"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I need not tell you with what intense pleasure I have listened to the spirited answers our three young friends have made to the different questions put to them.  The Scholarship, however, has yet to be won--the supreme test is now to be given--the trial essays are now to be read.  In order that fair play should above all things be exercised on this important occasion, I have asked my three young friends not to sign their names to the essays they have written.  The essays are in three blank envelopes, which now lie before me on the table."  Here Sir John touched three envelopes with his hand.  "I will proceed to read them aloud, taking them up haphazard, and having no idea myself who the writer of each essay is. I have selected as the subject of the test essay the great and wonderful subject of Heroism, for I feel that such a theme will give scope for the real mind, the real heart, the real soul of the young writer.  I will say no more now.  After I have read the essays we will retire into the outer hall for two or three minutes, and on our return I shall have the pleasure of declaring on whose head I am to place the crown of bay-leaves."