us dead was greatly lamented of his sons, and
bewailed of his friends, especially of his fellow Knights of Malta,
who attended on his funerals, which were performed with great
solemnity. His obsequies done, Saladyne caused, next his epitaph, the
contents of the scroll to be portrayed out, which were to this effect:

_The Contents of the Schedule which Sir John of Bordeaux gave to his
Sons_

My sons, behold what portion I do give:
I leave you goods, but they are quickly lost;
I leave advice, to school you how to live;
I leave you wit, but won with little cost;
But keep it well, for counsel still is one,
When father, friends, and worldly goods are gone.

In choice of thrift let honor be thy gain,
Win it by virtue and by manly might;
In doing good esteem thy toil no pain;
Protect the fatherless and widow's right:
Fight for thy faith, thy country, and thy king,
For why? this thrift will prove a blessed thing.

In choice of wife, prefer the modest-chaste;
Lilies are fair in show, but foul in smell:
The sweetest looks by age are soon defaced;
Then choose thy wife by wit and living well.
Who brings thee wealth and many faults withal,
Presents thee honey mixed with bitter gall.

In choice of friends, beware of light belief;
A painted tongue may shroud a subtle heart;
The Siren's tears do threaten mickle grief;
Foresee, my son, for fear of sudden smart:
Choose in thy wants, and he that friends thee then,
When richer grown, befriend thou him agen.

Learn with the ant in summer to provide;
Drive with the bee the drone from out thy hive:
Build like the swallow in the summer tide;
Spare not too much, my son, but sparing thrive:
Be poor in folly, rich in all but sin:
So by thy death thy glory shall begin.

Saladyne having thus set up the schedule, and hanged about his
father's hearse many passionate poems, that France might suppose him
to be passing sorrowful, he clad himself and his brothers all in
black, and in such sable suits discoursed his grief: but as the hyena
when she mourns is then most guileful, so Saladyne under this show of
grief shadowed a heart full of contented thoughts: the tiger, though
he hide his claws, will at last discover his rapine: the lion's looks
are not the maps of his meaning, nor a man's physnomy is not the
display of his secrets. Fire cannot be hid in