e great impatience of the one and the small
forbearance of the other did strike in the end such a heat between them
that Louis threw the chessmen at Henry's face.

"Henry again stroke Louis with the chessboard, drew blood with the blowe,
and had presently slain him upon the place had he not been stayed by his
brother Robert.

"Hereupon they presently went to horse, and their spurres claimed so good
haste as they recovered Pontoise, albeit they were sharply pursued by the
French."

Now, tradition--on this point not trustworthy--says that the chessboard
broke into the thirteen fragments shown in our illustration. It will be
seen that there are twelve pieces, all different in shape, each
containing five squares, and one little piece of four squares only.

We thus have all the sixty-four squares of the chess-board, and the
puzzle is simply to cut them out and fit them together, so as to make a
perfect board properly chequered. The pieces may be easily cut out of a
sheet of "squared" paper, and, if mounted on cardboard, they will form a
source of perpetual amusement in the home.

If you succeed in constructing the chessboard, but do not record the
arrangement, you will find it just as puzzling the next time you feel
disposed to attack it.

Prince Henry himself, with all his skill and learning, would have found
it an amusing pastime.

75.--_The Spider and the Fly._

[Illustration]

Inside a rectangular room, measuring 30 feet in length and 12 feet in
width and height, a spider is at a point on the middle of one of the end
walls, 1 foot from the ceiling, as at A; and a fly is on the opposite
wall, 1 foot from the floor in the centre, as shown at B. What is the
shortest distance that the spider must crawl in order to reach the fly,
which remains stationary? Of course the spider never drops or uses its
web, but crawls fairly.

76.--_The Perplexed Cellarman._

Here is a little puzzle culled from the traditions of an old monastery in
the west of England. Abbot Francis, it seems, was a very worthy man; and
his methods of equity extended to those little acts of charity for which
he was noted for miles round.

[Illustration]

The Abbot, moreover, had a fine taste in wines. On one occasion he sent
for the cellarman, and complained that a particular bottling was not to
his palate.

"Pray tell me, Brother John, how much of this wine thou didst bottle
withal."

"A fair dozen in large bottles, my lord abbo