"Yes, I can understand that was inevitable. Still, it seems hardly fair. I pity you, my dear." And Jurgen sighed.
"I would prefer, sir, that you did not address me thus familiarly, since you and I have omitted the formality of an introduction; and in the absence of any joint acquaintances are unlikely ever to meet properly."
"I have no herald handy, for I travel incognito. However, I am that Jurgen who recently made himself Emperor of Noumaria, King of Eubonia, Prince of Cocaigne, and Duke of Logreus; and of whom you have doubtless heard."
"Why, to be sure!" says she, patting her hair straight. "And who would have antic.i.p.ated meeting your highness in such a place!"
"One says "majesty" to an emperor, my dear. It is a detail, of course: but in my position one has to be a little exigent."
"I perfectly comprehend, your majesty; and indeed I might have divined your rank from your lovely clothes. I can but entreat you to overlook my unintentional breach of etiquette: and I make bold to add that a kind heart reveals the splendor of its graciousness through the interest which your majesty has just evinced in my disastrous history."
"Upon my word," thinks Jurgen, "but in this flow of words I seem to recognize my father"s imagination when in anger."
Then Florimel told Jurgen of her horrible awakening in the grave, and of what had befallen her hands and feet there, the while that against her will she fed repugnantly, destroying first her kindred and then the neighbors. This done, she had arisen.
"For the cattle still lived, and that troubled me. When I had put an end to this annoyance, I climbed into the church belfry, not alone, for one went with me of whom I prefer not to talk; and at midnight I sounded the bell so that all who heard it would sicken and die. And I wept all the while, because I knew that when everything had been destroyed which I had known in my first life in the flesh, I would be compelled to go into new lands, in search of the food which alone can nourish me, and I was always sincerely attached to my home. So it was, your majesty, that I forever relinquished my sewing, and became a lovely peril, a flashing desolation, and an evil which smites by night, in spite of my abhorrence of irregular hours: and what I do I dislike extremely, for it is a sad fate to become a vampire, and still to sympathize with your victims, and particularly with their poor mothers."
So Jurgen comforted Florimel, and he put his arm around her.
"Come, come!" he said, "but I will see that your vacation pa.s.ses pleasantly. And I intend to deal fairly with you, too."
Then he glanced sidewise at his shadow, and whispered a suggestion which caused Florimel to sigh. "By the terms of my doom," said she, "at no time during the nine lives of the cat can I refuse. Still, it is a comfort you are the Emperor of Noumaria and have a kind heart."
"Oh, and a many other possessions, my dear! and I again a.s.sure you that I intend to deal fairly with you."
So Florimel conducted Jurgen, through the changeless twilight of Barathum, like that of a gray winter afternoon, to a quiet cleft by the Sea of Blood, which she had fitted out very cosily in imitation of her girlhood home; and she lighted a candle, and made him welcome to her cleft. And when Jurgen was about to enter it he saw that his shadow was following him into the Vampire"s home.
"Let us extinguish this candle!" says Jurgen, "for I have seen so many flames to-day that my eyes are tired."
So Florimel extinguished the candle, with a good-will that delighted Jurgen. And now they were in utter darkness, and in the dark n.o.body can see what is happening. But that Florimel now trusted Jurgen and his Noumarian claims was evinced by her very first remark.
"I was in the beginning suspicious of your majesty," said Florimel, "because I had always heard that every emperor carried a magnificent sceptre, and you then displayed nothing of the sort. But now, somehow, I do not doubt you any longer. And of what is your majesty thinking?"
"Why, I was reflecting, my dear," says Jurgen, "that my father imagines things very satisfactorily."
38.
As to Applauded Precedents
Afterward Jurgen abode in h.e.l.l, and complied with the customs of that country. And the tale tells that a week or it might be ten days after his meeting with Florimel, Jurgen married her, without being at all hindered by his having three other wives. For the devils, he found, esteemed polygamy, and ranked it above mere skill at torturing the d.a.m.ned, through a literal interpretation of the saying that it is better to marry than to burn.
"And formerly," they told Jurgen, "you could hardly come across a marriage anywhere that was not hallmarked "made in Heaven": but since we have been at war with Heaven we have quite taken away that trade from our enemies. So you may marry here as much as you like."
"Why, then," says Jurgen, "I shall marry in haste, and repeat at leisure. But can one obtain a divorce here?"
"Oh, no," said they. "We trafficked in them for a while, but we found that all persons who obtained divorces through our industry promptly thanked Heaven they were free at last. In the face of such ingrat.i.tude we gave over that profitless trade, and now there is a manufactory, for specialties in men"s clothing, upon the old statutory grounds."
"But these makeshifts are unsatisfactory, and I wish to know, in confidence, what do you do in h.e.l.l when there is no longer any putting up with your wives."
The devils all blushed. "We would prefer not to tell you," said they, "for it might get to their ears."
"Now do I perceive," said Jurgen, "that h.e.l.l is pretty much like any other place."
So Jurgen and the lovely Vampire were duly married. First Jurgen"s nails were trimmed, and the parings were given to Florimel. A broomstick was laid before them, and they stepped over it. Then Florimel said "Temon!" thrice, and nine times did Jurgen reply "Arigizator!" Afterward the Emperor Jurgen and his bride were given a posset of dudam and eruca, and the devils modestly withdrew.
Thereafter Jurgen abode in h.e.l.l, and complied with the customs of that country, and was tolerably content for a while. Now Jurgen shared with Florimel that quiet cleft which she had fitted out in imitation of her girlhood home: and they lived in the suburbs of Barathum, very respectably, by the sh.o.r.e of the sea. There was, of course, no water in h.e.l.l; indeed the importation of water was forbidden, under severe penalties, in view of its possible use for baptismal purposes: this sea was composed of the blood that had been shed by piety in furthering the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, and was reputed to be the largest ocean in existence. And it explained the nonsensical saying which Jurgen had so often heard, as to h.e.l.l"s being paved with good intentions.
"For Epigenes of Rhodes is right, after all," said Jurgen, "in suggesting a misprint: and the word should be "laved"."
"Why, to be sure, your majesty," a.s.sented Florimel: "ah, but I always said your majesty had remarkable powers of penetration, quite apart from your majesty"s scholarship."
For Florimel had this cajoling way of speaking. None the less, all vampires have their foibles, and are nourished by the vigor and youth of their lovers. So one morning Florimel complained of being unwell, and attributed it to indigestion.
Jurgen stroked her head meditatively; then he opened his glittering shirt, and displayed what was plain enough to see.
"I am full of vigor and I am young," said Jurgen, "but my vigor and my youthfulness are of a peculiar sort, and are not wholesome. So let us have no more of your tricks, or you will quite spoil your vacation by being very ill indeed."
"But I had thought all emperors were human!" said Florimel, in a flutter of blushing penitence, exceedingly pretty to observe.
"Even so, sweetheart, all emperors are not Jurgens," he replied, magnificently. "Therefore you will find that not every emperor is justly styled the father of his people, or is qualified by nature to wield the sceptre of Noumaria. I trust this lesson will suffice."
"It will," said Florimel, with a wry face.
So thereafter they had no further trouble of this sort, and the wound on Jurgen"s breast was soon healed.
And Jurgen kept away from the d.a.m.ned, of course, because he and Florimel were living respectably. They paid a visit to Jurgen"s father, however, very shortly after they were married, because this was the proper thing to do. And Coth was civil enough, for Coth, and voiced a hope that Florimel might have a good influence upon Jurgen and make him worth his salt, but did not pretend to be optimistic.
Yet this visit was never returned, because Coth considered his wickedness was too great for him to be spared a moment of torment, and so would not leave his flame.
"And really, your majesty," said Florimel, "I do not wish for an instant to have the appearance of criticizing your majesty"s relatives. But I do think that your majesty"s father might have called upon us, at least once, particularly after I offered to have a fire made up for him to sit on any time he chose to come. I consider that your majesty"s father a.s.sumes somewhat extravagant airs, in the lack of any definite proof as to his having been a bit more wicked than anybody else: and the child-like candor which has always been with me a leading characteristic prevents concealment of my opinion."
"Oh, it is just his conscience, dear."
"A conscience is all very well in its place, your majesty; and I, for one, would never have been able to endure the interminable labor of seducing and a.s.sa.s.sinating so many fine young fellows if my conscience had not a.s.sured me that it was all the fault of my sister-in-law. But, even so, there is no sense in letting your conscience make a slave of you: and when conscience reduces your majesty"s father to ignoring the rules of common civility and behaving like a candle-wick, I am sure that matters are being carried too far."
"And right you are, my dear. However, we do not lack for company. So come now, make yourself fine, and shake the black dog from your back, for we are spending the evening with the Asmodeuses."
"And will your majesty talk politics again?"
"Oh, I suppose so. They appear to like it."
"I only wish that I did, your majesty," observed Florimel, and she yawned by antic.i.p.ation.
For with the devils Jurgen got on garrulously. The religion of h.e.l.l is patriotism, and the government is an enlightened democracy. This contented the devils, and Jurgen had learned long ago never to fall out with either of these codes, without which, as the devils were fond of observing, h.e.l.l would not be what it is.
They were, to Jurgen"s finding, simple-minded fiends who allowed themselves to be deplorably overworked by the importunate dead. They got no rest because of the d.a.m.ned, who were such persons as had been saddled with a conscience, and who in consequence demanded interminable torments. And at the time of Jurgen"s coming into h.e.l.l political affairs were in a very bad way, because there was a considerable party among the younger devils who were for compounding the age-old war with Heaven, at almost any price, in order to get relief from this unceasing influx of conscientious dead persons in search of torment. For it was well-known that when Satan submitted to be bound in chains there would be no more death: and the annoying immigration would thus be ended. So said the younger devils: and considered Grandfather Satan ought to sacrifice himself for the general welfare.