Do ye think I broke upon 't, (so help me
Hercules) no; the loss was but a flea-bite: For, as if there had been
no such thing, I built others, larger, better, and more fortunate than
the former; so that every one called me a man of courage. As you know
a great ship carries a great deal of force, I loaded them again with
wine, bacon, beans, unguents, planes: And here Fortunata shewed her
affection; for she sold what she had; nay, her very cloaths, and put a
round sum in my pocket; tho' yet it was but a pig of my own sow. What
the gods will is quickly done; I got an hundred thousand sesterties by
the voyage, and forthwith redeemed the lands my patron had left me,
built me a house, bought cattle to sell them again, and whatever I
went about gathered like a snow-ball: But when I grew richer than all
the country besides, I took up; and from a merchant turn'd usurer, and
bought servants.
"Thus resolved to give over trading, a certain astrologer that chanc'd
to light on this village, would have persuaded me to the contrary. He
was a Gr?¦cian, his name S?“rapa, one that held correspondence
with the gods. He told me a deal that I had forgotten, and laid
everything before me from top to bottom: He knew all I had within me,
and told me what I had the night before to supper; you'd have thought
he had liv'd with me all his life.
"I beseech you, Habinas, for I think you was there; he told me the
intrigue between my mistress and me; that I had but ill luck at
friends; that no one ever made me a return of my kindnesses: That I
had large possessions, but nourished a viper in my bosom: Why should I
not tell you all? I have by his account, thirty years, four months,
and two days yet to live; and in a short time shall have another
estate left me.
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