The Executioner's Knife Part 2

Sybille, with a mysterious look, placed her finger to her lips in token of silence:

"'I bring here the harp of Merlin,' said Alain to the King; 'Sire, your daughter, Linor, must now be mine.

You promised me so.'

When the King's son heard this, he made a wry face And spoke to his father, the King, in a low voice.

The King, having listened, then said to Alain: 'If you fetch me the ring From the finger of Merlin's right hand, Then you shall have my daughter, Linor.'"

"Oh, G.o.d-mother, twice to fail in his promise! Oh, that was wrong on the part of the King! What is to become of poor Alain?"

"Alain returns all in tears, And seeks his grandmother in great haste.

'Oh, grandmother, the King had said-- And now he gainsays himself!'

'Do not grieve so, dear child!

Take a twiglet you'll find in my chest, On which twelve leaves you'll see-- Twelve leaves as yellow as gold, And that I looked for se'en nights In se'en woods, now se'en years agone.'"

"What were those gold leaves, G.o.d-mother? Did the angels or the saints give them to the grandmother?"

Sybille shook her head negatively and proceeded:

"When at midnight the chanticleer crowed, The black colt of Alain awaited his master Just outside the door.

'Fear not, my dear little grandson, Merlin will not awake; You have my twelve leaves of gold.

Go quickly.'

The chanticleer had not yet done with his chant When the black colt was galloping swiftly over the road.

The chanticleer had not yet done with his chant When the ring of Merlin was taken away--"

"And this time Alain married the King's daughter, did he not, G.o.d-mother?"

"At break of dawn was Alain at the King's palace, Presenting him with Merlin's ring.

Stupefied the King did stand; And all who stood near him declared: 'Lo, how, after all, this young peasant Won the daughter of our Sire!'

'It is true,' the King to Alain did say, 'But still there is one thing I now ask of you, And it will be the last. Do you that, And my daughter you'll have, And with her the glorious kingdom of Leon.'

'What must I do, Sire?'

'To my court bring Merlin, Your wedding to sing with my daughter Linor.'"

"My G.o.d!" interrupted the little shepherdess, more and more carried away with the marvelousness of the story, "how will it end?"

"While Alain was at the King's palace, His grandmother saw Merlin go by; Merlin the Enchanter went by her house.

'Whence, Merlin, come you with your clothes all in rags Whither thus bare-headed and bare-footed go you?

Whither, old Merlin, with your holly staff go you?'

'Alack! Alack! I'm looking for my harp, My heart's only solace in all this broad world.

I'm looking for my harp and also for my ring, Which both I lost, or they have been stolen from me.'

"'Merlin, Merlin, do not grieve!

Your harp is not lost, and neither is your ring.

Walk in, Merlin, walk in, Take rest and food.'

'I shall neither eat nor rest in this world Till I've recovered my harp and my ring.

They have not been stolen, I've lost them, the two.'

'Merlin, walk in, your harp will be found.-- Merlin, walk in, your ring will be found.'

So hard the grandmother begged That Merlin entered her hut.

"When in the evening Alain returned to his house, He trembled with a great fear when, On casting his eyes towards the hearth, He there saw Merlin the Enchanter, Who was seated, his head on his breast reclining.

Alain knew not whither to flee.

"'Fear not, my lad, fear not.

Merlin sleeps a slumber profound.

He has eaten three apples, three red ones, Which I in the embers have baked.

Now he'll follow wherever we go.

We'll lead him towards the palace Of our Sire, the King!'"

"And did Merlin go, G.o.d-mother?"

"'What has happened in town, that I hear such a noise?'

Said the next day the Queen to the servant; 'What has happened at court, that the crowd Are cheering so joyfully?'

'Madam, the whole town is having a feast.

Merlin is entering the town with an old, A very old woman, dressed in white, The grandmother she of the lad who is your daughter to marry.

Aye, Madam the Queen.'

"And the wedding took place.

Alain espoused Linor. Merlin chanted the nuptials.

There were a hundred white robes for the priests, A hundred gold chains for the knights, A hundred festal blue mantles for the dames, And eight hundred hose for the poor.

And all left satisfied.

Alain left for the country of Leon With his wife, his grandmother, and a numerous suite.-- But Merlin alone disappeared. Merlin was lost.

No one knows what of him is become.

No one knows when Merlin will return."[6]

CHAPTER V.

THE PROPHECY OF MERLIN.

Jeannette had listened to Sybille in rapt attention, struck above all by the singular circ.u.mstance of a peasant marrying the daughter of a king.

From that moment Jeannette pardoned herself for having so often, since the previous evening, permitted her thoughts to turn to that young Sire, so sweet, so beautiful, so brave and yet so unfortunate through his mother's misconduct and the cruelty of the English.

When Sybille's recital was ended, a short silence ensued which was broken by Jeannette:

"Oh, G.o.d-mother, what a beautiful legend! It would be still more beautiful if, the Sire of Leon having to fight so cruel an enemy as the English, Alain, the peasant, had saved the King before wedding his daughter! But what did become of Merlin, the great enchanter Merlin?"

"It is said that he must sleep a thousand years. But before he fell asleep he prophesied that the harm a woman would do to Gaul would be redressed by a young girl, a young girl of this region--"

"This region in which we live, G.o.d-mother?"

"Yes, of the borders of Lorraine; and that she would be born near a large oak forest."

Jeannette clasped her hands in astonishment and she looked at Sybille in silence, revolving in her mind the prophecy of Merlin that France was to be saved by a young girl of Lorraine, perchance of Domremy! Was not the emanc.i.p.atrix to come from an old oak forest? Was not the village of Domremy situated close to a forest of centennarian oaks?[7]

"What! G.o.d-mother," Jeannette inquired, "can that be true--did Merlin make that prophecy?"

"Yes," answered Sybille, thinking that surely the time had come when the prophecy of the Gallic bard was to be fulfilled, "yes, more than a thousand years ago Merlin so prophesied."