Stories of the Olden Time Part 3

5. "Give me," she said, "the silver candlesticks On either side of the great crucifix; G.o.d may well spare them on his errands sped, Or he can give you golden ones instead."

6. Then spake Tritemius: "Even as thy word, Woman, so be it! (Our most gracious Lord, Who loveth mercy more than sacrifice, Pardon me if a human soul I prize Above the gifts upon his altar piled!) Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child."

7. But his hand trembled as the holy alms He placed within the beggar's eager palms; And as she vanished down the linden shade, He bowed his head, and for forgiveness prayed.

8. So the day pa.s.sed, and when the twilight came He woke to find the chapel all aflame, And, dumb with grateful wonder, to behold Upon the altar candlesticks of gold!

_Whittier._

_XI.--DAMON AND PYTHIAS._

1. About four hundred years before the Christian era, the government of Syracuse fell into the hands of Dionysius, a successful general of the army. He dispossessed the magistrates whom the people elected, and was therefore a usurper. While ruling justly in the main, he had a capricious temper, and often in his rage performed actions which he sincerely regretted in his sober moments. He was a good scholar, and very fond of philosophy and poetry, and he delighted to have learned men around him, and he had naturally a generous spirit; but the sense that he was in a position that did not belong to him, and that every one hated him for a.s.suming it, made him very harsh and suspicious. It is of him that the story is told, that he had a chamber hollowed in the rock near his state prison, and constructed with galleries to conduct sounds like an ear, so that he might overhear the conversation of his captives; and of him, too, is told that famous anecdote which has become a proverb, that on hearing a friend, named Damocles, express a wish to be in his situation for a single day, he took him at his word, and Damocles found himself at a banquet with everything that could delight his senses, delicious food, costly wine, flowers, perfumes, music, but with a sword with the point almost touching his head, and hanging by a single horse-hair! This was to show the condition in which a usurper lived.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Damon and Pythias._]

2. Thus Dionysius was in constant dread. He had a wide trench round his bedroom, with a drawbridge that he drew up and put down with his own hands; and he put one barber to death for boasting that he held a razor to the tyrant's throat every morning. After this he made his young daughters shave him; and by-and-by he would not trust them with a razor, and caused them to singe off his beard with hot nut-sh.e.l.ls.

3. One philosopher, named Philoxenus, he sent to a dungeon for finding fault with his poetry, but he afterward composed another piece, which he thought so superior that he could not be content without sending for this adverse critic to hear it. When he had finished reading it, he looked to Philoxenus for a compliment; but the philosopher only turned round to the guards, and said dryly, "Carry me back to prison."

This time Dionysius had the sense to laugh, and forgive his honesty.

4. All these stories may not be true; but that they should have been current in the ancient world, shows what was the character of the man of whom they were told, how stern and terrible was his anger, and how easily it was incurred. Among those who came under it was a Pythagorean called Pythias, who was sentenced to death, according to the usual fate of those who fell under his suspicion.

5. Pythias had lands and relations in Greece, and he entreated as a favor to be allowed to return thither and arrange his affairs, engaging to return within a specified time and suffer death. The tyrant laughed his request to scorn. Once safe out of Sicily, who would answer for his return? Pythias made reply that he had a friend who would become security for his return; and while Dionysius, the miserable man who trusted n.o.body, was ready to scoff at his simplicity, another Pythagorean, by name Damon, came forward and offered to become surety for his friend, engaging that, if Pythias did not return according to promise, to suffer death in his stead.

6. Dionysius, much astonished, consented to let Pythias go, marveling what would be the issue of the affair. Time went on, and Pythias did not appear. The Syracusans watched Damon, but he showed no uneasiness. He said he was secure of his friend's truth and honor, and that if any accident had caused his delay, he should rejoice in dying to save the life of one so dear to him.

7. Even to the last day Damon continued serene and content, however it might fall out; nay, even when the very hour drew nigh and still no Pythias. His trust was so perfect that he did not even grieve at having to die for a faithless friend who left him to the fate to which he had unwarily pledged himself. It was not Pythias's own will, but the winds and waves, so he still declared, when the decree was brought and the instruments of death made ready. The hour had come, and a few moments more would have ended Damon's life, when Pythias duly presented himself, embraced his friend, and stood forward himself to receive his sentence, calm, resolute, and rejoiced that he had come in time.

8. Even the dim hope they owned of a future state was enough to make these two brave men keep their word, and confront death for one another without quailing. Dionysius looked on more struck than ever.

He felt that neither of such men must die. He reversed the sentence of Pythias, and calling the two to his judgment-seat, he entreated them to admit him as a third in their friendship.

_Charlotte M. Yonge._

_XII.--KING CANUTE._

1. Upon his royal throne he sat In a monarch's thoughtful mood; Attendants on his regal state, His servile courtiers stood, With foolish flatteries, false and vain, To win his smile, his favor gain.

2. They told him e'en the mighty deep His kingly sway confessed; That he could bid its billows leap, Or still its stormy breast!

He smiled contemptuously and cried, "Be then my boasted empire tried!"

3. Down to the ocean's sounding sh.o.r.e The proud procession came, To see its billows' wild uproar King Canute's power proclaim, Or, at his high and dread command, In gentle murmurs kiss the strand.

4. Not so thought he, their n.o.ble king, As his course he seaward sped; And each base slave, like a guilty thing, Hung down his conscious head: He knew the ocean's Lord on high!

They, that he scorned their senseless lie.

5. His throne was placed by ocean's side, He lifted his scepter there, Bidding, with tones of kingly pride, The waves their strife forbear; And while he spoke his royal will, All but the winds and waves were still.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Canute and his Courtiers._]

6. Louder the stormy blast swept by, In scorn of idle word; The briny deep its waves tossed high, By his mandate undeterred, As threatening, in their angry play, To sweep both king and court away.

7. The monarch, with upbraiding look, Turned to the courtly ring; But none the kindling eye could brook Even of his earthly king; For in that wrathful glance they see A mightier monarch wronged than he!

8. Canute, thy regal race is run; Thy name had pa.s.sed away, But for the meed this tale hath won, Which never shall decay: Its meek, unperishing renown Outlasts thy scepter and thy crown.

9. The Persian, in his mighty pride, Forged fetters for the main, And, when its floods his power defied, Inflicted stripes as vain; But it was worthier far of thee To know thyself than rule the sea!

_Bernard Barton._

_XIII.--A NORSEMAN'S SWORD._

1. The smelting of iron in the north of Europe is believed to have commenced with the Finns or Laplanders, the original inhabitants of Scandinavia, who then occupied the localities where the best ores are still found. The diminutive stature of these people compared with that of their Gothic invaders, their skill in penetrating the bowels of the earth in search of ores, the smoke of their collieries, the flame and thunder of their furnaces and forges, and, above all, the excellent temper of the weapons wrought by them--all these conspired to render them objects of superst.i.tious wonder to the Goths.

2. The legendary stories of that people are filled with strange tales of the northern dwarfs, who lived in the solid rock, and possessed magic skill in all the various arts of the smith. One of these legends may be worth citing, and the rather, because it relates to Vanlander, the Scandinavian Vulcan, of whom many traditions are extant, even in England, where he is styled Wayland Smith. At the age of thirteen Vanlander was apprenticed by his father, the giant Vade, to two of the dwarfs who dwelt in the interior of the mountain, and he applied himself so faithfully to their instructions, that in two years he equaled his masters in knowledge of all the arts of smithery, both black and white.

3. Being at the court of King Nidung, where his dexterity as a smith became known, a rivalship arose between him and Amilias, princ.i.p.al smith to the king. Amilias challenged Vanlander to a trial of skill, upon condition that the life of the vanquished should be at the disposal of the victor. The terms proposed were that Vanlander should forge a sword, and Amilias a helmet, cuira.s.s, and other defensive armor, and a twelvemonth was allowed for preparation. If the sword of Vanlander penetrated the armor of Amilias, the former was to be declared the victor, if otherwise, his life was forfeited to his rival.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A Norseman's Sword._]

4. Amilias spent the whole year at his task, but Vanlander did not commence his labors until two months before the trial. He now, after seven days' labor, exhibited to the king a sword of great beauty and excellent temper, but too heavy for use. By way of testing its edge, he took a cushion stuffed with wool a foot in thickness, threw it into the river, and let it float with the current against the edge of the sword, which cut it fairly in two. The king thought this a sufficient proof, but Vanlander was not satisfied.

5. He took the sword to his smithy, filed it quite to dust, and after subjecting the filings to an odd process of animal chemistry, he forged from them another sword of somewhat smaller size than the first, though still rather heavy. Upon testing this sword in the same manner as before, it readily divided a cushion two feet in thickness, and the king thought it the finest weapon in the world, but Vanlander said he would have it half as good again before he was done with it.

6. It was now reduced to filings, which were treated as in the former instance, and in three weeks Vanlander produced a sword of convenient size, inlaid with gold, and with an ornamental hilt, all of the highest finish and beauty. The king and the smith went again to the river with a cushion three feet in thickness, which was thrown into the water and driven against the blade as before. The sword divided the cushion as easily as the water, and without even checking its progress as it floated with the current, and King Nidung declared its fellow could not be found on earth.

7. At the appointed day Amilias put on his armor, all of which was of double plates, and, declaring himself ready for the trial, seated himself in a chair, and defied his rival to do his worst. Vanlander stepped behind him, gave him a blow upon the helmet, and asked him if he felt the edge. "I felt as if cold water were running through me,"

replied Amilias. "Shake yourself," said Vanlander. His rival did so, and fell asunder, the sword having cleft him to the chine.

_George P. Marsh._

_XIV.--THE STORY OF KING ALFRED AND ST. CUTHBERT._

1. Now King Alfred was driven from his kingdom by the Danes, and he lay hid three years in the Isle of Glas...o...b..ry. And it came to pa.s.s on a day that all his folk were gone out to fish, save only Alfred himself and his wife and one servant whom he loved. And there came a pilgrim to the king and begged for food. And the king said to his servant, "What food have we in the house?" And his servant answered, "My lord, we have but one loaf and a little wine." Then the king gave thanks to G.o.d, and said, "Give half of the loaf and half of the wine to this poor pilgrim." So the servant did as his lord commanded him, and gave to the pilgrim half of the loaf and half of the wine, and the pilgrim gave great thanks to the king.