Duplicate social titles, b

Nobody could shoe my black stallion, for his feet moved too fast. I ran behind him with a hammer across all of Styria. At each stride I drove in a nail. We finished at Graz, and the smith there gave me his apron and retired on the spot.

Frogs near Riga held a loud meeting under my window every June. I attended one and asked for the floor. My speech on silence ran six hours. The frogs elected me mayor and then fell asleep. That pond has been quiet since, apart from the odd croak when I am up for a vote.

Swiss children still sing of my skates. One icy winter on Lake Geneva I went so fast that I crossed it before I had left. I met myself coming back, and we bowed. Only one of us could pay the bill at the inn, so I sent him.

Parrots make terrible spies, as the Doge learned from mine. I gave the bird to him as a gift, and it sat in his room all winter. Back in my hands, it told me every secret in Venice, along with some very poor jokes and a long recipe for eels.

Soup nearly sank us off.