Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/95

 and twelve blinding rays from the twelve diamonds shot through all the other hues, and dimmed his eyes with glory. Then the walls changed to gold and silver, the door was a slice of a single emerald, and his head got muddled, and he began to fancy all sorts of things still more extraordinary. As for eating and drinking it became tedious to him, for a wooden platter and piggin were not nearly so fine as the patternspattens [sic] and chalices he had heard tell of, and so he did not trouble himself to devour their contents, the which was somewhat foolish, it must be confessed. And when he was sauntering about in the meadows he did nothing but twist his neck and try to stare the sun out of countenance; for he had heard one monk telling the other of a marvellous dish, "whereof the compass was one twelfth of the compass of the Round Table, of a metal that was neither gold nor silver, but more excellent than either, and having in its center the Name Iao, written in the character of the magicians. Which dish was made by no artificer nor mortal worker in metal, but proceeded from a supernatural marriage or conjunction of the sun and moon, and was drawn down to earth by Merlin, and now lies five feet three inches below the midst of the Round Table." Of this extraordinary nonsense much was lost on Griffith, but he nevertheless made it his business to keep a sharp look out on the heavenly bodies, in order to catch them at their amorous play, the nature of which he understood very imperfectly and was desirous of learning. But this amusement brought him nothing better than a wry