PAGE 6
The Satraps
by
The Queen answered sadly: “Once did God tread the tangible world, for a very little while, and, look you, to what trivial matters He devoted that brief space! Only to chat with fishermen, and to reason with lost women, and habitually to consort with rascals, till at last He might die between two cutpurses, ignominiously! Were the considerate persons of His day moved at all by the death of this fanatic? I bid you now enumerate through what long halls did the sleek heralds proclaim His crucifixion! and the armament of great-jowled emperors that were distraught by it?”
He answered: “It is true. Of anise even and of cumin the Master estimates His tithe–” Maudelain broke off with a yapping laugh. “Puf! He is wiser than we. I am King of England. It is my heritage.”
“It means war. Many will die, many thousands will die, and to no betterment of affairs.”
“I am King of England. I am Heaven’s satrap here, and answerable to Heaven alone. It is my heritage.” And now his large and cruel eyes flamed as he regarded her.
And visibly beneath their glare the woman changed. “My friend, must I not love you any longer? You would be content with happiness? I am jealous of that happiness! for you are the one friend that I have had, and so dear to me– Look you!” she said, with a light, wistful laugh, “there have been times when I was afraid of everything you touched, and I hated everything you looked at. I would not have you stained; I desired but to pass my whole life between the four walls of some dingy and eternal gaol, forever alone with you, lest you become as other men. I would in that period have been the very bread you eat, the least perfume which delights you, the clod you touch in crushing it, and often I have loathed some pleasure I derived from life because I might not transfer it to you undiminished. For I wanted somehow to make you happy to my own anguish…. It was wicked, I suppose, for the imagining of it made me happy, too.”
Throughout she spoke as simply as a child.
And beside him Maudelain’s hands had fallen like so much lead, and remembering his own nature, he longed for annihilation only, before she had appraised his vileness. In consequence he said:
“With reason Augustine crieth out against the lust of the eyes. ‘For pleasure seeketh objects beautiful, melodious, fragrant, savory, and soft; but this disease those contrary as well, not for the sake of suffering annoyance, but out of the lust of making trial of them!’ Ah! ah! too curiously I planned my own damnation, too presumptuously I had esteemed my soul a worthy scapegoat, and I had gilded my enormity with many lies. Yet indeed, indeed, I had believed brave things, I had planned a not ignoble bargain–! Ey, say, is it not laughable, madame?–as my birthright Heaven accords me a penny, and with that only penny I must anon be seeking to bribe Heaven.”
Presently he said: “Yet are we indeed God’s satraps, as but now I cried in my vainglory, and we hold within our palms the destiny of many peoples. Depardieux! He is wiser than we are, it may be! And as always Satan offers no unhandsome bribes–bribes that are tangible and sure.”
They stood like effigies, lit by the broad, unsparing splendor of the morning, but again their kindling eyes had met, and again the man shuddered visibly, convulsed by a monstrous and repulsive joy. “Decide! oh, decide very quickly, my only friend!” he wailed, “for throughout I am all filth!”
Closer she drew to him and without hesitancy laid one hand on either shoulder. “O my only friend!” she breathed, with red lax lips which were very near to his, “throughout so many years I have ranked your friendship as the chief of all my honors! and I pray God with an entire heart that I may die so soon as I have done what I must do to-day!”