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[13]
By a wonderful stroke of luck the
countryman had never laid his meddling hands on the seam, and he was offering the
thing for sale with a condescending air as a beggar's leavings. When Ascyltos saw
that our savings were untouched, and what a poor creature the seller was, he took me
a little aside from the crowd, and said, “Do you know, brother, the treasure I
was grumbling at losing has come back to us. That is the shirt, and I believe it
is still full of gold pieces: they have never been touched. What shall we do?
How shall we assert our legal rights?”
I was delighted, not only because I saw a chance of profit, but because fortune had
relieved me of a very disagreeable suspicion. I was against any roundabout methods.
I thought we should proceed openly by civil process, and obtain a decision in the
courts if they refused to give up other people's property to the rightful owners.
[p. 19]
Petronius Arbiter. Petronius. Michael Heseltine. London. William Heinemann. 1913.
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