with the Savoyards, who are young and feeble--"

"'Twouldn't alter the case much if two of these Frenchmen were in their
places," put in the Captain, glaring wolfishly about him. "To be plain
with you, Sir John Goldencalf, being human, I'd submit to no such monkey
tricks."

"Do not use the term reproachfully, Mr. Poke, I entreat of you. We call
these animals monkeys, it is true; but we do not know what they call
themselves. Man is merely an animal, and you must very well know--"

"Harkee, Sir John," interrupted the Captain, "I'm no botanist, and do
not pretend to more schooling than a sealer has need of for finding his
way about the 'arth; but as for a man's being an animal, I just wish to
ask you, now, if in your judgment a hog is also an animal?"

"Beyond a doubt--and fleas, and toads, and sea-serpents, and lizards,
and water-devils--we are all neither more nor less than animals."

"Well, if a hog is an animal, I am willing to allow the relationship;
for in the course of my experience, which is not small, I have met
with men that you might have mistaken for hogs, in everything but the
bristles, the snout, and the tail. I'll never deny what I've seen with
my own eyes, though I suffer for it; and therefore I admit that, hogs
being animals, it is more than likely that some men must be animals
too."

"We call these interesting beings monkeys; but how do we know that
they do not return the compliment, and call us, in their own particular
dialect, something quite as offensive? It would become our species to
manifest a more equitable and philosophical spirit, and to consider
these interesting strangers as an unfortunate family which has fallen
into the hands of brutes, and which is in every way entitled to our
commiseration and our active interference. Hitherto I have never
sufficiently stimulated my sympathies for the animal world by any
investment in quadrupeds; but it is my intention to write to-morrow to
my English agent to purchase a pack of hounds and a suitable stud of
horses; and by way of quickening so laudable a resolution, I shall
forthwith make propositions to the Savoyards for the speedy emancipation
of this family of amiable foreigners. The slave-trade is an innocent
pastime compared to the cruel oppression that the gentleman in the
Spanish hat, in particular, is compelled to endure."

"King!"

"He may be a king, sure enough, in his own country, Captain Poke; a fact
that would add tenfold agony to his