onducted to the young
prince's couch, whither a vast crowd attended him. The hour of noon not
having yet arrived, Ananda discreetly protracted the time by a seasonable
discourse on the impossibility of miracles, those only excepted which
should be wrought by the professors of the faith of Buddha. He then
descended from his pulpit, and precisely as the sun attained the zenith
laid his hand upon the bosom of the young prince, who instantly revived,
and completed a sentence touching the game of dice which had been
interrupted by his catalepsy.

The people shouted, the courtiers went into ecstasies, the countenances of
the Brahmins assumed an exceedingly sheepish expression. Even the king
seemed impressed, and craved to be more particularly instructed in the law
of Buddha. In complying with this request, Ananda, who had made marvellous
progress in worldly wisdom during the last twenty-four hours, deemed it
needless to dilate on the cardinal doctrines of his master, the misery of
existence, the need of redemption, the path to felicity, the prohibition to
shed blood. He simply stated that the priests of Buddha were bound to
perpetual poverty, and that under the new dispensation all ecclesiastical
property would accrue to the temporal authorities.

"By the holy cow!" exclaimed the monarch, "this is something like a
religion!"

The words were scarcely out of the royal lips ere the courtiers professed
themselves converts. The multitude followed their example. The Brahminical
church was promptly disestablished and disendowed, and more injustice was
committed in the name of the new and purified religion in one day than the
old corrupt one had occasioned in a hundred years.

Ananda had the satisfaction of feeling able to forgive his adversaries, and
of valuing himself accordingly; and to complete his felicity, he was
received in the palace, and entrusted with the education of the king's son,
which he strove to conduct agreeably to the precepts of Buddha. This was a
task of some delicacy, as it involved interference with the princely
youth's favourite amusement, which had previously consisted in torturing
small reptiles.

After a short interval Ananda was again summoned to the monarch's presence.
He found his majesty in the company of two most ferocious ruffians, one of
whom bore a huge axe, and the other an enormous pair of pincers.

"My chief executioner and my chief tormentor," said the king.

Ananda expressed his gratific