Robert was running as fast as he could, but when he turned the corner that ought to have brought him within sight of the architect"s nightmare--the ornamental iron-work on the top of the house--he opened his eyes so wide that he had to drop into a walk; for you cannot run with your eyes wide open. Then suddenly he stopped short, for there was no house to be seen. The front garden railings were gone too, and where the house had stood--Robert rubbed his eyes and looked again. Yes, the others _had_ wished,--there was no doubt about it,--and they must have wished that they lived in a castle; for there the castle stood, black and stately, and very tall and broad, with battlements and lancet windows, and eight great towers; and, where the garden and the orchard had been, there were white things dotted like mushrooms. Robert walked slowly on, and as he got nearer he saw that these were tents, and men in armor were walking about among the tents--crowds and crowds of them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: There the castle stood, black and stately]
"Oh!" said Robert fervently. "They _have_! They"ve wished for a castle, and it"s being besieged! It"s just like that Sand-fairy! I wish we"d never seen the beastly thing!"
At the little window above the great gateway, across the moat that now lay where the garden had been but half an hour ago, someone was waving something pale dust-colored. Robert thought it was one of Cyril"s handkerchiefs. They had never been white since the day when he had upset the bottle of "Combined Toning and Fixing Solution" into the drawer where they were. Robert waved back, and immediately felt that he had been unwise. For this signal had been seen by the besieging force, and two men in steel-caps were coming towards him. They had high brown boots on their long legs, and they came towards him with such great strides that Robert remembered the shortness of his own legs and did not run away. He knew it would be useless to himself, and he feared it might be irritating to the foe. So he stood still--and the two men seemed quite pleased with him.
"By my halidom," said one, "a brave varlet this!"
Robert felt pleased at being _called_ brave, and somehow it made him _feel_ brave. He pa.s.sed over the "varlet." It was the way people talked in historical romances for the young, he knew, and it was evidently not meant for rudeness. He only hoped he would be able to understand what they said to him. He had not been always able quite to follow the conversations in the historical romances for the young.
"His garb is strange," said the other. "Some outlandish treachery, belike."
"Say, lad, what brings thee hither?"
Robert knew this meant, "Now then, youngster, what are you up to here, eh?"--so he said--
"If you please, I want to go home."
"Go, then!" said the man in the longest boots; "none hindereth, and nought lets us to follow. Zooks!" he added in a cautious undertone, "I mis...o...b.. me but he beareth tidings to the besieged."
"Where dwellest thou, young knave?" inquired the man with the largest steel-cap.
"Over there," said Robert; and directly he had said it he knew he ought to have said "Yonder!"
"Ha--sayest so?" rejoined the longest boots. "Come hither, boy. This is matter for our leader."
And to the leader Robert was dragged forthwith--by the reluctant ear.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Robert was dragged forthwith--by the reluctant ear]
The leader was the most glorious creature Robert had ever seen. He was exactly like the pictures Robert had so often admired in the historical romances. He had armor, and a helmet, and a horse, and a crest, and feathers, and a shield and a lance and a sword. His armor and his weapons were all, I am almost sure, of quite different periods. The shield was thirteenth century, while the sword was of the pattern used in the Peninsular War. The cuira.s.s was of the time of Charles I., and the helmet dated from the Second Crusade. The arms on the shield were very grand--three red running lions on a blue ground. The tents were of the latest brand approved of by our modern War Office, and the whole appearance of camp, army, and leader might have been a shock to some. But Robert was dumb with admiration, and it all seemed to him perfectly correct, because he knew no more of heraldry or archaeology than the gifted artists who usually drew the pictures for the historical romances. The scene was indeed "exactly like a picture." He admired it all so much that he felt braver than ever.
"Come hither, lad," said the glorious leader, when the men in Cromwellian steel-caps had said a few low eager words. And he took off his helmet, because he could not see properly with it on. He had a kind face, and long fair hair. "Have no fear; thou shalt take no scathe," he said.
Robert was glad of that. He wondered what "scathe" was, and if it was nastier than the medicine which he had to take sometimes.
"Unfold thy tale without alarm," said the leader kindly. "Whence comest thou, and what is thine intent?"
"My what?" said Robert.
"What seekest thou to accomplish? What is thine errand, that thou wanderest here alone among these rough men-at-arms? Poor child, thy mother"s heart aches for thee e"en now, I"ll warrant me."
"I don"t think so," said Robert; "you see, she doesn"t know I"m out."
[Ill.u.s.tration: He wiped away a manly tear]
The leader wiped away a manly tear, exactly as a leader in a historical romance would have done, and said--
"Fear not to speak the truth, my child; thou hast nought to fear from Wulfric de Talbot."
Robert had a wild feeling that this glorious leader of the besieging party--being himself part of a wish--would be able to understand better than Martha, or the gipsies, or the policeman in Rochester, or the clergyman of yesterday, the true tale of the wishes and the Psammead.
The only difficulty was that he knew he could never remember enough "quothas" and "beshrew me"s," and things like that, to make his talk sound like the talk of a boy in a historical romance. However, he began boldly enough, with a sentence straight out of _Ralph de Courcy; or, The Boy Crusader_. He said--
"Grammercy for thy courtesy, fair sir knight. The fact is, it"s like this--and I hope you"re not in a hurry, because the story"s rather a breather. Father and mother are away, and when we went down playing in the sand-pits we found a Psammead."
"I cry thee mercy! A Sammyadd?" said the knight.
"Yes, a sort of--of fairy, or enchanter--yes, that"s it, an enchanter; and he said we could have a wish every day, and we wished first to be beautiful."
"Thy wish was scarce granted," muttered one of the men-at-arms, looking at Robert, who went on as if he had not heard, though he thought the remark very rude indeed.
"And then we wished for money--treasure, you know; but we couldn"t spend it. And yesterday we wished for wings, and we got them, and we had a ripping time to begin with"--
"Thy speech is strange and uncouth," said Sir Wulfric de Talbot. "Repeat thy words--what hadst thou?"
"A ripping--I mean a jolly--no--we were contented with our lot--that"s what I mean; only, after we got into an awful fix."
"What is a fix? A fray, mayhap?"
"No--not a fray. A--a--a tight place."
"A dungeon? Alas for thy youthful fettered limbs!" said the knight, with polite sympathy.
"It wasn"t a dungeon. We just--just encountered undeserved misfortunes,"
Robert explained, "and to-day we are punished by not being allowed to go out. That"s where I live,"--he pointed to the castle. "The others are in there, and they"re not allowed to go out. It"s all the Psammead"s--I mean the enchanter"s fault. I wish we"d never seen him."
"He is an enchanter of might?"
"Oh yes--of might and main. Rather!"
"And thou deemest that it is the spells of the enchanter whom thou hast angered that have lent strength to the besieging party," said the gallant leader; "but know thou that Wulfric de Talbot needs no enchanter"s aid to lead his followers to victory."
"No, I"m sure you don"t," said Robert, with hasty courtesy; "of course not--you wouldn"t, you know. But, all the same, it"s partly his fault, but we"re most to blame. You couldn"t have done anything if it hadn"t been for us."
"How now, bold boy?" asked Sir Wulfric haughtily. "Thy speech is dark, and eke scarce courteous. Unravel me this riddle!"
"Oh," said Robert desperately, "of course you don"t know it, but you"re not _real_ at all. You"re only here because the others must have been idiots enough to wish for a castle--and when the sun sets you"ll just vanish away, and it"ll be all right."
The captain and the men-at-arms exchanged glances at first pitying, and then sterner, as the longest-booted man said, "Beware, my n.o.ble lord; the urchin doth but feign madness to escape from our clutches. Shall we not bind him?"
"I"m no more mad than you are," said Robert angrily, "perhaps not so much--Only, I was an idiot to think you"d understand anything. Let me go--I haven"t done anything to you."
"Whither?" asked the knight, who seemed to have believed all the enchanter story till it came to his own share in it. "Whither wouldst thou wend?"
"Home, of course." Robert pointed to the castle.
"To carry news of succor? Nay!"