Part 18

7. THE BITERS OF THE WALLS (FURTHER ACCOUNT)

“You will set me free,” she said, regarding me from under her brows, “without any further exactions or treaty?”

“I will set you free exactly on those terms,” I answered, “unless indeed we here decide that it is better for Atlantis that I should die, in which case the freedom will be of your own taking.”

“My lord plays a bold game.”

“Tut, tut,” I said.

“But I shall not hesitate to take the full of my bond, unless my theories are most clearly disproved to me.”

“Tut,” I said, “you women, how you can play out the time needlessly. Show me sufficient cause, and you shall kill me where and how you please. Come, begin the accusation.”

“You are a tyrant.”

“At least I have not paraded my tyrannies in Atlantis these twenty years. Why, Nais, I did but land yesterday.”

“You will not deny you came back from Yucatan for a purpose.”

“I came back because I was sent for. The Empress gives no reasons for her recalls. She states her will; and we who serve her obey without question.”

“Pah, I know that old dogma.”

“If you discredit my poor honesty at the outset like this, I fear we shall not get far with our unravelling.”

“My lord must be indeed simple,” said this strange woman scornfully, “if he is ignorant of what all Atlantis knows.”

“Then simple you must write me down. Over yonder in Yucatan we were too well wrapped up in our own parochial needs and policies to have leisure to ponder much over the slim news which drifted out to us from Atlantis--and, in truth, little enough came. By example, Phorenice (whose office be adored) is a great personage here at home; but over there in the colony we barely knew so much as her name. Here, since I have been ashore, I have seen many new wonders; I have been carried by a riding mammoth; I have sat at a banquet; but in what new policies there are afoot, I have yet to be schooled.”

“Then, if truly you do not know it, let me repeat to you the common tale. Phorenice has tired of her unmated life.”

“Stay there. I will hear no word against the Empress.”

“Pah, my lord, your scruples are most decorous. But I did no more than repeat what the Empress had made public by proclamation. She is minded to take to herself a husband, and nothing short of the best is good enough for Phorenice. One after another has been put up in turn as favourite--and been found wanting. Oh, I tell you, we here in Atlantis have watched her courtship with jumping hearts. First it was this one here, then it was that one there; now it was this general just returned from a victory, and a day later he had been packed back to his camp, to give place to some dashing governor who had squeezed increased revenues from his province. But every ship that came from the West said that there was a stronger man than any of these in Yucatan, and at last the Empress changed the wording of her vow. ‘I’ll have Deucalion for my husband,’ said she, ‘and then we will see who can stand against my wishes.’”

“The Empress (whose name be adored) can do as she pleases in such matters,” I said guardedly; “but that is beside the argument. I am here to know how it would be better for Atlantis that I should die?”

“You know you are the strongest man in the kingdom.”

“It pleases you to say so.”

“And Phorenice is the strongest woman.”

“That is beyond doubt.”

“Why, then, if the Empress takes you in marriage, we shall be under a double tyranny. And her rule alone is more cruelly heavy than we can bear already.”

“I pass no criticism on Phorenice’s rule. I have not seen it. But I crave your mercy, Nais, on the newcomer into this kingdom. I am strong, say you, and therefore I am a tyrant, say you. Now to me this sequence is faulty.”

“Who should a strong man use strength for, if not for himself? And if for himself, why that spells tyranny. You will get all your heart’s desires, my lord, and you will forget that many a thousand of the common people will have to pay for them.”

“And this is all your accusation?”

“It seems to be black enough. I am one that has a compassion for my fellow-men, my lord, and because of that compassion you see me what I am to-day. There was a time, not long passed, when I slept as soft and ate as dainty as any in Atlantis.”