. The violet fairy book . the streets. The emperor, desiring nothing so much as thesafety of his subjects, took counsel with Virgilius howthis violence could be put down. Virgilius thought hard for a long time, and then hespoke: Great prince,said he, * cause a copper horse andrider to be made, and stationed in front of the make a proclamation that at ten oclock a bell will toll,and every man is to enter his house, and not leave it again. The emperor did as Virgilius advised, but thievesand murderers laug-hed at the horse, and went about O their misdeeds as usual. But at the last s
. The violet fairy book . the streets. The emperor, desiring nothing so much as thesafety of his subjects, took counsel with Virgilius howthis violence could be put down. Virgilius thought hard for a long time, and then hespoke: Great prince,said he, * cause a copper horse andrider to be made, and stationed in front of the make a proclamation that at ten oclock a bell will toll,and every man is to enter his house, and not leave it again. The emperor did as Virgilius advised, but thievesand murderers laug-hed at the horse, and went about O their misdeeds as usual. But at the last stroke of the bell the horse set offat full gallop through the streets of Rome, and bydaylight men counted over two hundred corpsesthat it had trodden down. The rest of the thieves -and there were still many remaining--instead of being VIRGILIUS THE SORCERER 375 frightened into honesty, as Virgilius had hoped, preparedrope ladders with hooks to them, and when they heardthe sound of the horses hoofs they stuck their ladders. into the walls, and climbed up above the reach of thehorse and its rider. Then the emperor commanded two copper dogs to bemade that would run after the horse, and when the 376 VIRGILIUS THE SORCERER thieves, hanging from the walls, mocked and jeered atVirgilius stad the emperor, the dogs leaped high after themand pulled them to the ground, and bit them to death. Thus did Virgilius restore peace and order to the city. Now about this time there came to be noised abroadthe fame of the daughter of the sultan who ruled over theprovince of Babylon, and indeed she was said to be themost beautiful princess in the world. Virgilius, like the rest, listened to the stories that weretold of her, and fell so violently in love with all he heardthat he built a bridge in the air, which stretched all the waybetween Rome and Babylon. He then passed over it to visitthe princess, who, though somewhat surprised to see him,gave him welcome, and after some conversation becamein her
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondon, bookyear190
