A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT

 by

 MARK TWAIN (Samuel L. Clemens)

 Part 1. 

PREFACE

The ungentle laws and customs touched upon in this tale arehistorical, and the episodes which are used to illustrate themare also historical. It is not pretended that these laws andcustoms existed in England in the sixth century; no, it is onlypretended that inasmuch as they existed in the English and othercivilizations of far later times, it is safe to consider that it isno libel upon the sixth century to suppose them to have been inpractice in that day also. One is quite justified in inferringthat whatever one of these laws or customs was lacking in thatremote time, its place was competently filled by a worse one. 

The question as to whether there is such a thing as divine rightof kings is not settled in this book. It was found too difficult. That the executive head of a nation should be a person of loftycharacter and extraordinary ability, was manifest and indisputable;that none but the Deity could select that head unerringly, wasalso manifest and indisputable; that the Deity ought to make thatselection, then, was likewise manifest and indisputable; consequently, that He does make it, as claimed, was an unavoidable deduction. I mean, until the author of this book encountered the Pompadour, and Lady Castlemaine, and some other executive heads of that kind;these were found so difficult to work into the scheme, that itwas judged better to take the other tack in this book (whichmust be issued this fall), and then go into training and settlethe question in another book. It is, of course, a thing whichought to be settled, and I am not going to have anything particularto do next winter anyway. 

MARK TWAIN

HARTFORD, July 21, 1889

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT

A WORD OF EXPLANATION

It was in Warwick Castle that I came across the curious strangerwhom I am going to talk about. He attracted me by three things:his candid simplicity, his marvelous familiarity with ancient armor, and the restfulness of his company--for he did all the talking. We fell together, as modest people will, in the tail of the herdthat was being shown through, and he at once began to say thingswhich interested me. As he talked along, softly, pleasantly, flowingly, he seemed to drift away imperceptibly out of this worldand time, and into some remote era and old forgotten country;and so he gradually wove such a spell about me that I seemedto move among the specters and shadows and dust and mold of a grayantiquity, holding speech with a relic of it! Exactly as I wouldspeak of my nearest personal friends or enemies, or my most familiarneighbors, he spoke of Sir Bedivere, Sir Bors de Ganis, Sir Launcelotof the Lake, Sir Galahad, and all the other great names of theTable Round--and how old, old, unspeakably old and faded and dryand musty and ancient he came to look as he went on! Presentlyhe turned to me and said, just as one might speak of the weather, or any other common matter--

"You know about transmigration of souls; do you know abouttransposition of epochs--and bodies?"

I said I had not heard of it. He was so little interested--justas when people speak of the weather--that he did not noticewhether I made him any answer or not. There was half a momentof silence, immediately interrupted by the droning voice of thesalaried cicerone:

"Ancient hauberk, date of the sixth century, time of King Arthurand the Round Table; said to have belonged to the knight Sir Sagramorle Desirous; observe the round hole through the chain-mail inthe left breast; can't be accounted for; supposed to have beendone with a bullet since invention of firearms--perhaps maliciouslyby Cromwell's soldiers. "

My acquaintance smiled--not a modern smile, but one that musthave gone out of general use many, many centuries ago--and mutteredapparently to himself:

"Wit ye well, _I saw it done_. " Then, after a pause, added:"I did it myself. "

By the time I had recovered from the electric surprise of thisremark, he was gone. 

All that evening I sat by my fire at the Warwick Arms, steepedin a dream of the olden time, while the rain beat upon the windows, and the wind roared about the eaves and corners. From time totime I dipped into old Sir Thomas Malory's enchanting book, andfed at its rich feast of prodigies and adventures, breathed inthe fragrance of its obsolete names, and dreamed again. Midnightbeing come at length, I read another tale, for a nightcap--thiswhich here follows, to wit:

HOW SIR LAUNCELOT SLEW TWO GIANTS, AND MADE A CASTLE FREE

 Anon withal came there upon him two great giants, well armed, all save the heads, with two horrible clubs in their hands. Sir Launcelot put his shield afore him, and put the stroke away of the one giant, and with his sword he clave his head asunder. When his fellow saw that, he ran away as he were wood [*demented], for fear of the horrible strokes, and Sir Launcelot after him with all his might, and smote him on the shoulder, and clave him to the middle. Then Sir Launcelot went into the hall, and there came afore him three score ladies and damsels, and all kneeled unto him, and thanked God and him of their deliverance. For, sir, said they, the most part of us have been here this seven year their prisoners, and we have worked all manner of silk works for our meat, and we are all great gentle-women born, and blessed be the time, knight, that ever thou wert born; for thou hast done the most worship that ever did knight in the world, that will we bear record, and we all pray you to tell us your name, that we may tell our friends who delivered us out of prison. Fair damsels, he said, my name is Sir Launcelot du Lake. And so he departed from them and betaught them unto God. And then he mounted upon his horse, and rode into many strange and wild countries, and through many waters and valleys, and evil was he lodged. And at the last by fortune him happened against a night to come to a fair courtilage, and therein he found an old gentle-woman that lodged him with a good-will, and there he had good cheer for him and his horse. And when time was, his host brought him into a fair garret over the gate to his bed. There Sir Launcelot unarmed him, and set his harness by him, and went to bed, and anon he fell on sleep. So, soon after there came one on horseback, and knocked at the gate in great haste. And when Sir Launcelot heard this he rose up, and looked out at the window, and saw by the moonlight three knights come riding after that one man, and all three lashed on him at once with swords, and that one knight turned on them knightly again and defended him. Truly, said Sir Launcelot, yonder one knight shall I help, for it were shame for me to see three knights on one, and if he be slain I am partner of his death. And therewith he took his harness and went out at a window by a sheet down to the four knights, and then Sir Launcelot said on high, Turn you knights unto me, and leave your fighting with that knight. And then they all three left Sir Kay, and turned unto Sir Launcelot, and there began great battle, for they alight all three, and strake many strokes at Sir Launcelot, and assailed him on every side. Then Sir Kay dressed him for to have holpen Sir Launcelot. Nay, sir, said he, I will none of your help, therefore as ye will have my help let me alone with them. Sir Kay for the pleasure of the knight suffered him for to do his will, and so stood aside. And then anon within six strokes Sir Launcelot had stricken them to the earth. 

 And then they all three cried, Sir Knight, we yield us unto you as man of might matchless. As to that, said Sir Launcelot, I will not take your yielding unto me, but so that ye yield you unto Sir Kay the seneschal, on that covenant I will save your lives and else not. Fair knight, said they, that were we loath to do; for as for Sir Kay we chased him hither, and had overcome him had ye not been; therefore, to yield us unto him it were no reason. Well, as to that, said Sir Launcelot, advise you well, for ye may choose whether ye will die or live, for an ye be yielden, it shall be unto Sir Kay. Fair knight, then they said, in saving our lives we will do as thou commandest us. Then shall ye, said Sir Launcelot, on Whitsunday next coming go unto the court of King Arthur, and there shall ye yield you unto Queen Guenever, and put you all three in her grace and mercy, and say that Sir Kay sent you thither to be her prisoners. On the morn Sir Launcelot arose early, and left Sir Kay sleeping; and Sir Launcelot took Sir Kay's armor and his shield and armed him, and so he went to the stable and took his horse, and took his leave of his host, and so he departed. Then soon after arose Sir Kay and missed Sir Launcelot; and then he espied that he had his armor and his horse. Now by my faith I know well that he will grieve some of the court of King Arthur; for on him knights will be bold, and deem that it is I, and that will beguile them; and because of his armor and shield I am sure I shall ride in peace. And then soon after departed Sir Kay, and thanked his host. 

As I laid the book down there was a knock at the door, and mystranger came in. I gave him a pipe and a chair, and made himwelcome. I also comforted him with a hot Scotch whisky; gave himanother one; then still another--hoping always for his story. After a fourth persuader, he drifted into it himself, in a quitesimple and natural way:

THE STRANGER'S HISTORY

I am an American. I was born and reared in Hartford, in the Stateof Connecticut--anyway, just over the river, in the country. SoI am a Yankee of the Yankees--and practical; yes, and nearlybarren of sentiment, I suppose--or poetry, in other words. Myfather was a blacksmith, my uncle was a horse doctor, and I wasboth, along at first. Then I went over to the great arms factoryand learned my real trade; learned all there was to it; learnedto make everything: guns, revolvers, cannon, boilers, engines, allsorts of labor-saving machinery. Why, I could make anythinga body wanted--anything in the world, it didn't make any differencewhat; and if there wasn't any quick new-fangled way to make a thing, I could invent one--and do it as easy as rolling off a log. I becamehead superintendent; had a couple of thousand men under me. 

Well, a man like that is a man that is full of fight--that goeswithout saying. With a couple of thousand rough men under one, one has plenty of that sort of amusement. I had, anyway. At lastI met my match, and I got my dose. It was during a misunderstandingconducted with crowbars with a fellow we used to call Hercules. He laid me out with a crusher alongside the head that made everythingcrack, and seemed to spring every joint in my skull and made itoverlap its neighbor. Then the world went out in darkness, andI didn't feel anything more, and didn't know anything at all--at least for a while. 

When I came to again, I was sitting under an oak tree, on thegrass, with a whole beautiful and broad country landscape allto myself--nearly. Not entirely; for there was a fellow on a horse, looking down at me--a fellow fresh out of a picture-book. He wasin old-time iron armor from head to heel, with a helmet on hishead the shape of a nail-keg with slits in it; and he had a shield, and a sword, and a prodigious spear; and his horse had armor on, too, and a steel horn projecting from his forehead, and gorgeousred and green silk trappings that hung down all around him likea bedquilt, nearly to the ground. 

"Fair sir, will ye just?" said this fellow. 

"Will I which?"

"Will ye try a passage of arms for land or lady or for--"

"What are you giving me?" I said. "Get along back to your circus, or I'll report you. "

Now what does this man do but fall back a couple of hundred yardsand then come rushing at me as hard as he could tear, with hisnail-keg bent down nearly to his horse's neck and his long spearpointed straight ahead. I saw he meant business, so I was upthe tree when he arrived. 

He allowed that I was his property, the captive of his spear. There was argument on his side--and the bulk of the advantage--so I judged it best to humor him. We fixed up an agreementwhereby I was to go with him and he was not to hurt me. I camedown, and we started away, I walking by the side of his horse. We marched comfortably along, through glades and over brooks whichI could not remember to have seen before--which puzzled me andmade me wonder--and yet we did not come to any circus or sign ofa circus. So I gave up the idea of a circus, and concluded he wasfrom an asylum. But we never came to an asylum--so I was upa stump, as you may say. I asked him how far we were from Hartford. He said he had never heard of the place; which I took to be a lie, but allowed it to go at that. At the end of an hour we saw afar-away town sleeping in a valley by a winding river; and beyondit on a hill, a vast gray fortress, with towers and turrets, the first I had ever seen out of a picture. 

"Bridgeport?" said I, pointing. 

"Camelot, " said he. 

My stranger had been showing signs of sleepiness. He caughthimself nodding, now, and smiled one of those pathetic, obsoletesmiles of his, and said:

"I find I can't go on; but come with me, I've got it all writtenout, and you can read it if you like. "

In his chamber, he said: "First, I kept a journal; then by and by, after years, I took the journal and turned it into a book. Howlong ago that was!"

He handed me his manuscript, and pointed out the place whereI should begin:

"Begin here--I've already told you what goes before. " He wassteeped in drowsiness by this time. As I went out at his doorI heard him murmur sleepily: "Give you good den, fair sir. "

I sat down by my fire and examined my treasure. The first partof it--the great bulk of it--was parchment, and yellow with age. I scanned a leaf particularly and saw that it was a palimpsest. Under the old dim writing of the Yankee historian appeared tracesof a penmanship which was older and dimmer still--Latin wordsand sentences: fragments from old monkish legends, evidently. I turned to the place indicated by my stranger and began to read--as follows:

THE TALE OF THE LOST LAND

CHAPTER I

CAMELOT

"Camelot--Camelot, " said I to myself. "I don't seem to rememberhearing of it before. Name of the asylum, likely. "

It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as Sunday. The air was full of the smell offlowers, and the buzzing of insects, and the twittering of birds, and there were no people, no wagons, there was no stir of life, nothing going on. The road was mainly a winding path with hoof-printsin it, and now and then a faint trace of wheels on either side inthe grass--wheels that apparently had a tire as broad as one's hand. 

Presently a fair slip of a girl, about ten years old, with a cataractof golden hair streaming down over her shoulders, came along. Around her head she wore a hoop of flame-red poppies. It was assweet an outfit as ever I saw, what there was of it. She walkedindolently along, with a mind at rest, its peace reflected in herinnocent face. The circus man paid no attention to her; didn'teven seem to see her. And she--she was no more startled at hisfantastic make-up than if she was used to his like every day ofher life. She was going by as indifferently as she might have goneby a couple of cows; but when she happened to notice me, _then_there was a change! Up went her hands, and she was turned to stone;her mouth dropped open, her eyes stared wide and timorously, shewas the picture of astonished curiosity touched with fear. Andthere she stood gazing, in a sort of stupefied fascination, tillwe turned a corner of the wood and were lost to her view. Thatshe should be startled at me instead of at the other man, was toomany for me; I couldn't make head or tail of it. And that sheshould seem to consider me a spectacle, and totally overlook herown merits in that respect, was another puzzling thing, and adisplay of magnanimity, too, that was surprising in one so young. There was food for thought here. I moved along as one in a dream. 

As we approached the town, signs of life began to appear. Atintervals we passed a wretched cabin, with a thatched roof, andabout it small fields and garden patches in an indifferent state ofcultivation. There were people, too; brawny men, with long, coarse, uncombed hair that hung down over their faces and made them looklike animals. They and the women, as a rule, wore a coarsetow-linen robe that came well below the knee, and a rude sort ofsandal, and many wore an iron collar. The small boys and girlswere always naked; but nobody seemed to know it. All of thesepeople stared at me, talked about me, ran into the huts and fetchedout their families to gape at me; but nobody ever noticed thatother fellow, except to make him humble salutation and get noresponse for their pains. 

In the town were some substantial windowless houses of stonescattered among a wilderness of thatched cabins; the streets weremere crooked alleys, and unpaved; troops of dogs and nude childrenplayed in the sun and made life and noise; hogs roamed and rootedcontentedly about, and one of them lay in a reeking wallow inthe middle of the main thoroughfare and suckled her family. Presently there was a distant blare of military music; it camenearer, still nearer, and soon a noble cavalcade wound into view, glorious with plumed helmets and flashing mail and flaunting bannersand rich doublets and horse-cloths and gilded spearheads; andthrough the muck and swine, and naked brats, and joyous dogs, andshabby huts, it took its gallant way, and in its wake we followed. Followed through one winding alley and then another, --and climbing, always climbing--till at last we gained the breezy height wherethe huge castle stood. There was an exchange of bugle blasts;then a parley from the walls, where men-at-arms, in hauberk andmorion, marched back and forth with halberd at shoulder underflapping banners with the rude figure of a dragon displayed uponthem; and then the great gates were flung open, the drawbridgewas lowered, and the head of the cavalcade swept forward underthe frowning arches; and we, following, soon found ourselves ina great paved court, with towers and turrets stretching up intothe blue air on all the four sides; and all about us the dismountwas going on, and much greeting and ceremony, and running to andfro, and a gay display of moving and intermingling colors, andan altogether pleasant stir and noise and confusion. 

CHAPTER II

KING ARTHUR'S COURT

The moment I got a chance I slipped aside privately and touchedan ancient common looking man on the shoulder and said, in aninsinuating, confidential way:

"Friend, do me a kindness. Do you belong to the asylum, or areyou just on a visit or something like that?"

He looked me over stupidly, and said:

"Marry, fair sir, me seemeth--"

"That will do, " I said; "I reckon you are a patient. "

I moved away, cogitating, and at the same time keeping an eyeout for any chance passenger in his right mind that might comealong and give me some light. I judged I had found one, presently;so I drew him aside and said in his ear:

"If I could see the head keeper a minute--only just a minute--"

"Prithee do not let me. "

"Let you _what_?"

"_Hinder_ me, then, if the word please thee better. Then he wenton to say he was an under-cook and could not stop to gossip, though he would like it another time; for it would comfort hisvery liver to know where I got my clothes. As he started away hepointed and said yonder was one who was idle enough for my purpose, and was seeking me besides, no doubt. This was an airy slim boyin shrimp-colored tights that made him look like a forked carrot, the rest of his gear was blue silk and dainty laces and ruffles;and he had long yellow curls, and wore a plumed pink satin captilted complacently over his ear. By his look, he was good-natured;by his gait, he was satisfied with himself. He was pretty enoughto frame. He arrived, looked me over with a smiling and impudentcuriosity; said he had come for me, and informed me that he was a page. 

"Go 'long, " I said; "you ain't more than a paragraph. "

It was pretty severe, but I was nettled. However, it never phazedhim; he didn't appear to know he was hurt. He began to talk andlaugh, in happy, thoughtless, boyish fashion, as we walked along, and made himself old friends with me at once; asked me all sortsof questions about myself and about my clothes, but never waitedfor an answer--always chattered straight ahead, as if he didn'tknow he had asked a question and wasn't expecting any reply, untilat last he happened to mention that he was born in the beginningof the year 513. 

It made the cold chills creep over me! I stopped and said, a little faintly:

"Maybe I didn't hear you just right. Say it again--and say itslow. What year was it?"

"513. "

"513! You don't look it! Come, my boy, I am a stranger andfriendless; be honest and honorable with me. Are you in yourright mind?"

He said he was. 

"Are these other people in their right minds?"

He said they were. 

"And this isn't an asylum? I mean, it isn't a place where theycure crazy people?"

He said it wasn't. 

"Well, then, " I said, "either I am a lunatic, or something justas awful has happened. Now tell me, honest and true, where am I?"

"IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. "

I waited a minute, to let that idea shudder its way home, and then said:

"And according to your notions, what year is it now?"

"528--nineteenth of June. "

I felt a mournful sinking at the heart, and muttered: "I shallnever see my friends again--never, never again. They will notbe born for more than thirteen hundred years yet. "

I seemed to believe the boy, I didn't know why. _Something_ in meseemed to believe him--my consciousness, as you may say; but myreason didn't. My reason straightway began to clamor; that wasnatural. I didn't know how to go about satisfying it, becauseI knew that the testimony of men wouldn't serve--my reason wouldsay they were lunatics, and throw out their evidence. But allof a sudden I stumbled on the very thing, just by luck. I knewthat the only total eclipse of the sun in the first half of thesixth century occurred on the 21st of June, A. D. 528, O. S. , andbegan at 3 minutes after 12 noon. I also knew that no total eclipseof the sun was due in what to _me_ was the present year--i. E. , 1879. So, if I could keep my anxiety and curiosity from eating the heartout of me for forty-eight hours, I should then find out for certainwhether this boy was telling me the truth or not. 

Wherefore, being a practical Connecticut man, I now shoved thiswhole problem clear out of my mind till its appointed day and hourshould come, in order that I might turn all my attention to thecircumstances of the present moment, and be alert and ready tomake the most out of them that could be made. One thing at a time, is my motto--and just play that thing for all it is worth, evenif it's only two pair and a jack. I made up my mind to two things:if it was still the nineteenth century and I was among lunaticsand couldn't get away, I would presently boss that asylum or knowthe reason why; and if, on the other hand, it was really the sixthcentury, all right, I didn't want any softer thing: I would bossthe whole country inside of three months; for I judged I wouldhave the start of the best-educated man in the kingdom by a matterof thirteen hundred years and upward. I'm not a man to wastetime after my mind's made up and there's work on hand; so I saidto the page:

"Now, Clarence, my boy--if that might happen to be your name--I'll get you to post me up a little if you don't mind. What isthe name of that apparition that brought me here?"

"My master and thine? That is the good knight and great lordSir Kay the Seneschal, foster brother to our liege the king. "

"Very good; go on, tell me everything. "

He made a long story of it; but the part that had immediate interestfor me was this: He said I was Sir Kay's prisoner, and thatin the due course of custom I would be flung into a dungeon andleft there on scant commons until my friends ransomed me--unlessI chanced to rot, first. I saw that the last chance had the bestshow, but I didn't waste any bother about that; time was tooprecious. The page said, further, that dinner was about endedin the great hall by this time, and that as soon as the sociabilityand the heavy drinking should begin, Sir Kay would have me in andexhibit me before King Arthur and his illustrious knights seated atthe Table Round, and would brag about his exploit in capturingme, and would probably exaggerate the facts a little, but itwouldn't be good form for me to correct him, and not over safe, either; and when I was done being exhibited, then ho for thedungeon; but he, Clarence, would find a way to come and see me everynow and then, and cheer me up, and help me get word to my friends. 

Get word to my friends! I thanked him; I couldn't do less; andabout this time a lackey came to say I was wanted; so Clarenceled me in and took me off to one side and sat down by me. 

Well, it was a curious kind of spectacle, and interesting. It wasan immense place, and rather naked--yes, and full of loud contrasts. It was very, very lofty; so lofty that the banners depending fromthe arched beams and girders away up there floated in a sort oftwilight; there was a stone-railed gallery at each end, high up, with musicians in the one, and women, clothed in stunning colors, in the other. The floor was of big stone flags laid in black andwhite squares, rather battered by age and use, and needing repair. As to ornament, there wasn't any, strictly speaking; though onthe walls hung some huge tapestries which were probably taxedas works of art; battle-pieces, they were, with horses shaped likethose which children cut out of paper or create in gingerbread;with men on them in scale armor whose scales are represented byround holes--so that the man's coat looks as if it had been donewith a biscuit-punch. There was a fireplace big enough to camp in;and its projecting sides and hood, of carved and pillared stonework, had the look of a cathedral door. Along the walls stood men-at-arms, in breastplate and morion, with halberds for their only weapon--rigid as statues; and that is what they looked like. 

In the middle of this groined and vaulted public square was an oakentable which they called the Table Round. It was as large asa circus ring; and around it sat a great company of men dressedin such various and splendid colors that it hurt one's eyes to lookat them. They wore their plumed hats, right along, except thatwhenever one addressed himself directly to the king, he liftedhis hat a trifle just as he was beginning his remark. 

Mainly they were drinking--from entire ox horns; but a few werestill munching bread or gnawing beef bones. There was aboutan average of two dogs to one man; and these sat in expectantattitudes till a spent bone was flung to them, and then they wentfor it by brigades and divisions, with a rush, and there ensueda fight which filled the prospect with a tumultuous chaos ofplunging heads and bodies and flashing tails, and the storm ofhowlings and barkings deafened all speech for the time; but thatwas no matter, for the dog-fight was always a bigger interestanyway; the men rose, sometimes, to observe it the better and beton it, and the ladies and the musicians stretched themselves outover their balusters with the same object; and all broke intodelighted ejaculations from time to time. In the end, the winningdog stretched himself out comfortably with his bone between hispaws, and proceeded to growl over it, and gnaw it, and greasethe floor with it, just as fifty others were already doing; and therest of the court resumed their previous industries and entertainments. 

As a rule, the speech and behavior of these people were graciousand courtly; and I noticed that they were good and serious listenerswhen anybody was telling anything--I mean in a dog-fightlessinterval. And plainly, too, they were a childlike and innocent lot;telling lies of the stateliest pattern with a most gentle andwinning naivety, and ready and willing to listen to anybody else'slie, and believe it, too. It was hard to associate them withanything cruel or dreadful; and yet they dealt in tales of bloodand suffering with a guileless relish that made me almost forgetto shudder. 

I was not the only prisoner present. There were twenty or more. Poor devils, many of them were maimed, hacked, carved, in a frightfulway; and their hair, their faces, their clothing, were caked withblack and stiffened drenchings of blood. They were sufferingsharp physical pain, of course; and weariness, and hunger andthirst, no doubt; and at least none had given them the comfortof a wash, or even the poor charity of a lotion for their wounds;yet you never heard them utter a moan or a groan, or saw them showany sign of restlessness, or any disposition to complain. Thethought was forced upon me: "The rascals--_they_ have served otherpeople so in their day; it being their own turn, now, they werenot expecting any better treatment than this; so their philosophicalbearing is not an outcome of mental training, intellectual fortitude, reasoning; it is mere animal training; they are white Indians. "

CHAPTER III

KNIGHTS OF THE TABLE ROUND

Mainly the Round Table talk was monologues--narrative accountsof the adventures in which these prisoners were captured and theirfriends and backers killed and stripped of their steeds and armor. As a general thing--as far as I could make out--these murderousadventures were not forays undertaken to avenge injuries, nor tosettle old disputes or sudden fallings out; no, as a rule they weresimply duels between strangers--duels between people who had nevereven been introduced to each other, and between whom existed nocause of offense whatever. Many a time I had seen a couple of boys, strangers, meet by chance, and say simultaneously, "I can lick you, "and go at it on the spot; but I had always imagined until now thatthat sort of thing belonged to children only, and was a sign andmark of childhood; but here were these big boobies sticking to itand taking pride in it clear up into full age and beyond. Yet therewas something very engaging about these great simple-heartedcreatures, something attractive and lovable. There did not seemto be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to baita fish-hook with; but you didn't seem to mind that, after a little, because you soon saw that brains were not needed in a societylike that, and indeed would have marred it, hindered it, spoiledits symmetry--perhaps rendered its existence impossible. 

There was a fine manliness observable in almost every face; andin some a certain loftiness and sweetness that rebuked yourbelittling criticisms and stilled them. A most noble benignityand purity reposed in the countenance of him they called Sir Galahad, and likewise in the king's also; and there was majesty and greatnessin the giant frame and high bearing of Sir Launcelot of the Lake. 

There was presently an incident which centered the general interestupon this Sir Launcelot. At a sign from a sort of master ofceremonies, six or eight of the prisoners rose and came forwardin a body and knelt on the floor and lifted up their hands towardthe ladies' gallery and begged the grace of a word with the queen. The most conspicuously situated lady in that massed flower-bedof feminine show and finery inclined her head by way of assent, and then the spokesman of the prisoners delivered himself and hisfellows into her hands for free pardon, ransom, captivity, or death, as she in her good pleasure might elect; and this, as he said, hewas doing by command of Sir Kay the Seneschal, whose prisonersthey were, he having vanquished them by his single might andprowess in sturdy conflict in the field. 

Surprise and astonishment flashed from face to face all overthe house; the queen's gratified smile faded out at the name ofSir Kay, and she looked disappointed; and the page whispered inmy ear with an accent and manner expressive of extravagant derision--

"Sir _Kay_, forsooth! Oh, call me pet names, dearest, call mea marine! In twice a thousand years shall the unholy inventionof man labor at odds to beget the fellow to this majestic lie!"

Every eye was fastened with severe inquiry upon Sir Kay. But hewas equal to the occasion. He got up and played his hand likea major--and took every trick. He said he would state the caseexactly according to the facts; he would tell the simplestraightforward tale, without comment of his own; "and then, "said he, "if ye find glory and honor due, ye will give it unto himwho is the mightiest man of his hands that ever bare shield orstrake with sword in the ranks of Christian battle--even him thatsitteth there!" and he pointed to Sir Launcelot. Ah, he fetchedthem; it was a rattling good stroke. Then he went on and toldhow Sir Launcelot, seeking adventures, some brief time gone by, killed seven giants at one sweep of his sword, and set a hundredand forty-two captive maidens free; and then went further, stillseeking adventures, and found him (Sir Kay) fighting a desperatefight against nine foreign knights, and straightway took the battlesolely into his own hands, and conquered the nine; and that nightSir Launcelot rose quietly, and dressed him in Sir Kay's armor andtook Sir Kay's horse and gat him away into distant lands, andvanquished sixteen knights in one pitched battle and thirty-fourin another; and all these and the former nine he made to swearthat about Whitsuntide they would ride to Arthur's court and yieldthem to Queen Guenever's hands as captives of Sir Kay the Seneschal, spoil of his knightly prowess; and now here were these half dozen, and the rest would be along as soon as they might be healed oftheir desperate wounds. 

Well, it was touching to see the queen blush and smile, and lookembarrassed and happy, and fling furtive glances at Sir Launcelotthat would have got him shot in Arkansas, to a dead certainty. 

Everybody praised the valor and magnanimity of Sir Launcelot; andas for me, I was perfectly amazed, that one man, all by himself, should have been able to beat down and capture such battalionsof practiced fighters. I said as much to Clarence; but this mockingfeatherhead only said:

"An Sir Kay had had time to get another skin of sour wine into him, ye had seen the accompt doubled. "

I looked at the boy in sorrow; and as I looked I saw the cloud ofa deep despondency settle upon his countenance. I followed thedirection of his eye, and saw that a very old and white-beardedman, clothed in a flowing black gown, had risen and was standingat the table upon unsteady legs, and feebly swaying his ancienthead and surveying the company with his watery and wandering eye. The same suffering look that was in the page's face was observablein all the faces around--the look of dumb creatures who know thatthey must endure and make no moan. 

"Marry, we shall have it again, " sighed the boy; "that same oldweary tale that he hath told a thousand times in the same words, and that he _will_ tell till he dieth, every time he hath gotten hisbarrel full and feeleth his exaggeration-mill a-working. WouldGod I had died or I saw this day!"

"Who is it?"

"Merlin, the mighty liar and magician, perdition singe him forthe weariness he worketh with his one tale! But that men fearhim for that he hath the storms and the lightnings and all thedevils that be in hell at his beck and call, they would have dughis entrails out these many years ago to get at that tale andsquelch it. He telleth it always in the third person, makingbelieve he is too modest to glorify himself--maledictions lightupon him, misfortune be his dole! Good friend, prithee call mefor evensong. "

The boy nestled himself upon my shoulder and pretended to goto sleep. The old man began his tale; and presently the lad wasasleep in reality; so also were the dogs, and the court, the lackeys, and the files of men-at-arms. The droning voice droned on; a softsnoring arose on all sides and supported it like a deep and subduedaccompaniment of wind instruments. Some heads were bowed uponfolded arms, some lay back with open mouths that issued unconsciousmusic; the flies buzzed and bit, unmolested, the rats swarmedsoftly out from a hundred holes, and pattered about, and madethemselves at home everywhere; and one of them sat up like asquirrel on the king's head and held a bit of cheese in its handsand nibbled it, and dribbled the crumbs in the king's face withnaive and impudent irreverence. It was a tranquil scene, andrestful to the weary eye and the jaded spirit. 

This was the old man's tale. He said:

"Right so the king and Merlin departed, and went until an hermitthat was a good man and a great leech. So the hermit searchedall his wounds and gave him good salves; so the king was therethree days, and then were his wounds well amended that he mightride and go, and so departed. And as they rode, Arthur said, I have no sword. No force, * [*Footnote from M. T. : No matter. ]said Merlin, hereby is a sword that shall be yours and I may. So they rode till they came to a lake, the which was a fair waterand broad, and in the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an armclothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand. Lo, said Merlin, yonder is that sword that I spake of. With thatthey saw a damsel going upon the lake. What damsel is that?said Arthur. That is the Lady of the lake, said Merlin; and withinthat lake is a rock, and therein is as fair a place as any on earth, and richly beseen, and this damsel will come to you anon, and thenspeak ye fair to her that she will give you that sword. Anonwithal came the damsel unto Arthur and saluted him, and he heragain. Damsel, said Arthur, what sword is that, that yonderthe arm holdeth above the water? I would it were mine, for I haveno sword. Sir Arthur King, said the damsel, that sword is mine, and if ye will give me a gift when I ask it you, ye shall have it. By my faith, said Arthur, I will give you what gift ye will ask. Well, said the damsel, go ye into yonder barge and row yourselfto the sword, and take it and the scabbard with you, and I will askmy gift when I see my time. So Sir Arthur and Merlin alight, andtied their horses to two trees, and so they went into the ship, and when they came to the sword that the hand held, Sir Arthurtook it up by the handles, and took it with him. And the armand the hand went under the water; and so they came unto the landand rode forth. And then Sir Arthur saw a rich pavilion. Whatsignifieth yonder pavilion? It is the knight's pavilion, saidMerlin, that ye fought with last, Sir Pellinore, but he is out, he is not there; he hath ado with a knight of yours, that hightEgglame, and they have fought together, but at the last Egglamefled, and else he had been dead, and he hath chased him evento Carlion, and we shall meet with him anon in the highway. Thatis well said, said Arthur, now have I a sword, now will I wagebattle with him, and be avenged on him. Sir, ye shall not so, said Merlin, for the knight is weary of fighting and chasing, sothat ye shall have no worship to have ado with him; also, he willnot lightly be matched of one knight living; and therefore it is mycounsel, let him pass, for he shall do you good service in shorttime, and his sons, after his days. Also ye shall see that dayin short space ye shall be right glad to give him your sisterto wed. When I see him, I will do as ye advise me, said Arthur. Then Sir Arthur looked on the sword, and liked it passing well. Whether liketh you better, said Merlin, the sword or the scabbard?Me liketh better the sword, said Arthur. Ye are more unwise, said Merlin, for the scabbard is worth ten of the sword, for whileye have the scabbard upon you ye shall never lose no blood, be yenever so sore wounded; therefore, keep well the scabbard alwayswith you. So they rode into Carlion, and by the way they met withSir Pellinore; but Merlin had done such a craft that Pellinore sawnot Arthur, and he passed by without any words. I marvel, saidArthur, that the knight would not speak. Sir, said Merlin, he sawyou not; for and he had seen you ye had not lightly departed. Sothey came unto Carlion, whereof his knights were passing glad. And when they heard of his adventures they marveled that he wouldjeopard his person so alone. But all men of worship said it wasmerry to be under such a chieftain that would put his person inadventure as other poor knights did. "

CHAPTER IV

SIR DINADAN THE HUMORIST

It seemed to me that this quaint lie was most simply and beautifullytold; but then I had heard it only once, and that makes a difference;it was pleasant to the others when it was fresh, no doubt. 

Sir Dinadan the Humorist was the first to awake, and he soon rousedthe rest with a practical joke of a sufficiently poor quality. He tied some metal mugs to a dog's tail and turned him loose, and he tore around and around the place in a frenzy of fright, with all the other dogs bellowing after him and battering andcrashing against everything that came in their way and makingaltogether a chaos of confusion and a most deafening din andturmoil; at which every man and woman of the multitude laughedtill the tears flowed, and some fell out of their chairs andwallowed on the floor in ecstasy. It was just like so many children. Sir Dinadan was so proud of his exploit that he could not keepfrom telling over and over again, to weariness, how the immortalidea happened to occur to him; and as is the way with humoristsof his breed, he was still laughing at it after everybody else hadgot through. He was so set up that he concluded to make a speech--of course a humorous speech. I think I never heard so many oldplayed-out jokes strung together in my life. He was worse thanthe minstrels, worse than the clown in the circus. It seemedpeculiarly sad to sit here, thirteen hundred years before I wasborn, and listen again to poor, flat, worm-eaten jokes that hadgiven me the dry gripes when I was a boy thirteen hundred yearsafterwards. It about convinced me that there isn't any such thingas a new joke possible. Everybody laughed at these antiquities--but then they always do; I had noticed that, centuries later. However, of course the scoffer didn't laugh--I mean the boy. No, he scoffed; there wasn't anything he wouldn't scoff at. He saidthe most of Sir Dinadan's jokes were rotten and the rest werepetrified. I said "petrified" was good; as I believed, myself, that the only right way to classify the majestic ages of some ofthose jokes was by geologic periods. But that neat idea hitthe boy in a blank place, for geology hadn't been invented yet. However, I made a note of the remark, and calculated to educatethe commonwealth up to it if I pulled through. It is no useto throw a good thing away merely because the market isn't ripe yet. 

Now Sir Kay arose and began to fire up on his history-mill with mefor fuel. It was time for me to feel serious, and I did. Sir Kaytold how he had encountered me in a far land of barbarians, whoall wore the same ridiculous garb that I did--a garb that was a workof enchantment, and intended to make the wearer secure from hurtby human hands. However he had nullified the force of theenchantment by prayer, and had killed my thirteen knights ina three hours' battle, and taken me prisoner, sparing my lifein order that so strange a curiosity as I was might be exhibitedto the wonder and admiration of the king and the court. He spokeof me all the time, in the blandest way, as "this prodigious giant, "and "this horrible sky-towering monster, " and "this tusked andtaloned man-devouring ogre", and everybody took in all this boshin the naivest way, and never smiled or seemed to notice thatthere was any discrepancy between these watered statistics and me. He said that in trying to escape from him I sprang into the top ofa tree two hundred cubits high at a single bound, but he dislodgedme with a stone the size of a cow, which "all-to brast" the mostof my bones, and then swore me to appear at Arthur's court forsentence. He ended by condemning me to die at noon on the 21st;and was so little concerned about it that he stopped to yawn beforehe named the date. 

I was in a dismal state by this time; indeed, I was hardly enoughin my right mind to keep the run of a dispute that sprung up asto how I had better be killed, the possibility of the killing beingdoubted by some, because of the enchantment in my clothes. And yetit was nothing but an ordinary suit of fifteen-dollar slop-shops. Still, I was sane enough to notice this detail, to wit: many ofthe terms used in the most matter-of-fact way by this greatassemblage of the first ladies and gentlemen in the land wouldhave made a Comanche blush. Indelicacy is too mild a term to conveythe idea. However, I had read "Tom Jones, " and "Roderick Random, "and other books of that kind, and knew that the highest and firstladies and gentlemen in England had remained little or no cleanerin their talk, and in the morals and conduct which such talkimplies, clear up to a hundred years ago; in fact clear into ourown nineteenth century--in which century, broadly speaking, the earliest samples of the real lady and real gentleman discoverablein English history--or in European history, for that matter--may besaid to have made their appearance. Suppose Sir Walter, insteadof putting the conversations into the mouths of his characters, had allowed the characters to speak for themselves? We shouldhave had talk from Rebecca and Ivanhoe and the soft lady Rowenawhich would embarrass a tramp in our day. However, to theunconsciously indelicate all things are delicate. King Arthur'speople were not aware that they were indecent and I had presenceof mind enough not to mention it. 

They were so troubled about my enchanted clothes that they weremightily relieved, at last, when old Merlin swept the difficultyaway for them with a common-sense hint. He asked them why theywere so dull--why didn't it occur to them to strip me. In half aminute I was as naked as a pair of tongs! And dear, dear, to thinkof it: I was the only embarrassed person there. Everybody discussedme; and did it as unconcernedly as if I had been a cabbage. Queen Guenever was as naively interested as the rest, and saidshe had never seen anybody with legs just like mine before. It wasthe only compliment I got--if it was a compliment. 

Finally I was carried off in one direction, and my perilous clothesin another. I was shoved into a dark and narrow cell in a dungeon, with some scant remnants for dinner, some moldy straw for a bed, and no end of rats for company. 

CHAPTER V

AN INSPIRATION

I was so tired that even my fears were not able to keep me awake long. 

When I next came to myself, I seemed to have been asleep a verylong time. My first thought was, "Well, what an astonishing dreamI've had! I reckon I've waked only just in time to keep frombeing hanged or drowned or burned or something.... I'll nap againtill the whistle blows, and then I'll go down to the arms factoryand have it out with Hercules. "

But just then I heard the harsh music of rusty chains and bolts, a light flashed in my eyes, and that butterfly, Clarence, stoodbefore me! I gasped with surprise; my breath almost got away from me. 

"What!" I said, "you here yet? Go along with the rest ofthe dream! scatter!"

But he only laughed, in his light-hearted way, and fell to makingfun of my sorry plight. 

"All right, " I said resignedly, "let the dream go on; I'm in no hurry. "

"Prithee what dream?"

"What dream? Why, the dream that I am in Arthur's court--a personwho never existed; and that I am talking to you, who are nothingbut a work of the imagination. "

"Oh, la, indeed! and is it a dream that you're to be burnedto-morrow? Ho-ho--answer me that!"

The shock that went through me was distressing. I now beganto reason that my situation was in the last degree serious, dreamor no dream; for I knew by past experience of the lifelike intensityof dreams, that to be burned to death, even in a dream, would bevery far from being a jest, and was a thing to be avoided, by anymeans, fair or foul, that I could contrive. So I said beseechingly:

"Ah, Clarence, good boy, only friend I've got, --for you _are_ myfriend, aren't you?--don't fail me; help me to devise some wayof escaping from this place!"

"Now do but hear thyself! Escape? Why, man, the corridors arein guard and keep of men-at-arms. "

"No doubt, no doubt. But how many, Clarence? Not many, I hope?"

"Full a score. One may not hope to escape. " After a pause--hesitatingly: "and there be other reasons--and weightier. "

"Other ones? What are they?"

"Well, they say--oh, but I daren't, indeed daren't!"

"Why, poor lad, what is the matter? Why do you blench? Why doyou tremble so?"

"Oh, in sooth, there is need! I do want to tell you, but--"

"Come, come, be brave, be a man--speak out, there's a good lad!"

He hesitated, pulled one way by desire, the other way by fear;then he stole to the door and peeped out, listening; and finallycrept close to me and put his mouth to my ear and told me hisfearful news in a whisper, and with all the cowering apprehensionof one who was venturing upon awful ground and speaking of thingswhose very mention might be freighted with death. 

"Merlin, in his malice, has woven a spell about this dungeon, andthere bides not the man in these kingdoms that would be desperateenough to essay to cross its lines with you! Now God pity me, I have told it! Ah, be kind to me, be merciful to a poor boy whomeans thee well; for an thou betray me I am lost!"

I laughed the only really refreshing laugh I had had for some time;and shouted:

"Merlin has wrought a spell! _Merlin_, forsooth! That cheap oldhumbug, that maundering old ass? Bosh, pure bosh, the silliest boshin the world! Why, it does seem to me that of all the childish, idiotic, chuckle-headed, chicken-livered superstitions that ev--oh, damn Merlin!"

But Clarence had slumped to his knees before I had half finished, and he was like to go out of his mind with fright. 

"Oh, beware! These are awful words! Any moment these wallsmay crumble upon us if you say such things. Oh call them backbefore it is too late!"

Now this strange exhibition gave me a good idea and set me tothinking. If everybody about here was so honestly and sincerelyafraid of Merlin's pretended magic as Clarence was, certainlya superior man like me ought to be shrewd enough to contrivesome way to take advantage of such a state of things. I wenton thinking, and worked out a plan. Then I said:

"Get up. Pull yourself together; look me in the eye. Do youknow why I laughed?"

"No--but for our blessed Lady's sake, do it no more. "

"Well, I'll tell you why I laughed. Because I'm a magician myself. "

"Thou!" The boy recoiled a step, and caught his breath, forthe thing hit him rather sudden; but the aspect which he tookon was very, very respectful. I took quick note of that; itindicated that a humbug didn't need to have a reputation in thisasylum; people stood ready to take him at his word, without that. I resumed. 

"I've known Merlin seven hundred years, and he--"

"Seven hun--"

"Don't interrupt me. He has died and come alive again thirteentimes, and traveled under a new name every time: Smith, Jones, Robinson, Jackson, Peters, Haskins, Merlin--a new alias everytime he turns up. I knew him in Egypt three hundred years ago;I knew him in India five hundred years ago--he is always bletheringaround in my way, everywhere I go; he makes me tired. He don'tamount to shucks, as a magician; knows some of the old commontricks, but has never got beyond the rudiments, and never will. He is well enough for the provinces--one-night stands and thatsort of thing, you know--but dear me, _he_ oughtn't to set up foran expert--anyway not where there's a real artist. Now look here, Clarence, I am going to stand your friend, right along, and inreturn you must be mine. I want you to do me a favor. I wantyou to get word to the king that I am a magician myself--and theSupreme Grand High-yu-Muck-amuck and head of the tribe, at that;and I want him to be made to understand that I am just quietlyarranging a little calamity here that will make the fur fly in theserealms if Sir Kay's project is carried out and any harm comesto me. Will you get that to the king for me?"

The poor boy was in such a state that he could hardly answer me. It was pitiful to see a creature so terrified, so unnerved, sodemoralized. But he promised everything; and on my side he mademe promise over and over again that I would remain his friend, andnever turn against him or cast any enchantments upon him. Thenhe worked his way out, staying himself with his hand along thewall, like a sick person. 

Presently this thought occurred to me: how heedless I have been!When the boy gets calm, he will wonder why a great magician like meshould have begged a boy like him to help me get out of this place;he will put this and that together, and will see that I am a humbug. 

I worried over that heedless blunder for an hour, and called myselfa great many hard names, meantime. But finally it occurred to meall of a sudden that these animals didn't reason; that _they_ neverput this and that together; that all their talk showed that theydidn't know a discrepancy when they saw it. I was at rest, then. 

But as soon as one is at rest, in this world, off he goes onsomething else to worry about. It occurred to me that I had madeanother blunder: I had sent the boy off to alarm his betters witha threat--I intending to invent a calamity at my leisure; nowthe people who are the readiest and eagerest and willingest toswallow miracles are the very ones who are hungriest to see youperform them; suppose I should be called on for a sample? SupposeI should be asked to name my calamity? Yes, I had made a blunder;I ought to have invented my calamity first. "What shall I do?what can I say, to gain a little time?" I was in trouble again;in the deepest kind of trouble... 

"There's a footstep!--they're coming. If I had only just a momentto think.... Good, I've got it. I'm all right. "

You see, it was the eclipse. It came into my mind in the nickof time, how Columbus, or Cortez, or one of those people, playedan eclipse as a saving trump once, on some savages, and I saw mychance. I could play it myself, now, and it wouldn't be anyplagiarism, either, because I should get it in nearly a thousandyears ahead of those parties. 

Clarence came in, subdued, distressed, and said:

"I hasted the message to our liege the king, and straightway hehad me to his presence. He was frighted even to the marrow, and was minded to give order for your instant enlargement, andthat you be clothed in fine raiment and lodged as befitted one sogreat; but then came Merlin and spoiled all; for he persuadedthe king that you are mad, and know not whereof you speak; andsaid your threat is but foolishness and idle vaporing. Theydisputed long, but in the end, Merlin, scoffing, said, 'Whereforehath he not _named_ his brave calamity? Verily it is because hecannot. ' This thrust did in a most sudden sort close the king'smouth, and he could offer naught to turn the argument; and so, reluctant, and full loth to do you the discourtesy, he yet prayethyou to consider his perplexed case, as noting how the matter stands, and name the calamity--if so be you have determined the natureof it and the time of its coming. Oh, prithee delay not; to delayat such a time were to double and treble the perils that alreadycompass thee about. Oh, be thou wise--name the calamity!"

I allowed silence to accumulate while I got my impressivenesstogether, and then said:

"How long have I been shut up in this hole?"

"Ye were shut up when yesterday was well spent. It is 9 ofthe morning now. "

"No! Then I have slept well, sure enough. Nine in the morningnow! And yet it is the very complexion of midnight, to a shade. This is the 20th, then?"

"The 20th--yes. "

"And I am to be burned alive to-morrow. " The boy shuddered. 

"At what hour?"

"At high noon. "

"Now then, I will tell you what to say. " I paused, and stood overthat cowering lad a whole minute in awful silence; then, in a voicedeep, measured, charged with doom, I began, and rose by dramaticallygraded stages to my colossal climax, which I delivered in as sublimeand noble a way as ever I did such a thing in my life: "Go backand tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole worldin the dead blackness of midnight; I will blot out the sun, and heshall never shine again; the fruits of the earth shall rot for lackof light and warmth, and the peoples of the earth shall famishand die, to the last man!"

I had to carry the boy out myself, he sunk into such a collapse. I handed him over to the soldiers, and went back. 

CHAPTER VI

THE ECLIPSE

In the stillness and the darkness, realization soon began tosupplement knowledge. The mere knowledge of a fact is pale; butwhen you come to _realize_ your fact, it takes on color. It isall the difference between hearing of a man being stabbed tothe heart, and seeing it done. In the stillness and the darkness, the knowledge that I was in deadly danger took to itself deeperand deeper meaning all the time; a something which was realizationcrept inch by inch through my veins and turned me cold. 

But it is a blessed provision of nature that at times like these, as soon as a man's mercury has got down to a certain point therecomes a revulsion, and he rallies. Hope springs up, and cheerfulnessalong with it, and then he is in good shape to do something forhimself, if anything can be done. When my rally came, it came witha bound. I said to myself that my eclipse would be sure to save me, and make me the greatest man in the kingdom besides; and straightwaymy mercury went up to the top of the tube, and my solicitudesall vanished. I was as happy a man as there was in the world. I was even impatient for to-morrow to come, I so wanted to gatherin that great triumph and be the center of all the nation's wonderand reverence. Besides, in a business way it would be the makingof me; I knew that. 

Meantime there was one thing which had got pushed into the backgroundof my mind. That was the half-conviction that when the natureof my proposed calamity should be reported to those superstitiouspeople, it would have such an effect that they would want tocompromise. So, by and by when I heard footsteps coming, thatthought was recalled to me, and I said to myself, "As sure asanything, it's the compromise. Well, if it is good, all right, I will accept; but if it isn't, I mean to stand my ground and playmy hand for all it is worth. "

The door opened, and some men-at-arms appeared. The leader said:

"The stake is ready. Come!"

The stake! The strength went out of me, and I almost fell down. It is hard to get one's breath at such a time, such lumps come intoone's throat, and such gaspings; but as soon as I could speak, I said:

"But this is a mistake--the execution is to-morrow. "

"Order changed; been set forward a day. Haste thee!"

I was lost. There was no help for me. I was dazed, stupefied;I had no command over myself, I only wandered purposely about, like one out of his mind; so the soldiers took hold of me, andpulled me along with them, out of the cell and along the maze ofunderground corridors, and finally into the fierce glare of daylightand the upper world. As we stepped into the vast enclosed courtof the castle I got a shock; for the first thing I saw was the stake, standing in the center, and near it the piled fagots and a monk. On all four sides of the court the seated multitudes rose rankabove rank, forming sloping terraces that were rich with color. The king and the queen sat in their thrones, the most conspicuousfigures there, of course. 

To note all this, occupied but a second. The next second Clarencehad slipped from some place of concealment and was pouring newsinto my ear, his eyes beaming with triumph and gladness. He said:

"Tis through _me_ the change was wrought! And main hard have I workedto do it, too. But when I revealed to them the calamity in store, and saw how mighty was the terror it did engender, then saw I alsothat this was the time to strike! Wherefore I diligently pretended, unto this and that and the other one, that your power against the suncould not reach its full until the morrow; and so if any would savethe sun and the world, you must be slain to-day, while yourenchantments are but in the weaving and lack potency. Odsbodikins, it was but a dull lie, a most indifferent invention, but you shouldhave seen them seize it and swallow it, in the frenzy of theirfright, as it were salvation sent from heaven; and all the whilewas I laughing in my sleeve the one moment, to see them so cheaplydeceived, and glorifying God the next, that He was content to letthe meanest of His creatures be His instrument to the saving ofthy life. Ah how happy has the matter sped! You will not needto do the sun a _real_ hurt--ah, forget not that, on your soul forgetit not! Only make a little darkness--only the littlest littledarkness, mind, and cease with that. It will be sufficient. Theywill see that I spoke falsely, --being ignorant, as they will fancy--and with the falling of the first shadow of that darkness youshall see them go mad with fear; and they will set you free andmake you great! Go to thy triumph, now! But remember--ah, goodfriend, I implore thee remember my supplication, and do the blessedsun no hurt. For _my_ sake, thy true friend. "

I choked out some words through my grief and misery; as much asto say I would spare the sun; for which the lad's eyes paid me backwith such deep and loving gratitude that I had not the heartto tell him his good-hearted foolishness had ruined me and sent meto my death. 

As the soldiers assisted me across the court the stillness wasso profound that if I had been blindfold I should have supposedI was in a solitude instead of walled in by four thousand people. There was not a movement perceptible in those masses of humanity;they were as rigid as stone images, and as pale; and dread satupon every countenance. This hush continued while I was beingchained to the stake; it still continued while the fagots werecarefully and tediously piled about my ankles, my knees, my thighs, my body. Then there was a pause, and a deeper hush, if possible, and a man knelt down at my feet with a blazing torch; the multitudestrained forward, gazing, and parting slightly from their seatswithout knowing it; the monk raised his hands above my head, andhis eyes toward the blue sky, and began some words in Latin; inthis attitude he droned on and on, a little while, and then stopped. I waited two or three moments; then looked up; he was standingthere petrified. With a common impulse the multitude rose slowlyup and stared into the sky. I followed their eyes, as sure as guns, there was my eclipse beginning! The life went boiling throughmy veins; I was a new man! The rim of black spread slowly intothe sun's disk, my heart beat higher and higher, and still theassemblage and the priest stared into the sky, motionless. I knewthat this gaze would be turned upon me, next. When it was, I wasready. I was in one of the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arm stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a nobleeffect. You could _see_ the shudder sweep the mass like a wave. Two shouts rang out, one close upon the heels of the other:

"Apply the torch!"

"I forbid it!"

The one was from Merlin, the other from the king. Merlin startedfrom his place--to apply the torch himself, I judged. I said:

"Stay where you are. If any man moves--even the king--beforeI give him leave, I will blast him with thunder, I will consumehim with lightnings!"

The multitude sank meekly into their seats, and I was just expectingthey would. Merlin hesitated a moment or two, and I was on pinsand needles during that little while. Then he sat down, and I tooka good breath; for I knew I was master of the situation now. The king said:

"Be merciful, fair sir, and essay no further in this perilous matter, lest disaster follow. It was reported to us that your powers couldnot attain unto their full strength until the morrow; but--"

"Your Majesty thinks the report may have been a lie? It _was_ a lie. "

That made an immense effect; up went appealing hands everywhere, and the king was assailed with a storm of supplications thatI might be bought off at any price, and the calamity stayed. The king was eager to comply. He said:

"Name any terms, reverend sir, even to the halving of my kingdom;but banish this calamity, spare the sun!"

My fortune was made. I would have taken him up in a minute, butI couldn't stop an eclipse; the thing was out of the question. SoI asked time to consider. The king said:

"How long--ah, how long, good sir? Be merciful; look, it growethdarker, moment by moment. Prithee how long?"

"Not long. Half an hour--maybe an hour. "

There were a thousand pathetic protests, but I couldn't shorten upany, for I couldn't remember how long a total eclipse lasts. I wasin a puzzled condition, anyway, and wanted to think. Somethingwas wrong about that eclipse, and the fact was very unsettling. If this wasn't the one I was after, how was I to tell whether thiswas the sixth century, or nothing but a dream? Dear me, if I couldonly prove it was the latter! Here was a glad new hope. If the boywas right about the date, and this was surely the 20th, it _wasn't_the sixth century. I reached for the monk's sleeve, in considerableexcitement, and asked him what day of the month it was. 

Hang him, he said it was the _twenty-first_! It made me turn coldto hear him. I begged him not to make any mistake about it; buthe was sure; he knew it was the 21st. So, that feather-headedboy had botched things again! The time of the day was rightfor the eclipse; I had seen that for myself, in the beginning, by the dial that was near by. Yes, I was in King Arthur's court, and I might as well make the most out of it I could. 

The darkness was steadily growing, the people becoming more andmore distressed. I now said:

"I have reflected, Sir King. For a lesson, I will let this darknessproceed, and spread night in the world; but whether I blot outthe sun for good, or restore it, shall rest with you. These arethe terms, to wit: You shall remain king over all your dominions, and receive all the glories and honors that belong to the kingship;but you shall appoint me your perpetual minister and executive, and give me for my services one per cent of such actual increaseof revenue over and above its present amount as I may succeedin creating for the state. If I can't live on that, I sha'n't askanybody to give me a lift. Is it satisfactory?"

There was a prodigious roar of applause, and out of the midstof it the king's voice rose, saying:

"Away with his bonds, and set him free! and do him homage, highand low, rich and poor, for he is become the king's right hand, is clothed with power and authority, and his seat is upon the higheststep of the throne! Now sweep away this creeping night, and bringthe light and cheer again, that all the world may bless thee. "

But I said:

"That a common man should be shamed before the world, is nothing;but it were dishonor to the _king_ if any that saw his minister nakedshould not also see him delivered from his shame. If I might askthat my clothes be brought again--"

"They are not meet, " the king broke in. "Fetch raiment of anothersort; clothe him like a prince!"

My idea worked. I wanted to keep things as they were till theeclipse was total, otherwise they would be trying again to getme to dismiss the darkness, and of course I couldn't do it. Sendingfor the clothes gained some delay, but not enough. So I had to makeanother excuse. I said it would be but natural if the king shouldchange his mind and repent to some extent of what he had doneunder excitement; therefore I would let the darkness grow a while, and if at the end of a reasonable time the king had kept his mindthe same, the darkness should be dismissed. Neither the king noranybody else was satisfied with that arrangement, but I hadto stick to my point. 

It grew darker and darker and blacker and blacker, while I struggledwith those awkward sixth-century clothes. It got to be pitch dark, at last, and the multitude groaned with horror to feel the colduncanny night breezes fan through the place and see the starscome out and twinkle in the sky. At last the eclipse was total, and I was very glad of it, but everybody else was in misery; whichwas quite natural. I said:

"The king, by his silence, still stands to the terms. " ThenI lifted up my hands--stood just so a moment--then I said, withthe most awful solemnity: "Let the enchantment dissolve andpass harmless away!"

There was no response, for a moment, in that deep darkness andthat graveyard hush. But when the silver rim of the sun pusheditself out, a moment or two later, the assemblage broke loose witha vast shout and came pouring down like a deluge to smother mewith blessings and gratitude; and Clarence was not the last ofthe wash, to be sure.