And I gazed, as that my soul and all my being did have
no power else, even as a man that dies, doth set all his strength to a
last movement. And I not to wot that the Master Monstruwacan and the two
maids did hold me up, because they to perceive that I did be dying; for
I only to see Mine Own Little One lying afar off upon the moving of the
Last Road. And the Maid in that moment to come to the place where the Road did pass
into the strange and luminous vapour of the Earth-Current, which did lie
all about the base of the Dome; and the vapour to be only as a faint
shining smoke, scarce seen, yet to be enough to give something of
uncertainty to the Dead, when that they did have past inward of it. And I stared, with all that did be left of my strength; for Mine Own to
be gone utter and forever in but a little minute. And the uncertainty of
the luminous vapour did cling about her, and to make her to seem unreal
to my gaze; for the vapour did be in constant movement, and to give a
seeming of shifting to and fro of all that did be in it. And behold! as I did stare, with my dreadful pain, there did be sudden a
strange hoarse noise from the nearer Millions. And lo! in an instant
there came a mighty Shout out of all that Country; and the shout did be
made again, and did grow into a mighty hoarse roaring from the Millions,
so that all that great Country did be filled with the monstrous sound. And, in verity, I to have seen the thing, likewise; but to have set it
to the madness of longing of my heart and to that desperate and dreadful
pain which did make me to be crazed and lost from all sane thinking. And the thing that I did see, had been that the Maid did seem to move,
there upon the Last Road, where she did lie; but indeed, this to have
appeared only to be the stirring of the luminous vapour of the
Earth-Current, which did seem to make things shift, as I have told. And lo! I now to see truly that the Maid did move where she was laid
afar off upon the Road; and I now to know, and to believe that she did
indeed live. And my life came into me with a bounding; yet did my heart
seem to be a moment stilled in my breast. And the Master Monstruwacan to
have signed already that the Roadway be stopt, and brought backward; but
I to be now upon the Last Road, and did run as a madman, shouting vainly
upon the name of Mine Own. And I to learn afterward that there to have
been a dreadful peril that all the near Millions to rush toward the Last
Road, and so, mayhap, to have caused the death of many, and to have
been like to have crusht Mine Own. But this danger to have been eased,
because that the Watch Master did act very prompt, and set the great
regiments of his men to keep back the Millions, and did send a signal
abroad over all the Country, that there to be calmness, for that the
Maid should be succoured. And alway, whilst this to be, I did run
staggering most strangely upward of the Last Road; and surely that great
roof did ring and boom with the constant and mighty shoutings of the
Millions. And there did run others also along the Road, to my back; but I to have
been the first, and to make a good speed, though I did stagger and rock
so strange upon my feet; and the Road alway to be moving backward under
me; and so I to be come wonderful soon unto where the Maid did be. And
she to be upon her back, and to have pusht the Garment from her face,
and did be lying with her eyes open, and a look of gentle wonderment
upon her dear face. And she then to see me, and her eyes did smile at
me, very glad and quiet; for there to be yet an utter weakness upon her. And lo! I came with a falling beside her, and I gat upon my knees and
upon my hands, and my heart did shake my lips to dry whisperings. And
she to look weak and steadfast unto me, and I to look forever at her;
and I did alway try to say things unto her; but my mouth to refuse me. And understanding did come into her, as a light; and she to know in that
instant that she to be truly come into the Mighty Pyramid, and I to have
gat her there somewise; and she to wake sudden in her body, and set her
hands forth all a-trembling from the Garment, and in dreadful trouble. And I to see then that the blood did go from me, constant; and the Maid
to have perceived this thing, so that she was waked the more proper in a
moment from her death-swoon. And surely, I did bleed very dreadful; for all my wounds did be opened
with my running. And I to have sudden power with my lips, and did say
unto her, very simple, that I loved her. And she to be all in an haze
from me; and I to know that she to have come likewise unto her knees,
and did have my head upon her breast; and there to be an utter shaking
of the air with some great sound, and a mighty spiritual stirring of the
aether of the world. And there to be then the voice of the Master Monstruwacan very dull in
mine ears; and the low voice of the Master Doctor; but I never to hear
what they did be saying; and did know only that Mine Own Maid did live;
and I not to mean to die, but to fight unto living. And even whilst that
I made this resolving, I was gone into an utter blackness. XVII

THE LOVE DAYS


Now, when that I gat back unto life, I to know that I went upward in the
Lift, and did be upon that same bed, where I to think I never to need a
bed any more, neither to come upward again from out of the Country of
Silence. And I to know vague and strange, that there rose up from out of the
mighty depths of the world, the deep thunder of the Underground Organs,
and did sound as that they made a strange and utter distant music beyond
death; and there to go alway a rolling chaunting, as that multitudes did
sing beyond far mountains, and the sound to be somewhiles as a
far-blowing wind, low in the Deep; and again to come clear, and to be
that great olden melody of the Song of Honour. And I knew, as in a
dream, that the Millions in that deep Country made an Honour and a
Rejoicing over this Wonder of Joy which did be come. But yet all to be
faint and half hid from me, and mine eyes to be as that they had no
power to open, and I to seem to be lifting alway upon strange waters of
unrealness. And there to be sweet and lovely odours, and these to be of
reality, and to come from the great Fields, where the flowers did alway
to grow about the passage ways of the Lifts; for the Lift even then to
be going upward through the great miles. And mayhap I moved a little; for there came the voice of the Master
Doctor low and gentle to me; and bid me rest; for that all did be well
with the Maid. And surely, afterward, I did be gone into an haze, and
there to be then a seeming of days in which I half to live and half to
sleep, and to wonder without trouble whether I did be dead. And then there to come days when I lay very quiet, and had no thought of
aught; and the Master Doctor oft to bend over me in this hour and that
hour, and to look keen into my face.