The problem, as elucidated by Violet Crepuscular in Chapter CCCLXXXVIII of her epic romance, Oy, Rodney (we do not know what happened to Chapter CCCLXXXVII), is how to get rid of the Bug-Men now infesting Scurveyshire. Johnno the Merry Minstrel has been researching it, and thinks he has a solution.
“The bad news is, we’ve got Bug-Men,” he explains to Lord Jeremy Coldsore, justice of the peace. “The good news is that chameleons have an insatiable appetite for Bug-Men. More bad news: chameleons don’t live in Scurveyshire or anywhere else in England. But the best news–” here he smirks charmingly–“is, I know someone right here in town who raises chameleons! He has dozens of them.”
“Well, then!” exults Lord Jeremy. “What are we waiting for?”
“The bad news,” says Johnno, “is… he’s Welsh!”
“So?”
“So Welsh people are notoriously averse to parting with their chameleons!”
“I don’t believe it,” cries Lord Jeremy. “We don’t have any Welsh people in Scurveyshire! Lord Frump chased them all out, after the Wars of the Roses.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, my lord! We have Mr. Olaf Skraeling, the noted forger–and he has a ton of chameleons.”
“Olaf Skraeling is Welsh?” Lord Jeremy is incredulous.
“You could look it up,” says Johnno.
The two of them make a beeline for Mr. Skraeling’s palatial hovel, which they find overrun with chameleons. Here is a picture of one. His name is Ariobarzanes.
At first they find it very difficult to persuade Mr. Skraeling to unleash his chameleons on the Bug-Men. We are cautioned not to imagine that he keeps all of these little lizards on leashes. “I am averse to parting with my chameleons,” he declares.
“But they’ll eat the Bug-Men!” exclaims Lord Jeremy. “And then you can have them back.”
“Only for a price,” says Mr. Skraeling. Lord Jeremy suspects he’s not really Welsh. It is traditionally an ancient Viking ruse to pretend to be Welsh. But Jeremy, desperate for a solution, replies, “Name your price, and we’ll pay it!”
“My price is this,” proclaims the uncrowned Chameleon King of England: “the hand of Lady Margo Cargo in marriage!”
Ms. Crepuscular draws the chapter’s curtain on this dreadful news.
Oy vey. 😉
Just when I thought the plot could thicken no more … 🙂
Oh my, how does he know about Lady Margo? Are we in store for a War of the Tulips?
I’m afraid Lord Jeremy’s the biggest tulip there.