202 THE KING'S MIRROR 



till misfortune turns against the very ones whose folly 

 and wickedness originally began these evil practices. 

 For one will finally bring evil upon another, wounds or 

 other afflictions, and thus all old and lawful ordinances 

 must decay /Now everyone holds that the king and 

 other great lords should temper the severity of the laws 

 with mercy; but none of the commoners seems willing 

 to deal justly with another fjindeed, each would rather 

 demand more than what he was entitled to from the 

 beginningfBut when all lawful ordinances and right 

 ) punishments are ignored and unlaw and malice take 

 <S their place, and this condition becomes so general that 

 / God is wearied, He applies the punishment that is able 

 V to reach all, since the guilt has touched all^He throws 

 / hatred and enmity down among the chiefs who are 

 j placed in control of the realm; when things go ill there 

 / may also come failure of crops; and the chiefs soon begin 

 I to quarrel, for each finds complaints in the other's king- 

 V dom, which are finally settled with slaughter and strife. 

 But whenever famine, murder, and warfare begin to 

 arrive together and visit all those who inhabit the realm, 

 the kingdom will be brought near to utter weakness and 

 ruin, if the period should continue any length of time. 

 Though laws and useful customs may have been ob- 

 served and maintained to some extent in the times men- 

 tioned earlier, they will be wholly forgotten whenever 

 such times appear as those that we have just now de- 

 scribed; for in warfare the best men and those of the 

 noblest kinship are destroyed. But failure of crops, 

 rapine, and unpeace of every sort that may then ap- 

 pear will rob those of wealth who are in possession of 



