show your power. Is it possible that such ingratitude exists among men? And is<hr>
it possible that I have made such a poor choice? No, Theodat, I am not like you, I do not<hr>
want to condemn you without hearing you. There must surely be a reason for you to<hr>
hate me this way. What have I done against you when you were my subject? What have I done against you<hr>
since I made you king? I remember well that when you were under my obedience<hr>
and I had the right to punish or reward you, a large number of Tuscans came to me<hr>
to complain about the violence your greed forced them to commit. I remember<hr>
well that, unsatisfied with seeing this greed in you, a passion unworthy of Theodoric's nephew,<hr>
I did everything to make you understand that this feeling was despicable and unjust. It is true<hr>
that I forced you to give back what was not yours, but it is also true that I did nothing<hr>
other than what reason and equity demanded that I do. I remember telling you at the time<hr>
that greed was the infallible sign of a low spirit, that the greedy were almost always<hr>
cowards, that those who are passionately attached to amassing treasures hardly cared<hr>
to gain glory, and finally, that greed was almost always the accomplice of ingratitude.<hr>
      There you go, Theodat, this is what I have done for you: I tried to correct a bad instinct<hr>
with which you were born. But do you know what was my intention back then? I was already thinking of putting<hr>
the crown on your head, I was thinking of ensuring that my subjects have nothing to blame<hr>
you when you would be their king. I was thinking of preventing them from thinking that you were their tyrant rather than<hr>
their sovereign, and of ensuring that they would not fear that the one who had already stolen their<hr>
property when he was their fellow citizen would not completely ruin them when he would be their master. This,<hr>
Theodat, is the real reason behind the hardness of this reproach that has aroused in you the hatred you harbor towards<hr>
me. However, I am amazed that, having spent the greatest part of your life studying the<hr>
philosophy of Plato, you do not accept being corrected. Those who learn wisdom with so much care should practice it, and I can't help find it<hr>
strange that you remember so well the sermons I gave you while you do not remember<hr>
the kindness I showed you. When I decided to crown you, it was the result<hr>
of careful consideration. I took into account what you were and tried to anticipate what you would someday<hr>
be. I saw in you two tendencies that I did not like. The first was this<hr>
pretense you always had for the affairs of war, and the second was this greedy desire<hr>
to acquire new wealth every day. However, I thought the first<hr>
would oblige you to be prudent, and for the second, I thought that a man who used to satisfy<hr>
his greed by appropriating three or four feet of land from his neighbors would cure himself of this<hr>
frightful passion when I had given him a kingdom. I sincerely believe that this greed<hr>
could at least be transformed into a good ambition. Henceforth, you would have as much<hr>
concern to deserve the goods I gave you as you always had to acquire<hr>
new wealth. And finally, I believed that from a greedy and lazy subject, I<hr>
would make you a cautious and grateful king. But I should also have thought that one who never<hr>
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                                                     71<hr>\n