The case came before Mr.Beamish for his decision; he had to pronounce an impartial judgement, and for some time, during the examination of evidence, he suffered, as he assures us in his Memoirs, a royal agony.

To have to strike with the glaive of Justice them whom they most esteem, is the greatest affliction known to kings.

He would have done it: he deserved to reign.

Happily the evidence against the gentleman who was tumbled, Mr.Ralph Shepster, excused Mr.Augustus Camwell, otherwise Alonzo, for dealing with him promptly to shut his mouth.
This Shepster, a raw young squire, 'reeking,' Beau Beamish writes of him, 'one half of the soil, and t' other half of the town,' had involved Chloe in his familiar remarks upon the Duchess of Dewlap; and the personal respect entertained by Mr.Beamish for Chloe so strongly approved Alonzo's championship of her, that in giving judgement he laid stress on young Alonzo's passion for Chloe, to prove at once the disinterestedness of the assailant, and the judicial nature of the sentence: which was, that Mr.Ralph Shepster should undergo banishment, and had the right to demand reparation.

The latter part of this decree assisted in effecting the execution of the former.