THE KING'S MIRROR 



199 



avarice and iniquity flourish, and men grow bold in 

 manslaying, high-handed robbery, and theft. 



Now if it happens that one of these princes should 

 wish to punish the aforesaid vices in his kingdom, the 

 wicked take refuge in the service of some other master; 

 and, though they have been driven from home because 

 of their misdeeds, they pretend to have come in inno- 

 cence to escape the cruel wrath of their lord. The one to 

 whom they have fled gives protection in temerity rather 

 than in mercy; for he wishes to acquire friends in the 

 other's realm, who may prove useful to himself and 

 hostile to the other in case they should come to disa- 

 greement. But those who had to flee because of their 

 evil conduct and lawbreaking soon begin to show hos- 

 tility toward the lord whose subjects they formerly 

 were and to rouse as much enmity as they can between 

 him and the one to whom they have come. They take 

 revenge for their exile by carrying murder, rapine, and 

 plundering into the kingdom, as if they were guiltless 

 and all the blame lay with the lord. Soon immorality 

 begins to multiply, for God shows His wrath in this 

 way, that where the four boundaries of the territories 

 of these chiefs touch, he places a moving wheel which 

 turns on a restless axle. After that each one forgets all 

 brotherly love, and kinship is wrecked ^Nothing is now 

 spared, for whenever the people are divided into many 

 factions through loyalty to different chiefs, and these 

 fall out, themasses will rashly pursue their desires, and 

 the morals of the nation go to ruin. For then everyone 

 ' makes his own moral code according to his own way of 

 thinking; and no one fears punishment any longer when 

 the rulers fall out and are weakened thereby."? 



