Queen Sheba's Ring

by H. Rider Haggard

  CHAPTER XVII

  I FIND MY SON

  Our road toward the pass ran through the camping ground of the newlycreated Abati army, and what we saw on our journey thither told usmore vividly than any words or reports could do, how utter was thedemoralization of that people. Where should have been sentries wereno sentries; where should have been soldiers were groups of officerstalking with women; where should have been officers were camp followersdrinking.

  Through this confusion and excitement we made our way unobserved, or,at any rate, unquestioned, till at length we came to the regiment of theMountaineers, who, for the most part, were goatherds, poor people wholived upon the slopes of the precipices that enclosed the land of Mur.These folk, having little to do with their more prosperous brethren ofthe plain, were hardy and primitive of nature, and therefore retainedsome of the primeval virtues of mankind, such as courage and loyalty.

  It was for the first of these reasons, and, indeed, for the second also,that they had been posted by Joshua at the mouth of the pass, which heknew well they alone could be trusted to defend in the event of seriousattack. Moreover, it was desirable, from his point of view, to keep themout of the way while he developed his plans against the person of theChild of Kings, for whom these simple-minded men had a hereditary andalmost a superstitious reverence.

  As soon as we were within the lines of these Mountaineers we found thedifference between them and the rest of the Abati. The other regimentswe had passed unchallenged, but here we were instantly stopped by apicket. Japhet whispered something into the ear of its officer thatcaused him to stare hard at us. Then this officer saluted the veiledfigure of the Child of Kings and led us to where the commander of theband and his subordinates were seated near a fire sitting together. Atsome sign or word that did not reach us the commander, an old fellowwith a long grey beard, rose and said:

  "Your pardon, but be pleased to show your faces."

  Maqueda threw back her hood and turned so that the light of the moonfell full upon her, whereon the old man dropped to his knee, saying:

  "Your commands, O Walda Nagasta."

  "Summon your regiment and I will give them," she answered, and seatedherself on a bench by the fire, we three and Japhet standing behind her.

  The commander issued orders to his captains, and presently theMountaineers formed up on three sides of a square above us, to thenumber of a little over five hundred men. When all were gathered Maquedamounted the bench upon which she had been sitting, threw back her hoodso that every one could see her face in the light of the fire, andaddressed them:

  "Men of the mountain-side, this night just after the idol of the Funghad been destroyed, the Prince Joshua, my uncle, came to me demandingmy surrender to him, whether to kill me or to imprison me in his castlebeyond the end of the lake, for reasons of State as he said, or forother vile purposes, I do not know."

  At these words a murmur rose from the audience.

  "Wait," said Maqueda, holding up her hand, "there is worse to come.I told my uncle, Prince Joshua, that he was a traitor and had best begone. He went, threatening me and, when I do not know, withdrew theguards that should be stationed at my palace gates. Now, some rumour ofmy danger had reached the foreigners in my service, and two of them,he who is called Black Windows, whom we rescued from the Fung, and thesoldier named Quick, came to watch over me, while the Lord Orme and theDoctor Adams stayed in the cave to send out that spark of fire whichshould destroy the idol. Nor did they come back without need, forpresently arrived a band of Prince Joshua's men to take me.

  "Then Black Windows and the soldier his companion fought a good fight,they two holding the narrow passage against many, and slaying a numberof them with their terrible weapons. The end of it was, men of themountains, that the warrior Quick, charging down the passage, droveaway those servants of Joshua who remained alive. But in so doing he waswounded to the death. Yes, that brave man lies dead, having given hislife to save the Child of Kings from the hands of her own people. BlackWindows also was wounded--see the bandages about his head. Then came theLord Orme and the Doctor Adams, and with them your brother Japhet, whohad barely escaped with their lives from the cave city, and knowing thatI was no longer safe in the palace, where even my sleeping-room has beendrenched with blood, with them I have fled to you for succour. Will younot protect me, O men of the mountain-side?"

  "Yes, yes," they answered with a great shout. "Command we obey. Whatshall we do, O Child of Kings?"

  Now Maqueda called the officers of the regiment apart and consulted withthem, asking their opinions, one by one. Some of them were in favour offinding out where Joshua might be, and attacking him at once. "Crush thesnake's head and its tail will soon cease wriggling!" these said, and Iconfess this was a view that in many ways commended itself to us.

  But Maqueda would have none of it.

  "What!" she exclaimed, "shall I begin a civil war among my people whenfor aught I know the enemy is at our gates?" adding aside to us, "also,how can these few hundred men, brave though they be, hope to standagainst the thousands under the command of Joshua?"

  "What, then, would you do?" asked Orme.

  "Return to the palace with these Mountaineers, O Oliver, and by help ofthat garrison, hold it against all enemies."

  "Very well," he replied. "To those who are quite lost one road is asgood as another; they must trust to the stars to guide them."

  "Quite so," echoed Higgs; "and the sooner we go the better, for my leghurts, and I want a sleep."

  So Maqueda gave her commands to the officers, by whom they were conveyedto the regiment, which received them with a shout, and instantly beganto strike its camp.

  Then it was, coming hot-foot after so much sorrow, loss and doubt, thatthere followed the happiest event of all my life. Utterly tired out andvery despondent, I was seated on an arrow-chest awaiting the order tomarch, idly watching Oliver and Maqueda talking with great earnestnessat a little distance, and in the intervals trying to prevent poor Higgsat my side from falling asleep. While I was thus engaged, suddenly Iheard a disturbance, and by the bright moonlight caught sight of a manbeing led into the camp in charge of a guard of Abati soldiers, whomfrom their dress I knew to belong to a company that just then wasemployed in watching the lower gates of the pass.

  I took no particular heed of the incident, thinking only that they mighthave captured some spy, till a murmur of astonishment, and the generalstir, warned me that something unusual had occurred. So I rose from mybox and strolled towards the man, who now was hidden from me by a groupof Mountaineers. As I advanced this group opened, the men who composedit bowing to me with a kind of wondering respect that impressed me, Idid not know why.

  Then for the first time I saw the prisoner. He was a tall, athleticyoung man, dressed in festal robes with a heavy gold chain about hisneck, and I wondered vaguely what such a person should be doing herein this time of national commotion. He turned his head so that themoonlight showed his dark eyes, his somewhat oval-shaped face ending ina peaked black beard, and his finely cut features. In an instant I knewhim.

  _It was my son Roderick!_

  Next moment, for the first time for very many years, he was in my arms.

  The first thing that I remember saying to him was a typicallyAnglo-Saxon remark, for however much we live in the East or elsewhere,we never really shake off our native conventions, and habits of speech.It was, "How are you, my boy, and how on earth did you come here?"to which he answered, slowly, it is true, and speaking with a foreignaccent:

  "All right, thank you, father. I ran upon my legs."

  By this time Higgs hobbled up, and was greeting my son warmly, for, ofcourse, they were old friends.

  "Thought you were to be married to-night, Roderick?" he said.

  "Yes, yes," he answered, "I am half married according to Fung custom,which counts not to my soul. Look, this is the dress of marriage," andhe pointed to his fine embroidered robe and rich ornaments.

  "Then, where's your wife?" asked Higgs.<
br />
  "I do not know and I do not care," he answered, "for I did not likethat wife. Also it is all nothing as I am not quite married to her.Fung marriage between big people takes two days to finish, and if notfinished does not matter. So she marry some one else if she like, and Itoo."

  "What happened then?" I asked.

  "Oh, this, father. When we had eaten the marriage feast, but before wepast before priest, suddenly we hear a thunder and see a pillar of fireshoot up into sky, and sitting on top of it head of Harmac, which vanishinto heaven and stop there. Then everybody jump up and say:

  "'Magic of white man! Magic of white man! White man kill the god whosit there from beginning of world, now day of Fung finished according toprophecy. Run away, people of Fung, run away!'

  "Barung the Sultan tear his clothes too, and say--'Run away, Fung,'and my half-wife, she tear _her_ clothes and say nothing, but run likeantelope. So they all run toward east, where great river is, and leaveme alone. Then I get up and run too--toward west, for I know from BlackWindows," and he pointed to Higgs, "when we shut up together in belly ofgod before he let down to lions, what all this game mean, and thereforenot frightened. Well, I run, meeting no one in night, till I come topass, run up it, and find guards, to whom I tell story, so they not killme, but let me through, and at last I come here, quite safe, withoutFung wife, thank God, and that end of tale."

  "I am afraid you are wrong there, my boy," I said, "out of thefrying-pan into the fire, that's all."

  "Out of frying-pan into fire," he repeated. "Not understand; father mustremember I only little fellow when Khalifa's people take me, andsince then speak no English till I meet Black Windows. Only he give meBible-book that he have in pocket when he go down to be eat by lions."(Here Higgs blushed, for no one ever suspected him, a severe critic ofall religions, of carrying a Bible in his pocket, and muttered somethingabout "ancient customs of the Hebrews.")

  "Well," went on Roderick, "read that book ever since, and, as you see,all my English come back."

  "The question is," said Higgs, evidently in haste to talk of somethingelse, "will the Fung come back?"

  "Oh! Black Windows, don't know, can't say. Think not. Their prophecy wasthat Harmac move to Mur, but when they see his head jump into sky andstop there, they run every man toward the sunrise, and I think go onrunning."

  "But Harmac has come to Mur, Roderick," I said; "at least his head hasfallen on to the cliff that overlooks the city."

  "Oh! my father," he answered, "then that make great difference. WhenFung find out that head of Harmac has come here, no doubt they comeafter him, for head his most holy bit, especially as they want hang allthe Abati whom they not like."

  "Well, let's hope that they don't find out anything about it," Ireplied, to change the subject. Then taking Roderick by the hand I ledhim to where Maqueda stood a yard or two apart, listening to our talk,but, of course, understanding very little of it, and introduced him toher, explaining in a few words the wonderful thing that had happened.She welcomed him very kindly, and congratulated me upon my son's escape.Meanwhile, Roderick had been staring at her with evident admiration. Nowhe turned to us and said in his quaint broken English:

  "Walda Nagasta most lovely woman! No wonder King Solomon love hermother. If Barung's daughter, my wife, had been like her, think I runthrough great river into rising sun with Fung."

  Oliver instantly translated this remark, which made us all laugh,including Maqueda herself, and very grateful we were to find theopportunity for a little innocent merriment upon that tragic night.

  By this time the regiment was ready to start, and had formed up intocompanies. Before the march actually began, however, the officer of theAbati patrol, in whose charge Roderick had been brought to us,demanded his surrender that he might deliver his prisoner to theCommander-in-Chief, Prince Joshua. Of course, this was refused, whereonthe man asked roughly:

  "By whose order?"

  As it happened, Maqueda, of whose presence he was not aware, heard him,and acting on some impulse, came forward, and unveiled.

  "By mine," she said. "Know that the Child of Kings rules the Abati, notthe Prince Joshua, and that prisoners taken by her soldiers are hers,not his. Be gone back to your post!"

  The captain stared, saluted, and went with his companions, not to thepass, indeed, as he had been ordered, but to Joshua. To him he reportedthe arrival of the Gentile's son, and the news he brought that thenation of the Fung, dismayed by the destruction of their god, were infull flight from the plains of Harmac, purposing to cross the greatriver and to return no more.

  This glad tidings spread like wildfire; so fast, indeed, that almostbefore we had begun our march, we heard the shouts of exultation withwhich it was received by the terrified mob gathered in the great square.The cloud of terror was suddenly lifted from them. They went madin their delight; they lit bonfires, they drank, they feasted, theyembraced each other and boasted of their bravery that had caused themighty nation of the Fung to flee away for ever.

  Meanwhile, our advance had begun, nor in the midst of the generaljubilation was any particular notice taken of us till we were in themiddle of the square of Mur and within half a mile of the palace,when we saw by the moonlight that a large body of troops, two or threethousand of them, were drawn up in front of us, apparently to bar ourway. Still we went on till a number of officers rode up, and addressingthe commander of the regiment of Mountaineers, demanded to know why hehad left his post, and whither he went.

  "I go whither I am ordered," he answered, "for there is one here greaterthan I."

  "If you mean the Gentile Orme and his fellows, the command of the PrinceJoshua is that you hand them over to us that they may make report to himof their doings this night."

  "And the command of the Child of Kings is," replied the captain of theMountaineers, "that I take them with her back to the palace."

  "It has no weight," said the spokesman insolently, "not being endorsedby the Council. Surrender the Gentiles, hand over to us the person ofthe Child of Kings of whom you have taken possession, and return to yourpost till the pleasure of the Prince Joshua be known."

  Then the wrath of Maqueda blazed up.

  "Seize those men!" she said, and it was done instantly. "Now, cut thehead from him who dared to demand the surrender of my person and ofmy officers, and give it to his companions to take back to the PrinceJoshua as my answer to his message."

  The man heard, and being a coward like all the Abati, flung himself uponhis face before Maqueda, trying to kiss her robe and pleading for mercy.

  "Dog!" she answered, "you were one of those who this very night daredto attack my chamber. Oh! lie not, I knew your voice and heard yourfellow-traitors call you by your name. Away with him!"

  We tried to interfere, but she would not listen, even to Orme.

  "Would you plead for your brother's murderer?" she asked, alluding toQuick. "I have spoken!"

  So they dragged him off behind us, and presently we saw a melancholyprocession returning whence they came, carrying something on a shield.It reached the opposing ranks, whence there arose a murmur of wrath andfear.

  "March on!" said Maqueda, "and gain the palace."

  So the regiment formed into a square, and, setting Maqueda and ourselvesin the centre of it, advanced again.

  Then the fight began. Great numbers of the Abati surrounded us and, asthey did not dare to make a direct attack, commenced shooting arrows,which killed and wounded a number of men. But the Highlanders also werearchers, and carried stronger bows. The square was halted, the firstranks kneeling and the second standing behind them. Then, at a givenword, the stiff bows which these hardy people used against the lion andthe buffalo upon their hills were drawn to the ear and loosed again andagain with terrible effect.

  On that open place it was almost impossible to miss the mobs of theAbati who, having no experience of war, were fighting without order. Norcould the light mail they wore withstand the rush of the heavy barbedarrows which pierced them through and through. In
two minutes they beganto give, in three they were flying back to their main body, those whowere left of them, a huddled rout of men and horses. So the Frenchmust have fled before the terrible longbows of the English at Crecyand Poitiers, for, in fact, we were taking part in just such a mediaevalbattle.

  Oliver, who was watching intently, went to Japhet and whisperedsomething in his ear. He nodded and ran to seek the commander of theregiment. Presently the result of that whisper became apparent, forthe sides of the hollow square wheeled outward and the rear moved up tostrengthen the centre.

  Now the Mountaineers were ranged in a double or triple line, behindwhich were only about a dozen soldiers, who marched round Maqueda,holding their shields aloft in order to protect her from stray arrows.With these, too, came our four selves, a number of camp-followers andothers, carrying on their shields those of the regiment who were toobadly wounded to walk.

  Leaving the dead where they lay, we began to advance, pouring in volleysof arrows as we went. Twice the Abati tried to charge us, and twicethose dreadful arrows drove them back. Then at the word of command, theHighlanders slung their bows upon their backs, drew their short swords,and in their turn charged.

  Five minutes afterwards everything was over. Joshua's soldiers threwdown their arms, and ran or galloped to right and left, save a numberof them who fled through the gates of the palace, which they had opened,and across the drawbridge into the courtyards within. After them, or,rather, mixed up with them, followed the Mountaineers, killing all whomthey could find, for they were out of hand and would not listen to thecommands of Maqueda and their officers, that they should show mercy.

  So, just as the dawn broke this strange moonlit battle ended, a smallaffair, it is true, for there were only five hundred men engaged uponour side and three or four thousand on the other, yet one that costa great number of lives and was the beginning of all the ruin thatfollowed.

  Well, we were safe for a while, since it was certain, after the lessonwhich he had just learned, that Joshua would not attempt to storm thedouble walls and fosse of the palace without long preparation. Yet evennow a new trouble awaited us, for by some means, we never discoveredhow, that wing of the palace in which Maqueda's private rooms weresituated suddenly burst into flames.

  Personally, I believe that the fire arose through the fact that a lamphad been left burning near the bed of the Child of Kings upon whichwas laid the body of Sergeant Quick. Perhaps a wounded man hidden thereoverturned the lamp; perhaps the draught blowing through the open doorsbrought the gold-spangled curtains into contact with the wick.

  At any rate, the wood-panelled chambers took fire, and had it nothappened that the set of the wind was favourable, the whole palacemight have been consumed. As it was, we succeeded in confining theconflagration to this particular part of it, which within two hours hadburnt out, leaving nothing standing but the stark, stone walls.

  Such was the funeral pyre of Sergeant Quick, a noble one, I thought tomyself, as I watched it burn.

  When the fire was so well under control, for we had pulled down theconnecting passage where Higgs and Quick fought their great fight, thatthere was no longer any danger of its spreading, and the watches hadbeen set, at length we got some rest.

  Maqueda and two or three of her ladies, one of them, I remember, herold nurse who had brought her up, for her mother died at her birth, tookpossession of some empty rooms, of which there were many in the palace,while we lay, or rather fell, down in the guest-chambers, where we hadalways slept, and never opened our eyes again until the evening.

  I remember that I woke thinking that I was the victim of some wonderfuldream of mingled joy and tragedy. Oliver and Higgs were sleeping likelogs, but my son Roderick, still dressed in his bridal robes, had risenand sat by my bed staring at me, a puzzled look upon his handsome face.

  "So you are here," I said, taking his hand. "I thought I dreamed."

  "No, Father," he answered in his odd English, "no dream; all true.This is a strange world, Father. Look at me! For how manyyears--twelve--fourteen, slave of savage peoples for whom I sing, priestof Fung idol, always near death but never die. Then Sultan Barungtake fancy to me, say I come of white blood and must be his daughter'shusband. Then your brother Higgs made prisoner with me and tell me thatyou hunt me all these years. Then Higgs thrown to lions and you savehim. Then yesterday I married to Sultan's daughter, whom I never seebefore but twice at fast of idol. Then Harmac's head fly off to heaven,and all Fung people run away, and I run too, and find you. Then battle,and many killed, and arrow scratch my neck but not hurt me," and hepointed to a graze just over his jugular vein, "and now we together. Oh!Father, very strange world! I think there God somewhere who look afterus!"

  "I think so, too, my boy," I answered, "and I hope that He will continueto do so, for I tell you we are in a worse place than ever you wereamong the Fung."

  "Oh, don't mind that, Father," he answered gaily, for Roderick is acheerful soul. "As Fung say, there no house without door, althoughplenty people made blind and can't see it. But we not blind, or we deadlong ago. Find door by and by, but here come man to talk to you."

  The man proved to be Japhet, who had been sent by the Child of Kings tosummon us, as she had news to tell. So I woke the others, and after Ihad dressed the Professor's flesh wounds, which were stiff and sore,we joined her where she sat in the gateway tower of the inner wall. Shegreeted us rather sadly, asked Oliver how he had slept and Higgs if hiscuts hurt him. Then she turned to my son, and congratulated him upon hiswonderful escape and upon having found a father if he had lost a wife.

  "Truly," she added, "you are a fortunate man to be so well loved, Oson of Adams. To how many sons are given fathers who for fourteen longyears, abandoning all else, would search for them in peril of theirlives, enduring slavery and blows and starvation and the desert's heatand cold for the sake of a long-lost face? Such faithfulness is that ofmy forefather David for his brother Jonathan, and such love it is thatpasses the love of women. See that you pay it back to him, and to hismemory until the last hour of your life, child of Adams."

  "I will, indeed, I will, O Walda Nagasta," answered Roderick, andthrowing his arms about my neck he embraced me before them all. It isnot too much to say that this kiss of filial devotion more than repaidme for all I had undergone for his beloved sake. For now I knew that Ihad not toiled and suffered for one of no worth, as is so often the lotof true hearts in this bitter world.

  Just then some of Maqueda's ladies brought food, and at her bidding webreakfasted.

  "Be sparing," she said with a melancholy little laugh, "for I know nothow long our store will last. Listen! I have received a last offer frommy uncle Joshua. An arrow brought it--not a man; I think that no manwould come lest his fate should be that of the traitor of yesterday,"and she produced a slip of parchment that had been tied to the shaft ofan arrow and, unfolding it, read as follows--

  "O Walda Nagasta, deliver up to death the Gentiles who have bewitchedyou and led you to shed the blood of so many of your people, and withthem the officers of the Mountaineers, and the rest shall be spared. Youalso I will forgive and make my wife. Resist, and all who cling to youshall be put to the sword, and to yourself I promise nothing.

  "Written by order of the Council,

  "Joshua, Prince of the Abati."

  "What answer shall I send?" she asked, looking at us curiously.

  "Upon my word," replied Orme, shrugging his shoulders, "if it were notfor those faithful officers I am not sure but that you would be wiseto accept the terms. We are cooped up here, but a few surrounded bythousands, who, if they dare not assault, still can starve us out, asthis place is not victualled for a siege."

  "You forget one of those terms, O Oliver!" she said slowly, pointingwith her finger to the passage in the letter which stated that Joshuawould make her his wife, "Now do you still counsel surrender?"

  "How can I?" he answered, flushing, and was silent.

  "Well, it does not matter what you counsel," she went on with a
smile,"seeing that I have already sent my answer, also by arrow. See, here isa copy of it," and she read--

  "To my rebellious People of the Abati:

  "Surrender to me Joshua, my uncle, and the members of the Council whohave lifted sword against me, to be dealt with according to the ancientlaw, and the rest of you shall go unharmed. Refuse, and I swear to youthat before the night of the new moon has passed there shall be such woein Mur as fell upon the city of David when the barbarian standards wereset upon her walls. Such is the counsel that has come to me, the Childof Solomon, in the watches of the night, and I tell you that it is true.Do what you will, people of the Abati, or what you must, since your fateand ours are written. But be sure that in me and the Western lords liesyour only hope.

  "Walda Nagasta."

  "What do you mean, O Maqueda," I asked, "about the counsel that came toyou in the watches of the night?"

  "What I say, O Adams," she answered calmly. "After we parted at dawn Islept heavily, and in my sleep a dark and royal woman stood beforeme whom I knew to be my great ancestress, the beloved of Solomon. Shelooked on me sadly, yet as I thought with love. Then she drew back, asit were, a curtain of thick cloud that hid the future and revealed to methe young moon riding the sky and beneath it Mur, a blackened ruin, herstreets filled with dead. Yes, and she showed to me other things, thoughI may not tell them, which also shall come to pass, then held her handsover me as if in blessing, and was gone."

  "Old Hebrew prophet business! Very interesting," I heard Higgs mutterbelow his breath, while in my own heart I set the dream down toexcitement and want of food. In fact, only two of us were impressed, myson very much, and Oliver a little, perhaps because everything Maquedasaid was gospel to him.

  "Doubtless all will come to pass as you say, Walda Nagasta," saidRoderick with conviction. "The day of the Abati is finished."

  "Why do you say that, Son?" I asked.

  "Because, Father, among the Fung people from a child I have two offices,that of Singer to the God and that of Reader of Dreams. Oh! do notlaugh. I can tell you many that have come true as I read them; thus thedream of Barung which I read to mean that the head of Harmac would cometo Mur, and see, there it sit," and turning, he pointed through thedoorway of the tower to the grim lion-head of the idol crouched upon thetop of the precipice, watching Mur as a beast of prey watches the victimupon which it is about to spring. "I know when dreams true and whendreams false; it my gift, like my voice. I know that this dream true,that all," and as he ceased speaking I saw his eyes catch Maqueda's, anda very curious glance pass between them.

  As for Orme, he only said:

  "You Easterns are strange people, and if you believe a thing, Maqueda,there may be something in it. But you understand that this message ofyours means war to the last, a very unequal war," and he looked at thehordes of the Abati gathering on the great square.

  "Yes," she answered quietly, "I understand, but however sore ourstraits, and however strange may seem the things that happen, have nofear of the end of that war, O my friends."