" 'Symbolic'?" cried Rhialto. "You picked me clean!"

Ildefonse pursed his lips. "I concede that at times I noticed a certain lack of restraint, at which I personally protested."

Rhialto, leaning back in his chair, drew a deep sigh of dumbfounded wonder. He considered Ildefonse down the length of his aristocratic nose. In a gentle voice he asked: "The charges were brought by whom?"

Ildefonse frowned thoughtfully. "By many. Gilgad declared that you had beaten his pet simiode."

"Aha. Continue."

"Zilifant charged that your reckless deployment of plasms had destroyed his fine hardquisade tree."

"And further?"

"The complaints are too numerous to mention. Almost everyone— save myself and the loyal Hache-Moncour—preferred charges. Then, the conclave of your peers with near-unanimity adjudged you guilty on all counts."

"And who robbed me of my IOUN stones?"

"As a matter of fact, I myself took them into protective custody."

"This trial was conducted by exact legal process?"

Ildefonse took occasion to drink down a goblet of the wine which Pryffwyd had served. "Ah yes, your question! It pertained, I believe, to legality. In response, I will say that the trial, while somewhat informal, was conducted by appropriate and practical means."

"In full accordance with the terms of the Monstrament?"

"Yes, of course. Is that not the proper way? Now then—"

"Why was I not notified and allowed an opportunity for rebuttal?"

"I believe that the subject might well have been discussed," said Ildefonse. "As I recall, no one wished to disturb you on your holiday, especially since your guilt was generally conceded."

Rhialto rose to his feet. "Shall we now visit Fader's Waft?"

Ildefonse raised his hand in a bluff gesture. "Seat yourself, Rhialto! Here comes Pryffwyd with further refreshment; let us drink wine and consider this matter dispassionately; is not that the better way, after all?"

"When I have been vilified, slandered and robbed, by those who had previously shone upon me the sweetest rays of their undying friendship? I had never—"

Ildefonse broke into the flow of Rhialto's remarks. "Yes, yes; perhaps there were procedural errors, but never forget, the findings might have gone worse but for the efforts of myself and Hache-Moncour."

"Indeed?" asked Rhialto coldly. "You are familiar with the Blue Principles?"

"I am generally aware of the important passages," declared IIdefense bluffly. ' 'As for the more abstruse sections, I may be a trifle dim, but these in any event do not apply."

"Indeed?" Rhialto brought out a torn blue document. "I will read from Paragraph C, of the 'Precursive Manifesto':

" The Monstrament, like a perdurable edifice, depends on integrated blocks of wisdom, each supporting others with bonds of equal strength. He who maximizes the solemnity of certain passages and demeans another as trivial or paltry for the sake of his special pleading is guilty of subversion and submulgery, and shall be punished as directed by Schedule B, Section 3.' "

Ildefonse blinked. "My present remarks are truly no more than badinage."

"In that case, why did you not testify that at the time Gilgad's beast was abused, you and I were walking beside the River Scaum?"