So saying, he hastened up the path by which Sorianus had descended, and was speedily out of sight.

III

Sorianus tarried long under the camphor tree, but at last, becoming weary, resumed his travels, until emerging from the wilderness he entered the dominions of the King of Ayodhya.  His extraordinary appearance speedily attracted the attention of the royal officers, by whom he was apprehended and brought before his majesty.

“It is evident,” pronounced the monarch, after bestowing his attention on the case, “that thou art in possession of an object too rare and precious for a private individual, of which thou must accordingly be deprived.  I lament the inconvenience thou wilt sustain.  I would it had been thy hand or thy foot.”

Sorianus acknowledged the royal considerateness, but pleaded the indefeasible right of property which he conceived himself to have acquired in his own head.

“In respect,” responded the royal logician, “that thy head is conjoined to thy shoulders, it is thine; but in respect that it is purple, it is mine, purple being a royal monopoly.  Thy claim is founded on anatomy, mine on jurisprudence.  Shall matter prevail over mind?  Shall medicine, the most uncertain of sciences, override law, the perfection of human reason?  It is but to the vulgar observation that thou appearest to have a head at all; in the eye of the law thou art acephalous.”

“I would submit,” urged the philosopher, “that the corporal connection of my head with my body is an essential property, the colour of it a fortuitous accident.”

“Thou mightest as well contend,” returned the king, “that the law is bound to regard thee in thy abstract condition as a human being, and is disabled from taking cognisance of thy acquired capacity of smuggler—­rebel, I might say, seeing that thou hast assumed the purple.”

“But the imputation of cruelty which might attach to your majesty’s proceedings?”

“There can be no cruelty where there is no injustice.  If any there be, it must be on thy part, since, as I have demonstrated, so far from my despoiling thee of thy head, it is thou who iniquitously withholdest mine.  I will labour to render this even clearer to thy apprehension.  Thou art found, as thou must needs admit, in possession of a contraband article forfeit to the crown by operation of law.  What then?  Shall the intention of the legislature be frustrated because thou hast insidiously rendered the possession of my property inseparable from the possession of thine?  Shall I, an innocent proprietor, be mulcted of my right by thy fraud and covin?  Justice howls, righteousness weeps, integrity stands aghast at the bare notion.  No, friend, thy head has not a leg to stand on.  Wouldst thou retain it, it behoves thee to show that it will be more serviceable to the owner, namely, myself, upon thy shoulders than elsewhere.  This may well be.  Hast thou peradventure any subtleties in perfumery? any secrets in confectionery? any skill in the preparation of soup?”