Page:History of the seven wise masters of Rome.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 Pantillus 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 grey-hound. 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, and the nurſes leaving it. 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 greyhound, 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 wounds; which the ſervants