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Pano Ft
PFRSPPLX CT94 a AI LVF'L PiAP 64
She could stand no more of it, here by
the window. She turned away and went
out through the ivory room to the little
winding fligl t of stairs up to the roof
top. She rah up lightly on her bare
sandalled feet, and her body made a
swift graceful arc of motion around the
spiral of the stairs. On the roof top she
went out beyond the canopy, impatient-
ly, into the sun and leaned against the
paraphet. The great dust cloud was
mpoving and closer, and spreading out
behind. SheShaded her eyes with her
hand and watched'for the first sign of
the messenger's returning, but there
was no sight of him.
The air was full of the dread that rose
up out of the streets of Jezreel in that
subdued chatter of voices. From the
roof top she caught above it the sound
of Yoram's angry voice and then in a
moment she heard again the sound of
quick hoofs on the courtyard stones -
another messenger. She felt a stirring
of feeling again within her, watching
that messenger streaking away from
the city. And when he disappeared into
the dust, she envied him, to ride
furiously into the hot sun, and to know
soon what lay behind that dust, while
she might only stand upon the roof and
shade her eyes and wait. The perspira-
tion rose on her face, her robe dazzled
white in the sun, and her loose tawny
hair above it. She could not be still and
so she walked up and down by the
paraphet with her eyes out on the
plain. There was no sign of the mes-
senger, and the big cloud came so near
that she fancied she almost saw the
horses take shape out of it, and the
chariots; and surely she caught a heavy
rumble of wheels and hoofs in her ears.
Over the babble of voices, at last she
heard the watchman's. Many armed
men and chariots, coming fast, he said;
it looked like the army of Jehu of
Judah, certainly they came fast, as
Jehu always rode.' Her mind took the
word and moved out quickly beyond it.
Jehu - that would be Jehu, son of
Nimski; a fierce passionate man, Jehu,
known equally for his obedience to the
angry god, and for his great valor in the
battle, a man who must have long re-
sented the rule of an untried boy like
-Yoram. And he came now like one bent
on war, not peace, so it must be that he
had risen up against his king at last.
Well, he had chosen his time well, with
the army fighting in Syria, and but a
few men left behind to defend the city.
Without a doubt, death was upon them
all.
The faint stirring of emotion left her,
and she stood cold and still by the
parapet. Now she could begin to see
the chariots and horses as they neared
the city. Down below her, over the
frenzy of voices, she heard the rumble
of chariot wheels, Yoram and Ahaziah
were mounting to their chariots.
Yoram's weapons flashed in the sun,
as he raised his arm and brought the
whip down over the horses backs. They
plunged and wheeled around. He drove
them well, holding the leather reins
tight, standing upright, with his knees
bent just a little, in the swaying chariot.
It was well, she thought, that he go
forth so, and meet Jehu. When he
passed below, he raised his face up to
her, as if he felt her eyes and thoughts
through all the hot air, full of noise and
dread. His face, turned, to her momen-
tarily, underhis blowing dark hair, was
very young and full of his excitement
and puzzlement and fear. She raised her
bare right arm to him, straight and
high, above her head. The next moment
the chariots were out of the courtyard
onto the street, with the meen on horse
falling in behind.
She dropped her arm, then, and her
head too. She felt very tired in the sun.
When she looked out again, both
bodies of men were riding hard, with
the gap between them closing fast. The
enemy was plain to be seen now. They
must outnumber Yoram's defenses ten
times over, she thought. And that must
be Jehu at the head, with big white
horses on a squat dull colored war
chariot. They ran like wild horses, and
sometimes you could have seen the sky
beneath his chariot wheels. But he rode
upright and guided them well. There
Toutesfois, ceste amour se part:
Car celle qui nen amoit qu'un
D'iceluy s'eslongne et despart,
Et aime mieulx amer chascun.
-FRANCOIS VILLON
She told us of hts many kindnesses,
How he had built a fire, cooked eggs and bacon,
And sung sea-songs beneath the moon-lit trees
So soulfully her heart was seized and taken.
She called herself a lowly lump of sod,
Proclaimed herself his humble worshiper,
And marveled that so wonderful a god
Should condescend to stoop to sleep with her.
Such was her tenor in the first sweet days -
When seeing him would glorify her face,
But they explored together passion's ways,
She learnt each kiss he favored, each embrace,
And having probed his godhood to the end
She found that other gods would condescend.
-CHAD WALSH
was a power and resklessness about this
Jehu that caught at her. He was a man
she would have been; he was the kind of
man who should have husbanded her,
she thought.
Suddenly, close to each other, they
both pulled up, so short she saw the
horses plunge. When the dust began to
settle out, she saw that they were talk-
ink. It was too far to see, except that
Jehu was tall and wore a full black
beard. And as she looked at him, she
saw him raise his arm and shake his
clenched fist toward the palace. She
knew, instantly, that he spoke of her, as
surely as if she had heard him speak
her name. Of course - it was her death
that he wanted most, why should it
not be? Did not all of these people think
of her as an enemy to their god and as
a woman of great evil? Sometimes she
thought that she could feel their hatred
for her, creeping like a mist into her
ivory room.
Then there was motion again, out on
the shimmering plain. Yoram suddenly
whipped up his horses and wheeled
around and fled from his enemy, to
leave his men behind him in a milling
panic. Coward, she thought, men should
die fighting with the sun in their eyes
and the enemy before them, coward.
She saw the powerful dark bare arms of
Jehu lift the bow and fit the arrow, and
then he pulled. He pulled so long and
then he let the heavy arrow go, and
it went straight, flashing in the sun
and struck Yoram between the shoul-
ders. It pierced him through, she had
a glimpse of- shiny head protruding
from his breast just as he fell. His
horses veered off away from the city,
when his hands loosened on the reins,
running in terror with Yorain dragging,
half out of the chariot; and then the
dust swallowed up horses and chariot
both.
She waited, stiff and cold, besides
the parapet. Ahaziah was fleeing also,
toward the vineyards and the gardens
beyond the palace. Jehu made a gesture
with his arm and men on horse fell out
of line and took pursuit. Then Jehu
whipped at his horses and covered that
little strip of dirt between Yoram's men
and his, and they were now only one
great struggling mass of men.
She turned away and walked slowly
back across the roof to the stairs, her
feet noiseless in her sandals. Her ears
held the sound, unreal and faint, of the
clamor of men's voices and steel. She
went down the stairs slowly, with her
magnificent body held upright and tall.
She went back into the cool ivory room,
half-darkened and scented. The slave-
girls laid upon the floor, crying and
moaning in their terror. She made a
sharp gesture to them and they were
still. She sat down quietly on the ivory
bench before her jewel caskets, and lift-
ed the great heavy gold-set mirror. She
motioned to one of the slave-girls, and
the girl came to her, crawling over the
floor with tears on her face and her
whole body shaking, to crouch there at
her feet and hold the heavy mirror.
She lifted her hands to her disordered
tawny hair. She looked at her face,
before her, curiously, it was white and
still with the lips curling a little. She
leaned closer and looked at the eyes
carefully, to see if there was any fear
in them, but they were only cool and
quiet like the face. And that was as it
should be, for there was no fear within
her either, only that queer stillness and
detachment and unreality. Out of one
of the caskets she lifted her little
jeweled pot of rouge. The slave girl
was still shaking so that the mirror
moved before her. She struck the girl
sharply in the face, and then the girl
held the mirror still, whimpering, with
her face dropped on her arms, quiet
except for great tremors through her
body,
She put the full warm color on her
lips, and spread it lightly, delicately
upon her cheeks. The- sounds of the
battle came closer, she heard the cries
of fear and pain and death within the
streets now. She dropped the rouge pot
and took the jar of paint she used
around her eyes, delicate purple shad;-
ows to make her eyes larger, and lovely
in her face. She worked slowly, un-
hurried, with steady hands. Because of,
the great stillness within her, she did
not seek to or to ask questions of her-
self. She only knew that when Jehu
strode, sword in hand, into the quiet of
her ivory room she must be lovely and
desirable. Not to find mercy at his
hands, she wanted none, she only want-
ed to look lovely in his eyes when he
came in to kill her. He would swing his
great sword in the quiet room, and she
would smile as she saw the blade come
down, and her blood would splatter red
upo the ivory of the wall, and then -
all would be quiet and cool and scented
in the room.
She started to push back her hair,
laying out jeweled clips to hold it, but
there was no time for it, she thought,
she could hear horses at the court-
yard gate now. So she combed her hair
out, and lifted the glossy mass of it back
from her face and let it hang, free and
electric, to her shoulders. She closed
the casket lids and stood up. Through
the quietness she felt her heart beats,
great dull things, through all her body.
Her life, she thought, had been measur-
ed out by heart beats, and they were
so soon to stop and pulse no more.
There was a great clamor in the
courtyard, and the slaves huddled in
the corners of the room. Then suddenly
the clamor stopped, and it was very
still, as if there was no one moving or
breathing anywhere. She went to the
window slowly. Below, the court yard
stones were stained with blood, and
there were limp bodies by the walls. And
in the middle, was Jehu himself, sitting
one of his lithe white horses. His face
was dark and fierce and there was a
power about him. He was looking along
the palace cooly, with his men waiting
quietly behind him. There was no
sound, except a dog crawling on its belly
in a corner, whined a little.
She stood and waited and at last he
saw her standing there IHis face was
raised to her, and for one second she
saw the admiration and passion in his
eyes, and then the great hatred came
over his face, like a vast flood, as if all
of the hatred of these people and their
god and of the very land itself, for her,
was all combined within this one man.
She could not even feel her heart
beats anymore, and she was weary and
wished the thing to end. She listened to
her voice, impersonally, it was cool and
clear and quiet, "Had Zimri peace," she
said, "who slew his master?"
It was as if the man down there
would choke with all his hatred. He
raised his chin and spread his arms
wide. "Who is on my side," he shouted,
"Who?' He slid his eyes along the win-
dows, and stopped upon the eunuchs in
the window next. His black eyes were
deadly on them. "Throw her down," he
said.
She felt the heat suddenly, and felt
the big ring chafing against her fingers.
where her hands were, clenched so'
tightly. In her ears were the swift patter
of soft shoes behind her. Hot hands
caught at her, and lifted her. She cried
out, as they lifted, not in fear but be-
cause it was the dnly thing left for her
to do in the seconds of her life. The rush
of the air choked the cry back into her
throat. She felt,now, a great aliveness,
such as she had not ever known, and
a freedom and a great ecstacy as if she
fell forever through great spaces. AnL
then in one great rush, hard stone tre-
mendous pain, a blindness like a mist
in her eyes, the sharp grinding hoofs of
the horse above her, and in her ears a
sound as if all of the people in the lan&
were muttering her name together in
their hatred - Jezebel - Jezebel-
And then the darkness and the still-
STEEL
The Cog
In hot and wet
Transparent, beaded armor,
Grimaced;
Tapped twice on steel
Pulled hard the lever;
And with a gush
Of candent pyrotechnics
Ten billion pmolten ergs
Poured into the teeming ladle.
-RALPH HEIKKINEN