Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/217

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the Great was lord of the whole world. He once collected a large army, and besieged a certain city, around which many knights and others were killed without any visible wound. Much surprised at this, he called together his philosophers, and said, "My masters, how is this? My soldiers die, and there is no apparent wound!" "No wonder," replied they; "under the walls of the city is a basilisk, (36) whose look infects your soldiers, and they die of the pestilence it creates." "And what remedy is there for this?" said the king.

"Place a glass in an elevated situation between the army and the wall under which the basilisk cowers; and no sooner shall he