Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/13

Rh favour and attentions were received with indifference and sometimes with disdain, and, unwilling to brook the affront, she began to intrigue against her with the purpose of getting the king to dismiss her.

On one occasion the queen went to the king and said: "My page has been conceited enough to say, 'I am able to gather in all the wheat from his majesty's cornfields in one night.'"

The king summoned Antonia before him, and said: "Is it true, master page, that you can perform this wonderful feat of gathering all the wheat crop in my fields in one night?"

"I never said anything of the kind, sire; but I am willing to try what I can do."

That same night Antonia repaired to the cornfields, and, when she surveyed the work before her, her heart sank within her; but presently, recollecting her godfather's injunction, she lifted her hands to heaven and cried: "Come, my good godfather, and help me!"

That very instant the friar appeared to her, and said: "Do not be troubled, child, retire to your bed and sleep free of anxiety, for in the morning you will find the work done." And so it actually came to pass.

The king was delighted to find that all his wheat had been garnered with so little trouble; but the queen, who was every day more and more in love with her page, felt annoyed, and said to Antonia: "If you