George MacDonald - Lilith

“It is he!” said her voiceless lips: I read their motion.

“Who, princess!” I whispered.

“The great Shadow,” she murmured.

“Here he cannot enter,” said Adam. “Here he can hurt no one. Over him also is power given me.”

“Are the children in the house?” asked Lilith, and at the word the heart of Eve began to love her.

“He never dared touch a child,” she said. “Nor have you either ever hurt a child. Your own daughter you have but sent into the loveliest sleep, for she was already a long time dead when you slew her. And now Death shall be the atonemaker; you shall sleep together.”

“Wife,” said Adam, “let us first put the children to bed, that she may see them safe!”

He came back to fetch them. As soon as he was gone, the princess knelt to Eve, clasped her knees, and said,

“Beautiful Eve, persuade your husband to kill me: to you he will listen! Indeed I would but cannot open my hand.”

“You cannot die without opening it. To kill you would not serve you,” answered Eve. “But indeed he cannot! no one can kill you but the Shadow; and whom he kills never knows she is dead, but lives to do his will, and thinks she is doing her own.”

“Show me then to my grave; I am so weary I can live no longer. I must go to the Shadow—yet I would not!”

She did not, could not understand!

She struggled to rise, but fell at the feet of Eve. The Mother lifted, and carried her inward.

I followed Adam and Mara and the children into the chamber of death. We passed Eve with Lilith in her arms, and went farther in.

“You shall not go to the Shadow,” I heard Eve say, as we passed them. “Even now is his head under my heel!”

The dim light in Adam’s hand glimmered on the sleeping faces, and as he went on, the darkness closed over them. The very air seemed dead: was it because none of the sleepers breathed it? Profoundest sleep filled the wide place. It was as if not one had waked since last I was there, for the forms I had then noted lay there still. My father was just as I had left him, save that he seemed yet nearer to a perfect peace. The woman beside him looked younger.

The darkness, the cold, the silence, the still air, the faces of the lovely dead, made the hearts of the children beat softly, but their little tongues would talk—with low, hushed voices.

“What a curious place to sleep in!” said one, “I would rather be in my nest!” “It is SO cold!” said another.

“Yes, it is cold,” answered our host; “but you will not be cold in your sleep.”

“Where are our nests?” asked more than one, looking round and seeing no couch unoccupied.

“Find places, and sleep where you choose,” replied Adam.

Instantly they scattered, advancing fearlessly beyond the light, but we still heard their gentle voices, and it was plain they saw where I could not.

“Oh,” cried one, “here is such a beautiful lady!—may I sleep beside her? I will creep in quietly, and not wake her.”

“Yes, you may,” answered the voice of Eve behind us; and we came to the couch while the little fellow was yet creeping slowly and softly under the sheet. He laid his head beside the lady’s, looked up at us, and was still. His eyelids fell; he was asleep.

We went a little farther, and there was another who had climbed up on the couch of a woman.

“Mother! mother!” he cried, kneeling over her, his face close to hers. “—She’s so cold she can’t speak,” he said, looking up to us; “but I will soon make her warm!”

He lay down, and pressing close to her, put his little arm over her. In an instant he too was asleep, smiling an absolute content.

We came to a third Little One; it was Luva. She stood on tiptoe, leaning over the edge of a couch.

“My own mother wouldn’t have me,” she said softly: “will you?”

Receiving no reply, she looked up at Eve. The great mother lifted her to the couch, and she got at once under the snowy covering.

Each of the Little Ones had by this time, except three of the boys, found at least an unobjecting bedfellow, and lay still and white beside a still, white woman. The little orphans had adopted mothers! One tiny girl had chosen a father to sleep with, and that was mine. A boy lay by the side of the beautiful matron with the slow-healing hand. On the middle one of the three couches hitherto unoccupied, lay Lona.

Eve set Lilith down beside it. Adam pointed to the vacant couch on Lona’s right hand, and said,

“There, Lilith, is the bed I have prepared for you!”

She glanced at her daughter lying before her like a statue carved in semi-transparent alabaster, and shuddered from head to foot. “How cold it is!” she murmured.

“You will soon begin to find comfort in the cold,” answered Adam.

“Promises to the dying are easy!” she said.

“But I know it: I too have slept. I am dead!”

“I believed you dead long ago; but I see you alive!”

“More alive than you know, or are able to understand. I was scarce alive when first you knew me. Now I have slept, and am awake; I am dead, and live indeed!”

“I fear that child,” she said, pointing to Lona: “she will rise and terrify me!”

“She is dreaming love to you.”

“But the Shadow!” she moaned; “I fear the Shadow! he will be wroth with me!”

“He at sight of whom the horses of heaven start and rear, dares not disturb one dream in this quiet chamber!”

“I shall dream then?”

“You will dream.”

“What dreams?”

“That I cannot tell, but none HE can enter into. When the Shadow comes here, it will be to lie down and sleep also.—His hour will come, and he knows it will.”

“How long shall I sleep?”

“You and he will be the last to wake in the morning of the universe.”

The princess lay down, drew the sheet over her, stretched herself out straight, and lay still with open eyes.

Adam turned to his daughter. She drew near.

“Lilith,” said Mara, “you will not sleep, if you lie there a thousand years, until you have opened your hand, and yielded that which is not yours to give or to withhold.”

“I cannot,” she answered. “I would if I could, and gladly, for I am weary, and the shadows of death are gathering about me.”

“They will gather and gather, but they cannot infold you while yet your hand remains unopened. You may think you are dead, but it will be only a dream; you may think you have come awake, but it will still be only a dream. Open your hand, and you will sleep indeed—then wake indeed.”

“I am trying hard, but the fingers have grown together and into the palm.”

“I pray you put forth the strength of your will. For the love of life, draw together your forces and break its bonds!”

“I have struggled in vain; I can do no more. I am very weary, and sleep lies heavy upon my lids.”

“The moment you open your hand, you will sleep. Open it, and make an end.”

A tinge of colour arose in the parchment-like face; the contorted hand trembled with agonised effort. Mara took it, and sought to aid her.

“Hold, Mara!” cried her father. “There is danger!”

The princess turned her eyes upon Eve, beseechingly.

“There was a sword I once saw in your husband’s hands,” she murmured. “I fled when I saw it. I heard him who bore it say it would divide whatever was not one and indivisible!”

“I have the sword,” said Adam. “The angel gave it me when he left the gate.”

“Bring it, Adam,” pleaded Lilith, “and cut me off this hand that I may sleep.”

“I will,” he answered.

He gave the candle to Eve, and went. The princess closed her eyes.

In a few minutes Adam returned with an ancient weapon in his hand. The scabbard looked like vellum grown dark with years, but the hilt shone like gold that nothing could tarnish. He drew out the blade. It flashed like a pale blue northern streamer, and the light of it made the princess open her eyes. She saw the sword, shuddered, and held out her hand. Adam took it. The sword gleamed once, there was one little gush of blood, and he laid the severed hand in Mara’s lap. Lilith had given one moan, and was already fast asleep. Mara covered the arm with the sheet, and the three turned away.