At last Blazius, whose tongue was scarcely ever at rest, save when he slept, could restrain it no longer, and began to expatiate upon the mournful theme of which all were thinking, embellishing his discourse with many apt quotations, apothegms and maxims, of which in his role of pedant he had an ample store laid up in his memory.  The tyrant listened in silence, but with such a scowling, preoccupied air that Blazius finally observed it, and broke off his eloquent disquisition abruptly to inquire what he was cogitating so intently.

“I am thinking about Milo, the celebrated Crotonian,” he replied, “who killed a bullock with one blow of his fist, and devoured it in a single day.  I always have admired that exploit particularly, and I feel as if I could do as much myself to-day.”

“But as bad luck will have it,” said Scapin, putting in his oar, “the bullock is wanting.”

“Yes,” rejoined the tyrant, “I, alas! have only the fist and the stomach.  Oh! thrice happy the ostrich, that, at a pinch, makes a meal of pebbles, bits of broken glass, shoe-buttons, knife-handles, belt-buckles, or any such-like delicacies that come in its way, which the poor, weak, human stomach cannot digest at all.  At this moment I feel capable of swallowing whole that great mass of scenery and decorations in the chariot yonder.  I feel as if I had as big a chasm in me as the grave I dug this morning for poor Matamore, and as if I never could get enough to fill it.  The ancients were wise old fellows; they knew what they were about when they instituted the feasts that always followed their funerals, with abundance of meats and all sorts of good things to eat, washed down with copious draughts of wine, to the honour of the dead and the great good of the living.  Ah! if we only had the wherewithal now to follow their illustrious example, and accomplish worthily that philosophical rite, so admirably calculated to stay the tears of mourners and raise their drooping spirits.”

“In other words,” said Blazius, “you are hankering after something to eat.  Polyphemus, ogre, Gargantua, monster that you are! you disgust me.”

“And you,” retorted the tyrant, “I know that you are hankering after something to drink.  Silenus, hogshead, wine-bottle, sponge that you are! you excite my pity.”

“How delightful it would be for us all if you both could have your wish,” interposed Scapin, in a conciliatory tone.

“Look, yonder by the roadside is a little grove, capitally situated for a halting-place.  We might stop there for a little, ransack the chariot to find whatever fragments may yet remain in it of our last stock of provisions, and gathering them all up take our breakfast, such as it may be, comfortably sheltered from this cold north wind on the lee side of the thicket there.  The short halt will give the poor old horse a chance to rest, and we meantime, while we are breakfasting, can discuss at our leisure some expedients for supplying our immediate needs, and also talk over our future plans and prospects—­which latter, it seems to me, look devilishly dark and discouraging.”