Keywords: animal? hist
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Hunting the Unicorn
Caroline Ashbee
At dawn on a Mayday morning the maidens came singing to my chamber, woke me, and led me naked to the bath. Then vying with each other for the honour and the good fortune that followed from bathing the virgin, they washed me, purifying my flesh for the hunt, then towelled me dry before the fire. It was still dusk but the air was mild with the breath of May. They dressed me in a gauzy white gown, the symbol of my virginity, plaited my hair, pinned it up under the crisp wimple, and buckled up my sandals. Though it was mild and the fire was burning fiercely the gown gave no warmth and I was shivering with the cold and apprehensiveness: I was proud to have become the chosen one, fearful about what was to happen.
Down below in the courtyard, the horses were stamping and the bells jingling on harnesses, and there the knightly escort was assembling. The grooms were calling to one another. The sun was rising, still low, shining on the sandstone walls, with long rays of honey-coloured light. The grass in the courtyard, brilliant green in the yellow light, was still dewy in sparkling patches where it remained untrodden by the horses. The musicians were assembling, trying their instruments, tuning them, and then it was time to go down. Surrounded by my maidens I walked slowly down the stairs, into the hall, through the long bars of sunlight and out through the massive studded doors into the brightness of the courtyard. The king and queen looked out from a balcony as the portcullis was cranked up and we began the walk to the wild woods. The knights, in their flashing plate armour and embroidered surcoats carried lances with pennons fluttering at their tips, and beside each knight, riding on a mule, carrying the great shield with his patron's arms, was an esquire. They formed two columns and between them we walked. Behind us the musicians played sweet music, and behind them in a decorated cart drawn by oxen were the servants. And last of all came the huntsmen with their hounds.
When we were deep in the forest, the knights fell back, except for one young virgin, newly knighted, all in white, with white surcoat and furniture, with his esquire in a white tabard, carrying a white shield, argent, with no device. He was our escort for the last part of the journey. We came out of the gloom into a clearing among the trees. The servants unloaded the quilts and pillows and food and wine. Then they left us. The musicians moved away but stayed within earshot and we could hear them faintly playing. My maidens spread the quilts and pillows and then undressed me, leaving me naked but for the wimple covering my hair. Then leaving me the cakes and the wine they too withdrew. I lay among the quilts watching the birds, the breeze stirring the leaves, hearing the hum of the insects as the sun moved up the sky to noon and then began its slow descent to the west. At first I was frightened that something wild might find me and attack, but it was harder and harder to believe and besides, the knights and the huntsmen, though hidden, were nearby. Once in the distance, remote, the memory of some nightmare recollected in safety, I heard some beast cry out, but perhaps it was just the call of a bird. The musicians played on at the edge of my hearing and I became bored. It was the late afternoon when he appeared. I didn't really believe he would find me. He approached so silently that I heard him only when he was close. A rustle beside me and I turned and saw him, such beauty, so white, with golden mane and beard, and such a horn, so straight, blue-veined, marble-white, and crowned with purple. And then he came and laid it in my lap, within my lap, bliss slowly piercing me to the heart, his golden head against my breast, and I had caught the unicorn and lay holding him in my arms.
Too soon I heard the horn-call and the distant belling of the hounds. At first he did not understand. I shooed at him but he would not leave me: it seemed to me that he thought it was I who was in danger, and he meant to protect me; but the huntsmen came galloping and he understood. Then he ran. He was soon caught though, and the hounds ripped his white flesh to pieces; and weeping I understood my own complicity in his destruction.
I had not known that the unicorn goes on two legs.
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