XC.
Hector me must pronunce thi deth smerte.
Wherefor grete sorwe bitteth my herte.
That shall [be] whene that Priant the kyng
[Thou] woldest not trost, which come the praying.[[539]]
The day that Hector was sleyne in bataile Andromatha his |f. 68.| wiffe come to pray Kyng Priant with full grete compleyntes and wepynges that he wolde not that day suffre Hector to goo to bataile, for withowte dowte he shulde be sleyne yf he went thedir.[[540]] Mars, the god of bataile, and Minerve, the godesse of armes, hade veraly shewed it there in hir slepe,[[541]] where thei apperid to hir. Priant dide all that he myghte for he shulde not fyght that day, but Hector stale fro his fadir and stirte owte of the cete by a waye vndir the erthe and went to the bataile, where he was sleyne. And for because he neuer dishobehed his fadir but that day, [it] may be seide the day that he shulde dishabey his ffadir than shulde he die. And it may be vnderstond that noon shulde dishobey his souereyne ne his good ffrendes, when they awyse hym as in reson. And therfor Aristotil seide to Alexandir, “As long as thou trustist the cownsell of theyme that vsith wisdom and that loued the truly, thou salt reigne glorously.”
Where she[[542]] seide to Hector that she most pronounce his name,[[543]] [it] is that the good sperite shulde haue contynell mynde on the owre of deth. Thereof seith Seynt Bernard[[544]] that in mankyndely thynges men fynde no thyng more certeyne þan deth, ne lesse incerteyne than is the owre of deth; for deth hath no mercy of pouerte and dothe no worshippe to reches; it sparith neythir wisedom, condicions ne age; men hath non othir certeyne of deth but that it is at the doores of aged men and it is in the mydwes[[545]] of yong men. To this purpose the wise man seith, [“Memor esto, quoniam mors non tardat”].[[546]]
XCI.
I purpose yet to make the sadde and wyse,[[547]]
That thou vse in batailes ffor no gise