Julius & Juliana

CHAPTER 3

That fateful night, the mad widow slept in a room not too far from king Duncan's. She seemed to be a bit cured of her illness. The king was drunk with alcohol and could not stop thinking about her. He's fallen in love with her at first sight. She was still beautiful despite the dirty rags she wore on the day she was captured. She had all the s****l features that any man could ever wish of a lady.

The drunk king reflected on all these coupled with her enchanting beauty and he was slightly out of his senses. "What a beautiful woman" He thought to himself. " I've never been so attracted to any woman as much as I'm attracted to her. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with her. Tomorrow she is to be executed, let me just peep on her and enjoy staring at her body again because I won't enjoy doing this while the guards are present tomorrow" he concluded. He stood up from his bed, there was only one guard nearby who was deeply asleep and was snoring gently. " Ah! Look at the way he sleeps like someone who have been injected with sleeping drugs. I bet he won't wake up even to the sound of a bomb explosion in my palace. Let me just tip toe into her room and try to touch her...I will only try to touch her and nothing more" he finally concluded. The other guards were on duty at the palace entrance, so he walked like a robot to the room in which the mad widow was soundly asleep, far from those of his other wives. He was tired of sleeping with them as they never became pregnant anytime he slept with either of them.

The next morning, as early as 4am, the king woke up from sleep only to discover that he had slept in the same bed with the mad widow. He got up at once and carefully hurried away, hoping he hadn't done anything with her. The only guard nearby was still deeply asleep to even notice any movement past him.

During the day, he ordered his guards to go ahead and execute the mad widow. He has changed his mind and was back to his senses. He no longer felt sorry for her. He didn't expect her to be pregnant after all he knew he was impotent. As she was being carried away by the executioners, she pleaded to have a last word privately with the king. Everyone was surprised that an insane woman would want to talk to the king in private and they wondered what she was going to say to him. The king granted her request but insisted that she say whatever she wanted to say to the hearing of all as he thought she was going to say nonsense due to her condition.

Seeing that the king has refused to allow her talk to him in private, she went up to him and said silently in his right ear "oh king, do you not remember what you did to me last night? You crept into the room I was sleeping in and made me slug it out under your weight. You've planted a seed in my vineyard and now do you take my life and that of your unborn child?" The king was dumbfounded. He thought to himself " What did she just say? What have i done? Did i actually sleep with her last night? Was I under a spell? No, this can't be true. It can't happen. He ordered that she shouldn't be killed but instead she should be thrown into the dungeons. The guards were amazed at this.

After some months, the widow's screams were heard far away in the dungeons. When Duncan heard about this, he was a little frightened. He asked the guards to get her out of the dungeons and they did. When she came out, the guards discovered that she had a swollen tummy. The king thought of a quick idea and he got one. He accused the guards that one of them must have visited her inside the dungeons and impregnated her there. "You stand before me to tell me that the prisoner you kept for a long time is now pregnant? How hilarious that is. So tell me, who amongst you is responsible for her unborn child?" The guards denied one after the other with each of them swearing that he isn't the one responsible for her pregnancy. Duncan looked at each of them with a grimace and said " sooner or later the truth shall unfold and the father of the baby will be exposed. You had better admit that you are the one responsible for her pregnancy now because woe to any of you that is found guilty, he shall be executed. The guards kept asking themselves and trying to find out who among them had done this but no one admitted he was guilty. To their greatest dismay, the king was expected to punish them all if no one admitted or pleaded guilty but he didn't. Rather, he asked them to give the baby to him when she's been delivered of it and warned them never to tell anyone within and outside the royal house that he adopted a child from anybody. He stated his intentions to accept the forthcoming baby, be it a male or a female as his own child.

On hearing this, the guards became puzzled at the thought of the king wanting to keep the baby as his own and execute the mother. They asked him if they could go ahead and murder the mad widow after she had given birth to the baby but he replied " The witch's prophesy can't come to pass. As you can see, I'm not the biological father of her unborn child and moreover, I'm not going to get married to her. So once she gives birth, I will just let her go but without her child and if she demands to go with her child, then I will execute her and take care of her child as my own. I'm not going to get married to a mad woman...no! That can never happen" he said.