The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (books to read in your 20s TXT) 📕

others who have been won to our confidence. ‘The

proof that resurrection can be accomplished!’ That is much. A

marvellous thing in this age of science, and the scepticism that

knowledge makes. But life and resurrection are themselves but items in

what may be won by the accomplishment of this Great Experiment. Imagine

what it will be for the world of thought—the true world of human

progress—the veritable road to the Stars, the itur ad astra of the

Ancients—if there can come back to us out of the unknown past one who

can yield to us the lore stored in the great Library of Alexandria, and

lost in its consuming flames. Not only history can be set right, and

the teachings of science made veritable from their beginnings; but we

can be placed on the road to the knowledge of lost arts, lost learning,

lost sciences, so that our feet may tread on the indicated path to their

ultimate and complete restoration. Why, this woman can tell us what the

world was like before what is called ‘the Flood’; can give us the origin

of that vast astounding myth; can set the mind back to the consideration

of things which to us now seem primeval, but which were old stories

before the days of the Patriarchs. But this is not the end! No, not

even the beginning! If the story of this woman be all that we think—

which some of us most firmly believe; if her powers and the restoration

of them prove to be what we expect, why, then we may yet achieve a

knowledge beyond what our age has ever known—beyond what is believed

today possible for the children of men. If indeed this resurrection can

be accomplished, how can we doubt the old knowledge, the old magic, the

old belief! And if this be so, we must take it that the ‘Ka’ of this

great and learned Queen has won secrets of more than mortal worth from

her surroundings amongst the stars. This woman in her life voluntarily

went down living to the grave, and came back again, as we learn from the

records in her tomb; she chose to die her mortal death whilst young, so

that at her resurrection in another age, beyond a trance of countless

magnitude, she might emerge from her tomb in all the fulness and

splendour of her youth and power. Already we have evidence that though

her body slept in patience through those many centuries, her

intelligence never passed away, that her resolution never flagged, that

her will remained supreme; and, most important of all, that her memory

was unimpaired. Oh, what possibilities are there in the coming of such

a being into our midst! One whose history began before the concrete

teaching of our Bible; whose experiences were antecedent to the

formulation of the Gods of Greece; who can link together the Old and the

New, Earth and Heaven, and yield to the known worlds of thought and

physical existence the mystery of the Unknown—of the Old World in its

youth, and of Worlds beyond our ken!”

 

He paused, almost overcome. Margaret had taken his hand when he spoke

of her being so dear to him, and held it hard. As he spoke she

continued to hold it. But there came over her face that change which I

had so often seen of late; that mysterious veiling of her own

personality which gave me the subtle sense of separation from her. In

his impassioned vehemence her father did not notice; but when he stopped

she seemed all at once to be herself again. In her glorious eyes came

the added brightness of unshed tears; and with a gesture of passionate

love and admiration, she stooped and kissed her father’s hand. Then,

turning to me, she too spoke:

 

“Malcolm, you have spoken of the deaths that came from the poor Queen;

or rather that justly came from meddling with her arrangements and

thwarting her purpose. Do you not think that, in putting it as you have

done, you have been unjust? Who would not have done just as she did?

Remember she was fighting for her life! Ay, and for more than her life!

For life, and love, and all the glorious possibilities of that dim

future in the unknown world of the North which had such enchanting hopes

for her! Do you not think that she, with all the learning of her time,

and with all the great and resistless force of her mighty nature, had

hopes of spreading in a wider way the lofty aspirations of her soul!

That she hoped to bring to the conquering of unknown worlds, and using

to the advantage of her people, all that she had won from sleep and

death and time; all of which might and could have been frustrated by the

ruthless hand of an assassin or a thief. Were it you, in such case

would you not struggle by all means to achieve the object of your life

and hope; whose possibilities grew and grew in the passing of those

endless years? Can you think that that active brain was at rest during

all those weary centuries, whilst her free soul was flitting from world

to world amongst the boundless regions of the stars? Had these stars in

their myriad and varied life no lessons for her; as they have had for us

since we followed the glorious path which she and her people marked for

us, when they sent their winged imaginations circling amongst the lamps

of the night!”

 

Here she paused. She too was overcome, and the welling tears ran down

her cheeks. I was myself more moved than I can say. This was indeed my

Margaret; and in the consciousness of her presence my heart leapt. Out

of my happiness came boldness, and I dared to say now what I had feared

would be impossible: something which would call the attention of Mr.

Trelawny to what I imagined was the dual existence of his daughter. As

I took Margaret’s hand in mine and kissed it, I said to her father:

 

“Why, sir! she couldn’t speak more eloquently if the very spirit of

Queen Tera was with her to animate her and suggest thoughts!”

 

Mr. Trelawny’s answer simply overwhelmed me with surprise. It

manifested to me that he too had gone through just such a process of

thought as my own.

 

“And what if it was; if it is! I know well that the spirit of her

mother is within her. If in addition there be the spirit of that great

and wondrous Queen, then she would be no less dear to me, but doubly

dear! Do not have fear for her, Malcolm Ross; at least have no more

fear than you may have for the rest of us!” Margaret took up the theme,

speaking so quickly that her words seemed a continuation of her

father’s, rather than an interruption of them.

 

“Have no special fear for me, Malcolm. Queen Tera knows, and will offer

us no harm. I know it! I know it, as surely as I am lost in the depth

of my own love for you!”

 

There was something in her voice so strange to me that I looked quickly

into her eyes. They were bright as ever, but veiled to my seeing the

inward thought behind them as are the eyes of a caged lion.

 

Then the two other men came in, and the subject changed.