The Young Lady's Counsellor by Daniel Wise

THE MISTAKE OF A LIFETIME. Jl
infinite consequences ; that it is the part of wisdom
to look well at those truths which the heart despises
reme'^bering that
" The poor herb, when all that pomp could bring
Were vain to charm, admits to Oberon's ring ;"
and that a little scorn at little things may blast your
brightest hopes, and tumble your most magnificent
expectations to the dust.
It was thus that an ancient
prince of Sardinia lost his own liberty and his
friend's life. He had fallen, by the chance of war,
into the prison of Bologna. Asinelli, his friend,
contrived a plan for his escape. He had him enclosed
in an empty tun which had contained wine.
Trusty friends were waiting, with swift horses, outside
the city. The tun was being borne along the
passages of the prison. It reached the gates unsuspected,
when a soldier observed a lock of hair protruding
from the barrel ; it was opened, and the
unhappy prince remanded to his dungeon. AsinelU
was banished, and another friend was put
to death.
Thus the trifling neglect to conceal a lock of hair
cost years of sorrow to many hearts. Perhaps the