Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0144/01446.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 6KB | 143 lines

$Unique_ID{bob01446}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Prince And The Pauper, The
Chapter XXIV}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Twain, Mark}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{thee
thou
sir
jest
hath
hendon

}
$Date{1909}
$Log{}
Title:       Prince And The Pauper, The
Author:      Twain, Mark
Date:        1909

Chapter XXIV

The Escape

     The short winter day was nearly ended.  The streets were deserted,
save for a few random stragglers, and these hurried straight along, with
the intent look of people who were only anxious to accomplish their errands
as quickly as possible and then snugly house themselves from the rising
wind and the gathering twilight.  They looked neither to the right nor to
the left; they paid no attention to our party, they did not even seem to
see them.  Edward the Sixth wondered if the spectacle of a king on his way
to jail had ever encountered such marvelous indifference before.  By and by
the constable arrived at a deserted market-square and proceeded to cross
it.  When he had reached the middle of it, Hendon laid his hand upon his
arm, and said in a low voice:

     "Bide a moment, good sir, there is none in hearing, and I would say a
word to thee."

     "My duty forbids it, sir; prithee, hinder me not, the night comes on."

     "Stay, nevertheless, for the matter concerns thee nearly.  Turn thy
back a moment and seem not to see; let this poor lad escape."

     "This to me, sir!  I arrest thee in - "

     "Nay, be not too hasty.  See thou be careful and commit no foolish
error" - then he shut his voice down to a whisper, and said in the man's
ear - "the pig thou hast purchased for eightpence may cost thee thy neck,
man!"

     The poor constable, taken by surprise, was speechless at first, then
found his tongue and fell to blustering and threatening; but Hendon was
tranquil, and waited with patience till his breath was spent; then said:

     "I have a liking to thee, friend, and would not willingly see thee
come to harm.  Observe, I heard it all - every word.  I will prove it to
thee." Then he repeated the conversation which the officer and the woman
had had together in the hall, word for word, and ended with:

     "There - have I set it forth correctly?  Should not I be able to set
it forth correctly before the judge, if occasion required?"

     The man was dumb with fear and distress for a moment; then he rallied
and said with forced lightness:

     "'Tis making a mighty matter indeed, out of a jest; I but plagued the
woman for mine amusement."

     "Kept you the woman's pig for amusement?"

     The man answered sharply:

     "Nought else, good sir - I tell thee 'twas but a jest."

     "I do begin to believe thee," said Hendon, with a perplexing mixture
of mockery and half-conviction in his tone; "but tarry thou here a moment
whilst I run and ask his worship - for nathless, he being a man experienced
in law, in jests, in - "

     He was moving away, still talking; the constable hesitated, fidgeted,
spat out an oath or two, then cried out:

     "Hold, hold, good sir - prithee, wait a little - the judge!  why man,
he hath no more sympathy with a jest than hath a dead corpse! - come, and
we will speak further.  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."

     "Bear me up, bear me up, sweet sir, my legs do fail me!  Be thou
merciful - spare me this doom, and I will turn my back and see nought that
shall happen."

     "Good!  now thou'rt wise and reasonable.  And thou'lt restore the
pig?"

     "I will, I will, indeed - nor ever touch another, though heaven send
it and an archangel fetch it.  Go - I am blind for thy sake - I see
nothing.  I will say thou didst break in and wrest the prisoner from my
hands by force.  It is but a crazy, ancient door - I will batter it down
myself betwixt midnight and the morning."

     "Do it, good soul, no harm will come of it; the judge hath a loving
charity for this poor lad, and will shed no tears and break no jailor's
bones for his escape."