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[10]
Nay, if you were one of the Eleven,1 you would refuse to accept a prisoner arrested on the charge of having pulled off the accuser's cloak or stripped him of his shirt: by that same rule, you would rather let him go, because he was not called a clothes-stealer! Or if somebody were seized for the abduction of a child, you would declare him to be no kidnapper, since your contention will be about words, and you will have no thought to spare for deeds,—the objects for which words are everywhere made!
1 Magistrates who had powers of summary arrest and judgement in capital and other serious cases, and also the charge of prisons and executions.
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