Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/63

Rh upon the door of his cell, related to him all that had happened, beseeching him to point out how she might be healed. "Go," said the hermit, "to a mountain which I will shew you: in that place, you will discover a certain stone, and a peculiar kind of rod. Take this rod, and strike the stone pretty smartly, until a moisture exudes from it. Smear the affected parts with this liquid, and she will be presently restored to her original beauty." The secretary strictly followed the hermit's injunctions, and the lady became as she was before.

My beloved, the king is Christ; the daughter is the soul, originally brighter than the sun. The fountain is the world, which infects it with sin. The recluse is the Church; the rod, penitence; and the moisture, the tears of a contrite heart.