Lead on, we will follow.'
The officer led, with the woman and her bundle; Miles and the king
followed after, with the crowd at their heels. The king was inclined
to rebel; but Hendon said to him in a low voice:
'Reflect, sire- your laws are the wholesome breath of your own
royalty; shall their source reject them, yet require the branches to
respect them? Apparently, one of these laws has been broken; when
the king is on his throne again, can it ever grieve him to remember
that when he was seemingly a private person he loyally sunk the king
in the citizen and submitted to its authority?'
'Thou art right; say no more; thou shalt see that whatsoever the
king of England requires a subject to suffer under the law, he will
himself suffer while he holdeth the station of a subject.'
When the woman was called upon to testify before the justice of
the peace, she swore that the small prisoner at the bar was the person
who had committed the theft; there was none able to show the contrary,
so the king stood convicted. The bundle was now unrolled, and when the
contents proved to be a plump little dressed pig, the judge looked
troubled, while Hendon turned pale, and his body was thrilled with
an electric shiver of dismay; but the king remained unmoved, protected
by his ignorance. The judge meditated, during an ominous pause, then
turned to the woman, with question:
'What dost thou hold this property to be worth?'
The woman courtesied and replied:
'Three shillings and eightpence, your worship- I could not abate a
penny and set forth the value honestly.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174