He groped towards the door, but it was locked;He cried aloud, and listened, and then knocked, And uttered awful threatenings and complaints, And imprecations upon men and saints.
The sounds re-echoed from the roof and walls As if dead priests were laughing in their stalls.
At length the sexton, hearing from without The tumult of the knocking and the shout, And thinking thieves were in the house of prayer, Came with his lantern, asking, "Who is there?"Half choked with rage, King Robert fiercely said, "Open: 'tis I, the King! Art thou afraid?"The frightened sexton, muttering, with a curse, "This is some drunken vagabond, or worse!"Turned the great key and flung the portal wide;A man rushed by him at a single stride, Haggard, half naked, without hat or cloak, Who neither turned, nor looked at him, nor spoke, But leaped into the blackness of the night, And vanished like a spectre from his sight.
Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane And Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, Despoiled of his magnificent attire, Bareheaded, breathless, and besprent with mire, With sense of wrong and outrage desperate, Strode on and thundered at the palace gate;Rushed through the courtyard, thrusting in his rage To right and left each seneschal and page, And hurried up the broad and sounding stair, His white face ghastly in the torches' glare.
From hall to hall he passed with breathless speed;Voices and cries he heard, but did not heed, Until at last he reached the banquet-room, Blazing with light and breathing with perfume.
There on the dais sat another king, Wearing his robes, his crown, his signet-ring, King Robert's self in features, form, and height, But all transfigured with angelic light!
It was an Angel; and his presence there With a divine effulgence filled the air, An exaltation, piercing the disguise, Though none the hidden Angel recognize.
A moment speechless, motionless, amazed, The throneless monarch on the Angel gazed, Who met his look of anger and surprise With the divine compassion of his eyes;Then said, "Who art thou? and why com'st thou here?"To which King Robert answered, with a sneer, "I am the King, and come to claim my own From an impostor, who usurps my throne!"And suddenly, at these audacious words, Up sprang the angry guests, and drew their swords;The Angel answered, with unruffled brow, "Nay, not the King, but the King's Jester, thou Henceforth shall wear the bells and scalloped cape, And for thy counsellor shalt lead an ape;Thou shalt obey my servants when they call, And wait upon my henchmen in the hall!"Deaf to King Robert's threats and cries and prayers, They thrust him from the hall and down the stairs;A group of tittering pages ran before, And as they opened wide the folding door, His heart failed, for he heard, with strange alarms, The boisterous laughter of the men-at-arms, And all the vaulted chamber roar and ring With the mock plaudits of "Long live the King!"Next morning, waking with the day's first beam, He said within himself, "It was a dream!"But the straw rustled as he turned his head, There were the cap and bells beside his bed, Around him rose the bare, discolored walls, Close by, the steeds were champing in their stalls, And in the corner, a revolting shape, Shivering and chattering sat the wretched ape.
It was no dream; the world he loved so much Had turned to dust and ashes at his touch!
Days came and went; and now returned again To Sicily the old Saturnian reign;Under the Angel's governance benign The happy island danced with corn and wine, And deep within the mountain's burning breast Enceladus, the giant, was at rest.
Meanwhile King Robert yielded to his fate, Sullen and silent and disconsolate.
Dressed in the motley garb that Jesters wear, With look bewildered and a vacant stare, Close shaven above the ears, as monks are shorn, By courtiers mocked, by pages laughed to scorn, His only friend the ape, his only food What others left,--he still was unsubdued.
And when the Angel met him on his way, And half in earnest, half in jest, would say Sternly, though tenderly, that he might feel The velvet scabbard held a sword of steel, "Art thou the King?" the passion of his woe Burst from him in resistless overflow, And, lifting high his forehead, he would fling The haughty answer back, "I am, I am the King!"Almost three years were ended; when there came Ambassadors of great repute and name From Valmond, Emperor of Allemaine, Unto King Robert, saying that Pope Urbane By letter summoned them forthwith to come On Holy Thursday to his city of Rome.
The Angel with great joy received his guests, And gave them presents of embroidered vests, And velvet mantles with rich ermine lined, And rings and jewels of the rarest kind.
Then he departed with them o'er the sea Into the lovely land of Italy, Whose loveliness was more resplendent made By the mere passing of that cavalcade, With plumes, and cloaks, and housings, and the stir Of jewelled bridle and of golden spur.
And lo! among the menials, in mock state, Upon a piebald steed, with shambling gait, His cloak of fox-tails flapping in the wind, The solemn ape demurely perched behind, King Robert rode, making huge merriment In all the country towns through which they went.
The Pope received them with great pomp and blare Of bannered trumpets, on Saint Peter's square, Giving his benediction and embrace, Fervent, and full of apostolic grace.
While with congratulations and with prayers He entertained the Angel unawares, Robert, the Jester, bursting through the crowd, Into their presence rushed, and cried aloud, "I am the King! Look, and behold in me Robert, your brother, King of Sicily!
This man, who wears my semblance to your eyes, Is an impostor in a king's disguise.
