How could she _pay_ for him! _Whom_ could she pay?
And so, well knowing that this woman, trained as she had been, deserved praise, even adulation, I was yet not able to utter it, trained as I had been.

The best I could do was to fish up a compliment from outside, so to speak--and the pity of it was, that it was true: "Madame, your people will adore you for this." Quite true, but I meant to hang her for it some day if I lived.
Some of those laws were too bad, altogether too bad.

A master might kill his slave for nothing--for mere spite, malice, or to pass the time--just as we have seen that the crowned head could do it with _his_ slave, that is to say, anybody.

A gentleman could kill a free commoner, and pay for him--cash or garden-truck.
A noble could kill a noble without expense, as far as the law was concerned, but reprisals in kind were to be expected.

_Any_body could kill _some_body, except the commoner and the slave; these had no privileges.