th them whole cartloads of
wine, whole waggons full of corn, and the like gifts, if they would
obtain a favourable decision in chancery, or wish to procure a bill of
feoffment or decree of court. All the citizens and peasants, too, must
make presents, or their causes lie in a heap undecided. But especially
the following trick brought me good luck: When a rich man, having
committed an evil deed, has been ill spoken of by the prince, &c., then
I gave him to understand how great was the anger of the prince against
him, and that it might cost him his life if he did not employ me in the
business. If he agreed, I concealed his guilt; or, at least, helped him
out of it. But if he did not, I would institute a suit against him, and
he was exposed to danger and death. If he endeavoured to succeed,
through the means of attorneys, in spite of me, I would make use of all
my cunning to prevail against and ruin him. When the fox's skin did not
answer, I assumed that of the lion; what I could not acquire by wiles
and cunning, I usurped _de facto_, and discovered how I could obtain by
violence. If any one complained of the old chancellor, and wished to
bring a suit against him at court, I offered to submit myself to a
judicial action, for the councillors, as colleagues, were on my side. I
displaced in village and field the boundary stone, made other ditches
and frontier lines, squeezed out of my neighbours some hundred
_morgens_ of arable land, meadows, and woods. In like manner I laid
hands on the property of rich widows, orphans, and wards; bought rents
and perpetual leases, and lent out money which, in three years, was
doubled. It would be tedious to relate the gains I made by assignments,
bills of exchange, wine, corn, and salt traffic.'

"All this the son-in-law listened to with great attention, and said,
'Noble father, you have well administered for your family, and brought
it into prosperity; but the question is whether your descendants will
prosper so as to inherit it in the third or fourth generation; for
"ill-gotten gains seldom prosper."'

"'That signifies as little to me as a midge on the wall. Let any one
say what he will, I, on the other hand, have what I will. He who would
gain something must venture something, and not mind what people say. I
have revealed and confided to you more than to my own wife and
children. Now come home with me to supper.'"

Such is the purport of the sad irony of the flying sheet, which is
pec