This is some jester." "The twisted rope should be a halter," said another courtier, one of those who hoped for the rich man's downfall.
"It can be done, your majesty," cried Felix, alarmed.

"I assure you, a stone of two hundredweight might be thrown a quarter of a mile." The assembly did not repress its contempt.
"The man is a fool," said the king, who now thought that Felix was a jester who had put a trick upon him.

"But your joke is out of joint; I will teach such fellows to try tricks on us! Beat him out of camp." The provost's men seized him, and in a moment he was dragged off his feet, and bodily carried outside the entrenchment.

Thence they pushed him along, beating him with the butts of their spears to make him run the faster; the groups they passed laughed and jeered; the dogs barked and snapped at his ankles.

They hurried him outside the camp, and thrusting him savagely with their spear butts sent him headlong.