ERG. To myself, i' faith, for now am I your supreme Jupiter. I likewise am your salvation, your fortune, your life, your delight, your joy. Do you at once, then, make this Divinity propitious to you by cramming him. HEU. You seem to me to be hungry. ERG. For myself am I hungry, _and_ not for you. HEG. I readily allow of it at your own good will. ERG. I believe you; from a boy you were in the habit--[9] HEG. May Jupiter and the Gods confound you. ERG. I' troth, 'tis fair that for my news you should return me thanks; such great happiness do I now bring you from the harbour. HEG. Now you are flattering me. Begone, you simpleton; you have arrived behind time, too late. ERG. If I had come sooner, then for that reason you might rather have said that. Now, receive this joyous _news_ of me which I bring _you_; for at the harbour I just now saw your son Philopolemus in the common fly-boat, alive, safe and sound, and likewise there that other young man together with him, and Stalagmus your slave, who fled from your house, who stole from you your little son, the child of four years old. HEG. Away with you to utter perdition! You are trifling with me ERG. So may holy Gluttony [10] love me, Hegio, and so may she ever dignify me with her name, I did see-- HEG. My son? ERG. Your son, and my _good_ Genius. HEG. That Elean captive, too? ERG. Yes, by Apollo. [11] HEG. The slave, too? My _slave_ Stalagmus, he that stole my son--? ERG. Yes, by Cora HEG. So long a time ago? ERG. Yes, by Praeneste! HEG. Is he arrived? ERG. Yes, by Signia! HEG. For sure? ERG. Yes, by Phrysinone! HEG. Have a care, if you please. ERG. Yes, by Alatrium! HEG. Why are you swearing by foreign cities? ERG. Why, because they are just as disagreable as you were declaring your fare to be. HEG. Woe be to you! ERG. Because that you don't believe me at all in what I say in sober earnestness. But of what country was Stalagmus, at the time when he departed hence? HEG. A Sicilian. ERG. But now he is not a Sicilian--he is a Boian; he has got a Boian woman [12]. A wife, I suppose, has been given to him for the sake of obtaining children. HEG. Tell me, have you said these words to me in good earnest? ERG. In good _earnest_. HEG. Immortal Gods, I seem to be born again, if you are telling the truth. ERG. Do you say so? Will you still entertain doubts, when I have solemnly sworn to you? In fine, Hegio, if you have little confidence in my oath, go yourself to the harbour and see. HEG. I'm determined to do so. Do you arrange in-doors what's requisite. Use, ask for, take _from my larder_ what you like; I appoint you cellarman. ERG. Now, by my troth, if I have not prophesied truly to you, do you comb me out with a cudgel. HEG. I'll find you in victuals to the end, if you are telling me the truth. ERG. Whence _shall_ it _be_? HEG. From myself and from my son. ERG. Do you promise that? HEG. I do promise it. ERG. But I, in return, promise [13] you that your son has arrived.