Page:Essays Vol 1 (Ives, 1925).pdf/131

Rh How many ways of surprising us Death has! Quid quisque vitet, nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas. I say nothing of fevers and pleurisies. Who would ever have thought that a duke of Bretaigne would be stifled by the crowd, as he was at the entry into Lyons of Pope Clement, my neighbour? Have you not known of one of our kings killed while jousting? and did not one of his ancestors die from being jostled by a hog? To no purpose did Æschylus, when threatened with the fall of a house, remain out-of- doors; lo, he was killed by a tortoise-shell that fell from the claws of an eagle in the air. Another died from a grapeseed; an emperor from the scratch of a comb in dressing his hair; Æmilius Lepidus from stumbling over his threshold, and Aufidius from hitting against the door of the council chamber as he went in. And while lying with women, Cornelius Gallus, prætor; Tigillinus, captain of the watch at Rome; Ludovic, son of Guy de Gonzague, Marquis of Mantua; and, of even worse example, Speusippus the Platonic philosopher, and one of our popes. Poor Bebius, a judge,