prudent, frequently as the result of inner forces he could not understand For example, directed by Duke Leto to watch the Lady Jessica, who had been falsely accused as a spy by a Harkonnen ploy, Duncan became drunk on spice beer Troubled by ias homesickness, misguided by his lack of understanding, marked by his characteristic doubt and intrinsically self-destructive, he unthinkingly accused Lady Jessica Even his rescue of Paul and Jessica, following the rlarkonnen-Sardaukar attack, was tainted Havmg successfully led diem into the desert and gone for Uet-Kynes, he unwittingly led the Sardaukar back to the three where they hid in the ecological testing station Yet he gave his hfe to save theirs, taking with him such an astonishing number of the Sardaukar commandos that his body was frozen and sent to the Bene Tteilax axolotl tanks for regeneration Amid the cosnac concerns and Macbmvel ban forces that swirled around him, Duncan contributed the glories, of ancient times to a millennium that might otherwise have been sterile in m preoccupation with great issues His devil-may-care humanity and frailty provided color and excitment A true swashbuckler, his black goatish hair over sharp, daric features, his chin marked by a small mole, his never-relinquished habit of the insigma-less, black uniform of tine Atreides' House Guard, and his gently observant eyes melted women's hearts and often made him the designated Afereides' escort Duncan was a man out of his time who carved magic in an age of rationality and contrivance He recalled an age when noble action was at ways the most admirable choice, when virtue was self-evident and at the call of the bright and the good, and when loyalty was the greatest gift The many gholas of Duncan Idaho created over the ensuing ^errtunes retained the original Duncan s unique characteristics The God Emperor recognized Duncan's charms and used it to maintain the Fish Speakers bond to the Duncans, and the gholas were the asexual Leto II s gift to his ama/ons However in his fear of the relationship between Duncan the Last and Hwi Noree, Leto II remarked in his diaries that Duncan could always see into the souls of women and get them to do whatever he wanted While he was rarely simply a Lothano Duncan was a romantic figure often called 'an aristocrat of the sword ' Even as a ghola, he was a poet m actions and words, and The Ghold s> Hymn,' Duncan-10208 s eulogy for his young master, ' remains one of the tenderest expres SKMIS of the spirit of Duncan and the House Atreides In her commentaries and before her abom ination, St Aha-of the-Knife described Duncan as a vulnerable child-man-adolescent un der seige His whimsy and attractiveness were always constants m the eyes of the Atreides much to their misfortune but cer tainiy to the betterment of later ages R S Further references Princess Irulan Atreides Corrino Arrakts Awakening Arrakis Studies 15 (Grumman Unit ed Worlds) and The Humanity ofMuadDib Lib Conf Temp Series 139 Siona Atreides Commentaries on the Welbeck Fragment (Centraha Kutath) Duncan Idaho 10208 The Hays Chronicle tr Kershel Reeve Shautin (Finally Mosaic) Harq at Ada The Dune Catastrophe tr Mugal Reed (Mukan Lolhar) IDAHO, rXIMCAN-HAYT.