The head of Pentheus is carried by one of the Bacchae in that
drama. Behold, it is not a mask, but _the head of Crassus_, and thus
conveys the first news of the Roman defeat. Obviously, this is a novel
that needs a great deal of preliminary study, as much, indeed, as
"Salammbo."
Another story will deal with the Icelandic discoverers of America. Mr.
Kipling, however, has taken the wind out of its sails with his sketch,
"The Finest Story in the World." There are all the marvels and portents
of the _Eyrbyggja Saga_ to draw upon, there are Skraelings to fight, and
why should not Karlsefni's son kill the last mastodon, and, as
Quetzalcoatl, be the white-bearded god of the Aztecs? After that a
romance on the intrigues to make Charles Edward King of Poland sounds
commonplace. But much might be made of that, too, if the right man took
it in hand. Believe me, there are plenty of stories left, waiting for
the man who can tell them. I have said it before, but I say it again, if
I were king I would keep court officials, Mr. Stanley Weyman, Mr. Mason,
Mr. Kipling, and others, to tell me my own stories. I know the kind of
thing which I like, from the discovery of _Qrart_ to that of the French
gold in the burn at Loch Arkaig, or in "the wood by the lochside" that
Murray of Broughton mentions.
Another cigarette I have, the adventures of a Poet, a Poet born in a
Puritan village of Massachusetts about 1670.
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