The Witch-Woman Trilogy

8. “THE BRAVEST ARE THE TENDEREST”

  Madoc fled from the shepherd land and from the hospitable coffin of Queen Ainath, wherein optimism was denied him. Now he goes westerly, into the mountainous country of the Emperor Pandras, the third of that name.

  There Madoc encountered a gleaming company of archers and spearmen with red lions blazoned upon their shields. Their Emperor rode before them, in red armor, mounted upon a roan stallion: and they went thus marching to make war against the people of Ethion, as was their annual custom.

  “Our old traditions and our national honor must be preserved,” declared the Emperor, “but, nevertheless, this year a war is rather inconvenient.”

  Then Madoc sang the newest song which he had made with his black pen. He sang very movingly of how many young men would be killed in the impending war, and of how this fact would be a source of considerable distress to their mothers.

  The spearmen and the archers dropped each a tear from each eye: the Emperor himself was heard to clear his throat. “I have a mother,” said one warrior.

  His neighbor replied, “I have not; but I formerly had one, and the principle is the same.”

  The entire army agreed that the principle was excellent; a retreat was sounded; and war was deferred.

9. PHILANTHROPY PROSPERS

  Then Madoc made yet other songs for the war-loving people of the Emperor Pandras. He made fine stirring songs about philanthropy, and many simple chanteys such as workmen use at their labors.

  The warriors turned from their belligerent raids, to the building of schoolhouses and hospitals and public drinking-fountains and domed temples for their three national deities. Laboring, these warriors sang the songs which Madoc had made, and his songs put a new vigor in them: their philanthropic endeavors went forward the more nimbly because of Madoc’s noble and inspiring songs.

  “Build,” Madoc sang, “for the welfare of those who come hereafter! Create for them a fairer and more enlightened world! Build, as befits the children of the great Builder!”

  But in a while he heard another music: he reflected how stupid were these perspiring and large-muscled persons who toiled for the welfare of a problematic and, it well might be, an unmeritorious posterity, for people who had done nothing whatever to place anybody under any least obligations: and his songs, which brought benevolence and vigor into the living of all other persons, appeared to Madoc rather silly now that again he had heard the skirling music of Ettarre the witch-woman.

10. SPOILS OF THE VICTOR

  But the people of Ethion, after they had waited a reasonable while for their annual war to begin, lost patience before this disrespect for tradition, and bestirred themselves. They invaded the country of the Emperor Pandras. They were driven back and were slaughtered cosily, in their own homes, which were then destroyed.

  “Our triumph is gratifying,” said Pandras, after he had attended divine worship and had sent for Madoc. “Only, now that we have won this war, it seems right we should pay for it; now that we have laid waste the cities of Ethion, to rebuild them is our manifest duty: and in consequence I shall have to redouble, or perhaps it would be more simple merely to multiply by five, the taxes which are now being paid by my people.”

  “Yes, majesty,” said Madoc, sighing somewhat.

  “It follows, Madoc, that immediately after we have tried and hanged the surviving leaders of Ethion, we shall need a new song from you, as to the brotherhood of all mankind and as to the delight which a proper-minded person gets out of discomfort when it helps his enemies to live at ease, because otherwise my people may not enjoy paying five times as many taxes.”

  “I withdraw, sir, to complete this song,” said Madoc, and after that, he withdrew, not merely from the presence of Pandras, but from out of the country of Pandras.

11. THE COMFORTABLE MUSIC

  Just so did it fare with Madoc in many kingdoms. He wandered everywhither, writing noble songs with his black pen. He sang these songs before great notabilities, before the Soldan of Ethiopa under a purple awning worked with silver crescents, and before the Pope of Rome in a white marble room quite empty of all furnishing, and before the Old Man of the Mountains beside a fire in a grove of fir trees at midnight. Everywhere people of every estate delighted in Madoc’s song-making, and they applauded the refining influence of his art.