Funestine and Other Adventures in Romancia

by Brian Stableford

  After that light meal, which would not have displeased the princess in a less unfortunate situation, the lion pushed her into a cavity in the rock, and, having followed her in, it closed the entrance with a large stone.

  In spite of the marks of amity that Constance had received from the animal, she trembled when she found herself alone with it in that obscure lair. It was vast and only received daylight through a few cracks that time had made. Several piles of dry leaves seemed to have been piled up to serve as a seat and a bed; in fact, they had been gathered there with that design. The cavern was her defender’s, who had only taken her there to defend her during the night from the animals of which the forest was full.

  Seeing that the daylight had almost faded away, and observing that the lion was not seeking to do her any harm, the princess understood its intention and sat down on the leaves—not in order to go to sleep; her mind was too agitated, but in order to recover somewhat from the fatigues she had endured. The sad master of the place lay down beside her and spent a part of the night sighing, kissing her hands from time to time

  The princess, who could not sleep, reflected on all everything that had just happened to her, unable to divine the reason for the animal’s sadness, or why it was treating her with so much kindness. She spent two thirds of the night in those reflections.

  Finally, she fell asleep, and only woke up at daybreak. She was surprised not to see the lion beside her and got up to see whether it was in some other place in the rock, but her efforts were futile; she could not find it. Anxious that it might have quit her, she found the stone disturbed and went outside to see whether it was on the sea shore. She went there, but without discovering anything.

  Alarmed to have lost her companion, she was about to go back into the cavern to hide from the animals she feared when she perceived a man among the trees, who was defending himself with a sturdy staff against a monstrous boar. That spectacle frightened her, but did not cause her to run way. She had no doubt that it was some unfortunate condemned, like her, to end his days in the forest. She hoped that he would be victorious over the boar and that he might be able to get her out of this horrible place. She therefore waited some distance away for the battle to end. It did not take long; the boar received several blows on the head, delivered so vigorously, that it soon fell dead. That was not, however, without having wounded its valiant enemy, who immediately leaned against a tree, only able to sustain himself with difficulty because of the quantity of blood he had lost.

  Seeing him in that state, Constance thought she could not refuse him help without lacking humanity. She therefore ran to him with the design of helping him to staunch the blood.

  Gods! What became of her, as she approached, when she recognized Tendrebrun. He was pale, sad and dying, and no less charming for that. What did she not experience on seeing the danger he was in? She forgot all her anger and asked him, in a tremulous voice, with tears in her eyes, whether he still recognized her, and whether he wanted to accept the feeble service that she could offer him.

  The prince stared at her, and, without replying a single word, drew away so promptly, in spite of his lack of strength, that he was soon lost to sight. Her despair, after that astonishing behavior, is imaginable.

  “How he flees me!” she cried. “The sight of me horrifies him more than the most cruel beasts, than death itself. Unfortunate as I am, can I still resolve to live after so much scorn? No, let us run to death, since it alone can terminate my pains.”

  As she finished speaking she turned her steps back toward the sea, and threw herself into it without hesitation. She would have found death there if the lion, returning to its cavern, had not perceived her and immediately thrown itself in after her, in order to rescue her.

  That prompt rescue was necessary; an instant later and the beautiful days would have ended. The lion prolonged them by means of its cares, so well that she recovered her senses. Carrying her into its cavern then, it laid her down on the bed of leaves, started a fire with stones that it struck together, lit a few tree branches with it that it went to fetch, and which it lay on the dry leaves, and warmed up the unfortunate princess.

  She was about to reproach it for the pity that had engaged it to help her when she heard a voice, which said to her: “Find the door that is here if you want to find the end of your troubles.”

  That oracle rendered her strength and appeared to give great pleasure to the lion.

  They both searched the extent of the rock for that door, therefore, even advancing into places so dark that they feared getting absolutely lost.

  Hazard finally enabled Constance to encounter the door so much desired. She stumbled and tried to lean against the rock, and placed her hands precisely on the door, which opened instantly under the thrust she had provided.

  She alerted the lion to the discovery, and climbed a stairway within it that was presented to her. It was less dark than the interior of the rock. After having climbed about ten thousand steps they arrived on a green lawn, which occupied the entire summit of the crag.

  It was so prodigiously high that the tallest trees in the forest seemed no more than a foot in height.

  It was only possible to reach that lawn by way of the stairway that Constance had discovered. She did not have time to examine the summit because she perceived a young woman attached to a stake by thick iron chains, who was making every effort to prevent a steel box poised on a feeble pivot at the very edge of the rock from falling into the precipice.

  The lovely young woman had a tranquil, mild and modest physiognomy. Virtuous people could not have seen her without experiencing an infinite esteem and respect for her, so she inspired a good deal in the princess, who, touched by her situation, ran toward her in order to make efforts to set her free. She advanced, therefore, with that design, in company with her faithful companion, but they had scarcely reached the unfortunate woman when her chains fell and she stood up—without, however, quitting her box.

  Looking at the princess then, with an air of recognition and majesty, she said: “For a long time, beautiful Constance, I have been lamenting your fate, and have desired to see you in this place. Don’t be surprised; several centuries ago I read in the book of destinies that you would one day render me the power that I lost an infinite time ago. Although I appear young to you, I have seen an infinite number of centuries go by, and I am the one who enabled my voice to pass through the rock in order to advise you to seek the door through which you have just passed in coming here.

  “My name is Virtue; I once reigned in the world and I was loved and adored by sovereigns and their subjects. No one envied my empire except Vicious, who, jealous of the happiness that I procured for mortals, spread all the weaknesses in the human heart and gave birth to all the vices. She took advantage of my absence and employed the time of a voyage I was making to a country unknown to anyone but me. In the end, the Vices expelled me when I returned, and took away the splendid radiance by which I was surrounded. Since them I have been misunderstood, and generally abandoned. There was no king who wanted to lend me his support; that completed my doom, because I cannot reign over any people if I am not cherished by their princes.

  “Not content with having made me lose my authority, Vicious brought me to this rock, where she chained me, in order to prevent me from troubling her new domination. Her superior strength does not, however, prevent me from quitting my chains for two days every year, during which I travel all over the world, visiting those who have not forgotten me. I have often traveled without finding a single person who still remembers my name.

  “Once, however, in passing through your father’s estates, I saw him and found that he had the sentiments for me that I desired. I perceived with pleasure the aversion that he had for Vicious and her children: since that time I limited my excursions to his realm and I visited him every year. In the year when you came into the world I witnessed your birth, in the form of an old woman, and I gave you all the gifts that might render you perfect.
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br />   “I consulted the destinies in order to know what would happen to you; I discovered that a great many misfortunes were reserved for you, but I read then that you would overcome them and that destiny had chosen you to restore my initial splendor—in sum, that you were to extract me from the undignified slavery that I was in. Content with that knowledge, I returned to my mountain; since that time I have continued to see you without making myself known and without showing myself.

  “One day, when I was coming here to resume my chains, I saw Vicious arrive in a chariot of fire; she stopped it close to me and, showing me the box you see, she told me that it contained one of my most faithful friends, who was about to be precipitated at that moment into the depths of the sea. The malevolent fay then placed the box that she had in her chariot on the tip of the rock, and went away, convinced that it would not take long to fall. Fortunately, I’ve had enough strength to retain it until now. I’ve tried several times to open that prison, but in vain. Now that I’m free, I’m going to deliver the unfortunate friend. Only interest yourself in me, beautiful princess, and you shall soon see the effect of my power.”

  The lovely Virtue then pronounced a few words; the box opened, and allowed her and Constance to see King Judicious, chained by the midriff. What a surprise it was for the king to see the light again, and to rediscover a daughter whose loss he had mourned! What a joy it was for that charming daughter to see again a father who had cost her so many tears! Finally, what a pleasure it was for Virtue to make the happiness of those virtuous individuals! It is easy to imagine the contentment of all three, and one ought not to think that a long time passed before Judicious was completely liberated.

  He gave Constance a hundred caresses, as well as his friend, and told them that he had been imprisoned in the box ever since he had been abducted from the gardens of his place; that he would have died of despair and hunger if the malevolent Vicious, who wanted to prolong his suffering, had not made him drink a liquid that had preserved his life in spite of him.

  Constance was so penetrated by joy that she could not speak; she contented herself with taking his hands, kissing them and bathing them with her tears.

  The lion, who had been a tranquil witness thus far to what was happening, approached the king and kissed his robe respectfully. Turning then toward Virtue, it looked at her in a fashion that seemed to be asking whether he was to be the only unfortunate one.

  That person, who could do anything, read his thoughts and said to him: “It is just, amiable prince, that I also compensate you for having conserved the sentiments that I inspired in you.” Immediately placing her hand on his forehead, she pronounced these words in a soft and gracious voice: “Resume your natural form, never to quit it again.”

  Then the lion disappeared, and allowed to be seen in its stead the son of the Tartar Emperor.

  After having thanked his benefactress in a few words, which marked his keen gratitude, he ran to throw himself at the feet of the princess, in order to obtain a pardon that, he said, she could not refuse him without injustice and cruelty.

  Constance, seeing him so close to her and seeing him tender and charming again, felt an extraordinary emotion. Her first impulse was to tell him that she had forgotten everything, since he still loved her, but what she had seen him do with Bounty and the last mark of indifference that he had given her in the forest returned to her mind so forcefully, that she resolved not to forgive him

  Turning her eyes away from him, she told him that he ought not to think about her any longer, that she never wanted to see him again, and that he had offended her too deeply for him to be able to hope to occupy in future the place that he had had for a long time in her heart.

  Seeing the despair that that response caused the prince, Virtue addressed the daughter of Judicious and said to her: “Cease, beautiful Constance, to drive a lover who adores you to despair. Believe that he only loves, and has only ever loved, you. Only deign to listen to him, and you will be convinced of it.”

  After having denied herself that briefly, the princess consented to it, and the prince, charmed that she was permitting him to justify himself, told her how he had found himself in the palace of his father, the Emperor, after having been taken away from her, and made her a sincere confession of all the woes that he had suffered since the cruel moment when he had been distanced from her.

  The time that he employed in expressing his pains and his love for the princess interrupted the thread of his narrative somewhat, and gave Virtue the time necessary to inform the king briefly about the adventures of his daughter. After that account, Tendrebrun continued, in the following fashion:

  “The sojourn I spent on the Isle of Roses will no longer appear to you to be a crime, my dear Constance, when I have told you that I was forced to land there and remain there by the enchantments of Vicious, who, in the form of a young and beautiful person named Bounty, offered me her help in order to take me to you, with the sole design of attracting me to her by means of deceptive charms. She could not retain me otherwise; she therefore had me given a bracelet, which, she said, would protect me from all sorts of misfortunes as long as I had it on my arm; but it was, in fact, a powerful talisman that inspired in a short time a violent passion for the person who had composed it, and which prevented me from discovering her faults. I soon felt its effects, since I became the most passionate of men in the fay’s presence. I forgot you in spite of myself, and put all my felicity into pleasing my greatest enemy. I did not imagine that anything could be found more perfect than her. I would have remained in that error for a long time but for what happened to me one night when I could not sleep.

  “I heard a sound of voices in the gardens, which did not seem to me to be ordinary, and I saw such a large quantity of torches passing the windows of my apartment that, curious to know what it could be, I got up and went to my window without thinking about the prohibitions that had been imposed on me.

  “I had no sooner opened it than I perceived in the air and in the pathways of the wood an infinite number of frightful monsters, some of which were carrying lanterns and the others torches, and they were all heading for the arbor where I had seen Bounty for the first time.

  “That surprising spectacle caused me to make the resolution to slip close to that enclosure in order to see what would become of those frightful figures. I left my room quietly and traversed the wood by way of the darkest places. I soon repented of having followed those dense routes because, as I tried to move aside a few tree branches that coed my route, they hooked on to that fatal bracelet. It fell off, and I could not find it again in the darkness.

  “That loss, which I thought considerable, afflicted me greatly, but it could not prevent me from continuing on my way. I finally arrived at the enclosure, where I was gripped by fear on seeing Vicious surrounded by that troop of monsters.

  “They were her children, the Vices. My first impulse was to flee, but, far from following it, I made the decision to listen to what the members of that horrible company were saying. I heard Vicious recounting to her sons that it had been a long time since she had made use of all the artifices of which she was making use in order to deceive me, and telling them how she had composed the mysterious bracelet that had made her appear so beautiful to my eyes. I learned then that the reason she had forbidden me to open my windows during four hours of the night was because she feared that I might see all the Vices arriving for the audience she was obliged to give them during that interval. In sum, I heard enough to know how I had been deceived and the unfortunate state to which I had been reduced.

  “I thought about you, then, beautiful princess; the idea of your charms presented itself to my imagination, and rendered me the most miserable of all mortals. Overwhelmed by a thousand different thoughts, I perceived that the assembly was about to finish, and I returned to my apartment, determined to pretend that I had not discovered anything, in order to find an opportunity to escape and to travel the earth in order to search for you.

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�As daylight had not yet appeared I went to bed in order to dream there at my ease, but as I undressed I found the bracelet that I had lost; it had hooked on to one of the buckles of my gaiters. I was very glad to have it in my hands in order to convince myself of the effect that it produced.

  “Night had no sooner given way to day than I saw the false Bounty arrive, accompanied by a numerous retinue. The sight of her would have inflamed me as usual, if I had not removed instantly the powerful charm that deceived me. Scarcely was it unfastened from my arm than all those beauties disappeared and allowed me to see in their stead the hideous face of the cruel Vicious and all her daughters.

  “In spite of the efforts that I made to constrain myself to caress the fay, she perceived the change in me; it made her suspicious. She stared at me, and, seeing me nonplussed, she wanted to see whether I was still wearing the bracelet.

  “Not having found it, she trembled and rose into the air to a height of six feet, after which she touched me with her wand, changed me into a lion and swore that she was going to invoke all the infernal powers in order to hate me as much as she had loved me. She added that I ought to expect to feel the cruelest effects of her hatred. Then she sent me to her friend King Indolent, in order that he could make me combat several animals of my species on his birthday, which he ordinarily celebrated with similar fêtes.

  “She ordered him to enclose me in the black forest after I had served as a spectacle for his subjects, and I learned before my departure that when I was in that forest I would resume my natural form for one hour every day, in order not to be in a state to defend myself against the animals that inhabit it. However many wounds I might receive I would not lose my life, because she wanted me to live for a long time in order to have the pleasures of prolong my suffering. While I was a man I would not have the liberty of talking and I would be forced to flee the sight of any person of either sex.