All was now explained. He perceived that he had
been mistaken the whole of this time for another person. He could not
contain himself. He burst into an exclamation. He told the judge, in a
voice of mingled delight, humility, and triumph, that it was possible he
might be guilty of high treason, because he was ignorant of what the
crime consisted; but as for stealing two hundred and nineteen
Camelopards, he declared that such a larceny was a moral impossibility,
because he had never seen one such animal in the whole course of his
life.
The judge was kind and considerate. He told the prisoner that the
charge of stealing Camelopards was a fiction of law; that he had no
doubt he had never seen one in the whole course of his life, nor in all
probability had any one in the whole Court. He explained to Popanilla,
that originally this animal greatly abounded in Vraibleusia; that the
present Court, the highest and most ancient in the kingdom, had then
been instituted for tile punishment of all those who molested or injured
that splendid animal.
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