"This, my father, is that brave Frankish n.o.bleman to whom we owe so much," and then to Longsword: "And this is my father, the Caesar Manuel Kurkuas, late of Constantinople, but who now is exile, and travelling to Palermo."
The old Kurkuas, despite his lameness, bowed in the stately fashion of that ceremonious courtesy which was his inheritance.
"Lord Richard," said he, in his sonorous native tongue, for he already knew the Norman"s name, "the blessings of a father be yours; and if at any time, by word or deed, I may repay you, your wish shall be my highest law."
But the daughter broke out, a little hotly:--
"Oh! father, not in so solemn and courtly a manner thank him! We are not in "His Divine Majesty"s" palace, by the Golden Horn. Take him by the hand as I have done; tell him that we are his friends forever, and that if we go back to Constantinople, we will take him with us, and share with him all the riches and honor that would belong to a real Kurkuas."
The old man listened to her flow of eager words, half pleased, half alarmed; then, with a deprecatory shrug, exclaimed:--
"Pardon a thousand times, my lord, if I am too old to speak all that lies at heart, save in a cold and formal way. Yet pardon, also, my daughter; for she has so unbridled a tongue that if you come to know her, strong must your friendship be, or she will drive you from her by sheer witless chatter."
Whereupon, before Richard could reply, the lady returned to the charge. "Yes, truly, I am half of Frankish blood myself. And I think it better to speak from my heart and declare "I love you" and "I hate you," than to move my lips softly and politely and say things that mean nothing."
The Greek shrugged again, as if accustomed to such outbursts. "You have lost your veil," he said gently, raising his eyes.
"a.s.suredly," was the answer; "nor do Frankish ladies wear them." Then, turning to Richard, "Tell me, Sir Norman, do you see anything about me to be ashamed of, that I must veil my face?"
The remark was advanced so naturally, in such perfectly good faith, that Longsword, without the least premeditation, answered as readily as if to his sister:--
"I see no reason why you should veil, my lady."
"Then do not speak of it again, dear father," said she.
The mules of the bishop"s party, which had been taken when the pirates fell upon them, had been recovered, and the bishop began to stop groaning over his bruises. The Baron remarked that, although the baggage had been retaken, it was too late to repack and make the journey that day. One and all, they must go back to Cefalu and enjoy the hospitality of the castle. The bishop demurred, when he saw that the Moslem Musa was bidden to share the feast; but he was very hungry, and reflected that Christ and Mohammed were impiously good comrades in Sicily. He and the priests with the Greek and his daughter mounted the mules and started away, just as Herbert rode up with the tidings that the Berbers" ship had long since put to sea. As for the great black horse that had nigh carried Mary away from her rescuers, the grateful prelate bestowed him upon Richard. "He was an unruly beast," declared the bishop, "_furiosus, impetuosus, perditus equus_, in whom a devil beyond all doubt had entered; and if the Baron"s son desired him, he was welcome, though he feared, instead of a gift, he was bestowing a cursing." But Richard beheld the huge crupper and chest of the great beast, watched his mighty stride, and reflected that such a _destrer_ would bear quite as safely in battle as one with the prized white coat and greyhound feet. Therefore he thanked the bishop and led the horse away.
So they fared back to the castle, while the Cefalu people gave them cheers and flowers as they pa.s.sed along the way; but the fairest welcome was on Lady Margaret"s face when they all pounded over the drawbridge.
CHAPTER III
HOW RICHARD WON A BROTHER
A notable feast it was the good Lady Margaret set before her unexpected guests; for if the warning was short, the eager hands were many, and the day before there had been rare hunting. The worthy Baron, her lord, took pride in the goodly Norman habit of sitting long at table, and would have found eight hours none too many for meat and drink, had there been another to keep him company. And if this feast ended sooner, there was no lack of good food and better cheer.
Hincmar, the stately chamberlain, marshalled his guests up to the fountain at the door of the great hall, where they washed their hands in punctilious order of precedence. The hall itself was hung with rare tapestries, the floor was strewn with fresh mint and cornflags; over the diners" benches were cast rich carpets of the East, and for the host and his immediate relatives and guests were gilt chairs of embossed leather. Then the serving-lads went in and out, bringing wine-soup in three kinds in remembrance of the Trinity, and flesh and fowl, from a stuffed cormorant to a haunch of bear"s flesh. Last of all the great drinking-horns began to pa.s.s to and fro, and the skins of Cyprian wine from the cellars, to empty.
The Baron had placed the bishop at his right hand at the head of the long table, on his left the Greek Caesar. But a little lower sat Richard, and beside him Musa and Mary Kurkuas; and while they were busy over the trenchers talk flew fast, and these in brief were the stories they told one another.
William Longsword, the present Baron of Cefalu, had been a Norman seigneur of n.o.ble lineage and slender estates near the ducal capital of Rouen. The Longswords were an ancient house. They boasted their descent from that notable William Longsword who had succeeded to the sovereignty of Rollo the Norman; yet, as too often, a great name did not mean great fiefs, and young William"s best fortune was the weight of his battle-axe. But that battle-axe was very heavy. At Val-es-Dunes, when William the b.a.s.t.a.r.d crushed his rebellious barons, Longsword had won the great Duke"s highest favor. At Hastings none had struck doughtier blows than he. For a moment he had dreamt of a broad English barony and a Saxon heiress. But when the new king was at York there rose ill-blood and a hint to the monarch that the mutiny of certain Anjou mercenaries was due to his va.s.sal.
One morning Longsword finding that fetters, not fiefs, waited him in England, fled just in time to Flanders, and went south to _gaaignant_, "to go a gaining," as the Normans put it, seeking fortune wherever the saints favored. In Auvergne he had married the daughter of a mountain baron, but had drifted on to Italy, had served with Counts Robert Guiscard and Roger, his brother, in Calabria, Epirus, and Sicily; and at last when Noto, the last Saracen stronghold in Sicily, fell, and Count Roger rewarded his faithful cavaliers, William Longsword had found himself Lord of Cefalu, with a stout castle and a barony of peaceful and industrious Moslems and Greeks for va.s.sals; now for four years past he had ceased roving, and dreamed of handing down a goodly seigneury to his firstborn.
Thus Richard told his father"s story, and Mary related more briefly how her father--and she proudly recounted his t.i.tles--was the "preeminently august" Caesar Manuel Kurkuas; whose family was of the most n.o.ble and wealthy of the whole imperial city. He had been a great warrior in his day, until a crippling wound in the Patzinak war had forced the one-time "commander of the guards" to accept the peaceful office of "first prefect" of the capital. And in this position he might have died in honor and prosperity, had it not come to Emperor Alexius"s ears that he had intrigued in favor of Constantine, the son of the dead sovereign Roma.n.u.s, who was just raising the rebel standard. "And so," explained his daughter, quite simply, for she was bred at the Grecian court, "the Princess Anna Comnena, who is my kind friend, gave me to understand that all was not well with my father, and the Grand Chamberlain let fall that "his eyes were in danger."
Therefore, with the aid of St. Basil and our cousin, the High Admiral, we made escape on a Venetian ship, and it was well we did; for Constantine, I hear, has been captured and blinded, and if we had been taken, the like would have befallen my father, and I would have been cast into the convent of Antiochus "to live with the angels," as they call taking the veil, at Constantinople."
"Allah forbid!" cried Musa, who had been following all her story, and Richard winced when he thought of those brown locks falling under the shears.
The Greek gave a little shrug and shiver. "Ah!" said she, "let us not speak of it. Yet I do not blame the Emperor. He has many enemies to guard against." And she paused.
"But you said you were half a Frank," said Richard, wishing to turn the conversation.
"Yes, truly, my father was envoy to the Duke of Aquitaine. In Provence he met my mother, daughter of the Baron of La Haye. She must have been a beautiful woman. They say all Constantinople was at her feet, when my father brought her there--his bride. But she died when I was a very little girl. I can only remember her bright eyes and sweet face."
Another pause; and Richard did not try to break it. Was he not conscious in his innermost soul, that there were bright eyes and a sweet face very close to his own? That for an hour past, as the fashion was, he had been dipping his hand in the same bowl where also dipped another hand, soft, and white, and delicate? The evening was stealing on. Now the ruddy torches were sputtering in their cressets along the wall; and the glow fell softly over the feasters, seeming to hide witchery and sweet madness in every flickering shadow. For the first time in his life Richard Longsword felt a strange intoxication stealing over him. Not the wine--he had not drained a beaker. Up at the head of the table the Baron and the bishop were matching b.u.mpers, and the former, between his draughts, was trying to tell Caesar Manuel some tale of the Durazzo campaign in which they had both fought, though on opposing sides. At the foot of the table the Norman men-at-arms were splashing their liquor, and roaring broad jests at the Greek serving-maids. Musa, having satisfied hunger, sat with his long eyelashes cast down in dreamy Oriental revery. Only for one face and for one voice did Richard have sight or hearing. The princess held the Majolica cup to her lips, tasted, held it toward the Norman.
"See," said she, softly, "you have saved my father"s liberty--perhaps his life--and me"--the color half left the wonderful face while she spoke--"from death or worse." The cup trembled as she shuddered at the thought. "When the Berbers seized me, I pleaded with all the saints to let me die,--better a thousand deaths than to breathe out one"s life captive in an African harem!"
"By Our Lady, speak not of it," came from Richard,--he, too, trembling. But the brightness had darted again into the Greek"s eyes while she continued: "And now attend--the reward! Know, brave Frank, that three months since a "supremely august" prince, close to Alexius"s self, would have given half his inheritance for gift like this!"
And with her own hands she held the cup to his lips. Richard drank.
What else possible? He felt himself caught in a tide irresistible, too delicious in its caress to escape from if he might. Was the wine fire, that it burned through every vein? Yet the very flame bore a sweetness, a delight beyond all thought; the hot pain drowned in the ecstasy. He did not know what he replied, but the lady was answering.
"_Eu!_ What joy I take in you Franks, whom I have never seen before to-day. When first did we meet? This morning beside the raging horse?
I think I have known and admired you these score of years!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE CUP TREMBLED AS AT THE VERY THOUGHT SHE SHUDDERED"]
"I?" quoth Richard, wool-gathering.
The lady laughed at her indiscretion.
"You do well to ask. At times my father rails at me; "Daughter, you open your mind to strangers like a casket." Again I am silent, hidden, locked fast, as my mood alters. Be it so, I am the open casket to-night. I will speak it all forth. The saints grant I may dwell amongst you Franks; how much better to crush down a raging horse with one touch, than to know all the wisdom of Plato!"
"Why better?" asked the Norman, never taking his gaze from that face all rosy in the flickering light.
"Why?" her voice rose a little, and the brightness of the torches was in her eyes. "Let others con the musty parchments,--a thousand times better are the men who _do_, as you of the West,--than the weaklings who only _know_. Plato babbled foolishness describing his "perfect nation," for when he strove to realize it--failure!"
"These are riddles, sweet lady!" cried Richard; "who was this Plato--some pagan long since in h.e.l.l?"
Whereat the princess began to laugh afresh; not offensively, but sweetly as a running brook; so that the other would have said a hundred witless things to make her continue. Then she answered, her eyes dancing, and Richard thought he saw the lips of the dreamy Spaniard twitch: "Yes, for all his mist-hung cobwebs, he must have broiled in no common fire. But I love better to talk of coursing and falconry; that science better befits a Christian!"
"St. Stephen!" blurted out the Norman, p.r.i.c.king his ears, "can you ride and hawk?"
"Do you think I sat smelling inkhorns and tangling silk yarn all day in our palace by the Golden Gate? I had my own Arabian palfrey, my own dear goshawks: not four months have flown since I hunted with the Princess Anna over the lovely hills of the Emperor"s preserves beyond the Sweet Waters of Europe. O"--and Richard almost thought her about to weep--"St. Irene, pity my horse and the birds, their mistress so far away!"
"By the Ma.s.s," began Richard, more flighty than ever, "you shall find our Sicilian birds put the best of Constantinople to shame. But the saints are very kind not to let you grow more sad over your loss; next to losing one"s kinsfolk, what worse than to lose horse or falcon!"
The lady had kissed a second cup, and pressed it to his lips. "Drink, then, in token of the merry rides we shall have side by side, if you come to wait on us at Palermo!"
And Richard drank, while all the time he felt the tide of intoxication sweeping him onward. Glancing into the Greek"s eyes, he knew in a half-conscious way that a like spirit possessed her too. Had they been alone, only the saints know what might have befallen. Richard"s voice was very loud when he answered, "No, by the Splendor of G.o.d, you must stay at Cefalu,--you shall ride my best palfrey; fly the white falcon!" The lady cut him short with another laugh, her face still very merry: "St. Basil, make them deaf; they all look at us! What have we been doing!"
Richard started, as from a dream: father, mother, bishop, the Caesar, were all looking upon them. The Lady Margaret was turning a warning face upon Richard, but the Caesar addressed his daughter austerely. "My child, these n.o.ble Franks and your valiant rescuer will take away strange tales of your conduct at this feast. Believe me, kind lords, my daughter is commonly less bold and unmaidenly than to-night. This has been a strange day for us, and we must pardon her much."
"You forget the princess is not your sister," added Lady Margaret, severely, her eyes on Richard; and the Baron was ready with his own word, but the younger Greek cut all short.
"Yes, by St. Theodore," was her saucy cry, "this has been a strange day for us all. And if you, my father, think my saving is over-dear at two cups of wine, let the Berbers s.n.a.t.c.h me off again! But give no blame to my Lord Richard, for it was I that began, led on, and made the fire tenfold hotter."