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XVI
The place of Assembly was an antechamber of the palace, adjoining the main hall. Here Bertrand and his Lady – who it seemed would join the hunt – awaited their guests in company with two huntsmen. Adhemar was there already and he smiled at me and I returned the smile, but I knew him now for an enemy. Of Alboino there was no sign.
When all who would take part were gathered, the huntsmen began to advance their separate claims. Each had followed the spoor of a deer with his bloodhounds and discovered the harbour, or resting place, of the beast and marked it for the morrow. They spoke in turn and earnestly: he whose deer was chosen would be paid in coin and receive some share of the meat. It was for this reason that, even though his punishment would be severe if the company were disappointed, a huntsman sometimes overpraised his deer, and so the questioning had to be careful. Neither man had viewed his quarry, but they assured us, from the height of the traces left by the antlers, that each was a hart of ten. On this point they were very definite and for the reason we all knew well: with less than ten tines on the head a hart was not judged ready to be hunted with dogs.
This discussion of the relative merits of the deer was elaborate and protracted as always, and as always it was conducted in French. No matter how long the Normans had lived in Sicily they used the language of their forebears when talking of the hunt. Each man, by courtesy of the host, was allowed a question if he so chose. Bertrand did me the honour of inviting me to ask the third question, after his own and that of the favoured quest, and this was a knight of very high estate, a nephew of Count Theobald of Blois. This courtesy I put down to Alicia's commendation of me – it could hardly be due to my own standing in such a company as this. My question, fortunately, was already prepared. I enquired into the depth of the impressions made by the feet and knees when the beast rose from its bed – an important matter this, as it indicates the weight. After I had thus played my part and showed myself no stranger to the business, I regret to say that I began to lose interest, especially as we now entered upon a long discussion concerning the width of foot, each huntsman eagerly showing, with fingers laid side by side, the flattening of the grass where his beast had trod.
There was a line of pillars along the side of the room opposite the entrance; they were of the kind known as serpentine, very slender, with a rope of marble winding round from pedestal to capital, so that the whole pillar took the form of a twining snake, this too the work of Saracen masons, perhaps made, I thought, in the days of Yusuf's ancestor, he who had been vizir to the Emir Jafar, who built this palace and was the first to make a lake round it. And as I followed these snakes of marble up to the Arabic characters inscribed in the capitals, then down again to the low pediment, in sinuous, unceasing lines, I remembered Yusuf's face as he spoke of his forebears, the pride and sorrow in it, and then I remembered his anger when I had compared his people to the Serbs. He had spoken on a tide of feeling, something very rare in him; he had spoken of rebellion and civil war, dangerous words for any man to speak, however highly placed… I drifted from this to thoughts of the guileful Serpent twining round the Tree, and the honeyed words that had brought our first parents to exile and sorrow, till Christ came to redeem us from that sin and hold out to us the promise of eternal life. The hart was the symbol of this, because God gave to the hart the ability to renew itself. When it has lived for thirty-two years it is driven by its nature to seek out an anthill, which it then destroys by trampling upon it. Below this anthill there is found a white snake, which the hart kills and devours. It then goes to a desert place and throws off its flesh and becomes young again, and this signifies the soul's discarding of the body as it enters into purgatory and so prepares for eternal life.
I was roused from this half-dreaming state by being asked my opinion as to the merits and defects of the excrement of the two animals. The huntsmen had brought specimens of these fumées, as they were called, and we gathered wisely round a table to compare them. This also requires a great deal of study, the points of comparison being in the thickness of the turd, its length, and the hardness of its consistency. The palm was finally awarded, the defeated huntsman took himself disconsolately off and the victor was told to have his lymers ready for the next day.
After this I set off again to look for Alicia, but did not find her, and supposed she would be resting; she would not venture much into this hot sun of afternoon. I thought of her fairness, the pale brows: she had taken care to keep her face from burning in Jerusalem, and so she would do here.
I found my own chamber very sweetly smelling when I returned to it; in my absence they had come and strewn the floor with dried mint, and I think other herbs mingled with it. I lay on the bed and thought of the events of the day and became drowsy as I did so, so that impressions were jumbled together and lost all order of sequence, the turning mirrors, the servitude of the brass Saracens, the false smiles of Adhemar and the sad eyes of the Abbot, the strange distortions of the shadows on the walls, Alicia waiting for me in the shade of the pavilion, the kisses we had exchanged – I seemed to feel them still on my lips. I remembered the change in her face as I tried to speak my gratitude, and how for a moment she had seemed at a loss, perhaps unsure whether she should confide in me. She had seemed afraid as she spoke of her brother and his spying. But that brief look on her face, when she had raised her fingers to my lips to prevent me from speaking, that had been more like distress than fear. Pale hands, pale as ivory… some words that might be the begi
Her honour and her good shall be my care.
I am her liege-man and her lover.
Wherever I may be…
Her liege-man and her lover, her lover and her liege-man. Which had the best fall? The first was more lyrical, the second had more weight on the end syllable… Before this problem could be solved I drifted into sleep and lay lost to the world while the sun waned and sank and the evening came and the light softened. There were already the first grainings of dark in the air when I descended, and I saw that fires were already burning on the farther shore of the lake.
These fires it was possible to reach in one of two ways, I was informed by the chamberlain, who seemed to be permanently stationed in the hall below: I could leave the island by means of the causeway, then make my way on foot round the edge of the lake until reaching the fires; or, if preferred, there were little pleasure-boats, I could paddle across. I said I would prefer the latter, and a gardener's boy was summoned to show me where the boats were. Only three now remained, moored at a little landing-stage, though this sometimes stretched away and the boats were multiplied, according to the swing of the mirrors, invisible from here, the sunlight no longer betraying their presence. If one lived long on this island, I thought, one would lose for ever the capacity to trust in anything, even in one's own senses. Or perhaps one would simply become wary as to where he set his foot. There were zones that were free from these bewildering reflections, like the gardens surrounding the pavilion and the pavilion itself, but it was not possible to know where the borders were. One step farther and the world stretched and yawned and the distinction between the one and the many was lost.
The paddle-boats were built for calm water, with gilded prows and cushioned seats. They were small, yes, but quite big enough for two, and it was now that a certain idea came to me: if I could make myself master of one of these boats and prevent it from being taken by anyone else, it might provide the means of having Alicia to myself for a while, and defeating Adhemar's vigilance.