Page:History of Fortunatus (3).pdf/10

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
10
THE HISTORY OF

Fortunatus having least, his spring was soonest dry; the rest had spent most of theirs on banquets and fair women. Fortunatus being now moneyless, went to some of his landladies where he had spent his money, to borrow three crowns, saying, that he would go into Flanders and fetch four hundred crowns, that was there in his uncle’s hand; but he was slighted, and they would lend him none: he desired one of his misses to trust him one quart of wine, but she denied him, and bid her servants fetch a pint of small beer, to make the ass drink ere he went. Fortunatus took himself out of England, crossed the seas, and arrived in Piccardy in France. In travelling he passed through a wood, where he spent the whole day, and being benighted, he saw an old house; where he hoped to find some relief, but there was no creature in it. He spent the next day in travelling from one wood to another, almost starved with hunger, and sitting down by a fountain, (the moon shining clear) he heard a great noise in the wood, as the grunting of boars, which made him convey himself away, and