Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/217

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of the Red King's success in this crooked kind of missionary enterprise reached the ears of a Jew father—where we are not told—whose only and well-beloved son was lost to him by conversion to the Christian faith. The young man had been favoured with a vision of the protomartyr Stephen, who had bidden him ask for baptism and take his own name at the font. He went to a priest, told his tale, and was admitted to baptism by the name which was appointed to him. His father, mourning for his loss, went to King William and made his complaint; praying that at his command his son might be restored to his old faith. Rufus held his peace; the argument which alone persuaded him to meddle in such matters had not yet been urged. A promise of sixty marks of silver, payable on the second conversion of the youth, brought the King to another mind, and Stephen was called into the royal presence. A dialogue took place

in Deum Judæi suo tempore dedere indicium; semel apud Rothomagum, ut quosdam ab errore suo refugas ad Judaismum revocarent, muneribus inflectere conati."]
 * [Footnote: same story as that which William of Malmesbury tells, iv. 317; "Insolentiæ