The rest hung back; would not open heart or pocket; waited till they saw.

They do now see; now that Belleisle has done his feat of Covenant-eating!-- Eleven great Powers, some count Thirteen, some Twelve, [Scholl, ii.

286; Adelung, LIST, ii.

127.]--but no two agree, and hardly one agrees with himself;--enough, the Powers of Europe, from Naples and Madrid to Russia and Sweden, have all signed it, let us say a Dozen or a Baker's-Dozen of them.

And except our little English Paladin alone, whose interest and indeed salvation seemed to him to lie that way, and who needed no Pragmatic Covenant to guide him, nobody whatever distinguished himself by keeping it.