CARIO (_to Plutus_). Come, tell us at once who you are, or I give effect to my threat. (_He menaces him_.) And quick too, be quick, I say. PLUTUS. I'll thrash you. CARIO (_to Chremylus_). Ha! is it thus he tells us his name? CHREMYLUS. 'Tis to you and not to me that he replies thus; your mode of questioning him was ill-advised. (_To Plutus._) Come, friend, if you care to oblige an honest man, answer me. PLUTUS. I'll knock you down. CARIO. Ah! what a pleasant fellow and what a delightful prophecy the god has given you! CHREMYLUS. By Demeter, you'll have no reason to laugh presently. CARIO. If you don't speak, you wretch, I will surely do you an ill turn. PLUTUS. Friends, take yourselves off and leave me. CHREMYLUS. That we very certainly shan't. CARIO. This, master, is the best thing to do. I'll undertake to secure him the most frightful death; I will lead him to the verge of a precipice and then leave him there, so that he'll break his neck when he pitches over. CHREMYLUS. Well then, I leave him to you, and do the thing quickly. PLUTUS. Oh, no! Have mercy! CHREMYLUS. Will you speak then? PLUTUS. But if you learn who I am, I know well that you will ill-use me and will not let me go again. CHREMYLUS. I call the gods to witness that you have naught to fear if you will only speak. PLUTUS. Well then, first unhand me. CHREMYLUS. There! we set you free. PLUTUS. Listen then, since I must reveal what I had intended to keep a secret. I am Plutus.[739] CHREMYLUS. Oh! you wretched rascal! You Plutus all the while, and you never said so! CARIO. You, Plutus, and in this piteous guise! CHREMYLUS. Oh, Phoebus Apollo! oh, ye gods of heaven and hell! Oh, Zeus! is it really and truly as you say? PLUTUS. Aye. CHREMYLUS. Plutus' very own self? PLUTUS. His own very self and none other. CHREMYLUS. But tell me, whence come you to be so squalid? PLUTUS. I have just left Patrocles' house, who has not had a bath since his birth.[740] CHREMYLUS. But your infirmity; how did that happen? Tell me. PLUTUS. Zeus inflicted it on me, because of his jealousy of mankind. When I was young, I threatened him that I would only go to the just, the wise, the men of ordered life; to prevent my distinguishing these, he struck me with blindness! so much does he envy the good! CHREMYLUS. And yet, 'tis only the upright and just who honour him. PLUTUS. Quite true. CHREMYLUS. Therefore, if ever you recovered your sight, you would shun the wicked? PLUTUS. Undoubtedly. CHREMYLUS. You would visit the good? PLUTUS. Assuredly. It is a very long time since I saw them. CHREMYLUS. That's not astonishing. I, who see clearly, don't see a single one. PLUTUS. Now let me leave you, for I have told you everything. CHREMYLUS. No, certainly not! we shall fasten ourselves on to you faster than ever. PLUTUS. Did I not tell you, you were going to plague me?