Three other watchmen and a battered citizen, the wineshop
keeper, mumbled in turn: “lyieldinsteadtoyourhonorsjudg-ment.”
“Herald, speak for the accused,” snapped the judge.
Well, thought Alen, I can try. “Your Honor,” he said, “Chief Elwon’s master does not yield to your honor’s judgment. He is ready to battle the other parties in the dispute or their masters.”
“What insolence is this?” screamed the judge, leaping from his throne. “The barbarous customs of other worlds do not prevail in this court! Who spoke of battle—?” He shut his mouth with a snap, evidently abruptly realizing that he had spoken of battle, in an archaic phrase that harked back to the origins of justice on the planet. The judge sat down again and told Alen, more calmly: “You have mistaken a mere formality. The offer was not made in earnest.” Obviously, he didn’t like the sound of that himself, but he proceeded, “Now say ‘lyieldinsteadtoyourhonorsjudgment’, and we can get on with it. For your information, trial by combat has not been practiced for many generations on our enlightened planet.”
Alen said politely: “Your Honor, I am a stranger to many of the ways of Lyra, but our excellent College and Order of Heralds instructed me well in the underlying principles of your law. I recall that one of your most revered legal maxims declares: “The highest crime against man is murder; the highest crime against man’s society is breach of promise.’ ”
Purpling, the judge snarled: “Are you presuming to bandy law with me, you slippery-tongued foreigner? Are you presuming to accuse me of the high crime of breaking my promise? For your information, a promise consists of an offer to do, or refrain from doing, a thing in return for a consideration. There must be the five elements of promiser, promisee, offer, substance, and consideration.”
“If you will forgive a foreigner,” said Alen, suddenly feeling the ground again under his feet, “I maintain that you offered the parties in the dispute your services in awarding the
victory.”
“An empty argument,” snorted the judge. “Just as an offer with substance from somebody to nobody for a consideration is no promise, or an offer without substance from somebody to somebody for a consideration is no promise, so my offer was no promise, for there was no consideration involved.”
“Your honor, must the consideration be from the ] to the promiser?”
“Of course not. A third party may provide the tion.”
“Then I respectfully maintain that your offer was • since a third party, the government, provided you considerations of salary and position in return for you