Domnei
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James Branch Cabell et al >> Domnei
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"And I lack time to weep," said Melicent.
So, when the Jew had told his tale and gone, young Melicent arose and
went into a chamber painted with the histories of Jason and Medea,
where her brother Count Emmerick hid such jewels as had not many equals
in Christendom.
She did not hesitate. She took no thought for her brother, she did not
remember her loved sisters: Ettarre and Dorothy were their names, and
they also suffered for their beauty, and for the desire it quickened in
the hearts of men. Melicent knew only that Perion was in captivity and
might not look for aid from any person living save herself.
She gathered in a blue napkin such emeralds as would ransom a pope. She
cut short her marvellous hair and disguised herself in all things as a
man, and under cover of the ensuing night slipped from the castle. At
Manneville she found a Venetian ship bound homeward with a cargo of
swords and armour.
She hired herself to the captain of this vessel as a servant, calling
herself Jocelin Gaignars. She found no time--wherein to be afraid or to
grieve for the estate she was relinquishing, so long as Perion lay in
danger.
Thus the young Jocelin, though not without hardship and odd by-ends of
adventure here irrelevant, came with time's course into a land of
sunlight and much wickedness where Perion was.
There the boy found in what fashion Perion was living and won the
dearly purchased misery of seeing him, from afar, in his deplorable
condition, as Perion went through the outer yard of Nacumera laden with
chains and carrying great logs toward the kitchen. This befell when
Jocelin had come into the hill country, where the eyrie of Demetrios
blocked a crag-hung valley as snugly as a stone chokes a gutter-pipe.
Young Jocelin had begged an audience of this heathen lord and had
obtained it--though Jocelin did not know as much--with ominous
facility.
7.
_How Perion Was Freed_
Demetrios lay on a divan within the Court of Stars, through which you
passed from the fortress into the Women's Garden and the luxurious
prison where he kept his wives. This court was circular in form and was
paved with red and yellow slabs, laid alternately, like a chess-board.
In the centre was a fountain, which cast up a tall thin jet of water. A
gallery extended around the place, supported by columns that had been
painted scarlet and were gilded with fantastic designs. The walls were
of the colour of claret and were adorned with golden cinquefoils
regularly placed. From a distance they resembled stars, and so gave the
enclosure its name.
Demetrios lay upon a long divan which was covered with crimson, and
which encircled the court entirely, save for the apertures of the two
entrances. Demetrios was of burly person, which he by ordinary, as
to-day, adorned resplendently; of a stature little above the common
size, and disproportionately broad as to his chest and shoulders. It
was rumoured that he could bore an apple through with his forefinger
and had once killed a refractory horse with a blow of his naked fist;
nor looking on the man, did you presume to question the report. His
eyes were large and insolent, coloured like onyxes; for the rest, he
had a handsome surly face which was disfigured by pimples.
He did not speak at all while Jocelin explained that his errand was to
ransom Perion. Then, "At what price?" Demetrios said, without any sign
of interest; and Jocelin, with many encomiums, displayed his emeralds.
"Ay, they are well enough," Demetrios agreed. "But then I have a
superfluity of jewels."
He raised himself a little among the cushions, and in this moving the
figured golden stuff in which he was clothed heaved and glittered like
the scales of a splendid monster. He leisurely unfastened the great
chrysoberyl, big as a hen's egg, which adorned his fillet.
"Look you, this is of a far more beautiful green than any of your
trinkets, I think it is as valuable also, because of its huge size.
Moreover, it turns red by lamplight--red as blood. That is an admirable
colour. And yet I do not value it. I think I do not value anything. So
I will make you a gift of this big coloured pebble, if you desire it,
because your ignorance amuses me. Most people know Demetrios is not a
merchant. He does not buy and sell. That which he has he keeps, and
that which he desires he takes."
The boy was all despair. He did not speak. He was very handsome as he
stood in that still place where everything excepting him was red and
gold.
"You do not value my poor chrysoberyl? You value your friend more? It
is a page out of Theocritos--'when there were golden men of old, when
friends gave love for love.' And yet I could have sworn--Come now, a
wager," purred Demetrios. "Show your contempt of this bauble to be as
great as mine by throwing this shiny pebble, say, into the gallery, for
the next passer-by to pick up, and I will credit your sincerity. Do
that and I will even name my price for Perion."
The boy obeyed him without hesitation. Turning, he saw the horrid
change in the intent eyes of Demetrios, and quailed before it. But
instantly that flare of passion flickered out.
Demetrios gently said:
"A bargain is a bargain. My wives are beautiful, but their caresses
annoy me as much as formerly they pleased me. I have long thought it
would perhaps amuse me if I possessed a Christian wife who had eyes
like violets and hair like gold, and a plump white body. A man tires
very soon of ebony and amber.... Procure me such a wife and I will
willingly release this Perion and all his fellows who are yet alive."
"But, seignior,"--and the boy was shaken now,--"you demand of me an
impossibility!"
"I am so hardy as to think not. And my reason is that a man throws from
the elbow only, but a woman with her whole arm."
There fell a silence now.
"Why, look you, I deal fairly, though. Were such a woman here--
Demetrios of Anatolia's guest--I verily believe I would not hinder her
departure, as I might easily do. For there is not a person within many
miles of this place who considers it wholesome to withstand me. Yet
were this woman purchasable, I would purchase. And--if she refused--I
would not hinder her departure; but very certainly I would put Perion
to the Torment of the Waterdrops. It is so droll to see a man go mad
before your eyes, I think that I would laugh and quite forget the
woman."
She said, "O God, I cry to You for justice!"
He answered:
"My good girl, in Nacumera the wishes of Demetrios are justice. But we
waste time. You desire to purchase one of my belongings? So be it. I
will hear your offer."
Just once her hands had gripped each other. Her arms fell now as if
they had been drained of life. She spoke in a dull voice.
"Seignior, I offer Melicent who was a princess. I cry a price,
seignior, for red lips and bright eyes and a fair woman's tender body
without any blemish. I cry a price for youth and happiness and honour.
These you may have for playthings, seignior, with everything which I
possess, except my heart, for that is dead."
Demetrios asked, "Is this true speech?"
She answered:
"It is as sure as Love and Death. I know that nothing is more sure than
these, and I praise God for my sure knowledge."
He chuckled, saying, "Platitudes break no bones."
So on the next day the chains were filed from Perion de la Foret and
all his fellows, save the nine unfortunates whom Demetrios had
appointed to fight with lions a month before this, when he had
entertained the Soldan of Bacharia. These men were bathed and perfumed
and richly clad.
A galley of the proconsul's fleet conveyed them toward Christendom and
set the twoscore slaves of yesterday ashore not far from Megaris. The
captain of the galley on departure left with Perion a blue napkin,
wherein were wrapped large emeralds and a bit of parchment.
Upon this parchment was written:
"Not these, but the body of Melicent, who was once a princess,
purchased your bodies. Yet these will buy you ships and men and swords
with which to storm my house where Melicent now is. Come if you will
and fight with Demetrios of Anatolia for that brave girl who loved a
porter as all loyal men should love their Maker and customarily do not.
I think it would amuse us."
Then Perion stood by the languid sea which
severed him from Melicent and cried:
"O God, that hast permitted this hard bargain, trade now with me! now
barter with me, O Father of us all! That which a man has I will give."
Thus he waited in the clear sunlight, with no more wavering in his face
than you may find in the next statue's face. Both hands strained toward
the blue sky, as though he made a vow. If so, he did not break it.
And now no more of Perion.
* * * * *
At the same hour young Melicent, wrapped all about with a
flame-coloured veil and crowned with marjoram, was led by a spruce boy
toward a threshold, over which Demetrios lifted her, while many people
sang in a strange tongue. And then she paid her ransom.
"Hymen, O Hymen!" they sang. "Do thou of many names and many temples,
golden Aphrodite, be propitious to this bridal! Now let him first
compute the glittering stars of midnight and the grasshoppers of a
summer day who would count the joys this bridal shall bring about! Hymen,
O Hymen, rejoice thou in this bridal!"
8.
_How Demetrios Was Amused_
Now Melicent abode in the house of Demetrios, whom she had not seen
since the morning after he had wedded her. A month had passed. As yet
she could not understand the language of her fellow prisoners, but
Halaon, a eunuch who had once served a cardinal in Tuscany, informed
her the proconsul was in the West Provinces, where an invading force
had landed under Ranulph de Meschines.
A month had passed. She woke one night from dreams of Perion--what else
should women dream of?--and found the same Ahasuerus that had brought
her news of Perion's captivity, so long ago, attendant at her bedside.
He seemed a prey to some half-scornful mirth. In speech, at least, the
man was of entire discretion. "The Splendour of the World desires your
presence, madame." Thus the Jew blandly spoke.
She cried, aghast at so much treachery, "You had planned this!"
He answered:
"I plan always. Oh, certainly, I must weave always as the spider
does.... Meanwhile time passes. I, like you, am now the servitor of
Demetrios. I am his factor now at Calonak. I buy and sell. I estimate
ounces. I earn my wages. Who forbids it?" Here the Jew shrugged. "And
to conclude, the Splendour of the World desires your presence, madame."
He seemed to get much joy of this mouth-filling periphrasis as
sneeringly he spoke of their common master.
* * * * *
Now Melicent, in a loose robe of green Coan stuff shot through and
through with a radiancy like that of copper, followed the thin, smiling
Jew Ahasuerus. She came thus with bare feet into the Court of Stars,
where the proconsul lay on the divan as though he had not ever moved
from there. To-night he was clothed in scarlet, and barbaric ornaments
dangled from his pierced ears. These glittered now that his head moved
a little as he silently dismissed Ahasuerus from the Court of Stars.
Real stars were overhead, so brilliant and (it seemed) so near they
turned the fountain's jet into a spurt of melting silver. The moon was
set, but there was a flaring lamp of iron, high as a man's shoulder,
yonder where Demetrios lay.
"Stand close to it, my wife," said the proconsul, "in order that I may
see my newest purchase very clearly."
She obeyed him; and she esteemed the sacrifice, however unendurable,
which bought for Perion the chance to serve God and his love for her by
valorous and commendable actions to be no cause for grief.
"I think with those old men who sat upon the walls of Troy," Demetrios
said, and he laughed because his voice had shaken a little. "Meanwhile
I have returned from crucifying a hundred of your fellow worshippers,"
Demetrios continued. His speech had an odd sweetness. "Ey, yes, I
conquered at Yroga. It was a good fight. My horse's hoofs were red at
its conclusion. My surviving opponents I consider to have been
deplorable fools when they surrendered, for people die less painfully
in battle. There was one fellow, a Franciscan monk, who hung six hours
upon a palm tree, always turning his head from one side to the other.
It was amusing."
She answered nothing.
"And I was wondering always how I would feel were you nailed in his
place. It was curious I should have thought of you.... But your white
flesh is like the petals of a flower. I suppose it is as readily
destructible. I think you would not long endure."
"I pray God hourly that I may not!" said tense Melicent.
He was pleased to have wrung one cry of anguish from this lovely
effigy. He motioned her to him and laid one hand upon her naked breast.
He gave a gesture of distaste.
Demetrios said:
"No, you are not afraid. However, you are very beautiful. I thought
that you would please me more when your gold hair had grown a trifle
longer. There is nothing in the world so beautiful as golden hair. Its
beauty weathers even the commendation of poets."
No power of motion seemed to be in this white girl, but certainly you
could detect no fear. Her clinging robe shone like an opal in the
lamplight, her body, only partly veiled, was enticing, and her visage
was very lovely. Her wide-open eyes implored you, but only as those of
a trapped animal beseech the mercy for which it does not really hope.
Thus Melicent waited in the clear lamplight, with no more wavering in
her face than you may find in the next statue's face.
In the man's heart woke now some comprehension of the nature of her
love for Perion, of that high and alien madness which dared to make of
Demetrios of Anatolia's will an unavoidable discomfort, and no more.
The prospect was alluring. The proconsul began to chuckle as water
pours from a jar, and the gold in his ears twinkled.
"Decidedly I shall get much mirth of you. Go back to your own rooms. I
had thought the world afforded no adversary and no game worthy of
Demetrios. I have found both. Therefore, go back to your own rooms," he
gently said.
9.
_How Time Sped in Heathenry_
On the next day Melicent was removed to more magnificent apartments,
and she was lodged in a lofty and spacious pavilion, which had three
porticoes builded of marble and carved teakwood and Andalusian copper.
Her rooms were spread with gold-worked carpets and hung with tapestries
and brocaded silks figured with all manner of beasts and birds in their
proper colours. Such was the girl's home now, where only happiness was
denied to her. Many slaves attended Melicent, and she lacked for
nothing in luxury and riches and things of price; and thereafter she
abode at Nacumera, to all appearances, as the favourite among the
proconsul's wives.
It must be recorded of Demetrios that henceforth he scrupulously
demurred even to touch her. "I have purchased your body," he proudly
said, "and I have taken seizin. I find I do not care for anything which
can be purchased."
It may be that the man was never sane; it is indisputable that the
mainspring of his least action was an inordinate pride. Here he had
stumbled upon something which made of Demetrios of Anatolia a temporary
discomfort, and which bedwarfed the utmost reach of his ill-doing into
equality with the molestations of a house-fly; and perception of this
fact worked in Demetrios like a poisonous ferment. To beg or once again
to pillage he thought equally unworthy of himself. "Let us have
patience!" It was not easily said so long as this fair Frankish woman
dared to entertain a passion which Demetrios could not comprehend, and
of which Demetrios was, and knew himself to be, incapable.
A connoisseur of passions, he resented such belittlement tempestuously;
and he heaped every luxury upon Melicent, because, as he assured
himself, the heart of every woman is alike.
He had his theories, his cunning, and, chief of all, an appreciation of
her beauty, as his abettors. She had her memories and her clean heart.
They duelled thus accoutred.
Meanwhile his other wives peered from screened alcoves at these two and
duly hated Melicent. Upon no less than three occasions did Callistion--
the first wife of the proconsul and the mother of his elder son--
attempt the life of Melicent; and thrice Demetrios spared the woman at
Melicent's entreaty. For Melicent (since she loved Perion) could
understand that it was love of Demetrios, rather than hate of her,
which drove the Dacian virago to extremities.
Then one day about noon Demetrios came unheralded into Melicent's
resplendent prison. Through an aisle of painted pillars he came to her,
striding with unwonted quickness, glittering as he moved. His robe this
day was scarlet, the colour he chiefly affected. Gold glowed upon his
forehead, gold dangled from his ears, and about his throat was a broad
collar of gold and rubies. At his side was a cross-handled sword, in a
scabbard of blue leather, curiously ornamented.
"Give thanks, my wife," Demetrios said, "that you are beautiful. For
beauty was ever the spur of valour." Then quickly, joyously, he told
her of how a fleet equipped by the King of Cyprus had been despatched
against the province of Demetrios, and of how among the invaders were
Perion of the Forest and his Free Companions. "Ey, yes, my porter has
returned. I ride instantly for the coast to greet him with appropriate
welcome. I pray heaven it is no sluggard or weakling that is come out
against me."
Proudly, Melicent replied:
"There comes against you a champion of noted deeds, a courteous and
hardy gentleman, pre-eminent at swordplay. There was never any man more
ready than Perion to break a lance or shatter a shield, or more eager
to succour the helpless and put to shame all cowards and traitors."
Demetrios dryly said:
"I do not question that the virtues of my porter are innumerable.
Therefore we will not attempt to catalogue them. Now Ahasuerus reports
that even before you came to tempt me with your paltry emeralds you
once held the life of Perion in your hands?" Demetrios unfastened his
sword. He grasped the hand of Melicent, and laid it upon the scabbard.
"And what do you hold now, my wife? You hold the death of Perion. I
take the antithesis to be neat."
She answered nothing. Her seeming indifference angered him. Demetrios
wrenched the sword from its scabbard, with a hard violence that made
Melicent recoil. He showed the blade all covered with graved symbols of
which she could make nothing.
"This is Flamberge," said the proconsul; "the weapon which was the
pride and bane of my father, famed Miramon Lluagor, because it was the
sword which Galas made, in the old time's heyday, for unconquerable
Charlemagne. Clerks declare it is a magic weapon and that the man who
wields it is always unconquerable. I do not know. I think it is as
difficult to believe in sorcery as it is to be entirely sure that all
we know is not the sorcery of a drunken wizard. I very potently
believe, however, that with this sword I shall kill Perion."
Melicent had plenty of patience, but astonishingly little, it seemed,
for this sort of speech. "I think that you talk foolishly, seignior.
And, other matters apart, it is manifest that you yourself concede
Perion to be the better swordsman, since you require to be abetted by
sorcery before you dare to face him."
"So, so!" Demetrios said, in a sort of grinding whisper, "you think
that I am not the equal of this long-legged fellow! You would think
otherwise if I had him here. You will think otherwise when I have
killed him with my naked hands. Oh, very soon you will think
otherwise."
He snarled, rage choking him, flung the sword at her feet and quitted
her without any leave-taking. He had ridden three miles from Nacumera
before he began to laugh. He perceived that Melicent at least respected
sorcery, and had tricked him out of Flamberge by playing upon his
tetchy vanity. Her adroitness pleased him.
Demetrios did not laugh when he found the Christian fleet had been
ingloriously repulsed at sea by the Emir of Arsuf, and had never
effected a landing. Demetrios picked a quarrel with the victorious
admiral and killed the marplot in a public duel, but that was
inadequate comfort.
"However," the proconsul reassured himself, "if my wife reports at all
truthfully as to this Perion's nature it is certain that this Perion
will come again." Then Demetrios went into the sacred grove upon the
hillsides south of Quesiton and made an offering of myrtle-branches,
rose-leaves and incense to Aphrodite of Colias.
10.
_How Demetrios Wooed_
Ahasuerus came and went at will. Nothing was known concerning this
soft-treading furtive man except by the proconsul, who had no
confidants. By his decree Ahasuerus was an honoured guest at Nacumera.
And always the Jew's eyes when Melicent was near him were as
expressionless as the eyes of a snake, which do not ever change.
Once she told Demetrios that she feared Ahasuerus.
"But I do not fear him, Melicent, though I have larger reason. For I
alone of all men living know the truth concerning this same Jew.
Therefore, it amuses me to think that he, who served my wizard father
in a very different fashion, is to-day my factor and ciphers over my
accounts."
Demetrios laughed, and had the Jew summoned.
This was in the Women's Garden, where the proconsul sat with Melicent
in a little domed pavilion of stone-work which was gilded with red gold
and crowned with a cupola of alabaster. Its pavement was of transparent
glass, under which were clear running waters wherein swam red and
yellow fish.
Demetrios said:
"It appears that you are a formidable person, Ahasuerus. My wife here
fears you."
"Splendour of the Age," returned Ahasuerus, quietly, "it is notorious
that women have long hair and short wits. There is no need to fear a
Jew. The Jew, I take it, was created in order that children might
evince their playfulness by stoning him, the honest show their
common-sense by robbing him, and the religious display their piety by
burning him. Who forbids it?"
"Ey, but my wife is a Christian and in consequence worships a Jew."
Demetrios reflected. His dark eyes twinkled. "What is your opinion
concerning this other Jew, Ahasuerus?"
"I know that He was the Messiah, Lord."
"And yet you do not worship Him."
The Jew said:
"It was not altogether worship He desired. He asked that men should
love Him. He does not ask love of me."
"I find that an obscure saying," Demetrios considered.
"It is a true saying, King of Kings. In time it will be made plain.
That time is not yet come. I used to pray it would come soon. Now I do
not pray any longer. I only wait."
Demetrios tugged at his chin, his eyes narrowed, meditating. He
laughed.
Demetrios said:
"It is no affair of mine. What am I that I am called upon to have
prejudices concerning the universe? It is highly probable there are
gods of some sort or another, but I do not so far flatter myself as to
consider that any possible god would be at all interested in my opinion
of him. In any event, I am Demetrios. Let the worst come, and in
whatever baleful underworld I find myself imprisoned I shall maintain
myself there in a manner not unworthy of Demetrios." The proconsul
shrugged at this point. "I do not find you amusing, Ahasuerus. You may
go."
"I hear, and I obey," the Jew replied. He went away patiently.
Then Demetrios turned toward Melicent, rejoicing that his chattel had
golden hair and was comely beyond comparison with all other women he
had ever seen.
Said Demetrios:
"I love you, Melicent, and you do not love me. Do not be offended
because my speech is harsh, for even though I know my candour is
distasteful I must speak the truth. You have been obdurate too long,
denying Kypris what is due to her. I think that your brain is giddy
because of too much exulting in the magnificence of your body and in
the number of men who have desired it to their own hurt. I concede your
beauty, yet what will it matter a hundred years from now?
"I admit that my refrain is old. But it will presently take on a more
poignant meaning, because a hundred years from now you--even you, dear
Melicent!--and all the loveliness which now causes me to estimate life
as a light matter in comparison with your love, will be only a bone or
two. Your lustrous eyes, which are now more beautiful than it is
possible to express, will be unsavoury holes and a worm will crawl
through them; and what will it matter a hundred years from now?
"A hundred years from now should anyone break open our gilded tomb, he
will find Melicent to be no more admirable than Demetrios. One skull is
like another, and is as lightly split with a mattock. You will be as
ugly as I, and nobody will be thinking of your eyes and hair. Hail,
rain and dew will drench us both impartially when I lie at your side,
as I intend to do, for a hundred years and yet another hundred years.
You need not frown, for what will it matter a hundred years from now?
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