The distance between Roche-Clermaud and the Palace of his father was not so very great; so that, leaving at daybreak the next day, Gargantua, with his staff and a long line of the brave officers and soldiers who had done such good service,
REWARDING THE ARMY.
following, reached the Palace very leisurely by sundown. It was a joyful day when Father Grandgousier, who, since Gar-gantua had left, seated so grandly on his great Mare, had been all the time praying for his safety, was told by the sentinels at the gate that the Prince, with a large retinue, was coming near. The old man at once hastened, in high glee, as fast as his gouty feet could carry him, to the court-yard, so as to be ready to receive his son. The moment Gargantua rode in through the gateway,
Grandgousier shouted out : —
"Ho ! ho ! ho ! ho ! So thou art there, my boy ! Come quickly to thy Father's arms ! " Even while he was saying these words he was whispering aside to Snapsauce, the Very Fattest of the three Very Fat Cooks: —
"Get up, thou rogue, within two hours, the finest supper that has ever gone down mortal throats since the days of niy cousin King Ahasuerus ! My boy has come back a conqueror ! "
Gargantua had already leaped down from his Mare and had rushed towards his father. It was truly a meeting of Giants, which the little men around could only manage to see by craning their necks in the air. After embracing, Grandgousier and Gargantua passed up the broad stone stairs which led to the main hall. They had not long to wait upon the three Very Fat Cooks, who, by the way, had sent out messengers miles and miles along the road by which their young master was to come, and had known half a day before Father Grandgousier himself did, the very hour when the Prince would reach the Palace. Cunning Very Fat Cooks ! — they had only to send up the finest supper that had ever been seen since the days of King Ahasuerus, which had been all ready to be served long before the King had even thought of ordering it.
Everybody was in good humor, none more so than the jovial old King himself. When the huge table was cleared of all its rich viands and its sparkling wines, and the guests were about leaving the hall, Grandgousier distributed to each of the deserving soldiers the ornaments on the sideboard, w T hich, in the mass, weighed eight hundred thousand and fourteen golden besants worth in great antique vases, rich pots, basins, superb cups, goblets, candlesticks, comfit-boxes, anc other such golden plate. In addition to this princely gift, Grand gousier caused to be counted out from the Royal Coffers, to each hero, twelve hundred thousand golden crowns ; and, as a further mark of his special favor, he directed that to such as he named should be granted, in perpetuity for themselves and their heirs, if they should happen to have any, certain castles and neighboring lands.
To Master Ponocrates, he gave Roche-Clerrnaud.
To Gymnaste, Le Coudray.
To Eudemon, Montpensier.
And so on with the favorites.
"Ho ! ho ! my boy ! " suddenly cried Father Grandgousier, tapping his big forehead with his mighty finger. 'We have forgotten some one, and him « .
our bravest, too ! "
"Whom?"
' Why, our gallant Friar."
" Oh ! as for Friar John, trust him to me, Father. / shall take care of him !"
"What wilt thou do, my boy?"
"What will I do ? Why, I shall build for him a Monas-terv a hundred times more magnificent than those Convents at Bonni-vet, Cham-bourg, and Chantilly, that are the boast of the world. Our Friar shall be the Abbot of Theleme, and he will make a famous Abbot, too !"
THE WONDERFUL WINDING STAIKWAT.
And so Gargantua built for his friend Friar John a Monastery greater than the Convent at Bonnivet, and the Convent at Chambourg, and the Convent at Chantilly; for his had nine thousand, three hundred and thirty-two chambers. But its greatest beauty, after all, was a wonderful winding stair-way, up which six men-at-arms might ride abreast, with their six lances at rest, to the very top of the Abbey.
CHAPTER XXII.
GRANDGOUSIER'S DEATH. — GARGANTUA'S MARRIAGE. — PANTAGRUEL IS BORN.
AFTER the war of the Bunmakers, all the kings and princes and nobles, for hundreds of miles around, carne to congratulate the two mighty Giants. It was a time of royal feasting, and the Palace smelt more strongly of old, rich, dead dinners and suppers than ever before. For a whole year, its walls rang with laughter and joyous shouts, and then the kings and princes, nobles and friends, took to horse and returned to their homes, leaving Grandgousier and Gargantua in peace, with the love of all their subjects and
the respect of their neighbors, for many happy years, over which there was but one cloud, the death of the kind old Queen Gargamelle, During all these years, more than I can now tell, Grandgousier was, of course, getting old, and at last grew so weak that he was forced to take to his bed.
"Gargantua, my boy, thou art already getting on in years," the old man said one day, after a fit of weakness, when he felt that he could not long live. "Why dost thou not marry, my son?"
"To tell the truth, Father, I have never once thought of marrying. Thou hast been so good to me that thou hast driven all thoughts of women away from me. Yet, if thou sayest the word, then shall I seek a wife."
" Seek, then, my boy, the Princess Badebec, the beautiful daughter of my good friend, the King of the Amaurotes, in Utopia. Make her thy wife if thou lovest thy Father. And thy Father's blessing will be on thee forever!" The good old King had scarcely whispered the last word when he feebly placed his hand on the head of Gargantua, who was kneeling by the bed. Then he stretched out to his full giant-length, gave a deep sigh of content, and died.
Gargantua was then at an age which would, in our day, be looked upon as quite venerable. He was just five hundred and twenty-one years old on the day when he buried his Father. He mourned him two years to the very month, day, hour, and minute. At the end of the last year, he charged his Prime Minister with a solemn proposal of marriage to the charming Princess Badebec. None so lovely as the Princess Badebec had, up to that time, ever been seen outside ot Utopia.
Gargantua was five hundred and twenty-three years old when his nuptials with the Princess were celebrated in great state, and he had just turned his five hundred and twenty-fifth year, when he had at once the great joy of hearing that he had a son, and the deep sorrow of losing his dear wife, the lovely Queen Badebec herself.
The babe first saw the light at a time when there was such a drought over the whole land that there had been no rain for three years, three weeks, four days, and thirteen hours. But to understand clearly the reason why the little fellow was christened PANTAGRUEL, it should be said that, during the awful drought, the sun glared down so fiercely on the baked earth that all the country around became barren. Never had there been felt such heat as then. There was not to be found a tree on which a leaf or flower could be coaxed to grow; the grass was sickly and yellow; the rivers seemed to vie the one with the other in laying bare their sandy beds ; the fountains ran dry ; the poor fish, with no water to keep them alive, floundered gasping in the muddy sand, until they died ; the birds, little and big, some giving the shrillest of despairing shrieks, others the most plaintive of dying twitterings, all dropped dead in mid-air for very want of dew ; and wolves, foxes, stags, wild boars, deer, hares, rabbits, weasels, and such other beasts as were unfortunate enough to roam about the forests, were to be found stiff" in the fields, by the side of streams long dried up, and of fountains which no longer ran, with their red and swollen throats and mouths gaping wide open.