AN INFORMER. Alas! alas! I am a lost man. Ah! thrice, four, five, twelve times, or rather ten thousand times unhappy fate! Why, why must fortune deal me such rough blows? CHREMYLUS. Oh, Apollo, my tutelary! oh! ye favourable gods! what has overtaken this man? INFORMER. Ah! am I not deserving of pity? I have lost everything; this cursed god has stripped me bare. Ah! if there be justice in heaven, he shall be struck blind again. JUST MAN. Methinks I know what's the matter. If this man is unfortunate, 'tis because he's of little account and small honesty; and i' faith he looks it too. CHREMYLUS. Then, by Zeus! his plight is but just. INFORMER. He promised that if he recovered his sight, he would enrich us all unaided; whereas he has ruined more than one. CHREMYLUS. But whom has he thus ill-used? INFORMER. Me. CHREMYLUS. You were doubtless a villainous thief then. INFORMER (_to Chremylus and Cario_). 'Tis rather you yourselves who were such wretches; I am certain you have got my money. CHREMYLUS. Ha! by Demeter! 'tis an informer. What impudence! CARIO. He's ravenously hungry, that's certain. INFORMER. You shall follow me this very instant to the marketplace, where the torture of the wheel shall force the confession of your misdeeds from you. CARIO. Ha! look out for yourself! JUST MAN. By Zeus the Deliverer, what gratitude all Greeks owe to Plutus, if he destroys these vile informers! INFORMER. You are laughing at me. Ho! ho! I denounce you as their accomplice. Where did you steal that new cloak from? Yesterday I saw you with one utterly worn out. JUST MAN. I fear you not, thanks to this ring, for which I paid Eudemus[792] a drachma. CHREMYLUS. Ah! there's no ring to preserve you from the informer's bite. INFORMER. The insolent wretches! But, my fine jokers, you have not told me what you are up to here. Nothing good, I'll be bound. CHREMYLUS. Nothing of any good for you, be sure of that. INFORMER. By Zeus! you're going to dine at my expense! CHREMYLUS. You vile impostor, may you burst with an empty belly, both you and your witness. INFORMER. You deny it? I reckon, you villians, that there is much salt fish and roast meat in this house. Hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! hu! (_He sniffs._) CHREMYLUS. Can you smell anything, rascal? INFORMER. Can such outrages be borne, oh, Zeus! Ye gods! how cruel it is to see me treated thus, when I am such an honest fellow and such a good citizen! CHREMYLUS. You an honest man! you a good citizen! INFORMER. A better one than any. CHREMYLUS. Ah! well then, answer my questions. INFORMER. Concerning what? CHREMYLUS. Are you a husbandman? INFORMER. D'ye take me for a fool? CHREMYLUS. A merchant? INFORMER. I assume the title, when it serves me.[793] CHREMYLUS. Do you ply any trade? INFORMER. No, most assuredly not! CHREMYLUS. Then how do you live, if you do nothing? INFORMER. I superintend public and private business. CHREMYLUS. You! And by what right, pray?