ed to him that he might turn to account the books which his father
and the parson had given him. He blessed their foresight. The Bible
fetched nothing, but the Aristotle brought him enough to keep him from
starvation for a week. Having satisfied his hunger, he set about trying
to find work. He went to booksellers and told them his accomplishments,
but no one could see any use in a knowledge of Greek, Latin and the
Hebrew Bible. He applied at shops. Growing bolder with necessity, he
went into merchants' offices, and to great men's porters, but all with
great civility sent him about his business, and poor Amyntas was no more
able to get work than nowadays a professional tramp or the secretary of
a trade's union.

Four days he went on, trying here and trying there, eating figs and
melons and bread, drinking water, sleeping beneath archways or on the
steps of churches, and he dreamed of the home of roast beef and ale
which he had left behind him. Every day he became more disheartened. But
at last he rose up against Fate; he cursed it Byronically. Every man's
hand was against him; his hand should be against every man. He would be
a brigand! He shook off his feet the dust of Cadiz, and boldly went into
the country to find a band of free companions. He stopped herdsmen and
pedlars and asked them where brigands were. They pointed to the
mountains, and to the mountains he turned his face. He would join the
band, provoke a quarrel with the chief, kill him and be made chief in
his stead. Then he would scour the country in a velvet mask and a peaked
hat with a feather in it, carrying fire and desolation everywhere. A
price would be set on his head, but he would snap his fingers in the
face of the Prime Minister. He would rule his followers with an iron
hand. But now he was in the midst of the mountains, and there were not
the smallest signs of lawless folk, not even a gibbet with a skeleton
hanging in chains to show where lawless folk had been. He sought high
and low, but he never saw a living soul besides a few shepherds clothed
in skins. It was most disheartening! Once he saw two men crouching
behind a rock, and approached them; but as soon as they saw him they ran
away, and although he followed them, shouting that they were not to be
afraid since he wanted to be a brigand too, they paid no attention, but
only ran the faster, and at last he had to give up the chase for want of
breath. One can't be a robber chief all by oneself, no