Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances Page 11

  IX

  The Feather of Love

  In such estate it was that Count Manuel came, on Christmas morning, justtwo days after Manuel was twenty-one, into Provence. This land, reputedsorcerous, in no way displayed to him any unusual features, though itwas noticeable that the King's marmoreal palace was fenced with silverpikes whereon were set the embalmed heads of young men who had wooed thePrincess Alianora unsuccessfully. Manuel's lackeys did not at first likethe looks of these heads, and said they were unsuitable for Christmasdecorations: but Dom Manuel explained that at this season of generalmerriment this palisade also was mirth-provoking because (the weatherbeing such as was virtually unprecedented in these parts) a light snowhad fallen during the night, so that each head seemed to wear anightcap.

  They bring Manuel to Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence and King ofAries, who was holding the Christmas feast in his warm hall. Raymond saton a fine throne of carved white ivory and gold, beneath a purplecanopy. And beside him, upon just such another throne, not quite sohigh, sat Raymond's daughter, Alianora the Unattainable Princess, in arobe of watered silk which was of seven colors and was lined with thedark fur of barbiolets. In her crown were chrysolites and amethysts: itwas a wonder to note how brightly they shone, but they were not sobright as Alianora's eyes.

  She stared as Manuel of the high head came through the hall, wherein thebarons were seated according to their degrees. She had, they say, fourreasons for remembering the impudent, huge, squinting, yellow-hairedyoung fellow whom she had encountered at the pool of Haranton. Sheblushed, and spoke with her father in the whistling and hissing languagewhich the Apsarasas use among themselves: and her father laughed longand loud.

  Says Raymond Berenger: "Things might have fallen out much worse. Cometell me now, Count of Poictesme, what is that I see in your breastpocket wrapped in red silk?"

  "It is a feather, King," replied Manuel, a little wearily, "wrapped in abit of my sister's best petticoat."

  "Ay, ay," says Raymond Berenger, with a grin that was becoming even morebenevolent, "and I need not ask what price you come expecting for thatfeather. None the less, you are an excellently spoken-of young wizard ofnoble condition, who have slain no doubt a reasonable number of giantsand dragons, and who have certainly turned kings from folly andwickedness. For such fine rumors speed before the man who has fine deedsbehind him that you do not come into my realm as a stranger: and, Irepeat, things might have fallen out much worse."

  "Now listen, all ye that hold Christmas here!" cried Manuel "A whileback I robbed this Princess of a feather, and the thought of it lay inmy mind more heavy than a feather, because I had taken what did notbelong to me. So a bond was on me, and I set out toward Provence torestore to her a feather. And such happenings befell me by the way thatat Michaelmas I brought wisdom into one realm, and at All-Hallows Ibrought piety into another realm. Now what I may be bringing into thisrealm of yours at Heaven's most holy season, Heaven only knows. To theeye it may seem a quite ordinary feather. Yet life in the wide world, Ifind, is a queerer thing than ever any swineherd dreamed of in hiswattled hut, and people everywhere are nourished by their beliefs, in away that the meat of pigs can nourish nobody."

  Raymond Berenger said, with a wise nod: "I perceive what is in yourheart, and I see likewise what is in your pocket. So why do you tell mewhat everybody knows? Everybody knows that the robe of the Apsarasas,which is the peculiar treasure of Provence, has been ruined by the lossof a feather, so that my daughter can no longer go abroad in theappearance of a swan, because the robe is not able to work any morewonders until that feather in your pocket has been sewed back into therobe with the old incantation."

  "Now, but indeed does everybody know that!" says Manuel.

  "--Everybody knows, too, that my daughter has pined away with frettingafter her lost ways of outdoor exercise, and the healthful changes ofair which she used to be having. And finally, everybody knows that, atmy daughter's very sensible suggestion, I have offered my daughter'shand in marriage to him who would restore that feather, and death toevery impudent young fellow who dared enter here without it, as mypalace fence attests."

  "Oh, oh!" says Manuel, smiling, "but seemingly it is no wholesomeadventure which has come to me unsought!"

  "--So, as you tell me, you came into Provence: and, as there is no needto tell me, I hope, who have still two eyes in my head, you haveachieved the adventure. And why do you keep telling me about matterswith which I am as well acquainted as you are?"

  "But, King of Arles, how do you know that this is not an ordinaryfeather?"

  "Count of Poictesme, do people anywhere--?"

  "Oh, spare me that vile bit of worldly logic, sir, and I will concedewhatever you desire!"

  "Then do you stop talking such nonsense, and do you stop telling meabout things that everybody knows, and do you give my daughter herfeather!"

  Manuel ascends the white throne of Alianora. "Queer things have befallenme," said Manuel, "but nothing more strange than this can ever happen,than that I should be standing here with you, and holding this smallhand in mine. You are not perhaps quite so beautiful nor so clever asNiafer. Nevertheless, you are the Unattainable Princess, whoseloveliness recalled me from vain grieving after Niafer, within ahalf-hour of Niafer's loss. Yes, you are she whose beauty kindled adream and a dissatisfaction in the heart of a swineherd, to lead himforth into the wide world, and through the puzzling ways of the wideworld, and into its high places: so that at the last the swineherd isstanding--a-glitter in satin and gold and in rich furs,--here at thesummit of a throne; and at the last the hand of the UnattainablePrincess is in his hand, and in his heart is misery."

  The Princess said, "I do not know anything about this Niafer, who wasprobably no better than she should have been, nor do I know of anyconceivable reason for your being miserable."

  "Why, is it not the truth," asks Manuel of Alianora, speaking not verysteadily, "that you are to marry the man who restores the feather ofwhich you were robbed at the pool of Haranton? and can marry noneother?"

  "It is the truth," she answered, in a small frightened lovely voice,"and I no longer grieve that it is the truth, and I think it a mostimpolite reason for your being miserable."

  Manuel laughed without ardor. "See how we live and learn! I recall nowthe droll credulity of a lad who watched a shining feather burned, whilehe sat within arm's reach thinking about cabbage soup, because his graveelders assured him that a feather could never be of any use to anybody.And that, too, after he had seen what uses may be made of an old bridleor of a duck egg or of anything! Well, but all water that is past thedam must go its way, even though it be a flood of tears--"

  Here Manuel gently shrugged broad shoulders. He took out of his pocketthe feather he had plucked from the wing of Ferdinand's goose.

  He said: "A feather I took from you in the red autumn woods, and afeather I now restore to you, my Princess, in this white palace ofyours, not asking any reward, and not claiming to be remembered by youin the gray years to come, but striving to leave no obligationundischarged and no debt unpaid. And whether in this world whereinnothing is certain, one feather is better than another feather, I do notknow. It well may come about that I must straightway take a foul doomfrom fair lips, and that presently my head will be drying on a silverpike. Even so, one never knows: and I have learned that it is well toput all doubt of oneself quite out of mind."

  He gave her the feather he had plucked from the third goose, and thetrumpets sounded as a token that the quest of Alianora's feather hadbeen fulfilled, and all the courtiers shouted in honor of Count Manuel.

  Alianora looked at what was in her hand, and saw it was a goose-feather,in nothing resembling the feather which, when she had fled in maidenlyembarrassment from Manuel's over-friendly advances, she had plucked fromthe robe of the Apsarasas, and had dropped at Manuel's feet, in orderthat her father might be forced to proclaim this quest, and the winningof it might be predetermined.

  Then Alianora looked at Manuel. Now before he
r the queer unequal eyes ofthis big young man were bright and steadfast as altar candles. His chinwas well up, and it seemed to her that this fine young fellow expectedher to declare the truth, when the truth would be his death-sentence.She had no patience with his nonsense.

  Says Alianora, with that lovely tranquil smile of hers: "Count Manuelhas fulfilled the quest. He has restored to me the feather from the robeof the Apsarasas. I recognize it perfectly."

  "Why, to be sure," says Raymond Berenger. "Still, do you get your needleand the recipe for the old incantation, and the robe too, and make itplain to all my barons that the power of the robe is returned to it, byflying about the hall a little in the appearance of a swan. For it isbetter to conduct these affairs in due order and without any suspicionof irregularity."

  Now matters looked ticklish for Dom Manuel, since he and Alianora knewthat the robe had been spoiled, and that the addition of any number ofgoose-feathers was not going to turn Alianora into a swan. Yet the boy'shandsome and high-colored face stayed courteously attentive to thewishes of his host, and did not change.

  But Alianora said indignantly: "My father, I am surprised at you! Haveyou no sense of decency at all? You ought to know it is not becoming foran engaged girl to be flying about Provence in the appearance of a swan,far less among a parcel of men who have been drinking all morning. It isthe sort of thing that leads to a girl's being talked about."

  "Now, that is true, my dear," said Raymond Berenger, abashed, "and thesentiment does you credit. So perhaps I had better suggest somethingelse--"

  "Indeed, my father, I see exactly what you would be suggesting. And Ibelieve you are right."

  "I am not infallible, my dear: but still--"

  "Yes, you are perfectly right: it is not well for any married woman tobe known to possess any such robe. There is no telling, just as you say,what people would be whispering about her, nor what disgraceful tricksshe would get the credit of playing on her husband."

  "My daughter, I was only about to tell you--"

  "Yes, and you put it quite unanswerably. For you, who have the name ofbeing the wisest Count that ever reigned in Provence, and the shrewdestKing that Arles has ever had, know perfectly well how people talk, andhow eager people are to talk, and to place the very worst constructionon everything: and you know, too, that husbands do not like such talk.Certainly I had not thought of these things, my father, but I believethat you are right."

  Raymond Berenger stroked his thick short beard, and said: "Now truly, mydaughter, whether or not I be wise and shrewd--though, as you say, ofcourse there have been persons kind enough to consider--and in petitionstoo--However, be that as it may, and putting aside the fact thateverybody likes to be appreciated, I must confess I can imagine no giftwhich would at this high season be more acceptable to any husband thanthe ashes of that robe."

  "This is a saying," Alianora here declares, "well worthy of RaymondBerenger: and I have often wondered at your striking way of puttingthings."

  "That, too, is a gift," the King-Count said, with proper modesty, "whichto some persons is given, and to others not: so I deserve no credit forit. But, as I was saying when you interrupted me, my dear, it is wellfor youth to have its fling, because (as I have often thought) we areyoung only once: and so I have not ever criticized your jauntings in farlands. But a husband is another pair of sandals. A husband does not liketo have his wife flying about the tree tops and the tall lonelymountains and the low long marshes, with nobody to keep an eye on her,and that is the truth of it. So, were I in your place, and wise enoughto listen to the old father who loves you, and who is wiser than you, mydear--why, now that you are about to marry, I repeat to you with allpossible earnestness, my darling, I would destroy this feather and thisrobe in one red fire, if only Count Manuel will agree to it. For it ishe who now has power over all your possessions, and not I."

  "Count Manuel," says Alianora, with that lovely tranquil smile of hers,"you perceive that my father is insistent, and it is my duty to beguided by him. I do not deny that, upon my father's advice, I am askingyou to let perish a strong magic which many persons would value above awoman's pleading. But I know now"--her eyes met his, and to any youngman anywhere with a heart moving in him, that which Manuel could see inthe bright frightened eyes of Alianora could not but be a joy well-nighintolerable,--"but I know now that you, who are to be my husband, andwho have brought wisdom into one kingdom, and piety into another, havebrought love into the third kingdom: and I perceive that this thirdmagic is a stronger and a nobler magic than that of the Apsarasas. Andit seems to me that you and I would do well to dispense with anythingwhich is second rate."

  "I am of the opinion that you are a singularly intelligent young woman,"says Manuel, "and I am of the belief that it is far too early for me tobe crossing my wife's wishes, in a world wherein all men are nourishedby their beliefs."

  All being agreed, the Yule-log was stirred up into a blaze, which wasduly fed with the goose-feather and the robe of the Apsarasas.Thereafter the trumpets sounded a fanfare, to proclaim that RaymondBerenger's collops were cooked and peppered, his wine casks broached,and his puddings steaming. Then the former swineherd went in to sharehis Christmas dinner with the King-Count's daughter, Alianora, whompeople everywhere had called the Unattainable Princess.

  And they relate that while Alianora and Manuel sat cosily in the hood ofthe fireplace and cracked walnuts, and in the pauses of their talkingnoted how the snow was drifting by the windows, the ghost of Niafer wentrestlessly about green fields beneath an ever radiant sky in theparadise of the pagans. When the kindly great-browed warders asked herwhat it was she was seeking, the troubled spirit could not tell them,for Niafer had tasted Lethe, and had forgotten Dom Manuel. Only her lovefor him had not been forgotten, because that love had become a part ofher, and so lived on as a blind longing and as a desire which did notknow its aim. And they relate also that in Suskind's low red-pillaredpalace Suskind waited with an old thought for company.

  PART TWO

  THE BOOK OF SPENDING

  TO

  LOUIS UNTERMEYER

  Often _tymes herde Manuel tell of the fayrness of this Queene of _Furies_and_ Gobblins _and_ Hydraes, _insomuch that he was enamoured of hyr,though he neuer sawe hyr: then by this Connynge made he a Hole in thefyer, and went ouer to hyr, and when he had spoke with hyr, he shewedhyr his mynde._