"'I give you free leave to pick and choose your arguments in the
royal woods and coppices,' said the king; 'if you cannot get
together some cutting observations and stinging retorts suitable
to the occasion you are a person of very poor resource.'
"So the Librarian went into the woods and gathered a goodly
selection of highly argumentative rods and switches, and then
proceeded to reason with Vespaluus on the folly and iniquity and
above all the unseemliness of his conduct. His reasoning left a
deep impression on the young prince, an impression which lasted
for many weeks, during which time nothing more was heard about the
unfortunate lapse into Christianity. Then a further scandal of
the same nature agitated the Court. At a time when he should have
been engaged in audibly invoking the gracious protection and
patronage of the holy serpents, Vespaluus was heard singing a
chant in honour of St. Odilo of Cluny. The king was furious at
this new outbreak, and began to take a gloomy view of the
situation; Vespaluus was evidently going to show a dangerous
obstinacy in persisting in his heresy. And yet there was nothing
in his appearance to justify such perverseness; he had not the
pale eye of the fanatic or the mystic look of the dreamer.
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