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The Bound Princess
I The Fire-Eaters |
II The Galloping Plough |
III The Thirsty Well |
IV The Princess Melilot |
V The Burning Rose |
VI The Camphor-Worm
V
THE BURNING ROSE
SHE told him how he was to go, across the desert southward, till he found a giant, longer in length than a day's journey, lying asleep upon the sand Over his head, it was told, hung a cloud,
covering him from the heat and resting itself against his brows; within the cloud was a dream, and within the dream grew the garden of the Burning Rose. Than this she knew no more, nor by what
means Noodle might gain entrance and become possessor of the Rose.
Noodle waited for no more; he mounted
upon the Galloping Plough, and pressed away over the desert to the south. For
three days he travelled through parched
places, refreshing himself by the way with
the water of the Thirsty Well, calling on
the Well-folk for the replenishment of
his crystal, and turning the draught to
wine by the sweetness of his magic ring.
At length he saw a cloud rising to him
from a distance; like a great opal it hung
motionless between earth and heaven.
Coming nearer he saw the giant himself
stretched out for a day's journey across
the sand. His head lay under the colours
of the dawn, and his feet were covered
with the dusk of evening, and over his
middle shone the noonday sun.
Under the giant's shadow Noodle
stopped, and gazed up into the cloud;
through the outer covering of its mists he
saw what seemed to be balls of fire, and
knew that within lay the dream and the
garden of the Burning Rose.
The giant laughed and muttered in his
sleep, for the dream was sweet to him.
'O Rose,' he said, 'O sweet Rose, what
end is there of thy sweetness? How in-
numerable is the dance of the Roses of my
Rose-garden!'
Noodle caught hold of the ropes of the
giant's hair, and climbed till he sat within
the hollow of his right ear. Then he put
to his lips the ring, the Sweetener, and
sang till the giant heard him in his sleep ;
and the sweet singing mixed itself with the
sweetness of the Rose in the giant's brain,
and he muttered to himself, saying: 'O
bee, O sweet bee, O bee in my brain, what
honey wilt thou fetch for me out of the
Roses of my Rose-garden?'
So, more and more, Noodle sweetened
himself to the giant, till the giant passed
him into his brain, and into the heart of
the dream, even into the garden of the
Burning Rose.
Far down below the folds of the cloud,
Noodle remembered that the Galloping
Plough lay waiting a call from him.
'When I have stolen the Rose,' thought
he, 'I may need swift heels for my flight.'
And he put the Sweetener to his lips and
whistled the Plough up to him.
It came, cleaving the encirclement of
clouds like a silver gleam of moonlight, and
for a moment, where they parted, Noodle
saw a rift of blue sky, and the light of the
outer world clear through their midst.
The giant turned uneasily in his sleep,
and the garden of the Burning Rose rocked
to its foundations as the edge of things
real pierced into it.
'While I stay here there is danger,'
thought Noodle. 'Surely I must make
haste to possess myself of the Rose and to
escape!'
All round him was a garden set thick
with rose-trees in myriads of blossom, rose behind rose as far as the eye could reach,
and the fragrance of them lay like a heavy
curtain of sleep upon the senses. Noodle,
beginning to feel drowsy, stretched out his
hand in haste to the nearest flower, lest in
a little while he should be no more than a
part of the giant's dream. 'O beloved
Heart of Melilot!' he cried, and crushed
his ringers upon the stem.
The whole bough crackled and sprang
away at his touch; the Rose turned upon
him, screaming and spouting fire; a noise
like thunder filled all the air. Every rose
in the garden turned and spat flame at
where he stood. His face and his hands
became blistered with the heat.
Leaping upon the back of his Plough,
he cried, 'Carry me to the borders of the
garden where there are open spaces! The
price of the Princess is upon my head!'
The Plough bounded this way and that,
searching for some outlet by which to escape. It flew in spirals and circles, it
leaped like a flea, it burrowed like a mole,
it ploughed up the rose-trees by the roots.
But so soon as it had passed they stood
up unharmed again, and to whatever point
of refuge the Plough fled, that way they
all turned their heads and darted out
vomitings of fire.
In vain did Noodle summon the Well-folk to his aid ; his crystal shot forth fountains of water that turned into steam as they
rose, and fell back again, scalding him.
Then with two deaths threatening to
devour him, he brandished the ring, calling
upon the Fire-eaters for their aid.
They laughed as they came. 'Here is
food for you!' he cried. 'Multiply your
appetites about me, or I shall be consumed
in these flames!'
'Brandish again!' cried they the same
seven whom he had fed. 'We are not
enough ; this fire is not quenchable.'
Noodle brandished till the whole garden
swarmed with their kind. One fastened
himself upon every rose, a gulf opposing
itself to a torrent. All sight of the conflagration disappeared ; but within there
went a roaring sound, and the bodies of
the Fire-eaters crackled, growing large and
luminous the while.
'Do your will quickly and begone!'
cried the Fire-eaters. 'Even now we
swell to bursting with the pumping in of
these fires!'
Noodle seized on a rose to which one
hung, sucking out its heats. He tugged,
but the strong fibres held. Then he
locked himself to the back of the Plough,
crying to it and caressing its speed with all
names under heaven, and beseeching it in
the name of Melilot to break free. And
the Plough giving but one plunge, the Rose
came away into Noodle's hand, panting
and a prisoner. All blushing it grew and radiant, with a soft inner glow, and an
odour of incomparable sweetness. He
seemed to see the heart of Melilot beating
before him.
But now there came a blast of fire
behind him, for the Fire-eaters had
disappeared, and all was whirling and
shaken before his eyes; and the Plough
sped desperately over earthquake and
space. For the plucking of the Rose had
awakened the giant from his sleep ; and
the dream shrivelled and spun away in a
whirl of flame-coloured vapours. Leaping
into clear day out of the unravelment of
its mists, Noodle found himself and his
Plough launching over an edge of precipice for a downward dive into space. The
giant's hair, standing upright from his
head in the wrath and horror of his
awakening, made a forest ending in his forehead that bowered them to right and
to left. Quitting it they slid ungovernably over the bulge of his brow, and went at
full spurt for the abyss.
Dexterously the Plough steered its
descent, catching on the bridge and furrowing the ridge of the nose; nine leagues
were the duration of a second.
The giant, thinking some venomous
parasite was injuring his flesh, aimed, and
a moment too late had thumped his fist
upon the place. But already the Plough
skirting the amazed opening of his mouth
was lost in the trammels of his beard.
Thence, as it escaped the rummaging of his
fingers, it flew scouring his breast, and inflicted a flying scratch over the regions of
his abdomen. Then, still believing it to
be the triumphal procession of a flea, he
pursued it to his thigh, and mistaking the
shadow for the substance allowed it yet
again to escape. At his knee-cap there
was but a hair's-breadth between Noodle
and the weight of his thumb ; but thereafter the Plough out-distanced his every
effort, and, with Noodle preserved whole
and alive, sped fast and far, bearing the
Burning Rose to the heart of the beloved
Melilot.
The crone was aware of his coming
before she heard him, or saw the gleam
of his Plough running beam-like over the
land. From her seat by the Princess's
bower she clapped her hands, and springing to his neck ere he alighted: 'A long
way off, and a long time off, ' she cried, 'I knew what fortune was with you; for
when you plucked off the Rose, and bore
it out of the heart of the dream, the scent
of it filled the world ; and I felt the sweetness of youth once more in my blood,'
Then she led him to the Princess, and
bade him lay the Rose in her breast, that
her heart might be won back into the
world. Looking at her face again, Noodle
saw how memory had made it more beautiful than ever, and how between her lips
had grown the tender parting of a smile.
Then he laid the Rose where the movement of the heart should be; and presently
under the white breast rose the music of its
beating.
'Ah!' cried the old nurse, weeping for
happiness, 'now her heart that loved me
is come back, and I can listen all day to
the sound of it! You have brought
memory to her, you have brought love;
now bring breath, and the awakening of
her five senses. Surely the light of her
eyes will be your reward!'
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