While he was speaking thus to them, and had thus sadly driven his bargain, they at once all stood up, and held him in their hands, and said to him : " Tell us what manner of man thou art, or whence thou art come, since thou hast thus found old money, and thus hast brought hither old pennies which were struck in ancient days in the time of our ancestors; tell us now the truth without any lie, and we will be thy defenders, and thy advocates always ; neither will we betray thee, but let it all be quiet, so that no man need learn it save ourselves." Then was Malchus much astonished at their speech and thought sorrowfully in his mind, and said about himself to the chapmen, " Strangely hath it happened to me alone, and miserably have I alone suffered before all men over this wide earth ; to every other man who is born into this life it is permitted that he may support himself out of his ancestors' treasures, but to me only, wretch! may none of this avail. Now I am twitted about my own as if I had stolen it, and they will require of me by tortures that which I had obtained by right means." Then answered the chapmen and said to him, " Nay, nay, dear man, thou canst not so deceive us with thy smooth words ; as for the gold-hoard which thou hast found and hast so long concealed, it cannot be hidden now it is thus discovered." He knew not what answer he should give them on account of the great awe which was in his mind. When they saw that he stood there still, and answered them nothing, forthwith they took him, and knitted a twist all about his neck, and all dragged him thence into the midst of the market, and they held him thus bound amidst the city, and it spread everywhere, and was straightway widely known, and all men over the city immediately ran thither, and with clamour each
