Gautier

Knight Dual
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
Who makes the fair so Edwige so sad? What is she sitting apart, his chin in his
hand and elbow to knee, more gloomy than despair, more pale than the alabaster s
tatue crying over a grave? From the corner of her eye a large tear rolled down o
n his cheek, just one, but never dry, as this drop of water seeping from the roc
k arches and eventually wears out the granite, this single tear falling relentle
ssly from his eyes, his heart was pierced through and updated. Edwige Edwige blo
nde, do you believe more in Jesus Christ the Saviour sweet? do you doubt the ind
ulgence of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Why do you always at your side your small tr
ansparent hands, thin and slender as those of the Elves and Willis? You'll be a
mother was your dearest wish, your noble husband, Count Lodbrog, has promised a
massive silver altar, a chalice of gold to the church of St. Euthbert if you giv
e him a son . Alas alas poor Hedwig's heart is pierced with seven swords of pain
, a terrible secret weighing on his soul. A few months ago, a stranger came to t
he castle, he was a
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Theophile Gautier
terrible time that night, the towers shook in their frames, weathervanes screech
ing, fire crawled up the chimney, and the wind was knocking on the glass like a
bore who wants to enter. The stranger was handsome as an angel, but as a fallen
angel, and he smiled softly and looked gently, and yet you look and smile froze
in terror and the terror they inspired you feel when looking at an abyss. A rogu
e with a languor treacherous as the tiger that watches his prey, accompanied all
his movements, he delighted in the way of a snake fascinates a bird. The strang
er was a blackmailer, and his tanned showed that he had seen other lands, he sai
d to come from the bottom of Bohemia, and asked for hospitality for that night o
nly. He stayed the night, and still other days and still other nights, because t
he storm was abating, and the old castle foundations fidgeted as if the storm wo
uld have liked to root out and bring down his crown slot in the foaming waters f
rom the stream. To while away the time, he sang with strange poems that troubled
the heart and gave ideas furious, all the time he sang, painted a black crow, s
hining like the raven stood on his shoulder, and he beat time with ebony beak, a
nd seemed to applaud, shaking its wings. - Edwige pale, pale as the lily moonlig
ht Hedwig blushed, blushed like the roses of the dawn, and allowed himself back
in his armchair, languid, half -4 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
dead drunk as if she had inhaled the deadly perfume of flowers that are dying. F
inally, the blackmailer could leave, a smile came to cheer the blue side of heav
en. Since that day, Hedwig, Hedwig's girlfriend is just crying in the corner of
the window. Edwige is her mother who has a beautiful child all white and all red
. - The old count Lodbrog commissioned in depth the altar of massive silver, and
he gave a thousand pieces of gold to a goldsmith in a reindeer skin purse to ma
ke the ciborium and will be large and heavy, and will a large measure of wine. T
he priest may say that the drain is a good drinker. The child is white and all r
ed, but it has the dark eyes of the stranger: her mother has seen. Ah Poor Hedwi
g! why are you so looked abroad with his harp and his crow? ... The chaplain und
ulates the child - he is given the name of Oluf, a very nice name! - The sight m
ounts on the highest tower for him the horoscope. The weather was clear and cold
as a jaw lynx sharp teeth and white cutout of a snow-covered mountains of the b
iting edge of the robe of the sky and the stars shone large and pale blue in the
crudity of the night as suns of money. The focus is the height, note the year,
day and minute he made long calculations in red ink on a long parchment all stud
ded with cabalistic signs, he goes into his closet, and goes up on the platform,
he however, was not mistaken in his calculations, his nativity theme is just
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Theophile Gautier
as a trebuchet weighing precious stones, but it again: he made no mistake. The y
oung Count Oluf has a double star, one green and one red, green as hope, as red
as hell, one favorable and one disastrous.€Has this ever seen a child has a doub
le star? With an air of grave and the focus returns to the room of the mother an
d said, passing his bony hand into the waves of his beard mage: "Countess Hedwig
, and you, Count Lodbrog, two influences have governed the Oluf birth of your pr
ecious son, one good and one bad, so it has a green star and a red star. It is s
ubject to a double bottom, it will be very happy or very unhappy, I do not know
which, maybe both at once. The Count replied Lodbrog in Sight: "The Green Star w
ill win. But Hedwig feared his mother's heart that it was red. She put her chin
in his hand, his elbow on his knee, and began to cry in the corner of the window
. After nursing her child, her only occupation was to look through the window at
the snow flakes fall thick and pressed, as if they had plucked up there all the
white wings of angels and cherubs all. From time to time a raven passed the win
dow, croaking and shaking the dust silver. It was strange to think Hedwig the ra
ven who was still standing on the shoulder of the stranger the gentle look of a
tiger, the snake charming smile. -6 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
And his tears fell faster from his eyes, his heart, his heart pierced updated. O
luf The young child is a very strange: there seems to be in his little white ski
n and red two children of a different character, one day it is good as an angel,
another day he is evil like a devil, he biting the breast of his mother, and te
ars at once to nail the face of his housekeeper. The old count Lodbrog, smiling
in his gray mustache, said qu'Oluf make a good soldier and he al'humeur bellicos
e. The fact is qu'Oluf is a little funny unbearable sometimes he weeps, sometime
s he laughs it is as capricious as the moon, fantastic as a woman, it comes and
goes, stops suddenly for no apparent reason, abandons what it had undertaken and
did succeed turbulence most worries the most absolute stillness, although he is
alone, he seems to converse with an invisible! When asked the cause of all thes
e agitations, he said that the red star torments him. Oluf was almost fifteen ye
ars. His character becomes more and more inexplicable, his countenance, though p
erfectly beautiful, is an expression of embarrassment and he is blond like her m
other, with all the features of the North race, but beneath his brow as white as
snow No has not yet struck the base of the foot hunter or Spotted Bear, who is
the head of the ancient race of Lodbrog, orange flickers between two eye lids wi
th long black lashes, one eye of jet illuminated deer heat of the Italian passio
n, a velvety look, cruel and sweet like the blackmailer of Bohemia.
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Theophile Gautier
As the months fly, and even more quickly the years! Hedwig is now under the dark
arches of the vault Lodbrog, next to the old count, smiling in his coffin, not
see his name perish. She was already so pale as death has not changed much. On h
is tomb there is a beautiful recumbent statue, hands clasped, and feet on a marb
le greyhound, faithful companion of the dead. What was said Edwige in his last h
our, no one knows, but the priest who confessed became even paler than the dying
. Oluf, golden brown and the son of Hedwig the desolate, twenty years old today.
He is very skilful in all years, no one is better off the bow as he who shear t
he arrow that has just been planted in the heart, trembling from the goal withou
t a bit or spur it tames the wildest horses. He never looked at a woman with imp
unity or a girl, but none of those who loved him has been happy. Inequality fata
le character is opposed to any realization of happiness between a woman and hims
elf. Only one of its halves feel the passion, the other feels hatred, sometimes
the green star wins, sometimes the red star. One day he says: "O virgin white No
rth, glittering and pure as the polar ice; eyeballs moonlight cheeks subtle cool
ness of the aurora borealis! And the other day he exclaimed: "O daughters of Ita
ly, gilded by the sun as the orange and blonde! hearts of flame in the breasts o
f bronze! "What is sadder is that he is sincere in both exclamations. Alas poor
desolate, sad plaintive shadows, you do -8 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
accuse not even€because you know that it is more unfortunate than you, his heart
is a field constantly trampled by the feet of two unknown wrestlers, each of wh
ich, as in the struggle of Jacob and the Angel, trying to dry the leg of his opp
onent. If we went to the cemetery, under the broad leaves of velvety deep verbas
cum to scrapbook, under the branches of asphodel to an unhealthy green in wild o
at and nettle, the more we find an abandoned stone where morning dew spreads onl
y tears. Mina Dora, Thecla! earth is it very heavy for your delicate breasts and
your body charming? One day Oluf called Dietrich, his faithful squire, he said
to saddle his horse. "Lord, look how the snow falls, as the wind blows and bends
to the ground the tops of trees; n'entendezvous not in the distant howling of w
olves and thin bell and suffering souls in agony the reindeer ? - Dietrich, my s
quire, I sift the snow as they would with a down that attaches to the coat, I pa
ss under the arch of trees by tilting a little tuft of my helmet. As for wolves,
their claws blunted this good armor, and the tip of my sword searching the ice,
I will find the poor animal, whining and crying bitterly, fresh moss and flower
s that can be achieved. Count Oluf of Lodbrog, for such is his title from the ol
d count was dead, right hand on his horse, accompanied by his two giant dogs, an
d Murg Fenris, for the young lord to eye color orange has an appointment you, an
d may already be
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Theophile Gautier
the top of the turret acute form of pepper, leans on the balcony sculpted, despi
te the cold and the wind, the girl concerned, seeking to unravel in the white pl
ume of plain char. Oluf on his great horse forms of elephant, which he plowed to
the sides of the spur moves, walks in the countryside it passes through the Lak
e, the cold has made a single block of ice where fish are entrenched, fins exten
ded, as in the pulp petrifactions marble, the horse's hoofs, armed with hooks, s
olidly bite hard surface, a mist, produced by his sweat and his breathing, and t
he envelope follows, it looks like he galloped in a cloud, and the two dogs, and
Murg Fenris, blowing on each side of their master, their muzzles bloody long st
reams of smoke as mythical animals. Behold the wood of fir; like ghosts, they ex
tend their arms weighed down loaded with white tablecloths, the weight of snow b
ends the younger and more flexible: it looks like a series of silver hoops. The
Black Terror lives in the forest, where the rocks affect monstrous forms, where
each tree with its roots, appears at his feet hatching a nest of dragons numb. B
ut Oluf knows no terror. The path narrows more and more, fir branches intersect
inextricably lamentable barely a few bright spots they can see the chain of hill
s which stand out in snowy white ripples on the black sky and dull. Fortunately
Mopse is a strong runner who would - 10 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
Odin without bending the gigantic no obstacle can stop him, he jumped over the r
ocks, striding over potholes, and from time to time he pulls the stones that str
uck his hoof in the snow a plume of sparks soon extinguished. "Come, Mopse, cour
age! you no longer have to cross the plains and small birch woods and a pretty h
and caress your neck satin, and in a stable you eat hot pot barley and oats in g
reat measure. "What a lovely sight to the birch woods! all branches are padded w
ith a plush ice, smaller twigs stand out in white against the darkness of the at
mosphere: it looks like a huge basket of watermark, madrepore money, a cave with
all its stalactites; ramifications and flowers whose bizarre jelly tins windows
do not drawings more complicated and varied. "Sir Oluf, you soon! I was afraid
that bear on the mountain you have crossed the road or the elves would have invi
ted you to dance, "said the young lady by Oluf sit on the oaken chair in the chi
mney. But why did you come to tryst with a companion? Were you afraid to go alon
e in the forest? - What do you mean mate, flower of my soul? Oluf very surprised
to say the young lady. - From knight to the red star that you lead with you alw
ays.€Whoever is born of a bohemian look of the singer, the fatal spirit that pos
sesses you, you defeat the knight in the Star
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Theophile Gautier
red, or I never listen about your love I can not be the wife of two men at once.
"Oluf vain do and say what he could only reach to kiss the little finger of the
hand of Rose Brenda went away dissatisfied, and determined to fight the knight
with the red star if he could meet . Despite the severe host Brenda Oluf resumed
the next day the road from the castle with turrets shaped shakers: lovers do no
t put off easily. While walking he said: "Brenda is probably crazy, and what doe
s she say her knight in red star? The storm was most violent, the snow swirled a
nd allowed only to distinguish the earth from heaven. A spiral of crows, despite
the desperate Fenris and Murg, who leaped into the air to seize them, circling
ominously above the plume Oluf. At their head was shining like the raven the rav
en who was beating on the shoulder of the gypsy singer. Fenris Murg and stop sud
denly: their nostrils sniff the air moving with uneasiness they subodorent the p
resence of an enemy. - This is not a wolf or a fox, a wolf and a fox would be a
mouthful for those brave dogs. A footstep was heard, and soon appeared around th
e corner a knight mounted on a large and followed by two huge dogs. You would ha
ve taken for Oluf. He was armed with exactly the same, with a surcoat of the sam
e storied emblem, only he wore on his helmet a red pen instead of a green. The -
12 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
road was so narrow that it was one of two knights recoil. "Sir Oluf, stand back
so that I pass," said the knight with visor down. The journey I am doing is a lo
ng journey waiting for me, I must get. - For my father's mustache is you who rec
oiled. I'm going to a tryst, and the lovers are in a hurry, "said Oluf putting h
is hand on the hilt of his sword. The stranger drew his, and the battle began. T
he swords, falling on the mesh of steel, were gushing showers of sparks cracklin
g, and soon, though a higher caliber, they were chipped as saws. One would have
taken the combatants, through smoke and haze their horses to their panting for t
wo black smiths fighting over a hot iron. The horses, driven by the same rage as
their masters, biting their necks with their teeth veins and patches of chest s
tood out and they were struggling with the furious exertions, stood on their hin
d legs, and using their hooves as clenched fists, they were terrible blows while
their riders pounding fearfully over their heads, the dogs were just one bite a
nd scream. The drops of blood seeping through the overlapping scales of armor an
d falling all warm in the snow, there were small holes roses. After a few moment
s it looked like a sieve, as the drops fell frequently and pressed. The two knig
hts were wounded.
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Theophile Gautier
Strangely, Oluf felt the blows he wore strange knight, and he suffered injuries
that did and those he received: he had felt a chill in the chest, like an iron t
hat would come and seek heart, and yet his armor was not distorted to the point
of the heart: his only injury was a blow in the flesh on his right arm. Singular
duel where the winner suffered as much as the vanquished, which give and take w
as a matter of indifference. Gathering his forces, Oluf was a steal back the ter
rible helmet of his opponent. - O terror! that saw the son of Hedwig and Lodbrog
? he saw himself before him: a mirror would have been less accurate. He had foug
ht with its own spectrum, with the knight with the red star and the spectrum gav
e a loud cry, and disappeared. The spiral of crows got into the sky and the brav
e Oluf continued on his way back in the evening at his castle, he was up behind
the young lady, who this time was good enough to listen. The knight with the red
star was no longer there, she had decided to drop its pink lips, the heart of O
luf, this admission that costs so much for modesty. The night was clear and blue
, Oluf looked up to find his double star and his fiancee to see: there was more
than the green, the red had disappeared. Upon entering, Brenda€rather glad mirac
le attributed to her love, "remarked the young Oluf as jet of his eyes had chang
ed to blue, celestial sign of reconciliation. - The old man smiled with delight
in Lodbrog under his white mustache at the bottom of his grave, because, frankly
, though he had not testified, the eyes of Oluf had sometimes thought provoking.
- Shadow - 14 -
CHEVALIER DOUBLE
Edwige is overjoyed, as the child of the noble lord Lodbrog finally defeated the
evil influence of the eye orange, black crow and the red star: the man has stru
ck the incubus. This history shows how a single moment of forgetfulness, a look
even innocent, may have influence. Young women, never throw eyes on the blackmai
lers of Bohemia, who recite poetry and intoxicating evil. You girls, do not trus
t only the green star, and you who have the misfortune to be double, fight brave
ly, even when you should hit you and hurt you on your own sword, the enemy withi
n, the wicked knight. If you ask who brought us the legend of Norway, is a swan,
a beautiful bird with a yellow beak, who crossed the Fiord, half swimming, half
flying. __________
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About this electronic edition
Royalty Free Text The aim of this series is to present texts pleasant to read bo
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Layout and converting computer vangi@club-internet.fr - November 2006 -
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CATALOG
Edmond About. The king of the mountains. Honore de Balzac. A drama by the sea •
One episode during the Terror. • Eugenie Grandet. • The peace of the household.
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly. At a dinner of atheists. • Love impossible. Bernardin
de Saint-Pierre. The Indian Cottage. Nicolas Boileau. The Art of Poetry. • The L
ectern. Chateaubriand. Atala - René. • De Buonaparte and the Bourbons. • Thought
s, reflections and maxims. • Vie de Rance. • Trip to Italy. Francois Coppe. Poem
s 1869-1874. • Henrietta. • Tales fast. Chenier. Selected Poems. Ernest Daudet.
The novel followed by Delphine Cousin Mary. Denis Diderot. Jacques the fatalist.
• Letter on the book trade. Dumas. Ascanio. • Travel Impressions. • The Woman i
n Velvet Collar. • The Conqueror of Mauleon. Alphonse Daudet. Letters from my mi
ll. • The Nabob. Joachim Du Bellay. The Antiquities of Rome. • The Regrets. Rene
Dufour. On the road. Alain-Fournier. Le Grand Meaulnes. Anatole France. Book of
my friend. Eugene Fromentin. Dominica. Gautier. Enamels and Cameos. - Selected
Poems. • Arria Marcella. • Omphale. • The Knight twice. • Militona. • The Dead l
ove. • The foot of Mummy. • The Golden Fleece. Jose-Maria de Heredia. Trophies.
Victor Hugo. About William Shakespeare. • Bug-Jargal. • Hans of Iceland. • Songs
of the streets and woods. • Les Contemplations. • The Rays and Shadows • The In
ner Voices. • Paris. Madame de La Fayette. The Princess of Cleves • The Countess
of Tende • The Princess of Montpensier. Alphonse de Lamartine. Graziella. • Gen
evieve. • The Stone of St. Point. • Jocelyn. • The Fall of an angel. Leconte de
Lisle. Ancient poems. • Poems barbarians. • Poems tragic. Pierre Loti. The roman
ce of a child. • Fishermen of Iceland. Pierre de Marivaux. The Isle of Slaves. P
rosper Merimee. The Venus of Ille. Hector Malot. Ghislaine. Molière. L'Ecole des
Femmes. • Forced marriage. Alfred de Musset. First poems. • New Poems. • Posthu
mous Poems. • News Stories and II. • The Nights - Miscellaneous Poems. Victor Pi
ttie. Young Songs. Raymond Radiguet. The Devil in the Flesh.
CATALOG
Arthur Rimbaud. Poems. Maurice Rollinat. Selected poems. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Social contract. • Julie or the New Heloise. • Reveries of a Solitary Walker. Ge
orge Sand. Tales of a grandmother. • Walking around a village. Comtesse de Segur
. The girls models. • Holidays. Sully Prudhomme. Poems 1865-1866 (Stanzas and Po
ems). • Poems 1866-1872 (The Events - The
Augean Stables - Italian Sketch - The Solitudes - Impressions of the War). • Poe
ms 1872-1878 (The vain Tenderness - France - The Revolt of flowers - Destiny - T
he Zenith). • Poems 1878-1879 (On the Nature of Things - Justice). • Poems 1879-
1888 (The Prism - The Happiness).
Voltaire.€Short of universal history from Charlemagne to Charles the Fifth. Emil
e Zola. Money. • Tales to Ninon. • News stories to Ninon. • The lack of Father M
ouret. • The work.
• Wrecks Stendhal. The Abbess of Castro. • The Charterhouse of Parma. • The Cenc
i. • The chest and back. • The Duchess of Palliano. • The Red and Black. • Too m
uch for kills. • Vanina Vanini. Jules Verne. The Cavern. • Mutiny on the Bounty
• A tragedy in Mexico. Gabriel Vicaire. The Magic Hour. • In the Land of gorse.
Alfred de Vigny. Ancient and modern poems. • Select Poems. • Exits for fear .. V
erlaine. Saturnian Poems. • Celebrations gallantry. • Good song. • Songs without
words. • Wisdom. And • Formerly Formerly.