l retained my love for our common country. Let them pay the tax
then, not from fear but from love. I have prevailed on the royal
generosity to limit its amount; for whereas it used to be 1,200 solidi
[L720] annually, it is henceforward to be 1,000 [L600][795].'

[Footnote 794: 'Ambos titulos.']

[Footnote 795: This sum seems ridiculously small for the Province of
Bruttii. Can it be the sum assessed on each district?]

40. AN INDULGENCE [OR AMNESTY TO PRISONERS ON SOME GREAT FESTIVAL OF
THE CHURCH, PROBABLY EASTER].

[Sidenote: General Amnesty.]

'All the year we are bound to tread in the path of Justice, but on
this day we secure our approach to the Redeemer by the path of
Forgiveness. Therefore we forswear punishments of all kinds, we
condemn the torture, and thus feel ourselves, in forgiving, to be more
truly than ever a Judge.

'Hail to thee, O Clemency[796], patroness of the human race! thou
reignest in the heavens and on the earth: and most fitting is it that,
at sacred seasons like this, thou shouldest be supreme.

[Footnote 796: 'Indulgentia.']

'Therefore, O Lictor, thou who art allowed to do with impunity the
very thing for which other men are punished, put up thy axe; let it be
henceforth bright, not bloody. Let the chains which have been so often
wet with tears now grow rusty. The prison--that house of Pluto, in
which men suffer a living death, from its foul odours, from the sound
of groaning which assails their ears, from the long fastings which
destroy their taste, from the heavy weights which weary their hands,
from the endless darkness which makes their eyes grow dim--let the
prison now be filled with emptiness. Never is it so popular as when it
is seen to be deserted.

'And you, its denizens, who are thus in a manner transplanted to
Heaven from Hell, avoid the evil courses which made you acquainted
with its horrors. Even animals shun the things which they have once
found harmful. Cattle which have once fallen into a pit seek not again
the same road. The bird once snared shuns bird-lime. The pike buries
himself in deep sand, that he may escape the drag-net, and when it has
scraped his back leaps nimbly into the waves and expresses by his
gambols his joy for his deliverance. When the wrasse[797] finds that
he is caught in an osier trap, he moves himself slowly backwards till
he can leave his tail protruding, that one of his fellows, perceiving
his capture, may pull him out from his prison.