drenched with splendors flung from
the sinking sun. It was the largest castle we had seen, and so I thought it
might be the one we were after, but Sandy said no. She did not know who owned
it; she said she had passed it without calling, when she went down to Camelot.
 

                                   Chapter 16

                                 Morgan le Fay

If knights errant were to be believed, not all castles were desirable places to
seek hospitality in. As a matter of fact, knights errant were not persons to be
believed - that is, measured by modern standards of veracity; yet, measured by
the standards of their own time, and scaled accordingly, you got the truth. It
was very simple: you discounted a statement ninety-seven per cent; the rest was
fact. Now after making this allowance, the truth remained that if I could find
out something about a castle before ringing the door-bell - I mean, hailing the
warders - it was the sensible thing to do. So I was pleased when I saw in the
distance a horseman making the bottom turn of the road that wound down from this
castle.
    As we approached each other, I saw that he wore a plumed helmet, and seemed
to be otherwise clothed in steel, but bore a curious addition also - a stiff
square garment like a herald's tabard. However, I had to smile at my own
forgetfulness when I got nearer and read this sign on his tabard:
 
                              »PERSIMMONS'S SOAP -
                                        
                          ALL THE PRIME-DONNE USE IT.«
 
That was a little idea of my own, and had several wholesome purposes in view
toward the civilizing and uplifting of this nation. In the first place, it was a
furtive, underhand blow at this nonsense of knight-errantry, though nobody
suspected that but me. I had started a number of these people out - the bravest
knights I could get - each sandwiched between bulletin-boards bearing one device
or another, and I judged that by and by when they got to be numerous enough they
would begin to look ridiculous; and then, even the steel-clad ass that hadn't
any board would himself begin to look ridiculous because he was out of the
fashion.
    Secondly, these missionaries would gradually, and without creating suspicion
or exciting alarm, introduce a rudimentary cleanliness among the nobility, and
from them it would work down to the people, if the priests could be kept quiet.
This would undermine the Church. I mean would be a step toward that. Next,
education - next freedom - and then she would begin to crumble. It being