The World of Romance | Page 8

peace, saying only under my breath:
"Dixit incipiens in corde suo, Non est Deus. Corrupti sunt et
abominables facti sunt in studiis suis; non est qui faciat bonum, non est
usque ad unum: sepulchrum patens est guttur eorum; linguis suis dolose
agebunt, venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. Dominum non
invocaverunt; illic trepid-averunt timore, ubi non erat timor. Quis dabit
ex Sion salutare Israel?"
and so I went on, thinking too at times about the man who was dying
and whom I was soon to see: he had been a bold bad plundering baron,
but was said lately to have altered his way of life, having seen a miracle
or some such thing; he had departed to keep a tournament near his
castle lately, but had been brought back sore wounded, so this drunken
servant, with some difficulty and much unseasonable merriment, had
made me understand, and now lay at the point of death, brought about
by unskilful tending and such like. Then I thought of his face--a bad
face, very bad, retreating forehead, small twinkling eyes, projecting
lower jaw; and such a voice, too, he had! like the grunt of a bear
mostly.
Now don't you think it strange that this face should be the same,
actually the same as the face of my enemy, slain that very day ten years
ago? I did not hate him, either that man or the baron, but I wanted to

see as little of him as possible, and I hoped that the ceremony would
soon be over, and that I should be at liberty again.
And so with these thoughts and many others, but all thought strangely
double, we went along, the varlet being too drunk to take much notice
of me, only once, as he was singing some doggrel, like this, I think,
making allowances for change of language and so forth:
The Duke went to Treves On the first of November; His wife stay'd at
Bonn-- Let me see, I remember;
When the Duke came back To look for his wife, We came from
Cologne, And took the Duke's life;
We hung him mid high Between spire and pavement, From their
mouths dropp'd the cabbage Of the carles in amazement.
"Boo--hoo! Church rat! Church mouse! Hilloa, Priest! have you
brought the pyx, eh?"
From some cause or other he seemed to think this an excellent joke, for
he almost shrieked with laughter as we went along; but by this time we
had reached the castle. Challenge, and counter-challenge, and we
passed the outermost gate and began to go through some of the courts,
in which stood lime trees here and there, growing green tenderly with
that Maytime, though the north wind bit so keenly.
How strange again! as I went farther, there seemed no doubt of it; here
in the aftertime came that pool, how I knew not; but in the few
moments that we were riding from the outer gate to the castle-porch I
thought so intensely over the probable cause for the existence of that
pool, that (how strange!) I could almost have thought I was back again
listening to the oozing of the land-springs through the high clay banks
there. I was wakened from that before it grew too strong, by the glare
of many torches, and, dismounting, found myself in the midst of some
twenty attendants, with flushed faces and wildly sparkling eyes, which
they were vainly trying to soften to due solemnity; mock solemnity I
had almost said, for they did not seem to think it necessary to appear

really solemn, and had difficulty enough apparently in not prolonging
indefinitely the shout of laughter with which they had at first greeted
me. "Take the holy Father to my Lord," said one at last, "and we will
go with him."
So they led me up the stairs into the gorgeously-furnished chamber; the
light from the heavy waxen candles was pleasant to my eyes after the
glare and twisted red smoke of the pine-torches; but all the essences
scattered about the chamber were not enough to conquer the fiery
breath of those about me.
I put on the alb and stole they brought me, and, before I went up to the
sick man, looked round on those that were in the rooms; for the rooms
opened one into the other by many doors, across some of which hung
gorgeous tapestry; all the rooms seemed to have many people, for some
stood at these doors, and some passed to and fro, swinging aside the
heavy hangings; once several people at once, seemingly quite by
accident, drew aside almost all the veils from the doors, and showed an
endless perspective of gorgeousness.
And at these things my heart fainted for horror. "Had not the Jews of
late," thought I, the priest, "been