“It is well,” said Cheops, his eyes beaming with joy, “Then my task is accomplished. I have at last found a reasonable man. I honour you, for you can command yourself, and now you may command me.”
“I wish it not,” said Edric.
“Have you no curiosity?” asked the Mummy, with a ghastly smile.
“None,” returned Edric; “unless it be that I would fain know your history, and the meaning of the sculptures upon your tomb.”
“What are they?” demanded Cheops.
“A youthful warrior is bearing off a beautiful woman in his arms, whilst an old man laments bitterly in the distance.”
“I was the warrior,” said Cheops; “and the beautiful female was Arsinöe. I loved her, and to gratify my impetuous passion, I tore her from the arms of her father by force.”
“The warrior is afterwards contending with the old man, who falls beneath his blows—”
“He did, he did,” cried Cheops; “he died by my hand; and eternal misery haunts me for the deed.”
“And this old man was—”
“My father!” cried the Mummy, writhing in agony.
“And Arsinöe was—”
“My sister—my own, my beloved sister!”
A solemn pause followed this speech, for Edric was too much shocked to speak again to the awful being who had avowed such crimes, and upon whose face were traced passions too horrible to be imagined. After a short silence Cheops again exclaimed—
“Yes, yes; I see your horror, and it is just; but think you that I do not suffer? know that a fiend—a wild, never-dying fiend rages here,” continued he, pressing his hand upon his breast. “It gnaws my vitals—it burns with unquenchable fire, and never-ceasing torment. Permitted for a time to revisit earth, I have made use of the powers entrusted to me to assist the good and punish the malevolent. Under pretence of aiding them, I gave them counsels which only plunged them yet deeper in destruction, whilst the evil that my advice appeared to bring upon the good, was only like a passing cloud before the sun; it gave lustre to the success that followed. My task is now finished;—be happy, Edric, for happiness is in your power; be wise, for wisdom may be obtained by reflection; and be merciful, for unless we give, how can we expect mercy? Rely not on your own strength—seek not to pry into mysteries designed to be concealed from man; and enjoy the comforts within your reach—for know, that knowledge, above the sphere of man’s capacity, produces only wretchedness; and that to be contented with our station, and to make ourselves useful to our fellow-creatures, is the only true path to happiness.”
The Mummy ceased to speak, and his features, which had appeared wild and animated during his conversation with Edric, became fixed—the unearthly lustre that had flashed from his eyes, faded away, and gave place to a glassy deadness—his limbs became rigid, and as the light of the lamp gradually sunk to less distinctness, the ghastly form of the Mummy seemed rapidly changing into stone. Edric felt that the moment when it was possible for him to hold communion with this strange being was rapidly passing away, and almost shrieked as he exclaimed, “One question! only one ere it be too late.” The Mummy feebly raised his languid eyelids, but Edric felt his blood freeze at the unnatural glare. With a violent effort, however, he roused himself to speak. “Was it a human power that dragged you from the tomb?”
“The power that gave me life could alone restore it,” replied the Mummy in slow measured accents, as it sank gradually back into its former tomb. Edric shuddered, and involuntarily rushed forward, but the Mummy no longer lived or breathed. Cold, pale, and inanimate it lay, as though its sleep of three thousand years had never been broken.
“Oblivion laid him down upon its hearse!”
and no mortal could ever more boast of holding converse with The Mummy.
Colophon
The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century
was published in by
Jane C. Loudon.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Jonathan Erdman,
and is based on a transcription produced in by
Clare Graham and Marc D’Hooghe
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
HathiTrust Digital Library.
The cover page is adapted from
Imprisoned with the Pharaohs,
a painting completed in by
George William Mally.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in and by
The League of Moveable Type.
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