had been engaged in thathand-to-hand street-fight through the city. He tore the door open andreeled into the room, then closed it behind him and stood with his backagainst it.
The room was oddly like that room in the doge's palace where he had satwith his uncle two days since in Venice. The same great, carved tablestood near the centre. The same high-set windows let in bars of coloredlight, which slanted down through the dimness and lay across floor andfurniture in billets and lozenges of gules and vert and azure.
A single red beam rested upon the bared shoulder of the woman who hungdrooping from her bonds, in the count's great chair of state; butlower, from between the woman's breasts, a darker red had coursed adownward trickling stream, and, still lower, made a red pool in thewoman's lap. Her head, bent, with chin on breast, was in shadow, butout of the shadow two eyes, still half-open, gleamed with the shallow,dull opacity of death.
SHE HUNG DROOPING IN THE GREAT CHAIR OF STATE]
Young Zuan, shaking against his closed door, gave a dry sob.
"Child! Child!" he mourned, bitterly. Then, all at once, his eyesnarrowed in an alert frown. There was something strange here.
He crossed the room with swift steps and dropped upon one knee beforethe chair of state, staring close through the half-darkness.
This was a woman, beautiful indubitably, but no longer young. Her baredshoulders were thick and mature, the breast under them mature, too. Onher bent face lust and hatred and cupidity and all evil passions hadgraven marks that not even death could erase.
Ay! something strange here. Young Zuan's foot struck against a yieldingbody which lay under the heavy shadow of the table. It was anotherwoman, and dead also, lying upon her face. Gradenigo turned the bodyover with panic in his heart. A squat, broad-jowled, peasant face--theserving-maid, it would seem, who had done her mistress that lastservice and straightway followed to serve elsewhere.
Zuan rose to his feet frowning. The matter was quite beyond him. Thenone stirred in the shadows at the far end of the room, and very slowlyhis princess came to him through those bars of colored light.
"Child! Child!" he cried again, and tears rolled down over his cheeks.He put out shaking arms to her, but she held him away with one hand,saying only:
"Wait, lord!"
Young Zuan swung about towards the dead woman who drooped so heavily inher bonds.
"Who is--that who sits there dead?" he asked. "Corner told me it wasthe Princess Yaga. Some one has lied to him. Who is it?"
She gave a quick sob.
"Lord, it is the Princess Yaga," she said.
"But," said he, dropping his voice to a whisper--he did not knowwhy--"but _you--you_?"
"Natalia Volutich, lord!" she said, whispering, too.
Young Zuan put up a hand to his bandaged head, and he drew the handacross his eyes. His eyes were bewildered, hurt--like a child's eyesbefore some great mystery.
"I do not understand," he said, just as a child would say it.
"Lord," cried the maid, with little sobs between her words, "I--didit first--I pretended to be Yaga first, for--duty's sake--the dutyI owed to her. She had been good to me, lord, kind and loving. Whenyour lieutenant thought I was Yaga and begged you to set sail with me,leaving Arbe, I saw that it would give her time--time to strengthenthe--defences. So I lied. I did not--care what became of me if only_she_ was--safe. Then--then you were in--danger and--oh, lord, I hadlooked into your eyes! I had--There was never man like you. I--lovedyou from the first moment--the very first moment. I could not bear thatyou should die. So I--saved you. Lord, do you not understand? WhatI did I did for love's sake. This morning when I found who you wereI tried to tell you the truth. I tried, lord, did I not? Did I not?Oh!" she cried, turning from him with wringing hands, "I have doneeverything ill and you will never forgive me; and yet, lord, I did itall for love's sake!"
She looked towards Zuan Gradenigo, but he stood silent and helplessin his place, his eyes staring, his lips apart. The thing had beentoo swift and too amazing for him. His mind, unused to indirections,labored blindly at sea. And so, after a moment, she turned away againand crossed the room to where the dead woman hung, lax and heavy, inthe carven chair. Sobbing, she dropped upon her knees before the chairand laid her forehead against the dead woman's arm, into whose softflesh the leathern thongs had cut so cruelly.
"And I was away when they bound you!" she wept. "I was not with youwhen you died!"
Zuan Gradenigo awoke from his daze.
"Child!" he cried. "Child! Come away from that vile body. It pollutesyou!"
But the maid turned fiercely upon him.
"She loved me!" cried the maid. "She was kind to me, gentle andpitiful--and I let her die alone! Whatever she may have been to others,to me, lord, she was like the mother who died when I was a little babe.She loved me, and I let her die miserably, alone here! Oh, lord, haveyou nothing but curses for a woman who is dead and cannot answer you?"
Zuan bent his head. "Child," said he, gravely, "I ask your forgiveness,and hers, and God's. She was kind to you, wherefore I shall never speakill of her again. But oh, my dear, come to me! She is dead and youcannot comfort her now. Come to me, child, who am alive and cannot livewithout you."
"Oh, lord," said she, "I would not have you try!"
THE END
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Transcriber's Note:
The half-title page has been removed.
Page 91, closing quote added after "... and so good."
The Island of Enchantment Page 6
