The three fat men
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
DOCTOR CASPAR ARNERY HAS A BUSY DAY
The time of magicians has past.
And there probably never were any, to begin with.
They must have been made up to fool very little children.
But there really were very smart and nimble jugglers who could trick the crowd watching them, and that is why people believed there were wizards and magicians.
Once upon a time, there was a doctor whose name was Caspar Arnery.
A simple-minded person, or an idler at a country fair, or a half-baked student might think he was a magician, for the doctor could do wonderful and unusual things that really looked just like magic.
But he was nothing at all like the fakes and magicians who fooled the trusting, simple people.
Doctor Caspar Arnery was a scientist.
He had studied a hundred different sciences, and there was not another person in all the land as wise and educated as he.
Everyone knew how wise he was: the miller, the soldiers, all the ladies, even the Palace ministers.
This is the song the schoolboys sang about him:
Doctor Caspar Arnery- What a clever man is he! He can trap the sliest fox, He can crack the hardest rocks, He can fly from here to Mars, He can reach the farthest stars!
One lovely day in June, Doctor Caspar Arnery decided to set off on a long walk to gather some grasses and beetles for his collection.
Doctor Caspar was not young any more, and so he was afraid of the wind and the rain.
Whenever he left the house he would tie a warm scarf round his neck, put on a pair of spectacles to keep the dust out of his eyes, and take along his walking-stick to lean on and keep him from stumbling. When he started out he always took a lot of trouble to have everything just so.
It was a beautiful day. The sun did nothing but shine, the grass was so green it made your mouth water just to look at it, the air was full of dandelion fuzz, birds chirped, and there was a light breeze.
"Ah, how lovely," said the doctor. "But I'd better take my cape, just in case. Summer days are so changeable.
It might begin to rain."
When he had made sure that everything was in order at home, he wiped his spectacles clean, picked up his green leather bag and set off.
The best places for gathering grasses and beetles were out in the country beyond the town, near the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
This was where the doctor usually went.
The Palace of the Three Fat Men stood in the middle of a huge park.
The park was surrounded by deep trenches.
There were black iron bridges across them.
And the bridges were guarded by Palace Guards in black oilskin hats with yellow feathers.
All around the park, as far as the eye could see, were meadows full of flowers, little groves of trees, and ponds.
It was a wonderful place for walks.
The most interesting kinds of grasses grew here, the prettiest beetles buzzed here and the birds always sang most sweetly.
"It's too far to walk," the doctor thought.
"I'll only go to the end of town, and then I'll take a cab to the Palace park."
There was a big crowd in the square near the town gates.
"Is it Sunday today?" the doctor wondered. "No, I don't think so.
It's Tuesday."
He came a little closer.
The entire square was full of people.
There were workers in grey jackets with green cuffs, sailors with weather-beaten faces, rich merchants in coloured vests whose wives wore great pink skirts, there were traders with pitchers, trays, cans of ice-cream and braziers, there were skinny street actors dressed in green, yellow and other bright colours, looking just like patchwork quilts, there were very little boys pulling shaggy brown dogs by the tails.
Everyone was pushing towards the town gates which were as tall as a house and made of iron. The gates were shut tight.
"Why are the gates shut?" the doctor wondered.
The crowd was noisy, people were shouting and arguing, but it was impossible to understand what it was all about.
The doctor went over to a young woman holding a big grey cat and asked:
"Would you kindly tell me what's going on?
Why are there so many people here? Why is everyone so angry? And why are the town gates shut?"
"The guards won't let anyone out of town."
"Why not?"
"So they won't be able to help those who left before and are now on their way to the Palace of the Three Fat Men."
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I don't understand what you mean."