To a king a son was born.
The wise astrologers counselled that he should be kept for ten years without ever seeing the sun. So he was brought up and taken care of in a darksome cavern.
After the time had gone by, they brought him [[67]]forth, and they set before him many fine jewels and many lovely girls, calling each thing by its name, and saying of the maidens that they were demons. Then they asked him which thing pleased him the most of all. And he answered: the demons.
At this the king marvelled mightily, saying: what a terrible thing is the tyranny and beauty of women![1]
[1] The story appears in slightly different form in several authors. See the Decameron; Cavalca’s Lives of the Fathers of the Desert. [↑]
XV
How a land steward plucked out his own eye and that of his son to the end that justice might be observed
Valerius Maximus in his sixth book narrates that Calognus[1] being steward of some land, ordered that whoever should commit a certain crime, should lose his eyes.