I own to having a kindly feeling towards this
scapegrace, because, though an exile, he did not abuse the country
whence he fled. I have heard that he went away taking no spoil with him,
penniless almost; and on his voyage he made acquaintance with a certain
Jew; and when he fell sick, at New York, this Jew befriended him, and
gave him help and money out of his own store, which was but small. Now,
after they had been awhile in the strange city, it happened that the
poor Jew spent all his little money, and he too fell ill, and was in
great penury. And now it was Laertes who befriended that Ebrew Jew. He
fee'd doctors; he fed and tended the sick and hungry. Go to, Laertes! I
know thee not. It may be thou art justly exul patriae. But the Jew shall
intercede for thee, thou not, let us trust, hopeless Christian sinner.
Another exile to the same shore I knew: who did not? Julius Caesar
hardly owed more money than Cucedicus: and, gracious powers! Cucedicus,
how did you manage to spend and owe so much? All day he was at work for
his clients; at night he was occupied in the Public Council. He neither
had wife nor children. The rewards which he received for his orations
were enough to maintain twenty rhetoricians.
Pages:
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419