oh master! whether thou know here any stranger who is called Placidas, with his wife and his two sons; truly, if thou makest him known to us, we will give thee good meed.' Then said he, 'For what reasons seek ye him? They said, 'He was to us a very dear friend; now would we see him, if we could have intelligence of him after so many years.' Then said he, 'I know not here any such man; truly, I myself am a stranger.' Eustace then led them into his guest-house, and going out bought wine for them, and gave them to drink on account of their great fatigue.
Then said he to the master of the house, ' These men are known to me, and therefore they came to me; give me now meats and wine, and I will pay thee afterward out of my hire.' And he thereupon gladly granted it to him, and he then, Eustace, served them; and remembered how they had before served him, and could not forbear to weep, but went out and washed his eyes, and came again in, and served them. They then earnestly regarded him and partly recognised him and said, ' This man is like the man whom we seek, it might easily be he.' Then said the other, ' I know that he had a scar on his neck that chanced to him in fight; let us observe now whether he hath the token of that wound.' When they looked at him carefully, then saw they the scar on him, and they immediately embraced and kissed him, and wept for bliss, and asked him whether it were he who formerly was the teacher of their soldiers; he then denied that it. was he. Then they in return made him manifest by the mark on his neck, that it was he, and asked him concerning his wife and his children, how they had fared. He then said that it was he, and that his wife and his children were dead. Then this soon became known to all in the land, and they came thither with great wondering; and the men who had gone after him related to all men concerning his former glory. When they heard this, they all wept, saying, 'Alas! that so great excellence of such a man should have served us.' The soldiers then made known to him the emperors command, and clothed him with the best garment, and led him forth with them; and the people of the country brought him further, and he dismissed them in peace. Eustace then, on the way,
