The Jester. LM

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Название The Jester
Автор произведения LM
Жанр Языкознание
Серия
Издательство Языкознание
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4057664588876



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       LM

      The Jester

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664588876

       CHAPTER I CAP AND BELLS

       CHAPTER II THE FOOL’S ENTRY

       CHAPTER III SWEET BONDAGE

       CHAPTER IV A WOMAN’S WILL

       CHAPTER V GOOD COMRADESHIP

       CHAPTER VI BALDA THE WITCH

       CHAPTER VII SANCTUARY

       CHAPTER VIII COUNCIL AT SANGDIEU

       CHAPTER IX THE CASTING OF THE NET

       CHAPTER X WITHERED ROSES

       CHAPTER XI OUTCASTE

       CHAPTER XII THE WANDERER

       CHAPTER XIII CASTLE SYRTES

       CHAPTER XIV THE QUEST

       CHAPTER XV SIMON OF THE BEES

       CHAPTER XVI ILLUSION

       CHAPTER XVII APHORISMS

       CHAPTER XVIII THE SAGE

       CHAPTER XIX THE CHOICE

       CHAPTER XX VIBRATIONS

       CHAPTER XXI MOON RITUAL

       CHAPTER XXII DEVIL WORSHIP

       CHAPTER XXIII ABBOT HILARY

       CHAPTER XXIV AT DIEUPORTE

       CHAPTER XXV AN ORCHARD EGOIST

       CHAPTER XXVI AELRED’S BELIEF

       CHAPTER XXVII THE RECLUSE

       CHAPTER XXVIII IN THE FOREST

       CHAPTER XXIX EASTER EVE AND EASTER MORNING

      “There was a man seeking Peace.”

       Fiona Macleod.

      The Jester

       CAP AND BELLS

       Table of Contents

      NICHOL the Jester having left this world for, we trust, a better, and thereto we cry “God rest his soul,” Peregrine his son reigned in his stead.

      This was in accordance with custom. Six times had cap and bells descended from father to son: we see Peregrine as the seventh inheritor thereto, which, perchance, holds some significance. Pythagorus would doubtless have told us it held much; would have told us we find in seven the last of the limited numbers, a mere step from it to the free vibrations. Also he would have seen double significance in that Peregrine’s own name held the same vibration. And who are we to say him nay?

      For my part I would no more dream of venturing to gainsay him than I would venture to gainsay the old sage who read the message of the stars at his birth. This sage, finding him born under the third decanate of Sagittarius, with Uranus in the ascendant, and having muttered of houses, and cusps, and aspects, and signs, and I know not what besides—and if I did would refrain from further enumeration lest I should weary you—proclaimed him one born to wander, a seeker after that which is not easily found—of the sign of Sagittarius, and the planet Uranus are antiquarians and alchemists. He gave him also favours from one of high birth, which favours should wither like June roses when picked; gave him sorrow as companion for a space—though truly there is no mother’s son of us knows not that companion for a while—and the end of his life’s journey he saw not. Whereat I, for one, rejoice, since—though I would not venture to gainsay the old sage—I believe that the ordering of a man’s destiny lies not with the stars, but with One Who holds the universe in the Hollow of His Hand.

      Lisette, wife of Nichol the Jester, gave however full credence to the sage, a credence equal to that she gave to the dogmas of Holy Church, therein showing herself illogical after the manner of women, since our Mother the Church has ever bade us have no dealing with omens, dreams, the riddle of the stars, and such-like fooleries. Despite this, and having given, as we have seen, credulous ear to the sage’s prophecy, she named the boy Peregrine.

      When first breeched he was costumed as a miniature edition of his sire, half black, half white, in cognizance of the rôle he would later play in truth. The cap surrounded a chubby face, not yet outgrown the solemnity of babyhood. His hand, fat and dimpled, grasped the belled bauble. Borne aloft on his father’s shoulder to the great hall, he was set in the midst of the squires and dames—more particularly the dames, since the squires for the most part were that day following their lord over Exmoor in pursuit of the wild red deer.

      They saw in him a pretty enough plaything; found, for a time at least, greater novelty in his solemn silences and rare smiles than in his father’s jests. The Lady Clare de Belisle entering with her own child, a girl babe of two summers, touched the tiny jester’s cheek with one jewelled finger, commended him for a bonny boy. The two children gazed at each other solemn-eyed, till Isabel, the girl, putting forth her hand was for taking the young jester’s bauble from him. Thereat Peregrine clutched it jealously to his breast,