Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/119

Rh slept, and within a little while after the fire ceased, and the whale came and devoured the virgin. And when she awaked and found herself swallowed up in the whale's belly, she smote fire, and with a knife wounded the whale in many places, and when the whale felt himself wounded, according to his nature he began to swim to land.

"There was dwelling at that time in a country near by, a noble earl named Pirris, who for his recreation walking on the sea shore, saw the whale coming towards the land, wherefore he turned home again, and gathered a great many of men and women, and came thither again, and fought with the whale, and wounded him very sore, and as they smote, the maiden that was in his belly cryed with an high voice, and said, gentle friends, have mercy and compassion on me, for I am a king's daughter, and a true virgin from the hour of my birth unto this day. When the earl heard this, he wondered greatly, and opened the side of the whale, and found the young lady and took her out: and when she was thus delivered, she told him forthwith whose daughter she was, and how she had lost all her goods in the sea, and how she should have been married unto the emperor's son. And when the earl heard this,