Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice

by James Branch Cabell

  8.

  Old Toys and a New Shadow

  Jurgen had behaved with conspicuous nobility, Jurgen reflected: buthe had committed himself. "I go in search of my dear wife," he hadstated, in the exaltation of virtuous sentiments. And now Jurgenfound himself alone in a world of moonlight just where he had lastseen his wife.

  "Well, well," he said, "now that my Wednesday is done with, and I amagain a reputable pawnbroker, let us remember the advisability ofsometimes doing the manly thing! It was into this cave that Lisawent. So into this cave go I, for the second time, rather than hometo my unsympathetic relatives-in-law. Or at least, I think I amgoing--"

  "Ay," said a squeaking voice, "this is the time. A ab hur hus!"

  "High time!"

  "Oh, more than time!"

  "Look, the man in the oak!"

  "Oho, the fire-drake!"

  Thus many voices screeched and wailed confusedly. But Jurgen,staring about him, could see nobody: and all the tiny voices seemedto come from far overhead, where nothing was visible save the cloudswhich of a sudden were gathering; for a wind was rising, and alreadythe moon was overcast. Now for a while that noise high in the airbecame like a wrangling of sparrows, wherein no words weredistinguishable.

  Then said a small shrill voice distinctly: "Note now, sweethearts,how high we pass over the wind-vexed heath, where the gallows'burden creaks and groans swaying to and fro in the night! Now therain breaks loose as a hawk from the fowler, and grave Queen Holdadraws her tresses over the moon's bright shield. Now the bed ismade, and the water drawn, and we the bride's maids seek for thelass who will be bride to Sclaug."

  Said another: "Oh, search for a maid with golden hair, who isperfect, tender and pure, and fit for a king who is old as love,with no trace of love in him. Even now our grinning dusty masterwakes from sleep, and his yellow fingers shake to think of herflower-soft lips who comes to-night to his lank embrace and warmsthe ribs that our eyes have seen. Who will be bride to Sclaug?"

  And a third said: "The wedding-gown we have brought with us, we thata-questing ride; and a maid will go hence on Phorgemon inCleopatra's shroud. Hah. Will o'the Wisp will marry the couple--"

  "No, no! let Brachyotus!"

  "No, be it Kitt with the candle-stick!"

  "Eman hetan, a fight, a fight!"

  "Oho, Tom Tumbler, 'ware of Stadlin!"

  "Hast thou the marmaritin, Tib?"

  "A ab hur hus!"

  "Come, Bembo, come away!"

  So they all fell to screeching and whistling and wrangling high overJurgen's head, and Jurgen was not pleased with his surroundings.

  "For these are the witches of Amneran about some deviltry or anotherin which I prefer to take no part. I now regret that I flung away across in this neighborhood so very recently, and trust the actionwas understood. If my wife had not made a point of it, and had notpositively insisted upon it, I would never have thought of doingsuch a thing. I intended no reflection upon anybody. Even so, Iconsider this heath to be unwholesome. And upon the whole, I preferto seek whatever I may encounter in this cave."

  So in went Jurgen, for the second time.

  And the tale tells that all was dark there, and Jurgen could see noone. But the cave stretched straight forward, and downward, and atthe far end was a glow of light. Jurgen went on and on, and so cameto the place where he had found the Centaur. This part of the cavewas now vacant. But behind where Nessus had lain in wait for Jurgenwas an opening in the cave's wall, and through this opening streamedthe light. Jurgen stooped and crawled through the orifice.

  He stood erect. He caught his breath sharply. Here at his feet was,of all things, a tomb carved with the recumbent effigy of a woman.Now this part of the cave was lighted by lamps upon tall ironstands, so that everything was clearly visible, even to Jurgen,whose eyesight had of late years failed him. This was certainly alow flat tombstone such as Jurgen had seen in many churches: but thetinted effigy thereupon was curious, somehow Jurgen looked moreclosely. He touched the thing.

  Then he recoiled, because there is no mistaking the feel of deadflesh. The effigy was not colored stone: it was the body of a deadwoman. More unaccountable still, it was the body of Felise dePuysange, whom Jurgen had loved very long ago in Gatinais, a greatmany years before he set up in business as a pawnbroker.

  Very strange it was to Jurgen again to see her face. He had oftenwondered what had become of this large brown woman; had wondered ifhe were really the first man for whom she had put a deceit upon herhusband; and had wondered what sort of person Madame Felise dePuysange had been in reality.

  "Two months it was that we played at intimacy, was it not, Felise?You comprehend, my dear, I really remember very little about you.But I recall quite clearly the door left just a-jar, and how as Iopened it gently I would see first of all the lamp upon yourdressing-table, turned down almost to extinction, and the glowingdust upon its glass shade. Is it not strange that our exceedingwickedness should have resulted in nothing save the memory of dustupon a lamp chimney? Yet you were very handsome, Felise. I dare sayI would have liked you if I had ever known you. But when you told meof the child you had lost, and showed me his baby picture, I took adislike to you. It seemed to me you were betraying that child bydealing over-generously with me: and always between us afterward washis little ghost. Yet I did not at all mind the deceits you put uponyour husband. It is true I knew your husband rather intimately--.Well, and they tell me the good Vicomte was vastly pleased by theson you bore him some months after you and I had parted. So therewas no great harm done, after all--"

  Then Jurgen saw there was another woman's body lying like an effigyupon another low flat tomb, and beyond that another, and then stillothers. And Jurgen whistled.

  "What, all of them!" he said. "Am I to be confronted with everypound of tender flesh I have embraced? Yes, here is Graine, andRosamond, and Marcoueve, and Elinor. This girl, though, I do notremember at all. And this one is, I think, the little Jewess Ipurchased from Hassan Bey in Sidon, but how can one be sure? Still,this is certainly Judith, and this is Myrina. I have half a mind tolook again for that mole, but I suppose it would be indecorous.Lord, how one's women do add up! There must be several scores ofthem in all. It is the sort of spectacle that turns a man to seriousthinking. Well, but it is a great comfort to reflect that I dealtfairly with every one of them. Several of them treated me mostunjustly, too. But that is past and done with: and I bear no malicetoward such fickle and short-sighted creatures as could not becontented with one lover, and he the Jurgen that was!"

  Thereafter, Jurgen, standing among his dead, spread out his arms inan embracing gesture.

  "Hail to you, ladies, and farewell! for you and I have done with love.Well, love is very pleasant to observe as he advances, overthrowing allancient memories with laughter. And yet for each gay lover who concedesthe lordship of love, and wears intrepidly love's liveries, the end ofall is death. Love's sowing is more agreeable than love's harvest: or,let us put it, he allures us into byways leading nowhither, amongblossoms which fall before the first rough wind: so at the last, withmuch excitement and breath and valuable time quite wasted, we find thatthe end of all is death. Then would it have been more shrewd, dearladies, to have avoided love? To the contrary, we were unspeakably wiseto indulge the high-hearted insanity that love induced; since love alonecan lend young people rapture, however transiently, in a world whereinthe result of every human endeavor is transient, and the end of all isdeath."

  Then Jurgen courteously bowed to his dead loves, and left them, andwent forward as the cave stretched.

  But now the light was behind him, so that Jurgen's shadow, as hecame to a sharp turn in the cave, loomed suddenly upon the cavewall, confronting him. This shadow was clear-cut and unarguable.

  Jurgen regarded it intently. He turned this way, then the other; helooked behind him, raised one hand, shook his head tentatively; thenhe twisted his head sideways with his chin well lifted, and squintedso as to get a profile view of this shadow. Whatever Jurgen did
theshadow repeated, which was natural enough. The odd part was that itin nothing resembled the shadow which ought to attend any man, andthis was an uncomfortable discovery to make in loneliness deep underground.

  "I do not exactly like this," said Jurgen. "Upon my word, I do notlike this at all. It does not seem fair. It is perfectlypreposterous. Well"--and here he shrugged,--"well, and what couldanybody expect me to do about it? Ah, what indeed! So I shall treatthe incident with dignified contempt, and continue my exploration ofthis cave."