k!
Lydia's earrings are in my ears now and her necklace round my neck and her
bracelets on my wrists and her rings on my fingers. The rascals were so
sure of not being interfered with and so much at ease that they were
startled frantic by the galloping horsemen and scuttled off with
Bambilio's coin-chest, dragging him and poor Lydia and totally forgetting
me, thinking me the maid, not even noticing these little trinkets, which
are mostly silver and some of gold and so worth stealing.

"I have the cash to pay for two teams or three: I brought plenty for the
journey to Aquileia, because we could learn little of the state of the
roads beyond Bononia and I thought I might have to travel by Placentia or
even by Milan. I'll get back to Rome, as fast as I can. I don't want to be
married now, so I don't want to go on to Bononia, let alone all the way to
Aquileia. If I did want to go on, the bandits have run off with my maid,
and I could hardly get along without her, and they have also removed my
escort, and I certainly could not keep on without a proper escort. I have
every excuse for turning about at once and making haste to get out of this
dangerous neighborhood and getting back home.

"Poor Lydia! I hate to think of her at the mercy of those brutal ruffians.
They may maltreat her horribly if they discover that they have the maid
instead of the mistress, and by the maid's device. I'll tell everybody I
see that I'll pay any ransom in reason, even beyond reason, for poor
Lydia, if the brigands will restore her to me safe and sound. I fancy
their friends hereabouts, and almost every inhabitant of the district is a
friend of theirs, by your account, will speedily have conveyed to them the
news that their capture is worth almost as much ransom as they hoped to
extort for me. That news ought to protect Lydia while she is among the
outlaws and ought to help me to get her back without much delay.

"As soon as I am in Rome I'll send a trusty agent up here to set on foot
negotiations with the outlaws and to rescue Lydia by paying what they ask
for her.

"And, the moment I reach Rome I'll set in motion all the forces I can
control or enlist, and I can influence many men in high places, I'll have
all I can influence working quietly and most unobtrusively for that
official manumission, of yours. Once you are free you had best travel
secretly and without haste to Bruttium. No folk are more secretive or more
loyal than the herders and fo