Page:The Prince (translated by William K. Marriott).djvu/300

270 many superfluous words, he said to him, "When you have another request to make, send some one else to make it." Having been wearied by a similar man with a long oration who wound up by saying, "Perhaps I have fatigued you by speaking so long," Castruccio said, "You have not, because I have not hstened to a word you said." He used to say of one who had been a beautiful child and who afterwards became a fine man, that he was dangerous, because he first took the husbands from the wives and now he took the wives from their husbands. To an envious man who laughed, he said, "Do you laugh because you are successful or because another is unfortunate?" Whilst he was still in the charge of Messer Francesco Guinigi, one of his companions said to him, "What shall I give you if you will let me give you a blow on the nose?" Castruccio answered, "A helmet."

Hadng put to death a citizen of Lucca who had been instrumental in raising him to power, and being told that he had done wrong to kill one of his old friends, he answered that people deceived themselves; he had only killed a new enemy. Castruccio praised greatly those men who intended to take a wife and then did not do so, saying that they were like men who said they would go to sea, and then refused when the time came. He said that it always struck him with surprise that whilst men in buying an earthen or