The Booke of Thenseygnementes and Techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his Doughters/Chapter 54
OF CHARYTE.
SHALLE telle and reherce vnto yow an ensample vpon the fayt of charyte. It is of the doughter of kynge Pharaon, the whiche dyd nourysshe Moyses, as I shalle telle yow herafter. The sones of Israel, whiche in egipt were in seruage, wexed and encreaced daye by daye in grete nombre. But Pharao, whiche was kynge of the land, and that sawe the people of the Iewys soo encreaced, he was displeased of it, and commaunded and charged that alle theyr men children were putte to dethe and reserue the femallys. And whanne the moder of Moyses sawe that her sone shold be putte to deth, she tooke hym and his cradell with her, and went vnto the Ryuer, whiche was nyghe, and on the Ryuer in his cradel she lete hym goo where hit pleased god, as she that myght not haue suffred ne see hym putte to dethe. And as the playsyre and wylle of god was, it befelle so that the cradell and the child within came to lond before the chambre of the doughter of kynge Pharao, where as the seuen whiche had ben excepted were in. The lady was bynethe vpon the grene grasse, desportynge and playenge with her damoysellys. And as she tourned and casted her syghte toward the Ryuer, she sawe the cradell almost at the land. She wente incontynent and her damoysels with her, to see what was in hit. They found the child theryn, whiche merueyllously was fayre. The lady beheld hym wel, & took of hym grete pyte, & made him to be nourysshed in her wardrobbe more derely. And as in lape she called hym her sone, of the whiche cam afterward so moche good, for god chose and stablysshed hym mayster and gouernour ouer alle his people, and also dyd shewe to hym many of his secretes, and toke hym the rodde wherwith he departed the see and made drye waye to passe it, and made also with that same rodde to yssue and come oute of the stone lyuynge and swete water. And also he toke hym the tables of the lawe, and many other signes and tokens of loue he dyd shewe vnto hym, as of his nourysshynge, wherof the good lady was well rewarded. For god forgeteth neuer the seruyce done to hym by charyte, as to nourysshe the orphanes or faderles, whiche is an operacion of Mysericorde that God moche loued, as hit is conteyned in the lyf of saynte Elysabeth, whiche nourisshed the poure Orphanes, and maad them to lerne somme crafte to gete theyr lyuynge with. Wherfor it befelle that a good woman whiche had but one child, the whiche was wont to bathe hym self in the ryuer, fyll within a pytte, where he was eyght dayes. And his moder, whiche was charitable to god and to sayut Elysabeth, hadde therfore grete dolour and sorowe, It befelle that at the laste daye of eyght, she dremed that her sone was in a pytte ful of water, and that saynte Elysabeth kepte hym there on lyue, and tolde her," By cause that ye haue euer nourysshed and susteyned the orphans and faderles, oure lord wylle not that your sone deye ne perysshe in this pytte. And therfore make ye redy to haue hym oute." And thenne the moder awoke and made her sone to be had oute of the pytte, and fonde hym of fayr colour alyue. And the child recounted to his moder how a fayre lady had euer kepte hym, and had sayd to hym," It is goddes wylle that thow be saued for the charyte and myserycorde of thy moder, whiche with good wylle had susteyned the orphanes and them nourysshed. Therfor here isa good ensample how men ought to nourysshe the orphanes and the smal children that haue mystier or nede, for it is grete almesse & grete charyte, & that moche pleseth god, & to this is shewed to vs exaple of many other bestes also, that whan men haue slayn the moder, and that the faons ben loste withoute noreture, another beest cometh and nouryssheth them vnto the tyme that they may purueye them self.