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Ayesha, the Return of She

Chapter 1: AYESHA
By H. Rider Haggard
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About This Book

The narrative continues a prior romance by recounting the return of an immortal Egyptian priestess and the effects her reappearance has on those bound to her by past vows. Presented as a recovered manuscript and framed by an editor's commentary, the account follows attempts to reunite with a long-lost love and the tragic consequences that unfold amid ancient rites, supernatural power, and jealous vengeance. It explores themes of fate, the costs of immortality, obsession, and the clash between modern seekers and archaic forces, combining adventure, mysticism, and melancholy to bring the earlier story to its resolution.

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Title: Ayesha, the Return of She

Author: H. Rider Haggard

Release date: April 22, 2006 [eBook #5228]
Most recently updated: January 12, 2021

Language: English

Credits: David Moynihan, Dagny, John Bickers and David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AYESHA, THE RETURN OF SHE ***

AYESHA

THE RETURN OF SHE

By H. Rider Haggard

“Here ends this history so far as it concerns science and the outside world. What its end will be as regards Leo and myself is more than I can guess. But we feel that it is not reached. . . . Often I sit alone at night, staring with the eyes of my mind into the blackness of unborn time, and wondering in what shape and form the great drama will be finally developed, and where the scene of its next act will be laid. And when, ultimately, that final development occurs, as I have no doubt it must and will occur, in obedience to a fate that never swerves and a purpose which cannot be altered, what will be the part played therein by that beautiful Egyptian Amenartas, the Princess of the royal house of the Pharaohs, for the love of whom the priest Kallikrates broke his vows to Isis, and, pursued by the vengeance of the outraged goddess, fled down the coast of Lybia to meet his doom at Kôr?”— She, Silver Library Edition, p. 277.

DEDICATION

My dear Lang,

The appointed years—alas! how many of them—are gone by, leaving Ayesha lovely and loving and ourselves alive. As it was promised in the Caves of Kôr She has returned again.

To you therefore who accepted the first, I offer this further history of one of the various incarnations of that Immortal.

My hope is that after you have read her record, notwithstanding her subtleties and sins and the shortcomings of her chronicler (no easy office!) you may continue to wear your chain of “loyalty to our lady Ayesha.” Such, I confess, is still the fate of your old friend

H. RIDER HAGGARD.

DITCHINGHAM, 1905.