“I want to talk with you, Madam,” I began with scant ceremony. “In some way you became my wife and therefore Queen of Cornwall. As such you have, in a small passage of time, gained a most pleasing popularity. But it grieves and perplexes me to see that you and many of my formerly loyal subjects have almost forgotten my existence. Besides, how came you by that string of wonderful pearls, each worth a king’s ransom and larger by far than the pair Cleopatra dissolved for the pleasuring of her Roman visitors? Of course I know that you say they were my betrothal present, but well enough we know that I never gave them to you.”
“The priest who married us gave them to me ere he left,” she answered. “I thought you knew him. He told me he was an old friend of yours and had spent a pleasant evening with you in legerdemain. All the ladies admire them greatly. I do not deem it kind of you to scold me, because one of the reasons I married you was to make your position stronger, for all the Cornwall nobles said you must have a wife.”
“You did not understand them correctly. A wife was but an incident.”
“I am sure I do not comprehend your meaning.”
“Naturally not. How could you? I admit that you have a certain beauty and, now that you are married, fill out your gown with admirable curves, but what can you know about affairs of state?”
“I know more that you can imagine. Do you realize that the south of Cornwall is muttering? I heard of it, and, at this time, three of the leaders are in the castle. Give them presents, increase their rank and keep them loyal, or cut off their heads and thus bring an end to their discontent. They await your pleasure, but ’twas your queen who beguiled them here to feel the weight of your hand, either in love or in passion.”
This annoyed me, and I could not help but show it.
“You worry me, Leonora!” I cried, “and I wish you would attend to your own affairs and leave the rule of the land to me. You know nothing of politics, and your place is in the women’s gallery directing your maidens to spin, weave and make tapestries. Some weeks ago I asked you to have them busy themselves with an embroidery of the Overlord Cecil slaying the three-headed dragon of Wales. I wish it to replace that tapestry of Knight Hercules and his fifty-one damsels. I told the seneschal to remove it, but he had the impudence to tell me that you asked that it remain in your bedchamber. Besides, and this you should consider carefully, your becoming queen was just an accident and if you were not queen some other woman would be; and it was not a queen my nobles wanted me to have, but a son. So far, you have failed to realize this. I will get me a child, and, it may be, once I have perfected the formula, I will get more. Now that I think of it, there is no time to spare. Have my harness ready and fill my leather purse with gold pieces, for tomorrow I am on my way to Armorica and from there to Cockaigne and all the weird and unattainable places of the earth, including the forbidding desert of Gobi. I will travel far and never rest till I work my magic and have me a son. While I am gone, behave yourself; see that the grapes are gathered in the fall and wine made. Have the larger hogs killed-”
I minded to say more but was given pause by Leonora, who faced me white-heated and unquestionably angry. Her words came so fast that I could gather only a general idea of what she was trying to say. The gist of it was that she did not care how soon I left and the longer I stayed away the better pleased she would be, that she would be delighted if I never came back, for she could rule Cornwall without me and if she had known the kind of a husband I would prove to be she would have rotted in the Bride Well. Then came laughter and tears and, before I was aware, a smart slap on my face, a swishing of silk and I was alone in the library.
Of course, after that, I was bound to go. The sooner I left on my magical search for a son and heir, the sooner I would return and have the boy recognized as the future Overlord of Cornwall. I was confident that the boy and I would have a grand time in the castle and it would be no waiting at all till I would be teaching him to read and to write his letters on parchment.
The next day, all being prepared for my departure, I sent for the seneschal and the captain of my men-at-arms. During my absence they were to hold the border for me and see that the castle and its inmates were protected against any evil ones who came against it. If I was asked for, the seneschal should simply say that I had gone on a very private business to Cockaigne and mayhaps even to Gobi, finally returning to reward the good and punish the evil-doers.
“And while I am gone, Aethelstan,” I said, “you are to be in full command. In other words you will serve as the vicar of the Overlord. You will even see to it that the Queen only assumes the responsibility of a mere woman. She must have no authority.”
“I’ll do my best,” the old man replied, but it was evident that he was not certain of his ability to carry out my orders.
Very late that afternoon I rode down the road, and the manner of my leaving the castle was in splendid contrast to my incoming when my horse had died and I had been fortunate enough to win the friendship of the mystical man who had won the Battle of the Toads. Though I was fully armed, I now was able to place more confidence in my reputation, which was spread throughout the land, according to my correspondents, as far as the kingdom ruled over by Prester John. Brave man indeed it would be who willingly and knowingly assailed the Overlord who had, single-handed, freed Cornwall from every cursed being which had beforetime so grievously infested her borders.
So I wended my way and that night slept on a thick bed of moss under the shelter of a giant oak. I slept easily and in comfort, free for the first time in many days of the ceaseless chitter-chatter nonsense which so characterized my wife’s conversation. I thought it a brave and worthwhile adventure, to go forth into the wide world and, by means of magic, form a son from the shapeless things of the darksome voids. I would be beset on every hand by salamanders, succubi, cockatrices and giant centipedes, and yet, by my power, their strength would be of no avail and finally I would win me back to Cornwall with a lovely boy on the pommel of my saddle. In my drowsiness I smiled, fancying the chit’s amazement when I sent her back to Wales.
Early the next day I came to the Irish Sea. Here was a wonder that I could never fathom, how the water came in endless waves and yet there was always water as before and no ceasing of the waves. Seated on stallion I looked over the mighty sea and mused.
“Only this water keeps me from being the greatest monarch of all time; for, if there were no water, Cornwall would include Ireland and go westward from that island till it took India into its domain and even come to the magical land of Gobi. Surely such a kingdom would give me ample opportunity to prove my greatness.”
“Indeed it would,” said a soft voice behind me. Turning quickly I saw the priest who had married us, and who had played such an important role when I became Overlord.
“Well, well!” I exclaimed.
“And a third well, Cousin Cecil, and what brings you, a newly married man, to be looking so longingly over the Irish Sea, when you should be at home, in soft and pleasurable dalliance with your lovely bride?”
“We had an argument,” I replied. “She failed utterly to comprehend my ambitions in life, and added word on word till she came all in a frenzy. So I left her, for wife or no wife, I know my duty to Cornwall and none may say that Cecil, the Overlord, failed to measure up to any of his responsibilities.”