“But Chares put his hand on my arm and led me out of the temple.
“‘Leave your memories now, and let us go in and sleep,’ he said. ‘See, a new day has begun—the greatest day for me in this my present life.’ He pointed to the east, where the first grey streaks of dawn were visible, and I followed him into the house. So for the first time I remembered. There have been many, many lives since, and in some of them I again forgot all that had gone before. But, once more now, the old man you know as ‘Mr. Sheston,’ remembers again, otherwise he would not be telling you this story—which is nearly at an end.
“When the sun rose we were awakened by the sound of trumpets, the clashing of bells and the shouting of the workmen who were dragging the huge brazen figure on its wheeled platform from the workshop. Later on in the morning, came the procession through the city, where Chares led my beautiful sister up to the great temple. Children strewed flowers before them as they passed through shouting multitudes, praising Chares and showering blessings upon him and his newly made bride.
‘IT WILL LAST FOR EVER’
“By sundown, hundreds of workmen working with a will had set up the statue, on a pedestal at the entrance to the harbour, and now crowds of the citizens took ship, to view it from the sea.
“In a gorgeously painted barge, all my household, with Chares and my sister in the places of honour, floated out of the harbour, and we turned to gaze at the wonderful figure. It flashed and glittered in the light of the setting sun, as though the god thus by a gracious sign accepted the gift. A mighty and beautiful figure it was, towering against the sky; a giant in bronze, proud, stately and awe-inspiring—a fit memorial of the famous siege of Rhodes. Well might it become, as it did, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
“‘It will last for ever—like the Pyramids!’ I whispered to Chares as I took his hand.
“Little did any of us know that it would last little longer than one lifetime. In eighty years that marvellous statue was a heap of ruins. A great earthquake, which shook Rhodes to its foundations, shattered it also to fragments, and only a memory of one of the most famous statues in the world remained. And even that memory faded and grew false, for legends gathered about the celebrated ‘Colossus of Rhodes,’ and men actually believed that it had stood astride the harbour and that ships in full sail passed under its huge body as under an arch.
“This could only have been thought possible by men who had forgotten, or never knew, the beautiful Greek sculpture. Never could a Greek artist have made a figure ugly and grotesque as this would have been, if later descriptions had been true. And I who saw the statue daily, smile when, sometimes even in these days, I read such a description of it in books of history. Chares was a true artist, and his simple, noble statue was worthy of him, and worthy of its fame as one of the World’s Seven Wonders.”