'given hostage to fortune'
What does it mean to 'give hostage to fortune'? The phrase was used in a recent e-mail responding to my sentence, 'Readers may find problems with this topic'. According to the Cambridge Dictionary online the definition is, 'an action or statement that is risky because it could cause you trouble later'. I suppose the meaning can also explain the original context of Francis Bacon's 'Of Marriage and Single Life' when he wrote, 'He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief'; but is that what Bacon intended it to mean? I've also read that when you love someone you give hostage to fortune. Does it mean that when one loves he or she is willing to take risks for loved ones?
And, I know somebody told Ralegh to face east, Jerusalem, as he waited to be executed, but which text showed his response, 'What matter how the head lie, so the heart be right?'