Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXX

  Farewell to Freydis

  They went upstairs together, into the room with scarlet hangings, and tothe golden bed where, with seven sorts of fruit properly arranged at thebedside, Dom Manuel's wife Niafer lay asleep. Manuel drew his dagger.Niafer turned in her sleep, so that she seemed to offer her round smallthroat to the raised knife. You saw now that on the other side of thegolden bed sat Queen Freydis, making a rich glow of color there, and inher lap was the newborn naked child.

  Freydis rose, holding the child to her breast, and smiling. A devilmight smile thus upon contriving some new torment for lost souls, but afair woman's face should not be so cruel. Then this evil joy passed fromthe face of Freydis. She dipped her fingers into the bowl of water withwhich she had been bathing the child, and with her finger-tips she madeupon the child's forehead the sign of a cross.

  Said Freydis, "Melicent, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, andof the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

  Sesphra passed wildly toward the fireplace, crying, "A penny, a penny,twopence, a penny and a half, and a halfpenny!" At his call the fireshot forth tall flames, and Sesphra entered these flames as a man goesbetween parted curtains, and instantly the fire collapsed and was as ithad been. Already the hands of Freydis were moving deftly in the SleepCharm, so that Niafer did not move. Freydis to-day was resplendentlyrobed in flame-colored silk, and about her dark hair was a circlet ofburnished copper.

  Manuel had dropped his dagger so that the point of it pierced the floor,and the weapon stood erect and quivering. But Manuel was shaken for amoment more horribly than shook the dagger: you would have said he wasconvulsed with horror and self-loathing. So for an instant he waited,looking at Dame Niafer, who slept untroubled, and at fiery-coloredFreydis, who was smiling rather queerly: and then the old composure cameback to Manuel.

  "Breaker of all oaths," says Freydis, "I must tell you that this Sesphrais pagan, and cannot thrive except among those whose love is given tothe unchristened. Thus he might not come to Sargyll until the arrival ofthis little heathen whom I have just made Christian. Now we have onlyChristian terrors here; and again your fate is in my hands."

  Dom Manuel looked grave. "Freydis," he said, "you have rescued me fromvery unbecoming conduct. A moment more and I would have slain my wifeand child because of this Sesphra's resistless magic."

  Says Freydis, still smiling a queer secret smile: "Indeed, there is notelling into what folly and misery Sesphra would not have led you. Foryou fashioned his legs unevenly, and he has not ever pardoned you hislameness."

  "The thing is a devil," Manuel said. "And this is the figure I desiredto make, this is the child of my long dreams and labors! This is thecreature I designed to be more admirable and significant than the drabmen I found in streets and lanes and palaces! Certainly, I have loosedamong mankind a blighting misery which I cannot control at all."

  "The thing is you as you were once, gray Manuel. You had comeliness andwit and youth and courage, and these you gave the image, shaping itboldly to your proud youth's will and in your proud youth's likeness.But human pity and any constant love you did not then have to give,either to your fellows or to the fine figure you made, nor, verycertainly, to me. So you amused yourself by making Sesphra and by makingme that which we are to-day."

  Now again showed subtly evil thoughts in the face of this shrewd flamingwoman who had so recently brought about the destruction of King Thibaut,and of the Duke of Istria, and of those other enamored lords. And DomManuel began to regard her more intently.

  In Manuel's sandals the average person would have reflected, long beforethis, that Manuel and his wife and child were in this sorcerous place atthe mercy of the whims and the unwholesome servitors of this not verydependable looking witch-woman. The average person would haverecollected distastefully that unusual panther and that discomfortablenight-porter and the madness which had smitten Duke Asmund's men, andthe clattering vicious little hoofs of the shrill dwarfs; and to theaverage person this room would have seemed a desirable place to be manyleagues away from.

  But candid blunt Dom Manuel said, with jovial laughter: "You speak as ifyou had not grown more adorable every day, dear Freydis, and as though Iwould not be vastly flattered to think I had any part in theimprovement. You should not fish thus unblushingly for compliments."

  The sombre glitterings that were her eyes had narrowed, and she waslooking at his hands. Then Freydis said: "There are pin-points of sweatupon the back of your hands, gray Manuel, and so alone do I know thatyou are badly frightened. Yes, you are rather wonderful, even now."

  "I am not unduly frightened, but I am naturally upset by what has justhappened. Anybody would be. For I do not know what I must anticipate inthe future, and I wish that I had never meddled in this mischancybusiness of creating things I cannot manage."

  Queen Freydis moved in shimmering splendor toward the fireplace. Shepaused there, considerately looking down at the small contention offlames. "Did you not, though, again create much misery when for yourpleasure you gave life to this girl child? Certainly you must know thatthere will be in her life--if life indeed be long spared to her," saidFreydis, reflectively,--"far less of joy than of sorrow, for that is theway it is with the life of everybody. But all this likewise is out ofyour hands. In Sesphra and in the child and in me you have lightlycreated that which you cannot control. No, it is I who control theoutcome."

  Now a golden panther came quite noiselessly into the room, and sat tothe right of Freydis, and looked at Dom Manuel.

  "Why, to be sure," says Manuel, heartily, "and I am sure, too, thatnobody is better qualified to handle it. Come now, Freydis, just as yousay, this is a serious situation, and something really ought to be doneabout this situation. Come now, dear friend, in what way can we takeback the life we gave this lovely fiend?"

  "And would I be wanting to kill my husband?" Queen Freydis asked, andshe smiled wonderfully. "Why, but yes, this fair lame child of yours ismy husband to-day,--poor, frightened, fidgeting gray Manuel,--and I lovehim, for Sesphra is all that you were when I loved you, Manuel, and whenyou condescended to take your pleasure of me."

  Now an orange-colored rat came into the room, and sat down upon thehearth to the left hand of Freydis, and looked at Dom Manuel. And therat was is large as the panther.

  Then Freydis said: "No, Manuel, Sesphra must live for a great while,long after you have been turned to graveyard dust: and he will limpabout wherever pagans are to be found, and he will always win much lovefrom the high-hearted pagans because of his comeliness and because ofhis unfading jaunty youth. And whether he will do any good anywhere isdoubtful, but it is certain he will do harm, and it is equally certainthat already he weighs my happiness as carelessly as you once weighedit."

  Now came into the room another creature, such as no madman has ever seenor imagined, and it lay down at the feet of Freydis, and it looked atDom Manuel. Couched thus, this creature yawned and disclosedunreassuring teeth.

  "Well, Freydis," says Dom Manuel, handsomely, "but, to be sure, what youtell me puts a new complexion upon matters, and not for worlds would Ibe coming between husband and wife--"

  Queen Freydis looked up from the flames, toward Dom Manuel, very sadly.Freydis shrugged, flinging out her hands above the heads of the accursedbeasts. "And at the last I cannot do that, either. So do you two dreary,unimportant, well-mated people remain undestroyed, now that I go to seekmy husband, and now I endeavor to win my pardon for not letting himtorment you. Eh, I was tempted, gray Manuel, to let my masterful finehusband have his pleasure of you, and of this lean ugly hobblingcreature and her brat, too, as formerly you had your pleasure of me. Butwomen are so queerly fashioned that at the last I cannot, quite, consentto harm this gray, staid, tedious fellow, nor any of his chattels. Forall passes in this world save one thing only: and though the youngManuel whom I loved in a summer that is gone, be nowadays as perished asthat summer's gay leaves, it is certain a woman's folly does not everperish."

  "Indeed, I did not mer
it that you should care for me," says Manuel,rather unhappily. "But I have always been, and always shall be sincerelyfond of you, Freydis, and for that reason I rejoice to deduce that youare not, now, going to do anything violent and irreparable and such asyour better nature would afterward regret."

  "I loved you once," she said, "and now I am assured the core of you wasalways a cold and hard and colorless and very common pebble. But it doesnot matter now that I am a mortal woman. Either way, you have again madeuse of me. I have afforded you shelter when you were homeless. And nowagain you will be getting your desire."

  Queen Freydis went to the window, and lifted the scarlet curtain figuredwith ramping gold dragons; but the couching beasts stayed by the hearth,and they continued to look at Dom Manuel.

  "Yes, now again, gray Manuel, you will be getting your desire. That shipwhich shows at the river bend, with serpents and castles painted on itsbrown sails, is Miramon Lluagor's ship, which he has sent to fetch youfrom Sargyll: and the last day of your days of exile is now over. ForMiramon is constrained by one who is above us all; therefore Miramoncomes gladly and very potently to assist you. And I--who have servedyour turn!--I may now depart, to look for Sesphra, and for my pardon ifI can get it."

  "But whither do you go, dear Freydis?" Dom Manuel spoke as though heagain felt quite fond of her.

  "What does that matter," she answered, looking long and long at him,"now that Count Manuel has no further need of me?" Then Freydis lookedat Niafer, lying there in a charmed sleep. "I neither love nor entirelyhate you, ugly and lame and lean and fretful Niafer, but assuredly I donot envy you. You are welcome to your fidgeting gray husband. My husbandis a ruthless god. My husband does not grow old and tender-hearted andsubservient to me, and he never will." Thereafter Freydis bent downward,and Freydis kissed the child she had christened. "Some day you will be awoman, Melicent, and then you will be loving some man or another man. Icould hope that you will then love the man who will make you happy, butthat sort of man has not yet been found."

  Dom Manuel came to her, not heeding the accursed beasts at all, and hetook both the hands of Freydis in his hands. "My dear, and do you thinkI am a happy man?"

  She looked up at him: when she answered, her voice trembled. "I made youhappy, Manuel. I would have made you happy always."

  "I wonder if you would have? Ah, well, at all events, the obligation wasupon me. At no time in a man's life, I find, is there lacking someobligation or another: and we must meet each as we best can, not hopingto succeed, just aiming not to fall short too far. No, it is not a merrypursuit. And it is a ruining pursuit!"

  She said, "I had not thought ever to be sorry for you--Why should Igrieve for you, gray traitor?"

  Harshly he answered: "Oho, I am not proud of what I have made of mylife, and of your life, and of the life of that woman yonder, but do youthink I will be whining about it! No, Freydis: the boy that loved anddeserted you is here,"--he beat upon his breast,--"locked in, imprisonedwhile time lasts, dying very lonelily. Well, I am a shrewd gaoler: heshall not get out. No, even at the last, dear Freydis, there is the bondof silence."

  She said, impotently, "I am sorry--Even at the last you contrive for mea new sorrow--"

  For a moment they stood looking at each other, and she rememberedthereafter his sad and quizzical smiling. These two had nothing more toshare in speech or deed.

  Then Freydis went away, and the accursed beasts and her castle too wentwith her, as smoke passes. Manuel was thus left standing out of doors ina reaped field, alone with his wife and child while Miramon's ship cameabout. Niafer slept. But now the child awoke to regard the world intowhich she had been summoned willy-nilly, and the child began to whimper.

  Dom Manuel patted this intimidating small creature gingerly, with astrong comely hand from which his wedding ring was missing. That wouldrequire explanations.

  It therefore seems not improbable that he gave over this brief period ofwaiting, in a reaped field, to wondering just how much about the past hemight judiciously tell his wife when she awoke to question him, becausein the old days that was a problem which no considerate husband failedto weigh with care.