have a fever?'

"'He is going to have it.'

"'You see, you are a sorcerer,' said the jailer, 'you make predictions.'

"And then he shut him in prison, to go away and to relate his
conversation to them all.

"During this time, they called in a healer who stated that the wounds of
the great nobleman were not mortal in themselves, but that the fever
which had declared itself could become dangerous.

"He was cured after long months.

"During this time the poor man languished in his prison, from whence he
was only taken to appear before the judges.

"Accused of sorcery and of using black magic, he explained very simply
that he had foreseen the danger, because in raising his eyes he had
noticed that the part of the ground over which the herald had passed was
sinking, and that he had drawn the following conclusions:

"The earth seemed to have only a medium thickness.

"Under the feet of the herald he had seen it crumble and fall in.

"He had deduced from this that a weight five times as heavy added to that
of the palanquin, would not fail to produce a landslide.