THE SILVER STALLION
Reading edition
BOOKS by MR. CABELL
Biography:
Beyond Life
Figures of Earth
The Silver Stallion
Domnei
Chivalry
Jurgen
The Line of Love
The High Place
Gallantry
The Certain Hour
The Cords of Vanity
From the Hidden Way
The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck
The Eagle’s Shadow
The Cream of the Jest
Straws and Prayer-Books
Scholia:
The Lineage of Lichfield
Taboo
The Jewel Merchants
Jurgen and the Law
(Edited by Guy Holt)
The Silver Stallion
A Comedy of Redemption
by
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
COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY JAMES BRANCH CABELL
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.
ITO
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.
vii
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.
viiiLikewise 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.]
ix
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
x
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
xi
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
xiiLXIV 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
xiiiHerewith 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.
xvBOOK ONE
LAST SIEGE OF THE FELLOWSHIP
“They shall be, in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
—Zechariah, xii, 2.
xvi—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.
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