Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/282

260 fall out of their mouths, who cannot contain them, undo and overthrow those that reveal them.

King Seleucus (him, I mean, who was surnamed Callinicus, that is, the victorious conqueror) in one battle against the Galatians was defeated, he and his whole power; whereupon he took from his head the diadem or royal band that he wear, and rode away on the spur on horseback with three or four in his company, wandering through desarts and byways unknown so long, until both horse and man were done and ready to faint for weariness: at length he came unto a country keams or peasant's cottage; and finding (by good fortune) the good man of the house within, asked for bread and water; which the said peasant or cottier gave unto him; and not that only, but look, what the field would afford else besides he imparted unto him and his company with a willing heart and in great plenty, making them the best cheer that he could devise: in the end he knew the king's face, whereupon he took such joy, in that his hap was to entertain the king in his necessity, that he could not contain himself, nor second the king in dissembling his knowledge, who desired nothing more than to be unknown; when he had therefore brought the king onward on his way, and was to take his leave of him: Adieu (quoth he). King Seleucus: with that the king reached forth his hand, and drew him toward him, as if he would have kissed him, and withal beckoned to one of his followers, and gave him a secret token to take his sword and make the man shorter by the head.

whereas, if he could have held his tongue a little while longer, and mastered himself, when the king afterwards had better fortune and recovered his greatness and puissance, he should in my conceit have gotten more thanks at his hands, and been better rewarded for keeping silence than for all the courtesy and hospitality that he shewed. And yet this fellow had in some sort a colourable excuse for this intemperate tongue of his, to wit, his own hopes and the goodwill that he bare unto the king: but the most part of these prattlers undo themselves without any cause or pretence at all of reason: like as it befell unto Denys the Tyrant's barber: for when (upon a time) there were some talking in his shop as touching his tyrannical government and estate, how assured it was, and as hard to be ruined or overthrown as it is to break the diamond: the said barber