Being convinced that his end was nearly come, and having lived long on earth (and all those years in Spain, in the golden time), the Lord of the Valleys of Arguento Harez, whose heights see not Valladolid, called for his eldest2 son. And so he addressed him when he was come to his chamber3, dim with its strange red hangings and august with the splendour of Spain: "O eldest son of mine, your younger brother being dull and clever, on whom those traits that women love have not been bestowed5 by God; and know my eldest son that here on earth, and for ought I know Hereafter, but certainly here on earth, these women be the arbiters6 of all things; and how this be so God knoweth only, for they are vain and variable, yet it is surely so: your younger brother then not having been given those ways that women prize, and God knows why they prize them for they are vain ways that I have in my mind and that won me the Valleys of Arguento Harez, from whose heights Angelico swore he saw Valladolid once, and that won me moreover also ... but that is long ago and is all gone now ... ah well, well ... what was I saying?" And being reminded of his discourse7, the old lord continued, saying, "For himself he will win nothing, and therefore I will leave him these my valleys, for not unlikely it was for some sin of mine that his spirit was visited with dullness, as Holy Writ8 sets forth9, the sins of the fathers being visited on the children; and thus I make him amends10. But to you I leave my long, most flexible, ancient Castilian blade, which infidels dreaded11 if old songs be true. Merry and lithe12 it is, and its true temper singeth when it meets another blade as two friends sing when met after many years. It is most subtle, nimble and exultant13; and what it will not win for you in the wars, that shall be won for you by your mandolin, for you have a way with it that goes well with the old airs of Spain. And choose, my son, rather a moonlight night when you sing under those curved balconies that I knew, ah me, so well; for there is much advantage in the moon. In the first place maidens15 see in the light of the moon, especially in the Spring, more romance than you might credit, for it adds for them a mystery to the darkness which the night has not when it is merely black. And if any statue should gleam on the grass near by, or if the magnolia be in blossom, or even the nightingale singing, or if anything be beautiful in the night, in any of these things also there is advantage; for a maiden14 will attribute to her lover all manner of things that are not his at all, but are only outpourings from the hand of God. There is this advantage also in the moon, that, if interrupters come, the moonlight is better suited to the play of a blade than the mere16 darkness of night; indeed but the merry play of my sword in the moonlight was often a joy to see, it so flashed, so danced, so sparkled. In the moonlight also one makes no unworthy stroke, but hath scope for those fair passes that Sevastiani taught, which were long ago the wonder of Madrid."
The old lord paused, and breathed for a little space, as it were gathering18 breath for his last words to his son. He breathed deliberately19, then spoke20 again. "I leave you," he said, "well content that you have the two accomplishments21, my son, that are most needful in a Christian22 man, skill with the sword and a way with the mandolin. There be other arts indeed among the heathen, for the world is wide and hath full many customs, but these two alone are needful." And then with that grand manner that they had at that time in Spain, although his strength was failing, he gave to his eldest son his Castilian sword. He lay back then in the huge, carved, canopied23 bed; his eyes closed, the red silk curtains rustled24, and there was no sound of his breathing. But the old lord's spirit, whatever journey it purposed, lingered yet in its ancient habitation, and his voice came again, but feebly now and rambling26; he muttered awhile of gardens, such gardens no doubt as the hidalgos guarded in that fertile region of sunshine in the proudest period of Spain; he would have known no others. So for awhile his memory seemed to stray, half blind among those perfumed earthly wonders; perhaps among these memories his spirit halted, and tarried those last few moments, mistaking those Spanish gardens, remembered by moonlight in Spring, for the other end of his journey, the glades27 of Paradise. However it be, it tarried. These rambling memories ceased and silence fell again, with scarcely the sound of breathing. Then gathering up his strength for the last time and looking at his son, "The sword to the wars," he said. "The mandolin to the balconies." With that he fell back dead.
Now there were no wars at that time so far as was known in Spain, but that old lord's eldest son, regarding those last words of his father as a commandment, determined28 then and there in that dim, vast chamber to gird his legacy29 to him and seek for the wars, wherever the wars might be, so soon as the obsequies of the sepulture were ended. And of those obsequies I tell not here, for they are fully30 told in the Black Books of Spain, and the deeds of that old lord's youth are told in the Golden Stories. The Book of Maidens mentions him, and again we read of him in Gardens of Spain. I take my leave of him, happy, I trust, in Paradise, for he had himself the accomplishments that he held needful in a Christian, skill with the sword and a way with the mandolin; and if there be some harder, better way to salvation31 than to follow that which we believe to be good, then are we all damned. So he was buried, and his eldest son fared forth with his legacy dangling32 from his girdle in its long, straight, lovely scabbard, blue velvet33, with emeralds on it, fared forth on foot along a road of Spain. And though the road turned left and right and sometimes nearly ceased, as though to let the small wild flowers grow, out of sheer good will such as some roads never have; though it ran west and east and sometimes south, yet in the main it ran northward34, though wandered is a better word than ran, and the Lord of the Valleys of Arguento Harez who owned no valleys, or anything but a sword, kept company with it looking for the wars. Upon his back he had slung35 his mandolin. Now the time of the year was Spring, not Spring as we know it in England, for it was but early March, but it was the time when Spring coming up out of Africa, or unknown lands to the south, first touches Spain, and multitudes of anemones36 come forth at her feet.
Thence she comes north to our islands, no less wonderful in our woods than in Andalusian valleys, fresh as a new song, fabulous37 as a rune, but a little pale through travel, so that our flowers do not quite flare38 forth with all the myriad39 blaze of the flowers of Spain.
And all the way as he went the young man looked at the flame of those southern flowers, flashing on either side of him all the way, as though the rainbow had been broken in Heaven and its fragments fallen on Spain. All the way as he went he gazed at those flowers, the first anemones of the year; and long after, whenever he sang to old airs of Spain, he thought of Spain as it appeared that day in all the wonder of Spring; the memory lent a beauty to his voice and a wistfulness to his eyes that accorded not ill with the theme of the songs he sang, and were more than once to melt proud hearts deemed cold. And so gazing he came to a town that stood on a hill, before he was yet tired, though he had done nigh twenty of those flowery miles of Spain; and since it was evening and the light was fading away, he went to an inn and drew his sword in the twilight40 and knocked with the hilt of it on the oaken door. The name of it was the Inn of the Dragon and Knight. A light was lit in one of the upper windows, the darkness seemed to deepen at that moment, a step was heard coming heavily down a stairway; and having named the inn to you, gentle reader, it is time for me to name the young man also, the landless lord of the Valleys of Arguento Harez, as the step comes slowly down the inner stairway, as the gloaming darkens over the first house in which he has ever sought shelter so far from his father's valleys, as he stands upon the threshold of romance. He was named Rodriguez Trinidad Fernandez, Concepcion Henrique Maria; but we shall briefly41 name him Rodriguez in this story; you and I, reader, will know whom we mean; there is no need therefore to give him his full names, unless I do it here and there to remind you.
The steps came thumping42 on down the inner stairway, different windows took the light of the candle, and none other shone in the house; it was clear that it was moving with the steps all down that echoing stairway. The sound of the steps ceased to reverberate43 upon the wood, and now they slowly moved over stone flags; Rodriguez now heard breathing, one breath with every step, and at length the sound of bolts and chains undone44 and the breathing now very close. The door was opened swiftly; a man with mean eyes, and expression devoted45 to evil, stood watching him for an instant; then the door slammed to again, the bolts were heard going back again to their places, the steps and the breathing moved away over the stone floor, and the inner stairway began again to echo.
"If the wars are here," said Rodriguez to himself and his sword, "good, and I sleep under the stars." And he listened in the street for the sound of war and, hearing none, continued his discourse. "But if I have not come as yet to the wars I sleep beneath a roof."
For the second time therefore he drew his sword, and began to strike methodically at the door, noting the grain in the wood and hitting where it was softest. Scarcely had he got a good strip of the oak to look like coming away, when the steps once more descended46 the wooden stair and came lumbering47 over the stones; both the steps and the breathing were quicker, for mine host of the Dragon and Knight was hurrying to save his door.
When he heard the sound of the bolts and chains again Rodriguez ceased to beat upon the door: once more it opened swiftly, and he saw mine host before him, eyeing him with those bad eyes; of too much girth, you might have said, to be nimble, yet somehow suggesting to the swift intuition of youth, as Rodriguez looked at him standing48 upon his door-step, the spirit and shape of a spider, who despite her ungainly build is agile49 enough in her way.
Mine host said nothing; and Rodriguez, who seldom concerned himself with the past, holding that the future is all we can order the scheme of (and maybe even here he was wrong), made no mention of bolts or door and merely demanded a bed for himself for the night.
Mine host rubbed his chin; he had neither beard nor moustache but wore hideous50 whiskers; he rubbed it thoughtfully and looked at Rodriguez. Yes, he said, he could have a bed for the night. No more words he said, but turned and led the way; while Rodriguez, who could sing to the mandolin, wasted none of his words on this discourteous51 object. They ascended52 the short oak stairway down which mine host had come, the great timbers of which were gnawed53 by a myriad rats, and they went by passages with the light of one candle into the interior of the inn, which went back farther from the street than the young man had supposed; indeed he perceived when they came to the great corridor at the end of which was his appointed chamber, that here was no ordinary inn, as it had appeared from outside, but that it penetrated55 into the fastness of some great family of former times which had fallen on evil days. The vast size of it, the noble design where the rats had spared the carving56, what the moths57 had left of the tapestries58, all testified to that; and, as for the evil days, they hung about the place, evident even by the light of one candle guttering59 with every draught60 that blew from the haunts of the rats, an inseparable heirloom for all who disturbed those corridors.
And so they came to the chamber.
Mine host entered, bowed without grace in the doorway61, and extended his left hand, pointing into the room. The draughts62 that blew from the rat-holes in the wainscot, or the mere action of entering, beat down the flame of the squat63, guttering candle so that the chamber remained dim for a moment, in spite of the candle, as would naturally be the case. Yet the impression made upon Rodriguez was as of some old darkness that had been long undisturbed and that yielded reluctantly to that candle's intrusion, a darkness that properly became the place and was a part of it and had long been so, in the face of which the candle appeared an ephemeral thing devoid64 of grace or dignity or tradition. And indeed there was room for darkness in that chamber, for the walls went up and up into such an altitude that you could scarcely see the ceiling, at which mine host's eyes glanced, and Rodriguez followed his look.
He accepted his accommodation with a nod; as indeed he would have accepted any room in that inn, for the young are swift judges of character, and one who had accepted such a host was unlikely to find fault with rats or the profusion65 of giant cobwebs, dark with the dust of years, that added so much to the dimness of that sinister66 inn. They turned now and went back, in the wake of that guttering candle, till they came again to the humbler part of the building. Here mine host, pushing open a door of blackened oak, indicated his dining-chamber. There a long table stood, and on it parts of the head and hams of a boar; and at the far end of the table a plump and sturdy man was seated in shirt-sleeves feasting himself on the boar's meat. He leaped up at once from his chair as soon as his master entered, for he was the servant at the Dragon and Knight; mine host may have said much to him with a flash of his eyes, but he said no more with his tongue than the one word, "Dog": he then bowed himself out, leaving Rodriguez to take the only chair and to be waited upon by its recent possessor. The boar's meat was cold and gnarled, another piece of meat stood on a plate on a shelf and a loaf of bread near by, but the rats had had most of the bread: Rodriguez demanded what the meat was. "Unicorn68's tongue," said the servant, and Rodriguez bade him set the dish before him, and he set to well content, though I fear the unicorn's tongue was only horse: it was a credulous69 age, as all ages are. At the same time he pointed54 to a three-legged stool that he perceived in a corner of the room, then to the table, then to the boar's meat, and lastly at the servant, who perceived that he was permitted to return to his feast, to which he ran with alacrity70. "Your name?" said Rodriguez as soon as both were eating. "Morano," replied the servant, though it must not be supposed that when answering Rodriguez he spoke as curtly71 as this; I merely give the reader the gist72 of his answer, for he added Spanish words that correspond in our depraved and decadent73 language of to-day to such words as "top dog," "nut" and "boss," so that his speech had a certain grace about it in that far-away time in Spain.
I have said that Rodriguez seldom concerned himself with the past, but considered chiefly the future: it was of the future that he was thinking now as he asked Morano this question:
"Did he so?" said Morano.
"He then bolted it and found it necessary to put the chains back, doubtless for some good reason."
"Yes," said Morano thoughtfully, and looking at Rodriguez, "and so he might. He must have liked you."
Verily Rodriguez was just the young man to send out with a sword and a mandolin into the wide world, for he had much shrewd sense. He never pressed a point, but when something had been said that might mean much he preferred to store it, as it were, in his mind and pass on to other things, somewhat as one might kill game and pass on and kill more and bring it all home, while a savage75 would cook the first kill where it fell and eat it on the spot. Pardon me, reader, but at Morano's remark you may perhaps have exclaimed, "That is not the way to treat one you like." Not so did Rodriguez. His attention passed on to notice Morano's rings which he wore in great profusion upon his little fingers; they were gold and of exquisite76 work and had once held precious stones, as large gaps testified; in these days they would have been priceless, but in an age when workers only worked at arts that they understood, and then worked for the joy of it, before the word artistic77 became ridiculous, exquisite work went without saying; and as the rings were slender they were of little value. Rodriguez made no comment upon the rings; it was enough for him to have noticed them. He merely noted78 that they were not ladies' rings, for no lady's ring would have fitted on to any one of those fingers: the rings therefore of gallants: and not given to Morano by their owners, for whoever wore precious stone needed a ring to wear it in, and rings did not wear out like hose, which a gallant79 might give to a servant. Nor, thought he, had Morano stolen them, for whoever stole them would keep them whole, or part with them whole and get a better price. Besides Morano had an honest face, or a face at least that seemed honest in such an inn: and while these thoughts were passing through his mind Morano spoke again: "Good hams," said Morano. He had already eaten one and was starting upon the next. Perhaps he spoke out of gratitude80 for the honour and physical advantage of being permitted to sit there and eat those hams, perhaps tentatively, to find out whether he might consume the second, perhaps merely to start a conversation, being attracted by the honest looks of Rodriguez.
"You are hungry," said Rodriguez.
"Praise God I am always hungry," answered Morano. "If I were not hungry I should starve."
"Is it so?" said Rodriguez.
"You see," said Morano, "the manner of it is this: my master gives me no food, and it is only when I am hungry that I dare to rob him by breaking in, as you saw me, upon his viands81; were I not hungry I should not dare to do so, and so ..." He made a sad and expressive82 movement with both his hands suggestive of autumn leaves blown hence to die.
"He gives you no food?" said Rodriguez.
"It is the way of many men with their dog," said Morano. "They give him no food," and then he rubbed his hands cheerfully, "and yet the dog does not die."
"And he gives you no wages?" said Rodriguez.
"Just these rings."
Now Rodriguez had himself a ring upon his finger (as a gallant should), a slender piece of gold with four tiny angels holding a sapphire83, and for a moment he pictured the sapphire passing into the hands of mine host and the ring of gold and the four small angels being flung to Morano; the thought darkened his gaiety for no longer than one of those fleecy clouds in Spring shadows the fields of Spain.
Morano was also looking at the ring; he had followed the young man's glance.
"Master," he said, "do you draw your sword of a night?"
"And you?" said Rodriguez.
"I have no sword," said Morano. "I am but as dog's meat that needs no guarding, but you whose meat is rare like the flesh of the unicorn need a sword to guard your meat. The unicorn has his horn always, and even then he sometimes sleeps."
"It is bad, you think, to sleep," Rodriguez said.
"For some it is very bad, master. They say they never take the unicorn waking. For me I am but dog's meat: when I have eaten hams I curl up and sleep; but then you see, master, I know I shall wake in the morning."
"Ah," said Rodriguez, "the morning's a pleasant time," and he leaned back comfortably in his chair. Morano took one shrewd look at him, and was soon asleep upon his three-legged stool.
The door opened after a while and mine host appeared. "It is late," he said. Rodriguez smiled acquiescently and mine host withdrew, and presently leaving Morano whom his master's voice had waked, to curl up on the floor in a corner, Rodriguez took the candle that lit the room and passed once more through the passages of the inn and down the great corridor of the fastness of the family that had fallen on evil days, and so came to his chamber. I will not waste a multitude of words over that chamber; if you have no picture of it in your mind already, my reader, you are reading an unskilled writer, and if in that picture it appear a wholesome84 room, tidy and well kept up, if it appear a place in which a stranger might sleep without some faint foreboding of disaster, then I am wasting your time, and will waste no more of it with bits of "descriptive writing" about that dim, high room, whose blackness towered before Rodriguez in the night. He entered and shut the door, as many had done before him; but for all his youth he took some wiser precautions than had they, perhaps, who closed that door before. For first he drew his sword; then for some while he stood quite still near the door and listened to the rats; then he looked round the chamber and perceived only one door; then he looked at the heavy oak furniture, carved by some artist, gnawed by rats, and all blackened by time; then swiftly opened the door of the largest cupboard and thrust his sword in to see who might be inside, but the carved satyr's heads at the top of the cupboard eyed him silently and nothing moved. Then he noted that though there was no bolt on the door the furniture might be placed across to make what in the wars is called a barricado, but the wiser thought came at once that this was too easily done, and that if the danger that the dim room seemed gloomily to forebode were to come from a door so readily barricadoed, then those must have been simple gallants who parted so easily with the rings that adorned85 Morano's two little fingers. No, it was something more subtle than any attack through that door that brought his regular wages to Morano. Rodriguez looked at the window, which let in the light of a moon that was getting low, for the curtains had years ago been eaten up by the moths; but the window was barred with iron bars that were not yet rusted86 away, and looked out, thus guarded, over a sheer wall that even in the moonlight fell into blackness. Rodriguez then looked round for some hidden door, the sword all the while in his hand, and very soon he knew that room fairly well, but not its secret, nor why those unknown gallants had given up their rings.
It is much to know of an unknown danger that it really is unknown. Many have met their deaths through looking for danger from one particular direction, whereas had they perceived that they were ignorant of its direction they would have been wise in their ignorance. Rodriguez had the great discretion87 to understand clearly that he did not know the direction from which danger would come. He accepted this as his only discovery about that portentous88 room which seemed to beckon89 to him with every shadow and to sigh over him with every mournful draught, and to whisper to him unintelligible90 warnings with every rustle25 of tattered91 silk that hung about his bed. And as soon as he discovered that this was his only knowledge he began at once to make his preparations: he was a right young man for the wars. He divested92 himself of his shoes and doublet and the light cloak that hung from his shoulder and cast the clothes on a chair. Over the back of the chair he slung his girdle and the scabbard hanging therefrom and placed his plumed93 hat so that none could see that his Castilian blade was not in its resting-place. And when the sombre chamber had the appearance of one having undressed in it before retiring Rodriguez turned his attention to the bed, which he noticed to be of great depth and softness. That something not unlike blood had been spilt on the floor excited no wonder in Rodriguez; that vast chamber was evidently, as I have said, in the fortress94 of some great family, against one of whose walls the humble67 inn had once leaned for protection; the great family were gone: how they were gone Rodriguez did not know, but it excited no wonder in him to see blood on the boards: besides, two gallants may have disagreed; or one who loved not dumb animals might have been killing95 rats. Blood did not disturb him; but what amazed him, and would have surprised anyone who stood in that ruinous room, was that there were clean new sheets on the bed. Had you seen the state of the furniture and the floor, O my reader, and the vastness of the old cobwebs and the black dust that they held, the dead spiders and huge dead flies, and the living generation of spiders descending96 and ascending97 through the gloom, I say that you also would have been surprised at the sight of those nice clean sheets. Rodriguez noted the fact and continued his preparations. He took the bolster98 from underneath99 the pillow and laid it down the middle of the bed and put the sheets back over it; then he stood back and looked at it, much as a sculptor100 might stand back from his marble, then he returned to it and bent101 it a little in the middle, and after that he placed his mandolin on the pillow and nearly covered it with the sheet, but not quite, for a little of the curved dark-brown wood remained still to be seen. It looked wonderfully now like a sleeper102 in the bed, but Rodriguez was not satisfied with his work until he had placed his kerchief and one of his shoes where a shoulder ought to be; then he stood back once more and eyed it with satisfaction. Next he considered the light. He looked at the light of the moon and remembered his father's advice, as the young often do, but considered that this was not the occasion for it, and decided103 to leave the light of his candle instead, so that anyone who might be familiar with the moonlight in that shadowy chamber should find instead a less sinister light. He therefore dragged a table to the bedside, placed the candle upon it, and opened a treasured book that he bore in his doublet, and laid it on the bed near by, between the candle and his mandolin-headed sleeper; the name of the book was Notes in a Cathedral and dealt with the confessions104 of a young girl, which the author claimed to have jotted106 down, while concealed107 behind a pillow near the Confessional, every Sunday for the entire period of Lent. Lastly he pulled a sheet a little loose from the bed, until a corner of it lay on the floor; then he lay down on the boards, still keeping his sword in his hand, and by means of the sheet and some silk that hung from the bed, he concealed himself sufficient for his purpose, which was to see before he should be seen by any intruder that might enter that chamber.
And if Rodriguez appear to have been unduly108 suspicious, it should be borne in mind not only that those empty rings needed much explanation, but that every house suggests to the stranger something; and that whereas one house seems to promise a welcome in front of cosy109 fires, another good fare, another joyous110 wine, this inn seemed to promise murder; or so the young man's intuition said, and the young are wise to trust to their intuitions.
The reader will know, if he be one of us, who have been to the wars and slept in curious ways, that it is hard to sleep when sober upon a floor; it is not like the earth, or snow, or a feather bed; even rock can be more accommodating; it is hard, unyielding and level, all night unmistakable floor. Yet Rodriguez took no risk of falling asleep, so he said over to himself in his mind as much as he remembered of his treasured book, Notes in a Cathedral, which he always read to himself before going to rest and now so sadly missed. It told how a lady who had listened to a lover longer than her soul's safety could warrant, as he played languorous111 music in the moonlight and sang soft by her low balcony, and how she being truly penitent112, had gathered many roses, the emblems113 of love (as surely, she said at confession105, all the world knows), and when her lover came again by moonlight had cast them all from her from the balcony, showing that she had renounced114 love; and her lover had entirely misunderstood her. It told how she often tried to show him this again, and all the misunderstandings are sweetly set forth and with true Christian penitence115. Sometimes some little matter escaped Rodriguez's memory and then he longed to rise up and look at his dear book, yet he lay still where he was: and all the while he listened to the rats, and the rats went on gnawing116 and running regularly, scared by nothing new; Rodriguez trusted as much to their myriad ears as to his own two. The great spiders descended out of such heights that you could not see whence they came, and ascended again into blackness; it was a chamber of prodigious117 height. Sometimes the shadow of a descending spider that had come close to the candle assumed a frightening size, but Rodriguez gave little thought to it; it was of murder he was thinking, not of shadows; still, in its way it was ominous118, and reminded Rodriguez horribly of his host; but what of an omen4, again, in a chamber full of omens119. The place itself was ominous; spiders could scarce make it more so. The spider itself was big enough, he thought, to be impaled120 on his Castilian blade; indeed, he would have done it but that he thought it wiser to stay where he was and watch. And then the spider found the candle too hot and climbed in a hurry all the way to the ceiling, and his horrible shadow grew less and dwindled121 away.
It was not that the rats were frightened: whatever it was that happened happened too quietly for that, but the volume of the sound of their running had suddenly increased: it was not like fear among them, for the running was no swifter, and it did not fade away; it was as though the sound of rats running, which had not been heard before, was suddenly heard now. Rodriguez looked at the door, the door was shut. A young Englishman would long ago have been afraid that he was making a fuss over nothing and would have gone to sleep in the bed, and not seen what Rodriguez saw. He might have thought that hearing more rats all at once was merely a fancy, and that everything was all right. Rodriguez saw a rope coming slowly down from the ceiling, he quickly determined whether it was a rope or only the shadow of some huge spider's thread, and then he watched it and saw it come down right over his bed and stop within a few feet of it. Rodriguez looked up cautiously to see who had sent him that strange addition to the portents122 that troubled the chamber, but the ceiling was too high and dim for him to perceive anything but the rope coming down out of the darkness. Yet he surmised123 that the ceiling must have softly opened, without any sound at all, at the moment that he heard the greater number of rats. He waited then to see what the rope would do; and at first it hung as still as the great festoons dead spiders had made in the corners; then as he watched it it began to sway. He looked up into the dimness then to see who was swaying the rope; and for a long time, as it seemed to him lying gripping his Castilian sword on the floor he saw nothing clearly. And then he saw mine host coming down the rope, hand over hand quite nimbly, as though he lived by this business. In his right hand he held a poniard of exceptional length, yet he managed to clutch the rope and hold the poniard all the time with the same hand.
If there had been something hideous about the shadow of the spider that came down from that height the shadow of mine host was indeed demoniac. He too was like a spider, with his body at no time slender all bunched up on the rope, and his shadow was six times his size: you could turn from the spider's shadow to the spider and see that it was for the most part a fancy of the candle half crazed by the draughts, but to turn from mine host's shadow to himself and to see his wicked eyes was to say that the candle's wildest fears were true. So he climbed down his rope holding his poniard upward. But when he came within perhaps ten feet of the bed he pointed it downward and began to sway about. It will be readily seen that by swaying his rope at a height mine host could drop on any part of the bed. Rodriguez as he watched him saw him scrutinise closely and continue to sway on his rope. He feared that mine host was ill satisfied with the look of the mandolin and that he would climb away again, well warned of his guest's astuteness124, into the heights of the ceiling to devise some fearfuller scheme; but he was only looking for the shoulder. And then mine host dropped; poniard first, he went down with all his weight behind it and drove it through the bolster below where the shoulder should be, just where we slant125 our arms across our bodies, when we lie asleep on our sides, leaving the ribs126 exposed: and the soft bed received him. And the moment that mine host let go of his rope Rodriguez leaped to his feet. He saw Rodriguez, indeed their eyes met as he dropped through the air, but what could mine host do? He was already committed to his stroke, and his poniard was already deep in the mattress127 when the good Castilian blade passed through his ribs.
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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arbiters
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| 仲裁人，裁决者( arbiter的名词复数 ) | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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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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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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13
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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15
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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17
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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18
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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19
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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20
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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21
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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22
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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23
canopied
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| adj. 遮有天篷的 | |
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24
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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26
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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27
glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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28
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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29
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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30
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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31
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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32
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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33
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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34
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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35
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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36
anemones
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| n.银莲花( anemone的名词复数 )；海葵 | |
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37
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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38
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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39
myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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40
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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41
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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42
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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43
reverberate
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| v.使回响，使反响 | |
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44
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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45
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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46
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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47
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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50
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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51
discourteous
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| adj.不恭的，不敬的 | |
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52
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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54
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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55
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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56
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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57
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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58
tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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59
guttering
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| n.用于建排水系统的材料；沟状切除术；开沟 | |
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60
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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61
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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62
draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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63
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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64
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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65
profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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66
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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67
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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68
unicorn
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| n.(传说中的)独角兽 | |
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69
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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70
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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71
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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72
gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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73
decadent
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| adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的 | |
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74
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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75
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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76
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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77
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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78
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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79
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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80
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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81
viands
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| n.食品，食物 | |
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82
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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83
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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84
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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85
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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86
rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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88
portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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89
beckon
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| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
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90
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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91
tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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92
divested
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| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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93
plumed
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| 饰有羽毛的 | |
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94
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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95
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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96
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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97
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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98
bolster
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| n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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99
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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100
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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101
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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102
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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103
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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104
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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105
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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106
jotted
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| v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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107
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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108
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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109
cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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110
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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111
languorous
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| adj.怠惰的，没精打采的 | |
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112
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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113
emblems
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| n.象征，标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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114
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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115
penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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116
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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117
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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118
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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119
omens
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| n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 ) | |
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120
impaled
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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121
dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
portents
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| n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物 | |
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123
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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124
astuteness
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| n.敏锐；精明；机敏 | |
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125
slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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126
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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127
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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