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Mummy and Miss Nitocris: A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension

<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> <h3>THE BRIDAL OF OSCAROVITCH</h3> The Special Service Squadron steamed out of Spithead as the clock of Portsmouth Town Hall chimed twelve that night. Thirty-six hours later a marriage ceremony took place in the chapel of the Castle of Oscarburg. It was performed according to the rites of the Orthodox Church, and the witnesses were Prince Zastrow and his medical attendant, Doctor Hugo. The retainers of the Castle, headed by the major-domo and the housekeeper, formed the congregation. Jenny was up in her mistress' room packing as though for an immediate departure. She was very frightened at the happenings of the past three or four days, but she contented herself with the thought that her mistress was going to be a princess, and that, therefore, her own lot in life would be brightened with reflected glory. When the ceremony was over, the wedding feast was held in the great dining-hall of the Castle after the ancient Finnish style. When the loving-cup had been drunk, Nitocris took leave of her lord and went to her room. The bridal chamber was[Pg 308] blazing with light, and the great silken-hung bed was a couch fit for a queen. She turned the draperies down, laid herself dressed on the thick, downy bed, and then got up and went back to her own. "I shall sleep here to-night, Jenny, and I shall not undress. You mustn't do, either. Lock the door, and put the sofa across it. You will find that something is going to happen to-night. Is everything ready for us to go away?" "Yes, Your Highness," replied Jenny, wondering what was going to happen next. "You must not call me Highness, Jenny," said her mistress, with a laugh. "I did not marry the Prince to-day. It was some one else he knew a long time ago. I have put her to bed in that splendid bridal chamber of his. She is waiting for him now." "But I don't understand, Miss—I——" "There is no need for you to understand, Jenny. Just be a good girl, and do as you're told. When we get back to England I will explain matters as far as I can." Miss Jenny wisely decided to keep her thoughts to herself, and went on with her packing. Nitocris changed her bridal dress for her yachting costume, and lay down on the couch to await the progress of events. Oscarovitch left the company in the dining-hall to their revel in about an hour's time, and went up to his fate in the bridal chamber. He knocked and opened the door softly: locked it, and went toward[Pg 309] the bed. He leaned over it for a moment, and then a hoarse shriek of mingled rage and terror rang through the room. He flung the clothes off the bed. Where was the lovely bride he had wedded only a few hours before? What was this horrible thing lying where she should have been? Not Nitocris—and yet, it was Nitocris. Like a flash of lightning rending the darkness of the midnight heavens, the gap of oblivion between his lives was rent, and the light flamed into his soul. Phadrig had lied to him. The daughter of Rameses had not died that night in the banqueting chamber of the Palace of Pepi. She had lived and reigned virgin queen of the Sacred Land. Her body had been submitted to the hands of the paraschites and buried in the City of the Dead over against Memphis, on the eastward side of the river. And here was her mummy lying in his bridal bed, mocking him with its hideous, stony rigidity. For a few terrible moments he stood staring at it, his clenched fists raised above his head. Then with another scream he cast himself upon it. When they broke the door open, they found the man who in a few days would have been Emperor of the Russias and the East lying across the bed mowing and gibbering like a mad monkey, and scraping up handfuls of brown dust from the stained sheets. <hr style="width: 45%;" /> Twenty-four hours later the Admiral in command of the British Special Squadron off Kronstadt saw[Pg 310] the private signal flashed from the north-east. He was a very angry Admiral, for he had lost a brand-new cruiser and one of the smartest captains in the Service. But the signal spelt "Nitocris. All well. Coming alongside." "All well, and be damned to you, Captain Merrill!" muttered the Admiral under his breath, when the signal was read to him. "This is a nice way to begin a new command. I've half a mind to put him under arrest: but he's a good man. I'd better hear what he has to say for himself first. I wonder what the deuce he's been doing with that cruiser since he took her away without leave? Well, here she is, I suppose." But it was not H.M.S. Nitocris that came out of the night glittering with electric lights and flying through the water at a speed that the fastest destroyer in the squadron could not have equalled. A whistle tooted softly, a white shape swung up out of the darkness and slowed down alongside the flagship. A boat dropped into the water, and three minutes later Captain Mark Merrill ran up the gangway ladder, saluted the quarter-deck, and handed his sword to the Admiral. "I have done wrong, sir, but I hope that I have also, in another sense, done right. I have brought both princes with me." "Both princes—Good Lord, sir, what do you mean?" "May I come below with you, sir, and explain? It has been rather delicate work, but we've got it through all right, I think."[Pg 311] "Then keep your sword for the present, and come and tell me what you have to say." Captain Merrill followed the Admiral to his room, and told the story of the taking of the Oscarburg—a very easy matter with a hundred bluejackets at his back—the capture of Oscarovitch, who was now in a straight waistcoat on board his own yacht, the rescue of Prince Zastrow and Nitocris, and—— "The other Nitocris is following, sir," he concluded. "I thought I had better take the yacht. She can make a good thirty-five knots, and that's useful when you're in a hurry. And now, sir, I am at your disposal." "Rubbish!" said the Admiral, holding out his hand. "Captain Merrill, I don't quite know how you've done it, but you've saved Europe, and perhaps the world, from war. If you hadn't brought those two princes of yours to-night, we should have been fighting Germany for the possession of Kronstadt before mid-day to-morrow. Those were the orders. Now, of course, they can do nothing, as you have brought Prince Zastrow back from the dead. He's their choice, and you had better get him and the other away to London as soon as I have seen them, and you can take my report with you on that thirty-five knotter after breakfast to-morrow morning. Now, it's getting late. I'll say good-night."[Pg 313][Pg 312] <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h2>EPILOGUE</h2> The double wedding which took place at St George's, Hanover Square, the following June was one of the most brilliant functions of the year. Their Majesties of Russia and Great Britain graced the ceremony with their presence, and, as a special act of grace to the man who, with Franklin Marmion's help, had saved the world from what might have been one of the bloodiest wars in history, H.M.S. Nitocris was put into commission for a cruise, the object of which was anything rather than warlike. Two of the happiest couples on land or sea made the round of the world in her. Before they returned Princess Hermia had taken the last of Phadrig's drug and lain down to sleep never to wake again, and in the fullness of her happiness Nitocris pardoned Oscar Oscarovitch, and allowed him to die. <h4>THE END</h4> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> [Pg 314] <h2>Supernatural & Occult Fiction</h2> <h4>An Arno Press Collection</h4> Ainsworth, W[illiam] Harrison. Auriol: Or, The Elixir of Life. [c. 1892] Arlen, Michael. Ghost Stories. [1932] Balzac, Honoré de. Horace de Saint-Aubin, pseud. The Centenarian; Or, The Two Beringhelds. Translated from the original 1822 French edition by George Edgar Slusser. 1976 Beck, L[ily Moresby] Adams. The Ninth Vibration, and Other Stories. 1922 Benson, E[dward] F[rederick]. Spook Stories. [1928] Blackwood, Algernon. The Centaur. 1911 Blackwood, Algernon. Strange Stories. 1929 Boothby, Guy. Pharos, The Egyptian. 1899 The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; Or, The Conspirators of Old London, [c. 1876] [Burrage, Alfred McLelland]. Ex-Private X, pseud. Someone in the Room. [1931] [Carnegie, James], [Ninth] Earl of Southesk. Suomiria A Fantasy. 1899: Coppard, A [lfred] E[dgar]. The Collected Tales of A. E. Coppard. 1948 Crawford, F[rancis] Marion. With the Immortals. 1888 [Dalton]. The Gentleman in Black. 1831 De La Mare, Walter. The Return. 1910 Doughty, Francis Worcester. Mirrikh; Or, A Woman from Mars: A Tale of Occult Adventure. 1892 Erckmann, [Emile and Alexandre] Chatrian. The Man-Wolf, and Other Tales. [c. 1876] Ewers, Hanns Heinz. Alraune. Translated by S. Guy Endore. 1929 Fielding, Henry. A Journey From this World to the Next. 1930 [Pg 315]Gautier, Théophile. Spirite. Translated by Arthur D. Hall. 1890 Griffith, George. The Mummy and Miss Nitocris: A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension. [1906] [Hadley, George]. Argal; Or, The Silver Devil, Being the Adventures of an Evil Spirit, Related by Himself. Two vols. in one. [1793] Haggard, H[enry] Rider. Allan and the Ice-Gods: A Tale of Beginnings. 1927 Harvey, William Fryer. Midnight House and Other Tales. 1910 Hearn, Lafcadio. Fantastics and Other Fancies. Edited by Charles Woodward Hutson. 1914 Hecht, Ben. Fantazius Mallare: A Mysterious Oath. 1922 Hecht, Ben. The Kingdom of Evil: A Continuation of the Journal of Fantazius Mallare. 1924 [Heron-Allen, Edward]. Christopher Blayre, pseud. The Strange Papers of Dr. Blayre. 1932 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, [Sr.]. Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny. 1892 Housman, Clemence. The Were-Wolf. 1896 Ingram, Eleanor M. The Thing From the Lake. 1921 James, M[ontague] R[hodes]. The Five Jars. 1922 [Johnstone, Charles]. An Adept, pseud. Chrysal: Or, The Adventures of a Guinea. Two vols. in one. 1764 Keller, David H. The Devil and the Doctor. 1940 Knowles, Vernon. The Street of Queer Houses and Other Tales. 1925 Le Fanu, J[oseph] Sheridan, Charles Young and others. A Stable For Nightmares or Weird Tales. [An Anonymous Anthology]. 1896 [Le Sage, Alain René]. The Devil on Two Sticks. [A Translation of Le Diable Boiteux]. 1840 Machen, Arthur. The Children of the Pool and Other Stories. 1936 [MacKay, Mary]. Marie Corelli, pseud. The Strange Visitation of Josiah McNason: A Christmas Ghost Story. 1904 Marryat, Florence. The Dead Man's Message: An Occult Romance. 1894 [Pg 316]Marsh, Richard. The Beetle. 1917 Menville, Douglas and R. Reginald, editors. Ancient Hauntings. 1976 Menville, Douglas and R. Reginald, editors. Phantasmagoria. 1976 Merritt, A [braham] and Hannes Bok. The Fox Woman and The Blue Pagoda and The Black Wheel. Two vols. in one. 1946/1947 Molesworth, Mrs. [Mary Louisa Stewart]. Uncanny Tales. 1896 O'Donnell, Elliott. The Sorcery Club. 1912 [Oliver, George]. Oliver Onions, pseud. Widdershins. 1911 [Paget, Violet]. Vernon Lee, pseud. For Maurice: Five Unlikely Stories. 1927 Pain, Barry [Eric Odell]. Robinson Crusoe's Return. [1907] Paine, Albert Bigelow. The Mystery of Evelin Delorme: A Hypnotic Story. 1894 Phillpotts, Eden. A Deal With the Devil. 1895 Powys, John Cowper. Morwyn: Or, The Vengeance of God. 1937 Praed, Mrs. [Rosa Caroline Murray-Prior] Campbell. The Brother of the Shadow: A Mystery of To-Day. 1886 Reginald, R. and Douglas Menville, editors. R. I. P.: Five Stories of the Supernatural. 1976 Reginald, R. and Douglas Menville, editors. The Spectre Bridegroom, and Other Horrors. 1976 Reynolds, George W. M. The Necromancer: A Romance. 1857 Russell, W[illiam] Clark. The Death Ship: A Strange Story. Three vols. in one. 1888 Sicard, Clara. The Ghost: A Legend. [1866] Viereck, George Sylvester. The House of the Vampire. 1907 [Vivian, Evelyn Charles]. Jack Mann, pseud. Maker of Shadows. [1938] Wakefield, H[erbert] Russell. Ghost Stories. 1932 [Wall, John W.]. "Sarban", pseud. Ringstones and Other Curious Tales. 1951 [Ward, Arthur Sarsfield]. Sax Rohmer, pseud. Grey Face. 1924 Whiting, Sydney. Heliondé; Or, Adventures in the Sun. 1855 PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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