He is well enough for the provinces--one-night stands and that sort of thing,you know --but dear me,HE oughtn't to set up for an expert --anyway not where there's a real artist.Now look here,Clarence,I am going to stand your friend,right along,and in return you must be mine.I want you to do me a favor.I want you to get word to the king that I am a magician myself --and the Supreme Grand High-yu-Muckamuck and head of the tribe,at that;and I want him to be made to understand that I am just quietly arranging a little calamity here that will make the fur fly in these realms if Sir Kay's project is carried out and any harm comes to me.Will you get that to the king for me?"The poor boy was in such a state that he could hardly answer me.It was pitiful to see a creature so terrified,so unnerved,so demoralized.
But he promised everything;and on my side he made me promise over and over again that I would remain his friend,and never turn against him or cast any enchantments upon him.Then he worked his way out,staying himself with his hand along the wall,like a sick person.
Presently this thought occurred to me:how heedless I have been!When the boy gets calm,he will wonder why a great magician like me should have begged a boy like him to help me get out of this place;he will put this and that together,and will see that I am a humbug.
I worried over that heedless blunder for an hour,and called myself a great many hard names,meantime.But finally it occurred to me all of a sudden that these animals didn't reason;that THEY never put this and that together;that all their talk showed that they didn't know a discrepancy when they saw it.I was at rest,then.
But as soon as one is at rest,in this world,off he goes on something else to worry about.It occurred to me that I had made another blunder:
I had sent the boy off to alarm his betters with a threat --I intending to invent a calamity at my leisure;now the people who are the readiest and eagerest and willingest to swallow miracles are the very ones who are hungriest to see you perform them;suppose I should be called on for a sample?Suppose I should be asked to name my calamity?Yes,I had made a blunder;I ought to have invented my calamity first."What shall I do?
what can I say,to gain a little time?"I was in trouble again;in the deepest kind of trouble:..."There's a footstep!--they're coming.If I had only just a moment to think....Good,I've got it.I'm all right."You see,it was the eclipse.It came into my mind in the nick of time,how Columbus,or Cortez,or one of those people,played an eclipse as a saving trump once,on some savages,and I saw my chance.I could play it myself,now,and it wouldn't be any plagiarism,either,because I should get it in nearly a thousand years ahead of those parties.
Clarence came in,subdued,distressed,and said:
"I hasted the message to our liege the king,and straightway he had me to his presence.He was frighted even to the marrow,and was minded to give order for your instant enlargement,and that you be clothed in fine raiment and lodged as befitted one so great;but then came Merlin and spoiled all;for he persuaded the king that you are mad,and know not whereof you speak;and said your threat is but foolishness and idle vaporing.
They disputed long,but in the end,Merlin,scoffing,said,'Wherefore hath he not NAMED his brave calamity?Verily it is because he cannot.'
This thrust did in a most sudden sort close the king's mouth,and he could offer naught to turn the argument;and so,reluctant,and full loth to do you the discourtesy,he yet prayeth you to consider his perplexed case,as noting how the matter stands,and name the calamity --if so be you have determined the nature of it and the time of its coming.Oh,prithee delay not;to delay at such a time were to double and treble the perils that already compass thee about.Oh,be thou wise --name the calamity!"I allowed silence to accumulate while I got my impressiveness together,and then said:
"How long have I been shut up in this hole?""Ye were shut up when yesterday was well spent It is 9of the morning now.""No!Then I have slept well,sure enough.Nine in the morning now!And yet it is the very complexion of midnight,to a shade.This is the 20th,then?""The 20th --yes."
"And I am to be burned alive to-morrow."The boy shuddered.
"At what hour?"
"At high noon."
"Now then,I will tell you what to say."I paused,and stood over that cowering lad a whole minute in awful silence;then,in a voice deep,measured,charged with doom,I began,and rose by dramatically graded stages to my colossal climax,which I delivered in as sublime and noble a way as ever I did such a thing in my life:"Go back and tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole world in the dead blackness of midnight;I will blot out the sun,and he shall never shine again;the fruits of the earth shall rot for lack of light and warmth,and the peoples of the earth shall famish and die,to the last man!"I had to carry the boy out myself,he sunk into such a collapse.I handed him over to the soldiers,and went back.
