From heaven downe did hie;
He drew a dart1 and shot at him,
In place where he did lye."
Kophetua may have been in many respects a weak man, but he was not a man to sit down tamely under the affront2 which the beggars had put upon him. As he told General Dolabella, it had been his intention to summon the head-quarter staff that very afternoon in order to concert measures for the forcible punishment of his treasonable subjects. In the course of the morning, however, his ardour had a little cooled. His sleep had removed his excitement, and the more he contemplated3 his adventure, the more ashamed he was of it, and he made up his mind to defer4 broaching5 the subject for a few days.
Not that he abandoned his determination to cleanse6 his Augean stables. It was only that he was resolved to let no one know of his adventure. He feared that the display of a sudden anxiety to consider the question could only lead to unpleasant inquiries7 and[Pg 109] surmises8. He did not therefore summon the staff. He made up his mind it would be better to approach the subject as an ordinary question of the interior, and give notice that the condition of the Liberties of St. Lazarus would be considered at the next monthly council, which would be held in about ten days' time in ordinary course.
But even this plain way was not without its embarrassment9, and it was a particularly painful one for Kophetua. In a word, the obstacle was Turbo. Turbo was Chancellor10, and, as Chancellor, was President of the Council. It was through him that all summonses and notices had to go. If the King wished to have the Liberties of St. Lazarus placed upon the orders of the day, it was Turbo whom he must tell to do it, and Turbo was the very last person in the world that he wanted to address on the subject. So acutely did he feel the difficulty of his position, and so carefully did Turbo avoid him, that two days had passed since Penelophon was installed in Mlle de Tricotrin's service before the question was mentioned between them. When the dreaded12 interview did take place, it was in no way due to Kophetua's resolution.
It was now the third day since his adventure, and the last on which notices of business were usually sent to the Council. Kophetua was in no pleasant frame of mind, for he knew that Turbo would come that very morning for instructions as to the orders of[Pg 110] the day. In vain he tried to forget his trouble. In vain he adopted his usual expedient13, which, till recently, had been so successful with him. He deliberately14 sat and tried to conjure15 up the prettiest face he knew. Of course it was Mlle de Tricotrin's. It was a pleasant amusement to picture before his eyes her lovely form and face, with its ripe beauty, the glowing carnation16 that mantled17 so soft and pure in her rounded cheeks like life made visible, the rich purple that gleamed like a gem18 under the long dark eyelashes, the tempting19 lips that seemed made as a playground for kisses, and the tangled20 setting of gold and bronze that softened21 and enriched the whole.
Yes, it was a sport pleasant enough to make a man forget the ugliest things. Many times in the last two days had Kophetua set himself to it, but it brought him little comfort. The pretty phantom22 would no longer come at his light call. It wanted a serious effort of will to conjure it, and then when he knew it had risen, and he set himself to enjoy a quiet contemplation of it, lo! it was changed, and in its place stood a spectre, wan11 and pale and of delicate mould, with a robe of thick dark hair, and eyes darker still. Sometimes it was foul23 and ragged24, and sometimes it was like a corpse25, but always it had the same trusting dog-like look he knew so well, and always with a sense of strange distress26 he exorcised it. It[Pg 111] was the spirit of the woman who had risked her life for his, of the woman whom he had saved from a horrible death. It was the ghost of his better self that was haunting him in the shape of that lowly child of nature. It would never do to think of it so. It must be crushed and smothered27 and forgotten. So each time it rose he cried his Apagé against it, and fell to his trouble again. It was thus he was sitting now, when Turbo was announced for his usual audience.
"I am merely here with the Council summonses," said Turbo carelessly, after he had been admitted and had made his formal civilities. "I presume your majesty28 has nothing to put on the orders of the day?"
"Yes, Chancellor, I have," answered the King, as carelessly as he could. "There is a matter of importance which I have for some time wished to consider, and which cannot be deferred29 much longer with safety to the state."
"Indeed!" said the Chancellor, with affected30 surprise. "I was not aware of anything so serious and sudden."
"It is not sudden," replied the King, with some sharpness, "I have told you that. It is a matter that has been long in my mind, and in every one else's, but no one has had the courage to speak the first word. Sit down, and be at the pains of writing, while I dictate31 the form of my notice."
"Shall I bring my papers to this end of the room?" asked the Chancellor maliciously32.
[Pg 112]
"No," cried the King in great vexation, "I will go to my usual place." He had hardly been aware of it, but now he was highly annoyed to find that instead of taking his chair before the founder's hearth33, he had been sitting at the other end of the library under the picture of the King and the Beggar-Maid, and all he could do to conceal34 his annoyance35 was to dictate his notice with unusual severity as follows:—
"His Majesty.—To call attention to the growing power and lawlessness of the beggars within the Liberties of St. Lazarus, and to lay certain considerations before the Council for the necessity of immediate37 steps being taken in regard thereto."
The Chancellor wrote as he was told, placed the order in his portfolio38 without a word, and then stood up waiting to be dismissed. Kophetua looked at his snarling39 face for a moment, as though to detect what was passing there, and then, turning on his heel with a shrug40, waved dismissal to his Minister. Turbo went straight to the door in silence, but before he reached it the King's voice stopped him.
"Turbo!" said he frankly41, "stay! What ridiculous farce42 is this we are playing?"
It was always an understood signal between them, that when the King called the Chancellor by his name they were to be on their old footing of governor and pupil. It was no longer a monarch43 who spoke44 to his[Pg 113] Minister, but two old friends who chatted together. So Turbo limped back and sat down carelessly by the hearth.
"I really cannot tell," he answered coolly; "I was taking my cue from you."
"Let us understand one another," said Kophetua. "Do you mean to allow a silly freak, in which we were both engaged, to sever36 our lifelong friendship?"
"That depends upon what you intend to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you intend to give me back the girl you stole from me?"
"Certainly not," replied the King, with great decision.
"Then," said the Chancellor calmly, as he rose from his seat, "I am afraid the silly freak will have the effect you were contemplating45."
"Sit down, Turbo. This is absurd. What can you want with the child?"
"No matter. I want her."
"It is impossible. I have passed my word to protect her; and, besides, I do not believe you want her."
"I am in love with her," said Turbo, as coldly as though he were made of stone.
"My dear Turbo," answered the King, "pray be serious while we discuss this matter."
"I am serious. I tell you I love her."
"But don't you see it is impossible for me[Pg 114] to believe you after all you have taught me of your philosophy of women!"
"It is because you have not learned your lesson that you cannot believe I may love. You have not understood what I taught you. You can chatter46 the words finely enough, but you have never conceived the spirit."
"And may it not be the teacher who was at fault?"
"No! I have told you plainly enough, but you are too soft and weak to hold the truth. Still I will tell you again what my woman-philosophy is. It is simply this: they have no resistance, no solid principles. Their natural understanding is as a pool of water lying in a shallow bed, beyond which no conviction can sink. A woman's moral ideas are but bubbles that float on the surface of her unstable47 soul, and burst into impalpable spray whenever they come in contact with the little they meet that is firm and fixed48. For women are all and utterly49 unstable, except where they have shut in their souls with the stony50 rocks of self-love and personal interest. These are things which are solid enough in the daughters of Eve; it is against these that the empty bubbles of their morality are burst and dissipated."
"But you have told me this many times," interrupted the King. "I cannot see how it explains the paradox51 you want me to believe:[Pg 115] it is only the conceit52 of Diderot you quote again."
"I know," pursued the Chancellor, "it is the conceit of Diderot; and Diderot was right, except that he pitied where he should only have despised. And he was right when he said that, though outwardly more civilised than ourselves, women have yet remained the true savages53. It is they who have kept the passions and instincts of the beasts. We have changed them. They have only covered them over with civilisation54. That is why Diderot called the deceivers 'fair as the seraphin of Klopstock, terrible as the fiends of Milton.' It was a wise saying, yet he could not see it was the poison of civilisation that transformed the seraphin into fiends. When did I ever say a word against the material part of women? It was their minds I bade you know and shun55. Find me a woman where the seraphic matter is unpoisoned with the spirit of Eve, and why should I not love her? Such a one, I tell you, is the girl you stole. She is the pure clay, fresh from the hand of the potter. She is not smeared56 with the smooth and glittering glaze57; she is not stained with the enticing58 colours; Art the arch-liar has not found her out to make her as fair and false as the rest. She is foul and ragged and ignorant. She knows no art to entice59. She has no skill to deceive, and I love her for her foulness60 and her rags and her [Pg 116]stupidity, and know her for a lump of the pure seraphic clay."
"I hear what you say," said the King thoughtfully; "but I cannot understand. It is all wild talk, empty philosophy. This cannot make a man love."
"You will not understand!" cried Turbo, with sudden warmth. "That is it; you will not listen, because you know it is this that makes a man love. You know it, because you love her yourself!"
"Turbo," answered Kophetua hotly, "what folly61 is this? You forget yourself."
"Perhaps," cried Turbo, rising from his chair and speaking with ever-increasing vehemence62. "But it is better to understand each other now. I say you love her. You and I have talked for years like fools on all this. We thought as one man, and thought we were wise and strong in our unity63. But now we have both seen this girl—curse the fate that brought you to her—we have seen her, and we know we have been blind fools that could not tell the gold from the dross64. She has come to us, and we both love her. You and I, I say, we both love her, but it is I that will have her! Do you hear? It is I, I that will have our love, though you stole her. Were you twice a king I will have her, though I tear her from your very arms."
His ghastly scars grew more livid in his anger, and his pitted face turned pale with[Pg 117] rage. He seemed as one possessed65, and sank in helpless fury at the end of his insane outburst, as though exhausted66 with the prolonged struggle to control himself. Kophetua turned from him and began to pace the room. Turbo had gone too far. He had been insolent67, and the King's pride was kindled68 into anger. Yet Kophetua would not speak till he was cool enough to control his words.
For, strange as it may seem, he loved this man—in the same way, perhaps, as a man will love his cross-grained ugly cur that snarls69 and snaps at every one but his master. So he paced the long room to cool his anger and try and understand what his old governor's madness meant. Had he known his whole story, the task might have been easier. Had he known how that passionate70 nature had been chained down in long imprisonment71, he might have wondered less to see it burst its bonds. But he knew not what passion could be in a man like Turbo. Its durance had been long and hard, and now the time was at hand when it must die, worn out with age and suffering. Yet even as the death throes were upon it, it had blazed up in one last ungovernable fit, and Kophetua, to his wonder, saw the man of ice burning like a furnace. At the last moment, when the struggle was so near its end, the strong man's strength had failed him. He was overwhelmed, as it[Pg 118] were, and swept resistlessly onward72 by the gathering73 flood he had so long dammed up.
But Kophetua could understand nothing of this as he paced the dark oak floor, and the more he thought of the Chancellor's threats and insolence74, the less able he felt to continue the conversation. It was impossible to forgive his insinuations about Penelophon. So at last all Kophetua could do was to control himself sufficiently75 to inform the Chancellor in his coldest official tone that he should not require his further attendance that day.
For Kophetua the Chancellor's departure did little to clear the air. The storm within him continued to growl76 and mutter. He felt himself a martyr77, or if he ceased for a moment to think that, it was only to call himself a fool, and that was worse. The other view of the case was preferable. He certainly was a martyr. He had made one honest effort to escape from the banalities that were freezing his soul, and do something worthy78 of his name. The only result so far was that he had dangerously entangled79 himself with a siren who had been thrust in his way for that very purpose; he had allowed his name to be connected with a beggar-girl in a way that would have been still more annoying were it not so ridiculous; and, finally, on the eve of a fierce political struggle to which the same siren was sure[Pg 119] to give rise, he had managed to quarrel with all three of the party leaders, including his best friend, and the only relation he had in the world. It is hardly to be wondered at under the circumstances that he found himself constantly recurring80 to thoughts which had often framed themselves before in the course of his reading in political philosophy. They were to the effect that kings were a mistake, and even a crime, and that his plain duty after all was to form a republic and abdicate81.
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1
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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2
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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3
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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4
defer
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| vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从 | |
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5
broaching
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| n.拉削；推削；铰孔；扩孔v.谈起( broach的现在分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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6
cleanse
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| vt.使清洁，使纯洁，清洗 | |
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7
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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8
surmises
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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9
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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10
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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11
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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12
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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13
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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14
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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15
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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16
carnation
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| n.康乃馨（一种花） | |
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17
mantled
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| 披着斗篷的，覆盖着的 | |
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18
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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19
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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20
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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21
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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22
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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23
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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24
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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25
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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26
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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27
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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28
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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29
deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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30
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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31
dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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32
maliciously
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| adv.有敌意地 | |
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33
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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34
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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35
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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36
sever
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| v.切开，割开；断绝，中断 | |
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37
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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38
portfolio
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| n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位 | |
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39
snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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40
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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41
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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42
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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43
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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44
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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45
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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46
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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47
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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48
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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49
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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50
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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51
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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52
conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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53
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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54
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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55
shun
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| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
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56
smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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57
glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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58
enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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59
entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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60
foulness
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| n. 纠缠, 卑鄙 | |
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61
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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62
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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63
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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64
dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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65
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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66
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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67
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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68
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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69
snarls
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| n.（动物的）龇牙低吼( snarl的名词复数 )；愤怒叫嚷（声）；咆哮（声）；疼痛叫声v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的第三人称单数 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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70
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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71
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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72
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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73
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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74
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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75
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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76
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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77
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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78
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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79
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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80
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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81
abdicate
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| v.让位，辞职，放弃 | |
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