The Mummy!

In the year 2126, England enjoyed peace and tranquillity under the absolute dominion of a female sovereign. Numerous changes had taken place for some centuries in the political state of the country, and several forms of government had been successively adopted and destroyed, till, as is generally the case after violent revolutions, they all settled down into an absolute monarchy. The religion of the country was mutable as its government; and in the end, by adopting Catholicism, it seemed to have arrived at nearly the same result: despotism in the state, indeed, naturally produces despotism in religion; the implicit faith and passive obedience required in the one case, being the best of all possible preparatives for the absolute submission of both mind and body necessary in the other.

“It is a fine evening,” said Davis, bowing low, “and if your honour pleases, I think we had better get the steam-mowing apparatus in motion tomorrow. If the sun should be as hot tomorrow as it has been today, I am sure the hay will make without using the burning glass at all.”

“Do as you like, Davis,” returned his master, puffing the smoke violently from his pipe, “I leave it entirely to you.”

“And does not your honour think I had better give the barley a little rain? It will be all burnt up, if this weather should continue; and if your honour approve, it may be done immediately, for I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down, if your honour thinks fit.”

“I have already told you I give you permission to do as you like, Davis,” returned the baronet, puffing out volumes of smoke from his hookah. “Inundate the fields if you will; you have my full permission to do whatever you please with them, so that you don’t trouble me any more about the matter.”

“But I would not wish to act without your honour’s full conviction,” resumed the persevering steward. “Your honour must be aware of the aridity of the soil, and of the impossibility that exists of a proper development of the incipient heads, unless they be supplied with an adequate quantity of moisture.”

Suddenly, a vivid light flashed upon them, and, as they advanced, they found it proceeded from torches placed in the hands of two colossal figures, who, placed in a sitting posture, seemed guarding an enormous portal, surmounted by the image of a fox, the constant guardian of an Egyptian tomb. The immense dimensions and air of grandeur and repose about these colossi had something in it very imposing; and our travellers felt a sensation of awe creep over them as they gazed upon their calm unmoved features, so strikingly emblematic of that immutable nature which they were doubtless placed there to typify.

It was with feelings of indescribable solemnity, that the doctor and Edric passed through this majestic portal, and found themselves in an apartment gloomily illumined by the light shed faintly from an inner chamber, through ponderous brazen gates beautifully wrought. The light thus feebly emitted, showed that the room in which they stood, was dedicated to Typhon, the evil spirit, as his fierce and savage types covered the walls; and images of his symbols, the crocodile and the dragon, placed beneath the shadow of the brazen gates, and dimly seen by the imperfect light, seemed starting into life, and grimly to forbid the farther advance of the intruders. Our travellers shuddered, and opening with trembling hand the ponderous gates, they entered the tomb of Cheops.

When, however, he reached the plain, light and air seemed to revive him and restore his scattered senses; and, gazing wildly around, he exclaimed, “Where am I? what place is this? Methinks all seems wondrous, new, and strange! Where is my father? And where! oh, where, is my Arsinöe? Alas, alas!” continued he wildly; “I had forgotten⁠—I hoped it was a dream, a fearful dream, for methinks I have been long asleep. Was it, indeed, reality? Are all, all gone? And was that hideous scene true?⁠—those horrors, which still haunt my memory like a ghastly vision? Speak! speak!” continued he, his voice rising in thrilling energy as he spoke⁠—“speak! let me hear the sound of another’s voice, before my brain is lost in madness. Have I entered Hades, or am I still on earth?⁠—yes, yes, it is still the earth, for there the mighty Pyramid I caused to be erected towers behind me. Yet where is Memphis? where my forts and palaces? What a dark, smoky mass of buildings now surrounds me!⁠—Can this be the once proud Queen of Cities? I see no palaces, no temples⁠—Memphis is fallen. The mighty barrier that protected her splendour from the waste of waters, must have been swept away by the encroaching inroads of the swelling Nile. But is this the Nile?” continued he, looking wildly upon the river; “sure I must be deceived. It is the fatal river of the dead. No papyrine boats glide smoothly on its surface; but strange, infernal vessels, vomiting forth volumes of fire and smoke. Holy Osiris, defend me! where am I? where have I been? A misty veil seems thrown upon the face of nature. Awake, awake!” cried he, with a scream of agony; “set me free; I did not mean to slay him!” Then throwing himself violently upon the ground, he lay for some moments, apparently insensible.

“What is it like?” asked Mrs. Russel; “have you seen it, Evelina?”

“Oh yes, ma’am!” cried the panting girl; “its eyes flare like fire, and it stares so wildly round it! and as it went along, it saw a dead cat lying in the street: and it knelt down and took the creature up, and kissed it, and lamented over it in such a strange way, and in such a strange language! I never heard anything like it in my life.”

“Oh, dear! I should like to see it!” cried Mrs. Russel, flying to the door, and holding it half open to secure a retreat in case of necessity. Just as she reached the street, however, fate, as though willing to gratify her curiosity, occasioned the Mummy to turn back; and with that kind of half pleasure and half pain, with which the good people of England sometimes delight to gaze upon anything horrible, Mrs. Russel continued to look as it rapidly approached her, till, as it reached the door, to her infinite horror it stalked towards it. Awestruck and trembling, Mrs. Russel retreated. The Mummy followed her. He stretched his hand out to her. She shrunk back aghast from his touch. “Lead on!” cried he with a voice of thunder. Mrs. Russel could bear no more, and she fled screaming to her own apartment, where her lover was awaiting her return, impatient to delight her attentive ears with a few more of his poetical effusions.

Absorbed as Abelard was, however, he was roused by this unexpected intrusion, and the blood ran chilly through his veins, as he saw the tall majestic figure of Cheops stride across the apartment.