“The fiery crowns concluded the exhibition, and at a late hour the company separated, and each sought his pillow.”
[CHAPTER VI.]
ARRIVAL OF THE EDITOR.
“Too excited to sleep, I threw myself upon the sofa, and turned the strange series of events over in my mind. Two things were absolutely certain, nay, three—1st, That neither Ravalette, Vatterale, nor the Italian Count, were men as are other men; 2d, that not one of the company suspected this fact; and 3d, that myself was the object, sole and alone, of these extraordinary visitations. Above and beyond all these, it was plain that my destiny was rapidly approaching a crisis, and that the Stranger (mentioned in the legend), as well as Dhoula Bel, were still influencing me for purposes which I could not divine to their full extent. I had already become a Rosicrucian, had passed through five degrees, had visited the Orient, and was about to go again, had learned many dark and solemn mysteries, been instructed in several degrees of magic, knew all about the Elixir of life, the power of will, the art of reading others’ destinies, of constructing and using magic mirrors, and how to discover mines of precious metal, and had deeply regretted that the terrible oath whereby the true Rosicrucian binds himself never to seek wealth for himself, and never to accept riches as the price of the exercise of his power, prevented me from availing myself of its advantages. I knew that on the altar of knowledge I had sacrificed all the deeper interests of my nature. I knew that my heart yearned for woman’s love—that she held one portion of my soul captive at times, but never filled it—that there was a possibility of escaping what I dreaded, could I meet and mingle with a certain soul in whose body ran no drop of Adamic blood; and I almost resolved to abandon all hope, perform the part required of me by my tempters of Belleville, the Tuilleries, and Boston, when suddenly I remembered the paper that Ravalette had placed in my hand, as also the present left for me by Vatterale, but, resolving to omit all care concerning them till morning, at length I succeeded in falling into an uneasy slumber, from which I awoke late on the following morning to find that you, my dear friend [the Editor], had just arrived from Alexandria, and had called upon me.”
[CHAPTER VII.]
THE GRAND SECRET?
It now devolves upon the Editor of these pages to complete the narrative of Beverly, his friend.
I had just reached Paris from Marseilles, where I had arrived a few days before, by way of Malta, from Alexandria. On reaching Paris it was my intention to rest but one night there, and then pursue my way via Rouen, in Normandy, to Diéppe and England, and thence home to America. Like all other travellers, I desired to spend a week in Paris, but business prevented, consequently I made preparations to leave the famous city on the day following my arrival; but I resigned myself to this necessity with all the more fortitude, for the reason that by so doing I should be able to retain the company of a very pleasant gentleman, whose society I had enjoyed continually from Cairo, where we first met, to Paris, and which I might, by making no stop in the latter place, continue to enjoy all the way home, as he intended to start just so soon as he rejoined his daughter, who, for about three years had been receiving her education in Paris, and whom he was about to conduct to his home—a newly-purchased one in New York.
The history of Mr. Im Hokeis and his adventures, as related to me on our journey, are so well worth repeating that I shall give a short abstract, even at the risk of enlarging this chapter.
“I was born,” said he, “on the banks of the Caspian Sea, of the family of Hokeis—a sacred family, in whom was invested the highest order of Priesthood, and on whom devolved the care of the sacred fire, for we were Guebres, and the fire must never be extinguished, nor had it been, so say our records, for many thousand years, for Religion with us is quite a different thing from what it is among the men of Islam, India, Rome, or the West. We pride ourselves upon the purity of our faith, and its superiority to all that is professed by the children of Adam, quite as much as we do our Pedigree from Ish, the great founder of our race and a powerful pre-Adamite king and conqueror.”
I cannot now afford time to repeat the arguments by which Im Hokeis demonstrated the startling proposition that there were other people living on earth besides those who claimed Adam as their founder. All this may be found elsewhere.[9] He said that he was destined from birth to be chief priest of the Faith, and had married a woman of his tribe and rank, at the early age of seventeen. Near the time he was about being ordained, war had broken out between the Guebres and their Persian tyrants. Himself and wife were captured, taken to Herat, and there condemned to lose their eyes, from which horrible fate they were rescued by a member of the British Embassy, with whom they remained for nearly three years, by which time they had mastered the English language. While in the service of the minister, Hokeis had the good fortune to save his life, in consequence of which a friendship sprung up between them so strong, that when the Embassy returned to Britain the two Guebres went with it. Arrived in London, Hokeis received an appointment as interpreter, and soon accumulated means, after which he entered into a direct trade with Persia, and although, during the nine years in which he was engaged therein, heaven had not sent him any children, yet it had blessed him with abounding wealth.
At length, in the thirteenth year of their married life, their prayer was answered, and it became evident that God was about to send them a child. He did, and a beautiful girl was born, but the eyes of her mother were closed in death at the moment it first saw the light.