Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/111

Rh approaches, and is about to kill him. At this moment a gnat settles on the shepherd's face, stings, and awakens him. He instinctively applies his hand to the wounded part, and crushes the gnat. He soon perceives that he had destroyed his benefactor, and, as the only recompence in his power, erects a tomb to his memory."

CHAP. XLVI.

"Some time ago in Rome there dwelt a noble emperor, of great livelihood, named Alexander, which above all vertues loved the vertue of bounty; wherefore he ordained a law for great charity, that no man under pain of death should turn a plaice in his dish at his meat, but only eat the whiteside, and not the black; and if any man would attempt to do the contrary, he should suffer death without any pardon: but yet ere he dyed, he should ask three petitions of the emperor what him list (except his life) which should be granted to him.

"It befel after, upon a day, that there became an earl and his son, of a strange country, to speak with the emperor; and when the earl was set at meat, he was served with a plaice, and he which was an hungry and had an appetite to his meat, after he had