The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-02-06

Ta gA1
as villon found himself
locked cautiously around him,
sanGing in his astonished glance
~eils of the palace, the moEs-
!rece, the petal-strewn steps,
tsrn tower with It's ominous
., and the wealth OF wonderful
d. II bout him, making the air O
aa.a1ise of exquisite colors and
odors. He shut his eyes for
u,conds and then opened them
&c If expecting to find that the
y,aS vanished shadow-like into
Enable air, but castle and ter
.nwrer and roses remained as they
.on very plain to the poets as
Ped senses. Tiptoeing cautiously
no grass, he reached a marble
s.sirh stood beneath a bower Of
n onJ seemed to be protected by a
,arminal statue of the god Pan,
mad been given as q present to
Nv an eastern prince, who had
T. from Athens. Pressing his
20 his forehead, Villon tried to re-
,ba events of the evening before,
1. for some fantastic eason seemed
! lang centuries behind him. He
remember dimly an evil looking
with straw upon the floor and
,s mnon the walls; he could recall
s,,,len faces Of unfriendly gaolers.
NJ these gaolers, he remembered,
+h-,Ist a mug of wine into his hand
node him drink surlily, and he had
l.. craedily, as was his way when
drink was offered to him, and
I,.inr drank oblivion sudden and
bplete.
1T why had he gone to q dungeon?
senses ached as he asked himself
and faint pictures began to piece
Tsplyes together out Of the episodes
9the dead night. He saw again the
kalid walls of the Fircone tavern
in his mind jumped back to his
Gtation of the ballad and his fierce
Use of Indignation at the humiliation
Paris, girdled by a wall Of hostile
Errundians and governed by an i'm
kent king. Then came the vision of
| angels visit and a prayer that had
Ire devil than angel in 1T, and then
me a quarrel, and fight in the dark
Is shattered by the flaming torches
the watch and Thibaut's huge body
Inc on the ground, a huddled heap of
lining armor. He remembered the
bbon that had been flung to him from
4 gallery and thrust his hand into the
|som of his vest of cloth and gold
found the token there, its glossi-
|ss of white and gold soiled by it's
hch of the floor. Then came his cap
Ire. his contumelious march through
.e gloomy streets, his taste of an un-
lown prison, his taste of poppied wine,
hi then sleep.
las lying on a soft bed instead of on a
bout him was not the darkness OF the
and in a second the place where
: lay filed with a soft light and
lowed that to Villon which astonished
in as much as If the gates of para
Ise had parted before him and shown
the shining lines of the hosts Of
He remembered that he was
Ing in a stately bed, nestled in snowy
beneath a coverlet of crimson
X. He remembered that the bed
pod in a gorgeous room, heavy with
agnlticent tapestry and rooted with a
rived and painted ceiling that gilt
ed with gilt and stairs. Curtains of
rple velvet admitted the daylight
windows on which rich armor-
bearings glowed in eplored glass.
# and delicate odor impregnated the
.nospnere and tender strains of deli
e music stole wooingly on the senses
N the strings of a distant lutte.
Then there came. SO kindly memory
'ured him, an obseQuious man in
OK, with no less obsequious attend
and singular ceremonies of bath
perfu'ning and hair dressing and a
ting on Of sweet linen and furred
ment and Jewels, and all the cere-
mails for the TRANSPORTATION of a.
'sed robin into the likeness of a,
5hty lord. On the top of all this
@aratlon rose the sun Of a splendid
3Quet. served in ware Of gold and
;er and waited on by the same OBJ
nous figure in black and the same
pages. Then followed the
to walk into the air, the pro-
SION through quiet corridors on to
cool gray terrace and the final in
lL4eht in the scented solitude of the
9 garden. Villon was head-sick and
,N-Slck with the effort to put so
On OF the past together. He felt as
Il some strange titanic way he had
a world and was suddenly called
III by providence to piece the frag-
MS together and make all whole
Last night I was a red-handed out
: S4Eeplhg on the straw OF q dun
H. Today l wake in "a royal bed and
,"llets call me monSeigneur. There
put three ways of explaining this
sular situation. Either I am drunk
! an mad or 1 am dreaming. If am
-!h' snail never distinguish Bor-
vine from Burgundy--a melan-
~ dilemma. Let's test it,"
ne marble table stood but a little
; rom him. The golden vessels that
u upon it had served him at that
.alhS meal which was still an i'm
s'|'e excellent memory, and he re-
t'oefed how his attendants had told
= ma one held wine of Bordeaux
., one "ine Of Burgundy. He rose and
- 1eFoSs the soft grass to the table
u .!ted one of the golden fagons
smiled at it fearfully and
Nome of it's contents carefully
golden goblet. Lifting it
;;rousiy to his lips, he tasted it jul
. 10y. A ripe, warm, royal flavor
him.
~ heaVen!' he cried; mo nobler
ever rippled from Bursundian
N IIalned the cup and set 1t down
mother from the companion YES
20 repeat the ceremony OF sniff