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CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD The Red Rogue of Dawna One
morning, while they were all standing in
the courtyard waiting for their horses, as they were about to go for a
ride, a
courier came galloping swiftly up to the palace and cried: "Does any one know where
Prince
Marvel can be found?" "I am Prince Marvel,"
replied
the young knight, stepping out from among the others. "Then have I reached my
journey's end!" said the courier, whose horse was nearly exhausted from
long and hard riding. "The Lady
Seseley is in great danger, and sends for you to come and rescue her. The great Baron Merd, her father, has been
killed and his castle destroyed, and all his people are either captives
or have
been slain outright." "And who has done this
evil
thing?" asked Prince Marvel, looking very stern and grave. "The Red Rogue of Dawna,"
answered the messenger. "He
quarreled with the Baron Merd and sent his savage hordes to tear down
his
castle and slay him. I myself barely
escaped with my life, and the Lady Seseley had but time to say, before
she was
carried off, that if I could find Prince Marvel he would surely rescue
her." "And so I will!" declared
the prince, "if she be still alive." "Who is this Lady
Seseley?" asked Nerle, who had come to his master's side. "She is my first friend,
to
whom I owe my very existence. It is her
image,
together with those of her two friends, which is graven on my shield,"
answered Prince Marvel, thoughtfully. "And what will you do?"
inquired the esquire. "I must go to her at
once." When they heard of his
mission all
the party insisted on accompanying him. Even
the dainty High Ki could not be deterred by any thoughts of dangers
they might encounter; and after some discussion Prince Marvel allowed
them to
join him. So Wul-Takim sharpened
his big
broadsword, and Nerle carefully prepared his master's horse, so that
before an
hour had passed they were galloping toward the province of the Red
Rogue of
Dawna. Prince Marvel knew little
concerning
this personage, but Nerle had much to tell of him.
The Red Rogue had once been page to a wise scholar
and magician, who lived in a fine old castle in Dawna and ruled over a
large
territory. The boy was very small and
weak — smaller even than the average dwarf — and his master did not
think it worth
while to watch him. But one evening,
while the magician was standing upon the top of the highest tower of
his
castle, the boy gave him a push from behind, and he met death on the
sharp
rocks below. Then the boy took his master's book of magic and found a
recipe to
make one grow. He made the mixture and
swallowed it, and straightway began to grow big and tall.
This greatly delighted him, until he found he
was getting much bigger than the average man and rapidly becoming a
giant. So he sought for a way to arrest
the action
of the magical draft; but before he could find it he had grown to
enormous proportions,
and was bigger than the biggest giant. There
was nothing in the book of magic to make one grow smaller, so he
was obliged to remain as he was — the largest man in the Enchanted
Island. All this had happened in
a single
night. The morning after his master's
murder the page announced himself lord of the castle; and, seeing his
enormous
size, none dared deny his right to rule. On
account of his bushy hair, which was fiery red in color, and the
bushy red beard that covered his face when he became older, people came
to call
him the Red One. And after his evil
deeds and quarrelsome temper had made him infamous throughout the
island,
people began to call him the Red Rogue of Dawna. He had gathered around
him a number
of savage barbarians, as wicked and quarrelsome as himself, and so none
dared
to interfere with him, or even to meet him, if it were possible to
avoid it. This same Red Rogue it
was who had
drawn the good Baron Merd into a quarrel and afterward slain the old
knight and
his followers, destroyed his castle, and carried his little daughter
Seseley
and her girl friends, Berna and Helda, into captivity, shutting them up
in his own
gloomy castle. The Red Rogue thought he
had done a
very clever thing, and had no fear of the consequences until one of his
men
came running up to the castle to announce that Prince Marvel and his
companions
were approaching to rescue the Lady Seseley. "How many of them are
there?" demanded the Red Rogue. "There are eight,
altogether," answered the man, "but two of them are girls." "And they expect to force
me to
give up my captives?" asked the Red One, laughing with a noise like the
roar of a waterfall. "Why, I shall
make prisoners of every one of them!" The man looked at his
master
fearfully, and replied: "This Prince Marvel is
very
famous, and all people speak of his bravery and power.
It was he who conquered King Terribus of
Spor, and that mighty ruler is now his friend, and is one of the eight
who
approach." The Red Rogue stopped
laughing, for
the fame of Spor's terrible king had long ago reached him.
And he reflected that any one who could conquer
the army of giants and dwarfs and Gray Men that served Terribus must
surely be
one to be regarded seriously. Moreover —
and this was a secret — the Red Rogue had never been able to gain the
strength
to correspond with his gigantic size, but had ever remained as weak as
when he
was a puny boy. So he was accustomed to
rely on his cunning and on the terror his very presence usually excited
to triumph
over his enemies. And he began to be
afraid of this prince. "You say two of the party
are
girls?" he asked. "Yes," said the man,
"but also among them are King Terribus himself, and the renowned
Wul-Takim, formerly king of thieves, who was conquered by the prince,
although
accounted a hard fighter, and is now his devoted servant.
And there are two old men who are just alike
and have a very fierce look about them. They
are said to come from the hidden Kingdom of Twi." By this time the Red
Rogue was thoroughly
frightened, but he did not yet despair of defeating his enemies. He knew better than to attempt to oppose
Prince Marvel by force, but he still hoped to conquer him by trickery
and
deceit. Among the wonderful
things that the
Red Rogue's former master, the wise scholar and magician, had made were
two
large enchanted mirrors, which were set on each side of the great
hallway of
the castle. Heavy curtains were drawn
over the surfaces of these mirrors, because they both possessed a
dreadful
magical power. For whenever any one
looked into one of them his reflection was instantly caught and
imprisoned in the
mirror, and his body at the same time became invisible to all earthly
eyes,
only the mirror retaining his form. While considering a way
to prevent the
prince from freeing the Lady Seseley, the Red Rogue happened to think
of these
mirrors, which had never yet been used. So
he went stealthily into the great hall and drew aside the covering
from one of the mirrors. He did not dare
look into the mirror himself, but hurried away to another room, and
then sent a
page up a back stairway to summon the Lady Seseley and her two maids
into his
presence. The girls at once obeyed,
for they
greatly feared the Red Rogue; and of course they descended the front
stairway
and walked through the great hall. At
once the large mirror that had been exposed to view caught the eye of
Seseley,
and she paused to regard her reflection in the glass.
Her two companions did likewise, and
instantly all three girls became invisible, while the mirror held their
reflections fast in its magic surface. The Red Rogue was
watching them
through a crack in the door, and seeing the girls disappear he gave a
joyful
laugh and exclaimed: "Now let Prince Marvel
find
them if he can!" The three girls began to
wander
aimlessly through the castle; for not only were they invisible to
others, but
also to themselves and to one another, and they knew not what to do nor
which
way to turn. |