THE UNICORN 105 



blazonment should have died the death she did, and that 

 even now the world has not yet done with settling her saint 



or sinner ! 



But, in truth, the unicorn and its history is full of such 

 ironies. Its horn worth a king's ransom — worth it, surely, 

 if only for the " hand's breadth wholly white, the upper part 

 wholly red, and the middle black " — may prevent those who 

 drink from it from being enslaved by drugs ; but it is as 

 undoubtedly the horn of which married men should be 

 beware. 



And the ankle bone " as fine as ever I saw, heavy as 

 lead, and for colour like vermilion," what a possession is 

 this, and yet it tells the same tale as the siren's song ! 



So in its way the Unicorn flies round the world, leaving 

 traces as it goes of many a myth that has gone to build up 

 man as he is. 



And while the British Lion, leaving his post, ramps 

 about, tail up or down, the Unicorn, brought to the scutcheon 

 by a woman, the very crest of womanhood itself, the heart 

 so to speak, of Female Suffrage, waits and watches " im- 

 perially crowned, crined, armed, enguled." 



Perhaps the time may come when the Unicorn may 

 change places with the Lion, as pursuer. 



For the present, it is the most paradoxical of all fabulous 

 beasts. There is talk about it and to spare ; but when one 

 runs the tale to earth, lo ! there is nothing. No unicorn at 

 all ; only a wild ass ! 



Will it be so with the feminine aspirations which it 

 typifies ? 



