ore recent kings call
'Royalties'--taxes on everything they touch. And one of these Frank
knights or Counts--a little franker than the rest--and as incredulous
of St. Remy's saintship as a Protestant Bishop, or Positivist
Philosopher--took upon him to dispute the King's and the Church's
claim, in the manner, suppose, of a Liberal opposition in the House of
Commons; and disputed it with such security of support by the public
opinion of the fifth century, that--the king persisting in his
request--the fearless soldier dashed the vase to pieces with his
war-axe, exclaiming "Thou shalt have no more than thy portion by lot."

42. It is the first clear assertion of French 'Liberte, Fraternite and
Egalite,' supported, then, as now, by the destruction, which is the
only possible active operation of "free" personages, on the art they
cannot produce.

The king did not continue the quarrel. Cowards will think that he paused
in cowardice, and malicious persons, that he paused in malignity. He
_did_ pause in anger assuredly; but biding its time, which the anger of
a strong man always can, and burn hotter for the waiting, which is one
of the chief reasons for Christians being told not to let the sun go
down upon it. Precept which Christians now-a-days are perfectly ready to
obey, if it is somebody else who has been injured; and indeed, the
difficulty in such cases is usually to get them to think of the injury
even while the Sun rises on their wrath.[18]

[Footnote 18: Read Mr. Plimsoll's article on coal mines for instance.]

43. The sequel is very shocking indeed--to modern sensibility. I give
it in the, if not polished, at least delicately varnished, language of
the Pictorial History.

"About a year afterwards, on reviewing his troops, he went to the man
who had struck the vase, and _examining his arms, complained_ that
_they_ were in bad condition!" (Italics mine) "and threw them" (What?
shield and sword?) on the ground. The soldier stooped to recover them;
and at that moment the King struck him on the head with his
battle-axe, crying 'Thus didst thou to the vase at Soissons.'" The
Moral modern historian proceeds to reflect that "this--as an evidence
of the condition of the Franks, and of the ties by which they were
united, gives but the idea of a band of Robbers and their chief."
Which is, indeed, so far as I can myself look into and decipher the
nature of things, the Primary idea to be entertained respecting most
of the king