Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  V

  The Eternal Ambuscade

  Manuel and Niafer came down from Vraidex without hindrance. There was nohappier nor more devoted lover anywhere than young Manuel.

  "For we will be married out of hand, dear snip," he says, "and you willhelp me to discharge my geas, and afterward we will travel everywhitherand into the last limits of earth, so that we may see the ends of thisworld and may judge them."

  "Perhaps we had better wait until next spring, when the roads will bebetter, Manuel, but certainly we will be married out of hand."

  In earnest of this, Niafer permitted Manuel to kiss her again, and youngManuel said, for the twenty-second time, "There is nowhere any happinesslike my happiness, nor any love like my love."

  Thus speaking, and thus disporting themselves, they came leisurely tothe base of the gray mountain and to the old maple-trees, under whichthey found two persons waiting. One was a tall man mounted on a whitehorse, and leading a riderless black horse. His hat was pulled downabout his head so that his face could not be clearly seen.

  Now the companion that was with him had the appearance of a bare-headedyoungster, with dark red hair, and his face too was hidden as he sat bythe roadway trimming his long finger-nails with a small green-handledknife.

  "Hail, friends," said Manuel, "and for whom are you waiting here?"

  "I wait for one to ride on this black horse of mine," replied themounted stranger. "It was decreed that the first person who passed thisway must be his rider, but you two come abreast. So do you choosebetween you which one rides."

  "Well, but it is a fine steed surely," Manuel said, "and a steed fit forCharlemagne or Hector or any of the famous champions of the old time."

  "Each one of them has ridden upon this black horse of mine," replied thestranger.

  Niafer said, "I am frightened." And above them a furtive wind began torustle in the torn, discolored maple-leaves.

  "--For it is a fine steed and an old steed," the stranger went on, "anda tireless steed that bears all away. It has the fault, some say, thatits riders do not return, but there is no pleasing everybody."

  "Friend," Manuel said, in a changed voice, "who are you, and what isyour name?"

  "I am half-brother to Miramon Lluagor, lord of the nine sleeps, but I amlord of another kind of sleeping; and as for my name, it is the namethat is in your thoughts and the name which most troubles you, and thename which you think about most often."

  There was silence. Manuel worked his lips foolishly. "I wish we had notwalked abreast," he said. "I wish we had remained among the brightdreams."

  "All persons voice some regret or another at meeting me. And it does notever matter."

  "But if there were no choosing in the affair, I could makeshift to endure it, either way. Now one of us, you tell me, must departwith you. If I say, 'Let Niafer be that one,' I must always recall thatsaying with self-loathing."

  "But I too say it!" Niafer was petting him and trembling.

  "Besides," observed the rider of the white horse, "you have a choice ofsayings."

  "The other saying," Manuel replied, "I cannot utter. Yet I wish I werenot forced to confess this. It sounds badly. At all events, I loveNiafer better than I love any other person, but I do not value Niafer'slife more highly than I value my own life, and it would be nonsense tosay so. No; my life is very necessary to me, and there is a geas upon meto make a figure in this world before I leave it."

  "My dearest," says Niafer, "you have chosen wisely."

  The veiled horseman said nothing at all. But he took off his hat, andthe beholders shuddered. The kinship to Miramon was apparent, you couldsee the resemblance, but they had never seen in Miramon Lluagor's facewhat they saw here.

  Then Niafer bade farewell to Manuel with pitiable whispered words. Theykissed. For an instant Manuel stood motionless. He queerly moved hismouth, as though it were stiff and he were trying to make it moresupple. Thereafter Manuel, very sick and desperate looking, did what wasrequisite. So Niafer went away with Grandfather Death, in Manuel'sstead.

  "My heart cracks in me now," says Manuel, forlornly considering hishands, "but better she than I. Still, this is a poor beginning in life,for yesterday great wealth and to-day great love was within my reach,and now I have lost both."

  "But you did not go the right way about to win success in anything,"says the remaining stranger.

  And now this other stranger arose from the trimming of his longfingernails; and you could see this was a tall, lean youngster (thoughnot so tall as Manuel, and nothing like so stalwart), with ruddy cheeks,wide-set brown eyes, and crinkling, rather dark red hair.

  Then Manuel rubbed his wet hands as clean as might be, and this boywalked on a little way with Manuel, talking of that which had been andof some things which were to be. And Manuel said, "Now assuredly,Horvendile, since that is your name, such talking is insane talking, andno comfort whatever to me in my grief at losing Niafer."

  "This is but the beginning of your losses, Manuel, for I think that alittle by a little you will lose everything which is desirable, untilyou shall have remaining at the last only a satiation, and a weariness,and an uneasy loathing of all that the human wisdom of your elders shallhave induced you to procure."

  "But, Horvendile, can anybody foretell the future? Or can it be thatMiramon spoke seriously in saying that fate also was enleagued to forbidthe leaving of this mountain?"

  "No, Manuel, I do not say that I am fate nor any of the Leshy, butrather it seems to me that I am insane. So perhaps the less attentionyou pay to my talking, the better. For I must tell you that this wastedcountry side, this mountain, this road, and these old maples, and thatrock yonder, appear to me to be things I have imagined, and that you,and the Niafer whom you have just disposed of so untidily, and Miramonand his fair shrew, and all of you, appear to me to be persons I haveimagined; and all the living in this world appears to me to be only anotion of mine."

  "Why, then, certainly I would say, or rather, I would think itunnecessary to say, that you are insane."

  "You speak without hesitation, and it is through your ability to settlesuch whimseys out of hand that you will yet win, it may be, to success."

  "Yes, but," asked Manuel, slowly, "what is success?"

  "In your deep mind, I think, that question is already answered."

  "Undoubtedly I have my notion, but it was about your notion I wasasking."

  Horvendile looked grave, and yet whimsical too. "Why, I have heardsomewhere," says he, "that at its uttermost this success is but thestrivings of an ape reft of his tail, and grown rusty at climbing, whoyet feels himself to be a symbol and the frail representative ofOmnipotence in a place that is not home."

  Manuel appeared to reserve judgment. "How does the successful ape employhimself, in these not quite friendly places?"

  "He strives blunderingly, from mystery to mystery, with patheticmakeshifts, not understanding anything, greedy in all desires, andhoneycombed with poltroonery, and yet ready to give all, and to diefighting for the sake of that undemonstrable idea, about his beingHeaven's vicar and heir."

  Manuel shook his small bright head. "You use too many long words. But sofar I can understand you, that is not the sort of success I want. No, Iam Manuel, and I must follow after my own thinking and my own desire,without considering other people and their notions of success."

  "As for denying yourself consideration for other people, I am of theopinion, after witnessing your recent disposal of your sweetheart, thatyou are already tolerably expert in that sort of abnegation."

  "Hah, but you do not know what is seething here," replied Manuel,smiting his broad chest. "And I shall not tell you of it, Horvendile,since you are not fate nor any of the Leshy, to give me my desire."

  "What would be your desire?"

  "My wish would be for me always to obtain whatever I may wish for. Yes,Horvendile, I have often wondered why, in the old legends, when threewishes were being offered, nobody ever made that sensible and economicalwish the first of al
l."

  "What need is there to trouble the Leshy about that foolish wish when itis always possible, at a paid price, to obtain whatever one desires? Youhave but to go about it in this way." And Horvendile told Manuel a queerand dangerous thing. Then Horvendile said sadly: "So much knowledge Ican deny nobody at Michaelmas. But I must tell you the price also, andit is that with the achieving of each desire you will perceive itsworth."

  Thus speaking, Horvendile parted the thicket beside the roadway. Abeautiful dusk-colored woman waited there, in a green-blue robe, and onher head was a blue coronet surmounted with green feathers: she carrieda vase. Horvendile stepped forward, and the thicket closed behind him,concealing Horvendile and this woman.

  Manuel, looking puzzled, went on a little way, and when he was assuredof being alone he flung himself face downward and wept. The reason ofthis was, they relate, that young Manuel had loved Niafer as he couldlove nobody else. Then he arose, and went toward the pool of Haranton,on his way homeward, after having failed in everything.