316 THE KING'S MIRROR 



diate death, that man should be kept in the king's garth 

 or in custody forty days before his case should be finally 

 determined.* And it would be well if every king would 

 observe this enactment, in order that he might frame 

 his decisions with regard for reason and justice and not 

 in sudden anger. JLf a man is convicted of an offence 

 for which law and justice impose a fine but not death, 

 the king, or the lord who governs the land, shalLseize 

 his wealth, not because he loves and covets the money, 

 but because a just penalty and the laws of the land de- 



. - |MBB i 1M rr ^^^"^^i 



mand it. If all these things which we have now set forth 

 are carefully observed, I believe that those who are 

 appointed to be judges will suffer no great reproaches 

 from God. 



LX 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 



Son. It seems reasonable that a land, which is placed 

 in charge of a ruler who attends carefully to these things, 

 will be well governed; and the people ought to show 

 proper appreciation of his government. Still with your 

 permission I shall now ask about certain matters that 

 interest me concerning rightful verdicts. You referred 

 to an order given by an emperor as to punishments de- 

 creed by a king (which looks to me like good law), that 



* This is probably an allusion to the edict of Theodosius II " which interposes 

 a salutary interval of thirty days between the sentence and the execution." 

 Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, III, 176; Mommsen and 

 Meyer (editors), Theodosiani Libri XVI, I, part 2, 503 (viii, 40: 13). The edict 

 was probably a part of the penance exacted from the Emperor after his 

 massacre of the Thessalonians. See Ambrosius Saga in Heilagra Manna Sogur, 

 1,40. 



