Page:The booke of thenseygnementes and techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his doughters - 1902.pdf/134



SHALLE telle and reherce vnto yow an ensample vpon the fayt of charyte. It is of the doughter of kynge Pharaon, the whiche dyd nourysshe Moyses, as I shalle telle yow herafter. The sones of Israel, whiche in egipt were in seruage, wexed and encreaced daye by daye in grete nombre. But Pharao, whiche was kynge of the land, and that sawe the people of the Iewys soo encreaced, he was displeased of it, and commaunded and charged that alle theyr men children were putte to dethe and reserue the femallys. And whanne the moder of Moyses sawe that her sone shold be putte to deth, she tooke hym and his cradell with her, and went vnto the Ryuer, whiche was nyghe, and on the Ryuer in his cradel she lete hym goo where hit pleased god, as she that myght not haue suffred ne see hym putte to dethe. And as the playsyre and wylle of god was, it befelle so that the cradell and the child within came to lond before the chambre of the doughter of kynge Pharao, where as the seuen whiche had ben excepted were in. The lady was bynethe vpon the grene grasse, desportynge and playenge with her damoysellys. And as she tourned and casted her syghte toward the Ryuer, she sawe the cradell almost at the land. She wente incontynent and her damoysels with her, to see what was in hit. They found the child theryn, whiche merueyllously was fayre. The lady beheld hym wel, & took of hym grete pyte, & made him to be nourysshed in her wardrobbe more derely. And as in lape she called hym her sone, of the whiche cam afterward so moche good, for god chose and stablysshed hym mayster and gouernour ouer alle his people, and also dyd shewe to hym many of his secretes, and toke hym the rodde wherwith he departed the see and made drye waye to passe it, and made also with that same rodde to yssue and come oute of the stone lyuynge and swete water. And