Arachne — Volume 04 eBook

Georg Ebers
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 66 pages of information about Arachne — Volume 04.

Arachne — Volume 04 eBook

Georg Ebers
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 66 pages of information about Arachne — Volume 04.

“Then gratify it!” cried Thyone with urgent impatience; but Proclus turned to the matron, and, after exchanging a hasty glance with Althea, said:  “You probably know, my venerable friend, that Queen Arsinoe, who most deeply honours your illustrious husband, had already arranged to have him summoned to the capital as priest of Alexander.  True, in this position he would have had the burden of disposing of all the revenues from the temples throughout Egypt; but, on the other hand, he would always have his master’s mortal remains near and be permitted to be their guardian.  What influences baffled the Queen’s wish certainly have not remained hidden from you here.”

“You are mistaken,” replied Philippus gravely.  “Not the least whisper of this matter reached my ears, and it is fortunate.”

“Impossible!” Althea eagerly interrupted; “nothing else was talked of for weeks in the royal palace.  Queen Arsinoe—­you might be jealous, Lady Thyone—­has been fairly in love with your hero ever since her last stay in your house on her way home from Thrace, and she has not yet given up her desire to see him in the capital as priest of Alexander.  It seems to her just and fair that the old companion of the greatest of the great should have the highest place, next to her husband’s, in the city whose foundation he witnessed.  Arsinoe speaks of you also with all the affection natural to her feeling heart.”

“This is as flattering as it is surprising,” replied Thyone.  “The attention we showed her in Pelusium was nothing more than we owed to the wife of the sovereign.  But the court is not the principal attraction that draws me to the capital.  It would make Philippus happy—­you have just heard him say so—­to remember his old master beside the tomb of Alexander.”

“And,” added Daphne, “how amazed you will be when you see the present form of the ‘Soma’, in which rests the golden coffin with the body of the divine hero whom the fortunate Philippus aided to conquer the world!”

“You are jesting,” interrupted the old warrior.  “I aided him only as the drops in the stream help to turn the wheel of the mill.  As to his body, true, I marched at the head of the procession which bore it to Memphis and thence to Alexandria.  In the Soma I was permitted to think of him with devout reverence, and meantime I felt as if I had again seen him with these eyes—­exactly as he looked in the Egyptian fishing village of Rhacotis, which he transformed into your magnificent Alexandria.  What a youth he was!  Even what would have been a defect in others became a beauty in him.  The powerful neck which supported his divine head was a little crooked; but what grace it lent him when he turned kindly to any one!  One scarcely noticed it, and yet it was like the bend of a petitioner, and gave the wish which he expressed resistless power.  When he stood erect, the sharpest eye could not detect it.  Would that he could appear before me thus once more!  Besides, the buildings which surrounded the golden coffin were nearly completed at the time of our departure.”

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Project Gutenberg
Arachne — Volume 04 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.