None could repress their emotion: all were in confusion. But Sisimithres, who had hitherto kept silence, though long since understanding all that was being said and done, yet waiting till the circumstances should become yet clearer, now ran up and embraced Charicles. "Your adopted child," said he, "she whom I formerly delivered into your hands, is safe: she is, and has been acknowledged to be, the daughter of those whom you know."
Upon this Chariclea rushed out of the tent, and overlooking all restraints of sex or maidenly reserve, flung herself at the feet of Charicles, and cried out, "O my father! Ο not less revered than the authors of my birth, punish me, your cruel and ungrateful daughter, as you think fit, regardless of my only excuse, that what has been done was ordained by the irresistible will and appointment of the gods." Persina, on the other side, threw her arms round Hydaspes, and said, "My dear husband, be assured that all this is truth, and that this stranger Greek is her betrothed." The people, on the other hand, leaped and danced for joy; every age and condition were, without exception, delighted—not understanding, indeed, the greater part of what was said, but conjecturing the facts from what had taken place with Chariclea. Perhaps, too, they were brought to a comprehension of the truth by some secret influence of the deity, who had ordered all these events so dramatically, producing out of the greatest discords the most perfect harmony: joy out of grief; smiles from tears; out of a stern spectacle a gladsome feast; laughter from weeping; rejoicing out of mourning; the finding[27] of those who were not sought; the losing[28] of those who were in imagination found; in one word, a holy sacrifice out of an anticipated[29] slaughter.
At length Hydaspes said to Sisimithres, "Ο sage! what are we to do? To defraud the gods of their victims is not pious; to sacrifice those who appear to be preserved and restored by their providence is impious. It needs that some expedient be found out."
Sisimithres, speaking, not in the Grecian, but in the Ethiopian tongue, so as to be heard by the greatest part of the assembly, replied: "Ο king! the wisest among men, as it appears, often have the understanding clouded through excess of joy, else, before this time, you would have discovered that the gods regard not with favour the sacrifice which you have been preparing for them. First they, from the very altar, declared the all-blessed Chariclea to be your daughter; next they brought her foster-father most wonderfully from the midst of Greece to this spot; they struck panic and terror into the horses and oxen which were being prepared for sacrifice, indicating, perhaps, by that event, that those whom custom considered as the more perfect and fitting victims were to be rejected. Now, as the consummation of all good, as the perfection of the piece,[30] they show this Grecian youth to be the betrothed husband of the maiden. Let us give credence to these proofs of the divine and wonder-working will; let us be fellow workers with this will; let us have recourse to holier offerings; let us abolish, for ever, these detested human sacrifices."
When Sisimithres had uttered this, in a loud voice, Hydaspes, speaking also in the Ethiopian tongue, and taking Theagenes and Chariclea by the hand, thus proceeded:—
"Ye who are this day assembled! since these things have been thus brought to pass by the will of the deities, to oppose them would be impious. Wherefore, calling to witness those who have woven these events into the web of destiny, and you whose minds appear to be in concert with them, I sanction the joining together of this pair in wedlock and procreative union. If you approve, let a sacrifice confirm this resolution, and then proceed we with the sacred rites."
The assembly signified their approval by a shout, and clapped their hands, in token of the nuptials being ratified. Hydaspes approached the altar, and, in act to begin the ceremony, said, "Ο lordly Sun and queenly Moon! since by your wills Theagenes and Chariclea have been declared man and wife, they may now lawfully be your ministers." So saying, he took off his own and Persina's mitre, the symbol of the priesthood, and placed his own upon the head of the youth, that of his consort upon the maiden's head.
Upon this Charicles called to mind the oracle which had been given to them in the temple before their flight from Delphi, and acknowledged its fulfilment.
In regions torrid shall arrive at last,
There shall the gods reward their pious vows,
And snowy chaplets bind their dusky brows.[31]
The youthful pair then, crowned by Hydaspes with white mitres, and invested with the dignity of priesthood, sacrificed under propitious omens; and, accompanied by lighted torches and the sounds of pipes and flutes, Theagenes and Hydaspes, Charicles and Sisimithres, in chariots drawn by horses, Persina and Chariclea, in one drawn by milk white oxen, were escorted, into Meröe (amidst shouts, clapping of hands, and dances), there to celebrate with greater magnificence the more mystic portions of the nuptial rites.