"None!" replied the old man who stood beside him, lamp in hand, fixing his dark, melancholy eyes upon him as he spoke--"None! ... neither in Al-Kyris nor in any other great city on the peopled earth! Justice? ... I who am named Zuriel the Mystic, because of my tireless searching into things that are hidden from the unstudious and unthinking,--I know that Justice is an idle name,-- an empty braggart-word forever on the mouths of kings and judges, but never in their hearts! Moreover,--what is guilt? ... What is innocence? Both must be defined according to the law of the realm wherein we dwell,--and from that law there can be no appeal. These men we lately saw were the chief priests and executioners of the Sacred Temple,--they have done no wrong--they have simply fulfilled their duty. The culprits slain deserved their fate,-- they loved where loving was forbidden,--torture and death was the strictly ordained punishment, and herein was justice,--justice as portioned out by the Penal Code of the High Court of Council."
Theos heard, and gave an expressive gesture of loathing and contempt.
"O narrow jurisdiction! ... O short-sighted, false equity!" he exclaimed passionately. "Are there different laws for high and low? ... Must the weak and defenceless be condemned to death for the self-same sin committed openly by their more powerful brethren who yet escape scot-free? What of the High Priestess then? ... If these poor lover-victims merited their doom, why is not Lysia slain? ... Is not SHE a willingly violated vestal? ... doth SHE not count her lovers by the score? ... are not her vows long since broken? ... is not her life a life of wanton luxury and open shame? ... Why doth the Law, beholding these things, remain in her case dumb and ineffectual?"
"Hush, hush, my son!" said the aged Zuriel anxiously--"These stone walls hear thee far too loudly,--who knows but they may echo forth thy words to unsuspected listeners! Peace--peace! ... Lysia is as much Queen, as Zephoranim is King of Al-Kyris; and surely thou knowest that the sins of tyrants are accounted virtues, so long as they retain their ruling powers? The public voice pronounces Lysia chaste, and Zephoranim faithful; who then shall dare to disprove the verdict?--'Tis the same in all countries, near and far,--the law serves the strong, while professing to defend the weak. The rich man gains his cause,--the beggar loses it,--how can it be otherwise, while lust of gold prevails? Gold is the moving-force of this our era,--without it kings and ministers are impotent, and armies starve, . . with it, all things can be accomplished even to the concealment of the foulest crimes. Come, come! ..." and he laid one hand kindly on Theos's arm, "Thou hast a generous and fiery spirit, but thou shouldst never have been born into this planet if thou seekest such a thing as Justice! No man will ever deal true justice to his fellow man on earth, unless perhaps in ages to come, when the old creeds are swept away for a new, and a grander, wider, purer form of faith is accepted by the people. For religion in Al-Kyris to-day is a hollow mockery,--a sham, kept up partly from fear,--partly from motives of policy,--but every thinker is an atheist at heart, . . our splendid civilization is tottering towards its fall, . . and should the fore-doomed destruction of this city come to pass, vast ages of progress, discovery, and invention will be swept away as though they had never been!"