d rode on his backe._ lx.

+ There was in the countrey of Florence an husbande man, that vsed to
carye corne to the market vpon many lytell asses. On a tyme as he came
home warde, bycause he was somewhat werye, to ease him selfe, he rode on
one the strongest of them. And as he rode, dryuinge his asses before
him, he counted them, and forgot the asse that he rode on; wherfore he
thought still that he lacked one. Thus sore troubled in his mynde, he
bad his wyfe set vp his asses, and hastily rode agayne backe to the
towne vii myles of, to seke the asse that he rode on. He asked euery
body that he met, if they sawe an asse straye alone. Whan he herde euery
bodye saye they sawe none suche, makynge great sorowe, he retourned
home agayne. At laste, whan he was alyghted his wyfe parceyued and
shewedde hym playnlye, that the asse, that he rode on, was the same that
he soughte, and made suche sorowe fore.

This ieste may be well applied vnto suche as note the defautes, that
they lyghtly[242] spy in other, and take none hede, nor can nat se, what
ils they haue or[243] bene spotted with them selfe.

+ _The answere of Fabius to Liuius._ lxi.

+ Whan Anniball, the capitayne of Cartage, had conquered Tarent (a towne
perteinyng to the Romayns), all saue the castell, and had lefte a
garnison to kepe it, whan the worthy Romayne Fabius had knowelege
therof, he pryuely conducted an armye thether, and got the towne agayne,
and pylled[244] it. Than M. Liuius that kepte the castell with the
garnison, sayde bostynge him selfe, that Fabius had gotte the towne
through him and his helpe. You saye trouth, quod Fabius: for if you had
nat loste the towne, I shulde neuer haue gotte hit.[245]

FOOTNOTES:

[242] Readily. A story very like this occurs in _A Sackful of Newes_,
1673. It was originally related by Poggius in his Facetiae, where it is
entitled _Asinus Perditus_, and it has been imitated by La Fontaine in
the fable of "Le Villageois qui cherche son veau." It is also the 12th
tale of _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_.

[243] Before.

[244] Pillaged.

+ _The answere of Poltis, the kynge of Thrace, to the Troyan
embassadors._[246] lxii.

+ Plutarche lyke wyse reherseth that, durynge the warre of Troy, the
Grekes and also the Troians sent ambassadours to a kynge of Thrace
calledde Poltis, whiche kynge answered th ambassadours and bade, that
Alexandre shulde delyuer agayne Helayne (for she was the cause of the
warre), a