Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-02-05

alone he looked cautiously around him,
compromising in his astonished glance
the gray walls of the palace, the moss
grown terrace, the petal strewn steps,
the old stern tower with its ominous
sun dial, and the wealth of wonderful
roses all about him, making the air a
very paradise of exquisite colors and
exquisite odors. He shut his eyes for
few seconds and then opened them
sharply as if expecting to find that the
scene had vanished shadow-like into
thin lmpalpable air, but castle and ter
race, tower and roses remained as they
had been, very plain to the poets as
tonished senses. Tiptoeing cautiously
across the grass, he reached marble
seat which stood beneath a bower of
roses and seemed to be protected by a
great terminal statue of the god Pan,
which had been given as present to
Louis by an eastern prince who had
carried 1T from Athens. Pressing his
hand to his forehead. Nillon tried to re-
call the events of the evening before,
which for some fantastic reason seemed
to lie long centuries behind him. He
could remember dimly AN evil looking
cell with straw upon the floor and
chains upon the walls; he could recall
the sulien faces of unfliendly gaolers.
One of these gaolers, he remembered,
had thrust mug of wine into his hand
and babe him drink surlily, and he had
drunk greedily, as was his way when
free drink was offered to him, and
drinking, drank oblivion sudden and
complete.
But why had he gone to a dungeon?
Ills senses ached as he asked himself
this, and faint pictures began to piece
themselves together out of the episodes
of the dead night. He saw again the
f,f tha
and in his mind jumped back to his
recitation of the ballad and his fierce
sense of Indignation at the humiliation
of Paris, girdled by n wall of hostile
Burgundians and governed by an i'm
potent king Then came the vision of
an angels visit and q prayer that had
more devil than angel In 1T, and then
came quarrel. and fight in the dark
ness shattered by the flaming torches
of the watch and Thibaut's huge body
lying on The ground, a huddled heap of
shining armor. He remembered the
ribbon that had been flung to him from
the gallery and thrust his hand into the
bosom of his vest of cloth and gold
and found the token there, its glossi
ness of white and gold soiled by its
touch of the floor. Then came his cap
ture, his contumelious march through
the gloomy Streets his; taste of an UNI
and then sleep.
fills next consciousness was that he
was lying on a soft bed instead of on a
truss of straw, and that the darkness
about him WAS not the darkness of the
cell. Suddenly some one drew cur
tain and in a second the place where
he lay filled With Il soft light and
showed that to Villon which astonished
him as much as If the gates of para
disc had parted before him and shown
him the shining lines of the hosts of
heaven. He remembered that he was
lying In a stately bed, nestled In snowy
linen, beneath a coverlet of crimson
silk. He remembered that the bed
stood In a gorgeous room, heavy with
magnificent tapestry and rooted with a
carved and painted ceiling that gilt
tered with gilt and stars. Curtains of
purple velvet admitted the daylight
through windows on which rich armor-
lal bearings glowed in colored glass.
Soft and delicate odor impregnated the
atmosphere and tender strains of deli
cate music stole wooingly on the senses
from the strings OF a distant lutte.
Then there came, SO kindly memory
assured him, AN obsequious man In
black, with no less obsequious attend
ants, and singular ceremonies of bath
ing. perfuming and hair dressing and a
putting on of sweet linen and furred
raimcnt and jewels, and all the cere-
monials for the TRANSPORTATION of q
ragged robin into the likeness of a
mighty lord. ON the top of all this
preparation rose the sun of a splendid
banquet, served i'm ware of gold and
silver and waited on by the same OBJ
sequious figure in black and the same
respectful pages. Then followed the
summons to walk into the air, the pro-
cesson through quiet corridors on to
the cool gray terrace and the final i'm
stallment in the scented solitude of the
rose garden. Nllon was head-sick and
heart-sick with the effort to put so
much of the past together. He felt as
If in some strange titanic way he had
ruined u world and was suddenly called
upon by Providence to piece the frag-
ments together and make all whole
again. He tapped his forehead Won
deringly.
Last night l was red handed out
law, sleeping on the straw of dun
geon. To-day / wake in a royal bed and
my varlets call me monscigneur. There
are but three ways of explaining this
singular situation. Either | am drunk
OF am mad or am dreaming. Ii am
drunk, l shall never distinguish Bor-
deauX wine from Burgundy-a melan-
choly dilemma. Let's test it,"
The marble table stood but little
way from him. The golden vessels that
stood upon it had served him at that
morning meal which WAS still an inn
mediate excellent memory. and he re-
membered how his attendants had told
him that one held Wine of Bordeaux