THE EMPEROR'S WOOING
About ten o'clock the day following the extraordinary announcement
given, a galley of three banks of oars, classed a _trireme_, rounded
the seaward jut of the promontory overhanging the property of the
Princess Irene at Therapia.
The hull of the vessel was highly ornate with gilding and carving. At
the how, for figure-head, there was an image of the Madonna of the
_Panagia_, or Holy Banner of Constantinople. The broad square sail was
of cherry-red color, and in excellent correspondence, the oars, sixty
to a side, were painted a flaming scarlet. When filled, the sail
displayed a Greek cross in golden filament. The deck aft was covered
with a purple awning, in the shade of which, around a throne, sat a
grave and decorous company in gorgeous garments; and among them moved a
number of boys, white-shirted and bare of head, dispensing perfume from
swinging censers. Forward, a body guard, chosen from the household
troops and full armed, were standing at ease, and they, with a corps of
trumpeters and heralds in such splendor of golden horns and tabards of
gold as to pour enrichment over the whole ship, filled the space from
bulwark to bulwark. The Emperor occupied the throne.
This galley, to which the harmonious movement of the oars gave a
semblance of life, in the distance reminding one of a great bird
fantastically feathered and in slow majestic motion, was no sooner hove
in sight than the townspeople were thrown into ferment. A flotilla of
small boats, hastily launched, put out in racing order to meet and
escort it into the bay, and before anchorage was found, the whole shore
was astir and in excited babblement.
A detachment of the guard was first landed on the quay in front of the
Princess' gate. Accepting the indication, thither rushed the populace;
for in truth, since the occupation of the Asiatic shore of the
Bosphorus by the Turks, the Emperor seldom extended his voyages far as
Therapia. Then, descending the sides by carpeted stairs, the suite
disembarked, and after them, amidst a tremendous flourish from the
trumpet corps, Constantine followed.
The Emperor, in his light boat, remained standing during the passage to
the shore that he might be seen by the people; and as he then appeared,
helmed and in close-fitting cuirass, his arms in puffed sleeves of red
silk, his legs, below a heavily embroidered narrow skirt, clothed in
pliant chain mail intricately linked, his feet steel-shod, a purple
cloak hanging lightly at the back from neck to heel, and spurred and
magnificently sworded, and all agleam with jewels and gold, it must be
conceded he justified his entitlement.
At sight of his noble countenance, visible under the raised visor, the
spectators lifted their voices in hearty acclamations--"God and
Constantine! Live the Emperor!"
It really seemed as if the deadly factiousness of the capital had not
reached Therapia. In the lifted head, the brightened eyes, the gracious
though stately bows cast right and left, Constantine published the
pleasure the reception was giving him.
A long flourish timed his march through the kiosk of the gate, and
along the shell-strewn, winding road, to the broad steps leading to the
portico of the palace; there, ascending first, he was received by the
Princess.
Amid a group of maids in attendance, all young, fair, high-born, she
stood, never more tastefully attired, never more graceful and
self-possessed, never more lovely, not even in childhood before the
flitting of its virginal bloom; and though the portico was garden-like
in decoration, vines, roses and flowering shrubs everywhere, the
sovereign had eyes for her alone.
Just within the line of fluted pillars he halted, and drew himself up,
smiling as became a suitor, yet majestic as became a king. Then she
stepped forward, and knelt, and kissed his hand, and when he helped her
to her feet, and before the flush on her forehead was gone, she said:
"Thou art my sovereign and benefactor; nor less for the goodnesses thou
hast done to thy people, and art constantly doing, welcome, O my Lord,
to the house thou didst give me."
"Speak not so," he replied. "Or if it please thee to give me credit, be
it for the things which in some way tried me, not those I did for
reward."
"Reward!"
"Ay, for such are pleasure and peace of mind."
Then one by one, she naming them as they advanced, her attendants
knelt, and kissed the floor in front of him, and had each a pleasant
word, for he permitted none to excel him in decorous gallantry to good
women.
In return, he called the officers of his company according to their
rank; his brother, who had afterward the grace to die with him; the
Grand Domestic, general of the army; the Grand Duke Notaras, admiral of
the navy; the Grand Equerry (_Protostrator_); the Grand Chancellor of
the Empire (_Logothete_); the Superintendent of Finance; the Governor
of the Palace (_Curopalate_); the Keeper of the Purple Ink; the Keeper
of the Secret Seal; the First Valet; the Chief of the Night Guard
(_Grand Drumgaire_); the Chief of the Huntsmen (_Protocynege_); the
Commander of the Body Guard of Foreigners (_Acolyte_); the Professor of
Philosophy; the Professor of Elocution and Rhetoric; the Attorney
General (_Nornophylex_); the Chief Falconer (_Protojeracaire_) and
others--these he called one by one, and formally presented to the
Princess, not minding that with many of them she was already acquainted.
They were for the most part men advanced in years, and right well
skilled in the arts of courtiership. The _empressement_ of manner with
which they saluted her was not lost upon her woman's instinct;
infinitely quick and receptive, she knew without a word spoken, that
each left his salute on her hand believing it the hand of his future
Empress. Last of those presented was the Dean of the Court. He was
noticeably formal and distant; besides being under the eye of his
master, the wily diplomat was more doubtful of the outcome of the day's
visit than most of his colleagues.
"Now," the Princess said, when the presentation was finished, "will my
most noble sovereign suffer me to conduct him to the reception room?"
The Emperor stepped to her side, and offered his hand. "Pardon, Sire,"
she added, taking the hand. "It is necessary that I speak to the Dean."
And when the worthy came to her, she said to him: "Beyond this, under
the portico, are refreshments for His Majesty's suite. Serve me, I
pray, by leading thy colleagues thither, and representing me at the
tables. Command the servants whom thou wilt find there."
Now the reader must not suppose he is having in the foregoing
descriptions examples of the style of ceremonials most in fashion at
the Greek court. Had formality been intended, the affair would have
been the subject of painstaking consideration at a meeting of officials
in the imperial residence, and every point within foresight arranged;
after which the revolution of the earth might have quickened, and
darkness been unnaturally precipitated, without inducing the slightest
deviation from the programme.
When resolving upon the visit, Constantine considerately thought of the
Princess' abhorrence of formality, and not to surprise her, despatched
the Dean with notice of the honor intended. Whereupon she arranged the
reception to suit herself; that is, so as to remain directress of the
occasion. Hence the tables under the portico for the entertainment of
the great lords, with the garden open to them afterward. This
management, it will be perceived, left Constantine in her separate
charge.
So, while the other guests went with the Dean, she conducted the
Emperor to the reception room, where there were no flowers, and but one
armless chair. When he was seated, the two alone, she knelt before him,
and without giving him time to speak, said, her hands crossed upon her
bosom: "I thank my Lord for sending me notice of his coming, and of his
purpose to invite me to share his throne. All night I have kept the
honor he intended me in mind, believing the Blessed Mother would listen
to my prayers for wisdom and right direction; and the peace and
confidence I feel, now that I am at my Lord's feet, must be from
her.... Oh, my Lord, the trial has not been what I should do with the
honor, but how to defend you from humiliation in the eyes of your
court. I wish to be at the same time womanly and allegiant. How gentle
and merciful you have been to me! How like a benignant God to my poor
father! If I am in error, may Heaven forgive me; but I have led you
here to say, without waiting for the formal proposal, that while you
have my love as a kinswoman and subject, I cannot give you the love you
should have from a wife."
Constantine was astonished.
"What!" he said.
Before he could get further, she continued, sinking lower at his feet:
"Ah me, my Lord, if now thou art thinking me bold and forward, and
outcast from natural pride, what can I but plead the greater love I
bear you as my benefactor and sovereign? ... It may be immodest to thus
forestall my Lord's honorable intent, and decline being his wife before
he has himself proposed it; yet I pray him to consider that with this
avowal from me, he may go hence and affirm, God approving the truth,
that he thought better of his design, and did not make me any overture
of marriage, and there will be no one to suffer but me.... The
evil-minded will talk, and judge me punished for my presumption.
Against them I shall always have a pure conscience, and the knowledge
of having rescued my Lord from an associate on his throne who does not
love him with wifely devotion."
Pausing there, the Princess looked into his face, her own suffused. His
head drooped; insomuch that the tall helmet with its glitter, and the
cuirass, and fine mail reenforced by the golden spurs and jewelled
sword and sword-harness, but deepened the impression of pain bewrayed
on his countenance.
"Then it is as I have heard," he said, dejectedly. "The rustic hind may
have the mate of his choice, and there is preference allowed the bird
and wild wolf. The eye of faith beholds marriages of love in meeting
waters and in clouds brought together from diverse parts. Only Kings
are forbidden to select mates as their hearts declare. I, a master of
life and death, cannot woo, like other men."
The Princess moved nearer him.
"My Lord," she said, earnestly, "is it not better to be denied choice
than to be denied after choosing?"
"Speakest thou from experience?" he asked.
"No," she answered, "I have never known love except of all God's
creatures alike."
"Whence thy wisdom then?"
"Perhaps it is only a whisper of pride."
"Perhaps, perhaps! I only know the pain it was intended to relieve goes
on." Then, regarding her moodily, not angrily, nor even impatiently, he
continued: "Did I not know thee true as thou art fair, O Princess, and
good and sincere as thou art brave, I might suspect thee."
"Of what, my Lord?"
"Of an intent to compass my misery. Thou dost stop my mouth. I may not
declare the purpose with which I came--I to whom it was of most
interest--or if I do, I am forestopped saying, 'I thought better of it,
and told her nothing.' Yet it was an honorable purpose nursed by sweet
dreams, and by hopes such as souls feed upon, strengthening themselves
for trials of life; I must carry it back with me, not for burial in my
own breast, but for gossips to rend and tear, and make laughter of--the
wonder and amusement of an unfeeling city. How many modes of punishment
God keeps in store for the chastening of those who love Him!"
"It is beggarly saying I sympathize"--
"No, no--wait!" he cried, passionately. "Now it breaks upon me. I may
not offer thee a seat on my throne, or give a hand to help thee up to
it; for the present I will not declare I love thee; yet harm cannot
come of telling thee what has been. Thou hadst my love at our first
meeting. I loved thee then. As a man I loved thee, nor less as an
Emperor because a man. Thou wast lovely with the loveliness of the
angels. I saw thee in a light not of earth, and thou wert transparent
as the light. I descended from the throne to thee thinking thou hadst
collected all the radiance of the sun wasting in the void between
stars, and clothed thyself in it."
"Oh, my Lord"--
"Not yet, not yet"--
"Blasphemy and madness!"
"Be it so!" he answered, with greater intensity. "This once I speak as
a lover who was--a lover making last memories of the holy passion, to
be henceforth accounted dead. Dead? Ah, yes!--to me--dead to me!"
She timidly took the hand he dropped upon his knee at the close of a
long sigh.
"It may rest my Lord to hear me," she said, tearfully. "I never doubted
his fitness to be Emperor, or if ever I had such a doubt, it is no
more. He has conquered himself! Indeed, indeed, it is sweet to hear him
tell his love, for I am woman; and if I cannot give it back measure for
measure, this much may be accepted by him--I have never loved a man,
and if the future holds such a condition in store for me, I will think
of my Lord, and his strength and triumph, and in my humbler lot do as
he has so nobly done. He has his Empire to engage him, and fill his
hours with duties; I have God to serve and obey with singleness. Out of
the prison where my mother died, and in which my father grew old
counting his years as they slowly wore away, a shadow issued, and is
always at hand to ask me, 'Who art thou? What right hast thou to
happiness?' And if ever I fall into the thought so pleasant to woman,
of loving and being loved, and of marriage, the shadow intervenes, and
abides with me until I behold myself again bounden to religion, a
servant vowed to my fellow creatures sick, suffering, or in sorrow."
Then the gentle Emperor fell to pitying her, and asked, forgetful of
himself, and thinking of things to lighten her lot, "Wilt thou never
marry?"
"I will not say no, my Lord," she answered. "Who can foresee the turns
of life? Take thou this in reply--never will I surrender myself to
wedlock under urgency of love alone. But comes there some great
emergency, when, by such sacrifice, I may save my country, or my
countrymen in multitude, or restore our holy religion overthrown or in
danger, then, for the direct God-service there may be in it, I could
give myself in contract, and would."
"Without love?" he asked.
"Yes, without loving or being loved. This body is not mine, but God's,
and He may demand it of me for the good of my fellow-men; and, so there
be no tarnishment of the spirit, my Lord, why haggle about the husk in
which the spirit is hidden?"
She spoke with enthusiasm. Doubt of her sincerity would have been
blasphemous. That such fate should be for her, so bright, pure and
heroic! Not while he had authority! And in the instant he vowed himself
to care of her by resolution strong as an oath. In thought of the
uncertainties lowering over his own future, he saw it was better she
should remain vowed to Heaven than to himself; thereupon he arose, and
standing at her side, laid a hand lightly upon her head, and said
solemnly:
"Thou hast chosen wisely. May the Blessed Mother, and all the
ministering angels, in most holy company, keep guard lest thou be
overtaken by calamity, sorrow and disappointment. And, for me, O
Irene!"--his voice shook with emotion--"I shall be content if now thou
wilt accept me for thy father."
She raised her eyes, as to Heaven, and said, smiling: "Dear God! How
Thou dost multiply goodnesses, and shower them upon me!"
He stooped, and kissed her forehead.
"Amen, sweet daughter!"
Then he helped her to her feet.
"Now, while thou wert speaking, Irene, it was given me to see how the
betrothal I was determined upon would have been a crime aside from
wresting thee from the service of thy choice. Phranza is a true and
faithful servant. How know I but, within his powers, and as he lawfully
might, he has contracted me by treaty to acceptance of the Georgian?
Thou hast saved me, and my ancient Chamberlain. Those under the portico
are conspirators. But come, let us join them."