Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/48

 God helped me to understand this. I stood at the seashore and facing the Hand I raised my own hand with the index and middle fingers held straight up, and the others clenched and low, I made the Hand plunge into the sea in shame, so that it will never reappear. For if the Hand intended to symbolize that it would take five like-minded men to master the world, I showed that this was a delusion and that not five, but just two men with the same purpose would have been sufficient to accomplish this."

The Queen greatly admired these words and she realized that the young men were endowed with noble and high intelligence. They took their leave from the palace of the queen and accompanied by the principals of the court, they returned to their palace. Afterwards the Queen's counselors met together with her and discussed the return of the Mirror to Beramo for the benefits received, and the eldest of them said, "There is no doubt, that as far as we have already seen, the young men have liberated the country from a serious misfortune; but who can be certain, that sooner or later the Hand will not return, and we will find ourselves again in the previous situation? So, it seems to me that we must seriously consider this issue before the Mirror is returned."

The Queen added to these words, "We cannot, nor must we fail to fulfill our promise made to Beramo, but to be sure that the Hand will no longer harass our country, I have an excellent remedy, and it is this: