Alice Lorraine: A Tale of the South Downs

								

pronounced her beautiful.
The prince now spent his leisure time in thought and calculation.
He had almost made his mind up that he was sure to have a son; and
here was his wife gone; and how could he risk his life again so? Upon
the whole, he made up his mind, that matters might have been worse,
although they ought to have been much better, and that he must thank
the stars, and not be too hard upon any one; and so he fell to at his
science again, and studied almost everything.
In that ancient corner of the world, old Caria, the fine original
Leleges looked up to the prince, and loved him warmly, and were ready
by night or day to serve him, or to rob him. They saw that now was the
finest chance (while he was looking at the stars, with no wife to look
out for him) for them to do their duty to their families by robbing
him; and this they did with honest comfort, and a sense of going home
in the proper way to go.
Prince Agasicles, growing older, felt these troubles more and more.
As a general rule, a man growing older has a more extensive knowledge
that he must be robbed of course; and yet he scarcely ever seems to
reconcile himself with maturing wisdom to the process. And so it
happened to this good prince; not that he cared so very much about
little trifles that might attract the eye of taste and the hand of
skill, but that he could not (even with the aid of all the stars) find
anything too valuable to be stolen. Hence, as his daughter, Artemise,
grew to the fulness of young beauty, he thought it wise to raise the
most substantial barrier he could build betwixt her and the outer world.
There happened to be in that neighbourhood then an active supply of
villains. Of this by no means singular fact the prince might well
assure himself, by casting his eyes down from the stars to the narrow
bosom of his mother earth. But whether thus or otherwise forewarned
of local mischief, the Carian prince took a very strong measure, and
even a sacrilegious one. In or about the year of our reckoning, 1606,
he walled off his daughter, and other goods, in a certain peninsula of
his own, clearly displayed in our maps, and as clearly forbidden to be
either trenched or walled by a Pythia skilled in trimeter tone, who
seems to have been a lady of exceptionally clear conservatism.
The prince, as the sage of the neighbourhood, knew all about this
prohibition, and that it was still in force, and must have acquired
twenty-fold power by the lapse of twenty centuries; and as the sea
had retreated a little during that short period, it was evident that
Jove had been consistent in the matter. “He never meant it for an
island, else he would have made it one.” Agasicles therefore felt
some doubt about the piety of his proceeding, retaining as he did, in
common with his neighbours, some respect for the classic gods. His
respect, however, for the stars was deeper, and these told him that