LION.—­But here am I, in myself a positive majesty, degraded into a petty-larceny scoundrel; yes, all my inherent attributes compromised by my position.  Oh, Hercules! when I remember my native Africa—­when I reflect on the sweet intoxication of my former liberty—­the excitement of the chase—­the mad triumph of my spring, cracking the back of a bison with one fillip of my paw—­when I think of these things—­of my tawny wife with her smile sweetly ferocious, her breath balmy with new blood—­of my playful little ones, with eyes of topaz and claws of pearl—­when I think of all this, and feel that here I am, a damned rabbit-sucker—­

UNICORN.—­Don’t swear.

LION.—­Why not?  God knows, we’ve heard swearing enough of all sorts in our time.  It isn’t the fault of our position, if we’re not first-rate perjurers.

UNICORN.—­That’s true:  still, though we are compelled to witness all these things in the courts of law, let us be above the influence of bad example.

LION.—­Give me the pot.  Courts of law?  Oh, Lord! what places they put us into!  And there they expect me—­me, the king of the animal world, to stand quietly upon my two hind-legs, looking as mildly contemptible as an apoplectic dancing-master,—­whilst iniquities, and meannesses, and tyranny, and—­give me the pot.

UNICORN:—­Brother, you’re getting warm.  Really, you ought to have seen enough of state and justice to take everything coolly.  I certainly must confess that—­looking at much of the policy of the country, considering much of the legal wickedness of law-scourged England—­it does appear to me a studied insult to both of us to make us supporters of the national quarterings.  Surely, considering the things that have been done under our noses, animals more significant of the state and social policy might have been promoted to our places.  Instead of the majestic lion and the graceful unicorn, might they not have had the—­the—­

LION.—­The vulture and the magpie.

UNICORN.—­Excellent!  The vulture would have capitally typified many of the wars of the state, their sole purpose being so many carcases—­whilst, for the courts of law, the magpie would have been the very bird of legal justice and legal wisdom.

LION.—­Yes, but then the very rascality of their faces would at once have declared their purpose.  The vulture is a filthy, unclean wretch—­the bird of Mars—­preying upon the eyes, the hearts, the entrails of the victims of that scoundrel-mountebank, Glory; whilst the magpie is a petty-larceny vagabond, existing upon social theft.  To use a vulgar phrase—­and considering the magistrates we are compelled to keep company with, ’tis wonderful that we talk so purely as we do—­’twould have let the cat too much out of the bag to have put the birds where we stand.  Whereas, there is a fine hypocrisy about us.  Consider—­am not I the type of heroism, of magnanimity?  Well, compelling me, the heroic, the magnanimous, now to stand here