CHAPTER VI

THE CHAPTER CALLED CLYTEMNESTRA

At Acre, by the time September was set, the sun had put all the air to the sword, so that the city lay stifled, stinking in its own vice; and the nights were worse than the days.  Then was the great harvest of the flies, when men died so quickly that there was no time to bury them.  So also mothers saw their children flag or felt their force grow thin:  one or another swooned suddenly and woke no more; or a woman found a dead child at the breast, or a child whimpered to find his mother so cold.  At this time, while Jehane lay panting in bed, awake hour by hour and fretting over what she should do when the fountains of her milk should be dry, and this little Fulke, royal glutton, crave without getting of her—­she heard the women set there to fan her talking to each other in drowsy murmurs, believing that she slept.  By now she knew their speech.

Said one between the slow passes of the fans, ’Giafar ibn Mulk hath come into the city secretly.’  And the other, ‘Then we have a thief the more.’

‘Peace,’ said the first, ’thou grudger.  He is one of my lovers, and telleth me whatsoever I seek to know.  He is come in from Lebanon; so much, and more, I know already.’

‘What ill report doth he bring of his master?’ asked the second, a lazy girl, whose name was Misra, as the first was called Fanoum.

Fanoum answered, ’Very ill report of the Melek’—­that was King Richard’s name here—­’but it is according to the desires of the Marquess.’

‘Ohe!’ said Misra, ’we must tell this sleeper.  She is moon of the Melek.’

‘Thou art a fool to think me a fool,’ said Fanoum.  ’Why, then, shall I be one to turn the horn of a mad cow, to pierce my own thigh?  Let the Franks kill each other, what have we but gain?  They are dogs alike.’

Misra said, ’Hearken thou, O Fanoum, the Melek is no dog.  Nay, he is more than a man.  He is the yellow-haired King of the West, riding a white horse, who was foretold by various prophets, that he should come up against the Sultan.  That I know.’

‘Then he will have more than a man’s death,’ said Fanoum.  ’The Marquess goeth with Giafar to Lebanon, to see the Old Man of Musse, whom he serveth.  The Melek must die, for of all men living or dead the Marquess hateth him.’

‘Oh, King of Kings!’ said Misra, with a little sob, ’and thou wilt stand by, thou sorrowful, while the Marquess kills the Melek!’

Fanoum answered, ’Certainly I will; for any of our lord’s people can kill the Marquess; but it needeth the guile of the Old Man to kill the Melek.  Let the wolf slay the lion while he sleepeth:  anon cometh the shepherd and slayeth the gorged wolf.  That is good sense.’

‘Well,’ said Misra, ’it may be so.  But I am sorry for his favourite here.  There are no daughters of Au so goodly as this one.  The Melek is a wise lover of women.’