It is to be feared that the President became rather prosy upon the occasion.

Perhaps his homily, like those of the fictitious Archbishop of Granada, began to smack of the apoplexy from which he had so recently escaped.

Perhaps, the meeting being one of hilarity, the younger nobles became restive under the infliction of a very long and very solemn harangue.

At any rate, as the meeting broke up, there was a good dial of jesting on the subject.

De Hammes, commonly called "Toison d'Or," councillor and king-at-arms of the Order, said that the President had been seeing visions and talking with Saint Andrew in a dream.