“Your slave lay writhing in adversity, despoiled by the unprincipled. He was a gourd withered by the noonday sun, until your virtues descended like the dew, and refreshed him with your justice and benignity.
“Wherefore hear now the benediction of him whom your clemency has raised from despair.
“May your shadow increase and cover many lands. May your offspring be a nation dwelling in palaces with golden roofs and walls of ivory, and on the terraces may peacocks be as plentiful as sparrows are to the undeserving. May you live many centuries shining as you now shine; and at your setting may rivulets of ink dug by the pens of poets flow through meadows of paper in praise of the virtues that embellish you here on earth. Sing-tu-Che, a person of small note but devoted to your service, wishes these frivolous advantages to the Pearl of the West, on whom be honor.”
Chorus of diggers. “My eye!”
Robinson rose with much gravity and delivered himself thus:
“Sing-tu-Che, you are a trump, an orator, and a humbug. All the better for you. May felicity attend you. Heichster guchster—honi soit qui mal y pense—donner und blitzen—tempora mutantur—O mia cara and pax vobiscum. The court is dissolved.”
It was, and I regret to add that Judge Robinson's concluding sentences raised him greatly in the opinion of the miners.
“Captain knows a thing or two.”
“If ever we send one to parliament that is the man.”
“Halo! you fellows, come here! come here!”