Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/61

Rh a silver piece in place of ten shillings, or a gold obol in place of ten pounds, so that the account may be more quickly made. He must take care, however, lest his too hasty hand proceed before his tongue, or the reverse; but at the same time that he counts he shall place the counter and designate the number, lest there be an error in the number. The sum, therefore, which is required from the sheriff being arranged in heaps, those sums which have been paid in, either to the treasury or otherwise, are arranged below, likewise in heaps. But if it be a farm by tale which is required of him, or any other debt which can be satisfied by tale only, there shall simply be made a deduction of the lower from the upper sum, and he shall be bounden for the rest; it shall be done otherwise, however, if he be about to pay a blank farm; as will be more fully shown when we treat of the sheriff's business.

D. Spare a moment thy running pen that I may be allowed to say a few words.

M. It is thy turn to throw the die, nor may speech be denied thee.

D. It seems to me as if I were given to understand that, by means of calculation, the same coin being placed for a counter shall signify now a penny, now a shilling, now a pound, now a hundred, now a thousand.

M. So it is, but only, however, if it is placed with coins corresponding to those values; or, if it is taken away from them, it can, at the pleasure of the calculator, be brought about that the one which signifies a thousand, by gradually descending, shall signify one.

D. Thus it happens when one of the people, since he is a man and can not be any thing else, ascends from the depths to the summit, temporal benefits being bestowed on him by the will of the President; and then, according to Fortuna's law, is thrust back into the depths, remaining what he was although he seemed by reason of his dignity and standing to have been changed from himself.

M. Know that thy words do not apply in all respects. But, however it may seem to others, I am well pleased that from these matters thou dost infer others; indeed it is praiseworthy to seek the flowers of mystic meaning in the winnowings of mundane affairs. And not alone