Plot Summary
The story begins when a shoemaker begins to open up his shop at daybreak. He notices that a large group of nomads from the north have filled the town square. The nomads show no signs of culture, and soon trash the city into "a veritable sty". They also show no respect for the town people and take everything they want from the stores without making any sort of payment. The Emperor appears at one of the palace windows and looks on as nomads take control of the city—but he's not able to do anything.
Read more about this topic: An Old Manuscript
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“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
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“Product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues, compact of obscure and minute association, a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws, in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists.”
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