Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/310

298 were much struck with the beauty and modesty of the mother, but they thought her appearance too mortified. Apollonius, however, knew her not; and bending with his son and daughter before the shrine, as the angel had ordained, he commenced his history. "I was born," said he, "a king. I am of Tyre, and my name is Apollonius. I solved the riddle of the impious Antiochus, who sought to slay me as the detector of his wickedness. I fled, and by the kindness of king Altistrates, was espoused to his daughter. On the death of Antiochus, I hastened with my wife to ascend his throne; but she died on the passage. I deposited her in a chest, with twenty gold sestertia, and committed her to the waves. I placed my daughter under the care of those whose subsequent conduct was base and villainous; and I departed to the higher parts of Egypt. After fourteen years I returned to see my daughter. They