The rain subsided into a faint mist over the municipal square as three trembling clerks were dragged before the fountain, their silk robes spattered with slush.
A crowd of several hundred commoners circled the open space in hesitant silence, watching the disgraced bureaucrats cower beneath the watchful gaze of the armed retainers.
The portly clerk tried to hide behind his greasy colleague, frantically elbowing the smaller man forward to shield his own flabby frame from view.
"Get in front of me, you fool, before he looks this way again!" the portly bureaucrat hissed under his breath, his teeth chattering from sheer panic.
"Why should I take the blame for your private extortion schemes?" the greasy clerk snarled back, digging his heels into the mud. "You were the one who pocketed the gate tolls!"
"Shut up!"
