r I do not doubt it is all correct what the usurer says
of the tax-dues and of his purchase of the property. And that is not
the worst. Thou canst fly, as so many thousand debtors have already, to
the mountains, to the forests, to the barbarians, for aught I care.
Leave him here the heap of stones."

"The house of my parents! the place where we have been so happy!"

"You can be happy elsewhere, when you come together again. But
Felicitas with the infant--she cannot yet share thy flight. She must
stay, and _can_ stay with me. And that, I hope, can be arranged; for I
have no doubt about the emancipation. The old people did not fabricate
it. It is only the evidence that we want--the evidence!"

"The letter of emancipation is burnt; that is certain; burnt with the
few ornaments and savings of the parents. They often told us about it.
They had put all their valuables in a little box of cedar-wood, under
the cushions of the bed, in their own room. In the night that the
despairing tax-debtors and the peasants, the beasts of burden of the
great landlords, had broken out in riot, the old people had, with the
child, hastened into the street to inquire the cause of the fearful
noise. They ran forward to the corner of the Vulcan market. Another
crowd of fighting peasants and soldiers then poured in from behind,
cutting off their return. The wooden storehouses of the small tradesmen
that lived there, were set on fire. It was two days before they could
return to their house, and then it was almost entirely burnt out; under
the half-carbonised cushions of the bed, they found two melted gold
pieces and the iron mounting of the cedar-box, yet glowing, and round
about ashes:--from the wood of the box and its contents."

"The writing was not to be found?"

"In the house of her parents, certainly not; we searched it thoroughly
before we sold it, after the death of the old people."

"Among the records of the Curies?"

"The freedom was given by letter, not by will. Krates intended to leave
a will, but was overtaken by death before he had carried out his
intention."

"Witnesses?"

"There were none. I tell you the freedom was given by letter."

"There is, then, no evidence. It is fearful."

"It makes one despair."

"But what thoughtlessness to live long years without"----

"Long years? It is not yet one year that I have called her mine.
Before that it was the care of the parents; but these good old
people--strangers here--what