The Worm Ouroboros quotes

Her arm tightened in his. “Mercury?” she said. “It is another world. It is too far.”

But he laughed and said, “Nothing is too far.”

They turned back as the shadows deepened. As they stood in the dark of the arched gate leading from the open fell into the garden, the soft clear notes of a spinet sounded from the house. She put up a finger. “Hark,” she said.

So Lessingham got up and muffled himself in a great cloak that lay on a chair beside the bed. He said, “I am ready, my little martlet.” For that was the House of Heart’s Desire.

Surely the martlet’s eyes filled all the room with starlight.

It was an old room with lotuses carved on the panels and on the bed and chairs and roof-beams; and in the glamour the carved flowers swayed like water-lilies in a lazy stream.

Lessingham felt no touch of the ground beneath his feet, and when he stretched out his hand to touch a tree his hand passed through branch and leaves as though they were unsubstantial as a moonbeam.

The little martlet, alighting on his shoulder, laughed in his ear. “Child of earth,” she said, “dost think we are here in dreamland?”

He answered nothing, and she said, “This is no dream.

The serving man hastened and returned, saying, “Lord, it is an Ambassador from Witchland and his train. Their ship made land at Lookinghaven-ness at nightfall. They slept on board, and your soldiers gave them escort to Galing at break of day. He craveth present audience.”

“From Witchland, ha?” said Juss. “Such smokes use ever to go before the fire.”

“Shall’s bid the fellow,” said Spitfire, “wait on our pleasure? It is pity such should poison our gladness.”

And, by your leave, for all the marvellous rich and sumptuous coat a weareth, he is very like a false jewel in a rich casing.”

“Well,” said Juss, “a sour draught sweetens not in the waiting. Call we in the Ambassador.”

Lord Juss sat in the high seat midmost of the dais, with Goldry on his right in the seat of black opal, and on his left Spitfire, throned on the alexandrite.

If’s upper lip bespeak him not a rare spouter of rank fustian, perdition catch me. Were it a finger’s breadth longer, a might tuck it into his collar to keep his chin warm of a winter’s night.”

“I like not the smell of the Ambassador,” said Lord Brandoch Daha.

And he called for censers and sprinklers of lavender and rose water to purify the chamber, and let open the crystal windows that the breezes of heaven might enter and make all sweet.

and huge whooping and laughter went up among the common lag of people without, to behold his long and nerveless tail thus bared to their unfriendly gaze. Insomuch that they fell to shouting with one accord,

“Though his mouth be foul he hath a fair tail! Saw ye not his tail? Hurrah for Gorice who hath sent us a monkey for his Ambassador!”

And with jibe and unmannerly yell the crowd hung lovingly upon the Ambassador and his train all the way down from Galing castle to the quays.

“What makest thou of that?” asked Corund.

And Gro said, “The fortune of the dice jumpeth not commonly with the fortune of war.”

Corund grunted in his beard, and laying his large hand on Lord Gro’s shoulder, “Speak to me a little apart,” he said; and when they were private, “Darken not counsel,” said Corund, “to me and my sons.

But it is fitting we be ready against evil hap. If (which yet may the Gods forfend) ill come of this wrastling bout, fail not every one of you ere you act on any enterprise to take counsel of me.

‘Bare is back without brother behind it.’ Together must we do that we do.

”

Nought spake the Red Foliot, gazing still into the dim reflections of the sunset which lingered below a darkening sky where stars were born. Gro said softly, as a cat purring, “

Where softening unctions failed, sharp surgery bringeth speediest ease.

Wilt thou not leave it to me?”

For a while they spoke not. Then Lord Gro took forth a scroll from his bosom, and said, “

The harvest of this world is to the resolute, and he that is infirm of purpose is ground betwixt the upper and the nether millstone.

Thou canst not turn back: so would they scorn and spurn thee, and we Witches likewise.

but it was as if the night held its breath in expectation of that which was to come. And the candles sputtered and burned blue. The King swayed and clutched the table with his left hand; and again the King pronounced terribly the word voarchadumia.

Thereafter for the space of ten heartbeats silence hung like a kestrel poised in the listening night.

Then went a crash through earth and heaven, and a blinding wildfire through the chamber as it had been a thunderbolt. All Carcë quaked, and the chamber was filled with a beating of wings, like the wings of some monstrous bird.

Teshmar, that was the skipper of his ship, stood at his elbow. Gaslark said to him, “

Is it not one of the three gallant spectacles of the world, a good ship treading the hastening furrows of the sea like a queen in grace and beauty, scattering up the wave-crests before her stem in a glittering rain?

”

Juss said in Spitfire’s ear, “This it is, that I do misdoubt me of the steadfastness of the Goblins.

Too like to fire among dead leaves is the sudden flame of their valour, a poor thing to rely on if once they be checked.

So do I count it folly trusting in them for our main strength to go up against Carcë. Also it is but a wild fancy that Goldry hath been transported into Carcë.”

… over against Gaslark, and eyeing him with a mocking glance, “O Gaslark,” he said, “this that hath befallen breedeth in me a cruel perturbation which carries my spirits outwards, stirring up a tempest in my mind and preparing my body to melancholy, and madness itself.

The cure of this is only fighting. Wherefore if thou love me, Gaslark, out with thy sword and ward thyself.

Fight I must, or this passion will kill me quite out. ’Tis pity to draw upon my friend, but sith we be banned from fighting with our enemies, what choice remaineth?”

Now when Lord Juss perceived them all against him, and hot-mouthed for that attempt, he smiled scornfully and said, “O my brother and my friends, what echoes and quail-pipes are you become who seem to catch wisdom by imitating her voice?

But ye be mad like March hares, every man of you, and myself too.

Break ice in one place, ’twill crack in more. And truly I care not greatly for my life now that Goldry is gone from me.

… of many colours stood against the palace wall facing to the west, and on the bench nearest the Iron Tower a lady sat at ease, eating cream wafers and a quince tart served by her waiting-women in dishes of pale gold for her morning meal.

Tall was that lady and slender, and beauty dwelt in her as the sunshine dwells in the red floor and gray-green trunks of a beech wood in early spring.

Her tawny hair was gathered in deep folds upon her head and made fast by great silver pins, their heads set with anachite diamonds.

Gro laughed and said, “

Surely, O my Lady Prezmyra, truth masketh in many a strange disguise when she rideth rumour’s broomstick through kings’ palaces.

But somewhat of herself hath she shown thee, if thou conclude that an event was brought to birth betwixt dark and sunrise to stagger the world, and that the power of Witchland bloomed forth this night into unbeholden glory.”

Said Prezmyra, “

A great king should rather be a dog that killeth clean, than a cat that patteth and sporteth with his prey.

”

I have already ta’en order for this, and straitly charged my people that nought befell last night save a faring of the Goblins against Carcë, and their overthrow, and my chasing of them with a great slaughter into the sea.

Whoso by speech or sign shall reveal to La Fireez that the Demons were in it, or that these enemies of mine are thus entertained by me to their discomfort in the old banquet hall, he shall lose nothing but his life.

”

Harps and bagpipes struck up a barbaric music, and the guests rose to their feet, as the shining doors swung open and Gorice the King followed by the Prince his guest entered that hall.

Like a black eagle surveying earth from some high mountain the King passed by in his majesty.

His byrnie was of black chain mail, its collar, sleeves, and skirt edged with plates of dull gold set with hyacinths and black opals. His hose were black, cross-gartered with bands of sealskin trimmed with diamonds.

“Then sit thou mum, Prince,” said Corinius, “lest thy quality be called in question.

For my part I laugh at my thoughts, and they be very choice.

”

The dwarf squealed and bit Corsus’s thumb to the bone, so that he loosed his hold; and the dwarf fled from the hall, while the company laughed pleasantly.

“So flieth folly before wisdom which is in wine,” said the King.

“The night is young: bring me botargoes, and caviar and toast. Drink, Prince. The red Thramnian wine that is thick like honey wooeth the soul to divine philosophy. How vain a thing is ambition.

And Corsus that was now well nigh speechless and quite stupefied with drink, so that a baby might tell as well as he what meant this hubbub, reeled cup in hand, shouting, “

Drunkenness is better for the body than physic! Drink always, and you shall never die!

” So shouting he was smitten square in the mouth by a breast of veal flung at him by Elaron of Pixyland, the captain of the Prince’s bodyguard, and so fell like a hog athwart Corinius, and there lay without sense or motion.

“La Fireez!” he said. “

Day ne’er broke up till now.

And methought ye were yonder false fitchews fostered in filth and fen, the spawn of Witchland, returned again to fleer and flout at us.”

Juss said yea to this; and Brandoch Daha laughed, saying, “

Prince, I so love thee, I could refuse thee nothing, were it shave half my beard and go in fustian till harvest-time, sleep in my clothes, and discourse pious nothings seven hours a day with my lady’s lapdog.

This night we be utterly thine. An instant only bear with us: this fare shows too good to rest untasted after so much looking on. It were discourteous too to leave it so.”

And pouring out a stoup of wine, he quaffed it off, and filling it again, “

Perdition catch me if it be not mine own wine of Krothering! Saw any a carefuller host than King Gorice?

” And he pledged Lord Juss in the second cup, saying, “I will drink with thee next in Carcë when the King of Witchland and all the lords thereof are slain.”

And as they stood in the courtyard in the torchlight there came forth on a balcony the Lady Prezmyra in her nightgown, disturbed by this ransacking.

Ethereal as a cloud she seemed, pavilioned in the balmy night, as a cloud touched by the exhalations of the unrisen moon.

“What transformation is this?” said she. “Demons loose in the court?”

Of the homecoming of the demons, and how Lord Juss was taught in a dream whither he must seek for tidings of his dear brother. And how they took counsel at Krothering, and determined of their expedition to Impland.

Midsummer night, ambrosial, starry-kirtled, walked on the sea, as the ship that brought the Demons home drew nigh to her journey’s end.

The cloaks of Lord Juss and Lord Brandoch Daha, who slept on the poop, were wet with dew.

… past the jagged skyline of the Thornbacks and the far Neverdale peaks overhanging the wooded shores of Onwardlithe and Lower Tivarandardale, to the extreme southern headland, filmy-pale in the distance, where the great range of Rimon Armon plunges its last wild bastion in the sea.

As a lover gazing on his mistress, so gazed Lord Juss on Demonland rising from the sea.

No word spake he till they came off Lookinghaven-ness and could see where beyond the beaked promontory the sound opened between Kartadza and the mainland.

Then will I rise and bathe and array myself and eat my morning meal, and thereafter will I take rede with thee and tell thee somewhat for thine advantage.

I have not slept in a goose-feather bed and sheets of lawn these many weeks. If thou plague me now, by God, I will incontinently take horse over the Stile to Krothering, and let thee and thine affairs go to the devil.

”

“That should dash me from thy friendship forever, cousin,” said Mevrian, stroking the feathery ears of her little marmoset that cuddled in her lap. “

That which feedeth on brains were overnourished in Demonland, and belike would overrun the whole countryside.

”

“Send it to Witchland,” said Zigg. “

Where when it hath eat up Gro and Corund it may sup lightly on the King, and then most fortunately starve for lack of its proper nutriment.

”

But Brandoch Daha looked towards his lady sister, met her glance, and was satisfied. “The choice lieth fair before us,” said he. “

If we will eat the egg, little need to debate whether the shell must go.

”

“Give me some more wine,” said Juss, “and fill again a beaker for Mivarsh Faz.

I do love nought so much as tale-telling a-nights.

With whom devised he against Zeldornius?”

“

There’s musk and amber in thy speech,

” said Juss. “I must have more of it. What mean they to do?”

“O Juss,” cried Brandoch Daha, “thine own breath lighteneth at it, and thy words come more sprightly forth.

Are not all lands, all airs, one country unto us, so there be great doings afoot to keep bright our swords?

”

And he, muffled in his great faded cloak, went forth to see guards were set and all sure against an onslaught from either side. And standing by his tent to give good night to those lords of Demonland, he said, “It likes me better so.

I ever was a fighter; so, one fight more.

”

and a man might make a garment for the moon sooner than fit the o’erleaping actions of great Jalcanaius, who now leaveth but his body to bedung that earth that was lately shaken at his terror.

I have waded in red blood to the knee; and in this hour, in my old years, the world is become for me a vision only and a mock-show.

”

But they laughed and answered him, “

Do not too narrowly define our power, sweet Mivarsh, restraining it to thy capacities. Know that our journey is a matter determined of, and it is fixed with nails of diamond to the wall of inevitable necessity.

”

Brandoch Daha laughed. “Sixteenth!” said he. “

Thou’lt be rich, Mivarsh, if thou reckon gold pieces o’ this fashion thou dost days.

This is but our ninth day’s journey.”

Corund answered, “

Truly I was seldom so uncivil as surprise Madam Aurora in her nightgown.

And the thrice or four times I have been forced thereto, taught me it is an hour of crude airs and mists which breed cold dark humours in the body, an hour when the torch of life burns weakest. Within there!

Brandoch Daha drew up his lip and said, “This is nought but what was to be looked for.

It is a wonder, O Juss, that thou shouldst hold out to such mucky dogs a hand without a whip in it.

”

But Corund shrugged his shoulders. “A footra for your baits!” he answered. “I am scarce bounden to do such a kindness to you of Demonland as lay down mine advantage and fight alone, against a sworder.

Your old foxes are seldom taken in springes.

”

Gro spake: “

It hath been shown we may not have down this tree by hewing above ground. Let’s dig about the roots.

And first give them a seven-night’s space for reckoning up their chances, that they may see morning and evening from the burg thine armies set down to invest them.

The Demons strained their eyes searching the curtain of mystery behind and above those foothills; but the great peaks, like great ladies, shrouded themselves against their curious gaze, and no glimpse was shown them of the snows.

Surely to be in Morna Moruna was to be in the death chamber of some once lovely presence.

Stains of fire were on the walls. The fair gallery of open woodwork that ran above the main hall was burnt through and partly fallen in ruin, the blackened ends of the beams that held it jutting blindly in the gap.

But the martlet answered, “

Not the eagle that flieth against the sun may alight on Koshtra Belorn.

No foot may tread her, save of those blessed ones to whom the Gods gave leave ages ago, till they be come that the patient years await:

They were silent awhile. Then Juss spake saying, “If thou and I come thither at last, O my friend, shall we remember Demonland?” And when he answered him not, Juss said, “

I had rather row on Moonmere under the stars of a summer’s night, than be a King of all the land of Zimiamvia.

And I had rather watch the sunrise on the Scarf, than dwell in gladness all my days on an island of that enchanted Lake of Ravary, under Koshtra Belorn.”

That night they spent safely, by favour of the Gods, under the highest crags of Koshtra Pivrarcha, in a sheltered hollow piled round with snow.

Dawn came like a lily, saffron-hued, smirched with smoke-gray streaks that slanted from the north.

The great peaks stood as islands above a main of level cloud, out of which the sun walked flaming, a ball of red-gold fire. An hour before his face appeared, the Demons and Mivarsh were roped and started on their eastward journey.

The shadow of Koshtra Pivrarcha lay cold across the lower stretches of the face on the Zimiamvian side.

The edge of that shadow was as the division betwixt the living and the dead.

“What dost think on?” said Juss to Brandoch Daha, that leaned upon his sword surveying that glory.

When she spoke, it was with a voice like crystal: “Thanks be and praise to the blessed Gods. For lo, the years depart, and the fated years bring forth as the Gods ordain. And ye be those that were for to come.”

Surely those great lords of Demonland stood like little boys before her.

She said again, “Are not ye Lord Juss and Lord Brandoch Daha of Demonland, come up to me by the way banned to all mortals else, come up into Koshtra Belorn?”

Juss looked at her eyes that were moist with tears.

Truth sat in them like an angel.

“O Queen,” he cried, “why need thy little minions scour the world, when my brother is here in Koshtra Belorn?”

“Taken up in a sending maleficial by King Gorice XII. So it hath ever been, that whensoever there dieth one of the house of Gorice there riseth up another in his stead, and so from strength to strength.

And death weakeneth not this house of Witchland, but like the dandelion weed being cut down and bruised it springeth up the stronger.

Dost thou know why?”

But thou, if thou be truly great, join not hands with desperation. Let the sad ending of this poor servant of thine be to thee a monument against such folly.

Earth is not ruined for a single shower.

Come back with me to Koshtra Belorn.”

Brandoch Daha smiled, but his look was ghastly. “Blame us not overmuch, dear Queen.

Who shoots at the midday sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at a bush.

” His voice broke in his throat; the whites of his eyes rolled up; he caught at the Queen’s hand like a frightened child. Then with a mighty effort mastering himself, “I pray bear with me a little,” he said.

“Then should Corinius’s grief lift up thy joy,” said Gro. “Yet certain it is,

Fate is a blind puppy: build not on her next turn.

”

She answered, “Do not defile mine ears with their excuses. They have shamefully abused us; and the guilt of their black deed planteth them day by day more firmlier in my deeper-settled hate.

Art thou so deeply read in nature and her large philosophy, and I am yet to teach thee that deadliest hellebore or the vomit of a toad are qualified poison to the malice of a woman?

”

She lay back against his breast, limp and strengthless, while he kissed her neck and eyes and throat; then her lips met his in a long voluptuous kiss. Surely the King’s hands upon her were like live coals.

Bethinking her of Corinius, fuming at an open door and an empty chamber, the Lady Sriva was yet content.

Sunshine streaming through the eastern casement lighted red-gold smouldering splendours in the heavy coils of that lady’s hair, and flew back in dazzling showers from the diamonds fastened among those coils. After a space he said, “

Suppose I am a gardener. I go not to the butterfly for counsel.

Let her be glad that there be rose-trees there and red stonecrops for her delight; which if any be lacking I’ll give her more for the asking, as I’ll give thee more masques and revels and all brave pleasures in Carcë.

Let her be glad that there be rose-trees there and red stonecrops for her delight; which if any be lacking I’ll give her more for the asking, as I’ll give thee more masques and revels and all brave pleasures in Carcë.

But war and policy is not for women.

”

four thousand fighting men chose out by Corsus up and down the land as best for this great conquest. The sons of Corsus, Dekalajus and Gorius, rode abreast before them with twenty pipers piping a battle song.

Surely the tramp of that great army on the paven way was like the tramp of Fate moving from the east.

Gorice the King, sitting in state on the battlements above the water-gate, sniffed with his nostrils as a lion at the scent of blood.

And all they fell a-shouting and smiting on the boards till the roof-beams shook with their great shouting, while the King drank first and passed on the cup that all might drink in turn.

But Gorice the King sat dark among them as a cliff of serpentine that frowns above dancing surges of a spring-tide summer sea.

When the women left the banquet hall the Lady Prezmyra came to the King and said, “Your brow is too dark, Lord, if indeed this news is all good that lights your heart and mind from withinward.”

There the King made Gro drink a great stoup of red wine, and said to him, “I am all of a muck sweat from the hunting. Go in with me to my baths and tell me all while I bathe me before supper.

Princes of all men be in greatest danger, for that men dare not acquaint them with their own peril.

Thou look’st prodigious. Know that shouldst thou proclaim to me all my fleet and army in Demonland brought to sheer destruction, that should not dull my stomach for the feast tonight.

But most they marked his eyes.

Surely the light in the eyes of the King under his beetle brows was like a light from the under-skies shed upward from the pit of hell.

He said no word, but with a gesture beckoned Corinius. Corinius stood up and came to the King, slowly, as a nightwalker, obedient to that dread gaze. His cloak of sky-blue silk was flung back from his shoulders.

His hair and his beard hung down in elf-locks a-drip with rain. His mouth was toothless, his eyes like a dead fish’s eyes. He touched Spitfire’s cloak with his skinny hand, saying in a voice like the night-raven’s, “

Spitfire, beware of Thremnir’s Heugh.

”

But that aged man said again, “

Hot stirring heads are too easily entrapped.

Hold fast, Spitfire, to that which is thine, and beware of Thremnir’s Heugh.”

Zigg spake: “

The thin habit of spirits is beyond the force of weapons.

”

Now were all silent, waiting on Corsus to speak. But he spake not a word. Dekalajus said privily in his ear, “

O my father, if the monkey reigns, dance before him.

Time shall bring us occasion to right you.”

“So it seemeth, from thy talk,” said she; and was silent again.

The steady contemplation from that lady’s eyes was like a knife scraping his tender skin, so that he was ill at ease well nigh past bearing.

After a little she said, “I remember thee, my lord. Let me stir thy memory. Eleven years ago, my brother went to war in Goblinland against the Witches, and overcame them on Lormeron field.

“I shall learn it thee,” said Corinius, his face aflame. “

Lovers live by love as larks by leeks.

By Satan, I do love thee as thou wert the heart out of my body.”

“Thou liest,” said Corinius. “ ’Twas ever sign manifest of drunkenness to deny it.

Look you, my lords, I deny not I am drunk. Therefore is sign manifest I am drunk, I mean, sign manifest I am sober.

But the hour calleth to other work than questioning of these high matters. Set on!”

He answered, “

Madam, as June bringeth the golden rose unto perfection, so waxeth her beauty with the years.

”

Mevrian shook her head, putting him gently away.

Like the passing of a fire on a dry heath in summer the flame of his passion was passed by, leaving but a smouldering desolation of scornful sullen wrath: wrath at himself and fate.

He said, in a low shamed voice, “I pray you forgive me, madam.”

Mevrian said, “

Prince, the Gods give thee good night. Be kind to Krothering. I have left there an evil steward.

”

“Yet is common opinion the fool, not I,” he said. “

He that imagineth after his labours to attain unto lasting joy, as well may he beat water in a mortar.

Is there not in the wild benefit of nature instances enow to laugh this folly out of fashion? A fable of great men that arise and conquer the nations: Day goeth up against the tyrant night.

A murmur of waters, a hum of tiny wings flitting from flower to flower, the sound of the horse grazing on the lush pasture: there was nought else to hear. Not a leaf moved, not a bird.

The hush of the summer noonday, breathless, burnt through with the sun, more awful than any shape of night, paused above that lonely dell.

Gro, as if waked by the very silence, looked quickly about him. The horse felt belike in his bones his rider’s unease; he gave over his feeding and stood alert with wild eye and quivering flanks. Gro patted and made much of him;

But Gro said, “

How should an oath from me avail thee, madam? Oaths bind not an ill man.

Were I minded to do thee wrong, lightly should I swear thee all oaths thou mightest require, and lightly o’ the next instant be forsworn.”

whilom journeying alone in more perilous lands than this, as witness the Moruna, where the country is full of venomous beasts and crawling poisoned serpents, and the divels be as abundant there as grasshoppers on a hot hillside in summer.

He that feareth is a slave, were he never so rich, were he never so powerful. But he that is without fear is king of all the world.

Thou hast my sword. Strike. Death shall be a sweet rest to me. Thraldom, not death, should terrify me.”

“So said my Lord Brandoch Daha. But all called him daft to think on’t. Carry an army a-horseback in so small time ’cross such curst ground? It might not be. ‘Well,’ quoth he, ‘sith you count it not possible, so much the more shall he.

Cautious counsels never will serve us this tide.

Give me but my pick of man and horse to the number of seven hundred, and I’ll so set this masque you shall not desire a better master of the revels.’

“When I was a little tiny boy, father, we had a sport, swimming in the deep pools of Tivarandarwater, that one boy would catch ’tother and hold him under till he could no more for want of breath.

Methinks there’s no longing i’ the world so sore as the longing for air when he that is stronger than thou grippeth thee still under the water, nor no gladness i’ the world like the bonny sweet air i’ thy lungs again when a letteth thee shoot up to the free daylight.

’Twas right so with us, who had now said adieu to hope and saw all lost save life itself, and that not like to tarry long; when we heard suddenly the thunder of my Lord’s trumpet sounding to the charge.

“Tush,” said he. “ ’Tis but our way i’ the world. Moreover, ’tis, I think, a thing natural in great persons, of whatsoever country they be born.

Treachery and double dealing proceed commonly from fear, and that is a thing which I think no man in this land comprehendeth.

Myself, I do think that when the high Gods made a person of my quality they traced between his two eyes something, I know not what, which the common sort durst not look upon without trembling.”

Moreover, ’tis, I think, a thing natural in great persons, of whatsoever country they be born. Treachery and double dealing proceed commonly from fear, and that is a thing which I think no man in this land comprehendeth.

Myself, I do think that when the high Gods made a person of my quality they traced between his two eyes something, I know not what, which the common sort durst not look upon without trembling.

”

“Thought?” cried Brandoch Daha. “

Didst ever dream I’d suffer thee to do thy foolishnesses alone?

Nay, I’ll come first to the enchanted lake with thee, and let be Carcë i’ the meantime. Howbeit I’ll do it ’gainst the stream of my resolution quite.”

Gro kissed her hand, and kept it in his. “My Lady Mevrian,” he said, “

Fate will not be cheated, cog we never so wisely.

I do think there be not many extant that in a noble way fear the face of death less than myself. I’ll go o’ this journey. There is but one thing should turn me back.”

But Juss, still in a study, reached out and caught him by the sleeve, holding him so a moment or two, and then looked up at him and said, “

Thou art the greatest quarreller, of a friend, that ever I knew, and if I were an angry man I could not abear thee.

May I not three minutes study the means, but thou shalt cry out upon me for a milksop?”

So as in six months’ space, he being sated with these and all good things, and having no good thing remaining unto him to expect or to desire, for very weariness did hang himself.

I would never have ta’en me an husband, nurse, and I had not known that I was able to give him every time I would a new heaven and a new earth, and never the same thing twice.

”

Suddenly Prezmyra clasped the hands tighter in her own, and shuddered a little. She bent down to whisper in the nurse’s ear, “

I would not wish to die. The world without me should be summer without roses. Carcë without me should be a night without the star-shine.

”

The Lord Corund said in his lady’s ear as he went by, taking her with his hand about the shoulder, “

What, lass? if the broth’s spilt, the meat remaineth. To bed with thee, and never doubt we’ll pay them yet.

”

Corund answered, “

Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings.

I think he’ll play, albeit he showed his teeth i’ the first while.”

“I’m glad thou’lt not weep, madam.

It is as great pity to see a woman weep as a goose to go barefoot.

Come, be not foolish. We must not part forces now. We must bide this storm in Carcë.”

Corinius said, “To hear is to obey, O King. Howsoever, not to dissemble with you, I’d liever at ’em at once, ’stead of let them sit awhile and refresh their army.

Occasion is a wanton wench, O King, that is quick to beckon another man if one look coldly on her.

Moreover, Lord, could you not by your art, in small time, with certain compositions?—”

The King, in his mantle of cobra-skins, his staff-royal in his hand, topped by half a head all those tall men about him, friend and foe alike.

Lean and black he towered amongst them, like a thunder-blasted pine-tree seen against the sunset.

So, in the golden autumn afternoon, in the midst of that sad main of sedgelands where between slimy banks the weed-choked Druima deviously winds toward the sea, were those two men met together for whose ambition and their pride the world was too little a …

… that sad main of sedgelands where between slimy banks the weed-choked Druima deviously winds toward the sea, were those two men met together for whose ambition and their pride the world was too little a place to contain them both and peace lying between them.

And like some drowsy dragon of the elder slime, squat, sinister, and monstrous, the citadel of Carcë slept over all.

By and by the King spake and said: “I sent for thee because I think it good I and thou should talk together while yet is time for talking.”

for I am now resolved never to put up my sword until of thy bleeding head I may make a football. And now, let the earth be afraid, and Cynthia obscure her shine: no more words but mum.

Thunder and blood and night must usurp our parts, to complete and make up the catastrophe of this great piece.

”

But Prezmyra came near to him with good and merry countenance: “Let me stop thy mouth, my lord. These be foolish thoughts for a great king going into battle.

Come back in triumph, and i’ the mean season think on me that wait for thee: as a star waits, dear my lord.

And never doubt the issue.”

Prezmyra replied upon her, “ ’Tis true, madam, I have not the weak sense of some of you soft-eyed whimpering ladies.

And by your leave I’ll keep my tears (which be great spoilers of the cheeks beside) until I need ’em.

”

“No more but Yes,” said Lord Brandoch Daha. “

Time gallopeth: so must we.

”

Corsus said, “You will not take it, I know, O King. For we of Witchland have ever been ruled by the rock rather than by the rudder. I had liever be silent.

Silence was never written down.

”

Corsus met the King’s eye at last. He braced himself as if to meet a blow. “

Throw not your cloak in the fire because your house is burning, O King.

Surrender all to Juss at his discretion. And trust me the foolish softness of these Demons will leave us freedom and the wherewithal to live at ease.”

Though your majesty were a half-god or a Fury out of the pit, you could not by further resisting deliver us out of this net wherein the Demons have gotten us caught and tied.

You can keep geese no longer, O King. Will you rend me because I bid you be content to keep goslings?

”

… he gathered strength to speak, saying, “I do joy that not by your sword were we put down, but by the unequal trumpery of Fortune, whose tool was this Corsus and the King’s devilish pride, that desired to harness Heaven and Hell to his chariot.

Fortune’s a right strumpet, to fondle me in the neck and now yerk me one thus i’ the midriff.

”

“How?” said Brandoch Daha. “

Say a dog bite me in the ham: must I bite him again i’ the same part?

”

Of curious workmanship it was, of pale green glass, its stand formed of three serpents intertwined, the one of gold, another of silver, the third of iron. Fingering it carelessly she raised her glittering eyes once more on the Demons, and said, “

It was ever the wont of you of Demonland to eat the egg and give away the shell in alms.

” And pointing at the lords of Witchland dead at the feast, she asked, “Were these also your victims in this day’s hunting, my lords?”

… think I will abide to be your pensioner, that have been a Princess in Pixyland, a Queen of far-fronted Impland, and wife to the greatest soldier in this hold of Carcë, which till this day hath been the only scourge and terror of the world?

O my lords of Demonland, good comfortable fools, speak to me no more, for your speech is folly.

Go, doff your hats to the silly hind that runneth on the mountain; pray her gently dwell with you amid your stalled cattle, when you have slain her mate.

Go, doff your hats to the silly hind that runneth on the mountain; pray her gently dwell with you amid your stalled cattle, when you have slain her mate.

Shall the blackening frost, when it hath blasted and starved all the sweet garden flowers, say to the rose, Abide with us; and shall she harken to such a wolfish suit?

”