"Hear, then; but never mention it again, or we shall lose all our property."
"Be sure of that," said the lady; "it shall never be repeated."
"It was—is there no one within hearing?—the mighty word was 'False.'"
The lady, apparently quite satisfied, fell asleep; and her husband feigned it. He snored lustily, and the thief above, who had heard their conversation with much pleasure, aided by the light of the moon, descended, repeating seven times the cabalistic sound. But being too much occupied with the charm to mind his footing, he stepped through the window into the house; and in the fall dislocated his leg and arm, and lay half dead upon the floor. The owner of the mansion, hearing the noise, and well knowing the reason, though he pretended ignorance, asked "What was the matter?" "Oh!" groaned the suffering thief, "False falls." In the morning he was taken before the judge, and afterwards suspended on a cross.
XXII.—THE BASILISK.
Alexander the Great was lord of the whole world. He once collected a large army, and besieged a certain city, around which many knights and others were killed without any visible wound. Much surprised at this, he called together his philosophers, and said, "My masters, how is this? My soldiers die, and there is no apparent wound!" "No wonder," replied they; "under the walls of the city is a basilisk, whose look infects your soldiers, and they die of the pestilence it creates." "And what remedy is there for this?" said the king.
"Place a glass in a high place between the army and the wall under which the basilisk cowers; and no sooner shall he behold it, than his own figure, reflected in the mirror, shall return the poison upon himself, and kill him." Alexander took their advice, and thus saved his followers.
APPLICATION.
My beloved, look into the glass of reflection, and by remembrance of human frailty destroy the vices which time breeds.