Page:Omniana 2.djvu/241

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OMNIANA.
231

tion of the Garter, and writes the motto, Puni soyt qui mal lu pense: and here is the story of a stag being taken with a collar round its neck, and an inscription thereon, saying that it was put there by Julius Cæsar. It was a gold collar, inserted under the skin of the animal, and the skin sewn over it. Its shape was wholly of esses, SSS, because in the whole A B C there is no letter of greater authority and perfection than the S; standing for Santità, Saviezza, Sapientia, Signoria, &c. . . and this is the origin of the collar of the Garter. He describes a radical reform of the English law. It begins by hanging six lawyers, upon which the King says to the Duke who hung them, "You could not have done me a greater service in the world, nor a greater pleasure than this thing;" and he makes a law, that from thenceforth there shall be only two lawyers in England, who shall decide every cause which is brought before them within fifteen