Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-03-05
and seemed to forget all else in hi
profound contamination

and seemed to forget all else in his
profound contemplation.
Nillon looked at him for moment
in silence and then went out of the
room and descended the steps. opened
the little door. and passed into the
garden. The summer sun was dying
in a splendid riot of color among the
rose trees Its last rays. falling on the
face of the god Pan, Illuminated his
fantastic features and seemed to lend
warm air was rich with the blended
odors of a thousand blossoms and
from the palace. faint and far off.
came tho sound of joyous voices. 1t
was almost the moment when the rose
garden was to be thrown open to the
royal guests.
Niilon pulled u rose from @ bush by
his hand and gazed into Its crimson
heart as il he sought to read there the
secret which all flowers hold but which
no flower has ever yet betrayed to the
longing eyes of poet. He leaned
against the statue of Pan and unused
pensiveiy.
The petals of my reign are falling
from me full of life. full of color to
the end. Shall win tiiis Wonderful!
woman? Am 1 mad to hope 1t? II
lose, 1t is a short shrift and n long
rope at the end of Il dazzling Dream"
He shivered as he thought and cast
the rose he held away from him.
How cold the June abr seems, and
these roses smell of graves lie
paused a little till his hopes took heart
again. But If | win, how will 1T be,
l wonder, to marry my hearts desire,
to grow old sedately. to live again with
the children on my knee. little Fran
co.'s here more honest than his father,
little Katherine there less conely
than her mother!"
He flung out his hands as If he We're
dism!ssins the phantoms of his fancy.
Run away, my dear dream children
to your playground of shadows where
You belong, for your father may be
hanged tomorrow, and he fights for
love and life tonight
Nillon's reflections We're nuttered by
q sudden blare of music, and a gaudy
fellow In a pursuiyant's coat made his
appearance on the top of the terrace
and ratified blast after blast from his
hrazen trumpet. In obedience to the
long looked for signal, n many colored
crowd of revelers gushed from the
palace and flowed like a glowing wave
OF merry-malSing down tho steps and
into the walks and alleys of the rose
garden. All the strange figures tina.
. !. Ss,Aifii fancy couIu suggest lSlpeQ
and danced and shouted in a rapture
of mirth-satyrs and follies clowns
and devils wheeled idly by, waving
torches. clashing cymbals or screams
ing at the top of their voices, while Sc
dater spirits masked and mulTled In
mantles of sonber hue, moved through
the tumultuous throng and found their
tsbated pleasure in mystification and
intrigues.
Nillon had a mask in his girdle He
put 1T on and pushing into the press al
lowed himself to drift hither and thith-
er With the eddying currents of pleas
ure. His fantastic Imagination took
fire from The strang shapes and sounds
about him. The sense of being in a
dream, which had never deserted him
from the first moment of his awakened
consciousness in the rose garden, chung
closely about him on this night. and
the jocrnd figures around him fitted
by rs unreal as the pllantoms of
noontiae sleep.
Suddenly his attention was arrested
by the sound of voice that seemed
familiar to him. A man habited like a
pilgrim from the Holy Land, in long
hood and slbardine OF gray, and with
the pilgrims cockleshell on his shout
der, had met another maslSer, habited
Hike himself The pair We're exchang-
Ing snlutations, in a speech that the
speakers might we'll assume to be UNI
known to amy person in the royal gar
den. The speech, however. jingled very
Familiarity on Nillon's ear, for the man
was talifing in the amazing jargon
which the worshipful company OF
cockleshcls had devised for the better
furtherance of their thievish purposes,
and 1t appealed to Nillon as intimately
as a song that is learned In childhood.
The first pilgrim questioned the other.
What do you carry In your scrip"
And the second answered.:
II carry cockleshell."
The first pilgrim questioned again.
What do YOU carry in Your hand?"
And the second responded:
"A foot of steel"
Yet again the first speaker queried:
viii you drink the kings health?"
And the answer came decisively:
In Il tlagon of Burgundy"
Whereat the two pilgrims saluted
and parted and went their several ways
and were swallowed up in the motley
masquerade.
Villons curiosity was piqued to the
quick.
How in heavens NAME" he asked
himself, does it come to pass that
people speaking the thieves lingo of
the Court of Miracles find themselves
az 1east IN the rose garden of King
LOUISE
He set himself to try and track down
one or the other of the mysterious pill
grims, but neither of them was to be
found. His wanderings brought him
back to the fair space at the foot of
the terrace protected by the image of
the god PAN. The place was deserted;
the jewellers had drifted elsewhere.
lutte lay ON the marble seat. Villon
s,.,n al 1,t, al toll
strument was touching it carelessly,