“What, the lawyers?”
“Even so,” replied Lathom; “in 1730, William Forbes, in his ‘Institutes of the Law of Scotland,’ published in that year, makes this remark: ‘Nothing seems plainer to me, than that there have been witches, and that, perhaps, such are now actually existing; which I intend, God willing, to clear in a larger work concerning the criminal law.’”
“Did this large work appear?” said Thompson.
“I should think not; at least, it is not known.”
“The old Jesuit from whom you got your version of The Ungrateful Man, has a story illustrative of a kind of witchcraft that all will admit to have been very prevalent in every age,” said Thompson.
“What, will you believe in witchcraft in any form?”
“At all events, in one form—the witchcraft of love; my instance is the story of Semiramis and Ninus. I will read it you from the same version that Lathom used for his tale of Vitalis and Massaccio.”
THE QUEEN SEMIRAMIS.
“Of all my wives,” said King Ninus to Semiramis, “it is you I love the best. None have charms and graces like you, and for you I would willingly resign them all.”
“Let the king consider well what he says,” replied Semiramis. “What if I were to take him at his word?”