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For one other day the two Southwestern representatives put up at the Grand Union, Copah's tar-paper-covered simulacrum of a hotel; and during that day Ford contrived to sell his birthright for what he, himself, valued at the moment as a mess of pottage. It was in this wise. At this period of its existence Copah, the future great, was merely a promise; a camp of magnificent prospects.
I saw Master John Le Maire there personate the Pope in such fashion that he made all the poor kings and popes of this world kiss his feet, and, taking great state upon him, gave them his benediction, saying, Get the pardons, rogues, get the pardons; they are good cheap. I absolve you of bread and pottage, and dispense with you to be never good for anything.
The bridegroom and his friends had evidently gone on to the next village, leaving the bride's palanquin to follow; so the palanquin bearers, being lazy fellows and seeing a nice shady tree, put down their burden, and began to cook some food. 'What detestable meanness! grumbled one; a grand wedding, and nothing but plain rice pottage to eat! Not a scrap of meat in it, neither sweet nor salt!
I think you can get them here in New York for ten dollars; they cost more than that about a hundred francs in Paris. At second-hand, of course. The French government can imprison you, you know, for ten years, if you wear one without the right to do so, but they have no punishment for those who choose to part with them for a mess of pottage. "All these," she would run on, "are English war medals.
"It was all done that night at the opera," he said. "Jasmine made up her mind then to marry him, ... I wonder what the end will be.... Sad little, bad little girl.... The mess of pottage at the last? Quien sabe!" The air of the late September morning smote Stafford's cheeks pleasantly, and his spirits rose as he walked up St. James's Street.
Why, you silly children, the man is a man of the world, a philosopher, quiet, observant, unassuming." "Unassuming!" Was Sylvester intoxicated, or had the mysterious stranger mixed the "insane verb" with the family pottage? He returned before I could answer this self-asked inquiry, and resumed coolly his broken narrative.
And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
These letters throw such a curious light on passing events here at this moment that I shall preserve them. As was wittily said at the time, He sold his principles, not for a mess of pottage, but for the stick that stirred the mess." This is no assertion "upon hearsay" no publication of a rumour or report. It is an assertion made, not upon belief even, but upon a claim of "absolute knowledge."
Through its own groveling abjections, however, it long ago sunk to an autocracy with the Speaker in the rôle of autocrat. It sold its birthright for no one knows what mess of pottage to pass its slavish days beneath a tyranny of the gavel. The Speaker settles all things. No measure is proposed, no bill passes, no member speaks except by the Speaker's will.
Even in a country where appeal to arms was common, where men were ready to snuff out a life for a word, or kill for a mess of pottage to settle for the least grave offense a dispute with a shot the story of the surprising, unequal, and fatal encounter of the Calabasas men with de Spain, and of his complete disappearance after withstanding almost unheard-of odds, was more than a three days' wonder; nothing else was talked of for weeks.
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