Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXXVI

  Excursions from Content

  Thereafter Count Manuel could not long remain away from the windowthrough which Ruric had climbed with a lantern, and through which Rurichad returned insanely blaspheming against law and order.

  The outlook from this window was somewhat curious. Through the two otherwindows of Ageus, set side by side with this one, and in appearancesimilar to it in all respects, the view remained always unchanged, andjust such as it was from the third window so long as you looked throughthe thick clear glass. But when the third window of Ageus was opened,all the sunlit summer world that you had seen through the thick clearglass was gone quite away, and you looked out into a limitless graytwilight wherein not anything was certainly discernible, and the airsmelt of spring. It was a curious experience for Count Manuel, thus toregard through the clear glass his prospering domains and all therewards of his famous endeavors, and then find them vanished as soon asthe third window was opened. It was curious, and very interesting; butsuch occurrences make people dubious about things in which, as everybodyknows, it is wisdom's part to believe implicitly.

  Now the second dayafter Ruric had died, the season now being June, Count Manuel stood atthe three windows, and saw in the avenue of poplars his wife, DameNiafer, walking hand in hand with little Melicent. Niafer, despite herlameness, was a fine figure of a woman, so long as he viewed Niaferthrough the closed window of Ageus. Dom Manuel looked contentedly enoughupon the wife who was the reward of his toil and suffering in DunVlechlan, and the child who was the reward of his amiability andshrewdness in dealing with the stork, all seemed well so long as heregarded them through the closed third window.

  His hand trembled somewhat as he now opened this window, to face graysweetly-scented nothingness. But in the window glass, you saw, theappearance of his flourishing gardens remained unchanged: and in thehalf of the window to the right hand were quivering poplars, and Niaferand little Melicent were smiling at him, and the child was kissing herhand to him. All about this swinging half of the window was nothingness;he, leaning out, and partly closing this half of the window, could seethat behind the amiable picture was nothingness: it was only in the oldglass of Ageus that his wife and child appeared to live and move.

  Dom Manuel laughed, shortly. "Hah, then," says he, "that tedious dearnagging woman and that priceless snub-nosed brat may not be real. Theymay be merely happy and prosaic imaginings, hiding the night which aloneis real. To consider this possibility is troubling. It makes for evengreater loneliness. None the less, I know that I am real, and certainlythe grayness before me is real. Well, no matter what befell Ruricyonder, it must be that in this grayness there is some other being whois real and dissatisfied. I must go to seek this being, for here Ibecome as a drugged person among sedate and comfortable dreams which aremade doubly weariful by my old master's whispering of that knowledgewhich was my father's father's."

  Then in the gray dusk was revealed a face that was not human, and theround toothless mouth of it spoke feebly, saying, "I am Lubrican, and Icome to guide you if you dare follow."

  "I have always thought that 'dare' was a quaint word," says Manuel, withthe lordly swagger which he kept for company.

  So he climbed out of the third window of Ageus. When later he climbedback, a lock had been sheared from the side of his gray head.

  Now the tale tells that thereafter Dom Manuel was changed, and hisattendants gossiped about it. Dame Niafer also was moved to mildwonderment over the change in him, but did not think it very important,because there is never any accounting for what a husband will do.Besides, there were other matters to consider, for at this timeEasterlings came up from Piaja (which they had sacked) into theterritories of King Theodoret, and besieged Megaris, and the harriedKing had sent messengers to Dom Manuel.

  "But this is none of my affair," said Manuel, "and I begin to tire ofwarfare, and of catching cold by sleeping on hard-won battle-fields."

  "You would not take cold, as I have told you any number of times,"declared Niafer, "if you would eat more green vegetables instead ofstuffing yourself with meat, and did not insist on overheating yourselfat the fighting. Still, you had better go."

  "My dear, I shall do nothing of the sort."

  "Yes, you had better go, for these Easterlings are notorious pagans--"

  "Now other persons have been pagans once upon a time, dear snip--"

  "A great many things are much worse, Manuel," says Niafer, with thatdark implication before which Dom Manuel always fidgeted, because therewas no telling what it might mean. "Yes, these Easterlings are quitenotorious pagans, and King Theodoret has at least the grace to callhimself a Christian, and, besides, it will give me a chance to get yourrooms turned out and thoroughly cleaned."

  So Manuel, as was his custom, did what Niafer thought best. Manuelsummoned his vassals, and brought together his nine lords of theFellowship of the Silver Stallion, and, without making any stir withhorns and clarions, came so swiftly and secretly under cover of nightupon the heathen Easterlings that never was seen such slaughter andsorrow and destruction as Dom Manuel wrought upon those tall pagansbefore he sat down to breakfast.

  He attacked from Sannazaro. The survivors therefore fled, having nochoice, through the fields east of Megaris. Manuel followed, and slewthem in the open.

  The realm was thus rescued from dire peril, and Manuel was detained fora while in Megaris, by the ensuing banquets and religious services andthe executions of the prisoners and the nonsense of the King's sister.For this romantic and very pretty girl had set King Theodoret topestering Manuel with magniloquent offers of what Theodoret would do andgive if only the rescuer of Megaris would put aside his ugly crippledwife and marry the King's lovely sister.

  Manuel laughed at him. Some say that Manuel and the King's sisterdispensed with marriage: others accuse Dom Manuel of exhibiting acontinence not very well suited to his exalted estate. It is certain, inany event, that he by and by returned into Poictesme, with a cold in hishead to be sure, but with fresh glory and much plunder and two new fiefsto his credit: and at Storisende Dom Manuel found that his rooms hadbeen thoroughly cleaned and set in such perfect order that he could layhands upon none of his belongings, and that the pastry-cook had left.

  "It simply shows you!" says Dame Niafer, "and all I have to say is thatnow I hope you are satisfied."

  Manuel laughed without merriment. "Everything is in a conspiracy tosatisfy me in these sleek times, and it is that which chiefly plaguesme."

  He chucked Niafer under the chin, and told her she should be thinking ofwhat a famous husband she had nowadays, instead of bothering aboutpastry-cooks. Then he fell to asking little Melicent about how much shehad missed Father while Father was away, and he dutifully kissed the twoother children, and he duly admired the additions to Emmerick'svocabulary during Father's absence. And afterward he went alone into theRoom of Ageus.

  Thereafter he was used to spend more and more hours in the Room ofAgeus, and the change in Count Manuel was more and more talked about.And the summer passed: and whether or no Count Manuel had, as somedeclared, contracted unholy alliances, there was no denying that allprospered with Count Manuel, and he was everywhere esteemed the mostlucky and the least scrupulous rogue alive. But, very certainly, he waschanged.