Is it not
a shameful wrong?" he cried, "I beg of you to inform everybody who names
me that I uttered nought of such things. I never invented or repeated a
lie to disgrace anyone, nor a single tale to cause kinsmen to fly at each
other's throats; I do not come near them; I know nothing of their
scandal, or business, or accursed secrets--they must not charge me with
their evils, but their own corrupt brains."
Hereupon a little Death, one of the King's secretaries, asked me my name,
and bade Master Sleep carry me at once into the King's presence. I had
to go, though most unwilling, by reason of the power that took me up like
a whirlwind, 'twixt high and low, thousands of miles back on our left,
till we came, a second time, in sight of the boundary wall, and in an
enclosed corner we could see a vast palace, roofless and in ruins,
extending to the wall wherein were the countless doors, all of which led
to this terrible court. Its walls were built of human skulls with
hideous, grinning teeth; the clay was black with mingled tears and sweat,
the lime ruddy with gore. On the summit of each tower stood a Deathling,
with a quivering heart on the point of his shaft.
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