Then the stranger spoke:—

In Arabic—

"Ha! Do you know what he is saying, Master?" cried Pantagruel to Epistemon.

Epistemon's answer was a shake of the head.

Then in Italian—

To which Master Epistemon only said: "As much of one as of the other, and nothing of either."

Then the solitary wanderer spoke:—

In English—

What he said in a very strange English was: "Lord, if you be so vertuous of intelligence, as you be naturally releaved to the body, you should have pity of me; for nature hath made us equal, but fortune hath some exalted, and others deprived; nevertheless is vertue often deprived, and the vertuous men despised; for before the last end none is good."

"Ho! still less," cried poor Pantagruel.