ses without care. Thou
art old, Adam, and thy hairs wax white: the palm tree is already full
of blooms, and in the furrows of thy face appears the calendars of
death. Wert thou blessed by Fortune thy years could not be many, nor
the date of thy life long: then sith nature must have her due, what is
it for thee to resign her debt a little before the day. Ah, it is not
this which grieveth me, nor do I care what mishaps Fortune can wage
against me, but the sight of Rosader that galleth unto the quick. When
I remember the worships of his house, the honor of his fathers, and
the virtues of himself, then do I say, that fortune and the fates are
most injurious, to censure so hard extremes, against a youth of so
great hope. O Rosader, thou art in the flower of thine age, and in the
pride of thy years, buxom and full of May. Nature hath prodigally
enriched thee with her favors, and virtue made thee the mirror of her
excellence; and now, through the decree of the unjust stars, to have
all these good parts nipped in the blade, and blemished by the
inconstancy of fortune! Ah, Rosader, could I help thee, my grief were
the less, and happy should my death be, if it might be the beginning
of thy relief: but seeing we perish both in one extreme, it is a
double sorrow. What shall I do? prevent the sight of his further
misfortune with a present dispatch of mine own life? Ah, despair is a
merciless sin!"

As he was ready to go forward in his passion, he looked earnestly on
Rosader, and seeing him change color, he rise up and went to him, and
holding his temples, said:

"What cheer, master? though all fail, let not the heart faint: the
courage of a man is showed in the resolution of his death."

At these words Rosader lifted up his eye, and looking on Adam Spencer,
began to weep.

"Ah, Adam," quoth he, "I sorrow not to die, but I grieve at the manner
of my death. Might I with my lance encounter the enemy, and so die in
the field, it were honor and content: might I, Adam, combate with some
wild beast and perish as his prey, I were satisfied; but to die with
hunger, O Adam, it is the extremest of all extremes!"

"Master," quoth he, "you see we are both in one predicament, and long
I cannot live without meat; seeing therefore we can find no food, let
the death of the one preserve the life of the other. I am old, and
overworn with age, you are young, and are the hope of many honors: let
me then die, I will presently cut my veins, and, mas