since my son left me; five years have I passed in traveling through
the world in search of him: I have been in farthest Greece, and
through the bounds of Asia, and coasting homewards, I landed here in
Ephesus, being unwilling to leave any place unsought that harbors men;
but this day must end the story of my life, and happy should I think
myself in my death, if I were assured my wife and sons were living."

Here the hapless AEgeon ended the account of his misfortunes; and the
duke, pitying this unfortunate father who had brought upon himself
this great peril by his love for his lost son, said, if it were not
against the laws, which his oath and dignity did not permit him to
alter, he would freely pardon him; yet, instead of dooming him to
instant death, as the strict letter of the law required, he would give
him that day to try if he could beg or borrow the money to pay the
fine.

This day of grace did seem no great favor to AEgeon, for not knowing
any man in Ephesus, there seemed to him but little chance that any
stranger would lend or give him a thousand marks to pay the fine; and
helpless and hopeless of any relief, he retired from the presence of
the duke in the custody of a jailer.

AEgeon supposed he knew no person in Ephesus; but at the very time he
was in danger of losing his life through the careful search he was
making after his youngest son, that son and his eldest son also were
both in the city of Ephesus.

AEgeon's sons, besides being exactly alike in face and person, were
both named alike, being both called Antipholus, and the two twin
slaves were also both named Dromio. AEgeon's youngest son, Antipholus
of Syracuse, he whom the old man had come to Ephesus to seek, happened
to arrive at Ephesus with his slave Dromio that very same day that
AEgeon did; and he being also a merchant of Syracuse, he would have
been in the same danger that his father was, but by good fortune he
met a friend who told him the peril an old merchant of Syracuse was
in, and advised him to pass for a merchant of Epidamnum; this
Antipholus agreed to do, and he was sorry to hear one of his own
countrymen was in this danger, but he little thought this old merchant
was his own father.

The oldest son of AEgeon (who must be called Antipholus of Ephesus, to
distinguish him from his brother Antipholus of Syracuse) had lived at
Ephesus twenty years, and, being a rich man, was well able to have
paid the money for the ransom of his fath