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Updated: May 6, 2025
And when, Sirs, this pale flame has sprung into the air swaying to every wind, it brings vision to the human eye. And, if it be charged on this old man Cethru that he and his lanthorn by reason of their showing not only the good but the evil bring no pleasure into the world, I ask, Sirs, what in the world is so dear as this power to see whether it be the beautiful or the foul that is disclosed?
"You are not walking as I bade you, carrying your lanthorn." But Cethru neither moved nor answered: "Lift him up!" said the Prince. They lifted up his head and held the lanthorn to his closed eyes. So lean was that brown face that the beams from the lanthorn would not rest on it, but slipped past on either side into the night. His eyes did not open. He was dead.
So saying, the young advocate ceased. Again the three Judges took counsel of each other, and after much talk had passed between them, the oldest spoke: "What this young advocate has said seems to us to be the truth. We cannot punish a lanthorn. Let the old man go!" And Cethru went out into the sunshine . . . .
The Judges took counsel of each other, and the oldest of them thus addressed himself to Cethru: "If you have no defence, old man, and there is no one will say a word for you, we can but proceed to judgment." Then in the main aisle of the Court there rose a youthful advocate.
Cethru, left alone in the dark thoroughfare, sighed heavily; then, spitting on his hands, he tightened the old girdle round his loins, and slinging the lanthorn on his staff, held it up to the level of his waist, and began to make his way along the street.
Cethru was glad to shuffle away, unnoticed, from the Court, and sitting down under a camel-date tree outside the City Wall, he thus reflected: "They were rough with me! I done nothin', so far's I can see!" And a long time he sat there with the bunches of the camel-dates above him, golden as the sunlight.
The Judges took counsel of each other, and the oldest of them thus addressed himself to Cethru: "If you have no defence, old man, and there is no one will say a word for you, we can but proceed to judgment." Then in the main aisle of the Court there rose a youthful advocate.
"My name is Cethru," replied the aged churl. "Cethru!" said the Prince. "Let it be your duty henceforth to walk with your lanthorn up and down this street all night and every night," and he looked at Cethru: "Do you understand, old man, what it is you have to do?"
"And, forasmuch as on this same night the Watchman Filepo, made aware, by the light of this said Cethru's lanthorn, of three sturdy footpads, went to arrest them, and was set on by the rogues and well-nigh slain, the Watch do hereby indict, accuse, and otherwise charge upon Cethru complicity in this assault, by reasons, namely, first, that he discovered the footpads to the Watchman and the Watchman to the footpads by the light of his lanthorn; and, second, that, having thus discovered them, he stood idly by and gave no assistance to the law.
"You are not walking as I bade you, carrying your lanthorn." But Cethru neither moved nor answered: "Lift him up!" said the Prince. They lifted up his head and held the lanthorn to his closed eyes. So lean was that brown face that the beams from the lanthorn would not rest on it, but slipped past on either side into the night. His eyes did not open. He was dead.
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