Chapter 25

Privy Counsellor CLARENBACH, Counsellor WELLENBERG.

_Well._ Most honoured Sir.

_P. Coun._ What is your pleasure, Sir?

_Well._ I am forced, by necessity, to go in quest of you, Sir; the suit of the poor orphans--

_P. Coun._ Is determined; the will is confirmed.

_Well._ I know. (Pulls out a paper.) This is the decree. The oftener I peruse it, and the longer I consider it, the more it resembles a poor chest forced open, beat to pieces, and in the end carried off.

_P. Coun._ You grow impertinent, Sir.

_Well._ No, most honoured Sir! but I am filled with spirit and courage, like an old trusty servant, armed with perseverance and justice in the cause of the orphan, which calls aloud to heaven for redress. That I am, and that you will find me.

_P. Coun._ Do you intend to appeal?

_Well._ Yes, I do, indeed.

_P. Coun._ Well, do so, and leave me.

_Well._ No, no; I will not leave you. I appeal to you, most honoured Sir, not _qua judex_, but _qua homo_, _qua homo_, who believes in the day of judgment, and, at the sound of the last trump, would wish to be called to the right; not to be left among the damned, where many an Aulic Counsellor will be found, I am afraid.

_P. Coun._ I honour the feelings that animate you, Sir; but they are foreign to the affair. Appeal in form, at--

_Well._ To avoid all _replicas_, _duplicas_, _et fatalia_, that may delay and put off the cause, I will put you an _argumentum_, that, _eo ipso_, shall invalidate your sentence, and re-instate the poor children in their right, assigned to them by God and justice.

_P. Coun._ (pauses.) Are you possessed of such an argument? (With surprise.) It will be welcome.

_Well._ Indeed! what you should call truly welcome?--

_P. Coun._ By heaven, very welcome!

_Well._ Then give me the embrace of a good man, (Privy Counsellor goes to embrace him,) without touching my hands, which at this present time labour under the _chiragra_. (Embraces him.) So our town has doubted your humanity, and been of opinion that it is detained as a prisoner in a gold purse.--You blush;--well, that for a Privy Counsellor is a good sign; I will circulate it among the multitude. Now my _argumentum_ is, that--