Oop to a level, depressed their mailed heads, and so, with their
horse-hair plumes streaming straight out behind, most gallant to see,
this lightning express came tearing for me! When they were within
fifteen yards, I sent that bomb with a sure aim, and it struck the
ground just under the horses' noses. Yes, it was a neat thing, very neat
and pretty to see. It resembled a steamboat explosion on the
Mississippi; and during the next fifteen minutes we stood under a steady
drizzle of microscopic fragments of knights and hardware and
horse-flesh. I say we, for the king joined the audience, of course, as
soon as he had got his breath again. There was a hole there which would
afford steady work for all the people in that region for some years to
come --in trying to explain it, I mean; as for filling it up, that
service would be comparatively prompt, and would fall to the lot of a
select few--peasants of that seignory; and they wouldn't get anything
for it, either. But I explained it to the king myself. I said
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