Explore "In which it is Demonstrated that Fortune is Always Feminine" by Honoré De Balzac on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
During the time when knights courteously offered to each other both help and assistance in seeking their fortune, it happened that in Sicily -- which, as you are probably aware, is an island situated in the corner of the Mediterranean Sea, and formerly celebrated -- one knight met in a wood another knight, who had the appearance of a Frenchman. Presumably, this Frenchman was by some chance stripped of everything, and was so wretchedly attired that but for his princely air he might have been taken for a blackguard. It was possible that his horse had died of hunger or fatigue, on disembarking from the foreign shore for which he came, on the faith of the good luck which happened to the French in Sicily, which was true in every respect.
The Sicilian knight, whose name was Pezare, was a Venetian long absent from the Venetian Republic, and with no desire to return there, since he had obtained a footing in the Court of the King of Sicily. Being short of funds in Venice, because he was a younger son, he had no fancy for commerce, and was for that reason eventually abandoned by his family, a most illustrious one. He therefore remained at this Court, where he was much liked by the king.