In a row, then, these selfsame knee-pans did kneel before the king; who eyed them as eagles in air do goslings on dunghills; or hunters, hounds crouching round their calves.

“Your prayer?” said Media.

It was a petition, that thereafter all differences between man and man in Ode, together with all alleged offenses against the state, might be tried by twelve good men and true.  These twelve to be unobnoxious to the party or parties concerned; their peers; and previously unbiased touching the matter at issue.  Furthermore, that unanimity in these twelve should be indispensable to a verdict; and no dinner be vouchsafed till unanimity came.

Loud and long laughed King Media in scorn.

“This be your judge,” he cried, swaying his scepter.  “What! are twelve wise men more wise than one? or will twelve fools, put together, make one sage?  Are twelve honest men more honest than one? or twelve knaves less knavish than one?  And if, of twelve men, three be fools, and three wise, three knaves, and three upright, how obtain real unanimity from such?

“But if twelve judges be better than one, then are twelve hundred better than twelve.  But take the whole populace for a judge, and you will long wait for a unanimous verdict.

“If upon a thing dubious, there be little unanimity in the conflicting opinions of one man’s mind, how expect it in the uproar of twelve puzzled brains? though much unanimity be found in twelve hungry stomachs.

“Judges unobnoxious to the accused!  Apply it to a criminal case.  Ha! ha! if peradventure a Cacti be rejected, because he had seen the accused commit the crime for which he is arraigned.  Then, his mind would be biased:  no impartiality from him!  Or your testy accused might object to another, because of his tomahawk nose, or a cruel squint of the eye.

“Of all follies the most foolish!  Know ye from me, that true peers render not true verdicts.  Jiromo was a rebel.  Had I tried him by his peers, I had tried him by rebels; and the rebel had rebelled to some purpose.

“Away!  As unerring justice dwells in a unity, and as one judge will at last judge the world beyond all appeal; so—­though often here below justice be hard to attain—­does man come nearest the mark, when he imitates that model divine.  Hence, one judge is better than twelve.”

“And as Justice, in ideal, is ever painted high lifted above the crowd; so, from the exaltation of his rank, an honest king is the best of those unical judges, which individually are better than twelve.  And therefore am I, King Media, the best judge in this land.”

“Subjects! so long as I live, I will rule you and judge you alone.  And though you here kneeled before me till you grew into the ground, and there took root, no yea to your petition will you get from this throne.  I am king:  ye are slaves.  Mine to command:  yours to obey.  And this hour I decree, that henceforth no gibberish of bulwarks and bulkheads be heard in this land.  For a dead bulwark and a bulkhead, to dam off sedition, will I make of that man, who again but breathes those bulky words.  Ho! spears! see that these knee-pans here kneel till set of sun.”