THE TALE OF THE LOST LAND
CHAPTER I
CAMELOT
"Camelot-Camelot," said I to myself. "I don't seem to remember hearing of it before. Name of the
asylum, likely."
It was a soft, reposeful summer
landscape, as lovely as a
dream, and as
lonesome as Sunday. The air was full of the smell of flowers, and the buzzing of insects, and the twittering of birds, and there were no people, no wagons, there was no
stir of life, nothing going on. The road was mainly a winding path with hoof-prints in it, and now and then a
faint trace of wheels on either side in the grass-wheels that
apparently had a tire as
broad as one's hand.
Presently, a fair slip of a girl, about ten years old, with a
cataract of golden hair streaming down over her shoulders, came along. Around her head, she wore a hoop of flame-red poppies. It was as sweet an
outfit as ever I saw, what there was of it. She walked indolently along, with a mind at rest, its peace reflected in her
innocent face. The circus man paid no attention to her; he didn't even seem to see her. And she-she was no more startled at his
fantastic make-up than if she was used to his like every day of her life. She was going by as indifferently as she might have gone by a
couple of cows, but when she happened to
notice me, then there was a change! Up went her hands, and she was turned to stone; her mouth dropped open, her eyes stared wide and timorously, she was the picture of
astonished curiosity touched with fear. And there she stood gazing, in a sort of stupefied
fascination, till we turned a
corner of the wood and were lost to her view. That she should be startled at me instead of at the other man was too many for me; I couldn't make head or tail of it. And that she should seem to consider me a
spectacle, and totally
overlook her own merits in that respect, was another
puzzling thing, and a
display of
magnanimity, too, that was surprising in one so young. There was food for thought here. I moved along as one in a
dream.
As we approached the town, signs of life began to appear. At intervals, we passed a
wretched cabin, with a thatched roof, and about it small fields and garden patches in an
indifferent state of
cultivation. There were people, too;
brawny men, with long,
coarse, uncombed hair that hung down over their faces and made them look like animals. They and the women, as a rule, wore a
coarse tow-linen robe that came well below the knee, and a
rude sort of sandal and many wore an
iron collar. All of these people stared at me, talked about me, ran into the huts, and fetched out their families to
gape at me, but nobody ever noticed that other fellow, except to make him
humble salutation and get no
response for their pains.
In the town were some
substantial windowless houses of stone scattered among a
wilderness of thatched cabins; the streets were mere
crooked alleys, and unpaved; troops of dogs and nude children played in the sun and made life and noise; hogs roamed and rooted contentedly about, and one of them lay in a reeking
wallow in the middle of the main
thoroughfare and suckled her family. Presently there was a distant
blare of military music; it came nearer, still nearer, and soon a noble
cavalcade wound into view,
glorious with plumed helmets and flashing mail and flaunting banners and rich doublets and horse-cloths and
gilded spearheads; and through the muck and
swine, and
joyous dogs, and
shabby huts, it took its
gallant way, and in its
wake we followed.
Followed through one winding
alley and then another,-and climbing, always climbing-till at last we gained the breezy
height where the huge castle stood. There was an
exchange of bugle blasts; then a
parley from the walls, where men-at-arms, in
hauberk and morion, marched back and forth with halberd at shoulder under flapping banners with the
rude figure of a dragon displayed upon them; and then the great gates were flung open, the drawbridge was lowered, and the head of the
cavalcade swept forward under the frowning arches; and we, following, soon found ourselves in a great paved
court, with towers and turrets stretching up into the blue air on all the four sides; and all about us the dismount was going on, and much greeting and
ceremony, and running to and fro, and a gay
display of moving and intermingling colors, and an altogether
pleasant stir and noise and
confusion.