Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 47

MIERIS. Nothing is impossible to the G.o.ds, even to ours; how much more then to his!--He did not yield to your prayers!--Insist, order, threaten! Force him to speak. You have the right to command him. He is but the son of a potter after all. Let him be whipped till he yield. Do anything, have him whipped to the point of death--or better, offer him fields, the hill of date-trees that is ours; offer him our flocks, and my jewels and precious stones--tell him we know him for a living G.o.d--but I would be healed. I would be healed! I would see! See! [_With anger_] Ah! you know not the worth of the light, you whose eyes are filled with it! You cannot picture my misery, you who suffer it not! You grieve for me, I doubt not, but you think you have done enough, having given me pity!--No, no, I am wrong--I am unjust. But forgive me; this thought that I might be healed has made me mad. Rheou!--Think, Rheou, what it means to be blind, to have been so always, and to know that beside one are those who see--who see!--The humblest of our shepherds, the most wretched of the women at our looms, I envy them. And when, at times, I hear them complain, I curb myself lest I should strike them, wretches that know not their good fortune. I feel that all you, you who see, should never cease from songs of joy, and hymns of thanksgiving to the G.o.ds--[_With an outburst_] I speak of sight! Think, Rheou, I have not even a clear idea of what it means "to see." To recognize without touch, to know without need to listen. To perceive the sun another way than by the heat of its rays!--They say the flowers are so beautiful!--I would see _you_, my well-beloved. Oh! the day when I shall see your eyes!--I would see, that you may show me some likeness of the little child we lost. You shall point out, among the rest, those that are most like to him. This misery--O my beloved!--I do not often speak of it--but I suffer it! I suffer it! [_She is in his arms_] They have taken from me the hope that our G.o.ds will heal me, if they give me nothing in its place, know you what I shall do?--I shall go away, alone, one night, touching the walls, and the trees--and the trees, with my arms outstretched; I shall go down as far as the Nile and there, gently, I shall glide away to death.

RHEOU. Peace, O my best beloved!

MIERIS [_listening_] I hear him--he comes. I leave you with him! Lead him to my door--love me--save me!

_She attempts to go out, he leads her. Satni enters followed by Nourm, Sokiti, and Bitiou._

NOURM. Yes! Thou who art mighty!--Yes! Yes! Make me rich--I have had blows of the stick so long! I would be rich to be able to give them in my turn!--You have but to speak the magic words.

SATNI [_somewhat brutally_] Leave me! I am no magician.

SOKITI. I, I do not ask for money. Listen not to him; he is bad. I, I only ask that you make Khames die; he has taken from me the girl I would have wed. [_Satni pushes him away. Sokiti, weeping, clings to his garments_] Grant it, I implore you--I implore you!--My life is gone with her--make him die, I pray you.

SATNI. Leave me!

SOKITI. Hear me.

BITIOU [_coming between them and striking Sokiti_] Begone! Begone! He would not hear you! [_Sokiti goes out_] Listen--listen--you see I made him go. All--all whom you will, I shall beat them for you. Listen--if you could make me tall like you, and steady on my legs--See--here--I have hidden away, safe, three gold rings, that I stole a while since; I will give them you.

SATNI. Go, take them to the high priest--

BITIOU [_pitiably_] I have given four to him already.

_Sokiti and Nourm are conferring together. Enter Rheou.

They run away, Bitiou follows, falling and picking himself up._

RHEOU. What do they want of you?

SATNI. They came here, following me. They believe me gifted with supernatural power, and crave miracles of me, as though I were a G.o.d, or a juggler. I am neither, and I work no miracles.

RHEOU. None the less you have worked two miracles.

SATNI. Not one.

RHEOU. And you will work yet one more.

SATNI. Never. I came hither not to perform miracles, but to prevent them.

RHEOU. You will heal Mieris.

SATNI. No one can heal her, nor I, nor any other.

RHEOU. Give her a little hope.

SATNI. How can I?

RHEOU. Tell her you will invoke your G.o.d, and that some day perhaps--

SATNI. I have no G.o.d. If there be a G.o.d, he is so great, so far from as, so utterly beyond our comprehension, that for us it is as though he did not exist. To believe that one of our actions, to believe that a prayer could act upon the will of G.o.d, is to belittle him, to deny him. He is himself incapable of a miracle; it would be to belie himself. Could he improve his work, he would not then have created it perfect from the first. He could not do it.

RHEOU. Our ancient G.o.ds at least permitted hope.

SATNI. Keep them.

RHEOU. In the heart of Mieris, you have destroyed them.

SATNI. Do you regret it?

RHEOU. Not yet.

SATNI. What would you say?

RHEOU. Even if it be true that sight will never be given her, do not tell her so. Far better promise that she will be healed.

SATNI. And to all the others, must I promise healing too? Because in a house I relieved a child, whose illness sprang from a cause I could remove; because a woman, ill in imagination, did cure herself by touching my garment's hem; must I then descend to play the part of sorcerer? I had behind me there, but now, a rabble of the wretched imploring me, believing me all powerful, begging for them and theirs unrealizable miracles. Should I then cheat them too, all those poor wretches, promising what I know I cannot give? I came hither to make an end of lies, not to replace them with others.

RHEOU [_with pa.s.sion_] Ah! You would not lie. You would not lie to the wretched. You would not lie to Mieris. You would lie to no one, is it so?

SATNI. To no one.

RHEOU. We shall see! [_Calling right_] Yaouma!--Let them send Yaouma!

[_To Satni_] Not to her either, then? Good; if you speak the truth to her, if you deny that you have supernatural power, if you force her to believe you had no hand in the miracle that saved her yesterday, she will give herself to the priests, or she will kill herself! What will you do?

_Yaouma enters, she tries to prostrate herself before Satni, who prevents her. In the meantime the Steward greatly moved has come to whisper to Rheou._

RHEOU [_deeply moved_] He is there!

STEWARD. In person.

RHEOU. 'Tis an order of the Pharaoh then?

STEWARD. Yes.

RHEOU. I am troubled.

_He goes out with the Steward._

SATNI [_to Yaouma_] What is it ails you? Why are you so sad?

YAOUMA. You will want nothing more of me, now that you are a G.o.d.

SATNI. Be not afraid: I am not a G.o.d.

YAOUMA. Almost. 'Tis a daughter of the Pharaoh you will marry now.

SATNI. I will marry you.

YAOUMA. You will swear to.