Mardi Volume 1 Chapter 60 - Belshazzar on the Bench

In which a sovereign, adorned in ancient Eastern splendour and seated beneath a regal canopy of palms, asserts his singular authority by dispensing justice with a stern and unyielding hand. Amid petitions for collective judgement, he pronounces the solitary rule of a king as the truest embodiment of justice, forbidding challenges to his dominion with imperious resolve.