But for our trusty brother-in-law-and the Abbot,
With all the rest of that consorted crew,--
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels:--
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear.
RICHARD II.
As Hereward spoke the last words narrated in the foregoing chapter, he
left the count in his apartment, and proceeded to the Blacquernal
Palace. We traced his first entrance into the court, but since then he
had frequently been summoned, not only by order of the Princess Anna
Comnena, who delighted in asking him questions concerning the customs
of his native country, and marking down the replies in her own inflated
language; but also by the direct command of the Emperor himself, who
had the humour of many princes, that of desiring to obtain direct
information from persons in a very inferior station in their Court. The
ring which the Princess had given to the Varangian, served as a
pass-token more than once, and was now so generally known by the slaves
of the palace, that Hereward had only to slip it into the hand of a
principal person among them, and was introduced into a small chamber,
not distant from the saloon already mentioned, dedicated to the Muses.
In this small apartment, the Emperor, his spouse Irene, and their
accomplished daughter Anna Comnena, were seated together, clad in very
ordinary apparel, as indeed the furniture of the room itself was of the
kind used by respectable citizens, saving that mattrasses, composed of
eiderdown, hung before each door to prevent the risk of eavesdropping.
"Our trusty Varangian," said the Empress.
"My guide and tutor respecting the manners of those steel-clad men,"
said the Princess Anna Comnena, "of whom it is so necessary that I
should form an accurate idea."
"Your Imperial Majesty," said the Empress, "will not, I trust, think
your consort and your muse-inspired daughter, are too many to share
with you the intelligence brought by this brave and loyal man?"
"Dearest wife and daughter," returned the Emperor, "I have hitherto
spared you the burden of a painful secret, which I have locked in my
own bosom, at whatever expense of solitary sorrow and unimparted
anxiety. Noble daughter, you in particular will feel this calamity,
learning, as you must learn, to think odiously of one, of whom it has
hitherto been your duty to hold a very different opinion."
"Holy Mary!" exclaimed the Princess.
"Rally yourself," said the Emperor; "remember you are a child of the
purple chamber, born, not to weep for your father's wrongs, but to
avenge them,--not to regard even him who has lain by your side as half
so important as the sacred Imperial grandeur, of which you are yourself
a partaker."
"What can such words preface?" said Anna Comnena, in great agitation.
"They say," answered the Emperor, "that the Caesar is an ungrateful man
to all my bounties, and even to that which annexed him to my own.
house, and made him by adoption my own son. He hath consorted himself
with a knot of traitors, whose very names are enough to raise the foul
fiend, as if to snatch his assured prey!"
"Could Nicephorus do this?" said the astonished and forlorn Princess;
"Nicephorus, who has so often called my eyes the lights by which he
steered his path? Could he do this to my father, to whose exploits he
has listened hour after hour, protesting that he knew not whether it
was the beauty of the language, or the heroism of the action, which
most enchanted him? Thinking with the same thought, seeing with the
same eye, loving with the same heart,--O, my father! it is impossible
that he could be so false. Think of the neighbouring Temple of the
Muses!"
"And if I did," murmured Alexius in his heart, "I should think of the
only apology which could be proposed for the traitor. A little is well
enough, but the full soul loatheth the honey-comb." Then speaking
aloud, "My daughter," he said, "be comforted; we ourselves were
unwilling to believe the shameful truth; but our guards have been
debauched; their commander, that ungrateful Achilles Tatius, with the
equal traitor, Agelastes, have been seduced to favour our imprisonment
or murder; and, alas for Greece in the very moment when she required
the fostering care of a parent, she was to be deprived of him by a
sudden and merciless blow!"
Here the Emperor wept, whether for the loss to be sustained by his
subjects, or of his own life, it is hard to say.
"Methinks," said Irene, "your Imperial Highness is slow in taking
measures against the danger."
"Under your gracious permission, mother," answered the Princess, "I
would rather say he was hasty in giving belief to it. Methinks the
evidence of a Varangian, granting him to be ever so stout a
man-at-arms, is but a frail guarantee against the honour of your
son-in-law--the approved bravery and fidelity of the captain of your
guards--the deep sense, virtue, and profound wisdom, of the greatest of
your philosophers"--
"And the conceit of an over-educated daughter," said the Emperor, "who
will not allow her parent to judge in what most concerns him. I will
tell thee, Anna, I know every one of them, and the trust which may be
reposed in them; the honour of your Nicephorus--the bravery and
fidelity of the Acolyte--and the virtue and wisdom of Agelastes--have I
not had them all in my purse? And had my purse continued well filled,
and my arm strong as it was of late, there they would have still
remained. But the butterflies went off as the weather became cold, and
I must meet the tempest without their assistance. You talk of want of
proof? I have proof sufficient when I see danger; this honest soldier
brought me indications which corresponded with my own private remarks,
made on purpose. Varangian he shall be of Varangians; Acolyte he shall
be named, in place of the present traitor; and who knows what may come
thereafter?"
"May it please your Highness," said the Varangian, who had been
hitherto silent, "many men in this empire rise to dignity by the fall
of their original patrons, but it is a road to greatness to which I
cannot reconcile my conscience; moreover, having recovered a friend,
from whom I was long ago separated, I shall require, in short space,
your Imperial license for going hence, where I shall leave thousands of
enemies behind me, and spending my life, like many of my countrymen,
under the banner of King William of Scotland"--
"Part with _thee_, most inimitable man!" cried the Emperor, with
emphasis; "where shall I get a soldier--a champion--a friend--so
faithful?"
"Noble sir," replied the Anglo-Saxon, "I am every way sensible to your
goodness and munificence; but let me entreat you to call me by my own
name, and to promise me nothing but your forgiveness, for my having
been the agent of such confusion among your Imperial servants. Not only
is the threatened fate of Achilles Tatius, my benefactor; of the
Caesar, whom I think my well-wisher; and even of Agelastes himself,
painful, so far as it is of my bringing round; but also I have known it
somehow happen, that those on whom your Imperial Majesty has lavished
the most valuable expressions of your favour one day, were the next day
food to fatten the chough and crow. And this, I acknowledge, is a
purpose, for which I would not willingly have it said I had brought my
English limbs to these Grecian shores."
"Call thee by thine own name, my Edward," said the Emperor, (while he
muttered aside--"by Heaven, I have again forgot the name of the
barbarian!")--"by thine own name certainly for the present, but only
until we shall devise one more fitted for the trust we repose in thee.
Meantime, look at this scroll, which contains, I think, all the
particulars which we have been able to learn of this plot, and give it
to these unbelieving women, who will not credit that an Emperor is in
danger, till the blades of the conspirators' poniards are clashing
within his ribs."
Hereward did as he was commanded, and having looked at the scroll, and
signified, by bending his head, his acquiescence in its contents, he
presented it to Irene, who had not read long, ere, with a countenance
so embittered that she had difficulty in pointing out the cause of her
displeasure to her daughter, she bade her, with animation, "Read
that--read that, and judge of the gratitude and affection of thy
Caesar!"
The Princess Anna Comnena awoke from a state of profound and
overpowering melancholy, and looked at the passage pointed out to her,
at first with an air of languid curiosity, which presently deepened
into the most intense interest. She clutched the scroll as a falcon
does his prey, her eye lightened with indignation; and it was with the
cry of the bird when in fury that she exclaimed, "Bloody-minded,
double-hearted traitor! what wouldst thou have? Yes, father," she said,
rising in fury, "it is no longer the voice of a deceived princess that
shall intercede to avert from the traitor Nicephorus the doom he has
deserved! Did he think that one born in the purple chamber could be
divorced--murdered, perhaps--with the petty formula of the Romans,
'Restore the keys---be no longer my domestic drudge?'[Footnote: The
laconic form of the Roman divorce.] Was a daughter of the blood of
Comnenus liable to such insults as the meanest of Quirites might bestow
on a family housekeeper!"
So saying, she dashed the tears from her eyes, and her countenance,
naturally that of beauty and gentleness, became animated with the
expression of a fury. Hereward looked at her with a mixture of fear,
dislike and compassion. She again burst forth, for nature having given
her considerable abilities, had lent her at the same time an energy of
passion, far superior in power to the cold ambition of Irene, or the
wily, ambidexter, shuffling policy of the Emperor.
"He shall abye it," said the Princess; "he shall dearly abye it! False,
smiling, cozening traitor!--and for that unfeminine barbarian!
Something of this I guessed, even at that old fool's banqueting-house;
and yet if this unworthy Caesar submits his body to the chance of arms,
he is less prudent than I have some reason to believe. Think you he
will have the madness to brand us with such open neglect, my father?
and will you not invent some mode of ensuring our revenge?"
"Soh!" thought the Emperor, "this difficulty is over; she will run down
hill to her revenge, and will need the snaffle and curb more than the
lash. If every jealous dame in Constantinople were to pursue her fury
as unrelentingly, our laws should be written, like Draco's, not in ink,
but in blood.--Attend to me now," he said aloud, "my wife, my daughter,
and thou, dear Edward, and you shall learn, and you three only, my mode
of navigating the vessel of the state through these shoals."
"Let us see distinctly," continued Alexius, "the means by which they
propose to act, and these shall instruct us how to meet them. A certain
number of the Varangians are unhappily seduced, under pretence of
wrongs, artfully stirred up by their villanous general. A part of them
are studiously to be arranged nigh our person--the traitor Ursel, some
of them suppose, is dead, but if it were so, his name is sufficient to
draw together his old factionaries--I have a means of satisfying them
on that point, on which I shall remain silent for the present.--A
considerable body of the Immortal Guards have also given way to
seduction; they are to be placed to support the handful of treacherous
Varangians, who are in the plot to attack our person.--Now. a slight
change in the stations of the soldiery, which thou, my faithful Edward
--or--a--a--whatever thou art named,--for which thou, I say, shalt have
full authority, will derange the plans of the traitors, and place the
true men in such position around them as to cut them to pieces with
little trouble."
"And the combat, my lord?" said the Saxon.
"Thou hadst been no true Varangian hadst thou not enquired after that,"
said the Emperor, nodding good-humouredly towards him. "As to the
combat, the Caesar has devised it, and it shall be my care that he
shall not retreat from the dangerous part of it. He cannot in honour
avoid fighting with this woman, strange as the combat is; and however
it ends, the conspiracy will break forth, and as assuredly as it comes
against persons prepared, and in arms, shall it be stifled in the blood
of the conspirators!"
"My revenge does not require this," said the Princess; "and your
Imperial honour is also interested that this Countess shall be
protected."
"It is little business of mine," said the Emperor. "She comes here with
her husband altogether uninvited. He behaves with insolence in my
presence, and deserves whatever may be the issue to himself or his lady
of their mad adventure. In sooth, I desired little more than to give
him a fright with those animals whom their ignorance judged enchanted,
and to give his wife a slight alarm about the impetuosity of a Grecian
lover, and there my vengeance should have ended. But it may be that his
wife may be taken under my protection, now that little revenge is over."
"And a paltry revenge it was," said the Empress, "that you, a man past
middle life, and with a wife who might command some attention, should
constitute yourself the object of alarm to such a handsome man as Count
Robert, and the Amazon his wife."
"By your favour, dame Irene, no," said the Emperor. "I left that part
of the proposed comedy to my son-in-law the Caesar."
But when the poor Emperor had in some measure stopt one floodgate, he
effectually opened another, and one which was more formidable. "The
more shame to your Imperial wisdom, my father!" exclaimed the Princess
Anna Comnena; "it is a shame, that with wisdom and a beard like yours,
you should be meddling in such indecent follies as admit disturbance
into private families, and that family your own daughter's! Who can say
that the Caesar Nicephorus Briennius ever looked astray towards another
woman than his wife, till the Emperor taught him to do so, and involved
him in a web of intrigue and treachery, in which he has endangered the
life of his father-in-law?"
"Daughter! daughter! daughter!"--said the Empress; "daughter of a
she-wolf, I think, to goad her parent at such an unhappy time, when all
the leisure he has is too little to defend his life!"
"Peace, I pray you, women both, with your senseless clamours," answered
Alexius, "and let me at least swim for my life undisturbed with your
folly. God knows if I am a man to encourage, I will not say the reality
of wrong, but even its mere appearance!"
These words he uttered, crossing himself, with a devout groan. His wife
Irene, in the meantime, stept before him, and said, with a bitterness
in her looks and accent, which only long-concealed nuptial hatred
breaking forth at once could convey,--"Alexius, terminate this affair
how it will, you have lived a hypocrite, and thou wilt not fail to die
one." So saying, with an air of noble indignation, and carrying her
daughter along with her, she swept out of the apartment.
The Emperor looked after her in some confusion. He soon, however,
recovered his self-possession, and turning to Hereward, with a look of
injured majesty, said, "Ah! my dear Edward,"---for the word had become
rooted in his mind, instead of the less euphonic name of
Hereward,--"thou seest how it is even with the greatest, and that the
Emperor, in moments of difficulty, is a subject of misconstruction, as
well as the meanest burgess of Constantinople; nevertheless, my trust
is so great in thee, Edward, that I would have thee believe, that my
daughter, Anna Comnena, is not of the temper of her mother, but rather
of my own; honouring, thou mayst see, with religious fidelity, the
unworthy ties which I hope soon to break, and assort her with other
fetters of Cupid, which shall be borne more lightly. Edward, my main
trust is in thee. Accident presents us with an opportunity, happy of
the happiest, so it be rightly improved, of having all the traitors
before us assembled on one fair field. Think, _then_, on that day, as
the Franks say at their tournaments, that fair eyes behold thee. Thou
canst not devise a gift within my power, but I will gladly load thee
with it."
"It needs not," said the Varangian, somewhat coldly; "my highest
ambition is to merit the epitaph upon my tomb, 'Hereward was faithful.'
I am about, however, to demand a proof of your imperial confidence,
which, perhaps, you may think a startling one."
"Indeed!" said the Emperor. "What, in one word, is thy demand?"
"Permission," replied Hereward, "to go to the Duke of Bouillon's
encampment, and entreat his presence in the lists, to witness this
extraordinary combat."
"That he may return with his crusading madmen," said the Emperor, "and
sack Constantinople, under pretence of doing justice to his
Confederates? This, Varangian, is at least speaking thy mind openly."
"No, by Heavens!" said Hereward suddenly; "the Duke of Bouillon shall
come with no more knights than may be a reasonable guard, should
treachery be offered to the Countess of Paris."
"Well, even in this," said the Emperor, "will I be conformable; and if
thou, Edward, betrayest my trust, think that thou forfeitest all that
my friendship has promised, and dost incur, besides, the damnation that
is due to the traitor who betrays with a kiss."
"For thy reward, noble sir," answered the Varangian, "I hereby renounce
all claim to it. When the diadem is once more firmly fixed upon thy
brow, and the sceptre in thy hand, if I am then alive, if my poor
services should deserve so much, I will petition thee for the means of
leaving this court, and returning to the distant island in which I was
born. Meanwhile, think me not unfaithful, because I have for a time the
means of being so with effect. Your Imperial Highness shall learn that
Hereward is as true as is your right hand to your left."--So saying, he
took his leave with a profound obeisance.
The Emperor gazed after him with a countenance in which doubt was
mingled with admiration.
"I have trusted him," he said, "with all he asked, and with the power
of ruining me entirely, if such be his purpose. He has but to breathe a
whisper, and the whole mad crew of crusaders, kept in humour at the
expense of so much current falsehood, and so much more gold, will
return with fire and sword to burn down Constantinople, and sow with
salt the place where it stood. I have done what I had resolved never to
do,--I have ventured kingdom and life on the faith of a man born of
woman. How often have I said, nay, sworn, that I would not hazard
myself on such peril, and yet, step by step, I have done so! I cannot
tell--there is in that man's looks and words a good faith which
overwhelms me; and, what is almost incredible, my belief in him has
increased in proportion to his showing me how slight my power was over
him. I threw, like the wily angler, every bait I could devise, and some
of them such as a king would scarcely have disdained; to none of these
would he rise; but yet he gorges, I may say, the bare hook, and enters
upon my service without a shadow of self-interest.--Can this be
double-distilled treachery?--or can it be what men call
disinterestedness?--If I thought him false, the moment is not yet
past--he has not yet crossed the bridge--he has not passed the guards
of the palace, who have no hesitation, and know no disobedience--But
no--I were then alone in the land, and without a friend or
confidant.--I hear the sound of the outer gate unclose, the sense of
danger certainly renders my ears more acute than usual.--It shuts
again--the die is cast. He is at liberty--and Alexius Comnenus must
stand or fall, according to the uncertain faith of a mercenary
Varangian." He clapt his hands; a slave appeared, of whom he demanded
wine. He drank, and his heart was cheered within him. "I am decided,"
he said, "and will abide with resolution the cast of the throw, for
good or for evil."
So saying, he retired to his apartment, and was not again seen during
that night.