“One of the first acts of the court was the proclamation of an interdict prohibiting the Romans from holding communication with the Coliseos under the penalty of excommunication from the only true and holy church. We well understood the term excommunication in context, although the court was wary in using threats of torture and death, against the parents who had entrusted their children to our care, until they had tested our disposition by overt acts of intimidation. For this purpose they have arrested the parents of our pupils on their return to Rome after paying their monthly visits to their children. To-morrow they celebrate a saint’s day, in the calendar of the Mouthpat Church, and are erecting in the gutter-leads of the church of San Lorenzo, lists with barriers and the usual requisites necessary for the accommodation of spectators, and actors that engage in the barbarous follies of a tournament. But the real object is the inauguration of an inquisitorial chapter. The pomp and ceremonials only serving as an introductory blind, that will hold pity in check by arousing the passions with chivalric show in brutal enactment as a placebo for the final catastrophe. In order that the pomp might equal that of their Giga exemplars, who are engaged in preparing for a like celebration, they in anticipation sent challenges to the most celebrated and valorous representatives of Animalculan knighthood throughout the courts of Europe, subject to a like defiance from their Giga contemporaries; whose heralds acted as the locomotive beasts of burden for the transportation of their parasitic knights errant. To prevent imposition, the field kings of all the countries in Christendom, subject to Animalculan sway, were requested to add their attest to the order and standing of the knight applicants, also to the service reputation of esquires emulous of achieving the honorable distinction of wearing golden spurs. The requirements of those desirous of contending for love and honor in the lists, on roachback with spear and sword, were—to be of pure lineage, of not less than three generations, in affirmed descent, free from the attaint of mesalliance. The squires were to be second sons of a parentage alike eligible for the distinctions of knighthood. That the trains of each knight should be well satisfied with their allotment, the third day was set apart for their contention with arms suited to their stations in life; ample means were to be furnished for the eating and drinking entertainment of all comers. The knights summoned had already arrived in train with the Gigas who had been cited for the tournament in preparation for the first crusade designed for the redemption of the holy sepulchre from the possession of the infidel Saracens, in which the Animalculans will also engage. The first course, in this tournament of human instinct, will be inaugurated after a grand high mass, to be held in conjunction with the Gigas, the priests of both races joining in the ceremonial administration of the rites. After the grand ‘entre’ the first course will be run between Count Marceroni, the Roman champion, and any knight bold enough to accept his challenge. The first encounters are to be on roachback with spears, in support of the affirmed superiority, in beauty, of the contestant’s countrywomen, or “ladies,” in the style of the challenge. The proclamation sets forth that the encounter will be conducted in freedom from the slights of incantation, or other surreptitious advantages, in fair and open battle, The first unroached will be declared vanquished, yielding to the victor the right of heralding the supremacy of his countrywomen’s beauty, with the privilege of selecting from them a queen to reign during the continuance of the jousts, as the empress paramount of love, honor, and beauty. The second day’s joust will be a contention with axes, maces, and thorn sticks; the victor will be awarded the privilege of selecting a lady to preside over the distribution of prizes to the successful in the melée, or herd encounters of third day’s strife.