mother, nor knew they that she was their mother; neither knew she that they were her sons. Then one morning time they spake betwixt themselves therein about their childhood, and their mother sat earnestly listening to their tale. Then said the elder brother, ' The earliest thing that I can remember is, that my father was the tribune of the soldiers, and my mother was very fair of countenance; and they had two sons, me and another younger one; and one night they went out, and took us too, and went to sea and rowed out; when we came up [i.e. landed], then our mother was not with us, I know not wherefore; then our father took us two, and bare us forth weeping on his way; then we came to a river, and he went into the water and bare my younger brother and left me. When he returned, wishing to fetch me, there came a wolf and seized my brother; and before he could come to me, suddenly there came from the wood a lion, and gripped me, and ran to the wood; and the shepherds who were there at hand rescued me, and I was there reared in the town, even as thou knowest, and I knew not how my father and my brother had fared.'
When the younger brother had heard all this from the elder brother, then he arose and caught him by the neck, and kissed and embraced him, and said, ' By the God whom Christians worship I am thy brother by thy tale, because those who reared me told me that they had saved me from the wolf.' When their mother heard these words, then all her heart and all her inward thoughts were stirred, and she thought whether it could be her sons, because he had said that their father was a military tribune, and eke that their mother was left behind in the ship. Then the next day she sought the tribune of the soldiers, thus saying, 'I pray thee, dear lord, that thou wilt bring me to my country. I am truly a Roman, and I was brought hither in captivity.' Then in the meanwhile she looked at him very earnestly, and recognised the signs which were on his neck, and she was thereupon affrighted, and could not bear to conceal it longer, but fell at his feet, and said, ' I beseech thee, dear lord, that thou be not wrath with thy servant; but, for thy clemency, hear me and tell me what thou art. I ween,
