every rascal of you, and salute the king! Who fails shall
sup in hell to-night!«
    I always use that high style when I'm climaxing an effect. Well, it was
noble to see Launcelot and the boys swarm up onto that scaffold and heave
sheriffs and such overboard. And it was fine to see that astonished multitude go
down on their knees and beg their lives of the king they had just been deriding
and insulting. And as he stood apart, there, receiving this homage in his rags,
I thought to myself, well really there is something peculiarly grand about the
gait and bearing of a king, after all. I was immensely satisfied. Take the whole
situation all around, it was one of the gaudiest effects I ever instigated.
    And presently up comes Clarence, his own self! and winks, and says, very
modernly:
    »Good deal of a surprise, wasn't it? I knew you'd like it. I've had the boys
practicing, this long time, privately; and just hungry for a chance to show
off.«
 

                                   Chapter 39

                       The Yankees Fight with the Knights

Home again, at Camelot. A morning or two later I found the paper, damp from the
press, by my plate at the breakfast table. I turned to the advertising columns,
knowing I should find something of personal interest to me there. It was this:
 
Clarence's editorial reference to this affair was to this effect:
 
Up to the day set, there was no talk in all Britain of anything but this combat.
All other topics sank into insignificance and passed out of men's thoughts and
interest. It was not because a tournament was a great matter; it was not because
Sir Sagramour had found the Holy Grail, for he had not, but had failed; it was
not because the second (official) personage in the kingdom was one of the
duelists; no, all these features were commonplace. Yet there was abundant reason
for the extraordinary interest which this coming fight was creating. It was born
of the fact that all the nation knew that this was not to be a duel between mere
men, so to speak, but a duel between two mighty magicians; a duel not of muscle
but of mind, not of human skill but of super human art and craft; a final
struggle for supremacy between the two master enchanters of the age. It was
realized that the most prodigious achievements of the most renowned knights
could not be worthy of comparison with a spectacle like this; they could be but
child's-