The Purple Cloud

by M. P. Shiel

into the heaving lake.

  Some seconds after this, the earthquake, having lasted fully tenminutes, began to lull, and soon ceased. I found her an hour laterstanding among the ruins of her little yali.

  * * * * *

  Well, what a thing! Probably every building on the island has beendestroyed; the palace-platform, all cracked, leans half-sunken askewinto the lake, like a huge stranded ark, while of the palace itself notrace remains, except a mound of gold stones emerging above the lake tothe south. Gone, gone--sixteen years of vanity and vexation. But from apractical point of view, what is a worst calamity of all is that the_Speranza_ now lies high-and-dry in the village: for she was bodilypicked up from the quay by the tidal wave, and driven bow-foremost intoa street not half her width, and there now lies, looking huge enough inthe little village, wedged for ever, smashed in at the nip like a frailmatch-box, a most astonishing spectacle: her bows forty feet up thestreet, ten feet above the ground at the stem, rudder resting on theinner edge of the quay, foremast tilted forward, the other two masts allright, and that bottom, which has passed through seas so far, buried inevery sort of green and brown seaweed, the old _Speranza_. Her stepswere there, and by a slight leap I could catch them underneath and go uphand-over-hand, till I got foothold; this I did at ten the same nightwhen the sea-water had mostly drained back from the land, leavingeverything very swampy, however; she there with me, and soon followingme upon the ship. I found most things cracked into tiny fragments,twisted, disfigured out of likeness, the house-walls themselvesdisplaced a little at the nip, the bow of the cedar skiff smashed in toher middle against the aft starboard corner of the galley; and were itnot for the fact that the air-pinnace had not broken from her heavyropings, and one of the compasses still whole, I do not know what Ishould have done: for the four old water-logged boats in the cove haveutterly disappeared.

  I made her sleep on the cabin-floor amid the _debris_ of berth andeverything, and I myself slept high up in the wood to the west. I amwriting now lying in the long-grass the morning after, the sun rising,though I cannot see him. My plan for to-day is to cut three or four logswith the saw, lay them on the ground by the ship, lower the pinnace uponthem, so get her gradually down into the water, and by evening bid along farewell to Imbros, which drives me out in this way. Still, I lookforward with pleasure to our hour's run to the Mainland, when I shallteach her to steer by the compass, and manipulate liquid-air, as I havetaught her to dress, to talk, to cook, to write, to think, to live. Forshe is my creation, this creature: as it were, a 'rib from my side.'

  But what is the design of this expulsion? And what was it that shecalled it last night?--'this new going out flom Halan'! 'Haran,' Ibelieve, being the place from which Abraham went out, when 'called' byGod.

  * * * * *

  We apparently felt only the tail of the earthquake at Imbros: for it hasravaged Turkey! And we two poor helpless creatures put down here in thetheatre of all these infinite violences: it is too bad, too bad. For therages of Nature at present are perfectly astonishing, and what it maycome to I do not know. When we came to the Macedonian coast in goodmoonlight, we sailed along it, and up the Dardanelles, looking out forvillage, yali, or any habitation where we might put up: but everythinghas apparently been wrecked. We saw Kilid-Bahr, Chanak-Kaleh, Gallipoli,Lapsaki in ruins; at the last place I landed, leaving her in the boat,and walked a little way, but soon went back with the news that there wasnot even a bazaar-arch left standing whole, in most parts even the lineof the streets being obliterated, for the place had fallen like a houseof dice, and had then been shaken up and jumbled. Finally we slept in aforest on the other side of the strait, beyond Gallipoli, taking our fewprovisions, and having to wade at some points through morass a foot deepbefore we reached dry woodland.

  Here, the next morning, I sat alone--for we had slept separated by atleast half a mile--thinking out the question of whither I should go: mychoice would have been to remain either in the region where I was, or togo Eastward: but the region where I was offered no dwelling that I couldsee; and to go any distance Eastward, I needed a ship. Of ships I hadseen during the night only wrecks, nor did I know where to find one inall these latitudes. I was thus, like her 'Ablaham,' urged Westward.

  In order, then, to go Westward, I first went a little further Eastward,once more entered the Golden Horn, and once more mounted the scorchedSeraglio steps. Here what the wickedness of man had spared, thewickedness of Nature had destroyed, and the few houses which I had leftstanding round the upper part of Pera I now saw low as the rest; alsothe house near the Suleimanieh, where we had lived our first days, towhich I went as to a home, I found without a pillar standing; and thatnight she slept under the half-roof of a little funeral-kiosk in thescorched cypress-wood of Eyoub, and I a mile away, at the edge of theforest where first I saw her.

  The next morning, having met, as agreed, at the site of the Prophet'smosque, we traversed together the valley and cemetery of Kassim by thequagmires up to Pera, all the landscape having to me a rather twistedunfamiliar aspect. We had determined to spend the morning in searchingfor supplies among the earthquake-ruins of Pera; and as I had decided tocollect sufficient in one day to save us further pains for some time, wepassed a good many hours in this task, I confining myself to the greatwhite house in the park overlooking Kassim, where I had once slept,losing myself in the huge obliquities of its floors, roofs andwall-fragments, she going to the old Mussulman quarter of Djianghirnear, on the heights of Taxim, where were many shops, and thence roundthe brow of the hill to the great French Embassy-house, overlookingFoundoucli and the sea, both of us having large Persian carpet-bags, andall in the air of that wilderness of ruin that morning a sweet, strong,permanent odour of maple-blossom.

  We met toward evening, she quivering under such a load, that I would notlet her carry it, but abandoned my day's labour, which was lighter, andtook hers, which was quite enough: we went back Westward, seeking allthe while some shelter from the saturating night-dews of this place: andnothing could we find, till we came again, quite late, to her brokenfuneral-kiosk at the entrance to the immense cemetery-avenue of Eyoub.There without a word I left her among the shattered catafalques, for Iwas weary; but having gone some distance, turned back, thinking that Imight take some more raisins from the bag; and after getting them, saidto her, shaking her little hand where she sat under the roof-shadow on astone:

  'Good-night, Clodagh.'

  She did not answer promptly: and her answer, to my surprise, was aprotest against her name: for a rather sulky, yet gentle, voice camefrom the darkness, saying:

  'I am _not_ a Poisoner!'

  'Well,' said I, 'all right: tell me whatever you like that I should callyou, and henceforth I will call you that.'

  'Call me Eve,' says she.

  'Well, no,' said I, 'not Eve, anything but that: for _my_ name is Adam,and if I called you Eve, that would be simply absurd, and we do not wantto be ridiculous in each other's eyes. But I will call you anything elsethat you like.'

  'Call me Leda,' says she.

  'And why Leda?' said I.

  'Because Leda sounds something like Clodagh,' says she, 'and you areal-leady in the habit of calling me Clodagh; and I saw the name Leda ina book, and liked it: but Clodagh is most hollible, most bitterlyhollible!'

  'Well, then,' said I, 'Leda it shall be, and I shan't forget, for I likeit, too, and it suits you, and you ought to have a name beginning withan "L." Good-night, my dear, sleep well, and dream, dream.'

  'And to you, too, my God give dleams of peace and pleasantness,' saysshe; and I went.

  And it was only when I had lain myself upon leaves for my bed, my headon my caftan, a rill for my lullaby, and two stars, which alone I couldsee out of the heavenful, for my watch-lights; and only when my eyeswere already closed toward slumber, that a sudden strong thought piercedand woke me: for I remembered that Leda was the name of a Greek womanwho had borne twins. In fact, I should not be surprised if this Gr
eekword Leda is the same word etymologically as the Hebrew Eve, for I haveheard of _v's_, and _b's_, and _d's_ interchanging about in this way,and if _Di_, meaning God, or Light, and _Bi_, meaning Life, and Io_v_e,and Iho_v_ah and Go_d_, meaning much the same, are all one, that wouldbe nothing astonishing to me, as wi_d_ow, and veu_v_e, are one: andwhere it says, 'truly the Light is Good (_tob, b_on),' this is as if itsaid, 'truly the Di is Di.' Such, at any rate, is the fatality thatattends me, even in the smallest things: for this Western Eve, or GreekLeda, had twins.

  * * * * *

  Well, the next morning we crossed by the ruins of old Greek Phanaracross the triple Stamboul-wall, which still showed its deep-iviedportal, and made our way, not without climbing, along the Golden Horn tothe foot of the Old Seraglio,