rom chamberlain to cook. He
forms a body-guard, whose members are dressed in silk. Two pages
wait upon the king, one of whom is a _son of his grace the bishop of
Muenster_. The great officers of state are somewhat wondrously attired,
one breech red, the other grey, and on the sleeves of their coats
are embroidered the arms of Sion--the earth-sphere pierced by two
crossed swords, a sign of universal sway and its instruments--while
a golden finger-ring is token of their authority in Sion. The king
himself is magnificently arrayed in gold and purple, and as insignia
of his office, he causes sceptre and spurs of gold to be made. Gold
ducats are melted down to form crowns for the queen and himself; and
lastly a golden globe pierced by two swords and surmounted by a cross
with the words, 'A King of Righteousness o'er all' is borne before
him. The attendants of the Chancellor Knipperdollinch are dressed in
red with the crest, a hand raising aloft the sword of justice. Nay,
even the queen and the fourteen queenlets must have a separate court
and brilliant uniforms.

"Thrice a week the king goes in glorious array to the market-place
accompanied by his body-guards and officers of state, while behind ride
the fifteen queens. On the market-place stands a magnificent throne
with silken cushions and canopy, whereon the tailor-monarch takes
his seat, and alongside him sits his chief queen. Knipperdollinch
sits at his feet. A page on his left bears the book of the law,
the Old Testament; another on his right an unsheathed sword. The
book denotes that he sits on the throne of David; the sword that
he is the king of the just, who is appointed to exterminate all
unrighteousness. Bannock-Bernt is court-chaplain, and preaches in the
market-place before the king. The sermon over, justice is administered,
often of the most terrible kind; and then in like state the king and
his court return home. On the streets he is greeted with cries of:
'Hail in the name of the Lord. God be praised!'"

Meanwhile underneath all this riot of splendour and power and
sensuality, the pangs of starvation were beginning to be felt. For
the army of the bishop of Muenster was outside the city and the siege
was very studiously maintained. The privations became more and more
terrible, and more and more terrible the means of allaying them. The
bodies of citizens that had died were eaten; and then men and women
and children were killed in order that they might be eate