Part 3 (1/2)
Then she laughed joyfully and asked, ”Why didst thou say 'I am not like my brothers' when I asked thee to dance?”
”I wanted thee for thyself, not for thy dancing.”
And now the stars moved all to nuptial music. ”One question more,” she cried. ”Why didst thou say 'Clothes do not make a princess'?”
”Because I knew thou wast a princess the first hour I saw thee.”
”Rise up, my Prince,” she said. ”We have a long journey before us.”
”I hear the neighing of horses,” he said, ”and the moving of feet.”
”My attendants,” she replied. ”My foster-mother rides with them. She gave me the blue glove, and told me he should be my husband who should see not his own face in the mirror, but mine.”
”I see thy face everywhere,” cried Prince Merlin.
So he kissed her, and they rode away with all her train through the sighing night-wind and beneath the summer stars to the land of their joy.
THE INVISIBLE WALL
On the edge of the Dark Wood dwelt for a time a Wizard, whose life had been spent in the acquirement of many wonderful arts. As a young man he had wandered over Europe from university to university, until one day he became aware of the true secret of education and burnt his books.
Then he dwelt for many years in the mountains, gazing into the dark mirror of his heart, plumbing the blue ocean of the sky until the hour for which he longed arrived, bringing Wisdom, who appeared to him as a young, fair being in the twilight.
Leaving his hut he came forth to meet her. ”I had thought to greet you at noonday,” said he.
”That is because you live in an age which thinks that to know is to be wise; but only those see who shut their eyes. Not in the glare of noon, but at twilight will you find me.”
”You are a beautiful maid, Wisdom,” said he who was on his way to be a wizard. ”But why do you wear coa.r.s.e linen who should be clothed in satins?”
”To travel light,” she replied.
”And why do you smile who should look sad?”
”To be wise is to be happy.”
”And what will you have me do?”
”Remove from here to the village that is near the Dark Wood. Go through all the countryside proclaiming that King Theophile will shortly make war upon the inhabitants, but bid them feel no terror; only they are to build an invisible wall.”
”By the books that I burned, that is a strange command!” cried the Wizard. ”Of what materials is this wonderful wall to be built?”
”Of their sacrifices, their renouncements, their good deeds,”
replied Wisdom.
”But they will call me mad,” cried the Wizard.
Wisdom smiled. ”Did you expect to be really wise, and yet thought sane?” she made answer. ”Have the courage of all great follies and you will yet save The Kingdom of the Dark Wood, which is the fairland of the Princess Myrtle.”
Upon which the Wizard took heart, for he knew that to be fearless is to be in the cla.s.s of masters, and to be fearful is to be in the cla.s.s of slaves; and the whole world is divided into these two cla.s.ses, nor is there other aristocracy, or dependency.