A CAPTIVE KNIGHT--RICHARD AND ALICE
---dum fata, sînunt. jungamus amores:
mox veniet tenebris. Mors adoperta caput:
jam subrepet incra otas, nee amare deeebii,
dicere nee ucuio blandîtias capite.
Let us, while Fate allows, in love combine,
Ere our last night its shade around us throw,
Or Ages slow-creeping quench the fire divine,
And tender words befit not locks of snow.
The shuttlecock had been some time on the wing, struck to and fro
with unerring aim, and to all appearances would never have touched the
ground, if Lord Curryfin had not seen, or fancied he saw, symptoms of
fatigue on the part of his fair antagonist. He therefore, instead of
returning the shuttlecock, struck it upward, caught it in his hand,
and presented it to her, saying, 'I give in. The victory is yours.' She
answered, 'The victory is yours, as it always is, in courtesy.'
She said this with a melancholy smile, more fascinating to him than the
most radiant expression from another. She withdrew to the drawing-room,
motioning to him not to follow.
In the drawing-room she found Miss Gryll, who appeared to be reading; at
any rate, a book was open before her.
_Miss Gryll._ You did not see me just now, as I passed through the hall.
You saw only two things: the shuttlecock, and your partner in the game.
_Miss Niphet._. It is not possible to play, and see anything but the
shuttlecock.
_Miss Gryll._ And the hand that strikes it.
_Miss Niphet._. That comes unavoidably into sight.
_Miss Gryll._ My dear Alice, you are in love, and do not choose to
confess it.
[Illustration: You are in love, and do not choose to confess it. 279-239]
_Miss Niphet._. I have no right to be in love with your suitor.
_Miss Gryll._ He was my suitor, and has not renounced his pursuit; but
he is your lover. I ought to have seen long ago, that from the moment
his eyes rested on you all else was nothing to him. With all that habit
of the world which enables men to conceal their feelings in society,
with all his exertion to diffuse his attentions as much as possible
among all the young ladies in his company, it must have been manifest to
a careful observer, that when it came, as it seemed in ordinary course,
to be your turn to be attended to, the expression of his features was
changed from complacency and courtesy to delight and admiration. I
could not have failed to see it, if I had not been occupied with other
thoughts. Tell me candidly, do you not think it is so?
_Miss Niphet._ Indeed, my dear Morgana, I did not designedly enter into
rivalry with you; but I do think you conjecture rightly.
_Miss Gryll._ And if he were free to offer himself to you, and if he did
so offer himself, you would accept him?
_Miss Niphet._. Assuredly I would.
_Miss Gryll._ Then, when you next see him, he shall be free. I have set
my happiness on another cast, and I will stand the hazard of the die.
_Miss Niphet._. You are very generous, Morgana: for I do not think you
give up what you do not value.
_Miss Gryll._ No, indeed. I value him highly. So much so, that I
have hesitated, and might have finally inclined to him, if I had not
perceived his invincible preference of you. I am sorry, for your sake
and his, that I did not clearly perceive it sooner; but you see what it
is to be spoiled by admirers. I did not think it possible that any one
could be preferred to me. I ought to have thought it possible, but I had
no experience in that direction. So now you see a striking specimen of
mortified vanity.
_Miss Niphet._. You have admirers in abundance, Morgana: more than have
often fallen to the lot of the most attractive young women. And love
is such a capricious thing, that to be the subject of it is no proof of
superior merit. There are inexplicable affinities of sympathy, that make
up an irresistible attraction, heaven knows how.
_Miss Gryll._ And these inexplicable affinities Lord Curryfin has found
in you, and you in him.
_Miss Niphet._. He has never told me so.
_Miss Gryll._ Not in words: but looks and actions have spoken for him.
You have both struggled to conceal your feelings from others, perhaps
even from yourselves. But you are both too ingenuous to dissemble
successfully. You suit each other thoroughly: and I have no doubt you
will find in each other the happiness I most cordially wish you.
Miss Gryll soon found an opportunity of conversing with Lord Curryfin,
and began with him somewhat sportively: 'I have been thinking,' she
said, 'of an old song which contains a morsel of good advice--
Be sure to be off with the old love,
Before you are on with the new.
You begin by making passionate love to me, and all at once you turn
round to one of my young friends, and say, "Zephyrs whisper how I love
you."'
_Lord Curryfin._ Oh no! no, indeed. I have not said that, nor anything
to the same effect.
_Miss Gryll._ Well, if you have not exactly said it, you have implied
it. You have looked it. You have felt it. You cannot conceal it. You
cannot deny it. I give you notice that, if I die for love of you, I
shall haunt you.
_Lord Curryfin._ Ah! Miss Gryll, if you do not die till you die for
love of me, you will be as immortal as Circe, whom you so divinely
represented.
_Miss Gryll._ You offered yourself to me, to have and to hold, for ever
and aye. Suppose I claim you. Do not look so frightened. You deserve
some punishment, but that would be too severe. But, to a certain extent,
you belong to me, and I claim the right to transfer you. I shall make
a present of you to _Miss Niphet._. So, according to the old rules
of chivalry, I order you, as my captive by right, to present yourself
before her, and tell her that you have come to receive her commands, and
obey them to the letter. I expect she will keep you in chains for life.
You do not look much alarmed at the prospect. Yet you must be aware that
you are a great criminal; and you have not a word to say in your own
justification.
_Lord Curryfin._ Who could be insensible to charms like yours, if hope
could have mingled with the contemplation? But there were several causes
by which hope seemed forbidden, and therefore----
_Miss Gryll._ And therefore when beauty, and hope, and sympathy shone
under a more propitious star, you followed its guidance. You could not
help yourself:
What heart were his that could resist
That melancholy smile?
I shall flatter myself that I might have kept you if I had tried hard
for it at first; but
Il pentirsi da sesto nulla giova.
No doubt you might have said with the old song,
I ne'er could any lustre see
In eyes that would not look on me.
But you scarcely gave me time to look on you before you were gone. You
see, however, like our own Mirror of Knighthood, I make the best of my
evil fate, and
Cheer myself up with ends of verse,
And sayings of philosophers.
_Lord Curryfin._ I am glad to see you so merry; for even if your heart
were more deeply touched by another than it ever could have been by me,
I think I may say of you, in your own manner,
So light a heel
Will never wear the everlasting flint.
I hope and I believe you will always trip joyously over the surface of
the world. You are the personification of L'Allegro.
_Miss Gryll._ I do not know how that may be. But go now to the
personification of La Penserosa. If you do not turn her into a brighter
Allegro than I am, you may say I have no knowledge of woman's heart.
It was not long after this dialogue that Lord Curryfin found an
opportunity of speaking to Miss Niphet alone. He said, 'I am charged
with a duty, such as was sometimes imposed on knights in the old days of
chivalry. A lady, who claims me as her captive by right, has ordered me
to kneel at your feet, to obey your commands, and to wear your chains,
if you please to impose them.'
_Miss Niphet._ To your kneeling I say, Rise; for your obedience, I have
no commands; for chains, I have none to impose.
_Lord Curryfin._ You have imposed them, I wear them already,
inextricably, indissolubly.
_Miss Niphet._ If I may say, with the witch in _Thalaba_,
Only she,
Who knit his bonds, can set him free,
I am prepared to unbind the bonds. Rise my lord, rise.
_Lord Curryfin._ I will rise if you give me your hand to lift me up.
_Miss Niphet._. There it is. Now that it has helped you up, let it go.
_Lord Curryfin._ And do not call me my lord.
_Miss Niphet._ What shall I call you?
_Lord Curryfin._ Call me Richard, and let me call you Alice.
_Miss Niphet._. That is a familiarity only sanctioned by longer intimacy
than ours has been.
_Lord Curryfin._ Or closer?
_Miss Niphet._ We have been very familiar friends during the brief term
of our acquaintance. But let go my hand.
Lord Curryfin, I have set my heart on being allowed to call you Alice,
and on your calling me Richard.
_Miss Niphet._ It must not be so--at least, not yet.
_Lord Curryfin._ There is nothing I would not do to acquire the right.
_Miss Niphet._ Nothing?
_Lord Curryfin._ Nothing.
_Miss Niphet._ How thrives your suit with Miss Gryll?
_Lord Curryfin._ That is at an end. I have her permission--her command
she calls it--to throw myself at your feet, and on your mercy.
_Miss Niphet._ How did she take leave of you, crying or laughing?
_Lord Curryfin._ Why, if anything, laughing.
_Miss Niphet._. Do you not feel mortified?
_Lord Curryfin._ I have another and deeper feeling, which predominates
over any possible mortification.
_Miss Niphet._ And that is--
_Lord Curryfin._ Can you doubt what it is!
_Miss Niphet._. I will not pretend to doubt. I have for some time been
well aware of your partiality for me.
_Lord Curryfin._ Partiality! Say love, adoration, absorption of all
feelings into one.
_Miss Niphet._. Then you may call me Alice. But once more, let go my
hand.
_Lord Curryfin._ My hand, is it not?
_Miss Niphet._. Yours, when you claim it.
_Lord Curryfin._ Then thus I seal my claim.
He kissed her hand as respectfully as was consistent with 'masterless
passion'; and she said to him, 'I will not dissemble. If I have had one
wish stronger than another--strong enough to exclude all others--it has
been for the day when you might be free to say to me what you have now
said. Am I too frank with you?'
_Lord Curryfin._ Oh, heaven, no! I drink in your words as a stream from
paradise.
He sealed his claim again, but this time it was on her lips. The rose
again mantled on her cheek, but the blush was heightened to damask. She
withdrew herself from his arms, saying, 'Once for all, till you have an
indisputable right.'