or Luke thinks more of me than he
does."

While her mind was in this state, Giles came roaring. "I've hit the
clout; our Gerard is Vicar of Gouda."

A very brief sketch of the dwarf's court life will suffice to prepare
the reader for his own account of this feat. Some months before he went
to court his intelligence had budded. He himself dated the change from
a certain 8th of June, when, swinging by one hand along with the week's
washing on a tight rope in the drying ground, something went crack
inside his head; and lo! intellectual powers unchained. At court his
shrewdness and bluntness of speech, coupled with his gigantic voice and
his small stature, made him a Power: without the last item I fear they
would have conducted him to that unpopular gymnasium, the gallows. The
young Duchess of Burgundy, and Marie the heiress apparent, both petted
him, as great ladies have petted dwarfs in all ages; and the court poet
melted butter by the six-foot rule, and poured enough of it down his
back to stew Goliah in. He even amplified, versified, and enfeebled
certain rough and ready sentences dictated by Giles.

The centipedal prolixity that resulted went to Eli by letter, thus
entitled--

"The high and puissant Princess Marie
of Bourgogne her lytel jantilman hys
complaynt of y' Coort, and
praise of a rusticall lyfe, versificated, and empapyred
by me the lytel jantilman's right lovynge
and obsequious servitor, etc."

But the dwarf reached his climax by a happy mixture of mind and muscle;
thus:

The day before a grand court joust he challenged the Duke's giant to
a trial of strength. This challenge made the gravest grin, and aroused
expectation.

Giles had a lofty pole planted ready, and at the appointed hour went up
it like a squirrel, and by strength of arm made a right angle with his
body, and so remained: then slid down so quickly, that the high and
puissant princess squeaked, and hid her face in her hands, not to see
the demise of her pocket-Hercules.

The giant effected only about ten feet, then looked ruefully up and
ruefully down, and descended, bathed in perspiration to argue the
matter.

"It was not the dwarf's greater strength, but his smaller body."

The spectators received this excuse with loud derision. There was the
fact, the dwarf was great at mounting a pole: the giant only great at
excuses. In short Giles had gauged their intellects: with his own body
no doubt.

"Co