"Do you remember, Melicent, that night at Fomor Beach when you s.n.a.t.c.hed a lantern from my hand? Your hand touched my hand, Melicent."
She answered, "I remember."
"I first of all saw that it was a woman who was aiding Perion to escape. I considered Perion a lucky man, for I had seen the woman"s face."
She remained silent.
"I thought of this woman very often. I thought of her even more frequently after I had talked with her at Bellegarde, telling of Perion"s captivity.... Melicent," the Jew said, "I make no songs, no protestations, no phrases. My deeds must speak for me. Concede that I have laboured tirelessly." He paused, his gaze lifted, and his lips smiled. His eyes stayed mirthless. "This mad Callistion"s hate of you, and of the Demetrios who had abandoned her, was my first stepping-stone. By my advice a tiny wire was fastened very tightly around the fetlock of a certain horse, between the foot and the heel, and the hair was smoothed over this wire. Demetrios rode that horse in his last battle. It stumbled, and our terrible proconsul was thus brought to death. Callistion managed it. Thus I betrayed Demetrios."
Melicent said, "You are too foul for h.e.l.l to swallow." And Ahasuerus manifested indifference to this imputed fault.
"Thus far I had gone hand-in-hand with an insane Callistion. Now our ways parted. She desired only to be avenged on you, and very crudely.
That did not accord with my plan. I fell to bargaining. I purchased with--O rarity of rarities!--a little rational advice and much gold as well. Thus in due season I betrayed Callistion. Well, who forbids it?"
She said:
"G.o.d is asleep. Therefore you live, and I--alas!--must live for a while longer."
"Yes, you must live for a while longer--oh, and I, too, must live for a while longer!" the Jew returned. His voice had risen in a curious quavering wail. It was the first time Melicent ever knew him to display any emotion.
But the mood pa.s.sed, and he said only:
"Who forbids it? In any event, there is a venerable adage concerning the b.u.t.tering of parsnips. So I content myself with asking you to remember that I have not ever faltered. I shall not falter now. You loathe me. Who forbids it? I have known from the first that you detested me, and I have always considered your verdict to err upon the side of charity. Believe me, you will never loathe Ahasuerus as I do.
And yet I coddle this poor knave sometimes--oh, as I do to-day!" he said.
And thus they parted.
28.
_How Perion Saw Melicent_
The manner of the torment of Melicent was this: A little before dawn she was conducted by Ahasuerus and Orestes to the outermost turrets of Nac.u.mera, which were now beginning to take form and colour. Very suddenly a flash of light had flooded the valley, the big crimson sun was instantaneously apparent as though he had leaped over the bleeding night-mists. Darkness and all night"s adherents were annihilated.
Pelicans and geese and curlews were in uproar, as at a concerted signal. A buzzard yelped thrice like a dog, and rose in a long spiral from the cliff to Melicent"s right hand. He hung motionless, a speck in the clear zenith, uncannily antic.i.p.ative. Warmth flooded the valley.
Now Melicent could see the long and narrow plain beneath her. It was overgrown with a tall coa.r.s.e gra.s.s which, rippling in the dawn-wind, resembled moving waters from this distance, save where clumps of palm trees showed like islands. Farther off, the tents of the Free Companions were as the white, sharp teeth of a lion. Also she could see--and did not recognise--the helmet-covered head of Perion catch and reflect the sunrays dazzlingly, where he knelt in the shimmering gra.s.s just out of bowshot.
Now Perion could see a woman standing, in the new-born sunlight, under many gaily coloured banners. The maiden was attired in a robe of white silk, and about her wrists were heavy bands of silver. Her hair blazed in the light, bright as the sunflower glows; her skin was whiter than milk; the down of a fledgling bird was not more grateful to the touch than were her hands. There was never anywhere a person more delightful to gaze upon, and whosoever beheld her forthwith desired to render love and service to Dame Melicent. This much could Perion know, whose fond eyes did not really see the woman upon the battlements but, instead, young Melicent as young Perion had first beheld her walking by the sea at Bellegarde.
Thus Perion, who knelt in adoration of that listless girl, all white and silver, and gold, too, where her blown hair showed like a halo.
Desirable and lovelier than words may express seemed Melicent to Perion as she stood thus in lonely exaltation, and behind her, glorious banners fluttered, and the blue sky took on a deeper colour. What Perion saw was like a church window when the sun shines through it.
Ahasuerus perfectly understood the baiting of a trap.
Perion came into the open plain before the castle and called on her dear name three times. Then Perion, naked to his enemies, and at the disposal of the first pagan archer that chose to shoot him down, sang cheerily the waking-song which Melicent had heard a mimic Amphitryon make in Dame Alcmena"s honour, very long ago, when people laughed and Melicent was young and ignorant of misery.
Sang Perion, "_Rei glorios, verais lums e clardatz--_" or, in other wording:
"Thou King of glory, veritable light, all-powerful deity! be pleased to succour faithfully my fair, sweet friend. The night that severed us has been long and bitter, the darkness has been shaken by bleak winds, but now the dawn is near at hand.
"My fair sweet friend, be of good heart! We have been tormented long enough by evil dreams. Be of good heart, for the dawn is approaching!
The east is astir. I have seen the orient star which heralds day. I discern it clearly, for now the dawn is near at hand."
The song was no great matter; but the splendid futility of its performance amid such touch-and-go surroundings Melicent considered to be august. And consciousness of his words" poverty, as Perion thus lightly played with death in order to accord due honour to the lady he served, was to Dame Melicent in her high martyrdom as is the twist of a dagger in an already fatal wound; and made her love augment.
Sang Perion:
"My fair sweet friend, it is I, your servitor, who cry to you, _Be of good heart!_ Regard the sky and the stars now growing dim, and you will see that I have been an untiring sentinel. It will presently fare the worse for those who do not recognise that the dawn is near at hand.
"My fair sweet friend, since you were taken from me I have not ever been of a divided mind. I have kept faith, I have not failed you.
Hourly I have entreated G.o.d and the Son of Mary to have compa.s.sion upon our evil dreams. And now the dawn is near at hand."
"My poor, bruised, puzzled boy," thought Melicent, as she had done so long ago, "how came you to be blundering about this miry world of ours?
And how may I be worthy?"
Orestes spoke. His voice disturbed the woman"s rapture thinly, like the speech of a ghost, and she remembered now that a bustling world was her antagonist.
"a.s.suredly," Orestes said, "this man is insane. I will forthwith command my archers to despatch him in the middle of his caterwauling.
For at this distance they cannot miss him."
But Ahasuerus said:
"No, seignior, not by my advice. If you slay this Perion of the Forest, his retainers will speedily abandon a desperate siege and retreat to the coast. But they will never retreat so long as the man lives and sways them, and we hold Melicent, for, as you plainly see, this abominable reprobate is quite besotted with love of her. His death would win you praise; but the destruction of his armament will purchase you your province. Now in two days at most our troops will come, and then we will slay all the Free Companions."
"That is true," said Orestes, "and it is remarkable how you think of these things so quickly."
So Orestes was ruled by Ahasuerus, and Perion, through no merit of his own, departed unharmed.
Then Melicent was conducted to her own apartments; and eunuchs guarded her, while the battle was, and men she had not ever seen died by the score because her beauty was so great.
29.
_How a Bargain Was Cried_
Now about sunset Melicent knelt in her oratory and laid all her grief before the Virgin, imploring counsel.
This place was in reality a chapel, which Demetrios had builded for Melicent in exquisite enjoyment. To furnish it he had sacked towns she never heard of, and had rifled two cathedrals, because the notion that the wife of Demetrios should own a Christian chapel appeared to him amusing. The Virgin, a masterpiece of Pietro di Vicenza, Demetrios had purchased by the interception of a free city"s navy. It was a painted statue, very handsome.
The sunlight shone on Melicent through a richly coloured window wherein were shown the sufferings of Christ and the two thieves. This siftage made about her a welter of glowing and intermingling colours, above which her head shone with a clear halo.
This much Ahasuerus noted. He said, "You offer tears to Miriam of Nazara. Yonder they are sacrificing a bull to Mithras. But I do not make either offering or prayer to any G.o.d. Yet of all persons in Nac.u.mera I alone am sure of this day"s outcome." Thus spoke the Jew Ahasuerus.