Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/28

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14
HUNGARIAN LITERATURE

of St. Ladislas (1094) who is inside. When his army is perishing from lack of food in an uninhabited district, at the prayer of the saint-king, large herds of oxen and buffaloes rush out from the wood. When a poor blind girl goes to the tomb of St. Ladislas her blind eyes fall to the ground, and she sees them fall, for new eyes have been given her. The first Christian king, St. Stephen, heals every one of whom tidings are brought to him, by cutting a slice of his own loaf of bread and sending it to the sufferer.

St. Elizabeth is also helped by a benevolent miracle when once, in her embarrassment, she deviates from the strict truth. This miracle is narrated in the Érdi Codex with childish naïveté. "It came to pass on a day when it was very cold, that the lady St. Elizabeth, taking good care that nobody should see her, carried the crusts and remnants of dinner to the poor outside the gate, a thing she had been forbidden to do. And lo! her father, the King (Andrew II.) suddenly stood before her. He was astonished to see her all alone and walking so hurriedly, and said to her: "Whither goest thou, my child Elizabeth? What art thou carrying?" The King's noble daughter, being very timid and gentle, felt ashamed, and could not answer anything but "I carry roses." But her father, being a wise man, remembered on a sudden that it was not the time of the year for roses, so he called her to him and looked at what she was holding in her lap, when, oh! wonderful! the crusts had all become roses. Oh, immortal, blessed, immaculate purity! The ever blessed King of Heaven did not let the words of His beloved handmaid bring her to shame. And her father, filled with wonder, said: "If this maiden lives she will be great."