Page:Goldenlegendlive00jaco.djvu/79

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S. Nicholas
65

'Do this that I have said to you, and I promise, in the truth of God, that it shall not be lessed or minished when ye shall come to the garners.' And when they had delivered so much out of every ship, they came into Alexandria and delivered the measure that they had received. And then they recounted the miracle to the ministers of the Emperor, and worshipped and praised strongly God and his servant Nicholas. Then this holy man distributed the wheat to every man after that he had need, in such wise that it sufficed for two years, not only for to sell but also to sow.

And in this country the people served idols and worshipped the false image of the cursed Diana. And to the time of this holy man many of them had some customs of the paynims, for to sacrifice to Diana under a sacred tree; but this good man made them of all the country to cease then these customs, and commanded to cut off the tree. Then the devil was angry and wroth against him, and made an oil that burned, against nature, in water and burned stones also. And then he transformed him in the guise of a religious woman and put him in a little boat, and encountered pilgrims that sailed in the sea towards this holy saint, and areasoned them thus and said: 'I would fain go to this holy man, but I may not; wherefore I pray you to bear this oil into his church, and for the remembrance of me that ye anoint the walls of the hall'; and anon he vanished away. Then they saw anon after another ship with honest persons, among whom there was one like to S. Nicholas, which spake to them softly: 'What

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