an account of
the numerous publications upon the Game of Chess, in various countries
and languages, and were expressing our delight in reading anecdotes
about eminent chess players, Lisardo was carefully packing up his
books, as he expected his servant every minute to take them away. The
servant shortly arrived, and upon his expressing his inability to
carry the entire packet--"Here," exclaimed Lisardo, "do you take the
quartos, and follow me; who will march onward with the octavos." This
was no sooner said than our young bibliomaniacal convert gave De Bure,
Gaignat, and La Valliere, a vigorous swing across his shoulders; while
the twenty quarto volumes of Clement and Panzer were piled, like "Ossa
upon Pelion," upon those of his servant--and

"Light of foot, and light of heart"

Lisardo took leave of us 'till the morrow.

Meanwhile, the chess combat continued with unabated spirit. Here
Philemon's king stood pretty firmly guarded by both his knights, one
castle, one bishop, and a body of common soldiers[218]--impenetrable
as the Grecian phalanx, or Roman legion; while his queen had made a
sly sortie to surprise the only surviving knight of Narcottus.
Narcottus, on the other hand, was cautiously collecting his scattered
foot soldiers, and, with two bishops, and two castle-armed elephants,
were meditating a desperate onset to retrieve the disgrace of his lost
queen. An inadvertent remark from Lysander, concerning the antiquity
of the game, attracted the attention of Philemon so much as to throw
him off his guard; while his queen, forgetful of her sex, and
venturing unprotected, like Penthesilea of old, into the thickest of
the fight, was trampled under foot, without mercy,[219] by a huge
elephant, carrying a castle of armed men upon his back. Shouts of
applause, from Narcottus's men, rent the vaulted air; while grief and
consternation possessed the astonished army of Philemon. "Away with
your antiquarian questions," exclaimed the latter, looking sharply at
Lysander: "away with your old editions of the Game of Chess! The
moment is critical; and I fear the day may be lost. Now for desperate
action!" So saying, he bade the King exhort his dismayed subjects. His
Majesty made a spirited oration; and called upon _Sir Launcelot_, the
most distinguished of the two Knights,[220] to be mindful of his own
and of his country's honour: to spare the effusion of blood among his
subjects as much as possible; but rather to place vi