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So did it come about that as King Helmas rode a-hunting in Nevet under the Hunter's Moon he came upon a gigantic and florid young fellow, who was very decently clad in black, and had a queer droop to his left eye, and who appeared to be wandering at adventure in the autumn woods: and the King remembered what had been foretold.
Thou rejoicing in the barking of dogs and in shed blood, thus do I honor thee." Manuel did as Helmas had directed, and for an instant the screamings were pitiable, but the fire ended these speedily. Then Manuel cried, again: "O thou who wanderest amid shadows and over tombs, and dost tether even the strong sea! O whimsical sister of the blighting sun, and fickle mistress of old death!
And when it was noised abroad that King Helmas had the Zhar-Ptitza's feather, the Peohtes came gladly to be judged, and the neighboring kings began to submit to him their more difficult cases, and all his judgings were received with reverence, because everybody knew that King Helmas' wisdom was now infallible, and that to criticize his verdict as to anything was merely to expose your own stupidity.
Instantly he had her within the enclosure of peeled willow wands that had been spread with butter and tied with knots of yellow ribbon, because into such an enclosure the power and the dominion of Freydis could never enter. All these things Manuel did precisely as King Helmas had directed. They Duel on Morven
Says King Helmas to Manuel the swineherd, "What is that I see in your pocket wrapped in red silk?" "It is a feather, King, wrapped in a bit of my sister's best petticoat" "Now, glory be to your dark magics, friend, and at what price will you sell me that feather?" "But a feather is no use to anybody, King, for, as you see, it is a quite ordinary feather?"
Aboard the Tranchemer the Free Companions awaited their captain; and the savage land they were bound for was a thought beyond the reach of a kingdom's lamentable curiosity concerning the whereabouts of King Helmas' treasure. The worthless life of Perion was safe. For worthless, and far less than worthless, life seemed to Perion as he thought of Melicent and waited for her messenger.
In such terms Perion wrote: "Madame It may please you to remember that when Dame Melusine and I were interrogated, I freely confessed to the murder of King Helmas and the theft of my dead master's jewels. In that I lied. For it was my manifest duty to save the woman whom, as I thought, I loved, and it was apparent that the guilty person was either she or I.
The feather from the wing of Helmas' goose King Ferdinand had caused to be affixed to the unassuming skullcap with a halo of gold wire which Ferdinand now wore in the place of a vainglorious earthly crown; so that perpetual contiguity with this relic might keep him in augmenting sanctity.
Manuel replied, "I think that it is not right to rob anybody of anything, and I reflect that wisdom weighs exactly the weight of a feather." Then Manuel went into King Helmas' chickenyard, and caught a goose, and plucked from its wing a feather.
And so she managed to get through the morning, and to put Manuel out of mind, for that while, but not for long. What Helmas Directed Now the Count of Poictesme departs from Provence, with his lackeys carrying his images, and early in April he comes to Helmas the Deep-Minded.
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