11/19 "The Italian is gone!" he cried. "I told you to tie him fast to the saddle!" "Why, so I did," he replied. "I drew the thongs so tight that they cut into his flesh. He could not have endured to pull against them." "Then how did he get away ?" "Why," he answered, with a rueful countenance, "I did bind him, as I have said; but when I had done so, I bethought me of how the leather must cut, and of how pain is dreadful even to a snake, and of the injunction to do as you would be done by, and so e'en loosened his bonds. But, as I am a christened man, I thought that they would yet hold him fast!" I began to swear, but ended in vexed laughter. |