He then looked off toward the piazza from whose seats no response to his appeal had yet come. He was now ready to attend to them. It was kind in them to wait till the less favored class had been cared for. Now let the piazza speak. Though they did not belong to the impecunious class, he would make no distinction between the rich and poor, but would serve all on the same terms. And he walked about the edge of the platform on all sides with one hand behind his ear.
“Your voices are too feeble,” he at length exclaimed; “I must get nearer,” and he descended from the stage by the flight of steps in front of Cimon and Aleph, opened the wicket and stepped on the piazza.
“Perhaps these friends, one of whom seems to me to have come from the native land of astrology and may therefore be presumed to know how potent in human affairs the stars are, will allow me to construct figures for them. Somehow I feel a presentiment as I stand near this young man (and I have never known such presentiments deceive me), that he is entering a critical period in his fortunes, and will need all the light my art can throw on the character of the perils surrounding him and the way of escape. If he will tell me the exact date and place of his birth, I can in a few moments, by means of a great improvement on old methods, make for him a planetary construction that will cover the next few days and be of immense service to him. I trust he believes in the Chaldean science?”
“At present I express neither assent nor dissent,” said Aleph; “I only say that I have no occasion for your art. If perils come I propose to seek help, not from the stars, but from beyond them.”
This was said in so decisive a tone as to forbid further solicitation.
Simon merely added in a voice which plainly betrayed resentment, “Perhaps the young man is aware that the stars are apt to be hostile to those who distinctly refuse them. I foresee that they will be hostile to him.” And, swaying his long loose mantle against the knees of Aleph as he turned, he stalked back to his place on the platform.
There, folding his arms and looking upward intently as if carefully perusing the sky at different points, he remained silent for a while. He then suddenly exclaimed in a voice of thunder, “Oh, the angry aspects! Oh, the threatening configurations! Oh, the malignant Saturn in Aries shooting his rays aslant yonder!”—and he pointed his finger toward the part of the piazza which he had just left. He then turned to the people and said with a voice that seemed oppressed by some mighty burden, “You have just heard me say that sometimes when I am very near a person, and especially if my robe touches him, there comes upon me a presentiment in regard to him which is, in a measure, a substitute for a horoscope—especially if at once followed by such a consultation of the heavens as I have just now given.”
“Tell us what you have discovered,” cried a voice from the court.
“I see,” he cried, “his enterprise miscarrying, his friends forsaking him, his enemies surrounding him. Flight alone will save him. And let him not linger. The black cloud has settled till it touches him—let him rush from under it. The walls of the house have crept together till they press him on every side—let him leap forth before it is too late. The walls of the city have crowded in upon him till the four gates almost meet one another—let him struggle through this or that as best he can, and flee, flee. Flee on the swift Bactrian dromedary, flee on the swift galley with sails and oars, flee as does the ostrich before the Arabian with both feet and wings, flee as do the sands of the desert before the hot Simoom. Else the Chaldean home will wail for the son that never returns.”
This he said with the air of a prophet—his tall form strained to the utmost, his hands lifted, and his voice urgent and full of horror. He retained his tragic attitude and aspect for a little after he had ceased speaking. Meanwhile Helena had stolen up to him, and stood looking skyward as if trying to see what he saw. Suddenly he grasped her arm with one hand and with the other pointed with anxious look toward various parts of the sky: all the while speaking to her in a low voice, as if explaining what they saw. He had an apt scholar. She gave frequent nods of assent, and finally clasped and wrung her hands with as dismayed an air as his own.