Fleur and Blanchefleur | Page 7

be taken from the Admiral, Lord of a hundred kings, whose city Babylon is a four-square of twenty miles, and has for its defence walls full seventy feet in height, built of a stone so hard that no engine of war from enemies without can pierce their stony front, and in these walls are three-and-thirty doors of solid steel let in with cunning art, and high uplifted are seven hundred towers, the loftiest ever seen by mortal eye, and these towers are guarded by seven hundred great lords, each one of whom is great as any king; and if all these suffice not to prove the madness of your quest, know that in the heart of the city a mighty castle stands; four stories high is the castle, and on the fourth and topmost dwells your Blanchefleur, together with four other noble damsels in a fair chamber, whose windows are cased in wood of the sweet-scented myrtle tree, while its doors are formed of ebony that never yields to fire, and this ebony is overlaid with beaten gold, on which are graven strange devices of words and scroll and flower-work, and, because none but maidens dwell there, this tower is called the Maidens' Tower. In its midst stands a crystal pillar, and from the pillar gushes forth a fountain, whose waters are led on arches into every room, and so back into the pillar; and from the maidens' chamber a winding stair leads to that wherein dwells the Admiral himself, and whither, for fourteen days' service at a time, two maidens must wait morning and evening on their Lord, one with a fair linen towel, the other with water in a golden bowl. Fierce and cruel beyond words is the watchman of this tower, and any man who, without good and lawful cause, approaches it, he slays. Besides all this, the tower day and night is guarded by sixteen furious men, who never close their eyes in sleep; and there is yet another strange thing which you shall hear.
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'Every springtide the Admiral takes to him a wife; and when the year is out, he calls to him all the lords, kings, and princes of his realm, and in their presence casts off his wife, and causes a knight to behead her, that no man may wed her after him; thus with the bitterness of an early death does she pay for the fleeting honour of royal wedlock; and when his wife is dead, the Admiral, with intent to replace her with another, summons the maidens who are within the tower to appear before him in a garden, which trembling they enter, none coveting the fatal honour of his choice. This garden, which walls of gold and lapis-lazuli enclose, contains noble trees of every kind, so that in it may be found at all seasons every fruit known to mankind; precious spices also abound, such as ginger, cinnamon, balm, cloves, nutmeg, and mace; all which, together with the scent of flowers and the song of birds, makes of this garden a very earthly paradise. In the midst of this paradise gushes forth a spring of clear water, and overhanging the spring is a tree, ever green and ever putting forth fresh blossoms and varied fruits.
'Beneath this tree the Admiral, surrounded by his lords, takes his seat; and when seated, he causes the maidens one by one to cross the stream before him; if they be good maidens and true the water remains clear as crystal, but if it turn dark and turbid they may prepare for death. This ordeal passed, the Admiral calls the maidens before him beneath the blooming tree, which by magic art drops one of its rosy blossoms on her whom its Lord loves best, and who accordingly becomes Queen for one fleeting year. Now, dear youth, bethink you what wise man would cheer you on in the quest of Blanchefleur, seeing that, ere this very month be out, the Admiral will hold this marriage feast with a new-made wife, who all say will be this Blanchefleur, whose loveliness has won his heart? Moreover, for some time past, it is she and Clarissa, her companion, who have been called to wait on their Lord, morning and evening, with the linen towel and the golden bowl; for which cause they live in daily terror of being chosen, the one or other, to be his crowned victim.'
'Oh good mine host!' cried Fleur, goaded to madness by what he heard, 'help me with your counsel how to act. My Blanchefleur will I claim within that garden, for she is mine, and mine alone. What if I die? Death for her sake is sweet, as it but sends me on before to that fair paradise whither her soul will follow mine, to