ed by her questioner, and said that she would shortly go to
Bocheror; for this was the spot to which she meant to flee. And when the
beggar heard this, he insisted, with his wonted shrewd questions, upon
being told a fitting time for the tryst. The woman was as cunning as
he, and as little clear of speech, and named as quickly as she could the
beginning of the winter.

Her train, who had caught a flying word of this love-message, took her
great cleverness for the raving of utter folly. And when Snio had been
told all this by the beggar, he contrived to carry the queen off in
a vessel; for she got away under pretence of bathing, and took her
husband's treasures. After this there were constant wars between Snio
and the King of Sweden, whereof the issue was doubtful and the victory
changeful; the one king seeking to regain his lawful, the other to keep
his unlawful love.

At this time the yield of crops was ruined by most inclement weather,
and a mighty dearth of corn befell. Victuals began to be scarce, and
the commons were distressed with famine, so that the king, anxiously
pondering how to relieve the hardness of the times, and seeing that the
thirsty spent somewhat more than the hungry, introduced thrift among the
people. He abolished drinking-bouts, and decreed that no drink should be
prepared from gram, thinking that the bitter famine should be got rid
of by prohibiting needless drinking, and that plentiful food could be
levied as a loan on thirst.

Then a certain wanton slave of his belly, lamenting the prohibition
against drink, adopted a deep kind of knavery, and found a new way to
indulge his desires. He broke the public law of temperance by his own
excess, contriving to get at what he loved by a device both cunning
and absurd. For he sipped the forbidden liquor drop by drop, and so
satisfied his longing to be tipsy. When he was summoned for this by the
king, he declared that there was no stricter observer of sobriety than
he, inasmuch as he mortified his longing to quaff deep by this device
for moderate drinking. He persisted in the fault with which he was
taxed, saying that he only sucked. At last he was also menaced with
threats, and forbidden not only to drink, but even to sip; yet he could
not check his habits. For in order to enjoy the unlawful thing in
a lawful way, and not to have his throat subject to the command of
another, he sopped morsels of bread in liquor, and fed on the pieces
thus soaked with