第57章

Yes; they were conquered in the end there is no doubt.They plunged headlong (and uttering the most frightful bad language) into some pit where Jack came with his smart couteau de chasse and whipped their brutal heads off.They would be going to devour maidens,"But ever when it seemed Their need was at the sorest, A knight, in armor bright, Came riding through the forest."And down, after a combat, would go the brutal persecutor, with a lance through his midriff.Yes, I say, this is very true and well.

But you remember that round the ogre's cave the ground was covered, for hundreds and hundreds of yards, WITH THE BONES OF THE VICTIMSwhom he had lured into the castle.Many knights and maids came to him and perished under his knife and teeth.Were dragons the same as ogres? monsters dwelling in caverns, whence they rushed, attired in plate armor, wielding pikes and torches, and destroying stray passengers who passed by their lair? Monsters, brutes, rapacious tyrants, ruffians, as they were, doubtless they ended by being overcome.But, before they were destroyed, they did a deal of mischief.The bones round their caves were countless.They had sent many brave souls to Hades, before their own fled, howling out of their rascal carcasses, to the same place of gloom.

There is no greater mistake than to suppose that fairies, champions, distressed damsels, and by consequence ogres, have ceased to exist.

It may not be OGREABLE to them (pardon the horrible pleasantry, but as I am writing in the solitude of my chamber, I am grinding my teeth--yelling, roaring, and cursing--brandishing my scissors and paper-cutter, and as it were, have become an ogre).I say there is no greater mistake than to suppose that ogres have ceased to exist.

We all KNOW ogres.Their caverns are round us, and about us.There are the castles of several ogres within a mile of the spot where Iwrite.I think some of them suspect I am an ogre myself.I am not:

but I know they are.I visit them.I don't mean to say that they take a cold roast prince out of the cupboard, and have a cannibal feast before ME.But I see the bones lying about the roads to their houses, and in the areas and gardens.Politeness, of course, prevents me from making any remarks; but I know them well enough.

One of the ways to know 'em is to watch the scared looks of the ogres' wives and children.They lead an awful life.They are present at dreadful cruelties.In their excesses those ogres will stab about, and kill not only strangers who happen to call in and ask a night's lodging, but they will outrage, murder, and chop up their own kin.We all know ogres, I say, and have been in their dens often.It is not necessary that ogres who ask you to dine should offer their guests the PECULIAR DISH which they like.They cannot always get a Tom Thumb family.They eat mutton and beef too;and I dare say even go out to tea, and invite you to drink it.But I tell you there are numbers of them going about in the world.And now you have my word for it, and this little hint, it is quite curious what an interest society may be made to have for you, by your determining to find out the ogres you meet there.

What does the man mean? says Mrs.Downright, to whom a joke is a very grave thing.I mean, madam, that in the company assembled in your genteel drawing-room, who bow here and there and smirk in white neck-cloths, you receive men who elbow through life successfully enough, but who are ogres in private: men wicked, false, rapacious, flattering; cruel hectors at home, smiling courtiers abroad; causing wives, children, servants, parents, to tremble before them, and smiling and bowing as they bid strangers welcome into their castles.

I say, there are men who have crunched the bones of victim after victim; in whose closets lie skeletons picked frightfully clean.