Several serious cases were now brought up for judgment, poor against rich, and rich against poor. The covetous and unjust rich were punished by being condemned to wander about for certain seasons with rolls of lead on their backs. How some seditious people were dealt with will appear from the following:
Ten strong, healthy-looking men were led in handcuffed to each other, and their accuser stood beside them. They were, he said, men belonging to the labouring class, men whose station in life was appointed by the Supreme Governor of the world, men who might be happy and contented if they would be so, and allow others to be so, but they would not. They had plenty of work, were paid fair wages, were kindly treated by their employers, all their complaints were listened to, and, if reasonable, promptly redressed; but they were not satisfied. They said Capital had no right to rule over them; they would be dictators and masters over their employers. They struck work, and formed themselves into impracticable and tyrannical combinations; harangued their fellow-workmen, and made them as rebellious as themselves; and left their wives and children in pitiable privation, alarm, and anxiety. They were disturbers of the social peace, and destroyers of the happiness and prosperity of the community.
The King asked the men if these charges were true; they were silent; they, who had been so eloquent and bombastic on their oratorical tubs, had now not a word to say. His Majesty then commanded that they should work in the lead marble mines during his pleasure.
'My lord Cardinal,' said the King, when these trials were over, 'we would hear thee speak. We are told thou hast been on a visit to another world.'
'The visit of which your Majesty has heard,' answered the Cardinal, 'was an involuntary, and I believe a spiritual,
