Ods body! I seem to be in evil case- and
all for an innocent and thoughtless pleasantry. I am a man of
family; and my wife and little ones- List to reason, good your
worship; what wouldst thou of me?'
'Only that thou be blind and dumb and paralytic whilst one may
count a hundred thousand- counting slowly,' said Hendon, with the
expression of a man who asks but a reasonable favor, and that a very
little one.
'It is my destruction!' said the constable despairingly. 'Ah, be
reasonable, good sir; only look at this matter, on all its sides,
and see how mere a jest it is- how manifestly and how plainly it is
so. And even if one granted it were not a jest, it is a fault so small
that e'en the grimmest penalty it could call forth would be but a
rebuke and warning from the judge's lips.'
Hendon replied with a solemnity which chilled the air about him:
'This jest of thine hath a name in law- wot you what it is?'
'I knew it not! Peradventure I have been unwise. I never dreamed
it had a name- ah, sweet heaven, I thought it was original.'
'Yes, it hath a name. In the law this crime is called Non compos
mentis lex talionis sic transit gloria Mundi.'
'Ah, my God!'
'And the penalty is death!'
'God be merciful to me, a sinner!'
'By advantage taken of one in fault, in dire peril, and at thy
mercy, thou hast seized goods worth above thirteen pence ha'penny,
paying but a trifle for the same; and this, in the eye of the law,
is constructive barratry, misprision of treason, malfeasance in
office, ad hominem expurgatis in statu quo- and the penalty is death
by the halter, without ransom, commutation, or benefit of clergy.
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