of
it the more I am convinced that Pyrot has stolen those eighty thousand
trusses of hay. And I know it by this: he stole them in order that he
might sell them to our bitter enemies the Porpoises. What an infamous
piece of treachery!

"There is no doubt about it," answered Panther; "it only remains to
prove it."

The same day, as he passed by a cavalry barracks, Prince des Boscenos
heard the troopers as they were sweeping out the yard, singing:

Boscenos est un gros cochon;
On en va faire des andouilles,
Des saucisses et du jambon
Pour le riveillon des pauy' bougres.

It seemed to him contrary to all discipline that soldiers should sing
this domestic and revolutionary refrain which on days of riot had been
uttered by the lips of jeering workmen. On this occasion he deplored the
moral degeneration of the army, and thought with a bitter smile that his
old comrade Greatauk, the head of this degenerate army, basely exposed
him to the malice of an unpatriotic government. And he promised himself
that he would make an improvement before long.

"That scoundrel Greatauk," said he to himself, "will, not remain long a
Minister."

Prince des Boscenos was the most irreconcilable of the opponents of
modern democracy, free thought, and the government which the Penguins had
voluntarily given themselves. He had a vigorous and undisguised hatred
for the Jews, and he worked in public and in private, night and day, for
the restoration of the line of the Draconides. His ardent royalism was
still further excited by the thought of his private affairs, which were
in a bad way and were hourly growing worse. He had no hope of seeing an
end to his pecuniary embarrassments until the heir of Draco the Great
entered the city of Alca.

When he returned to his house, the prince took out of his safe a bundle
of old letters consisting of a private correspondence of the most secret
nature, which he had obtained from a treacherous secretary. They proved
that his old comrade Greatauk, the Duke of Skull, had been guilty of
jobbery regarding the military stores and had received a present of no
great value from a manufacturer called Maloury. The very smallness of
this present deprived the Minister who had accepted it of all excuse.

The prince re-read the letters with a bitter satisfaction, put them
carefully back into his safe, and dashed to the Minister of War. He was
a man of resolute character. On being told that the Ministe