The inconstancy of Fortune, Montaigne says, may reasonably make us expect she should present us with all sorts of faces, and some of those faces look uncannily just. The Duc de Valentinois, Caesar Borgia, having resolved to poison Adrian, Cardinal of Corneto, with whom Pope Alexander VI, his father, and himself were to sup in the Vatican, sends before a bottle of poisoned wine and strict order to the butler to keep it very safe. The Pope comes before his son and calls for drink. The butler, supposing this wine had been recommended only upon the account of its excellency, presents it forthwith. The duke, confident they had not meddled with his bottle, takes also his cup. The father dies immediately upon the spot. The son, after having been long tormented with sickness, is reserved to another and a worse fortune.
Sometimes she seems to play upon us in the nick of an affair. Monsieur de Licques wins the Sieur de Fougueselles' sister from Monsieur d'Estrees, then on the same day he is married, and before he goes to bed to his wife, has a mind to break a lance in honour of his new bride and goes out to skirmish near St Omer. D'Estrees proving the stronger takes him prisoner, and the lady is fain to request him of courtesy to deliver up his prisoner, which he does, the gentlemen of France never denying anything to ladies. Constantine, son of Helena, founded the empire of Constantinople; ages after, Constantine, the son of Helen, put an end to it. Walls fall of themselves for King Clovis at Angouleme and for King Robert at a certain part of the Mass of St Aignan at Orleans. She did quite contrary in the Milan wars: Capitaine Rense springs a mine under Arona, the wall is lifted from its base, then drops down whole and entire upon its foundation, and the besieged suffer no inconvenience. Jason of Pheres, given over by the physicians for an imposthume in his breast, throws himself desperately into the thickest of the enemy to rid himself of his pain by death at least, is wounded quite through the body, and the imposthume breaks so that he is perfectly cured. Protogenes cannot express the slaver and foam at a tired dog's mouth, throws his sponge in a rage against the picture to deface it, and fortune hits just upon the mouth, performing what all his art was not able to do. Isabel, Queen of England, sailing from Zealand with an army in favour of her son against her husband, would have been lost had she come into the port she intended; fortune, against her will, throws her into another haven, where she lands in safety. A man of old, throwing a stone at a dog, hits and kills his mother-in-law, and has reason to say that Fortune has more judgement than we.
Icetes had contracted with two soldiers to kill Timoleon at Adrana in Sicily. They take their time at a sacrifice, thrusting into the crowd and making signs that now is a fit time to do their business. In steps a third, who with a sword takes one of them full drive over the pate, lays him dead upon the place, and runs away. The other, concluding himself discovered, runs to the altar and begs for mercy, promising to discover the whole truth. The third man is hauled as a murderer toward Timoleon, then cries out that he had justly slain his father's murderer, proving upon the spot that his father was killed in Leontini by that very man. He is awarded ten Attic minae for having, by designing to revenge the death of his father, preserved the life of the common father of Sicily. Fortune, truly, in her conduct surpasses all the rules of human prudence. Ignatius the father and Ignatius the son, proscribed by the triumvirs of Rome, resolve to fall by the hands of one another and so defeat the cruelty of the tyrants. They run full drive upon one another. Fortune so guides the points that they make two equally mortal wounds, leaving them just strength enough to draw out their bloody swords and embrace. The executioner cuts off both their heads at once. The bodies stay fast linked, wounds joined mouth to mouth.
