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 men. For we landed in a country where the people loved and worshiped God. But as for my poor men, they were all but dead, because of the fearful air they had breathed; and I returned to my own country with but two who had escaped these perils. Yet even I was not free from the taint of all we had gone through, for the uncleanly matter that was still on my face so disguised me, and so altered the very shape of my features, that even my most intimate friends did not know me. When I had removed it I was again recognized, and the king was most anxious to hear all that had befallen me. But my enemies still cherished unkindly feelings against me, and even pretended that the king would die suddenly if I told him what had happened to me. The king, too, was inclined to believe them because of a dream he had had, in which it had been falsely told him that such an event would come to pass. And so, for this reason, men were hired by the king to kill me in the night. Now, I was not supposed to know of this wicked intent; nevertheless, I got wind of it, and thus, unknown to all, I slept not in my bed that night, but placed a big log of wood therein. So the men who had come to kill me plunged their swords into a mass of timber. On the morrow I went to the king as he sat at meat, and said: 'I forgive thy cruelty and pardon thy sin, in that thou hast rewarded with punishment and not with thanks him who brought thee good tidings of his journey. For thy sake I willingly endured all these trials, and wore myself out in all these perils. I hoped thou