THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
brain clear, since no one knows after what fashion good luck shall come to us. It really is a very simple thing this finding of the golden cup at the foot of the rainbow, and a rainbow generally follows rain and storm and driving clouds. Some few there are who profess to care nothing for this quest and spend their days in the courtyard, looking down into the dim old well, and dazzling their eyes with the stars they see therein. They think themselves wise, and in point of fact they are quaint fellows, which perhaps comes to the same thing. But Sir Philip knew better than they, and had no intention of leading this dreamy sort of life, for his great ambition (or so he said) was to have at last a good monument over him in alabaster, carved artfully, with all his quarters painted on the stone and in the window above. To enjoy this benefit, and to lie like a Christian when he was dead, it was necessary to lie like one when he was alive; that is, of course, in a warm bed under a leaden roof, with a full belly. And he was too wise a man (though he was a young one) to vex his heart over his poor estate and ill success at the wars; for he understood the benefit of misfortune and early buffets, the which give a vast relish to the warm hearth and good wine of after years. Hence he proceeded cheerfully to his geographical studies, strolling discursively from town to town, from castle to castle, and from convent to convent; never hurrying himself in the least, and always finding out the pleasantest paths and the most sheltered nooks. In this pilgrimage he acquired
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