and one and all and every such assembly for public or private purposes, may be and shall be held, without let or hindrance, saving only :-(a) Plots against His Majesty king Reynard CI.; (b) plots against His Imperial Majesty Choo Hoo.

6. The unjust annexations of the late king Kapchack are hereby repudiated, and all the provinces declared independent.

7. Lastly, peace is proclaimed for ever and a day, beginning to-morrow.

(Signed)

His Majesty King Reynard CI.

His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Choo Hoo.
B. (for Sir Bevis).

Sec, the Stoat (Treasurer).

Ah Kurroo Khan (Commander-in-Chief).

Ess, the Owl (Chief Secretary of State).

Cloctaw, the Jackdaw (Grand Chamberlain).

Raoul, the Rat (Lieutenant-Governor of the Coasts.)

Phu, the Starling.

Tchink, the Chaffinch.

Te-te, the Tomtit.

Ulu, the Hare.

Eric, the Missel-thrush.

Tchack-tchack, the Magpie, &c., &c., &c.

Every one in fact signed it but the Weasel, who was still lying sullenly perdue. The B was for Bevis; the Fox, who excelled in the art of paying delicate compliments, insisted upon Bevis signing next to the high contracting parties. So taking the quill, Bevis printed a good big B, a little staggering, but plain and legible. Directly this business was concluded, Ah Kurroo withdrew his legions; Choo Hoo sallied forth from the camp, and returning the way he had come, in about an hour was met by his son Tu Kiu at the head of enormous reinforcements. Delighted at the treaty, and the impunity they now enjoyed, the vast barbarian horde, divided into foraging parties of from one hundred to a thousand, spread over a tract of country thirty miles wide, rolled like a devastating tidal wave in resistless course southwards, driving the independent princes before them, plundering, ravaging, and destroying, and leaving famine behind. Part of the plunder indeed, of the provinces recently attached to Kapchack's kingdom, and now declared independent, furnished the first instalment of the war indemnity the barbarians had engaged to pay.

Meantime, in the copse, preparations were made for the coronation of the king, who had assumed, in

accordance with well-known precedents, that all his ancestors, whether acknowledged or not, had reigned, and called himself king Reynard the Hundred and First. The procession having been formed, and all the ceremonies completed, Bevis banged off his cannonstick as a salute, and the Fox, taking the crown, proceeded to put it on his head, remarking as he did so that thus they might see how when rogues fall out honest folk come by their own.

CHAPTER XVII.

SIR BEVIS AND THE WIND.

SOME two or three days after peace was concluded, it happened that one morning the waggon was going up on the hills to bring down a load of straw, purchased from the very old gentleman who in his anger, shot king Kapchack. When Bevis saw the horses brought out of the stable, and learnt that they were to travel along the road that led towards the ships (though but three miles out of the sixty) nothing would do but he must go with them. As his papa and the Bailiff were on this particular occasion to accompany the waggon, Bevis had his own way as usual.

The road passed not far from the copse, and Bevis heard the Woodpecker say something, but he was too busy touching up the horses with the carter's long whip to pay any heed. If he had been permitted he would have lashed them into a sharp trot. Every now and then Bevis turned round to give the Bailiff a sly flick

with the whip; the Bailiff sat at the tail and dangled his legs over behind, so that his broad back was a capital thing to hit. By-and-by, the carter left the highway and took the waggon along a lane where the ruts were white with chalk, and which wound round at the foot of the downs. Then after surmounting a steep hill, where the lane had worn a deep hollow, they found a plain with hills all round it, and here, close to the sward, was the straw-rick from which they were to load.

Bevis insisted upon building the load, that is putting the straw in its place when it was thrown up; but in three minutes he said he hated it, it was so hot and scratchy, so out he jumped. Then he ran a little way up the green sward of the hill, and lying down rolled over and over to the bottom. Next he wandered along the low hedge dividing the stubble from the sward, so low that he could jump over it, but as he could not find anything he came back, and at last so teased and worried his papa to let him go up to the top of the hill, that he consented, on Bevis promising in the most solemn manner that he would not go one single inch beyond the summit, where there was an ancient earthwork. Bevis promised,