Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/137

Rh cut off his head, and received the promised recompense. (24)

My beloved, the emperor is our Lord Jesus Christ; the tournament is the conquest between God and the devils; the shields are some of the attributes of the Almighty, and the field is human nature. The shield bearing three golden apples, is the Trinity in Unity, against which the knight—that is, any man—strikes, when he commits a mortal sin. The reward of the conqueror is eternal life.

the reign of a certain king, there lived a poor man who was accustomed to go every