"Every poor old fellow would have been put an end to without the slightest mercy?"
"Not without mercy," I rejoined.
"Now, there's my governor's father," said Lord Alfred; "you know who he is?"
"The Duke of Northumberland, I'm informed."
"He's a terrible swell. He owns three castles, and half a county, and has half a million a-year. I can hardly tell you what sort of an old fellow he is at home. There isn't any one who doesn't pay him the most profound respect, and he's always doing good to everybody. Do you mean to say that some constable or cremator,—some sort of first hangman,—would have come to him and taken him by the nape of his neck, and cut his throat, just because he was sixty-eight years old? I can't believe that anybody would have done it."
"But the duke is a man."
"Yes, he's a man, no doubt."
"If he committed murder, he would be hanged in spite of his dukedom."
"I don't know how that would be," said Lord Alfred, hesitating. "I cannot imagine that my grandfather should commit a murder."
"But he would be hanged; I can tell you that. Though it be very improbable,—impossible, as you and I may think it,—the law is the same for him as for others. Why should not all other laws be the same also?"