A little later a number of young men arrived, bringing as much gold and silver and clothing as they could carry, and a great deal of jewelry, women's and men's. These were accomplices of the others, and when they had bestowed their booty within they, too, bathed in the same manner. After this they had a bountiful supper, and there was a great deal of conversation among the cutthroats over their wine. The old woman put barley before me and the horse, and he set to and gulped it down in a hurry, fearing, probably, that I would share it. But for my part, whenever I saw the old woman go off I devoured the masters' bread. The next day one young man was left behind with the old woman, and all the others went off on professional business. I bewailed my fate and this strict guard, for I could despise the old woman and run away under her very eyes, but the young man was tall, and had a dangerous look, moreover, and he always carried a sword and fastened the door every time he went out.

Three days after this, almost at midnight, the robbers came back, bringing no gold or silver or anything else except a very beautiful young girl. She was in tears, and her clothes were torn and her hair dishevelled. They deposited her in the house on the mattresses, bade her cheer up, and told the old woman to stay inside all the time, and keep watch over her. The girl would neither eat nor drink; she did nothing but weep and tear her hair, so that I myself, standing near by at the manger, wept in sympathy with the beautiful maiden. In the mean time the robbers were supping in the vestibule. Towards morning one of the spies, who had been chosen by lot to watch the roads, came and reported that a stranger was going to pass that way carrying a great deal of treasure. The robbers rose up just as they were, armed themselves, saddled both me and the horse, and drove us off. I, poor wretch, knew that we were marching out to battle and murder, and I advanced reluctantly, whereupon they beat me with a stick to urge me on. When we came to the road by which the stranger was to drive, the robbers fell upon his carriages with one accord, killed his servants, selected the most valuable articles, and placed them on the horse and me, and hid the rest of the things there in the wood. Then they drove us homeward thus laden, and I, being urged on and beaten with a stick, struck my foot on a sharp stone, and received a painful wound from the blow, which made me limp as I paced the rest of the journey. The robbers said. to each other, "Why do we keep this ass who stumbles on everything? Let us throw him over the precipice, he brings us bad luck." "Yes," said another, "let us throw him over to be a scapegoat for the gang." And they formed to attack me. But I, hearing their talk, walked the rest of the way on my wounded foot as though it belonged to somebody else, for the fear of death made me insensible to the pain of it.

When we came to our abiding place they took the booty from our shoulders and put it carefully away. Then they fell to and dined, and when night came they went off to secure the rest of the things. "Why do we take this wretched ass?" said one of them. "He is useless with his wounded hoof. We will carry some of the things and the horse the rest." So they went off, leading the horse. It was a bright moonlit night. Then I said to myself: "You poor wretch, why do you stay here any longer? Vultures and the children of vultures will dine off you. Don't you hear what they are plotting against you? Do you want to be thrown over a precipice? It is night now and there is a bright moon. The robbers are off on the road. Fly, and save yourself from these cutthroat masters." While I was thus thinking to myself I perceived that I was not even tied to anything, but that the halter by which they led me on the road was hanging alongside. This added circumstance spurred me to the greatest eagerness for flight, and I emerged at a run and was making off; but when the old woman saw me on the point of escaping she seized me by the tail and held on. However, I said to myself that if I were caught by an old woman I should deserve the precipice and any other death, and I dragged her. But she shrieked with all her might to the captive maiden to come out. She ran forward, and when she saw the old woman hanging on to the ass like a second Dirke she found courage for a brave deed and worthy of desperate youth. She sprang onto my back, seated herself there, and urged me on. I, fired with love of freedom and the girl, fled with all my might and ran like a horse, leaving the old woman behind. The girl prayed to the gods to grant her a safe escape, and to me she said: "If you bring me to my father, my pretty ass, I will free you from all labor, and you shall have a bushel of barley every day for breakfast." I ran on, quite forgetting my wound in my eagerness to escape my murderers, and the hope of getting plenty of assistance and attention if I should save the maiden.

But when we came to where the road split into three the enemy met us on their homeward way. They recognized their unhappy prisoners in the moonlight while we were still at a distance, ran up to us, and laid hold of me, saying: "Oho, my fine madam, where are you going at this unseasonable hour, you poor, suffering thing? Aren't you even afraid of ghosts? Come home with us and we will hand you over to your friends." This they said with a sardonic laugh, and they turned me about and dragged me back. Then I remembered my lame foot and fell to limping. "What," said they, "are you lame now because you were caught running away? When your mind was set on flight you were sound and flew on wings, swifter than a horse." These words were followed by the stick, and I got a wound on my thigh at once as a warning. When we turned into our lodging again we found the old woman hanging from a stone by a cord. Apparently she had been so afraid of her masters when they should discover the girl's flight that she had hanged herself. They spoke admiringly of her courage, cut her down, and threw her over the precipice with the cord round her neck. The girl they tied up inside the house, and then they supped and drank heavily.

Meanwhile they began at once to talk with each other about the girl. "What shall we do with the runaway?" asked one of them. "There is nothing to do," said another, "but throw her down on top of our old woman. She has robbed us of as much treasure as she could, and was on her way to betray our whole establishment. For be assured, my friends, that if she had reached her kinsmen not one of us would have been left alive, for our enemies would have fallen on us with every preparation and captured us all. So let us take our revenge on the foe, but not by giving her such an easy death as falling onto the rock. Let us invent for her the most painful and lingering death, and one that will only kill her after keeping her a prisoner in long torment." Then they set themselves to think out a form of death, and some one said, “I know you will applaud my invention. We must kill the ass who is a nuisance, and, moreover, pretends at present to be lame, and helped and ministered to the girl's flight into the bargain. Let us slaughter him, then, early in the morning, cut open his belly, take out all his vitals, and place this virtuous maiden in the ass. We will let her head project so that she may not be stifled at once, but all the rest of her body shall be hidden inside. Then we will stitch her securely in and throw them both out to the vultures, preparing them a novel breakfast. Note, my friends, the horror of the torture: in the first place, to live in the dead body of an ass, then to bake with the beast in the hottest sun of summer, and to die of lingering starvation, unable even to strangle herself. And, finally, the vultures will make their way in through the ass, and tear her flesh along with his while she is yet alive."

A general shout of applause greeted this monstrous idea as though it were something delightful; but I bewailed my lot. I was destined to be slaughtered, and not even after death to lie a peaceful corpse, but to serve as the tomb of an unhappy and innocent girl. But before day had fairly come a crowd of soldiers suddenly appeared who had come to attack these villians, and they forthwith clapped them all in irons and carried them off to the governor of the country. And it happened that the girl's fiancé came with them, for it was he that had given information as to the whereabouts of the robbers' headquarters. So he took charge of the girl, set her on my back, and led her thus to her home. When the villagers caught sight of us still at a distance they knew the expedition was successful, for I brayed the good tidings to them, and they ran to meet us, embraced us, and led us in. The young girl had a great deal to say about me, doing justice to her partner in captivity, in flight, and in the danger of that common death. And by my mistress's orders a breakfast was set before me, consisting of a bushel of barley and hay enough for a camel. But it was then most of all that I cursed Palaistra for having changed me into an ass by her art and not into a dog, for I saw the dogs sneaking into the kitchen and gorging themselves with plenty of food, such as is served at the wedding-banquet of a wealthy pair. A few days after the marriage my mistress declared in her father's presence that she was indebted to me, and longed to make me a just return; whereupon he gave orders to turn me out to grass in the pasture with the mares. "For if he is at liberty," said he, "he will enjoy life." And this recompense would have seemed perfectly just if the matter had come before an ass as judge. So he called one of the grooms and handed me over to him, and I was delighted at the prospect of doing no more work. When we arrived at the farm the herdsman put me with the mares, and led the drove of us into the pasture.

But even here it was fated that I should have the same experience as Kandaules; for the man in charge of the mares left me in the possession of his wife, Megapole, for domestic service, and she harnessed me in the mill, and made me grind wheat and barley at her bidding. It is true that it was no great evil to a grateful ass to turn a mill for his own masters, but the worthy woman hired out my wretched neck to the other peasants of the district, who were numerous, taking her pay in flour. And she would also roast the barley allowed me for my breakfast, put it before me for me to grind, make cakes of it, and eat them whole, leaving me to breakfast on the bran. So I grew thin and ugly in a short time, for I had no.comfort in-doors at the mill, nor out-of-doors in the pasture, because my fellow-grazers fought with me.

Moreover, I was often sent up into the mountain to fetch wood on my shoulders, and this was the crown of my sorrows. In the first place, there was a high mountain to be climbed by a terribly straight road, and in the second place, I was barefoot on a steep and stony path. Besides this they sent with me as driver a wretch of a small boy, who found a new way to torture me every time. First he used to flog me even when I was trotting faster than I should, and not with a trimmed stick, but one covered with sharp knots. He always used to strike the same spot on my haunch, so that he opened a wound there with his club, and he always aimed at the sore place. His next idea was to lay a burden on me that would have been too heavy for an elephant. The descent from the mountain was steep, but even there he used to flog me. And if he saw that my load had slipped and was hanging to one side, so that some of the sticks ought to be taken off and added to the lighter side to make it balance, he would by no means proceed in this way. No; he would lift great stones from the mountainside and put them on the side of my fardel that was lighter and slipping up, and I would go on, poor wretch, carrying in addition to the wood an equal weight of useless stones. Moreover, there was a stream that crossed the road and was never dry, and the boy, to save wetting his shoes, used to perch on my back behind the wood, and thus cross the river.