Dame Duessa"s bower was a broad chamber on the western walls, joining the south-western tower. A great oriel, jewelled with heraldic gla.s.s, looked over the mere with its dreaming lilies, over the green meadows to the solemn silence of the woods.
Calypso"s grotto! The bower of a luxurious lady in a luxurious age!
The snuff of Ind and Araby tingled in Balthasar"s nostrils. The silks of China and Bagdad, the cloths of Italy, bloomed there; flowers crowded the window, the couches, every nook. Blood-red hangings warmed the walls.
The Lady Duessa sat to Balthasar in the oriel, with her lute upon her bosom. She was in azure and violet, with neck and bosom showing under a maze of gossamer gold. Her arms were bare to the shoulder, white, gleaming arms, subtle, sinuous, voluptuous. Her hair had been powdered with gold. Her lips were wondrous red, her eyes dark as wells. Musk and lavender breathed from her samites; her girdle glowed with precious stones.
Fra Balthasar sat on a stool inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory. An embroidery frame served him as an easel. The man was living under the many-constellationed vault of beauty. All the scent and floweriness of the room played on his brain; all the wealth of it pandered to his art; all the woman"s splendour made molten wax of his being.
As he painted she sang to him, an old lay of Arthurian love, so that he might catch the music in her eyes, and watch the deep notes gathering in her throat. He saw her bosom sway beneath her lace, saw the inimitable roundness of her arms. Often his brush lingered. He might gaze upon the woman as he would, drink her beauty like so much violet wine, open his soul to the opulent summer of her power. His heart was in a sunset mood; he lived the life of a poet.
"And the green spring grew subtle," sang the dame, "With song of birds and laughter, and the woods Were white for maying. So fair Guinivere Loosed her long hair like rivulets of gold That stream from the broad cas.e.m.e.nt of the dawn.
And her sweet mouth was like one lovely rose, And her white bosom like a bowl of flowers; So wandered she with Launcelot, while the wind Blew her long tresses to him, and her eyes Were as the tender azure of the night."
Of such things sang Duessa, while the friar spread his colours.
And then she questioned him.
"Love you the old legends, Balthasar?"
"Madame, as I love life."
"Ah! they could love in those old days."
"Madame, men can love even now."
She put her lute aside, and knelt upon the couch before the window, with her elbows on the cushioned sill. Her silks swept close upon her shapely back, her shoulders gleamed under her purple hair. In the west the world grew red; the crimson kisses of the sunset poured upon the ecstasied green woods. The mere was flaked with a myriad amber scales.
The meadows broidered their broad laps with cowslips, as with dust of gold.
"Balthasar."
"Madame?"
"Look yonder at the sunset. You must be tired of gazing on my face."
He rose up like one dazed--intoxicated by colours, sounds, and odours.
Duessa"s hand beckoned him. He went and knelt on the couch at her side, and looked out over the flaming woods.
"And the other woman?" she said.
"The other woman?"
"This Madonna of my lord"s chapel."
"Yes?"
"She amuses me; I am not jealous; what is jealousy to me? Tell me about her, Balthasar; no doubt it is a pretty tale, and you know the whole."
"I, madame?"
"I, Duessa."
"But----"
"You are my Lord Flavian"s friend; he was ever a man to be garrulous: he has been garrulous to you. Tell me the whole tale."
"Duessa!"
"Better, better, my friend."
She put her hands upon his shoulders, and stared straight into his eyes.
Her lips overhung his like ripe red fruit. Her arms were fragrant of myrrh and violet; her bosom was white as snow under the moon.
"Can you refuse me this?"
"G.o.d, madame, I can refuse you nothing."
XVIII
The girl Yeoland saw nothing of the leper for a season. For several days she did not venture far into the pine forest, and the nameless grave heard not the sound of her lute. The third night after the incident, as she lay in her room under her canopy of purple cloth, she heard distinctly the silver clangour of a bell floating up through the midnight silence. She lay as still as a mouse, and scarcely drew breath, for fear the man in grey should venture up the stairway. The cas.e.m.e.nt was open, with a soft June air blowing in like peace. The bell continued to tinkle, but less noisily, till it vanished into silence.
Other folk from the cliff had seen the leper, and Yeoland could not claim to have monopolised the gentleman. One of Fulviac"s fellows had seen him one morning near the cliff, gliding like a grey ghost among the pines. Another had marked him creeping swiftly away through the twilight. It was a superst.i.tious age and a superst.i.tious region. The figure in grey seemed to haunt the place, with the occasional and mournful sounding of its bell. Men began to gossip, as the ignorant always will. Fulviac himself grew uneasy for more material reasons, and contemplated the test of a clothyard shaft or a bolt upon the leper"s body. The man might be a spy, and if the bolt missed its mark it would at least serve as a sinister hint to this troublesome apparition.
It was then that Yeoland took alarm into her woman"s heart. There was great likelihood of the man ending his days under the tree with a shaft sticking fast between his shoulders. Though he was something of a madman, she did not relish such a prospect. The day after she had heard the bell at midnight near the stair she haunted the forest like a pixie, keeping constant watch between the cliff and the forest grave. Fulviac had ridden out on a plundering venture, and she was free of him for the day.
It was not till evening that she heard the faint signal of the bell, creeping down through the gold-webbed boughs like the sound of a distant angelus. The sound flew from the north, and beckoned her towards the forest grave. Fearful of being caught, she followed it as fast as her feet could carry her, while the deepening clamour led her on. Presently she called the man by name as she ran. His grey frock and cowl came dimly through the trees.
"At last you are merciful," was his greeting.
She stood still and twisted her gown restlessly between her two hands.
Anarchy showed in her face; fear, reason, and desire were calling to her heart. The intangible touch of the man"s soul threw her being into chaos. She feared greatly for him, stood still, and could say nothing.
Flavian put his cowl back, and stood aloof from her, looking in her face.
"Seemingly we are both embarra.s.sed," he said.
She made a petulant little gesture. He forestalled her in speech.
"It is best to be frank when life runs deep. I will speak the truth to you, and you may treat me as you will."
Yeoland leant against a tree, and began to pull away the brittle scales of the bark.
"If you stay here longer, messire----" she began.
"Well, madame, what then?"
"You will be shot like a dog; you are suspected; they are going to try your leper"s gown with a crossbow bolt."