IN WHICH CERTAIN FESTIVITIES ARE DESCRIBED, WHICH ENDED WITH A BLOW ON A
FACE
The numerous guests who occupied the saloons of the Alcazar were
devoting themselves, joyously and noisily, to the various amusements
which the magnificent festival provided; whilst the king and the royal
princes were familiarly conversing with the group of cavaliers that
surrounded them; and the queen and princesses, amidst another group
composed of beautiful women, were amusing themselves also with pleasant
conversation. It could be easily seen, however, that if the queen
devoted most attention to Ximena, the father of the latter was not
obtaining similar favour from the king, notwithstanding the apparent
kindness with which he had been received only a very short time before.
Affection which does not proceed from the heart cannot long sustain its
fictitious semblance, and, in a moment of forgetfulness, the mask which
conceals it falls off, and the cold visage of indifference appears. Such
was the case with regard to Don Gome, and, on the other hand, the
sincere and wise monarch was openly showing the real affection which he
felt for De Vivar.
"Gentlemen," said the king, addressing the cavaliers who surrounded him,
"as a brother I have lamented the death of Don Garcia, but as a king,
obliged to sacrifice the warmest affections of my heart to the good of
the kingdom, which God has entrusted to me to rule over and govern, I
must rejoice at the victory obtained by the Castilian and Leonese arms
at Atapuerca. In celebrating that glorious triumph I have given proofs
of my munificence to the commoners, my vassals. It would not be well
that the cavaliers who assist at my Court should be debarred from
participating in my favours, according to their merits. You, noble and
loyal Peranzures, I appoint major-domo of my Alcazar; as you have served
my State so well, with your sword in battle and with your wisdom at the
Court and in the councils, I know you will also faithfully serve my
household. To you, honoured Arias Gonzalo, I entrust my treasures,
feeling sure that they will increase under your supervision. To you,
noble and prudent Diego Lainez, I confide the care and education of my
sons, as I feel sure that, having instructed your own son so well, you
will act similarly with regard to mine. You well know how I love the
princes; placing them in your charge is the greatest proof of friendship
and confidence that a king can give to a subject, and I now tell you
that if I could give you a greater proof I would heartily do so. You,
the most faultless cavalier and the most honoured and prudent of the
grandees of Castile, will cultivate the talents of my sons, so that the
crowns which one day shall encircle their brows may sit well on them.
God gave me three kingdoms, and I shall leave one to each of them. You,
brave Count de Gormaz, shall be, from to-day, the General of the Leonese
and Castilian troops, in the place of Diego Lainez and Peranzures, whose
arms have been weakened by age and by the constant wielding of the sword
and lance. You have given me proofs of your courage, fighting against
the Moorish power, and I doubt not but that you, and the cavaliers who
surround you, will serve me well, some by their valour in battle, and
others by their loyalty and wisdom."
Peranzures, Arias Gonzalo, and Diego Lainez bent their knees and kissed
the hand of the king, in order to thank him for the great favours which
he had conferred on them, as was their duty as good and grateful
subjects; De Gormaz, however, when his turn came, gave loose reins to
the anger which had been accumulating in his heart whilst the other
cavaliers were being thus addressed, especially De Vivar, who appeared
to him to have been unjustly favoured by the king, whose coldness
towards himself he attributed to the evil counsels of the honoured old
man, who indeed was far from deserving such a suspicion.
"Sire," he said to the king, directing his glances from time to time
towards Diego Lainez, "the Count de Gormaz would be a fawning courtier,
and not an honourable cavalier, if he were to thank the king for favours
which he does not receive. If flatterers alone please you, do not hope
to find one in me."
Another monarch, less prudent than Don Fernando, would have punished the
audacity and ingratitude of Don Gome, and would have put a bridle on the
tongue which had so rashly spoken; Don Fernando, however, restrained his
vexation, and allowed De Gormaz to express his resentment, even though
it were unjust, and even though he did it in terms unfitting a subject
in the presence of his king.
"You entrust, sire," continued Don Gome, "the education of your sons to
a feeble old man, as if they should be reared up to be monks, or as if
you should desire them to be as effeminate as women; and, to favour a
debilitated flatterer, you forget, sire, my services and the valour with
which I have always served you! If you desire that the princes should be
good cavaliers, skilful in breaking a lance in a joust, and daring and
prudent in attacking a squadron of Moors, to whom should you confide
their training? Is it to an old man, whose hand can scarce hold the
staff which supports him, or to me, who have valour in my heart and
strength in my arm to brandish a sword, not only against the infidel,
but against all who dare to doubt the truth of what I say? If there is
any such, I stand prepared to meet him!"
Speaking thus, Don Gome advanced insultingly towards Diego Lainez,
provoking him by his look as well as by his words.
The old man looked towards the king and curbed his righteous
indignation, which, if it had not been restrained by the presence of his
sovereign, would have burst forth in rage; if not indeed with the aid of
the sword, which his aged hands could not wield, yet with the voice
which could be still energetic and terrible in defence of an honour
which nobody but the Count de Gormaz had ever dared to cast a slur on;
he then said--
"Sire, pardon me if in defending my outraged honour I pass beyond the
limits of the moderation which I should adhere to in the presence of my
lord and king." And he continued, fixing his gaze on De Gormaz: "Don
Gome, you are unjust in the highest degree if you think that I am a
flatterer and calumniator. Diego Lainez is grateful for the favours
which he receives from his king, but he never tries to win them, much
less by means of flattery and calumny. If the reasons which you have
brought forward, in order to prove that the king should have entrusted
to you, instead of to me, the education of the princes, have convinced
him, to whom I owe this mark of confidence, I shall renounce in your
favour so great an honour, although I consider it the most signal one
which has been conferred on me during my long life, consecrated almost
entirely to the service of my country. However, I do not think that
those reasons weigh much with the king. That weakness which you see in
my hand, those grey hairs which you see on my head, and those scars on
my face, only prove that I have lived longer than you, and that I have
not spent my life entirely in the saloons of the Court. If I can no
longer break a lance at a tournament, or enter into close quarters with
a hostile army, I can teach how to do both one and the other; you, who
learned those things from me, should be able to certify to that, and
respect me, if no longer as an old man, at least as your instructor."
The king recognised the unreasonableness of the count and the prudence
and moderation of De Vivar; he did not wish, however, to decide publicly
in favour of the one or of the other, for he knew the evils which a
complete rupture between those two noble families would cause to the
State, as both of them were powerful on account of their wealth and the
number of their partisans; therefore, to make the Count de Gormaz an
enemy was a thing which even a monarch might shrink from. Thus it was
that he thought it best to use his influence with a view to reconciling
both opponents, and thus continue in friendly relations with them.
"Leave aside," he therefore said to them, "those sad contentions, and
think only of renewing the friendship which, in times not far remote,
united you, and of serving your country and the religion of your
forefathers, now continually menaced by the Moors, for by no other means
can good Christian cavaliers give proof of their loyalty. Both of you
are strong pillars, to support our faith and my throne, and it would
never enter my mind to favour one of you to the prejudice of the other;
indeed, in order to recompense your merits I have desired that each of
you should fill the position which circumstances necessitate. When De
Vivar was robust and strong enough to wield a lance, he commanded the
Christian armies, and now that he can only serve me by his wisdom and
experience I confide to him a task for which those very qualities are
most necessary. You, Don Gome, are the most capable of commanding my
troops, and therefore I make you their leader. Some future day you will
be old, as Lainez now is, and then the king will utilise your wisdom and
loyalty in his household. Knowing that you are valiant and take pleasure
in the chances of war, I believed that it would not be pleasing to you
if I appointed you to a position in my Alcazar which only old men, as
Arias, Peranzures, and Lainez are, can properly fill; or, if not they,
only those cavaliers who, on account of a peaceful nature, are ill
suited for battlefields. Lainez, stretch forth your hand to Don Gome and
he will willingly clasp it."
The old man then held out his feeble hand, as if to seek that of the
count, desirous of pleasing the king, and of sacrificing his just
resentment for the sake of a reconciliation which might prevent many
evils to the State, and which might restore tranquillity to his
household. Perhaps, at that moment, he was also thinking of Rodrigo,
whose happiness depended on the renewal of friendly relations with De
Gormaz. Judge, however, of his surprise and indignation when he saw the
count draw his hand away, and heard him say in accents full of disdain--
"The hand of the Count of Gormaz never has clasped and never shall clasp
that of a culumniator."
"Don Gome!" exclaimed the honoured old man, assuming the haughtiness of
a cavalier deeply outraged, "before extending my hand again to you I
would cut it off. You--you are the culumniator, whose hand would have
stained mine if it touched it!"
"If it has not stained your hand," exclaimed the count, "take this, old
dotard; it will stain for ever your visage."
And with a blow on the face of the venerable old man he drew blood--the
blood of Diego Lainez, of him who in former times was the terror of the
Moors, the bravest cavalier of Castile, the son of Lain Calvo!
"Justice of God!" cried the outraged old man, vainly endeavouring, such
was his weakness, to return the blow of the coward and avenge the insult
which he had received; anger, however, stopped his voice, clouded his
visage, and made his head so dazed that he fell to the floor.
"Traitor! unworthy knight and bad subject!" exclaimed the king. "In my
presence you dared to raise your hand against an aged cavalier, who, old
as he is, is worth more than your entire race! As God lives, my
executioner shall cut off, to-morrow, in the public place of Leon, the
hand which has acted in so dastardly and cowardly a manner! My guard
here! My guard here!"
The voice of Don Fernando, however, was lost in the noise and uproar
which arose throughout the saloon. The ladies uttered terrified cries
and fled precipitately into the inner apartments of the Alcazar,
believing that they would find in them a refuge from the tumult; and the
cavaliers, divided into two parties, one in favour of Don Gome and the
other for Diego Lainez, placed their hands on their swords and broke out
into loud imprecations and threats, without paying any attention to the
presence, to the words, or to the authority of the king or of the
princes. At last Don Fernando succeeded in allaying the tumult just at
the moment when the old man was rising from the ground. He then clasped
him in his arms and pressed his lips on his cheek, as if to remove from
it the stain which the blow of De Gormaz had imprinted thereon. His
anger being calmed for the time, he was able to reflect, and the prudent
monarch thought that, if he insisted on arresting De Gormaz then and
there, torrents of blood would flow in the Alcazar and that
inextinguishable feuds would blaze up amongst the flower of the chivalry
of Leon and Castile. He remembered that the grandee De Vivar had
numerous champions, on whom he could rely to avenge such an affront, and
he considered it more prudent to defer the punishment of the count to a
later time. The voice of Diego was then heard in support of such a
decision.
"To Vivar, to my castle!" exclaimed the old man, tearing his hair, and
shedding the first tears which came from his eyes since he had girded on
the sword and buckled on the spurs of a knight. The outrage inflicted on
him had not disturbed his mind so much that he could not remember what
was due to the dwelling-place of the king, in whose presence no
honourable cavalier could draw his sword to avenge personal insults.
Diego Lainez was obeyed: a few minutes later he was journeying, in a
litter, on the road that led to Vivar, accompanied by many followers,
both on foot and on horseback; and the halls of the Alcazar became
deserted.
The Count de Gormaz had many partisans in Leon, as was proved by the
large number of cavaliers who thronged to his side when the friends of
De Vivar grasped the hilts of their swords, enraged by the vile offence
inflicted on the old man. However, when the tumult had been appeased,
when reflection forced them to realise on whose side was right, Don Gome
could scarcely have found a cavalier to draw sword in his defence. It
might be said on the following day that, in a few hours, the count had
lost all his friends, for those who had been hitherto firmly attached to
him were now content to remain neutral with regard to the matter of
which everyone was speaking.