, and Trinco lost it to us. As great in his
defeats as in his victories he surrendered all that he had conquered.
He even allowed those two islands we possessed before his time,
Ampelophoria and the Dog's Jaws, to be taken from us. He left Penguinia
impoverished and depopulated. The flower of the insula perished in his
wars. At the time of his fall there were left in our country none but
the hunchbacks and cripples from whom we are descended. But he gave us
glory."

"He made you pay dearly for it!"

"Glory never costs too much," replied my guide.

III. THE JOURNEY OF DOCTOR OBNUBILE

After a succession of amazing vicissitudes, the memory of which is in
great part lost by the wrongs of time and the bad style of historians,
the Penguins established the government of the Penguins by themselves.
They elected a diet or assembly, and invested it with the privilege of
naming the Head of the State. The latter, chosen from among the simple
Penguins, wore no formidable monster's crest upon his head and exercised
no absolute authority over the people. He was himself subject to the
laws of the nation. He was not given the title of king, and no ordinal
number followed his name. He bore such names as Paturle, Janvion,
Traffaldin, Coquenhot, and Bredouille. These magistrates did not make
war. They were not suited for that.

The new state received the name of Public Thing or Republic. Its
partisans were called republicanists or republicans. They were also
named Thingmongers and sometimes Scamps, but this latter name was taken
in ill part.

The Penguin democracy did not itself govern. It obeyed a financial
oligarchy which formed opinion by means of the newspapers, and held
in its hands the representatives, the ministers, and the president.
It controlled the finances of the republic, and directed the foreign
affairs of the country as if it were possessed of sovereign power.

Empires and kingdoms in those days kept up enormous fleets. Penguinia,
compelled to do as they did, sank under the pressure of her armaments.
Everybody deplored or pretended to deplore so grievous a necessity.
However, the rich, and those engaged in business or affairs, submitted
to it with a good heart through a spirit of patriotism, and because they
counted on the soldiers and sailors to defend their goods at home and
to acquire markets and territories abroad. The great manufacturers
encouraged the making of cannons and ships through a zeal for the
n