Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/413



power of the superior of a convent to create knights, is a well-known fact in chivalry.

Upon a passage in the Romance of "Sir Eglamour of Artoys," Mr. Ellis has remarked that "The author in this place certainly appears to quote the 'Gesta Romanorum' for this singularly absurd story; but I have not been able to discover it in that collection."—Early Eng. Rom. Vol. III. p. 274. The story which Mr. Ellis could not find, is unquestionably the present. In the romance, a child and its mother is deposited in a vessel, and left to float upon the waves. Here some variation occurs, but the infant, as in the gest, is conveyed to a place of safety, and received under the protection of a king, who is hunting; he educates and finally confers knighthood upon him. The youth