Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXXIX

  The Passing of Manuel

  Then as Dom Manuel turned from the window of Ageus, it seemed that youngHorvendile had opened the door yonder, and after an instant's pensivestaring at Dom Manuel, had gone away. This happened, if it happened atall, so furtively and quickly that Count Manuel could not be sure of it:but he could entertain no doubt as to the other person who wasconfronting him. There was not any telling how this lean stranger hadcome into the private apartments of the Count of Poictesme, nor wasthere any need for Manuel to wonder over the management of thisintrusion, for the new arrival was not, after all, an entire stranger toDom Manuel.

  So Manuel said nothing, as he stood there stroking the roundstraw-colored head of little Melicent. The stranger waited, equallysilent. There was no noise at all in the room until afar off a dog beganto howl.

  "Yes, certainly," Dom Manuel said, "I might have known that my life wasbound up with the life of Suskind, since my desire of her is the onedesire which I have put aside unsatisfied. O rider of the white horse,you are very welcome."

  The other replied: "Why should you think that I know anything about thisSuskind or that we of the Leshy keep any account of your doings? Nomatter what you may elect to think, however, it was decreed that thefirst person I found here should ride hence on my black horse. But youand the child stand abreast. So you must choose again, Dom Manuel,whether it be you or another who rides on my black horse."

  Then Manuel bent down, and he kissed little Melicent. "Go to yourmother, dear, and tell her--" He paused here. He queerly moved hismouth, as though it were stiff and he were trying to make it moresupple.

  Says Melicent, "But what am I to tell her, Father?"

  "Oh, a very funny thing, my darling. You are to tell Mother that Fatherhas always loved her over and above all else, and that she is always toremember that and--why, that in consequence she is to give you someginger cakes," says Manuel, smiling.

  So the child ran happily away, without once looking back, and Manuelclosed the door behind her, and he was now quite alone with his leanvisitor.

  "Come," says the stranger, "so you have plucked up some heart after all!Yet it is of no avail to posture with me, who know you to be spurred tothis by vanity rather than by devotion. Oh, very probably you are asfond of the child as is requisite, and of your other children too, butyou must admit that after you have played with any one of them for aquarter of an hour you become most heartily tired of the small squirmingpest."

  Manuel intently regarded him, and squinting Manuel smiled sleepily. "No;I love all my children with the customary paternal infatuation."

  "Also you must have your gesture by sending at the last a lying messageto your wife, to comfort the poor soul against to-morrow and the dayafter. You are--magnanimously, you like to think,--according her thisparting falsehood, half in contemptuous kindness and half in relief,because at last you are now getting rid of a complacent andmuddle-headed fool of whom, also, you are most heartily tired."

  "No, no," says Manuel, still smiling; "to my partial eyes dear Niaferremains the most clever and beautiful of women, and my delight in herhas not ever wavered. But wherever do you get these curious notions?"

  "Ah, I have been with so many husbands at the last, Count Manuel."

  And Manuel shrugged. "What fearful indiscretions you suggest! No,friend, that sort of thing has an ill sound, and they should haveremembered that even at the last there is the bond of silence."

  "Come, come, Count Manuel, you are a queer cool fellow, and you haveworn these masks and attitudes with tolerable success, as your worldgoes. But you are now bound for a diversely ordered world, a world inwhich your handsome wrappings are not to the purpose."

  "Well, I do not know how that may be," replies Count Manuel, "but at allevents there is a decency in these things and an indecency, and I shallnever of my own free will expose the naked soul of Manuel to anybody.No, it would be no pleasant spectacle, I think: certainly, I have neverlooked at it, nor did I mean to. Perhaps, as you assert, some powerwhich is stronger than I may some day tear all masks aside: but thiswill not be my fault, and I shall even then reserve the right toconsider that stripping as a rather vulgar bit of tyranny. Meanwhile Imust, of necessity, adhere to my own sense of decorum, and not to thatof anybody else, not even to the wide experience of one"--Count Manuelbowed,--"who is, in a manner of speaking, my guest."

  "Oh, as always, you posture very tolerably, and men in general willacclaim you as successful in your life. But do you look back! For thehour has come, Count Manuel, for you to confess, as all persons confessat my arrival, that you have faltered between one desire and another,not ever knowing truly what you desired, and not ever being content withany desire when it was accomplished."

  "Softly, friend! For I am forced to gather from your wild way of talkingthat you of the Leshy indeed do not keep any record of our humandoings."

  The stranger raised what he had of eyebrows. "But how can we," heinquired, "when we have so many matters of real importance to lookafter?"

  Candid blunt Dom Manuel answered without any anger, speaking evenjovially, but in all maintaining the dignity of a high prince assured ofhis own worth.

  "That excuses, then, your nonsensical remarks. I must make bold toinform you that everybody tells me I have very positive achievements tolook back upon. I do not care to boast, you understand, and to be forcedinto self-praise is abhorrent to me. Yet truthfulness is all importantat this solemn hour, and anyone hereabouts can tell you it was I whoclimbed gray Vraidex, and dealt so hardily with the serpents and otherhorrific protectors of Miramon Lluagor that I destroyed most of them andput the others to flight. Thereafter men narrate how I made my own termswith the terrified magician, according him his forfeited life inexchange for a promise to live henceforward more respectfully and toserve under me in the war which I was already planning against theNorthmen. Yes, and men praise me, too, because I managed to accomplishall these things while I was hampered by having to look out for andprotect a woman."

  "I know," said the lean stranger, "I know you somehow got the better ofthat romantic visionary half-brother of mine, and made a warrior out ofhim: and I admit this was rather remarkable. But what does it matternow?"

  "Then they will tell you it was I that wisely reasoned with King Helmasuntil I turned him from folly, and I that with holy arguments convertedKing Ferdinand from his wickedness. I restored the magic to the robe ofthe Apsarasas when but for me its magic would have been lostirrevocably. I conquered Freydis, that woman of strange deeds, andsingle-handed I fought against her spoorns and calcars and other terrorsof antiquity, slaying, to be accurate, seven hundred and eighty-two ofthem. I also conquered the Misery of earth, whom some called Beda, andothers Kruchina, and yet others Mimir, after a very notable battle whichwe fought with enchanted swords for a whole month without ever pausingfor rest. I went intrepidly into the paradise of the heathen, and routedall its terrific warders, and so fetched hence the woman whom I desired.Thus, friend, did I repurchase that heroic and unchanging love whichexists between my wife and me."

  "Yes," said the stranger, "Why, that too is very remarkable. But whatdoes it matter now?"

  "--For it is of common report among men that nothing has ever been ableto withstand Dom Manuel. Thus it was natural enough, men say, that, whenthe lewd and evil god whom nowadays so many adore as Sesphra of theDreams was for establishing his power by making an alliance with me, Ishould have driven him howling and terrified into the heart of a greatfire. For myself, I say nothing; but when the very gods run away from achampion there is some adequate reason: and of this exploit, and of allthese exploits, and of many other exploits, equally incredible andequally well vouched for, all person hereabouts will tell you. As to theprodigies of valor which I performed in redeeming Poictesme from theoppression of the Northmen, you will find documentary evidence in thosethree epic poems, just to your left there, which commemorate my feats inthis campaign--"

  "Nobody disputes this campaign also may have be
en remarkable, andcertainly I do not dispute it: for I cannot see that these doings mattera button's worth in my business with you, and, besides, I never argue."

  "And no more do I! because I abhor vainglory, and I know these affairsare now a part of established history. No, friend, you cannot destroy mycredit in this world, whereas in the world for which I am bound, youtell me, they make no account of our doings. So, whether or not I didthese things, I shall always retain, in this world and in the next, thecredit for them, without any need to resort to distasteful boasting. Andthat, as I was going on to explain, is precisely why I do not find itnecessary to tell you about these matters, or even to allude to them."

  "Oh, doubtless, it is something to have excelled all your fellows in somany ways," the stranger conceded, with a sort of grudging respect:"but, I repeat, what does it matter now?"

  "And, if you will pardon my habitual frankness, friend, that query withso constant repetition becomes a trifle monotonous. No, it does notdishearten me, I am past that. No, I once opened a window, the moreclearly to appraise the most dear rewards of my endeavors--That momentwas my life, that single quiet moment summed up all my living,and"--here Manuel smiled gravely,--"still without boasting, friend, Imust tell you that in this moment all doubt as to my attested worth wentout of me, who had redeemed a kingdom, and begotten a king, and createda god. So you waste time, my friend, in trying to convince me of allhuman life's failure and unimportance, for I am not in sympathy withthis modern morbid pessimistic way of talking. It has a very ill sound,and nothing whatever is to be gained by it."

  The other answered shrewdly: "Yes, you speak well, and you posturehandsomely, in every respect save one. For you call me 'friend.' Hah,Manuel, from behind the squinting mask a sick and satiated anddisappointed being spoke there, howsoever resolutely you keep upappearances."

  "There spoke mere courtesy, Grandfather Death," says Manuel, now openlylaughing, "and for the rest, if you again will pardon frankness, it isless with the contents of my heart than with its continued motion thatyou have any proper concern."

  "Truly it is no affair of mine, Count Manuel, nor do any of your doingsmatter to me. Therefore let us be going now, unless--O most unusual man,who at the last assert your life to have been a successful and importantbusiness,--unless you now desire some time wherein to bid farewell toyour loved wife and worshipped children and to all your other fineworks."

  Dom Manuel shrugged broad shoulders. "And to what end? No, I am Manuel.I have lived in the loneliness which is common to all men, but thedifference is that I have known it. Now it is necessary for me, as it isnecessary for all men, to die in this same loneliness, and I know thatthere is no help for it."

  "Once, Manuel, you feared to travel with me, and you bid Niafer mount inyour stead on my black horse, saying, 'Better she than I.'"

  "Yes, yes, what curious things we do when we are boys! Well, I am wisernow, for since then I have achieved all that I desired, save only to seethe ends of this world and to judge them, and I would have achieved thattoo, perhaps, if only I had desired it a little more heartily. Yes, yes,I tell you frankly, I have grown so used to getting my desire that Ibelieve, even now, if I desired you to go hence alone you also wouldobey me."

  Grandfather Death smiled thinly. "I reserve my own opinion. But take itwhat you say is true,--and do you desire me to go hence alone?"

  "No," says Manuel, very quietly.

  Thereupon Dom Manuel passed to the western window, and he stood there,looking out over broad rolling uplands. He viewed a noble country, goodto live in, rich with grain and metal, embowered with tall forests, andwatered by pleasant streams. Walled cities it had, and castles crownedits eminences. Very far beneath Dom Manuel the leaded roofs of hisfortresses glittered in the sunset, for Storisende guarded the loftiestpart of all inhabited Poictesme. He overlooked, directly, the turrets orRanec and of Asch; to the south was Nerac; northward showed Perdigon:and the prince of no country owned any finer castles than were thesefour, in which lived Manuel's servants.

  "It is strange," says Dom Manuel, "to think that everything I am seeingwas mine a moment since, and it is queer too to think of what a famousfellow was this Manuel the Redeemer, and of the fine things he did, andit is appalling to wonder if all the other applauded heroes of mankindare like him. Oh, certainly, Count Manuel's achievements were notableand such as were not known anywhere before, and men will talk of themfor a long while. Yet, looking back,--now that this famed Count ofPoictesme means less to me,--why, I seem to see only the strivings of anape reft of his tail, and grown rusty at climbing, who has reeledblunderingly from mystery to mystery, with pathetic makeshifts, notunderstanding anything, greedy in all desires, and always honeycombedwith poltroonery. So in a secret place his youth was put away inexchange for a prize that was hardly worth the having; and the fine geaswhich his mother laid upon him was exchanged for the common geas of whatseems expected."

  "Such notions," replied Grandfather Death, "are entertained by many ofyou humans in the light-headed time of youth. Then common-sense ariseslike a light formless cloud about your goings, and you half forget thesenotions. Then I bring darkness."

  "In that quiet dark, my friend, it may be I shall again become theManuel whom I remember, and I may get back again my own undemonstrableideas, in place of the ideas of other persons, to entertain me in thatdarkness. So let us be going thither."

  "Very willingly," said Grandfather Death; and he started toward thedoor.

  "Now, pardon me," says Manuel, "but in Poictesme the Count of Poictesmegoes first in any company. It may seem to you an affair of noimportance, but nowadays I concede the strength as well as thefoolishness of my accustomed habits, and all my life long I have gonefirst. So do you ride a little way behind me, friend, and carry thisshroud and napkin, till I have need of them."

  Then the Count armed and departed from Storisende, riding on the blackhorse, in jeweled armor, and carrying before him his black shield uponwhich was emblazoned the silver stallion of Poictesme and the motto_Mundus vult decipi._ Behind him was Grandfather Death on the whitehorse, carrying the Count's grave-clothes in a neat bundle. They rodetoward the sunset, and against the yellow sunset each figure showed jetblack.

  And thereafter Count Manuel was seen no more in Poictesme, nor didanyone ever know certainly whither he journeyed. There was a lad calledJurgen, the son of Coth of the Rocks, who came to Storisende in a frenzyof terror, very early the next morning, with a horrific tale ofincredible events witnessed upon Upper Morven: but the child's tale wasnot heeded, because everybody knew that Count Manuel was unconquerable,and--having everything which men desire,--would never be leaving allthese amenities of his own will, and certainly would never be takingpart in any such dubious doings. Therefore little Jurgen was spanked,alike for staying out all night and for his wild lying: and they ofPoictesme awaited the return of their great Dom Manuel; and not for along while did they suspect that Manuel had departed homeward, afterhaving succeeded in everything. Nor for a long while was the whole oflittle Jurgen's story made public.

  XL

  Colophon: Da Capo

  Now Some of Poictesme--but not all they of Poictesme, because the piousdeny this portion of the tale, and speak of an ascension,--some narratethat after the appalling eucharist which young Jurgen witnessed uponUpper Morven, the Redeemer of Poictesme rode on a far and troublingjourney with Grandfather Death, until the two had passed the sunset, andhad come to the dark stream of Lethe.

  "Now we must ford these shadowy waters," said Grandfather Death, "inpart because your destiny is on the other side, and in part because bythe contact of these waters all your memories will be washed away fromyou. And that is requisite to your destiny."

  "But what is my destiny?"

  "It is that of all loving creatures, Count Manuel. If you have beenyourself you cannot reasonably be punished, but if you have beensomebody else you will find that this is not permitted."

  "That is a dark saying, only too well suited to this doubtful place, andI
do not understand you."

  "No," replied Grandfather Death, "but that does not matter."

  Then the black horse and the white horse entered the water: and theypassed over, and the swine of Eubouleus were waiting for them, but thesewere not yet untethered.

  So in the moment which remained Dom Manuel looked backward and downward,and he saw that Grandfather Death had spoken truly. For all the memoriesof Manuel's life had been washed away from him, so that these memorieswere left adrift and submerged in the shadowy waters of Lethe. Drownedthere was the wise countenance of Helmas, and the face of St. Ferdinandwith a tarnished halo about it, and the puzzled features of Horvendile;and glowing birds and glistening images and the shimmering designs ofMiramon thronged there confusedly, and among them went with moving jawsa head of sleek white clay. The golden loveliness of Alianora, and thedark splendor of Freydis and, derisively, the immortal young smile ofSesphra, showed each for a moment, and was gone. Then Niafer's eyesdisplayed their mildly wondering disapproval for the last time, and thesmall faces of children that in the end were hers and not Manuel'spassed with her: and the shine of armor, and a tossing heave of jauntybanners, and gleaming castle turrets, and all the brilliancies andcolors that Manuel had known and loved anywhere, save only the clear redand white of Suskind's face, seemed to be passing incoherently throughthe still waters, like bright broken wreckage which an undercurrent wassweeping away.

  And Manuel sighed, almost as if in relief. "So this," he said, "this isthe preposterous end of him who was everywhere esteemed the most luckyand the least scrupulous rogue of his day!"

  "Yes, yes," replied Grandfather Death, as slowly he untethered one byone the swine of Eubouleus. "Yes, it is indeed the end, since all yourlife is passing away there, to be beheld by your old eyes alone, for thelast time. Thus I see nothing there but ordinary water, and I wonderwhat it is you find in that dark pool to keep you staring so."

  "I do not very certainly know," said Manuel, "but, a little more andmore mistily now, I seem to see drowned there all the loves and thedesires and the adventures I had when I wore another body than thisdilapidated gray body I now wear. And yet it is a deceiving water, forthere, where it should reflect the remnants of the old fellow that is I,it shows, instead, the face of a young boy who is used to followingafter his own thinking and his own desires."

  "Certainly it is queer you should be saying that; for that, as everybodyknows, was the favorite by-word of your namesake the famous Count Manuelwho is so newly dead in Poictesme yonder.... But what is that thing?"

  Manuel raised from looking at the water just the handsome and floridyoung face which Manuel had seen reflected in the water. As his memoriesvanished, the tall boy incuriously wondered who might be the snub-nosedstranger that was waiting there with the miller's pigs, and waspointing, as if in mild surprise, toward the two stones overgrown withmoss and supporting a cross of old worm-eaten wood. For the strangerpointed at the unfinished, unsatisfying image which stood beside thepool of Haranton, wherein, they say, strange dreams engender....

  "What is that thing?" the stranger was asking, yet again....

  "It is the figure of a man," said Manuel, "which I have modeled andremodeled, and cannot get exactly to my liking. So it is necessary thatI keep laboring at it, until the figure is to my thinking and mydesire." Thus it was in the old days.

  EXPLICIT