And young Oddoul, believing that it was Gudrune herself, answered with
downcast looks:

"It is by the grace of the Lord that I have resisted the violence of the queen
and braved the anger of that powerful woman."

And the angel asked:
"What? Hast thou not done what the queen accuses thee of?"

"In truth no, I have not done it," answered Oddoul, his hand on his heart.
"Thou hast not done it?"

"No, I have not done it. The very thought of such an action fills me with
horror."

"Then," cried the angel, "what art thou doing here, thou impotent creature?" *
* The Penguin chronicler who relates the fact employs the expression, Species

inductilis. I have endeavoured to translate it literally.
And she opened the door to facilitate the young man's escape. Oddoul felt

himself pushed violently out. Scarcely had he gone down into the street than a
chamber-pot was poured over his head; and he thought:

"Mysterious are thy designs, O Lord, and thy ways past finding out."
II. DRACO THE GREAT (Translation of the Relics of St. Orberosia)

The direct posterity of Brian the Good was extinguished about the year 900 in
the person of Collic of the Short Nose. A cousin of that prince, Bosco the

Magnanimous, succeeded him, and took care, in order to assure himself of the
throne, to put to death all his relations. There issued from him a long line

of powerful kings.
One of them, Draco the Great, attained great renown as a man of war. He was

defeated more frequently than the others. It is by this constancy in defeat
that great captains are recognized. In twenty years he burned down more than a

hundred thousand hamlets, market towns, unwalled towns, villages, walled
towns, cities, and universities. He set fire impartially to his enemies'

territory and to his own domains. And he used to explain his conduct by
saying:

"War without fire is like tripe without mustard: it is an insipid thing."
His justice was rigorous. When the peasants whom he made prisoners were unable

to raise the money for their ransoms he had them hanged from a tree, and if
any unhappy woman came to plead for her destitute husband he dragged her by

the hair at his horse's tail. He lived like a soldier without effeminacy. It
is satisfactory to relate that his manner of life was pure. Not only did he

not allow his kingdom to decline from its hereditary glory, but, even in his
reverses he valiantly" target="_blank" title="ad.勇敢地，英勇地">valiantly supported the honour of the Penguin people.

Draco the Great caused the relics of St. Orberosia to be transferred to Alca.
The body of the blessed saint had been buried in a grotto on the Coast of

Shadows at the end of a scented heath. The first pilgrims who went to visit it
were the boys and girls from the neighbouring villages. They used to go there

in the evening, by preference in couples, as if their pious desires naturally
sought satisfaction in darkness and solitude. They worshipped the saint with a

fervent and discreetworship whose mystery they seemed jealously to guard, for
they did not like to publish too openly the experiences they felt. But they

were heard to murmur one to another words of love, delight, and rapture with
which they mingled the name of Orberosia. Some would sigh that there they

forgot the world; others would say that they came out of the grotto in peace
and calm; the young girls among them used to recall to each other the joy with

which they had been filled in it.
Such were the marvels that the virgin of Alca performed in the morning of her

glorious eternity; they had the sweetness and indefiniteness of the dawn. Soon
the mystery of the grotto spread like a perfume throughout the land; it was a

ground of joy and edification for pious souls, and corrupt men endeavoured,
though in vain, by falsehood and calumny, to divert the faithful from the

springs of grace that flowed from the saint's tomb. The Church took measures
so that these graces should not remain reserved for a few children, but should

be diffused throughout all Penguin Christianity. Monks took up their quarters
in the grotto, they built a monastery, a chapel, and a hostelry on the coast,

and pilgrims began to flock thither.
As if strengthened by a longer sojourn in heaven, the blessed Orberosia now

performed still greater miracles for those who came to lay their offerings on
her tomb. She gave hopes to women who had been hithertobarren, she sent

dreams to reassurejealous old men concerning the fidelity of the young wives
whom they had suspected without cause, and she protected the country from

plagues, murrains, famines, tempests, and dragons of Cappadocia.
But during the troubles that desolated the kingdom in the time of King Collic

and his successors, the tomb of St. Orberosia was plundered of its wealth, the
monastery burned down, and the monks dispersed. The road that had been so long

trodden by devout pilgrims was overgrown with furze and heather, and the blue
thistles of the sands. For a hundred years the miraculous tomb had been

visited by none save vipers, weasels, and bats, when, one day the saint
appeared to a peasant of the neighbourhood, Momordic by name.

"I am the virgin Orberosia," said she to him; "I have chosen thee to restore
my sanctuary. Warn the inhabitants of the country that if they allow my memory

to be blotted out, and leave my tomb without honour and wealth, a new dragon
will come and devastate Penguinia."

Learned churchmen held an inquiryconcerning this apparition, and pronounced
it genuine, and not diabolical but truly heavenly, and in later years it was

remarked that in France, in like circumstances, St. Foy and St. Catherine had
acted in the same way and made use of similar language.

The monastery was restored and pilgrims flocked to it anew. The virgin
Orberosia worked greater and greater miracles. She cured divers hurtful

maladies, particularly club-foot, dropsy, paralysis, and St. Guy's disease.
The monks who kept the tomb were enjoying an enviable opulence, when the

saint, appearing to King Draco the Great, ordered him to recognise her as the
heavenlypatron of the kingdom and to transfer her precious remains to the

cathedral of Alca.
In consequence, the odoriferous relics of that virgin were carried with great

pomp to the metropolitan church and placed in the middle of the choir in a
shrine made of gold and enamel and ornamented with precious stones.

The chapter kept a record of the miracles wrought by the blessed Orberosia.
Draco the Great, who had never ceased to defend and exalt the Christian faith,

died fulfilled with the most pious sentiments and bequeathed his great
possessions to the Church.

II. QUEEN CRUCHA
Terrible disorders followed the death of Draco the Great. That prince's

successors have often been accused of weakness, and it is true that none of
them followed, even from afar, the example of their valiant ancestor.

His son, Chum, who was lame, failed to increase the territory of the Penguins.
Bolo, the son of Chum, was assassinated by the palace guards at the age of

nine, just as he was ascending the throne. His brother Gun succeeded him. He
was only seven years old and allowed himself to be governed by his mother,

Queen Crucha.
Crucha was beautiful, learned, and intelligent; but she was unable to curb her

own passions.
These are the terms in which the venerable Talpa expresses himself in his

chronicleregarding that illustrious queen:
"In beauty of face and symmetry of figure Queen Crucha yields neither to

Semiramis of Babylon nor to Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons; nor to Salome,
the daughter of Herodias. But she offers in her person certain singularities

that will appear beautiful or uncomely according to the contradictory opinions
of men and the varying judgments of the world. She has on her forehead two

small horns which she conceals in the abundant folds of her golden hair; one
of her eyes is blue and one is black; her neck is bent towards the left side;

and, like Alexander of Macedon, she has six fingers on her right hand, and a
stain like a little monkey's head upon her skin.

"Her gait is majestic and her manner affable. She is magnificent in her
expenses, but she is not always able to rule desire by reason.

"One day, having noticed in the palace stables, a young groom of great beauty,
she immediately fell violently in love with him, and entrusted to him the

command of her armies. What one must praise unreservedly in this great queen
is the abundance of gifts that she makes to the churches, monasteries, and

chapels in her kingdom, and especially to the holy house of Beargarden, where,
by the grace of the Lord, I made my profession in my fourteenth year. She has

founded masses for the repose of her soul in such great numbers that every
priest in the Penguin Church is, so to speak, transformed into a taper lighted

in the sight of heaven to draw down the divine mercy upon the august Crucha."
From these lines and from some others with which have enriched my text the

reader can judge of the historical and literary value of the "Gesta
Penguinorum." Unhappily, that chronicle suddenly comes suddenly to an end at

third year of Draco the Simple, the successor of Gun the Weak. Having reached
that point of my history, I deplore the loss of an agreeable and trustworthy

guide.
During the two centuries that followed, the Penguins remained plunged in

blood-stained disorder. All the arts perished. In the midst of the general
ignorance, the monks in the shadow of their cloisterdevoted themselves to

study, and copied the Holy Scriptures with indefatigable zeal. As parchment
was scarce,they scraped the writing off old manuscripts in order to transcribe

upon them the divine word. Thus throughout the breadth of Penguinia Bibles
blossomed forth like roses on a bush.

A monk of the order of St. Benedict, Ermold the Penguin, had himself alone
defaced four thousand Greek and Latin manuscripts so as to copy out the Gospel

of St. John four thousand times. Thus the masterpieces of ancient poetry and
eloquence were destroyed in great numbers. Historians are unanimous in

recognising that the Penguin convents were the refuge of learning during the
Middle Ages.

Unending wars between the Penguins and the Porpoises filled the close of this
period. It is extremely difficult to know the truth concerning these wars, not