PURPLE EMPEROR 153 



gives of this pious monarch, called the Peaceable, 

 despite his volcanic disposition where women were 

 concerned, especially his affair with Elfrida, who was 

 also pious and volcanic as well as beautiful, reads in 

 these dull, proper times like a tale from another 

 hotter, fiercer world. It is not strange that many 

 persons find their way through the thick forest by 

 the narrow track to this place or " Plack " ; and there 

 too I went on several days, and sat by the hour and 

 meditated. It had struck me as a suitable spot to 

 watch for the purple emperor; but I saw him not, 

 and once only I caught sight of his bride to be a 

 big black-looking butterfly which rose from the top 

 of an oak, took a short flight, and returned to settle 

 once more on the highest leaves in the same place. 

 This vain hunt for the purple king of the butterflies 

 to see him, not to "take" led to the discovery of 

 the green minstrels. Near the cross, or "monument," 

 as it is called, there is an open place occupying a 

 part of the top and a slope of a down, as pretty a 

 bit of wild heath as may be found in the county. 

 Stony and barren in places, it is in other parts clothed 

 in ling, purple with bloom at this season, with a few 

 pretty little birches and clumps of tangled thorn and 

 bramble scattered about. But the feature which gives 

 a peculiar charm to the spot is the false brome grass 

 which flourishes on the slope, growing hi large patches, 

 and on the borders of these mixing its vivid light-green 

 tussocks with the purple-flowered heath. It is the 



