Alice Lorraine: A Tale of the South Downs

								

little mystery. You have often heard, of course, about our old
astrologer.”
“Of course I have, papa--of course! And with all my heart I love him.
Everything the shepherds tell me shows how thoroughly good he was.”
“Very well, then, all my story is about him, and his deeds.”
“Oh, papa, then do try, for once in your life, to be in a hurry. I do
love everything about him; and I have heard so many things.”
“No doubt you have, my dear; but perhaps of a somewhat fabulous order.
His mind, or his manners, or appearance, or at any rate something seems
to have left a lasting impression upon the simple folk hereabout.”
“Better than a pot of money; an old woman told me the other day it was
better than a pot of money for anybody to dream of him.”
“It would do them more good, no doubt. But I have not had a pinch of
snuff to-day. You have nearly broken me, Alice; but still you do allow
me one pinch, when I begin to tell you a good story.”
“Three, papa; you shall have three now, and you may take them all at
once, because you never told such a story, as I feel sure it is certain
to be, in all the whole course of your life before. Now come here,
where the sun is setting, so that I may watch the way you are telling
every word of it; and if I ask you any questions you must nod your
head, but never presume to answer one of them, unless you are sure
that it will go on without interrupting the story. Now, papa, no more
delay.”

CHAPTER V.
THE LEGEND OF THE ASTROLOGER.

Two hundred years before the day when Alice thus sat listening, an
ancestor of hers had been renowned in Anatolia. The most accomplished
and most learned prince in all Lesser Asia was Agasicles Syennesis,
descended from Mausolus (made immortal by his mausoleum), and from
that celebrated king, Syennesis of Cilicia. There had been, after both
these were dead, and much of their repute gone by, creditable and happy
marriages in and out their descendants, at a little over and a little
under, twenty-two centuries ago; and the best result and issue of all
these was now embodied in Prince Agasicles.
The prince was not a patron only, but also an eager student of the
more recondite arts and sciences then in cultivation. Especially he
had given his mind to chemistry (including alchemy), mineralogy, and
astrology. Devoting himself to these fine subjects, and many others,
he seems to have neglected anthropology; so that in his fiftieth year
he was but a lonesome bachelor. Troubled at this time of his life with
many expostulations--genuine on the part of his friends, and emphatic
on that of his relatives--he held a long interview with the stars, and
taking their advice exactly as they gave and meant it, married a wife
the next afternoon, and (so far as he could make out) the right one.
This turned out well. His wife went off on the occasion of her first
confinement, leaving him with a daughter, born A.D. 1590, and all women