The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0143/01437.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 22KB | 469 lines

$Unique_ID{bob01437}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Prince And The Pauper, The
Chapter XV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Twain, Mark}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{tom
day
upon
thou
king
thy
hath
himself
woman
majesty}
$Date{1909}
$Log{}
Title:       Prince And The Pauper, The
Author:      Twain, Mark
Date:        1909

Chapter XV

Tom As King

     The next day the foreign ambassadors came, with their gorgeous trains;
and Tom, throned in awful state, received them.  The splendors of the scene
delighted his eye and fired his imagination at first, but the audience was
long and dreary, and so were most of the addresses - wherefore, what began
as a pleasure, grew into weariness and homesickness by and by.  Tom said
the words which Hertford put into his mouth from time to time, and tried
hard to acquit himself satisfactorily, but he was too new to such things,
and too ill at ease to accomplish more than a tolerable success.  He looked
sufficiently like a king, but he was ill able to feel like one.  He was
cordially glad when the ceremony was ended.

     The larger part of his day was "wasted" - as he termed it, in his own
mind - in labors pertaining to his royal office.  Even the two hours
devoted to certain princely pastimes and recreations were rather a burden
to him than otherwise, they were so fettered by restrictions and
ceremonious observances.  However, he had a private hour with his whipping-
boy which he counted clear gain, since he got both entertainment and
needful information out of it.

     The third day of Tom Canty's kingship came and went much as the others
had done, but there was a lifting of his cloud in one way - he felt less
uncomfortable than at first; he was getting a little used to his
circumstances and surroundings; his chains still galled, but not all the
time; he found that the presence and homage of the great afflicted and
embarrassed him less and less sharply with every hour that drifted over his
head.

     But for one single dread, he could have seen the fourth day approach
without serious distress - the dining in public; it was to begin that day.
There were greater matters in the programme - for on that day he would have
to preside at a Council which would take his views and commands concerning
the policy to be pursued toward various foreign nations scattered far and
near over the great globe; on that day, too, Hertford would be formally
chosen to the grand office of Lord Protector; other things of note were
appointed for that fourth day also, but to Tom they were all insignificant
compared with the ordeal of dining all by himself with a multitude of
curious eyes fastened upon him and a multitude of mouths whispering
comments upon his performance, - and upon his mistakes, if he should be so
unlucky as to make any.

     Still, nothing could stop that fourth day, and so it came.  It found
poor Tom low-spirited and absent-minded, and this mood continued; he could
not shake it off.  The ordinary duties of the morning dragged upon his
hands, and wearied him.  Once more he felt the sense of captivity heavy
upon him.

     Late in the forenoon he was in a large audience chamber, conversing
with the Earl of Hertford and duly awaiting the striking of the hour
appointed for a visit of ceremony from a considerable number of great
officials and courtiers.

     After a little while Tom, who had wandered to a window and become
interested in the life and movement of the great highway beyond the palace
gates - and not idly interested, but longing with all his heart to take
part in person in its stir and freedom - saw the van of a hooting and
shouting mob of disorderly men, women, and children of the lowest and
poorest degree approaching from up the road.

     "I would I knew what 'tis about!" he exclaimed, with all a boy's
curiosity in such happenings.

     "Thou art the king!" solemnly responded the earl, with a reverence.
"Have I your grace's leave to act?"

     "Oh, blithely, yes!  Oh, gladly, yes!" exclaimed Tom, excitedly,
adding to himself with a lively sense of satisfaction, "In truth, being a
king is not all dreariness - it hath its compensations and conveniences."

     The earl called a page, and sent him to the captain of the guard with
the order:

     "Let the mob be halted, and inquiry made concerning the occasion of
its movement.  By the king's command!"

     A few seconds later a long rank of the royal guards, cased in flashing
steel, filed out at the gates and formed across the highway in front of the
multitude.  A messenger returned, to report that the crowd were following a
man, a woman, and a young girl to execution for crimes committed against
the peace and dignity of the realm.

     Death - and a violent death - for these poor unfortunates!  The
thought wrung Tom's heartstrings.  The spirit of compassion took control of
him, to the exclusion of all other considerations; he never thought of the
offended laws, or of the grief or loss which these three criminals had
inflicted upon their victims, he could think of nothing but the scaffold
and the grisly fate hanging over the heads of the condemned.  His concern
made him even forget, for the moment, that he was but the false shadow of a
king, not the substance; and before he knew it he had blurted out the
command:

     "Bring them here!"

     Then he blushed scarlet, and a sort of apology sprung to his lips; but
observing that his order had wrought no sort of surprise in the earl or the
waiting page, he suppressed the words he was about to utter.  The page, in
the most matter-of-course way, made a profound obeisance and retired
backward out of the room to deliver the command.  Tom experienced a glow of
pride and a renewed sense of the compensating advantages of the kingly
office.  He said to himself, "Truly it is like what I used to feel when I
read the old priest's tales, and did imagine mine own self a prince, giving
law and command to all, saying, 'Do this, do that,' while none durst offer
let or hindrance to my will."

     Now the doors swung open; one high-sounding title after another was
announced, the personages owning them followed, and the place was quickly
half filled with noble folk and finery.  But Tom was hardly conscious of
the presence of these people, so wrought up was he and so intensely
absorbed in that other and more interesting matter.  He seated himself,
absently, in his chair of state, and turned his eyes upon the door with
manifestations of impatient expectancy; seeing which, the company forbore
to trouble him, and fell to chatting a mixture of public business and court
gossip one with another.

     In a little while the measured tread of military men was heard
approaching, and the culprits entered the presence in charge of an under-
sheriff and escorted by a detail of the king's guard.  The civil officer
knelt before Tom, then stood aside; the three doomed persons knelt also,
and remained so; the guard took position behind Tom's chair.  Tom scanned
the prisoners curiously.  Something about the dress or appearance of the
man had stirred a vague memory in him.  "Methinks I have seen this man ere
now......but the when or the where fail me" - such was Tom's thought.  Just
then the man glanced quickly up, and quickly dropped his face again, not
being able to endure the awful port of sovereignty; but the one full
glimpse of the face, which Tom got, was sufficient.  He said to himself:
"Now is the matter clear; this is the stranger that plucked Giles Witt out
of the Thames, and saved his life that windy, bitter first day of the New
Year - a brave, good deed - pity he hath been doing baser ones and got
himself in this sad case......I have not forgot the day, neither the hour;
by reason that an hour after, upon the stroke of eleven, I did get a hiding
by the hand of Gammer Canty which was of so goodly and admired severity
that all that went before or followed after it were but fondlings and
caresses by comparison."

     Tom now ordered that the woman and the girl be removed from the
presence for a li