by Walter Scott
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SEVENTH.
Physician. Be comforted, good madam; the great rage, You see is cured in him: and yet it is danger To make him even o'er the time he has lost. Desire him to go in: trouble him no more, Till further settling. KING LEAR.
We left the Emperor Alexius Comnenus at the bottom of a subterraneanvault, with a lamp expiring, and having charge of a prisoner, whoseemed himself nearly reduced to the same extremity. For the first twoor three moments, he listened after his daughter's retiring footsteps.He grew impatient, and began to long for her return before it waspossible she could have traversed the path betwixt him and the summitof these gloomy stairs. A minute or two he endured with patience theabsence of the assistance which he had sent her to summon; but strangesuspicions began to cross his imagination. Could it be possible? Hadshe changed her purpose on account of the hard words which he had usedtowards her? Had she resolved to leave her father to his fate in hishour of utmost need? and was he to rely no longer upon the assistancewhich he had implored her to send?
The short time which the Princess trifled away in a sort of gallantrywith the Varangian Hereward, was magnified tenfold by the impatience ofthe Emperor, who began to think that she was gone to fetch theaccomplices of the Caesar to assault their prince in his defencelesscondition, and carry into effect their half-disconcerted conspiracy.
After a considerable time, filled up with this feeling of agonizinguncertainty, he began at length, more composedly, to recollect thelittle chance there was that the Princess would, even for her own sake,resentful as she was in the highest degree of her husband's illbehaviour, join her resources to his, to the destruction of one who hadso generally showed himself an indulgent and affectionate father. Whenhe had adopted this better mood, a step was heard upon the staircase,and after a long and unequal descent, Hereward, in his heavy armour, atlength coolly arrived at the bottom of the steps. Behind him, pantingand trembling, partly with cold and partly with terror, came Douban,the slave well skilled in medicine.
"Welcome, good Edward! Welcome, Douban!" he said, "whose medical skillis sufficiently able to counterbalance the weight of years which hangupon him."
"Your Highness is gracious," said Douban--but what he would havefarther said was cut off by a violent fit of coughing, the consequenceof his age, of his feeble habit, of the damps of the dungeon, and therugged exercise of descending the long and difficult staircase.
"Thou art unaccustomed to visit thy patients in so rough an abode,"said Alexius; "and, nevertheless, to the damps of these dreary regionsstate necessity obliges us to confine many, who are no less our belovedsubjects in reality than they are in title."
The medical man continued his cough, perhaps as an apology for notgiving that answer of assent, with which his conscience did not easilypermit him to reply to an observation, which, though stated by one whoshould know the fact, seemed not to be in itself altogether likely.
"Yes, my Douban," said the Emperor, "in this strong case of steel andadamant have we found it necessary to enclose the redoubted Ursel,whose fame is spread through the whole world, both for military skill,political wisdom, personal bravery, and other noble gifts, which wehave been obliged to obscure for a time, in order that we might, at thefittest conjuncture, which is now arrived, restore them to the world intheir full lustre. Feel his pulse, therefore, Douban--consider him asone who hath suffered severe confinement, with all its privations, andis about to be suddenly restored to the full enjoyment of life, andwhatever renders life valuable."
"I will do my best," said Douban; "but your Majesty must consider, thatwe work upon a frail and exhausted subject, whose health seems alreadywellnigh gone, and may perhaps vanish in an instant--like this pale andtrembling light, whose precarious condition the life-breath of thisunfortunate patient seems closely to resemble."
"Desire, therefore, good Douban, one or two of the mutes who serve inthe interior, and who have repeatedly been thy assistants in suchcases--or stay--Edward, thy motions will be more speedy; do thou go forthe mutes--make them bring some kind of litter to transport thepatient; and, Douban, do thou superintend the whole. Transport himinstantly to a suitable apartment, only taking care that it be secret,and let him enjoy the comforts of the bath, and whatever else may tendto restore his feeble animation--keeping in mind, that he must, ifpossible, appear to-morrow in the field."
"That will be hard," said Douban, "after having been, it would appear.subjected to such fare and such usage as his fluctuating pulseintimates but too plainly."
"'Twas a mistake of the dungeon-keeper, the inhuman villain, who shouldnot go without his reward," continued the Emperor, "had not Heavenalready bestowed it by the strange means of a sylvan man, or native ofthe woods, who yesterday put to death the jailor who meditated thedeath of his prisoner--Yes, my dear Douban, a private sentinel of ourguards called the Immortal, had wellnigh annihilated this flower of ourtrust, whom for a time we were compelled to immure in secret. Then,indeed, a rude hammer had dashed to pieces an unparalleled brilliant,but the fates have arrested such a misfortune."
The assistance having arrived, the physician, who seemed moreaccustomed to act than to speak, directed a bath to be prepared withmedicated herbs, and gave it as his opinion, that the patient shouldnot be disturbed till to-morrow's sun was high in the heavens. Urselaccordingly was assisted to the bath, which was employed according tothe directions of the physician; but without affording any materialsymptoms of recovery. From thence he was transferred to a cheerfulbedchamber, opening by an ample window to one of the terraces of thepalace, which commanded an extensive prospect. These operations wereperformed upon a frame so extremely stupified by previous suffering, sodead to the usual sensations of existence, that it was not till thesensibility should be gradually restored by friction of the stiffenedlimbs, and other means, that the leech hoped the mists of the intellectshould at length begin to clear away.
Douban readily undertook to obey the commands of the Emperor, andremained by the bed of the patient until the dawn of morning, ready tosupport nature as far as the skill of leechcraft admitted.
From the mutes, much more accustomed to be the executioners of theEmperor's displeasure than of his humanity, Douban selected one man ofmilder mood, and by Alexius's order, made him understand, that the askin which he was engaged was to be kept most strictly secret, while thehardened slave was astonished to find that the attentions paid to thesick were to be rendered with yet more mystery than the bloody officesof death and torture.
The passive patient received the various acts of attention which wererendered to him in silence; and if not totally without consciousness,at least without a distinct comprehension of their object. After thesoothing operation of the bath, and the voluptuous exchange of the rudeand musty pile of straw, on which he had stretched himself for years,for a couch of the softest down, Ursel was presented with a sedativedraught, slightly tinctured with an opiate. The balmy restorer ofnature came thus invoked, and the captive sunk into a delicious slumberlong unknown to him, and which seemed to occupy equally his mentalfaculties and his bodily frame, while the features were released fromtheir rigid tenor, and the posture of the limbs, no longer disturbed byfits of cramp, and sudden and agonizing twists and throes, seemedchanged for a placid state of the most perfect ease and tranquillity.
The morn was already colouring the horizon, and the freshness of thebreeze of dawn had insinuated itself into the lofty halls of the palaceof the Blacquernal, when a gentle tap at the door of the chamberawakened Douban, who, undisturbed from the calm state of his patient,had indulged himself in a brief repose. The door opened, and a figureappeared, disguised in the robes worn by an officer of the palace, andconcealed, beneath an artificial beard of great size, and of a whitecolour, the features of the Emperor himself. "Douban," said Alexius,"how fares it with thy patient, whose safety is this day of suchconsequence to the Grecian state?"
"Well, my lord," replied the physician, "excellently well; a
nd if he isnot now disturbed, I will wager whatever skill I possess, that nature,assisted by the art of the physician, will triumph over the damps andthe unwholesome air of the impure dungeon. Only be prudent, my lord,and let not an untimely haste bring this Ursel forward into the contestere he has arranged the disturbed current of his ideas, and recovered,in some degree, the spring of his mind, and the powers of his body."
"I will rule my impatience," said the Emperor, "or rather, Douban, Iwill be ruled by thee. Thinkest thou he is awake?"
"I am inclined to think so," said the leech, "but he opens not hiseyes, and seems to me as if he absolutely resisted the natural impulseto rouse himself and look around him."
"Speak to him," said the Emperor, "and let us know what is passing inhis mind."
"It is at some risk," replied the physician, "but you shall be obeyed.--Ursel," he said, approaching the bed of his blind patient, and then,in a louder tone, he repeated again, "Ursel! Ursel!"
"Peace--Hush!" muttered the patient; "disturb not the blest in theirecstacy--nor again recall the most miserable of mortals to finish thedraught of bitterness which his fate had compelled him to commence."
"Again, again," said the Emperor, aside to Douban, "try him yet again;it is of importance for me to know in what degree he possesses hissenses, or in what measure they have disappeared from him."
"I would not, however," said the physician, "be the rash and guiltyperson, who, by an ill-timed urgency, should produce a total alienationof mind and plunge him back either into absolute lunacy, or produce astupor in which he might remain for a long period."
"Surely not," replied the Emperor: "my commands are those of oneChristian to another, nor do I wish them farther obeyed than as theyare consistent with the laws of God and man."
He paused for a moment after this declaration, and yet but few minuteshad elapsed ere he again urged the leech to pursue the interrogation ofhis patient. "If you hold me not competent," said Douban, somewhat vainof the trust necessarily reposed in him, "to judge of the treatment ofmy patient, your Imperial Highness must take the risk and the troubleupon yourself."
"Marry, I shall," said the Emperor, "for the scruples of leeches arenot to be indulged, when the fate of kingdoms and the lives of monarchsare placed against them in the scales.--Rouse thee, my noble Ursel!hear a voice, with which thy ears were once well acquainted, welcomethee back to glory and command! Look around thee, and see how the worldsmiles to welcome thee back from imprisonment to empire!"
"Cunning fiend!" said Ursel, "who usest the most wily baits in order toaugment the misery of the wretched! Know, tempter, that I am consciousof the whole trick of the soothing images of last night--thy baths--thybeds--and thy bowers of bliss.--But sooner shalt thou be able to bringa smile upon the cheek of St. Anthony the Eremite, than induce me tocurl mine after the fashion of earthly voluptuaries."
"Try it, foolish man," insisted the Emperor, "and trust to the evidenceof thy senses for the reality of the pleasures by which thou art nowsurrounded; or, if thou art obstinate in thy lack of faith, tarry asthou art for a single moment, and I will bring with me a being sounparalleled in her loveliness, that a single glance of her were worththe restoration of thine eyes, were it only to look upon her for amoment." So saying he left the apartment.
"Traitor," said Ursel, "and deceiver of old, bring no one hither! andstrive not, by shadowy and ideal forms of beauty, to increase thedelusion that gilds my prison-house for a moment, in order, doubtless,to destroy totally the spark of reason, and then exchange this earthlyhell for a dungeon in the infernal regions themselves."
"His mind is somewhat shattered," mused the physician, "which is oftenthe consequence of a long solitary confinement. I marvel much," was hisfarther thought, "if the Emperor can shape out any rational servicewhich this man can render him, after being so long immured in sohorrible a dungeon.--Thou thinkest, then," continued he, addressing thepatient, "that the seeming release of last night, with its baths andrefreshments, was only a delusive dream, without any reality?"
"Ay--what else?" answered Ursel.
"And that the arousing thyself, as we desire thee to do, would be but aresigning to a vain temptation, in order to wake to more unhappinessthan formerly?"
"Even so," returned the patient.
"What, then, are thy thoughts of the Emperor by whose command thousufferest so severe a restraint?"
Perhaps Douban wished he had forborne this question, for, in the verymoment when he put it, the door of the chamber opened, and the Emperorentered, with his daughter hanging upon his arm, dressed withsimplicity, yet with becoming splendour. She had found time, it seems,to change her dress for a white robe, which resembled a kind ofmourning, the chief ornament of which was a diamond chaplet, ofinestimable value, which surrounded and bound the long sable tresses,that reached from her head to her waist. Terrified almost to death, shehad been surprised by her father in the company of her husband theCaesar, and her mother; and the same thundering mandate had at onceordered Briennius, in the character of a more than suspected traitor,under the custody of a strong guard of Varangians, and commanded her toattend her father to the bedchamber of Ursel, in which she now stood;resolved, however, that she would stick by the sinking fortunes of herhusband, even in the last extremity, yet no less determined that shewould not rely upon her own entreaties or remonstrances, until sheshould see whether her father's interference was likely to reassume aresolved and positive character. Hastily as the plans of Alexius hadbeen formed, and hastily as they had been disconcerted by accident,there remained no slight chance that he might be forced to come roundto the purpose on which his wife and daughter had fixed their heart,the forgiveness, namely, of the guilty Nicephorus Briennius. To hisastonishment, and not perhaps greatly to his satisfaction, he heard thepatient deeply engaged with the physician in canvassing his owncharacter.
"Think not," said Ursel in reply to him, "that though I am immured inthis dungeon, and treated as something worse than an outcast ofhumanity--and although I am, moreover, deprived of my eyesight, thedearest gift of Heaven--think not, I say, though I suffer all this bythe cruel will of Alexius Comnenus, that therefore I hold him to bemine enemy; on the contrary, it is by his means that the blinded andmiserable prisoner has been taught to seek a liberty far moreunconstrained than this poor earth can afford, and a vision far moreclear than any Mount Pisgah on this wretched side of the grave can giveus: Shall I therefore account the Emperor among mine enemies? He whohas taught me the vanity of earthly things--the nothingness of earthlyenjoyments--and the pure hope of a better world, as a certain exchangefor the misery of the present? No!"
The Emperor had stood somewhat disconcerted at the beginning of thisspeech, but hearing it so very unexpectedly terminate, as he waswilling to suppose, much in his own favour, he threw himself into anattitude which was partly that of a modest person listening to his ownpraises, and partly that of a man highly struck with the commendationsheaped upon him by a generous adversary.
"My friend," he said aloud, "how truly do you read my purpose, when yousuppose that the knowledge which men of your disposition can extractfrom evil, was all the experience which I wished you to derive from acaptivity protracted by adverse circumstances, far, very far, beyond mywishes! Let me embrace the generous man who knows so well how toconstrue the purpose of a perplexed, but still faithful friend."
The patient raised himself in his bed.
"Hold there!" he said, "methinks my faculties begin to collectthemselves. Yes," he muttered, "that is the treacherous voice whichfirst bid me welcome as a friend, and then commanded fiercely that Ishould be deprived of the sight of my eyes!--Increase thy rigour ifthou wilt, Comnenus--add, if thou canst, to the torture of myconfinement--but since I cannot see thy hypocritical and inhumanfeatures, spare me, in mercy, the sound of a voice, more distressing tomine ear than toads, than serpents,--than whatever nature has mostoffensive and disgusting!"
This speech was delivered with so much energy, that it was in vain thatthe Empe
ror strove to interrupt its tenor; although he himself, as wellas Douban and his daughter, heard a great deal more of the language ofunadorned and natural passion than he had counted upon.
"Raise thy head, rash man," he said, "and charm thy tongue, ere itproceed in a strain which may cost thee dear. Look at me, and see if Ihave not reserved a reward capable of atoning for all the evil whichthy folly may charge to my account."
Hitherto the prisoner had remained with his eyes obstinately shut,regarding the imperfect recollection he had of sights which had beenbefore his eyes the foregoing evening, as the mere suggestion of adeluded imagination, if not actually presented by some seducing spirit.But now when his eyes fairly encountered the stately figure of theEmperor, and the graceful form of his lovely daughter, painted in thetender rays of the morning dawn, he ejaculated faintly, "I see!--Isee!"--And with that ejaculation fell back on the pillow in a swoon,which instantly found employment for Douban and his restoratives.
"A most wonderful cure indeed!" exclaimed the physician; "and theheight of my wishes would be to possess such another miraculousrestorative."
"Fool!" said the Emperor; "canst thou not conceive that what has neverbeen taken away is restored with little difficulty? He was made," hesaid, lowering his voice, "to undergo a painful operation, which ledhim to believe that the organs of sight were destroyed; and as lightscarcely ever visited him, and when it did, only in doubtful andinvisible glimmerings, the prevailing darkness, both physical andmental, that surrounded him, prevented him from being sensible of theexistence of that precious faculty, of which he imagined himselfbereft. Perhaps thou wilt ask my reason for inflicting upon him sostrange a deception?--Simply it was, that being by it conceivedincapable of reigning, his memory might pass out of the minds of thepublic, while, at the same time, I reserved his eyesight, that in caseoccasion should call, it might be in my power once more to liberate himfrom his dungeon, and employ, as I now propose to do, his courage andtalents in the service of the empire, to counterbalance those of otherconspirators."
"And can your imperial Highness," said Douban, "hope that you haveacquired this man's duty and affection by the conduct you have observedto him?"
"I cannot tell," answered the Emperor; "that must be as futurity shalldetermine. All I know is, that it is no fault of mine, if Ursel doesnot reckon freedom and a long course of Empire--perhaps sanctioned byan alliance with our own blood--and the continued enjoyment of theprecious organs of eyesight, of which a less scrupulous man would havedeprived him, against a maimed and darkened existence."
"Since such is your Highness's opinion and resolution," said Douban,"it is for me to aid, and not to counteract it. Permit me, therefore,to pray your Highness and the Princess to withdraw, that I may use suchremedies as may confirm a mind which has been so strangely shaken, andrestore to him fully the use of those eyes, of which he has been solong deprived."
"I am content, Douban," said the Emperor; "but take notice, Ursel isnot totally at liberty until he has expressed the resolution to becomeactually mine. It may behove both him and thee to know, that althoughthere is no purpose of remitting him to the dungeons of the Blacquernalpalace, yet if he, or any on his part, should aspire to head a party inthese feverish times,--by the honour of a gentleman, to swear aFrankish oath, he shall find that he is not out of the reach of thebattle-axes of my Varangians. I trust to thee to communicate this fact,which concerns alike him and all who have interest in hisfortunes.--Come, daughter, we will withdraw, and leave the leech withhis patient --Take notice, Douban, it is of importance that youacquaint me the very first moment when the patient can hold rationalcommunication with me."
Alexius and his accomplished daughter departed accordingly.
