Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/222

210 he might once more be made rich. "I see," answered the serpent, "I see now that you are a fool; and will always be a fool. For how can I forget that blow of the hammer which you designed me? or lose the apprehensions which your ingratitude has awakened? There can be no real peace between us." The knight, full of sorrow, replied thus: "I promise the most unshaken fidelity, and will never meditate the slightest injury, provided you relieve my necessities this once." "My friend," said the serpent, "it is the nature of my species to be subtle and venomous. Let what I have said suffice. The blow offered at my head is fresh upon my recollection; get you gone before you receive an injury." The knight departed in great affliction, saying to his wife, "Fool that I was, to take thy counsel!" But ever afterwards they lived in the greatest indigence. (39)

My beloved, the king is God; the knight is Adam, who by following his wife's advice