Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/69

Rh on this footing, (though I certainly include the latter—that is, the legends of the saints, in the idea of foreign embellishment!) that I would place the hypothesis I have advanced; and here Mr. Walker's opinion, that Ireland is indebted to Italy for some of her fictions, derived originally from the East, will find confirmation. They might, at the same time, have been received, by way of, and as history testifies the fact of a colony of monks from thence, taking root in Ireland, the notion is more than probable. But in either case, the original is the same. As further corroborative I may add, that in the ninth century, Crete and Sicily were invaded and conquered by the Arabs; who likewise entered Italy, and almost approached Rome.

I need scarcely allude to the crusades as sources of romantic fabling. They are undisputed parts of the system; and probably, at