Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/391

Rh on condition that should it be destroyed by sin, he also should lose eternal life. The priest is the church, where health and safety may be found. The old man is a wise confessor, and Alexander is the world.

Salus was emperor, there lived a very beautiful woman whose name was Florentina. She was so remarkably handsome, that three kings sought her love, by one of whom she was abused. This occasioned a war between them, and great numbers of men fell on both sides. But the nobles, unwilling to see so much waste of blood, interfered, and addressing the emperor, bade him observe, that unless a stop was put to the virulent animosity which