Page:History of the seven wise masters, of Rome (1).pdf/6

 caused many to be cut off, yet finding the body of the old tree impaired the nourishment of the young scion, he caused it to be hewn down, which done, the young scion withered. Even so, said she is your case; you are the tree, and your son the scion, that is inciting your subjects to rise against your life, that he may reign. That shall not be, said the Emperor, for to-morrow he shall surely die.

The day appointed being come, the Prince was delivered unto the executioner: Which Pantillius the first master hearing, he hasted to the palace, and told the Emperor the following example.

There once lived a knight in this city who had a son whom leaving to the care of some nurses, he often went abroad delighting in hawking and hunting; among his dogs he had a greyhound. One day going to a tournament, he left his hound and falcon at home, at which time, the cradle, in which the son was, was standing in the hall the nurses having left it, and the grey-hound sleeping by it, the falcon espied a serpent coming out of a hole in the wall, going towards the child, upon which, shaking and fluttering his bells, he awaked the grey-hound, who killed the serpent and saved the child, yet, in the bustle, the cradle was overturned, and the child was whelmed under it, the grey-hound, lying down by it and licking its hounds; which the servant