The Treasure and the Two Men

A man whose credit fail'd, and what was worse, / Who lodged the devil in his purse, -- / That is to say, lodged nothing there, -- / By self-suspension in the air / Concluded his accounts to square, / Since, should he not, he understood, / From various tokens, famine would -- / A death for which no mortal wight / Had ever any appetite. / A ruin, crown'd with ivy green, / Was of his tragedy the scene. / His hangman's noose he duly tied, / And then to drive a nail he tried; -- / But by his blows the wall gave way, / Now tremulous and old, / Disclosing to the light of day / A sum of hidden gold. / He clutch'd it up, and left Despair / To struggle with his halter there. / Nor did the much delighted man / E'en stop to count it as he ran. / But, while he went, the owner came, / Who loved it with a secret flame, / Too much indeed for kissing, -- / And found his money -- missing! / 'O Heavens! ' he cried, 'shall I / Such riches lose, and still not die? / Shall I not hang? -- as I, in fact, / Might justly do if cord I lack'd; / But now, without expense, I can; / This cord here only lacks a man. ' / The saving was no saving clause; / It suffer'd not his heart to falter, / Until it reach'd his final pause / As full possessor of the halter, -- / 'Tis thus the miser often grieves: / Whoe'er the benefit receives / Of what he owns, he never must -- / Mere treasurer for thieves, / Or relatives, or dust. / But what say we about the trade / In this affair by Fortune made? / Why, what but that it was just like her! / In freaks like this delighteth she. / The shorter any turn may be, / The better it is sure to strike her. / It fills that goddess full of glee / A self-suspended man to see; / And that it does especially, / When made so unexpectedly.[1]

[1]: The story of this fable has been traced to the Epigrams of Ausonius who was born at Bordeaux, and lived in the fourth century.