THE BITTEEN. 267 



"Now the Bittern would not probably be much ag- 

 grieved at being voted carrion, provided his imputed 

 earnon-dom, as Willis would probably designate the 

 condition, procured him immunity from the gun. 



But to be shot first and thrown away afterward, 

 would seem to be the very excess of that condition 

 described by the common phrase of adding injury to 

 insult. 



Under this state of mingled persecution and degrada- 

 tion, it must be the Bittern's best consolation that, in the 

 days of old, when the wine of Auxerre, now the com- 

 mon drink of republican Yankeedom, which annually 

 consumes of it, or in lieu of it, more than grows of it 

 annually in all France, was voted' by common consent 

 the drink of kings he, with his congener and com- 

 patriot the Heronschaw, was carved by knightly hands, 

 upon the noble deas under the royal canopy, for gentle 

 dames and peerless damoiselles ; nay, was held in such 

 repute, that it was the wont of prowest chevaliers,, when 

 devoting themselves to feats of emprise most perilous, 

 to swear "before God, the bittern, and the ladies !" an 

 honor to which no quadruped, and- but two plumy 

 bipeds, other than himself, the heron and the peacock, 

 were admitted. 



Those were the days, before gunpowder, " grave of 

 chivalry," was taught to Doctor Faustus by the Devil, 

 who did himself no good by the indoctrination, but 

 exactly the reverse, since war is thereby rendered less 



