Finally, he
dragged him down a long passage by the hair of his head and flung
him out of a window into the courtyard below."
"Was he much hurt?" asked the Baroness.
"More hurt than surprised," said Clovis. You see, the king was
notorious for his violent temper. However, this was the first
time he had let himself go so unrestrainedly on the top of a heavy
meal. The Librarian lingered for many days--in fact, for all I
know, he may have ultimately recovered, but Hkrikros died that
same evening. Vespaluus had hardly finished getting the honey
stains off his body before a hurried deputation came to put the
coronation oil on his head. And what with the publicly-witnessed
miracle and the accession of a Christian sovereign, it was not
surprising that there was a general scramble of converts to the
new religion. A hastily consecrated bishop was overworked with a
rush of baptisms in the hastily improvised Cathedral of St. Odilo.
And the boy-martyr-that-might-have-been was transposed in the
popular imagination into a royal boy-saint, whose fame attracted
throngs of curious and devout sightseers to the capital.
Vespaluus, who was busily engaged in organizing the games and
athletic contests that were to mark the commencement of his reign,
had no time to give heed to the religious fervour which was
effervescing round his personality; the first indication he had of
the existing state of affairs was when the Court Chamberlain (a
recent and very ardent addition to the Christian community)
brought for his approval the outlines of a projected ceremonial
cutting-down of the idolatrous serpent-grove.
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