Page:Libussa, Duchess of Bohemia; also, The Man Without a Name.djvu/66

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Libussa.

the weapon of discord against ourselves. We renounce the treacherous gift; neither of us shall have the apple. It shall be thine, as a reward for thy honest advice. It is to the judge that belongs the fruit of the process; the parties must be satisfied with the peel.”

The knights thereupon took each his way home, and the shepherd meanwhile consumed, with the ease common to judges, the apple of discord.

The ambiguous gift of the duchess angered the knights exceedingly; and their anger was not at all diminished when, on reaching their homes, they found they could no longer act as despotically as formerly with their subjects and feudaries, but were compelled to obey the laws published by Libussa for the general security and welfare. They entered into a league, offensive and defensive; and made many partisans, whom they sent about into the districts, in order to throw aspersions and calumnies upon female government. “What a shame,” they said, “to be subject to a female, who gathers our laurels to adorn her distaff with them! It belongs to man to be master of his house, and not to woman; it is his right, and it is the custom in every other country. What is an army without