re
himself of the throne, to put to death all his relations. There issued
from him a long line of powerful kings.

One of them, Draco the Great, attained great renown as a man of war. He
was defeated more frequently than the others. It is by this constancy
in defeat that great captains are recognized. In twenty years he burned
down more than a hundred thousand hamlets, market towns, unwalled
towns, villages, walled towns, cities, and universities. He set fire
impartially to his enemies' territory and to his own domains. And he
used to explain his conduct by saying:

"War without fire is like tripe without mustard: it is an insipid
thing."

His justice was rigorous. When the peasants whom he made prisoners were
unable to raise the money for their ransoms he had them hanged from a
tree, and if any unhappy woman came to plead for her destitute husband
he dragged her by the hair at his horse's tail. He lived like a soldier
without effeminacy. It is satisfactory to relate that his manner of
life was pure. Not only did he not allow his kingdom to decline from its
hereditary glory, but, even in his reverses he valiantly supported the
honour of the Penguin people.

Draco the Great caused the relics of St. Orberosia to be transferred to
Alca.

The body of the blessed saint had been buried in a grotto on the Coast
of Shadows at the end of a scented heath. The first pilgrims who went
to visit it were the boys and girls from the neighbouring villages. They
used to go there in the evening, by preference in couples, as if their
pious desires naturally sought satisfaction in darkness and solitude.
They worshipped the saint with a fervent and discreet worship whose
mystery they seemed jealously to guard, for they did not like to publish
too openly the experiences they felt. But they were heard to murmur one
to another words of love, delight, and rapture with which they mingled
the name of Orberosia. Some would sigh that there they forgot the world;
others would say that they came out of the grotto in peace and calm; the
young girls among them used to recall to each other the joy with which
they had been filled in it.

Such were the marvels that the virgin of Alca performed in the morning
of her glorious eternity; they had the sweetness and indefiniteness
of the dawn. Soon the mystery of the grotto spread like a perfume
throughout the land; it was a ground of joy and edification for pious
souls, and corrupt men endeavoured, thou