done to him: and when the old man alleged that the Levite was of his
kindred, and that they would be guilty of horrid wickedness if they
suffered themselves to be overcome by their pleasures, and so offend
against their laws, they despised his righteous admonition, and laughed
him to scorn. They also threatened to kill him if he became an obstacle
to their inclinations; whereupon, when he found himself in great
distress, and yet was not willing to overlook his guests, and see them
abused, he produced his own daughter to them; and told them that it was
a smaller breach of the law to satisfy their lust upon her, than to
abuse his guests, supposing that he himself should by this means prevent
any injury to be done to those guests. When they no way abated of their
earnestness for the strange woman, but insisted absolutely on their
desires to have her, he entreated them not to perpetrate any such act of
injustice; but they proceeded to take her away by force, and indulging
still more the violence of their inclinations, they took the woman away
to their house, and when they had satisfied their lust upon her the
whole night, they let her go about daybreak. So she came to the place
where she had been entertained, under great affliction at what had
happened; and was very sorrowful upon occasion of what she had suffered,
and durst not look her husband in the face for shame, for she concluded
that he would never forgive her for what she had done; so she fell down,
and gave up the ghost: but her husband supposed that his wife was only
fast asleep, and, thinking nothing of a more melancholy nature had
happened, endeavored to raise her up, resolving to speak comfortably to
her, since she did not voluntarily expose herself to these men's lust,
but was forced away to their house; but as soon as he perceived she was
dead, he acted as prudently as the greatness of his misfortunes would
admit, and laid his dead wife upon the beast, and carried her home; and
cutting her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, he sent them to every
tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried them, to inform the
tribes of those that were the causes of his wife's death, and of the
violence they had offered to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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