rse fortune, he would endure it
patiently, and say: 'These chilling winds which blow upon my body are
true counsellors; they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my
condition; and though they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so
keen as that of unkindness and ingratitude. I find that howsoever men
speak against adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from
it; like the jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head
of the venomous and despised toad.' In this manner did the patient duke
draw a useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of
this moralizing turn, in that life of his, remote from public haunts,
he could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in
stones, and good in everything.

The banished duke had an only daughter, named Rosalind, whom the
usurper, duke Frederick, when he banished her father, still retained in
his court as a companion for his own daughter Celia. A strict
friendship subsisted between these ladies, which the disagreement
between their fathers did not in the least interrupt, Celia striving by
every kindness in her power to make amends to Rosalind for the
injustice of her own father in deposing the father of Rosalind; and
whenever the thoughts of her father's banishment, and her own
dependence on the false usurper, made Rosalind melancholy, Celia's
whole care was to comfort and console her.

One day, when Celia was talking in her usual kind manner to Rosalind,
saying: 'I pray you, Rosalind, my sweet cousin, be merry,' a messenger
entered from the duke, to tell them that if they wished to see a
wrestling match, which was just going to begin, they must come
instantly to the court before the palace; and Celia, thinking it would
amuse Rosalind, agreed to go and see it.

In those times wrestling, which is only practiced now by country
clowns, was a favourite sport even in the courts of princes, and before
fair ladies and princesses. To this wrestling match, therefore, Celia
and Rosalind went. They found that it was likely to prove a very
tragical sight; for a large and powerful man, who had been long
practiced in the art of wrestling, and had slain many men in contests
of this kind, was just going to wrestle with a very young man, who,
from his extreme youth and inexperience in the art, the beholders all
thought would certainly be killed.

When the duke saw Celia and Rosalind, he said: 'How now, daughter and
niece, are you c