Part 9 (1/2)
”You wax bold, my lord. And may I ask why you speak thus? Surely, it is no wound to your honor or mine that he chances to-day to outride us both.”
Iftikhar laughed aloud, was silent a moment, then broke forth.
”Verily, Cid Richard, why ride we all, you, I, De Valmont, to Monreale! _Ya!_ do you still ask why I say I 'let none cross me'?”
Richard's hand started towards his hilt.
”My Lord Iftikhar, we all seek the good favor of that incomparable lady, Mary Kurkuas.”
The Egyptian's hand was on his cimeter also. ”You speak well,” came back his haughty answer; ”but I speak to a young cavalier like yourself this word of warning--do not carry your pa.s.sion too far. As for De Valmont, let him know this, good lance that he is: I am as sure a saddle as he, and I am more.” Iftikhar leaned, as he rode, and half whispered to Richard, ”Do you know the brotherhood of the Ismaelians?”
”The secret confederacy among Moslems, whose G.o.d is the dagger?”
Iftikhar spoke very low: ”Know, O Norman, that I am a grand prior amongst the Ismaelians. Soon as Allah wills, I return to Syria. At my nod will be countless devotees, who rush on death as to a feast.
Therefore I am not lightly to be thwarted by De Valmont even. _Ya!_”
And the emir laughed grimly. Richard kept silence, but swore in his heart that laugh should be like Roland's laugh at Ganelon,--a laugh that cost Roland his life.
When they came to the Palace of the Diadem, De Valmont was there before them, and had the lady's ear. He was telling of a marvellous hunting party that was on foot for the morrow, and how Count Roger's daughter, the young Countess Blanche, had especially bidden him to ride with the princess to the chase. And Richard, and Iftikhar also, had perforce to stand by, while Mary gave the Provencal her sweetest thanks, and promised him her glove to wear at the next jousting.
Sorry comfort it was to Longsword, especially as the princess gave him and the emir only enough of the talk to let them know she remembered they were there. As for Iftikhar, black jealousy drove him forth quickly. He salaamed himself away, and went tearing down the road to Palermo, uttering invocations to all the evil jinns, to blast Louis de Valmont's happiness for many a long year. But Richard would not own to such defeat; while Louis and Mary bartered merry small talk, he sat beside the old Caesar, and found in the n.o.ble Greek, after the crust of dignity was broken, a man of the world who could tell his story.
And Richard found that Manuel had been a mighty warrior in his youth, though not after the Norman fas.h.i.+on. Richard learned with wonder how armies were marshalled according to careful rules in the military books of Nicephorus Phocus and Leo the Wise; how campaigns could be worked out, and armies shuffled about dexterously as chessmen, instead of depending on chance _melees_ and bull valor. The Caesar had stirring tales to tell of wars and paladins Richard had never before heard of,--Zimiskes and his terrible fight with Swiatoslaf the Russian, when St. Theodore himself, men said, led the charge through the pagan spear-hedge; of Basil, the terrible ”Bulgarian slayer”; of the redoubtable champion, Diginis Akritas, grim lord of the Cilician Marches, the terror of the border Arabs; only Manuel's face clouded when he spoke of the present darkened fame of his people.
”I was with Roma.n.u.s Diogenes,” said he, bitterly, ”at Manzikert, that fatal day when by the treachery of Andronicus, general of the reserve, our Emperor and all Asia Minor were betrayed to Alp-Arslan the Seljouk. Oh! Sir Frank--” and his dim eyes lighted, ”never saw I harder fight than that: all that mortal men might, did we, riding down the Turkish hordes with sword and lance all day. But at nightfall we were surrounded, and the hosts rolled in around us. Treason had cut off our succor. Our divisions perished; our emperor was a prisoner; and the force that Alexius Comnenus led against you Normans at Durazzo was a shadow, a mockery, of what had been our army in the days when the Kalif of Bagdad trembled at the advance of the terrible Romans!”
When Richard left the palace it was in company with Louis de Valmont.
Mary had been very gracious to the Norman in parting, and Manuel had urged him to come again. He was an old man, time was heavy on his hands; he was rejoiced to tell his tales to whoever would listen. But it was Louis who had the last word with the princess, Louis who whispered at the farewell some soft pleasantry that had a deeper ring than the common troubadour's praise and compliment. Longsword and the Provencal rode back towards Palermo side by side. De Valmont was in a happy enough mood to be very gracious.
”Heir, of Cefalu,” said he, while they cantered stirrup to stirrup, ”I did wrong yesterday. I thought you sought to cross me in a quest--what shame for me to avow it--after the hand of this lady. But to-day by your discreet carriage I see you have no such rashness. Who can but fall at the princess's feet, and sigh with pa.s.sion! And her father, though a Greek, must have been a fine man once in the saddle.”
The Provencal's words were like flint striking steel; Richard replied very slowly, sure warning that fire was near at hand.
”Sir Louis de Valmont, with our eyes on the lady, no marvel we possess only one thought. Yet not I only, but Iftikhar Eddauleh may cry 'Hold!' ere you carry this fair game to an end. The emir this day boasted to me he was become grand prior of the Ismaelians, the devotees of the dagger, and that not even so good a lance as you might cross his road when he minded otherwise.”
The knight frowned blackly.
”The emir and I are friends no longer. The princess may love the gems in his turban, his Arabic verses; but not even here in Sicily will she wed an infidel. He has more than one woman in his harem in the city.
Over his devotees and his own lance I lose little slumber.”
”You say well, fair sir,” said Richard; ”yet honor forbids me to conceal it. I think you will not take Mary Kurkuas to the priest before you have tried the temper of my sword, though Iftikhar do what he lists.”
”Take care, my brave lad!” cried the Provencal, dropping his jaw in a sneer. ”I wish to splinter no lances against such as you.”
”By St. Michael, I swear it; aye, and will make it good on my body!”
And Richard raised his hand in an oath.
”Fie!” cried the other, p.r.i.c.king ahead. ”In the morning you will repent of this folly. I can win no glory in a broil with you; which, if I follow up, will end with your funeral ma.s.s.”
And before Richard could make reply De Valmont's white palfrey had swept far in advance, leaving the Norman with only his raging thoughts for company. In this state he rode into the town, seeking the house of Al-Bakri. But close by the door a noisy crowd was swelling: Pisan sailors, Greek peasants come to market, Moslem serving-lads, and chief of all several men-at-arms in leather jerkins and steel caps, all howling and shouting in half a dozen tongues, and making the narrow street and bare gray house-walls ring with their clamors.