Pagina 148 di 274

A Stag, blind of one eye, was grazing close to the sea-shore and

kept his sound eye turned towards the land, so as to be able to

perceive the approach of the hounds, while the blind eye he

turned towards the sea, never suspecting that any danger would

threaten him from that quarter. As it fell out, however, some

sailors, coasting along the shore, spied him and shot an arrow at

him, by which he was mortally wounded. As he lay dying, he said

to himself, "Wretch that I am! I bethought me of the dangers of

the land, whence none assailed me: but I feared no peril from the

sea, yet thence has come my ruin."

Misfortune often assails us from an unexpected quarter.

THE FLY AND THE DRAUGHT-MULE