'
`` `Or else,' said the Librarian, `there is something
irremediably right about Prince Vespaluus.'
`` `If Vespaluus is right I must be wrong,' said the king.
``The Librarian was silent for a moment. Hasty speech has
been the downfall of many; ill-considered silence was the
undoing of the luckless Court functionary.
``Forgetting the restraint due to his dignity, and the
golden rule which imposes repose of mind and body after a
heavy meal, the king rushed upon the keeper of the royal
books and hit him repeatedly and promiscuously over the head
with an ivory chess-board, a pewter wine-flagon, and a brass
candlestick; he knocked him violently and often against an
iron torch sconce, and kicked him thrice round the
banqueting chamber with rapid, energetic kicks. Finally, he
dragged him down a long passage by the hair of his head and
flung him out of a window into the courtyard below.''
``Was he much hurt?'' asked the Baroness.
``More hurt than surprised,'' said Clovis. ``You see, the
king was notorious for his violent temper. However, this
was the first time he had let himself go so unrestrainedly
on the top of a heavy meal.
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