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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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stolen a yard or two of cloth from a weaver-she was to be hanged for it. Another was a man who had been accused of stealing a horse; he said the proof had failed, and he had imagined that he was safe from the halter; but no-he was hardly free before he was arraigned for killing a deer in the king’s park; this was proved against him, and now he was on his way to the gallows. There was a tradesman’s apprentice whose case particularly distressed the king; this youth said he found a hawk one evening that had escaped from its owner, and he took it home with him, imagining himself entitled to it; but the court convicted him of stealing it, and sentenced him to death. The king was furious over these inhumanities, and wanted Hendon to break jail and fly with him to Westminster, so that he could mount his throne and hold out his scepter in mercy over these unfortunate people and save their lives. ‘Poor child,’ sighed Hendon, ‘these woeful tales have brought his malady upon him again-alack, but for this evil hap, he would have been well in a little time.’ Among these prisoners was an old lawyer-a man with a strong face and a dauntless mien, Three years past, he had written a pamphlet against the Lord Chancellor, accusing him of injustice, and had been punished for it by the loss of his ears in the pillory and degradation from the bar, and in addition had been fined L3,000 and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Lately he had repeated his offense; and in consequence was now under sentence to lose what remained of his ears, pay a fine of L5,000, be branded on both cheeks, and remain in prison for life. ‘These be honorable scars,’ he said, and turned back his gray hair and showed the mutilated stubs of what had once been his ears. The king’s eye burned with passion. He said: ‘None believe in me-neither wilt thou. But no matter-within the compass of a month thou shalt be free; and more, the laws that have dishonored thee, and shamed the English name, shall be swept from the statute-books. The world is made wrong, kings should go to school to their own laws at times, and so learn mercy.’*(20) |
