some? It must have been a miracle then, and miracles don't happen
nowadays. Yet he had to believe in a miracle, for he knew himself to be
a very plain man.

Finally the Great Man touched his glass with his knife, and immediately
there was silence, for every body wanted to hear what he had to say.

"When a Roman conqueror was granted a triumphal procession," he began,
"a slave always stood behind him in the chariot and incessantly called
out, 'Remember that you are but a man!' while senate and people paid him
homage. And at the side of the triumphal car, which was drawn by four
horses, walked a fool, whose business it was to dim the splendour of
his triumph by shouting insults, and casting suspicion on the hero's
character by singing libellous songs. This was a good old custom, for
there is nothing so fatal to a man than to believe that he is a god, and
there is nothing the gods dislike so much as the pride of men. My dear
young friends! The success which we, who have just returned home, have
achieved, has perhaps been overrated, our triumph went to our heads, and
therefore it was good for us to watch your antics to-day! I don't envy
the jester his part--far from it; but I thank you for the somewhat
strange homage which you have done us. It has taught me that I have
still a good deal to learn, and whenever my head is in danger of being
turned by flattery, it will remind me that I am nothing but an ordinary
man!"

"Hear! Hear!" exclaimed the leadsman, and the festivities continued,
undisturbed even by the fool, who had felt a little ashamed of himself
and had quietly withdrawn from the scene.

So much for the Great Man and the leadsman. Now let us see what happened
to the fool.

As he was standing close to the table during the Great Man's speech, he
received a glance from the leadsman, which, like a small fiery arrow,
was capable of setting a fortress aflame. And as he went out into the
night, he felt beside himself, like a man who is clothed in sheets of
fire. He was not a nice man. True, fools and jailers are human beings,
like the rest of us, but they are not the very nicest specimen. Like
everybody else he had many faults and weaknesses, but he knew how
to cloak them. Now something extraordinary happened. Through having
mimicked the leadsman all day long, and also, perhaps, owing to all
the drink he had consumed, he had become so much the part which he had
played that he was unable to shake it off; and since he h