Metamorphoses 4.23-24

Stolen while dressing for her wedding. That is a TERRIBLE wedding day.

• The girl that gets brought in is clearly high class. 
• She also obviously thinks so. When she laments what she's lost, she mentions her house and her slaves before her parents.
• Apuleius puts the highest rhetoric and most erudite speech in the mouth of the child bride. Interesting.
• We won't translate what happens to her, but while she survives this present calamity, things go very, very south for her later. But things go south for everyone Lucius encounters eventually.

4.23 tandem itaque asinali verecundia ductus, aegerrime tamen digrediens riuulo proximo sitim lenio.	verecundia digrediens	And so finally, led by the shame of an ass, nevertheless leaving reluctantly, I slake my thirst at a small nearby river.
nec mora, cum latrones ultra <modum> anxii atque solliciti remeant, nullam quidem prorsus sarcinam vel omnino, licet uilem, laciniam ferentes, sed tantum gladiis <totis>, totis manibus, immo factionis suae cunctis uiribus unicam uirginem filio liberalem et, ut matronatus eius indicabat, summatem religionis, puellam mehercules et asino tali concupiscendam, maerentem et crines cum ueste sua lacerantem aduehebant.	.	.There was no delay, when the anxious and worried robbers returned on the other side, indeed carrying no bundle anywhere, no piece of clothing, not even a rag, but nevertheless with drawn swords, in every hand, and with all the manly strength in the whole cohort, they carried in a single girl. She was noble in face and, as her demeanor indicated, a high-class person, a girl, my stars, who could be yearned for even by such an ass as me, and she was weeping and tearing at her hair and clothes.
eam simul intra specluncam <ducunt> verbisque quae dolebat minora facientes sic adloquuntur: 'tu quidem salutis et pudicitiae secura breuem patientam nostro compendio tribue, quos ad istam sectam paupertatis necessitas adegit.	.	Then they led her into the cave, the young girl who was sad, and thus they soothed her with these words: "Be secure of your safety and your honor and give some brief patience to our slashings, we whom the necessity of poverty drives to this knifey scheme.
parentes autem tui de tanto suarum divitiarum cumulo, quamquam satis cupidi, tamen sine mora parabunt scilicet idoneam sui sanguinis redemptionem.'	.	Moreover, from such a great pile of their wealth, whatsoever is enough to satisfy our desire, your parents will of course prepare a redemption appropriate for their blood."
[24] His et his similibus blateratis necquicquam dolor sedatur puellae. Quidni? quae inter genua sua deposito capite sine modo flebat. At illi intro vocatae anui praecipiunt adsidens eam blando quantum posset solaretur alloquio, seque ad sectae sueta conferunt. Nec tamen puella quivit ullis aniculae sermonibus ab inceptis fletibus avocari, sed altius eiulans sese et assiduis singultibus illa quatiens mihi etiam lacrimas excussit. Ac sic: "A ego" inquit "misera tali domo tanta familia tam caris vernulis tam sanctis parentibus desolata et infelicis rapinae praeda et mancipium effecta inque isto saxeo carcere et carnificinae laniena serviliter clausa et omnibus deliciis, quis innata atque innutrita sum, privata sub incerta salutis spe et carnificinae laniena inter tot ac tales latrones et horrendum gladiatorum populum vel fletum desinere vel omnino vivere potero? Lamentata sic et animi dolore et faucium tendore et corporis lassitudine iam fatigata marcentes oculos demisit ad soporem.	.	.With these and other similar blatherings the sadness of the girl was not at all soothed. Why not? She was crying without moderation with her head placed between her knees. But the robbers called an old woman inside and instructed her that she sit next to the girl and comfort her with whatever soft speeches she was able, and then they consulted each other about the manner of slashing. Nevertheless the girl was not able to be distracted from her burgeoning tears by any words of the old woman, but first wailing and then shaking with constant sobs, she even shook out tear from me. And thus she said, "I, miserable girl, stripped from such a home and such a family and so caring of attender and such sacred parents and unlucky of plunder and made to be booty and turned into a slave and closed up in a stony prison and butcher shop of torture and away from all the pleasures in which I was born and raised, deprived of hope beneath the uncertainty of my safety and among such a slaughterhouse and among such robbers and horrendous population of gladiator, can I either abandon crying or live at all?" Thus having lamented and sad in spirit and sore in throat and weary in body and just tired, she let fall her weary eyes into sleep.
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