My brother and the other two blind men would have cleared
themselves of this horrid cheat, but the judge would not hear
them: Villains! said he, do you feign yourselves blind then, and
under that pretext cheat people, by begging their charity, and
abusing poor women? He is a cheat, cried my brother; we take God
to witness that none of us can see!
All that my brother could say was in vain; his comrades and he
received each of them two hundred blows. The judge looked always
when they should have opened their eyes, and ascribed to their
obstinacy what really they could not do. All the while the
highwayman said to the blind men, Poor fools that you are, open
your eyes, and do not suffer yourselves to be killed with blows.
Then addressing himself to the judge, said, I perceive, sir, that
they will be maliciously obstinate to the last, and will never
open their eyes: they have a mind certainly to avoid the shame of
reading their own condemnation in the face of every one who looks
upon them; it were better, if you think fit, to pardon them, and
to send some person along with me for the ten thousand drams they
have hid.
The judge did so, gave the highwayman two thousand five hundred
drams, and kept the rest to himself; and as for my brother and
his two companions, he thought he showed them a great deal of
pity by sentencing them only to be banished.
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