CHAPTER XII
AN AUSTRIAN PRINCESS AT THE SPANISH COURT
Up from the south came the young Prince of the Asturias to meet hisAustrian bride. His greeting was in accordance with the strictest rulesof Spanish etiquette, but all were favorably impressed by his graciousaffability and by the gentle dignity of his manner.
Under the eye of his thoughtful mother, this prince had been carefullyeducated to be the ruler of his country. As a child he was attended bypages of his own age, and they formed mimic councils and played at beinggrown-up rulers. He had been taught fencing by a celebrated swordsman,and at night his sword always hung at the head of his bed. When onlytwelve years of age he had been knighted on the battlefield by KingFerdinand, his father. He could paint and draw, and he could play onseveral different instruments, for Queen Isabella was determined thather son should be one of the most accomplished princes of his time.
The prince was accompanied by his royal father, and the Lady Margueriteand her suite were escorted in great state to the old city of Burgos.Here they were met by the queen and the Spanish court.
The steed ridden by Queen Isabella was covered with crimson cloth richlyembroidered with gold. Her saddle was like a chair of state, and sheseemed as if seated on a moving throne. She was still a handsome woman,with gold-tinted hair and soft, earnest eyes. Following her, and mountedon richly-caparisoned mules, were scores of court ladies who seemed tohave competed with each other in the magnificence of their costumes.With other high dignitaries of the church came the queen's confessor,Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo. This stern man was clothed in all thesplendor of his office, but underneath these elegant robes, we are told,was haircloth which scraped his flesh, already bruised by the frequentbeatings which he gave himself with a whip.
History tells us that Queen Isabella had taken great pains to arrangethe meeting of the royal family with the Austrian princess, and that shehad planned just who was to kiss and who was to embrace the youngstranger, but however this may be, the ceremony passed off in asatisfactory manner, and the Lady Marguerite was quite charmed with hernew mother.
Never had preparations so grand been made]
Never had preparations so grand been made for royal nuptials as werearranged for the wedding of the Prince of the Asturias with the LadyMarguerite of Hapsburg. There were present grandees representing thechivalry of Spain, men who had distinguished themselves on thebattlefield and in the tournament; there were ambassadors from thecourts of all the civilized world; there were dignitaries from all thecities of Spain, there were great ladies in glittering apparel, and theking and queen in their mantles of state; but most interesting of allwas the young prince, whom his people already loved, and his fair youngbride.
Dressed in his gayest suit, Le Glorieux stood where he could obtain thebest view of his young mistress. At the most interesting moment, just asthe ceremony was about to begin, there was a buzz of excitement aroundhim, and Don Geronimo whispered in his ear, "Will you stand aside? I amlooking for the pomander-box of Dona Clotilde, which has dropped to thefloor." But the fool folded his arms and pretended not to hear.
And then followed days of fetes and tourneys and tilts. The Spanishpeople enjoyed these amusements in a dignified and even a seriousmanner, and when the princess and her suite laughed and clapped theirhands at some particularly clever feat, the courtiers of Ferdinand andIsabella were shocked at such levity.
When the public rejoicings were over the prince and princess went totheir palace at Salamanca, a city of beautiful creamy stone, built onthree hills and in a horse-shoe shape, which, with its stately collegeof seventeen thousand students, gave many fetes and outdid itself inbull-fights to celebrate the coming of the youthful pair.
It is said that one of the first acts of Prince Juan was to engageprofessors and performers of music, both instrumental and vocal, who,with fiddles, organs, cymbals, hautboys, and other instruments, playedthe lively airs of Spain. He also had a large military band, and oneafternoon when Le Glorieux was lounging in the window listening to itsmusic, the princess entered the room. She wore a splendid gown with avery long train, and she looked quite tall and stately. It was the firsttime the jester had seen her alone since their arrival in this country,and he sprang to his feet, exclaiming, "Little Cousin----" just as hehad addressed her since the beginning of their acquaintance. But thePrincess of the Asturias held her head higher and eyed him coldly,without making a reply.
Very much chagrined at this treatment, for she ever had been mostgracious in her manner toward him, the fool turned and was about toleave the room without another word, when he was startled by a merrylaugh.
"Did I do it well?" she asked gayly.
"You did it too well! I was already homesick, and if you had turned toice like the people of this country, I should have been broken-hearted.Never was there a place so stiff and cold as this Spanish court. Theking is shorter than the queen and is not very big to look at when youcome to stature, but I would no more think of jesting with him, as Ialways did with Max, than I would think of sitting down to have a littlefun with my grandmother's tomb. And I am not a man who is easilychilled, either!"
"I am told," said the princess, "that I am too careless and gay, andthat I must be like the ladies of Spain. And although I am allowed toretain my own people about me, they must all conduct themselves in agrave and ceremonious manner."
"Thank fortune that I am a fool," said Le Glorieux, "for who ever heardof a jester who was grave and ceremonious? But I shall be sad andmournful, my Princess, if you freeze up as you did just now, andcontinue to stay frozen."
"I must try to please my husband's people," replied Margueriteseriously. "If I am one day to be Queen of Spain I must learn to be likea Spanish woman. And I hope that my own people will not offend byshowing too much levity and frivolity."
"One of your suite has become a thorough Spaniard," said Le Glorieux,"and that is Brutus. He follows the prince everywhere."
"Yes," replied Marguerite, "the prince loves him and Brutus is fond ofhis new master. In this he shows good judgment, for the prince is very,very good."
The princess sighed as she spoke and gazed dreamily out of the window."I wonder if she, too, is homesick," thought the jester. "Well, as forme, I have seen the bull-fights, the flowers, and oranges of Spain, andI wish I could take my little princess and go home to Max."
From the window they could see Prince Juan walking in the garden, and byhis side stepped Brutus, the master occasionally pausing to pat thedog's head or to stroke his silky ears. "He is a good man," remarked thejester, "or Brutus would not be so fond of him."
The Prince took a seat on a marble bench]
Now the prince took a seat on a marble bench beside the fountain andturned his pale face, with its thoughtful brow, toward the sinking sun,still absently drawing the hound's ears through his thin white fingers."I said something to him this morning that used to make the emperorlaugh, but the prince only smiled in that far-off way, as if his mindwere traveling through the moon," said Le Glorieux. "He is younger thanPhilibert, and Philibert is always ready to laugh. And how cheerful andgay Max always was, though sometimes----"
"Do not, oh, do not!" cried the princess. "Let us not talk of my father,or any of the people at home! I am going to weep; I shall be as tearfulas poor Cunegunda," she went on, half-laughing, as she brushed the tearsfrom her eyes. "What would her Majesty, Queen Isabella, say were she tosee me weeping with my jester--she who always is so careful never tobetray her emotions, and who, even when she is ill, never utters a moan?The prince will come soon and we are to give an audience to some personsof distinction, and it will not do for me to be seen with swollen eyes."
"There, there," said the jester, taking her handkerchief and wiping hereyes as if she had been a little child. "Your lashes are long and thick,you see, and the tears hang to them and make them seem like more tearsthan they really are. They will spoil your pretty eyes. And you are notreally sad, you know, for why should you be, when you will one day be
queen of one of the great nations of the earth?"
"Somehow I do not care about that part of it, Le Glorieux, and I hopeKing Ferdinand and dear Queen Isabella will live to be very, very old.But I can be dignified when I like, can I not, Le Glorieux?"
"Most certainly you can, my little lady. That night when you werebrought a prisoner before Anne of Brittany you were as dignified as awoman of forty."
"And as I grow older it will be easier for me to be silent and cold. Iam only sixteen now."
"Of course it will be. The older people grow, the more silent and coldthey are. That is to say, as a rule. Clotilde, now, is old and cold, butshe is not always silent. There you are smiling, and your tears are allgone; do not get into the habit of weeping. As I understand it, you areexpected neither to smile nor weep, but get into a humor half-waybetween the two and you will be just right."
"Le Glorieux," said the princess, "if you are not happy in Spain, thereis no reason why you should stay here. I will send you home to myfather, who will be glad to have you with him. You have plenty offriends there and you will be contented."
"And you would be willing to have me go, you could spare me, littleCousin?" asked the fool sadly.
"I am not thinking of myself. I should miss you sorely. But I want youto live where you will be happiest."
"Then that will be where you are, little Princess. No matter ifFerdinand commands me to be as sour and grave as one of the dried-upprofessors in the university, here do I remain."
Prince Juan entered. He bent gracefully and pressed Marguerite's fingersto his lips, then he offered his arm, and thus they left the room.
The jester wandered to the garden, where he remained for a long time onthe seat vacated by the prince. He plucked a branch of pomegranateblossoms and fastened it to the front of his yellow coat. "Bright colorshelp to make one cheerful," murmured he, and rising, he went down to theriver, and leaning over the old stone bridge, he looked into the dingywaters. "They tell me that the waters of the Tormes River will make oneforget all he knows if he drinks of them," thought the fool. "They havea saying here if any one forgets anything, 'He has been drinking of thewaters of the Tormes.'" Twilight had closed in around him when he becameconscious of some one standing beside him. It was a tall man in a longblack cloak, and wearing a tall pointed black hat. He was very thin andhis small eyes were like black beads.
"You were gazing into the waters of the Tormes, Senor," said thestranger, in a melancholy voice.
"If you are telling me that as a piece of news you must not mind if I amnot surprised at it," replied the fool.
"Do you know the effect produced upon those who drink of this water,Senor?" asked the stranger, ignoring the flippancy of the jester'sreply.
"Judging from the color of the water, I should say the effect would begritty," replied Le Glorieux.
"They are the waters of oblivion," went on the tall man; "those whodrink of them forget all they know."
"That would not be a great effort for some people," said Le Glorieux.
"One cup of this water and the past is completely forgotten," repeatedthe stranger.
"Some people might be glad to forget their past," remarked the fool.
"But all wisdom is forgotten, too," the tall man urged in reply.
"Have you tried it?"
Without noticing the rather uncomplimentary character of this question,the stranger clutched the lower corner of his long mantle in his handand folding his arms looked down into the river for a few minutes beforehe replied, "No, I have not tasted of these waters, for I need all of mywisdom. I am the most learned doctor of all the learned ones in theUniversity of Salamanca."
"Retiring and modest of you to say so," replied the jester.
"The whole world has heard of Don Velerio de Farrapos," said thatgentleman.
"Then I do not live in the world, for this is the first time I haveheard that name."
"Do not lie to me," said the other, frowning, "you _have_ heard it."
"Very well, if you insist upon it," said Le Glorieux. "In order to beeasy and comfortable together, we will say that my father had a blackcat of that name. But do not ask me to remember it, if you please. Ialready have the name of one Spaniard fixed in my mind, and I am notgoing to have it crowded out by yours. But what have you done that makesyou talked about by all the world?"
"I have discovered the elixir of life"]
"I have made a great discovery."
"What is it?"
"The elixir of life."
"You do not mean it?"
"The savants of the Orient," went on the Spaniard, "claimed that thereare one hundred and one ways in which a man may lose his life. He maydie by poison, by drowning, bad living, a stroke of lightning, or inninety-six other ways. But if he dies before he is one hundred yearsold, it is the result of accident, or of his own ignorance orwilfulness. So you see it is not so very easy to die, when all is saidand done."
"But you can not convince people of that; they will keep on dying," saidthe fool.
"But they need not, now that I have discovered the elixir of life,"replied Don Velerio, in a deep voice.
Le Glorieux now surveyed him with a feeling of awe. Men were searchingat this very time for the elixir of life, and why should it not havebeen discovered by this learned doctor of Salamanca?
"It is only necessary to take it once in fifty years," observed DonVelerio carelessly.
"That seems a long while between doses," responded the fool. "But whileyou are about it, I should think you would add something to the medicineto put flesh on your bones," he continued, looking at Don Velerio's thinlegs, which, clad in black hose, looked like slender iron rods.
"Flesh," said the learned man, "is nothing."
"It certainly is not much in your case," returned the jester.
"But life, life is everything," went on Don Velerio, waving the handwhich still clutched the corner of the mantle, a gesture which gave himthe appearance of a large bat. "I expect to live to the age of fivethousand five hundred and fifty-seven years," said he.
"I am afraid you are just a trifle ambitious," said the jester.
"The composition of my elixir is a great secret," said the Spaniard. "Itis made from serpents' broth," and he raised his voice exultantly.
"It must be a great secret since you bawl it out like that." Le Glorieuxhad now lost all faith in the wisdom of this "learned doctor."
"He doubts me! He dares to doubt me!" cried Don Velerio, in a shrillvoice, and before he had time to realize what was happening, the jesterwas pushed over the low balustrade of the bridge and into the darkwaters below, where he fell with a loud splash.
This piece of treachery on the part of Don Velerio would not have been avery serious matter, for the jester was a good swimmer, had not thevictim of it struck an abutment of the bridge as he went down, whichstunned him and prevented him from making any effort to save himself. Hewould have drowned had not two men in a rowboat not far away succeededin dragging the unconscious fool into their boat.
* * * * *
When he returned to his senses he was in his own room, and a nun, with akind and gentle face, was sitting beside him.
"Why do you come here to watch me sleep?" he asked, and was surprised tofind that his voice was so weak.
"You must be quiet; you have been very ill," said she.
"I ill? Now that is a queer thing, a very queer thing! What made meill?"
"Do not trouble your head about it. It is best for you to remainperfectly silent."
"I will not be quiet until you have answered my questions. If anybodyought to be interested in this affair, it seems to me I ought to be theone."
The nun reflected a moment, then she said thoughtfully, "Perhaps itmight be better to tell you, after all. You fell off of the bridge intothe river. You were saved by two boatmen, but you seemed to be in astupor."
"I remember all about it now," cried the jester. "It was that old blackspider of a doctor who pushed me in.
Let me up and I will break everybone in his body!"
The sister put her hand to his breast and pushed him back to his pillowagain, and he was astonished to find how easily this delicate womancould manage him. "You must not grow excited," she said gently.
"He came there and talked to me about his old elixir of life," said LeGlorieux. "Did it of his own accord; I never invited him; then he said Idoubted him, which I did, and he pushed me over."
"Don Velerio is very sensitive about his discovery," said the nun, "buthe did not intend really to harm you."
"He did a queer thing for a man who did not intend anything by it."
"Don Velerio is flighty at times, and he was sorry for what he had done.He has sent you a vial of his elixir of life."
"Send it straight back to him and tell him, with my compliments, to takeit himself and see if it will make him----"
The door opened before he had finished the sentence, and the princessentered, followed by a page who bore a torch to light the way along thecorridors. She was dressed as if for a grand fete. A coronet rested onher hair, gems flashed about her throat, her arms, and her slenderwaist. In all her gorgeous array she knelt on the floor and took in bothher own the hand of the jester.
"Little Cousin," said he.
"Oh, he is conscious!" she cried. "I am so rejoiced to know it! Now youare going to recover right away, are you not, my poor Le Glorieux?"
"The sight of you, as you look now, ought to make even the broken statueof a man pull himself together," he replied, smiling faintly.
"Oh, it is so good to hear you talk," she exclaimed, laughing, thoughher eyes were full of tears.
"I did not know that it was so strange a thing to hear me talk," saidhe.
"Why, you have not said one word for more than two weeks!" she saidimpulsively. "But perhaps I ought not to have told you."
"I did not think it best to tell the patient too much, your Highness,"said the nun almost reproachfully. "He seemed so anxious to talk that Iallowed him to ask some questions, but I was just about to bid him bequiet when your gracious Highness entered the room."
"I am always blundering, even with you, Le Glorieux," said the princess,rising, "but now I will go. Try to sleep, try to get well as soon aspossible. And now good-by for the present." She smiled down upon him,took her long train over her arm, and motioning to the page to open thedoor, went from the room.
"She is a great princess; she is the future Queen of Spain, yet she doesnot forget the poor jester," murmured the sick man, while to himself hiswords sounded as if they had been uttered by some one else and he seemedto sail away into a silent sea.
When he once more became conscious the bright sun was streaming in atthe open window, and standing beside his bed and looking down at himwith coldly blinking eyes, was the Lady Clotilde.
"I thought I had died and gone to Heaven," said the jester weakly, "butthis is only purgatory."
"I do not know that you ought to talk," said the Lady Clotilde. "I wishyou had not returned to consciousness while Sister Barbara is out. Inever know what to do with sick people."
"I have been talking all my life, and it has not killed me yet," saidthe jester.
"I came on behalf of her Highness, the Princess of the Asturias," saidthe Lady Clotilde. "Not being able to come in person, she sent me to seethat you were well cared for and had everything that you needed."
"She was here last night," said he; "she said she was so glad to hear metalk again."
"Oh, that was some time ago. She has been here since, but you did notrecognize her. You have been raving with fever for six weeks."
"Fever?" he asked, considerably puzzled. "Why, I thought I was pushedover a bridge."
"And so you were, but it terminated in a fever. The leeches do not knowwhether the accident brought on the fever, or whether the malady wasalready in your system. They have had several consultations about it."
"I do not see the sense of consulting about a thing like that. Whatdifference does it make what gave me the fever, since it is very evidentthat I have it? How long have I been here altogether?"
"Just eight weeks ago this night, for I remember I ordered a gown fromthe best tailor of Salamanca, and he promised it in a week, and it hasnot come yet, and it was the night of your accident, for I heard aboutit just as the tailor was leaving the palace, where he had come to takemy order. Eight weeks, think of it, and that gown no nearer finished, Iwill warrant, than it was the day it was fitted! These Spanish tradesmenare the slowest people in this world." And the Lady Clotilde became verymuch excited about her wrongs.
"Well, I think that your situation was better than mine during thoseeight weeks," said the jester, "but I dare say I was in no higher feverthan you were throughout that time. I do not suppose I have missedanything by being ill, except, perhaps, several dozen bull-fights. Iwould I were back in Vienna again," he continued, with a sigh.
"Vienna? I would not return there for the world," said the lady. "Theclimate of Spain is simply glorious."
"I am not especially fond of climate by itself," said the fool.
"I really do think you ought not to talk," said the Lady Clotilde. "I dowish you had not returned to consciousness while Sister Barbara isout."
"You said that before," said the fool fretfully. "Why would it not bejust as easy to wish that Sister Barbara had been in when I did returnto consciousness?"
"I see that you are inclined to be captious," returned the Lady Clotildecalmly. "They say Prince Juan is like an angel."
"What has that to do with me?" asked Le Glorieux wearily. "He is not anear relative of mine."
"I forgot that you were ignorant of the fact that his Highness is very,very ill."
"Ill? His Highness ill?"
"Yes, he also has the fever, the same that you have, but the leeches areconfident that they can cure him."
The fever had now spent itself, and Le Glorieux, being naturally of astrong constitution, made rapid progress toward recovery. Margueritecame no more, for every moment was spent beside the couch of the prince,who was making a brave fight for his life.
But one morning the bells began to toll, and it seemed as if a pall hadsettled over the land, for the Prince of the Asturias, the hope ofSpain, was no more! The heir to the throne of a great kingdom had bowedhis young head meekly to the divine will, and gladly had exchanged thesplendors of earth for the joys of Heaven. History says, "All thenations mourned, and the court, instead of being hung with white serge,was draped in sackcloth.... Brutus, a beautiful hound belonging to theprince, could not be induced to leave his body, but went to his tomb anddied there."
It was a pale and sorrowful queen whom Le Glorieux beheld when next hewent to court. The fairy-like columns and sparkling fountains of herpalaces were no longer a delight to Queen Isabella; for her the roses inthe Alhambra gardens had lost their fragrance, and she thought withindifference of her new possessions across the sea, for she had lost thedearest treasure of all, and the great queen had become the sorrowingmother.