both those who wrought and those for whom they wrought.
But it went not so, but there were many poor folk there,
and few wealthy.

Again said Clement that though the tillers and toilers of
Goldburg were not for the most part mere thralls and chattels,
as in the lands beyond the mountains behind them, yet were they
little more thriving for that cause; whereas they belonged
not to a master, who must at worst feed them, and to no manor,
whose acres they might till for their livelihood, and on whose
pastures they might feed their cattle; nor had they any to help
or sustain them against the oppressor and the violent man;
so that they toiled and swinked and died with none heeding them,
save they that had the work of their hands good cheap; and they
forsooth heeded them less than their draught beasts whom they must
needs buy with money, and whose bellies they must needs fill;
whereas these poor wretches were slaves without a price,
and if one died another took his place on the chance that thereby
he might escape present death by hunger, for there was a great
many of them.



CHAPTER 28

Now They Come to Goldburg


That night they slept yet amongst the mountains, or rather in
the first of the hill country at their feet; but on the morrow they