Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/430

418 and he produces it partly to shew that Gerbert was not always successful in those attempts which he so frequently practised to discover treasures hid in the earth, by the application of romantic arts. I will translate Malmesbury's narration of this fable, as it varies in some of the circumstances, and has some heightening of the fiction.

At Rome there was a brazen statue, extending the fore-fingers of the right hand; and on its forehead was written Strike here. Being suspected to conceal a treasure, it had received many bruises from the credulous and ignorant in their endeavours to open it. At length Gerbert unriddled the mystery. At noon-day, observing the reflection of the fore-finger on the ground, he marked the spot. At night he came to the place, with a page carrying a lamp. There, by a magical operation, he opened a wide passage in the earth; through which they both descended, and came to a vast palace. The walls, the beams, and the whole structure, were of gold; they saw golden images of knights playing at chess, with a king and queen of gold at a banquet, with numerous attendants in gold, and cups of immense size and value. In a recess was a carbuncle, whose lustre illuminated the whole palace; opposite to which stood a figure with a bended bow. As they