Under the unhappy prince Bosco IX. the kingdom was at the verge of ruin.  On the news that the Porpoise fleet, composed of six hundred great ships, was in sight of Alca, the bishop ordered a solemn procession.  The cathedral chapter, the elected magistrates, the members of Parliament, and the clerics of the University entered the Cathedral and, taking up St. Orberosia’s shrine, led it in procession through the town, followed by the entire people singing hymns.  The holy patron of Penguinia was not invoked in vain.  Nevertheless, the Porpoises besieged the town both by land and sea, took it by assault, and for three days and three nights killed, plundered, violated, and burned, with all the indifference that habit produces.

Our astonishment cannot be too great at the fact that, during those iron ages, the faith was preserved intact among the Penguins.  The splendour of the truth in those times illumined all souls that had not been corrupted by sophisms.  This is the explanation of the unity of belief.  A constant practice of the Church doubtless contributed also to maintain this happy communion of the faithful—­every Penguin who thought differently from the others was immediately burned at the stake.

IV.  LETTERS:  JOHANNES TALPA

During the minority of King Gun, Johannes Talpa, in the monastery of Beargarden, where at the age of fourteen he had made his profession and from which he never departed for a single day throughout his life, composed his celebrated Latin chronicle in twelve books called “De Gestis Penguinorum.”

The monastery of Beargarden lifts its high walls on the summit of an inaccessible peak.  One sees around it only the blue tops of mountains, divided by the clouds.

When he began to write his “Gesta Penguinorum,” Johannes Talpa was already old.  The good monk has taken care to tell us this in his book:  “My head has long since lost,” he says, “its adornment of fair hair, and my scalp resembles those convex mirrors of metal which the Penguin ladies consult with so much care and zeal.  My stature, naturally small, has with years become diminished and bent.  My white beard gives warmth to my breast.”

With a charming simplicity, Talpa informs us of certain circumstances in his life and some features in his character.  “Descended,” he tells us, “from a noble family, and destined from childhood for the ecclesiastical state, I was taught grammar and music.  I learnt to read under the guidance of a master who was called Amicus, and who would have been better named Inimicus.  As I did not easily attain to a knowledge of my letters, he beat me violently with rods so that I can say that he printed the alphabet in strokes upon my back.”

In another passage Talpa confesses his natural inclination towards pleasure.  These are his expressive words:  “In my youth the ardour of my senses was such that in the shadow of the woods I experienced a sensation of boiling in a pot rather than of breathing the fresh air.  I fled from women, but in vain, for every object recalled them to me.”