him.
II
The night succeeding the day on which Jerusalem had been captured, therewas great rejoicing in the Crusaders' camp, outside the city. In almostevery tent they celebrated with drinking bouts, and noise and roysteringwere heard in every direction.
Raniero di Raniero sat and drank with some comrades; and in his tent itwas even more hilarious than elsewhere. The servants barely had time tofill the goblets before they were empty again.
Raniero had the best of reasons for celebrating, because during the dayhe had won greater glory than ever before. In the morning, when the citywas besieged, he had been the first to scale the walls after Godfrey ofBoulogne; and in the evening he had been honored for his bravery in thepresence of the whole corps.
When the plunder and murder were ended, and the Crusaders in penitents'cloaks and with lighted candles marched into the Church of the HolySepulchre, it had been announced to Raniero by Godfrey that he should bethe first who might light his candle from the sacred candles which burnbefore Christ's tomb. It appeared to Raniero that Godfrey wished in thismanner to show that he considered him the bravest man in the wholecorps; and he was very happy over the way in which he had been rewardedfor his achievements.
As the night wore on, Raniero and his guests were in the best ofspirits; a fool and a couple of musicians who had wandered all over thecamp and amused the people with their pranks, came into Raniero's tent,and the fool asked permission to narrate a comic story.
Raniero knew that this particular fool was in great demand for hisdrollery, and he promised to listen to his narrative.
"It happened once," said the fool, "that our Lord and Saint Peter sat awhole day upon the highest tower in Paradise Stronghold, and looked downupon the earth. They had so much to look at, that they scarcely foundtime to exchange a word. Our Lord kept perfectly still the whole time,but Saint Peter sometimes clapped his hands for joy, and again turnedhis head away in disgust. Sometimes he applauded and smiled, and anon hewept and commiserated. Finally, as it drew toward the close of day, andtwilight sank down over Paradise, our Lord turned to Saint Peter andsaid that now he must surely be satisfied and content. 'What is it thatI should be content with?' Saint Peter asked, in an impetuous tone.'Why,' said our Lord slowly, 'I thought that you would be pleased withwhat you have seen to-day.' But Saint Peter did not care to beconciliated. 'It is true,' said he, 'that for many years I have bemoanedthe fact that Jerusalem should be in the power of unbelievers, but afterall that has happened to-day, I think it might just as well haveremained as it was.'"
Raniero understood now that the fool spoke of what had taken placeduring the day. Both he and the other knights began to listen withgreater interest than in the beginning.
"When Saint Peter had said this," continued the fool, as he cast afurtive glance at the knights, "he leaned over the pinnacle of the towerand pointed toward the earth. He showed our Lord a city which lay upon agreat solitary rock that shot up from a mountain valley. 'Do you seethose mounds of corpses?' he said. 'And do you see the naked andwretched prisoners who moan in the night chill? And do you see all thesmoking ruins of the conflagration?' It appeared as if our Lord did notwish to answer him, but Saint Peter went on with his lamentations. Hesaid that he had certainly been vexed with that city many times, but hehad not wished it so ill as that it should come to look like this. Then,at last, our Lord answered, and tried an objection: 'Still, you can notdeny that the Christian knights have risked their lives with the utmostfearlessness,' said He."
Then the fool was interrupted by bravos, but he made haste to continue.
"Oh, don't interrupt me!" he said. "Now I don't remember where I leftoff--ah! to be sure, I was just going to say that Saint Peter wiped awaya tear or two which sprang to his eyes and prevented him from seeing. 'Inever would have thought they could be such beasts,' said he. 'They havemurdered and plundered the whole day. Why you went to all the trouble ofletting yourself be crucified in order to gain such devotees, I can't inthe least comprehend.'"
The knights took up the fun good-naturedly. They began to laugh loud andmerrily. "What, fool! Is Saint Peter so wroth with us?" shrieked one ofthem.
"Be silent now, and let us hear if our Lord spoke in our defense!"interposed another.
"No, our Lord was silent. He knew of old that when Saint Peter had oncegot a-going, it wasn't worth while to argue with him. He went on in hisway, and said that our Lord needn't trouble to tell him that finallythey remembered to which city they had come, and went to churchbarefooted and in penitents' garb. That spirit had, of course, notlasted long enough to be worth mentioning. And thereupon he leaned oncemore over the tower and pointed downward toward Jerusalem. He pointedout the Christians' camp outside the city. 'Do you see how your knightscelebrate their victories?' he asked. And our Lord saw that there wasrevelry everywhere in the camp. Knights and soldiers sat and looked uponSyrian dancers. Filled goblets went the rounds while they threw dice forthe spoils of war and----"
"They listened to fools who told vile stories," interpolated Raniero."Was not this also a great sin?"
The fool laughed and shook his head at Raniero, as much as to say,"Wait! I will pay you back."
"No, don't interrupt me!" he begged once again. "A poor fool forgets soeasily what he would say. Ah! it was this: Saint Peter asked our Lord ifHe thought these people were much of a credit to Him. To this, ofcourse, our Lord had to reply that He didn't think they were.
"'They were robbers and murderers before they left home, and robbers andmurderers they are even to-day. This undertaking you could just as wellhave left undone. No good will come of it,' said Saint Peter."
"Come, come, fool!" said Raniero in a threatening tone. But the foolseemed to consider it an honor to test how far he could go without someone jumping up and throwing him out, and he continued fearlessly.
"Our Lord only bowed His head, like one who acknowledges that he isbeing justly rebuked. But almost at the same instant He leaned forwardeagerly and peered down with closer scrutiny than before. Saint Peteralso glanced down. 'What are you looking for?' he wondered."
The fool delivered this speech with much animated facial play. All theknights saw our Lord and Saint Peter before their eyes, and theywondered what it was our Lord had caught sight of.
"Our Lord answered that it was nothing in particular," said the fool."Saint Peter gazed in the direction of our Lord's glance, but he coulddiscover nothing except that our Lord sat and looked down into a bigtent, outside of which a couple of Saracen heads were set up on longlances, and where a lot of fine rugs, golden vessels, and costlyweapons, captured in the Holy City, were piled up. In that tent theycarried on as they did everywhere else in the camp. A company of knightssat and emptied their goblets. The only difference might be that herethere were more drinking and roystering than elsewhere. Saint Petercould not comprehend why our Lord was so pleased when He looked downthere, that His eyes fairly sparkled with delight. So many hard andcruel faces he had rarely before seen gathered around a drinking table.And he who was host at the board and sat at the head of the table wasthe most dreadful of all. He was a man of thirty-five, frightfully bigand coarse, with a blowsy countenance covered with scars and scratches,calloused hands, and a loud, bellowing voice."
Here the fool paused a moment, as if he feared to go on, but bothRaniero and the others liked to hear him talk of themselves, and onlylaughed at his audacity. "You're a daring fellow," said Raniero, "so letus see what you are driving at!"
"Finally, our Lord said a few words," continued the fool, "which madeSaint Peter understand what He rejoiced over. He asked Saint Peter if Hesaw wrongly, or if it could actually be true that one of the knights hada burning candle beside him."
Raniero gave a start at these words. Now, at last, he was angry with thefool, and reached out his hand for a heavy wine pitcher to throw at hisface, but he controlled himself that he might hear whether the fellowwished to speak to his credit or discredit.
"Saint Pe
ter saw now," narrated the fool, "that, although the tent waslighted mostly by torches, one of the knights really had a burning waxcandle beside him. It was a long, thick candle, one of the sort made toburn twenty-four hours. The knight, who had no candlestick to set it in,had gathered together some stones and piled them around it, to make itstand."
The company burst into shrieks of laughter at this. All pointed at acandle which stood on the table beside Raniero, and was exactly like theone the fool had described. The blood mounted to Raniero's head; forthis was the candle which he had a few hours before been permitted tolight at the Holy Sepulchre. He had been unable to make up his
Kristuslegender. English Page 27