Ayesha | Page 5

reflection, or whatever it was, startled me so
much that I came to a halt under the lee of one of the monoliths, and
found myself unable even to call to the distraught man whom I
pursued.

"Whilst I stood thus it became clear to me that Mr. Holly also saw
something. At least he turned towards the Radiance in the shadow,
uttered one cry; a wild, glad cry, and stepped forward; then seemed to
fall /through it/ on to his face.
"When I reached the spot the light had vanished, and all I found was
Mr. Holly, his arms still outstretched, and the sceptre gripped tightly in
his hand, lying quite dead in the shadow of the trilithon."
The rest of the doctor's letter need not be quoted as it deals only with
certain very improbable explanations of the origin of this figure of light,
the details of the removal of Holly's body, and of how he managed to
satisfy the coroner that no inquest was necessary.
The box of which he speaks arrived safely. Of the drawings in it I need
say nothing, and of the /sistrum/ or sceptre only a few words. It was
fashioned of crystal to the well-known shape of the /Crux-ansata/, or
the emblem of life of the Egyptians; the rod, the cross and the loop
combined in one. From side to side of this loop ran golden wires, and
on these were strung gems of three colours, glittering diamonds,
sea-blue sapphires, and blood-red rubies, while to the fourth wire, that
at the top, hung four little golden bells.
When I took hold of it first my arm shook slightly with excitement, and
those bells began to sound; a sweet, faint music like to that of chimes
heard far away at night in the silence of the sea. I thought too, but
perhaps this was fancy, that a thrill passed from the hallowed and
beautiful thing into my body.
On the mystery itself, as it is recorded in the manuscript, I make no
comment. Of it and its inner significations every reader must form his
or her own judgment. One thing alone is clear to me--on the hypothesis
that Mr. Holly tells the truth as to what he and Leo Vincey saw and
experienced, which I at least believe--that though sundry interpretations
of this mystery were advanced by Ayesha and others, none of them are
quite satisfactory.
Indeed, like Mr. Holly, I incline to the theory that She, if I may still call
her by that name although it is seldom given to her in these pages, put
forward some of them, such as the vague Isis-myth, and the wondrous
picture-story of the Mountain-fire, as mere veils to hide the truth which
it was her purpose to reveal at last in that song she never sang.
The Editor.

AYESHA
The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed










CHAPTER I
THE DOUBLE SIGN
Hard on twenty years have gone by since that night of Leo's vision--
the most awful years, perhaps, which were ever endured by
men--twenty years of search and hardship ending in soul-shaking
wonder and amazement.
My death is very near to me, and of this I am glad, for I desire to pursue
the quest in other realms, as it has been promised to me that I shall do. I
desire to learn the beginning and the end of the spiritual drama of
which it has been my strange lot to read some pages upon earth.
I, Ludwig Horace Holly, have been very ill; they carried me, more dead
than alive, down those mountains whose lowest slopes I can see from

my window, for I write this on the northern frontiers of India. Indeed
any other man had long since perished, but Destiny kept my breath in
me, perhaps that a record might remain. I, must bide here a month or
two till I am strong enough to travel homewards, for I have a fancy to
die in the place where I was born. So while I have strength I will put
the story down, or at least those parts of it that are most essential, for
much can, or at any rate must, be omitted. I shrink from attempting too
long a book, though my notes and memory would furnish me with
sufficient material for volumes.
I will begin with the Vision.
After Leo Vincey and I came back from Africa in 1885, desiring
solitude, which indeed we needed sorely to recover from the fearful
shock we had experienced, and to give us time and opportunity to think,
we went to an old house upon the shores of Cumberland that has
belonged to my family for many generations. This house, unless
somebody has taken it believing me