"Well, then! Will Mademoiselle tell me what happened and who was reigning, in France, in 1001?"
And the brother and sister began to try, Henry pulling at his fore-lock, Mademoiselle shading her face with her two hands, a familiar trick with her, as though she were playing at hide-and-seek, and then she suddenly reveals her young and merry countenance, her smiling mouth, her limpid look. She was the first to say:
"Robert[572] was reigning, Gregory V.[573] was Pope, Basil II.[574] Emperor of the East..."
"And Otto III.[575] Emperor of the West," cried Henry, hurrying so as not to remain behind his sister, and added, "Veremund II.[576] in Spain."
Mademoiselle, interrupting him, said:
"Ethelred[577] in England."
"No, no," said her brother, "it was Edmund Ironside[578]."
Questions in History.
Mademoiselle was right; Henry was a few years out in favour of Ironside, who had fascinated him; but it was none the less prodigious.
"And my famous year?" asked Henry, in a half-vexed tone.