United States or Cook Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
On the morrow, while he still slept stretched on his straw pallet, there came to him a member of the Watch. "Old man, you are wanted at the Court House; rouse up, and bring your lanthorn." Stiffly Cethru rose. "What be they wantin' me fur now, mester?" "Ah!" replied the Watchman, "they are about to see if they can't put an end to your goings-on." Cethru shivered, and was silent.
Cethru answered: "I were just passin' with my lanthorn!" "Tell us did you see the rat?" Cethru shook his head: "My lanthorn seed the rat, maybe!" he muttered. "Old owl!" said the Captain of the Watch: "Be careful what you say!
When the Town Watch heard this they were vexed, for they knew that if this were true they would now be forced to prosecute the arduous undertaking, and they said: "Bring in this old man!" Cethru was brought before them trembling. "What is this we hear, old man, about your lanthorn and the rat? And in the first place, what were you doing in the Vita Publica at that time of night?"
Now when they reached the Court House it was patent that a great affair was forward; for the Judges were in their robes, and a crowd of advocates, burgesses, and common folk thronged the careen, lofty hall of justice. When Cethru saw that all eyes were turned on him, he shivered still more violently, fixing his fascinated gaze on the three Judges in their emerald robes.
Cethru held up his lanthorn, and they could see his long, thin face, like a sandwich of dried leather, jerk and quiver, and his thin grey hairs flutter in the draught of the bats' wings circling round the light. "'Twill be main hard!" he groaned; "an' my lanthorn's nowt but a poor thing." With a high look, the Prince of Felicitas bent and touched the old man's forehead.
And they would call out of their doors and windows to him passing: "Hola! old man Cethru! All's well with our house, and with the street before it?" But, for answer, the old man only held his lanthorn up, so that in the ring of its pale light they saw some sight or other in the street. And his silence troubled them, one by one, for each had expected that he would reply: "Aye, aye!
"And, forasmuch as on this same night the wealthy burgess Pranzo, who, having prepared a banquet, was standing in his doorway awaiting the arrival of his guests, did see, by the light of the said Cethru's lanthorn, a beggar woman and her children grovelling in the gutter for garbage, whereby his appetite was lost completely; and, forasmuch as he, Pranzo, has lodged a complaint against the Constitution for permitting women and children to go starved, the Watch do hereby indict, accuse, and otherwise make charge on Cethru of rebellion and of anarchy, in that wilfully he doth disturb good citizens by showing to them without provocation disagreeable sights, and doth moreover endanger the laws by causing persons to desire to change them.
"And, forasmuch as on this same night the wealthy burgess Pranzo, who, having prepared a banquet, was standing in his doorway awaiting the arrival of his guests, did see, by the light of the said Cethru's lanthorn, a beggar woman and her children grovelling in the gutter for garbage, whereby his appetite was lost completely; and, forasmuch as he, Pranzo, has lodged a complaint against the Constitution for permitting women and children to go starved, the Watch do hereby indict, accuse, and otherwise make charge on Cethru of rebellion and of anarchy, in that wilfully he doth disturb good citizens by showing to them without provocation disagreeable sights, and doth moreover endanger the laws by causing persons to desire to change them.
If you saw the rat, why did you then not aid this unhappy citizen who was bitten by it first, to avoid that rodent, and subsequently to slay it, thereby relieving the public of a pestilential danger?" Cethru looked at him, and for some seconds did not reply; then he said slowly: "I were just passin' with my lanthorn."
Now when they reached the Court House it was patent that a great affair was forward; for the Judges were in their robes, and a crowd of advocates, burgesses, and common folk thronged the careen, lofty hall of justice. When Cethru saw that all eyes were turned on him, he shivered still more violently, fixing his fascinated gaze on the three Judges in their emerald robes.
Word Of The Day