Johannes de Alta Silva: JOHANNES DE ALTA SILVA DE THESAURO ET FURE ASTUTO

Fuit antiquo tempore rex quidam magnus et potens. Qui, colligendi thesauros cupidissimus, magnae altitudinis latitudinisque turrim auro, argento pretiosisque omnibus rebus usque ad summum repleverat. Habebat autem hic militem quem in multis fidelem expertus erat, cui et claves sui commisit thesauri.

There was in ancient time a certain king, great and powerful. Who, most eager for collecting thesauros (treasures), had filled to the very top a tower of great height and breadth with gold, silver, and all manner of precious things. He had moreover a soldier whom he had proved faithful in many matters, to whom he likewise committed the keys of his treasury.

At miles thesaurum servandum suscipiens, cum iam multis annis evolutis labore et senectute fractus esset nec posset iam tumultum curamque curiae sustinere, regem rogabat ut suae debilitati senectutique parcens, claves thesauri reciperet seque sineret propriam redire domum liceretque sibi inter filios reliquum vitae suae tempus quietum agere et iucundum. Rex vero, cum militem optime de se meritum iudicaret, eum magnis donatum muneribus maestus tamen abire sivit. Receptis igitur clavibus, thesaurum iterum alii commisit servandum.

But the soldier, undertaking to guard the treasure, when, with many years now passed, he was worn out by labor and senescence and could no longer sustain the tumult and care of the court, begged the king that, sparing his weakness and old age, he might receive back the keys of the treasure and be permitted to return to his own house and to spend the remaining time of his life in quiet and pleasantness among his sons. The king, however, since he judged the soldier to have deserved well of him, though sorrowful, let him depart, having been richly gifted with great munera. Having received the keys, the treasure was again entrusted to another to be kept.

Miles autem domum veniens curam sibi suaeque familiae sollicitus impendebat. Habebat hic multos filios, quorum primogenitus militari iam balteo cingebatur. Quem cum pater nimis tenere diligeret, omnes ei exposuit divitias iussitque large expendentem famam sibi et amicos divitiis comparare.

But the soldier, coming home, poured out anxious care for himself and his family. He had many sons, of whom the firstborn was already girded with a military belt. Because the father loved to keep him too much, he laid open all his riches to him and ordered that, lavishly spending, he should win for himself renown and friends by means of wealth.

Ipse vero, ex licentia paternis liberius largiusque utens rebus, equos, arma, vestes, ceteraque quibus magis adulescentium aetas delectari solet studuit comparare, amicos multos muneribus emens facile post munera ab amicitia recessuros. Brevi ergo tempore loculos patris minuit; exhausta pecunia, ad patrem redit dicitque se pecunias defecisse.

He himself, moreover, using his paternal license more freely and more lavishly with the goods, strove to acquire horses, arms, garments, and the other things with which the age of youths is wont to be delighted; having purchased many friends with gifts, they would easily withdraw from friendship after the gifts. Therefore in a short time he diminished his father’s little coffers; the money having been exhausted, he returned to his father and said that his funds had failed.

Tunc demum pater recogitans secum paenitensque facti: "Quoniam," inquit, "te, fili, nimis et stulte dilexi, quicquid habebam tuae subdidi potestati. At tu cernens frenum tibi laxatum, temperantiae immemor ita omnia consumpsisti, ut nihil mihi praeter solam domum reliqueris. Quid ergo tibi magis faciam?

Then at last the father, reconsidering with himself and regretting the deed: "Since," he said, "I loved you, son, too much and foolishly, whatever I had I placed under your potestative power. But you, seeing the rein loosed for you, forgetful of temperance, have consumed everything so that you have left me nothing except the house alone. What therefore shall I do for you more?

Doleo quidem quod fama nomenque tuum in flore iuventutis deperit, sed unde te sustentem non habeo. Hoc tantum unum superest consilii, sed periculosum, ut si ea largitate qua prius vivere vis, turrim in qua regis positi sunt thesauri sub obscurae noctis silentio adeamus." Audito hoc filius: "Nullum," ait, "pater, quamvis grave sit periculum tecum subire refugio, modo ne desint divitiae, ne si illae defecerint, nominis quoque mei gloria evanescat." Consurgunt igitur ambo nocte, turrim adeunt, perforant malleis ferreis murum; intrat pater sublataque magna parte thesauri exit obstruitque foramen. Revertuntur domum onusti opibus alienis, et iuvenis iterum sua utitur largitate.

I grieve indeed that your fame and name perish in the flower of youth, but I have no means to sustain you. Only this one plan of counsel remains, but dangerous: that if by the same largesse by which you wish to live as before, we approach by the covert silence of night the tower in which the treasures are placed. Hearing this, the son said, “No, father, although it is a grave danger to take refuge with you in this, so long as riches do not fail; for if those fail, the glory of my name will vanish as well.” Therefore both rise by night, go to the tower, pierce the wall with iron mallets; the father enters, and having taken away a large part of the treasures departs and blocks up the opening. They return home laden with another’s wealth, and the young man again enjoys his liberality.

Quandocumque iterum opus erat opibus ad thesaurum sibi notum revertebantur.

Whenever again there was need of resources, they returned to the treasure known to them.

Contigit autem ut rex thesaurum videre vellet, arcessito custode intrat turrim videtque magnam thesauri partem sublatam esse. Furore ergo repletus, dissumulans tamen egreditur venitque ad decrepitum quendam senem, consilium quaesiturus. Fuerat hic senex aliquando famosissimus latro quem conprehensum rex oculis privaverat eique de mensa sua cotidianos comparabat cibos.

It happened moreover that the king wished to see the treasure; having summoned the guard he entered the tower and saw that a great part of the treasure had been taken away. Filled therefore with fury, yet feigning otherwise, he went out and came to a certain decrepit old man to seek counsel. This old man had once been a most notorious robber, whom, when captured, the king had deprived of his eyes, and to whom he used to allot daily food from his own table.

Hic regi consilium saepe bonum et utile praebebat, utpote qui multa viderat et audierat suaque experientia didicerat multa. Narrat ei rex damnum suum quaeritque quomodo perdita recuperare possit. Cui senex tale dat consilium: "Si," inquit, "o rex, novisse cupis quis hoc an tuus custos an alius egerit, iube fasciculum herbae viridis in turrim inferri supponique ignem.

He often offered the king good and useful counsel, being one who had seen and heard much and had learned many things by his own experience. The king relates his loss to him and asks how he can recover what was lost. To whom the old man gives such counsel: "If," he says, "O king, you wish to know whether your custodian or another has done this, order that a bundle of green herb be carried into the tower and a fire placed beneath it."

Tu autem, clauso ostio, turrim iterum circumeas, et videas si per aliquam muri rimulam fumum egredi videris. Hoc facto, ad me redeas consilium accepturus quid post haec tibi agendum sit." Rex autem dictum senis cito impleri iubens, clausit ostium et coepit tacitus turris ambitum circumire. Ecce autem calore ignis viridisque materiae humore fumus permaxime excitatus totam usque ad tectum replevit turrim.

"But you, with the door closed, go once more around the tower, and see if through any crack of the wall you perceive smoke issuing. This done, return to me to receive counsel about what after these things must be done for you." The king, however, bidding that the old man's saying be quickly fulfilled, shut the door and began silently to go about the tower's circuit. But behold, the smoke, greatly roused by the heat of the fire and by the moisture of the green material, filled the whole tower even to the roof.

Qui cum aliud spiraculum non haberet, per locum foraminis illius, eo quod lapide tantum sine caemento obstructum erat, egreditur.

Who, since he had no other spiraculum (breathing‑hole), goes out through the place of that foramen (opening), because it was obstructed only by a lapis (stone) without caementum (mortar).

Quibus visis, rex properavit ad senem; ea quae viderat narravit. Hoc audito, senex: "Scias," ait, "rex, fures tibi tuos per locum ubi fumus egriditur abstulisse thesauros; quos nisi aliqua arte ceperis, quod superest asportabunt. Non enim cessabunt, quippe quibus adhuc prospere cessit res, donec totum thesaurum exhauserint.

Having seen these things, the king hastened to the old man; he related the things which he had seen. When this was heard, the old man said, "Know, king, that thieves have carried off your treasures through the place where the smoke issues; whom, unless you seize by some art or stratagem, they will carry away what remains. For they will not cease, since fortune has hitherto prospered them, until they have exhausted the whole treasure."

Meo igitur usus consilio damnum dissimula et preme silentio, ne, rumore hoc per aures populi discurrente, tuum furibus studium innotescat. Et tu interim cupam latam et profundam calenti imple bitumine, resina, pice et glutine, quam foramini introrsus opponas, ut dum fur more solito securus nullam deceptionem suspicans ad assuetum thesaurum recurrit, repente in cupam corruat captusque et colligatus glutine se tibi, velit nolit, cras manifestet." Admiratus rex astutum senis consilium cupam ilico ferventi impletam glutine opponit foramini serratoque ostio abscedit. Ecce autem fatalis illa dies, quae neminem bonum malumve praeterit, miserum patrem cum filio eadem nocte ad turrim adduxit, remotoque a foramini lapide, intrat pater nihil de praetensis laqueis suspicatus, dumque festinat ut heri et nudius tertius in pavimentum salire, incautus miser, ut erat vestitus calceatusque, in cupam mento tenus insilit, statimque vallatus glutine redditur immobilis, ita ut nec manum nec pedem movere posset, excepta lingua quae tantum ab hac iniuria libera remanserat.

Therefore, making use of my counsel, conceal the loss and press it down in silence, lest—this rumor running through the ears of the people—your zeal for thieves become known. And you meanwhile set opposite the aperture a broad and deep vat, filling it hot with bitumen, resin, pitch and glue, which you oppose to the hole inwardly, so that while the thief, as usual secure and suspecting no deception, returns to the accustomed treasure, he may suddenly fall into the vat and, seized and bound by the glue, reveal himself to you tomorrow, whether he will or not." Admiring the old man’s crafty plan, the king immediately sets the vat, filled with boiling glue, against the aperture and departs with the grated door. But behold that fatal day, which spares no one either good or ill, brought the wretched father with his son the same night to the tower, and with the stone removed from the aperture the father enters, suspecting nothing of the snares set before; and as he hurries, as he did yesterday and the day before, to leap upon the pavement, the poor unwary man, clothed and shod as he was, jumps into the vat up to his chin, and is at once enclosed and made immobile by the glue, so that he could move neither hand nor foot, save for his tongue, which alone remained free from this injury.

Ingemiscens igitur infelix filium advocat, narrat quibus laqueis teneatur adstrictus, orat ut sibi cito, antequam aliquis superveniat, caput amputet et abscedat, ne forte per caput cognitus aeternam suo generi maculam inferat et iacturam. At vero filius totis viribus patrem conatus extrahere, cum laborem suum frustrari videret, coepit anxiari et haesitare quid de duobus ageret; hinc etenim horrebat suas nece patris cruentare manus, hinc vero metuebat per faciem patris deprehendi. Cum ergo eum a nece retraheret amor, timor et necessitas urgeret, nesciens quid utilius ad tempus ageret, caput patris cultro abscisum fugiens asportavit.

Groaning, then, the unhappy man called his son, and told by what nooses he was bound and fettered; he begged that he quickly, before anyone should arrive, amputate his head and depart, lest perhaps, being recognized by the head, he bring an eternal stain and loss upon his line. But the son, having tried with all his strength to draw his father out, when he saw his labor frustrated, began to worry and hesitate what he should do between the two; on the one hand he shuddered to blood his hands with the death of his father, on the other he feared to be detected by his father’s face. Therefore, since love restrained him from the murder while fear and necessity pressed, not knowing what would be most useful for the moment, he severed his father’s head with a knife and, fleeing, carried it away.

Postridie autem rex prima luce de lectulo surgens intravit turrim cucurritque ad cupam invenitque murum perforatum et totam illam bituminis superficiem infectam sanguine, furem quoque suum, sed truncato capite deprehendit. Festinans ergo ad suum recurrit consiliarium, illum videlicet senem, annuntians captum quidem furem sed capite mutilatum. Quod hoc audisset senex, parumper subridens: "Miror," ait, "huius latronis astutiam.

On the next day, at first light, the king rising from his little bed entered the tower and ran to the vat, and found the wall pierced and that entire surface of bitumen stained with blood, and he also found his thief, but discovered with his head cut off. Hastening, therefore, he ran back to his counselor, that old man, announcing that the thief had indeed been captured but mutilated in the head. Which, when the old man had heard, smiling a little, he said, "I marvel at this robber's cunning."

Quia enim nobilis erat nec voluit se vel genus suum prodere, idcirco a socio sibi caput amputari iussit. Unde et difficile videtur mihi te posse aut thesaurum recuperare aut cognoscere furem." Tunc rex vehementer urgebat senem ut daret consilium, minime de thesauro perdito aiens se curare, si tantummodo furem quis fuerit agnovisset. Cui senex: "Fac illum," inquit, "abstractum de cupa, caudae equi fortissimi alligari trahique per plateas et vicos civitatum regni tui.

Because he was noble and did not wish to betray either himself or his lineage, therefore he ordered his companion's head to be cut off. Hence it also seems difficult to me that you can either recover the treasure or recognize the thief." Then the king pressed the old man vehemently to give advice, saying that he cared little for the lost treasure, if only he could have known who the thief was. To whom the old man: "Take him," he said, "away from the cupa (vat), bind him to the tail of the strongest horse and have him dragged through the streets and lanes of the towns of your kingdom.

Porro milites armati subsequantur, capientes si quos viderint viros vel mulieres ad aspectum cadaveris lacrimare tibique eos praesentent. Et si fuerint ibi socius aut uxor aut filii, nequaquam poterunt a lacrimis temperare."

Furthermore, armed soldiers shall follow behind, seizing any men or women whom they see weeping at the sight of the corpse and presenting them to you. And if there be a companion or a wife or sons there, they will in no wise be able to restrain themselves from tears.

Bonum rex ratus senis consilium iubet festinanter truncum equo fortissimo pedibus alligatum cum armatis militibus trahi per proximam civitatem. Qui dum miser trahitur, contigit eum ante fores domus suae devenire. Stabat autem ille filius eius major, qui et ei in furto fuerat socius, ante ipsas fores.

Deeming the old man’s counsel good, the king orders that the trunk, bound by the feet to a very strong horse, be hastily dragged with armed soldiers through the nearest city. While the wretch is being dragged, it happened that he came to the doors of his house. And his elder son, who too had been his accomplice in the theft, was standing before those very doors.

Qui cum videret patrem sic miserabiliter trahi, flere quidem non audens, sed nec valens lacrimas prohibere, occasione reperta, cultellum lignumque arripit, quasi aliquid incisurus, sinistraeque manus pollicem de industria sibi amputat. Tunc vero sub occasione pollicis vocem emittit luctuosam, erumpunt lacrimae, accurrit mater, fratres et sorores dilacerant manibus vestes oraque et capillos, in persona fili patris miseriam lamentantes. Affuerunt ilico milites qui eos caperent ducerentque ad regem.

When he saw his father being dragged so miserably, he, indeed not daring to weep but also not able to restrain his tears, seizing an opportunity snatched up a small knife and a piece of wood, as if about to cut something, and deliberately amputated the thumb of his left hand. Then, indeed, under the pretense of the thumb he uttered a doleful cry; tears burst forth, the mother runs up, brothers and sisters rend their garments with their hands and their faces and hair, lamenting the father's misery in the person of the son. Soldiers immediately came who seized them and conducted them to the king.

At vero rex maximo adfectus gaudio, sperans se perdita recuperare posse, pollicebatur illis vitam et gratiam suam, si scelus confiterentur redderentque thesauros suos. Iuvenis autem ille ex metu et necessitate audaciam sumens: "Non ideo," ait, "o serenissime rex, ego aut mei, quia hic miser truncus ad nos aliquid pertineat, lacrimas effundimus, sed quia hic dies nefastus mihi sinistrae manus pollicem abstulit. Ob hoc ergo lacrimae effusae, exaratae facies, capilli evulsi, quia ego adhuc iuvenis hodie uno et potiore membro debilitatus sum." Rex vero pollicem adhuc fluentem sanguine certissimum veritatis argumentum fore ratus, motus misericordia propter fortunam iuvenis: "Non est," ait, "mirum si dolet cui male contigit.

But the king, greatly affected with joy, hoping he could recover the lost, promised them life and his favor if they would confess the crime and restore their treasures. The young man, however, taking boldness from fear and necessity, said: "Not for that, O most serene king, do I or mine shed these tears because this wretched trunk pertains to us, but because on this unlucky day my left hand has had its thumb cut off. For this reason the tears have been poured forth, the faces are scratched, the hair torn out—because I, still a youth, am today weakened in one and the more important limb." The king, judging the thumb still flowing with blood to be the surest proof of truth, moved with pity on account of the youth’s fortune, said: "It is not strange if one grieves to whom misfortune has happened.

Vade in pace et hunc diem male ominatum de cetero praecaveto." Sic ergo ille astutia sua se suosque liberans domum rediit, et rex similitudine delusus veritatis redit ad senem consilium accepturus.

"Go in peace and henceforth beware this ill-omened day." Thus he, by his astuteness freeing himself and his people, returned home, and the king, deceived by the semblance of truth, went back to the old man to receive counsel.

Senex vero affirmabat regem vix posse invenire quod quaereret, suadebat autem ut cadaver iterum per eandem traheretur civitatem. Quod et factum est. Cumque ut prius ventum esset ad domum eius, filius, internum animi dolorem non ferens, filium parvulum in puteum qui pro foribus erat clam proiecit, tuncque vultum unguibus carpens voce lacrimosa populum quasi ad liberandum filium convocat.

The old man, however, declared that the king could scarcely find what he sought, and he advised that the corpse be dragged once more through the same city. And this was done. And when they had come to his house as before, the son, not bearing the inward grief of his mind, secretly cast his little son into the well that lay before the doorway, and then, tearing at his face with his nails and with a tearful voice, summoned the people as if to free his son.

Accurit iterum mater cum filiis, cingunt puteum, lacrimantur, aliique funibus ad extrahendum puerulum in puteum se demittunt et alii eos iterum sursum trahunt. Quid plura? Capitur iterum ille solus duciturque ad regem et interim cadaver per alias civitates frustra tractum ad regem vix ossibus et nervis cohaerens reducitur.

The mother runs back again with her sons, they gird the well, they weep; some let themselves down by ropes into the well to draw up the little boy, and others again haul them upward. What more? That same one is seized again and is led to the king, and meanwhile the corpse, dragged in vain through other cities to the king, is brought back scarcely cohering by bones and sinews.

Porro rex videns hunc iterum captum quem antea dimiserat et nimium admiratus: "Quid prosunt," ait, "tibi callidae deceptiones? Dii summi te produnt, furta tua et scelera te accusant. Redde ergo thesaurum et iuro tibi per meam magnique Iovis potentiam nec te vita nec aliquo me privaturum membro, sed sanum et integrum liberumque dimissurum." Tunc latro calliditate sua utens, producta primo suspiria ab imo pectoris trahit, dehinc talem emittit vocem: "O me, omnium infelicissimum hominum, quem tanto dii odio persequuntur, ut nec solum mihi diem sine doloribus et cruciatibus corporis et animi transire permittant!

Moreover the king, seeing this man again captured whom he had earlier released and altogether amazed, said: "What avail to you are cunning deceptions? The highest gods betray you, your thefts and crimes accuse you. Give back the treasure therefore, and I swear to you by my self and by the great power of Jupiter that I will deprive you of neither life nor any limb, but will set you free sound and intact and at liberty." Then the robber, using his craftiness, first drawing forth sighs from the bottom of his breast, next utters this voice: "O me, most unlucky of all men, whom the gods pursue with so great hatred, that they allow not even a day to pass for me without pains and tortures of body and mind!"

Heri mihi dies infelix pollicem abstulit; hic hodie infelicior filium unicum demersit in puteum, et ecce de thesauro regis requiror." Tunc etiam lacrimis falsis, immo verissimis perfusus, "Magnum," ait, "o rex, beneficium solaciumque praestiteris misero, si me ab hac vita quae omni tormento, omni morte mihi gravior videtur, subtraxeris." Rex autem cum iuvenem crebris perfundi lacrimis mortemque loco beneficii quaerere videret audiretque eum vere ipso die filium perdidisse hesternoque die pollicem, miseratus hominem abire sivit, centum ei argenti marcas pro solacio tribuens. Sic iterum rex deceptus consiliarium suum adiit, aiens se frustra operam insumpsisse.

"Yesterday an unlucky day took from me my thumb; this one today, more unlucky, has drowned my only son in the well, and behold I am sought concerning the king's treasure." Then, bathed in tears that were false, nay most true, he said, "Great, O king, a kindness and consolation you will have shown the wretch, if you withdraw me from this life which seems to me more grievous than any torment, any death." But when the king saw the youth often bathed in tears and seeking death in place of a favour, and when he heard him truly say that he had lost his son on the very day and his thumb on the yesterday, pitying the man he allowed him to go away, granting him a hundred marks of silver for consolation. Thus again deceived, the king went to his adviser, saying that he had labored in vain.

Sed senex ad regem: "Unum," ait, "adhuc superest agendum, quo nisi furem superstitem ceperis, iam frustra ad alia te convertes: elige tibi milites fortissimos quadraginta, quorum viginti nigris armis nigrisque equis muniantur aliique viginti albis equis armisque eiusdem coloris sint armati. Hisque cadaver ligno pedibus suspensum nocte ac die custodiendum committas, viginti albis hinc, inde viginti nigris circa ipsum ordinatis. Hi profecto si vigilanter custodierint, tuum capient furem quia non patietur ipse diutius pendere socium, etiam si sciat se mortem protinus subiturum." Rex autem, prout dixerat senex, milites nigris albisque munitos armis circa suspensum cadaver ordinavit.

But the old man to the king: "One thing," he said, "still remains to be done, without which, unless you have seized the thief alive, you will now turn to other matters in vain: choose for yourself 40 very brave soldiers, of whom 20 be armed in black and mounted on black horses, and the other 20 be armed and mounted in white of the same colour. Commit the corpse, suspended by the feet to a piece of wood, to be guarded night and day by these, 20 in white on this side, 20 in black on that side arranged around it. For if these keep watch vigilantly, they will certainly seize your thief, because his companion will not suffer him to hang longer, even if he knows that he will at once meet death." The king, however, as the old man had said, arrayed soldiers armed in black and white about the suspended corpse.

At vero fur ille, suum patrisque oppobrium ferre non valens malensque semel mori quam diu infeliciter vivere, consilium cepit quo aut patrem turpi ludibrio subtraheret aut ipse cum eo pariter moreretur. Subtili ergo ingenio arma partita fabricat, tota scilicet ab una parte alba et nigra ab altera. Quibus armatus equum hinc albo, inde nigro panno coopertum ascendit, sicque lucente luna per medios transit milites, ut nigra pars armorum eius viginti albos deluderet et alba pars deciperet nigros, putarentque nigri unum esse ex albis et albi unum ex nigris esse.

But the thief, not being able to bear the opprobrium of himself and his father and preferring to die once rather than live long in misery, took a plan by which he would either rescue his father from shameful mockery or would himself die together with him. Therefore, with subtle ingenuity he fashioned divided arms, wholly white on one side and black on the other. Armed with these he mounted a horse covered on this side with white cloth and on that side with black, and thus, with the moon shining, passed through the midst of the soldiers, so that the black half of his arms deceived twenty white men and the white half deceived twenty black ones, and the black men thought one of the whites to be one of them, and the whites one of the blacks.

Sic ergo pertransiens venit ad patrem depositumque a ligno asportavit. Facto autem mane, milites videntes furem furtim sublatum sibi, confusi redierunt ad regem, narrantes quomodo se miles albis nigrisque armis partitis decepisset. Desperans ergo iam rex posse recuperari perdita, et furem et thesaurum cessavit quaerere.

Thus, passing through, he came to his father and carried him off from the wood to which he had been fastened. When morning came, the soldiers, seeing that the thief had been stealthily taken from them, returned to the king confounded, recounting how a man, with his arms divided white and black, had deceived them. Therefore the king, now despairing that the losses could be recovered, ceased to seek either the thief or the treasure.