"O life of solitude!" here exclaimed Rutilio, (who had listened to the hermit's story with most profound attention,) "O solitary life; holy, free, and safe, are they who embrace thee, choose thee, and enjoy thee!"
"True, friend Rutilio," said Maurice, "but only in certain cases, for there is no great marvel if a humble shepherd retires into the solitude of the country; nor when a poor wretch, who is half starved in a town, takes refuge in a retreat where he knows he shall find sustenance. These ways of living are often only a means of fostering idleness and sloth, and it is no small idleness if a man leaves his troubles to be remedied by others. If I were to see a Carthaginian Hannibal leave the world to shut himself up in a hermitage, as we have seen a Charles the Fifth retire into a monastery, I should feel astonishment and admiration; but if a plebeian goes into obscurity, or a poor unknown being retires from society, I neither wonder nor admire. However, Renato is not one of these, since it was neither poverty nor necessity that led him into these solitudes, but his own good feelings; here he finds in scarcity, abundance, and in solitude, society, and lives the more securely, having but little to lose."
"And," added Periander, "if I was old instead of very young, so many perils and dangers have been my share, that I should look upon a peaceful hermitage as the extreme of felicity, and in the tomb of silence to bury my name; but I cannot relinquish the object for which I have hitherto lived, nor change the mode of life I was following at the time when the horse of King Cratilius appeared, where my history left off last."
They heard him say this with great delight, for they perceived by his manner that Periander was willing to return to his so oft begun and never ended story, which in fact he did, as follows.
CHAPTER XXI.
He relates what happened with the Horse that Cratilius valued so highly, and which was so far famed.
"The size, beauty, and spirit of the horse I have before described, made Cratilius value him very highly, and as desirous of having him tamed as I was to seize the opportunity of doing him a service; I thought that this was a fair means sent by Providence, through which I might make myself useful and agreeable in the eyes of him who was now my Master, and in some degree show that I deserved the praise bestowed on me by Sulpicia; and so, with more haste than prudence I went up to the horse, and leapt upon his back, without placing my foot in the stirrup, for there was none to use. He started off with me without any power in the rein to direct or restrain him, and made his way towards a rock that overhung the sea; urging him on with my feet much against his wish, I made him leap off the rock into the sea below.[K]