Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Bears yet a precious jewel in its head.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
From a terraced roof of the Blacquernal palace, accessible by a
sash-door, which opened from the bed-chamber of Ursel, there was
commanded one of the most lovely and striking views which the romantic
neighbourhood of Constantinople afforded.
After suffering him to repose and rest his agitated faculties, it was
to this place that the physician led his patient; for when somewhat
composed, he had of himself requested to be permitted to verify the
truth of his restored eyesight, by looking out once more upon the
majestic face of nature.
On the one hand, the scene which he beheld was a masterpiece of human
art. The proud city, ornamented with stately buildings, as became the
capital of the world, showed a succession of glittering spires and
orders of architecture, some of them chaste and simple, like those the
capitals of which were borrowed from baskets-full of acanthus; some
deriving the fluting of their shafts from the props made originally to
support the lances of the earlier Greeks--forms simple, yet more
graceful in their simplicity, than any which human ingenuity has been
able since to invent. With the most splendid specimens which ancient
art could afford of those strictly classical models were associated
those of a later age, where more modern taste had endeavoured at
improvement, and, by mixing the various orders, had produced such as
were either composite, or totally out of rule. The size of the
buildings in which they were displayed, however, procured them respect;
nor could even the most perfect judge of architecture avoid being
struck by the grandeur of their extent and effect, although hurt by the
incorrectness of the taste in which they were executed. Arches of
triumph, towers, obelisks, and spires, designed for various purposes,
rose up into the air in confused magnificence; while the lower view was
filled by the streets of the city, the domestic habitations forming
long narrow alleys, on either side of which the houses arose to various
and unequal heights, but, being generally finished with terraced
coverings, thick set with plants and flowers, and fountains, had, when
seen from an eminence, a more noble and interesting aspect than is ever
afforded by the sloping and uniform roofs of streets in the capitals of
the north of Europe.
It has taken us some time to give, in words, the idea which was at a
single glance conveyed to Ursel, and affected him at first with great
pain. His eyeballs had been long strangers to that daily exercise,
which teaches us the habit of correcting the scenes as they appear to
our sight, by the knowledge which we derive from the use of our other
senses. His idea of distance was so confused, that it seemed as if all
the spires, turrets, and minarets which he beheld, were crowded forward
upon his eyeballs, and almost touching them. With a shriek of horror,
Ursel turned himself to the further side, and cast his eyes upon a
different scene. Here also he saw towers, steeples, and turrets, but
they were those of the churches and public buildings beneath his feet,
reflected from the dazzling piece of water which formed the harbour of
Constantinople, and which, from the abundance of wealth which it
transported to the city, was well termed the Golden Horn. In one place,
this superb basin was lined with quays, where stately dromonds and
argosies unloaded their wealth, while, by the shore of the haven,
galleys, feluccas, and other small craft, idly flapped the singularly
shaped and snow-white pinions which served them for sails. In other
places the Golden Horn lay shrouded in a verdant mantle of trees, where
the private gardens of wealthy or distinguished individuals, or places
of public recreation, shot down upon and were bounded by the glassy
waters.
On the Bosphorus, which might be seen in the distance, the little fleet
of Tancred was lying in the same station they had gained during the
night, which was fitted to command the opposite landing; this their
general had preferred to a midnight descent upon Constantinople, not
knowing whether, so coming, they might be received as friends or
enemies. This delay, however, had given the Greeks an opportunity,
either by the orders of Alexius, or the equally powerful mandates of
some of the conspirators, to tow six ships of war, full of armed men,
and provided with the maritime offensive weapons peculiar to the Greeks
at that period, which they had moored so as exactly to cover the place
where the troops of Tancred must necessarily land.
This preparation gave some surprise to the valiant Tancred, who did not
know that such vessels had arrived in the harbour from Lemnos on the
preceding night. The undaunted courage of that prince was, however, in
no respect to be shaken by the degree of unexpected danger with which
his adventure now appeared to be attended.
This splendid view, from the description of which we have in some
degree digressed, was seen by the physician and Ursel from a terrace,
the loftiest almost on the palace of the Blacquernal. To the city-ward,
it was bounded by a solid wall, of considerable height, giving a
resting-place for the roof of a lower building, which, sloping outward,
broke to the view the vast height unobscured otherwise save by a high
and massy balustrade, composed of bronze, which, to the havenward, sunk
sheer down upon an uninterrupted precipice.
No sooner, therefore, had Ursel turned his eyes that way, than, though
placed far from the brink of the terrace, he exclaimed, with a shriek,
"Save me--save me! if you are not indeed the destined executors of the
Emperor's will."
"We are indeed such," said Douban, "to save, and if possible to bring
you to complete recovery; but by no means to do you injury, or to
suffer it to be offered by others."
"Guard me then from myself," said Ursel, "and save me from the reeling
and insane desire which I feel to plunge myself into the abyss, to the
edge of which you have guided me."
"Such a giddy and dangerous temptation is," said the physician, "common
to those who have not for a long time looked down from precipitous
heights, and are suddenly brought to them. Nature, however bounteous,
hath not provided for the cessation of our faculties for years, and for
their sudden resumption in full strength and vigour. An interval,
longer or shorter, must needs intervene. Can you not believe this
terrace a safe station while you have my support and that of this
faithful slave?"
"Certainly," said Ursel; "but permit me to turn my face towards this
stone wall, for I cannot bear to look at the flimsy piece of wire,
which is the only battlement of defence that interposes betwixt me and
the precipice." He spoke of the bronze balustrade, six feet high, and
massive in proportion. Thus saying, and holding fast by the physician's
arm, Ursel, though himself a younger and more able man, trembled, and
moved his feet as slowly as if made of lead, until he reached the
sashed-door, where stood a kind of balcony-seat, in which he placed
himself.--"Here," he said, "will I remain."
"And here," said Douban, "will I make the communication of the Emperor,
which it is necessary you should be prepared to reply to. It places
you, you will observe, at your own disposal for liberty or captivity,
but it conditions for your resigning that sweet but sinful morsel
termed revenge, which, I must not conceal from you, chance appears
willing to put into your hand. You know the degree of rivalry in which
you have been held by the Emperor, and you know the measure of evil you
have sustained at his hand. The question is, Can you forgive what has
taken place?"
"Let me wrap my head round with my mantle," said Ursel, "to dispel this
dizziness which still oppresses my poor brain, and as soon as the power
of recollection is granted me, you shall know my sentiments."
He sunk upon the seat, muffled in the way which he described, and after
a few minutes' reflection, with a trepidation which argued the patient
still to be under the nervous feeling of extreme horror mixed with
terror, he addressed Douban thus: "The operation of wrong and cruelty,
in the moment when they are first inflicted, excites, of course, the
utmost resentment of the sufferer; nor is there, perhaps, a passion
which lives so long in his bosom as the natural desire of revenge. If,
then, during the first month, when I lay stretched upon my bed of want
and misery, you had offered me an opportunity of revenge upon my cruel
oppressor, the remnant of miserable life which remained to me should
have been willingly bestowed to purchase it. But a suffering of weeks,
or even months, must not be compared in effect with that of years. For
a short space of endurance, the body, as well as the mind, retains that
vigorous habit which holds the prisoner still connected with life, and
teaches him to thrill at the long-forgotten chain of hopes, of wishes,
of disappointments, and mortifications, which affected his former
existence. But the wounds become callous as they harden, and other and
better feelings occupy their place, while they gradually die away in
forgetfulness. The enjoyments, the amusements of this world, occupy no
part of his time upon whom the gates of despair have once closed. I
tell thee, my kind physician, that for a season, in an insane attempt
to effect my liberty, I cut through a large portion of the living rock.
But Heaven cured me of so foolish an idea; and if I did not actually
come to love Alexius Comnenus--for how could that have been a possible
effect in any rational state of my intellects?--yet as I became
convinced of my own crimes, sins, and follies, the more and more I was
also persuaded that Alexius was but the agent through whom Heaven
exercised a dearly-purchased right of punishing me for my manifold
offences and transgressions; and that it was not therefore upon the
Emperor that my resentment ought to visit itself. And I can now say to
thee, that so far as a man who has undergone so dreadful a change can
be supposed to know his own mind, I feel no desire either to rival
Alexius in a race for empire, or to avail myself of any of the various
proffers which he proposes to me as the price of withdrawing my claim.
Let him keep unpurchased the crown, for which he has paid, in my
opinion, a price which it is not worth."
"This is extraordinary stoicism, noble Ursel," answered the physician
Douban. "Am I then to understand that you reject the fair offers of
Alexius, and desire, instead of all which he is willing--nay, anxious
to bestow--to be committed safely back to thy old blinded dungeon in
the Blacquernal, that you may continue at ease those pietistic
meditations which have already conducted thee to so extravagant a
conclusion?"
"Physician," said Ursel, while a shuddering fit that affected his whole
body testified his alarm at the alternative proposed--"one would
imagine thine own profession might have taught thee, that no mere
mortal man, unless predestined to be a glorified saint, could ever
prefer darkness to the light of day; blindness itself to the enjoyment
of the power of sight; the pangs of starving to competent sustenance,
or the damps of a dungeon to the free air of God's creation. No!--it
may be virtue to do so, but to such a pitch mine does not soar. All I
require of the Emperor for standing by him with all the power my name
can give him at this crisis is, that he will provide for my reception
as a monk in some of those pleasant and well endowed seminaries of
piety, to which his devotion, or his fears, have given rise. Let me not
be again the object of his suspicion, the operation of which is more
dreadful than that of being the object of his hate. Forgotten by power,
as I have myself lost the remembrance of those that wielded it, let me
find my way to the grave, unnoticed, unconstrained, at liberty, in
possession of my dim and disused organs of sight, and, above all, at
peace."
"If such be thy serious and earnest wish, noble Ursel," said the
physician, "I myself have no hesitation to warrant to thee the full
accomplishment of thy religious and moderate desires. But, bethink
thee, thou art once more an inhabitant of the court, in which thou
mayst obtain what thou wilt to-day; while to-morrow, shouldst thou
regret thy indifference, it may be thy utmost entreaty will not suffice
to gain for thee the slightest extension of thy present conditions."
"Be it so," said Ursel; "I will then stipulate for another condition,
which indeed has only reference to this day. I will solicit his
Imperial Majesty, with all humility, to spare me the pain of a personal
treaty between himself and me, and that he will be satisfied with the
solemn assurance that I am most willing to do in his favour all that he
is desirous of dictating; while, on the other hand, I desire only the
execution of those moderate conditions of my future aliment which I
have already told thee at length."
"But wherefore," said Douban, "shouldst thou be afraid of announcing to
the Emperor thy disposition to an agreement, which cannot be esteemed
otherwise than extremely moderate on thy part? Indeed, I fear the
Emperor will insist on a brief personal conference."
"I am not ashamed," said Ursel, "to confess the truth. It is true, that
I have, or think I have, renounced what the Scripture calls the pride
of life; but the old Adam still lives within us, and maintains against
the better part of our nature an inextinguishable quarrel, easy to be
aroused from its slumber, but as difficult to be again couched in
peace. While last night I but half understood that mine enemy was in my
presence, and while my faculties performed but half their duty in
recalling his deceitful and hated accents, did not my heart throb in my
bosom with all the agitation of a taken bird, and shall I again have to
enter into a personal treaty with the man who, be his general conduct
what it may, has been, the constant and unprovoked cause of my
unequalled misery? Douban, no!--to listen to his voice again, were to
hear an alarm sounded to every violent and vindictive passion, of my
heart; and though, may Heaven so help me as my intentions towards him
are upright, yet it is impossible for me to listen to his professions
with a chance of safety either to him or to myself."
"If you be so minded," replied Douban, "I shall only repeat to him your
stipulation, and you must swear to him that you will strictly observe
it. Without this being done, it must be difficult, or perhaps
impossible, to settle the league of which both are desirous."
"Amen!" said Ursel; "and as I am pure in my purpose, and resolved to
keep it to the uttermost, so may Heaven guard me from the influence of
precipitate revenge, ancient grudge, or new quarrel!"
An authoritative knock at the door of the sleeping chamber was now
heard, and Ursel, relieved by more powerful feelings, from the
giddiness of which he had complained, walked firmly into the bedroom,
and seating himself, waited with averted eyes the entrance of the
person who demanded admittance, and who proved to be no other than
Alexius Comnenus.
The Emperor appeared at the door in a warlike dress, suited for the
decoration of a prince who was to witness a combat in the lists fought
out before him.
"Sage Douban," he said, "has our esteemed prisoner, Ursel, made his
choice between our peace and enmity?"
"He hath, my lord," replied the physician, "embraced the lot of that
happy portion of mankind, whose hearts and lives are devoted to the
service of your Majesty's government."
"He will then this day," continued the Emperor, "render me the office
of putting down all those who may pretend to abet insurrection in his
name, and under pretext of his wrongs?"
"He will, my lord," replied the physician, "act to the fullest the part
which you require."
"And in what way," said the Emperor, adopting his most gracious tone of
voice, "would our faithful Ursel desire that services like these,
rendered in the hour of extreme need; should be acknowledged by the
Emperor?"
"Simply," answered Douban, "by saying nothing upon the subject. He
desires only that all jealousies between you and him may be henceforth
forgotten, and that he may be admitted into one of your Highness's
monastic institutions, with leave to dedicate the rest of his life to
the worship of Heaven and its saints."
"Hath he persuaded thee of this, Douban?"--said the Emperor, in a low
and altered voice. "By Heaven! when I consider from what prison he was
brought, and in what guise he inhabited it, I cannot believe in this
gall-less disposition. He must at least speak to me himself, ere I can
believe, in some degree, the transformation of the fiery Ursel into a
being so little capable of feeling the ordinary impulses of mankind."
"Hear me, Alexius Comnenus," said the prisoner; "and so may thine own
prayers to Heaven find access and acceptation, as thou believest the
words which I speak to thee in simplicity of heart. If thine empire of
Greece were made of coined gold, it would hold out no bait for my
acceptance; nor, I thank Heaven, have even the injuries I have
experienced at thy hand, cruel and extensive as they have been,
impressed upon me the slightest desire of requiting treachery with
treachery. Think of me as thou wilt, so thou seek'st not again to
exchange words with me; and believe me, that when thou hast put me
under the most rigid of thy ecclesiastical foundations, the discipline,
the fare, and the vigils, will be far superior to the existence falling
to the share of those whom the King delights to honour, and who
therefore must afford the King their society whenever they are summoned
to do so."
"It is hardly for me," said the physician, "to interpose in so high a
matter; yet, as trusted both by the noble Ursel, and by his Highness
the Emperor, I have made a brief abstract of these short conditions to
be kept by the high parties towards each other, _sub crimine falsi_."
The Emperor protracted the intercourse with Ursel, until he more fully
explained to him the occasion which he should have that very day for
his services. When they parted, Alexius, with a great show of
affection, embraced his late prisoner, while it required all the
self-command and stoicism of Ursel to avoid expressing in plain terms
the extent to which he abhorred the person who thus caressed him.