Another hour of painful travel brought Jonathan to the bank of a troubled, turbid stream, whose depth appeared unfathomable, and whose waters were repugnant even to the thirsty man. Careless of his life, with one prayer to God, the wanderer stept into the river, unconscious of its depth. It was shallow, and offered little resistance to his passage, though its stream seemed to roll onward with headlong violence. His burnt flesh, too, came again in all its original purity. Jonathan reached the bank, and on his bended knees gave thanks to God for his great kindness in relieving him from his pains. Of this stream, also, he took a small vase full, as a treasured medicine.
Still the wanderer continued his journey, hungry and a leper. No tree on either side of him gave any promise of sustenance, and he despaired of sustaining his fast-fleeting strength. Anon he came to a low, crooked, cankerous-looking bush, with two or three withered, and apparently rotten, apples on one of its branches. Desperate with hunger, he seized one of the wretched fruits and ate it. His hunger was assuaged; his leprosy was departed from him. Strength, health, and a free spirit seemed renewed in him, and plucking another of the withered fruits, he went on his way rejoicing.
By the virtue of that food he wandered on without feeling hunger; by the virtue of that water his flesh suffered not from his journey, and he knew not what fatigue was. After many days he neared the gates of a walled city, and made as though he would have entered.
“Ho! sir traveller,” said the gatekeeper, “whence comest thou—what art thou—and whither goest thou?”
“From Rome, good porter—a physician—”
“Stay,” interrupted the porter; “a physician—you are in good fortune—canst cure a leprosy?”
“I can but try my skill.”
“If you succeed with this case your fortune is made, friend; our king is ill of a leprosy. Whoever will cure him will receive great rewards, but death if he fails.”
“I will undertake the cure,” replied Jonathan; “lead me to the king.”
Jonathan entered the palace, and was led to the chamber of the king, where lie lay on his couch, wasted with disease, and covered from head to foot with a leprosy of the most virulent kind.