Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/277

extraordinary quickness of the youth, desired his foster-father to send him to court; where he resided a length of time. But the great estimation in which he was held by all ranks of people, caused the emperor to repent what he had done; and to fear lest he should aspire to the throne, or probably be the same, whom, as a child, he had commanded his squires to destroy. Wishing to secure himself from every possible turn of fortune, he wrote a letter with his own hand to the Queen to the following purport, "I command you, on pain of death, as soon as this letter reaches you, to put the young man to death." When it was completed, he went, by some accident into the chapel-royal, and seating himself upon a bench, fell asleep. The letter had been inclosed in a purse, which hung loosely from his girdle; and a certain priest of the place, impelled by an ungovernable curiosity, opened the purse and read the purposed wickedness. Filled with horror and indignation, he cunningly erased the passage commanding the youth's death, and wrote instead, "Give him our daughter in marriage." The writing was con-