VII.
MARRIAGE BY COMPULSION.
It is a most anxious thing to be an absolute ruler," said Duke
Deodonato, "but I have made up my mind. The Doctor has convinced
me [here Dr. Fusbius, Ph. D., bowed very low] that marriage is
the best, noblest, wholesomest, and happiest of human
conditions."
"Your Highness will remember----" began the President of the
Council.
"My lord, I have made up my mind," said Duke Deodonato.
Thus speaking, the Duke took a large sheet of foolscap paper, and
wrote rapidly for a moment or two.
"There," he said, pushing the paper over to the President, "is
the decree."
"The decree, sir?"
"I think three weeks afford ample space," said Duke Deodonato.
"Three weeks, sir?"
"For every man over twenty-one years of age in this Duchy to find
himself a wife."
"Your Highness," observed Dr. Fusbius, with deference, "will
consider that between an abstract proposition and a practical
measure----"
"There is to the logical mind no stopping place," interrupted
Duke Deodonato.
"But, sir," cried the President, "imagine the consternation which
this----"
"Let it be gazetted to-night," said Duke Deodonato.
"I would venture," said the President, "to remind your Highness
that you are yourself a bachelor."
"Laws," said Duke Deodonato, "do not bind the Crown unless the
Crown is expressly mentioned."
"True, sir; but I humbly conceive that it would be pessimi
exempli----"
"You are right; I will marry myself," said Duke Deodonato.
"But, sir, three weeks! The hand of a princess cannot be
requested and granted in----"
"Then find me somebody else," said Deodonato; "and pray leave me.
I would be alone;" and Duke Deodonato waved his hand to the door.
Outside the door the President said to the Doctor:
"I could wish, sir, that you had not convinced his Highness."
"My lord," rejoined the Doctor, "truth is my only preoccupation."
"Sir," said the President, "are you married?"
"My lord," answered the Doctor, "I am not."
"I thought not," said the President, as he folded up the decree
and put it in his pocket.
It is useless to deny that Duke Deodonato's decree caused
considerable disturbance in the Duchy. In the first place,
the Crown lawyers raised a puzzle of law. Did the word "man" as
used in the decree, include "woman"? The President shook his
head, and referred the question to his Highness.
"It seems immaterial," observed the Duke. "If a man marries, a
woman marries."
"Ex vi terminorum," assented the Doctor.
"But, sir," said the President, "there are more women than men in
the Duchy."
Duke Deodonato threw down his pen.
"This is very provoking," said he. "Why was it allowed? I'm
sure it happened before _I_ came to the throne."
The Doctor was about to point out that it could hardly have been
guarded against, when the President (who was a better courtier)
anticipated him.
"We did not foresee that your Highness, in your Highness' wisdom,
would issue this decree," he said humbly.
"True," said Duke Deodonato, who was a just man.
"Would your Highness vouchsafe any explanation----"
"What are the Judges for?" asked Duke Deodonato. "There is the
law--let them interpret it."
Whereupon the Judges held that a "man" was not a "woman," and
that although every man must marry, no woman need.
"It will make no difference," said the President.
"None at all," said Dr. Fusbius.
Nor, perhaps, would it, seeing that women are ever kind and in no
way by nature averse from marriage, had it not become known that
Duke Deodonato himself intended to choose a wife from the ladies
of his own dominions, and to choose her (according to the advice
of Dr. Fusbius, who, in truth, saw little whither his counsel
would in the end carry the Duke) without regard to such
adventitious matters as rank or wealth, and purely for her
beauty, talent, and virtue.
Which resolve being proclaimed, straightway all the ladies of the
Duchy, of whatsoever station, calling, age, appearance, wit,
or character, conceiving each of them that she, and no other,
should become the Duchess, sturdily refused all offers of
marriage (although they were many of them as desperately enamored
as virtuous ladies may be), and did nought else than walk, drive,
ride, and display their charms in the park before the windows of
the ducal palace. And thus it fell out that when a week had gone
by, no man had obeyed Duke Deodonato's decree, and they were,
from sheer want of brides, like to fall into contempt of the law
and under the high displeasure of the Duke.
Upon this the President and Dr. Fusbius sought audience of his
Highness and humbly laid before him the unforeseen obstacle which
had occurred.
"Woman is ever ambitious," said Dr. Fusbius.
"Nay," corrected the President, "they have seen his Highness'
person as his Highness has ridden through the city."
Duke Deodonato threw down his pen.
"This is very tiresome," said he, knitting his brows. "My lord,
I would be further advised on this matter. Return at the same
hour to-morrow."
The next day, Duke Deodonato's forehead had regained its
customary smoothness, and his manner was tranquil and assured.
"Our pleasure is," said he to the President, "that, albeit no
woman shall be compelled to marry if so be that she be not
invited thereunto; yet, if bidden, she shall in no wise refuse,
but straightway espouse that man who first after the date of
these presents shall solicit her hand."
The President bowed in admiration.
"It is, if I may humbly say so, a practical and wise solution,
sir," he said.
"I apprehend that it will remedy the mischief," said Duke
Deodonato, not ill pleased.
And doubtless it would have had an effect as altogether
satisfactory, excellent, beneficial, salutary, and universal
as the wisdom of Duke Deodonato had anticipated from it, had it
not fallen out that, on the promulgation of the decree, all the
aforesaid ladies of the Duchy, of whatsoever station, calling,
age, appearance, wit, or character, straightway, and so swiftly
that no man had time wherein to pay his court to them, fled to
and shut and bottled and barricaded themselves in houses,
castles, cupboards, cellars, stables, lofts, churches, chapels,
chests, and every other kind of receptacle whatsoever, and there
remained beyond reach of any man, be he whom he would, lest haply
one, coming, should ask their hand in marriage, and thus they
should lose all prospect of wedding the Duke.
When Duke Deodonato was apprised of this lamentable action on the
part of the ladies of the Duchy, he frowned and laid down his
pen.
"This is very annoying," said he. "There appears to be a
disposition to thwart Our endeavors for the public good."
"It is gross contumacy," said Dr. Fusbius.
"Yet," remarked the President, "inspired by a natural, if ill-
disciplined, admiration for his Highness' person."
"The decree is now a fortnight old," observed Duke Deodonato.
"Leave me. I will consider further of this matter."
Now even as his Highness spoke a mighty uproar arose under the
palace windows, and Duke Deodonato, looking out of the window
(which, be it remembered, but for the guidance of Heaven he might
not have done), beheld a maiden of wonderful charms struggling in
the clutches of two halberdiers of the guard, who were haling her
off to prison.
"Bring hither that damsel," said Deodonato.
Presently the damsel, still held by the soldiers, entered the
room. Her robe was disheveled and rent, her golden hair hung
loose on her shoulders, and her eyes were full of tears.
"At whose suit is she arrested?" asked Deodonato.
"At the suit of the most learned Dr. Fusbius, may it please your
Highness."
"Sir," said Dr. Fusbius, "it is true. This lady, grossly
contemning your Highness' decree, has refused my hand in
marriage."
"Is it true, damsel?" asked Duke Deodonato.
"Hear me, your Highness!" answered she. "I left my dwelling but
an instant, for we were in sore straits for----"
"Bread?" asked Deodonato, a touch of sympathy in his voice.
"May it please your Highness, no--pins wherewith to fasten our
hair. And, as I ran to the merchant's, this aged man----"
"I am but turned of fifty," interrupted Fusbius.
"And have not yet learned silence!" asked Deodonato severely.
"Damsel, proceed!"
"Caught me by my gown as I ran, and----"
"I proposed marriage to her," said Fusbius.
"Nay, if you proposed marriage," she shall marry you," said
Deodonato. "By the crown of my fathers, she shall marry you!
But what said he, damsel?"
"May it please your Highness, he said that I had the prettiest
face in all the Duchy, and that he would have no wife but me; and
thereupon he kissed me; and I would have none of him, and I
struck him and escaped."
"Send for the Judges," said Duke Deodonato. "And meanwhile keep
this damsel and let no man propose marriage to her until Our
pleasure be known."
Now, when the Judges were come, and the maiden was brought in and
set over against them on the right hand, and the learned Doctor
took his stand on the left, Deodonato prayed the Judges that they
would perpend carefully and anxiously of the question--using all
lore, research, wisdom, discretion, and justice--whether Dr.
Fusbius had proposed marriage unto the maiden or no.
"Thus shall Our mind be informed, and we shall deal profitably
with this matter," concluded Duke Deodonato.
Upon which arose great debate. For there was one part of the
learned men which leaned upon the letter and found no invitation
to marriage in the words of Dr. Fusbius; while another part would
have it that in all things the spirit and mind of the utterer
must be regarded, and that it sorted not with the years, virtues,
learning, and position of the said most learned Doctor to suppose
that he had spoken such words and sealed the same with a kiss,
save under the firm impression, thought, and conviction that he
was offering his hand in marriage; which said impression,
thought, and conviction were fully and reasonably declared and
evident in his actions, manner, bearing, air, and conduct.
"This is very perplexing," said Duke Deodonato, and he knit his
brows; for as he gazed upon the beauty of the damsel, it seemed
to him a thing unnatural, undesirable, unpalatable, unpleasant,
and unendurable, that she should wed Dr. Fusbius.
Yet if such were the law--Duke Deodonato sighed, and he glanced
at the damsel: and it chanced that the damsel glanced at Duke
Deodonato, and, seeing that he was a proper man and comely, and
that his eye spoke his admiration of her, she blushed; and her
cheek that had gone white when those of the judges who favored
the learned Doctor were speaking, went red as a rose again, and
she strove to order her hair, and to conceal the rent that was in
her robe. And Duke Deodonato sighed again.
"My lord," he said to the President, "we have heard these wise
and erudite men; and, for as much as the matter is difficult,
they are divided among themselves, and the staff whereon we
leaned is broken. Speak, therefore, your mind."
Then the President of the Council looked earnestly at Duke
Deodonato, but the Duke veiled his face with his hand.
"Answer truly," said he, "without fear or favor. So shall you
fulfill Our pleasure."
And the President, looking round upon the company, said:
"It is, your Highness, by all reasonable, honest, just, proper,
and honorable intendment, as good, sound, full, and explicit an
offer of marriage as hath ever been had in this duchy."
"So be it," said Duke Deodonato; and Dr. Fusbius smiled in
triumph, while the maiden grew pale again.
"And," pursued the President, "it binds, controls, and rules
every man, woman, and child in these your Highness' dominions,
and hath the force of law over all."
"So be it," said Deodonato again.
"Saving," added the President, "your Highness only."
There was a movement among the company.
"For," pursued the President, "by the ancient laws, customs,
manners, and observances of the Duchy, no decree or law shall in
any way whatsoever impair, alter, lessen, or derogate from
the high rights, powers, and prerogatives of your Highness, whom
may Heaven long preserve. Although, therefore, it be, by and
pursuant to your Highness' decree, the sure right of every man in
this Duchy to be accepted in marriage of any damsel whom he shall
invite thereunto, yet is this right in all respects subject to
and controlled by the natural, legal, inalienable, unalterable,
and sovereign prerogative of your Highness to marry what damsel
soever it shall be your pleasure to bid share your throne. Hence
I, in obedience to your Highness' commands, pronounce and declare
that this damsel is lawfully and irrevocably bound and affianced
to the learned Dr. Fusbius, unless and until it shall please your
Highness yourself to demand her hand in marriage. May what I
have spoken please your Highness!" And the President sat down.
Duke Deodonato sat a while in thought, and there was silence in
the hall. Then he spoke:
"Let all withdraw, saving the damsel only."
And they one and all withdrew, and Duke Deodonato was left alone
with the damsel.
Then he arose and gazed long on the damsel; but the damsel would
not look on Duke Deodonato.
"How are you called, lady?" asked Duke Deodonato.
"I am called Dulcissima," said she.
"Well named!" said Deodonato softly, and he went to the damsel,
and he laid his hand, full gently, on her robe, and he said:
"Dulcissima, you have the prettiest face in all the Duchy, and I
will have no wife but you;" and Duke Deodonato kissed the damsel.
The damsel forbore to strike Duke Deodonato, as she had struck
Dr. Fusbius. Again her cheek went red, and again pale, and she
said:
"I wed no man on compulsion."
"Madam, I am your Sovereign," said Duke Deodonato; and his eyes
were on the damsel.
"If you were an Archangel----" cried the damsel.
"Our house is not wont to be scorned of ladies," said Deodonato.
"Am I crooked, or baseborn, or a fool?"
"This day in your Duchy women are slaves, and men their masters
by your will," said she.
"It is the order of nature," said Deodonato.
"It is not my pleasure," said the damsel.
Then Deodonato laid his hand on his silver bell, for he was very
angry.
"Fusbius waits without," said he.
"I will wed him and kill him," cried Dulcissima.
Deodonato gazed on her.
"You had no chance of using the pins," said he, "and the rent in
your gown is very sore."
And upon this the eyes of the damsel lost their fire and sought
the floor; and she plucked at her girdle, and would not look on
Deodonato. And they said outside:
"It is very still in the Hall of the Duke."
Then said Deodonato:
"Dulcissima, what would you?"
"That you repeal your decrees," said she.
Deodonato's brow grew dark; he did not love to go back.
"What I have decreed, I have decreed," said he.
"And what I have resolved, I have resolved," said she.
Deodonato drew near to her.
"And if I repeal the decrees?" said he.
"You will do well," said she.
"And you will wed----"
"Whom I will," said she.
Deodonato turned to the window, and for a space he looked out;
and the damsel smoothed her hair and drew her robe, where it was
whole, across the rent; and she looked on Deodonato as he stood,
and her bosom rose and fell. And she prayed a prayer that no man
heard, or, if he heard, might be so base as to tell. But she saw
the dark locks of Deodonato's hair and his form, straight as
an arrow and tall as a six-foot wand, in the window. And again,
outside, they said:
"It is strangely still in the Hall of the Duke."
Then Deodonato turned, and he pressed with his hand on the silver
bell, and straightway the Hall was filled with the Councilors,
the Judges, and the halberdiers, attentive to hear the will of
Deodonato and the fate of the damsel. And the small eyes of
Fusbius glowed, and the calm eyes of the President smiled.
"My Cousins, Gentlemen, and my faithful Guard," said Deodonato,
"Time, which is Heaven's mighty Instrument, brings counsel. Say!
what the Duke has done, shall any man undo?"
Then cried they all, save one:
"No man!"
And the President said:
"Saving the Duke."
"The decrees which I made," said Deodonato, "I unmake.
Henceforth let men and maidens in my Duchy marry or not
marry as they will, and God give them joy of it."
And all, save Fusbius, cried "Amen!" But Fusbius cried:
"Your Highness, it is demonstrated beyond cavil; ay, to the
satisfaction of your Highness----"
"This is very tedious," said Deodonato. "Let him speak no more!"
And again he drew near to Dulcissima, and there, before them all,
he fell on his knee. And a murmur ran through the hall.
"Madam," said Deodonato, "if you love me, wed me. And, if you
love me not, depart in peace and in honor; and I, Deodonato, will
live my life alone."
Then the damsel trembled, and barely did Deodonato catch her
words:
"There are many men here," said she.
"It is not given to Princes," said Deodonato, "to be alone.
Nevertheless, if you will, leave me alone." And the damsel bent
low, so that the breath of her mouth stirred the hair on
Deodonato's head, and he shivered as he knelt.
"My Prince and my King!" said she.
And Deodonato shot to his feet, and before them all he kissed
her, and, turning, spoke:
"As I have wooed, let every man in this Duchy woo. As I have
won, let every man that is worthy win. For, unless he so woo,
and unless he so win, vain is his wooing, and vain is his
winning, and a fig for his wedding, say I, Deodonato! I, that
was Deodonato, and now am--Deodonato and Dulcissima."
And a great cheer rang out in the Hall, and Fusbius fled to the
door; and they tore his gown as he went and cursed him for a
knave. But the President raised his voice aloud and cried:
"May Heaven preserve your Highnesses--and here's a blessing on
all windows!"
And that is the reason why you will find (if you travel
there, as I trust you may, for nowhere are the ladies fairer or
the men so gallant) more windows in the Duchy of Deodonato than
anywhere in the wide world besides. For the more windows, the
wider the view; and the wider the view, the more pretty damsels
do you see; and the more pretty damsels you see, the more jocund
a thing is life--and that is what the men of the Duchy love--and
not least, Duke Deodonato, whom, with his bride Dulcissima, may
Heaven long preserve!
