ed
on Brother Copas with a request that he would write the libretto for
this Episode.

"But it was only last week you turned me on to Episode VI--King Hal
and the Emperor Charles the Fifth," Copas protested.

"We are hoping you will write this for us too," urged Mr. Colt.
"It oughtn't to take you long, you know. To begin with, no one knows
very much about that particular period."

"The less known the better, if we may trust the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_. A few realistic pictures of the diversions of the upper
classes--"

"Hawking was one, I believe?" opined Mr. Colt.

"Yes, and another was hanging the poor by their heels over a smoky
fire, and yet another was shutting them up in a close cell into which
had been inserted a few toads and adders."

"Her ladyship suggests a hawking scene, in the midst of which she is
surprised by King Stephen and his, er, myrmidons--if that be the
correct term--"

"It is at least as old as Achilles."

"She escapes from him on horseback. . . . At this point she wants to
know if we can introduce a water-jump."

"Nothing could be easier, in a blank verse composition," assented
Brother Copas gravely.

"You see, there is very little writing required. Just enough
dialogue to keep the thing going. . . . Her ladyship is providing her
own riding-habit and those of her attendant ladies, for whom she has
chosen six of the most beautiful maidens in the neighbourhood, quite
irrespective of class. The dresses are to be gorgeous."

"They will form a pleasing contrast, then, to King Stephen, whose
riding-breeches, as we know, 'cost him but a crown.' . . .
Very well, I will 'cut the cackle and come to the hosses.' And you,
Mr. Isidore? Do I read in your eye that you desire a similar
literary restraint in your Episode of King Hal?"

"Ach, yes," grinned Mr. Isidore. "_Cut ze caggle_--cabital!
I soggest in zat Ebisode we haf a Ballet."

"A Ballet?"

"A Ballet of Imberial Exbansion--ze first English discofferies ofer
sea--ze natives brought back in brocession to mek sobmission--"

"Devilish pretty substitute for Thomas Cromwell and the Reformation!"

"It was _zere_ lay ze future of Englandt, _hein_?"

"I see," said Brother Copas thoughtfully; "provided you make the
ballets of our nation, you don't care if your brother makes its
laws."

These preparations (he noted) had a small byproduct pleasantly
affecting St. Hospital. Mr. Colt, in his anxiety to enlist the
whole-hearted servic