ld be laid at his door, as well
as some that could not. On the other hand, he had also been duped that
morning by the pilgrim's superabundant professions of religious zeal a
circumstance that of itself would have prevented him from detecting
Conrad's arm in the air as it cast the stone, and which served greatly to
increase his certainty that the first offence came from the luckless wight
just alluded to; since they who discriminate under general convictions and
popular prejudices, usually heap all the odium they pertinaciously
withhold from the lucky and the favored, on those who seem fated by
general consent to be the common target of the world's darts.

The officer, by the time he had deliberately heard the three principal
witnesses, together with the confounding explanations of those who
professed to be only half-informed in the matter, was utterly at a loss to
decide which had been right and which wrong. He came, therefore, to the
safe conclusion to send all the parties to the guard-house, including the
witnesses, being quite sure that he had hit on an effectual method of
visiting the true criminal with punishment, and of admonishing all those
who gave evidence in future to have a care of the manner in which they
contradicted each other. Just as this equitable decision was pronounced,
the sound of a trumpet proclaimed the approach of a division of the
principal mummers, if so irreverent a term can be applied to men engaged
in a festival as justly renowned as that of the vine-dressers. This
announcement greatly quickened the steps of Justice, for they who were
charged with the execution of her decrees felt the necessity of being
prompt, under the penalty of losing an interesting portion of the
spectacle. Actuated by this new impulse, which, if riot as respectable,
was quite as strong, as the desire to do right, the disturbers of the
peace, even to those who had shown a quarrelsome temper by telling stories
that gave each other the lie, were hurried away in a body, and the public
was left in the enjoyment of that tranquillity which, in these perilous
times of revolution and changes, is thought to to be so necessary to its
dignity, so especially favorable to commerce, and so grateful to those
whose duty it is to preserve the public peace with as little inconvenience
to themselves as possible.

A blast of the trumpet was the signal for a more general movement, for it
announced the commencement of the ceremonies. As it w