Page:History of the seven wise masters, of Rome (1).pdf/9



The Empress being exceeding outrageous, the Emperor could find nothing that would divert her fury, but promised her his death once more. There lived says she, a Knight at Rome who spent great riches and was reduced to poverty, so that he was about to sell his inheritance; but his son and his two daughters urged the contrary; whereupon he resolved with his son to break into the king's treasury; he did so, and took thence as much gold as both could carry. They attempted it again a second time, and the father going first, was caught in a trap; whereupon he told his son to strike off his head, lest on being discovered, his family should die. The son accordingly complied and bore away the head: but the next morning, the body being found, was, bу the Emperor's orders, dragged about the city, with command, that wherever they heard any weeping, as the body passed by, to enter that house, and convey those therein, to the gallows, for of that house was he lord; when the body came near the knight's house, the daughter shrieked, when, to prevent the discovery, the son wounded