Baldwin, count of Edesse, being in great want of money, had recourse to a stratagem as new as the success of it appeared to him certain. He went to his father-in-law, Gabriel, a very rich man, and told him, that, being greatly pressed for money by his troops, to whom he owed thirty thousand michelets,[14] and not being any way able to raise so large a sum, he had been obliged to pledge his beard for the payment of it. The astonishment of the father-in-law was so great at what he heard, that, doubting if he had well understood the count, he made him repeat the terms of this strange agreement several times; but being at length too well convinced of his son-in-law’s inability to raise the cash, the credulous Gabriel bewailed his misfortune, saying: “How is it possible for a man to find in his heart to pledge a thing that should be so carefully preserved, a thing that is the proof of virility, wherein consists the principal authority of man, and is the ornament of his face. How could you possibly consider as a thing of little value, continued this wise old man, what cannot be taken from a man without loading him with shame.”[15] The count replied, to these just reproaches, that having nothing in the world that he valued so much, he had thought it his duty to pledge it to satisfy his creditors, and that he was determined to fulfill his promise, if he could not immediately find the money he so much wanted. The father-in-law, alarmed for the beard of Baldwin, instantly gave him the thirty thousand michelets, recommending him at the same time never more to pledge a property, on which the honour of a brave knight depended. Footnote 14: A Greek money of Michael Paleologus, emperor of the East. Footnote 15: ——_Quærit iterum: Quare rem tantâ diligentiâ conservandam, argumentum viri, vultûs gloriam, hominis præcipuam autoritatem, ita obligasset, tanquam rem mediocrem & ab homine sine confusione separabilem?_ Historia Belli sacri, lib, ii. cap. 2. A celebrated painter in Germany, called John Mayo, had such a large beard that he was nicknamed _John the Bearded_: it was so long, that he wore it fastened to his girdle; and though he was a very tall man, it would hang upon the ground when he stood upright. He took the greatest care of this extraordinary beard; sometimes he would untie it before the emperor Charles V. who took great pleasure to see the wind make it fly against the faces of the lords of his court.