Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/130

122 'Ha I you have trespassed on my domain! Yon have seen that fearful star of my destiny, and you have seen it twice; I have also seen it twice in my dreams, when I thought it foretold me nothing but evil—and undying powers of heaven or hell—you have seen my Helen, and she embraced and kissed you. What mysterious chain is binding your fate to mine? Answer me!'

I was dumb.

He now walked rapidly up and down the room, foaming under the influence of some ungovernable passion. Then he stopped suddenly before me and spoke again.

'When you see that star for the third time, I have been told, your victory will be won, and you will be a happy man. Shall I be happy, too, when I see it for the third time? I cannot be happy without my blessed freedom, and the light of the sun of heaven. You saw it twice in the same vision, but from the time I saw it first to its second appearance more than one hundred years elapsed. You saw my Helen, and her mansion, and her garden, and you drank the water of her celestial river, and she embraced and kissed you. I have also seen her in my visions, but she embraced and kissed me not. She took my hand, and smiled on me with her enchanting smile, and danced round me like an enraptured fawn. Tell me,' he shouted fiercely—'tell me, are you that villain, Banwell Reginald?'

'I am not; I never heard of him.'

'You are not; he never had your eyes or your forehead, or your lips which my Helen hath pressed with hers.'

'You forget, Doctor, that it was only in a dream; and how can you say that the girl I saw was your Helen? Remember also this very remarkable fact, in which I see a prodigious quantity of ointment to heal your wounded spirit, you say that Helen smiled sweetly upon you, and danced round you like a fawn. Does not that show plainly