Michal

“ Greek fire flamed on all the bastions in honor of the happy day.
Valentine hastened to his Michal. His brain was reeling. He was brimful of the splendor of that day's triumph. In such a condition, a man deems it impossible that his own spouse, the second half of his soul, can perhaps be just as full of grief and despair as he of joy.
Beaming with pride, he advanced toward the bed on which pretty Michal lay. But she, with a horrified face, fell upon his neck, drew his head down toward her and whispered in his ear what she could have screamed aloud for terror:
"Let us fly. Red Barbara is here!" ”

“ But Michal fell upon Valentine's neck and stammered:
"With thee by my side, I'll go forth into the wild forest and face cold and tempest. With thee I'll brave death, yea, damnation itself. I crave no other death than the death by which thou diest. I desire no other eternity, be it bliss or woe, than the eternity which unites our soul in one, my angel, my king, my sun!"
And Simplex thrust his trumpet through the window and sounded a wedding march, which awoke the echoes in the neighboring hills. ”

“ Michal. Cunningly
With Samuel netted fears about my father,
Till I am paltrily unto you pledged.
David. Enough.
Michal. Too much.
David. No more: the pledge I fling
Out of my heart, as 'twere enchantment dead,
And free you; but no more.
(He moves from her.)
Michal. As if it were
[Pg 276] Enchantment dead.... Ah then 'tis true—there is
Another—is another!
David. Now, what fever?
A gentleness clad once your every grace.
Michal. There is some other that you lure and love.
David. It is not Michal speaking; so I wait.
Michal. Then you will learn.... Who's that?
(Judith glides in.) ”

“ Michal immediately gave her four more gold pieces.
"And now, my dear little froggy! you will see that the black buck-goat will bring you your sweetheart, only we must wait till the old and the young master are well out of the way, which will certainly happen when the Eperies annual fair begins."
Michal believed everything the witch told her.
What else could she have done? All her former faith had been destroyed. She believed in nothing more. The wisdom of her father, the amulet of her mother, had [Pg 106] become utterly worthless in her eyes. ”

“ Michal. David!
David. Farewell!
Michal. ... You must not!
David. Peace to you, peace and joy!
Michal. You must not go!
(He turns. She sways and reaches to him her arms. As they move together Doeg and Merab appear, but vanish from the curtains as Michal utters dismay.)
Michal. Merab and Doeg!
David (has sprung to her) . Yet what matter, now!
Were it the driven night-unshrouded dead!
Under the firmament is but one need,
That you will understand!
Michal. But Merab! ah,
She's cunning, cold and cruel, and she loves thee;
Hath told her love to Ahinoam the queen! ”

“ Michal shivered as if in an ague. So Henry had voluntarily taken over his father's office; nay! at once accomplished his hellish masterpiece? He had not thought of flying, though no one could have compelled him to remain. He actually takes delight in cruelty! What! [Pg 191] the ex-clergyman, the meek curer of souls, could within so short a time become a bloody headsman, and thus close against Michal every way of escaping from this hell! ”

“ Now when pretty Michal saw the panic-stricken robbers scattering in all directions, the guide in convulsions, Simplex trumpeting with all his might and main, and her clerical husband hastily clambering up the nearest tree, she could not refrain from bursting into a hearty peal of laughter. If die she must, she might just as well have one more good laugh before she did die. ”

“ The housekeeper brought the sleeper a steaming wine-posset in a porcelain bowl.
Michal was not in the least refreshed by her repose. She felt weaker than ever. A parching thirst tormented her. All her bones ached. She was glad that Pirka had brought her drink. She cared little whether the woman was a witch or not, and she felt that it would not much matter if the hag's potion were to enchant her and change her into some bestial shape. ”

“ But he added that, sooner or later, the robbers would destroy the house, and then Michal had a most terrible fate to expect.
"What shall I do? Merciful Heaven, what shall I do?" groaned poor Valentine.
"My dear fellow," said Simplex, "what you have to do is perfectly plain. You must carry off your beloved from the place at once." ”

“ Beautiful under a tamarisk, until
All beauty else is dead——
Michal. Ah, cease!
David. Since then
I have been wonder, ecstasy and dream!
The moulded light and fragrant miracle,
Body of you and soul, lifted me till
When you departed——
Michal. No, you rend me!
David. I
Fell thro' infinity of void!
Michal. No more!
David. Then came the prophet Samuel with anointing!
My hope sprung as the sun!
Michal. I must not hear!
David. Then was I called to play before the king.
Here in this hall where cherubim shine out,
Where the night silence——
Michal. ”

“ CHAPTER XIV. Which goes to prove that the society of great folks is not always a thing to be desired.
The reason why pretty, unhappy Michal no longer heard the field-trumpet in the courtyard was because Pirka had already sent off Simplex to seek the beloved of Michal's heart; for the old witch had already discovered that this beloved was Simplex's bosom friend—but that was all. ”

“ Michal, who, though in after time she showed a strain of her father's proud godlessness, and an utter incapacity of understanding the noblest parts of her husband's character, seems to have been a true wife in these early days, discovers, perhaps with a woman's quick eye sharpened by love, the crouching murderers, and with rapid promptitude urges immediate flight. ”

“ Then it is said, Michal had no child till the day of her death: probably David never more took her to his bed; or God, in his providence, might have subjected her to barrenness which in Palestine was considered both a misfortune and a reproach. Michal formed her judgment without reason, and meddled with that which she did not understand. We should be careful how we attribute actions, the reasons of which we cannot comprehend, to motives which may appear to us unjustifiable or absurd. Rash judgments are doubly pernicious; they hurt those who form them, and those of whom they are formed. ”

“ An ill-bred person would have burst out laughing; but Michal looked at Pirka with an astonishment which had more of reverence in it than of fear. She had never seen a witch before.
It pleased Pirka to see how Michal folded her hands together as if in prayer.
"Yes. Now I'm a witch and can make and mar as I please. But even those whom I benefit must suffer for it. I was once the wife of a headsman myself. The business pleased me. The only thing that surprises me is how a judge can leave to another the torturing and execution of those he has condemned to death instead of [Pg 82] doing it himself. ”

“ Dancing with girded loins, the humble Psalmist,
And more and less than King was he in this.
Opposite, represented at the window
Of a great palace, Michal looked upon him,
Even as a woman scornful and afflicted. ”

“ Barbara Pirka went out of her way to be agreeable and obliging. She wanted to make Michal a hot salt and bran poultice and prepare her a posset of centaury, but these and sundry other good offices Michal absolutely declined, declaring that she had no fear of catching cold.
After putting the young woman to bed, she sat down beside her, and rubbed Michal's tiny white feet between her hands. She said it was good remedy against sleeplessness and anxiety.
"My hand has power," explained Pirka; "I am a seventh child and a witch to boot." ”

“ When we stand on the battlefield, he who tries the hearts and reins will read in my breast that I still love my Michal, though she has bound herself by an oath to another, and if this feeling be a sin, the guards of the Lord, the angels of Death are there, and he can charge them to call me away so as to prevent me from committing evil. ”

“ And now the blare of a farogato began to resound through the silent night. Nearer and nearer came the music. Michal's heart beat quickly. She recognized her favorite song. She scarcely knew whether she was awake or dreaming, whether she was in the world or out of it. There was a buzzing in her ears. The air around her was full of dancing specters. Her body seemed too narrow for her soul. Nearer and nearer came the song. [Pg 198] At the bottom of the pan, the last drop of water had long since evaporated.
"My buck-goat has arrived," cried the witch, in triumph. ”

“ Michal (in terror) . David!... the dread
What does it mean? I cannot speak! It shrinks
Shivering down upon my heart in awe!
David. And numbs you so?—Let it rush from your lips!
Can any moving in the world so bring
Terror upon you! Speak, what is it?
Michal. Ah!
I know not; danger rising and its wing
Sudden against my lips!
David. To warn?
Michal. It shall not!
There—now again flows joy: I think it flows.
Saul. Then—you have heard...?
Michal. Yes, father, yes! Have you
Not much desired discovery of whom
Samuel hath anointed?
Saul. Well?
Michal. I've found——
(David blenches.) ”

“ The daughter of King Saul has yet to learn.
(She goes. He turns to Michal.)
But you, fairest of all my hopes, what word!
The vaunting of this victory is done.
We are alone at last.
Michal. Yes.
David. That is all?...
For Israel I've wrought to-day—and for
You, ever round about me as a mist
Of armèd mighty angels triumphing.
Michal. Yes: It was well.
David. To you no more? to you
[Pg 273] Whom not a slave can serve unhonoured?
Michal (struggling) . Nothing.
David. ”

“ But still Henry did not come back to his wife.
The howling of many dogs resounded through the courtyard below. The hideous din penetrated the thick vaults and double corridors and reached the very room where Michal lay.
"They will soon be quiet," said the housekeeper grimly.
Michal, in order to change the subject to something more agreeable, asked Pirka whether there was any garden to the house.
"You can't keep one," answered Pirka. "Here neither tree nor flower will flourish. The master's wife found that out long ago, when she tried to garden. ”

“ So pretty Michal partook of the Lord's Supper, and the clergyman gave her his benediction.
And pretty Michal at that moment had no bodily ailment, yet for all that she was on the point of death.
Next day—it was a dark January morning—the gloomy scaffold stood ready in the market-place of Kassa. The [Pg 297] early risers could see through the thick mists the headsman's apprentices, in their pointed caps, moving like hellish shadows about the burning fire, in which they were heating their terrible tools red-hot, and warming their hands the while, to prevent them from growing stiff. ”

“ With this balsam she rubbed Michal's bruises, who felt all the better for it. Then Barbara praised Michal greatly, and said that Master Henry would also make a fine show with the scratches he had received from her.
And now she proceeded to answer Michal's first question.
"So you want to know, my little poppet, what a wife should do who does not love her husband? She ought to pretend she loves him very much; for jealousy is like a savage dog—when he's hungry he's wakeful, but when he has his bellyful he goes to sleep. ”

“ His horse was naturally the sorriest of hacks, for all the others were much too spirited to patiently endure the roll of kettle-drums close behind their ears.
"Look ye, comrade Simplex," said Valentine, "our present campaign will be my ordeal. You have told me that my poor Michal is unhappy and wants to see me; that she has never reached Great Leta, that she has been shamefully deceived by her husband; that she suffers much, and is exposed to indescribably great dangers. ”

“ Rather let my blood trickle to the ground than stream into my face for shame! What! would you have me lie to this man, and then turn my face away from him? I will oppose him boldly, tell him the truth, and then spit in his face."
"Right, Valentine, right! You are acting like a true man," said Simplex, while pretty Michal fell at her husband's feet and kissed his hands. "Then you must accept our last offer. If you will neither fly nor lie, our twelve trusty friends will give good bail to the city magistrates to prevent you from being put in fetters." ”

“ He was all fire and flame instantly, like an old worm-eaten tree stump, which blazes up [Pg 239] whenever the young herdsmen smoke the wasps out of its hollow trunk.
He had no longer a single look for the countess, but followed close upon the heels of the beautiful châtelaine, though Valentine occasionally, as if by accident, gave him a violent nudge in the ribs with his elbow, or trod sharply on his foot with his spurred boots.
At table, the enamored Zurdoki distinguished pretty Michal so very markedly that all the women present whispered spiteful things to each other about it. ”

“ Like Michal, the proud daughter of Saul, who despised King David in her haughty heart when 'she saw him dancing with all his might before the Lord,' we scorn the simple and innocent delights of our nature, and, like Michal, we too are bitterly punished for our mistaken pride of intellect, for, neglecting the rhythmical requisitions of the body, we injure the mind, and may deprave the heart. ”

“ They gave him garlic to eat, and the very consciousness that he has eaten garlic is sufficient to make a man regard himself as the enemy of all refinement. The coarse jests which he heard from his father's henchmen, familiarity with dirt and filth, the drunken orgies into which he was plunged, so brutalized him that at last he absolutely did not know how to approach such a tenderly nurtured creature as Michal in a propitiatory manner. So he learnt to sing filthy songs instead, and vied with the headsman's lads themselves in cursing and swearing. ”