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When we came to our abiding place they took the booty from our shoulders and put it carefully away. Then they fell to and dined, and when night came they went off to secure the rest of the things. "Why do we take this wretched ass?" said one of them. "He is useless with his wounded hoof. We will carry some of the things and the horse the rest." So they went off, leading the horse. It was a bright moonlit night. Then I said to myself: "You poor wretch, why do you stay here any longer? Vultures and the children of vultures will dine off you. Don't you hear what they are plotting against you? Do you want to be thrown over a precipice? It is night now and there is a bright moon. The robbers are off on the road. Fly, and save yourself from these cutthroat masters." While I was thus thinking to myself I perceived that I was not even tied to anything, but that the halter by which they led me on the road was hanging alongside. This added circumstance spurred me to the greatest eagerness for flight, and I emerged at a run and was making off; but when the old woman saw me on the point of escaping she seized me by the tail and held on. However, I said to myself that if I were caught by an old woman I should deserve the precipice and any other death, and I dragged her. But she shrieked with all her might to the captive maiden to come out. She ran forward, and when she saw the old woman hanging on to the ass like a second Dirke she found courage for a brave deed and worthy of desperate youth. She sprang onto my back, seated herself there, and urged me on. I, fired with love of freedom and the girl, fled with all my might and ran like a horse, leaving the old woman behind. The girl prayed to the gods to grant her a safe escape, and to me she said: "If you bring me to my father, my pretty ass, I will free you from all labor, and you shall have a bushel of barley every day for breakfast." I ran on, quite forgetting my wound in my eagerness to escape my murderers, and the hope of getting plenty of assistance and attention if I should save the maiden.
