 As Prometheus , bound on a Scythian crag , fed the tireless bird with his too abundant breast , so did Laureolus , hanging on no sham cross , give his naked flesh to a Caledonian bear . His lacerated limbs lived on , dripping gore , and in all his body , body there was none . Finally he met with the punishment he deserved ; the guilty wretch had plunged a sword into his father 's throat or his master 's , or in his madness had robbed a temple of its secret gold , or laid a cruel torch to Rome . The criminal had outdone the misdeeds of ancient story ; in him , what had been a play became an execution . 
