Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/129

 108

Perhaps the most famous quibble in his tory was that perpetrated by Queen Dido. She bargained for as much land as could be covered by a hide, and then cleverly cut the hide into long strips so as to enclose quite an extensive tract. For this feat her mem ory has been perpetuated in our dictionaries. But of all the quibblers of old, commend us to the men at arms. When Temures beseiged Sebastia, he promised that if they would surrender, no blood would be shed. The garrison took him at his word and sur rendered, when Temures, quibbling upon his promise, buried them all alive. Aryandes, treating with the Barcoeans, enticed their ambassadors to a place pre pared for the purpose, where he swore to observe the treaty as long as the earth on which they stood should continue firm. He had placed them on a pit having a trap-door covered with earth, which presently he caused to sink beneath him. Having thus, as he conceived, terminated the treaty, he put his unfortunate victims to the sword. Labeo, the Roman general, having over come Antiochus, stipulated as a condition of peace, that he should be entitled to carry away one-half of Antiochus' ships. This having been agreed to, Labeo cut each of the ships in two, and carrying off his half destroyed the king's entire navy. Cleomenes the Spartan, having entered into an armistice with the Argive army for seven days, fell upon them during the third night, and killed and captured a great num ber of them while they were fast asleep. On being reproached with his perfidy, he argued in justification that he had made the truce for seven days, but had said nothing about the nights. A Roman officer, taken prisoner by Hannibal, was permitted to leave camp on a

promise that he would speedily return. Just after leaving, he returned on pretense of having forgotten something, and again went away. He then hastened to Rome, where he remained, maintaining that he had kept his promise to speedily return, and therefore would not go back. Coming down to more modern times, it is told that a distinguished Spanish general, having bound himself by oath never to fight against the French army, whether on foot or on horseback, took the field against them at the battle of Rocroy in a sedan chair. Equivocatory clauses in wills, and puzzling inscriptions on burial stones and statues have frequently formed the groundwork of very interesting stories. Petrarch tells us one to this effect: There was in Sicily a huge statue on which this inscription was engraved in very ancient letters, " On May-day I shall wear a golden head." Many persons con sidered this statement as a jest, while others went to the length of piercing the head on the day mentioned, hoping to find it really golden. Finally one man, more expert in quibbles than the rest, came on May-day to the spot, and observing where the first rays of the sun threw the shadow of the head of the statue on the ground, he dug there, and laid bare an immense treasure of gold. Shakespeare's quibbling in Macbeth is notorious. " None born of a woman shall harm Macbeth." Rather a weak quibble, William, to claim that a child brought into the world by the Caesarean operation was not born of his mother. "Till Birnam wood shall come to Dunsinane" is not much better. No wonder Macbeth should exclaim : — "And be these juggling fiends no more believed. That palter with us in a double sense; That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope."


 * S^|g^