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Chapter VII. A Ruined Shrine.

Having thus reached the first stage of our journey, I found myself so moved with that wild story of Isk, that, but for my ties to home and Bertha, I could have attached myself to the expedition. But the better spirit prevailed, and I put such thoughts from me, seeing plainly that it was my duty to wed Bertha, and return to England. Yet, while the lust for travel and adventure was on me, I judged, by my own feelings, that it would be worse than useless to turn Harry from his purpose; for if I, bound by the laws of honour, were minded to sail in Flick's train, how could I hope to hold Harry, who had no such scruples to stay his intention. Therefore I spoke page 81 openly to him, and bade him sail south if he wished, only requiring that he would return for a month to Devon, there to be present at the marriage of his sister with myself. To this, after some discussion with Flick, he readily consented; and so, saving that duty, he was irrevocably bound to aid in the enterprise. After which adjustment of plans, we went ashore at Cythera, and sought for information touching the negro embassy.

It is not my purpose to describe this island; for, lying as it does within the bounds of civilization, and being much frequented by tourists, it is known to many; moreover, there are other places and events which must be set forth at greater length. Therefore I will only say, that this isle of Venus seemed to me a fair land, but one that could be made fairer, were the inhabitants only of an industrious nature. But indeed they were indolent creatures, almost barbarians—alas, that I should so have to describe Greeks!-and other than trading and cultivating and building sufficient for their wants, they had no thought to make the isle what it should have been, a fruitful and blooming garden.

In the miserable village which lay adjacent to the harbour, there was no shelter fit to live in, so we stayed on board the Carmen, which was anchored some little distance off the shore. We made daily page 82 excursions into the town—so called—and surrounding neighbourhood, less to view the beauties of the scenery, though well worth the seeing, than to question the islanders concerning the coming of the negroes. Then did I learn the truth of Dosk's story.

An old man, who had dwelt in Cythera all his days, informed us, after much questioning, that forty years before, a body of black men had come to the island in a scarlet-painted ship. By offerings of jewels and much gold, they induced a beautiful woman to set foot on their vessel, and then hoisting sail, they carried her off like a second Helen. Since that time no sign had been seen of scarlet ship or negroes, nor had the woman been heard of again. This visit took place when our informant was a lad; and then he had been told by his grandfather that just such another ship and crew had entered the harbour many years before. By dint of further inquiries we learnt that the negroes made their appearance at uncertain intervals. Sometimes they would come twice in ten years, then remain absent for thrice that time, and in this instance they had not been heard of for forty years. Their object was always to secure the fairest woman in the island, and hitherto they had succeeded in their mission. These stories, as may be guessed, convinced me that Dosk had spoken the truth.

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Needless to say, Flick and Harry were delighted by this confirmation of the negro's tale; and, now that it was mid June, they looked forward daily to the arrival of the scarlet ship and its black crew. Should it arrive, Flick proposed to land four of us at Gibraltar, and then follow the barbaric bark southward to its destination. When he found the island, he was to return to Mauritius, where Harry, after our marriage, would meet him, and together they could make for Isk. How all these fine plans were overturned by circumstance remains to be told.

Both Bertha and Aunt Chrissy were quite resigned to Harry's departure, as they felt how hopeless it was to restrain his ardour. Moreover, in a good boat, with a staunch crew, and a sufficiency of weapons, they trusted he would emerge scathless from the adventure. Still, oppressed by premonitions, I had my doubts as to whether this would be so; but, bound by my promise to Flick, I abstained from remark. In a word, all went well, and there appeared to be no bar to the success of the enterprise.

While waiting the arrival of the negroes, we made excursions into the interior of the island, and saw the majestic relics of Hellenic civilization. Even Aunt Chrissy put aside her eternal knitting, and interested herself in the wealth of antique ruins scattered over page 84 hill and plain; while Bertha became an authority on archaeology. I may here mention that her beauty attracted great attention amongst the islanders, themselves a handsome race; and it was just as well that she was so ignorant of the language as to miss the outspoken and coarsely worded compliments of which she was the recipient. I, better versed in the Greek tongue, had much difficulty in withholding myself from thrashing these insolent rascals; but I kept my temper, for a brawl would have procured us the ill-will of the natives, and might have proved detrimental to the success of Flick's expedition.

One of our favourite resorts was a ruined temple of Aphrodite, which stood in the centre of a little plain, covered with olives and carob trees. On all sides it was shut in by low hills, and entrance was afforded by a narrow defile which led upward from the village, itself bordering the harbour wherein lay our ship. Harry declared that this was the veritable temple whence Hesperus had thieved the statue; but he had no authority for this wild statement other than his own imagination. Still, he may have been right after all, for the statue of Praxiteles must have stood somewhere; and why not in this fane, which, judging by its ruins, appeared to have been of considerable splendour and importance? But, statue or no, here Aphrodite was worshipped in the palmy days of page 85 Greece, and across the low-lying land, by the slowflowing stream, came the white-clad votaries of the goddess.

A fairer scene I never beheld. Overhead the blue sky, around the circle of green hills, and underfoot aromatic herbs, which when crushed exhaled delightful perfumes. The temple itself, of white marble, amber-hued by sun and time, stood a stone's throw from a reedy stream, and was approached by massive ranges of steps, flanking a broad terrace. On this, elevated thereby above the plain, arose the building itself, with massive fluted columns, ranged in a majestic row; but many were broken, and the temple, completely unroofed, lay bare to wind and rain.

The court was overgrown with rank grass, interspersed with bright flowers, and strewn with the fragments of pillars, altars, and mutilated statues. The western wall had fallen down, but the other three still lifted their pillared fronts to the sky; and at the further end still stood the carven altar before the empty niche which had of yore held the statue of the goddess. Nature had done her best to hide the work of Time and iconoclasts, by covering the ruins with grasses and flowers and stunted shrubs; yet the scene was mournful in its desolation. Under the blue firmament, amid the delights of that flowering plain, still stood the temple of the Cytherean goddess; page 86 but her shrine was empty of its divinity, her altars smokeless, and we barbarians from the grey isle of the West, desecrated the sacred precincts with idle talk and laughter.

Bertha was of the same mind as myself in this, and as we sat eating and drinking amid the ruins, she looked round with a melancholy smile.

“It seems barbarous,” said she in a low voice, “to profane the sanctity of this place.”

“Oh, nonsense!” exclaimed Harry, on whose matter-of-fact nature such a speech was thrown away. “The sanctity of the place has evaporated in thousands of years. We do not believe in god or goddess, so we can have no compunction in making ourselves comfortable here.”

“I wonder if you will express yourself so openly at Isk?” observed Flick dryly.

“Not much, captain. There the religion of Greece is still a power, and I have no wish to figure as a victim.”

“You need have no fear of that, Harry,” said I, looking up. “Aphrodite does not desire human sacrifices.”

“Maybe not,” observed the captain leisurely, “but the Pole Star does.”

“The Pole Star?”

“Ay, lad. The negroes offer a man to the Pole page 87 Star once a year, and very likely the sacred snake receives the same attention.”

“Oh, Harry, I wish you were not going!” sighed poor Aunt Chrissy.

“And what about me, Christina?”

“It is you who are leading Harry astray, Thomas,” she answered reproachfully; “but indeed, you might make better use of your time than in seeking such barbaric places. Why cannot you stay in England?”

“I have no settled income, ma'am,” responded the captain gravely. “Wait till I bring back the statue of Praxiteles and sell it for a large sum. Then I'll stay at home, and go to church, and discuss politics with the rustiest of your provincial cabbages.”

“What is Dosk doing at the altar?” cried Bertha, before a reply could be made. “See, I believe he recognizes the symbols of Venus, and is worshipping.”

I had remarked this before; for while we were speaking Dosk had crept up to the stone, and traced with his finger the myrtles, doves, nymphs, and heifers carved thereon. Some such altar must have existed in his home, for stirred to a dim memory by the familiar imagery, he flung himself on his face, and in guttural tones chaunted that wild melody which I had first heard by the Raleigh Pool. There was something pathetic in the adoration of this solitary negro. The shrine was empty, the altar page 88 bare, the goddess fled; yet here at least she had one faithful worshipper; alas, no bright Greek, but a dusky savage of a people other than those who had reared her fane.

That afternoon we explored the ruins, and found therein many things to excite our curiosity and gratify our sense of beauty. We ventured into the dark little chambers of the priests, descended winding staircases, trod the flagged way along which the processions were wont to pass with dance and song; and read mutilated inscriptions to the foam-born goddess. Up the white walls clambered dark green ivy, lush grasses overgrew the fallen columns, and a jungle of shrub and bush and rank vegetation filled the wide courtyard. But aloft some mighty pillars still reared themselves, and bore on their summits carven processions of maid and youth, with lute and cymbals, and rose-wreathed oxen. Against the fast-darkening sky they rose in solemn beauty, and the place was beginning to fill with shadows, when, lo! a miracle.

Through the doorless entrance streamed the rays of the setting sun, and flooded the temple with gold. It was to my mind—rendered poetical by the spell of the place—as though Apollo in his anger was darting his arrows at the desecrators of that antique fane. Bertha, who was standing by the altar, seized by a page 89 spirit of frolic, stepped lightly thereon, thence into the niche, wherein the statue of the goddess had been in former days.

“Hail, Queen Venus!” cried Harry, entering into the spirit of the jest; but I, impressed by her beauty, heightened at that moment by the sunlight, forebore to speak.

Some loose locks of her golden hair streamed down her breast, and in her long white dress, which nearly resembled the Greek chiton, with bared head and folded hands, she did indeed look beautiful. The glory of the sun etherealized her into something more than mortal, and a worshipper of Aphrodite might well think this English girl was the goddess herself in divine splendour.

A cry from Dosk made us turn our heads. In at the doorway hustled a crowd of black dwarfs, who, wide-eyed and amazed, beheld the appearance—as they doubtless thought, of the incarnate Venus.

“By gum!” roared Flick, darting towards the door, “the negro embassy.”

Ere he could cross the court, they had vanished as by magic, and we emerged on to the terrace to see them swiftly speeding in disorder across the plain.