Latest / Classic Comedy Library / A CT Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain Part 1

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A CT Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain Part 1 · Classic Comedy Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one, The Tale of the Lost Land Camelot, Camelot, Camelot,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, I don't seem to remember hearing
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of it before, name of the asylum. Likely it was
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and as lonesome as a sunday. The air was full
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of the smell of flowers and the buzzing of insects
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and the twittering of birds. And there were no people,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: no wagons. There was no stir of life, nothing going on.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: The road was mainly a winding path with hoof prints
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in it, and now and then a faint trace of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: wheels on either side in the grass, wheels that apparently
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: had a tire as broad as one's hand. Presently, a
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: fair slip of a girl about ten years old, with
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: a cataract of golden hair streaming down over her shoulders,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: came along around her head. She wore a hoop of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: flame red poppies. It was as sweet an outfit as
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: ever I saw, what there was of it. She walked
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: indolently along with a mind at rest, its peace reflected
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in her innocent face. The circus man paid no attention
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to her, didn't even seem to see her, and she
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: was no more startled as fantastic makeup than if she
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: was used to his like every day of her life.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: She was going by as indifferently as she might have
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: gone by a couple of cows. But when she happened
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to notice me, then there was a change. Help went
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: her hands, and she turned to stone, Her mouth dropped open,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: her eyes stared why, and tumoriously. She was the picture
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of astonished curiosity touched with fear. And there she stood,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: gazing in a sort of stupefied fascination till we turned
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a corner of the wood and were lost to her. View.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: That she should be so startled at me instead of
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: at the other man was too many for me, and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I couldn't make head or tail of it. And that
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: she should seem to consider me a spectacle and totally
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: overlook her own merits in that respect was another puzzling thing,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and a display of magnanimity too that was surprising in
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: one so young. There was food for thought here. I
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: moved along as one in a dream. As we approached
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the town, signs of life began to appear. At intervals.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: We passed a wretched cabin with a thatched roof, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: about it small fields and garden patches in an indifferent
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: state of cultivation. There were people, too, brawny men with long, coarse,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: uncombed hair that hung down over their faces and made
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: them look like animals. They and the women, as a rule,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: wore a coarse, tolen enrobe that came well below the knee,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and a rude sort of sandal, and many wore an
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: iron collar. The small boys and girls were always naked,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: but nobody seemed to know it. All of these people
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: stared at me, talked about me, ran into the huts,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and fetched out other families to gape at me. But
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: nobody ever noticed that other fellow, except to make him
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: humble salutation and get no response for their pains. In
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the town were some substantial, windowless houses of stones gattered
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: along a wilderness of thatched cabins. The streets were mere
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: crooked alleys and unpaved. Troops of dogs and nude children
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: played in the sun and made life and noise. Hogs
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: roamed and rooted contentedly about, and one of them lay
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in a reeking wallow in the middle of the main
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: thoroughfare and suckled her family. Presently there was a distant
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: blare of military music. It came nearer, still nearer, and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: soon a noble cavalcade wound into view, glorious with plumed
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: helmets and flashing male and flaunting banners, and rich doublets
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and horse claws and gilded spearheads, And through the muck
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and swine and naked brats and joyous dogs and shabby huts,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: it took its gallant way, and in its wake we followed,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: followed through one white alley and then another, and climbing,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: always climbing, till at last we gained the breezy height
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: where the huge castle stood. There was an exchange of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: bugle blasts, then a parley from the walls, where men
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: at arms and Hubert and Marian marched back and forth
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: with halberd at shoulder, under flapping banners, with the rude
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: figure of a dragon displayed on them. And then the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: great gates were flung open, the drawbridge was lowered, and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the head of the cavalcade swept forward under the frowning arches,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and we following soon found ourselves in a great paved court,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: with towers and turrets stretching up into the blue air
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: on all four sides, and all about us the dismount
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: was going on, and much greeting and ceremony, and running
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to and fro, and a gay display of moving and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: intermingling of colors, and an altogether pleasant stir and noise
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: and confusion. End Chapter two, Chapter two, King Arthur's Court.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: The moment I got a chance, I slipped aside privately
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and touched an ancient common looking man on the shoulder
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and said, in an insinuating, confidential sort of way, friend,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: do me a kindness. Do you belong to the asylum
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: or are you just on a visit or something like that?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: He looked me over stupidly and said, mary fair, sir,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: me seemeth that that will do. I said, I reckon,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you are a patient. I moved away, cogitating and at
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the same time keeping an eye out for any dance.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I have a passenger in his right mind that might
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: come along and give me some light. I judged I
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: had found one presently, so I drew him aside and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: said in his ear, if I could see the head
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: keeper a minute, only just a minute, prithee, do not
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: let me let you what hinder me. Then if the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: word please thee better. Then he went on to say
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: he was an undercook and could not stop to gossip,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: though he would like it another time, for it would
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: comfort his very liver to know where I got my clothes.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: As he started away, he pointed and said, Yonder was
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: one who was idle enough for my purpose and was
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: seeking me. Besides, no doubt, this was an airy, slim
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: boy in shrimp colored tights that made him look like
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a forked carrot. The rest of his gear was blue
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: silk and dainty laces and ruffles, and he had long
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: yellow curls and wore a plumed pink satin cap tilted
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: complacently over his ear. By his look, he was good natured.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: By his gait, he was satisfied with himself. He was
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: pretty enough to frame. He arrived, looked me over with
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a smiling and impudent curiosity, said he had come for me,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: and informed me that he was a page go long.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I said, you ain't more than a paragraph. It was
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: pretty severe, but I was nettled. However, it never phazed him.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: He didn't appear to know he was hurt. He began
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to talk and laugh in happy, thoughtless girlish fashion. As
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: we walked along and made himself old friends with me
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: at once asked me all sorts of questions about myself
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and about my clothes, but never waited for an answer,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: always chattered straight ahead, as if he didn't know he
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: had asked a question and wasn't expecting any reply, Until
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: at last he happened to mention that he was born
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: in the beginning of the year five hundred and thirteen.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: It made the cold chills creep over me. I stopped
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and said a little faintly, maybe I didn't hear you.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Just right say it again, and say it slow. What
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: year was it? Five thirteen? Five thirteen? You don't look it. Come,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: my boy, I'm a stranger and friendless. Be honest and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: honorable with me. Are you in your right mind? He
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: said that he was. Are these other people in their
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: right minds? He said they were. And this isn't an asylum.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, it isn't a place where they cure crazy people.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: He said it wasn't. Well, then I said, either I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: am a lunatic or something just as awful has happened.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Now tell me, honest and true, where am I in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: King Arthur's court? I waited a minute to let that
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that idea shudder its way home, and then said, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: according to your notions, what year is it now? Five
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: twenty eight, nineteenth of June. I felt a mournful sinking
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: at the heart, and muttered, I shall never see my
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: friends again, never, never again. They will not be born
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: for more than thirteen hundred years. Yet I seem to
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: believe the boy. I didn't know why. Something in me
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: seemed to believe him. My consciousness, as you may say,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: but my reason didn't. My reason straightway began to clamor
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: that was natural. I didn't know how to go about
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: satisfying it, because I knew that the testimony of men
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't serve my reason, would say they were lunatic and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: throw out their evidence. But all of a sudden I
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: stumbled on the very thing, just by luck. I knew
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that the only total eclipse of the sun in the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: first half of the sixth century occurred on the twenty
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: first of June a d. Five twenty eight, and began
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: at three minutes after twelve noon. I also knew that
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: no total eclipse of the sun was due in what
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to me was the present year, I e. Eighteen seventy nine,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: So if I could keep my anxiety and curiosity from
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: eating the heart out of me for forty eight hours,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I should then find out for certain whether this boy
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: was telling me the truth or not. Wherefore, being a
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: practical Connecticut man, I now shoved this whole problem clear
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: out of my mind till it's appointed day an hour
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: should come in order that I might turn all my
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: attention to the circumstances of the present moment and be
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: alert and ready to make the most out of them
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: that could be made. One thing at a time is
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: my motto. And just play that thing for all it's worth,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: even if it's only two pair and a jack. I
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: made up my mind to two things. If it was
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: still the nineteenth century and I was among lunatics and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't get away, I would presently boss that asylum, or
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: know the reason why. And if on the other hand,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: it was really the sixth century, all right, I didn't
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: want any software thing, I would boss the whole country
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: inside of three months, for I judged I would have
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the start of the best educated man in the kingdom
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: by a matter of thirteen hundred years and upward. I'm
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: not a man to waste time. After my mind's made up,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and there's work on hand. So I said to the page, Now, Clarence,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: my boy, if that might happen to be your name,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I'll get you to post me up a little if
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you don't mind. What is the name of that apparition
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: that brought me here, my master in thine? That is
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the good Knight and great Lord Sir Kay, foster brother
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to our liege the King. Very good, go on tell
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: me everything. He made a long story of it, but
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the part that had immediate interest for me was this.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: He said I was Sir Kay's prisoner, and that in
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the due course of custom, I should be flung into
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a dungeon and left there on scant commons until my
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: friends ransomed me, unless I chanced to rot first. I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: saw that the last chance had the best show, but
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I didn't waste any bother about that time was too precious.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: The page said further that dinner was about ended in
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the Great Hall by this time, and that as soon
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: as the sociability and the heavy drinking should begin, Sir
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: k would have and exhibit me before King Arthur and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: his illustrious knights seated at table round, and would brag
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: about his exploit in capturing me, and would probably exaggerate
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the facts a little, but it probably wouldn't be good
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: form for me to correct him, and not oversafe either,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: And when I was done being exhibited, then ho for
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the dungeon. But he Clarence, would find a way to
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: come and see me every now and then and cheer
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: me up and help me get word to my friends,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: get word to my friends. I thanked him. I couldn't
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: do less. And about this time a lackey came to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: say I was wanted. So Clarence led me in and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: took me off to one side and sat down by me. Well.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: It was a curious kind of spectacle and interesting. He
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: was an immense place, and rather naked, yes, and full
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: of loud contrasts. It was very, very lofty, so lofty
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: that the banners descending from the arched beams and girders
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: away up there floated in a sort of twilight. There
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was a stone railed gallery at each end, high up,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: with musicians in one and women clothed in stunning colors
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: in the other. The floor was big stone flags laid
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in black and white squares, rather battered by age and use,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and kneading repair. As to ornament, there wasn't any, strictly speaking,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: though on the walls hung some huge tapestries which were
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: probably taxed as works of art battle pieces. They were
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: with horses shaped like those which children cut out of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: paper or crateon gingerbread, with men on them in scale armor,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: whose scales are represented by round holes, so that the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: man's coat looks as if it had been done with
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: a biscuit punch. There was a fireplace big enough to
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: camp in, and its projecting sides and hood of carved
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and pillared stonework had the look of a cathedral door.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Along the walls stood men at arms in breastplate and
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: marian with halberds for their only weapon, rigid as statues,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and that is what they looked like. In the middle
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: of this groined and vaulted public square was an oaken table,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: which they called the table Round. He was as large
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: as a circus ring, and around it sat a great
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: company of men dressed in such various and splendid colors
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that it hurt one's eyes to look at them. They
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: wore their plumed hats right along, except that whenever one
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: addressed himself directly to the king, he lifted his hat
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: a trifle just as he was beginning his remark. Mainly
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: they were drinking from entire ox horns, but a few
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: were still munching bread or gnawing beef bones. There was
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: about an average of two dogs to one man, and
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: these sat in expected attitudes till a spent bone was
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: flung to them, and then they went for it by
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: brigades and divisions with a rush, and they would ensued
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: a fight, which filled the prospect with a tumultuous chaos
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: of plunging heads and bodies and flashing tails. In the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: storm of howling and barking deafened all speech for the time,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: but that was no matter, for the dog fight was
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: always a bigger interest anyway. The men rose sometimes to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: observe it the better and bet on it, and the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: ladies and the musicians stretched themselves out over their bolsters
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: with the same object, and all broke in delighted ejaculations
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: from time to time. In the end, the winning dog
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: stretched himself out comfortably with his bone between his paws,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and proceeded to growl over it and gnaw it and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: greased the floor with it, just as fifty others were
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: already doing, and the rest of the court resumed their
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: previous industries and entertainments. As a rule, the speech and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: behavior of these people were gracious and courtly, and I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: noticed that they were good and serious listeners when anybody
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: was telling anything, I mean, in a dog fightless interval,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: and plainly two. They were a childlike, an innocent lot,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: telling lies of the stateliest pattern, with a most gentle
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and winning naivete, and ready and willing to listen to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: anybody else's lie and believe it too. It was hard
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: to associate them with anything cruel or dreadful, and yet
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: they dealt in tales of blood and suffering with a
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: guileless relish that made me almost forget to shudder. I
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: was not the only prisoner present. There were twenty or
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: more poor devils. Many of them were maimed, hacked, carved
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: in a frightful way, and their hair, their faces, their
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: clothing were caked with black and stiffened drenchings of blood.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: They were suffering sharp physical pain, of course, and weariness
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and hunger and thirst, no doubt, and at least no
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: one had given them the comfort of a wash, or
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: even the poor charity of a lotion. For their wounds.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Yet you never heard them utter a moan or a groan,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: or saw them show any sign of restlessness or any
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: disposition to complain. The thought was forced upon me the rascals.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: They have served other people, so in their day it
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: being their own turn. Now they were not expecting any
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: better treatment than this. So their philosophical bearing is not
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: an outcome of mental training intellectual fortitude reasoning. It is
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: mere animal training. They are white Indians and Chapter three
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Nights of the Table Round. Mainly the round table talk
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: was monologues, narrative accounts of the adventures in which these
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: prisoners were captured and their friends and backers killed and
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: stripped of their steeds in armor. As a general thing,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: as far as I could make out, these murderous adventures
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: were not forays undertaken to avenge injuries, nor to settle
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: old disputes or sudden fallings out. No, as a rule,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: they were simply duels between strangers, duels between people who
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: had never even been introduced to each other, and between
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: whom existed no cause of offense whatever. Many a time
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I had seen a couple of boys strangers meet by chance,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and say simultaneously, I can lick you and go at
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: it on the spot. But I had always imagined until
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: now that that sort of thing belonged to children only,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and was a sign and mark of childhood. But here
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: were these big boobies sticking to it and taking pride
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: in it, clear up into full age and beyond. Yet
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: there was something very engaging about these great, simple hearted creatures,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: something attractive and lovable. They did not seem to be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: bait a fish hook with. But you didn't seem to
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: mind that after a little, because you soon saw that
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: brains were not needed in a society like that, and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: indeed would have marred it, hindered it, spoiled its symmetry,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps rendered its existence impossible. There was a fine manliness
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: observable in almost every face, and in some a certain
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: loftiness and sweetness that rebuked your belittling criticisms and stilled
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: them almost a noble benignity and purity reposed in the
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: countenance of him they called Sir Galahad, and likewise in
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the kings also, And there was a majesty and greatness
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: in the giant frame and high bearing of Sir Launcelot
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: of the lake. There was presently an incident which centered
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the general interest upon the Sir Launcelot. At a sign
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: from a sort of master of ceremonies, six or eight
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of the prisoners rose and came forward in a body,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and knelt on the floor, and lifted up their hands
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: toward the lady's gallery, and begged the grace of a
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: word with the Queen. The most conspicuously situated lady, in
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: that masked flower bed of feminine show and finery, inclined
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: her head by way of assent, and then the spokesmen
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: of the prisoners delivered himself and his fellows into her
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: hands for free, pardon, ransom, captivity, or death, as she,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: in her good pleasure might elect. And this as he said,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: he was doing, by command of Sir Kay, whose prisoners
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: they were, he having vanquished them by his single might
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and prowess in sturdy conflict in the field. Surprise and
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: astonishment flashed from face to face all over the house.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: The Queen's gratified smile faded out at the name of
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Sir Kay, and she looked disappointed. And the page whispered
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in my ear with an accent and manner expressive of
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: extravagant derision. Sir Kay, forsooth, Oh call me pet names, dearest,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: call me a marine. In twice a thousand years, shall
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the unholy invention of man labor at odds to beget
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the fellow to this majestic lie. Every eye was fastened
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: with severe inquiry upon Sir Kay, But he was equal
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to the occasion. He got up and played his hand
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: like a major, and took every trick. He said he
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: would state the case exactly according to the facts. He
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: would tell the simple, straightforward tale without comment of his own,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: And then said he, if ye find glory and honor due,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: ye will give it unto him who is the mightiest
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: man of his hands, that ever bare shield or strike
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: with sword in the ranks of Christian battle, even him
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: that sitteth here, and pointed to Sir Launcelot. Ah, he
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: fetched them it was a rattling good stroke. Then he
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: went on and told how Sir Launcelot, seeking adventures some
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: brief time gone by, killed seven giants at one sweep
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: of his sword, and set one hundred and forty two
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: captive maidens free, And then went further still seeking adventures,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and found him Sir Kay fighting a desperate fight against
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: nine foreign knights, and and straightway took the battle solely
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: into his own hands and conquered the nine. And that
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: night Sir Launcelot rose quietly and dressed him in Sir
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Kay's armor, and took Sir Kay's horse and gat him
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: away into distant lands, and vanquished sixteen knights in one
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: pitched battle, and thirty four in another. And all these
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and the former nine he had made to swear about
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: which Sunday tued, they would ride to Arthur's court and
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: yield them to Queen Gwenevere's hands as captives of Sir
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Kay spoil of his nately prowess. And now here were
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: these half dozen, and the rest would be along soon
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: as they may be healed of their desperate wounds. While
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it was touching to see the Queen blush and smile
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: and look embarrassed and happy, and fling furtive glances at
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Sir Launcelot that would have got him shot in Arkansas,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to a dead certainty, everybody praised the valor and magnanimity
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: of Sir Launcelot, And as for me, I was perfectly
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: amazed that one man all by himself should have been
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: able to beat down and capture such battalions of practiced fighters.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I said as much to Clarence. But this mocking feather
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: had only said, then, Sir Kay had time to get
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: another skin of sour wine into him. Ye had seen
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the accompte doubled. I looked at the boy in sorrow,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: and as I looked, I saw the cloud of a
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: deep despondency settle upon his countenance. I followed the direction
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of his eye and saw that a very old and
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: white bearded man clothed in a flowing black gown, had
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: risen and was standing at the table upon unsteady legs
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: and feebly swaying his ancient head, and surveying the company
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: with his watery and wandering eye. The same suffering look
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that was in the page's face was observable in all
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the faces around, the look of dumb creatures who know
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: that they must endure and make no moan. Mary, We
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: shall have it again, sighed the boy, that same old,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: weary tale that he hath told a thousand times, and
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the same words, and that he will tell till he dieth.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Every time he hath gotten his barrel full, and feeleth
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: his exaggeration, millerworking, would God I had died, or I
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: saw this day? Who is it? Merlin, the mighty liar
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and magician. Perdition singe him for the weariness he worketh
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: with his one tale, but that men fear him for that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: He hath the storms and the lightnings, and all the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: devils that be in hell at his beck, and call
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that'd have dug his entrails out these many years ago
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to get at that tabel and squelch it. He telleth
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: always in the third person, making believe he was too
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: modest to glorify himself. Maledictions light upon him, misfortune be
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: his doll, good friend, prithee, call me for even song.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: The boy nestled himself upon my shoulder and pretended to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: go to sleep. The old man began his tail, and
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: presently the lad was asleep. In reality, so also were
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the dogs and the court, the lackeys, and the files
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: of men at arms. The droning voice droned on a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: soft snoring arose on all sides, and supported it like
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a deep and subdued accompaniment of wind instruments. Some heads
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: were bowed upon folded arms, Some lay back with mouths
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: open that issued unconscious music. The flies buzzed and bit unmolested.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: The rats swarmed softly out from a hundred hole and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: pattered about and made themselves at home everywhere. And one
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: of them sat up like a squirrel on the king's
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: head and held a bit of cheese in its hand,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and nibbled it, and dribbled the crumbs in the King's
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: face with naive and impudent irreverence. It was a tranquil scene,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and RESTful to the weary eye and the jaded spirit.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: This was the old man's tail, he said. Right. So
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the King and Merlin departed and went until a hermit
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: that was a good man and a great leech. So
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the hermit searched all his wounds and gave him good salves.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So the king was there three days, and then were
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: his wounds well amended, that he might ride and go.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: And so departed, And as they rode, Arthur said, I
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: have no sword, no matter, said Merlin. Hereby is a
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: sword that shall be yours, and I may. So they
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: rode till they came to a lake, the which was
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: a fair water and broad, And in the midst of
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: white semite, that held a fair sword in that hand,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: lo said Merlin. Yonders that sword that I spake of.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: With that, they saw a damsel going upon the lake.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: What damsel is that, said Arthur. That is the lady
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: of the lake, said Merlin. And within that lake is
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: a rock, and therein is a fair a place as
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: any on earth, and richly beseen. And this damsel will
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: come to you Anon, and then speak ye fair to her,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: that she will give you that sword. Anon. Withal came
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the damsel unto Arthur and saluted him, and he her again.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Damsel said Arthur, what sword is that that yonder the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: arm holdeth above the water. I would it were mine,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: for I have no sword, Sir Arthur King, said the damsel.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: That sword is mine. And if ye will give me
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a gift when I ask it you, ye shall have it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: By my faith, said Arthur. I will give you what
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: gift ye will ask, well, said the damsel. Go ye
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: into yonder barge and row yourself to the sword, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: take it and the scabbard with you. And I will
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: ask my gift when I see my time, So, Sir Arthur,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and Merlin alight and tied their horses to two trees.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: And so they went into the ship. And when they
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: came to the sword and the hand held, Sir Arthur
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: took it up by the handles and took it with him,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: and the arm and the hand went under the water.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: And so they came unto the land and rode forth.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: And then Sir Arthur saw a rich pavilion. What signifieth
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: yonder pavilion? It is the Knight's pavilion, said Merlin. That
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: ye fought with last, Sir Pellinore, But he is out.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: He is not there. He hath ado with a knight
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: of yours, that hight Eglamain, and they have fought together.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: But the last Eglamain fled and else he had been dead,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and he hath chased him even to Carolon. And we
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: shall meet with him Anon in the highway. That is well,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: said said Arthur. Now I have a sword. Now I
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: will wage battle with him and be avenged on him. Sir,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: ye shall not so, said Merlin, for the Knight is
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: weary of fighting and chasing, so that ye shall have
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: no worship to have ado with him. Also, he will
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: not lightly be matched, for one Knight living, and therefore
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: it is my counsel let him pass, for hee shall
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: do you good service in short time, and his sons
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: after his days also ye shall see that day in
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: short space, ye shall be right glad to give him
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: your sister to wed. When I see him, I will
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: do as ye advise me, said Arthur. Then Sir Arthur
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: looked on the sword and liked it. Passing well. Whither
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: liketh you better, said Merlin, the sword or the scabbard?
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Me liketh better the sword, said Arthur. Ye are more unwise,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: said Merlin, for the scabbard is worth ten of the sword.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: For while ye have the scabbard upon you, ye shall
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: never lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Therefore keep well the scabbard always with you. So they
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: rode into Carolon, and by the way they met with
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Sir Pellinore. But Merlin had done such a craft that
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Pellinore saw not Arthur, and he passed by without any words.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: I marvel, said Arthur, that the Knight would not speak. Sir,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: said Merlin, he saw you not for an he had
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: seen you, ye had not lightly departed. So they came
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: unto Carolon, whereof his knights were passing glad and when
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: they heard of his adventures, they marveled that he would
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: jeppard his person so alone. But all men of worship said,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: it was merely to be under such a chieftain that
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: would put his person in adventure, as other poor knights did.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: End Chapter three, Chapter four, Sir Dinadan the Humorist, It
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: seemed to me that this quaint lie was most simply
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: and beautifully told. But then I had heard it only once,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and that makes a difference. It was pleasant to the
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: others when it was fresh, no doubt. Sir Dinadan the
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Humorist was the first to awake, and he soon roused
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: the rest with a practical joke of sufficiently poor quality.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: He tied some metal mugs to a dog's tail and
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: turned him loose, and he tore around and around the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: place in a frenzy of fright, with all the other
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: dogs bellowing after him, and battering and crashing against everything
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that came in their way, and making an altogether a
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: chaos of confusion and a most deafening din and turmoil,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: at which every man and woman of the multitude laughed
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: till the tears flowed, and some fell out of their
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: chairs and wallowed on the floor in ecstasy. It was
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: just like so many children. Sir Dinadan was so proud
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: of his exploit that he could not keep from telling
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: over and over again to weariness how the immortal idea
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: happened to occur to him, And as is the way
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: with humorous of his breed, he was still laughing at
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: it after everybody else had got through. He was so
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: set up that he concluded to make a speech, of course,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: a humorous speech. I think I never heard so many
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: old played out jokes strung together in my life. He
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: was worse than the minstrels, worse than the clown and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the circus. It seemed particularly sad to sit here thirteen
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: hundred years before I was born and listen again to
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: poor flat worm eaten jokes that had given me the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: dry gripes when I was a boy. Thirteen hundred years
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: after Afterwards, it about convinced me that there isn't any
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: such thing as a new joke possible. Everybody laughed at
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: these antiquities, but then they always do. I had noticed
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: that centuries later. However, of course, the scoffer didn't laugh,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I mean the boy, No, he scoffed. There wasn't anything
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't scoff at. He said the most of Sir
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Dinadan's jokes were rotten, and that the rest were petrified.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I said petrified was good, as I believed myself that
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: the only right way to classify the majestic ages of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: some of these jokes was by geologic periods. But that
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: neat idea hit the boy in the blank space, for
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: geology hadn't been invented yet. However, I made a note
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: of the remark and calculated to educate the commonwealth up
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to it if I pulled through. It is no use
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to throw away a good thing merely because the market
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: isn't ripe yet. Now Sir Kay arose and began to
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: fire up on his history mill with me for fuel.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: It was time for me to feel serious, and I did.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Sir Kay told how he had encountered me in a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: far land of barbarians who all wore the same ridiculous
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: garb that I did, a garb that was a work
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: of enchantment and intended to make the wearer secure from
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: hurt by human hands. However, he had nullified the force
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: of the enchantment by prayer and had killed my thirteen
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: knights in a three hours battle, and taken me prisoner,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: sparing my life in order that so strange a curiosity
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: as I was might be exhibited to the wonder and
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: admiration of the King and court. He spoke of me
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: all the time in the blandest way, as this prodigious giant,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and this horrible sky towering monster, and this tusked and
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: taloned man devouring Ogre, and everybody took in all this
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: bosh in the naivest way, and never smiled or seemed
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to notice that there was any discrepancy between these watered
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: statistics and me. He said that, in trying to escape
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: from him, I sprang into the top of a tree
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: two hundred cubits high on a single bound, but he
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: dislodged me with a stone the size of a cow,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: which all to brast the most of my bones, and
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: then swore me to appear at Arthur's court for sentence.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: He ended by condemning me to die at noon on
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the twenty first, and was so little concerned about it
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: that he stopped to yawn before he named the date.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: I was in a dismal state by this time, indeed,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I was hardly enough in my right mind to keep
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: the run of a dispute that sprung up as to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: how I had better be killed, the possibility of the
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: killing being doubted by some because of the enchantment in
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: my clothes. And yet it was nothing but an ordinary
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: suit of fifteen dollars slop shops. Still, I was sane
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: enough to notice this detail. To wit, many of the
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: terms used in the most matter of fact way by
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: this great assemblage of the first ladies and gentlemen in
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the land would have made a commanche blush in delicacies,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: too mild a term to convey the idea. However, I
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: had read Tom Jones and Roderick Random and other books
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: of that kind, and knew that the highest and first
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen in England had remained little or no
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: cleaner in their talk and in the morals and conduct
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: which such talk implies, clear up to a hundred years ago,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: in fact, clear into our own nineteenth century, in which century,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: broadly speaking, the earliest samples of the real lady and
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: real gentlemen discoverable in English history, or in European history,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: for that matter, may be said to have made their appearance.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Suppose Sir Walter, instead of putting the conversations into the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: mouths of his characters, had allowed the characters to speak
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: for themselves. We should have had talked from Rebecca and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Ivan Hall and the soft lady Rowena, which would have
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: embarrassed a tramp in our day. However, to the unconsciously
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: and delicate, all things are delicate. King Arthur's people were
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: not aware that they were indecent, and I had presence
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: of mind enough not to mention it. They were so
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: troubled about my enchanted clothes that they were mightily relieved
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: at last when Old Merlin swept the difficulty away for
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: them with a common sense hint. He asked them why
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: they were so dull? Why didn't occur to them to
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: strip me? In half a minute? I was naked as
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: a pair of tongs, and, dear to think of it,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I was the only embarrassed person there. Everybody discussed me,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: and did it as unconcernedly as if I had been
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: a cabbage. Queen Guenevere was as naively interested as the rest,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: and said she had never seen anybody with legs just
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: like mine before. It was the only compliment I got
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: if it was a compliment. Finally, I was carried off
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: in one direction, and my perilous clothes in another. I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: was shoved into a dark and narrow cell and a dungeon,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: with some scant remnants for dinner, some moldy straw for
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: a bed, and no end of rats for company. Chapter five,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: on inspiration. I was so tired that even my fears
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: were not able to keep me awake long. When I
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: next came to myself, I seemed to have been asleep
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: a very long time. My first thought was, well, what
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: an astonishing I've had. I reckon, I've waked just in
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: time to keep from being hanged or drowned or burned
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: or something. I'll nap again til the whistle blows, and
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: then I'll go down to the arms factory and have
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: it out with Hercules. But just then I heard the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: harsh music of rusty chains and bolts. A light flashed
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: in my eyes, and that butterfly Clarance stood before me.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I gasped with surprise. My breath almost got away from me.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: What I said, you hear yet go along with the
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: rest of the dream scatter. But he only laughed in
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: his lighthearted way, and fell to making fun of my
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: sorry plight. All right, I said, resignedly. Let the dream
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: go on. I'm in no hurry. Pray thee What dream?
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: What dream? Why? The dream that I am in Arthur's court,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: person who never existed, and that I am talking to you,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: who were nothing but a work of the imagination. Oh lie, indeed,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: and it is a dream that you are to be
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: burned tomorrow. Oh answer me. That the shock that went
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: through me was distressing, I now began to reason that
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: my situation was in the last degree serious dream or
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: no dream. For I knew by past experience of the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: lifelike intensity of dreams, that to be burned to death,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: even in a dream, would be very far from being
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: a jest, and was a thing to be avoided by
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: any means, fair or foul that I could contrive. So
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I said, beseechingly, Ah, Clarence, good boy, only friend I've
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: got for you? Are my friend? Aren't you? Don't fail me?
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Help me devise some way of escaping from this place? Now,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: do but hear thyself? Escape? Why? Man, the corridors are
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: in guard and keep of men at arms, no doubt,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: no doubt. But how many, Clarence, how many, I hope
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: full of score. One may not hope to escape after
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: a pause hesitatingly. And there be other reasons, and waightier
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: other ones. What are they? Well, they say, Oh but
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I daren't, indeed daren't. Why, poor lad, what is the matter?
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Why do you blench? Why do you tremble? So? Oh?
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: In sooth? There is need I do want to tell you.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: But come, come, be brave, be a man, speak out.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: There's a good lad. He hesitated, pulled one way by desire,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: the other way by fear. Then he stole to the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: door and listening, and finally crept close to me and
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: put his mouth to my ear, and told me his
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: fearful news in a whisper, and with all the cowering
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: of apprehension of one who is venturing into awful ground,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: and speaking of things whose very mention might be frightened
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: with death. Merlin, in his malice has woven a spell
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: about this dungeon. And thereby it's not the man in
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: these kingdoms that would be desperate enough to essay to
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: cross its lines with you. Now, God, pity me, I've
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: told it. Ah, be kind to me, Be merciful to
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: a poor boy who means thee well, for in thou
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: betray me, I am lost. I laughed the only refreshing
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: laugh I had had for some time, and shouted, Merlin
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: has wrought a spell, Merlin forsooth, that cheap, old hungbug,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: that moldering old ass. Bosh, pure bosh, the silliest bosh
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: in the world. Why it does seem to me that
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: of all the childish, idiotic, chuckleheaded chicken livered superstitions that
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: ev Oh damn Merlin. But Clarence had slum to his
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: knees before I had half finished, and he was like
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: to go out of his mind with fright. Don't beware.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Those are awful words. Any moment these walls may crumble
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: upon us if you say such things, Oh, call them
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: back before it is too late. This strange exhibition gave
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: me a good idea and set me to thinking, if
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: everybody about here was so honestly and sincerely afraid of
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Merlin's pretend magic, as Clarence was certainly a superior man
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: like me, ought to be shrewd enough to contrive some
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: way to take advantage of such a state of things.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: I went on thinking, and we're out a plan. Then
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I said, get up, pull yourself together, look me in
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: the eye. Do you know why I laughed? No? But
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: for our blessed lady's sake? Do it no more? Well,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: I tell you why I laughed, because I am a
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: magician myself. Now the boy recoiled a step and caught
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: his breath, for the thing hit him rather sudden. But
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: the aspect which he took on was very, very respectful.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: I took quick note of that. It indicated that a
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: humbug didn't need to have a reputation in this asylum.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: People stood ready to take him at his word. Without that,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I resumed. I've known Merlin seven hundred years, and he
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: seven hunt. Don't interrupt me. He has died and come
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: alive again thirteen times, and traveled under a new name
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: every time. Smith Jones, Robinson, Peters, Haskins, Merlin a new
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: alias every time he turns up. I knew him in
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Egypt three hundred years ago. I knew him in India
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: five hundred years ago. He's always blithering around in my
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: way everywhere I go. He makes me tired. He don't
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: amount to shucks as a magician. He knows some of
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the old common tricks, but he's never got beyond the rudiments,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: and never will. He's well enough for provinces one night
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: stands in that sort of thing, you know. But dear me,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: he oughtn't to be set up for an expert anyway,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: not where there's a real artist. Now look here, Clarence,
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to stand your friend right along, and in
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: return you must be mine. I want you to do
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: me a favor. I want you to get word to
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: the King that I am a magician myself, and the
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: supreme Grand Hi, you muckamuckin', the head of the tribe
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: at that I want him to be made to understand
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: that I am just quietly a arranging a little calamity
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: here that will make the fur fly in these realms
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: if Sir Kay's project is carried out and any harm
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: comes to me. Will you get that to the king
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: for me? The poor boy was in such a state
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: that he could hardly answer me. It was pitiful to
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: see a creature so terrified, so unnerved, so demoralized. But
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: he promised everything, and on my side, he made me
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: promise over and over again that I would remain his
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: friend and never turn against him or cast any enchantments
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: upon him, and he worked his way out, staying himself
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: with his hand along the wall like a sick person. Presently,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: this thought occurred to me, how heedless I have been.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: When the boy gets calm, he will wonder why a
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: great magician like me should have begged a boy like
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: him to help me get out of this place. He'll
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: put this and that together and will see that I
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: am a humbug. I worried over that heedless blunder for
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: an hour, and called myself a great many hard names meantime.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: But finally it occurred to me, all of a sudden,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: that these animals didn't reason, that they never put this
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: and that together, that all their talks showed they didn't
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: know a discrepancy when they saw it. I was at
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: rest then, But as soon as one is at rest
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: in this world, off he goes on something else to
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: worry about. It occurred to me that I had made
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: another blunder. I had sent the boy off to alarm
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: his betters with a threat I intending to invent a
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: calamity at my leisure. Now, the people who are the
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: readiest and eagerest and willingest to swallow miracles are the
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: very ones who are hungriest to see you perform them.
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: Suppose I should be called on for a sample. Suppose
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: I should be asked to name my calamity. Yes, I
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: had made a blunder. I ought to have invented my
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: colle amity first. What shall I do? What can I say?
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: To gain a little time? I was in trouble again,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: in the deepest kind of trouble. There's a footstep, they're coming.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: If I had only just a moment to think, God,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I've got it, I'm all right. You see, it was
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the eclipse. It came to my mind in the nick
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: of time. How Columbus or Cortes or one of those
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: people played an eclipse as a saving trump once on
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: some savages. And I saw my chance. I could play
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: it myself now, and it wouldn't be any plagiarism either,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: because I should get it. In nearly a thousand years
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: ahead of those parties, Clarence came in, subdued, distressed, and said,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: I hastened the message to our liege, the King, and
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: straightway he had me to his presence. He was frightened
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: even to the marrow, and was minded to give order
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: for your instant enlargement, and that you be clothed in
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: fine raiment and lodge as befitted one so great. But
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: then came Merlin and spoiled it all, for he persuaded
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the King that you are mad and know not whereof
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: you speak, and said you are threaties but foolishness and idle,
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: vaporing the disputed long. But in the end merlin'scoffing said,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: wherefore hath he not named his brave calamity? Verily it
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: is because he cannot. This thrust did in a most
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: sudden sort close the King's mouth, and he could offer
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: not to turn the argument, and so reluctant and full
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: loath to do you the discourtesy. He yet prayeth you
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: to consider his perplexed case as noting how the matter stands,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: and name the calamity, if so be you have determined
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the nature of it in the time of its coming.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: Oh prithee delay, not to delay at such a time,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: or to double and trouble the perils that already compass
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: thee about, Oh be thou wise name the calamity. I
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: allowed silence to accumulate while I got my impressiveness together,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and then said, how long have I been shut up?
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: In this hole you were shut up when yesterday was
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: well spent. It is nine of the morrow now. No, then,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I have slept well sure enough. Nine in the morning now,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: and it is the very complexion of midnight to a shade.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: This is the twentieth, then the twentieth, yes, and I
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: am to be burned alive tomorrow. The boy shuddered, at
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: what hour at high noon? Now? Then I will tell
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: you what to say. I paused and stood over that
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: cowering lad a whole minute in awful silence. Then, in
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: a voice deep measured, charged with doom, I began and
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: rose by dramatically graded stages to my colossal climax, which
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: I delivered as sublime and noble away as ever I
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: did such a thing in my life. Go back and
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: tell the King that at that hour I will smother
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: the whole world in the dead blackness of midnight. I
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: will blot out the sun, and he shall never shine again.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: The fruits of the earth shall rot for lack of
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: light and warmth, and the peoples of the earth shall
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: famish and die. To the last man, I had to
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: carry the boy out myself. He sunk into such a collapse.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: I handed him over to the soldiers and went back.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five. Chapter six. The eclipse in the
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: stillness and the darkness, realization soon began to supplement knowledge.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: The mere knowledge of a fact is pale, but when
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: you come to realize your fact, it takes on color.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: It is all the difference between hearing of a man
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: being stabbed to the heart and seeing it done in
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: stillness and the darkness. The knowledge that I was in
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: deadly danger took to itself deeper and deeper, meaning all
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: the time a something which was realization crept inch by
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: inch through my veins and turned me cold. But it
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: is a blessed provision of nature that at times like these,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: as soon as a man's mercury has got down to
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: a certain point, there comes a revulsion, and your valies,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: hope springs up and cheerfulness along with it, And then
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: he's in good shape to do something for himself, if
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: anything can be done. When my rally came, it came
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: with a bound. I said to myself that my eclipse
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: would be sure to save me and make me the
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: greatest man in the kingdom. Besides, and straightway, my mercury
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: went to the top of the tube and my solicitudes
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: all vanished. I was as happy a man as there
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: was in the world. I was even impatient for tomorrow
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: to come. I so wanted to gather in that great
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: triumph and be the center of all the nation's wonder
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: and reverence. Besides, in a business way, it would be
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the making of me. I knew that meantime, there was
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: one thing which had got pushed into the background of
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: my mind. That was the half conviction that when the
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: nature of my proposed calamity should be reported to those
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: superstitious people, it would have such an effect that they
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: would want to compromise. So by and bye. When I
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: heard the footsteps coming, that thought was recalled to me,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: and I said to myself, as sure as anything, it's
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: the compromise. Well, if it's good, all right, I will accept.
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: But if it isn't, I mean to stand my ground
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: and play my hand for all it is worth. The
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: door opened and some men at arms appeared. The leader said,
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: the steak is ready. Calm the steak. The strength went
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: out of me, and I almost fell down. It is
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: hard to get one's breath at such a time. Such
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: lumps come into one's throat, and such gaspings. But as
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: soon as I could speak, I said, but this is
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: a mistake. The execution is tomorrow, order changed been set
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: forward a day tasty. I was lost. There's no help
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: for me. I was dazed, stupefied. I had no command
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: over myself. I only wandered purposely about, like one out
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: of his mind. So soldiers took hold of me and
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: pulled me along with them out of the cell and
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: along the maze of underground corridors, and finally into the
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: fierce glare of daylight in the upper world. As we
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: stepped into the vast, enclosed court of the castle, I
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: got a shock. For the first thing I saw was
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: the stake standing in the center, and near it the
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: piled fagots and a monk. On all four sides of
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: a court. The seated multitudes rose rank above rank, forming
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: sloping terraces that were rich with color. The King and
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: the Queen sat in their thrones, the most conspicuous figures there,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of course, to note all this occupied but a second.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: The next second, Clarence had slipped from some place of
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: concealment and was pouring news into my ear, his eyes
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: beaming with triumph and gladness, He said, tis through me
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: the change was rot and may and hard have I
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: worked to do it too. But when I revealed them
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: the calamity in store, and saw how mighty was the
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: terror it did engender, then saw I also that this
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: was the time to strike. Wherefore I diligently pretended, unto
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: this and that and the other one, that your power
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: against the sun could not reach its full until the morrow.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: And so if any would save the Sun and the world,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: you must be slain today where your enchantments are. But
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: in the weaving and lack potency God's botticins, it was
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: but a dull lie, a most indifferent invention. But you
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: should have seen them seize it and swallow it in
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: the frenzy of their fright, as it were, salvation said
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: from heaven. And all the while I was laughing in
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: my sleeve, the one moment to see them so cheaply
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: deceived and glorifying God, the next that he was content
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: to let the meanest of his creatures be his instrument
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: to the saving of thy life. Ah, how happy has
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: the matter sped. You will not need to do the
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: son a real hurt. Ah, forget not that on your soul,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: forget it. Not only make a little darkness, only the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: littlest little darkness mind and cease. With that it will
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: be sufficient. They will see that I spoke falsely, being ignorant,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: as they will fancy, And with the falling of the
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: first shadow of that darkness, you shall see them go
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: mad with fear, and they will set you free and
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: make you great. Go to thy triumph now, But remember, ah,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: good friend. I implore THEE, remember my supplication, and do
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: the blessed son no hurt. For my sake, thy true friend.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I choked out some words through my grief and misery,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: as much to say I would spare the sun, for
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: which the lad's eye paid me back with such deep
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: and loving gratitude that I had not the heart to
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: tell him his good hearted foolishness had ruined me and
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: sent me to my death. As the soldiers assisted me
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: across the court, the stillness was so profound that if
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: I had been blindfolded, I should have supposed I was
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: in a solitude instead of walled in by four thousand people.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: There was not a movement perceptible in those masses of humanity.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: They were as rigid as stone images and as pale
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: and dread sat upon every countenance. This hush continued while
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: I was being chained to the stake. It still continued
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: while the fagots were carefully and tediously piled about my ankles,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: my knees, my thighs, my body. And there was a
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: pause and a deeper hush, if possible, And a man
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: knelt down at my feet with a blazing torch. The
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: multitude strained forward, gazing and parting slightly from their seats.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: Without knowing it, the monk raised his hands above my
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: head and his eyes toward the blue sky, and began
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: some words in Latin. In this attitude, he droned on
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: and on a little while, and then stopped. I waited
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: two or three moments, then looked up. He was standing there,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: petrified with a common impulse. The multitude rose slowly up
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: and stared into the sky. I followed their eyes as
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: sure as guns. There was my eclipse beginning. The life
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: went boiling through my veins. I was a new man.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: The rim of black spread slowly into the sun's disk.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: My heart beat higher and high, and still the assemblage
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: and the priest stared into the sky motionless. I knew
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: that this gaze would be turned upon me next. When
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: it was I was ready. I was in one of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arms
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a noble effect.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: You could see the shutter sweep the mass like a wave.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: Two shouts rang out, one close upon the heels of
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: the other. Apply the torch, I forbid it. The one
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: was from Merlin, the other from the King. Merlin started
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: from his place to apply the torch himself, I judged.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I said, stay where you are. If any man moves,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: even the King, before I give him leave, I will
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: blast him with thunder. I will consume him with lightnings.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: The multitude sank meekly into their seats, and I was
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: just expecting they would. Merlin hesitated a moment or two,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: and I was on pins and needles during that little while.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: Then he sat down, and I took a good breath,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: for I knew I was master of the situation. Now
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: the King said, be merciful, fair sir, and to say
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: no further in this perilous matter, least disaster follow. It
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: was reported to us your powers could not attain unto
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: their full strength until the morrow. But your majesty thinks
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: the report may have been a lie. It was a
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: lie that made an immense effect. Up went appealing hands everywhere,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: and the King was assailed with a storm of supplications
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: that I might be bought off at any price, and
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: the calamity stayed. The King was eager to comply. He said,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: name any terms, Reverend Sir, even to the having of
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: my kingdom, but banish this calamity, spare the sun. My
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: fortune was made. I would have taken him up in
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: a minute, but I couldn't stop an eclipse. The thing
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: was out of the question, so I asked time to consider.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: The King said, how long? How long, good sir, be merciful?
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Look it groweth darker, moment by moment, pratty? How long?
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Not long? Half an hour, maybe an hour? There were
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: a thousand pathetic protests, but I couldn't shorten up any
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: for I couldn't remember how long a total eclipse last.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: I was in a puzzled condition anyway, and wanted to
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: think something was wrong about that eclipse, and the fact
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: was very unsettling. If this wasn't the one I was after,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: how was I to tell whether this was the sixth
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: century or nothing but a dream. Dear me, If I
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: could only prove it was the left, here was a
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: glad new hope. If the boy was right about the date,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: and this was surely the twentieth, it wasn't the sixth century.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: I reached for the Monk's sleeve in considerable excitement and
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: asked him what day of the month it was. Hang him.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: He said it was the twenty first. It made me
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: turn cold to hear him. I begged him not to
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: make any mistake about it, but he was sure. He
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: knew it was the twenty first, So that featherheaded boy
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: had botched things again. The time of the day was
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: right for the eclipse. I had seen that for myself
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: in the beginning by the dial that was nearby. Yes,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I was in King Arthur's court, and I might as
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: well make the most out of it I could. The
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: darkness was steadily growing, the people becoming more and more distressed. Now,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: I said, I have reflected, Sir King for a lesson.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: I will let this darkness proceed and spread night in
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: the world. But whether I blot out the sun for
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: good or restore it shall rest with you. These are
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: the terms to wit you shall remain king over all
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: your dominions, and receive all the glories and honors that
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: belonged to the kingship. But you shall appoint me your
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: perpetual minister and executive, and give me for my services
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: one percent of such actual increase of revenue over and
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: above its present amount as I may succeed in creating
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: for the state. If I can't live on that, I
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: shan't ask anybody to give me a lift. Is it satisfactory?
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: There was a prodigious roar of applause, and out of
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: the midst of it, the King's voice rose, saying, away
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: with his bonds, and set him free, and do him
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: homage high and low, rich and poor, For he has
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: become the King's right hand, is clothed with power and authority,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: and his seat is upon the highest step of the throne.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: Now sweep away this creeping night, and bring light and
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: sheer again, that all the world may bless thee. But
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: I said that a common man should be shamed before
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: the world is nothing but it were dishonor to the king.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: If any that saw his minister naked should not also
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: see him delivered from his shame. If I might ask
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: that my clothes be brought again. They are not meet
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: the king broke in fetch raiment of another sort clothe
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: him like a prince. My idea worked. I wanted to
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: keep things as they were till the eclipse was total.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: Otherwise they would be trying again to get me to
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: dismiss the darkness, and of course I couldn't do it.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: Sending for the clothes gained some delay, but not enough,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: so I had to make another excuse. I said, it
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: would be but natural if the King should change his
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: mind and repent to some extent of what he had
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: done under excitement. Therefore I would let the darkness grow
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: a little, and if at the end of a reasonable
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: time the King had kept his mind the same, the
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: darkness should be dismissed. Neither the King nor anybody else
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: was satisfied with that arrangement, but I had to stick
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: to my point. It grew darker and darker, and blacker
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: and blacker while I struggled with those awkward sixth century clothes.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: It got to be pitch dark at last, and the
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: multitude groaned with horror. To feel the cold, uncanny night
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: breezes fanned through the place, and see the stars come
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: out and twinkle in the sky. At last, the eclipse
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: was total, and I was very glad of it. But
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: everybody else was in misery, which was quite natural, I said,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the King, by his silence, still stands to the terms.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: Then I lifted up my hands, stood just so a moment,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: and I said, with the most awful solemnity, let the
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: enchantment to solve and pass harmless away. There was no
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: response for a moment in that deep darkness, in that graveyard, hush.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: But when the silver rim of the sun pushed itself
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: out a moment or two later, the assemblage broke loose
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: with a vast shout, and came pouring down like a
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: deluge to smother me with blessings and gratitude. Clarence was
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: not the last of the wash, to be sure, end
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: of chapter seven Merlin's Tower. Inasmuch as I was now
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: the second personage in the kingdom as far as political
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: power and authority were concerned, much was made of me.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: My ramiant was of silks and velvets and cloth of gold,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: and by consequence was very showy and also uncomfortable. But
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: habit would soon reconcile me to my clothes I was
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: aware of that. I was given the choicest suite of
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: apartments in the castle after the Kings. They were aglow
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: with loud colored silken hangings, but the stone floors had
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: nothing but rushes on them for a carpet, and they
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: were misfit rushes. At that being not all of one
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: breed asked for conveniences. Properly speaking, there weren't any. I
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: mean little conveniences. It is the little conveniences that make
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: the real comfort of life. The big oaken chairs, graced
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: with rude carvings, were well enough, but that was the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: stopping place. There was no soap, no matches, no looking
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: glass except a metal one, not as powerful as a
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: pail of water, and not a chromo. I had been
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: used to chromos for years, and I saw now that
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: without my suspecting it, a passion for art had got
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: worked into the fabric of my being and was become
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: a part of me. It made me homesick to look
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: around over this proud and gaudy but heartless barrenness. And
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: remember that in our house in East Hartford, all unpretending
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: as it was, you couldn't go into a room, but
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: you would find an insurance chromo or at least a
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: three colored God bless our home over the door, and
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: in the parlor we had nine. But here, even in
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: my grand room of state, there wasn't anything in the
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: nature of a picture except a thing the size of
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: a bed quilt, which was either woven or knitted. It
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: had darned places in it, and nothing in it was
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: the right color or the right shape. As for proportions,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: even Rafael himself couldn't have botched them more formidably after
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: all his practice on those nightmares. They call his celebrated
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: Hampton Court cartoons. Raphael was a bird. We had several
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: of his chromos. One was his miraculous Drought of Fishes,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: where he puts in a miracle of his own, puts
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: three men into a canoe which wouldn't have held a
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: dog without upsetting. I was admired to study Raphael's art.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: It was so fresh and unconventional. There wasn't even a
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: bell or a speaking tube in the castle. I had
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: a great many servants, and those that were on duty
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: lulled in the ante room, and when I wanted one
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: of them, I had to go and call for him.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: There was no gas. There were no candles, A bronze
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: dish half full of boarding house butter with a blazing
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: rag floating in it was the thing that produced what
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: was regarded as light. A lot of these hung along
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: the walls and modified the dark, just toned it down
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: enough to make it dismal. If you went out at night,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: your servants carried torches. There were no books, pens, paper,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: or ink, and no glass in the openings they believed
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: to be windows. It was a little thing glasses until
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: it's absent, and then it becomes a big thing. But
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: perhaps the worst of all was that there wasn't any sugar, coffee, tea,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: or tobacco. I saw that I was just another Robinson Crusoe,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: cast away on an uninhabited island with no society but
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: some more or less tame animals. And if I wanted
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: to make life bearable, I must do as he did invent, contrive, create,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: reorganize things, set brain and hand to work, and keep
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: them busy. Now that was in my line. One thing
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: troubled me along at first the immense interest which people
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: took in me. Apparently the whole nation wanted to look
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: at me. It soon transpired that the eclipse had scared
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: the British world almost to death, that while it lasted,
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: the whole country from one end to the other, was
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: in a pitiable state of panic, and the churches, hermitages
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: and monkeries overflowed with praying and weeping poor creatures who
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: thought the end of the world was come. Then had
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: followed the news that the producer of this awful event
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: was a stranger, a mighty magician at Arthur's court, that
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: he could have blown out the sun like a candle,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: and was just going to do it when his mercy
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: was purchased, and he then dissolved his enchantments and was
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: now recognized and honored as the man who had, by
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: his unaided might, saved the globe from destruction and its
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: peoples from extinction. Now, if you consider that everybody believed that,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: and not only believed it, but never even dreamed of
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: doubting it, you will easily understand that there was not
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: a person in all Britain that would not have walked
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: fifty miles to get a sight of me. Of course,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: I was all the talk. All other subjects were dropped.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: Even the King became suddenly a person of minor interest,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: and notoriety. Within twenty four hours the delegations began to arrive,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: and from that time onward, for a fortnight they kept coming.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: The village was crowded, and all the countryside. I had
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: to go out a dozen times a day and show
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: myself to these reverent and awe stricken multitudes. It came
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: to be a great burden as to time and trouble,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: But of course it was at the same time compensatingly
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: agreeable to be so celebrated in such a center of homage.
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: It turned Briar Merlin green with envy and spite, which
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: was a great satisfaction to me. But there was one
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: thing I couldn't understand. Nobody had asked for an autograph.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: I spoke to Clarence about it. By George, I had
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: to explain to him what it was. Then he said
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: nobody in the country could read or write, but a
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: few dozen priests planned think of that. There was another
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: thing that troubled me a little. Those multitudes presently began
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: to agitate for another miracle that was natural to be
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: able to carry back to their homes. The boast that
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: they had seen the man who could command the sun
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: riding in the heavens and be obeyed would make them
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: great in the eyes of their neighbors and envied by
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: them all. But to be able to also say that
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: they had seen him work a miracle themselves. Why people
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: would come a distance to see them? The pressure got
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: to be pretty strong. There was going to be an
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: eclipse of the moon, and I knew the date an hour,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: but it was too far away two years. I would
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: have given a good deal for a license to hurry
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: it up and use it now, when there was a
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: big market for it. It seemed a great pity to
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: have it wasted so and come lagging along long in
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: a time when a body wouldn't have any use for it,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: as like as not. If it had been booked for
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: only a month away, I could have sold it short,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: But as matters stood, I couldn't seem to cipher out
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: any way to make it do me any good, so
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: I gave up trying. Next Clarence found that old Merlin
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: was making himself busy on the sly among those people.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: He was spreading a report that I was a humbug,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: and that the reason I didn't accommodate the people with
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: a miracle was because I couldn't. I saw that I
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: must do something. Presently, I thought out a plan by
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: my authority as executive. I threw Merlin into prison the
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: same cell I had occupied myself. Then I gave public
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: notice by Harold and Trumpet that I would be busy
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: with affairs of state for a fortnight. But about the
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: end of that time I would take a moment's leisure
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: and blow up Merlinstone tower by fires from heaven. In
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: the meantime, whoso listened to evil reports about me, let
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: him beware. Furthermore, I would perform but this one miracle
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: at this time, and no more. If it failed to satisfy,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: and any murmured, I would turn the murmurs into horses
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: and make them useful. Quiet ensued, I took Clarence into
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: my confidence to a certain degree, and we went to
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: work Privately. I told him that this was a sort
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: of miracle that required a trifle of preparation, and that
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: it would be sudden death to ever talk about these
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: preparations to anybody that made his mouth safe enough. Clandestinely,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: we made a few bushels of first rate blasting powder,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: and I superintended my armors while they constructed a lightning raw,
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: and some wires. This old stone tower was very massive,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: and rather ruinous too, for it was Roman and four
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: hundred years old, Yes, and handsome after a rude fashion,
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: and clothed with ivy from base to summit, as with
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: a shirt of scale mail. It stood on a lonely
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: eminence and good view from the castle and about half
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: a mile away. Working by night, we stowed the powder
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: in the tower, dug stones out on the inside, and
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: buried the powder in the walls themselves, which were fifteen
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: feet thick. At the base. We put in a peck
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: at a time in a dozen places. We could have
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: blown up the Tower of London with these charges. When
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth night was come, we put up our lightning rod,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: bedded it in one of the batches of powder, and
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: ran wires from it to the other batches. Everybody had
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: shunned that locality from the day of my proclamation, but
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: on the morning of the fourteenth I thought best to
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: warn people through the heralds to keep clear away a
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: quarter of a mile away. Then added by command that
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: at some time during the twenty four hours I would
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: consummate the miracle, but would first give a brief notice
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: by flags at the castle towers, if in the daytime
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: by torch baskets in the same places, if at night
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: thundershowers had been tolerably frequent of late, and I was
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: not much afraid of a failure. Still, I shouldn't have
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: cared for a delay of a day or two. I
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: should have explained that I was busy with affairs of
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: state yet, and the people must wait. Of course, we
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: had a blazing sunny day, almost the first one without
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: a cloud for three weeks. Things always happened, So I
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: kept secluded and watched the weather. Clarence dropped in from
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: time to time and said the public excitement was growing
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: and growing all the time, and the whole country filling
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: up with human masses as far as one could see
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: from the battlements. At last, the wind sprang up, and
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: a cloud appeared in the right quarter too, and just
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: at nightfall, for a little while, I watched that distant
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: cloud spread and blacken, and I judged it was time
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: for me to appear. I ordered the torch baskets to
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: be lit, and Merlin liberated and sent to me. A
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: quarter of an hour later, I ascended the parapet, and
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: there found the King and court assembled and gazing off
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: in the darkness toward Merlin's tower. Already the darkness was
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: so heavy that one could not see far. These people
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: in the old turrets, being partly in deep shadow and
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: partly in red glow from the great torch baskets overhead,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: made a good deal of a picture. Merlin arrived in
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: a gloomy mood. I said, you wanted to burn me
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: alive when I had not done you any harm, and
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: latterly you have been trying to injure my professional reputation. Therefore,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: I am going to call down fire and blow up
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: your tower. But it is only fair to give you
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: a chance. Now. If you think you can break my
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: enchantments and ward off the fires, step to the bat.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: It's your innings, I can fair, sir, and I will
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: doubt it not. He drew an imaginary circle on the
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: stones of the roof and burnt a pinch of powder
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: in it, which sent up a small cloud of aromatic
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: smoke whereat. Everybody fell back and began to cross themselves
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: and get uncomfortable. Then he began to mutter and make
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: passes in the air with his hands. He worked himself
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: up slowly and gradually into a sort of frenzy, and
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: got to thrashing around with his arms like the sails
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: of a windmill. By this time the storm had about
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: reached us. The gusts of wind were flaring the torches
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: and making the shadows swash about. The first heavy drops
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: of rain were falling. The world abroad was black as pitch.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: The lightning began to wink fitfully. Of course, my rod
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: would be loading itself now. In fact, things were imminent,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: So I said, you have had time enough. I have
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: given you every advantage and not interfered. It is playing.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: Your magic is weak. It is only fair that I
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: begin now. I made about three passes in the air,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: and then there was an awful crash, and that old
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: tower leaped into the sky in chunks, along with a
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: vast volcanic fountain of fire that turned night to noonday
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: and showed a thousand acres of human beings groveling on
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: the ground in a general collapse of consternation. Well it
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: rained mortar and masonry the rest of the week. This
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: is the report, but probably the facts would have modified it.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: There wasn't effective miracle the great bothersome temporary population vanished
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: There were a good many thousand tracks in the mud
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: the next morning, but they were all outward bound. If
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: I had advertised another miracle, I couldn't have raised an
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: audience with a sheriff. Merlin stock was flat. The King
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to stop his wages. He even wanted to banish him,
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: but I interfered. I said he would be useful to
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: work the weather and attend to small matters like that,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: and I would give him a lift now and then.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: When his poor little parlor magic soured on him. There
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't a rag of his tower left, but I had
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: the government rebuild it for him, and advised him to
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: take borders. But he was too high toned for that.
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: And as for being grateful, he never even said thank you.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: He was a rather hard lot. Take him how you might,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: but then you couldn't fairly expect a man to be sweet.
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: That had been set back, so chapter eight the boss.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: but to have the onlooking world consent to it is
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: a finer. The tower episode solidified my power and made
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: it impregnable. If any were perchance disposed to be jealous
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: and critical. Before that, they experienced a change of heart.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: Now there was not anyone in the kingdom who would
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: have considered it good judgment to meddle with my matters.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: I was fast getting adjusted to my situation and circumstances.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: For a time I used to wake up mornings and
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: smile at my dream and listen for the colt's factory whistle.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: But that sort of thing played itself out gradually, and
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: at last I was fully able to realize that I
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: was actually living in the sixth century, and in Arthur's court,
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: not a lunatic asylum. After that, I was just as
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: much at home in that century as I could have
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: been in any other. And as for preference, I wouldn't
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: have traded it for the twentieth. Look at the opportunities
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: here for a man of knowledge, brains, pluck and enterprise
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: to sail in and grow up with the country, the
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: grandest field that ever was, and all my own. Not
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: a competitor, not a man who wasn't a baby to
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: me in acquirements and capacities. Whereas what would I amount
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: to in the twentieth century. I should be a foreman
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: of a factory, and that is about all, and could
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: drag a scene down street any day and catch a
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: hundred better men than myself. What a jump I had made.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: I couldn't keep from thinking about it and contemplating it,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: just as one does who has struck oil. There was
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: nothing back of me that could approach it, unless it
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: might be Joseph's case. And Joseph's only approached it. It
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: didn't equal it quite, For it stands to reason that
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: as Joseph's splendid financial ingenuities advantaged nobody but the King,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: the general public must have regarded him with a good
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: deal of disfavor, whereas I had done my entire public
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: a kindness in sparing the sun, and was popular by
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: reason of it. I was no shadow of a king.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: I was the substance. The King himself was the shadow.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: My power was colossal, and it was not a mere name,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: as such things have generally been. It was the genuine article.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: I stood here at the very spring and source of
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: the second great period of the world's history, and could
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: see the trickling stream of that history gather and deepen,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: and broaden and roll its mighty tides down the far centuries.
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: And I could note the upspringing of adventurers like myself
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: in the shelter of its long array of thrones de Montfort's, Galveston's,
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: Mortimer's Versailles, the war making campaign directing wantons of France
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: and Charles the second scepter wielding Drabs. But nowhere in
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: the procession was my full sized fellow visible. I was
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: unique and glad to know that that fact would not
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: be dislodged or challenged for thirteen centuries and a half.
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: For sure. Yes, in power I was equal to the king.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: At the same time, there was another power that was
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: a trifle stronger than both of us put together. That
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: was the Church. I do not wish to disguise that fact.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: I couldn't if I wanted to. But never mind about
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: that now. It will show up in its proper place
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: later on. It didn't cause me any trouble in the beginning,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: and at least of any consequence. Well, it was a
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: curious country and full of interest. And the people they
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: were the quaintest and simplest and trustingest race. Why they
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: were nothing but rabbits. It was as pitiful for a
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: person born in a wholesome, free atmosphere to listen to
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: their humble and hearty outpourings of loyalty towards their king
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: and church and nobility, as if they had any more
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: occasion to love and honor king and Church and noble
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: than a slave has to love and honor the lash,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: or a dog has to love and honor the stranger
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: that kicks him. Why dear me. Any kind of royalty,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: how soever modified, any kind of aristocracy, how soever pruned,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: is rightly an insult. But if you're born and brought
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: up under that sort of arrangement, you probably never find
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: it out for yourself, and don't believe it when somebody
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: else tells you. It is enough to make a body
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: ashamed of his race, to think of the sort of
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: froth that has always occupied its thrones without shadow of
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: right or reason, and the seventh rate people that have
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: always figured as its aristocracies, a company of monarchs and
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: nobles who, as a rule, would have achieved only poverty
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: and obscurity if left, like their betters, to their own exertions.
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: The most of King Arthur British nation were slaves, pure
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: and simple, and bore that name and wore the iron
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: collar on their necks. And the rest were slaves in fact,
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: but without the name. They imagined themselves men and free men,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: and called themselves so. The truth was the nation as
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: a body, was in the world for one object, and
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: one only to grovel before the king and church and noble,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: to slave for them, sweat blood for them, starve, that
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: they might be fed, work, that they might play, drink
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: misery to the dregs, that they might be happy, go naked,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: that they might wear silks and jewels, pay taxes, that
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: they might be spared from paying them, be familiar all
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: their lives with the degrading language and postures of adulation,
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: that they might walk in pride and think themselves the
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: gods of this world. And for all this the thanks
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: they got cuffs and contempt. And so poor spirited were
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: they that they took even this sort of attention as
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: an honor. Inherited ideas are a curious thing and interesting
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: to observe and examine. I had mine, the king and
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: his people had theirs. In both cases, they flowed in
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: ruts worn deep by time and habit, and the man
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: who should have proposed to divert them by reason and
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: argument would have had a long contract on his hands.
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: For instance, those people had inherited the idea that all
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: men without title and a long pedigree, whether they had
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: great natural gifts and acquirements or hadn't, were creatures of
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: no more consideration than so many animals, bugs, insects. Whereas
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: I had inherited the idea that human dogs, who can
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: consent to masquerade in the peacock shams of inherited dignities
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: and unearned titles, are of no good. But to be
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: laughed at the way I was looked upon was odd,
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: but it was natural. You know how the keeper and
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: the public regard the elephant in the menagerie, Well, that
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: is the idea. They are full of admiration for his
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: vast bulk and his prodigious strength. They speak with pride
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: of the fact that he can do a hundred marvels
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: which are far and away beyond their own powers. And
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: they speak with the same pride of the fact that
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: in his wrath he is able to drive a thousand
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: men before him. But does that make him one of them? No,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: the raggedest tramp in the pit would smile at the idea.
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: He couldn't comprehend it, couldn't take it in, couldn't in
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: any remote way conceive of it. Well, to the king,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: the nobles and all the nation down to the very
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: slaves and tramps. I was just that kind of elephant,
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: and nothing more. I was admired also feared, But it
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: was as an animal is admired and feared, the animal
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: is not reverenced. Neither was I. I was not even respected.
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: I had no pedigree, no inherited title. So in the
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: kings and nobles eyes, I was mere dirt. The people
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: regarded me with wonder and awe, but there was no
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: reverence mixed with it. Through the force of inherited ideas,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: they were not able to conceive of anything being entitled
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: to that except pedigree and lordship. There you see the
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: hand of that awful power, the Roman Catholic Church. In
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: two or three little centuries, it had converted a nation
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: of men to a nation of worms. Before the day
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: of the Church's supremacy in the world, men were men
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: and held their heads up, and had a man's pride
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: and spirit and independence, and what of greatness and position
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: a person God he got mainly by achievement, not by birth.
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: But then the Church came to the front with an
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: axe to grind, and she was wise, subtle, and knew
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: more than one way to skin a cat or a nation.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: She invented divine right of kings and propped it all around,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: brick by brick, with the beatitudes, wrenching them from their
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: good purpose to make them fortify an evil one. She
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: preached to the commoner humility, obedience to superiors, the beauty
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: of self sacrifice. She preached to the commoner, meekness under insult,
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: preached still to the commoner always to the commoner, patience,
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: meanness of spirit, non resistance under oppression. And she introduced
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: heritable ranks and aristocracies, and taught all the Christian populations
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: of the earth to bow down to them and worship them.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: Even down to my birth century, that poison was still
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: in the blood of Christendom, and the best of English
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: commoners was still content to see his inferiors impudently continuing
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: to hold a number of positions, such as lordships and
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: the throne, to which the grotesque laws of his country
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: did not allow him to aspire. In fact, he was
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: not merely contented with this strange condition of things. He
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: was even able to persuade himself that he was proud
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: of it. It seems to show that there isn't anything
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: you can't stand if you are only born and bred
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 1: to it. Of course, that taint that reverence for rank
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: and title had been in our American blood too, I
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: know that, But when I left America it had disappeared.
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: At least to all intents and purposes. The remnant of
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: it was restricted to the dudes and dudases. When a
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: disease has worked its way down to that level, it
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: may fairly be said to be out of the system.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: But to return to my anomalous position in King Arthur's kingdom.
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: Here I was a giant among pigmies, a man among children,
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: a master intelligence among intellectual moles, by all rational measurement,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: the one and only actually great man in that whole
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: British world. And yet there and then, just as in
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: the remote England of my birth time, the sheep witted
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: earl who could claim long descent from a king's leman
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: acquired its second hand from the slums of London, was
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: better than than I was. Such a personage was fond
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: over in Arthur's realm, and reverently looked up to by everybody,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: even though his dispositions were as mean as his intelligence,
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: and his morals as base as his lineage. There were
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: times when he could sit down in the king's presence,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't. I could have got a title easily enough,
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: and that would have raised me a large step in
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: everybody's eyes, even in the kings the giver of it.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: But I didn't ask for it, and I declined it
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: when it was offered. I couldn't have enjoyed such a
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: thing with my notions, and it wouldn't have been fair anyway,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: because as far back as I could go, our tribe
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: had always been short of the bar sinister. I couldn't
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: have felt really satisfactorily, fine and proud and set up
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: over any title except one that should come from the
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: nation itself, the only legitimate source, and such an one
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: I hoped to win, and in the course of years
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: of honest and honorable endeavor, I did win it, and
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: did wear it with a high and clean pride. This
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: title fell casually from the lips of a blacksmith one
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: day in a village, was caught up as a happy thought,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: and tossed from mouth to mouth with a laugh and
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: an affirmative vote. In ten days it had swept the
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: kingdom and was become as familiar as the King's name.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: I was never known by any other designation afterward, whether
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: in the nation's talk or in grave debate upon matters
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: of state at the Council Board of the Sovereign. This title,
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: translated into modern speech, would be the boss elected by
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: the nation. That suited me, and it was a pretty
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: high title. There were very few these, and I was
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: one of them. If you spoke of the Duke or
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: the earl or the bishop, how could anybody tell which
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: one you meant? But if you spoke of the King,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: or the Queen or the boss, it was different. Well.
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: I liked the King, and as king, I respected him,
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: respected the office, at least, respected as much as I
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: was capable of respecting any unearned supremacy. But as men
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: I looked down upon him and his nobles privately, and
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: he and they liked me and respected my office. But
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: as an animal without birth or sham title, they looked
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: down upon me and were not particularly private about it either.
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't charge for my opinion about them, and they
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: didn't charge for their opinion about me. The account was square,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: the books balanced, everybody was satisfied. Chapter nine. The tournament.
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: They were always having grand tournaments there at camelot and
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: very stirring and picturesque and ridiculous human bullfights. They were, too,
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: but just a little wearisome to the practical mind. However,
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: I was generally on hand for two reasons. A man
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: must not hold himself aloof from the things which his
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: friends and community have at heart if he would be liked,
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: especially as a statesman, and both as businessman and statesman.
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: I wanted to study the tournament and see if I
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't invent an improvement on it. That reminds me to
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: remark in passing that the very first official thing I
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: did in my administration, and it was on the very
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: first day of it too, was to start a patent office.
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: For I knew that a country without a patent office
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: and good patent laws was a crab and couldn't travel
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: anyway but sideways or backways. Things ran along a tournament
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: nearly every week, and now and then the boys used
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: to want me to take a hand, I mean, Sir
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: Launcelot and the rest, but I said I would by
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: and buy no hurry yet, and too much government machinery
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: to oil up and set to rights and started going.
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: We had one tournament which was continued from day to
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: day during more than a week, and as many as
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: five hundred nights took part in it. From first to
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: last there were weeks gathering. They came on horseback from everywhere,
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: from the very ends of the country and even from
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: beyond the sea, and many brought ladies, and all brought
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: squires and troops of servants. It was a most gaudy
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: and gorgeous crowd as to costumry, and very characteristic of
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: the country and the time, in the way of high
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: animal spirits, innocent indecencies of language, and happy hearted indifference
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: to morals. It was fight or look on all day
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: and every day, and sing, gamble, dance, carouse half the night.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: Every night they had a most noble good time. You
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: never saw such people, those banks of beautiful ladies shining
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: in their barbaric splendors. Would see a night sprawl from
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: his horse in the lists with a lance shaft, the
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: thickness of your ankle clean through him, and the blood spurting,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: and instead of fainting, they would clap their hands and
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: crowd each other for a better view. Only sometimes one
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: would dive into her handkerchief and look ostentatiously broken hearted
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: and then you could lay two to one that there
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: was a scandal there somewhere, and she was afraid that
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: the public hadn't found it out. The noise at night
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: would have been annoying to me ordinarily, but I didn't
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: mind it in the present circumstances, because it kept me
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: from hearing the quacks detaching legs and arms from the
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: day's cripples. They ruined an uncommon good crosscut saw for
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: me and broke the sawbuck too, but I let it
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: pass and asked for my axe. Well, I made up
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: my mind that the next time I lent an axe
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: to a surgeon, I would pick my century. I not
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: only watched this tournament from day to day, but detailed
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: an intelligent priest from my Department of Public Morals and
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: Agriculture and ordered him to report it, for it was
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: my purpose, by and by when I should have gotten
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: the people along far enough to start a newspaper. The
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: first thing you wanted in New Country is a patent office.
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: Then work up your school system, and after that out
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: with your paper. A newspaper has its faults, and plenty
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: of them, but no matter. It's hark from the tomb
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: for a dead nation and don't you forget it. You
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: can't resurrect a dead nation without it. There isn't any way.
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to sample things and be finding out
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: what sort of reporter material I might be able to
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: rake together out of the sixth century when I should
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: come to need it. Well, the priest did very well,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: considering he got in all the details, and that is
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: a good thing in a local item. You see, he
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: had kept books for the undertaker department of his church
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: when he was younger. And there you know, the money's
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: in the details. The more details, the more swag bearers, mutes, candles, prayers,
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: everything counts. And if the bereave don't buy prayers enough,
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: you mark up your candles with a forked pencil, and
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: your shows up all right. And he had a good
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: knack at getting in the complimentary thing here and there
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: about a knight that was likely to advertise, No, I
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: mean a knight that had influence. And he also had
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: a neat gift of exaggeration, for in his time he
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: had kept door for a pious hermit who lived in
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: his sty and worked miracles. Of course, this novice's report
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: lacked whoop and crash and lurid description, and therefore wanted
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: the true ring, but its antique wording was quaint and
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: sweet and simple and full of the fragrances and flavors
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: of the time, and his little merits made up in
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: a measure for its more important blacks. Here's an extract
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: from it. Then Sir Brian de las Isles and Groomore,
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: some knights of the castle encountered with Sir Egerville and
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: Sir tor and Sir Tors smote down Sir Gmore Gromorism
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: to the earth. Then came Sir Cardros of the Dolores
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: Tower and Sir Turquine, knights of the Castle, and there
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: encountered them with Sir Perceval de Guy and Sir Lamark
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: de le Gui, that were two brethren. And there encountered
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: Sir Perceval with Sir Cardros, and either break their spears
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: unto their hands, And then Sir Turquine with Sir Lamark,
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: and either of them smote down other horse and all
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: to the earth, and either parties rescued other and horsed
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: them again. And Sir Arnold and Sir Gouter, knights of
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: the Castle encountered with Sir Brendes and Sir Kay, and
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: these four knights encountered mightily and break their spears to
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: their hands. Then came Sir Pentelope from the castle, and
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: there encountered with him Sir Lionel, And there Sir Pertelope,
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: the Green Knight, smote down Sir Lionel, brother to Sir Launcelot.
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: All this was marked by noble heralds, who bear him
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: best and their names. Then Sir Belabarus break his spear
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: upon Sir Gareth. But of that stroke Sir Belavarus fell
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: to the earth. When Sir Galadin saw that, he bade
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: Sir Gareth keep him, and Sir Gareth smote him to
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: the earth. Then Sir Galahud gat a spirit to avenge
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: his brother, and in the same wise Sir Gareth served him,
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: and Sir Dinadan and his brother Lacourt Meltellier, and Sir
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: Sagamore de la Desires, and Sir Dinadanius le Savage. All
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: these he bare down with one spear. When King Alisance
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: of Ireland saw Sir Gareth fairso he marveled what he
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: might be, that one time seemed green, and another time
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: at his again coming, he seemed blue. And thus at
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: every course that he rode to and fro. He changed
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: his color, so that there might neither king nor knight
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: have ready cognizance of him. Then Sir Aguasance, the King
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: of Ireland, encountered with Sir Gareth, and there Sir Gareth
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: smote him from his horse, saddle and all. And then
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: came King Cadros of Scotland, and Sir Gareth smote him
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: down horse and man. And in the same wise he
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 1: served King Uranus of the Land of Gore. And then
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: there came in Sir Bagdemagus, and Sir Gareth smote him
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: down horse and man to the earth, and Bagdamana's son Magnus,
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: break a spear upon Sir Gareth mightily and knightly. And
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: then Sir Galahut, the noble Prince, cried, on high Knight,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: with the many colors, well hast thou jousted, Now make
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: thee ready, that I may just with thee. Sir Gareth
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: heard him, and he gat a great spear, and so
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: they encountered together, and there the prince break his spear,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: but Sir Gareth smote him upon the left side of
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: the helm, that he reeled here and there, and he
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: had fallen down and had not his men recovered him. Truly,
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: said King Arthur. That knight with the many colors is
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: a good knight. Wherefore the King called unto him, Sir Launcelot,
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: and him to encounter with that knight. Sir, said Sir Launcelot,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: I may as well find in my heart for to
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: forbear him at this time, for he hath had travail
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: enough this day. And when a good knight doth so
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: well upon some day, it is no good knight's part
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: to let him of his worship. And namely, when he
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: seeth a knight hath done so great labor for paradventure,
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: said Sir Launcelot. His quarrel is here this day, and
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: paradventure he is best beloved with this lady of all
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: that be here. For I see well he painteth himself
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: and enforceth him to do great deeds. And therefore said
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: Sir Launcelot, as for me this day he shall have
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: the honor. Though it lay in my power to put
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: him from it, I would not. There is an unpleasant
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: little episode that day, which for reasons of state I
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: struck out of my priest's report. You will have noticed
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: that Gary was doing some great fighting in the engagement.
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: When I say Gary, I mean Sir Gareth. Gary was
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: my private pet name for him. It suggests that I
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: had a deep affection for him, and that was the case,
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: but it was a private pet name only, and never
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: spoken aloud to anyone, much less to him. Being a noble,
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: he would not have endured a familiarity like that for me. Well,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: true proceed I sat in the private box set apart
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: for me as the King's minister, while Sir Dinadan was
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: waiting for his turn to enter the lists. He came
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: in there and sat down and began to talk. For
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: he was always making up to me because I was
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: a stranger, and he liked to have a fresh market
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: for his jokes, the most of them having reached that
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: stage of where where the teller has to do all
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: of the laughing himself while the other person just looked sick.
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: I had always responded to his efforts as well as
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: I could, and felt a very deep and real kindness
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: for him too, for the reason that if by malice
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: of fate he knew the one particular ancidote which I
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 1: had heard oftenest and had most hated and most loathed
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: all my life, he had at least spared it me.
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: It was one which I had heard attributed to every
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: humorous person who had ever stood on American soil, from
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: Columbus down to Artemus ward. It was about a humorous
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: lecturer who flooded an ignorant audience with the killingest jokes
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: for an hour and never got a laugh. And then
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: when he was leaving, some gray simpletons wrung him gratefully
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: by the hand and said it had been the funniest
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: thing they had ever heard, and it was all they
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: could do to keep from left and right out and
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: meeting that ansidote never saw the day it was worth
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: the telling. And yet I had sat under the telling
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: of it hundreds and thousands and millions and billions of times,
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: and cried and cursed all the way through. Then, who
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: can hope to know what my feelings were to hear
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: this armor plated ass start in on it again in
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: the murky twilight of tradition, before the dawn of history. Well,
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: even Lactanious might be referred to as the late Lectanious,
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: and the Crusades wouldn't be born for five hundred years.
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: Yet just as he finished, the callboy came so hahaing
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: like a demon. He went rattling and clanking out like
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: a crate of loose casings, and I knew nothing more.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: It was some minutes before I came to, and then
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: I opened my eyes just in time to see Sir
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: Gareth fetch him an awful welt, and I unconsciously out
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: with the prayer. I hoped to gracious he's killed, but
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: by ill luck. Before I had got half through with
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: the words, Sir Gareth crashed into Sir sagramorely desirous and
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: sent him thundering over his horse's crouper. And Sir Sagramore
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: caught my remark and thought I meant it for him. Well,
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: whenever one of those people got a thing into his head,
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: there was no getting it out again. I knew that,
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: so I saved my breath and offered no explanations. As
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: soon as Sir Sagramore got well, he notified me that
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: there was a little account to be settled between us,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: and he named a day three or four years in
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: the future place of settlement the lists where the offense
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: had been given. I said I would be ready when
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: he got back. You see, he was going for the
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: Holy Grail. The boys all took a flyer at the
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: Holy Grail now and then it was a several years cruise.
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: They always put in in the long absence, snooping around
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: in the most conscientious way, though none of them had
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: any idea where the Holy Grail really was, and I
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: don't think any of them actually expected to find it
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: or would have known what to do with it if
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: he had run across it. You see, it was just
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: the northwest passage of that day, As you may say,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: that was all. Every year expectations went out holy grailing,
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: and next year relief expeditions went out to hunt for them.
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: There was worlds of reputation in it, but no money.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: Why they actually wanted me to put in, well, I
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: should smile. Chapter ten. The roundtable soon heard of the challenge,
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: and of course it was a good deal discussed for
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 1: such things interested the boys. The King thought, I ought
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: now to set forth in quest of adventures, so that
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: I might gain renown and be the more worthy to
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: meet Sir Sagamore. When the several years should have rolled away.
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: I excused myself for the present. I said, it would
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: take me three or four years to get things well
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: fixed up and going smoothly. Then I should be ready.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: All the chances were that at the end of that time,
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: Sir Sagamore would still be outgrailing, so no valuable time
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: would be lost by the postponement. I should then have
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: been in office six or seven years, and I believed
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: my system and machinery would be so well developed that
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 1: I could take a holiday without its working any harm.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: I was pretty well satisfied with what I had already
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: accomplished in various quiet nooks and corners. I had the
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: beginnings of all sorts of industries underway. Nuclear, I have
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: future vast factories, the iron and steel missionaries of my
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: future civilization. And these were gathered together the brightest young
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: minds I could find, and I kept agents out raking
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: the country for more. All the time I was training
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: a crowd of ignorant folk into experts, experts in every
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: sort of handiwork and scientific calling. These nurseries of mine
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: went smoothly and privately along undisturbed in their obscure country retreats,
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: for nobody was allowed to come into their precincts without
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: a special permit. For I was afraid of the church.
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: I had started a teacher factory and a lot of
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: Sunday schools the first thing. As a result, I now
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: had an admirable system of graded schools in full blast
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: in those places, and also a complete variety of Protestant congregations.
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: In all its prosperous and growing condition. Everybody could be
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: any kind of Christian he wanted to. There was a
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: perfect freedom in that matter. But I can find public
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: religious teachings to the churches and the Sunday schools, permitting
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: nothing of it. In my other educational buildings. I could
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: have given my own sect the preference and made everybody
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: a Presbyterian without any trouble. But that would have been
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: to affront a law of human nature. Spiritual wants and
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: instincts are as various in the human family as are
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: physical appetites, complexions, and features. And a man is only
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: at his best morally when he is equipped with a
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: religious garment, whose color and shape and size most nicely
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: accommodate themselves to the spiritual complexion, angularities, and stature of
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: the individual who wears it. And besides, I was afraid
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: of a united church. It makes a mighty power, the
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: mightiest conceivable. And then when it by and by gets
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do,
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: it means death to human liberty and paralysis to human thought.
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: All minds were royal property, and there were a good
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: many of them. They had formerly been worked as savages
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: always work mines, holes grubbed in the earth, and the
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: mineral brought up in sacks of hide by hand at
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: the rate of a ton of day. But I had
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: begun to put the mining on a scientific basis as
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: early as I could. Yes, I had made pretty handsome
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: progress when Sir Sagramor's challenge struck me. Four years rolled by,
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: and then well, you would never imagine it in the world.
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: Unlimited power is the ideal thing when it is in
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: safe hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: perfect government. An earthly despotism would have been the absolutely
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: perfect earthly government if the conditions were the same. Namely,
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: the despot the perfectest individual in the human race, and
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: his lease of life perpetual. But as a perishable perfect
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: man must die and leave his despotism in the hands
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: of an imperfect successor. An earthly despotism is not merely
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: a bad form of government. It is the worst form
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: that is possible. My work showed what a despot could
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: do with the resources of a kingdom at his command.
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: Unsuspected by this dark land, I laid the civilization of
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: the nineteenth century blooming under its very nose. It was
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: fenced away from the public view. But there it was
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: a gigantic and unassailable fact, and to be heard from.
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: Yet if I lived and had luck there it was
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 1: as sure a fact and as substantial a fact as
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: any serene volcano, standing innocent, with its smokeless summit in
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: a blue sky and giving no sign of the raising
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: hell in its bowels. My schools and churches were children
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: four years before they were grown up. Now my shops
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: of that day were vast factories. Now where I had
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 1: a dozen trained men, then I had a thousand. Now
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: where I had one brilliant expert, then I had fifty.
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: Now I stood with my hand on the cock, so
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: to speak, ready to turn it on and flood the
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: midnight world with light at any moment. I was not
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: going to do the thing that sudden way. It was
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: not my policy. The people could not have stood it.
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: And moreover, I should have had the established Roman Catholic
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: Church on my back in a minute. No. I had
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: been going cautiously all the while. I had had confidential
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: agents trickling through the country sometime, whose office was to
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: undermine knighthood by imperceptible degrees, and to gnaw a little
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: bit at this and that and the other superstition, and
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: so prepare the way gradually for a better order of things.
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: I was turning on my light, one candle power at
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: a time, and meant to continue to do so. I
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: had scattered some branch schools secretly about the Kingdom, and
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: they were doing very well. I meant to work this
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: racket more and more as time wore on, if nothing
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: occurred to frighten me. One of my deepest secrets was
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: my west Point, my military academy. I kept that most
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: jealously out of sight, and I did the same with
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: my naval academy, which I had established at a remote seaport.
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: Both were prospering to my satisfaction. Clarence was twenty two
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: now and was my head executive, my right hand He
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: was a darling. He was equal to anything. There wasn't
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: anything he couldn't turn his hand to. Of late, I
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: had been training him for journalism for the time seemed
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: about right for a start in the newspaper line. Nothing big,
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: just as small weekly for experimental circulation in my civilization nurseries.
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: He took to it like a duck. There was an
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: editor concealed in him. Sure already he had doubled himself
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: in one way. He talked sixth century and wrote nineteenth.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: His journalistic style was climbing steadily. It was already up
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 1: to the back Settlement, Alabama mark, and couldn't be told
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: from the editorial output of that region, either by matter
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: or flavor. We had another large departure on hand too.
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: This was a telegraph and telephone, our first venture in
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: this line. These wires were for private service only as yet,
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: and must be kept private until a riper day should come.
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: We had a gang of men on the road, working
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: mainly by night. They were stringing ground wires. We were
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: afraid to put up poles, for they would attract too
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: much inquiry. Ground wires were good enough in both instances,
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: for my wires were protected by an insulation of my
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: own invention, which was perfect. My men had orders to
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: strike a cross country, avoiding roads and establishing connection with
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: any conceit literable town whose lights betrayed their presence and
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: leaving experts in charge. Nobody could tell you how to
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: find any place in the kingdom, for nobody ever went
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: intentionally to any place, but only struck it by accident
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: in his wanderings, and then generally left it without thinking
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: to inquire what its name was. At one time and
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: another we had sent out topographical expeditions to survey and
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: map the kingdom, but the priests had always interfered and
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: raised trouble, so we had given the thing up for
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: the present. It would be poor wisdom to antagonize the Church.
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: As for the general condition of the country, it was
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: as it had been when I arrived in it. To
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: all intents and purposes. I had made changes, but they
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: were necessarily slight, and they were not noticeable. Thus far,
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: I had not even meddled with taxation. Outside of the
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: taxes which provided the royal revenues. I had systematized those
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: and put the service on an effective and righteous basis.
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: As a result, these revenues were already quadrupled, and yet
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: the burden was so much more equitably distributed than before
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: that all the kingdom felt a sense of relief, and
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: the praises of my administration were hearty and general personally.
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: I struck an interruption now, but I did not mind it.
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: It could not have happened at a better time Earlier.
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: It could have annoyed me, But now everything was in
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: good hands and swimming right along. The King had reminded
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: me several times of late that the postponement I had
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: asked for four years before had about run out. Now
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: it was a hint that I ought to be starting
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: out to seek adventures and get up a reputation of
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: a size to make me worthy of the honor of
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: breaking a lance with Sir Sagramore, who was still out grailing,
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: but was being hunted for by various relief expeditions and
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 1: might be found any year now. So you see, I
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: was expecting this interruption. It did not take me by surprise.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: End of chapter eleven, The Yankee in Search of Adventures.
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: There never was such a country for wandering liars, and
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: they were of both sexes. Hardly a month went by
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: without one of these tramps arriving and generally loaded with
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: a tail about some princess or other wanting help to
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: get her out of some faraway castle where she was
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 1: held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel, usually a giant. Now,
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 1: you would think that the first thing the king would
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 1: do after listening to such a novelette from an entire stranger,
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: would be asked for credentials, yes, and a point or
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: two as to the locality of castle, best route to it,
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: and so on. But nobody ever thought of so simple
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: and common sense a thing at that. No, No, everybody
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: swallowed these people's lies whole and never asked a question
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: of any sort or about anything. Well, one day, when
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: I was not around, one of these people came along.
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 1: It was a she one this time, and told the
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: tale of the usual pattern. Her mistress was a captive
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: and a vast and gloomy castle, along with forty four
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: other young and beautiful girls, pretty much all of them princesses.
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 1: They had been languishing in that cruel captivity for twenty
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: six years. The masters of the castle were three stupendous brothers,
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: each with four arms and one eye, the eye in
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: the center of the forehead and as big as a fruit,
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: the sort of fruit not mentioned. Their usual slovenliness and statistics.
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: Would you believe it, The King and the whole round
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: table were in raptures over this preposterous opportunity for adventure.
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: Every night at the table jumped for the chance and
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: begged for it. But to their vexation and chagrin, the
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: King conferred it upon me, who had not asked for
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: it at all. By an effort, I contained my joy
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: when Clarence brought me the news, but he he could
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: not contain his. His mouth gushed delight and gratitude in
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: a steady discharge, delight in my good fortune, gratitude to
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: the King for his splendid mark of his favor for me.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: He could keep neither his legs nor his body still,
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: but pirouetted about the place in an airy ecstasy of happiness.
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: On my side, I could have cursed a kindness that
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: conferred upon me this benefaction, But I kept my vexation
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: under the surface for policy's sake, and did what I
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: could to let on to beat glad. Indeed, I said
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: I was glad, and in a way it was true.
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: I was as glad as a person is when he
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: is scalped. Well. One must make the best of things
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: and not waste time with useless fretting, but get down
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: to business and see what can be done. In all lies,
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: there is wheat among the chaff, and I must get
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: at the wheat in this case. So I sent for
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: the girl, and she came. She was a comely enough creature,
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: and soft, and but if signs went for anything, she
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: didn't know as much as a lady's watch. I said,
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: my dear, have you been questioned as to particulars? She
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: said she hadn't. Well, I didn't expect you had, but
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: I thought I would ask to make sure. It's the
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: way I've been raised. Now, you mustn't take it unkindly.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: If I remind you that, as we don't know you,
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: we must go a little slow. You may be all right,
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: of course, and we'll hope that you are. But to
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: take it for granted isn't business. You understand that I'm
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: obliged to ask you a few questions. Just answer up
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: far and square, and don't be afraid. Where do you live?
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: When you were at home? And the land of Motor fair, sir,
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: Land of Motor I don't remember hearing of it before.
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: Parents living, As to that I know not if they
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: be yet on live sith. It is many years that
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: I have been laying shut up in the castle. Your
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: name please, I height the demoiselle alessandi la cartelais, and
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: it please you? Do you know anybody here who can
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: identify you? That were not? Likely? Fair? Lord? I being
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: come hither now for the first time? Have you brought
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: any letters, any documents, any proofs that you are trustworthy
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: and truthful of a surety? No? And wherefore should I have?
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: I not a tongue? And cannot I say all that myself?
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: But your saying it, you know, and somebody else is
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: saying it is different? Different? How might that be? I
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: hear me? I do not understand. Don't understand l of
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: why you see? You see why, great Scott? Can't you
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: understand a little thing like that? Can't you understand the
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: difference between your Why do you look so innocent and idiotic? I?
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: In truth I know not? But and it where the
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 1: will of God? Yes, yes, I reckon, That's about the
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: size of it. Don't mind my seeming excited. I'm not
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: let us change the subject now. As his castle with
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: forty five princesses in it and three ogres at the
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: head of it, tell me where is this? Harem harem
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: the castle? You understand? Where is the castle? Oh? As
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: to that it is great and strong, and well beseen,
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 1: and lieth in a far country. Yes, it is many leagues.
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: How many, ah, fair, sir, it were woundedly hard to tell?
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: They are so many, and do so lap one upon
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: the other, and being made all in the same image
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: and tinkeded with the same color, one may not know
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: the one league from its fellow, nor how to count them,
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: except they be taken apart. And ye wit well, it
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: were God's work to do, that, being not within man's capacity.
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: For ye will note, hold on, hold on, never mind
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: about the distance. Where abouts does the castle lie? What's
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: the direction from here? Ah? Please you, sir, it hath
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: no direction from here, by reason that the road lieth
• 2:19:09
  Speaker 1: not straight, but turneth evermore. Wherefore the direction of its
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: place abideth not, but is sometime under the one sky,
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: and anon under another. Whereso, if ye be mindeth that
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: it is in the west, and windeth thitherward, ye shall
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: observe that the way of the road doth yet again
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: turn upon itself by the space of a half circle.
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: And this marvel happening again and yet again, and still again.
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: It will grieve you that you had thought, by vanities
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: of mind to thwart and bring to naught the will
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: of him that giveth not a castle a direction from
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: a place, except it pleaseth him, And if it please him,
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: not will the rather that even all can and all
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: directions thereonto vanish out of the earth, leaving the places
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: wherein they tarry, desolate and vacant, so warning his creatures
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: that where he will he will, and where he will
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: not he Oh, that's all right, that's all right. Give
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: us a rest. Never mind about the direction. Hang the direction.
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: I beg pardon, I beg a thousand pardons. I am
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: not well today. Pay no attention when I soliloquise. It
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: is an old habit, an old bad habit, and hard
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: to get rid of. When one's digestion is all disordered
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: with eating food that was raised forever and ever before
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: he was born good land, a man can't keep his
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: functions regular on spring chickens thirteen hundred years old. But come,
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: never mind about that. Let's have you got such a
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: thing as a map of that region about you? Now?
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 1: A good map? Is it paradventure? That manner of thing
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: which of the late unbelievers have brought from over the
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: great seas, which being boiled in oil and an onion
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: and salt added there to dulf What a map? What
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: are you talking about? Don't you know what a map is?
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: They're there? Never mind, don't explain. I hate explanations, for
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: they fog a thing up so you can't tell anything
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: about it. Run along, dear good day, show her the way, Clarence.
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: Oh well, it was reasonably plain now why these donkeys
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 1: didn't prospect these liars for details. It may be that
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: this girl had a fact in her somewhere, but I
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: don't believe you could have sluiced it out with hydraulic
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 1: nor got it with the earlier forms of blasting. Even
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: it was a case for dynamite when she was a
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: perfect ass. And yet the king and the knights had
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: listened to her as if she had been a leaf
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: out of the gospel. It kind of sizes up the
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: whole party. And think of the simple ways of this court.
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: This wandering wench hadn't any more trouble to get access
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: to the King in his palace than she would have
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: had to get into the poorhouse in my day and country.
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: In fact, he was glad to see her, glad to
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: hear her tale. With that adventure of hers to offer.
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: She was as welcome as a corpse is to a coroner.
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: Just as I was ending up these reflections, Clarence came back.
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: I remarked upon the barren result of my efforts with
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: the girl, hadn't got hold of a single point that
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: could have help me find the castle. The youth looked
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: a little surprised, or puzzled or something, and imitated that
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: he had been wondering to himself what I had wanted
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: to ask the girl all those questions for why, great guns?
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: I said, don't I want to find the castle? And
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: how else would I go about it? Uh? Sweet, your
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: worship one may lightly answer that, I ween she will
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: go with thee. They always do. She will ride with thee,
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: ride with me? Nonsense, But of a truth she will.
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: She will ride with thee. Thou shalt see what she
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: brows around the hills and scour the woods with me alone,
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: and I as good as engaged to be married. Why
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: it's scandalous, Think how it would look my the dear
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: face that rose before me. The boy was eager to
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: know all about this tender matter. I swore him to secrecy,
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: and then whispered her name, Puss Flanagan. He looked disappointed
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 1: and said he didn't remember the countess. How natural it
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: was for the little courtier to give her a rank.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: He asked me where she lived in East har I
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: came to myself and stopped a little confused, and then
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: I said, never mind, now, I'll tell you sometime, and
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: might he see her? Would I let him see her
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: some day? It was but a little thing to promise
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: thirteen hundred years or so, and he's so eager, so
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: I said yes, But I sighed. I couldn't help it.
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: And yet there was no sense in sighing, for she
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't born yet. But that's the way we're made. We
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: don't reason where we feel, We just feel. My expedition
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: was all the talk that day and night, and the
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: boys were very good to me and made much of me,
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: and seemed to have forgotten their vexation and disappointment, and
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: come to be as anxious for me to hive those
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: ogres and set those ripe oled virgins loose, as if
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: it were themselves that had the contract. Well, they were
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: good children, but just children, that is all. And they
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: gave me no end of points about how to scout
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: for giants, and how to scoop them in. And then
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: they told me all sorts of charms against enchantments, and
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: gave me salves and other rubbish to put on my wounds.
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: But it never occurred to one of them to reflect
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: that if I was such a wonderful necromancer as I
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: was pretending to be, I ought not to need cells,
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: or instructions or charms against enchantments, and least of all
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: arms and armor on a foray of any kind, even
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 1: against fire spouting dragons and devils hot from perdition, let
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: alone such poor adversaries as these. I was after these
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: commonplace ogres of the back settlements. I was to have
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: an early breakfast and start at dawn, for that was
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: the usual way, But I had the demon's own time
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: with my armor, and this delayed me a little. It
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: is troublesome to get into and there is so much detail.
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: First you wrap a layer or two of blanket around
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: your body for a sort of cushion and to keep
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 1: off the cold iron. Then you put on your sleeves
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: and shirt of chain mail. These are made of small
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: steel links woven together, and they form a fabric so
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: flexible that if you toss your shirt onto the floor.
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: It slumps into a pile like a peck of wet
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: fish net. It is very heavy and is nearly the
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 1: un comfortable as material in the world for a night shirt,
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: yet plenty used it for that tax collectors and reformers,
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: and one horse kings with the defective title, and those
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: sorts of people. Then you put on your shoes, flat
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: boats roofed over with interleaving bands of steel, and screw
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 1: your clumsy spurs into the heels. Next you buckle your
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: greaves on your legs, and your curses on your thighs.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: Then come your back plate and your breastplate, and you
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 1: begin to feel crowded. Then you hitch onto the breastplate
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: the half petticoat of broad overlapping bands of steel, which
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: hangs down in front but is scalloped out behind you
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: so you can sit down. And isn't any real improvement
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: on an inverted coal scuttle, either for looks or for wear,
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 1: or to wipe your hands on for that matter. Next
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: you belt on your sword. Then you put your stovepipe
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 1: joints onto your arms, your iron gauntlets onto your hands,
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: your iron rat trap onto your head with a rag
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: of steel web hitched into it to hang over the
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: back of your neck, and there you are, snug is
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: a candle in a candle mold. This is no time
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: to dance. Well. A man that is packed away like
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 1: that is a nut that isn't worth the cracking. There's
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: so little of the meat when you get down to it,
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: by comparison with the shell. The boys helped me, or
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: I never could have got in. Just as we finished,
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: Sir Belvedere happened in and I saw that, as like
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: as not, I hadn't chosen the most convenient outfit for
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: a long trip. How stately he looked, and tall and
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: broad and grand. He had on his head a conical
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: steel cask that only came down to his ears, and
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: for a visor only a narrow steel bar that extended
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: down to his upper lip and protected his nose. And
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: all the rest of him from neck to heel, was
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: flexible chain mail trousers and all, but pretty much all
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: of him was hidden under his outside garment, which of
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 1: course was of chain mail, as I said, and hung
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: straight from his shoulders to his ankles, and from his
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: middle to the bottom, and both before and behind was divided.
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: Said he could ride and let the skirts hang down
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 1: on each side. He was going grailing, and it was
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: just the outfit for it too. I would have given
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: a good deal for that ulster, but it was too
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: late now to be fooling around. The sun was just up.
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: The King and the court were all on hand to
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: see me off and wish me luck, So it wouldn't
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: be etiquette for me to tarry. You don't get on
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: your horse yourself, No, if you tried it, you would
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: get disappointed. They carry you out, just as they carry
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: a sun struck man to the drug store. Put you
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: on and help you get your rights and fix your
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 1: feet in the stirrups, and all the while you do
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 1: feel so strange and stuffy and like somebody else, like
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: somebody that has been married on the sudden, or struck
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 1: by lightning or something like that, and hasn't quite fetched
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: around yet, and his sort of numb and can't just
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: get his bearings. Then they stood up the mast. They
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: called a spear in its socket by my left foot,
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: and I gripped it with my hand. Lastly they hung
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: my shield around my neck, and I was all complete
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: and ready to up anchor and get to see. Everybody
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: was as good to me as they could be, and
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: a maid of honor gave me the stirrup cup her
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 1: own self. There was nothing more to do now but
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 1: for that damsel to get up behind me on a pillion,
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 1: which she did, and put an arm or so around
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: me to hold on. And so we started. But he
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 1: gave us a goodbye and waved their handkerchiefs or helmets.
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: And everybody we met going down the hill and through
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: the village was respectful to us, except some shabby little
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: boys on the outskirts. They said, oh, what a guy,
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 1: and hope clauds at us. In my experience, boys are
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: the same in all ages. They don't respect anything, They
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: don't care for anything or anybody. They say, go up,
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: bald head to the prophet, going his unoffending way in
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: the gray of antiquity. They sassed me in the holy
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: gloom of the Middle Ages. And I had seen them
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: act the same way in Buchanans administration. I remember, because
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: I was there and helped the prophet had his bears
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: and settled with his boys. And I wanted to get
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: down and settled with mine. But it wouldn't answer, because
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have gotten up again. I hate a Country
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: with Chapter twelve, Slow Torture. Straight off we were in
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 1: the country. It was most lovely and pleasant in those
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: Sylvan solitudes and the early cool morning, in the first
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 1: freshness of autumn. From hilltops we saw fair green valleys
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: lying spread out below, with streams winding through them, and
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 1: island groves of trees here and there, and huge lonely
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: oaks scattered about and casting black blots of shade. And
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: beyond the valleys we saw the ranges of hills, blue
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 1: with haze stretching away in billowy perspective to the horizon,
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: with at wide intervals a dim fleck of white or
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: gray on a wave summit which we knew was a castle.
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: We crossed broad natural lawns sparkling with dew, and we
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: moved like spirits, the cushioned turf giving out no sound
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: of footfall. We dreamed along through glaze. It's in a
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: mist of green light that got its tint from the
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: sun drenched roof of leaves overhead and by our feet.
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: The clearest and coldest of runlets went frisking and gossiping
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: over its reefs and making a sort of whispering music.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: Comfortable to hear, and at times we left the world
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 1: behind and entered into the solemn, great deeps and rich
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: gloom of the forest, where furative wild things whisked and
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: scurried by and were gone before you could even get
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: your eye on the place where the noise was, and
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: where only the earliest birds were turning out and getting
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: to business with a song here, and a quarrel yonder,
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: and a mysterious far off hammering and drumming for worms
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: on a tree trunk away somewhere, and the impenetrable remoteness
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: of the woods, and by and by out we would
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: swing again into the glare. About the third or fourth
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: or fifth time that we swung out into the glare,
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: it was along there somewhere a couple of hours or
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: so after sun up. It wasn't as pleasant as it
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: had been. It was beginning to get hot. This was
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 1: quite noticeable. We had a very long pull after that,
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: without any shade notice. Curious how progressively little frets grow
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: and multiply after they once get a start. Things which
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't mind at all at first, I began to
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 1: mind now and more and more too, all the time.
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: The first ten or fifteen times I wanted my handkerchief.
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 1: I didn't seem to care. I got along and said,
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: never mind, it isn't any matter, and dropped it out
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: of my mind. But now it was different. I wanted
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: it all the time. It was nagnagnag right along and
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: no rest. I couldn't get it out of my mind.
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: And so at last I got my temper and said,
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 1: hang a man that would make a suit of armor
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 1: without any pockets in it. You see, I had my
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 1: handkerchief and my helmet and some other things, but it
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: was that kind of helmet that you can't take off
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: by yourself. That hadn't occurred to me when I put
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: it there, and in fact I didn't know it. I
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: supposed it would be particularly convenient there, And so now
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: the thought of its being there, so handy and close by,
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: and yet not get addable, made it all the worse
• 2:35:31
  Speaker 1: and the harder to bear. Yes, the thing that you
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 1: can't get is the thing you want. Mainly everyone has
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: noticed that. Well, it took my mind off from everything else,
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: took it clear off, and centered it in my helmet,
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: and mile after mile there it stayed imagining the handkerchief,
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 1: picturing the handkerchief, and it was bitter and aggravating to
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: have the salt sweat keep trickling down into my eyes,
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't get at it. It seems like a
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: little thing on paper, but it was not a little
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 1: thing at all. It was the most real kind of misery.
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 1: I would not say it if it was not. So.
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 1: I made up my mind that I would carry along
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: a reticule next time. Let it look how it might,
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: and people say what they would. Of course, these iron
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: dudes of the round table would think it was scandalous,
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 1: or maybe raise sheol about it. But as for me,
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: give me comfort first and style afterwards. So we jogged along,
• 2:36:37
  Speaker 1: and now and then we struck a stretch of dust,
• 2:36:39
  Speaker 1: and it would tumble up in clouds and get into
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: my nose and make me sneeze and cry. And of
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: course I said things I oughtn't to have said. I
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: don't deny that I am not better than others. We
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: couldn't seem to meet anybody in this lonesome Britain, not
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: even an ogre. And in the mood I was, then
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: it was well for the ogre, that is, an ogre
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 1: with a handkerchief. Most knights would have thought of nothing,
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 1: but getting his armor, But so I got his bandana.
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: He could keep his hardware for all of me. Meantime,
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: I was getting hotter and hotter in there. You see,
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: the sun was beating down and warming up the iron
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: more and more all the time. Well, when you're hot
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: that way, every little thing irritates you. When I trotted,
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: I rattled like a crate of dishes, and that annoyed me.
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: And moreover, I couldn't seem to stand that shield slatting
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 1: and banging. Now about my breast, now about my back.
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 1: And if I dropped into a walk, my joints creaked
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: and screeched in that wearisome way that a wheelbarrow does.
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: And as we didn't create any breeze at that gait,
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 1: I was like to get fried in that stove. And besides,
• 2:37:54
  Speaker 1: the quieter you went, the heavier the iron settled down
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: on you, and the more tons you seem to weigh
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: every minute, And you had to be always changing hands
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: and passing your spear over to the other foot. It
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: got so irksome for one hand to hold it long
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 1: at a time. Well, you know, when you perspire that
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 1: way in rivers, there comes a time when you when
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: you well when you itch, you're inside, your hands are outside,
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: so there you are nothing but iron between. It is
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: not a light thing. Let it sound as it may.
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 1: First it is one place, then another, then some more,
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: and it goes on spreading and spreading, and at last
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: the territory is all occupied, and nobody can imagine what
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 1: you feel like, nor how unpleasant it is. And when
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 1: it had got to the worst, and it seemed to
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: me that I could not stand anything more, a fly
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: got in through the bars and settled on my nose.
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: And the bars were stuck and wouldn't work, and I
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: couldn't get the visor up, and I could only shake
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 1: my head, which was baking hot by this time. And
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: the fly, well, you know how a fly acts when
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: he's got a certainty. He only minded the shaking enough
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 1: to change from nose to lip and lip to ear,
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: and buzz and buzz all around in there, and keep
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: on lighting and biting in a way that a person
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 1: already so distressed as I was, simply could not stand.
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: So I gave in, and I got Ali Sandy to
• 2:39:39
  Speaker 1: unship the helmet and relieve me of it. Then she
• 2:39:42
  Speaker 1: emptied the conveniences out of it and fetched it full
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: of water, and I drank and then stood up, and
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: she poured the rest down inside the armor. One cannot
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: think how refreshing it was. She continued to fetch and
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 1: pour until I was well soaked and thoroughly comfortable. It
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: was good to have a rest and peace, but nothing
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: is quite perfect in this life. At any time, I
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 1: had made a pipe a while back, and also some
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: pretty fair tobacco, not the real thing, but what some
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: of the Indians use. The inside bark of the willow dried.
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 1: These comforts had been in the helmet, and now I
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: had them again, but no matches. Gradually, as the time
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: wore along, one annoying fact was borne in upon my
• 2:40:37
  Speaker 1: understanding that we were weather bound. An armed novice cannot
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: mount his horse without help, and plenty of it sandy
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: was not enough, not enough for me anyway, We had
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: to wait until somebody should come along. Waiting in silence
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 1: would have been agreeable enough, for I was full of
• 2:40:58
  Speaker 1: matter for reflection and wanted to give it a chance
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: to work. I wanted to try and think out how
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: it was that rational or even half rational men could
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: have ever learned to wear armor, considering its inconveniences and
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 1: how they had managed to keep up such a fashion
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: for generation, when it was plain that what I had
• 2:41:19
  Speaker 1: suffered today they had had to suffer all the days
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 1: of their lives. I wanted to think that out, and moreover,
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 1: I wanted to think out some way to reform this
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: evil and persuade the people to let the foolish fashion
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: die out. But thinking was out of the question in
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: the circumstances. You couldn't think where Sandy was. She was
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: a quite bidable creature, and good hearted, but she had
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: a flow of talk that was as steady as a
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: mill and made your head sore, like the drays and
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 1: wagons in a city. If she'd had a cork, she
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: would have been a comfort. But you can't cork that
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: kind they would die. Her clack was going all day,
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: and you would think something would surely happen to her
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: works by and by, But no, they never got out
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 1: of order, and she never had to slack up for words.
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: She could grind and pump and churn and buzz by
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: the weekend, never stop to oil up or blow out,
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: and yet the result was just nothing but wind. She
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: never had any ideas any more than a fog has.
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: She was a perfect leatherskite. I mean for jaw jaw
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: jaw talk talk talk jabber, jabber, jabber, but just as
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: good as she could be. I hadn't minded her mill
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: that morning on account of having that hornet's nests of
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 1: other troubles. But more than once in the afternoon I
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: had to say, take a rest, child. The way you're
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: using up all the domestic air the king, we'll have
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: to go to importing it by tomorrow. And it's a
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 1: low enough treasury without that chapter thirteen Free men. Yes,
• 2:43:19
  Speaker 1: it is strange how little a while at a time
• 2:43:22
  Speaker 1: a person can be contented, only a little while. Back
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 1: when I was rioting and suffering, what a heaven this place,
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 1: this rest, this sweet serenity, in this secluded shady nook,
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: by this pearling stream, would have seemed where I could
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: keep perfectly comfortable all the time by pouring a dipper
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 1: of water into my armor. Now and then, yet already
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: I was getting dissatisfied, partly because I could not light
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: my pipe, for although I had long ago started a
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: match factory, I had forgotten to bring matches with me,
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: and partly because we had nothing to eat. Here was
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: another illustration of the childlike improvidence of this age and people.
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 1: A man in armor always trusted a chance for his
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 1: food on a journey, and would have been scandalized at
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: the idea of hanging a basket of sandwiches on his spear.
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: There was probably not a night of all the round
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: table combination who would not rather have died than been
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: caught carrying such a thing as that on his flagstaff.
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: And yet there could not be anything more sensible. It
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: had been my intention to smuggle a couple of sandwiches
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: into my helmet, but I was interrupted in the act
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 1: and had to make an excuse and lay them aside.
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 1: Then a dog got them. Night approached, and with it
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 1: a storm. The darkness came on fast. We must camp.
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: Of course, I found a good shelter for the demozelle
• 2:45:06
  Speaker 1: under a rock, and went off and found another for myself.
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 1: But I was obliged to remain in my armor because
• 2:45:14
  Speaker 1: I could not get it off by myself, and yet
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 1: could not allow Ali Sandy to help, because it would
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 1: have seemed like undressing before folk. It would not have
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 1: amounted to that in reality, because I had clothes on underneath.
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: But the prejudices of one's breeding are not gotten rid
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: of just at a jump, and I knew that when
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: it came to stripping off that bob tailed iron petticoat,
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: I should be embarrassed. With the storm came a change
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: of weather, and the stronger the wind blew, and the
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 1: wilder the rain lashed around, the colder and colder it got.
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: Pretty soon various kinds of bugs and ants and worms
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 1: and things began to flock in and out of the
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: wet and crawled down inside my armor to get warm.
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: And while some of them behaved well enough and snuggled
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: up against my clothes and got quiet, the majority were
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 1: of a restless, uncomfortable sort, and never stayed still, but
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: went on prowling and hunting for they did not know what,
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 1: especially the ants, which went tickling along in wearisome procession
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: from one end of me to the other by the hour,
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: and are a kind of creatures which I never wished
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: to sleep with again. It would be my advice to
• 2:46:37
  Speaker 1: persons situated in this way to not roll or thrash around,
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: because this excites the interest of all the different sorts
• 2:46:45
  Speaker 1: of animals and makes every last one of them want
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 1: to turn out and see what is going on, and
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 1: This makes things worse than they were before, and of
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 1: course makes you objugate harder too, if you can still.
• 2:47:02
  Speaker 1: If one did not roll and thrash around, he would die.
• 2:47:08
  Speaker 1: So perhaps it is as well to do one way
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: as the other. There is no real choice. Even after
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: I was frozen solid, I could still distinguish that tickling,
• 2:47:19
  Speaker 1: just as a corpse does when he is taking electric treatment.
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: I said I would never wear armor after this trip,
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 1: all those trying hours whilst I was frozen, and yet
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 1: was in a living fire. As you may say, on
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: account of that swarm of crawlers, that same unanswerable question
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 1: kept circling and circling through my tired head. How do
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 1: people stand this miserable armor? How have they managed to
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: stand it all these generations? How can they sleep at
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: night for dreading the torch of the next day? When
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: the morning came at last, I was in a bad
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: enough plight, seedy, drowsy, fagged from want of sleep, weary
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 1: from thrashing around, famished from long fasting, pining for a
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 1: bath and to get rid of the animals, and crippled
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: with rheumatism. And how had it fared with the nobly born,
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 1: the titled aristocrat, the Demoiselle Alessandi la cortellais why she
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: was as fresh as a squirrel. She had slept like
• 2:48:42
  Speaker 1: the dead. And as for a bath, probably neither she
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 1: nor any other noble on the land had ever had one,
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 1: and so she was not missing it. Measured by modern standards,
• 2:48:54
  Speaker 1: they were merely modified savages. Those people, this noble lady,
• 2:48:59
  Speaker 1: showed no patience to get to breakfast, and that smacks
• 2:49:02
  Speaker 1: of the savage too. On their journeys, those Britons were
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 1: used to long fasts and knew how to bear them,
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 1: and also how to freight up against probable fasts before starting,
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 1: after the style of the Indian and the anaconda, and
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 1: as like as not, Sandy was loaded for a three
• 2:49:22
  Speaker 1: day stretch. We were off before sunrise, Sandy riding and
• 2:49:31
  Speaker 1: I limping along behind. In half an hour we came
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: upon a group of ragged, poor creatures who had assembled
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: to mend the thing which was regarded as a road. Now.
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: They were as humble as animals to me, and when
• 2:49:45
  Speaker 1: I proposed to breakfast with them, they were so flattered,
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 1: so overwhelmed with this extraordinary condensation of mine, that they
• 2:49:53
  Speaker 1: first were not able to believe that I was in earnest.
• 2:49:57
  Speaker 1: My lady put up her scornful and withdrew to one side.
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 1: She said in their hearing that she would as soon
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 1: think of eating with the other cattle, a remark which
• 2:50:08
  Speaker 1: embarrassed these poor devils merely because it referred to them,
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: and not because it insulted or offended them, for it didn't.
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 1: And yet they were not slaves, not chattels, by a
• 2:50:21
  Speaker 1: sarcasm of law and phrase, they were free men. Seven
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 1: tenths of the free population of the country were of
• 2:50:30
  Speaker 1: just their class and degree, small independent farmers, artisans, etc.
• 2:50:39
  Speaker 1: Which is to say, they were the nation, the actual nation.
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: They were about all of it that was useful or
• 2:50:46
  Speaker 1: worth saving, or really respect worthy. And to subtract them
• 2:50:51
  Speaker 1: would have been to subtract the nation and leave behind
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 1: some dregs, some refuse in the shape of a king,
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 1: nobility and gentry, idle, unproductive, acquainted mainly with the arts
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 1: of wasting and destroying, and of no sort of use
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 1: or value in any rationally constructed world. And yet, by
• 2:51:15
  Speaker 1: ingenious contrivance, this gilded minority, instead of being in the
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 1: tale of the Procession where it belonged, was marching head
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: up and banners flying at the other end of it
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 1: had elected itself to be the nation, and these innumerable
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 1: clams had permitted it so long that they had come
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 1: at last to accept it as a truth, and not
• 2:51:39
  Speaker 1: only that, but to believe it right and as it
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 1: should be. The priests had told their fathers and themselves
• 2:51:48
  Speaker 1: that this ironical state of things was ordained of God,
• 2:51:52
  Speaker 1: and so not reflecting upon how unlike God it would
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: be to amuse himself with sarcasms, and especially such poor
• 2:52:01
  Speaker 1: transparent ones as this, they had dropped the matter there
• 2:52:05
  Speaker 1: and become respectfully quiet. The talk of these meek people
• 2:52:10
  Speaker 1: had a strange enough sound in a formerly American ear.
• 2:52:14
  Speaker 1: They were free men, but they could not leave the
• 2:52:17
  Speaker 1: estates of their lord or their bishop without his permission.
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 1: They could not prepare their own bread, but must have
• 2:52:23
  Speaker 1: their corn ground and their bread baked at his mill
• 2:52:26
  Speaker 1: and his bakery, and pay roundly for the same. They
• 2:52:30
  Speaker 1: could not sell a piece of their own property without
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 1: paying him a handsome percentage for the proceeds, nor buy
• 2:52:36
  Speaker 1: a piece of somebody else's without remembering him in cash.
• 2:52:40
  Speaker 1: For the privilege. They had to harvest his grain for
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 1: him gratis and be ready to come at a moment's notice,
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 1: leaving their own crop to destruction by the threatened storm.
• 2:52:53
  Speaker 1: They had to let him plant fruit trees in their fields,
• 2:52:56
  Speaker 1: and then keep their indignation to themselves. When his heedless
• 2:52:59
  Speaker 1: fruit the others trampled the grain around the trees, they
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 1: had to smother their anger. When his hunting parties galloped
• 2:53:07
  Speaker 1: through their fields, laying waste the result of their patient toil.
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 1: They were not allowed to keep doves themselves. And when
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 1: the swarms of my Lord's dovecote settled on their crops,
• 2:53:19
  Speaker 1: they must not lose their temper and kill a bird,
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 1: For awful would the penalty be. When the harvest was
• 2:53:27
  Speaker 1: at last gathered, then came the procession of robbers to
• 2:53:31
  Speaker 1: levy their blackmail upon it. First the church carted off
• 2:53:36
  Speaker 1: its fat tenth, then the king's commissioner took his twelfth.
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: Then my Lord's people made a mighty inroad upon the remainder,
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 1: after which the skinned free man had liberty to bestow
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 1: the remnant in his barn, in case it was worth
• 2:53:53
  Speaker 1: the trouble. There were taxes, and taxes, and taxes, and
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: more taxes and tax again, and yet other taxes upon
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: this free and independent pauper, but none upon his lord,
• 2:54:07
  Speaker 1: the baron or the bishop. None upon the wasteful nobility
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: or the all devouring church. If the baron would sleep unvexed,
• 2:54:17
  Speaker 1: the freeman must sit up all night after his day's
• 2:54:20
  Speaker 1: work and whip the ponds to keep the frogs quiet.
• 2:54:24
  Speaker 1: If the freeman's daughter but no, that last infamy of
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 1: monarchical government is unprintable. And finally, if the freeman, grown
• 2:54:36
  Speaker 1: desperate with his tortures, found his life unendurable under such conditions,
• 2:54:42
  Speaker 1: and sacrificed it and fled to death for mercy and refuge,
• 2:54:47
  Speaker 1: the gentle church condemned him to eternal fire. The gentle
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 1: law burned him at midnight at the crossroads with a
• 2:54:54
  Speaker 1: stake through his back, and his master, a baron or bishop,
• 2:54:58
  Speaker 1: confiscated all his proc and turned his widow and his
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 1: orphans out of doors. And here were these free men
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 1: assembled in the early morning to work on their lord
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: the bishop's road. Three days each grattis, every head of
• 2:55:18
  Speaker 1: a family, and every son of a family three days
• 2:55:22
  Speaker 1: each gratis, and a day or so added for their servants.
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 1: Why it was like reading about France and the French
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 1: before the ever memorable and blessed Revolution, which swept a
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: thousand years of such villainy away in one swift tidal
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 1: wave of blood, one a settlement of that hoary debt,
• 2:55:44
  Speaker 1: in the proportion of a half drop of blood for
• 2:55:47
  Speaker 1: each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 1: tortures out of that people, in the weary stretch of
• 2:55:53
  Speaker 1: ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery, the like
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 1: of which was not to be meeted out. But hell,
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 1: there were two reigns of terror, if we would but
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 1: remember it and consider it. The one wrought murder in
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 1: hot passion, the other in heartless, cold blood. The one
• 2:56:14
  Speaker 1: lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years.
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 1: The one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 1: upon a hundred millions. But our shutters are all for
• 2:56:27
  Speaker 1: the horrors of the minor terror, the momentary terror, so
• 2:56:31
  Speaker 1: to speak. Whereas what is the horror of swift death
• 2:56:35
  Speaker 1: by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty,
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 1: and heartbreak? What is swift death by lightning compared with
• 2:56:48
  Speaker 1: death by slow fire? At the stake a city cemetery
• 2:56:52
  Speaker 1: could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror which
• 2:56:56
  Speaker 1: we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at
• 2:56:59
  Speaker 1: and mourn over. But all France could hardly contain the
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 1: coffins filled by that older and real terror, that unspeakably
• 2:57:07
  Speaker 1: bitter and awful terror, which none of us has been
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 1: taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
• 2:57:15
  Speaker 1: These poor, ostensible free men, who were sharing their breakfast
• 2:57:20
  Speaker 1: and their talk with me, were as full of humble
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: reverence for their king and church and nobility as their
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 1: worst enemy could desire. There was something pitifully ludicrous about it.
• 2:57:33
  Speaker 1: I asked them if they supposed a nation of people
• 2:57:36
  Speaker 1: ever existed, who, with a free vote in every man's hand,
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 1: would elect that a single family and its descendants should
• 2:57:44
  Speaker 1: reign over it forever, whether gifted or boobies, to the
• 2:57:49
  Speaker 1: exclusion of all other families, including the voters, and would
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: also elect that as certain hundred families should be raised
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 1: to dizzy summits of rank and clothed on with offensive,
• 2:58:00
  Speaker 1: transmissible glories and privileges, to the exclusion of the rest
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 1: of the nation's families, including his own. They all looked
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 1: unhit and said they didn't know that they had never
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 1: thought about it before, and it had never occurred to
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 1: them that a nation could be so situated that every
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 1: man could have a say in the government. I said
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 1: that I had seen one, and that it would last
• 2:58:28
  Speaker 1: until it had an established church. Again, they were all
• 2:58:34
  Speaker 1: unhit at first, but presently one man looked up and
• 2:58:40
  Speaker 1: asked me to state that proposition again, and stated it
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: slowly so it could soak into his understanding. I did it,
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 1: and after a little he had the idea, and he
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 1: brought his fist down and said he didn't believe a
• 2:58:56
  Speaker 1: nation where every man had a vote would voluntarily get
• 2:58:59
  Speaker 1: down in the mummud and dirt in any such way,
• 2:59:03
  Speaker 1: and that to steal from a nation its will and
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 1: preference must be a crime, and the first of all crimes.
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, this one's a man. If I
• 2:59:15
  Speaker 1: were backed by enough of his sort, I could make
• 2:59:18
  Speaker 1: a strike for the welfare of this country and try
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: to prove myself its loyalist citizen by making a wholesome
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 1: change in its system of government. You see, my kind
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 1: institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing,
• 2:59:38
  Speaker 1: the substantial thing, the eternal thing. It is the thing
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 1: to watch over and care for and be loyal too.
• 2:59:45
  Speaker 1: Institutions are extraneous. They are its mere clothing. And clothing
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 1: can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease
• 2:59:54
  Speaker 1: to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To
• 2:59:59
  Speaker 1: be loyal to, to shout for rags, to worship rags,
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: to die for rags. That is the loyalty of unreason.
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: It is pure animal. It belongs to. Monarchy was invented
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 1: by monarchy. Let monarchy keep it. I was from Connecticut,
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: whose constitution declares that all political power is inherent in
• 3:00:22
  Speaker 1: the people, and all free governments are founded on their
• 3:00:26
  Speaker 1: authority and instituted for their benefit, and that they have
• 3:00:30
  Speaker 1: at all times an undeniable and indefensible right to alter
• 3:00:36
  Speaker 1: their form of government in such a manner as they
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: may think expedient. Under that gospel, the citizen who thinks
• 3:00:46
  Speaker 1: he sees that the Commonwealth's political clothes are worn out,
• 3:00:50
  Speaker 1: and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for
• 3:00:53
  Speaker 1: a new suit, is disloyal. He is the traitor. That
• 3:00:58
  Speaker 1: he may be the only one who thinks, thinks he
• 3:01:00
  Speaker 1: sees this decay does not excuse him. It is his
• 3:01:04
  Speaker 1: duty to agitate anyway, and it is the duty of
• 3:01:07
  Speaker 1: the others to vote him down if they do not
• 3:01:09
  Speaker 1: see the matter as he does. And now here I
• 3:01:13
  Speaker 1: was in a country where a right to say how
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: the country should be governed was restricted to six persons
• 3:01:19
  Speaker 1: in each thousand of its population. For the nine hundred
• 3:01:23
  Speaker 1: and ninety four to express dissatisfaction with the region's system
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: and propose to change it would have made the whole
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 1: six shutter as one man. It would have been so disloyal,
• 3:01:35
  Speaker 1: so dishonorable, such putred black treason, so to speak. I
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: was become a stockholder in a corporation where nine hundred
• 3:01:46
  Speaker 1: and ninety four of the members furnished all the money
• 3:01:49
  Speaker 1: and did all the work, and the other six elected
• 3:01:53
  Speaker 1: themselves a permanent board of directors and took all the dividends.
• 3:01:58
  Speaker 1: It seemed to me that what the nine hundred and
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 1: ninety four dupes needed was a new deal. The thing
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 1: that would have best suited the circus side of my
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: nature would have been to resign the boss ship and
• 3:02:09
  Speaker 1: get up an insurrection and turn it into a revolution.
• 3:02:13
  Speaker 1: But I knew that the jack chade or the wat tyler,
• 3:02:17
  Speaker 1: who tries such a thing without first educating his materials
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 1: up to revolution grade, is almost absolutely certain to get left.
• 3:02:26
  Speaker 1: I had never been accustomed to getting left, even if
• 3:02:29
  Speaker 1: I do say it myself. Wherefore the deal, which had
• 3:02:34
  Speaker 1: been for some time working into shape in my mind,
• 3:02:37
  Speaker 1: was of a quite different pattern from the cade tyler sort.
• 3:02:42
  Speaker 1: So I did not talk blood and insurrection to that
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 1: man there, who sat munching black bread with that abused
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 1: and mist hoot herd of human sheep, but took him
• 3:02:52
  Speaker 1: aside and talked matter of another sort to him. After
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 1: I had finished, I got him to lend me a
• 3:02:59
  Speaker 1: little ink from his veins, and with this and a
• 3:03:02
  Speaker 1: sliver I wrote on a piece of bark, put him
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 1: in the man factory, and gave it to him, and
• 3:03:09
  Speaker 1: said take it to the palace at Camelot, and give
• 3:03:12
  Speaker 1: it into the hands of Amaias Li Poulet, whom I
• 3:03:16
  Speaker 1: call Clarence. And he will understand he is a priest,
• 3:03:20
  Speaker 1: then said the man, and some of the enthusiasm went
• 3:03:23
  Speaker 1: out of his face. How a priest, didn't I tell
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 1: you that no chattel of the church, no bond slave
• 3:03:32
  Speaker 1: of pope or bishop can enter my man factory. Didn't
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 1: I tell you that you couldn't enter unless your religion,
• 3:03:40
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be, was your own free property. Marry.
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: It is so for that I was glad. Wherefore it
• 3:03:49
  Speaker 1: liked me not and bred in me a cold doubt
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 1: to hear of this priest being there. But he isn't
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 1: a priest, I tell you. Man looked far from satisfied.
• 3:04:04
  Speaker 1: He said, he is not a priest, and yet can read.
• 3:04:09
  Speaker 1: He is not a priest, and yet can read, yes,
• 3:04:13
  Speaker 1: and write too. For that matter, I taught him myself.
• 3:04:18
  Speaker 1: The man's face cleared. And it is the first thing
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: that you, yourself, will be taught in that factory. I
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 1: I would give blood out of my heart to know
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 1: that art. Why I will be your slave? Your No,
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: you won't. You won't be anybody's slave. Take your family
• 3:04:38
  Speaker 1: and go along, your lord. The bishop will confiscate your
• 3:04:41
  Speaker 1: small property. But no matter, Clarence will fix you all right.
• 3:04:50
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, Defend thee Lord. I paid three pennies for
• 3:05:00
  Speaker 1: my breakfast, and a most extravagant price. It was too
• 3:05:05
  Speaker 1: seeing that one could have breakfasted a dozen persons for
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: that money. But I was feeling good by this time,
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 1: and I had always been a kind of spendthrift anyway,
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 1: And then these people had wanted to give me the
• 3:05:17
  Speaker 1: food for nothing, scant as their provision was. And so
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 1: it was a grateful pleasure to emphasize my appreciation and
• 3:05:26
  Speaker 1: sincere thankfulness with a good, big financial lift, where the
• 3:05:30
  Speaker 1: money would do so much more good than it would
• 3:05:33
  Speaker 1: in my helmet, where these pennies, being made from iron
• 3:05:37
  Speaker 1: and not stinted in weight, my half dollar's worth was
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: a good deal of a burden to me. I spent
• 3:05:45
  Speaker 1: money rather too freely in those days, it is true,
• 3:05:48
  Speaker 1: But one reason for it was that I hadn't got
• 3:05:51
  Speaker 1: the proportions of things entirely adjusted. Even yet, after so
• 3:05:56
  Speaker 1: long a sojourn in Britain, hadn't got along to where
• 3:05:59
  Speaker 1: I was able to. I absolutely realized that a penny
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: in Arthur's Land and a couple of dollars in Connecticut
• 3:06:05
  Speaker 1: were about one and the same thing, just twins, you
• 3:06:08
  Speaker 1: may say, in purchasing power. If my start from Camelot
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 1: could have been delayed a very few days, I could
• 3:06:16
  Speaker 1: have paid these people in beautiful new coins from our
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: own mint. That would have pleased me and them too,
• 3:06:22
  Speaker 1: not less I had adopted the American values exclusively. In
• 3:06:28
  Speaker 1: a week or two, now cents, nickels, dimes, quarters and
• 3:06:31
  Speaker 1: half dollars, and also a trifle of gold would be
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 1: trickling in thin but steady streams all through the commercial
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: veins of the kingdom, and I looked to see this
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: new blood freshen up its life. The farmers were bound
• 3:06:47
  Speaker 1: to throw in something to sort of offset my liberality,
• 3:06:52
  Speaker 1: whether I would or no. So I let them give
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: me a flint and steel, And as soon as they
• 3:06:59
  Speaker 1: had comfortably besure stowed Sandy and me on our horse,
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 1: I lit my pipe. When the first blast of smoke
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 1: shot out through the bars of my helmet, all those
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: people broke for the woods, and Sandy went over backwards
• 3:07:12
  Speaker 1: and struck the ground with a dull thud. They thought
• 3:07:16
  Speaker 1: I was one of those fire belching dragons they had
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 1: heard so much of from the knights and other professional liars.
• 3:07:23
  Speaker 1: I had infinite trouble to persuade those people to venture
• 3:07:27
  Speaker 1: back within explaining distance. Then I told them that this
• 3:07:31
  Speaker 1: was only a bit of enchantment, which would work harm
• 3:07:34
  Speaker 1: to none but my enemies, And I promised with my
• 3:07:38
  Speaker 1: hand on my heart that if all who felt no
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 1: enmity toward me would come forward and pass before me,
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 1: they would see that only those who remained behind would
• 3:07:49
  Speaker 1: be struck dead. And the procession moved with a good
• 3:07:53
  Speaker 1: deal of promptness. There were no casualties to report, for
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: nobody had curiosity enough to remain behind to see what
• 3:08:00
  Speaker 1: would happen. I lost some time now for these big children,
• 3:08:06
  Speaker 1: their fears gone became so ravised with wonder over my
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: awe compelling fireworks that I had to stay there and
• 3:08:13
  Speaker 1: smoke a couple of pipes out before they would let
• 3:08:16
  Speaker 1: me go. Still, the delay was not wholly unproductive, for
• 3:08:21
  Speaker 1: it took all that time to get Sandy thoroughly wanted
• 3:08:24
  Speaker 1: to the new thing. She being so close to it,
• 3:08:27
  Speaker 1: you know, it plugged up her conversation mill too for
• 3:08:31
  Speaker 1: a considerable while. And that was again. But above all
• 3:08:37
  Speaker 1: other benefits of crewing, I had learned something. I was
• 3:08:40
  Speaker 1: ready for any giant or any ogre that might come along. Now.
• 3:08:46
  Speaker 1: We tarried with a holy hermit that night, and my
• 3:08:49
  Speaker 1: opportunity came about the middle of the next afternoon. We
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 1: were crossing a vast meadow by way of shortcut, and
• 3:08:56
  Speaker 1: I was musing absently, hearing nothing, see nothing, when Sandy
• 3:09:01
  Speaker 1: suddenly interrupted a remark which she had begun that morning,
• 3:09:05
  Speaker 1: with the cry defend thee Lord. Peril of life is toward.
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: And she slipped down from the horse and ran a
• 3:09:13
  Speaker 1: little way and stood. I looked up and saw far
• 3:09:16
  Speaker 1: off in the shade of a tree, half a dozen
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: armed knights and their squires, and straightway there was bustle
• 3:09:23
  Speaker 1: among them, and tightening of saddle girths for the mount.
• 3:09:26
  Speaker 1: My pipe was ready, and would have been lit if
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 1: I had not been lost in thinking about how to
• 3:09:31
  Speaker 1: banish oppression from this land and restore to its people
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 1: there stolen rights and manhood without disobliging anybody. I lit
• 3:09:41
  Speaker 1: up at once, and by the time I had got
• 3:09:42
  Speaker 1: a good head of reserve steam on here they came
• 3:09:46
  Speaker 1: altogether too. None of those chivalrous magnanimities which one reads
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: so much about one courtly rascal at a time, and
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: the rest standing by to see fair play. No, they
• 3:09:59
  Speaker 1: came in a body. They came with a whir and
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 1: a rush. They came like a volley from a battery,
• 3:10:05
  Speaker 1: came with heads down, low, plumes streaming out behind lances
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 1: advanced at level. It was a handsome sight, a beautiful
• 3:10:13
  Speaker 1: sight for a man up a tree. I laid my
• 3:10:18
  Speaker 1: lance in rest and waited with my heart beating, till
• 3:10:21
  Speaker 1: the iron wave was just ready to break over me.
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 1: Then spouted a column of white smoke through the bars
• 3:10:29
  Speaker 1: of my helmet. You should have seen the wave go
• 3:10:32
  Speaker 1: to pieces and scatter. This was a finer sight than
• 3:10:36
  Speaker 1: the other one. But these people stopped two or three
• 3:10:41
  Speaker 1: hundred yards away, and this troubled me. My satisfaction collapsed
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 1: and fear came. I judged I was a lost man.
• 3:10:51
  Speaker 1: But Sandy was radiant and was going to be eloquent.
• 3:10:54
  Speaker 1: But I stopped her and told her my magic had
• 3:10:57
  Speaker 1: miscarried somehow or other, and she must mount with all dispatch,
• 3:11:02
  Speaker 1: and we must ride for life. No she wouldn't, She said,
• 3:11:07
  Speaker 1: my enchantment had disabled those knights. They were not riding
• 3:11:10
  Speaker 1: on because they couldn't wait. They would drop out of
• 3:11:14
  Speaker 1: their saddles presently, and we would get their horses and harnesses.
• 3:11:19
  Speaker 1: I could not deceive such trusting simplicity, so I said
• 3:11:22
  Speaker 1: it was a mistake that when my fireworks killed at all,
• 3:11:26
  Speaker 1: they killed instantly. No, the men would not die. There
• 3:11:29
  Speaker 1: was something wrong about my apparatus. I couldn't tell what,
• 3:11:35
  Speaker 1: but we must hurry and get away, for those people
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 1: would attack us again in a minute. Sandy laughed and said,
• 3:11:44
  Speaker 1: lack a day, sir, they be not of that breed.
• 3:11:48
  Speaker 1: Sir Launcelot will give battle to dragons and will abide
• 3:11:51
  Speaker 1: by them, And we'll assail them again and yet again,
• 3:11:54
  Speaker 1: and still again until he do conquer and destroy them.
• 3:11:57
  Speaker 1: And so likewise will Sir pellow No, and Sir Aglivale,
• 3:12:02
  Speaker 1: and Sir Carados, and may have others, but there be
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: none else that will venture it. Let the idol say,
• 3:12:11
  Speaker 1: with the idol will and law. As to yonder base,
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 1: rufflers think ye have not their fill, but yet desire more? Well,
• 3:12:21
  Speaker 1: then what are they waiting for? Why don't they leave?
• 3:12:25
  Speaker 1: Nobody's hindering good land? I'm waiting to let bygones be bygones.
• 3:12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm sure leave, is it? Oh, give thyself easement? As
• 3:12:36
  Speaker 1: to that? They dream not of it? No, not they
• 3:12:40
  Speaker 1: they wait to yield them. Come, really is that sooth?
• 3:12:47
  Speaker 1: As you? People say? If they want to, why don't they?
• 3:12:52
  Speaker 1: It would like them much? But an ye want how
• 3:12:56
  Speaker 1: dragons are esteemed, ye would not hold them blameable they
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 1: feared to come. Well, then suppose I go to them instead,
• 3:13:07
  Speaker 1: and ah wit ye, well they would not abide your coming.
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 1: I will go, and she did. She was a handy
• 3:13:16
  Speaker 1: person to have along on a raid. I would have
• 3:13:19
  Speaker 1: considered this a doubtful errand myself I presently saw the
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: knights riding away and Sandy coming back. That was a relief.
• 3:13:28
  Speaker 1: I judged. She had somehow failed to get the first
• 3:13:31
  Speaker 1: innings I mean in the conversation, otherwise the interview wouldn't
• 3:13:34
  Speaker 1: have been so short. But it turned out that she
• 3:13:37
  Speaker 1: had managed the business well, in fact, admirably. She said
• 3:13:42
  Speaker 1: that when she told those people I was the boss,
• 3:13:45
  Speaker 1: it hit them where they lived, smote them sore with
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: fear and dread was her word. And then they were
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: ready to put up with anything she might require. So
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 1: she swore them to appear at Arthur's court within two days,
• 3:13:58
  Speaker 1: and yield them with horse and harness, and be my
• 3:14:02
  Speaker 1: knights henceforth and subject to my command. How much better
• 3:14:07
  Speaker 1: she managed that thing than I should have done it myself.
• 3:14:11
  Speaker 1: She was a daisy and Chapter fifteen Sandy's Tale. And
• 3:14:24
  Speaker 1: so I'm proprietor of some knights, said I, as we
• 3:14:28
  Speaker 1: wrote off, Who would ever have supposed that I should
• 3:14:31
  Speaker 1: live to list up assets of that sort? I shan't
• 3:14:35
  Speaker 1: know what to do with them unless I raffle them off.
• 3:14:39
  Speaker 1: How many of them are there, Sandy seven? Please you,
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: sir and their squires? It is a good haul. Who
• 3:14:47
  Speaker 1: are they? Where do they hang out? Where do they
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 1: hang out? Yes? Where do they live? Ah? I understood thee.
• 3:14:59
  Speaker 1: Not that will I tell assoons? Then, she said, musingly
• 3:15:04
  Speaker 1: and softly, turning the words daintily over her tongue. Hang
• 3:15:09
  Speaker 1: they out, hang they out? Where hang Where do they
• 3:15:16
  Speaker 1: hang out? Eh? Right? So where do they hang out?
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: Of a truth? The phrase hath a fair and winsome grace,
• 3:15:27
  Speaker 1: and is prettily worded withal I will repeat it a
• 3:15:30
  Speaker 1: noon and a noon in my idolis, whereby I may,
• 3:15:34
  Speaker 1: peradventure learn it. Where do they hang out? Even so,
• 3:15:41
  Speaker 1: already it falleth trippingly from my tongue. And forasmuch as
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 1: don't forget the cowboy Sandy cowboys, Yes, the nights. You
• 3:15:52
  Speaker 1: know you are going to tell me about them. A
• 3:15:55
  Speaker 1: while back? You remember figuratively speaking games called game? Yes, yes, yes,
• 3:16:05
  Speaker 1: go to the bat, I mean, get to work on
• 3:16:07
  Speaker 1: your statistics, and don't burn so much kindling. Getting your
• 3:16:10
  Speaker 1: fire started. Tell me about the nights, I will well,
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 1: and lightly will begin. So they two departed and rode
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 1: into a great forest and create Scott. You see, I
• 3:16:26
  Speaker 1: recognize my mistake. At once I had set her works
• 3:16:30
  Speaker 1: a going. It was my own fault. She would be
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 1: thirty days getting down to those facts. And she generally
• 3:16:37
  Speaker 1: began without a preface and finished without a result. If
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 1: you interrupted her, she would either go right along without noticing,
• 3:16:45
  Speaker 1: or answer with a couple of words and go back
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 1: and say the sentence over again. So interruptions only did harm.
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: And yet I had to interrupt and interrupt pretty frequently too,
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 1: in order to save my life. A person would die
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 1: if he let her monotony drip on him right along
• 3:17:02
  Speaker 1: all day, Great Scott, I said, in my distress. She
• 3:17:08
  Speaker 1: went right back and began over again. So they two
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 1: departed and rode into a great forest, and which too
• 3:17:19
  Speaker 1: Sir Gawaine and Sir Uwaine. And so they came to
• 3:17:24
  Speaker 1: an abbey of monks, and there were well lodged. So
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: on the morn they heard their masses in the abbey,
• 3:17:31
  Speaker 1: and so they rode forth till they came to a
• 3:17:33
  Speaker 1: great forest. Then was Sir Gawaine, where in a valley
• 3:17:38
  Speaker 1: by a turret of twelve fair damsels and two knights
• 3:17:42
  Speaker 1: armed on great horses. And the damsels went to and
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 1: fro by a tree. And then was Sir Gawaine, where
• 3:17:49
  Speaker 1: how there hung a white shield on that tree, and
• 3:17:53
  Speaker 1: ever as the damsels came by it, they spit upon it,
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: and some threw mire upon the shield. Now, if I
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen the like myself in this country, Sandy, I
• 3:18:05
  Speaker 1: wouldn't believe it. But I've seen it, and I can
• 3:18:08
  Speaker 1: just see those creatures now parading before that shield and
• 3:18:11
  Speaker 1: acting like that. The women here do certainly act like
• 3:18:15
  Speaker 1: all possessed. Yes, and I mean your best too. Society's
• 3:18:20
  Speaker 1: very choicest brands, the humblest Hello girl along ten thousand
• 3:18:25
  Speaker 1: miles of wire could teach gentleness, patience, modesty manners to
• 3:18:29
  Speaker 1: the highest duchess in Arthur's land. Hello girl, Yes, but
• 3:18:36
  Speaker 1: don't you ask me to explain it's a new kind
• 3:18:38
  Speaker 1: of girl. They don't have them here. One often speaks
• 3:18:42
  Speaker 1: sharply to them when they are not the least in fault,
• 3:18:45
  Speaker 1: and he can't get over feeling sorry for it and
• 3:18:47
  Speaker 1: ashamed of himself in thirteen hundred years. It's such shabby,
• 3:18:51
  Speaker 1: mean conduct and so unprovoked. The fact is, no gentleman
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 1: ever does it. Though I well, I myself if I've
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: got to confess peradventure she never mind her, never mind her.
• 3:19:08
  Speaker 1: I tell you I couldn't ever explain her, so you
• 3:19:11
  Speaker 1: would understand. Even so be it sith ye are so minded.
• 3:19:18
  Speaker 1: Then Sir Gawaine and Sir Yuwaine went and saluted them
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: and asked them why they did that despite to the shield,
• 3:19:26
  Speaker 1: Sir said the damsels. We shall tell you there is
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: a knight in the country that owneth this white shield,
• 3:19:33
  Speaker 1: and he is a passing good man of his hands.
• 3:19:36
  Speaker 1: But he hateth all ladies and gentlewomen. And therefore we
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: do all this despite to the shield, I will say you,
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 1: said Sir Gawaine, It beseemeth evil, a good knight to
• 3:19:47
  Speaker 1: despise all ladies and gentlewomen, and peradventure. Though he hate you,
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 1: he hath some cause and paradventure. He loveth in some
• 3:19:56
  Speaker 1: other places ladies and gentlewomen, and to be and he's
• 3:20:01
  Speaker 1: such a man of prowess as ye speak of man
• 3:20:05
  Speaker 1: of prowess. Yes, that is the man to please them, sandy,
• 3:20:09
  Speaker 1: man of brains. That is a thing they never think of.
• 3:20:14
  Speaker 1: Tom Sayers, John Hannan, John L. Sullivan. Pity, but you
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 1: could be here. You would have your legs under the
• 3:20:22
  Speaker 1: round table and a sir in front of your names
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: within twenty four hours, and you could bring about a
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: new distribution of the married princesses and duchesses of the
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 1: court in another twenty four. The fact is it is
• 3:20:35
  Speaker 1: just a sort of polished up court of comanches. And
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 1: there isn't a squaw in it who doesn't stand ready
• 3:20:40
  Speaker 1: at the dropping of a hat to desert to the
• 3:20:42
  Speaker 1: buck with the biggest string of scalps that is belt.
• 3:20:47
  Speaker 1: And he be such a man of prowess as ye
• 3:20:50
  Speaker 1: speak of, said Sir Gawaine. Now what is his name, sir,
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 1: said they. His name is Marhas, the King's son of Ireland,
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 1: son of the King of Ireland. You mean the other
• 3:21:04
  Speaker 1: form doesn't mean anything? And look out and hold on tight.
• 3:21:07
  Speaker 1: Now we must jump this gully. There we are all right. Now.
• 3:21:12
  Speaker 1: This horse belongs in the circus. He is born before
• 3:21:16
  Speaker 1: his time. I know him well, said Sir Uwaine. He
• 3:21:22
  Speaker 1: is a passing good knight as any is on Live
• 3:21:26
  Speaker 1: on Live. If you've got a fault in the world, Sandy,
• 3:21:30
  Speaker 1: it is that you are a shade too archaic. But
• 3:21:33
  Speaker 1: it isn't any matter, for I saw him once proved
• 3:21:37
  Speaker 1: at a justs where many knights were gathered, and that
• 3:21:41
  Speaker 1: time there were no man withstand him. Ah, said Sir Gawaine. Damsels,
• 3:21:46
  Speaker 1: methinketh ye are to blame. For it is to suppose
• 3:21:50
  Speaker 1: that he that hung that shield there will not be
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 1: long therefrom and then may those knights match him on horseback.
• 3:21:58
  Speaker 1: And that is more your worship than the us, for
• 3:22:01
  Speaker 1: I will abide no longer to see a knight's shield dishonored.
• 3:22:05
  Speaker 1: And therewith, Sir Uwaine and Sir Gawaine departed a little
• 3:22:09
  Speaker 1: from them, And then where they were aware, Sir Marhas
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: came riding on a great horse straight toward them. And
• 3:22:17
  Speaker 1: when the twelve damsels saw Sir Marhas, they fled into
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 1: the turret as they were wild, so that some of
• 3:22:23
  Speaker 1: them fell by the way. Then the one of the
• 3:22:27
  Speaker 1: knights of the tower dressed his shield and said, on high,
• 3:22:31
  Speaker 1: Sir Marhas, defend thee. And so they ran together that
• 3:22:35
  Speaker 1: the Knight break his spear on Marhas, and Sir Marhas
• 3:22:38
  Speaker 1: smote him so hard that he break his neck and
• 3:22:41
  Speaker 1: the horse's back. Well, that is just the trouble about
• 3:22:46
  Speaker 1: this state of things. It ruins so many horses that
• 3:22:51
  Speaker 1: saw the other Knight of the Turret and dressed him
• 3:22:53
  Speaker 1: toward Marhas, And they went so eagerly together that the
• 3:22:57
  Speaker 1: Knight of the Turret was soon smitten down. Horse n
• 3:23:00
  Speaker 1: man stark dead, another horse gone. I tell you it
• 3:23:06
  Speaker 1: is a custom that ought to be broken up. I
• 3:23:08
  Speaker 1: don't see how people with any feeling can applaud and
• 3:23:10
  Speaker 1: support it. So these two knights came together with great ransom.
• 3:23:26
  Speaker 1: I saw I had been asleep and missed a chapter,
• 3:23:29
  Speaker 1: but I didn't say anything. I judged that the Irish
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 1: Knight was in trouble with the visitors by this time.
• 3:23:35
  Speaker 1: And this turned out to be the case. That Sir
• 3:23:41
  Speaker 1: Ywaine smote Sir Marhas and his spear brast in pieces
• 3:23:45
  Speaker 1: on the shield, and Sir Marhas smote him so sore
• 3:23:48
  Speaker 1: that horse and man he bare to the earth and
• 3:23:51
  Speaker 1: hurt Sir Ywaine on the left side. The truth is Alisandy.
• 3:23:57
  Speaker 1: These archaics are a little too simple. The vocabulary is
• 3:24:01
  Speaker 1: too limited, and so by consequence descriptions suffer in the
• 3:24:06
  Speaker 1: matter of variety. They run too much to level saharas
• 3:24:10
  Speaker 1: of fact, and not enough to picturesque detail. This throws
• 3:24:15
  Speaker 1: about them a certain air of the monotonous. In fact,
• 3:24:19
  Speaker 1: the fights are all alike. A couple of people come
• 3:24:22
  Speaker 1: together with great random. Random is a great word, and
• 3:24:26
  Speaker 1: so is exe Jesus for that matter, and so is holocaust,
• 3:24:30
  Speaker 1: and defalcation and usufruct and a hundred others. But land
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 1: a body ought to discriminate. They came together with great random,
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 1: and a spear is brast and one party break his shield,
• 3:24:49
  Speaker 1: and the other one goes down horse and man over
• 3:24:54
  Speaker 1: his tail and break his neck. And then the next
• 3:24:57
  Speaker 1: candidate comes randoming in and brass his spear, and the
• 3:25:02
  Speaker 1: other man brassed his shield, and down he goes horse
• 3:25:07
  Speaker 1: and man over his horse tail and break his neck.
• 3:25:11
  Speaker 1: And then there's another elected, and another, and another and
• 3:25:16
  Speaker 1: still another, till the material is all used up. And
• 3:25:19
  Speaker 1: when you come to figure up results, you can't tell
• 3:25:22
  Speaker 1: one fight from another, nor who whipped. And as a
• 3:25:26
  Speaker 1: picture of living, raging, roaring battle, show why it's pale
• 3:25:33
  Speaker 1: and noiseless, just goats scuffling in a fog. Dear me,
• 3:25:39
  Speaker 1: what would this barren vocabulary get out of the mightiest
• 3:25:42
  Speaker 1: spectacle the burning of Rome in Nero's time? For instance?
• 3:25:46
  Speaker 1: Why he would merely say town burned down? No insurance
• 3:25:52
  Speaker 1: boy brassed a window, fireman break his neck? Why that
• 3:25:58
  Speaker 1: ain't a picture? It was a good deal of a lecture,
• 3:26:04
  Speaker 1: I thought, But it didn't disturb Sandy didn't turn a feather.
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 1: Her steam soared steadily up again the minute I took
• 3:26:11
  Speaker 1: off the lid. Then Sir Marhaus turned his horse and
• 3:26:15
  Speaker 1: rode toward Gawaine with his spear. And when Sir Gawaine
• 3:26:19
  Speaker 1: saw that, he dressed his shield, and they invented their spears,
• 3:26:22
  Speaker 1: and they came together with all the might of their
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: horses that either knight smote others so hard in the
• 3:26:28
  Speaker 1: midst of their shields. But Sir Gawaine's spear brake. I
• 3:26:33
  Speaker 1: knew it would, But Sir Marhaus's spear held, and therewith.
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 1: Sir Gawaine and his horse rushed down to the earth
• 3:26:40
  Speaker 1: just so and brake his back and lightly. Sir Gawaine
• 3:26:45
  Speaker 1: rose upon his feet and pulled out his sword and
• 3:26:48
  Speaker 1: dressed him towards Sir Marhaus on foot and therewith either
• 3:26:53
  Speaker 1: came unto other eagerly and smote together with their swords,
• 3:26:56
  Speaker 1: that their shields flew in cantels, and they brew used
• 3:27:00
  Speaker 1: their helms and their harbricks, and wounded each other. But
• 3:27:04
  Speaker 1: Sir Gawayne fro it passed nine of the clock, waxed
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 1: by the space of three hours, ever stronger and stronger,
• 3:27:12
  Speaker 1: and thrice his might was increased. All this espied Sir Marhas,
• 3:27:18
  Speaker 1: and had great wonder how his might increased. And so
• 3:27:21
  Speaker 1: they wounded other, passing sore. And then when it was
• 3:27:25
  Speaker 1: come noon, the pelting sing song of it carried me
• 3:27:31
  Speaker 1: forward to scenes and sounds of my boyhood days, niea hey.
• 3:27:36
  Speaker 1: Then ten minutes for refreshments, conductor's strike the gong bell,
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 1: two minutes before train leaves. Passengers for the shoreline, please
• 3:27:47
  Speaker 1: take seats in the rear car. This car don't go
• 3:27:50
  Speaker 1: no furda apples run jezz bananas, sandchez bapgne, and waxed
• 3:28:02
  Speaker 1: past noon and drew toward evensong. Sir Gawaine's strength feebled
• 3:28:08
  Speaker 1: and waxed, passing faint, that unneath he might dure any longer,
• 3:28:13
  Speaker 1: and Sir Marhaus was then bigger and bigger, which strained
• 3:28:18
  Speaker 1: his armor, of course, And yet little would one of
• 3:28:20
  Speaker 1: these people mind a small thing like that. And so,
• 3:28:25
  Speaker 1: sir Knight, said Sir Marhaus, I have well felt that
• 3:28:28
  Speaker 1: ye are a passing good knight and a marvelous man
• 3:28:31
  Speaker 1: of might, as ever I felt any well it lasteth,
• 3:28:35
  Speaker 1: and our quarrels are not great, And therefore it were
• 3:28:38
  Speaker 1: a pity to do you hurt, for I feel you
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: are passing feeble. Ah, said Sir Gawaine, gentle knight, Ye
• 3:28:47
  Speaker 1: say the word that I should say, and therewith They
• 3:28:50
  Speaker 1: took off their helms and either kissed other, and there
• 3:28:54
  Speaker 1: they swore together, either to love other as brethren. But
• 3:29:00
  Speaker 1: I lost the thread there and dozed off to slumber,
• 3:29:03
  Speaker 1: thinking about what a pity it was that men with
• 3:29:06
  Speaker 1: such superb strength, strength enabling them to stand up cased
• 3:29:11
  Speaker 1: in cruelly burdensome iron and drenched with perspiration, and hack
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: and batter and bang each other for six hours on
• 3:29:19
  Speaker 1: a stretch, should not have been born at a time
• 3:29:21
  Speaker 1: when they could put it to some useful purpose. Take
• 3:29:25
  Speaker 1: a jackass, for instance. A jackass has that kind of
• 3:29:29
  Speaker 1: strength and puts it to a useful purpose, and is
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: valuable to this world because he is a jackass. But
• 3:29:37
  Speaker 1: a nobleman is not valuable because he is a jackass.
• 3:29:43
  Speaker 1: It is a mixture that is always ineffectual and should
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 1: never have been attempted in the first place. And yet
• 3:29:49
  Speaker 1: once you start a mistake, the trouble is done, and
• 3:29:52
  Speaker 1: you never know what is going to come of it.
• 3:29:57
  Speaker 1: When I came to myself again and began to listen,
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 1: I perceived that I had lost another chapter, and that
• 3:30:03
  Speaker 1: Alisandy had wandered a long way off with her people.
• 3:30:07
  Speaker 1: And so they rode and came into a deep valley
• 3:30:11
  Speaker 1: full of stones, and thereby they saw a fair stream
• 3:30:15
  Speaker 1: of water. Above thereby was the head of the stream,
• 3:30:19
  Speaker 1: a fair fountain, and three damsels sitting thereby. In this country,
• 3:30:25
  Speaker 1: said Sir marhas came never knight since it was christened,
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: but he found strange adventures. This is not good form, Alisandy.
• 3:30:36
  Speaker 1: Sir marhas, the King's son of Ireland, talks like all
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: the rest. You ought to give him a baroque or
• 3:30:42
  Speaker 1: at least a characteristic explicative by this means one could
• 3:30:47
  Speaker 1: recognize him as soon as he spoke without his ever
• 3:30:49
  Speaker 1: being named. It is a common literary device with the
• 3:30:53
  Speaker 1: great authors. You should make him say, in this country
• 3:30:57
  Speaker 1: by abbers came never knight since it was christened. But
• 3:31:01
  Speaker 1: he found strange adventures, be yabbers. You see how much
• 3:31:05
  Speaker 1: better that sounds. Came never night, But he found strange adventures,
• 3:31:13
  Speaker 1: be jabbers of a truth. It doth indeed, fair Lord,
• 3:31:18
  Speaker 1: Albeit tis passing hard to say, though, peradventure that will
• 3:31:23
  Speaker 1: not tarry, but better speed with usage. And then they
• 3:31:28
  Speaker 1: rode to the damsels and either saluted other. And the
• 3:31:32
  Speaker 1: eldest had a garland of gold about her head, and
• 3:31:35
  Speaker 1: she was three score winter of age or more. The
• 3:31:40
  Speaker 1: damsel was even so, dear Lord, and her hair was
• 3:31:44
  Speaker 1: white under the garland. Celluloid teeth nine dollars, a set
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 1: as like as not, the loose fit kind that go
• 3:31:52
  Speaker 1: up and down like a porticus when you eat, and
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 1: fall out when you laugh. The second damsel was of
• 3:31:59
  Speaker 1: thirty winters age, with a circlet of gold about her head.
• 3:32:04
  Speaker 1: The third damsel was but fifteen year of age. Billows
• 3:32:09
  Speaker 1: of thought came rolling over my soul, and the voice
• 3:32:12
  Speaker 1: faded out of my hearing. Fifteen break my heart Oh,
• 3:32:21
  Speaker 1: my lost darling, just her age, who was so gentle
• 3:32:24
  Speaker 1: and lovely and all the world to me, and whom
• 3:32:28
  Speaker 1: I shall never see again. How the thought of her
• 3:32:32
  Speaker 1: carries me back over wide seas of memory to a vague,
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 1: dim time, a happy time, so many many centuries. Hence
• 3:32:42
  Speaker 1: when I used to wake in the soft summer mornings
• 3:32:45
  Speaker 1: out of sweet dreams of her and say Hello Central,
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 1: just to hear her voice come melting back to me
• 3:32:53
  Speaker 1: with a Hello Hank. That was music to the spheres
• 3:32:58
  Speaker 1: of my enchanted ear. She got three dollars a week,
• 3:33:01
  Speaker 1: but she was worth it. I could not follow Alisandy's
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 1: further explanation of who our captured nights were now, I mean,
• 3:33:12
  Speaker 1: in case she should ever get to explaining who they were.
• 3:33:16
  Speaker 1: My interest was gone. My thoughts were far away and sad.
• 3:33:21
  Speaker 1: By fitful glimpses of the drifting tail caught here and
• 3:33:24
  Speaker 1: there and now and then I merely noted in a
• 3:33:27
  Speaker 1: vague way that each of these three nights took one
• 3:33:30
  Speaker 1: of these three damsels up behind him on his horse,
• 3:33:34
  Speaker 1: and one rode north, another east, the other south, to
• 3:33:38
  Speaker 1: seek adventures and meet again, and lie after year and day,
• 3:33:45
  Speaker 1: year and day, and without baggage. It was of a
• 3:33:49
  Speaker 1: piece with the general simplicity of the country. The sun
• 3:33:55
  Speaker 1: was now setting. It was about three in the afternoon.
• 3:33:58
  Speaker 1: With Ali, Sandy had begun to tell me who the
• 3:34:00
  Speaker 1: cowboys were, so she had made pretty good progress with it.
• 3:34:05
  Speaker 1: For her. She would arrive some time or other, no doubt,
• 3:34:09
  Speaker 1: but she was not a person who could be hurried.
• 3:34:15
  Speaker 1: We were approaching a castle which stood on high ground,
• 3:34:19
  Speaker 1: a huge, strong, venerable structure, whose gray towers and battlements
• 3:34:24
  Speaker 1: were charmingly draped with ivy, and whose whole majestic mass
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: was drenched with splendors flung from the sinking sun. It
• 3:34:32
  Speaker 1: was the largest castle we had seen, and so I
• 3:34:36
  Speaker 1: thought it might be the one we were after. But
• 3:34:39
  Speaker 1: Sandy said no, she did not know who owned it.
• 3:34:42
  Speaker 1: She said she had passed it without calling when she
• 3:34:44
  Speaker 1: went down to Camelot Chapter sixteen, Morgan le Fay. If
• 3:34:59
  Speaker 1: knights Errant were to be believed, not all castles were desirable
• 3:35:03
  Speaker 1: places to seek hospitality in. As a matter of fact,
• 3:35:07
  Speaker 1: knights Errant, who were not persons to be believed that
• 3:35:12
  Speaker 1: is measured by modern standards of veracity, yet measured by
• 3:35:15
  Speaker 1: the standards of their own time and scaled accordingly. You
• 3:35:20
  Speaker 1: got the truth. It was very simple. You discounted a
• 3:35:24
  Speaker 1: statement ninety seven percent. The rest was fact. Now, after
• 3:35:31
  Speaker 1: making this allowance, the truth remained that if I could
• 3:35:34
  Speaker 1: find out something about a castle before ringing the doorbell,
• 3:35:38
  Speaker 1: I mean hailing the warders, it was the sensible thing
• 3:35:42
  Speaker 1: to do. So I was pleased when I saw in
• 3:35:45
  Speaker 1: the distance a horseman making the bottom turn of the
• 3:35:49
  Speaker 1: road that wound down from the castle. As we approached
• 3:35:53
  Speaker 1: each other, I saw that he wore a plumed helmet,
• 3:35:57
  Speaker 1: and seemed to be otherwise clothed in steel, but wore
• 3:36:01
  Speaker 1: a curious addition, also a stiff square garment like a
• 3:36:05
  Speaker 1: herald's tabart. However, I had to smile at my own
• 3:36:10
  Speaker 1: forgetfulness when I got nearer and read his sign on
• 3:36:13
  Speaker 1: his tabard, per Simmons soap all the prime danna use it.
• 3:36:20
  Speaker 1: That was a little idea of my own, and had
• 3:36:22
  Speaker 1: several wholesome purposes in view toward the civilizing and uplifting
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 1: of this nation. In the first place, it was a furative,
• 3:36:31
  Speaker 1: underhand blow at this nonsense of knight Errantry. Though nobody
• 3:36:36
  Speaker 1: suspected that but me, I had started a number of
• 3:36:41
  Speaker 1: these people out the bravest nights, I could get each
• 3:36:45
  Speaker 1: sandwiched between bulletin boards bearing one device or another. And
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 1: I judged that by and by, when they got to
• 3:36:52
  Speaker 1: be numerous enough, they would begin to look ridiculous. And
• 3:36:56
  Speaker 1: then even the steel clad asked that had any board,
• 3:37:01
  Speaker 1: would himself begin to look ridiculous because he was out
• 3:37:04
  Speaker 1: of the fashion. Secondly, these missionaries would gradually, and without
• 3:37:11
  Speaker 1: creating suspicion or exciting alarm, introduce a rudimentary cleanliness among
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 1: the nobility, and from them it would work down to
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: the people. If the priest could be kept quiet, this
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: would undermine the church, I mean, would be a step
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 1: toward that, next education, next freedom, and then she would
• 3:37:36
  Speaker 1: begin to crumble. It. Being my conviction that any established
• 3:37:41
  Speaker 1: church is an established crime, an established slave pen, I
• 3:37:45
  Speaker 1: had no scruples, but was willing to assail it in
• 3:37:47
  Speaker 1: any way or with any weapon that promised to hurt it.
• 3:37:51
  Speaker 1: Why in my own former day, in remote centuries, not
• 3:37:55
  Speaker 1: yet stirring in the womb of time, there were old
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 1: Englishmen who imagine that they had been born in a
• 3:38:01
  Speaker 1: free country, a free country with the Corporation Act and
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: the tests still in force. In it, timbers propped against
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 1: men's liberties and dishonored consciences. To shore up an established
• 3:38:14
  Speaker 1: anachronism with my missionaries were taught to spell out the
• 3:38:20
  Speaker 1: guilt signs on their taverns. The showy gilding was a
• 3:38:23
  Speaker 1: neat idea. I could have got the king to wear
• 3:38:26
  Speaker 1: a bulletin board for the sake of that barbaric's blunder.
• 3:38:30
  Speaker 1: They were to spell out these signs and then explain
• 3:38:33
  Speaker 1: to the lords and ladies what soap was, and if
• 3:38:36
  Speaker 1: the lords and ladies were afraid of it, get them
• 3:38:39
  Speaker 1: to try it on a dog. The missionary's next move
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 1: was to get the family together and try it on himself.
• 3:38:46
  Speaker 1: He was to stop at no experiment, however desperate, that
• 3:38:49
  Speaker 1: would convince the nobility that soap was harmless. If any
• 3:38:53
  Speaker 1: final doubt remained, he must catch a hermit. The woods
• 3:38:57
  Speaker 1: were full of them. The saints they called them, and
• 3:39:01
  Speaker 1: saints they were believed to be. They were unspeakably holy
• 3:39:05
  Speaker 1: and worked miracles, and everybody stood in awe of them.
• 3:39:09
  Speaker 1: If a hermit could survive a wash, and that failed
• 3:39:12
  Speaker 1: to convince a duke, give him up, let him alone.
• 3:39:18
  Speaker 1: Whenever my missionaries overcame a knight errant on the road.
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 1: They washed him, and when he got well, they swore
• 3:39:25
  Speaker 1: him to go to get a bulletin board and disseminate
• 3:39:27
  Speaker 1: soap and civilization the rest of his days. As a consequence,
• 3:39:33
  Speaker 1: the workers in the field were increasing by degrees, and
• 3:39:36
  Speaker 1: the reform was steadily spreading, and my soap factory felt
• 3:39:40
  Speaker 1: the strain early. At first I had only two hands,
• 3:39:44
  Speaker 1: but before I had left home, I was already employing fifteen,
• 3:39:47
  Speaker 1: and running night and day. And the atmospheric result was
• 3:39:51
  Speaker 1: getting so pronounced that the King went sort of fainting
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: and gasping around, and said he did not believe that
• 3:39:57
  Speaker 1: he could stand it much longer. The landslod got so
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: that he did hardly anything but walk up and down
• 3:40:04
  Speaker 1: the roof and swear, although I told him it was
• 3:40:07
  Speaker 1: worse up there than anywhere else, But he said he
• 3:40:09
  Speaker 1: wanted plenty of air. And he was always complaining that
• 3:40:12
  Speaker 1: a palace was no place for a soap factory anyway. Instead,
• 3:40:16
  Speaker 1: if a man was to start one in his house,
• 3:40:18
  Speaker 1: he would be damned if he wouldn't strangle him. Every
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 1: ladies present too, But much these people ever cared for
• 3:40:25
  Speaker 1: that they would swear before children if the wind was
• 3:40:28
  Speaker 1: their way. When the factory was going. This missionary knight's
• 3:40:33
  Speaker 1: name was Lecote male Tail, and he said that this
• 3:40:36
  Speaker 1: castle was the abode of Morgan le Fay, sister of
• 3:40:40
  Speaker 1: King Arthur and wife of King Urines, monarch of a
• 3:40:43
  Speaker 1: realm about as big as the district of Columbia. You
• 3:40:47
  Speaker 1: could stand in the middle of it and throw bricks
• 3:40:49
  Speaker 1: into the next kingdom. Kings and kingdoms were as thick
• 3:40:53
  Speaker 1: in Britain as they had been in Little Palestine in
• 3:40:56
  Speaker 1: Joshua's time, when people had to sleep with their knees
• 3:40:59
  Speaker 1: pulled up because as they could stretch out without a passport.
• 3:41:04
  Speaker 1: Le Coote was much depressed, for he had scored here
• 3:41:07
  Speaker 1: the worst failure of his campaign. He had not worked
• 3:41:11
  Speaker 1: off a cake, yet he had tried all the tricks
• 3:41:13
  Speaker 1: of the trade, even to the washing of a hermit,
• 3:41:17
  Speaker 1: but the hermit died. This was indeed a bad failure,
• 3:41:22
  Speaker 1: for this animal would now be dubbed a martyr and
• 3:41:24
  Speaker 1: would take his place among the saints of the Roman calendar.
• 3:41:29
  Speaker 1: Thus made he his moan, the poor Sir lecot male Tale,
• 3:41:34
  Speaker 1: and sorrowed passing sore, and so my heart bled for him,
• 3:41:40
  Speaker 1: and I was moved to comfort and stay him. Wherefore
• 3:41:44
  Speaker 1: I said, forbear to grieve, fair knight, for this is
• 3:41:49
  Speaker 1: not a defeat. We have brains, you and I, and
• 3:41:52
  Speaker 1: for such as have brains, there are no defeats, but
• 3:41:55
  Speaker 1: only victories. Observe, how we will turn the seeming disaster
• 3:41:59
  Speaker 1: into an advertisement, an advertisement for our soap, and the
• 3:42:04
  Speaker 1: biggest one to draw that was ever thought of, an
• 3:42:07
  Speaker 1: advertisement that will transform that Mount Washington defeat into a
• 3:42:11
  Speaker 1: matterhorn victory. We will put on your bulletin board patronized
• 3:42:17
  Speaker 1: by the elect How does that strike you? Verily? It
• 3:42:22
  Speaker 1: was wonderly bethought, while a body is bound to admit
• 3:42:26
  Speaker 1: that for just a modest little one line ad it's
• 3:42:30
  Speaker 1: a corker. So the poor cold Porter's grief vanished away.
• 3:42:35
  Speaker 1: He was a brave fellow and had done mighty feats
• 3:42:37
  Speaker 1: of arms in his time. His chief celebrity rested upon
• 3:42:41
  Speaker 1: the events of an excursion like this one of mine,
• 3:42:44
  Speaker 1: which he had once made with a damsel named Mala
• 3:42:46
  Speaker 1: de Samt, who was as handy with her tongue as
• 3:42:50
  Speaker 1: was Sandy, though in a different way. For her tongue
• 3:42:54
  Speaker 1: churned forth only railings and insult, whereas Sandy's music was
• 3:42:58
  Speaker 1: of a kindlier sort. I knew his story well, and
• 3:43:03
  Speaker 1: so I knew how to interpret the compassion that was
• 3:43:05
  Speaker 1: in his face when he bade me farewell. He supposed
• 3:43:09
  Speaker 1: I was having a bitter hard time of it. Sandy
• 3:43:13
  Speaker 1: and I discussed his story as we rode along, and
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 1: she said that Lecote's bad luck had begun with the
• 3:43:19
  Speaker 1: very beginning of that trip, for the king's fool had
• 3:43:22
  Speaker 1: overthrown him on the first day. And in such cases
• 3:43:25
  Speaker 1: it was customary for the girl to desert to the conqueror,
• 3:43:29
  Speaker 1: but Maladesesamp didn't do it, and also persisted afterward in
• 3:43:34
  Speaker 1: sticking to him after all his defeats. But said, I
• 3:43:39
  Speaker 1: suppose the victor should decline to accept his spoil. She
• 3:43:42
  Speaker 1: said that that wouldn't answer. He must He couldn't decline.
• 3:43:47
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be regular. I made a note of that
• 3:43:52
  Speaker 1: if Sandy's music got to be too burdensome, sometime I
• 3:43:56
  Speaker 1: would let a knight defeat me on the chance that
• 3:43:58
  Speaker 1: she would desert to him. In due time, we were
• 3:44:03
  Speaker 1: challenged by the warders from the castle walls, and after
• 3:44:06
  Speaker 1: a Parley admitted, I have nothing pleasant to tell about
• 3:44:11
  Speaker 1: that visit, but it was not a disappointment, for I
• 3:44:14
  Speaker 1: knew missus le Fay by reputation and was not expecting
• 3:44:19
  Speaker 1: anything pleasant. She was held in awe by the whole realm,
• 3:44:24
  Speaker 1: for she had made everybody believe she was a great sorceress.
• 3:44:28
  Speaker 1: All her ways were wicked, all her instincts devilish. She
• 3:44:32
  Speaker 1: was loaded to the eyelids with cold malice. All her
• 3:44:36
  Speaker 1: history was black with crime, and among her crime's murder
• 3:44:40
  Speaker 1: was common. I was most curious to see her, as
• 3:44:44
  Speaker 1: curious as I could have been to see Satan. To
• 3:44:47
  Speaker 1: my surprise, she was beautiful. Black thoughts had failed to
• 3:44:51
  Speaker 1: make her expression repulsive. Age had failed to wrinkle her
• 3:44:54
  Speaker 1: satin skin or mar its bloomy freshness. She could have
• 3:44:59
  Speaker 1: passed for old Ar Huran's granddaughter. She could have been
• 3:45:02
  Speaker 1: mistaken for sister to her own son. As soon as
• 3:45:06
  Speaker 1: we were fairly within the castle gates, we were ordered
• 3:45:09
  Speaker 1: into her presence. King Urans was there, a kind faced
• 3:45:14
  Speaker 1: old man with a subdued look, and also the son
• 3:45:18
  Speaker 1: Sir Uwaine le Blachemains, in whom I was of course
• 3:45:22
  Speaker 1: interested on account of the tradition that he had done
• 3:45:25
  Speaker 1: battle with thirty knights, and also on account of his
• 3:45:29
  Speaker 1: trip with Sir Gawaine and Sir Marhaus, which Sandy had
• 3:45:32
  Speaker 1: been aging me with. But Morgan was the main attraction,
• 3:45:35
  Speaker 1: the conspicuous personality here. She was the head chief of
• 3:45:39
  Speaker 1: this household. That was plain. She caused us to be seated,
• 3:45:44
  Speaker 1: and then she began, with all manner of pretty graces
• 3:45:47
  Speaker 1: and graciousnesses to ask me questions. Dear me. It was
• 3:45:52
  Speaker 1: like a bird, or a flute or something talking. I
• 3:45:56
  Speaker 1: felt persuaded that this woman must have been misinterpreted lie about.
• 3:46:01
  Speaker 1: She trolled along and trilled along, and presently a handsome
• 3:46:05
  Speaker 1: young page, clothed like the rainbow and as easy and
• 3:46:08
  Speaker 1: undulatory of movement as a wave, came with something on
• 3:46:12
  Speaker 1: a golden silver, and, kneeling to present it to her.
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 1: Overdid his graces and lost his balance, and so fell
• 3:46:19
  Speaker 1: lightly against her knee. She slipped a dirk into him
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 1: in as matter of course, a way as another person
• 3:46:27
  Speaker 1: would have harpooned a rat poor child. He slumped to
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 1: the floor, twisted his silken limbs in one great straining
• 3:46:36
  Speaker 1: contortion of pain, and was dead out of the old
• 3:46:43
  Speaker 1: king was wrung and involuntary, Oh of compassion. The look
• 3:46:49
  Speaker 1: he got made him cut it suddenly short and not
• 3:46:52
  Speaker 1: put any more hyphens in it. Sir Uwaine, at a
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 1: sign from his mother, went to the ant room and
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 1: called some servers. And meanwhile Madame went ripplingly, sweetly along
• 3:47:06
  Speaker 1: with her talk. I saw that she was a good housekeeper,
• 3:47:11
  Speaker 1: for while she talked, she kept a corner of her
• 3:47:13
  Speaker 1: eye on the servants to see they made no box
• 3:47:16
  Speaker 1: in handling the body and getting it out. When they
• 3:47:20
  Speaker 1: came with fresh, clean towels, she sent back for the
• 3:47:23
  Speaker 1: other kind. And when they had finished wiping the floor
• 3:47:26
  Speaker 1: and were going, she indicated a crimson fleck the size
• 3:47:30
  Speaker 1: of a tear, which their duller eyes had overlooked. It
• 3:47:35
  Speaker 1: was plain to me that le Cote male tail had
• 3:47:37
  Speaker 1: failed to see the mistress of the house. Often how
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 1: louder and clearer than any tongue does dumb circumstantial evidence speak.
• 3:47:50
  Speaker 1: Morgan le Fay rippled along as musically as ever, marvelous woman,
• 3:47:55
  Speaker 1: And what a glance she had when it fell and
• 3:47:59
  Speaker 1: reproved upon those servants. They shrunk and quailed, as timid
• 3:48:03
  Speaker 1: people do. When the lightning flashes out of a cloud.
• 3:48:07
  Speaker 1: I could have got the habit myself. It was the
• 3:48:10
  Speaker 1: same with that poor old Briar Urins. He was always
• 3:48:14
  Speaker 1: on the ragged edge of apprehension. She could not even
• 3:48:17
  Speaker 1: turn toward him, but he winced. In the midst of
• 3:48:21
  Speaker 1: the talk, I let drop a complimentary word about King Arthur,
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 1: forgetting for the moment how this woman hated her brother,
• 3:48:30
  Speaker 1: that one little compliment was enough. She clouded up like
• 3:48:33
  Speaker 1: a storm. She called for her guards and said, hail me,
• 3:48:38
  Speaker 1: these varlets to the dungeons that struck cold on my ears.
• 3:48:43
  Speaker 1: For her dungeons had a reputation. Nothing occurred to me
• 3:48:47
  Speaker 1: to say or do, But not so a sandy. As
• 3:48:53
  Speaker 1: the guard laid a hand on me, she piped up
• 3:48:56
  Speaker 1: with the tranquilist confidence and said, God's wounds dost thou
• 3:49:01
  Speaker 1: covet destruction, thou maniac, it's the boss. Now. What a
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 1: happy idea that was, and so simple. Yet it would
• 3:49:13
  Speaker 1: never have occurred to me. I was born modest, not
• 3:49:17
  Speaker 1: all over, but in spots, and this is one of
• 3:49:20
  Speaker 1: the spots. The effect upon Madame was electrical. It cleared
• 3:49:26
  Speaker 1: her countenance and brought back her smiles and all her
• 3:49:29
  Speaker 1: persuasive graces and blandishments, but nevertheless she was not able
• 3:49:35
  Speaker 1: to entirely cover up with them the fact that she
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: was in a ghastly fright. She said, law, but do
• 3:49:43
  Speaker 1: list to thine handmaid, as if one gifted with powers
• 3:49:47
  Speaker 1: like to mine, might say the thing which I have said,
• 3:49:50
  Speaker 1: unto one who has vanquished Merlin, and not be jesting
• 3:49:56
  Speaker 1: by mine enchantments. I foresaw you were coming, and by
• 3:49:59
  Speaker 1: them I I knew you when you entered here. I
• 3:50:02
  Speaker 1: did but play this little jest with hope to surprise
• 3:50:05
  Speaker 1: you into some display of your art, as not doubting
• 3:50:08
  Speaker 1: you would blast the guards with the cult fires, consuming
• 3:50:12
  Speaker 1: them to ashes on the spot, A marvel much beyond
• 3:50:16
  Speaker 1: my own ability, yet one which I have long been
• 3:50:19
  Speaker 1: childishly curious to see. The guards were less curious, and
• 3:50:26
  Speaker 1: got out as soon as they got permission. End of
• 3:50:32
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, a royal banquet. Madame, seeing me pacific and unresentful,
• 3:50:46
  Speaker 1: no doubt judged that I was deceived by her excuse
• 3:50:50
  Speaker 1: for her fright dissolved away, and she was soon so
• 3:50:52
  Speaker 1: importunate to have me give an exhibition and kill somebody,
• 3:50:57
  Speaker 1: that the thing grew to be embarrassing. However, to my relief,
• 3:51:02
  Speaker 1: she was presently interrupted by the call to prayers. I
• 3:51:05
  Speaker 1: will say this much for the nobility that tyrannical, murderous, rapacious,
• 3:51:10
  Speaker 1: and morally rotten as they were, they were deeply and
• 3:51:14
  Speaker 1: enthusiastically religious. Nothing could divert them from the regular and
• 3:51:18
  Speaker 1: faithful performance of the pieties enjoined by the Church. More
• 3:51:24
  Speaker 1: than once I had seen a noble, who had gotten
• 3:51:26
  Speaker 1: his enemy at a disadvantage, stopped to pray before cutting
• 3:51:30
  Speaker 1: his throat. More than once I had seen a noble,
• 3:51:34
  Speaker 1: after ambushing and dispatching his enemy, retired to the nearest
• 3:51:38
  Speaker 1: wayside shrine and humbly give thanks, without even waiting to
• 3:51:42
  Speaker 1: rob the body. There was to be nothing finer or
• 3:51:47
  Speaker 1: sweeter in the life of even Benvenuto Cellini, that rough
• 3:51:52
  Speaker 1: hewn saint. Ten centuries later, all the nobles of Britain,
• 3:51:56
  Speaker 1: with their families attended divine service mourning and night daily
• 3:52:00
  Speaker 1: in their private chapels, and even the worst of them
• 3:52:04
  Speaker 1: had family worshiped five or six times a day. Besides,
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: the credit of this belonged entirely to the Church. Although
• 3:52:12
  Speaker 1: I was no friend to that Catholic Church, I was
• 3:52:14
  Speaker 1: obliged to admit this, and often in spite of me,
• 3:52:19
  Speaker 1: I found myself saying, what would this country be without
• 3:52:23
  Speaker 1: the church? After prayers we had dinner in a great
• 3:52:29
  Speaker 1: banqueting hall, which was lighted by hundreds of Greece jets,
• 3:52:33
  Speaker 1: and everything was as fine and lavish and rudely splendid
• 3:52:38
  Speaker 1: as might become a royal degree of the hosts. At
• 3:52:43
  Speaker 1: the head of the hall on Adiais was the table
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 1: of the King, Queen and their son Prince Uwaine. Stretching
• 3:52:50
  Speaker 1: down the hall from this was the general table on
• 3:52:53
  Speaker 1: the floor. At this, above the salt, sat the visiting
• 3:52:58
  Speaker 1: nobles and the grown members of their families of both sexes.
• 3:53:03
  Speaker 1: The resident court, in effect sixty one persons. Below the
• 3:53:09
  Speaker 1: sault sat minor officers of the household with their principal subordinates,
• 3:53:13
  Speaker 1: all together one hundred and eighteen persons sitting, and about
• 3:53:17
  Speaker 1: as many liveried servants standing behind their chairs or serving
• 3:53:21
  Speaker 1: in one capacity or another. It was a very fine show.
• 3:53:25
  Speaker 1: In a gallery, a band with cymbals, horns, harps and
• 3:53:29
  Speaker 1: other horrors opened the proceedings with what seemed to be
• 3:53:33
  Speaker 1: the crude, first draft or original agony of the whale
• 3:53:37
  Speaker 1: known to later centuries as in the suite. By and
• 3:53:41
  Speaker 1: by it was new and ought to have been rehearsed
• 3:53:45
  Speaker 1: a little more. For some reason or other, the Queen
• 3:53:49
  Speaker 1: had the composer hanged after dinner. After this music, the priest,
• 3:53:56
  Speaker 1: who stood behind the royal table set a noble lawng
• 3:54:00
  Speaker 1: grace in ostensible Latin. Then the battalion of waiters broke
• 3:54:04
  Speaker 1: away from their posts and darted, rushed, flew, fetched, and carried.
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 1: Then the mighty feeding began, no words anywhere, but absorbing
• 3:54:14
  Speaker 1: attention to business. The rows of chops opened and shut
• 3:54:18
  Speaker 1: in vast unison, and the sound of it was like
• 3:54:21
  Speaker 1: the muffled burr of subterranean machinery. The habit continued an
• 3:54:27
  Speaker 1: hour and a half, and unimaginable was the destruction of
• 3:54:30
  Speaker 1: substantials of the chief feature of the feast, the huge
• 3:54:35
  Speaker 1: wild boar that lay stretched out so portly and imposing
• 3:54:39
  Speaker 1: at the start. Nothing was left but the semblance of
• 3:54:42
  Speaker 1: a hoopskirt, and he was but the type and symbol
• 3:54:46
  Speaker 1: of what had happened to all the other dishes. With
• 3:54:50
  Speaker 1: the pastries and so on, the heavy drinking began, and
• 3:54:54
  Speaker 1: the talk a gallon after gallon of wine and mead disappeared,
• 3:54:59
  Speaker 1: and everybody got comfortable, then happy, then sparklingly joyous. Both
• 3:55:06
  Speaker 1: sexes and by and by pretty noisy men told antidotes
• 3:55:12
  Speaker 1: that were terrific to hear, but nobody blushed, And when
• 3:55:16
  Speaker 1: the nub was sprung, the assemblage let go with a
• 3:55:19
  Speaker 1: hoarse laugh that shook the fortress. Ladies answered back with
• 3:55:25
  Speaker 1: historiettes that would have almost made Queen Margaret of Navarre
• 3:55:30
  Speaker 1: or even the Great Elizabeth of England hide behind a handkerchief.
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 1: But nobody hid here but only laughed. How old, you
• 3:55:39
  Speaker 1: may say. In pretty much all of these dreadful stories,
• 3:55:43
  Speaker 1: ecclesiastics were the hardy heroes. But that didn't worry the
• 3:55:47
  Speaker 1: chaplain any. He had his laugh with the rest. More
• 3:55:50
  Speaker 1: than that, upon invitation, he roared out a song which
• 3:55:54
  Speaker 1: was of as daring a sort of any that was
• 3:55:57
  Speaker 1: sung that night. By midnight, everybody was fagged out and
• 3:56:04
  Speaker 1: sore with laughing, and as a rule drunk, some weepingly,
• 3:56:10
  Speaker 1: some affectionately, some hilariously, some quarrelsomely, some dead, and under
• 3:56:15
  Speaker 1: the table of the ladies. The worst spectacle was a
• 3:56:19
  Speaker 1: lovely young duchess whose wedding eve this was, And indeed
• 3:56:24
  Speaker 1: she was a spectacle sure enough. Just as she was,
• 3:56:28
  Speaker 1: she could have sat in advance for the portrait of
• 3:56:30
  Speaker 1: the young daughter of the Regent d Orleans at the
• 3:56:33
  Speaker 1: famous dinner when she was carried foul mouthed, intoxicated, and
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 1: helpless to her bed in the lost and lamented days
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 1: of the ancient regime. Suddenly, even while the priest was
• 3:56:46
  Speaker 1: lifting his hands and all conscious heads were bowed in
• 3:56:50
  Speaker 1: reverent expectation of the coming blessing, there appeared under the
• 3:56:54
  Speaker 1: arch of the far off door at the bottom of
• 3:56:56
  Speaker 1: the hall, an old and bent and white haired lady
• 3:57:00
  Speaker 1: leaning upon a crutch stick. And she lifted the stick
• 3:57:03
  Speaker 1: and pointed it toward the Queen and cried out, the
• 3:57:07
  Speaker 1: wrath and curse of God fall upon you, woman without pity,
• 3:57:12
  Speaker 1: who have slain my innocent grandchild, and made desolate this
• 3:57:15
  Speaker 1: old heart that had nor chick, nor friend, nor stay
• 3:57:19
  Speaker 1: nor comfort in all this world but him. Everybody crossed
• 3:57:26
  Speaker 1: himself in a grisly fright. For a curse was an
• 3:57:29
  Speaker 1: awful thing to these people. But the Queen rose up
• 3:57:32
  Speaker 1: majestic with the death light in her eye, and flung
• 3:57:36
  Speaker 1: back at this ruthless command lay hands on her to
• 3:57:41
  Speaker 1: the stake with her. The guards left their post to obey.
• 3:57:48
  Speaker 1: It was a shame. It was a cruel thing to
• 3:57:50
  Speaker 1: see what could be done. Sandy gave me a look.
• 3:57:55
  Speaker 1: I knew she had another inspiration. I said, do what
• 3:57:59
  Speaker 1: you choose. She was up, facing toward the queen. In
• 3:58:03
  Speaker 1: a moment she indicated me and said, Madame, he saith
• 3:58:09
  Speaker 1: this may not be recall the commandment, or he will
• 3:58:13
  Speaker 1: dissolve the castle and it shall vanish away like the
• 3:58:17
  Speaker 1: unstable fabric of a dream. Confound it. What a crazy
• 3:58:24
  Speaker 1: contract to pledge a person too? What if the queen?
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 1: But my consternation subsided there and my panic passed off
• 3:58:33
  Speaker 1: for the queen, all in a collapse, made no show
• 3:58:36
  Speaker 1: of resistance, but gave a countermanding sign and sunk into
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 1: her seat. When she reached it, she was sober, so
• 3:58:45
  Speaker 1: were many of the others. The assemblage rose, whifted ceremony
• 3:58:50
  Speaker 1: to the winds, and rushed for the door like a mob,
• 3:58:53
  Speaker 1: overturning chairs, smashing crockery, tugging, struggling, shouldering, crowding, anything to
• 3:58:58
  Speaker 1: get out before I should change my mind, and puffed
• 3:59:01
  Speaker 1: the castle into the measureless dim vacancies of space. Well, well,
• 3:59:09
  Speaker 1: well they were a superstitious lot. It is all a
• 3:59:14
  Speaker 1: body can do to conceive of it. The poor Queen
• 3:59:19
  Speaker 1: was so scared and humbled that she was even afraid
• 3:59:21
  Speaker 1: to hang the composer without first consulting me. I was
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 1: very sorry for her. Indeed anyone would have been, for
• 3:59:29
  Speaker 1: she was really suffering. So I was willing to do
• 3:59:32
  Speaker 1: anything that was reasonable, and had no desire to carry
• 3:59:35
  Speaker 1: things to want and extremities. I therefore considered the matter thoughtfully,
• 3:59:41
  Speaker 1: and ended by having the musicians ordered into our presence
• 3:59:44
  Speaker 1: to play that sweet bye, and by again, which they did.
• 3:59:49
  Speaker 1: Then I saw that she was right, and gave her
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 1: permission to hang the whole band. This little relaxation of
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 1: sternness had a good effect upon the Queen. A statesman
• 3:59:59
  Speaker 1: gained little by arbitrary exercise of ironclad authority upon all
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 1: occasions that offer, for this wounds the just pride of
• 4:00:07
  Speaker 1: his subordinates, and thus tends to undermine his strength. A
• 4:00:11
  Speaker 1: little concession now and then, where it can do no harm,
• 4:00:15
  Speaker 1: is the wiser policy. Now that the Queen was at
• 4:00:21
  Speaker 1: ease in her mind once more, and measurably happy. Her
• 4:00:25
  Speaker 1: wine naturally began to assert itself again, and it got
• 4:00:29
  Speaker 1: a little of the start of her I mean, it
• 4:00:31
  Speaker 1: set her music going, her silver bell of a tongue.
• 4:00:36
  Speaker 1: H dear me, she was a master talker. It would
• 4:00:40
  Speaker 1: not become me to suggest that it was pretty late,
• 4:00:43
  Speaker 1: and that I was a tired man and very sleepy.
• 4:00:47
  Speaker 1: I wished I had gone off to bed when I
• 4:00:48
  Speaker 1: had the chance. Now I must stick it out. There
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 1: was no other way. So she tingled along and along
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 1: in the otherwise profound and ghostly hush of the sleeping cast,
• 4:01:01
  Speaker 1: until by and by there came, as if from deep
• 4:01:05
  Speaker 1: down under us, a far away sound, as of muffled shriek,
• 4:01:10
  Speaker 1: with an expression of agony about it that made my
• 4:01:13
  Speaker 1: flesh crawl. The queen stopped, and her eyes lighted with pleasure.
• 4:01:19
  Speaker 1: She tilted her graceful head as a bird does when
• 4:01:22
  Speaker 1: it listens a sound bored its way up through the stillness. Again,
• 4:01:29
  Speaker 1: what is it? I said, It is truly a stubborn soul.
• 4:01:34
  Speaker 1: And endureth long. It is many hours. Now endureth what
• 4:01:41
  Speaker 1: the rack come? Ye shall see a blithe sight, and
• 4:01:46
  Speaker 1: he yield not his secret. Now, ye shall see him
• 4:01:49
  Speaker 1: torn us under. What a silky, smooth hellion she was,
• 4:01:56
  Speaker 1: and so composed and serene when the chords all down.
• 4:01:59
  Speaker 1: My legs were hurting in sympathy with that man's pain.
• 4:02:04
  Speaker 1: Conducted by mailed guards bearing flaring torches, we tramped along
• 4:02:08
  Speaker 1: echoing corridors and down stone stairways, dank and dripping, and
• 4:02:13
  Speaker 1: smelling of mold and ages of imprisoned night. A chill,
• 4:02:18
  Speaker 1: uncanny journey, and a long one, and not made the
• 4:02:22
  Speaker 1: shorter or the cheerier by the sorceress's talk, which was
• 4:02:26
  Speaker 1: about this sufferer and his crime. He had been accused
• 4:02:30
  Speaker 1: by an anonymous informer of having killed a stag in
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 1: the royal preserves. I said, anonymous testimony isn't the right thing,
• 4:02:39
  Speaker 1: your Highness. They were fair to confront the accused with
• 4:02:43
  Speaker 1: the accuser. I had not thought of that, it being
• 4:02:47
  Speaker 1: of small consequence, But an I would, I could not
• 4:02:51
  Speaker 1: for that the accuser came masked by night and told
• 4:02:55
  Speaker 1: the forester, and straightway got him hence again, and so
• 4:02:58
  Speaker 1: the forester knoweth him not. Then is this unknown the
• 4:03:04
  Speaker 1: only person who saw the stag killed Marry? No man
• 4:03:10
  Speaker 1: saw the killing, but this unknown saw the hearty wretch
• 4:03:14
  Speaker 1: near to the spot where the stag lay, and came
• 4:03:17
  Speaker 1: with right loyal zeal and betrayed him to the forester.
• 4:03:22
  Speaker 1: So the unknown was near the dead stag. Also, isn't
• 4:03:27
  Speaker 1: it just possible that he did the killing himself? His
• 4:03:30
  Speaker 1: loyal zeal in a mask looked just a shade suspicious.
• 4:03:36
  Speaker 1: But what is your Highness's idea for racking the prisoner?
• 4:03:40
  Speaker 1: Where is the prophet? He will not confess else? And
• 4:03:45
  Speaker 1: then were his soul lost for his crime? His life
• 4:03:49
  Speaker 1: is forfeited by the law and of a surety. I
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 1: will see that he payeth it. But were peril to
• 4:03:55
  Speaker 1: my own soul to let him die unconfessed and unabsolved,
• 4:04:00
  Speaker 1: I were a fool to fling me into hell for
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: his accommodation. But your Highness suppose he has nothing to confess.
• 4:04:10
  Speaker 1: As to that we shall see an awe, and I
• 4:04:14
  Speaker 1: rack him to death, and he confess not, it will
• 4:04:17
  Speaker 1: peradventures show that he had indeed not to confess. You
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 1: will grant that that is sooth? Then shall I not
• 4:04:24
  Speaker 1: be damned for an unconfessed man that had not to confess?
• 4:04:28
  Speaker 1: Wherefore I shall be safe. It was the stubborn unreasoning
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 1: of the time. It was useless to argue with her.
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 1: Arguments have no chance against petrified training. They wear it
• 4:04:40
  Speaker 1: as little as the waves wear a cliff. And her
• 4:04:44
  Speaker 1: training was everybody's. The brightest intellect in the land would
• 4:04:48
  Speaker 1: not have been able to see that her position was defective.
• 4:04:52
  Speaker 1: As we entered the rack, cell I caught a picture
• 4:04:54
  Speaker 1: that will not go from me. I wish it would.
• 4:04:59
  Speaker 1: A native, young giant of thirty or thereabouts, lay stretched
• 4:05:03
  Speaker 1: upon the frame on his back, with his wrists and
• 4:05:06
  Speaker 1: ankles tied to ropes which led over windlasses at either end.
• 4:05:11
  Speaker 1: There was no color in him. His features were contorted
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 1: and set, and sweat drops stood upon his forehead. A
• 4:05:19
  Speaker 1: priest bent over him. On each side. The executioner stood by.
• 4:05:24
  Speaker 1: Guards were on duty, smoking torches stood in sockets along
• 4:05:28
  Speaker 1: the walls. In a corner crouched a poor young creature,
• 4:05:32
  Speaker 1: her face drawn with anguish, a half wild and haunted
• 4:05:36
  Speaker 1: look in her eyes, and her lap lay a little
• 4:05:40
  Speaker 1: child asleep. Just as we stepped across the threshold, the
• 4:05:45
  Speaker 1: executioner gave his machine a slight turn, which wrung a
• 4:05:48
  Speaker 1: cry from both the prisoner and the woman. But I
• 4:05:52
  Speaker 1: shouted and the executioner released the strain without waiting to
• 4:05:55
  Speaker 1: see who spoke. I could not let this horror go on.
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: It would have killed me to see it. I asked
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 1: the Queen to let me clear the place and speak
• 4:06:08
  Speaker 1: to the prisoner privately. And when she was going to object,
• 4:06:11
  Speaker 1: I spoke in a low voice and said, I did
• 4:06:14
  Speaker 1: not want to make a scene before her servants, but
• 4:06:16
  Speaker 1: I must have my way, for I was King Arthur's
• 4:06:19
  Speaker 1: representative and was speaking in his name. She saw she
• 4:06:25
  Speaker 1: had to yield. I asked her to endorse me to
• 4:06:28
  Speaker 1: these people and then leave me. It was not pleasant
• 4:06:32
  Speaker 1: for her, but she took the pill and even went
• 4:06:35
  Speaker 1: further than I was meaning to require. I only wanted
• 4:06:38
  Speaker 1: the backing of her own authority, but she said, he
• 4:06:42
  Speaker 1: will do in all things as this Lord shall command.
• 4:06:46
  Speaker 1: It is the boss. It was certainly a good word
• 4:06:51
  Speaker 1: to conjure with. You could see it by the squirming
• 4:06:54
  Speaker 1: of these rats. The Queen's guards fell into line, and
• 4:06:58
  Speaker 1: she and they marched away with the torch bearers and
• 4:07:01
  Speaker 1: woke the echoes of the cavernous tunnels with the measured
• 4:07:04
  Speaker 1: beat of their retreating footfalls. I had the prisoner taken
• 4:07:09
  Speaker 1: from the rack and placed upon his bed, and medicam
• 4:07:12
  Speaker 1: ins applied to his hurts, and wine given him to drink.
• 4:07:17
  Speaker 1: The woman crept near and looked on eagerly, lovingly, but tumoriously,
• 4:07:24
  Speaker 1: like one who fears a repulse. Indeed, she tried furiatively
• 4:07:28
  Speaker 1: to touch the man's forehead and jumped back, the picture
• 4:07:32
  Speaker 1: of fright. When I turned unconsciously toward her, it was
• 4:07:37
  Speaker 1: pitiful to see, lord, I said, stroke him last. If
• 4:07:44
  Speaker 1: you want to do anything you're a mind to, don't
• 4:07:47
  Speaker 1: mind me why. Her eyes were as grateful as an
• 4:07:53
  Speaker 1: animals when you do it a kindness that it understands.
• 4:07:56
  Speaker 1: The baby was out of her way, and she had
• 4:07:58
  Speaker 1: her cheek against the man's. In a minute it and
• 4:08:00
  Speaker 1: her hands fondling his hair, and her happy tears running down.
• 4:08:06
  Speaker 1: The man revived and caressed his wife with his eyes,
• 4:08:09
  Speaker 1: which was all he could do. I judged I might
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: clear the den now, and I did. I cleared it
• 4:08:16
  Speaker 1: of all but the family and myself. Then I said, now,
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 1: my friend, tell me your side of this matter. I
• 4:08:24
  Speaker 1: know the other side. The man moved his head in
• 4:08:29
  Speaker 1: a sign of refusal, but the woman looked pleased, as
• 4:08:32
  Speaker 1: it seemed to me. Pleased with my suggestion, I went on,
• 4:08:39
  Speaker 1: you know of me, Yes, I'll do in Arthur's realms.
• 4:08:46
  Speaker 1: If my reputation has come to you right and straight,
• 4:08:48
  Speaker 1: you should not be afraid to speak. The woman broke
• 4:08:52
  Speaker 1: in eagerly. Ah, fair, my lord, do thou persuade him?
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 1: Thou canst and thou wilt? Ah? He suffereth so and
• 4:09:02
  Speaker 1: it is for me, for me, And how can I
• 4:09:05
  Speaker 1: bear it? I would I might see him die a
• 4:09:09
  Speaker 1: sweet swift death. Oh, my Hugo, I cannot bear this one.
• 4:09:15
  Speaker 1: And she felt a sobbing and groveling about my feet
• 4:09:18
  Speaker 1: and still imploring, imploring, what the man's death? I cannot
• 4:09:24
  Speaker 1: quite get the bearings of the thing. But Hugo interrupted
• 4:09:27
  Speaker 1: her and said, peace, ye wit not what ye ask?
• 4:09:32
  Speaker 1: Shall I starve whom I love to win a gentle death?
• 4:09:36
  Speaker 1: I when thou knewest me better? Well, I said, I
• 4:09:40
  Speaker 1: can't quite make this out. It is a puzzle now, ah,
• 4:09:46
  Speaker 1: my dear lord. And ye will persuade him. Consider how
• 4:09:50
  Speaker 1: these his tortures wound me. Oh, and he will not speak.
• 4:09:54
  Speaker 1: Whereas the healing, the solace that lie in a blessed
• 4:09:58
  Speaker 1: swift death. What are you maundering about he's going out
• 4:10:06
  Speaker 1: from here a free man and whole. He's not going
• 4:10:09
  Speaker 1: to die. The man's white face lit up, and the
• 4:10:15
  Speaker 1: woman flung herself at me in a most surprising explosion
• 4:10:18
  Speaker 1: of joy and cried out, he is saved, for it
• 4:10:22
  Speaker 1: is the King's word, by the mouth of the King's servant, Arthur,
• 4:10:26
  Speaker 1: the king whose word is gold. Well, then you do
• 4:10:32
  Speaker 1: believe I can be trusted? After all? Why didn't you before?
• 4:10:37
  Speaker 1: Who doubted not I, indeed, and not she? Well, why
• 4:10:42
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you tell me your story? Then? Ye had made
• 4:10:46
  Speaker 1: no promise else had it been otherwise? I see, I see,
• 4:10:51
  Speaker 1: and yet I believed I didn't quite see. After all,
• 4:10:55
  Speaker 1: you stood the torture and refused to confess, which shows
• 4:10:59
  Speaker 1: plain to even the dullest understanding that you had nothing
• 4:11:03
  Speaker 1: to confess. I, my lord, how so it was I
• 4:11:08
  Speaker 1: that killed the deer? You did, oh, dear, this is
• 4:11:14
  Speaker 1: the most mixed up business that ever. Dear Lord, I
• 4:11:18
  Speaker 1: begged him on my knees to confess, but you did.
• 4:11:24
  Speaker 1: It gets thicker and thicker. What did you want him
• 4:11:26
  Speaker 1: to do that for? Since it would bring him a
• 4:11:30
  Speaker 1: quick death and save him all this cruel pain? Well, yes,
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 1: there is reason in that, but he didn't want the
• 4:11:39
  Speaker 1: quick death. He why have a surety he did? Well, then,
• 4:11:45
  Speaker 1: why in the world didn't he confess? Ah, sweet sir,
• 4:11:50
  Speaker 1: and leave my wife and chick without bread and shelter.
• 4:11:56
  Speaker 1: Oh heart of gold, Now I see it. The bitter
• 4:12:02
  Speaker 1: law takes the convicted man's estate and beggars his widow
• 4:12:06
  Speaker 1: and his orphans. They would torture you to death, but
• 4:12:11
  Speaker 1: without conviction or confession, they could not rob your wife
• 4:12:14
  Speaker 1: and baby. You stood by them like a man, and
• 4:12:18
  Speaker 1: you true wife and the woman that you are, you
• 4:12:22
  Speaker 1: would have brought him release from torture at cost to
• 4:12:24
  Speaker 1: yourself of slow starvation and death. Well, it humbles a
• 4:12:30
  Speaker 1: body to think what your sex can do when it
• 4:12:33
  Speaker 1: comes to self sacrifice. I'll book you both for my colony.
• 4:12:38
  Speaker 1: You'll like it there. It's a factory where I'm going
• 4:12:41
  Speaker 1: to turn groping and grubbing automata into men Chapter eighteen
• 4:12:53
  Speaker 1: in The Queen's Dungeons. Well, I arranged all that, and
• 4:13:04
  Speaker 1: I had the man sent to his home. I had
• 4:13:06
  Speaker 1: a great desire to rack the executioner, not because he
• 4:13:09
  Speaker 1: was a good, painstaking and pain giving official. For surely
• 4:13:13
  Speaker 1: it was not to his credit that he performed his
• 4:13:15
  Speaker 1: functions well, but to pay him back for wantonly cuffing
• 4:13:21
  Speaker 1: and otherwise distressing that young woman. The priest told me
• 4:13:25
  Speaker 1: about this, and were generously hot to have him punished.
• 4:13:28
  Speaker 1: Something of this disagreeable sort was turning up every now
• 4:13:31
  Speaker 1: and then. I mean episodes that showed that not all
• 4:13:35
  Speaker 1: priests were frauds and self seekers, but that many, even
• 4:13:39
  Speaker 1: the great majority of these, that were down on the
• 4:13:42
  Speaker 1: ground among the common people, were sincere and right hearted
• 4:13:47
  Speaker 1: and devoted to the alleviation of human troubles and sufferings. Well,
• 4:13:53
  Speaker 1: it was a thing which could not be helped, so
• 4:13:55
  Speaker 1: I seldom fretted about it, and never many minutes at
• 4:13:58
  Speaker 1: a time. It has never been my way to bother
• 4:14:02
  Speaker 1: much about things which you can't cure. But I did
• 4:14:05
  Speaker 1: not like it, for it was just the sort of
• 4:14:07
  Speaker 1: thing to keep people reconciled to an established church. We
• 4:14:12
  Speaker 1: must have a religion, it goes without saying. But my
• 4:14:17
  Speaker 1: idea is to have it caught up into forty free sects,
• 4:14:21
  Speaker 1: so that they will police each other, as had been
• 4:14:23
  Speaker 1: the case in the United States in my time. Concentration
• 4:14:28
  Speaker 1: of power in a political machine is bad, and an
• 4:14:32
  Speaker 1: established church is only a political machine. It was invented
• 4:14:36
  Speaker 1: for that, it is nursed, cradled, preserved for that, it
• 4:14:40
  Speaker 1: is an enemy to human liberty and does no good
• 4:14:43
  Speaker 1: which it could not better do in a split up
• 4:14:46
  Speaker 1: and scattered condition. That wasn't law, that was in gospel.
• 4:14:50
  Speaker 1: That was only an opinion, my opinion. And I was
• 4:14:55
  Speaker 1: only a man, one man, so it wasn't worth any
• 4:14:59
  Speaker 1: more than the popes, or any less for that matter. Well,
• 4:15:04
  Speaker 1: I couldn't rack the executioner, neither would I overlook the
• 4:15:08
  Speaker 1: just complaint of the priests. The man must be punished
• 4:15:12
  Speaker 1: somehow or other. So I degraded him from his office
• 4:15:15
  Speaker 1: and made him leader of the band, the new one
• 4:15:18
  Speaker 1: that was to be started. He begged hard and said
• 4:15:21
  Speaker 1: he couldn't play a plausible excuse, but too thin. There
• 4:15:26
  Speaker 1: wasn't a musician in the country who could. The Queen
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 1: was a good deal outraged next morning when she found
• 4:15:34
  Speaker 1: she was going to have neither Hugo's life nor his property.
• 4:15:38
  Speaker 1: But I told her she must bear this cross, that
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: while by law and custom she certainly was entitled to
• 4:15:45
  Speaker 1: both the man's life and his property, they are extenuating circumstances,
• 4:15:49
  Speaker 1: and so in Arthur, the King's name, I had pardoned him.
• 4:15:54
  Speaker 1: The deer was ravaging the man's fields, and he had
• 4:15:57
  Speaker 1: killed it in a sudden passion and not for game,
• 4:16:01
  Speaker 1: and he had carried it into the royal forest in
• 4:16:03
  Speaker 1: the hope that that might make detection of the misdoer impossible.
• 4:16:09
  Speaker 1: Confound her. I couldn't make her see that sudden passion
• 4:16:13
  Speaker 1: is an extenuating circumstance in the killing of venison or
• 4:16:17
  Speaker 1: of a person. So I gave it up and let
• 4:16:20
  Speaker 1: her sulk it out. I did think I was going
• 4:16:23
  Speaker 1: to make her see it by remarking that her own
• 4:16:26
  Speaker 1: sudden passion in the case of the page, modified that crime. Crime.
• 4:16:31
  Speaker 1: She exclaimed, how with thou talkest crime forsooth man, I
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 1: am going to pay for him. Oh, it was no
• 4:16:44
  Speaker 1: use to waste sense on her. Training Training is everything.
• 4:16:49
  Speaker 1: Training is all there is to a person. We speak
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 1: of nature, it is folly. There is no such thing
• 4:16:57
  Speaker 1: as nature. What we call by that misleading name is
• 4:17:02
  Speaker 1: merely heredity and training. We have no thoughts of our own,
• 4:17:07
  Speaker 1: no opinions of our own. They are transmitted to us,
• 4:17:11
  Speaker 1: trained into us. All that is original to us and
• 4:17:14
  Speaker 1: therefore fairly credible or discredible to us, can be covered
• 4:17:19
  Speaker 1: up and hidden by the point of a cambric needle,
• 4:17:22
  Speaker 1: all the rest being atoms contributed by and inherited from
• 4:17:27
  Speaker 1: a procession of ancestors that stretches back a billion years
• 4:17:30
  Speaker 1: to the atom clam or grasshopper or monkey, from whom
• 4:17:35
  Speaker 1: our race has been so tediously and ostentatiously and unprofitably developed.
• 4:17:42
  Speaker 1: And as for me, all that I think about in
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 1: this plodding, sad pilgrimage, this pathetic drift between the eternities,
• 4:17:51
  Speaker 1: is to look out and humbly live a pure and
• 4:17:54
  Speaker 1: high and blameless life, and save that one microscopic atom
• 4:17:59
  Speaker 1: in me that is truly me. The rest may land
• 4:18:04
  Speaker 1: in she all and welcome for all I care. No
• 4:18:11
  Speaker 1: confound her. Her intellect was good, she had brains enough,
• 4:18:15
  Speaker 1: But her training made her an ass That is, from
• 4:18:19
  Speaker 1: a many centuries later point of view, to kill the
• 4:18:23
  Speaker 1: page was no crime. It was her right, and upon
• 4:18:26
  Speaker 1: her right she stood serenely and unconscious of offense. She
• 4:18:32
  Speaker 1: was a result of generations of training in the unexamined
• 4:18:35
  Speaker 1: and unassailed belief that the law which permitted her to
• 4:18:39
  Speaker 1: kill a subject when she chose was a perfectly right
• 4:18:42
  Speaker 1: and righteous one. Now we must give even Satan his due.
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 1: She deserved a compliment for one thing, and I tried
• 4:18:53
  Speaker 1: to pay it, but the words stuck in my throat.
• 4:18:57
  Speaker 1: She had a right to kill the boy, but she
• 4:19:00
  Speaker 1: was in no wise obligated to pay for him. That
• 4:19:04
  Speaker 1: was law for some other people, but not for her.
• 4:19:08
  Speaker 1: She knew quite well that she was doing a large
• 4:19:10
  Speaker 1: and generous thing to pay for that lad, and that
• 4:19:14
  Speaker 1: I ought, in common fairness to come out with something
• 4:19:16
  Speaker 1: handsome about it. But I couldn't. My mouth refused. I
• 4:19:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't help seeing in my fancy that poor old grandma
• 4:19:27
  Speaker 1: with the broken heart, and that fair young creature lying butchered,
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 1: his little silken palms and vanities laced with his golden blood.
• 4:19:37
  Speaker 1: How could she pay for him? Whom would she pay?
• 4:19:45
  Speaker 1: And so well, knowing that this woman, trained as she
• 4:19:48
  Speaker 1: had been, deserved praise and even adulation, I was yet
• 4:19:54
  Speaker 1: not able to utter it. Trained as I had been,
• 4:20:00
  Speaker 1: The best I could do was to fish up a
• 4:20:01
  Speaker 1: compliment from outside, so to speak. And the pity of
• 4:20:05
  Speaker 1: it was that it was true, madam. Your people will
• 4:20:11
  Speaker 1: adore you for this, quite true, but I meant to
• 4:20:17
  Speaker 1: hang her for it some day if I lived. Some
• 4:20:20
  Speaker 1: of those laws were too bad, altogether too bad. A
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 1: master might kill his slave for nothing, for mere spite, malice,
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 1: or to pass the time, just as we have seen
• 4:20:32
  Speaker 1: that the crowned head could do it with his slave.
• 4:20:35
  Speaker 1: That is to say, anybody. A gentleman could kill a
• 4:20:40
  Speaker 1: free commoner and pay for him cash or garden truck.
• 4:20:44
  Speaker 1: A noble could kill a noble without expense, as far
• 4:20:47
  Speaker 1: as the law was concerned, but reprisals in kind were
• 4:20:50
  Speaker 1: to be expected. Anybody could kill somebody except the commoner
• 4:20:55
  Speaker 1: and the slave. These had no privileges. If they killed,
• 4:20:59
  Speaker 1: it was m and the law wouldn't stand murder. It
• 4:21:03
  Speaker 1: made short work of the experimenter, and of his family too,
• 4:21:07
  Speaker 1: if he murdered somebody who belonged up among the ornamental ranks.
• 4:21:12
  Speaker 1: If a commoner gave a noble even so much as
• 4:21:14
  Speaker 1: a damien scratch, which didn't kill or even hurt, he
• 4:21:18
  Speaker 1: got damiens dose for it. Just the same. They pulled
• 4:21:22
  Speaker 1: him to rags and tatters with horses, and all the
• 4:21:25
  Speaker 1: world came to see the show and crack jokes and
• 4:21:28
  Speaker 1: have a good time, and Some of the performances of
• 4:21:30
  Speaker 1: the best people present were as tough and as properly
• 4:21:34
  Speaker 1: unprintable as any that had been printed by Pleasant Casanova
• 4:21:38
  Speaker 1: in his chapter about the dismemberment of Louis the fifteenth,
• 4:21:42
  Speaker 1: poor awkward enemy. I had had enough of this grisly
• 4:21:47
  Speaker 1: place by this time and wanted to leave. But I
• 4:21:51
  Speaker 1: couldn't because I had something on my mind that my
• 4:21:55
  Speaker 1: conscience kept prodding me about and wouldn't let me forget.
• 4:22:00
  Speaker 1: If I had been remaking the man, he wouldn't have
• 4:22:04
  Speaker 1: any conscience. It's one of the most disagreeable things connected
• 4:22:08
  Speaker 1: with a person, and although it certainly does a great
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 1: deal of good, it cannot be said to pay in
• 4:22:14
  Speaker 1: the long run. It would be much better to have
• 4:22:18
  Speaker 1: less good and more comfort. Still, this is only my opinion,
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 1: and I am only one man. Others with less experience
• 4:22:26
  Speaker 1: may think differently. They have a right to their view.
• 4:22:31
  Speaker 1: I only stand to this. I have noticed my conscience
• 4:22:34
  Speaker 1: for many years and know it is more troubled and
• 4:22:37
  Speaker 1: bothered to me than anything else I started with. I
• 4:22:42
  Speaker 1: suppose that in the beginning I prized it, because we
• 4:22:45
  Speaker 1: prize anything that is ours. And yet how foolish it
• 4:22:48
  Speaker 1: is to think. So if we look at it another way,
• 4:22:52
  Speaker 1: we see how absurd it is. If I had an
• 4:22:55
  Speaker 1: anvil in me, would I prize it? Of course not.
• 4:22:58
  Speaker 1: And yet when you come to think, there is no
• 4:23:01
  Speaker 1: real difference between a conscience and an anvil. I mean,
• 4:23:04
  Speaker 1: for comfort, I have noticed it a thousand times, and
• 4:23:10
  Speaker 1: you could dissolve an anvil with acids when you couldn't
• 4:23:12
  Speaker 1: stand it any longer. But there isn't any way that
• 4:23:15
  Speaker 1: you can work off a conscience, at least so it'll
• 4:23:17
  Speaker 1: stay worked off, not that I know of anyway. There
• 4:23:23
  Speaker 1: was something I wanted to do before leaving, but it
• 4:23:27
  Speaker 1: was a disagreeable matter, and I hated to go at
• 4:23:31
  Speaker 1: it now. It bothered me all the morning. I could
• 4:23:35
  Speaker 1: have mentioned it to the old king, but what would
• 4:23:38
  Speaker 1: be the use. He was but an extinct volcano. He
• 4:23:42
  Speaker 1: had been active in his time, but his fire was
• 4:23:44
  Speaker 1: out this good while he was only a stately ash
• 4:23:48
  Speaker 1: pile now, gentle enough and kindly enough for my purpose,
• 4:23:52
  Speaker 1: without doubt, but not usable. He was nothing, this so
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 1: called king. The queen was the only power there, and
• 4:24:02
  Speaker 1: she was a vesuvius. As a favor, she might consent
• 4:24:06
  Speaker 1: to warm a flock of sparrows for you. But then
• 4:24:08
  Speaker 1: she might take that very opportunity to turn herself loose
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 1: and bury a city. However, I reflected that as often
• 4:24:18
  Speaker 1: as any other way, when you're expecting the worst, you
• 4:24:21
  Speaker 1: get something that is not so bad after all. So
• 4:24:26
  Speaker 1: I braced up and placed my matter before her Royal Highness.
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 1: I said I had been having a general jail delivery
• 4:24:33
  Speaker 1: at Camelot and among neighboring castles, and with her remission,
• 4:24:37
  Speaker 1: I would like to examine her collection, her bric a brac,
• 4:24:41
  Speaker 1: that is to say, her prisoners. She resisted, but I
• 4:24:47
  Speaker 1: was expecting that, But she finally consented. I was expecting
• 4:24:51
  Speaker 1: that too, but not so soon that about ended my discomfort.
• 4:24:57
  Speaker 1: She called her guards and torches, and we went down
• 4:24:59
  Speaker 1: into dungeons. These were down under the castle's foundations, and
• 4:25:05
  Speaker 1: mainly were small cells hollowed out of the living rock.
• 4:25:09
  Speaker 1: Some of these cells had no light at all. In
• 4:25:13
  Speaker 1: one of them was a woman in fellow rags, who
• 4:25:15
  Speaker 1: sat on the ground, and who would not answer a
• 4:25:17
  Speaker 1: question or speak a word, but only looked up at
• 4:25:21
  Speaker 1: us once or twice through a cobweb of tangled hair,
• 4:25:23
  Speaker 1: as if to see what casual thing it might be
• 4:25:26
  Speaker 1: that was disturbing with sound and light, the meaningless, dull
• 4:25:30
  Speaker 1: dream that was become her life. After that, she sat bowed,
• 4:25:35
  Speaker 1: with her dirt caked fingers idly interlocked in her lap,
• 4:25:39
  Speaker 1: and gave no further sign. This poor rack of bones
• 4:25:44
  Speaker 1: was a woman of middle age, apparently, but only apparently.
• 4:25:49
  Speaker 1: She had been there nine years and was eighteen when
• 4:25:51
  Speaker 1: she entered. She was a commoner, and had been sent
• 4:25:56
  Speaker 1: here on her bridal night by Sir Beruse Saint Pete,
• 4:26:00
  Speaker 1: a neighboring lord whose vassal her father was, and to
• 4:26:04
  Speaker 1: which said lord she had refused what has since been
• 4:26:07
  Speaker 1: called Le drois du Saginaw. Moreover, had opposed violence to violence,
• 4:26:14
  Speaker 1: and spilt half a gill of his almost sacred blood.
• 4:26:18
  Speaker 1: The young husband had interfered at that point, believing the
• 4:26:22
  Speaker 1: bride's life in danger, and had flung the noble out
• 4:26:24
  Speaker 1: into the midst of the humble and trembling wedding guests
• 4:26:27
  Speaker 1: in the parlor, and left him there, astonished at this
• 4:26:31
  Speaker 1: strange treatment, and implacably embittered against both bride and groom.
• 4:26:38
  Speaker 1: The said lord, being cramped for dungeon room, had asked
• 4:26:42
  Speaker 1: the queen to accommodate his two criminals. And here, in
• 4:26:45
  Speaker 1: her bestille they had been ever since hither indeed they
• 4:26:50
  Speaker 1: had come before their crime was an hour old, and
• 4:26:53
  Speaker 1: had never seen each other since. Here they were cameled
• 4:26:58
  Speaker 1: like toads in the same rock. They had passed nine
• 4:27:02
  Speaker 1: pitch dark years within fifty feet of each other, Yet
• 4:27:06
  Speaker 1: neither knew whether the other was alive or not. All
• 4:27:09
  Speaker 1: the first years, their only question had been asked with
• 4:27:12
  Speaker 1: beseechings and tears that might have moved stones in time, perhaps,
• 4:27:18
  Speaker 1: But hearts are not stones. Is he alive? Is she alive?
• 4:27:25
  Speaker 1: But they had never got an answer, And at last
• 4:27:28
  Speaker 1: that question was not asked any more or any other.
• 4:27:36
  Speaker 1: I wanted to see the man after hearing all this.
• 4:27:39
  Speaker 1: He was thirty four years old and looked sixty. He
• 4:27:43
  Speaker 1: sat upon a squared block of stone, and his head
• 4:27:46
  Speaker 1: bent down, his forearms resting on his knees, his long
• 4:27:50
  Speaker 1: hair hanging like a fringe before his face, and he
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 1: was muttering to himself. He raised his chin and looked
• 4:27:58
  Speaker 1: us over in a listless, dull way, blinking with the
• 4:28:01
  Speaker 1: distress of the torchlight, and dropped his head and fell
• 4:28:05
  Speaker 1: to muttering again. And took no further notice of us.
• 4:28:09
  Speaker 1: There were some pathetically suggestive dumb witnesses present. On his
• 4:28:14
  Speaker 1: wrists and ankles were cicatrices, old smooth scars, and fasted
• 4:28:20
  Speaker 1: to the stone on which he sat was a chain
• 4:28:22
  Speaker 1: with manacles and fetters attached. But this apparatus lay idle
• 4:28:26
  Speaker 1: on the ground and was thick with rust. Chains ceased
• 4:28:31
  Speaker 1: to be kneaded. After the spirit has gone out of
• 4:28:34
  Speaker 1: a prisoner. I could not rouse the man, so I said,
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 1: we would take him to her and see to the bride,
• 4:28:41
  Speaker 1: who was the fairest thing in the earth. To him,
• 4:28:43
  Speaker 1: once roses, pearls and dew made flesh for him, a
• 4:28:47
  Speaker 1: wonder work, the master work of nature, with eyes like
• 4:28:51
  Speaker 1: no other eyes, and voice like no other voice, and
• 4:28:55
  Speaker 1: a freshness and a lithe, young grace and beauty that
• 4:28:59
  Speaker 1: belonged properly to the creatures of dreams, as he thought,
• 4:29:03
  Speaker 1: and to no other. The sight of her would set
• 4:29:06
  Speaker 1: his stagnant blood leaping the sight of her, but it
• 4:29:12
  Speaker 1: was a disappointment. They sat together on the ground and
• 4:29:15
  Speaker 1: looked dimly wondering into each other's faces a while with
• 4:29:18
  Speaker 1: a sort of weak animal curiosity, and forgot each other's
• 4:29:23
  Speaker 1: presence and dropped their eyes, and you saw they were
• 4:29:26
  Speaker 1: away again, and wandering in some far land of dreams
• 4:29:29
  Speaker 1: and shadows that we knew nothing about. I had them
• 4:29:34
  Speaker 1: taken out and sent to their friends. The Queen did
• 4:29:37
  Speaker 1: not like it much, not that she felt any personal
• 4:29:40
  Speaker 1: interest in the matter, but she thought it was disrespectful
• 4:29:43
  Speaker 1: to Sir Berusse Saint Pete. However, I assured her that
• 4:29:48
  Speaker 1: if he found he couldn't stand it, I would fix
• 4:29:51
  Speaker 1: him so that he could. I set forty seven prisoners
• 4:29:56
  Speaker 1: loose out of those awful rat holes, and left only
• 4:29:59
  Speaker 1: one and kept activity. He was a lord and had
• 4:30:02
  Speaker 1: killed another lord, a sort of kinsman of the Queen.
• 4:30:06
  Speaker 1: That other lord had ambushed him to assassinate him, but
• 4:30:10
  Speaker 1: this fellow had got the best of him and cut
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 1: his throat. However, it was not for that that I
• 4:30:14
  Speaker 1: left him jailed, but for maliciously destroying the only public
• 4:30:18
  Speaker 1: well in one of his wretched villages. The Queen was
• 4:30:22
  Speaker 1: bound to hang him for killing her kinsman, but I
• 4:30:25
  Speaker 1: would not allow it. It was no crime to kill
• 4:30:28
  Speaker 1: an assassin, but I said I was willing to let
• 4:30:30
  Speaker 1: her hang him for destroying the well. So she concluded
• 4:30:33
  Speaker 1: to put up with that, as it was better than nothing.
• 4:30:39
  Speaker 1: Dear me, for what trifling offenses. The most of these
• 4:30:43
  Speaker 1: forty seven men and women were shut up there. Indeed,
• 4:30:46
  Speaker 1: some were there for no distinct offense at all, but
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 1: only to gratify somebody's spite, and not always the queen's
• 4:30:53
  Speaker 1: by any means, but a friend's. The newest prisoner's crime
• 4:30:58
  Speaker 1: was a mere remark which he had made. He said
• 4:31:01
  Speaker 1: he believed that men were about all alike, and one
• 4:31:04
  Speaker 1: man as good as another. Barring clothes, he said he
• 4:31:09
  Speaker 1: believed that if you were to strip the nation naked
• 4:31:12
  Speaker 1: and send a stranger through the crowd, he couldn't tell
• 4:31:15
  Speaker 1: the king from a quack doctor, nor a duke from
• 4:31:18
  Speaker 1: a hotel clerk. Apparently, here was a man whose brains
• 4:31:23
  Speaker 1: had not been reduced to an ineffectual mush by idiotic training.
• 4:31:28
  Speaker 1: I set him loose and sent him to the factory.
• 4:31:33
  Speaker 1: Some of the cells carved in the living rock were
• 4:31:35
  Speaker 1: just behind the face of the precipice, and in each
• 4:31:38
  Speaker 1: of these an arrow slit had been pierced outward to
• 4:31:42
  Speaker 1: the daylight, and so the captive had a thin ray
• 4:31:45
  Speaker 1: from the blessed sun for his comfort. The case of
• 4:31:49
  Speaker 1: one of these poor fellows was particularly hard. From his
• 4:31:54
  Speaker 1: dusky swallows hole, high up in that vast wall of
• 4:31:58
  Speaker 1: native rock, he could peer out through the arrow slit
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 1: and see his own home off yonder in the valley,
• 4:32:05
  Speaker 1: and for twenty two years he had watched it with
• 4:32:07
  Speaker 1: heartache and longing. Through that crack, he could see the
• 4:32:11
  Speaker 1: light shine there at night, and in the daytime he
• 4:32:14
  Speaker 1: could see figures go in and come out, his wife
• 4:32:18
  Speaker 1: and children, some of them no doubt, though he could
• 4:32:21
  Speaker 1: not make out at that distance. In the course of years,
• 4:32:24
  Speaker 1: he noticed festivities there and tried to rejoice, and wondered
• 4:32:28
  Speaker 1: if there were weddings, or what they might be. And
• 4:32:31
  Speaker 1: he noted funerals, and they wrung his heart. He could
• 4:32:35
  Speaker 1: make out the coffin, but he could not determine its size,
• 4:32:38
  Speaker 1: and so could not tell whether it was wife or child.
• 4:32:43
  Speaker 1: He could see the procession form with priests and mourners
• 4:32:47
  Speaker 1: and move solemnly away, bearing the secret with them. He
• 4:32:52
  Speaker 1: had left behind him five children and a wife, and
• 4:32:55
  Speaker 1: in nineteen years he had seen five funerals issue, and
• 4:32:59
  Speaker 1: none of them humble enough in pomp to denote a servant.
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 1: So he had lost five of his treasures. There must
• 4:33:07
  Speaker 1: still be one remaining, one, now infinitely unspeakably precious. But
• 4:33:13
  Speaker 1: which one, wife or child? That was the question that
• 4:33:18
  Speaker 1: tortured him by night and by day, asleep and awake. Well,
• 4:33:26
  Speaker 1: to have an interest of some sort and half a
• 4:33:28
  Speaker 1: ray of light when you are in a dungeon is
• 4:33:30
  Speaker 1: a great support to the body and preserver of the intellect.
• 4:33:35
  Speaker 1: This man was in pretty good condition. Yet by the
• 4:33:39
  Speaker 1: time he had finished telling me his distressful tale, I
• 4:33:42
  Speaker 1: was in the same state of mind as you would
• 4:33:44
  Speaker 1: have been in yourself, if you have got average human curiosity,
• 4:33:48
  Speaker 1: that is to say, I was as burning up as
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 1: he was to find out which member of the family
• 4:33:53
  Speaker 1: it was that was left. So I took him over
• 4:33:57
  Speaker 1: home myself, and an amazing kind of surprise party it
• 4:34:01
  Speaker 1: was too, typhoons and cyclones, of frantic joy, and whole
• 4:34:06
  Speaker 1: niagaras of happy tears. And by George we found the
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: aforetime young matron graying toward the imminent verge of her
• 4:34:16
  Speaker 1: half century, and the babies, all men and women, and
• 4:34:20
  Speaker 1: some of them married and experimenting family wise themselves. For
• 4:34:24
  Speaker 1: not a soul of the tribe was dead. Conceive of
• 4:34:29
  Speaker 1: the ingenious devilishness of that queen. She had a special
• 4:34:33
  Speaker 1: hatred for the prisoner, and she had invented all those
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: funerals herself to scorch his heart with. And the sublimest
• 4:34:42
  Speaker 1: stroke of genius of the whole thing was leaving the
• 4:34:44
  Speaker 1: family invoice a funeral short, so as to let him
• 4:34:47
  Speaker 1: wear his poor old soul out guessing. But for me,
• 4:34:53
  Speaker 1: he never would have got out. Morgan le Fay hated
• 4:34:57
  Speaker 1: him with her whole heart, and she never would have
• 4:34:59
  Speaker 1: st toward him. And yet his crime was committed more
• 4:35:03
  Speaker 1: in thoughtlessness than in deliberate to pravity. He had said
• 4:35:07
  Speaker 1: she had red hair, Well she had, but that was
• 4:35:13
  Speaker 1: no way to speak of it. When red haired people
• 4:35:16
  Speaker 1: are above a certain social grade, their hair is auburn considerate.
• 4:35:22
  Speaker 1: Among these forty seven captives there were five whose names, offenses,
• 4:35:26
  Speaker 1: and dates of incarceration were no longer known. One woman
• 4:35:30
  Speaker 1: and four men, all bent and wrinkled and mind extinguished patriarchs.
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 1: They themselves had long ago forgotten these details. At any rate,
• 4:35:42
  Speaker 1: they had mere vague theories about them, nothing definite, and
• 4:35:45
  Speaker 1: nothing that they repeated twice in the same way, the
• 4:35:49
  Speaker 1: succession of priests whose office. It had been to pray
• 4:35:52
  Speaker 1: daily with the captives and remind them that God had
• 4:35:55
  Speaker 1: put them there for some wise purpose or other, and
• 4:35:58
  Speaker 1: teach them that patience, humbleness, and submission to oppression was
• 4:36:03
  Speaker 1: what he loved to see. In parties of subordinate rank
• 4:36:06
  Speaker 1: had traditions about these old poor ruins, but nothing more.
• 4:36:12
  Speaker 1: These traditions went but little way, for they concerned the
• 4:36:16
  Speaker 1: length of the incarceration only, and not the names of
• 4:36:18
  Speaker 1: the offenses. And even by the help of tradition, the
• 4:36:22
  Speaker 1: only thing that could be proven was that none of
• 4:36:25
  Speaker 1: the five had seemed daylight for thirty five years. How
• 4:36:29
  Speaker 1: much longer this privation had lasted was not guessable. The
• 4:36:34
  Speaker 1: King and the Queen knew nothing about these poor creatures
• 4:36:37
  Speaker 1: except that they were heirlooms assets, inherited along with the
• 4:36:40
  Speaker 1: throne from the former firm. Nothing of their history had
• 4:36:45
  Speaker 1: been transmitted with their persons, and so the inheriting owners
• 4:36:48
  Speaker 1: had considered them of no value and had felt no
• 4:36:50
  Speaker 1: interest in them. I said to the Queen, then, why
• 4:36:54
  Speaker 1: in the world didn't you set them free? The question
• 4:36:58
  Speaker 1: was a puzzler. She didn't know why she hadn't. The
• 4:37:01
  Speaker 1: thing had never come up in her mind. So here
• 4:37:04
  Speaker 1: she was forecasting the veritable history of the future prisoners
• 4:37:08
  Speaker 1: of the castle, diff without knowing it. It seemed plain
• 4:37:12
  Speaker 1: to me now that with her training, those inherited prisoners
• 4:37:16
  Speaker 1: were merely property, nothing more, nothing less. Well, when we
• 4:37:23
  Speaker 1: inherit property, it does not occur to us to throw
• 4:37:25
  Speaker 1: it away, even when we do not value it. When
• 4:37:30
  Speaker 1: I brought my procession of human bats up into the
• 4:37:33
  Speaker 1: open world and the glare of the afternoon sun, previously
• 4:37:37
  Speaker 1: blindfolding them in charity for eyes so long untortured by light,
• 4:37:41
  Speaker 1: they were a spectacle to look at. Skeletons, scarecrows, goblins,
• 4:37:47
  Speaker 1: pathetic frights, everyone legitimatest possible, children of monarchy, by the
• 4:37:53
  Speaker 1: grace of God and the established Church, I muttered absently,
• 4:37:59
  Speaker 1: I wish I could photograph them. You have seen that
• 4:38:04
  Speaker 1: kind of people who will never let on that they
• 4:38:06
  Speaker 1: don't know the meaning of a new big word. The
• 4:38:09
  Speaker 1: more ignorant they are, the more pitifully certain they are
• 4:38:12
  Speaker 1: to pretend you haven't shot over their heads. The Queen
• 4:38:16
  Speaker 1: was just one of that sort, and was always making
• 4:38:18
  Speaker 1: the stupidest blunders. By reason of it, she hesitated a moment,
• 4:38:22
  Speaker 1: then her face brightened up with sudden comprehension, and she
• 4:38:26
  Speaker 1: said she would do it for me. I thought to myself,
• 4:38:31
  Speaker 1: she why, what can she know about photography? But it
• 4:38:40
  Speaker 1: was a poor time to be thinking. When I looked around,
• 4:38:43
  Speaker 1: she was moving on the procession with an axe. Well,
• 4:38:47
  Speaker 1: she certainly was a curious one, was Morgan le Fay.
• 4:38:51
  Speaker 1: I've seen a good many kinds of women in my time,
• 4:38:54
  Speaker 1: but she laid over them all for variety. And how
• 4:38:58
  Speaker 1: sharply characteristic of her this episode was. She had no
• 4:39:02
  Speaker 1: more idea than a horse of how to photograph a procession,
• 4:39:05
  Speaker 1: But being in doubt, it was just like her to
• 4:39:08
  Speaker 1: try to do it with an axe. Chapter nineteen night
• 4:39:16
  Speaker 1: Errantry as a trade. Sandy and I were on the
• 4:39:22
  Speaker 1: road again next morning, bright and early. It was so
• 4:39:26
  Speaker 1: good to open up one's lungs and take in whole
• 4:39:29
  Speaker 1: luscious barrels full of the blessed God's untainted dew fashioned
• 4:39:35
  Speaker 1: woodland scented air once more, after suffocating body and mind
• 4:39:39
  Speaker 1: for two days and nights in the moral and physical
• 4:39:43
  Speaker 1: stenches of that intolerable old buzzard roost. I mean for me,
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 1: of course, the place was all right and agreeable enough
• 4:39:52
  Speaker 1: for Sandy, for she had been used to the high
• 4:39:55
  Speaker 1: life all her days. Poor girl, her jaws had wearisome
• 4:40:00
  Speaker 1: rest now for a while, and I was expecting to
• 4:40:02
  Speaker 1: get the consequences. I was right. But she had stood
• 4:40:07
  Speaker 1: by me most helpfully in the castle, and had mightily
• 4:40:10
  Speaker 1: supported and reinforced me with gigantic foolishnesses, which were worth
• 4:40:15
  Speaker 1: more for the occasion than wisdoms double their size. So
• 4:40:19
  Speaker 1: I thought she had earned a right to work her
• 4:40:21
  Speaker 1: mill for a while if she wanted to. And I
• 4:40:25
  Speaker 1: felt not a pang when she started it up. Now
• 4:40:29
  Speaker 1: turn we unto Sir Marhaus that road with the damsel
• 4:40:33
  Speaker 1: of thirty winter of age southward? Are you going to
• 4:40:37
  Speaker 1: see if you can work up another half stretch on
• 4:40:39
  Speaker 1: the trail of the cowboy Sandy? Even so, fair, my lord,
• 4:40:44
  Speaker 1: go ahead, then I won't interrupt this time if I
• 4:40:47
  Speaker 1: can help it begin over again, Start fair, and shake
• 4:40:50
  Speaker 1: out all your reefs, and I will load my pipe
• 4:40:53
  Speaker 1: and give good attention. Now turn we unto Sir Marhaus
• 4:40:58
  Speaker 1: that rode with the dam of thirty winter of age southward.
• 4:41:02
  Speaker 1: And so they came into a deep forest, and by
• 4:41:05
  Speaker 1: fortune they were knighted, and rode along in a deep way,
• 4:41:09
  Speaker 1: and at the last they came into a courtilage where
• 4:41:13
  Speaker 1: above the Duke of South marches, and there was asked harbor.
• 4:41:18
  Speaker 1: And on the morn the Duke sent unto Sir Marhaus
• 4:41:21
  Speaker 1: and bade him make him ready. And so Sir Marhaus
• 4:41:25
  Speaker 1: arose and armed him, and there was a mass sung
• 4:41:28
  Speaker 1: afore him, and he brake his fast, and so mounted
• 4:41:32
  Speaker 1: on horseback in the court of the castle. There they
• 4:41:35
  Speaker 1: should do the battle. So there was the Duke already
• 4:41:38
  Speaker 1: on horseback, clean armed, and his six sons by him,
• 4:41:43
  Speaker 1: and every each had a spear in his hand. And
• 4:41:46
  Speaker 1: so they encountered, whereas the Duke and his two sons
• 4:41:50
  Speaker 1: brake their spears upon him, but Sir Marhaus held up
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: his spear and touched none of them. Then came the
• 4:41:57
  Speaker 1: four sons by couples, and two of them break their spears,
• 4:42:01
  Speaker 1: and so did the other two. And all this will
• 4:42:04
  Speaker 1: Sir Marhaus touch them not. Then Sir Marhaus ran to
• 4:42:08
  Speaker 1: the Duke and smote him with his spear. That horse
• 4:42:11
  Speaker 1: and man fell to the earth, and so he served
• 4:42:15
  Speaker 1: his sons. And then Sir Marhaus alight down and bade
• 4:42:20
  Speaker 1: the Duke yield him or else he would slay him.
• 4:42:23
  Speaker 1: And then some of his sons recovered and would have
• 4:42:26
  Speaker 1: set upon Sir Marhaus. Then Sir Marhaus said to the Duke,
• 4:42:30
  Speaker 1: cease thy sons, or else I will do the utmost
• 4:42:33
  Speaker 1: to you all. When the Duke saw he might not
• 4:42:36
  Speaker 1: escape the death, he cried to his sons and charged
• 4:42:40
  Speaker 1: them to yield them to Sir Marhaus. And they kneeled
• 4:42:43
  Speaker 1: all down and put the pommels of their swords to
• 4:42:46
  Speaker 1: the knight. And so he received them. And then they
• 4:42:50
  Speaker 1: hope up their father, and so by their common assent
• 4:42:54
  Speaker 1: promised unto Sir Marhaus, never to be foes unto King Arthur.
• 4:42:58
  Speaker 1: And thereupon at which sun tied after to come he
• 4:43:02
  Speaker 1: and his sons and put them in the King's grace. Footnote.
• 4:43:07
  Speaker 1: The story is borrowed language and all from the Morte
• 4:43:10
  Speaker 1: de'artur m t. Even so standeth the history fair servas
• 4:43:18
  Speaker 1: now ye shall wit that that very Duke and his
• 4:43:21
  Speaker 1: six sons are they whom but few days passed you
• 4:43:25
  Speaker 1: also did overcome and send to Arthur's court. Why, sandy,
• 4:43:30
  Speaker 1: you can't mean it, and I speak not sooth, let
• 4:43:35
  Speaker 1: it be the worse for me. Well, well, well, now,
• 4:43:39
  Speaker 1: who would ever have thought it? One hold duke and
• 4:43:43
  Speaker 1: six dukelets? Why, Sandy, it was an elegant hall. Knight
• 4:43:48
  Speaker 1: errant is a most chuckle headed trade, and it is
• 4:43:51
  Speaker 1: tedious hard work too. But I begin to see that
• 4:43:54
  Speaker 1: there is money in it, after all, if you have luck.
• 4:44:00
  Speaker 1: Not that I would ever engage in it as a business,
• 4:44:03
  Speaker 1: for I wouldn't. No sound and legitimate business can be
• 4:44:07
  Speaker 1: established on a basis of speculation. A successful whirl in
• 4:44:12
  Speaker 1: the knight errantry line. Now, what is it when you
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 1: blow away the nonsense and come down to the cold facts.
• 4:44:18
  Speaker 1: It's just a corner in pork, that's all, and you
• 4:44:21
  Speaker 1: can't make anything else out of it. You're rich, yet
• 4:44:24
  Speaker 1: suddenly rich for about a day, maybe a week. Then
• 4:44:28
  Speaker 1: somebody corners the market on you, and down goes your
• 4:44:32
  Speaker 1: bucket shop? Ain't that so, Sandy? Whethersoever it be that
• 4:44:38
  Speaker 1: my mind miscarrieth be worrying simple language in such sort
• 4:44:43
  Speaker 1: that the words do seem to come and long and overthwart.
• 4:44:49
  Speaker 1: There's no use in beating about the push and trying
• 4:44:51
  Speaker 1: to get around it that way, Sandy, It's just so,
• 4:44:55
  Speaker 1: just as I say, I know it's so, And Moreover,
• 4:44:59
  Speaker 1: when you come right down to the bedrock, night errantry
• 4:45:03
  Speaker 1: is worse than pork. For whatever happens, the pork's left,
• 4:45:08
  Speaker 1: And so somebody's benefited anyway. But when the market breaks
• 4:45:12
  Speaker 1: in a night errantry whirl, and every night in the
• 4:45:15
  Speaker 1: pool passes in his checks, what if you got for
• 4:45:18
  Speaker 1: assets just a rubbish pile of battered corpses and a
• 4:45:22
  Speaker 1: barrel or two of busted hardware? Can you call those assets?
• 4:45:28
  Speaker 1: Give me pork every time? Am I right? Ah? Peradventure,
• 4:45:35
  Speaker 1: my head being distraught by the manifold matters where unto
• 4:45:39
  Speaker 1: the confusions of these but late adventured HAPs and fortunings,
• 4:45:43
  Speaker 1: whereby not I alone, nor you alone, but every each
• 4:45:48
  Speaker 1: of us me seemeth. No, it's not your head, Sandy.
• 4:45:53
  Speaker 1: Your head's all right as far as it goes. But
• 4:45:57
  Speaker 1: you don't know business. That's where the trouble is. It
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 1: unfits you to argue about business, and you're wrong to
• 4:46:03
  Speaker 1: be always trying. However, that aside, it was a good
• 4:46:07
  Speaker 1: haul anyway, and will breed a handsome crop of reputation
• 4:46:10
  Speaker 1: in Arthur's court. And speaking of the cowboys, what a
• 4:46:14
  Speaker 1: curious country this is for women and men that never
• 4:46:17
  Speaker 1: get old. Now there's Morgan le Fay, as fresh and
• 4:46:22
  Speaker 1: young as Vaser Pullet to all appearances. And here is
• 4:46:26
  Speaker 1: this old Duke of South Marches, still slashing away with
• 4:46:30
  Speaker 1: sword and lance at his time of life, after raising
• 4:46:33
  Speaker 1: such a family as he has raised. As I understand it,
• 4:46:37
  Speaker 1: Sir Gawaine killed seven of his sons, and still he
• 4:46:40
  Speaker 1: had six left for Sir Marhaus and me to take
• 4:46:43
  Speaker 1: into camp. And then there was that damsel of sixty
• 4:46:47
  Speaker 1: winter of age, still excursioning around in her frosty bloom.
• 4:46:53
  Speaker 1: How old are you, Sandy? It was the first time
• 4:46:58
  Speaker 1: I ever struck a still play her. The mill had
• 4:47:01
  Speaker 1: shut down for repairs or something. Chapter twenty, the Ogre's Castle.
• 4:47:15
  Speaker 1: Between six and nine we made ten miles, which was
• 4:47:19
  Speaker 1: plenty for a horse carrying triple man, woman and armor.
• 4:47:24
  Speaker 1: Then we stopped for a long nooning under some trees
• 4:47:27
  Speaker 1: by a limpid brook. Right so came by and by
• 4:47:31
  Speaker 1: a night riding, And as he drew near, he made
• 4:47:35
  Speaker 1: dolorous moan, and by the words of it I perceived
• 4:47:38
  Speaker 1: that he was cursing and swearing. Yet nevertheless I was
• 4:47:43
  Speaker 1: glad of his coming, for that I saw he bore
• 4:47:46
  Speaker 1: a bulletin board, whereon in letters all of shining gold
• 4:47:50
  Speaker 1: was writ used Peterson's prophylactic toothbrush all the goat. I
• 4:47:56
  Speaker 1: was glad of his coming, for even by this token
• 4:47:59
  Speaker 1: I know him. For a night of mine. It was
• 4:48:02
  Speaker 1: Sir Madac de la Montaigne, a burly great fellow, whose
• 4:48:07
  Speaker 1: chief distinction was that he had come within an ace
• 4:48:10
  Speaker 1: of sending Sir Launcelot down over his horsetail once. He
• 4:48:14
  Speaker 1: was never long in a stranger's presence without finding some
• 4:48:17
  Speaker 1: pretext or other to let out that great fact. But
• 4:48:21
  Speaker 1: there was another fact, of nearly the same size, which
• 4:48:24
  Speaker 1: he never pushed upon anybody unasked, and yet never withheld
• 4:48:29
  Speaker 1: when asked. That was that the reason he didn't quite
• 4:48:33
  Speaker 1: succeed was that he was interrupted and sent down over
• 4:48:37
  Speaker 1: horsetail himself. This innocent, vast lubber did not see any
• 4:48:44
  Speaker 1: particular difference between the two facts. I liked him, for
• 4:48:49
  Speaker 1: he was earnest in his work, and very valuable, and
• 4:48:52
  Speaker 1: he was so fine to look at with his broad
• 4:48:55
  Speaker 1: mailed shoulders, And the grand Leonine said of his plumed
• 4:48:59
  Speaker 1: head and his big shield, with his quaint device of
• 4:49:03
  Speaker 1: a gauntleted hand clutching a prophylactic toothbrush with motto try
• 4:49:08
  Speaker 1: nor you don't. This was a tooth brush that I
• 4:49:12
  Speaker 1: was introducing. He was a weary he said, and indeed
• 4:49:18
  Speaker 1: he looked it. But he would not alight. He said
• 4:49:23
  Speaker 1: he was after the stove polish man. And with this
• 4:49:26
  Speaker 1: he broke out, cursing and swearing anew. The bulletin Border
• 4:49:30
  Speaker 1: referred to as Sir Roseys of Sir lewis a brave
• 4:49:34
  Speaker 1: knight and of considerable celebrity on account of his having
• 4:49:38
  Speaker 1: tried conclusions in a tournament once with no less a
• 4:49:41
  Speaker 1: mogul than Sir Gaheris himself, although not successfully. He was
• 4:49:48
  Speaker 1: of a light and laughing disposition, and him nothing in
• 4:49:52
  Speaker 1: this world was serious. It was for this reason that
• 4:49:55
  Speaker 1: I had chosen him to work up a stove polish sentiment.
• 4:50:00
  Speaker 1: There are no stoves yet, and so there could be
• 4:50:02
  Speaker 1: nothing serious about stove polish. All that the agent needed
• 4:50:06
  Speaker 1: to do was to deftly and by degrees, prepare the
• 4:50:10
  Speaker 1: public for the great change, and have in them established
• 4:50:14
  Speaker 1: predilections towards neatness. Against the time when the stove should
• 4:50:18
  Speaker 1: appear upon the stage. Sermatic was very bitter and break
• 4:50:24
  Speaker 1: out anew with cursings. He said he had cursed his
• 4:50:28
  Speaker 1: soul to rags, and yet he would not get down
• 4:50:31
  Speaker 1: from his horse, neither would he take any rest or
• 4:50:34
  Speaker 1: listen to any comfort until he should have found Sir
• 4:50:37
  Speaker 1: Osays and settled this account. It appeared, by what I
• 4:50:43
  Speaker 1: could piece together of the unprofaned fragments of his statement,
• 4:50:48
  Speaker 1: that he had chanced upon Sir Ossays at dawn of
• 4:50:51
  Speaker 1: the morning and been told that if he would make
• 4:50:54
  Speaker 1: a short cut across the fields and swamps and broken
• 4:50:57
  Speaker 1: hills and glades, he could head off a company of
• 4:51:00
  Speaker 1: travelers who would be rare customers for prophylactics and tooth wash.
• 4:51:06
  Speaker 1: With characteristic zeal, Sirmatock had plunged away at once upon
• 4:51:10
  Speaker 1: this quest, and after three hours of awful cross lot writing,
• 4:51:14
  Speaker 1: had overhauled his game. And behold, it was the five
• 4:51:18
  Speaker 1: patriarchs that had been released from the dungeons the evening before.
• 4:51:24
  Speaker 1: Poor old creatures. It was all of twenty years since
• 4:51:27
  Speaker 1: any one of them had known what it was to
• 4:51:29
  Speaker 1: be equipped with any remaining snag or remnant of a
• 4:51:32
  Speaker 1: tooth blank blank blank him, said Sirmatock, and I do
• 4:51:41
  Speaker 1: not stove polish him, and I may find him. Leave
• 4:51:44
  Speaker 1: it to me for never no knight that hight osays,
• 4:51:48
  Speaker 1: or aught else may do me this disservice, and bide
• 4:51:51
  Speaker 1: on live, and I may find him the which I
• 4:51:55
  Speaker 1: have thereunto sworn a great oath this day, and with
• 4:52:02
  Speaker 1: these words and others, he lightly took his spear and
• 4:52:06
  Speaker 1: gat him. Thence, in the middle of the afternoon, we
• 4:52:11
  Speaker 1: came upon one of those very patriarchs ourselves, in the
• 4:52:14
  Speaker 1: edge of a poor village, who was basking in the
• 4:52:18
  Speaker 1: love of relatives and friends whom he had not seen
• 4:52:20
  Speaker 1: for fifty years. And about him and caressing him were
• 4:52:24
  Speaker 1: also descendants of his own body, whom he had never
• 4:52:27
  Speaker 1: seen at all till now. But to him these were
• 4:52:30
  Speaker 1: all strangers. His memory was gone, his mind was stagnant.
• 4:52:36
  Speaker 1: It seemed incredible that a man could outlast half a
• 4:52:39
  Speaker 1: century shut up in a dark hole like a rat.
• 4:52:42
  Speaker 1: But here were his old wife and some old comrades
• 4:52:46
  Speaker 1: to testify to it. They could remember him as he
• 4:52:50
  Speaker 1: was in the freshness and strength of his young manhood,
• 4:52:53
  Speaker 1: when he kissed his child and delivered it to his
• 4:52:56
  Speaker 1: mother's hands, and went away into that long oblivion. The
• 4:53:01
  Speaker 1: people at the castle could not tell within half a
• 4:53:04
  Speaker 1: generation the length of time the man had been shut
• 4:53:06
  Speaker 1: up there for his unrecorded and forgotten offense. But this
• 4:53:11
  Speaker 1: old wife knew, and so did her old child, who
• 4:53:16
  Speaker 1: stood there among her married sons and daughters, trying to
• 4:53:19
  Speaker 1: realize a father who had been to her a name,
• 4:53:22
  Speaker 1: a thought, a formless image, a tradition all her life,
• 4:53:28
  Speaker 1: and now was suddenly concreted into actual flesh and blood,
• 4:53:32
  Speaker 1: and set before her face. It was a curious situation.
• 4:53:38
  Speaker 1: Yet it is not on that account that I have
• 4:53:39
  Speaker 1: made room for it here, but on account of a
• 4:53:42
  Speaker 1: thing which seemed to me still more curious, to wit
• 4:53:47
  Speaker 1: that this dreadful manner brought from these downtrodden people no
• 4:53:51
  Speaker 1: outburst of rage against these oppressors. They had been haeritors
• 4:53:57
  Speaker 1: and subjects of cruelty and outrage so long that nothing
• 4:54:02
  Speaker 1: could have startled them but a kindness. Yes, here was
• 4:54:10
  Speaker 1: a curious revelation indeed, of the depth to which people
• 4:54:14
  Speaker 1: had been sunk in slavery. Their entire being was reduced
• 4:54:19
  Speaker 1: to a monotonous, dead level of patience, resignation, dumb, unaccompanying
• 4:54:25
  Speaker 1: acceptance of whatever might befall them in this life. Their
• 4:54:29
  Speaker 1: very imagination was dead. When you can say that of
• 4:54:33
  Speaker 1: a man he has struck bottom, I reckon there is
• 4:54:37
  Speaker 1: no lower deep for him. I rather wished I had
• 4:54:43
  Speaker 1: gone some other road. This was not the sort of
• 4:54:46
  Speaker 1: experience for a statesman to encounter who was planning out
• 4:54:49
  Speaker 1: a peaceful revolution in his mind, for it could not
• 4:54:53
  Speaker 1: help bringing up the unget aroundable fact that all gentle
• 4:54:59
  Speaker 1: can't and philosophizing to the contrary. Notwithstanding, no people in
• 4:55:05
  Speaker 1: the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody goody
• 4:55:08
  Speaker 1: talk and moral suasion, it being immutable law that all
• 4:55:13
  Speaker 1: revelations that will succeed must begin in blood, whatever may
• 4:55:18
  Speaker 1: answer afterward. If history teaches anything it teaches that what
• 4:55:24
  Speaker 1: this folk needed then was a reign of terror and
• 4:55:27
  Speaker 1: a guillotine, and I was the wrong man for them.
• 4:55:34
  Speaker 1: Two days later, toward noon, Sandy began to show signs
• 4:55:38
  Speaker 1: of excitement and feverish expectancy. She said, we were approaching
• 4:55:42
  Speaker 1: the Ogre's castle. I was surprised into an uncomfortable shock.
• 4:55:48
  Speaker 1: The object of our quest had gradually dropped out of
• 4:55:50
  Speaker 1: my mind. This sudden resurrection of it made it seem
• 4:55:54
  Speaker 1: quite a real and startling thing for a moment, and
• 4:55:58
  Speaker 1: roused up in me a small interest. Sandy's excitement increased
• 4:56:03
  Speaker 1: every moment, and so did mine, For that sort of
• 4:56:06
  Speaker 1: thing is catching My heart got to thumping. You can't
• 4:56:11
  Speaker 1: reason with your heart. It has its own laws. It
• 4:56:15
  Speaker 1: thumps about things which the intellect scorns. Presently, when Sandy
• 4:56:21
  Speaker 1: slid from the horse, motioned me to stop, and went
• 4:56:24
  Speaker 1: creeping stealthily with her head bent nearly to her knees,
• 4:56:29
  Speaker 1: toward a row of bushes that bordered a declivity, the
• 4:56:33
  Speaker 1: thumpings grew stronger and quicker, and they kept it up
• 4:56:37
  Speaker 1: while she was gaining her ambush and getting her glimpse
• 4:56:40
  Speaker 1: over the declivity, and also while I was creeping to
• 4:56:43
  Speaker 1: her side on my knees. Her eyes were burning now
• 4:56:48
  Speaker 1: as she pointed with her finger and said, in a
• 4:56:50
  Speaker 1: panting whisper, the castle, the castle lo where it looms.
• 4:57:00
  Speaker 1: What a welcome disappointment I experienced, I said, castle, It
• 4:57:08
  Speaker 1: is nothing but a pig sty a pig stye with
• 4:57:12
  Speaker 1: a waddled fence around it. She looked surprised and distressed.
• 4:57:18
  Speaker 1: The animation faded out of her face, and during many
• 4:57:21
  Speaker 1: moments she was lost in thought and silent. Then it
• 4:57:27
  Speaker 1: was not enchanted aforetime, she said, in amusing fashion, as
• 4:57:32
  Speaker 1: if to herself. And how strange is this marvel, and
• 4:57:36
  Speaker 1: how awful that to the one perception it is enchanted
• 4:57:41
  Speaker 1: and dight in a base and shameful aspect. Yet to
• 4:57:45
  Speaker 1: the perception of the other it is not enchanted, has
• 4:57:48
  Speaker 1: suffered no change, but stands firm and stately, still, girt
• 4:57:52
  Speaker 1: with its moat and waving its banners in the blue
• 4:57:55
  Speaker 1: air from its towers and god shield. Is how it
• 4:58:00
  Speaker 1: pricks the heart to see again these gracious captives, and
• 4:58:03
  Speaker 1: the sorrow deepened in their sweet faces. We have tarried
• 4:58:08
  Speaker 1: along and are to blame. I saw a cue. The
• 4:58:13
  Speaker 1: castle was enchanted to me, not to her. It would
• 4:58:19
  Speaker 1: be wasted time to try to argue her out of
• 4:58:21
  Speaker 1: her delusion. It couldn't be done. I must just humor it,
• 4:58:26
  Speaker 1: so I said. This is a common case, the enchanting
• 4:58:31
  Speaker 1: of a thing to one eye and leaving it in
• 4:58:33
  Speaker 1: its proper form to another. You have heard of it
• 4:58:36
  Speaker 1: done before, sandy, though you haven't happened to experience it.
• 4:58:41
  Speaker 1: But no harm is done. In fact, it is lucky
• 4:58:43
  Speaker 1: the way it is. If these ladies were hogs to
• 4:58:46
  Speaker 1: everybody and to themselves. It would be necessary to break
• 4:58:50
  Speaker 1: the enchantment, and that might be impossible if one failed
• 4:58:53
  Speaker 1: to find the particular process of the enchantment, and hazardous too,
• 4:58:58
  Speaker 1: for in attempting a distance without the true key, you
• 4:59:02
  Speaker 1: are liable to air and turn your hogs into dogs,
• 4:59:06
  Speaker 1: and the dogs and the cats, and the cats into rats,
• 4:59:08
  Speaker 1: and so on, and by reducing your materials to nothing finally,
• 4:59:14
  Speaker 1: or to an odorless gas which you can't follow, which
• 4:59:18
  Speaker 1: of course amounts to the same thing. But here, by
• 4:59:22
  Speaker 1: good luck, no one's eyes but mine are under the enchantment,
• 4:59:28
  Speaker 1: and so it is of no consequence to dissolve it.
• 4:59:30
  Speaker 1: These ladies remain ladies to you and to themselves and
• 4:59:34
  Speaker 1: to everybody else. And at the same time they will
• 4:59:38
  Speaker 1: suffer in no way from my delusion. For when I
• 4:59:41
  Speaker 1: know that an ostensible hog is a lady, that is
• 4:59:45
  Speaker 1: enough for me. I know how to treat her. Thanks,
• 4:59:51
  Speaker 1: Oh sweet my lord, thou talkest like an angel, and
• 4:59:55
  Speaker 1: I know that thou wilt deliver them, for that thou
• 4:59:58
  Speaker 1: art minded to great deeds, and aren't as strong a
• 5:00:02
  Speaker 1: knight of your hands, and as brave to will and
• 5:00:05
  Speaker 1: to do as any that is on live. I will
• 5:00:10
  Speaker 1: not leave a princess in the sty. Sandy, are these
• 5:00:14
  Speaker 1: three yonder that, to my disordered eyes are starveling swineherds?
• 5:00:20
  Speaker 1: The ogres? Are they changed? Also? It is most wonderful
• 5:00:26
  Speaker 1: now I am fearful, for how canst thou strike with
• 5:00:29
  Speaker 1: sure aim when five of their nine cubits of stature
• 5:00:33
  Speaker 1: are to thee invisible. Ah go warily fair, sir. This
• 5:00:39
  Speaker 1: is a mightier enterprise than I wend. You be easy, Sandy.
• 5:00:45
  Speaker 1: All I need to know is how much of an
• 5:00:48
  Speaker 1: ogre is invisible? Then I know how to locate his vitals.
• 5:00:52
  Speaker 1: Don't you be afraid. I will make short work of
• 5:00:55
  Speaker 1: these bunco steerers. Stay where you are. I left Sandy
• 5:01:03
  Speaker 1: kneeling there, corpse faced, but plucky and hopeful, and rode
• 5:01:07
  Speaker 1: down to the pig sty and struck up a trade
• 5:01:09
  Speaker 1: with the swineherds. I won their gratitude by buying out
• 5:01:13
  Speaker 1: all the hogs at the lump sum of sixteen pennies,
• 5:01:17
  Speaker 1: which was rather above latest quotations. I was just in
• 5:01:21
  Speaker 1: time for the church, the Lord of the Manor, and
• 5:01:23
  Speaker 1: the rest of the tax gatherers would have been along
• 5:01:26
  Speaker 1: next day and swept off pretty much all the stock,
• 5:01:30
  Speaker 1: leaving the swineherds but short of hogs, and Sandy out
• 5:01:34
  Speaker 1: of princesses. But now the tax people could be paid
• 5:01:37
  Speaker 1: in cash, and there would be a stake left. Besides,
• 5:01:42
  Speaker 1: one of the men had ten children, and he said
• 5:01:45
  Speaker 1: that last year, when a priest came and of his
• 5:01:48
  Speaker 1: ten pigs took the fattest one for ties, the wife
• 5:01:51
  Speaker 1: burst out upon him and offered him a child, and said,
• 5:01:55
  Speaker 1: thou beast, without bowels of mercy, why leave me my child?
• 5:01:59
  Speaker 1: Yet of the wherewithal to feed it? How curious the
• 5:02:04
  Speaker 1: same thing had happened in the whales of my day,
• 5:02:07
  Speaker 1: under the same old established church, which was supposed by
• 5:02:11
  Speaker 1: many to have changed its nature when it changed its disguise.
• 5:02:16
  Speaker 1: I sent the three men away, and then opened the
• 5:02:18
  Speaker 1: sty gate and beckoned Sandy to come, which she did,
• 5:02:22
  Speaker 1: and not leisurely, but with the rush of a prairie fire.
• 5:02:26
  Speaker 1: And when I saw her fling herself upon those hogs,
• 5:02:29
  Speaker 1: with tears of joy running down her cheeks, and strain
• 5:02:34
  Speaker 1: them to her heart, and kiss them, and caress them,
• 5:02:38
  Speaker 1: and call them reverently by grand princely names, I was
• 5:02:43
  Speaker 1: ashamed of her, ashamed of the human race. We had
• 5:02:48
  Speaker 1: to drive those hogs home ten miles, and no ladies
• 5:02:53
  Speaker 1: were ever more fickle minded or contrary. They would stay
• 5:02:58
  Speaker 1: in no road, no pass. They broke out through the
• 5:03:01
  Speaker 1: brush on all sides, and flowed away in all directions,
• 5:03:05
  Speaker 1: over rocks and hills and the roughest places they could find.
• 5:03:11
  Speaker 1: And they must not be struck or roughly accosted. Sandy
• 5:03:14
  Speaker 1: would not bear to see them treated in ways unbecoming
• 5:03:18
  Speaker 1: their rank. The troublesomest old sow of the lot had
• 5:03:22
  Speaker 1: to be called my lady and your Highness. Like the rest,
• 5:03:29
  Speaker 1: it is annoyingly and difficult to scour around after hogs
• 5:03:33
  Speaker 1: in armor. There was one small countess with an iron
• 5:03:40
  Speaker 1: ring in her snout and hardly any hair on her back.
• 5:03:43
  Speaker 1: That was the devil for perversity. She gave me a
• 5:03:47
  Speaker 1: race of an hour over all sorts of country, and
• 5:03:50
  Speaker 1: then we were right back where we had started from,
• 5:03:52
  Speaker 1: having made not a rod of real progress. I seized
• 5:03:57
  Speaker 1: her at last by the tail and brought her along, squealing.
• 5:04:00
  Speaker 1: When I overtook Sandy, she was horrified and said it
• 5:04:03
  Speaker 1: was in the last degree indelicate to drag a countess
• 5:04:06
  Speaker 1: by her train. We got the hogs home just at dark.
• 5:04:12
  Speaker 1: Most of them. The Princess Nerovens de Morgenar was missing,
• 5:04:17
  Speaker 1: and two of her ladies in waiting, namely Miss Angelo
• 5:04:21
  Speaker 1: Bohun and the Demoiselle Elaine Cortemains, the former of these
• 5:04:26
  Speaker 1: two being a young black sow with a white star
• 5:04:29
  Speaker 1: on her forehead, and the latter a brown one with
• 5:04:32
  Speaker 1: thin legs and a slight limp in the forward shank
• 5:04:35
  Speaker 1: on the starboard side. A couple of the trying as
• 5:04:39
  Speaker 1: blisters to drive that I ever saw. Also among the
• 5:04:43
  Speaker 1: missing were several mere baronesses, and I wanted them to
• 5:04:47
  Speaker 1: stay missing, but no. All that sausage meat had to
• 5:04:51
  Speaker 1: be found, so servants were sent out with torches to
• 5:04:55
  Speaker 1: scour the woods and hills to that end. Of course,
• 5:05:00
  Speaker 1: the whole drove was housed in the house and great guns. Well.
• 5:05:08
  Speaker 1: I never saw anything like it, nor ever heard anything
• 5:05:12
  Speaker 1: like it, and never smelt anything like it. It was
• 5:05:18
  Speaker 1: like an insurrection in a gasometer, Chapter twenty one, The Pilgrims.
• 5:05:35
  Speaker 1: When I did get to bed at last, I was
• 5:05:37
  Speaker 1: unspeakably tired. The stretching out and the relaxing of the long,
• 5:05:42
  Speaker 1: tense muscles. How luxurious, how delicious. But that was as
• 5:05:48
  Speaker 1: far as I could get. Sleep was out of the
• 5:05:51
  Speaker 1: question for the present. The ripping and tearing and squealing
• 5:05:55
  Speaker 1: of the nobility up and down the halls and corridors.
• 5:06:00
  Speaker 1: Pandemonium come again and kept me broad awake. Being awake,
• 5:06:07
  Speaker 1: My thoughts were busy, of course, and mainly they busied
• 5:06:10
  Speaker 1: themselves with Sandy's curious delusion. Here she was as sane
• 5:06:16
  Speaker 1: a person as the kingdom could produce, and yet from
• 5:06:20
  Speaker 1: my point of view, she was acting like a crazy woman.
• 5:06:24
  Speaker 1: My land. The power of training, of influence, of education,
• 5:06:31
  Speaker 1: it can bring a body up to believe anything. I
• 5:06:36
  Speaker 1: had to put myself in Sandy's place to realize that
• 5:06:39
  Speaker 1: she was not a lunatic, yes, and put her in
• 5:06:42
  Speaker 1: mind to demonstrate how easy it is to seem a
• 5:06:45
  Speaker 1: lunatic to a person who has not been taught as
• 5:06:47
  Speaker 1: you have been taught. If I had told Sandy I
• 5:06:52
  Speaker 1: had seen a wagon on influence by enchantment spin along
• 5:06:57
  Speaker 1: fifty miles an hour, seeing a man unequipped with magic
• 5:07:02
  Speaker 1: powers get into a basket and soar out of sight
• 5:07:05
  Speaker 1: among the clouds, and had listened without any necromancer's help
• 5:07:10
  Speaker 1: to the conversation of a person who is several hundred
• 5:07:13
  Speaker 1: miles away. Sandy would not merely have supposed me to
• 5:07:17
  Speaker 1: be crazy. She would have thought she knew it. Everybody
• 5:07:25
  Speaker 1: around her believed in enchantments. Nobody had any doubts to
• 5:07:29
  Speaker 1: doubt that a castle could be turned into a sty
• 5:07:32
  Speaker 1: and its occupants into hogs would have been the same
• 5:07:35
  Speaker 1: as my doubting. Among Connecticut people the actuality of the
• 5:07:39
  Speaker 1: telephone and its wonders, and in both cases would be
• 5:07:43
  Speaker 1: absolute proof of a diseased mind, an unsettled reason. Yes,
• 5:07:49
  Speaker 1: Sandy was saying that must be admitted if I also
• 5:07:54
  Speaker 1: would be saying to Sandy, I must keep my superstitions
• 5:07:59
  Speaker 1: about unenchanted and unmoraculous locomotives, balloons, and telephones to myself. Also,
• 5:08:07
  Speaker 1: I believe that the world was not flat and hadn't
• 5:08:09
  Speaker 1: pillars under it to support it, nor can it be
• 5:08:12
  Speaker 1: over it to turn off a universe of water that
• 5:08:15
  Speaker 1: occupied all space above. But as I was the only
• 5:08:20
  Speaker 1: person in the Kingdom afflicted with such impious and criminal opinions,
• 5:08:26
  Speaker 1: I recognized that it would be good wisdom to keep
• 5:08:28
  Speaker 1: quiet about this matter too. If I did not wish
• 5:08:33
  Speaker 1: to be suddenly shunned and forsaken by everybody as a madman.
• 5:08:41
  Speaker 1: The next morning, Sandy assembled a swine in the dining
• 5:08:44
  Speaker 1: room and gave them their breakfast, waiting upon them personally,
• 5:08:47
  Speaker 1: and manifesting in every way the deep reverence which the
• 5:08:51
  Speaker 1: natives of her island, ancient and modern, have always felt
• 5:08:55
  Speaker 1: for rank. Let its outward casket, and the men and
• 5:09:00
  Speaker 1: moral contents be what they may. I could have eaten
• 5:09:05
  Speaker 1: with the hogs if I had had birth approaching my
• 5:09:08
  Speaker 1: lofty official rank. But I hadn't, and so accepted the
• 5:09:13
  Speaker 1: unavoidable slight and made no complaint. Sandy and I had
• 5:09:17
  Speaker 1: our breakfast at the second table. The family were not
• 5:09:21
  Speaker 1: at home. I said, how many are there in the family, Sandy?
• 5:09:26
  Speaker 1: And where do they keep themselves? But? Family? Yes? Which family? Good?
• 5:09:33
  Speaker 1: My lord? Why this family? Your own family? Sooth to say,
• 5:09:40
  Speaker 1: I understand you not, I have no family, no family? Why, Sandy,
• 5:09:48
  Speaker 1: isn't this your home? Now? How indeed might that be?
• 5:09:53
  Speaker 1: I have no home? Well? Then whose house is this? Ah?
• 5:10:01
  Speaker 1: Wit you? Well? I would tell you if I knew myself. Come,
• 5:10:10
  Speaker 1: you don't even know these people? Then? Who invited us here? None?
• 5:10:17
  Speaker 1: Invited us, we be came, That is all? Why, woman,
• 5:10:24
  Speaker 1: this is a most extraordinary performance. The effrontery of it
• 5:10:28
  Speaker 1: is beyond admiration. We blandly march into a man's house
• 5:10:32
  Speaker 1: and cram it full of the only really valuable nobility
• 5:10:37
  Speaker 1: the sun has yet discovered in the earth. And then
• 5:10:40
  Speaker 1: it turns out that we don't even know the man's name.
• 5:10:44
  Speaker 1: How did you ever venture to take this extravagant liberty?
• 5:10:48
  Speaker 1: I supposed, of course it was your home. What will
• 5:10:52
  Speaker 1: the man say? What will he say forsooth? What can
• 5:11:00
  Speaker 1: he say but give thanks? Thanks for what? Her face
• 5:11:07
  Speaker 1: was filled with a puzzled surprise. Verily, thou troublest mind
• 5:11:13
  Speaker 1: understanding with strange words? Do ye dream that one of
• 5:11:17
  Speaker 1: his estate is like to have the honor twice in
• 5:11:21
  Speaker 1: his life to entertain companies such as we have brought
• 5:11:23
  Speaker 1: to grace his house withal Well, No, when you come
• 5:11:30
  Speaker 1: to that, No, it's an even bet that this is
• 5:11:33
  Speaker 1: the first time he has had a treat like this.
• 5:11:38
  Speaker 1: Then let him be thankful and manifest the same by
• 5:11:41
  Speaker 1: grateful speech and due humility. He were a dog else,
• 5:11:45
  Speaker 1: and the heir and ancestor of dogs. To my mind,
• 5:11:51
  Speaker 1: the situation was uncomfortable, it might become more so. It
• 5:11:57
  Speaker 1: might have been a good idea to muster the hogs
• 5:11:58
  Speaker 1: and move on. So I say, said, the day is wasting, sandy.
• 5:12:02
  Speaker 1: It is time to get the nobility together and be moving.
• 5:12:06
  Speaker 1: Whereforfair Sir and Boss, we want to take them to
• 5:12:11
  Speaker 1: their home, don't we lah, but listen to him. They
• 5:12:17
  Speaker 1: be all the regions of the earth. Each must hie
• 5:12:21
  Speaker 1: to her own home. Whend you we might do all
• 5:12:24
  Speaker 1: these journeys in one so brief a life, as he
• 5:12:27
  Speaker 1: hath appointed that created life, and here too death. Likewise,
• 5:12:32
  Speaker 1: with help of Adam, who by sin done through persuasion
• 5:12:36
  Speaker 1: of his help meet she being wrought upon and be
• 5:12:39
  Speaker 1: rayed by the beguilements of the great enemy of man,
• 5:12:43
  Speaker 1: that serpent hight Satan, aforetime consecrated and set apart unto
• 5:12:48
  Speaker 1: that evil work by overmastering spite and envy begotten in
• 5:12:53
  Speaker 1: his heart through fell ambitions that did blight and mildew
• 5:12:57
  Speaker 1: a nature ersht so white and pure, when so it
• 5:13:00
  Speaker 1: hove with the shining multitudes its brethren, born in glade
• 5:13:05
  Speaker 1: and shade of that fair heaven, wherein all such as
• 5:13:08
  Speaker 1: native be to that rich estate and great Scott my lord, well,
• 5:13:16
  Speaker 1: you know we haven't got time for this sort of thing,
• 5:13:20
  Speaker 1: don't you see? We could distribute these people around the
• 5:13:23
  Speaker 1: earth unless time that it is going to take you
• 5:13:25
  Speaker 1: to explain that we can't. We mustn't talk now, we
• 5:13:31
  Speaker 1: must act. You want to be careful. You mustn't let
• 5:13:35
  Speaker 1: your mill get the start of you that way at
• 5:13:37
  Speaker 1: a time like this, to business now, and sharp's the word?
• 5:13:41
  Speaker 1: Who is to take the aristocracy home? Even their friends?
• 5:13:46
  Speaker 1: These will come for them from the far parts of
• 5:13:48
  Speaker 1: the earth. This was lightning from a clear sky for unexpectedness,
• 5:13:54
  Speaker 1: and the relief of it was like a pardon to
• 5:13:56
  Speaker 1: a prisoner. She would remain to deliver the goods, of course, Well, then, Sandy,
• 5:14:02
  Speaker 1: as our enterprise is handsomely and successfully ended, I will
• 5:14:06
  Speaker 1: go home and report, and if ever another one, I
• 5:14:10
  Speaker 1: am also ready. I will go with THEE. This was
• 5:14:14
  Speaker 1: recalling the pardon. How you will go with me? Why
• 5:14:21
  Speaker 1: should you will? I betrayed her to my knight. Don't
• 5:14:25
  Speaker 1: think that were dishonor I may not part from THEE
• 5:14:30
  Speaker 1: until a knightly encounter in the field. Some overmatching champion
• 5:14:34
  Speaker 1: shall fairly win and fairly wear me I were to blame,
• 5:14:38
  Speaker 1: and I thought that might ever hap elected for the
• 5:14:44
  Speaker 1: long term. I sighed to myself, I may as well
• 5:14:48
  Speaker 1: make the best of it. So then I spoke up
• 5:14:51
  Speaker 1: and said, all right, let's make a start. Well, she
• 5:14:57
  Speaker 1: was gone to cry her farewells over the pork. I
• 5:15:01
  Speaker 1: gave that whole peerage away to the servants, and I
• 5:15:04
  Speaker 1: asked them to take a duster and dust around a
• 5:15:06
  Speaker 1: little where the nobilities had mainly lodged and promenaded. But
• 5:15:12
  Speaker 1: they considered that would be hardly worthwhile, and would moreover
• 5:15:15
  Speaker 1: be a rather grave departure from custom, and therefore likely
• 5:15:19
  Speaker 1: to make talk. A departure from custom that settled it.
• 5:15:26
  Speaker 1: It was a nation capable of committing any crime, but that,
• 5:15:31
  Speaker 1: the servants said, they would follow the fashion, a fashion
• 5:15:34
  Speaker 1: grown sacred through immemorial observance. They would scatter fresh rushes
• 5:15:39
  Speaker 1: in all the rooms and halls, and then the evidence
• 5:15:42
  Speaker 1: of the aristocratic visitation would be no longer visible. It
• 5:15:47
  Speaker 1: was kind of a satire on nature. It was a
• 5:15:50
  Speaker 1: scientific method, the geologic method. It deposited the history of
• 5:15:54
  Speaker 1: the family in a stratified record, and the antiquary could
• 5:15:59
  Speaker 1: dig through it and tell by the remains of each
• 5:16:01
  Speaker 1: period what changes of diet the family had introduced successively
• 5:16:05
  Speaker 1: for one hundred years. The first thing we struck that
• 5:16:11
  Speaker 1: day was a procession of pilgrims. It was not going
• 5:16:14
  Speaker 1: our way, but we joined it nevertheless, for it was
• 5:16:17
  Speaker 1: hourly being borne in upon me. Now that if I
• 5:16:20
  Speaker 1: would govern this country wisely, I must be posted in
• 5:16:24
  Speaker 1: the details of its life, and not at secondhand, but
• 5:16:27
  Speaker 1: by personal observation and scrutiny. This company of pilgrims resembled
• 5:16:33
  Speaker 1: chaucers in this They had in it a sample of
• 5:16:37
  Speaker 1: about all the upper occupations and professions the country could show,
• 5:16:42
  Speaker 1: and a corresponding variety of costume. There were young men
• 5:16:45
  Speaker 1: and old men, young women and old women, lively folk
• 5:16:50
  Speaker 1: and gray folk. They rode upon mules and horses, and
• 5:16:54
  Speaker 1: there was not a side saddle in the party for
• 5:16:57
  Speaker 1: the specialty which to remain unknown in England for a
• 5:16:59
  Speaker 1: non hundred years. Yet it was a pleasant, friendly, sociable herd, pious,
• 5:17:07
  Speaker 1: happy merry, and full of unconscious coarsenesses and innocent indecencies.
• 5:17:14
  Speaker 1: What they regarded as the merry tale went the continual
• 5:17:17
  Speaker 1: round and caused no more embarrassment than it would have
• 5:17:20
  Speaker 1: caused in the best English society twelve centuries later. Practical
• 5:17:25
  Speaker 1: jokes worthy of the English wits of the first quarter
• 5:17:28
  Speaker 1: of the far off nineteenth century were sprung here and
• 5:17:31
  Speaker 1: there and yonder along the line, and compelled the delightedest applause.
• 5:17:36
  Speaker 1: And sometimes when a bright remark was made at one
• 5:17:38
  Speaker 1: end of the procession and started on its travels toward
• 5:17:42
  Speaker 1: the other, you could note its progress all the way
• 5:17:45
  Speaker 1: by the sparkling spray of laughter it threw off from
• 5:17:48
  Speaker 1: its boughs as it plowed along, and also by the
• 5:17:52
  Speaker 1: blushes of the mules in its wake. Sandy knew the
• 5:17:56
  Speaker 1: goal and purpose of this pilgrimage, and she posted me.
• 5:17:59
  Speaker 1: She said, and said, they journey to the Valley of Holiness,
• 5:18:03
  Speaker 1: for to be blessed of the godly hermits, and drink
• 5:18:06
  Speaker 1: of the miraculous waters, and be cleansed from sin. Where
• 5:18:10
  Speaker 1: is this watering place? It lieth a two day journey,
• 5:18:15
  Speaker 1: hence by the borders of the land that hight the
• 5:18:18
  Speaker 1: Cuckoo Kingdom. Tell me about it? Is it a celebrated place? Oh?
• 5:18:27
  Speaker 1: Of a truth? Yes, there be none more so? Of
• 5:18:31
  Speaker 1: old time? There lived there an Abbot and his monks belike,
• 5:18:35
  Speaker 1: were none in the world more holy than these, For
• 5:18:38
  Speaker 1: they gave themselves to study of pious books, and spoke
• 5:18:41
  Speaker 1: not the one to the other, or indeed to any,
• 5:18:44
  Speaker 1: and ate decayed herbs and not there too, and slept hard,
• 5:18:49
  Speaker 1: and prayed much, and washed. Never Also there were the
• 5:18:53
  Speaker 1: same garment until it fell from their bodies through age
• 5:18:55
  Speaker 1: and decay. Right so came they to be known of
• 5:19:00
  Speaker 1: all the world by reason of these holy austerities, and
• 5:19:03
  Speaker 1: visited by rich and poor, and reverenced proceed But always
• 5:19:10
  Speaker 1: there was lack of water there whereas upon a time
• 5:19:13
  Speaker 1: the Holy Abbot prayed, and for answer a great stream
• 5:19:17
  Speaker 1: of clear water burst forth by miracle in a desert place.
• 5:19:22
  Speaker 1: Now were the fickle monks tempted of the fiend, and
• 5:19:25
  Speaker 1: they wrought with their Abbot unceasingly by beggings and beseechings,
• 5:19:29
  Speaker 1: that he would construct a bath. And when he was
• 5:19:32
  Speaker 1: become weary and might not resist more, he said, have
• 5:19:37
  Speaker 1: ye your will then, and granted that. They asked, now,
• 5:19:42
  Speaker 1: mark thou what tis to forsake the ways of purity,
• 5:19:46
  Speaker 1: the which he loveth and wanton with such as the
• 5:19:49
  Speaker 1: worldly and an offense. These monks did enter into the bath,
• 5:19:55
  Speaker 1: and come thence washed as white as snow, and lo
• 5:19:59
  Speaker 1: in that the moment his sign appeared in miraculous rebuke
• 5:20:04
  Speaker 1: for his insulted waters ceased to flow and utterly vanished away.
• 5:20:10
  Speaker 1: They fared mildly sandy, considering how that kind of crime
• 5:20:13
  Speaker 1: is regarded in this country. Belike, but it was their
• 5:20:17
  Speaker 1: first sin, and they had been of perfect life for long,
• 5:20:21
  Speaker 1: and differing in nought from the angels, prayers, tears, torturings
• 5:20:27
  Speaker 1: of the flesh, all was vain to beguile that water
• 5:20:30
  Speaker 1: to flow again. Even processions, even burnt offerings, even votive
• 5:20:35
  Speaker 1: candles to the virgin, did fail, every each of them,
• 5:20:40
  Speaker 1: and all in the land did marvel. How odd to
• 5:20:45
  Speaker 1: find that even this industry has its financial panics, and
• 5:20:49
  Speaker 1: at times sees its the sign its and greenbacks languish
• 5:20:52
  Speaker 1: to zero, and everything come to a standstill, go on sandy.
• 5:20:58
  Speaker 1: And so upon a time, after year and day, the
• 5:21:02
  Speaker 1: good Abbot made humble surrender and destroyed the bath. And
• 5:21:05
  Speaker 1: behold his anger was in that moment appeased, and the
• 5:21:09
  Speaker 1: waters gushed richly forth again, And even unto this day
• 5:21:13
  Speaker 1: they have not ceased to flow in that generous measure.
• 5:21:17
  Speaker 1: Then I take it nobody has washed, since he that
• 5:21:21
  Speaker 1: would say it would have his halter free. Yes, and
• 5:21:24
  Speaker 1: swiftly would he need it too. The community has prospered
• 5:21:29
  Speaker 1: since even from that day. The fame of the miracle
• 5:21:33
  Speaker 1: went abroad into all lands. From every land came monks
• 5:21:37
  Speaker 1: to join. They came even as the fishes come in shoals.
• 5:21:41
  Speaker 1: And the monastery added building to building, and yet others
• 5:21:45
  Speaker 1: to these, and so spread wide its arms and took
• 5:21:48
  Speaker 1: them in. The nuns came also, and more again, and
• 5:21:52
  Speaker 1: yet more, and built over against the monastery on the
• 5:21:56
  Speaker 1: yond side of the vale, and added building to building,
• 5:21:59
  Speaker 1: until almighty was that nunnery. And these were friendly unto those,
• 5:22:05
  Speaker 1: and they joined their loving labors together, and together they
• 5:22:08
  Speaker 1: built a fair great foundling asylum midway of the valley.
• 5:22:12
  Speaker 1: Between you spoke of some hermits, Sandy, These have gathered
• 5:22:19
  Speaker 1: there from the ends of the earth. A hermit thriveth best.
• 5:22:23
  Speaker 1: Where there be multitudes of pilgrims, ye shall find no
• 5:22:26
  Speaker 1: hermit of no sort. Wanting of any shall mention a
• 5:22:31
  Speaker 1: hermit of a kind he thinketh new and not to
• 5:22:34
  Speaker 1: be found. But in some far strange land. Let him
• 5:22:37
  Speaker 1: but scratch among the holes and cays and swamps that
• 5:22:41
  Speaker 1: line in that valley of holiness, and whatsoever be his
• 5:22:44
  Speaker 1: breed its skills, not he shall find a sample of it.
• 5:22:48
  Speaker 1: There I closed up alongside a burly fellow with a fat,
• 5:22:54
  Speaker 1: good humored face, purposing to make myself agreeable and pick
• 5:22:58
  Speaker 1: up some further crumbs of fact. But I had hardly
• 5:23:01
  Speaker 1: more than scraped acquaintance with him when he began eagerly
• 5:23:05
  Speaker 1: and awkwardly to lead up in the immemorial way to
• 5:23:08
  Speaker 1: that same old ancidote. The one Sir Dinadan told me
• 5:23:13
  Speaker 1: what time I got into trouble with Sir Sagramore and
• 5:23:16
  Speaker 1: was challenged of him. On account of it, I excused
• 5:23:20
  Speaker 1: myself and dropped to the rear of the procession, sad
• 5:23:23
  Speaker 1: at heart, willing to go hence from this troubled life,
• 5:23:26
  Speaker 1: this veil of tears, this brief day of broken rest,
• 5:23:31
  Speaker 1: of cloud and storm, of weary struggle and monotonous defeat,
• 5:23:36
  Speaker 1: and it shrinking from the change, as remembering how long
• 5:23:39
  Speaker 1: eternity is, and how many have wended thither who know
• 5:23:44
  Speaker 1: that ancidote. Early in the afternoon we overtook another procession
• 5:23:52
  Speaker 1: of pilgrims. But in this one was no merriment, no jokes,
• 5:23:56
  Speaker 1: no laughter, no playful ways, nor any happy guest, whether
• 5:24:01
  Speaker 1: of youth or age. Yet both were here, both age
• 5:24:05
  Speaker 1: and youth, gray, old men and women, strong men and
• 5:24:09
  Speaker 1: women of middle age, young husbands, young wives, little boys
• 5:24:14
  Speaker 1: and girls, and three babies at the breast. Even the
• 5:24:19
  Speaker 1: children were smileless. There was not a face among all
• 5:24:22
  Speaker 1: these half a hundred people, but was cast down and
• 5:24:26
  Speaker 1: bore that set expression of hopelessness that is bred of
• 5:24:30
  Speaker 1: long and hard trials and old acquaintance with despair. They
• 5:24:35
  Speaker 1: were slaves. Chains led from their fettered feet and their
• 5:24:40
  Speaker 1: manacled hands to a sole leather belt about their waists,
• 5:24:44
  Speaker 1: and all except the children were also linked together in
• 5:24:47
  Speaker 1: a file six feet apart, by a single chain which
• 5:24:49
  Speaker 1: led from collar to collar all down the line. They
• 5:24:54
  Speaker 1: were on foot, and had trampled three hundred miles in
• 5:24:56
  Speaker 1: eighteen days, upon the cheapest odds and ends, the food
• 5:25:00
  Speaker 1: and stingy rations of that. They had slept in these
• 5:25:05
  Speaker 1: chains every night, huddled together like swine. They had upon
• 5:25:10
  Speaker 1: their bodies some poor rags, but they could not be
• 5:25:12
  Speaker 1: said to be clothed. Their irons had chafed the skin
• 5:25:17
  Speaker 1: from their ankles, and had made sores which were ulcered
• 5:25:20
  Speaker 1: and wormy. Their naked feet were torn, and none walked
• 5:25:24
  Speaker 1: without a limp. Originally there had been a hundred of
• 5:25:28
  Speaker 1: these unfortunates, but about half had been sold on the trip.
• 5:25:33
  Speaker 1: The traitor in charge of them rode a horse and
• 5:25:35
  Speaker 1: carried a whip with a short handle and a long,
• 5:25:37
  Speaker 1: heavy lash, divided into several knotted tails at the end.
• 5:25:42
  Speaker 1: With this whip he cut the shoulders of any that
• 5:25:44
  Speaker 1: tottered from weariness and pain, and straightened them up. He
• 5:25:49
  Speaker 1: did not speak, the whip conveyed his desire. Without that,
• 5:25:54
  Speaker 1: none of these poor creatures looked up as we rode
• 5:25:56
  Speaker 1: along by. They showed no consciousness of our presence, and
• 5:26:00
  Speaker 1: they made no sound but one that was the dull
• 5:26:04
  Speaker 1: and awful clank of their chains from end to end
• 5:26:08
  Speaker 1: of the long file. As forty three burdened feet rose
• 5:26:12
  Speaker 1: and fell in unison, the file moved in a cloud
• 5:26:16
  Speaker 1: of its own making. All these faces were gray with
• 5:26:20
  Speaker 1: a coating of dust. One has seen the like of
• 5:26:23
  Speaker 1: this coating upon furniture and unoccupied houses, and has written
• 5:26:26
  Speaker 1: his idle thought in it. With his finger. I was
• 5:26:30
  Speaker 1: reminded of this when I noticed the faces of some
• 5:26:32
  Speaker 1: of these women, young mothers carrying babies that were near
• 5:26:35
  Speaker 1: to death and freedom. How a something in their hearts
• 5:26:39
  Speaker 1: was written in the dust upon their faces plain to see,
• 5:26:42
  Speaker 1: and Lord, how plain to read, for it was the
• 5:26:47
  Speaker 1: track of tears. One of these young mothers was but
• 5:26:51
  Speaker 1: a girl, and it hurt me to the heart to
• 5:26:54
  Speaker 1: read that writing and reflect that it was come up
• 5:26:57
  Speaker 1: out of the breast of such a child, a breast
• 5:27:00
  Speaker 1: that ought not to no trouble yet, but only the
• 5:27:03
  Speaker 1: gladness of the morning of life, and no doubt. She
• 5:27:10
  Speaker 1: reeled just then, giddy with fatigue, and down came the
• 5:27:13
  Speaker 1: lash and flicked a flake of skin from her naked shoulder.
• 5:27:18
  Speaker 1: It stung me as if I had been hit instead.
• 5:27:21
  Speaker 1: The master halted the file and jumped from his horse.
• 5:27:24
  Speaker 1: He stormed and swore at this girl, and said that
• 5:27:26
  Speaker 1: she had made annoyance enough with her laziness, and as
• 5:27:30
  Speaker 1: this was the last chance he should have, he would
• 5:27:32
  Speaker 1: settle the account now. She dropped on her knees and
• 5:27:36
  Speaker 1: put up her hands, and began to beg and cry
• 5:27:38
  Speaker 1: and implore in a passion of terror. But the master
• 5:27:43
  Speaker 1: gave no attention. He snatched the child from her, and
• 5:27:47
  Speaker 1: then made the men slaves who were chained before and
• 5:27:50
  Speaker 1: behind her, throw her on the ground and hold her
• 5:27:52
  Speaker 1: there and expose her body. And then he laid on
• 5:27:56
  Speaker 1: with his lash like a madman, till her back was flayed.
• 5:27:59
  Speaker 1: She shrieking and struggling, the while piteously. One of the
• 5:28:04
  Speaker 1: men who was holding her turned away his face, And
• 5:28:08
  Speaker 1: for this humanity he was reviled and flogged. All our
• 5:28:14
  Speaker 1: pilgrims looked on and commented on the expert way in
• 5:28:17
  Speaker 1: which the whip was handled. They were too much hardened
• 5:28:21
  Speaker 1: by lifelong, everyday familiarity with slavery to notice that there
• 5:28:25
  Speaker 1: was anything else in the exhibition that invited comment. This
• 5:28:29
  Speaker 1: was what slavery could do in the way of ossifying
• 5:28:32
  Speaker 1: what one may call the superior lobe of human feeling.
• 5:28:37
  Speaker 1: For these pilgrims were kind hearted people, and they would
• 5:28:39
  Speaker 1: not have allowed that man to treat a horse like that.
• 5:28:44
  Speaker 1: I wanted to stop the whole thing and set the
• 5:28:47
  Speaker 1: slaves free, but that would not do. I must not
• 5:28:52
  Speaker 1: interfere too much and get myself a name for writing
• 5:28:55
  Speaker 1: over the country's laws, and the citizens' rights roughshod. If
• 5:28:59
  Speaker 1: I live and prospered, I would be the death of
• 5:29:02
  Speaker 1: slavery that I was resolved upon. But I would try
• 5:29:05
  Speaker 1: to fix it so that when I became its executioner,
• 5:29:08
  Speaker 1: it should be by command of the nation. Just here
• 5:29:13
  Speaker 1: was the wayside shop of a smith, and now arrived
• 5:29:17
  Speaker 1: at a landed proprietor who had bought this girl a
• 5:29:19
  Speaker 1: few miles back, deliverable here where her irons could be
• 5:29:22
  Speaker 1: taken off. They were removed. Then there was a squabble
• 5:29:26
  Speaker 1: between the gentlemen and the dealer as to which should
• 5:29:28
  Speaker 1: pay the blacksmith. The moment the girl was delivered from
• 5:29:32
  Speaker 1: her irons, she flung herself, all tears and frantic sobbings,
• 5:29:36
  Speaker 1: into the arms of the slave, who had turned away
• 5:29:38
  Speaker 1: his face when she was whipped. He strained her to
• 5:29:42
  Speaker 1: his breast and smoothed her face and the child with kisses,
• 5:29:46
  Speaker 1: and washed them with the rain of his tears. I suspected,
• 5:29:51
  Speaker 1: I inquired, Yes, I was right. It was husband and wife.
• 5:29:59
  Speaker 1: They had to be torn apart by force. The girl
• 5:30:02
  Speaker 1: had to be dragged away, and she struggled and fought
• 5:30:05
  Speaker 1: and shrieked like one gone mad till the turn of
• 5:30:07
  Speaker 1: the road hid her from sight, and even after that
• 5:30:10
  Speaker 1: we could still make out the fading plaint of those
• 5:30:13
  Speaker 1: receding shrieks, and the husband and father, with his wife
• 5:30:18
  Speaker 1: and child gone, never to be seen by him again
• 5:30:21
  Speaker 1: in life. Well, the look of him one might not
• 5:30:27
  Speaker 1: bear at all, And so I turned away. But I
• 5:30:30
  Speaker 1: knew I should never get his picture out of my
• 5:30:32
  Speaker 1: mind again, And there it is to this day to
• 5:30:36
  Speaker 1: wring my heartstrings whenever I think of it. We put
• 5:30:41
  Speaker 1: up at the inn in a village just at nightfall,
• 5:30:43
  Speaker 1: and when I rose next morning and looked abroad, I
• 5:30:47
  Speaker 1: was ware where a knight came riding in the golden
• 5:30:49
  Speaker 1: glory of the new day, and recognized him for night
• 5:30:52
  Speaker 1: of mine, Sir Ozanna lequeur Hardy. He was in the
• 5:30:58
  Speaker 1: gentleman's furnishing line, and his missionarying specialty was plug hats.
• 5:31:04
  Speaker 1: He was clothed all in steel, in the beautifulest armor
• 5:31:07
  Speaker 1: of the time up to where his helmet ought to
• 5:31:09
  Speaker 1: have been, But he hadn't any helmet. He wore a
• 5:31:13
  Speaker 1: shiny stovepipe hat and was ridiculous a spectacle as one
• 5:31:17
  Speaker 1: might want to see. It was another of my surreptitious
• 5:31:22
  Speaker 1: schemes for extinguishing knighthood by making it grotesque and absurd.
• 5:31:27
  Speaker 1: Sir Ozanna's saddle was hung about with leather hat boxes,
• 5:31:31
  Speaker 1: and every time he overcame a wandering knight, he swore
• 5:31:34
  Speaker 1: him into my service and fitted him with a plug
• 5:31:36
  Speaker 1: and made him wear it. I dressed and ran down
• 5:31:39
  Speaker 1: to welcome Sir Ozanna and get his news. How is trade?
• 5:31:43
  Speaker 1: I asked? Ye will note that I have but these
• 5:31:47
  Speaker 1: four left? Yet were they sixteen when as I got
• 5:31:50
  Speaker 1: me from Camelot? Why you have certainly done nobly, Sir Ozanna.
• 5:31:55
  Speaker 1: Where have you been foraging of late? I am? But
• 5:31:59
  Speaker 1: now come from the valley of holiness? Please you, sir,
• 5:32:02
  Speaker 1: I am pointed for that place myself. Is there anything
• 5:32:05
  Speaker 1: stirring in the monkery more than common by the mass?
• 5:32:09
  Speaker 1: Ye may not question it? Give him good feed, boy,
• 5:32:13
  Speaker 1: and stint it not, and thou valuest thy crown. So
• 5:32:17
  Speaker 1: get ye lightly to the stable and do even as
• 5:32:20
  Speaker 1: I bid, Sir, it is perilous news I bring, and
• 5:32:24
  Speaker 1: be these pilgrims, then ye may not do better? Good folk,
• 5:32:29
  Speaker 1: then gather and hear the tale I have to tell,
• 5:32:32
  Speaker 1: sith it concerneth you forasmuch as ye go to find
• 5:32:36
  Speaker 1: that ye will not find, and seek that ye will
• 5:32:39
  Speaker 1: seek in vain, my life being hostage for my word
• 5:32:43
  Speaker 1: and my word and message being these, namely, that a
• 5:32:47
  Speaker 1: hap has happened, whereof the like has not been seen
• 5:32:50
  Speaker 1: no more but once this two hundred years, which was
• 5:32:53
  Speaker 1: the first and last time, that that said misfortunes strake
• 5:32:57
  Speaker 1: the holy valley in that form by commandment of the
• 5:33:00
  Speaker 1: most High whereto by reasons just and causes thereunto contributing.
• 5:33:06
  Speaker 1: Wherein the matter the miraculous font has ceased to flow,
• 5:33:11
  Speaker 1: the shout burst forth from twenty pilgrim mouths. At once,
• 5:33:16
  Speaker 1: YE say, well, good people, I was verging to it
• 5:33:18
  Speaker 1: even when ye spake. Has somebody been washing again? Nay,
• 5:33:25
  Speaker 1: it is suspected, but none believe it. It is thought
• 5:33:27
  Speaker 1: to be some other sin, but none with What how
• 5:33:32
  Speaker 1: are they feeling about the calamity. None may describe it
• 5:33:35
  Speaker 1: in words? The font is these nine days dry, the
• 5:33:40
  Speaker 1: prayers that did begin then, and the lamentations in sackcloth
• 5:33:44
  Speaker 1: and ashes, and the holy processions, none of these have ceased,
• 5:33:47
  Speaker 1: nor night nor day. And so the monks and the
• 5:33:51
  Speaker 1: nuns and the foundlings all be exhausted, and do hang
• 5:33:54
  Speaker 1: up prayers. Writ upon parchment sith that no strength is
• 5:33:57
  Speaker 1: left in man to lift a voice. And at last
• 5:34:01
  Speaker 1: they sent for thee servos to try magic and enchantment.
• 5:34:05
  Speaker 1: And if you could not come, then was the messenger
• 5:34:07
  Speaker 1: to fetch Merlin. And he is there these three days now,
• 5:34:11
  Speaker 1: and saith he will fetch that water, though he burst
• 5:34:14
  Speaker 1: the globe and wreck its kingdoms to accomplish it. And
• 5:34:17
  Speaker 1: write bravely doth he work his magic and call upon
• 5:34:20
  Speaker 1: his hellions to hide them hither and help. But not
• 5:34:24
  Speaker 1: a whiff of moisture hath he started yet, even so
• 5:34:27
  Speaker 1: much as might qualify as a mist upon a copper merre.
• 5:34:31
  Speaker 1: And ye count not the barrel of sweat. He sweatth
• 5:34:34
  Speaker 1: betwixt sun and sun, over the dire labors of his task.
• 5:34:39
  Speaker 1: And if ye breakfast was ready. As soon as it
• 5:34:45
  Speaker 1: was over, I showed to Sir Anza the words which
• 5:34:47
  Speaker 1: I had written on the inside of his hat. Chemical
• 5:34:51
  Speaker 1: Department Laboratory Extension Section G send two of first size
• 5:34:57
  Speaker 1: two of number three and six of number one four,
• 5:35:00
  Speaker 1: together with the proper complimentary details and two of my
• 5:35:04
  Speaker 1: trained assistants, and said, now get you to Camelot as
• 5:35:08
  Speaker 1: fast as you can fly brave night, and show the
• 5:35:11
  Speaker 1: writing to Clarence and tell him to have these required
• 5:35:14
  Speaker 1: matters in the Valley of Holiness with all possible dispatch.
• 5:35:18
  Speaker 1: I will well Servos Chapter twenty two, The Holy Fountain.
• 5:35:29
  Speaker 1: The pilgrims were human beings, otherwise they would have acted differently.
• 5:35:35
  Speaker 1: They had come a long and difficult journey, and now,
• 5:35:37
  Speaker 1: when the journey was nearly finished, they learned that the
• 5:35:41
  Speaker 1: main thing they had come for had ceased to exist.
• 5:35:45
  Speaker 1: And they didn't do as horses or cats or angleworms
• 5:35:49
  Speaker 1: would probably have done, turned back and get at something profitable.
• 5:35:55
  Speaker 1: No anxious as they had before been to see the
• 5:35:58
  Speaker 1: miraculous fountain, they were as much as forty times as
• 5:36:02
  Speaker 1: anxious now to see the place where it had used
• 5:36:04
  Speaker 1: to be. There is no accounting for human beings. We
• 5:36:13
  Speaker 1: made good time, and a couple of hours before sunset
• 5:36:16
  Speaker 1: we stood upon the high confines of the Valley of Holiness,
• 5:36:20
  Speaker 1: and our eyes swept it from end to end and
• 5:36:22
  Speaker 1: noted its features, that is, its large features. These were
• 5:36:28
  Speaker 1: the three masses of buildings. They were distant and isolated temporalities,
• 5:36:33
  Speaker 1: shrunken to toy constructions in the lonely waste of what
• 5:36:37
  Speaker 1: seemed a desert, and was such a scene is always mournful.
• 5:36:44
  Speaker 1: It is so impressively still, and looks so steeped in death.
• 5:36:49
  Speaker 1: But there was a sound here which interrupted the stillness,
• 5:36:51
  Speaker 1: only to add to its mournfulness. This was the faint,
• 5:36:55
  Speaker 1: far sound of tolling bells, which floated fitfully to us
• 5:36:59
  Speaker 1: on the passing breeze, and so faintly, so softly, that
• 5:37:03
  Speaker 1: we hardly knew whether we heard it with our ears
• 5:37:06
  Speaker 1: or with our spirits. We reached the monastery before dark,
• 5:37:12
  Speaker 1: and there the males were given lodging, but the women
• 5:37:15
  Speaker 1: were sent over to the nunnery. The bells were close
• 5:37:19
  Speaker 1: at hand now, and their solemn booming smote upon the
• 5:37:23
  Speaker 1: ear like a message of doom. A superstitious despair possessed
• 5:37:27
  Speaker 1: the heart of every monk, and published itself in his
• 5:37:30
  Speaker 1: ghastly face. Everywhere, these black robed, soft sandaled, tallow visage
• 5:37:36
  Speaker 1: specters appeared fitted about and disappeared noiseless, as the creatures
• 5:37:42
  Speaker 1: of a troubled dream, and as uncanny. The old Abbot's
• 5:37:47
  Speaker 1: joy to see me was pathetic, even to tears, but
• 5:37:52
  Speaker 1: he did the shedding himself. He said, delay not, son,
• 5:37:56
  Speaker 1: but get to thy saving work, and we bring not
• 5:37:59
  Speaker 1: the water are back again, and soon we are ruined.
• 5:38:03
  Speaker 1: And the good work of two hundred years must end.
• 5:38:06
  Speaker 1: And see thou do it with enchantments that be holy,
• 5:38:08
  Speaker 1: For the Church will not endure that work in her
• 5:38:11
  Speaker 1: cause be done by devil's magic. When I work, Father,
• 5:38:18
  Speaker 1: be sure, there will be no devil's work connected with it.
• 5:38:22
  Speaker 1: I shall use no arts that come of the devil,
• 5:38:25
  Speaker 1: and no elements not created by the hand of God.
• 5:38:28
  Speaker 1: But is Merlin working strictly on pious lines? Ah, He
• 5:38:34
  Speaker 1: said he would, My son, He said he would, and
• 5:38:37
  Speaker 1: took an oath to make his promise good. Well in
• 5:38:41
  Speaker 1: that case, let him proceed. But surely you will not
• 5:38:44
  Speaker 1: sit idle by, but help. It will not answer to
• 5:38:50
  Speaker 1: mixed methods, Father, Neither would it be professional courtesy. Two
• 5:38:54
  Speaker 1: of the trade must not underbid each other. We might
• 5:38:57
  Speaker 1: as well cut rates and be done with it. It
• 5:39:00
  Speaker 1: would arrive at that. In the end, Merlin has the contract.
• 5:39:04
  Speaker 1: No other magician can touch it till he throws it up.
• 5:39:08
  Speaker 1: But I will take it from him. It is a
• 5:39:10
  Speaker 1: terrible emergency, and the act is thereby justified. And if
• 5:39:13
  Speaker 1: it were not so, who will give law to the church?
• 5:39:16
  Speaker 1: But Church giveth law to all. And what she wills
• 5:39:20
  Speaker 1: to do, that she may do, hurt whom it may,
• 5:39:24
  Speaker 1: I will take it from him. You shall begin upon
• 5:39:26
  Speaker 1: the moment. It may not be, Father, no doubt, as
• 5:39:32
  Speaker 1: you say. Where power is supreme, one can do as
• 5:39:36
  Speaker 1: one likes and suffer no injury. But we poor magicians
• 5:39:40
  Speaker 1: are not so situated. Merlin is a very good magician
• 5:39:43
  Speaker 1: in a small way, and has quite a neat provincial reputation.
• 5:39:49
  Speaker 1: He is struggling along, doing the best he can, and
• 5:39:52
  Speaker 1: it would not be etiquette for me to take his
• 5:39:54
  Speaker 1: job until he himself abandons it. The abbot's face lighted. Ah,
• 5:40:01
  Speaker 1: that is simple. There are ways to persuade him to
• 5:40:04
  Speaker 1: abandon it. No, no, Father, it skills not as these
• 5:40:10
  Speaker 1: people say. If he were persuaded against his will, he
• 5:40:14
  Speaker 1: would load that well with a malicious enchantment which would
• 5:40:17
  Speaker 1: bock me until I found out its secret. It might
• 5:40:20
  Speaker 1: take a month. I could set up a little enchantment
• 5:40:23
  Speaker 1: of mine, which I call the telephone, and he could
• 5:40:26
  Speaker 1: not find out its secret in a hundred years. Yes,
• 5:40:29
  Speaker 1: you perceive he might block me for a month. Would
• 5:40:33
  Speaker 1: you like to risk a month in a dry time
• 5:40:35
  Speaker 1: like this? A month? The mere thought of it maketh
• 5:40:41
  Speaker 1: me to shudder. Have it thy way, my son, But
• 5:40:45
  Speaker 1: my heart is heavy with this disappointment. Leave me and
• 5:40:48
  Speaker 1: let me wear my spirit with weariness and waiting, even
• 5:40:51
  Speaker 1: as I have done these ten long days counterfeiting. Thus
• 5:40:55
  Speaker 1: the thing that is called rest, the prone body making
• 5:40:58
  Speaker 1: outward sign of repose where inwardly is none. Of course,
• 5:41:05
  Speaker 1: it would have been best all around for Merlin to
• 5:41:08
  Speaker 1: waive etiquette and quit and call it half a day,
• 5:41:11
  Speaker 1: since he would never be able to start that water.
• 5:41:14
  Speaker 1: For he was a true magician of the time, which
• 5:41:17
  Speaker 1: is to say, the big miracles, the ones that gave
• 5:41:20
  Speaker 1: him his reputation, always had the luck to be performed
• 5:41:23
  Speaker 1: when nobody but Merlin was present. He couldn't start this
• 5:41:27
  Speaker 1: well with all this crowd around. To see, a crowd
• 5:41:31
  Speaker 1: was bad for a magicians miracle in that day, as
• 5:41:33
  Speaker 1: it was for a spiritualist miracle in mine. And there
• 5:41:36
  Speaker 1: was as sure to be some skeptic on hand to
• 5:41:39
  Speaker 1: turn up the gas at the crucial moment and spoil everything.
• 5:41:43
  Speaker 1: But I did not want Merlin to retire from the
• 5:41:45
  Speaker 1: job until I was ready to take hold of it
• 5:41:47
  Speaker 1: effectively myself. And I could not do that until I
• 5:41:50
  Speaker 1: got my things from Camelot, and that would take two
• 5:41:53
  Speaker 1: or three days. My presence gave the monks hope and
• 5:41:59
  Speaker 1: cheered them up a good deal, insomuch that they ate
• 5:42:02
  Speaker 1: a square meal that night for the first time in
• 5:42:04
  Speaker 1: ten days. As soon as their stomachs had been properly
• 5:42:08
  Speaker 1: reinforced with food, their spirits began to rise fast. When
• 5:42:13
  Speaker 1: the meat began to go around, there was faster. By
• 5:42:17
  Speaker 1: that time, everybody was half seized over. The holy community
• 5:42:21
  Speaker 1: was in good shape to make a night of it.
• 5:42:23
  Speaker 1: So he stayed by the board and put it through.
• 5:42:25
  Speaker 1: On that line, matters got to be very jolly good.
• 5:42:32
  Speaker 1: Old questionable stories were told that made the tears run down,
• 5:42:36
  Speaker 1: and cavernous mouths stand wide, and the round bellies shake
• 5:42:41
  Speaker 1: with laughter, and questionable songs were bellowed out in a
• 5:42:45
  Speaker 1: mighty chorus that drowned out the boom of the tolling bells.
• 5:42:50
  Speaker 1: At last, I ventured a story myself, and vast was
• 5:42:54
  Speaker 1: the success of it. Not right off, of course, for
• 5:42:59
  Speaker 1: the native of those islands does not, as a rule,
• 5:43:02
  Speaker 1: dissolve upon the early applications of a humorous thing. But
• 5:43:07
  Speaker 1: the fifth time I told it, they began to crack
• 5:43:09
  Speaker 1: in places. The eighth time I told it they began
• 5:43:14
  Speaker 1: to crumble. At the twelfth repetition they fell apart in chunks,
• 5:43:19
  Speaker 1: And at the fifteenth they disintegrated, and I got a
• 5:43:22
  Speaker 1: broom and swept them up. As language is figurative, Those
• 5:43:26
  Speaker 1: islanders well there slow pay at first in a manner
• 5:43:31
  Speaker 1: of return for your investment of effort. But in the
• 5:43:34
  Speaker 1: end they make the pay of all other nations, poor
• 5:43:37
  Speaker 1: and small. By contrast, I was at the well next
• 5:43:42
  Speaker 1: day betimes Merlin was there, enchanting away like a beaver,
• 5:43:46
  Speaker 1: but not raising the moisture. He was not in a
• 5:43:49
  Speaker 1: pleasant humor. At every time I hinted that perhaps this
• 5:43:52
  Speaker 1: contract was a shade too hefty for a novice, he
• 5:43:55
  Speaker 1: unlimbered his tongue and cursed like a bishop of the regency.
• 5:44:01
  Speaker 1: Days I mean, matters were about as I expected to
• 5:44:05
  Speaker 1: find them. The fountain was an ordinary well. It had
• 5:44:10
  Speaker 1: been dug in the ordinary way and stoned up in
• 5:44:12
  Speaker 1: the ordinary way. There was no miracle about it. Even
• 5:44:17
  Speaker 1: the lie that had created its reputation was not miraculous.
• 5:44:20
  Speaker 1: I could have told it myself with one hand tied
• 5:44:22
  Speaker 1: behind me. The well was in a dark chamber which
• 5:44:26
  Speaker 1: stood in the center of a cut stone chapel, whose
• 5:44:29
  Speaker 1: walls were hung with pious pictures of a workmanship that
• 5:44:32
  Speaker 1: would have made a chromo feel good. Pictures historically commemorative
• 5:44:37
  Speaker 1: of curative miracles which had been achieved by the waters
• 5:44:40
  Speaker 1: when nobody was looking, that is, nobody but angels. They
• 5:44:45
  Speaker 1: were always on deck when there was a miracle to
• 5:44:47
  Speaker 1: the foe, so as to get put in the picture.
• 5:44:50
  Speaker 1: Perhaps angels are as fond of that as a fire company.
• 5:44:55
  Speaker 1: Look at the old masters well chamber was dimly lighted
• 5:45:01
  Speaker 1: by lamps. The water was drawn with a windlass and
• 5:45:05
  Speaker 1: chained by monks, and poured into troughs which delivered it
• 5:45:08
  Speaker 1: into stone reservoirs outside in the chapel. When there was
• 5:45:13
  Speaker 1: water to draw, I mean, and none but the monks
• 5:45:16
  Speaker 1: could enter into the well chamber. I entered it, for
• 5:45:19
  Speaker 1: I had a temporary authority to do so, by courtesy
• 5:45:22
  Speaker 1: of my professional brother and subordinate. But he hadn't entered
• 5:45:26
  Speaker 1: it himself. He did everything by incantations. He never worked
• 5:45:31
  Speaker 1: his intellect. If he had stepped in there and used
• 5:45:35
  Speaker 1: his eyes instead of his disordered mind. He could have
• 5:45:38
  Speaker 1: cured the well by natural means and then turned it
• 5:45:42
  Speaker 1: into a miracle in the customary way. But no, he
• 5:45:45
  Speaker 1: was an old numskull, a magician who believed in his
• 5:45:48
  Speaker 1: own magic. And no magician can thrive who is handicapped
• 5:45:53
  Speaker 1: with a superstition like that. I had an idea that
• 5:45:58
  Speaker 1: the well had sprung a leak, that some of the
• 5:46:01
  Speaker 1: wall stones near the bottom had fallen and exposed fissures
• 5:46:04
  Speaker 1: that allowed the water to escape. I measured the chain
• 5:46:08
  Speaker 1: ninety eight feet. Then I called in a couple of monks,
• 5:46:12
  Speaker 1: locked the door, took a candle, and made them lower
• 5:46:15
  Speaker 1: me in the bucket. When the chain was all played out,
• 5:46:19
  Speaker 1: the candle confirmed my suspicion. A considerable section of the
• 5:46:22
  Speaker 1: wall was gone, exposing a good big fissure. I almost
• 5:46:27
  Speaker 1: regretted that my theory about the whale's trouble was correct,
• 5:46:31
  Speaker 1: because I had another one that had a showy point
• 5:46:33
  Speaker 1: or two about it for a miracle. I remembered that
• 5:46:38
  Speaker 1: in America many centuries later, when an oil well ceased
• 5:46:41
  Speaker 1: to flow, they used to blast it out with a
• 5:46:44
  Speaker 1: dynamite torpedo. If I should find this well dry and
• 5:46:47
  Speaker 1: no explanation of it, I could astonish these people most
• 5:46:51
  Speaker 1: nobly by having a person of no special value drop
• 5:46:54
  Speaker 1: a dynamite bomb into it. It was my idea to
• 5:46:58
  Speaker 1: appoint Merlin. However, it was plain that there was no
• 5:47:03
  Speaker 1: occasion for the bomb. One cannot have everything the way
• 5:47:06
  Speaker 1: he would like it. A man has no business to
• 5:47:09
  Speaker 1: be depressed by a disappointment anyway, he ought to make
• 5:47:12
  Speaker 1: up his mind to get even. That is what I did.
• 5:47:17
  Speaker 1: I said to myself, I am in no hurry. I
• 5:47:20
  Speaker 1: can wait. That bomb will come good. Yet then it
• 5:47:24
  Speaker 1: did too. When I was above ground again, I turned
• 5:47:29
  Speaker 1: out the monks and let down a fish line. The
• 5:47:32
  Speaker 1: well was a hundred and fifty feet deep, and there
• 5:47:35
  Speaker 1: was forty one feet of water in it. I called
• 5:47:38
  Speaker 1: a monk and asked, how deep is the well? That, sir,
• 5:47:43
  Speaker 1: I wit not, having never been told how does the
• 5:47:48
  Speaker 1: water usually stand in it? Near the top of these
• 5:47:51
  Speaker 1: two centuries, As the testimony Goeth brought down to us
• 5:47:54
  Speaker 1: through our predecessors, it was true as to recent times
• 5:47:59
  Speaker 1: at least, for there was witness to it, and better
• 5:48:02
  Speaker 1: witness than a monk. Only about twenty or thirty feet
• 5:48:05
  Speaker 1: of the chain showed wear and use. The rest of
• 5:48:08
  Speaker 1: it was unworn and rusty. What had happened when the
• 5:48:12
  Speaker 1: well gave out that other time? Without doubt, some practical
• 5:48:16
  Speaker 1: person had come along and mended the leak, and then
• 5:48:18
  Speaker 1: had come up and told the abbot he had discovered
• 5:48:21
  Speaker 1: by divination that if the sinful bath were destroyed, the
• 5:48:24
  Speaker 1: well would flow again. The leak had befallen again now,
• 5:48:29
  Speaker 1: and these children would have prayed and processioned and told
• 5:48:32
  Speaker 1: their bells for heavenly succor till they all dried up
• 5:48:35
  Speaker 1: and blew away. And no innocent of them all would
• 5:48:39
  Speaker 1: ever have thought to drop a fish line into the well,
• 5:48:42
  Speaker 1: or go down in it and find out what was
• 5:48:44
  Speaker 1: really the matter. Old habit of mind is one of
• 5:48:48
  Speaker 1: the toughest things to get away from in the world.
• 5:48:51
  Speaker 1: It transmits itself like a physical form and feature. And
• 5:48:55
  Speaker 1: for a man in those days to have had an
• 5:48:58
  Speaker 1: idea that his ancestors hadn't would have brought him under
• 5:49:02
  Speaker 1: suspicion of being illegitimate. I said to the monk, it
• 5:49:07
  Speaker 1: is a difficult miracle to restore water in a dry well,
• 5:49:10
  Speaker 1: but we will try. If my brother Merlin fails. Brother
• 5:49:15
  Speaker 1: Merlin is a very passable artist, but only in the
• 5:49:18
  Speaker 1: parlor magic line, and he may not succeed. In fact,
• 5:49:22
  Speaker 1: is not likely to succeed. But that should be nothing
• 5:49:25
  Speaker 1: to his discredit. The man that can do this kind
• 5:49:29
  Speaker 1: of miracle knows enough to keep hotel hotel. I might
• 5:49:35
  Speaker 1: not to have heard of hotel. It's what you call hostile.
• 5:49:41
  Speaker 1: The man that can do this miracle can keep hostile.
• 5:49:46
  Speaker 1: I can do this miracle. I shall do this miracle.
• 5:49:49
  Speaker 1: Yet I do not try to conceal from you that
• 5:49:52
  Speaker 1: it is a miracle to tax the occult powers to
• 5:49:54
  Speaker 1: the last strain. None knoweth that truth better than the brotherhood. Indeed,
• 5:50:01
  Speaker 1: for it is of record that aforetime it was perilous, difficult,
• 5:50:04
  Speaker 1: and took a year. Naytheless, God send you good success,
• 5:50:10
  Speaker 1: and to that end will we pray. As a matter
• 5:50:14
  Speaker 1: of business, it was a good idea to get the
• 5:50:16
  Speaker 1: notion around that the thing was difficult. Many a small
• 5:50:20
  Speaker 1: thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
• 5:50:24
  Speaker 1: That monk was filled up with the difficulty of this enterprise,
• 5:50:28
  Speaker 1: he would fill up the others. In two days. The
• 5:50:31
  Speaker 1: solicitude would be booming on my way home. At noon
• 5:50:36
  Speaker 1: I met Sandy. She had been sampling the Hermits. I said,
• 5:50:40
  Speaker 1: I would like to do that myself. This is Wednesday.
• 5:50:43
  Speaker 1: Is there a matinee a which please you? Sir? Matinee?
• 5:50:49
  Speaker 1: Do they keep open afternoons? Who the Hermits? Of course?
• 5:50:57
  Speaker 1: Keep open? Yes, keep open? Isn't that plain enough? Do
• 5:51:03
  Speaker 1: they knock off at noon? Knock off? Knock off? Yes,
• 5:51:10
  Speaker 1: knock off? What is the matter with knockoff? I never
• 5:51:15
  Speaker 1: saw such a dunderhead. Can't you understand anything at all?
• 5:51:20
  Speaker 1: In plain terms? Do they shut up shop? Draw the game,
• 5:51:24
  Speaker 1: bank the fires, shut up shop, draw there, never mind,
• 5:51:33
  Speaker 1: let it go. You make me tired. You can't seem
• 5:51:37
  Speaker 1: to understand the simplest thing I would I might please thee, sir,
• 5:51:43
  Speaker 1: And it is to me dole and sorrow that I fail,
• 5:51:47
  Speaker 1: albeit sith, But I am but a simple damsel and
• 5:51:50
  Speaker 1: todd of none, being from the cradle, unbaptized in those
• 5:51:54
  Speaker 1: deep waters of learning that do anoint with a sovereignty
• 5:51:58
  Speaker 1: him that partaketh of that most noble sacrament, investing him
• 5:52:03
  Speaker 1: with reverend state to the mental eye of the humble mortal, who,
• 5:52:08
  Speaker 1: by bar and lack of that great consecration seeth in
• 5:52:12
  Speaker 1: his own unlearned estate, but a symbol of that other
• 5:52:16
  Speaker 1: sort of lack and loss which men do publish to
• 5:52:19
  Speaker 1: the pitying eye with sackcloth trappings, whereupon the ashes of
• 5:52:24
  Speaker 1: grief do lie be powdered and be strewn. And so
• 5:52:29
  Speaker 1: when such shall, in the darkness of his mind encounter
• 5:52:32
  Speaker 1: these golden phrases of high mystery, these shut up shops
• 5:52:37
  Speaker 1: and draw the game and bank the fires, it is
• 5:52:42
  Speaker 1: but by the grace of God that he bursts, not
• 5:52:45
  Speaker 1: for envy of the mind that can beget and tongue
• 5:52:48
  Speaker 1: that can deliver so great and mellow sounding miracles of speech.
• 5:52:54
  Speaker 1: And if there do ensue confusion in that humbler mind,
• 5:52:58
  Speaker 1: and failure to divine the meanings of these wonders, then
• 5:53:03
  Speaker 1: if so be this miscomprehension, it is not vain, but
• 5:53:07
  Speaker 1: sooth and true. Wit ye well, it is the very
• 5:53:10
  Speaker 1: substance of worshipful, dear homage, and may not lightly be misprized,
• 5:53:16
  Speaker 1: nor had been. And ye had noticed this complexion of
• 5:53:20
  Speaker 1: mood and mind, and understood that that I would, I
• 5:53:24
  Speaker 1: could not, and that I could not I might not,
• 5:53:28
  Speaker 1: nor yet nor thought, nor could nor might not, nor
• 5:53:32
  Speaker 1: could not might be by advantage turned to the desired would,
• 5:53:38
  Speaker 1: And so I pray you mercy of my fault, and
• 5:53:41
  Speaker 1: that ye will, of your kindness and your charity, forgive
• 5:53:45
  Speaker 1: it good, my master and most dear Lord. I couldn't
• 5:53:52
  Speaker 1: make it all out, that is the details, but I
• 5:53:57
  Speaker 1: got the general idea, and enough of it too to
• 5:54:01
  Speaker 1: be ashamed. It was not fair to spring those nineteenth
• 5:54:05
  Speaker 1: century technicalities upon the untutored infant of the sixth and
• 5:54:10
  Speaker 1: then rail at her because she couldn't get their drift,
• 5:54:13
  Speaker 1: And when she was making the honest best drive at it,
• 5:54:16
  Speaker 1: she could too, And no fault of hers that she
• 5:54:19
  Speaker 1: couldn't fetch the home plate. And so I apologized. Then
• 5:54:24
  Speaker 1: we meandered pleasantly away toward the hermit holes, and sociable
• 5:54:28
  Speaker 1: converse together, and better friends than ever. I was gradually
• 5:54:35
  Speaker 1: coming to have a mysterious and shuddery reverence for this girl. Nowadays,
• 5:54:40
  Speaker 1: whenever she pulled out from the station and got her
• 5:54:42
  Speaker 1: train fairly started on one of those horizonless transcontinental sentences
• 5:54:47
  Speaker 1: of hers, it was borne in upon me that I
• 5:54:50
  Speaker 1: was standing in the awful presence of the mother of
• 5:54:53
  Speaker 1: the German language. I was so impressed with this that sometimes,
• 5:54:57
  Speaker 1: when she began to empty one of those sentences on me,
• 5:55:01
  Speaker 1: I unconsciously took the very attitude of reverence and stood uncovered,
• 5:55:06
  Speaker 1: as if words had been water and I had been drowned.
• 5:55:09
  Speaker 1: Sure she had exactly the German way. Whatever was in
• 5:55:14
  Speaker 1: her mind to be delivered, whether a mere remark or
• 5:55:17
  Speaker 1: a sermon, or a cyclopedia or the history of war,
• 5:55:22
  Speaker 1: she would get it into a single sentence or die.
• 5:55:26
  Speaker 1: Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is
• 5:55:30
  Speaker 1: the last you're going to see of him, till he
• 5:55:32
  Speaker 1: emerges on the other side of the Atlantic with his
• 5:55:34
  Speaker 1: verb in his mouth. We drifted from hermit to hermit
• 5:55:40
  Speaker 1: all the afternoon. It was a most strange menagerie. The
• 5:55:44
  Speaker 1: chief emulation among them seemed to be to see which
• 5:55:48
  Speaker 1: could manage to be the uncleanest and most prosperous with vermin.
• 5:55:53
  Speaker 1: Their manner and attitudes were the last expression of complacent
• 5:55:57
  Speaker 1: self righteousness. It was one anchor rites pride to lie
• 5:56:01
  Speaker 1: naked in the mud and let the insects bite him
• 5:56:03
  Speaker 1: and blister him unmolested. It was another's to lean against
• 5:56:08
  Speaker 1: a rock all day long, conspicuous, to the admiration of
• 5:56:12
  Speaker 1: the throng of pilgrims in prey. It was another's to
• 5:56:16
  Speaker 1: go naked and crawl around on all fours. It was
• 5:56:19
  Speaker 1: anothers to drag about with him year in and year out,
• 5:56:23
  Speaker 1: eighty pounds of iron. It was another's to never lie
• 5:56:27
  Speaker 1: down when he slept, but to stand among the thorn
• 5:56:30
  Speaker 1: bushes and snore when there were pilgrims around. To look
• 5:56:34
  Speaker 1: a woman who had the white hair of age and
• 5:56:37
  Speaker 1: no other apparel, was black from crown to heel, with
• 5:56:41
  Speaker 1: forty seven years of holy abstinence from water. Groups of
• 5:56:45
  Speaker 1: gazing pilgrims stood around all and every of these strange objects,
• 5:56:49
  Speaker 1: lost in reverent wonder, and envious of the fleckless sanctity
• 5:56:54
  Speaker 1: which these pious austerities had won for them from an
• 5:56:58
  Speaker 1: exacting heaven. By and by we went to see one
• 5:57:02
  Speaker 1: of the supremely great ones. He was a mighty celebrity.
• 5:57:06
  Speaker 1: His fame had penetrated all of Christendom. The noble and
• 5:57:10
  Speaker 1: renowned journeyed from the remotest lands on the globe to
• 5:57:13
  Speaker 1: pay him reverence. His stand was in the center of
• 5:57:16
  Speaker 1: the wildest part of the valley, and it took all
• 5:57:19
  Speaker 1: that space to hold his crowds. His stand was a
• 5:57:23
  Speaker 1: pillar sixty feet high with a broad platform on the
• 5:57:26
  Speaker 1: top of it. He was now doing what he had
• 5:57:29
  Speaker 1: been doing every day for twenty years up there, bowing
• 5:57:32
  Speaker 1: his body ceaselessly and rapidly, almost to his feet. It
• 5:57:37
  Speaker 1: was his way of praying. I timed him with a stopwatch,
• 5:57:40
  Speaker 1: and he made one thousand, two hundred forty four revolutions
• 5:57:44
  Speaker 1: in twenty four minutes and forty six seconds. It seemed
• 5:57:48
  Speaker 1: a pity to have all this power going to waste.
• 5:57:51
  Speaker 1: It was one of the most useful motions in mechanics,
• 5:57:53
  Speaker 1: the pedal movement. So I made a note in my
• 5:57:56
  Speaker 1: memorandum book purposing some day to apply a c of
• 5:58:00
  Speaker 1: elastic chords to him and run a sewing machine with it.
• 5:58:04
  Speaker 1: I afterward carried out that scheme and got five years
• 5:58:07
  Speaker 1: good service out of him, in which time he turned
• 5:58:10
  Speaker 1: out upward of eighteen thousand first rate tolen In shirts,
• 5:58:14
  Speaker 1: which was ten a day. I worked him Sundays and
• 5:58:17
  Speaker 1: all he was going Sundays the same as week days,
• 5:58:20
  Speaker 1: and it was no use to waste the power. These
• 5:58:23
  Speaker 1: shirts cost me nothing but just the mere trifle for
• 5:58:26
  Speaker 1: the materials I furnished those myself. It would not have
• 5:58:29
  Speaker 1: been right to make him do that, And they sold
• 5:58:32
  Speaker 1: like smoke to pilgrims at a dollar and a half apiece,
• 5:58:35
  Speaker 1: which was the price of fifty cows or a blooded
• 5:58:37
  Speaker 1: race horse. In Arthurdom. They were regarded as a perfect
• 5:58:41
  Speaker 1: protection against sin, and advertised as such by my nights
• 5:58:44
  Speaker 1: everywhere with the paint pot and stencil plate insomuch that
• 5:58:48
  Speaker 1: there was not a cliff or a bowlder or a
• 5:58:50
  Speaker 1: dead well in England, but you could read it on
• 5:58:52
  Speaker 1: at a mile distance by the only genuine Saint stylite
• 5:58:57
  Speaker 1: patronized by the nobility, patent applied for. There was more
• 5:59:02
  Speaker 1: money in the business than one knew what to do with.
• 5:59:05
  Speaker 1: As it extended, I brought out a line of goods
• 5:59:08
  Speaker 1: suitable for kings and a knobby thing for duchesses in
• 5:59:12
  Speaker 1: that sort, with ruffles down the fore hatch and running
• 5:59:15
  Speaker 1: gear clewed up with a fore stitch to leeward and
• 5:59:18
  Speaker 1: then hauled aft with a back stay, and triced up
• 5:59:21
  Speaker 1: with a half turn and a standing rigging forward of
• 5:59:24
  Speaker 1: the weather gaskets. Yes it was a daisy, But about
• 5:59:30
  Speaker 1: that time I noticed that the motive power had taken
• 5:59:33
  Speaker 1: to standing on one leg, and I found that there
• 5:59:35
  Speaker 1: was something the matter with the other one. So I
• 5:59:38
  Speaker 1: stocked the business and unloaded, taking Sir Boor de Ganai
• 5:59:42
  Speaker 1: and to camp financially along with certain of his friends.
• 5:59:45
  Speaker 1: For the work stopped within a year, and the good
• 5:59:48
  Speaker 1: Saint got him to rest. But he had earned it.
• 5:59:51
  Speaker 1: I can say that for him when I saw him
• 5:59:55
  Speaker 1: that first time. However, his personal condition will not quite
• 5:59:59
  Speaker 1: bear description here. You can read it in the Lives
• 6:00:02
  Speaker 1: of the Saints. All the details concerning the Hermits in
• 6:00:06
  Speaker 1: this chapter are from Lecky, but gratefully modified this book,
• 6:00:10
  Speaker 1: not being a history but only a tale, the majority
• 6:00:13
  Speaker 1: of the historians frank details are too strong for reproduction
• 6:00:16
  Speaker 1: in it. Editor