“See, this has an inscription in Arabic.”
“I have a genuine Toledo, too, but you’ve been in here long enough. Let’s go back into the library. You may come in here whenever you like. Mornings, I think, would be the best time.”
When Billy was comfortably settled among his pillows, with the Damascus sword on the sofa by him, Mr. Prescott said:
“Men, in the olden time, thought so much of their swords that they often named them, and had them baptized by the priest. The great emperor Charlemagne had a sword named ‘Joyeuse.’
“Sometimes, too, the old bards sang about swords and their makers.”
“Tell me,” said Billy, “how they made swords.”
“The people way over in the East understood the process of converting iron into steel, but in those days they had plenty of gold and very little steel, so swords were sometimes made of gold with only an edge of steel.
“The steel swords were made by hammering little piles of steel plates together. They were heated, hammered, and doubled over, end to end, until the layers of steel in a single sword ran up into the millions.
“Now, we’ll come back to the present time, and I’ll show you something that I brought home yesterday to put in my treasure room.”
Billy watched eagerly, while Mr. Prescott took a package from the library table, and opened it.