hem,
and at their feet a form for the accused.

Ursus, introduced by a tipstaff, of placid but severe expression,
entered, perceived the doctors, and immediately in his own mind, gave to
each of them the name of the judge of the infernal regions represented
by the bust placed above his head. Minos, the president, the
representative of theology, made him a sign to sit down on the form.

Ursus made a proper bow--that is to say, bowed to the ground; and
knowing that bears are charmed by honey, and doctors by Latin, he said,
keeping his body still bent respectfully,--

"_Tres faciunt capitulum_!"

Then, with head inclined (for modesty disarms) he sat down on the form.

Each of the three doctors had before him a bundle of papers, of which he
was turning the leaves.

Minos began.

"You speak in public?"

"Yes," replied Ursus.

"By what right?"

"I am a philosopher."

"That gives no right."

"I am also a mountebank," said Ursus.

"That is a different thing."

Ursus breathed again, but with humility.

Minos resumed,--

"As a mountebank, you may speak; as a philosopher, you must keep
silence."

"I will try," said Ursus.

Then he thought to himself.

"I may speak, but I must be silent. How complicated."

He was much alarmed.

The same overseer continued,--

"You say things which do not sound right. You insult religion. You deny
the most evident truths. You propagate revolting errors. For instance,
you have said that the fact of virginity excludes the possibility of
maternity."

Ursus lifted his eyes meekly, "I did not say that. I said that the fact
of maternity excludes the possibility of virginity."

Minos was thoughtful, and mumbled, "True, that is the contrary."

It was really the same thing. But Ursus had parried the first blow.

Minos, meditating on the answer just given by Ursus, sank into the
depths of his own imbecility, and kept silent.

The overseer of history, or, as Ursus called him, Rhadamanthus, covered
the retreat of Minos by this interpolation, "Accused! your audacity and
your errors are of two sorts. You have denied that the battle of
Pharsalia would have been lost because Brutus and Cassius had met a
negro."

"I said," murmured Ursus "that there was something in the fact that
Caesar was the better captain."

The man of history passed, without transition, to mythology.

"You have excused the infamous acts of Actaeon."

"I think," said Ursus, insinuatingly, "that a man i