ail
disputed sovereignty with the Purple Emperor. Fortune declared against
him, and he retreated, like some Hereward, to the fens. There to this day
he holds a third-rate court.

[Illustration: PEACOCKS.]

It was a brilliant gathering that greeted the Emperor. Every colour, every
form was there. Whites and brimstones, silver-studded fritillaries,
peacocks, red admirals, and painted ladies, walls and ringlets,
hairstreaks, blues, and skippers, even the little Duke of Burgundy, even
the white and admirable Sibylla.

[Illustration: HAIRSTREAKS.]

Happy midsummer children! They flashed their dainty tints from leaf to
leaf, from flower to flower, their life one long-drawn revel in the
sunshine.

From his high throne the Emperor watched and envied. He was tiring of
lonely grandeur. Now and again he soared a hundred feet into the air, then
with his wings full spread and motionless, sailed slowly back on to the
summit of the oak.

[Illustration: ADMIRALS.]

Never was flight more exquisite. As he rose, one caught the glint of the
imperial purple; as he descended, its full glory was revealed. Nowhere in
nature is the pure radiant effulgence of that purple surpassed. It is
the purple of the rainbow itself.

[Illustration: SKIPPERS.]

[Illustration: THE WHITE AND ADMIRABLE SIBYLLA.]

[Illustration: SHE SAT ON AN OAK PINNACLE OUTLINED AGAINST THE SKY.]

Once, and once only, did he deign to touch the ground. Deep in the hollow
behind the clearing, where the footpaths crossed each other, a shallow
muddied pool had formed. In it the Emperor saw, from on high, his own
reflection. Perhaps it was mere vanity that drew him closer; perhaps the
fancy that he saw a rival; perhaps, but this is not likely, thirst. Close
to the margin lay a rough-edged clumsy flint. On this he settled, and,
Narcissus like, feasted his eyes on his own beauty. He nearly met
Narcissus' fate. It was the flint that saved him. He felt the shadow,
almost before it reached him, but even so he rose too late. For half a
minute he, the Purple Emperor, was prisoner in a boy's straw hat. Had
the hat covered the flint completely, he must assuredly have graced a
cabinet. Fortunately for him the flint was just an inch too wide. The hat
lay slant-wise across it, leaving a narrow crescent outlet on each side.

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR ALIGHTED WITHIN A FOOT OF HER, ... AS HE OPENED
HIS WINGS TO SHOW THEIR BEAUTY.]

An old collector would have doffed his coat to