The Life And Death Of Richard Yea And Nay Volume 91, Maurice Hewlett [beautiful books to read .TXT] 📗
- Author: Maurice Hewlett
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Better Far Had She Been A Wanton Of No Account, A Piece Of Dalliance, A
Pastime, A Common Delight! She Was Very Much Other Than That. Dame
Jehane Was A Good Girl, A Noble Girl, A Handsome Girl Of Inches And
Bright Blood; But By The Lord God Of Israel (Who Died On The Tree),
These Virtues Cost Her Dear.'
All This, We May Take It, Is True; The Pity Is That The Thing Promised
So Fair. Those Who Had Not Known Jehane Before Were Astonished At Her
Capacity, Discretion, And Dignity. She Had A Part To Play At Le Mans,
Where Richard Kept His Easter, Which Would Have Taxed A Wiser Head. She
Volume 91 Book 1 (The Book Of Yea) Chapter 11 (Of Prophecy And Jehane In The Perilous Bed) Pg 60Moved Warily, A Poor Thing Of Gauze, Amid Those Great Lights. King
Philip Had A Tender Nose; A Very Whiff Of Offence Might Have Drawn
Blood. Prince John Had A Shrewd Eye And An Evil Way Of Using It; He
Stroked Women, But They Seldom Liked It, And Never Found Good Come Of
It. The Duke Of Burgundy Ate And Drank Too Much. He Resembled A Sponge,
When Empty Too Rough A Customer, When Full Too Juicy. It Was On One Of
The Days When He Was Very Full That, Tilting At The Ring, He Won, Or
Said He Won, Forty Pounds Of Richard. Empty, He Claimed Them, But
Richard Discerned A Rasp In His Manner Of Asking, And Laughed At Him.
The Duke Of Burgundy Took This Ill. He Was Never Quite The Same To
Richard Again; But He Made Great Friends With Prince John.
With All These, And With Their Courtiers, Who Took Complexion From Their
Masters, Jehane Had To Hold The Fair Way. As A Mistress Who Was To Be A
Wife, The Veiled Familiarity With Which She Was Treated Was Always
Preaching To Her. How Dare She Be A Countess Who Was Of So Little
Account Already? The Poor Girl Felt Herself Doomed Beforehand. What
King's Mistress Had Ever Been His Wife? And How Could She Be Richard's
Wife, Betrothed To Gilles De Gurdun? Richard Was Much Afield In These
Days, Making Military Dispositions Against His Coming Absence In
Poictou. She Saw Him Rarely; But In Return She Saw His Peers, And Had To
Keep Her Head High Among The Women Of The French Court. And So She Did
Until One Day, As She Was Walking Back From Mass With Her Ladies, She
Saw Her Brother Saint-Pol On Horseback, Him And William Des Barres.
Timidly She Would Have Slipped By; But Saint-Pol Saw Her, Reined Up His
Horse In The Middle Of The Street, And Stared At Her As If She Had Been
Less Than Nothing To Him. She Felt Her Knees Fail Her, She Grew Vividly
Red, But She Kept Her Way. After This Terrible Meeting She Dared Not
Leave The Convent.
Of Course She Was Quite Safe. Saint-Pol Could Not Do Anything Against
The Conqueror Of Touraine, The Ally Of His Master; But She Felt Tainted,
And Had Thoughts (Not For The First Time) Of Taking The Veil. One Woman
Had Already Taken It; She Heard Much Concerning Madame Alois From The
Canonesses, How She Had A Little Cell At Fontevrault Among The Nuns
There, How She Shivered With Cold In The Hottest Sun, How She Shrieked
O' Nights, How Chattered To Herself, And How She Used A Cruel
Discipline. All These Things Working Upon Jehane's Mind Made Her Love An
Agony. Many And Many A Time When Her Royal Lover Came To Visit Her She
Clung To Him With Tears, Imploring Him To Cast Her Off Again; But The
More She Bewailed The More He Pursued His End. In Truth He Was Master By
This Time, And Utterly Misconceived Her. Nothing She Might Say Or Do
Could Stay Him From His Intent, Which Was To Wed And Afterwards Crown
Her Countess Of Poictou. This Was To Be Done At Pentecost, As The Only
Reparation He Could Make Her.
Not Even What Befell On The Way To Poictiers For This Very Thing Could
Alter Him. Again He Misread Her, Or Was Too Full Of What He Read In
Himself To Read Her At All. They Left Le Mans A Fortnight Before
Pentecost With A Great Train Of Lords And Ladies, Richard Looking Like A
Young God, With The Light Of Easy Mastery Shining In His Eyes. She, Poor
Girl, Might Have Been Going To The Gallows--And Before The End Of The
Journey Would Thankfully Have Gone There; And No Wonder. Listen To This.
Midway Between Châtelherault And Poictiers Is A Sandy Waste Covered With
Scrub Of Juniper And Wild Plum, Which Contrives A Living By Some Means
Between Great Bare Rocks. It Is A Disconsolate Place, Believed To Be The
Abode Of Devils And Other Damned Spirits. Now, As They Were Riding Over
This Desert, Picking Their Way Among The Boulders At The Discretion Of
Their Animals, It So Happened That Richard And Jehane Were In Front By
Some Forty Paces. Riding So, Presently Jehane Gave A Short Gasping Cry,
And Almost Fell Off Her Horse. She Pointed With Her Hand, And 'Look,
Look, Look!' She Said In A Dry Whisper. There At A Little Distance From
Volume 91 Book 1 (The Book Of Yea) Chapter 11 (Of Prophecy And Jehane In The Perilous Bed) Pg 61Them Was A Leper, Who Sat Scratching Himself On A Rock.
'Ride On, Ride On, My Heart,' Said Richard; But She, 'No, No, He Is
Coming. We Must Wait.' Her Voice Was Full Of Despair.
The Leper Came Jumping From Rock To Rock, A Horrible Thing Of Rags And
Sores, With A Loose Lower Jaw, Which His Disease Had Fretted To
Dislocation. He Stood In Their Mid Path, In Full Sun, And Plucking At
His Disastrous Eyes, Peered Upon The Gay Company. By This Time All The
Riders Were Clustered Together Before Him, And He Fingered Them Out One
After Another--Richard, Whom He Called The Red Count, Gaston, Béziers,
Auvergne, Limoges, Mercadet; But At Jehane He Pointed Long, And In A
Voice Between A Croak And A Clatter (He Had No Palate), Said Thrice,
'Hail Thou!'
She Replied Faintly, 'God Be Good To Thee, Brother.' He Kept His Finger
Still Upon Her As He Spoke Again: Every One Heard His Words.
'Beware (He Said) The Count's Cap And The Count's Bed; For So Sure As
Thou Liest In Either Thou Art Wife Of A Dead Man, And Of His Killer.'
Jehane Reeled, And Richard Held Her Up.
'Begone, Thou Miserable,' He Cried In His High Voice, 'Lest I Pity Thee
No More.' But The Leper Was Capering Away Over The Rocks, Hopping And
Flapping His Arms Like An Old Raven. At A Safe Distance He Squatted Down
And Watched Them, His Chin On His Bare Knees.
This Frightened Jehane So Much That In The Refectory Of A Convent, Where
They Stayed The Night, She Could Hardly See Her Victual For Tears, Nor
Eat It For Choking Grief. She Exhausted Herself By Entreaties. Milo Says
That She Was Heard Crying Out At Richard Night After Night, Conjur Ing
Him By Christ On The Cross, And Mary At The Foot Of The Cross, Not To
Turn Love Into A Stabbing Blade; But All To No Purpose. He Soothed And
Petted Her, He Redoubled Her Honours, He Compelled Her To Love Him; And
The More She Agonised The More He Was Confident He Would Right Her.
Very Definitely And With Unexampled Profusion He Provided For Her
Household And Estate As Soon As He Was At Home. Kings' Daughters Were
Among Her Honourable Women, At Least, Counts' Daughters, Daughters Of
Viscounts And Castellans. She Had Lady Saill Of Ventadorn, Lady Elis Of
Montfort, Lady Tibors, Lady Maent, Lady Beatrix, All Fully As Noble, And
Two Of Them Certainly More Beautiful Than She. Lady Saill And Lady Elis
Were The Most Lovely Women Of Aquitaine, Saill With A Face Like A Flame,
Elis Clear And Cold As Spring Water In The High Rocks. He Gave Her A
Chancellor Of Her Seal, A Steward Of The Household, A Bishop For
Chaplain. Viscount Ebles Of Ventadorn Was Her Champion, And Bertran De
Born (Who Had Been Doing Secret Mischief In The South, As You Will Learn
By And By), If You Will Believe It, Bertran De Born Was Forgiven And
Made Her Trobador. It Was At A Great Court Of Love Which Richard Caused
To Be Held In The Orchards Outside Poictiers, With Pavilions And A
Chastel D'amors, That Bertran Came In And Was Forgiven For The Sake Of
His Great Singing. On A White Silk Tribune Before The Castle Sat Jehane,
In A Red Gown, Upon Her Golden Head A Circlet Of Dull Silver, With The
Leaves And Thorns Which Made Up The Coronet Of A Countess. Richard Bade
Sound The Silver Trumpets, And His Herald Proclaim Her Three Times, To
The North, To The East, And To The South, As 'The Most Puissant And
Peerless Princess, Madame Jehane, By The Grace Of God Countess Of
Poictou, Duchess Of Aquitaine, Consort Of Our Illustrious Dread Lord
Monsire Richard, Count And Duke Of The Same.' Himself, Gloriously
Attired In A Bliaut Of White Velvet And Gold, With A Purple Cloak Over
His Shoulder, Sustained In A _Tenzon_ With The Chief Trobadors Of
Languedoc, That She Was 'The Most Pleasant Lovely Lady Now On Earth, Or
Ever Known There Since The Days Of Madame Dido, Queen Of Carthage, And
Volume 91 Book 1 (The Book Of Yea) Chapter 11 (Of Prophecy And Jehane In The Perilous Bed) Pg 62Madame Cleopatra, Empress Of Babylon'--Unfortunate Examples Both, As
Some Thought.
Minstrels And Poets Of The Greatest Contended With Him; Saill Had Her
Champion In Guillem Of Cabestaing, Elis In Girault Of Borneilh; The
Dauphin Of Auvergne Sang Of Tibors, And Peire Vidal Of Lady Maent.
Towards The End Came Sideways In That Dishevelled Red Fox (Whom Nothing
Shamed), Bertran De Born Himself, Looked Askance At The Count, Puffed
Out His Cheeks To Give Himself Assurance, And Began To Sing Of Jehane In
A Way That Brought Tears To Richard's Eyes. It Was Bertran Who Dubbed
Her With The Name She Ever Afterwards Went By Throughout Poictou And The
South, The Name Of Bel Vezer. Richard At The End Clipped Him In His
Arms, And With One Arm Still Round His
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