_The Story of the Tenson_
In the year of grace 1265 (Nicolas begins), about the festival of SaintPeter _ad Vincula_, the Prince de Gatinais came to Burgos. Before thishe had lodged for three months in the district of Ponthieu; and theobject of his southern journey was to assure the tenth Alphonso, thenruling in Castile, that the latter's sister Ellinor, now resident atEntrechat, was beyond any reasonable doubt the transcendent lady whoseexistence old romancers had anticipated, however cloudily, when theyfabled in remote time concerning Queen Heleine of Sparta.
There was a postscript to this news. The world knew that the King ofLeon and Castile desired to be King of Germany as well, and that atpresent a single vote in the Diet would decide between his claims andthose of his competitor, Earl Richard of Cornwall. De Gatinais chafferedfairly; he had a vote, Alphonso had a sister. So that, in effect--ohe,in effect, he made no question that his Majesty understood!
The Astronomer twitched his beard and demanded if the fact that Ellinorhad been a married woman these ten years past was not an obstacle to theplan which his fair cousin had proposed?
Here the Prince was accoutred cap-a-pie, and hauled out a paper. Datingfrom Viterbo, Clement, Bishop of Rome, servant to the servants of God,desirous of all health and apostolical blessing for his well-beloved sonin Christ, stated that a compact between a boy of fifteen and a girl often was an affair of no particular moment; and that in consideration ofthe covenantors never having clapped eyes upon each other since thewedding-day,--even had not the precontract of marriage between thegroom's father and the bride's mother rendered a consummation of thechildish oath an obvious and a most heinous enormity,--why, that, in asentence, and for all his coy verbosity, the new pontiff was perfectlyamenable to reason.
So in a month it was settled. Alphonso would give his sister to deGatinais, and in exchange get the latter's vote to make Alphonso King ofGermany; and Gui Foulques of Sabionetta--now Clement, fourth Pope toassume that name--would annul the previous marriage, and in exchange getan armament to serve him against Manfred, the late and troublesometyrant of Sicily and Apulia. The scheme promised to each one of themthat which he in particular desired, and messengers were presently sentinto Ponthieu.
It is now time we put aside these Castilian matters and speak of otherthings. In England, Prince Edward had fought, and won, a shrewd battleat Evesham. People said, of course, that such behavior was less in themanner of his nominal father, King Henry, than reminiscent of CountManuel of Poictesme, whose portraits certainly the Prince resembled toan embarrassing extent. Either way, the barons' power was demolished,there would be no more internecine war; and spurred by the unaccustomedidleness, Prince Edward began to think of the foreign girl he had notseen since the day he wedded her. She would be a woman by this, and itwas befitting that he claim his wife. He rode with Hawise Bulmer and herbaby to Ambresbury, and at the gate of the nunnery they parted, withwhat agonies are immaterial to this history's progression; the talemerely tells that, having thus decorously rid himself of his mistress,the Prince went into Lower Picardy alone, riding at adventure as heloved to do, and thus came to Entrechat, where his wife resided with hermother, the Countess Johane.
In a wood near the castle he approached a company of Spaniards, four innumber, their horses tethered while these men (Oviedans, as they toldhim) drank about a great stone which served them for a table. Beingthirsty, he asked and was readily accorded hospitality, and these fivefell into amicable discourse. One fellow asked his name and business inthose parts, and the Prince gave each without hesitancy as he reachedfor the bottle, and afterward dropped it just in time to catch, cannily,with his naked left hand, the knife-blade with which the rascal had dugat the unguarded ribs. The Prince was astounded, but he was never asubtle man: here were four knaves who, for reasons unexplained--but tothem of undoubted cogency--desired his death: manifestly there was herean actionable difference of opinion; so he had his sword out and killedthe four of them.
Presently came to him an apple-cheeked boy, habited as a page, who,riding jauntily through the forest, lighted upon the Prince, now inbottomless vexation. The lad drew rein, and his lips outlined a whistle.At his feet were several dead men in various conditions ofdismemberment. And seated among them, as if throned upon this boulder,was a gigantic and florid person, so tall that the heads of few menreached to his shoulder; a person of handsome exterior, high-featuredand blond, having a narrow, small head, and vivid light blue eyes, andthe chest of a stallion; a person whose left eyebrow had an odd obliquedroop, so that the stupendous man appeared to be winking the informationthat he was in jest.
"Fair friend," said the page. "God give you joy! and why have youconverted this forest into a shambles?"
The Prince told him as much of the half-hour's action as has beennarrated. "I have perhaps been rather hasty," he considered, by way ofperoration, "and it vexes me that I did not spare, say, one of theselank Spaniards, if only long enough to ascertain why, in the name ofTermagaunt, they should have desired my destruction."
But midway in his tale the boy had dismounted with a gasp, and he wasnow inspecting the features of one carcass. "Felons, my Prince! You haveslain some eight yards of felony which might have cheated the gallowshad they got the Princess Ellinor safe to Burgos. Only two days ago thischalk-eyed fellow conveyed to her a letter."
Prince Edward said, "You appear, lad, to be somewhat overheels in theconfidence of my wife."
Now the boy arose and defiantly flung back his head in shrill laughter."Your wife! Oh, God have mercy! Your wife, and for ten years left to herown devices! Why, look you, to-day you and your wife would not know eachother were you two brought face to face."
Prince Edward said, "That is very near the truth." But, indeed, it wasthe absolute truth, and as it concerned him was already attested.
"Sire Edward," the boy then said, "your wife has wearied of this longwaiting till you chose to whistle for her. Last summer the young Princede Gatinais came a-wooing--and he is a handsome man." The page madeknown all which de Gatinais and King Alphonso planned, the wordsjostling as they came in torrents, but so that one might understand. "Iam her page, my lord. I was to follow her. These fellows were to be myescort, were to ward off possible pursuit. Cry haro, beau sire! Cryharo, and shout it lustily, for your wife in company with six otherknaves is at large between here and Burgos,--that unreasonable wife whogrew dissatisfied after a mere ten years of neglect."
"I have been remiss," the Prince said, and one huge hand strained at hischin; "yes, perhaps I have been remiss. Yet it had appeared to me--Butas it is, I bid you mount, my lad!"
The boy demanded, "And to what end?"
"Oy Dieus, messire! have I not slain your escort? Why, in common reason,equity demands that I afford you my protection so far as Burgos,messire, just as plainly as equity demands I slay de Gatinais and fetchback my wife to England."
The page wrung exquisite hands with a gesture which was but partiallytinged with anguish, and presently began to laugh. Afterward these tworode southerly, in the direction of Castile.
For it appeared to the intriguing little woman a diverting jest that inthis fashion her husband should be the promoter of her evasion. Itappeared to her more diverting when in two days' space she had becomefond of him. She found him rather slow of comprehension, and she washumiliated by the discovery that not an eyelash of the man was irritatedby his wife's decampment; he considered, to all appearances, that someproperty of his had been stolen, and he intended, quite without passion,to repossess himself of it, after, of course, punishing the thief.
This troubled the Princess somewhat; and often, riding by her stolidhusband's side, the girl's heart raged at memory of the decade so newlyoverpast which had kept her always dependent on the charity of this orthat ungracious patron--on any one who would take charge of her whilethe truant husband fought out his endless squabbles in England. Slightsenough she had borne during the period, and squalor, and physical hungeralso she had known, who was the child of a king and a sa
int.[2] But nowshe rode toward the dear southland; and presently she would be rid ofthis big man, when he had served her purpose; and afterward she meant towheedle Alphonso, just as she had always wheedled him, and later still,she and Etienne would be very happy: in fine, to-morrow was to be a newday.
So these two rode southward, and always Prince Edward found this newpage of his--this Miguel de Rueda,--a jolly lad, who whistled and sanginapposite snatches of balladry, without any formal ending or beginning,descanting always with the delicate irrelevancy of a bird-trill.
Sang Miguel de Rueda:
"Man's Love, that leads me day by day Through many a screened and scented way, Finds to assuage my thirst.
"No love that may the old love slay, None sweeter than the first.
"Fond heart of mine, that beats so fast As this or that fair maid trips past, Once, and with lesser stir We viewed the grace of love, at last, And turned idolater.
"Lad's Love it was, that in the spring When all things woke to blossoming Was as a child that came Laughing, and filled with wondering, Nor knowing his own name--"
"And still I would prefer to think," the big man interrupted, heavily,"that Sicily is not the only allure. I would prefer to think my wife sobeautiful.--And yet, as I remember her, she was nothing extraordinary."
The page a little tartly said that people might forget a deal within adecade.
The Prince continued his unriddling of the scheme hatched in Castile."When Manfred is driven out of Sicily they will give the throne to deGatinais. He intends to get both a kingdom and a handsome wife by thisneat affair. And in reason, England must support my Uncle Richard'sclaim to the German crown, against El Sabio--Why, my lad, I ridesouthward to prevent a war that would devastate half Europe."
"You ride southward in the attempt to rob a miserable woman of her solechance of happiness," Miguel de Rueda estimated.
"That is undeniable, if she loves this thrifty Prince, as indeed I donot question my wife does. Yet our happiness here is a trivial matter,whereas war is a great disaster. You have not seen--as I, my littleMiguel, have often seen--a man viewing his death-wound with a face ofstupid wonder, a bewildered wretch in point to die in his lord's quarreland understanding never a word of it. Or a woman, say--a woman's twistedand naked body, the breasts yet horribly heaving, in the red ashes ofsome village, or the already dripping hoofs which will presently crushthis body. Well, it is to prevent many such ugly spectacles hereaboutthat I ride southward."
Miguel de Rueda shuddered. But, "She has her right to happiness," thepage stubbornly said.
"She has only one right," the Prince retorted; "because it has pleasedthe Emperor of Heaven to appoint us twain to lofty stations, to entrustto us the five talents of the parable; whence is our debt to Him, beingfivefold, so much the greater than that of common persons. Thereforethe more is it our sole right, being fivefold, to serve God withoutfaltering, and therefore is our happiness, or our unhappiness, the morean inconsiderable matter. For, as I have read in the Annals of theRomans--" He launched upon the story of King Pompey and his daughter,whom a certain duke regarded with impure and improper emotions. "Mylittle Miguel, that ancient king is our Heavenly Father, that onlydaughter is the rational soul of us, which is here delivered forprotection to five soldiers--that is, to the five senses,--to preserveit from the devil, the world, and the flesh. But, alas! thetoo-credulous soul, desirous of gazing upon the gaudy vapors of thisworld--"
"You whine like a canting friar," the page complained; "and I can assureyou that the Lady Ellinor was prompted rather than hindered by herGod-given faculties of sight and hearing and so on when she fell in lovewith de Gatinais. Of you two, he is, beyond any question, the handsomerand the more intelligent man, and it was God who bestowed on hersufficient wit to perceive the superiority of de Gatinais. And what am Ito deduce from this?"
The Prince reflected. At last he said: "I have also read in these sameGestes how Seneca mentions that in poisoned bodies, on account of themalignancy and the coldness of the poison, no worm will engender; but ifthe body be smitten by lightning, in a few days the carcass will aboundwith vermin. My little Miguel, both men and women are at birthempoisoned by sin, and then they produce no worm--that is, no virtue.But once they are struck with lightning--that is, by the grace ofGod,--they are astonishingly fruitful in good works."
The page began to laugh. "You are hopelessly absurd, my Prince, thoughyou will never know it,--and I hate you a little,--and I envy you agreat deal."
"Ah, but," Prince Edward said, in misapprehension, for the man was neverquick-witted,--"but it is not for my own happiness that I ridesouthward."
The page then said, "What is her name?"
Prince Edward answered, very fondly, "Hawise."
"I hate her, too," said Miguel de Rueda; "and I think that the holyangels alone know how profoundly I envy her."
In the afternoon of the same day they neared Ruffec, and at the fordfound three brigands ready, two of whom the Prince slew, and the otherfled.
Next night they supped at Manneville, and sat afterward in the littlesquare, tree-chequered, that lay before their inn. Miguel had procured alute from the innkeeper, and he strummed idly as these two debatedtogether of great matters; about them was an immeasurable twilight,moonless, but tempered by many stars, and everywhere they could hear anagreeable whispering of leaves.
"Listen, my Prince," the boy said: "here is one view of the affair."And he began to chant, without rhyming, without raising his voice abovethe pitch of talk, while the lute monotonously accompanied his chanting.
Sang Miguel:
"Passeth a little while, and Irus the beggar and Menephtah the high king are at sorry unison, and Guenevere is a skull. Multitudinously we tread toward oblivion, as ants hasten toward sugar, and presently Time cometh with his broom. Multitudinously we tread a dusty road toward oblivion; but yonder the sun shines upon a grass-plot, converting it into an emerald; and I am aweary of the trodden path.
"Vine-crowned is the fair peril that guards the grasses yonder, and her breasts are naked. 'Vanity of Vanities!' saith the beloved. But she whom I love seems very far away to-night, though I might be with her if I would. And she may not aid me now, for not even love is all-powerful. She is most dear of created women, and very wise, but she may never understand that at any time one grows aweary of the trodden path.
"At sight of my beloved, love closes over my heart like a flood. For the sake of my beloved I have striven, with a good endeavor, to my tiny uttermost. Pardie, I am not Priam at the head of his army! A little while and I will repent; to-night I cannot but remember that there are women whose lips are of a livelier tint, that life is short at best, that wine evokes in me some admiration for myself, and that I am aweary of the trodden path.
"She is very far from me to-night. Yonder in the Hoerselberg they exult and make sweet songs, songs which are sweeter, immeasurably sweeter, than this song of mine, but in the trodden path I falter, for I am tired, tired in every fibre of me, and I am aweary of the trodden path"
Followed a silence. "Ignorance spoke there," the Prince said. "It is thesong of a woman, or else of a boy who is very young. Give me the lute,my little Miguel." And presently the Prince, too, sang.
Sang the Prince:
"I was in a path, and I trod toward the citadel of the land's Seigneur, and on either side were pleasant and forbidden meadows, having various names. And one trod with me who babbled of the brooding mountains and of the low-lying and adjacent clouds; of the west wind and of the budding fruit-trees. He debated the significance of these things, and he went astray to gather violets, while I walked in the trodden path."
"He babbled of genial wine and of the alert lips of women, of swinging censers and of the serene countenances of priests, and of the clear, lovely colors of bread and butter, and his heart was troubled by a world profuse in beauty. And he leaped a stile to share his allotted provision with a dying dog, and afterward, be
ing hungry, a wall to pilfer apples, while I walked in the trodden path.
"He babbled of Autumn's bankruptcy and of the age-long lying promises of Spring; and of his own desire to be at rest; and of running waters and of decaying leaves. He babbled of the far-off stars; and he debated whether they were the eyes of God or gases which burned, and he demonstrated, with logic, that neither existed. At times he stumbled as he stared about him and munched his apples, so that he was all bemired, but I walked in the trodden path.
"And the path led to the gateway of a citadel, and through the gateway. 'Let us not enter,' he said, 'for the citadel is vacant, and, moreover, I am in profound terror, and, besides, I have not as yet eaten all my apples.' And he wept aloud, but I was not afraid, for I had walked in the trodden path."
Again there was a silence. "You paint a dreary world, my Prince."
"My little Miguel, I paint the world as the Eternal Father made it. Thelaws of the place are written large, so that all may read them; and weknow that every road, whether it be my trodden path or some byway throughyour gayer meadows, yet leads in the end to God. We have our choice,--orto come to Him as a laborer comes at evening for the day's wages fairlyearned, or to come as a roisterer haled before the magistrate."
"I consider you to be in the right," the boy said, after a lengthyinterval, "although I decline--and decline emphatically--to believe you."
The Prince laughed. "There spoke Youth," he said, and he sighed asthough he were a patriarch. "But we have sung, we two, the EternalTenson of God's will and of man's desires. And I claim the prize, myLittle Miguel."
Suddenly the page kissed one huge hand. "You have conquered, my verydull and very glorious Prince. Concerning that Hawise--" But Miguel deRueda choked. "Oh, I do not understand! and yet in part I understand!"the boy wailed in the darkness.
And the Prince laid one hand upon his page's hair, and smiled in thedarkness to note how soft was this hair, since the man was less a foolthan at first view you might have taken him to be; and he said:
"One must play the game out fairly, my lad. We are no little people,she and I, the children of many kings, of God's regents here on earth;and it was never reasonable, my Miguel, that gentlefolk should cheat attheir dicing."
The same night Miguel de Rueda repeated the prayer which Saint Theophilusmade long ago to the Mother of God:
"Dame, je n'ose, Flors d'aiglentier et lis et rose, En qui li filz Diex se repose,"
and so on. Or, in other wording: "Hearken, O gracious Lady! thou thatart more fair than any flower of the eglantine, more comely than theblossoming of the rose or of the lily! thou to whom was confided thevery Son of God! Harken, for I am afraid! afford counsel to me that amensnared by Satan and know not what to do! Never will I make an end ofpraying. O Virgin debonnaire! O honored Lady! Thou that wast once awoman--!"
So he prayed, and upon the next day as these two rode southward, he sanghalf as if in defiance.
Sang Miguel:
"And still,--whatever years impend To witness Time a fickle friend, And Youth a dwindling fire,-- I must adore till all years end My first love, Heart's Desire.
"I may not hear men speak of her Unmoved, and vagrant pulses stir To greet her passing-by, And I, in all her worshipper Must serve her till I die.
"For I remember: this is she That reigns in one man's memory Immune to age and fret, And stays the maid I may not see Nor win to, nor forget."
It was on the following day, near Bazas, that these two encountered Adamde Gourdon, a Provencal knight, with whom the Prince fought for a longwhile, without either contestant giving way; in consequence a rendezvouswas fixed for the November of that year, and afterward the Prince and deGourdon parted, highly pleased with each other.
Thus the Prince and his attendant came, in late September, to Mauleon,on the Castilian frontier, and dined there at the _Fir Cone._ Three orfour lackeys were about--some exalted person's retinue? Prince Edwardhazarded to the swart little landlord, as the Prince and Miguel lingeredover the remnants of their meal.
Yes, the fellow informed them: the Prince de Gatinais had lodged therefor a whole week, watching the north road, as circumspect of all passageas a cat over a mouse-hole. Eh, monseigneur expected some one,doubtless--a lady, it might be,--the gentlefolk had their escapades likeevery one else. The innkeeper babbled vaguely, for on a sudden he wasvery much afraid of his gigantic patron.
"You will show me to his room," Prince Edward said, with a politenessthat was ingratiating.
The host shuddered and obeyed.
Miguel de Rueda, left alone, sat quite silent, his finger-tips drummingupon the table. He rose suddenly and flung back his shoulders, allresolution. On the stairway he passed the black little landlord, who wasnow in a sad twitter, foreseeing bloodshed. But Miguel de Rueda went onto the room above. The door was ajar. He paused there.
De Gatinais had risen from his dinner and stood facing the door. He,too, was a blond man and the comeliest of his day. And at sight of himawoke in the woman's heart all the old tenderness; handsome and braveand witty she knew him to be, as indeed the whole world knew him to bedistinguished by every namable grace; and the innate weakness of deGatinais, which she alone suspected, made him now seem doubly dear.Fiercely she wanted to shield him, less from bodily hurt than from thatself-degradation which she cloudily apprehended to be at hand; the testwas come, and Etienne would fail. Thus much she knew with a sick,illimitable surety, and she loved de Gatinais with a passion whichdwarfed comprehension.
"O Madame the Virgin!" prayed Miguel de Rueda, "thou that wast once awoman, even as I am now a woman! grant that the man may slay himquickly! grant that he may slay Etienne very quickly, honored Lady, sothat my Etienne may die unshamed!"
"I must question, messire," de Gatinais was saying, "whether you havebeen well inspired. Yes, quite frankly, I do await the arrival of herwho is your nominal wife; and your intervention at this late stage, Itake it, can have no outcome save to render you absurd. So, come now!be advised by me, messire--"
Prince Edward said, "I am not here to talk."
"--For, messire, I grant you that in ordinary disputation the cutting ofone gentleman's throat by another gentleman is well enough, since theargument is unanswerable. Yet in this case we have each of us too muchto live for; you to govern your reconquered England, and I--you perceivethat I am candid--to achieve in turn the kingship of another realm. Nowto secure this realm, possession of the Lady Ellinor is to me essential;to you she is nothing."
"She is a woman whom I have deeply wronged," Prince Edward said, "and towhom, God willing, I mean to make atonement. Ten years ago they weddedus, willy-nilly, to avert the impending war between Spain and England;to-day El Sabio intends to purchase Germany with her body as the price;you to get Sicily as her husband. Mort de Dieu! is a woman thus to bebought and sold like hog's flesh! We have other and cleaner customs, weof England."
"Eh, and who purchased the woman first?" de Gatinais spat at him,viciously, for the Frenchman now saw his air-castle shaken to thecorner-stone.
"They wedded me to the child in order that a great war might be averted.I acquiesced, since it appeared preferable that two people sufferinconvenience rather than many thousands be slain. And still this is myview of the matter. Yet afterward I failed her. Love had no clause inour agreement; but I owed her more protection than I have afforded.England has long been no place for women. I thought she would comprehendthat much. But I know very little of women. Battle and death are morewholesome companions, I now perceive, than such folk as you andAlphonso. Woman is the weaker vessel--the negligence was mine--I may notblame her." The big and simple man was in an agony of repentance.
On a sudden he strode forward, his sword now shifted to his left handand his right hand outstretched. "One and all, we are weaklings in thenet of circumstance. Shall one herring, then, blame his fellow if hisfellow jostle him? We walk as in a mist of error, and Belial is fertilein allurements; yet always it is granted us to b
ehold that sin is sin. Ihave perhaps sinned through anger, Messire de Gatinais, more deeply thanyou have planned to sin through luxury and through ambition. Let us thencry quits, Messire de Gatinais, and afterward part in peace, and incommon repentance."
"And yield you Ellinor?" de Gatinais said. "Oh no, messire, I reply toyou with Arnaud de Marveil, that marvellous singer of eld, 'They maybear her from my presence, but they can never untie the knot whichunites my heart to her; for that heart, so tender and so constant, Godalone divides with my lady, and the portion which God possesses He holdsbut as a part of her domain, and as her vassal.'" "This is blasphemy,"Prince Edward now retorted, "and for such observations alone you meritdeath. Will you always talk and talk and talk? I perceive that the devilis far more subtle than you, messire, and leads you, like a pig with aring in his nose, toward gross iniquity. Messire, I tell you that foryour soul's health I doubly mean to kill you now. So let us make an endof this."
De Gatinais turned and took up his sword. "Since you will have it," herather regretfully said; "yet I reiterate that you play an absurd part.Your wife has deserted you, has fled in abhorrence of you. For threeweeks she has been tramping God knows whither or in what company--"
He was here interrupted. "What the Lady Ellinor has done," Prince Edwardcrisply said, "was at my request. We were wedded at Burgos; it wasnatural that we should desire our reunion to take place at Burgos; andshe came to Burgos with an escort which I provided."
De Gatinais sneered. "So that is the tale you will deliver to theworld?"
"After I have slain you," the Prince said, "yes."
"The reservation is wise. For if I were dead, Messire Edward, therewould be none to know that you risk all for a drained goblet, for anorange already squeezed--quite dry, messire."
"Face of God!" the Prince said.
But de Gatinais flung back both arms in a great gesture, so that heknocked a flask of claret from the table at his rear. "I am candid, myPrince. I would not see any brave gentleman slain in a cause so foolish.In consequence I kiss and tell. In effect, I was eloquent, I wasmagnificent, so that in the end her reserve was shattered like thewooden flask yonder at our feet. Is it worth while, think you, that ourblood flow like this flagon's contents?"
"Liar!" Prince Edward said, very softly. "O hideous liar! Already youreyes shift!" He drew near and struck the Frenchman. "Talk and talk andtalk! and lying talk! I am ashamed while I share the world with a thingas base as you."
De Gatinais hurled upon him, cursing, sobbing in an abandoned fury. Inan instant the place resounded like a smithy, for there were no betterswordsmen living than these two. The eavesdropper could see nothingclearly. Round and round they veered in a whirl of turmoil. PresentlyPrince Edward trod upon the broken flask, smashing it. His foot slippedin the spilth of wine, and the huge body went down like an oak, his headstriking one leg of the table.
"A candle!" de Gatinais cried, and he panted now--"a hundred candles tothe Virgin of Beaujolais!" He shortened his sword to stab the Prince ofEngland.
The eavesdropper came through the doorway, and flung herself betweenPrince Edward and the descending sword. The sword dug deep into hershoulder, so that she shrieked once with the cold pain of this wound.Then she rose, ashen. "Liar!" she said. "Oh, I am shamed while I sharethe world with a thing as base as you!"
In silence de Gatinais regarded her. There was a long interval before hesaid, "Ellinor!" and then again, "Ellinor!" like a man bewildered.
"_I was eloquent, I was magnificent_" she said, "_so that in the end herreserve was shattered!_ Certainly, messire, it is not your death which Idesire, since a man dies so very, very quickly. I desire for you--I knownot what I desire for you!" the girl wailed.
"You desire that I should endure this present moment," de Gatinaisreplied; "for as God reigns, I love you, of whom I have spoken infamy,and my shame is very bitter."
She said: "And I, too, loved you. It is strange to think of that."
"I was afraid. Never in my life have I been afraid before to-day. But Iwas afraid of this terrible and fair and righteous man. I saw all hopeof you vanish, all hope of Sicily--in effect, I lied as a cornered beastspits out his venom."
"I know," she answered. "Give me water, Etienne." She washed and boundthe Prince's head with a vinegar-soaked napkin. Ellinor sat upon thefloor, the big man's head upon her knee. "He will not die of this, forhe is of strong person. Look you, Messire de Gatinais, you and I are notstrong. We are so fashioned that we can enjoy only the pleasant thingsof life. But this man can enjoy--enjoy, mark you--the commission of anyact, however distasteful, if he think it to be his duty. There is thedifference. I cannot fathom him. But it is now necessary that I becomeall which he loves--since he loves it,--and that I be in thought anddeed all which he desires. For I have heard the Tenson through."
"You love him!" said de Gatinais.
She glanced upward with a pitiable smile. "No, it is you whom I love, myEtienne. You cannot understand how at this very moment every fibre ofme--heart, soul, and body--may be longing just to comfort you, and togive you all which you desire, my Etienne, and to make you happy, myhandsome Etienne, at however dear a cost. No; you will never understandthat. And since you may not understand, I merely bid you go and leave mewith my husband."
And then there fell between these two an infinite silence.
"Listen," de Gatinais said; "grant me some little credit for what I do.You are alone; the man is powerless. My fellows are within call. A wordsecures the Prince's death; a word gets me you and Sicily. And I do notspeak that word, for you are my lady as well as his, and your will is myone law."
But there was no mercy in the girl, no more for him than for herself.The big head lay upon her breast; she caressed the gross hair of it everso lightly. "These are tinsel oaths," she crooned, as if rapt withincurious content; "these are the old empty protestations of all youstrutting poets. A word gets you what you desire! Then why do you notspeak that word? Why do you not speak many words, and become again aseloquent and as magnificent as you were when you contrived that adulteryabout which you were just now telling my husband?"
De Gatinais raised clenched hands. "I am shamed," he said; and then hesaid, "It is just."
He left the room and presently rode away with his men. I say that, hereat last, he had done a knightly deed, but she thought little of it,never raised her head as the troop clattered from Mauleon, with alessening beat which lapsed now into the blunders of an aging fly whododdered about the window yonder.
She stayed thus, motionless, her meditations adrift in the future; andthat which she foreread left her not all sorry nor profoundly glad, forliving seemed by this, though scarcely the merry and colorful businesswhich she had esteemed it, yet immeasurably the more worth while.
THE END OF THE SECOND NOVEL