“You’re the eldest, you know,” added Erato, a little maliciously. Erato had taken a cushion from the divan, and stretched herself very lazily on the floor. I am afraid the other Muses were all anxious to get Clio’s story over as soon as possible. History was her province, and she was so exceedingly historical as to be sometimes almost dull.
“Very well, then. I will begin,” said Clio. “The number of temporal lords summoned by writ to the parliaments of the House of Plantagenet was exceedingly various.”
Clio paused. There was a sly, mischievous look on Erato’s face; she stretched out one hand to the golden casket, and took from it a little powder, which she dropped into the brazier. A strange, pungent odour came up from it. I do not know what it was, but it had a curious effect.
“I think I will begin again,” said Clio. “That’s the wrong story.”
Then she told the story which follows. I am afraid the powder had a little to do with it.
With the battle of Waterloo the last hope of Charles was humbled in the dust. Three years afterwards he was found by the lictors seated in a poor third-class compartment in the railway junction which was erected on the site of that scene of carnage, and still retains the name of Waterloo. Charles surveyed them from the window, calmly and unflinchingly. “Go,” he said, “and tell the Carthaginians that you have seen Marius seated in the South-Eastern Express for Charing Cross.”
His request was never carried out. It was almost impossible to book through to Carthage, and it was too far to walk. With tears in their eyes, the lictors walked sorrowfully away to the refreshment-room. The train steamed out of the station and arrived a week later at Charing Cross, a little tired, but in fairly good condition. Charles Marius levied two benevolences on the arrival platform, and conferred a monopoly on the bookstall; but he was not looking at all well. The marshes of Minturnæ, and a rooted dislike to being called a man of blood, had preyed on his mind, and made him appear haggard and anxious. He was met under the clock by the aged Menenius Agrippa, Socrates, John Bradshaw, the Spanish Ambassador, and others. John Bradshaw was naturally the first to speak.
“As Serjeant-at-Law and President of the High Court of Justice, it is my painful duty to——”
“Stay,” interrupted Menenius Agrippa. “I once told a fable to the Plebeians, and it did good. It is not generally known, and it may be of service in the present critical juncture. Charles Marius, you man of blood, listen. Once upon a time the members refused to work any longer for the Belly, which led a lazy life, and grew fat upon——”