The Royal Joust

"The King of England and the King of France are fighting again." They are figures in an ancient clock-tower at Calais, who emerge each day at noon and joust with lances. Early in the War the mechanism was damaged by a German shell. The Kings said to one another: Pax vobiscum; the Calaisiens exclaimed: Miracle! Now a clockmaker has repaired the mechanism and the two Allies are once more fighting, whereat the Calaisiens say cynically, with an expressive French shrug of the shoulders: C'est la fin de I'alliance.