ' What means this ? ' asked Hilaris. 
 
 1 We need not talk of it now, my brother,' answered 
 Innocens ; ' but that man is the forger, that man is your 
 betrayer ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, the accursed, the unutterable hypocrite ! ' 
 groaned Hilaris, detecting as in one flash of insight 
 the subterranean Erebus of plots into which he had 
 been entrapped. 
 
 ' Think not of him now, dear brother,' said Innocens. 
 ' Be sure that ere long his sin will find him out.' 
 
 Innocens sat down by Hilaris on the stone bench by 
 the dungeon wall, and took his chained hand. He told 
 him of his suspicions, he told him of his fruitless 
 
INNOCENS SAT DOWN BY HIM AND TOOK HIS CHAINED HAND 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 217 
 
 intercession with the King, and he said that he would 
 stay with him until the fatal hour arrived. Then 
 there blossomed up between them the sweet flowers 
 of happy childish memories of years while yet their 
 mother lived, and of the days when they were happy 
 boys together at the court of the Emperor. And they 
 hoped for the time when, haply, they should meet 
 again with their beautiful injured mother in a better 
 home. And together they knelt down and lifted their 
 hearts to Elyon and his son Imrah who had lived and 
 died to save the sinful and sorrowing denizens of the 
 Purple Island. 
 
 And while they were talking, hand in hand, hardly 
 conscious how the time passed, the summons of the 
 executioner was heard at the dungeon door, and in his 
 black mask the man stood there in silence, leaning on 
 his massive sword. 
 
 ' Farewell, dear brother,' said Hilaris. ' My life of 
 late has been none so sweet that I should greatly 
 desire to prolong it ; nor, faulty as I have been very 
 very faulty and foolish have I lived so bad a life that 
 I should fear the swift stroke of death. Elyon will 
 forgive my faults ; Imrah will wash them white.' 
 
 ' I will walk with you to the place of doom, my 
 brother,' said Innocens, weeping on his neck. 
 
 Hilaris entreated him to spare himself the terrible 
 spectacle ; but Innocens would not suffer his brother 
 to die alone. He walked with him, hand in hand, 
 to the block. Then, murmuring his last almost in- 
 audible words of prayer, and hope, and courage, and 
 
218 ALLEGORIES 
 
 farewell, he withdrew a few paces, knelt down, and hid 
 his face in his hands. A moment after he heard the 
 awful stroke, the dull thud, the plash of rushing blood 
 which told him that Hilaris was dead. 
 
 He sank senseless on the stone floor, and was carried 
 to his room. 
 
 ' TBIUMPH ! triumph ! ' shouted Hara as he entered the 
 shrine of King Ashmod, and saluted the demon-chief. 
 ' Did I not say that I would make a splendid devasta- 
 tion, an anticipated hell of the most gorgeous palace, 
 and a wreck and ruin of the most magnificent king in 
 the Purple Island ? ' 
 
 ' You have done fairly well,' said Ashmod. 
 
 ' Fairly well ? ' repeated Hara sullenly. ' Doress has 
 slain his wife, he has slain his son ; what more would 
 Ashmod have ? ' 
 
 ' There is yet Prince Innocens,' said Ashmod. 
 ' Complete your work ! ' 
 
 ' I hate, hate, hate Ashmod,' said Hara as he left 
 the presence. 
 
 ' So do we,' snarled a whole chorus of fiends. 
 
 1 He neither praises nor rewards me, though I have 
 done all the work.' 
 
 ' You? ' said Jealousy. ' It was I that did it all.' 
 
 ' And J,' said Hatred. ' You only looked on, Hara.' 
 
 ' And I more than all three,' said Suspicion. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 219 
 
 ' Silence, you curs of Gehenna ! ' said Hara, lashing 
 at them madly with an iron scourge, till they fled and 
 howled at him, gnashing their teeth. ' You may be 
 masters of those fools of Porphyrians, but you are slaves 
 to me, and if you dare to disobey me I will fling you 
 into boiling pitch ! ' 
 
 And the horrid rafters rang with shrieks and wailing, 
 and yells and howls. 
 
 XI 
 
 Per quae peccat quis, per haec et torquetur. 
 
 KING DOEESS could not shake off the impression of 
 unspoken misgiving which he had read in the eyes of 
 Innocens. He once more fell into the mood of in- 
 describable anguish from which he had suffered after 
 the doom of Leila. His affections were naturally 
 strong, though they could be swept away as by a 
 deluge before the demons of Jealousy, Anger, and 
 Suspicion, to whom he had given up the possession of 
 his soul. He became once more a terribly haunted 
 man. That very night Queen Leila, in her white 
 blood-besprinkled robe, stood by his bed and said to him, 
 ' Most miserable of all kings, murderer of thy wife, 
 murderer of thy son. Repent ! beware ! thine end is 
 nigh ! ' He awoke with a shriek of terror, and slept no 
 more. 
 
 Ambivius had been more disturbed than he had 
 
220 ALLEGORIES 
 
 dared to confess by the way in which his conscious 
 guilt had been cowed before the pure insight of his 
 young brother. He needed change to rally his scattered 
 forces, and to mature the unfulfilled designs which 
 should at last gratify his burning ambition. And the 
 fiends to whom he had sold his soul saw that now the 
 time had come to hurl him over the last precipice of 
 crime and ruin. 
 
 He went to the King, whose obvious coldness 
 showed him that his suspicions had been awakened, 
 and, saying that his feelings were harrowed by recent 
 events, asked leave to travel through the dominions 
 of his Majesty for a year, and to visit his principal 
 cities. 
 
 Doress gave him leave, and, for the first time, felt 
 secretly glad to get rid of him and to be left alone with 
 his pure and beloved Innocens. 
 
 Ambivius started on his journey ; but nothing was 
 farther from his intentions than to withdraw his hand 
 from the wheel-work of intrigue^ which he had already 
 set in motion. Philip with his wife Rhoda were now 
 bound to him, hand and foot, by personal complicity 
 with his plots. Indeed he had established over Rhoda 
 a sort of ascendency which compelled her to be obedient 
 to his bidding. Before he started on his journey he had 
 agreed upon a secret cypher in which he could correspond 
 with them. 
 
 After a few weeks he wrote a letter to Philip in 
 this cypher, in which, finally throwing off the mask, 
 ' The King,' he said, ' is now old, and wretched, and 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 221 
 
 useless. To what purpose is it that he should linger 
 on, a mass of mental and bodily disease ? It is in the 
 nature of things that he should seem to have died of 
 illness, even if his death be a little hastened. If he 
 dies, of course I shall succeed to his dominions. 
 Innocens is out of the question ; he is too young to 
 rule, and lacks the necessary gifts ; I will look after 
 him. To prevent any accident I have a forged will 
 ready if necessary, but I also have an understanding 
 with some of the captains of the bodyguard, and, in 
 case of the King's death, I shall be ready to seize the 
 vacant throne. If I should chance to send you well, 
 I will call it a powerful medicine, or a love potion, or 
 a powder of succession will you and Ehoda make use 
 of it for the necessary purpose? If ^ you will, I will 
 immediately give you fifty talents of gold, and I further 
 pledge myself by oath to confer upon you the rule of 
 an independent principality.' 
 
 Philip and Ehoda had been already too deeply im- 
 mersed in crime to make it easy for them to recede. 
 If Ambivius fell, was it not inevitable that they should 
 fall with him ? Could he not bring down the axe upon 
 both their necks ? Besides, he offered a splendid bait 
 to their ambition and their greed. To enjoy all that 
 gold, and to wear the crowns of independent princes 
 would it not be grand? 
 
 Philip wrote back that he was at the disposal of 
 Ambivius. The huge bribe was handed over to him 
 under the guise of a great architectural design. The 
 poison was conveyed to him by an unsuspecting slave 
 
222 ALLEGORIES 
 
 who believed himself to be carrying a vial of fragrant 
 and healing oil. 
 
 But there are many stumbling-blocks in the path 
 of crime stumbling-blocks colossal and unforeseen. 
 Philip was not a born criminal; he had only succumbed 
 to the fascinations and temptations of a stronger and 
 more resolute villain. Ehoda too had terrible twinges 
 of conscience. They could not make up their minds to 
 use the poison. They often consulted about the advisa- 
 bility of revealing the whole plot and flinging themselves 
 on the King's mercy ; and all the more because since 
 the execution of Prince Hilaris every one had begun 
 to avow the most undisguised detestation of the absent 
 Ambivius. 
 
 Agitated by fear and remorse, Philip fell into a 
 burning fever. He became so seriously ill that his 
 recovery was declared to be impossible. No sooner 
 had he heard his doom than he sent for his wife, 
 and bade her instantly to fling away the poison. 
 
 That afternoon the dying man was surprised and 
 touched by a visit from the great King himself. The 
 visit was one of simple kindness. Doress was attached 
 to his sister Pacifica, and had always liked her eldest 
 son, Philip. He spoke to him with the greatest affection, 
 and gave orders to his own physician to attend him, 
 and treat him with the utmost care. 
 
 Philip burst into tears, and, rallying all the little 
 strength which he had left, he wrote with feeble hand 
 a confession of his crimes, to be handed to the King 
 as soon as he was dead. He died that night. The 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 223 
 
 King read his confession with horror. Rhoda and 
 several of her slaves were arrested and kept in custody. 
 A swift messenger was sent to summon Ambivius 
 home. But everything was done in the profoundest 
 secrecy, and the roads were guarded to prevent him 
 from receiving any intelligence. He came back know- 
 ing nothing, and suspecting nothing, until he entered 
 the city. Then, indeed, it seemed to him a direful 
 omen that no one met him ; all shunned him ; none 
 returned his greetings. But it was too late to escape. 
 Summoning all his impudence he entered his father's 
 presence with a gay smile, and advanced to offer him a 
 warm embrace. 
 
 ' Parricide ! ' thundered the King. ' Would yon 
 murder your father, and yet embrace him ? ' 
 
 At those words the edifice of all the young man's 
 ambitions was shattered as by a lightning stroke. 
 
 ' Guards, put him in chains ! Take him to prison ! ' 
 
 Next day he was tried. The confession of Philip 
 was read aloud. The slave who had carried the vial was 
 produced. Ehoda was led into court, and the King 
 promised her complete pardon if she would reveal the 
 simple truth. She did so. She ratified all the evidence 
 which had been adduced. 
 
 Ambivius rose, and defended himself with eloquent 
 skill and pathos. He appealed to his father. Had he 
 not always been a faithful and obedient son ? Had he 
 not to his own detriment constantly interceded for his 
 brother Hilaris? Had he not tried to protect the 
 King from a thousand perils ? Had he not even watched 
 
224 ALLEGORIES 
 
 over his nightly slumbers ? Who could believe the 
 tissue of perjuries now urged against him ? Could he 
 not have murdered the King, unsuspected, a hundred 
 times if he had so desired ? Philip had accused him 
 falsely, because he was jealous of Rhoda's regard for 
 him. Let the King's wisdom sweep away these lies, 
 and let him take back to his affection the most faithful 
 of his sons. As for the vial, he had not the least wish 
 to deny that he had sent the vial, but it contained a 
 mere harmless medicine. 
 
 This he said, believing that its contents had been 
 destroyed. The King turned to Ehoda, who was in a 
 state of the bitterest indignation against Ambivius for 
 his insinuations against her. 
 
 ' When I flung away the rest of the poison,' she said, 
 ' I reserved a little, meaning to destroy myself. I con- 
 cealed it on my own person. Here is the vial which 
 Ambivius sent, and it is not yet empty.' 
 
 ' A malefactor was yesterday doomed to death,' said 
 the King. ' Let it be tried on him ! ' 
 
 The wretch was led into the court, and bidden to 
 swallow the potion. He did so, fell on the floor in 
 convulsions, and in one minute was dead. 
 
 A hush of horror fell over the assemblage. 
 
 ' Now what have you to say, parricide and monster? ' 
 exclaimed the King in a voice of doom. 
 
 'It is the foul invention of yon woman,' said 
 Ambivius, turning upon Bhoda a look of fearful 
 hatred. 
 
 ' Nay, wretch,' she said, ' destroyer of my happiness, 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 225 
 
 murderer of my husband, ruiner of my peace, you escape 
 not so ! Oh, King, read this letter ! It is in a secret 
 cypher ; here is the key to the cypher.' 
 
 Ambivius saw that all was over. 
 
 ' It is enough,' he said sullenly ; ' that woman has 
 destroyed me : I am guilty.' 
 
 It was impossible to repress the roar of execration 
 which arose when he had uttered these words. Sentence 
 of death was solemnly pronounced upon him. When 
 it was uttered he glared round him with hatred and 
 defiance on his face, but he could not see a single pitying 
 glance, unless it was on the beautiful face of Prince 
 Innocens. 
 
 When he left the court King Doress the Magnificent 
 was overpowered with all that he had gone through. 
 He felt crushed by the accumulated horrors of his life. 
 He became seriously ill, and raved incessantly. How 
 utterly had he been ruined by the demons to whom he 
 had listened ! Nothing seemed to calm him but the 
 presence of Prince Innocens, though in these days the 
 boy seemed to have lost all the natural sprightliness of 
 his character and was full of sadness, drooping like a 
 flower which has been drenched by storm. 
 
 While the monarch was in this state he gave no 
 further order for the execution of Ambivius, and, indeed, 
 he incessantly cursed his hard fate that it should fall 
 to him to doom to death those who should have been 
 dearest to him, and who had derived their being from 
 himself. But in one of his lucid intervals, when he 
 was sane indeed, yet full of wrath against the world, 
 
 q 
 
226 ALLEGORIES 
 
 he was told that the gaoler of Ambivius wished to 
 see him. The man was admitted, and said that his 
 prisoner, hearing how ill the King was, had offered 
 him enormous bribes to strike off his chains and set 
 him free, threatening that the moment he was free he 
 would be king and would slay his father, and inflict 
 condign vengeance on all his family. 
 
 Then, in a voice which astonished the hearers by 
 its force and compass, Doress shouted out : 
 
 ' Then execute the parricide this very hour ! ' 
 
 Thus did the bad career of Ambivius, and all the 
 schemes into which the fiends had lured him, and all 
 the gigantic hopes with which they had tempted him, 
 perish, consume/ and come to a fearful end. His 
 frustrated ambition was hurled to the earth like some 
 torch left there to smoulder and to go out in darkness 
 and foul stench. 
 
 And as he was being led to execution in his felon's 
 dress, his hands manacled together, he could not help 
 feeling, amid thoughts as black as midnight, how far 
 different it might have been with him ! The laughter 
 of the mocking demons whose false lights had led him 
 to ruin seemed to be ringing in his ears, Those rosy 
 gleams and golden meteors which lured him on the 
 path of crime had but flickered over the quagmires of 
 hopeless death. He had been tempted to his evil career 
 by the demons of guilty ambition. Those demons had 
 robbed him even of the earthly blessings and dignities 
 which would naturally have fallen to his lot, and had 
 now whirled him down a prey to grinning infamy. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 227 
 
 He had been by birth a prince ; many had courted and 
 flattered him, and professed to be his friends. Had 
 they all turned from him ? Had he changed into aver- 
 sion and hatred the feelings of all? Was there no 
 pitying heart was there no eye which for him could be 
 dimmed with tears ? Oh, what a ghastly unutterable 
 failure he felt himself to be, and how hard and thorny 
 was the road which he had made for his own miserable 
 and guilty feet ! To have his head struck off by the 
 common executioner to be slain amid the curses of 
 those whom he had sacrificed for his own vile and 
 selfish aims was that the reward of such misdoings ? 
 Oh, was there not one, not one of all the thousands 
 whom he had known, to pity him ? 
 
 With these maddening thoughts in his heart, with 
 bent head, remorseful yet impenitent, the bad Prince 
 walked from his prison through the gilded corridors 
 which led to the court in which he was to lay his head 
 upon the block. But while those words, ' Not one, not 
 one to pity me,' were sounding through his thoughts 
 like a knell of doom, a door opened from a chamber 
 beside the corridor, and Prince Innocens stood before 
 him. Ambivius lifted his eyes in a glance of frightened 
 misery, which passed at once into angry defiance. Had 
 the boy come to insult him ? to triumph over him ? 
 At least he should see no sign of weakness. 
 
 No ! Prince Innocens had come for a very different 
 purpose. He had never liked Ambivius, he had always 
 shrunk from him with a sort of involuntary shudder. 
 With inward horror he had seen through his painted 
 
 Q2 
 
228 ALLEGORIES 
 
 mask of hypocrisy, and had fathomed his sinister 
 designs. But now pity triumphed over indignation 
 and abhorrence for Ambivius was still young, and 
 after a life so guilty and so wasted Ambivius was 
 doomed to die. 
 
 Innocens gazed sadly for a moment on the mournful 
 procession ; then, almost timidly, he stepped forward, 
 grasped the fettered hand of the Prince, and said in a 
 sad voice : 
 
 1 My brother, I am very very sorry for you.' 
 
 They were simple words, but they smote on the 
 soul of Ambivius as the sunbeam smites on the snow 
 and causes it to rush down in avalanche. With an 
 impulse of despair and affection which he could not 
 control he lifted his chained hands, and tried to press 
 the face of Innocens to his own. They mingled their 
 tears together, and Ambivius gasped forth, ' Oh, In- 
 nocens, Innocens ! would that I had been like you ! 
 But I am black of soul, and my life has been a very 
 leprosy of guilt. Lost ! lost ! No hope ! No hope ! ' 
 
 His arms fell from off his brother's shoulder, and 
 the fetters gave a dismal clank. 
 
 ' Ambivius,' said Innocens, ' Ely on can hear the 
 cry of penitence even in the flash of doom.' 
 
 A moment after, the sword swept down, and the 
 thread of that evil life was shorn away. 
 
 A few days afterwards Doress also died, an object 
 of pity even to his worst foes. 
 
 Terrible indeed had been the triumph of Ashmod 
 and Hara and their inferior fiends. This king so 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 229 
 
 princely, so victorious, so magnificent, so successful, so 
 madly envied this king, the builder of glorious cities, 
 whose name was received with acclamations by many 
 peoples this king, who had lavished his wealth with 
 such superb and ungrudging munificence this king, 
 whose palace was one of the wonders of the world- 
 after turning that palace into shambles which rang 
 with shrieks ; after dooming to the scaffold his 
 two sons, and the wife whom he had loved this 
 king, haunted by ghosts, tormented by demons, so 
 shaken by madness as to be a terror to himself, so 
 prostrated by disease as to be an object of pity to his 
 attendants this king, so gifted with unequalled endow- 
 ments, and not devoid of strong natural affections 
 this king, who, had he but acquired himself, and 
 subdued his evil passions, and obeyed the laws of 
 Elyon, might have ranked amongst the greatest of 
 mankind vanished into the night. * Call me not 
 Doress the Magnificent/ he said to Innocens, his sole 
 surviving son, the only consoler of his last dark hours ; 
 ' call me Magor Missabib terror on every side.' . 
 
 Oh, deeper dole, 
 
 That so august a spirit, shrined so fair, 
 Should from the starry sessions of his peers 
 Decline to quench so bright a brilliancy 
 In Hell's sick spume 1 Ah me ! the deeper dole 1 
 
 The great lords of the kingdom came to tell 
 Innocens officially that Doress was dead, and that he 
 the beloved of all the heir alike of the ancient and of 
 
230 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the newer line was unquestioned King of Elkuds, 
 and would be welcomed by all the people. 
 
 He sighed deeply. * Oh, keep me innocent,' he 
 murmured to himself ; ' make others great ! ' < Advise 
 me ! ' he said to his father's wisest and most aged 
 counsellors. 
 
 'Your Majesty cannot refuse the responsibility,' 
 said the senators. ' There is no king possible but you.' 
 
 They left him, and he cried, ' O Hatob, friend of 
 my life, tell me, must this be ? ' 
 
 In a moment Hatob stood beside him, laid his hand 
 upon his head, and said, ' Thou art called to this work, 
 my son ; accept it, and fear not. Elyon, who loves 
 thee, will still be with thee. Did not Imrah say, " I 
 will not leave you orphans, I will come to you " ? ' 
 
 When the great lords came to him an hour afterwards 
 to receive his instructions, they found him still upon his 
 knees. 
 
 So Innocens was master of all the accumulated 
 wealth, was king of all the vast dominions ! He had not 
 sought the splendid burden ; he had not dreamed of it ; 
 he would fain have avoided it. It came to him in the 
 line of duty, and he could not shun the duty which his 
 destiny had imposed upon him. He sought the most 
 upright and disinterested advisers ; he became, of all 
 the kings of his day, the wisest and the best beloved. 
 And 'in that humane great monarch's golden look/ 
 peace nourished out of the earth, and the people re- 
 joiced with a great joy. 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 231 
 
 Which won ? Ambivius or Innocens ? 
 
 Which won ? The plotter, the self-seeker, the wily 
 
 THEY FOUND HIM STILL UPON HIS KNEES 
 
 astute deceiver, the corrupt er of purity, the servant of 
 the demons ; or the blameless and harmless, who 
 
232 ALLEGORIES 
 
 desired only to spend his whole life, however meekly, 
 in whatever deep obscurity, obedient to the laws of 
 Heaven ? 
 
 Which enjoyed ? King Doress the Magnificent, or 
 King Innocens the humble and the undefiled ? 
 
 Which enjoyed? The sumptuous magnificent 
 sovereign, who made his palace a miracle of gorgeous- 
 ness, but left his heart to be a home of the demons, 
 and the haunt of unclean things ; or the youth who 
 had long reduced all his prayers to this one : 
 
 , ' Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee, for 
 Thou art my God. Let Thy loving Spirit lead me into 
 the way of righteousness ' ? 
 
 XII 
 
 E quel d' inferno 
 
 Gridava : O tu dal ciel, perche mi privi ? 
 Tu te ne porti di costui 1' eterno 
 Per una lagrimetta che '1 mi toglie. 
 
 DANTE, Purgat. v. 104. 
 
 IN the dark barge ; over the more than midnight sea. 
 King Doress was seated there. He wore no diadem ; 
 he was clad in no purple robes ; no jewels blazed upon 
 his hands. He was wholly undistinguishable from the 
 humblest pauper in his realm, who sat not far from 
 him. 
 
 In awful silence, through the darkness which might 
 be felt, making no ripple on the black sea, the dark 
 
THE FORTUNES OF A ROYAL HOUSE 233 
 
 barge glided on, and on the horizon Doress saw 
 scarcely the glimmer of a light. 
 
 The prow touched the shore, and through a misty 
 twilight two faintly shining figures came to meet him. 
 He shuddered ; he drew back ; he would fain have fled. 
 For in one of those white spectres he recognised the 
 features of his wife, Queen Leila, and in the other of 
 his son, Prince Hilaris. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' he groaned aloud, ' and is there to be no peace, 
 no forgiveness even here ? Have you come to hale me 
 into the nether flames, that I may be beaten and crushed 
 by demons for ever ? ' 
 
 ' Nay,' said the Queen in a low, sweet, mournful 
 voice. ' We were bidden to await you, and to take you 
 where we are. Fear not. We are not worthy to be 
 admitted into Elyon's presence yet. This is a timeless 
 world; but when long aeons have passed, as men count 
 time, in some great change hereafter, when our souls 
 have fully learnt even by means of evil that good is best ; 
 when they are truly and perfectly penitent ; when 
 every film is cleared from our eyes ; when the stains 
 left upon our souls by the Evil One are purged away 
 then it may be ' 
 
 She did not end her sentence. 
 
 ' But oh ! ' he cried, ' have you forgiven me all my 
 jealous passion, all my cruel tyranny ? Have you, 
 whom I loved so wildly, and has my poor son, forgiven 
 the terrible end to which I doomed you both ? ' 
 
 There was a wan smile on the lips of Hilaris. 
 ' Father,' he said, ' we have more than forgiven you. 
 
234 ALLEGORIES 
 
 In this land there are, there can be no resentments. 
 And what is a terrible end ? Death is but death, 
 whether it come in a sword's flash, or down the long 
 declivities of disease. Come with us ! We live as yet 
 but in the twilight ; but often a face of love looks down 
 upon us, and there is one soft bright star above us, 
 which shines for evermore.' 
 
 A little afterwards, from under the dark covering 
 which had shrouded him from recognition as he lay 
 upon the barge, the miserable Ambivius crept in horror 
 to the land. Two dark figures met him, and I saw 
 him shrink with terror as they grasped him by either 
 hand ; but what befell him I know not, unless truth and 
 the love of good were made visible to him, and accepted 
 by him in the very stroke of doom. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED ; 
 
 OR, THE STORY OF FLORIAN AND ARDEN8 
 
 The deadliest snakes are those which, twined 'mongst flowers, 
 
 Blend their bright colouring with varied blossoms, 
 
 Their fierce eyes glittering like the spangled dewdrop ; 
 
 In all so like what Nature has most harmless, 
 
 That sportive innocence, which dreads no danger, 
 
 Is poisoned unawares. SIR W. SCOTT. 
 
 thou goddess, 
 
 Thou divine nature, how thyself thou blazon'st 
 In these two princely boys. SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline. 
 
 A POKPHYRIAN ruler the great Duke Altus tall, 
 stately, and of middle age was walking in the beautiful 
 gardens of his castle with his two sons, Florian and 
 Ardens. Some of the high-born Porphyrians, both 
 fathers and mothers, were singularly neglectful of their 
 children. The fathers were frequently absorbed in the 
 urgent business of the state, or in the management of 
 their broad domains ; the mothers in the eager round 
 of social pleasure and splendid entertainments. The 
 consequence was that in many instances the young 
 Porphyrians of the higher classes ' tumbled up ' rather 
 than were educated. They suffered more complete 
 
236 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 moral and spiritual neglect than the majority of those 
 of humble birth, who, even if they were neglected by 
 their parents, were strenuously taken in hand by their 
 religious teachers. The young aristocrats were in great 
 measure left to the care of servants, and when they 
 grew too old for their nurseries were sent often 
 without the smallest discrimination of their character 
 or fitness to large public schools. There they were 
 educated in a casual way, in traditional forms of 
 learning ; but, in the days of which I speak, were only 
 exceptionally and accidentally trained to 
 
 Make their moral being their prime care. 
 
 The noble Altus had been more careful in the super- 
 vision of his two motherless boys than were many of 
 his fellow nobles. He had not wholly neglected them. 
 To the best of his ability he had used such opportu- 
 nities as he could find to inculcate into their minds right 
 principles, and to set high ideals before them. But his 
 opportunities were rare and his skill but moderate. 
 Much of the good which he tried to do was undone by 
 the carelessness or unfaithfulness of others. Still, up 
 to this time, Florian and Ardens were innocent boys 
 white vellum, not as yet blurred and scrawled with evil 
 inscriptions ; virgin clay, plastic to the hands of wise 
 or wicked potters. They were sons of whom any 
 father might have felt proud, and were as yet 
 
 Two boys who thought there was no more behind 
 Than such a day to-morrow as to-day, 
 And to be boy eternal. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 237 
 
 And as they were now fourteen and fifteen years 
 old, Altus thought that he could no longer delay the 
 dreaded hour in which he must part from them, and 
 launch them, like frail barks upon a stormy sea, to be 
 wafted at first by soft zephyrs over glittering waves, 
 but fatally apt to be 
 
 Unheeding of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, 
 
 Which, hushed in grim repose, expects its evening prey. 
 
 Altus was purposely taking this walk with his boys 
 that he might talk seriously to them for the last time 
 before they left their home. But somehow he did not 
 feel himself able to say a tenth part of what he would 
 have wished to say. He felt separated from them by 
 a chasm of years ; he felt it difficult to lay aside the 
 reserve of manner and speech which, like a thin veil 
 of ice, seemed ever to be freezing afresh between him 
 and them. His exhortations, though they were entirely 
 sincere, sounded even to himself like cold and formal 
 platitudes. The light gay nature of Florian constantly 
 interrupted him with trifling remarks, whereas Ardens 
 was far more interested in hearing him talk about 
 current events than about serious duties. Much as he 
 loved his boys, he felt that it was not in his power to 
 admonish and forewarn them as earnestly as he desired. 
 Altus was a man of honour and integrity, but he was 
 hardly in any deep sense one of the devoted servants of 
 Elyon his king. Yet he was so sincerely desirous to 
 do his best, that, before they re-entered their stately 
 home, he said, * My boys, you are about to leave me, 
 
238 ALLEGORIES 
 
 and it is very necessary that you should receive some 
 earnest instruction. There is still a week before you 
 go to school. Our friend Alciphron is wise and 
 good ; he has had much experience in the training of 
 boys. I shall take you both to him on the day before 
 you start, and I trust that you will listen to the advice 
 he will give you.' 
 
 I have not yet said what the boys were like. 
 Though they were brothers they did not at all resemble 
 each other. Ardens, the elder, had a noble face ; his 
 eyes were of bright hazel, his mouth resolute, his 
 hair a mass of contumacious curls ; he resembled his 
 father. Florian recalled the features of his mother to 
 those who had known her. He was very beautiful, 
 but any one who looked at him would have seen that 
 his danger would lie in weakness and effeminacy. His 
 complexion was bright, his eyes large and liquid, his 
 mouth irresolute, his soft hair had a gleam of gold. 
 He was so beautiful that one of the greatest of the 
 Porphyrian artists who was painting a picture of ' Happy 
 Boyhood ' begged Altus that he might be allowed to 
 take a likeness of Florian as the ideal of his picture. 
 Altus demurred lest the boy should be made vain ; 
 but the painter, who was a man of fine character, 
 gave his assurance that by no single word should his 
 son be led to think of his personal appearance. This 
 promise he faithfully kept, and his influence over 
 Florian was excellent. Yet some mischief was done ; 
 for, when the lovely picture was exhibited, many 
 recognised the features of the sitter, and it was im- 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 239 
 
 possible to keep the boy quite unaware of the whispers 
 of admiration. 
 
 On the day before the two lads went to the great 
 school, to be flung as it were into that burning fiery 
 furnace of temptation, which would either melt all 
 that was gold in them, or refine it by the purging 
 away of all that was dross, Altus took them to 
 the house of Alciphron. The old Mage, as men called 
 him, was a recluse ; but his secluded life, so far from 
 being spent in selfish isolation, was always at the 
 service of his fellow men. One of his strongest wishes 
 was, to the utmost of his power, to elevate and ennoble 
 the coming generation. For this reason his vast 
 experience and his invaluable gifts were at the disposal 
 alike of the old and of the young who invoked his aid. 
 
 Before introducing the boys, Altus explained to 
 Alciphron his object in bringing them with him. As a 
 father, devoted to the welfare of his sons, he entreated 
 the Mage to use his potent spells in their favour, and 
 to give them amulets which would preserve them from 
 harm ; since 
 
 In the morn and liquid dew of youth 
 Contagious blastments are most imminent. 
 
 Alciphron smiled. ' You err,' he said, ' as many 
 err. Such powers as I possess are not mine ; the 
 force of such amulets as I can bestow is in reality at 
 the disposal of any one as much as at my own. They 
 are potent, but their validity depends solely on the will 
 of those who use them.' 
 
240 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' Yet they tell me you have saved many from the 
 paths of the destroying Ashmod,' said Altus. 
 
 ' I have only saved them as the anchor saves the 
 boat which does not leave the haven ; as the helm 
 saves the ship whose watchful captain and crew have 
 reefed the sails, and kept a keen look out before the 
 bursting of the storm. Of myself I am impotent ; as 
 Elyon's servant I can sometimes help his sons.' 
 
 1 My boys await you,' said the Duke. ' I will leave 
 them with you till the afternoon. I will not entreat 
 you to do all you can for them, because I know that 
 your own goodness of heart will lead you to do so.' 
 
 * You judge me aright,' said Alciphron ; * and now 
 introduce your sons to me.' 
 
 They came in, and the old man received them with 
 the most hearty kindness. There was nothing cold 
 or stiff nothing obtrusively didactic or dictatorial, 
 in his dealing with the two lads. They saw at once 
 that he loved them and cared for them as though 
 they had been his children, and they were at their ease 
 with him and trusted him. The genial sense of youth 
 made them rely without misgiving on his transparent 
 sincerity of goodness. 
 
 He did not at once plunge into serious topics, but 
 awoke their interest as he questioned them about their 
 home, their friends, their games, their studies, the books 
 which they loved best. They, in their turn, asked 
 him many questions about the great school to which 
 they were going. He knew it full well, with all its 
 potential perils and all its possible advantages, for in 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 241 
 
 earlier years he had himself been a chief teacher 
 there. 
 
 He walked with them round his garden and 
 showed them the almost human affection for him of 
 the animals which he had tamed. He also told them 
 many interesting things about the trees and flowers. 
 Then he strolled with them into his ample picture 
 gallery, and as they had been accustomed to the gems 
 of art in their own home, they were delighted with many 
 of the pictures. 
 
 ' What is the story of that picture ? ' asked 
 Florian. 
 
 He pointed to a lovely painting of a fair sleeping 
 youth, on either side of whom there stood two female 
 figures. 
 
 ' It is the old story of the choice of Hercules again, 
 under another form,' said Alciphron. ' You see the 
 tree which seems to divide the picture in half ? ' 
 
 ' It is a laurel, the tree of fame, the tree I love,' 
 said Ardens. 
 
 ' It is,' said Alciphron with a smile. ' The youth, 
 though asleep, is sleeping in his armour, and his arm 
 rests on his crimson shield. On one side of him, in her 
 robe of light blue and her tunic of rose colour and her 
 ornaments of coral, stands Pleasure but pleasure 
 " as regarded by a virginal imagination the foe not so 
 much of purity as of austerity." She is holding out to 
 him a sprig of myrtle. On the other side, the maiden 
 of sterner beauty, in her dark purple mantle, is Duty, 
 She holds in her left hand the book of the law, " This 
 
 B 
 
242 ALLEGORIES 
 
 do, and thou shalt live ; " in her right hand the sword 
 with which the youth must fight in its defence. Some- 
 thing in the face of the youth makes one feel sure 
 that he will make the right choice. The painter was 
 only a boy of eighteen when he painted it, and the 
 figure is perhaps intended for himself. You, my 
 boys, like all who ever lived, will have to make your 
 choice too between duty and pleasure.' 
 
 A few minutes later the attention of both the boys 
 was attracted by another picture. On one side of it a 
 woman, beautiful, but with a hard and cruel face, is 
 gazing at a youth who lies in the sottish drench of 
 satiety, so sunk in slumber that you might almost seem 
 to hear him snore. Young goatish satyrs are sporting 
 with his discarded armour. One of them is blowing 
 a sea-shell in his ear. 
 
 ' Why is he blowing that shell ? ' asked Florian. 
 
 ' The sea-shell is the emblem of pleasures which 
 are but echoes pleasures which can please no more,' 
 answered the old man. ' The shell has been flung 
 upon the shore. There is no purple in it now; its 
 murmurs tell of the ebbing tide.' 
 
 ' What is it which is coming out of the tree ? ' asked 
 Florian. 
 
 ' It is not a tree,' said the Mage, ' it is only a rotten 
 trunk, covered with dead corpse-like fungi. And what 
 you see issuing from it is- a swarm of hornets, by which 
 the painter meant to give an emblem of pleasures 
 which have now become stinging agonies.' 
 
 ' Look at that coarse, ugly, vicious young satyr, who 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 243 
 
 has crept through the youth's breastplate,' said Ardens. 
 * What an animal ! ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Alciphron, ' and do you see with what 
 infinite contempt he is thrusting out the tip of his red 
 tongue ? It is an emblem of utter defeat, like the poet's 
 picture of the youth in the bower of Acrasia, lying 
 beside his idle armour, and 
 
 Ne for them, ne for honour cared he, 
 Ne aught that did for his advauncement tend ; 
 
 But in lewd loves, and wastefull luxurie, 
 His days, his goods, his bodie he did spend. 
 O horrible enchantment that him so did blend ! 
 
 But the painter's symbol is even more vivid than the 
 poet's.' 
 
 ' Ugh ! ' said Ardens, ' I don't like that picture at all. 
 I like this one much better.' 
 
 He pointed to the figure of a youth, seated in a glow 
 of radiance which seemed to emanate from his own 
 godlike strength and purity, as, with a curl of scorn 
 upon his lips, he watches the effect of the arrows he 
 has sped against a portentous snake. On the other 
 side of the picture, the wounded monster, in the fury 
 of its deathful agony, is tearing down rocks and trees 
 which it has encircled in its anguished folds. 
 
 ' One wonders that the young god was not afraid of 
 that terrific monster,' said Florian. 
 
 ' It looks terrific, my Florian,' said the Mage ; ' but, 
 after all, the python is only a huge worm ; and when the 
 arrows of light pierce it, it bursts asunder in the midst 
 from its own putrescence.' 
 
 E 2 
 
244 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' But what is that gleaming thing which is wrig- 
 gling out of the great pool of the serpent's gore ? ' 
 asked Ardens. 
 
 ' Alas ! ' said Alciphron, ' it is meant to symbolise 
 the truth that corruption never seems to be quite 
 slain. It needs incessant watch, for out of the ser- 
 pent's egg springs forth the cockatrice, and its seed 
 is a fiery flying serpent. Still that picture is a picture 
 of victory, as the other is of defeat. But perhaps you 
 are tired of looking at pictures now ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said Ardens ; ' here is one more which I don't 
 understand. What is that old man doing with his bell 
 and staff? And why does he look so earnestly at the 
 youth opposite to him ? ' 
 
 1 That again,' said the Mage, ' is a picture of 
 secured victory. You see that cypress wood behind 
 the two figures ? It is the dark wood of human life. 
 The old man is a hermit, and the wild boar at his feet 
 is meant to show that by his bell and staff that 
 is, by watchfulness and effort he has subdued the 
 impulses of his lower nature. The splendid youth 
 opposite him, with his short crisp curls of sunny hair, 
 has conquered in a different way by hard fighting ; 
 he is in full armour, and has a cross on his mantle, and 
 is leaning on his great cross-hilted sword. At his feet, 
 with its slimy tail, spiky wings, and savage teeth, 
 lies the dragon he has conquered not dead, for these 
 dragons, even when they seem dead, have sometimes a 
 terrible way of springing to life again but though not 
 dead, yet helpless. It cannot bite through those iron 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 245 
 
 greaves, and if it but stirs, the sharp sword in the 
 youth's hand is ready to stab it into suppression. 
 But tell me, Ardens, do you see nothing else in the 
 picture ? ' 
 
 ' There is the shining circle above, with Imrah in 
 it, Elyon's son.' 
 
 ' Yes ; it is the vision which inspired, and gave the 
 victory, both to the youth who conquered by fighting, 
 and the old man who prevailed by solitude and prayer. 
 Come and refresh yourselves ; you cannot take in the 
 meaning of any more pictures now.' 
 
 The old man led them to a pleasant alcove in the 
 garden, where was laid a delightful meal of fruits, like 
 that with which Adam and Eve regaled the affable Arch- 
 angel in Paradise. By this time his keen insight into 
 character enabled him exactly to understand the 
 different temperaments of the two lads ; and when the 
 meal was ended he sent Ardens to wander once more 
 through the picture gallery, or in the garden, while he 
 spoke to Florian. 
 
 ' My boy,' he said, ' let me say to you a few 
 serious words. You are going into a world of difficulty 
 and temptation, of glamour and peril. You will find 
 dangerous enemies ; but your worst enemy by far the 
 only enemy who can really hurt you is yourself ; for 
 without your own consent no foe can harm you, even 
 though it may assault you. You must master, you 
 must acquire, you must possess yourself.' 
 
 * Do I not possess even myself ? ' said Florian, laugh- 
 ing a little pertly. 
 
246 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 ' No, Florian, you do not. Give me your earnest 
 attention. What do you mean when you say "I"? 
 if Do you mean your body, or your mind, or your spirit ? 
 or all three together ? ' 
 
 Florian was silent. 
 
 1 We must conquer ourselves ; we must gain our 
 own lives,' said the Mage. 'You have a higher and a 
 lower self. Your higher self means every element in 
 you which is good and pure and true : it is represented by 
 your spirit, by that which enables you to hold inter- 
 course with all that you feel to be divine, and to be 
 above you. Your lower self is represented by all the 
 desires' of the mind wrath, anger, clamour, pride, envy, 
 hatred, malice ; and by all the appetites of the flesh, when 
 they are abused for purposes of gluttony or drunkenness, 
 or sloth or uncleanness. There is a fiend who takes 
 the form of a fierce leopard, and would fain master 
 the passions of your mind ; there is another fiend who 
 takes the form of a basilisk. He will try to deceive 
 and destroy you by the impulses of the body. My boy, 
 beware of the basilisk ! ' 
 
 The Mage spoke in tones so solemn that he awed 
 every tendency to frivolity in the lad's nature. 
 
 ' The basilisk? ' he asked ; ' what is the basilisk like ? ' 
 
 'When first you see it,' answered the old man, 'it 
 will be like a crowned serpent with scales of green and 
 gold. It has deadly fascination in its glance. If once 
 you allow that glance to pervade your imagination, and 
 paralyse your will, it will go ill with you. Florian ! 
 beware of the basilisk ! When you see it, fly from 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 
 
 247 
 
 it ; and if you cannot fly from it, trample on it. Never 
 tamper with it ; never suffer yourself to fall under its 
 fatal spell.' 
 
 ALCIPHEON AND FLOKIAN 
 
 Morian caught the old man's hand. . 'Oh, sir/ he 
 said, ' this is very terrible. Can you give me nothing 
 no amulet to protect me from this basilisk and its 
 dreadful glance ? ' 
 
248 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' I can,' said the Mage ; ' but the force of amulets 
 depends solely on the user. They lose all efficacy 
 unless he who possesses them determines, at all cost 
 of derision or self-denial, to keep and use them. 
 And this he can only do if he seeks the help of his 
 unseen Father.' 
 
 ' I will,' said Florian ; ' oh, I will keep and use my 
 amulet ! ' 
 
 1 1 trust that you will at least try,' said the Mage. 
 1 See, then, I give you here a girdle of blue embroi- 
 dered with gold ; gird it round your waist under your 
 robe. If you would be safe, it must not be unloosed. 
 Next, I give you this magic light enclosed in a crystal 
 gem ; wear it also under your robe. Its gleam will 
 flash out on any source of danger; but it must be 
 replenished, or it will die away and leave you in the 
 dark without a friend. Lastly, I give you this little 
 bell ; whenever you feel weak and afraid, whenever 
 the lamp shows you that peril is near, ring the bell 
 and succour will be sent to you, without which you 
 would be weak and helpless.' 
 
 With a deeper awe than he had ever felt before, 
 Florian took them. ' Oh, my father, bless me ! ' he said, 
 looking up into the old man's eyes. 
 
 Very tenderly the Mage laid his hand on the boy's 
 head and blessed him. 'Yes,' he said, 'my son, I 
 bless you ; but the blessing from without depends on 
 the heart within ; ' and, as he spoke, there was a 
 tremor in the old man's voice. 
 
 Then he summoned Ardens. But he had seen at a 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 249 
 
 glance that the dangers and difficulties of this elder 
 boy would be quite different from those of the younger. 
 He warned him indeed against the basilisk, but less 
 solemnly than he had warned Florian. For he saw in 
 Ardens an, honest haughtiness, and natural reserved- 
 ness of disposition, which he knew would rob the 
 basilisk of nine-tenths of its power. It was the terror 
 of the leopard's leap which he feared for Ardens, and 
 to protect him he gave him a sword, to be secretly 
 girded upon his thigh, of which he was ever to grasp 
 the cross hilt, and draw from its scabbard when from 
 the thicket he heard the leopard's snarl, or saw the 
 glare of his fierce eyes. 
 
 But as he parted from the boys on the return of 
 their father, he felt with a sigh that if Florian had 
 listened to him with too weak an alarm, Ardens had 
 perhaps received his warning with too bold a confidence 
 in self. 
 
 II 
 
 Beato 
 
 Chi colla fresca gioventu nel viso 
 Move da prode ad incontrar la vita. PBATI. 
 
 A FEW days afterwards, Florian and Ardens left the 
 stately castle of their father, and went to face the 
 circumstances which so often constitute a crisis in the 
 life-histories of men, by entering the great Porphyrian 
 place of education known as ' The Gate School.' 
 
 The brothers were widely unlike each other in 
 
250 ALLEGORIES 
 
 temperament. Their father had consigned them to 
 the care of different tutors, and they saw but little of 
 each other at school, and exercised no direct influence 
 on one another's moral or intellectual development. 
 This was all the more the case because they were 
 not in the same house. The houses were named from 
 different colours ; Ardens was in the Red House, and 
 Florian in the Blue. 
 
 The gay temperament and shallow versatility of 
 Florian made him speedily forget the kind and solemn 
 warnings of the Mage. There seemed to be nothing 
 to alarm, everything to attract him, in his school 
 life. His high birth, his beauty, his sprightliness, his 
 undisguised pleasure in being courted and admired, 
 soon made him a general favourite, but chiefly among 
 the less manly and serious boys. It was not often that 
 a new comer so rapidly sprang into popularity, or 
 received such open adulation. Well taught at home, 
 he found no difficulty in the studies of the place, and 
 pleased the masters by his graceful and courteous 
 manners. Active and vigorous, he held his own in the 
 games without giving himself the trouble of any severe 
 training. He was frankly delighted with the school, 
 with his companions, and with all his surroundings. 
 
 He soon almost forgot that he had so much as 
 heard that there was such a thing as the basilisk, or 
 that it could be a source of danger to him. And the 
 fiend was far too skilled a manager to shock him or to 
 terrify him too soon. His object was to lull the boy 
 into fancied security ; to lead him thus to lay aside all 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPABD 251 
 
 safeguards, and so to approach him when he was 
 undefended and unprepared. 
 
 Florian was not indeed left wholly without warning. 
 The dangers which arose from the insidious triumphs 
 of the basilisk were so great that, at every fitting oppor- 
 tunity, and in every wise way, the best Porphyrian 
 teachers endeavoured to turn the thoughts of their 
 pupils so seriously to King Elyon, and their duties 
 towards him and towards their own lives, that no boy 
 could ever fall a wholly unwitting victim to Ashmod's 
 snares. Even among the boys themselves the existence 
 of this gliding enemy was a subject of allusion, often 
 jesting, but sometimes serious. On the whole, how- 
 ever,' Florian, while he was becoming oblivious of, or 
 indifferent to, the existence of any peril, was secretly 
 inclined to take the view of those who professed to be 
 sceptical as to the existence of the crowned serpent, 
 or thought that its supposed deadliness was exaggerated, 
 if not wholly imaginary. 
 
 And thus it was that the boy laid aside one by 
 one the amulets which the Mage had given him. 
 Little by little he loosened the broidered girdle, 
 which at first he had worn tightly fastened round 
 his loins. He soon came to regard it as needless, 
 and then it became positively irksome. After a time 
 he flung it aside altogether ; chiefly because the friend 
 who had taken most pains to ingratiate himself into his 
 confidence had one day caught sight of it, pointed to 
 it with a contemptuous gesture, and gone away with a 
 hearty laugh. 
 
252 ALLEGORIES 
 
 This boy's name was Trypho, and Florian could not 
 have chosen a less desirable friend. The same was true 
 though in a much lower degree of another comrade 
 to whom Florian felt strangely drawn. His name 
 was Facilis. He was very unlike Trypho. Trypho liked 
 to lord it over everybody. He only flattered that he 
 might be sooner able to patronise and influence cuncta 
 serviliter pro imperio. Not so Facilis. He was of a 
 very yielding disposition. There was something almost 
 pathetic in the dependence which he placed on natures 
 stronger than his own. Florian from the first seemed 
 to have won his whole heart. There was nothing he 
 would not do for him, and Florian could not help 
 feeling attracted by one who really seemed to love him. 
 And Facilis, had he been left alone, would have been 
 the last person to do Florian any harm, if it were only 
 because he so sincerely clung to him. But his mingled 
 attractiveness and lack of firmness had enabled Trypho 
 to acquire a sort of mesmeric power over Facilis. 
 When he had first come as a new boy to the school, he 
 had formed a false and admiring estimate of Trypho, 
 which the latter had misused in such a way as to make 
 him the unresisting henchman of all his purposes, 
 though Facilis soon ceased really to care for him. 
 Facilis was deeply to be pitied. He went astray only 
 from weak complaisance. He had never learned to say 
 ' no ' to a bad companion. Even those who blamed him 
 most severely yet often spoke of him as ' poor Facilis.' 
 
 The next amulet which Florian gradually rendered 
 useless was the little crystal gem. Several times its 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED 253 
 
 light had gleamed and almost blazed out, as the boy 
 gave himself up more and more to the unwholesome 
 influence of Trypho. But as Florian did not choose to 
 heed the warning, and never took the least trouble to 
 replenish the flame, its light sank to a tiny spark, and, 
 after a few months, almost ceased to shine at all. 
 
 He still kept the little silver bell ; but as he scarcely 
 ever thought of using it, he often forgot to take it with 
 him. Meanwhile the basilisk eyeing him unseen, ever 
 creeping nearer and nearer to him through the fallen 
 leaves, and allowing him now and then to get a passing 
 indistinct glimpse of its iridescence felt sure that, when 
 he chose to flash full into sight, the boy would neither 
 fly nor avert his glance, but would receive into his soul 
 the deadly arrow of bewitchment which should empoison 
 all his blood. 
 
 Ill 
 
 But you ye are changed since I saw you last. 
 
 MBS. HEMANS. 
 
 AND so the first term at school passed away, and the 
 time came when the boys were to go home for a holiday. 
 A superficial observer would have said that Florian was 
 much the same boy as he had been when he left his 
 father's house. No one knew better than the basilisk 
 that this was riot the case ; nay, that everything was 
 now prepared for his future conquest. He had already 
 surrounded his victim with an atmosphere which was 
 
254 ALLEGORIES 
 
 intoxicating and subtly poisonous ; he had put him 
 completely off his guard, he had awakened in his mind 
 the germs of a perilous indifference to all which was 
 best. 
 
 The clumsier and more ignorant fiends in the 
 court of Ashmod where all are deeply interested in 
 the common task of destroying the Porphyrians by 
 alienating them from their true king sneered at 
 the basilisk for his supposed un success. But the 
 demon only looked down on them with a superior 
 smile, and answered them with the one word, ' Wait ! ' 
 
 Altus saw no difference in his beloved boy, except 
 that he seemed more self-confident, more at home in 
 society, more familiar with the world. He had lost 
 none of his boyish beauty ; the light was still in his 
 eyes, and the bloom upon his cheek. He had brought 
 back with him from school a fair report, except that 
 his tutor had dropped a hint that he was a little pro- 
 miscuous in his friendships, and should be careful not 
 to ally himself too closely with boys whose influence 
 on his moral life might not be good. 
 
 Altus read to his two sons the characters which 
 they had received, and he questioned Florian about 
 this warning. 
 
 ' Oh,' said Florian, with easy nonchalance, ' I'm 
 all right. You would not have me give the cold 
 shoulder to other boys when they are kind and civil to 
 me ? I don't know what my tutor means by any one 
 not influencing me for good. I can hold my own.' 
 
 * Is it all right, Ardens ? ' said his father. ' You are 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 255 
 
 the elder brother, and should try to set Florian a good 
 example.' 
 
 'You had better not ask me, father,' said Ardens. 
 ' Florian takes his own line.' 
 
 ' So do you, Ardens,' retorted the younger brother 
 angrily. 
 
 ' I am on my guard a little,' said Ardens. ' Never- 
 theless, if you would ever listen to me, which you never 
 condescend to do, I should say to you exactly what your 
 tutor says.' 
 
 'I don't understand you,' answered Florian. 'You 
 choose your friends : I shall choose mine.' 
 
 ' At any rate,' cried Ardens, ' I don't go about 
 with ' He stopped short. 
 
 'Well? With whom?' 
 
 ' With Facilis, for instance.' 
 
 ' Facilis ! poor Facilis is quite delightful. He would 
 do anything for me. It is a shame of you to abuse him. 
 Everyone likes Facilis.' 
 
 ' Well, then, with fellows like Trypho,' said Ardens 
 in an accent of scorn. 
 
 ' Fellows like Trypho ! ' answered Florian, blushing 
 hotly. ' Trypho is a good-looking and clever boy, high 
 in the school, and he has always been kind to me. He's 
 as good anyhow as your bosom friend Acer.' 
 
 ' The idea of comparing them ! ' answered Ardens, 
 who was rapidly losing his temper. ' Acer is as manly 
 as Trypho is Again Ardens stopped short. 
 
 ' Hush ! ' said the Duke. ' I will not allow you boys 
 to quarrel in my presence. But, Florian, if your friend 
 
256 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Trypho is not a desirable associate for you, I wish you 
 would drop his acquaintance.' 
 
 ' Ardens has no right to hint that he is not, 
 father,' said Florian. ' Let him mind his own business.' 
 
 When they left their father's library, Florian all 
 the more indignant because his sore conscience told 
 him that there was truth in what his brother had said 
 could hardly restrain his anger, though he was always 
 afraid of the force and impetuosity of Ardens. But the 
 flattery which he had received at school made him less 
 tolerant of any disdain or opposition, and he could not 
 help bursting out with the remark : 
 
 ' You were a sneak to abuse my friends like that.' 
 
 * A sneak ! ' said Ardens, flaming out at once, for to 
 him the taunt was peculiarly hateful. ' Say that again 
 if you dare ! ' 
 
 ' It was no business of yours to abuse Facilis and 
 Trypho,' said Florian, a little cowed. 
 
 ' I didn't want to say much against Facilis. I 
 don't think there's much harm in him. I know you 
 have asked father to let him stay here with us, and I 
 don't mind if he does. I am sorry I mentioned him.' 
 
 * Well, you shamefully maligned Trypho, anyhow.' 
 
 ' I didn't malign him. I refrained from saying what 
 he was. I despise him, and never conceal it.' 
 
 ' I don't care for your opinion,' said Florian. 'It's 
 all your conceit. You think yourself a most magnifi- 
 cent swell, and are always ready to sneer at every one's 
 faults except your own. But for all that you are 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 257 
 
 ' Say it if you dare ! ' 
 
 Florian should have taken warning, for his brother's 
 eyes were gleaming with anger ; but his own vanity 
 had been seriously ruffled, and he said : 
 
 ' Well, if you dare me you are a sneak ! ' 
 
 Scarcely had he uttered the word when a strong 
 blow from his brother's fist knocked him to the ground. 
 
 He rose pale and trembling ; and Ardens, in- 
 stantly repenting, tried to grasp his hand, and said, 
 'Forgive me, Florian, I was wrong. That wild beast 
 against whom the Mage warned me sprang on me 
 with a tiger's leap, and I was not on my guard. For- 
 give me, my brother ! ' 
 
 But Florian pushed aside his outstretched hand. 
 ' I hate you, Ardens,' he said ; ' I will never forgive you 
 never ! ' 
 
 Florian went to his room to nurse his anger. ' I 
 wish I was back at school,' he thought. ' There every 
 one made much of me. Here this brute Ardens hits 
 me on the face and knocks me down.' 
 
 At this moment his father entered the room. 
 
 * I overheard you boys quarrelling,' he said. ' What 
 is that bruise on your cheek ? ' 
 
 Florian looked in a glass, and saw that the blow, of 
 which he still felt the smart, had indeed left a dark 
 bruise, ' Ardens struck me,' he said. 
 
 ' Ardens ! ' called his father for he saw the elder 
 boy seated sadly under a tree on the lawn ' come here ! ' 
 
 ' Look, Ardens,' said Altus ; ' is that bruise on your 
 brother's cheek your handiwork? ' 
 
 s 
 
258 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' It is, sir,' answered the boy sadly. ' I grieve to 
 say that I utterly lost my temper. I am very sorry, I 
 asked Florian to forgive me, but he won't.' 
 
 Florian stood there sullen and irresponsive, and the 
 Duke looked from one to the other. 
 
 'Ardens,' he said, 'I am ashamed of you, and 
 to punish you I shall not take you hunting with me for 
 a week. But your frank confession and apology have 
 partly atoned for your misconduct. Florian, did you 
 do nothing to provoke him ? ' 
 
 Florian pouted in obstinate silence. 
 
 4 Answer me,' said his father. 
 
 ' He began it,' was the ungracious reply. 
 
 'He has confessed his fault, and is sorry for it. 
 Forgive your brother.' 
 
 Florian was still silent. 
 
 ' Did you hear me ? ' 
 
 ' I forgive him,' answered the boy sullenly, ' since 
 you order me,' and he coldly touched his brother's 
 hand. 
 
 Altus was grieved. There came to his mind the 
 lines of a poet ; 
 
 Forgive ? How many will say forgive, and find 
 A sort of absolution in the sound 
 To hate a little longer. 
 
 ' I am afraid,' he said, ' that school has had no good 
 influence on either of you. If this kind of thing is to 
 go on, I shall seriously think of removing you. You 
 would not have behaved like this to each other six 
 months ago.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 259 
 
 ' Oh, don't remove us, father ! ' said both boys at 
 once. 
 
 ' It would look as if we had been expelled for some- 
 thing disgraceful,' said Ardens ; 'we should never get 
 over it.' 
 
 ' I will not quarrel with Ardens again,' said Florian 
 eagerly. 'Do let us go back.' 
 
 ' Father,' added Ardens, ' a good deal of the quarrel 
 was my fault. If you will trust me, I will try not to 
 let it happen again. Perhaps I was a little unjust to 
 Trypho in my prejudice against him, and I certainly 
 was unjust to Facilis. Father, Florian wants you to 
 let Facilis come and stay with us. Will you ? ' 
 
 * Ardens,' said the Duke, ' if you did wrong, you have 
 had the courage to confess it. Florian will, I am sure, 
 feel that you have been generous in your expression of 
 regret. Yes, you may invite Facilis here if you wish.' 
 
 So Facilis came and charmed them all, even Ardens 
 and the Duke, with his sweetness of character and the 
 evident depth of his love for Florian. In healthy 
 surroundings Facilis was all that is good, and the 
 generous manliness of Ardens exercised on him a most 
 wholesome influence. 
 
 One day the two brothers took him all over the 
 castle, and showed him its treasures. 
 
 ' What happy and lucky fellows you two are ! ' he 
 said with a sigh. ' You are rich, you are of high birth, 
 you are clever. I am a fatherless boy, with no gifts 
 and no prospects.' 
 
 'You are yourself, Facilis,' said the Duke, who had 
 
 s 2 
 
260 ALLEGORIES 
 
 overheard the remark. ' That is gift enough ; and, at 
 any rate, my boy, you have the gift of making yourself 
 beloved by those who know you. That is a very 
 precious endowment.' 
 
 ' sir, you are far too kind to me,' said Facilis ; 
 1 and so are your sons.' 
 
 IV 
 
 Yea, thou heardest not ; yea, thou knewest not ; yea, thine ear was 
 not opened. Isaiah xlviii. 8. 
 
 No other incident of importance occurred during 
 the holidays, but towards their close the Duke said, 
 ' My boys, I shall pay a visit to-morrow to my friend 
 Alciphron ; and I want you to come with me.' 
 
 ' I should like it very much,' said Ardens. ' He is a 
 dear old man, and his gallery is full of the most 
 delightful pictures.' 
 
 Florian blushed a little, and pouted, and said 
 nothing. 
 
 ' Don't you wish to see Alciphron again ? ' asked 
 Altus. 
 
 ' I don't mind,' said Florian ; ' but I hope ' 
 
 1 Finish your sentence.' 
 
 * Well, he is rather fond of sermonising, is he not ? ' 
 
 * Is every kind word of warning and encouragement 
 to be called sermonising, Florian ? If you think so you 
 may hear sermons of a very different kind some day 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 261 
 
 spoken by voices which you cannot silence voices full 
 of thunder, rolling over your life and soul.' 
 
 Florian felt a little ashamed of his pertness, and 
 said that he should like to go. 
 
 Accordingly they went to the house of Alciphron, 
 who welcomed them heartily. Yet even as he grasped 
 their hands, his clear and kindly gaze seemed to read 
 and in a measure did read their inmost hearts. 
 Ardens met his look with perfect frankness. Not so 
 Florian. He looked up at the Mage boldly, half 
 defiantly, but almost instantly dropped his eyes. 
 Alciphron saw at a glance that, though he had not 
 indeed been finally bewitched by the basilisk, yet some- 
 thing of the fiend's penetrating venom had been diffused 
 through the air which the boy had breathed. He saw 
 too that Florian would not open his heart to him ; that 
 he desired no advice, no help ; that he was determined 
 to walk in his own way. Hence the old man, while 
 treating him with conspicuous kindness, did not even 
 attempt to pry into the secrets of his soul, or to give 
 him advice, which would have been resented, and would 
 only have done harm. 
 
 Yet an indirect opportunity of wakening serious 
 thoughts occurred spontaneously when the elder boy 
 eagerly asked him to come with them into his gallery 
 and explain some more paintings to them. 
 
 The first picture about which Ardens asked was one 
 in which a gaunt yet splendid figure of an old man lay, 
 apparently dying, beside a sacrifice which he has 
 offered. 
 
262 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' That,' said the Mage, ' is an imaginary incident in 
 the lives of those two brothers of whom you read at the 
 beginning of Elyon's book. In a fit of mad, uncon- 
 trollable passion, caused by jealousy, the elder smote 
 and killed the younger. Thenceforth he went through 
 life with a mark upon his forehead, and he lay under 
 the curse of his own conscience. But that avenging 
 angel accompanied the wanderer, and with still small 
 voice at last broke down his obduracy. And when 
 he was old delivered, or half delivered, from his long 
 despair he made his way to the deserted altar by 
 which he had slain his brother, and offered a sacrifice, 
 and cried for pardon and died leaning upon the altar. 
 The painter means to indicate that his cry was heard ; 
 for now the angel of conscience is pleading for him, 
 and a gleam of heaven's own light is visible far off 
 through the midnight clouds.' 
 
 Ardens listened intently. He thought of what had 
 occurred so recently, when, in a blaze of anger, he had 
 struck Florian and left a mark which was still faintly 
 visible upon his cheek. He said nothing, but a shade 
 of sorrow passed over his face. 
 
 Not far from this was a picture in which a mermaid 
 is dragging a beautiful but lost and dying youth under 
 the cold green waters. On her face is the intense 
 malignity of cruel triumph and cruel scorn ; on his the 
 agony of frustration and of death. Something about it 
 struck the imagination of Florian, and he asked what 
 it was intended to mean. 
 
 ' Read the motto,' said the Mage. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 263 
 
 Florian read, 
 
 Habes quod tota mente petisti 
 Infelix 1 
 
 ' You know what that means?' said the old man. 
 ' You see it is an illustration on what a great writer 
 has said, that unlawful pleasure is delusive and 
 envenomed pleasure. Its hollowness disappoints at 
 the time ; its poison cruelly tortures afterwards ; its 
 effects deprave for ever.' 
 
 ' I should fancy,' said Ardens, ' that the painter 
 must have been thinking of the poem I had to learn 
 at school, called " The Fisherboy " : 
 
 Sie sprach zu ihrn, sie sang zu ihm ; 
 
 Da war's uni ihn gescheh'n : 
 Halb zog sie ihn, halb sank er hin 
 
 Und ward nicht mehr geseh'n.' 
 
 'You are right, Ardens,' said the Mage with an 
 
 , approving smile. ' The motto of the picture might be, 
 
 " Who bewitched you ? " The painter meant to indicate 
 
 the curse of wrong-doing in the very moment of its 
 
 gratification.' 
 
 Florian said nothing, but Alciphron detected a 
 slight look of supercilious incredulity about his lips. 
 Yet apparently he wanted to change the subject, for, 
 looking at another painting, he said : 
 
 ' What a very curious picture this is ! ' 
 
 The picture to which he pointed was one of remark- 
 able beauty. The central incident of it represented a 
 child on the platform of a loggia before a .seated king. 
 
264 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Between him and the king is a quaint monster, at once 
 hideous, terrific, and contemptible. It is winged, and 
 has strong fierce talons, but it has ears like that of an 
 ass, strong bristles, and a head something between that 
 of a cat and a donkey. The mouth is open to emit a 
 savage roar ; the sharp teeth are revealed ; and one paw 
 is uplifted. Its roar is directed against the little boy 
 at whom it glares ; but he stands perfectly calm, 
 perfectly unmoved, in his rude and simple dress, with 
 the long fair hair flowing over his neck and shoulders. 
 He is advancing towards the odious monster, but the 
 aureole of saintly innocence is round his brow ; his 
 eyes are uplifted, his hands are clasped in prayer. 
 
 ' That,' said Alciphron, ' represents the legend of 
 St. Tryphonius, who subdued by prayer and inno- 
 cence the monster which could not be subdued by the 
 warrior's spear.' 
 
 1 But what is the monster meant for ? ' asked Ardens. 
 
 ' It is meant for a basilisk, whom, in the legend, 
 the young boy Tryphonius overcame,' said Alciphron, 
 purposely avoiding all indication that he had seen the 
 blush which now covered with crimson the face and 
 neck of his younger hearer. 
 
 ' I don't know much about the basilisk,' said Ardens, 
 ' but I thought it always appeared as a green, glittering 
 serpent with a crown on its head a sort of king serpent.' 
 
 * You are right,' answered the Mage ; ' but the painter 
 followed his own bent, and he wished to represent alle- 
 gorically at once the detestable character of ihe creature, 
 and its essential impotence.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 265 
 
 ' I like this picture better,' said Florian hastily, as 
 though to escape the subject. 
 
 ' So do I,' said Ardens. ' You need not explain that, 
 sir. It is St. George and the Dragon. What a superb 
 rider, and what a strong horse, and what a rush and 
 fury in the charge ! I love the noble face of the 
 knight,' said Ardens enthusiastically. 'Look at that 
 splendid torrent of rippling golden hair ! ' 
 
 ' But his lance has splintered between the dragon's 
 jaws,' said Florian. 
 
 ' True,' said the Mage ; ' yet his sword is by his side 
 for further combat if necessary.' 
 
 ' I wish the painter had not spoiled the picture 
 with those ghastly half-eaten corpses, and wriggling 
 adders and horrors. The spiky disgusting dragon was 
 enough.' 
 
 ' All that was a part of the painter's necessary 
 meaning, Florian. Every St. George must charge the 
 dragon through the valley of the shadow of death, in 
 which the monster lives and moves and has his being.' 
 
 ' Why has he put those spiral shells in front ? ' 
 asked Ardens. ' Are they only for ornament ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said Alciphron ; ' but for the same reason as 
 the painter has placed a spiral shell in the hand of the 
 young satyr in that other picture there, which I showed 
 you not long ago. The shells are meant to be symbols 
 of exhausted passions. But I see you don't altogether 
 care for my pictures, Florian ; we will join your 
 father.' 
 
 Ardens would have liked to stay longer, but the 
 
266 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Mage did not attempt to add any further instructions, 
 for he saw that the younger boy was in a bad mood. 
 It is useless, he murmured to himself, 
 
 Opyveiv enopbas TTpos ro/^ooi/ri TrrjpaTi. 
 
 A charm is unavailing when the knife is needed. 
 
 When the boys left, he merely wished them a very 
 kind farewell, and gave them his blessing. But as 
 they passed along the avenue of plane trees which 
 led from his house he gazed after them, not without 
 deep sadness, shaking his head. 
 
 ' I do not greatly fear for Ardens ; it is for that 
 beautiful lad, Florian, that I am anxious,' he said to 
 himself. ' I see that already he has laid himself 
 open to the snares of the basilisk. Alas ! Alas ! Can 
 the soul never learn without the rod of experience, 
 that sternest of all teachers ? And why are even her 
 lessons so often administered too late, or in vain? But,' 
 he added as he raised his hands and eyes to heaven, 
 ' though life be dark, a ray of eternal light shall one day 
 enlighten it ; and 
 
 All is best, though we oft doubt 
 What the unsearchable dispose 
 Of highest wisdom brings about, 
 And ever best found at the close. 
 
 And yet and yet ' He said no more, but a 
 
 moment later bowed his head, and murmured, 
 
 ' God's in His heaven ; 
 All's well with the world.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 267 
 
 There on that side, where no defence doth lie 
 For that small valley, was a serpent seen ; 
 Such, maybe, led Eve bitter fruit to try. 
 
 That evil snake wound grass and flowers between, 
 Wriggling its head at times, and licking well 
 Its back as when a beast itself doth clean. 
 
 DANTE, Purg. viii. 97. (PLUMPTKE.) 
 
 THE second term at school was often the most decisive 
 of character for a Porphyrian boy. The novelty 
 had worn off ; timidity had vanished ; conversations 
 were more free ; comrades were less shy of revealing 
 themselves in their true character. Florian was still 
 in the full bloom of his popularity, and Trypho, older 
 than he, and in his way a leader among the boys, 
 seemed even more eager than at first to be his 
 chosen companion. The basilisk began to be more 
 freely alluded to, and by those who had already 
 become its votaries in a way expressly designed to 
 stimulate curiosity. The powers of evil are adepts 
 at inducing their victims to pass from the dread 
 and the hatred which they inspire in innocent souls, 
 to light talk respecting them ; and from light talk to 
 a passionate wish to know more about them ; and from 
 the curiosity to the desire ; and from the desire to the 
 impulse ; and from the impulse to the determination ; and 
 from the determination to the evil act ; and from the 
 act to the repetition ; and from the repetition to the 
 
268 ALLEGORIES 
 
 habit ; and so from the habit to the character, and to 
 the hateful, abject, intolerable servitude. 
 
 We are not worst at once ; the course of evil 
 Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, 
 An infant's hand might stem the breach with clay ; 
 But let the stream grow wider, and philosophy, 
 Aye, and religion too, may strive in vain 
 To stem the headlong current. 
 
 Florian -his loins ungirded, his light unburning, 
 his bell, given him to keep off the demons, unused and 
 forgotten was borne along the full tide of boyish 
 happiness. He was bright, popular, successful, without 
 a care caressed and spoilt, because of his rank and 
 wealth and fair face. He was having showered upon 
 him all sorts of blandishments and flatteries. He was 
 flourishing like a green bay tree, and he dreamt neither 
 of the chilling frost nor of the worm which might 
 cause the root to be as rottenness, and the blossom to 
 go up as dust. He was living as though he were 
 nothing more than the beautiful creature of a day 
 which should have no ending in night. It never 
 occurred to him to remember that evil and danger were 
 all about him, that he was surrounded by unseen 
 enemies, that his sole security lay in not suffering 
 them to have the smallest part in his being. He 
 never realised that favour is deceitful and beauty 
 vain, and that our acts are seeds which ripen into 
 ambrosial or empoisoned fruit. 
 
 And thus, in his case, as in the case of all, ' the 
 tempting opportunity ' came with overpowering force 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 269 
 
 to ' the susceptible disposition ; ' and when it came it 
 found him not only unprepared to resist, but in the 
 secretly cultivated disposition to succumb. 
 
 It had been a radiantly happy day of sunshine and 
 holiday and summer bloom. Florian, like many of the 
 boys around him, had never of late given one serious 
 thought to the duties of his condition. Not one hour 
 from morn till dewy eve had been tinged with a more 
 sober colouring than that of immediate enjoyment. 
 This might have been natural to his age, and even 
 harmless, if he had faithfully consecrated the day, 
 were it but for one moment, by 'bent head and 
 beseeching hand ; ' had he but placed his imperilled 
 youth under the care of the Powers which tend the 
 soul. But neither at morn when he arose, nor at 
 night when he lay down to sleep, nor by a single 
 uplifting of his heart in a cry for help or a murmur 
 of self-dedication, had Florian so much as once, for 
 many days, looked beyond the narrow horizon of his 
 own being. He was content with himself ; he relied 
 on himself. Conceit, which had always been one of his 
 failings, was gratified to the uttermost. He imagined 
 that there never was a boy so good looking, so charming, 
 so universally admired as himself. The unclouded 
 brightness of his present enjoyments sufficed him. Life 
 flashed for him like a shallow streamlet amid the 
 summer blossoms, and he did not choose to notice 
 how often such lives become polluted with alien 
 influxes ; or stagnate in subterranean depths ; or are 
 lost under the dense shadows of impenetrable woods. 
 
270 ALLEGORIES 
 
 A warm sunset, with its air full of music and per- 
 fume, tempted him into the garden of the school, 
 which was fringed on one side by a great forest. He 
 reclined by himself on the green grass. The scent of 
 roses was round him. He had been very successful 
 that day in the school games, and no one else had 
 been applauded so loudly. He felt inclined to plume 
 himself on the endowments which had been lavished 
 on him from his birth, and he secretly looked down 
 on boys less attractive and engaging. In his pride, 
 fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, with no 
 misgivings to trouble him, life seemed to him eminently 
 worth living for its own sweet sake. 
 
 He was inhaling the scent of the flowers, plucking 
 their bright petals, and giving himself up to the 
 indulgence of the dolce far niente, when, suddenly 
 what was that movement in the soft grass, that stirring 
 of the flowers? What was that flash and gleam, 
 which seemed to add to his thoughts a new attractive- 
 ness, and to promise him * unimaginable realms of 
 faerie ' beyond the present ? 
 
 A brighter flash, and he instantly became aware 
 that the basilisk, against which he had been so 
 earnestly and lovingly warned, was close by him, was 
 within touch of him, was beginning to creep out of 
 the shelter of leaves and blossoms. He was in- 
 stinctively conscious that in one moment more it 
 would be completely visible all poison and lustre 
 and flame. He saw the green and glittering scales ; 
 he saw the semblance of the golden crown on its 
 
HE BECAME AWARE THAT THE BASILISK WAS CLOSE BY HIM 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED 273 
 
 head ; one second more and, if he did not fly or avert 
 his glance, those eyes, like burning carbuncles, would 
 be fixed full on his own, with their thrilling bewitch- 
 ment. And he knew though he secretly professed 
 to disbelieve that the wilful yielding to that deadly 
 fascination would mean certain loss and anguish, and 
 the potentiality of awful ruin. For he knew that 
 to encourage the basilisk was tantamount to saying, 
 ' Evil, be thou my good.' Yet he felt helpless to escape, 
 or turn his eyes away. Nay, much more than this, 
 he felt a mad longing to gaze at the creature once for 
 all, to clasp it to his heart, and fling to the winds all 
 fear or doubt. 
 
 The scale in the balance of his destiny was trembling 
 on its descent to the wrong side ; but Elyon, the Lord 
 of his life, who is very merciful to all his children, and 
 who was grieved at the peril of this fair young being, 
 gave him yet another chance of deliverance. Indeed, 
 it was a matter of universal experience among the 
 Porphyrians that their great, unseen, long-suffering 
 King put a strong barrier between them and their first 
 transgressions. The records of thousands of them 
 proved that ere they could begin a course of peril and 
 disobedience, they found themselves, as it were, in a 
 narrow place where there was no turning either to the 
 right hand or to the left ; where spirits of mercy, with 
 drawn swords in their hands, met them ; and where 
 even the dumb creatures seemed to speak to them in 
 voices of warning. It was only when they pressed on, 
 in spite of the warnings, that the path thereafter 
 
 T 
 
274 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 became fatally easy to them. After that, they were let 
 alone ; they were suffered, as it were, to walk beside 
 the precipice which they sometimes only saw the 
 moment before they were hurled over it, and some- 
 times only just in time to turn back and flee from the 
 overwhelming peril. 
 
 Florian was not left without his warning. He was 
 on the point of stretching out his hand to touch the 
 basilisk, and gaze into its deathful eyes, when he was 
 startled by a noise of wings, and saw a white dove 
 flying off with utmost haste, as though in wild 
 alarm, dropping a torn feather in its flight. It 
 had ventured to snatch some grains out of a trap, 
 which suddenly falling would have broken its wing if 
 it had not sped so rapidly away. And while he was 
 involuntarily gazing on its hurried flight, he saw an 
 eagle dart down from the blue sky upon a black snake. 
 The bird fixed its talons into the creature's back ; 
 but the snake whirled its coils about the outspread 
 wings and body, and strove to crush its enemy. 
 Florian could not help gazing on the struggle ; but 
 it only lasted a minute. The eagle drove its beak 
 into the serpent's head, and the creature, un writhing 
 its coils, dropped through the air upon a rock, where 
 its vertebrae were broken into fragments. Uncon- 
 sciously Florian saw in the dove's flight the escape of 
 a soul from dangerous temptation ; in the eagle's 
 victory over the serpent a type of the possibility of 
 conquest. He felt the spell of the basilisk ; but he had 
 just sufficient strength to turn away from it, to close 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 275 
 
 his eyes hard, and to cover them with both his 
 hands. 
 
 Yet he had not wholly escaped the accursed sorcery. 
 When he opened his eyes, the sun was setting, and the 
 basilisk was no longer visible, though he felt that it 
 was near. He hurried back ; for the evening bell was 
 ringing which was the signal for all the boys to come in. 
 
 VI 
 
 Adeo mature a rectis in vitia, a vitiis in prava, a pravis in praecipitia 
 pervenitur. VELL. PATEBC. ii. 10. 
 
 THE next few days he was miserable. He had for 
 once escaped, but his thoughts reverted constantly and 
 voluntarily to the basilisk. He knew that it would 
 return ; he persuaded himself that it was useless for 
 him to attempt permanent resistance ; he hated the 
 anxiety ; he hated the suspense ; he hated the restraint. 
 He felt the inner workings of the bewitchment ; he 
 more than half regretted that he had not yielded. 
 Alas ! he had never learnt to look upward. He felt a 
 perilous impulse to gaze into the depths. His desire to 
 know more of the basilisk was intensified ; he sought 
 its return and wished to sate himself with its subtly- 
 proffered benefits. The sole force which kept him in 
 check was not rectitude, but vague alarm at past 
 warnings. Uninfluenced by shame at leaving what was 
 noble for what he felt to be base, the only barrier left 
 
 T 2 
 
276 ALLEGORIES 
 
 between him and the passion of disobedience was 
 the barrier of fear. If he could but be sure that any of 
 his comrades had transferred their allegiance from 
 Elyon to the basilisk, and had suffered no harm, not 
 one hindrance would remain to prevent him from 
 following their example. 
 
 Trypho was now his closest friend, his daily 
 companion ; and he felt a sort of instinctive conviction 
 that Trypho could tell him, if he chose, all that he 
 wanted to know about the basilisk. 
 
 A few days later he was resting with Trypho in 
 the summer noon on a bank bright with poppies, under 
 the shadow of a great tree. Each was aware of the 
 other's thoughts, but neither spoke until the light 
 breeze blew open the upper fold of Trypho 's tunic, and 
 Florian caught a glimpse of a small enamelled ornament 
 attached to a thin chain round his friend's neck. 
 Trypho, noticing the boy's glance, covered the badge, 
 but with a smile which made Florian ask what that 
 green jewel was. 
 
 ' What do you suppose it is ? ' said Trypho. 
 
 ' Is it one of Elyon's amulets ? ' asked Florian 
 hesitatingly. 
 
 ' No,' said Trypho, laughing. ' Elyon ? Who has 
 ever seen him ? He is a mere name. Have you any of 
 those sham charms ? ' 
 
 ' I had,' said Florian ; ' but - 
 
 ' Oh, I understand,' said Trypho, laughing again ; 
 * they were all very well for the nursery ; but now we 
 are no longer babies.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 277 
 
 As Florian heard the sneer, there seemed to flash 
 through his soul the words, ' Be not children in under- 
 standing, but in wickedness be ye babes.' But he 
 rejected the warning, and said, after an instant's pause, 
 
 ' Well then is it any secret what that enamel is ? ' 
 
 ' Do you really want to know ? ' asked Trypho. 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 1 But you will be horrified.' 
 
 ' Are we not friends, Trypho ? Why should I be 
 horrified ? ' 
 
 ' You will keep my secret ? ' 
 
 ' Of course.' 
 
 'Well then,' said Trypho, pulling out the ornament, 
 ' you shall see it ' 
 
 It was a little figure of the basilisk, wrought in green 
 enamel, with a tiny crown of gold round its head and 
 two carbuncles for eyes. Florian, as he handled it, 
 grew pale and trembled ; for in the field path, just 
 below the bank where he and Trypho were sitting, a 
 child was passing, and as he went by he was singing, 
 unconscious of any hearer, the verse of an old song with 
 the refrain, 
 
 ' Beware, oh beware ! ' 
 
 and somehow in the word ' Beware ! ' there seemed to the 
 ear of Florian to be a note of unearthly warning. But 
 the effect of the sweet voice was at once scattered by the 
 light laugh of Trypho. 
 
 1 Why, Florian,' he said, ' you look as if you had 
 seen a ghost ! It is only a harmless ornament.' 
 
278 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' But it is a figure of ' Florian almost gasped as 
 he uttered the word ' of the basilisk.' 
 
 Trypho laughed long and loud. ' Well, and what 
 if it is ? ' 
 
 ' But,' said Florian, ' I thought that the basilisk 
 darted poison from its glance, and was our enemy.' 
 
 * Oh, you dear young innocent,' said Trypho. 
 
 ' Well, but is not the basilisk a baneful, deadly creature, 
 which ruins those who tamper with it ? ' said Florian, 
 nettled by Trypho's air of superior knowledge. 
 
 The laugh of Trypho only became more gay ; but 
 at last he said, ' Nonsense, Florian ; mere nurses' tales 
 and old wives' fables. You are no longer a child.' 
 
 ' But, Trypho, have you ever made friends with the 
 basilisk ? ' 
 
 ' Of course, and lots of other fellows.' 
 
 * Any that I know ? ' 
 
 * Oh, you young innocent,' said Trypho again. * Any 
 that you know ? Why, yes, nearly all your chief chums. ' 
 
 ' Facilis, for instance ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, the harmless young Facilis, and Rhodon, and 
 Cyprius, and Thallus, and lots more.' 
 
 * And the basilisk has done them no harm ? ' 
 ' What harm has it done them ? ' 
 
 A voice in Florian's heart seemed to say to him, 
 ' It has made them idle, and self-indulgent, and dis- 
 loyal, and unmanly, and selfish, and traitors to what is 
 good.' But, after after a pause, he asked : 
 
 ' Have you never been sorry that you let the basilisk 
 look at you ? ' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 279 
 
 ' Sorry ? Not I ! Why shouldn't we enjoy life, 
 and do as we like ? ' 
 
 ' Do the other fellows in the house wear this 
 badge ? ' 
 
 ' Yes : ask any one of them you please.' 
 
 ' Even Facilis ? ' 
 
 * Yes, even the angelic Facilis who is so fond of 
 you.' 
 
 ' What does the badge mean ? ' 
 
 * It means that we have joined the Society of the 
 basilisk.' 
 
 ' O Trypho ! does not that mean that you leave 
 the King Elyon for Ashmod ? ' 
 
 ' Ashmod ? ' said Trypho. ' Stuff and nonsense ! 
 There's no such person as Ashmod.' 
 
 Florian was silent. 
 
 ' My dear fellow,' said Trypho, passing an arm 
 round his shoulder, ' I never asked you to join the 
 friends of the basilisk : now, did I ? ' 
 
 ' No, not in so many words.' 
 
 ' Well, then, we need say no more about it. You 
 can do as you like. Let's go in to dinner.' 
 
 Florian was determined to see what Facilis would 
 say about the basilisk. With him he could speak 
 freely. So, as he sat by him, he said straight out : 
 
 * Facilis, Trypho says you wear the badge of the 
 basilisk round your neck. Is that true ? ' 
 
 ' Hang Trypho ! ' exclaimed Facilis, springing up 
 and stamping his foot ; ' I hate him for telling you.' 
 'But do you?' 
 
280 ALLEGORIES 
 
 'Don't ask me, Florian.' 
 
 ' But we are friends, Facilis, and I really want to 
 know.' 
 
 ' I can't and won't tell you.' 
 
 ' Then that means that you do wear it ; for if you 
 didn't you would at once say, "No, I don't." 
 
 ' Ah, don't despise me, Florian. I am a poor weak 
 fellow.' 
 
 ' Nay, you are a very dear fellow, Facilis. And why 
 should I despise you ? I am thinking of wearing the 
 badge too.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't ! don't ! don't ! ' said Facilis. ' Ah, I see ; 
 Trypho has been trying to mislead you, as he misled 
 me.' 
 
 ' Why, the basilisk has done him no harm, and you 
 no harm.' 
 
 * Hasn't it ? ' said Facilis. ' Ah ! you don't know ! ' 
 ' But I want to know.' 
 
 ' Dear Florian, don't desire to know. From me you 
 shall hear no syllable. And oh, Florian, though I say 
 it, beware of Trypho, and don't believe a word he says ; 
 but believe all that wise and good men tell you about 
 the basilisk. He is the enemy of King Ely on.' 
 
 ' Then how about you, Facilis ? ' 
 
 'Don't ask about me. It has been very fatal to 
 me all my life that I never had the moral courage 
 to say no,' answered Facilis, with deep dejection. 
 
 * Trypho seems quite happy, and quite likes the 
 basilisk.' 
 
 ' It might have been well for me, Florian, and for 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 281 
 
 many another, if Trypho had been a better fellow than 
 he is and more true to Elyon.' 
 
 ' He says that that is only copybook morality ; like 
 the old Ego sum puer bonus, et me Elyon amatJ 
 
 1 Copybook morality ! ' said Facilis very earnestly. 
 ' Didn't you hear our President say the other day that 
 all the work of life and the whole duty of man reduces 
 itself to this : " Fear Elyon ; keep his laws " ? Don't 
 you remember his saying that, so far from being com- 
 monplace, this has been taught in all ages and all 
 lands by all the best teachers ; that it is a rule, broad 
 as the sea, clear as the blue sky, steadfast as the eternal 
 hills ? What can Trypho teach compared with this, 
 except ruinous mischief ? ' 
 
 ' I thought Trypho was your chief friend and chum,' 
 said Florian. 
 
 To his great surprise Facilis burst into tears and 
 abruptly left him. 
 
 VII 
 
 &6eipov(Tiv tf6i] xprjffO' 6fMi\iai /cot/ecu. 
 
 / MENANDEB (quoted 1 Cor. xv. 33). 
 
 THUS Facilis, though to his own misery he had been 
 personally weak, did honestly try his best to save 
 Florian from succumbing to the evil influences which 
 had been his own bane. But Florian had been too 
 wilfully careless in allowing the basilisk to gain an 
 influence over his mind, and, in spite of the warning 
 of his friend, determined to talk about the demon to 
 
282 ALLEGORIES 
 
 other boys in his house more gay and audacious than 
 the half-repentant Facilis. 
 
 He thought that he would first speak to Ehodon ; 
 for Rhodon was a boy of quick intelligence and pleasant 
 manners, who had read more than most of the Caeru- 
 leans (as the boys in the Blue House were called) ; and 
 he was the son of a nobleman whose park bordered on 
 the estate of Duke Altus. 
 
 ' Rhodon,' he said, the first time that he found him 
 sitting alone, ' I want you to tell me the truth about 
 the basilisk.' 
 
 ' What do you want to know ? ' said Rhodon. 
 
 ' Well, I know that you have let him come to you, 
 for Trypho told me so. Why did you leave King 
 Elyon's service for his ? ' 
 
 1 My father is a very clever man,' answered Rhodon, 
 ' and I know that he does not believe in King Ely on 
 at all, or doubts whether he troubles himself about us ; 
 for one day, when he did not know that I was in the 
 room, I heard him say so. If he doesn't believe in 
 Ely on, why should I ? ' 
 
 * You horrify me,' said Florian. 
 
 'Well, then, let us drop the conversation,' answered 
 Rhodon with a shrug of his shoulders. 
 
 ' No, but what good did you get by welcoming the 
 basilisk ? ' 
 
 ' I got freedom,' said Rhodon. 
 
 * What do you mean exactly, Rhodon ? ' And at 
 that moment there gleamed into Florian's memory a 
 sentence about a service which is perfect freedom. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 283 
 
 ' Think of the lecture the President gave us the 
 other day and you will see. From first to last, he kept 
 saying, " You must deny yourselves; you must abstain ; 
 you must give up." His whole advice was, " Sustain 
 and abstain ; desist from evil ; resist temptation ; 
 persist in effort." I tell you frankly I don't care to toil 
 and moil through life in that way. My father has 
 many guests, brilliant, clever, handsome men of high 
 positions. They don't talk in that way ; they don't live 
 like that. Neither will I. I am much more inclined 
 to follow the rule, " Eat, drink, enjoy thyself ; the rest 
 is nothing." 
 
 ' Ajid is that what you advise me to do ? ' 
 
 ' I advise you nothing,' said Ehodon, who was noted 
 in the school for his haughty independence. ' Join the 
 saints if you like it better.' And, to put an end to 
 further questions, Rhodon took up the book which he 
 had been reading. 
 
 Still restless, still miserable, Florian thought that 
 he would find out what Cyprius and Thallus had to say 
 on the subject. The two were inseparable friends, 
 and finding them one day sitting in the school garden, 
 he asked if he might come and sit with them. 
 
 ' By all means,' they said, for Florian was a welcome 
 companion among the Caeruleans. 
 
 'Forgive my curiosity,' he said, ' and tell me whether 
 you two wear the badge of the basilisk, as Trypho told 
 me you do.' 
 
 The two boys exchanged smiles and glances, and 
 Cyprius asked, ' Shall we tell him, Thallus ? ' 
 
284 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' Certainly,' answered Thallus. 'Look here, Florian,' 
 and each of them showed him the enamel badge worn 
 round their necks under their tunics. 
 
 Florian again examined the badge with curiosity. 
 ' But what do you mean by wearing the badge ? ' he 
 asked. 
 
 'We mean,' said Thallus, ' that we will follow our 
 bent, and not be checked at every turn by a parcel of 
 cut-and-dried rules ; we mean to please ourselves and 
 live as we like.' 
 
 ' Yes, and to talk as we like,' said Cyprius ; ' and 
 to think as we like, and do as we like. There, Florian ; 
 now the secret's out. That's our motto.' 
 
 ' I should like to write it down,' said Florian. 
 
 ' Do,' said Thallus. ' Write at the top, " The boon 
 of the basilisk," and under it " Live as you like." 
 Have you written that ? ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 ' Under that write in three lines " Talk as you like," 
 "Think as you like," "Do as you like." Now show 
 me what you've written, and let me see if it's all 
 right.' 
 
 Florian handed them his ivory tablet, unconscious 
 that a strange marvel had happened to him. For as 
 Thallus spoke in a tone of brazen assurance, with each 
 sentence there had been a flash, a thrill, a whisper in 
 Florian's conscience, which impressed on his mind the 
 opposite thought. And so vivid had been the impres- 
 sion, that, impelled by some unseen power without 
 his consent, against his intention, and indeed unknown 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 285 
 
 to himself instead of what Thallus had dictated to 
 him, he had written as follows : 
 1 The bane of the basilisk : 
 
 1. Dead while you live. 
 
 2. Vile words corrupt. 
 
 3. Wicked thoughts defile. 
 
 4. Thou hast destroyed thyself.' 
 
 Thallus read the sentences, and, turning on Florian 
 with a burst of rage, cried out, ' What humbug is this ? 
 Are you a spy on us ? ' 
 
 1 What's the matter ? ' asked Florian with intense 
 surprise. 
 
 ' See what he's written,' said Thallus, handing the 
 tablet to Cyprius. Then both boys eyed him angrily 
 and suspiciously, with frowns upon their foreheads. 
 
 ' What on earth is the matter?' asked Florian again, 
 still more astonished. 
 
 ' Read what you have written,' said Thallus, thrust- 
 ing the tablet into his hand. 
 
 Florian in utter amazement read what he had 
 written, and blushed crimson. 
 
 ' On my word of honour,' he said passionately, ' I 
 thought that I had written down what you dictated. 
 This must be some sorcery of the Mage.' 
 
 ' Likely ! ' sneered Thallus. 
 
 The two boys rose and left him with flushed and 
 angry countenances, and when they had gone Florian 
 covered his face with his hands and wept. 
 
 It was a tremendous warning, and it was the last 
 which was to be vouchsafed to him for many days. 
 
286 ALLEGORIES 
 
 VIII 
 
 Grave ipsius conscientiae pondus. 
 
 Cic., De Nat. Deorum, in. 35. 
 
 HERE again was a decided check a heaven-sent 
 warning. For a time Florian paused in his evil course, 
 and had he not wilfully hardened his heart all might 
 now have been well. The impression, however, wore 
 away. He persuaded himself that the Mage had 
 practised his arts upon him. Though often reproved 
 he hardened his heart. He had been much impressed 
 by what Facilis had said ; but instead of pondering 
 over it he took the worst possible course by repeating 
 the conversation to Trypho, omitting only all allusion 
 to Trypho himself. 
 
 But Trypho assumed an air of disdainful indif- 
 ference, and only condescended to say that Facilis was 
 a poor fool, delightfully good-natured and charming, 
 but faint-hearted and with nothing of a real man about 
 him. 
 
 All that afternoon the thoughts of Florian were 
 burning with a passionate desire to be visited by the 
 basilisk again. When that is so, no Porphyrian has 
 long to wait. That very evening the boy strolled to 
 the sheltered nook of the garden where he had seen 
 the creature glimmer among the flowers. Almost in a 
 moment it flashed out upon him. He stretched out his 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 287 
 
 hand ; it fawned upon him, drowned him in glamour, 
 and fascinated him with the full and final glance 
 which involved its victory and the boy's defeat. 
 He consciously took evil by the hand, and from 
 the temple of his soul the cloud of glory moved 
 away. 
 
 For a time he felt intoxicated and elated with fan- 
 cied emancipation. The conceit of superior freedom 
 made him seem as if he trod on air. At last he was un- 
 fettered by the shackles of ' copybook moralities.' He 
 did not attempt to conceal from Trypho and Facilis 
 and the rest that he too had imitated their courage 
 in making friends with Elyon's enemy and flinging 
 fears and scruples to the winds. And what harm had 
 it done him ? None ! So he boasted to himself and to 
 them. The basilisk was his obsequious slave, not his 
 master ; and it was only out of regard for the maligned 
 creature whom he could kick away in a moment if 
 he liked not in sign of servitude, that he accepted 
 the green enamelled badge and became its votary. 
 Trypho smiled, but Facilis turned away and could not 
 suppress a deep sigh. 
 
 The spell was not at once exhausted. It was 
 specially delightful to the vain nature of Florian to 
 observe that in the set of schoolfellows to whom he 
 had joined himself, he was now more than ever an 
 admired and flattered leader. 
 
 But very soon the unhallowed glow died at inter- 
 vals from his flushed soul. No child of Elyon can 
 listen to the voice of the serpent without many an 
 
288 ALLEGORIES 
 
 agonising reminder that he was made for that nobler 
 service, which is perfect freedom. No soul which 
 the son of Elyon died to save can pluck from the tree 
 of knowledge its forbidden fruit without the anguish 
 of feeling, sooner or later, that by his disobedience 
 he has forfeited Eden, and that the fiery faces and 
 horrent arms of the Avengers flame between him and 
 the Tree of Life. 
 
 To Florian the reminder that the crown had fallen 
 from his head, for he had sinned, came in many forms. 
 There were thoughts, and hopes, and feelings, and 
 memories, which before had been full of sweetness, 
 but which now he could no longer cherish. 
 
 He felt himself to be an apostate from the best 
 and highest which he had known, and that he could not 
 profess continued allegiance to it without hypocrisy. 
 The mere presence of other boys who shuddered at the 
 thought of the basilisk was a silent rebuke to him. 
 And while he was daily conscious, deep in his inner- 
 most being, of a subtle uneasiness, the freedom of 
 choice, which he first thought that he had gained, 
 became to him the most deadly of all losses. All that 
 the basilisk could give him was the glamour over a 
 galling servitude ; the flicker of the mirage which leads 
 those who follow it to wastes of barrenness in the 
 thirsty sands. 
 
 One day he heard one of the other boys reading the 
 story of the witch spinning in her cavern a thread so 
 wondrously fine and thin that it was invisible except 
 where it gleamed like golden gossamer in the light of 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD L>89 
 
 the odorous fire. And as the youth enters the cavern, 
 and gazes at her, she sings, 
 
 ' Now twine it round thy hands I say, 
 Now twine it round thy hands I pray 1 
 My thread is small, my thread is fine, 
 
 But he must be 
 
 A stronger than thee, 
 Who can break this thread of mine.' 
 
 The youth in astonishment winds the thread around 
 his right hand and his left, and then she sings, 
 
 * Now thy strength, stranger strain ! 
 Now then break the slender chain ! ' 
 
 He tries, and tries in vain, with all his strength to 
 break it. It is a magic thread. By his own act he 
 has made himself the helpless victim of his enemies. 
 He is bound hand and foot. 
 
 Just such a victim Florian soon felt himself to be. 
 It would have been easy to keep from rebellion against 
 the Lord of his life ; but to recall that freedom when 
 he had voluntarily flung it away was hard. He had of 
 his own perverted will stept out of the light into the 
 darkness ; but, oh, would it be possible for him to re- 
 trace his footsteps and struggle into the light and air of 
 innocence again ? 
 
 Any return to the ' unific rectitude ' of an obedient 
 life could only be attained by climbing the rocky and 
 thorny mountain path of repentance ; and that painful 
 toil he could not face. He sometimes tried, or fancied 
 that he tried, to do so ; but his efforts to break the 
 
 u 
 
290 ALLEGORIES 
 
 spell of the basilisk were too discontinuous and too 
 half-hearted to have in them any chance of success. 
 
 Trypho always laughed at such efforts, and con- 
 stantly advised him to throw away all remorse, and all 
 scruples, and all allegiance to Elyon, at which he 
 sneered as a mere antiquated absurdity founded on 
 outworn fables. And at last, Florian, in impatience 
 and despair, determined to suppress every warning 
 voice within him, to adopt a tone of defiance, and to 
 make no attempt whatever to return to better things. 
 
 IX 
 
 Facilis descensus Averni ; 
 
 Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est. VIRG. 
 
 E piedi e man voleva il suol di sotto. DANTE, Purgat. iv. 33. 
 
 So closed the second term of Florian and Ardens at 
 school, and they again returned home for their holidays. 
 But each felt that he had drifted farther and farther 
 apart from the other. The brothers were instinctively 
 conscious that over one of them at least a change had 
 passed ; that there was a widening chasm between their 
 aspirations and desires. For now they scarcely ever 
 saw each other at school. Florian had become the 
 friend and leader of a set about whom Ardens knew 
 little, but whom he could not help disliking and de- 
 spising ; and Ardens had chosen his intimates among 
 lads about whom Florian felt with intense resentment 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 291 
 
 that, so far from paying any court to him, as others 
 did, they shrank from him and kept him at a distance. 
 
 Ardens had often felt a deep uneasiness about his 
 brother ; but Florian so resolutely closed the door 
 against all confidences between them, and assumed 
 such airs of disdainful indifference if his brother ever 
 tried to say a serious word to him, that Ardens, per- 
 plexed and disheartened, knew of no way by which he 
 could influence him for good. Then it occurred to him 
 that perhaps Facilis one of the few boys in the Blue 
 house for whom he cared might be able and willing 
 to help him in saving Florian from plunging into a 
 hopelessly bad career. One day, finding Facilis alone 
 in the garden, Ardens came and spoke to him, and 
 Facilis greeted him with warm cordiality. 
 
 * I wish I saw more of you, Facilis,' said Ardens ; ' but 
 somehow the fellows in your house keep to themselves, 
 and I can scarcely ever find you alone.' 
 
 ' At any rate you know, Ardens, how much I have 
 always liked and looked up to you.' 
 
 ' I came,' said Ardens, ' to ask if you can do nothing 
 to help my brother. I know his affection for you, and 
 yours for him.' 
 
 'I don't deserve any one's affection,' said Facilis 
 despondently ; ' but I would do anything for Florian.' 
 
 ' Are you satisfied with the way he is going on, 
 Facilis ? I don't myself at all like the line he seems to 
 be taking.' 
 
 ' I am the last person to have any right to judge or 
 condemn him or any one,' said Facilis. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 ' But you are not satisfied with his ways ? ' 
 
 ' I might say that, if I had any sort of right to say 
 it,' answered Facilis, his face full of sadness. 
 
 ' Can you do nothing to advise or to help him ? ' 
 
 ' I have forfeited all claim to do so, Ardens. I have 
 sometimes feebly tried to say something. But Florian 
 is no worse than I am myself. He can twist me round 
 his little finger. I have no power to influence others 
 as he has, and my influence, compared to that of his 
 friend Trypho, is as a spider's thread to a cable.' 
 
 ' I wish I could get him out of the Blue house,' 
 said Ardens. 
 
 ' So do I with all my heart,' said Facilis ; ' and 
 would that I had not been in it ! Oh, Ardens ! if I were 
 a good and strong fellow like you, I might help to save 
 Florian. But I am nothing and nobody ; and it re- 
 quires some one far better than I am to be of any use.' 
 
 He wrung Ardens by the hand, and, as was usual 
 with him when he could not trust himself to control 
 his emotion, he turned away. 
 
 X 
 
 But life is stormy and youth is vain, 
 And to be wroth with those we love 
 Doth work like madness in the brain ; 
 Each spake words of high disdain 
 And insult to his heart's best brother. 
 
 COLERIDGE, Christabel. 
 
 OF course, when they were at home in the castle of 
 the Duke, their father, Ardens and Florian were con- 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 293 
 
 stantly thrown together. But there all the circum- 
 stances were wholly different. There Florian was not 
 surrounded by temptation and by bad companions, and 
 he showed for the most part only the brighter side of his 
 character, though even at home he resolutely prevented 
 all approach to confidential conversation with his 
 brother ; and this tended to keep them apart. 
 
 But one summer afternoon during those holidays 
 the alienation between the two boys culminated, and 
 culminated terribly. They had gone down to bathe in 
 the river which flowed round the domain of Altus, and 
 Florian, who was habitually careless and self-indulgent, 
 forgot that he was wearing round his neck the enamelled 
 badge of the basilisk. He took it off for his bathe, 
 but flung it down carelessly upon his clothes, and 
 thought no more about it. 
 
 Ardens was in the highest spirits. 
 
 ' Now then, Florian ! ' he exclaimed, 
 
 ' Desilit in latices, alternaque brachia ducens, 
 In vitreis translucet aquis.' 
 
 ' Oh, no holiday tasks now ! ' said Florian. 
 
 ' Well then, Florian, let's see which of us can take 
 the best header.' 
 
 They plunged with delight under the warm summer 
 air into the bright water, and after a good swim 
 climbed the bank to dress. While they were dressing 
 Florian caught a glimpse of the hilt of the sword of 
 Ardens. 
 
 ' What is that ? ' he asked curiously. 
 
294 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Now, it was understood that the gifts of Alciphron 
 were for private use, and were never to be idly paraded. 
 Ardens felt a little vexed with himself for his careless- 
 ness, but he answered quite simply : 
 
 ' It is an amulet, or whatever he calls it, given. me 
 by Alciphron.' 
 
 It was one of the marks of Florian's degeneracy 
 that he now always pretended to sneer when the Mage 
 was mentioned. 
 
 ' An old proser,' he said, ' who talks baby non- 
 sense.' 
 
 Ardens checked an impulse to anger, and said, ' I 
 suppose it was your friend Trypho who taught you to 
 adopt that tone ? ' 
 
 ' And if he did,' said Florian, ' it is no concern of 
 yours. I like Trypho ; he is ten times more my friend 
 than you are.' 
 
 ' So much the worse, my brother,' said Ardens 
 gently, after a pause. ' But I should have thought 
 that it did concern me a little, Florian.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't try to assume the elder brother over 
 me,' said Florian. ' It might have been different if you 
 had ever cared for me at school, and not snubbed me, 
 and tried to look down on me. I have got beyond all 
 that now.' 
 
 ' Yes, and beyond a good many other things, Florian, 
 not much to your advantage. Well, I never knew yet 
 that you thought I wished to snub you, though, I 
 confess, I don't like your friends except Facilis.' 
 
 ' I don't care whether you do or no,' said Florian 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 295 
 
 frigidly ; ' and as for the X)ld Mage, I don't want any 
 more infant-school lectures of "Be good, be good, be 
 good." They are as old as the hills.' 
 
 'Yes, and if you try to grasp their meaning,' 
 said Ardens quietly, 'they, are as splendid as the 
 stars.' 
 
 ' Oh how eloquent we are ! ' sneered Florian, and 
 after that he sank into disdainful silence. 
 
 But Ardens had made many an earnest resolve that 
 his brother's taunts, however intolerable he found them, 
 should not carry him out of himself. -So again he 
 paused, and then said : 
 
 ' I am afraid, Florian, that you have got to prefer 
 the voices which say to all of us, long before we 
 have left the nursery, " Be bad, be bad, be bad." ' 
 
 Florian did not take the trouble to answer, so there 
 the conversation might have ended, had not Ardens 
 suddenly caught sight of the badge of the basilisk 
 lying on Florian 's shirt. He had heard something 
 about this at school, but he still retained the healthy 
 horror of the basilisk which he had learnt from every 
 wise teacher he had ever heard, and he was not only 
 amazed, but fairly alarmed to see the glittering badge 
 of the enemy of Ely on lying amid the clothes of his 
 brother, and evidently as an ornament which he had 
 worn around his neck. 
 
 ' Good heavens, Florian ! ' he exclaimed, pointing to 
 the green enamel, ' what monstrous thing is that ? I 
 never saw it before, but it looks to me like an image of 
 the basilisk.' 
 
296 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Florian instantly hid the badge in alarm, and 
 turned his back on Ardens. 
 
 ' I will know what it is,' said Ardens impetuously. 
 ' You shall not secretly sell yourself to Ashmod without 
 my trying to prevent you.' 
 
 ' Mind your own business, Ardens/ said Florian 
 furiously. ' What right had you to watch me while I 
 was dressing, and to play the spy ? ' 
 
 ' I no more played the spy than you did, when you 
 saw what I was wearing,' answered Ardens, suppressing 
 with difficulty his hot temper, and trying to speak 
 calmly, though his voice shook a little. 'I did but 
 catch a chance glimpse of that badge.' 
 
 ' Badge ? ' said Florian. * Who said it was a badge ? ' 
 
 ' Well, of that green ornament or whatever it is 
 just as you caught a glimpse of my sword, and ' 
 
 ' Oh, how fine we are, how good we are, with our 
 sword ! ' interrupted Florian, putting into his voice the 
 most offensive tone of provocation. 
 
 The effort of Ardens to keep his temper was put to 
 a very severe strain by the irritating tone which his 
 brother seemed to be purposely adopting. He knew 
 that the liability to bursts of anger was one of his 
 chief temptations, and more than once it had caused him 
 serious trouble at school. But now he almost heard the 
 leopard against which Alciphron had affectionately 
 warned him rustling amid the brushwood of the 
 grove in which they were seated. His only safety lay 
 in stopping to master himself before he spoke. 
 
 * Florian,' he said sternly, but not unkindly, 'you 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 297 
 
 want to put me in a rage with you, as you did once 
 before. Do not provoke me too far. I have a right to 
 know what that thing is which you have been wearing 
 round your neck.' And he advanced towards Florian 
 with a determined look. 
 
 Florian sprang to his feet. ' You shall not know/ 
 he said. ' You shall not pry and sneak on me. Keep 
 your fine lectures to yourself. I hate you, Ardens. 
 Stand back ! ' 
 
 ' I mean nothing unkind, Florian, but 1 will know 
 what you have been after.' 
 
 He put his hand with a firm grasp on the shoulder 
 of his brother. But Florian was now not only 
 thoroughly enraged, but genuinely alarmed. He 
 wrenched himself out of his brother's grasp, and when 
 Ardens again tried to seize hold of him, he struck him 
 in the face with all his might. 
 
 Ardens seized the boy, threw his arms round him, 
 flung him to the ground, and put his foot upon his 
 breast. The leopard was stealthily creeping nearer and 
 nearer to him, with its fiery eyes fixed upon him ; and 
 Ardens, overmastered by passion, would have been 
 hurried into some act of fiercest violence, which he 
 might have had to deplore all his life, if he had not at 
 that very moment caught a glimpse of the silver cross 
 which formed the hilt of the protecting sword which 
 Alciphron had given him. Instead of striking Florian, 
 he stretched out his hand to take his brother's 
 odious badge. But Florian, in a transport of fury 
 and despair, leapt up, and springing to the place 
 
298 ALLEGORIES 
 
 where the clothes of Ardens lay for he was but half 
 dressed seized them in a mass, sword and all, and 
 flung them into the river. 
 
 Ardens saw .his sword sink, he saw his tunic floating 
 down the stream. Never before had he received so 
 deadly, so contumelious an insult. He forgot all about 
 the basilisk, and was bent on inflicting upon his brother 
 such a punishment as he never should forget. The 
 leopard was now crouching for its deadliest spring ; it 
 bounded upon Ardens all flame and fury. Far stronger 
 than Florian, Ardens seized the boy by the waist, lifted 
 him up, and would in another moment have flung him 
 bodily over the bank of the river, in a transport of 
 ungovernable passion. 
 
 But up to this point Ardens had been stoutly and 
 faithfully fighting against his besetting temptation, and 
 therefore he was not abandoned to his spiritual enemy. 
 Before he had been hurried into some irreparable act 
 of rage, he suddenly heard a voice cry out, * Ardens ! 
 Ardens ! ' 
 
 His father had been looking for the boys, and not 
 seeing them, or knowing where they were, was calling 
 for him. 
 
 The voice recalled him to himself, changed his 
 purpose, saved him from his impending sin. He 
 checked himself with an effort, which left him trembling 
 from head to foot, and, releasing his brother, said, 
 ' Shout back to father.' Then, turning to the river, 
 he dived in, half dressed as he was, to swim after 
 his floating clothes and to recover his lost sword, 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED 299 
 
 which he saw shining at the bottom of the clear 
 water. 
 
 Florian hurriedly concealed the green jewel of the 
 basilisk, and then called out, ' Here we are, father ; we 
 have been having a bathe.' 
 
 Ardens recovered his sword and his tunic, but 
 it was with difficulty that he struggled back to the 
 river bank. For though he had been successful in 
 resisting the tremendous passion by which he- had 
 been suddenly assailed, that effort had shaken his 
 whole frame. By this time his brother had dressed 
 and gone to join his father. Ardens was alone ; his 
 clothes were dripping wet. He had to undress, to 
 wring them dry, and to lay them in the sun which was 
 now burning in the meridian. He sat down in a mood 
 of extreme bitterness, and hid his face in his hands. 
 
 He had been victorious over sudden temptation. 
 Nay, but had he ? True, he had at first resisted its 
 impulse, but nevertheless his enemy the leopard had 
 nearly mastered him ; he had not wholly escaped its 
 cruel claws. Yet help from above had come to him in 
 the decisive moment. He had been snatched from the 
 leopard, even though he had not smitten it with his 
 sword. But oh ! what could he think of his unhappy 
 brother ? ' Am I my brother's keeper ? ' he asked him- 
 self, and the voice answered clear and loud within him, 
 ' Indeed you are.' 
 
 Was it true, then, that at school he had despised 
 and neglected Florian ? 
 
 ' I can do nothing with him,' he pleaded to himself. 
 
300 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' He is conceited and wilful.' ' Have you really tried?' 
 answered the inward voice. ' Might not more have 
 been achieved by genuine brotherly love ? ' 'I am to 
 blame,' he thought ; ' I might have tried to do more for 
 my brother. But ever since that unhappy blow on the 
 cheek, Florian has resented my influence. that I 
 had not lost that battle ! My fault ! my fault ! ' 
 
 But now what was to be done? Florian was 
 secretly wearing the badge of the basilisk ; he must 
 indeed have fallen terribly. And Ardens could only 
 wring his hands, and then uplift his eyes shining with 
 tears, in supplication to 
 
 The powers which tend the soul, 
 To snatch it from the death which cannot die, 
 And save it even in extremes. 
 
 Before the day was over, haunted by a word from 
 Ely on 's book, which said, * Let not the sun go down 
 upon your wrath,' Ardens sought his brother, and, 
 humbling himself, begged that they might exchange 
 forgiveness with each other, and be as friends and 
 brothers. So far as words were concerned, Florian 
 muttered a sullen consent. He gave Ardens his hand, 
 but not his heart. 
 
 ' Florian,' said Ardens, ' apart from my outburst 
 this afternoon, if I have really been cold or disdainful 
 to you at school, I did not mean to be so. I find it diffi- 
 cult ever to see you. Forgive me, I will try to do better 
 next term.' 
 
 ' Never mind/ said Florian, ' I have plenty of 
 friends.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 301 
 
 'And, Florian,' said Ardens, 'you must not 
 resent what I say again ; but will you oh, will you fling 
 away that horrid badge ? ' 
 
 ' If I choose to wear it I do not see that it hurts 
 you,' said Florian. 
 
 ' But it hurts yourself, my brother. The basilisk is 
 the enemy of all good.' 
 
 ' It isn't,' said Florian. ' It has done me no harm.' 
 
 ' I am not so sure of that,' said Ardens ; * and if it 
 has not, I am quite sure that it will.' 
 
 Now Florian was dreadfully afraid that Ardens 
 would tell his father of his disgraceful abandonment of 
 his allegiance to Elyon ; so he said, ' Well, if you will 
 let me alone and not betray me, perhaps I will throw 
 the thing away.' 
 
 ' You promise ? ' 
 
 Florian said nothing ; he hesitated. Then, with a 
 sudden cry, he seized his brother's hand, and said, ' 
 Ardens, you are a better fellow than I am. Yes, I will 
 throw it away. At least I will try.' 
 
 When Ardens left him he took the chain off his 
 neck, and flung it with the badge to the top of a high 
 bookshelf, where he hoped that it would lie forgotten 
 in the dust. 
 
 But the basilisk was not to be got rid of on such 
 easy terms, though while the boy was at home it had 
 more or less been letting him alone. 
 
 A morning or two afterwards he found the badge 
 on his dressing table ; a servant, in cleaning out the 
 room, had found it and left it there, 
 
302 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Then he flung it out of the window into the middle 
 of a dense shrubbery ; but an hour or two later he saw 
 that a tame magpie had found the glittering thing and 
 was dragging it with his beak across the lawn. Afraid 
 that his father would see it, he ran down and recovered it. 
 
 Then, but very half-heartedly, he broke the badge 
 off the chain and tossed it into the artificial lake in 
 the garden. He thought that now he was rid of it 
 at last. But a strange thing happened. The lake 
 was shallow ; the badge, which was quite small and 
 light, had slipped through the water into the half- 
 opened bud of a water-lily. In a day or two the lily 
 reared its head above the surface and expanded its 
 white and scented blossom. Florian was amusing 
 himself by fishing in the lake, when he noticed some- 
 thing flashing in one of the white immaculate flowers 
 by which he was surrounded. He pushed the boat 
 through the dense green lily leaves to see what it was. 
 He plucked the water-lily. There, among its yellow 
 stamens, lay the shining badge, and the little carbuncles, 
 which were its eyes, seemed to gleam with an un- 
 natural lustre. 
 
 Here was another crisis in his life ! Again the 
 warning came ; for suddenly, and quite near him, he 
 heard a voice say loud and clear, ' Do not touch it ! ' 
 
 Pshaw ! it was only one of the gardeners on the 
 island in the lake, telling his child not to pick up an 
 adder which he had just struck with his spade. 
 
 'Shall I take it?' Florian asked himself, half 
 aloud. 
 
HE PLUCKED THE WATER-LILY 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 305 
 
 ' You can't help yourself, you must ! Besides, look 
 what a beautiful thing it is ! ' seemed to whisper a soft 
 insinuating voice. * Would you after all desert me, 
 your kind and indulgent friend? You can't, you 
 know.' 
 
 Florian looked up. Upon a sunny bank, under 
 festoons of the dark purple flowers of the deadly night- 
 shade, stood the basilisk himself, and the golden circle 
 seemed to gleam with unusual vividness round the 
 king-serpent's head. Once more the arrowy glance 
 shot into the boy's eyes. 
 
 ' It is my fate ! ' he said, and seized the badge from 
 the water-lily. He flung something away, but it was 
 the immaculate flower, not the gleaming badge. And 
 as the silver blossom plashed into the water, and as he 
 hid the badge in the breast of his robe, he heard a low 
 malignant laugh, and a huge raven croaked from the 
 nest in the tree above his head. 
 
 But it was too late for warning. He had made his 
 choice. 
 
 XI 
 
 Ever against the stream God's man must row, 
 Easy thine oar, and devilward thou shalt go. 
 
 LAYBRIDGE. 
 
 AFTER their summer holidays the boys returned to 
 school once more. 
 
 And at school Ardens again sought the society of 
 the strongest, the manliest, and most right-minded 
 
 x 
 
306 ALLEGORIES 
 
 boys, while Florian became, together with Trypho, an 
 acknowledged leader of those who, having practically 
 forgotten the guide of their youth and forsaken the 
 covenant of their God, had said in their hearts, if not in 
 their open words, ' I choose the evil, and refuse the good.' 
 
 In this way things went on for several terms, during 
 which the brothers seemed to drift farther and farther 
 apart from each other. While Ardens was rewarded 
 for honest and faithful efforts by confirmation of all 
 that was best and noblest in his character, the unhappy 
 Florian all the more unhappy in that he did not re- 
 cognise his peril became more and more decidedly a 
 follower of that which is evil. 
 
 After their second year at school was concluded, the 
 circumstances of both brothers were complicated by 
 the arrival at school of a new boy, who had indeed 
 accompanied them all the way from the castle of 
 Duke Altus, and had entered the school under their 
 introduction. 
 
 His name was Candidus, and his face, in its 
 winning openness, seemed to reflect his name. In age 
 he was little more than a child, for he had not yet 
 reached his thirteenth year ; but it was impossible to 
 look at him without regard and interest, for his features 
 wore the impress of serene untroubled goodness, 
 though they were easily touched with a modest blush. 
 You could read all his thoughts : they shone through 
 his eyes, 
 
 Like bottom agates seen to wave and shine 
 In crystal currents of clear morning seas. 
 
-THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 307 
 
 He had none of the remarkable and aristocratic beauty 
 of Florian, but there was no fairer specimen of innocent 
 boyhood in the great Porphyrian school. His face was 
 the reflex of a soul which resembled some silver mirror 
 unstained by even a passing breath. 
 
 Candidus was not of noble birth like the two 
 brothers. His father was a humble tenant on the 
 estate of Duke Altus ; but he was proud of his 
 gifted and blameless boy, and one day he had asked the 
 great nobleman how best to provide for the future of 
 his son. The Duke had seen the boy, talked to him, 
 and been much pleased with him. He thought that 
 such a boy, though younger than his own two sons, 
 would be a harmless and delightful companion to them ; 
 and as he was always kind and generous, he offered 
 his tenant to provide for the education of Candidus, 
 and to send him at his own expense to the school, 
 which would otherwise have been far too costly for the 
 means of one who occupied so humble a position. 
 
 So Candidus was presented to Ardens and Florian 
 by their father, who placed the boy, as it were, under 
 their protection, so far as his favourable introduction 
 to the school was concerned. They took him on the 
 journey with them, and were not sorry to return 
 to their schoolfellows in charge of a lad who, they felt 
 sure, would do nothing but credit to themselves and to 
 the school. 
 
 Candidus felt confidence in Ardens at once. Some- 
 thing in the look of the young heir of Altus, who would 
 one day succeed to the great ducal domains, won 
 
 x 2 
 
308 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the boy's esteem. He felt that he could implicitly 
 trust him. He knew that Ardens would play no 
 practical jokes upon him ; would not mislead him 
 with any ' crams ' ; would give him good, manly, useful 
 counsel, and would be a strong and steadfast friend. 
 Curiously enough he could not sincerely like Florian, 
 who was usually regarded as the more graceful 
 and attractive, as well as the better looking -of the 
 two brothers. Florian, on the other hand, felt strongly 
 drawn towards him. He laid himself out to please the 
 boy, answered more fully than Ardens his eager and 
 anxious questions about the school, and, so far from 
 assuming any airs of patronage, seemed almost timidly 
 to court his friendship. 
 
 Candidus feared that his plebeian birth would lead 
 to his being looked down upon, and that his compara- 
 tive poverty would be a constant obstacle to his 
 intercourse with his schoolfellows, since he could not 
 join in all their subscriptions, or spend his money as 
 they did. But his path was smoothed by his two 
 friends. Ardens, in a perfectly frank and manly way, 
 furnished the money which was necessary for the school 
 subscriptions to games and so forth, telling Candidus that 
 such had been the wish of the Duke, and that no one 
 need be aware of it. Florian, on the other hand, gave 
 him presents which, though of greater value, he was 
 far more reluctant to accept that he might begin his 
 school life as well equipped as his comrades with the 
 luxuries and indulgences which were open to their 
 wealth. And Florian was thrown much more with 
 

 THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 309 
 
 Candidus than his brother was ; for the boy happened 
 to be placed in the same house, class-room, and 
 dormitory as himself. The houses at the school were 
 distinguished by the names of different colours, and 
 this (as we have seen) was known as the Blue House. 
 In this class-room and dormitory Trypho too had a 
 place, and Trypho also was anxious to insinuate himself 
 into the good graces of a boy who was evidently of no 
 ordinary stamp. 
 
 But Candidus seemed to possess an inherent 
 power, which he could not in the least explain, of 
 knowing whom he might, and whom he might not 
 trust. The secret really lay in a little mirror which 
 Alciphron had given to him, and taught him how to use. 
 This magic mirror had a power of retaining the 
 likenesses of those w r ho had ever been reflected in it ; 
 and it showed them not as they tried to appear, but as 
 they really were. In this mirror the face of the 
 beautiful Florian lost all its best beauty, and assumed a 
 look of slyness, which Candidus disliked ; but as for 
 Trypho, his image in the mirror though he was a 
 good-looking fellow was positively ugly and repel- 
 lent. Candidus was always courteous to Trypho, 
 who was much above him in the school, and 
 considerably older than himself. He never treated 
 him with any coldness which could be resented or 
 taken hold of ; but yet Trypho felt that the young 
 new-comer did succeed in rejecting his overtures alike of 
 friendship and of patronage, and did, in some quite 
 indescribable way, keep him at a distance. For a time 
 
310 ALLEGORIES 
 
 he tried to get rid of the impression. But when he 
 wholly failed to secure more than civility from one 
 who was of much humbler rank than his own, and 
 in a far lower position in the school, and also a new 
 comer, his cordiality was changed into something like 
 hatred. He began to stigmatise Candidus as ' a saint ' 
 and ' a prig,' to call him by opprobrious or jeering nick- 
 names, and to encourage other boys to mimic and to 
 deride him. This was a serious trial to Candidus ; for 
 Trypho, being an influential youth, gave the tone to 
 many, and Candidus was shy and sensitive. The lad's 
 temptation was to be afraid of ' the pointed finger,' 
 when he would have been too brave to shrink from 
 ' the shaken fist.' 
 
 And the worst of it was that Florian too, apparently 
 for similar reasons, soon seemed to Candidus to have 
 turned distinctly against him. At first Florian had 
 lavished attentions and kindnesses upon him ; but the 
 character of Candidus was too transparent to render it 
 possible for him to conceal his thoughts, or to show 
 anything like affection and confidence when he did not 
 feel them. And these he could not feel when he looked 
 from Florian himself to his reflection in the magic 
 mirror. He knew that he owed to Duke Altus all the 
 advantages, present and prospective, of his education 
 at the great Porphyrian school ; and Florian might 
 naturally have expected that a boy so deeply indebted 
 to his father, and the son of one of the Duke's 
 dependents, would show some deference to him. Yet, 
 so far from returning the regard which Florian really 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 311 
 
 felt, and so far from exhibiting any sign of gratitude or 
 affection, Candidus whose face always brightened 
 when Ardens spoke to him, although Ardens did not 
 make half so much of him seemed unable to respond 
 with any warmth to the caressing and patronising 
 kindness of Florian. Without a single overt act or 
 word, Candidus left on the mind of Florian the 
 impression that the new boy distrusted and held aloof 
 from him. 
 
 But what puzzled them a little was that Candidus 
 never seemed to have the same shrinking from Facilis. 
 The reason was that though in the mirror the face of 
 Facilis was a little dim and blurred, yet it showed 
 nothing which caused the least distrust in the new 
 boy's mind. 
 
 It was a sad truth that both Trypho and Florian, 
 far more than Facilis, and not in mere weakness, but from 
 arrant and arrogant wilfulness, had become renegades 
 from those laws which alone can make life happy or 
 noble. They disowned their duties to their true Lord 
 and King. They felt in their hearts the brand of 
 servitude to the basilisk. However much they might 
 brazen it out among their companions, and however 
 much they might profess to boast of their freedom, 
 they knew that their bondage was a miserable thing. 
 This secret disquietude, together with the venomous 
 atmosphere caused by the proximity of the crowned 
 serpent, was constantly impelling them to save any 
 fragment of their own self-respect by entangling as 
 many others as they could into similar apostasy. It 
 
312 ALLEGORIES 
 
 would have been some consolation to them, in the 
 consciousness of their own fall, if they could have 
 made such a boy as Candidus a traitor to all that 
 is best. The destiny of Candidus had thrown him 
 into the midst of the bad set of boys, who wore the 
 badge of Elyon's enemy ; and they were deter- 
 mined, if they could, to make him like themselves, if 
 not by willing acceptance of their influence, then by 
 cruelty and force. And outside this set of bad boys 
 no one knew of this, for to be ' a sneak ' or ' a tell-tale ' 
 was to violate all the Ten Commandments of their 
 schoolboy morality. It was branded among them with 
 such disgrace, and enforced by the threat of penalties 
 so serious, that a boy would bear almost any extremes 
 of anguish rather than seek deliverance by revealing 
 his sufferings to others. 
 
 So poor little Candidus fell on evil days and evil 
 tongues, long before he was old enough to understand 
 that there may be a beatitude in malediction. Of 
 course the boys of his house and dormitory were 
 supposed to know him best. If they chose to cut him, 
 to sneer at him, to leave him out of their games and 
 gatherings, and to stigmatise him as ' a low-born 
 cad ' and ' a surly conceited puppy ' other boys 
 in the school, fancying that there must be some 
 ground for this bad opinion, and not being thrown 
 enough into the lad's company to understand him 
 aright, took little or no notice of him, and regarded 
 him as a failure. In consequence of this the boy 
 became so disheartened that all his natural charm 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAED 313 
 
 of character was overshadowed. His face, once so 
 bright, began to wear an expression of weary sadness. 
 Even the energy with which he would, under more 
 favourable conditions, have shown his intellectual 
 ability was so far damped that the masters also 
 though they saw how faithfully he tried to do his 
 duty, were disappointed of their original hope that 
 they would find in him one of the most promising of 
 their pupils. 
 
 Alone, and almost friendless, yet steadfast in his 
 resolution that nothing should induce him to do any- 
 thing but show his abhorrence for the basilisk and all 
 his ways, Candidus bitterly rued the ambitious hopes 
 which had led his father to accept the offer of Duke 
 Altus. At last he became so unendurably miserable 
 that he wrote home and entreated his father, at all 
 costs, to take him away. At home he had met with 
 care, and moral guidance, and tender love ; there 
 everything around him was sweet and wholesome and 
 pure ; but here at school he was in a new and evil 
 world. He would not tell, even to his father, all the 
 sources of his misery and disquietude, but he begged 
 him, by the love he bore him, to remove him from 
 school at once. 
 
 The father of Candidus, to whom his boy was as 
 the apple of his eye, was pained by this unexpected 
 letter, and took it to his patron for advice. But the 
 Duke was disposed to make light of it. 
 
 ' Your boy,' he said, ' is a little homesick, that is all. 
 He will soon get over it. I knew an exactly similar 
 
314 ALLEGORIES 
 
 case, where the father simply wrote back to encourage 
 and cheer up his son, and in a short time the boy 
 became a passionately enthusiastic supporter of the 
 school, from which he had once implored his father to 
 take him away.' 
 
 The father accepted the advice of his kind-hearted 
 landlord, and wrote a very loving letter to his son 
 whose unhappiness had made his heart bleed. At the 
 same time the Duke himself wrote a letter to Ardens 
 asking him to find out, if he could, what made Candidus 
 so miserable, and whether his hatred of the school was 
 due to any fault of his own. 
 
 So, one holiday afternoon, when all the boys were 
 streaming out to their games, Ardens purposely stayed 
 behind to look for Candidus. He saw that he had not 
 gone up to the playing fields with the rest of his house. 
 This showed him that there was something wrong, 
 and that his poor little friend was being practically 
 boycotted by his companions. But knowing that the 
 Blue House did not bear the best reputation, Ardens 
 looked on the isolation of his young protege rather as a 
 testimony to his merits than as a sign that there was 
 any fault in his character. 
 
 As he expected, he found Candidus wandering alone 
 by the edge of the forest, looking unspeakably sad, 
 longing for home, indignant at the injustice with 
 which he was treated. His heart was beginning to fail 
 him at the soreness of the battle which he was called 
 upon to fight in behalf of righteousness and allegiance 
 to all that he knew to be best. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 315 
 
 Ardens came up to him almost unperceived, and 
 said, ' All alone, Candidus ? Why don't you go up to 
 the games with the rest? You must not mope like 
 this.' 
 
 ' I wish they would let me join in the games, Ardens,' 
 he said. 
 
 ' Why won't they let you ? ' 
 
 ' They don't like me,' said Candidus, looking on the 
 ground. 
 
 ' Why ? ' 
 
 He raised his eyes and looked at Ardens, and even 
 in that honest glance Ardens saw that Candidus, at any 
 rate, had nothing for which to blush. 
 
 ' I see,' said Ardens ; * I don't want you to tell tales 
 out of school ! But,' he added, ' come up to the field 
 with me, Candidus ; I will bowl to you, and to-day, at 
 any rate, you shall have some good exercise.' 
 
 Candidus turned to him with a look of deep gratitude, 
 for at that moment he caught a glimpse of him in his 
 mirror, and in the magic crystal the face of Ardens 
 was as the face of an angel. 
 
 Ardens took him kindly by the arm ; and for many 
 weeks Candidus ever since Trypho and Florian began 
 to turn their backs on him and discountenance him 
 had been so lonely and so wretched, that even the 
 little word of sympathy and touch of kindness moved 
 his burdened heart, and, unable to help it, he turned 
 his face away to hide his tears. 
 
 Ardens was hardly less moved, and was at the same 
 time deeply indignant to think that his young school- 
 
316 ALLEGORIES 
 
 fellow should have been so unjustly treated. He put 
 his arm round the shoulder of Candidus, and was 
 walking with him towards the playing field, when he 
 heard a loud and insulting 
 
 1 Ahem ! ' 
 
 Ardens turned round angrily to the speaker, and saw 
 Trypho with several younger boys about him, each of 
 whom had a broad grin on his face. 
 
 'What do you mean by saying " Ahem ! " ? ' he 
 asked, confronting Trypho. 
 
 'I shall say "Ahem! "as much as ever I choose/ 
 answered Trypho sardonically, while his little group of 
 admirers giggled their applause. 
 
 Ardens was conscious of the hot surge of passion 
 which mounted to his forehead and seemed to dilate 
 his whole frame. He felt madly inclined to spring into 
 the midst of the group, scatter them in every direction, 
 fling some of them to the ground, and then assault 
 Trypho with all his force. His enemy the leopard, 
 always watchful for his opportunity, was again crouched 
 for a spring upon him ; but at the moment his arm 
 pressed against the sword hidden under his robe, and, 
 grasping the cross hilt, he collected and controlled him- 
 self. Instead of rushing at Trypho he forced himself 
 into calmness, merely shrugged his shoulders, and 
 turned his back on him. 
 
 * Come along, Candidus,' he said ; ' never mind 
 these cads.' 
 
 They went together to the fields, and for once 
 Candidus had a good, manly, healthy game, and there 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 317 
 
 dawned in his heart once more a little natural happiness. 
 But Ardens felt most uneasy about him, and determined 
 to speak to Florian, of whom, in spite of his wish, he 
 had seen very little since the term began. 
 
 ' Florian,' he said, ' I am terribly sorry for poor little 
 Candidus. Father more or less entrusted him to our 
 charge. Why do you fellows all cut him ? Why are 
 you all so unkind and so unjust to him? ' 
 
 ' He is nothing to me,' said Florian coldly. ' I 
 wanted to notice him, and be kind to him, but his 
 highness is such a conceited little prig that it is 
 impossible to get on with him.' 
 
 ' Conceited ? A prig ? ' said Ardens. ' I never saw 
 a more modest and charming little fellow.' 
 
 ' He may do for the saints among whom you move,' 
 said Florian with assumed contempt. ' He does not 
 suit us.' 
 
 ' So much the worse for you,' said Ardens. ' I wish 
 to heaven I could get him out of your detestable house. 
 It is a long way the worst house in the school. I 
 believe the whole lot of you are thoroughly bad 
 fellows.' 
 
 ' Mind your own business,' answered Florian in as 
 cutting a tone as he dared assume. ' Hallo, Trypho ! ' 
 he shouted, as he saw his friend in the distance, ' come 
 and deliver me from the lectures of my sweet-tempered 
 and immaculate brother.' 
 
 Ardens was too much grieved to be angry ; but on 
 the days that followed, he kept an eye on Candidus, 
 and feared from what he saw that things were getting 
 
318 ALLEGORIES 
 
 worse and worse. One day he heard a cry from one of 
 the class-rooms as he passed, and, recognising the voice 
 of his young friend, violated all schoolboy etiquette by 
 going straight into the room, though it did not belong to 
 his own house. The sight he saw filled him with rage. 
 At the end of the room stood Candidus by himself ; a 
 few yards from him were a dozen or more boys, mostly 
 older than he was and among them were Trypho's 
 special admirers, Ehodon, Cyprius, and Thallus who 
 were amusing themselves by ' baiting ' him. The 
 ' baiting ' consisted in calling him nicknames, mimick- 
 ing his every look and his slightest movement, making 
 insulting noises and gestures, and flinging at him 
 books, balls, and whatever came nearest to hand. Even 
 amid surroundings so wretched the persecuted boy 
 maintained something of his natural dignity. Ardens 
 could not help noticing to himself that all the noble- 
 ness was with Candidus, and that it was the group of 
 his tormentors who looked disreputable and even abject. 
 
 But Ardens felt most thoroughly ashamed of the 
 Porphyrian boys who had sunk so low as to behave 
 with such cruel baseness to a new comer, and to one so 
 blameless as his little friend. 
 
 ' Stop that, 'you unspeakable curs ! ' he said. 
 
 The boys stared at him in amazement. Here was 
 a boy who did not belong to their house, and yet had 
 the audacity to come uninvited into their class-room, 
 and to interfere with their proceedings, and to speak to 
 them like that ! They looked threateningly at Ardens, 
 but he stood there so contemptuous and so determined, 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 319 
 
 evidently so entirely undismayed by their numbers, that 
 they thought discretion the better part of valour. One 
 of them, however Trypho's chief supporter, Thallus 
 ventured to say : 
 
 ' You be ! Who are you ? ' And to show his 
 
 defiance he flung another book at Candidus. 
 
 Instantly Ardens strode up to him and slapped him 
 in the face. It was a good hard buffet, and made him 
 wince and whimper. The others began to hoot at 
 Ardens, and Cyprius shouted : 
 
 ' You beastly coward ! ' 
 
 ' Coward,' answered Ardens scornfully. ' You are 
 a dozen and I am one. It is you who are the cowards.' 
 
 ' You would not dare to hector like this if Trypho 
 were here,' said Cyprius. 
 
 ' Wouldn't I ? ' said Ardens. ' Go and call him ! I 
 shall stay here, in spite of you all, till he comes, and if 
 one of you touches Candidus again, he shall get worse 
 than the last bully got.' 
 
 Khodon and Cyprius ran out and called Trypho, who 
 came striding in, and was in a towering passion. 
 
 ' Get out of this ! ' he said to Ardens. ' What right 
 have you to come sneaking and spying into our class- 
 room ? ' 
 
 Ardens sternly resolved to keep his temper, so he 
 answered quite calmly, * I am neither sneaking nor 
 spying. As I was accidentally passing, I heard 
 Candidus cry out, and I came in to save him from being 
 bullied.' 
 
 ' It is no affair of yours.' 
 
320 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' It is an affair of mine. He is a friend of mine, 
 and of my father's ; and you ' he suppressed the 
 contemptuous words which sprang to his lips ' you are 
 making him wretched because he is a better fellow than 
 yourself.' 
 
 ' No sermons here ! ' said Trypho, strong in the 
 number of his adherents. ' If you don't get out of this 
 at once, you shall be kicked out.' 
 
 ' Kicked out ? ' said Ardens scornfully. ' I should 
 like to see any three of you do it.' 
 
 Trypho was both older and bigger than Ardens, and 
 said, ' I will turn you out myself.' 
 
 1 Try it ! ' 
 
 Trypho struck him, and, the moment after, a hard 
 fight began between them. Ardens got some heavy 
 blows, but he felt thrice armed in the justice of his 
 cause. Indignation against Trypho, in whom he 
 recognised the source of the worst influences on his 
 brother's life, seemed to inspire him with unwonted 
 strength, and after a time it became clear that his 
 adversary could not hold out much longer against so 
 hardy and plucky an antagonist. After a few rounds 
 he knocked Trypho down, but thereupon the rest set 
 upon him, pinioned him, and by sheer force thrust him 
 out of the room. At the door he met Florian. 
 
 ' He's been sneaking, and spying, and hectoring 
 here,' said Thallus in answer to Florian 's astonished 
 look. 
 
 1 It's a lie, Florian,' said Ardens. 
 
 1 It isn't,' shouted Trypho from inside the room. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 321 
 
 1 Haven't you had enough yet, Trypho ? ' said 
 Ardens with contempt. ' Would you like to fight me 
 again, or shall I come and give you a second thrashing ? ' 
 
 Florian did not like this discomfiture of his house 
 and of his coadjutor. 
 
 ' Anyhow, you had no business here,' he said to his 
 brother. 
 
 ' I disdain to jangle about it,' said Ardens ; ' but 
 Candidus at least shall be saved from this detestable 
 set of yours, if I can do anything.' And so saying he 
 strode away ; and all the Caeruleans could not help 
 feeling that, physically no less than morally, he had 
 got much the best of it. 
 
 XII 
 
 . ur acts our angels are or good or ill, 
 
 Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. 
 
 FLETCHER. 
 
 AND now things might at once have become worse than 
 ever for Candidus, but the house for its own reasons 
 made it a point of honour to keep its own secrets. No 
 law, as I have said, was more strenuously inculcated 
 and insisted on among all new comers than that they 
 should keep themselves to themselves, make the house- 
 life the first consideration, and never talk about its 
 affairs or its doings to boys in other houses. It was 
 for this reason that the boys tried always to mould 
 and assimilate every new comer, They very rarely 
 
322 ALLEGORIES 
 
 failed to do this. The large majority of Porphyrian 
 boys not all, thank heaven ! like the chameleon, 
 assumed their colour from their immediate surround- 
 ings. Years had passed since any boy had shown 
 himself sufficiently strong and resolute to follow his 
 own secret sense of duty, to do right and shame the 
 devil. The Caeruleans were provoked and thwarted by 
 the uncompromising resistance of Candidus to their 
 evil tone of morals, and by his undisguised horror of 
 their lord the basilisk. Since violence had failed to 
 subdue his spirit, they once more tried an insidious 
 kindness. They no longer cut him. They spoke 
 cordially to him, they asked him to join in their 
 games, in which he soon began to distinguish him- 
 self : but neither they nor their leaders relinquished 
 the intention of bringing him into line with the 
 bad traditions of the house ; and in that matter they 
 felt that they gained no ground. \ 
 
 In spite alike of cruel persecution and of treacherous 
 cordiality, Candidus fought the better fight, and main- 
 tained singly the course of rectitude : 
 
 Amid innumerable false, unmoved, 
 Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
 His loyalty he kept, his faith, his love. 
 
 Trypho was specially alarmed and indignant, and 
 spoke to Florian, who, having hardened his heart, had 
 made himself the chief supporter of his bad friend. 
 Florian was further stimulated by a sort of personal 
 pique that Candidus should show himself braver and 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 323 
 
 better than he himself had been. He sought out 
 Candidus and said, ' You are getting on a little better 
 with the fellows, aren't you, Candidus ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, Florian.' 
 
 ' And more ready to fall into our ways ? ' 
 
 Candidus kicked the turf with his foot, looked down, 
 and said nothing. 
 
 ' Why not ? ' asked Florian. 
 
 ' They are always talking to me about the basilisk ; 
 I hate the reptile ; he is the enemy of Ely on.' 
 
 ' Pooh ! ' said Florian, ' there isn't the least reason 
 to be so squeamish. The basilisk will do you no harm, 
 any more than it has done me.' 
 
 Candidus lifted up his bright innocent eyes, and in 
 their transparent clearness Florian read the question 
 which the boy had not spoken : ' Has it done you no 
 harm, Florian ? ' 
 
 ' Don't be impudent,' he said fretfully, ' or I'll 
 thrash you.' 
 
 ' What ? ' asked Candidus in surprise ; ' I said 
 nothing.' 
 
 ' No ! but you thought something.' 
 
 ' Are not my thoughts to be my own ? ' 
 
 ' I hate you, Candidus, I fairly hate you,' exclaimed 
 Florian with petulant wrath, not knowing whether in 
 his heart he did not really love and admire him, or 
 whether he did indeed detest him. 
 
 ' I am sorry, Florian, if you do. But I cannot help 
 your hating me. I have done nothing to make you 
 hate me. Have you tried to do me no harm ? Are 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 ALLEGORIES 
 
 you not trying to harm me now ? Would you 
 make me as as so many are and do you want the 
 Evil One to leave his brand on me as he has on ' he 
 was going to say ' on you,' but he stopped short. 
 
 Florian stamped his foot, struck Candidus a con- 
 temptuous blow, and left him with the words, ' You are 
 a hopeless little hypocrite, and I detest you, and I wish 
 you'd never come to bother us and lecture us here. We 
 were far happier without you, and got on far better.' 
 
 XIII 
 
 Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis. Ps. xc. 18. 
 
 He who hath felt the Spirit of the Highest 
 Cannot confound, or doubt Him, or defy ; 
 
 Yea, with one voice, world, though thou deniest, 
 Stand thou on that side, for on this am I. 
 
 F. MYEKS, St. Paul. 
 
 FLOEIAN told Trypho that he had failed, and Trypho 
 said, ' But we won't fail ; one weak boy sha'n't beat us. 
 He shall be subdued this very night.' 
 
 That afternoon, Florian, Trypho, and the other 
 leaders of the house announced that as the master was 
 going to be absent from home they would have a 
 rough extempore feast in the big dormitory. It was the 
 one in which Candidus slept. 
 
 The master of the house was a man entirely 
 unsuited to his position, who did not understand the 
 nature of boys, nor take any adequate care of their: 
 moral welfare. He neglected them, and left them to 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 325 
 
 themselves. The servants were a bad corrupt lot, 
 bribed to silence and connivance. They were in the 
 power of the boys, and the boys in their power. The 
 Caeruleans held their feast that night secure from any 
 disturbance, and many boys drank much more wine 
 than was good for them. They purposely turned their 
 talk upon the subject of the basilisk and his splendours, 
 and at last Trypho proposed a toast to ' our lord the 
 basilisk,' which all were to drink standing. 
 
 Candidus remained seated. 
 
 ' Stand, or it shall be the worse for you,' said several 
 boys. 
 
 Still he would not move ; and when the rest had 
 drunk the toast, Trypho, seizing him, said, ' This must 
 and shall end. Now, for the last time, will you be like 
 the rest of us, and drink, or ? ' 
 
 ' I will not drink,' answered Candidus in a low voice 
 and very quietly. 
 
 ' You shall,' said Trypho. ' Seize him ! ' 
 
 Several boys seized him, held him down, violently 
 forced his mouth open, and poured the wine down his 
 throat. 
 
 ' Now, will you wear the badge as we all do ? ' 
 
 ' Never ! ' said Candidus indignantly. ' I loathe, I 
 abhor the monster. I am Elyon's son, and to the best 
 of my power I will do nothing which would degrade 
 me and offend him.' 
 
 The words ' degrade me ' stung Florian to the quick, 
 and made him feel beside himself. 
 
 ' Degrade you ? ' he said with a sneer ; * it would not 
 
326 ALLEGORIES 
 
 take much to degrade you. You are a mere clodhopper, 
 the son of a small farmer, and it is my father who pays 
 for your school expenses.' 
 
 The moment he had blurted out this contemptible 
 taunt, Florian felt the disgrace of having sunk so low as 
 to utter it, and his cheek burned when Candidus turned 
 on him his quiet gaze, though he said nothing. But 
 Facilis did pluck up courage to say something. 
 
 ' Florian,' he whispered, ' for shame ! you ought 
 not to have said that.' 
 
 ' I know I ought not,' said Florian peevishly, ' but 
 that creeping humbug transports me out of myself 
 with his saintly airs.' 
 
 ' Do you really think him a humbug, Florian ? It 
 might have been better for you and for me if we had 
 been as good and true as he has shown himself to be.' 
 
 ' Hang him ! ' said Florian ; ' I hate him.' 
 
 But the boys again seized Candidus and held him 
 fast. Resistance was of course hopeless against so 
 many, all of whom were older and stronger than him- 
 self. Trypho and Florian tied and twisted round his 
 neck a strong gilded cord to which was attached the 
 green and gleaming but to Candidus inconceivably 
 detestable image of the demon serpent. 
 
 While this was being done the others were roaring 
 with laughter ; especially when Candidus, the moment 
 that his hands were free, tore and tugged at the detes- 
 table symbol, but was unable to break it from his neck, 
 and at last, overcome by the intensity of his feelings, 
 grew very pale, and hid his face in his hands. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAKD 327 
 
 A few of the Caeruleans began to sympathise with 
 him, and wished that they had once shown the same 
 noble courage. Facilis, deeply pitying him, though he 
 was too weak openly to take his part, secretly pressed his 
 hand, and gave him an open knife. With this Candidus 
 cut the cord, and flung the badge indignantly in 
 Trypho's face. The sharp edge of it cut his cheek. 
 Transported to fury, Trypho seized him, thrashed 
 him unmercifully, and ordered the rest to make him 
 run the gauntlet between two rows of them, and to 
 kick him, and beat him with their fists and tightly 
 knotted handkerchiefs, and even with canes and sticks 
 as he ran. 
 
 Florian had fallen into such complete degradation 
 that he could take part in such a scene and not inter- 
 fere ! Nay, more furious with shame at his own 
 unworthiness he himself struck the boy hard with a 
 knotted handkerchief. 
 
 Very few abstained from having a share in this 
 cruelty. Facilis was one of them. He stood there 
 with his arms folded, a picture of sadness. But, alas ! 
 he looked on and said nothing. 
 
 Bruised, beaten, trembling, but still unsubdued, 
 Candidus sat down on the edge of one of the beds, and 
 Trypho held a hurried whispered conversation with the 
 other leaders. They determined to take the desperate 
 step of invoking the presence of the basilisk himself, 
 that so he might strike into Candidus the mortal poison 
 of his glance. 
 
 To Facilis this seemed so utterly inexcusable that he 
 
328 ALLEGOKIES 
 
 ventured, though timidly, to raise his voice against it. 
 But his opposition was only met by scorn and laughter. 
 
 ' Make a square round this obstinate young cad,' 
 said Trypho. ' Now, lads, look out, for some one will be 
 here directly.' 
 
 Then they secretly invoked the baleful demon. The 
 air became thick as with intoxicating and deadly per- 
 fume, and suddenly out of a lurid mist they saw flashes 
 as of golden scales, until the evil creature was in the 
 midst of them, gliding up to Candidus, hissing, rearing 
 its crested head, transfixing him with the glance of its 
 burning eyes. 
 
 But, to the amazement of all, so far from being 
 infected by the demon's magic spell, or in the least 
 frightened by its menacing paws and dragon glare, 
 the mere presence of the creature seemed to cause 
 Candidus to summon the whole strength of his reso- 
 lution. He stood absolutely unmoved. No tremor 
 passed through him. His countenance resumed its 
 natural hue. He cast one glance upwards, folded his 
 hands together, and then, confronting the basilisk with 
 dauntless mien, said with a voice which rang with 
 scorn : 
 
 ' Hateful fiend, in Elyon's name I bid thee avaunt ! ' 
 
 And lo ! no sooner were the words uttered than 
 a yell was heard, and the creature vanished in 
 flame and smoke, defeated by a child, leaving a sense 
 of shame and horror in the hearts of all its helpless 
 votaries. 
 
 In the confusion which ensued, two things happened. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 
 
 329 
 
 First, Candidus, worn out by physical pain for he had 
 been severely maltreated and by the stress of intense 
 
 ' IN ELYON'S NAME i BID THEE AVAUNT ! ' , 
 
 feeling, and by the unwonted strangeness of what had 
 occurred, fainted away. He would have fallen on the 
 
330 ALLEGORIES 
 
 floor if Facilis had not caught him in his arms, and 
 gently laid him on his own bed. 
 
 Next, the door was flung open, and unobserved 
 amid the tumult in strode, not the master of the 
 House, but the President of the School. He was a man 
 of stern aspect, though of a kind heart, whose high 
 authority was both respected and feared. Seeing 
 lights shining so late at night in the large dormitory, 
 and hearing a sound of many voices, as he passed 
 through the garden under the window, he felt sure 
 that there were some riotous proceedings on foot 
 among the boys, and had come in person to see what 
 had occurred. 
 
 He was in the midst of the group of excited boys 
 before they noticed him. When they saw him a dead 
 hush fell suddenly upon the scene. 
 
 * What is the meaning of this disgraceful disorder 
 at forbidden hours ? ' 
 
 No one answered. 
 
 Then he caught sight of Candidus lying on his bed, 
 pale as death. He looked with the deepest pity on his 
 pallid features. 
 
 1 What is the matter with that poor little fellow ? ' 
 he asked. 
 
 ' He has fainted, sir,' said Ehodon timidly. 
 
 ' Why has he fainted ? what have you been doing 
 to him? All this must be inquired into. There is 
 something very wrong here. I have always had my 
 doubts about the conduct and character of you boys in 
 this house.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 331 
 
 He looked round him, and as his eye fell on each, 
 they grew confused and wore a guilty aspect. They 
 could not look him in the face. 
 
 ' Ha ! I see you have been holding a surreptitious 
 feast, and drinking wine. But what is that on the 
 floor? Trypho, pick it up and bring it to me.' 
 
 He pointed to the badge of the basilisk which 
 Candidus had flung away. Trj^pho pretended not to 
 see it while he tried to shove it away with his foot. 
 
 ' Bring it here ! ' thundered the President. ' How 
 dare you attempt to disobey ? ' 
 
 With sheepish reluctance the boy brought it. The 
 master looked at it with disgust, noticed that the sharp 
 edge was tinged with blood, and then glanced at the 
 cut upon Trypho's cheek. At last, with horror, it 
 flashed upon him what it was. 
 
 ' Is this yours ? this hateful sign of apostasy ? ' 
 
 ' No ! ' said Trypho. But, like the rest of the 
 boys, he had thrown off his upper garment, and was 
 unaware that the badge round his neck was partially 
 exposed. 
 
 ' Then what is this ? ' said the President, plucking 
 it from the boy's neck. * Oh, shame on you, shame, 
 shame ! I little thought that boys at the great Por- 
 phyrian school could have sunk so low as to wear the 
 badge of the basilisk. What, and you too, Florian? 
 And you, Facilis ? ' As he spoke he seized the badge 
 round the neck of each of them and tore it away. 
 ' Oh, shame ! shame ! To your beds, you renegades,' 
 and, seizing a rod, he laid it so vigorously on the 
 
332 ALLEGORIES 
 
 backs of one after another, that some of the wretched 
 offenders actually howled as they fled. 
 
 Grieved beyond expression at what he had discovered, 
 he spoke a few words of sternest warning, and then 
 turned to Candidus. The poor boy lay half conscious, 
 and between his moans he was speaking deliriously. 
 The President observed with indignation that he was 
 bruised all over. His heart ached to think that this 
 boy, so nobly attractive, should have been subjected to 
 such treatment. But his indignation became yet more 
 poignant when he caught the purpose of the broken 
 sentences which he spoke in his delirium. 
 
 The next morning he opened a most searching inquiry 
 which revealed to him a state of things such as he had 
 never suspected. Thallus, Ehodon, Cyprius, and many 
 other boys were severely flogged, and were only kept 
 at the school with greatly curtailed privileges, on the 
 promise of penitence and amendment. Others received 
 very stern warnings that at the first shadow of complaint 
 against them they would be ignominiously dismissed, 
 and for months afterwards they were deemed unworthy 
 of confidence or liberty. But the three leaders, Trypho, 
 Florian, and Facilis, were expelled from the school 
 with disgrace, for it was judged that they had violated 
 the trust reposed in them as senior boys and had been 
 dishonourable promoters of the disobedience and mis- 
 conduct which they ought to have been the first to sup- 
 press to the utmost of their power. Trypho, when he 
 went, received no pity at all. Even the Caeruleans, 
 whose ringleader he had long been, were glad to see him 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 333 
 
 go. For Florian, some felt very sorry, remembering 
 what he had been when first he came among them ; 
 but he had long forfeited the respect of the most right- 
 minded boys. It was poor Facilis whose expulsion 
 awoke the most undisguised sympathy. He was the 
 least guilty of the three, and he felt his position 
 the most acutely. He was a fatherless boy, but 
 his mother was living. He was the idol of her 
 life. However deep might be his faults and errors, 
 to her at least he had always been most loyal and 
 most loving. He feared that his return in disgrace 
 would break her heart. The other two, as they said 
 their farewells, tried to assume an almost swaggering 
 tone of indifference, which sat particularly ill on Florian 
 and pained the faithful heart of his brother. Facilis did 
 not even attempt to seem unmoved. He was very 
 silent. Many boys wrung his hand affectionately, and 
 tried to cheer him with the hope of better things here- 
 after. ' Among them was Ardens, whose heart ached 
 for him, and little Candidus, who also pressed his hand 
 and whispered a few words of affection and cheer. 
 Their kindly sympathy touched him to the very depths 
 of his soul. Sadly and silently he returned the grasp 
 of their hands ; he dared not speak, lest he should break 
 down ; when he leant back his head in the carriage 
 which bore him away, the tears were coursing each 
 other fast down his cheeks. 
 
 ' Don't cry as if you were a great baby,' said 
 Trypho fiercely. 
 
 1 1 have a mother whose heart will break when I 
 
334 ALLEGORIES 
 
 see her,' said Facilis, turning his back on him. ' And as 
 for you, I wish I had never seen you.' 
 
 * Never mind,' said Florian, who sincerely pitied 
 him. ' We shall think nothing of it a year hence.' 
 
 'Ah ! Florian,' said Facilis, ' I am grieved for you 
 as well as for myself.' 
 
 The three boys went home. 
 
 The father and mother of Trypho were people of 
 wealth and fashion, who did not trouble themselves 
 greatly about their son's morals so long as he did not 
 fall short of their conventional estimate of a gentleman. 
 His expulsion made no great difference to him. He 
 was very soon a society-man. 
 
 When Facilis came back, his weeping mother 
 folded him in her arms, pressed him to her heart. She 
 forgave him, she did not upbraid. He tried to comfort 
 her, but the disgrace and anguish weighed upon her 
 spirits. She had not strength to fight against them. 
 In vain he strove to cheer, to comfort her! After 
 struggling on for a month or two she died, and 
 Facilis, as he flung himself upon her grave, longed 
 that he too had been called to die with her. She was 
 the last link between him and resolute amendment. 
 Heart-broken with sorrow and hopeless remorse, he 
 drifted on his sad career. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 335 
 
 XIV 
 
 Adhaesit pavimento anima mea. Ps. cxix. 25. 
 
 IT is impossible to express the intense shame and 
 anguish of Duke Altus, when his younger son his 
 favourite, the beautiful boy of whom he had been so 
 proud came home in deep disgrace, as one who had 
 notoriously tampered with the basilisk, and had thus 
 prematurely blighted the hopes which his father had 
 entertained of his future career. 
 
 The Duke was a man of a disposition unusually 
 proud and acutely sensitive a man with such ' sensi- 
 bility of honour' that 'he felt a stain like a wound.' 
 What had happened could not be hushed up. Boys 
 from almost every noble family in Porphyria were at 
 the Gate School, and as Altus was among the noblest 
 peers in the land, the stain which had fallen on the 
 name of his son would be talked of, or at least 
 whispered, throughout the whole country, and would 
 live for many a year upon the lips of scandal. He 
 groaned to think of it. When Florian came back in 
 the middle of term, he at first refused even to see him. 
 He shut himself up in his room, and brooded on the 
 blight which had withered his passionate affection for 
 his son, and the blot which had fallen upon his hitherto 
 stainless escutcheon. All day long he fed on these 
 desolating thoughts, and lay sleepless through the 
 night. Hearing of his despair, -Alciphron, the good old 
 
336 ALLEGORIES 
 
 Mage, came to the castle, and insisted on seeing him. 
 He was moved to the deepest compassion by his 
 haggard look, and tried to comfort his sad friend with 
 the tenderest consolations. ' Florian is young,' he 
 said ; ' he has had a tremendous lesson. There is still 
 time for him to regain lost ground, and to grow up a 
 good and useful man.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Altus bitterly. ' But this shame of his 
 youth will never be forgotten. This most wretched 
 boy has made his life like corn blasted before it is 
 grown up.' 
 
 ' Send for him, Duke,' said Alciphron ; ' expostulate, 
 but still be gentle with him. Do we not all need to be 
 forgiven ? ' 
 
 ' I cannot see him,' said Altus, ' it would break my 
 heart. The boy's face for I saw him pass under my 
 window now looks to me as hateful as it once was 
 lovely. Its expression is quite changed. I will make 
 an effort to resume my ordinary life. Perhaps a little 
 later on I may conquer the heart-breaking repugnance 
 with which he now inspires me. Meanwhile, will not 
 you take him in hand ? ' 
 
 ' I will do what little I can,' he said. 
 
 Alciphron sought for Florian, but was shocked to 
 find how deeply he had degenerated even in appearance. 
 The old man could do nothing with him. He was 
 sullen and silent, and professed to be angry with his 
 father for making such a fuss about nothing. The 
 Mage left him with a very heavy heart, full of immense 
 forebodings. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 337 
 
 Then followed a grievous tragedy. The Duke felt 
 the necessity for shaking off the nightmare of misery 
 which oppressed him, and he ordered his horse that 
 he might hunt wild boars in the forest. But even 
 while he hunted, the recollections which he felt to be 
 unspeakable for sadness overwhelmed him. Oblivious 
 of everything, he suddenly, and without being conscious 
 of it, drove his spurs deep into the sides of his horse. 
 Wholly unaccustomed to such treatment, the noble 
 steed sprang into the air, and then started off at a wild 
 gallop. Before Altus could recover the mastery or 
 secure his seat, the horse suddenly swerved into a side 
 path of the forest and the head of Altus was dashed 
 with violence against the trunk of a great oak. He 
 was hurled to the ground, and, as he lay there, the 
 hoof of the flying and frightened steed kicked him in 
 the side. When his friends and attendants came to 
 rescue him he was dying. His thoughts turned upon 
 his two boys. He blessed Ardens, but his last words 
 were, f My Florian, whom I loved so tenderly Florian 
 expelled from school in disgrace oh, misery! ' While 
 they were carrying him home amid the wailing of the 
 many who deeply loved him, the great Duke died. 
 
 Ardens and Florian walked side by side as chief 
 mourners in the splendid obsequies. Ardens succeeded 
 his father in the dukedom and all its wealth, being 
 placed under the guardianship of Alciphron and of an 
 
 Z 
 
338 ALLEGORIES 
 
 uncle until he should be of age. We need not follow 
 his fortunes. He returned to school for a year, then 
 travelled in Porphyria ; and, when he was old enough, 
 assumed the managemeilt of his wide domains, and 
 took a part in the government of his country. He 
 always looked up to Alciphron as his guide, philosopher 
 and friend. Following his wise and gentle counsels 
 he struggled victoriously with his proud, imperious, 
 violent temper as he had done in his boyhood, until his 
 enemy the leopard was subdued into a slave. He grew 
 up to be a great and honoured ruler, and from the first 
 took a firm stand on the marble threshold of a noble 
 manhood, prosperous and successful in most respects, 
 but deeply troubled by one irreparable misfortune the 
 disgrace and ruin of his brother Florian. 
 
 XV 
 
 He that allows himself in any sin, or allows himself an unnatural 
 dalliance with any vice, does nothing else in reality than entertain an 
 incubus demon. J. SMITH, Discourse of the Excellency and Nobleness 
 of True Religion. 
 
 FOR Florian went, alas ! from bad to worse, and from 
 worse to worst. Sullen, humiliated, his vanity stabbed 
 to the heart, sent to foreign countries to complete his 
 education, and there sinking into even viler vices than 
 before, he came back meaning to enjoy to the full the 
 patrimony left him by his father out of his great wealth. 
 But he illustrated the force of the old question, ' Whom 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 339 
 
 have you ever seen content with a single sin ? ' Disso- 
 lute as he had now become in heart and conversation, 
 his very features stamped with the mark of the basilisk 
 and defaced with the taint of his evil life, he added 
 drunkenness and gambling to his other iniquities. 
 The latter perniciously ruinous vices he pursued with 
 almost frantic eagerness, for the other excitements 
 which alone the basilisk could offer him had already 
 begun to pall. He needed something to make him forget 
 for what a nothing less than nothing he had sold and 
 sacrificed what might have been the glory of his life. 
 But as his betting and gambling became more and 
 more recklessly mad, in that proportion the wretched 
 young man was more and more overwhelmed with 
 losses. Sometimes, in the feverish fret of this passion 
 he would stake a year's income on a single game, and 
 lose it. At first, when he began to be reduced to utter 
 distress, he used to appeal to his grieved but pitying 
 brother, Duke Ardens. But at last the Duke had to 
 write and say to Florian that, while he would help 
 him to the half of his princely fortune in any 
 honourable life, he could not advance him one coin 
 more, if it was only to be squandered in vice and 
 folly. Florian was senseless enough to resent what 
 he stigmatised as ' dictation.' He wrote an insulting 
 letter to Ardens, refusing ever to speak to him again, 
 repudiating all feeling of brotherhood towards him, and 
 denouncing him as a ' curmudgeon, a humbug and 
 a skinflint,' who did not care for his nearest relation, 
 nor indeed for any human being except his proud self. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 ALLEGORIES 
 
 To help such a one, while he continued to be such, was 
 hopeless ; Ardens was forced to leave him to his own 
 devices. 
 
 In the shipwreck of his credit and his character all 
 his nominal friends had deserted him. Trypho, now a 
 leader of fashion among the most corrupt of the gilded 
 youths, had cut him dead as soon as he sank to penury, 
 and could only wear a dingy robe. Trypho persuaded 
 himself that if Florian had put himself more under his 
 guidance as a man of the world, the badge of the 
 basilisk would never have eaten so deeply into his flesh. 
 
 But Florian had, as Trypho expressed it, played his 
 cards badly, and made an utter fool of himself. He 
 had made his bed, and would have to lie on it. 
 
 The only schoolfellow whom Florian ever saw in 
 these days, in which he had sunk into the bottomless 
 pit of humiliation, was poor Facilis. Facilis, after the 
 death of his mother, never held up his head. He 
 secretly accused himself of being her murderer. He 
 had neither strength nor resolution to take up arms 
 against the sea of wretchedness which now came over 
 him in flood. Of what use was it to struggle ? What 
 could he do worse than he had done in having, by his 
 disgrace, hastened the end of the mother whom he 
 loved more than all the world beside? He was left 
 very badly off, for his mother had a pension which died 
 with her, but which she had freely spent in doing 
 her best to furnish him with the education which 
 would fit him to earn his own living, and to make his 
 way in the world. The soft nature of Facilis lacked 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 341 
 
 the nerve and strenuousness which, in his altered 
 circumstances, could alone have enabled him to succeed. 
 He had no energy to struggle. He had no relatives 
 able to help him, and he could find no opening for 
 which he was fitted. He did not sink into a criminal, 
 but, in sheer despair, he fell lower and lower in the 
 social scale. Weakness of character continued to be 
 his curse. Any acute scoundrel could twist him round 
 his fingers. Gradually he became the helpless dupe and 
 prey, though in no sense the colleague, of a gang 
 of villains who had managed to get hold of him in 
 his lowest misery, and from whom he strove in vain 
 to set himself free. With this hideous confederacy 
 of scoundrels, Florian, in his misery, had also become 
 even more fatally entangled. They had him com- 
 pletely in their power. They could hold a rope round 
 his neck. For at one despairing moment of anguish, 
 when his fortunes had sunk to the nadir, they had 
 induced Florian to forge his brother's name, and Facilis 
 had some cognisance of the crime, which had not yet 
 been detected, but which these blackmailers constantly 
 threatened to reveal. 
 
 It was through them, and his helplessness in their 
 evil hands, that the final crisis came, over which I 
 shall hurry with all possible speed. 
 
 Both Florian and Facilis had now fallen into such 
 total ruin as to have become denizens of a common 
 lodging house in one of the great Porphyrian cities. 
 They had left themselves no other refuge. The only 
 home now open to them was situated in one of those 
 
342 ALLEGORIES 
 
 regions into which is swept the worst coagulated scum 
 of human misery and vileness. The dirt, the ugliness, 
 the blackguardism around them were unutterably 
 nauseous to them both, but especially to Florian, who 
 had once lived in king's houses, a beautiful and noble 
 boy. Yet what deliverance was possible to one who, 
 like himself, had sunk among the rags and swine ? 
 One day the great painter who had painted him when 
 he was a boy because of his consummate beauty, had 
 been directed to visit the low and squalid alley in which 
 Florian now lived, in search of some model who would 
 illustrate the uttermost depths of human misery. He 
 had chosen Florian, wholly ignorant who he was, or 
 that he had ever seen him before. The sum which he 
 paid him to sit as his model was now an object of 
 importance to the thrice-degraded victim of the 
 basilisk. The painter's subject was a miserable 
 wretch, struggling in the crushing folds of a serpent, 
 into whose cheek the serpent had already fixed his 
 fangs. When the picture was nearly finished, Florian, 
 in desperation, said, ' Do you not recognise me ? ' 
 
 1 Eecognise you, my poor youth ? ' said the painter 
 in surprise ; ' I never saw you before.' 
 
 ' Nay, but you have seen me before, and, what is 
 more, you have painted me.' 
 
 ' Painted you ? Impossible ! ' 
 
 1 Look at me again.' 
 
 A faint gleam of recollection, which he could not 
 identify, seemed to pass through the painter's mind ; 
 but he could only shake his head. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 343 
 
 Then Florian rose impatiently, and, taking his 
 stand beside a replica of the picture which ten years 
 before had enjoyed a boundless popularity the picture 
 in which, as a boy, he had figured as an ideal of 
 * Happy Boyhood ' he asked, 'Am I so changed ? ' 
 
 Then, indeed, the painter caught the resemblance, 
 and could not suppress a cry of amazement. 
 
 1 You, the young Lord Florian ? ' he exclaimed. ' 
 poor, poor fellow ! How art thou fallen from heaven, 
 Lucifer, son of the morning ! ' 
 
 He gave Florian ten times the sum for which he 
 had hired him as a model. But of what use was it ? 
 Before a month was over the young man, after a 
 persistent run of what he called ' ill luck,' was abso- 
 lutely penniless, and so was Facilis. Neither of them 
 seemed to have a single resource left them in all the 
 world. 
 
 Then, when they felt the actual gnawings of hunger, 
 the gang of villains with whom they had got mixed 
 up ventured to hint at a desperate and most dangerous 
 expedient. 
 
 ' Here are you starving, Florian,' they said ; 'your 
 brother, Duke Ardens, who hates you, is ashamed of 
 you, and has disowned you, is rolling in wealth.' 
 
 ' What then ? I would much rather starve to death 
 than ask him for any more money. He would not give 
 it me curse him if I did.' 
 
 ' He need not give it you. You have a sort of right 
 to some of it at least.' 
 
 Florian said nothing. 
 
344 ALLEGORIES 
 
 1 Why should you not help yourself arid us to some 
 of those treasures ? ' 
 
 ' What ? rob the house of my own brother ? ' said 
 Florian with horror. ' I would rather starve by 
 inches.' 
 
 1 It is not half so bad as forgery,' said the 
 scoundrel significantly. 
 
 ' I would rather starve by inches/ repeated Florian 
 with dogged misery. 
 
 1 It is not a mere matter of starving. You are, as 
 all the world knows, a votary of the basilisk.' 
 
 ' Curse the basilisk ! ' said Florian fiercely. ' Oh ! 
 oh ! ' he cried, for just then it seemed to him as if the 
 monster had struck him and hissed out, ' Slave, do you 
 vilify your lord ? ' 
 
 ' The castle abounds,' continued the leader of the 
 gang, ' in treasures of gold and silver. The Duke 
 scarcely ever sees them, or uses them ; they only come 
 out at some state banquet, once in five years. He 
 would not miss them in the least. Don't call it robbery. 
 You have a sort of right to some of them at any rate. 
 Even one gold cup or plate might save you from 
 dying of hunger, and would get you enough money to 
 escape from this hell ; and perhaps,' he added, with 
 a sardonic laugh, * to begin a new life.' 
 
 ' Don't listen to the fellow, Florian,' exclaimed 
 Facilis, wringing his thin and wasted hands. ' And 
 never mind his sneer about beginning again. It may 
 yet be possible. It is never too late to mend. And oh ! 
 if one had but a chance ! If one had but a chance ! ' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAKB 345 
 
 Florian listened in speechless gloom. ' A new life ! ' 
 he murmured in hollow tones. ' What folly ! There 
 may be hope for you, Facilis ; there is none for me.' 
 
 ' What hope is there for either of us ? ' said Facilis, 
 with a despairing wave of his hand. ' Nothing could 
 be worse, nothing half so bad as this.' 
 
 ' Then shall I do what they suggest ? It would be 
 quite easy. I know the castle well ; I know where the 
 keys are kept. We are starving ; we have no chance ; 
 we can't sink lower ; we might escape.' 
 
 ' Far better die on the spot,' said Facilis. 
 
 ' All very well,' sneered the captain of the black 
 gang. 'But it isn't a question of dying, you poor 
 Facilis. We have this fellow in our power, and you 
 too. It is a question of deliverance or of public hanging, 
 and a name blasted for ever.' 
 
 Florian groaned aloud. 
 
 1 Listen,' continued the man : ' all we ask you to do 
 is to guide us about the castle. Let us carry off a little 
 of the gold plate, and we pledge ourselves, by all the 
 gods and all the devils, to destroy all that gives us a 
 hold on both of you, and to let you leave the country 
 together with enough to live on. We will all swear it. 
 Now I shall leave you to talk it over with Facilis.' 
 
 When the wretch had gone there was silence, till 
 at last Florian, who had been sitting with his head on 
 the table, said, ' I met that execrable Trypho to-day, 
 Facilis. He knew me quite well ; gave me a^ con- 
 
346 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 tumelious stare, and cut me dead. Ah, Facilis, when 
 first I went to the Gate School, a happy, innocent boy, 
 the darling and idol of my father ' he paused, and 
 could not go on ' it was Trypho who nattered me, 
 and could not make too much of me. And now 
 
 ' It was the same with me,' said Facilis. 
 
 ' There is no such thing in the world as truth and 
 justice,' said Florian, ' or Trypho would be .worse off 
 than we are.' 
 
 ' I don't know,' said Facilis. * In better days I read 
 somewhere that the worst of punishments is to be left 
 unpunished.' 
 
 ' Yes, and the proverb says, Dio nonpaga il Sabbato ; 
 but it is too late for us to moralise, Facilis.' 
 ,'. 'So I think,' said Facilis despairingly. 'Oh, 
 Florian, we are starving. I know quite well that one 
 or two of the useless gold cups or salvers of Ardens, 
 once in the melting-pot, would enable us to escape to 
 another country, to begin a new life. And if that were 
 possible I feel as if I could turn day labourer and once 
 more be an honest, if not a happy man. And yet I 
 say to you don't, don't, don't do it ; and I say it to 
 you, even if you feel as half -mad with hunger as I do 
 at this moment.' 
 
 ' We are in the power of these accursed wretches, 
 Facilis. This is but a last dreadful and desperate 
 chance. What does anything matter ? When we 
 have reached the bottom of the abyss we can sink no 
 lower. I know where all the treasures are. They are 
 carelessly kept. I know where the keys are hung.' 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 347 
 
 ' Don't, don't ! Better die,' said Facilis, and he 
 rushed out of the room. 
 
 Florian knew the infamy of it all. He did not 
 deceive himself by any sophistry about it, but feeling 
 as though he was already wallowing in such a Stygian 
 marsh of infamy that no deeper disgrace could be 
 possible, he consented to take with him as a con- 
 federate a young thief who was familiar with all the 
 tricks of burglary, and to relieve some of the treasure- 
 stores of his brother's castle of their superfluous 
 wealth. The bad gang with whom he had come to be 
 associated in his wild career of vice, bound themselves 
 by the most awful oaths that, if he would consent to 
 do this, he should be free of them for ever. 
 
 XVI 
 
 A forlorn and desperate castaway. SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 THE night was agreed on. It was very late and pitch 
 dark. Not a light was visible in any of the castle 
 windows. The boy thief, guided by Florian, climbed 
 through a small oriel window in one of the turrets, and, 
 creeping noiselessly into the room where the re- 
 spectable old butler slept his posset had been drugged 
 by a female confederate in the house took his keys. 
 He let Florian in by a postern gate, and Florian guided 
 him to the place where the gold was kept. No special 
 precaution had ever been taken to protect it, because 
 
348 ALLEGORIES 
 
 the castle was believed to be absolutely secure, as it 
 had been for generations. 
 
 Ardens happened to be reading late at night in his 
 bedroom, as he sometimes did when anything made 
 him sleepless. His sleeplessness that night was due to 
 the fact that, as he was undressing, an engraving of 
 ' Happy Boyhood ' had happened to catch his glance. 
 He had stopped to gaze on the lovely features of his 
 boy-brother, and this had led him into a train of 
 thoughts so bitter as to murder sleep. 
 
 Suddenly, as he tried to read, he thought he heard 
 a distant crash from an adjoining corridor, at the end 
 of which was the castle treasury. He was not mis- 
 taken. Florian, as he moved about in nervous hurry, 
 had knocked down a box in which was a cup of gold. 
 
 The faithful hound of Ardens, which slept in the 
 young Duke's chamber, had heard the same noise, 
 started to its feet, growled, and sniffed under the door 
 of the room. Ardens listened intently. Now and then 
 he fancied he heard a very low sound, but he would 
 have thought no more of the matter had it not been 
 for the angry restlessness of his dog. As this seemed 
 to be increasing every moment, he noiselessly opened 
 the door, and, taking his lamp, followed the dog, which 
 at once sprang towards the passage leading into the 
 next corridor. Under this door he thought he observed 
 a faint glimmer of light, and no sooner had he opened 
 it than the hound leapt with furious barking to the 
 treasury, of which the door was partly open. The 
 light which had been in the room was extinguished at 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 349 
 
 once, but Ardens had distinctly heard a whisper, and 
 in another moment there was a scream and a sound of 
 blows. Bushing in, Ardens saw a boy, struggling 
 violently on the ground, whom the dog was keeping 
 down in spite of the blows which a man was raining 
 upon him. Ardens called off the hound and collared 
 the boy, who had been in the act of thrusting various 
 cups and plates of gold into a large leather bag. Then 
 he flashed his light upon the man who stood there 
 irresolute and terrified. 
 
 ' Merciful heavens ! ' he exclaimed, recognising 
 Florian, and the lamp fell with a crash from his 
 nerveless hand. 
 
 His first impulse was to bid the wretch escape, but 
 it was too late. Servants, hearing the noise, had come 
 hurrying in, and before he could speak or think, both 
 the boy and Florian were in their hands. 
 
 XVII 
 
 Who with repentance is not satisfied 
 
 Is not of heaven or earth. GEOKGE ELIOT. 
 
 THE two criminals were confined in separate rooms, 
 which were carefully guarded ; and with an aching heart 
 Duke Ardens retired to spend the rest of the sleepless 
 night in considering how to deal with this terrible 
 calamity. He could not be a prosecutor in the case of 
 his only brother; yet it did not seem right that an 
 
350 ALLEGOEIES 
 
 attempt so nefarious should go wholly unpunished. 
 Early in the morning he went first to the room of the 
 boy culprit. 
 
 The miserable lad, when questioned, gave an outline 
 of his past history. He was an orphan ; his father 
 had been a burglar, and had paid the penalty of death 
 on the scaffold. His mother had drunk herself into a 
 speedy grave. The boy had for a time lived on his 
 wits, picking up his living in the streets, and sleeping 
 on doorsteps. Then a ' pal ' of his father's had taken 
 him up, and had used him in attempts like this in which 
 he had been captured. 
 
 Had he never had any religious teaching ? Any 
 instruction in the difference between right and wrong ? 
 
 Yes ; the slum which he haunted had been visited 
 by one who had tried to save him. But what chance 
 had ' the likes of him ' of ever keeping himself from 
 starvation except by crime ? 
 
 ' If a chance were given you,' said the Duke, ' of 
 being saved from your bad surroundings and earning 
 an honest livelihood, would you take it ? ' 
 
 1 Wouldn't I ? ' said the boy. ' Only try me.' 
 
 ' You shall have the chance,' said Ardens, and soon 
 afterwards he took steps to have the boy placed in a 
 distant school, where he met with stern and wise 
 kindness, by which he was enabled in after years to 
 earn his living as an honest mechanic. 
 
 After this conversation, Ardens, with a heart which 
 foreboded all calamity, made his way to the room where 
 Florian was confined. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 351 
 
 On opening the door he found the watchman bending 
 anxiously over his brother's bed. 
 
 ' What is the matter ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' I don't know, my Lord Duke. -The young man' 
 for Florian was 'unknown to him ' seems to be very 
 ill. He only began to be so ill about ten minutes ago, 
 when he heard your voice from the next room.' 
 
 Ardens hurried to the bedside, and the acrid smell 
 at once revealed to him what had occurred. Florian 
 had concealed in his dress a small vial of poison, arid 
 had just swallowed it. The vial was still in his hand 
 under the coverlet. 
 
 'Haste, haste, to my physician ! ' said Ardens. ' I 
 will stay here. It may not yet be too late.' 
 
 Fortunately the physician happened to be in the 
 castle. He came in, and, recognising the poison, 
 administered the most powerful antidotes. But he 
 said from the first that he feared it was too late. He 
 might succeed in arresting, but hardly in preventing 
 death. 
 
 The Duke ordered no pains, no skill, no expense to 
 be spared. Florian was watched and nursed day and 
 night. Many hours elapsed before he showed signs of 
 consciousness, and Ardens constantly sat by his bedside 
 holding the wasted hand. 
 
 At last Florian woke from his drowsiness and 
 delirium, and murmured, ' Where am I ? Is it not very 
 dark?' 
 
 Ardens signed to the attendant to draw up the 
 blind, and the sunlight poured in. Florian looked 
 
352 ALLEGORIES 
 
 round with a dim and languid gaze, and once more 
 feebly asked, * Where am I ? ' 
 
 'You are at home,' said the Duke. 
 
 ' And who are you ? ' Florian could scarcely 
 articulate the words. 
 
 ' I am your brother, Ardens.' 
 
 He had hardly spoken the words when Florian 
 uttered a deep moan and sank into a long swoon. 
 
 When he recovered Ardens, who was still holding 
 his hand, said in his gentlest tone, * Be still, my 
 brother. All is forgiven.' Ardens thought that he felt 
 the faintest possible pressure from Florian 's hand. 
 
 Next day he seemed much better, and Ardens said, 
 ' Shall I read to you, Florian ? ' 
 
 * If you are so kind,' he faintly whispered. 
 
 1 You used, in old days, to like poetry. Shall I read 
 to you from some poet ? ' 
 
 'Yes.' 
 
 There was a poet of whose verses, as he remembered, 
 Florian had once been fond. He took the little volume 
 from the bookshelf, and in a low voice read aloud. One 
 of the poems told how a poor forgiven woman had once 
 washed the feet of Imrah with her tears and wiped 
 them with the hairs of her head. It was as follows : 
 
 She sat and wept beside his feet : the weight 
 Of sin oppressed her heart, for all the blame 
 And the poor malice of the worldly shame 
 For her were past, extinct, and out of date. 
 She would be melted by the heat of love, 
 By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove 
 And purge the silver ore adulterate. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 3/53 
 
 She sat and wept, and with her untressed hair 
 
 Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch ; 
 
 And He wiped off the soiling of despair 
 
 From her sweet soul, because she loved so much. 
 
 I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears ; 
 
 Make me a humble thing of sighs and tears. 
 
 Ardens looked up. On his brother's features was 
 the agony of despair. Ardens tenderly tried to console 
 him, but Florian could only murmur, ' Lost ! lost ! 
 lost ! ' 
 
 1 Not lost, my brother. Elyon says, " Thou hast 
 destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help." 
 
 Florian seemed to rally all his remaining strength, 
 and said in a voice barely audible, ' Oh, Ardens, if there 
 be any reward for goodness, may it be yours ! I am 
 dying. I feel sure that I have not one hour more to 
 live. Oh, what an awful shipwreck I have made of my 
 life ! I threw away everything. I sinned against light 
 and knowledge. I am utterly undone.' 
 
 ' He who made you can remake you, Florian,' said 
 Ardens. 
 
 ' What lies beyond the grave for self-blighted lives 
 I know not,' said Florian. ' My sins have been black 
 as midnight ; they have made of all my years one long 
 misery.' 
 
 ' That very misery may have been to your soul as 
 the purging flame, dear Florian,' said the Duke. 
 
 ' I would not escape punishment if I could,' said 
 Florian. ' I seem almost to long for it. Until I have 
 been purified, as it were, ten times in the fire, I could 
 not dare to face the presence of my Lord.' 
 
 A A 
 
354 ALLEGORIES 
 
 He sank back exhausted with his effort, and for 
 a short time lay motionless, and seemed to sleep. 
 Then he whispered very low : 
 
 ' Ardens, have I been sleeping ? ' 
 
 'I think so.' 
 
 I Then it must have been in my sleep that our 
 father Altus, whose death was caused by shame for 
 
 me ' Sobs choked his voice for a time ; then he 
 
 continued, ' Our father seemed to me to come towards 
 me, ' as though from heaven, and when I moaned and 
 shrank, and hid my face from his expected wrath, he 
 removed my hand, and oh ! Ardens, I thought that he 
 said, with a sad smile, "My son, you are forgiven." 
 Have you forgiven me, Ardens? What shame, what 
 misery I have caused you, even from a boy ! How 
 vilely ungrateful and infamous I have been ! ' 
 
 I 1 have forgiven you,' said Ardens, * as utterly as I 
 myself hope to be forgiven for all I have done wrong.' 
 
 1 Then, if father and you whom I have most 
 shamed, most outraged if you forgive me, though I 
 cannot ever forgive myself yet, if you can forgive 
 me perhaps ' 
 
 He could speak no more. He had almost ceased to 
 breathe. There came one more long fluttering breath, 
 a sort of gleam seemed to pass for an instant across his 
 features and Florian was dead. 
 
 Ah ! what a life had his been ! He had sold his 
 eternal jewel for a flash of delusive freedom a delirious 
 intoxication of wrongdoing, followed by the thickest 
 mirk of misery. Long ere he died he had seen the 
 
ARDENS WEPT BESIDE THE CORPSE OF HIS ONLY BROTHER 
 
 A A 2 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 357 
 
 infernal folly and curse into which he had been seduced 
 by the demon of the basilisk. In those last hours 
 he had felt not only an unspeakable remorse, but also 
 an unspeakable longing to be other than he was. And 
 as he lay dead his features resumed something of their 
 boyish beauty. The painter who had painted him 
 would have instantly recognised that, changed as he 
 was, this young man was yet the boy who had sat to 
 him as an ideal of ' Happy Boyhood.' 
 
 Ardens wept alone beside the corpse of his only 
 brother, whose face, before he gave himself up to the 
 enemy of Elyon, had been so lovely. No other eye was 
 wet for him, save that of the aged Alciphron. He came 
 to console Ardens. He saw Florian lying on his bier. 
 The sinful soul had disappeared through that veil, 
 ' dense as midnight, yet thin as a spider's web,' which 
 separates us from the realms of the unknown. Ardens 
 had told Alciphron about his death, and the last word 
 which he had spoken ; and the sage, uplifting his eyes 
 and hands to heaven, had said, ' Perhaps ah ! yes, 
 perhaps ! ' 
 
358 ALLEGORIES 
 
 XVIII 
 
 POOE FACILIS 
 
 Oh, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair 
 Above the nets at sea ? KINGSLEY. 
 
 NOT many days after the capture of Florian, as a fisher- 
 man was hauling in his nets at the mouth of the river 
 which flows through the great Porphyrian city, his 
 hand became entangled in a mass of soft fair hair. He 
 found that the net was being dragged down by the 
 dead body of a young man. He called for help to his 
 partners, and they laid the body on the deck of the 
 fishing-boat. The ' dank and dripping weeds ' were 
 of coarse texture, but the face bore on it the stamp 
 of refinement and high birth. They searched for any 
 sign by which the corpse could be identified. There 
 was nothing ; but surely he would be recognised ; surely 
 some must be grieving for that lost youth ! 
 
 It was the body of the hapless Facilis. On hearing 
 the rumour that a burglar had been captured in the 
 Castle of Duke Ardens, he knew that it must be 
 Florian ; and, in agony of mind, he had rushed out into 
 the night from the low slum in which he had been 
 forced to live. He felt almost wild with passionate 
 grief. He charged himself with having done harm to 
 Florian, whom he loved with intense affection even 
 in his fall. He was even unjust to himself in his self- 
 condemnation ; for, in reality, he had often tried to lay 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPAL'l) 359 
 
 a restraining hand weak as it was upon the down- 
 ward course of his friend. Where could he go? 
 Whither could he fly ? Aimlessly, wildly he wandered 
 through the mirky streets. A thick drizzle of rain was 
 falling, and, scantily clad as he was, he soon became 
 wet through. Anything, anything if he could but 
 escape from himself ! Suddenly, at midnight, he found 
 himself on the river bank. The thought of suicide 
 occurred to him, but he rejected it as a crime. No ! he 
 would unmoor a boat w r hich he saw fastened to a jetty, 
 and would row to a large merchant vessel which was 
 lying at anchor, and would offer himself as a common 
 sailor. If he were carried away to some very far-off 
 land, so much the better ! 
 
 But when he had unfastened the boat, he stumbled 
 from sheer weakness and want of food. Unable to 
 recover his balance, he fell into the rushing and swirling 
 waves. For a moment or two he buffeted with the 
 current, but it was too strong for him. He was drawn 
 under the water, and his body was swept to sea by the 
 ebbing tide. 
 
 A line in the public journals the next day recorded 
 that the body of an unknown youth, who was meanly 
 dressed but apparently had once belonged to the higher 
 classes, had been found at the mouth of the estuary. 
 It lay in the mortuary, and had not been recognised by 
 any who came to see it. 
 
 It was an infinitely sad and touching fact that 
 many a father and many a weeping mother came 
 fearing to find that this unknown corpse was all that 
 
360 ALLEGORIES 
 
 remained to them of some lost prodigal. Many of 
 them looked at the dead youth very wistfully, and 
 through eyes bedimmed with tears. None recognised 
 him ; but one father, after a Jong gaze, turned to his 
 drooping wife, and, pointing to the beautiful features 
 on which the peace of death seemed to have effaced 
 the stains of life, he said : ' I am sure that this poor 
 fellow did not die by suicide.' And then he murmured 
 to himself the lines of the poet 
 
 ' And that he sinned is not believable, 
 For look upon his face. But if he sinned, 
 The sin that practice burns into the blood, 
 And not the one dark hour which brings remorse, 
 Shall stamp us after of whose fold we be.' 
 
 XIX 
 
 There is an hour, and Justice knows the date, 
 
 For long-enduring majesty to wait ; 
 
 That hour elapsed, the incurable revolt 
 
 Is punished, and down comes the thunder-bolt. 
 
 COWPEK. 
 
 AND did Trypho escape? 
 
 Hitherto his career of vice and dissipation had gone 
 on apparently undisturbed. He had been 
 
 Left in God's contempt apart 
 With ghastly smooth life dead at heart. 
 
 The basilisk, wholly secure of his victim, and finding 
 him a useful agent in increasing the numbers of his 
 votaries, left him as yet untroubled to follow to the 
 natural end the career he had chosen. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 361 
 
 But he who sows the wind must later, if not sooner, 
 reap the whirlwind. 
 
 Successful in many a vile intrigue, Trypho at last 
 grew careless from over confidence. One night he was 
 surprised in the house of Lord Khodon whose friend he 
 had pretended to be, and who returned home suddenly 
 and unexpectedly from a journey. Trypho was wearing 
 a mask of black velvet which the injured husband tried 
 to tear off his face. Knowing how serious would be the 
 consequences of his detection, and having entered the 
 house unobserved, Trypho was determined at all hazards 
 to conceal his identity, and in his fierce struggles, just as 
 he was on the point of being overpowered, he drew a 
 dagger and stabbed his rival. The dagger penetrated 
 Ehodon's heart and he fell dead. Trypho rushed to 
 escape, but his foot tripped and he was precipitated 
 down a flight of steps and was seized. 
 
 He was tried for murder. As he stood in the 
 felon's dock he raised his eyes to see the face of his 
 judge. 
 
 It was Candidus ! 
 
 Candidus, after finishing a most honourable career 
 at the Gate School, had been assisted in his further 
 studies by Ardens, who had become his most intimate 
 friend. He had chosen the career of the law, and had 
 shown such brilliancy, that with wholly unprecedented 
 rapidity he had risen to the position of a judge. He 
 bore the reputation of being at once the most learned 
 and the most compassionate judge on the Porphyrian 
 bench. 
 
362 ALLEGORIES 
 
 The trial was short. The evidence was decisive and 
 fatal. The conduct of Trypho, his treachery to one 
 who had been generally beloved, and who had treated 
 him as a friend, the agonising remorse of her whom he 
 had betrayed, his own notoriously evil character, the 
 absence of any particle of exculpatory testimony, decided 
 his fate. The jury unanimously brought him in guilty 
 of murder, with no extenuating circumstance. Candidus 
 had no choice but to sentence him to death. In his 
 brief remarks he earnestly and solemnly exhorted the 
 unhappy criminal so to use the few days which yet 
 were left him as to make his peace with Heaven. 
 
 Before he died he sent for Candidus to visit him, 
 confessed the justice of his doom, and bewailed the 
 systematic perversion of his character. Ardens and 
 the good Mage Alciphron also came to see him, and 
 endeavoured with compassionate hearts to move him to 
 repentance. All that he would say was, ' My life has 
 been a ghastly and irreparable failure.' 
 
 ' Irreparable is a word of the Purple Island,' said 
 Alciphron gently. ' Elyon knows it not.' 
 
 But Trypho only shook his head. ' Too late,' he 
 cried, ' too late ! ' 
 
 A week later a black flag was flying over the prison, 
 and a great bell was tolling, stroke on stroke, chilling 
 the hearts of all who heard it with its awful and 
 monotonous vibrations. 
 
 Trypho was led out of his prison cell. Ardens and 
 Alciphron walked on either side of him. 
 
 He knelt at the scaffold, and the axe fell. 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 363 
 
 Ardens went home with a gloom at his heart which 
 seemed too deep for words. Alciphron knew with 
 how many thoughts of anguish his mind must be full, 
 for Florian was his brother, Trypho his schoolfellow. 
 But his kind old friend gently pressed his hand and 
 murmured, 
 
 1 Trust in the mercy of the Merciful. 
 His mercy endureth for ever, and beyond ! ' 
 
 Else I avert my eyes, nor follow them 
 Into that dark, obscure, sequestered place 
 Where God unmakes but to remake the soul, 
 He else made first in vain which must not be. 
 
 BKOWNING, The Ring and the Book. 
 
 On the dark barge were three shrouded figures ; the 
 silent sea was of more than midnight blackness ; the 
 spirits who guided the barge were silent. One of the 
 three figures lay prostrate on the deck, face downwards, 
 covered from head to foot with a sable pall, and neither 
 moved nor spoke. It was Trypho. Kobed also in black, 
 and with his face bowed upon his knees, sat Florian. 
 Beside him knelt another figure it was that of poor 
 Facilis, whose arm was passed over Florian's shoulder. 
 As the awful midnight seemed to deepen, Florian had 
 muttered in a hollow voice, * " To whom is reserved the 
 blackness of darkness for ever," and yet, and yet,' he 
 added, 'just before Death touched me with his icy 
 finger, I saw, or thought I saw, or dreamed that I saw, 
 the melancholy yet pitying face of my father, and he 
 said, " You are forgiven." 
 
364 ALLEGORIES 
 
 ' And I,' said Facilis, ' when the river waves closed 
 over my guilty wretchedness, did not feel so utterly 
 beyond all hope. The darkness which might be felt, 
 through which I sfeemed to be sinking into fathomless 
 depths, changed into a dim light, and oh, Florian, I am 
 quite sure that I saw the spirit of my sweet mother, and 
 she laid a tender hand on my forehead and pushed back 
 the wet hair which had fallen over my eyes, and turned 
 on me a look of pardoning love.' 
 
 The prow of the dark barge grated on the shore, and 
 one came on board and touched Trypho and baqle him 
 rise, and told Florian and Facilis to follow him. I 
 saw them lost amid a crowd of shadowy ministrants ; 
 but one of the dim figures took Florian and Facilis by the 
 hand, and though they disappeared into the darkness 
 a ray fell through the darkness for a moment, and I 
 saw that the figure was leading them towards a hill 
 which looked rugged and awful, and yet at its summit, 
 very far up, the gloom which enwrapped it seemed 
 to be less impenetrable, and there might even have 
 seemed to be ' the sweet hue of the oriental sapphire.' 
 I seemed, too, to hear in faint far-distant tones the 
 wailing burden of a hymn sung as by pleading voices : 
 
 Will the fruits of life brought forth, 
 
 Pride and greed, and wealth and lust, 
 Profit in the day of wrath, 
 
 When the dust returns to dust ? 
 Evil flower and thorny fruit 
 
 Load the wild and worthless tree ; 
 Lo, the axe is at the root ! 
 
 Miserere Domine ! Miserere ! 
 
THE BASILISK AND THE LEOPARD 
 
 Fair without, and foul within, 
 
 When the honey'd husks are reft 
 From the bitter sweets of sin, 
 
 Bitterness alone is left. 
 Yet the wayward soul hath striven 
 
 Mostly Hell's ally to be 
 In the strife 'twixt Hell arid Heaven 
 
 Miserere D own-in e ! Miserere Domine ! 
 
 365 
 
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