I offer this great price: a thousand crowns
For an old woman who was always ugly.
(An old PEASANT WOMAN comes forward, and he takes up a book and reads:)
There is but little set down here against her.
"She has stolen eggs and fowl when times were bad,
But when the times grew better has confessed it;
She never missed her chapel of a Sunday
And when she could, paid dues." Take up your money.
OLD WOMAN
God bless you, sir. (She screams.) Oh, sir, a pain went through me!
FIRST MERCHANT
That name is like a fire to all damned souls.
(Murmur among the PEASANTS, who shrink back from her as she goes out.)
A PEASANT
How she screamed out!