Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/306

294 only daughter." Hearing his exclamations, the attendants ran in, and with them the prince Athanagoras. They discovered the enraptured king weeping upon his daughter's neck. "See, see," said he, "this is she whom I lamented. Half of my soul! now will I live." Participating in their master's happiness they all wept.

Apollonius now divested himself of his mourning dress, and attired himself in regal habiliments. "Oh, my lord," said his followers, "how much your daughter resembles you. Were there no other guide, that would indicate her birth ." The delighted girl overwhelmed her recovered parent with kisses. "Blessed be God," cried she, "who has been so gracious to me, and given me to see, and live, and die with you." Then entering into a more detailed account of her adventures, she related what she endured from the wretched Leno, and how the Almighty had protected her.