and to nothing. The bee did not atone, by its honey-making, for its

sting; a full-blown rose did not absolve the sun for yellow fever and

black vomit. It is probable that in secret Ursus criticized Providence a

good deal. "Evidently," he would say, "the devil works by a spring, and

the wrong that God does is having let go the trigger." He approved of

none but princes, and he had his own peculiar way of expressing his

approbation. One day, when James II. made a gift to the Virgin in a

Catholic chapel in Ireland of a massive gold lamp, Ursus, passing that

way with Homo, who was more indifferent to such things, broke out in

admiration before the crowd, and exclaimed, "It is certain that the

blessed Virgin wants a lamp much more than these barefooted children

there require shoes."

Such proofs of his loyalty, and such evidences of his respect for

established powers, probably contributed in no small degree to make the

magistrates tolerate his vagabond life and his low alliance with a wolf.

Sometimes of an evening, through the weakness of friendship, he allowed

Homo to stretch his limbs and wander at liberty about the caravan. The

wolf was incapable of an abuse of confidence, and behaved in society,

that is to say among men, with the discretion of a poodle. All the same,

if bad-tempered officials had to be dealt with, difficulties might have

arisen; so Ursus kept the honest wolf chained up as much as possible.

From a political point of view, his writing about gold, not very

intelligible in itself, and now become undecipherable, was but a smear,

and gave no handle to the enemy. Even after the time of James II., and

under the "respectable" reign of William and Mary, his caravan might

The Man Who Laughs