" The Frolic and the Gentle " 



blood-brotherhood with Ferdinand 

 Rothschild, and of the spolia opima, 

 brought back to America, — are they 

 not all written in the book of the 

 hearts that held him dear ? 



Thus have I told how Pantagruel 

 found Panurge, whom he loved all 

 his life thereafter. I do not know 

 whether it was on this ornamental 

 journey that Clarence King's genius 

 led him to the imperishable Helmet 

 of Mambrino, now hung (by proxy) 

 from its arm of wrought iron in the 

 upper chambers of the Century. 

 Whether it was then or afterward 

 that he conceived his epistle to Don 

 Horacio, and therewith imprisoned 

 the very soul of Spain in the flask of 

 his translucent English, the feat was 

 equally enduring. Nothing compara- 

 ble to the flavor of his style is to be 

 found elsewhere, unless in the fantasy 

 of his fellow-Centurion to whose loi- 

 terings in Mexico* we owe San An- 

 208 



