“Frankly, dear children, I love myself better than any King, so liberty for us, my countrymen! and to the devil with our rulers! As long as we are here, the land I love, and I, all is well; so what need have we of a King on earth or in Heaven? Or of a throne for him to sit on? Let each man have his share of the sun and shade, his bit of land, and his arms to work with, no one could ask more; and if the King in person came to my house I would say, ‘Come in and sit down, for we are all equal together in France, each master in his own kingdom, and here’s to your good health, my guest and cousin.’” * * * * * “How is this?” said Brother John, “art thou also a poet?--By the help of God, I can string rhymes together as well as another; I am sure of it; have but patience with me if my verses should prove of the wrong color----” --PANTAGRUEL, v. 46. FOOTNOTES: [1] Bethléem, a suburb of Clamecy. [2] “Judæa” is the nickname given to the suburb of Bethléem, or Béyant, where the raftsmen and boatmen of Clamecy live. “Rome” is the upper town, which gets its name on account of the stairs, called “Old Rome,” which go down from the church of Saint Martin to the suburb of Beuvron. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.