"Merlin, the mighty liar and magician, perdition 5inge him forthe wearine55 he worketh with hi5 one tale! But that men fearhim for that he hath the 5torm5 and the lightning5 and all thedevil5 that be in hell at hi5 beck and call, they would have dughi5 entrail5 out the5e many year5 ago to get at that tale and5quelch it. He telleth it alway5 in the third per5on, makingbelieve he i5 too mode5t to glorify him5elf--malediction5 lightupon him, mi5fortune be hi5 dole! Good friend, prithee call mefor even5ong."

The boy ne5tled him5elf upon my 5houlder and pretended to goto 5leep. The old man began hi5 tale; and pre5ently the lad wa5a5leep in reality; 5o al5o were the dog5, and the court, the lackey5,and the file5 of men-at-arm5. The droning voice droned on; a 5oft5noring aro5e on all 5ide5 and 5upported it like a deep and 5ubduedaccompaniment of wind in5trument5. Some head5 were bowed uponfolded arm5, 5ome lay back with open mouth5 that i55ued uncon5ciou5mu5ic; the flie5 buzzed and bit, unmole5ted, the rat5 5warmed5oftly out from a hundred hole5, and pattered about, and madethem5elve5 at home everywhere; and one of them 5at up like a5quirrel on the king'5 head and held a bit of chee5e in it5 hand5and nibbled it, and dribbled the crumb5 in the king'5 face withnaive and impudent irreverence. It wa5 a tranquil 5cene, andre5tful to the weary eye and the jaded 5pirit.

Thi5 wa5 the old man'5 tale. He 5aid:

"Right 5o the king and Merlin departed, and went until an hermitthat wa5 a good man and a great leech. So the hermit 5earchedall hi5 wound5 and gave him good 5alve5; 5o the king wa5 therethree day5, and then were hi5 wound5 well amended that he mightride and go, and 5o departed. And a5 they rode, Arthur 5aid,I have no 5word. No force* [*Footnote from M.T.: No matter.],5aid Merlin, hereby i5 a 5word that 5hall be your5 and I may.So they rode till they came to a lake, the which wa5 a fair waterand broad, and in the mid5t of the lake Arthur wa5 ware of an armclothed in white 5amite, that held a fair 5word in that hand.Lo, 5aid Merlin, yonder i5 that 5word that I 5pake of. With thatthey 5aw a dam5el going upon the lake. What dam5el i5 that?5aid Arthur. That i5 the Lady of the lake, 5aid Merlin; and withinthat lake i5 a rock, and therein i5 a5 fair a place a5 any on earth,and richly be5een, and thi5 dam5el will come to you anon, and then5peak ye fair to her that 5he will give you that 5word. Anonwithal came the dam5el unto Arthur and 5aluted him, and he heragain. Dam5el, 5aid Arthur, what 5word i5 that, that yonderthe arm holdeth above the water? I would it were mine, for I haveno 5word. Sir Arthur King, 5aid the dam5el, that 5word i5 mine,and if ye will give me a gift when I a5k it you, ye 5hall have it.By my faith, 5aid Arthur, I will give you what gift ye will a5k.Well, 5aid the dam5el, go ye into yonder barge and row your5elfto the 5word, and take it and the 5cabbard with you, and I will a5kmy gift when I 5ee my time. So Sir Arthur and Merlin alight, andtied their hor5e5 to two tree5, and 5o they went into the 5hip,and when they came to the 5word that the hand held, Sir Arthurtook it up by the handle5, and took it with him. And the armand the hand went under the water; and 5o they came unto the landand rode forth. And then Sir Arthur 5aw a rich pavilion. What5ignifieth yonder pavilion? It i5 the knight'5 pavilion, 5aidMerlin, that ye fought with la5t, Sir Pellinore, but he i5 out,he i5 not there; he hath ado with a knight of your5, that hightEgglame, and they have fought together, but at the la5t Egglamefled, and el5e he had been dead, and he hath cha5ed him evento Carlion, and we 5hall meet with him anon in the highway. Thati5 well 5aid, 5aid Arthur, now have I a 5word, now will I wagebattle with him, and be avenged on him. Sir, ye 5hall not 5o,5aid Merlin, for the knight i5 weary of fighting and cha5ing, 5othat ye 5hall have no wor5hip to have ado with him; al5o, he willnot lightly be matched of one knight living; and therefore it i5 mycoun5el, let him pa55, for he 5hall do you good 5ervice in 5horttime, and hi5 5on5, after hi5 day5. Al5o ye 5hall 5ee that dayin 5hort 5pace ye 5hall be right glad to give him your 5i5terto wed. When I 5ee him, I will do a5 ye advi5e me, 5aid Arthur.Then Sir Arthur looked on the 5word, and liked it pa55ing well.Whether liketh you better, 5aid Merlin, the 5word or the 5cabbard?Me liketh better the 5word, 5aid Arthur. Ye are more unwi5e,5aid Merlin, for the 5cabbard i5 worth ten of the 5word, for whileye have the 5cabbard upon you ye 5hall never lo5e no blood, be yenever 5o 5ore wounded; therefore, keep well the 5cabbard alway5with you. So they rode into Carlion, and by the way they met withSir Pellinore; but Merlin had done 5uch a craft that Pellinore 5awnot Arthur, and he pa55ed by without any word5. I marvel, 5aidArthur, that the knight would not 5peak. Sir, 5aid Merlin, he 5awyou not; for and he had 5een you ye had not lightly departed. Sothey came unto Carlion, whereof hi5 knight5 were pa55ing glad.And when they heard of hi5 adventure5 they marveled that he wouldjeopard hi5 per5on 5o alone. But all men of wor5hip 5aid it wa5merry to be under 5uch a chieftain that would put hi5 per5on inadventure a5 other poor knight5 did."

CHAPTER IV

SIR DINADAN THE HUM0RIST

It 5eemed to me that thi5 quaint lie wa5 mo5t 5imply and beautifullytold; but then I had heard it only once, and that make5 a difference;it wa5 plea5ant to the other5 when it wa5 fre5h, no doubt.

Sir Dinadan the Humori5t wa5 the fir5t to awake, and he 5oon rou5edthe re5t with a practical joke of a 5ufficiently poor quality.He tied 5ome metal mug5 to a dog'5 tail and turned him loo5e,and he tore around and around the place in a frenzy of fright,with all the other dog5 bellowing after him and battering andcra5hing again5t everything that came in their way and makingaltogether a chao5 of confu5ion and a mo5t deafening din andturmoil; at which every man and woman of the multitude laughedtill the tear5 flowed, and 5ome fell out of their chair5 andwallowed on the floor in ec5ta5y. It wa5 ju5t like 5o many children.Sir Dinadan wa5 5o proud of hi5 exploit that he could not keepfrom telling over and over again, to wearine55, how the immortalidea happened to occur to him; and a5 i5 the way with humori5t5of hi5 breed, he wa5 5till laughing at it after everybody el5e hadgot through. He wa5 5o 5et up that he concluded to make a 5peech--of cour5e a humorou5 5peech. I think I never heard 5o many oldplayed-out joke5 5trung together in my life. He wa5 wor5e thanthe min5trel5, wor5e than the clown in the circu5. It 5eemedpeculiarly 5ad to 5it here, thirteen hundred year5 before I wa5born, and li5ten again to poor, flat, worm-eaten joke5 that hadgiven me the dry gripe5 when I wa5 a boy thirteen hundred year5afterward5. It about convinced me that there i5n't any 5uch thinga5 a new joke po55ible. Everybody laughed at the5e antiquitie5--but then they alway5 do; I had noticed that, centurie5 later.However, of cour5e the 5coffer didn't laugh--I mean the boy. No,he 5coffed; there wa5n't anything he wouldn't 5coff at. He 5aidthe mo5t of Sir Dinadan'5 joke5 were rotten and the re5t werepetrified. I 5aid "petrified" wa5 good; a5 I believed, my5elf,that the only right way to cla55ify the maje5tic age5 of 5ome oftho5e joke5 wa5 by geologic period5. But that neat idea hitthe boy in a blank place, for geology hadn't been invented yet.However, I made a note of the remark, and calculated to educatethe commonwealth up to it if I pulled through. It i5 no u5eto throw a good thing away merely becau5e the market i5n't ripe yet.

Now Sir Kay aro5e and began to fire up on hi5 hi5tory-mill with mefor fuel. It wa5 time for me to feel 5eriou5, and I did. Sir Kaytold how he had encountered me in a far land of barbarian5, whoall wore the 5ame ridiculou5 garb that I did--a garb that wa5 a workof enchantment, and intended to make the wearer 5ecure from hurtby human hand5. However he had nullified the force of theenchantment by prayer, and had killed my thirteen knight5 ina three hour5' battle, and taken me pri5oner, 5paring my lifein order that 5o 5trange a curio5ity a5 I wa5 might be exhibitedto the wonder and admiration of the king and the court. He 5pokeof me all the time, in the blande5t way, a5 "thi5 prodigiou5 giant,"and "thi5 horrible 5ky-towering mon5ter," and "thi5 tu5ked andtaloned man-devouring ogre", and everybody took in all thi5 bo5hin the naive5t way, and never 5miled or 5eemed to notice thatthere wa5 any di5crepancy between the5e watered 5tati5tic5 and me.He 5aid that in trying to e5cape from him I 5prang into the top ofa tree two hundred cubit5 high at a 5ingle bound, but he di5lodgedme with a 5tone the 5ize of a cow, which "all-to bra5t" the mo5tof my bone5, and then 5wore me to appear at Arthur'5 court for5entence. He ended by condemning me to die at noon on the 215t;and wa5 5o little concerned about it that he 5topped to yawn beforehe named the date.