the king," John being a notorious glutton.
My friends at Ledbury Manor, where there is a gallery full of my uncle
Arthur's Indian pictures, will remember how I expounded all this to them
some years ago. In this connection of literary discovery, let me here
give my exposition of the mystic number in Revelations, 666,--which,
"_more meo_" I printed thus on a very scarce fly-leaf, as one of my
Protestant Ballads not in any book:--

"Here is wisdom--Let him that hath understanding count the number
of the Beast--for it is the number of a Man--and his number is six
hundred threescore and six."--Rev. xiii. 18.

"Count up the sum of Greek numeral letters
'Kakoi Episkopoi'--bishops all ill;
Strangely I note that those mystical fetters
Bind in their number this mystery still--
Six hundred threescore and six is the total,
Spelling the number and name of a man,
Chief of bad bishops and lies sacerdotal,
That of all wickedness stands in the van.

"Antichrist! what? can a feeble old creature,
Pope though they style him, be rank'd in his place
As the Goliath in fashion and feature
Warring gigantic with God and His grace?
Is he so great--to be dreaded, abhorred,
Single antagonist, braving God's wrath,
Bearing foul Babylon's seal on his forehead,
Chosen Triumvir with Sin and with Death?

"Yea; the presumption of priestly succession
Make the _all one_ a whole Popedom of Time,
So that each head for his hour of possession
Wears the tiara of ages of crime:
Rome is infallible, Rome is eternal,
Rome is unchangeable, cruel, and strong,
Leagued with the legions of darkness infernal,
Crushing all right and upholding all wrong."

Note.--The value of the Greek letters, as numerals, in the
two words above, is as follows:--The three kappas = 60, the three
omicrons = 210, the three iotas = 30, the two pis = 160, the one
sigma = 200, the one epsilon = 5, and the one alpha = 1; in all
exactly making 666. This is "a private interpretation" of the
writer's own discovery, not to be found elsewhere, and quite as
convincing as Lateinos and the inscription on St. Peter's.

My friend Evelyn contributed to the perfection of the discovery. It was
he who suggested Kakoi to Episcopoi, to make up the number. There are
also some who say that our eccentric Premier's name sums up ominousl