Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/411

cause I had taken an oath never to forsake him in prosperity or in adversity, I accompanied him hither. But ought I therefore to die? Pronounce a just judgment." Then the foolish knight addressed the judge: "He is himself the cause of my death. For every one knows that he is reckoned wise, and I am naturally a fool. Ought he then so lightly to have surrendered his wisdom to my folly? And had he not done so, I should have returned to go the way which he went, even for the solemn oath which I had sworn. And therefore, since he is wise, and I am foolish, he is the occasion of my death." The judge, hearing this, spoke to both, but to the wise knight first. "Dost thou deserve to be called wise, who listened so heedlessly to his folly and followed him? and, fool that thou art! why didst thou not credit his word? By your own egregious folly ye are both justly doomed. And both shall be suspended on the cross." Thus it was done.