Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice

by James Branch Cabell

  17.

  About a Cock That Crowed Too Soon

  Next the tale tells of how Jurgen and the ghost of Queen SylviaTereu came into the White Turret. The Lady of the Lake was in bed:she slept unaccompanied, as Jurgen noted with approval, for hewished to intrude upon no more tete-a-tetes. And Dame Anaitis didnot at first awake.

  Now this was a gloomy and high-paneled apartment, with exactly thetraditional amount of moonlight streaming through two windows. Anyghost, even an apprentice, could have acquitted himself with creditin such surroundings, and Jurgen thought he did extremely well. Hewas atavistically brutal, and to improvise the accompanying dialoguehe did not find difficult. So everything went smoothly, and withsuch spirit that Anaitis was presently wakened by Queen Sylvia'svery moving wails for mercy, and sat erect in bed, as though alittle startled. Then the Lady of the Lake leaned back among thepillows, and witnessed the remainder of the terrible scene withremarkable self-possession.

  So it was that the tragedy swelled to its appalling climax, andsubsided handsomely. With the aid of Caliburn, Jurgen had murderedhis temporary wife. He had dragged her insensate body across thefloor, by the hair of her head, and had carefully remembered firstto put her comb in his pocket, as Queen Sylvia had requested, sothat it would not be lost. He had given vent to several fiendish"Ha-ha's" and all the old high imprecations he remembered: and inshort, everything had gone splendidly when he left the White Turretwith a sense of self-approval and Queen Sylvia Tereu.

  The two of them paused in the winding stairway; and in the darkness,after he had restored her comb, the Queen was telling Jurgen howsorry she was to part with him.

  "For it is back to the cold grave I must be going now, MessireJurgen, and to the tall flames of Purgatory: and it may be that Ishall not ever see you any more."

  "I shall regret the circumstance, madame," says Jurgen, "for you arethe loveliest person I have ever seen."

  The Queen was pleased. "That is a delightfully boyish speech, andone can see it comes from the heart. I only wish that I could meetwith such unsophisticated persons in my present abode. Instead, I amherded with battered sinners who have no heart, who are not frankand outspoken about anything, and I detest their affectations."

  "Ah, then you are not happy with your husband, Sylvia? I suspectedas much."

  "I see very little of Smoit. It is true he has eight other wives allresident in the same flame, and cannot well show any partiality. Twoof his Queens, though, went straight to Heaven: and his eighth wife,Gudrun, we are compelled to fear, must have been an unrepentantsinner, for she has never reached Purgatory. But I always distrustedGudrun, myself: otherwise I would never have suggested to Smoit thathe have her strangled in order to make me his queen. You see, Ithought it a fine thing to be a queen, in those days, Jurgen, when Iwas an artless slip of a girl. And Smoit was all honey and perfumeand velvet, in those days, Jurgen, and little did I suspect thecruel fate that was to befall me."

  "Indeed, it is a sad thing, Sylvia, to be murdered by the handwhich, so to speak, is sworn to keep an eye on your welfare, andwhich rightfully should serve you on its knees."

  "It was not that I minded. Smoit killed me in a fit of jealousy, andjealousy is in its blundering way a compliment. No, a worse thingthan that befell me, Jurgen, and embittered all my life in theflesh." And Sylvia began to weep.

  "And what was that thing, Sylvia?"

  Queen Sylvia whispered the terrible truth. "My husband did notunderstand me."

  "Now, by Heaven," says Jurgen, "when a woman tells me that, eventhough the woman be dead, I know what it is she expects of me."

  So Jurgen put his arm about the ghost of Queen Sylvia Tereu, andcomforted her. Then, finding her quite willing to be comforted,Jurgen sat for a while upon the dark steps, with one arm still aboutQueen Sylvia. The effect of the potion had evidently worn off,because Jurgen found himself to be composed no longer of coolimponderable vapor, but of the warmest and hardest sort of flesheverywhere. But probably the effect of the wine which Jurgen haddrunk earlier in the evening had not worn off: for now Jurgen beganto talk wildishly in the dark, about the necessity of his, in someway, avenging the injury inflicted upon his nominal grandfather,Ludwig, and Jurgen drew his sword, charmed Caliburn.

  "For, as you perceive," said Jurgen, "I carry such weapons as aresufficient for all ordinary encounters. And am I not to use them, torequite King Smoit for the injustice he did poor Ludwig? Why,certainly I must. It is my duty."

  "Ah, but Smoit by this is back in Purgatory," Queen Sylviaprotested, "And to draw your sword against a woman is cowardly."

  "The avenging sword of Jurgen, my charming Sylvia, is the terror ofenvious men, but it is the comfort of all pretty women."

  "It is undoubtedly a very large sword," said she: "oh, a magnificentsword, as I can perceive even in the dark. But Smoit, I repeat, isnot here to measure weapons with you."

  "Now your arguments irritate me, whereas an honest woman would seeto it that all the legacies of her dead husband were dulysatisfied--"

  "Oh, oh! and what do you mean--?"

  "Well, but certainly a grandson is--at one remove, I grant you,--asort of legacy."

  "There is something in what you advance--"

  "There is a great deal in what I advance, I can assure you. It isthe most natural and most penetrating kind of logic; and I wishmerely to discharge a duty--"

  "But you upset me, with that big sword of yours, you make menervous, and I cannot argue so long as you are flourishing it about.Come now, put up your sword! Oh, what is anybody to do with you!Here is the sheath for your sword," says she.

  At this point they were interrupted.

  "Duke of Logreus," says the voice of Dame Anaitis, "do you not thinkit would be better to retire, before such antics at the door of mybedroom give rise to a scandal?"

  For Anaitis had half-opened the door of her bedroom, and with a lampin her hand, was peering out into the narrow stairway. Jurgen was alittle embarrassed, for his apparent intimacy with a lady who hadbeen dead for sixty-three years would be, he felt, a matterdifficult to explain. So Jurgen rose to his feet, and hastily put upthe weapon he had exhibited to Queen Sylvia, and decided to passairily over the whole affair. And outside, a cock crowed, for it wasnow dawn.

  "I bid you a good morning, Dame Anaitis," said Jurgen. "But thestairways hereabouts are confusing, and I must have lost my way. Iwas going for a stroll. This is my distant relative Queen SylviaTereu, who kindly offered to accompany me. We were going out togather mushrooms and to watch the sunrise, you conceive."

  "Messire de Logreus, I think you had far better go back to bed."

  "To the contrary, madame, it is my manifest duty to serve as QueenSylvia's escort--"

  "For all that, messire, I do not see any Queen Sylvia."

  Jurgen looked about him. And certainly his grandfather's ninth wifewas no longer visible. "Yes, she has vanished. But that was to beexpected at cockcrow. Still, that cock crew just at the wrongmoment," said Jurgen, ruefully. "It was not fair."

  And Dame Anaitis said: "Gogyrvan's cellar is well stocked: and yousat late with Urien and Aribert: and doubtless they also were luckyenough to discover a queen or two in Gogyrvan's cellar. No less, Ithink you are still a little drunk."

  "Now answer me this, Dame Anaitis: were you not visited by twoghosts to-night?"

  "Why, that is as it may be," she replied: "but the White Turret isnotoriously haunted, and it is few quiet nights I have passed there,for Gogyrvan's people were a bad lot."

  "Upon my word," wonders Jurgen, "what manner of person is this DameAnaitis, who remains unstirred by such a brutal murder as I havecommitted, and makes no more of ghosts than I would of moths? I haveheard she is an enchantress, I am sure she is a fine figure of awoman: and in short, here is a matter which would repay lookinginto, were not young Guenevere the mistress of my heart."

  Aloud he said: "Perhaps then I am drunk, madame. None the less, Istill think the cock crew just at the wrong moment."

  "Some day y
ou must explain the meaning of that," says she."Meanwhile I am going back to bed, and I again advise you to do thesame."

  Then the door closed, the bolt fell, and Jurgen went away, still inconsiderable excitement.

  "This Dame Anaitis is an interesting personality," he reflected,"and it would be a pleasure, now, to demonstrate to her my grievanceagainst the cock, did occasion serve. Well, things less likely thanthat have happened. Then, too, she came upon me when my sword wasout, and in consequence knows I wield a respectable weapon. She mayfeel the need of a good swordsman some day, this handsome Lady ofthe Lake who has no husband. So let us cultivate patience.Meanwhile, it appears that I am of royal blood. Well, I fancy thereis something in the scandal, for I detect in me a deal in commonwith this King Smoit. Twelve wives, though! no, that is too many. Iwould limit no man's liaisons, but twelve wives in lawful matrimonybespeaks an optimism unknown to me. No, I do not think I am drunk:but it is unquestionable that I am not walking very straight.Certainly, too, we did drink a great deal. So I had best go quietlyback to bed, and say nothing more about to-night's doings."

  As much he did. And this was the first time that Jurgen, who hadbeen a pawnbroker, held any discourse with Dame Anaitis, whom mencalled the Lady of the Lake.