Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/245

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OF ALEXIUS.
71

manner, for seventeen years under his own father's roof, his life was spent; but at last, perceiving by the spirit, that his end approached, he procured ink and paper, and recorded the narrative of his life. Now on the succeeding Sunday, after the solemnization of mass, a voice echoing like thunder among the mountains, was heard through the city. It said, "Come unto me all ye that labour, and I will give you rest." The people, terrified and awe-struck, fell upon their faces; when a second time the voice exclaimed, "Seek out a man of God to offer a prayer for the iniquity of Rome." Search was accordingly made, but no such man could be found; and the same voice waxing louder, and breathing as it were with the mingled blast of ten thousand thousand trumpets, again spoke, "Search in the house of Eufemian." Then the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius[1], in conjunction with the Pontiff Innocent, proceeded towards the house to which the words of the Invisible

  1. Are we to suppose that the one emperor had been succeeded by the two since the commencement of the Tale? The Pontiff Innocent, seems supererogatory.