near the Palace, with a hole in it. How did that hole ever get there ?
THE FUNERAL OF QUEEN BADEBEC.
in the easiest way possible ! Baby Pautagruel's teeth were already so big, and sharp, and strong, that, in his eagerness to get at the broth, he made a quick snap at the metal and broke through it, as though it were as flimsy as an egg-shell.
Another morning, at daybreak, when one of the four thousand six hundred cows, which gave him his principal food, was brought in to give him his breakfast, Pantagruel burst the bands which bound his arms, and caught hold of that poor cow to eat her alive ; and he would have, without doubt, eaten her all up if she hadn't bellowed as loudly as though a pack of wolves were just at that moment striking their teeth in her legs. At the poor cow's cries, everybody ran up and released her from the Giant baby's awful teeth. Such an offence as trying to eat alive an innocent cow, which had done her best, among her four thousand five hundred and ninety-nine companions, to give him milk, could not pass unnoticed. Gargantua, although, away down in his own heart, he was proud of his little son's strength, grew verv much afraid that, in some of his antics, he might hurt himself. He at once ordered Pantagruel to be bound to the cradle with great cables, and directed that, on no account, he should be allowed to get free from them. Here, then, was our poor Pantagruel in a bad fix ! Baby as he was, he often felt very wretched; but never more wretched than when a great, shaggy bear, which was a special pet of his
PANTAGRUEL'S PORRINGER.
father, made it a point of politeness to drop in every day and, with his dirty tongue, to lick his face, which, on the other hand, the Wise Women made a point never to touch. That bear came once too often. Pantagruel, being in a bad humor one particular day, and feeling the rough, furred tongue licking all over and over his face, gave one tremendous jerk, and broke his chains as easily as Samson had broken those of the Philistines. Then he stretched out his hairy hands, and caught Master Bear, and tore him into pieces with as much ease as he might have done a chicken.
This new exploit made Gargantua still prouder of his son ; but it was high time that something should be done with him. So he ordered to be made four great iron chains to hold him fast. One day a feast was given by King Gargantua in honor of the princes and nobles of his Court. It is pretty clear that all the great people, not to speak of the servants, had their time so well taken with the feast, that nobody ever thought it his business to bother himself about the little Prince, away upstairs in the nursery. If Pantagruel hated any one thing above another, that one thing was to be left by himself. What made it all the worse this time was that there he was in his cradle, closely chained, and obliged to listen to the gay sounds that swelled up, every now and then, from the dining-room. The poor child felt lonely. He tried to burst the chains which bound his arms to his cradle; but that he couldn't do, because they had been forged too strong and stout by the Royal Blacksmith. Then he began such a'stamping with his feet that he broke the foot-board of his cradle, which was made of a great beam seven feet square. The moment he had succeeded in getting his feet quite out of the broken end, he slid forward as far as the chains would let him, until at last his feet touched the floor. Then, with a great wrench, he raised himself on his feet, bearing his cradle triumphantly on his back, which made him look for all the world like a turtle, with his shell, trying to climb a wall.
Such was the strange sight which, on presenting itself in the Banqueting Hall, startled the gay company. Pantagruel walked straight to the table, where he at first thought he would need no assistance ; but he soon found himself obliged — not being, of course, able to use his hands — to lean forward, and lick up with his tongue any tidbit that he could find near the edge of the table. When his father saw how hungry he Avas, he knew well enough that his baby never would have broken through his cradle, and tramped down the stairs with it on his back, unless he had been left alone by his nurses. Turning to the princes and lords present, he asked them if it was not better that his boy should be freed from those heavy chains .
The guests, with one voice, declared that the chains were an insult to the young Prince ; and even the First Physician gave it as his opinion that, if Pantagruel were to be kept any longer fastened in such a way to his cradle, he would all his life be a cripple.
The moment he was unchained Pantagruel sat down at the table, and was made much of by every guest. Such a welcome soon made him feel quite at home, and he showed it by breaking, with one blow ot his fist,
that ugly cradle into more than five hundred thousand pieces, vowing to himself— he couldn't well say the words —that he would never be found in it again — never ! never ! never!
CHAPTER XXIV.
AFTER STUDYING AT SEVERAL UNIVERSITIES PANTAGRUEL GOES TO PARIS.
O Pantagruel grew, from day to day, in health, and stature, and strength, which, of course, gave great delight to his father. Gargantua ordered to be made for his son, while he was still small, a cross-bow, with which he could make himself merry in shooting at the little birds, and which is kept to this day, and is known as the great Cross-Bo w of Chantelle. It was not long after this that Pantagruel was sent off to school at Poitiers, under the charge of his tutor Epistemon, where he showed himself a diligent scholar.
Just before they left, while his son was getting into the saddle, good Father Gargantua had taken Epistemon on his arm for a few words of private talk. All he said, in a solemn whisper, was : ' Teach
THE GREAT CROSS-BOW OF CHANTELLE.
my boy, first of all, Greek ; secondly, Latin. My father cared for nothing so much as Latin. If I knew Greek half so well as I know my Latin, I should be happy.'
Having noticed that the students of Poitiers had often so much time on their hands that they did not know how to get rid of it, and being a good-hearted young Giant, Pantagruel thought he would take pity on them and devise some plan to help them. So, one fine day, he tore from a great ledge of rocks, which
THE GREAT RAISED STONE.
the people of the town called Passelourdin, a large stone, about twelve fathoms square, and carried it in his strong arms with the greatest ease to four pillars which then stood in the middle of a field, upon which, by sheer force, he placed the stone. None of the young students had the slightest idea why the Giant of whom they were so proud had robbed big Passelourdin, but it was not long before they began to do precisely what Pantagruel had thought they would do. Whenever they had nothing else to think about — which, by the way, happened the greater part of every day — they would fill up the time by climbing up to the stone, bearing with them flagons of wine and hams and pies, upon which they feasted with loud shouts of laughter, each one being sure to wind up his first day's fun by cutting his name deep into the surface of the stone. By and by, it began to be
PANTAGRUEL VISITS HIS ANCESTORS' TOMB.
talked about as the ' Raised Stone.' And, for a long time, no student was allowed to graduate at the University of Poitiers unless he had first solemnly sworn that he had drunk in the magical Fountain of Crou-stelles, had taken a walk to Passelourdin, and had from there climbed to the top of the ' Raised Stone.' While the students were making merry over their new game, Pantagruel was poring harder than ever over dusty old tomes in the Library of the University. One day, while he was reading the fine chronicles of his ancestors, he happened to turn over the page which told him of the famous Giant Jeffrey of Lusignan, nicknamed ' Jeffrey of the Great Tooth,' who was buried at Maillezais, near by. What should Pantagruel do but choose a play-day to pay his respects to the
