Here he was interrupted by Sir O’Ham Ill Tong,—from whose mouth the clout had been removed,—with the ejaculation: “An sure, by our holy mother, what your honor is plased to say is all gospel truth, and by the same token, if there is any more, I believe it on my shoul! But if your honor will be so obbleeging as to order one of your giants to remove this gorget that binds my throat to the stake, and set me free, if yees have closed what ye are going to say, I can hear the rest more comfortably, and ye’ll save from fire as good a Christian as ever was burnt for pargary,—an for the life of me, I can’t just see how that can be, for I niver spoke a blissed word in the matter at all!”
This characteristic wordy appeal of the Irishman was complied with on the moment, and when released he fell on his knees at the feet of the tribune, invoking upon his head the blessings of all the saints in the Irish calendar, offering to serve him to the end of his days, on foot, or on roachback, for nothing at all save fair wages, hursts, perquisites, pickings, and the run of the kitchen, and sich likes! The ludicrous fall, in the use of words, from knightly inflation caused a smile notwithstanding the embarrassments imposed by our interruption. But the flow of his tongued gratitude to the ascendant party, having reference to future benefits, could with difficulty be stayed. When accomplished he was advised to return with all speed to the place of his birth before a worse evil befell his body than purification by fire.
The pope and his cardinals, while subject to the tribune’s reprehensions, became as servile in their bearing as they had before been arrogant. The pope’s offer of entertainment for the night we could not accept, after witnessing the barbarous proceedings of the day, as we preferred the protection of our silicoth tapas under the cornice to the lair hospitality of human wolves. After the crowd dispersed a messenger was despatched to apprise the Coliseans of the successful result of our enterprise, with the desire that a falcon might be sent for us at early dawn. In accordance with our request a falcon appeared with the earliest light on the following morning, and on alighting, to our great surprise, Idolisima Canonica, in company with the tribune’s parents and other representatives of Coliseo to the howdah’s full capacity for entertainment, descended to receive our salutations. It appeared, from the relation of the tribune’s sister, that Idolisima after leaving the lists had sought protection under the escort of Penny Song and Long Bow, at the coliseum, well knowing that the ties of daughter and sister would not save her from the dungeons of the Inquisition, recently built by the pope, her uncle. From the greeting she gave the tribune, it required no prompting of speech to apprise us that a stronger motive than fear of the dungeons caused her to seek an asylum with her foster guardians of childhood.