Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/35

called Gregory, and appoint him my vicar." The electors, greatly rejoiced at what they heard, sent messengers into different parts of the world to seek him. At length, some of them lodged in the house of the fisherman, and as they sat at supper; one said, "My friend, we are much harassed by journies through town and country, in pursuit of a holy man, called Gregory, whom, when we find, we are to place in the pontificate." The fisherman, then recollecting the pilgrim, answered, "It is now seventeen years since a pilgrim named Gregory, lodged in this house. I conducted him to a certain rock in the midst of the sea, and there I left him. But it is so long ago that he may be dead." It happened that on the same day, a number of fishes were caught; and as he gutted one of them, he found the keys which seventeen years before he had cast into the sea (2). Immediately he shouted, "Oh, my friends, behold these keys! I cast them into the sea; and I draw from this circumstance a good omen respecting the success of your labors." The messengers were much pleased with the man's