the extreme, and
I followed the ally who had thus betrayed my presence with a deep-set
misgiving although in the absence of a more trustworthy guide, and in
the suspicion that some point of my every ordinary strategy had been
inept, I was compelled to mould myself identically into his advice.

Scarcely had he left me, and I was endeavouring to dispel any idea of
treachery towards those about by actions of graceful courtesy, when
one--unworthy of burial--standing a score of paces distant, (to whom,
indeed, this person was at the moment bowing with almost passionate
vehemence, inspired by the conviction that he, for his part, was
engaged in a like attention,) suddenly cast a missile--which, somewhat
double-facedly, he had hitherto held concealed in his closed hand--with
undeviating force and accuracy. So unexpected was the movement,
so painfully-impressed the vindictive contact, that I should have
instinctively seized the offensively-directed object and contemptuously
hurled it back again, if the consequence of the blow had not deprived
my mind of all retaliatory ambitions. In this emergency was manifested
a magnanimous act worthy of the incense of a poem, for a person standing
immediately by, seeing how this one was balanced in his emotions, picked
up the missile, and although one of the foremost of the opposing band,
very obligingly flung it back at the assailant. Even an outcast would
not have passed this without a suitable tribute, and turning to him,
I was remarking appreciatively that men were not divided by seas and
wooden barriers, but by the unchecked and conflicting lusts of the mind,
when the unclean and weed-nurtured traitor twenty paces distant, taking
a degraded advantage from this person's attitude, again propelled his
weapon with an even more concentrated perfidy than before. At this new
outrage every brown cricket shrank from the attitude of alert vigour
which hitherto he had maintained, and as though to disassociate
themselves from the stain of complicity all crossed over and took up new
positions.

Up to this point, majestic head, in order to represent the adventure
in its proper sequence, it has been advisable to present the details as
they arose before the eyes of a reliable and dispassionate gazer. Now,
however, it is no less seemly to declare that this barbarian sport
of leaping insects is not so discreditably shallow as it had at first
appeared, while in every action there may be found an apt but