A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

CAMELOT “Camelot--Camelot,” said I to myself. “I don't seem to remember hearing of it before. Name of the asylum, likely.” It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely ...

KING ARTHUR'S COURT The moment I got a chance I slipped aside privately and touched an ancient common looking man on the shoulder and said, in an insinuating, confidential way: “...

KNIGHTS OF THE TABLE ROUND Mainly the Round Table talk was monologues--narrative accounts of the adventures in which these prisoners were captured and their friends and backers ki...

SIR DINADAN THE HUMORIST It seemed to me that this quaint lie was most simply and beautifully told; but then I had heard it only once, and that makes a difference; it was pleasant...

AN INSPIRATION I was so tired that even my fears were not able to keep me awake long. When I next came to myself, I seemed to have been asleep a very long time. My first thought...

THE ECLIPSE In the stillness and the darkness, realization soon began to supplement knowledge. The mere knowledge of a fact is pale; but when you come to _realize_ your fact, it ...

MERLIN'S TOWER Inasmuch as I was now the second personage in the Kingdom, as far as political power and authority were concerned, much was made of me. My raiment was of silks and...

THE BOSS To be vested with enormous authority is a fine thing; but to have the on-looking world consent to it is a finer. The tower episode solidified my power, and made it impre...

THE TOURNAMENT They were always having grand tournaments there at Camelot; and very stirring and picturesque and ridiculous human bull-fights they were, too, but just a little wea...

BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION The Round Table soon heard of the challenge, and of course it was a good deal discussed, for such things interested the boys. The king thought I ought n...

THE YANKEE IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURES There never was such a country for wandering liars; and they were of both sexes. Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; a...

SLOW TORTURE Straight off, we were in the country. It was most lovely and pleasant in those sylvan solitudes in the early cool morning in the first freshness of autumn. From hil...

FREEMEN Yes, it is strange how little a while at a time a person can be contented. Only a little while back, when I was riding and suffering, what a heaven this peace, this rest,...

“DEFEND THEE, LORD” I paid three pennies for my breakfast, and a most extravagant price it was, too, seeing that one could have breakfasted a dozen persons for that money; but I w...

SANDY'S TALE “And so I'm proprietor of some knights,” said I, as we rode off. “Who would ever have supposed that I should live to list up assets of that sort. I shan't know what ...

MORGAN LE FAY If knights errant were to be believed, not all castles were desirable places to seek hospitality in. As a matter of fact, knights errant were _not_ persons to be be...

A ROYAL BANQUET Madame, seeing me pacific and unresentful, no doubt judged that I was deceived by her excuse; for her fright dissolved away, and she was soon so importunate to hav...

IN THE QUEEN'S DUNGEONS Well, I arranged all that; and I had the man sent to his home. I had a great desire to rack the executioner; not because he was a good, painstaking and pai...

KNIGHT-ERRANTRY AS A TRADE Sandy and I were on the road again, next morning, bright and early. It was so good to open up one's lungs and take in whole luscious barrels-ful of the ...

THE OGRE'S CASTLE Between six and nine we made ten miles, which was plenty for a horse carrying triple--man, woman, and armor; then we stopped for a long nooning under some trees ...

THE PILGRIMS When I did get to bed at last I was unspeakably tired; the stretching out, and the relaxing of the long-tense muscles, how luxurious, how delicious! but that was as f...

THE HOLY FOUNTAIN The pilgrims were human beings. Otherwise they would have acted differently. They had come a long and difficult journey, and now when the journey was nearly fi...

RESTORATION OF THE FOUNTAIN Saturday noon I went to the well and looked on a while. Merlin was still burning smoke-powders, and pawing the air, and muttering gibberish as hard as...

A RIVAL MAGICIAN My influence in the Valley of Holiness was something prodigious now. It seemed worth while to try to turn it to some valuable account. The thought came to me th...

A COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION When the king traveled for change of air, or made a progress, or visited a distant noble whom he wished to bankrupt with the cost of his keep, part of th...

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER When I told the king I was going out disguised as a petty freeman to scour the country and familiarize myself with the humbler life of the people, he was all a...

THE YANKEE AND THE KING TRAVEL INCOGNITO About bedtime I took the king to my private quarters to cut his hair and help him get the hang of the lowly raiment he was to wear. The hi...

DRILLING THE KING On the morning of the fourth day, when it was just sunrise, and we had been tramping an hour in the chill dawn, I came to a resolution: the king _must_ be drille...

THE SMALLPOX HUT When we arrived at that hut at mid-afternoon, we saw no signs of life about it. The field near by had been denuded of its crop some time before, and had a skinne...

THE TRAGEDY OF THE MANOR-HOUSE At midnight all was over, and we sat in the presence of four corpses. We covered them with such rags as we could find, and started away, fastening ...

MARCO We strolled along in a sufficiently indolent fashion now, and talked. We must dispose of about the amount of time it ought to take to go to the little hamlet of Abblasoure ...

DOWLEY'S HUMILIATION Well, when that cargo arrived toward sunset, Saturday afternoon, I had my hands full to keep the Marcos from fainting. They were sure Jones and I were ruined...

SIXTH CENTURY POLITICAL ECONOMY However, I made a dead set at him, and before the first third of the dinner was reached, I had him happy again. It was easy to do--in a country of...

THE YANKEE AND THE KING SOLD AS SLAVES Well, what had I better do? Nothing in a hurry, sure. I must get up a diversion; anything to employ me while I could think, and while thes...

A PITIFUL INCIDENT It's a world of surprises. The king brooded; this was natural. What would he brood about, should you say? Why, about the prodigious nature of his fall, of cou...

AN ENCOUNTER IN THE DARK London--to a slave--was a sufficiently interesting place. It was merely a great big village; and mainly mud and thatch. The streets were muddy, crooked,...

AN AWFUL PREDICAMENT Sleep? It was impossible. It would naturally have been impossible in that noisome cavern of a jail, with its mangy crowd of drunken, quarrelsome, and song-s...

SIR LAUNCELOT AND KNIGHTS TO THE RESCUE Nearing four in the afternoon. The scene was just outside the walls of London. A cool, comfortable, superb day, with a brilliant sun; the...

THE YANKEE'S FIGHT WITH THE KNIGHTS Home again, at Camelot. A morning or two later I found the paper, damp from the press, by my plate at the breakfast table. I turned to the ad...

THREE YEARS LATER When I broke the back of knight-errantry that time, I no longer felt obliged to work in secret. So, the very next day I exposed my hidden schools, my mines, and...

THE INTERDICT However, my attention was suddenly snatched from such matters; our child began to lose ground again, and we had to go to sitting up with her, her case became so seri...

WAR! I found Clarence alone in his quarters, drowned in melancholy; and in place of the electric light, he had reinstituted the ancient rag-lamp, and sat there in a grisly twiligh...

THE BATTLE OF THE SAND BELT In Merlin's Cave--Clarence and I and fifty-two fresh, bright, well-educated, clean-minded young British boys. At dawn I sent an order to the factories...

A POSTSCRIPT BY CLARENCE I, Clarence, must write it for him. He proposed that we two go out and see if any help could be accorded the wounded. I was strenuous against the projec...