“’Come on, boys!  Show the stuff you are made of, and strike for all you are worth while they are asleep!  No quarter now, no faint-hearted weakening!  Let death go through the house with drawn sword!  If you find any in bed, slit their throats before they wake; if any try to resist, cut them down.  Our only chance of getting away safe and sound is to leave no one else safe and sound in the whole house.’

“I confess, citizens, that I was badly frightened, both on account of my hosts and myself; and believing that I was doing the duty of a good citizen, I drew the sword which always accompanies me in readiness for such dangers, and started in to drive away or lay low those desperate robbers.  But the barbarous and inhuman villains, far from being frightened away, had the audacity to stand against me, although they saw that I was armed.  Their serried ranks opposed me.  Next, the leader and standard-bearer of the band, assailing me with brawny strength, seized me with both hands by the hair, and bending me backward, prepared to beat out my brains with a paving stone; but while he was still shouting for one, with an unerring stroke I luckily ran him through and stretched him at my feet.  Before long a second stroke, aimed between the shoulders, finished off another of them, as he clung tooth and nail to my legs; while the third one, as he rashly advanced, I stabbed full in the chest.

“Since I had fought on the side of law and order, in defense of public safety and my host’s home, I felt myself not only without blame but deserving of public praise.  I have never before been charged with even the slightest infringement of the law; I enjoy a high reputation among my own people, and all my life have valued a clear conscience above all material possessions.  Nor can I understand why I should suffer this prosecution for having taken a just vengeance upon those worthless thieves, since no one can show that there had ever before been any enmity between us, or for that matter that I had ever had any previous acquaintance with the thieves.  You have not even established any motive for which I may be supposed to have committed so great a crime.”

At this point my emotion again overcame me, and with my hands extended in entreaty, I turned from one to another, beseeching them to spare me in the name of common humanity, for the sake of all that they held dear.  I thought by this time they must be moved to pity, thrilled with sympathy for my wretchedness; accordingly I called to witness the Eye of Justice and the Light of Day, and intrusted my case to the providence of God, when lifting up my eyes I discovered that the whole assembly was convulsed with laughter, not excepting my own kind host and relative, Milo, who was shaking with merriment.  “So much for friendship!” I thought to myself, “so much for gratitude!  In protecting my host, I have become a murderer, on trial for my life; while he, far from raising a finger to help me, makes a mock of my misery.”