As our minds are ever in perpetual motion, and can neither stop nor rest except by God, who is our centre, and for whom we are created, it is no marvel that our thoughts should change,—that this should take, that, leave; one should go on, another forget; and he who is the most quiet, will go on best, if he be not so from want of intellect.
I have made these observations as an excuse for the conduct of Arnoldo, and the apparent facility with which he relinquished in one moment the object that had occupied him so long; though one can hardly say that he relinquished it, for he only put it off for a time, because honour, the ruling feeling of all human actions, called him away; and this he explained to Periander on the night before their parting, talking with him apart from the others in the hermitage island. There he entreated him (for he who asks for a thing he greatly needs rather begs than asks) to look well after his sister Auristella, and preserve her for him, to be the queen of Denmark; and that if fortune should prove adverse, and he should not recover his kingdom, but lose his life in the endeavour, Auristella should be considered as the widow of a prince, and as such should choose a husband; and frequently he repeated, as he had often done before, that she well deserved to be the greatest queen in the world.
Periander said not one single word of all this to Auristella, for the lover delights in bestowing upon a beloved one praises from himself, and not as coming from another. He has no desire to make her in love with the charms of any one else; his own are all that he wishes her to see: if he cannot himself sing well, he will not bring to her a friend who can: if he is not handsome, he will not visit her in the company of a Ganymede; and, in fine, I am of opinion that if he has faults, he will not mend them by the merits of others; however, these things cannot apply to Periander, who was so richly endowed with nature's choicest gifts, and in those of fortune, was inferior to few.
A favouring gale wafted the two vessels on their different ways, for this is one of the mysteries of the art of navigation. They went on their course, cutting the not crystal but the dark blue waters. The sea was calm, for the wind, treating it with respect, only ruffled the surface, and the ship just seemed gently to kiss its lips, and then bound over it so lightly, that it scarcely appeared to touch it. In this manner, and with the same continued serenity and success, they sailed for seventeen days, without having occasion once to shorten sail, a great felicity for those who are on a sea voyage, to which, if it were not from the dread of tempests and coming storms, no pleasure in life is equal.
At the end of these or a few more days, early one morning, a boy on the top mast-head cried out, "Land! a reward sirs, a reward; I ask a reward, and deserve it, too; land! land!" although he might rather have said, Heaven! Heaven! for we were without a doubt within sight of Lisbon, the news of which brought tears—tender and joyful tears—into the eyes of all, but more especially of Ricla, the two Antonios, and Constance, for it seemed to them as if they had now reached the promised land that they so much desired to see. Antonio clasped them in his arms, and cried, "Now you shall learn, my beloved barbarians, how we serve God, and many other things more fully, although not differently from what I have taught you. Now you will see the rich temples in which we worship Him; you will see the Catholic ceremonies with which we serve Him; and you will see what Christian love is. Here, love and modesty join hands and walk together; courtesy repels arrogance, and courage sends cowardice far away: all the inhabitants are civil, courteous, liberal, and loving. This is the greatest city in all Europe, and the one that has most trade. In her the riches of the East are poured out, from her they are scattered over the universe. Her harbour is capacious, and holds countless navies like forests; the beauty of her women is everywhere admired; the gallantry of her men is a wonder to all, and finally, this is the land which pays to Heaven a holy and abundant tribute."
"Say no more, Antonio," observed Periander, "but leave our eyes something to discover for ourselves; let something remain for us to see and admire anew, thus our pleasure will in the end be all the greater for coming by degrees."
Auristella was delighted to think she should soon set her foot on terra firma again, without having to go from port to port, isle to isle, subject to all the inconstancies of wind and weather; and still more pleased was she, when she heard that she might, if she liked, go on dry land from hence to Rome, without embarking again.
It was mid-day when they arrived at Sangian, where the ship was to be registered, and where the governor of the castle, and all who came on board the ship with him, wondered greatly at the exceeding beauty of Auristella, the graceful air of Periander, the barbarian attire of the two Antonios, the comeliness of Ricla, and the agreeable looks of Constance. They learned that they were foreigners and pilgrims going to Rome. Periander magnificently rewarded the mariners who had brought them hither, with some of the gold that Ricla had carried away with her from the barbarous isle; they had changed some of it into money, in King Polycarp's dominions. The mariners wished to go to Lisbon, in order to make some bargains in the way of merchandise.
The governor of Sangian sent the news of the arrival of the strangers, to the governor of Lisbon; this office was then held by the Archbishop of Braga, in the absence of the king, who was not in the city at this time. He told him of the incomparable beauty of Auristella, and added praises of that of Constance, whose barbarian attire, heightened the effect of her charms. He even exaggerated the excessive liberality and gracefulness of Periander, and extolled the behaviour of them all, who were, he said, much more like courtiers than barbarians.
The ship came up to the town, and they went on shore at Belén, for Auristella wished to visit the holy monastery first, having heard of its fame. She desired devoutly to adore there, the only true God, freely and unembarrassed by the distorted ceremonies of her own land. Crowds of people came down to the shore to see the strangers disembark at Belén. They all ran thither full of curiosity to see the novel sight.
The phalanx of beauty had already left Belén; Ricla was only moderately well looking, but her strange garb became her extremely: Constance looked charming in her dress of skins; the elder Antonio in his wolf skin, with bare legs and arms; his son in a similar array, only that he carried his bow in his hand, and his quiver full of arrows was hung at his shoulder. Periander was dressed in a green velvet tunic, and trousers of ............