THE MIRACULOUS SHIRT.
In Metz there lived a lady named Florentina, whose husband, Alexander, was going to the Crusades; she presented him, on his departure, with a miraculous shirt, which would always retain its purity (a great comfort in a crusade).
The Knight was taken prisoner, and being put to labour, the Sultan remarked the extraordinary circumstance of a prisoner being always in a clean shirt, and inquired the reason. Alexander told him it was a miraculous shirt, which would always remain as spotless as his wife’s virtue.
The Sultan despatched a cunning man to undermine the lady’s virtue, as he thought ill of the sex.
The emissary was quite unsuccessful.
Florentina having learnt from the cunning man her husband’s condition, disguised herself as a pilgrim, and reached the place of his captivity. She then, by her singing, so charmed the Sultan, that, at her request, he made her a present of a slave who she selected. This was her husband; and she gave him his liberty, and received in exchange from him a piece of the miraculous shirt, he not recognising his wife.
Florentina hastened back to Metz, but Alexander arrived there first, and was informed by his friends of his wife’s long absence during his captivity. When she arrived, he bitterly reproached her (although the shirt had not become dirty). She explained, and produced the piece he had given her, thus showing how she had been employed; and so they lived happily together.
Very quaint is this legend, and we are at a loss to understand the origin of so curious an invention. The following is a story of the same date, and, though not belonging to Metz, serves to illustrate this period:—