It is recorded that during
that triennial agitation no less than twenty-three Circles
perished in domestic discord.
Great indeed was the peril. It seemed as though the Priests
had no choice between submission and extermination; when suddenly
the course of events was completely changed by one of those picturesque
incidents which Statesmen ought never to neglect, often to anticipate,
and sometimes perhaps to originate, because of the absurdly
disproportionate power with which they appeal to the sympathies
of the populace.
It happened that an Isosceles of a low type, with a brain little
if at all above four degrees--accidentally dabbling in the colours
of some Tradesman whose shop he had plundered--painted himself,
or caused himself to be painted (for the story varies) with the twelve
colours of a Dodecagon. Going into the Market Place he accosted
in a feigned voice a maiden, the orphan daughter of a noble Polygon,
whose affection in former days he had sought in vain; and by a series
of deceptions--aided, on the one side, by a string of lucky accidents
too long to relate, and, on the other, by an almost inconceivable
fatuity and neglect of ordinary precautions on the part of the
relations of the bride--he succeeded in consummating the marriage.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74