laive of Justice them whom they
most esteem, is the greatest affliction known to kings. He would
have done it: he deserved to reign. Happily the evidence against the
gentleman who was tumbled, Mr. Ralph Shepster, excused Mr. Augustus
Camwell, otherwise Alonzo, for dealing with him promptly to shut his
mouth.

This Shepster, a raw young squire, 'reeking,' Beau Beamish writes of
him, 'one half of the soil, and t' other half of the town,' had involved
Chloe in his familiar remarks upon the Duchess of Dewlap; and the
personal respect entertained by Mr. Beamish for Chloe so strongly
approved Alonzo's championship of her, that in giving judgement he
laid stress on young Alonzo's passion for Chloe, to prove at once the
disinterestedness of the assailant, and the judicial nature of the
sentence: which was, that Mr. Ralph Shepster should undergo banishment,
and had the right to demand reparation. The latter part of this decree
assisted in effecting the execution of the former. Shepster declined
cold steel, calling it murder, and was effusive of nature's logic on the
subject.

'Because a man comes and knocks me down, I'm to go up to him and ask him
to run me through!'

His shake of the head signified that he was not such a noodle. Voluble
and prolific of illustration, as is no one so much as a son of nature
inspired to speak her words of wisdom, he defied the mandate, and
refused himself satisfaction, until in the strangest manner possible
flights of white feathers beset him, and he became a mark for
persecution too trying for the friendship of his friends. He fled,
repeating his tale, that he had seen 'Beamish's Duchess,' and Chloe
attending her, at an assignation in the South Grove, where a gentleman,
unknown to the Wells, presented himself to the adventurous ladies, and
they walked together--a tale ending with nods.

Shepster's banishment was one of those victories of justice upon which
mankind might be congratulated if they left no commotion behind. But,
as when a boy has been horsed before his comrades, dread may visit them,
yet is there likewise devilry in the school; and everywhere over earth
a summary punishment that does not sweep the place clear is likely to
infect whom it leaves remaining. The great law-givers, Lycurgus, Draco,
Solon, Beamish, sorrowfully acknowledge that they have had recourse
to infernal agents, after they have thus purified their circle of an
offender. Doctors confess to the same of their physi