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J.A. Giles - "On The Ruin of Britain (De Excidio Britanniae) by Gildas"

Arthur B. Reeve - "The Poisoned Pen"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre Buch 7"

the American Tract Society - "Step by Step; or Tidy's Way to Freedom"

The Lost Continent

C >> C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne >> The Lost Continent




"It is not I that can carry on Deucalion's work with Deucalion's
power, but rest content, my friend, that I shall do my humble
best to follow exactly on in your footsteps. Believe me, I came
out to this government with a thousand regrets, but I would have
died sooner than take your place had I known how vigorously the
supplanting would trouble you."

"We are alone here," I said, "away from the formalities of formal
assemblies, and a man may give vent to his natural self without
fear of tarnishing a ceremony. Your coming was something of the
suddenest. Till an hour ago, when you demanded audience, I had
thought to rule on longer; and even now I do not know for what
cause I am deposed."

"The proclamation said: 'We relieve our well-beloved Deucalion
of his present service, because we have great need of his powers at
home in our kingdom of Atlantis.'"

"A mere formality."

Tatho looked uneasily round the hangings of the chamber, and
drew me with him to its centre, and lowered his voice.

"I do not think so," he whispered. "I believe she has need of
you. There are troublous times on hand, and Phorenice wants the
ablest men in the kingdom ready to her call."

"You may speak openly," I said, "and without fear of
eavesdroppers. We are in the heart of the pyramid here, built in
every way by a man's length of solid stone. Myself, I oversaw the
laying of every course. And besides, here in Yucatan, we have not
the niceties of your old world diplomacy, and do not listen,
because we count it shame to do so."

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "I acted only according to mine
education. At home, a loose tongue makes a loose head, and there
are those whose trade it is to carry tales. Still, what I say is
this: The throne shakes, and Phorenice sees the need of sturdy
props. So she has sent this proclamation."

"But why come to me? It is twenty years since I sailed to
this colony, and from that day I have not returned to Atlantis
once. I know little of the old country's politics. What small
parcel of news drifts out to us across the ocean, reads with
slender interest here. Yucatan is another world, my dear Tatho, as
you in the course of your government will learn, with new
interests, new people, new everything. To us here, Atlantis is
only a figment, a shadow, far away across the waters. It is for
this new world of Yucatan that I have striven through all these
years."

"If Deucalion has small time to spare from his government for
brooding over his fatherland, Atlantis, at least, has found leisure
to admire the deeds of her brilliant son. Why, sir, over yonder at
home, your name carries magic with it. When you and I were lads
together, it was the custom in the colleges to teach that the men
of the past were the greatest this world has ever seen; but to-day
this teaching is changed. It is Deucalion who is held up as the
model and example. Mothers name their sons Deucalion, as the most
valuable birth-gift they can make. Deucalion is a household word.
Indeed, there is only one name that is near to it in familiarity."

"You trouble me," I said, frowning. "I have tried to do my
duty for its own sake, and for the country's sake, not for the
pattings and fondlings of the vulgar. And besides, if there are
names to be in every one's mouth, they should be the names of the
Gods."

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "The Gods? They occupy us very
little these latter years. With our modern science, we have grown
past the tether of the older Gods, and no new one has appeared.
No, my Lord Deucalion, if it were merely the Gods who were your
competitors on men's lips, your name would be a thousand times the
better known."

"Of mere human names," I said, "the name of this new Empress
should come first in Atlantis, our lord the old King being now
dead."

"She certainly would have it so," replied Tatho, and there was
something in his tone which made me see that more was meant behind
the words. I drew him to one of the marble seats, and bent myself
familiarly towards him. "I am speaking," I said, "not to the new
Viceroy of Yucatan, but to my old friend Tatho, a member of the
Priests' Clan, like myself, with whom I worked side by side in a
score of the smaller home governments, in hamlets, in villages, in
smaller towns, in greater towns, as we gained experience in war and
knowledge in the art of ruling people, and so tediously won our
promotion. I am speaking in Tatho's private abode, that was mine
own not two hours since, and I would have an answer with that
plainness which we always then used to one another."

The new Viceroy sighed whimsically. "I almost forget how to
speak in plain words now," he said. "We have grown so polished in
these latter days, that mere bald truth would be hissed as
indelicate. But for the memory of those early years, when we
expended as much law and thought over the ownership of a hay-byre
as we should now over the fate of a rebellious city, I will try and
speak plain to you even now, Deucalion. Tell me, old friend, what
is it?"

"What of this new Empress?"

He frowned. "I might have guessed your subject," he said.


"Then speak upon it. Tell me of all the changes that have
been made. What has this Phorenice done to make her throne
unstable in Atlantis?"

Tatho frowned still. "If I did not know you to be as honest
as our Lord the Sun, your questions would carry mischief with them.
Phorenice has a short way with those who are daring enough to
discuss her policies for other purpose than politely to praise
them."

"You can leave me ignorant if you wish," I said with a touch
of chill. This Tatho seemed to be different from the Tatho I had
known at home, Tatho my workmate, Tatho who had read with me in the
College of Priests, who had run with me in many a furious charge,
who had laboured with me so heavily that the peoples under us might
prosper. But he was quick enough to see my change of tone.

"You force me back to my old self," he said with a half smile,
"though it is hard enough to forget the caution one has learned
during the last twenty years, even when speaking with you. Still,
whatever may have happened to the rest of us, it is clear to see
that you at least have not changed, and, old friend, I am ready to
trust you with my life if you ask it. In fact, you do ask me that
very thing when you tell me to speak all I know of Phorenice."

I nodded. This was more like the old times, when there was
full confidence between us. "The Gods will it now that I return to
Atlantis," I said, "and what happens after that the Gods alone
know. But it would be of service to me if I could land on her
shores with some knowledge of this Phorenice, for at present I am
as ignorant concerning her as some savage from Europe or
mid-Africa."

"What would you have me tell?"

"Tell all. I know only that she, a woman, reigns, whereby the
ancient law of the land, a man should rule; that she is not even of
the Priestly Clan from which the law says all rulers must be drawn;
and that, from what you say, she has caused the throne to totter.
The throne was as firm as the everlasting hills in the old King's
day, Tatho."

"History has moved with pace since then, and Phorenice has
spurred it. You know her origin?"

"I know only the exact little I have told you."

"She was a swineherd's daughter from the mountains, though
this is never even whispered now, as she has declared herself to be
a daughter of the Gods, with a miraculous birth and upbringing. As
she has decreed it a sacrilege to question this parentage, and has
ordered to be burnt all those that seem to recollect her more
earthly origin, the fable passes current for truth. You see the
faith I put in you, Deucalion, by telling you what you wish to
learn."

"There has always been trust between us."

"I know; but this habit of suspicion is hard to cast off, even
with you. However, let me put your good faith between me and the
torture further. Zaemon, you remember, was governor of the
swineherd's province, and Zaemon's wife saw Phorenice and took her
away to adopt and bring up as her own. It is said that the
swineherd and his woman objected; perhaps they did; anyway, I know
they died; and Phorenice was taught the arts and graces, and
brought up as a daughter of the Priestly Clan."

"But still she was an adopted daughter only," I objected.

"The omission of the 'adopted' was her will at an early age,"
said Tatho dryly, "and she learnt early to have her wishes carried
into fact. It was notorious that before she had grown to fifteen
years she ruled not only the women of the household, but Zaemon
also, and the province that was beyond Zaemon."

"Zaemon was learned," I said, "and a devout follower of the
Gods, and searcher into the higher mysteries; but, as a ruler, he
was always a flabby fellow."

"I do not say that opportunities have not come usefully in
Phorenice's way, but she has genius as well. For her to have
raised herself at all from what she was, was remarkable. Not one
woman out of a thousand, placed as she was, would have grown to be
aught higher than a mere wife of some sturdy countryman, who was
sufficiently simple to care nothing for pedigree. But look at
Phorenice: it was her whim to take exercise as a man-at-arms and
practise with all the utensils of war; and then, before any one
quite knows how or why it happened, a rebellion had broken out in
the province, and here was she, a slip of a girl, leading Zaemon's
troops."

"Zaemon, when I knew him, was a mere derision in the field."

"Hear me on. Phorenice put down the rebellion in masterly
fashion, and gave the conquered a choice between sword and service.
They fell into her ranks at once, and were faithful to her from
that moment. I tell you, Deucalion, there is a marvellous
fascination about the woman."

"Her present historian seems to have felt it."

"Of course I have. Every one who sees her comes under her
spell. And frankly, I am in love with her also, and look upon my
coming here as detestable exile. Every one near to Phorenice, high
and low, loves her just the same, even though they know it may be
her whim to send them to execution next minute."

Perhaps I let my scorn of this appear.

"You feel contempt for our weakness? You were always a strong
man, Deucalion."

"At any rate you see me still unmarried. I have found no time
to palter with the fripperies of women."

"Ah, but these colonists here are crude and unfascinating.
Wait till you see the ladies of the court, my ascetic."

"It comes to my mind," I said dryly, "that I lived in Atlantis
before I came out here, and at that time I used to see as much of
court life as most men. Yet then, also, I felt no inducement to
marry."

Tatho chuckled. "Atlantis has changed so that you would hardly
know the country to-day. A new era has come over everything,
especially over the other sex. Well do I remember the women of
the old King's time, how monstrous uncomely they were, how
little they knew how to walk or carry themselves, how painfully
barbaric was their notion of dress. I dare swear that your ladies
here in Yucatan are not so provincial to-day as ours were then.
But you should see them now at home. They are delicious. And
above all in charm is the Empress. Oh, Deucalion, you shall see
Phorenice in all her glorious beauty and her magnificence one of
these fine days soon, and believe me you will go down on your knees
and repent."

"I may see, and (because you say so) I may alter my life's
ways. The Gods make all things possible. But for the present I
remain as I am, celibate, and not wishful to be otherwise; and so
in the meantime I would hear the continuance of your history."

"It is one long story of success. She deposed Zaemon from his
government in name as well as in fact, and the news was spread, and
the Priestly Clan rose in its wrath. The two neighbouring
governors were bidden join forces, take her captive, and bring her
for execution. Poor men! They tried to obey their orders; they
attacked her surely enough, but in battle she could laugh at them.
She killed both, and made some slaughter amongst their troops; and
to those that remained alive and became her prisoners, she made her
usual offer--the sword or service. Naturally they were not long
over making their choice: to these common people one ruler is much
the same as another: and so again her army was reinforced.

"Three times were bodies of soldiery sent against her, and three
times was she victorious. The last was a final effort. Before,
it had been customary to despise this adventuress who had sprung
up so suddenly. But then the priests began to realise their
peril; to see that the throne itself was in danger; and to know
that if she were to be crushed, they would have to put forth their
utmost. Every man who could carry arms was pressed into the
service. Every known art of war was ordered to be put into
employment. It was the largest army, and the best equipped army
that Atlantis then had ever raised, and the Priestly Clan saw fit
to put in supreme command their general, Tatho."

"You!" I cried.

"Even myself, Deucalion. And mark you, I fought my utmost.
I was not her creature then; and when I set out (because they
wanted to spur me to the uttermost) the High Council of the priests
pointed out my prospects. The King we had known so long, was
ailing and wearily old; he was so wrapped up in the study of the
mysteries, and the joy of closely knowing them, that earthly
matters had grown nauseous to him; and at any time he might decide
to die. The Priestly Clan uses its own discretion in the election
of a new king, but it takes note of popular sentiment; and a
general who at the critical time could come home victorious from a
great campaign, which moreover would release a harassed people from
the constant application of arms, would be the idol of the moment.
These things were pointed out to me solemnly and in the full
council."

"What! They promised you the throne?"

"Even that. So you see I set out with a high stake before me.
Phorenice I had never seen, and I swore to take her alive, and give
her to be the sport of my soldiery. I had a fine confidence in my
own strategy then, Deucalion. But the old Gods, in whom I trusted
then, remained old, taught me no new thing. I drilled and
exercised my army according to the forms you and I learnt together,
old comrade, and in many a tough fight found to serve well; I armed
them with the choicest weapons we knew of then, with sling and
mace, with bow and spear, with axe and knife, with sword and the
throwing fire; their bodies I covered with metal plates; even their
bellies I cared for, with droves of cattle driven in the rear of
the fighting troops.

"But when the encounter came, they might have been men of
straw for all the harm they did. Out of her own brain Phorenice
had made fire-tubes that cast a dart which would kill beyond two
bowshots, and the fashion in which she handled her troops dazzled
me. They threatened us on one flank, they harassed us on the
other. It was not war as we had been accustomed to. It was a
newer and more deadly game, and I had to watch my splendid army
eaten away as waves eat a sandhill. Never once did I get a chance
of forcing close action. These new tactics that had come from
Phorenice's invention, were beyond my art to meet or understand.
We were eight to her one, and our close-packed numbers only made us
so much the more easy for slaughter. A panic came, and those who
could fled. Myself, I had no wish to go back and earn the axe that
waits for the unsuccessful general. I tried to die there fighting
where I stood. But death would not come. It was a fine melee,
Deucalion, that last one."

"And so she took you?"

"I stood with three others back to back, with a ring of dead round
us, and a ring of the enemy hemming us in. We taunted them to
come on. But at hand-to-hand courtesies we had shown we could hold
our own, and so they were calling for fire-tubes with which they
could strike us down in safety from a distance. Then up came
Phorenice. 'What is this to-do?' says she. 'We seek to kill Lord
Tatho, who led against you,' say they. 'So that is Tatho?' says
she. 'A fine figure of a man indeed, and a pretty fighter
seemingly, after the old manner. Doubtless he is one who would
acquire the newer method. See now Tatho,' says she, 'it is my
custom to offer those I vanquish either the sword (which, believe
me, was never nearer your neck than now) or service under my
banner. Will you make a choice?'

"'Woman,' I said, 'fairest that ever I saw, finest general the
world has ever borne, you tempt me sorely by your qualities, but
there is a tradition in our Clan, that we should be true to the
salt we eat. I am the King's man still, and so I can take no
service from you.'

"'The King is dead,' says she. 'A runner has just brought the
tidings, meaning them to have fallen into your hands. And I am the
Empress.'

"'Who made you Empress?' I asked.

"'The same most capable hand that has given me this battle,'
says she. 'It is a capable hand, as you have seen: it can be a
kind hand also, as you may learn if you choose. With the King
dead, Tatho is a masterless man now. Is Tatho in want of a
mistress?'

"'Such a glorious mistress as you,' I said, 'Yes.' And from
that moment, Deucalion, I have been her slave. Oh, you may frown;
you may get up from this seat and walk away if you will. But I ask
you this: keep back your worst judgment of me, old friend, till
after you have seen Phorenice herself in the warm and lovely flesh.
Then your own ears and your own senses will be my advocates, to win
me back your old esteem."



2. BACK TO ATLANTIS


The words of Tatho were no sleeping draught for me that night.
I began to think that I had made somewhat a mistake in wrapping
myself up so entirely in my government of Yucatan, and not
contriving to keep more in touch with events that were passing at
home in Atlantis. For many years past it had been easy to see that
the mariner folk who did traffic across the seas spoke with
restraint, and that only what news the Empress pleased was allowed
to ooze out beyond her borders. But, as I say, I was fully
occupied with my work in the colony, and had no curiosity to pull
away a veil intentionally placed. Besides, it has always been
against my principles to put to the torture men who had received
orders for silence from their superiors, merely that they shall
break these orders for my private convenience.

However, the iron discipline of our Priestly Clan left me no
choice of procedure. As was customary, I had been deprived of my
office at a moment's notice. From that time on, all papers and
authority belonged to my successor, and, although by courtesy I
might be permitted to remain as a guest in the pyramid that had so
recently been mine, to see another sunrise, it was clearly enjoined
that I must leave the territory then at the topmost of my speed and
hasten to report in Atlantis.

Tatho, to give him credit, was anxious to further my interests
to the utmost in his power. He was by my side again before the
dawn, putting all his resources at my disposal.

I had little enough to ask him. "A ship to take me home," I
said, "and I shall be your debtor."

The request seemed to surprise him. "That you may certainly
have if you wish it. But my ships are foul with the long passage,
and are in need of a careen. If you take them, you will make a
slow voyage of it to Atlantis. Why do you not take your own navy?
The ships are in harbour now, for I saw them there when we came in.
Brave ships they are too."

"But not mine. That navy belongs to Yucatan."

"Well, Deucalion, you are Yucatan; or, rather, you were
yesterday, and have been these twenty years."

I saw what he meant, and the idea did not please me. I answered
stiffly enough that the ships were owned by private merchants,
or belonged to the State, and I could not claim so much as a
ten-slave galley.

Tatho shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you know your own
policies best," he said, "though to me it seems but risky for a man
who has attained to a position like yours and mine not to have
provided himself with a stout navy of his own. One never knows
when a recall may be sent, and, through lack of these precautions,
a life's earnings may very well be lost in a dozen hours."

"I have no fear for mine," I said coldly.

"Of course not, because you know me to be your friend. But
had another man been appointed to this vice-royalty, you might have
been sadly shorn, Deucalion. It is not many fellows who can resist
a snug hoard ready and waiting in the very coffers they have come
to line."

"My Lord Tatho," I said, "it is clear to me that you and I
have grown to be of different tastes. All of the hoard that I have
made for myself in this colony, few men would covet. I have the
poor clothes you see me in this moment, and a box of drugs such as
I have found useful to the stomach. I possess also three slaves,
two of them scribes and the third a sturdy savage from Europe, who
cooks my victual and fills for me the bath. For my maintenance
during my years of service, here, I have bled the State of a
soldier's ration and nothing beyond; and if in my name any man has
mulcted a creature in Yucatan of so much as an ounce of bronze, I
request you as a last service to have that man hanged for me as a
liar and a thief."

Tatho looked at me curiously. "I do not know whether I admire
you most or whether I pity. I do not know whether to be astonished
or to despise. We had heard of much of your uprightness over
yonder in Atlantis, of your sternness and your justice, but I swear
by the old Gods that no soul guessed you carried your fancy so far
as this. Why, man, money is power. With money and the resources
money can buy, nothing could stop a fellow like you; whilst without
it you may be tripped up and trodden down irrevocably at the first
puny reverse."

"The Gods will choose my fate."

"Possibly; but for mine, I prefer to nourish it myself. I
tell you with frankness that I have not come here to follow in the
pattern you have made for a vice-royalty. I shall govern Yucatan
wisely and well to the best of my ability; but I shall govern it
also for the good of Tatho, the viceroy. I have brought with me
here my navy of eight ships and a personal bodyguard. There is my
wife also, and her women and her slaves. All these must be
provided for. And why indeed should it be otherwise? If a people
is to be governed, it should be their privilege to pay handsomely
for their prince."

"We shall not agree on this. You have the power now, and can
employ it as you choose. If I thought it would be of any use, I
should like to supplicate you most humbly to deal with lenience
when you come to tax these people who are under you. They have
grown very dear to me."

"I have disgusted you with me, and I am grieved for it. But
even to retain your good opinion, Deucalion--which I value more
than that of any man living--I cannot do here as you have done. It
would be impossible, even if I wished it. You must not judge all
other men by your own strong standard: a Tatho is by no means a
colossus like a Deucalion. And besides, I have a wife and
children, and they must be provided for, even if I neglect myself."

"Ah, there," I said, "it does seem that I possess the
advantage. I have no wife, to clog me."

He caught up my word quickly. "It seems to me you have
nothing that makes life worth living. You have neither wife,
children, riches, cooks, retinue, dresses, nor anything else in
proportion to your station. You will pardon my saying it, old
comrade, but you are plaguey ignorant about some matters. For
example, you do not know how to dine. During every day of a very
weary voyage, I have promised myself when sitting before the meagre
sea victual, that presently the abstinence would be more than
repaid by Deucalion's welcoming feast. Oh, I tell you that feast
was one of the vividest things that ever came before my eyes. And
then when we get to the actuality, what was it? Why, a country
farmer every day sits down to more delicate fare. You told me how
it was prepared. Well, your savage from Europe may be lusty, and
perchance is faithful, but be is a devil-possessed cook. Gods! I
have lived better on a campaign.

"I know this is a colony here, without any of the home
refinements; but if in the days to come, the deer of the forest,
the fish of the stream, and the other resources of the place are
not put to better use than heretofore, I shall see it my duty as
ruler to fry some of the kitchen staff alive in grease so as to
encourage better cookery. Gods! Deucalion, have you forgotten
what it is to have a palate? And have you no esteem for your own
dignity? Man, look at your clothes. You are garbed like a
herdsman, and you have not a gaud or a jewel to brighten you."

"I eat," I said coldly, "when my hunger bids me, and I carry
this one robe upon my person till it is worn out and needs
replacement. The grossness of excessive banqueting, and the
effeminacy of many clothes are attainments that never met my fancy.
But I think we have talked here over long, and there seems little
chance of our finding agreement. You have changed, Tatho, with the
years, and perhaps I have changed also. These alterations creep
imperceptibly into one's being as time advances. Let us part now,
and, forgetting these present differences, remember only our
friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, has
always had a pleasant savour when called up into the memory."

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