CHAPTER XXII
THE PALACE OF ICE IN THE GOLDEN SUNLIGHT, AND WHAT I IMAGINED IT
MIGHT CONTAIN.—HOW WE WERE HALTED BY A COUPLE OF QUAINTLY CLAD
SENTINELS.—THE KOLTYKWERPS.—HIS FRIGID MAJESTY KING GELIDUS.—MORE
ABOUT THE ICE PALACE, TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE
THRONE-ROOM.—OUR RECEPTION BY THE KING AND HIS DAUGHTER
SCHNEEBOULE.—BRIEF MENTION OF BULLIBRAIN, OR LORD HOT HEAD.
Scarcely had I advanced a hundred yards beyond the portal where I had
halted when happening to turn my eyes to the other side, a sight met
them which sent a thrill of wonder and delight through my form. There
upon the highest terrace stood a palace of ice, its slender minarets,
its high-lifted towers, its rounded turrets, its spacious platform, and
its broad flights of steps all glittering in the sunlight as if
gem-studded and jewel-set.
It was a spectacle to stir the most indifferent heart, let alone one so
full of ardor and buoyancy as mine. But ah, dear friends, even admitting
that I can succeed in awakening in your minds even a faint conception of
the beauty of this ice palace, as the sunlight fell full upon it at that
moment, how can I ever hope to give you an idea of the unearthly beauty
of this palace of ice and its glorious surroundings when the moon went
up in the outer world at a later hour and its pale, mysterious light was
poured through the mighty lens in the mountain side, and fell with
celestial shimmer upon these walls of ice?
But the one thought that oppressed me now was: Can this beautiful abode
be without a tenant, without a living soul within its wonderful halls
and chambers? Or, may not its dwellers, overtaken by the pitiless cold,
sit with wide-opened eyes and icy glare, stark as marble in chairs of
ice, white frosted hair pressed against icy cushions, and hands
stiffened around crystal cups filled with frozen wine of topaz hue,
while the harper’s fingers cling cramped to the wires stiff as the wires
themselves, and the last tones of the singer’s voice lie in feathery
crystals of frozen breath white at his feet?
Come what may, I resolved to lift the crystal knocker that might hang on
the outer door of this palace of ice and awaken the castellan, if his
slumber were not that of death. In a few moments I had crossed the level
space between me and the first terrace, which it would be necessary for
me to scale in order to reach the second and then the third upon which
stood the palace of ice.
Imagine my more than surprise upon finding myself now at the foot of a
magnificent flight of steps, hewn into the ice with a master hand, and
leading to the terrace above.
Springing lightly up this flight with Bulger close at my heels, I
suddenly set eyes upon two of the quaintest-looking human beings that I
ever remembered seeing in all my travels. They looked for all the world
like two big animated snowballs, being clad from top to toe in garments
made of snow-white fleece, their skull-caps likewise of white fur,
leaving only their faces visible. In his right hand each of them carried
a very prettily shaped flint axe, mounted upon a helve of polished bone.
Striding up to me and swinging their axes over my head in altogether too
close proximity to my poll to be particularly pleasant, one of them
cries out,—
“Halt, sir! Unless his frigid Majesty Gelidus, King of the Koltykwerps,
awaits thy coming, his guards will, at a signal from us, roll a few
thousand tons of ice down upon thee if thou darest proceed another step.
Therefore, stand fast and tell us who thou art and whether thou art
expected.”
“Gentlemen,” said I, “kindly lower those axes of yours and I will
convince you that his frigid Majesty hath nothing to dread in me, for I
am none other than the very small but very noble and very famous
Sebastian von Troomp, commonly known as ‘Little Baron Trump.’”
“Never heard of thee in all my life,” said both of the guards as with
one voice.
“But I have of you, gentlemen,” I continued,—for now I recollected what
the learned Don Fum had said about the frozen land of the Koltykwerps,
or Cold Bodies,—“and as proof of my peaceful intent, like a true knight
I now offer you my hand, and beg that you will conduct me into the
presence of his frigid Majesty.”
No sooner had the guard standing next me drawn off his glove and grasped
my hand, than he let it loose again with a cry of fright.
“Zounds! Man, art thou on fire? Why, thy hand burned me like the flame
of a lamp!”
“Why, no, my friend,” said I quietly; “that’s my ordinary temperature.”
“And thy companion?”
“Hath even a warmer heart than I have,” was my reply.
“Well, our word for it, little baron,” exclaimed one of the guards with
a chuckle, “there will be no place for thee except in the meat quarry.
Possibly after thou hast been cooled off for a week or so, his frigid
Majesty will be able to have thee about!”
This was not a very cheerful prospect, for I had no particular desire to
be laid away in the royal ice-box for a week or so. Anyway, the only
thing to be done was to insist upon being conducted at once into the
presence of the King of the Koltykwerps, and abide by his decision.
One of the guards having saluted me by presenting his battle-axe in real
military style, faced about and began to ascend the grand staircase with
intent to announce my arrival to his frigid Majesty, while the other
informed me that he would conduct me as far as the perron of the palace.
I was wonderstruck with the beauty of the three staircases leading up to
the ice palace. Massive balustrades with curiously carved balusters
springing from towering pedestals, crowned with beautiful lamps, all,
all, I say, all and everything, to the crystal-clear sides of the lamps
themselves, was fashioned from blocks of ice. It proved to be a good
climb to the top of the third terrace, and I was not put out when the
guard solemnly lowered his battle-axe of flint to bring me to a
standstill.
The sun in the upper world was, no doubt, nearing the horizon, for a
deep and beautiful twilight suddenly sank upon the icy dominions of King
Gelidus, and, to my surprise and delight, through the great slabs of
crystal-clear ice which served for windows to the palace, streamed a
soft radiance as if a thousand wax tapers were burning in the chambers
and galleries in-doors. It was a sight to gladden the eyes of any
mortal; but if I had been spellbound by the beauty of its exterior, how
shall I tell you, dear friends, of the curious splendor of the interior
of Gelidus’ palace of ice, as it burst upon me when I had crossed its
threshold?
Hallway led into hallway, chamber opened into chamber, through portals
gracefully arched, and winding staircases climbed to upper rooms, while
hanging from lofty ceilings or resting on graceful pedestals, were a
thousand alabaster lamps, shedding light and perfume upon this glorious
home of his frigid Majesty Gelidus, King of the Koltykwerps. Long rows
of retainers, all in snow-white fur, lined the wide hallway, as the
guards conducted Bulger and me into the palace and bowed in silence as
we passed.
To my more than wonder, I saw that the inner rooms were most sumptuously
furnished, chairs and divans being scattered here and there, all covered
with superb skins of white fur, while the floor, too, was carpeted with
them, and as the soft radiance of the alabaster lamps fell upon these
magnificent pelts and set ten thousand jewels in the walls and ceilings
of ice, I was ready to admit that I had never seen anything half so
beautiful. And yet I was still outside the throne-room of his frigid
Majesty!
At length we came to one end of a broad hallway which seemed shut off
from the rest of the palace by a wall thickly incrusted with strings of
great diamonds, each as big as a goose-egg, extending from the ceiling
to the floor, and turning back the shimmer of the lamps with such a
flood of crystalline radiance that my eyes involuntarily closed before
it.
Think of my amazement when the two guards, laying hold of this wall of
jewels, as I deemed it, drew it to the right and left till there was
room for me to pass. What I had taken for a wall of jewels was but a
curtain made up of round bits of ice strung upon strings and hanging
like a shower of diamonds there before me, as they glittered in the
light of the lamps each side of them.
I now stood in the throne-room of his frigid Majesty, the King of the
Koltykwerps. Now I realized that what I had seen elsewhere in his palace
of ice was in reality but a sample of its magnificence, for here the
splendor of King Gelidus’ castle burst upon me in its fullest strength.
Imagine a great round chamber lighted with the soft flames of perfumed
oil, streaming from a hundred alabaster lamps, the walls lined with
broad divans covered with snow-white pelts, the floors thickly carpeted
with the same glorious rugs, while on one side, glittering in the
shimmer of the hundred massive lamps, stands the icy throne of the King
of the Koltykwerps, decked with snow-white skins, and he upon it, with
Schneeboule, his fair daughter, sitting at his feet, and all around and
about him, group-wise, a hundred Koltykwerps, the king, the princess,
and the courtiers all clad in skins whiter than the driven snow, and
you, dear friends, will have some faint idea of the splendor of the
scene which burst upon me as the two guards drew aside the strands of
ice jewels at the end of the hallway in the palace of ice!
Like all his subjects, King Gelidus looked out through the round window
of his fur hood, just as a big good-natured boy does through his
skating-cap.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE FOR LIFE WITH THE WHITE CRABS.]
The Koltykwerps were not much taller than I, but were very stocky built,
so that when broadened out by their thick fur suits they really took on
at times the appearance of animated snowballs. It would be hard for the
fingers of the deftest hand to draw faces fuller of kindliness and good
nature than those of the Koltykwerps. Their small, honest gray eyes
sparkled with a boniform glint, and so broad were their smiles that they
were only about half visible through the round holes of their fur hoods.
I was delighted with them from the very start, and the more so when I
heard King Gelidus cry out in a cheery voice: “A right crisp and cold
welcome to our icy court, little baron; but from what our people tell
us, thou carriest a pair of hands so hot that we beg thee to take a few
days to cool off before thou touchest palms with any of the Koltykwerps,
and we also beg thee to be careful and not to lean against any of our
richly carved panels, or to slide down any of our highly polished
railings, or to handle the strands of our jewels, or sit down for any
length of time on the front steps of our palace. And we make the same
request of thy four-footed companion, who is said to be of even a warmer
disposition than thou.”
I bowed and kissed my hand to his frigid Majesty, and assured him that I
should make every effort to lower my temperature as speedily as
possible, and, in the mean time, that I should be extremely careful not
to come into contact with any of the artistic carving of his palace of
ice.
As I pronounced these words, the whole company began to clap their
hands; and as they did so, a cold shiver ran down my back, for there was
a sound, methought, very much like the rattling of dry bones to that
applause, but I took good care not to let King Gelidus notice my fright.
His frigid Majesty now presented me to his daughter Schneeboule, a
pretty little maid of about sixteen crystal winters, with cheeks round
as apples, and as deeply dimpled as the furrows of a cross-bun. Her eyes
twinkled as she looked upon Bulger and me, and turning to her frigid
papa, she asked for leave to touch the tip end of my thumb, which being
done, she gave a squeaky little scream and began to blow on her tiny
finger as if I had blistered it.
King Gelidus also presented me to several of his court favorites, all
men of the coldest blood in the nation. Their names were Jellikin,
Phrostyphiz, Icikul, and Glacierbhoy. They were all dreadfully slow
thinkers when you questioned them very closely upon any subject.
It didn’t take me very long to discover this. In fact, they requested me
to be less warm in my manner, and not to ask them any posers, as they
invariably found that deep thought caused a rise in their temperature.
This was, to be honest about it, very annoying to me; for you know, dear
friends, what a loadstone my mind is, never asleep, always in a quiver
like a mariner’s compass, pointing this way and that, in search of the
polar star of wisdom.
Upon making known my trouble to his frigid Majesty, King Gelidus, he
most gracefully ordered one of his trusty attendants to conduct me to
the triple walled ice-cell of a certain Koltykwerp by the name of
Bullibrain, that is, literally, “Boiling Brain,” a man who had been born
with a hot head, and consequently with a very active brain. For fifty
years King Gelidus had been doing his very best to refrigerate this
subject of his, but without success. As I was just bursting with
impatience to ask a whole string of questions concerning the
Koltykwerps, you may imagine how delighted I was to make the
acquaintance of Bullibrain, or Lord Hot Head as he was called among the
Koltykwerps; but, dear friends, you must excuse me if I make this the
end of a chapter and stop here for a brief rest.