"What disturbs you? What are you staring at the book for? I thoughtfor an instant that you must have been overcome again!" I jumped up.
"I was reading," I said, "an old book from the library." As I spoke Iclosed it and put it under my arm. "I shall now put it back, as Iunderstand that your Father wishes all things, especially books, keptin their proper places." My words were intentionally misleading; for Idid not wish her to know what I was reading, and thought it best not towake her curiosity by leaving the book about. I went away, but not tothe library; I left the book in my room where I could get it when I hadhad my sleep in the day. When I returned Nurse Kennedy was ready to goto bed; so Miss Trelawny watched with me in the room. I did not wantany book whilst she was present. We sat close together and talked in awhisper whilst the moments flew by. It was with surprise that I notedthe edge of the curtains changing from grey to yellow light. What wetalked of had nothing to do with the sick man, except in so far thatall which concerned his daughter must ultimately concern him. But ithad nothing to say to Egypt, or mummies, or the dead, or caves, orBedouin chiefs. I could well take note in the growing light thatMargaret's hand had not seven fingers, but five; for it lay in mine.
When Doctor Winchester arrived in the morning and had made his visit tohis patient, he came to see me as I sat in the dining-room having alittle meal--breakfast or supper, I hardly knew which it was--before Iwent to lie down. Mr. Corbeck came in at the same time; and we resumedout conversation where we had left it the night before. I told Mr.Corbeck that I had read the chapter about the finding of the tomb, andthat I thought Doctor Winchester should read it, too. The latter saidthat, if he might, he would take it with him; he had that morning tomake a railway journey to Ipswich, and would read it on the train. Hesaid he would bring it back with him when he came again in the evening.I went up to my room to bring it down; but I could not find itanywhere. I had a distinct recollection of having left it on the littletable beside my bed, when I had come up after Miss Trelawny's going onduty into the sick-room. It was very strange; for the book was not ofa kind that any of the servants would be likely to take. I had to comeback and explain to the others that I could not find it.
When Doctor Winchester had gone, Mr. Corbeck, who seemed to know theDutchman's work by heart, talked the whole matter over with me. I toldhim that I was interrupted by a change of nurses, just as I had come tothe description of the ring. He smiled as he said:
"So far as that is concerned, you need not be disappointed. Not in VanHuyn's time, nor for nearly two centuries later, could the meaning ofthat engraving have been understood. It was only when the work wastaken up and followed by Young and Champollion, by Birch and Lepsiusand Rosellini and Salvolini, by Mariette Bey and by Wallis Budge andFlinders Petrie and the other scholars of their times that greatresults ensued, and that the true meaning of hieroglyphic was known.
"Later, I shall explain to you, if Mr. Trelawny does not explain ithimself, or if he does not forbid me to, what it means in thatparticular place. I think it will be better for you to know whatfollowed Van Huyn's narrative; for with the description of the stone,and the account of his bringing it to Holland at the termination of histravels, the episode ends. Ends so far as his book is concerned. Thechief thing about the book is that it sets others thinking--and acting.Amongst them were Mr. Trelawny and myself. Mr. Trelawny is a goodlinguist of the Orient, but he does not know Northern tongues. As forme I have a faculty for learning languages; and when I was pursuing mystudies in Leyden I learned Dutch so that I might more easily makereferences in the library there. Thus it was, that at the very timewhen Mr. Trelawny, who, in making his great collection of works onEgypt, had, through a booksellers' catalogue, acquired this volume withthe manuscript translation, was studying it, I was reading anothercopy, in original Dutch, in Leyden. We were both struck by thedescription of the lonely tomb in the rock; cut so high up as to beinaccessible to ordinary seekers: with all means of reaching itcarefully obliterated; and yet with such an elaborate ornamentation ofthe smoothed surface of the cliff as Van Huyn has described. It alsostruck us both as an odd thing--for in the years b
etween Van Huyn'stime and our own the general knowledge of Egyptian curios and recordshas increased marvellously--that in the case of such a tomb, made insuch a place, and which must have cost an immense sum of money, therewas no seeming record or effigy to point out who lay within. Moreover,the very name of the place, 'the Valley of the Sorcerer', had, in aprosaic age, attractions of its own. When we met, which we did throughhis seeking the assistance of other Egyptologists in his work, wetalked over this as we did over many other things; and we determined tomake search for the mysterious valley. Whilst we were waiting to starton the travel, for many things were required which Mr. Trelawnyundertook to see to himself, I went to Holland to try if I could by anytraces verify Van Huyn's narrative. I went straight to Hoorn, and setpatiently to work to find the house of the traveller and hisdescendants, if any. I need not trouble you with details of myseeking--and finding. Hoorn is a place that has not changed much sinceVan Huyn's time, except that it has lost the place which it heldamongst commercial cities. Its externals are such as they had beenthen; in such a sleepy old place a century or two does not count formuch. I found the house, and discovered that none of the descendantswere alive. I searched records; but only to one end--death andextinction. Then I set me to work to find what had become of histreasures; for that such a traveller must have had great treasures wasapparent. I traced a good many to museums in Leyden, Utrecht, andAmsterdam; and some few to the private houses of rich collectors. Atlast, in the shop of an old watchmaker and jeweller at Hoorn, I foundwhat he considered his chiefest treasure; a great ruby, carven like ascarab, with seven stars, and engraven with hieroglyphics. The old mandid not know hieroglyphic character, and in his old-world, sleepy life,the philological discoveries of recent years had not reached him. Hedid not know anything of Van Huyn, except that such a person had been,and that his name was, during two centuries, venerated in the town as agreat traveller. He valued the jewel as only a rare stone, spoiled inpart by the cutting; and though he was at first loth to part with suchan unique gem, he became amenable ultimately to commercial reason. Ihad a full purse, since I bought for Mr. Trelawny, who is, as I supposeyou know, immensely wealthy. I was shortly on my way back to London,with the Star Ruby safe in my pocket-book; and in my heart a joy andexultation which knew no bounds.
"For here we were with proof of Van Huyn's wonderful story. The jewelwas put in security in Mr. Trelawny's great safe; and we started out onour journey of exploration in full hope.
"Mr. Trelawny was, at the last, loth to leave his young wife whom hedearly loved; but she, who loved him equally, knew his longing toprosecute the search. So keeping to herself, as all good women do, allher anxieties--which in her case were special--she bade him follow outhis bent."
Chapter XI
A Queen's Tomb
"Mr. Trelawny's hope was at least as great as my own. He is not sovolatile a man as I am, prone to ups and downs of hope and despair; buthe has a fixed purpose which crystallises hope into belief. At times Ihad feared that there might have been two such stones, or that theadventures of Van Huyn were traveller's fictions, based on someordinary acquisition of the curio in Alexandria or Cairo, or London orAmsterdam. But Mr. Trelawny never faltered in his belief. We had manythings to distract our minds from belief or disbelief. This was soonafter Arabi Pasha, and Egypt was so safe place for travellers,especially if they were English. But Mr. Trelawny is a fearless man;and I almost come to think at times that I am not a coward myself. Wegot together a band of Arabs whom one or other of us had known informer trips to the desert, and whom we could trust; that is, we didnot distrust them as much as others. We were numerous enough toprotect ourselves from chance marauding bands, and we took with uslarge impedimenta. We had secured the consent and passive co-operationof the officials still friendly to Britain; in the acquiring of whichconsent I need hardly say that Mr. Trelawny's riches were of chiefimportance. We found our way in dhahabiyehs to Aswan; whence, havinggot some Arabs from the Sheik and having given our usual backsheesh, weset out on our journey through the desert.
"Well, after much wandering and trying every winding in theinterminable jumble of hills, we came at last at nightfall on just sucha valley as Van Huyn had described. A valley with high, steep cliffs;narrowing in the centre, and widening out to the eastern and westernends. At daylight we were opposite the cliff and could easily note theopening high up in the rock, and the hieroglyphic figures which wereevidently intended originally to conceal it.
"But the signs which had baffled Van Huyn and those of his time--andlater, were no secrets to us. The host of scholars who have giventheir brains and their lives to this work, had wrested open themysterious prison-house of Egyptian language. On the hewn face of therocky cliff we, who had learned the secrets, could read what the Thebanpriesthood had had there inscribed nearly fifty centuries before.
"For that the external inscription was the work of the priesthood--anda hostile priesthood at that--there could be no living doubt. Theinscription on the rock, written in hieroglyphic, ran thus:
"'Hither the Gods come not at any summons. The "Nameless One" hasinsulted them and is for ever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeancewither you away!'
"The warning must have been a terribly potent one at the time it waswritten and for thousands of years afterwards; even when the languagein which it was given had become a dead mystery to the people of theland. The tradition of such a terror lasts longer than its cause. Evenin the symbols used there was an added significance of alliteration.'For ever' is given in the hieroglyphics as 'millions of years'. Thissymbol was repeated nine times, in three groups of three; and aftereach group a symbol of the Upper World, the Under World, and the Sky.So that for this Lonely One there could be, through the vengeance ofall the Gods, resurrection in neither the World of Sunlight, in theWorld of the Dead, or for the soul in the region of the Gods.
"Neither Mr. Trelawny nor I dared to tell any of our people what thewriting meant. For though they did not believe in the religion whencethe curse came, or in the Gods whose vengeance was threatened, yet theywere so superstitious that they would probably, had they known of it,have thrown up the whole task and run away.
"Their ignorance, however, and our discretion preserved us. We made anencampment close at hand, but behind a jutting rock a little furtheralong the valley, so that they might not have the inscription alwaysbefore them. For even that traditional name of the place: 'The Valleyof the Sorcerer', had a fear for them; and for us through them. Withthe timber which we had brought, we made a ladder up the face of therock. We hung a pulley on a beam fixed to project from the top of thecliff. We found the great slab of rock, which formed the door, placedclumsily in its place and secured by a few stones. Its own weight keptit in safe position. In order to enter, we had to push it in; and wepassed over it. We found the great coil of chain which Van Huyn haddescribed fastened into the rock. There were, however, abundantevidences amid the wreckage of the great stone door, which had revolvedon iron hinges at top and bottom, that ample provision had beenoriginally made for closing and fastening it from within.
"Mr. Trelawny and I went alone into the tomb. We had brought plenty oflights with us; and we fixed them as we went along. We wished to get acomplete survey at first, and then make examination of all in detail.As we went on, we were filled with ever-increasing wonder and delight.The tomb was one of the most magnificent and beautiful which either ofus had ever seen. From the elaborate nature of the sculpture andpainting, and the perfection of the workmanship, it was evident thatthe tomb was prepared during the lifetime of her for whoseresting-place it was intended. The drawing of the hieroglyphicpictures was fine, and the colouring superb; and in that high cavern,far away from even the damp of the Nile-flood, all was as fresh as whenthe artists had laid down their palettes. There was one thing which wecould not avoid seeing. That although the cutting on the outside rockwas the work of the priesthood, the smoothing of the cliff face wasprobably a part of the tomb-builder's original design. The symbolismof the painting and cutting within all gave the same idea. The outercavern, partly natural and partly hewn, was regarded architecturally asonly an ante-chamber. At the end of it, so that it would face the east,was a pillared portico, hewn out of the solid rock. The pillars weremassive and were seven-sided, a thing which we had not come across inany other tomb. Sculptured on the architrave was the Boat of the Moon,containing Hathor, cow-headed and bearing the disk and plumes, and thedog-headed Hapi, the God of the North. It was steered by Harpocratestowards the north, represented by the Pole Star surrounded by Draco andUrsa Major. In the latter the stars that form what we call the 'Plough'were cut larger than any of the other stars; and were filled with goldso that, in the light of torches, they seemed to flame with a specialsignificance. Passing within the portico, we found two of thearchitectural features of a rock tomb, the Chamber, or Chapel, and thePit, all complete as Van Huyn had noticed, though in his day the namesgiven to these parts by the Egyptians of old were unknown.
"The Stele, or record, which had its place low down on the westernwall, was so remarkable that we examined it minutely, even before goingon our way to find the mummy which was the object of our search. ThisStele was a great slab of lapis lazuli, cut all over with hieroglyphicfigures of small size and of much beauty. The cutting was filled inwith some cement of exceeding fineness, and of the colour of purevermilion. The inscription began:
"'Tera, Queen of the Egypts, daughter of Antef, Monarch of the Northand the South.' 'Daughter of the Sun,' 'Queen of the Diadems'.
"It then set out, in full record, the history of her life and reign.
"The signs of sovereignty were given with a truly feminine profusion ofadornment. The united Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt were, inespecial, cut with exquisite precision. It was new to us both to findthe Hejet and the Desher--the White and the Red crowns of Upper andLower Egypt--on the Stele of a queen; for it was a rule, withoutexception in the records, that in ancient Egypt either crown was wornonly by a king; though they are to be found on goddesses. Later on wefound an explanation, of which I shall say more presently.
"Such an inscription was in itself a matter so startling as to arrestattention from anyone anywhere at any time; but you can have noconception of the effect which it had upon us. Though our eyes werenot the first which had seen it, they were the first which could see itwith understanding since first the slab of rock was fixed in the cliffopening nearly five thousand years before. To us was given to readthis message from the dead. This message of one who had warred againstthe Gods of Old, and claimed to have controlled them at a time when thehierarchy professed to be the only means of exciting their fears orgaining their good will.
"The walls of the
upper chamber of the Pit and the sarcophagus Chamberwere profusely inscribed; all the inscriptions, except that on theStele, being coloured with bluish-green pigment. The effect when seensideways as the eye caught the green facets, was that of an old,discoloured Indian turquoise.
"We descended the Pit by the aid of the tackle we had brought with us.Trelawny went first. It was a deep pit, more than seventy feet; but ithad never been filled up. The passage at the bottom sloped up to thesarcophagus Chamber, and was longer than is usually found. It had notbeen walled up.
"Within, we found a great sarcophagus of yellow stone. But that I neednot describe; you have seen it in Mr. Trelawny's chamber. The cover ofit lay on the ground; it had not been cemented, and was just as VanHuyn had described it. Needless to say, we were excited as we lookedwithin. There must, however, be one sense of disappointment. I couldnot help feeling how different must have been the sight which met theDutch traveller's eyes when he looked within and found that white handlying lifelike above the shrouding mummy cloths. It is true that apart of the arm was there, white and ivory like.
"But there was a thrill to us which came not to Van Huyn!