Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/244

70 port. Alexius, informed of this circumstance, said within himself, "I will hasten to my father's house; no one will know me, and it is better that I prove burthensome to him, than to another." As he proceeded, he met his father coming from the palace, surrounded by a large concourse of dependents, and immediately he shouted after him—"Servant of God, command a poor and desolate stranger to be conveyed into your house, and fed with the crumbs which fall from the table: so shall the Lord of the wanderer, recompense thee an hundred-fold." The father, out of love to him whom he knew not, gave him into the charge of his followers, and appropriated to him a room in his house. He supplied him with meat from his own table, and appointed one who was accustomed to attend upon himself, to serve him. But Alexius discontinued not the fervency of his devotion, and macerated his body, with fasts and other austerities. And though the pampered servants derided him; and frequently emptied their household utensils on his head, his patience was always invincible. In this