mand, though you were my king; though my country, even heaven itself should speak to me through your revered lips."
"You are right, my son," replied the old man, "and because you ask this, you will ever be in the right; the ruler should with humble piety and with godly fear keep within these limits, respect the conscience of his subjects, keep inviolate the promises, the oaths which his noble predecessors made, and which he has repeated after them, and not hurl with his own hand the burning brand into his granaries, by raising up extortioners, judges, and persecutors!—And woe to those, who thus abuse the weakness of his age, his pliable conscience and their own influence; and woe to him who is appointed to fill these offices to slaughter good and pious men; but tenfold woe to the upright man, who from ambition, or a mistaken sense of duty, advances and sets fire to the stake, and extends the rack still more horribly."
"It grieves me, my father," said Ed-
