Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/212

Rh "Why, that is like this one!" Ellie interrupted.

Bertrand went on quietly. "And in it lived a powerful noble named Noel the Strong. He was fierce and pitiless, and the poor hated him. One day he caught a wretched peasant stealing a hare out of a trap in the forest. The man begged to be let off, and said he had a sick wife and a number of little ones who were starving: that that was why he had taken the hare. Noel cared nothing about the man's starving children. He ordered his huntsmen to beat the poor peasant so terribly that he never was able to walk again. And the legend is, that as Noel rode away, leaving the man bleeding on the ground, the man raised himself on his arm and solemnly cursed the wicked noble. 'As thou hast made me a cripple,' he said, (for he knew he should never be able to stand or walk again) 'so shall the son God will send thee be one, and thy son's son, and in all