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Page 54
All this had happened in a single night. The morning after his
master's murder the page announced himself lord of the castle; and,
seeing his enormous size, none dared deny his right to rule. On
account of his bushy hair, which was fiery red in color, and the bushy
red beard that covered his face when he became older, people came to
call him the Red One. And after his evil deeds and quarrelsome temper
had made him infamous throughout the island, people began to call him
the Red Rogue of Dawna.
He had gathered around him a number of savage barbarians, as wicked
and quarrelsome as himself, and so none dared to interfere with him,
or even to meet him, if it were possible to avoid it.
This same Red Rogue it was who had drawn the good Baron Merd into a
quarrel and afterward slain the old knight and his followers,
destroyed his castle, and carried his little daughter Seseley and her
girl friends, Berna and Helda, into captivity, shutting them up in his
own gloomy castle.
The Red Rogue thought he had done a very clever thing, and had no fear
of the consequences until one of his men came running up to the castle
to announce that Prince Marvel and his companions were approaching to
rescue the Lady Seseley.
"How many of them are there?" demanded the Red Rogue.
"There are eight, altogether," answered the man, "but two of them
are girls."
"And they expect to force me to give up my captives?" asked the Red
One, laughing with a noise like the roar of a waterfall. "Why, I
shall make prisoners of every one of them!"
The man looked at his master fearfully, and replied:
"This Prince Marvel is very famous, and all people speak of his
bravery and power. It was he who conquered King Terribus of Spor,
and that mighty ruler is now his friend, and is one of the eight
who approach."
The Red Rogue stopped laughing, for the fame of Spor's terrible king
had long ago reached him. And he reflected that any one who could
conquer the army of giants and dwarfs and Gray Men that served
Terribus must surely be one to be regarded seriously. Moreover--and
this was a secret--the Red Rogue had never been able to gain the
strength to correspond with his gigantic size, but had ever remained
as weak as when he was a puny boy. So he was accustomed to rely on
his cunning and on the terror his very presence usually excited to
triumph over his enemies. And he began to be afraid of this prince.
"You say two of the party are girls?" he asked.
"Yes," said the man, "but also among them are King Terribus himself,
and the renowned Wul-Takim, formerly king of thieves, who was
conquered by the prince, although accounted a hard fighter, and is now
his devoted servant. And there are two old men who are just alike and
have a very fierce look about them. They are said to come from the
hidden Kingdom of Twi."
By this time the Red Rogue was thoroughly frightened, but he did not
yet despair of defeating his enemies. He knew better than to attempt
to oppose Prince Marvel by force, but he still hoped to conquer him by
trickery and deceit.
Among the wonderful things that the Red Rogue's former master, the
wise scholar and magician, had made were two large enchanted mirrors,
which were set on each side of the great hallway of the castle. Heavy
curtains were drawn over the surfaces of these mirrors, because they
both possessed a dreadful magical power. For whenever any one looked
into one of them his reflection was instantly caught and imprisoned in
the mirror, and his body at the same time became invisible to all
earthly eyes, only the mirror retaining his form.
While considering a way to prevent the prince from freeing the Lady
Seseley, the Red Rogue happened to think of these mirrors, which had
never yet been used. So he went stealthily into the great hall and
drew aside the covering from one of the mirrors. He did not dare look
into the mirror himself, but hurried away to another room, and then
sent a page up a back stairway to summon the Lady Seseley and her two
maids into his presence.
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