Lives of Alcyone

elieve that my uncle is dead; but at least his disappearance will kill
me.”
He was sent back to prison and condemned to die at
daybreak the next morning. That evening in his cell he received a
visit from a foreign priest who had passed through the town some
two years previously, as he was making a pilgrimage to all the
principal shrines of India. Alcyone had offered entertainment to this
visitor on that occasion, and he had spent two or three weeks in his
house. The stranger’ s name was Sarthon (but we know him as
Mercury), and he was a priest initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries.
He and Alcyone had many a time discussed religious matters and
Alcyone had learnt much from him, being especially struck by the
identity, according to Sarthon’ s explanation, of two religions which
exteriorly differed as much as did the Egyptian and the Hindu.
On this last night of his life Sarthon, who was now passing
through the town on his way back to Egypt, called upon him, and
after condoling with him, gave him a peculiar message which he
said was communicated to him by One who was of far greater power
in the Mysteries than himself. It was to the effect that although his
condemnation seemed unjust, in reality it wan not so, for this death
was not for the alleged murder of an old man(who indeed was still
alive), but for other actions committed far back in the past; that he
should make cheerfully and bravely this final payment of that ancient
debt, since by it his way should be cleared of much that obstructed
it, and hereafter the Path to the Hidden Light and the Hidden Work
would lie clear before him; and, said Sarthon:
“ I myself to whom you have shown hospitality, shall take
your hand and conduct you along it; for this work is given to me by