TO THE VICOMTE EUGÈNE MELCHIOR DE VOGUE
"Magos regos fere habuit Oriens."{*}
—Tertullian.
In those days Balthasar, whom the Greeks called Saracin, reigned in Ethiopia. He was black, but comely of countenance. He had a simple soul and a generous heart The third year of his reign, which was the twenty-second of his age, he left his dominions on a visit to Balkis, Queen of Sheba. The mage Sembobitis and the eunuch Menkera accompanied him. He had in his train seventy-five camels bearing cinnamon, myrrh, gold dust, and elephants' tusks.
As they rode, Sembobitis instructed him in the influences of the planets,{*} as well as in the virtues of precious stones, and Menkera sang to him canticles from the sacred mysteries. He paid but little heed to them, but amused himself instead watching the jackals with their ears pricked up, sitting erect on the edge of the desert.
* The East commonly held kings versed in magic.
At last, after a march of twelve days, Balthasar became conscious of the fragrance of roses, and very soon they saw the gardens that surround the city of Sheba. On their way they passed young girls dancing under pomegranate trees in full bloom.
"The dance," said Sembobitis the mage, "is a prayer."
"One could sell these women for a great price," said Menkera the eunuch.
As they entered the city they were amazed at the extent of the sheds and warehouses and workshops that lay before them, and also at the immense quantities of merchandise with which these were piled.
For a long time they walked through streets thronged with chariots, street porters, donkeys and donkey-drivers, until all at once the marble walls, the purple awnings and the gold cupolas of the palace of Balkis, lay spread out before them.
The Queen of Sheba received them in a courtyard cooled by jets of perfumed water which fell with a tinkling cadence like a shower of pearls.
Smiling, she stood before them in a jewelled robe.
At sight of her Balthasar was greatly troubled.
She seemed to him lovelier than a dream and more beautiful than desire.
"My lord," and Sembobitis spoke under his breath, "remember to conclude a good commercial treaty with the queen."
"Have a care, my lord," Menkera added. "It is said she employs magic with which to gain the love of men."
Then, having prostrated themselves, the mage and the eunuch retired.
Balthasar, left alone with Balkis, tried to speak; he opened his mouth but he could not utter a word. He said to himself, "The queen will be angered at my silence."
But the queen still smiled and looked not at all angry. She was the first to speak with a voice sweeter than the sweetest music.
"Be welcome, and sit down at my side." And with a slender finger like a ray of white light she pointed to the purple cushions on the ground. Balthasar sat down, gave a great sigh, and grasping a cushion in each hand he cried hastily:
"Madam, I would these two cushions were two giants, your enemies; I would wring their necks."
And as he spoke he clutched the cushions with such violence in his hands that the delicate stuff cracked and out flew a cloud of snow-white down. One of the tiny feathers swayed a moment in the air and then alighted on the bosom of the queen.
"My lord Balthasar," Balkis said, blushing; "why do you wish to kill giants?"
"Because I love you," said Balthasar.
"Tell me," Balkis asked, "is the water good in the wells of your capital?"
"Yes," Balthasar replied in some surprise.
"I am also curious to know," Balkis continued, "how a dry conserve of fruit is made in Ethiopia?"
The king did not know what to answer.
"Now please tell me, please," she urged.
Whereupon with a mighty effort of memory he tried to describe how Ethiopian cooks preserve quinces in honey. But she did not listen. And suddenly, she interrupted him.
"My lord, it is said that you love your neighbour, Queen Candace. Is she more beautiful than I am? Do not deceive me."
"More beautiful than you, madam," Balthasar cried as he fell at the feet of Balkis, "how could that possibly be!"
"Well, then, her eyes? her mouth, her colour? her throat?" the queen continued.
With his arms outstretched towards her, Balthasar cried:
"Give me but the little feather that has fallen on your neck and in return you shall have half my kingdom as well as the wise Sembobitis and Menkera the eunuch."
But she rose and fled with a ripple of dear laughter.
When the mage and the eunuch returned they found their master plunged deep in thought which was not his custom.
"My lord!" asked Sembobitis, "have you concluded a good commercial treaty?"
That day Balthasar supped with the Queen of Sheba and drank the wine of the palm-tree.
"It is true, then," said Balkis as they supped together, "that Queen Guidace is not so beautiful as I?"
"Queen Candace is black," replied Balthasar.
Balkis looked expressively at Balthasar.
"One may be black and yet not ill-looking," she said.
"Balkis!" cried the king.
He said no more, but seized her in his arms, and the head of the queen sank back under the pressure of his lips. But he saw that she was weeping. Thereupon he spoke to her in the low, caressing tones that nurses use to their nurslings. He called her his little blossom and his little star.
"Why do you weep?" he asked. "And what must one do to dry your tears? If you have a desire tell me and it shall be fulfilled."
She ceased weeping, but she was sunk deep in thought He implored her a long time to tell him her desire. And at last she spoke.
"I wish to know fear."
And as Balthasar did not seem to understand, she explained to him that for a long time past she had greatly longed to face some unknown danger, but she could not, for the men and gods of Sheba watched over her.
"And yet," she added with a sigh, "during the night I long to feel the delicious chill of terror penetrate my flesh. To have my hair stand up on my head with horror. O! it would be such joy to be afraid!"
She twined her arms about the neck of the dusky king, and said with the voice of a pleading child:
"Night has come. Let us go through the town in disguise. Are you willing?"
He agreed. She ran to the window at once and looked though the lattice into the square below.
"A beggar is lying against the palace wall. Give him your garments and ask him in exchange for his camel-hair turban and the coarse cloth girt about his loins. Be quick and I will dress myself."
And she ran out of the banqueting-hall joyfully clapping her hands one against the other.
Balthasar took off his linen tunic embroidered with gold and girded himself with the skirt of the beggar. It gave him the look of a real slave. The queen soon reappeared dressed in the blue seamless garment of the women who work in the fields.
"Come!" she said.
And she dragged Balthasar along the narrow corridors towards a little door which opened on the fields.
The night was dark, and in the darkness of the night Balkis looked very small.
She led Balthasar to one of the taverns where wastrels and street porters foregathered along with prostitutes. The two sat down at a table and saw through the foul air by the light of a fetid lamp, unclean human brutes attack each other with fists and knives for a woman or a cup of fermented liquor, while others with clenched fists snored under the tables. The tavern-keeper, lying on a pile of sacking, watched the drunken brawlers with a prudent eye. Balkis, having seen some salt fish hanging from the rafters of the ceiling, said to her companion:
"I much wish to eat one of these fish with pounded onions."
Balthasar gave the order. When she had eaten he discovered that he had forgotten to bring money. It gave him no concern, for he thought that he could slip out with her without paying the reckoning. But the tavern-keeper barred their way, calling them a vile slave and a worthless she-ass. Balthasar struck him to the ground with a blow of his fist. Whereupon some of the drinkers drew their knives and flung themselves on the two strangers. But the black man, seizing an enormous pestle used to pound Egyptian onions, knocked down two of his assailants and forced the others back. And all the while he was conscious of the warmth of Balkis' body as she cowered close against him; it was this which made him invincible.
The tavern-keeper's friends, not daring to approach again, flung at him from the end of the pot-house jars of oil, pewter vessels, burning lamps, and even the huge bronze cauldron in which a whole sheep was stewing. This cauldron fell with a horrible crash on Balthasar's head and split his skull. For a moment he stood as if dazed, and then summoning all his strength he flung the cauldron back with such force that its weight was increased tenfold. The shock of the hurtling metal was mingled with indescribable roars and death rattles. Profiting by the terror of the survivors, and fearing that Balkis might be injured, he seized her in his arms and fled with her through the silence and darkness of the lonely byways. The stillness of night enveloped the earth, and the fugitives heard the clamour of the women and the carousers, who pursued them at haphazard, die away in the darkness. Soon they heard nothing more than the sound of dripping blood as it fell from the brow of Balthasar on the breast of Balkis.
"I love you," the queen murmured.
And by the light of the moon as it emerged from behind a cloud the king saw the white and liquid radiance of her half-closed eyes. They descended the dry bed of a stream, and suddenly Balthasar's foot slipped on the moss and they fell together locked in each other's embrace. They seemed to sink forever into a delicious void, and the world of the living ceased to exist for them. They were still plunged in the enchanting forgetfulness of time, space and separate existence, when at daybreak the gazelles came to drink out of the hollows among the stones.
At that moment a passing band of brigands discovered the two lovers lying on the moss.
"They are poor," they said, "but we shall sell them for a great price, for they are so young and beautiful."
Upon which they surrounded them, and having bound them they tied them to the tail of an ass and proceeded on their way.
The black man so bound threatened the brigands with death. But Balkis, who shivered in the cool, fresh air of the morning, only smiled, as if at something unseen.