TWILIGHT LAND

by, there suddenly came three men who, without saying a
word, clapped hold of him and marched him off.

_ It was in vain that the beggar talked and questioned—
in vain that he begged and besought them to let him go.
Not a word did they say to him, either of good or bad.
At last they came to a gate that led through a high wall
and into a garden, and there the three stopped, and one
of them knocked upon the gate. In answer to his knock-
ing it flew open. He thrust the beggar into the garden
neck and crop, and then the gate was banged to again.

But what a sight it was the beggar saw before his eyes !
—flowers, and fruit-trees, and marble walks, and a great
fountain that shot up a jet of water as white as snow.
But he had not long to stand gaping and staring around
him, for in the garden were a great number of people,
who came hurrying to him, and who, without speaking a
word to him or answering a single question, or as much
as giving him time to think, led him to a marble bath of
tepid water. There he was stripped of his tattered
clothes and washed as clean as snow. Then, as some of
the attendants dried him with fine linen towels, others
came carrying clothes fit for a prince to wear, and clad
the beggar in them from head to foot. After that, still
without saying a word, they let him out from the bath
again, and there he found still other attendants waiting
for him——two of them holding a milk-white horse, saddled
and bridled, and fit for an emperor to ride. ‘These helped
him to mount, and then, leaping into their own saddles,
rode away with the beggar in their midst.

They rode out of the garden and into the streets, and
on and on they went until they came to the king’s palace,
and there they stopped. Courtiers and noblemen and

312