The Iron Pincers or Mylio and Karvel Part 11

Left to themselves the family of the Perfect for a moment contemplate one another in silent admiration for Giraude.

MYLIO (to Karvel)--"I can not express to you how that woman's charming kindness touches my heart. Even in the midst of her anxieties for her son and her brother, she has words of good will for Florette."

KARVEL--"That woman is an angel! (He looks at Mylio in silence for a moment; his eyes moisten with a tear of tenderness; he opens his arms and in a voice trembling with love proceeds:) One more embrace--still another--my dearly beloved brother!"

Mylio and Karvel embrace pa.s.sionately. Morise and Florette share in silence the emotions of the two brothers. None seem to hear the snores of Goose-Skin, whose sleep is ever sounder and grows more noisy.

MORISE (to Mylio)--"So you have come back to us to stay!"

MYLIO--"Oh! dear sister, yes; permanently--not so, Florette?"

FLORETTE--"My wishes will be yours, Mylio; still it is sweet to conform to them, seeing I am received with so much kindness by your dear relatives."

MYLIO--"And yet, brother, if you have no objection, I have a project that will take me away for several days."

MORISE--"What! So soon! Did you hear the wicked boy, Florette? He thinks of leaving us!"

FLORETTE (smiling)--"Either Mylio will take me along with him, or he will leave me here with you; whichever way, I shall be satisfied."

KARVEL--"What is your plan, brother?"

MYLIO--"My sincere love for Florette has put an end to the pranks of my youth. Your own indulgence and Morise's will draw a veil over the past.

Nevertheless I have put to bad use the faculty for poetry that nature endowed me with. I now desire to turn it to a useful purpose. Brother, you and I have read in the legends of our family how, at the time of the invasion of Gaul by the Romans, the Gallic bards fired the courage of our combatants, and how, still later, after the Roman conquest, the bards continued to arouse with their patriotic chants the people of Gaul against the foreign conqueror. The memorable chant of the Chief of the Hundred Valleys:

'Drop, drop, thou dew of gore!'

armed more than one arm against the Romans."

KARVEL--"I grasp your thought--I approve it, Mylio--Aye, it would be putting the poetic talent that G.o.d gifted you with to a n.o.ble use, by using it to arouse the enthusiasm of our people."

MYLIO--"The Church orders her monks to preach the extermination of our country. Now, we the trouveres, like the Gallic bards of old, will fire the people with our songs against the fanatics who threaten our freedom and our lives!"

MORISE--"The thought is generous and n.o.ble. I join my approval to Karvel's."

MYLIO--"A minute ago the Lady of Lavaur repeated twice a few words that drew tears from me: 'What wrong have we done to those priests, my poor child?'"

FLORETTE--"Oh! Mylio, those words made me also weep. They still affect me!"

MYLIO--"It is because they are true and heart-rending words that escaped from a maternal heart. What wrong was done to those priests!"

At this moment a snore that sounds like a thunder clap breaks upon the silence from the corner where Goose-Skin is soundly sleeping. Mylio turns around, looks at the juggler, and, smiling at the sight, says to Karvel:

"Brother, I have wholly forgotten to mention my traveling companion to you."

MORISE--"Despite his serious mien, your brave companion makes me feel like laughing."

KARVEL--"The poor man perhaps feels sad that a minute ago Mylio stopped him short at the best turn of his paraphrase concerning the profound truth that 'the gown does not make the monk.' His discourse was interrupted."

MYLIO--"My companion is a juggler, which is the same as saying that his coa.r.s.e songs, much as they are liked in the taverns, are hardly calculated for delicate ears. I therefore notified Goose-Skin, that is the name that he goes by, that he must keep a watch over his words when near you. Hence his embarra.s.sment, and his obstinate persistence in a.s.suming a venerable appearance. I must pray your indulgence towards him. Yours also, Morise. He is ent.i.tled to it by reason of his attachment to me, of which he has given me more than one proof."

KARVEL--"All good hearts deserve indulgence and friendship, brother.

(Smiling) But I am inclined to reproach you for having made of us scare-crows of virtue and frightening the poor fellow. That is why he is so embarra.s.sed in his conversation and demeanor."

A second snore so prodigious and so much louder than the first escapes from Goose-Skin that he is himself awakened with a start. He rubs his eyes and rolls them around with a scared look; rises abruptly and re-a.s.suming his air of gravity addresses Morise with great affectation of politeness:

"May our compa.s.sionate hostess bestow upon me the alms of her mercy for the enormous incongruity of my sleep. But we have been traveling day and night since we left Blois; hence great is my fatigue. Besides, and moreover, in that it causes the vile low appet.i.tes to slumber, sleep is of itself a sort of virtue--"

MYLIO (interrupting him)--"Why, sister, this fat man who is here boasting to you of the virtuous innocence of his sleep, in that it causes his earthly appet.i.tes to slumber--this identical man, who speaks to you in that guise, came near throttling me one day, simply because I woke him up in the middle of a savory dream in which, after seeing Shrove-Tide do battle with Shrove-Tuesday, the one armed with fishes the other with sausages, he was just about to devour both the vanquished and the vanquisher, together with their full accoutrements."

GOOSE-SKIN (in a tone of pitiful reproach to his friend, seeing that Karvel and his wife laugh at Mylio's story)--"Oh, Mylio!"

MYLIO--"Accordingly, you are informed that my friend Goose-Skin, whom I hereby introduce to you, is a gourmand, likes his cups a little--or, rather, a good deal--"

GOOSE-SKIN--"I! Just heavens!"

MYLIO--"He is also somewhat of a fibber, a roysterer, not over bold, considerable of a libertine and a braggart--that is his portrait from the side of his morals!"

GOOSE-SKIN (with a contrite air)--"Oh! Respectable host and hostess! Do not believe that wicked jester! All that he has just told you is false!"

MYLIO--"After this confession that modesty alone kept back from my friend's lips, I shall add: But he has a good heart, he shares his crust of bread with whomsoever is hungry, and his pot of wine with whomsoever is thirsty. Finally, he has given me proofs of affection that I shall not forget in all my life. (Addressing Goose-Skin more particularly) This being said, my good Goose-Skin, my friends and myself must now request you not to have the word 'virtue' constantly on your lips, and, instead of lowering your eyes, of keeping yourself under constraint, of puckering your lips with an air of piety, allow your broad smile to spread freely over your wide countenance, and, should it please you, even to sing, full throated, whatever is your favorite song. n.o.body will be angry about it."

KARVEL (to Goose-Skin, who heaves a sigh of relief, and whose face seems slowly to dilate)--"My brother has interpreted our thoughts. So, then, dear guest, no more constraint. Return to your natural good spirits. We heartily love a hearty laugh. Do you know why? Because a false or wicked heart never is frankly joyous. Moreover, we believe that much should be pardoned to those who have remained good; they will become better. You are of the former, dear guest. We welcome you. We shall love you as you are, and, jolly friend, love us as we are."

GOOSE-SKIN (wholly himself again)--"Oh! Dame Virtue, I bow to you--"

MYLIO (interrupting him)--"How is that? Still affecting sanct.i.ty?"

GOOSE-SKIN--"Oh! Dame Virtue! You m.u.f.fle yourself up in an unseemly cloak. With a suspicious eye, foaming mouth and twisted neck you hara.s.s people in the voice of an owl in love, saying: 'This way! Come immediately this way, you lumbering scamp! You sack of wine! You pig of gluttony! You brick of lasciviousness! You hare of cowardice! This way!

Be quick about it and adore me, serve me! Woo me! And if you do not, I shall strangle you, vagabond! Green dog! Red donkey! Triple mule!' And do you wonder, sweet lady, that people take their paunches between their hands in order that they may be able to run all the faster, and escape from your gracious invitation?"

MORISE (to Karvel, smiling)--"He is right!"

GOOSE-SKIN--"Oh sharp-tongued dame! Old scold of a dame! Claw-fingered dame! Just a.s.sume for a moment the mild look, the sweet voice, the good heart, the gentle language of my amiable hostess, Dame Morise, who stands here, or of our worthy host Karvel, who stands there, and you will see, Dame Virtue, whether you will still cause people to run away from you, and whether people will not, on the contrary, say to you (addressing Morise:) 'Dame Virtue, poor old Goose-Skin has been pursued until now by a horrible witch, who, usurping your name, strove by dint of insult and scratches to force him to court her. Alas! Old Goose-Skin now finds out too late the trickery of the witch; he is no longer of the age to court anybody. Therefore, gracious Dame Virtue, pity Goose-Skin.

He only now sees you for the first time in your pure and charming reality.' But, alas! I am now too old to dare raise my eyes to you!"

MORISE (smiling)--"Let it be so! I shall be Dame Virtue; and in accepting the name I certainly am not Dame Modesty. But, never mind! I am Dame Virtue. Now, then, as such, I call upon you earnestly to raise your eyes up to me. I am neither proud, exacting, jealous nor difficult to please. Young folks or old, good looking or homely, provided their actions prove to me that they occasionally remember me, ever find me in a happy frame of mind and loving. So you see, dear guest, that despite your age, you still may love Dame Virtue!"

GOOSE-SKIN (scratching his ear)--"Oh, certainly! If all that shall be required of me will be some slight service, now and then, I certainly shall enlist myself as your servant, Dame Virtue. But, in all humility, I know myself."

MYLIO--"Come, now, my good friend! No exaggerated modesty. I shall on the spot give you an opportunity to prove to my brother and sister that you are capable of a brave and generous act."

GOOSE-SKIN--"Do not undertake too much--take care! I am not yet very firmly nailed to virtue."

MYLIO--"A minute ago, while you slept, I informed Karvel, and he approved it, of a good and useful project that I have in mind. You heard at Blois the words of Abbot Reynier as clearly as I did. The Church is about to let loose the dogs of war upon Languedoc. We must now, with our songs, raise the popular resistance to the pitch of heroism against the merciless Crusade. Second me in the undertaking. I rely upon you."

GOOSE-SKIN--"Ho! Mylio, my poor hurdy-gurdy will not wait to accompany my songs. It will break loose all of itself--with laughter if it hears me strike a heroic note. No, no! For your harp be the laurel of battle, for my humble hurdy-gurdy a branch of the grape vine or a bouquet of marjoram."