Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 46

SATNI. I do not understand your words.

RHEOU. Who can call down thunderbolts from heaven, unless he be an envoy of the G.o.ds?

SATNI. I am no--

RHEOU. 'Tis well, 'tis well. You would have us blind to your power of working miracles. After yesterday you can hide it no more. Henceforth, Satni, you must no longer confine your teaching to Mieris, to me, to your parents, Yaouma, to a few--henceforth you may speak to all, all ears are opened by this miracle.

SATNI. Let us leave that! I pray you rise and tell me rather what has befallen Yaouma.

RHEOU. Yaouma!--Did she not at first interpret the thunderclap as sign of the wrath of Ammon against her?

SATNI. She believes still in Ammon, then, despite all I have said to her.

RHEOU. Happily I undeceived her. I made her understand that 'twas you the elements obeyed, that the thunder that frighted her, was but a sign of your power.

SATNI. Why should you lie to her?

RHEOU. It was not wholly lying. Besides, it was fortunate I could thus explain the event. Had you but seen her--

SATNI. All my efforts of these two months past, in vain!

RHEOU. You remember when you left us yesterday. You might have thought that all her superst.i.tions were banished at last. She no longer answered you, she questioned you no more, and at your last words her silence confirmed the belief that at length you had won her away from Ammon. Yet after you were gone, at the moment of entering her hiding place, she was swept with sudden fury as though an evil spirit had entered her, wept, cried and tore her hair--

SATNI. What said she?

RHEOU. "To the temple! to the temple! I would go to the temple! The G.o.d has chosen me! The G.o.d awaits me! Egypt will peris.h.!.+" In short, words of madness. She would have killed herself!

SATNI. Killed herself!

RHEOU. We had to put constraint on her. And 'twas only when I led her to this terrace, after the thunderbolt, and pointed out the scattered soldiery, that she came to herself, that at length she perceived that your G.o.d was the most powerful. "What," she cried, "'tis he, he, my Satni, who shakes the heavens and the earth for me! For me!" she murmured, "for me!" She would have kissed your sandals, offered you a sacrifice, wors.h.i.+pped, adored you. See where she comes, with Mieris!

Stay.

SATNI. No.

_He goes. Rheou accompanies him. Mieris enters, bearing flowers and led by Yaouma._

MIERIS [_listening_] Is he there?

YAOUMA. No.

MIERIS. Leave me.

_Yaouma goes out. Mieris left alone makes several hesitating steps toward the statue of Isis, then goes up to it and touches it. A pause._

MIERIS. If it be only of wood!

_A gesture of disillusion. She draws slowly away from the statue, letting her flowers fall, broken-hearted, and begins to weep. Rheou returns._

RHEOU. Why, Mieris--do you bring flowers to Isis still?

MIERIS. It is the last time. Listen, Rheou--We mast ask Satni to heal me. Do not tell me it is not possible; he has healed Ahmarsti.

RHEOU. Healed Ahmarsti?

MIERIS, Yes. He made her drink a liquid wherein no doubt a good genius was hidden, and the evil spirit that tormented her was driven forth.

RHEOU [_credulously_] Is't possible?

MIERIS. Every one saw it. And Kitoui--

RHEOU. Well?

MIERIS. Kitoui, the cripple, went this morning to draw water from the Nile, before all her neighbors who marvelled and cried with joy. And she had merely touched the hem of his garment, even without his knowing it.

He has healed the child of Riti, too, he knows G.o.ds more powerful than ours--younger G.o.ds, perhaps, our G.o.ds are so old--If it were not so, how could he have walked unscathed the road where the scarabs lay, that day when he came home? Since then, men have seen him do a thousand forbidden things, have seen him defy our G.o.ds by disrespect. Without the protection of a higher power, how could he escape the chastis.e.m.e.nt whereof another had died? Who are his G.o.ds? Rheou, he must make them known to you.

RHEOU. He refuses.

MIERIS. For what reason?

RHEOU. The reason he gives is absurd--he says there are no G.o.ds--

MIERIS. No G.o.ds! no G.o.ds!--he is mocking you.

RHEOU. He is bound to secrecy, perhaps.

MIERIS. Rheou, know you that this Ahmarsti--these two years now, on the day of Prodigies, have I heard her at my side howling prayers at the G.o.ddess that were never answered.

RHEOU. I know. Satni declares he could have healed all whom the G.o.ddess has relieved.

MIERIS [_to herself_] He relieves even those women whom she abandons--[_After a pause_] He must teach you the words that work these miracles.

RHEOU. He refuses.

MIERIS. Force him!

RHEOU. He says there are none.

MIERIS. Threaten him with death--he will speak.

RHEOU. No.

MIERIS [_with excitement_] But you do not understand me!--he has healed Ahmarsti, he has healed Kitoui, wherefore should he not heal me?

RHEOU [_sadly_] Ah! Mieris, Mieris, think you I waited for your prayer, to ask him that?

MIERIS. Well--Well--?

RHEOU. I could gain nothing but these words from him: "Could I overcome the evil Mieris suffers from, even now should she rejoice in the splendor of day."