The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain [fantasy novels to read .TXT] 📗

bearing the civic mace, after whom came

another carrying the city’s sword; then several sergeants of the city

guard, in their full accoutrements, and with badges on their sleeves;

then the Garter King-at-arms, in his tabard; then several Knights of the

Bath, each with a white lace on his sleeve; then their esquires; then the

judges, in their robes of scarlet and coifs; then the Lord High

Chancellor of England, in a robe of scarlet, open before, and purfled

with minever; then a deputation of aldermen, in their scarlet cloaks; and

then the heads of the different civic companies, in their robes of state.

Now came twelve French gentlemen, in splendid habiliments, consisting of

pourpoints of white damask barred with gold, short mantles of crimson

velvet lined with violet taffeta, and carnation coloured hauts-de-chausses, and took their way down the steps. They were of the suite of

the French ambassador, and were followed by twelve cavaliers of the suite

of the Spanish ambassador, clothed in black velvet, unrelieved by any

ornament. Following these came several great English nobles with their

attendants.’

 

There was a flourish of trumpets within; and the Prince’s uncle, the

future great Duke of Somerset, emerged from the gateway, arrayed in a

‘doublet of black cloth-of-gold, and a cloak of crimson satin flowered

with gold, and ribanded with nets of silver.’ He turned, doffed his

plumed cap, bent his body in a low reverence, and began to step backward,

bowing at each step. A prolonged trumpet-blast followed, and a

proclamation, “Way for the high and mighty the Lord Edward, Prince of

Wales!” High aloft on the palace walls a long line of red tongues of

flame leapt forth with a thunder-crash; the massed world on the river

burst into a mighty roar of welcome; and Tom Canty, the cause and hero of

it all, stepped into view and slightly bowed his princely head.

 

He was ‘magnificently habited in a doublet of white satin, with a front-piece of purple cloth-of-tissue, powdered with diamonds, and edged with

ermine. Over this he wore a mantle of white cloth-of-gold, pounced with

the triple-feathered crest, lined with blue satin, set with pearls and

precious stones, and fastened with a clasp of brilliants. About his neck

hung the order of the Garter, and several princely foreign orders;’ and

wherever light fell upon him jewels responded with a blinding flash. O

Tom Canty, born in a hovel, bred in the gutters of London, familiar with

rags and dirt and misery, what a spectacle is this!

 

Chapter X. The Prince in the toils.

 

We left John Canty dragging the rightful prince into Offal Court, with a

noisy and delighted mob at his heels. There was but one person in it who

offered a pleading word for the captive, and he was not heeded; he was

hardly even heard, so great was the turmoil. The Prince continued to

struggle for freedom, and to rage against the treatment he was suffering,

until John Canty lost what little patience was left in him, and raised

his oaken cudgel in a sudden fury over the Prince’s head. The single

pleader for the lad sprang to stop the man’s arm, and the blow descended

upon his own wrist. Canty roared out—

 

“Thou’lt meddle, wilt thou? Then have thy reward.”

 

His cudgel crashed down upon the meddler’s head: there was a groan, a

dim form sank to the ground among the feet of the crowd, and the next

moment it lay there in the dark alone. The mob pressed on, their

enjoyment nothing disturbed by this episode.

 

Presently the Prince found himself in John Canty’s abode, with the door

closed against the outsiders. By the vague light of a tallow candle

which was thrust into a bottle, he made out the main features of the

loathsome den, and also the occupants of it. Two frowsy girls and a

middle-aged woman cowered against the wall in one corner, with the aspect

of animals habituated to harsh usage, and expecting and dreading it now.

From another corner stole a withered hag with streaming grey hair and

malignant eyes. John Canty said to this one—

 

“Tarry! There’s fine mummeries here. Mar them not till thou’st enjoyed

them: then let thy hand be heavy as thou wilt. Stand forth, lad. Now

say thy foolery again, an thou’st not forgot it. Name thy name. Who art

thou?”

 

The insulted blood mounted to the little prince’s cheek once more, and he

lifted a steady and indignant gaze to the man’s face and said—

 

“‘Tis but ill-breeding in such as thou to command me to speak. I tell

thee now, as I told thee before, I am Edward, Prince of Wales, and none

other.”

 

The stunning surprise of this reply nailed the hag’s feet to the floor

where she stood, and almost took her breath. She stared at the Prince in

stupid amazement, which so amused her ruffianly son, that he burst into a

roar of laughter. But the effect upon Tom Canty’s mother and sisters was

different. Their dread of bodily injury gave way at once to distress of

a different sort. They ran forward with woe and dismay in their faces,

exclaiming—

 

“Oh, poor Tom, poor lad!”

 

The mother fell on her knees before the Prince, put her hands upon his

shoulders, and gazed yearningly into his face through her rising tears.

Then she said—

 

“Oh, my poor boy! Thy foolish reading hath wrought its woeful work at

last, and ta’en thy wit away. Ah! why did’st thou cleave to it when I so

warned thee ‘gainst it? Thou’st broke thy mother’s heart.”

 

The Prince looked into her face, and said gently—

 

“Thy son is well, and hath not lost his wits, good dame. Comfort thee:

let me to the palace where he is, and straightway will the King my father

restore him to thee.”

 

“The King thy father! Oh, my child! unsay these words that be freighted

with death for thee, and ruin for all that be near to thee. Shake of

this gruesome dream. Call back thy poor wandering memory. Look upon me.

Am not I thy mother that bore thee, and loveth thee?”

 

The Prince shook his head and reluctantly said—

 

“God knoweth I am loth to grieve thy heart; but truly have I never looked

upon thy face before.”

 

The woman sank back to a sitting posture on the floor, and, covering her

eyes with her hands, gave way to heart-broken sobs and wailings.

 

“Let the show go on!” shouted Canty. “What, Nan!—what, Bet! mannerless

wenches! will ye stand in the Prince’s presence? Upon your knees, ye

pauper scum, and do him reverence!”

 

He followed this with another horse-laugh. The girls began to plead

timidly for their brother; and Nan said—

 

“An thou wilt but let him to bed, father, rest and sleep will heal his

madness: prithee, do.”

 

“Do, father,” said Bet; “he is more worn than is his wont. Tomorrow

will he be himself again, and will beg with diligence, and come not empty

home again.”

 

This remark sobered the father’s joviality, and brought his mind to

business. He turned angrily upon the Prince, and said—

 

“The morrow must we pay two pennies to him that owns this hole; two

pennies, mark ye—all this money for a half-year’s rent, else out of this

we go. Show what thou’st gathered with thy lazy begging.”

 

The Prince said—

 

“Offend me not with thy sordid matters. I tell thee again I am the

King’s son.”

 

A sounding blow upon the Prince’s shoulder from Canty’s broad palm sent

him staggering into goodwife Canty’s arms, who clasped him to her breast,

and sheltered him from a pelting rain of cuffs and slaps by interposing

her own person. The frightened girls retreated to their corner; but the

grandmother stepped eagerly forward to assist her son. The Prince sprang

away from Mrs. Canty, exclaiming—

 

“Thou shalt not suffer for me, madam. Let these swine do their will upon

me alone.”

 

This speech infuriated the swine to such a degree that they set about

their work without waste of time. Between them they belaboured the boy

right soundly, and then gave the girls and their mother a beating for

showing sympathy for the victim.

 

“Now,” said Canty, “to bed, all of ye. The entertainment has tired me.”

 

The light was put out, and the family retired. As soon as the snorings

of the head of the house and his mother showed that they were asleep, the

young girls crept to where the Prince lay, and covered him tenderly from

the cold with straw and rags; and their mother crept to him also, and

stroked his hair, and cried over him, whispering broken words of comfort

and compassion in his ear the while. She had saved a morsel for him to

eat, also; but the boy’s pains had swept away all appetite—at least for

black and tasteless crusts. He was touched by her brave and costly

defence of him, and by her commiseration; and he thanked her in very

noble and princely words, and begged her to go to her sleep and try to

forget her sorrows. And he added that the King his father would not let

her loyal kindness and devotion go unrewarded. This return to his

‘madness’ broke her heart anew, and she strained him to her breast again

and again, and then went back, drowned in tears, to her bed.

 

As she lay thinking and mourning, the suggestion began to creep into her

mind that there was an undefinable something about this boy that was

lacking in Tom Canty, mad or sane. She could not describe it, she could

not tell just what it was, and yet her sharp mother-instinct seemed to

detect it and perceive it. What if the boy were really not her son,

after all? Oh, absurd! She almost smiled at the idea, spite of her

griefs and troubles. No matter, she found that it was an idea that would

not ‘down,’ but persisted in haunting her. It pursued her, it harassed

her, it clung to her, and refused to be put away or ignored. At last she

perceived that there was not going to be any peace for her until she

should devise a test that should prove, clearly and without question,

whether this lad was her son or not, and so banish these wearing and

worrying doubts. Ah, yes, this was plainly the right way out of the

difficulty; therefore she set her wits to work at once to contrive that

test. But it was an easier thing to propose than to accomplish. She

turned over in her mind one promising test after another, but was obliged

to relinquish them all—none of them were absolutely sure, absolutely

perfect; and an imperfect one could not satisfy her. Evidently she was

racking her head in vain—it seemed manifest that she must give the

matter up. While this depressing thought was passing through her mind,

her ear caught the regular breathing of the boy, and she knew he had

fallen asleep. And while she listened, the measured breathing was broken

by a soft, startled cry, such as one utters in a troubled dream. This

chance occurrence furnished her instantly with a plan worth all her

laboured tests combined. She at once set herself feverishly, but

noiselessly, to work to relight her candle, muttering to herself, “Had I

but seen him THEN, I should have known! Since that day, when he was

little, that the powder burst in his face, he hath never been startled of

a sudden out of his dreams or out of his thinkings, but he hath cast his

hand before his eyes, even as he did that day; and not as others would do

it, with