The Lady or the Tiger? [antikvár]

THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? F. R. Stockton In the very olden time, there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas of life were rather florid and at the same time unrestrained. He was a man of great fancy and he always turned his varied fancies into facts. Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of valour, the minds of his people were refined and cultured. But even here the unrestrained and barbaric fancy was felt. The arena of the king was built for purposes of widening and developing the mental energies of the people. It became a means of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of chance. When a man was accused of a crime important enough to interest the king, public notice was given ^ that on an appointed day the fate of this person would be decided in the king's arena. When all the people had gathered in the galleries, and the king, surrounded by his court, sat on his throne, he ^ public notiee was given— 35. nyfi.iHqHO oCiiflBJiajiH