down and drummed up a procession of pilgrims and
smoked out a batch of hermits and started them out at two o'clock to meet him.
And that was the sort of state he arrived in. The Abbot was helpless with rage
and humiliation when I brought him out on a balcony and showed him the head of
the state marching in and never a monk on hand to offer him welcome, and no stir
of life or clang of joy-bell to glad his spirit. He took one look and then flew
to rouse out his forces. The next minute the bells were dinning furiously, and
the various buildings were vomiting monks and nuns, who went swarming in a rush
toward the coming procession; and with them went that magician - and he was on a
rail, too, by the Abbot's order; and his reputation was in the mud, and mine was
in the sky again. Yes, a man can keep his trade-mark current in such a country,
but he can't sit around and do it; he has got to be on deck and attending to
business, right along.
 

                                   Chapter 25

                           A Competitive Examination

When the king traveled, for change of air, or made a progress, or visited a
distant noble whom he wished to bankrupt with the cost of his keep, part of the
administration moved with him. It was a fashion of the time. The Commission
charged with the examination of candidates for posts in the army came with the
king to the valley, whereas they could have transacted their business just as
well at home. And although this expedition was strictly a holiday excursion for
the king, he kept some of his business functions going, just the same. He
touched for the evil as usual; he held court in the gate at sunrise and tried
causes, for he was himself Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
    He shone very well in this latter office. He was a wise and humane judge,
and he clearly did his honest best and fairest, - according to his lights. Yes,
according to his lights. That is a large reservation. His lights - I mean his
rearing - often colored his decisions. Whenever there was a dispute between a
noble or gentleman, and a person of lower degree, the king's leanings and
sympathies were for the former class always, whether he suspected it or not. It
was impossible that this should be otherwise. The blunting effects of slavery
upon the slaveholder's moral perceptions are known and conceded, the world over,
and a privileged class, an aristocracy, is but