Carstone

Carstone said that they could never try him, for he had not twelve peers in all of England. He was right, of course. They held him on remand while twenty-four boys (doubled up in case of accidents) could be raised up to his degree of privilege and sunk down to his level of wickedness. When they were men, they sent Carstone to the rope with laughter on their lips. The nation laughed too, at how we had outwitted him. But on the scaffold, he smiled to see two dozen fresh Carstones loosed upon the world.