Chapter IV
Of the Enterprise of the King’s Treasure
’Twas the narrowness of my fortunes, as much as my own giddy head, that leagued me in the business of the King’s Treasure. I have always borne a brain; there was never an adventure to my fist but I measured out its chances; and sometimes ’twas taken, though against all odds, and other times ’twas left for a piece of foolhardiness. It was along of my mood. For the matter of that, we gentlemen of the road live no feather-bed lives, and it is our trade to forestall the assaults of Death. But this affair went against not only my judgment but my will; and I make no doubt that I would not ha’ taken up with it, had it not been that my pockets were bare, and my head was singing with wine. Altogether, at the moment, I conceive that the world and I were on pretty
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