It is hard upon those men we met just now.

They go to prison, most of them, because they were not rich enough to pay the sum demanded as the price of blood.

For men of wealth, or who have rich relations, it is easy to compound the matter for a sum of money, in return for which the dead man's relatives regard his death as due to natural causes, and forswear revenge.

It is hard, I say, upon those men we met just now; and especially upon the man who slew his brother--may Our Lord console him!' A few days later I was strolling in the town and happened to pass by the public gaol.

In the middle of the gate, behind some iron bars, a wretched man stood shaking a tin can, in which some small coins rattled, and calling on the passers-by for alms for the poor prisoners.