Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/426

414  of it, or thou diest this moment.' The surgeon, intimidated by these threats, threw himself at the king's feet, and said, 'Sir, if your majesty will grant me your pardon, I will confess the truth.' 'I do pardon thee, (replied the king,) provided thou hidest nothing from me.' Then the surgeon told him all that had passed between the great lord and himself, and confessed that the king owed his life to the words that were engraven on the bason.

"The king gave orders instantly to his guards to go and seize the great lord; and then, turning towards his beys, said to them, 'Are you still of opinion that you had reason to laugh at the dervise? Let him be found and brought to me. An advice that saves the life of kings, whatever it costs, cannot be bought too dear.

"The learned reader must immediately recollect a similar story of one Androclus, who, being exposed to fight with wild beasts in the Roman amphitheatre, is recognised, and unattacked by a savage lion, whom he had formerly healed exactly in the same manner. But I believe the whole is nothing more than an oriental apologue on gratitude, written much earlier;