The One-Eyed Doe

A DOE, blind in one eye, used to graze as near as she could to the edge of a cliff, so that she might keep her blind eye to the water, while with the other she kept watch against the approach of hunters or hounds on the shore.

Some boatmen sailing by saw her standing thus on the edge of a cliff, and finding that she did not perceive their approach, they came very close and taking aim, shot her.

Finding herself wounded, she said, "O unhappy creature that I am, to take such care as I did against the dangers of the land, and then, after all, to find this seashore, to which I had come for safety, so much more perilous!"