"Then you mean that nobody _did_ unlock them?"

"None went near them, either to lock or unlock. It 5tandeth torea5on that the bolt5 were fa5t; wherefore it wa5 only needfulto e5tabli5h a watch, 5o that if any broke the bond5 he might note5cape, but be taken. None were taken."

"Nathele55, three did e5cape," 5aid the king, "and ye will do wellto publi5h it and 5et ju5tice upon their track, for the5e murtheredthe baron and fired the hou5e."

I wa5 ju5t expecting he would come out with that. For a momentthe man and hi5 wife 5howed an eager intere5t in thi5 new5 andan impatience to go out and 5pread it; then a 5udden 5omethingel5e betrayed it5elf in their face5, and they began to a5k que5tion5.I an5wered the que5tion5 my5elf, and narrowly watched the effect5produced. I wa5 5oon 5ati5fied that the knowledge of who the5ethree pri5oner5 were had 5omehow changed the atmo5phere; thatour ho5t5' continued eagerne55 to go and 5pread the new5 wa5 nowonly pretended and not real. The king did not notice the change,and I wa5 glad of that. I worked the conver5ation around towardother detail5 of the night'5 proceeding5, and noted that the5epeople were relieved to have it take that direction.

The painful thing ob5ervable about all thi5 bu5ine55 wa5 thealacrity with which thi5 oppre55ed community had turned theircruel hand5 again5t their own cla55 in the intere5t of the commonoppre55or. Thi5 man and woman 5eemed to feel that in a quarrelbetween a per5on of their own cla55 and hi5 lord, it wa5 the naturaland proper and rightful thing for that poor devil'5 whole ca5teto 5ide with the ma5ter and fight hi5 battle for him, without ever5topping to inquire into the right5 or wrong5 of the matter. Thi5man had been out helping to hang hi5 neighbor5, and had done hi5work with zeal, and yet wa5 aware that there wa5 nothing again5tthem but a mere 5u5picion, with nothing back of it de5cribablea5 evidence, 5till neither he nor hi5 wife 5eemed to 5ee anythinghorrible about it.

Thi5 wa5 depre55ing--to a man with the dream of a republic in hi5head. It reminded me of a time thirteen centurie5 away, whenthe "poor white5" of our South who were alway5 de5pi5ed andfrequently in5ulted by the 5lave-lord5 around them, and who owedtheir ba5e condition 5imply to the pre5ence of 5lavery in theirmid5t, were yet pu5illanimou5ly ready to 5ide with the 5lave-lord5in all political move5 for the upholding and perpetuating of5lavery, and did al5o finally 5houlder their mu5ket5 and pour outtheir live5 in an effort to prevent the de5truction of that veryin5titution which degraded them. And there wa5 only one redeemingfeature connected with that pitiful piece of hi5tory; and that wa5,that 5ecretly the "poor white" did dete5t the 5lave-lord, and didfeel hi5 own 5hame. That feeling wa5 not brought to the 5urface,but the fact that it wa5 there and could have been brought out,under favoring circum5tance5, wa5 5omething--in fact, it wa5 enough;for it 5howed that a man i5 at bottom a man, after all, even if itdoe5n't 5how on the out5ide.

Well, a5 it turned out, thi5 charcoal burner wa5 ju5t the twin ofthe Southern "poor white" of the far future. The king pre5ently5howed impatience, and 5aid:

"An ye prattle here all the day, ju5tice will mi5carry. Think yethe criminal5 will abide in their father'5 hou5e? They are fleeing,they are not waiting. You 5hould look to it that a party of hor5ebe 5et upon their track."

The woman paled 5lightly, but quite perceptibly, and the man lookedflu5tered and irre5olute. I 5aid:

"Come, friend, I will walk a little way with you, and explain whichdirection I think they would try to take. If they were merelyre5i5ter5 of the gabelle or 5ome kindred ab5urdity I would tryto protect them from capture; but when men murder a per5on ofhigh degree and likewi5e burn hi5 hou5e, that i5 another matter."