68 STORIES FROM DAUDET

signia of your office before the Chapter,
and then I will take you to see her,
and you shall come to the vineyard
with us... .’

‘Hey, hey! that’s all settled.’

I need not tell you that Tistet
Védtne was happy as he left the
great hall, or with what impatience he
awaited the ceremony of the morrow.
But in the palace there was some one
happier and more impatient than he;
and that was the mule. From the
return of Védéne until vespers on the
following day, the infuriated animal
stuffed herself incessantly with hay, and
kept lunging out with her heels at the
wall behind her. She was preparing
herself for the ceremony also.

And next day, after vespers had been
sung, Tistet Védtne made his entry
into the court of the Papal palace,
All the dignified clergy were there, the
cardinals in red robes, the devil’s
advocate in black velvet, the abbots
with their low mitres, the beadles from