“You are not already married?” inquired the Prince, somewhat suspiciously.
“I have been married; my wife is dead, and—”
“Then, of course, you can marry Bragwaine. Sir Colgrevance,” said the Prince to one of his attendants, “ride over and tell the abbot that Bragwaine will wish to be married to-morrow!”
“To-morrow!” shrieked the Professor. “I really must protest; you are much too sudden. I have an important mission to fulfil, and I must attend to that first, and at once.”
Sir Bleoberis explained to the Prince the nature of their errand, and told him the Professor’s daughter was held as a hostage until he should bring Ysolt back to Baron Bors.
“We will delay the wedding, then,” said the Prince. “And now, let us ride homeward.”
If it had not been for the heart-rending manner in which everybody regarded him as the future husband of Bragwaine, and for the extreme tenderness of that lady’s behavior toward him, the Professor would have enjoyed hugely his sojourn at the court. King Brandegore regarded him from the first with high favor, and the sovereign’s conduct of course sufficed to recommend the Professor to everybody else. The Professor found the King to be a man of rather large mind, and it was a continual source of pleasure to the learned man to unfold to the King, who listened with amazement and admiration, the wonders of modern invention, science, and discovery.
With what instruments the Professor’s ingenuity could construct from the rude materials at hand; he showed a number of experiments, chiefly electrical, which so affected the King that he ordered the regular court magician to be executed as a perfectly hopeless humbug; but Professor Baffin’s energetic protest saved the unhappy conjurer from so sad a fate.
An extemporized telegraph line, a few hundred yards in length, impressed the King more strongly than any other thing, and not only did he make to Sir Bleoberis and the Professor exclusive concessions of the right to build lines within his dominions, but he promised to organize, at an early day, a raid upon a neighboring sovereign, for the purpose of obtaining plunder enough to give to the enterprise a handsome subsidy.
Sir Dagonet did not come to court during the Professor’s stay. But there, in full view of the palace, a mile away in the lake, was his castle, and in that castle was the lovely Ysolt.