Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/429

Rh has a rich gem inclosed within its head. Milton gives his serpent eyes of carbuncle.—Paradise Lost, ix. 500."—.

"Spencer, in the ',' seems to have distantly remembered this fable, where a fiend expecting Sir Guyon, will be tempted to snatch some of the treasures of the subterraneous of, which are displayed in his view, is prepared to fasten upon him.

"This story was originally invented of Pope Gerbert, or Sylvester the Second, who died in the year 1003. He was eminently learned in the mathematical sciences, and on that account was styled a magician. William of Malmesbury is, I believe, the first writer now extant by whom it is recorded;