Volume I Part 24 (2/2)

Quite proverbial, the une slips of royalty

But there was so Peepi, that at first one hardly knehat to conclude

The first compliments over, the company were invited inland to a shady retreat

As we pursued the path, walking between old Mohi the keeper of chronicles and Sahten a stranger concerning the history of this curious Peepi

Whereupon the chronicler gave us the following account; for all of which he alone is responsible

Peepi, it see before he was born; his sire dying so his divan, declared that he left awith the royal dignity, and superadded to the soul possessed in his own proper person, the infant monarch was supposed to have inherited the valiant spirits of soes, sied in his sire

Most opulent in spiritual gifts was this lord of Valapee; the legatee, moreover, of numerous anonymous souls, bequeathed to him by their late loyal proprietors By a slavish act of his convocation of chiefs, he also possessed the reversion of all and singular the iht die intestate in Valapee Servile, yet audacious senators! thus prospectively to adhts of posterity But while yet unborn, the people of Valapee had been deprived of ht to wrest from their descendants And fore more profound, than Peepi the Present

Witness the demeanor of the chieftains of old, upon every new investiture of the royal serpent In a fever of loyalty, they ont to present theh with the court cere, so called: inverted endeavors to assuan the base

It was to the frequent practice of this cereent observers imputed the flattened noses of the elderly chiefs of the island; who, nevertheless, loried therein

It was these chiefs, also, who still observed the old-fashi+oned custo frohs; so that while advancing in the contrary direction, their faces ht be still deferentially turned toward their lord and master A fine view of hih an arch

But to return to Peepi, the inheritor of souls and subjects It was an article of faith with the people of Valapee, that Peepi not only actually possessed the souls bequeathed to him; but that his oas enriched by their peculiar qualities: The headlong valor of the late Tongatona; the pusillani of Voyo; the siality of Zonoree; the thrift of titonti

But had all these, and similar opposite qualities, simultaneously acted as motives upon Peepi, certes, he would have been a most pitiable mortal, in a ceaseless eddy of resolves, incapable of a solitary act

But blessed be the Gods, it was otherwise Though it fared little better for his subjects as it was His assorted souls were upperatona ruled the isle,wars and invasions; to the levies, turned his attention to the terraces of yah capable of action, Peepi, by reason of these revolving souls in his

What the open-handed Zonoree promised freely to-day, the parsimonious titonti withheld to-s of Voyo; and Voyo the doings of Rayislative uproar and confusion; advance and retreat; abrogations and revivals; foundations without superstructures; nothing permanent but the island itself

Nor were there those in the neighboring countries, who failed to reap profit frodoal Zonoree was lord of the ascendant And audacious claied upon the state when the pusillani them

Thus subject to contrary impulses, over which he had not the faintest control, Peepi was plainly denuded of all ent, than the heart which beat in his bosom

Wherefore, his co that curious, but alar Peepi was reeable to truth But when they went further, and vowed by statute, that Peepi could do no wrong, they assuredly did violence to the truth; besides,an absolute aversion to evil, by his very nature it was the hardest thing in the world for Peepi to do right

Taking all these things into consideration, then, no wonder that this wholly irresponsible young prince should be a lad of considerable assurance, and the easiest arded In Valapee

Coiling through the thickets, like the track of a serpent, wound along the path we pursued And ere long we ca an oval arbor Here, we reclined at our ease, and refreshments were served