THE POPE’S MULE qi

It was an excellent opportunity... .
The mule measured her distance.

‘There, take that, you rascal! I have
waited seven years for this chance.’
And she gave him one tremendous
kick, so tremendous, that the dust of
it was seen as far as Pamperigouste.
A cloud of golden dust with an ibis
plume floating in it,—all that was left
of the unhappy Tistet Védéne.

A mule’s kick is not often so
annihilating! but this was the Pope’s
mule; and remember she had waited
seven years. ‘There is no finer speci-
men of clerical spite than this recorded.