“Let us hear them.”
“Nay, my lord; if thou hearest them, and likest not, then I have lost both my maxims and my money.”
“And if I pay without hearing them, and they are useless, I lose my time and my money. What is the price?”
“A thousand florins, my lord.”
“A thousand florins for that of which I know not what it is,” replied the king.
“My lord,” rejoined the merchant, “if the maxims do not stand you in good stead, I will return the money.”
“Be it so then; let us hear your maxims.”
“The first, my lord, is on this wise: Never begin any thing until you have calculated what the end will be.”
“I like your maxim much,” said the king; “let it be recorded in the chronicles of the kingdom, inscribed on the walls and over the doors of my palaces and halls of justice, and interwoven on the borders of the linen of my table and my chamber.”
“The second, my lord, is: Never leave a highway for the bye-way.”