The Silver Stallion

❖

James Branch Cabell

A Comedy of Redemption

JAMES BRANCH CABELL

“Now, the redemption which we as yet
await (continued Imlac), will be that of
Kalki, who will come as a Silver Stallion:
all evils and every sort of folly will perish at
the coming of this Kalki: true righteousness
will be restored, and the minds of men will
be made clear as crystal.”
Robert M. McBride & Company

NEW YORK MCMXXVI

FIRST PUBLISHED, 1926

First Printing, April, 1926

Second Printing, April, 1926

Third Printing, May, 1926

Fourth Printing, May, 1926

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY

QUINN & BODEN COMPANY, INC.

RAHWAY, N.J.

TO
CARL VAN DOREN
Could but one luring dream rest dead forever
As dreamers rest at last, with all dreams done,
Redeemers need not be, and faith need never
Lease, for the faithful, homes beyond the sun.
Victoriously that dream—above the sorrow
And subterfuge of living,—still lets fail
No heart to heed its soothing lure.... To-morrow
Dreams will be true, and faith and right prevail.
Out of the bright—and, no, not vacant!—heavens
Redeemers will be coming by and by,
En route to make our sixes and our sevens
Neat as a trivet or an apple-pie.

In this volume the text of Bülg has not been followed over-scrupulously: but it is hoped that, in a book intended for general circulation, none will deplore such excisions and euphemisms, nor even such slight additions, as seemed to make for coherence and clarity and decorum.

The curious are referred to the pages of Poictesme en Chanson et Légende for a discussion of the sources of The Silver Stallion; and may decide for themselves whether or not Bülg has, in Codman’s phrase, “shown” these legends to be “spurious compositions of 17th century origin.” For myself, I here confess to finding the evidence educed, alike, a bit inadequate and, as far as goes my purpose, wholly immaterial. These chronicles, such as they are, present the only known record of the latter days of champions whose youthful exploits have long since been made familiar to English readers of Lewistam’s Popular Tales of Poictesme: authentic or not, and irrespective of whether such legends cannot be quite definitely proved to have existed earlier than 1652, here is the sole account we have anywhere, or are now likely ever to receive, of the changes that followed in Poictesme after the passing of Manuel the Redeemer.

It is as such an account—which for my purpose was a desideratum,—that I have put The Silver Stallion into English.

THE LORDS THAT POICTESME HAD IN DOM MANUEL’S TIME

These ten were of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion:

¶ Dom Manuel, Count of Poictesme, held Storisende and Bellegarde, the town of Beauvillage and the strong fort at Lisuarte, with all Amneran and Morven.

¶ Messire Gonfal of Naimes, Margrave of Aradol, held Upper Naimousin.

¶ Messire Donander of Évre, the Thane of Aigremont, held Lower Naimousin.

¶ Messire Kerin of Nointel, Syndic and Castellan of Basardra, held West Val-Ardray.

¶ Messire Ninzian of Yair, the High Bailiff of Upper Ardra, held Val-Ardray in the East.

¶ Messire Holden of Nérac, Earl Marshal of St. Tara, held Belpaysage.

¶ Messire Anavalt of Fomor, the Portreeve and Warden of Manneville, held Belpaysage Le Bas.

¶ Messire Coth of the Rocks, Alderman of St. Didol, held Haut Belpaysage.

¶ Messire Guivric of Perdigon, Heitman of Asch, held Piemontais.

¶ Messire Miramon of Ranec, Lord Seneschal of Gontaron, held Duardenois.

Likewise there were the fiefs of Dom Meunier, Count of Montors, Dom Manuel’s brother-in-law. Meunier was not of this fellowship: he held also Giens. Here his wife ruled over Lower Duardenois.

¶ Othmar Black-Tooth, whom some called Othmar the Lawless, long held Valnères and Ogde, until Manuel routed him: thereafter these villages, with the most of Bovion, stayed masterless.

¶ Helmas the Deep-Minded, after a magic was put upon him in the year of grace 1255, held, in his fashion, the high place at Brunbelois: but the rest of Acaire, once Lorcha had been taken and Sclaug burned, was no man’s land. Also upon Upper Morven lived disaffected persons in defiance of all law and piety.

—Poictesme en Chanson et Légende. G. J.

Bülg. Strasburg, 1785. [Pp. 87-88.]

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE: LAST SIEGE OF THE FELLOWSHIP

		PAGE
I	Child’s Talk	3
II	Economics of Horvendile	7
III	How Anavalt Lamented the Redeemer	17
IV	Fog Rises	21

BOOK TWO: THE MATHEMATICS OF GONFAL

V	Champion at Misadventure	27
VI	The Loans of Power	31
VII	Fatality the Second	39
VIII	How the Princes Bragged	42
IX	The Loans of Wisdom	46
X	Relative to Gonfal’s Head	49
XI	Economics of Morvyth	56

BOOK THREE: TOUPAN’S BRIGHT BEES

XII	The Mage Emeritus	61
XIII	Economics of Gisèle	67
XIV	The Changing That Followed	73
XV	Disastrous Rage of Miramon	76
XVI	Concerns the Pleiades and a Razor	78
XVII	Epitome of Marriage	81
XVIII	Koshchei is Vexed	87
XIX	Settlement: in Full	90

BOOK FOUR: COTH AT PORUTSA

XX	Idolatry of an Alderman	97
XXI	The Profits of Pepper Selling	104
XXII	Toveyo Dances	110
XXIII	Regrettable Conduct of a Corpse	113
XXIV	Economics of Yaotl	119
XXV	Last Obligation upon Manuel	122
XXVI	The Realist in Defeat	128

BOOK FIVE: “MUNDUS VULT DECIPI”

XXVII	Poictesme Reformed	133
XXVIII	Fond Motto of a Patriot	138
XXIX	The Grumbler’s Progress	141
XXX	Havoc of Bad Habits	145
XXXI	Other Paternal Apothegms	149
XXXII	Time Gnaws at All	153
XXXIII	Economics of Coth	158

BOOK SIX: IN THE SYLAN’S HOUSE

XXXIV	Something Goes Wrong: and Why	171
XXXV	Guivric’s Journey	175
XXXVI	The Appointed Enemy	178
XXXVII	Too Many Mouths	182
XXXVIII	The Appointed Lover	186
XXXIX	One Warden Left Uncircumvented	190
XL	Economics of Glaum-Without-Bones	194
XLI	The Gratifying Sequel	203

BOOK SEVEN: WHAT SARAÏDE WANTED

XLII	Generalities at Ogde	207
XLIII	Prayer and the Lizard Maids	213
XLIV	Fine Cordiality of Sclaug	219
XLV	The Gander Also Generalizes	222
XLVI	Kerin Rises in the World	229
XLVII	Economics of Saraïde	232
XLVIII	The Golden Shining	237
XLIX	They of Nointel	239

BOOK EIGHT: THE CANDID FOOTPRINT

L	Indiscretion of a Bailiff	247
LI	The Queer Bird	250
LII	Remorse of a Poor Devil	260
LIII	Continuation of Appalling Pieties	263
LIV	Magic That was Rusty	267
LV	The Prince of Darkness	270
LVI	Economics of Ninzian	277

BOOK NINE: ABOVE PARADISE

LVII	Maugis Makes Trouble	283
LVIII	Showing that Even Angels May Err	287
LIX	The Conversion of Palnatoki	290
LX	In the Hall of the Chosen	293
LXI	Vanadis, Dear Lady of Reginlief	297
LXII	The Demiurgy of Donander Veratyr	300
LXIII	Economics of Sidvrar	305
LXIV	Through the Oval Window	308
LXV	The Reward of Faith	314

BOOK TEN: AT MANUEL’S TOMB

LXVI	Old Age of Niafer	317
LXVII	The Women Differ	324
LXVIII	Radegonde is Practical	332
LXIX	Economics of Jurgen	335
LXX	All Ends Perplexedly	349

Herewith begins the history of

the birth and of the triumphing of

the great legend about Manuel the

Redeemer, whom Gonfal repudiated

as blown dust, and Miramon, as an

impostor, and whom Coth repudiated

out of honest love: but whom Guivric

accepted, through two sorts of

policy; whom Kerin accepted as an

honorable old human foible, and

Ninzian, as a pathetic and serviceable

joke; whom Donander accepted

whole-heartedly (to the eternal joy

of Donander), and who was accepted

also by Niafer, and by Jurgen the

Pawnbroker, after some little private

reservations: and hereinafter

is recorded the manner of the

great legend’s engulfment

of these persons.

BOOK ONE

LAST SIEGE OF THE FELLOWSHIP

“They shall be, in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”

—Zechariah, xii, 2.

—Et la route, fait elle aussi un grand tour?

—Oh, bien certainement, étant donné qu’elle circonvient à la fois la destinée et le bon sens.

—Puisqu’il le faut, alors! dit Jurgen; d’ailleurs je suis toujours disposé à goûter n’importe quel breuvage au moins une fois.

—La Haulte Histoire de Jurgen.