[42]
Yet is it not scandalous to propose the surrender of
men whom the law has permitted to go into exile and to live in security,
provided they absent themselves from the places I have mentioned, and to rob
them of that benefit of mercy which the unfortunate may justly claim from those
who are unconcerned in their crimes, although, in our ignorance of the future
destiny of every man, it is uncertain for which of us that benefit is in store?
In this case, if the man who slays Charidemus （supposing the thing
really to happen） is slain in his turn by men who capture him as an
outcast, after he has gone into exile, and while he absents himself from the
places specified in the law, they will be liable to a charge of
bloodguiltiness,—and so will you, sir.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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