Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/21

Rh entered, and finding a stranger in the room, was stung with jealousy, and unsheathed his sword to kill him, whilst the tailor defended himself with his newly acquired dagger. The king approached him a second time with his drawn sword, and the tailor giving him a stab the king fell wounded to the ground. Then the queen and attendant began to scream and call for help; the pages and others in the palace, attracted by the cries, hastened into the chamber, and seeing the king lying on the floor covered with blood they seized the tailor and held him until the king ordered him to be flogged.

The poor tailor was stripped to the waist, and he had already received many stripes when the queen suddenly cried out, in great agitation, "Stop! stop! this man has the very same mark on his back that my son had." The king, much surprised, sent messengers at once to make inquiries in the village where the man lived and find out who was his father, and everything about him.

For two days nothing could be discovered, but on the third day the messengers arrived at the palace accompanied by the miller, who being set before the king related the whole story how he and his wife had found the man that was now a prisoner, when a child, in a chest which had drifted down the river against the wheel of their mill. "And to prove to your majesty the truth of what I say, here is the