the legend; or whether I,
indeed, am not the only Knight of the Order who has troubled to think
anything about it."

"I fancy," said the Archbishop, "that the legend you refer to has a
flavor of medieval Romanism that would hardly commend itself to modern
ears."

The Prince smiled bitterly. "Your Grace persuades me," he said, "to tell
the story myself. At the point where it does not commend itself I shall
be glad to hear your criticism.

"The Founder--or ought I not rather to say the first Knight?--of the
Order was (if the story be true) a certain ancestor of our royal house
who had spent the greater part of his life in wars of unjust aggression.
To atone for them--or for other things which weighed more heavily on his
conscience--he went late in life on a crusade to the Holy Land; and
after being there handsomely trounced by the infidel, was returning in
dejection to the sea-coast with the mutinous remnant of his following,
when the founding of the Order of the Thorn occurred to him.

"It occurred to him thus: this at all events was his own account of it.
He had become separated from his company of knights, darkness was coming
on--when, as he spurred his tired steed with little mercy for its
exhausted condition, he passed by the roadside a beggar who cried out to
him for charity. But the charity asked for was not alms, but only the
withdrawal from the mendicant's foot of a thorn which troubled him.

"My ancestor, softened by some accent of gentleness or patience in the
suppliant's voice, dismounted to do the service required of him, and in
the growing darkness drew out the thorn. But when he had got it free
from the flesh it seemed no more a thorn but an iron nail; and the wound
out of which he had drawn it shone with celestial radiance. Then was
founded the Order. The Mendicant bade him bind the Thorn upon his heel
in the place of his spur, so that whenever thereafter he should be
tempted to goad or oppress whether man or beast the Thorn should remind
him of pity and mercy. I wait for your Grace's criticism of that
legend?"

The Archbishop made no reply: with a courteous gesture of the hand he
invited the Prince to continue.

"I hoped," said the young man, "to be instructed in the connection
between that Founding and the continuance of the Order. You spoke of
chivalry and loyalty; but the chivalry which you invited us to emulate
was merely the physical daring of our ancestors as proved in war
(wherein I am no