Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  IV

  In the Doubtful Palace

  So Manuel and Niafer came unhurt to the top of the gray mountain calledVraidex, and to the doubtful palace of Miramon Lluagor. Gongs, slowlystruck, were sounding as if in languid dispute among themselves, whenthe two lads came across a small level plain where grass wasinterspersed with white clover. Here and there stood wicked lookingdwarf trees with violet and yellow foliage. The doubtful palace beforethe circumspectly advancing boys appeared to be constructed of black andgold lacquer, and it was decorated with the figures of butterflies andtortoises and swans.

  This day being a Thursday, Manuel and Niafer entered unchallengedthrough gates of horn and ivory; and came into a red corridor in whichfive gray beasts, like large hairless cats, were casting dice. Theseanimals grinned, and licked their lips, as the boys passed deeper intothe doubtful palace.

  In the centre of the palace Miramon had set like a tower one of thetusks of Behemoth: the tusk was hollowed out into five large rooms, andin the inmost room, under a canopy with green tassels, they found themagician.

  "Come forth, and die now, Miramon Lluagor!" shouts Manuel, brandishinghis sword, for which, at last, employment was promised here.

  The magician drew closer about him his old threadbare dressing-gown, andhe desisted from his enchantments, and he put aside a small unfinisheddesign, which scuttled into the fireplace, whimpering. And Manuelperceived that the dreadful prince of the seven madnesses had theappearance of the mild-mannered stranger who had given Manuel thecharmed sword.

  "Ah, yes, it was good of you to come so soon," says Miramon Lluagor,rearing back his head, and narrowing his gentle and sombre eyes, as themagician looked at them down the sides of what little nose he had. "Yes,and your young friend, too, is very welcome. But you boys must be quiteworn out, after toiling up this mountain, so do you sit down and have acup of wine before I surrender my dear wife."

  Says Manuel, sternly, "But what is the meaning of all this?"

  "The meaning and the upshot, clearly," replied the magician, "is that,since you have the charmed sword Flamberge, and since the wearer ofFlamberge is irresistible, it would be nonsense for me to oppose you."

  "But, Miramon, it was you who gave me the sword!"

  Miramon rubbed his droll little nose for a while, before speaking. "Andhow else was I to get conquered? For, I must tell you, Manuel, it is alaw of the Leshy that a magician cannot surrender his prey unless themagician be conquered. I must tell you, too, that when I carried offGisele I acted, as I by and by discovered, rather injudiciously."

  "Now, by holy Paul and Pollux! I do not understand this at all,Miramon."

  "Why, Manuel, you must know she was a very charming girl, and inappearance just the type that I had always fancied for a wife. Butperhaps it is not wise to be guided entirely by appearances. For I findnow that she has a strong will in her white bosom, and a tireless tonguein her glittering head, and I do not equally admire all four of thesepossessions."

  "Still, Miramon, if only a few months back your love was so great as tolead you into abducting her--"

  The prince of the seven madnesses said gravely:

  "Love, as I think, is an instant's fusing of shadow and substance. Theythat aspire to possess love utterly, fall into folly. This is forbidden:you cannot. The lover, beholding that fusing move as a golden-huedgoddess, accessible, kindly and priceless, wooes and ill-fatedly winsall the substance. The golden-hued shadow dims in the dawn of hismarried life, dulled with content, and the shadow vanishes. So thereremains, for the puzzled husband's embracing, flesh which is fair anddear, no doubt, yet is flesh such as his; and talking and talking andtalking; and kisses in all ways desirable. Love, of a sort, too remains,but hardly the love that was yesterday's."

  Now the unfinished design came out of the fireplace, and climbed upMiramon's leg, still faintly whimpering. He looked at it meditatively,then twisted off the creature's head and dropped the fragments into hiswaste-basket.

  Miramon sighed. He said:

  "This is the cry of all husbands that now are or may behereafter,--'What has become of the girl that I married? and how shouldI rightly deal with this woman whom somehow time has involved in mydoings? Love, of a sort, now I have for her, but not the love that wasyesterday's--'"

  While Miramon spoke thus, the two lads were looking at each otherblankly: for they were young, and their understanding of this matter wasas yet withheld.

  Then said Miramon:

  "Yes, he is wiser that shelters his longing from any such surfeit. Yes,he is wiser that knows the shadow makes lovely the substance, wiselyregarding the ways of that irresponsible shadow which, if you grasp atit, flees, and, when you avoid it, will follow, gilding all life withits glory, and keeping always one woman young and most fair and mostwise, and unwon; and keeping you always never contented, but armed witha self-respect that no husband manages quite to retain in the face ofbeing contented. No, for love is an instant's fusing of shadow andsubstance, fused for that instant only, whereafter the lover may harvestpleasure from either alone, but hardly from these two united."

  "Well," Manuel conceded, "all this may be true; but I never quiteunderstood hexameters, and so I could not ever see the good of talkingin them."

  "I always do that, Manuel, when I am deeply affected. It is, I suppose,the poetry in my nature welling to the surface the moment thatinhibitions are removed, for when I think about the impending severancefrom my dear wife I more or less lose control of myself--You see, shetakes an active interest in my work, and that does not do with acreative artist in any line. Oh, dear me, no, not for a moment!" saysMiramon, forlornly.

  "But how can that be?" Niafer asked him.

  "As all persons know, I design the dreams of men. Now Gisele assertsthat people have enough trouble in real life, without having to go tosleep to look for it--"

  "Certainly that is true," says Niafer.

  "So she permits me only to design bright optimistic dreams and edifyingdreams and glad dreams. She says you must give tired persons what theymost need; and is emphatic about the importance of everybody's sleepingin a wholesome atmosphere. So I have not been permitted to design a finenightmare or a creditable terror--nothing morbid or blood-freezing, nosea-serpents or krakens or hippogriffs, nor anything that gives me areally free hand,--for months and months: and my art suffers. Then, asfor other dreams, of a more roguish nature--"

  "What sort of dreams can you be talking about, I wonder, Miramon?"

  The magician described what he meant. "Such dreams also she has quiteforbidden," he added, with a sigh.

  "I see," said Manuel: "and now I think of it, it is true that I have nothad a dream of that sort for quite a while."

  "No man anywhere is allowed to have that sort of dream in thesedegenerate nights, no man anywhere in the whole world. And here again myart suffers, for my designs in this line were always especially vividand effective, and pleased the most rigid. Then, too, Gisele is alwaysdoing and telling me things for my own good--In fine, my lads, my wifetakes such a flattering interest in all my concerns that the one way outfor any peace-loving magician was to contrive her rescue from myclutches," said Miramon, fretfully.

  "It is difficult to explain to you, Manuel, just now, but after you havebeen married to Gisele for a while you will comprehend without anyexplaining."

  "Now, Miramon, I marvel to see a great magician controlled by a womanwho is in his power, and who can, after all, do nothing but talk."

  Miramon for some while considered Manuel, rather helplessly. "Unmarriedmen do wonder about that," said Miramon. "At all events, I will summonher, and you can explain how you have conquered me, and then you cantake her away and marry her yourself, and Heaven help you!"

  "But shall I explain that it was you who gave me the resistless sword?"

  "No, Manuel: no, you should be candid within more rational limits. Foryou are now a famous champion, that has crowned with victory a righteouscause for which many stalwart knights and gallant gentlemen have madethe
supreme sacrifice, because they knew that in the end the right mustconquer. Your success thus represents the working out of a great moralprinciple, and to explain the practical minutiae of these augustprocesses is not always quite respectable. Besides, if Gisele thought Iwished to get rid of her she would most certainly resort to comments ofwhich I prefer not to think."

  But now into the room came the magician's wife, Gisele.

  "She is, certainly, rather pretty," said Niafer, to Manuel.

  Said Manuel, rapturously: "She is the finest and loveliest creature thatI have ever seen. Beholding her unequalled beauty, I know that here areall the dreams of yesterday fulfilled. I recollect, too, my songs ofyesterday, which I was used to sing to my pigs, about my love for a farprincess who was 'white as a lily, more red than roses, and resplendentas rubies of the Orient,' for here I find my old songs to be applicable,if rather inadequate. And by this shabby villain's failure to appreciatethe unequalled beauty of his victim I am amazed."

  "As to that, I have my suspicions," Niafer replied. "And now she isabout to speak I believe she will justify these suspicions, for MadameGisele is in no placid frame of mind."

  "What is this nonsense," says the proud shining lady, to MiramonLluagor, "that I hear about your having been conquered?"

  "Alas, my love, it is perfectly true. This champion has, in someinexplicable way, come by the magic weapon Flamberge which is the oneweapon wherewith I can be conquered. So I have yielded to him, and he isabout, I think, to sever my head from my body."

  The beautiful girl was indignant, because she had recognized that,magician or no, there is small difference in husbands after the firstmonth or two; and with Miramon tolerably well trained, she had nointention of changing him for another husband. Therefore Giseleinquired, "And what about me?" in a tone that foreboded turmoil.

  The magician rubbed his hands, uncomfortably. "My dear, I am of coursequite powerless before Flamberge. Inasmuch as your rescue appears tohave been effected in accordance with every rule in these matters, andthe victorious champion is resolute to requite my evil-doing and torestore you to your grieving parents, I am afraid there is nothing I canwell do about it."

  "Do you look me in the eye, Miramon Lluagor!" says the Lady Gisele. Thedreadful prince of the seven madnesses obeyed her, with a placatingsmile. "Yes, you have been up to something," she said, "And Heaven onlyknows what, though of course it does not really matter."

  Madame Gisele then looked at Manuel "So you are the champion that hascome to rescue me!" she said, unhastily, as her big sapphire eyesappraised him over her great fan of gaily colored feathers, and asManuel somehow began to fidget.

  Gisele looked last of all at Niafer. "I must say you have been longenough in coming," observed Gisele.

  "It took me two days, madame, to find and catch a turtle," Niaferreplied, "and that delayed me."

  "Oh, you have always some tale or other, trust you for that, but it isbetter late than never. Come, Niafer, and do you know anything aboutthis gawky, ragtag, yellow-haired young champion?"

  "Yes, madame, he formerly lived in attendance upon the miller's pigs,down Rathgor way, and I have seen him hanging about the kitchen atArnaye."

  Gisele turned now toward the magician, with her thin gold chains and theinnumerable brilliancies of her jewels flashing no more brightly thanflashed the sapphire of her eyes. "There!" she said, terribly: "and youwere going to surrender me to a swineherd, with half the hair choppedfrom his head, and with the shirt sticking out of both his raggedelbows!"

  "My dearest, irrespective of tonsorial tastes, and disregarding allsartorial niceties, and swineherd or not, he holds the magic swordFlamberge, before which all my powers are nothing."

  "But that is easily settled. Have men no sense whatever! Boy, do yougive me that sword, before you hurt yourself fiddling with it, and letus have an end of this nonsense."

  Thus the proud lady spoke, and for a while the victorious championregarded her with very youthful looking, hurt eyes. But he was notrouted.

  "Madame Gisele," replied Manuel, "gawky and poorly clad and young as Imay be, so long as I retain this sword I am master of you all and of thefuture too. Yielding it, I yield everything my elders have taught me toprize, for my grave elders have taught me that much wealth and broadlands and a lovely wife are finer things to ward than a parcel of pigs.So, if I yield at all, I must first bargain and get my price foryielding."

  He turned now from Gisele to Niafer. "Dear snip," said Manuel, "you toomust have your say in my bargaining, because from the first it has beenyour cleverness that has saved us, and has brought us two so high. Forsee, at last I have drawn Flamberge, and I stand at last at the doubtfulsummit of Vraidex, and I am master of the hour and of the future. I havebut to sever the wicked head of this doomed magician from his foul body,and that will be the end of him--"

  "No, no," says Miramon, soothingly, "I shall merely be turned intosomething else, which perhaps we had better not discuss. But it will notinconvenience me in the least, so do you not hold back out of mistakenkindness to me, but instead do you smite, and take your well-earnedreward."

  "Either way," submitted Manuel, "I have but to strike, and I acquiremuch wealth and sleek farming-lands and a lovely wife, and the swineherdbecomes a great nobleman. But it is you, Niafer, who have won all thesethings for me with your cleverness, and to me it seems that thesewonderful rewards are less wonderful than my dear comrade."

  "But you too are very wonderful," said Niafer, loyally.

  Says Manuel, smiling sadly: "I am not so wonderful but that in the hourof my triumph I am frightened by my own littleness. Look you, Niafer, Ihad thought I would be changed when I had become a famous champion, butfor all that I stand posturing here with this long sword, and am masterof the hour and of the future, I remain the boy that last Thursday wastending pigs. I was not afraid of the terrors which beset me on my wayto rescue the Count's daughter, but of the Count's daughter herself I amhorribly afraid. Not for worlds would I be left alone with her. No, suchfine and terrific ladies are not for swineherds, and it is another sortof wife that I desire."

  "Whom then do you desire for a wife," says Niafer, "if not the loveliestand the wealthiest lady in all Rathgor and Lower Targamon?"

  "Why, I desire the cleverest and dearest and most wonderful creature inall the world," says Manuel,--"whom I recollect seeing some six weeksago when I was in the kitchen at Arnaye."

  "Ah, ah! it might be arranged, then. But who is this marvelous woman?"

  Manuel said, "You are that woman, Niafer."

  Niafer replied nothing, but Niafer smiled. Niafer raised one shoulder alittle, rubbing it against Manuel's broad chest, but Niafer still keptsilence. So the two young people regarded each other for a while, notspeaking, and to every appearance not valuing Miramon Lluagor and hisencompassing enchantments at a straw's worth, nor valuing anything saveeach other.

  "All things are changed for me," says Manuel, presently, in a hushedvoice, "and for the rest of time I live in a world wherein Niaferdiffers from all other persons."

  "My dearest," Niafer replied, "there is no sparkling queen nor polishedprincess anywhere but the woman's heart in her would be jumping with joyto have you looking at her twice, and I am only a servant girl!"

  "But certainly," said the rasping voice of Gisele, "Niafer is mysuitably disguised heathen waiting-woman, to whom my husband sent adream some while ago, with instructions to join me here, so that I mighthave somebody to look after my things. So, Niafer, since you werefetched to wait on me, do you stop pawing at that young pig-tender, andtell me what is this I hear about your remarkable cleverness!"

  Instead, it was Manuel who proudly told of the shrewd devices throughwhich Niafer had passed the serpents and the other terrors of sleep. Andthe while that the tall boy was boasting, Miramon Lluagor smiled, andGisele looked very hard at Niafer: for Miramon and his wife both knewthat the cleverness of Niafer was as far to seek as her good looks, andthat the dream which Miramon had sent had carefully instructed Ni
afer asto these devices.

  "Therefore, Madame Gisele," says Manuel, in conclusion, "I will give youFlamberge, and Miramon and Vraidex, and all the rest of earth to boot,in exchange for the most wonderful and clever woman in the world."

  And with a flourish, Manuel handed over the charmed sword Flamberge tothe Count's lovely daughter, and he took the hand of the swart,flat-faced servant girl.

  "Come now," says Miramon, in a sad flurry, "this is an imposingperformance. I need not say it arouses in me the most delightful sort ofsurprise and all other appropriate emotions. But as touches your owninterests, Manuel, do you think your behavior is quite sensible?"

  Tall Manuel looked down upon him with a sort of scornful pity. "Yes,Miramon: for I am Manuel, and I follow after my own thinking and my owndesire. Of course it is very fine of me to be renouncing so much wealthand power for the sake of my wonderful dear Niafer: but she is worth thesacrifice, and, besides, she is witnessing all this magnanimity, andcannot well fail to be impressed."

  Niafer was of course reflecting: "This is very foolish and dear of him,and I shall be compelled, in mere decency, to pretend to correspondinglunacies for the first month or so of our marriage. After that, I hope,we will settle down to some more reasonable way of living."

  Meanwhile she regarded Manuel fondly, and quite as though she consideredhim to be displaying unusual intelligence.

  But Gisele and Miramon were looking at each other, and wondering: "Whatcan the long-legged boy see in this stupid and plain-featured girl whois years older than he? or she in the young swaggering ragged fool? Andhow much wiser and happier is our marriage than, in any event, theaverage marriage!"

  And Miramon, for one, was so deeply moved by the staggering thoughtwhich holds together so many couples in the teeth of human nature thathe patted his wife's hand. Then he sighed. "Love has conquered mydesigns," said Miramon, oracularly, "and the secret of a contentedmarriage, after all, is to pay particular attention to the wives ofeverybody else."

  Gisele exhorted him not to be a fool, but she spoke without acerbity,and, speaking, she squeezed his hand. She understood this potentmagician better than she intended ever to permit him to suspect.

  Whereafter Miramon wiped the heavenly bodies from the firmament, and seta miraculous rainbow there, and under its arch was enacted for theswineherd and the servant girl such a betrothal masque of fantasies andillusions as gave full scope to the art of Miramon, and delightedeverybody, but delighted Miramon in particular. The dragon that guardshidden treasure made sport for them, the naiads danced, and cherubimfluttered about singing very sweetly and asking droll conundrums. Thenthey feasted, with unearthly servitors to attend them, and did all elseappropriate to an affiancing of deities. And when these junketings wereover, Manuel said that, since it seemed he was not to be a wealthynobleman after all, he and Niafer must be getting, first to the nearestpriest's and then back to the pigs.

  "I am not so sure that you can manage it," said Miramon, "for, while theascent of Vraidex is incommoded by serpents, the quitting of Vraidex isvery apt to be hindered by death and fate. For I must tell you I have arather arbitrary half-brother, who is one of those dreadful Realists,without a scrap of aesthetic feeling, and there is no controlling him."

  "Well," Manuel considered, "one cannot live forever among dreams, anddeath and fate must be encountered by all men. So we can but try."

  Now for a while the sombre eyes of Miramon Lluagor appraised them. He,who was lord of the nine sleeps and prince of the seven madnesses, nowgave a little sigh; for he knew that these young people were enviableand, in the outcome, were unimportant.

  So Miramon said, "Then do you go your way, and if you do not encounterthe author and destroyer of us all it will be well for you, and if youdo encounter him that too will be well in that it is his wish."

  "I neither seek nor avoid him," Manuel replied. "I only know that I mustfollow after my own thinking, and after a desire which is not to besatisfied with dreams, even though they be"--the boy appeared to searchfor a comparison, then, smiling, said,--"as resplendent as rubies of theOrient."

  Thereafter Manuel bid farewell to Miramon and Miramon's fine wife, andManuel descended from marvelous Vraidex with his plain-featured Niafer,quite contentedly. For happiness went with them, if for no great way.