Page:Through a Glass Lightly (1897, Greg).djvu/47

 discern the essence. And if sometimes he should attain to royalty, it is the royalty of Mumbo Jumbo and Theebaw, not that of Victoria or the Hapsburgs. For his blood has gone wofully astray. The founder of his family lies embalmed in some splendid sarcophagus of Spain, same vinous vat of Xeres; and no man living, no, nor his grandfather neither, remembers when he was bornnor so much as when he was crowned. But his has been the royal privilege, that he should be the father of his people, or, at least, of a great many generations. Divide et impera has been the motto of his house, and the virtue and strength of him have been blended in many strains.

How, then, can we honour him in these innumerable descendants? Birth will out from time to time,