"'Tis the grand council of Vivenza," cried a bystander. "Hear ye not
Alanno?" and he pointed to the lunatic.

Now coming close to Alanno, we found, that with incredible volubility,
he was addressing the assembly upon some all-absorbing subject
connected with King Bello, and his presumed encroachments toward the
northwest of Vivenza.

One hand smiting his hip, and the other his head, the lunatic thus
proceeded; roaring like a wild beast, and beating the air like a
windmill:--

"I have said it! the thunder is flashing, the lightning is crashing!
already there's an earthquake in Dominora! Full soon will old Bello
discover that his diabolical machinations against this ineffable land
must soon come to naught. Who dare not declare, that we are not
invincible? I repeat it, we are. Ha! ha! Audacious Bello must bite the
dust! Hair by hair, we will trail his gory gray beard at the end of
our spears! Ha, ha! I grow hoarse; but would mine were a voice like
the wild bulls of Bullorom, that I might be heard from one end of this
great and gorgeous land to its farthest zenith; ay, to the uttermost
diameter of its circumference. Awake! oh Vivenza. The signs of the
times are portentous; nay, extraordinary; I hesitate not to add,
peculiar! Up! up! Let us not descend to the bathos, when we should
soar to the climax! Does not all Mardi wink and look on? Is the great
sun itself a frigid spectator? Then let us double up our mandibles to
the deadly encounter. Methinks I see it now. Old Bello is crafty, and
his oath is recorded to obliterate us! Across this wide lagoon he
casts his serpent eyes; whets his insatiate bill; mumbles his