I can remember nothing about it, and the first account that
I took of external objects was to find myself sitting in my accustomed
chair in the Library, with the accustomed row of books about the battle
of Cowpens waiting on the table in front of me. How long we had thus
been facing each other, the books and I, I've not a notion. And with
such mysterious machinery are we human beings filled--machinery that is
in motion all the while, whether we are aware of it or not--that now,
with some part of my mind, and with my pencil assisting, I composed
several stanzas to my kingly ancestor, the goal of my fruitless search;
and yet during the whole process of my metrical exercise I was really
thinking and wondering about John Mayrant, his battles and his loves.

ODE ON INTIMATIONS OF ROYALTY

I sing to thee, thou Great Unknown,
Who canst connect me with a throne
Through uncle, cousin, aunt, or sister,
But not, I trust, through bar sinister.

Chorus:
Gules! Gules! and a cuckoo peccant!

Such was the frivolous opening of my poem, which, as it progressed, grew
even less edifying; I have quoted this fragment merely to show you how
little reverence for the Selected Salic Scions was by this time left
in my spirit, and not because the verses themselves are in the least
meritorious; they should serve as a model for no serious-minded singer,
and they afford a striking instance of that volatile mood, not to say
that inclination to ribaldry, which will at seasons crop out in me, do
what I will. It is my hope that age may help me to subdue this, although
I have observed it in some very old men.

I did not send my poem to Aunt Carola, but I wrote her a letter,
even there and then, couched in terms which I believe were altogether
respectful. I deplored my lack of success in discovering the link that
was missing between me and king's blood; I intimated my conviction
that further effort on my part would still be met with failure; and I
renounced with fitting expressions of disappointment my candidateship
for the Scions thanking Aunt Carola for her generosity, by which I must
now no longer profit. I added that I should remain in Kings Port for the
present, as I was finding the climate of decided benefit to my health,
and the courtesy of the people an education in itself.

Whatever pain at missing the glory of becoming a Scion may have lingered
with me after this was muc