Now, the more these worthies penetrated into the difficulty, the wider became the breach; till what was at first a mere gap, became a yawning gulf.

But that which had perhaps tended more than any thing else to deepen the variance of the kings, was hump-backed Bello’s dispatching to Odo, as his thirtieth plenipo, a diminutive little negotiator, who all by himself, in a solitary canoe, sailed over to have audience of Media; into whose presence he was immediately ushered.

Darting one glance at him, the king turned to his chieftains, and said:—­“By much straining of your eyes, my lords, can you perceive this insignificant manikin?  What! are there no tall men in Dominora, that King Bello must needs send this dwarf hither?”

And charging his attendents to feed the embassador extraordinary with the soft pap of the cocoanut, and provide nurses during his stay, the monarch retired from the arbor of audience.

“As I am a man,” shouted the despised plenipo, raising himself on his toes, “my royal master will resent this affront!—­A dwarf, forsooth!—­ Thank Oro, I am no long-drawn giant!  There is as much stuff in me, as in others; what is spread out in their clumsy carcasses, in me is condensed.  I am much in little!  And that much, thou shalt know full soon, disdainful King of Odo!”

“Speak not against our lord the king,” cried the attendants.

“And speak not ye to me, ye headless spear poles!”

And so saying, under sufferance of being small, the plenipo was permitted to depart unmolested; for all his bravadoes, fobbing his credentials and affronts.

Apprized of his servant’s ignoble reception, the choleric Bello burst forth in a storm of passion; issuing orders for, one thousand conch shells to be blown, and his warriors to assemble by land and by sea.

But bethinking him of the hostilities that might ensue, the sagacious Media hit upon an honorable expedient to ward off an event for which he was then unprepared.  With all haste he dispatched to the hump-backed king a little dwarf of his own; who voyaging over to Dominora in a canoe, sorry and solitary as that of Bello’s plenipo, in like manner, received the same insults.  The effect whereof, was, to strike a balance of affronts; upon the principle, that a blow given, heals one received.

Nevertheless, these proceedings but amounted to a postponement of hostilities; for soon after, nothing prevented the two kings from plunging into war, but the following judicious considerations.  First:  Media was almost afraid of being beaten.  Second:  Bello was almost afraid to conquer.  Media, because he was inferior in men and arms; Bello, because, his aggrandizement was already a subject of warlike comment among the neighboring kings.