the President, "imagine the consternation which
this----"

"Let it be gazetted to-night," said Duke Deodonato.

"I would venture," said the President, "to remind your Highness that
you are yourself a bachelor."

"Laws," said Duke Deodonato, "do not bind the Crown unless the Crown is
expressly mentioned."

"True, sir; but I humbly conceive that it would be pessimi exempli----"

"You are right; I will marry myself," said Duke Deodonato.

"But, sir, three weeks! The hand of a princess cannot be requested and
granted in----"

"Then find me somebody else," said Deodonato; "and pray leave me. I
would be alone;" and Duke Deodonato waved his hand to the door.

Outside the door the President said to the Doctor:

"I could wish, sir, that you had not convinced his Highness."

"My lord," rejoined the Doctor, "truth is my only preoccupation."

"Sir," said the President, "are you married?"

"My lord," answered the Doctor, "I am not."

"I thought not," said the President, as he folded up the decree and put
it in his pocket.

It is useless to deny that Duke Deodonato's decree caused considerable
disturbance in the Duchy. In the first place, the Crown lawyers raised
a puzzle of law. Did the word "man" as used in the decree, include
"woman"? The President shook his head, and referred the question to
his Highness.

"It seems immaterial," observed the Duke. "If a man marries, a woman
marries."

"Ex vi terminorum," assented the Doctor.

"But, sir," said the President, "there are more women than men in the
Duchy."

Duke Deodonato threw down his pen.

"This is very provoking," said he. "Why was it allowed? I'm sure it
happened before _I_ came to the throne."

The Doctor was about to point out that it could hardly have been
guarded against, when the President (who was a better courtier)
anticipated him.

"We did not foresee that your Highness, in your Highness' wisdom, would
issue this decree," he said humbly.

"True," said Duke Deodonato, who was a just man.

"Would your Highness vouchsafe any explanation----"

"What are the Judges for?" asked Duke Deodonato. "There is the
law--let them interpret it."

Whereupon the Judges held that a "man" was not a "woman," and that
although every man must marry, no woman need.

"It will make no difference," said the President.

"None at all," said Dr. Fusbius.

Nor, perhaps, would it, seeing that women are ever kind and in no way
by nature averse from marriage