Ex-voto
The king, progenitor of the paladin, drank water from a well. He kept a rural simplicity. He would defer to the opinion of his noble consort who was satisfied and sure of a luxuriant old age.
The king had received offense from a savage of a strange ugliness and he hoped a disappeared son might reestablish his honor. He discovered in a dream, one Sunday night, the fate of the child and his rearing under the charge of a knight named Hector, emulator of the Trojan hero in his virtues, and he could not ascertain the domicile, not even after consulting the kingdom’s wise men.
The disappeared boy returns, without anyone’s council, when he feels the spirit of youth upon him and he finds the straight path home. He has begun the return journey when he picks up, due to youthful mischief and petulancy, an invincible weapon, a secret sword, without the approval or the presence of his master.
The resplendent horse of a saint, author of panicked fear in the crowd of pagans, awaits him at the edge of a forest surrounded by a matutinal light; and the master’s daughter reaches him and follows upon another of the same breed, after weaving the iris and the water-lily from a diaphanous pond in her hair.
The prince was recognized by his progenitors and he succeeded them and his companion came to be the queen. He gave thanks for the happiness by undertaking and executing the construction of a church and he wove into its ornament the semblance of the flame, of the rose and of the clover, and his constant lady sought forgiveness for the presumption of wearing a crown, offering her garland of aquatic flowers for the adornment of the capitals.
El cielo de esmalte (1929)
{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra completa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989 }
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