that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him, and tore him to pieces, as a punishment for his guilt.  The moment that the case of the criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.

But if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his Majesty could select among his fair subjects; and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence.  It mattered not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection.  The king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his great scheme of retribution and reward.  The exercises, as in the other instance, took place immediately, and in the arena.  Another door opened beneath the king, and a priest, followed by a band of choristers, and dancing maidens blowing joyous airs on golden horns and treading an epithalamic measure, advanced to where the pair stood side by side, and the wedding was promptly and cheerily solemnized.  Then the gay brass bells rang forth their merry peals, the people shouted glad hurrahs, and the innocent man, preceded by children strewing flowers on his path, led his bride to his home.

This was the king’s semi-barbaric method of administering justice.  Its perfect fairness is obvious.  The criminal could not know out of which door would come the lady.  He opened either he pleased, without having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be devoured or married.  On some occasions the tiger came out of one door, and on some out of the other.  The decisions of this tribunal were not only fair—­they were positively determinate.  The accused person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, and if innocent he was rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not.  There was no escape from the judgments of the king’s arena.

The institution was a very popular one.  When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they were to witness a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding.  This element of uncertainty lent an interest to the occasion which it could not otherwise have attained.  Thus the masses were entertained and pleased, and the thinking part of the community could bring no charge of unfairness against this plan; for did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands?