The Ogre’s Castle
Between six and nine we made ten miles, which was plenty for a horse carrying triple—man, woman, and armor; then we stopped for a long nooning, under some trees by a limpid brook.Ⓐalteration in the MS
Right-so came by and byⒶemendation a knight riding; andⒶalteration in the MS as he drew near he made dolorous moan, and by the words of it I perceived that he was cursing and swearing; yet nevertheless was I glad of his coming, for that I saw he bareⒶrejected substantive a bulletin-board whereon in letters all of shiningⒶtextual note gold was writ—
“Use Peterson’s Prophylactic Tooth-Brush Ⓐalteration in the MS— All Ⓐemendation the Go.”
I was glad of his coming, for even by this tokenⒶalteration in the MS I knew him for knight of mine. It was Sir Madok de la Montaine, a burlyⒶalteration in the MS great fellow whose chief distinction was that he had come within an ace of sending Sir Launcelot down over his horse-tail once. He was never long in a stranger’s presence without finding some pretext or other to let out that great fact. But there [begin page 227] was another fact of nearly the same size, which he never pushed upon anybody unasked, andⒶalteration in the MS yet never withheld when asked: that was, that the reason he didn’t quite succeed was, that he was interrupted and sent down over horse-tail himself.Ⓐalteration in the MS This innocent vast lubber did not see any particular difference between the two facts. I liked him, for he was earnest in his work, and very valuable. And he was so fine to look at, with his broad mailed shoulders, and the grand leonine set of his plumedⒶalteration in the MS head, and his big shield with its quaint device of a gauntleted hand clutching a prophylactic tooth-brush, with motto, “ Try Noyoudont Ⓔexplanatory note.” This was a tooth-washⒶemendation Ⓐrejected substantive that I was introducing.
He was aweary, he said, and indeed he looked it; but he would not alight. He said heⒶalteration in the MS was after the stove-polish man; and with this he broke out cursing and swearing anew. The bulletin-boarder referred to was Sir Ossaise of Surluse, a brave knight, and of considerable celebrity on account of his having triedⒶalteration in the MS conclusions in a tournament, once, with no less a Mogul than Sir Gaheris himself—although not successfully. HeⒶalteration in the MS was of a light and laughing disposition, and to him nothing in this world was serious. It was for this reason that I had chosen him to work up a stove-polish sentiment. There were no stoves yet, and so there could be nothing serious about stove-polish. All that the agent needed to do was to deftly, and by degrees, prepare the public for the great change, and have them established in predilections toward neatness against the time when the stove should appear upon the stage.
Sir Madok was very bitter, and brake outⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS anew with cursings. He said he had cursed his soul to rags; and yet he would not get down from his horse, neither would he take any rest, or listen to any comfort, until he should have found Sir Ossaise and settled this account. It appeared, by what I could piece together of the unprofane fragments of his statement, that he had chanced upon Sir Ossaise at dawn of the morning, and been told that if he would make a short-cut across the fields and swamps and broken hills and glades, he could head off a company of travelers who would be rare customers for prophylactics and tooth-wash. With characteristic zeal Sir Madok had plunged away at onceⒶalteration in the MS upon this quest, and after three hours of awful crosslotⒶemendation riding had overhauled hisⒶalteration in the MS game. And behold, it was the five patriarchs that had been released from the dungeons the evening before!Ⓐalteration in the MS Poor old creatures, it was all of twenty years since any one of them [begin page 228] had known what it was to be equipped with any remaining snag or remnant of a tooth.
“Blank-blank-blank him,” said Sir Madok, “an I do not stove-polish him an I may find him, leave it to me; for never no knight that hight OssaiseⒶemendation or aught else may do me this disservice and abideⒶrejected substantive on live, an I may find him, the which I have thereuntoⒶalteration in the MS sworn a great oath this day.”
And with these words, and others, he lightly took his spear and gat him henceⒶrejected substantive. In the middle of the afternoon we came upon one of those very patriarchs ourselves, in the edge of a poor village. He was basking in the love of relatives and friends whom he had notⒶalteration in the MS seen for fifty years, and about him and caressing him were also descendants of his own body whom he had never seen at all till now; but to him these were all strangers, his memory was gone, his mind was stagnant. It seemed incredible that a man could outlast half a century shut up in a dark hole like a rat, but here were his old wife and some old comrades to testify to it. They could remember him as he was inⒶalteration in the MS the freshness and strength of his young manhood, when he kissed his child, and delivered it to itsⒶrejected substantive mother’s hands and went away into that long oblivion. The people at the castle could not tell within half a generation the length of time the man had been shut up there for his unrecorded and forgotten offence; but this old wife knew; and so did her old child, who stood there among her married sons and daughters trying to realize a father who had been to herⒶalteration in the MS a name, a thought, a formless image, a tradition, all her life, and now was suddenly concretedⒶrejected substantive into actualⒶalteration in the MS flesh and blood and set before her face.
It was a curious situation; yet it is not on that account that I have made room for it here, but on account of a thing which seemed to me still more curious. To witⒶemendation, that this dreadful matter brought from these down-trodden people no outburst of rage against their oppressors. They had been heritors and subjects of cruelty and outrageⒶalteration in the MS so long that nothing could have startled them but a kindness. Yes, here was a curious revelation indeed, of the depth to which thisⒶalteration in the MS people had been sunk in slavery. Their entire being was reduced to a monotonous dead level of patience, resignation, dumb uncomplaining acceptance of whatever might befal them in this life. Their very imagination was dead. When youⒶalteration in the MS can say that of a man, he has struck bottom, I reckon; there is no lower deep for him.
I rather wished I had gone some other road. This was not the sort of experience for a statesman to encounter who was planning out a [begin page 229] peaceful revolution in his mind. For it could not help bringing up the ungetaroundable fact that, all gentle cant and philosophising to the contrary notwithstanding, no people in thisⒶrejected substantive world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goodyⒶalteration in the MS talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed, must begin in blood, whatever may answerⒶalteration in the MS afterward. If history teaches anything, it teaches that. What this folk needed, then, was a Reign of Terror and a guillotine, and I was the wrong man for them.
Two days later, toward noon, Sandy began to show signs of excitement and feverish expectancy. She said we were approaching the ogre’s castle. I was surprised into an uncomfortable shock. The object of our quest had gradually dropped out of my mind; this sudden resurrection of it made it seem quite a real and startling thing, for a moment, and roused up in me a smart interest. Sandy’s excitement increased every moment; and so did mine, for that sort of thing is catching. My heart got to thumping. You can’t reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns. Presently, when Sandy slid from the horse, motioned me to stop, and went creeping stealthily, withⒶalteration in the MS her head bent nearly to her knees, toward a row of bushes that bordered a declivity,Ⓐalteration in the MS the thumpings grew stronger and quicker. And they kept it up while she was gaining her ambush and getting her glimpse over the declivity; and also while I was creeping to her side on my knees. Her eyes were burning, now, as she pointed with her finger, and said in a panting whisper—
“The castle! the castle! Lo,Ⓐalteration in the MS where it looms!”
What a welcomeⒶalteration in the MS disappointment I experienced!Ⓐalteration in the MS I said—
“Castle? It is nothing but a pig-styⒶemendation; a pig-sty with a wattled fence around it.”
She looked surprisedⒶalteration in the MS, and distressed. The animation faded out of her face; and during many moments she was lost in thought, and silent. Then—Ⓐalteration in the MS
“It was not enchantedⒶalteration in the MS aforetime,” she said, in a musing fashion, as if to herself. “And how strange is this marvel, and how awful—that to the one perception it is enchanted, and dight in a base and shameful aspect; yet to the perception of the other it is not enchanted, hath suffered no change, but stands fairⒶrejected substantive Ⓐtextual note and stately still, girt with its moat and waving its banners in the blue airⒶalteration in the MS from its towers. And God shield us, how it pricks the heart to see again these gracious captives, and the [begin page 230] sorrow deepened in their sweet faces! We have tarried long, and are to blame.”
I saw my cue. The castle was enchanted to me, not to her. It would be wasted time to try to argueⒶalteration in the MS her out of her delusion, it couldn’t be done: I must just humor it. So I said—
“This is a common case—the enchanting of a thing to one eye and leaving it in its proper form to another. You have heard of it before, Sandy, though you haven’t happened to experience it. But no harm is done. In fact it is lucky the way it is. If these ladies were hogs to everybody and to themselves,Ⓐalteration in the MS it would be necessary to break the enchantment, and that might be impossible if one failed to find out the particular process of the enchantment. And hazardous, too; for in attempting a disenchantment without the true key, you are liable to err, and turn your hogs into dogs, and the dogs into cats, the cats into rats, and so-onⒶemendation, and end by reducing your materials to nothing, finally, or to an odorless gas which you can’t follow—which of course amounts to the same thing. But here, by good luck, no one’s eyes but mine are under the enchantment, and so it is of no consequence to dissolve it. These ladies remain ladies to you, and to themselves, and to everybody else; and at the same time they will suffer in no way from my delusion, for when I know thatⒶalteration in the MS an ostensible hog is a lady, that is enough for me: I know how to treat her.”
“Thanks, oh sweet my lord, thou talkest like an angel. And I know that thou wilt deliver them, for that thou art minded to great deeds and art as strong a knight of your hands and as brave to will and to do, as any that is on live.”
“I will not leave a princess in the sty, Sandy. Are those three yonder that to my disordered eyesⒶemendation are starveling swineherds—”
“The ogres? Are they changed also? It is most wonderful. Now am I fearful; for how canst thou strike with sure aim when five of their nine cubits of stature are to thee invisible? Ah, go warily, fair sir; this is a mightier emprise than I wend.”
“You be easy, Sandy. All I need to know is, how much of an ogre is invisible; then I know how to locate his vitals. Don’t you be afraid, I will make short work of these bunco-steerers. Stay where you are.”
I left Sandy kneelingⒶalteration in the MS there, corpse-faced but plucky and hopeful, and rode down to the pig-sty, and struck up a trade with the swineherdsⒶemendation. I won their gratitude by buying out all the hogs atⒶalteration in the MS the lump [begin page 231]
“Thou beast without bowels of mercy, why leave me my child, yet rob me of the wherewithal to feed it?”
How curious. The same thing had happened in the Wales of my dayⒺexplanatory note, under this same oldⒶalteration in the MS EstablishedⒶalteration in the MS Church, which was supposed by manyⒶalteration in the MS to have changed its nature when it changed its disguiseⒶemendation.
I sent the three men away, and then opened the sty-gate andⒶalteration in the MS beckoned Sandy to come—which she did; and not leisurely, but with the rush of a prairie-fire. And whenⒶalteration in the MS I saw her fling herself upon those [begin page 232] hogs, with tears of joy running down her cheeks,Ⓐalteration in the MS and strain them to her heart, and kiss them, and caress them, and call them reverently by grand princely names, I was ashamed of her, ashamed of the human race.Ⓐemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS
We had to drive those hogs homeⒶalteration in the MS—ten miles; and no ladies were ever moreⒶalteration in the MS fickle-minded or contrary. They would stay in no road, no path; they broke out through the brush on all sides, and flowed away in all directions, over rocks, and hills, and the roughest places they could find. And they must not be struck, or roughly accosted; Sandy could not bear to see them treated in ways unbecoming their rank. The troublesomest old sow of the lot had to be called myⒶemendation lady, and yourⒶemendation Highness, like the rest. It is annoying and difficult to scour
We got the hogs home just at dark—most of them. The PrincessⒶemendation Nerovens de MorganoreⒶalteration in the MS was missing, and two of her ladies in waiting: namely, Miss Angela Bohun, and the DemoiselleⒶalteration in the MS Elaine Courtemains, the former of these two being a young black sow with a white star in her forehead, and the latter a brown one with thin legs, and a slight limp in the forward shankⒶalteration in the MS on the starboard side—a couple of the tryingest blistersⒶalteration in the MS to drive, that I ever saw. Also among the missing were several mere baronesses—and I wanted them to stay missing; but no, all that sausage-meat hadⒶalteration in the MS to be found; so, servants were sent out with torches to scour the woods and hills to that end.
Of course the whole drove was housed in the house, and great guns!—well, I never saw anything like it. Nor ever heard anything like it.Ⓐalteration in the MS And never smelt anything like it. It was like an insurrection in a gasometer.
race.] followed by a passage which was revised in the MS then canceled in a later stage. See emendations for the text of the deleted passage, in which the position of each of the following revisions is indicated by a superior number.
2. another] interlined above canceled ‘a’.
3. be] written over wiped-out ‘g’.
4. course.] followed by canceled ‘Any’.
5. Roman-Catholic-Presbyterian] interlined.
6. baby] written over wiped-out ‘child’.
7. fiction of speech,] interlined above canceled ‘word of mouth,’.
armor.] followed by a passage which was revised in the MS then canceled in a later stage. See emendations for the text of the deleted passage, in which the position of each of the following revisions is indicated by a superior number.
2. astraddle of her back] interlined.
3. her] interlined above canceled ‘my’.
train.] followed by a passage which was revised in the MS then canceled in a later stage. See emendations for the text of the deleted passage in which the position of each of the following revisions is indicated by a superior number.
2. ears] written over what appears to be wiped-out ‘as’.