Felice

“ Guy immediately advanced to fair Felice, who was reposing herself in an arbour, and saluted her with bended knees. "All hail, fair Felice, flower of beauty, and jewel of virtue! I know, great princes seek to win thy love, whose exquisite perfections might grace the mightiest monarch in the world; yet may they come short of Guy's real affection, in whom love is pictured with naked truth and honesty. ”

“ There he abode in fasting and in penitence many weeks, till feeling his end draw near, he took the ring from his finger and sent it by a herdsman to Felice. "Where got you this token?" cried Felice, all trembling with her wonderment and fear. "From a poor beggar-man that lives in yonder cell," the herdsman answered. "From a beggar? Nay, but from a kingly man," said Felice, "for he is my husband, Guy of Warwick!" and gave the herdsman a hundred marks. Then she hasted and came to Sir Guy in his hermit's cell, and for a long space they wept in each other's arms and neither spake a word. ”

“ Forty days they had been wed, when it happened that as Sir Guy lay by a window of his tower, looking out upon the landscape, he fell to musing on his life. He thought, "How many men I have slain, how many battles I have fought, how many lands I have taken and destroyed! All for a woman's love; and not one single deed done for my God!" Then he thought, "I will go a pilgrimage for the sake of the Holy Cross." And when Felice knew what he meditated she wept, and with many bitter tears besought him not to leave her. But he sighed and said, "Not yet one single deed for God above!" ”

“ But old Félice, hearing the din away off yonder,—the unwonted noise of cavalry and infantry advancing with murderous intent,—she did not understand it all, she did not even suspect the truth. You cannot wonder, for what should a soulless beast know of the noble, the human privilege of human slaughter? Old Félice heard that strange din, and instinct led her to coax her little colt from the pleasant paddock into that snug and secure retreat, the thatched stable, and there, in the early morning, they found her, Petit-Poulain pulling eagerly at her generous dugs. ”

“ Then the hot color came into her face, for Felice was very proud, and did not like to be thought inferior to her husband. When they were alone together she related what she had heard. The Golden Archer looked puzzled, for he thought that she loved him too well to care for such trifles. "We are one because we are dear to each other," he cried, and took her in his arms and cherished her.
Next day came the Mistress of the Inn to set the room in order, and as she bustled about she said, "From what kingdom comes your husband, the Prince?"
"My husband is not a prince," said Felice. ”

“ In the very height of Guy's glory, when he was exalted to his father's dignities, conscience biddeth him repent of all his former sins; so Guy resolved to travel to the Holy Land like a Pilgrim. [Pg 53] Felice, perceiving his melancholy, inquired of her Lord the cause of this passion? "Ah, Felice!" ”

“ Oh, Felice, please write me very soon. I can't wait until I get your letter.
Your DUDLEY HAMILT.
CHAPTER III LOST DREAMS Perhaps you remember the fat boy who teased little Felice through the gate of the rectory yard. He didn't grow up like the rest of the choir boys, he merely expanded until he was a droll larger edition of his small tubby self; perhaps you've heard him singing at St. Patrick's and smiled at the bland and childlike face from which his beautiful big round baritone pours forth—he surely can sing! And eat! ”

“ Felice, though very much grieved, understanding his determination, opposed not his will. So with exchange of rings, and melting kisses, he departed, like a stranger from his own habitation, taking with him neither money nor scrip; while but a small quantity of herbs and roots, such only as the wild fields could afford, formed his chief diet; and he vowed never to fight more, but in a just cause.
Guy, after travelling many tedious miles, met an aged person oppressed with grief, for the loss of fifteen sons, whom Armarant, a mighty Giant, had taken from him, and held in strong captivity. ”

“ The more he cared for Felice the harder it was to see her restless and unhappy. "It will be different when we are in our own home," he would say to himself.
So one day they left the inn and went to their own cottage which stood on a little hill, and from the window could be seen the tower of the great white church. Now the Golden Archer used often to gaze at this tower, which made Felice ask him if he were homesick. ”

“ It is not until we are ready to go that we know how precious is the thing within us that men call—self. It is made up of all the loves and hates and good and bad of the men and women who went before us. It does not really belong to us. It belongs to all of the people who will come after us. There happened to be only a little of me left to give you, Felice, but the part that is left is the happy part—the rest of me was lost a long time ago. And the titles and the names that they called me were not any of them so dear as the one you gave me—that is
MAMAN. Which think you Felicia Day loved more? ”

“ He found a strange shadowy comfort in the distinct discomfort of poking about on four successive rainy, bleak days among musty, second-hand book shops, trying to find a book Fra Felice had one day wished he might own. ”

“ You are to know that old Félice's devotion to Petit-Poulain was human in its tenderness. As readily, as gladly, and as surely as your dear mother would lay down her life for you would old Félice have yielded up her life for her innocent, blithe darling. So old Félice was happy that pleasant time in that fair country, and Petit-Poulain waxed hale and evermore blithe and beautiful.
Happy days, too, were those for that peaceful country and the other dwellers therein. There was no thought of evil there; the seasons were propitious, the vineyards thrived, the crops were bountiful ”

“ Let me have thy love first, fair Felice, and there is no fear of thy father's wrath preventing us."
"Sir Guy," quoth Felice, "make thy bold achievements and noble actions shine abroad, glorious as the sun, that all opposers may tremble at thy high applauded name, and then thy suit cannot be denied." [Pg 47]
"Fair Felice," said Guy, "I ask no more. Oh that I were at work my task to prove with some such churlish man as Hercules!"
CHAPTER III.
Guy wins the Emperor's Daughter from several Princes, and returning to Warwick is sent forth by Felice to seek new Adventures ”

“ He also told her of the ladies of high degree whose hands he had won in fair fight—won—and rejected. ‘All of them I forsook for thee, Felice,’ he said.
He had kept his word; but he had left his heart in Constantinople. Perhaps Felice did not know this, or perhaps she did not set much store by hearts, and cared more for the renown that Sir Guy had won throughout Christendom. Anyhow, she received him gladly and graciously, and so did her father, and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and for a space Sir Guy remained at home, and after a time a son was born to him. ”

“ Thus Felice spent the remainder of her life in sorrow for her dear Lord; and to show her humility, she sold her jewels and the costly robes with which she used to grace [Pg 55] King Athelstan's Court, and gave the money freely to the poor; she relieved the lame and the blind, the widow and the fatherless, and all those that came to ask alms; and built a large hospital for aged and sick people, that they might be comforted in their sickness. Thus she laid up for herself treasure in heaven, which will be paid again with life everlasting. ”

“ Before he could tell her any of them Mademoiselle came swiftly and let him out through the stable gate talking excitably and softly in French, which Felicia thought most unfair of her.
It is not at all strange that she does not remember when her mother died. You see sometimes there were several days when her mother was too tired or too ill to see such a vigorous person as Felice must have been. ”

“ Felice!" groaned the Poetry Girl. "You're just wasting your breath! It's no use talking to him! Why, I almost got down on my knees to him! I wept—"
"I shall not weep," said Felicia calmly. "I shall just tell him how vairee simple it would be for him to explain. He can just tell people that it is her play and that some of it is her moneys and then he can give you the money. Oh, you couldn't have understood how bad, bad, bad you made things for her! ”

“ Felice long lived in ignorance of his presence in the town, but finally identified him by a ring which he sent her by a herdsman, and she attended his deathbed. She survived her husband only a fortnight. Their son Rembrun or Raynbrun is credited in continuations of the romance with much the same career as his father.
These legends seem to embody incoherently several Anglo-Saxon traditions of the tenth and eleventh centuries. ”

“ Felice, hearing of Guy's return and success, came as far as Lincoln to meet him, where they were married with much joy and great triumph; King Athelstan, his Queen, and all the chief Nobles and Barons of the land being present.
No sooner were their nuptials celebrated, but Felice's father died, leaving all his estate to Sir Guy, whom the King thereupon created Earl of Warwick.
CHAPTER V.
Guy leaves his Wife, and goes a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. ”

“ Fra Felice was a man who had received a great gift from his Creator. In Sicily, where everybody plays in the lottery, there are people who have the power to foretell what numbers will win at the next drawing. He who has such second sight is called “polacco,” and is most often found in some old begging monk. Fra Felice was such a monk. He was the greatest polacco in the neighborhood of Etna. ”

“ The name of Felix himself was an agnomen frequently assumed by peculiarly fortunate individuals. It meant happy, and has given rise to all manner of words of good augury in the modern languages. No less than eleven saints so called are numbered in the Roman calendar, and yet it has never been a popular name, though sometimes occurring in Spain and France in the original form, and as Felice in Italy. The feminines, Felicia and Félise, in England and France, have been constructed from it, and Felicia was Queen of Navarre in 1067 ”

“ Oh, Felicia, if better days come to you, don't let them make you forget the past, and—and—if anyone endeavours to teach you to be ashamed of your mother, remember that, though she was a 'nobody' and not very wise, she loved you and tried to teach you to be a good girl, and—she did the best she could. God doesn't ask more than that, and you know His judgment is not the world's, but infinitely loving and merciful. ”

“ If Felicia couldn't fed that I didn't like what she did, i couldn't, for the life of me, or even the life of Felicia, open my mouth. And I believe there are a great many men like me in the world, and more women, too. A certain kind of pain makes us dumb. A certain pride freezes back the words that would come. The men of us have perhaps seen our Felicias cry. ”

“ But, gracious fairy, do not, I beseech you, think me capable of making an ill use of the wealth you will bestow upon me. Believe me, the greatest pleasure I feel in the thoughts of possessing it, is the power it will give me of assisting others, and making all around me [27] happy.” “Rash boy,” answered Felicia, “how can you pretend to judge of what your feelings and conduct will be in a situation so wholly new to you? The obscurity in which you have lived, has ill fitted you to encounter the snares and temptations of an interested world. ”

“ Can I, Felix, who have had but one thought, known but one enthusiasm, retain in this breast of iron a spot however secret, however small, which any woman, least of all his daughter, could reach? Never! I am the prey of frenzy or the butt of devils. Yet only the inhabitants of a more celestial sphere brighten around me when I think of those half-raised eyes, those delicately parted lips, so devoid of guile, that innocent bearing, and the divine tenderness, mingled with strength, by which she commands admiration and awakens love. I must fly. ”

“ They may well call you a selfish little jade! Be one, Félicie, be one, as much as you like! What does it matter, since I love you? You are mine; I am going to take you back; I am going to take you back, and keep you. Think! I can't go on suffering for ever, like a poor dumb beast. Listen. I'll start with a clean slate. Let us begin to love one another over again. And this time it will be all right. And you'll be mine for good, mine only. I am an honest man ”

“ Then he turned to his wife and said:
“Felicia, we must part, but for a time; I am called to the Holy Land to fight under the banner of the cross.”
“Alas! alas! my lord,” replied Felicia, clasping her husband in her arms and weeping hot tears upon his neck; “alas! and wilt thou leave me? death were to be preferred; then welcome death.”
133As she spoke she snatched up a dagger that lay beside her, and would have killed herself had not Sir Guido wrenched it from her grasp.
“Felicia,” said the knight, “be comforted; I am vowed to go to the Holy Land ”

“ Feli. ’Tis steady and must seem so impregnably fortressed with his own content that no envious thought could ever invade his spirit; never surveying any man so unmeasuredly happy, whom I thought not justly hateful for some true impoverishment; never beholding any favour of Madam Felicity gracing another, which his well-bounded content persuaded not to hang in the front of his own fortune; and therefore as far from envying any man, as he valued all men infinitely distant from accomplished beatitude. These native adjuncts appropriate to me the name of Feliche. ”