Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/54

34 "Very reverend sir," said Ursus, "so little did I desire to insult the basilisk that I have given out as certain that it has a man's head."

"Be it so," replied Minos, severely; "but you added that Poerius had seen one with the head of a falcon. Can you prove it?"

"Not easily," said Ursus.

Here he had lost a little ground. Minos, seizing the advantage, pushed it:—

"You have said that a converted Jew has not a nice smell."

"Yes. But I added that a Christian who becomes a Jew has a nasty one."

Minos again cast his eyes over the accusing documents. "You have affirmed and propagated things which are impossible. You have said that Ælian had seen an elephant write sentences."

"Nay, very reverend gentlemen! I simply said that Oppian had heard an hippopotamus discuss a philosophical problem."

"You have declared that it is not true that a dish made of beech-wood will become covered of itself with all the viands that one can desire."

"I said that if it has this virtue, it must be that you received it from the devil."

"That I received it!"

"No, most reverend sir. I, nobody, everybody!"

Aside, Ursus thought, "I don't know what I am saying." But his confusion, though extreme, was not visible outwardly, so bravely did he struggle against it.

"All this," Minos resumed, "implies a certain belief in the devil."

Ursus held his own. "Very reverend sir, I am not an unbeliever with regard to the devil. Belief in the devil follows from faith in God. The one proves the