Nomarch

“ But indeed if there be one of the dead king’s race who excelleth, that one should be the more promptly and willingly chosen. And these things have I spoken in behalf of the noble Count John here present, the brother of our late illustrious King Richard, now deceased without direct heir; and forasmuch as we see him to be prudent and vigorous, we all, after invoking the Holy Spirit’s grace, for his merits no less than his royal blood, have with one consent chosen him for our king. ”

“ Success imparting life Into their fury, even on our shrines Your cruel stepmother would offer up To Baal idolatrous incense. Let us show The infant monarch, whom your hands have saved, Raised in the temple 'neath the Lord's defence. He will possess the courage of our princes; His mind already mounts above his years. Before my voice explains his destiny, I go to offer him to God, by Whom Our sovereigns rule; our Levites and our priests, Immediately assembling, I to them The offspring of their princes will declare. JOSABET. Knows he his name and noble parentage? ”

“ I pray, in the name of suffering humanity, to that most exalted and mighty Monarch, whose noble heart is filled with love and deep affection towards his faithful subjects, to consider the case of my brethren, and show mercy to the many hundred thousands of them who daily send up to the Eternal Ruler of myriads of worlds their most devout and fervent prayers to prolong the glorious life of His Majesty, their Emperor and King. ”

“ I have put Much of my heart into him; he must die. He that knows great men's secrets and proves slight, That man ne'er lives to see his beard turn white. Ay, he shall speed him; I'll employ the brother: Slaves are but nails to drive out one another. He being of black condition, suitable To want and ill content, hope of preferment Will grind him to an edge.
The Nobles enter.
FIRST NOBLE Good days unto your honour.
LUSSURIOSO My kind lords, I do return the like.
SECOND NOBLE Saw you my lord the duke? ”

“ Proclaiming through the living and the dead,—
'The Monarch saith that his great empire's worth
Is set on Laon and Laone's head;
He who but one yet living here can lead,
Or who the life from both their hearts can wring,
Shall be the kingdom's heir—a glorious meed! ”

“ Noble I may be--you have told me so--but--"
"As noble as herself," replied the priest. "Nay, if blood be all, higher in station. True, fortune has not befriended you, but that same goddess was ever a fickle and capricious dame, and those she raises high one day she sinks low the next, to lift up others in their stead. How many a mighty lord has been pulled from his chair of state, to end his days in dungeons. We have heard of emperors confined to a poor cell, and of princes and heroes begging their bread. ”

“ A great and Potent Nobility addeth Maiestie to a Monarch, but diminisheth Power; And putteth Life and Spirit into the People, but presseth [9] their Fortune. It is well, when Nobles are not too great for Soveraignty, nor for Justice ”

“ King I am, but I must also be Emperor.’
‘Alas, Wife,’ said the Man, ‘why dost thou now want to be Emperor?’
‘Husband,’ she answered, ‘go to the Flounder. Emperor I will be.’
‘Alas, Wife,’ said the Man, ‘Emperor he can’t make thee, and I won’t ask him. There is only one Emperor in the country; and Emperor the Flounder cannot make thee, that he can’t.’
‘What?’ said the Woman. ‘I am King, and thou art but my husband. To him thou must go, and that right quickly. If he can make a King, he can also make an Emperor. ”

“ When the Emperor had heard these terrific tidings to an end—the death of his beloved young consort, of his lords and princes, the flower of his nobility and his knights—he made a loud exclamation of agony, repeated through his extensive palace and re-echoed by its walls. Then deep rage and indignation took possession of his soul; he made a terrific vow and swore, that his royal head should never again know repose, until he had bitterly revenged upon the Christian world, the base and cruel assassination of his consort and his subjects, by bloodshed, war, and desolation of its dominions. ”

“ Where will this gracious Monarch look for assistance, when the wretched Grafton could forget his obligations to his master, and desert him for a hollow alliance with such a man as the Duke of Bedford?
⁠Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the summit of worldly greatness; let us suppose, that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accomplished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified in the fear, as well as the hatred of the people; can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can grey hairs make folly venerable? ”

“ Noble. Time hath several falls.
Griefs lift up joys: feasts put down funerals.
Lus. Come then, my lords, my favour's to you all.
The duchess is suspected foully bent;
I'll begin dukedom with her banishment.
[Pg 97]
[Exeunt Duke, Nobles, and Duchess.
Hip. Revels!
Ven. Ay, that's the word: we are firm yet;
Strike one strain more, and then we crown our wit.
[Exeunt Hippolito and Vendice.
Spu. Well, have at the fairest mark [114] —so said the duke when he begot me;
And if I miss his heart, or near about,
Then have at any; a bastard scorns to be out. ”

“ And here was she about to justify her monarch’s choice by presenting him with a male heir—the heir for whom he had been growling and raging these twenty years past. She had no doubt it would be a male, since her bird always gave every one what he asked. And she had come to nurse her nursling through her first troublous days in this the new great palace of Hampton that the red Cardinal had built. ”

“ I exclaimed eagerly, "surely you are for the Duke?"
"I am for the rightful King of the realm, whoever he be," was the cautious answer. "It is not given to us to choose our monarch. God sets Kings upon the throne, and bids us submit ourselves to the powers that be. ”

“ Then, when heard the Vezīr what the King did say,
Quoth he: “Realm-o’erthrowing Monarch, live for aye!
May the Mighty Ruler set thy crown on high,
That thy throne may ever all assaults defy!
May thy life’s rose-garden never fade away!
May thy glory’s orchard never see decay! [71]
Thou’st the Peopled Quarter ta’en from end to end;
All of its inhabitants slaves before thee bend.
There’s on earth no city, neither any land,
That is not, O Monarch, under thy command. ”

“ Monarchs are rightfully regarded as parties to the crimes of their ancestors, the same as they pretend to be masters of the people by virtue of divine right and the conquests of those ancestors. All inheritance carries with it its responsibilities as well as its benefits. ”

“ Dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons either be created of the prince or come to that honour by being the eldest sons or highest in succession to their parents. For the eldest son of a duke during his father’s life is an earl, the eldest son of an earl is a baron, or sometimes a viscount, according as the creation is. The creation I call the original donation and condition of the honour given by the prince for good service done by the first ancestor, with some advancement, which, with the title of that honour, is always given to him and his heirs males only. ”

“ Upon his brow, right royal diadems!
Like the great image of the Monarch's dream,
Genius lifts up on high the head of gold,
And cleaves with iron limbs Time's mighty stream,
Tho' all too deep the feet may press earth's mould.
Yet, by his gifts made dedicate to God
In noblest teachings of each gentle grace,
Through every land that Irishmen have trod
We claim for him the homage of our race. ”

“ But Fate plays curious tricks with the lives of men. The Merry Monarch, instead of being in the least annoyed with this audacious attempt which so nearly lost him his regal emblems, roared with laughter and ordered that the chief culprit should be sent for judgment to the highest court in the realm, the King himself. ”

“ Your heir at your feet lies dead;
'When your youngest, the mealy-mouthed rector,
Lets your soul rot asleep to the grave,
You will find in your God the protector
Of the freeman you fancied your slave.' ”

“ Lord who liv’st for aye! O Sole! O King of Glory’s Ray!
Monarch who ne’er shalt pass away! show Thou to us Thy bounties fair.
In early morning shall our cry, our wail, mount to Thy Throne on high:
“Error and sin our wont,” we sigh: show Thou to us Thy bounties fair.
If cometh not from Thee Thy grace, evil shall all our works deface;
O Lord of Being and of Space! show Thou to us Thy bounties fair. ”

“ At the death of a noble, his arms belonged by right to the Czar; but his dresses, gold and silver plate, precious stones, and gilt girdles fell to his male children, whom failing, to the daughters. If a noble insulted another noble, he paid a fine; if a gentleman insulted a noble, he was flogged. ”

“ The joy of every one was great; the old king again embraced his lucky son, told his people to drown all the other dogs in the sea, and said to his children, "Dear sons! your weightiest tasks are now over; listen to my last wish; whoever brings home the fairest lady shall be at once the heir to my crown." ”

“ Shows the King of realms eternal,
⁠And the vengeance of His sword.
On these wings evangelistic
Rolls the Monarch's chariot mystic,
⁠One among the Living Four:
While the harpers pour their praises,
And the adoring people raises
⁠Alleluia evermore. ”

“ Not only men, but money
Will the Duke want.——Go, tell him, sirs!
I've earn'd and laid up somewhat in his service,
I lend it him; and is he my survivor,
It has been already long ago bequeath'd to him.
He is my heir. For me, I stand alone
Here in the world; naught know I of the feeling
That binds the husband to a wife and children. ”

“ He represents what we might call a dynasty of power based on wealth. He is like a king, and his heir represents a financial crown prince. Like all other kings, he wishes to preserve his dynasty intact, and to assure himself of its succession. Consequently he demands the right of selecting what he feels shall prove a proper consort for his heir. ”

“ The numbers of manors held by the favorites of the Conqueror would appear incredible, if we did not know that these great nobles were grasping and unscrupulous; indulging the grossest sensuality with a pretence of refinement; limited in their perpetration of injustice only by the extent of their power; and so blinded by their pride as to call their plunder their inheritance. Ten Norman chiefs who held under the crown are enumerated in the survey as possessing two thousand eight hundred and twenty manors. ”

“ But when the Blessed Sacrament is brought publicly, so many people follow it, and I do not like that. Well, let them follow; let the whole town go with them; it would be only right and just. A Monarch so worthy of honor and love certainly deserves that all, great and small, young and old, rich and poor, should go at the sound of the bell, and humbly accompany Him, to increase, as much as possible, the splendor of His escort, as I have explained on a former occasion. ”

“ After which the other peers of the realm did their homage in like manner, the dukes first by themselves, and so the marquesses, the earls, the viscounts, and the barons, severally; the first of each order kneeling before his Majesty, and the rest with and about him, all putting off their coronets, and the first of each class beginning, and the last saying after him:—
I N. duke, or earl, &c. of N. do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship, and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. ”

“ A Monarch then has nothing to tempt appetite, or, at least, less than any other man, as we have shown before; whereas other princes have much; and appetite is the only corrupter of righteousness, and the only impediment to justice. A Monarch therefore is wholly, or at least more than any other prince, disposed to govern well: for in him there may be judgment and justice more strongly than in any other. ”

“ Enter the King of Navarre and his traine.
Navarre.
The Duke is slaine and all his power dispearst,
And we are grac'd with wreathes of victory:
Thus God we see doth ever guide the right,
To make his glory great upon the earth. ”

“ These then are the effects, when Princes are the Sons of Nobles; since only such know best to support the weight, who use to bear betimes, and by degrees; not those who rashly pull it on their shoulders; because they take it with less violence, less ambition, less jealousie: None so secure a Prince, as he that is so born. ”

“ Sad grew the father, sadder and sadder. But it was{197} remarked that though his face grew grave and thoughtful, it was quite unlike the face he wore in that awful year before his son was born. And then it was whispered that if that time were referred to, the duke seemed lost, confused, and that then, and only then, something of that terrible look could be seen upon his countenance.
At last the heir was really grown a man; as handsome as any other in Normandy, as brave as any knight at court. ”

“ Monarch mildly, getting up.
Her husband also rose; he stood looking at me with a dim wistfulness that was touching in so fine a man. “Wouldn’t it be rather a pull sometimes to have—a—to have—?” He hung fire; he wanted me to help him by phrasing what he meant. But I couldn’t—I didn’t know. So he brought it out, awkwardly: “The real thing; a gentleman, you know, or a lady.” I was quite ready to give a general assent—I admitted that there was a great deal in that. This encouraged Major Monarch to say, following up his appeal with an unacted gulp: “It’s awfully hard—we’ve tried everything.” ”

“ The heir twitched my arm. I looked into the king’s face.
In the silence of that little grove the greater silence pressed against us. The heavy-lidded eyes were open. Their gaze rested upon the young man, the heir to Hibiscus. ”

“ The king will drink, and what he leaves undrunk you will throw out upon the dust. Now he will rise to give out to the people his royal decree, whereby, Prince, you are to be deposed from your place as heir, and your brother, Nodwengo, is to be set in your seat. ”