"This hand was sent from God, that on the wall
Wrote mene, techel, phares, trust ye me.
Thy reign is done, thou hast no weight at all;
Thy realm is now divided, and shall be
Given to the Medes and Persians," ended he.
And it befell the king was slain that night,
And great Darius took the sovereignty,
Though it was his neither by law nor right.
Lordings, here by example ye perceive
How in a lordship is no steadiness;
For Fortune, when she once decides to leave,
Takes from a man wealth, kingdom, and success,
And friends as well, the greater with the less;
For all the friends that Fortune gathers to one,
Turn foes beneath disaster, I should guess;
This proverb is a common and a true one.
~ from The Monk's Tale;
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
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