Tragedy queen

“ In consequence the little girl was the apple of her parents' eyes; they loved her above everything else in the world, and their dearest thought was the pleasure they would take in her when she was older. But the unexpected often happens; for before the king's daughter began to grow up, the queen her mother fell ill and died. It is not hard to imagine the grief that reigned, not alone in the royal castle, but throughout the land; for the queen had been beloved of all. The king grieved so that he would not marry again, and his one joy was the little princess. ”

“ Weakened by sorrow and exhausted by sleepless nights, the Queen almost succumbed to her troubles, and seemed to be indifferent whether she lived or died. Sometimes her companions would find her eyes fixed on them with such an expression of profound pity, it almost made them shudder. A deathly stillness prevailed; they all seemed to be holding their breaths, save when their grief found vent in half-smothered sobs or paroxysms of tears. It was almost a boon to the wretched women when the Princess Marie Thérèse really fell ill. ”

“ I cried, "O tomb! why dost not thou swallow up that monster so revolting to human nature, or rather why dost not thou swallow up both the lover and his mistress?"
I had scarcely uttered these words, when the queen, who sat by the black, rose up like a fury. "Miscreant!" said she "thou art the cause of my grief; do not think I am ignorant of this, I have dissembled too long. It was thy barbarous hand that brought the objets of my fondness into this lamentable condition; and thou hast the cruelty to come and insult a despairing lover." ”

“ She met the horror with dilated eyes,—eyes that glazed to a faint before death struck her. Nature was merciful, and death a boon, for over her corpse began a carnival of lust and blood so hideous that imagination staggers at it, and history veils it in shuddering generalities. No need to dwell upon its details.
What concerns us is that, having her head upon a pike, and the mutilated body trailing by the heels, the whole mad mob set off to the Temple, to show Marie Antoinette her friend, and to serve the Queen as they had served the Princess. ”

“ The queen, your mother, touched by the first misfortunes your cruelty caused, died of grief at having brought into the world so barbarous a child; and I, you know well, am plunged into a state of profound melancholy, which nothing can dissipate, whilst I behold the fatal results of the love I entertained for you; but, thanks to the sun, and the moon, and the spirits who preside in the heavens, and by whom my sacrifices have been regarded with a propitious eye, no more of those horrible executions which have rendered my name execrable shall be committed in my palace. ”

“ We are about to begin a new life which will for ever efface the past.” With all the solemnity of grief, and in the hope of death, the Queen assured him that, ready as she was to appear before the throne of God, she had not even the semblance of a guilty thought of which to accuse herself. ”

“ But the afflicted queen, at the sight of the opening morn (which once used to fill her mind with rising joy) burst into a flood of tears, and, quite overcome with grief and fatigue, cast herself on the ground, crying out in the most affecting manner, ‘The end of my misfortunes is at hand. My weary limbs will no longer support me. My spirits fail me. In the grave alone must I seek for shelter.’ The poor princess, seeing her mother in tears, cast her little arms about her neck, and wept also, though she knew not why. ”

“ The queen made no reply, but reflected that, no matter how cruel the Witch might be, she had only one life to lose, and in her present plight what terror could death hold for her? She did not attempt to look for flies, therefore, but sat down beneath a yew tree, and gave way to tears and lamentations. 'Alas, dear husband,' she cried, 'how grieved you will be when you go to fetch me from the castle, and find me gone! You will suppose me to be dead or faithless; how I hope that you will mourn the loss of my life, not the loss of my love! ”

“ King: Raise her up. It is impossible she can
be gone.
Dall Glic: Gone out and spent, as sudden as
a candle in a blast of wind.
King: Who would think grief would do away
with her so sudden, there to be seven of the like
of him dead?
Nurse: (Rises.) What did you do to her at all,
at all? Or was it through the fright and terror
of the beast?
Queen: She died of the heartbreak, being told
that the strange champion that had put down the
Dragon was killed dead.
Nurse: Killed, is it? Who now put that lie
out of his mouth? (Shouts in her ear.) What
would ail him to be dead? ”

“ For ruin fell upon her house and I was full of fear.
I saw wild fury seize her home, I heard a red wind scream,
I saw the groaning roof-tree fall, the flame on wall and beam.
I fell upon the broken way, struck down by chill despair:
“My life's long love, my only joy, my dear beyond compare,
A thousand souls will bleed with mine, a thousand hearts expire,
To see so fair a form as thine upon a martyr's fire.” ”

“ At this word grief found a vent, and, still on her knees at the Queen’s feet, Marie in her turn shed upon the bosom of the good Princess a deluge of tears, with childish sobs and so violent an agitation of her head and her beautiful shoulders that it seemed as if her heart would break. The Queen waited a long time for the end of this first emotion, rocking her in her arms as if to appease her grief, frequently repeating, “My child, my child, do not afflict yourself thus!” ”

“ Shroud yourselves in solitude and the gloom of sacred sorrow. Spare no symbol of universal grief. Weep—mourn—lament. Fill the great city—fill the boundless fields with lamentation and the echo of groans. A beautiful Princess is dead:—she who should have been the Queen of her beloved nation, and whose posterity should have ruled it for [Pg 380] ever. She loved the domestic affections, and cherished arts which adorn, and valour which defends. She was amiable and would have become wise, but she was young, and in the flower of youth the destroyer came. Liberty is dead. ”

“ But before she died, the queen, who had always thought first of his happiness, gathered all her strength, and said to him:
'Promise me one thing: you must marry again, I know, for the good of your people, as well as of yourself. But do not set about it in a hurry. Wait until you have found a woman more beautiful and better formed than myself.'
'Oh, do not speak to me of marrying,' sobbed the king; 'rather let me die with you!' But the queen only smiled faintly, and turned over on her pillow and died. ”

“ O God, who seest the tears Thy children weep,
O God, who countest each sad heart-beat, see
How our King needs the grace we ask of Thee!
Thou knowest how little and how vain a thing
Is Empire, when the heart is sick with pain—
God, save the King!
The Queen is dead. The splendour of her days,
The sorrow of them both alike merge now
In the new aureole that lights her brow.
The clamour of her people's voice in praise
Must hush itself to the still voice that prays
In the holy chamber of Death. Tread softly here,
A mighty Queen lies dead. ”

“ The death of this poor girl is melancholy in every respect, dying at twenty or so, in childbed—of a boy too, a present princess and future queen, and just as she began to be happy, and to enjoy herself, and the hopes which she inspired. ”

“ Overcome with grief,
The queen exclaimed, filled with compassion: "King!
How art thou fallen from thy high estate!
The ground is now thy resting-place, whom once
A gorgeous couch received. Lo! this my lord,
By whom wealth, honour, power, are freely given
An offering to the Brâhman—see, he lies
Insensate on the ground. Ye gods of heaven!
Tell me, I pray you, has this noble king,
Equal to gods in rank, committed sin
Against you, that he lies thus overcome
With woe?" Then fell the queen, bereft of sense
Upon the earth, o'erwhelmed with grief and pain,
Seeing her husband's misery. ”

“ It was the old witch's determination to make this creature the queen of the realm. As she was frustrated in her design she raved. In her fury she tore up bits of rocks, and dried up whole forests. She vowed death upon the poor orphan's head; and, in order to cheer up her ugly daughter's long forlorn hope, she prophecied the queen's death, and thus spoke: "Dear child, beloved Lucinda, would you like to be a queen? if so, go secretly into the king's palace, and when the king is out hunting, steal near the queen in her sleep, and cut off a large lock of her hair, and bring it to me. ”

“ Queen: It is a queer thing a king's daughter
to be crying after a man used to twisting the spit
in place of weapons, and over skivers in the place
of a sword!
Princess: (Gropes and totters.) What has happened?
There is something gone astray! I have
no respect for myself.... I cannot live! I am
ashamed. Where is Nurse? Muime! Come to
me, Muime!...My grief! The man that died
for me, whether he is of the noble or the simple
of the world, it is to him I have given the love of
my soul!
(Dall Glic supports her and lays her on
window seat.) ”

“ At this very instant, the young fairy came out from behind the curtains, and spoke these words aloud:— "Assure yourselves, O king and queen, that your daughter shall not die of this disaster. It is true I have not power to undo what my elder has done. The princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle; but instead of dying, she shall only fall into a profound sleep, which shall last a hundred years, at the expiration of which a king's son shall come, and awake her from it." ”

“ Could it be possible they were really going to murder the unhappy wretch? and could all those beautiful ladies—could that surpassingly beautiful queen, stand there serenely unmoved, to witness such a crime? While he yet looked round in horror, the doomed man, already apparently almost dead with fear, was dragged forward by his guards. Paralyzed as he was, at sight of the stage which he knew to be the scaffold, he uttered shriek after shriek of frenzied despair, and struggled like a madman to get free. ”

“ You shall breathe its perfume, when you think not, and you shall die. Little by little your blood shall dry in your veins, and your fair, white skin shall shrivel and hang loose. Your eyes shall lose their 200lustre. You shall have pity, perchance, but love shall pass you by. Day by day you will wither. You will seek for death, and death will come all too slowly. Yet in the end, that also shall come, and with it the first and last mercy that shall be rendered to you from the hands of Lah, the Queen—’
“Then she left me—”
“And you awoke,” said I, half-smiling, as one comforting a child. ”

“ THE QUEEN. She has just issued from her palace, when Death unexpectedly appears and forcibly drags her away. Her jester, in whose habiliments Death has ludicrously attired himself, endeavours in vain to protect his mistress. A female attendant is violently screaming. Death holds up his hour-glass to indicate the arrival of the fatal hour. “Mulieres opulentæ surgite, et audite vocem meam: post dies et annum, et vos conturbemini.” ”

“ They will kill you! They have made you their puppet for a day and set you upon a throne and crowned you, and then—being unable to keep you there, and maddened by failure—they will kill you!' And with that I wept uncontrollably, shaking the great bed on which my dear lady was lying with the sobs that rent and tossed my whole frame.
'My poor child! My dear little Margery!' It was Queen Jane who was comforting me now and holding me in her arms whilst she tried to wipe away my tears. 'How you love me! ”

“ The queen looked on her earnestly for a moment, and then putting the golden locks back from her temple, as she would have caressed a child, she said—
"What!—cheeks like new-fallen snow!—lips trembling like the aspen!—and eye-lashes heavy with [278] tears!—how is this, child?—but we bethink us;—was it not some untoward affair of the heart which brought thee to our court? We have been too negligent;—tell us thy grief, and on the honor of a queen, if there be wrong we will have thee bravely righted—so speak freely." ”

“ It will be sufficient for our purpose to record the fate of one of the most innocent of all the victims, who owed her death to the fact that she had long been the queen's most chosen friend, and whose murder was gloated over with special ferocity by the monsters who perpetrated it, as enabling them to inflict an additional pang on her wretched friend and mistress. ”

“ I should like to live where I could ride over the necks of common people.'
"A tory and an aristocrat! Another gulf between us. I looked at her in horror, but, alas! the horror was strangely mixed with admiration. She was such a burning embodiment of pride. Her peculiar beauty—the source of which I have never to this day been able to fathom—lent itself so readily [124] to the expression of fury and disdain, that, recoil as I would from her principles, I could not shut my eyes to the fascination of her glance or the torturing charm that hid in the corners of her pouting lips. She was a queen. ”

“ And her lover said: “What is doom, and what is death? You whispered to the night and I heard. You sighed and I am here!” He tore the mask from his face, and the Queen looked at him and smiled. At that moment a rustle was heard in the undergrowth, and the Queen started back from him, whispering: “We are betrayed! Fly!” And her lover put on his mask and darted through the undergrowth, following a path which he and no one else knew, till he came to an open space where his squire awaited him with horses, and they galloped away safe from all pursuit. ”