Читать книгу The Pharaoh and the Priest - Bolesław Prus - Страница 19

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THE expedition of the heir to the throne, undertaken with the object of discovering the priest who had saved Sarah and had given him legal advice, had a result that was unexpected.

The priest was not discovered, but among Egyptian earth-tillers legends began to circulate which concerned Rameses.

Some mysterious man sailed about from village to village and told the people that the heir to the throne freed the men who were in danger of condemnation to the quarries for attacking his dwelling. Besides, he had beaten down an official who was extorting unjust rent from tenants. Finally, the unknown person added that Prince Rameses was under the special guardianship of Amon, who was his father.

Simple people listened to these tidings eagerly, first, because they agreed with facts, second, because the man who told the story was himself like a spirit—it was not known whence he came nor whither he had vanished.

Prince Rameses made no mention whatever of his tenants to Dagon; he did not even summon him. He felt ashamed in presence of the Phœnician from whom he had taken money and might require money yet more than one time.

But a few days after the adventure with Dagon’s scribe the banker came himself to the heir, holding in his hand some covered object.

On entering the prince’s chamber he bent down, untied a white kerchief, and drew forth from it a very beautiful gold goblet; the goblet was set with stones of various colors, and covered with carving in relief which on the lower part represented the gathering and pressing out of grapes and on the cup part a feast.

“Accept this goblet, worthy lord, from thy slave,” said the banker, “and use it for a hundred, a thousand years, to the end of ages.”

The prince understood what the Phœnician wanted; so, without touching the golden gift, he said with a stern expression,—

“Dost thou see, Dagon, that purple reflection inside the goblet?”

“I do, indeed,” replied the banker; “why should I not see that which shows the goblet to be the purest gold?”

“But I declare that to be the blood of children seized away from their parents,” said the heir, angrily.

And he turned and went to an interior chamber.

“O Astoreth!” groaned the Phœnician.

His lips grew blue, and his hands trembled so that he was hardly able to wrap up the goblet.

A couple of days later Dagon sailed down with his goblet to Sarah’s house. He was arrayed in robes interwoven with gold; in his thick beard were glass globulets from which issued perfumes, and he had fastened two plumes to his head.

“Beautiful Sarah,” began he, “may Jehovah pour on thy family as many blessings as there are waters in the Nile at present! We Phœnicians and ye Jews are brethren and neighbors. I am inflamed with such ardor of love for thee that didst thou not belong to our most worthy lord I would give Gideon ten talents for thee, and would take thee for my lawful wife. So enamored am I.”

“May God preserve me,” answered Sarah, “from wanting another lord beyond the one who is mine at this moment. But whence, worthy Dagon, did the desire come to thee to-day of visiting our lord’s servant?”

“I will tell thee the truth, as if thou wert Tamara, my wife, who, a real daughter of Sidon, though she brought me a large dowry, is old now and not worthy to take off thy sandals.”

“In the honey flowing from thy lips there is much wormwood,” put in Sarah.

“Let the honey,” replied Dagon, sitting down, “be for thee and let the wormwood poison my heart. Our lord Prince Rameses—may he live through eternity!—has the mouth of a lion and the keenness of a vulture. He has seen fit to rent his estate to me. This has filled my stomach with delight; but he does not trust me, so I lay awake whole nights from anxiety, I only sigh and cover my bed with tears, in which bed would that thou wert resting with me, O Sarah, instead of my wife Tamara, who cannot rouse desire in me any longer.”

“That is not what thou wishest to say,” interrupted the blushing Sarah.

“I know not what I wish to say, since I have looked on thee, and since our lord, examining my activity on his estates, struck with a cane and took health from my scribe who was collecting dues there from tenants. And these dues were not for me. Sarah, but for our lord. It is not I who will eat the figs and wheaten bread from those lands, but thou and our lord. I have given money to our lord and jewels to thee. Why then should the low Egyptian rabble impoverish our lord and thee, Sarah? To show how greatly thou rousest my desire and that from these estates I wish nothing but reserve all for thee and our lord, I give this goblet of pure gold set with jewels and covered with carving at which the gods themselves would be astonished.”

Then Dagon drew forth from the cloth the goblet refused by Prince Rameses.

“I do not even wish that thou shouldst have the goblet in the house and give the prince to drink from it. Give this goblet of pure gold to Gideon, whom I love as my own brother. And thou, Sarah, tell thy father these words: ‘Thy twin brother Dagon, the unfortunate tenant on the lands of Prince Rameses, is ruined. Drink then, my father, from this goblet, think of thy twin brother, and beg Jehovah that our lord, Prince Rameses, may not beat his scribes, and bring to revolt tenants who even now have no wish to pay tribute.’ And know this, Sarah, that if thou wouldst admit me to confidence I would give thee two talents, and thy father one talent, and, besides, I should be ashamed of giving thee so little, for thou deservest that the pharaoh himself should fondle thee, and the heir of the throne, and the worthy minister Herhor, and the most valiant Nitager, and the richest bankers of the Phœnicians. There is such a taste in thee that I grow faint when I gaze at thee, and when I see thee not, I close my eyes and lick my lips. Thou art sweeter than figs, more fragrant than roses. I would give thee five talents. Take this goblet, Sarah.”

Sarah drew back with drooping eyes.

“I will not take the goblet,” answered she; “my lord forbade me to take gifts from any one.”

Dagon was astonished, and looked with widely opened eyes at her.

“Then it must be that thou knowest not, Sarah, the value of this goblet. But I give it to thy father, who is my brother.”

“I cannot take it,” whispered Sarah.

“Oh!” cried Dagon. “Then thou, Sarah, wilt pay me for this goblet in another way, without speaking to thy lord. But a woman as beautiful as thou must have gold and jewels, and should have her own banker to bring her money when she pleases, not alone when her lord likes.”

“I cannot!” whispered Sarah, without concealing her repulsion for the banker.

The Phœnician changed his tone in the twinkle of an eye, and said laughing,—

“Very good, Sarah! I only wished to convince myself that thou art faithful to our lord. I see that thou art faithful, though foolish, as people say.”

“What?” burst out Sarah, rushing at Dagon with clinched fist.

“Ha! ha!” laughed the Phœnician. “What a pity that our lord could not hear and see thee this moment! But I will tell him, when he is in good humor, that thou art not only as faithful as a dog to him, but even that thou wouldst not accept a gold goblet because he has not permitted thee to take presents. And this goblet, believe me, Sarah, has tempted more than one woman, and women who were not of small importance.”

Dagon sat awhile admiring the virtue and obedience of Sarah; at last he took farewell of her with much feeling, sat down in his tented boat, and sailed away toward Memphis. When the boat had pushed off from the country house, the smile vanished from the banker’s face, and an expression of anger came out thereon. When Sarah’s house was hidden behind the trees, Dagon stood up and raised his hands.

“O Baal of Sidon, O Astoreth!” said he, “avenge my insult on this cursed daughter of a Jew. Let her treacherous beauty perish as a drop of rain in the desert! May disease devour her body, and madness bind her soul! May her lord hunt her out of his house like a mangy swine! And as to-day she pushed my goblet aside, may the hour come when people will push her withered hand aside, when in thirst she begs them for a cup of dirty water.”

Then he spat and muttered words with hidden and dreadful meaning; a black cloud covered the sun for a while, and the water near the side of the boat began to grow muddy and rise in a mighty wave. When he finished, the sun had grown bright again; but the river was disturbed, as if a new inundation were moving it.

Dagon’s rowers were frightened, and ceased their singing; but separated from their master by the side of the boat, they could not see his ceremonies.

Thenceforth the Phœnician did not appear before Prince Rameses. But on a certain day when the prince came to his residence, he found in his bedchamber a beautiful Phœnician dancer, sixteen years of age, whose entire dress was a golden circlet on her head, and a shawl, as delicate as spider webs, thrown across her shoulders.