I followed them out as they bore thence the last of our chattels,
As stern in my mood as the pine when his axe at its roots lays the woodman.
They cast up the worth of their plunder, and said that it reached not
The half of the sum that they needed. Again spake the bailiff:
“Friend,” said he, “this doth not suffice, but thou hast much kine in the cow-shed.”
Thus saying, with no more ado, they went on to the straw-yard,
Where stood the kine under their shelter lowing for fodder.
They loosened and drove them all forth, one after another;
Still forcing them on by compulsion, unwilling to leave their old homestead.
In this way six cows were secured; the seventh, a starveling,