The Enchanted Castle | Page 6

and he'll ask what we re
doing here. And then what will you say?" Kathleen asked with her nose
in a rose.
"I shall say we have lost our way, and it will be quite true," said Gerald.
But they did not meet a gardener or anybody else, and the feeling of
magic got thicker and thicker, till they were almost afraid of the sound
of their feet in the great silent place. Beyond the rose garden was a yew
hedge with an arch cut in it, and it was the beginning of a maze like the
one in Hampton Court.
"Now," said Gerald, "you mark my words. In the middle of this maze
we shall find the secret enchantment. Draw your swords, my merry
men all, and hark forward tallyho in the utmost silence. Which they did.
It was very hot in the maze, between the close yew hedges, and the way
to the maze's heart was hidden well. Again and again they found
themselves at the black yew arch that opened on the rose garden, and
they were all glad that they had brought large, clean
pocket-handkerchiefs with them. It was when they found themselves
there for the fourth time that Jimmy suddenly cried, "Oh, I wish ' and
then stopped short very suddenly. "Oh!" he added in quite a different
voice, "where's the dinner?" And then in a stricken silence they all
remembered that the basket with the dinner had been left at the
entrance of the cave. Their thoughts dwelt fondly on the slices of cold
mutton, the six tomatoes, the bread and butter, the screwed-up paper of
salt, the apple turnovers, and the little thick glass that one drank the
ginger-beer out of.
"Let's go back," said Jimmy, "now this minute, and get our things and
have our dinner."

"Let's have one more try at the maze. I hate giving things up," said
Gerald.
"I am so hungry!" said Jimmy.
"Why didn't you say so before?" asked Gerald bitterly.
"I wasn't before."
"Then you can't be now. You don't get hungry all in a minute. What's
that?"
That was a gleam of red that lay at the foot of the yew-hedge a thin
little line, that you would hardly have noticed unless you had been
staring in a fixed and angry way at the roots of the hedge.
It was a thread of cotton. Gerald picked it up. One end of it was tied to
a thimble with holes in it, and the other--
"There is no other end," said Gerald, with firm triumph. "It's a clew
that's what it is. What price cold mutton now? I've always felt
something magic would happen some day, and now it has."
"I expect the gardener put it there," said Jimmy.
"With a Princess's silver thimble on it? Look! there's a crown on the
thimble."
There was.
"Come," said Gerald in low, urgent tones, "if you are adventurers be
adventurers; and anyhow, I expect someone has gone along the road
and bagged the mutton hours ago."
He walked forward, winding the red thread round his fingers as he went.
And it was a clew, and it led them right into the middle of the maze.
And in the very middle of the maze they came upon the wonder.
The red clew led them up two stone steps to a round grass plot. There

was a sun-dial in the middle, and all round against the yew hedge a low,
wide marble seat. The red clew ran straight across the grass and by the
sun-dial, and ended in a small brown hand with jewelled rings on every
finger. The hand was, naturally, attached to an arm, and that had many
bracelets on it, sparkling with red and blue and green stones. The arm
wore a sleeve of pink and gold brocaded silk, faded a little here and
there but still extremely imposing, and the sleeve was part of a dress,
which was worn by a lady who lay on the stone seat asleep in the sun.
The rosy gold dress fell open over an embroidered petticoat of a soft
green colour. There was old yellow lace the colour of scalded cream,
and a thin white veil spangled with silver stars covered the face.
"It's the enchanted Princess," said Gerald, now really impressed. "I told
you so."
"It's the Sleeping Beauty," said Kathleen. "It is look how old-fashioned
her clothes are, like the pictures of Marie Antoinette's ladies in the
history book. She has slept for a hundred years. Oh, Gerald, you're the
eldest; you must be the Prince, and we never knew it."
"She isn't really a Princess," said Jimmy. But the others laughed at him,
partly because his saying things like that was enough to spoil any game,
and partly because