sepulchre of the old Giant! Taking some friends along with him he soon reached Maillezais. All the way to the tomb he had been thinking of nothing but how he would do it honor ; but, when he got there, his eyes
PANTAGRUEL SETTLES AT ORLEANS.
seemed glued to a picture of his big-toothed ancestor, which hanging on the wall. It wasn't a cheerful portrait, I must say, for it made old Jeffrey of the Great Tooth look like a man in an awful fury and with a horrible toothache, half-drawing his great malchus out of its scabbard. The moment Pantagruel saw this, he grew half afraid and half angry. Pointing sternly to the picture, he said: —
' He has not been painted in this way without cause. See how his eyes glare, and how his great tooth seems to come out in pain. Why should he draw his malchus? I suspect that, at his death, some wrong was done to him which he looks to his kindred to avenge. I shall look deeper into this matter, and do what I shall think to be right.'
After having done a good turn for his fellow-students at Poitiers, Pantagruel resolved to visit the other Universities of France. He did not like Bordeaux very much, so he soon went to Toulouse. Here he learned to dance and to use the two-handed sword, — a special exercise with the students of that University. But he decided he wouldn't stay any longer at Toulouse after he had occasion to see how the students had sometimes a little trick of their own of roasting their regents alive, like so many red herrings. So he strode off to Mont-pelier, where he met pleasant company, and began to think, one day, that he ought to study Medicine, and the next, that the Law was, after all, the only thing for him ; but he soon grew tired of all this and, journeying from university to university, at last settled himself after a time at Orleans. Here he was made welcome with joyous shouts and much respect; and, as the students were none too fond of their books, Pantagruel took great pains to become a master at tennis, — the favorite game of the city. After several years passed at Orleans, he consulted with Epistemon about going to the great University of Paris. It was a glorious day for him — and I dare say the sober teacher himself, under all his wise look, was just as pleased as his pupil — when the journey was at last decided on. But, before leaving, the Giant was told that an enormous bell, belonging to the City of Orleans, had been lying under the ground at Saint Aignan for more than two hundred and fourteen years, as it was so big and heavy that no engine — much less, men — could be found strong enough to move it from its place. The fact is, the good people of Orleans, having heard that the Giant was thinking of leaving them for good, came before him, humbly praying him, before his departure, to bring that great bell to the tower which had been waiting ever so many years for it. Pantagruel, with his usual kindness, went to the spot where the bell was, and lifted it as easily as if it had been a hawk's bell. As he was quite sure of his own strength, Pantagruel thought that, before carrying the bell to the belfry, he would take a stroll about the city with it in his hands, making it ring in the streets and by-ways. Of course everybody in Orleans — man, woman, boy, girl; even the babies, who didn't know what they were smiling at, but showed their little white teeth and dimpling cheeks all the same — were all out, crowding the streets and jostling in the by-ways. But
PANTAGRUEL ENTERS PAKIS.
here, while our Pantagruel was amusing himself and while the ringing was sounding through the city, there came a terrible misfortune, of which nobody had the slightest idea at the time. It was only found out at night, when the simple people wanted to drink in honor of the great event, that all the good wine of Orleans had of a sudden curdled and turned sour. It was the awful strokes of that tremendous bell in Pantagruel's hand, as he tramped up and dow r n the streets, which had curdled the Orleans wine, and made the honest people who drank it spit as white as cotton, crying out: ' We have caught the Pantagruel, and our very throats are salted.'
After this exploit Pautagruel, with Epistemon, and his valet Carpalim, was very glad to start for Paris. On entering that city, all the people stretched their heads out of the windows to see him pass; peering down at his feet as he tramped through the streets, and then, with their mouths wide open, craning their necks to see how high in the clouds his head might be. They were just a little afraid, in their curiosity, that their visitor might take up their King's Palace and stalk away with it, as his father Gargantua, whom every old w 7 oman had seen and of whom every child had heard, had carried away, years and years before, the Bells of Notre Dame to hang them around his Mare's neck.
PANTAGRUEL IN THE LIBRARY.
' Clear enough, this young Giant is the old Giant's son,' the gossips whispered to each other.
While in Paris, Pantagruel — as was the fashion for young men to do — went one day to see the world- famous Victor Library. There he found books with high titles on the covers, and no sense between them. One look at the shelves of the Victor Library was enough for the Prince.
After a few months passed in Paris — studying and gaining great stores of knowledge all the time,— Pantagruel, in reply to one who asked him what he thought of the city, answered drily, that while ' Paris was a very good place to live in, it was a very bad place to die in.'
CHAPTER XXV.
PANTAGRUEL FINDS PANURGE, WHOM HE LOVES ALL HIS LIFE.
ONE day Pantagruel was strolling outside the city-walls towards the Abbey St. Antoine. While engaged in philosophical talk with his own people, and several students besides, he happened to see, coming along the road, a young man of fine height and handsome presence, who looked so bloody and so woebegone, and whose clothes hung around him in such tatters and rags, that he seemed to have barely escaped with his life from a pack of mad dogs. As soon as his eyes fell upon the man, Pantagruel said to his attendants : —
' Do you see that man yonder, coming from Charanton Bridge ? By my faith, he is poor only in fortune. As far as I can judge by his features, Nature has given that man a rich and noble lineage.'
When the stranger had come up to them, Pantagruel said to him : ' My good friend, I beg you to stop a moment, and answer a few questions which I am about to ask you. You will not repent it if you do so, as I feel a strange desire to aid you in the distress in which I see you, for you excite my pity. Before all, my friend, tell me who you are ? Where do you come from ? What do you seek ? And what is your name ? ' The stranger then answered him : — In German —
To which Pantagruel, not knowing a single word, replied : — 'My friend, I don't quite understand this gibberish. If you want us to get at your meaning, speak to us in another language.'
Then the stranger spoke : —
In Arabic —
' Ha ! Do you know what he is saying, Master ? ' cried Pantagruel to Epistenion.
Epistemon's answer was a shake of the head.
Then in Italian —
To which Master Episternon only said : ' As much of one as of the other, and nothing of either.'
Then the solitary wanderer spoke : —
In English —
What he said in a very strange English was : ' Lord, if you be so vertuous of intelligence, as you be naturally releaved to the body, you should have pity of me ; for nature hath made us equal, but fortune hath some exalted, and others deprived; nevertheless is vertue often deprived, and the vertuous men despised; for before the last end none is good.'
'Ho ! still less,' cried poor Pantagruel.
Then the Basque —
Caparlim, Pantagruel's valet, thought he caught something familiar here, but the stranger went on as if nothing had been said.
In a rattling unknown language —
