as our minds are ever in perpetual motion, and can neither stop nor rest except by god, who is our centre, and for whom we are created, it is no marvel that our thoughts should change,—that this should take, that, leave; one should go on, another forget; and he who is the most quiet, will go on best, if he be not so from want of intellect.
i have made these observations as an excuse for the conduct of arnoldo, and the apparent facility with which he relinquished in one moment the object that had occupied him so long; though one can hardly say that he relinquished it, for he only put it off for a time, because honour, the ruling feeling of all human actions, called him away; and this he explained to periander on the night before their parting, talking with him apart from the others in the hermitage island. there he entreated him (for he who asks for a thing he greatly needs rather begs than asks) to look well after his sister auristella, and preserve her for him, to be the queen of denmark; and that if fortune should prove adverse, and he should not recover his kingdom, but lose his life in the endeavour, auristella should be considered as the widow of a prince, and as such should choose a husband; and frequently he repeated, as he had often done before, that she well deserved to be the greatest queen in the world.
periander said not one single word of all this to auristella, for the lover delights in bestowing upon a beloved one praises from himself, and not as coming from another. he has no desire to make her in love with the charms of any one else; his own are all that he wishes her to see: if he cannot himself sing well, he will not bring to her a friend who can: if he is not handsome, he will not visit her in the company of a ganymede; and, in fine, i am of opinion that if he has faults, he will not mend them by the merits of others; however, these things cannot apply to periander, who was so richly endowed with nature's choicest gifts, and in those of fortune, was inferior to few.
a favouring gale wafted the two vessels on their different ways, for this is one of the mysteries of the art of navigation. they went on their course, cutting the not crystal but the dark blue waters. the sea was calm, for the wind, treating it with respect, only ruffled the surface, and the ship just seemed gently to kiss its lips, and then bound over it so lightly, that it scarcely appeared to touch it. in this manner, and with the same continued serenity and success, they sailed for seventeen days, without having occasion once to shorten sail, a great felicity for those who are on a sea voyage, to which, if it were not from the dread of tempests and coming storms, no pleasure in life is equal.
at the end of these or a few more days, early one morning, a boy on the top mast-head cried out, "land! a reward sirs, a reward; i ask a reward, and deserve it, too; land! land!" although he might rather have said, heaven! heaven! for we were without a doubt within sight of lisbon, the news of which brought tears—tender and joyful tears—into the eyes of all, but more especially of ricla, the two antonios, and constance, for it seemed to them as if they had now reached the promised land that they so much desired to see. antonio clasped them in his arms, and cried, "now you shall learn, my beloved barbarians, how we serve god, and many other things more fully, although not differently from what i have taught you. now you will see the rich temples in which we worship him; you will see the catholic ceremonies with which we serve him; and you will see what christian love is. here, love and modesty join hands and walk together; courtesy repels arrogance, and courage sends cowardice far away: all the inhabitants are civil, courteous, liberal, and loving. this is the greatest city in all europe, and the one that has most trade. in her the riches of the east are poured out, from her they are scattered over the universe. her harbour is capacious, and holds countless navies like forests; the beauty of her women is everywhere admired; the gallantry of her men is a wonder to all, and finally, this is the land which pays to heaven a holy and abundant tribute."
"say no more, antonio," observed periander, "but leave our eyes something to discover for ourselves; let something remain for us to see and admire anew, thus our pleasure will in the end be all the greater for coming by degrees."
auristella was delighted to think she should soon set her foot on terra firma again, without having to go from port to port, isle to isle, subject to all the inconstancies of wind and weather; and still more pleased was she, when she heard that she might, if she liked, go on dry land from hence to rome, without embarking again.
it was mid-day when they arrived at sangian, where the ship was to be registered, and where the governor of the castle, and all who came on board the ship with him, wondered greatly at the exceeding beauty of auristella, the graceful air of periander, the barbarian attire of the two antonios, the comeliness of ricla, and the agreeable looks of constance. they learned that they were foreigners and pilgrims going to rome. periander magnificently rewarded the mariners who had brought them hither, with some of the gold that ricla had carried away with her from the barbarous isle; they had changed some of it into money, in king polycarp's dominions. the mariners wished to go to lisbon, in order to make some bargains in the way of merchandise.
the governor of sangian sent the news of the arrival of the strangers, to the governor of lisbon; this office was then held by the archbishop of braga, in the absence of the king, who was not in the city at this time. he told him of the incomparable beauty of auristella, and added praises of that of constance, whose barbarian attire, heightened the effect of her charms. he even exaggerated the excessive liberality and gracefulness of periander, and extolled the behaviour of them all, who were, he said, much more like courtiers than barbarians.
the ship came up to the town, and they went on shore at belén, for auristella wished to visit the holy monastery first, having heard of its fame. she desired devoutly to adore there, the only true god, freely and unembarrassed by the distorted ceremonies of her own land. crowds of people came down to the shore to see the strangers disembark at belén. they all ran thither full of curiosity to see the novel sight.
the phalanx of beauty had already left belén; ricla was only moderately well looking, but her strange garb became her extremely: constance looked charming in her dress of skins; the elder antonio in his wolf skin, with bare legs and arms; his son in a similar array, only that he carried his bow in his hand, and his quiver full of arrows was hung at his shoulder. periander was dressed in a green velvet tunic, and trousers of the same, like a mariner; on his head he wore a high pointed cap, which could not conceal the bright ringlets of golden hair which escaped beneath it. auristella was arrayed in the richest and most superb attire, according to the fashion of the north, displaying all that can be imagined most lovely in features, most graceful in form; altogether they created an immense sensation of wonder and admiration; but the graces of periander and auristella excelled all the rest.
they went to lisbon by land, followed by crowds of people of all ranks; they were taken to the governor, who, after having looked at them with admiration, was never weary of asking, "who they were, whence they came, and whither they were going?" to all which periander answered, for he had already got his answer ready prepared for similar questions, as many such were to be expected; and so, when he liked or when it seemed advisable to do so, he told his history at length, but always concealing his parentage, so that he satisfied all questions, giving them, if not the whole, at least a great part of his history in a few words.
the viceroy gave orders that they should be lodged in one of the best suites of apartments in the city, which happened to be in the house of a great portuguese nobleman; so many persons flocked thither in order to look at auristella and her companions, (the fame of their beauty having got abroad,) that periander was of opinion it would be better for the barbarians to change their dress for that of pilgrims, as he thought the novelty and strangeness of the garb they wore, was the chief cause of their being so much followed, and even persecuted by the vulgar crowd, and the other would be very much to the purpose of their intended journey to rome. they all agreed to do as he proposed, and in two or three days the whole party was curiously pilgrimized.
it happened one day as he was going out of the house, that a portuguese fell at periander's feet: calling him by his name, and embracing his knees, he cried, "by what good fortune, my lord periander, do i see you here? be not surprised that i call you by your name, for i am one of the twenty who were set at liberty in the conflagration of the barbarous isle, where you also was a prisoner. i was present at the death of manuel de souza coutiño, the portuguese gentleman; i partook with you and yours of the shelter of the inn, at the time when maurice and ladislaus arrived in search of transila, the wife of one, and daughter of the other; my good fortune brought me home to my own country, where i told the story of the poor lover's death, to his relations, and they would have believed me, even if i had not seen it with my own eyes: it is a not uncommon thing for the portuguese to die of love. a brother who inherited his property had his obsequies performed; and in a chapel belonging to his family he had a tomb of white marble erected, as if he was buried beneath, and thereon an epitaph, which i hope you will all come and see, for i think you will be pleased with it."
periander knew well by all he said that the man spoke the truth, although he could not recollect ever having seen his face; however, they went to the church of which he spoke, and saw the chapel and the tomb, upon which was engraven in the portuguese language this epitaph, which, read by antonio the father, in castilian, ran thus:—
to the memory of the deceased
manuel de souza coutiño,
a portuguese gentleman,
who, had he not been portuguese, might still be living.
he died, not by any castilian hand, but
by that of all powerful love.
passenger,
if you knew the history of his life, you would
think his death a blessing.
periander thought the portuguese had good reason to praise the epitaph, in the composition of which that nation have great skill.
auristella asked him, how the nun, that the deceased loved, had felt when she heard of her lover's death. "a few days after she heard of it," he replied, "she passed into a better world; whether owing to the austerities of her way of life, or to the news of the unexpected event, was never known."
they then proceeded to the house of a celebrated painter, where periander gave directions to have a very large piece of canvass, painted with all the different events of his history. on one side there was to be the barbarous isle in flames; near it the prison island, and a little lower, the raft on which he was found by arnoldo, and brought into his ship. in another part of the picture was the snowy island, where the enamoured portuguese died. then came the ship, which was perforated by the two soldiers, and near it was depicted the separation of the skiff and boat. here was to be the duel between the two rivals for taurisa, and their death. there, the hull of the vessel that was turned upside down, and which was so near being auristella's tomb, and that of all who were with her. then the pleasant isle wherein periander had his dream, and saw the two squadrons of virtues and vices; and close to this the ship, when the sea monster, carried off the two seamen, and gave them a sepulchre in his belly. nor was the frozen sea forgotten, wherein the vessel was imbedded—the assault upon her from the people who came over the ice,—nor the delivering of them all to cratilius: also, there was to be painted, the tremendous leap of the fiery courser, which turned him from a lion into a lamb. then, in a corner, was a sketch of king polycarp's festival, and himself there, crowned as victor. he was resolved not to pass by one single incident of importance that had happened up to their arrival in lisbon, and their disembarkation in the same dresses they had worn when they arrived. also, on the same canvass, was to be seen the fire that burnt king polycarp's palace; clodio transfixed by the dart of young antonio; zenotia hanging; hermitage isle, and rutilio in his holy garments. this canvass was to be a summary of everything, and was to serve in the place of a continual repetition of the story, for antonio the younger was to explain the pictures and events when any one came to look at them; but the master-piece of the artist was auristella's portrait. they stayed ten days in lisbon, and spent the time in visiting the churches, and giving their souls a help to the right road into salvation; at the end of which time, with the viceroy's permission, and proper passports, and descriptions of who and what they were, and whither bound, they took leave of their host, the portuguese nobleman, and of the brother of the ill-fated manuel, from whom they had received great caresses and kindness, and set forth on the road to castile. this departure was performed at night, from a fear of the crowd that would have followed and impeded them, although the change of dress had done something towards decreasing the wonder.
