Katharine, The Virgin Widow - Plaidy Jean - Страница 50

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She would mutter to herself: “Women…Let no women come near me. They are seeking now to take him from me. It was always so. Wherever he went they sought him. He could not escape from them even had he wished…but of course he did not wish. Now they shall not take him from me.”

Sometimes her attendants heard wild laughter coming from her apartments. They never heard sobs. She had not shed a tear since his death. When the melancholy moods were with her she would sit silent for hours at a time.

She ate scarcely anything and her body was pitiably thin beneath the flowing nun’s robes. But there were times when she would have musicians play to her, for only music could soothe her. She would send for her minstrels and they would play to her in the darkened room until she tired of them and sent them away.

There were no women now in her household, except one, her washerwoman.

“And even that one, I must watch,” she often murmured to herself. Then she would send some of her men-servants to see what the washerwoman was doing, and have her summoned to her presence.

“Wash the clothes here,” she would cry, “that I may see what you are about.”

And water and tubs would be brought to the royal apartments while the poor bewildered washerwoman washed the clothes under the suspicious eye of the Queen.

It was small wonder that rumors of her madness were growing.

She was heavy with her child now, and sometimes she would talk of it.

“It is not so long since he was here,” she would say, putting her hands on her body that she might feel the movement of the child. “He was happy to see his family growing. I hope I shall be able to tell him soon that we have another boy.”

There were occasions when certain grandees came to her and implored her to take an interest in state matters, reminding her that she was the Queen.

But she only shook her head. “I shall do nothing more, until I die, but pray for the soul of my husband and guard his dead body,” she said. “There is time for nothing else.”

They could only shake their heads and wait for the return of Ferdinand.

The year was passing and December came. In January her child would be born, and those who wished her well told themselves that with the coming of the child she would forget this obsession with her husband’s dead body.

It was one cold December day when she set out to hear mass at the Cartuja where Philip’s body lay. Soon, it was said, she would be unable to make even the short journey from the palace, encumbered as she was with her pregnancy. She went through the usual ceremony of kissing the lips of her husband and embracing his feet; and then suddenly she announced: “It was his wish that he should be buried in Granada. He has tarried long enough here. I shall take him to Granada. Pray prepare to leave at once.”

“Your Highness,” she was told, “this is winter. You could not cross the steppes of Castile at this time of the year.”

She drew herself up to her full height and her eyes flashed wildly. “It was his wish that he should go to Granada, and it is my desire to take him there.”

“With the coming of the spring…”

“Now,” she said. “We leave today.”

This was indeed madness. She proposed to cross the snowy wastes between Burgos and Granada in the bitterly cold weather, and she herself in her eighth month of pregnancy!

The monks did their best to dissuade her. She grew angry; she reminded them that she was their Queen.

“He shall stay no longer in this place,” she cried. “It is unworthy of him. Prepare at once, I say.”

“But the weather, Highness…”

“He will not feel the weather. He never cared for the heat. He loved the open air. The cold winds invigorated him, he said.” Then she suddenly screamed: “Why do you hesitate? Do not dare disobey me. If you do it will be the worse for you. Prepare at once. We are taking him to Granada this day.”

* * *

ACROSS THE SNOWY TABLELANDS the procession slowly made its tortuous way. The wind penetrated the garments of the bishops, the choristers, the men of the Church and the menservants. The only person who did not feel the cold was the Queen who, in her nun’s robes, was carried over the rough land in her litter.

There was not a person in the retinue who did not hope that the Queen’s child would be born before the middle of January when it was expected. They prayed for anything which could put an end to this nightmare journey.

Beside the litter, and covered with a velvet pall, was the hearse, so that it should never be out of the Queen’s sight. As they walked it was the duty of the choristers to chant their mournful dirges.

At dusk the Queen reluctantly allowed the cortege to halt at an inn or a monastery, and there each night the coffin must be opened that the Queen might throw herself upon the dead body, kissing those silent lips again and again.

Those who looked on at this ritual asked themselves how long they could expect to be at the mercy of a madwoman’s whims.

One night the coffin was carried into what was believed to be a monastery; and there, before entering the buildings, by the light of torches the coffin was opened and the gruesome ceremony began.

While it was in progress a figure appeared from the building followed by two others.

One of the bishops said: “We come, with the Queen, to rest here a night.”

“I will make ready to receive Her Highness,” was the answer. But at the sound of that high, musical voice Juana leaped to her feet, her eyes suddenly blazing.

“That is a woman!” she cried. “Come here, woman. No…no. Stay where you are. I will come to you. You shall not come near him.”

“I am the Abbess, Highness,” said the woman.

Juana screamed at her bishops: “How dare you bring me here! There are women here. That place is full of women. You know I will let no woman come near him.”

“Highness, these are nuns…”

“Nuns are women,” she retorted. “I trust no women. Close the coffin. We are going on.”

“Highness, the night is cold and dark.”

“Close the coffin!” She turned to the Abbess. “And you…go back into your convent. Do not dare to set foot outside until we have gone. No woman shall come near him, I tell you.”

The Abbess bowed and retired, thankful that the mad Queen was not to be her guest.

The coffin was closed; the procession left the convent precincts and went on, in the hope that the next place of refuge would be a monastery.

So the dreary journey continued with painful slowness.

It was a great relief when it reached the village of Torquemada, for here Juana’s warning pains began, and even she realized that she could not go on. They had come only thirty miles in some three weeks.

The coffin was set up where she might see it and make sure that no woman came near it; and on the 14th January in that year 1507 her child was born.

It was a girl and she called her Catalina after her sister, about whom now and then her conscience troubled her. She was unhappy, even as I am, she thought; and yet I did not listen to her tale of suffering.

She lay in melancholy silence, the child in her arms, while she kept continual watch over all that was left to her of her gay and heartless Philip.

* * *

IN ENGLAND HENRY was waiting impatiently for news of his proposed match with Juana.

He sent for Puebla, and the gouty old man was carried to Richmond in his litter.

“I hear nothing from Spain concerning my proposals,” he began. “It would seem that they are unwelcome.”

“Nothing, Your Grace, would be more welcome to Spain than a match between Your Highness and Queen Juana.”

“Then why do I hear nothing?”

“My master is still in Naples, and there is much to occupy him.”

“And the Queen of Castile herself?”

“Has been so recently widowed, so recently brought to bed of a child…”

Those words increased Henry’s impatience. There was a woman who had borne several children. If she were his wife he need have no doubt that he could beget many boys. She had already borne two healthy boys and she was only twenty-eight. Certainly she was capable of bearing more. She had given proof of her fruitfulness. Had not her husband left her pregnant when he died? And it was said that he had given the greater part of his attention to other women.

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