Divers Imbroglios of King Smoit
Now it that for three nights in the Princess Guenevere was unable to with Jurgen in the Hall of Judgment. So upon one of these Duke Jurgen a with Aribert and Urien, two of Gogyrvan's barons, who had just returned from Pengwaed-Gir, and had to of the Trooping Fairies who that place.
All three were topers, so Jurgen to prepared for anything. Later he sat up in bed, and it was much as he had suspected. The room was haunted, and at the of his were two ghosts: one an impudent-looking phantom, in a of old-fashioned armor, and the other a lady, in the white draperies.
"Good-morning to you both," says Jurgen, "and sorry am I that I cannot I am to see you. Though you are welcome if you can manage to the room quietly." Then, that looked puzzled, Jurgen to explain. "Last year, when I was traveling upon in Westphalia, it was my to a night in the of Neuedesberg, for I not any sleep at all in that place. There was a in who in very large iron and in the night. Then toward he took the of a cat, and upon the of my bed: and there he until daybreak. And as I am of German, I was not able to to him any idea of my of his conduct. Now I trust that as compatriots, or as I might say with more exactness, as compatriots, you will that such is out of all reason."
"Messire," says the male ghost, and he to his full height, "you are of in such a suspicion. I can only it from ignorance."
"For I am sure," put in the lady, "that I always cats, and we had them about the castle."
"And you must my frankness, messire," the male ghost, "but you cannot have moved in company if you are unable to members of the and of the family of Glathion."
"Well, I have who some such confusion," Jurgen. "Still, I the of of you, for I had no idea that I was royalty."
"I was King Smoit," the male phantom, "and this was my wife, Queen Sylvia Tereu."
Jurgen as gracefully, he himself, as was possible in his circumstances. It is not easy to while in bed.
"Often and over again have I of you, King Smoit," says Jurgen. "You were the of Gogyrvan Gawr, and you your wife, and your wife, and your wife, and your third wife too: and you under the title of the Black King, for you were the that in Glathion and the Red Islands."
It to Jurgen that King Smoit embarrassment, but it is hard to be when a is blushing. "Perhaps I was spoken of in some such terms," says Smoit, "for the neighbors were gossips, and I was not lucky in my marriages. And I regret, I regret, to that, in a moment of yet not excitement, I the lady you now behold."
"And I am sure, through no fault of mine," says Sylvia Tereu.
"Certainly, my dear, you with all your might. I only wish that you had been a larger and a woman. But you, messire, can now perceive, I suppose, the of a high King of Glathion, and the queen that he took in, to upon your and howl?"
So then, upon reflection, Jurgen he had had that experience; nor, he added, he any among his friends.
"The is preposterous," on King Smoit, and very he smiled. "We are by other intentions. In fact, we wish to ask of you, as a of the family, your in a affair."
"I would be delighted," Jurgen stated, "to you in any possible way. But why do you call me a of the family?"
"Now, to frankly," says Smoit, with a grin, "I am not any with the Duke of Logreus--"
"Sometimes," says Jurgen, "one to travel incognito. As a king, you ought to that."
--"My is in the of Steinvor. Now you will your Steinvor as, I do not doubt, a old lady. But I Steinvor, the wife of Ludwig, as one of the girls that a king's on."
"Oh, sir," says Jurgen, horrified, "and what is this you are telling me!"
"Merely that I had always an nature," King Smoit, "and that I was a king in those days. And one of the results of my being these was your father, men called Coth the son of Ludwig. But I can you Ludwig had done nothing to it."
"Well, well!" said Jurgen: "all this is very scandalous: and very upsetting, too, it is to have a brand-new upon you at this hour of the morning. Still, it a great while ago: and if Ludwig did not over it, I see no why I should do so. And besides, King Smoit, it may be that you are not telling me the truth."
"If you my confession, my grandson, you have only to look into the next mirror. It is on this account that we have to your slumbers. For to me you a resemblance. You have the family face."
Now Jurgen the of King Smoit of Glathion. "Really," said Jurgen, "of it is very to be told that your is regal. I do not at all know what to say in reply to the compliment, without uncivil. I would for a moment question that you were much in your day, sir, and no very so. None the less--well, my nose, now, from such of it as have afforded, not appear to be a snub-nose."
"Ah, but are deceitful," King Smoit.
"And about the left hand corner," Queen Sylvia Tereu, "I a resemblance."
"Now I may obtuse," said Jurgen, "for I am a little obtuse. It is a with me, a very in early infancy, and I have been able to myself of it. And so I have not any at what you two are aiming."
Replied the of King Smoit: "I will explain. Just sixty-three years ago to-night I my wife in of brutality, as you with taste have mentioned."
Then Jurgen was abashed, and that it did not him, who had so cut off the of his own wife, to assume the of a precisian. "Of course," says Jurgen, more broad-mindedly, "these little family are always to in married life."
"So be it! Though, by the so-and-sos of Ursula's eleven thousand traveling companions, there was a time I would not have such criticism. Ah, well, that time is overpast, and I am a thing that the wind at the wind's will through lands in which but yesterday King Smoit was dreaded. So I let that which has been be."
"Well, that reasonable," said Jurgen, "and to be a is the of grandfathers. Therefore I you, sir, to continue."
"Two years I the Emperor Locrine in his against the Suevetii, an and people who Gozarin peculiarly, by means of little boats. I must tell you, grandson, that was a raid, by a of tidy in a land of and of women. But alack, as the saying is, in our return from Osnach my loved Locrine was by that arch-fiend Duke Corineus of Cornwall: and I, among many others who had the Emperor, paid for our and throat-cuttings a very price. Corineus was not at all broadminded, not what you would call a man of the world. So it was in a that I was incarcerated,--I, Smoit of Glathion, who Enisgarth and Sargyll in open and married the of Camwy! But I you the details. It to say that I was with my quarters. Yet to them as I became, there was but one way. It the of my gaoler, a step which was, I confess, to me distasteful. I was on in life, and had of killing people. Yet, to deliberation, the life of a varlet, of all and with no of compassion, and to of bribery, appeared of no importance."
"I can imagine, grandfather, that you were not in either the nature or the of your gaoler. So you did what was unavoidable."
"Yes, I him, and in an to Glathion, where not long I died. My just then was most annoying, for I was on the point of being married, and she was a girl,--King Tyrnog's daughter, from Craintnor way. She would have been my thirteenth wife. And not a week the I and my own steps, and my neck. It was a end for one who had been a of repute. Upon my word, it me think there might be something, after all, in those old about thirteen being an unlucky number. But what was I saying?--oh, yes! It is also unlucky to be careless about one's murders. You will that for one or two such I am yearly to the of my on its anniversary: such an is enough, and I make no complaint, though of it into the evening. But it that I my with a large cobble-stone on the of June. Now the part, the feature, was that this was to an hour the of the death of my wife."
"And you on such a day!" said Queen Sylvia. "You out of out as a lady abbess, on an you ought to have on your in repentance! But you were a hard man, Smoit, and it was little you your wife at a time when she might look to be remembered, and that is a fact."
"My dear, I admit it was of me. I not possibly say more. At any rate, grandson, I after my that such my on every of June at three in the two places."
"Well, but that was justice," says Jurgen.
"It may have been justice," Smoit admitted: "but my point is that it to be impossible. However, I was by my great-great-grandfather Penpingon Vreichvras ap Mylwald Glasanief. He too had the family face; and in every way me so closely that he me to everyone's entire satisfaction; and with my wife's re-enacted my upon the of its occurrence, June after June."
"Indeed," said Queen Sylvia, "he his than you, my dear. It was a to be by Penpingon Vreichvras ap Mylwald Glasanief, and I shall always him."
"For you must understand, grandson, that the term of King Penpingon Vreichvras ap Mylwald Glasanief's in Purgatory has now out, and he has gone to Heaven. That was for him, I say, so I do not complain. Still, it me with no one to take my place. Angels, as you will understand, are not permitted to murders, in the way of kindness. It might be to a precedent."
"All this," said Jurgen, "seems regrettable, but not explicit. I have a and a to you, sir, with not seven-eighths of a as to what you want of me. Come, put a name to it!"
"You have, as I have said, the family face. You are, in fact, the of Smoit of Glathion. So I you, my grandson, for this one night to my ghost, and with the of Queen Sylvia Tereu to see that at three o'clock the White Turret is to everyone's satisfaction. Otherwise," said Smoit, gloomily, "the will be deplorable."
"But I have had no at haunting," Jurgen confessed. "It is a in which I do not to competence: and I do not know just how one goes about it."
"That is simple, although will be, of course, necessitated, in order to a person into a ghost--"
"The preliminaries, sir, are out of the question: and I must positively to be or or anything of that kind, to my grandfather."
Both Smoit and Sylvia that any such step would be superfluous, since Jurgen's was to be transient. In fact, all Jurgen would have to do would be to the which Sylvia Tereu out to him, with Druidical invocations.
And for a moment Jurgen hesitated. The whole improbable. Still, the of are strong, and it is not often one the to aid, slightly, one's long-dead grandfather: besides, the very invitingly.
"Well," says Jurgen, "I am to taste any drink once." Then Jurgen drank.
The was excellent. Yet the drink not to affect Jurgen, at first. Then he to a light-headed. Next he looked downward, and was to notice there was nobody in his bed. Closer the of a figure, through which the had collapsed. This, he decided, was all that was left of Jurgen. And it gave him a sensation. Jurgen jumped like a horse, and so that he out of bed, and himself about the room.
Now Jurgen the perfectly. He had often had it in his sleep, in he would his at the so that his came up him, and he would pass through the air without any effort. Then it simple, and he would wonder why he of it before. And then he would reflect: "This is an excellent way of around. I will come to this way in the morning, and Lisa how it is. How it will her, to be sure, and how she will think me!" And then Jurgen would wake up, and that somehow he had the of it.
But just now this manner of was easy. So Jurgen around his once or twice, then to the ceiling, for practice. Through inexperience, he the necessary force, and through into the room above, where he himself over the Bishop of Merion. His was not alone, but as of the were asleep, Jurgen nothing unepiscopal. Now Jurgen his grandfather, and on Caliburn, and what must next be done.
"The will take place in the White Turret, as usual. Queen Sylvia will you in the details. You can most of the affair, however, as the Lady of the Lake, who this room to-night, is very with our terrible history."
Then King Smoit that it was high time he his in Cornwall, and he melted into air, with an easy that long practise: and Jurgen Queen Sylvia Tereu.
