So he regarded it for a while. Considerately Dom Manuel now made experiments with three windows in this Room of Ageus, and found how, in so far as one's senses could be trusted, the matter stood. Thereafter, as became an intelligent person, he went back to his writing-table, and set about signing the requisitions and warrants and other papers which Ruric the clerk had left there.
Yet all the while Dom Manuel's gaze kept lifting to the windows. There were three of them, set side by side, each facing south. They were of thick clear glass, of a sort whose manufacture is a lost art, for these windows had been among the spoils brought back by Duke Asmund from nefarious2 raidings of Philistia, in which country these windows had once been a part of the temple of Ageus, an immemorial god of the Philistines3. For this reason the room was called the Room of Ageus.
Through these windows Count Manuel could see familiar fields, the long avenue of poplars and the rising hills beyond. All was as it had been yesterday, and as all had been since, nearly three years ago, Count Manuel first entered Storisende. All was precisely4 as it had been, except, to be sure, that until yesterday Dom Manuel's table had stood by the farthest window. He could not remember that until to-day this window had ever been opened, because since his youth had gone out of him Count Manuel was becoming more and more susceptible5 to draughts6.
"It is certainly very curious," Dom Manuel said, aloud, when he had finished with his papers.
He was again approaching the very curious window when his daughter Melicent, now nearly three years old, came noisily, and in an appallingly7 soiled condition, to molest8 him. She had bright beauty later, but at three she was one of those children whom human powers cannot keep clean for longer than three minutes.
Dom Manuel kept for her especial delectation a small flat paddle on his writing-table, and this he now caught up.
So the child, as was her custom, ran back into the hallway, and stood there, no longer in the room, but with one small foot thrust beyond the doorsill, while she laughed up at her big father, and derisively10 stuck out a tiny curved red tongue at the famed overlord of Poictesme. Then Dom Manuel, as was his custom, got down upon the floor to slap with his paddle at the intruding11 foot, and Melicent squealed12 with delight, and pulled back her foot in time to dodge13 the paddle, and thrust out her other foot beyond the sill, and tried to withdraw that too before it was spanked14.
So it was they gave over a quarter of an hour to rioting, and so it was that grave young Ruric found them. Count Manuel rather sheepishly arose from the floor, and dusted himself, and sent Melicent into the buttery for some sugar cakes. He told Ruric what were the most favorable terms he could offer the burgesses of Narenta, and he gave Ruric the signed requisitions.
Presently, when Ruric had gone, Dom Manuel went again to the farthest window, opened it, and looked out once more. He shook his head, as one who gives up a riddle15. He armed himself, and rode over to Perdigon, whither sainted King Ferdinand had come to consult with Manuel about contriving16 the assassination17 of the Moorish18 general, Al-Mota-wakkil. This matter Dom Manuel deputed to Guivric the Sage19; and so was rid of it.
In addition, Count Manuel had on hand that afternoon an appeal to the judgment20 of God, over some rather valuable farming lands; but it was remarked by the spectators that he botched the unhorsing and severe wounding of Earl Ladinas, and conducted it rather as though Dom Manuel's heart were not in the day's business. Indeed, he had reason, for while supernal21 mysteries were well enough if one were still a hare-brained lad, or even if one set out in due form to seek them, to find such mysteries obtruding22 themselves unsought into the home-life of a well-thought-of nobleman was discomposing, and to have the windows of his own house playing tricks on him seemed hardly respectable.
All that month, too, some memory appeared to trouble Dom Manuel, in the back of his mind, while the lords of the Silver Stallion were busied in the pursuit of Othmar and Othmar's brigands23 in the Taunenfels: and as soon as Dom Manuel had captured and hanged the last squad24 of these knaves25, Dom Manuel rode home and looked out of the window, to find matters unchanged.
Dom Manuel meditated26. He sounded the gong for Ruric. Dom Manuel talked with the clerk about this and that. Presently Dom Manuel said: "But one stifles27 here. Open that window."
The clerk obeyed. Manuel at the writing-table watched him intently. But in opening the window the clerk had of necessity stood with his back toward Count Manuel, and when Ruric turned, the dark young face of Ruric was impassive.
Dom Manuel, playing with the jeweled chain of office about his neck, considered Ruric's face. Then Manuel said: "That is all. You may go."
But Count Manuel's face was troubled, and for the rest of this day he kept an eye on Ruric the young clerk. In the afternoon it was noticeable that this Ruric went often, on one pretext28 and another, into the Room of Ageus when nobody else was there. The next afternoon, in broad daylight, Manuel detected Ruric carrying into the Room of Ageus, of all things, a lantern. The Count waited a while, then went into the room through its one door. The room was empty. Count Manuel sat down and drummed with his fingers upon the top of his writing-table.
After a while the third window was opened. Ruric the clerk climbed over the sill. He blew out his lantern.
"You are braver than I," Count Manuel said, "it may be. It is certain you are younger. Once, Ruric, I would not have lured29 any dark and prim-voiced young fellow into attempting this adventure, but would have essayed it myself post-haste. Well, but I have other duties now, and appearances to keep up: and people would talk if they saw a well-thought-of nobleman well settled in life climbing out of his own windows, and there is simply no telling what my wife would think of it"
The clerk had turned, startled, dropping his lantern with a small crash. His hands went jerkily to his smooth chin, clutching it. His face was white as a leper's face, and his eyes now were wild and glittering, and his head was drawn30 low between his black-clad shoulders, so that he seemed a hunchback as he confronted his master. Another queer thing Manuel could notice, and it was that a great lock had been sheared31 away from the left side of Ruric's black hair.
"What have you learned," says Manuel, "out yonder?"
"I cannot tell you," replied Ruric, laughing sillily, "but in place of it, I will tell you a tale. Yes, yes, Count Manuel, I will tell you a merry story of how a great while ago our common grandmother Eve was washing her children one day near Eden when God called to her. She hid away the children that she had not finished washing: and when the good God asked her if all her children were there, with their meek32 little heads against His knees, to say their prayers to Him, she answered, Yes. So God told her that what she had tried to hide from God should be hidden from men: and He took away the unwashed children, and made a place for them where everything stays young, and where there is neither good nor evil, because these children are unstained by human sin and unredeemed by Christ's dear blood."
The Count said, frowning: "What drunken nonsense are you talking at broad noon? It is not any foolish tatter of legend that I am requiring of you, my boy, but civil information as to what is to be encountered out yonder."
"All freedom and all delight," young Ruric told him wildly, "and all horror and all rebellion."
Then he talked for a while. When Ruric had ended this talking, Count Manuel laughed scornfully, and spoke33 as became a well-thought-of nobleman.
Ruric whipped out a knife, and attacked his master, crying, "I follow after my own thinking and my own desires, you old, smug, squinting34 hypocrite!"
So Count Manuel caught Ruric by the throat, and with naked hands Dom Manuel strangled the young clerk.
"Now I have ridded the world of much poison, I think," Dom Manuel said, aloud, when Ruric lay dead at Manuel's feet. "In any event, I cannot have that sort of talking about my house. Yet I wish I had not trapped the boy into attempting this adventure, which by rights was my adventure. I did not always avoid adventures."
He summoned two to take away the body, and then Manuel went to his bedroom, and was clothed by his lackeys35 in a tunic36 of purple silk, and a coronet was placed on his gray head, and the trumpets37 sounded as Count Manuel sat down to supper. Pages in ermine served him, bringing Manuel's food upon gold dishes, and pouring red wine and white from golden beakers into Manuel's gold cup. Skilled music-men played upon viols and harps38 and flutes39 while the high Count of Poictesme ate richly seasoned food and talked sedately40 with his wife.
They had not fared thus when Manuel had just come from herding41 swine, and Niafer was a servant trudging42 on her mistress' errands, and when these two had eaten very gratefully the Portune's bread and cheese. They had not any need to be heartened with rare wines when they endured so many perils43 upon Vraidex and in Dun Vlechlan because of their love for each other. For these two had once loved marvelously. Now minstrels everywhere made songs about their all-conquering love, which had derided44 death; and nobody denied that, even now, these two got on together amicably45.
But to-night Dame46 Niafer was fretted47, because the pastry-cook was young Ruric's cousin, and was, she feared, as likely as not to fling off in a huff on account of Dom Manuel's having strangled the clerk.
"Well, then do you raise the fellow's wages," said Count Manuel.
"That is easily said, and is exactly like a man. Why, Manuel, you surely know that then the meat-cook, and the butler, too, would be demanding more, and that there would be no end to it."
"But, my dear, the boy was talking mad blasphemy48, and was for cutting my throat with a great horn-handled knife."
"Of course that was very wrong of him," said Dame Niafer, comfortably, "and not for an instant, Manuel, am I defending his conduct, as I trust you quite understand. But even so, if you had stopped for a moment to think how hard it is to replace a servant nowadays, and how unreliable is the best of them, I believe you would have seen how completely we are at their mercy."
Then she told him all about her second waiting-woman, while Manuel said, "Yes," and "I never heard the like," and "You were perfectly49 right, my dear," and so on, and all the while appeared to be thinking about something else in the back of his mind.
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1
perturbing
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| v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的现在分词 ) | |
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nefarious
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| adj.恶毒的，极坏的 | |
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philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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7
appallingly
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| 毛骨悚然地 | |
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8
molest
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| vt.骚扰，干扰，调戏 | |
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9
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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10
derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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11
intruding
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| v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的现在分词)；把…强加于 | |
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12
squealed
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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14
spanked
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| v.用手掌打( spank的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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16
contriving
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| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的现在分词 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
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17
assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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18
moorish
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| adj.沼地的，荒野的，生[住]在沼地的 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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20
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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21
supernal
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| adj.天堂的，天上的；崇高的 | |
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22
obtruding
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| v.强行向前，强行，强迫( obtrude的现在分词 ) | |
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23
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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24
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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25
knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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26
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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27
stifles
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的第三人称单数 )； 镇压，遏制 | |
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28
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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29
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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30
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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31
sheared
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| v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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32
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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33
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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34
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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35
lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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36
tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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37
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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38
harps
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| abbr.harpsichord 拨弦古钢琴n.竖琴( harp的名词复数 ) | |
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39
flutes
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| 长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛） | |
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40
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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41
herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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42
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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43
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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44
derided
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| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
amicably
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| adv.友善地 | |
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46
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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47
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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48
blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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49
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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