the
weasel), that it is no longer possible for any of us to believe anything
you say. We have now such important business before us, that we cannot
stop to proceed to your trial and execution, and we therefore order that
in the meantime you remain where you are, and that you maintain complete
silence--for you are degraded from your rank--until such time as we can
attend to your contemptible body, which will shortly dangle from a tree,
as a warning to traitors for all time to come. My lords, we will now
proceed with our business, and, first of all, the secretary will read
the roll-call of our forces."

The owl then read the list of the army, and said: "First, your majesty's
devoted body-guard, with--with Prince Tchack-tchack (the king frowned,
and the jay laughed outright) at their head; Ki Ki, lord of hawks, one
thousand beaks; the rooks, five thousand beaks; Kauc, the crow, two
hundred beaks;" and so on, enumerating the numbers which all the tribes
could bring to battle.

In the buzz of conversation that arose while the owl was reading (as it
usually does), the squirrel told Bevis that he believed the crow had not
returned the number of his warriors correctly, but that there were
really many more, whom he purposely kept in the background. As for
Prince Tchack-tchack, his absence from the council evidently disturbed
his majesty, though he was too proud to show how he felt the defection
of his eldest son and heir.

The number of the rooks, too, was not accurate, and did not give a true
idea of their power, for it was the original estimate furnished many
years ago, when Kapchack first organised his army, and although the
rooks had greatly increased since then, the same return was always made.
But it was well understood that the nation of the rooks could send, and
doubtless would send, quite ten thousand beaks into the field.

"It is not a little curious," said the squirrel, "that the rooks, who,
as you know, belong to a limited monarchy--so limited that they have no
real king--should form the main support of so despotic a monarch as
Kapchack, who obtains even more decisive assistance from them than from
the ferocious and wily Ki Ki. It is an illustration of the singular
complexity and paradoxical positions of politics that those who are
naturally so opposed, should thus form the closest friends and allies.
I do not understand why it is so myself, for as you know, dear, I do not
attempt to meddle with politics, but the