Mistress of mistresses (30 page)

After
a while the Vicar stood up and began to walk again. Lessingham walked beside
him.

Lessingham
said: 'Once you have the main picture, the points of my concordat are as easily
seen as we can discern flies in a milkpot. I know this Duke, cousin, as you do
not. He is proud and violent: will stick at no extremity if you drive him and
hold him at bay. But he is given to laziness: loveth best his curious great
splendours, his women, voluptuousness, and other maddish toys, delicate
gardens where he doth paint and meditate. And he is an honourable man, will
hold firmly by
a
just
peace; and this peace is just.'

'Will
not she hound him on to some foul turn against me? that woman of his?'

'What
woman?' said Lessingham.

'Why,
is't not the Chancellor's sister? Zayana loveth her as his life, they say: 'can
wind him to her turn, I'm told.'

'Again,'
said Lessingham, not to follow this vein, "tis weapons in your hand to a
won Jeronimy, Beroald and Roder to your allegiance. The point of law hath
stuck,

I
know, in the Chancellor's gullet since the testament was first made known: by
this largesse of amnesty you purchase much secureness there.'

'Ay,
but 'twas put in 'pon urgency of Zayana: he'll get the thanks for it when he
shows it them, not I. And why needs he your warranty, cousin, as if you should
compel me to abide by it? By Satan's ear-feathers! there's neither you nor any
man on earth shall so compel me.'

'Compel's
not in it,' answered he. 'He knows I am in your counsels and that you would
listen to me: no more. Another great good: these vexations in north Rerek
should go off the boil now, when he hath called off Ercles and Aramond from
that business. Brief, we are not presently strong enough to hold down by force
no more than Outer Meszria, and that but with his good will. By so much the
more had it been folly to a carried the war south after this victory to
Southern Meszria and Zayana.'

They
walked the whole length of the parapet in silence, then the Vicar stopped and
took Lessingham by both arms above the elbow. 'Cousin,' he said, and there
sparkled in his eyes a most strange and unwonted kindness:

'That
Friend a Great mans mine strongely checks,

Who
railes into his beliefe, all his defects.

You
have saved me, very matter indeed. By God, your behaviour hath not deserved
such doggish dealing. Ask your reward: will you be Warden of the March of Ulba?
I'd told Mandricard he should have it: 'tis yours. Or will you have Megra? What
you will: you shall have it.'

Lessingham
smiled at him with that measure of admiration, contented and undeluded, that
is in a skilled skipper's eye when he marks, on a blue and sunny sea, the
white laughter of breakers above a hidden skerry. 'A noble offer,’ he said,
'and fitting in so great a prince. But I will not be a lord of land, cousin.
Like those birds Mamuques, that fly upon wingless wings and the air only feeds
them, such am I, I think: a storm-bird, and to no place will I be tied but live
by my sword. But, for such as I am I will take this good offer you have made
me; and two things I will choose: one a great matter, and one little.'

'Good.
The great one?'

'This
it is,' said Lessingham: 'that wheresoever I may be within the realm I bear
style and dignity of Captain-General of the Queen, having at my obedience,
under your sovereignty as Lord Protector, all armed levies in her behalf
whether by land or sea.'

The
Vicar blew out with bis lips.

Lessingham
said, 'You see I can open my mouth wide.'

'Ay,'
said the Vicar, after a minute. 'But I will fill it. To-day there's no such
office, save I suppose it vesteth in me by assumption, flowing from my powers
vicarial. I cannot tell where I should better employ it than on you. Conceive
it done. The next?'

'Thanks,
noble cousin,' said Lessingham. 'After so high a thing, 'tis almost churlish
ask you for more. Yet this goes with it. I wish your highness will, by decree
general throughout your realm of Rerek, proclaim, as for my body, like
dispensation and immunity as for your own particular. By this must all attempts
'gainst me, were they by your very commandment, carry from this time forth like
guilt as attempts 'gainst you and your throne and state do carry: and like
punishment.'

The
Vicar gave a scoffing laugh. 'Come, you would be witty now.'

'I
was never in plainer earnest,' said Lessingham.

Then
'tis a saucy claim, deserveth no answer.'

Lessingham
shrugged his shoulders. 'Be not sudden, cousin, the matter is of weight.
Indeed, it is no more than need.'

'I
wonder you will not ask me deliver up to you Gabriel and those six men: 'twere
scarcely more monstrous.'

'That
were one way,' said Lessingham, 'But I am reasonable. That were to shake your
authority: a thing you could never grant. But this, easily. And this is as good
for me.'

'Dear
Gods!' The Vicar laughed in his anger. 'If you but heard yourself speaking with
my ears! I'll tell you, cousin, you are like a kept woman: and the cost, I 'gin
to think, beyond the enjoyment. Sink away to hell then, for this is a thing you
could not in your senses hope for.'

The
falcon was perched still on the crag, alone and un-merry. At an instant
suddenly out of the sky there swept down at her a little unknown, as if she
were his prey: barely avoided her as he stooped, swept up again, and stooped
again. She, with wings half lifted and head lowered snakelike betwixt her
shoulders, faced with sudden beak each teasing stoop of his; and now she took
wing, and in ever widening spirals they rose skywards above Laimak, racing for
height. Lessingham, imperturbable with folded arms, watched that play. The
Vicar, following his eye, noted it too. And now as they swung wide apart, the
tassel-gentle from a momentary vantage in height stooped at her in mid-air,
avoiding her by inches as he dived past, while she in the same instant turned
on her back to face his onset, scrabbling in air at him with her pounces and
threatening with open beak. Twice and thrice they played over this battle in
the sky: then he fled high in air eastward, she pursuing, till they were lost
to sight.

‘I
have strained a note above Ela for a device,' said Lessingham upon an unruffled
easy speech, 'but you can scarce expect me, for safety of my person, be content
with less than this. I would not, by speaking on't, move an evil that is well
laid; yet partnership betwixt us can scarce hold if I must get a good guard to
secure me with swords and so forth, whensoever I am to lodge in your house of
Laimak.'

The
Vicar ground his teeth, then suddenly facing round at him, 'I know not', he
said, 'why I do not go through and murder you.'

'Why,
there it is,' said Lessingham. 'Have you not this moment laid great trust and
charge upon me, and will you sup up your words again? Have you not a thousand
tokens of my love and simple meaning to your highness? Yet, like some girl
ta'en with the green sickness, you will turn upon me: and as you are, so will
you still persist. 'Tis pity. Our fortunes have bettered soonest, I think, when
we have gone arm in arm.'

She
was back again, perched. And now came her mate again and stooped at her; and
again they mounted and went to their sport again, high in the blue. Lessingham
said, 'I'll go take a walk: leave you to yourself, cousin, to employ your mind
upon't.'

The
Vicar replied neither with word nor look. Left to himself, he leaned upon
folded arms looking north from the battlements: his brow smooth and clear, his
mouth set hard and grim, and his jowl, under the red bristly clipped growth of
beard, as if carved out of the unyielding granite. As a film is drawn at whiles
over the eyes of a hawk or a serpent, thought clouded his eyes. The
tassel-gentle was fled away again into the eastward airt, and the falcon at
length, returning from the pursuit, perched once more on her little rock. She
looked about, but this time he came not back again. And now she sat hunched,
alone, discontented.

So
it was in the end, that Lessingham had his way: confirmed by letters patent,
under hand of the Lord Protector and sealed with the great seal,
Captain-General of the Queen, with like inviolability of person and like guilt
laid upon any that should raise hand or weapon or draw plot against him, as
were it the Vicar's own person in question or one of the royal blood and line
of Fingiswold. With so much honour was Lessingham now entertained and
princelike estate in the open eye of the world, and proclaimed so, not in
Laimak only but up and down the land. And now, for certain days and weeks, he
was whiles with the Vicar in Laimak, and at whiles in the March, or south
beyond the Zenner, putting in order matters that were necessary for carrying
out of that concordat made at Ilkis. Nor was there found any man to speak
against that measure, but it was accepted of by all of them: by the High Admiral
Jeronimy, and by Earl Roder, and by the Chancellor. And all they with an
industrious loyalty upheld the Duke and Lessingham in the conduct of this
work, in so much that, as summer wore and July was turning toward August,
things were well set in order for a good peace; and that seemed like to hold,
since all were contented with it. With things in such case, Lessingham came
north again to Owldale, and men thought that he, that had been great before,
was by all these things grown greater.

Now
the Lord Horius Parry made a feast for his cousin Lessingham in the great
banquet-room in Laimak, and there were there mighty men of account from all the
dales and habited lands in Rerek, and they of the Vicar's
^/
household and his great officers, and Amaury and others that followed
Lessingham. And now when the feast was part done, the Vicar upon a pretext rose
from his seat and made Lessingham go with him privately out of the
banquet-hall, and so up upon the roof of the keep. Here they had many a time
taken counsel together: as upon the morrow of Lessingham's coming from
Mornagay, when he wrung from the Vicar the truth touching the taking off of
King Styllis and undertook that embassage to Zayana. On this secret roof they
walked now under stars which shone down with a mildness like sleep and with an
un-twinkling steadfastness through the region air that was woven in web and
woof of moonlight and where no wind stirred. Only Antares, sinking to the west
above the ridges of Armarick, blinked red with sometimes a sparkle of green
fire. The noise of feasting floated up faint from the banquet-hall. The hooting
of owls, as they went about their occasions, sounded at whiles from the wooded
hillsides and spaces of the sleeping valley afar. Breathing such airs, showered
down upon with such influences, flattered with such music, that the season of
sleep discourses and the ensphered peace of the summer's night, Lessingham
talked with the Lord Horius Parry of men and their factions within the land
and without, and of their actions and valour, and the ordering and grounding
of their several estates and powers; deliberating which of these it were fit
to encourage and rely upon, which were best coaxed and dallied withal, and
last, which ought upon first occasion to be suddenly extinguished. After which
mature deliberation they propounded to themselves this, that Lessingham should
shortly go north and across the Wold to Rialmar, there to perform for a while
his office of a commander, entertaining the people and assuring himself of the
great men: a thing not to be done by the Vicar himself, in so much as they of
those northern parts held him suspected and were not easily to be wooed to
serve him faithfully or cancel that sinister opinion they had held of him. But
Lessingham was not odious to them, but rather held in admiration, upon
experience in late wars both by soldiers and people, for one of fair dealing,
and for a man-at-arms fierce and courageous in his venturing upon and coming
off from dangers.

And
now while they walked, Lessingham, debating with himself of all these things,
was ware that the Vicar talked now of women, and how unfit it was they should
succeed to the government of states, where need was rather of princes that
should be both venerable and terrible: and so forth of women in generality: Tn
my conceit he understood it aright that said, "It is all but hogsflesh,
varied by sauce." And I think you too are of that opinion, cousin?'

'Yes,'
said Lessingham out of the starlight, as a man might answer a child: ‘I am of that
opinion.'

'And,
by that, the sured man for this further purpose. Cousin, it would comfort my
hand mightily could I bring this pretty lady-bird and emblem of sovereignty to
dwell here in Rerek. I do mistrust the folk about her in the north there. And
remember, she's of manable age: wooers, I hear tell on: that Derxis for one,
newly crowned in Akkama, a sweet young swanking: in Rialmar, I have't upon sure
intelligence, this very instant. Phrut! the cat will after kind. Therefore,
cousin, of this plain power I give you and make you commissionary: use what
means you will, but bring her south to me in Laimak.'