"Because plaintiff left the amount due him to the pleasure of the Court, to be devoted to charitable purposes."
"Good: then please break into the granaries."
"That we shall not do," interrupted the lawyer: "later on we shall take it out of the 'regalia.'"
Topándy laughed.
"My dear, good magistrate. Do you believe all that is in the Bible?"
"I am a true Christian."
"Then I appeal to your faith. In one place it stands that some invisible hand wrote, in the room of some pagan king—Belshazzar, if the story be true,—the following words,'Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.' If that hand could write then, why could it not now have written that second saying? And if it was the rain that washed away the righteous fellow's words, you must accuse the rain, for the fault lies there."
"These are indeed very weighty counter-charges: and you might have declared them all before the Court, to which you were summoned: you might have appealed even to the septemvirate, but as you did not appear then, you must bear the consequences of your obstinacy."
"Good; I shall pay the price," said Topándy laughing:—"But it was a good joke on my part after all, wasn't it?"
The magistrate showed an angry countenance.