A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court | Page 7

commons until my friends ransomed me--unless I
chanced to rot, first. I saw that the last chance had the best show, but I didn't waste any
bother about that; time was too precious. The page said, further, that dinner was about
ended in the great hall by this time, and that as soon as the sociability and the heavy
drinking should begin, Sir Kay would have me in and exhibit me before King Arthur and
his illustrious knights seated at the Table Round, and would brag about his exploit in
capturing me, and would probably exaggerate the facts a little, but it wouldn't be good
form for me to correct him, and not over safe, either; and when I was done being
exhibited, then ho for the dungeon; but he, Clarence, would find a way to come and see
me every now and then, and cheer me up, and help me get word to my friends.
Get word to my friends! I thanked him; I couldn't do less; and about this time a lackey
came to say I was wanted; so Clarence led me in and took me off to one side and sat
down by me.
Well, it was a curious kind of spectacle, and interesting. It was an immense place, and
rather naked--yes, and full of loud contrasts. It was very, very lofty; so lofty that the
banners depending from the arched beams and girders away up there floated in a sort of
twilight; there was a stone-railed gallery at each end, high up, with musicians in the one,
and women, clothed in stunning colors, in the other. The floor was of big stone flags laid
in black and white squares, rather battered by age and use, and needing repair. As to
ornament, there wasn't any, strictly speaking; though on the walls hung some huge
tapestries which were probably taxed as works of art; battle-pieces, they were, with
horses shaped like those which children cut out of paper or create in gingerbread; with
men on them in scale armor whose scales are represented by round holes--so that the
man's coat looks as if it had been done with a biscuit-punch. There was a fireplace big
enough to camp in; and its projecting sides and hood, of carved and pillared stonework,
had the look of a cathedral door. Along the walls stood men-at-arms, in breastplate and
morion, with halberds for their only weapon-- rigid as statues; and that is what they
looked like.
In the middle of this groined and vaulted public square was an oaken table which they
called the Table Round. It was as large as a circus ring; and around it sat a great company
of men dressed in such various and splendid colors that it hurt one's eyes to look at them.
They wore their plumed hats, right along, except that whenever one addressed himself

directly to the king, he lifted his hat a trifle just as he was beginning his remark.
Mainly they were drinking--from entire ox horns; but a few were still munching bread or
gnawing beef bones. There was about an average of two dogs to one man; and these sat in
expectant attitudes till a spent bone was flung to them, and then they went for it by
brigades and divisions, with a rush, and there ensued a fight which filled the prospect
with a tumultuous chaos of plunging heads and bodies and flashing tails, and the storm of
howlings and barkings deafened all speech for the time; but that was no matter, for the
dog-fight was always a bigger interest anyway; the men rose, sometimes, to observe it the
better and bet on it, and the ladies and the musicians stretched themselves out over their
balusters with the same object; and all broke into delighted ejaculations from time to time.
In the end, the winning dog stretched himself out comfortably with his bone between his
paws, and proceeded to growl over it, and gnaw it, and grease the floor with it, just as
fifty others were already doing; and the rest of the court resumed their previous industries
and entertainments.
As a rule, the speech and behavior of these people were gracious and courtly; and I
noticed that they were good and serious listeners when anybody was telling anything--I
mean in a dog-fightless interval. And plainly, too, they were a childlike and innocent lot;
telling lies of the stateliest pattern with a most gentle and winning naivety, and ready and
willing to listen to anybody else's lie, and believe it, too. It was hard to associate them
with anything cruel or dreadful; and yet they dealt in tales of blood and suffering with a
guileless relish that made me almost forget to shudder.
I was not the only prisoner present. There