James Branch Caball Domnei

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Domnei: A Comedy of WomanWorship
30. How Melicent Conquered
54
Nacumera, I have this night admitted Perion and his broadshouldered men.
They are killing Orestes yonder in the Court of Stars even while I talk with
you." Ahasuerus laughed noiselessly. "Such vanity does not become a Jew, but
I needs must do the thing with some magnificence. Therefore I do not give
Sire Perion only his live. I give him also victory and much throatcutting and
an impregnable rich castle. Have I not paid the price, fair Melicent? Have
I not won God's masterpiece through a small wire, a purse, and a big key?"
She answered: "You have paid."
He said:
"You will hold to your bargain? Ah, you have but to cry aloud, and you are
rid of me. For this is Perion's castle.
She said, "Christ help me! You have paid my price!"
Now the Jew raised his two hands in very horrible mirth. Said he:
"Oh, I am almost tempted to praise Javeh, who created the invincible sould of
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Melicent. For you have conquered: you have gained, as always, and at
whatever price, exactly that which you most desired, and you do not greatly
care about anything else. So, because of a word said you would arise and
follow me on my dark ways if I commanded it. You will not weight the dice,
not even at this pinch, when it would be so easy!
For Perion is safe; and nothing matters in comparison with that, and you will
not break faith, not even with me. You are inexplicable, you are stupid, and
you are resistless. Again I see my Melicent, who is not just a pair of
purple eyes and so much lovely flesh."
His face was as she had not ever known it now, and very tender. Ahasuerus
said:
"My way to victory is plain enough. And yet there is an obstacle. For my
fancy is taken by the soul of
Melicent, and not by that handsome piece of flesh which all meneven Perion,
madame!have loved so long with remarkable infatuation. Accordingly I had not
ever designed that he edifice on which I laboured should be the stable of my
lusts. Accordingly I played my cunning musicand accordingly I give you
Perion. I that am Ahasuerus win for you all which righteousness and honour
could not win. At the last it is I who give you
Perion, and it is I who bring you to his embrace. He must still be about his
magnanimous butchery, I think, in the Court of Stars."
Ahasuerus knelt, kissing her hand.
"Fair Melicent, such abominable persons as Demetrios and I are fatally alike.
We may deny, deride, deplore, or even hate, the sanctity of any noble lady
accordingly as we elect; but there is for us no possible escape from
worshipping it. Your windfed Perion, who will not ever acknowledge what sort
of world we live in, are less quick to recognize the soul of Melicent. Such
is our sorry consolation. Oh, you do not believe me yet.
You will believe in the oncoming years. Meanwhile, O allenduring and
allconquering! go now to your last labour; andif my Brother dare concede as
muchdo you now conquer Perion."
Then he vanished. She never saw him any more.
She lifted the Jew's lamp. She bore it through the Women's Garden, wherein
were many discomfortable shadows and no living being. She came tol its outer
entrance. Men were fighting there. She skirted a hideous conflict, and
descended the Queen's Stairway, which led (as you have heard) toward the
balcony about the
Court of Stars. She found this balcony vacant.
Domnei: A Comedy of WomanWorship
30. How Melicent Conquered
55
Below her men were fighting. To the farther end of the court Orestes
sprawled upon the red and yellow slabswhich now for the most part were redand
above him towered Perion of the Forest. The conqueror had paused to cleanse
his sword upon the same divan Demetrios had occupied when Melicent first saw
the proconsul; and as Perion turned, in the act of sheathing his sword, he
perceived the dear familiar denizen of all his dreams. A tiny lamp glowed in
her hand quite steadily.
"O Melicent," said Perion, with a great voice, "my task is done. Come now to
me."
She instantly obeyed whose only joy was to please Perion. Descending the
enclosed stairway, she thought how like its gloom was to the temporal
unhappiness she had passed through in serving Perion.
He stood s dripping statue, for he had fought horribly. She came to him,
picking her way among the slain. He trembled who was fresh from slaying. A
flood of torchlight surged and swirled about them, and within a stone's cast
Perion's men were dispatching the wounded.
These two stood face to face and did not speak at all.
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I think that he knew disappointment first. He looked to find the girl whom [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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